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To add onto what other have written: The %damage procs do more damage if they are from a Very Rare set than if they are from other sets. The %damage procs from PVP sets will scale with level. A common Fortunata power that can be taken at low level and used as a "%proc" build is Dominate; it can take 2xPVP and 2xVery Rare pieces. Keep in mind that a build can only benefit from FIVE instances of a specific enhancement boost; for example this manifests itself by not benefiting from more than FIVE Luck of the Gamblers or FIVE +10% Global Recharges,

How does Electrifying Fences work for you? My favorite Widow Build is Ranged-only, she uses Mu with these choices: (level 31) Mu Lightning with 6xThunderstrike (level 41) Ball Lightning with 6xAnnihilation (level 44) Static Discharge with 5xPositron's Blast (includes the %Energy proc) For my play style, I found that I wanted another single-target attack to drop into the rotation (and of course "Sith" zaps), although practically another AoE would probably suit my preference for fighting large spawns. There are some hard to quantify elements of my build/playstyle (melee defense is much greater, I leverage Aura of Confusion and other PBAoE, I hate runners) that leave me with mixed feelings about using an AoE immobilize, so I'm looking for another widow's thoughts. As for my particular choice in enhancement sets for these Patron powers: It's all about the bonuses. Primarily Endurance (MaxEnd, Discount, Recovery) and Accuracy, with Defense where possible. My build has room for more Very Rare (but extra Global Recharge would cost me too much for too little return, IMO) and I don't have any Winter sets in the build (I find the bonuses to be too narrow, YMMV)

As I have written elsewhere: you play redside to the end to be able to hand Lord Recluse his own helmet, AFTER you have already chewed your way through the named "Heroes" of Paragon City AND his best seconds (and their lackeys). Blueside? You get to see Darren Wade punk the same heroes while you utterly fail to make a difference.

I have a serious investment in Purples, but INF (and merits) is easy to come by IMO. A couple of rando comments: 1) I don't worry about Hasten. It absolutely can help hit perma-Mind Link, but other than that, the extra recharge from Purple/ATO and other sets covers things just fine from my PoV. I wouldn't add the %Recharge proc over a %damage proc (in AoE)... or a %-Resistance piece. Mind Link is what is going to make the difference in +4/x8 content. 2) Be mindful of the slotting of Defense sets/powers. It is (IMO, YMMV) rare that extra slotting is really adding that much to a build (except for Endurance management in some cases). Globals are another matter of course. I'd revisit the slotting on Mind Link. I've posted my recommendations on this all over the place. My own builds typically pick one power to invest 6 slots within (for Reactive Defenses), the rest are usually 2-slot (or 3-slot) investments. My own personal choice to put 6-slots of Reactive Defenses in Mask Presence is peculiar, but that is where my build get the biggest return for that specific investment/choice. 3) My experience with Unrelenting is: invest the full 6-slots of Preventive Medicine. It's a powerful offensive boost. I also have it a level 26, so I use it over a lot of content.

Maybe it's the lack of DFB grinding Redside, but in my experience the merits already pour in easier on the Red Side for low-level solo-ish content. This is all pretty easy to get to with a P2W flight/jump power. Just avoid Doc Graves. I have observed another subtle bonus side-effect of not having 8-man DFB teams red side: A pair (or more) of new villains can team to quickly run through a lot of early content for both XP and merits. They can miss out on the DFB Boosters, but if folks are skipping other low-level content it isn't as if those boosts are making a big difference.

Here is another thing I thought of when reading about the original grind... I can't say that I really miss this, but I feel pangs of nostalgia in a few of the low level (blue side) zones that I got to know real well (from street level) before travel was easy... and to some extent before the various "remodeling" that added universities, Wentworths, rebuilt Atlas Park, etc. Every once in a while I find my grounded characters instinctively making path alterations in zones like Perez Park, Steel Canyon and Kings Row. Even though those (non-hazard) zones got makeovers, they don't seem as radical as the later changes to Talos Island or Founder's Falls.

Not from the "original" game: I miss dragging every Rikti Monkey on the PI map to Portal Corps.

Not the ONLY reason; some of the crafting badges increase storage space on the character (25/30 give extra invention salvage storage, 45/50 increase recipe storage)

Umbral Torrent is a beautiful thing. It needs no changes.

This argument is why I advocate putting the %damage procs in (PBAoE) Mass Confusion. Slot the %Contagious Confusion in the single-target confuse power. Draw blood to claim those precious drops.

As I wrote, I don't really have an issue with the decision to alter the up-time of Rune of Protection. I may be naive, but I pretty much only approached it as an alternative to carrying break frees. Now that the change has been implemented, I'm actually non-plussed that the 'best' value of investing slots is for global pieces since there is so little return on slotting to try to 'enhance' the power. Customization of powers (via enhancements and set bonuses) is one of the best parts of the game IMO. There are already a few powers that don't really benefit from slotting at all (e.g. Pacify... which is so bad it doesn't even mimic Placate for AT that can also take a Placate, but I digress) and I'm somewhat worried that the very good but very hard to optimize Unrelenting (also from the Presence pool) could get the same treatment as Rune of Protection. Unrelenting takes some investment in slotting to make sing, the set bonuses from Heals are as good as the ones from Resistance, and it also benefits from Global Recharge because of the shockingly long inherent recharge time. I can see someone try to convince me they'd be doing me a favor by rejiggering the Presence Pool by approaching Unrelenting as was Rune of Protection. I use Unrelenting on several different characters and ATs; I know it isn't everyone's cuppa.

I have a Thugs/Thermal/Heat at 50+ and I don't enjoy the combination. I find it to be too much effort to keep the Henchmen alive (especially when they are on offense), and the pet AI/behavior isn't as smooth for pure Bodyguard mode. YMMV. I can totally understand why a Thugs/Traps or Thugs/Time pairing could be recommended. I've played Masterminds (including Ninjas!) and Crabberminds, so it isn't as if I'm a noobie.

Traps is fine without having to pursue huge amounts of Global Recharge. Frankly: I find Acid Mortar to be the key offensive power from the secondary for Masterminds. The thing that Traps helps Bobots with is keeping the enemies in particular AoE patches and further debuffing of them. You have to turn the Robot's Konockback into Knockdown first.

OK, so aside the from the change to the recharge.... 75% of the change is to make it a mule?

I usually always "design" a build for level 50, but my leveling up experience never looks like the level 50 build. An easy difference is that while leveling: I almost always need more Recovery while leveling than I will after I have full set bonuses (and accolades). I'm also a lot 'sloppier' with some enhancement sets; as an example I will typically use Overwhelming Force and (attuned) PVP pieces in powers so I can 'slot and forget'... and I often forget until level 50! A respec at level 50 allows me to clean up all these pieces/choices for the next character. I am also somewhat liberal about trying out different powers (including pool powers) while leveling up. Often the utility of some powers could be predicted but I have found a few 'hidden' gems!

I haven't had much opportunity to play with the latest updates, but after some play time I did decide to respec a character that had Invisibility changed to Infiltration (I didn't like it, it felt like I lost too much) and that character also had the Sorcery Pool's Rune of Protection. For the record: I'm neutral on the change to the recharge time. I was caught off guard but not being able to slot straight recharge enhancements, Q1: For characters with previous Rune of Protection slotting, are recharge-only enhancements doing anything? That is, does a non-respec/'grand-fathered' build get a recharge bonus from them? Normally I'd quickly unslot to test, but in this case I wouldn't be able to reslot. I haven't had the chance to play around with alternate slotting to test, so forgive this question as well: Q2: Does the recharge in Defense set pieces contribute to the recharge time of Rune of Protection? (I'm not asking about Hami-Os, I assume that Membrane Exposures won't contribute to Recharge, if they even could be slotted.)

Damage over Time takes some getting used to. A couple of rando comments; There is no such thing as "over kill" when a Paragon Protector goes Moment of Glory. Switch targets frequently. As my Dark Blaster became more able to tackle/survive large spawns, he barely minds the overkills. I also don't take Tenebrous Tentacles. I could slot it into my build nicely (at level 44) and I have often considered it over the Knockback power (Repulsion Bomb) that I have there... but I sort of like the "get the H3!! away from me' aspect of Repulsion Bomb. My slotting of Life Drain is: Level 26: Life Drain -- TchoftheN-Heal:50(A), TchoftheN-Acc/Heal:50(29), TchoftheN-%Dam:50(29), GldJvl-Acc/Dmg:50(31), GldJvl-Dam%:30(31), CldSns-%Dam:30(31) For me, this struck the right balance between: Accuracy (including a Global boost), Recovery and Damage (via %procs) My Dark Blaster build only has two powers trying to leverage %damage procs: Umbral Torrent (it is a cone, so consider boosting the range in this!) and Life Drain. Other powers get a %damage proc as part of a set, and two powers (Moonbeam and Blackstar) have a 6th piece using a %damage proc. My Secondary is Temporal, so I can't comment on the secondary. I would be skeptical on trying to turn the hold (Abyssal Gaze) into a %damage proc monster on a Blaster. My opinion only: The HOLD is probably going to provide more utility than the extra %damage. Hold sets offer some pretty nice set bonuses. I especially like Gladiator's Net for Blasters.

I'm also not surprised; the ranged version of my Fortunata (no melee at all, Mu instead of Soul) plays very much like the linked video shows. I am also happy to see a sweet sister showing the scrappers a thing or two 🙂 The only thing that surprised me (but just a little) in the linked video was that the build included perma-Hasten. From my experience it only cuts a few seconds from some of the long recharge powers, although for speed runs I can see how it could make the precious difference between keeping something like Mind Link permanent for the Fortunata. I play my Fortunata much more 'on the edge' with a couple of other tricks in the rotation including Invoke Panic and Unrelenting.

Blueside: I'll grab the first 8 hours, but after that point it is essentially random if I use them. I don't think the levels below 12 provide much of a feel for the uniqueness of a character. I think the Gold and Red side flavor is much better at low levels, so it is possible for me to enjoy the 'mission text' more by not out-leveling it.

Looking back at my Spines/Bio build I feel like I should explain some things about my thinking: Except for DNA Siphon, I am avoiding franken-slotting powers with %damage procs. I feel like the Stalker benefits more from set bonuses (especially +Accuracy) and constant attacking (Global Recharge). The only attack I would consider adding a %damage proc to would be Throw Spines (as a sixth slot), because Ranged Cone. However: This power has a relatively fast recharge, a relatively small (range) cone. I suspect adding a simple Range IO would improve the damage output (against large/distant spawns, not pylons) more than hoping for %damage. (This may be the most relevant comment for this AoE thread) I don't use Shadow Meld all that often, so the second slot could be redistributed. I use it primarily to time against certain AV/GM attacks as well as a OH $#%+ button. The Kismet piece in Hide is IMO a no-brainer, but it could be considered over-kill. For builds that include a Snipe, I always consider adding that Kismet piece since the fast snipes get a damage bonus from ToHit bonuses (up to +22%) Obviously, the defenses/resists can be adjusted to taste. /Bio has Adaptation (3 different flavors) and Ablative Carapace available for most content, if you standard/slow level up with those powers you will get a sense of just how they contribute to survival (as opposed to raw Defense/Resist values). I don't always remember to toggle on Tough.

This is a pretty straightforward set of choices. I don't try to 'cap' anything except fun. I like having Weave available ASAP, but the build would be more fun IMO if DNA Siphon was taken earlier in the build. This is one of my rare builds where I think Hasten is important, mostly because of the secondary. I don't use MIDS, and exporting has 'gone sour' for me, here goes: Level 50 Mutation Stalker Primary Power Set: Spines Secondary Power Set: Bio Armor Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Lunge -- SprAssMar-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprAssMar-Dmg/Rchg:50(3), SprAssMar-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(3), SprAssMar-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), SprAssMar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), SprAssMar-Rchg/Rchg Build Up:50(7) Level 1: Hide -- Ksm-ToHit+:30(A), LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(7) Level 2: Hardened Carapace -- UnbGrd-Max HP%:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(9), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(36), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(36) Level 4: Boundless Energy -- Pnc-Heal/EndRedux:50(A), Pnc-Heal/Rchg:50(9), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg:50(11), Pnc-Heal:50(11), Pnc-Heal/+End:50(13), EndMod-I:50(50) Level 6: Assassin's Impaler -- SprStlGl-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprStlGl-Dmg/Rchg:50(13), SprStlGl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(15), SprStlGl-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(15), SprStlGl-Rchg/Hide%:50(17), Hct-Dam%:50(17) Level 8: Build Up -- GssSynFr--ToHit:50(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg:50(19), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx:50(19), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx:50(21), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx:50(21), GssSynFr--Build%:50(23) Level 10: Environmental Modification -- ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(A), ShlWal-Def:50(23), LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(25) Level 12: Spine Burst -- FuroftheG-ResDeb%:50(A), Arm-Dam%:50(25), Arm-Dmg:50(27), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(29), Arm-Dmg/Rchg:50(29) Level 14: Fly -- WntGif-ResSlow:50(A) Level 16: Adaptation Level 18: Impale -- Apc-Dmg:50(A), Apc-Dmg/Rchg:50(31), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Apc-Dam%:50(33) Level 20: Ablative Carapace -- Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(33), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(34), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(34), Prv-Absorb%:50(34) Level 22: Kick -- FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(A) Level 24: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(36) Level 26: Ripper -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx:50(37), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(37), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(37), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(39), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc:50(39) Level 28: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(39) Level 30: Weave -- Rct-Def:50(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(40), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Rct-Def/Rchg:50(40), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), Rct-ResDam%:50(42) Level 32: Throw Spines -- Rgn-Dmg:50(A), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(43), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), Rgn-Knock%:50(43) Level 35: Moonbeam -- StnoftheM-Acc/Dmg:50(A), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), StnoftheM-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg:50(45), StnoftheM-Acc/ActRdx/Rng:50(45), StnoftheM-Dam%:50(46), GldJvl-Dam%:40(46) Level 38: DNA Siphon -- TchoftheN-Heal:50(A), TchoftheN-Acc/Heal:30(46), Erd-%Dam:30(48), Obl-%Dam:50(48), ScrDrv-Dam%:50(48), TchoftheN-%Dam:50(50) Level 41: Shadow Meld -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(50) Level 44: Parasitic Aura -- RechRdx-I:50(A) Level 47: Hover -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A) Level 49: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A) Level 1: Assassination Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- UnbLea-Stlth:50(A) Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I:50(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I:50(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+:40(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%:50(A) Level 16: Defensive Adaptation Level 16: Efficient Adaptation Level 16: Offensive Adaptation ------------

Have you tried looking for a sensible pair of women's shoes in Paragon City that didn't have a heel? Options are limited!

You can always delay taking the arc... I think all of the enemies in instanced missions will scale with your level. Frankly: The whole arc seems like an excuse to show off different 'mission mechanics'. Generally I think it works.