tidge

One things I was disappointed by over a recent weekend was a single player reacting very negatively in LFG to requests by players to be sitters in AE farms. The public hostility was not really needed. Personally? I don't see the fun or necessity to be a farm sitter. The game has so much content! I would prefer to play with folks that have explored their powers and build choices through experience, but another player's lack of experience or bad build choices doesn't affect my fun. Every once in a while I end up on a PUG where another player has (what I perceive as) a peculiar sort of opinion about "how the game works"... it could be because they remember some old advice from Live, it could be that they only know other MMO, it could be they have lived a rather sheltered experience in CoX... I don't think *I* have failed them because their perspective is different from mine.

The Fear and Threat sets are quite deficient. Each has a pair at level 10-30, and a pair at 20-50. Far fewer options than any other "control", hard or soft. (snicker "several") With the exception of the final piece in the 10-30 pair, each set offers exactly the same enhancement elements, so no practical variety of options for enhancement. Each Threat set only one Accuracy boosting piece, despite the large number of threat powers with actually require Accuracy (Presence Pool, most auras, Tanker attacks, etc.) No Threat set includes an Endurance reduction boosting piece. The set bonuses for slotting the 10-30 Fear sets are incredibly similar. Neither Threat nor Fear has a Purple, Winter, or PVP set. The HO/DS options for Threat are severely limited, the options for Fear are slightly better. For comparison: Sleep, Confuse and Stun have Purple enhancement options. The only things that I can see Threat (or if you prefer, the original "Aggro") and Fear have in common are that over the decades the way the critter AI reacts to those two effects has been modified... yet even after the Live aggro changes, there really was no reason to keep the enhancement options for Threat to be so pitiful... even considering potential PVP affects, which always seemed to be a bugbear for the Live devs. Now that HC has reworked "Threat", there is IMO a greater need than ever to add some variety to its enhancement options. Fear is in a somewhat better state for enhancement boosts, with an obvious gap: There is nothing available for slotting single-target Fear powers that makes them useful for late-game play. In comparison with other "control" sets: A single-target Confuse can be slotted with a purple %Contageous Confusion piece, which offers the chance for the single-target to become a sort of AoE A single-target Hold can be slotted with a %+Mag piece, which offers the chance to Hold a boss (without having to cast two different holds) The Immobilize purple set offers a %Hold (on top of the immobilize), which can be an additional stack of Hold magnitude Holds have a kazillion %damage options, which allow single-target Holds to become damaging attacks

For attacks with high base damage, on ATs with good damage scalars, I typically won't franken-slot for %damage, although if a %damage piece is in a set, I am likely to include it on the path to a set bonus I am chasing. For attacks that deal damage-over-time, any %damage from a proc will be "front loaded", sometimes I find that it is better to get the damage up-front. If a power is going to have an inherent recharge less than 12 seconds... I find that it is typically not worth investing hoping for %damage. Those attacks are most likely to get set bonuses. Enhancement Diversification is independent of %proc pieces. The %damage is independent of the AT damage scalar effects, which means that a %damage piece will add the same amount of damage for all ATs. Some folks will make a point about how the %damage can help a character get past the Damage cap, but I find that to be a sort of corner case. Note: I don't play Brutes. I think it will be very hard to be at the damage cap solo, and I think it would have to include Incarnates, Inspirations, and/or something else (Scrapper criticals?) or those hypothetical Kinetics who happen to be standing by. With single targets... it is almost as important to weigh more recharge than it would be %damage! I almost never seek to put %damage into a single-target power unless: The character is below level 10, because of the START Enhancement pieces. which can be slotted right away at lvl 1 The character has low (or no!) DPS single-target attacks (by the time they can slot %damage) I don't need a set bonus from whatever power. I am desperate for some "off-type" damage for the primary/secondary I am playing. For example: Single-target holds are often early for low-DPS characters, and they can slot some %damage early from low level sets. That combination could help a Controller do more damage at early levels, if the proc rates are favorable. Ultimately, most Controllers will probably get better results (faster clear speeds) with %damage in the AoEs. It used to be common to see folks recommending putting %damage in every power that can take them,,, but I think that is a bad choice.

I agree, and probably wrote (somewhere) that I don't think "more enhancement slots for Kheldians" is the answer. I see a bigger obstacle being this: even if I lean hard into one (or two) of the different forms (via dedicating slots), I'm pretty much stuck with playing a pretty mediocre whatever (Blaster, Tanker). VEATs don't leave me with this feeling, because even with a "second" set of primary/secondaries, I can tailor those VEAT builds... I'm not "stuck" with either the powers from the baseline or from the chosen path... but with HEATs I pretty much get the powers from the other forms, and there is no real tailoring of a build... except possibly in human-form-dominant play... but that choice is sacrificing what make the HEATs unique.

I want to bandwagon what @kelika2 wrote. Generally I find the Sentinel Epic/Patron powers to be "clunky" to use with the Sentinel primaries, the powers are somewhat late in the build for my taste to "improve" playability, and I personally disfavor single target attacks coming at level 35+ for ATs that have already had a primary full of single-target attacks. Obviously, if there is something in the Epic/Patron that fulfills a concept... go for it! The one sort of pick I can see making strategic sense would be to pick an AoE immobilize if you are the sort of player that is really bothered by Knockback. IIRC the AoE immobilizes provide Knockback resistance to the affected targets.

My final-build slotting of Dark Regeneration is: Touch of the Nictus Acc/End/Heal Touch of the Nictus Acc/End/Recharge Touch of the Nictus %Negative Theft of Essence %+Endurance Obliteration %Smashing Eradication %Energy IIRC Touch of the Nictus can't be slotted until way after level 22, so I'd just slot for Accuracy and Endurance reduction (IOs) before then. I don't sleep on slotting it for Endurance reduction on Dark Regeneration, as its cost-to-cast is rather steep. I find that the %proc chances are improved with more Accuracy slotting in the powers themselves, as I believe that there is an additional ToHit roll (beyond both the initial necessary ToHit and any %proc chance) for %procs in all powers (to prevent AutoHit powers from having ceiling %proc chances). I believe that a player's Global Accuracy/ToHit bonuses do not get factored into this extra "ToHit" roll for %proc effects. Because Dark Armor relies so heavily on Dark Regeneration to survive (more so than any toggle except for Obsidian Shield), if you don't add KB protection into the build you will eventually find yourself unable to click on Dark Regeneration when you want it (ehem, FREEM!). I shoot for 14 points of KB protection, because adding 10 more points from a SG base buff makes you functionally immune to FREEM! Dark Embrace can take 3 pieces of Gladiator's Armor (for 3 points) Death Shroud can take 3 pieces of Fury of the Gladiator (for 3 points) A travel power can take a Blessing of the Zephyr unique (for 4 points) 4 more points can be had from a Defense (Karma) or Resistance (Steadfast Protection) mule. You could probably stop with 12 points of KB protection (sort list by magnitude), but I find that those PVP sets are pretty good choices for their enhancement effects (since they can be boosted to 50+5), and 10 points is "not always enough" when facing large spawns, so I end up with 14 before considering a SG base buff. The only reason I can think of shooting for 18 points on an individual character (via slotting) is to (with a SG base buff) stand fast against Waterspouts, or if engaging in PVP.

A possible Enhancement piece that could be slotted which would allow a "small amount" of JumpHeight/JumpSpeed (*1) to be "not suppressed" is what I was thinking of as the only "obvious" (to me anyway) thing missing from Jump(s) as a Travel power. I suppose such a thing could be worked into a power pool similar to the OP suggestion, but since multiple pools include "Jump", I was thinking more along the lines of the enhancement pieces that offer "Fly protection", "Run Protection" etc. Teleport would still be the odd man out, but it got its "hang time" addressed IIRC. (*1) I can't be sure, but I think it is the JumpHeight suppression that takes me out of the game immersion the most. Often this is because I simply want to get over some map obstacle and suddenly cannot. There is another case when I am using the Experimentation pool's Speed of Sound, hit the space bar, and all of a sudden I feel like an at-launch level 1 character again. I suspect the latter is because there is no JumpHeight component to Speed of Sound, but often it feels like it isn't even accounting for any slotting of Hurdle.

I believe I noticed during the April Fools' event that the zone map for Grandville would include an indicator for the Rogue Mapserver. If this was working as intended, would it be possible to add this functionality to track the Arachnos Flier(s) in Grandville as well? I want to single out the Grandville Arachnos Flier(s), as opposed to asking this for all Giant Monsters for the following specific reasons: The Flier(s) is one of the few Giant Monsters that moves from where it spawns The path of each Flier is well-established, but different depending on which of the Fliers spawned The Flier(s) move relatively quickly between landing spots The Fliers will despawn themselves The "4 hour" timer announcement is relatively easy to miss The only other "wanderers" I can think of, that I wouldn't want map indicators for, are: Caleb. I'm reasonably sure that Caleb being non-trivial/hard to find is an "as intended" feature of the big ghost Eochai/Jack in Irons. They don't wander too much, and they have associated spawns that need to also be defeated for them to respawn; I don't want any more reason for players to be sloppy about ignoring those. Paladin. The pathing of Paladin(s) is pretty much set modulo some other zone events. As with the Croatoan wandering versions of Jack/Eochai I wouldn't want a map indicator because it would further reinforce sloppy clean-up of the associated spawns IMO. I feel that the other zone monsters (including the Holiday events) shouldn't be trivial to track down, as they can be a surprise to players in whatever zone. It's more that the Arachnos Flier seems more like the kind of thing that would be known where it is.

Yes, the %proc chance(s) will be checked against each target. I think it may be more math than we realize; AFAIK each %proc also has to make its own ToHiT roll in addition to both the original ToHiT roll (against each target) and the %proc chance. This is (apparently) the way the game keeps "autohit" powers from having whatever the default %proc rate would be, per the proc formula.

That is a PBAoE, so it's a %proc chance on up to 16 targets, FWIW.

These proposed sets can get to their place in line behind the missing Threat and Fear Enhancement sets.

I'll add this: I shrug off the low-magnitude controls. I don't shun powers that have them, but I almost never lean into them. They are fine if they stack with some other commonly used power in the toolkit, but otherwise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

Was this a passive aggressive post about the inclusion of "% %" in the power text? asking for a friend.

Is there something subtle I am missing? I often have Force of Will's Mighty Leap toggled on, and when I try to jump immediately after making an attack, it feels like the Jump Height is suppressed

As near as I can tell (and I rarely take the Leaping pool) the only thing I notice about "jumps" is that it appears that JumpHeight is also subject to travel suppression effects (e.g. from combat).

Drain Psyche is IMO one of those powers that feels like it straddles the line between 'useful' and 'not useful'. I don't have much experience with it in the secondary. The self-boosts are fine, and the enemy -Regeneration can be helpful, but a long-recharge click that requires enemies nearby... well, maybe just build +Recovery and +Regeneration without planning to use Drain Psyche? Also the power takes almost no %damage pieces, it can't be leveraged like other similar powers. I'd probably start slotting it with something like this, and then try to improve recharge. (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing: Level 50 (*) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50

ZOMG, NuCouncil is soooo borken at level 30!!!! /s

I don't go out of my way to slot powers for -ToHit, unless I can get some -ToHit boosts from pieces I otherwise want... so Accuracy/-ToHit, or Endurance/-ToHit. Often I do this with Hami-O/D-Syncs on a 'final build'. The exception is that I occasionally use the 4xCloud Senses set for the set bonuses (even though that set "caps" at level 30) Why do I not slot for -ToHit? Generally, the power has to hit the enemy first... so it is has a base reliability of whatever its ToHit chance is, and Then the enemy has to be affected by the debuff, and Any effected enemy has to "stick around" long enough that the -ToHit is interfering with the enemy's ability to make with the combat, and The enhancement of any -ToHit has to be worth it more than using that slot for something else (%damage) or somewhere else in the build. I find that -ToHit is most reliable when it comes from AoE and also supports characters that would take a relatively long time to clear a large spawn. Some (Dark) pets are relatively slow at defeating enemies, and appear with ATs that can also be slow to clear large spawns... so -ToHit is almost certainly making those types more able to survive being swamped.

The situation described in the OP reads as one of the worst stories of Yin Mayhem, specifically: I don't mind a "reckless Yin", but the Hostages (and later Council Members and Raid Leaders) are the mission objectives. As much as I can enjoy significant amounts of aggro in the Yin TF, there really is no excuse IMO for a teammate to be "running ahead" while there is still a mission objective to be achieved. The Mission Tooltip (and dialogue) let everyone know when a specific mission objective has been completed, so even the most locked button mashers should know, including if there are Freakshow rezzes in play. I'm less inclined to agree with the sentiment in: On every Yin TF I play, I have a very good sense if the Team can handle a quick respawn. Maybe not every player on a well-performing can handle it... but by the point we reach the reactor room I have watched how the various ATs have been playing, and how they are leveraging their powers and positioning. If squishies are being sloppy with AoE... yeah, maybe we shouldn't quickly reinvite Clamor to the party. If we've got some well-performing players leveraging controls against the Bosses... we can probably handle Clamor. I have come to believe that there is a significant fraction of players who don't realize that Clamor applies Radiation Infection. The player that gets hit with that toggle, really needs to make sure they aren't dooming the rest of their squad via their positioning. Of the two spawns prior to Clamor's reappearance, I think the one in the Reactor room is the more problematic, because that spawn will scatter (fliers, rezzes). The Hallway spawn has to make a rather restricted path that has a couple of choke points... a single player can tie them up... I prefer to use the "cooling belt" room, some players think the "vestibule" is better.

I will take the Epic pools on Blasters, but almost always to get an "armor" and/or get powers for Enhancement mules. I like to have my Blasters "mostly done" with the keye power choices by the level those sets become available. The exceptions have been: Fire Mastery, because getting Rise of the Phoenix means I can pretty much play as crazy as I want, plus Melt Armor Arsenal Mastery, for Blasters already using some sort of rifle... the powers mesh well with the rifle sets IMO.

I don't use MIDS, sorry. For Blasters, I usually 6xslot both ATO sets, although sometimes I will split the Defiant Barrage. Other powers usually get 5xsets, because the Blaster damage scales are excellent. For the non-nuke AoE, If I can get decent set bonuses elsewhere, I often lean into %damage pieces (but I like 6xAnnihilation) if the inherent damage is low/middling and I can get off-type damage. I typically support the %damage attacks with Accuracy/End or Accuracy/Range choices. I would not try to slot KB->KD, except possibly in Nova, because it is a PBAoE. If you go Force Mastery, I would only plan on Temp Invulnerability being used. I tried Force Bomb, but I didn't like it... especially for a late choice Blaster attack. BY the time I can take damaging attacks from Epic/patron pools, I would rather have my attack chain(s) complete. I wouldn't fault you for trying Force Bomb for concept. I believe it has been since modified such that it should only do Knockdown on even-level critters.