Riverdusk

I count it as one personally, with the advantage its the only one that can also slot a LoTG. And it is pretty easy to get to 80+ mph with it. It also follows the standard 'travel power rule' that you can take it at level 4 even though its the third power in the pool. Most third power pool powers you need to be level 14. Back to OP, I've never found it a problem going without any though. As said, as long as you know your way around even with none I only rarely find myself last to the mission.

Pretty sure it does. Then the question is also whether it affects the base mag or just the enhanced part of the mag. I'd test it more but I've been enjoying my electric controller too much. 😄 Someone was complaining about it for Aura of insanity, which is the other power that works in a similar way. They labeled it as a bug, but I'm not so sure about that.

Yes, several scrapper sets have a taunt aura. Sometimes they do tend to be on the weak side, but that's more a set thing than an AT thing. Willpower and Energy Aura just have short taunt durations compared to the long ones like bio, shield, or invuln have for some reason. I remember I actually slotted my energy aura taunt for taunt as otherwise against higher level enemies they'd sometimes still run away in between taunt 'tics'. Energy aura taunt only lasts 2.25 seconds base and tics every 2 seconds, so once you are fighting +2's or higher, it isn't taunting them full time unless you enhance it. Once slotted, there was no problem with runners. Bio on the other hand taunts for 13.6 seconds base with a 1 second tic. Even against +4's, they aren't losing that taunt and it is going to be very rare you ever see them run.

Agreed and I'd say not just bosses, also potentially annoying mobs like tsoo sorcs, succubus that can wreck people with confuse, etc. Sappers too although more people can take them out with just one hit, but not always as stealthily. I know I never worry about the infamous sappers that so many seem to hate while playing my stalker. I'm always seeking out the most annoying mobs and trying to take them out quick. Almost the same role as a controller I feel.

Believe you only have to break mag 3 for it to affect bosses, not actually reach mag 4. Easy to confirm is to use the same logic for Lt's. With even just 1 SO of fear you can easily test that CoF affects Lt's, which per CoD numbers would only push it up to mag 2.38. So for Lt's you actually only have to break mag 2, not reach mag 3. Another example is mesmerize from the controller set, it is mag 3.5 sleep but affects bosses. Anyway, with my slotting is should work and from what I remember it did work on test server. I did forget about purple patch though, so probably only work on +0, so yes, very limited use against a boss unless you have something else to stack with it (my DA is a stalker so I have assassin's strike to stack if I really want). I still like slotting it up regardless so it'll still affect higher level Lt's.

That I can definitely say did happen pre-patch. Noticed it even long ago often when fighting knockback happy mobs like council.

Cloak of fear can even fear bosses now (if you slot it heavily for fear, slotting now affects its magnitude and not duration). They also improved its accuracy, but it is still low so need to slot fairly well for that too. Overall it is quite good now though and not one I'd ever skip. I ended up slotting mine with two Endoplasm Hami-O's (Acc/Mez) and two nightmare (Acc/Fear, Endurance/Fear). Absolutely maxes its fear (over +100% including the nightmare set bonus), +95% accuracy, and gives it some endurance reduction. Might be overkill, but still experimenting a bit with it.

One possible mitigation, particularly to those that complain about the KB slot tax, improve the knockback IO sets. The sudden acceleration set actually has good set bonuses, including the coveted +recharge for 6 slotting it. Unfortunately fully slotting the set at level 50 only gives +63.6% damage enhancement. Accuracy at 47.7% and endurance reduction at 21.2% are also kinda iffy. Improve the enhancement values for the things people care about and it'd be a good alternative for the powers you want it in and then it wouldn't have any real "KB tax". Basically make 6 slotting Sudden Acceleration viable and I know it'd make playing something like energy blast more tempting, for me anyway. As someone else brought up, I'd also say make energy torrent and explosive blast do 100% chance of knockback. Ironically that'd make their knockback less annoying as it'd be more consistent. The dark blast "torrent" powers, among others, have 100% chance of knockback, so it isn't like it is unheard of.

I doubt that's a bug, but that'd be up to the devs of course if they designed the power with that in mind or not. I do agree a universal mez IO set would be cool so that kind of thing would be available more easily before level 50. Controllers and Doms get them with their ATO's, but don't see an issue having one available to everyone. Would also be handy for things like dark servant and MM lich where I also often will slot a mez hami or two.

Bot/Cold MM is also a good one. Can easily cap the bots defense when combined with their own bubbles. Bots have amazing healing on their own so no worry that there is no heal. It also solves the endurance issue bots tend to have after the 2nd upgrade. The slows help keep things in burn patches without scattering as much. Overall a very good combo in my experience (and more fun/useful than the classic bots/FF imo).

Yes, not a fan of the default defensive setting. I still forget to hit that 'aggressive' button when I first enter a mission way too often even after 50 levels on my new controller since the change. However, I definitely enjoy being able to direct them to attack certain enemies now.

Being able to stock up on inspirations in email and grab them during missions I personally consider not working as intended. I have occasionally stored some large rez inspirations in mine, and sometimes for my MM's I've stored a few large team defense inspirations for AV battles and such, but that is about it. Rarely ever actually used them that way. No problem with that going away if the devs want to make email inaccessible during missions or disallow attaching inspirations to emails or whatever. On the other hand I do believe it is a niche thing. One of those things that is discussed more on the forums than actually practiced by the "regular" players in game. Honestly feel a bit the same way about even the 'proc' builds that started this thread. I wonder how much this is really even an issue. I could be wrong, but I don't think a lot of the 'regular' players build 'proc bomb' characters or even think about procs much. I think again it is more a forum thing.

Just checked one of my infiltration characters. At level 50, 82.33mph running, 78.18mph jumping (seems to be capped), and 63.69 ft jump height. I only have infiltration 3 slotted (a LoTG, winter's gift move speed enhance, and winter's gift slow resistance). Sprint has a celerity +stealth so I don't even have that enhanced. I do have a couple of movement set bonuses and lightning reflexes (which should be equal to your quickness). Should definitely be doable for you.

Yeah, not understanding the sapper thing. Maybe before they were nerfed and you could have several per group. But no more than one per group can spawn currently, so just don't try to herd multiple malta groups. At worst if I'm on a character that is susceptible to them (if I have bad energy/ranged defense, or no armor with endurance drain protection), I'll set up a bind to target them so I can instantly pick out the one that'll show up. They are minions so they either go down fast or are mezzed fast. Edit: Now if the devs wanted to be truly evil they'd put in some boss level sappers. Honestly, for endurance draining I have more trouble with freakshow super stunners as their end drain is auto-hit and if you are on a melee it isn't always easy to jump away from them in time. My personal choice would be Nemesis for sure, assuming a big enough group where they end up with stacked vengeance. They then blow through your defense and you better hope you have some good AoE attacks because their melee and ranged defense also goes through the roof. Doesn't help that are also confuse resistant and quite a few of my characters rely on confuse (sappers confuse real easy btw 🙂 ). Fake Nems can then bubble up and be annoying, and they also have annoying sniper units that see through stealth and hit you from across the map. Special unusual and very specific call out to rikti monkeys when it comes to my masterminds. Rikti monkey gas causes MM pets to run half way across the map unlike anything else in the game I've seen. I think because the gas lingers on the pet for a good long while even outside the cloud and as long as it does they keep on running. Something like caltrops on the other hand they'll stop running shortly after the patch radius. I have to constantly be hitting the Stay button whenever I run into those stupid rikti monkeys on a MM.

The one other specific instance where I use range enhance is on Ice Melee's Frost cone. It is a nice little bonus to be able to boost it from 10 feet to say 12-15. I wish there were more powers like that.

Seeds is used as the opener to pretty much every fight when I was playing plant. Just like stalagmites or flashfire. Especially if you are squishy and don't have your defenses IO'd up. As a bonus since it is a confuse it also tends to actually clump the mobs together at least a bit as they like to move toward each other in order to attack each other. I'm playing electric control more recently and synapatic overload there is also a common opener for me. One key is to have some sort of stealth so that you can get close enough to the mob to use it without them alpha striking you first. Unlike mind and electric control's confuse, seeds does notify mobs when you use it. Along with seed's shorter range a definite disadvantage and why I especially like to pair it with a stealth power. My understanding is the contagious confusion proc is actually not that good anymore due to the power changing to adaptive recharge. It now procs as though it has a very short recharge. But haven't tested it for myself yet. But yes, if you want the ranged defense the set gives you have to put it in there regardless. Edit: Also forgot to note, confuse tends to speed up xp/time as the mobs damaging each other means you are killing faster. And it more than offsets any xp loss it causes.

A controller/dom should be able to mez them (sleep especially makes sense) and drag/carry them out in that case. 😉

I'd agree with some others that if procs are nerfed in some way, some counter balance needs to be done at the same time for the lower damaging AT's. On something like a controller I find myself heavily dependent on them. Honestly, I also really don't mind procs the way they are right now. I find they add a nice variety to my builds and I like how often I have to make trade offs and choices between slotting for enhancement values, set bonuses, or procs. I'd hate to see a piece of that slotting "puzzle" taken away from me and I think it'd make character building less interesting.

I can't speak for symphony as I haven't played it. However, /Time has slowed response which is a -res debuff (and slottable with an achilles heel for even more -res), that does help with your damage. /Time also has time crawl and time stop both of which have good base recharge levels (don't slot any recharge and they both proc right around the max 90% for a standard 3.5ppm proc) that make them good proc candidates for some extra single target damage. It can also be argued its very good +recharge gives you help in killing things faster. It isn't as good as some secondaries for damage, but it is decently good if you do slot for procs.

True it is very easy and simple to create a quick 'follow aggressive' bind or button, but my counter would be it is just as easy for those interested in the new controls to make a 'follow defensive' button if the default was changed to aggressive instead. And this is coming from someone who is fine using the new controls, I just think the default setting for a controller pet is...not ideal. I'd also be open to some sort of bonus for the pet while they are in defensive follow (like MM pets have bodyguard, but it wouldn't have to be the same), to make defensive more worthwhile to use.

Slotting for endurance definitely helps them. Also, some sets pets hardly use any endurance at all, others use a lot, so that's why some people probably don't notice one way or the other. My necro pets I find I really don't have to worry about. My Bots (once they get the 2nd upgrade) on the other hand are always running dry even with decent endurance slotting. I went bots/cold partly so that I wouldn't have to worry about their endurance anymore, once you get heat loss, problem solved.

You can't have a pet in both defensive and passive. There are three main modes - Aggressive, Defensive, Passive. Aggressive = attack anything nearby. Defensive = attack if you or the pet is attacked recently, Passive= never attack. Then there are movement modes you can add- Attack (current target), Goto, Follow, Stay. Those tell it how to move/target. The default is currently defensive follow and it resets to that every time you zone. Problem with defensive is there is a time limit so if an enemy attacks you or your pet, you mez it, then your pet will only attack it for a set amount of time. If it doesn't kill it in that time your pet will stop attacking as it hasn't been attacked in a while by that enemy. Then you end up with your pet and the partially damaged enemy just sitting there staring at each other. I've actually had that issue even from just slowing an enemy enough, not even full on mezzing it, but a mez will often do it for sure.

I try to keep likes together but have no set order like that. Most importantly I always try to keep a few slots empty and will immediately use whatever happens to drop. I make sure to use inspirations often. So often I'm on a team and will never see a single person ever use an inspiration. So many fall victim to the 'save the potions and never use them' syndrome.

Staying away from the 1,000th kb pro/con argument. As another possibility, maybe the sudden acceleration kb to kd IO could also have some damage added to it as well? Or the set could be tweaked overall? Quick check of mids and a full 6 slotted sudden acceleration set at level 50 gives about 48% acc, 64% damage, 21% endurance, 48% recharge, 112% knockback. The set bonuses are actually pretty good, but the enhancement values could certainly use a tweak upwards (except for knockback). So much wasted enhancement boost on knockback that is then just nullified if you six slot it anyway. Never really made sense.

Need to change their stance out of defensive every time you zone as well. Not saying it is that hard, but it isn't just at summons. Personally I'd still be for controller pets defaulting to "follow aggressive" if being able to set our own default isn't doable. It is the closest to what they were before. Defensive is not a great stance as it leads to wonky behavior. On a controller even more than a MM. A controller often quickly ends up....controlling....the enemy so they end up not attacking. Which leads to the pet to stop attacking. There is no 'bodyguard' benefit to having them in that stance like a MM has either. Aggressive or passive is really all I need for a controller pet the vast majority of the time. It isn't a big deal, but it defaulting to the least useful stance all the time is still an annoyance.