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The above quote is my rational thought on the subject. My emotional reaction is that the proposal is extremely lazy, as a few hundred million inf is definitely not hard to come by. Farming isn't even the way I would recommend (although it is easily available) as the market can make the inf for you when you aren't even logged in to the game. Once you have the first 10K inf it is pretty straightforward to get the next 1M, and once you have 1M the jump to tens of millions is easy. Depending on the market choices you make governs how fast you can get hundreds of millions, but from my experience with *very* low-levels of AH use I've been able to double 200 million inf in about a week on low-level toons as they level up... and I am an extremely casual user of the AH. In less than a year of simply playing the game and playing the market my SG base is already loaded with IOs (ATO, PvP, common useful sets) that have been passed around different toons (as they level or simply try things out) or are just waiting for builds. Heck, I'm at the point of extra catalysts, unslotters, converters, and merits I will pull some 50+ characters out of mothballs just to craft/convert/catalyze/whatever ATO/PVP sets for try-out characters at lvl 7... so I suppose I am in the category that could 'easily' try to negotiate with the OP on the basis of the original proposal and I simply don't think would be worth my time. I'm a little surprised at the 1 billion inf estimate for any (single) build. I haven't maxed out all the ATs, (definitely no brutes or blasters) so I'm willing to learn something. I have a few builds that I've kitted out extensively; one is fully kitted in *both* the first two build slots (different power choices) and I think that one is probably somewhere around 600 million. If ATO sets are costing that much, then I suggest Pack/Converter roulette. Another note: if the OP is including things like Boosters and Hami-O's in the estimates, those aren't things someone else is likely to provide 'at a discount' just because someone thinks the AH prices are too high.

I think the primary issue with PvP Gladiator's Net is that the same 7.5% recharge bonus is available from Basilisk's Gaze for 1 fewer slot. The Proc isn't terrible, but it is Lethal damage. I only have a few different characters with Primary set holds, and for their Holds I'm either franken-slotting or leaning into the ATOs. On the secondaries with hold effects, I usually don't have enough slots to dive deep into hold IOs.

That was my initial leveling attack chain even as well. If you are committed to staying the same level as teammates who don't play as often, I recommend using Ouroboros (if you have access to a pillar) to do some low level arcs for 2xInf and merits, so that you can play the market. Things will be easiest if you can craft recipes as well. All builds benefit from IOs, and as soon as you can help yourself with the Endurance recovery the more fun the build will be.

I was using a Fortunata. Maybe it is because Caltrops have to hit, and melee defenses are through the roof? In any case, my toon was absolutely not bothered by Caltrops. I should note that aside from the one-off Slow resist, I don't have Winter Sets in use, and few/none of the set bonuses I have provide explicit Slow resistance.

I won't knock anyone's choice of Mystic Flight, but my Fortunata build (and I assume other players as well) almost completely shrug off the Slow effect of Caltrops. (The no Jumping is still there). I was running 0x8 missions against the Sisterhood of Caltrops (Indigo's arc?) with no problems. One note about Caltrop users (applies to all enemy pseudo-pets): Confusing the caster turns the pet against the villains. You won't be affected by it and all villains will! Aura of Confusion is particularly fun when enemy caltrops are in play.

It is definitely possible to routinely get faster times (at +0/0x8) without Superspeed (but with Ninja Run), and I find it depends on: 1) Build: Having (pb)AoE to hit as many during an alpha strike as possible. 2) Build: High defense (to ignore Tsoo attacking you during mission 3) 3) RNG: The shape of the first map (I groan when I see one of the twisted 'spaghetti noodles') 4) RNG: Runners in missions 1 (especially) and 2 (at least in mission 2 you can usually go fight another group while you wait for the runners to come back) I've had some VERY bad luck with runners in those first two missions. Tsoo Sorcerers an Guardian Spirits will come back pretty quickly but those chicken legs were made for running! I suppose turning down the team size for those first 2 missions would lead to better times as it can be difficult to immediately see which groups to defeat at the end of mission 1 (for large team sizes), and minimize the chance of runners. Often I will just speed mission 1 and then treat the other missions as farms (for the recipe drops), but sometimes it is nice to challenge personal bests. I don't bother with the team teleporter during the arc, I suppose it could shave some travel time before the first mission or between the second and third. Some things I found helps my times is to set up and use (Lore) pets during the not-quite-cut-scene dialogue at the end of mission 2. They provide extra attacks that are quick to catch the villains from those 2 spawns I may miss with my AoE. Another trick is to turn off Ninja Run at the end of mission 4 when descending to the final battle, as otherwise I get stuck on the 'Mot guts'. I always choose to 'save both', since its essentially a single click (of an AoE) that is likely to drop all the villains. Good luck, I am sure you can do better!

The VEAT Widow builds wave as the pass by.

As you will be starting with essentially minimal access to (attuned) IOs, and until the free respec you only have the two initial pools This is interesting. If you attack too quickly while running toggles, Endurance will be problematic. I would recommend starting like this: lvl 1: Widow Training - Poison Dart (probably a safer bet than Swipe, and this will be the only ranged attack for a while) lvl 1: Teamwork - Combat Training Defensive lvl 2: Widow Training - Swipe lvl 4: Teamwork - Tactical Training Maneuvers lvl 6: Sorcery - Mystic Flight (not always my preferred travel power, but it is relatively low endurance and offers Teleportation as well.) lvl 8: Widow Training - Follow Up lvl 10: Teamwork - Indomitable Will lvl 12: Widow Training - Spin Here is where I evangelize for the Presence Pool. The build so far has an attack chain that will deplete you of Endurance. You will find that you are probably not going to be running both toggles all the time. The Presence pool offers a good amount of control options which you will not otherwise have until your respec. The Presence Pool controls are relative light on Endurance, IIRC. lvl 14: Presence - Provoke (If your team has a 'working' Tank, or a Scrapper/Brute that wants to have Taunt maybe you can choose Pacify...but Pacify is only good to get you out of trouble) lvl 16: Presence - Intimidate (Your first control power! It is single target, but it is something that your team may find valuable) lvl 18: Presence - Invoke Panic (A PBAoE control! That you can use while in Melee!) lvl 20: Teamwork - Tactical Training Leadership The team-imposed limits on buying/crafting IOs will make going slow for everyone on the team. Fear IOs are very inexpensive however! I would slot your drops as soon as you get them, keeping in mind that the dropped enhancements will wear out quickly.

Fair enough, but I was thinking of resistance across the entire faction and not just boss classes. There are several factions with bosses that have a higher level of resistance to certain controls.

I can't think of any faction with 'native' resistance to Holds, but there are a few other control sets that don't work on certain factions. From memory, Nemesis (and Rularuu?) have some base immunity to Confuse. Certain Longbow grant immunity to the minions from Confuse as well, and Malta robots have a large Magnitude resistance to Confuse. War/Werewolves have such a large Magnitude resistance to Immobilize that I don't think I've ever observed one stuck... possibly because they've run away already. They have no resistance to Holds or Stuns.

"Sleep Walking" ~= Confuse

One of the more annoying features of the AMD Radeon RX 560 I experienced was that the AMD software wanted to do a LOT more than it should have, instead of only having the option to run the graphics. For example, the AMD drivers and software interfered with the standard audio features of my PC. There was no way to suppress this either! One of the surest ways to trigger issues with the AMD card was to have audio running independently of any audio associated with a game. I really cannot recommend AMD products for windows users.

I'm playing around with my Fortunata build right now, removing Total Domination. I had put TD in the build quite late (lvl 38), so the following build moved up Aura of Confusion to lvl 38 and added Mu: Static Discharge at lvl 44. This added more AoE DPS 🙂 , but at the cost of Global Recharge 😛 (I had 5 slots in TD, including 7.5% Recharge from Basilisks Gaze) I tend to solo quite a bit, so I ran 3 types of (blue side) missions that I'm very familiar with: "Who Will Die?" SSA1 at 0x1 (lvl 20) <- This is a test of my attach chain and End usage while at a lower level to make sure I didn't mess anything up. Time: 7.5m , which is pretty standard for some extra fights and getting stuck on torches. The Mental Blast/Dominate/Psy Scream/TK Blast worked fine, with the Presence Pool as extra boss delay action. Heather Townshend's Dark Astoria 1 arc at 0x8 (lvl 50+3) <- This is usually my farming mission for Purple drops and Incarnate components but I ran this relatively quickly (minimal extra farming) Time: 15m, which is a pretty common time for this kind of run. I thought I was seeing more End usage than I expected, but after completing the final (stealthed) mission I farmed the map and didn't see any problems. The Knives of Vengeance tend to scatter, but I was generally satisfied with the extra cone AoE. Unai Kemen random defeat all (Hydra) at 0x8 (lvl 50+1) <- Really just to test the extra attack I didn't time this, but the Hydra map is relatively nice compared to some of his other maps. It took me about 4 extra minutes to find one of the patrols who went up into the trees! I like the extra cone AoE here, and I didn't see any weird Endurance usage. My general impressions comparing Static Discharge (with 5xOverwhelming Force) to Total Domination (4xBasilisk's Gaze and a Psi Proc): Static Discharge felt like it was hitting more targets than TD. My experience with this Fortunata is that on x8 missions, she gets good groupings of villains for cones and PBAoE. The AoE Hold wouldn't hit as many once the fight is engaged. I disliked losing the recharge time bonus from Basilisk's Gaze. I happened to have the Overwhelming Force set on hand, I can swap it for 5xPositron's Blast to get most of the recharge back. The build could use more AoE defense, but I didn't feel like turning extra Frozen Blasts into Superiors just for Live testing. Losing the recharge affected my core powers roughly like this (at lvl 50): Psychic Wail 45s -> 49 s Mind Link: 1m38s -> 1m47s Aura of Confusion 1m31s -> 1m41s Invoke Panic 20s -> 23 s Unrelenting ~3m -> 3m18s This isn't too bad on the attacks, but for Mind Link and Unrelenting it is a big deal! I usually run solo without Mind Link, but Unrelenting is a 25% boost to damage on top of the Healing/Recovery. If the Positron's Blast doesn't get me back to comfort levels of Recharge, I will do some testing replacing Static Discharge with Electrifying Fences, and slot EF with 5xGravitational Anchor (another set I have lying around!). As Gulbasaur has pointed out, Fortunata's excel because of their control.. but this build already has a lot of control! The question is if I want more at high levels rather than a better AoE. Here is the rough current build. I'm not showing boosted IOs here; generally I've boosted Superior/generic IOs to improve Endurance costs. I usually have Ninja Run on constantly at all levels except against AVs when I will switch it off (to conserve Endurance) or switch to Combat Jumping (for extra Defense). Ninja Run gives the Fortunata the mobility to use cone attacks effectively. Some comments on my choices: I don't worry about damage resistances. Against some AVs this is a costly strategy, but with what I've picked up from IO sets and the single Scaling Damage resistance, it is pretty much only AVs and GMs that take her out. The Preventative Medicine proc, Unrelenting and Rebirth Core have been more than enough healing when needed. I am usually running Hybrid Assault Radial, but I can switch to Hybrid Melee Core if necessary. I evangelize the Presence Pool for Widows. Unrelenting has been a better choice for me than using the Medicine pool, and I tend to convert green insps into red anyway. The PBAOE Invoke Panic (5-slotted with Glimpse of the Abyss) is not just a great control, but it also procs damage. Intimidate would be a wasted choice, but it is good for slowing down (Elite) Bosses. When teaming with Illusion Controllers, it is an extra stack of fear that helps! I have recently switched out Placate on this build to Provoke. Placate was used to let this toon run larger spawns at low levels, and can buy time against certain EB/AV (ehem, Valkyrie) when soloing for those times when you need a break. I've been on some teams recently that needed a Taunt, so I switched over to Provoke for now. This build is obviously a lvl 50 build. While leveling, I had some other choices (and IOs, obviously) that were more focused on control and hiding (if you can believe it),

I also dropped the Fighting pool from my Widow builds. The choices went into Presence pool (to get Unrelenting and Provoke) as the secondary can be used to slot resists and defense IOs. I need my PC to really investigate your build, but it looks like you delayed some very good attacks in order to take many mediocre (IMO, YMMV) attacks. For example, I used Subdue for a bit while levelling, but Dominate is actually a damaging ranged attack with a hold that is a good part of a DPS chain. I agree with G that you should take the nuke at 32. I usually don't take Mind Link immediately when it is available (usually a 3rd Pool choice is wanted before then) but I would never delay it until the 40s. Even when I don't use it for my own Defenses, it will take teams to another level for mid-level content. If you intend to only 2-slot it, rather than Def/Recharge slot the Adjusted Targetting Recharge instead. You lose a slight amount of Regeneration but the Recharge bonus is much higher. I'm curious about the feelings around Total Domination versus Psinado. I have avoided Psinado but opted for Total Domination instead. The AoE targetting of TD is not great, but I like having the chance to follow one Hold with another. Dominate cycles so quickly that I wonder if I really even need this. On my build I could pick another My attack instead... Any advice on this front?

Healing does have a PVP set Panacea in addition to the very good Preventative Medicine (lvls 20 - 50). I keep hoping for a Superior set for Fear and Taunt. If Fear had something like the Contagious Confusion proc, I feel like the single-target Fear attacks would be slightly more effective. Taunts are already easy to multi-slot, and based on the four existing sets it is easy to see what a fifth Superior set would bring, with the only wild card being the proc. I suggest a % chance for -ToHit or -Damage for such a hypothetical set.