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The two "signature" characters that confuse me the most are Positron and Lord Recluse. My general dislike for the 'evolving lore' is that comic book universes work best when there is practically zero evolution of the universe. Call it crossover (or 'reboot') fatigue, but I enjoy simple things best when they aren't made needlessly complicated. The appeal of CoH for me was that I could start any new character and take them through a world on paths pretty much of my choosing. I don't want to play someone else's story. Frankly: I haven't like Positron (NPC) since the days when he could choose to stop wearing his armor. For me, this was the first evidence that the game wasn't going to let new characters onto a static canvas, and that story content was going to shift underneath us. Squeezing Positron into the Incarnate system feels like such a joke, especially since he was literally the first TF contact a hero could make. I take every chance I can to punk him red side. I feel that the Praetorian version explains a lot about what I don't like about Positon. I have zero animosity towards Lord Recluse... it's more like I have to make up a lot of 'head canon' to rationalize his actions and relationships across all his appearances. Of all the NPCs in the game, I choose to believe that Lord Recluse is literally the only character who realizes he is in a game, and that all his actions are to keep the game viable for all the players.

Dr. Quartfield is a TF that I will generally solo, here is what I find to be the most annoying about it: The open-zunt hunts within the Shard itself The final mission Orenbega map (1) is annoying, mostly because at least one of the necessary hunts is in part of the zone where the necessary enemies don't always spawn, and partially because of the nature of the enemies: Rularu fly away, Crey and Nemesis become nigh-immune to attacks. I'm not a fan of the in-zone travel, but that is the schtick of the zone and can live with it. Simply NOT restricting the defeats to "Point Zulu" (or wherever) would improve this part of the TF, as it is the most annoying pure-grind IMO. (2) is simply personal, but I hate "rescue the hostages" on that map with a passion. When solo, if the TF goes over two hours, it is usually because I've spent 30+ minutes on that final map trying to find the last objective.

Villains looking for the citizen defeat badge from Mayhem Missions should consider inverting in the AoE attacks from P2W.

These are all good reasons to have an in-mission teleport, even if you are not playing a Tanker. Red Side seems to have more in-mission "choke points" for mobs; On the Blue Side there are almost always opportunities to use something like Combat Teleport, but the main map that seems to favor it because of mob dog-piles is the Terra Volta Reactor map.

Ok, closer to my builds... here is how I have my Blaster slotted (regarding the current discussion on healing sets and Endurance pieces). Level 12: Dehydrate (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Heal/HitPoints/Regeneration: Level 50 (*) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50 (*) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing: Level 50 (*) Gladiator's Javelin - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50+5 (*) Gladiator's Javelin - Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Gladiator's Javelin - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 Level 2: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Miracle - +Recovery: Level 40 Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 50 (*) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 50 (*) Synapse’s Shock – EndMod/Increased Run speed: Level 50 Preventive Medicine is slotted (6-pieces) in the level 20 secondary sustain. Prior to level 50, I had the Theft of Essence %+End in Dehydrate. As I mentioned in another thread on endurance management, I also lean into set bonuses to grant +MaxEnd, Global endurance discounts, and prefer more Recovery than more Regeneration (on every AT except Tankers). This character has absolutely no endurance issues (without Incarnates) unless something goes very wrong with enemies which drain endurance. I'm tempted to pull one slot from one of these powers, but I don't really have a great place in the build to use an extra slot.. it would basically just be used for %damage in some already fast-charging power.

Without knowing your precise slotting for comparison, at level 45+ the boosted Preventive Medicine pieces are also providing a small Health bonus. If the AT is a Tanker or Brute, this could be noticeable. The three pieces you listed each are contributing to the Heal/Absorb, you are probably already past the ED cap.

How many pieces of the Preventive Medicine set do you have slotted? EDIT: I should add that boosting an enhancement to +5 should increase the base enhancement of the piece by 25%, not considering Enhancement Diversification.

Every character gets: Envenomed Daggers (sooner or later, you will face an AV) Plasmatic Taser (sooner or later, you will be on a Synapse TF) Jump Pack (because it increases travel speed while active) Self-Destruct (because sometimes you have timed out on all the other travel powers) The timer-base travel to mission powers When I can, everyone gets: Shivans, they are simply too handy. Not every character needs them (at level 50), but every character can use them Depending on power choices, I will occasionally buy jetpacks. I don't like NOT having a travel power, but I have at least one build that I felt I couldn't slip one in for the concept, so he has a Magic Carpet. The temp power I wish I could buy (please someone tell me this is true!) is something that does a mag 3 Immobilize. I find it weird I can diminish GMs Regeneration with Envenomed Daggers but I can't buy something to single-target immobilize. The damage scale for P2W attacks appear to follow the AT scale, which seems kinda sad to me.

I don't like this slotting: Level 16: Dehydrate (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage (27) Devastation - Damage/Endurance (29) Devastation - Damage/Recharge (29) Devastation - Chance of Hold (31) Numina's Convalesence - Heal (31) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery First: Those two Numina's pieces are better in Health... the regen bonus(es) from the set nicely play with what Health will do with slotting (less so for a Corruptor than a Tank/Brute, but if more regen is what you want...) I slot Dehydrate with 3xJavelin Volley (boosted) and 3xTouch of the Nictus. I don't find it to be a great %proc power, but I do keep the %Negative in it. You probably want the Miracle +Recovery piece, as well as the Performance Shifter %+End, Panacea %+HP/%+End and an EndMod piece in Stamina (to boost recovery) I also try to slot sets that will give Endurance reductions, global Endurance Discounts, +MaxEnd, or all of them. Annihilation is good choice. You should probably experiment with your toggles, and figure out which ones you rely on that could take some Endurance reduction. I also encourage you to experiment by not using Hasten. Hasten has an endurance cost, and it causes you to use more endurance (if casting).

I'm in agreement. Because of the nature of this particular %proc, I have a small supply stashed at the SG base, but the typical price (attuned, on the market) is perfectly reasonable. It's not a trivial set/piece to roulette into, but the supply I keep is entirely from RNG. The extras go into the AH, and if someone is pulling a slight profit off of what I dump, more power to them. I suspect this individual is also helping keep the prices of the less interesting EndMod sets afloat. The new HC sets aren't bad, but a player has to lean pretty hard into certain power sets for 5/6-piece sets of them to be really good options. I think I've only got two characters that do so.

You can get the Caregiver Day Job badge in Outbreak.

On the topic of slows, I have a couple of characters that as-built, appear to be completely immune to the effects of slows in non-incarnate content (a lot of incarnate content to, but I don't tend to play that as much). And then while leveling a character I ran afoul of x8 Knives of Artemis... oh yeah, I remember!

I almost always have that badge unlocked from Mayhem Missions. IIRC the 45-50 mission set in PI will be chock full of Paragon Police if set to x8. They will be kheldians, so fun times. There are large spawns of them hovering above the skyscrapers.

The group I was thinking would offer the most consistent opportunity to be clustered are Praetorian Clockwork. In the Blueside missions that face them (in large spawns), they strike me as almost always being "too spread out".

I'm here too. I will say, using the Teleport Pool to help teammates keep up, and to grab runners making a mad dash, is VERY appreciated.

I am always surprised when I see players on large PUGs using Fold Space. This may be just me: I find it slows down most PUGs, because a teammate just stepped on my tactical awareness of the situation. I can sort of see what a player is trying to do with the power, but it resonates a little too closely with old feelings of "wait while I herd the map". The only times it really bothers me: I'm using a placed effect, and now some fraction of the enemies are no longer in the area of effect. I'm playing a character with single-target attacks, and my target just got yoinked away. I never grief a PUGmate for using the power, but more often than not when I see Fold Space used, that's my sign to move onto the next spawn (or the target the mobs that Fold Space didn't catch).

I just dropped into to write: Inspirations are there to be used.

My memories of the pre-ED era were primarily that I was making some rather iconoclastic choices with slots for survivability and QoL... I enjoyed having the ability to make some oddball choices, but the game is much more enjoyable now for a wider spectrum of ATs and build and slotting choices. I would never want to go back to the days before ED.

A word of advice: AFAIK, the GMs which spawn in a zone (via zone events, not sure about GMs that spawn via a mission arc or something like a Nemesis Invasion) are essentially scaled to the maximum level of that zone (per the levels seen when taking certain forms of transit). So in practice, a Halloween "pumpkin patch" GM that spawns in Atlas Park will have fewer HP than the same Halloween GM that spawns in PI. It was my experience (from years past) that I could tell it was taking progressively more time to solo defeat the same holiday GMs as I moved from Atlas Park, to Hollows, to Skyway, To Faultline, to Peregrine Island. The Kings Row Paladins are towards the low-end by nature of the zone they spawn in. I'm not sure of a good way to get a feel for this besides the holiday GMs. Maybe the PI mission Adamastor v. the summoned Adamastor? If there is a key to soloing AVs, it basically comes down to do more damage than they heal. Debuffing their Regeneration, applying -MaxHP, and turning up the DPS (-Res helps, but you still have to overcome the healing). You also have to survive their attacks, but a LOT of characters can do that.

Apropos of (almost) nothing: Experienced Marksman is one of those PVP sets that almost never makes it into any of my builds. Scrappers/Stalkers who pick up Epic snipes always got for Sting of the Manticore; Blasters usually have other better options (including ATO). I think I have one cone-favoring Blaster (with a Snipe taken at a low level) where I crunched the numbers and the (boosted) PVP set turned out to be the best choice for that build... without using the Fast Snipe piece. A lot of the calculus on this character involved consideration of the levels of content I often play. I know that I didn't make the change of Enhancements for this character until after the change to the range on Fast Snipes... prior to that change I felt like my Blaster had a really good balance with the ranges of his attack powers and would use the (Fast) Snipe to pick off enemies that don't move (e.g. Snipers, Marksmen) or enemies that start running away. I was seriously tempted to change one of the slots to a Range IO 50+5, but it was the imbalance between ranges in Fast/Slow Snipes that bothered me more than whatever the final number was. When I get Experienced Marksmen recipe drops, I almost always craft them for spins of the converter roulette wheel.

Aside from a new power set (I've also been waiting for a set like this for a specific character concept), the ones that directly appeal to me (at this moment): Croatoa zone changes to help with the GMs and Events. I still encounter players that simply don't believe the entire spawns need to be cleared (even in Kings Row), so at least being able to spot the level-less mobs with /optionset showvillainname 1 should make it easier to convince open-minded players how these events actually work. The minor tweaks to Water Blast. I really like this set as it is, but there is some real clunkiness to Tidal Force accumulation/use, and Water Jet was always dropped from my builds at level 50+. The beta changes are not by any means over-powered, but I do see how these will help smooth out the experience of the Tidal Forces gimmick for ATs that choose this set. I appreciate that TPTB can look at a 'gimmick set' and see something that clearly isn't working (in a 'the juice is not worth the squeeze' kind of way). Weapon Redraws will probably improve QoL, but it has been a while since I've done a lot of playing with weapon sets,

Now being tested on the beta server: Water Blast Powers should build up Tidal Force stacks even if they miss. Enhanced Water Jet This power no longer has a lockout window. Tidal Forces Tidal Forces should clear all existing stacks of Tidal Power before applying 3 stacks. These changes blunt several of my (relatively minor) criticisms of a set that I think is already pretty good; none of these changes are going to hurt it. For my Blaster play, I feel like I am still unlikely to pick (Enhanced) Water Jet as a ST attack in a level-50 build (when global Recharge can be enough to smooth out attack chains without it) but I can see how these improvements will help folks that choose to lean into them. The biggest fix IMO is the behavior of the set on a missed attack. CoH play already has a serious bias towards AoE attacks, so the uneven accumulation of Tidal Force when using ST attacks has IMO added a level of clunkiness to this feature of Water Blast.

I was happy to see this in the Patch Notes (currently Beta testing): Zones Zone Adjustments Croatoa: Any enemy mobs involved in the Croatoa Vale War event where Eochai and Jack In Irons fight are now set to ignore combat mods, making them level-less and easier to identify which mobs must be defeated to progress or bring the event to its intended conclusion. Eochai and Jack In Iron's solo spawn events now have a Zone Event message that will broadcast when they spawn by themselves. I realize that not everyone uses /optionset showvillainname 1 but this small change will make it easier to reset the zone event. Thanks dev team!

Question about the level-less enemies in the Grim Vale War: Zones Zone Adjustments Croatoa: Any enemy mobs involved in the Croatoa Vale War event where Eochai and Jack In Irons fight are now set to ignore combat mods, making them level-less and easier to identify which mobs must be defeated to progress or bring the event to its intended conclusion. Eochai and Jack In Iron's solo spawn events now have a Zone Event message that will broadcast when they spawn by themselves. Question: Does the level-less apply to the mobs that spawn with the non-Gim Vale fight Jack in Irons and Eochai as well? I have been reluctant to test if 100% of their initial spawn needs to also be defeated to get them to respawn (zone geometry, and I don't like leaving things 'unfinished' if it will prevent re-spawns) I'd prefer if these spawns also appear as level-less, as I feels like they need to be cleared off the map in order to get the GMs to re-spawn. I offer the following anecdotal evidence: There can be long periods where Jack in Irons (and to a lesser extent) Eochai don't spawn (outside of the Grim Vale) The mobs that spawn with Jack in Irons (when he isn't spawned 'sleeping') and Eochai (when it isn't spawned in 'tree mode') will scatter wildly... this is especially true of the red caps. Specific to Jack in Irons and his Red Caps: There have been occasions where I've encountered this spawn when it's been bumbling around parts of the map where Fir Bolg will often zone, and as they have scattered from my character's attacks I have lost aggro on them as they get more interested in the Fir Bolg and never 'came back' to where I expected them to. This behavior reminds me of the 'grand rubble' that will spawn from a Jurassik Rubble... sometimes those (grand-) Rubble can end up some distance from where Jurassik was defeated (typically from knockback, but occasionally for other reasons).