tidge

The associates in Croatoa and Kings Row do not despawn. Another player is clearing them, or the entire zone is reset.

How about taking AoE immobilization powers? This may not be an option for Kheldians, of course. I think I see what you are trying to do here, but if it is Knockback that is really the issue, the Sudden Acceleration piece is not unique and can be slotted into all powers that do Knockback/Knockdown.

My take: The damage sets are (mostly) missing an Accuracy/Endurance reduction piece at level 50+, and this is where the imagination falls short. IIRC, Multi-Strike (Melee AoE) and Calibrated Accuracy (a Snipe) are the only sets with an Acc/End piece.

Often this is because players don't know any better than to drag the spawns across the map as they hightail it to the team base portal, train station, whatever. It can be especially frustrating to find the flying ones.

One thing I want to caution "GM Hunters" who want to use targeting macros... if you use such a thing, please be sure to NOT ignore the level-less strays that will accopmany the spawn of certain GMs, specifically in Croatoa (the "wandering" spawns also need to be cleared, and they are often not level-less) and King's Row. I use /optionset showvillainname 1 which helps to find the level-less. For the others you have to have some experience to find them.

It is clear you believe that, despite me actually making completely different arguments that folks with reading comprehension can assess for themselves. It appears you have jumped to some specific conclusion for some particular corner of the game and are ignoring what I have written. I've repeatedly written that %procs allow for more variety in both build choices and play styles, and this is what I find appealing about the current Homecoming CoX. It is a defect in your reasoning that you equate this to me wanting all AT to have the same damage scalars.

I don't disagree that 50+ play can be boring. This has nothing to do with players building characters with powers that include %damage. As an aside that can speak adjacent to 50+ stalker experience: Is it any wonder that some players branch off from a speed-killing group? It isn't hard to find criticisms of that play choice, sometimes with demands that something be done about that.

Different powers have different arcs: https://cod.uberguy.net/

High Pain Threshold / Freedom Phalanx Reserve is IMO not really worth pursuing that early (say... pre 35), modulo AT, since it is percentage boost to HP. MOAR is MOAR (of course), but it is EVEN MOAR at 40+

It's not about being the same, it is about having the choice to build characters, no matter the AT, and being rewarded at a more approximately equal rate independent of AT. The argument I don't want to make is that non damage dealers should get reward drops by just doing damage things (healing, buffing, debuffing) as opposed to doing damage, or by requiring them to team up. It's not as if non-damage dealers should get more XP, inf and drops in a team up environment (that the high-damage-scalar ATs). That would be crazy to try to balance, and it is currently unnecessary for low-damage-scale ATs that can leverage %damage.

Almost all of the in-game rewards(*1) are for dealing damage (and defeating) enemy critters. The game offers significantly better in-game rewards for DPS than it does for non-DPS. Choosing to play a low damage scale AT shouldn't deny a player the chance to defeat critters at an improved rate. I don't think damage scales needs to be raised for any AT, because %procs can help keep lower damage-scale ATs stay within an order-of-magnitude of rewards-per-unit-time of those higher damage-scale ATs, without forcing the low damage scale ATs to have to team up with higher damage scale ATs, for most content. Again: using %damage is a build choice, opting to team up is a play choice. (*1) XP, Inf, defeat Merits, Enhancements, Salvage, Monstrous Aethers, Recipes, Catalysts, are all examples of rewards that come from defeating critters. The in-game rewards that are not (directly) tied to defeating critters are Brainstorms, Prismatics, "patrol" missions, "exploration", and Day Job rewards. I'm not aware of any merit reward (beyond Exploration) that can be earned solo without doing any damage or defeating a critter, although some arc Merit rewards don't require many defeats.

I especially appreciate that now there is a relevant response to the in-game/in-forum complaints about other players using powers with knockback. Sample conversation: 1: "I wish players would not use knockback, it ruins the game" 2: "Have you tried taking an epic AoE immobilize?" 1: "Don't tell me how to play my character!"

With Fortunata, I don't reach outside the VEAT choices for "teamwork" powers, except possibly as some sort of very late power-pick that can also be an Enhancement mule. Earlier in builds I could usually find some number of power pool picks that (in my mind) improve some aspect of team performance or personal Quality-of-Life in a more obvious way.

As I wrote back on the first page: Choosing which powers to take, how many slots to invest in them, and then what to put in any slots is all part of an individual player's build choices. The current %proc implementation allows players to make different choices, with %damage offering low-damage-scale ATs a chance to complete missions at almost any setting within an order of magnitude of high-damage-scale ATs. There is no reason to swing the nerf bat at the %proc system as implemented, except of course wanting to remove these build choices and force certain ATs back into a ghetto of lower rewards-per-unit-time.

That's exactly the kind of attitude that we can expect from @DougGraves /s

This is what I'm getting at: I've observed that most critters immobilized are effectively prevented from being knocked back. I can't speak to the magnitude of knockback that might move them, just that when my AoE immobs are out, critters don't go flying. On my Dark controller: I don't even see Knockdown happening. I have the O-Force piece slotted in the Umbral Beast, I only witness knockdown on critters missed by the immobilize.

While leveling up, I often make sure I am healing henchmen because they are precious at lower levels. At 50+ I don't go out of my way to heal them. If there is some sort of AoE effect (e.g. Twilight Grasp) that will heal them, or some sort of relatively mindless method (e.g. Maintenance Drone) excellent! Generally I find it better to make them more resistant (or give them better defenses) and to concentrate on debuffing their targets.

Holy Necromancy! I also use Group Fly with Robotics, I have notes: Turning Group Fly off/on can mess with the pathing AI of the henchmen. Sometimes they get "stuck", sometimes they don't want to join the rest of the group when Group Fly is deactivated. I find that I have to pay attention to make sure the squad has not gotten separated. I find Group Fly to be handy in certain circumstances, like outdoor fights against Caleb and Diabolique, and when sending the henchmen against flying "runners". Group Fly is a mixed bag when it comes to NuEochai... it can help avoid/get out of Pumpkin Patches, and it can also get a Pumpkin Patch in the sky... which may or may not be a good thing.

A question Re: Dark/Dark Corruptor and Knockback... Does the AoE immobilize from Tenebrous Tentacles prevent Knockback? Living Shadows (on my Dark/- Controller) prevents Knockback.

My personal experience is that until my characters can accumulate large amounts of debt (by being higher level) I don't go out of my way to go for the Unbroken Spirit badge until about the time I can do the Patron arcs. Ironman badge is a PITA, especially for low HP characters. I don't like AFK sitting in Lava or Fire, so when I want Iron Man I usually go to Recluse's Victory and duke it out with the Pillboxes.

+Range doesn't increase the inherent number of targets hit, it only increases the potential number of targets to be hit from where the player is positioned. I find increasing Range (on a power-by-power basis) to be valuable when There are clear outliers in an attack chain which have much shorter ranges than other attacks (often, these are cones) There is some attack I want to use to get the attention of enemies "way over yonder" to help speed up map cleaning With regard to the second point, I boosted the range of Umbral Torrent on my Dark/- Blaster, even though it has an inherent 80-ft range, specifically because it is a very handy way to get the attention of distant spawns... plus Knockback/Knockdown is fun, and the short duration -ToHit is a wee bit of mitigation when used against enemies that can retaliate immediately.

Setting aside the count of badges chased by some players, the red-side badge/accolade High Pain Threshold requires one of the debt badges. The parallel blue-side badge/accolade is Freedom Phalanx Reserve Member. My personal experience is that it is much easier to get badge/accolade on red side than blue side, even while knowing all the tricksy ways and places to hunt for the defeats required for the blue side badge.

I enjoy my "Ranged/Control" Fortunata most, but it does suffer from a somewhat reduced amount of direct DPS by not having the melee attacks. I have tri-builds, so the other two builds focus on different approaches... yes, this could cost something resembling a "fortune" I suppose... but being a great team asset doesn't require a huge investment, except in power choices. The build I enjoy most has this going for it (I haven't used respec in a while, but probably should given changes) TK Blast (holding 5xATO Dominion of Arachnos) Subdue (holding 6xATO Spider's Bite) Dominate (Franken-slotted for damage and %damage) ^ I believe those three choices hurt my DPS quite a bit, partially because of their nature but mostly because it is where I invested the choice of powers and the slots... the single target weak sauce is somewhat sad! The 'better' perfoming options come from: Psychic Scream (franken-slotted) Psychic Wail (Armageddon) Invoke Panic + Intimidate (from Presence) Aura of Confusion + Confuse Along with three attacks from Mu Mastery I won't post the build, as it predates the last two rounds of major HC changes (earlier power picks, the recent VEAT change). I'm not crazy about how it leaned on the Mu Mastery set for more attacks. but they were also serving as a place for slots to get set bonuses I wanted. Because of the earlier power availability scheme, I fit in the team/leadership powers plus a rather full suite of Presence pool to supplement high positional defenses and scaling damage resistances. This character still goes through Hard Mode content pretty well despite not leveraging a more modern approach to power selections.

Can we see the data you collected for Controllers versus Blasters?

My suggestion regarding obvious identical costumes is to (a) keep them private or (b) find a way to not infringe someone else's IP.