Uun

The Critical Strikes proc should go in a power that has a short animation time after effect. In the case of Dark Melee, that would be Smite or Shadow Punch. You can slot the entire ATO set there if you like. There's no particular reason to split the set. The Scrappers Strike proc can be slotted in any power. The ATO can be split if you want to double the S/L defense bonus, otherwise it can be 6 slotted.

Shield or SR. Willpower is several tiers lower. Shield buffs your damage (and debuffs foe damage). SR provides a recharge buff.

Shadow Maul got its arc increased a few years ago, so it's much easier to hit multiples than it used to be. I don't use if for single targets, but it's still better than any pool attack you could replace it with. Touch of Fear procs very well, however, only use Melee AoE procs. The fear and -tohit are single target and will only proc on the main target. I don't recommend skipping Death Shroud, especially with your limited AoE options. It doesn't suppress while stealthed, so you do have to turn it off if you're trying to be sneaky. Having some defense is a good idea but I wouldn't chase the soft cap. Keep in mind that Dark Armor has no DDR and any defense will be stripped away easily. You don't ask about it, but I recommend skipping Cloak of Fear. It has a huge accuracy penalty, uses a ton of endurance and only effects minions. It requires 6 slots to be even marginally useful. I also skip Oppressive Gloom (which also only effects minions) but that only requires 1 acc in the base slot if you decide to take it.

I've got a Seismic/Earth blaster and a Nature/Seismic defender. I skip Encase. I didn't proc out Entomb and Upthrust on my blaster since I slotted those with the ATOs, but I did on my defender. I take both Stalagmite and Rock Shards, but only use them when Seismic Shockwaves are active. Stalagmite gets a massive damage increase and becomes the highest DPA power in the set (it does more damage than quick Tombstone). Rock Shards gets a big damage increase, its range is increased from 40 to 60 feet and its radius is increased from 30 to 40 degrees. I proc out Rock Shards. If you skip these attacks, you can absolutely ignore Seismic Shockwaves, since it doesn't buff any of the others (except for reducing recharge).

I've had my /Martial blaster for 4 years. In that time, I've never deactivated Reaction Time for the speed/recharge buff. IMO, the buff is too mild to bother with. I generally keep Reaction Time on all the time. While there are many slotting options and it can mule many healing/endmod procs, I slot it with 2 heal IOs (to maximize the absorb buff). I don't find the need to enhance the endurance buff, but YMMV. It's important to remember that Reaction Time has a 30 ft radius. These targeted portion suppresses when using stealth, but with certain limitations. The suppression kicks in with a stealth radius of 36 feet or greater. This means that Stealth (the power) will cause it to suppress but a Celerity or Unbounded Leap stealth IO (which have a stealth radius of 30 ft) will not. Super Speed (which has a stealth radius of 35 feet) won't suppress, but Super Speed stacked with a stealth IO will. In short, remember to turn off Reaction Time if you're trying to be sneaky and your stealth radius isn't at least 36 feet.

Invulnerability's status effect protection is in Unyielding. It has protection against hold, immobilize, stun, sleep, knockback and repel. It also has 10000% knockback resistance, which reduces the distance of knockbacks that have a magnitude higher than your protection (mag 10). Confuse is a status effect. Invulnerability has NO status protection against confuse. If you want to add confuse protection, you need to take Tactics. The confuse power used by CoT Succubus is Come Hither. While not auto-hit, it's typed as a Psionic attack with no positional vector. Because it's not a damaging attack, you need psi defense (not psi resistance) to avoid it. Invulnerability has a small amount of psi defense in Invincibility (plus whatever additional psi defense you have from set bonuses) but it's probably not enough to block their attacks. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/entity.html?entity=circleofthorns_lt_succubus https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=circleofthorns.boss_succubus.come_hither&at=lt_grunt

You must be talking about prior to Issue 5 (2005), which was when target caps were implemented for offensive powers, or for about 8 months in 2020. Other than that, the target cap for Shadow Maul has always been 5. (Homecoming increased the target cap in Issue 26 Page 5, when the arc was increased, but reverted the target cap increase in Issue 27 Page 1.)

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Patrol_Experience https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Patroller_Badge

Mid's has largely fixed their data chunk issues. When I have issues it's usually because failed to highlight the first or last character in the chunk when I copied. I'm running the latest version of Mids released this week (3.76 / 2025.4.971) and had no issues importing the data chunk you posted. Use Build Sharing/Import Data Chunk (not Build Sharing/Legacy Share/Import from Forum Post).

Athletic/Ninja Run can't be enhanced. Infiltration can. With 1-2 slots it's much faster than either of those and works well as a travel power (Infiltration slotted with 1 Microfilament has 90% of the jump speed of unslotted Super Jump), as well as providing excellent combat mobility. In addition, a Celerity/Unbounded Leap +stealth IO can be slotted directly in Infiltration, allowing you to have complete invisibility with one power.

I did find the debt changes. Debt was reduced in I5 (in-mission debt cut in half) and I6 (debt cap cut in half).

I made one of those last year. It is quite good. I took the new Ice Mastery epic and really like Frozen Spear.

The live server devs changed experience progression several times during the life of the game. As I recall, they changed the amount of xp granted by mobs at various levels at least twice. Not sure if they also changed the amount of xp required per level. I was unable to find patch notes for this so not sure exactly when it occurred, but leveling was MUCH slower during the early years of the game. It was common to exhaust all your contacts at lvl 35-39 and run out of content.

Yes, it applies to any content you exemplar for, including Ouroboros and task forces. If you want to retain your set bonuses while exemplared, attuned enhancements would be better. As stated above, purple and PVP IOs don't need to be attuned as their set bonuses and globals are always active (but don't boost procs/globals).

I rolled a Psi Melee/SR scrapper 2 years ago for that year's slot machine challenge. While psi resistance is a problem, it's not as bad as it is for Psi Blast. This is because most of the the Psi Melee powers include a smashing or lethal damage component for 25% of the damage and Mass Levitate is 100% smashing damage. I also took Moonbeam (Soul Mastery) for some additional non-psi damage. On the flip side, the psi damage is handy for foes that pop Unstoppable (i.e., Cyclops and Minotaurs). As far as procability, Psi Melee mostly just accepts procs from Melee Damage and Melee AoE sets. There are 2 powers that accept Knockback sets and 1 that accepts Stun sets. Most of the complaints about Psi Melee focus on the Insight mechanic. It's kind of clunky, in particular the 15s lockout period after it expires.

Didn't see this answered above. The effects granted by procs or globals can't be boosted so there's no reason to boost them. In fact, the attuned versions are usually better. Globals are always on and don't require the power they're slotted in to be active. However, they stop working if you exemplar more than 3 levels below the level of the enhancement. Because of this, it's generally better to use attuned globals. The exceptions are Very Rare (purple) and PVP IOs, which are always active regardless of level. Procs need to be slotted in an active power and usually have a 120s duration. This is why it's best to slot regen and recovery procs in an auto power or a toggle. On the other hand, procs don't follow the -3 exemplar rule and work regardless of the level of the enhancement as long as the power they're slotted in is active. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Invention_Origin_Enhancements#Globals

If you have access to the same contact as the team leader, you can enable Collaborative Missions (Options/General/Team). This allows you to complete the missions/arc for your contact at the same time (you still have to call the contact after each mission completion) and receive the merit bonus at the end. (It's a clumsy system and doesn't work if you don't have the contact.)

Start modestly (i.e., +2/x3) and increase the difficulty as you become more comfortable.

I use /bind numpad5 "powexec_location target Combat Teleport" as well as /bind numpad2 "powexec_location back:100 Combat Teleport" for non-armored ATs

When sentinels were revamped in 2022, their damage scale was increased from 0,95 to 1.10. Blaster damage scale is 1.125, so sentinels really aren't lacking in damage any more. The big differences are that sentinels have lower target caps and shorter range than blasters and don't get Defiance. On the flip side, their T9s recharge in 90s (vs. 125-170s for most blaster T9s), which allows them to be used more frequently. Their inherent ability (Vulnerability) was tweaked but still only debuffs a single target.

Fixed it.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this.

This may have been the case when sentinels were first released, but they've been in a pretty good place since the AT was revamped. That said, there's a wide range in performance between the best and worst performing sentinel primaries. This has to do with which powers were replaced (and with what) in each blast set when they were ported to sentinels. I would argue that the sentinel versions of Dark Blast and Electric Blast are better than the blaster/defender/corruptor versions. The changes to defense sets were required to eliminate PBAoE powers that targeted foes and/or required a target to work.

Sonic Attack was revamped in 2022. Prior to the revamp, Screech did minimal damage and most skipped it. It's now the highest damage power in the set and shouldn't be skipped. Drop Shriek or Scream for Screech. Not sure why you picked Energy Manipulation if you're skipping all the melee attacks. Energize is one of the worst blaster sustain powers. Not only is it a a click instead of a toggle, but it requires significant slotting to make it perma. While Boost Range is useful, about the only thing Power Boost buffs is Sirens Song's sleep duration and Dreadful Wail's stun duration. If you're looking for a fully ranged blaster, Devices or Tactical Arrow might be better choices. It looks like the build you used predates the changes to when powers become available. Just about all the powers in your primary and secondary can be taken earlier. Swap the ATOs between Howl and Scream. You want the Defiant Barrage status protection proc in a T1 or T2 power (which you can use while mezzed). You're going to have endurance issues running Tough, Weave and 3 Leadership toggles. I recommend dropping Assault, which has a low value for blasters. Slot the Gaussian's %buildup proc in Build Up or Amplify. Drop Weave and Maneuvers down to 3 slots each (def, def/end, def/%rech). Add the slots to Sirens Song, which is a very good attack (also changed in 2022). In Dreadful Wail, switch Multi-Strike for Obliteration. While this is an orange set, it doesn't cost very much on the AH. This will provide more recharge and better set bonuses. Drop Soul Tentacles for Dark Embrace. You don't need another cone and it's a pretty crappy attack. Dark Embrace is a S/L/N/T resist armor. Drop Tactics down to 3 slots. Drop Wall of Force for Unleash Potential. You don't need another cone while Unleash is a good "oh crap" power.

There's no way to play through all the low level hero contacts at natural level before you outlevel them. There are too many of them and you gain XP too quickly to get through more than 1-2 at each level range. You can either a) turn off XP; b) go back and do the story arcs later though Ouroboros; or c) create another character to run the content you skipped. When the game was created, XP gain and level progression were much slower and multiple contacts were required to ensure players didn't run out of content (this actually used to happen frequently at the lvl 35-39 range).