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In case it hasn't been mentioned: the protection from Endurance Drain buff can be built at a SG base with salvage.

I agree that I don't like having to take four powers from Presence to get the two I *really* want. For several of my toons it's because I want to 5-slot Invoke Panic and 6-slot Unrelenting. I find the PBAoE fear is a great control for defense-based characters that are going to be in the middle of a group of baddies. The single-target is less useful, although I did use it against (Elite) Bosses while leveling up to keep them out of fights. Pacify/Provoke serve different needs. While leveling solo, Pacify can buy precious time against big bads that are wearing you down. At the end-game, characters don't wear down as much (usually End costs are under control in attacks) and so if you have a toon that can take the heat, an AoE Taunt can help when teaming. I usually respec into Provoke once my toons can handle the heat. I find the choice of Pacify/Provoke to be an interesting one. If I had to pick a power from the Presence pool to skip (and I didn't have to take both Pacify and Provoke) it would be the single-target fear. That one feels too much like a T1 power to me. Now if only the Fear powers had a Purple (or PVP) set...

You must visit the vendor in Echo: Mercy Island to convert /threads to /jrangers.

Maybe those powers don't fit the character concept?

Perhaps you weren't clear, but to get the PBAoE fear, you don't need to take both the taunt and placate, you can choose the single-target fear as your second power. My complaint about the Presence pool is that both the PBAoE fear and Unrelenting are very good powers, and to get them both it is 4 picks into the pool.

I want to make a separate post about the aesthetics of red v. blue, without specifically quoting or comment any of the posts so far in this thread. B1) Blue side had IMO one thematic advantage in its original design (prior to quicky teleport options) in that the for the most part the zones are laid out per the original map/poster that came with the game and that you literally can walk/sprint/fly from one zone to a neighboring zone. I remain non-plussed that the one area of the Rogue Isles where you could potentially do that (Port Oakes and CapAu Diable) you cannot. I understand it is a compromise between War Walls and water. Blue side has two other items which could be seen as advantages or disadvantages, depending on you PoV and personal PC situation. B2) Blue side offers both Hazard zones and PvP zones. Personally: the only Hazard zone I actually enjoy playing in is Perez Park (for teh memories) but even there I hate the maze. I'm glad that Perez Park was never remade per the dev plans. Boomtown is dull, even with the potential event. I've been on Numina TFs where people didn't even know there was a Terra Volta zone. Being sent on a mission to a Hazard Zone feels like a punishment. B3) Blue side geometry is for the most part simple and boring. This is a potential advantage for players with lower end graphics systems (from 10+ years ago!) because the more complicated red side geometry used to include (not sure if it still does) drawing many things that are invisible to the players. I'm referring to skyscrapers that extend deep into the ground: Port Oakes used to be the number one culprit here. I actually prefer the Red Side zone design. Here is why: R1) The zones are all uniformly scaled appropriately to get to where you want to go, with the only possible exception being parts of Nerva. Blue side has some freaking huge zones with many areas that are flat out time consuming to get to: Talos Island, Independence Port and Boomtown are the zones which often have missions in extremely out-of-the-way places. R2) In terms of enemy presence: the villain zones feel more organic about which enemies exist in which parts of the zones. Running through the streets of Paragon City just feels like 'this is where the lvl 10-15 enemies are, up north is where the lvl 15-20 enemies are'. The only blue side zones that avoid this IMO are Croatoa and Striga. On the red side every villain group has a specific reason (or two!) for being where they are located. R3) With the noticeable exception of Grandville, the villain zones are straightforward to get around in. I actually miss the original Mercy Island, and while I recognize that the current design offers vertical challenges.. I've never had a problem getting between missions without a travel power. Paragon City offers plenty of trouble. I already mentioned the mazes of Perez Park. Faultine (even redesigned) and Terra Volta are not picnics for non-fliers (especially when the villain groups are in the air). Skyway City is as much a challenge for the uninitiated non-flier as Mercy Island. Woe to the grounded speedster who takes the wrong route in Steel Canyon or Boomtown! R4) The choices of map design are a big part of the narrative. Sharkhead Isle's unique areas all serve (many) different stories. The same with Cap Au Diable and St. Martial. The other zones also have these tie-ins, but most of my toons quickly outlevel much of the content! The closest we get to tying arcs and zone layout together on the Blue Side is Striga, and even that is just a fixed series of sequential arcs along with an unrelated TF and a concluding TF. Blue side there is the Atlas accolade, and I challenge anyone to explain how all the elements of *that* story make sense in terms of the narrative layout of the zones you need to hit to get the accolade.

Be sure to play TIP missions to reinforce your villainy (or not, your choice)...these missions offer more 'narrative agency' and they are generally more fun.

The P2W offers 'free' IOs that can be slotted at level 1; I usually grab those to drop into attack powers in the early levels. At level 10, I will drop an attuned Panacea proc into health. The little extra oomph always helps, so I try to add it ASAP. Similarly: the Performance Shifter proc +End is ready for Stamina at level 17/20. I never skip on a travel power, and whatever power (usually Fly or Mystic Flight) is usually chosen at or before level 10. On most toons, that power gets a Universal Travel Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Protection (+4) ASAP. The enemies with KB/KD as controls (hard or soft) start showing up at this level and they never really go away. Now about sets: My SG base has a significant number of Overwhelming Force and PVP IOs (a mix of Attuned and 50+) in storage so the attuned ones start filling out attack powers at level 10 (I honestly can't recall if you can slot these before 10, but they work down to lvl 7), even if they aren't part of the end-game build. There are some assorted attuned leftovers from other sets as well. Respecs are easy to come by, so that's how these are recycled. At level 22, attuned Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge will be slotted in the powers that take it (most toons want Global Recharge). Again, the SG base has these at the ready from converter roulette but they are also on the market. I will pay attention to certain set bonuses that I want and try to plan out the slot placement when leveling up. For example, there are a couple of defense and healing sets which give desirable (to me) bonuses at 6-slots. While leveling up, attack powers may stay at 4-slots so that I can get the full set bonuses from the healing/defense/fear powers as IMO many of the 'optimal' (for me) attack set bonuses are for higher level IOs and can wait for slots & respecs at 40+.

I'm running a toon through redside right now, I think this is the third (of about 7 toons with serious play time) on Homecoming to do so. I read a lot about the 'lack of agency of being a villain' reside being an issue for some players, but I am not sensitive to it... or it feels pretty much like the heroside. There are quite a lot of villain arcs and missions (especially the tip missions) which are quite villainous IMO. Once the villains start doing missions in Grandville, those feel perfectly fine for me... maybe because that's when you can really start beating down big name heroes from Paragon. Aside from the general lack of villain teammates, the primary issue I have redside is the need to unlock many contacts via newspaper missions. Contacts will eventually recommend someone else, but the choices are generally much more limited than on blueside. Heroes often get multiple choices whereas I feel like my villains keep getting the same contacts. Ouroborous here I come for the missed arcs! There is a subtle advantage to redside missions: There are a handful of important badges (e.g. Shady) which can be gotten much earlier in a career for redside than blueside. In the case of Shady, I've always gotten in in one of the mid-level VEAT missions. I mention this because... Eventually, all my villains will go blue/rogue to participate in the TFs (and get exploration badges) which make accolades easier. The Valentine's day events also forced some alignment changes to (mis)deliver Valentine's day messages.

My first toon one Homecoming had to expend some effort to make his first million, but that was without using the AH at all. Then I recognized AH as both the source of things to buy as well as a place to sell things I don't want or need and I've never looked back. I can barely consider myself a serious marketeer, yet the billions of Inf on hand almost entirely came from the AH, just like almost all of the IOs I slot. If I was waiting for Purple drops there might only be a few toons kitted with them, and only then because merits can also buy recipes.

You can take your revenge on Blue Steel in the Dark Astoria arc from Max.

Paragon City is in Rhode Island. Naturally the Family would be there.

I'm very much of the same attitude (except that my 'farming' is running Dark Astoria arcs for drops). I actually keep the rare (non-PVP) recipe drops turned off, but still collect some for assorted reasons (rewards, day jobs, whatever). This weekend was used to clean out as many of those assorted orange recipes as possible, along with previously horded rare salvage. I'm lazy in my (proto) ebil ways. The hit to the Winter O sets has been annoying, because those used to be ok early stopping points on rare-roulette at all level ranges. The LotG Recharge price hike does feel like market manipulation. Given that this is around a 50% price hike (for 'only' an extra 3M) on a commonly used piece this is probably not so much profit-driven as it is for the lulz.

"Praetor Duncan's fate will be decided once she goes through the proper channels. "

I slot as follows: CT: Defense gets 3 slots (Kismet ToHit, Shield Wall global, LotG recharge) TT: Maneuvers gets 2 slots (both LotG, recharge and Def/End) TT: Leadership has a single slot with the %BuildUp proc. This slotting may be a little selfish, but my build is also throwing damage, controls and debuffs (plus a Taunt) into the mix.

The core Psi attacks my Fortunata uses are: Mental Blast, TK Burst, Psychic Scream, Dominate, and Psychic Wail. As noted in other threads, Dominate is a strong ranged attack that happens to have a hold. I think you can get similar mileage from Subdue (as an Immobilize) if you want to replace either of the T1 attacks. I also have Total Domination, which was useful when levelling but didn't play well in my endgame build so right now it has a single slot only. Be careful about leaning too heavily into team buffs. You will likely always be inthe thick of mobs, so don't skimp on your personal defenses: Indomitable Will, Foresight, Mask Presence. You should work on getting Defense and Resist Globals (Shield Wall, Gladiator Armor) to help yourself. You can do a lot of help with just TT: Maneuvers TT: Leadership and Mind Link. Mind Link is a bit of a trap however. In a budget build, you will have trouble getting it Perma. Hasten can mitigate this a little, but even with budget slotting your personal defenses (positional) can be near or past the softcaps. I use Mind Link to help teams, but control and offense help more IMO. TLDR: you want Mind Link, but it shouldn't be the focus of your build. Control Options: Dominate should be part of your attack chain. I suppliment this with the Presence pool: the AoE Taunts, both fears (single-target and PBAoE) and Unrelenting for the personal boosts. The single-target Fear is very useful at low levels but the utility falls off at endgame content. I also have Confuse and Aura of Confusion. They track like the fears: the PBAoE are great while nukes are recharging; the single-target confuse can be great for grabbing buffers, debuggers and healers provided you don't instantly take them out immediately. Patrons: I went Mu for extra ranged attacks (ST, cone, AoE). The AoE immobs are also available if you want more control. I'm not crazy about the Soul graphics. If you really want to team buff, a dip into the Leadership pool may work for you.

This has been interesting reading. I don't really PL my toons, except to take 2XP to get some actual powers ASAP... Or two pass some content I've done many times and don't care to repeat on a toon. I like the variety in how much Inf gets gifted to new toons. I usually drop 200M on new toons to allow them to buy the prestige powers and also have enough leftover to start making their own Inf in the market. As I level through classic play-through, I will slot the toons with leftover/recycled Enhancements. Inf isn't a problem, so I'm replacing IOs whenever I can. It seems to only be the generic travel IOs that don't drop that frequently, so if that lvl 10 run hasn't been updated in a decade or two I'll buy/craft a higher level version.

I really enjoyed the Rikti parts of the lore, but after the RWZ revamp it felt as if somethings became muddled. I enjoyed piecing together the Lost-Rikti-Hydra elements. The RWZ arcs (starting in the 30s) simply feel like they are stepping on other content. YMMV. The piece of lore that confuses me is the Shadow Shard/Nemesis/Ouroboros/Dark Astoria (incarnate) interplay. I grok the efforts at high-level content, but at least one too many characters/groups got recycled for my taste.

You can buy Tip missions in a SG base using a mission monitor board (I think that is what it is called).

This is my attitude as well (although if I am not in my SG base, I will buy unslotters too). Many blessings upon those who fill the marketplace with things to buy! The only other thing I'll do with merits (if I'm really bored) is buy specific tip missions.

I was teasing 🙂 I just want other players to recognize that while Dominate has the Hold Icon, it really is much more painful than similar holds from other ATs.

This was pretty much my set of incarnate choices. I actually flip between the T4's in musculature because I generally have Endurance completely under control, so I want more damage boost from Core Musculature. I have noticed that if I am quickly moving between x8 groups, that can be taxing on the Endurance bar. Ion is the preferred interface: It fits visually with my Mu attacks, and it is good about picking off 'wanderers' in the x8 groups. Core Rebirth for Destiny provides the second (first is Unrelenting) self-heal in my build. My build already has pretty good regen, so I'd rather get the max HP boost as well. Despite the timer/recharge I usually hold this back as a heal only. My standard Lore choice is Longbow as they seem to contribute the best to the types of content I run solo (that I want extra help with). For me this is usually farming the last mission of the Heather Townshend arc. I never know what to do with Interface. I have several built up, but I think I'm running Degenerative Core Flawless for the -MaxHP. I have Diamagnetic but it felt like I wasn't really getting that much from it. I will probably play with Gravitic to see if attack times speed up.

I rarely disagree with Gulbasaur in this sub-forum, but Dominate is really a ranged attack that just happens to result in a hold. 🙂 Don't under-estimate the amount of DPS it can contribute, especially at lower levels. On my Fortunata, it is actually my most common ranged attack.

I wish Caltrops was the T1 power in the MM secondary instead of Web Grenade. I would never skip it, not during levelling nor as part of a Respec. It is simply too useful. I usually skip Trip Mines. I like the crazy suggestions for them, but you can also do some crazy things with Seeker Drones and they will travel with you. Honestly my builds are usually becoming starved for slots so the higher tier secondary powers haven't been given as much attention.

I've definitely experienced some annoyance wrt the DoT causing mobs to flee on a Dominator: Hot Feet causes more fleeing than in the past. I can reconcile the behavior even if I don't like it. Epic World of Confusion however: the mobs flee (presumably because of the Psi DoT) even if they are confused. The unacceptable behavior is that after they have run, the confusion has worn off. There is essentially no benefit to the toggle except to have a limited number of mobs not attack. Edit: the WoC effect happens without Hot Feet toggled on.