tidge

The supremely confident and wrong people will not be convinced by a forum post. Even worse, such players won't try something like a TOT door knock solo with different settings and see that there is no difference. They won't learn from a Nemesis/Rikti/Zombie solo invasion that team settings don't matter.

Pumicite!

If someone is a really new player I can't imagine wanting to get (low level) XP faster... the starter zone content will get a solo player to level 10 with almost no effort... and I find that I run the risk of missing zones like Port Oakes, the Hollows or Kings Row even without extra XP. There are some fundamental things to learn early, like zone travel and travel powers.

Often with Blasters, I find that I've got enough offense (and put most of my slots) in the primary and secondary... so unless I have a concept reason I tend to go with either: Force Mastery (for enhancement mules) Fire Mastery (to get Rise of the Phoenix). The other powers are pretty good, but a short-timer self-rez is important to the way I play most Blasters.

For "supporting end game content", I'm thinking Destiny Barrier is probably bringing as much to the table as a /FF Controller. Dispersion and Dampening Bubble are the key support powers IMO. They don't really need much slotting, although extra recharge for Damping Bubble will be valued. The only real variation among ATs using Force Fields that I remember seeing is leveraging Force Bomb (or not). Personally, I like FF on Defenders, when I want to go heavy in to the Defender secondary... I find that FF has a bunch of powers that aren't very important to take early, and the blasty secondary typically means that it is less important (for me) to try to leverage Force Bomb as a critical AoE attack. Force Bomb is no longer as poor an attack as it used to be, but I still disfavor it... a lot my attitude derives from when it becomes available as a power pick, as it is running up against the availability of higher-level power pool picks. Pyro is an excellent control set... with FF as a secondary it's pretty much going to be picking primary powers to leverage enhancement set bonuses. The only powers I think are worth looking at %damage are Hypnotizing Lights and Dazzle... but if you are committed to "support" slotting Dazzle with 4 or 5-piece hold set (moar global recharge) would be fine. The only set choice I'd suggest is 6x Cupid's Crush in Catherine Wheel. The %proc is somewhat meaningless there, but the set bonuses are excellent and I find teh alternate set choices to be inferior.

I don't have to Teleport the Catherine Wheel at all... and I don't have the Teleport pool on any Controllers AFAIK. Yes, I see it has to move through elevators... but it is extremely rare that there are enemy mobiles right at an elevator. The most 'extra' effort I put into CW is to occasionally set it on 'aggressive'... after I've started AoE controlling it always seems like the Wheel is picking up whatever aggro is leftover. Best of all (from my POV) is that I'm not worried about casting a power to taunt/debuff... I can focus on the control (and doing damage). I'm glad somebody likes it. I'm happy that for me it is a skippable power early in the power set that allows me to pick up pool (or secondary) powers.

I want to publicly agree with @JayboH comments and attitude: JE wasn't wrong about everything... I see it more as him having peculiar blindspots... some related to how 'core features' related to player engagement, some about how certain powers 'should work'. (The lack of) Enhancement Diversification really only became an obvious balance problem (from my PoV) once the player level range was increased to 50, because of all the extra slots. IMO the dumbest 'core mechanic' that appears to have been a reason why (something like) ED wasn't initially considered for the game was the terrible lack of Recovery (without an inherent Stamina)... it makes sense (to me) that there is a necessary budget (Endurance) to spend engaging with the game... but waiting around for the blue bar to refill was simply no fun. Driving most players to take 3 power picks just to get Stamina was also highly limiting in terms of diversifying character builds.

I've only ever known 'facerolling' to refer to a playstyle where players don't employee anything but random button mashing... that is no strategy, no care about what the game is doing, basically an attitude of 'Imma just do whatever and the game is fine'.

Specific to level 50 PVP recipes, and further specific to the resistance Resistance and Defense sets... usually there are two other pieces (beyond the global) in those sets I want at level 50+5 for characters so I'll convert in-set for those. I hate using level 50 PVPs for the globals.

As I noted: I don't know of anyone who asked for the change (to Kraken) but the devs specifically made this change, and only to Kraken (I rarely bother with Caleb, which is the only other GM I can think of that offers more annoyance in locating). No one has to like my imagined reasons for the change, but "giant swamp creature rising from the terrain" seems like what the change was going for... not "let's sucker the players, har har". I had to change up my approach to this Giant Monster, I don't think it was that big of a deal and added a slight amount of variety to hunting and defeating it... which was essentially the point of the Giant Monster balance pass. It's been almost two years for this change... this isn't something that just rolled out. I'll be blunt and judgemental: I see many players who act (in-game) as if Giant Monsters (and their rewards) are something they are owed... and yet put minimal effort into looking for them and/or resetting zones to get GM respawns (Croatoa, Crey's Folly, KR, Unseelies)... and if something happens like when a Paladin is in a slightly different location in KR they'll completely miss it, they'll skip cleaning up extra spawns, they'll AFK/park-at-logout multibox at Adamastor waiting to drop 3xLore pets as soon as the timer counts down. If "ace players" are that desperate for the 6 merits, there are plenty of repeatable arcs that offer a similar amount of merits for less time than waiting for the GM respawns (and tracking them down).

It's probably the old "but I'm bored by all the other content I've repeatedly done" song.

I'd probably spend my time going to live sporting events. I'd want to visit different cities, so I might have to start haunting airports too.

I play my Water/Atomic Blaster as a (nearly) pure melee... using Combat Teleport as the extra 'get into combat' power. I end up with a bunch of macros for several powers. I use the 'blasts' from the primary very much like I do with Scrapper/Stalkers that have a ranged attack. I also skipped Water Jet (it used to be a very bad choice, but that has been somewhat corrected for a while since a miss no longer burns Tidal).

I see the "bad proc rate" written a LOT (it is something like 36%) , but it is fast recharging 10 targets in a 90° arc that takes four %damage pieces, does knockdown, can slot the FF +Recharge, and the power is available for almost all game content.... available to all ATs. There is nothing wrong with waiting until the epic pools to get an AoE %damage attack, but if I feel a character needs such an attack, I want it for pretty much the whole game.

Can we try 20 questions? Was it a power usable by an Invulnerable/Energy Melee Tanker?

This is my thinking, put to words: If I'm going to proc-slot an Epic AoE, I may as well take Force of Will and %proc Wall of Force. I can have it a lot sooner in the build and the prerequisites are useful.

Controllers are still in a good spot (i.e. they don't struggle to complete 'defeat all' missions) using %damage... with one big change: The high-tier AoE controls now typically use 'adaptive recharge' which makes them available much more often when hitting only a small number of targets, but somewhat ruins their %proc chances. This is only a "win" for me, as the previous inherently long recharge times made them poor candidates for %damage (as opposed to slotting those powers for set bonuses)

If I had a magic wand for this purpose, I think I'd un-retcon a LOT of the Freedom Phalanx material, starting with Positron. I've not been happy with the NPC since the model removed its helmet, and nothing that has happened with him since (ins the SSA, in the post-incarnate game) has improved my outlook.

For truly trivial reasons: When I get the BOSD (?) cavern initials map as the first map in Heather Townshend's Dark Astoria arc... because I can't tell what the map is trying to tell me.

I don't think folks are wrong for being peeved by mezz effects... but I do think we (players) are in a generally very good place (balance-wise) for PvE controls (and debuffs, including slows, KB, etc.... and even taunt/placates). Controls always felt like they were being tweaked on Live... the light-speed stunned-runaways, threats, fears... and of course what happened when PVP was introduced. Homecoming has come a long (positive, IMO) way with controls. Threat and Sleep are no longer auto-skips, adaptive recharge for AoE holds has brought them into better alignment with the end-of-Live Blaster nuke changes. On the flip side, we've got new powers and powersets that really help with PvE mezzes (like Electricity, which may be my favorite 'heal/buff' set). I will say: I think the HC team has somewhat dropped the ball by not giving us a few new Fear or Threat enhancement sets, as the 20-50 options are missing combinations that powers can take, such as Accuracy and Endurance Reduction combination pieces... sure we have some HO/DS options, but those are extremely limited (and can be slotted in other powers besides Threat or Fear) Finally: HC has made it possible for players to 'hang' in content that have spawn sizes/difficulty turned up. One consequence of this is that it becomes more likely for critter controls to hit/last/stack.

Allow me to be an early rejector of this framing. It really does look to me like the game has always had trade-offs baked in. ATs with 'armors' typically only have offense from one of either the primary or secondary. Kheldian Dwarfs get awesome mezz protection, but... Dwarf. VEATs somewhat stand alone. Control ATs get multiple controls of their own to leverage. MMs get henchmen. Many 'control' sets offer pets. Defenders/Corrs choose between buffs or debuffs (generally) plus ranged attacks. Doms (can) get perma-immunity to control. Blasters get excellent damage scales and attacks in both primary and secondary... plus sustains, plus an inherent that allows attacks while mezzed, plus some controls of their own. The only ATs that I find annoying to be susceptible to PVE 'control' are Controllers... they can grab a lot of aggro, and don't have extra damage to deal with RNG misses of enemies. Once I have 15+ inspiration slots I typically don't worry about PVE control.

I'll piggyback on @EnjoyTheJourney comments about the AoE immobilizes... many of them now negate knockback (if that is a thing that bothers a player).