tidge

It always felt to me that Energy Melee was toned down because of PvP, especially the Stun aspect. I couldn't tell you when I started to get this feeling, but I have vague memories of early issue 7... such as taking my Day 1 Inv/EM tank int Recluse's Victory and getting dog-piled, but surviving partially because I had done "silly" things like slotting attacks for the stun component (and also taking Stun)... There were so many tweaks relative to this combo (Unyielding, stunned enemies zipping off at hypersonic speeds) you will have to forgive my possibly faulty memory.

My Bots/Traps went "Mace", but I can see "Mu" as well. rather than post a build, I will try to describe what I did with powers and with enhancement choices. Powers: My goal was to leverage powers to provide the following two things to support the henchmen: "soft"-ish controls (Knockdown, Slows) in addition to Holds. I should note, I put the KB->KD Sudden Acceleration piece in the Battle Drones and Assault Bot. As much -Res as possible In addition to inherent -Res from powers, I have %-Res in AoE/Pseudo-pets: Caltrops, Acid Mortar (x2), Photon Grenade, and Mace Beam Volley. I didn't pick any personal attacks until level 30, and I use the attacks to draw aggro for Tankerminding. Enhancement Choices: I focused on set (and single piece) choices to provide: Global +MaxEnd, Global -EndCost All the favorite 1-off uniques, including the henchmen globals Global Recharge I don't think I have anything clever to write about Tanker-minding, but I will make some points: There is only so much (personal) Resistance and (personal) Defense and to be gained, so don't go crazy. The FFG will be the main source of Defense. Scaling Resistance from Reactive Defenses is your friend. Health (Hit Points) are important for Tanker-Minds, but a set boost that gives ~10 HP is not worth it IMO. Power Transfer's %Heal is probably a better use of a slot than a 3rd LotG piece. I treat Regeneration a little more seriously on my MMs than I do for most other ATs. (see below) I use the AoE attacks to draw/keep aggro. They are much more reliable and effective than Provoke from the Presence pool. Since my MM is trying to spam sources of -Res, the need for Endurance management is serious. I have reached into some peculiar sets to help: Annihilation (different Endurance bonuses at 2 and 5 pieces) Preventive Medicine (Endurance discount, Recharge, and %Absorb) Ghost Widow's Embrace (MaxEnd) Undermined Defenses (MaxEnd), plus extra debuffing of Defenses helps henchmen Reactive Defenses (Endurance discount, Recharge, Scaling Resistance) I should note that I use 3 slots in Health: 2xPanacea and 1 for Miracle. In a build with Triage Beacon, Regeneration is something that is a bit of a balancing act. Obviously the Beacon is stationary, but I find the Robots performance to be best when they stay in one place... and if I am facing a hard target I will probably not be moving as much anyway.

On my characters: Flight + Afterburner + Jump Pack > Flying speed cap. Since both Afterburner and Jump Pack had limited durations, I will juggle them when flying long distances... otherwise if the distance is not too far...

Weaken Resolve got hit with the Nerf bat a while back, but as written by @Mezmera I still find it useful in limited circumstances. Mystic Flight is one of those powers that is almost too good in some (unfortunate) circumstances. For example: It is common that in the Mortimer Kal TF that the team drags a whole lotta CoT to that back room that eventually become untargetable, blocking exit from the room. I've had to use the Teleportation aspect of the power to get out of the room! Another note about travel powers that involve flying: I've been adding the P2W power Jump Pack to add a +Fly boost. It's a stronger boost than Afterburner for my characters with Fly!

Mileage varies of course. But if a Robotics MM wants to lean into %procs... My Robots MM has the AoE Photon Grenade slotted for -Res (5 pieces of Annihilation for the global Endurance Discount and +MaxEnd) and Knockdown (Overwhelming Force). This is an example of the set bonuses being enough to make me not care so much about %procs, but that power is a particularly good one (better than Pulse Rifle Blast IMO) for %damage (and other effects) for offense. IIRC with no slotted recharge in Photon Grenade, the -Res piece will have a ~40% chance to proc, the 3.5 PPM %damage will have something like 50% chance to proc, and (Absolute Amazement) %-ToHit should be above 60% chance to proc... and these are for each target in the AoE! Either choice (all %procs in Photon Grenade or minimal %procs in it) feels like a better choice for trying for a MM to inflict damage than Pulse Rifle + Tactics (w/ Build Up). One other advantage I see to Photon Grenade over a ST attack from the rifle is that you should draw more aggro to the MM than from just using ST attacks.

This is all true, but here is my thinking about Masterminds and the Gaussian's %BuildUp.... it's not worth it for most Masterminds. Masterminds have low damage scales, so the extra Build Up, while not meaningless is boosting already weak tea. Masterminds also have an Endurance tax, so trying to do enough attacks to benefit from the extra Build Up (by itself) is costing more end for the MM, as opposed to slotting the power to keep it up and/or improving the benefit to allies/henchmen/pets. Also if the MM is making attacks (to benefit from %Build Up), it likely means that the MM isn't doing other things to improve the damage output (or survivability) of the henchmen. On my MM builds, I find that I never have more than two slots for Tactics, even on the builds that have a LOT of attacks to support the henchmen (with Knockdown, -Res, etc.). I simply use one or two Cytoskeletons in my MM builds. For my Crabbermind, I absolutely have the Gaussian's %Build Up. IIRC The damage scale for VEATS is 1.0, whereas for MMs it is still 0.55.

ASSASSIN'S STRIKE!

I thought this might be of interest. The only architect souvenir I have on most of my characters is this one from testing one of Heraclea's AE missions. typos are mine, and in place of certain unicode characters he used, I used ascii. A letter of commendation from Heaven Ante prinipium erat quædam testudo. Et ista testudo sola fuit. Et circumspicit, et vidit vicinam eius quæ mater sua erat; et se deposuit super vicinam eius, et ecce, paruit ei in lacrimis quercum, quæ omne die creuit, et tunc decidit, et fecit pontem. Et ecce, sub isto ponte venit silurus, et ambulabat, et valde magnus erat, et fuit maximus quod vidit. Et tales autem fuerent colei ignei haec piscis, ex quibus vnus erat Sol; et alter, Lunam appellauerunt.

I am only going to discuss %damage procs, which could be expanded to some other %effect procs... I am NOT referring to global effects (e.g. Slow resists, +Recharge) from single enhancements. My general rules: Multiple-procs (i.e. more than 1 from different set) are primarily for low-damage scale ATs because %damage is invariant (for all ATs). If there is a better use for the slot (as a set bonus, or in another power, or *shudder* enhancement of a combat value) that is what the slot will be used for. I focus on multi-%damage in AoE powers, specifically non-melee cones. I find that generally, once level 50 enhancements are available, the set bonuses are more valuable than %damage... and my experience has been that cones offer more "bang-for-the-slot" when they cycle faster than AoE "nukes". (Prior to level 50, you don't have that many slots so don't even worry too much about set bonuses, as long as Accuracy and Endurance are not an issue!) I will admit to a fondness for adding %damage (and %magnitude) to single-target holds. There are almost always more options for %damage in hold powers than any other type of allowable enhancement. Fast-cycling powers really shouldn't IMO be considered for %damage. Any %procs I have in such will be because they are part of a set. There may be some corner cases where I wouldn't immediately roll my eyes (I see a lot of builds with a single Perfect Zinger %Psi in Taunt) but writing only for myself I think there is an alternate way to use such powers/slots. While leveling, for targeting powers I tackle Accuracy and Endurance first.

I'm sure someone will suggest Red CoT Crystals or Fires, but what I have often done for my Red Side seekers of Iron Man is to go to Recluse's Victory and allow the pillboxes to attack.

I don't want to yuck in anyone's yum, but aside form MOAR REWARDS I find the Vanguard/RWZ arcs to be a big yawn. My ennui is (I think) driven by the very wide level-range (35+). Reworking the Crash Site wasn't a complete misfire, but it just never sat right with me... there was some romance to be had in the era of having to cross Crey's Folly to do street sweeping and occasional door missions(?). Between the Crash Site and Dark Astoria reworks, and the closure of Galaxy City, I'm glad that the plans for a reworked Perez Park never came to fruition.

Here are the circumstances for which I have "multi-built" VEATs <- typically I have 2 builds used for each path, and 1 build specifically for "team boosting" based on one of the other builds MMs <- I will usually try a "one big pet" build. I usually don't use them, but I try them! Tankers <- This is peculiar (for me)... see note below I build my Tanks such that I can enjoy solo play and PUGs, so my power/slotting will usually have them at something 99.5% "Total Survivability", but I will sometimes add a second build that puts them at 99.9% "Total Survivability" for those occasions when a PUG explicitly wants a Tank for specific content and won't guarantee that they will provide any sort of boosts. There usually isn't anything radical about the second build... maybe a slightly different assignment of slots, maybe pursing a specific set bonus, often it is just using boosted 50+5 pieces (as opposed to attuned) for level 47+ content.

I am in agreement with this: I experimented with %procs in Hot Feet and I simply found it to be an unreliable source of damage. When the damage happens, it is nice, but ultimately I kept the slots and went with a set bonus instead. The set also allowed me to drive down the Endurance costs.

While you are still leveling your "Knockback Princes" into "Knockback Kings", don't forget that there are P2W powers (ehem, Plasmatic Taser, Hand Grenade) that also do Targeted AoE KB. I tried to make a somewhat offbeat controller whose schtick was supposed to be 'those who oppose him fall down, stumble, and generally make fools of themselves', and it worked for me but YMMV. It is a Mind/Poison/Primal Controller. The "falling down/knockback" powers are Levitate, Power Blast, Energy Torrent. For this Controller, I didn't opt to use the Overwhelming Force Knockdown piece in any power (Terrify is a good candidate) because I prefer to have more %damage procs in such powers, given the low damage scale for Controllers, and an effect like Fear is just as good as Knockdown for this character. Aside from the P2W powers, the only other power I considered (but didn't put in the build) was Enflame, to represent giving an enemy a "hot foot". I totally would have added it (and maybe Arcane Bolt, for knockdown) but I didn't have the power picks... and I made some power choices based on Enhancement options. I suppose the Fighting pool offers some options, but I really didn't have the power picks or slots for those.

Nerf Regen.

Join me at this table. A couple more and we can start a game of pinochle.

While not really coming close to the one-off "go to this hazard zone and fight N +5 (btw the minions are in spawns of 8)" missions, I've been reliving some of the "charm" of the early days while collecting Oroborous badges without travel powers (AT-only powers also kinda works). As a long-time arc-player I have a general sense of which ones will be less painful than others, but dear gawd there are a lot of arcs of the type "go to this corner of Talos, then take to Azuria, then go to this corner of Talos..."

...Still waiting for the devs to fix the umbRage crash.

Thanks! That umbrage has been taking up one of my Auction House slots for far too long.

I won't disagree with the outcome, but if members of the team are looking for the Valet badge you might want to wait for most of the rest of the team to zone before jumping in. There are different successful strategies to avoid the destruction of cars/trucks, but I've never seen it happen when a single player triggers the rampage without others to assist. YMMV.

As I have written elsewhere; I would prefer that instead of an increase +Recovery, I would rather that Conditioning just be a flat +MaxEnd boost. I'm somewhat bored by my own suggestion, so I think I will instead begin a campaign that Conditioning be upgraded instead to grant a 1% discount on all Inf expenses at vendors.

You use quite a few sets that I do not, but I don't feel like being critical about those. I'll call out some things I do differently: I think the Stamina slotting should replace Acc/End with the %+Endurance piece. (2xIO at 50+5 would probably be better) Physical Perfection can take the Power Transfer %Heal. I don't use any Numina pieces, including the Global. I don't chase Impervium Armor set bonuses. IIRC I have four instances of the Psi defense piece dropped into various powers. I have Dull Pain 6-slotted with Preventive Medicine. This is one of those powers I rarely use outside of extreme content, but I like the set bonuses and Max HP is kinda the tank thing. I have Taunt 6-slotted with Mocking Beratement. I find the set bonuses to be a better fit for an Invulnerable Tanker than Perfect Zinger... and I think the %damage proc in that set is a trap (for Taunt). Whirling Hands is where I have four %damage procs, plus the Gauntleted Fist %+Absorb piece. In the 6th slot I have an HO for Acc/Dam (Nucleolus) Here are some choices I make because eventually I find myself standing against only 1 enemy, so I don't specifically rely on being surrounded by enemies to boost my offense: I prefer a 6-slotted Build Up with Gaussian's set. I have Invincibility slotted with a LotG, 2xShield Wall (boosted) and an HO Cytoskeleton (End/ToHit/Defense) I slipped the Kismet +Accuracy (really +ToHit) into Tough Hide. I don't use Conserve Power, instead I have Focused Accuracy. It is nothing special, but I have the Rectified Recticle +Perception piece in it. You shouldn't need a Knockback Protection piece in Fly. If you are specifically worried about UBER Knockback, I'd move the slot such that you can use a second Steadfast Protection global and get a set bonus. EDIT: Let me add this personal note about Knockback Protection... At one point I definitely felt like I wanted extreme levels of KB protection (I can't recall if I was pursuing 17 or higher) because I felt that it would be embarrassing have an Inv tank tossed around by the very few enemies that do that much KB... but it is possible to buy 90 minutes of 10KB protection from a SG base. Unyielding should get you 10, and I won't fault anyone for looking to cross the 12 KB threshhold (from a set bonus like Gladiator's Armor... which can be boosted to 50+5) or from a single +4 piece, but I wouldn't compromise a build just for that level of KB protection.

Obviously, mileage varies. I have a 2-form build Fortunata & Night Widow... in which the Fortunata is "all range" (a scrappy controller) and the Night Widow is "all close" (a team-boosting scrapper). I greatly prefer the Fortunata, primarily because the AoE can clear x8 maps solo much faster... but OTOH... it was the Widow build that I used during much of the post 24 leveling up, and I still switch to it when I am on teams. I suppose there are things about the Widow VEATs that would make the Night Widow better for me specifically (Damage per Activation maybe?) but much of the imbalance in relative performance is (I think) due to my specific power picks. I have a very simple-minded suggestion about the VEAT Inherent: I would much rather have the Inherent be +MaxEnd instead of +Recovery. I suppose a hard look could be had looking at the full suite of Endurance costs for the VEAT powers, but for my build-points the variety in VEATs comes from the Power & Patron pool choices which I wouldn't expect to be tuned for VEATs. I also feel that (effective) +Recovery bonuses get to the point of diminishing returns too fast (from sets, globals) and a higher MaxEnd just appeals to me.

This is a sort of side opinion to the Dominator discussion but... I actually like this peculiar feedback loop for perma-Dom... +Global Recharge -> MOAR clicking -> more -Endurance +Global Recharge -> PermaDom -> Endurance bar refills I haven't found anything else quite like it in the game, so any time there is a whiff of changing Global Recharge or Domination I think fondly about this feedback loop.

I have to say it: Henchmen, not Pets. Some MM can have both, but I am suggesting adding a Pet to each primary. This is part of my thinking that went into my "replace the Tier 4 Equip power with a recharge-intensive pet"... if the pet could provide a buff to make up for some of the level shift (especially if it only affected the MM's henchmen... and pets)... and it didn't become the Leadership pool... It would allow all of the primaries a place to slot the Global IOs that improve survivability of the henchmen AND free up slots (in the henchmen) to allow MMs to actually focus on ENHANCING diverse elements of their Henchmen. All MM primaries suffer from this problem in some way, but several primaries REALLY suffer. I focus on reworking that Tier 4/Level 6 power because TWO of the henchmen are not even summonable until higher levels (level 12, level 26) and it seems CRAZY to me that a MM requires a low level power to improve a higher-level power. I don't think the game balance below level 6 will be that much harmed by giving the Tier 1/2 summoned henchmen boosted abilities. There are enough recharge-intensive game resources (P2W pets, Incarnate Lore) that it wouldn't be a big graphical ask for the Dev team to add such a thing to each MM primary. I recognize that there are a few elements of game balance to consider: Should the buff pet be inherently permanent, or should it require resummoning (like a FFG or VEAT pet)? Should the buff pet be targetable/destroyable? Should the pet buff the same thing for each primary? Should the pet buff all allies, or just henchmen/pets? My hot takes: (1) I don't care. The HC improvements have already made the game much easier for MM management, I don't think it would be too much to force it to be resummonable, unless it becomes target-able. (2) I prefer "NO", otherwise AoE will probably wipe it out, and then we have to start considering recharge time for the power as a game balance issue. For example: with /Traps,I don't think I ever had a FFG get destroyed. (3) My heart says "no" but game balance says "yes". Maybe a compromise, where all primaries boost ToHit for the Henchmen, but then individual primaries boost a secondary attribute? (4) I prefer "just henchmen/pets". I wouldn't want MMs (via their primary) to encroach on the realm of other ATs to buff allies (again, via the primary)... my want is to buff the henchmen, not everybody else. I'm flexible on this point, as some MM players may want to go the "petless" or "semi-petless" route, so maybe the buff should also work on the MM too?