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The ability to turn off XP is the answer, even if not trying to do complete content...which ought to be impossible to do without turning off XP, otherwise leveling would be a massive chore. I just got another blue-side character to 50, and from memory the leveling path went like: Did Outbreak, some Atlas Park, started Hollows Started Radio/Safeguard at level 5 (did a Safeguard every 5 levels) to get Trevor Seaborn Only collected Patrol XP from exploration slowly Did some Skyway missions for a change of pace Started Faultline Started Striga I think I did Posi 1 at 27? Finished Tips/Alignments before 30 I did a switch to redside to get some badges, accolades and a Patron arc at 35. I did Levantra's arcs as well. Anyway, no more boring details... but by level 30 I hadn't used XP boosts, and I did at least one Faultline arc through Ouroboros, which I consider to be a fine option. After I got done with what I wanted to finish by level 43, I turned on XP boosts because the content I still wanted to do could be done though Ouroboros anyway, and there were some set bonuses I wanted more than I wanted anything else. This character is still missing a couple accolades (TF Commander, Portal Jockey) and is in no rush to slot incarnate powers (but Alpha is unlocked)... which I mention because I believe that for many players, what I just described would be intolerably slow play, and an expanded level range for the Hollows would make no difference for those, or even more players. For better or worse, the zone arcs that players cannot outlevel are the Rikti War Zone arcs... and that is partially because the enemies that spawn in those missions are designed to scale with difficulty. This isn't true of the Outcasts or Trolls or Minions of Igneous. We already have witnessed how some players reacted quite negatively to how the Council was made to scale up... I'm in no rush to see that for groups like the Trolls.

The only reason to overhaul such old content (again!) would be... what exactly? I'm convinced that the Hollows (arcs, level ranges) pretty much exist because once-upon-a-time: debt at low levels was a thing debt could run deep there was no patrol XP there were no XP boosts Anyone can feel free to ask that the level range of any given zone be changed... but somehow I think if that happened, then eyes would turn to Faultine, then Striga, then Croatoa, and possibly First Ward and Night Ward. Yet... if instead we brought back massive debt, and got read of easy XP... perhaps the ranges would be "more organic" for some players? I'm happy with the way the game is now, and I have control of turning XP on or off as needed to complete zones at the existing level ranges... or use Ouroboros.

Here is my build at level 50. Notes: Besides the obvious "what can be slotted", this was not my leveling build. I used Flight and didn't respec into Sorcery until level 50. I also used a different choice of powers 35+. I put 12 points of KB protection in this build. For a lot of content 4 points is fine... but for Freem! I wanted to be able to craft a buff and take the build to 22. The final power (Infiltration) allows swapping in of a LotG or a Winter's Gift Slow Resistance. This is intended to be a "solo build" for +0x8, it plays just fine on teams at +4x8... but it also does not have incarnates and only has one accolade so far. I didn't regularly solo play +0x5 until after level 40, as that is when I wanted XP and drops to come at a better rate. A lot of what "solo play" means for me is an affirmative response to "Can I play content at that setting without having to rely on Inspirations (or Incarnate Powers/Shifts)?" So what that means for this build are the AoEs, the debuffs, a "Build Up" (to simulate red/yellow insps), Rune of Protection (for long duration mezzes), and a self-heal. Ideally I would include Power Sink (Mu Mastery) to mitigate the need for blue insps, but I didn't quite have the slots I wanted for that. I recognize that the Gale slotting may seem odd. Gale has an inherently poor Accuracy, and it's recharge time is on the fast side, but with slotted accuracy it's large cone makes it a pretty good source of %damage against large spawns. I would fault no one for making a radically different set of choices with respect to Gale... I find myself using it as source of control, and while I am using it as such I am perfectly happy to sometimes pick up some extra damage from it. I end quite a few fights with Gale! As I wrote earlier in the thread, this combo is proctastic! Both because of the nature of Storm Blast, and the smooth acceptance of %damage in both the primary and secondary powers. A team-mostly character should not need the (extra) %damage, but for mostly-solo non-DPS characters an AoE-%damage build can clean up large spawns much faster than those without adding %damage. As an aside: I love damage-over-time on low DPS AT, as it keeps certain enemies from "doing things" like summoning pets. The Knockdown/knockback is surprisingly good at delaying enemies from cast certain powers too! Defensively: By level 50, the positional defenses are in the high 20s, which is good enough for +0 or +1. I typically don't run with either Hurricane or the Mu Charged Armor on. 4-slotting Unbreakable Guard is a sort of default choice to boost Melee defense, but with better planning/use of Hurricane I am certain that I could pull two slots from Charged Armor, add one to Hurricane (more Endurance reduction, possibly a 50+5 Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge piece as the second) freeing up a slot for elsewhere in the build. I'm still noodling on a Storm/Storm build for higher difficulty, small team size play.

Double-clicking the smaller pillars also teleport direct to contact... for almost every contact.

It's been a long time since I played Peacebringer, but not at all long for Warshade... but something immediately comes to mind is that the Nova form attacks are essentially "formulized" to be low-level attacks, because of the level that the Nova form can be chosen. Slotting those attacks isn't radically different that having and slotting a whole lot of T1/T2/T3 attacks. The Kheldians are pretty good in the level 4-14 range because the Nova form gives 4 (plus one) ranged attacks... but after level 16 or so, the utility of simply having a lot of relatively weak attacks falls off. As for theory-crafting a build, the question as I see it is: What can slotting the Nova form powers do for the Human form? There are limited options... the most variety is in the Nova form power itself, otherwise it's ranged ST/AoE or ATO sets, modulo secondary effects like KB, whatever, for set bonuses. In contrast: the Dwarf form is at a higher level (so closer to the "nuke" tier of powers) so when they get enhanced, the enhancements go farther... plus there is the whole "get outta mez free" reason to have a Dwarf. Plus, the Dwarf forms can have more slotting variety.

My own experience with the Hollows is this: even without using 2XP and going out of my way to NOT collect patrol XP (including exploration badges) and running solo... the only way I've run through the entire Hollows storyline without Ouroboros was by going out of my way to do so. A single side-trip to do a safeguard mission has forced me to disable XP! Even so: I am not in favor of raising the level range. I always felt that The Hollows was fine, especially for its era... when debt worked differently, and leveling/teaming options were fewer. I end up with the same problem in Faultline! Casually making sure I do level-appropriate Safeguards and collecting exploration badges usually means that unless I am careful I'll outlevel at least one of the arcs in Faultline. If I do a TF? fuggeddaboutit!

My hot take on the Market House and mini-pet recipes: There are some Giant Monsters that are more commonly fought than others. For example, Jack in Irons and Eochai. I can't imagine a sustained demand for either of those recipes. Scrapyard is practically a summonable-on-demand, so that recipe probably will never require much bidding action. Making them vendorable is a reasonable addition.

I can toss in $0.02, based on my experience with the Mastermind Traps secondary: The arguments between Web Grenade and Caltrops are legit... but I went Caltrops. Even facing enemies that like to run, I found that Web Grenade had two things working against it: It isn't useful against enough (95%+) content. To make it useful when you want it, it requires more investment than I prefer to make. Caltrops will %proc on cast, mileage varies on how well you can leverage this. More Slow does very little in my experience, so I wanted accuracy for better %proc chances, plus some set bonuses. (A) Annihilation - Damage/RechargeTime (*) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Damage/Recharge (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance for Damage(Cold) (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage(Lethal) Triage Beacon is an odd duck. It was a power I used while leveling, but eventually got rid of. It would be more useful IMO than Web Grenade. Acid Mortar is good! It requires accuracy to %proc reliably. The MM wanted debuffing for the henchmen. Acid Mortar (A) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff (*) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff/Recharge (*) Undermined Defenses - Recharge/Endurance (*) Undermined Defenses - Recharge (*) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff (*) Accuracy: Level 50+5 FFG is great, Just a couple of Defense pieces maxed out, more slots if you need mules. IMO it isn't worth too much %damage in Poison Trap, but it will fire reliably. Note that the Entomb piece affects caster, and is reliable (upon cast). Poison Trap (A) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Hold: Level 50+5 (*) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (*) Unbreakable Constraint Chance for Damage (Smashing): Level 50 (*) Superior Entomb: Chance for +Absorb: Level 50 Seeker Drones got dropped. I like stuns, but I found these to be unreliable. They will not %proc on detonation. I don't use Mines, YMMV. The issue with Mines for me is that with Caltrops, Acid Mortar and Poison Trap I already have enough to "drop"... and I don't like having to devote extra mental processing power to figuring out where to put them. I have no experience with Temporal Bomb. I skipped the (different) T9 on the Traps Mastermind.... again, it was too much effort for me.

Freezing Rain is definitely a power that would be just fine with Recharge Enhancements(*1). The Debuffs alone are great. It has a pretty sizeable radius so catching a bunch of enemies in it upon cast (to get the %damage) saves a couple of mediocre ST attacks. I pretty much only see the %damage on cast, which is similar to my experience with Caltrops on other characters. The main reason for me to keep the %damage in it is that for my (leveling, and likely final) build is that I have few damaging powers before level 20, not counting Storm Cell. Hailstones is a typical T1 ST attack, Gale is an unreliable source of damage, Jet Stream is a fine cone attack... and then there is Storm Cell. (*1) It appears to me that the debuffs also require a ToHit check, so I have a sort of "in for a penny, in for a pound" thought process where if I am slotting for both Recharge and Accuracy I may as well toss some %damage into it too. Once I have a couple of 50+5 Accuracy/Recharge pieces in it I'll be doing some testing. It's going to be franken-slotted, I just haven't decided how many slots to devote to it yet.

Alternatively: make them fungible again.

Generally: I'd avoid Hasten completely on a Mastermind, there really shouldn't be any powers that need its recharge (EDIT: except Tar Patch, see below) and all MM powers have a heft Endurance tax. You would be better served by having Tactics to help the level-shifted henchmen. Tar Patch should be 2-slotted for Recharge, it is a pretty bad %proc power. If you don't believe me... feel free to test it. Similarly Darkest Night is not going to be a good %damage power, I'd just slot it for Endurance reduction. There is probably more suggestion I could make, but I don't play that combo on a Mastermind.

Some more experimenting between levels 30 and 40, with Tornado. I definitely want Tornado to have KB->KD, as the more time it needs to chase anything is wasted time. I didn't like that it will scatter enemies away from Lightning Storm, the Storm Cell and Freezing Rain. It also plays havoc with my AoE attacks. Originally, I had the Overwhelming Force Damage/%KB/KB->KD, but that piece ended up in Lightning Storm, so now Tornado has a Sudden Acceleration piece in it, and a couple of Expedient Reinforcements. I was skeptical that this power would be a good choice for %proc, but the base accuracy is 1.3! I tested against even con enemies, and no matter if I use %proc from Defense Debuff sets or Knockdown sets, I see about 2 applications of the %proc per cast... which is pretty good! FWIW, on a Defender I think of each %damage as like an un-enhanced single-target attack for free... so even on a single victim of Tornado, this turns out to help speed up defeats... and I've seen the %proc against multiple targets, if I summon Tornado strategically or otherwise keep them clustered. Yet... The real advantage I am imagining from the %proc rate is the use of the Achilles' Heel %-Resistance debuff. Normally I consider the choice between %-Res and %damage to be a coin flip (weighted towards %damage for reasons) but Storm/Storm exists in the sweet spot where there can be a lot of different sources of damage coming in the 10 seconds of a 20% resistance debuff. These will be the damage-over-time attacks, both from the (pseudo)pets and the Defender attacks... not to mention whatever attacks the Defender happens to land during that short duration debuff. I had not originally planned to put any %proc in Tornado, but this testing has me reconsidering that choice, as well as re-evaluating the other pieces I had planned to slot it with. EDIT: I should note that Freezing Rain should also take the Achilles' Heel set, and ought to %proc well (at least on cast)... however Freezing Rain does an order of magnitude less damage-over-time as Tornado, so I'm thinking the %-Resistance is better applied to a target that the Tornado will very likely be staying with and being dealt damage-over-time. Since Freezing Rain is already a reliable source of (non-random) -Resistance, I don't plan to stack a %-Resistance piece in it... at least not for my solo build. I'm more focused on getting the recharge times down on Freezing Rain, and if possible leverage it for %damage as well, at least for solo play.

I want to get this out of the way: I avoided the new Storm set(s) because everybody else jumped into them at release. I write this because some of what follows may be old news to others. I did see some messages that run counter to what I am seeing... and I am enjoying the Storm / Storm combo so I thought I'd share my initial thoughts. I've almost entirely run solo, and I've got the character just shy of level 35. I can have whatever enhancements I want, so for leveling purposes think: ATO, leftover catalyzed PVP, Overwhelming Force, etc. I don't have any Winter pieces in the build right now... for leveling (especially low level) this is less about set bonuses and more about having enhancements that don't need to be replaced. I was carrying a bunch of KB->KD pieces, but as I was playing I found only a couple of powers actually needed them IMO. This combo is the most Controller-like Defender combo I have run... and I really like it. I think it's a good sign when by level 30 I only have one power pick that isn't from the Primary or Secondary! I want to add this bit of personal mistake: I accidentally set myself a Bricktown level 30 Radio mission at +0x8 (Freakshow) and I was able to clear it... I would have stealthed it, but the map and spawns did not allow that option... that setting is not a solo setting for me with a fresh level 30! The ability to have a bunch of (pseudo) pets and area control options really made the difference. My hot takes on the Primary, Storm Summoning: T1 Gale. I toke this, slotted it with Accuracy and %damage and it actually works quite well both as a means of control and some extra damage. With Accuracy slotting it is a pretty reliable source of %damage (for an somewhat short recharge power). I had planned to make this KD->KB, but I'm pretty experienced with KB and so I think that choice would be wasting a slot. T2 O2 Boost. I took it as a Mule for %Absorb. I've used it to heal allies. T3 Snow Storm: Endurance reduction only, used as a means of area control T4 Steamy Mist: Holds Kismet, Resistance and Defense mules. The real beauty is it allows me to get really close to most critters to set up Storm Cell. T5 Freezing Rain: Area control with a great debuff. I have this slotted for Accuracy/Recharge and %damage. It isn't a great source of %damage on cast, but it isn't nothing. I'm reserving judgement if I keep %damage in it until after I regularly face large spawn sizes or not and test with some 50+5 pieces in it. T6 Hurricane: Endurance Reduction only. I use this for indoor map control (rarely). T7 Thunder Clap: I had intended to take this, but I ended up skipping. I wasn't seeing where in my chain I would use it and still be making best use of the secondary set's synergies. T8 Tornado: This has a KB->KD piece. I have plans for some slotting it it, but I don't use it very often... pretty much only when I am facing enemies that can mezz me, as it gets their attention. T9 Lightning Storm: A keeper! I like that it can be cast while nowhere close to a ground surface. Hot takes on the Secondary (Storm Blast). As a Defender, I'm less concerned about uber-damage so I felt that a Blast set that requires a little bit of setup to leverage synergy is fine. When I've teamed, I don't sweat doing damage, except to get more attention to the group. T1 Gust: I skipped. There is nothing wrong with it, it is more that there are only so many single-target ranged attacks I want in a build. T2 Hailstones is the Single-Target ranged attack I chose. It eventually has 6x Defender ATO. T3 Jet Stream is a typical cone %damage attack for me, which requires Accuracy. Works well, needs no KB->KD with Storm Cell, and otherwise is a reasonable board control attack. T4 Storm Cell: Taken, holding 3x Vigilant Assault ATO (Dam/Recharge, Dam/End/Rech, Rech/%+Absorb) Honestly, this slotting strikes me as wasteful, but: The power strikes me as one that wouldn't benefit from %damage, The power shouldn't need many slots, and other powers benefit more IMO from more slots I wanted the %absorb on a power I would be using all the time, for a lot of content (so, "early power" pick), I wanted the 3-piece bonus. although I am often satisfied with a 4/2 split of Vigilant Assault T5 Intensify: Taken, but no plans to heavily slot. T6 Direct Strike: Taken, and used as my "opener" after Storm Cell. See Steamy Mist. Works reasonably well even with a few slots. T7 Chain Lighting: Taken, not heavily slotted yet. Planned to have the three accuracy pieces of Vigilant Assault ATO and three %damage... I don't have this fully slotted, but so I may make this a four-piece ATO (for more Global Accuracy), and have another slot for somewhere else... I have to experiment with a more complete build. See note below on Global Recharge. T8 Cloud Burst Chain Lighting: Taken, not heavily slotted yet. T9 Category Five: Taken, not heavily slotted. It will probably get 6x Annihilation. The recharge time is too long IMO to go for %damage, and the 6xAnnihilation set bonuses are comfortable to me. Note on Global Recharge: Without much in the way of Global Recharge at level 35, I am finding that solo I can still run through missions reasonably quickly, and depending on how many critters I face at once... the long recharge Category Five isn't needed ASAP... because this is a Defender. On teams... I think if the team is relying on this Defender to do MOAR damage (on top of debuffing, healing and controlling the field) then the team can bloody well be comfortable with my pace! This ends up with me not sweating trying to get every LotG or 5xPurple Recharge set bonus. The shortcomings (so far): Enemy mezzes. I'm probably going to respec into the Sorcery pool (I've been using Flight) and can fit Rune of Protection painlessly into the planned build at level 44. For low level content, it is Inspirations. Sorcery lets me mule some other pieces, freeing up slots. I had intended to use Force of Will for Weaken Resolve, but I feel like Sorcery will do more. Endurance: I have no accolades, not tons of slots yet, and not great set bonuses... so I am pretty much pacing myself. Defenses: Not great! Maneuvers is in the build, but I don't expect to have particularly high Defenses even end-build. The worry is seeing how it will do against +4 enemies. I pretty much only take Defenders against such content on teams, and I am mostly worried about having enough slotted accuracy to make the %damage work... and powers like Gale which have an inherently low base Accuracy can become unreliable as a control mechanism. I'll probably just end up with a second build explicitly for that kind of content, leveraging more set bonuses.

I took it at 49 to mule a Psi resist piece.

My experience with Inv Tankers is that they don't really need to run most of their toggles, especially at low levels. If teamed with others and running content where the toggles are needed, slow down on the attacks.

A well-timed Build Up with a big single-target attack works well.

I rather like the TIP missions, for all alignments across both sides. My only complaint is that it isn't possible to solo the TIPs once you have out-leveled them.

Feel free to edit in the information about clearing (sub)spawns into the original post; I think it is pretty important information. As a recent test, I saw that a Rubble (so the child spawn of a Jurassik Rubble, which itself is the child spawn of Jurassik) was left in Crey's Folly and I decided to leave it unharmed. Normally I clean those up. The server went more than 24 hours without a new Jurassik spawn, and it wasn't until I defeated that rubble that we got any new Jurassik spawns. I know that several players use "Giant Monster Targeting Binds" to "help" them look for potential targets, but I think those do more harm than good... because those binds ignore the extras. I'll also share another bête noire about would-be Giant Monster hunters related to the stewardship aspect. It is somewhat common that some time (6+ mins) after an announcement that a GM has spawned, that a player will use one of the global channels to ask if such-and-such GM has been defeated. I can understand that player not wanting to "waste time", but it takes less than 5 minutes to scan a zone for most GMs (Caleb can be the outlier, and zones with multiple potential GMs can take a little longer) yet if the player actually goes looking they might come across the extra spawns that also need to be cleaned up.

Including this link, because I've observed many folks clamoring to fight monsters but they leave messes.

At low levels, Hasten isn't doing that much. If attack chains are inferior, supplementing them with temp/S.T.A.R.T. attacks is usually fine. The temp attacks also burn more endurance than regular attacks... it's more that picking Hasten early generally means sacrificing some other power that likely helps the build more than occasionally having more Global Recharge... which causes endurance spend from attacks as well as when the Endurance bill comes due for Hasten. Most characters that have "well-slotted builds" simply don't need more Global Recharge for those lower-level power picks. MMV.

Also: Don't take/use Hasten below level 20.

I forgo attuned pieces and go with 50(+5) from sets for powers that require things like both Accuracy and Recharge, so Analyze Weakness is a typical candidate. +10% Regeneration (the 2-piece bonus for that set) is one of those bonuses that for anything but a Tanker or Brute would be almost impossible to observe, unless somehow that was the only source of +Regeneration, and the character was constantly taking damage. YMMV.

I always use Cloud Senses and never Siphon Insight, and almost always 4-slotted.

I don't recommend a Sentinel as a first AT, only because *I* have high expectations about Sentinels I team with... namely that they use Vulnerability. New players may not know what it is, or when it makes sense to use it. Sure the Sentinel can survive without it, but if the goal is to be part of a team and the team never sees the glowing crosshair, that's the Sentinel not doing their thing.

That was my thinking to... My feeling is that Regen can't by itself shrug off all incoming damage.... which is what I think an Absorb would do. My initial thinking is that the timer for the self rez should maybe be reduced? If nothing else an inherently shorter timer would allow for the character to get back into more fights, quicker. self-rez options aren't exactly hard to come by, so would it be that bad if the base recharge time was 3 minutes instead of 5 minutes?