tidge

I'm not making an argument about the baseline, I am arguing about REWARDS. A Blaster at +0x1 will reap rewards an order of magnitude faster than a Controller at +0x1. This is inherently unfair. A Controller that is able to close the gap by making specific build choices to use %damage is not cheating nor iis it breaking the game.

Jack E, is that you?

This deserves more upvotes. If there is ever a Homecoming change to %damage, I feel like we will see solo players mostly focusing on Blasters and Scrappers, with some evangelists for Brutes and Stalkers. The only way some AT can keep their map-clear times (especially at x8) within an order of magnitude of other ATs is by leveraging %damage. There are some folks that see %damage as inherently unfair because with them it becomes possible for all ATs to clear large maps with x8 spawn sizes in less than an hour. This is exactly the wrong definition of unfair. Game rewards are (with the exception of Prismatic Aether Particles and merit rewards) directly scale with the number of enemy defeats. I don't want to play City of X where the game rewards is NOT tied to enemy defeats, and I don't want to go back to a game where a Defender has to take eight times as long to clear a map as a Blaster. Characters that leverage %damage must carefully pick and slot powers to do that leveraging. It is so much better for the health of the game that all ATs have this option. No players should have their feelings hurt because %damage exists.

Because I was using the Concealment pool (many of my Blasters use Infiltration as a travel power), I took Phase Shift to see if I could use it to fight Carnie Illusionists and Diabloque (while phase shifted). I could not.

This wasn't me! Maybe they wanted Hover on because they have the Kimset +6% ToHit slotted in it? That might make more of a difference on a Positron TF. Many of the enemies on Posi 1 and 2 have ranged attacks, so it isn't as if hover-blasting out of melee is doing much.

I wouldn't try to enhance the -ToHit on attacks... you need those to do damage. Writing only for myself, typically, I will enhance -ToHit in a small number of circumstances: The power takes a -ToHit set where I want a set bonus (often the case with Cloud Senses) and there aren't other sets going in the power. The power has one slot left and I haven't put any -ToHit in it, and something like a Lysosome (Accuracy and -ToHit) or Enzyme (Endurance Reduction and -ToHit) would benefit the power. Another personal attitude is that -ToHit is an inherently unreliable means of survivability, because RNG. It does help... and I have seen it improve the survivability of certain squishies... but for a Tanker I think it would be a somewhat marginal improvement.

It was the case (before the most recent page) that the J-Rubbles (and grand-baby Rubbles) left in Crey's Folly would prevent Jurassik from respawning... just like the Clockworks in KR and the Grim Vale extras in Croatoa prevent those site-specific zone events from re-occurring. I want to say that the Boomtown Babbage was the same, but I could never verify. I don't think any of this was changed in the most recent page, except that now it appears that the Boomtown Babbage no longer summons -3 minions.

In addition to "classic" franken-slotting (mixing Enhancement pieces from different sets, so there are no set bonuses to be had), I will occasionally use boosted (rather than attuned) pieces of sets when I don't particularly feel the need for the set bonus across all content. Some examples: I will use attuned Luck of the Gambler Defense/Global Recharge, and every once in a while there is a Defensive power that will get a second slot... I don't find the +10% to Regeneration 2-piece set bonus to be that useful for all content, so the second piece will be a 50+5 from the set (if I'm not using a Hami-O). I'll get the bonus for extreme high-level content, and boosted values of Defense (or Defense/Recharge, or Defense/Endurance) at lower levels. Another example: Every once in a while I am using multiple pieces of an Enhancement set that has a level range that tops out at level 30. If the set bonus isn't that critical at lower levels, those types of sets will get boosted, especially if Enhancement Diversification isn't factoring into the power.

Obviously players should follow their own path. I leaned on %damage for several reasons: 1) As a tri-form, I knew I was going to have a LOT of attacks and I knew I wouldn't be able to 5-slot them all... or build a single "attack chain" that made sense to rely on a complete-ish enhancment set... so as a compromise I (mostly) picked the 3-slot bonuses that I felt were optimal and reserved 5+ slots for attacks that I felt I was going to get the most use out of. The Very Rare sets slotted with 5 pieces use a %damage piece because the little bit of ED damage (and/or recharge) didn't add much enhancement to the particular power. Of course more from set bonuses would always be good, as a practical matter I don't want more recharge (and if I did, I'd put a one-slot Hasten in the build late), and the little bit more I could get in terms of global additions to resists/defenses wouldn't make that much of a difference considering where the build is now. The one global bonus I did try to chase more than usual was Slow resists. 1b) The tri-form is why I took both Ebon Eye and Shadow Bolt. I had planned to replace one with Shadow Blast, but I'd still only have the same number of slots... so I opted to take the two powers that would carry over from Human to Dwarf/Nova forms. I'm really not crazy about single-target controls, especially ones I can't stack. 2) Most of the WS attacks are skimpy enough with base damage that adding 72 or 107 extra damage, especially in AoE, feels like a better yield than trying to enhance damage. 3) With Quantums in the game, I wanted the %proc damage such that it takes fewer hits (of attacks I will be using anyway) to drop them. 4) I am comfortable with AoE %damage. I find I don't need to be super precise in my targeting to spread the pain.

Quoting myself, because there are a few Quality-of-Life aspects I have noticed while playing: Without using Antagonize, it is quite difficult to hold aggro. I mean... I get that isn't supposed to be trivial to get/hold aggro... but even while cycling through every trick in the Dwarf playbook, I am losing aggro to the Extracted Essences. I have Antagonize slotted for Threat! When using Shadow Slip, enemies that are 'ported will continue vectoring towards their chosen target. Extracted Essences that become separated can be teleported to adjacency with Shadow Recall, but they often vanish back to where they were summoned fomr... whatever has kept them from following has summoned them back! (1) I don't really have a suggestion, except this: maybe something like a punch-voke for Dwarf form? (2) Maybe to fix this one the power needs a buff... something like a VERY short duration mega-Slow or a Taunt? I'm not looking for an(other) uber %damage power... but I try to use this power to help out teammates and often they stay as targets, or the enemy critters just sprint past me to their original target. (3) This is AI wonkiness, but perhaps if after teleport, pet classes could simply reset their path-ing?

I recommend using the Unbreakable Constraint %Smashing or Gladiator's Net %Lethal in Gravity Well, instead of Touch of Death %Negative as the Very Rare and PVP pieces do higher %damage than other pieces. The Very Rare's have an inherently higher %proc chance than the PVPs (4.5 IIRCv 3.5 PPM IIRC). I also try to mix up damage types... every once in a while there will be an enemy group that highly resists the inherent damage type of any character. As long as powers with a 15+ second inherent recharge time have decent Accuracy slotting, %damage should be reliable. IIRC this is because the %procs also have their own post-hit ToHit check to see if they fire, and that ToHit check... independent of the %proc chance, and the character's ToHit check... is only using the power's slotted Accuracy... this was mentioned a long time ago via code review but it seems to hold true to me. I typically cycle between forms to fire off the PBAoE/AoE, using single target attacks (typically in Dwarf form). Note that the Ebon Eye %proc chances aren't terrible (~40% for a 3.5 PPM?) but without moving slots around I think I'd replace at least one of the pieces with a boosted Accuracy/Damage piece, possibly for a set bonus.

Oh thanks, I certainly don't have two of the same %damage in any power 😉

My full-kit GM-hunting MM can finish off many of the monsters in around 6 minutes (some take less time), without bringing out the Lores. My general experience in the new era is that having a single teammate that can do damage is pretty much the equivalent of having a DPS Lore. Prior to the current pass it was common for me to defeat the GMs in about 2 minutes (i.e. before a cast of Destiny expired). The biggest effects of the recent GM buffs for that character have been: Increased resistances (and to a lesser extent, +HP) New AoE attacks (1) Prior to the balancing pass, it was Jurassik's resistances that gave me the most pause (solo), now there are several others more like Jurassik used to be (ehem, Kraken). (2) Eochai's new Pumpkin Patch has made it my new least favorite. It isn't that hard to defeat, but taking it on solo means that it will get several Pumpkin Patches out which can be problematic for a MM. (1) + (2) With most GMs surviving longer, it is necessary to pay more attention as a solo player because the nuGMs will fire/use one (or more) of their new tricks. This does slow down solo times. For example: moving out of range of Paladin's pulse. My solo GM hunting MM is pretty finely tuned for the task, although I consider it to be a bit of an outlier. I've seen other solo (no multibox) players take different approaches and do fine. I think the recipe for GM defeating is a mix of: Debuff the GM Damage the GM Survive the GM A solo MM can do any two of those three things with practically no effort in building or playing the character... so IMO multi-boxing two (or more) MMs where all three are done (some of them multiple times) makes most of the Giant Monsters pretty easy to defeat.

Early-career advice is to keep Break Free inspirations on hand. Many Blasters use the Sorcery pool to eventually get Rune of Protection, there are a handful of other powers that act like Break Frees. There is the Clarion Destiny choice for Incarnates. Blasters can use either/both of their T1/T2 primary attacks while mezzed. Because respecs are so plentiful, it isn't a terrible idea to take both of them early in a career... and then drop one of them for the "final" build.

Open-world multi-boxing is, IMO, kind of a jerk move. There is no need to multi-box MMs through Giant Monster hunts IMO, when a solo MM can finish off any Giant Monster in 5-minutes or less (with or without using Incarnate powers). I see why players do it, but it strikes me as the height of laziness... especially when I see triple-box MMs leaving behind level-less spawns in places like the Grim Vale. Multi-Box behind instanced missions... if there are some specific open-world rewards a player wants, just team up! As for my best guess at what the "design goal" is for Merits-per-unit-time, I'd say the goal appears to be roughly: no better than 1 Merit for 90 seconds of (solo) repeatable (i.e. no timed gates) play. There are obvious outliers(*1)... and different ATs can do certain content at different speeds, with or without exemplaring. We've seen changes to the way the conversions work (Vanguard, Empyrian) when it has appeared that the conversions were making merits "too easy" to get, per the (unwritten) rules of Merit acquisition. I am of the opinion that it is a good thing to have repeatable content for useful, fungible rewards... and that the HC team has done a pretty good job of keeping rewards for time-played mostly level. (*1) Weekly targets are obviously a special case, as are other league/team-inspired content.

My issue with "loose ends" is essentially this: I did not like the shift from circular/ever-green "story-telling" content to "arcs with consequences". YMMV. Examples of what I like: First Ward, which lets your character make big changes... but then everything is put back in the box in a way that it seems completely believable the next time you zone in. Classic Blue side content, like Dr. Vahz... because I can easily imagine him slipping out and repeating his same mad schemes The Patron arcs Red Side (and to some extent the path of the red-sider), because playing them through leaves a sense of accomplishment that something was earned. I know not everyone feels this way, but for me a level 50 red-sider that has defeated Lord Recluse feels so much more accomplished than a blue sider who finishes their path to level 50 by doing Portal corps missions. What I don't like: The narrative of "Who will Die?". The missions themselves are fine, it's mire that playing that content makes a LOT of the rest of the game feel weird... like all the other times you interact with Ms. Liberty or Manticore. The Death of Praetorian Earth. I don't often play Gold content... but even so, it has got to be something like at least 10% of the available content... so why not keep it ever-green? The Incarnate content. I grok that it is the rationale for an ever-increasing set of powers for players hungry to be moar betta. I simply don't enjoy "break the world" stories.... plus everything that involves Positron now makes me consider the character to be one of the biggest jerks in the game.

Unless the Primary/Secondary have some powers that really don't benefit from slots at low levels (for example: resistance toggles), it is very rare that I slot more than three slots in attacks early in a career. I may invest more if I am leveraging one of the P2W/START %damage pieces to good effect... and if by level 10 there is some sort of 4, 5, or 6-slot bonus from an ATO set. Once I can slot Global bonus enhancements... powers that can hold those will get enough slots for them. As other's wrote: having an extra attack (that you can always respec out of) probably speeds up (solo) play at low levels more than anything else.

Below is my current (level 50) Tri-Form Warshade build: This build isn't trying to do any one thing to perfection, rather it is trying to be excellent in a variety of things. The power picks were used in the same order while leveling, Enhancements were slightly different during leveling (obviously) with the only major difference being I used a Kismet +ToHit in Shadow Cloak. It primarily relies on Human and Dwarf forms, with a switch to Nova for rapid-firing ranged attacks and steadier Endurance management. My design intents: Reliable %proc damage (off-type, where possible) in AoE Passive (i.e. from Enhancement set) bonuses to Global Recharge, Accuracy, and Resistances Recovery/Endurance and +Heal Don't take attacks I wouldn't use... and not have any unslotted attacks. Have the build "complete" by level 35... that is, all the powers I want to use across all content are available by this point. I don't mind falling in battle... I invite it... but even so Stygian Return isn't used all that often so this build feels "finished" for me by level 32. I passed on trying to boost Defense values (it felt like a losing proposition). The build has a large Psi hole (when Eclipse isn't in play). I try to skip Hasten (and did here) but it would not be hard to work it into the build if desired. All I will say about Hasten (here) is that I have so many other clicks to make in Human form... and since I rely on Dwarf form for mezz protection (and some good damage)... I kinda feel like my combat cycle is pretty close to what I need. For most play, the one power I want up more often is Shadow Slip!

"Madame, please remove your hand from my Aus."

I buy Enhancement Boosters with merits (at a Merit vendor), I think the conversion is something like 25 Merits = 5 boosters. You can combine a Booster with an unattuned Enhancement, up to +5. The drawback of boosting is that you will lose set bonuses if you exemplar more than 3 levels below the level of the enhancement. PVP and Very Rare IOs can be boosted, and you don't lose set bonuses as you exemplar down. Hami-O and D-Syncs have to be combined; they can go up to level 53. I typically boost level 50s: PVP and Very Rares... except for those pieces with Recharge in powers with inherent recharge times below 20 seconds if %procs are also in those powers Common IOs (no set bonuses to worry about) Singleton pieces, where there is no set bonus Pieces in sets where I don't care about the set bonus for content below level 47 So in the build above, I boosted three different pieces in Eclipse, 2x Resistance/Recharge and 1x Accuracy/Recharge. This is past the point of diminishing returns, but every little bit helps even with Enhancement Diversification... the math should be something like 99% recharge -> 94% recharge. I don't believe that Resistance has hit the ED limit (>=40%), and for sure Accuracy has not (>=70%). There should be 4x+10% recharge buffs, 5x LotGs, and a buff from the Recharge Pet set for global bonuses for 83.75% global recharge. It would be tricky, but not impossible to do slight modifications to my build to get perma-Hasten (modulo slows, and having to be in human form): Drop one of the LotG mule powers, replace it with Hasten (loss of 7.5%) Move two slots from a Superior Kheldian's Grace to go from two 3-slots to one 5-slot (gain of 10%, last possible)... or you could swap several %damage and get the 5th 10% in either Sunless Mire (via Armageddon) or Gravitic Emination (via Absolute Amazement) Pull two slots of Soulbound Allegiance from Dark Extraction, one goes to Hasten (making it 2-slotted), one goes to Shadow Cloak for a LotG (gain of 7.5%) This is where things get really tricky... because 93.75% is below the 95% needed for perma-Hasten. Personally, I'd stop right there because I couldn't guarantee I'd be in human form when Hasten expires... and I have several other powers I want to click first while in human form! The last little bit could come from a 90-minute SG base buff, or Gravitic Emination could be swapped for Gravity Well, I'd then 5-slot Gladiatior's Net (7.5% Recharge) plus and Unbreakable Constraint %damage. As I wrote elsewhere: I'd hate to replace an AoE Damage or Stun with a single-target Hold. The 1:48 time is what I was getting while in a solo level 45 flashback, I don't think I had any temp buffs in play. Some folks recommend Force Feedback %+Recharge pieces (yay Knockback!) but I'd rather get a chance at more insta-damage than a chance at a 10-second global recharge buff. My thinking is: more recharge = more opportunities to burn Endurance, more damage may mean fewer attacks = less Endurance burn.

For me it is cognitive dissonance that the Zombies (and the Carnie Strongmen) who get dialogue are obvious mistakes. Those hoverbots have no real backstory, and things like Nemesis windups and Malta 'bots do... so when the Hoverbots start chatting.... it creeps me the #### out.

The %BuildUp generally isn't good in either spot... In the toggle, it should fire per the formula using a 10-second recharge. I can see it fire in Starless Step, but I don't use Starless Step al that much... unless I am in Human Form (obviously) and jumping into a fresh group... or if I feel like I may need a +ToHit bonus (because debuffs). I don't know what would go in the recharge formula for Starless Step, but I'm seeing it trigger around 1-of-3 uses. At 50, with no recharge effects in play except what is slotted, I think my time on Eclipse is 1:48. If I was human-only, this would be bad... but with such a weakness to mezz (outside of Dwarf form) I find myself spending about half of every large-spawn fight in Dwarf form... I end up with a sort of clock to work with before I lose the Eclipse bonuses. I am trying to noodle a human-only Warshade, but I feel like I would have to compromise so much to get (positional) defenses and/or mezz protection that I would end up (my opinion) a sort of inferior Blaster. Bi-forms (Human & Warshade) feels much more natural to me... so my posted build is basically what I want from a Bi-form, but with the added advantage of having Nova when I want to pew-pew with almost no Endurance concerns. Nova form is my least favorite of the forms; I think it is only the rapid fire option that has me liking it. In my head, when I think about a human-only WS, I end up think of using pools to cover deficiencies, and I would need so many pool powers that I feel I would be missing out on what I like about a Warshade (fun power choices, based on form): Hasten to get "perma" Eclipse, plus better recharge on all (ultimately, few) attacks Boxing/Tough/Weave to get Defense Maneuvers to get more Defense Concealment to get more LotG Mules ... and do I want to try for Rune of Protection for the inevitable Mezz? By my rough count, this is at least 5 pool powers... and then once I have Hasten going, I need to consider post-Accolade Endurance management via +MaxEnd, Endurance Discounts, etc. ... at this point (in my mind, no one else's!) I feel like I'm not building a Warshade anymore, I'm juggling Enhancments. <- Others don't go this crazy, but once I focus on a hole, I try to patch it!

Oh I know that from the plaques, which is why I actually would like an instanced mission that offers more information... mostly because teh plaques are so completely disconnected from the lived experience of Trolls in Paragon City.

Here is my current (somewhat fresh) Tri-form Warshade (Level 50) build. I took the powers in this order while leveling up. While leveling, I used a Kismet +ToHit in Shadow Cloak. Obviously some different enhancement pieces were used while leveling, and it is necessary to skimp on some slots. It's been years since I played Kheldians, and much of what follows is unlikely to be new information for experience players... yet I feel compelled to share my thoughts. I feel like Nova form is a bit of a design trap. All those attacks are soooo sexy when you first get them... and they can help clear missions PDQ, yet... Most of them (including Ebon Eye) are single-target They are 100% Negative damage, with not a great scale Knockback (which can get in the way of enjoying the AoE) The KB on the Nova attacks bothers me not at all. In Nova form, I don't really care if the spawns get split up. Outside of Nova form, I can regroup them. I can vector the KB where I want them to go. The slight damage, all of the same type, is more problematic.... hence the heavy investment in %damage in Dark Nova Detonation. Dark Nova Emination isn't terrible for %damage, but it was going to hold three pieces of an ATO, and there are better %damage powers available so for the most part I'm not maximizing slot investment in the Dark Nova attacks. I opted to split the ATO into four powers with three slots each... if I trusted myself to always be playing an A-level game and not facing too many tricksy enemies, and wanted to always stay in Dwarf mode for those enemies, I think I maybe could get by without the 3rd-slot bonuses from Essence Transfer (S/L/Mezz resistances)... but this is where I am today. About those %damage options.... The money-makers (as near as I can tell) are: Black Dwarf Mire Gravitic Emination (with Stun, which is the only enhance-able Mezz I am leveraging) Dark Detonation Sunless Mire Dark Nova Detonation Quasar would be an excellent place to put %damage... and it is probably (across all content) a better place for %damage than Sunless Mire.... but frankly I want MOAR PBAoE damage at as low a level as possible. Just about anybody can have nuke at level 26, I like having them at level 14 and below! I also wanted to reinforce myself to want to position to use Sunless Mire for the +ToHit and +Damage bonuses. My build does not include Hasten. I could trivially include it at level 38... I don't think I'd add a second slot. If I did, I would shuffle one of the %damage pieces from Sunless Mire, and probably make Sunless Mire my 5th 10% Global +Recharge bonus (Armageddon, also more Accuracy). This build already runs HOT (burns Endurance) outside of Nova form, and I find that I have enough to do without MOAR Recharge that even when I find myself (solo) waiting for a specific power (e.g. Dark Extraction) I don't think Hasten would radically improve my Quality-of-Life... except when it comes to trying for a perma-Eclipse. This is 100% about me - but I don't like chasing perma-Hasten because (in my headspace) it feels like I'm making slotting choices to get perma-Hasten instead of making slotting choices to make the character play in a way that support a character-specific style of play. This build was more-or-less tricked out using leftover/archived enhancement pieces and merits (so many boosters!)... so I guess it could look expensive but it probably had a net cost of under 100M. The pieces I'd include if I felt like burning Influence might be D-Sync Provocations Threat/Accuracy/Recharge D-Sync in Shadow Slip... another power that would benefit from having Hasten in play.

Shadowstar's (Warshade contact) arcs includes a lot of details on Warwolves, etc. It may not be entirely satisfying for what you seek. One of the arcs takes place mostly on Striga, FWIW. The one area of Council/5th Column disconnected Lore that has always bothered me (despite me trying to pay attention to the Citadel and Hess TFs, and the level-missions involving AI, Mek-Men et al) is that I haven't encountered any sort of explanation about the Hoverbots. Ok... Vandal played some part in creating them, but these things have quite a bit of NPC dialogue that doesn't exactly make them feel like relatively simple robots! It's not clear that they share anything in common with Malta's bots... but their dialogue sometimes creeps me out!