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I often try to run content organically (that is, at level) but if I was committed to that and tried to recruit teammates, it is an almost certain guarantee that I'd out-level some fraction of the content I intend to run. Like others, I have disabled earning XP to get the "organic" feel, but often I'm just going through Ouroboros (or Schweinzer/Haskell) to get to specific content. An improved set of rewards for going through Ouroboros, or organic play-thru, isn't something I need. Often when I am running low-level Ouroboros content I can turn up the spawn sizes to get more rewards (XP, Inf, drops) that way. IIRC, there are some rewards (e.g. temp powers like Peebles' Ring?) that are better if achieved through organic play, which always struck a sour note with me. I am tempted to write something like: "Learning the Lore is its own reward"... but because of choices the Live Devs made, much of the Lore is a hot mess. I do think that solo missions at-level can help players learn many things about their own powers, and how certain enemies behave (AI, special resistances, and with powers like debuffs) but I don't know that such knowledge can actually be learned, or if learned how useful it could be (see the bold reactions to FREEM! for example)

From my PoV, the non-Patron Blaster pools appear to have a rather odd assortment of powers that don't quite overlap (with each other), and somewhat echo primaries/secondaries which inspire them.... avoiding certain types of powers. Despite my crack offering side-eye to the hugely improved Blaster nukes, Defiance, etc, I'm not actively trying to make Blaster's Dark Mastery be bad, it is more (from my PoV) that there isn't much else to work with given the constraints without making Dark Mastery more like another pool. I see it sort of like the Presence Pool, for which it makes very little sense (to me) to generally want two of those first three powers (which have anti-synergy, for the most part), except to get access to the last two.

In this Thunder Strike example, are you considering the inherently lower damage done to targets which aren't the main target of the attack? EDIT: I want to be clear: I see folks post builds that misunderstand the importance of accuracy slotting in %damage attacks. I also don't think most players understand how RNG itself (as a flat pseudo-random generator) is going to make it extremely unlikely that a 4th proc would hit (even with a 90% ceiling and a 95% ToHit ceiling).

I believe the answer is "no". I will typically place the macro_image in a tray below the default power to be able to monitor the timer.

We were recently discussing this Epic set in the Blasters forum, mostly about the 600 second Soul Consumption, with the consensus that it really isn't likely to be worthwhile to take. As a power, it isn't radically out-of-line with most of the non-Patron level 44 powers, and as a fan of the Presence pool's Unrelenting, I can almost see how those powers' attributes echo. Personally, I wouldn't revamp this pool unless literally nobody is taking the powers. It's not as if Blasters haven't gotten a LOT of great things since launch. The recharge of Soul Consumption can stand as a sour testament to the original Blaster T9 nukes.

IIRC, Thunder Strike is a particularly poor choice to try for %damage, except on Tankers because of the extended range of splash/"excluding the main target" for Tankers.

I dunno about this, at least in terms of practical performance when it comes to making choices about leveraging %damage. Setting aside likely sacrifices from eschewing set bonuses (when frankenslotting) there is the %proc rate and final ToHit enemy chances (for the actual attack, and then the %proc) that get considered when I frankenslot with %damage. At least for me, there are plenty of powers that can accept a lot of different %damage pieces, but in which I rarely slot any %proc outside of a set bonus because the net value (on a map) is quite low, for example single-target holds. I'll also write that I put thought into %damage usage with respect to how I intend to play the specific character. I solo a LOT, so adding %damage to a low-DPS AT improves solo performance. I have a recent level 50 Blaster that would have been almost entirely Psi Damage (and sorry, I'm not taking power pool attacks on a Blaster unless there is something really special about the animation, or I absolutely need a pre-req) so I tried to augment the Psi attacks with enough non-Psi %damage for those fights against robots, etc. that would otherwise be incredibly slow. From the outside, it may look like some of *my* builds might be lazily dropping in %damage with some frankenslots for attribute boosting (I usually try to enhance Accuracy and Endurance, at least on non-DPS ATs, occasionally Accuracy and Range for cones), but I assure you that there is some thought behind my %proc usage. Now, having written all the above, I have seen some builds that looked to me like they did make choices about %damage that did not look well-considered. I'll occasionally point out what I consider to be sub-optimal choices, but it is impossible (at least for me) to know if the player is number-crunching/theory-crafting, or observing performance in game, or just strolling through a specific kind of content that makes it hard for them to evaluate potentially different slotting choices. FWIW, I definitely think that it is worthwhile to use unslotters to try different combinations of enhancements in-game to test performance in situ. This is a lot less painful than a complete respec, and can inform potential future changes to the build.

I realize I'm chancing an "umm, actually" response, so I want to make it clear I'm NOT challenging the statement that "all you need to fly is Fly", because technically Fly could be replaced with Hover, or a temp power, or a teammate with Group Fly, or blah blah blah fishcakes. The point about having to have multiple toggles on is about maximizing the utility basic travel power flying. Flying with just Hover is painfully slow. Flying with just Fly is speedy, but greater endurance cost and no "flight control". Evasive Maneuvers is necessary power for on-demand boosting of flying speed, with some other effects that are roughly on the order what Combat Jumping provides (for a higher Endurance cost). Then there is the (current) Afterburner toggle for more zip (if Fly is toggled on). Those three (and sometimes four) toggles are used if the player wants travel speed and control that is roughly equivalent to what a character using a different travel pool gets by simply lifting a finger from the keyboard. (I am aware that other travel powers may have their own weirdness vis-a-vis "control" or only offering JumpSpeed or RunSpeed but not both.) If the player has pets or henches that they also want to Fly (because they don't inherently Fly), then Group Fly gets toggled on as the fourth/fifth toggle. My ask is that Evasive Maneuvers get turned into an Auto power. I'm ok if it has to become a "Level 20" pick. I'm ok if it loses even more immobilization protection relative to Combat Jumping. It simply strikes me as weird that in order to improve either Hover or Fly I need to have another toggle, especially when I look at the (pick only one) Origin pools that combine multiple types of travel options (albeit limited ones) with a single level 4 power pick. I've looked at other power pools for a similar sort of power that improves other, earlier powers from the same pool and the closest I can find is the non-toggle Field Medic from Medicine.

My point was more along the lines of how %proc damage is a pretty good equalizer across all ATs (and drives a sweet variety in build choices), and that some players see the corner-case of the Changeling exploit similarly. I personally don't use the Changeling trick because it 100% seems like cheat code, whereas we've had a decade of %proc and fun for everyone except possibly that one edgelord on some "speed leaderboard".

It's really not that hard, assuming that players actually clean up the event (during AND after construction). The events are IIRC on the same 4-hour timer. It is almost never a stray Paladin, it is almost always a stray clockwork preventing the restart of one of the three sites.

The suggestion was: Ghost of Scrapyard is essentially "summonable on demand" (assuming it is not already in the zone). Eventually players decided that the new Monstrous Aethers were desirable enough (or they learned that 6 merits accompanies each defeat of Scrapyard) such that there were hours-and-hours of constant summoning and fighting of Scrapyard. This lasted... two weeks?... before the devs intervened. A never-ending stream of Paladins being constructed and defeated would be pretty much the same thing, minus the need of the players to go through the trouble of summoning a Paladin. Assuming the rewards were nerfed similarly to how Ghost of Scrapyard was changed, we'd eventually end up with three paladins just hanging around in KR once people were bored of alting to fight them.

Yes (setting aside the Changeling issue, because that's kinda complicated *1). One thing that I don't think gets recognized enough: 99% of the rewards (and 99%+ of the ability to progress) in the game are explicitly tied to damaging enemies to defeat them (solo or in groups). This is natural, this is good. However: It is only fair for solo players because through straightforward power-slotting choices (ehem, %damage procs) can characters that otherwise would do minimal damage to enemies can now do damage that is roughly on par with poorly-slotted attacks from other ATs. (*1) Kheldians that don't 'Changeling' are in my experience the slowest to solo content, compared to other ATs... and it hasn't been like I'm skimping on my Kheldian builds.

5x10% from a combination of five 10% "purples" and/or the Catalyzed ATO 5x7.5% from LotG (defensive powers or mules) The final 36.5 isn't that hard to get without "warping" a build. Non-LotG 7.5% are not hard to come by (for example Basilisk's Gaze is an easy 4-slot choice for a low-level single-target Hold) 8.75% often require 6 slots, but a Defensive or Healing power can do worse things than to pick Reactive Defenses or Preventive Medicine, plus the above mentioned non-catalyzed ATO). There are smaller (6.25%) bonuses that come from things like Expedient Reinforcement, which is probably the best choice for Recharge Intensive pets. All this without Forced Feedback %+Recharge or SG Base Recharge Time boosts. Dominators have it weirdly (IMO) easy compared to other ATs to get +Recharge from set bonuses because of the options where to slot Damaging, Control, and ATO sets. They have it a lot easier than most Tankers for instance. The only different personal choice I make when going for a non-hasten Perma-Dom that is often different than for my builds chasing a LOT of global Recharge is to try to squeeze in as much slow resistance as possible, given all the other build constraints.

If there are many Controllers soloing hard mode (or +4 content), I suspect that those players have figured out how to do it without requiring changes to the sturdiness of pets. I realize that this argument wouldn't mean that non-sturdy pets are gatekeepers preventing Controllers from tackling hard mode solo, but Controllers can certainly try to tackle a solo +4 using Lore pets to see how that goes (while the Lores are up). The greater point I am trying to make is that I believe among all the possible ATs, there are some that have to adjust their playstyle more than other ATs depending on the content. Personally? I think Masterminds have to do the most adjusting... and it isn't because Masterminds (generally) henchmen that are less sturdy than Controller pets. Crabberminds would probably like to be able to not have to resummon their pets, as well as wish that their pets did more for the brief amounts of time they are likely to stick around in +4 content. My Crabbermind is almost certainly going to swap to the non-Crabbermind build in order to leverage more effective powers. I don't see this as radically different than suggesting that a Controller who has sunk a lot into making stronger pets perhaps have a build that focuses more on control than pet DPS (for some content).

Heh. My order of possible fixes is: Toggle Group Fly back on, move. Order henches to go to a nearby spot [Assemble the Team] Dismiss, resummon.

If I can duplicate the effect of a click power with an inspiration, the power had better have a cycle time on par with how long it takes me to get enough inspiration drops to combine into the inspiration I want. Macros to combine inspirations don't require me to wait until I can pick a T9 or Epic power.

[citation need]

I don't think we have the same perspective on the use of multiple builds. Personally, the only time I ever used multiple builds while leveling was for my Widow (because I explicitly had two different "forms") and eventually for my Soldier (once it got to the point where I could "Crabbermind")... but I have often done post-50 builds. It isn't until I have slots to dedicate that I can see performance differences. I suppose picking different Epics/Patrons is a choice (damage typing perhaps) but that isn't where my mind goes when thinking about multiple builds. I think more in terms of one build leveraging Hasten, adding Slow resistances, more healing, higher defenses... basically specializing for specific content. Specifically why I suggested maybe using different builds for Controllers above, was because the suggestion was made in light of: Personally, I don't think that there are many Controllers taking on +4 content solo... and if they are, any DPS from pets (if the Controller even has pets) is way down on the list of things the Controller needs to be concerned with, behind Defenses, Control duration slotting, ToHit, etc. A second build could be used to address all those things that wouldn't be needed by a Controller running solo +0x8 content. It could be as simple as one build leveraging %procs and another leveraging set bonuses. As I noted above, there are other builds (like Blasters) where for a LOT of content the only adjustment a full-kit 50 might have to make between +4 and +0 content is in terms of strategy.

If that ever happens, Controllers will be relegated to the basement of clear times such that folks will be crying for a return to the days of many multiple (DPS-dealing) pet summons just to try to get map clear times close to an order of magnitude of Blasters. %damage is, perhaps unintentionally, the great equalizer when it comes to different ATs being able to complete almost all of the game's content in roughly similar amounts of time. Never forget that almost all of the game's rewards are directly tied to defeating critters. There is legitimately no reason to change procs, unless the legitimate reason is to stratify almost all the rewards in the game among ATs unequally.

This would pretty much make the KR Paladin event "Scrapyard 2.0", so I say "no thank you". Multiple Paladins aren't IMO that much of a challenge. The burst power isn't used by a Paladin until it get below 50% health, and then every 90 seconds while it is below 50%. The tactics for dealing with a single Paladin translate just fine to dealing with multiples.

Hover and Fly as separate powers makes a LOT of sense to me, and since Fly is available at level 4 and not behind a gate, it strikes me as a perfectly reasonable circumstance to have them be separate powers. Cards on the table: I think I've only had two characters that I bothered to use Null the Gull to change my default so that Group Fly doesn't affect them. In both cases there was something specifically about their power choices for those characters that made the character play inferior. Otherwise? Group Fly sometime surprises me, but I am NEVER offended by it. It isn't exactly fair for me to believe this, but because I am literally never bothered by being affected by Group Fly, except possibly for personal character choices, I believe that the folks who demand that the power be changed are probably because they are always offended by Group Fly... and the game makes it pretty easy for those self-selected folks to address their personal peeve. On characters of mine that can't fly, I kinda like being able to have them float off the ground! Even though I like Group Fly for a variety of reasons (including: it can mule useful pieces!), there ARE subtle issues with it for the ur-case of Mastermind usage. It mostly works as intended, but I worry that the various suggestions to change it ("in any way possible, just so that *I* never have to be subject to Group Fly again!") would actually make it worse for MMs. The subtle problem I am referring to is that de-toggling Group Fly can really "confuse" the henchmens' pathing AI such that sometime henchmen simply stand in place (wherever they are) and even giving direct commands to that henchman will NOT get the henchman to move. I mention this because the henchmen pathing AI is already subtle, and frankly I am amazed it works as well as it does. I can see that some folks are trying to come up with ideas to help the brother MMs keep some utility of Group Fly, but I feel that it is desperation to avoid Null the Gull that is driving all other critical thinking about this.

Obviously: Try to get perma-Domination, without Hasten. This will require quite a few pricey pieces, but accumulating merits will help you get them. You will probably need Hasten in the meanwhile, but I don't recommend taking it too early. I have a Fire/Psy Dom, and have Mind Controllers so I can't speak directly to the Mind/Fire combo. In order to get the Global Recharge set bonuses will have to be leveraged, plus mules for Luck of the Gambler. This won't leave much room for %damage via procs. I would suggest the following strategy: You will want to have (and use) both Confuse and Mass Confusion. Normally I recommend having the %Contagious Confusion piece in the single-target, but there are important considerations/reasons to put it in the AoE. The first is that you can boost the heck out of the Purple set to improve the recharge time on the base 4-minute AoE. The second is more subtle: because of the way the RNG works, you will miss critters upon cast of the AoE, but the way the Coercive %proc works means you will get a second chance to control any of the non-bosses that you initially missed. You can of course followup with the single-target Confuse. I recommend 5-slotting the AoE with Coercive set, and adding a %damage piece, any damage applied by the %proc gets you on the chance to receive drops when those enemies eventually defeat themselves. The one power I would consider leveraging for multiple %damage is Terrify. Holds can accept a lot of %damage pieces, but you will need to get Global +Recharge from those powers. Be aware that you can only have a maximum of five of the same (by "name") global recharge bonuses. I have at least one Dominator that did NOT catalyze one of the ATO sets because it was already getting the 10% bonus from five other sets but still could take advantage of the 8.75% bonus.

My comment on Blaster BR is more like "damning with faint praise". I find Beam Rifle to be a perfectly serviceable primary for Blasters, with the following caveats: For Blasters, my experience has been that it has generally longer clear times on xN content, compared to most other Blaster primaries I find it hard to maximize the utility of whatever the Blaster secondary (usually because power picks don't offer synergy with the BR attacks) is when paired with Beam Rifle In contrast, my BR Defender could lean hard into the secondary effects of BR attacks (Beam Rifle as Secondary), and also go strong on the Defender Buff/Debuffs to act as a force multiplier while also plinking away. The odd (MMV) choice I made with the Defender was that because there is less need (IMO) to pick low level Defender primary powers ASAP, I could pick more of the BR attacks (which have useful debuffs). So the Defender ended up with more Beam pew-pew than the Blaster! The BR Sentinel gets the chain attack (so single-target but secondary AoE), and can pick a secondary that can essentially be treated as set-and-forget. I found that I didn't have to put much thought into how to leverage power picks for the BR Sentinel's secondary, whereas with a BR Blaster I had to juggle choice on which powers, how to leverage them, and how to slot them.

I'm not a fan. I've taken it (and its parallel) on non-Blasters, and I didn't really like it on those either. What I see as the downsides: 1) It comes so late in a build that if it is a power that is tactically important, then the build probably has some sort of defect that ought to have been addressed by making other choices before you got to this point. Often, if I think I need Soul Consumption for Blaster survival, I opt for Fire Mastery instead to get Rise of the Phoenix. I find it mentally easier to worry about dying after the character is already dead. 2a) It has a 5-minute 10-minute base recharge. No matter what else the build is doing with Global Recharge, you've got to slot this for Recharge or you may as well not have picked the power. 2b) It has a base Accuracy of 1.0 No matter what else the build is doing with Global Accuracy/ToHit, you've got to slot this for Accuracy or you may as well not have picked the power, if you are playing against +N where N is greater than 1. 2 (combined) It is a slot-hungry power. I just don't like trying to find slots to invest in a power taken after level 35. 3) It's a relatively shallow PBAoE, which may or may not jive with what else the (here) Blaster is doing in combat. 4) The pre-requisites for being able to choose Soul Consumption are IMO mediocre. The first pick will probably be Murky Cloud, which I think is a pretty good toggle. I kinda like Fearsome Stare, but it isn't really a power that a Blaster needs (as a %damage attack), and I feel like it should have at least a second slot invested if you want it to do what it does well. The other two powers are serious meh... I could see either of them for concept, but neither is really helping a Blaster go wild IMO.

My mind went there, but because of the Disintegration mechanic and the general lack of AoE I would think Beam Rifle is one of the least "non-busy" ranged attack choices. I suppose a lot depends on what the spawn size is set to. I like my BR (non-Blasters over Blasters) characters, but I find myself toggling between targets and trying to maximize the output of the BR attacks.