Maelwys

As @macskull says; IOs won't "age out" as you level up. That's a legacy thing for Single Origin Enhancements etc. and the prestige enhancements from the START vendor, Some special IOs will however lose their benefits if you exemplar down to more than 3 levels lower than the enhancement. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Set_Enhancements_with_Special_Effects Procs don't care about what level you currently are examplared down to. Globals do. So attune your globals (or just save money and buy them pre-attuned from the AH) LoTG +7.5% Rech is a Global. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements#Special_IOs_from_Sets

Darkest Night from Soul Mastery is a ranged toggle that applies Debuff ticks every 0.5 seconds to 10 foes in a 15ft radius around an anchor target. Each enemy debuffed triggers Gauntlet; so procs a 10ft AoE Taunt effect that can affect another 5 targets. Combined with Taunt (the power) it'll hold extremely reliable aggro at range. It's worth pointing out though that the one and only time I've ever found "hover taunting" to be worthwhile is whenever my old INV Tanker used to cheese the STF by slotting Web Envelope and Taunt with Range Enhancements and flying ~81ft directly above Ghost Widow.

Without seeing the build stats... (i) Atom Smasher should have more procs and an Achilles Heel -Res in it. (ii) Burn needs some Accuracy aspect. Keep the Fury of the Gladiator -Res in it. (iii) Irradiated Ground is pointless for procs on an Active build. Use it for Purple/Winter set bonuses unless you're already hitting your Global Accuracy and Recharge thresholds. (iv) Electrifying Fences and Ball Lightning slotting look a bit wonky - ensure they've got 95%+ Hit Rate vs +3 foes. Positron's Blast, Javelin Volley, Bombardment are the three main damage procs. Elec Fences can take Trap of the Hunter as well, Ball Lightning should have an Annihilation -Res. That's 4x Slots each. The other two should be some combination of Accuracy, Damage and Endurance Reduction (typically Lv50+5 Acc/Dam Positron's Blast + Lv50+5 Dam Bombardment) Personally I'd also lose the Leadership and Fighting Pools (you don't care as much about +Def on an Active build; and Concealment gives you more LoTG +7.5% mule opportunities); slot a full Preventative Medicine set in Healing Flames; and maybe take Wall of Force (procbombed + with a FF +Rech) from the Force of Will pool; depending on how your AoE chain is panning out with global recharge. And if you're doing anything other than Asteroid map farming (e.g. where enemies come to YOU) then Combat Teleport may prove useful. I find Fold Space a bit overrated; but if you leave it unslotted for Accuracy aspect (so just 2x Lv50+5 Rech IOs) then it can help pull multiple far-away groups to you and keep your Burn patches packed. Whilst Rad Melee isn't the most efficient powerset for active farming (ideally you'd want something with AoE KB to exploit Force Feedback +Rech); Burn + Mu Patron AoEs + reliable Achilles' Heel -Res activations will carry a lot of weight by themselves; and the second damage aura will at least tickle a bit. So you should be good there. Edit: Also I noticed you didn't take Consume. Even if you're running Ageless Destiny (most do!) it can still be decent if you have a spare power pick - it increases your MaxHP by a decent chunk, keeps your blue bar topped up; and can be useful as a set bonus mule or an occasional AoE procbomb or even a one-slot wonder (Acc/Heal HO).

You need to take either the T1 or T2; but you don't need to take Power Crash. I imagine Energy Punch is a "filler" there - Barrage can sometimes be useful for the Regeneration Debuff whenever you're fighting a GM... but vs everything else (including AVs) it's typically better to use your Energy Focus stacks to make Energy Transfer "quick" instead. On my own EM Scrapper; the attack chain is always TF > BS > ET (fast) > Snipe > BS > ET (slow or fast depending on TF crits) And the ATO2 proc sits in ET; because that way it has two chances to kick in and can potentially affect everything in the chain aside from the very first ET. EM needs help with AoE damage, but Power Crash is pants. Whirling Hands plus Epic AoEs and/or Secondary Powerset attacks (Ground Zero, Burn, etc) is the way to go IMO.

At least it gets 20% from Ailment resistance now. It's measly, but it's there... and it lets my Kat/Regen slot a few more Procs now instead of Winter sets (before getting the rest of the way via Ageless like a real boy...)

Aura of Madness/Insanity gets boosted and resisted by Magnitude, not by Duration. It has 0.5 Mag (unboostable) plus 2.0 Mag (boostable). You need it to be >Mag 3 to affect bosses, >Mag 2 to affect LTs and >Mag 1 to affect Minions. 2x Level 53 Acc/Mez HOs (+75.93% enhancement) will increase it to (0.5+(2.0*1.7593)) = Mag 4.0186 against even-level foes. 1x Level 53 Acc/Mez HOs (+38.30% enhancement) will increase it to (0.5+(2.0*1.3830)) = Mag 3.2660 against even-level foes. Therefore a Single Level 53 Acc/Mez HO will get it to the point where it starts affecting Bosses; assuming you're only fighting even-level foes. However typically at endgame, you will be fighting at +4x8 against Level 54 foes as a Level 50+1 character (so they'll be +3 to you!) 3x Level 53 Acc/Mez HOs (+97.23% enhancement) will increase it to (0.5+(2.0*1.9723))*0.65 = Mag 2.88899 against +3 foes. 2x Level 53 Acc/Mez HOs (+75.93% enhancement) will increase it to (0.5+(2.0*1.7593))*0.65 = Mag 2.61209 against +3 foes. 1x Level 53 Acc/Mez HOs (+38.30% enhancement) will increase it to (0.5+(2.0*1.3830))*0.65 = Mag 2.12290 against +3 foes. So without an Alpha Slot or set bonuses helping you out, you can never get it to the point where it'll be kicking in against +3 Bosses. Technically a T4 Intuition Radial Alpha Slot plus 3x Level 53 Acc/Mez HOs (+120.88% enhancement) will get it to (0.5+(2.0*2.2088))*0.65 = Mag 3.19644 against +3 foes. ...but that's only for HOLD aspect; not Confuse/Stun/Sleep/Fear. So "best case" you could get it to the point where it's able to occasionally hold +3 bosses. TL;DR - without set bonus/alpha slot assistance; the breakpoints are: Default Base Slotting: Will let you mez LTs at up to +1; and Minions at up to +4. 1x Acc/Mez HOs: Will let you mez Bosses at up to +0, LTs at up to +3; and Minions at up to +4. 2x Acc/Mez HOs: Will let you mez Bosses at up to +1, LTs at up to +3; and Minions at up to +5. 3x Acc/Mez HOs: Will let you mez Bosses at up to +2, LTs at up to +4; and Minions at up to +5. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "WTF Mael; just tell me how to slot the bloody thing!": For Mez purposes, you should really just stick a single Lv53 Acc/Mez HO in it and call it done. But it has poor base accuracy (80%) so unless you have a sizable chunk of global accuracy... I'd go with: And be aware that Mids' still thinks it's got 1.0 base accuracy instead of 0.8! In reality with the above slotting, my Stalker with 54% Global Accuracy is JUST capping their hit rate vs +3 foes.

As mentioned above, AFK Farming kings are now Brutes. The most efficient is a RadM/Stone (2x Damage auras, +Recharge and Brimstone procs. Rooted lets you easily hit >35HP/Sec HP; and Brimstone plus the +resist globals and a few Winter/Purple IOs will get you to the 90% Fire Resistance cap; so all you really need to worry about is Fire Defense and lots of global recharge!) FWIW whilst maximum kill speed isn't really a vital factor for AFK farmers... my own current AFK RadM/Stone Brute (which is pretty close to the build I posted above - it really just swaps Proton Sweep out for Energy Torrent and Vengeance for Infiltration; then shuffles some enhancement slots around in order to gain a bit more recovery/regen and a mere +2.5% extra global recharge!) tends to clear all the nearby mobs on a +4x8 Asteroid map substantially faster than the 10 minute cutoff. I have a run open as I type this, and I watched just to check. I did what I normally do: Toggles on, Atom Smasher on Autofire; then entered the map + leapt into the middle of a few nearby groups of mobs. Triggered my Judgement Nuke; toggled on Assault Radial Hybrid; summoned my Banished Pantheon Radial Lore pets (using powexec_location) and hit my bind to shift the pets into Aggressive mode; then finally popped Ageless Core Destiny and waited. The last foe that was aggroed to my toon died with about 4:20 left on the timer (although there were still two roaming mobs on the far side of the map). They did get "lucky" and levelled up mid mission so a Large Red Insp was active for part of the run; but that wouldn't have had a major impact on a Brute because of Fury. Edit: Second run, No level ups this time. All but one roaming mob deaded. 3:30 left on the timer. (No Base Empowerment/Temp buffs used to muddy the waters!) Edit: Third run. This time I treated the AFK-farming-built toon as an "active" farmer by spamming insps (but not combining them into reds); using my Incarnate Clickies on cooldown; using Energy Torrent as well as Atom Smasher and actually moving around. Entire map cleared with 4:50 left on the timer. For Active Farming; it's really now Brutes or Scrappers. Brutes have a slight advantage due to getting 2x large high-DPA AoEs in the Mu Mastery pool. Rad Armor got hit with the nerf bat and needs its slotting adjusted to let Radiation Therapy be even halfway good; but /Stone and /Shield and /Fire are all still fine. You can make a very reasonable farming Brute with any primary that has a Knockdown AoE for Force Feedback proc slotting (Super Strength; for example) plus one of the aforementioned secondaries and Mu Mastery. Scrappers have difficulty getting enough AoEs to chain together; so benefit from a primary that has more AoEs/Cones (e.g. Battle Axe, Claws, DB, Savage, StoneM, TW, War Mace) and/or Burn from Fiery Aura. I only have two Stalkers that can farm: an Electric/Shield and a Savage/Psi (and that's "Active" rather than "AFK" farming, obviously!). They perform decently in terms of kill speed, but the lack of a Taunt Aura can be very annoying... the Savage Melee one in particular becomes far more playable if I use Melee Radial Hybrid instead of Assault Radial Hybrid; which isn't ideal if you're after maximum damage output! Tankers can certainly still farm; and they have a much easier time reaching the AFK-farming survivability thresholds than Brutes... but they're substantially slower than Brutes now. And Rad Armor ones in particular will likely need their slotting poked at a bit in order to stay at all competitive. Also other non-melee ATs can still farm pretty well too. However Dominator efficiency took a major hit with the Plant Carrion Creeper Nerfs.

That sort of playstyle works just fine vs tough single targets (AVs) that can't fly. But to make it work against larger spawns of enemies you'll need specific AoEs from the Epic/Patron pools. Web Envelope from Mace Mastery (AoE Immobilize/Slow) or Darkest Night from Soul Mastery (rock solid ranged aggro control) are the easiest to work with on a Tanker or Brute. Scrappers can't apply a ranged taunt to multiple foes without the Presence pool (and even that's low duration and requires a ToHit check).

You forgot "Nerf Brutes" 😛 (hey, at least we're not still memeing "nerf regen" any more...)

FWIW, my Energy Melee Scrapper's chain very roughly gains about 29% extra damage output purely from the ATO2 being placed into Energy Transfer. (Part of that is because of the increased chance of 2x stacks from a "Critical" Total Focus; which more often than not will let me use "Fast ET" twice in a row; but still!) Before (Proc chance manually set to 0% e.g. "no ATO2 buffs active"): After: To my mind that is an insane amount of additional DPS from just one IO (and it's very likely still not quite "optimized"; since that toon intentionally sacrifices proc activation rate for recharge aspect to get the attack chain seamless without any incarnate/external sources of global recharge!) 🤯

AFAIK the "Regeneration/Recovery" bonus granted by VEAT's Conditioning inherent isn't actually granted by their inherent... instead it's coded as a +5% base value buff. Look at the Attribute Tables for a Widow or a Soldier and you'll see the "Base" value listed as 30% for Regeneration and 105% for "Recovery". Compared to all the other player ATs who each have a "Base" value listed as 25% for Regeneration and 100% for "Recovery". Unfortunately most of the buffs to regeneration/recovery out there (like Health) work off "Melee_Ones" which just adds a flat value rather than being influenced by those increased base values. So swapping the VEAT inherent to grant +5% MaxEnd instead of +5% Recovery (and the same for +MaxHealth/+Regeneration) would indeed scale a lot better. I had a quick look at my current VEAT pile and the closest to reaching the HP Cap is a Crab who sits at ~2208HP (about +18.5% MaxHP below the cap).

This. IIRC Endurance Cost was (for most toons) very much the main limiting factor in how quickly you could trigger attacks. And Recharge Time was a pretty big secondary factor. So unless you had a pocket Kinetics or Empath buffbot; you were SOL and had to fire off attacks much less frequently than their animation time limitations allowed. ...then they gave us Inherent Fitness; IOs, and Incarnates.

OK. It's time to Throw The Cat Amongst The Pigeons. Like most of us, I've played all the ATs. A LOT. And I like to think that I have a fairly solid grasp of CoX gameplay and most of its complex underlying mechanics (including those pesky IOs). But there are some RATHER GLARING (to me anyway) balance issues and performance problems and even a few sheer "WTF that's utterly overpowered/pointless!" things that spring to mind whenever I consider each AT and how its Inherent and its available ATOs improve (or clash with) that AT's typical role and/or playstyle. So I'm going to list what *I* think the state of each AT is, currently, and what *I* think could/should be done to improve matters. ... But before I get into it: (i) I realise a lot of people might disagree with some/most/all of my thoughts here; however I suspect that at least certain bits of what I highlight below may get a few people nodding... and I think that having a discussion about overall AT balance that doesn't focus on one particular aspect (like Blaster Nukes) or one particular powerset (like Super Strength) might be beneficial. This is more of an "Invitation for discussion and/or telling @Maelwys how wrong he is"; hence my putting it here in General instead of in the Suggestions subforum. (ii) I appreciate that some powersets could really do with being rebalanced (like Kinetic Melee) and/or are better on one AT than others (like Staff Melee). That's a discussion for another thread. (iii) ... Now, with that out of the way; here comes the flame-fodder: - [BLASTER] - Inherent: Defiance (Short-duration stacking damage buff for every power activated; T1/T2 attack from the primary and T1 attack from the secondary can be used whilst mezzed) ATO1: Blaster's Wrath (PPM damage proc) ATO2: Defiant Barrage (PPM stackable low-mag mez protection) Summary: IMO this AT is in a good place. The Inherent and ATOs notably raise its damage output and also help to reduce the impact of hostile CC effects without completely negating those effects. The ATO2 is "skippable" at endgame (due to Clarion Destiny) but otherwise can be particularly useful if slotted into one of the T1/T2 powers, so that they can be triggered whilst the Blaster is mezzed... however it only grants Mag1 protection per stack and the stacks expire fairly quickly. Also since the T1/T2 powers have a fast base recharge time, lower-PPM procs have a very low likelihood of activating in them. Recommendations: Increase the duration of each stack of the ATO2 proc (from ~10s to ~20s) and/or substantially raise its PPM chance. - [CONTROLLER] - Inherent: Containment (deal double-damage to enemies that are held/stunned/immobilized/feared; or that have been slept within the last 3 seconds) ATO1: Will of the Controller (PPM damage proc) ATO2: Overpowering Essence (PPM chance to summon a very short-duration pet with a PBAoE damage aura) Summary: IMO this AT has gotten substantially better recently (after i28p2's changes to allow Fear and Sleep effects to set up Containment) but their ATO2 is bad. Just like Dominator's "Fiery Orb" ATO2; the Controller ATO2's "Energy Font" pet spawns at your location (not your target's), has a slow movement speed and is extremely fragile. Therefore unless you're already within melee range of multiple foes it can take several seconds (of its 20s maximum duration) to actually start dealing any damage and it is very prone to getting one-shot. Recommendations: Tweak the ATO2 "Energy Font" pet to be immune to damage ("untouchable") and increase its movement speed. - [DEFENDER] - Inherent: Vigilance (30% Damage buff when solo, reduces by 10% per teammate. Endurance Cost Reduction when teammate HP bars are low) ATO1: Defender's Bastion (PPM PBAoE Heal) ATO2: Vigilant Assault (PPM PBAoE Absorb) Summary: The ATOs both add a useful non-damage-oriented effect; although their ATO1 is slightly overshadowed by the Corruptor ATO2 (which also grants some +Endurance in addition to +Health). Vigilance is a useful inherent whilst solo; however its effect whilst teamed is downright pathetic - essentially when teamed with at least 3 people it has no appreciable benefit unless the team is constantly sitting with less-than-full HP bars. Recommendations: Add +Recovery/Endurance to Defender's Bastion. Rework Vigilance's effect to let Defenders keep a little more of their current damage buff on medium-sized teams; and on larger teams have the endurance always apply instead of being HP-bar dependant (as the current implementation rewards Defenders that reactively heal and punishes those that preemptively buff). My suggestion would be to leave the solo damage buff at +30%; then for each teammate reduce that damage buff by 5% whilst adding a flat 10% Endurance Cost Reduction... capping out at 0% damage and +60% Endurance Cost Reduction on a full team. - [SCRAPPER] - Inherent: Critical Hit (5% chance to deal extra damage vs a Minion/Underling; 10% chance vs anything else. This is usually but not always double the attack's base damage; and unlike Stalkers there is no additional penalty for AoEs) ATO1: Scrapper's Strike (Global Critical Hit rate buff) ATO2: Critical Strikes (PPM chance to add +50% Critical Hit rate for a short duration) Summary: Scrapper damage is "spikey" by design. If the dice fall in your favour then you can get a constant string of critical hits; and the ATOs help make this more likely. However their ATO2 proc is very likely the most complicated thing in the game to "optimize". The buff window is short but doesn't cancel after the first hit; so a min-maxed Scrapper has to work out how to make that buff window appear frequently and also how to cram as many high-damage, low-activation time attacks into that window as possible. Animation Time Before Effect values; Arcanatime roundups; which attacks gain full benefit from Critical hits and which don't (including 'additional damage' combo effects and DoTs). It very much rewards detailed knowledge of the game mechanics and basic math skills; but unfortunately it means that the performance disparity between an "optimized" and an "unoptimized" Scrapper is like night and day. Recommendations: Make the ATO2 proc effect far less complicated; without overly reducing the AT's achievable average damage. My suggestion would be to have the ATO2 buff simply cancel after the first hit; and then increase the Scrapper inherent BASE Critical Hit chance by a small amount (e.g. 5%) to compensate. The goal here is to lower the current drastic performance disparity between an endgame Scrapper being piloted by a regular Scrapperlocking button masher; and that same Scrapper being piloted by someone with OCD and a spreadsheet. - [TANKER] - Inherent: Gauntlet (AoE Taunt effect when attacking targets. AoEs have a larger radius and can hit additional targets) ATO1: Might of the Tanker (PPM stackable Damage Resistance buff) ATO2: Gauntleted Fist (PPM Absorb) Summary: The Tanker ATOs are, IMO, both in a good place even though neither ATO increases Tanker damage output. The ATO1 proc in particular is very effective. However Gauntlet is IMO a bit lacking. The recent changes in i28p2 drastically decreased Tanker AoE damage potential - Cones are no longer wider/longer and cannot hit more targets; AoEs are still a bit wider and can hit more targets but in practice the overall damage output of a Tanker vs 16 targets is now less than a Brute hitting 10 targets. The Developers have stated an intention for the Tankers to be "AoE Specialists" amongst the melee ATs but currently they deal less AoE damage than the others; so the most they're able to do is tag a few extra enemies with a "Taunt" effect. Recommendations: Recent i28p2 adjustments have reduced Tanker AoE damage without notably reducing their Single Target damage. However the Devs have stated a design intent that Tankers should be "AoE specialists among the melee ATs". If "AoE specialists" is intended to refer to "damage output" then IMO their 'overcap' damage reduction should be lowered a bit (so that damage on additional targets is reduced by at most -50% instead of -66%) in order that a Tanker will deal a little bit more damage vs 16 targets than a Brute does vs 10 targets. If it is instead intended to refer to "aggro control" then IMO there should be an increase to the duration of Gauntlet's AoE Taunt effect and/or the Tanker aggro cap (say ~24 instead of 17) in order to allow Tankers to quickly claim aggro over a Brute and/or maintain aggro control on more enemies. In addition; I would also suggest taking another look at Tanker Cone attacks. A number of Tanker powersets have multiple Cones and fewer pure AoEs - so IMO allowing cones to be widened by the Tanker Gauntlet once more (even if it's just "up to a certain arc size"; like ~120-180 degrees) and keeping their base damage the same as it is currently may make sense (perhaps their target cap could also be increased and appropriate "overcap" damage reductions introduced as well; but even just having Cones gain any benefit at all from the "Tankers are AoE specialists" notion would IMO be appreciated here!). Finally... IMO there is also an issue with Brutes and Tankers both currently occupying (and constantly clashing with each other over) the same "niche" on teams, which I'll cover in the Brute section below. - [BRUTE] - Inherent: Fury (stacking damage buff; effectively maxes out at roughly 85 Fury which is a +170% damage buff. Single Target Taunt effect when attacking targets) ATO1: Brute's Fury (PPM increased Fury generation) ATO2: Unrelenting Fury (PPM stackable increased Regeneration and Recovery for a short duration) Summary: The Brute Inherent is in a good place. However both their ATOs are total rubbish and a complete waste of an enhancement slot - chasing the Set Bonuses is IMO the only reason to use either of them. Fury generation is already fast and caps out at ~85 regardless of the ATO1 proc; and the +regeneration/recovery granted by the ATO2 proc when the stacks are maxed out provides less benefit than a Panacea Proc in Health. In practice Brutes are one of the "best" ATs whilst levelling up; especially whilst the player is short of enhancement slots, because Fury reduces the need to prioritise slotting their attacks for damage aspect. However after IOs they become overtaken by Scrappers in terms of damage output (and DRASTICALLY overtaken in the case of an optimized ATO2-using Scrapper). Survivabilitywise Brutes sit in a "sweet spot" between a Scrapper and a Tanker. Due to their inherent Taunt effect they are also almost as good as a Tanker at aggro control; and currently due to Tanker's recently nerfed AoE damage output (see: i28p2) they have begun to become the most popular endgame Tanking AT. Unfortunately a lack of clear Developer Intent makes it very tricky to propose a solid balance for Tankers, Scrappers and Brutes. In practice; providing that aggro control is sufficient, whichever of these three ATs can inflict the most damage is always going to be the optimal choice for filling an endgame Tanking role. (Disclaimer: whilst all Scrappers have access to "Confront" and some have Taunt Auras... traditionally it is very unusual in CoX for a Scrapper to fulfil a team "Main Tank" role. At most they might situationally hold the aggro of an AV or "off tank". However I am aware of a few cases, including in 4-star "hard mode" runs, where a Scrapper Tank is now seen as the preferred option because they can contribute substantially more on-demand damage than a Brute whilst maintaining a sufficient level of aggro control for that particular scenario!) IMO Brutes need a Niche on a team that doesn't simply boil down to "keeping aggro whilst dealing damage". Because sometimes the damage a Brute deals will be higher than a Tanker; and sometimes it'll be the other way around (depending on whether Tankers have been buffed or not recently!). CoX having two melee ATs that are effectively both continually competing for exactly the same niche on a team is less than ideal. Tankers having better Survivability than Brutes is mostly irrelevant on mature teams; so unfortunately that's often a non-factor. Recommendations: Overhaul both Brute ATOs to allow each to provide a mechanically worthwhile boost. And give Brutes a better niche on teams so that Brutes and Tankers are not always competing over the same role of "Survivable Aggro Magnet that deals the most raw damage". I've suggested a few ideas for this niche separation previously - letting Tankers hold the attention of more mobs (via an increased aggro cap); giving Brutes an ATO which grants a PBAoE damage buff based on their current Fury; etc. however the exact shape/form it might take doesn't overly matter. The main thing IMO is that something definitely needs to stop the current situation where as soon as Brute or Tanker damage overtakes the other (due to AT buffs or nerfs) that AT becomes "always the best choice" on teams and the other AT effectively gets dustbinned. - [CORRUPTOR] - Inherent: Scourge (scaling chance to inflict double damage once the target's current HP drops below 50%) ATO1: Malice of the Corruptor (PPM damage proc) ATO2: Scourging Blast (PPM PBAoE Heal and Endurance) Summary: IMO the Corruptor ATOs are in a good place; and Scourge can potentially be a very powerful inherent. However it often drastically favours fast-cycling lower-damage-per-hit powers (especially "Rains", which perform multiple "checks" of the target's current HP over the course of their duration and so begin benefitting from Scourge as soon as it drops below the 50% threshold) over single-hit-high-damage powers like traditional AoEs and Nukes (which only check the target's HP once; and in practice typically trigger before the target has taken any noteworthy damage at all). This means specific powersets (Ice Blast, Fire Blast, Water Blast) tend to benefit from Scourge more than others. Recommendations: Realistically Corruptors are one of the most powerful classes so I'd be loathe to buff them; but PERHAPS it'd make sense to alter the Scourge chances for non-rain AoEs so that they gain a small % chance to inflict Scourge regardless of the target's current HP; or maybe even scale it based on the number of teammates. In order that Ice Blast Corruptors aren't always the automatic Gold Medalists. - [DOMINATOR] - Inherent: Domination (long recharge Clicky buff that refills your endurance bar, provides mez protection and grants additional CC effects for 90s, and a ToHit buff for 15s) ATO1: Ascendency of the Dominator (PPM stackable Damage Buff) ATO2: Dominating Grasp (PPM chance to summon a very short-duration pet with a PBAoE damage aura) Summary: IMO this AT's inherent is amazingly good (it's a very rare Dominator player who doesn't strive for enough Global Recharge to make Domination permanent) and their ATO1 is decent (if a bit attack chain dependant); however their ATO2 is very bad. Just like the Controller's "Energy Font" ATO2; the Dominator ATO2 "Fiery Orb" pet spawns at your location (not your target's), has a slow movement speed and is extremely fragile. Therefore unless you're already within melee range of multiple foes it can take several seconds (of its 20s maximum duration) to actually start dealing any damage and it is very prone to getting one-shot. Recommendations: Tweak the ATO2 "Fiery Orb" pet to be immune to damage ("untouchable") and increase its movement speed. - [MASTERMIND] - Inherent: Supremacy (PBAoE Damage and ToHit buff for Henchmen. Mastermind Henchmen can be issued orders and when in "Defensive Follow" or "Defensive GoTo" mode, a portion of any damage inflicted on their master will be redirected to each henchman) ATO1: Command of the Mastermind (Global PBAoE buff to "AoE" Defense for henchmen) ATO2: Mark of Supremacy (Global PBAoE buff to Damage Resistance and regeneration rate for henchmen) Summary: IMO this AT is in a very, very good place. Whilst I personally do not like taking the ATO1 global (I prefer focusing on all positional defences rather than just one) it definitely has a place on many builds. The only "generic" issue I have is that the T1 and T2 pets spawning at lower-levels compared to the MM themselves means that the Purple Patch hits them very hard whenever you're fighting enemies higher than +3 to you. Recommendations: Allow the T1 and T2 henchmen to spawn at even-level to the MM themselves in all content. The base damage of their powers could be reduced by ~20% and ~10% to compensate if required, but realistically these pets already spawn at even-level to the MM in Incarnate content, so it's likely that just leaving their damage scalars as-is will not overly upset things. (Some specific Primary powersets could also do with a balance pass; but that's beyond the scope of this thread!) - [STALKER] - Inherent: Assassination (When "hidden" - Critical Strike 100% activation for Single target attacks and 50% for most Cones and AoEs. When NOT hidden; 10% base Critical rate plus 3% for each party member. Primary powerset attacks also grant "Assassin Focus" stacks which drastically increase the Critical hit rate of Assassin's Strike; becoming guaranteed with 3 stacks) ATO1: Stalker's Guile (PPM chance to enter "hidden" state. Can activate at most once every 10 seconds) ATO2: Assassin's Mark (Global that gives most attacks a chance to make the "Build Up" power recharge) Summary: Stalkers are IMO in a rather good place. Their Assassination inherent looks complex but in practice works well to boost their damage beyond the first whack from a hidden state (especially whilst teamed). Their critical chance is reduced for AoEs and Stalkers in general also have less AoE abilities and Cones available to them; so they tend to be better at Single Target Damage - IMO combined with the Stealth and Placate mechanics it makes their playstyle sufficiently unique that Scrappers and Stalkers are both valuable to a team without always stepping on each other's toes. Their ATO2 is powerful and does not require any complex calculations or build tweaks. Their ATO1 is powerful but has an annoying lockout period that means you really need to plan the duration of your attack chain cycle to get the most out of it. Recommendations: Lose the 10s lockout period on the ATO1 proc; in order to reduce the need for a "perfect" attack chain cycle. - [SENTINEL] - Inherent: Opportunity (Slight resistance to ToHit and Perception debuffs. Bar builds up over time and when >50% full "Vulnerability" can be triggered, which inflicts a large damage resistance debuff, defense debuff, status effect resistance debuff and stealth debuff for 15s) ATO1: Sentinel's Ward (PPM Absorb) ATO2: Opportunity Strikes (PPM increased Opportunity generation) Summary: Sentinels have come a long way since their original implementation; and their inherent is now decent; but their ATOs are not. Recommendations: Change the ATO1 to work off your current "maximum HP" rather than be a flat value; and raise its activation chance (the Tanker ATO2 is very similar but uses MaxHP and is a substantially higher PPM). The ATO2 should either have its increased Opportunity generation value drastically raised or become a Global (can be triggered by all attacks) rather than a PPM (can be triggered only by the attack it's slotted in) so that is is less dependant on specific power placement and/or attack chain cycles. - [PEACEBRINGER / WARSHADE] - Inherent: Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustenance (Buffs to Damage, Damage Resistance, CC protection and recharge debuff resistance based on the Archetypes of their teammates) ATO1: Kheldian's Grace (Global that applies a short-duration buff to damage when in Nova Form, damage resistance when in Human Form; and MaxHP when in Dwarf Form) ATO2: Essence Transfer (Global that grants most attacks a flat 18% chance to heal you) Summary: Kheldians are broken. There is a well-known exploit (which tends to be referred to as "Changeling") that lets them drop out of one form into another and trigger a new attack before the previous attack finishes animating. However WITHOUT leveraging that exploit; their damage output can IMO be generously described as "mediocre". Many players do not enjoy taking all (or even any) of the additional non-human forms; and so will not gain the full benefit from their ATO1. The Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustenance inherents can be powerful but unfortunately both require a specific (and different!) team composition to really shine. Recommendations: Rework Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustenance so that it is less dependent (or not at all dependent) on specific team compositions. Prevent the "Changeling" exploit (my suggestion would be to prevent shifting out and then back into the same form immediately - a lockout period of ~5 seconds before being able to reuse the same form should do it!) whilst at the same time adjusting the AT's damage scalars upwards in all forms (particularly Human) and reviewing some of the animation times (e.g. Incandescent Strike; which is effectively Total Focus with a 24% longer cast time) - these ATs should IMO cap out at very roughly the same average damage ballpark as a Brute. Allow Epic and Patron Pools. Amend the ATO1 so that if Dwarf Form and/or Nova form are not taken then a smaller bonus is granted to the other form(s). - [ARACHNOS SOLDIER / WIDOW] - Inherent: Conditioning (Regeneration and Recovery bonus - this is baked into the AT's base attributes and it's a flat +5% to each.) ATO1: Dominion of Arachnos (PPM Terrorize and Damage debuff) ATO2: Spider's Bite (Global that grants most attacks a flat 12% chance for additional Toxic damage) Summary: VEATs are very powerful; particularly since the changes to Fortuna and Night Widow Lv1 powers in i27p7. Whilst their Inherents aren't mechanically striking; they do slightly increase overall sustainability (VEATs tend to gobble endurance) and their various specialization trees each provide Lv1 Auto abilities that are effectively more powerful inherents ('Fate Sealed', 'Pain Tolerance' and the Bane and Wolf spider 'Armor Upgrades'). Their ATO2 is EXTREMELY good. The ATO1 provides a useful damage debuff; although the Terrorize only affects minions. Recommendations: IMO not much is needed here. Perhaps tweak the ATO1 proc so that it effects Lieutenants out of the box (Mag3 rather than Mag2) or so that it can stack with itself rather than overwriting. And MAYBE buff the "Conditioning" inherent slightly so that it provides a larger boost to Regeneration/Recovery (+10% base rather than +5%; for example). I would also quite like to see them being given access to Epic Pools - having only Patron Pools might be thematic; but more choice is always good. Really though the main thing is that I think they need some kind of Recovery/Endurance buff to be available to them (likely via their Inherent or Epic Pools) in order that optimized VEATs (especially Widows!) don't need to rely so hard on Ageless Destiny. "Crabberminds" not having control over their pets is IMO a feature, not a problem! (Heh-heh-heh-hee-hee-hee-heh-heh-heh-heh...)

*Enemies proceed to stand back up again because the numpty had their Nuke slotted for KB distance instead of damage aspect (let alone any procs) and never bothered to pop Aim+Build Up (with a Gaussian proc in it) before nuking* Melee: "Great, so now we still have to kill them slowly but they're scattered over half the map!" Tank: "And all of them want to eat the Blaster's face off because I've just taunted a fresh set of 17 enemies. This is what we call a self-correcting problem."

It grants a scaling 0%-10% resistance. But it also grants a flat constant 3% resistance. It will therefore end up providing between 3%-13% resistance depending on your current HP. (Note the "13/100" instead of "10/100" in its CoDv2 entry)

FWIW Endurance Drains and Recovery debuffs (mainly sappers) routinely annoyed my original i6 /Regen Scrapper at higher levels. Sure; since then MoG has become useful... but the +20% Recovery debuff resistance from Quick Recovery plus another +20% Recovery debuff resistance and 20% Endurance debuff resistance from Ailment Resistance allows a Regen to be much less likely to "bottom out" via Endurance drains. I make the achievable Regeneration debuff resistance right now +20% from Fast Healing, +20% from Ailment Resistance and another up-to-45% from Reactive Regeneration. That's 95%; AKA 5% short of the cap. If you run Ageless Radial then yes; you can drop FH and still hit >96%; but personally I'd probably sooner drop Second Wind or Reconstruction.

I think this point is worth highlighting. Most of us here are capable of critical thinking and considering the other person's point of view; or at least (occasionally) reading and processing what another person wrote. On PUG teams there is no such prerequisite. I did rather a lot of PUG Master-of-Statesman;s Task Forces back in the day. Untamed Knockback and Repel affecting the Lord Recluse buff pillar repair crews (reviving previously destroyed pillars) was a royal PITA and caused several total failures. To be fair, that's still by far a footnote in my CoX gameplay experience though. Most of the time I just get a little annoyed by having to spend more effort chasing down mobs in order to melee attack them (whilst I can just manually follow them or trigger a Combat Teleport; doing so can mess up my careful cone positioning so can be a slight PITA) or by having AoEs and patch powers affect less targets (which admittedly can frustrate me a bit more depending on how long those powers take to recharge. Fine, they're your problem now Captain Pinball - I'll run three mobs ahead...)

Instant Healing.

IIRC it's that way intentionally because of issues "resetting" the pet's AI - whatever attack they might be in the middle of inflicting or recieving needs to complete fully and the henchmen reach a state where they're not attacking anyone... THEN they can build their aggro list up again based on the new orders. In practice I'll still need to tap Follow-Passive occasionally to get them to heel, but it's not anywhere near as bad as on live (whenever you could switch from Attack-Aggressive to Defensive-Goto... and at least half of the stupid feral kittens would either outright ignore you or start doing cricket runs between the goto point and the enemy they were previously engaged with!)

It's rather obvious: "Stop scattering mobs". Position themselves better, Pick their targets more carefully, Slot KB>KD IOs, Wait for (or themselves use) an AoE Immobilize. Heck... even something as simple as jumping can often drastically cut down on scatter distance. Again, I very much realise that KB can be used "for good" - to clump mobs rather than disperse them. However AoEs with a less-than-100% percentage chance to cause KB inevitably cause random scatter unless the caster is flying directly overhead or using KB>KD. To flip it around: I don't think it's reasonable to expect multiple teammates to adjust their playstyle to suit a "bad" knockbacker. Single Target Ranged damage dealers might not overly care... but anyone with melee attacks, AoEs and "patch" effects can be negatively impacted by mob scatter. On many toons it can feel eerily similar to having to tolerate a disruptive co-worker who keeps sabotaging the group project.

If/when I'm on a melee toon and someone repeatedly punts half a dozen mobs out of my PBAoEs, you better believe that someone has just claimed ownership of those mobs. So I'll happily just leave them to it and go tackle the next pack... 🙂

For me it's a question of disruption. Combine a knockback user and a knockback hater together on a team and only one of those parties is disrupting the other and spoiling their fun. (And yet when the person being disrupted asks the disruptor to stop - which yes, would potentially disrupt their enjoyment - they're apparently the the bad guy because they were polite about it and asked first?) I get that knockback is a part of the game. But lots of knockback effects have become knockdown over the years because it's simply not mechanically effective to throw logs away from the woodchipper. There are still many KB powers left in specific powersets but the Devs gave us non-unique KB->KD IOs to let the players of those sets choose. So personally I'd just like there to be less opportunity cost for someone who wants to make that same choice across multiple powers. If Person A's playstyle is overly disruptive to Person B, then there's a problem. It's on the Team Leader to listen to the whinging complaints and ultimately call the shot... but I've personally observed a great many instances over the years where multiple team members have become so annoyed by the actions of one person that most of the members just drop (and often immediately reform, without the offender or the leader). I think I mentioned "Intangibility/Cage" powers earlier, and they're by far the worst offenders I can remember. But Speed Boost (slotted for run speed) and Team Fly/Team Teleport before Null the Gull was a thing are in there too... so it's definitely not just down to bad usage of AoE knockbacks and Fold Space. (And if someone's determined to troll then spamming an AoE Immobilize isn't likely to stop them...)