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The best simple idea I've seen (suggested by many folks) for Repair is to simply make it be a targeted AoE heal for the pets. As I wrote, the primary issue I have with Repair is that it is rare that healing the pets is a top choice for a given situation. In my experience: If the pets are taking significant damage at a sustained rate, either the pets are in over their heads or the MM is. Healing the pets isn't doing anything to address that sort of situation. If they are just taking limited damage and not recovering it between fights... congratulations! My 'bots are good at cleaning up minions but not that good at speedy boss kills! My experience has been that the resummon power has typically recharged by the time I lose a pet to atrophy. The philosophy of the Robots primary is understandable, but there is a design flaw that the two upgrade powers (not unique to Robots) don't need any slots and only serve a limited purpose, and likewise Repair is of extremely limited utility. No MM (aside from the petless heretics) can really skip the two upgrades. Replacing Repair with a robotic equivalent of Gang War (maybe summoning those little Vanguard HVAS or Spiderlings) would be a much more useful choice.

I agree that Repair is bad. More damning is that I haven't found it necessary. While leveling up my Robots/Traps MM, I used the Medicine pool's Aid Other to keep the minions alive during circumstances like Perez Park street sweeping... but as the build approaches maturity I found that it simply wasn't important to worry too much about healing the pets (aside from using an Incarnate heal occasionally in farming content). For farming, I actually took triage beacon although that is in the secondary. The simplest thing that would make me take Repair would be if I could slot the IO pieces that give global bonuses (e.g. Defense) to the pets but now must consume precious slots in the Robots themselves. The 'bots odd combination of AoE and Knockback pretty much demands slotting KB->KD, which further reduces the number of available slots in teh pets.

Re: 'gaming' on a CV submitted as part of an application. Pretty much everything on a CV should be applicable to the job being applied for. Keep in mind that the first cut of applicants is to identify those applicants that have the necessary skills as identified in the job description. The applicants who pass that cut will (if interviewed) be called on to explain everything on the CV... if the people making the decision about interviews don't flag them for some other reason that they don't want to call the applicant. As @Omega-202 wrote: it is FAR more likely that 'gaming experience' is more like a hobby. Hobbies can develop skills, but I expect to see the skills listed on a CV, and not necessarily where they were developed. How skills were developed will come up in conversation (I make hiring decisions) and helps me ask further questions to make an assessment of the candidates.For example: If I was hiring someone to do rework of printed circuit board assemblies, I would expect to see 'experience with rework' listed as the actual skill rather than try to make some guess about their skills based on a Ham Radio Operator's license number.

Can you give specific examples of power with current slotting that is both already deep into the damage cap (for ED) and is using %damage procs? I have builds that do both, but I want to know where you think more (beyond what we have now) is required.

I want to say that I tried running "who will die?" SSA1 on both sides in less than a week... I can't recall if it worked but I think if it did I would have added it to my list of tricks! I prefer blue-side for trivial reasons: You get to fight igneous bosses (for the badge count). The most annoying part of that arc is the final mission if you lack Perception and the spectres fly away from you!

I feel like the the OP may have a fundamentally different opinion about %damage procs. Some snipping follows. My sense is that all that has been discovered is that %damage procs aren't benefiting single-target DPS-dealing AT as much as they benefit ATs with less DPS and/or more AoE. My own bias is that I don't expect %damage from procs to contribute to DPS-dealing characters, except for 1) Fast recharge AoE (e.g. cones), which generally do less damage and require some positioning, so a %damage proc 'helps' on average. 2) Long recharge AoE (e.g. 'nukes') which have an inherently long recharge time, so a %damage proc 'helps' on average. Generally: I don't expect single-target attacks to rely on %damage from procs. On non-DPS characters, I will hope for some extra proc damage but that's because those AT will typically not have the DPS that will otherwise allow them to complete missions/earn XP by defeating enemies. The current implementation of %damage procs appears (to me) to be a great help for a majority of non-DPS builds, while adding to the offensive potential of certain DPS builds. I don't know that the suggestion to bypass ED benefits anything but DPS builds and would hurt non-DPS builds.

For mid-level characters: The first SSA arc is an extremely easy 20 merits per week (40 for your first run!) even with the lowest DPA characters. I think the slowest time I've had on it have been with a Mastermind (because of the SSA level) at around 11 minutes. Another relatively fast arc for Blue Side is Aaron Thiery's Atlas Park arc. You can rerun that one for both Wolf Spiders and Doorbuster badges. Red side, almost all of the low level villain arcs have very good merit rewards for relatively few missions. It isn't hard to get a reasonably full team for the Penelope Yin TF, and it is rare that a team objects to running that as fast as possible. Even a 'defeat everything' team can finish in about 30 minutes. While we have the 'fast travel' options, it isn't hard to get to Echo: Dark Astoria to get there and earn some merits when someone has summoned Adamastor. I expect this to get slightly more difficult when the changes to travel via SG bases roll out.

I don't understand why the Homecoming game would implement (more) gates. The game still HAS gates, it's just that without a paywall/micro-transactions they aren't as obvious. A simple example are accolades: each of them still has an element of 'grind' to them, and several of them benefit the character that unlocks them. The situation from my PoV is that the game has grind if you want it (ehem, Incarnate content), and plenty of ways to speed through the various 'grinds'. I can't imagine that any new content wouldn't immediately be exactly like all the other content in the game.

I'm a fan of almost all of the level 40-50 Redside arcs, as many of them offer you the chance to punk the marquee Hero NPCs. And if you do the Patron arcs all the way through, you get to punk the marquee villains as well.

Regarding: So many AT have a 'Knockback Hole' that is (as noted above) trivially plugged by the use of a Universal IO piece in a travel power that I don't think this specifically requires an 'emergency' fix. I know that dedicating a slot (Resistance or Travel) to getting 4 points of KB protection was the specific complaint, but this strikes me as a pretty narrow issue given that there is a fix for everyone. I am aware that not everyone wants to take a travel power, but that is a somewhat radical choice given that a travel power can provide a character KB protection, and KB resistance is a craft-able temporary buff.

SMH

I don't consider myself qualified to speak to all sets, but the performance of Mastermind primaries seem... uneven.

Some minor editing down to the bits I want to comment on: The one piece of the Streakbreaker that doesn't appeal to me is: the Streakbreaker doesn't trigger on next roll that would miss, it triggers on the next roll because "it is time for you to have a forced hit". These are very different things! When I'm at 'finl chance >= 95%', I'd prefer it if the streak was broken when I got the second miss, and not on the followup roll no matter what. The RNG appears to be a pseudo-random "space filling" algorithm design to guarantee a flat spectrum of results. To put this in the context of a ">=95% "final chance to hit", for such a pseudo-RNG (for historical implementations that look to 'evenly populate' the space of potential results) the chance of getting a second "1-in-20" result after a first "1-in-20" is less than 1-in-20. I'd like to measure how big this effect is, but my data collection skill are not up to the challenge.

On the Numina TF, don't send the non-DPS AT to defeat Freaks in Crey's Folly by themselves.

Here is my own take on the 'backpack build'. It isn't optimized for DPS, but as written in the first post it is more designed to show off the backpack (primarily ranged) and have a full suite of Spider pets. Part of the lack of optimization is this: in practice (for the content I play) I almost never use the Web Envelope, and Frenzy is only occasionally used. To the point made by @Two Dollar Bill, this build has plenty of attacks because of the (global) Recharge. Like @khy first build, this build is to emphasize set bonuses. The Global Recharge + Pet slotting is sufficient to be able to resummon the T2/T3 pets as their timer expires. The build is ultimately an exercise in compromises between power picks between aesthetic choices, available powers, set bonus options to support the non-Incarnate recharge necessary for 'perma' pets. The most trivial change I would recommend is that the travel power (Mystic Flight) doesn't need to be taken as early but as I recall: when chasing set bonuses for this spin on a VEAT there is an additional constraint of at what level certain powers become available. YMMV if you want the 4 points of Knockback Protection it offers from the Universal Travel IO. Here is the code: We discussed slotting Spider pets in the following thread. The build above shows my slotting, but there is an excellent point in the following thread that the Soulbound Alliegence %Build Up proc is almost certainly wasted in the Spiderlings when playing against elevated content (+4) as they have few attacks to take advantage of it.

I haven't done it in a while, but I used to run my Bots/Traps/Mace build through the Briggs S/L Comicon for drops. Nothing spectacular (~30 minutes to run through 0x8 content) apart from the drops. In my experience, it was KB->KD that really makes the farming work: T1, T3 'bots / Photon Grenade (AoE) / Mace Beam Volley (Cone) / Pulse Rifle Burst (ST) added with the AoE control/debuff Caltrops, Acid Mortar, Poison Trap. Knock down the enemies into patches of slow death, while applying -Res to them. This requires a pretty active playstyle, but the pets are pretty good at not dying. The MM's S/L Defense/Resistance isn't breaking any records (~35% across the board, without the FFG) but the FFG adds 15.7% to Defenses, which crosses the soft cap on S/L Defense.

If we are only talking Widows, I don't see a tremendous amount of difference. I favor Mu for some peculiar reasons on my ranged Fortunata: I prefer the 'electricity' effect, as the AoE (and DoT) lights up the enemies in dark (Astoria) content. That character has taken, in order: 35) Mu Lightning (6-slotted with Thunderstrike) 41) Ball Lightning (6-slotted with Annihilation) 44) Static Discharge (5-slotted with Positron's Blast) Those sets give me the set bonuses I want. I could fit the pet in at 47, but it would only get a single slot. That character is a duo-build, with the 'other half' being a Night Widow focused on the melee attacks, but took Soul: 35) Gloom (6-slotted with Thunderstrike) 41) Dark Obliteration (6-slotted with Annihilation) 47) Darkest Night (single-slotted with an HO Enzyme) I could afford to be somewhat less strict about chasing positional defense bonuses from sets in the Night Widow build because Mind Link is easily permanent, but I feel that these late-build attacks aren't that important for my play style (with that build, considering what the Fortunata can do). Generally: I wouldn't take an Immobilization, because I prefer the enemies to come to me. I wanted an AoE to fit a different -Resistance proc.

You can probably even defend Medicine as a choice for a Crab, if you are also (eventually, at higher levels) going to have a lot of pets out. The visuals will probably not be what you are looking for. If you want to fight with a Sword, and use the Medicine pool as well, you probably want to lean into higher Defenses. I will like Willpower or Super Reflexes may be the Defensive sets that are somewhat self-sufficient to allow you to cast the heals. Note that if the healing isn't going to be a major part of your play, you can stock up on Team Inspirations to do group healing.

As near as I can tell, if you are at 95% (final chance to hit) with all attacks, and your last attack check at a target is a MISS, the next attack check against a target will be forced to hit WITHOUT making a roll. AoEs mess things up in the sense that you can't predict which specific target in the AoE will be the 'next' attack. It should be noted that the combat logs don't record (or don't easily record) the 'to hit' checks from certain auras and the like. If you are looking for large groups of enemies to test against that have large groups that are not really spread out to test 95% behavior of AoE: Sewer Network and Tunnels of the Trolls are not bad spots, but the max size of a group is somewhat random.

The Ironman badge... UGH. I will say that this is one badge required for an accolade (without switching sides) that seems exceptionally disproportionate in the availability to achieve. Some AT simply don't have the HP (and/or healing/regeneration ability) to be anywhere close to earning this by level 45. Often what I'll do when I want to work on that Badge (because I'm Redside and deep into Grandville) is to make runs through Recluse's Victory to let the bunkers have their shots at me. In contrast, every AT has the same XP bank to make 'debt-withdrawals' from: If I haven't gotten the debt badge I want/need by level 45, I will pop into Dark Astoria and just start street sweeping. Eventually I'll run into something that will clobber me, and voila I am on the way to paying off debt.

Long-time player, first-time poster (in this thread). I'm writing just to document my personal thoughts. 1) I prefer the general 'do these missions to learn the Lore' arcs over the 'enforced Lore' arcs. This means that I'm easily bored by the 'conclude Praetoria' Incarnate content; repeating Incarnate content (and SSA) ultimately feels less like a comic book experience to me than picking up an Ouroborous mission or SF/TF and running with it. 2) I am currently taking the 'slow path' of leveling a Blue-side Controller: No XP boosts and joining TFs/SFs only at certain 'dead zones' of level-progression. No ToT leagues. No AE. Hoo-boy is this painful! I'm a patient person, but I can see how this approach would not be for most people. I'm taking it slow because I'm trying out a couple of new power sets and want to see how it plays across all content without a lvl 50+ kit. By contrast, I'm trying a slightly different combination of power sets used on other ATs but now combined on a different AT for which I've already played several to level 50+. That character is going to earn as much XP as fast as possible because I don't need to do as much exploration of power/slot choices because I've already explored most of them. The differences in this build will mostly be when the build is at a higher level and has made different slotting choices. I wrote (1) because it should reveal that I'm not particularly bothered if a server can't trivially form a League to run Incarnate TFs. I wrote (2) because it should reveal that I like having other people to play with, even if I mostly solo. I don't care if the folks I play with at low levels are exemplared down when I am low level. I prefer to take my lvl 50+characters through low level content, even if I didn't power-level past it.

Here is my general approach to a couple of IO uniques. YMMV of course. I should note that I have not played a MM with a recharge-based pet summon (*1) 1) Overwhelming Force KB-KD/%KD: I almost always add this to the T1 pets. (*2) You can add this piece very early in a build. 2) Soulbound Alliegence %Build up: I almost always add this to the T1 pets. You have to wait until lvl 50 to add this to a build. In both cases, the primary reason is the same: I want to see the proc triggering more than if it is just on another tier. The KD provides some control, even if the T1 aren't doing as much damage. I also want the T1s to have a (necessary) boost because of their inherent level shift. The T1s of course need to have a reasonably quick attack chain to take advantage of the Build Up. If you play a significant amount of time against +N content, chances are good that the T1 pets are missing most of their attacks (because of level shift) so the %Build Up is almost certainly more valuable in the T3. (*1) I wanted to state this upfront, because it reveals my MM builds have less slots to mule Defense/Resistance IOs, and it also means that my MM builds don't care about global Recharge as a build with a recharge intensive summon. (*2) My 'main' MM is Bots/Traps. Despite taking down GMs and clearing out Lts and minions quickly, I find the Bots are quite bad at single-target clearing. Their performance improves significantly by adding KB->KD, adding AoE MM attacks that also do KD, and having a variety of AoE -Res/Slow/Hold. In my build I had to put the unique Overwhelming Force piece in one of the MM attacks, but the Sudden Acceleration set is not unique, so that is what T1/T3 got. The T2 slots were needed for Defense Uniques. One final word: It is common to see folks recommending tactics with the Gaussian's Fire Control %Build Up proc slotted, because 'all your pets means that the final chance to proc is increased!' This is true but the proc is only good for the MM and MM base damage scale is so low that I can't recommend that piece as any sort of priority.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Can you go into some detail on this point: Assume a 'final to-hit chance' of 95%. If there is only a single target enemy, is it still true that "a specific critter targeted by the single-target attack can be missed, then the cone, AoE or PBAoE can miss, and the following single-target attack can also miss" ? If switching between ST, Cone, AoE and PBAoE can allow for more "misses", this would go a long way to explaining what I think I'm seeing in some content. Tangential addition: Oh how frustrating it is to fire off a 95% PBAoE against a group of 8 or less mobs and see multiple "MISS"!

I had previously done a similarly-fruitless search, which is why I added it to this thread.

The poor Sewer Networks were even forgotten in the Beta Issue 27 teleporter revamps!