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As a peculiar aside: A few days ago I was fooling around with one of the GeForce utilities for screen records (unrelated to CoX) which is something I don't typically do... so I also ended up with a significant number of software updates. Generally, I take the position with video-related software and drivers to never update if things are working well, so I was non-plussed. Anyway, after the updates my desktop was behaving "badly" and I thought I was going to have to do a complete system rollback. Disabling the software package and trying to rollback just the video drivers left my system in a bit of a mess... Anyway... it was not a problem with the video drivers and software per se, it was that the Nvidia GeForce software was in a sort of mode where it was ready to capture on a moments notice, and that what was causing the anomalies on the desktop. I ended up not having to do a system rollback, but I did waste time having to reinstall software and reconfigure my desktop display settings. It turned out that the settings I had turned on were STILL on... turning them back off was somewhat easy, but not exactly straightforward.

My advice: If you are actively looking to get the 2xDefeat Sally badge, make a point to regularly pop into Croatoa to look for her. Personally, I don't find the every 45 minute respawn rate to be unreasonable. Since this is the suggestions forum and not the advice forum: If her respawning was tied to a specific number of enemy defeats... she could end up as frustrating to spawn as some of the red-side creatures.

I like the discussion that is considering approaches other than "more of what you got from the T1 thru T8" powers... because quite frankly, most of the Resistance sets DON'T need that, no matter what the potential negative effects are. At the risk of allowing Blasters into the conversation in an adjacent way... there is a huge asymmetry between offense (which gets rid of enemies) and defense (which survives enemies) in terms of rewards... even without considering "crashless nukes". Right now: The Blaster T9s make them better Blasters, but the Tanker T9s don't make better Tankers (in PvE, certainly). Personally, I can describe what I always EXPECTED the Armor T9 to feel like (back on Live), even if it never played this way (for understandable reasons): I expected (on my Invulnerability main) to be able to shrug off attacks from GMs and AVs... just like in the first mission from Mender Ramiel's arc. Obviously neither Oroborous nor Incarnates were a thing back then, but with the (original) level cap at 40... this is basically what I wanted from the primary T9. I never got it, and for good reasons. I can see that my personal expectations from long ago are way out of line for game balance... but they still occupy some real estate in my head space.

Fortunata (one of the VEAT) offer mixes of control with melee and/or range... plus the wonders of the team buffs. Obviously you are limited as to what types of controls (from the career path, plus available pools like Patron and Presence) but if you want that sort of play style I think you can have it.

My only comment on this topic is that (specifically for Stalkers) I wouldn't bother with farming at +4. I realize that the "farming vision" is higher level enemies give more XP, but I think the return on time spent farming will be greater running against even level enemies with faster farm times and vendoring the common level 50 recipes. staying away from the farms and just endlessly recycling some specific content at +0/x8 to also earn merits may be just as rewarding.

Can I offer a suggestion for a couple of Power pool options that I think might serve you better than the Medicine pool, while respecting your intent to be 'strictly human'? I am a HUGE fan of Unrelenting from the Presence Pool, both as an option to self-heal and to boost offense. The problem is that you have to get stuck taking at least one other power that will be of limited utility. I suggest dropping the three powers from the Medicine pool and go with: Provoke: I like having a Taunt on (positional) Defense characters, and the multi-target (albeit with a ToHit Check) is much more useful in almost all situations than Confront. Plus, if you can spare the slots Mocking Beratement is a great set, otherwise Accuracy is good enough. (I could not spare the slots on my Night Widow) Pacify: This power is mostly useless, unless you are specifically soloing EB/AV and want a breather. The single-target fear is slightly more useful, but if you explicitly don't want it (and won't be generating Fear effects through the ATO) I suppose this is your choice. Unrelenting: Go ahead and 6-slot it with Preventive Medicine. On my Night Widow build, I have Provoke (level 16), Intimidate (level 18) and Unrelenting (level 30) I also want to point out that Combat Training Defensive is an Auto power, making it a very good spot to drop the Kismet: Accuracy (really +ToHit) piece. EDIT: I want to note that the Pacify from the presence pool DOES NOT WORK like Placate. You will not get a chance at a Critical bonus from it.

I agree with the assessment by Operative @Gulbasaur. This is just my attitude: I found that the final Fortunata path allows for more of a unique play experience, whereas my Night Widow build felt very much like a Stalker... but without access to most of the things that make Stalkers REALLY NASTY. I will add that while leveling up my (now favorite) Fortunata, I had set up two different builds simultaneously and I used the Night Widow build for a significant amount of content after level 24. Of course, the BEST thing about the VEAT IMO is that if you want different play-styles, you can use the alternate builds to try something else without having to level up a completely different character. On each build you WILL have to confront the mandatory respec at level 24, so just be aware of that and set aside enough time to deal with that.

For me... the Quantum targeting was pretty much a holdover from live. It helps when teaming/playing with Kheldians, but without cysts they aren't nearly as bad.

I use the following: /bind n target_custom_near enemy alive I suspect that 'alive' is not necessary, but there you go.

It was a long time ago, before the CoX was released into the wild, that I gave up reading the emails from the City of Titans Kickstarter. The Fanfic/Lore was a real turn-off, costuming is important but secondary to game play (for me, YMMV), and the map design seemed way too complicated for a first pass.

Let's not go there. Except for Regen. Nerf Regen.

All my characters use, via keybinds: target 'nearest alive enemy' TAB to 'next alive enemy' (default) <- I'll use this after 'nearest' to set up cone attacks, or to get to a 'more important' target target nearest alive "quantum" (and I will add other specific keywords to it as I think of it, for specific content) The only variants I use (for non-attacks) are: for some specific buffs/heals, I have a keybind to target nearest ally (I run up to them before application) for some placed AoE 'patch' effects, I use a macro to drop the patch 5 units directly in front of me.

If the game and the sets were re-examined from scratch, having such a power earlier in the sets might be useful... but for the most part I think the current progression of Armor (and Defensive) sets is pretty solid. I have a couple of characters where I *personally* felt I was not getting a specific type of Defense until late in the progression, but this vague feeling wasn't affecting my enjoyment of the game... and with set bonuses from IOs I can use Ouroboros to go back to those earlier levels and increase difficulties. TL;DR: I see re-arranging the Armor (and Defense) sets to include a potentially useful click at an earlier level as more of a NERF, since it will be delaying (mostly) useful power choices until later. I won't support a solution to the "problem" of "most players don't take a T9" to be "move one of the useful lower level powers to T9 so that they take it".

Rather than going for new Mastermind Primaries (because I think there needs to be a serious re-balancing of the existing primaries first), I still like this idea that can lead to a new 'pet' control AT (as opposed to henchmen): Praetorian Epic Archetypes (PEATs): Model them like the VEATs, where you take a force respec at lvl 24, and one of the two paths allows you to be a hybridized (Praetorian) Devouring Earth... where you can summon/reuse some of the DE assets (Rubbles, Shards, Fungi) The other PEAT path could give you the Orbs, or Seers or what not.

I like the thinking here. If the T9 are find use in PVP, I guess that's good for them... but I neither play PVP nor take the T9s, so I'm ignorant of them. I would certainly reconsider them if they helped my team, but with the caveats: Do we really need more powers to make teams MOAR powerful? T9s come late in the game for the content where extra team buffs would make a difference.

The SoA can be built very tough, but they don't make particularly good tanks IMO. That isn't to say that playing by themselves they can't get a lot of aggro and need to be tough, its just that they have many good tools for improving team performance as well as debuffing enemies (and providing some 'softer' controls). My take is that for team play, focus on the team buffs (from the SoA tracks) and enemy AoE debuffs (from the SoA attacks) will pay larger dividends than just trying to cap your own resistances. Don't fall in love with your pets... they are not like henchmen, and they are not like controller pets. The closest analog to them that many players will be familiar with are Lore pets. Your teammates are your best pets. @Gulbasaur makes a good point about not getting the pets until higher levels. If you intend to team for lower level content, you won't have them. At 50+ content, you will be revisiting the forum to find ways to keep the pets alive in order to increase your own damage output. Here is a thread to examine. Any SoA build advice from @Omega-202 is worth considering. If you post a build asking for advice, he'll have something to say about it. Here was a thread specifically focused on some of the "pet" questions.

My Widow also has enemies scattering in 2π (even more if the mobs can fly!), but I would not want a Taunt aura. Personally, I'm not sure such a thing would actually keep enemies from scattering anyway. If a better Taunt is requested, then make Confront be a targeted AoE instead of the single-target Taunt. My Widows all dip into the Presence pool (to get Unrelenting) and Provoke is a trivial choice for me, as even with the ToHit check, 99% of the time I am trying to take aggro I want aggro from more than one enemy. The other 1% of the time something has gone SERIOUSLY wrong and I'd prefer the auto-hit Confront to interest Lord Recluse while my teammates are rezzing. I do agree that the VEAT inherent seems peculiarly weak.

Best Brut is Brut Reynolds

Thank you for exposing this. I have a -/Poison Controller and a -/Traps Mastermind, and I haven't been impressed with the contribution of the Poison Trap Hold to Controller build as much as I am with the Mastermind build.

9999 merits and Empyrian ain't one.

This is a key point! Crabberminds get (recharge intensive) Pets (including a Patron pet) and NOT Henchmen. This results in a few key differences to be aware of (and not sob about, dear new recruits): They can't be ordered like henchmen There is no bodyguard mode Some Incarnates you might expect to work for the pets don't work like you might expect them to work They are on a timer, unlike pets from other AT (e.g. Singularity, Fire Imps) For the powers that spawn multiples, if you resummon 'replacements' before any surviving 'originals' expire, they will all expire at the same time as the (surviving) originals. You have to put some effort into defense, search this subforum for lots of discussion on 'keeping the pets alive' Crabberminds can be a LOT of fun, but you have to adjust your expectations. I enjoy the Bane builds, with the AoE/Debuffing focus on the rifle attacks the most.

You should be fine. I haven't played my Grav/Kin is a long time. From memory, I skipped Lift and Dimensional Shift in the primary. From the secondary I skipped Repel and (somewhat foolishly, IMO) Increase Density... which is why I advise against making the same mistake I did! It's the sort of power that can make a big difference (especially if taken ASAP, and you play on a lot of teams). I definitely had Inertial Reduction... but part of my enjoyment of CoX is travel through the zones. YMMV. I think I used it to slot additional travel power sets. I have nothing against Maneuvers and Tactics. I probably have Maneuvers in that build myself. Grav/Kin is a classic combo with the opportunity for clever build choices around the edges... with respect to power choices more than just trying for 'caps'. I don't think my build was particularly clever, so let us know where you land.

/seconded. I was on a recent Frostfire mission (we started at +3) and I was remembering how PAINFUL (and GLORIOUS) that mission could be with a team of 8 that included a Kheldian.

I have a Grav/Kin, but my only immediate thought is in a different direction... no matter what secondary you take, I would reconsider taking Leadership toggles if taking those powers means that you would be sacrificing powers from the primary or secondary. anybody can dip into the Leadership pool, the Controller powers are far less widespread.

Meh. Why bother putting it (a modified Perez Park) in a (rather centrally located) existing zone at all? There is quite a lot of different things going on in that zone anyway, so why screw that one up (as opposed to say... Boomtown? Or a modern/transplanted Cimerora? I think it is fair to say that the "Hazard Zone" concept really didn't pan out the way that the original Devs intended... but of all the original Hazard zones, Perez Park is the one with the most nostalgia... at least for me. Of the originals it is also probably the quickest/easiest to traverse, modulo a door mission inside a tree maze.