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1) Players have to do enough damage (over time) to overcome the inherently high values of health recovery from the Regeneration GMs get (for being big sacks of HP) 1b) Players debuffing GMs helps 2) Players have to survive contact with the GMs (usually through Defense values) 2b) Players have to be able to "take punches (and controls)" #1 is typically done by players by summoning Lores. #2 is typically done by using Destiny powers. A solo player that can handle 1 and 2 doesn't need Incarnates. A couple of players with full slotting (so close to 50) that have both 1 & 2 covered can usually handle most GMs. Jack in Irons is somewhat interesting since his rework: It's got several melee AoE (so it can hit multiple opponents at once) and several different controls (so it can take some opponents out of the fight). Jack (in the open world) normally isn't a "level 50" monster, and during the Halloween event I believe it is the old (pre-reworked) Jack that can appear in high-level zones.

On my Tankers, if the Tank lacks protection and has an obvious gap in resistance coverage, I'll often try to add the Aegis 20% Mez/5% Psi resistance piece. This is about the only circumstance when I chase more mez resistance.

As this is a low-level arc, extra START vendor attacks may come in useful for many players working on Doorbuster here.

I like Beam Rifle on Sentinels better than I like it on Blasters. The disintegration mechanic favors lots of target-switching and the shorter range is really no problem for Sentinels. I don't have a SR Sentinel but my general experience with the AT is that the secondaries are wicked good and it is pretty easy to make an extremely survivable character with most any of them. A casual (Sentinel) comment: For whatever reason I found it pretty easy to end up passively hitting the MaxHP cap on my Sentinels, usually with the two accolades. SR has the Master Brawler +Absorb, so I would definitely leverage it. If the protection from Practiced Brawler is desired... I'd probably go a different route (Sorcery pool perhaps?)

In the open world, the XP rewards for Giant Monsters is pretty miserable IMO.

This is the main reason why I rarely pursue "caps" (for the purposes of this thread, "Defense caps") There are some amazing things to be done with characters, especially now (in the HC era) when we have gotten earlier access to so many different powers. I feel lucky if I can squeeze as many as four powers outside the primary and secondary before level 26... there is no way in this era I'd plan to burn 4 power picks on (for example) 3 from the fighting pool + Combat Jumping, just for a smidge more S/L resistance and some extra defense before level 30. IMO, that's old school thinking from when we had more 'empty levels' and needed to invest slots faster into the primary/secondary powers. I'm unpersuaded by arguments like "but you will take 10% - 100% more damage per attack!", especially on ATs where that might end up being less than +10 HP of extra damage, or the damage to the green bar is otherwise going to be completely mitigated by Absorb, Regeneration, self-healing, blah blah fishcakes.

Nova form supports a team by Blasting... I think the Nova form is a mediocre Blaster above level 20, but that's a different discussion. Below 16, they are top-notch Blasters. Dwarf form is a pretty solid tanker at all levels... its just that the Dwarf form won't get ALL the tricks available to other tank classes... but they do get pretty much all the tanking tricks to support a team. Self-buffs? Each of the forms gets an 'auto' power that can be further slotted and does buff them. Sure they can't trivially dip into power pools like non-EATs for powers to use outside of human form... but there are IMO precious few pool powers that actually support a team. If the argument is primarily "I want Hasten in Dwarf form"... Hasten *is* a click, so it isn't like that is off the table... and Hasten, despite the propaganda, is probably one of the least necessary powers to 'perma'/'auto'. Defensive/Resistance toggles from pool powers aren't nothing, but they aren't world-breaking... and any global pieces/set bonuses slotted in them will also work in non-human forms.

But I have Kick/Tough/Weave and Hasten by level 20!

I actually have done this (under the guise of "running lvl 40 arcs") to get level 45 IO recipe drops, used to get the 45/50 recipe crafting badges (and the rewards that go with them). The uncommon+ recipes are cheaper to craft when they are below level 50, but those drops are somewhat unreliable (compared to the commons, which we need lots of).

I'd be against the OP suggestion... but for complicated reasons relating to current ease of crafting and my personal willingness to make IOs available for cheap on the AH. Also: lotsa squeeze, little juice. Personally: I tend to craft common 25/30 and 45/50 recipes for the inventory space rewards. I almost always skip crafting the others; I'll post those (the first 50) recipes on the AH to earn more AH space. I find it personally convenient that 25/30 is when the common IOs (almost) meet/ (finally) exceed SOs, and players can spend a lot of time (solo) between 42-47 so 45s offer utility. 50 is 50 of course. I *think* I've got at least one character with a (incomplete) second level-50 build that is mostly populated with level 50 commons, waiting for me to get back to it.

The original sin of Inspirations, if there is one, is not the inspirations fault, it's that certain powers in the original game were inferior versions of inspirations, including some Armor T9s, and many original self-healing options. Long recharges, crashes, gatekeeping powers are all things that can be avoided by just using Inspirations.

IIRC, the OP was upset because they felt that "drive by" buffing was affecting their data parsing. I can recognize how this circumstance could be seen as a negative, but I find the request bordering on absurdity, especially with respect to "I want to stand by Ms. Liberty in peace!"... There is no shortage of other trainers, and there is a second trainer in Atlas Park. You can install a trainer in a SG base. At low-levels, I don't understand the desire for parsing logs The game is applying scaling boosts There are few powers, with few slots XP will bring levels, which also changes scaling It's incredibly easy to delete an unwanted buff, or to just play content "behind closed/instanced doors" If the data parsing is in "open world", I also don't want to hear about "kill stealing" or "stop debuffing my targets!" I don't do script-based data-mining, but I do try to remember to activate the "deny Mystic Fortune on myself"... frequently whatever I have been "gifted" doesn't matter, but there are a few circumstances where it has made a character's performance 'uneven enough' that I've come to not like it.

I agree with Senator @Troo Tar Patch has been crazy good for a long time, and nothing has changed for it. From my PoV, the only thing that has stolen some of the shine from Tar Patch is that since Homecoming allows either T1 or T2 to be taken at lvl 1, the power sets that wish they had something like Tar Patch at level 1 don't feel so bad any more.

Some time back the blue side version of SSA1 was adjusted so that the villain who appears in the final mission counts as a defeated villain. The equivalent SSA1 mission redside does not award hero counts the same way. I haven't tried defeating the +20 level heroes that appear at the end!

That was something of the point I was trying to make. All Masterminds used to be "active" (because... "keep henchmen alive"), some (in the era of easy defenses) can get away with being relatively "passive"... that is, stay in bodyguard mode and go stand toe-to-toe with an enemy. I think Marine excels at this, because it's debuffing/buffing/healing along with Shifting Tides... but the MM has to pick targets. It's not like Dark where (in the old days) simply standing near henchmen and spamming heals was a top-ish tier strategy. For a real eye-opening perspective on how MMs and Controllers are different, I suggest a Crabbermind. You don't get pets until late, but it really exposes the different mechanics in play that IMO gives players a good feel for the balance decisions between pets and henchmen... and how those different things feed into how the ATs play.