tidge

It could be even weirder if folks could use the alternate builds to do this very thing. The closest experience the game can offer the OP is AFAIK using alternate builds for VEAT. The Fortunata and Night Widow can play very differently; I've got one where each build has a different body type and costume as well. It isn't the same thing as radically changing primaries, but the Night Widow can easily be seen as 'scrappery' while the Fortunata can opt for Blappery Control options. The Spider offers some variety,, but if any of your builds take the crabpack, all of your costumes will have to display it... this is more immersion-breaking IMO. I feel like there is less real variety here, as the most varied build is the Crabbermind but that is only really an option at high levels. The Melee approach has very slow animating attacks which make it quite the slog to play.... much more boring than any other melee class IMO.

I use 2 of the Rifle attacks (and a Mace) on my Bots/Traps MM to add another source of -Res and Knockdown (plus grabaggro) to keep enemies where my Bots want them (in the fire patch). I didn't take these until after hitting level 50 and using a respec into them. The attacks aren't contributing massive direct damage, but they are damage multipliers for me. I don't think I'm playing "wrong". If was going to be judgemental I'd write that it is more 'wrong' to take an MM attack for use at low levels because the prestige attacks are available and effective at those levels. The attacks also allow for the slotting of IO sets, even if they aren't used. It's not like each of the MM pets has 12 slots to fill. Crabbermind pets scale just like MM pets: 3 Spiderlings at -2, 2 Disruptors at -1, 1 Patron pet at even level. The poor Damage scaling and the increased Endurance costs feels like a double-tax to me. I'd prefer that the endurance situation be improved, if only to allow for a more varied amount of playstyles ("right" or "wrong"). The lower levels of pets is really only an issue in Incarnate Content, or if you insist on a self-challenge (but then want a buff to the pets to help with your challenge I guess?) During Incarnate TFs I do think that the level penalty ("purple patch") for pets should be revisited.

One thing I have noticed when quickly changing characters: certain UI elements are preserved across characters. For example, if I was searching for an IO in the AH on character 1, then switch to character 2 the AH interface 'remembers' what I was looking for. There may be some similar 'memory' on the server side that is interfering with the purchase?

Sadly I didn't slot it, but I assume no.

My only complaint with the base-jumping is that I haven't figured out a way to have a combined macro that lets me... emote local tell base jump ...so that I don't break the immersion of other players. Right now: I do the first two as one macro and then base-jump with a second.

Have you investigated Popmenus? If the macros filling the trays are for commonly used 'tells', emotes, base-jumping, temp powers, it may be that creating layered menus for some things might work for you. I haven't developed any of my own, but I've used a few that others have developed.

I was on a PUG that recently got Valet from the Market Crash, and I have a word of caution: As near as I can tell, the Freaks don't start damaging vehicles until they are engaged. As this mission starts from a train station, it isn't guaranteed that everyone will get to the mission at the same time, to say nothing about the delay from different gaming rigs/connections. The first 5 of us in the zone waited patiently by the mission entrance... the tank entered 6th with no communication and didn't bother to wait for players 7 and 8 before leaping like a madman to the first group of Freaks. Luckily a couple of us had several powerful AoE (point blank and targeted) and knew where the scattered vehicles were. We were able to wipe out several groups quickly (and keep aggro from the survivors) but that was a little too rando for my taste, as five players had to scramble immediately after seeing what the tank was doing. There are too many Freaks for a single tank to hold the aggro and I don't think the tank had any idea of what was ahead.

Don't worry about trying to maximize the proc potential, because as was written they stop working (as procs) above lvl 22. I usually just drop them into the first couple of attacks as soon as I have slots. If you want to 'move' them, I assume you can just overwrite the original ones with some other drop and pick up a new one from P2W.

I have several strategies for getting attuned pieces. Prior to lvl 50, almost everything is attuned except for low level or PVP procs/globals. These methods aren't going to be helpful to most (many? any?) other players but here goes: If the piece is under 2 MInf, I just buy it attuned, assuming I don't have one in the SG base already. For more expensive IO pieces that I use in most of my builds, I save crafted versions in the SG base. When I respec a character I will en masse swap out attuned versions for level-appropriate pieces and then attune them (if necessary). This burns up catalysts (THE HORROR!) but it means having certain things available for use by other characters. This works out well for PVP sets, since they can be slotted very early in a career and then be replaced with (boosted) lvl 50s at the end of a career. You can use unslotters (cheap) and catalysts (not cheap) if you don't do it during a full respec, it's just that for me my lvl 50 concepts often use Very Rare sets and reconfigured powers so it is a convenient time to pull out attuned pieces. I have occasionally bought an attuned piece from the market first and then put the non-attuned piece on the market. This requires you to have the Inf up front, but doing it this way allows you to understand the margins involved. Here is something I didn't know could happen, but I have observed. You can boost lvl 50 PVPs, but not the procs. You can however convert a boosted PVP into a (boosted) proc!

You don't know them; they live in Canada.

The original Hazard Zones had a masochistic charm about them, including "Dear level 8, go and defeat 10 Hellions... it should be easy because they are usually in groups of 12" to "See if you can survive getting to the mission door." The modern (Homecoming) game has moved past all this with easy XP and easy to-door travel. I still think the zones have some charm and that they don't need a complete do-over as was done in the past (Hollows, Faultline, Dark Astoria). Keep in mind that each of those redone zones got more than just dedicated arcs, but each was made easier to travel in. The problems with intra-hazard-zone travel (because of mazes or just baddies) is IMO one of the defining issues with the zones. It isn't so bad in Eden while you have not just your travel power but plenty of powers to deal with the villains there... but even Terra Volta can snag less experienced travelers. I do feel that each of the Hazard zones could use at least one arc explaining some of the goings-on that we witness. For example, are the Devouring Earth tunneling under the walls of Terra Volta to Independence Port? Is the Family helping the Sky Raiders smuggle tech in (or out) of Terra Volta? Are the Freaks trying to snatch some of it? There are a lot of Lost there, but the Rikti only show up when they have designs on the Reactor? Has this group of Lost just been dumped here for some reason? Crey's Folly ends up with quite a few door missions, so I'm less 'curious' about that zone. Eden seems like such a wasted zone: The Devouring Earth are clearly pouring out of the Hive...and Crey looks to have fallen back from their Hive facilities... so what is Nemesis plotting there? Of the lower level zones (Perez Park, Boomtown) slightly more caution might be needed for level-appropriate content because of the size of the zones and the travel requirements. We know that the Circle of Thorns was planning a major Incarnate-level overhaul to Perez Park (I was not looking forward to that) but surely we could get some kind of action that doesn't duplicate what the Hollows offers? If anyone has some AE missions that they think could serve as an 'arc' for any of the Hazard Zones, drop me a line.

The toon I referenced in Invuln/EM, with the Gaussian's set in Energy Melee's Build Up, not Tactics. The 70-ish ToHit is nice, but its the 80% Damage buff I crave. On pure DPS builds I'd love to have a pink handshake from the Build Up proc every 15 secs! I don't disagree that Invulnerability's primaries can hit effective caps using fewer slots... but in my build's case I don't have any other powers which I could 6-slot this defensive set without essentially wasting the extra Defense (because of Enhancement Diversification), sacrificing IO choices in those other primaries, or stealing slots from other powers to make it work. My build doesn't use Weave (HERESY!) so the only other Primary option is Tough Hide which is holding Shield Wall (2 pieces, boosted) and a LotG or I have to do something crazy like 6-slot a Defense mule.... which would require 5 more slots from somewhere. I like the idea of boosting To Hit with Invincibility, and I am excited that the Build Up proc is working well... I used it myself when the mission pace was slower... but with faster moving content (i.e. most lvl 30+ teams) the proc-Build Up from the aura, while great, isn't as exciting as an on-demand Build Up from a single-target secondary like Energy Melee. Please don't misunderstand: I sincerely appreciate the suggestion for reducing slots in powers. I use multiple builds on most of my toons (and burn a lot of Inf doing so) so I will look at what else I can do with your suggestion... but for the current build it would force a radical change in more than just a couple of powers. Now if only there were a way to get more (and more reliable) -Res into the build...

Multiple Kronos Class Titans in Skyway trying to get in on the Troll Rave Action:

Can you tell if it is behaving like it does in Tactics for Masterminds/Crabberminds? While levelling, I think I had it slotted but really couldn't see much effect (this was pre-Homecoming update). If so, this would be a good place for folks to try it. In my Invuln/EM case, Invincibility is where I have Reactive Defenses 6-slotted, and I'd hate to break both 6-slot sets. Reactive Defenses is a hefty recharge bonus (not strictly necessary for a Tank) but Gaussian's final set bonus are defensive bumps.

I'm not a fan of the movement binds because of the potential interruption to queued powers. Right now I only play one toon (a Dominator) where the recharge time of two powers I want on 'auto' are somewhat close enough that I even consider multibinding (Hasten, Domination). In the case of my Fortunata, Mind Link is for her allies... not for her (unless facing some serious +N content)... I find the cast time to be too excessive in most play!

If we are simply posting anecdotes: I just used a lvl 50 respec on a scrapper to add Hasten. The attack chain did not *need* the global recharge, but with Hasten (now perma) I have the Build Up available much more often and I can alter the attack chain to improve DPS. This is pretty clearly a min-max situation (maximize D, minimize S) to improve the beating capacity of the Scrapper. 'Sub-optimal' may be 'Sub-jective'. I agree that the DPS and Tank classes may not need Global Recharge to 'feel' like their AT, but each of them has access to one or more long-recharge powers that can feel 'defining' to the characters. I'm a little disappointed to see Crabberminds left off the list: They have access to Mental Training (the non-hasten Hasten) but (perma) Hasten is what allows them to have their full suite of pets (including a Patron pet) available every 4 minutes. It isn't fair to call this 'perma pets' because of the nature of the summons but the ability to respawn them immediately after the power expires is an extremely desirable feature of that build decision.

Even before the allowance of ATs to play either side, Scrappers were filling many of the roles of Tankers blue-side. With the ability of many ATs to now 'soft cap' defenses through IO set bonuses, the ATs that can AOE large spawns (before an individual enemy makes enough attacks to force a streakbreaker), the dedicated role of a Tanker is diminished. True Tanking requires looking out for all the members of your team and it isn't just moving around while not taking damage. It's also more than just taking the alpha strike. You have to be watching the bars of your team and quickly adjust to targeting *their* targets. It is a lot of work, and ideally the only way the team can recognize the Tank is doing a good job is because they hear the taunt effect and realize they aren't being held/hit by enemy attacks. A balance has to be struck between following and leading. Nobody wants to wait for a tank to gather aggro anymore than they want to wait for a Stalker to AS, or a Blaster to Snipe the bosses. Nobody wants to see a Tank run off and grab aggro of 16 random enemies while leaving certain enemies alone. Tanks can be fun to play, but the general trend of the game has been moving away from them. The recent Homecoming improvements to damage, arcs, and AoE has offset some of it, as it is easier to get aggo by attacking, and the speed of 'arresting' enemies is increased. Prior to this change, the only real 'improvement' to tankers I can recall was removing the 'rooted' requirement for sets like Invulnerability. I think fixing the 'DE Swarm Aggro/Fear' mechanic was a good thing (even if it was seen as a nerf to Fire Tanks), and I understand the change to the Aggro cap (even if it removed a lot of the fun of playing a solo Tank).

As I wrote in my original post: I haven't dedicated any brainpower to "how" to give Tankers an ATO piece that makes them be better Tankers, it's just that it feels off that the Tanker ATOs only go in the secondaries (for the sets I am most familiar with). It seems clear that the intent of the Tanker ATO procs was a step in giving the Tanks *something* that makes them better Tanks. My peeve is all about the fact that there is usually a clear divide between what Tanker primaries do versus what the secondaries do and that the ATOs are essentially locked into the secondary. This bad vibe is roughly along the lines of the Mastermind ATO complaint.

Now you've done it.

While this is a cool idea, I just wanted to note that I often target through the pets during the chaos of invasion events or Mothership Raid bowl parties. I agree that the Purple Patch has a brutal effect on Mastermind Henchmen (and many other pets), and that it would be nice if in certain Incarnate content the T1 pets could contribute more than just being HP sponges. One thing I want to write (this may come across as a "you're playing it wrong" but that is not my intent) is this: As a character levels up your expectations for your powers should change. You may have to figure out new ways to use the tools you have. This is especially true of MM pets. The T1 guy was your first friend, but as you make more friends he just doesn't level up like you do. Some options for your T1 pets as they start to lag: Consider slotting a KB -> Knockdown proc in the T1 pet. This gives them some control that many of them don't otherwise have. Bots can use Sudden Acceleration, all other MM primary pets can use the Overwhelming Force unique. Consider running the T1s on defense, to maximize your Supremacy. At level 50, you can slot the Soulbound Allegiance: % Build Up in a tier of pets and all of the pets in that tier get the chance.

I grok that this is a proc thread, but there are commonly used (non-damage, non-spawning) procs and globals that get slotted in Autos (Panacea, Performance Shifter) and Toggles (Kismet), so if I want to wish for a different sort of slottable bonus specific to Tankers... I'm sorry that it makes you red-faced that I chose to make the suggestion in the ATO thread! Some Tankers could use more defense, and some could use more resists... especially while leveling, especially when they don't have slots for full IO sets. The ATO sets aren't just for level 50s. Like others have written, I'm also generally non-plussed about the nature of the progressive set bonuses and the somewhat unimaginative boosts for many of the sets but those have nothing to do with procs, so I left those comments on the cutting room floor. I don't think it was 'asstastic' for folks to make those comments.

Running x8 content, you would be surprised how often the RNG rolls in the range 95% - 100%.

Lots of good advice in the quoted post, I quoted some of the bits that I think get lost in the discussion about choosing procs. The parts about damage are especially relevant IMO.

I only rarely Frankenslot, and so most my experience with Hamidon Origins is limited to powers for which I've only invested a single slot, but which I expect to use anyway. If I really want larger bonuses and my build can't spare a second slot... I just combine HO to increase the bonuses. IIRC the max bonus for something like Acc/Dam is +38/+38. Off the top of my head, the only character for which I purposely have only a single slot in a power I regularly use is on a Dominator's secondary T1 attack. That particular choice was made because for flavor reasons I went overboard with the controls... i.e. my choice to invest slots elsewhere.