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Being bad at recognizing 'randomness' is one of the reasons why I don't like streakbreaker, which I see as a human-imposed mechanism that further screws with both our human perception and our ability to analyze actual results. If the RNG is resulting in a 'flat' distribution (like the top image) then it is actually getting in the way. I believe the CoX RNG is giving us extremely 'flat' results (as in the top picture). If the RNG is resulting in random clusters, why do we care? Why would we keep streakbreaker? Either the RNG is so messed up that it needs streakbreaker to 'fix' some (rather undefined, from my PoV) issue, or the RNG needs streakbreaker to hide what is really happening. Streakbreaker is a post-hoc fix for some undefined issue... and a clumsy one IMO. The top picture illustrates why I believe streakbreaker is 'getting in the way' (although picture a histogram rather than a scatter plot)... if a 'to-hit' roll lands in the p >0.95 space, a flat RNG is likely to put your next result in 0 < p < 0.95 range more than 95% of the time... yet (for folks with toHit chances at the ceiling) streakbreaker essentially acts as if 50% of the time when you got a 'roll' of p >0.95 that your next 'roll' was also going to be p > 0.95 and forces a hit (and resets the streakbreaker count). I'd really like to see streakbreaker disabled (or just have the count index increased to the same high value for all 'to hit' chances) to be able to do some testing. I accept the possibility that for some arbitrarily low to-hit chance that a streakbreaker might increase the quality of life... but at the higher end of the scale I think it is hurting.

I run a Dark Blaster with Umbral Torrent as the primary attack. It's trivial to pick up range boosts, and with Knockdown it is an easy soft control as well.

I'll add this to the plus column of 'end game' utility for Controllers and Dominators: Locking down/grabbing aggro makes obtaining certain badges much easier. A single example is getting the Valet badge (either through Market Crash or the Brickstown event). You still need to know what you are doing, but preventing the destruction of the property is much easier with control than it is with DPS. Things like AoE Sleep/Hold and Knockdown patches make it possible to pace the defeats of the enemy groups, whereas the combat ATs tend to over-aggro (and lose it) leading to the eventual property destruction.

Is this happening with single-target attacks or AoE attacks? Is this happening on a character with an aura that makes "to hit" checks?

I completely accept that there is an effect of observer bias, BUT.... blaming the seed is only a small part of the issue. The following discussion is shortcutting to the corner case of always having a 95% chance to hit, with no auras or the like. A slightly larger issue to me is that the RNG is trying to populate the probability space (0 < p < 1) in a FLAT manner, so the chance of a following a 1-in-20 roll with a second 1-in-20 roll is almost certainly NOT 5%. My (slightly informed) WAG is that it is more like a 4.5% chance. However, the streakbreaker algorithm ignores the followup roll to a 1-in-20 event. In other words, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that there actually was a 'streak' that needed to be 'broken'. I'd be much happier with streakbreaker if it actually fired when it needed to (to 'break a streak') and not preemptively fire. This would be a PITA to track/code, so I am not surprised it doesn't work this way. I'm actually curious what the effect would be if we got rid of streakbreaker altogether. From my PoV its primary purpose is to assuage 'hard feelings' about the RNG, but since it obscures RNG results (the rolls from a streakbreaker 'hit' are not displayed) I feel like it is doing more harm than good....especially for characters that regularly run with 95% final toHit chances. Some tangential comments about RNG visibility in the game:

I can offer some comments on /Poison and the Presence (Pool) /Poison comments on the powers I took. No comments on the ones I skipped, with one exception. I didn't slot Alkaloid. It can hold powers for set bonuses if you have the slots. If you don't have any other power to easily drop the Preventive Medicine %Absorb piece, that is a good spot. I have Envenom 6-slotted: 4xShield Breaker, 1xAchilles Heel %-Res, 1xTouch of Lady Grey %Neg. I felt that's how I could get the best set bonuses and do a little extra as well. Elixir of Life was chosen to be a Resistance piece mule. Paralytic Poison is one of my go-to attacks. I have it 3xGladiator's Net (including %Lethal), and the three other %damage pieces available for Holds (Ghost Widow, Neuronic Shutdown, and Unbreakable Constraint) I have the Acc/Hold and Hold pieces from the PVP set boosted. Poison Trap: is used to carry the Armageddon set in my build, plus a %Lethal piece from Gladiator's Net. Other primaries may be able to slot this better, but for my Mind/Poison I felt this was best. Venomous Gas: I had this while leveling up, but even with it slotted I noticed no difference in performance if I used it or not (except that it burned Endurance). I dropped it at level 50. Presence Pool comments follow: I like the Presence pool, but I don't think it is a good fit on Controllers. They aren't particularly survivable, so Provoke and Unrelenting won't help much. The base damage is also bad, so again Unrelenting doesn't really help. Pacify is only good for a single enemy; which will go against the AoE of most of your powers. The best use of Pacify is to get breathing room when fighting against an AV/GM/EB, but your primary already has tricks for that. The single target fear (Intimidate) is very lack-luster given your other controls. The gem for Controllers (and most other characters) is the PBAoE Invoke Panic, but even that isn't offering much more than a little more damage and some respectable (but not stellar) set bonuses from Glimpse of the Abyss.

Better to think about the 'defense cap' in terms of "Every enemy has a (floor) 5% chance to hit you with an attack roll." This will allow you to properly consider the other combat effects which are contributing to you getting hit.

I should write this just to explain my PoV: I don't consider using 5 set pieces (which include a %proc) and adding an extra %proc from a different set to be "proc-monstering". I generally prefer set bonuses to "proc-monstering", but I make exceptions for: Builds that have terrible base damage (ehem, Controllers.) Ranged Cone attacks. There are many good choices for %procs, and franken-slotting range often really improves the performance of the power. PBAoE powers that otherwise don't do (much/any) damage... or could contribute an additional affect. My category (1) favorite character is my Mind/Poison/Force build above. That Controller also hits the other categories, so I'd rank that as my build that relies on %procs the most. I've been experimenting (on other ATs) with franken-slotting powers like Bio-defense's DNA Siphon; I really like it with extra %damage procs. See also Dark's Life Drain for something similar for single-target. Obviously powers like Bonfire are great with IO proc pieces.

I have also had this happen on the FF Safeguard map. One fun element of this happening is that (with Flight) you can zip around and attack the enemies from below!

I almost never advocate perma-Hasten, because I will typically have builds with more attacks than are strictly necessary for an 'efficient' attack chain. However, there are a couple of things going on for Crabs that make high global Recharge valuable IMO (incarnate powers not considered): Pet summons (not an issue for this thread) Serum (or its cousin Unrelenting) goes a long way when it can be 'perma'. Crabs can get very high positional Defenses by themselves, and don't need (IMO) to pursue maximum resistances with a strong Heal and a reasonable Regeneration rate. The two highlighted powers are not identical, but having one or the other on a character with great defenses is one of the main reasons I don't recommend Tough/Weave on certain builds, especially if you don't intend to play the limited amount of content where the extras from the Fighting pool would make a difference. Aim - from the category of "marginal or not... you decide!" - is a power that really benefits from near-continual use. Cutting the recharge time from 32 sec to 25 sec (which keeps the Gaussian's %Build Up chance at 90%) does improve damage output. If you are using this in a Tactics power, this won't apply to you; I like to have the boost 'on-demand'.

I tried to spitball a build (different than my own variants) that was A Crab without pets, using both the backpack and the gun. 6 different attacks, but the focus is on ranged AoE. Used the Fighting Pool Didn't skimp on Accuracy/ToHit or Recharge Several caveats (on top of "this was a quick try"): This looks to be a very Endurance hungry build. I tried to get +MaxEnd and Endurance discounts where possible. It has a second Performance Shifter to try to help out with Endurance, but I'm pretty sure that only triggers on use so it won't help too much. I almost always use the Patron pools for powers that I can slot for Set Bonuses, but I didn't do that on this build. This forced me to use the 6-piece annihilation in Suppression. There are much better ways to slot this power! I especially don't like putting lvl 20 pieces in a lvl 8 power! If you really want to be a "team guy", replace Aim with Tactical Training Leadership, but keep the slotting. Feel free to replace some of the later powers for more team buffs.

This is very good advice for trying to trigger the %Contagious Confusion... but honestly the rewards for getting that %proc to fire that I'd rather just have the 2-second Confuse itself, and enjoy the nice 6-piece set bonuses from the entire set. YMMV.

Renaming also extends to the 'Signature Summons' characters.

There are so many ways to build VEATs that I'm reluctant to pick at any given build... but can you explain what sort of content you want to run with this character? The main thing that jumps out at me is the early dive into pools (Kick at lvl 4, Hover at level 6). Generally, I won't fault a build for trying to get certain T3 pool powers near level 20, but Soldiers of Arachnos usually don't need the Fighting pool so early, and the final slotting of those powers looks odd to me (versus the alternatives). I apologize if this comes across as cruel, but this is not my intention: This looks like a build that is trying to leverage every possible Resistance set bonus with very little regard to how the character will play. Perhaps I should pass the baton to @Omega-202 ?

Absolutely fair to say. I'd also suggest that you NEVER slot the PVP "Fast Snipe ALWAYS" piece, as you will be sacrificing damage. Since you can get the fast snipe any time (with its fast damage) it will be very rare that you would be 'wasting' either damage or time in any meaningful way for most content. As you revisit rebuilds, keep in mind the bonus damage Snipes get from ToHit buffs (up to a maximum from +22% ToHit). If you can have the Kismet: Accuracy (really +ToHit) in an active (or auto) power, you will be getting that bonus on your Snipe damage.

This is practically how I would play my EM Tank as well, so the new mechanic (while somewhat distracting) hasn't bothered me too much.

If by "low end" you are referring to low-performing sets: My initial thought would be to help those sets out in a way which doesn't obviously affect them from the PoV of DPS formula (e.g. damage, activation time, recharge), but should improve the QoL of those powers. How about cutting endurance costs for the under-performing sets? As near as I can tell, it is the all-powerful metric of 'Kill Speed' that determines if a set is 'under performing'. I'm well aware of the available options for improving MaxEnd, EndCost and Recovery... and the relative cost/utility for spending slots to improve each. I don't think that reducing endurance costs across-the-board would do much more than free up a single slot (or alter a few slot choices) on some builds... but freeing some of the build constraints for under-performers by reducing Endurance costs might be an acceptable compromise.

With the exception of a few posts by @oedipus_tex and @ThrillMill, I didn't see much in the way of exploring my choices in a Mind/Poison/Primal Force Controller. This started out as a pure-concept character ('flavor' over 'crunch'), but I soon got frustrated with the pitiful damage so I opted to dive into proc-monstering to try to smooth out the offensive performance. I'd played controllers before, but I had been on a run of playing DPS toons and I simply couldn't readjust my attitude completely! A few comments on this build: I'll show the level 50 build. While leveling (which was slow) The ATOs were in different powers, and the Purple sets were either PVP or similar sets. I'm not planning on doing much, if any 50+4 content with it. I will be unlikely to play much Incarnate content. It could probably use an Accuracy/ToHit boost for tougher content. I found that I was having fun playing without worrying too much about Global +Recharge. I couldn't get perma-Hasten, so I even though I kept Hasten in the build, it is something I'll only trigger occasionally. Depending on how solo play in 45+ content goes I will probably swap this out for a Global mule. Note that I'm not looking to add Force Feedback +Recharge procs in my build. YMMV. I had intended to focus on Knockdown (a favorite 'soft' control), but with the 'hard' status controls it wasn't needed. YMMV. I had not intended to take Rune of Protection, but with such poor defenses I found that I was getting hit with status effects (lvl 40+) at such a high frequency that the build needed it. The Build: I'm open to feedback. In particular: Levitate: The Decimation %Build Up is a holdover from leveling. It feels like it is helping (occasionally with ToHit), even though I know that its proc rate is very low. Mystic Flight: With such poor defenses, endurance issues, and limited power options I 3-slotted this for some (minor) global defense boosts. I'm on the fence if replacing Hasten with Maneuvers and then reshuffling defense IO slots/sets (to include some 50+5 Shield Wall in Weave) is worth the effort or not. I'd then have Maneuvers muling LotG and Reactive Defenses. I'd also move a 2nd slot (to Temp Invulnerability) to get the Endurance discount from Unbreakable Guard. I'm a fan of slotting HO Centriole (Damage/Range) in (damaging) cones; here Terrify and Energy Torrent. I don't see many folks propose this slotting (which is fine by me, as it keeps the prices low in the Auction House). The slotting doesn't do anything to increase the maximum number of targets affected, but with larger cones I get a bigger area to hit more targets... and also I don't have to be as close to enemies to hit them. I gather than Energy Torrent isn't particularly loved, but this slotting makes it better than the temp power Plasmatic Taser. I should note that the temp power doesn't suffer from the Controller damage penalty, but that it causes Knockback. Venomous Gas: I tried this power while leveling up, but the only slotting/situation where I felt this helped was when teaming with an ally who was holding melee aggro. It didn't help with personal survival. As with other toggles, the %proc chance were never observed to be worth the effort of having to stand in melee. Overpowering Presence %Energy Font: I like this little guy as a something to take aggro, and had it while leveling. I didn't see a good spot to add it, since I have committed the AoE to %damage procs. I'm not open to shifting the placement of Coercive Confusion %Contagious Confusion. Don't try to convince me to put this %proc in an AoE. As far as I am concerned: This belongs in a single-target confuse, and AoE click confuses are better with the %damage procs because applying damage yourself gets you in the pool for inf/drop rewards. The counter argument is to hope for +magnitude Confuse, but a single-target Confuse will recharge quick enough (and last long enough) that I'd rather chance a second to-hit roll (on a boss) than pray for a boss confuse. Besides, with bosses you can always lead with a single target confuse before casting the AoE.

In general, I feel like enemy mobs are far too prone to running away... it often appears that the application of a single debuff sends them scattering. I'm not asking for an across the board change. This request is simply for the limited case where a confused enemy decides to run away, for whatever reason. I'm specifically asking for this because in certain content, a confused enemy will run away and NOT return to a spawn point, or recognize that it was aggroed by a player. In particular, the Heather Townshend Dark Astoria arc (especially the second mission with newly spawned Banished Pantheon) is particularly frustrating if the enemies become confused and (eventually) run away. This is an example of a situation where it is easy to see this behavior, and it is specifically frustrating in this arc because several of the mission objectives (throughout the arc) require the defeat of specifically spawned enemies in order to complete the missions/arc.

I had a retired Invuln/EM Tank who got pulled out to test the changes. He was mostly retired even before the Tanker changes, so I'm not exactly qualified to discuss the singularity of the EM-only changes but here goes. Prior to i27, he long ago gave up on Stun after an i-27 respec I chose to not take Power Crash. I wanted to preserve as much as the original feeling of the Energy Melee set as I could: for me this meant focus on single-target with only a single AoE. The only part of the new cone that appeals to me would be the ability to quickly steal aggro (geographically) without having to necessarily target any individual enemy. My tank has very little issue with grabbing and keeping aggro, but if you are going to be good at something you might as well be very good at that thing. I hadn't realized the Damage scale boost to Whirling Hands, so as part of the respec I opted to make it a 5x %damage proc power (because of the Targets increase from the previous Tanker patch). Now that I see the 18% damage boost, I will likely try it as a 4x %damage proc power and add in a boosted +Damage piece (or adjust a slotted IO for set bonuses). I've played some incarnate content (even level, plus street sweeping) and joined some lower level teams. I want to take him deep into the Shadow Shard to see how it performs. It definitely is faster, but on fast teams my big attacks are still on the slow side. I won't think of this as a 'fixed' Energy Melee set, but as a completely different EM set. As such, it appears to be better performing than the end-of-live EM but it doesn't feel like EM prior to the live nerf.

I only have Pines' installed. A Level 50 IO is showing the damage as just hitting the Enhancement Diversification limit (because of the Acc/Dam Hami-O) and a non-boosted damage IO is showing 4-5 fewer points of damage in the 'power graph'. (I know that the old Pines doesn't have all the HC Tanker updates, but I'm not sure if the increased number of targets affects that graph for the Whirling Hand melee power) EDIT: I see that Whirling Hands also got a damage scale increase (~18%), so adding Damage (via a dedicated IO) almost certainly will be an improvement over a fifth %damage proc. I'll add this: I know it is not everyone's cuppa, but my Invuln/EM build includes Build Up 6-slotted with the Gaussian's set. I include this here only because (without Hasten) it's available every 38 seconds or so as a damage boost; with Hasten it's on an approximate 30-second availability. If I were going to replace any of the %damage pieces, it would probably be the Obliteration, as that only works down to level 27, and I do join a lot of lower-level content.

With the Issue 27 change to EM going live, I took advantage of the necessary respec to add some %damage procs to my build. I did not respec into the new cone attack Power Crash. I personally didn't want more AoE on this build, and since I had long ago surrendered Stun, this was a straightforward choice. I won't fault anyone who works it into their build, especially for %damage procs. Previous to i27, I was running Energy Transfer with (5xHecatomb with %Fire, 1x Touch of Death %Negative) and Total Focus with (4xMako's Bite w/ %Lethal, 1xPerfect Zinger %Psi, 1x Touch of Death %Negative), with the change in power tiers, I simply swapped this slotting between the two powers. The big change I made that didn't really need to wait for i27 was in Whirling Hands; that I waited until now may draw some head shakes, but anyway... Previously, I had this simply slotted as 5x Armageddon. My thinking was to get the global Accuracy and Recharge bonuses, but other power choices cover Accuracy and the extra Recharge is really only an issue for corner cases where I need to juggle Dull Pain and Hasten (The latter power is one that I really only 'need' for content where I want perma-Dull Pain). As part of the respec, I found an extra slot and I went with: HO Nucleolus (Acc/Dam) Eradication %Energy Perfect Zinger % Psi Scirocco %Lethal Obliteration %Smashing Armageddon %Fire I typically don't go proc-crazy, but with the increased area for Tanker AoE I felt like this wasn't a bad choice. I'm open to discussions/suggestions on my choices. I made the choice to not put a -Res piece in Whirling Hands... intellectually I realize that a -Resistance debuff is like getting a +Damage buff, but with "resistance resisting resistible resist debuffs" I'm not convinced that adding -Res to an AoE (on an Invuln tank) is really going to help speed things up unless I specifically pay attention (with the single-target attacks) to bosses within groups of enemies.

LRT: Quality of Life Suggestion Follows Can the LRT zone interface be modified such that the (accessible by alignment) zones a character does not have access to (because they have not collected the beacon badge) appear in a different font (such as red italic) rather than simply not appearing on the list? Not only would this help players identify which badges they have not collected for the LRT power, but it would double as a nicer mechanism than scrolling through the Exploration tab of the badge window.

I feel that this snippet should be the mission statement for the thread, as it's the only point of discussion (*1) that separates this discussion from simply being a suggestion thread asking for more things in the game.

On the topic of types of "gates" which exist, and feel natural to me in CoX: 1) Level gates: Aside from the mechanics of enemy groups, it makes sense to me that certain content cannot be directly accessed until a character meets the minimum level. The sidekick/exemplar system helps to mitigate most hard feelings around this type of gate, including 'out-leveling' content. Others may not feel as strongly as I do (in a positive sense), but the Live team just removed another one of the level gates by allowing higher level characters to go back to lower level PVP zones to get missions. 2) Alignment gates: With Null the Gull opening the gate at will, I am always surprised that folks push back on the idea that they have to change alignment to access content on the 'other side'. To me, the alignment gates seem very natural. 3) Zone gates: You have to go to certain zones for specific content, that seems completely logical to me. With issue 27, we have (sort of) re-instituted a gate relating to "Long Range Teleport" in that a character has to collect what used to be called a 'beacon badge' in order to have personal direct-access to the zone. This is completely mitigated that SG bases can still install the beacons without having to collect the beacons, unlike on live. I'm less in favor of this gate, but it is such a minor issue that it doesn't bother me.