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I wouldn't put those %procs in Thunderstrike... at least not until I saw if they were doing enough for me. Some personal disclosures: I don't like the FF %+recharge %proc. I prefer to passively get Recharge boosts, as they are more reliable and more even. Also, Hasten at level 10 is not something I recommend. I know people make both of those choices, but my personal experience has been that this sort of chasing of Recharge isn't generally as effective as alternate slotting choices of powers that will be used. Specific to Thunderstrike: %procs make sense for the "not the main target", but in practice I have found that for all AT except Tankers, it is rare that there are enough enemy targets outside of the main target to make the investment in %proc slots worthwhile. I'd just opt for a 5-piece set bonus. Obviously if you are wedded to the FF %+Recharge, then I'd say 5+1 slotting. As a trivial aside, I'd replace the Health piece in rest with an Interrupt piece. 🙂

if you aren't dying, I doubt anyone would care. I suppose if it was the final AV fight of something like a Manticore and you weren't providing any DPS I'd probably say something before you got a player note.

All the PVP zones also offer level-appropriate door missions, no matter what your character's level is relative to the zone max. Most of these are either Longbow/Arachnos, so it isn't as if it is hard to find that content anyway, but I've occasionally done those simply to alleviate boredom.

Characters being dropped to levels below what is zone-appropriate is bête noir. I can understand when it is not the League leader's fault, but a majority of times it has happened to me it is because the League leader isn't paying attention at all. If I am soloing "just fine" I decline league invites because I have lost count of the number of clueless "Giant Monster hunting teams" that will put a level 50 on a level 20 team. Minimally this makes zone travel a potential nightmare. As @Ironblade notes, this is almost certainly stupidity and not malice. #1 Tip: League leaders should invite a new player's team to league, and then move the character to a team led by a level 50, or move other players to that (new) team. Once there are 6 teams on a league, they should all pretty much be led by level 50s... or the 6th team is the "holding pen" for new players. A level 50 can of course be moved to team 6 once there are 5 teams led by level 50s.

I certainly wouldn't put it past players to try to endlessly farm Prismatics by using a stream of disposable new characters, I also think that the effort is almost certainly more than just running a classic AE farm. I imagine that this sort of "farming" thing would be mostly done by a player that specifically wants Prismatics, and also has a roster for which they want badges and/or name-locks. As for ToT Leagues in PI: They can be a real mixed bag. I was surprised several times over the first few days just how poorly a couple of them were being run. This isn't meant to be a knock on the folks who were "leading", it was more that there were so few level 50s playing that my level 50s were constantly getting exemplared down to inappropriate levels for the zone. Sometimes this was due to folks dropping, but one league leader was actively doing it by moving my character from team-to-team, which is borderline griefing IMO. At no point was that character made a team leader, so that was simply clueless leadership. As for which types of characters I prefer to play in the ToT leagues: Ranged attackers, because it makes targeting easier. I agree that low-DPS can be an issue, but mostly because I've seen a bunch of ToT leagues with low-damage (and low-level) characters on the same team, which doesn't help the team (especially on Banner events).

I also tend to avoid radio missions, except "at level" when I have a character that wants the Mayhem/Safeguard goodies. I used to speed-run level 50 radios to unlock Hassell, but some recent changes to "who counts as a villain defeat" have made this unlock a lot more organic (and easier) for me. Another good alternative to Radio missions are the alignment tips, which can be run in zones other than level 50 zones (for level 50 characters). I don't always like to run Ouro arcs, because if I start one solo then I'm locked into it until completion, unless I simply drop it of course.

I highlighted some things that stand out to me. This is just my opinion, but I don't think ATs even start to feel like they are coming into their own until sometime between level 12 and 20. The other constraints (the "no twinking of builds") isn't really a concern when you won't have many slots to choose from. It sounds to me that you want a Defender, not a Controller. Helping an Ally is much easier with a low-level Defender than it will be with a low-level Controller.

There is a new Epic Mastery for MMs that is so OP they gave it 9 powers and MMs can start taking them at level 1: Marine Affinity. The only general thing about MM Epic choices that don't appeal to me are the single-target powers, which are pretty much either straight attacks, a hard control, or a hybrid of the two. What doesn't appeal to me about those: Level 35+ is probably too late to take a ST attack, when the primaries probably have one better suited for play Single-target controls are probably not going to make a difference in how a level 35+ MM plays any content Both Attacks and Controls will require slots to be effective/make a difference in play... and slots are often at a premium. For players that leverage the current pools for thematic reasons, I'm sure that they are pretty good as is.

I recommend testing, because Carrion Creepers have a sort of chained-pseudo-pet mechanic where they will self-destruct and respawn, which makes them kinda-OP in a different way than via buffing I imagine.

I came to the thread, glanced at the number of reactions and fully expected a typical "but I like running +4x8 content with only carpal tunnel syndrome to challenge me!" but instead I saw: So while I don't know that this wasn't at a +4x8 setting, I will offer some validation: Yes, the Dark Werewolves can be challenging for a solo play, even at +0x1. Since that first, brutal encounter my low-30 Warshade had with one, I have adjusted my tactics to deal with them. I learned something! Radio missions are of course entirely at the discretion of the player. It is rare that Council is the only choice of enemy.

--------Police drones a that-a-way ----->

Hard no, Crabberminds are not Masterminds, so MM-level controls are not warranted. Crabs don't need to rely on the Spiders for survival or damage. I have to vote "no" on adjusting the recharge times of the Crab pets, but for a subtle reason: The Crab pets are such that for the tiers where more than one pet is summoned, the self-destruct (of all the pets of the same tier) is always timed to the "oldest" surviving pet. Shorter recharge times would IMO simply expose this problem to more players. MMV on wether this should be fixed, but it is the one thing about Crab pets that should be looked at before anything else. There are plenty of ways to make the Crab pets plenty-sturdy, forum neophytes and players trying Crabberminds for the first time should practice some search-fu in the VEAT sub-foum. It is straightforward to get (all three tiers) of Crabbermind spiders to be both "perma" (in the sense that all three of the powers will be recharged before the tier of pets has self-destructed) and tough enough to survive contact with the enemy.

This sounds like some of the current Blaster sustains.

I don't feel like checking all the controller pets, but IIRC the Energy Font (from the ATO) can get buffs. I'm pretty sure all the pets from Dark/Dark get buffs. Generally, when planning slotting: My starting assumptions around pseudo-pet powers are: Such a power is only going to get enhancement boosts from what I've slotted in the power (so no global bonuses that the player may have, and no buffs provided by the player) %procs should only be considered viable "on cast" If the pseduo-pet needs to self-destruct, and leaves nothing behind, take a really good look at its performance (preferably through in-game testing) Mileage varies depending on the power. There are enough different "pseudo-pet" powers that I wouldn't try to offer general suggestions. Some of them are coded in such a way that it is straightforward to get some crazy good combinations through slotting, power choices, and tactics. Almost all pseudo-pets benefit from having enemies debuffed, for instance.

I dunno if it was one of my posts, but I have had 2x D-Sync Accuracy/Heals (Siphons) in Brine, nothing else (on my Controller). I wouldn't invest a third slot here, unless something is otherwise wrong with global Accuracy/ToHit. The -MaxHP is awesome, but I think using that third slot to put a %-Resistance piece in the AoE M30 Grenade would be a better force multiplier than the ED-wall effects in the 60-second-base single-target Brine. Marine Affinity should be an incredibly high-performing set for MMs. I opted for a Controller because I've already got an alternate high-performing MM that I play all the time and I only have so much engagement with MMs (the mental load for the challenges I take my MM through can reach Repo Man levels of intensity)... so I wanted to see what Marine Affinity can do for a pseudo-MM like the Plant/Marine Controller. With Seeds of Confusion, Carrion Crawlers and even the Giant Fly Trap, Marine Affinity takes Plant Control (already somewhat OP) to another level.

You can use the pet window to see which powers are affecting your pets (and henchmen). Some pseudo-pets won't appear there, so you probably have to do some direct clicking and checking.

Heh. I only use spreadsheets to calculate %proc rates, and to plan power choices/slotting. The latter is essentially to keep track of slots, global recharge, and for some ATs I also have it track the range of different powers (when I attempt to balance them).

This is a peculiarly specific suggestion (+2 vs +3). Imma guess that this is a Tanker with no Knockback Protection/Resistance? (because FREEM!), Dark Armor IMO must specifically build to address enemy knockback because so many of the Dark Armor tanking tricks require standing adjacent to enemies. If the issue is more along the lines of "enemy to hard to hurt", and somehow specific level difference is NOT an issue: you gotta build for that too, especially if you are going to solo.

IIRC, each event Jack/Eochai will spawn with seven Unseelies. Until the GM and all (seven of) the Unseelies are defeated, there will be no re-spawn in the zone. I mention this, because the GMs will con purple, but the Unseelies are not level-less and may con grey (and be harder to spot).

I can't recall if the temporary costume powers are reward drops for defeats, but they definitely are treats for clicking on doors. Reward drops are (in my experience) generally less frequent when playing on large teams (as opposed to solo play with large spawn sizes) so if there was no door-clicking I'm not surprised that few costumes were found.

I can't speak to personal experience with Broadsword, but when I leveled up with War Mace years ago I thought that set was painfully slow. The set didn't come together as offering what I felt to be a smooth attack chain until I had some global recharge; with a full-kit of enhancement sets in the attacks at level 50 the attacks are completely smooth, even with exemplar content below level 20. The recharge doesn't do anything for the animation times, but once the harder-hitting attacks are part of the regular chain those animations should be less painful.

Are you opening doors, or have you been playing somewhat passively?

Regarding KB, there is very little practical difference between 4 and 8 points. The reason IMO to get 11 or more is because with 10 more points from a SG buff (1 hour) you can exceed the 20 points of FREEM!

No thanks to the suggestion. Burning (non-rez) inspirations improves performance; I typically only 'need' a couple of types of Inspirations for emergencies, so I set up macros to combine other inspirations into those (depending on the character). The improvement I'd like is the ability to combine dual inspirations into singles (personally: I don't care to combine into duals), or team insps into other team insps.

I'm thoroughly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ on the suggestion. I understand that "All Incarnate T4" can feel 'grindy', but it is not even in the same ballpark as it was on Live. My first instinct on the suggestion is that this sort of idea is one that would make alternate forms of 'grind' on Homecoming easier.(*1) I wouldn't use Empyrian merits for T1 or T2 components, I didn't even realize that was a a thing! I've always used Threads if I don't have components on hand. I typically don't even bother slotting Incarnates until a character joins a team doing some content that benefits from/requires having any. The Alpha slot is one of the few Incarnate branches I try to at least slot to a single T3, just to 'get moar performance', and even then I typically do enough TFs/Flashbacks that I'll have more than enough Shards to craft at least a T2 or T1 just from those.(*1) As mentioned earlier in the thread: There is so little content that would even require a T4 over a T3, and a majority of the game's content (everything below level 45) doesn't even allow the use of Incarnates at all. (*1) There is plenty of content that can grind Incarnate components as well as everything else the game has to offer (XP, Inf, drops, blah blah blah fishcakes)... and if you only want the Incarnate components (plus Empyrian merits!) entire Dark Astoria arcs can be run in about 10 minutes for pretty much all ATs.