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Doesn't the Scrapper Rad Armor set also include PBAoE -Defense? I find that on my characters that can apply an AoE -Defense debuff, that the %procs are much more reliable, without having to worry as much about Accuracy.

That's cool! IIRC, Ground Zero has one of the higher base Accuracies.

When I solo, I get pretty substantial drops (of all sorts)... I often have to empty my pockets. When I team, I almost never have to empty my pockets. When I was referring to recipes in my above post, it is people buying recipes with merits, because for me, I can get 100 merits to drop (on a league) faster and more reliably than I can get one purple to drop (into my pockets) while in a league.

I don't MIDS, but I'd balance the attacks with %procs against what else I might do with those slots. Dark attacks can be something of an interesting case, because the %damage will be upfront for DoT, but Damage enhancing will be spread out for those later ticks.

Oh I know whose thread it was, they specifically hid it. Like I wrote, I did enough testing with-and-without Accuracy slotting that I feel confident. I didn't collect enough data to have high power, because a LOT of data is needed to tell the difference between two percentages that are close to each other. Random comment about the RNG, not specific to %proc

At some point it is less about "maximizing damage" and more about "minimizing the number of attacks to defeat ____ (critter/spawn)". For example: If an AoE Nuke with %damage is always going to require a second followup AoE to clean up... maybe just go with the set bonus? Edit: This is why I seldom slot single-target Holds for DPS. If I have to keep swinging on an enemy that I just hit with the ST Hold, I'd rather just that critter stay held.

In my imagination, two related reasons: 1) I believe I see the Rare and Uncommon prices swing upwards when merits become easier to acquire, because of the WST (Tinpex, mostly) or, as during Halloween and Winter Events. Folks need Orange to craft those merit-purchased recipes. I've convinced myself that I see a slight rise when Market Crash is also the WST. So demand goes up. 2) When XP/Inf is cheap (Mapserver leagues, et al.), I think some folks would rather just farm on a league, and of course drops are not as good as for a solo player at x8. So supply goes down.

Achilles' Heel is a bit of an odd-duck. When I think about it, I tend to think of it as a possible force multiplier... I often swap it into builds when I am playing on teams, but for most of my characters that solo, I'll roll the dice with %damage. See also Annihilation %-resistance). Yay unslotters! I found a good place to test AoE procs themselves (in powers) is the Tunnel of the Trolls. The level shift for a fully-slotted character at level 50 should have the ToHit chances at the ceiling. Taunt has a target cap, so typical spawns there will exceed it, but it is good for checking many other AoE. It's a little harder to set up a controlled experiment to see how they work against even-level enemies, the leftovers from a Kings Row Paladin Construction will always be level-less to the player.

Yes... but I can't know a priori which of the %procs I might have slotted is going to be the one that doesn't hit. On an early power like Infrigidate, or Gale, where I might not have a damaging attack, I might go with as many as four, plus an Accuracy IO. As a self-imposed rule, I never plan to use more than three %damage pieces... but I will make exceptions (for AoE).

I use "%damage" sepcifically to refer to procs that can cause damage, as opposed to other %proc effects. Also, I don't use "proc" to refer to "globals", although there are some "Procs" that are "globals". For example, Preventive Maintenance %Absorb. "Franken-slotting" is the term I use to when choosing pieces over set bonuses. If a proc is part of a set, it is in my experience fine to use it instead of another piece that won't be doing much... like moar damage, once deep in ED, or moar slotted recharge because it can hurt %proc chances. A popular non-damage %proc is the Gaussian's %BuildUp. I almost never franken-slot single-target powers, unless that power is needed to get DPS on a character that otherwise wouldn't have a damaging attack (at that level). 30% is what I'd consider the lower end, but it kinda varies. AoE attacks are all individual rolls against all possible targets. If an attack hits, then %procs can come into play, but only for hit targets. Yes, but I want to clear up something... that isn't quite correct... AFAIK, attacks with procs work like this, for each target There is a ToHit roll for the attack, based on the player using the attack (so global Accuracy/ToHit bonuses are in play, with a ceiling of 95% There is a %proc roll for any procs, with a ceiling of 90% Any proc that "fires", has to make its own attack roll, based on the accuracy of the power (player bonuses do not apply, although I suspect that Alpha Nerve does apply, but I have not tested.) with a ceiling of 95% This is so that "auto-hit" powers don't simply apply %proc per the proc rate. Long ago I did some testing with a Tanker and the %Psi and I was seeing fewer applications of %Psi than I expected based only on the %proc rate... but it was consistent if I factored in the "base accuracy" of Taunt. I also tested this with an Acid Mortar, both with-and-without Accuracy slotting. With Accuracy added (to the mortar), I saw a greater number of %procs from the Acid Mortar than I did without Accuracy slotting. As an aside, there was a thread (now hidden by its creator, couldn't tell you why) where a player collected a LOT of data using powers with six %damage pieces, yet never saw "six proc hits". This is explained by the way the (pseudo) RNG works (it flatly populates RNG space between 0.0 and 1.0)... against a single target, there would have to be: One initial roll ToHit, for the attack, Six %proc rolls, Six more ToHit rolls, one for each proc. Even if the %proc chances were at the ceiling (90%), the flat pseudo-RNG simply won't let that many consecutive rolls exclude the probability space between 0.95 and 1.00. Anybody who sees enough streakbreaker forced hits on their 95% toHit character's attacks can observe this. But I digress... Once an attack has hit and is delivering Damage-over-Time (DoT), there won't be any more %proc rolls... the %damage is all front-loaded. If there is something like a pseudo-pet, then there can be more %proc fires (one potentially for each ToHit roll) but (a) pseudo pets generally have "high recharge"/"bad %proc" and (b) other complicating factors. Generally: I will lean on %damage for low-damage characters, but not at the exclusion of sufficient set bonuses. On higher-damage ATs, if the character will mostly be doing damage of a specific type (say Psi), I will try to add %damage of a type other than Psi. At level 50, most %damage pieces do 70 points of damage (purples do more). The extra 70 is effectively reduced by the %proc chance... if I can get more (sustained) damage by simply boosting Damage and Recharge... then it makes less sense to try to add %damage. This is all a matter of taste... there are some powers (like varieties of Thunderstrike) where the target of the attack takes a lot of damage (so %damage makes less sense than boosting) but depending how many targets outside the initial can get hit, the base damage they take is much less (than the initial target), so %damage might make sense for them. Specific to Thunderstrike, I find it good to %damage on Tankers, but not on any other AT. Also keep in mind: If the player's character is already at the +Damage cap, %damage can "leap" over the cap.

Kinda trollish, especially with the shifting of goalposts to attack a power pool that you think is "hilariously bad". Narrator: It turns out that Presence is not a hilariously bad pool. It has a lack of non-synergy among the first three "gate-keeping" picks. It shares a weirdness with other non-travel power pools about what level certain powers can be picked. That's the extend of its "issues", unless a player legitimately can't figure out how to use the powers... but that is a player issue, not an issue with the pool itself.(*1) @Rudra went into a lot of detail about the differences of the sorts of power buffs you brought into this discussion. I spoke precisely to your targeted comments that, if those comments weren't trolls about "play better by picking something else", and were genuinely curious about my personal experiences with one of those other buffs you think is better... well you got your answer. (*1) Of the legacy power pools, Presence, Medicine and Flight are the ones I think bear examination. Presence: I explained the simple sort of changes that make the most sense to me, and they don't require changing the powers (except possibly to offer a Fighting pool-like boost for taking multiples) Medicine: minimally needs to reduce the level-gate on Aid Self, the game has moved well past the point where this was a necessary gate. Flight: My personal issue is that the set is toggle heavy, so maybe bump Evasive Maneuvers to be gated by level 20 and make it an auto power, perhaps rethink the (non-)interplay of Group Fly and Fly. I write the latter not to bring up Group Fly per se, just that when a character uses all of Hover, Fly, Group Fly and Evasive Maneuvers there is no benefit (to the player) to both Fly and Group Fly but there are "taxes" in the form of Endurance, animation/activation times, recharge times, needs to detoggle, etc.

Is this a "git gud" response? If so, sit down my sweet summer child. Imma gonna guess that *my* play and build style wouldn't suit you for reasons. One guess? I don't often try to "soft cap" defenses. Another reason? I'm not afraid to spend the Green bar. The choice of Unrelenting (and the rest of the Presence pool) has everything to do with what else any given build has going on, just as all the other pool choices. My "death rate" is pretty minimal as is, the defeats are mostly because I'm always almost always playing on both sides of the envelope. Specific to Adrenal Booster... the non-damage buffs it offers with Defense and ToHit are often mostly wasted on my builds (even when I don't "soft-cap" my defenses), because of the way the attack mechanics work in the game. I've built and used most of the longish-recharge buffs, and I have comments on Adrenal Booster, and its pool Experimentation. I have this pool on several characters, and I have to admit: I strongly dislike Speed of Sound as a travel power, because every time I hit the <space bar>, the lack of +JumpSpeed completely takes me out of the game. And since Experimentation is a specialized "Origin" pool, it locks me out of certain alternate pool choices that offer better no-prerequisite utility powers IMO, even as "mule" choices. Quality-of-life is not so improved for my builds by selecting that origin pool. Besides, if I am taking Experimentation, it is 100% because I want Corrosive Vial.

I've certainly used it to self-rez, but there are certain times when I'm either spamming Unrelenting or using it before defeat (and occasionally still getting defeated) so if it is down I'll use a different option to self-rez.

Are there any other pool powers that self-buff Damage by +25%?

I've observed this behavior; I believe it is due to the geometry of the map as well as the specific geometry/model of the target. Usually how this manifests (for me) is when using a targeting bind for a location-based power, such as: /macro_image "DarkCast_Aim" "TARP" "powexec_location me Tar Patch$$powexec_location target Tar Patch" Often the game simply won't allow the cast (when I have a target selected) with no message, but there are a small number of powers for which I get the "target blocked" message. From memory, Whitecap is one of them. I want to say that (some of?) the destroyable "container" objects behave this way, no matter the map. There are some mobiles that have a peculiar "location" that can be screwy with certain maps... the most common place I encounter the issue with the map is in Croatoa: the entire base of the Grim Vale has a screwy "floor" that mobiles walk on, and the curved hills also sometimes disallow the sort of macro I mentioned above.

The Mercy Island flier can't be fought. Is it the same as the non-RWZ Rikit Transports during zone events? who can say? I've never been able to damage a Rikti Transport solo, outside of the RWZ... but this isn't the sort of thing I did much testing with. The Grandville Arachnos Flier has an impenetrable shield up while flying... so when it gets stuck there is almost nothing a player can do to it. It will regenerate health while it is flying, so the already long path between Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 is an issue, but if it gets stuck it will absolutely get back to full health. Slight modifications to a couple of building in Grandville would probably keep it from getting stuck.

OMG and vendors are over-paying on mini-pet recipes too!

In my experience, Dominators are the most "living-on-a-knife's-edge" of all the ATs. What level is the Dominator?

Try not to lose sight of this facto about Masterminds: They have terrible damage scales, and they pay an enormous endurance tax on their attacks. I can understand simply wanting alternate (primary) powers, as 3 summons + 2 upgrades doesn't leave many more (primary) powers for variety... but this is essentially the basis of the Mastermind AT. The request for a melee-option instead of a ranged-option isn't prima facie terrible, but as a practical matter I'd want such a thing on whole lotta other AT too... such that this suggestion just feels like a different game. Better IMO is to propose new primaries that have alternate attacks, with similar damage and endurance profiles as current MM sets. I'm skeptical of the true motivation, because if the original ask is "give us Masterminds with Melee primaries and Armor secondaries", this sounds like a variation of "give us Scrappers with Henchmen" to me. We sort-of can have this with "Crabberminds", and Scrappers can get a Patron pet.

I want to +1 the thinking on Infrigidate, but I have comments on it, specifically with respect to Masterminds. Using Infrigidate as an attack, is generally a good idea, especially for low-DPS AT that might not otherwise have a viable attack chain at low levels (without visiting P2W/START vendor for temporary attacks). However, it needs Accuracy slotting for the %procs to be reliable.. and there is the typical way that RNG works (flatly populating results between 0 .0 and 1.0) that adds a sort of 'soft' limit on the number of successful rolls (below 0.95, 0.90, 0.95 for ceiling values of attack ToHit , %proc chance ceiling, %proc ToHit ceiling), so diminishing returns kicks in. ^ The above is true for all AT ^ For Masterminds, this attempt to get damage from a single-target Mastermind attack ends up costing slots, as well as opportunities for set bonuses that is probably (MHO) hurting the rest of the MM build. For example, I believe adding single Power Transfer %Heal slot to Stamina would improve a MM performance more than a single %damage piece in Infrigidate. I also want to emphasize that my experience has been that a Mastermind that is focused on trying to deal damage via its own attacks will be a low-performing Mastermind. The alternate power choice for Masterminds is Ice Armor (a Defense + Resistance Shield) which can hold useful Global pieces and/or get some enhancements that can get pretty decent set bonuses. Mileage may vary if the Ice Shield itself is completely necessary (for henchmen), minimally it may reduce the need to slot henchmen with global Defense/Resistance pieces. So TL;DR -> It's not as cut-and-dry a choice between Infrigidate and Ice Shield on Masterminds, IMHO Having written all that, I think the debuff portion of Infrigidate can be useful... as long as we don't forget that it is a single-target attack that requires a ToHit check. I'd probably put it in a MM build at some point, but I think I'd probably only 2-slot it: Accuracy and the Achilles' Heel %-Resistance piece (if I could spare a second slot). If I could only single-slot it (which is very likely for my MMs), I'd probably just use a Hami-O Lysosome. I often only 1-slot such powers because the enemies I typically want to debuff the most usually resist debuffs the best.

I want to write: I think the monsters are in a pretty good place, design-wise, right now. I especially like the Perception change to Kraken, and the limiting of rewards for Scrapyard and Adamastor, as those were out-of-control... Scrapyard more than Adamastor, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . The areas I think perhaps ought to be looked at next, before considering any combat tweaks relate to interaction with the game engine and game world. The sore spots for me: The Arachnos Flier gets 'stuck' between point Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 landing zones. Caleb has a little too much stealth. Both of those being fliers, are IMO the source of the issue... being fliers is ok, but the AI pathing of fliers in the game is... peculiar. Finally, the Grim Vale event is easy to mess up. Again, flying Cabal that are not defeated and prevent the event from respawning is a thing, but the other mobiles can end up far from the vale too. I have also noticed that during the Halloween event the following issue: Outside of Halloween, defeating the Giant Monsters and then any stragglers would reset the Grim Vale event (via the zone message about Monster activity). Recently, it appears that the if the Giant Monsters are defeated in the Grim Vale before any of the level-less spawns, defeating the level-less spawns does not reset the vale (no message about Monster Activity is sent). I wonder if this is because the zone also has timers for supernatural activity and Zombies, plus whatever the timer is for Sally and the two zone wanderers.

FREEM! is a 20-point Knockback Attack that happens on 5% of Council hits. It can disrupt a player's flow, so if it is straightforward to get more than 20 points, I go for it. Willpower has a 10-point toggle, but that same toggle offer large KB resistance as well, so the extra KB protection from FREEM! may not be needed, or wouldn't be worth chasing. A Mule power is one that can take a useful global piece, even if the power is never used. Defense powers are probably the most common mules for Luck-of-the-Gambler Global Recharge.