Riverdusk

As a controller it is even easier as they have a third option. Take Psi mastery epic and indomitable will. 10 mag protect against hold/stun/sleep and even terrorize and confuse. 90 second uptime with a 360 recharge, so you can actually perma it with a very high recharge build (same recharge as required to perma phantom army). Available at level 35 with no prerequisites. No resistance, but you do get some nice psi defense too, which can be hard to get. Only drawback is being locked into psi mastery, but I find it is a decent epic pool even outside of indom will (mind over body and psi tornado are both nice enough and worth taking imo). That they find RoP overpowered on a squishy and not indom will is what I find...odd. Course it makes me wonder if they don't have their eye on nerfing indom will next...

Same. Tried it as one of the few ways to add a ranged attack for my controllers and it was so sluggish it just didn't feel good. New one feels a bit better. Bolt and mystic flight might become a staple for my controllers. I find the whole ROP nerf a bit funny. With so many ways to get mez protection in the game now, I almost never really felt it was worth 3 power picks to pick up, especially with most characters only looking at around 50% uptime typically. And here the devs thought it was some overpowered god like thing, I had no idea! I think I have it on like 1 character out my dozens. Of course the only "squishy" AT's I usually play are controller and MM. Controllers have easy access to indom will which I always thought was a MUCH better deal than ROP. MM's I honestly don't find typically that squishy and being mezzed isn't as a big of deal for them in my experience. I can see it a bigger deal for defender/corrupters, as the data bears out. Hence why I always thought defenders/corrupters should get an epic power choice like indom will that controllers have.

Pretty sure all set bonuses are global. I often will agree with that and say so, as in "Okay, it is a global set bonus", even if I find that a bit redundant And your source is a third party wiki. According to the game itself LoTG is labeled a set bonus. I'll trust the label the game itself gives it.

Not to be nit picky, but technically the LoTG +7.5% recharge piece is a "set bonus" as well. The game literally lists the +7.5% piece under your character's set bonuses (menu-personal info-powers tab) and it follows all the rules of a set bonus. Bit of a pet peeve of mine as every time I call it a set bonus when people ask about how it works on help channel, at least a person or two shoots back, "it's not a set bonus, it's a global!" Some can be strangely aggressive about it.

Same, @Force Redux has a great guide. Only nitpick is I'd swap the grades for cognitive and preemptive interface as both have damage procs so the only real difference is a slight chance for a confuse proc vs endurance drain. I'd take the chance for confuse as at least slightly useful vs endurance drain which is going to absolutely worthless (unless maybe you are electric secondary). As to damage type, MM's don't have any psi damage primaries (still waiting for that carnie MM set 😄 ), so mixing in a bit of psi damage can be a positive. I also kind of like hybrid melee core sometimes on certain sets even though I never tankermind. You can use hybrid melee as an emergency break free and/or regen/resistance buff as you can click it while already mezzed (it is basically like getting rune of protection, but as a "free" incarnate power). Go core and you aren't dependent on actually being in melee for it. I find it is enough typically to not need clarion, which opens destiny up for other choices beyond clarion. Especially if you have a pet set combo where they are already defensive softcapped to where they aren't being hit very often by mezzes anyway (often for beast, thugs, bots), so you really only have to worry about yourself.

Only issue I had with my beast/dark is AV's running away. Trying to solo TF's and having to chase after some AV's for 20 minutes as they run all over the map (and easily out of your tar patch) drove me crazy, especially since your pets are melee so you lose a lot of your dps. When triangles are down you can freeze them with petrifying gaze, but that's only part of the time. I tried not using darkest night's toggle and they still ran. So, I'm guessing it is the fear affect that howling twilight has was doing it, and that is your -regen. You can eventually still do it, but it tends to takes a MUCH longer time with all the running. Hard to depend on dark servant for the immobilize either, although that'll help stack if you do get your own immobilize. And so, I'd definitely recommend getting an immobilize from an epic pool if you are interested in that sort of solo content. I think @HachiMan2007 had the right idea with soul tentacles. If you aren't a solo AV hunter of course, not an issue.

Especially once I get all my pets I do this a lot and honestly you can keep them that way most of the time you are walking around. Keep the big hitter(s) in aggressive mode, keep others in bodyguard mode (usually the tier 1 pets at least). Even with just 3 pets in bodyguard you still get the majority of the damage resistance benefit. Your aggressive pet(s) start the fight, get attacked, and that gets everyone else to jump in. Also prevents the "problem" I have with some sets that a few last straggler enemies end up so slowed or controlled that your defensive pets eventually lose interest (or like the original poster's problem). If everyone is in defensive you all kind of sit there staring at each other until you realize you need to tell your pets to start attacking again. Splitting pets stances I find is an easy way to still play "lazy" if you aren't into constantly switching stances and you aren't going after super tough content.

At the least I'd say the other stealth powers should get a shave off their endurance costs or stealth needs an endurance cost bump given how powerful it now is. After all it is now doing in one toggle what my energy aura scrapper (as one example) needs two to accomplish (energy cloak + sprint with a celerity +stealth IO). And if they do want to run sprint with their 55 foot stealth they can do it cheaper (they can slot the default slot with an endurance reducer whereas I have to slot the IO there), or they can run faster (with a run speed IO).

The confuse also turns from a single target confuse into often hitting several targets once you get to 50 and put the purple contagious confusion proc in it.

I skipped triage beacon and time bomb. Triage always disappoints me with how weak and slow it is. Seekers are okay. They aren't as vital to an illusion as they are on a lot of other AT's/powerset combos as a big use of them is as an alpha strike absorber, when we already have phantom army for that. Although earlier levels before enough recharge, it can help to have both to alternate between the two. But overall, they give you more tohit debuffing, another chance to set up containment...and probably the best debuff they have, a -20% damage debuff which means a hefty 40% damage debuff when both hit. Also, another power in which to slot the ATO IO sets, which is what I used it for. I found them more useful than flash at least, which is what I skipped from illusion.

Yep, having just played a ton of war mace, I can't say I notice too many issues with smashing damage. With lethal I definitely notice it. We just fight too many dang robots in this game (and psi feels that even worse).

I don't see them too often, but still see respec trials advertised (many more when they are the TF of the week of course). To truly get the travel power thing back you'd need to also remove the cheap easy travel powers from the P2W vendor. Allowing travel powers at level 4 I think is a minor part of it. Lot of people don't bother taking any travel power ever anymore because of the cheap temp ones. Even without either of those for Hollows it is super easy to do the bank safeguard mission at level 5 and you get a temp fly pack from that too. I do still see Hollows teams advertised for as well. Honestly, the biggest one that I was disappointed with is that they just entirely got rid of SG prestige. I enjoyed collecting that and working to build up my base. I would have much preferred if they'd have just massively cut prestige and upkeep costs, but still kept prestige around so that people had to at least work a "tiny" bit to build a SG base.

Shorter version of what some others have already said: Play all of them.

If you are looking for safety it is hard to beat plant control. Most of the time seeds of confusion just neuters a mob and you can then take your time cleaning up. One of the easiest sets to play in the game imho. Also has good aoe damage. Only thing it is a bit lacking on is single target damage, but you said that isn't a great concern. Mix with your secondary of choice.

I'd look at it with this in mind. Go scrapper if you want that taunt aura. To cut down on runners, but also was surprised how often I ended up on a random team without a tank or a brute and found myself in the "alpha absorber" and "tank" roles on my wm/ea scrapper (and seemed to do fine at it). Go stalker if you just want the absolute best dps.

Was going to say the same thing. Not clunky in my experience compared to most other sets. I'd probably only rate invuln or willpower as clearly "easier to use". One click every 30 seconds or so (if you even need it that often which honestly I usually don't). Not that much different than having mez protection on a click and a lot of times less crucial. I definitely don't feel the need to have energize on auto, so hasten is free to keep as your auto power which makes it smoother to me than SR, shield, or Ninjitsu. As said, energy drain is kinda optional, it is so easy to softcap without it. I use it more often as an emergency endurance refill if I get drained or something, or maybe as a little bit of a defense debuff buffer on occasion.

Didn't see anyone else mention it or I missed it, but I tend to lean scrapper for katana just because scrappers get a bonus crit chance with golden dragonfly. You crit a LOT with that power on a scrapper. I don't believe any of the other AT's get anything special from the power to make up for not having that. On the other hand if you are looking at dark armor I'd lean brute/tank because dark armor is one of the sets that scrappers don't get a taunt aura on, and that sweet 90% resist cap potential.

I've actually seen quite a few defender vs. corruptor debates. Most boiling down to defenders are generally better because solo with vigilance and better buff/debuff they often do the same or even better damage than a corruptor and on a team their better buffs/debuffs add more to a team. That on top of defenders can usually better fit in and leverage damage procs. Surprised I don't see more talk of procs in the tanker vs. brute debate actually.

Level of enemy doesn't matter, but rank does in a way. The higher the enemy rank the more likely a recipe will drop. If a recipe drops, it has a chance of being a purple. So, technically if you want the best fastest chance of just purples, you'd fight -1/x8 (assuming you are level 50) with bosses turned on. Of course that isn't necessarily the best way to actually earn inf. Enemy Rate Minion 2.666667% Lieutenant/Sniper 5.333333% Boss/Elite Boss 7.999999% https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Recipe

A necro I know, but I was bored and reading through old stuff. I have to say I always avoided the set before on a scrapper because I didn't realize the scrapper version actually has a taunt aura. Even some of the other threads I noticed there was arguing on whether or not it does so it seems to be a common misperception. Finally took a hard look at the set and seeing you can actually slot taunt in entropic aura seems to confirm it has one. Also can see in game combat log where it says "your fury taunts <x>", which is a strange message text that seems to be left over from the brute version? But it seems to work regardless. I don't care much either way about the gfx of the stealth cloak and anyway the gfx effect seems to go away when you attack so during combat the "invis look" isn't even a factor. You can always turn off the cloak out of combat. Anyway though, very much liking what I see. Started up a WM/EA, I finally get to be the meme and even put that I'm strong and pretty in my character bio. 🙂

If you are looking at Diamagnetic I'd go core for the guaranteed tohit debuff. It is 5% and can stack up to 4 times. A -20% tohit debuff isn't bad when you are fighting tough non-AV content. Even against +4 enemies that is giving you equivalent of about an extra 10% defense. The -regen part is only 15% and -regen is really only useful against an AV. An extra -60% regen that is resisted isn't going to do a whole lot more than the -500% you already have in benumb. If you really want it for AV's Degnerative's -hp and toxic damage proc is more useful.

The longest downtime I regularly encounter in the game now isn't travel, it's the BAF cutscene. 😄

That's what I did, bookmark it. Problem is they then update it with a new post and suddenly your bookmark is no good. I'd like for them to at least stop creating new posts for it and just edit the same one, unless there is some reason they really need to create a new post each time for it. Edit: Or at least keep the old post around and edit it with a link to the new one?

Yep, this whole issue is even much worse when you are playing a Mastermind. Enemies are potentially +5 to your character. They are +7 to the tier 1 pets. That means a base 8% chance to hit. Talk about worthless. I might as well be one of those infamous petless masterminds so many complain about. When leveling up a mastermind I've gotten to the point I just avoid joining any groups that are advertising that they are higher level than me. Not worth the extra trouble.

Yep, I call Cold the ultimate neuter the AV/GM support set. Benumb also lowers all of their "specials", kind of a reverse power boost. Also, Heat Loss gives an insane -240% recharge debuff which is enough to even knock an AV's recharge down a peg. Especially when you combine it with some of the other -recharge that cold has, and in your case ice as well.