tidge

I don't go out of my way to slot powers for -ToHit, unless I can get some -ToHit boosts from pieces I otherwise want... so Accuracy/-ToHit, or Endurance/-ToHit. Often I do this with Hami-O/D-Syncs on a 'final build'. The exception is that I occasionally use the 4xCloud Senses set for the set bonuses (even though that set "caps" at level 30) Why do I not slot for -ToHit? Generally, the power has to hit the enemy first... so it is has a base reliability of whatever its ToHit chance is, and Then the enemy has to be affected by the debuff, and Any effected enemy has to "stick around" long enough that the -ToHit is interfering with the enemy's ability to make with the combat, and The enhancement of any -ToHit has to be worth it more than using that slot for something else (%damage) or somewhere else in the build. I find that -ToHit is most reliable when it comes from AoE and also supports characters that would take a relatively long time to clear a large spawn. Some (Dark) pets are relatively slow at defeating enemies, and appear with ATs that can also be slow to clear large spawns... so -ToHit is almost certainly making those types more able to survive being swamped.

The situation described in the OP reads as one of the worst stories of Yin Mayhem, specifically: I don't mind a "reckless Yin", but the Hostages (and later Council Members and Raid Leaders) are the mission objectives. As much as I can enjoy significant amounts of aggro in the Yin TF, there really is no excuse IMO for a teammate to be "running ahead" while there is still a mission objective to be achieved. The Mission Tooltip (and dialogue) let everyone know when a specific mission objective has been completed, so even the most locked button mashers should know, including if there are Freakshow rezzes in play. I'm less inclined to agree with the sentiment in: On every Yin TF I play, I have a very good sense if the Team can handle a quick respawn. Maybe not every player on a well-performing can handle it... but by the point we reach the reactor room I have watched how the various ATs have been playing, and how they are leveraging their powers and positioning. If squishies are being sloppy with AoE... yeah, maybe we shouldn't quickly reinvite Clamor to the party. If we've got some well-performing players leveraging controls against the Bosses... we can probably handle Clamor. I have come to believe that there is a significant fraction of players who don't realize that Clamor applies Radiation Infection. The player that gets hit with that toggle, really needs to make sure they aren't dooming the rest of their squad via their positioning. Of the two spawns prior to Clamor's reappearance, I think the one in the Reactor room is the more problematic, because that spawn will scatter (fliers, rezzes). The Hallway spawn has to make a rather restricted path that has a couple of choke points... a single player can tie them up... I prefer to use the "cooling belt" room, some players think the "vestibule" is better.

I will take the Epic pools on Blasters, but almost always to get an "armor" and/or get powers for Enhancement mules. I like to have my Blasters "mostly done" with the keye power choices by the level those sets become available. The exceptions have been: Fire Mastery, because getting Rise of the Phoenix means I can pretty much play as crazy as I want, plus Melt Armor Arsenal Mastery, for Blasters already using some sort of rifle... the powers mesh well with the rifle sets IMO.

I don't use MIDS, sorry. For Blasters, I usually 6xslot both ATO sets, although sometimes I will split the Defiant Barrage. Other powers usually get 5xsets, because the Blaster damage scales are excellent. For the non-nuke AoE, If I can get decent set bonuses elsewhere, I often lean into %damage pieces (but I like 6xAnnihilation) if the inherent damage is low/middling and I can get off-type damage. I typically support the %damage attacks with Accuracy/End or Accuracy/Range choices. I would not try to slot KB->KD, except possibly in Nova, because it is a PBAoE. If you go Force Mastery, I would only plan on Temp Invulnerability being used. I tried Force Bomb, but I didn't like it... especially for a late choice Blaster attack. BY the time I can take damaging attacks from Epic/patron pools, I would rather have my attack chain(s) complete. I wouldn't fault you for trying Force Bomb for concept. I believe it has been since modified such that it should only do Knockdown on even-level critters.

I have no personal experience with Hibernate, but I have a vague recollection that once upon a time there were some concerns about its use in PVP. The Concern may have been about griefing for all I know.

I like the concept, and the chosen primary/secondary. The primary challenge I see is that you will have to make a choice about how many/which attacks you want to take, and a second challenge will be when to take the powers you want. I think I would try to supplement the concept with the Sorcery pool, and eventually the Fire Mastery epic (for Rise of the Phoenix) because I think that fits the concept... but Force Mastery offers some potential for mules you may need. My quickie idea is: 1 Ki Push 1 Power Bolt 2 Energy Torrent (eventually %damage) 4 Reach for the Limit 6 Mystic Flight 8 Sniper Blast (usually I delay this, but level restrictions are coming into play) 10 Burst of Speed (you will want this for Melee followups to KB attacks) 12 Aim (often I delay this, see note below) 14 Enflame (or Spirit Ward) 16 Dragon's Tail (eventually %damage) 18 "dealer's choice" 20 Reaction Time 22 Explosive Blast (eventually %damage) 24 Inner Will 26 Nova 28 Rune of Protection (mules for resistance pieces) 30 Eagle's Claw 32 "dealer's choice" 35 Bonfire (because I don't like single-target holds on Blasters) 38 Fire Shield 41 Melt Armor 44 Rise of the Phoenix 47 "dealer's choice" 49 "dealer's choice" The "dealer's choice" is where I would look for power pool choices that offer (Defensive Enhancement) mule opportunities. Rune of Protection is an easy choice for Blasters, so I'd be tempted to take the low-endurance Combat Jumping at 18, which can hold the Kismet +ToHit piece (which will boost the damage of Fast Snipes, and generally help Accuracies). The Concealment pool offers plenty of powers to slot LotG +Recharge pieces. With some purple set bonuses you shouldn't actually need to many of them. I almost never take Hasten, but many people prefer it. I'd probably put it in at 32 if I was force to take it. Note on Aim: I penciled it in at the earliest available level, often I delay it because I can usually find a power that helps the build sooner than an Aim/Build Up power. I'd probably delay Aim to level 18 for this combination if I had a power I could take at 12 instead.

So now that I have my SR/MA Tank at 50, what is the thinking on Alpha Abilities? My default choice for Melee (and other DPS) is Musculature, but I'm wondering if Cardiac (as I have some Ranged attacks) or Resilient. Does a Resistance boost (from Alpha) do anything for SR?

FWIW: Group Fly offers unique problems for henchmen pathing. Occasionally henchmen will stop where they are when Group Fly is toggled off, and refuse to move unless you retoggle the power back on, and then force them to move (usually by moving yourself and commanding it to follow). Sometimes henchmen get 'stuck' when under Group Fly, and require it to be deactivated for them to free themselves.

Occasionally, when I am standing within 10 feet of a GM/AV and find myself resummonning henchmen, I wonder if this is what people are doing before they complain about squishy henchmen.

Personally: Defense, for the MM and the Henchmen, then Resistance, but aside from slotting choices, I don't go out of my way to grant henchmen more resistance, and I don't like actively trying to heal henchmen. If the primary contains a mechanism for the henchmen to heal themselves, or the primary/secondary contains some sort of AoE heal that I'd be casting anyway... sure that's a thing. But otherwise the henchmen are there to serve the MM, not the other way around. I find that if I get too focused on the henchmen, and not the enemy, I have taken my eyes off the ball. Once I have the first two covered, and even if there isn't a great quasi-passive heal, I can still occasionally drag green inspirations onto the henchmen, or use team insps.

I don't do MIDS, but I'll include my level 50 build for comparison in text format. I tried to pay attention to the different ranges of the different attacks, and slot them such that they were closer to each other than they would be without the specialize slotting. This combo doesn't lend itself to being in melee range, nor does it have a reason to be in melee range, so it made sense to me to take this approach. Archery/Tactical Arrow is one of those combinations that offers a lot of opportunities for Enhancement slotting for both %damage and set bonuses. There are a lot of choices.

I felt that the inherent damage wasn't worth enhancing as much as the Mag 4 immobilize, especially with the "front-loaded" %damage, YMMV. Purples can of course be boosted and keep their set bonuses "all the way down". The Bombardment 2-piece global set bonus (5% range, IIRC) is one of those things that looks good on paper, but in practice I end up caring less about it unless: I am playing a character that has multiple ranged attacks, and I can get those ranged attacks reasonably close to each other in range through my typical sort of slotting choices. If the character doesn't have enough ranged attacks, I ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and just pick a different bonus (if I pick one at all). If the character has attacks with all sorts of different ranges (usually because the is a mix of cones and single-target attacks) I don't like a global increase in range so much because it increases the difference between the ranges for the different attacks. I'll often slot cones with a range boost to try to even out the range-to-targets.

I went with this slotting for Carrion Creepers (on a Dominator) (A) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5 (*) Bombardment - Chance of Damage (Fire) (*) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage (Energy) (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance of Damage (Ice) (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal)

I agree with the above more than I disagree, however I don't think 'stealthing missions' is completely useless. It is true that I usually don't care if enemies see me or not, but I can think of lots of times when I've just wanted to get to a part of a map unmolested.

@The Volt has identified the symbol, I believe it is used for all the "Build Up" type effects (some powers that can trigger a build up via use, also powers with %proc pieces, etc.) It also shows up in the Pet window's icons if the henchmen/pets have a way to trigger the effect on themselves.

Laura Lockhart (Blue, Steel Canyon) offers a mission with junk minions, the only real challenge is to not run out of endurance and die from boredom. To an extent The Honoree room in Mender Ramiel's arc has a mission with mass spawns. Incarnates can run their own +3 against enemies of -1 in all sorts of missions. I don't see any TPKs and precious little enjoyment coming from this... but hey, design something in AE and I'll give it a try.

I do not recommend MMs take the Presence pool, even for Provoke. Provoke has a max target cap of 5, and requires a ToHit roll. Most MM AoE attacks have a larger maximum number of targets... if you want the attention of critters, just use a properly-slotted AoE attack to get the attention of the critters. Any of the ranged AoEs can be slotted with a %-Resistance piece, or a Knockdown piece as well.

I am having trouble understanding why we are spitballing changes to the game on the basis of a minority (possibly unique) experience of a relatively new (or simply uninformed) player's in-game choices.

I just finished getting a SR/MA Tanker to 50. I don't have the build in a share-able format, but I wanted to share that I found myself looking at a couple of "extra" slots, trying to decide what do do with them "defensively"... and I found my thinking somewhat aligned with the advice @Infinitum gave. My own circumstances and hot takes follow: I took Boxing / Tough / Weave as the final three powers in the build, even while leveling up FWIW. I mention this only because I wasn't "missing not having" them as mules. Tough is the only Resistance mule in the build. Without Weave, and not counting any effects from Storm Kick, I am above the non-incarnate Defensive "soft cap" on all positional defenses... without a heavy investment in defensive slots or boosters or HOs. Other build choices have ok Resistance numbers at 100% Health (for a non-resistance Tanker, IMO)... obviously these get better with Scaling Resistances. Other build choices gives the build a healthy amount of Regeneration, on top of the typical +HP choices for Tankers. The build includes Unleash Potential (at level 32, not perma of course, slotted with 6xPreventive Maintenance) I decided to not worry about toggling on Tough (although I did put 2xUnbreakable Guard in it for Endurance help), because I felt like any content where I was desperate for more S/L Resistance (beyond the base values of Tough), I would probably want more Defenses (from Weave)... because Cimerora. Of the two "floating" slots I felt had, one became a second slot in Weave (more Defense, a small LotG Regen boost), the other became a 5th slot in Tough (the Aegis Unique). I almost feel like...if I could rely on Storm Kick... I could swap out Weave (at 49) for Manuevers (at the same level), but with Weave on (and no other effects in play) the positional defenses are Melee = 60.21%, Ranged = 53.15% and AoE = 56.86%... so if I was going to make that choice I would almost certainly rethink one other power choice freeing up some slots for shuffling among several other powers, at the cost of a favored set bonus.

This sort of thinking (apply game effects based on a primary choice that affect other player's primary choices etc.) definitely feels like a peculiar spiral that the game doesn't exactly need.... This strikes me as a "big squeeze, little juice" situation.

IIRC, those missions, once selected, will have a "book" icon next to them. Most of the mission arcs are named (with bold text) when talking to a contact prior to selecting them.