tidge

When flying across zone, the henchmen generally stay close. They lag of course. I softcap defenses (and robots have pretty good resistances) anyway, and robots are 99% ranged attackers, so they don't need to fly... I use my MM attacks (and Traps) to keep aggro. The in-combat uses of Group Fly are pretty limited (assuming there is ground to stand on) for me: generally it is when a critter places a patch that I want to get the henchmen away from. There are some instanced maps that have enough vertical space that I'll use Group Fly and fight, but they are uncommon. I can disclose: I originally had taken the Teleport pool (4/5 powers), but I ended up switching to Flight pool (4/5 powers). For my MM, the Flight pool was a better fit... but I only got there after a lot of testing. Respecs are cheap!

So you're saying that all those level 10 Winter ATOs I ordered from the comic book don't actually exist?!! Good thing I have outstanding orders for some level 11 Cupid's Crush pieces!

I don't want to be unfairly critical of the OP, but the idea behind the strategy (grab all aggro, stay out of range, profit!) is really simplistic given how the game actually works. When the game launched, I had some crazy ideas for "power combos for guaranteed success!" and none of them panned out. Disclosure: I didn't play Fire Tanks against DE Swarms, which was the original 'no effort for rewards' mechanic.

For my play: The list of "things to do red-side, as a non-red" can include Invader, but typically it does not... simply because the other things that come for participating in the blue TFs far outweigh the effort of popping into the Mayhem missions and skipping the content therein. Typically when 'vacationing' red side, I'll do this stuff: Get the Shady badge from the Vahzilok Conference Get Demonic Aura Get High Pain Threshold Unlock Patron powers (and if high enough level, unlock LRTF) Get the 5 merits per zone exploration If I care about it, and I am high enough level, I will come over with Bloody Hands to do some Mayhem.

Aren't Buds "Elite Bosses"? AFAIK, nothing tagged as a Giant Monster (level-less or otherwise) gives incarnate XP. IMO, the standard XP rewards for Giant Monsters are pretty bad, considering the effort. IIRC a typical max XP reward for a single GM defeat maxes out around 60K Inf, so it isn't as if they'd be buckets of Incarnate XP. There can be other rewards for defeating Giant Monsters of course, but Inf is at the bottom of that list.

Nothing wrong with this statement, but it doesn't really tell the whole story. For example, some enemies have really long ranges and may already be in relatively confined spaces... such enemies don't immediately move just because they have been hit by a Taunt. Another example: some enemies use AoE (at range) so grabbing the threat and moving away from teammates can be the best move.

On one hand: "Don't ask, don't get". On the other hand, they are about to get 120 Merits for less than 20 minutes of effort.

My instincts are to agree, however I'm extending some grace just in case the player in question has made some extremely sub-optimal play choices like: 2XP, fast leveling and upgrading DOs... and is unaware of the fungibility of drops, merit conversion, etc. As other noted, the cost of something like PVP pieces can't possibly be what is considered "too high" on HC compared to Live. I definitely detected an "old school" sensibility with the comment "playing the market"... so if there is something like an attempt is to "make millions selling Luck Charms"... welcome to HC, there is a fundamental reason that won't work.

I would not recommend Savage on a Scrapper. It is fine, but the damage (over time) is distributed such that Scrappers cannot leverage their typical DPS tricks with ATO. Personally, if you are ok with Brutes, that would be my suggestion, because Fury and HP. If you want something more sneaky and less tough, a Stalker.

I only use Group Fly to get around maps, and in some in-mission circumstances or against specific enemies, so I don't really sweat Endurance. The big advantage of Group Fly is seeing rockets on the feet of the henchmen! I usually build for global Recovery, MaxEnd and Endurance reduction bonuses FWIW. Group Fly can introduce issues with henchmen pathing (some get stuck sometimes, some just stop wherever they are) and ragdolling (if a henchmen or pet can't complete animation from something like a knockdown they can 'float' in mid-air, stuck in the ragdoll animation... so it isn't free of issues, but paying attention to the pet window usually reveals these things. There are some vocal players who act as if Group Fly is a PVP attack, but setting aside other players... my experience is that once you get used to where Group Fly makes a difference, the number of situations is IMO relatively small so it isn't a power that benefits from being toggled on constantly anyway. When teamed, I probably use Group Fly less than 2% as often as other teammates use something like Fold Space.

The utility of Taunt varies by content and context. Solo: nobody really needs a Taunt, since eventually enemies will be focused on the solo character. In team play, if no one on the team is in risk of being defeated by damage a Taunt is not really needed. I always take Taunt on Tanks, because there is enough team content where the number of enemies is great enough, team survivability isn't guaranteeing complete survival, and team damage isn't productive enough to insta-wipe enemies, The only thought process I see as coming to the wrong conclusion about Taunt is when players think "This (Tank) character doesn't need a Taunt because of aura/punchvoke/AoE"... because there will be team situations when a Taunt improves team performance. I'd rather such players simply think "I skipped Taunt because I didn't want to take it, and I can generate a smaller amount of threat with ____". The classic example I think of is on something like a Positron when the Tank says "we won't need Taunt because I have an aura", but the aura isn't keeping (or getting) aggro for the capped number of enemies... which can be an issue for all the other characters on a low-level TF, even if the Tank might survive.

I feel like we solved this with a bind like "+$$powexec_name <power>$$follow" (caveat, I sometimes get the order messed up but sometimes order doesn't matter!) On key press the character should turn towards the target, on release it should do the cast. If the issue is specifically for a heal, you can do something similar without having selected a target (but one needs to be visible) "+$$powexec_name <power>$$target_friend_near"

So, solo or do you tag along with someone else who has paid the cost of entry?

Specific to Invader... *yes* it can be faster to get Invader but the cost-of-entry can be higher and more complicated (certainly for solo play) if trying to get it ASAP. With that out of the way: for some players, going red side is a non-starter.

I dozed off in this thread... did I hear someone ask for an Incarnate level version of the Synapse TF that takes place in the Shadow Shard?

+1 for "ceteris paribus" I think the dominant nonparibus element that coudl justify +46% is that the Super Strength character that wants to leverage the Fighting pool is forced to to pay the opportunity cost of taking a (Super Strength) attack at level 1 that they don't intend to use. Is this fair? *shrug*. I'd like to see more of the classic power pools updated to either: Increase the potency of effects of some powers simply by having selected multiple powers from the pool Improve the performance of certain powers based on the AT of the character The first is almost present in Medicine and Flight, but I find those pools to be rather clumsy in implementation (for what they do) . The second I'm thinking it wouldn't be balance-shattering if powers like the Presence pool's Pacify/Provoke acted like Placate/Taunt/Confront for ATs that normally get access to those powers.

Panacea isn't a favorite Health set of mine to multi-slot (Preventive Medicine is my go-to for multi-slot Health sets) but it is my second choice on high HP ATs and on melee characters when they have a click power. I find the Panacea set bonuses to improve QoL over small resistance boosts. Panacea can of course be boosted beyond level 50 too.

IIRC, there is an emote stance that can be done first that removes the shield but doesn't detoggle the shield powers... after using that emote, you can perform the other emotes. I can't recall which stance it is, sorry.

My feels are this: there has been an effort (Live and HC) to "do something different" with power sets, such as: Combos Unique mechanics in the set The buff to the Fighting pool attacks are of a piece with the first; Rage puts Super Strength in the second category. Personally? I like the buffs that the Fighting Pool can get, but I think this (and the interaction with Rage) is what got us here. I don't see the devs making further changes to the Fighting pool, my suspicion is that if *any* change was to come I'd guess they'd rework damage boosts (see recent changes to Tankers) in some complicated way to not help pool attacks (as much).

I think there is a case to be made that the team behind Pyro Control was trying to be a little too clever with the set, particularly as manifested in Brilliant Barrage... but there are potentially bigger issues from my PoV: The -25% ToHit (self) on Catherine Wheel... not sure why? Glittering Column looks like someone thought the set needed a power that was a slightly better version of Energy Font.

Taunt doesn't work differently for the ATs that have it, but it does have differences from Confront and Provoke. Tankers typically increase the amount of enemies they have "Taunted" by relying on their attacks (via "Punchvoke") and any enemy-affecting auras they may have. The strategy you describe is "working as intended"... as it isn't doing that much to gain their attention. You can of course shift targets and spam Taunt to try to increase the number of enemies affected.

The issue with a shapeshifting cooldown (as I see it): The shapeshifting is the defining play feature of the Kheldians, so any flat restrictions on this should be a non-starter. Eliminating the changeling exploit will almost certainly have to be an 'under-the-hood' change involving power-queuing.

Blue Side: Laura Lockhart immediately comes to mind.