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Citadel's TF is a very good example of regular content where I think "splitting the party" is a pretty natural approach: It has several "defeat all" missions, where the entire point of success is to eliminate all enemies. There is a radical difference in increasing effectiveness between having two 4-person squads and the increase between a single 7-person squad that adds an 8th member. It includes a 'delivery mission'. Only one person can complete this mission It includes a 'defeat x' mission in an open zone. It happens at a high enough level where individual ATs ought to have fully come into their role, and have the slots to make their powers (and if chosen, set bonuses) strong. I feel similarly about the (blueside) Numina, Manticore, Moonfire and Penny Yin TFs... although the lower in level you go the less access to powers (and set bonuses) characters have. I have NO DOUBT that at least one of my characters recently caused grief for a (large) mid-level PUG. The leader had the mission difficulty cranked WAY UP (see below) before I joined with a melee character that could hold its own. I found that I was both getting in the way of others and that some pets (decoys) would end up blocking me, or otherwise the enemies were falling before my animations landed. I wasn't tanking, so after convincing myself that the other 7 players could handle single groups I branched off to battle 'distant' groups so that we wouldn't draw too much aggro. The other 7 players were objectively less effective without me sticking close... When I saw them struggling I would try to rejoin to assist... but every time this happened it was because of accidental over aggro. I felt like it would have been MORE of a jerk move to intentionally over-aggro BEFORE the rest of the team did it naturally. A note about WAY UP difficulty: In my experience, there are primarily two things about +4x8 content that cause struggles at mid-levels and below, Final (player) To Hit chances fall, so enemies are not as "controlled by KO" as quickly, Other controls work less effectively against enemies... and of course, those precious AoE controls are going to upset enemies! If a team doesn't have (enemy) debuffs or (ally) buffs... there is only so much "team talk" that is going to help teams! I do try to make suggestions based on powers I see being used, but beyond passing inspirations to struggling teammates (but only if they actually have the sense to be using inspirations and thus have free slots), I don't know what else to do?

Do you routinely take longer than 5 minutes to complete a TF?

The proposed solution doesn't really address why folks couldn't be more chatty during teams. If anything, "Masters of +4x8" should be able to char MORE during missions.

The steam-powered representative from Prussia votes "The diverse elements of the Lore should not be connected."

You should play a Robotics/Traps MM, but don't take any henchmen. You can claim they were "stolen" (from you). You will eventually put this character back on the street.

The recipes have patterns, but there are quite a few... unusual... ones.

Add me to the list of "never impressed by McAfee from back-in-the-day". I felt that the combination of the false positives would lead to a "boy who cried wolf" situation, and then a few obvious misses was enough for me to remove trust in that product. Maleware bytes is an acceptable modern solution, but after the trial period expires it begins to act like any other annoying piece of software asking for the subscription. It should still work to protect, but just be aware that you will have a new "friend" reaching out to you.

To me, this looks like a slice of cheesecake while someone is applying "whipped topping" via a spray can.

See the first post in the Beta patch notes The rationale is offered in the "Other Power Changes" section.

In the heat of battle, I don't pay attention that much attention to what other players are doing (with respect to 'click' non-attacks), but on teams I definitely notice a lot of buffs flying around such that I rarely 'need' Rune of Protection. I can only write that for the few characters of mine that have Rune of Protection, it is primarily for solo play. I'm not sure how serious to take the argument of "We want the timing of RoP to be more like other T5 pool choices"... when Unrelenting has a far worse inherent set of timers. I suspect it is the self-rez component of Unrelenting that is causing the timing to be so weird, but 99% of my own use of Unrelenting is for the buffs and almost never the rez.

I see no reason to "pin" a thread for some arbitrary reason of "best pairing for this AT". Many players pick pairings for "fluff" (i.e. concept) as well as picking them for "crunch" (i.e. NUMBERS PEW PEW!) Have a question or a rando thought? Ask away or use the search bar.

I have two SJ characters (one Scrapper, one Stalker) and while I like the set, I also ignore the combo points. If I happen to be targeting a hard target when they come up... I will hold off until Crushing Uppercut is ready... but for many situations it is just an annoyance for me to pay attention to them. YMMV. Invuln/EM is a pretty safe build, and the new EM modifications )+tanker updates) have improved it. The pom-poms are far less visually annoying than the Rad Armor, IMO.

Pacify will not allow immediate Assassin's Strikes for Stalkers, nor will it benefit VEATs with their similar mechanic. As near as I have been able to determine, it has only one reliable use: If you find yourself in a long, drawn-out fight with an AV (and no other enemies are aggro-ed, you can use Pacify to give yourself some breathing room. Frankly: Pacify is such a nigh-useless power, allowing it to work like Placate does (but only for the AT that already have Placate) would make the power potentially worthwhile for a few classes. Ultimately I'd rather see the Presence Pool simply allow Invoke Panic as the second power pick, as their is so little synergy between Pacify, Provoke and Intimidate that having to take two of those first three is quite a punishment.

I'm a fan of the Presence Pool; one of my Stalkers uses it. Only considering the powers you have put in the build: single-slot only for Intimidate. Without a new set for Fear, it isn't useful enough to justify any more slots. This is a fine candidate for an HO. Pacify won't work like the Stalker Placate, if that matters to you. 5-slot Invoke Panic with Glimpse of the Abyss. If you add a 6th slot for the %stun piece you can get some extra effects it looks like you are chasing. I always try to 6-slot Unrelenting with Preventive Medicine. It is a very nice damage boost

From memory, Jack in Irons is the only GM/AV that leverages an effective Fear attack. I'm not sure if it is a cone or not. It can make it annoying to solo him, but on any team it should be less of a problem. I partially suspect that the effectiveness of Fear (against players) is why we don't have a Very Rare (or PVP) Enhancement set that can be slotted in the general Fear powers.

When I run a TF, I try to get some sense if the PuG wants speed or challenge. I always go for "challenge", but if I don't advertise as such folks should assume "speed". For "Challenge" runs: (e.g. a low level TF at +4) I find that the players are usually busy enough and need each other's support to work together. I LOVE joining sub-40 level teams running at EXTREME difficulty, but not everyone feels this way. For "Speed" runs: I will usually split off from the main group on "defeat all" (if I am DPS) or if I am support I will pick the part of a fragmented team that can best use my support. I am capable of dashing to the end of certain missions, but usually there is another player who wants to do that so I will slowly eliminate groups to help other players get XP and inspiration drops. Another element of speed runs is that there is no real need for all characters on every mission... if you know the arc well enough, just head to the next objective. Either way... I am usually too busy for much chit-chat (MUST MASH BUTTONS), but I'll break when I can for some banter.

I always thought of this as one corner of some sort of skateboard.

I have one Controller 50+ (petless) with Rune of Protection (level 44) and another 50+ (Gravity) without it. I have one Blaster with it as well. I have never treated it as anything but an "oh ####" power, so the changes will effect me, but not in a terribly noticeable way. I expect it will hold the same utility for me if the Beta change is implemented. I like Flight as a travel power, and the added Teleport is useful (ehem, getting stuck behind a wall of CoT in the first mission of the Mortimer Kal arc) so Mystic Flight isn't a bad pre-req, but I'm not crazy about either of the second possible picks to qualify for RoP.... so my reaction is *shrug*.

I have a Mind/Poison/Primal Controller that is fun to play. I relied on P2W attacks for much of the leveling, and still keep them handy for low level TFs. This is a "concept character": The fluffy part of the concept being that he essentially is accident-prone (and makes others prone to have accidents), the crunchy part of the concept was to debuff enemies and hit 'em with %procs for damage and control. I settled on /Poison as the secondary, but I didn't lean into it as hard as I would have for an explicitly MOAR BETTA build.

I'd like to also add a specific tree in Dark Astoria that I'd like to see moved. Perhaps a well-meaning Plant Controller could see to it?

Welcome back! I thought I was moved when I cast my first sound effect in the tutorial, but it was the opening music when first approaching City Hall in Atlas Park that really got me.

I made very few similar "wins" early in I27, but I hadn't gone back to the lvl 53 HOs since then. Congrats. On the flip side: a few of my characters made off with some lvl 52 and 53 HOs at what I thought were bargain prices... so I may have stepped onto the expected profits by some of us here. I felt like some of the ones I bought had been placed with expectation of catching some "big fish".

My suspicion (regarding placement of the +crit in an AoE) would be the hope of a greater chance of triggering the proc? My Scrappers slot the +crit piece in a single-target attack, usually the Tier 5, as part of a 6-piece set bonus. My slotting is motivated by: The full set bonuses for the Critical Strikes ATO are pretty useful for Scrappers, concluding with a Global +Recharge bonus Often the T7, T8, T9 primary attacks can better benefit from both +5 boosting (ED? bah!) and/or various amounts of franken-slotting. I'm not particularly careful about deriving optimal attack chains, but I try to have the +crit piece in an attack I will always be using (including for low level TF/SF).

Attitudes change, as do budgets ... and even mechanics. I'd prefer folks simply make clear titles for their threads, so make searching easier (for the hoo-mans)

I gotcha. It's just that I really like having Hide as the 'always on toggle' for Kismet.