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When this happens in the same book, I blame the editor (or "publisher's reader") as much as I blame the writer. I suppose I can absolve the editor/publisher and assign all of my annoyance to the author when the author is clearly just filling pages with slop. As an example, I'm reminded of Dan Brown's DaVinci Code which has the exact scene play out several consecutive chapters as the characters visit different sites (one immediately after the previous). This was clearly Dan Brown just "getting away with it." and it was the last book of his I read similar to Kevin J. Anderson (see above)... when the author breaks the illusion that they care about their craft for me, I don't have to waste any more of myself on their work.

Who has some good examples of this? The one that comes to mind for me is much of Kevin J. Anderson's Last Days of Krypton was recycled into one of his earlier Doon novels... I can't say which Doon book, maybe the Butlerian Jihad? I'm pretty sure I read their first Doon trilogy, but had been pretty disappointed, so when I encountered the recycling I pretty much dropped out. There is another slightly adjacent concept: Robert B. Parker's Poodle Springs (a "conclusion" to four chapters of an unfinished Philip Marlowe novel by Raymond Chandler) recycles (IIRC) one of the first four chapters for a later one, and (again, IIRC) recycles elements from other Chandler work for other later chapters. Chandler of course recycled certain themes and archetypes, and reworked his short stories into his novels, but the Parker effort felt criminal to me... at the very least he needed an editor, and if he had one I shudder to think what the first draft was like.

I don't disagree with the approach of maximizing RAM for PC purchases (laptop and desktop, although desktops are typically easier to service), but as for early obsolescence concerns I'd focus squarely on having a dedicated video card first and foremost(*1). Besides the focus on gaming, there are just a few of the activities I regularly encounter that leverage video resources more than they do RAM (YMMV, I'm only sharing my experiences): Video processing, editing, and playback Microsoft programs with a graphical component (like Excel, when plotting)... other companies software probably does this too, but Excel is the tool that hits me hardest Business systems that rely on a Web interface for display/navigation/functionality The last one is a real pisser when working for a company that went all-in on some web-based interface for a critical system, but the interface slows to a crawl for typical business machines. that lack dedicated graphics systems (see also CAD, but that isn't my realm). I wish businesses acted as if they were more aware that their bulk-purchase business laptops might not work so well with their new web-based software. (*1) I have a couple of laptops I use regularly of roughly similar age. the 8GB RAM + Video system outperforms the 16GB system in every way except in power consumption and portability. Having written all that... the price difference between 8GB and 16 GB of RAM shouldn't be a deal-breaker, the difference in price will likely come down to availability (especially for laptops and/or slightly older systems).

My biggest complaint about Rune of Protection is the animation/graphic; I'd like to have a "minimal FX" option for it. When the recharge could be enhanced it was definitely OP. My POV on the Sorcery pool is that it is a convenient pool to take to leverage for muling enhancement pieces that would otherwise have trouble getting into a build. As noted, it has a useful travel power (that can take several good pieces), a power that can mule Preventive Medicine's %Absorb, and RoP can mule several pieces (in addition to being an on-demand replacement for some Inspirations), including a pair that together can add +6% Defense. I'm lukewarm on the single-target blast; I have no complaints, it is more that I like it best on explicitly "magical" characters. On my 'tight' builds I usually don't have slots for the pool attacks

On my first Sentinel... I *hated* the shorter ranges. I suspect this was mostly due to my idea at the time that for blast sets "range = survivability"... and partially due to me forgetting that below level 15, there isn't that much difference between how the different ATs play. Once I got that Sentinel above level 20, I was pretty much unphased by the shorter ranges. Personally: I like playing in melee too much to make Sentinels a "first choice" for me. I do enjoy sentinels when I have a concept that wants to lean heavily into the blast primaries for all (or almost all) of my offense. I'd get more offense (obviously) if the Sentinel had something like Scrapper criticals, but that's an inherent I think every AT would like to have.

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The character-building economy has always had opportunity costs. I believe there are other servers that pretty much allow players to pick whatever powers they want. There have been changes over the years w.r.t. Power Pools, try to imagine how you might feel if Fitness wasn't inherent for example. There are IMO still power pools that ought to be tweaked, but the "origin" travel pools are not anywhere close. They were among the most recent ones to have been adjusted. The power pools that deserve a hard look involve the last of the original (mostly untouched) legacy pools, specifically those that have picks that are available at 4,4,14,14,14. Minimally, each of those also has two powers that require two previous picks, so I'd prefer if the available levels were more like 4,4,4,14,14 (with same pre-requisites) or 4,4,4,14,20 (with an upgrade to the final pick) like the origin pools. In no particular order, my hot takes on the pools that need tweaks: Flight: I'd make Evasive Maneuvers the level 20 (Group Fly would be 14) pick and make it an auto power. The pool has too many toggles, which is IMO motivated by the original devs fear that most everyone would only use Flight as their travel power. (which is why "flight control" isn't trivial to get) Leadership: Mostly fine, but if Victory Rush was made to be worth taking I'd probably be happier. Medicine: as with Flight's Evasive Maneuvers, I think Field Medic ought to be an Auto power, and it can be the level 20 pick. There was an original dev fear about "easy healing" that simply doesn't make sense in the game, certainly not now. Presence: This needs to be a 4,4,4,14,20 pool, and it should be possible to take only Intimidate before Invoke Panic. The powers Pacify / Provoke / Intimidate are "orthogonal" to each other in terms of designing how a character can play. It doesn't help that the Fear and Threat sets offer some of the worst choices in terms of available enhancement pieces.

If we are sharing macros, here is one I've added to my characters with Mystic Flight to mimic Combat Teleport: /macro_image "Archery_Aim" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Translocation$$powexec_toggleon Mystic_Flight" It requires a double-click if Mystic Flight is toggled off.

I have a different take on comparison of the Flight and Sorcery Pool: I think the Flight pool comes up short. The flight pool has 3, 4, or 5 powers that are toggles to use (Hover, Flight, Evasive Maneuvers, Afterburner, Group Fly) and they each (modulo Afterburner) have to be toggled off individually (unless triggering Walk)... and none are particularly fast to turn on. I find this to be a huge PITA, much more so than what Mystic Flight grants. The Mystic Flight's teleport can be used as a poor-man's Combat Teleport, among its many other potential uses.

I wouldn't criticize a new, returning player for flogging a dead horse, but I definitely think that there may be some lack of perspective from lack of familiarity (with all the other ATs). Sentinels really do have their own niche, so there has to be some tempering of expectations. Specific to Opportunity... it is probably the most reliable and effective debuff in the game available to players... but debuffs generally are not OP... they are most useful against specific targets in specific circumstances. Sentinels already got a rework for Opportunity, and it is IMO in a pretty good place. I have numerous Blasters (among other ATs) where the ranged attacks most definitely have different ranges. More than one of these (specifically with Archers/Trick Arrow users) have involved me specifically slotting certain attacks for Range, just to smooth out the differences. [BTW, global range boosts increase the range differences between attacks, even as they raise the minimum range of all attacks] This might be less noticed because Blasters get extra attacks in their secondaries that Sentinels typically don't get.

As was shared in another thread: the following option in the command line for the launcher has improved the CoX performance of the laptop I have without a dedicated craphics card. That laptop is a 2018-era Dell business model that travels a lot better than my gaming laptop (smaller, lighter, requires smaller power supply, etc). It's quite a game-changer for that machine, many thanks to @biostem for sharing. -usetexenvcombine

It would be ripe for explotation. It would be the same for fast-swapping builds without incarnates.

I freely admit: my own experiences have hopelessly biased my perceptions such that I can't predict what a really new player would do, with or without an infusion of Inf. Run the DfB and the character gets bonuses. at level 1, 1 hour of bonuses are 1 Kinf (3 different ones for 8 hours max). I've slow-rolled with-and-without these, or enhancements (other than what drops), etc. It all rolls together to me. There are only a few pieces I *want* at level 10 (global defense, KB protection, Panacea) otherwise I'm happy just slotting whatever until 17.

My /Energy Aura Sentinel is: 1 Kinetic Shield: Kismet +ToHit and 3x Shield Wall (one is the unique) 10 Energize: 6x Preventive Medicine 12 Power Shield: 2x Shield Wall 16 Entropy Shield: IO Endurance Reduction 20 Power Armor: 4x Unbreakable Guard 24 Repelling Force: 2x Defense IO 28 Kinetic Damping 1xSteadfast Protection (+Def) 2xGladiator's Armor (1 is the unique) 32 Power Drain: EndMod IO, but could be a Power Transfer %Heal 41 Overload: LotG I didn't use the Fighting pool (didn't need for mules or anything else) or Hasten (95% recharge from set bonuses), the only pool powers are from Flight (Fly, Hover, Evasive Maneuvers), a Combat Jumping pick (LotG) and Leadership (Maneuvers, Assault, Vengeance)

I'm thinking 30MInf should be plenty: If a new player spends all of that and ends up with no more Inf... then there are some lessons for them to be learned. My new characters start with 60 MInf, but usually have just under 30 leftover after kitting out with the START vendor. The more obvious lessons include low bids on enhancements that matter/don't expire (like level 25 or 30 IOs) and how to turn your drops into Inf. Another lesson is probably: there isn't that much return at low levels for slotting enhancements. Every once in a while I have a new character get enhancements "from scratch", just for lulz... but it is trivial for me to equip new characters from the SG base/merit hoard. I usually only buy stuff from the AH when there are oddball pieces I want.

As described by @Luminara above, the math (long ago) moved me away from trying to rely on many forms of -ToHit being applied to enemies as a survival strategy, at least outside of relatively lo-level solo-play... and certainly not on +4x8 content. Obviously this falls into the category of 'every little bit might help', but so often the -ToHit becomes unreliable... either because it didn't affect the enemy or because there are multiple enemies that it isn't affecting.

It is possible to drag commands from the pet window (Advanced or otherwise) to a command bar. Right click on the dragged icon to verify what its action is.

I have no doubt this could be done (many powers have an effect that occurs after some elapsed time), but.... If the absorb fades because of its own natural duration, the heal would do nothing. If the power was both an absorb shield AND a heal (for characters taking humongous amounts of damage), it would probably be OP.

I feel the same way about picking Wall of Force at level 14 for melee characters. The minimum 40' range is 5x that of melee attacks.

My personal take on Venomous Gas is: I never take it (for reasons explained ad nauseum in another thread)... but if I could toggle the Controller version on an ally, it would absolutely be OP enough that I'd always take it (eventually). It's because the VG toggle only works on otherwise fragile ATs with few PBAoE/melee option is the root cause of my avoidance of it. Briefly: The self-toggle VG is a power that looks good in theory, but like several other powers that look good on paper it doesn't contribute enough in my actual play experiences (measured by mission clear times, number of attacks that need to be made) to warrant the sorts of build choices and changes to play style to try to leverage it. I do think that there are corner cases where having VG might be better than not having it... but in my experiences these are rare enough that if I thought such a choice was the correct one (for that content) I would just have a second build that incorporates VG (and whatever other changes I'd have to incorporate for that content).

The "statement" is a "no duh, Sentinels have (essentially) Blaster primaries"...yet for me the "Ranged Scrapper" take is more true to my experience. Sentinels don't play like armored Blasters for me... and if I am being honest about my own initial perceptions, trying to play a Sentinel like an armored Blaster was a disappointing experience. "Sentinels are armored Blasters" is one take, but for me... Sentinels and Blasters play very differently. My Blasters tend to be Blappers, and because Blasters are much more fragile, they don't get played like the armored classes. As I wrote earlier... the main playstyle difference between Scrappers and Sentinels is that in fights, Sentinels have a LOT more targets of opportunity compared to Scrappers (because of the 8 ft melee range). Blappers have even more targets of opportunity than Sentinels (longer ranges) but my Blasters are trying to cycle AoE and spawn-wipe before they take too much damage... the armors of the Sentinels mean that they can be a lot more casual, and their poorer damage/AoE (compared to Blasters) makes them feel a lot more like Scrappers who happen to have range > 8 feet. The change to Vulnerability was IMO enough of a re-tinkering for Sentinels. There are a handful of individual powers in sets that I could support being revised, but (writing only for myself) I feel that because Homecoming has been nearly endlessly porting primary and secondary power sets between ATs that many of my perceptions in this spectrum have been dulled... Sentinels get rather ho-hum (less effective) Blaster primaries combined with secondaries that can be 'set and forget'... so I can see why people have different opinions about how to categorize them. EDIT: I suppose I should add this... There is an AT that (to my experience) plays like an "Armored Blaster", the Arachnos Soldier. We don't get much variety in the types of "blasts" with either of the paths obviously. For my feels, a Soldier that focuses on the melee is a lot like a Blaster doing similar from the secondary melee picks, but it is the ranged attacks on the Soldiers that get the job done.

This feels more like an observation that the Blaster primaries were ported to Sentinels instead of the Scrapper primaries.