JediDave

If you had a secondary with a solid ranged attack like claws or spines, this would work well to keep bosses specifically on you, but as you've found, this isn't viable to hold the whole group's aggro. The niche this is good for is against AVs who can't fly and have minimal ranged attacks. I've seen a few use web nades and a 2nd character's immob on Recluse in MLTF to some degree of success, but if you try this in a normal mission, it is going to look like you're trolling the team a bit.

I never actually sat down and did the math, just thought "I need this number bigger than 3, and more than that is a buffer for level adjustments" but it's nice to know the tldr section for future use.

Aura of Madness is very good. Ideal slotting late game is 2-3 Hami enhancements for acc/mez, since that will boost the mag on all of it's effects. If you have the inf for +3 HOs then 2 will be enough, but 3 is technically better, if very rarely noticeable. The cheaper option is the dam/mez HOs and maybe you go 2 of those and an acc IO. Damage slotting on it in general isn't going to do much, but the /mez enhancement you get from HOs is great. The damage you take from it is so minimal, I honestly forgot until this post that it deals damage to the player. With Mori up, my regen is hitting 160ish per second, and still pretty high but under 100 without Mori up. The damage isn't something you need to consider. That being said, I have 2 psi armor characters, one tank and one sent. The sent is usually at a decent range from the enemies, and I'm considering dropping aura just because I'm rarely in melee range, and I got just enough set bonuses to make ranged defense capped when teaming with my irl friends' added maneuvers. If your playstyle for water/psi keeps you at range the majority of the time, it may not be worth taking, at least not while leveling and unable to grab Hami-Os

Your definition of impossible is very different from the actual definition of impossible. You have farsight boosted defense, bodyguard mode, and time's juncture boosting your survivability. There is zero reason for you to not also be in melee range. Bodyguard mode means your ninjas' HP is your HP, and the aoe heal is working double time. As for invisibility, grant invisibility is a single power pick and a one slot wonder. Easy fix

No, I would take all 9 powers

/energy is great for going full range. The sustain is target independent, boost range helps thematically, and the T1 melee attack is just giant knockback to get melee enemies out of your face. That being said, if you just want big ST damage at range, corruptor and sentinel are also viable choices with a bit more flexibility, and even a dominator could do what you're looking for. If you're looking for ST damage for AV/GM purposes, corruptors' scourge will help out a ton, and they have a lot of debuff options that will pump up your damage and the rest of the team's damage on that big target. If you just want to delete standard bosses, blaster is still probably your best bet, though sentinel isn't too far behind and can survive a lot better if your team isn't the best. Following your caveats, I'd say Ice/Energy blaster, Ice/Cold corruptor, and Elec/Bio Sentinel are your best bet. Bio I would say minimal visuals and the damage adaptation.

The change was to specifically controllers, so this was not an oversight. Dominator pets and things like Dark Servant or Epic summons also have had zero changes.

Ninja/Time would work really well. Time has the strong AoE heal you'll want when an attack or two get past the defenses of your ninjas, and it has a very easy time capping both your defense and the ninjas' defense. You aren't necessarily locked into an epic pool with power boost, but using power boost then hitting Farsight will drastically increase the defense and tohit values that you have. I think you'd get a lot more out of /time than /kin on ninjas.

It seems like everything is good, but if you're in need of a power and have to drop something, I'd think Fast Healing is the easiest to get rid of. With how easy it is to cap HP, Second Wind can probably be skipped and just make sure you get a few +HP set bonuses, which are easy to grab. MoG could be skipped, but you'll be out an easy LotG mule and panic button. And the last contender is Reconstruction since you would have Second Wind as a big heal if needed. I wouldn't skip more than one of those in a single build, and I really wouldn't suggest skipping any if possible. Feels like Marine affinity, the set has no bad powers so the power selection in the build gets really tight really fast.

When you say a knockdown in shin breaker and crosspunch, do you mean the chance for +rech or the KB>KD enhancement? Because neither of those need a KB>KD as far as I'm aware.

Spider-man uses web shooters, you use web blasters. With how many spider people there are in the multiverse, I don't think that breaks theme. Instead of Oscorp or the Baxter building or a university, this world's Spider-man got his tech from stolen Arachnos gear.

Those stats give some good info, but I think you'll get better feedback with a primary set mentioned for each build as well. If they all have the same primary, that makes it a lot simpler, but if each build has a different primary, that will definitely impact usefulness of responses people will be able to give.

The P stands for Point. It's Point Blank Area of Effect. Has been since '04. Do you instantly macro powers upon getting them? That sounds like it would get tedious very quickly.

Challenge missions in AE designed to be difficult

I'll still have plenty of endurance left to pry on it when you're all tuckered out.

I genuinely don't get this mindset. As pointed out here, there's multiple easy fixes for it, all of which take less than a minute of your time. I personally think the bind to your forward key (w by default) is the one most people will find to be simplest. And on top of it then being identical to previous versions, you still have the new option of stop them from running off into another group chasing a runner.

It won't help while leveling, but this is why I suggest Vigor Alpha for most MM builds. The end reduction and acc on everything makes frankenslotting the henchmen a LOT easier to do without sacrificing too much. The healing main stat is simply a cherry on top for sets that can use it.

1. As a general rule of thumb, whichever proc will be triggered by the most powers that particular pet has. Lich, as an example, can trigger the damage proc for accurate to hit debuff (I'm awful at remembering set names and I can't open mids at work to check) in almost all of its powers, but the fear/immob/hold each in only 1 power, so the Lich will get much more out of the accurate to hit debuff proc. I don't have them all memorizes, but big demon and big wolf take slow, a lot of pets take -def with merc T1 and necro T2 sticking out, and zombies are good with the chance to add knockdown since their vomit is pretty reliable when 3 of them are swarming a group. 2. For the pet powers specifically, frankenslot. Sets like demons/necro/thugs have a power at 18 that allows more slotting pet sets, which helps out a lot. Things like /traps seeker drones and /storm tornado also allow pet sets, which is nice since you'll likely want to cram in the 5 uniques for +res and +def, one of which is a MM ato. I like to split the MM ato into 2pc per summon power to hit that 10% rech bonus 3 times, then fill out damage/acc to cap with as much end red as I can squeeze in. Then remaining slots give procs or things like +def for thug T2 or bots. It's a puzzle to slot them where you're happy with everything, but alpha slot helps once you get to end game. I'm partial to vigor on MM (and most proc heavy builds) for the accuracy and endurance that procs usually don't allow much room for slotting. The heal is nice if it applies, but it's not the main reason I'd suggest it. Pets can still run out of end and will sometimes pause attacks until they get a tick up from 0. 3. I would say T3 but that one is pure preference. Mainly because the T1 need more acc slotting to begin with, so there's less room to squeeze in another (imo) unnecessary slot. And the T3 usually hits significantly harder. Exception would be necro where you'd actually probably be better off with T2, but since they want a couple -def procs, you again get the issue of too many enhancements and not enough slots.

I'm loving my Psi/Dark/Soul Tank. Touch of Fear, AoI, and MMori means groups are just cowering around you pretty consistently while you smack em around. Soul was taken for theme, but I do like the added -tohit since def is the weakest of Psi's layered protection.

That's like asking if a brute/tank wouldn't do the same thing. Or a human HEAT/Sentinel. There's a lot of overlap and the things that do make them different is usually up to preference. Scourge is fantastic against big targets, and solo/small teams it's pretty nice against just bosses. If you want more damage or getting you nuke earlier in level, go corruptor, but if you want to get fulcrum shift or overgrowth earlier, go defender. On paper, they probably are the 2 most similar classes we have, but in practice, you'll feel the damage difference and your team (and sometimes you yourself) will feel the buff difference. Unless you're going kinetics, then the buff numbers don't matter much since 2 FS is going to cap you and sb gives the same +rech either way.

I think when CoV launched, hide had like a 2s ish recharge, and the ability to slot for it just never got taken out

What are you trying to do with it? Mine is set to solo AVs and GMs but that build will look different than one set to mow down large mobs. Do you have a preference for epic/patron pool? Do you care about the budget or is the sky the limit? The build I use for mine is admittedly a bit outdated and I am by no means a mids expert, but with my main on live and my first 50 on HC being a fire/rad, I think I can offer insight on what does or doesn't work

I think marine, nature, and time work the best with beasts. Marine can get you teleporting into the middle of the pack to grab aggro (if you like bodyguard mode) and everyone being melee means they're also clumped up for the cone heal for easy repositioning on yourself. With them all being melee, it also makes it easy to fire off your aoe buffs without worrying if one or two henchmen are outside the radius. Shifting tides being anchored on a henchman is also nice since you know they will be in melee range. Then the fact that marine gives a bit of defense, resist, absorb, and heal means you can keep them alive very easy while also giving them a nice amount of added damage. And brine is great on big targets, which your single target beasts will already be good at dealing with. The only issue is you'll want pretty much every power, so you'll have to be picky on pool powers. I think this is the most fun (obviously opinions will vary) set of these three. Nature keeps you alive. Not a ton of added offense until your T9, but the aoe hold is great for single target henchmen, since it will make the minions and some LTs a non issue. Heals, absorb, resists, more heals. Your beasts should be set here. Like Marine, it's got a cone heal which takes some getting used to, but all melee makes it easier to position for. There's a bit of -regen for big targets, but nothing insane (I think it has less -regen than standard long recharge ones, but I don't have access to mids right now to confirm). And the toggle debuff is always nice for a corner pull when solo or in small 2-3 person groups. Definitely the most thematic of the three sets here. Time will easily cap your beasts' defense, but it sorta locks you in to mace mastery for the power boost. A toggle debuff anchored on yourself means you'll be in the fray with the beasts, and the aoe heal is very powerful, and the heal over time effect makes it so you don't "waste" the heal on allies near full health already. Both of those being PBAoE synergizes well with beasts being melee again. You can also use distortion field and your single target hold to stack holds on bosses for a few seconds, and the +chance for hold proc in each can make it much more consistent. Unfortunately, time's +recharge buffs don't do anything for the beasts, but they do benefit from the recovery, regen, and damage buffs from the +rech powers you have. But the recharge helps you, and you can get pack mentality and pack fortification going more smoothly with that recharge. I think of these three sets, time is the most straightforward to play and slot, but maybe the most boring, which also means you have time to throw in a personal attack or two without much sacrifice. I'll throw an honorable mention to traps, as it's very solid, but on big teams you'll have to cycle through your powers on a group to group basis, since competent, fast moving teams will clear a group before you're able to set another mortar or launch seeker drones. OH! Seeker drones. Beasts don't get a 4th pet power for unique invention slots, (no gang war/hell on earth style summon) but seeker drones can take them, which may ease some slotting issues, as pet slotting on mm is always a bit of sacrificing one thing for another. If you want to solo, traps is great, and on teams it's just going to feel like you're contributing a little bit less, unless the team is barely staying alive.

So does the guassians have a chance to trigger every 10 seconds, or does it have a chance every time an entity triggers shifting tides? If it's got a chance whenever tides procs, that would seem to be a damn near perma up time, similar to thug T2 pets. Which is cool, but a little bit of a shame since 90% of my personal damage is proc based and not affected.

I recently got a demon/marine to 50, got all his incarnates to T3, with Alpha at T4. My only issue in his build is I have no idea how slotting on shifting tides works. I've seen people toss an end red in there and call it a day, I've seen damage procs galore, and I've seen Chance for BU in there. I tested out a few and I can't tell what does or doesn't work. Does anyone have any insight on how to best slot this thing? Without taking away other significant parts of the build, I can commit 5 total enhancement slots on it, so on the off chance someone says to 6 slot it, I would prefer not to go that route.