Maelwys

If you really want one key to fit everything in a single button press you could use two alternating keybind files: [c:\Temp\cohbind1.txt] KEY "+down$$-down$$powexec_location cursor teleport$$bind_load_file_silent c:\Temp\cohbind2.txt" [c:\Temp\cohbind2.txt] KEY "+down$$-down$$powexec_location cursor white dwarf step$$bind_load_file_silent c:\Temp\cohbind1.txt" Pressing the key triggers "teleport" and releasing it triggers "white dwarf step". So no matter what form you're in, hitting that key will teleport you.

Ehh; it's alright. Mercs are pretty well behaved + will tend to stay within range of the buffs from FFG and Triage Beacon etc. and if you stick a Panacea Proc in Triage beacon it'll take some of the pressure off your medic. The Mez Protection granted by FFG is a bit less useful if you're doing level 50 content (with Perma-Clarion) and Mercs don't get a huge amount of +Defence from their upgrades to stack with it... but +Def is substantially more useful than large amounts of +Res would be (assuming you're leveraging perma-serum). The base damage buffs from the Merc personal weapon attacks stack multiplicatively with the -Res from Acid Mortar; and you can avoid having to shoehorn an Achilles' Heel -Res into it because that proc performs so much better in your T1 pets. Poison Trap's -Regen debuff covers a lot of ground. Slotting Caltrops for slow and procs doesn't conflict with anything (even the Commando's LRM Rocket inflicts knockdown rather than knockback) As @EnjoyTheJourney notes above, the main headaches are the same ones that all /Traps MMs have - you're slow moving and the FFG is rather flimsy. You can kinda-sorta get around that with Group Fly and/or keeping Arcane Ward on the FFG... and whilst neither are necessary going /Traps tends to leave you with a fair number of extra power picks.

I suspect that your account may have a substantially fewer number of one-star ratings than the OP does.

Comparatively as far as I'm aware across the four Melee ATs it's only Brutes that are hugely out of place (on team content, but not necessarily "only at level 50"). However their inflated performance is coming from different places. Procs (with one notable exception) aren't the be-all and end-all. Tanker performance is inflated primarily due to their larger radius and target caps. They hit more things with each attack and so clear mobs faster. They have a slight edge in the number of Procs they can slot due to finding it easier to meet mitigation thresholds (which their ATOs also substantially help with) but if you removed Procs entirely Tankers would still woodchipper through mooks just fine. Scrapper performance is inflated primarily due to their Critical Hit mechanics and ATO placement. If you took Scrapper and Brute ATOs both away then they'd suddenly become roughly equal in terms of damage output. Procs make Scrappers better, but they don't scale with crits (except -res procs). Stalker performance is inflated due to their Critical Hit mechanics (which relies on a sensible attack chain and merely being on a team) - their "chance for hidden" ATO helps with this a little but does not pull the bulk of the weight. Their autorecharging build up ATO can drastically improve damage; but it becomes much less useful if they're already at the damage cap via Fulcrum Shift etc. Procs make Stalkers better but they don't scale with crits or build up; and Stalkers also tend to need to dedicate a few more enhancement slots and power selections to meet mitigation thresholds. Brute performance is inflated due to Fury and Procs. They have poor base damage but an extremely high damage cap. Because of Fury they respond comparatively poorly to otherwise powerful damage buffs (like Inspirations, Enhancements, Build Up, Forge, Assault Core etc let alone Fulcrum Shift) but they get the full effect out of damage procs and so will tend to Proc bomb their attacks even more than Tankers. Brute ATOs unfortunately are hot garbage and in practice add next to nothing in terms of additional damage output or survivability. So of the four, in my opinion it's Brutes that are currently gaining the most from (non ATO) procs. Scrappers lean into their ATOs the heaviest. Tankers and Stalkers leverage a mixture of their powerful Inherents and ATOs. Honestly, give Brutes decent ATOs and their performance gap with Scrappers and Stalkers would be non existent. But that doesn't solve the problem of each AT needing to carve out a different useful niche so that each of them becomes desirable on teams. (eg Even if a Brute was as damaging as a Scrapper but still didn't benefit as much proportionally from teammate damage buffs then why bring them along, since their higher HP and Resistance caps are mostly irrelevant...)

I doubt that's on porpoise...

I've precisely one character which has a Gaussian in Combat TP. It goes off extremely rarely, feels very much like the baseline 6.5% chance. Not worth it IMO unless you can't slot it anywhere else and you already have both +perception and a Winter's Gift unique. The combat teleport power itself however is definitely very useful for a melee toon. No thought required anymore to reposition yourself or navigate through tricky geometry or up/down stairwells - just tap your "teleport to the currently selected target" bind. Squishier toons may want to make additional binds to teleport up/down/left/right/backwards/whatever as it's a very fast animation + a good means of playing keepaway.

Since you're using the Sorcery Pool, you'll already have Translocation available via Mystic Flight. Setting up keybinds to temporarily toggle on Mystic Flight so you can Translocate to the likes of [The position of the currently selected target] and/or [The current position of your mouse cursor] via powexec_location will be a game changer for quickly bamfing around the battlefield even if you don't take Combat Teleport (which just animates a bit faster and requires a bit less faffing around with binds)

Whut? No. Read the second line of the post right above yours. Corruptors inflict more damage; whilst Defenders have higher numbers for Buffs/Debuffs and Healing. (and "Offender" is just a nickname for an offensive focused Defender...) There are also some support powersets (like Kinetics and Forcefield) where a Defender's larger buff/debuff numbers really doesn't matter because you'll still be hitting the caps regardless; and others (like Traps and Trick Arrow and Marine) where one or more of the powers deals damage that benefits from a Corruptor's larger base values.

IMO a Scrapper or Stalker could still do just fine as long as you lean into other means of stackable mitigation (like Shadow Meld). However if you swapped the Defensive set to Energy Aura instead then the dynamic would change drastically; and not just because Tankers don't get that set... 😄

Fighting (for Tough) and Speed (for Hasten) will likely be the best performing ones. Radiation Armor is a resistance based set, so the closer you can get to the S/L resistance cap (90% on a Brute) the better. It also has a substantial number of good long-recharge clicky powers (Particle Shielding, Radiation Therapy, Ground Zero) that will benefit greatly from as much additional +recharge as you can get. As for the 4th pool? Personally I always go with leaping for Combat Jumping... it's a solid place for a LoTG +7.5% Rech and gives solid unsuppressed movement; and will also help your fine control when you're flying as an additional bonus. You shouldn't really need any additional attacks; as Battleaxe is plenty good at both AoE and ST damage by itself. However it is very Endurance heavy. So stick a Theft of Essence proc in Radiation Therapy and your endurance issues will vanish. Your Epic/Patron pool choice isn't a huge deal... although Dark Mastery (for Tar Patch) or Fire Mastery (for Melt Armor) or Leviathan Mastery (for Arctic Breath) or Soul Mastery (for Gloom and either Dark Obliteration or Darkest Night) would be the "cookie cutter" picks. Spamming Axe Cyclone to draw things into range of your other AoEs is typically the way to go on Battleaxe; and IMO the best bang for your buck in that is going to be a Force Feedback +Rech and a Fury of the Gladiator -Res which you can slot from level 20+. I'd also very much recommend sticking slotting up Ground Zero for damage (leaning into procs) since it has such a high target cap. Radiation Therapy is usually also slotted with procs (both damage and utility) but using it for damage will be less of a priority when you're levelling up.

[Citation Needed] I don't see anyone in this thread who is fine with Brutes being suboptimal. What I see is two people who are both annoyed that Brutes have become irrelevant, with one stressing extreme caution in implementing big sweeping changes in case those changes make us end up in exactly the same situation but with a different melee AT now occupying the "suboptimal" position. Attaining balance is certainly possible, but it's not going to be straightforward.

This. IMO when you're soloing there's not a huge amount of difference, Brutes still underperform offensively but their higher mitigation caps can still be relevant and it's basically just the ATOs that are to blame for the Scrapper dominance, not the rest of the AT. However on teams... Tankers are valid because they're the AoE damage Melee AT. And they can tank harder stuff with minimal support. Scrappers are valid because they're the Single Target damage Melee AT. And they can still tank stuff, although choosing one of the secondary sets that has a Taunt Aura definitely helps. Stalkers can sometimes be more useful than a Scrapper depending on the team's goal and composition. They approach Scrapper levels of Single Target damage (especially if there isn't a Kin on the team since they can lean more into build up autorecharges) and they get stealth and some limited aggro control. They do just fine at [Elite] boss-killing but they can't really tank and their AoE damage is typically worse than a Scrapper. Brutes are currently what you pick if you can't get one of the others, or if you like the player and have a "pity spot" free. Want aggro control and AoE damage? Tanker. Want Single Target damage and aggro control? Scrapper. Want only Single Target damage and Stealth and/or don't have a Kin? Stalker. Want aggro control and lesser Single Target damage plus X? Brute. Realistically something needs to change so that we can find a decent value for X. Personally I still like the idea of making Fury and/or the Brute ATOs provide minor AoE effects - buffs to teammates or debuffs to enemies. But whatever it is it'll be a balancing act so as not to invalidate either Scrappers or Tankers.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mission:Tip_-_Wizard's_Weakness

Too right. My main rig's still using a 5700 XT from >5 years ago. (and even back then it was under £2.1k for the lot including a new 4x4TB disk external NAS box...)

It's definitely important to work out your accuracy requirements. And for regular "pets/henchmen" what Tidge says here is always true. But pseudopets will need evaluated individually. Most (all?) pseudopets will inherit their caster's current boosts whenever they get summoned; including the benefits of accuracy set bonuses and stuff like +ToHit from Kismet. However the remaining duration of those copied boosts tends to expire pretty quickly; and they don't get refreshed. Some pseudopets will do something useful immediately (like inflicting a long-duration debuff; or substantial damage) which will likely not require extra accuracy because their summoner's boosts will still be in effect... however other pseudopets function by "applying a new short-duration effect every few seconds" - which will need extra accuracy if you want it to remain relevant after the first few seconds.

A few things are catching my eye... Easiest quick boost would be to switch out the Karma KB protection IO (in Maneuvers) for a Steadfast one in Crab Spider Upgrade. After that you'll have a LotG 7.5% plus 4x Reactive Defences in Combat Training: Defensive and 3x LoTGs in Maneuvers - swap them around (Maneuvers wants +Def and +EndRed. Combat Training just wants +Def). Swap the Unbreakable Guard unique from Tough to Fortification (the former costs considerably more endurance). You're not getting much out of the 5th and 6th ATOs in Bayonet. The Dam/Rech and Acc/Dam/Rech could likely be swapped out for 2x Damage Procs. Frag Grenade's KB>KD could be an Overwhelming Force (which gives more +Dmg) instead of a Sudden Acceleration. Longfang's chance to hit currently isn't capped against +3 enemies. So that Shield Breaker proc might be better off being swapped out for an Acc/Dam Gladiator's Javelin unless you're getting additional +Accuracy or +ToHit from external buffs. Channelgun could squeeze the Decimation "Chance for Build Up" proc in without much negative impact to its own DPA. And it goes without saying to Boost all the appropriate IOs to +5 unless you really want to attune them for exemplaring; and to reduce local recharge enhancement as much as possible in any powers that you're slotting with procs. Arachnos Soldier (Crab Spider Soldier - Crab Spider Training)2a.mbd

On the one hand... it's a toggle; so proc activation rate will be garbage. On the other hand... Willpower tends to need all the help it can get. I imagine it'll depends how scarce your slots are.

Get the 'Troller to go DarknessControl/Kinetics so you can run with a DarkMiasma/DarkBlast Defender (or Marine/DarkBlast if you can canon it) With Fulcrum Shift + either multiple TarPatches or Whitecap+ShiftingTides it won't really matter what your other teammates are running. You'll be steamrolling.

Tanker Base MaxHP is 1874; so your Maximum Absorb is 1874. Have you currently got 1874 Absorb? If yes, then you can't get any more. If no, then congrats, any more +Absorb you get will stack with it. Just don't start doing utterly silly things like expecting that whenever a long-duration Absorb buff such as 'Particle Shielding' or 'Ablative Carapace' overwrites itself it'll behave sensibly. Rather than deleting any existing +Absorb that it's granting you BEFORE it applies a nice new fresh dollop of +Absorb; these powers attempt to apply that fresh dollop FIRST (e.g. hitting and getting reduced drastically by the cap) and THEN the old buff expires; leaving you a good bit short of the maximum. (Typically in practice you'll be getting hit enough that the previous absorb buff has long been whittled away + so this won't really matter; but still...)

It ramps up much faster in AoEs, that 65% chance for a Damage buff is per enemy hit. If you're just hitting one enemy a few times and then waiting until the stacks wear off to whack one enemy again... then yes, it won't get much opportunity to ramp up... but in that case why did you bother popping your Hybrid to begin with?

Of those two options, I'd assume Dark... but it'll be impossible to say for certain unless you tell us what the other ATs and Powersets are. And what your secondary is going to be will play a part too (will you be inflicting notable AoE -ToHit etc)

Since you asked this on the Procs thread already; linking my previous answer: Scrappers essentially always want Core. Tankers probably won't see a huge difference; but I'd still lean towards Core unless you're a SS with double-stacked Rage or constantly team with a Kinetic.

None of the above; annoyingly. It's based on the attack's Base Recharge and its Area Factor (Radius and/or Arc) and it doesn't take into account the damage scale of the archetype you're on - so it'll add an identical amount of damage on both Brutes and Scrappers. Generally speaking Assault Radial only works out better than Assault Core if you're a Brute/Controller/Defender (Corruptors are on the fence - it might become worth it if you have more AoEs and long-recharge attacks) or if you're planning to sit at the damage cap a lot of the time (see: Kinetics, Warshades, and Stalkers with a Gaussian proc in Build Up).

@Auroxis's post above dated 1st Jan is decent; so if you want a Bots/Marine to base a build around then use that one. Bots/Marine will be considerably safer (since you can softcap all your henchmen without much trouble) but less damaging than Mercs/Marine or Demons/Marine.

In the Corruptor subforum. (in this one even an an unoptimized /Marine will comfortably beat the pants off everything else, no contest)