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I am not a great fan of 'gimmick' fights. I don't mind if the enemy has some sort of attack that we have to account for, but once the defeat mechanism becomes something other than Damage-over-time > (Regeneration + Healing), I start to think that this fight belongs to some other game. I don't completely object to 'puzzles', because I know that sort of thing appeals to some players. The one element of basic CoX combat mechanics that has led to 'easy-mode' type thinking is player's "Defense soft-capping"(*1). Auto-hit powers and mega-DDR have obviously been implemented, but I think a lot of what makes the game easy-mode is basically the ability to stand in place and button mash. I don't envy folks trying to bring some game balance because I think the limited toolbox available is being leveraged reasonably well (including -MaxHP, enemy healing, etc.) (*1) Would it be the end of the world if enemies had a chance-to-hit floor of 10%?

I haven't player Marine on a MM... but I love Whitecap on my Controller. Despite how much fun it can be, my initial thoughts for a MM would be to deprioritize it, or at least slot it differently, for reasons. Mileage varies of course. The absolute best thing Whitecap has going for it IMO as far as MMs go is the AoE -Resistance effect... 30 seconds is an eternity for henchmen. Looking at the build I posted above (Robots/Traps) I'd find it hard to sacrifice a primary -Regen attack, so I might give up an Epic pool completely to fit in all the good stuff that Marine has to offer.

Yes, it should read as "henchmen CAN'T take single-target hits" (at least not when not at full Health). Typically, once I have all three tiers of henchmen: I don't worry about losing a single henchmen. I'll do what I need to do on the MM cycle, and then resummon. If the thing I'm fighting is problematic with cones, I try to reposition the henchmen out of the cones, but rarely does that make a big difference. My Robotic MM has crazy good defenses for itself and the henches, so for almost every fight against a big baddie, I somewhat know how long before the critter gets an auto-hit against something. The slightly more problematic times are when: The critter gets a 'lucky' AoE hit against everything in my arsenal The henchemen haven't all quite server-registered as 'within range' for Bodyguard (or the Global Uniques), so only a fraction of the henches take a blow given to the MM The critter hits the MM with a relatively long-duration control, delaying the MM getting/keeping aggro There is nothing to be done about #1, and #2 is more about being patient. #3 isn't that much of a problem if fights are going smoothly.... but there are some regular enemies like Jack in Irons that will sequence AoE as well as debuffs and controls that can sour a fight. I think his fear lasts for 20 seconds on my main MM, and while (one of?) his stun is a shorter duration it isn't trivially short. Keeping the aggro (on the MM, to leverage Bodyguard mode) is pretty important... at least in my experience. FWIW, I don't like the 5-max-target Provoke from the Presence pool as it has too few potential targets. I rely on MM AoE attacks with a %-Res debuff and/or knockdown (which also helps with patches). Traps happens to have Caltrops and Acid Mortar that can also distract enemy critters over time, plus the Poison Trap's AoE control potential.

Playing Energy Blast is more-or-less it's own reward. FWIW, I only slot a KB->KD in Nova, because the 4π scatter is where I draw the line/circumference/surface/whatever.

We already have complaints from (some) players who don't want to visit Null the Gull so that Group Fly doesn't affect them, can you imagine the vitriol because (some) players wouldn't visit Null the Gull to "turn off Knockback"?

I was initially hesitant to suggest faster recharge times for T9s, but I think the existence of Destiny Incarnate powers (available at levels 45+, sure) somewhat exposes just how BAD most of the T9s are: Most (all?) T9s only affect the character using it, Destiny powers have team/league effects. Destiny powers are on a 2-minute timer, T9s unenhanced base recharge times can be greater than 15 minutes. In my head, since the days when the Incarnates were introduced, I've seen the Incarnate tiers beyond Alpha as the way to let some ATs get the sorts of powers that other ATs get... basically offering a taste of what it can feel like to have a different AT; AoE ranged attacks, Pets, Debuffs, Defenses/Resistances/Heals, blah blah fishcakes. But I think the Destiny powers are more of a taste of what a good Armor T9 should be... if the Destiny powers exactly copied actual armor T9s, attitudes towards them would be very different.

One of the things I like best about /Traps (and synergizes well with Robotics) is that with a number of AoEs in the secondary it is possible to keep a LOT of attention off of the (ranged attack) henchmen. Robots with the FFG are possible to defense cap, but zero attacks against them can be even better. Obviously I appreciate that /Traps has a number of very skippable powers too, as it allows for more expansion into power pools. The one weakness I think Robots/Traps has is this: even with high defenses, excellent resistances and the Maintenance Drone, plus whatever heals the Protector Bots may toss out, it is possible in some fights to get into a sort of cascading loss of henchmen leading to cycles of summoning/buffing. By my crude estimate, this is something like less than 2% of all fights, and it almost always involves something like a single AV/GM that uses a quick sequence of AoE attacks which include some sort of debuff and/or control. The control bit is more problematic for the MM itself, because if the MM loses the aggro most of the henchmen can stand up against the extra single-target attacks from the enemy. Nearly all of the time, 'good driving' of the henchmen is enough to avoid/recover from this sort of cascading situation... but it can be busy. In early (pre-50) levels, and especially on live, I believe this is one of the things that made /Dark such an appealing secondary (especially for Robotics)... there are a couple of different ways to have spam healing as a completely secondary effect. /Time continued this... but /Marine takes it to an entirely different level! /Marine is essentially offering (for MMs) everything I find appealing about both Traps and Time secondaries.

RE: Potential Synapse rework... some of my rando thoughts: The early "defeat all" could still have lots of spawns to fight, but there really should be fewer of the first four? five? and there should be some other objectives like glowies or hostages. The zone clickies should just be an instanced map of Steel Canyon, with additional team objectives. The Bertha/Long Tom/hostages/Clockwork Lord missions should have them combined, and include ambushes. Babbage spawn is fine. The immobilizer is a sort of relic... probably keep it for the way it helps under-powered teams. The final mission should have Clockwork bosses that better show that these are a boy's toys.... like DnD figures or Chess Pieces. Players should have to engage them on the way to the Clockword Lord.

While there must be valid reasons for being hidden (stalkers?) there are some players I encounter who must (in-part) decide to be hidden because they are skirting some of the terms of service... most obviously multi-boxing in the open world at certain times.

I'd vote 'no' for all my classic old reasons, plus a new one: If this option existed, I worry that TPTB would start leveraging Repel more often. As things stand now, I feel like I can mitigate Knockback (via slotting, or several immobilize powers), but I haven't found a satisfactory way to mitigate Repel.

Caveat: I don't farm or use specialty builds for particular content. So for resistance-based characters: Minimally: +6% Defense (All) from the Gladiator's Armor and Steadfast Protection uniques. After that, I usually try to pick up some enhanceable Defense toggle... or leverage a power in the armor set that has a defense component that I can boost. I generally want the equivalent of a Defense IO in such powers (at minimum) although sometimes those powers get more (from sets) or less (if only holding a Luck of the Gambler piece as a mule, and/or the Kismet unique). The Unbreakable Guard Scaling Resistance piece is another must-have IMO; it requires a defense power of some sort. After these... I'm sort of picking up Defense boosts via set-slotting. The only one I can think of that I commonly go for is the 4-set bonus from Unbreakable Guard (3+% Melee positional) because it slots nicely into a resistance set's powers. For some resistance-oriented characters I've gone deep into Presence (for Unrelenting), and Experimentation (Adrenal Booster). for situation boosts to defense (among other things). I tend to treat Sorcery's Rune of Protection as primarily for mezz, but it does more than that. Force of Will (for Unleash Potential) is one of those clickies that is good for resistance-based characters.

From a couple of recent threads elsewhere, I'm reminded by just how poor a choice most "armor" T9s are for characters, I am not saying that they can't be made to work, just that in comparison to other options they are pretty inferior. What do *I* think is wrong with them? #1: Inspirations can pretty much do most of what the T9s can do... Inspirations don't have a downside... and by the earliest point a character can pick a T9, that character will have 15 slots to hold inspirations. I kinda like when a power set includes a power that means certain inspirations can (mostly) be ignored! Most T9s don't fall into this category, for reasons: #2 The base recharge times are ridiculously long, and #3 The crashes (which don't happen with Inspirations) There is no shorter of Power Pool powers available (usually level 20) far earlier that T9s (even in a primary, at level 26) that have shorter base recharge times than T9s, no crashes, and effects rather similar to some T9s: Rune of Protection, Adrenal Booster, Unleash Potential, Unrelenting... and if we want to include the "OH $#!+" use case, Phase Shift). Obviously there are necessary pre-requisites for each of those powers, but most of my builds have a way to fit in three pool power choices by level 30 (when armor secondary T9s become available), if not earlier. Historically: I have a vague recollection that originally (Issue 0, and for the "Jack E" era) there was a deep concern about making players "impossible to defeat"... and this would have been carried over into the initial PVP-era thinking. However: The game doesn't really reward "not being defeated". Even if I wanted to imagine some sort of "unkillable tanker" (and I didn't bother to review the Tanker sub-forum to find self-described "unkillable tanker builds") teamed with a group of murder-hobos, the game still has the following mechanics in play working against (teams of) players: Aggro caps Floor 5% chances to hit Enemy-applied debuffs An undefeated enemy gives no XP, Inf, or loot drops I don't want to bust on Jack E, but this is the guy that initially thought rooting Invulnerability characters using Unyielding was both necessary and good for game balance. What would I like to see? Basically I'd like to see the T9s put on par with (or closer to) Inspirations: Remove the crashes (if T9 nukes no longer crashes, why should armor clicky T9s?) Improve the base recharge times For the latter point, I don't think the T9s should be able to be made "perma", and the enhanceable nature of powers (as opposed to Inspirations) is a kewl thang IMO. Certainly the way an Incarnate power like Destiny: Barrier (available every 2 minutes) can give us some idea of what a self-affecting buff could look like at 'maximum strength' (for non-incarnate content). I am pretty much open to re-imagining many of the armor T9s in ways other than my suggestions above. For example, some could become (weaker, for balance) toggles... or some could become (weaker and/or more limited and/or different) Auto powers. What has everybody else got?

I was considering Blinding Powder as my (current) build's only ranged attack levering 2x 50+5 Acc/range and three %damage... but the base recharge time is such a stinker! I typically end up with around +100% global recharge at level 50 without Hasten, so it wouldn't be terrible... but this is a melee toon I'm playing! As this is also a level 28+ power, I feel like I would probably be better served picking a ranged attack from an Epic/Patron pool.

I agree! This is more-or-less the strategy I use on other non-Tankers for such T9s. I'm not allergic to the T9s, but I see a big opportunity cost with taking them as anything but a very rarely used "OH $#!+" power. I find it somewhat odd that Rune of Protection, even with its now un-improvable recharge time, and other pool powers like Unrelenting, Unleash Potential, and even Adrenal Booster can be more reliable than most Armor T9s. Let's not even mention Inspirations, which we can hold a LOT of by the time the T9s can be chosen.

The original Positron TF had (and still has, via Ouroboros) one nice feature: it is soloable by pretty much any AT, at level. Of course in the way-old days, you needed a team to start the TF, but it wasn't unusual for players to give up and quit, which would allow those who didn't quit to finish it (solo). Synapse isn't as easy to solo at-level, but if exemplared down it is completely do-able, especially with any sort of temp summon for the final mission.

This is one of the reasons why Blinding Powder feels (to me) like it should be an earlier choice (maybe the T5?), as with the small arc and short range it feels a LOT more like something a character might want for soloing level 20-ish arcs. I guess that logic holds true for level 28+ arcs, but for Scrappers... they should be able to handle 10 enemies that are lined up in a cone in front of them. I'm not looking for the next Seeds of Confusion, and I can see that Scrapper T8s are all over the place, but on paper this looks clumsy to use. I can sort of understand the thinking about "maybe it is to mitigate Defense Debuffs?" but again... relatively few enemies are likely to be hit, and the cone is going to be in the direction a scrapper will be facing anyway. I do tend to change between targets, but my <TAB> and <near> strategy doesn't always get me the next optimal target. Setting aside my personal feels, maybe the -Perception is supposed to synergize with Shinobi-Iri (the Stealth toggle)? Again, the level difference between a T3 power and a T8 power seems pretty huge to me. I can't really believe this because of the 2 minute base recharge time... it feels more like a bad port of a Controller's primary T7 or T8 AoE. If I didn't know better (from experience), and because I sometimes do clutzy things just to try them out, I might replace Blinding Powder with Kui-In Restu (the T9 crash) and rely on the Endurance reload to get my toggles back up. I still have the T9 penciled into the build as a mule, so by 'replace' I mean 'adjust the order of picks' and shuffle slots out of Blinding Powder. I've experimented with this sort of approach before, but I find it to be a sort of big investment (in slots) for a power that has such a LONG base recharge time.

I am still leveling up a /Ninjitsu Scrapper, and my thoughts are not yet solid on Blinding Powder or Seishinteki Kyoyo (the Endurance reload). For the latter, I am using it level 30... but mostly (I suspect) because I don't have all my other powers fully slotted so Endurance burn can be an issue (if I keep all my travel toggles on). I had planned to take it earlier than level 30... but along the way I didn't really need it. For Blinding Powder, I had planned to 6-slot it with Coercive Persuasion. The set bonuses are really quite good! However... I am not crazy about the narrow/short-range cone. The Contagious Confusion %proc might help a little to find some extra targets, but I am going to need to test how much utility I get out of this base two-minute-recharge power. This seems like the sort of power that could be more useful at lower levels... but like I said, "still testing".

As written above, it is a matter of taste. I do tend to slot Meteor with a KB->KD piece because I've found that in some content a total-wipe of all the critters hit doesn't happen... and sometimes there are things like ally toggles on creatures' corpses, or allies that want the bodies for their own nefarious reasons.

This bit I snipped isn't specific to the Synapse, but this is a good place to see this issue(*1). FWIW, even on characters for which I don't have many attacks, I usually try to have some plasmatic tasers or hand grenades in the pockets; each is a relatively temp power from S.T.A.R.T. (*1) The issue being: players with relatively ineffective characters for low level content. The number one head-scratcher for me is the commonly-seen-in-build recommendation to take Hasten at level 4, although any time Hasten is taken much earlier than a power with something like a 60+ base second recharge is available seems wasteful IMO. I suppose there are REALLY tight builds possible, but usually those I've seen also have more than one pool power picked before level 20.

I smell what you are cooking. I can imagine it being slotted... especially if the power has no other damage type (beside poison) %proc available, but all things being equal, I might just prefer the extra 6% psi defense (6th slot of Apocalypse) and guaranteed 5%-ish more damage by adding Damage/Recharge (from the attack). On average I guess (some scribbling off-panel) the difference is only 6ish more of the same type damage versus 36ish (of a different type of damage), but it is still only against a single-target. I tend to drop %damage in the AoEs. Another personal feeling about %damage in a single-target attack is a somewhat arbitrary one: Ultimately I want to minimize the total number of attacks against large groups... so if the both the 6xApocalypse choice and the 5xApocalypse+2nd %proc choice don't end up speeding clear times (after nuking a goup) then the extra %damage wasn't really helping (to my thinking). Obviously things are a little different for Sentinels and Blasters with respect to AoEs... but again, if I have an extra slot for %damage, I am probably putting it in an AoE attack.

AFAIK, once an attack hits, any DoT from that attack will not require further ToHit checks. Toggled Auras are things that get repeated ToHit checks. Some pseudo-pets obviously make subsequent attacks (with ToHit checks) and I think there are a small number of powers that leverage something like a pseudopet to randomly try to do damage. Those things shouldn't be part of the players' streakbreaker(s)... I think every critter that can attack gets to benefit from streakbreaker (henchmen do). Also AFAIK, any non-guaranteed child effects (from a successful attack) don't factor into streakbreaker at all, those chances belong to the power not the player/critter so I don't know why they would. Many of these above are all rolls on the RNG of course... but from players who have shared logs of their own roll results we've seen a remarkably flat distribution... which was how it was designed. It would be worse for all of us if it didn't give flat results! I have no complaints about the RNG, it is more that I think the implementation of streakbreaker is the confounding factor at least for characters with typical 95% ToHit chances on all attacks, because those characters REALLY don't want to miss. I also don't entirely blame the live devs for implementing streakbreaker... it was more-or-less an attempt to shortcut any complaints that the RNG is being unfair w.r.t. combat. I do think that the choices of cutoffs are weird... for example: given a 50-50 chance ToHit, there is a 6.25% chance of four consecutive misses... and a 3.13% chance of a fifth miss (that streakbreaker forces to be a hit). But for 95%, streakbreaker's trigger after 1 miss (on the second roll) is only 0.25% to have been a second consecutive miss (the first one had a chance of 5%). It is hard to convince folks that the flat RNG is being fair when streakbreaker is often jumping in, especially at the ToHit ceiling. I feel like it would have been easier to convince players about RNG by not included streakbreaker but instead include direct logging of all RNG rolls, or at least all ToHit rolls if that is what streakbreaker is supposed to address. I apologize for rambling about this... I feel like I started thinking about this when I had trouble figuring out why AoE attacks against large spawn sizes (up to 8 grays, clustered close enough in the area-of-effect) seemed to be generating more than one MISS message too often for my taste. I grew bored collecting and analyzing data for the 'power' side of the hypothesis I was testing: I used AoE to get many rolls at once, and I didn't have the stamina to keep executing single-target attacks. Ultimately I collected enough data to 'disprove the null hypothesis' I had chosen, but not with enough power to convince anyone (myself included)... so I could be wrong!

I would agree with an argument that most of the ATs don't feel particularly distinguishable (in play) from one another until about level 12. Below that level... the S.T.A.R.T. (formerly P2W, formerly veteran reward powers) attacks and travel option make initial content very tolerable, even for long-timers. With 2XP and easy patrol XP (exploration badges) it takes very little effort to 'graduate' from Atlas Park (or Mercy Island) even without trying something like Death From Below. Starting at level 5, with radio/newspaper missions it is pretty quick to start getting the Safeguard/Mayhem missions. By level 20, with Ouroboros in the mix, there is plenty of content. Obviously Ouroboros and Safeguard/Mayhems can be run at level 50 too, but most of the 'flashbacks' are low(er) level content. I personally do find some of the arcs at certain levels to be a bit of a drag(*1), but I never feel short of different content to do below level 30, and above that point I find myself working to mix things up. (*1) Mileage may vary.

I'm trying to gauge how much of the game is seen by the user as a "waste of time"... there is very little reason to spend much time in the intial level ranges, and at a certain point there is a lot of content available, so I'm trying to calibrate the comment.

As I wrote, I don't have direct experience with Liquid Nitrogen... but I expect it to act like other AoE and trigger the %proc on cast... it appears to be a rather large AoE with a 10-target cap.... but the cycle time is pretty miserable. The non-intuitive thing about powers like this (patches, puddles... most pseudopets) is that they work better (for %proc) if the power itself has accuracy slotted in it. Sometimes folks just load the power with %damage pieces and get frustrated when they don't see them proc. For these sorts of damage-over-time powers, I never count on any %proc damage from the 'ticks', just on-cast.

As an aside... I truly can't remember the last time I used a Gladiator's Javelin %Toxic piece in a build. Maybe on a Stalker's epic snipe from long ago? I know that there aren't many options for %damage from purely ranged damage sets, but there is a lot of design space that makes adding that %proc to a single-target ranged attack an uphill battle for me: single-target ranged attacks are usually good for set bonuses single-target ranged attacks are usually bad for %proc rates (and benefit more from set-slotting as opposed to franken-slotting) single-target ranged attacks often have another component (e.g. Defense debuff) that offer alternative %damage type Gladiator's Javelin has some IMO mediocre set bonuses, YMMV.