[Legendary 45% softcap... True/False/Sometimes/BS?]

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.

[I was hoping for a Player Buff change. If enabled, it will be impossible to buff a player that's not on your team.]

10 hours ago, Psyonico said:

Can someone explain why there are so against drive-by buffing?  I legitimately don’t understand what the problem is.

 

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!"...

1. 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.
2. 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
3. It's incredibly easy to delete an unwanted buff, or to just play content "behind closed/instanced doors"
4. 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.

[Tar Patch needs a cooldown reduction]

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.

[Redside SSA (Who Will Die?) Not awarding Signature Hero defeats]

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!

[Active Mastermind]

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.

[Active Mastermind]

/Traps will keep you crazy busy.

 

Robotics/ is a dark horse candidate for active... the bots are 99% ranged, so repositioning them (when you feel like it) can take up some mental bandwidth.

 

My hot take... /Marine can be somewhat "active" (it is probably the strongest of the MM secondaries, with plenty of good powers) but for melee-based henchmen all you have to do is keep the henches where the marine action is.

[Incarnate Power Cooldown Timer]

When I've had issues changing an incarnate power (when I should be able to), I do two things:

1. detoggle all powers and stop auto-powers
2. change zones to reslot.

Not all characters have to do this, but there appear to be some powers that end up 'resetting' the Incarnate re-slot timer.

[Legendary 45% softcap... True/False/Sometimes/BS?]

4 hours ago, arcane said:

I’d definitely need a screenshot to understand these alleged mythical builds where opportunity costs don’t exist. 

 

Those builds are from Canada and they play on another server, so you wouldn't know them.

[Legendary 45% softcap... True/False/Sometimes/BS?]

1 hour ago, Championess said:

And this is what makes you the 3rd best dommie. 

 

And this is why you build your throne from the bones of the 1st and 2nd best dommies.

 

 

[Shining Stars]

The Kings Row Paladin event Featuring... the Shining Stars!... was discontinued, because it was just as likely to bug out as it was to work as intended. If it worked "correctly", it was possible to leverage the Shining Stars to solo the Paladin with characters that otherwise wouldn't be able to solo it (with or without powers and levels from 45+).

 

I agree with @MTeague that the redside version is somewhat unsatisfying considering what your character has to put up with... at least with the Shining Stars I feel like every character who plays that arc essentially just out grows them.

 

I suppose those arcs are fine as the introductory "let's get you to learn some of the game/world mechanics", but by the time they were introduced the development team had reached the point where they were doing things I didn't care for: destroying Galaxy City, adding all sorts of Primal <-> Praetoria connections that nobody asked for, and in general adding NPC content that appeared to take a lot of agency away from players to focus on NPCs. I'm sure somebody thought the Incarnate content was an interesting set of well-written stories... but ultimately they just bore me.

[Separate channels for 'drops']

I'd add another tab only for drops, if "drops" could be separated from "rewards". I also find it sometime annoying to lose track of a drop in a spray of defeat notices.

 

As a practical matter, I usually am only interested in seeing the Recipe drops... mostly because the PVP ones can "hide" as rares when I pop open the recipe tab.

[Add "Who Will Die" TFs to Weekly Strike Targets]

I'd vote: Leave the Story arcs out of the WST rotation, because:

1. They already offer "weekly rewards", even for non-50s.
2. The merit haul is 4x normal, which is twice better than the WST merit bonus
3. Most of them are "solo focused" as opposed to being "team focused"
4. Some of them can be soloed in incredibly short periods of time

On the last point, the merits-per-unit time isn't exploitive (IMO, *1) but it is a convenient way to build up a small reservoir of merits at relatively low levels... if the player decides to invest the time and effort.

 

(*1) There is other Ouro/TF/SF content that can be run for similar/better merits-per-unit-time, which is why I don't consider the story arcs to be exploitive. I like that these can be played as "bite-sized" content to get a small number of merits per run.

[Thoughts on Earth Control's Volcanic Gasses?]

1 hour ago, rksr9997 said:

Has anyone put the Annihilation -RES proc into this? Is it also terrible? I just put one in my Earth/Kin that I have at level 30 but I can't really tell if it is EVER doing anything. I am also wondering if this benefits from the Lockdown proc, as I like that one in a six slotted hold for the +DEF.

 

Enemies affected by it should get the debuff graphic applied to them... of course it can be hard to see if there are multiple debuffs flying around.

 

I like he benefits of the Annihilation set... but IIRC the duration of the %-Res (should it fire/hit) is only 10 seconds which under most circumstances makes it a somewhat unreliable way to try to increase damage dealt... and I think it ends up being a generally inferior choice when compared to the other %procs (including multiple different ranged damage ones to simply apply more damage) that could go into it instead.

 

There are several circumstances when I'll use that piece, but they almost always come down to: "Will enough other things being doing damage in the 10sec window that my choice becomes a force multiplier?"

[Fortunata Widow Build Critique]

I usually slot Mind Link one of two ways:

1. 6x Reactive Defenses
2. Adjusted Targeting Recharge, 2xLotG (Global Recharge. Def/Recharge)

I favor #1 because (a) I want those bonuses and (b) I don't think there is a better power for Fortunata to slot 6x of that set. Other powers can take it, but I think hitting the caps (Defense, Recharge) on Mind Link is better than hitting the caps on any of the other Fortunata powers. (Generally the alternate choices are only possibly boosting Defense, but YYMV)

[Thematic but Powerful?]

I like Street Justice... but I find it to be one of those sets that when I build a new character using it, it never feels particularly different to me. That is: whatever my concept is for a new SJ character, they all end up feeling very much the same.

 

I also have an uneasy feeling that Street Justice has one of the clunkiest combo mechanics, and possibly the worst of them... so often it just ends up getting ignored. What I don't like about it:

• The combo builders only +1 on attacks (minus Build Up)  that land, and RNG is no one's friend
• Any combo built up can evaporate rather quickly
• The attack chains (especially at low level) are painful to get to +3, and at high-level they builders be mostly ignored

Even though I like Dual Blades less that SJ, I find it's combo system to be slightly better (as a combo system), even though it is more confusing. Energy Melee's "combo" is practically a no-brainer in comparison with those two.

[The magical ward around Moth Cemetery (erm, spoiler alert?)]

Are the characters from different HC game eras such that you may have different world visualization options set between the characters?

[Marine slotting, generally]

I went with:

 

Shoal Rush: Accuracy/Endurance Reduction w/ 4x%damage. I find it to be a reliable on-cast source of damage

 

Toroidal Bubble: I only have it holding one Resistance piece as a mule. I needed the slots elsewhere, and IIRC the resistance can't be enhanced... so 3x Gladiator's would (mostly) be a waste of slots in that case (unless boosting recharge maybe?)

 

Whitecap gets boosted Accuracy/Endurance (x2) and 4x %damage

 

Tide Pool just gets an Endurance Reduction

 

Brine: I went with 2x Accuracy/Healing

 

Shifting Tides got 2x Accuracy/Damage/Endurance and 3x %damage

 

Barrier Reef is holding 6x Reactive Defenses

 

Power of the Depths is holding 6x Preventive Medicine

[No Necro / Traps?]

4 < KB protection <=7 is a somewhat narrow range... and with two extra slots it is possible to net +5 (2x +4, minus 3) for a total of 12 points. If you add +10 from the SG base buff you surpass the 20 points from FREEM!.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Knockback/Enemies_with_Knockback_Powers

 

(sort by magnitude to see who does what)

[No Necro / Traps?]

I'll add this about /Traps builds: It is possible to slot two of the Pet IOs in Seeker Drones, which can either add them (if the build doesn't have them) or free up a couple of slots from the actual henchmen (if that is where those pieces are slotted)

 

As for the build above, my instincts tell me that Tough isn't slotted that well: the set bonuses from 3x Gladiator's Armor aren't that useful for a MM IMO (my MM doesn't even toggle Tough on), and the +ToHit Kismet piece in Combat Jumping is probably not necessary (because of other slotting in the MM attacks).

[Enhancement set bonuses]

1 hour ago, OdinAZ said:

Hello, do the global bonuses you get enhancement sets also affect your pets?  I was looking for a good way to increase overall accuracy for Thugs.

 

The good news about Thugs: Gang War is a good spot to slot (some of) the Henchmen-affecting survival pieces, this allows for more "traditional" slotting of powers (for Accuracy, etc.) in the henchmen. I usually go into the Leadership pool to get Tactics, I find it doesn't need much more than Endurance reduction on a final build. The base +ToHit is something like +7.5% and ToHit enhancements are on the 20% scale IIRC so with henchmen slotting they shouldn't need too much more (for most content).

 

I like to put the level 50 %BuildUp piece from Soulbound Allegience in the T1 henchmen, it will trigger a LOT for significant bonuses to hit (and damage). The Soulbound Allegiance set is a good one to split 3-ways (or 2-ways), the non-proc pieces can be boosted to 50+5.

 

 

 

 

[Can we get a Temporary Ignore option?]

I think a time-limited Ignore feature would be a good thing, and it is something I would use.

 

The limited number of players on my ignore list are a mix of folks who had public meltdowns of hateful talk or just an endless sort of jibber-jabber across channels or for some reason got into public spats in open channels with each other. Some of these just needed to be off my radar for a short period of time.

[Necro/Thermal]

 

I have no real comments on Necro/Thermal, except that I took a Thugs/Thermal past 50 and I didn't like what Thermal was bringing.

 

On 4/30/2025 at 8:48 PM, kelika2 said:

procs in pets sounds great but not really, achilles is way overhyped. 

 

This echoes my feels about %damage in pets, particularly the Achilles' Heel piece. I get serious Jim Cramer "Mad Money" vibes whenever I see it being recommended across the board.

 

I *do* add procs to henchmen/pets, but I've kinda landed on the following circumstances for MM, *if* there are spots to spare, and things like ToHit chances and Endurance sustain are ok:

• I like %Buildup (Very Rare) in the T1s, as each of them will be benefiting from it, often with multiple instances
• I like %knockdown for a soft form of control, since it triggers on all damage
• I'll add %damage on T1 henches, if most of their attacks can trigger it

If a henchmen or pet won't be triggering a %damage piece from most of its attacks, I end to not use a slot for %damage. %-Resistance in (most) pets and (pretty much all) henchmen is pretty marginal when compared to other options... mostly because of the relatively short time to try to have a favorable sequence of events to leverage the period of %-Resistance. I prefer to add %-Resistance to MM AoE attacks instead, if that debuffing strategy is desired.

 

For pets (not henchmen), I give those a slightly more detailed look at %damage... usually because they are available for AT that don't otherwise do a lot of damage (without %damage). Again, it depends on how many of their attacks/controls can trigger a possible proc. For example, Dark Servant leverages the Cloud Senses piece best IMO.

[I can't figure out if Forcefield is lackluster or I just don't know what to do with it]

On 4/10/2025 at 6:55 PM, MrSnottyPants said:

So most folks are saying play something else - guess that is an answer 😁

 

I enjoyed my FF/Beam Rifle Defender a LOT. When I was on my BR kick, Corruptor was the only AT I didn't try. Part of the reason was I had just played a bunch of different Corruptors up to 50, and part was that the Defender worked out really well.

 

From my PoV, the advantages of this combo on the Defender was:

• I could delay taking primary powers in favor of more beam attack early
• I could leverage %damage to slightly more overall benefit in terms of DPS
• When I did take the buffs (and debuffs), they had Defender base values

I feel obligated to write (again): I'm still not a fan of Force Bomb. Yes I know people swear by it, but the animation takes me out of almost every character concept. In the case of the BR, having an 'extra' Beam Rifle attack was more appealing than Force Bomb (because realistically, it would probably make most 'math sense' to have taken one fewer to have room for Force Bomb). I don't care that "it is a good %damage attack with a debuff"!

[Talk about the "good ol' days!"]

nekkid aliens

[Rare salvage and you.]

On 4/29/2025 at 1:21 PM, Ukase said:

What's a Reward Merit worth to you folks?  

 

I don't have an unending stream of alts, and I only have a limited number of multi-builds... I write this because it means that I don't need that much Inf. As I play a lot of content that rewards Merits, I usually end up spending the merits on things like ATO or Winter pieces, Purple recipes, and converters or unslotters when I'm out of them (or forget to claim them from email).

 

This isn't me trying to keep Inf out of the market, it is more like me not wanting to bother with the market (to get specific items) at certain times. There are certain things I buy with merits that I know I could get for less (inf, assuming I convert merits->converters and sell those) and I'll keep an eye on some of those... but mostly by using outstanding bids at the prices I've pre-judged to be worth my time and effort.