tidge

I'll take you at your word that it is a net loss of 100 damage (some off-brand, some not) over some period of time... but my thinking is: Pulverize is a single-target attack. The extra damage would be most noticeable on something like a pylon test or an AV/GM, but less so on large spawns.

I don't want to write something that you don't want to read, but how about getting 5-slot bonus from Hecatomb in Pulverize? I'd drop the Lethal/Smashing %damage pieces. (note: I didn't check the whole build if you already have 5 +15% Accuracy and +10% Global Recharge bonuses.) Level 14: Pulverize A: Hecatomb: Damage 15: Hecatomb: Damage/Endurance 15: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative) 17: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative) 17: Mako's Bite: Chance of Damage(Lethal) 23: Gladiator's Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage

I don't MIDS, so what follows is my preference with no point of comparison: I rely somewhat on Placate to deal best damage with Mace. I didn't have 6 slots for it, but I did choose to 3x Mocking Beratement (Accuracy/Recharge, Threat/Recharge, Threat/Range). Recharge, Accuracy and Range were all somewhat important... Range felt odd at first, but I found I needed it to be able to close gaps against enemies for melee. I 2-slotted Surveillance with 50+5 Analyze Weakness (Accuracy/Recharge, Accuracy/Endurance Reduction/Recharge). I don't think this is worthwhile to %proc, especially since it requires a ToHit check, but I see what you are trying to do. Mace attacks feel a little slow (to me) to leverage the 10sec duration of the proc, MMV. I never put that many slots in Weave (or any level 47+ power pick). This is where I would steal slots from to make minor changes. If the ToHits aren't satisfactory against +3, Combat Training: Defensive is where I put the Kismet +ToHit piece.

Have you considered using Power pool choice for one of the archer classes? If you really want Dark Armor, there is a Sentinel and you could take Infiltration as early as level 4 (if you don't want to wait until level 20 for Cloak of Darkness)

I have fun Crab builds, but none that I think are superior to the Banes. As noted by @Maelwys they can be tough, but (my opinion follows) it puts a LOT of effort into clearing a room of rank-boosted critters (across all levels) compared to other DPS classes. They bring excellent team support for what they can do with their (AoE) attacks. I would encourage folks with existing Crabs to spend some time/inf to make the second or third build a Crabber-Mind... It is a very different sort of pet class (certainly from MMs, but also from Controllers), and so I think it can be eye-opening about the different way pets (not henchmen) work that I don't think is entirely obvious to folks only familiar with Controller pets. In order of how much fun I have playing the Soldiers: #1 Huntsbane #2 Crabbermind #3 Crab minus pets #3 is where it is because eventually I got sick of the crab legs on the costume... otherwise it isn't not fun.

IIRC, Shards can only be used to directly craft the alpha slot components. I typically use them for Alpha T1, T3 and T4 via 4:1 commons. I skip T2 because of the extra cost in shards to upgrade to an uncommon piece.

Re: Zone maps. The most confusing thing for me about Paragon City map layouts is the water table. I really don't mind the "War Walls" choice. My least favorite 'classic' zone is probably Skyway City. I don't find it particularly easy to navigate for any travel option (doors, trams, gates) although some have it easier than others. Odd level choices and lots of things to have to navigate around. Terra Volta would be worse, but there is almost no reason to be there. I feel like the Live team learned a hard lesson with the Hollows. The Rogue Isles maps don't bother me... except a little for the highly vertical Grandville. It is obvious that was a choice, but I do find it odd how BIG the zone's footprint is given that choice.

I wouldn't read too much into the default settings, as they always seemed to me to be a quasi random assignment of what is enabled/disabled by default. Those feel a lot like "someone wanted it that way" and we can come up with rationalizations for whatever default settings. The inverted mouse? I always use the "inverted" mode, it is my preference from other games of the original CoH generation.

I thought Spider-Man was a Crabbermind?

I'm guessing that aside from random objective placement and that first map (I feel like my solo times vary +-90 seconds due to these) the biggest effect will be how/if enemies scatter once engaged. I find the Knives of Vengeance to be the worst, both due to flight and their durability/RNG versus AoE. Even the Tsoo (with teleportation, flight and kin) don't grief me as much as those angry ladies! The second (office) map also has opportunities for them to run/hide as well as trick a player into aggroing a group that isn't required to engage with.

Why give an extra badge just for the sake of already getting other badges? This sounds like a "can I get two badges for the price of one?"... I know there ARE badges like this, but why this in this instance? AFAIK there are extra/different badges to be had by completing both original Positron, as well as Posi 1 and Posi 2, and the Sister Psyche TF and/or Penny Yin. This is ignoring the contribution of those older arcs towards Ouroboros badges upon completion. I kinda see what the idea is behind "Above and Beyond", but it feels more like that would be a more appropriate add-on for completing ALL of the blue side TFs (Hollows, Croatoa, Respecs, whatever) rather than just being tied to TF Commander. I don't think this isn't a terrible/evil suggestion, but it just feels like "one more badge please".

I can't really disagree with the above take re: the Ninjitsu T9 Kuj-In Retsu. It is one of the better armor T9s IMO, but it still occupies a similar sort of space in my own head(*1) as those older variants... by the time I *can* take this power, and fit it into a build, the build is likely to be in a really good place for 95% of the content I'm going to play. Even so, it fills a niche that I'd be considering something like Unleash Potential so I lean towards "no skip" on this one. On my own DB/Ninitsu Scrapper, I only took two power picks outside of my primary/secondary up to level 30 (Combat Teleport, and a Travel power) and Kuj-In Restu wasn't the level 30 pick, or the level 32 pick (Maneuvers), or the level 35 pick (an Epic pool pick)... so I didn't even add it to the build until level 38. With a really finely tuned set of attacks (which I suppose would allow me to skip at least one primary attack) I could have it earlier. I ended up using it as a mule for the Winter's Gift Slow Resist piece, so it isn't as if I'm even trying to have it available ASAP. (*1) The T9 armor picks are IMO generally inferior to just using inspirations... for most of the sets I think *I* would rather just have a self-rez as the T9, as those powers generally require a deep investment in a power set and I'm probably more likely to want a self-rez than an emergency clicky. Mileage varies.

Never suggest a new set and NOT include a ---/Endurance Reduction piece! (Preferably Accuracy/Endurance Reduction)

That's the one! Thanks!

Help a player out: What is the name / command to resize the vendor window. I have trouble reading the size of the (level) numbers on recipes. Everything else is ok, it is pretty much that window that causes most of the eye strain for me.

I don't think I've yet chimed in with this (in this thread): I kinda hate what the Live Devs did to Praetoria. I am naturally averse to content that isn't "evergreen"... I can tolerate some little bits of Lore being odd if content is done "out of (level) order", but aside from Praetoria (including Incarnate content) and the Signature Story Arcs... the content I enjoy involves the PC's story and not the PC only mentioned like some sir-only-appearing-in-the-appendices-of-LotR. I mean... how many times can Statesman die or Praetoria be annihilated before it looks like "why bother?" First Ward was IMO a triumph of evergreen story-telling... because after finishing the arcs I can almost believe that everything is put back in place for the next character to experience the exact same content. Watching Hamidon eat Praetoria makes it a little harder to be motivated to suppress the protestors, if ya smell what I'm cooking. That being said... I don't know why we couldn't have Praetorian content 35-50. Devouring Earth certainly exist at these levels, and Clockwork/IDF/Seers/Vanguard all exist at 40+. It would be I think somewhat cool to have a Gold mission arc that parallels (some of) the Tina MacIntyre arc: Capture Positron, destroy/steal dimensional macguffins, subdue a population for Praetor Berry... whatever.

Having Hasten at level 49 (or at any level 41+) seems a LOT like not having Hasten. The "end result" of this suggestion is pretty much my build, but with Hasten and fewer set bonuses. My ideal choice to take Hasten is either just before or just after the first power that has a base recharge time of greater than 90 seconds... obviously this thinking is slightly complicated for Dominators because of Domination being available at level 1! I get it. You want Hasten, no matter what. I have Dominators with Hasten, even if they already have 'enough' global recharge from set bonuses. But even then, it really isn't necessary to have perma-Hasten via two 50+5 slots (in my experience), that's just one more thing to chase. It would be (by my crude math) about 12 seconds off the AoE Hold and 17 seconds off Link Minds... not insignificant, but ultimately not earth shattering for me. I suppose if I was the only control on a team and it was my controls that were going to make-or-break the encounter... those 12 seconds might make a difference. +20 seconds on Domination... that is more impressive, but it is basically a wash (considering endurance burn/refill is the only difference, AFAIK everything else is 'replace existing effect') unless some radical slows come into play.... and all this is with my build that already has +136% global recharge from set bonuses. I haven't forgotten that the argument was predicated (on some level) to "take Hasten instead of chasing set bonuses"... so dropping even more recharge set bonuses and/or compromising on control duration... for (at best IMO, more) defense... I don't think the argument in favor of one choice over the other is as crystal clear.

Think of it this way: I came for the control aspect of the Dominator, not the ability to drop %damage in the hold. 5- or 6-slotting the AoE Hold with a hold set it is NOT resulting in the AoE hold being available less frequently.

Do you mean "cut scene"-like dialogue? I think so.

I'm struggling to think of any specific suggestion from the forum that was implemented... I want to say that there was at least one relatively minor quality-of-life addition that came from the forum bu I'm blanking on it ATM.... something like a minor interface or a vendor-purchased item? Did anybody actually suggest giving everyone "Athletic Run" (a good idea, but also a no-brainer)? I wouldn't count the revamps to power sets (e.g. fast Snipes, Energy Melee, Mastermind Primaries, two secondary choices at L1) as coming from the suggestions forum... even if some of those might have been tangentially suggested. Specific to the power sets... what we got was clearly somebody's idea, but I think (prior to the revisions) I saw many different suggestions that were at least as-balanced and in some cases would have been preferable to what we got. (I'm not trying to knock any specific update, just saying that some of these look like someone's idea that maybe wasn't shared with a wide group before the change was rolled out.)

I hear what you're saying, but a lot of time including Hasten (and chasing perma-Hasten), with or without Dominator context) feels to me more like become a goal, in and of itself, than it is to pickup a wider variety of powers slotted how I'd like. This is informed by my play experience: There aren't that many powers in any single build that would greatly benefit from 60% more global recharge above 136%. I'm not saying there are NONE, just that for a control+attack active chain, that much more recharge does relatively little. We can parse the effects of a few seconds faster recharge times on something like Link Minds or Unleash Potential, but these are, to me, marginal. Once we're trying to parse those sorts of powers, I question whether or not it would be necessary to also try for perma-Hasten... like I wrote, it often feels like *that* is the goal, and if so there are only so many places to make changes in sets... see below(*1)... I disagree about the 'more flexibility'. Yes the build I shared has mule powers, but they are piled into the last power picks... so shifting (or skipping) any of the power picks before level 30 to take Hasten makes the build less flexible IMO. If the goal is "different set bonuses"... aside from (positional) Defenses, I don't think there is that much more life-changing to "chase" beyond the Recharge/Accuracy/Recovery in the Purple sets. Slightly more range and resistances are a thing... but *I* haven't found them to be particularyy life-changing on squishies. As for moar %damage... there aren't that many reliable candidate powers in the build to try for %damage IMO. As I wrote above... I'm not interested in the AoE hold having some chances for %damage every 50 seconds or so when the build actually has an attack primary. (*1) In a final build, I think the one thing Hasten would allow (that would be valuable to me, YMMV) would be to add a handful of Winter sets... *if* I could six slot each of them... for Defensive reasons. As things stand now... almost no power in the build has all 6 slots, so that approach (which I considered!) was going to cause me to pull slots from somewhere, which IMO would have hurt the performance. For full disclosure, se (superior) Winter sets I'd be looking at are (likely a "pick any three" situation) Entomb, Frozen Blast, Winter's Bite, and possibly Avalanche. Some of those can go into sets with (currently) 'inferior' sets, but I'd still have to scratch up 6th slots for those.

I don't know that I'd turn down the difficulty (e.g. -1) because at some point many ATs will be causing knockback. Otherwise the idea is fine (if not using Ouroboros for non-multi-boxers). The real advantage I think would be in the second and third missions, because multiple objectives could be done (mostly) simultaneously. The second mission can have the necessary spawns (including the final) attacked in any order, and the third only requires one spawn to be defeated.

Even Diantane doesn't respond to EVERY post in one of their threads.

I feel like part of the trick is to put yourself in Rest, or some such.