tidge

Marine Affinity is absolutely a pick 8 or 9 power set. Ironically, a power close to the "go ahead and skip" in Marine is Whitecap. This is an excellent power, good for %procs and it can be an important source of -Resistance... but it is going to commit the MM to being in melee... not normally an issue, but sometimes it absolutely is. It will depend on how survivable you can make the MM. I'd put a (single) %damage piece in the T1s before the %-Res piece... because damage always stacks, %-Res from the same source does not (although stacking it resets/extends duration) The T7 robotics power pick is now Maintenance Drone, which is an excellent power. It's a great use of 6-slots for Preventive Maintenance. It's the most no-brainer heal power in the game IMO. It is much more reliable than the T2's heals. The drone also happens to be one more thing you can cast upgrades on after summoning a replacement henchmen (during the untargetable phase). It should pretty much minimize the need for Soothing Wave (on robots). Soothing Wave is a good pick-up for Thugs (and Mercs) ... less so than for the Robots. Soothing Wave is IMO good for the melee henchmen because the MM is likely to be focused on the enemy being engaged with, so the debuff and heal happen at once. For Robots, I try to have both Pulse Rifle Burst and Photon Grenade for -Regen, and the effects help keep aggro on the MM. Soothing Wave should also help grab/keep aggro (max 10 enemy targets to hit) With Maintenance Drone I'd probably minimize slotting on Soothing Wave. Soothing Wave will work on all allies, the Drone only heals (your) Robotic henchmen.

So... I get what you're cooking, yet there aren't many powers (certainly not when compared to attacks/controls) that would benefit from from Defense/Resistance/Healing pieces... and if limiting this hypothetical set to Tankers via ATO is narrowing the window. As I wrote: I used to grumble that that most Tankers could only use ATO in Secondaries (see also Defenders),, and I still occasionally grumble about the 'control' ATOs but specific to Tankers, their primaries and ATOs I feel like disclosing my general feels about ATOs: ATOs are convenient to use while leveling up At level 50, Superior versions often offer very good set bonuses and useful procs (and sometimes excellent globals) I write the above because my experience with Tankers is: There are very few primary powers that need many slots, mostly because they simply don't need more than three (set) pieces, often only two are good. There are some Primary powers worth franken-slotting... but then 4,5,6-piecs set bonuses aren't in play.... so ATOs would have to have some extremely good 2 or 3-piece set bonuses As for the need... I'm specifically thinking about things like resistance toggles: They pretty much exclusively only need Resistance and Endurance Reduction They typically don't need to be toggled on (depending on enemy attacks) Extra (i.e. past ED cap) increases of that specific resistance are very likely to be marginal On the final point: I know the arguments about damage resistance resisting resistible damage resistance debuffs, the "but 50% of 4 points of damage taken is 2 fewer points of damage taken" and the old (pre-typing change on HC) ideas about S/L ... but creeping up specific damage resistances by fractions of a percentage by gong well past the ED limits is IMO typically a real waste of slots... especially for Tankers that can really benefit from things like %Heal, +MaxHP, Scaling Damage Resistances, and +Regeneration in ways that few other ATs (Brutes really) can because of the pool of HP. Having written all that: More enhancement sets would be welcome. Personally, I'd focus on gaps in current power types (Primarily: Threat and Fear; see also 'Accurate' powers like ToHit and Defense Debuffs plus "Accurate" Healing) before trying to create more ATOs (or HO/DS)

I'm not disagreeing... but I want to share a revelation I had about Tankers and ATOs (but applies to all armor primary/secondaries): The enhancement schedules for things like Defense and Resistance are different (lower) so a hypothetical Tanker ATO would have to consider the caps for both Defense and Resistance... and of course, not all Armor sets are equivalent. That is: a Hypothetical Tanker ATO would have to have a 6-piece distribution of something like Resistance, Resistance/Endurance, Resistance/Recharge, Defense, Defense/Endurance, Defense/Recharge to be "fair", and then trying for a 6-piece bonus would be a losing proposition for most Tankers.

Here is a tip about Force of Will on Controllers (specifically, but applies in general): If I want the "ranged attack" find it is generally better to take Weaken Resolve slotted with Accuracy/Recharge and two %damage pieces than it is to take Project Will. Add the %-Res if you like, if it triggers I'm pretty sure it will happen before %damage. Controllers have a poor damage scales, the %procs are fixed damage that ignore the scale. Mileage varies of course if you want Project Will specifically to hold some other set, but for Controllers... unless there is a thematic reason to take Project Will "To Me, My CoX-men!" I don't need the piddling damage it can add.

Attuning was explained by @Psyonico. I'll just repeat: non-attuned pieces can be boosted Because of Enhancement Diversification , boosting provides the most value when one or more is true: The enhancements slotted in a power aren't being crushed by ED [e.g. ---/Endurance Reduction pieces in most Purple Sets) The enhancements slotted in a power don't need to be catalyzed to work "all the way down" in level [e.g. Purples, PVP, IOs] The enhancements slotted in a power aren't contributing set bonuses (or the player doesn't care about them below whatever level) [often with Frankenslotting] Hami-Os are like pre-boosted pieces, the base enhancement values of a level 50 are roughly equivalent to a 50+5 piece. Superior pieces (ATO, Winter) are equivalent to boosting a non-Superior to +5. Franken-slotting is mixing and matching sets/pieces. It could be using just one of something like Accuracy/Endurance, or multiple Heal/Recharge from different sources.

Which is more melee engagement than the robots. Towards endgame, it's the T3 that is doing the big damage... and Marine makes the Bruiser more effective IMO.

Marine is excellent no matter the henchmen. Marine improves Mercs and Thugs more than it improves Robots IMO. The reason is because Robots are ranged attackers, whereas melee attackers will benefit more from what Marine brings and melee henchmen generally require more effort to keep in any given fight. Marine provides coverage for melee. Personally, I prefer Robots. As they are ranged, they are easier to control in all combat. In particular I find that they work very well in bodyguard mode solo... on teams they require a little more direct management.

I definitely would not slot an %proc from the Endurance or Health sets in it, except possibly Preventive Medicine's %absorb. As noted by @Maelwys, put other such pieces in auto powers. As noted by @twozerofoxtrot, it is alrady 'perma', so with typical amounts of global recharge you should have time to casually click it as a refresh. Personally: I wouldn't slot it for either more Recovery or Regeneration: More slotting hits the point of diminishing returns pretty quickly (especially Regeneration on a Blaster). Kuji-In Toh is IMO a very convenient power for enhancement mules. Slotting it with a set for a bonus isn't a terrible idea.. but it really depends what other powers you may pick that might benefit better from the sets you might slot here. Personally? I'd consider 4x unbreakable guard here... the Global, plus some pieces with recharge. The bonuses are pretty good for a character that will be in melee.

They laughed at Einstein! They laughed at Galileo! They laughed at Bozo the Clown!

Many folks provide sufficient evidence of poor reasoning skills. The "there are no bad ideas" statement often made in as part of a problem solving exercise is insincere politeness. ... most problem-solving seminars immediately go to something like an is/is-not analysis which weeds out the bad ideas (because those ideas "is not"). Specific to the engagement in this forum... many folks simply post "solutions" for things without even identifying a problem... It is mucvch more like "Hey, I just thought of *this*". The most polite guess as to what the problem *is* becomes "person who made proposal wants validation for their exceptional thinking"... which bears out when *any* negative criticism becomes seen as a personal attack (i.e. the other user not recognizing the exceptional thinking). Folks who get hung up on their own ideas, and insist on defending them to the death, is not using good reasoning.

The difficulty some folks have about "moving on" from their own suggestion is sign of under-developed problem-solving/critical-thinking process. I know this sounds insulting, but critical thinking and problem-solving are skills that have to be developed. A common 'first step' in problem solving is something like 'spitballing', but it is literally just the tiniest of first steps, and despite what some management seminars might say there are some "bad ideas"... the subsequent steps of problem solving (which can happen internally, there is no prize for flooding the whiteboard with bad ideas) involving applying critical thinking to avoid burning mental energy on impractical and/or dispositive suggestions.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

The "devs" have implemented objectively bad ideas. The most obvious one that comes to mind had these characteristics: It "solved" a specific "quality of life" issue that was experienced by a small number of players (possibly only one) Was added with no summative testing (i.e. no time to get feedback) Was immediately removed from the game (not even added as an option/toggle setting, which should emphasize just how poorly considered the idea was) The idea was: "Alignment Tip missions should just keep rolling in, discarding the tip missions the player isn't choosing." On its face, this doesn't look to be that big of a deal... but in practice it was a nightmare. A small amount of kibitzing would have exposed the likely defects with this idea. I don't think this idea came from a public suggestion, but there have been plenty that would have introduced similar painful experiences if implemented. I'm not dumping on the dev; I bring this up to point out an example of something that the devs choose to work on and implement, in an area many of us can look at and think "no big deal" or "I see an issue, maybe the issue could be addressed by _____" but was still bad enough of an idea (and/or one with meaningless impact) that it isn't in the game.

This is a somewhat narrow perspective. I've seen plenty of suggestions labeled as "Quality of Life" improvements that were more like "radically change the game to suit *me*", some that address specific individual pet peeves, and some that focus exclusively on things like the User Interface are are agnostic to powers and play styles.

There are probably a half-a-dozen things relating to MMs and 'nearby' henchmen that don't work 100% as expected... and it is practically impossible for a player to figure out what is going on. Client-side v. server-side is probably playing a role. For example: If I drag henchmen on bodyguard mode "far enough" towards something like a Giant Monster, it is somewhat common that the GM gets of an attack that hits nearly all of the henchmen despite what their defense values ought to be based on Supremacy, MM toggles, auras, etc. I'm convinced that it is related to the henchmen code (and the 'aura' effects like Supremacy), because it is very rare that the MM takes any damage (so it isn't bodyguard transfer) this simply doesn't happen to Lore pets dragged along as well.

I honestly can't recall... I have a vague recollection that the Shadow Shard zone names show up in mauve, but that is probably the Mandela affect

I'd like to see the zone names color coded (blue/red/yellow/coop) on all zone transport options (e.g. Ouro)

I am not a fan of the Controller Energy Font... I consider it to be the worst of the ATO procs. One of the things I dislike about it most is that there is almost always another, better choice of set (PVP, Purple, or even Winter), including the other Controller ATO set. I'll use pieces of the Overwhelming Presence set while leveling (it is convenient), but the only time I'll consider it is if there is a second Controller power that has multiple different types of controls and also takes Controller ATOs.... because the 'control' aspect works to boost multiple types of controls.

This part stirs a variety of feels. I remember the earliest days of Live when I'd pick content/street sweep just to get DOs that maybe I could combine with other pieces to help my characters avoid having red-level enhancements... so with that specific 20-year-old feel in place, heck yes I feel like helping new players with a little scratch has a tiny bit of appeal to me. However... ...The Homecoming version of the game absolutely sidesteps ever having to have those feels... unless a player is absolutely unwilling to engage with the game. In no particular order: It is trivial to burn through early (pre-22) levels (DFB, AE whatever) After level 22, a player may as well slot IOs... and because of lvl 25/30 crafting badges, those are readily available on the market (plus 1 for free from the University) IO recipes just *drop*. Certainly by level 50 I am always cleaning out Endurance/Recharge Reductions, Accuracy and Damage IOs. I'm somewhat certain that giving out wealth leads to inflation. It's not as if lack of enhancements is equivalent to hungry and poorly clothed children.

I got to this point, and then I thought about it, and I've judged that this is an argument with very little weight. I certainly feel like I've "mastered" certain sets and ATs such that I *know* what powers I want to take and how they will be slotted... and I feel that there is very little room for "more learning".. so there are two questions I have to answer for myself: Why am I essentially re-rolling a character? Is it important that I get *this* character to insta-50 with a full kit? If I must insta-kit, am I able to insta-kit this character? #1: Sometimes I have a concept character that inspires me to make a new version of an existing character... but it takes very little effort to "reserve a name". #2: "holding" a name takes very little effort. Peram-holds (@50) require no slotting. If I've already "learned the game"... that holds true for all 50+ content too! If I want to play with friends... do they care if I am loaded with Purples? Is there level-50 solo content that demands I be full-kit? #3: If I'm smart enough to have solved the game... I'm smart enough to know the answer to this question. If I played the game enough to have gotten to the point I know I want to insta-kit... I know how to insta-kit. The *one* solo activity that I can imagine demands insta-50s with insta-kits is AFK farming for Empyrian merits, since there is a cap on Empyrian merits from levels.

Others have explained the slotting and use of AS, I want to >*BAMF*< in and write that I LOVE Combat Teleport on melee characters. Escaping with Combat Teleport is not really that important... I used to set up a bind and macro to escape on every CT character, but there is very little content that benefits melee characters. It is also incredibly useful to select a teammate to pop next to.

These are the parts of the post that resonate deepest with me. I understand playing characters up to level 50... I don't understand churning out level 50 after level 50 and also wanting each of them to have full-kits of Purples, Hami-Os, etc... while complaining that this self-made choice isn't trivial. The level 50+ content isn't going away... and *if* there is content that requires specific enhancement sets... I can guarantee that such content is better served by a player who listens and pays attention and understands their character more than anything else. I tend to plot out my characters' power picks up from 1-49, as well as what I think the final slotting might look like... but I am test driving the character as it levels. Playing through low level content gives me a better feel for what powers to have when, and sometimes a power that looks good in theory simply doesn't perform to my expectations. There are a handful of powers that I see folks recommend that are IMO pretty inferior choices, there are some powers & sets that I feel really only work for a full-kit build, and there are some powers that work really well when leveling but aren't needed on a full-kit final build. Jumping straight to 50 is IMO not just skipping most of the game's fun times, but also skipping out on a lot of the learning.

I've never taken the Mace pool on a Stalker... but here is some other info you may find useful about Snipes "Quick" Snipes get a damage bonus based on the character's +ToHit, up to +22%. IIRC, at this cap it makes Quick snipes do as much damage as a Slow snipe. There are a few ways to boost ToHit (the Kismet piece can contribute +6%) and the Experienced Marksman piece will make the Snipes be always quick. In practice, I've found this to be a good option for any character that can sit close to the +22% ToHit value... but generally I can't get Stalkers there... so I tolerate the Slow Snipe. The range of the slow snipe is better FWIW, but once engaged I like Stalkers to have the ranged attack option.