tidge

Power Creep is such a weird argument to make for or against any one type of attribute enhancement. The Schedule A/B/C/D ED effects and base values apply for ALL enhancements, Purple, PVP, IO, DO, Hamis, whatever. It isn't as if a hypothetical Fear Purple set is going to ignore ED. IIRC, the existing Nightmare set with boosters can enhance the Fear attribute up to a pre-ED value of almost 126% that gets knocked down to around 99% with ED... and of course ToHit chances can be improved by all sorts of ways on top of what the almost 99% (with ED) slotted Accuracy by that choice of slots.

I haven't leveled up a character with Whitecap, but I imagine myself slotting similarly as I do Burst of Speed: Accuracy, along with Endurance and/or Recharge (depending on baseline stats) for set bonuses, and 3x %damage procs. As a Knockdown and -Resistance power (with DoT), it looks to be a pretty useful power to use against enemies that are about to try to pull off some trick of their own. As a self-Teleport, it looks great for getting to where the character is needed to be.

Ok, next count for us the number of Incarnate abilities which enhance Threat and Fear and do the same for those which enhance Defense and Resistance. There already exist IOs for both Threat and Fear, my ask is simply for some Enhancement sets which combine/provide for some of the necessary combinations, like Accuracy and Endurance management... you know, like those in other sets which require ToHit checks.

For most considerations, PVP sets are essentially the same as Purple sets, at least as far as: What the values of the attribute bonuses are, per piece, for level 50 through 50+5 Don't lose set bonuses when playing content below level 50 The biggest differences are (IMO): Characters must be at least level 50 to slot Purple enhancements, whereas PVP sets act as any other level 10-50 enhancement. Purple sets heavily favor Damage (or Control, for the control sets) and Recharge over Accuracy and Endurance Reduction For those that PVP, the PVP sets offer additional bonuses for that content. Many threat toggles benefit from Endurance reduction (and to a lesser extent Accuracy), clicky Threat/Fear attacks require ToHit checks...so against higher-con enemies more accuracy is a good way to improve those powers. The single target Threat and Fear are about as useful as any other single-target control... except that the other controls have a LOT more options for player build variety. Another set of Defense, Defense/Endurance, Defense/Recharge. Defense/Endurance/Recharge, etc. isn't going to do anything different, unless there is a 6th piece with something like a global... that doesn't already exists in that type of set. And it isn't as if there aren't a great many excellent global pieces already in Defense and Resistance sets. With Defense/Resistance... I don't see the need to create Purple sets for those, for two reasons: The combination of attributes (most?) players want to enhance already exist in the existing Defense and Resistance sets, including one PVP set each for them For many (most?) powers that take Defense or Resistance sets, it is actually quite rare that *I* want to slot even as many as four pieces from any given set! The limits from Enhancement Diversification hit hard, because IIRC the schedule for Defense/Resistance starts at something like 40% for those. The set bonuses have to be really worth it. Defense and Resistance powers already can take many awesome global pieces. @Rudra comprehended. I have a lingering feeling that the original devs avoided anything that could be seen as a boost to Taunts and Fears because of how those might play out in PVP. I don't get the same vibe from the Homecoming devs (who replaced Taunt with Threat), and I know that they are open to new enhancement sets for types of powers that have (generally) poor options otherwise. We have gotten new Endurance Modification sets and one new Slow set specifically because the previously existing sets didn't offer enough useful modification for powers that could take those types of sets. Fear and Threat are now the obvious outliers. I can understand why there isn't a populist uprising calling for new sets (there are a cadre of tankers that don't take Taunt, and I find I have to go out of my way to get a Fear power, let alone wanting to dedicate "Fear" slots to). Yet it is obvious to most anyone who tries to build a character using those powers just how limited the build choices are for those powers. Similar limitations do not exist for Defense or Resistance sets.

I believe (with no evidence) that Threat (originally Taunt) and Fear never got a PVP or a Purple set is specifically because of PVP content. That is: if players were hitting other players with PVP-boosted Taunt and Fear effects... neither which work precisely like other controls... and sometimes have "engine changes" to mechanics (Fear especially, but also Taunt)... then whatever "balance" existed in PVP content would become unbalanced. I came to believe this because there was something of a meltdown over Stuns at the original PVP launch. I half-suspect that if players could slot Accuracy/Threat in armor toggles then there would be a fraction of non-aura players that might find this unfair. As I wrote above, there are missing Invention options for both Fear and Threat, and as @Frozen Burn writes, the pickings for set bonuses (and also Franken-slotting!) are incredibly thin with only two level 30-50 choices each. The only non-Travel sets with fewer options in that level range are AFAIK the Recharge Intensive Pet damage and Accuracy-included buff/debuff/healing... but powers that take those sets generally also take other sets. Specific to Hami-O and D-Syncs... those piece can't be crafted, and they offer larger inherent bonuses then crafted pieces.... with one tradeoff being they don't offer set bonuses.

Matching in what way? That they include combinations of (for example) Defense with Accuracy and/or Damage and/or Endurance and/or Recharge?

What is the need?

Was there a proposal in the OP I missed? Both Resistance and Defense sets already have PVP sets, as well as Hami-O and D-Syncs for the most common slotting needs, so what do you want from Purple varieties?

I had minimal interest in the Incarnate content on Live, my attitude hasn't changed. I still have a deep distaste for the "story telling" direction the game went with end-game Prateoria, Incarnate Dark Astoria, Galaxy City, and the Signature Story Arcs. Why? 1) So much of the game is mostly "evergreen" content that felt natural for new characters to experience. "Trashing" entire zones in certain content certainly breaks that immersion. 2) I barely care about other players' bios and life choices, why shove the life choices of an NPC like Manticore or Scirocco down my throat? When people talking about the NPC story arcs... I kinda tune out because I'm not playing here to read someone else's comic book story. 3) The self-feeding cycling of giving players MOAR POWA wasn't great for the game (blah blah subscriptions blah blah fishcakes). I don't have a dog in that fight, but past conversations with some of the most vocal L33T players are obsessed with what they can have, and any challenge involving taking those things away (enhancements, incarnate powers, whatever) isn't actually a true challenge because the players should be able to use all their AWSUM might. It's this (weird, IMO) mental model of the game's challenges I cannot grok. It's basically the same reason why I disliked almost every appearance of Q in ST:TNG. "I am all powerful and I am bored... and by the way did I mention I am a superior being?"

My global had a space in the name, so the macro was never working for me. I don't maintain many alts, and my Inf hoard is pretty much established to be self-sustaining... that is, I don't have the need to accumulate more Inf, and between the other things in my hoard (Merits, Recipes, Enhancements, etc.) my slow-ish playstyle allows me to build up new characters as desired. As for how I transfer wealth: It's pretty much a single on-demand email transfer of a single Hero Merit plus anywhere between 50M and 100M Inf, depending on what I want to purchase from S.T.A.R.T. at level 1. Initial purchases are usually some prestige travel options, turn off rez insps, Reveal, some temp attack powers, and the offensive/defensive/recovery buffs. The Hero Merit is usually just to allow some quick conversion to whatever: typically unslotters and converters. Things like ATO and other commonly used enhancements will be waiting in the SG base.

Full disclosure, I don't like FF as a MM secondary. My experience with FF on other AT is that the character hits the point of diminishing returns fast... so 6-slotting every bubble/shield is probably a waste of slots. Most Defensive powers are fine with just 2 slots of 50+5 Defensive pieces (or equivalent, or Hami-O). The only Defensive set bonuses I bother with are Reactive Defenses, and Shield Wall. If I am skimping on slots and using LotG Def/Recharge, occasionally I will use 50+5 LotG pieces to further enhance those powers... I just don't value the LotG set bonuses that much, MM attacks when chosen should be slotted for set bonuses. It is a bad idea IMO to try to make a MM a source of damage (from procs or otherwise). MM's have five "unique" global Defense/Resistance enhancements from (Recharge Intensive) Pet sets, one Superior %buildup piece for henchmen, and two more global defense/resistance pieces from the ATO sets. Ignoring the %Build Up, that is seven enhancement pieces that ought to be included in every MM build to make the henchmen more survivable... they are the source of damage. The three tiers of henchmen have max 18 slots, so without some other power (like Gang War) it is necessary to divide up those 7 pieces among the three tiers. It is possible that with FF secondary one or more of the global aura enhancements could be skipped, but I don't recommend it without serious testing. On my Robots build I only used four of the five Pet damage pieces myself. The next thing to consider is this: You really ought to enhance both Accuracy and Damage for the henchmen tiers! not only are the henchmen the source of damage, there will be level shifts (downward) for most of the game's content. The MM (superior) ATO are very good for this! Since you mention Robotics, let me share my slotting... as this should make it clear how my thinking goes. 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 The Battle Drones get two of the five damage set pieces. With four remaining slots I want to get an ATO bonus (10% Global Recharge, because my MM is doing other things) and I want as much Accuracy and Damage as possible, so Sovereign Right offers me more Accuracy/Damage plus a Regeneration bonus... normally I don't care that much about Regeneration, but because of the effective pool of Hit Points/Health when using Bodyguard mode, I'd rather have it than not. This piece could be franken-slotted with a Hami-O. Note that I put the %Build Up piece in the henchmen tier I will have three of... each henchmen will trigger this %proc, and quite frequently... and this is the henchman tier that needs the boost the most. My three T1 end up doing the equivalent amount of damage as my one T3 in the same amount of time, FWIW. 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 use a 50+5) (*) Edict of the Master: Defense Bonus (*) Call to Arms: Defense Aura for Pets (*) Call to Arms: Accuracy/Damage I found it hard to get a lot of offense from the T2 robots, so they get two of the five damage set unique pieces. It also provides another 10% Global Recharge bonus. The T2 burn endurance quite hard, so they get Accuracy, Damage and Endurance Reduction boosts. The T2 provide defensive bubbles, which on a non-FF MM are well-worth boosting, I use a Hami-O. The Call to Arms set tops at level 30, but the extra Endurance recovery is valuable for my MM. If the Recovery boost is not valued, the fifth of five global aura pieces could go in its place, or a Hami-O, or a boosted Soulbound Allegiance. 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 Nothing fancy for T3, except to get MM ATO set bonuses I want (2x 10% more Global Recharge), plus the two global pieces for henchmen/pets. Auras affect the henchmen (and pets) while they are close to the MM. They do nothing for the MM directly, and only indirectly through Bodyguard mode. Comments about %damage procs, which I generally avoid. Note that AFAIK, all %damage procs for henchmen can only come from "secondary" effects. 1) %damage will only trigger in the attacks made which include the specific secondary effect. If (for example) a henchman is only casting a power with a -Defense secondary effect half the time... the %damage will never have a greater than 50% chance to be applied (for each henchman) 2) %damage requires each of an initial ToHit check for the base attack, a %proc chance (between 10% and 90%), and an individual ToHit check for the %damage based on the inherent and slotted accuracy of the power (i.e. no global ToHit or accuracy bonuses)... if the henchmen are fighting level shifted enemies, they will have inherently poor %damage chances because of the ToHit formula. %procs like the Soulbound Allegiance %Build Up and the Overwhelming Force %Knockdown will have a chance to trigger on every attack... these are much better choices IMO than any %damage choice for Henchmen, I realize others feel differently, but my opinion is that T1 and T2 need Accuracy and Damage, and without accuracy the %damage will be mediocre anyway, so why try to thread that needle? The T3 is IMO the place to put the MM ATO sets,.. adding %procs to T3 is hindering its damage output IMO.

Here is my PoV: There aren't attribute combinations for Defense and Resistance that aren't available and useful, AFAIK. Let's have Purple sets for Fear and Threat first.... for the following reasons: 1) There are only two pieces in (different) Threat sets which include Accuracy, and many Threat powers require Accuracy. A Purple or PVP set could fill this niche. 2) There are no Threat set pieces which reduce Endurance costs, there are quite a few Threat powers which could benefit from Endurance reduction (i.e. toggles) Fear enhancement sets are IMO better balanced in terms of attributes (Accuracy, Endurance, Recharge... and Fear obviously) but I see a "gameplay gap" where single-target Fear powers are almost completely useless, with the only exception being if a player stacks a single-target Fear onto a critter that has already been hit by another Fear. I'd like to see a "Contagious Fear" %proc, similar to the one from the Coercive Persuasion Confusion Enhancement set... as I have found that turning a Single-Target mezz into a %multi-target mezz to be a way to make inferior powers more useful across more content. 3) I generally find the choices of which set bonuses to pursue from the Fear sets to be mediocre, and I also default to Mocking Beratement for Threat, I find it annoying to only have two "up to level 50" sets from both Threat and Fear to consider for builds, without resorting to franken-slotting.

To be fair, because players only get one enhancement slot when they pick a power, the proposed trade-off should be "one less power, one more slot".

I will choose Corruptor pretty much only when the following stars align: There is a primary/secondary combination I want that I can't get from another AT The primary or secondary has a lot of powers I want to take (especially early power picks) I want damage more than secondary effects (from primary/secondary) My second point may seem a little odd, but it plays into the "what do I want to do with the character"... and often when the primary/secondary choices I want for concept include Corruptor and I don't feel the need to lean into damage early... I will usually go in another direction. It's hard to describe, and I offer no hard data, but for solo play I've usually found Defenders (and even Controllers) to be quicker about cleaning large spawns than Corruptors. Against AVs solo Corruptors probably have the advantage but I haven't done much testing without incarnates.

Intensify is a power that I considered dropping or delaying in order to get Rune of Protection earlier in the build. I kept Intensify because I wanted to have an on-demand power to boost damage from single-target attacks, for those times when I am down to the one-or-two "hard targets". For my play style, I considered only single-slotting it with the %Build up, but I did not make that change. Reason: I often team with groups that will split up on "defeat all" missions and having the boost available more often against +4s helps. Even without the %Build Up, Intensify is maxing out the damage bonus of the (Fast) Snipe) from +ToHit.

With league/team fix now in place... it's pretty much down to RNG, Do you qualify for a reward roll (so none observed for Sally, or for being too far away, or slacking), The recent Saturday Night Synapse had 18 Babbage defeats, my character got four mini-Babbage recipe drops.

The ability to turn off XP is the answer, even if not trying to do complete content...which ought to be impossible to do without turning off XP, otherwise leveling would be a massive chore. I just got another blue-side character to 50, and from memory the leveling path went like: Did Outbreak, some Atlas Park, started Hollows Started Radio/Safeguard at level 5 (did a Safeguard every 5 levels) to get Trevor Seaborn Only collected Patrol XP from exploration slowly Did some Skyway missions for a change of pace Started Faultline Started Striga I think I did Posi 1 at 27? Finished Tips/Alignments before 30 I did a switch to redside to get some badges, accolades and a Patron arc at 35. I did Levantra's arcs as well. Anyway, no more boring details... but by level 30 I hadn't used XP boosts, and I did at least one Faultline arc through Ouroboros, which I consider to be a fine option. After I got done with what I wanted to finish by level 43, I turned on XP boosts because the content I still wanted to do could be done though Ouroboros anyway, and there were some set bonuses I wanted more than I wanted anything else. This character is still missing a couple accolades (TF Commander, Portal Jockey) and is in no rush to slot incarnate powers (but Alpha is unlocked)... which I mention because I believe that for many players, what I just described would be intolerably slow play, and an expanded level range for the Hollows would make no difference for those, or even more players. For better or worse, the zone arcs that players cannot outlevel are the Rikti War Zone arcs... and that is partially because the enemies that spawn in those missions are designed to scale with difficulty. This isn't true of the Outcasts or Trolls or Minions of Igneous. We already have witnessed how some players reacted quite negatively to how the Council was made to scale up... I'm in no rush to see that for groups like the Trolls.

The only reason to overhaul such old content (again!) would be... what exactly? I'm convinced that the Hollows (arcs, level ranges) pretty much exist because once-upon-a-time: debt at low levels was a thing debt could run deep there was no patrol XP there were no XP boosts Anyone can feel free to ask that the level range of any given zone be changed... but somehow I think if that happened, then eyes would turn to Faultine, then Striga, then Croatoa, and possibly First Ward and Night Ward. Yet... if instead we brought back massive debt, and got read of easy XP... perhaps the ranges would be "more organic" for some players? I'm happy with the way the game is now, and I have control of turning XP on or off as needed to complete zones at the existing level ranges... or use Ouroboros.

Here is my build at level 50. Notes: Besides the obvious "what can be slotted", this was not my leveling build. I used Flight and didn't respec into Sorcery until level 50. I also used a different choice of powers 35+. I put 12 points of KB protection in this build. For a lot of content 4 points is fine... but for Freem! I wanted to be able to craft a buff and take the build to 22. The final power (Infiltration) allows swapping in of a LotG or a Winter's Gift Slow Resistance. This is intended to be a "solo build" for +0x8, it plays just fine on teams at +4x8... but it also does not have incarnates and only has one accolade so far. I didn't regularly solo play +0x5 until after level 40, as that is when I wanted XP and drops to come at a better rate. A lot of what "solo play" means for me is an affirmative response to "Can I play content at that setting without having to rely on Inspirations (or Incarnate Powers/Shifts)?" So what that means for this build are the AoEs, the debuffs, a "Build Up" (to simulate red/yellow insps), Rune of Protection (for long duration mezzes), and a self-heal. Ideally I would include Power Sink (Mu Mastery) to mitigate the need for blue insps, but I didn't quite have the slots I wanted for that. I recognize that the Gale slotting may seem odd. Gale has an inherently poor Accuracy, and it's recharge time is on the fast side, but with slotted accuracy it's large cone makes it a pretty good source of %damage against large spawns. I would fault no one for making a radically different set of choices with respect to Gale... I find myself using it as source of control, and while I am using it as such I am perfectly happy to sometimes pick up some extra damage from it. I end quite a few fights with Gale! As I wrote earlier in the thread, this combo is proctastic! Both because of the nature of Storm Blast, and the smooth acceptance of %damage in both the primary and secondary powers. A team-mostly character should not need the (extra) %damage, but for mostly-solo non-DPS characters an AoE-%damage build can clean up large spawns much faster than those without adding %damage. As an aside: I love damage-over-time on low DPS AT, as it keeps certain enemies from "doing things" like summoning pets. The Knockdown/knockback is surprisingly good at delaying enemies from cast certain powers too! Defensively: By level 50, the positional defenses are in the high 20s, which is good enough for +0 or +1. I typically don't run with either Hurricane or the Mu Charged Armor on. 4-slotting Unbreakable Guard is a sort of default choice to boost Melee defense, but with better planning/use of Hurricane I am certain that I could pull two slots from Charged Armor, add one to Hurricane (more Endurance reduction, possibly a 50+5 Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge piece as the second) freeing up a slot for elsewhere in the build. I'm still noodling on a Storm/Storm build for higher difficulty, small team size play.

Double-clicking the smaller pillars also teleport direct to contact... for almost every contact.

It's been a long time since I played Peacebringer, but not at all long for Warshade... but something immediately comes to mind is that the Nova form attacks are essentially "formulized" to be low-level attacks, because of the level that the Nova form can be chosen. Slotting those attacks isn't radically different that having and slotting a whole lot of T1/T2/T3 attacks. The Kheldians are pretty good in the level 4-14 range because the Nova form gives 4 (plus one) ranged attacks... but after level 16 or so, the utility of simply having a lot of relatively weak attacks falls off. As for theory-crafting a build, the question as I see it is: What can slotting the Nova form powers do for the Human form? There are limited options... the most variety is in the Nova form power itself, otherwise it's ranged ST/AoE or ATO sets, modulo secondary effects like KB, whatever, for set bonuses. In contrast: the Dwarf form is at a higher level (so closer to the "nuke" tier of powers) so when they get enhanced, the enhancements go farther... plus there is the whole "get outta mez free" reason to have a Dwarf. Plus, the Dwarf forms can have more slotting variety.

My own experience with the Hollows is this: even without using 2XP and going out of my way to NOT collect patrol XP (including exploration badges) and running solo... the only way I've run through the entire Hollows storyline without Ouroboros was by going out of my way to do so. A single side-trip to do a safeguard mission has forced me to disable XP! Even so: I am not in favor of raising the level range. I always felt that The Hollows was fine, especially for its era... when debt worked differently, and leveling/teaming options were fewer. I end up with the same problem in Faultline! Casually making sure I do level-appropriate Safeguards and collecting exploration badges usually means that unless I am careful I'll outlevel at least one of the arcs in Faultline. If I do a TF? fuggeddaboutit!

My hot take on the Market House and mini-pet recipes: There are some Giant Monsters that are more commonly fought than others. For example, Jack in Irons and Eochai. I can't imagine a sustained demand for either of those recipes. Scrapyard is practically a summonable-on-demand, so that recipe probably will never require much bidding action. Making them vendorable is a reasonable addition.

I can toss in $0.02, based on my experience with the Mastermind Traps secondary: The arguments between Web Grenade and Caltrops are legit... but I went Caltrops. Even facing enemies that like to run, I found that Web Grenade had two things working against it: It isn't useful against enough (95%+) content. To make it useful when you want it, it requires more investment than I prefer to make. Caltrops will %proc on cast, mileage varies on how well you can leverage this. More Slow does very little in my experience, so I wanted accuracy for better %proc chances, plus some set bonuses. (A) Annihilation - Damage/RechargeTime (*) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Damage/Recharge (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance for Damage(Cold) (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage(Lethal) Triage Beacon is an odd duck. It was a power I used while leveling, but eventually got rid of. It would be more useful IMO than Web Grenade. Acid Mortar is good! It requires accuracy to %proc reliably. The MM wanted debuffing for the henchmen. Acid Mortar (A) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff (*) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff/Recharge (*) Undermined Defenses - Recharge/Endurance (*) Undermined Defenses - Recharge (*) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff (*) Accuracy: Level 50+5 FFG is great, Just a couple of Defense pieces maxed out, more slots if you need mules. IMO it isn't worth too much %damage in Poison Trap, but it will fire reliably. Note that the Entomb piece affects caster, and is reliable (upon cast). Poison Trap (A) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Hold: Level 50+5 (*) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (*) Unbreakable Constraint Chance for Damage (Smashing): Level 50 (*) Superior Entomb: Chance for +Absorb: Level 50 Seeker Drones got dropped. I like stuns, but I found these to be unreliable. They will not %proc on detonation. I don't use Mines, YMMV. The issue with Mines for me is that with Caltrops, Acid Mortar and Poison Trap I already have enough to "drop"... and I don't like having to devote extra mental processing power to figuring out where to put them. I have no experience with Temporal Bomb. I skipped the (different) T9 on the Traps Mastermind.... again, it was too much effort for me.