Riverdusk

Yep, that question could be asked of literally every suggestion made on this board so I did find that objection a bit...odd. That is a cost/benefit analysis that ends up being 100% a matter of opinion as to whether or not any suggestion made is "worth it". Everyone would have a different answer depending on their subjective analysis of the "benefit". Most of the time we also have no idea of the "cost" side of the equation either beyond a vague idea as most of us aren't programmers or familiar with the coding it'd take. For my own personal take on it I'd say it'd be worth it if it is an easy or fairly easy change, but it'd fall way down on the priority list beyond that. But it is an idea I throw out there because I think it'd be nice to see. Personally I'm also confused as to why people keep mixing in difficulty levels to this. Doing something at +4/8 already provides a better reward compared to +0/x1 as in better influence/xp. My issue is the extra "challenges" such as "buffed enemies", "no inspirations", etc. that right now give 0 extra reward (beyond sometimes a one time badge). Just as an off the cuff idea I was thinking something like a 5% merit bonus per "challenge" up to a max of 4 (so max 20%). Round down so that you avoid giving an outsized bonus to the 1-4 merit activities (they just wouldn't get any bonus). That means "master runs" would give a 10% merit bonus if you just went with the minimum requirements as they stand now. Once again I have no idea how that would be to program though, so maybe there are easier ways to do something similar. Honestly you could give a lot more bonus than that and it isn't like it is going to make running TF/Ouro arcs competitive with farming or marketeering for rewards, but I do think it'd be cool to see a bit of extra reward for a bit of extra challenge for these "challenges".

I've been suggesting extra merits for adding the "ouro challenges" for a long time now. So, yes personally I would like to see that. I'd vote for that even more so than for the master challenges. You already see people running master runs all the time so I'm not sure there really is a need for extra incentive there, whereas you almost never hear of people running Ouro challenges.

I haven't really noticed illusion being particularly endurance hungry myself. Definitely not after HC greatly reduced the endurance cost of superior invisibility anyway (which I love that they did). Of course a /dark probably wouldn't even take SI and shadowfall is now actually the bigger drain in comparison. My most recent illusion experience is with illusion/traps, so maybe that has affected my perception, but seemed about middle of the road or even a bit on the light side for endurance use compared to other characters I've played.

I've always wondered whether the global endurance reductions kicked in before the slotted endurance reduction (therefore lowering the base end cost of the power) or if they are just added into the slotted endurance reduction. The former would make them more effective than the later. I'm not sure how I could even test it as it is hard to track endurance.

Intuition is my default alpha for controllers unless I have other specific needs. It improves holds and damage so right there to me it shoots to the top in most cases. In the case of illusion/dark it also improves tohit debuffs, which is a big part of both sets. It even helps the slow of your tar patch as an extra to help keep things in your -res field.

Either should be pretty good when combined with dark. But I'd have to definitely give the edge to illusion for AV/GM fighting. They resist a lot of those debuffs so having invincible pets that taunt (as PA does) makes things a lot easier. You don't have to worry about your pets and a lot of your damage going squish. I'd say illusion does more single target damage, fire probably has the edge in AoE. You do need a ton of recharge to make illusion really shine though. PA is also really great at taking alpha on a team. Personally I like not having to depend on a tank/brute or others to necessarily start things off. If they are shy I just cast PA into the crowd. Follow that up with a spectral terror and you are in good shape at defanging a mob, not even counting what /dark can do for you. Group Invis is more about the LoTG mule, it doesn't offer a whole lot of defense. I do particularly like it on my illusion/traps as it lets me move through things without my FFG and other pets causing aggro. It has been occasionally useful on a team to let other teammates ghost some TF missions with me. Yes, the confuse is also great (especially once you get the contagious confusion proc in it). I regularly confuse several things per cast with mine now. The purple confuse set also has great bonuses.

Kind of the same feeling I have. I don't mind incarnate powers or even more of them if they were for content that was more set up for them. Everyone having them for taking down a bunch of council in a radio mission gets to be just a bit of overkill. ☠️

A controller without a single target hold power? Um, no thanks? Maybe turn flash into that instead would make more sense. Would just need to cut the horrible animation and recharge time as well of course. I don't even take flash most of the time on my illusion controllers it is so bad. Even easier, they could just make confusion and fear count as setting up containment. Same way they count for the incarnate control hybrid power. Would help mind controllers as well.

And in case it wasn't clear, debuffs and controls work the same. Debuffs are reduced by that amount and controls duration is decreased.

Yep, I'd vote for Barney Miller (the original reference) over any new one.

Well, if you really want to "branch" out, I think plant is your only choice.

Was going to say the same. If you find yourself ever really loving a character and have the inf you could just make an exemp build and a "max 50" build. So far I find myself always moving onto another alt before I get to the point I'd do a build for each, but maybe some day.

Order within sets doesn't bother me. I only require that sets be together if I have a mix. I wouldn't be able to stand 2 of a set, then 1 of another set, then 3 of the original set for instance. A set has to be together. I could even have it 1 and then 5 or 5 and then 1, as long as they aren't mixed up.

Yep, I'd say I'm pretty sure Malaise does. I definitely remember him beating up my super reflexes character pretty good until I realized what was probably happening. But not hard to pack a few purple inspirations to get the psi defense up for those rare times.

Honestly my experience is that PA is pretty well behaved and even without being able to command them found them easier to deal with than most MM pets. It also helps of course that they are invincible and taunt enemies to themselves so you really don't have to babysit them. As to grabbing aggro, I use the macro to cast them directly on who I want them to attack: /macro PA powexeclocation target "phantom army" The stupid one I find is the phantasm that tends to like to run up and try to melee mobs even though it has no melee attacks.

I ended up taking both Sup Invis and Group Invis on my illusion/traps. SI is a toggle and GI is a click, so they do stack although for the stealth SI alone puts you at the stealth cap and the minus aggro cap. The +def does stack though and for traps in particular I like it as it is a way to stealth the force field generator so it doesn't aggro stuff when I just want to run through. Also needed it for the LoTG mule and it was either that or maneuvers, so not much difference and not nearly as endurance intensive. The invis occasionally useful for teammates, although I try to avoid hitting the tanks/brutes with it. Perma PA eventually definitely, but I had phantom army to where it was only down for about 15 seconds even in my mid 20's, so not even that late blooming anymore. Just need to grab IO's early and grab the +rech available from the SG base buff and the P2W vendor. Then you get the occasional lucky "quick reflexes" from secondary mutation too.

I tend to always end up naming my three tier 1's Larry, Darryl, and Other Darryl I figure a lot of the player base of this game tends to even be old enough to get the reference.

When the time comes you might actually look at barrier rather than ageless as @Nyghtmaire mentioned. Between cardiac and barrier you can get all your pets solidly into the 80's min on resistance %. Resistance is a bit like defense in that the closer you get to cap the stronger it gets in a way. At capped (90%) they are taking half the damage they are taking at 80% resistance for example. I managed to get my endurance issues under control (not easy to do with this combo, but doable), and actually went resilient and barrier to absolutely max it. Thanks to them, my pets all have around 87% minimum resistance to all but psi (which is at 'only" 67% or so). When barrier is at higher numbers (during the 1st minute), they are pretty much fully capped at 90% resistance to all but psi and even psi is at a nice number, especially compared to what most other pets can get to. I rarely have to worry about them and they tank quite nicely. Also thought about rebirth, but barrier actually lets them take alpha's better. Maxing my pets tankiness I find more useful than the +rech or +end that ageless gives. I'd also suggest trying to fit in gloom, which is one of the best attacks a MM can get. I add significant dps to fights by spamming life drain and gloom (with 3 damage procs). Sonic is a chill secondary so you have plenty of time to attack. I can understand if that doesn't fit your playstyle or RP though.

Has happened to me a few times, even back on Live with Teamspeak, but very rare. Yep, not a big fan of voice chat generally. I find it awkward and annoying to use (maybe it is the introvert in me), and I play in an environment where I can't be yelling into my computer usually anyway. I typically play with the sound turned pretty low.

Definitely not always the same amount of time. Knockback sometimes ragdolls them and causes them to get stuck on the ground (or on the scenery) for a much longer time than knockdown. Also of course potentially takes them out of melee range from you which can be helpful sometimes. Not arguing for slotting one way or the other, I can see use in both. If you are rich enough there is always the 2nd build option so you have both options.

Haven't tried it myself with a stormie in particular, but I've read of people soloing AV's with nothing but storm powers alone, so I'd bet a Grav/Storm definitely could. Just a matter of building for it. Or honestly just using a bunch of purple inspirations is usually enough to get you through if surviving is the issue. Fights like that are what inspirations are there for. Also depends if someone is talking about a +0/+1 AV or a +4 AV of course.

Well, spirit tree isn't very good as it stands, but you run into the old "cottage rule" at this point so a complete remake would be extremely unlikely. I'd just be happy with a bit of improvement to it. Even just cutting the recharge (and duration) in half would make it a lot more useful for today's game. A static pet of any kind needs to have a pretty short recharge to be of much use outside the rare AV/GM battle. Or it needs a huge buff to its +regen for the short amount of time people might actually stand in range or it needs to be made mobile somehow. Carrion creepers can already be made permanent with some decent amount of recharge (6 min recharge, 2 min duration), and unlike the tree moves with you, so not seeing much need for lowering its recharge. It is borderline OP as it is.

Interesting theory and can't say I ever tested it myself, I just assumed it worked like other pets do. That dark servant doesn't take pet IO sets (which I always thought weird) might mean it is an exception and doesn't act like most pets for procs. Sounds like @zenblack has already tested it though. Seems like it'd be easy for anyone to test for themselves if they really care to do so. Stick some procs in there and watch the pet combat tab to see when they fire. I'd assume what it does would still show up on that tab, even creepers (which isn't a "real" pet) procs show up on pet tab.

Specifically for dark servant, Cloud senses proc in it is very nice as pretty much everything it does has a tohit debuff. On the other hand, loading up with procs from hold sets doesn't accomplish nearly as much since it just has the one hold attack where they could actually fire off.

Time also has a -resistance debuff that helps out PA damage (which you can proc for even more -res), just that it comes late. Best thing about ill/time combo is the big +recharge it gets (although also late). Makes getting perma phantom army eventually trivial to get compared to most other combos. Between that and the extra +tohit it also gives you, you don't have to find as much recharge or slot as much accuracy to do very well. That frees slots to put in more procs as a way to increase your damage. It's a good combo. Early on for a set as recharge hungry as illusion I strongly suggest at least grabbing the +20% recharge buff you can get from a supergroup buff table (and I don't believe you have to even belong to a SG to use their buff table). For 3 pieces of relatively cheap salvage you can get 1.5 hours worth of +20% recharge at a time. I also suggest the +15% recharge temp buff you can get from the P2W vendor for up to 8 hours at a time (for a total of +35% global recharge you can have starting even at level 1), but the P2W one starts to get a bit pricey as you level, so might be out of reach for a 1st time character unless you do some more serious marketering.