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I posted most of my thoughts on /Bio above. The one comment I make about the enjoyable Street Justice set is based on my Scrapper: I don't worry about the 'combo' effect of Street Justice attacks. I suppose it's nice to have secondary effects on the 'finishers', but when I started playing the character I found myself distracted by trying to maximize the utility of the finishers. I eventually stopped caring about them and focus more on pure damage; the control that comes from my attacks is more from my slotting choices than the combos.

For the past five months or so, none of my seeded toons have really been "marketeering". Blame the peculiar rise in uncommon salvage (now reversed, presumably whatever the individual(s) behind it were trying didn't really have an effect they feel like gloating about), but I simply didn't feel like more crafting/converting once the family fortune had been made. Now my toons tend to convert recipe drops along the way, but it is rare that they've recovered their costs/gifts from the initial investment (for me 200M Inf) until the 30s. It all depends on the content I'm playing. In the 40s when the characters have significantly more slots to use and nearly complete power choices, is usually when I start turning up the spawn size (for more drops). This still isn't strict marketeering, but it funds purchases of odd needs and second (or third) builds.

I have gotten Very Rare (lvl 50) drops while facing sub-50 level enemies with a sub-50 level character that didn't have the con difficulty turned up, but did have the spawn size turned up. I think the lowest level I had this happen with was a level 48, so there shouldn't have been any +2 enemies in the mission. I was extremely disappointed I couldn't slot the crafted drop right away! EDIT: I generally don't care about the level of recipe drops. Even PVPs can go onto the market and be pooled.

For recipes: I believe that there is no change in drop rates for enemy levels, just rank... except that if enemies con low enough, there are no drops. Spawn size will increase the number of higher rank enemies, which will increase drop rates. /agree. I had a lot of fun on a mixed (level) team in Brickstown... nothing too thrilling, but even that was enjoyable watching the team adapt to higher (and higher) con enemies. Rularuu...*SHUDDER*

200 MInf. The new toon buys the P2W powers (minimum: Envenomed Daggers, Mission TP, Team TP, Assemble the Team, Portable Workbench) and puts in bids for ATOs and converters on the AH. Whatever is left pays crafting fees and the like (such as buying other players the Team TP power). I used to start with transferring much less, but I found that this was the 'right amount' to support wild spending and still be able to amass more Inf without trouble. I don't have the new toons dedicate themselves to "playing the market' as much as I did previously. Prices have generally come down; the existing wealth is more than enough... for now! I've adopted a slightly different approach to the market that builds bank a little slower than previous methods but also allows me to build up the sets I'll want for a given character.

Brutes. I don't mind Melee. I prefer being in the thick of things. I don't like the Fury mechanic... I don't know if its having one more thing to watch, or if it is just that I easily distract myself in game (Auction House, reading dialog, chatting) but I just don't enjoy the Brute.

(the post as edited may be a little weird... trying to fix the spoiler boxes) I have a /Bio stalker... My slotting for DNA siphon is somewhat similar, but I felt that inherent Damage boosts (from a damage set) were doing less than trying to boost the Healing/Absorb effects. This also let me get more global Accuracy (at the expense of E/N defense (typed Defenses are better on my build than Ranged/AoE positional Defenses) I also took the power somewhat late in this build; I think my build might be a little better served if I had swapped it with my pick at lvl 32, but I haven't really noticed when playing at lower levels. I completely agree with the 6-slotting of Concentration: The defense bonuses are far too useful from the Gaussian's set. EDIT: I didn't see a Kismet +ToHit in the build. If a build includes a Snipe, I usually try to squeeze this Global in to increase the damage of the Snipe. I have found that a 95% 'final chance to hit' Snipe is a wonderful 'Plan B' if the Assassin's Strike attack misses, the extra ToHit is gravy. I never had more than the default slot in Health (Panacea proc). With Stamina (Performance Shifter proc) I did have a second slot for and EndMod, but I just moved it to Boundless Energy (as a lvl 50+5 IO). I could be wrong about the final numbers, but with Adaptation as an option on top of the other Bio powers, I don't think the little bit of extra +Regeneration from Healing Globals (or +HP from Power Transfer) is really doing that much. My build does end up using more slots; I chose to get set bonuses from:

My guess is that there isn't 'pooling' of them because they lack a unique attribute which allows them to be pooled (& converted). I'd love the ability to convert them (a la other IOs) within the "Hami-O set", but I'd accept it if I could break them down into something else. My own use of HOs are so very rare. I only use them for 'one-slot' power picks, although I know some folks use them for franken-slotting.

Bah, I'd rather get more charges of the temp power. SOs are hardly worth the effort.

Why ask for an across-the-board increase to reward drop rates (except for being selfish, I suppose, asks the kettle) as part of an ask for a change of the aggro cap? This is a completely different ask. I'm certain that most players would be perfectly happy with even easier rewards independent of any increase to the aggro cap... because improved rewards are not going to have any effect on players that don't team or don't turn up the number of mobs. Players already get more experience from larger spawns (assuming they KO) , and they get an XP boost from teams. All of this is independent of the aggro cap.

Granting Purples/PVP recipes for 'already having the temp power' is crazy (crazy bad, not crazy good). It would simply be a mechanism for farming such recipes. Also not recommended for defeating specific players, as a multiboxer (or SG) could farm them. As much as I'd like to GRAB MOAR Purple/PVP recipes, I don't think this is a good idea at all.

Is this where Zapp comes in? The Teleport pool does need a rework, partially because Long Range Teleport is supplanted by all sorts of travel options even without considering the SGpasscode. It's timer is too long and it doesn't go to all the zones. It requires two power picks from a pool where those other picks are not that useful either. (Is this where Bentley Berkeley comes in?) It's an inferior set, especially for a travel pool.

The suggestion for a %chance for mobs to drop merits really has nothing to do with the aggro cap (or stealthing a mission to the end). I followed the thread to see how we got here, but aside from the free-form brainstorming there is no reason to link these thoughts. Right now, mobs have a chance to drop Very Rare recipes... but (especially) for teams, the guaranteed reward of end-of-arc merits is simply a better use of time. The aggro cap is de-linked from rewards, both directly and indirectly... because just having aggro doesn't offer rewards.

I miss the Cyst spawns. Yes, they were hard! Yes, they could rofl-stomp a team (ah, the glorious days of a Frostfire mission with Cysts!). I definitely remember that Kheldians would be 'dis-invited' from teams... but I also remember seeing plenty of LFT for 'no _____' (fill in the blank for whatever AT). Jerks are gonna jerk. I'd like to see the Cyst spawns returned to the game, even if it was just as a difficulty option. The Cyst spawns required that teams act slightly more coherently than they currently do now. My opinion is that it's too easy (generally because of IO slotting) for teams to split up and run their own ways in missions. I wouldn't mind the content requiring that we play a little more carefully. As it is, I still have a 'default' bind to look for Quantums on all my toons, even though they are far less of a concern these days.

I like the idea, and I especially like the work that went into the original post. Great job! The only thing I have against the suggestion is that I wouldn't find the connection that useful. Writing only for myself: The northern part of King's Row is dull and out-of-the-way. Sure the 'Paladin' event is there, but with the event bugged, there is very little reason to be up there... even for level appropriate characters. There isn't 'enough' in that part of the zone for my taste. That side of Perez Park is somewhat out-of-the-way as well, except for Hunting Skulls. Perez Park does have things of interest: useful History badges, mobs for several 'defeat' badges, plenty of missions which spawn there. It's just that I've gotten so use to using either the Base drop-off point or just dashing from Atlas Park that I rarely consider using either Steel Canyon or Skyway City entrances now. I do wonder if we could 're-open' Galaxy City as another Hazard Zone (somewhere in the range 20 - 35?), populated with Neo-Shivans, Circle of Thorns, Lost, whomever. Even if we didn't get an entire zone the size of Galaxy City, would it be possible to piece together some map elements (from the Shining Stars arc?) to give us something to play in? I know Trial/Hazard Zones aren't the most exciting areas to play in (ehem Tunnels of the Trolls, Boomtown, Terra Volta) , but if the stakes are 'low enough' I don't think the Dev team would be judged that harshly for trying something 'major'. I know there are thoughts about populating Khallisti Wharf with villains, but as is that is an easy zone for allowing mixed-side gatherings of all levels without problem.

Is it a character that only occasionally spawns there, depending on if a player has a particular character arc? (Like Matthew Hasby's wife?)

...or break Clamor and some Freakshow out of the Zig to destroy the parking lots and replace them with ADA-compliant parking lots (at one-tenth the cost!)

I played a beloved tanker from Day 1 of Live, and I also agree that the aggro cap does not need to be increased. There are only two things I 'miss' about the ability of Tanks to 'aggro everything': On maps with teams who are overwhelmed (or careless) with huge numbers of enemy mobs Peregrine Island antics (bringing many dozens of Rikti Monkeys to the main island) (1) This rarely happens any more due to ease of superior builds... and just about any well-built AT can hold off a room allowing a team to recover. (2) That day has passed. This was as close as a regular player could get to 'spawning a zone event', and I do miss it. This (player) behavior was not appreciated by the devs of the era, and more than one lvl 41 player was non-plussed to come across lvl 50 mobs were they were unexpected. My opinion is that worrying about going back to days where teams would be 'asked' to wait for a Tank to gather up a map (for AoE spams or multiple Judgements) is not something anyone should worry about no matter the aggro cap. Recharge times are fast enough and base Defenses are high enough that few players would tolerate 'waiting' for such thing to happen.

This is the best approach IMO. True misinformation should be corrected; if I have posted incorrect information and been corrected I publicly accept the correction. In-game, there are sometimes different 'answers' for certain types of questions. For Example: 'Where is the best place to hunt X?'. 'Best' depends on different factors (level, Hero/Villain), so nobody should get bent out of shape when different answers come in on the channel.

On a 5-tier system, I wouldn't rank Traps as middle of the pack specifically because it is front-loaded. I would personally prefer to not have to take Web Grenade, but the next 5 powers Caltrops / Triage Beacon(*1) / Acid Mortar / Force Field Generator / Poison Trap are all quite effective against large numbers of enemies (either when teaming, or when solo). You can have each of these powers by level 20! Don't minimize the debuffs / holds / slows / defense buffs for improving team performance. (*1) Triage Beacon is valuable if your teams' fights are slow moving. In solo +0/x1 content you really won't get much out of it. Of course an on-demand AoE Heal would be better, but it is something else. Because Traps' last two powers are such duds (most play isn't slow enough for Trip Mine to be that useful; Skip DetonatorTM), and a single-target Immobilize (mandatory 1st pick) is so... meh... It isn't going be top tier. I'm not sure how much it would matter to game balance if the T9 Detonator was swapped with the T1 Web Grenade. I haven't mentioned Seeker Drones. I like the little guys, but their debuffs and low Magnitude stuns are not as obviously useful as the earlier powers.

On Live, once the level cap was increased my Inv/Energy Tanker had all primary and secondaries taken... and this was before powers could be IO mules. These days, it is rare that I have a toon with enough variety in primary/secondary to want to take each power. Kudos to all that do!

Fair enough, but my point about getting recharge from the set enhancements themselves (lvl 50 v. lvl 30) and the set bonus was that you could drop the Recharge IOs. If those sets are essentially mules for a S/L resist, that is a completely different matter.

I'm glad that the build is working for you, I just have a few minor suggestions that aren't overhauls: I would review the slotting of Call Reinforcements and Summon Striker. I believe that if you replace the 5-piece Call to Arms (lvl 10-30) set with a 4-piece Expedient Reinforcements (lvl 30-50) you will have improved recharge times such that the extra IO Recharges are not needed. You can still fit in the Call to Arms Defense Aura piece if you want. I have a slight criticism about using low-level IOs on pets you only get at high levels, especially if you say you are mostly only using them for AVs. My Crabbermind pet slotting (also with a 2-slot Hasten) is: Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(36), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), OvrFrc-Dam/KB:50(37), SlbAll-Build%:50(50) Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(39), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), EdcoftheM-PetDef:40(40) Level 47: Summon Blaster -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(48), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(48), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets):50(48) I skipped the Call to Arms defense aura because if I believe the 20' radius, I found it rare that these pets will be that close to me. My Crabbermind was tight on slots, or I would consider adding it. I would move one of the saved IO Recharge slots to Aim, as you will get a lot more damage from spamming Aim (with the %Build Up Proc in it). An extra %Damage proc in Venom Grenade or Frag Grenade could be considered (Frag Grenade accepts a Force Feedback +Recharge proc). *IF* you opt to get the Global Recharge bonus from the 3 summons, you can reconsider the 5-slotting of Tactical Training: Maneuvers, which has more slots of LotG than I usually consider. TT: Maneuvers is usually where I look to 6-slot the Reactive Defenses set, as TT:Maneuvers starts with a bigger base Defense boost than (Pool) Maneuvers. I would keep an eye on the Enhancement Diversification diminishing returns on the Defense buffs to find extra slots to steal. 6-slots of the Gaussian's set could very likely get you more (global) Defensive buffs than trying to eek out a few more fractional points of defense from the toggle powers. I think you might be able to get those slots from Weave and Maneuvers alone. EDIT: I want to note that when running Tactical Training: Leadership, the Gaussian's %Build Up will have improved chances to trigger based on your teammates and/or pets. The Build Up is for you, not your pets/allies. It's your call on if you want the %Build Up on demand (it should be 90% in Aim) or a bonus granted by RNGesus via the Leadership power. As I wrote above, I lean to 6-slotting it in Aim for the on-demand boosts (and the set bonuses), but mileage varies.

I like the idea of low-level accolades (that is, powers that only stay with a toon while at low levels), but that is what the Death from Below is offering... and spamming DfB is a major contributor to skipping so much of the low-level content. An alternative is temp powers, but that is what the Safeguard/Mayhem missions offer. I try to experience as much of the 'low level' (sub 30) content as possible, but unless XP is disabled almost any amount of teaming will mean that you miss some of it. I haven't had a character that didn't outlevel the Hollows arc since... I don't know when. Hero Zones like Faultline and Striga have decent arcs that have always felt level appropriate (less so Croatoa, which I find to be a slog)... but again, if a player is teaming through TFs it will be very easy to outlevel those zones. There are rewards for playing in those (newer) zones: temp powers, unlocked contacts (including Ouroboros), but as a practical matter nobody really needs to do those zone arcs to get most of the goodies. Pure Villainy makes it easier to do more low-level content. There are fewer folks to team with, and there are a variety of low-level contacts with very good merit rewards in Mercy Island. It's possible to do enough content in Mercy that you actually outlevel content in Port Oakes. Blue side, I find that the original contact chains will still insist that you take "defeat X" missions which are often not appropriate for your level (e.g. Hellions in Perez Park at lvl 6, CoT in Talos at level 21)... Why can't I just get the fun missions from those guys? (I can, using Ouroboros).

Thanks for criticizing my (explicitly expressed) personal play choices and trying to make some bigger point about how I've got it wrong. Not. I didn't describe how I 'play like an X', and since you didn't ask me what *I* meant, I'll elaborate my melee choices: I don't wade Stalkers into large spawns (unless teaming); Tanks and Scraps I will jump in (I don't really play Brutes). Blappers blap. For me, the main difference among the melee classes is the *desire* to have aggro. My Tanks want it; my Scappers accept (and often seek) it. My Stalker is designed to murder the opposition, not occupy their time. Dominators have everything locked down, Blasters have KOed everything. I happen to have a Spines/Bio Stalker because I wanted a Stalker that has AoE capabilities when teaming... but even so, when solo *I* don't bother with the x8 setting like I do with my VEAT, Blaster, Dominator or Bots MM... It's just not how I want to play my Stalker... even though I have explicitly chosen a primary and secondary that lets me do exactly that! (*1) With that being written, the missing piece for this conversation may be "what does this have to do with AoE?" If a player "feels that AoE" is missing, and their primary and secondary sets aren't providing it...given that they are already chosen an AT... Interface (every 2 mins) is better than nothing. They can pick PBAoE or targeted AoE. It's not a secret what types of attacks are available in any AT's primary/secondary before starting with the character. (*1) More about my play preferences: Some toons I like to solo against a huge number of opponents at once. It feels thematic and the rewards are improved with volume. When I do play this way, it is very rare that I will solo against large numbers of opponents until my toon is beyond lvl 32. Before then, some toons don't have the tools to survive against large numbers of opponents, some toons don't have the tools to quickly defeat a large number of opponents. Since (many) stalkers aren't going to get the AoE to quickly defeat a large numebr of opponents... my play style while levelling was to focus on survivability of the Stalker by Killing the highest threat first, and then focus on the minions, which is a perpendicular strategy to most AoE classes' approach of 'nuke the masses and clean up the bosses'.