tidge

This has been interesting reading. I don't really PL my toons, except to take 2XP to get some actual powers ASAP... Or two pass some content I've done many times and don't care to repeat on a toon. I like the variety in how much Inf gets gifted to new toons. I usually drop 200M on new toons to allow them to buy the prestige powers and also have enough leftover to start making their own Inf in the market. As I level through classic play-through, I will slot the toons with leftover/recycled Enhancements. Inf isn't a problem, so I'm replacing IOs whenever I can. It seems to only be the generic travel IOs that don't drop that frequently, so if that lvl 10 run hasn't been updated in a decade or two I'll buy/craft a higher level version.

I really enjoyed the Rikti parts of the lore, but after the RWZ revamp it felt as if somethings became muddled. I enjoyed piecing together the Lost-Rikti-Hydra elements. The RWZ arcs (starting in the 30s) simply feel like they are stepping on other content. YMMV. The piece of lore that confuses me is the Shadow Shard/Nemesis/Ouroboros/Dark Astoria (incarnate) interplay. I grok the efforts at high-level content, but at least one too many characters/groups got recycled for my taste.

You can buy Tip missions in a SG base using a mission monitor board (I think that is what it is called).

This is my attitude as well (although if I am not in my SG base, I will buy unslotters too). Many blessings upon those who fill the marketplace with things to buy! The only other thing I'll do with merits (if I'm really bored) is buy specific tip missions.

I was teasing 🙂 I just want other players to recognize that while Dominate has the Hold Icon, it really is much more painful than similar holds from other ATs.

This was pretty much my set of incarnate choices. I actually flip between the T4's in musculature because I generally have Endurance completely under control, so I want more damage boost from Core Musculature. I have noticed that if I am quickly moving between x8 groups, that can be taxing on the Endurance bar. Ion is the preferred interface: It fits visually with my Mu attacks, and it is good about picking off 'wanderers' in the x8 groups. Core Rebirth for Destiny provides the second (first is Unrelenting) self-heal in my build. My build already has pretty good regen, so I'd rather get the max HP boost as well. Despite the timer/recharge I usually hold this back as a heal only. My standard Lore choice is Longbow as they seem to contribute the best to the types of content I run solo (that I want extra help with). For me this is usually farming the last mission of the Heather Townshend arc. I never know what to do with Interface. I have several built up, but I think I'm running Degenerative Core Flawless for the -MaxHP. I have Diamagnetic but it felt like I wasn't really getting that much from it. I will probably play with Gravitic to see if attack times speed up.

I rarely disagree with Gulbasaur in this sub-forum, but Dominate is really a ranged attack that just happens to result in a hold. 🙂 Don't under-estimate the amount of DPS it can contribute, especially at lower levels. On my Fortunata, it is actually my most common ranged attack.

I wish Caltrops was the T1 power in the MM secondary instead of Web Grenade. I would never skip it, not during levelling nor as part of a Respec. It is simply too useful. I usually skip Trip Mines. I like the crazy suggestions for them, but you can also do some crazy things with Seeker Drones and they will travel with you. Honestly my builds are usually becoming starved for slots so the higher tier secondary powers haven't been given as much attention.

I've definitely experienced some annoyance wrt the DoT causing mobs to flee on a Dominator: Hot Feet causes more fleeing than in the past. I can reconcile the behavior even if I don't like it. Epic World of Confusion however: the mobs flee (presumably because of the Psi DoT) even if they are confused. The unacceptable behavior is that after they have run, the confusion has worn off. There is essentially no benefit to the toggle except to have a limited number of mobs not attack. Edit: the WoC effect happens without Hot Feet toggled on.

On my main Fortunata, I went with the Mu attacks: ST, Cone, AoE and colored them to match the Psi powers. This makes her even more 'Blapper-like'.

The closest classic AT is probably a SR Scrapper (for Widows). For Fortunata: I play mine like a Blapper. Both can handle a lot of aggro, but that is because of how trivial it is to increase positional Defenses well beyond softcaps. My builds can't Tank because it takes more effort (powers and slots) to concentrate on resistances. For the record: I consider tanking to be more than just grabbing the aggro of a room which has trouble hitting you and whose damage you can heal from during fights. AVs and GMs are the only things that give my Fortunata reason to pause. The pause is usually just long enough to find one other player to help deliver damage. Lord Recluse will quickly 2-shot my builds, but there isn't much other content that cannot be handled. The Rularuu are much tougher than most content, but can be dealt with by a change of tactics.

In another thread, this was one of my suggestions for a 6th IO for a hypothetical (Superior) Taunt set, similar to the Contagious Confusion proc in the Superior Confuse. It might not be as useful for the AoE Taunts, but the philosophy of such a hypothetical set (with 5 other non-proc pieces) wouldn't be radically different than many other ATO/Purple sets.

Before we ask that single-target taunts be altered, how about we get a Purple (or PVP) IO set for taunts?

I actually played a little with more slots in Mind Link when leveling up, but I didn't see any benefit. I'll be honest: Aside from the Global recharge and whatever other Defense boost you prefer (pure Def, Def/Rech, or Def/End) from a second element of the LotG set, aside from high HP ATs, I don't see that much benefit from the 3+ slots of the LotG set. I think mathematically you can eek out a little more Recharge using 4 slots before Enhancement Diversification cuts in, but my in-game experience showed Recharge (on Mind Link) was boosted by only a second or two. I simply didn't find that to be worth a slot... especially not on the Widow that already had Mind Link perma and positional defenses past/near the soft-cap without Mind Link. In the build I shared, you can see I have some odd choices in procs, and (weirdly, IMO) 2-slots used in a travel power to get some extra positional defense from Blessing of the Zephyr. I'm not going to fault anyone else for their slot choices, but make sure that you are getting what you want from those choices. Respecs and unslotters are plentiful.

I feel like there is a parallel meme that involves causing a team wipe because of chatting (to the team or to a channel).

This was the deciding factor for me to switch to the sgpasscode. Besides the fact that I switch between builds (which resets all power timers) I have the following personal flaws: I am constantly forgetting to do things in the base before I leave (empowerment buffs, sell extra enhancements/recipes, dump salvage), I often accidentally click on the base portal (immediately upon entering), sending me back to where I started from, My toons get pushed around by walking civilians while trying to TP to base!

Robots/Traps Mastermind. You may not level as quickly (on your own) as with other toons, but such a build can run in farms. Traps has a lot of options to keep enemies in place, each of the bots (and assorted primary/pool powers) can be slotted for Knockdown to keep farm critters where you want them for AoE attacks (from the pets). Warning: this will be any extremely noisy farming experience, and it is one that you can't run on auto-pilot.

For reference, here is my build. This is one-half of a build that includes a Fortunata, so I (mostly) avoided duplication of attack powers with that build. I had an alternate build which tried to improve S/L defenses, but with the variety of enemies I face I just didn't see it as a good investment. Particularly I found the Fighting pool to be a bad investment. I didn't need Weave, and the Toughness was an extra toggle that didn't do enough for most content. This toon will go down to some single-shot AVs (ehem, Lord Recluse) but I didn't want to gimp performance against all the other game content. The primary thing I don't like about the choices in this build are the three extra slots in Health and Stamina, even if they do harmonize with Unrelenting. I don't mind burning Endurance (and HP) during fights, but I prefer to move quickly between targets/groups. This is a perma-Mind Link build, FWIW.

There are still a few elements of your build that I don't understand. I'm open to read your explanations. Why 6-slot (in Unrelenting) with 5 Numina + 1 Preventative Medicine when you can just 6-slot PM for more endurance a global recharge? You can put one of the other procs you want in the Health slot. Why so many slots in Mind Link? I grok that experience varies, but outside of teaming/Lore pets I really only use Mind Link as the mitigation against Defense Debuffs. My experience is that it simply isn't worth chasing for Perma-status. A far better use for the slots would be IMO to 6-slot Mask Presence with Reactive Defenses. You want the Scaling Damage Resistance anyway, so why not get the Endurance discount and +Recharge as well? Mask Presence is the toggle that gives you the bonuses to positional defenses, 6-slotting with Reactive Defenses is almost 12% to all positional attacks. I also feel like you may have put too many slots in Tactical Training: Leadership. Are you planning on PVP where the extra perception and ToHit are going to offer some help? TT: Leadership has always been a single-slot power for me (%BuildUp or IO-Endurance, depending on the level of the build). Full disclosure: I don't take this power on my Widow build. On my builds, I find that 2-slots for Tactical Training: Maneuvers are all I need (LotG: Def/Global Recharge and Def/End). I experimented with a 3rd slot (alternating between a Def IO and a LotG: Defense) but I didn't find it made a significant difference in terms of play. (FWIW: I play my Fortunata with a lot of controls, so extra defense is less useful when enemies aren't attacking. My Widow has fewer control powers but still only has it 2-slotted) Sorcery: Mystic Flight is probably not getting much from the Fly IO. I've been replacing Fly IOs with one of the Universal Travel sets (Knockback Protection or Slow Resist). Likewise slotting a Fly IO in Mental Training may not really be helping as much as you think. I put a Run IO there. Do you need Hasten? My Widow build is rough on Endurance, I can only imagine that it would be worse with Hasten. Even so, it looks like maybe you are trying for a Perma-Hasten? I have never taken Elude. Can anyone speak to it's value? Why two slots in Combat Jumping? The two Defense IOs seem like overkill. I also usually take the power at lvl 49, but only as a mule for the 5th LotG Global Recharge. I only ever toggle it on if I'm facing potential Defense debuffs, or significantly higher level enemies. Some comments on Presence: Pacify. First, it won't put you in Hidden like Placate will. That being written, I have found it very useful at lower level content (or when soloing EB/AV) when you need an emergency break from a one-on-one combat. You must take either it or Provoke to get access to Unrelenting, so mileage varies depending if you want this as a 'breather' power or if you want the Presence: Provoke as an AoE taunt rather then the primary single-target Confront. Either choice is valid IMO; but they serve very different purposes and play styles. I played with both on my Widow build and settled with a single-slotted Provoke with the Perfect Zinger: %Psi because I wasn't using either very much and I was more often trying to pull aggro from Controllers/Dominators that got in over their heads than anything else. A pure Taunt IO would help more in that circumstance, but honestly I just wanted to add a trivial amount of AoE damage to the build.

I can make some of the easier suggestions. With 125 million inf, you should consider marketeering in the AH to increase your wallet. Widows/Fortunatas have a lot of options to play with, I find myself burning Inf just to test out different choices. Tactical Training: Leadership doesn't need more than the single slot. I keep Gaussian's Synch: Chance for Build-Up there. You may find that until you have your Endurance under control that you are using it all the time. Once you have accolades, etc. You probably don't need more than a single slot in Health, using the Panacea Proc. If your Endurance is an issue while leveling, consider one of the other procs as a second slot, but you will be able to respec out of it later. It looks like your build was to start with the Teleport pool. I don't like to criticize the choice of travel powers chosen by other players, but that particular pool doesn't offer much for most builds: I suppose Recall Friend may help on some stealth-to-end missions, but that power could just be taken instead of Teleport. The Sorcery pool's Mystic Flight combines a low-Endurance Flying with a Teleport option. Just a note: I usually take some form of Flight, and with the cap to flight speed in place I usually simply slot Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Protection in whatever flight power (at low levels for Positron TFs, at higher levels there are a few EBs/AVs that have significant knockback as well.) Don't put more than 3-slots in Mind Link, even if you don't have the optimal IOs (LotG Def/Global Recharge, LotG Def/Recharge, Adjusted Targetting Recharge). You cannot eek out much more +Recharge in it via its slots, and whatever extra bonuses you you can get for ToHit and Defense will mostly be for your teammates. The Kismet: Acc (+6% ToHit) should be in Combat Training: Defensive (an Auto Power). I usually have that power 3-slotted adding the PVP Shield Wall global resistance and one of the five allowed LotG Global Recharges. As for choosing which sets to use, I recommend using the market to sell/convert into catalyzed versions and then use them in powers such that you don't lose bonuses when playing lower-level content. Even if you are strictly leveling up, the low-level content offers plenty of merits and inf which you can use.

The utility of slow movement on bosses/EBs/AVs is one more reason why I detest the forced secondary Traps T1 (Web Grenade) over the T2 (Caltrops). There is simply too much utility to be had from a placed AoE -Movement as opposed to the (weak) single-target Immob which requires a ToHit check. I've read the folks who try to defend Web Grenade as a -Fly, but the circumstances where that ST attack is actually valuable are so very rare. The few times when I find myself actually wanting to -Fly an enemy are Spectrals in the giant cavern rooms with small ledges present in Orenbega maps...and those villains will apply their -Perception *anyway*, so just waiting with some Caltrops out is more useful to catch them upon their return.

I want to disagree with the OP suggestion that the pool powers don't offer players the option to vary their build. Naturally enough if you feel boxed into selecting the same 4 or 5 pool powers for MaxStats I can understand, but that's a decision made by the player. I would appreciate opening up all the pools such that I could pick the 4th and 5th powers as 2nd and 3rd choices, just because I think there is a lot of flavor there which doesn't get explored. Honestly, the first thing to 'fix' with power pools is the Teleport powers; the best of them are niche and the worst are useless.

I'd reconsider the choice of Numina on Aid Self; I get more mileage from the Absorb proc in the Preventative Maintenance set. For self healing (or just a damage boost) I go for Unrelenting in the Presence pool. It's a great fit for Widows/Fortunatas. The only drawback is having to take the single-target fear to get to it.

I use both Ouroboros and the passcode exploit.. after resisting for a while, but it is simply too convenient because of the lack of recharge. Ouroboros to Independence Port is probably the one I find most convenient, even if it isn't too far from the SG base drop off. Positron 1 was mentioned as being more convenient for Ouro, but it isn't the only TF or arc. The ones that immediately come to mind are the Indigo/Crimson arcs where you have to check in with Crimson after every other mission. The talkie mission in Citadel is a bit of a toss-up (between Ouro and SG), as the fastest way to get to the contact is to port into Atlas Park and hustle to Steel Canyon. On the red side, if I am not confusing this with the SG drop off, the Ouroboros drop off in Grandville is inside the main hall, which is convenient for several missions.

I think you are wasting slots in Mind Link, especially with Mental Training in the build. See the PSA thread. I didn't delve deep into the Global Recharges, but my Widow has Mind Link perma without taking Hasten and only using 3 slots.