tidge

There already exists Red Side content for this; I'm not sure what Villains and Rogues would be gaining by just going to another zone.

For some values of "best".

From the PoV of an Invuln/EM tank from launch day of live: What I miss is a set that delivers top-notch single-target damage. I don't want (or need) anything more than this. The one existing PBAoE (Whirling Hands) is fine for my tank. I find that it compliments other taunting activity. The Stun secondary effect has been fine since the original game modified the behavior of Stunned enemies; they used to wildly sprint-stagger away from the attacker. If PVP requires a change the secondary, I would accept this. Stun is not a particularly useful power on the ATs with resists/defenses, especially considering how late it comes in the power sets. My own first (simplest) idea would be to straight-up replace it with a passive power that conserves Endurance. I definitely think the animations need to be revisited: including the 'target is already defeated' aspect of Energy Transfer.

I'm happy with the game as a whole, even if I think some power sets and specific missions could use some love. For RADICAL overhauls, my mind goes to: The Praetoria storyline - My sense is that Praetoria was basically sacrificed on the alter of Incarnate Content. I find it difficult to enjoy Praetorian story arcs when 'I know' how the story ends for that world. CoH worked best for me because it was an open-ended world with the classic super-hero 'resets' back to the status quo. No matter how much (or how little) Incarnate (or post-issue 21) content I take a character through, the story for that world has been written. I don't mind the trials themselves, I just don't like that they feel like I'm watching somebody else's story and not my own.

I support this only if all Costume Contests are moved to Grandville.

I'm sympathetic to role-players, but I must admit that I don't understand why anyone ask that the world change to provide more 'content options' for a preferred style of role-play, when the option to get to that content is already part of the world. Writing only for myself: I have a couple of 'heroes' that I would prefer to think of as pure goodhearts, but I imagined a role-play reason to take them red-side. I have a few villains who find themselves on the blue-side for their own reasons. I have other characters with slightly less role-play investment who will change alignments on a whim. Full disclosure: I haven't yet rolled up a gold character on Homecoming (I had done so on Live) because I personally haven't thought of an initial RP concept that I want to start there (I have the germ of an idea, but I have to decide on the AT). I have run quite a lot of Gold missions with at least one of my other characters via the Pillar.

The badgers will change alignments, as there are badges associated with that activity.

/agree I am another redside enthusiast; there are no shortage of sincere explanations by players why they don't like to play the red side. In addition to their complaints about the mission structures (i.e. feeling like a lackey, or even just "being a bad guy") there are also folks who don't like the maps or atmospherics. Even though I and others don't agree with those complaints (or at least, don't treat them as show-stoppers) and enjoy playing redside, there is no reason to believe that (further, beyond Null the Gull) 'opening' of redside would lead to an increase in players there.

Obviously the PEATs would involve hybrids with the Devouring Earth.

/agree I participate (read, reply, occasionally initiate) primarily because I like to see how other players think about the game. Occasionally I see some good advice about how to approach XXX. Every once in a while I will proselytize (Energy Melee improvement, hmmm....kay?) or dogpile on something that strikes me like a poorly-motivated idea. Specific to this thread, as I play my /SR stalker I agree with this core observation: Not included in the above quote is the observation that positional AoE Defense comes REALLY late in the set. If I get my Stalker to 50 and reconfigure the build with all that tricks available to a lvl 50, I'm sure it will play better in low-level content. As I level this character up (primarily solo, but fooling around with difficulty settings) I'm finding it to be much more of a challenge to survive content with this high DPS toon than I have with others. I can afford to apply IO sets to this character, but the nature of the powers in the secondary aren't allowing me to smooth out the experience like I have using different power sets. I can adjust to the different expectations, but they are much more different for this power set than others I have played.

I'm playing a /SR Stalker through the game content (normal pace, currently lvl 24) as a remix of a /WP Scrapper, and I wanted to compare against a Widow (in terms of survivability). This character feels Endurance hungry, more than the Scrapper but about the same as the Widow. The current build plan is to take all of SR except Elude (I'm not a fan of powers with recharge times longer than many missions). The main thing that irks me about SR in the build planning is not being able to slot the Resistance pieces which provide Global defense bonuses (until the build can fit Tough). I grok the core of SR, but when other power sets can casually drop in a global +6% Defense in a Resistance power (toggle or not) for just 1 extra slot it does feel to me that SR is being 'held back'. I'd be thrilled if one of the DDR powers (Dodge?) also accepted Resistance IOs.

I have avoided Trick arrow, but as with similar secondary sets (Traps) I don't like single-target immobilizes as being the mandatory choice for a secondary set. Single-target immobilizes have such limited uses across the entire game that to me it always feels like a punishment when I have to take one. The simplest, no-think option to satisfy me would be to simply swap the positions of Entangling Arrow and Flash Arrow. However... This would be a more useful option, even if it would feel different in play. Alternatively, perhaps just replace the power with a damaging 'control-like' effect that can ignite the Oil Slick?

Just to further demonstrate how simple-minded I can be on the topic of -Res from single (IO set, specifically Annihilation) sources: Once I have a semi-reliable %proc for the -Res, I generally feel that rather than slotting the same proc in another similar power is inferior to making a different choice for that slot (if procs are your thing, there are plenty of other Targeted AoE proc choices), or just moving the slot somewhere else. If I can add a different -Res proc (with reliable chances) to a second power that will be considered. The considerations for teammates are good ones, especially if you are not playing a high-DPS class and can affect multiple mobs at once.

Word on the street is that an opponent can only have one source of -res applied to it at a time, so unless the proc chances (from all the powers being used) are low-ish, you wouldn't necessarily be getting as much out of multiple Annihilation procs (aside from set bonuses, I suppose). I often wish I could use the Overwhelming Force KB->KD piece in more than one power.

I don't know where we stand on getting new 'mission' content, but I think it might be fun to have Mayhem (and Safeguard I suppose) missions set in the Rogue Isles. We'd need to have some instanced maps based on Rogue Isle zones, and the maps would have to be populated with objects... but for the most part the core ideas of the existing Safeguard/Mayhem missions could be ported over. Personally my Villains just want to blow up stuff in the Rogue Isles, but if they had to do some minor 'heroic' stuff I guess it would be ok... for a price! I'm not sure the Heroes should commit to destroying things....

I've fooled around with a Soldier build that mimics a Tank: aggro-grabber, high resists+, team buffs... but I didn't enjoy playing that version of the character at all. This was an alternate build used on a Crab that I already had at lvl 50. Even taking this toon through lower level content I found it unsatisfactory. The damage output was terrible, and it wasn't particularly good at 'tanking'. I found that the original other builds I had were better at protecting squishy teammates and clearing rooms solo. Full disclosure so folks can understand what the 'last straw' was for that particular build: It was a Citadel TF. From my PoV, there are two ways a 'tank' (exemplared) can work those missions on a team of 8. The first is more 'classic': advance with the slow-moving part of the team, keep aggro in those multi-spawn rooms. The second is that full-kit tank can survive dashing past all the spawns to get to the objectives, and either defeat the spawns near the objectives or hold off those spawns so that another stealthy character can complete them. I found that my build was far inferior to other ATs at each of those approaches.

While I miss the days of bringing islands of Rikti Monkeys to Portal Court, I am fine with the aggro cap as is. I will note that I am an 'active tanker', relying more on Taunts and changing targets than relying on Auras to control aggro. I admit to have a personality flaw where I don't understand if a tank 'leaving bosses behind' to be cleaned up is a good thing or a bad thing. Generally I'm of the mind that for 90%+ of the content the DPS classes should be able to take care of the bosses. If a team doesn't have DPS, by all means a Tank should stay close to the team. Otherwise a Tank collecting a group of enemies for AoE (not a whole map, just a spawn) and holding aggro for that spawn seems like a better use of a Tank's time. Eventually a teammate is going to throw an AoE (attack, control) that will draw more attention than desired. I will also admit I don't see why I'd want a game that had a different aggro cap for Tankers than for other ATs, unless the job of the tank is to be the panic button for other ATs that get in over their head.

Good luck! There are a lot of different options for fun builds. I have both Confuse and Aura of Confusion in one of my builds. Taking potential set bonuses out of the picture: I am not sure that the Coercive Persuasion Contagious Confusion proc in the PBAoE is as important as simply emphasizing Recharge or alternate %Damage procs. You can invest a lot in recharge and not have it affect %Proc chances. Personally, because it is PBAoE I would slot at least one of the Confuse %Damage procs (Malaise's Illusions for Psi or Cacophony for Energy) over Contagious Confusion for two reasons: MOAR AoE Damage! Getting a 'hit' with damage on targets of an PBAoE confuse puts you in the running to score a drop when a damaged opponent is defeated, even if it is defeated by a confused ally. With added damage from procs, Aura of Confusion becomes an extra attack, as opposed to simply being a method of control. You can even use it to 'nuke' objects in mayhem missions! Confuse becomes less relevant (than just dealing damage) for some content at high levels, although I find myself occasionally casting it when I want some 'help', or to slow down a particularly tough opponent. I have the Contagious Confusion proc in the single-target Confuse.

If I have the option, I try to mix up damage types (from procs), but don't PVP procs use the same scale as the Purple procs? The damage from a Purple proc is 1.49 greater than a regular %damage proc.

As the other half of the 'Rebo & Zooty' Fortunata whisperers, here are my comments. The core of my build is here: The build I linked to does not use either the Speed or Fighting Pools. In practice, I only found Hasten to be helping with Psychic Wail and Mind Link; there is room for Hasten in the build by dropping Weaken Resolve (at level 47), and stealing a slot from somewhere for extra recharge if you want it 'perma'. Personally, I very rarely take Hasten so early in a build. At low levels I don't have powers that need to cycle quickly. If you want more 'constant attacks' use the P2W freebies. I love the Presence pool on Fortunatas, and I would recommend leaning into heavily if you actually want a 'controller' feel. Unrelenting should be your third pick as it is (if Recharge is low) it is a good panic button or as a damage boost (if recharge is ok). Unrelenting takes the Preventive Medicine Pool and can be used much more frequently than Tactical Training: Vengence. The build I linked doesn't multi-slot Provoke, but I like end-set bonuses from Mocking Beratement better than Perfect Zinger. Invoke Panic is a great PBAoE control power, as is Aura of Confusion. I think you have over-slotted Mind Link. YMMV, but my experience is that Mind Link really only needs 3 slots, focusing on Recharge. Adjusted Targetting: Recharge LotG: Defense/Recharge LotG: Def/Global Recharge (assuming you use this power to hold one of five LotG Global recharge pieces) I accept that if you want even more Defense from it, you can add a 4th slot for even more Defense, but I think that puts you past the point of Enhancement Diversification. I would encourage you to look at the effects of your slots in Health. You may not need the Numina proc. Once you have the accolades which boost Health and Endurance, you may find that extra Regeneration isn't helping you that much (especially for a Defensive build). IIRC the formulae for Health recovery is: (Total HP) / 120 = How much HP you recover per 'tick' 12 seconds / Regeneration Rate = Time between ticks A similar calculation can be done for Endurance/Recovery, but since we always spend Endurance I'm less fussy about pouring extras into Endurance Recovery.

The 'event' freaks will always con as even level to you. You can't just drag any old freak into the area; it is necessary to find the ones originally spawned as part of the event. This is very noticeable if you take a level 50 to the zone.

Don't forget, you get three different builds on each character, so play away! The main issue with Crab Spiders is that once you have the backpack on build you have it on all of them.

Thanks for the link. The notes make it sound like any ToHit buff above 22% is no longer contributing to increasing damage.

That's fine with me; my blaster uses the snipe as part of the regular attack chain. Do we know how the scaling works? I'm particularly curious if I'm 'wasting' ToHit buffs because I'm already at the Damage cap.

I'm trying to think over my builds... I can speak to a few points: Tactics: When I take Tactics, if I have a choice of powers I will only put the Gaussian's proc here if I have pets or if I'm a tanker. Otherwise I simply can't guarantee that for mission content I'm actually going to be buffing that many friendlies. I'm not referring to RWZ Mothership bowl squatting... even then Tanks shouldn't be sitting in the bowl. Tactics also tends to be a late addition to any build, so it isn't like I'm using it much in combat. Aim (for my characters that have it) often gets turned into another late-build addition, as I favor the 'Build Up' powers. Because I tend to take it very late, it doesn't get many slots and I don't put the Gaussian's proc there because I won't have the power (or the proc) for lower level content. My preference is to take the Build Up (or equivalent) ASAP. I would minimally slot it with the Guassian's proc and Recharge (at level) but typically I 6-slot the Gaussian's for the full suite of set bonuses as each one is better than the one before. IIRC I have a /Time Blaster where Chronos is ready every 21 seconds, and the proc is still at the 90% ceiling for firing. That toon keeps Chronos on auto-fire, which means neither the players who want the Gaussian's proc in Tactics think I'm dumb while the ones who want 'on demand' use of a Build Up think I'm wasting it. One thing I haven't seen discussed is the effect of ToHit on Snipes. While I don't know exactly how the scaling works (or what limits may be present), I believe that in Homecoming both the Fast and Slow Snipes have a Damage boost based upon the attacker's ToHit bonus. If Snipes are part of an attack chain, if there is a damage boost as described it is worthwhile to at least consider all sources of ToHit. Note that the Kismet +6% 'accuracy' (really ToHit) must be in an auto power or an active power to contribute its bonus.