tidge

I run a Bots/Traps MM, also using powers & attacks (primary, secondary, patron) to contribute -Res (and control, via knockdown). This is the only one of my post level-50 toons for which I have to take breathers (or macro inspirations into blues!) in order to keep up the pace. If I want to be much more passive (and let the bots & traps do the work) the blue bar would be fine, but it would be far less effective to defeat enemies.

Energy Melee simply needs to be the premier single-target attack set. NO GIMMICKS! Unless we decide to replace Stun with something else completely (like a valuable toggle, think Conserve Power from the Energy Mastery Epic pool). In many ways it was Stun that caused the Nerf, because of its effect in PVP.

Invulnerability saw many tweaks since launch, including the (blessed) change from Unyielding Stance to Unyielding. Many respecs were gladly spent that day to drop the Teleport pool. I find it to be an extremely efficient Tanker primary. My Inv Tanker has 30 slots invested in the primary powers (*1) 6 of those slots are in Dull Pain, which IMO is a much better "oh ####" power than Unstoppable. Edit: (*1) 30 Slots across 8 powers.

Ah Basilisk's Gaze, my old friend! I see the 'Last 5' display bug in plenty of places, but this is the single place where it 'bugs' me more than any other. This is not a niche where I typically work, but the 2, 3 & 4-piece bonuses are so good that these should always fetch 2M+, no matter what the bug (or cheapskates) say!!

I have a Fire/Psi/Psi build, I haven't played the Mind primary but I can write what I did with the secondary: I only skipped Mind Probe and Subdue. My build was to try to be Permadom and PermaHasten without relying on Force Feedback, so I chased Global Recharge in a lot of places that could be considered overkill and reflects in some power slottings. My builds are proc-sloppy, i.e. recharge times are not to maximize proc chances because I am chasing set bonuses. I tend to include damage procs just to mix up the damage types. As a Mind/Psi I am sure you understand why. T1: Psionic Dart: single-slotted with HO Nucleolus. I needed the slots elsewhere! T2: Mind Probe: I skipped the melee because this toon is more AoE, and with the controls I didn't want to have to run from mob to mob to make an attack (that only does 1 type of damage) T3: TK Thrust: 5-slotted with Hecatomb. My compromise to get a Melee power, and slot it with a Very Rare recipe set. T4: Mental Blast: 4-slotted withe Gladiator's Javelin. T5: Psychic Scream: 6-slots 5xRagnarok, Positron %Energy. T6: Drain Psyche: 6xPreventive Medicine. I *love* the 5 and 6-slot bonuses from this set, but alternate slotting can get you different effects. T7: Subdue: My build is not focused on single-target attacks, so I skipped it. T8: Psionic Lance: 6-slots, 5xApocalypse, Gladiator's Javelin %Toxic T9: Psychic Shockwave: 6-slots 5xObliteration, Armageddon %Fire My toon has minimal Defenses and Resistances The following powers were taken purely as IO mules, the pursuit of Recharge set bonuses didn't leave much room for anything else: Tough: Steadfast Protection +3% Defense, Unbreakable Guard +MaxHP Weave: LotG +Recharge, Reactive Defense Scaling Resists, Shield Wall +5% Resists Maneuvers: LotG +Recharge Mind over Body: Gladiator's Armor +3% Defense Indomitable Will: LotG +Recharge Link Minds has 2 slots: LotG +Recharge and Adjusted Targeting Recharge. It's perma +% Defense if I want it. I usually only use it when teaming (or if Pets are going to get squished). Hasten is 2-slotted with 50+5 IOs. Mystic Flight is 'muling' BoZephyr Knockback Reduction, but I almost always take a form of Flight as a travel power. As I wrote, I can't speak to the Mind Primary. My Fire primary took 7 of 9 powers; they are mostly 5-slotted.

Kick is my default choice when going the ____ -> Tough -> Weave route, and I have always dropped the +Recharge IO in it. However: I've only ever used Kick to fill an attack chain while leveling. I will admit to being 'tricked' by it's +Recharge when using MIDS... often enough times that I've considered never taking it again!

Just a couple of informative points about the salvage market: 1) Seeding the salvage market established a ceiling on market prices; it has nothing to do with the floor of the prices. 2) The market pools all of the salvage of the same rarity: This allows players to buy salvage of any rarity at lower-than-seeded prices determined only by other players who put the salvage on the market (at that same rarity). Now for my opinion(s): It is the second point which I believe has kept market prices low (for not just salvage, but also recipes and enhancements).

Bonfire w/ KB->KD is my preferred use. Whatever the *next* AoE is, I want the enemies in one place.

I can corroborate with my experience with (single use of) Windfall (many months ago, before the changes to XP disabling). I noticed no appreciable change in the drop rates for Recipes, Salvage or Enhancements. The time I used Windfall, I was running Ouroboros Incarnate Content (Heather Townshend's Dark Astoria arc). Running it 'even level' (+0/x8, with or without incarnate shifts). The Experience and Inf is not something I pay attention to but when I went to vendor recipes I did not notice anything extraordinary that indicated I was getting a 'windfall'. My experience with this arc is that with full x8 mobs and clearing every map, I will get a PVP or Very Rare recipe drop better than 50% of the time. I ran this arc twice (back-to-back) and got neither a PVP nor a Vary Rare. IIRC, I only got 1 rare salvage piece! The volume of recipes/drops/enhancements didn't change. I've been saving Windfalls since then, so if a call goes out for tests, let me know.

I agree. The target of the attack of the target (for the combat log I snipped) was stationary. As the combat log shows, it was a hit and did register damage but only from from the Bio "Offensive Adaptation" secondary , but none of the primary damage registered... either in the log or in the visual indication above the target (or the health bar). The (primary) damage was simply not applied.

My experience with the Presence Pool's Pacify: I never witnessed it working as an AoE (It is rare I used the power however, see below) It does not reset 'hidden' status (vastly inferior to Placate for VEATs, Stalkers, et al.) I played around with Pacify (on the path to Unrelenting), and the main value my toons got from it was when they needed a breather from a particularly long AV/EB fight. This is a highly situational circumstance that (in my experience) only occurs when playing solo, and even then few top-tier lvl 50 builds will need 'breathers' even during low-level content. As much as I will talk up the Presence pool... and prefer Provoke to all singe-target AT Taunts (except for Lord Recluse)... I feel that Pacify is the weakest link, despite it being a clever power option (IMO).

I have been observing the Assassin Strike not doing any damage as well. On my Spines/Bio Stalker (with Offensive Adaptation running) the log reads like this: You activated the Assassin's Impaler power. HIT Wolf Spider TacOps! Your Assassin's Impaler power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 74.21. You hit Wolf Spider TacOps with your Offensive Adaptation for 22.81 points of Toxic damage. It is slotted with 5 pieces on Stalker's Guile (no Acc/Dam/End/Recharge piece).

I appreciate the defense of the T1 secondary immobilizes, but it will be rather extreme circumstances in which I will consider dropping extra slots into a T1 single-target secondary set immobilize just because it can take multiple %Damage procs. Every character I've played so far has had a better place to put those slots (by level 7). If I need the immobilize for 'hard content' I think boosted Accuracy (or Immobilize) is probably the better investment, because the hard content isn't falling to proc %damage by itself. Surely a Blaster has a better place to put a Very Rare %Damage proc like Apocalypse.

I want to highlight some of the parts of the previous post that earned my 'like' I appreciate that @Redlynne is emphasizing that play choices with Masterminds are a major contributing factor to DPS. I don't think there is another AT that so starkly invites radical play choices where players can 'easily' choose a set of powers (from a primary) which are going to result in uneven performance. Possibly HEATs? Some VEATs are are more effective than others, but a pet-less Mastermind strikes me as a Dominator who chooses not to use Domination. My own experience with Robots (definitely not a 'top tier' primary) is this: I didn't take personal attacks at all while leveling up, and after a lvl 50 respec (into a sort of Tankermind, albeit one without Provoke) I didn't start taking personal attacks until level 30. For reference, here is the slotting of the three personal attacks: I want to note that several of my secondary set powers also provide (AoE) -Res as well. I am under no illusion that my attacks are directly contributing enough Damage to drop enemies, but the control (Knockdown) and debuffing (-Res) is contributing to the defeat speed of the team. I was perfectly happy to play the build without the attacks, but for taking on GMs or farms by taking the attacks I improved performance. This is without Assault btw! (Heresy!) If there are choices about that particular build that I feel like I got 'backed into' it is the Endurance management. Across the build I had to make painful decisions about slotting powers and choosing IO sets simply to be able to run toggles and make direct attacks. I would have the same Endurance issues even if I didn't run with pets, no matter the damage scale of the AT.

Most annoying to my PBAoE toons: run into a mob of 16(?) enemies and toss a 'final chance to hit'=95% PBAoE. Two minions remain untouched. This means that at least two of the attack rolls was >95% in 16 tries (possibly only 14 tries because of Streakbreaker). Followup with ANOTHER FCtH=95% PBAoE and one of them is still untouched. That means that the ToHit roll was > 95% at least three times in 18 (possibly 15, again because of Streakbreaker) rolls.

These threads aren't crazy enough. Let's just imagine a different game where (at level 26): The T1 pet power lets you enslave up to 3 lower level (-2) player characters The T2 pet power lets you enslave up to 2 lower level (-1) player characters The T3 pet power lets you enslave up to 1 same level player character The enslaved PCs become exactly like the current pets; they lose all agency. Then you can be a true mastermind (until you get enslaved by another mastermind) and you can have all sorts of cool options for your henchmen. Masterminds can lure PCs by using costume contests.

After you start to edit, Use the '+' sign (as if multi-quoting) and then insert the new quote.

I'm all for updating the mission text to indicate when a mission is a defeat all: "Clear XXX of Baddies", "Stop All XXX". The non-identification of mission objectives (or stragglers) when there is more than one remaining is problematic, but I can see that being very complicated to fix. I've suffered my share of "where in the Orenbega/Office are those last hostages?" misery. One aspect of the "defeat all" missions that plague me: The maps which spawn wandering enemies. I hate having to wander all over previously cleared areas just to track down a minion-class or two. If there are more than one spawn, they won't show up as the red triangles. The maps that grief me the most on this point are the outdoor maps where the enemies wander around the treetops.

/agree. My experience has been that Endurance management is the biggest issue for 'classic' (pre-IO) Tankers. I was slightly disappointed how quickly Endurance improvements for Tankers were abandoned prior to the 'Tanker Patch'. The first two slots of each attack should be Accuracy and Endurance. I think slotting Endurance first is a better choice mathematically, but I won't fault anyone who goes with their gut for Accuracy first. At low levels, the primary Defense/Resist powers are not going to benefit from low-level enhancements; I would not be in a hurry to multi-slot these. At most I would slot two, depending on the nature of the power (Toggle or Auto? Size of Bonus? Endurance Cost? Secondary effects?), until spare slots start appearing.

I don't spend a lot of time in Incarnate content playing a Tanker (blecch BAF) but on my Tanks with (an always slotted) Taunt I've never felt like I was losing aggro. I can't speak to your circumstances (I wouldn't be surprised if the TinPex Battle Maiden was simply coded to ignore Taunts, given that mission), but I've often witnessed Brutes and Tankers lose aggro to DPS characters in the cases in which they were relying on a ToHit against the AV to be part of the Taunt. Allow me to take this opportunity to once again petition for a Very Rare or PVP set of enhancements for Taunt. Because of the coding mechanics for how Taunt works (and because Taunt IOs can be slotted in various powers) my preferred proc would be an unlikely to be implementable "Contagious Taunt". I'd accept something more straightforward like "% +Defense" or anything that synergized with the primary aspect of Taunt (e.g. grabbing aggro) or a desired secondary effect (e.g. temporarily improve defense of the caster, or debuffing damage of the targets). I'm only partially satisfied with the two existing lvl 20-50 6-piece Taunt sets, while I appreciate that each offers a different progression of set bonuses I'm less than thrilled with the lack of variety in those bonuses.

I vote no (specifically for Stalkers, which appears to be a red herring) for many reasons. If 'Inherent' It would have to be made a toggle power, otherwise the 'escort' missions would be dead ends for the solo player. As is, the Stalker T1 Hide is a perfect place to slot a Defense Global IO, which is pretty awesome. Between having a T1 power that Hides a toon, takes Defense IOs, and contributes to the playstyle of the AT... why would any Stalker ever skip Hide... As for the general point about certain T1 secondary powers being unloved (or unlovable)... I agree in principle, but for me: it isn't a significant number of them, and my feeling about such powers are a matter of my taste. I don't think I'll ever grow to love secondary T1 single-target immobilizes, but other players don't share my opinions and I can accept that.

On the subject of ignoring DfB and XP boosts as an old-school style of play, with a touch of 'navigational difficulties' thrown in... Here is something I hadn't previously noticed for starting redside characters: the Merit rewards for the low level arcs redside are sooo much better than any of the blueside arcs. I started a redside toon and was being very casual about play on Mercy Island and I noticed the Merit rewards piling up. A quick check of the Homecoming thread confirms that the Ouro rewards are also pretty good: I grok the reasons some folks avoid redside, and the siren's call of DfB and early XP is hard to resist... but playing through these stories felt very old school (post Mercy Island revamp, anyway).

I have an old "Unleash the Hero Within" bumper sticker on the back of one of my old HeroClix boxes! The Ghost Widow piece was the most used: 18 defense with Poison, and if you hit her you took a click of damage from the Team ability!