Coyote

Since damage is king at high levels, it makes sense that players build towards that end... I'd rather proc-bomb an AoE Stun into a 240-damage blast with long recharge, than into a better Stun, because nobody cares if minions/lieutenants are Stunned for 15 seconds instead of, when they won't live to see the end of the Stun anyhow. If you try to nerf damage procs (other procs aren't a problem), in order to force players to slot powers "as they were originally intended", then you'll have even more of a balance issue where low-damage ATs are of little use on teams at high levels other than for their buffing. I don't have many Blaster builds that slot procs before slotting up damage, because the damage done by Blaster attacks are high enough compared to proc damage... whereas Controllers and Defenders (and MMs) will try to put in as many procs as they can squeeze rather than enhancing relatively weak base damage. Is this actually a problem, or actually a solution to the problem where we have low-damage ATs that feel irrelevant in a game of buffs and damage? My Dom builds also don't slot up many proc bombs.... yeah, they're nice. And Doms also like global recharge, and are squishy enough to want some +Defense set bonuses. Hard to combine those with a lot of proc-bombing. Overall, over most powers, I don't see a major issue. Specific powers like Creepers that, for various design reasons, activated procs at a much higher rate per minute than the proc was balanced for, can be nerfed for how procs work with them. That feels more appropriate to me.

Bodyguard doesn't work with Attack, but I believe it works with Go To, so you can position the henchmen in specific locations or formations and still get Bodyguard... just not have them attack a specific target.

It's also possible that it's a lag issue. It's also possible that it's a set issue... Symphony Control, for example, seems to have a lag in its effects, while Blind from Illusion takes effect immediately.

A very good combination for Plant is /Storm. /Storm puts out surprising +Recharge at higher levels (not so high now that the level at which you get Tornado & Lighting Storm is lower), once you get Nado and LS and put a Force Feedback proc in each. And putting out Freezing Rain on top of Confused mobs so they hit each other more often and harder is a great combination with Seeds, and with Plant's higher-damage AoE Immobilize keeping mobs from running out of FR.

Thank you for a great explanation and very useful details.

Daaaang.... I thought that they went up progressively, but only to the normal max, and I thought that the 55-57 levels were only on Incarnate content, to make up for the Incarnate level shifts. I didn't realize that the Respec Trials counted as Incarnate with regards to the new level max 😟 Thanks for the info 🙏

It's 120 now. I think it's comparable to attacks that have like 16 second recharge time with regards to damage. Epic pool attacks normally double the recharge, so a comparable epic pool attack would have about 30 second recharge time, if it were just a damage attack with knockup. Since it also has a self-teleport effect, doubling the recharge of this theoretical comparable epic attack, to 60 seconds, seems reasonable to me. Since it's 120 now, I think that halving the recharge is warranted.

Now, you've gone mad!

Is this WAI? Seems rather harsh for a respec trial if I have to kick level 57 Rikti bosses off the reactor core. 😨 I'd'a done it, too, if some meddling kids hadn't stolen some of the coolant belts... ran out of belts and the city is now a little bit more radioactive than it was this morning. 😁 My difficulty was set to +4/x6. Level 50+1 character, solo.

Yeah, I agree... not so much with the analysis of when it's available, with Hasten, a FF proc in the power itself, etc, but... still, if you're going to slot it so it's a decent attack, then it needs to actually be a decent attack. Doesn't have to be GOOD, but at least decent. It's thematically cool, and would be nice if it were more practically useful.

I endorse this topic. And the coyote form needs a "yips laughter" emote 😆

I know, Stormies often need special builds to manage Endurance, rather than other priorities. Which does make it tough for them since they don't have a self-heal so they want Regeneration, they want Recharge more than most sets, and they want Defense... it's tough balancing all that. And it depends on the budget, too.

Terra is normally an AV, so she wouldn't go down lower than an EB. I don't know how hard she hits as a EB or how tough she is, so I can't comment on how soloable she would be (I know she's soloable as an AV, but it's a rare build that can do it in the early 30s). However, what strikes me in this story is the "my endurance bottoms out fast" part of it. It feels to me that a build that can manage Endurance better would do a lot better, since you can then load up on only Luck inspirations for defense and survive better. So I think that it would be reasonable to look into solving the Endurance issue and hoping that solves the EB issue, rather than looking directly at the EB as a problem. I mean, if you bottom out against an EB, wouldn't that also happen in a tough fight, especially some of the new Homecoming arcs with a lot of ambushes coming in one after the other? Perhaps it would help to post your build here (or better, in the Defender forum), and asking for suggestions on how to manage Endurance? I like Storm/Storm more on a Corruptor specifically for their Endurance ATO, but it may be possible to make a solid build for a Defender that manages Endurance in a longer fight.

Named like the hero at the end of a Mayhem is a named unique NPC, or AV-level named?

I came back this fall after not playing for like 4-5 years. I'm exceedingly pleased with: - adaptive recharge made many AoE controls worth taking - getting Containment on Fears is nice... a bit niche, but nice on the characters that have Fear. - MMs getting their set bonuses passed partially to the henchmen is huge. Oh, and about that Robots nerf? Last time I had played mine, the Full Laser Burst from the bots took like 5 seconds to activate. If you go back far enough, Bots got buffed, not nerfed. - some great new sets for Controllers However, one major change was bad: they buffed Regen? Seriously? But "nerf regin" was one of the core features of every new expansion! How did we ever get away from that? 😆

I'm still waiting for when that's a viable power in-game. Right now, it's kinda nerfed.

Is it possible to set up a ring around your Domination power to show what stage it's at? First 80 seconds: green Next 5: yellow Last 5: red This would help perma-Doms time their power uses, and non-permas know when their Domination is about to drop. Using recharge timers to try to time it is often impossible, as many characters will have varying recharge rates due to Hasten drops, random activations on Force Feedback procs, and incoming debuffs.

Runaway's point about stacking +Resist values being of more benefit to henchmen who already have Resist values looks reasonable to me. Increasing HPs would benefit all henchmen equally. A counter is that boosting pet HPs effectively gives them "resistance" to Heal and Absorb, since now the same Heal or Absorb value will have a smaller percentage effect upon their HP bar.

Seriously suggesting that someone's account becomes limited, because some other player or players dislike how that player plays, and feel that they obviously can't control themselves, and need to be reined in by some portion of the community that disagrees with their playstyle?

1: /Poison is a hard set to like early, it's not very strong, and also it's very weak in terms of appearance and action. It doesn't strike you as doing much from the secondary. 2: Plant is good early, and stays good. It should be fine. If the animations aren't striking you as interesting, maybe you should switch the primary, but it shouldn't be for effect reasons. Also, if you're coming from other ATs, maybe you're looking for a more direct-damage focused set... Pyro and Symphony both are more direct and proc up nicely once you get access to AoE proc IOs. Plant is a lot more "use powers, let other things damage the mobs", since it relies a lot on Confusion and the damage from Creepers rather than its direct attacks. Pyro has very quick animations so it feels better attacking with it, and Sympony's attacks are front-loaded damage rather than DoT other than the Confuse, so they feel closer to a blast set early, while Plant is very much a "set your dots and controls into place and then chew some bubblegum" set.

I just want to solo this thread. With zero difficulty. 😜

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.