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Here are my rough estimates of inherent (i.e. no Recharge slotting) %proc chances for the Dark/Dark powers, based on a 3.5 PPM %proc. Darkness Control (primary) T1 Dark Grasp: 70% T2 Shadowy Binds: 38% T3 Living Shadows: 25% T4 Posses: 75% T5 Fearsome Stare: 90% (ceiling) T6 Heart of Darkness; 90% (ceiling) T8 Shadow Field is a pseudopet, so I'm passing... like some pseudopets, it appears to have a decent chance to trigger a %proc on cast, but generally I find these to be unreliable for %damage. Darkness Affinity (secondary) T1 Tar Patch: another pseudo pet. The real advantage of Tar Patch is the -resistance, so I pretty much only slot for Recharge. T2 Twilight Grasp: 75% T3 Darkest Night: this is a toggle, don't bother with %proc T4 Howling Twilight: 90% (ceiling) T7 Soul Absorption: 90% (ceiling) In my own build, the "weakest" power is Living Shadows. It is a bit of an inherent Endurance hog, and its fast recharge times sink the %damage chances. I have 3 slots in it dedicated to %damage (one of them is a PVP, so higher base damage than non-PVP/non-Purple) and I still feel like those slots are wasted... even when facing x8 spawns. A reminder of my current slotting: Level 2: Living Shadows (A) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Endurance (*) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal) (*) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage (Energy) (*) Trap of the Hunter - Chance of Damage (Lethal) The main reason I keep Living Shadows in my build is for the -Knockback to all targets, as a lot of the powers I use on this character are location based. Immobilizing enemies is a nice side effect, sometimes it matters often it does not. The one change I might make to this slotting is to replace the Trap of the Hunter Accuracy/Endurance piece with a D-Sync Guidance (Accuracy/Range). I'd lose the enhancement set bonus for Immobilization, but the inherent Immob time is already pretty long. The Endurance cost per cast would go up by almost 2, but adding range to the cone is a pretty useful swap in my experience.

This is my level 50 build (I think, I am often tweaking) Some comments on my thinking... Powers and Slots are front-loaded... and there is little reliance on powers above level 35. I like to have characters that scale across all levels of play, which means having powers to cast with (if possible) no gaps in "attacks" at any level... and I like to have the obvious "signature" AT powers available in as much content as possible. The build doesn't include Hasten. I have a general allergy to including Hasten, since enhancement sets can add quite a bit of Global Recharge without it. It is not lost on my that many of the Dark/Dark/Soul Controller's "signature moves" have such inherently long cast times that Hasten is practically a no-brainer. Consider this build an attempt to do a lot without that sort of brain! The set bonuses that appear are my preference, and I don't expect that the choices made will appeal to everyone. I'm generally looking for Global recharge, Accuracy and Endurance management (Discounts, MaxEnd, Recovery) when possible. Chasing %damage was a choice. I like to solo oddball content, so almost every power tries to leverage %damage... the inherently fast recharge powers is where I tried to use "more effective" %damage (higher PPM and/or higher base damage). %damage in pets is not always a good choice, but the ones I made seem to be paying off. My choices to have powers that do damage to have a more effective solo build have come at a cost: This character has sacrificed control (durations) for damage... and the placement of slots have made some of the more team-friendly powers less effective to different degrees (Twilight Grasp, Soul Absorption, Shadow Fall, Fade). The Pet slotting is intended to help cover that gap. I probably should invest in a second build that is more "team friendly", when personal damage is less important. When I figure that out, I will post it. My immediate thoughts:

I played a Dark/Dark Controller to 50+, so I thought I'd circle back. The build will be posted when I have a chance to format it as text. I don't have 'perma' Haunts in my build; there is something like a 12 sec downtime. I slotted the Haunts with: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Recharge Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Expedient Reinforcement: Endurance/Damage/Recharge Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage Soulbound Allegiance: Accuracy/Recharge (50+5) Soulbound Allegiance: %BuildUp They do reliably get the %BuildUp. I didn't think it was worth trying to add a %damage power to them. My build will have the Umbra Beast, Dark Servant and Haunt out at most times... but I haven't yet bothered with trying to improve the pet defenses/resistances. Partially this is because I do have Hami-Os and %damage in the Beast and Servant (to improve what they already do), partially this is because of the typical AI positioning of the pets and my PBAoE team powers. I don't usually solo +4 with this character, so I haven't been motivated to improve the defenses/resistances. If I was so motivated, I might consider using Haunt as the mule power for those pieces, but I find with the above slotting I get a reasonable amount of offense from the two pets.

My assessment of Brutes and teamplay lessons comes from a different place. A solo Brute doesn't have to worry about aggro management so much... Whereas a Stalker is always having to pay attention to aggro (and from my experience worries far less about explicitly trying to always set up for an AS, even solo). It has been my experience that players of less experienced Brutes can have aggro peeled from them by a wide variety of other ATs... Especially if the Brute is relying on a Taunt Aura. Experienced and dedicated Brutes can find themselves in a sort of 'aggro war' with other Brutes or Tanks, and a new player might not understand what is happening. In contrast, a Stalker will figure out a lot faster if their AS isn't geling with a team.

Before taking Hasten, I would take powers that allow single slotting of Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge. Hasten can be problematic for MMs that will be spamming powers because of the Endurance tax on MM powers.

IIRC, the next "threshold" for KB is at 11 points... that is, of the (single) enemies that do KB, their is a tier of them that do it with magnitude between 4 and 11. I believe it is possible to end up facing combat where multiple enemies may be stacking KB (Ruin Mages, Longbow, et al.) such that 8 points can provide some extra protection... but high defenses should mitigate this circumstance. KB protection is also purchasable as a temp power in a SG base, IIRC 90 minutes for +10 IIRC. The most annoying mission with KB (for me) is the RWZ Vanguard boss.

I also vote against Masterminds as a starter AT. They are not hard to solo with, but it is very easy to make a LOT of mistakes with them and the Endurance tax will not give a new player an idea of the different things a player can do with a primary and secondary. I'd also not recommend Brutes. The Fury mechanic is going to have a little learning curve, and (my opinion, YMMV) it is easy for new/solo Brute players to learn the wrong sort of lessons for team play. My recommendation would be Sentinel, because the secondaries are different, and can be somewhat forgiving. The Primaries will have enough going on to learn the ropes of them. I'd then opt for either a Scrapper or Stalker, with the latter if you want to quickly get a feel for being "sneaky" in missions.

Very rarely I will have a character that I want to get to 17-20(*1) PDQ... it will be a specific AT or using powersets I am very familiar with, and to get there I will usually just DFB or team with 2XP. Doesn't matter what it is, but I don't play in AE. Otherwise... ...I shift my attitudes a LOT. I usually will try to alternate between which arcs characters do. For example: Blue Side I may go KR or I may go Hollows. Many times I turn off XP just to do newspaper/radio missions. At some point I am doing SF/TF, which by themselves can be a LOT of XP. So I guess the answer is: "anything but a dedicated farm". (*1) I mention this level range, because this is pretty much when all ATs (except maybe VEATs) will "feel" like the final character. It's also when most of the enhancment sets are available for slotting. It has become very rare that I feel like I need Epic/Patron or Incarnate powers to enjoy a character.

As a regular Giant Monster Hunter, I'm in agreement that some buffs to GMs are called for. I'd have identified the following two items that move GMs towards the 'more trivial' end of the spectrum: The ToHit values by most of the open world GMs lead to most of their attacks missing. The HP scale of the GMs appeared to be based on the zone, so some GMs have fewer HP compared to others. I'm not looking forward to "increased Mezz"... IIRC the Jack in Irons Terrorize is already pretty long, if that gets any longer I hope that he can't recast it! I'd feel the same about other mezz attacks... but if that is the direction we want to go, I guess I will adapt. GM Resistance is already a bit of balancing act (for me) as there are some GMs that already resist my attacks... I can still defeat them but it takes longer. If the other GMs become more like those, that would seem to be balancing from my PoV, but time will tell (especially with the boost to MaxHP). I'd appreciate a few of "concessions" to players, with respect to GMs: a temp power to ST immobilize a reduced amount of time between open-world respawns (four hours is pretty long, especially if we have to clean up a spawn) more self-cleaning of GMs when the GM is defeated... or more of an indication that the event has not reset. The first point derives from Envenomed Daggers can (historically) overcome GM regeneration, but no temp power overcomes them running away. The second and third points have been somewhat mitigated by having the associated spawns be level-less, but this doesn't always happen: Croatoan wanderers often spawn with zone-capped levels, Jurassik Rubble and grand-rubbles will be zone capped, Boomtown Babbage summons lower level minions that can con grey. Having to clean up is a reasonable, sometimes bitter pill to ask (some) players to swallow. I suppose I had better connect with the launcher and go do some testing! EDIT: Oh, thanks for the change to the Lusca Rewards too! That makes it much more worth investing time into fighting that GM!

My experience has been that Blasters certainly have MOAR AOE (targets). and access to more offense (via their secondaries) but that Sentinels are flat-out better at surviving.... cue the "defeat enemies can't hurt you" chorus. I don't like the "tank mage" description, but I do have a Sentinel that shrugs of +N spawns like a Tank. It certainly can't hold aggro, but it is a surprisingly hardy character. How a Sentinel plays compared to a Blaster will IMO depend on the type of content being played (enemy types) as well as spawn sizes. Sentinels tend to have smaller AoEs, so small spawn sizes (x1) will drive them to go slower through a defeat all mission. Once spawn sizes increase, more enemies tend to be more clustered which doesn't hurt the Sentinels much in my experience.

FWIW, it is possible to face +20 level enemies in CoV, but you have to do it at level 20. (Inside an instanced mission, I mean)

I appreciate that my custom macros are not cleared when using /clear tray!

I can't believe the hyperbole that a character ever had trouble taking down enemies 10+ levels below them, unless the player is specifically thinking how they used to farm XP from DE Swarms, and when the Swarm AI was changed such that Swarm fled from damage auras this became an unreliable way to farm XP.

@Grouchybeast is right on all points, but teh lede was buried on why NOT to catalyse Purple sets... if they are catalysed, they cannot be boosted. The only circumstances where I don't boost a Superior piece are: The recharge part of the piece has a noticeable negative effect on some %proc chance (gotta math it people!) in that power The piece itself is a %proc (because the game won't let you boost such a piece, or slot one should you end up with one via conversion) Usually using Superior pieces get you into the point of diminishing returns, but more is MOAR.

Revisiting this thread for the benefit of new/returning players. We've had quite a lot of 'sloppy' GM hunting players, in solo and in teams. Repeating: It is nearly unforgivable to leave the Croatoa Grim Vale event not reset, as there is an actual server-wide announcement when it has been reset. Sometimes the level-less mobiles can be tucked away in corners or trees, and often the flying mobiles will chase after folks and can be somewhat far from the spawn site. The Grim Vale has one of the faster cycling timers and offers lots of XP/drop chances, so please don't leave this not reset. Similarly, the (usually) level-less spawns that accompany the Walking Croatoan GMs are not large in number, and will stay by the GM (or return to it if they scatter) so those are easy to clean up. About one-third of the the time those spawns are not level-less, so pay attention. The Kings Row Paladin mobiles are always level-less, so they are easy to spot, provided you actually look for them. If you know where each of the thee event spots are, and you know where you fought Paladin, it does not take long to zip between the two to find the level-less clockwork spawns. AFAIK there is more XP to be had from the full range of level-less spawns than there is from the Giant Monster... there certainly are more reward drop chances for clearing them out. The Boomtown Babbage summons allied mobiles, they are not level-less they will be IIRC 48-50, so characters with high enough levels will have the minions con as grey. be on the lookout. Usually these are few in number (one at-a-time) and stay close to Babbage, but I have stumbled across stray level 48 clocks in Boomtown. The Crey's Folly Jurassik will about one-third of the time, upon defeat make Jurassik Rubble, which upon defeat will make Rubble. These all need to be cleaned up. don't be so quick to zone out as it literally takes less than 30 seconds to clean these up. Kraken, Lusca, War Walker, Adamastor don't have associated spawns that need to be cleaned up. GM hunters/teams can run away right after defeating them. As far as I know, the red-side GMs are all self-cleaning. The ones I am not certain about is Caleb and Deathsurge: they always spawns with mobiles but as a practical matter every time I've defeated those I have had to work through all of the associated minions as well. They aren't level-less.

I'm not trying to tell you anything except this: There are tradeoffs for your preferred playstyle. If you specifically want the Protector Bots to be switching between defense and offense, you will probably have to be more engaged with them by changing their stances. I know that if I want to drop inspirations on my Assault Bot, I have to switch it to passive because otherwise it is cycling through attacks so fast I can never get an inspiration to stick. My advice is: Rely on the Maintenance Drone to heal the henchmen. It is better at it than the Protector Bots ever have been. Since that is a non-starter for you, if this is a high priority and you aren't taking the best henchmen heal in the Robotics Primary, at some point you have to realize that you are asking for a somewhat radical change to the primary (more Protector Bot healing) without wanting to give up offense from the Protector Bots in exchange. I propose the tradeoff on offense be done via changing stances, but it sounds more and more like you want a code change. Is there nothing else that you would accept? Since this is the suggestions forum, allow me to make a suggestion: If the healing and buffing the Robotics henchmen is a priority, and Maintenance Drone is off the table, my next suggestion is to pick a Secondary that will do what you want, including heals. Dark is the classic choice, but it is not the only one.

I would not use Enhancement Boosters on level 25 common IOs. Just buy level 30 common IOs. ATOs, Winter, Overwhelming Force are fine while leveling and offer set bonuses deep down into exemplar territory. PVP pieces are similar, but they don't come attuned... and generally they should be attuned below level 50 and boosted at level 50 (if you desire more of what they are enhancing). PVP set bonuses scale down, but the enhanced values top out at whatever their max level is. If you aren't into planning a build and accumulating the set pieces you want along the way, level 30 common IOs will be fine. If the market isn't your thing: just sell the recipes at a vendor.

Kudos to those that take and slot Flurry. I very rarely take the Speed pool at all, but when I do take it as a travel pool (and sometimes for Hasten) I treat Flurry as pretty much all the other T1 pool attacks... ignore it (if I can). I don't think it is supposed to be so good that I could ignore it. There is a difference between the original/revamped Travel Power Pool (including Concelament) and the "Origin" Travel pools: The original pools have all their powers unlocked by level 14. It's not much of a consolation, but if a "Pool Boy" character wanted to have all the attacks from a specific pool, they can do that much earlier. As an aside: Making an argument about using %procs in a sub-5-second-recharge T1 power is pretty silly IMO.

I ran into a circumstance where I wanted a low level contact I could not get, and couldn't get the arc through Ouroborous , despite getting the portal unlocked by myself (no help needed). I waited until I was level 15.

I wouldn't focus on %-Res slotting early in a build. Accuracy and Damage are better for the henchmen, and Accuracy Endurance for the MM. As a complete sidebar: Some enhancements become able to be slotted at -3 levels below their set level, but only if they are not attuned and also at their lowest level. I'm not referring to Hami-Os, Very Rare pieces or Superior versions. I'm also not talking about them providing set bonuses down to -3 below their lowest level when exemplared. I happened to notice this on a character I had planned on using a combination of attuned PVP pieces and some level 10 crafted PVP pieces. From memory: I could slot the level 10 pieces at level 7, but I couldn't slot the attuned pieces until level 10. I also want to say that this wasn't true of every PVP set. It's not like I really needed them for levels 7-9, so I didn't pay it much heed.

My level 50 build. Different choices were made during leveling (I had completely different power pools for example)

I can post a build later. As far as enhancement 'sets' go, there are some only a few pieces that were not yet included in my final build: Catalyzed pieces (ATO, Winter) Very Rare pieces Hami-O Boosted lvl 50 pieces (mostly PVP and IOs) IIRC most of my enhancement pieces are attuned and can be slotted by level 31. Obviously there are many more slots to get between 31 and 50. Once an MM has all henchmen, I generally turn up the spawn size.

The Henchmen AI is a janky thing. Any individual henchman has to have a decision algorithm, one of the inputs is the stance, another is what powers are available, another is which powers are recharged, another is which targets are legitimate. It should be no surprise that the Protector Bots Healing is a low priority item, especially when there is a pet dedicated to healing the only class of mobile that a Protector Bot can heal. My PoV: altering the Protector Bots algorithm so that they try to cast heals as the number one priority would hurt the offense of the Robotics primary. Have you tried keeping you Protector Bots is "green" mode, where they are not actively looking for enemy targets? That sounds like what you want. Me, I want MOAR OFFENSE. I've said it many times: Trying to keep henchmen "alive" with heals is a much lower priority for a MM (unless you want healing badges, I suppose) than buffing them with Defense/Resistance... and the point at which it makes sense to pursue henchman buffing also quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns. The game's reward system is for enemy defeats, not just sticking around. If an MM player wants to prioritize "sticking around" with a full suite of henchmen, there are plenty of ways to do that without gimping the offense from a primary power set. All the non-henchmen offense available to a MM takes an incredible toll in terms of Endurance and suffers from a damage scalar in ways that Defense/Resist Buffs, Controls, and Healing do not.

The Protector Bots' healing has always been meh, and with nothing in the primary to invest the Henchmen/Pet globals in... it isn't as if there were a lot of slots in a MM build such that of many of the 18 possible henchmen slots could be dedicated to the T2 "protecting". Maintenance Drone has been a real godsend to the Robotics Primary. I have Maintenance Drone six slotted, and it does a FAR better job keeping henchmen healed than the Protector Bots ever did. If I never summoned teh Maintenance Drone, I'm sure I'd see the Protector Bots healing just as inefficiently as before the upgrade. I do witness them healing other henchmen, usually after a Giant Monster has hit us all with an AoE.