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Oh, I don't want to get into the specific details of the RNG, as I accept its behavior. It's Streakbreaker that is my bete noire. I think that Streakbreaker was introduced not because of any 'defect' in RNG, but to try to address a perception bias. Until I can make a direct assessment of the rolls that Streakbreaker is actually tossing... it sure looks like characters that have a 95% chance to hit are missing more than 1-in-20 times. Without seeing the actual rolls tossed aside by Streakbreaker, It's hard to set up a controlled experiement to test this... if there was a way to reliably set up multiple test targets in controlled patterns, this would help. The nearest I can come to approaching this from a different direction is: set up a character with no toggles that run 'to hit checks' avoid including %procs in powers (this should not strictly be necessary, I suggest it just to avoid more RNG calls) avoid DoT (and debuffs) <- again, not strictly necessary, but I want to avoid having enemies run away Have a ceiling 95% chance to hit The one place where I've found I can get lots of enemies grouped in rather confined areas to experiment with AoEs and have a reliable 95% toHit is Tunnels of the Trolls (even the Sewer Network has too many walls and large rooms for my taste... but the explosives have to be watched for). The 'backwards' way of testing what is going on is to count the number of times Streakbreaker fires versus the number of rolls made against valid targets. I believe that if it all things are 'fair', Streakbreaker should be called only for 5% of all attack rolls... but my experience was that I saw it called much more frequently than that.

I'm not in a position to offer advice with the issue of specific 'resistance holes'... I accept that certain power sets will leave holes and try to lean into the strengths of those sets. You can always craft resistances to certain damage types at a SG base. I have the 6-pieces of the Superior Scrapper's Strike in Pulverize. I really like DNA Siphon as a PBAoE %proc 'attack', in addition to it helping against hard targets (via -Regen). For the (exemplar) content where DNA Siphon is available you will probably have a decent attack chain (because of global +Recharge) anyway, but I find it to be very useful when facing large groups of enemies, even if they are 'soft'. EDIT: Re: Nuceolus HO prices, You can always use common IOs boosted to 50+5. The key IMO is to not skimp on the Accuracy of an AoE attack... you need to hit to have the %procs fire! FURTHER EDIT (comments on resistance slotting): This is really up to you. I tend to not over-slot Resistances, especially toggles like Tough (feel free to point-and-laugh, but defeating enemies as fast as possible is more important to me than having a little more S/L resistance). <- Other players feel VERY differently about this! It all comes down to what kind of content you want to play and where you want to emphasize slots. I have 4xUnbreakable Guard in Hardened Carapace, and Tough is where I have (only) the 2 Global +Defense pieces (my Stalker). My scrapper is Invuln, so Tough only holds a Psi Resist piece.

In my experience it's very situational. The pros: It offers a very precise amount of control when Flying. Hover has to be slotted for speed to match this. It is handy for bringing your pets (and teammates) to certain hard-to-reach areas when you want them. The con is pretty much: Some teammates will see it as you griefing them. I don't know if it is because of a perception that you are 'forcing' a power on them they don't want the player relies on 'jumping' around to reposition during combat an unfamiliarity with 'Flight' as a power the player has changed keyboard settings of the 'up' key (or is using it in some non-default way) ...but you will hear about it from those players who want to complain. Don't mind them, they are just mad at themselves because they don't know (or remember) to visit Null the Gull.

I was playing around with a character where I happened to have three slots in a power that can take the Universal Travel set Blessing of the Zephyr. The text for the set implies that this set hevaes like a Very Rare/PVP set, "The bonuses are independent of level", blah blah blah fishcakes, so I thought I'd drop level 50 pieces into it, boost the Endurance piece etc. (Don't judge me, I had them lying around!) Anywho, while running lower level content I noticed that I was getting tossed around like a doll, and than my travel speeds seemed a lot slower than I expected. I eventually attuned the -Knockback piece and all was well... the Knockback was no longer an issue. I am led to believe that these pieces really don't behave like the PVP/Very Rare sets. Is this something others have noticed about this set?

I'll make my usual complaint: I'd like to have Streakbreaker report the toHit roll for the forced hits. While I completely agree that the RNG returns uniform (a.k.a. "flat") distribution of p between 0 < p < 1, I think Streakbreaker is forcing more misses at ToHit = 95% than 1-in-20... but it is actually very hard to tell (because of the 'hiding' of a roll that is forced to hit by Streakbreaker. For consecutive toHit chances of p > 90, Streakbreaker assumes that after a first miss that the second roll will also be a miss and force a hit (throwing away whatever the roll actually was). The simplest way to explain my thinking is this: Most RNGs "fill up" the available result space in a uniform manner... so a second roll of p > 0.90 is only 10%, but Straekbreaker acts as if this possibility is 100%... and then resets the streakbreaker count, such that when the next 'unlucky' roll occurs ( p > 0.9) you will see it, and thus the final percentage of actual hits (in aggregate) is likely to be below 90%. This is exaggerated when the final ToHit is p = 0.95, because chance of the second roll being also p > 0.95 is 1-in-20, but again Streakbreaker acts as if it is 1-in-1. I do believe in perception bias, but I don't believe that's what is happening at the extreme end where players have the (95%) ceiling on their toHit rolls. If Streakbreaker would return the ToHit result of the 'forced' hits, we could easily see if the fraction of those hits would have missed or not. And then I'd shut up about this.

While the purple patch brings it's own sort of annoyance, wouldn't an unresistable debuff from Dominator controls be OP? I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking, but many Dominators can apply different mez effects, so with just a couple of Dominators there would be some serious debuffing of AVs/GMs, etc.

I also don't trust Windfalls to improve the drop rates or rarities (of salvage, or recipes). I did some experimenting (using several I had from opening packs) with familiar x8 (non-AE) content and I noticed absolutely no difference in the recipe/salvage haul. I was paying no attention to XP or Inspiration drops. I don't object to this game's RNG, but I'd certainly like to be able to disable/modify Streakbreaker. When I'm swinging at enemies with 95% ToHit, It isn't the next attack roll (which gets ignored) that I want to autohit, it's the next toHit roll of >95% (which almost always comes in fewer than 10 rolls) that I want to hit!

Without knowing your specific goals/concepts I'll just ramble about some powers I've taken on similar classes. I have a War Mace/Invuln Scrapper and a /Bio Stalker. Generally: I invest fewer slots on resistance and defense powers... I typically look for set bonuses elsewhere. This is a matter of personal preference (of course), but I would pull at least three slots from Weave. Note that you can boost (50+5) not just IOs but also the non-unique pieces of PVP sets. The Kismet +Accuracy (really +ToHit) is a tricky piece. The bonuses help (especially while leveling up). It will only work when Combat Jumping is toggled on. The real advantage of that piece is IMO when using Fast Snipes (because the first 22% of +ToHit translates to MOAR DAMAGE) but you don't have a Snipe, so I feel like there is a better use for that slot. I didn't see Reactive Defenses Scaling Damage Resistance in the build. Maybe I missed it. I feel like Hasten is too late in the build for most game content, at least to invest a second slot in it.. I should note that my Stalker has it at lvl 38, my Scrapper doesn't have it all! Build Up: Even with a full set of 6 Gaussian's this power will %proc at the ceiling of 90%. I encourage you to at least add a second slot here for a Recharge IO (at 50+5). No matter what else you are going for as a Scrapper, you probably want this power available as often as possible. DNA Siphon can be an effective PBAoE, but it isn't worth slotting for Damage, IMO Accuracy and Recharge serve it better (since it is also a -Regen debuff). Here is the slotting I use (on the Stalker). Touch of the Nictus is providing a global Accuracy bonus, plus more HP. The other 3 slots can be tailored to you preferred %procs. Level 28: DNA Siphon (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (39) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing: Level 50 (40) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50 (40) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30 (40) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50 (42) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50 I think you don't need the second slot in Health (in the level 50 build). I would keep the Miracle, dump Numina. Extra Recovery/Regeneration hits a point of diminishing returns, and Bio has many ways to address Health/Endurance. If you doubt my advise, just play without it unslotted for a bit and see how it affects your play. With all the %PerShifters, you certainly shouldn't need extra Recovery. EDIT: Does the build include one (and only one) Power Transfer %Heal? If not, I would replace one of the %+End Performance Shifters (preferably from a low-level Auto power) with it. This %proc will only fire once, no matter how many you have. My Scrapper has one slotted in Stamina, but with Bio you may not need one... it's the kind of thing you only need when you need it. Similarly, I would drop the Panacea Global (slot) from Physical Perfection and include it as one of the five used with the others. I happen to use 5 Panacea plus a 50+5 EndMod in Boundless Energy (I think this is Inexhaustible on Scrappers), and all six pieces of Preventive Medicine in Ablative Carapace. Just a few comments on the War Mace attacks: My own preference is to put the ATO pieces in the lower level attacks, and use the Very Rare sets in the higher level attacks. I have considerations of: Getting the 5-piece recharge bonus, while balancing %damage proc rates Being able to boost Enhancement values (without impacting %proc too much) <- e.g. ED may hamper +Damage, but a small Damage boost (or Endurance discount) goes further on the BIG attacks. Just as an example, I have Crowd Control 5-slotted with Armageddon and the 6th slot is a +Recharge piece from the Force Feedback set. The only franken-slotting I have in the War Mac attacks is Whirling Mace, I wouldn't fault anyone for opting for more conventional slotting. Level 18: Whirling Mace (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure (25) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure (27) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50 (27) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50 (29) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30 (29) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage: Level 50

Here is how I have it slotted on my Stalker (my only /Bio character), other %procs like Armageddon's %Fire is elsewhere in the build. I didn't go with %-Res on the Stalker, YMMV for a Tanker. Similarly, if you have Endurance issues, adding the %+End piece is a no-brainer... but Bio has other means to mitigate that issue. DNA Siphon (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (39) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing: Level 50 (40) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50 (40) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30 (40) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50 (42) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50 The HP set bonuses from Touch of the Nictus are certainly better for Tankers than for Stalkers. IIRC, I have the (non %proc) Touch of the Nictus pieces boosted. When I was choosing to use and slot this power, I was happiest with having extra PBAoE damage as well as the set's Accuracy bonus, and I think I have the total recharge 'just so' to maximize %proc chances and have power ready to reapply a -Regen when its effects would expire. EDIT: I should add something that may be obvious: On Stalkers, Bio is a secondary set, and the available level range for it starts higher than it does as a primary set. This may have some effect om the choice of certain %procs.

This is 99% me, unless it is on a character with nowhere else to slot Global resistance pieces. The last character I took to level 50 (a Mastermind) didn't follow this advice, and instead went with 4-slots of Unbreakable Guard.

I did say it was a minor quibble, and it wasn't about the entire suite of Dominator secondaries.

Recovery rate shortens the 'time between' +Endurance refills. Every player has a base value (of Recovery), Stamina gives you even more (Recovery), even without specifically slotting it. +End from Performance Shifter is a straight-forward 'Have some more Endurance!' boost, unrelated to Recovery. There is a point of diminishing returns (on Recovery), so it is often the case that bonuses to Recovery do far less than you might expect. IMO It is far better to work on Slotting for Endurance Reduction (directly, or indirectly via Incarnates) Increasing Maximum Endurance (accolades, set bonuses) Getting Global Endurance Discounts (set bonuses) leveraging temp powers The same goes for Health and Regeneration, but because different ATs have different Maximum Health/HP, the break-even point comes at different spots for different ATs.

I didn't ask. I try not to be critical of any player's play style, power choices, costumes, etc. so I sincerely just took them on face value. I don't want to reduce this little story to an ad hominem argument. I wanted to share only that I recently encountered a new (-ish?) player that was having an appropriate (IMHO, YMMV) level of frustration because of game content. I explained that the difficulty setting was almost certainly too high (just as I indicated in my post) but that is what he wanted to run with. The last several pages have had a whiff of 'the game is too easy' to them... but this player did not self-gimp, they simply didn't take full advantage of everything the game has to offer (as has been described by others, above). I don't think my PUGmate was a 'black swan'. I just wanted to share teh story of a player who would (likely) end up even further behind the curve if the game was 'rebalanced around IOs' (which I take to overlap significantly with 'made harder'... certainly not in all cases, but in a majority of them, I suspect) I didn't tell the play that I've done that arc with a fresh level 50 at the same (or harder) settings, but the times I didn't do it by mistake (Unai Kemen can lull you into a false sense of security!) it was after my post-50 respec into... wait for it.... enhancement sets! I don't level up my characters without MOST of my final power/enhancement choices in place, but some of my fresh level 50s have had serious trouble solo-ing that particular arc even with (non-superior) Enhancement sets that I think most character builders would agree were 'efficient enough'.

Apropos of (almost) nothing: I spent some time recently helping a (new?) player complete Mender Ramiel's arc (to unlock the Alpha slot). Just to provide an idea of what I observed about the character in question: Fresh level 50 Spines/Fire Brute Difficulty set to +1/x6 No enhancement set bonuses By itself, the primary reason the character was having problems was the difficulty setting... but the lack enhancement bonuses was certainly not helping. I don't play brutes, but I have observed with many other ATs that this arc is relatively easy with a kitted level 50... but much more of a struggle with less-optimized builds. Without arguing about the specific ATs, or specific play-styles of players that face that arc... my opinion that the game should be 'rebalanced for IOs' remains NO, otherwise players like the one I was helping are going to end up even further behind the curve.

That is the exact behavior of the spiderlings, unless all of the initial spiderlings have been defeated, the ones from the latest recast will expire when/along with ones from the initial cast would have expired.

Minor Quibble: I don't think it is entirely fair to think of a Dominator as a nukeless Blaster without a sustain. Domination is a form of "sustain" for its AT. (yadda yadda unmotivating 'change domination' arguments to follow) I am trying to understand the subtle, shifting headspace that exists between this thread ("Doms can't compete with Blasters") and the "Should Set be Balanced around IOs" ("non-Blaster ATs are doing too much damage")... but I'm having trouble following these two different threads to know what the motivation for each of them is.

I'm in agreement that the Patron pets are pretty much working as intended. There may be (unrealistic) expectations for them: They aren't "henchmen" (as from a Mastermind), so the player won't have the same level of control. They will require attention, as they aren't a fully-kitted second player. You can only have 1 of them, even if you can get the power to recharge faster than the pet expires <- not verified, but I assume the power behaves like spiderling pets I agree that there are two features of them that can be frustrating, but I don't think these are worth changing: The long recharge times. Assuming that you can keep the pet alive (and this is on the PLAYER, not the PET) you can have the pet available 100% of the time. This requires some investment in slots, but there are dedicated "Recharge Intensive Pet" IOs (plus common IOs) that can help with this. The power is only available at very high levels (level 44 is the earliest, IIRC) Personally, I don't expect a 'crowning' power from an Epic/Patron pool to be available at lower levels, even if such a pet power would be helpful the (lower) levels where many solo players could use some extra help (if they want to face challenging content). One of the balance features of the game that I experience (playing solo content at 40+, without exemplar) is how high to turn up the number of enemies (*1)... and a (long recharge) pet will need some attention to handle large spawns. The player either needs to focus on keeping the aggro, or buffing the defenses of the pet. Most ATs can do this, but it does require some active choices on the part of the player, either in power choices or play style. (*1) When leveling, and post-50, I prefer to keep content at even level but to face larger spawns. I find certain content to be a boring 'war of attrition', and I prefer 'drops' over 'pure Inf'. YMMV.

I think that castrating the damage slotting options of entire classes because the masculinity of damage dealing by other classes feels threatened is lot more radical and can only be viewed as rewarded by some peculiar sense of "but this should be better" logic. I'm reading that players simultaneously don't want to occasionally run an arc without enhancement bonuses but instead want other players to have less access to enhancements.

*IF* the perceived imbalance is coming from Enhancements (which is, I believe the stated point of this thread), then it should not be considered *self-gimping* to have an option to play without the source of the perceived imbalance.

Don't most Ouroborous and SF/TF arcs allow the person starting the arc to allow missions to be played by characters without enhancement bonuses? I don't see the need to 'rebalance' the entire game when players who want a different 'balance' that is identical to what is being suggested above already have that option.

Most muscle: Most abused: Most over-rated: Most market-friendly:

You are about to miss out on all the cool arcs in Sharkhead Isle!

Nerf fusion.

Those aren't %procs, those are Global bonuses (for the most part), and they will work: without having the power (e.g. Tough) toggled on down to the lowest active level of the Enhancement piece, even if you don't have access to the power (because of Exemplar) The only *sly* enhancement (that I use semi-regularly) that can be slotted in a Defense slot is the Kismet +Accuracy; it is necessary to be slotted in a power that will be toggled on (or is always on) in order to contribute 6% to ToHit. If it was not clear from my post above, by "mule" I mean that I am leveraging the Globals, but I am not necessarily using the power (via toggle) to get the Enhancement bonus(es).