tidge

I've witnessed several people 'taunting' Tanks during Posi 1 and 2, which are at levels below ROFLstomping. With enough defense, there is zero need for the type of 'tanking' you are describing.

This isn't tanking... this is cannon fodder. In the scenario you describe, the team is doing all the work.

If you only ever play solo, no one will care if you have Taunt. If you ever team, many(*) teammates will have a low opinion of you as a tank. There are things a solo Tank can do with Taunt, but you can't Tank for a team without Taunt. A big part of Tanking involves grabbing aggro from your teammates on top of whatever else you are doing. (*) I can't promise that some teammates won't be laughing at you as they peel enemies off of you.

1. Seems too specific to be correct 2. Seems too general to be correct 3. Could be a market niche. See below 4. I think it could still be a market niche, but the behavior isn't niche. 5. Incorrect. 6. Hmmm. For me, a Market Niche is a specific place where I specifically 'start', shooting for a specific result that I am comfortable with the average return I am going to get from that place. I'll invent a make-believe market niche that doesn't currently work (because I'm only mostly EbilTM). If I have a feel that a lot of builds are going to pay a decent price for Celerity +Stealth, I would consider this a niche if I purposely started with the Running pool (presumably Quickfoot) and craft/convert until I 'rolled' into +Stealth. I have presumably done the math and recognized that the return on the pieces I am crafting is work enough more than my investment to make it worthwhile. I want it to be profitable, but that doesn't mean it is. A market niche is a limited space where the marketeer is comfortable working that market element. For example: The "Number Available" for most "proc" pieces often FAR exceeds the demand for the piece. I can see why some players might think that the "proc" is the most valuable piece in the set (I blame Panacea and Performance Shifter) and so consider these to be valuable market niches... but in reality the number of valuable proc pieces is quite limited. I think selling Converters in the Auction House would be considered the simplest example of a market niche. At most there is only one activity to perform (outside the marketplace) and the only decision is literally the lowest sale price.

I don't usually shop for Rare salvage (the SG base accumulates Rare salvage, and I mostly only use it to craft PVP and Purple recipes) but the only price increased I've noticed is with Uncommon salvage. It's still below the cap (100 KInf) but above the rock-bottom prices it was at for most of the previous year (~5Kinf). Uncommon salvage occupies an odd place in the game: it is used in all IO recipes above common, as well as in many Empowerment buffs. If players are following some of the most popular "make Inf quick in the AH" guides, they rely on Uncommon salvage. My anecdotal observation is that the purchase price of Rare IO pieces has (on average) come down.

ENERGY MELEE votes YES! But I must vote NO. Better to balance the power sets, or offer new sets.

The Robotics primary Repair power is 100% skippable. Heal Other is much more useful. Now, having written this... I respec-ed out of the Medicine pool completely... after a certain level I found that my MM didn't need to micromanage the health of my pets. This was independent of how I was playing (i.e. as a tankermind or not). My main MM's secondary is Traps, so I invested in Triage Beacon instead. This is no substitute for a healing power, but for a team of 'bots against swarms of enemies it is as much attention I want to spend on their health. While leveling up: I skipped the Rifle attacks and focused on Pool powers to vary my play options. I used the Concealment pool (Grant Invisibility), Medicine, Teleportation (Teleport Foe, Recall Friend), Flight (Group Fly with pets is fun!). It was only after lvl 50 that I respec-ed into the Rifle attacks... but that was specifically to add KnockDown into the attacks (because the Bots also had knockdown and I wanted the enemies to sit in the fire patch) and to have the option to draw aggro from the bots.

I don't run time as a MM secondary, but I do use bots as the primary. Like many MMs I use keybinds to make my spawning and buffing go faster. I don't use the masterclass binds, but something a little more homebrewed with the numpad. Mileage varies, and everyone has their own methods for pet controls. I use the numpad0 to summon the bots, and ALT+numpad0 to upgrade with the primary powers. CTRL+Numpad (1,2,3) targets the (next) closest visible bot of a specific Tier. ALT+Numpad (1,2,3) is bound to a specific power (Grant Invisibility) that can be tossed on a bot of the specific Tier. The (circular) summoning chain starts with this keybind: /bind numpad0 "sg Battle Drones$$+down$$-down$$pow_exec_location me Battle Drones$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\summon_bot_2.txt" and then I have 3 single-line text files summon_bot_1.txt: numpad0 "sg Battle Drones$$+down$$-down$$pow_exec_location me Battle Drones$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\summon_bot_2.txt" summon_bot_2.txt: numpad0 "sg Protector Bots$$+down$$-down$$pow_exec_location me Protector Bots$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\summon_bot_3.txt" summon_bot_3.txt: numpad0 "sg Assault Bot$$+down$$-down$$pow_exec_location me Assault Bot$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\summon_bot_1.txt" For simply targeting the bots, I have keybinds to target a bot of a given tier (default names used): /bind ctrl+numpad1 "target_name Battle Drone" /bind ctrl+numpad2 "target_name Protector Bot" /bind ctrl+numpad3 "target_name Assault Bot" The upgrade path uses a similar "circular" keybind and textfiles: /bind alt+numpad0 "sg Equipping Bots$$+down$$-down$$powexec_name Equip Robot$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\bot_upgrade_2.txt" bot_upgrade_1.txt: alt+numpad0 "sg Equipping Bots$$+down$$-down$$powexec_name Equip Robot$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\bot_upgrade_2.txt" bot_upgrade_2.txt: alt+numpad0 "sg Upgrading Bots$$+down$$-down$$powexec_name Upgrade Robot$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\bot_upgrade_1.txt" The powers Equip Robot and Upgrade Robot are AoE, so you only need to target a single bot to hit them all (after summoning). They keep their upgrades across maps and zones. If you are going to cast a single non-AoE power on the bots (I use Grant Invisibility and it works similarly for Aid Other) , you can mimic what I did, starting with keybinds: /bind numpad1 "+down$$-down$$target_name Battle Drone$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\bd_invis_2.txt" /bind numpad2 "+down$$-down$$target_name Protector Bot$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\pb_invis_2.txt" /bind numpad3 "+down$$-down$$target_name Assault Bot$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\ab_invis_2.txt" and then each of the bots has another 'circular' set of txt files. For example the battle drone files are: bd_invis_1.txt: numpad1 "+down$$-down$$target_name Battle Drone$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\bd_invis_2.txt" bd_invis_2.txt: numpad1 "+down$$-down$$powexec_name Grant Invisibility$$bind_load_file j:\\COH_binds\bd_invis_1.txt" I use the 'floating powers bar' to hold icons for pet controls, including: /macro_image "PetCommand_action_Goto" "GoTo" "petcom_all goto" /macro_image "PetCommand_Action_Dismiss" "Dismiss" "petcom_all dismiss" /macro_image "PetCommand_Action_Stay" "Stay" "petcom_all stay" /macro_image "PetCommand_Action_Follow" "Follow" "petcom_all follow" /macro_image "PetCommand_Stance_Defensive" "Protect" "+down$$-down$$petcom_all follow$$petcom_all defensive$$" /macro_image "PetCommand_Action_Dismiss" "Dismiss" "petcom_all dismiss"

That sound like fun, but there is yet another direction we could go: It should be possible to make a 'challenging' arc for characters with a max level of 16. I chose lvl 16 because it should be far enough below the level of the lvl 25 IO sets, but would still allow for PVP, ATO, Winter, Purple sets to contribute to builds. Obviously this does not allow players to play their full end-game builds, but writing only for myself: I enjoy taking end-game builds back through low level content to see how they perform. I fell like the Positron TFs are actually pretty good at offering lower level teams a challenge and requiring teamwork, even if the final Posi TF2 mission doesn't require that much coordination. Once past those first two hero TFs, it feels like far less 'teamwork' is required to get through the TF missions. I realize there are limits on which enemy mobs can be used at low levels, but I'm curious if anyone has built an AE arc in this direction?

I would caution against this specific advice, in this case. I agree that Rune of Protection is useful for the exact reason stated, but in the case of a Dominator that isn't chasing a lot of Global Recharge, the Rune of Protection will not be available as often as you might want it. It is probably a better choice just to have a column of Break Free inspirations if the power is just going to be used as a panic button. For comparison: The only toon I have that has (and uses) Rune of Protection is my perma-Hasten Blaster. I don't use it that often, but against certain enemy types I find myself using it quite frequently. For the Dominator I mainly play, I have Indomitable Will (form Epic Psi) filling the 'panic button' role, although it is a lvl 49 choice and acting as a LotG mule. My main Dominator is Fire/Psi/Psi... and it 'feels' like playing a shopper when the doors first open at a Black Friday sales event. My build has an overabundance of 'opening moves', which means that I really have too many options but "I play me, you play you". Depending on how the attack opens, I either spam the other options or start to focus on actively taking out the enemies. In my case, I have to decide between which of the following 'controls' to start a fight, roughly in the order of preference: Fire Cages (AoE immob which spawns Fiery Orb... prevents Knockback on enemies) Flashfire (AoE stun, with the +Damage proc ATO) Bonfire (Location AoE control w/ KB->KD, part of my Global Recharge chain) Drain Psyche (self +Regen) Cinders (AoE Hold) For this Dominator, I purposely tried to avoid Melee attacks. I have a significant number of Melee toons and with the lockdowns here I prefer to toggle between targets and fire off ranged attacks. Life would be even crazier if I was dashing between targets (which I already do to an extent with PBAoE Psychic Shockwave and the cone Psychic Scream). While all *this* madness is going on, I'm keeping an eye on Hasten (while up, Global Recharge is at +192%, and with the +Recharge proc have plenty of time to not worry about special keybinds) and the Pets, as well as any scoping for enemies who didn't get locked down but are now running off because of Hot Feet or World of Confusion. This guy is 'on the bubble' of PermaDom (without Hasten) so I'm relying on a cast of Bonfire (which triggers all of its procs 100%) to have both PermaDom and PermaHasten. I could reconfigure 2 powers and choose a different IO set to have PermaDom without Hasten, but I'm not a fan of the replacement set for the particular power. The alternative would be swapping my Travel pool to allow for a 5th LotG, but then I'd still have to reconfigure another power to hold a mule! Decisions, decisions... All part of the Dominator game.

My Bots/Traps MM used Grant Invisibility quite a lot on the Bots on low level solo runs (*1). My recollection is that they were 'good boys' and didn't draw aggro while passive. (*1) That toon ran many blue-side Aaron Thiery (Atlas Park) arcs specifically for Door Buster and detours into Perez Park to fight Hellion bosses (badges, drops). The (3) bots would be hit with Grant Invisibility to get past the Perez Park spawns I wasn't interested in engaging.

So we agree that the thread originated from a false pretense and a general non-appreciation for the specific use of an IO from a category that already has a number of useful IO choices. Any discussion of new IO choices has no specific relevance to the Aegis set.

I freely admit to wanting to know the names of characters which were made generic. In my experience, it is very rare that a player complaining (in game in a public channel) about having been genericized shares the name. In the most recent case I recall, the name wasn't close to being trademarked, but was in extremely bad taste.

I recommend picking up the 5 P2W IOs and dropping them in (damage) slots before 22. Even if all you are doing is running DFB, having the extra effects proc in your attacks will make things that much more interesting.

IIRC The City Representative in City ha;; assigns them (for Blue). I think they also appear in as Ouroboros missions (in the lvl 50 range when you are 50?). They are good for collecting some spare Vanguard merits.

I have (and toggle on) World of Confusion, but it is a purely aesthetic choice (as well as a mule for Coercive Persuasion) . It is not a great power... the only active benefit it brings my Dominator (Fire/Psi/Psi) is that: If I haven't locked down the enemies, and If they aren't running away from Hot Feet, and If they are close enough to me, and If the WoC hits them, then There are a few seconds when those enemies don't do anything instead of attacking me or my pets. I'm not sure I've ever observed an enemy mob actually take a swing at another enemy mob unless Hot Feet is off, and even then such attacks aren't really helping. Bonfire w/ KB->KD is an awesome power, no matter the secondary, no matter if Domination is up or not. The only thing I haven't tried yet with Bonfire is to slot it with a -Res proc.... I'm not sure why I haven't yet, perhaps someone can chime in with their experiences doing so?

And turbans. "You take the one in the kilt, and I'll take the one in the turban."

I run my Fortunata (AoE, Control, Range) with just: Level 2: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance: Level 10 Level 2: Stamina (9) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 27 (19) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 21 My Night Widow (Melee, perma-Mind Link on auto) runs with Level 2: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance: Level 10 (27) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 30 Level 2: Stamina (A) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50+5 (9) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 27 (19) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 21 I want to note that lvl 30 is the point at which you get extra slots for powers to work on IO sets, or just to slot endurance reducers. You should also be able to get a couple of accolades to help with Endurance.

Greycat's post was missing something...

I should hope Ali will help!

Obvious reply is obvious: I default to Ion Judgement just because I hate having to track down stragglers, or otherwise the mobs are standing too far apart for other options. I like the other options: judgement is usually where I invest extra components just to see how they play.

Oh, my bad... I should have written Def or ToHit sets. In my head, I was thinking of the only possible pure Recharge IO, which happens to be in the ToHit category. I will correct my reply.

This doesn't reflect players but characters, but I think it is illustrative of how much raw inf *could be* pumped into the economy via farming.