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Some P2W prestige powers are must-grabs for me: Reveal Mission Transporter Team Teleporter Summon SG Base Portal Assemble the Team After those, I'll eventually grab the rest (along with some attack powers), but I want the fast travel options. As far as purely "achievable", the +MaxEnd from Atlas Medallion is reasonably easy to get solo as you level (blue side). Endurance is an issue for everybody, and so even my villains go to the blue side to get this ASAP. Otherwise wait to conclude the LRSF? Sheeyeesh. If you are playing red side content, you can get a couple of the accolades at lower levels than blue side, but my experience is that this requires both discipline (chase specific content, including Mayhem missions) and luck (team up to defeat a GM) which translates into, "not right away". If you have jumped to high level, most of the necessary badges are easier to get... some trivially so (like the debt badge). Another Accolade I prefer to collect on the Blue side is Portal Jockey... not all ATs can collect the requisite Ironman/Ironwoman badge (1 million damage) via regular gameplay. I think I have ONE villain that collected this only by spending many hours in Recluse's Victory fighting Hero "AV"s and bunkers. If there is an irony, it is that Shrouded/Shady Badge is usually awarded to Villains through any one of another mission instances, often MUCH earlier than Heroes can stumble across it. Similarly, Task Force Commander (Blue Side) is much more natural to get than Invader (Red Side), since Invade requires you to hit ALL of the mayhem maps. This is relatively easy to do with a lvl 50 Villain, but it does require jumping through some hoops. On the Blue side, its just running with 7 (or 6) Task Forces.

See also Heinlein's "All You Zombies".

I can see that this topic has become somebody's white whale.

See here

I have a 'concept' character that is a Dark/Time blaster; I find that I'm only using the secondary about 20% of the time (no pun intended), except for Chronos (on auto-fire, cue the pearl-clutching). The build ends up as a perfectly acceptable DPS, but I can switch to more of a control mode if that's what is needed. This may not be the most optimum DPS build (or playstyle), but I'll include it here to see how I've done some of the (primary) slotting. If your secondary doesn't include a similar power, I'd just put Aim where Chronos is and slot it the same. (I see a lot of builds skimp on slotting the "Build Up" power but having it up every 22-ish seconds with a 90% chance to %proc and get the set bonuses is simply too good to pass up IMO)/ This build has "too many" attacks, IMO. The heavy slotting on Arcane Bolt is part of the concept, and I don't do much Blapping (although it can get into melee when it needs to do so)... and Repulsion Bomb is essentially taken and slotted a mule for Set Bonus reasons. I essentially considered the concept to be "complete" at level 32, with the exception of the mule powers and the auto-power Time Lord at level 38. For me, this means that the build plays rather consistently across almost all of the content I enjoy. Full disclosure: This character rarely uses powers like Tough, Hasten, Rune of Protection, Aim or Temp Invulnerability unless I'm in some sort of challenging content... however I run low level TFs at +4 without having access to the powers, so I may have a different calibration than other players.

Here is an odd occurrence: Circumstances: Playing a lvl 50 Spines/Bio Stalker. In the Television arc mission "Wipe Out Malta Cell". Using Offensive Adaptation. I defeated a Hercules Class Titan just after two of them had trigger the merge into a Zeus Class Titan (perhaps a toxic DoT? logs are unclear as my 'combat' log doesn't track the enemy 'self-defeats'). The second Hercules Class Titan became invisible, unselectable with 'TAB = Next Target' , although I could see its attack animations. I eventually defeated it with my PBAoE.

I would recommend looking at Mids (or the equivalent), if only to see the effects of enhancement diversification/boosting. especially in the Defense powers. You can play around with unslotters as well, if you are more of a hunt-and-peck sort of builder. I think the Kismet piece is probably in an ineffective spot, since you will only get the bonus when Weave is toggled on (in this build). I don't know what levels you are playing at, or if you really care, but typically if I want the extra +ToHit, I will put it in as early (per level) chosen defensive toggle as possible, balancing against potential other slotting choices. I think on a similar build I have it dropped into Agile (because I felt could sacrifice a little bit of the extra ranged defense)

You should be aware: swapping builds forces a timer rest on all your powers, include prestige powers.

Citadel's TF is a very good example of regular content where I think "splitting the party" is a pretty natural approach: It has several "defeat all" missions, where the entire point of success is to eliminate all enemies. There is a radical difference in increasing effectiveness between having two 4-person squads and the increase between a single 7-person squad that adds an 8th member. It includes a 'delivery mission'. Only one person can complete this mission It includes a 'defeat x' mission in an open zone. It happens at a high enough level where individual ATs ought to have fully come into their role, and have the slots to make their powers (and if chosen, set bonuses) strong. I feel similarly about the (blueside) Numina, Manticore, Moonfire and Penny Yin TFs... although the lower in level you go the less access to powers (and set bonuses) characters have. I have NO DOUBT that at least one of my characters recently caused grief for a (large) mid-level PUG. The leader had the mission difficulty cranked WAY UP (see below) before I joined with a melee character that could hold its own. I found that I was both getting in the way of others and that some pets (decoys) would end up blocking me, or otherwise the enemies were falling before my animations landed. I wasn't tanking, so after convincing myself that the other 7 players could handle single groups I branched off to battle 'distant' groups so that we wouldn't draw too much aggro. The other 7 players were objectively less effective without me sticking close... When I saw them struggling I would try to rejoin to assist... but every time this happened it was because of accidental over aggro. I felt like it would have been MORE of a jerk move to intentionally over-aggro BEFORE the rest of the team did it naturally. A note about WAY UP difficulty: In my experience, there are primarily two things about +4x8 content that cause struggles at mid-levels and below, Final (player) To Hit chances fall, so enemies are not as "controlled by KO" as quickly, Other controls work less effectively against enemies... and of course, those precious AoE controls are going to upset enemies! If a team doesn't have (enemy) debuffs or (ally) buffs... there is only so much "team talk" that is going to help teams! I do try to make suggestions based on powers I see being used, but beyond passing inspirations to struggling teammates (but only if they actually have the sense to be using inspirations and thus have free slots), I don't know what else to do?

Do you routinely take longer than 5 minutes to complete a TF?

The proposed solution doesn't really address why folks couldn't be more chatty during teams. If anything, "Masters of +4x8" should be able to char MORE during missions.

The steam-powered representative from Prussia votes "The diverse elements of the Lore should not be connected."

You should play a Robotics/Traps MM, but don't take any henchmen. You can claim they were "stolen" (from you). You will eventually put this character back on the street.

The recipes have patterns, but there are quite a few... unusual... ones.

Add me to the list of "never impressed by McAfee from back-in-the-day". I felt that the combination of the false positives would lead to a "boy who cried wolf" situation, and then a few obvious misses was enough for me to remove trust in that product. Maleware bytes is an acceptable modern solution, but after the trial period expires it begins to act like any other annoying piece of software asking for the subscription. It should still work to protect, but just be aware that you will have a new "friend" reaching out to you.

To me, this looks like a slice of cheesecake while someone is applying "whipped topping" via a spray can.

See the first post in the Beta patch notes The rationale is offered in the "Other Power Changes" section.

In the heat of battle, I don't pay attention that much attention to what other players are doing (with respect to 'click' non-attacks), but on teams I definitely notice a lot of buffs flying around such that I rarely 'need' Rune of Protection. I can only write that for the few characters of mine that have Rune of Protection, it is primarily for solo play. I'm not sure how serious to take the argument of "We want the timing of RoP to be more like other T5 pool choices"... when Unrelenting has a far worse inherent set of timers. I suspect it is the self-rez component of Unrelenting that is causing the timing to be so weird, but 99% of my own use of Unrelenting is for the buffs and almost never the rez.

I see no reason to "pin" a thread for some arbitrary reason of "best pairing for this AT". Many players pick pairings for "fluff" (i.e. concept) as well as picking them for "crunch" (i.e. NUMBERS PEW PEW!) Have a question or a rando thought? Ask away or use the search bar.

I have two SJ characters (one Scrapper, one Stalker) and while I like the set, I also ignore the combo points. If I happen to be targeting a hard target when they come up... I will hold off until Crushing Uppercut is ready... but for many situations it is just an annoyance for me to pay attention to them. YMMV. Invuln/EM is a pretty safe build, and the new EM modifications )+tanker updates) have improved it. The pom-poms are far less visually annoying than the Rad Armor, IMO.

Pacify will not allow immediate Assassin's Strikes for Stalkers, nor will it benefit VEATs with their similar mechanic. As near as I have been able to determine, it has only one reliable use: If you find yourself in a long, drawn-out fight with an AV (and no other enemies are aggro-ed, you can use Pacify to give yourself some breathing room. Frankly: Pacify is such a nigh-useless power, allowing it to work like Placate does (but only for the AT that already have Placate) would make the power potentially worthwhile for a few classes. Ultimately I'd rather see the Presence Pool simply allow Invoke Panic as the second power pick, as their is so little synergy between Pacify, Provoke and Intimidate that having to take two of those first three is quite a punishment.

I'm a fan of the Presence Pool; one of my Stalkers uses it. Only considering the powers you have put in the build: single-slot only for Intimidate. Without a new set for Fear, it isn't useful enough to justify any more slots. This is a fine candidate for an HO. Pacify won't work like the Stalker Placate, if that matters to you. 5-slot Invoke Panic with Glimpse of the Abyss. If you add a 6th slot for the %stun piece you can get some extra effects it looks like you are chasing. I always try to 6-slot Unrelenting with Preventive Medicine. It is a very nice damage boost

From memory, Jack in Irons is the only GM/AV that leverages an effective Fear attack. I'm not sure if it is a cone or not. It can make it annoying to solo him, but on any team it should be less of a problem. I partially suspect that the effectiveness of Fear (against players) is why we don't have a Very Rare (or PVP) Enhancement set that can be slotted in the general Fear powers.

When I run a TF, I try to get some sense if the PuG wants speed or challenge. I always go for "challenge", but if I don't advertise as such folks should assume "speed". For "Challenge" runs: (e.g. a low level TF at +4) I find that the players are usually busy enough and need each other's support to work together. I LOVE joining sub-40 level teams running at EXTREME difficulty, but not everyone feels this way. For "Speed" runs: I will usually split off from the main group on "defeat all" (if I am DPS) or if I am support I will pick the part of a fragmented team that can best use my support. I am capable of dashing to the end of certain missions, but usually there is another player who wants to do that so I will slowly eliminate groups to help other players get XP and inspiration drops. Another element of speed runs is that there is no real need for all characters on every mission... if you know the arc well enough, just head to the next objective. Either way... I am usually too busy for much chit-chat (MUST MASH BUTTONS), but I'll break when I can for some banter.

I always thought of this as one corner of some sort of skateboard.