Riverdusk

The sentinel hate is definitely there and weird. I think at least some of it is left over from before they were buffed. They aren't that far behind what a blaster or scrapper can do now and a lot easier and cheaper to play. Others I think just refuse to play anything that isn't the 100% best min/max option and even if something is 95% as good they go "it sucks!" even though 95% is more than good enough to do anything you need to do in Paragon. You'll get some of the same "garbage" comments about masterminds btw. I love my electric/electric sent and had no problem doing anything I wanted from level 1-50 and beyond, solo or in teams. As to electric armor specifically, a lot of people don't realize but the sentinel version is buffed as well compared to the melee versions, as it gets an huge amount of extra +regen compared to the melee versions (charged shield) and Energize recharges faster. Mine ended up with something like 764% regen perma, along with very high resists, and a big heal that is up in less than 30 seconds, I felt VERY tough. I honestly felt tougher than the electric/energy that I tried, especially when I went up against psi attacks. But ymmv of course. Edit: corrected the regen rate, forgot to even turn energize on in Mids.

Yep, ran into that one and never bother with them anymore no matter what I play. I asked to join once while I was playing a controller and his response was "I don't need a controller, do you have a brute you can switch to and play?" My response was a simple, "No". This was for just normal missions, not farming or anything specifically hard. 99% of the time I don't see people being restrictive really.

Had this happen, although very rarely, as well. For me I know exactly why it happens. I use right click hold to readjust the camera and sometimes I hit a player with my mouse when I do, That opens a menu for them that includes "invite to SG" and sometimes it just happens to perfectly then hit that option for them.

Sets that are capped at a certain level will not be more effective than that level cap even if attuned. Common misconception because if you hover over an attuned level 20 capped IO while you are level 50 it'll show level 50 stats for it. However, that is a text bug. Slot it and hover over the power itself in the management screen and you'll see the actual effect it has on the power. It'll be level 20 values even if attuned and you being level 50.

Fair enough, I forget that trick a lot of times in the heat of combat.

Would probably have more luck trying to get them to lesson the animation time for summoning and upgrade, and I'd be for that. Some sets especially seem to take forever for the pets to actually completely show up before you can even target them to upgrade them. Or maybe if we can target them for upgrade without having to wait for the 'summoning animation' to completely finish, although that might be a technical thing that isn't doable.

I'd say necro probably the best for low levels. Beginning zombies get a nice aoe at level 6 with first upgrade and most mm pets have zero aoe at that level. Then you have the extra specter pets that spawn from your attacks and at that level range having the personal attacks would help a lot for damage. Just remember to not blast if you are trying to get that one DFB badge, you can't control what the specters attack (been there, oops). For secondary time, dark, or marine were my first thought as well.

Unfortunately in its case specifically it also probably falls victim to "plant control is so strong overall we don't want to buff the set anymore". Triage beacon does probably need the help more as a support set power.

My characters typically take 30 to 40 hours to hit 50 and that is pretty casual play and with a lot of soloing and typically not cranking the difficulty up too much. The closest I ever come to power leveling is sometimes joining a level 50+ PI radio team for a bit. I tend to do that when I hit the 40's (and after doing Tina and MJ's arcs) as the 40's do tend to sometimes drag a bit. That is an average over many many alts that I have. Doesn't seem overly long of a time to me. I do usually have the x2 xp booster going though. If you are actually taking 20+ hours for one level, I think there is definitely something else going on.

Some stalker offensive aura abilities suppress while hidden and it has been that way for quite a while, if not forever. Other examples are Ice Armor's Chilling Embrace and Shield's Against All Odds. Not familiar myself with dark armor on a stalker, but know from personal experience that's how chilling embrace works for sure. I'd trust @rubiconx's report, although of course it is up to the devs to decide if it is a bug or not. Edit: Just to confirm, you don't have any procs or anything in it? Or maybe running something else that is unhiding you?

It looks pretty, so it makes a great decoration.

Think it might just be a bug in the detailed description for Equip Mercenary. It does still give smash/lethal resistance and 2 points of confuse protection, it just isn't listed there. I have a merc so can confirm it in game. City of Data also shows it (example from a basic soldier): https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=mastermind_pets.soldier_2.equip&at=mastermind As to other henchmen, you'd have to say which you are speaking of, MM pets having confusion protection was never universal. Also, most Masterminds end up taking tactics. Something I consider key most of the time just as much for its confusion protection (almost 4 points worth) as for its tohit buff.

There are missions like that though, "Prevent <Mob boss name> from escaping." Only a few though, Also unfortunately they tend to be bugged as I've literally seen the escaping boss mob phase through walls and elevators and had the mission fail because of it. Maybe them being buggy is what you meant though. Also every blue side bank safeguard mission, although they rarely get to the point of even trying to escape.

Plant/trick arrow/fire. Good times are had. 😁

I'm not one to usually pull out this old card, but this is the literal definition of straw man. Such a perfect example of one that I'm actually impressed. No one is asking for giving illusion the game's "best AoE damage", not even close. Good one though. Giving phantasm say explosive blast instead of energy torrent as someone suggested (and with the usual nerf in recharge/damage of a ranged AoE compared to a cone) isn't going to rocket him to the status of AoE annihilator. You could even keep the target cap the same, 10, like a sentinel. More likely it'd be almost a wash, but make him a bit more well behaved and hopefully be an easy fix to his AI. Another maybe easy way would actually be to just extend his version of energy torrent's range a bit, even bumping it from 40 to 50 might be enough to fix it from running into melee so often. To balance, reduce its arc a bit. But if the devs can fix his AI in other ways instead, I'm all for it. Seems everyone at least agrees on that point, so that's good. Just hope it is doable some day.

I'd take a bit of exception to the idea that a slight fix or buff to phantasm would make illusion OP or that it is even borderline OP now. It is a fantastic set against small groups or AV's. That is a very small part of the game and definitely not the current game meta which tends to be "destroy huge groups of enemies fast". That is something illusion is definitely not particularly great at. Everyone trots out "It solos AV's the best!". Being really good at one niche thing doesn't make it OP, imo. Fire and plant destroy it when it comes to AoE 'defeating'. Pretty much every set out there destroys it when it comes to actual AoE control. It has so little hard aoe control it is hard to even set up containment with it which makes it hard to even add in some AoE damage with an epic pool. It's a great and fun set if you want to run quick solo through missions/story arcs set to low numbers or even solo TF's (set to lower numbers). Otherwise it isn't really setting the world on fire imo.

I think he meant explosive blast as that was what was suggested before. Basically a ranged aoe instead of a short cone that most believe is what forces its ai into near melee. Agreed it would be a buff, but I don't think it is an outrageous one. It would probably mean a slight nerf to its damage and/or recharge as aoe's tend to be slightly less damaging and longer recharging than cones.

Course now they'd have to worry about this, as silly as it is and even if it is unlikely it'd be an issue in the end: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-i-shadow-of-war-i-publisher-warner-bros-has-patented-the-series-nemesis-system

Big fan of voltaic sentinel myself, at least since it was buffed a while back to shoot a lot faster. It is basically at minimum a free extra 50 or so dps if it is fully damage slotted, not even including the bonus shock damage. (Base damage 34 x 1.95 divided by its 1.25 second recharge). That's about half way to taking down an even level AV solo all by itself. Also comes with a base 1.4 accuracy so it needs almost no accuracy slotting. No animation time beyond the initial cast on a mission, and it isn't going to get detoggled/suppressed on a sent because you have mez protection, so sent is where it is best. Anyway, worth it just for the number of times something has a bit of health left and my attack misses and I'm ready to be annoyed, only for the volt buddy to kill the thing off for me. Happens amazingly often even when I have 95% to hit. I actually took it over power sink. As you said, endurance doesn't seem to be an issue anyway, and neither does draining even without it. I found I wasn't using it much. Energize is enough imo.

I wouldn't worry about star content. Keep in mind it isn't even part of the original game, it was added by HC. I never bother as it just sounds like a headache to me. Play what is fun to you. There is a ton of content in this game.

Don't forget broadsword and katana for scrappers both get an extra crit chance bonus for their tier 9 attacks (15% base). You are critting quite a lot with your hardest hitting attack even before the scrapper ATO's kick in. So either of those sets I think work well on scrapper and it helps put them further ahead of a tank/brute version.

Make sure on the friends menu on top that you are listed as "online". You can go "invisible" or be offline and be hidden (which sometimes I'll do if I don't want to be bothered). Other than that, not sure.

I think you've had enough of being dogpiled, so will offer another alternative. Stock up on that START vendor defense/mez protection buff that is cheap at low levels. Grab 8 hours of it at level 1 for 8,000 influence and that'll easily carry you through until you get your mez protect power as a scrapper, even if you level up as slowly as I do. It also gives you another +5 defense as well.

A lot of it is that, just to keep it with all your other games. Also, some people might like that their friends can see when they are online and playing it without them having to log in as well. As well, as said before, it is an easier way, imo, to take screen shots and see them right inside Steam, and now to take videos.

Would especially be nice for broadsword to get a little something to distinguish it from Katana (that currently is almost an exact copy of broadsword and yet outclasses it).