tidge

I agree (in direction, if not in magnitude) with @Uun suggestions. The only advice I feel like adding is a general comment about the timing of choices of Build Up and Hasten. Without looking at the total build, and not knowing which content you intend to play, my instincts tell me that Hasten is almost certainly taken "too soon", and that Build Up may be "too soon". In the case of Hasten, my personal rule-of-thumb is to not add it to a build until I have taken an attack or survival mechanism that has significantly long enough recharge times that using Hasten will get me (at least) "one more" use of the power, when I need it. Before level 20, most such powers have inherently fast recharge times that attack chains work without Hasten by simple slotting. Build Up (and similar powers) is far more variable in utility. I'd only take it that early if there isn't a different power the build could use that early (possibly as a pre-requisite) and/or by the time you really want Build Up (for Total Focus, Energy Transfer) the power choices don't quite work out so taking it slightly earlier is necessary to have it for when you do take those powers.

I found Provoke to be far inferior at grabbing enemy aggro than simply targeting enemies with some sort of AoE attack (from the MM). The number of possible targets is almost always higher in the MM attack than Provoke's cap of 5 targets Provoke requires Accuracy slotting, it is not an auto-hit Slotting an AoE ranged attack, as opposed to a "threat power", offers hella-more options for both set bonuses and enhancement characteristics The last bullet point is key IMO. There is IIRC only one piece (each, in the two level 50 Threat Enhancement sets) than includes Accuracy. No Range AoE includes "threat". but there is a %-Res debuff piece in Annihilation, and also the %Immobilization in the Frozen Blast set... either can allow an enemy debuff or mezz to "linger" for a bit as a sort of pseudo-taunt. IMO: It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to believe that an MM using Provoke performs better than a MM tossing an attack.

It seems highly unlikely to me that data-mining (by the devs, by the powers team) of selected powers would be the driving force behind changes to particular powers in Dark Armor. I am aware that years ago the team with access to the character database would occasionally make public statements that they had looked at player-selected powers (or at least power sets), but I always got the sense that, in the case of particular powers, someone on the powers team had more of an inkling about the balance of the specific power, possibly from conversations, rather than deep-diving power selection. For example: consensus on the Robotics MM primary Triage Beacon was a pretty poor choice, yet a LOT of Robotics MM were seen to have selected it and advocate for it in the forums. Nevertheless, it got turned into something much better as part of a bigger revamp. The allowance to pick T2 secondary powers at level 1 was certainly not because everyone skipped the secondary T1 powers. I don't think there is any reason to "revamp" Dark Armor completely, although I can imagine subtle motivations: Bark Armour is, and always has been, toggle-heavy.... with toggles almost evenly split between for the player and for the critters. The individual power's endurance costs are probably (just a guess, I don't feel like spreadsheeting them across ATs and alternate armor choices) aligned, but everyone who plays teh set knows that in total it becomes a problem for Endurance. If I had to guess what a slightly different Dark Armor would look like, but still feel like a classic Dark Armor: One of the Resistance toggles would become an auto power, and get a "balance pass" for values One of critter toggles (probably Cloak of Fear, because as a Fear it is different than other types of mezz) would become an on-activation PBAoE, also with a "balance pass", especially for Accuracy. As a matter of personal opinion: I definitely think that primary/secondary (not pools) power sets used by ATs that rely on multiple toggles (especially self-only-affecting ones) probably could use a "modern" look at Endurance consumption. I'm sure I'm not the only Tanker player that picks primary Armor toggles, slots them, and then doesn't actually turn them on. I can conjure an apocryphal set of reasons for why the Dark Armor "offensive" toggles have remained as they are. The original (Day 0) Fiery Armor sets taught those devs a lesson about in-game rewards for players doing nothing but turn on toggles; the PVP era reinforced some peculiar beliefs about controls usable by melee types (e.g. Stuns).

I am still working out the kinks, and trying a variety of content. My Night Widow skipped Build Up, the attacks it has available are: Poison Dart (I wanted the -Regen), this pretty much only gets used on a very injured single target. Strike Followup (was the compromise made so as to have 3 attacks under level 10) Spin (my last attack before level 24) Eviscerate Psychic Scream (with %damage and Knockdown) Wall of Force (%damage) I have this at level 30, I could have taken it earlier, but I felt like I would have been sacrificing some of the 'Night Widow feels' for an important range of content. I have it slotted so the range is almost the same as Psychic Scream. I realize Eviscerate is not well-loved, but with AoE Cone knockdowns from Psychic Scream and Wall of Force, I can usually position to use it semi-effectively. The Widow has a Weaken Resolve to toss against harder targets. I have Placate, although I delayed it until level 32... I was having too many choices bunch up around level 20! The Fortunata ended up with %damage in Psychic Tornado (which I did not use previously) and Static Discharge (previously slotted with Annihilation). There are %damage in Dominate, which has very little Endurance reduction in it, but this is slotted for Accuracy, Hold and %damage. I'm considering adding an End/Hold piece here, because the cycle time on Dominate makes it a fast ST attack. Ultimately I think it comes down to making a lot of attacks, in short periods of time, using attacks that don't have a lot of Endurance reduction slotted in them. The main issue I was having before leaning into %damage on the Fortunata was that Psi-resistant enemies would take forever to defeat, even if I never quite ran out of Endurance.

In some ways, I'm surprised that Fears work at all in this game. And I think they were reworked at least once, maybe twice with critter AI changes? I'm certainly glad that the main effect is "quiver in place" rather than actually running away. They don't really hold enemies, nor do they really immobilize them. They act like neither placates nor taunts. I suppose in terms of how an "afraid" status helps neutralize critters is knockdown. Fear has also got one of the two worst treatments in terms of Enhancement sets, the other being "Threat". I suppose we should be thankful that the Fear Enhancement sets off more than one piece that includes Accuracy.

My Dark Armor Scrapper stacks Cloak of Fear with Intimidate and/or Invoke Panic, because that is its concept. It's not improving critter defeat times but I get a laugh from it.

Re: PVP recipes I would never consider getting into the (crafted and/or converted) PVP corner of the market: PVP recipes drop across all levels of content 10 through 50+ Sub-50 PVP pieces can be attuned, catalysts are trivial to come by There are relative few (percentage-wise) PVP pieces that I find valuable for my builds The cost of the rare components automatically raises the necessarily minimum selling price of the PVP recipes There are a handful of PVP recipes that I low-bid-on to make sure my personal supply of those doesn't run out, but otherwise I'm crafting and converting PVP recipes as they drop (for my own eventual use). I don't think the drop rate for PVP recipes has noticeably changed. My own guesstimate was previously that after about an hour of near-uninterrupted defeating of large enemy spawns (at level 50) I had a 50/50 chance of getting either a PVP or a Very Rare recipe. This hold roughly true for lower level content, except that below a certain level Very Rare recipes won't drop at all. Another slightly annoying feature (that favors PVP recipe drops): Defeating even-level enemies in open-world zones (such as during the Anniversary event) the recipes will drop at/close to the highest level of the zone, not the player. I have gotten quite a few level 30-ish PVP recipes from defeating Anniversary enemies in lower-level zones.

I suspect that @Snarky wants Cloak of Fear primarily for thematic reasons. I have a Dark Armor Scrapper that also chose it, but for theme. For the Tanker, I think Cloak of Fear does bring utility (to both me and the team) Up to 10 nearby enemies are having their ToHit debuffed. (The Fear portion is not nothing, but without stacking it strikes me as somewhat "meh") Up to 10 nearby enemies are being notified that the Tank is there, doing something... and maybe the Tank deserves some attention. For the former: The effect of ToHit debuffs are difficult to assess... but having used Seeker Drones, I can tell that it ain't nothing! For the latter: OMG this would be a terrible way to try to manage aggro... but running through some enemies, possibly giving them a tick of -ToHit, to get the Tanker to another spot from which to start doing real Tanker aggro management is a little useful. I'm not advocating that everyone should take it. As a point of discussion, I think that every power that is a toggle should get serious consideration if it pays dividends. I've built and played enough min-max characters that I am comfortable making build choices that other players may consider inferior.

I finally got around to the (post issue 5!) respecs of my Fortunata / Widow duo-form. Since they are two halves of the same character, I avoided all melee attacks on the Fortunata. I need to get some play time with them across more content before I post the builds. As I wrote briefly elsewhere, I modified each of them: Use the new Page 7 power(s) available (Pain Tolerance for the Widow, Fate Sealed for the Fortunata) Remove (at least) one attack from each Sacrifice set bonuses to add some %damage (especially for the Psi-heavy Fortunata) Long-time members may remember my deep fondness for the Presence pool. I kept this for the Fortunata, but for the Widow I wasn't quite able to leverage it... I wanted the "real" version of Placate! I swapped out Presence for Force of Will to get what I feel to be a more complimentary set of tools for a Night Widow. My immediate thoughts on the (currently unshared) builds: The Night Widow's performance is significantly better, for somewhat subtle reasons (Force of Will is a better force-multiplier than Presence) The Fortunata performs better against psi-resistant enemies, and is better at control (even though my build previously was control-heavy). The Fortunata runs incredibly hot... such that I have to pay even more attention to Endurance. (Positional) Defenses are slightly lower, but I haven't faced serious threats yet. The final point is a wall (chain-link fence?) that I still want to try to negotiate around via build choices. I had been leveraging set bonuses to address Endurance (and improve positional Defenses), the Fortunata took a big hit when I dropped attacks and leaned into %damage (and upped Global Recharge). Ultimately I may have to simply mash buttons less fastly.

The inherent Accuracy of Cloak of Fear is IMO highly problematic. I especially do not like that its very low base accuracy can shift all of my other AoE attacks into infrequent Streakbreaker territory. This was another contributing factor for me to delay it in my build; I didn't want to have to think about the Streakbreaker aspect when playing low (enough) level content! I think with the slotting I used (see above), plus Global Accuracy bonuses and the Kismet +ToHit piece (toggled on) the final Accuracy I end up with for Cloak of Fear should be north of 120%. I usually shoot for more than that, but I felt it was the best I could do with minimal slotting to get Accuracy, Endurance Reduction and one other effect (for me -ToHit).

Here is my revisited build, motivated to get KB protection up to 14 points. Sorry I don't MIDS. Tanker Primary Power Set: Dark Armor Secondary Power Set: Electrical Melee Power Pool: Experimentation Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Leadership Defenses could be improved by swapping out %damage in the attacks for (Superior Winter) sets. Folks who crave more S/L could swap into the Fitness pool. Slots could be shuffled around to improve +Defense from Maneuvers. It would be straightforward to add a single-target ranged attack (to include a Superior Winter's Bite set) but doing all these things would radically move away from my vision of the character.

I have the %Absorb piece elsewhere (this character has taken 4 of 5 Experimentation pool power). I believe that Power Transfer %Heal only will work if used (I added that to Stamina, an Auto power). The Preventive Maintenance %Absorb piece will trigger if included anywhere on the build as it is a global. My hand also includes more than one finger, and I have needed to rez at least once. I run my characters along the edge of a hot knife(*1), so when my teams' performance goes pear-shaped... it is usually really bad. I'll post my build later, and I know it won't satisfy most players who want to emphasize one or more different aspects, but it is fun for me. In the build I'll share, I certainly could add "one more" LotG Global +Recharge mule (but I don't really need it). The only other base-slot-only choice of a power that appeals to me(*2) is Focused Accuracy (Energy Master)... because this Tanker build doesn't have any Epic pools taken I could drop it in... but then Focused Accuracy would be one more toggle on an already toggle-heavy Tanker, even though it would be an excellent choice. I rationalize not taking the obvious benefits of Focused Accuracy by making other build choices to (partially) mitigate not having that late-game toggle via use of the Kismet +ToHit piece and getting Global +Accuracy bonuses from enhancement sets. I can't really mitigate -ToHit but if I wanted more global Perception I could make a trivial change to existing slotting and include the Rectified Reticle global piece (in Build Up). (*1) My build doesn't include the Fighting pool, and dedicates slots almost entirely to the Secondary and Primary powers... so no reaching for the "defense caps" via Tough/Weave or investing more slots in Maneuvers. (*2) My build has an AoE utility/attack at level 22 from Corrosive Vial, which consumes slots that might otherwise go to a first epic/patron power at level 35. I mention this because when *I* want some sort of "extra AoE" attack that would otherwise from an epic/patron pool, I almost always decide I'd rather have something similar much sooner than level 35. YMMV. My build has (at least!) one other peculiar choice that I made strictly for Quality-of-Life: I have both Speed of Sound (at level 6, primary travel power) and Super Jump (at level 26, holding the Winter's Gift Slow Resistance piece). I find Speed of Sound to be fine, up until the character using it jumps... at which point the travel speed becomes terrible... and there are enough things to jump over/around that it really bothers me. This build allowed me to slot in Super Jump with the only sacrifice being delaying one of three "self-help" powers (Adrenal Booster, Build Up or Cloak of Fear).

I'm reworking my Dark Armor Tanker, primarily pulling 4 slots from Cloak of Fear and juggling the order of powers taken to improve Quality of (un)Life. I've decided to lean only into the -ToHit component (HO: Lysosome and a 50+5 Accuracy/Endurance) and to further delay taking Cloak of Fear (level 35) as I find neither I nor teams need it for lower level content. My character has enough other tools to use to get the attention of enemies, so it isn't as if the Aura aspect is critical. I used those four slots to get to 14 points of KB protection (because I derped and had forgotten this part of Dark) , higher resistances from Dark Embrace and included the Power Transfer %Heal piece, without having to change my other slotting . What's the thinking on slotting Soul Transfer? I will only have a single slot in it. Right now it has a %Lethal piece in it for the lulz, but I am wondering if I should have it slotted with Recharge just because when I need it I typically need it again ASAP.

I try to buy the endurance drain protection buff from the SG base before a Yin. I've stood next to the Super Stunners when they rez, and if it is just me they have next to no HP and get put down quickly. When the Yin TF is being run in some sort of TUFF mode (+4, enemies buffed, whatever) the Super Stunners are often the last critters to be defeted (modulo any other rezzes) so it's not like the whole team can't focus on a newly rezzed one. The Yin TF seems to a never-ending source of complaints that players are "doing it wrong". Life, and the Penny Yin TF, is too short to get worked up over.

The Super Stunner resurrection is IMO one of those things that takes more mental bandwidth to be concerned about than it does to simply defeat them a second time. It's not like every Player, Henchmen, and Pet is going to get away from every Super Stunner. IIRC the rez still requires an enemy ToHit roll. There are SG base buffs that can be crafted before starting the Yin TF.

I also think it is important to have a relatively smooth attack chain for exemplaring down to level 10, exemping down to level 20 should (IMO) have all the tricks to make your AT shine., modulo perma-Domination. The way I approach that is to have at least 3 "attacks" that work exemped down to level 7-10 content, and make sure they are slotted. I also don't rely on Hasten: I see a lot of folks recommend it before level 10, this always feels like a bad choice for me. When I take Hasten, it is never before level 22... I don't have enough powers that can make a difference for! Expensive is in the eye of the customer, it isn't hard to collect enough merits to start to build up an set of ATOs. Another easy set to collect is the Overwhelming Force by doing the summer Blockbuster. I often use that set while leveling up. If you play enough, you will get PVP recipe drops. I use those in characters as they level up.

Hey that is useful, at least for freeing up a slot. There is still the whole "Resistance Resists Resistable Resistance Debuffs", so I don't get super excited about a resistance debuff, even one that lasts 30 seconds.

I agree. Knockdown is quite handy on PBAoE, and wide (and long) cone attacks. I simply have never found Force Bomb to work all that well in an attack chain, even when slotted for KB->KD. There is something about the windup to cast, the mediocre damage (even with %damage), and the practical complication of trying to maximize targets hit that diminishes its value in my play experience.

I have a Beam Rifle/Martial Combat Blaster, I actually picked /Martial because I wanted a less slightly obvious secondary, if that makes sense... my feeling was to "show off" with the Beam Rifle. If you want to lean into the Martial Combat, your build won't look like mine Primary Choices; Single Shot (6x Defiant Barrage) Cutting Beam (3x Blaster's Wrath, %-Res, 2x %damage) Disintegrate (5x Apocalypse) Aim (6x Gaussian's) Lancer Shot (6x Winter's Bite) Penetrating Ray (5x Sting of the Manticore) Piercing Beam (6x Frozen Blast) Overcharge (3x Blaster's Wrath, 3x %damage) Secondary Choices: Ki Push (5x Hecatomb) Reach for the Limit Burst of Speed (5x Armageddon, 1x %damage) Reaction Time (Health, EndMod) Inner Will (6x Preventive Medicine) All taken by level 26. The remaining Powers had very few slots, they came from Sorcery (Mystic Flight, Spirit Ward, RoP) Leadership (Maneuvers) Epic Force Mastery (PFF, Temp Invuln, Force of Nature) <- mostly convenient mules Concealment (LotG mules) I have an Assault Rifle Blaster... when leveling up I tried to incorporate the melee attacks (different secondary than Martial) but they just did not synergize with the AR attacks. YMMV.

I've almost entirely encountered jovial new or returning players that are excited to be back and are completely pleasant in all contexts. There are a handful of folks I'd categorize as having outmoded thinking about certain game elements, but most of them are otherwise pleasant. The few that don't fit the jovial category are mostly ones who don't remember certain things on a spectrum from "where is Kings Row?" to which zones are Blue/Red/Gold (and how to get to them). Only a tiny fraction of those players are frustrated to the point of being sour... the one example I'll mention is the new/returning level 1 who desperately wanted to join a Crey's Folly Jurassik team but had no resources (including a PTA pass) to get there nor did they want help/advice. Not much to be done for that circumstance. I've witnessed two new trolls through the conversation channels. One was having the sort of meltdown that I suspect was 100% performative, as I can't imagine a really new player being both that bitter and also that committed to General chat. If I had to take that dude at face value, I would question why they invested so much effort into learning the chat system before learning anything else about the game.

I skipped Detention Field: Far too situational of a power for my taste Repulsion Field: Requires too much of a slot investment to work, and even then it is quite "meh" Force Bomb: I did not need the attack, and I could not dedicate slots to it to make it work "good enough"... I find the scattering enemies to be problematic for the -Res and the AoE radius doesn't impress me that much for the windup. I took Personal Force Field only as a mule power at end-build. I have found that it is not possible to trust PFF to survive alpha-strikes or skate through missions untouched. Making those choices allowed me to fit three powers from Sorcery and Maneuvers into the build by level 20, plus I doubled up on the first two secondary powers. I added the Leadership powers of Maneuvers (6x Reactive Defenses), Assault (IO: Endurance Reduction), and Vengeance (LotG mule). My secondary is Beam Rifle. I wanted more BR attacks early (for concept) so I delayed Repulsion Bolt until level 14. If I had skipped BR's Single Shot I suppose I could have put Force Bomb (6x Defender's Bastion ATO) into the build But I would have to rework the slotting of all my attacks to be able to leverage Force Bomb, which I would probably want to be a Knockdown/%damage power.

My $0.03: The only characters for which I think it make sense to slot the Gaussian's %Build Piece in Tactics (or equivalent) are: DPS characters that will always be surrounded by teammates, their henchmen and/or pets. Crabberminds For low-DPS characters, the extra Build Up, even with it "always proccing" isn't doing that much IMO. Masterminds for example have terrible Damage scales on their attacks... even with it "always proccing" it isn't doing more to improve overall MM performance than putting that slot somewhere else. Crabberminds however can have several pets AND the Crabbermind has a better damage scale for attacks (which it will certainly have before it has the pets). Mileage varies with other pet-summoners, but typically I find that the other ATs either have low-ish damage (such that an occasional %Build Up doesn't really help with Damage) or the pets are too few in number or not near enough the summoner enough to really help with the proc chances. Characters with an Aim or Build Up get the "on-demand" effect, and the Gaussian's set bonuses often help those characters. Even a little bit of slotting can get most Build Up powers ready in 30 seconds or less, and it the proc chance will still be at 90%. I use in Tanker's Invincibility... I see it as a self-multiplier for what an Invulnerable Tanker wants to be doing anyway. My Invincibility slotting usually looks like: (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (*) Shield Wall - Defense: Level 50+5 (*) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (*) HamiO:Cytoskeleton Exposure (Endurance / ToHit / Defense) (*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up It would be a no-brainer to add a third Shield Wall piece for more Tanker HP, but I am often thin on slots.

I find Status Protection to be less important than Defense values high enough to be capped against +N enemy Lts. and Bosses. I assume FF and Time can do this; I know Robotics/Traps can do this. I definitely think the primary plays into the concern because the henchmen will need to be doing the Bodyguard thing for a mezzed MM. My Robotics/Traps MM can absolutely "lead from the front". The squad has high enough defenses that enemies are pretty much always in the 1-in-20 chance ToHit range... Protector Bots toss an additional shield AND launch seeker drones to debuff enemy ToHit. The Supremacy and global Aura pieces supplement the Force Field Generator's effects. The other items in Traps either draw aggro (Acid Mortar) or keep enemies occupied (Caltrops, Poison Trap). The only status effects I regularly encounter that bother my MM enough to pop an inspiration are: The long duration Fear from Jack In Irons Skull Stare The long duration stuns from Malta The first case is a Giant Monster, the henchmen often don't need my direct involvement for the full duration of the fear... it's just that it is soooo looong. The second is slightly more problematic when the stun hits before the MM has done anything else against two-or-more full spawns of Malta. Malta is otherwise easy to handle/distract with the Traps set. In contrast I never worry about the holds or sleeps.

I was running my 14-point KB Scrapper against Council with the +10 point KB SG base buff and was shrugging off the FREEM! It was nice to see nothing but the message. I probably could get 20+ KB protection on Dark Armor without too much effort, but I feel like I'd be compromising some of my other build choices. I suspect I will be making some slight adjustments to my Dark Armor Tanker who will be coming out of mothballs to get some anniversary goodies.

I almost always build Blasters following one of two paths, depending on (mostly) the chosen secondary: Blappers, who will engage in melee combat Ranged attackers, who will almost never engage in melee combat As I wrote above, it depends on what the secondary offers. Some combinations of primary/secondary don't have melee attacks, so blapping with such a combo would be working against what the character is best suited for. For all Blasters: I want enough global recharge to have hard-hitting powers up ASAP. For Blappers: I will generally try to get some layered Defenses, along with something like Combat Teleport to get in-and-out of melee. For ranged attackers: I will try to get all the attacks at a common range number. I also like to mix in more (ranged) control options. If I want to lean hard into something else (the control, the surviving) and still use "blasts" I will roll a different AT (Sentinel, Dominator/Controller/Defender). If I take franken-slotting to mean adding %damage, Ranged AoE attacks is where the payoff is IMO. There are three ranged AoE pieces that can be used in every such attack (Javelin Volley, Positron's Blast, Bombardment). Each does a different type of damage (good against different resist critters) and one of them is a PVP. doing more damage. There is also the %-Resistance proc from Annihilation, plus any other additions that can be made if the attack has a secondary effect like Knockback/Knockdown, -Defense, whatever. There are HOs/DSyncs for Accuracy/Damage, Accuracy/Range, and Damage/Range to support franken-slotting. I think there are a number of excellent set bonuses to be had in Ranged AoE attacks. I quite like Annihilation and Bombardment as sleeper choices. I agree with the general sentiment that bonuses from ranged-attack enhancement sets for single-target strike me as being somewhat lack-luster aside from full-ish Apocalypse and Winter's Bite, but I think mileage varies. Thunderstrike is an excellent inexpensive option for single-target ranged attacks. Snipe slotting is something of a mixed choice for me. I like the set bonuses from Sting of the Manticore best... but they only kick in at levels 32+. I'm almost always slotting something other than Sting of the Manticore in a Blaster's Snipe. I'm about evenly mixed across my Blasters if I use an ATO, PVP Experienced Marksman, or a Winter/Very Rare set in a Blaster's Snipe. Something I notice about my Blaster builds is that I usually have enough attacks to be able to split the Blaster's Wrath ATO, fully slot the Defiant Barrage, mix in a Winter set and still have room to add in set bonuses all over the place.