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Thanks for the reply. I am aware that GMs can 'see' hidden players, and while I personally don't want to go around 'narc'-ing(*1), it can be very difficult (for a non-GM) to see the names of players in the open-world when players are hidden (from other players). I'm not particularly sensitive to griefing(*2), but I recognize there is a spectrum of behavior and acceptance. (*1) I have a short list of players who I often (but not always!) see skirting the multi-box rule... but those name are only in my notes because the player wasn't particularly creative about the account names *and* I happened to stroll across them frequently enough that I could "catch" the names with a mouse-click. (*2) for example, I've seen some teammates have a meltdown on something like triggering a spawn... it isn't my call to say if such a thing is griefing or not as beyond whatever circumstances there may be it is impossible to know the feels of all players.

I do often open with Sweeping Strike, but as noted... it takes a little bit of discipline. It somewhat depends which target I am actually opening against, enemy positions, etc. Some enemies just don't want to stand within 7' of each other! Overall... I am not a fan of the combo mechanics in any set. I *think* I understand what the power devs are trying for when they do this, but I'd rather be able to find synergies between attacks (and enjoy animations) without feeling shoe-horned into specific power picks or attack chains.

IIRC some fraction of the "bank robbers" appear in various Red side arcs, and IIRC some of them appear in morality/alignment missions (both sides). Think of (some of) them as being part of a temp agency roster for NPCs. FWIW, I always think it is hilarious to see Lord Recluse robbing a bank.

I *think* I trimmed out the fluff to get to the crunch. The Homecoming game itself already offers pretty "great rewards" for not much effort, *and* includes mechanisms to make the game harder without adding penalties for being defeated. "Harder" content does offer more rewards: sometimes it is as simple as more drops and more XP/Inf for xN content, sometimes it's a special type of enhancement, recipe or component or a unique power. This is me trying to say: The game is already very generous, why should it be even more generous for this specific type of play? Now, about the idea of players "getting worse" for getting rezzed... this strikes me as a sort of escalating feedback that would make the game a lot less fun. Bluntly: I remember what it was like on Live when there was essentially no ceiling to debt, and also what it was like to go through mission arcs with things like "Vahzilok Wasting Disease". One of the more enjoyable aspects of CoX (to me, anyway) is that defeat inspires can offer the chance to change strategic approach without also adding a debuff for trying the original strategy.

This seems like a reasonable ask. As would an instanced Hamidon raid. This scenario also feels adjacent to the whole "hidden player" status. I know that there are some players who legit simply don't want to have anyone know they are in the game. OTOH, there are also some players who leverage hidden status to skirt policies: griefing and multi-boxing (at certain times) are two that come to mind.

... and your point is lost to me. I explicitly described two different approaches to having perma-Dom: one for leveling up (relying on Hasten), and one that waits until a level 50 build (without relying on Hasten). Personally? I tend to level up without perma-Dom, but there is no judgement behind my approach... simply sharing. For more details about the thought process, leveling and testing of the Grav/Arsenal Dom... I have a recent thread about that.

I don't feel like I skimped on any aspects of this (again, most recent) Dominator... by my allocation of slots... except maybe for that T1 attack that I very rarely use. Adding Hasten to this build, just to have Hasten, would have implications like: giving up one of the power pools... maybe no big deal, maybe it is... but this cascades other choices having to decide if I want perma-Hasten (so, "find a slot") or not.., delay/skip Wall of Force (which does include the %+Recharge piece, but it is for 'peace of mind', it is not required) and or Unleash Potential Juggle both Hasten and Domination clickies. This isn't a big deal for me, but it is "one more thing" to have to worry about. I'm not asking for a different build, I'm simply answering the "how do you do it without Hasten?" question.

How I did it on my most recent Dom: Five LotG pieces for 7.5% each 10% from Superior Ascendency of the Dominator 10% from Hecatomb 10% from Apocalypse (I put this in a Snipe FWIW) 10% from Absolute Amazement 10% from Ragnarok 5x Decimation in a low-tier attack, for 6.25% 5x Positron's Blast in a low level cone for 6.25% (set includes a Range piece and %damage, range helps the cone) 4x Cloud Senses in a pool debuff for 6.25% 4x Expedient Reinforcement in a pet for 6.25% <- this was added for 'margins', I don't like the level range on this set. 4x Basilisk's Gaze in the low level ST Hold for 7.5% 5x Gladiator's Net in the AoE Hold for 7.5% (The AoE holds may look like good %proc bombs, but IMO the base recharge time is far too long even with perma-Dom levels of recharge) 6x Reactive Defenses for 8.75% Some comments: It isn't necessary to catalyze ATO if I don't want to "overstep" the maximum five 10% bonuses to global recharge. Enhancement values from sets that cap out below 50 are still pretty good, so I have no allergy to Decimation or Basilisk's Gaze, especially not in otherwise weak powers. I mention this because (as noted) it is necessary to reach into some corners that may not seem obvious for all players (or anyone). I think I could have had another +8.75% (certainly another 1%) by putting 6x Preventive Medicine in Unleash Potential (instead of franken-slotting) but I think that would have hurt the build more than it helped. Aside from a Resistance piece mule power at level 38, the latest power in the build with multiple slots is at 35 (Link Minds, holding the Reactive Defenses set). I mention this because my general approach is to have my most-used, most effective powers as early as possible. Hasten usually (for my builds) gets in the way of, or delays, another power that I feel offers more utility for the build. I probably should have taken Hasten while leveling up, because a lot of those recharge bonuses weren't there before level 50, but I kinda like learning the combo without perma-Dom. I will admit that there is a juggling act... there are only so many powers that can take certain types of enhancement sets (including ATO) so I'm doing things like using Gladiator's Net where others may reach for an ATO or Unbreakable Constraint, or using Apocalypse in a power than can take Sting of the Manticore or Experienced Marksman. Finally: I fully intended to franken-slot this Dominator's pet (Singularity)... and I can have perma-dom without the 6.25% from Expedient Reinforcement set... but in practice: despite having slow resistances, I was occasionally "getting stuck" in an animation (button mashing may have been involved) and missing the auto-Domination what I was trying to do with the Singularity wasn't making that much of a practical (or observable) difference

My $0.02 I often took Epic Bonfire, and would slot it with KB->KD. It was crazy good. Since the (now long-ago) change, I haven't felt a need to respec out of Bonfire. Since the (now long-ago) change, Bonfire feels more like other powers with similar effects. My personal recollection of those "soft controls" via knockback, slows, whatever, was that they weren't as good as Bonfire, mostly because of (smaller) radius. I suppose there is a debate to be had about the relative size of an EPIC power... but AFAIK Bonfire has the same (or larger) radius as similar location-based Epic powers among ATs.

No. ... or should I say: I am not aware of any toggle such that once the toggle is active that enhanced Recharge has any affect.

Click on the 'exchange' to find the option you seek.

I appreciate the suggestion sub-forum, for a variety of reasons. Number one is: Even though my perspective is that a LOT of what gets posted there is pretty close to "I had this stray thought while playing", there are IMO some more informed-by-lots-of-play suggestions that I think are worth discussing. Sometimes there is more "under the hood" to share, sometimes there is more information not known to the person making the suggestion, sometimes the game offers what the person wants and they just don't know. I don't mind the "personal preference" types of posts, until those threads degenerate into "me/we right, you dumb". By now (five years of HC forums) it should be well-known which game mechanics yield different attitudes held by large numbers of players without trying to establish "right" and "wrong" opinions. Including: Group Fly and Knockback, see also Fold Space, AoE Controls, etc. By now, anyone of us who has been around since 2019 should be able to repeat the arguments from all sides of those arguments... if not, that just means we weren't paying attention! None of us should feel obligated to repeat the perspective of an opinion different than our own, but we absolutely shouldn't be short-handing our disagreement by insulting one another. I also like to see somewhat complete suggestions, even though (as noted above) we are unlikely to see them implemented, especially since members of TPTB have their own preferences of what to work on. I do think that for some of the threads, the forum mods could be a little more sensitive to "brigading" (in the negative sense) within threads, as it is often those types of threads that end up getting heated. I think "downvotes" can serve a purpose as shorthand for disagreement with a suggestion, but it gets silly IMO to have the same users simultaneously downvote every contrary post in a thread while also upvoting those more allied with something they've already written. I've also seen some too-slow-IMO mod action to address sealioning, that IMO had swifter action been taken then I think fewer timeouts would have been given for a series of spiraling threads.

I don't have much to add, but I'll do some coloring (outside/inside) some of the lines shared above. Mileage may vary. Re: Patrol XP I find this to be more valuable at higher levels than at low levels. There is a "cap" for how much Patrol XP a character can take advantage of at any one time. I don't think this matters very much for a dedicated power-leveler; the time it takes to accumulate Patrol XP could just be spent in the AE. Logging out in Day Job locations will also yield Patrol XP. Collecting Patrol XP from exploration can also yield merits (for collecting all in a zone), although not all exploration badges (e.g. Pocket D, Ouroboros) count towards a merit reward. There is a minimum number of exploration badges required for the Long Range Teleporter accolade. Re: Mothership Raids (instanced I supposed are best for low-levels) offer league XP, but IMO it is generally better for everyone involved if characters involved have (slotted) attack chains. Personally I find these to be best for accumulating Incarnate XP. Certain other seasonal League events (Mapserver in April, Trick-or-Treat in October) are easy XP in which nobody really cares what level characters are once enough 50s are in the league.

This is my instinct, having played some combinations of these on Controllers (Live and HC). Fire/Rad is one of those classic combos from Live that, for some players, is still considered OP... I think it is fine, but I do think that its reputation exceeds its (relative) performance. I feel obligated to add this personal preference about /Poison: I never take the T9 Venomous Gas. I've repeatedly tried to make it work on a variety of characters and my experience has been that unless I'm playing on a team with a Tanker (to take/hold aggro) that is both really paying attention and not simply frenetically running about that Venomous Gas ends up either/both doing very little (critters melt anyway) or/and gets my characters killed. In solo play I find it to be a handicap, in team play it is practically unnecessary. I agree that it looks like a powerful debuff, but I simply haven't gotten the yield from it. The only thing I haven't tried to try to make it work is to make build choices to try to have exceptionally high defenses.

I also can't tell what the thinking will be. I also "play up" my characters, although if the sets and ATs are ones that I've played before I might go a faster-than-usual DFB+TF XP route. As I wrote elsewhere, I try to achieve perma-dom via +Recharge from set bonuses and use neither Hasten nor %+recharge... so as a practical matter I don't have it until end-build, and lose it below level 23, but this isn't a deal-breaker for me. A side effect for my preferred approach (to Doms) is that (without Hasten) my builds have very little room for %damage slotting. For Plant, I would absolutely install %damage in Carrion Creepers, my slotting would be: (A) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Bombardment - Chance of Damage (Fire) (*) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage (Energy) (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance of Damage (Ice) (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal) I want to note the following: Despite my deep appreciation for 6xCoercive Persuasion (for the extra positional Range defense) for Seeds of Confusion I sometimes make an exception to only 5-slot it, using the %Energy from Cacophany in the 6th slot. The reason being that dropping any amount of damage on an enemy will result in your character getting on the "drop" table when that critter is defeated, even if by its confused/former allies.

One caveat about trying to leverage Time Shift as a %damage attack: It has a base accuracy of 0.8. This is among the lowest of the base accuracies in the game. The extra possible damage, even as AoE, may not be yielding as much for a Blaster as simply making more attacks. It would be IMO a somewhat heavy investment in slots to try to capitalize on %damage, as opposed to slotting something like 5x Absolute Amazement. YMMV. I like AoE stuns, but I left it out of my /Temporal Blaster.

I'm in agreement that the Fighting pool being chosen for Tough/Weave is something of old-school thinking, at least for me. In the Homecoming era, now that enhancement sets (of all types) are easy to get (via Inf, via Merits) I look for opportunities to mule(*1) the +3% Defense pieces, the +5% Resistance piece, the Scaling Damage Resistance piece, etc... and having to take a pre-req power (Boxing, Kick) that I'm unlikely to use seems like such a waste of a power pick to me. I certainly have characters that have taken this path, but it is almost never my first choice. Tough in particular is something I find to be weak sauce when used as a toggle. The changes to damage typing have made the old-school approach to "maximize Smashing/Lethal" much less important than they once were. I'm not swayed by the casual "but most enemies do Smashing/Lethal" arguments... that sort of thinking can serve someone who only plays specific content I suppose, but nobody gets XP/Inf/Drops from just reducing incoming damage. (*1) Some Epic/Patron pools (for Doms) require a pre-requisite before being able to choose a "mule" Defense/Resistance powers, some do not. The two non-Patron pools that I particularly like for Dominators are: Fire Mastery: <- I am not crazy about either of the level 35 picks, but either can be used to hold an enhancement set (for recharge bonuses) and neither is embarassing... my complaint is simply that level 35 is a long time to wait for such a power! The final three picks are excellent, and IMO Rise of the Phoenix will be more useful than Tough/Weave (for a Dom). Psionic Mastery: Because the first three powers are good mules in addition to being good powers. Link Minds at 35 is sooo much better than Tough/Weave! I like the powers in Ice Mastery, but I've never taken it on a Dominator. The other sets have things to offer, but I have that bias against waiting until level 35+ to get (more) offense, so sets heavy with attacks are less appealing to me.

This is a question with not much of a (general) "right answer", IMO. For me, it mostly depends on the primary and secondary I want to play (for concept) and which powers I want to take from each. Folded into the answers to those questions, I'll think about which enhancement sets I intend to slot, and what levels the powers will be taken. Personally? I lean slightly more towards Defenders, but I don't have an allergy to Corruptors. The reasons for the slight preference are subtle: I don't like when all the damage (from attacks, what not) is of the same type, so I lean into %damage from procs... and the final yield is a bigger deal for Defenders (relatively) I feel like I can stretch the buffs/debuffs from Defenders more than I can with Corruptors. I agree that for some content, with well-tuned (and smart) allies, the final effect of buffs may not matter that much... but the same is often true about damage dealing! One key consideration for me is to make sure that if my build has a strong debuff to make sure that it is as available and reliable as possible.

I don't really go out of my way to play that game, but I think there is often more going on than some players using a 'taunt aura' realize... it could be that many auras require ToHit checks, for example. These sorts of things are hard to observe in solo play, certainly in terms of 'keeping aggro', so my opinion is that some players overestimate how good their semi-passive aggro management actually is on teams.

The attributes I watch are 99% common for my characters; To Hit Bonus <- Mostly to look for debuffs, but also to keep an eye on if I have all my toggles up Last Hit Chance <- This is the giveaway to "maybe stop swinging" 3x Positional Defenses <- Again, to look for debuffs, and to see if a toggle is not up or otherwise not available Positional defenses are typically easier to build for across ATs and Power picks, so I monitor those by habit. If I am playing a character with explicitly typed defenses I may monitor the "worst" of those. I have occasionally monitored other attributes like travel speeds, endurance/recovery but those are usually for short-term testing.

I meant to add something else about choosing Provoke instead of Taunt (for the path towards Unrelenting), because of the non-autohit Provoke. Taunt, because it is an auto-hit in PvE, can be used with minimal slotting and have no direct effect (AFAIK) on streakbreaker. Provoke, which requires a ToHit check, ought to be subject to all the standard rules around streakbreaker. Minimally, this implies (to me, YMMV) slotting Provoke for Accuracy. The same goes for other powers (ehem, Brawl, Kick, whatever) that players may be tempted to toss into an attack rotation. Personal preference: on characters with a threat power, I try to 6-slot with the Mocking Beratement set, although I have a few characters with "threat" powers that have used as few as three and two pieces of that set. EDIT: and another thing... regarding the potential choice of Provoke or Pacify when already planning to take Taunt... For characters with a Placate (Stalkers, Banes) using Placate will, in most cases, stop an enemy from running away from you in a way that Taunt will not. I believe this is because Placate effectively causes the critter to 'refresh', while Taunt is just applying more aggro math on top of a critter that has already decided to run for the hills. I also think that I've observed Placate (on a Bane) to get enemies like Clamor to drop debuff toggles as well... can't be sure here, this fight is a little frenetic solo. Because Pacify is not the same as Placate, I can't be certain that it would work the same w.r.t. getting enemies to stop running away... but if dipping into the Presence pool it might be a valuable tool for that purpose, even if only in solo play.

^This^ also explains why it isn't difficult to strip aggro away from a character only relying on a 'taunt aura'.

Whenever a player thinks they are being debuffed to the point that they begin to feel that something is wrong, monitoring specific combat attributes is a really good idea. Up to 10 may be monitored at any one time (without keeping the large window open). In my own experience, most debuffs (especially -Recharge) are pretty short in duration, so a glance at my attribute monitor is usually enough to clue me in for cases when I don't recognize a visual clue on my character. As for the OP... I've convinced myself that there had to have been some sort of engagement/flyby of a Winter Lord that isn't being shared. There is very little in the open world that will cause the massive amount of -Recharge described, and certainly none by grey con enemies. Winter Lords are pretty much the only thing I encounter in open world con-grey zone that can be just standing around (that is, they don't self de-rezz) that can have that effect.

Taunt is an auto-hit in PvE, Provoke is not. Typically I don't recommend Provoke for this reason. I agree about the utility of Unrelenting. However, if the build is tight I suppose Provoke can sub in for Taunt.

Without being too critical: pull the 6th slot from Sniper Blast, get the full x6 set of Coercive Persuasion.... the extra defense from the 6th piece is quite nice. Seeds of Confusion doesn't really need the enhancement, but this is not a set to stop at 5 IMO