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IIRC, the Fast Snipe PVP piece does extend the range of the Snipe it is slotted in. I will admit that I miss the long range of the Fast Snipe, because runners, but ultimately I find the Fast Snipe to be on average better that Slow Snipes when: The build has +ToHit, which boosts the damage up to +22% of the Fast Snipe The build isn't "waiting around" for a Slow Snipe to recharge to use a single-target attack It is of course possible to slot Snipes with Range (or Acc/Range, or Dam/Range) and to get +Range from enhancement sets. I disagree. I've played with LRM Rocket and I HATE when I mistakenly use that as a Slow Snipe. It completely breaks up the flow of my attacks. I suspect that such a piece would be even less popular than the Experience Marksmen Range/Fast Snipe. When I want to use a slow Snipe, I simply wait until I'm out of combat.

I'm with them... there is one other instance of "I can tank ____ with my (not a Tanker)" that I somewhat commonly see; that is a (perma-)Dominator, usually with some sort of Confuse. IMO, that's Control, not Tanking. I'm not saying it can't work in a lot of content, I'm just saying it isn't Tanking.

What I like about the Citadel TF: Because of its level, and the numerous 'defeat all' missions, I find it is an excellent way to measure the performance of a character at 'natural' level. To offer some perspective, the Yin TF IMO more obviously favors exemplared (because slots, set bonuses) whereas by the time players can do Citadel they really should have all their tricks and decent slotting. What I find annoying about the Citadel TF: The back-and-forth between zones obviously. However I am more peeved that it is pretty much 'all caves, all the time', along with a change-of-zones delivery and a meaningless open-world hunt. I am also slightly bothered by the appearance of Warwolves and Vampyrs in Vandal's arc. Vandal is supposed to be one of the OG Council 'tech' guys, right? My first guess at an outline for changes: 1) Start with a couple of 'defeat all' in IP caves, to preserve the OG feel. 2) A mission on a ship in IP (to discover/destroy robot parts) 3) An instanced 'rescue' of Fareed Abdullah (so no 'delivery' followed by a cave) with combat 4) An instanced open world map to defeat council and their robots (on a test run) 5) Invade Vandal's base: sabotage generators, parts, fight AV The in-mission changes I would prefer: New variants of Mekmen, Hoverbots, and Warcry to fill a 'difficulty' role currently filled by the Warwolves and Vampyr. I don't object to one of the non-robotic Elite bosses being Nictus-adjacent, I just feel like the emphasis should be on the robots and mechanized weapons, or tech-augmented council minions, not nictus-infused minions. I'd also suggest that later missions trend slightly away from 'defeat every villain in every nook and cranny of a random map' to specific maps with missions that spawn waves of attacking robots. I'd supplement more than one of the underground bases with turrets.

+1 on ToHit Debuffs. There are times when Robots will be facing a particularly hard target and they last a lot longer than they have any right to, I'll put this down to -ToHit... but otherwise it is one of those game effects that is generally only helping a player while the debuffed enemy is actually trying to attack. An enemy pining for the fjords has reached maximum debuff!

I think those pre-incarnate Defense values look pretty good. I have a similar sort of pre-incarnate thing going on with my Bots/Traps: FFG is a great source of +Defense, occasionally it wanders off, gets knocked away, and it needs to be renewed. The Henchmen benefit from the Aura pieces, while they are close The Protector Bots are somewhat inconsistent with their Defense buff. The Protector Bots and their Seeker Drones (-ToHit) are somewhat inconsistent. Personally: I'm always running Maneuvers, occasionally Hover, almost never Weave. The end result is sometimes I am way above the Incarnate "soft cap", sometimes not, before Incarnate powers. The regular content I run into that causes me to be thankful for high defenses are: Enemies which debuff defenses. Robots can be slow-ish against single targets, so a cascading defense failure is one of those things to look out for... I suspect that with multiple ways to Heal the Robots you will get a sense when it is time to let them crash and simply resummon them. "auto-hit" powers If the auto-hit powers aren't doing lots of damage, it is less of a big deal if the entire squad gets hit with them when followup attacks aren't hitting them.

I will get around to my Widow half soon, here is the (page 7) slotting for the Fortunata half of my character. This build has some compromises/changes I didn't have previously. I was somewhat disappointed by the (solo) damage output in terms of both type and magnitude. I'm clumsy with attack chains, yet even I could see I had one more attack that was almost never fitting into the cycle... so two big changes: Powers that had some excellent set bonuses became %damage attacks I added Hasten to the build to help slightly with the long recharges... if I had one fewer long-cycling power I would have skipped it. The net result is that Defensively, I think this is slightly inferior to what I had been running previously... but the solo clear times have gotten faster. There was another subtle change I made to improve zone-crossing times. If I decide I can live without Hasten, I will replace it with Evasive Maneuvers, move the Winter's Gift piece to the new power and have two more slots to play with.

I get the sense that Inspirations are ignored (purposefully, or accidentally) when considering certain aspects of "game balance". I can almost put myself in a headspace to see why this might be purposeful, but then I look at how some of the (armor) T9s work... and realize how many Inspiration slots a character will have by the time they can even pick a T9 (especially in the pre-page 5 days) and I shake my head. Yes, inspirations are (nominally, because email) limited "charges", but their use is only limited by whatever power being activated or control (soft or hard or animation) is applied to the character... but otherwise any power with an effect that can be duplicated by an inspiration is subject to reconsideration.

Zone-to-zone travel has become so easy, the only time old-school "visit random zone(s)" bothers me is when I am soloing some of the OG blue content that isn't a TF. One of the arcs that really gets me is Gordon Stacy's: at one point he has you simply traveling between click contacts in Skyway City... and elsewhere. The infodumps are important for the Lore, but in play it is extremely tedious.

I use Power Boost on my /Time Corruptor, it is one of those things where I end up juggling its use. IIRC I think I keep Farsight on auto trigger. Because of the inherent recharge differences between Farsight (240 sec) and Power Boost (120 sec) I don't think you would need more than the base slot in Power Boost. The main (and only) thing I can think of working against the selection of Power Boost at all (for the MM) is comes from this sort of thinking: Power Boost can be chosen at 41 or later The primary, most reliable, use (from my PoV) would be to boost Farsight (for Defense, but that isn't the only thing) It will be possible to have incarnate Barrier, which will work down to level 45, and I'm not sure there will be a "better" choice than Barrier. So if Destiny=Barrier, there is a somewhat narrow range where the Power Boost + Farsight would be bringing the most benefit. Obviously a different Destiny power could be chosen. While leveling of course Destiny slots won't be available! I don't use much from Mace Mastery on my MM, but it is a Traps secondary not Time. I think it would be too hard to try to time the benefits of Power Boost with Traps. The Web Envelope seemed like a good idea but the set bonuses were IMO inferior and it wasn't helping me keep aggro/debuff and the KD in Mace Beam Volley is a reasonable soft control. I have a classic set of powers from the Fighting pool as end-build powers in my MM: Tough is slotted with 4 Globals plus a 2-piece set bonus from Unbreakable guard for Endurance discount. Weave is a LotG Mule.

Level 22: Assault Bot A: Superior Mark of Supremacy: Damage23: Superior Mark of Supremacy: Damage/Endurance23: Superior Command of the Mastermind: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge27: Sovereign Right: Accuracy/Endurance27: Soulbound Allegiance: Chance for Build Up33: Overwhelming Force: Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown I'm not crazy about these choices. I'm 50/50 on not liking the %BuildUp in the T3. I can somewhat understand it, but I find it works so much better in the T1. A couple of anecdotes: I see it firing all-the-time on each of the T1s, so I guess it will do similarly on the T3 The combined T3s appear to equal or slightly exceed the damage output of the T1 when I am fighting multiple Giant Monsters. (Paladins, the Grim Vale) I don't like adding the OF piece in any of the Robotic henchmen. There will occasionally still be some knockback, but it is simply not worth fretting about. If you played Robotics before the recent Homecoming updates, slotting for Knockdown was crucial. Now it isn't that important. Level 16: Distortion Field A: Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage39: Neuronic Shutdown: Chance of Damage(Psionic)40: Ghost Widow's Embrace: Chance of Damage(Psionic)40: Gladiator's Net: Chance of Damage(Lethal)42: Impeded Swiftness: Chance of Damage(Smashing)43: Ice Mistral's Torment: Chance for Cold Damage I think I see what you are trying to do with Distortion Field, but I would not go all-in on %damage. (it is an endurance hog) IIRC it is a pseudo-pet, so the reliable %damage will be on cast, after that I expect the %proc rates to be mediocre, especially without some accuracy slotting... I mean, you can go with your slotting, but I'd also test with something like: (A) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Hold: Level 50+5 (*) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold: Level 50+5 (*) Gladiator's Net - Chance for Damage (Lethal) (*) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Damage (Smashing) I happen to like the 3x bonus from Gladiator's Net, but there are a lot of good set bonuses to be had from Hold sets. On my /Time Corruptor I slotted Distortion Field as (A) Pacing of the Turtle – Endurance/Recharge/Slow: Level 50+5 (*) Superior Entomb - Endurance/Recharge The lack of %damage in my slotting makes me think I must have tested it for %damage and saw it was not worth it. Don't fall into a trap thinking that the MM will be a solid source of damage, that is what the henchmen are for. For MM, I add %-resistance before I add %damage, unless it is part of a set. Here are some of the other /Time powers from my Corruptor, and how I slotted them, maybe they will offer some ideas?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Solo: Unstoppable. Team: My choice completely depends on where we are in a mission. After all, it is a free teleport to my base. If the mission is practically done, there is often little reason to stay on the map.

I rather like this idea. I've been wedded to Psychic Scream for so long, but I also get annoyed by the sound.

Some men just want to watch the dogs burn.

Have you explored the "convert" tab under incarnate powers?

The post above by @Ironblade has succinctly identified what I consider to be the true state of affairs for 'aggro play'. It's been almost 20 years since a Tanker could do things like herd all the Rikti monkeys on the PI map. The game has long evolved past the "wait for the Tank to herd them" style of gameplay... for one thing the target caps for damage exist. I occasionally see some other sides to whatever the OP's complaint is: I'll often use non-tank characters to grab aggro from distant groups, simply to speed up clear times It is not at all uncommon that my non-tanks can peel the attention of single enemies that the tank really ought to be holding the attention of In the case of the former, I'm doing it because we can handle it. It's not because the Tanker is inferior. In the case of the latter, I don't think it is that big of a deal... minimally I hope it demonstrates to the Tanker's player that they need to step up their game.

My thoughts keep coming back to: The Council, and before them Crey, were pretty unimaginative enemies that rarely provided a challenge. Neither the Council nor Crey used even a fraction of the sort of powers/game effects that they should have had access to given the game's Lore. Neither the Council nor Crey is particularly out of line with other groups that spawn in the level range 40+ Neither the Council nor Crey are clones of any other groups that spawn Every time an enemy shows up using tricks that players have been using to defeat critters, there is going to be some who feel twinges of "but that's not fair!"... but it doesn't mean it isn't fair. If anything those formerly mediocre groups now play like they ought to, given the Lore. If anyone wasn't here for the Fire attacks having a -Def component added to them, and you feel like seeing how arguments about how somebody doesn't listen to me play out I recommend spending some time with the search bar. Spoilers: The game didn't end in a fiery cataclysm.

Well.... there are Blaster secondaries which don't contain melee attacks... and it isn't like the Epic/Patron pools are brimming with melee attacks.

Also Deep Space 9, IIRC.

I think what I'm reading is that ever since the nerf to Tankers, that Dark/Dark Brutes are now the premium Herders, but only if they run Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear.

^ This is my primary balance issue (with the Medicine pool, not the Sorcery pool)... even without considering the %proc, as a practical matter the %absorb is better than a heal (interruptable or not).

Regular FREEM! was a surprise, but it is not insurmountable problem. Less than 10 points of KB protection isn't going to cut it, and frankly as rare as 12+ KB used to be, sure I can imagine the surprise felt by other players. Have more than 10 points of KB protection but less than 20 points? I suggest crafting a SG temp power for 90 minutes of +10 points of KB protection. I also don't usually have "softcap" defenses... although I do on my main MM... but I don't think that FREEM! is an autohit. My point here is that this issue could seem worse because of the larger spawn sizes and the slightly more resistant enemies sticking around longer. Even Eochai learned a thing or two from players about how to slot Bonfire!

A failure of comprehension on my part: I don't understand the first comment in this thread about Jack E. TBH: I don't remember there being a personal option to increase "team size" in the original game at launch, except of course by teaming up. If the comment was about "times change"... I suppose I agree. If the comment was to make a point about how HC is forcing (or not requiring?) players to team up... particularly in in "High Level Council Missions"... I suppose I disagree. If the comment was some form of side-eye about how Homecoming's management deserves scorn by invoking a commonly used bête noir, I shrug in disbelief.