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I used to feel the same until: I saw the umpteenth request to ask for MM level controls on "all pets" I saw the umpteenth discussion on "combat levels" (but I can't recall if that discussion was about Incarnate content or not) I played enough content to understand the difference between the different types of pets, and how the powers work and how they behave. On the second point, there are Lore pets, Crabber pets, Controller pets, Epic pets, and "pseudo pets". Of those, the only two that are remotely similar IMO are the Crab (spider) summons and the Epic pets, and even that is a stretch because of the intense amount of effort it takes to be able to resummon an Epic pet when the first summons would expire (of not defeated).. and there is only one of those, so it isn't like a player familiar only with Controllers would know the subtleties of the 3-or-2-at-a-time Spiders, especially if recharge was lagging.

As was (indirectly) mentioned by multiple folks in this thread, Hasten is in a different power pool than Vengeance... so folks may not want to give up the Leadership pool for a single choice from the Speed pool. I suppose this is obvious, but here goes: Vengeance is a perfectly adequate mule for LotG (or Shield Wall, or Karma, or Preventive Maintenance, etc.) This choice shouldn't be that mind-boggling. The "70% sooner" isn't quite right, given the diminishing returns of (not ED, but) how much time gets shaved off of certain powers, especially if the build is going to have Global +Recharge bonuses from enhancements. I'm not saying it would be nothing, more that for many powers the difference in recharge times (at least for my builds) is on the order of the animation time (or shorter).

Don't get discouraged by Tanker early level Tanker play. The early level content is highly tilted towards defeat enemies (quickly) rather than 'surviving' them, so there isn't as much need to focus on the Tanker primary powers... also, early toggles and auto powers don't do that much (generally speaking) at low levels. There are some relatively inexpensive temporary attacks available at the S.T.A.R.T. vendor to help with solo play (especially at low levels). Also: running toggles (especially Resistance) at low levels is not that necessary, and even if teamed it is guaranteed that a toggle (again, especially Resistance) is helping to survive whatever damage (type) being thrown at you. The philosophy of 'defeat quickly' never really changes across level ranges, but once your tanker gets an AoE attack, enemy defeats will start to happen quicker, even at 0x1.

Having played both Street Justice and Dual Blades, I think Street Justice will channel the feels better. I like each of Ninjitsu, Willpower and Super Reflexes on Scrappers.... in that order. Ninjitsu edges out Willpower for me because it is less 'set-and-forget' (in a good way). I actually don't like Energy Aura on Scrappers. It isn't terrible, but I find that (my EA Scrappers) can too easily end up in over their head. For my play style(s) and build choice(s) I find Energy Aura works better for Tankers/Brutes (more HP) and Sentinels (who start combat from range and then close the gap to enemies).

It depends on the timeline, natch.

This is a big reason why I consider Hasten (on top of +Recharge from set bonuses) to be something of a (wishy) wash. In my experience, not character is that worse off with less Global Recharge, except Dominators in the perma-Domination regime. I realize that not every player goes out of their way to kit all their characters with Purple sets, but it really doesn't take that much effort. See also @Jacke point about how minimal (Recharge) slotting of Hasten can work against a player exemplaring down because of Enhancement scaling. The game does have a peculiar number of "capstone" powers with weirdly long recharge times.... especially considering the timers on Incarnate powers... so I grok why folks with an eye on certain ATs higher tier powers or Epic pools would crave more global recharge.

You misunderstand my first post. The game takes some time (both inherently, and because of server-client) to establish that the henchmen (not pets) are within range to 'qualify' for the sorts of things I mentioned.... even if they are otherwise 'in range'. I mention this because even if certain things about 'leashing' were changed, there would still be subtle annoyances such that I wouldn't notice a change in 'quality of life' for MMs. If you don't notice these things now, you certainly would begin to notice them under a different 'leashing' routine. Follow mode also has some subtle defects. It is not at all uncommon, when traveling distances to get the henchmen 'stuck' (often a hench will simply stand in place, this is not a geometry problem like a CoT tiki torch) and one of teh few ways to get them unstuck is to teleport them (to the MM).

There appears to be quite a lot going on "under the hood" with masterminds and (distance from) their henchmen, including how long before the henchmen will benefit from (whatever) auras come from the MM (including those from enhancement pieces) and when henchmen in bodyguard mode will "share" damage meant for the MM. I often surprised that the henchmen work as well as they do.

Some pieces that are (sometimes) called "procs" are better considered to be "one-piece set bonuses" because there isn't anything random about the bonus they yield Some examples include Luck of the Gambler, Panacea +HP/+Endurance. There are others. These provide the 'set bonus' down to whatever level the enhancement set would provide the bonus. This is reason enhancements are typically attuned... some pieces are the same at their lowest level, others have some element that improves with level. Some pieces need to be in a power that is always on (i.e. 'auto') or have long durations (e.g. 2 minutes on the Kismet +6% ToHit)... so the power has to be used to start the duration. These types of pieces (including the Power Transfer %Heal) won't provide the proc benefit id the power they are in is not used. Preventive Maintenance is a special case; it *is* random to trigger once the HP threshold is met, but it doesn't need to be in a power that has been used (or available, if exemplaring down.) Before I answer the question(s) I quoted, be aware of what people mean by 'franken-slotting". I use the term to indicate that I am mixing enhancement pieces from different sets (or no set, like a classic IO or HO) and sacrificing some possible set bonuses (by not using same-set enhancements). I typically only add procs to attacks; I focus on procs that can add damage ("%damage" procs) because my general attitude is that more damage, even applied at random, is "gravy", whereas other non-damage effects are something I would otherwise build for... because "when I want ____, I want ____." When not chasing set bonuses, I almost always decide to franken-slot lower-damage AoE attacks, provided they have a base recharge time of 15+ seconds. High damage ones may get a %damage piece as part of a set, but generally those powers will do more damage by simply enhancing damage... and the damage won't be random. I prefer AoEs over single target attacks because ultimately I am facing large spawns, and the random %damage against multiple enemies will, over time and on average, reduce the total number of attacks I have to make to clear an entire spawn. The only exceptions I sometimes make for single-target attacks to get an extra %damage piece (or more): Epic Snipes, their base attributes are %damage-friendly. T1/T2 attacks from low-DPS ATs, because they need help to clear spawns solo. For example: Infrigidate is a good power to %damage *if* the character won't also have other damaging attacks to use. The most popular non-%damage proc in my builds is probably %BuildUp from the Gaussian's set. I almost exclusively use it in "Aim" or "Build Up" powers. It works well in a leadership toggle if a character is surrounded by teammates/pets/henchmen, but across ATs the only ones that I think are a good candidate for this use are Crabberminds (and possibly other VEATs). My reasoning is this: getting rando %BuildUps on ATs with inherently low damage (like Masterminds) is like earning interest on a very small principal amount. I recommend consulting City of Data v2.0 for the base damage and recharge times to help decide which powers, if any, might benefit from some random extra damage versus which ones should simply be enhanced (and be used to possibly claim some set bonuses).

Years ago (in the HC era) I came to view Hasten (and the inevitable pursuit of perma-Hasten) as a character design trap. I know not everyone sees it this way, but initially (on HC), I saw that it was possible (yay easy to acquire enhancement set pieces!) and straightforward... I remembered the long recharge times of some attacks (and other powers) on Live, so: Why wouldn't everybody go for perma-Hasten? Here are some things that contributed to me changing my mind, such that I now very rarely ever take Hasten. I find the Speed pool to be underwhelming. Super Speed is my second-to-least favorite travel power. I don't need/want anything else the set offers... so taking Hasten was minimally burning one of four pool choices and possibly forcing me into a travel power that I can make work but don't like. I can get respectable global recharge from slotting set enhancements (including the LotG pieces) that are easy to acquire and make the powers they are slotted in better (i.e. Purple Very Rares) I have taken (accurate!) criticism that I "chase Global Recharge, why not just take Hasten", but then the criticism is followed with "How to get perma-Hasten"... so irony-poisoning sets it. I often have another power that I want on auto (more than Hasten). I know how to juggle auto powers, but I find it to be clumsy. I don't like relying on a proc for "perma" anything; sorry Force Feedback %+Recharge. I certainly can build for perma-Hasten without it, but with some of the positive press this piece gets, you might come to believe it single-handedly is granting auto-wins on all content. This is a precious slot that could almost certainly be better used (in whatever power it is placed in, or elsewhere) Finally, I'll be somewhat judgemental. I think it is crazy to take Hasten at level 4, and it is probably a bad idea to take it before level 18. I recognize that there are some ATs with primary/secondaries that might have four powers from both the T1 and T2 choices where only two are needed... but the way I see it, taking Hasten as the third power pick pretty much tells me that they player is not really focused on low (for arbitrary values of "low") level content, and might be the kind of player teammates will be waiting for as they magic carpet around the zone. Who knows what other oddball compromises will be in that build? This is not a criticism of builds that explicitly are only going to play level 45+ content... but I can't recall ever seeing a build with Hasten at level 4 that was advertised as such.

I don't think 'flipping' (i.e. buy an exact item at a low price, sell the exact same item at a high price) can be considered to cause inflation (on HC) most items are fungible, so even other items on the market can "become" that one item there is always a source of more items for the market (without considering fungible and convertible nature of the market goods) If the market niche is small, it might be possible to set/semi-control a narrow window between buy/sell prices, but the vig is working against this.

Morality and Alignment missions are mostly in the zone you "start" them in, so let those be your stand-in for radios. The devs probably won't implement level-appropriate radio missions because of how the Safeguard/Mayhem contacts work, also cutting down on PLing in starter zones (which don't have radio/newspaper options now). I have thoughts on the subject of this wall of text: The only part of open-world Giant Monster hunting that annoys me are the players (solo, multi-box, team, league) that don't "clean up" to reset certain events. I understand the excitement of taking down a Giant Monster (or two, or three) but that excitement was only possible because someone reset the previous event. I solo hunt Giant Monsters frequently and regularly. I also join and form teams to do so... but there is no propriety on the open world. The primary reason I solo them is because on average it takes me shorter amounts of time to find, defeat, and clean up than it takes to form a team (or league, or whatever). The non-summonable monsters will be back in 1/2/4 hours with necessary 'reset' conditions met. Over the years I've developed a very good sense of how long it takes me to solo each zone event Giant Monster with and without using Lores, except for the Rikti Dropship! I mention this only because I have gotten grief from some players when I'm on minute six of defeating a Giant Monster that has been in the zone for hours... so I am not unaware of how some players view monster rewards. Another reason I mention this: I am 100% serious that the team of level 50s doesn't need four sets of Banished Pantheon Lore summons to defeat Adamastor. Players are generally less interested in (zone event) Giant Monster rewards when there is another source of easy rewards... so spring fling, Mapserver, Trick-or-Treat, etc. Even the usual hourly Adamastor Multi-Boxers seems to have slowed down on some servers.

Specific to this question: Tanker AoEs have (now) been increased (in most attacks) so that it no longer takes Tankers an order of magnitude longer to clear up typical spawns (that are mostly minions) than other ATs. Prior to this Homecoming change, I had Controllers that could clear maps faster than Tankers, entirely because of the AoEs available to Controllers. Incarnates don't really enter the equation IMO, except for Destiny, because it can be used to cover whatever a single tanker may be "missing". In the build I posted above, that build uses Wall of Force to "close the gap" with other Primary/Secondary Tankers in terms of AoE clearing of scrubs... at least with those that don't also use the Force of Will pool. I like Wall of Force because it is available so early... and because Invulnerability can (IMO, YMMV) delay one (or more) of the resistance toggles it is easy to have that attack ASAP. The only pool power I like as much as Wall of Force for Tankers that can be taken earlier is Combat Teleport.

My original character on Day 0 Live was an Invulnerability/Energy Melee Tanker. On Live, this was neither a favorable Primary nor Secondary. The Primary fell behind the "no risk XP" of Fire, and "rooted". The Secondary stun effects were problematic because of critter AI/movement. Things got better (ehem, Unyielding), up until the Stuns from EM were seen as being lopsided in PVP, and then that era's EM rework kinda ruined the single-target focus of the secondary. Jump to now, on Homecoming: This is an awesome combo (current EM isn't quite what I wanted, but it is perfectly fine... I think it was a minority of folks that liked the ST Stun, and I feel that not having it was sort of a backwards look at PVP balance) and the primary doesn't even really have the "Psi Hole" that used to fret a lot of players of old. Invulnerability is pretty easy to slot to increasing levels of awesome... I find it to be so easy that when I'm casually making a build with an armor that I don't particularly want to see graphics I have to go out of my way to make a different choice. Other choices do exist, but I find a cookie-cutter Invulnerability build to be something easy to work with for 95% of the game's content. Energy Melee... as noted by others... doesn't have an impressive set of PBAoE (especially with Invulnerability as the primary) to leverage improved radius for %damage slotting. This has the effect of Invuln/EM tankers falling behind other Tanker combos for the measure of "cleaning up scrubs". I think this is pretty close to my current "general purpose" build for post-page 5. I have a second build with some slight tweaks for "harder" content, but this build was used to face-tank Lord Recluse on a successful Master of Ms. Liberty run.

100x this: I kinda wish more folks would think about (and if necessary, be more explicit) divergent styles of play/content whenever an argument about X being "moar betta" than Y. I've seen enough in-game variety to know that no build "solves" 100% of the game. Anyone who thinks so is probably only 100% playing of what they have "solved"... there will always be corners of game content where a different build would handle those corners better. Many folks who may have reached excellence at 99% of the game will have a second, slightly different, build for some content.

Like @Frozen Burn I never view the multi-slot bonuses from LotG favorably. Occasionally, if a power is going to hold the Def/+Recharge piece and is a toggle and is going to hold three slots total, I will opt for Defense and Defense/Endurance Reduction... but otherwise I think the set bonuses from LotG are pretty much rubbish. I'm not even inclined to chase the potential extra Regeneration from 2-slots, although I think I have at least one Tanker build where a second slot is a 50+5 LotG Defense piece. I'll add this small bit of personal experience: Since I tend to have "mule" powers for LotG at the end of a build, I will try to experiment (via unslotters) pulling out a LotG to see if it has any meaningful impact on my play experience. If I can't see a difference between having it and not having it except on some spreadsheet I try to repurpose my choices. One example is in late choice travel powers (e.g. infiltration) where I can swap in the 20% Slow Resistance piece from Winter's Gift. I don't tend to use that many Winter sets in my builds so that source of Slow Resistance is often something that ends up improving Quality of Life/Play for the character. On that final point: There aren't that many global pieces in sets other than Defense that have convenient no-extra-slot power choices without having to a take prerequisite powers or get locked into a Patron/Epic/Origin pool. The Preventive Maintenance %Absorb is the only one that comes to mind other than the Universal Travel pieces and Defense pieces where it is easy to pick a single power from power pool and get whatever bonus.

[because falling in combat isn't the end of the world]

I feel like the old, end-of-Live, team knew what they wanted to do, and also what they were comfortable with. The last round of planned changes (Live) IMO thoroughly had the thumb on the scale for Blasters. Global recharge is definitely a big benefit for Blasters, *and* having an option for large Global Recharge somewhat mollifies concerns over something like AoE Controls (i.e. Controller "nukes") having ~4-minute base recharge times. Obviously there are many powers in the game with recharge timers with a base recharge of greater than 4 minutes. I recall a sort of constant undercurrent of discussion on Live relating to "Should Hasten be made inherent?"... I don't think it was as popular as "Should the Fighting pool be made inherent?"... but it always felt to me that some of the IO set pieces exist to (my words) paper over both those sorts of questions. Certain IOs provide some of what players likely want from those powers (e.g. Hasten, Tough, Weave) and while those sorts of singleton IOs exist (also, multi-piece set bonuses), it would be easy to say "Those powers won't be made inherent" without generating agita in a majority of players. As for "Why is it in a Defense set?" I can only guess. My guess is that among all the game mechanics, Defense is likely the attribute that a majority of players would seek out anyway, more toggles yields more (or layered) Defense, and that there are (as noted) a LOT of powers that provide some Defense. The only other basic game mechanic that is as uniformly available to all ATs are attacks, and those have a (better) Global Recharge bonus available through slotting Very Rare sets. Other game mechanics like Heals, Buffs, Debuffs, and even Resistance are rather limited in choice compared to Defense options (across all ATs, whatever primary/secondary).

After I've spent almost all my slots enhancing the values of powers from my Primary, Secondary, and any critical pool powers (for my playstyle), I typically don't have any slots to dedicate to several powers. As a result, I almost always look for 'pool powers' that can hold a single enhancement piece and offer me some sort of 'global' benefit. The Luck of the Gambler +Recharge (which scales down to level 22, if attuned) is a very useful piece, but is isn't the only one.... but the other straightforward options for one-slot-wonders include things like KB protection (travel powers, defense powers, resistance powers), global defense boosts (resistance powers), scaling damage resistance (defense powers), global resistance (defense powers), etc. If you look at enough builds, you'll see those also used... so this may not help any feelings of iconoclastic depression. Once one of my builds has more than one power with a recharge time base of 2min+, you had better believe that more global recharge is valuable to me!

I believe those are simply vanity pets; they will have no effect on gameplay.

There are PVP sets for Resist and Defense, but I hear you.

That was the ask. The ask is specifically not about Knockback, because enhancing Knockback is enhancing magnitude and not duration. As I wrote above, the game already has a sort of piece, but they only exist as HO/DS and are limited to Accuracy/Mezz and Damage/Mezz, and offer no set bonuses. There are other combinations of useful Enhancements (in a single piece) that either don't exist (for some sets) or are few-in-number (for some sets), like Endurance Reduction/Recharge, which is a combination from the two existing "Universal Damage" sets.

Not true, For example: Hold sets cannot be slotted into Immobilize powers. The only pieces that increase control effect (edit: duration) that can go into each are some ATO (but primary/secondary only AFAIK) and HO/Sync pieces like Endoplasm and Peroxisome. Don't be hung up on the "Damage", it is the Mezz/Control part that I'd like a Universal set for.