tidge

I... guess? The map-herding via Unai was a thing in Issue 1. Kheldians were in Issue 3. To the point made by @Greycat... There wasn't that much of a reason to rush to level 50 in the early days of Live. The biggest motivator for me was the extra power picks and all those extra slots. We didn't even have the same considerations for Enhancements back then.

The *only* reason to rush to 50 was that HEATs got unlocked by having a level 50. Obviously this wasn't a thing *until* HEATs showed up. I'm still not entirely sure what the motivation to rush to level 50 is on Homecoming. I can sort of appreciate a player wanting to see what a full level-50 kit can do, but I've never really bought into the argument that goes like "I'm bored with pre-45 content... so instead I want to run level 45+ over-and-over-again."

Easy check: turn off all aura, do a Takeoff in a PVP zone against some critters and look for the TAUNTED!

Since Penny Yin TF was mentioned.... No matter the AT, when I solo it I do it at +0x1, and rarely engage more enemies mobiles than necessary. My (lvl 50) MMs don't take much longer than (lvl 50) Blasters/Scrappers/Stalkers/Tankers, but they do take longer. I've soloed it with other ATs, but those are the AT I'll choose for a quick 40 merits/Notice/etc. The main source of attributable variation among ATs is due to damage/resistance type mismatches, but the Yin TF has a combination of rez (Freaks) and transformations/untouchables (Council) that can add minutes to any run.

For Soldiers, I almost never take a Patron pool unless I am playing a Crabbermind (because of the final pet). Otherwise I find that the pre-Patron powers can do everything I want and demand all my slots. For the Widows, I usually take a Patron pool because the extra AoE powers tend to help with larger spawn sizes. Mu is the set I prefer, mostly because of the animations.

Takeoff also has a somewhat long recharge time that makes it somewhat inferior as a reliable control/threat power. I do tend to take Force of Will on Tankers, in mission I will (if I remember) use Takeoff to knockdown enemies just to make a statement.

I have sets I keep going back to for concept/animation reasons, but I keep getting reminded how underwhelming I find them. I don't really find them unacceptable, but I find them to be low-performing (for my tastes for the AT). Sometimes those sets shine on other ATs, sometimes those sets offer "one great trick" that gets a lot of attention but doesn't rock my world. The old, linked posts about differences in clear times measured in seconds between melee types... not particular persuasive to me, although the relative difference between melee sets does align with my personal perceptions.

For me... it's all about the factions that end up with strong Psi Resists that make it more painful to play than other primaries. This is *hard* for me, as I generally like all of the Psi animations for all ATs.

I've used Infiltration as a character's travel power, usually on really tight Blaster builds where I was going to otherwise "run out of pools" and needed some end-build mule powers for LotG, I might have a character that has a Kismet +ToHit in it (if taken at low enough level), but otherwise it is muling a Winter's Gift Slow Resist or a LotG.

The influx of new level 50s (from Mapserver, from ToT) usually signals more market activity.

From my perspective, the increased PBAoE radius for Tankers (on HC) more than makes up for whatever "fun" Tankers could derive from herding enormous numbers of critters. I was playing a Tanker since Launch day, and except from being able to easily survive hundreds of Rikti Monkeys (after first expansion) it was usually more fun just to play a Scrapper.

I put rare salvage in the personal vault of each character. I have two racks in the SG base for rare salvage... I keep this 'buffet' stocked. If I need a specific rare piece that I don't have, I just AH some pieces that I don't need.

This suggestion isn't practical (because of existing characters, and *all* the history, going back to how Live Scrappers outclassed Live Tankers for most content before CoV even existed) yet here I go: If there is a belief that Tankers, Scrappers and Stalkers all "have their place" (even if not everyone agrees) the melee class that I think is missing is a melee character that debuffs enemies in PBAoE... not completely dissimilar to how the Sentinel AT does something distinct from Blasters/Corruptors/Defenders/Controllers/Dominators. Keep in mind that I consider Sentinels to be essentially Scrappers with Ranged attacks... If a Brute could (hypothetically) see a scaling increase in damage output by debuffing enemy resistance (with or without the way Fury builds damage output) it would at least give them a different role on teams than the other 'melee' types.

I prefer Combat Teleport to other similar powers, yet... I observed some weird behavior (at low level) I rarely see this at higher levels, but I have more to do at higher level so I have not really been paying attention any longer.

I hope that some folks will leverage this thread to understand why they may think their characters are "keeping aggro" based on solo play, but really are not "managing aggro" when teamed. In particular, when teamed "running past a spawn (and waking them up)" is not the same as "controlling aggro".

I don't disagree about being judicious in the choice of where to put slots (in a multi-form). On my builds the Nova form ST attacks often simply hold a small number (3 or fewer) enhancement pieces (IIRC, I slot one of the ATO here). Dwarf form tends to get more slots in its powers, since the Dwarf is the survivable form. The extra potential for slotting the forms' travel powers is somewhat hit-or-miss. I like those powers as mules, with occasional extra slotting, but I don't consider them (extra travel powers for mules) to be that advantageous.

Tell me more... is it all body types? If so, which options?

I was thinking specifically as a 'extra' (additive) scaling factor right in the power formulae (with a subtractive recharge factor?) to make them essentially bridge from being the equivalent of a T4 to something more like a T7 or T8 as the Nova player levels up. Alternatively, based on MM henchmen summons, we know that player level can be checked prior to the power manifesting... so I can imagine flat-out different formulae, but this would be a step-change rather than a gradual ramping up. My thinking was "low level blasts from other ATs typically get disfavored as those ATs level, but Nova forms are stuck with them".

This is a good point that I typically ignore... probably because I so rarely put Hasten in my builds. The global recharge I build for will disappear below the sets' levels, but usually 50% is coming from ATO/VR (down to 7) with a LotG level being the dominant gate. I try to avoid the level 30 sets for this reason, but there are plenty of healthy +Recharge bonuses from sets that go below 20.... and there is always the Force Feedback %+Recharge, but I don't like that one so much.

Often Hasten requires a second slot to earn its place (and juggling multiple auto-fire powers... not impossible, but "one more thing") while the 3x Concealment pool requires no extra slots to be used as mules for the LotG pieces.

I feel the same about Shield Wall... except that I'd never 6-slot on any AT. 3-slots is common for me, I can't think of a character of mine that slotted 4 or more.

I've bolded something I think is key about builds. In the olden days of live (circa Issue 1, when 4 more power picks became available) it was common to take Fitness, plus Hasten, plus Fighting... and then the last pool would often be Leaping (for Combat Jumping and possibly Acrobatics). Once Fitness became inherent, it freed up one pool choice, but it was still common to see recommendations for Hasten/Fighting/Leaping... and these remain common today! On HC, because it is so very straightforward to get global +Recharge bonuses via enhancement sets, I also don't see much need to take Hasten, except for: Characters with critical, very long recharge time powers Characters that opt to have very few attacks (with longish recharge times) and want a steady attack chain I can see a case for a player not wanting to invest in enhancements that offer global +Recharge and going for Hasten instead... but when I see folks pick Hasten at level 4 (or really: below level 18, when it shouldn't be needed, except maybe for Dominators) and then also try to build for perma-Hasten, I tend to think that is like the tail wagging the dog. I went on a BR kick about 18 months ago, trying it on all ATs except Corruptors (no judgement, but I had just played several). I went with BR/MA, here is a snapshot. I went with Martial on this one because I wanted to focus on the BR and I felt like Martial offered the most without forcing me to lean too hard into the melee. (I enjoy Blapping, but this was for concept)

To the OP: Khelds are in a weird spot (and have been for a long time). My PoV is this: The multi-form basis of the AT(s) essentially means that the performance of the powers inherent to the (non-human) forms is going to be effectively 'level-locked', in this sense: The Nova form blasts are pretty much the equivalent of low-level blaster powers The Dwarf form gets great survival tools, but mediocre melee tools (akin to lower-level melee powers) The "changeling exploit" is a sort of way to overcome the otherwise poor performance the ATs will have if they rely (mostly) on one form... so there is a dual issue with Kheldians that: The dev team has to come up with something better, The dev team has to close the 'changeling exploit' loophole (without crippling the multi-form identity of Kheldians) I think it is an open question if #2 is possible... but the bigger issue is probably #1. I've liked a lot of what the HC devs have added, but when it comes to power sets for players, the bag of tricks appears to be: combination mechanics, pseudopets, (semi-hidden) status flags. I don't think any of these approaches would translate well to the multi-form Kheldians, and I don't think there is an appetite to scrap the ATs and start over. My (personal) current thinking is that (assuming changeling exploit is done away with) the most natural way to allow Kheldian non-human forms to "scale up" with level content would be to alter the powers of the non-human forms to use formula (for damage, mostly) to have a sort of extra dynamic scaling (based on player level) so that (for example) the Nova form blasts don't always feel like a player is using a bunch of T1-T4 attacks against level 50s.

I've done both. I enjoyed the Huntsbane more(*1), but in order to maximize what it can do, you have to pick up the mace. (*1) I tend to have a lot of fun red side, but playing a Hunstman as a redside gun-toter (and not leaning at all into the Arachnos VEAT concept) was possibly the most fun I've had in the game.

This can be a slightly tricky question to answer, considering: The Dominator can get caught using a somewhat long animation, Slow effects On one Dominator with several long-ish animations, I was most comfortable with +130% recharge. The final build is actually at +136, but the last bit is coming from a set bonus from a level 30 enhancement set. I try to avoid taking Hasten for perma-dom... this means that I typically won't have it until the level 50 build, but I find this to be a fun build challenge and the character becomes that much more rewarding to play after the level 50 respec.