tidge

Renaming is no big deal, from my PoV. I've taken a few characters I leveled up but didn't love and created new characters (same name and costume) but different AT/primary/secondary and given them the original's name. I've renamed beloved level 50s when I have thought of a better name for them.

Invention salvage is fungible (by tier), so it takes little effort (and the market vig) to convert owned salvage into desired salvage.

I like the evergreen nature of this discussion. Some excellent points were recently repeated about how Inf isn't a problem once a player is playing the game with their level 50... and how nobody really cares if a character isn't suited to the gills with IO sets (before or after level 50). There are very few instances of characters that are difficult to play without IO sets, unless the player is making poor build choices or similarly poor choices when it comes to content. To be a little salty: if a player simultaneously feels like they are very clever character builders, wants to skip to an end-game build, and is also short of the means of kitting out the cleverly designed character... I'm thinking this hypothetical player isn't really that clever. Skipping the effort to unlock all those slots and powers, and skipping the effort to be able to slot those powers... there really isn't much of a game left is there? I absolutely recognize that until the level 50 common IO recipes start to drop, Inf from regular play is pretty dry... even if the AH is used to market things made from merits. But below a certain level (I'd say ~23) there isn't IMO much of a need to try to leverage things that can be bought on the AH. The game is easier with IO sets at this point, but it isn't at all mandatory.

In the past I've made an entirely selfish suggestion for the Presence pool: adding AT conditionals to both Pacify and Provoke: 1) Pacify gets conditionals that allow it to work like the similar powers for Banes and Stalkers 2) Provoke gets conditionals that allows it to work more like the Taunts/Confronts for Widows, Dwarfs, Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers Provoke changes is less important to me, but making it an auto-hit for those ATs would be something. I'd like Pacify to be able to trigger the Hidden status for the ATs that get the Placate power from their AT sets. The pool versions can be more endurance hungry if the devs are bent out of shape about ATs having access to such powers at level 4, but usually Taunt/Confront/Pacify is a relatively low-level pick anyway... so who would really care? Personally, I'd like to see each of the legacy power pools still stuck with a level 4 / 4 / 14 / 14 / 14 progression get some attention... if only to downward adjust the level at which the third power can be chosen. I thought by now the same team that reworked the travel pools and lowered the level tiers for primary/secondaries and epics would have done something to Presence and Medicine (especially).... Leadership's Tactics isn't particularly overpowering between levels 4 and 14, and to be honest I wouldn't really care if Cross Punch was available at level 4 without having to take a pre-requisite. And with regard to the Fighting pool... it seems crazy that the attacks in the Fighting pool got "synergy" but the healing from Medicine did not.

My least favorite outdoor map is OUTDOOR_RUINED_02A. The objective still find places to hide on it from me. Oddly I rarely have trouble finding all the hidey holes on Oranbega maps. I dislike the tech "Lab" rooms, because the critters will find ways to hide. My absolute least favorite Council caves are blue side, in Tobias Hansen's arcs... the critters move around and hide themselves, making it very difficult for me to 'defeat all' to find the last objective.

I went with a Claws/Dark Scrapper, and leaned into the Presence Pool. I want to note that I delayed Cloak of Fear until level 41. (pre-i28p2) YMMV if you want it earlier now, but by leveraging KB protection pieces/set bonuses I still don't think it is a necessary power to take early. I suppose I could have taken it as early as lvl 30 (I skipped Soul Transfer) but that is when I took Unrelenting, followed at 32 by Hasten. I took Pacify at 12, Intimidate at 14 and Invoke Panic at 24. The only Claws attacks before level 22 are Strike, Spin and Followup. Claws fit the theme of my character.

I like the Presence pool, but the big problems are IMO: 1) The first three powers are orthogonal to each other, and you must take two of them (to get the 4th or 5th) 2) Aside from a casual chance at doubling up a single-target with 2 different Fears, there is no synergy to the powers 3) Intimidate and Invoke Panic are both first selectable at level 14 (no reason to force delay of Intimidate so long IMO)

I have a somewhat different take on (relating to something I don't like) I kinda wish that the devs would put more obvious focus on bringing all ATs up to a common level of performance (including non-changeling HEAT) instead of knocking some AT down that think are over-performing. I'm not talking about specific outlier powers. It bothers me not-at-all if through build and slotting choices if solo ATs can reach similar levels of mission completion times (at similar difficulty settings). I think a case can be made that Blasters are over-performers, except possibly when solo in +Nx8 content. They generally don't have endurance problems, they don't have crashes, and they've got more ability to slot a wider variety of IOs than most any other AT, and their inherent actually is a (slight) fix for the one things they might be susceptible to (controls). I don't want to see Blasters nerfed, but let's not pretend that Tankers had been the only recipients of "over-tuning" since Live. The only "hand-slap" I think Blasters have gotten in the HC era is the same one everyone got with respect to Rune of Protection.

The base accuracy of Aura of Insanity is poor (0.8) and it is a PBAoE toggle (notoriously poor %proc performance in these).

*points at self*

This would be a bug... but can you verify you aren't trying to slot more than one (each) of the unique pieces?

I see some potential for customization:

The primary drawback to this sort of set is personal: It is very rare that I invest more than 3 slots in a defense or resistance power., unless I am franken-slotting. I'd much rather see a Halloween set that offers Universal Control... that is, one that can boost any/all control effects without being tied to specific types of controls.

I just felt like quoting this: I suppose in the minds of many of the players, they've 'maxxed' something, and in some (small?) fraction of those players I suppose it is possible that for some content the build will sit on something like an "plateau of performance"... yet there never seems to be a shortage of posted builds that simply don't look fun to play. I enjoy seeing the builds where the player talks about their choices for play, and less about stats.