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He does have all the new attacks when encountered in the Blue side missions.

Occam's razor: there are quite a LOT of "Visit Ms. Liberty in Atlas Park" missions in arcs; some of them would be guaranteed to get messed up by moving/replacing her.

IMO: The number one way to increase the damage out of henchmen is be applying (AoE) debuffs to the enemies. Tar Patch is aces for that, although the recharge time on it, even with leveraging every trick possible to reduce it, is still not going to have it be available enough to see much of an improvement. I suggest slotting the Annihilation %-Res in as many powers as possible, and use those powers. This is an AoE, so you don't have to worry too much about which target is getting the %debuff. Photon Grenade (from Robotics), Nightfall / Soul Tentacles from Mu, you should be getting the picture. The piece won't self-stack, but it will extend the duration of the -Resistance if it is reapplied. No need to try to %damage proc-bomb, just slot 5 or 6 of the Annihilation set, or use the %-Res piece as the 6th slot behind another set's 5-bonus. With Dark secondary, you can "cheat" and put some of the Global pieces that otherwise have to go into the henchmen into Dark Servant. Personally, I wouldn't go to hard into single-target controls for a Mastermind, so even though I like to include a single H-O Accuracy/Control in Dark Servant (behind 4x Expedient Reinforcement) I'd take a good look if I could get away without it (for MMs). You will have Maintenance Drone as an incredibly reliable henchman heal, so I wouldn't sweat the healing that dark brings, YMMV. I wouldn't put any KB->KD pieces in any of the robotic henchmen. They will still do KB on some attacks, and against lower-level critters, but that is a waste of a slot IMO. They will be doing enough "knockdown" that you will barely notice you haven't slotted it. That thinking is a leftover need... it does something, but it does very little of it.

AFAIK, the listing price will default to the last listing price, no matter the object. As for the en masse moving: "automatic" things tend not to happen without verification prompt (which in some cases can be disabled), so this sounds like a request for something personal that would very likely add a lot of grief to others.

Prismatic Aethers are a gate, but they are a gate for a cosmetic effect. They are not that difficult to come by (directly or indirectly) and unless a player commits to using them, they are going to accumulate. I've got one character that has well over 1500 self-earned Aether particles, and that character has also acted as the Aether-piggy-bank for any new characters that wanted to start early with a specific costume or effect. A note about "faming" Aethers: Prismatic Aethers are in some ways the "anti-XP" reward, as they drop from completed missions, whereas XP and Inf drops from defeating critters inside a mission. Completing missions faster improves the haul of Aethers.

As I wrote above: The biggest across-the-board change to the zone Giant Monsters (and I don't think all of them changed, or some didn't change much, aside from reward scheme *1) is that they survive fights longer, and in some cases got an upgraded attack (usually with a long recharge time). Specific to Adamastor, because it takes more damage to defeat, it gets more opportunities to hit back... and now it's got some harder hitting attacks, plus a self-heal. That is it. The way RNG works, and the way ToHit works means that it is very likely that Adamastor will hit somebody after enough attacks... so somebody needs to be able to hold its attention and be able to survive its attack. This is a classic "Tanker" job, but because of the self heal (IIRC starts at 50% Health, then its on something like a 60 second timer) the "Tanker" can't stand toe-to-toe with the GM without risking it healing back up. So yeah, strategy. Also specific to Adamastor: there was some player-generated grief specific to it, related to camping, that you should know was a thing. Of all the Giant Monsters, it offers some the best rewards, although they are time-locked. (*1) Babbage is as much of a punching bag as ever. If feels like Scrapyard only got more health. I didn't notice anything different about Goliath War Walker, Caleb or Deathsurge, and I am skeptical that the Kronos Titan got any changes made to it, as it isn't a standard zone monster.

I looked at the posted build, and at some of my Blasters... I'll make some comments on different choices, but I'm not implying anything is wrong. I like your approach to Inner Will, but I have 2 slots of Heal/Recharge (from a D-Sync) and I keep that power on auto. I have the %Absorb piece elsewhere. I slot Reaction Time with 2x Health 50+5, a Power Transfer %Heal and a 50+5 Power Transfer EndMod. I see what you are going for. I split the Blaster's Wrath into two 3-slots, with one half of them in Burst of Speed. If you haven't noticed yet: %damage goes up as slotted accuracy (in the power) goes up. You have a few %damage choices that I think more slotted Accuracy could help. Global (player) bonuses to Accuracy and ToHit don't help the %procs, which also need a ToHit roll, in addition to the first ToHit from the attack and the %proc roll. I have a few more comments about %damage... My experience has been that the reason to add %damage to a build is to reduce the number of attacks a character has to make to clear a spawn. For this reason I prefer %damage in AoE over single target attacks. %damage is inherently unreliable, so (potentially) applying it to multiple critters at the same time is the way to get some critters not being targeted to the point where they will be eliminated (or close to it) by the time you actually do target them. A bunch of single targets that needs two (single target) attacks to defeat requires more attacks than a bunch that will (eventually) only need one (single target) attack to defeat. With that written above; I find that Blasters' high inherent baseline damage rarely get true utility from non-set %damage. Blasters can also get some nice 5/6-piece set bonuses (as seen in the build above), but I try to get a single-target attack close to max damage and only consider a %damage if it's going to be very reliable. I skipped Storm Kick, it looks like a poor choice for %damage slotting. Blasters, because they have access to so many different sets that offer great bonuses, can choose to add %damage to power they are going to use anyway that don't otherwise do great damage (like Burst of Speed). It looks like you have a pretty good balance with %damage choices, but I recommend doing some testing (use unslotters) and check logs to see how the choices you have made a re working out.

This feels like an incredibly infrequent issue that is asking for a revision to part of the code that is extra-spaghetti for extremely limited payoff. I can think of numerous work-arounds (for the player); the simplest is to not be trying to keep storage item windows open.

The major functional changes to Adamastor are IIRC (and if anyone wants to link to the details, please do! I can't seem to find the notes): It is a little bit tougher (resistance, health) than previously It has improved attacks, but nothing too crazy, except for It has a PBAoE self-heal, so standing in PBAoE range once it starts its Soul Drain is a bad idea. Adamastor is one of the better GM revamps IMO. Some of the GMs have the most noticeable change that they appear to simply have been given more/stronger Resistances and more Health, so they've become more of a slog. Paladin has a clever trick for Endurance Drain/Damage, and Eochai is a flat out jerk now that it learned the player's trick for Bonfire slotting.

BEGONE! is one of those effects where Adamastor has to hit when it uses the attack, so I can easily believe it would have been hard to notice this. As an aside: there are some pretty weird game engine effects with knockback (and/or repel), so I don't recommend adding it willy-nilly without testing. Specifically, Mastermind Henchmen. What I've observed with (Robotic) Henchmen is that certain Giant Monsters that do Knockback (and/or Repel?) can put the henchmen into a sort of "locked in place" position, usually in a ragdoll pose, where they won't move or respond to commands, and the also can't be summoned by Assemble the Team. (Usually a henchman acts this way when it is trying to resolve an animation or power). The easiest way to replicated this is with a Halloween event (old school) Eochai, and have Group Fly toggled on. Group Fly doesn't need to be used, but I think it increases the possibility for "vectoring" resolution of knockback/repel paths; it is far less common if the henchmen are all on the ground. If Eochai gets off one of those KB attacks (I think it has an auto-hit power) some of the henchmen are likely to end up in this peculiar state. FWIW, nuEochai's Pumpkin Patch doesn't seem to do this.

IIRC, there were occasions in the past when Kronos Titan's were added to the pile, as well as before the event. I want to say that as part of the event where Kronos Titans were added to the pile there was an actual GM (not Giant Monster) that also handed out temporary badges. Players can certainly go out of their way to spawn Kronos Titan's, but let's not forget that during Hallowe'en there is going to also be a holiday giant monster somewhere in the zone.(*1) My point? This is a thing that has evolved, in an open-world zone, so reaching for absolutes is not possible. (*1) I've simultaneously had a Jack in Irons and a Kraken fighting within feet of each other. I didn't see them showing any interest in each other, although it was hard to tell if the Kraken was doing ancillary damage to the level-less Red Hat spawns, because it looked like they would occasionally go flying after a foot stomp... but I was using quite a lot of KB attacks too.

For my rig, the issues with lag really started with the release of the Storm sets, especially when those were the "new hotness". It is noticeable for me on the SNS, Mothership Raids, and the Mapserver Leagues. I'm positive that Storm also affects PI trick-or-treating, for the following reason: I can take my Storm/Storm character solo in PI during off-peak times (so few people in the zone), and get mobiles from the TRICK to continually exit/re-exit/re-re-exit from a door without ever being able to make an attack or cast a power. Geometry collision is certainly part of the problem, but when a ToT Elite Boss can't exist long enough to target me (or vice versa), I think that is indistinguishable from what a player would describe as "lag". EDIT: I want to add that this game result is not affect by my rig's graphics setting. The /noparticles shouldn't be doing anything about what the game engine is trying to resolve, with respect to mobile behavior.

Definitely looks like something approaching an 8:3:1 weighting. (or if you prefer 2/2/2/2 : 1/1/1 : 0.5/0.5) I like that this data appears to show a couple of things that I strongly suspect about the pseudo-RNG: The pseudo-RNG populates the result space flatly between the end-points of its result space. (A true random number generator wouldn't have such even-looking results) The pseudo-RNG very likely has a slight, but observable bias at the end-points of its result space. The second point is confounded because I don't actually know what the probability endpoints are. This is, is the range inclusive of 0 <-> 1, or does one/both of those endpoints actually "close but not exactly 0 or 1". From this one study, I would lay odds that Liberates are a result at one end of the probability space and that Furious Rages are at the other. This is a relatively small sample size so there isn't a lot of power to back it up, but I think the confidence in that result is pretty high. I can think of a couple reasons why this would happen: The probability space isn't inclusive of one end, but is inclusive of the opposite end. There is a subtle theoretical under-pinning of the RNG relating to scale-invariance (I propose this partially because of a scale-invariate priors treat zero, but IIRC there are other subtle factors with prior choices that manifest at endpoints)

Good point about Fusionette and Jim Tremblor. I have always felt that the villain-side arcs involving the Vindicators makes them feel a little more engaged, at least to me.

As with @Riverdusk, it's been years since I ran my own tests against AVs and GMs with both Diamagnetic and Degenerative. For solo: I found that Degenerative was the better choice, mostly because dropping the MaxHP also affects regeneration, and so stacking other sources of regeneration becomes easier (e.g. Envenomed Daggers) from other (non-Incarnate) sources than trying to add a non-incarnate way to stack -MaxHP. Scrappers are likely to pop out Lores for AV/GM solo fights, and -MaxHP is (in my experience) better for all fights leveraging pets/henchmen/summons. Core Flawless is probably the way to go for scrappers. Specific to Masterminds, I usually always go Radial Flawless. The multiple henchmen (and the MM) can usually keep up the lower %proc chance on an AV or GM, and the higher %Damage-over-Time is for the scrubs at x8.

Lots of good stuff, but especially: From a Lore PoV, it absolutely should be Blue Steel giving the (current Synapse) Clockwork King TF, even with the "what is this weird science?" aspect to it. IIRC the only time we get a feel for Blue Steel is in a single Dark Astoria mission.

I want to offer mega-kudos for both the initial idea, the execution of the proof-of-concept, and the patience to have kept up SNS as a thing for so long. I love playing on fun leagues, I've loved the SNS. The memories of Don Knotts will always be with us! I do want to write this: The event stopped being fun for me once it became an effort to coordinate more than a league's worth of Babbage spawns. To be clear: players form the same league dropping out to get "private Babbages" never really impacted my fun, because those folks are all pretty much on the same "same clock", and getting something like as many as an extra six didn't turn the event into a slog (at least for me, MMV). Writing only for myself, the event isn't any less fun with "only six" simultaneous Babbages. Now that we've continually demonstrated that we players can spawn enormous numbers of Babbages, and we all have lots of screenshots, I don't understand why we have to make a coordinated effort among multiple leagues, unless the point is literally to flood the zone with Giant Monster and players, which we know causes lag and invites hard feelings.

Adamastor can BEGONE! Acid Mortars, which have a 100 point KB protection, IIRC.

RIP Lord British.

There are no hard-and-fast rules about multi-boxing in the open world, except for the usual rules based on server load. I do think that if any of the powers-that-be were to look at the rationale(s) for restricting multiboxing for reasons other than server load, they'd realize that multi-boxing Giant Monster murder is not very far down a slippery slope. Personally I fear that TPTB are going to end up restricting Giant Monster rewards on a timer, which would probably drive more players to multi-box giant monsters, because of the 2x or 3x the (hypothetically) time-limited rewards.

I suspect that the confusion about "only on cast" might have come about from powers that end up targeting immediately (such as Caltrops) and also have a 'tick' (which has poor %proc chances because of the extremely short recharge times of the "ticks".) In other words: It can be really obvious for those sorts of powers on cast to see a %proc but it would be relatively unlikely to find the %proc for any of the subsequent tics.

I could try to do some testing. I had slotted it because of the Recharge component even if the proc didn't fire. EDIT: After testing, it fires with the Volcanic Geyser component (as did the other Hold %pieces)

A friendly reminder: Villains can face the Freedom Phalanx at the end of "Who Will Die?" SSA mission #1, provided that you stick around for them to come and check on Synapse.

Disclaimer: I was not present for the Torchbearer SNS in question. Perhaps some (uninformed?) players may have been under the impression that something about the Kronos Titan was causing an issue, maybe because of the specific attacks? There are (precious few) enemy mobiles that can attack and damage each other. AFAIK Babbages/Clockwork and Kronos/Malta are not among them. Other players may be working from a different premise, thinking the Kronos was kill-stealing/scaring the Babbages? There could have been an undercurrent of "Stop (whatever) and listen to Kali!" that got translated (internally, to some players) that "Anybody being public with [Broadcast] advice that runs counter to what the league wants is wrong, and deserves shunning"... there are some folks that aren't real good about filtering, and it is possible that some folks turned their own (inward-directed?) annoyance and waiting around for the "Go Go Go" signal that they turned those bad feelings outward. If I hang out in Skyway before 8pm Eastern, it isn't uncommon to see folks being a little snippy before the leagues are even forming. I want to believe this is all in fun, but it is IMO silly to ask "Has SNS started?" when it is (a) 7:30pm Eastern and (b) it is trivial to see that the Hive is still full because of an ongoing Hamidon raid. It doesn't take much to get some folks to brigade. Hopefully the folks who took the sour approach will self-select themselves away from fun times.

I want to say that each of the %damage powers, when they trigger, trigger on one of the "hold" cycles. As near as I can tell, they work similarly to Poison Trap: The %+Absorb may fire upon cast, but the %damage require a target. Since there are no targets upon immediate cast of these powers, the ToHit check (and %proc check) happen upon trigger, and AFAIK it also requires the pseudopet to not vanish to work; Seeker Drones are one of those pseudo pets that appear to never do %damage. I can't swear that I saw the %Psi, but I know I saw the other %damage when the Hold power activated, per the logs.