tidge

You also don't need to be durable or high-level to run SSA1, and it can be infinitely re-run for 5 merits. Once you know what to do, it should take under 7 minutes for a vast majority of characters.

Hoo boy. I find this to be a pretty clumsy implementation.

I can't tell if it is event related or alignment, I suspect the latter. My level 50 is constantly getting Tip notifications. I have 3 valentines and 5 alignment missions.

With ONLY (non set) IOs, being "well rounded" will probably involve specific power choices to mitigate debuffs, improve Accuracy/ToHit, and self heal. With sets, it is reasonably straightforward to mitigate those sorts of concerns via slotting on just about any tanker. In general terms... At 54x8 settings, plan to be hit and make sure you can hit back.

Part of my motivation for a recent new character was explicitly to use up many many horded enhancement sets. I can remember my initial thinking on WHY I hoarded THOSE, but I hadn't rolled up a character that needed so many in a very long time. That new level 10 is now Ninja Running around Paragon City with pockets full of enhancements it won't be able to use for a long time.

Don't forget the players who have Taunt components to their auras. It is somewhat important for players to monitor their own status so the can physically move away if the fall victim to the Confuse.

I haven't been on a Minds of Mayhem in a while, but it is the AoE Mezz that causes grief. When I see myself Taunted, or the League taking a lot more AOE damage, often that is the sign one or more players have gotten confused.

I also agree that Heather Townshends arc is the best. I believe one of the reward options is a second Empyrean Merit. Those missions can be used as a sort of farm as well. From memory, turning up the spawn sizes to x8 and running that arc twice is just about the right amount of spawns to get a Purple or PVP recipe (assuming all mobiles are cleared). When I was doing this regularly, a blitz run takes about 11 minutes while a full sweep (with an AoE DPS character) took a little over 30 minutes to clear.

I would say that that Dull Pain is one of the least important powers to have perma. I have put it on auto, but only for very limited circumstances (hard modes). YMMV. I usually see Defensive clicks as being more important to perma... Although if those powers affect teammates (e.g. Mind Link) it could be important to not have them on auto because teams may be too scattered to get the boosts. Obligatory reminder that a temporary global +Recharge buff can be crafted at a SG base workstation.

For a newish player, I think my recommendation would be Invulnerability.... mostly because of the early access to Dull Pain. It is also crazy easy to build a strong defensive build with just a as few as one extra slot in the primary powers and IOs. (Endurance Reduction, plus one for the Def/Res attribute) Personally, I find the low level Tanker powers to be mostly unnecessary for most of the content... this includes Dull Pain... but if a player is trying to get an old-school feel for playing, just having the self heal/+HP available as a "click" (it won't recharge very quickly without slotting and bonuses) is probably the sort of assurance that a newish player should have available as they observe how damage gets directed at them. I have nothing against the SR recommendation, except that I think this is one of those sets that needs more thinking about slotting and would be slightly harder than some other armors while leveling and/or lacking slots. This is just me: but of Defense-based builds I find myself constantly monitoring the defense values (mostly positional, depends on character)... and it will be hard to get to the "soft-cap" without access to globals and set bonuses.

+1! For me it is less about getting upset and more about smirking about logical disconnects among players who say they want one thing but then fall on "No, not like that!" I often ignore PUGs advertised as "Kill Most" because I've played on sooo many of them where the team leader freaks out because we are engaging spawns "that we don't need to fight". I'd say less than a quarter of these sorts of advertised groups even come close to "kill most". I am not a mind reader, so how am I supposed to know that the leader doesn't want to fight as many of the Freaks/Council in the Penny Yin TF, or sweep through Crey on Manticore, or pull as many ITF Cimerorans/Council as possible?

This is my experience with Dominators: With Domination up they can usually pop into a large spawn and fire off enough controls (hard and soft) that they don't face any meaningful retaliation... and with perma-Domination, this sort of mad cycling happens really fast... but a few things happen to Dominators that don't quite happen to Blasters: A Dominator that gets slowed, or allows perma-Dom to slip gets clobbered fast Endurance burns faster with uber Recharge, so Dominators have to make sure they don't exhaust the blue bar before the Domination refill When a Dominator misses controlling certain boss-level enemies with mezzes, watch out! This is a little different than with Blasters... yes Blasters can be hit with an enemy Mezzes and debuffs, but generally I find it easier to buff Blaster defenses AND have a couple of AoEs to wipe out spawns... so a Blaster that misses a nasty boss/LT has probably wiped the rest of the spawn (or set them up to be wiped with another AoE)... My Dominators don't tend to try to sweep out a spawn until after the first round of controls was applied. Scrappers typically don't get ALL the aggro from a spawn like Dominators, Controllers or Blasters... and Scrappers have their secondaries. When Scrappers fail, usually they are just getting whittled down in a dogpile. My Dominators constantly feel like they are on playing on the edge of a knife... I can play my Blasters in a kamikaze way but usually for me a full-kit Blaster gets into trouble when messing up an attack chain... Dominators fail in a wonderful variety of ways.

I can totally get behind this. Writing only for myself, about myself: 1) I used to always reach for Hasten, and then I tried NOT using it, and I found very little actual difference in when powers were available for use... and when I wanted to use them. If the character has a 90 second heavy-hitting power... Hasten might (on my typical builds) have it ready as much as a couple seconds sooner. Mileage varies, but those 2 seconds could be used for something like chatting with teammates (or whatever). I found that once I was relying on Hasten, I'd then start down the path of chasing Slow resistance and/or perma-Hasten, neither of which are really teaching me what I can do with my primary/secondary powers! I am not anti-Hasten! Every once in a while I find a build with a much longer (5 min+) recharge timer on a power I want, and Hasten helps for sure. I try to delay the choice of Hasten until just before I pick up such powers. 2) I use leveling up to challenge my own notions of how powers "should" work... sometimes I am disappointed, sometimes I am surprised. Sometimes I keep powers by change my slotting instincts. One type of power that I sometimes find great and other times disappointing are Stuns. I never know until I play with them which category they will fall into! One power that I struggle to make work is the Poison Controller's Venomous Gas. On paper, it looks to be good... but as near as I can tell it requires some very specific build/play choices that I have not mastered... I'm on my second Poison Controller just to try to unlock its secrets! My first character that tried it gave it up and never looked back, but I want to see if I can make it work... and for that I feel I need play time with it across all levels. One character that was a nightmare to level was a War Mace Scrapper. With level 50 slotting, it plays perfectly fine across all content.... but if I had stopped using it before 50, I would have a completely different opinion of that set. If I had PLed it to 50, I would have a much narrower opinion of how to make that set work during play... I might even recommend Hasten for it while leveling!

Maybe you are the only one, maybe you aren't! What follows are some of generalities based on my own head-space... Hear are a few of the things that make me question any belief in a level 50's player's deep understanding of the game. Every build contains Hasten, and sometimes it is taken as early as level 4. With enhancement bonuses, and slotting for /Recharge... few builds need Hasten, and taking it as the first power pool pick is probably not a good idea for a lot of content. If the character is only being played at 50+, of course it doesn't matter... it's just that mandatory Hasten is one of things (like 6-slotting Stamina) that feels to me (points at self) like a leftover mode of thinking from a completely different era of game. LFG PUG posts with requesting specific ATs (or "DPS"). This is always feels to me as if the person making the request doesn't understand the game (from any era). Even back in the antediluvian times, debuffing enemies and buffing allies got short shrift. We now are in an era of the game when Controllers can help as much to clear times through damage as other ATs. "Solos" that repeatedly faceplant during low level PUG content (and don't self-rez). I admit I like to push the limits of my characters, especially in low-level content, but I feel like I know how my character plays across all levels because I've often played it through those levels. It also helps to build empathy for players who aren't exemplared. "Pass me the star, I'm level 50 (to a level 47 teammate)" Ok... maybe this is the sign of something other than not having "played the character up", but this always feels to me like someone who doesn't appreciate the difference between a level 47 build and a level 50 build.

The one change I'd like to see for Merit Vendors: to be able to buy recipes for sets that a character has out-leveled (at the highest level).

The second henchmen (not pets) upgrade is the equivalent of the T9 "nukes", which is why it makes sense to me to keep that as an actual upgrade for the henchmen that are already part of the MM's suite of powers. It takes ~255K XP after level 22 (third and final henchman summons at level 22) to unlock the level 26 second upgrade. It's the first henchmen upgrade, available after earning only ~3100 XP (level 6), and will almost always be chosen before the second henchman summons (~18K XP later, at level 12) that strikes me as weirdly wasteful in terms of primary set design space. Baking the offensive powers from the first upgrade into all of the henchmen pretty much only gives the MMs a relative boost during that first 3K XP of their career. I don't think this is game-breaking or over-powering. ...If that first henchman enhancement isn't necessary to give those particular attacks/powers to the henchmen, then it appeals to me to reconfigure that first power into something that can still provide the defenses/resistances but could also be used to mule those "pet globals". As it is right now, some primaries (e.g. Demons, Thugs) have a primary power that isn't one of their henchmen to slot those global pieces, while other primaries do not (e.g. Ninja, Robots)... so if those MM also don't have a secondary power that offers a place to put those pieces, the MM has to sacrifice slots that would otherwise go to Accuracy, Damage, Endurance for the henchmen... which we all agree is where the actual offense of the Mastermind comes from. Despite the side-eye that this is me asking to make MM's over-powered, I'm actually just asking to (1) level the slotting potential across ALL MM primaries by (2) re-evaluating a power that (pretty much) all MMs will have in their build after just 3K XP and has another set of MM specific oddities; e.g. it may be cast as few times as once per gaming session, every primary summons after that first 3K XP will require a cast of the power, etc. I rather like the page 5-ish reworking of the MM primaries, such that I don't think there is much of a reason to revisit them for a while. However: when they are revisited, I think the level 6 power is common to all MM primaries and is worth examining. As an aside: the recent influx of new players has me observing that in terms of percentages: I see a LOT more MM players than I would have expected, given how the AT can be "clumsy" to play in some content. MMs are rather unique to CoX, and the Homecoming team's choices (both for the MM AT and for Quality-of-Life changes) have improved things such that I'm happy for all the new MM players. I've gotten more PMs about Masterminds since January 2024 than for any other AT. I expect we'll see many questions/suggestions about the AT... ultimately thi Level 6 power oddity is pretty much the only area I see as needing a tweak.

I didn't see "Vengeance Bait" listed as an answer on the poll. More seriously: When a Dominator is rolling (with Domination) they can be a whirlwind of insanity. I personally think the controls are what to lead with, but it would be a waste to not lean into their damage and debuffs. There are plenty of different directions to go in, but perma-Domination should be a goal.

The repeatable sources: A full set of 12 ATO purchased directly with merits would be 1200. Each day you could do two runs of a Hamidon raid, choose merits and end with 120. If you don't feel like joining a Hami-raid, Pick-Up-Groups are good, especially the weekly SF/TF that offer bonus merits. The signature Story arcs offer 20 merits each the first time you do them, and you can repeat them weekly for another 20 merits. Alignment missions can be treated very much like AE farming, and after 10 of the same choice, you get a morality mission worth 40 merits. You can convert Vanguard merits to merits if you accumulate a lot of them from Mothership raids. You can also find Ouroboros missions that can be mastered to yield merits for completion.

I feel that the second/final upgrade at Level 26 is warranted. The extra offense granted by that power makes sense to me, from a "progression through the game" PoV. Much of the lower level content would be absurdly easy if the second upgrade's offense was baked in to each henchmen. I point fingers at the first upgrade only because pretty much every MM (except a self-gimping variant) will always have the first upgrade before they get the second or third summons, so except for the brief time immediately after summoning, there won't be a time when the second and third henchmen won't have that buff applied.

I'll list (non Def/global +Recharge) LotG pieces when the stockpile is "too big" and if I don't feel like playing converter roulette. There are only a few circumstances where I will use other pieces from the LotG set, but I know folks will buy them. As @Ironblade wrote: I usually keep the globals, as well as Reactive Defenses pieces. If not a "Display Bug" It's entirely possible that someone listed some of the pieces to quickly get them attuned.

To answer the thread's title: YES, procs are good for game design. Reasoning follows: The game's objective rewards are based on defeats and mission completions. The amount of rewards increases with the number of defeats. Procs of the %damage variety allow low-DPS characters, especially those without AoE "nukes" to turn up the spawn size, increasing the number of potential defeats, and complete missions within an order-of magnitude time with ATs that have AoE damaging attacks from their primary/secondary. If %procs were not available for low-DPS characters, the in-game rewards would be skewed to certain ATs. %procs help smooth out the difference in rewards for different styles of play as well as for different choices of AT.

First: nobody is spending Billions of Inf on Procs. There are a couple of D-Syncs that are elevated in price, but even spending 25 MInf on 30 Very Rare pieces would only be 75% of a Billion. I haven't checked the market for those, but that would have been extreme prices not that long ago. I have a lot of builds loaded with Very Rare sets and the like, and all my characters start with just seed cash and rely on drops, conversions and merits. Now, about %damage pieces... the primary way they improve DPS: Characters that are on the low end of the inherent damage scale, because %damage doesn't follow the AT damage scale. %damage can end up helping low DPS ATs avoid incredibly long clear times when spawn sizes are turned up, but they will still lag behind high DPS ATs slotted without %damage. There are things that work against leaning hard into %damage: Slotting multiple %damage in a power means that you will sacrifice Enhancement set bonuses, and Slotting multiple %damage in a power means that Enhancement values generally are not being slotted (although there are a few %procs that enhance attributes as well) %proc chances are hurt by fast-firing powers, as well as slotted (and Alpha) recharge ATs that already do good damage from an attack should probably just slot those attacks with Enhancement sets, rather than relying on RNG. It would be foolish IMO to give up the sure thing of Enhanced Accuracy, Damage and Endurance from a set just to hope to see some extra %damage. Having written that, my own thinking about high-DPS ATs involves the nature of the power, the sets I would otherwise slot and the %proc chances.

Here is the way I slotted the Shield powers on my Shield/Battle Axe Tank:

I have never tried Titan Weapons, mostly because I never had a concept that called for it and partially due to personal hesitancy to embrace the Momentum mechanic. The personal hesitancy comes from having use War Mace... I know different set... and I found War Mace to be super clunky while leveling up. It was only until the build had a LOT of global recharge (plus whatever set slotting for Recharge in individual attacks) that it played smooth enough for me to feel like I was having fun with it (across all levels of content). As far as "hand held melee weapons" go... I found Battle Axe to be satisfying (both while leveling up and at end game). I haven't tried Broadsword or Staff... I know a lot of folks recommend Staff Fighting, and again (for me) I just didn't have a concept that called out for it. Staff definitely feels like a power set to take advantage of the improved Tanker AoE.

As I wrote: The "defensive" portion of the level 6 'upgrade' makes sense (to me) to not bake in (per my suggestion), the same way Defenders usually have some sort of Ally 'defensive' Buff power. The Level 6 first upgrade isn't doing anything directly for the MM defensively (blah blah Bodyguard mode blah blah fishcakes) so the Tanker "armor" comparison falls flat, as a HUGE portion of the MM offense is coming from the application of the current first upgrade to the henchmen.... which I repeat is a level 6 power that has to be applied to powers used level 12 and level 26. Even in terms of rationalizing the "lore", it makes no sense that a boss learns how to make T1 henches, learns how to improve all henches, then learns how to make more offensive T2 and T3 henches but doesn't know how to make those improved offensive T2 or T3 except by backing up and applying some skill they learned at level 6. Folks can rationalize why this happens, and Homecoming has it so that we don't have to individually apply the upgrades (yay!) so it isn't as if all the aspects of the clumsiness of the original version of the first upgrade have gone unnoticed. As for what sets can be slotted and how those sets apply set bonuses and globals... that's a coding/configuration setting. Presumably this hypothetical resummonable pet could be used for things like the new/in Beta version of Detonate which does work from enhanced damage values of the thing detonated. All MM primaries have the same sort of "first upgrade", so I don't think it would be as unbalancing among MM primaries as it would be to just ask for a single primary's power (like Maintenance Drone) to accept those global pieces. This isn't a hill I'm going to die on, yet it is obvious (to me) that it makes no sense that every T2 (level 12) and T3 (level 26) henchmen shows up "half-baked" because the MM immediately has to apply a one-and-done power the MM picked back at level 6 to give the just-summoned T2 and T3 a more complete set of offensive tools. Strawman arguments about other classes aren't moving my needle. as the balance issues are inherent to the MM AT. Every (well constructed, so avoiding corner cases like "petless") Mastermind is pretty much always going to have that first upgrade applied at all times, except for these cases: The MM is below level 6 The MM is burning through henchmen and is in the short period (8 seconds?) between when a henchmen is summoned and when the upgrades can be applied/stick I don't think it would be game breaking to have MMs with only a single T1 henchmen have more offense at levels 1-5. baking in the offensive upgrades to the T1 is asymmetrical but this is such a short period of time when there already exist inexpensive asymmetries (cheap P2W boosts, etc) for low-level characters, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My own experience with "burning through henchmen" is dominated by the need to defensively boost them, and not offensively boost them... which is why I propose the "defense" elements be tied to a level 6 (replacement) power... I mean, as things currently stand: yes the "one more things to do (by applying all upgrades to a newly summoned hench)" is a thing that currently needs to happen, but my experience has been that having newly resummoned T1/T2/T3 with all their offense isn't really going to make a noticeable difference. I suppose it is possible that the henchmen AI might start with a different set of powers, but it is already a pretty short period of time before newly resummoned henchmen can have the upgrade applied to them (and start attacking).