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I am a very uneven joiner of Hamidon Raids. I always take the 80 merits first, and then (because I don't swap characters) it is a coin-toss between the additional 40 merits or a HO. There are a small number of HO that I feel like "oh, that could go on any character", there are a small number of "those are valuable enough to hoard for specific builds", but the vast majority of them are either simply not useful for my builds or not valuable enough for other players' builds that buying them on-demand from the AH is fine for me. It's no secret what 120 merits can do in the hands of a marketeer; as I have written before: as a merit-rich player I see 120 merits as 1.2 ATO for a new character. Every once in a while I'll take the Empyrian Merits, usually on characters I simply don't want to play in Incarnate Content.

MM brings all the boys to the yard And they're like, it's better than yours Damn right it's better than yours I can teach you, but I have to charge

If the argument being put forward is that a generally dissatisfying power pick (World of Confusion) can do something, I agree. I don't think it is disingenuous to point out that there are any number of power picks (many of which don't even need to be toggled on, or require extra slots to provide benefit to a build) that will, in the context of most builds(*1) that provide more value. My opinion: I think it is slightly more disingenuous to claim WoC as a "one-slot wonder" while simultaneously adding Very Rare set bonuses (such as global Accuracy, presumably in other powers) and incarnate effects into the toolbox of trick to make it viable. (*1) Specific to Dominators: The LotG +Global Recharge pieces cry out to be added, for the purposes of perma-domination. By the level at which a Dominator could even pick World of Confusion, that is likely to be the point in the build at which a pool (perhaps Concealment, but there are many options) that offers opportunities to mule the LotG pieces. Opinions can vary, but I think picking any other power from The Psionic Mastery Epic pool as a second or third choice (no matter what the first choice was) is likely to be better for a Dominator, because of the ability to slot a Global Enhancement piece for Resistance or Defense or Recharge. Strictly going off my experiences with Dominators, which I often play as being in the middle of melee combat, I did not find WoC to be useful in most combat, for a variety of reasons primarily because the Dominators need to be using their AoE Immobilize/Holds for both Offense and Defense... such that allowing enemy mobiles the time to move around in an effort to group them into the tight radius (because very few spawns are tightly grouped) of WoC is highly dangerous. This is why @Wimbochismo called out powers like Fold Space as being a potential partner for a player that really wants to leverage WoC (in addition to other toggle auras). Again, my personal experience: Whatever "layering defense" an 8-foot radius of WoC provides, it simply wasn't providing any noticeable benefit for most spawns. enemies which spawn/buff get targeted for mezz or damage rather than hope RNG and an aura have them eventually buff me. It's really never been a secret that World of Confusion can take a Very Rare mezz proc to stack Confusion to improve that power. I'm pretty sure a similar "one-slot wonder" argument could be made for many other powers that for some reason players don't want to invest other slots... for example only investing a single slot of Soulbound Allegiance %Build Up in Fire Imps.

The Fire/Psi/Psi Dominator I run has Hot Feet, I tried WoC with it. I felt very meh about the combo. MMV. As @Wimbochismo mentioned earlier in the unquoted portion of the post, these sorts of toggles demanded melee range, which didn't really jive (for me) with the rest of what that Dominator was doing offensively. That character was a perma-dom, and I play it with a LOT of button mashing on offense, which I hope brings some understanding of my own sensitivity to Endurance budgets. Even with the blue-bar refill from Domination, I'm often running my Doms on the knife's edge of spending all the Endurance before the refill (because attacks are recharging faster).

City of data has a base of 0.163 End/sec, which is almost three times higher than something like Combat Jumping's 0.065 end/sec.

I don't actually know. MM Henchmen definitely get Supremacy bonuses for example, but I don't think they get MM global bonuses of any sort. My guess is that any %proc on cast uses the Accuracy of the player, but after that I don't know how the pseudo-pet would know who summoned it (and which global bonuses to use).... but that is just a guess made based on my casual observation of %procs. I almost always use an enemy-targeting macro to toss Caltrops. I don't think all "pseudo-pets" are the same, and I'm not sure how I'd be able to construct experiments to tell. I sometimes keep a pet combat window available (even for non-MMs) to try to look, but I'm not parsing logs or collecting hard data. Acid Mortars show up in pet windows (like Henchmen), but Caltrops don't.

Single-target Confuse powers is IMHO really where the %Contagious Confusion shines(*1); those powers are also a more natural place to slot the entire set for the tasty bonuses. The set bonuses from Coercive Persuasion are tailor-made for Dominators. The Epic World of Confusion has a bohunkus Endurance cost, with a relatively small radius. I won't argue that the %Confuse from the %proc increases the utility of WoC, but it is IMO entirely due to the base magnitude of the %proc compared to the inherent magnitude/duration of WoC. I completely understand the appeal of trying to sell WoC as a no-extra slotting wonder, but for my build-crafting (and using the Psionic Mastery Epic pool on a Dominator) there will always be a better choice... not just from the other powers in the Epic pool (for Dominators) but from non-Epic pool powers that can serve as Global +Recharge mule powers (again, Dominators). Indomitable Will and Mind Over Body can both be one-slot wonders, Link Minds deserves at least two slots (more if chasing set bonuses). (*1) The %proc rate from six pieces of Coercive Persuasion, even with slotted recharge, gives new life to the single-target confuse in large-spawn, non-AV fights. The other (Confuse/Accuracy/Recharge) enhancement effects of the set simply make the single-target Confuses better for hard targets, or enemies which will buff/heal the player. I really wish that there was an equivalent Very Rare enhancement set (with a %Contagious piece) for Fear powers, as the single-target Fears lose a LOT of utility as spawn sizes increase and towards high-levels.

I find Combat Teleport to be really useful on Blappers: teleport into make a melee attack, including those you have targeted but are otherwise blocked from range attacks teleporting "backwards" for a ranged cone attack getting "unstuck" from map geometries (and from slow/immobilize patches) It offers a short +10% ToHit after BAMFing Some attacks do have long-ish animation times... but that's not a reason to avoid Combat Teleport. If the Blaster has put down some sort of (soft, or not) control patch like a slow or knockdown BAMFing around works just fine. I generally agree that the Teleportation pool isn't a great one for mules, but the powers do offer places to put the Universal Travel global pieces, including the 20% Slow Resist. Personally, I don't like Teleportation for zone travel. Two pieces of Blessing of the Zephyr offers some positional ranged defense as a set bonus.

No disagreement, but I feel like mentioning the Traps secondary for Masterminds has five skippable powers in Web Grenade, Triage Beacon, Seeker Drones, Trip Mine and Detonator. I'm not saying that they can't have their uses, it is more that I feel like I'd have to be playing a lot of very specific content to want to work any of those back into my build. To emphasize the point by @Nemu: Blasters have a Melee Damage Scale of 1.0; there is no a priori reason to skip melee attacks on them if the primary goal is to do as much damage as possible with a Blaster.

I like Water Blast/Atomic Manipulation for Blapping, paired with Combat Teleport. The Primary leans heavy on the AoEs, the Secondary can pair a couple of single-target melee attacks (I use Negatron Slam and Positronic Fist) along with some PBAoE (Radioactive Cloud, Atom Smasher). I particularly like that the AoEs (and DoT) eliminate/thin out the large spawns, allowing for eventual focusing on the hardest targets.

Maybe I'll slot in the third piece I mentioned. As it is, I still want the initial Endurance cost of the click to be low enough that I'm not waiting for enough endurance to allow it to auto-fire.

/Time's last three powers are absolutely NOT skippable, like /Traps are. My hot takes on the Time secondary (for MMs) are: Temporal Mending <- This power is worth taking in place of Maintenance Drone, since it will heal more than just the henchmen. Time Crawl <- Single Slot, but keep for hard targets. Yes it can %damage, but ST damage from the MM is not a winning strategy. Time's Juncture <- The -ToHit is probably most important. Won't need many slots, consider keeping. (2slot HO Enzymes) Temporal Selection <- Hard to pass up a potential Buff for one of the Henchmen, I would consider keeping it, but delaying the choice of it. Distortion Field <- Two slots max [ Pacing of the Turtle – Endurance/Recharge/Slow: Level 50+5, Superior Entomb - Endurance/Recharge], could be used to take aggro off the henchmen. (I like slows when playing MMs) Time Stop <- I like holds, but this is single-target. I'd skip it on a MM. Farsight <- DO NOT SKIP. There are a lot of ways you can go with this. You'll have at least 4 slots in it. Off the top of my head, I'd go with Level 24: Farsight (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (*) HamiO:Membrane Exposure (Endurance/ToHit Buff/Defense Buff): Level 53 (*) HamiO:Membrane Exposure (Endurance/ToHit Buff/Defense Buff): Level 53 (*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance (*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance Slowed Response <- I would keep (again, AoE aggro magnet), and I'd be tempted to have it be a %damage power (requiring accuracy) Level 28: Slowed Response (A) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Shield Breaker - Chance for Damage (Lethal) (*) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Damage (Negative Energy) Chrono Shift <- You want this, I recommend: Level 30: Chrono Shift (A) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5

My opinion: the Gaussian's %Build Up piece is generally less useful in a toggle (e.g. Tactics) than it is in an on-demand click(*1), unless the following applies: the character with Tactics is always playing with a LOT of teammates/henchmen/pets in range of Tactics the character has a decent damage scale, and is making attacks, such that the %Build Up is making meaningful contributions for the attacker. Considering the above, taking teams out of the equation, the ATs I've found to benefit more from a Toggle %Build Up (as opposed to a click %Build Up) to be Crabberminds and (to a lesser extent) the ATs that have multiple persistent pets (like 3x Fire Imps). I do run Tactics w/ %Build Up on one of my MMs, but the MM damage scale is so bad I rationalize its inclusion (with a HO Cytoskeleton) only because that MM is constantly making attacks. If playing a high-DPS AT on large teams/leagues, slotting the %Build Up in a toggle is a fine choice (if not already at the high end of the damage scale). (*1) I often slot the Build Up powers with only a Recharge 50+5 and the Guassian's %Build Up. With typical global Recharge bonuses (and not counting primary/secondary powers that provide MOAR Recharge) that typically has the %Build Up at the ceiling of 90% and the power is usually available when I want it in an attack chain. I do like the 6-piece bonuses from Gaussian's too!

Dsync Conduits are Endurance Modification, not Endurance Reduction. IIRC Chrono Shift ignores enhancements for EndMod, so that portion would be wasted(*1). Also, I want Endurance Reduction more than I want Healing or +End, as explained below. Specific to Chrono Shift (an auto-trigger power for me), it is the base 20-ish Endurance cost that puts it in my personal 'danger zone' of risking the blue bar being too empty to trigger (or forcing detoggles), so Endurance Reduction is important. The long base recharge (360+ seconds?) obviously demands Recharge slotting on top of whatever Global Recharge. In the case of HO/DS I was looking at three slots of 50+5 Endurance/Recharge, but the diminishing returns were such that turning one of them into Heal/End/Recharge was next to nothing (in terms of Endurance Discount or Recharge, so I slipped in the PVP's set with Heal, and can have the set's Recovery bonus be exempt from exemplar effects. If the +Endurance portion of Chrono Shift were to be enhanceable, I might be tempted to use the last slot for Preventive Optimization EndMod/Endurance/Recharge at 50+5 although it is hard to give up the near-constant personal Recovery boost.

As others have written: (level 50 and above) HO/DSyncs are most useful when a power is starved for slots(*1), and a HO/DSync offers combination of the attributes that a player wants to enhance. Writing only for myself: I tend to go with HO/DSyncs that combine Accuracy or Endurance Reduction with some other attribue I want enhanced. It could be a Mez, Range, a Buff/Debuff, whatever. There are a small number of powers that (in my preference) that really benefit from other combinations (e.g. Recharge) but Accuracy and Endurance Reduction are typically the big ones for me.(*2) (*1) A player may not want to put (m)any slots in a power, or most of the slots are being taken by something else (like a %proc, or global) that isn't otherwise enhancing the power. (*2) There are some combinations of attributes that don't have Hami-O/Dsync options such that a level 50+5 piece (or a Superior Winter piece) is a better choice (for me). Here are a couple of oddball examples of powers (from different characters) that I really sweated over using (or not) HO/DSyncs: Level 30: Chrono Shift <- Healing is less important than Recharge and Endurance saving, but Healing is not nothing! (A) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5 Level 35: Dark Consumption <- Recharge is vital, but Accuracy is needed for the %damage and the EndMod effect is kinda important (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50+5 (*) D-Sync Conduit (EndMod/Recharge): Level 53 (*) D-Sync Drain (EndMod/Accuracy): Level 53 (*) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (*) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage Final Note about my builds and choices: If a character has multiple ranged attacks, I will sometimes frankenslot to get the ranges roughly equivalent, especially for cones and single-targets. HO Centrioles and Dsync Guidances come into play in these builds.

I don't think there is anything wrong with using a respec before level 50; on the contrary there are often powers that can be taken for "test drives" (even with minimal slotting, as you level). Specific to Tankers: My experience has often been that early tier primary powers (defense/resistance toggles) often do very little (even with slotting, modulo Global IO pieces) for the Tanker at low levels... so I wouldn't fault anyone for downplaying primary power choices and concentrating more on the secondary(*1)... later when you feel like you have a better performing attack chain (in my experience: mostly this comes from slotting) ... then maybe a player will want to respec (in the mid 20s?) to have a more "classic" looking set of power selections?(*2) (*1) I feel that some players of Tankers skip or delay Taunt because t can feel like a dangerous choice for a newbie Tanker: why not take an Attack or something Defensively instead of something that is not going to do damage and will also draw more aggro? I can excuse this, but only to a point. Let me simply write that I believe that Taunt (as opposed to Confront or Provoke) is crucially important to being the best possible Tanker, and if its choice was delayed until the mid 20s (or later), it's worth using a respec to get it back into the build as early as possible. (*2) Again, strictly from my experience... which is based a LOT on playing different ATs through content for XP (as opposed to power-levelng dozens of levels at a time) is that while leveling I often taken powers that won't be in a final build or I take powers in a different order than I want in the final build. The former could be because some sort of pool power is offering me something I wouldn't otherwise have until an epic power level; an example of the latter is taking powers early explicitly as mules for IOs... in a final build I usually delay mules until the final power choices, but sometimes I want those global IOs ASAP.

Along the lines of "abstract mission givers" I have often felt that the Potted Plant model could be leveraged as a sort of nutty mission contact. As for potential TF givers: Blue side, I think it would be cool to have one of the Newsboys (often situated near train stations) to offer some sort of arc/TF.

My Robotics MM's primary slotting is: My MM is Robotics/Traps, which has one HUGE difference from any potential Robotics/Cold build: I can skip the last three powers in the Traps secondary (Seeker Drones, Trip Mine, Detonator) and suffer no performance issues, with Cold Domination I suspect that a majority of the performance would be tied to the use of the final three powers in the secondary (Benumb, Sleet, Heat Loss). I suspect that if I were to theory craft a Robotics/Cold build, I'd be obligated to add Hasten (for recharge time on Heat Loss). My own experience for Robotic Henchmen is that for most content Defense is more important than Resistance... so I'd probably frankenslot those Shields. This is almost painful to write: I'd probably skip Infrigidate (on a final build), as I just don't think I'd have the power picks or slots to do anything clever with it. It would come back in on a "One Big Robot" build, but that would be a niche design. If folks haven't seen my writings on my approach to Robotics/Traps, one of the performance enhancers for my build is cramming the same (here Annihilation) Chance for Res Debuff into as many powers as possible in an effort to keep as many different AoE powers as possible triggering/extending the Resistance debuff. Robots shine in AoE.

A single Healing IO 50+5 is almost certainly a better choice than a single level 53 Golgi in Upgrade Robot. The Endurance discount from the Golgi is doing next-to-nothing for a Mastermind.

Maintenance Drone says "whirr"

I don't use Hasten on my Grav/Kin Controller. My general thoughts on Hasten follow, YMMV. If I don't have powers with (a) extremely long recharge times, (b) a minimized attack chain that relies on precise timing, or (c) a specific power (usually defensive, or something like Domination) that relies on an auto-fire before expiry, I usually never think twice about excluding Hasten. A second or two of baseline recharge (modulo enemy slows, etc.) almost never motivates me... I could be combining inspirations or doing something in those seconds other than button mashing (picking targets, whatever) instead. FWIW. I try to build perma-Doms such that Hasten isn't needed. I dislike that committing (in my feels) to Hasten implies that I'm going to want to invest a second slot in it. In build-crafting, I dislike that I have to figure out where in the build (level-wise power pick) to put Hasten so that it offers meaningful returns on the powers I want it for. Since Homecoming has made higher-level (aka signature) powers available earlier in builds, I simply have less room for Hasten than before. As an aside: Homecoming has made it much easier to get enhancement set bonuses that improve global Recharge passively, almost all of these scale down to level 20 (some scale lower, some scale higher). I never take Hasten below level 10, and rarely before level 20. Specialty builds (such as Incarnate only) have varying mileage of course. I dislike the Endurance drop when Hasten expires. I know that this can be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ , but if I have to slow down button mashing, or re-toggle powers that have dropped, I feel that I've basically sabotaged the reason for taking Hasten in the first place. I prefer to have travel powers; Super Speed (from the Speed pool) is ok, but I prefer other travel powers (including those that are akin to Super Speed). Other power pools tend to offer me more of what I am looking for in a build... either straight-up with powers that will improve the play experience or as mules for Enhancement pieces/sets. TL;DR: I have to be strongly persuaded to put Hasten in a build.

Herding huge numbers of Rikti Monkeys (less so Giant Monsters) on Peregrine Island was fun (for some definitions of the word), but it isn't the kind of thing I feel like we need to bring back. I am almost never bothered by the current "aggro cap". I am much more annoyed by the secondary effects of enemy AI and mission objectives, for example: when enemies run (so far) away that they essentially never re-engage with a player... and the mission completion is somehow tied to 'defeat all'... either on the map or in certain spawns. Similarly, I am non-plussed when enemy mobiles need to be defeated in order to reset events, but those also fall into the category of 'pay attention and you won't have an issue'. I see no need to make radical changes for minor peeves when I am feeling lazy.

To a certain extent this is how Tips/Alignment missions work. There are some that will send you to a specific/different zone, but for the most part (at least blueside) you can run them in any non-Hazard zone.

I see this quite a bit in Croatoa, not just with Fir Bolg. I typically see it on characters that have a power that a targeting macro is commonly used for. There are a handful of other maps with areas where this happens, but Croatoa is the most common (for me).

I can put the Kismet piece in whatever defensive toggle, at that point I call it quits. Not every ranged character has a Snipe, and if I have to keep Tactics on (another toggle) I end up paying the full Endurance cost for whatever part of my attack chain is using a Fast Snipe. Build Ups (and the equivalents) already puts the bonus above the +22%, albeit for a short time... but I'm generally hoarding the Blue bar. I don't doubt that keeping Tactics running can work (or just grabbing it as a doorway to Vengeance), but for me it almost always comes down to picking it instead of another LotG Mule. YMMV, but I don't think Tactics is going to help the OP's issue.