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I have my 50+ Tanker's Thunder Strike slotted as follows (the build also has global Accuracy and ToHit bonuses): Level 16: Thunder Strike (A) Multi-Strike - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Superior Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb (*) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance for Damage (Lethal) (*) Eradication - Chance for Damage (Energy) (*) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Damage (Psi) (*) Explosive Strike - Chance for Damage (Smashing) I tried a lot of different ways to slot Thunder Strike on my Dominator, as well as trying a rather wide variety of approaches to to facing critter spawns... and I simply could not find a way to justify including it in the Dominator build. My disappointment with it is one of the reasons I rolled up the Tanker!

My hot takes I see a lot of folks PUGing with Warshades; I observe Peacebringers in fewer (non-zero) numbers. Writing only for myself: there isn't as much room for variety in play with Kheldians as there is from other ATs. My PoV is that because the options for personalization are almost exclusively in the slotting (of nearly all the same power choices) it is really hard to even judge (from teh outside) the performance of any given Kheldian build/play. Personally, I think there remains some lingering feelings about Warshades being OP because of the old "MF Warshade Guide". Even though I personally find Warshades to fun to play, and I like being able to fill different roles... I think there are plenty of other ATs that can end up being built to be much more impressive than WS. No. I don't quick-shift via macro-dancing. I do change forms constantly, but I don't use the 'exploit'. In my experience: Kheldians cannot solo defeat typical AVs or GMs. Maybe I'm just not L33T ENUF, but I tried a speed run of the Yin TF (default settings) and my Warshade took twice as long as a Tanker/Scrapper/Stalker and even longer than a Controller. Both my Warshade and my Controller needed to summon a Shivan to defeat Clamor. Generally *I* don't consider using Lores or other summons as having a build "able to solo", as most 50+ characters can duo just most AVs and GMs. If I had to self-assess what my problem was: There was no easy way to debuff, do enough damage, and stand fast against the AV. Maybe with the quick-shift exploit, but otherwise it was an incredibly annoying grind. I don't think there is much of a difference in either solo or PUG play, except that the WS can IMO do more with larger spawns.

IIRC, the "outer radius" offers its own chance to %proc (on legitimate targets), but I honestly can't recall if I ever saw the initial target get hit by a %proc from the "splash". If the power is tagged to "exclude the main target", then obviously the primary target would not be subject to a second %damage. Attacks which hit multiple targets ought to have the same %proc chances for all targets of the attack, I believe I've seen this on the Sentinel's Refractor Beam (from direct damage, not Disintegration spread) The %damage is definitely not wasted on a Tanker's Thunder Strike. It is a very well-performing power on Tankers. I hated Thunder Strike's performance on my Dominator (no matter the slotting), and ended up removing that power from the build.

While leveling,as soon as level limits allow me to use the extras from the SG base storage Level 2: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance (*) Miracle - +Recovery Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End (*) Performance Shifter - EndMod This slotting tends to pace the +BlueBar for my characters' needs, plus a little oomph on travel speeds. I usually end up with another power for slotting Preventive Medicine, occasionally I have a power that is best suited for using Panacea as a set, so sometimes that global goes elsewhere. Some characters end up not needing the Miracle +Recovery piece. Any character that I expect to be constantly taking damage will get a Power Transfer %Heal. Tankers will have 2x Numina: a Health and the +Regen/+Recovery piece. I usually don't go out of my way to get +Regeneration, except on high-HP characters that will regularly be taking damage. Every once in a blue moon I will put the Synapse's Shock EndMod/+Running speed piece in Stamina, this is usually when I am using Infiltration as the primary travel power.

Trying to make sense of the Live-thru-sunset "Timeline" has always bothered me, mostly blue side, but to some extent red side as well. I blame Who Will Die? and the burning down of Praetoria. The first thing that bothers me about WWD? (and similar plans to have certain characters disappear/switch roles) is that it explicitly breaks the "evergreen" nature of game content. The best example of a series of arcs that puts all the toys back in the box where you found them is the complete First Ward arc cycle, at least as far as the arcs only in the First Ward are concerned. The second thing is this: in order to even pretend that WWD? happened, content for perfectly fine mission arcs was changed... including as near as I can tell some lines of dialogue in A Hero's Epic that don't really make sense unless you had been playing the game through sunset and kinda remember when certain things happened. Anywho to speak to the initial post, I'd put all of Who Will Die? between the Peregrine Island Flashbacks and the "current" Peregrine Island 40-thru-50 arcs. I think you will also want to include some of the Valentine's Day Event arcs as well, plus the MLTF and LRSF... there are only a tangential connections but some of the dialogue in some of the Incarnate content feels to me like it references (or ignores) some of what happens in those.

I have a Water/Atomic, and it is definitely a Blapper. I can't imagine playing Water/Energy and wanting to stay at range only. I realize that there are different opinions about the following, but I skip Water Jet from the primary, even after the fix to the way the power works with Tidal Force. I suppose if a player is skipping all the melee attacks it will be useful.

I use the same bind for targeting Sappers, DE Cairns (because of the resist protection they grant) and (Cimeroran, primarily) Surgeons. The other thing that will be learned through game play is which Inspirations to gobble, and when.

I suspect the problem isn't primarily "picking a character". As others have replied, I see some things in the OP that raise my eyebrows. Specifically: Investing some time in the game, using some common content (i.e. blue side 40+ tips, blue side arcs, a handful of red side arcs) should get every player familiar with the ways to handle Malta Sappers. I would not consider a player that struggles against sappers to be ready to consider solo AV fights. "One easy trick" for starting to deal with Sappers (or any particularly problematic enemy) is to invest 5 minutes into learning about targeting binds. Something else that ought to be done with the time investment is to learn how to monitor certain (personal) character attributes. Some things (such as endurance spend) can be monitored via the health bar, but many important game effects are trivially able to be monitored using the Powers > Combat Attributes > +Base > right-click method. I commonly only monitor 5 attributes: Base ToHit, Last Hit Chance, and each of the Positional Defenses. Those stats, plus the green/blue bar, give me an excellent idea of what enemies might be doing to my character that are making me suffer. There are other important game effects, but even on characters that have better typed defenses than positionals, once I know what the relative values are, and I am paying attention to what enemies are doing, I find this is all I need for a character I understand. Finally, it is important to do a variety of content to learn how resistant certain enemies are to your damage type(s), as well as what other tricks they will play on you. You have to learn how to address each of those issues.

A few things: Almost all of a MM's offense comes from the henchmen, so each tier should be slotted for both Accuracy and Damage. Endurance reduction slotting does affect the henchmen attacks. Robotics doesn't offer a slot to mule the Global Resistance/Defense pet enhancements from various sets, so I end up sprinkling those among the different tiers of henchmen. Slotting 2x Superior Mark of Supremacy three times (once in each henchmen tier) is something I find valuable. The Protector Bots' Force Shield is something like +13% Defense for all positionals, and most damage types For me, this left me with one "free" slot in the Protector Bots (once I did not have to slot KB->KD after page 5), I now slot T2 as: Level 12: Protector Bots (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Hami-O Defense/Endurance (53 or alternatively a 50+5 piece) <- This is the "Free slot" in my build (*) Edict of the Master: Defense Bonus (*) Call to Arms: Defense Aura for Pets (*) Call to Arms: Accuracy/Damage Improving Defenses (when cast by the Protector Bots) by single digits does IMO survivability across all content. I couldn't think of any other use for the slot that would pay bigger dividends on average. In the slotting shown, I have the 2x ATO set bonus, I felt I wanted more Accuracy and Damage so I added the Call to Arms piece. That piece maxes out at level 30, but since MMs can burn Endurance at a heavy clip, I opted to add the slight Recovery bonus from having two pieces of that set attuned. I started with a Luck of the Gambler Defense/Global Recharge piece in place of the Hami-O, but I found that the extra Global recharge wasn't doing anything noticeable for my build. The Global Recharge only applies to the Mastermind, not the henchmen. For a long time I was running just a simple Defense IO (50+5), but after the page 5 revamp (Robotics overhaul, including the addition of the Maintenance Drone as well as the elimination of almost all of the Knockback from Robotic Henchmen) I felt that the Protector Bots were making more attacks and burning down their Endurance bars faster than the other henchmen, so by adding slightly more Endurance reduction to them, their Endurance burn rate is now closer to the other tiers. Personally, I think there is only one %proc worth slotting in any of the Robotic Henchmen: Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up; I put it in the T1. The Overwhelming Force %Knockdown is good, especially in the T1 henchmen, but I don't think it is as important as either the %Build Up or having all the Resistance/Defense global pieces. EDIT: I'd keep this slotting, even with /Dark. I don't always position my Robotic Henchmen near enough to the Mastermind to get all the Aura Bonuses.

I think it was in page 4:

Whups... meant Repair, which I don't think anyone really took!

What I've been doing for slots on my Dark Armor characters to hit 14 points of KB 3 slots of Gladiator's Armor to get +3 KB protection (I pick Dark Embrace, this is also a healthy amount of Resistance) 3 slots of Fury of the Gladiator to get +3 KB protection (in Death Shroud) 1 Steadfast Protection +4 KB protection 1 Blessing of the Zephyr +4 KB protection or 1 Karma +4 KB protection (use both if the Fury of the Gladiator bonus is not used) I'll craft a SG base +10 KB if I think I'll be encountering FREEM! IIRC the FREEM is 20 points. I tried +8 and +11 points for a good deal of content; neither was enough. 12 was not a practical value to test (recently), yet I feel like past testing had me trying for at least 13 points.

I have a FF Defender built as a force-multiplier for teams, and yet I still find Force Bomb to be unnecessary. My thinking goes as follows, YMMV. +20% damage could be 2 more damage per tick, it could be 40 more damage from a single ally. If I'm on a team with multiple damage dealers, some of whom are already near their cap (via personal slotting, or external buffs)... it is highly unlikely that the application of -Resistance from a Force Bomb (an AoE attack) is actually going to reduce the number of attacks those hypothetical teammates are going to have to make... even assuming that any of the critters caught in the FF Defender's Force Bomb are still around to suffer the -20% Resistance. There is content where the 10 (or fewer) critters hit by a Force Bomb don't fold after a second attack (from the allies, after I have also hit with Force Bomb), but from my PoV application of -Resistance has to reduce the number of necessary attacks from each ally by at least 1 per critter, otherwise the -Resistance isn't actually improving defeat times. My experience: For most team cases where -Resistance does improve defeat times, it is because there is one or two hard single targets. In those cases, I have found it more valuable for my my -Res debuffer to have faster-firing -Res options that I can direct at different targets... often because the targets aren't close enough to each other, not because I misunderstand certain elements of -Res stacking (or not). In those cases, Repulsion Bolt is "enough". I won't argue against a second, different, source of -Resistance (or other debuff), and Force Bomb can fulfill a couple of different roles, but so can Weaken Resolve. There are obvious differences between the T8 FF power and the first power selection from the Force of Will pool... but if it is -Resistance for single hard targets, I think there is a strong case to be made to take that Force of Will power earlier than level 22. For one thing, the Force of Will ranged cone attack (Wall of Force) could be taken as early as level 14, also does Knockdown and can also be slotted with %-Resistance... and is IMO easier to target multiple enemies with. I may as well be a Force Multiplier as early as possible, if that is what I want to lean into.

I agree (in direction, if not in magnitude) with @Uun suggestions. The only advice I feel like adding is a general comment about the timing of choices of Build Up and Hasten. Without looking at the total build, and not knowing which content you intend to play, my instincts tell me that Hasten is almost certainly taken "too soon", and that Build Up may be "too soon". In the case of Hasten, my personal rule-of-thumb is to not add it to a build until I have taken an attack or survival mechanism that has significantly long enough recharge times that using Hasten will get me (at least) "one more" use of the power, when I need it. Before level 20, most such powers have inherently fast recharge times that attack chains work without Hasten by simple slotting. Build Up (and similar powers) is far more variable in utility. I'd only take it that early if there isn't a different power the build could use that early (possibly as a pre-requisite) and/or by the time you really want Build Up (for Total Focus, Energy Transfer) the power choices don't quite work out so taking it slightly earlier is necessary to have it for when you do take those powers.

I found Provoke to be far inferior at grabbing enemy aggro than simply targeting enemies with some sort of AoE attack (from the MM). The number of possible targets is almost always higher in the MM attack than Provoke's cap of 5 targets Provoke requires Accuracy slotting, it is not an auto-hit Slotting an AoE ranged attack, as opposed to a "threat power", offers hella-more options for both set bonuses and enhancement characteristics The last bullet point is key IMO. There is IIRC only one piece (each, in the two level 50 Threat Enhancement sets) than includes Accuracy. No Range AoE includes "threat". but there is a %-Res debuff piece in Annihilation, and also the %Immobilization in the Frozen Blast set... either can allow an enemy debuff or mezz to "linger" for a bit as a sort of pseudo-taunt. IMO: It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to believe that an MM using Provoke performs better than a MM tossing an attack.

It seems highly unlikely to me that data-mining (by the devs, by the powers team) of selected powers would be the driving force behind changes to particular powers in Dark Armor. I am aware that years ago the team with access to the character database would occasionally make public statements that they had looked at player-selected powers (or at least power sets), but I always got the sense that, in the case of particular powers, someone on the powers team had more of an inkling about the balance of the specific power, possibly from conversations, rather than deep-diving power selection. For example: consensus on the Robotics MM primary Triage Beacon was a pretty poor choice, yet a LOT of Robotics MM were seen to have selected it and advocate for it in the forums. Nevertheless, it got turned into something much better as part of a bigger revamp. The allowance to pick T2 secondary powers at level 1 was certainly not because everyone skipped the secondary T1 powers. I don't think there is any reason to "revamp" Dark Armor completely, although I can imagine subtle motivations: Bark Armour is, and always has been, toggle-heavy.... with toggles almost evenly split between for the player and for the critters. The individual power's endurance costs are probably (just a guess, I don't feel like spreadsheeting them across ATs and alternate armor choices) aligned, but everyone who plays teh set knows that in total it becomes a problem for Endurance. If I had to guess what a slightly different Dark Armor would look like, but still feel like a classic Dark Armor: One of the Resistance toggles would become an auto power, and get a "balance pass" for values One of critter toggles (probably Cloak of Fear, because as a Fear it is different than other types of mezz) would become an on-activation PBAoE, also with a "balance pass", especially for Accuracy. As a matter of personal opinion: I definitely think that primary/secondary (not pools) power sets used by ATs that rely on multiple toggles (especially self-only-affecting ones) probably could use a "modern" look at Endurance consumption. I'm sure I'm not the only Tanker player that picks primary Armor toggles, slots them, and then doesn't actually turn them on. I can conjure an apocryphal set of reasons for why the Dark Armor "offensive" toggles have remained as they are. The original (Day 0) Fiery Armor sets taught those devs a lesson about in-game rewards for players doing nothing but turn on toggles; the PVP era reinforced some peculiar beliefs about controls usable by melee types (e.g. Stuns).

I am still working out the kinks, and trying a variety of content. My Night Widow skipped Build Up, the attacks it has available are: Poison Dart (I wanted the -Regen), this pretty much only gets used on a very injured single target. Strike Followup (was the compromise made so as to have 3 attacks under level 10) Spin (my last attack before level 24) Eviscerate Psychic Scream (with %damage and Knockdown) Wall of Force (%damage) I have this at level 30, I could have taken it earlier, but I felt like I would have been sacrificing some of the 'Night Widow feels' for an important range of content. I have it slotted so the range is almost the same as Psychic Scream. I realize Eviscerate is not well-loved, but with AoE Cone knockdowns from Psychic Scream and Wall of Force, I can usually position to use it semi-effectively. The Widow has a Weaken Resolve to toss against harder targets. I have Placate, although I delayed it until level 32... I was having too many choices bunch up around level 20! The Fortunata ended up with %damage in Psychic Tornado (which I did not use previously) and Static Discharge (previously slotted with Annihilation). There are %damage in Dominate, which has very little Endurance reduction in it, but this is slotted for Accuracy, Hold and %damage. I'm considering adding an End/Hold piece here, because the cycle time on Dominate makes it a fast ST attack. Ultimately I think it comes down to making a lot of attacks, in short periods of time, using attacks that don't have a lot of Endurance reduction slotted in them. The main issue I was having before leaning into %damage on the Fortunata was that Psi-resistant enemies would take forever to defeat, even if I never quite ran out of Endurance.

In some ways, I'm surprised that Fears work at all in this game. And I think they were reworked at least once, maybe twice with critter AI changes? I'm certainly glad that the main effect is "quiver in place" rather than actually running away. They don't really hold enemies, nor do they really immobilize them. They act like neither placates nor taunts. I suppose in terms of how an "afraid" status helps neutralize critters is knockdown. Fear has also got one of the two worst treatments in terms of Enhancement sets, the other being "Threat". I suppose we should be thankful that the Fear Enhancement sets off more than one piece that includes Accuracy.

My Dark Armor Scrapper stacks Cloak of Fear with Intimidate and/or Invoke Panic, because that is its concept. It's not improving critter defeat times but I get a laugh from it.

Re: PVP recipes I would never consider getting into the (crafted and/or converted) PVP corner of the market: PVP recipes drop across all levels of content 10 through 50+ Sub-50 PVP pieces can be attuned, catalysts are trivial to come by There are relative few (percentage-wise) PVP pieces that I find valuable for my builds The cost of the rare components automatically raises the necessarily minimum selling price of the PVP recipes There are a handful of PVP recipes that I low-bid-on to make sure my personal supply of those doesn't run out, but otherwise I'm crafting and converting PVP recipes as they drop (for my own eventual use). I don't think the drop rate for PVP recipes has noticeably changed. My own guesstimate was previously that after about an hour of near-uninterrupted defeating of large enemy spawns (at level 50) I had a 50/50 chance of getting either a PVP or a Very Rare recipe. This hold roughly true for lower level content, except that below a certain level Very Rare recipes won't drop at all. Another slightly annoying feature (that favors PVP recipe drops): Defeating even-level enemies in open-world zones (such as during the Anniversary event) the recipes will drop at/close to the highest level of the zone, not the player. I have gotten quite a few level 30-ish PVP recipes from defeating Anniversary enemies in lower-level zones.

I suspect that @Snarky wants Cloak of Fear primarily for thematic reasons. I have a Dark Armor Scrapper that also chose it, but for theme. For the Tanker, I think Cloak of Fear does bring utility (to both me and the team) Up to 10 nearby enemies are having their ToHit debuffed. (The Fear portion is not nothing, but without stacking it strikes me as somewhat "meh") Up to 10 nearby enemies are being notified that the Tank is there, doing something... and maybe the Tank deserves some attention. For the former: The effect of ToHit debuffs are difficult to assess... but having used Seeker Drones, I can tell that it ain't nothing! For the latter: OMG this would be a terrible way to try to manage aggro... but running through some enemies, possibly giving them a tick of -ToHit, to get the Tanker to another spot from which to start doing real Tanker aggro management is a little useful. I'm not advocating that everyone should take it. As a point of discussion, I think that every power that is a toggle should get serious consideration if it pays dividends. I've built and played enough min-max characters that I am comfortable making build choices that other players may consider inferior.

I finally got around to the (post issue 5!) respecs of my Fortunata / Widow duo-form. Since they are two halves of the same character, I avoided all melee attacks on the Fortunata. I need to get some play time with them across more content before I post the builds. As I wrote briefly elsewhere, I modified each of them: Use the new Page 7 power(s) available (Pain Tolerance for the Widow, Fate Sealed for the Fortunata) Remove (at least) one attack from each Sacrifice set bonuses to add some %damage (especially for the Psi-heavy Fortunata) Long-time members may remember my deep fondness for the Presence pool. I kept this for the Fortunata, but for the Widow I wasn't quite able to leverage it... I wanted the "real" version of Placate! I swapped out Presence for Force of Will to get what I feel to be a more complimentary set of tools for a Night Widow. My immediate thoughts on the (currently unshared) builds: The Night Widow's performance is significantly better, for somewhat subtle reasons (Force of Will is a better force-multiplier than Presence) The Fortunata performs better against psi-resistant enemies, and is better at control (even though my build previously was control-heavy). The Fortunata runs incredibly hot... such that I have to pay even more attention to Endurance. (Positional) Defenses are slightly lower, but I haven't faced serious threats yet. The final point is a wall (chain-link fence?) that I still want to try to negotiate around via build choices. I had been leveraging set bonuses to address Endurance (and improve positional Defenses), the Fortunata took a big hit when I dropped attacks and leaned into %damage (and upped Global Recharge). Ultimately I may have to simply mash buttons less fastly.

The inherent Accuracy of Cloak of Fear is IMO highly problematic. I especially do not like that its very low base accuracy can shift all of my other AoE attacks into infrequent Streakbreaker territory. This was another contributing factor for me to delay it in my build; I didn't want to have to think about the Streakbreaker aspect when playing low (enough) level content! I think with the slotting I used (see above), plus Global Accuracy bonuses and the Kismet +ToHit piece (toggled on) the final Accuracy I end up with for Cloak of Fear should be north of 120%. I usually shoot for more than that, but I felt it was the best I could do with minimal slotting to get Accuracy, Endurance Reduction and one other effect (for me -ToHit).

Here is my revisited build, motivated to get KB protection up to 14 points. Sorry I don't MIDS. Tanker Primary Power Set: Dark Armor Secondary Power Set: Electrical Melee Power Pool: Experimentation Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Leadership Defenses could be improved by swapping out %damage in the attacks for (Superior Winter) sets. Folks who crave more S/L could swap into the Fitness pool. Slots could be shuffled around to improve +Defense from Maneuvers. It would be straightforward to add a single-target ranged attack (to include a Superior Winter's Bite set) but doing all these things would radically move away from my vision of the character.

I have the %Absorb piece elsewhere (this character has taken 4 of 5 Experimentation pool power). I believe that Power Transfer %Heal only will work if used (I added that to Stamina, an Auto power). The Preventive Maintenance %Absorb piece will trigger if included anywhere on the build as it is a global. My hand also includes more than one finger, and I have needed to rez at least once. I run my characters along the edge of a hot knife(*1), so when my teams' performance goes pear-shaped... it is usually really bad. I'll post my build later, and I know it won't satisfy most players who want to emphasize one or more different aspects, but it is fun for me. In the build I'll share, I certainly could add "one more" LotG Global +Recharge mule (but I don't really need it). The only other base-slot-only choice of a power that appeals to me(*2) is Focused Accuracy (Energy Master)... because this Tanker build doesn't have any Epic pools taken I could drop it in... but then Focused Accuracy would be one more toggle on an already toggle-heavy Tanker, even though it would be an excellent choice. I rationalize not taking the obvious benefits of Focused Accuracy by making other build choices to (partially) mitigate not having that late-game toggle via use of the Kismet +ToHit piece and getting Global +Accuracy bonuses from enhancement sets. I can't really mitigate -ToHit but if I wanted more global Perception I could make a trivial change to existing slotting and include the Rectified Reticle global piece (in Build Up). (*1) My build doesn't include the Fighting pool, and dedicates slots almost entirely to the Secondary and Primary powers... so no reaching for the "defense caps" via Tough/Weave or investing more slots in Maneuvers. (*2) My build has an AoE utility/attack at level 22 from Corrosive Vial, which consumes slots that might otherwise go to a first epic/patron power at level 35. I mention this because when *I* want some sort of "extra AoE" attack that would otherwise from an epic/patron pool, I almost always decide I'd rather have something similar much sooner than level 35. YMMV. My build has (at least!) one other peculiar choice that I made strictly for Quality-of-Life: I have both Speed of Sound (at level 6, primary travel power) and Super Jump (at level 26, holding the Winter's Gift Slow Resistance piece). I find Speed of Sound to be fine, up until the character using it jumps... at which point the travel speed becomes terrible... and there are enough things to jump over/around that it really bothers me. This build allowed me to slot in Super Jump with the only sacrifice being delaying one of three "self-help" powers (Adrenal Booster, Build Up or Cloak of Fear).