tidge

Yep, that is my exact point of inquiry. Because the upgrades act as a sort of "targeted AoE" it isn't as if there is an easy way to avoid buffing (only some) henchmen... so the necessity (or choice, if you prefer) of applying the L6 upgrade to L12 and L26 henchmen really does seem like a penalty. Minor perhaps, but hard to justify. I can totally accept a MM primary power choice that makes henchmen MOAR BETTER, but having to use TWO primary power picks... and having next-to-no utility from slotting those TWO primary powers... There is an upper limit on how much lemonade we can expect. I can suggest LOTS of things that could be done with those two powers that would risk game balance, but I can also think of some minimal changes that would not. Personally, I don't think baking the L6 upgrade into all the henchmen would be catastrophic to game balance. If the L6 upgrade was replaced with another power... the MM Endurance tax would almost certainly cost more (in the long run) than the cost of applying the 1-time upgrade.... but MM would have more options. Just to close out the circle of my thoughts: Give every henchmen (T1, T2, T3) the 'extra' powers (granted by the Level 6 upgrade) at time of summoning. This is a slight buff to the Level 1 henchmen, but effectively only for the first 5 levels of play. Replace the Level 6 upgrade power with a recharge-intensive pet which provides some boost (perhaps +Acc?) of suitable flavor for the primary... which ought to allow all MM classes the ability to slot the Aura pieces without having to frankenslot every henchmen build just to include them. Keep the Level 32 upgrade as is.

The Presence Pool is one of my favorites, especially for defense-based characters. The gems: Provoke <- A multi-target taunt. It requires a ToHit check, and has a smaller number of targets than Taunt, but it is superior to (single-target) Confront of Scrappers and VEATs IMO. Invoke Panic <- A PBAoE "soft" control, that also allows for some %damage Unrelenting <- If your character has high recharge, this power doubles as both a sort of self-Healing and a Damage boost, in addition to having a self-rez The Mediocre: Intimidate <- A single-target "soft" control loses a LOT of utility as the content scales. I find that it's best utility is for "stacking" with other Fear affects. Without a %contagious Fear proc to slot (similar to %Contagious Confusion), this power doesn't merit the investment in slots. The stinker: Pacify <- Extremely limited circumstances of utility, and doesn't even duplicate the Placate on AT which have a dedicated Placate. I understand why (from the PoV of "pools shouldn't be as good as AT variants) but the Placate mechanic is already pretty bad (for most circumstances) I would allow Pacify to duplicate Placate (for AT with Placate). Having to take two powers before Invoke Panic or Unrelenting. The pool would have a LOT more love IMO if we could pick either Invoke Panic or Unrelenting as the SECOND power pick.

I don't feel strongly about either side of the argument, but here is what looks to be the thinking behind the upgrade powers: By giving the henchmen new abilities, the upgrades mimic the new powers that can be taken by other classes (at appropriate levels) to improve performance at higher-level content. Granting "auto-upgrades" could risk imbalance (at lower levels). Now, even though I don't feel that strongly about the specific arguments back-and-forth about whether or not the upgrades should be automatic, I will repeat my complaint that to me, they feel like boring and wasteful power picks... even as I recognize that without the upgrades (in the current game) the henchmen would be rather pathetic. There is another peculiarity (beyond the fact that slotting the upgrade powers is near-pointless): Why is the level 6 upgrade necessary for the level 12 and level 26 henchmen?

Oddball "upgrade" Power suggestion for spitballing: The First Upgrade gives all of the new powers, to pets of each tier. The Second Upgrade supercharges individual pets, but ends up destroying them after 90 seconds, forcing a resummon/upgrade of that pet.

Widows are GREAT, but I won't recommend as a "first" character for a couple of reasons: They eventually are forced to respec, and that respec will be confusing if you can't foresee what the new power choices will bring They burn a LOT of Endurance at low levels (few slots, many attacks and toggles) For learning the game (or enemy types) I think a non-DPS AT is a good choice. It will be slow to level up, but that is no sin! There is no better way to understand how different powers work against different enemies than simply taking solo missions. Any of my characters will help out other players on missions, and I know I am not the only player that feels this way.

FWIW: I did use a second build on my Bots/Traps MM as a "Boy and his Big Robot", i.e. a 1-pet only MM. This allowed me to slot the aura pieces elsewhere. The result was... disappointing.

If the Robots are ALSO trying to slot for Knockdown, that's another "tax" on the henchmen. Personally, I'm ok with opting to "burn" one slot on each henchmen for KB->KD, but also trying to fit the aura pieces in... well, lets just say that there doesn't end up being a lot of room for that much more actual enhancement of the henchmen.

In my case I get the boost 25% of the time, and I can keep it from triggering by activating other powers should e need to. The non-proc boost is active 50% of the time. I also don't stand in doorways not attacking. We've butt heads on this before, so I know there is no changing of minds on this point. 🙂

Dark has Aim. I have a Dark/Time, and use Chronos (at level 10) as The "Build Up", and added Aim late in the build (level 47) since I didn't really have any other options I felt would be as useful with only a single slot. This is a "concept character", so it ends up with a couple of attacks that I wouldn't normally recommend (Arcane Bolt, Repulsion Bomb) although they serve their purposes (to pick Run of Protection, and to hold a couple of set bonuses). Chronos is available about every 21 seconds if everything is clicking, with a 90% chance of triggering a 5 second extra Build Up (Gaussian's %proc), so it is on auto-fire. I have Aim to fill the gaps if I feel I want it and Chronos isn't in play. There is one peculiar slotting choice: I have the Kismet Accuracy (really ToHit) in Maneuvers. The power has to be toggled on to get the Kismet bonus, and I really only use this to add to the Snipe damage (from the +ToHit) during Fast Snipes (when Chronos hasn't already maxxed it out). I forget where I had that slot before (maybe in Health or Stamina? maybe in Mystic Flight for some extra Defense?) I don't doubt that this build could be taken in different directions, but I like where it is.

"It depends" is a good answer. The only places I look to include %procs on Blasters are: when the %damage is part of a set I want to use anyway if the 6-piece set bonus isn't really that great (compared to a 5-piece set bonus), I will add another %proc (but only to AoE and Snipes) if the power (typically secondary) has some secondary effect in addition to damage that suggests franken-slotting (e.g. Life Drain from /Time) I will also typically forgo any sort of set bonus for cone attacks, but this depends on what other bonuses you are getting from other powers. For example, with Dark/, I like to franken-slot the Umbral Torrent T2 attack to boost Range/Acc/Damage with 2 slots of HO and Overwhelming Force KD, and then add 3 %damage procs. Boosting the range of cones improves the number of potential targets, and more targets means more potential %proc damage. To be clear: I typically don't try to add %procs to single-target attacks because usually the set I've chosen to slot is providing enough recharge that it is seriously hurting the %proc chances in that power... and it is rare that I consider the chance of maybe doing some more damage (via a %proc) to a single target to be more valuable than investing that extra slot in some other power.

If you are using one of the builder programs: Forum Export. Your first stop should be the Marketplace forum, we can turn that 20 Minf into serious Inf in no time!

This is one of my least favorite aspect of the MM primaries: If I could ask for ANY other change, I'd like the upgrade primary powers to be able to also accept the IOs which contribute to henchmen/pet auras: defense/resistance/et al. I can make lemonade from the concept that there is practically nothing worth slotting in those powers, but I HATE having to sacrifice precious henchmen slots to cover the defensive issues that the henchmen have (especially the T1 and T2 henches). EDIT: I am also annoyed of course about the MM Endurance penalties, but I put this in the (shrug) category.

Reactive Defenses is the only Defense set that I go out of my way to 6-slot. I just cannot defend against the Endurance Discount and the +Recharge. The next closest defense set that I consider multi-sloting is Shield Wall (because of boosting), but that is usually 'broken' by adding LotG +Recharge pieces. I didn't open your specific build, so I don't know what you did with Build Up, but I see a lot of builds that appear to ignore this power. Personally, I always try to 6-Slot it with the Gaussian's set (for the set bonuses) , but I have a couple of very tight builds where the equivalent power choice only has the Gaussian's %proc and a common Recharge piece. Typically this is a long-recharge power which will always be at the 90% ceiling for trigger the %proc no matter how much Recharge you cram into it.

What are you hunting for? The posts above seem to make the assumption that it is strictly for XP (level appropriate). If you are hunting for defeat badges, there is some advice in the badges sub-forum. You can of course, combine both level-appropriate XP and "defeat X" badges, although the "defeat X" are easier if you circle back to them at a higher level. I will note however that there are some mechanisms to "circle back" and still get decent rewards at low (exemplared) level. For example, on the Blue side: It is possible to take Aaron Thiery's Atlas Park arc to collect defeats of the Wolfs and pop into Perez Park to fight Hellion Bosses at essentially the "correct" level for decent XP/Inf/drops.

The first SSA story "Who Will Die?" has a solo-player payoff, that depends on if you did the missions as a Hero or a Villain, so I don't really recommend concluding that one as a team. The first Chapter of "Who Will Die?" has a couple of somewhat annoying (short) timed components of missions that will frustrate team members not ready for them... which has made that first story the de facto "run it by myself, for myself" arc. I've run most of them with teams, I try to do this just to introduce other players to the content.

I really like this question, as I've been on a kick of playing low-level TFs with +4 (on 8-man PUGs). Without doing any math, for me the "breaking point" is usually when I see the AoE power that I was so proud of franken-slotting is missing more than half of the targets.

If no other class can slot Mastermind ATO, I don't know how the discussion about game-balance around IOs is relevant to that question. That is a question about Mastermind balance, and not enhancement sets. Full disclosure: if my Dominators could two-slot the Mastermind ATOs (in their pets) they absolutely would... but I don't think such a discussion is valid for whatever this thread is.

This is just my opinion, but I have always thought 4-slotting a defensive power with four LotG to be overkill: Accuracy Bonuses come along from other places (like Very Rare sets) Enhancement Diversification is a thing, such that the 'extra' Defense is usually quite diminished relative to using the slot somewhere else If there is some other benefit that you really want (lower Endurance cost, faster Recharge) then I suggest either Boosting the Shield Wall pieces, or franken-slotting (and using fewer slots) Obviously: builds for niche content may want/need those specific accuracy bonuses, but I think there are other ways to get Accuracy (or +ToHit)

No.

The MM henchmen is a completely different sort of balance issue separate than any effect of slotting. Just because there are IO pieces which can be slotted for henchmen's defenses doesn't make it relevant for this thread. Can we just lock this thread? Even before the MM discussion it wasn't much more than simply asking for harder mode.

Can you guys fit in the power picks for Group Fly as well?

I would vote "No" on a Thugs build for a first Mastermind... only because the different attack options (and the way they will behave) from the Thugs may be a little more chaotic than a new MM expects. I'd suggest a primary where all the henchmen/henchpets have all-range or all-close, and get used to ordering them around.

This is the Stalker forum, so the primaries don't offer Confront (or Taunt). I understand your choice for Parasitic Aura... but I feel like I've got better slotting choices in my /Bio than using Mocking Beratement (a set I like, BTW). I'd like to leverage Parasitic Aura more for the -Damage, but: The long recharge time of the power doesn't make it particularly viable (except to possibly "time" it against upcoming attacks from certain GMs and AVs) in most fights Stalkers should concentrate on murderizing enemies... and /Bio offers another PBAoE (DNA Siphon) that helps to that end more effectively The slots for a T9 have to come from somewhere, on my /Bio I have them in the earlier Primary attacks (plus things like Build Up and the Secondaries) YMMV, of course. I've enjoyed the discussion, because normally the point of discussion around Stalkers is whether or not to take Placate. 🙂 As I wrote: I have one stalker with Provoke, but my general opinion is that for non-Tanks and DPS-oriented builds that aren't Brutes trying to take aggro (apart from just doing damage) offers low return on the investment than simply attacking.

Two good pieces of advice not to be missed: I'm all about not overslotting Recharge and Regeneration on a level 50 build. Almost all level 50 builds should not have the Endurance issues characters often face when leveling. I don't play solo at +4x8, but I find that when I join a PUG that does, I find that inspirations, teamwork and strategy generally overcomes lack of defensive softcaps.

On my build (Spines/Bio), I only have 2 extra slots (beyond the initial slots that come with a power pick) at 38 and above. I've invested all of the other slots in earlier power picks. One of those two 38+ slots is in Hasten, my actual lvl 38 power pick. I could have Hasten earlier if I wanted, but this character has a concept that required Fly as a travel power, and even there I delayed that choice until lvl 14. I don't really miss Hasten at lower levels. This is just my opinion, but the tools that a /Bio Stalker needs to excel are all available at-and-before level 32. As far as aggro... I enjoy having/taking aggro on many of my characters... but waiting for a T9 secondary for a Taunt effect means (to me): I won't consider it a "core" part of the character, as it won't be available for most content By the time (in levels) I could have it, other PUGmates who actually specialize in Taunts had better have a better Taunt than my Stalker. I do have a /SR Stalker with Provoke (Presence pool) at level 20 with 6xMocking Beratement. That character's defenses are high enough (except for AoE) at low levels that I the Taunt can actually help by keeping aggro from other squishies (when other PUGmates don't have Taunts). If I didn't want Unrelenting for the /SR Stalker, I probably would have skipped Provoke, but to be honest I'm not sure what I'd do with that character's 3 extra power picks and 10 extra slots.