Arbegla

Chances are the calls are O(1) so its not that big of a deal. If its a simple "If here, flip switch, if not, skip" call its not really doing a lot of CPU usage.

I think the Clear Mind buff that the healers pass out has +perception.. so if they happened to buff each other, you might've gotten seen because of that. Either that, or the Shout buff they have.

I'm not sure we're playing the same set if you think that /traps isn't good against the AVs themselves.. /Traps has the most powerful -regen power in the game. Its twice as effective as /rads (Lingering Radiation is only -500% regen), and lasts 10 seconds longer, if you can keep the AV in the cloud, which web grenade lets you do, as AVs don't have much resistance to immobilize. -1000% regen means that even with AV resistance, you are going to floor their regen, with 1 power. Then Acid Mortar stacks if you have multiple out. So the more you have, the more you can multiply the debuffs, and the MM version at least takes two -res procs, giving you an insane upper bound on -resistance debuff. With burnout, you can get 4 Acid Mortars going.. that's before you consider the -damage from the Seeker drones lowering the damage you take (and the -resistance making the -damage even more powerful)

As pets don't have any inherent endmod powers (they don't get Stamina, like we do) I'm not sure adding endmod will actually do anything to them at all.

I'm curious about this, as the Gaussin's BU proc has a really high chance of proccing, due to how Tactics works, increasing the proc chance for EACH target of tactics, so its up pretty often.

By all contacts you mean the first contact in the specific chain right? and by 'open' you mean 'introduced'?

While I get where you're coming from, Mercs recently got their full auto animation cut down, and Bots/ is on the list to have the same adjustments in Page 3. Its already been stated that Bots are being looked at a lot, as they do have some pretty nasty issues (Repair is simply trash, Flamethrower is another stupidly long animation power, and the single target isn't all too great because the damage has been lowered) I will give you to proc-abliity that thugs have, especially with -def, and the fact that you can use both BU procs (one from the purple set in the T1 pets, one from Gaussins in the Enforcers) really add to their damage. It is basically all lethal/smash though, which is more resisted then energy. And the Arsonist can be hard to keep alive sometimes. I'll be very interested to see how the two sets compare after bots/ has their animation times fixed up.

But that's global recharge, not the enhanced recharge from the IOs themselves. I'll agree that global recharge is amazing.

I've been locking my characters at the level ranges, (4, 9, 14, 19, 24, etc) and running through all the missions in my contact list. Its been a lot of fun, and I've really enjoyed street sweeping. Its actually been really interesting, because I'm playing H side with a Mastermind, and never done that kinda street sweeping before. V side the zones are very tight, so the battles don't get as epic.

I actually find this game VERY responsive, and primarily for 1 reason one. The ability to Auto-cast, and Queue powers. Very FEW MMOs allow you to do either of those out of the box (yes, mods can help resolve those issues..) and City does it best. Being able to queue my next attack seamlessly, and have it execute, then queue up another attack while I'm mid-animation has made City of Heroes my go to MMO since basically day 1. No other MMO has come close to that, even with lag. Heck queuing up powers actually lets you beat lag sometimes, because your 'queue' is sent to the server before the client catches up, so you can 'queue' many powers together and not die even if you're lagging like no other, as lag is a client-side problem, and not a server-side issue.

And the Protector bots get Photon Grenade at 32 as well. Its a targeted AoE, with a stun component, on a pretty quick recharge (20seconds I think..?)

I, and a few others, brought this up in the Beta forums when the changes were first made. There are only 4 powers across ALL of the Mastermind Primary and Secondary powersets that accept that ATO set, AND benefit from the recharge enhancement. Those powers are Gang War, Soul Extraction, Hell on Earth, and Tornado. The short answer is currently its not going to be changing, but might be looked at later. @Faultline did some digging in the database pre-change and saw how often the set is used for the four powers that can actually benefit from it, and its a pretty small percentage. But because the change would mess with those builds, and the change is still rather new, I'm not sure anything will come of it.

Short answer is no, those sets are still slot-able in the MM pets, even though they say they aren't. Long answer is any Recharge from enhancements won't affect the pet summoning power at all. The pro is you can't be debuffed anymore, as the powers are unaffected by ALL recharge effects. The con is its wasted enhancement values from a set that is 'balanced' around having them in the budget.

I swear I'm going to write up a guide on how to play traps with mobility. It can easily be a stationary set, but there is only 1 (maybe 2, I can't remember if Time Bomb is interruptible) power that you can't 'toe-bomb' with, and 'toe-bombing' can be done as your opening move. Heck, my favorite thing to do, is throw Seeker Drones into a group, then while the Drones soak the alpha strike, I toe-bomb a Poison Trap, leading right into Acid Mortar. By the time the Poison Trap triggers, the Drones have exploded so any mobs that aren't held, are debuffed, and then I'm already dropping Acid Mortar, which fires immediately, and debuffs the group of mobs that are now choking/vomiting. If I'm in a group, the group has probably cleared most of the mobs, and thus the Acid Mortar is only targeting the remaining boss, and I move onto the next group, letting my teammates mop up whatever is left. If I'm solo, I play a Bot/Traps mastermind, so my pets are clearing things pretty quickly already. I might drop a Caltrops on top of the Acid Mortar, just so mobs don't try to melee it, giving it some time to get the debuffs off, but all in all tactics don't change, though on a team I'm probably not sitting in bodyguard mode the whole time, so its faster to kill things. The initial hold of Poison Trap is autohit in a 25ft radius, its mag 3, and the pulse fires right after the cloud forms, which can stack with the initial hit, so there is a good chance you can hold the boss in the group as well. Its better than a controllers AoE Hold, as the recharge is also fast enough that you can do this every single group. And that isn't counting the 3-4 second forced animation of the vomiting that Poison Trap can cause. It might not be a 'hold' but the mobs can't do anything else but empty their stomachs during that animation, so its just as powerful. Yes, Trip Mine and Time Bomb can be used to create a death zone, but until they give /traps the /device treatment, I honestly think those powers are best skipped on a Mastermind. A defender/corruptor/controller might get more mileage out of them, but from what I've seen so far, they are pretty lackluster powers in general.

So, this might not exactly be a bug, but its something I've noticed as I've been browsing the forums. There are a few powers, even within the same powerset, but over different ATs, that accept different Invention Sets. A good example of this is Acid Mortar. Acid Mortar for Masterminds accepts the Targeted AoE set, the defense debuff set, and the accurate defense debuff set on a MM Any other AT, the 'Targeted AoE' gets turned into the 'Ranged' set, which seems odd, as the Mortar from Acid Mortar is actually an AoE (8ft radius) centered on the mob the Acid Mortar decides to shoot at. Would it be possible to do a pass over the different proliferated sets and make sure that the Invention Sets allowed to be slotted is consistent across the set? Or have an explanation why it is different between ATs?

Not to derail this too much, but what is the definition of 'normal'? I've seen AVs for example give multiple people drops when they died, and GM code seems weird in that sometimes everyone gets something, and sometimes it doesn't. For example, I got the merit and Temp Power reward from the new Paladin in Kings Rows, but I didn't get the badge. So somewhere in the reward code, I was tagged to receive something, but not all of the things.

I see traps as a jack of all trades, master of none powerset. It had a little control, a little buff, a lot of debuff (which blends nicely with the buffs), and some damaging components. In practice however, the damage components (Trip Mine and Time Bomb) are hard to use in a group, and very hit or miss even solo, as you can set up a death zone, and still have to mop up mobs. On a Mastermind especially, they simply aren't worth the time or endurance to use, as you have an entire primary for damage, and the interruptible aspects make the powers really hard to use in the heat of battle. Having said that, the complimentary nature of the buffs and debuffs can't be overlooked. Triage Beacon providing +regen, Seeker Drones providing -tohit and -dmg, Acid Mortar providing -def and -res, Poison trap providing -regen and FFG giving +def and mez protection allows you to affect multiple sides of the combat formula in ways that other sets don't really have access to. -resistance and -damage have a very neat interaction as they boost the others effectiveness, making the combined debuffs much more powerful than their individual sums. The +regen allows you to passively heal up the severely reduced damage the Seeker drones caused, and the combination of -tohit and +def gives you a very nice cushion, before considering any other powers you have. You also have protection from the big Mez powers. The -regen from Poison trap will floor any AV/GMs regen, even with their massive resistance, and the -resisance makes all your attacks hit hard. The ability to stack the debuffs further, by having multiple Acid Mortars (with enough recharge, and careful use of Burnout, you can have 4 Acid Mortars out), and multiple Seeker Drones (the debuff value is PER drone, so you inherently get double the value just using it, and the debuff lasts a long time, so if you can get your recharge down, you can 4x stack it) makes the set have a really high upper bound on its debuff power. Its a very complimentary set, but in order to understand what it is actually doing for you, you need to do some research into the combat formulas, and how different buffs/debuffs interact with each other, which most people just don't do. Because the set really doesn't look that powerful at the surface, I can understand people skipping certain powers that seem lackluster (Seeker Drones come to mind, and I thought I saw someone that actually skipped Acid Mortar, Triage Beacon is another frequently skipped power) but once you understand what the powers do, and how they interact, it can really make a huge difference. The set also works amazingly with minimal proc-ing, as you can put a Panacea +hp/end proc in Triage Beacon, and have it almost act like a HoT with some additional endurance boosting, Acid Mortar can take up to 2 -resistance procs (if you're a MM) and we all love proc-trops. The FFG is also a great place for the scaling +resistance set, or a LOTG mule.

Fundamentally speaking, missions are no different then TFs, as those are just a tightly bound group of missions with a specific story. The MSR might be slightly different, but for the sake of testing, its also probably fundamentally the same. Could you maybe, I don't know, provide the actual information he asked for? Character name and server? For the sake of testing, his parameters seem accurate, as the other 'variables' shouldn't have an impact on drop rates whats-so-ever.

Oh. I just always assumed @Bionic_Fleawas already insane.

They are a developer, they aren't sane to begin with. Especially if they are volunteering to code with the spaghetti that is this games code base.

And another thing here.. The GMs, and Developers are doing this on a volunteer basis. Noone is getting paid right now, so noone can be 'fired', so what punitive action could actually be taken?

I'm more disturbed by the mushrooms honestly.

I guess I don't see the definition of 'trap' the same way you do, so I'm having a hard time seeing that angle. I see a 'trap' as any device, stratagem, trick, or the like for catching a person unawares. It doesn't have a location aspect to it at all, just that the person triggering it doesn't know it is there. Using my definition, the only powers that really fall into that strict definition is caltrops, Poison Trap, Trip Mine, and Time Bomb. Everything else is very noticeable, and/or able to be targeted. Expanding to use the definition of powers that directly affect enemies while regarding position has you include Triage Beacon and Acid Mortar, but still leaves Web Grenade, Seeker Drones, and FFG as powers that have no regard for position. Seeker Drones will actually follow you around (though they are kinda slow) until they detect an enemy, and then they explode. The FFG isn't really a single target bubble buff, and other like powers (things that mirror Dispersion Bubble) are all toggles. Both Sonic, and Force Field have the same power as a toggle. Allowing the FFG to still get destroyed, like a Prestige Pet, still gives it a 'trap' like feel of being a secondary object that is providing the buff, without it just spontaneously exploding at the wrong time. Like I said, if the FFG blows up, and then you get mez'ed, you can't resummon it right away, and the 'notice' that it is about to expire isn't very clear. The animation itself isn't bad, its more the 'mid-combat experience' that I'm worried about. Another thing to consider, is that the Sky Raiders Force Field Generator has no duration, its a permanent pet. Why are the players version self-destructing?

I've noticed that pets really don't like closing the gap to stationary targets. Vault Doors, Barriers, etc have always been a little buggy with pets. the Goto command helps, repositioning them in other ways helps, but sometimes you just get the 'AI is dumb' issue. Now if they could fix that, it would be amazing.

Most (if not all) of the mastermind primary attacks are basically wasted powers. The damage scale, the additional endurance cost, and the higher than normal recharge for them just make them mostly junk in the overall scale of what you could be doing otherwise. I'd say that a Power Pool attack is better than getting a Mastermind Primary power, as you shouldn't be inflicted with the Mastermind Endurance Tax. Having said that, if there is a concept, or set bonus you really really want, the Primary powers are good for set mules, as they are available early. They can also help out in the lower levels (say, sub 20) but after that, mobs hit points scale up so much that you're better off picking literally anything else to use.