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The VEAT inherent really feels like it it isn't doing much for the Blue Bar, but I had to run REALLY hot after level 25 to notice(*1). That is: there was only a relatively narrow range where I was really feeling the Blue Bar. It feels to me like the inherent Health/Stamina that everybody gets takes a little something away from the VEAT inherent. My random thoughts: P2W attacks cost Endurance, so filling an attack chain with them at low levels will drain the batteries. I don't use Hasten in my Fortunata. If you don't have it perma, a character with it will burn more Endurance from more attacks and suffer the Endurance drop when it expires. Once perma, you can avoid the drop, but you will still be making attacks at a boosted rate (unless you pace your attacks). I tend to reach for set bonuses (and accolades) that include +MaxEnd, Endurance Discounts as well as +Recovery. With the VEAT inherent and inherent Stamina, I feel that increasing Endurance and getting Global Discounts to Endurance costs offer a better return for the investment. (*1) I have seen that running certain content at x8 definitely can burn down the Endurance bar, even for a full-kit build. The circumstances where I see this most frequently is on solo (exemplared) Mayhem missions.

You absolutely ought to be able to handle almost all content with a pair of well-built VEAT. I do suggest that you consider multiple builds for both VEAT, not just because they are fun, but for some content (I am thinking GMs, AVs) you may want slightly tweaked power choices and slotting as opposed to "murder as many as quickly as possible". For 90%+ of the content, you don't even need the characters to be 'well-invested', especially if you stick with the default difficulty settings. The 50-only incarnate TFs will probably not be able to be finished with a duo. Let us know how you like it!

Let me know how that works on Warwolves.

Just repeating what I wrote above: If you are committed to being a MM with Henchmen, the targeted AoE attacks are probably best suited for %debuff (e.g. Annihilation) or some sort of control (e.g. Knockdown, Ragnarok is probably the default option if the Overwhelming Force piece is already given to a henchmen). This should speed up defeat times and help keep the henchmen alive longer.

Every once in a while the issue of "multiple choice in the secondary" comes up... search fu should include "skipping T1". There are a few standard replies: TPTB won't let this happen, because some Stalkers will skip Hide. This is the 'classic' argument from Live, YMMV on if you think this is a serious issue or not. The Code makes this a nightmare. IIRC, the Homecoming Dev Team (and others with the code) have looked at this and it is somewhere on the spectrum of 'not being worth the effort' and 'this could break a LOT of things'. My personal opinion is this: If they were so inclined, the homecoming Dev team should consider a hard look at all of the primary powers in the secondary. I think there is the possibility of data-mining, to look at (for level 50 builds) For "identical" primary and secondary sets, how often is the T1 skipped in the primary? For "non-identical" primary and secondary sets, how often is the T1 only single-slotted? The first point should approximate relative (perceived) utility between the first two power choices (in the same set); the second is a crude estimate of utility of a power. The second is pretty crude, because some secondary T1 don't need additional slots to do their thing (e.g. Stalker's Hide, or some other Defense & Resist powers) but for attacks this should be a relatively good measure. This sort of first pass should be able to identify the specific secondaries where the player base has made some sort of assessment of the relative utility of powers, and perhaps plan updates. Frankly: there are certain classes of powers that should make it somewhat obvious (to veteran players) that certain T1 powers are of extremely limited use in the game. For my Inf, I find single target immobilizes to be the powers that are among the least useful (see my above comment about the Traps secondary). I really wish that the Traps secondary swapped the T1 and the T2.

Thugs / Thermal /Heat -> Mag-Ma Barker

I agree, Redside DFB are quite rare, and I understand the desire to get the boosters for lower-level play, but... Redside has (IMO) significantly better low-level arcs (ehem, skip Dr. Graves' tutorial) than Blueside and they can be very rewarding for solo players and small teams... plus you earn merits quicker. The one suggestion I would make is to pickup P2W travel powers to make maneuvering around Mercy easier. BTW, my avatar is also Willem Dafoe. Judge me.

Can we look at the Mastermind /Traps Web Grenade next? (Or has this already been given the Entangling Arrow treatment?)

I'm going to keep beating this drum: I want Purple (Very Rare) and/or PVP sets for Fear and Taunt powers. I realize that there could be some balance issues in PVP but here is my thinking: There are enough different versions of Fear and Taunt powers (and at low enough levels) that could stand to have sets which scale across all content. There are enough single-target versions of Fear and Taunt powers that could use some improvement. Both Fear and Taunt have pretty slim pickings when it comes to slotting choices. (I like Mocking Beratement, but puh-lease) (perception bias?) I see quite a few builds that treat Taunt (and single-target Fear) as 1-slot-only powers. I don't know that more set choices would change this, but it can't hurt. I think Fear is the easier of the two to address. As I wrote above, I simply want a Fear set based on the Coercive Persuasion (Confuse) set, with a %Contagious Fear PPM piece. That piece (and set) makes slotting single-target Confuse powers much more viable (at least for level 50 characters); I want to see the same thing available for Fear powers. The Taunts can be trickier, since those pieces can be slotted in more powers. I don't think another %damage proc is really necessary but that would be the most straightforward. It certainly wouldn't be the end of the world if there was a unique %damage piece that could be slotted in Taunts. Ideally, I'd like to see: A set that include more Accuracy pieces. I am aware that several powers are "auto hit", but not all Taunts are. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest if Tankers could slot (more) accuracy in their attacks... especially if the accuracy scales to lower levels. First choice for non-%damage option... something maybe that generates more Threat? I'm sure (some) Brutes would appreciate this. Second choice for a non-%damage option... maybe a %Contagious Taunt piece to similarly improve those single-target (or few-target Provoke) Taunt powers?

The only one of the "damage taken" badges that occupies any mental real estate for me is the 1M "Iron Man", and that is because of the disparity in effort between Born in Battle (redside) versus Portal Jockey (blueside). Between softcap Defenses and relatively low HP for many ATs, it is much more practical to run the AV missions in Peregrine Island than it is to collect one million points of damage.

Can you provide more specificity about which primary and (more importantly to me) when in the build you are trying to take the attacks? Based on the text above, this doesn't sound like a no-henchmen Mastermind. I have a couple of different MMs, and I don't bother taking primary attacks until late in the builds. I concentrate on the AoE attacks to generate/maintain "threat". My Robots/Traps MM can run his blue bar down... but it actually requires significant effort. I think that particular toon has each of his attacks 6-slotted; the attacks include Endurance reduction and/or give set bonuses relating to Endurance management (+MaxEnd, Endurance Discounts, +Recovery). Adding +MaxEnd from accolades will help. The MM attacks are also pretty low on the damage scale, so it isn't as if spamming the attacks is helping that much... unless you are using the attacks to debuff or apply (soft) control. I suppose putting the %damage procs helps MMs "more" than other ATs, but I'm not sure this is really what you are looking for.

Time for the PSA, there is a difference between "pets" and "henchmen": Masterminds summon "henchmen" using their primary which can be given orders (including absorb damage given to the MM) and stick around until defeated, everything else is a "pet" (or a "pseudopet").

I propose that fun be measured by the consumption of Awaken/Bounce Back/Restoration.

I hope it wasn't my snark that contributed to the pressure. I admit that I sometimes feel the temptation to begin a reply with some sort of epistemological argument, but my experience has been that this never goes well if epistemology is invoked but the content of the reply is an argument that could have been made without such an opening appeal. My snark was entirely directed at the opening "words need to be defined per their specific meaning" followed by what was certainly a gross misuse of a word that represents a specific number.

Fear has got it far worse than single-target ranged attacks. A %Contagious Fear piece would be nice, as it would bring some extra utility to the single-target Fear powers.

♪ ♪ ...and I want you to show me...♪ ♪ (apologies to Foreigner)

No redraw is my number one wish for Soldiers/Crabs, followed by the chance to lose the backpack on (alternate, secondary) builds that don't have crab powers. I agree that the inherent is really not that good. A beefed up version that improved Endurance management (Global End Discount? Uber +MaxEnd?) would be preferred. Omega Maneuver really ought to have it's recharge time cut. It isn't without uses, but it is a bit of a stinker. The Pets (including the Epic) don't need any changes or buffs. They are recharge-intensive pets that require re-summoning and have level shifts. Soldiers can already beef up their survivability. They aren't henchmen or ever-lasting Controller pets. There are no problems with Widows/Fortunatas... except for the similar complaint about the inherent.

Bio offers a lot of different options when slotting Health and Endurance uniques, and your choices are radically different than mine. On my build, I don't have any extra slots in Health or Stamina. I'm less concerned about Endurance Recovery and Health Regeneration for a few reasons: set bonuses, click powers, and Adaptation (when necessary). It looks like you are taking more toggles than I would run (certainly at lower levels) so we almost certainly have different experiences for a significant range of content. I must admit that I am biased against 2-slotting Luck of the Gambler by default. For low level powers, the bonuses cut out in some content. If you attune them, they can't be boosted... so a generic IO (or Shield Wall) is a better choice. If Endurance is an issue, then Def/End pieces are a better choice, especially if boosted, or HO Cytoskeleton. I know you are chasing S/L resistance, but I think 5-slots of Reactive Defenses (with the Scaling Resistance piece) in Weave would be a better choice (modulo the LotG Global Recharge placement, but with a 6th piece you get 8.75% Global recharge) My build includes Tough, but I rarely toggle it on. If I need more resistance, I toggle it and change Adaptation. I use it as a mule otherwise. I do think that you are doing yourself a slight disservice by taking DNA Siphon when it is first available and NOT turning it into another offensive tool. I have mine 6-slotted with 3 pieces of Touch of the Nictus (including a %damage) and 3 additional %damage procs. I think the third slot in Hide (the LotG Defense piece) is a poor choice of a slot, because of the nature of Hide. I have no complaints about using it to mule the Kismet and LotG global. I have a different choice for Moonbeam. I 5-slot Sting of the Manticore because of the +Damage and +Recharge. I can understand the preference for the late bonuses from the Winter Set.

And then you need MOAR INF to kit out the 2nd and 3rd builds. My entire reason for getting into the VEAT was to have very different builds available on the same character. The freedom from Tough and Weave is a joyous thing. I have other characters that don't use those powers, but my Widows don't even consider them.

This is how I felt with my (non-Fire) Tanker in the early (and later!) days of Live. I'm not ignorant of all the changes since Beta, and generally I feel like the opening up of damage (including via %damage procs) to more ATs has made the game more fun for more players. I appreciate the posts in this thread from other players who've described their experiences (e.g. @Sovera) when trying to leverage %damage versus slotting "full sets". My typical experience has been that my "defeat all" times (against spawns, not pylons) don't really improve with %procs except in a small number of corner cases. I suppose if someone wants to make the case that level 44 Controllers should take hours to clear a x8 map, such a person should be aware that I won't support that argument.

I can't think of a TF/SF that has this restriction (aside from talking to the character assigning TF.SF missions), although I can imagine such a restriction exists for certain content (Dark Astoria NPCs in missions? Signature Story Arcs maybe?)

I stand with @macskull Like it or not: CoX is about dealing (enough) damage (before too much damage is dealt to you). Folks have fun using %procs to DO MOAR (even if it means they do less in ways they cannot see). There are two sides of the damage/be damaged equation; %damage (et al.) procs are only one dimension to one side of that equation.

See also "Talk to Stephanie Peebles" in the Moonfire TF.