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I generally agree that long recharge times on powers is the primary reason for taking Hasten (although I believe that the Endurance refill on PermaDoms is at least as important as fast-cycling through high-MAG powers) I wanted to chime in that I've made toons with deep investment in the Presence, Teleportation, Flight, Concealment, Sorcery and Medicine pools. Obviously not all at once on a single toon, but my Mastermind went deep in Flight, Teleportation and Concealment (while the 4th pool was a shallow dip in Medicine). If there is any common theme among my characters with deep power pool investment it's this: For those characters I placed character concept over raw numbers. One of the things that always makes me happy about a (travel) power pool is if the attack (a) isn't terrible and (b) fits the character's theme. For example: my blaster is a magic-user and with slotting Arcane Bolt is roughly equivalent to the T1 blast. I don't always slow down my attack chain to use it, but if it is going to be a finishing move I enjoy tossing it in for flavor.

Just one small expansion on a well-written post: Homecoming Tankers now get Defender level buffs in the Leadership pool, so for both AT Maneuvers is an excellent single-power pick, especially for team-oriented tanks.

If you are only dropping the Absorb proc in place, it won't matter where it goes. If I was only slotting Healing procs, I would go in this order: 1) Panacea (always) 2) Preventive Medicine (as @SuperPlyx wrote, getting an Absorb buffer can be a lifesaver. I actually use it more to tell when I am taking damage!) 3) Miracle +Recovery (assuming I have the Performance Shifter %+End proc in Stamina) I usually caution players about the diminishing returns from slotting Regeneration procs. IIRC, just having the inherent Health (unslotted) is a big boost to Regeneration. I think slotting an extra 10% Regeneration only reduces the time between healing ticks from something like 8.5 seconds to 7.5 seconds , assuming no other Regeneration bonuses except inherent Health. You are generally better chasing fractional Defense boosts. Diminishing returns applies to Endurance/Recovery as well, but increasing your Endurance spending is (generally) something you WANT to do... especially as a Blaster. EDIT: I updated my numbers on the time between ticks for healing. My original numbers were from my memory of a toon with already high regen.

Preventive Medicine's %+Absorb will proc even if it is in a power that is not active (or automatic) as long as the toon is lvl 17+. It will proc only after you have taken some amount of damage, so don't expect to idle around with an extra Absorb barrier. Writing only for myself: I typically chase Endurance and Global Recharge bonuses, and since Preventive Medicine gives both at 6-pieces, I prefer to put that set in a power (that accepts Healing sets) other than Health.

I had read on one of the guides that for 'direction:distance', that direction was supposed to accept degrees (of a circle), but I never got it to work with a number. I believe the intent of 'forward' was to make it relative to the 'camera', but my experimentation was limited: Bonfire, as shown Pet Summoning, which I never quite got to do what I wanted to do.

My opinion: making Tough and/or Weave inherent would (for many players) would simply become places to drop Global IOs. I have several toons for which I (greedily) would accept three more power picks (dropping the entire Fighting Pool)... and on a significant number of those toons I'd FIRST be looking at how to min-max another stat (Defense? Global Recharge?) with a different power pool. Certainly not every player is going to slot every Global IO, but asking for an inherent Defense boost power (even as a toggle) is basically just asking to lower the ToHit of enemy mobs. With the investment of a second slot in an (inherent) Tough, it is possible to get +6% Global Defense without even toggling a power on by using IOs. No inherent Tough or Weave. The slope is simply too slippery.

I'm with Bopper on request 2 (and 3): There are a few pools where the first 3 powers simply don't synergize (enough) to require FOUR picks to get both the final two powers. Keep reading... I really like the Presence pool. Provoke is superior (if you accept the ToHit requirement) to Confront. With the ability to 'soft-cap' defenses, this is a great tool to help out teammates in trouble. Invoke Panic is one of the few PBAoE controls available to all ATs. Unrelenting is an awesome panic/self-heal button (I use it mostly as an offensive boost with high Recharge characters). My only complaint with the Presence pool is that Pacify and Intimidate are strategically orthogonal to Provoke, and that Pacify and Intimidate are not really strategically different enough. Pacify has uses (albeit very limited ones)... that it can't duplicate Placate I understand, but shake my head as this would be an easy way to improve utility. The single-target fear of Intimidate can be useful while leveling up, but like many single-target T1 'controls' its utility is severely limited... and quite frankly it is outclassed by the PBAOE. I don't agree with @Zepp suggested changes to Presence, but I think the Teleport pool suggested changes should be considered. My opinion: Teleport is far-and-away the stinker of the Power pools.

"Escort/Kidnap the NPC"...said no one, ever.

Here is an example of the powexec_location in a macro: /macro_image "BanishedPantheon_Pain_WorldOfPain" "Burn" "powexec_location forward:5 bonfire" This is the macro I use to drop a Bonfire patch 5 (units? feet? quatloos?) in front of me. "Burn" is the 'hover over' name of the macro image. You should be able to adjust it to your taste for your power.

Two-off.

The game has plenty of minor annoyance maps, this is one of them. See also: Pool Rooms, torches and trees which snag players, curbs. Be a hero.

I posted most of my thoughts on /Bio above. The one comment I make about the enjoyable Street Justice set is based on my Scrapper: I don't worry about the 'combo' effect of Street Justice attacks. I suppose it's nice to have secondary effects on the 'finishers', but when I started playing the character I found myself distracted by trying to maximize the utility of the finishers. I eventually stopped caring about them and focus more on pure damage; the control that comes from my attacks is more from my slotting choices than the combos.

For the past five months or so, none of my seeded toons have really been "marketeering". Blame the peculiar rise in uncommon salvage (now reversed, presumably whatever the individual(s) behind it were trying didn't really have an effect they feel like gloating about), but I simply didn't feel like more crafting/converting once the family fortune had been made. Now my toons tend to convert recipe drops along the way, but it is rare that they've recovered their costs/gifts from the initial investment (for me 200M Inf) until the 30s. It all depends on the content I'm playing. In the 40s when the characters have significantly more slots to use and nearly complete power choices, is usually when I start turning up the spawn size (for more drops). This still isn't strict marketeering, but it funds purchases of odd needs and second (or third) builds.

I have gotten Very Rare (lvl 50) drops while facing sub-50 level enemies with a sub-50 level character that didn't have the con difficulty turned up, but did have the spawn size turned up. I think the lowest level I had this happen with was a level 48, so there shouldn't have been any +2 enemies in the mission. I was extremely disappointed I couldn't slot the crafted drop right away! EDIT: I generally don't care about the level of recipe drops. Even PVPs can go onto the market and be pooled.

For recipes: I believe that there is no change in drop rates for enemy levels, just rank... except that if enemies con low enough, there are no drops. Spawn size will increase the number of higher rank enemies, which will increase drop rates. /agree. I had a lot of fun on a mixed (level) team in Brickstown... nothing too thrilling, but even that was enjoyable watching the team adapt to higher (and higher) con enemies. Rularuu...*SHUDDER*

200 MInf. The new toon buys the P2W powers (minimum: Envenomed Daggers, Mission TP, Team TP, Assemble the Team, Portable Workbench) and puts in bids for ATOs and converters on the AH. Whatever is left pays crafting fees and the like (such as buying other players the Team TP power). I used to start with transferring much less, but I found that this was the 'right amount' to support wild spending and still be able to amass more Inf without trouble. I don't have the new toons dedicate themselves to "playing the market' as much as I did previously. Prices have generally come down; the existing wealth is more than enough... for now! I've adopted a slightly different approach to the market that builds bank a little slower than previous methods but also allows me to build up the sets I'll want for a given character.

Brutes. I don't mind Melee. I prefer being in the thick of things. I don't like the Fury mechanic... I don't know if its having one more thing to watch, or if it is just that I easily distract myself in game (Auction House, reading dialog, chatting) but I just don't enjoy the Brute.

(the post as edited may be a little weird... trying to fix the spoiler boxes) I have a /Bio stalker... My slotting for DNA siphon is somewhat similar, but I felt that inherent Damage boosts (from a damage set) were doing less than trying to boost the Healing/Absorb effects. This also let me get more global Accuracy (at the expense of E/N defense (typed Defenses are better on my build than Ranged/AoE positional Defenses) I also took the power somewhat late in this build; I think my build might be a little better served if I had swapped it with my pick at lvl 32, but I haven't really noticed when playing at lower levels. I completely agree with the 6-slotting of Concentration: The defense bonuses are far too useful from the Gaussian's set. EDIT: I didn't see a Kismet +ToHit in the build. If a build includes a Snipe, I usually try to squeeze this Global in to increase the damage of the Snipe. I have found that a 95% 'final chance to hit' Snipe is a wonderful 'Plan B' if the Assassin's Strike attack misses, the extra ToHit is gravy. I never had more than the default slot in Health (Panacea proc). With Stamina (Performance Shifter proc) I did have a second slot for and EndMod, but I just moved it to Boundless Energy (as a lvl 50+5 IO). I could be wrong about the final numbers, but with Adaptation as an option on top of the other Bio powers, I don't think the little bit of extra +Regeneration from Healing Globals (or +HP from Power Transfer) is really doing that much. My build does end up using more slots; I chose to get set bonuses from:

My guess is that there isn't 'pooling' of them because they lack a unique attribute which allows them to be pooled (& converted). I'd love the ability to convert them (a la other IOs) within the "Hami-O set", but I'd accept it if I could break them down into something else. My own use of HOs are so very rare. I only use them for 'one-slot' power picks, although I know some folks use them for franken-slotting.

Bah, I'd rather get more charges of the temp power. SOs are hardly worth the effort.

Why ask for an across-the-board increase to reward drop rates (except for being selfish, I suppose, asks the kettle) as part of an ask for a change of the aggro cap? This is a completely different ask. I'm certain that most players would be perfectly happy with even easier rewards independent of any increase to the aggro cap... because improved rewards are not going to have any effect on players that don't team or don't turn up the number of mobs. Players already get more experience from larger spawns (assuming they KO) , and they get an XP boost from teams. All of this is independent of the aggro cap.

Granting Purples/PVP recipes for 'already having the temp power' is crazy (crazy bad, not crazy good). It would simply be a mechanism for farming such recipes. Also not recommended for defeating specific players, as a multiboxer (or SG) could farm them. As much as I'd like to GRAB MOAR Purple/PVP recipes, I don't think this is a good idea at all.

Is this where Zapp comes in? The Teleport pool does need a rework, partially because Long Range Teleport is supplanted by all sorts of travel options even without considering the SGpasscode. It's timer is too long and it doesn't go to all the zones. It requires two power picks from a pool where those other picks are not that useful either. (Is this where Bentley Berkeley comes in?) It's an inferior set, especially for a travel pool.

The suggestion for a %chance for mobs to drop merits really has nothing to do with the aggro cap (or stealthing a mission to the end). I followed the thread to see how we got here, but aside from the free-form brainstorming there is no reason to link these thoughts. Right now, mobs have a chance to drop Very Rare recipes... but (especially) for teams, the guaranteed reward of end-of-arc merits is simply a better use of time. The aggro cap is de-linked from rewards, both directly and indirectly... because just having aggro doesn't offer rewards.