tidge

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that +Damage (global) bonuses from enhancement sets only apply to the base damage of all damaging powers, and not the enhanced damage of (all) powers. I'm reasonably certain that and +Damage bonuses don't apply to %damage from procs. If so, it wouldn't matter if you slot your powers for damage or not. My apologies if you are specifically referring to the single piece of Ascendancy of the Dominator that provides Recharge/%+Damage. IIRC the Superior version has something like a 6 PPM chance. Even with the uber recharge you are getting from the entire set (97%) if you drop it into a 90 second mez AoE you should get a semi-reliable chance for it to fire. I have the set 6-slotted in my T6 (lvl 12) AoE Mez, and that suits me pretty well when exemplared down.

A hard /agree with the above. The design of Dominators allows a wonderful balancing act of Attack -> -Endurance and Domination -> +Endurance, plus the Mez protection and boost to holds. 'Perma' Domination involves a very different sort of build and play style that rewards player investment (in both build choices and play style) in VERY noticeable ways. There is absolutely no reason to change Dominators and Domination. Do they need a buff? I don't think so. There are probably a few powers in individual sets that could stand to be looked at, but I don't think that is exclusive to Dominators. EDIT: I always forget this, but there is ONE area where I think Dominators (and Controllers) could use a 'visual effect buff'. I'd like it if it was possible to have a few different choices (customizable at the tailor) for the ATO-summonned 'Fiery Orb' and 'Energy Font'. The net effects can be the same for all I care, but having visuals that match other power sets would be peachy-keen.

I have two characters that lean 'heavy' into the mental aspect, and then a third that uses a mental primary, but I don't think of as 'psychic'. The first is a ranged Fortunata, with none of the melee or dart attacks. She has the Presence pool as well for an extra PBAoE (and Unrelenting). She also has Weaken Resolve, which has a very 'use my mind powers on you!' animation. The second is a Fire/Psi/Psi Dominator. The Fire primary dominates (hrm hrm) the visuals, but I like having most of the secondary's Psi attacks by level 20 and using the first three powers in the Psi Mastery Epic (Link Minds, Indomitable Will, Mind over Body) to beef up survivability. This is one of the most complementary pairings of identically-themed secondary/epic that I've played. The Fortunata and Dominator ultimately have similar performance, but they approach mission clearing from different directions. The Fortunata's positional defenses and offense has her leveraging controls (with %damage procs) to disrupt an enemy spawn she's engaged with, while the Dominator locks down spawns first, and then punishes with attacks. The third 'mentalist' is a Mind/Poison Controller. The concept of the character is that he's basically such a complete klutz that he was always messing up missions (as a villain) and so was forced to go on his own. I picked the Mind/Poison combo to reflect the sorts of ways he would screw up jobs, so I don't really think of that character as a mentalist. Many of the powers on this character are tricked out with %damage procs mostly because of the low inherent damage scale for Controllers, but a little bit because my head-canon for the character isn't specifically about 'control'.

So if characters being abandoned with all of their wealth is your preferred method of 'sinking wealth', does that mean that you favor 100% inheritance taxes?

My attitude is biased/informed by this: I very rarely use Immobilizes, except on Controllers and Dominators. I don't have any on my VEAT builds, unless they are from secondary effects. I can understand how the Soul Tentacles can work for other players but they aren't for me. I also recognize the vale some of multi-piece set bonuses can bring to slotting Targeted AoE powers, so I'd never advocate a particular power/slotting choice over another. I have found that the cones (Psychic Scream, Static Discharge) and PBAoE on my ranged Fortunata are already 'tricky' to use effectively unless both I and the enemies are mobile. I certainly do end up with runners, but I feel like at least half the time that's because of some inherent resistance to immobilize and half the time it is because of RNG misses... so longer (cone) range helps me target those, at least on certain maps/rooms. For what it is worth, my ranged Fortunata uses three attacks from the Mu Patron pool (Mu Lightning @6, Ball Lightning @6, Static Discharge @5) and each of them has only set bonuses (respectively: Thunderstrike @6, Annihilation @6, Positron @5). I only mention this to demonstrate that I'm not a complete 'franken-monster'. I want those Endurance, Accuracy and Defense bonuses! IIRC, my ranged Fortunata also franken-slotted Dominate, but I'm not as big an advocate of this as other players. Dominate is a fast, single-target attack so with no recharge slotting at all: I think it the typical %proc chance is around 60%. This probably explains my slotting: (common) Damage IO %toxic (Gladiator's Javelin) %psionic (Neuronic Shutdown) %lethal (Gladiator's Net) %negative (Apocalypse) %smashing (Unbreakable Constraint) My global Accuracy bonuses are pretty high, so I don't sweat adding accuracy to the attacks. I'm pretty sure I picked the %damage procs to make sure they work across all level ranges; this is something my picks for Psychic Scream won't do... but choices. I personally don't think that the bonuses from Devastation are all that great (IIRC the damage buffs are only on base damage, not on enhanced or %proc damage) and the level range doesn't really align with the power's level. You can always get some more recharge (from Basilisk's Gaze) in a low-level Hold power. I have one last piece of advice if you are looking to pick up a single slot. This involves ditching 5-piece bonuses from Red Fortune in Mind Link. My slotting of Mind Link (on my ranged Fortunata) is: Adjusted Targeting (attuned): Recharge Luck of the Gambler (attuned): Defense / Global Recharge Shield Wall (50+5): Defense / Recharge Shield Wall: Global Resistance The first three pieces are, I believe, the most efficient way (fewest slots) to get the most Recharge and most Defense slotted in Mind Link... assuming that you don't have 5 LotG elsewhere in the build. I went with 2xShield Wall here because I wanted to slot the Global Resistance somwhere and I thought I might as well leverage the ability to boost one piece and get a set bonus... but replacing the Shield Wall with an attuned LotG Def/Recharge also works. PVP piece may look expensive, but if you play x8 content you ought to be getting PVP recipe drops and you can play converter roulette to get the ones you want (or ones you can sell on the AH to buy the ones you want).

Accurate Healing behave the same way. I have never tried this with level 30 pieces (or those types) specifically (the only level where both sets supposedly exist) but I know that attuned pieces from those two types also don't allow conversions to sets of the different level range.

I haven't had much time to play the toon in question, but here is something weird that happened during "World Wide Red" on a "tech lab" map facing Malta (at +0/x8). One of my T2 Enforcers got separated from the group (I couldn't tell if it was AI mis-behavior as described in the OP or just getting stuck because of a path), but the offending hench did port to me after I went through an elevator (I had targeted him, so was watching) ... but then the hench immediately dashed through the walls of the map (this was like no-clipping, not porting!) to go back to whatever his new preferred hidey-hole he had found. Very odd.

I respeced out of Total Domination, despite the opportunity to slot multiple %damage procs or the chance to acquire more Global +Recharge (as suggested above). Despite my deep distaste for enemies that run away, I found that my mission clear times were improved by using Aura of Confusion instead. On my pure ranged Fortunata slots were tight, so it is slotted only with 2 pieces of Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Recharge and %damage. If I could spare a 3rd slot I would add the other %damage proc. It looks as if the OP build is very deliberately chasing particular set bonuses. I encourage you to explore (using Unslotters) how your build plays without some of the set bonuses, because I feel like there may be some opportunities for alternate slotting to improve Offensive output: Psychic Wail: IMO, this deserves a 6th slot with an additional %damage proc. I know that 5-slotting Armageddon works against the %proc rate, but the radius is large enough that I think it is worthwhile to roll the dice for extra damage. Psychic Scream: If you find you can live with slightly less Global +Recharge (and Accuracy), it is my experience that ranged cone attacks are very good candidates for franken-slotting. My pure ranged Fortunata runs with 2x HO Centriole (Damage / Range) ATO Superior Dominion of Arachnos (Recharge / %-Damage / %Terrorize) %Lethal (Javelin Volley) %Energy (Positron's Blast) %Fire (Bombardment) On paper, this slotting looks to be only a slight improvement in damage (relying on RNGesus), but I found that the increased size of the cone improves the utility of it as an attack... again, the enemy AI will have them all-over-the-place, so the larger 30° cone (80+ feet versus 60 feet) helps once I'm in missions.

As I've written in the Market sub-forum, I consider the "300+ Minf" builds to be a corner case that is bordered by the walls of stubbornness and ignorance. I use the term stubbornness for thoughts along the lines of "I can only get enhancements for my build a specific way" (e.g. buy-it-now on the market) and ignorance to cover the those circumstances where a player is unaware and uninformed about alternate ways to get pieces for their builds. Within Homecoming, there is a very small amount of enhancement space that requires market participation, but the Homecoming market and merit system, in addition to drop-rates (catalysts, recipes, converters) and conversion rules makes it incredibly easy to play (multiple, per-character) builds that would have been out-of-reach for a huge majority of players on Live. The Homecoming Auction House fees are demonstrably NOT standing in the way of this.

New influence literally can come from simply walking around and punching things; I'm not sure that equates to a closed system.

I generally try to have ATO available for use by a new character around lvl 12, unless leftover attuned PVP pieces will serve better for the character. As an aside of what I will typically do to meet the needs of a new character: Buy/open packs Play Converter roulette, stopping when either I get an ATO of the type I want, or I get an ATO that I can dump on the market for BIG/QUICK INF I never try to get 'complete' ATO sets this way; I almost always stop when I am 'within one' and then buy the missing piece I need. I find the roulette approach to be be slightly more efficient when I am looking from pieces from both ATO sets.

You may want to examine your premise: I don't think this means what you think it means.

There is some discussion elsewhere on this topic, so I apologize for any perceived thread-necromancy. On this point: I have observed this behavior of Moonbeam on a "No Redraw" War Mace Scrapper. It is definitely my toon defeating the enemy, but it somewhat breaking of the immersion, as the animation completes normally. This appears to be an issue with the animations, and a separate bug than the one not applying damage from Assassin's Strike.

We've had various threads here is one: My own reply on that thread does include the observation that (for /Bio) Offensive Adaptation will still put damage on the target, even if all of the other possible sources of damage are not applied (when the bug occurs).

It's been a long time since I felt the need to question/scratch-my-head-over the AI behavior of certain henchmen (Thanks HC team!), but having a new Mastermind at level 50 (Thugs/Thermal) has me trying more challenging content and I have encountered two elements of Thugs' behavior that seem peculiar to me. I'd prefer some understanding, but I will also appreciate other players' observations as well. For background: I noticed the following situations when playing Crimson's "World Wide Red" arc at +0/x8. The behavior was most pronounced when facing Knives of Artemis on wide-open maps. Aside from KoA being the primary enemy, the only other item of note is that the missions where this was most obvious included those which have KoA spawns which move across the map to engage the player. Note that my Mastermind is also applying (non-incarnate) debuffs to enemy spawns, which I know causes the enemy AI to flee for the hills. The behavior described below is not necessarily observed for the T3 Bruiser henchmen. The henchmen are set to follow, with a defensive stance, putting them in Bodyguard mode. 1st odd situation: Every once in a while, one or more of my T1 and T2 will madly dash very far away from me. I initially thought that they were pursuing a specific enemy (as we known, enemy mobs will run very far away from a player) but I am positive that I have observed circumstances where they were not pursuing an (activated, aggroed) enemy. As near as I can tell, the henchmen were defending me against one-or-more enemies but had some sort of debuff applied to them (certainly Caltrops) at some point. I really don't like this AI behavior, as I want them acting as my bodyguards! 2nd odd situation: As an outcome of the first situation: one or more of my T1 and T2 won't rejoin my group, even if ordering the entire cadre to "Go to" a specific location. The disobedient hench will 'verbalize' receipt of commands, but essentially goes into 'walk mode' without actually rejoining the cadre. It doesn't matter if I change their stances, or even if I order the hench to attack a specific enemy... they've essentially defaulted to NPC status. The areas where this happened did not present the sorts of terrain that I associate with 'problematic path choices' for AI. In neither case, would a very distant henchmen "warp" to me, no matter how far apart we were. Obviously I make an example of the disloyal Thug by dismissing and summoning a replacement... but I never previously observed this sort of behavior with Robots.

Nope. I'm aware of the (new) default stances.

For most content I play, I can take-or-leave the defensive bonuses from Combat Jumping. I like to keep Beast Run active on this particular character for cosmetic/theme reasons; CJ is perfectly fine as a LotG mule for this build. I suppose I could try to turn around and make a similar "take-it-or-leave-it" argument about the ToHit bonus from Kismet, but to more directly answer your question: I don't often care about Combat Jumping, but I always care about ToHit and Damage. I'm not ignorant about +Defense, I'm just not an evangelist.

You may find some utility in setting up macros to help with targeted AoE powers. For example, one of my characters has a macro to drop Bonfire a short fixed distance in front of him. All I have to do is look in the direction I want and then trigger it. /macro_image "BanishedPantheon_Pain_WorldOfPain" "Bbbonfire" "powexec_location forward:5 bonfire" The downside is that macros will not show the recharge state of the power, but I keep the default power in the tray above the macro as an indicator. You can set up similar macros for powers which target specific (or targeted) enemies.

Sudden Acceleration (a Knockback set) Overwhelming Force (a Universal Damage set, but each piece is unique)

I could, but as I wrote, it primarily assists (my playstyle) with Moonbeam damage. IIRC Combat Jumping detoggles with Ninja/Beast/Athletic Run. I also expected the Kismet bonus to be a true Global, but it isn't. Stalkers can slot it into Hide, which they will almost always have toggled on, so it is far less of an issue for them. This can benefit Stalkers over their entire level ranges, and they get the same Snipes as Scrappers. Other ATs usually have to make some compromises if they want to leverage it.

Kismet only provides the bonus if it is in an auto-power or a toggled-on power. (verified by monitoring combat attributes)

I use unslotters for a couple of other reasons: Testing how builds play (breaking/removing set bonuses)... again avoiding a complete respec, usually just testing how well a build will play without a certain piece Attuning an enhancement (typically a non lvl-50 PVP) for another character (when I really don't want to bother with the market, but I have the raw materials). Not the most cost-effective, but also not really necessary now that the SG base has the commonly used old recycled/attuned PVP enhancements.

A quick on-point comment about 'failed respecs', and then an observation about a different type of failure (that is given a similar 'avoidance solution') The quickie observation: I've only ever had failed respecs messages when I had levels I had not yet trained into. A completely unrelated 'problem' I've encountered is the 'sometimes the catalyst doesn't apply to an enhancement'. Perhaps the most common 'avoidance solution' I've seen on this topic is 'Don't apply catalysts in your base'. (sound familiar to the respec issue yet?) Anyhow: EVERY time I've had a catalyst fail to 'take' it is because I was in a SG base and I had storage device window open (AFAIK, it has always been a storage rack) and the Catalyst went back into the storage rack instead of being applied to whatever Enhancement. The UI is resolving things, just not in the way that was expected. (I believe this is why sometimes you get another error/warning in a SG base when messing around with open Enhancement tables, even though you don't intend to be using the table.) Is it possible that (aside from the untrained levels) that some of the failures being observed are due to having an unclosed/unresolved UI window?

The Blaster /Time has the "Time Crawl" effect (boosting the effect of /Time powers) that gets triggered by application of more than one of the secondary powers. My /Time build only has a single slot in Time Wall, but ultimately this comes down to where you invest slots. Accuracy is preferred because this will help trigger the "Time Crawl" on a target. I have no in-depth build critiques, but I can make a few comments: I have Time Stop, and I have it 6-slotted with PVP Gladiator's Net. I find those set bonuses to be very good for my Blaster. I agree with your slotting of Chronos. I keep Chronos on auto; It fires roughly every 21 seconds, for the first 10 of those seconds I have a 90% chance of the extra %Build Up. I don't fault you for not taking either End of Time or Future Pain if you plan to exclusively be at range. I don't have Aging Touch, so I use Future Pain as the melee option. I don't think you need both. End of Time is a nice attack chain filler when you are up close and don't necessarily want to target; it is where I have a Blaster ATO set. Temporal Healing is a toggle, recharge slotting is of minimal help. I have this 6-slotted for the Preventive Medicine set bonuses, but there are plenty of other good options. I played around with Time Shift, but I found that the Disorient wasn't working well in my attack chain/strategy. I almost always gives Stuns a chance to pleasantly surprise me and this one did not. The only power choices that jumps out at me that I'd like to read your thoughts on are: Aim (level 6): I have Aim in my build, but with Chronos (at level 10) I don't really need it for most content, so I put it off until much later (level 47!) Hover (level 16): I seek that this is a mule for LotG, but it looks (to me) like it may be coming too early in the build (for the little bit of extra defense). YMMV.