tidge

My Shield/Battle Axe build. The only difference between what I listed below and what I actually have slotted is that the two pieces in Active Defense were replaced with two D-Sync Decelerations @ 53,,,, which is kinda pricey, but I had the means to acquire them. The thing about Shield Defense (or at least my build) in my experience is that it is a slightly more "active" Tanker than some other builds... such as "Aura"-based ones. IIRC it is somewhat inferior to other Tanker primaries in the self-healing department, so don't skimp on leveraging True Grit.

Those who want to impress this newcomer (points to self): Have the Tank exclusively run Shadow Shard cave missions at +4x8.

Plenty of good advice on how to slot, how to afford to slot, characters. There are so many different way, my only advice would be to read the sincerely written options and try them until you find a method you like. On "shared XP", I am reminded of the many past (literally pointless) arguments over "kill stealing" while street sweeping.

I'm just going to chime in that for level 50 (Blue) x8 Alignment missions, I always chose Carnies, and then Malta as a backup to Carnies. Even when some of them run away (or phase), it always felt like the time to clean up the remainders gave the runaways a chance to come back. The random chances of multiple stacking holds felt like the "right" sort of challenge to a solo player. I haven't faced too many of the new high-level CoT or Council yet (been leveling up slowly), so I have no real opinion on them.... except that the random times I used to see folks spamvertising "Peregrine Island 54x8 Council Missions" always landed wrong with me.

My take on the Winter's pieces... I can see why (AFK-ish) Fire Farmers once recommended (many, many of) them... but for my build styles, it is rare that I use them for anything other than franken-slotting.... and that is usually because PVP and Very Rare sets don't offer the Accuracy/Endurance combinations I want! I have a couple of characters in my roster that have something like "full slotting" of a Winter's set, but those are corner cases.... for defense. I tend to lean into the Global Accuracy and Recharge bonuses from the Very Rare sets. At least that is where my headspace is... especially if I am trying to leverage %damage.

Can someone explain why my settings, specifically the power timer countdown choices keeps resetting for all my characters, and if possible what is the path forward to resolving it? FWIW: I have macros and binds set up for most of my characters. I *may* have saved a default bind file somewhere.

I get a kick out of playing my Archery/Tactical Arrow. In the "design space" of the final build I found it fun to have a blaster that very naturally allowed for conventional power slotting (with sets) and for %procs... It was an unusual circumstance (for me) because of the lack of melee attacks.

I have also been witnessing the lack of price history at a much higher rate than recently.

I feel that players can learn about the effects of debuffs, specifically -ToHit, by playing the game(*1)... although without monitoring combat values, it can be hard to make the connection. Aside from common discussion around defense debuffs and "softcap", I'm not sure that other types of player debuffs gets that much discussion. I'm unconvinced that more than 20% of players who do the Penny Yin TF actually know what Clamor's Radiation Infection does to the player and their nearby teammates. "Ok Tank, you have Clamor's aggro... could you maybe not stand toe-to-to with her?" (*1) Circle of Thorns can show up quite early in player careers (red/blue). I used to run (pre-page 5) quite a few "Tough Mode" blueside TFs (Penny Yin and ealier) with the difficulty turned up... and it was usually the inability to hit enemies that got the attention. Apropos of nothing: I'm leveling up a Stalker right now with the Energy Mastery epic... and I've been on the fence about Focused Accuracy. I have the build at the point where I almost have the attack chain (pre-50) where I want it... and while I don't have level 50 slotting for Accuracy and Recharge I am at a pretty good point with the slotted values... but I am absolutely seeing some enemies debuff my ToHit to the point where I feel like I should probably put Focused Accuracy into the build. For my build... I'm sacrificing a LotG mule power, which often isn't a deal breaker for me.

I certainly can (and have) used the market to create a good-sized nest egg, but every character I've taken to 50+ (after my first) has only spent approximately 150M... and that has been at P2W (now START) and buying converters (and some crafting expenses). Almost every slotted Enhancement has come from recipe roulette (as that character builds up the next character's nest egg) or Merits conversion. Merit conversion is a net waste, but I am rolling in merits... probably because I just play the game. I'm so lazy I use catalysts like crazy, even though I could use the AH for most of my needs.

No character on Homecoming should take 1 Billion inf to build, unless the goal is to massively over-spend on enhancements... or something crazy is going on and the characters is mostly slotted with Hami-Os and D-Syncs, or buying gobs of boosters/catalysts from the AH. Have a cushion of Inf is nice, and makes play easier. However: It pretty much only takes one level 50 to establish a cushion, and by using a SG base to store goodies every subsequent character should be able to nicely equip themselves from game-play drops. Even if a character has done a mad rush to level 50, it should be pretty inexpensive to buy common IOs (any level, but 45 and 50 get crafted for badges so they are always on the market) and just run PUG TF/SF for massive merit hauls. Few other players are going to notice a level 50 exemplared down is only using common IOs, and no one will care.

I kinda want to have a Nemesis Pilot, wearing aviators and a scarf, having a drink in Pocket D, complaining "I'm tired of people always blaming me."

Some simple opinions on teaming as a Mastermind. Secondary: I have nothing to say except that the secondary set from MM is supporting your henchmen (solo), so it should be able to support a team. I prefer MM's that debuff rather than those that focus more exclusively on team (and henchmen) survival, YMMV. As for Primaries: Sometime the group needs the henchmen to take an alpha strike Sometimes the group needs the henchmen to "clean up" spawns (typically scattered mobiles which have run away) The final piece of advice for teaming MMs: Try to keep most of your fodder on Bodyguard mode. It can be easy to want to put them on Aggressive mode, especially if there is a teammate grabbing aggro. Keep in mind that MMs have a a very small pool of HP without using the henchmen in Bodyguard mode, so try to avoid becoming Vengeance bait.

This doesn't help for most of the year... I like to use the Lady Winter mission as a benchmark for my characters. I have two different approaches. Time to clear the map (MOAR Candy Canes!) Defeat objects only and defeat Lady Winter + her spawn (faster rewards) This is one of those missions where the spawns are all uniform in placement and composition, the map is always the same, and the final enemy isn't trivial (for most characters). This is also a mission I like to use to test different power/slotting choices. Otherwise I'm using Tip missions, but those are too variable for a "leaderboard" challenge.

Congrats on 50. Some pet advice, specifically for high-level play: The Dark/Dark pets are squishy. They also don't tend to stay close. The Haunts don't get summoned if you "corpse blast". Use the Haunts power slots to hold the global pet Defense/Resistance auras, to try to keep the other pets alive longer. This is losing some offense, but the advantages for team play (as a Dark/Dark controller) are the PBAoE heals and debuffs from the Umbra Beast and Dark Servant. You can still summon the Haunts of course. Focusing on personal Recharge is a good idea, as many of the Dark/Dark powers are force multipliers as well as improving survival chances.

FWIW: Accuracy / ToHit is slightly less of an issue for Henchmen because of Supremacy. I've posted this before, but my slotting for Robotic Henchmen is: Level 1: Battle Drones (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up: Level 50 (*) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets (*) Sovereign Right – Accuracy/Damage (*) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus Level 12: Protector Bots (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Hami-O: Defense/Endurance (53 or could use a 50+5) (*) Edict of the Master: Defense Bonus (*) Call to Arms: Defense Aura for Pets (*) Call to Arms: Accuracy/Damage Level 22: Assault Bot (A) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Recharge/Pet +AoE Defense Aura: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy: Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy: Endurance, +Resist (All) +Regen(Pets): Level 50 I split up the Global pieces, and try to leverage set bonuses while boosting Accuracy, Damage, Endurance. I pretty much always put the Superior %Buildup proc in whatever tier henchmen (or pet) power that summons the most of that critter. I'm also figuring that the multiple lower tier guys benefit more than the highest tier guy. For MMs this thinking is mostly due to level shift. I understand those who want the %BuildUp in the T3, my choice is to better balance the offensive performance of the henchmen across levels. w.r.t. Protector Bots' offense... adding Maintenance Drone to the crew turned up the offense of those guys far more than anything else. Prior to the page 5(?) changes my Protector Bots almost always had a full blue bar during fights, now they make attacks more regularly and behave offensively more like the other henchmen.

Here is my level 50 Dark/Dark/Soul slotting (solo emphasis, not at +4). The build is pre-page 7, I haven't seen the need to respec, but I might change the Epic armor toggle.... but Toxic! The primary changes I might recommend for elevated level content: Consider Hasten, to avoid downtime on Fade. Investigate which, if any pet Global Aura pieces (Resistance, Defense) could be slotted. I am very satisfied with the pet slotting in my build, and most of the pets don't stay close to the controller... but for VERY hard content I can see resummoning them close by (and wanting them to stay close). I apologize if this doesn't make sense, but those globals are auras around the player, and so pets that don't stay close enough for the benefits of Shadow Fall are probably not benefiting from the aura pieces, which is why I eschewed them here. This build leverages Arcane Bolt in a way that may not appeal to everyone, but a pick is needed to get Rune of Protection... and set bonuses. This progression is meant to play at all levels, which factors into the build.

Hmmm.... how to explain.... Here is how I opted to slot Thunderstrike on my Tanker: Level 16: Thunder Strike (A) Multi-Strike - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Superior Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb (*) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance for Damage (Lethal) (*) Eradication - Chance for Damage (Energy) (*) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Damage (Psi) (*) Explosive Strike - Chance for Damage (Smashing) I opened the post with my slotting, so you can see I am NOT trying to use it for it's inherent extra damage. My first introduction to Thunderstrike was on a Dominator, and for a couple of reasons I found it to be an inferior attack. What I saw on my Dominator, where I had the power slotted without %damage, going for set bonuses with slotting: Dominator controls make it hard to have enemies bunched up (less of a problem for Tankers) I was rarely seeing any secondary effects... such that I actually dropped the power at the level 50 respec. TL;DR: For Tankers, I found Thunderstrike to be an excellent source of %damage... so much that I stopped thinking about the other part of the power (that never seemed to work for me).

Seeker Drones do not proc %damage. They can be slotted with those pieces, but unless something has radically changed about Seeker Drones, those pieces even thought they can be slotted won't contribute to damage. The Protector Bot's bubbles are IIRC 13% +Defense. I think it is worth slotting them with either a boosted 50+5 Defense IO, or a Defense/Endurance Reduction (50+5, or 53) piece. I saw significant performance improvement by slotting them with a level 53 Cytoskeleton.

Often folks are referring to the Def/+Global Recharge. I see people recommending slotting of the LotG for set bonuses, but it usually isn't the way I go. I won't pooh-pooh a global accuracy bonus, but often I'm getting those from Very Rare sets. About the only time I multi-slot LotG is when I have a power that is holding a +Global piece and I have only a single slot for more defense in that power.... then I will use a LotG piece. If I have more than one extra slot, I am probably using Shield Wall (boosted). I'm not the most creative when it comes to defense slotting. ED hits faster on Defense than Offense, and for harder content I can usually count on another player's choices (e.g. Maneuvers) to improve my defenses more than I could do so for myself.

I think there is an argument to be made that the henchmen (not pets) primaries that include a summonable pet attack (e.g. Hell on Earth, Gang War) which can slot the Global +Defense pieces have an easier time of achieving higher defense numbers (than primaries that do not). IIRC Beast includes an actual +Def power. Protector Bots will Bubble other henchmen (and the MM) for a hefty amount. As I wrote above: as for Defense, it is pretty much the secondary where Defense numbers will come from.

The "defense softcap" means different things for different tiers of Henchmen, and for different levels of content a MM will be facing.... how easy depends almost entirely on the secondary, not the primary.

The AoE sleeps fall into the category of "plays one way solo, plays a different way on teams." I know nothing about the new Arsenal sets, but on my other characters with an AoE sleep... I occasionally take it early to help with solo survability, and on PUGs it isn't often used in heavy rotation. I used to always skip the AoE sleep powers, but I have come to find them to be very useful to help avoid situations going pear-shaped.

I'd recommend AoE, because just two slots of Annihilation set gets you a little more Endurance, plus more %-Resistance. What else is in your build? I like having the attacks for -Regen, but also to grab aggro from spawns.

A few random comments: While leveling, I rarely slot the Tanker primaries. Enhancements values don't do very much until you are at the point where set bonuses come into play (special except for Kismet +ToHit and the Defense/Resist PVP global pieces). The primary becomes more important as you turn up spawn sizes. In order to NOT be frustrated by turning up spawn size, you will need endurance under control and attacks. Tankers do well with AoE attacks, I am certain you can get specific advice depending on the the build later.