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Allow me to be an early rejector of this framing. It really does look to me like the game has always had trade-offs baked in. ATs with 'armors' typically only have offense from one of either the primary or secondary. Kheldian Dwarfs get awesome mezz protection, but... Dwarf. VEATs somewhat stand alone. Control ATs get multiple controls of their own to leverage. MMs get henchmen. Many 'control' sets offer pets. Defenders/Corrs choose between buffs or debuffs (generally) plus ranged attacks. Doms (can) get perma-immunity to control. Blasters get excellent damage scales and attacks in both primary and secondary... plus sustains, plus an inherent that allows attacks while mezzed, plus some controls of their own. The only ATs that I find annoying to be susceptible to PVE 'control' are Controllers... they can grab a lot of aggro, and don't have extra damage to deal with RNG misses of enemies. Once I have 15+ inspiration slots I typically don't worry about PVE control.

I'll piggyback on @EnjoyTheJourney comments about the AoE immobilizes... many of them now negate knockback (if that is a thing that bothers a player).

I was going to post this in another thread, but I'll toss the advice here: I don't think Glittering Column is useful. For grabbing aggro, Catherine Wheel is more than enough. A couple of comments on the 'goals' It is hard to get both 'good global recharge' without purples. There is Hasten of course, but I find relying on Hasten to be too restrictive. Pyro doesn't really need that much in terms of Purple: 5x Explosive Bouquet, 5x in Brilliant Barrage is all I did. Sparkling Chain has 6x of WotC. I'm not a fan of Overpowering Presence. The 2-piece superior bonus can be nice, but generally that is where I'll stop with it. I'm using 2 pieces in Hypnotizing Lights to support the %damage. I took: Dazzle (3xGladiator's and lots of %damage) Sparkling Chain (see above) Hypnotizing Lights (see above) Brilliant Barrage (stun) Explosive Bouquet (hold) Catherine Wheel (6xCupid's Crush) Incendiary Aura (HO Enzyme) Hover-blasting isn't my thing... Incendiary Aura isn't a power you'd necessarily need, I delayed it until level 30. If you intended to always Hover, I suggest slotting the Kismet +ToHit piece in Hover. I have it in Combat Jumping. Set bonuses and inherent slotting might make this unnecessary (for me), but I don't really have a better place for more QoL to use that slot... and I hate the ToHit debuffs.

I can't explain the rationale. Kraken got a couple of rounds of Resistance/HP buffs, and now the extra ToHit. It's obviously a "flavor" choice that was made to have it 'emerging' from the surroundings. Aside from the visibility change and the previously mentioned buffs, Kraken got almost nothing else added to it during the rebalance(s). The only other blue zone GM that got less was IMO Babbage. Paladin got the pulse, Adamastor got the soul drain, Eochai got a new attack, Jack got better control... I suppose Jurassik only got more HP and Resistance (plus a little buff to the stun). Lusca's big buff came when the ToHit chances were increased; prior to that (recent) change Lusca was one of the easier GMs to solo.

This *is* a feature; it was changed as one of the GM balancing passes. (i27p7 IIRC). It's been this way for well over a year.

FWIW, I've found Shoal Rush to be a very reasonable source of %damage. I wouldn't skip Brine, I typically have it slotted with 2x Accuracy/Healing.

The 'ingredients' for 'Break Free' drop all the time... Using blues... /macro_image "BA_Megalomaniac" "Blue" "inspcombine Catch_A_Breath Break_Free$$inspcombine Take_A_Breather Emerge$$inspcombine Second_Wind Escape" Using yellows... /macro_image "BA_Vangaurd_Medal" "Yellow" "inspcombine Insight Break_Free$$inspcombine Keen_Insight Emerge$$inspcombine Uncanny_Insight Escape" Using reds... /macro_image "NewPraetorians_NobleSavage_Integration" "Red" "inspcombine Enrage Break_Free$$inspcombine Focused_Rage Emerge$$inspcombine Righteous_Rage Escape"

To my eyes (and graphics setting), the trees in Perez Park have similar shading to Kraken from a distance. There are some Giant Monsters which are visible almost all the way across a zone, which must be equally immersion killing, particularly in a place like "Dark" Astoria.

I believe this is working as intended. This was changed long ago (sometime circa Fall 2023? Or part of the Giant Monster revamp immediately after that time). If I had to guess at the reasoning: It is because Kraken 'blends in' with the environment of Perez Park.

One part of the market that causes my eyebrows to rise is Prismatic Aethers... not so much about the price, it is curious to me that the supply routinely jumps by several thousands, several times a week. I'm not at all surprised these end up in the AH... it is more surprise about the volume of them.

Status effects on PCs is a balance issue... that some ATs need to have drivers that know how to adapt. On its face, the request reads like "can I have an enhancement that duplicates powers available to other characters?" I'm not ignorant of +global defense and KB protection, but I am comfortable with those pieces existing. I don't think the entire game is supposed to be 'stand in place and swat enemies that come to you'.

I agree trying to develop a macro can be a PITA... I'm not sure how often I'd use the proposed functionality. I typically keep a window with the macro text, and do some cutting/pasting/tweaking until I am satisfied... I try to save the final form of the macro for later reference.

^This^ is what drives some amount of personal head-scratching. I grok a 'new player' that stumbles into 2XP and wants to buy (probably from vendors) or 'upgrade', but even that class of new player is adjacent to the type of player that wants to beeline to 50, and have a full-kit, and hasn't planned to have the full-kit. Any player that can insta-50 can rather cheaply load up with common IOs. As for any 'performance gate' that is locked by enhancement set bonuses... that gate unlocks easily (through both the market or Merit vendors or simple stockpiling)... it just doesn't unlock by wishing. +1. As noted: The various ways of obtaining almost all pieces by other ways works against "flipping" in the CoX market.

I find Dark Control to be excellent on Controllers... I can imagine that building to PermaDom on Dominators might make it less impressive. On my favorite Dark Controller: Dark Grasp: 5-slots, FrankenSlotted for some Control and Damage %procs... A Dom will robably 5-slot Apocalypse Living Shadows: 5-slotted Frankenslot for Damage via %procs, Dom will probably chase recharge via set bonus Fearsome Stare: 4xCloud Senses, a Dom won't have room for any more slots Heart of Darkness: Frankenslotted on a Controller, this might be a power to try to frankenslot on a Dominator (for %damage) Haunts: 6x Cupid's Crush Shadow Field: slot for a set bonus of some sort Umbra Beast: I have this frankenslotted with pieces for Acc/Dam/End, a HamiO Lysosome, %Knockdown and %damage (cloud senses)

I might have a character or two that I log into only when Global conversation takes a peculiar direction.

"Congratulations! I see you have enough experience to have reached level 45, but according to my time notes you should only be level 6 so let's reset you down to that level!"

Another one of the 'dead giveaways' that a build will be near useless for leveling is seeing Hasten chosen before level 10. Hasten does practically nothing for a character below level 20 and there are certainly other power picks that improve QoL in the levels between 4 and 16.

For those us without Discord, any chance of a text version here?

I guess I *am* in the future. It is too late!

I definitely find myself wondering if some players recognize just how little they get for some of the recommendations. I do effectively pointless things like boosting the damage enhancement in a Purple set to go from something like 300 to 301, but I'm aware how wasteful this is... but my reasoning is "it is MOAR damage!" so I can understand the instinct.

I have recently gotten some training origin level 50 drops. Weird but true.

My apologies for weak search-fu... no apologies for not being on the Discord... what was the nature of this Tuesday's update?

I don't go out of my way to criticize MIDS, but I will reluctantly reveal that I think it is probably one of the worst-engineered pieces of software that I've ever tried to use/install/use/re-install. I don't care that it is a volunteer effort... if volunteer carpenters were making furniture that wobbled, gave splinters, didn't fit through my doors, etc. I still wouldn't accept them with a "thanks for volunteering!" Re: Slotting... why put all those slots into either power when the 6-slots are needed for Wall of Force?!

Forum PVP is the only PVP.

I was hoping @Maelwys would do the math, but here is my thinking: As far as %proc rates go (for Force of Will) Project Will is a base 5-second recharge time power, Weaken Resolve is a base 30-second recharge time power... the longer recharge time puts it in the "90% ceiling" category (%chance ~ 3x or 4x higher for the slower power) Naively: PPM were originally intended to be something of a wash when it comes to "do I slot damage enhancement or a %damage"... but (some Controller focus) the following come into play: Global recharge doesn't affect %proc rates, so a 30-second power is available more often from global recharge (than a 5-second power... less foot-room for improvement) Is a Controller going to put (enough) slots into a pool attack (I've done this for set bonuses, but it is uncommon) Is the pool attack going to be crucial enough that I'm going to be spamming it (sooner than 30 seconds or less)? (for my Controllers...no) Is the primary effect of Weaken Resolve (the debuff) valuable by itself? On the last point... for me (solo) it depends on the Controller. If there is a lot of extra damage floating around (teammates, pets, patches) then some debuff plus %damage is the choice for me.