Coyote

I haven't had a chance to re-plan my builds with the new options to move ATOs to personal attacks, which will free a lot of slots for more damage and damage procs in the pet attacks, but I'm pretty excited to test these out... Bots/EA was able to solo Kronos Titan (hard) and Winter Lord (not very) before these, so increasing the set bonuses from 40% to 50% will help defense a bit, and freeing up enhancement slots will help offense. No idea about the stealth/defense changes... this will be great for re-summoning midfight and having the henchmen less likely to get clobbered before I get to buff them, but that wasn't really a major issue or else the fight wasn't really winnable in any case. It feels more like a "nice to have". Lowered End costs on MM attacks is nice, though, as they've gotten more reason to see use. Overall, MMs feel like they will be a lot better in most of the content, especially soloing. Not sure, however, if it will solve some basic problems regarding their utility in high-end content, and I don't know if that's really fixable since they are a pet class and that has some unique challenges in some situations. So... thumbs up overall, but maybe a "meh" for situations where they felt undesirable rather than just subpar.

I agree... it helps my Earth/Cold controller solo well. It takes 4 damage procs (2 from -ToHit sets and 2 from -Slow sets) and 1 Achilles Heel, perfectly fitting into the 5 slots that you have left.

I like the Orb ATOs on a few Dominator powers that are PBAoE, since it pops up in the middle of the enemies if you're already there attacking with the power. Especially on ones with shorter recharge, since that's where normal %Dam procs drop in chance, while the Orb ATO only needs to fire on one target to summon it. I also like the set to run 2 pairs of the IOs in order to boost control duration for multiple OTHER powers, especially if they're going into a control power in which I might only want to put 1-2 slots. It's a way to squeeze out extra control duration in Holds or Confuses if you want to try to perma-control AVs, or a way to get extra control duration into a control power where you're using most of the slots for proc-bombing.

I'll add another to the Stalker votes. Stalkers usually struggle for AoE, but Electric Melee was ported with its AoEs intact, so it's the best AoE set for them. With Shield, you actually have a Stalker with good AoE damage, while still having the great ST damage of Stalkers. Losing out on some defense stats is worth it for the damage output.

Good day... I've returned after some years off, and I didn't find any patch notes referencing a change to how IO procs work in Jolting Chain (Electric Control), but I have three IOs slotted in it that I believe worked some years ago and no longer seem to proc: Force Feedback: +Recharge Power Transfer: Heal Self Performance Shifter: +Endurance I also have some damage procs in it. Can someone refresh me on how IO procs work in this power now? I still see the damage procs work well, as it does way more damage than its direct power damage, but I haven't gotten any of the self-benefit procs to fire. I thought that the initial attack had a chance to trigger the self-target powers from the first target... is that not the case? TIA -Coyote

LOL. Great line. My reasoning also.

I'll just state that I've perma-Held AVs with Fire/Psy (at least up to +1, I think +2s break out... not sure how high I'll be able to push it with a max-Incarnate build). I've perma-Held AVs with Mind/Nrg (but only +0), but the Mind/Nrg can perma-Confuse to +2 without much issue. Not even 50 yet. Note, however, that this is a "for show" perma-Confuse, because I have to stick to +1 so that I can fit in a damaging attack chain that can break their Regen. Against +2s, Confuse has to be used almost as fast as it recharges, so I can't run Confuse-TF-Confuse-Burst-Snipe and still fit in occasional Power Build-Up, Hasten, and Domination without occasional lapses. Now, as far as actual screenshots or video evidence, frankly, I'm only putting out this information to help players who might consider this plan. I don't actually care enough to persuade people that I'll bother to run a video while playing just to document it. If you trust me and want to make a build for this, good for you. If you trust me but aren't interested, that's fine. And if you don't trust me, frankly, it's your characters, run them as seems most fun to you.

So... instead of lasers, these guys mounted Particle Projection Cannons?

I took Provoke on a Robots/EA MM originally, it's useful for keeping mobs in the AssBot's burn patches. But then I decided I'd have more fun with Group Fly and Fold Space... Provoke would still be useful to keep Bosses from running out of the burn patches, and Robots struggles at Boss-killing, so I could see keeping it over Group Fly. This is for soloing. For teaming, mobs should be controlled or Tanked in most situations, so it has a lot less use.

But... it's a toggle. Why would it lower DPS to activate it on a target between fights, and then after that just let it run? Allowing ally buffs to be used on oneself would be OP in many cases. Not necessarily all, but many... Empathy as a self-buffing set would give Empathy defenders the Regeneration of Regen Scrappers... plus mez protection, huge +Recovery and good +Defense. That's probably the most OP set. Now, if the argument would be to allow them to be used on oneself at between 1/4 to 1/2 of their normal buff values... that may not be OP. Then you'd get a multitude of buffs, but not at the same levels that Armor sets get. Which is fair because while Armor sets would have higher defensive values, they wouldn't have the versatility of being usable on allies (at double the power, too). I could see a discussion about powers like Spirit Ward being usable on oneself at a lower value. I'm not sure it's necessary since Sorcery seems fine to me now. But as long as it's a lower value, it wouldn't unbalance the pool.

My most fun two have been: Robots/EA. EA is so busy that there's always something to hit, even without taking any of the Robots attacks. Beasts/Kin. Kin is also busy, and the Beasts attacks are also good, so it's nonstop summoning of lots and lots of animals. Both are highly effective, with Bots/EA being very strong defensively, and Beasts/Kin offensively. Both benefit from good Endurance recovery powers.

For Frost Breath specifically, it has a 90% base chance instead of 75% (so effectively a 1.2 Accuracy multiplier). It's usually pretty accurate with Tactics and some set bonuses, by the time a character is high enough level to get it.

I think I calculated it to be about 6 HP/sec worth of regeneration on the average, if used as part of an attack chain... probably a bit less in practice with mixing in AoEs, Build-Up/Aim, Hasten, etc. Say 5 HP/sec... putting 2 in and getting 10 HP/sec of healing will be noticeable. But killing mobs faster will also be noticeable.

Generally, powers that have a fixed recharge will have a shorter recharge time than enhanceable ones. If they were to set up nukes with a fixed Recharge value, I would very much expect them to be lower than the original base recharge, but higher than the current "high-Recharge build" recharge, maybe 60-90 seconds. Definitely not 180.

1: you can probably get away with only 1 Accuracy in those guys... 1 Acc is generally good enough until you start to face significantly higher level mobs, so unless you're playing at +3 or so, with Supremacy added to help their chance to hit, they should be fine. However, you might want to consider 1 End Reduction in them. Although it may only be needed after you get the Level 32 upgrade, I think that Ninjas often have Endurance problems. 2: if you're going with a relatively expensive IO (generally 6 million plus), it's not that expensive comparatively to get some mismatched Acc/Dam/End from sets like Blood Mandate or whatever is available at Level 22, and get more total Enhancement value out of the first 5 slots. 3: you don't really have too many options here, it's just a question of Tier 1 or Tier 2, and of the two, the Tier 2s can afford to have slightly lower total Enhancement since they don't need as much Accuracy as the Tier 1s... they're a level higher, and they do have attacks with -Def debuffing. So I would want the Tier 1s to have all 6 slots on enhancing Acc, Dam, and some End Reduction. But, honestly, I'd try to sneak in more +Def IOs into the Tier 1s as soon as money is available.