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I agree the thread needs to exist: It needs to exist to explain to players with a Knockback allergy how they can mitigate their issue. (AoE Immobilize) My experience: Playing a character that does knockback is an excellent way to understand how to play with a teammate that generates knockback. There are pretty much only two types of powers that I will be certain to slot a KB->KD piece in: Attacks that vector enemies away at 360° away from a point (e.g. Meteor, Nova) AoE "controls" It is funny to watch Meteor the first time... but that sort of scatter makes cleanup rather confusing IMO.

Me (for Tankers, Brutes) : I'm not hearing any Taunts. Me (For just about everyone): You can pick and slot an AoE Immobilize.

To the OP (and anyone else who cares): My suggestions for "Imma gonna make my version of ____" are to either: Go straight parody, not using trademarked elements (of anybody's IP, including existing parodies), or Graft the powerset onto a completely different costume/body than the character you are trying to mimic. ...and maybe make a character bio that makes it obvious why your character isn't someone else's IP?

I almost exclusively solo with MMs, I haven't used the Teleportation pools since Live... I want to say that I last used it when Long Range Teleport was the capstone power. I cannot recall if this was before it was available as a tiered reward for long-term subscribers or not, but I digress. I understand the appeal: "I'll separate the enemy!" or (more likely, once you see it isn't grabbing all enemies) "I'll have a long range taunt!"... but in practice, this simply doesn't work. Applying minimal control of the henchmen (via commands) achieves all those effects (and more!) and the MM will move much faster through missions and maps. There are two direct negatives with the Teleportation pool (for offense) and many indirect negatives. The direct ones are that you need to slot the powers (offensively) for both Accuracy and Recharge... and all that will get you are a couple of powers that you have to cast for the exact same effect as simply walking up to enemies.

There is one part of the Peacebringer LoreTM that always sits weird with me: It's the HUGE numbers of PPD Peacebringers that can appear in missions (Mayhem, Morality, Newspaper, Incarnate, etc.). Those missions make it seem like they are everywhere.

I think that for most cases, this is backwards thinking. AoE tend to be better for %procs because even though the individual %proc rate is smaller, because most mobile critters tend to cluster, hitting three or more enemy mobiles tends to "guarantee" a firing of the %proc, even if the recharge in the AoE is relatively high. If you get more than one %effect (like %damage, %-res) then the player is ahead of what might have happened with a single-target attack that also got %damage. Also: Many AoE tend to be lower damage than a similar-level single-target attack, so %damage adds more relative to what a single-target could do. Conversely, most single-target attacks are relatively fast-recharging (12 second or less), so they have inherently worse %proc rates... on top of maybe only getting the effect on a single target. Sentinels have generally smaller AoE of course. My opinion is that the Sentinel ATO sets have set bonuses that are worth significant slotting... that is, more than three in a single power, so I'll have them usually 6-slotted in a couple of the early single-target powers. Which ones depends on what other sets I intend to use in single-targets. I suppose some players may look at the potential for getting lots of 10% Range bonuses, but I'd consider that a waste on Sentinels who don't need to stay at range. A note on Franker-slotting the Sentinel ATO. The only piece I'd consider NOT using with the other five is the (Superior) Sentinel's Ward Recharge/%Absorb. Six of that set gives a health Global +Recharge bonus... and generally Sentinels would probably need it because of their armor secondaries... but if the Sentinel had a 40+ second recharging AoE and the Sentinel had inferior resistances, and that attack was going to be used regularly, I have found that these sorts of %Absorb piece (such as from the Entomb Winter set) can help with surviving certain types of fights. I wouldn't recommend this choice (over 6-slotting) without some serious consideration of the rest of the build... Sentinels have pretty good HP caps, and they are the only AT I have that has hit the AT HP cap without incarnates and without specifically choosing primary/secondary and specifically building to do exactly that... so %Absorb could just be overkill.

A recent post I made about Fold Space, and why to not take it. For the TL;DR crowd: The opportunity cost (i.e. three powers must be taken to get Fold Space) is too high for most characters, it is definitely too high for a MM, yielding not enough in return.

Re: The "Bugle" idea to "announce" player presence to enemies. I can't tell how absurd this idea is... but I don't think it is a good one. 1) Players with enemy-affecting auras can already pretty much do this. 2) It is indistinguishable from aggro management, despite protestations to the contrary. 3) It feels like "MOAR EAZY PLZ"... soon to be followed by "I can't find the mobile that moved away from its spawn position/trapped on geometry!"

Without playing the game: I feel like the best thing Ship of Heroes did was to simply explain why the zones have limits. The early development on a different spiritual successor seemed way too obsessed with having game zones without limits and/or insane amounts of open-world geometric detail.

My candidates for best value: Civ II and Civ V. Both of these allowed me to pass a LOT of time that would have otherwise been spent in dangerous ways. The latter also came during the podcast era, so it was a good excuse to chill to a whole lotta audio. Very close would be Deus Ex, as well as the DX: Human Revolution and DX: Mankind Divided versions. The initial release IIRC had the first two entire zones as part of a promo from PC Gamer! These FPS allowed alternate win-conditions as well as different ways to configure yourself! I enjoyed these so much more than other puzzle FPS like Half-Life, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Star Trek: Elite Force (I, II)... even though I enjoyed those. Least value is slightly harder, because I simply set games aside and usually don't bear a grudge towards them. I paid for Civ VI during a steam sale, but haven't played it. I jumped through a LOT of hoops for a (at the time) newer version of Galactic Civilizations... so Gal Civ III I think... because of the nature of my original purchase, and a desire to install on a new PC... and I didn't end up playing it for very long. I'm a pretty casual 4x player, and Civ V tapped me out as far as exactly how much micro-management could I tolerate to play on the hardest (ehem, PC cheats) settings. In the dark distant past, I can think of games like Starflight (I, II) that were fun, but ultimately time-sinks that became stressful, and Earl Weaver Baseball (more micromanagement, and not as much fun as Strat-o-Matic). In terms of consoles, the Intellivision AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin basically forever, as long as you didn't turn off the console. Similarly, I spent a lot of hours during a relatively short period of time with Bard's Tale I and II.

I doubt the Kin would make any difference. As I wrote above: The character Tanking Lord Recluse really should not need help from others, because the other players have different things to be doing. Bio should do ok (Absorption! Regeneration!) provided that the tank hasn't ignored resistances. My experience has been that the Lord recluse fight is about as close to "just keep his attention and be able to take punishment" content as there is in the game. There is no real fighting Lord recluse while the towers are up, certainly not for 99.9% of characters. Auto-Hit Taunts and Survival are what's needed. I've never seen a team zerg LR.

I find AoE Slows to be "ok" if the radius is large enough, but I don't think trying to "double up" would yield particularly noticeable results. The ones that require ToHit checks stand a better chance of affecting more critters, if the spawn size is big enough. I used to think of AoE Slows as a sort of damage mitigation tool (and I suppose they are), but I tend to treat them as a way of getting aggro. The primary downside to slows IMO is that the enemies I most want to slow are ones that have Protection and/or Resistance to slows, and an AI behavior that makes them want to skedaddle all over the map.

Don't take Fold Space on a Mastermind.

I doubt there is anything magical about the build you want to see that you can't figure out for yourself. My advice: Don't take Hasten, and don't chase +Recharge. Use sets instead of franken-slotting. Endurance burning is the death of MMs. Ninjas primary: If you avoid %procs, the henchmen slotting should be pretty standard, leveraging the unique pieces and the MM ATOs. I would make sure to have the Overwhelming Force Damage/KB->KD piece in the T1. I say to avoid %procs because on almost all MM builds, trying to be clever with %damage in henchmen is almost always coming at the expense of something that serves the build better. Similarly, trying to get %damage from MM attacks will end up being a waste of Endurance. Better to slot MM attacks with sets, and any %proc should be %-Resistance or possibly a soft control like knockdown (if the attacks do knockback, because the T1 got the OF piece). I'd probably plan on skipping Fistful of Arrows, unless it happens to come at an early time when no other choice is available, and I'd slot it with 6xAnnihilation. Trick Arrow: as I wrote, this secondary has too many good choices! Skip the single target immobilize and single-target hold. Don't plan on too many slots in Flash Arrow. Plan on Glue Arrow as a Slow. It has the potential for %damage, but the henchmen are for damage. Acid Arrow will be a must for improving clear times. It won't need much except accuracy, endurance reduction and can take a %-resistance. The T7/T8/T9 AoE should be taken. Take the Leadership pool. I recommend Maneuvers (6 slots), then Assault (1 slot) and then Tactics (1 slot, unless you find you really need ToHit or want better perception). I recommend the Fighting pool for Tough and Weave, but you can probably delay these. You have to make a decision on how you want to travel, and what else can you do with other powers in the chosen travel pool. If you want to mimic a youtube video, go with whatever they did. I have found whenever I have tried to be clever by picking a travel pool that wasn't mostly a good choice for enhancement mules (KB protection, Shield Wall, Slow Restistance, etc.) but instead was to support the henchmen... the build ended up being inferior. I think the Flight pool is the simplest, every other pool seems to demand too much attention. For epics, you will need an armor or shield. Pick the one you like. The Patron pools should offer another chance for an AoE attack that can take 5x or 6x Annihilation.

Not the easiest IMO, but perfectly doable: Invulnerability. I have been able to tank LR (without help from teammates) on Master runs by (ab)using Dull Pain... which is a power I rarely use outside of "hard" content, despite having it 6-slotted. I'm not too proud to admit that this also involves mostly keeping out of melee range of LR until a couple of the towers are down. When I remember (on my characters that won't be Tanking Lord Recluse), I try to have Incarnate Rebirth available to help out whoever will be tanking. Personally, I don't like the MLTF where one or more players are trying to constantly "support" the Tank... because it usually means the towers (and the tower healers) are NOT being dealt with. Rebirth is one of those things that I find can help reasonably well-built Tanks and doesn't demand constant vigilance.

I think Blue is the one with the +ToHit. Red is his +Damage buff IIRC.

IIRC: The weekly TF will award a Prismatic Ather, upon first completion (for the week) per character. Also: The chance for a Prismatic Aether Particle to drop occurs at the completion of any mission. I think they have to be instanced missions, I can't recall ever getting one from an open world hunt mission. In this sense, these are a sort of complimentary award for 'defeat alls'... that is, players can often complete missions quickly by skipping fights... and defeats give all the other game rewards (recipe drops, etc.)... so they ended up being a reward that drops slightly better for players that speed through missions.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I hit the limit on Reward Merits intentionally (to verify the limit still exists) before I started doing conversions. I hit the Monstrous Aether limit "by accident", because I hadn't thought it would be on 999. I generally try to keep the 'stockpile' of those at 90% of the limit, because I'll usually remember to convert before I hit the limit. I typically spend the things like Vanguard and Threads so AFAIK I haven't come close to whatever their limits might be. I'm not trying to (humble)brag about the limits on Reward Merits: it really is quite easy to accumulate them; no special build is required. The primary reason I've accumulated so many is because I don't have a particularly large number of alts. When I want to try a new concept, I almost always convert at least 1000 Reward Merits into ATO (occasionally more if I plan to use Winters), and then as the alt approaches 50 I look to see what, if any, Purple pieces I need that haven't already been accumulated. This isn't the most cost effective (in an arbitrage sense) way to use Merits, but it works fine for me.

I'm in this mental headspace: If I had more storage space in my one SG base, I would simply hoard more stuff. I suspect it is probably fine with the limits we have now. I have a dim memory of how SG base storage got screwed up when the "base salvage" was eliminated on Live, so I am sensitive about database issues. There are many ways to manage personal SG (and email, and auction house, etc.) storage. My own approach is that I keep 1 bin for super Inspirations, 4 bins for Enhancements, 1 bin for Catalysts/Aethers/Access Bypass/Miscellany, and the rest for salvage. If I need more space for enhancements, I usually just have characters hold them... I have a few characters with stacks of salvage stored in the AH because every once in a while people play stupid market games. Storing stuff in the AH on individual characters doesn't interfere with my using the market. I could just buy whatever salvage I want when I need it, but I do a lot of random crafting/SG base buffs, so I like having salvage on hand in the base. My personal recipe for using base storage suits me fine, but I wouldn't expect it is an approach suitable for anyone else.

About the 999 vs 9999 number, at least in "personal" (individual character) storage... There are different limits on how many items can be held in on an individual character for different sorts of things. The only ones that I have personally bumped up against: 9999 Merits and 999 Monstrous Aethers. (Prismatic) Aethers must not have the 999 limit, considering the recipe that requires over 1000. I'm guessing there are other players who have hit limits on Vanguard Merits and Incarnate Threads.

I don't doubt that some folks have spent big on the market, but they don't have to.... and so it isn't as if a level 50 build that includes Purple/ATO/Winter pieces is going to be particularly difficult to figure out how to make "less expensive", by whatever measure. It's not as if there is some barrier to enjoying play if a character has 3% less global Defense (for example) because they don't have a Gladiator's Armor piece slotted. We may as well cringe at posted builds at all, because it could be unfairly biasing new players from "figuring things out on their own."

I think fixing the maps would be too much effort. However.... didja ever notice how the new Pumpkin Patch from nuEochai doesn't need to be cast on a "ground surface"? It triggers just as well in the air as it does on the ground.

Also a legit strategy. I got used to having attuned PVP pieces around to act as placeholders for "purples" and to experiment with different power/slotting choices.