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Moving/Wandering Giant Monsters also tend to cause an issue when they spawn with minions that must be defeated/cleared to reset the possibility of the GM respawning. I've posted at length about how Kings Row falls victim to this, as the scrubs have to (a) "wake up" and (b) path themselves towards "their" Paladin. These guys end up spread across the zone (and the spawns act as typical spawns if one of them happen to get aggro) so while it isn't impossible to clean these up, very few players bother. The wandering Jack and Eochai are the same. Sometimes these associated spawns don't appear as level-less! Jack is more problematic IMO because his paths go under bridges and through the woods, making it easier for players to miss them (again, if they care). Personally, I don't think "the juice is worth the squeeze", and that this sort of thing already causes some issues. EDIT: I want to add Arachnos Flier. This guy moves around the zone, which is fine... but occasionally gets stuck... with it's Force Shield up. 😛

I haven't played much Electrical Affinity... it's perfectly fine. This is just my personal opinion, but it feels like a better (visually, certainly) form of Empathy... sort of like how Willpower feels (to me) like a better spin on Regeneration. Marine Affinity has more of a debuff/control feel to it. It feels like it can be a little on the OP side on teams. Marine is probably a little better for solo play (for these ATs). Personally, I would go with a Defender for Marine Affinity and a Corruptor for Electrical Affinity... only because (my opinion) I could delay the choices of what's cool about Electrical Affinity (secondary) but I'd want (almost) all the Marine Affinity powers ASAP (primary). Just about any well-built AT can be fine in teamed End Game/Hard Mode content. Personally, at least half of that kind of battle is being able to survive, so as to not be a liability for the team. For solo, you are (of course) on your own. The more "controlly" power sets are IMO generally better at surviving when things go pear-shaped, MMV.

I've done a little bit of testing with Shifting Tides at level 39. My Controller isn't quite ready to stand by itself among huge crowds of even-level enemies to get a lot of data, but doing the "Welcome to Vanguard" intro, as well as a few of the FF/Brickstown "store" missions and I feel like I was getting 2-3 hits of %damage every 6 seconds or so ("one one-thousand" method) when I had 6+ enemies (see slotting below). The logs are a little tricky, because the damage shows up in the "pets damage inflected" but there are no visible ToHit checks for the ticks (as expected). The coolest thing is that a defeated enemy with the Shifting Tides anchored on it will still get hit by the %damage proc even after defeated (until they de-rez). My slotting: 2x (attuned) Acc/Damage/End (Positron's Blast, Frozen Blast) 2x %damage (Javelin Volley %Lethal, Positron's Blast %Energy) My current build plans don't have room for these slots, so I have to continue my evaluation... but so far I've been pleasantly surprised.

I don't roll with Brutes, but I have played with Threat Duration in some Tankers... and for Tankers, since I was always (long before the Homecoming tweaks to Tankers) taking a 6-slotted Taunt I found that I didn't need extra efforts from anything else. Words of caution about %procs in auras: The %proc rate will be low because of the way "ticks" happen for auras. Also, the proc itself requires a ToHit check based on the power (not the character) so if an aura doesn't take Accuracy slotting (or doesn't have accuracy from a set that it can slot) this will further hinder any procs. This is one of the reasons I gripe about general lack of accuracy options in Threat sets... the main complaint of mine is that there are threat powers that actually require ToHit checks!

I'm not re-reading this old thread, but lately I've been wondering why I have tended to gravitate more to Defenders than Corruptors recently... I have roughly equal numbers of each AT. For me, it isn't about raw numbers... I think it is because with the Homecoming change to lower the minimum level at which certain primary/secondary (and epic) powers can be taken, I can pretty much get the offense from the Defender secondary "early enough" that I don't feel like I'm grinding up a Defender to get to the point where I can have an attack chain. Obviously Corruptors bloom offensively even earlier. Obviously all AT can leverage Homecoming's power pools/temp powers to fortify an attack chain at low levels. If that sounds like a peculiar reason, allow me to add some more personal peculiarity: When I am looking at Corruptor v. Defender combos, I'm often making the choice (of primary and secondary) based on a concept that more-or-less hinges on the buff/debuff. If the concept doesn't hinge on the buff/debuff I'm likely to roll with a Blaster or Sentinel. With the buff/debuff being primary in my mind, I usually go with the AT that has a buff/debuff set as the primary... so "Defender" typically gets the nod.

IMO Weak/Under-performing is very subjective. I think there is a case to be made for using different sets in different content by different ATs in the hands of different players, but... ... a simple review of the forums where folks discuss different power choices should make it somewhat clear that different play styles and preferences make a big difference in perception. Writing only for myself: I have some powersets I love on some ATs, and yet hate the same set on a different AT... because of "performance". There are some sets that are "just fine" but end up really shining at level 50 with clever choices in ancillary powers and slots. There are quite a few characters of mine that I think play really well, but I wouldn't recommend for certain content. The best thing IMO about CoX is that there is so much content with such variety.

I want to echo the good feels about Brine. It needs slotted Accuracy of course. I had planned to only 2-slot this, but I am thinking I'll have to see what the global Accuracy/ToHit/Recharge looks like on the final build before I settle on in what it is slotted with at level 50.

I don't have a Rad Armor character, but one comment I have about leveling up and using IOs is this: Most Armor sets don't really benefit that much from extra Resistance slotting in the armors. I'd probably just got Endurance Reduction + Resistance for those toggles to start, and put the slots in the attacks. (Endurance, Accuracy, Damage) Nor do I have a Broadsword character... I don't know how similar it is to War Mace or Battle Axe, but for those attack sets I found that prior to getting (Global) Recharge, I had a hard time because I didn't have anything like a common attack chain. I mention this because if you are using IOs, you may want to consider adding a Recharge piece (4th) to the longer recharge attacks.

Storm is a relatively slower moving set for Blasters (relative to other Blaster sets that don't have a "place the thing here" aspect) but it is not IMO a set to sleep on for other ATs. The biggest issue I foresee with a Storm/Marine is trying to make sure all the cool powers are taken! I wouldn't be surprised if a Storm/Marine build only had one non-primary/non-secondary power pick before level 32. A Storm/Marine Corruptor ought to solo quite well, and could probably turn up spawn sizes rather early in the career if desired. Storm is a very "controlly" set. One advantage I see for a Storm/Marine Corruptor on teams is that the Marine Affinity can be very team-friendly, so if those team-friendly powers are taken and well-slotted, teammates may not notice that the Storm powers aren't always being used at 90%+ efficiency.

From memory, the "don't reach to level 50 pieces" I use are: The Uniques %damage procs Cloud Senses, because of the schedule for -ToHit, I don't sweat the difference between 30 and 50 values for 4-slotting (3 plus %damage)... besides, this set often goes in a pet power. Rarely: a second piece of a (Recharge Instensive) Pet damage piece like Accuracy/Damage *if* the henchmen is already in ED territory and I *really* want a bonus from a set with a henchman unique. On the flip side, I rarely find myself slotting any Sniper set except Experienced Marksman. I'm not thrilled about the set bonuses that disappear below level 32 and for damaging attacks I want as much Enhancement boosting as possible, at all levels. It helps that Ranged damage sets can be placed in all the Sniper powers AFAIK. Very rarely, I will use a single boosted piece from a "doesn't go to 50" set if that sole piece offers an attribute boost that I can't get from another piece *and* any other combination of attributes can benefit from "a little more" (so lowish ED ranges). This is such a rare circumstance (for me) that I can't think of a specific example but I am sure I have done it when a HO or IO wouldn't do what I wanted.

That is a good question! My first guess: Since so many of the "lower-level" sets have less than 6 pieces, I suspect that for the "lower-level" sets there was an intent to avoid a single enhancement set allowing a lower-level player to be "too good" (whatever that would mean) Second guess: The 6-set pieces that can be slotted at the lowest levels and cover the "full range" are ones that were tied to some sort of time-intensive reward/rare drop/investment (including special packs for ATO/Winter) that may have aligned with the Live thinking about subscribers/players. The "weaker" sets can drive this home, I suppose.

My experience has been that I'm not making fewer attacks cleaning up spawns when I had Water Jet. It's not about hypothetical "big boys", it's about actual experience. I'm using debuffs, I've got %damage in the AoE that more than make up for all the Water Jets I'm not casting. I shared my slotting choices above. Heck yes! Water Jet comes at level 18, which is an excellent level at which to either add a Pool power (e.g. something like Combat Jumping or Infiltration for a Kismet +ToHit, or a second pool power to be able to take something like Rune of Protection when it is available.) or take a Primary/Secondary power that had been delayed (likely the case for Water/Marine Corruptor, as Marine has so few powers to skip). More importantly IMO, I'm the sort of player that is highly unlikely to have extra slots for this "one (extra) power".... because the build is "tight" on slots. This is an attack, so it deserves slots! The animation is cool, but it is not cool enough for me to burn both a power pick and slots on it.

My hard-hitting AoE can hit a LOT of turtles. (no turtles were injured in this post)

Water Jet is better now that it doesn't consume the tidal power on a miss, but my experience with Water Blast (trying to include Water Jet in the attack chain) was that more than any other "combo" set I played, one missed attack really screwed up the DPS... and when using single-target attacks, screwing up the DPS is not cool. MMV, but I found (on a Blaster) that whatever single-target was being defeated by Water Jet after Geyser and Steam Spray was pretty much also being defeated by Hydro Blast and/or Dehydrate. I had to take Hydro Blast (or Aqua Bolt) and I found the utility of Dehydrate works best if it is a regular part of the ranged attack chain.... that is to say Dehydrate was sitting things out if I also had Water Jet... which left me with "one too many" single target ranged attacks in the build. Trying to "save" tidal power for Water Jet, or trying to slot the attacks that only accumulate Tidal Power with precise amounts of recharge to launch a Water Jet with the hopes of Enhanced! turned out to be way too intense for me... and again, the benefit was for single-target attacks... and if I was lucky, 2 different single-targets. Those were my experiences... once I dropped Water Jet and worked around not having it, I found my solo map clear times improve. Mileage may vary. I am not responsible for damage to keyboards or faces for other players that emulate my face-rolling-across-the-keyboard style of play. That was my experience on a Blaster... and I didn't miss it on my Water Blast Corruptor (which has Nature Affinity as a secondary, so not a great amount of offense from that).

And when the first Water Jet misses, what do you count to?

I have a Water Blast (Corruptor, Blaster) and I am working on a Marine Affinity Controller. Water Blast (Corruptor) Slotting I skipped Water Jet: it is a PITA to set up (to try to score ENHANCED) and it is only a single-target attack. I tried hella long to make it work, ultimately I found it to be an underwhelming ST attack for its level. My Corruptor ended up including Hasten in the build, which is rare for me. I have not mastered Marine Affinity on my Controller, my plans are: Shoal Rush (The Controller uses this as a single target attack with %damage, and a trigger for Tide Pool) Toroidal Bubble (as a Resistance mule) Whitecap (Because I like to BAMF, also %damage for the Controller) Tide Pool (only Endurance Reduction) Brine (although I'll end up delaying this pick) slotted with Accuracy and Health Shifting Tides (current plans are Endurance Reduction only, but I am going to experiment with %damage <- a Corruptor won't need %damage) Barrier Reef <- will probably 6-slot Reactive Defenses Power of the Depths <- will either franken-slot or 6-slot Preventive Medicine I have room in the build to take Soothing Wave, but I find heals to be a really mixed bag (especially for Corruptors)... and while the -Damage is nice, I'm not entirely sold on this 10 second debuff. If *I* wanted to have ally healing at a low level, I might replace Whitecap with Soothing Wave... a Water/Marine Corruptor should be able to spend almost all the time at range anyway, so the BAMF is not particularly critical (strategically, IMO).

On my Controller, I can't slot the ATO pieces... and that wasn't my plan. I'm thinking slotting Shifting Tides strictly for Endurance Reduction. I am still leveling it up. but my end-build plan is looking like a single slot of Endurance Reduction... but I intend to do some experimenting with it. I doubt I will have the slots (final build), but because this take Universal/Ranged AoE pieces, on the surface, it looks like it could be a source of %damage from procs. Pseudo-pets are a mixed bag, with a majority being predictable upon cast but then negligible... but there are a handful of others which outpace all other slotting options... if Accuracy can be slipped into the power (to improve %proc ToHit chances), which is possible via the damage sets. The defense debuffs from Marina Affinity ought to also help (if the %damage) is reliable. My assumption is that Shifting Tides would be a poor source of %damage (even considering what else I am doing with the Controller with AoE damage/control) but I won't know until I do some testing. It has such a large radius and I see so many Shifting Tide boost icons (on myself) even while fighting x0 spawns I'm willing to do some testing.

I think if you spend some more time experiencing what Homecoming has implemented, you will find that you enjoy the game much more without prestige.

For my 2 Inf, if I wanted a Blaster that was going to lean into Melee, I would take /Atomic or /Martial before /Energy. From the previous discussion, I was left with the impression that /Energy was typically recommended for characters that were going to mostly stay at range and/or lean into secondary effects from attacks. This comment is not included as a blanket statement of attitudes, just that as a player that uses Energy Melee but wouldn't specifically consider Energy Manipulation(*1) for performance. My recollection is based on what I recall other folks advocating it for. Concept is a different kettle of fish. (*1) I happen to like Stuns/Disorients... my hesitation to /Energy is emphasis on single-target attacks (for a Blaster). Other secondaries mix-up the offensive potential more to my taste.

The if the copycat toon wasn't a Stalker, the copycat wasn't really trying.

I have a feeling it would the former, but it could provide the breathing room/opportunity for a Stalker's extra damage to make a difference. Even prior to the Homecoming changes to Threat, I would often rely on Placate when fighting the "hero" EBs/AVs in redside missions. None of those have the "omniscience", but getting the breathing room was important. For missions where spawns "hunt down" the player, my strategy is pretty much to only be in one fight at a time. This means not starting something else, and finishing one ambush before the next one spawns.

Does Placate help with ambushes?

What I mean is that in order for me to leverage Venomous Gas I have to gad all-in hard on picking and slotting defense powers, at the expense of using slots and power picks elsewhere. What do your power pools and defenses look like?

Knockback has 5 different sets, Threat and Fear only have 4 sets each, so threat and fear deserve priority over Knockback IMO. Knockback's level 20-50 sets include 4 pieces that boost Accuracy and five pieces that boost Endurance, whereas the 20-50 sets for Threat have only two pieces that boost Accuracy, and none that boost Endurance reduction, so Threat has priority over Knockback IMO. If some combination of KB slotting is missing that could satisfied by a new set, I'm all for it... but Threat and Fear are just about in the worse case.. If anyone wants to play "whaddabout" :I recognize that "Accurate ____" sets are fewer, but those are IMO only really missing Acc/End pieces, but those powers that require ToHit checks don't have tremendous Endurance costs and the 20-50 sets generally provide lots of Accuracy boosts. I can't think of a PBAoE Heal or ToHit buff attack that I couldn't slot with some other set's Acc/---.

Late to this thread... because I have a Mind/poison not a Ice/Poison... but this jumped out at me: My experience with Poison (on Defender and Controller) is that Venomous Gas isn't worth taking, and I think the OP hits on why... It is IMO too hard (read this as "the player has to give up too much else") to make Venomous Gas (and other PBAoE toggles) work... unless the players is pretty much exclusively fighting very small spawns at even-con level the hits will keep on coming! It is of course possible to dedicate slots to a toggle PBAoe and also try to increase (positional) defenses, but this is an example of throwing good after bad, YMMV, the debuffs and delays aren't enough to overcome large spawns (which still need to be defeated of course). If the spawns are +4, things become that much harder.