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Solo: "damage taken" may be higher, but if it still takes the same number of attacks to defeat a spawn, then there is no practical benefit to try to apply %-Resistance. There is another subtle effect that generally favors IMO %damage for solo players: %damage can be off-brand relative to the damage types done by the inherent attacks. -10% Resistance against an enemy with high inherent resistance to a type of damage that is in the player's attacks is already a sort of losing proposition... so go ahead and try to have the %damage be a different type altogether.

While I can't say I've seen players be rejected, I can believe the (post-2005, anyway) things happened. A couple of Homecoming anecdotes: 1) I do often see people offer to switch to a different AT, unprompted. This is a sort of self-selection that I'm not crazy about (play what you want, we'll be ok!) but I can sort of understand. 2) This past weekend I PUGed on a team where the leader was always actively recruiting for 'healers'. This was a new player (*1), playing a Brute... and after a couple of missions I could see why that player felt they needed a healer. No shame on the leader, but they weren't slotted (or playing) for survival and the offense was kinda passive. I don't know that this player was rejecting folks, but they came across as pretty slow in accepting players, which I took to mean they had AT preferences. Again, CoX isn't a 'trinity' game... but after playing most of the Task Force Commander TFs with that player, I don't think they realized it.... yet. (*1) I say 'new' because they were traveling back to TF contacts rather than calling the mission completions in. EDIT: I want to add that (2) wasn't that bad of a PUG experience, up until some of the PUGmates were getting confused to the point where they were Taunting/AoE teammates and healing enemies. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also Crabberminds' pets, IIRC.

I deeply appreciate the approach, but I'm pretty sure this conclusion is what has been written every time this comes up. That is: 1) %-Resistance is a multiplier for groups (doesn't really need to be stacked in duration) 2) %-Resistance can help against sacks of HP, provided they aren't resisting the resistance debuff and are being hit while the %-Resistance is affecting them. Ultimately it comes down to "how many fewer attacks have to be made against a (spawn of) enemies." Ignoring ToHit: One one side of the equation the first order concern is solo/party DPS (and also number of targets) and on the other side is enemy Health/Resistance.

My /Energy Meele choices/slotting follows. There is nothing particularly fancy about it. I like my characters to not have to wait for Epic levels to get attacks, so this build also includes the following: I have found that if I am considering an Epic/Patron attack specifically for use as a source of %damage, I may as well work an equivalent power into the build early, rather than later. YMMV. This build runs without Hasten. My build has the %Build Up (Gaussian's) in Invincibility, but if you have a different primary I would go ahead an put it in the actual Build Up power.

I slot my Dark Servant (/Dark Controller) as follows: Level 30: Dark Servant (A) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/ToHitDebuff (*) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Recharge (*) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (*) Cloud Senses - Chance of Damage (Negative) (*) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage (Lethal) (*) Hami-O Endoplasm (Accuracy/Mezz): Level 53 I like the Cloud Senses set bonuses, and the %proc has a chance to contribute on all of the Dark Servant Attacks Gladiator's Net %damage only has a chance to fire on the hold, but the PVP %damage is one of the better %damage sources... so it isn't great, but for my build it was the best remaining option (I had used the Unbreakable Constraint %damage elsewhere). I thought the Endoplasm was the best choice, because Fluffy needs Accuracy and also has multiple types of controls... the HO boosts each of them.

One commonly run PUG TF is Penny Yin's... It has opportunities to bring extra 'boys to the yard's that can be seen as "making trouble" or as "making memories" (or both), especially in the final mission. Personally: if a PUG has been ROFL stomping everyone, I don't see the big deal about opening side doors or resummoning Clamor ASAP. I know there are some players very sensitive about this so if I am playing a character that can, I just run out to intercept the incoming Freaks in the hallway. A recent team chat had a PUGmate ask "isn't there supposed to be an ambush?" from the reactor room. This certainly borders on "showing off", but it isn't as if that extra wall of enemies isn't already coming for the group. The team I mentioned resummoned Clamor and defeated her while I was cleaning up the other spawn.

I am more interested in Lusca because of the extra Merits for the tentacles. Previously it was hella work for only 6 merits.

IIRC each Winter Pack (25M? in AH) has a chance at something like 2.3 Winter pieces (on average). You can buy those packs and play converter roulette. Or, each Winter pieces can be bought for 100 merits at a merit vendor. 1 catalyst drops every 24 hours for level 50s, with enough defeats.

I am reasonably confident that the CoX RNG is pseudo-random, where RNG tries to uniformly fill the number space between 0 and 1. I'm not sure which, if either exact value of 0 or 1 is allowed. So not random, but pseudo-random. Historically: There are biases in RNG, but they are small and difficult to demonstrate (and observe!) related to all sorts of things... I want to invoke "scale-invariant priors" but that's a limb I don't want to climb out on. In the olden times, folks would point at "seed" values. CoX is notoriously complicated w.r.t. to RNGesus because there are a LOT of things that a single player can do to force ToHit checks. Auras are known to be a huge "hidden" culprit, I'm not sure if it is easily demonstrable that the "interior ToHit" checks for %procs (in attacks, which are separate from the %proc chance) may or may not count as part of "player streakbreaker math", but they definitely fill up the RNG space. As these sorts of ToHit checks populate the pseudo-random space, and no one really can tell (or care) if an aura (or a %damage proc, if applicable) got a "miss"... and when a bunch of them have populated the "less than 0.900" space of RNG, the pseudo-random nature of RNG makes it that much more likely that the player's attacks are going to fall in that > 0.900 space. Usually players are mashing buttons faster than aura ticks. I honestly can't remember what the code is doing (we discussed and reviewed this a long time ago in these forums) with respect to: "when it is time for streak breaker to fire, is that ToHit check consuming an RNG roll or not?" If that ToHit check is also consuming an RNG roll, the pseudo-random flat nature of RNG implies that (for characters at the 95% ceiling) that a MISS (due to >0.95 roll) would have been more than likely to have been less than 0.95 at odds better than 20:1 anyway. I think the streak breaker/RNG combo is completely fine, and it is almost certainly having the sort of intended effect for characters with lower overall ToHit chances in their powers. I do think that RNG manifests a small, but observable bias. Demonstrating it with the logs at a high level of significance would take some effort, and lots of data. It's relatively easy to show the "flat" distribution of the RNG (use a damage aura), my guess as to the scale of the "bias" in RNG ToHit checks would above 0.95 would be that it is on the order of a fraction of a percent. I do think there is some observation bias, because as I wrote above: players pretty much only get UI MISS! notices on attacks. EDIT: I don't expect anyone to come back and read this post, but here is a potential study design for testing if RNG is giving "too many" misses. I haven't done the experiment (because frankly, there would be nothing to do about it) but it's supposed to be a tenet of (some?) science that you post the study design first and then collect the data,

This is a bit of a mixed bag, at least when all of a character's attacks (including things that make ToHit checks, like auras) are at the 95% ceiling. I appreciate that streak breaker exists, but hooboy it is possible to rack up a LOT of streak breaker forced hits, even on a single spawn.

Aquatic blasters really dampen the mood I guess.

When I get a tell that someone is switching characters, I right-click to get global name. Gotta be fast sometimes!

My own take echoes some of what was written above. I see two main issues: 1) player inattention. It could be with team chat, team effort, enemy effects (ehem, debuffs, confuses), enemy behavior, whatever. 2) getting upset or frustrated by something a teammate did or said... And NOT being an adult about it. It doesn't kill the flow of a PUG to let a teammate know *you* think they did something *wrong*. Maybe they didn't! In the interest of over sharing: I have a couple of squishy characters with self resurrection powers on pretty short cooldowns. If we aren't on a no death challenge, I am running those characters HOT and I accept that in about 2% of +4 spawns I am going to eat dirt... But meanwhile I have upped the team DPS by significant margins. From the outside, this could look like some sort of crazy solo player trying to show off... And maybe it is, but this is using powers I actually chose and slotted!

A few comments: The Trap of the Hunter %proc will IIRC only trigger on the the Umbra Pet's single-target Shadow Binds. Umbra Beast's Terrifying Roar is a 10-target, 50-foot 30° Cone. Both Shadow Binds and Terrifying Roar have a -ToHit and can trigger Cloud Senses' %damage. The Knockdown %proc should have a chance to trigger on every attack the Umbra Beat makes. %damage needs Accuracy slotting to improve chances to hit, so don't be too quick to skimp on Accuracy for the Beast. I would deprioritize the Trap of the Hunter piece. The Umbra Beast has actual damaging attacks too. My Controller has the Umbra Beast slotted as follows: Level 26: Umbra Beast (A) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (*) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown (*) Hami-O Lysosome (Accuracy/-Defense/-ToHit): Level 53 (*) Cloud Senses - Chance of Damage (Negative)

When solo: I use Assassin's Strike from Hidden status. When in the midst of a team-filled battle: I open with another attack. To speak to the OP's original conundrum... what I do when trying to use Assassin's Strike run up to target hit 'S' (movement key) <- this is part of the sequence that attempts to mimic being rooted. select Assassin's Strike (Not included is the optional step of "MISS!")... It should be possible to make a macro button that will (eventually) do parts 2 and 3, but the macro buttons won't show the power recharging. Maybe something like: (embarassing attempt removed after testing!)

In the build I posted above, I originally had the intention of having Fold Space in the build, but I found it to be inferior to using Shield Charge, Combat Teleport and the enemy moving powers of (improved) Battle Axe. There are enemies that can't be teleported, and Fold Space requires slotting for both Recharge and (IIRC) Accuracy to be somewhat reliable. there is also the way Fold Space can grab teammate aggro by pulling enemies out of patches. My takeway is that Fold Space is a somewhat wasted power pick for Tankers. YMMV. The one element of Fold Space that I can almost recommend it for.... if solo, it can be a reasonably efficient AoE Taunt, since it's target cap and range is so much higher than Provoke from the Presence pool. A highly mobile tank should be able to do better by just using it's actual Taunt and by making attacks.

My Shield/Battle Axe build. The only difference between what I listed below and what I actually have slotted is that the two pieces in Active Defense were replaced with two D-Sync Decelerations @ 53,,,, which is kinda pricey, but I had the means to acquire them. The thing about Shield Defense (or at least my build) in my experience is that it is a slightly more "active" Tanker than some other builds... such as "Aura"-based ones. IIRC it is somewhat inferior to other Tanker primaries in the self-healing department, so don't skimp on leveraging True Grit.

Those who want to impress this newcomer (points to self): Have the Tank exclusively run Shadow Shard cave missions at +4x8.

Plenty of good advice on how to slot, how to afford to slot, characters. There are so many different way, my only advice would be to read the sincerely written options and try them until you find a method you like. On "shared XP", I am reminded of the many past (literally pointless) arguments over "kill stealing" while street sweeping.

I'm just going to chime in that for level 50 (Blue) x8 Alignment missions, I always chose Carnies, and then Malta as a backup to Carnies. Even when some of them run away (or phase), it always felt like the time to clean up the remainders gave the runaways a chance to come back. The random chances of multiple stacking holds felt like the "right" sort of challenge to a solo player. I haven't faced too many of the new high-level CoT or Council yet (been leveling up slowly), so I have no real opinion on them.... except that the random times I used to see folks spamvertising "Peregrine Island 54x8 Council Missions" always landed wrong with me.

My take on the Winter's pieces... I can see why (AFK-ish) Fire Farmers once recommended (many, many of) them... but for my build styles, it is rare that I use them for anything other than franken-slotting.... and that is usually because PVP and Very Rare sets don't offer the Accuracy/Endurance combinations I want! I have a couple of characters in my roster that have something like "full slotting" of a Winter's set, but those are corner cases.... for defense. I tend to lean into the Global Accuracy and Recharge bonuses from the Very Rare sets. At least that is where my headspace is... especially if I am trying to leverage %damage.

Can someone explain why my settings, specifically the power timer countdown choices keeps resetting for all my characters, and if possible what is the path forward to resolving it? FWIW: I have macros and binds set up for most of my characters. I *may* have saved a default bind file somewhere.

I get a kick out of playing my Archery/Tactical Arrow. In the "design space" of the final build I found it fun to have a blaster that very naturally allowed for conventional power slotting (with sets) and for %procs... It was an unusual circumstance (for me) because of the lack of melee attacks.

I have also been witnessing the lack of price history at a much higher rate than recently.