tidge

The Pareto Principle: You spend 10% of your effort is on the first 90%; 90% of your effort will be spent on the last 10%.

I heard that with experience, this only happens something like 10% of the time.

I don't disagree, because the last thing anyone wants is a bajillion people pestering folks for their costumes, threatening legal action over "ownership", etc. Let's just agree that its an uncle who works for Nintendo that started the rumor.

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen energy transfer that I thought would never end. I've seen end of time when I could not recall friend, but I always thought that I'd quote you again.

Seems like legit reasons (graphics, animations) to avoid taking a set to me. I can't speak to the (new) Storm as a user, it doesn't bother me as a member of a team with Stormies. Seismic is a bit of a mixed bag for me: solo (when I am casting the powers) I quite like it. When I am on a PUG, depending on how close I am to the target(s) of certain Seismic attacks... I agree it can be disorienting to play with a Seismologist. (Upthrust's graphics are probably the most "in yer face, imma going to draw on the screen now", Meteor either brings joy or madness). The only other sets that I find graphically distracting are Titan Weapons (mostly because I experience some sort of cognitive dissonance with the game's collision boxes) and the various Nature powers (I'm amazed by the graphics, but there is so much of it!) I know that Bio's overlay on costumes was originally a deal-breaker for folks. As for the OP: I have a character concept to use the set... but it is a character concept I have probably seen at least a dozen other players also go with. I'll probably give it a try after thinking up a new/different concept that can use the set.... just like I waited to try out Seismic Blast.

I have been self-diagnosed as being on the alt-istic spectrum.

Generally (for me) I (eventually) have a plan for each character that I will take to level 50 that involves: Being able to solo "survive" (or self-rez) large spawns via defense/resists/controls Being able to solo "defeat" large spawns Typically I try to do this via power choices and slottings, but the Inspiration tray and SG buffs can also play a part. I'm never trying to build level 50+ characters for +3/+4 solo content... I can understand the challenge but I simply don't enjoy what I see as a grind. Once I have a level 50, I'm pretty comfortable taking it through any content with any PUG because I know what I can do and I can alter/leverage my play style to improve team performance. For example, if content demands a particular debuff... I may end up spamming the debuff in a way I would almost never do while playing solo. I have a few characters at level 50 that I don't particularly enjoy playing on level 50+ hard-mode PUGs mostly because those characters are so single-focused that I can't really change what they bring to any rando PUG. An example of this is my War Mace/Invulnerable Scrapper. He can do a little bit of extra herding, but otherwise he's just a hard-to-defeat melee machine. There isn't a lot of changing of tactics with this sort of character, even with my various power pool choices.

Spend levels 1-5 dead and then enjoy living through levels 6-50.

You have certainly given me some things to think about! If I sacrificed Repulsion Field I could fit another LotG mule into the build. I will be doing some experiments with toggles and unslotters to see if I can learn anything.

Heck, with fast-travel options: Original Positron TF solo is relatively pain free.

I'm guessing the 13% is assuming an auto-hit? This feels like one of those cases where a ToHit roll would also come into play. I've been fooling around with (Epic) Force Mastery's Repulsion Field (with a KB-KD piece and Endurance Reduction) to backup Seismic Shockwaves. I do see adjacent enemies getting knocked down, but I haven't done much specific testing to see if its rate is particularly good. It's been years since I tried this, and I want to say that I almost always give up on the idea of a toggle with knockdown.

After a little bit of experimentation with Burn in a level 41 solo mission at x3: It does seem like I am getting reasonable %damage chances on the cast, which is pretty much what I was hoping for. I have a feeling that it is Combustion that will come out of the build, keep Consume with a pair of recharge IOs, and shuffle some of the slots that had been penciled into Combustion. They almost certainly won't go into Consume, it is very likely I'll tweak the build to run some sort of Defense toggle at a mid/lowish level to include a Kismet +ToHit piece to support the (Fast) Snipe. In this little round of testing, I was trying to make more of an effort to use Combustion, but it still didn't feel as if it was fitting into solo combat particularly smoothly. I was facing Crey (and getting blinded quite a bit) so while it was nice to have this as an extra (non-targeting) attack I'm still not sure it was all that necessary.

I am work-slopping (sic) a Seismic/Fire Blaster. My current (still leveling, so I'm not soloing x8 content yet) build has the following four powers, and I don't think each will survive. I do want some PBAoE for enemies that get stuck in walls/ceilings, and for when I get dog-piled. Combustion: In practice, this power rarely gets used. In my final build plans it is 5x slotted with Scirocco's Dervish. Consume: I have this only slotted with 2xIO recharge, because 3 minutes is hella long to wait. I had considered trying to make this into a mini-%damage nuke, with something like: (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50+5 (*) D-Sync Conduit (EndMod/Recharge): Level 53 (*) D-Sync Drain (EndMod/Accuracy): Level 53 (*) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (*) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage Ultimately as a Blaster, I didn't need %damage from a PBAoE, so that's why I thought straight recharge was better. However: the recharge time is still excruciatingly long. I still use it, but only when I am really noticing that the blue bar is sagging. I have penciled this for removal from the first level 50 respec. Burn: I use this more than Combustion; I think it is because for lower-level content I simply have less of a need for a PBAoE. I have to do some more testing to see if the %procs fire on cast (not thinking about pseudo-pet %procs) as the plan currently is to go with (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Scirocco’s Dervish - Chance of Damage (Lethal) (*) Eradication - Chance of Damage (Energy) (*) Obliteration - Chance of Damage (Smashing) Hot Feet: I planned nothing fancy with this, as I was unimpressed with it on a Dominator. As you can see I value the Slow more than the Damage. (A) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Slow/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50+5 I can't speak for using an Overwhelming Force %Knockdown piece in Hot Feet... I don't remember %damage pieces %proc-ing very often in it.

(minor editing for content and emphasis) When strictly soloing Tankers, I have delayed Taunt but never skipped it. It always makes it back in as an early choice during respecs... simply because I find it to be such a unique power(*1) for Tankers (Brutes just aren't my jam, but I kinda expect them to be running from spawn-to-spawn). I bring up Positron TFs not just because of the low-level nature(*2), but because those large sewer rooms are a place for a Taunting Tanker to shine... especially the one that has two little spawns off to the sides, a boss-spawn visible from the entrance with another boss spawn very close by... a player with an aura can leave a lot of angry stragglers for the rest of the team to deal with before anyone else has even engaged the first boss spawn... and it doesn't take much from an AoE caster to get the attention of another close-by group. (*1) "standing next to" (or "mezzing") an angry spawn (or GM, or AV) is not what I consider "tanking". MMV. (*2) of course, the low-level nature often means that the individual members of a team won't have powers and enhancement bonuses that can be relied upon to deal with large spawns as done in high-level content.... making leaning into the unique abilities of an AT that much more important.

Before pursuing a Crabbermind, I have a couple of thoughts to share: (0) These are pets, not henchmen. They are not at all like a Mastermind, except with respect to slotting choices for Defense/Resists/%BuildUp (Soulbound) etc. The Crabbermind is perhaps the best choice (along with an Invulnerability Tanker) to put a Gaussian's %BuildUp proc in one of the Crabbermind's Leadership powers. VEATs have a solid Damage scale, and the pets will improved the chances to get %BuildUp triggers for the Crabbermind. Masterminds can get similar chances for the %proc, but their damage scales are terrible by comparison. (1) You will need enough Recharge to be able to resummon the T2 and T3 pets, should they survive the entire length of their 'natural' lives. This isn't hard, but it isn't trivial. The T1 summon has a shorter cooldown, see next point. (2) Because they are pets that expire, if you resummon a 'replacement' to join previously summoned pets that have not been defeated: the latest summoned pets will expire per the life of any surviving original pets. In practice, this means that you can't be frivolous with resummoning just because a power has recharged. As for playstyle: In my experience, the pets are basically fire-and-forget. You are essentially stuck with whatever attacks they have so there is no real advantage to trying for melee v. ranged. IIRC I think I have at least two (possibly all three) of the summons slotted with 4xExpedient Reinforcement and the only %procs I try to leverage are Soulbound Allegience %Build up on the big guy, and Overwhelming Force Knockdown on the little guys. I should disclose: I rarely used my Crabbermind build, as a lot of what I wanted to do with the character could be done with the other builds. I never paid close attention to how the difference in DPS shook out (between builds), but it certainly didn't feel like less. I suspect that if you want to lean heavily into primarily Mace attacks the pets ought to help a lot, once you get their survivibility improved.

I hear you, but I don't grok. (Tankers) Loading up on toggles at low levels (with or without running them) without having Taunt seems like a waste of effort; loading up on low-level attacks and trying to spam those instead of Taunting feels like a recipe for disaster. This is just me:I think it is easier to choose a Tanker primary power to delay instead of delaying the choice of Taunt from the secondary.

I'm firmly on the side of "Take Taunt; you don't have to slot it if you don't want to". There is nothing ANYONE has access to that is as powerful as Taunt. Provoke is weak sauce (not an auto-hit, so you practically must slot it) and the single-target Confronts are (ehem) single-target. I try to take it soon enough that it is available for the lowest-level TF/SF. Blue side, Positron 1 (and the Hollow's Caverns) Trial are easy ways to sort 'selfish' (selfish in the sense that they think their natural charm and good looks chosen melee attacks and auras will be enough to control the battlefield) Tankers and Tankers who are explicitly looking out for the teammates.

Dumb Answer: I go for the concept(*1). Specific to slotting questions: Slotting is for Damage(*2), with the intent of picking up Global Recharge bonuses from Enhancement sets. The "capstone" powers often are the deciding factor on if I want to include Hasten in a build. Because of Damage, I almost always include Hasten on Stalkers, Scrappers and Blasters... but with Blasters its inclusion isn't guaranteed. I'll play around with different powers while leveling and see if there is one attack I am simply not using before deciding to replace it with Hasten. (*1) I almost never concentrate on defenses or resists, beyond what I can get from mules. One of my suicide/murder hobos relies mostly on the graces of RNGesus and an Epic Power Pool self-rez for challenging content. (*2) %damage for Blasters is never a goal... of course nothing is certain: I am work-shopping a Blaster right now with "too many" attacks in an dumb effort to have not just a single-target ranged attack chain, but also a melee/PBAoE attack chain, AND a ranged AoE %damage attack chain. Discussion point follows: I have a love/hate relationship with %-Resistance (on Blasters). On paper: applying -Resistance for even the short amount of time from a %proc would appear to drastically increase damage, especially for Blasters that are hovering near the damage cap. This can also pay off dividends when teaming, depending on the specific source(s) of -Resistance. Practically (especially for solo): for most spawns of mobs %-Resistance isn't radically reducing the number of attacks I have to make to clean up an enemy spawn. Ideally, the %-Resistance is most useful against the hardest targets/largest sacks of HP... but since "resistance resists resistible resist debuffs" (and "hard targets, GMs, AVs often have deep resistances) I almost always land on using a slot that would be a %-Resistance piece as a different sort of Enhancement slot. A debuff that is part of a primary or secondary (or power pool) is a different beast altogether IMO.

I am a fan of VEATs and Cone-heads, (Vogue-Enabled Attacks with Triangles?) so I approve this message. Some rando experiences of my own with Cone-heavy builds: As @Yomo Kimyata mentioned, if a build contains both PBAoE and Cone attacks, I will usually opt for Combat Teleport with a pair of macros (one to get into base contact with a selected target, one to pop back by 25 feet) and a mousebind (to teleport to a position). Increasing range on cones is useful, but in my experience it is not as useful as: making sure the attacks have accuracy (for the %procs) trying to have the cone attacks have roughly the same range High %proc rates that never hit is not useful. For %proc-heavy builds I used to slot for Accuracy/Range, often now I opt for Accuracy/Endurance. If I can get enough Accuracy from set bonuses (Hello Very Rares sets!) and/or slot the Kismet +6% ToHit into an always-on power, then Damage/Endurance is probably a good call on a character with a respectable damage scale (like a VEAT). If I were to say what I think the advantage of extra-long-range cone attacks are: When PUG-ing, you can use them to get the attention of distant groups of enemies to speed up defeat-all times. This could be both a blessing and a curse, depending on content. YMMV with cones of different ranges... I noticed on a Dark Blaster that I had one cone attack slotted such that it was completely disproportionate to all the other attacks. For AT that don't get a ranged cone attack early enough for my taste, or don't get one at all, I recommend investing 3-picks in the Force of Will pool. I usually go Mighty Leap (one of the fastest travel powers, plus an occasional PBAoE Knockdown), Weaken Resolve (some %proc utility at low levels, IMO it is fine with just Accuracy on final builds) and then the cone Wall of Force (available at level 14).

Don't think we didn't see what you did there.

WWD 5, 6, and 7 are all level 40+