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I have no issues with a dual-box player in mission, behind closed doors, beyond whatever grumpiness might involve any other PUG mate. I do believe that open-world multi-boxing, such as for hunting Giant Monsters or other zone events, ought to be verbotten. Rationale follows: The multi-box player is reaping greater rewards than a solo player in the open world. The multi-box player is potentially denying solo players an opportunity to reap rewards. For example: the 60-second-long zone Giant Monster defeats. It has been my experience that multi-box Giant Monster hunters also happen to be really bad about "cleaning up" after a Giant Monster defeat... maybe because they are worried about their multi-box more than they are worried about the zone they are in? I realize it takes a little bit of effort (i.e. cross Kings Row) to clean up after a Paladin, but there is next-to-no effort required to know that the Croatoan Grim Vale event has been reset. Leagues can also be bad about Croatoa, but there are enough multi-boxers that I regularly see them leaving the Vale not reset. The GM rewards are an order of magnitude smaller than something like a Hamidon or Mothership raid, but I'd rather see open-world multi-boxing of GM and zone event fights be restricted than a daily clock be implemented on all GM rewards. I feel that the daily GM reward clocks may have been a contributing factor to why I've seen so many more dual-box GM hunters (Monstrous Aethers contribute as well, I am sure).

A couple comments about ATO and catalysts. If I am not rushing a character, I will typically have about 600 merits by the time it gets to 50. When I am rushing, it is more like 150, probably from TFs/SFs that I would have done anyway. I personally burn a new 50s merits on Boosters, but if you don't have ATO, I think there are worse things to spend Merits on. It may not make the most "economic" sense, but it is somewhat "self sufficient". Catalysts drop 1 every 24 hours for level 50s, and they are surprisingly cheap on the market. I stockpile catalysts. I end up using more for attuning crafted enhancements than Winter/ATO upgrades, but that is me being 'self-sufficient'... the Auction house is a cheap way to attune most enhancement pieces. A solo player without much time can do quite a bit of content that yields healthy merit rewards, such as the Signature Story arcs. When I find characters in a "lull between levels", and I want to solo, I'll do things like: Radio/Newspaper missions, plus the Safeguard/Mayhem PVP zones (exploration, plus PVP unlocks) Ouroboros (particularly for badges, but there are some decent merits to be had)

I am leveling up a Claws/ Scrapper right now, and while I am going to have an "expensive" build when done, right now I am facing the following question on the primary: How many attacks do I really need (for most content)? I don't min-max recharge times and attack chains, so I'm not trying to find a theoretical answer. My initial play has had these choices, all by level 8. T2 Swipe T3 Slash T4 Spin T5 Followup Leveraging the ATOs and some leftover PVP/Winters/O-Force, I didn't need many slots to make these four attacks feel like a solid attack chain from the get-go. I could tell I was playing a Scrapper really early. I picked up T8 Eviscerate at 22, and upon midlife respec intend to have T9 Shockwave at 26. The T7 Focus doesn't feel critical to my intended style of play, but I have slots for it and I was thinking of dropping it in at level 32 or 35... I have other choices for this build that demand I take more pool powers early. While I enjoyed having all those melee attacks early, I'm thinking that Slash will be dropped. Am I in left field with this? Because of other powers I am putting in the build, I think this will have Hasten (almost perma FWIW) at 32 or 35... so I am feeling that chaining attacks isn't going to be too much of an issue while Hasten is available... I should mention: I plan to slot the attacks for set bonuses (and enhancement values).

I'm going to springboard off this post... The fundamentals of damage-to-defeat critters as the basis of almost all rewards in the game (Inf, XP, drops, etc.) is why I think the current implementation of %damage (i.e. "procs") is so healthy for the game's variety. I doubt I would enjoy a game where "game balance" directly turned "controls" into equivalent rewards as for defeats. I rather like the current state of the game where I can construct control ATs to lean hard into the controls or mix it up with some %damage. How to make Controllers "feel better" for controlling? I don't really know. My Controllers are less bothered by fast-moving +Nx8 content by the opening thesis of the original post... maybe it is experience with which critters to focus on? Maybe it is the variety of controls/debuffs/buffs I typically make sure to have available? My controllers tend to get peeved when there are enemy critters that have a seeming endless amount of protection and/or resistance and also engage in "run away" AI antics. Igneous, Warwolves are common critters, but there are some EB level enemies. Basically, whenever it becomes extremely difficult for a solo controller to "stack" enough control onto some of these rather common enemies, I get a little peeved... it's not like Warwolves have some special weakness that balances their crazy behavior.

Here is another vote for "you don't need to get multiple levels in a single session". One of the nice features of the current Homecoming is that players can choose their T7/T8/T9 powers (as well as most of the Epics) earlier in a character's career. The positives manifest themselves in many ways; one of them is that it is possible to experiment with a more-or-less complete suite of powers for a character earlier than we used to be able to do on Live. Obviously we are waiting for more enhancement slots between 35 and 50, yet I like to see how those powers are working for me to get an idea of what sort of attack chains should I be using, what quality-of-life slotting should be considered, and if there are any hidden gem powers I can leverage. Writing only for myself: I find it easy to slip into a mode of thinking that I've "solved" certain power sets and ATs. That is: I am tempted to look at a power set, identify the optimal power picks and slotting choices, and "see" what the level 50 build will be and imagine how it will play. I fight this mode of thought on almost every character I build... and the levels 30-50 are key for me to get a feel for the choices I'm making. It is common that I discover something subtle about slotting choices. It is not that rare that I find some power to be of low utility and can drop it. I suppose it is possible to do a similarly deep level of testing with a level 50 build (as I have done this too!) but I find I learn more about the various choices by playing content up to 50.

I'll answer "No, it is not merely risk acceptance." Answers follow for %damage procs. Sometimes the damage component of a power is low enough that sometimes more damage (via a proc) is better than simply boosting the damage component via an enhancement. Sometimes a player (points to self) wants "off brand" damage, even if it comes via %proc. For example, there are some enemies that resist Psi a lot, so having non-Psi damage in a character that does mostly Psi can yield improvements in clear times. There are other factors that play into the decision, on top of "what can I do to improve %proc chances", but those are the two primary things I consider. Some players appear to slot %procs just because they can.

I hear you... I did a cursory glance at other power pools to see which ones had 4 of 5 powers be toggles, and I didn't see any. While looking I wanted to see which ones (if any) had 4 of 5 powers that didn't affect enemy critters, and I also didn't notice any. As I wrote, Flight pool strikes me as being odd... I take those four toggles on MMs, and almost always three of them on "fliers", without complaints... it's partially that when I am in another travel power pool I always feel like I have more variety of options, with the possible exception of Concealment.

I find myself concentrating on these, roughly in order: Characters I am leveling Characters I am "finishing" (accolades, certain temp powers, sometime incarnates) Characters I am "accumulating" with (AH, merits) When I have to pick from my roster teaming, I prefer to use a character that has some "hybrid" characteristics, like control/damage or buff/debuff. If it is more of a low/no AoE character I try to go with damage/survivability.

On Blue I like to run the Tina and Marie missions in PI. On Red, this is the time to run the Patron arcs among others. Basically: do the stuff you need for accolades.

Wall of Force on Tankers, slotted with %damage (because Tanker Ranged Damage Scaling), is something I find fun to use. I primarily use Unrelenting as a damage buff, or when characters are being ground down by enemies. It also is a rez.

I had a similar experience at the Department of Motor Vehicles... except that the other person had outstanding warrants! I had to suggest that the state office check the driver's license information... of the state-issued license I was renewing.... before I could conclude my business.

Since Penny Yin is the weekly, I ran a few more non-Brutes through the Penny Yin TF at +0x1 Beam/EA Sentinel: 12m 20sec. Warshade: 20m 20sec. Obviously both Brute and Tankers need to be nerfed to make the Warshade feel better. /s

Imagine if the final power in the Flight pool was a toggle that made you fly faster.. oh wait... Excuse, back to the Medicine pool. TL;DR: I think it is fine. Re-read the post by @Glacier Peak above. I don't see the role of the Medicine pool to be to turn characters without healing powers into healers, I see the pool as a way to give a limited number of healing/support powers to characters that want them... plus (as mentioned in the referenced post) a pretty good %damage melee attack option. I'm not categorically opposed to making some updates to the Medicine pool, for reasons: #1 The Medicine pool occupies a peculiar, particular part of design space from my PoV... there isn't often much need for healing (+status) that can't be addressed by the use of Inspirations... or just running away and allowing Regeneration to do its thing. Since Inspirations are essentially just 'click powers', I don't know why a character who invests an actual power pick needs to have those early powers be interruptible. #2 In a lot of team play (in my experience), preemptively applying the Absorb from Spirit Ward (Sorcery pool) to someone on the team who is likely to be taking damage is probably superior to retroactively applying Aid Other to someone that has taken damage. This doesn't sit right with me.

I find the Flight pool to be something of an odd duck. I don't know what I'd want changed about it, but here are my thoughts, pretty much every time I play my characters who went deep into the Flight pool: Air Superiority: I like that this power is in the pool! Alternate melee attack with a fun animation. Hover and Fly: Not the same thing, but kind of the same thing. Obvious differences that we all know and love, I find I need both but then... Evasive Maneuvers: makes Hover and Fly "better"... but I primarily only use it for +Fly speed... and I think this is because I have run out of slots for Hover and Fly! Group Fly: Unique sort of power that I think is fine for what it is. Sidestepping Group Fly's potential effect on teammates (because henchmen/pets), 4 of the 5 powers are strictly affecting only the player picking the pool... which is a little bit of an outlier. For me... it feels like Evasive Maneuvers is the oddball. I like having the "flight control"... lack of control while using Flight is a design feature of the game I know... but it feels weird to me to have to (a) pick an extra power and (b) toggle it on and (c) have the other power(s) also toggled on to get the full effect. It's not as if there aren't other powers in pools that aren't "auto". I also don't like keeping it in my power tray! I suppose if I was going to propose a change to the Flight Pool, it would be to make Evasive Maneuvers an Auto power.

IIRC: Confront is an auto-hit in PvE, Provoke (presence pool) requires a ToHit check in PvE.