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Players may have feels about preferring the hero side over the villain side, but I disagree that it is the writing of the arcs red side. The best blue-side writing is IMO the original, slow reveals of the relationships of the different factions... but as much as I like this, it is really confusing (Lorewise, at least to me) why some contacts are forcing "investigations" on PCs about enemy types when there really can't be any mystery about what is going on, given how certain enemy groups appear (especially if Tips are used). There really is no agency blue side, except 2XP I suppose. "Who will die?" is pretty bad for player agency blue side, it offers IMO slightly more red side. I will give a thumbs-up to the revamped Faultline arcs blue side. The red-side arcs are a mix of contacts trying to take advantage of the PCs, as well as more mercenary type of missions, until the PCs ultimately best whatever the contacts have. Playing red-side makes it possible to defeat almost all the named blue-side heroes/trainers, as well as all the villain patrons and lackeys, simply by doing arcs. You can even get your revenge on multiple different contacts that may have treated you "wrong". You want to face a CoV Patron blue side? You are generally limited to hoping they decide to rob a bank, or go to Recluse's Victory.

This might work for some NPCs, but I feel like there would be more unintended consequences for others. For example, the Mayhem Hostages might easier "freeze" upon seeing a critter, and Fusionette doesn't need to have more of a reason for her behavior.

^What they wrote. This is almost certainly your issue. There is an occasional display bug for invention badge progress that won't show the bar increase, or what the actual count/progress is at for inventions, but this is a flaky UI issue that isn't particularly common. I usually encounter that problem in the SG base, but that is where I tend to be doing the mass-creation of inventions... I haven't been able to duplicate (or resolve) that issue by opening/closing the sorts of UI things that cause other issues in SG bases (storage racks, costume, vault, recipes, etc.)

Maybe it wasn't 5%?

That sounds like all kinds of nightmare. I feel like I can easily adapt whenever a PUGorganizer advertises speed/non-speed, but the one common advertisement that always confuses me is "Kill Most". I've been on many "KM TF" that we didn't even fight half the critters on any given map. I'd like to point to the spot on the TF doll where the leader threatened to kick me for drawing more aggro that we were otherwise ignoring.

I like Global Accuracy as well. The fifth LotG bonus I was referring to was the 5th piece set bonus offering S/L and Mezz Resistance.

Never admit to such a thing in forum-PVP, or people may start posting pictures of their builds with the franken-slot pieces all in different locations. Slightly more seriously: at some point, on build with Hasten, I started boosting the two level 50 Recharges in Hasten to 50+5 (as opposed to 2x50+4) just because I didn't like having "extra" Enhancement boosters floating around.

I like the immersion of the escorts that stop following you if they get too close to an enemy, or if you get too far away or go stealthy... yet there are clearly some classes of NPCs that are really good about finding/staying with players. There are enough that I wonder why more can't be like those. I think the simplest update would be to grant the hostages/escorts an increase to their base movement. I don't mean "sprint"... it takes very little for a player to have a base movement increase that can completely outpace an NPC even with all travel toggles off. I'd explore turning up the distance by which hostages can see players, but this could have unintended consequences.

I realize it is almost pointless to make suggestions to someone's build once they've committed to boosting LotG pieces to +5 and commenting how they love it for "hard mode", but here goes: I'd revisit both Invincibilty and Build Up... and possibly Tough Hide. Personally, I suspect that the 5th LotG set bonuses are doing less that expected. Having significantly MOAR S/L isn't nearly as important as it once was. With that written (to consider sacrificing a 5th LotG piece), I'd put the Gaussian's %Build Up piece in Invincible, and use at least one Hami-O Cytoskeleton in it to also boost ToHit. Build Up is fine, and I like the "on demand" 90% chance of %Build Up with energy Melee, but if that is the reason for having it, I feel like Build Up should have a second slot with an IO Recharge in it. I find that even a near-perma-Hasten doesn't quite get Build Up where I want it when I have it slotted with the Gaussian's %proc. I ended up moving it to Invincibility because it was giving me more output at the expense of simply looking awesome against MoG Paragon Protectors. I think either way is fine, it just looks like there is sort of a half-commitment to the %proc. Tough Hide is a decent enough power to hold the Kismet +ToHit, should the slots need adjustment.

IMO, no Patron shield is redundant or useless. It's a no-pre-requisite required (other than Patron unlock) power that allows slotting of Defense (or Resistance) sets (*1) for bonuses or globals/uniques. The higher the Defenses (also Resistances, but that is somewhat secondary) on a Mastermind, the better /Dark is always going to be a decent secondary choice for MMs: It gets several powers very early that make things surprisingly easy: the -Res slow in Tar Patch and a PBAoE heal in Twilight Grasp. By the time the MM has added Shadow Fall, a /Dark MM can start to feel like it can handle anything; it is time to start counting down the levels until Dark Servant. The only personal concern *I* have about /Dark (on MMs) is my belief that, because of the PBAoE heals and defense buffs, it can lull a player into a sense of security about certain tactics that don't work in all circumstances. This is true about most MMs, but since Dark gets those PBAoE tricks so early, especially the heal... it often appears to me that /Dark MMs aren't always focused on debuffing or controlling enemies. Setting aside my minor personal issue, I think /Dark is one of the top choices of secondaries. IMO, the most important power for a level 50+ /Dark Mastermind is Tar Patch, and you probably can get by with only 2x50(+5) IO Recharge pieces in it. (*1) I do try to add the fighting pool to MMs, but as a practical matter I never toggle on Tough and almost never toggle on Weave... unless I don't bring out the henchmen.

Re: Paladin... be thankful that HC shifted away from the "Shining Stars" variation. It ended up changing Knight Errant, but the current event is much better than what it was. Not everyone needs or wants the Knight Errant badge, some would prefer the merits, etc. The spawns themselves offer more XP (and certainly more salvage/recipe drops) than the Paladin.

I can see that, but there aren't many places in a SR build to add resistance pieces. I'd prioritize the +MaxHP piece, so getting some Endurance help from 2x Unbreakable Guard is one of my default choices.

I'd rank the Sentinel's Inherent (as currently implemented) to be one of the better Inherent powers... none of which are particularly well-explained in-game IMO. As far as being able to see it having an effect on defeat times... at early levels, it will be hard to notice much of a difference, with the difference being "how many attacks do I have to make to defeat that single target?". On harder targets, and in group play, it becomes much more of a force-multiplier.

A couple of nits to pick: If the Kismet piece is going to be used, I suggest putting it in the first Auto power taken, so probably Agile. I don't know why it would be put in a toggle, except possibly force of habit. The +ToHit only works if the power is toggled on (or in an auto). I generally like the 4xUnbreakable Guard bonuses, but for SR I think you could probably stop after 2 pieces. With the other slotting I suspect Melee is well above the non-incarnate softcap, and probably pushing the incarnate softcap. It won't be as if DDR is that big of a concern.

I came here to write this. The 7+ foot tall Council mooks always surprise me. I'd expect the shorter guys to be put on cave duty.

I'm playing around with a SR Tanker. I'm leveling it up "organically", which is to say it doesn't have a level 50+ build. Evasion (link is to CoD) allows the slotting of Threat pieces, and has this bit of code listed from CoD: 100% chance (Inherent Taunt, excludes main target) Apply "Execute Power" (all affected targets) ● Redirects.Inherents.Gauntlet_Proc_Aura I have questions! 0) Does this toggle provide a Taunt aura? If so, is its radius 8 feet or something else? 1) If not slotted with Accuracy, (only possible via the Threat pieces, HO/Dsync pieces with accuracy components should not help since Accuracy pieces cannot be slotted) is it "flooring" Streakbreaker chances? I have a suspicion that it is screwing up Streakbreaker... my Tanker has relatively few attacks, with decent accuracy slotting, a Kismet bonus and I am monitoring "Last Hit Chance"... I am reasonably sure I am seeing instances where I miss 2 or more single-target attacks in a row when the final ToHiT is 95%. I hadn't planned on putting Recharge/Accuracy (only possible source of Accuracy, AFAIK) pieces in Evasion, but if that's what it takes to offset RNGesus, I suppose I'll consider it.

Morality tips will also keep dropping even if you choose to not do whatever Alignment missions you have in the queue. Of course the alignment missions are worth 40 merits, so there is no reason to NOT do them. Tip missions can be done in most non-PVP, non-Hazard zones as well.

I can understand the rationale, Provoke is inferior to Taunt, by several metrics. For some details, my gripes, and my own suggestions, see here

I use the Presence pool on many different characters; I have a hard disagree that it is "good out of the box": The first two powers (must pick at least one!) are pretty much diametrically opposed to each other in function The third possible power offers no real synergy wither either of the first two powers The first three powers are all single-target attacks that require ToHit rolls The first three powers offer some of the worst variety in enhancement set choices for any power types... including the almost complete lack of Accuracy for Threat pieces. The final two powers are good (enough that I suffer through the above), but Invoke Panic only has synergy with intimidate IF both it and Intimidate are taken, and both hit the same target, dominated by the 60 second recharge time of Invoke Panic. In contrast the Fighting pool attacks get synergy just by taking them, not all of them have to be used. Cross Punch is IIRC on an 8 second recharge time! Unrelenting is a pretty sweet power, on par with Adrenal Booster or Unleash Potential, but their recharge times are significantly longer than something like Rune of Protection.

I like the cut of your jib.

There are multiple other players who try to "do all the content, at appropriate level, by disabling XP". It's just that there is a limited amount of content that you can't do this for. For example, I'm not sure if it is possible to solo the Kheldian/VEAT arcs if you aren't one of those ATs. There is sooo much content across levels, even setting aside the OG contacts, that it is IMO more a test of endurance to try to do everything than anything else(*1). I often skip doing any sort of DFB, exploration badge finding, and even SFs/TFs just so that I can remember to start doing Safeguard/Mayhem missions "naturally". It's rare that my blue characters end up completing more than one of Hollows/Faultline/Striga/Croatoa despite how much fun those arcs can be because there is so much to do. (*1) Obviously there are some other tangible rewards (merits, temp powers, badge progression, level-appropriate drops, etc.) for doing at-level content, but I don't think such a thing is that different than "grinding" at any other level.

Instead of "Radios", you can run Alignment Tips for a variety of enemies. Freakshow appear in those.

Not all pool powers are going to be for everyone, but if they are literally never taken... yeah I can see why only the negatives will be considered. I still believe that the reason the Fighting pool gets this specific set of complaints (about Kick / Boxing) is because folks want Tough and/or Weave. I see almost no suggestions to improve Flurry (from Speed) even though it is a pretty mediocre melee attack... and I certainly see builds leveraging the Speed pool. I get it... Tough is behind a gate and Hasten is not, so the ask is to make the gate easier to open or worth more to open. I just don't believe the argument is mostly about "let's improve these specific powers." I admit, I rarely do go deep into the Fighting pool, but I have done so and not been terribly disappointed. One example: I have a War Mace/Invulnerability Scrapper that was going to leverage Tough and Weave for the sorts of reasons Invulnerability characters do... and War Mace is a rather slow attack set (before Global recharge bonuses), so gaps in attack chains gets its AoE rather late in the game (now at 18 and 26, they used to be much later!) Obviously a War Mace character doesn't need extra single-target attacks, but getting an extra melee cone early (no waiting for Epic/Patron pools *1) is a nice-to-have. Ultimately it isn't as if the Invulnerable set needs either Tough or Weave at early levels, so those powers could be delayed and dropped in when convenient. Is this the M0ST L33T SCRAPPER ever... probably not, but for a player that doesn't try to minimize the number of attacks in a chain, it worked out pretty well for me. *1 This is, just like, my opinion: when I have a character and think "What this build needs is an(other) AoE" I try to find ways to get such a thing into the build: earlier than Epic/Patron powers can be taken, via a power pool from a power pool that offers other powers I want and/or can leverage I completely get that other players look at the Epic/Patron pools like this, occasionally I do as well. I enjoy a lot of content below those levels, and I kinda like having the character feel like itself earlier rather than later.

I opted for the Plant Manipulation secondary as a sort of self challenge, and this was my experience... By level 50, I ended up only taking Skewer, Toxins, Spore Cloud, Wild Fortress and Vines. The other powers simply did not offer any synergy for my chosen primary. The selected powers happened to offer either good opportunities for alternate sets (for bonuses) or required minimal extra slots. It isn't a terrible thing to have only five really good powers from a secondary! I end up almost never even using Skewer, even though it holds a Purple set. I can imagine some players wanting to leverage the controls from /Plant, but it isn't my preference for Blasters to take single-target controls. I ended up slotting Vines with a little bit of %damage and the Superior Entomb's recharge/%Absorb piece. I agree that Vines isn't a great Hold, but it is a decent AoE attack.