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/agree that Robots/FF Mastermind is not how I would roll. I can see the appeal, but the contributions from /Force Field strike me as being completely unnecessary for the survival of the henchmen and will do very little to improve map clear times. On a Defender, I went FF/Beam. I found Force Fields to be a primary I didn't need to take many powers from early (if ever), allowing me to pick up more of the secondary attacks... and of course FF has some decent mules for whenever you want them. The -Res from Repulsion Bolt is a nice enough attack and feels like it pairs with the DoT effects,; Dispersion Bubble is the toggle I used to hold the Kismet piece.

There are a large number of bids sitting at 20,002 Inf. I suppose it doesn't matter if it is a single player or a group of players... I've observed exactly what @Necrophidian described. When the sales price is above 20,002 I am assuming that is 'impatient' buyers working explicitly against the bolus of those bids at 20,002. I am also assuming that some fraction of the 100k+ outstanding bids are other players who put it lower bids... and I half-suspect that the goofball with the 20,002 Inf bids also has a bunch of similarly inflated, but slightly lower bids as well. The real mystery is why anyone would go through the bother... I understand that the common::uncommon drop rates are greater than 4::1, and that uncommons are necessary for crafting all of the desirable (uncommon, rare, PVP, Superior) recipes... and I can believe that changes in farming habits can be responsible for a smaller supply... it simply seems impractical to try to make inf while strangling the supply of uncommon salvage (intentionally or otherwise). Just keeping all those buy bids in play implies that the person(s) responsible are grinding in an unrewarding way.

A late followup: I agree that Electrified Net Arrow (with or without a targeting macro) isn't necessary for igniting an Oil Slick... this is more of a casual addition because I was investing in the Electrified Net Arrow anyway. In general, I tend to skip single-target immobilizes and holds on non-control ATs, but since this character was going to take the early immobilize, I wanted it to have the matching range and some improved immobilization duration and figured I may as well include a quicky macro for hitting any Oil Slick that exists. As I wrote above... I'm generally skipping the single-target immobs and holds because Enemies that I want to immobilize generally resist slows and immobilizes anyway (those critters that like to run, think Warwolves) Single-target holds can be a reasonable source of %damage, but often feel like they are a waste of slots compared to what else I could do with the slots. (because "single target") The times when I take those single-target powers tend to be when: The powers offer a synergy with other powers in the build There is a control I want to increase the magnitude of It is a low-DPS AT and I feel like leveraging the ST attack into some %damage (investing in Accuracy as well as %damage of course) It is an power that will hold ATO pieces for enhancement set bonuses (because I'm making other slotting choices elsewhere in the build) I wrote out all of the above because in my build above I kind-of miss not having the ST-hold Ice Arrow as one of the "tactical" options (for thematic purposes)! I simply can't justify (to myself) taking Ice Arrow in place of any other power in my build, or dedicating enough slots to it to improve it enough to be a worthwhile addition. As an early-choice power a ST-hold is less important than just doing damage (for a DPS character), and %damage slotting strikes me as a waste of slots. As a late-choice power, I think it a hold be far less useful than immobs (for single hard targets) and I wouldn't need another ST damage attack in later levels.

Are you certain the Winter Lord had not already spawned? My own experiences from past years have been: After defeating the Winter Lord (and adjacent minions), after opening about 130 presents (and defeating the naughty spawns) is when the WL will respawn. I did this with multiple characters in a zone that had no observed other player presence (via /whoall).

File this under "Things I wish I knew how to do, that are probably no interest to anyone else"... I have a very limited number of cases when I would desperately want a power in a popup tray... And yet no matter how limited those cases when I want it... I WANT IT. I could kinda do what I want with a bind, but here is specifically the circumstances: I have a Traps character with many powers from the Flight pool... I feel like if I had a single button in the Afterburner popup tray that had the effect of detoggling ALL the Flight powers (I think Walk might do this) allowing me to hit the floor for all summonses, things would be copacetic.

My old thoughts on a Synapse TF rewrite is inspired by the Penny Yin TF. Minimally...Have an instanced outdoor mission with objectives in place of some of the defeat alls and patrols. I've also long thought that the Clockwork King would have a slightly better (and geeky) set of (elite) bosses that were necessary to defeat... Something inspired by chess pieces. The CK has an interesting backstory, I wouldn't mind if Blue Steel ended up in a rewrite.

Now I am curious: what are the rest of the people in the zone supposed to do with the $loc info? Are they supposed to have a keybind of some sort to use the location info and set the minimap?

The two issues I encounter with getting a Shivan from Bloody Bay are: As mentioned, doing enough damage quickly enough to defeat all the turrets. Wearing them all down (but not defeating) and then defeating them rapidly works well even for low DPS characters. Sometimes I don't have a travel power in Bloody Bay. The temp powers for purchase in the PVP zones don't last all that long.

Ignoring the Babbage, Synapse TF is relatively quick and easy to solo... If the spawn size has not been turned up. If the character doesn't have DPS for the CK, any single temp summons (e.g. a Shivan) ought to be sufficient. I've done exactly that with Controllers. I grok the monotony complaints, but this TF is not the worst offender... And the rewards are pretty good for the investment in time.

Jessme Ritin': I find it easier to click on the leaguemate's name and "follow" then it is to mess around with $loc.

The build is fun, even if I have 'hang back'. I don't often use Bonfire, but when I remember to use it I find I want it! It is practically just a stepping stone to get RotP.

I think you may find that the lower target caps from Sentinels ends up bothering you more than whatever might by bothersome about Blaster primary/secondary combos. If face-planting is a really bothersome issue, the Epic Flame pool offers Rise of the Phoenix after several other good power picks. FWIW: Even though I have melee (and PBAoE) attacks on my Dark/ Blaster, that character almost exclusively makes ranged attacks. I find Dark to be one of the slower Blaster primaries... partly due to the DoT... and partly because of knockback/knockdown... and partly due to the way RNG tends to let some fraction of mobs get close while others are scattered or immobilized. I suspect if I was playing a Dark Sentinel I would find myself wanting some Melee attacks (because of lower AoE caps) I like Blapping, but on fast PUG teams, the teammates may not even realize if a Blaster is using melee attacks.

I had never played any of the Archery/Arrow sets; this post includes my final (level 50) build. I realize that this isn't a shockingly original combination. I'm putting it out in the wild on the chance that there may be elements that could be leveraged by other players. Some up-front talking points: 1) I typically like to have Blasters who can Melee... this is NOT that type of Blaster. This may be the most "ranged only" character in my lineup. 2) I realize this is an "expensive" build based on slotting. In reality, aside from investing in the ATO and Winter Pieces early in the build (for me, via merits) burning up a lot of Catalysts (after the level 50 respec) I happened to have a LOT of stuff lying around the SG base that went into it. This won't help anyone else, I simply felt like making a comment about how storing drops from other characters can make some builds much more affordable. 3) In attacks: this build leverages both straight-up enhancement for set bonuses and %damage from procs. I know that both types of attack slotting have proponents. This build felt a little weird to me because I usually don't have so many of each type of attack. I think this was a side effect of not having melee/PBAoE 'attacks'. 4) I did try to get all of the ranged attacks to have roughly the same range. I felt this was most important to increase the ranges for Glue Arrow and Electrified Net Arrow, I had a single slot left over that went into Fistful of Arrows just because. 5) I think the build could have better Defenses; this simply wasn't that important to me. This is built for fun more than survival. Even without the level 50 choices, this build was handling even-level x8 content solo relatively early in the play-up. 6) The travel power is Infiltration. Between Infiltration, a Stealth global in Sprint, and Flash Arrow this build doesn't care about too much in the way of being spotted while trying to sneak through areas. With the additional toggles and enhancement slotting, this isn't a painfully slow way to get around the city, but temp powers are needed for some navigation. I included some macros I use for this character.

My experience has been that I can't play Dual Pistols with the sound on, because the dog that is scared of fireworks goes into a panic.

It is possible to wear Statesman's costume (and his helmet) in a level 20-29 tip mission, as a Rogue in Paragon City (it's a "Hero" mission).

This explanation is precisely why I feel it is important to not confuse the difference between a global effect and a %proc effect when describing enhancement pieces. PVP pieces will always have their regular enhancement effects scale down (as other enhancements) and any set effects will be in play scaled down to lowest level the set could be slotted... that is: the set bonuses don't "drop out". However, their enhancement effects (e.g. Accuracy) won't scale above a specific level unless they are attuned, or are already at the highest level (50, which can be boosted by up to +5). Non-boosted PVP pieces below 50 may as well be attuned, I wouldn't consider boosting any PVP piece in the level range 45-49. Purple (very rare) sets behave just like PVP (enhancement effects, set bonuses), except they can only be slotted by a character at 50... and since they can be boosted, it makes no sense to attuned those. ATOs and Event pieces can't be boosted as they always come attuned, but they can be made "Superior". When I won't be getting a set bonus, or the set bonus is one I don't particularly rely on, I will almost always slot an enhancement piece at its highest possible level and boost it (assuming the piece can be boosted). This is less important where "diminishing returns" from Enhancement Diversification comes into play, but this thinking usually comes into play where that is not an issue for the given power.

I never went back to MMO. I did a lot of 4X (Civ, Galactic Civ) and did quite a bit of immersion into/replays of Deus Ex. Also lots and lots of pub trivia.

I thought I'd post this in a not-too-old thread... lots of testing has shown that slotting Endurance Reduction in the primary Robotics' Upgrade Robot doesn't do anything for the henchmen (unlike some other primaries) but a while back I realized I could make a slight compromise in my T2 henchmen slotting to replace the straight Defense Buff IO with a Defense/Endurance piece. I use a Hami-O at level 53, but a 50+5 boosted Defense/Endurance piece will do. I've been running this slotting for a while, and the slight loss of Defense hasn't been noticeable. The Protector Bots were the henchmen that were usually running low on Endurance, this has pretty much made it so they are not even close to approaching empty for most of the content I play. There was another slight change I made, to pull out the LoTG piece and instead give the T2 a little more Accuracy/Damage slotting via Call to Arms. I wanted a little more Recovery, but if Endurance wasn't an issue I'd probably have replaced it with a boosted 50+5 piece from one of the other sets (and shuffled some of the unique pet globals, like Expedient Reinforcement from the T1). Level 12: Protector Bots (A) Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance (13) Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Endurance (13) Defense Buff IO -> HO Cytoskeleton 53 or Def/End 50+5 piece <- THIS WAS THE CHANGE (15) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed <- I also changed this to Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage (15) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets (17) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets

I also think the OP doesn't really want to play a Blaster. If the hangup is a long the lines of "must use mental powers at range and help a team", maybe a Fortunata is a better fit.

I can't comment (no experience with FF on a MM) except that the only reason I would choose the FF secondary would be to skip slotting the henchman/pet uniques in the Robotic henchmen. As a point of comparison, my Robotics/Traps with FFG MM has all the henchmen pretty well capped (defensively) to the point where I can see the MM himself way above all softcaps. When henchmen fall, it is rare I am replacing more than 1 at a time. I am sure that there is content where the FF secondary would be offering positive returns (compared to /traps) but I find the debuffing and extra aggro from Traps improves map clear times, and contribute positively to GM defeat times.

If I were to go Ninjas, my first choice of secondary would absolutely be Trick Arrow. The set's inherent debuffs look to be very powerful, and many of the ranged attacks could slot the Annihilation %-Res piece as well. I like having multiples of that %proc in MM AoEs, because increasing the duration of that debuff helps increase damage output from the henchmen.

Disclaimer: I don't use MIDS so my comments are more general than specific. I recommend Mules for LotG +Global recharge long before recommending Hasten... unless there is a specific, very long recharge power in the build that is intended to be always used. My thinking: MMs have a deep Endurance tax on their powers. Hasten will result in more casts of all powers for more -Endurance... even without considering the -Endurance hit at the end of Hasten. Chasing perma-Hasten is a little bit of a mental trap for some builds... I mean to say that slots and enhancement picks are directed more towards perma-Hasten instead of towards more survivability, offense, or simply Quality-of-Life. The henchmen resummons are now (on Homecoming) super-speedy with no concern for Recharge. Another side effect of Homecoming that really benefits MMs is the ability to pick higher tier powers sooner in a build. There are fewer obvious 'empty' power picks at low levels, so there are fewer opportunities to fill up a build with pool powers(*1)... unless of course the player delays her primary/secondary power picks. Hasten is nearly worthless (IMO, YMMV) as a low-level (pre-20) power pick since almost all powers available before this point have reasonably fast recharge times anyway. Even in final (50+) builds I find the relative ease of affording Very Rare sets to deeply affect the utility of Hasten on most builds. (*1) This is another reason why Provoke isn't so valuable in this era; all ATs can get have AoE attack by level 20, either from their primary, secondary, or pool.

I can't speak to either the primary or the secondary. My blunt recommendations would be: slot Hell on Earth with the global henchmen/pet defense pieces, to free up slots in the henchmen Don't put %damage piece in the henchmen, try to leverage set bonuses and Acc/End/Damage instead The %BuildUp Very Rare and Overwhelming Force Knockdown should probably go in the T1, since each hench can use them and the level shift hurts them I was disappointed with Sorcery on a Thugs MM. I want to say that I tried everything I could think of to leverage that pool and I found it to be a poor choice, except for mule powers. If the intent is to be active-ish with a pool... Experimentation offers a good (IMO, YMMV) travel power, an ally buff, a self buff, and the awesome Corrosive Vial (which should help henchmen). Pain is probably tricky... I generally regard MM secondaries to be the best when they are debuffing enemies. Keeping Henchmen "alive" is far less important to me than whittling down enemies faster. At low and mid-levels, it is important to keep the henchmen alive (so no judgement from me on that score), but in a more-complete build this is not what I focus on. EDIT: I also don't think Provoke is a good choice for MMs. I like the Presence pool... but Provoke requires a ToHit check and the max targets is only 5. Better IMO is to use an AoE attack to get aggro. from the same pool, Invoke Panic has a target cap two times larger!

"Can I interest you in the exciting world of Day jobs?"

I was an initial backer of the City of Titans... for most of the sentimental reasons that have been written. Also like others have written: I long ago gave up on the project. I've never installed a single piece of software that was offered as part of my initial Kickstarter pledge. In my case it was less about the slow pace of progress, it was that the early focus seemed to be entirely on the graphics... especially the costume options... and trying to make a highly detail (graphics-wise) world. I specifically remember reading in one of the updates how the dev team was trying to adapt true (Planet Earth) surface scans into terrain features for the game world. This struck me(*1) as a blatant time-sink... especially (IIRC) as this was after a decision in the choice of the underlying graphics engine. (*1) Full disclosure: I spent many years as a project manager on multiple software projects... yes, for those of you in the business, that guy. Every project has its own unique ways of going off the rails, but letting programmers spend more than 5% of their time on "experimenting" has always been an incredible time-waster. I'm not anti-creativity, my approach was to tolerate creativity in the pursuit of satisfying actual requirements. AFAIK the Phoenix Project was almost entirely passion-based as opposed to being target-based. The initial updates struck me as completely reasonable. EDIT: I didn't find out about Ship of Heroes until much later. What struck me as most interesting about that project was that they explicitly wanted to have a reason why players couldn't leave a zone.... aka "War Walls". I thought that was a fine solution to a grumpy complaint about wanting to get past the zone walls in CoX.