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Now that I've PUGged a few more times on the ASF (still no badge runs) I still like this SF, but it definitely feels like there is too much different content. I love the maps and challenges... but I find myself wishing I could have divided these up. I'm reminded of the inter-locking patron arcs... it would be a slog to have to do all of them in a row.

I saw the thread title an immediately thought of the dialog in Theoden's SSA1 arc in Skyway. For the record: I don't mind challenges that deny players powers, or those that buff enemies.

TrooBloo was a blaster, he started playing solo But he knew it wouldn't last TrooBlue wanted TFs, so he joined some PUGgers he used all of his attacks... Knockback, Knockback Knockback slotted in attacks Knockback, Knockback Knockback Troobloo Sweet DiamaBurnTank thought he was a herder aggro was an aura thing All the other teammates never saw him taunting but they heard him cry and sing... Knockback, Knockback Knockback is spoiling all my fun Knockback, Knockback Walls? I never saw a farm map with one.

I will attach the pet-build I use for Crab. Hasten is perma, and all three pets can be re-summoned immediately (if they aren't otherwise defeated). Some caveats on this build: 1) I made NO effort to try to maximize S/L resistance or positional defenses... that is, I stayed out of the Fighting Pool. For some AT builders, this is a non-starter. 2) The Concealment pool was reworked by Homecoming since I generated this template, but it can still hold the two LotG mules. Grant Invisibility is a little help for pets (including teammates). 3) Notice the two %procs in the Spiderlings. Because the Spiderlings have so few attacks, a strong case can be made that moving those %procs to the other pets (and these are pets, not henchmen) may yield more DPS. 4) There should be enough Global recharge that without slow debuffs, the I think this build can afford to lose some of the recharge from either/or a set bonus or a LotG mule and still keep perma-Hasten. The Recharge is really key for the pets (and to not have the Endurance drop). If you are willing to cut into the Global Recharge margin, I would consider one of the following changes: Sacrifice both the Concealment mules to get Rune of Protection from Sorcery Steal slots from Web Envelope to get the 6th-piece +MaxEnd set bonus in Channelgun, and to add dedicated Defense/Resistance boosted pieces to certain powers Alter one of the AoE attacks (probably Suppression, moving the Annihilation set elsewhere) to be a %proc cone attack with a possibly longer range. My personal preference would be to do the last one first; I find cone attacks with debuffs to be a good force multiplier for pets. Villain Plan by Hero Villain Designer 2.23 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Old Cob3.1: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Channelgun -- SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprSpdBit-Dmg/Rchg:50(9), SprSpdBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), SprSpdBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(27), SprSpdBit-Rchg/Global Toxic:50(31) Level 1: Wolf Spider Armor -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A) Level 2: Combat Training: Defensive -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(3) Level 4: Longfang -- SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprDmnofA-Dmg/Rchg:50(5), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), SprDmnofA-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), SprDmnofA-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), SprDmnofA-Rchg/DmgFear%:50(9) Level 6: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A) Level 8: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB:50(A) Level 10: Suppression -- Ann-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Ann-Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Ann-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29), Ann-ResDeb%:50(31) Level 12: Venom Grenade -- Rgn-Dmg:50(A), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(23), Rgn-Acc/Rchg:50(25), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), PstBls-Dam%:50(40) Level 14: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- Rct-Def:50(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(15), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg:50(15), Rct-Def/Rchg:50(17), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), Rct-ResDam%:50(19) Level 16: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(37) Level 18: Frag Grenade -- PstBls-Acc/Dmg:50(A), PstBls-Dmg/Rchg:50(19), PstBls-Dmg/Rng:50(21), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx:50(21), PstBls-Dam%:50(23), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(29) Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GssSynFr--Build%:50(A) Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I:50(A) Level 24: Fortification -- UnbGrd-Max HP%:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(27), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(40), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(50) Level 26: Frenzy -- Arm-Dmg:50(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(43), Arm-Dam%:50(46), TchofLadG-%Dam:50(50) Level 28: Serum -- Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(33), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(34), Prv-Absorb%:50(34) Level 30: Grant Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A) Level 32: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(34) Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(36), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), OvrFrc-Dam/KB:50(37), SlbAll-Build%:50(50) Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(39), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), EdcoftheM-PetDef:40(40) Level 41: Web Envelope -- GrvAnc-Immob:50(A), GrvAnc-Immob/Rchg:50(42), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx:50(42), GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(42), GrvAnc-Hold%:50(43) Level 44: Shatter Armor -- Hct-Dmg:50(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), Hct-Dam%:50(46), TchofDth-Dam%:40(46) Level 47: Summon Blaster -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(48), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(48), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets):50(48) Level 49: Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Conditioning Level 1: Sprint -- UnbLea-Stlth:50(A) Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I:50(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I:50(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End:50(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(31) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%:50(A) Level 0: Born In Battle Level 0: High Pain Threshold Level 0: Invader Level 0: Marshal ------------ ------------

I'm not sure why Hasten wouldn't have 2 Recharge IOs. The little bit of S/L resistance from the 2-pieces of Reactive Defenses should be sacrificed to free slots, and just use a boosted Def/End Shield Wall or HO+3 instead. I would also try to move a slot into Serum (from Health, sacrificing the Numina piece seems trivial) and slot 6 pieces of Preventive Medicine instead of 5 Panacea. I'd dedicate one of the sprints to an Endurance reduction option, and possibly one with a Stealth piece. There is a lot I am not crazy about with that build, but those are the immediate things I would tweak without changing up power picks.

Slot one (or more) %damage enhancements in Mass Confuse, and the caster enters the running for drop tables for every enemy that takes %damage... no matter what defeats them. For me, the most frustrating feature of Mind Control is the delayed damage on Levitate. As near as I can tell it exists simply so we can enjoy the ragdoll physics.

I like having the Kismet "global", and I like having it pre-50 (when slots are rare, and when the CoT debuffs are painful), but I tend to drop it unless: I have an auto (or must-use toggle) power, because Kismet only contributes when the power is on. (I'm not sure about click defenses. but those almost certainly have better slot options anyway). My Stalkers slot it in Hide ASAP. I have a Snipe as part of an attack chain, since (fast) snipes have more damage based on ToHit (up to 22%, IIRC) (My Blasters, Stalkers, Scrappers) I have a significant number of "proc monster" attacks, such that many attacks don't have accuracy slotting. I really enjoy playing against +N/debuffing content, and I want my teammates to see me hitting while they whiff! I will admit that I typically slot Enhancement sets that end up giving me pretty big +Accuracy bonuses, so like @Yomo Kimyata wrote, I am watching my last to-hit chance.

I feel like there are opportunities for some Blue Steel content. Ideally, he'd actually be the "big bad" of his own arc. The PPD and Blue Steel make an appearance in the DA incarnate content, but I've always felt that the (classic) Clockwork deserved an arc with more explicit "fantasy roleplay" elements in it as opposed to just naming bosses after court titles. 1) We could get a flashback mission (suitable for Vigilantes?) that more fully reveals his part in the origin of the Clockwork King. 2) Alternatively, we could get a "Kings Row TF" as a sort of Synapse-TF-adjacent arc that features classic Clockwork.

Last night I was playing with a "not good" AT. I realized it was because I didn't spend enough Inf on my Enhancements. All my existing enhancements were trashed and I put in all new bids for replacement Enhancements at 10x market prices, and now I have over 300 Alphas! The mistake I made was not spending MOAR on PRIMO Enhancements. -This message brought to you by the Guild of EbilTM Marketeers. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Spokesmen may have been compensated for their endorsements.

This is where I am: I won't even bother with Solo hard mode, so I'm even less likely to try to decide on which power to drop to add Placate. As it is now, with my favorite Stalker, I don't really have any slots to spare for it. If I absolutely wanted to fit Placate into that build, I think I would have to make the hard (for me, YMMV) call to not have a pool travel power... which on that build is holding the Winter's Gift Slow Resistance unique... which means that I'd have to be relying even more on P2W/temp/SG Base powers for the performance I've become accustomed to. I can easily imagine Stalkers (and Widows) making use of Placate while leveling. Without access to all powers and many slots, defenses won't be as good as they will be on an (exemplared) level 50 build. There may also be some lower-level content that folks want to run at extreme difficulties in which the "breather" provided by a Placate would be valuable. I'm thinking about all the times when I've started a SSA1 and I've forgotten to reset the +N/x8 difficulty setting!

As I have written many times, I'm in favor of the T4 (level 6, i have occasionally mistakenly referred to T6 when I meant level 6) that, FIRST upgrade be replaced with a recharge-intensive BUFF pet (not a henchman) and just bake that original upgrade into all the henchmen. I feel that the level 32 (Tier 9) power is fine to keep as is, simply because game balance would be affected over a wider range of content. The only levels of content that would be affected (to first order) with baking in the T4 upgrade would be before level 6.... and that would only be for one henchman (maybe 2 for some very low exemplared content). A recharge-intensive buff pet could be tuned to the primary (there are plenty of already existing pet assets like drones, wisps, spiders, etc.) and could take those global pieces that many primaries have to slot into their pets.

Some say that puns are the lowest form of humor. Ice puns should always offered in the spirit of Good Humor.

The thinking you express in this post aligns closely with my own. Even if my own tastes in what I want and get from CoX are considered unrefined, I am not motivated by the CoT efforts on artwork (characters, the world, the buildings) to really switch. I appreciate the challenges and effort that programmers are putting in, but those things won't get me to jump ship as long as the comfortable, appreciated, and supported Homecoming exists. Not that it is up to me, but if *I* were the majority investor in something that was originally intended to be something like a 'comic book universe', I'd try to reconfigure the work done so far to change from a CoH-clone (because that effort is unlikely to offer enough exciting new experiences) and instead focus on one or more of the following: idea-clone Freedom Force, which was a beloved game even if it was rather limited reskin the efforts into an explicitly PVP (or Team Co-op PVP) that has a comic-book bent... as these are more-or-less an area that CoH doesn't really appeal to most players and have proven difficult to balance with the core non-PvP game. I'm not saying that some great new comic-book MMORPG can't some along, but any of them that's been in development for 5+ years is unlikely to be the game-changer.

No complaints from me... if I could use P2W to turn off enhancement drops I would. Dropped enhancements just get in my way when I respec (or when playing the AH)! I think the level 50 enhancements have something like less than 25% lower vendor prices than the worst level 50 IO recipes.

May I suggest that this title be "Pizza Delivery Guy/Gal" instead? That's always the vibe I get when I solo that mission.

The simplest change I would like is if we Masterminds could slot the Global enhancements for Henchmen (and pets) into the 'upgrade' powers, so that we can actually use our henchmen (and pets) slots to enhance specific features of them. As it is, so primaries that don't have a recharge-intensive summon have to burn enhancement spots in the henchmen powers to get the global bonuses.

I don't think you are making a mistake in playing any AT that appeals to you... and if "farming" is your ultimate goal, any DPS character should be fine. There are degrees of efficiency, but for my 2 Inf you don't "need" to do much classic AE farming in this game. The main in-game advantage I see to having a "farmer" is for 2nd account XP boosting if you simply can't bring yourself to play with characters below level 50. I have no shade to toss at folks that would simply prefer to play a farm scenario in the AE. Some thoughts: Merits are very easy to get, for all AT and all "sides". Merits can get you a lot of what the game provides directly (merit vendors) or indirectly (auction house) The Auction House can provide a LOT of Inf, with relatively low Inf-vestment. You do have to do some learning, but it isn't that hard to figure out. Once a DPS character is reasonably well kitted, especially with Incarnate boosts, there is a HUGE amount of non-AE content that can be run "just like" farms... with an exception that not all characters would be equal for "AFK farming".

I dunno about recommend %procs as a spot for Market Chaos... it feels to me like there is already a baseline of "Chaotic Stupid" in that niche. The last time I looked at such things (I'm not talking about Globals here) there are quite a few %procs that had 1000+ available with only a few hundred bids. In addition to looking like a bad market niche, this is as good a sign as any that some times of powers are poor choices. Even in the case of %damage procs for things like Attacks or Holds, the non-Purple variants are almost always 2Minf or less. There have been (in the past) a couple of reliable %damage pieces, but I've seen those niche fluctuate. In order to cause any sort of peculiar market stir, I think it would be necessary to buy up nearly all of the pieces/recipes from all of the sets that only exist in the level 10-30 range, since very few players would do anything like "solo farm" at lower levels to replenish such supplies en masse. There are still ways that the fungible market works against such a strategy, so it wouldn't stop dedicated folks from filling their builds or marketeers from putting things on the market.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I have so many unclaimed unslotters I don't even think I'd notice. I couldn't even tell you what the going price of them is. They are also pretty cheap in Merits, IIRC.

Didn't we already see this in the Uncommon salvage market? To my thinking, the only "chaos" in the market place would have to be in an area where: players can't reliably farm/convert/but from vendor the item players actually want the item the server team won't simply repopulate (so 'packs' are out) Uncommon salvage was in a peculiar spot because the 'seeded' price is much higher that the supply of (a fungible piece) of uncommon salvage demands. Salvage is 'weird' in the sense that it is fungible, but when you need it the fungibility doesn't actually help you convert a piece you have to a piece you need. I stockpile all the rare salvage that drops and I often find myself with 20+ of certain types; that is the point when they go on the market. The only other areas that I can think of immediately are things like HO/DSO (non-trivial drop-onlys that can't be converted) and Essence of the Earth/Ambrosias The latter insps aren't exactly hard to get, and for EoE most typical Hami raids will generate enough for raiders but some folks simply buy from the AH and don't sweat the drops. Not a lot of space for true chaos there. It would be possible to make life painful for folks by buying up converters, but merits are easy to get in the game.

You mean the duration of the %proc? Obviously longer times with a Resistance debuff on an enemy would be better, since the PBAoE attacks that take this specific %proc are generally lower damage against a single hard target, so following up more several high-damage ST attacks against the same target is better that fewer high-damage ST attacks. There is a more reliable way to apply -Res available to everyone was mentioned by @Mezmera Weaken Resolve. This is single target only, but I think the ("do you have to hit twice?") case has been made that it it pretty much against hard single targets with sacks of HP where most of the value in a -Res debuff is. A debuff from Weaken Resolve is guaranteed on a hit (and can take an additional -Res %proc !) with the obvious difference that Weaken Resolve isn't an inherently damaging attack (modulo a couple of %damage pieces) with a chance of -Res. Some AT (Soldiers of Arachnos come to mind) that can focus on lots of AoE attacks might find slightly more value in AoE %-Res than %damage in 0x8 content, but that falls under what was discussed above by several players.

I feel like I don't see this acknowledged enough: I've spent a lot of time leading Penny Yin TFs with (pre-recent) boosted difficulty settings, and uniformly the most chatted observation is "I can't hit anything!"... even more than "No Endurance!" I should disclose, even the most ill-equipped teams that have faced this content still were able to finish the TF in just over an hour... so it isn't as if this becomes a terrible slog. I always enjoyed these runs because they really encourage teamwork, and they can be a great source of XP for lower level characters. Back to the Gladiator's proc: Something else I realized that works against me including it in more final (solo play) builds is that it is unique. If I had the chance to slot it into more powers with the hope of extending the duration of the debuff I'd feel better about it. This thread has a few of my characters now carrying around copies (with unslotters) to drop it into certain powers for some PUG content.

I played on an ASF run with a Fortunata, I want to say we had at least two other VEAT as well. I don't think we were playing at the higher difficulties, although we started the arc at +4 (by mistake or habit) and had no issues. We did go out of our way to face as many AV as possible, which we handled in a very 'normal' manner. I didn't feel like it was very different than other runs, or other content. We definitely had deaths... I want to say that I died maybe thrice: The first was against the initial Goldbrickers (I wasn't paying attention... I specifically aggroed a group to bring to the cauldron and instead of just finishing them off I dragged them and then made the mistake of ignoring them). Once against Ripplesauce (I wasn't really paying attention, forgot what AT I was playing) and possibly once in the long drawn-out fight against the Council AVs. I can't recall on that fight because I hadn't realized how many AVs there were, and the fight took something like 30 minutes to clear them out... that specific fight would probably had gone faster if we had been focusing fire... all I really remember about it that teammates were dropping and so I switched up my attempts at MOAR OFFENSE to MOAR CONTROL to give others a chance to rez. I also remember bruning through all my Insps and consuming all the drops during that fight... I just can't remember if any of them were used as part of a self-rez. I definitely remember being confused, but I think that was from enemy status effects and not rez. I know I took some big hits in the big AV fight, but by that time I was paying much more attention to my combat stats and power timers. There were definitely later points in the arc when I was still playing fast-and-loose (doing solo stuff in the multiple objectives bits... so BAD for 'master' runs) but by that point I was really paying attention and was able to handle all sorts of crazy. At least for 'standard' difficulties, I'd say that the ASF definitely benefits from teams staying together, although there ARE points at which some characters can go solo depending on build and powers. Specific to my Fortunata build, I found myself using the controls (Confuses, Fears) a LOT more than I ever have on other SF/TF content.

I definitely get a Diamante vibe from this one, but here goes nothing: Go ahead and monitor Attributes like your Accuracy Bonus and Last To-Hit Chance. I think you can also monitor your Base To-Hit as well. I WISH that the last To-Hit ROLL was also a displayable attribute, but AFAIK that is only visible in the combat logs. If you can see them through the tears, you'll have an idea if you are getting debuffed or fighting an opponent with serious debuffs. Depending on your power picks, if the last To-Hit chance was REALLY BAD, you may want to consider an action other than button mashing.