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https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/44242-still-take-a-travel-power/

IIRC The Scaling Damage Resistance unique in the Reactive Defenses set is flagged as a Global. The power doesn't need to be on to get its effect; attuned it should work from levels 17+ when exemplared. Kismet's unique definitely needs to be activated by a power; I've only used in in toggles. The only circumstances I will turn off Hide is for escorts/kidnaps and to show off costumes. I feel like there may have been one mission where I was having trouble finding some enemies so I may have turned Hide off for that reason too.

Here is a memory from not-the-earliest-days-but-maybe-you-can-figure-out-when times: I remember being part of an somewhat active supervillain group (when those first went live), and then the leader basically gave up on the game. That left a whole bunch of us stuck with a group and base that we couldn't do anything with. By the time I came back to that character and actually found myself "Leader" (and it was a long time, partially due to my own disgruntlement) the SG base was filled with all sorts of salvage in the storage racks we couldn't even use... and the interface wasn't quite working to be able to clean out all that now unnecessary salvage. what a PITA!

Here is my first (current) build of my FF/Beam Rifle Defender. This is a slightly selfish build; more about that later. I'm a little uncertain about the last slot in Stamina: The character still has several long-duration buffs affecting both Health/Regeneration and Endurance/Recovery from missions. If those buffs were not in play I would easily do something different with that slot. The advice on slotting (End Mod / Recharge) in Power Sink has me not fretting about endurance at all for content when Power Sink is available. Besides whatever I do with Stamina, I think the next place I might pull slots are the %damage pieces from Charged Shot. By my calculations the %proc chances are in the low 40%... better than Repulsion Bolt's rate in the high 30%, but Charged Shot is the attack I use the least (above a certain level). If I was committed to only playing 21+ content I could easily drop the Kismet piece from Dispersion Bubble. I join/run a lot of +Nx8 lower level content, so I am generally reluctant to not have the +6% ToHit bonus. I was originally going to do something slightly different with the Vigilant Assault ATO (split them 4x, 2x) and use a 5x Ragnarok set in Overcharge... but while leveling up (and not having access to the Very Rare sets) I found the %damage rates to be too good to pass up. Re: Selfishness. I know I could do better for my teammates by adding slots to Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield and Damping Bubble. I could also "do better" by leveraging boosted Defense IOs and/or Hami-Os in different locations. I wanted to use a (combined) Membrane Exposure in Damping Bubble, but I ended up not having the slots. It turns out that with the build's global +Recharge Damping Bubble is essentially "perma" when slotted as-is. I'm not totally selfish, as I could pull one of the slots currently in Deflection Shield or Insulation Shield to improve recharge time on Summon Adept. I can easily see myself making a second "less selfish" build, starting with pulling %damage slots (from single-target attacks) and moving the slots to the team-oriented powers. I would probably drop Single Shot and shuffle the ATOs among Charged Shot and Repulsion Bolt, to get Tactics and Assault earlier in the build. This approach would probably invite Force Bomb into the build for the extra-Resistance, despite my misgivings)

I want to say I tried this on a Blaster (using an Epic Force Mastery) and I was similarly unimpressed. Toggles are generally bad places to put anything like a %proc, because the chance to proc are usually not good. There are a handful of exceptions. It is possible that this is one of those cases where you might need to also slot some Accuracy, from a Knockback set (because that is the only set the power takes IIRC), in the power in order to improve knockdown. Even if true, this is one of those cases where you will probably have to invest in more slots than you want, in order to make it work... something like a couple of boosted 50+5 Knockback/Accuracy pieces (Kinetic Crash, Sudden Acceleration) to be useful against the enemies you want it to work against.

Oh, that is nice to know... I may change up some of my thinking on slotting that power. I don't think "sapping" is a good strategy, but recharging myself is peachy keen!

Oh, that's good to know about the KD... my past experience has been with the similar power from Epic pools that scattered enemies. I still won't go with Force Bomb on a primary build. There are too many things about the power that don't appeal to me. Number one being that I'm sour on the animation; number one-point-five being that this build is already wielding nine attacks. Keep in mind: I'm not trying for a min-max build as much as I was an angry laser-gun-wielding character. Does anyone know what End Mod does in Power Sink? I'm guessing that it increases the drain on enemies and not on the Endurance granted to the caster?

Rune of Protection is the mule for the two pieces that give me +6% Defenses. Don't overlook that it is a hefty +Resistance (All) as well! Dispersion Bubble is not protecting me from all mezzes (e.g. Sleeps, Confuses). Force Bomb: I've used this power on other characters. Generally, even though this is a fine %damage power... I don't like having to slot it with KB->KD (to keep enemies grouped) AND have to slot it with Accuracy (to help the) also slotted %damage pieces. It simply too much of a slot investment in a power I won't use in this build. I am aware of the extra -Resistance, but I have two powers (from Beam Rifle) that (a) I have slotted anyway and (b) have the Annihilation %-Resistance piece in them. I am also sour on the animation of Force Bomb! I purposely skipped Aim. I wanted 6x Gaussian's for Defense bonuses, and I simply decided that (as a Defender) I would rather keep Tactics up all the time (sacrificing a 90% ceiling %Build Up, I know) and so leverage all the enhancements to Endurance reduction and +ToHit from Gaussians. If this was a Blaster, I'd keep Aim, but as a Defender I felt that Tactics was the better of the two choices... It helps my team plus my (Fast) Snipes get the extra damage boost from Tactics. When I'm playing solo, my sense is that an occasionally used Aim (plus %Build Up) isn't going to make a significant difference in the "number of attacks of I have to click" to defeat enemies in a spawn. That sort of thing does make a difference for my Blasters, but I'm just not convinced that for the Defender (remember: Beam Rifle) I'm going to save myself (m)any clicks but have a short duration boost to damage. I could be wrong of course. I'm not quite ready to take on +0x8 content yet to test. As I wrote above, I've been using the first two powers from Mu Mastery Patron pool (Power Sink, Charged Armor) and liking them. Victory Rush is going to be replaced with a Concealment pool power as my 5th LotG global +Recharge mule as I need to make a slight compromise on slotting to get the Power Sink's recharge times to where I want. My concept is essentially driven by wanting to have all the Beam Rifle attacks. Usually I would never recommend such an approach, but here I am. There is one interesting 'meta' side effect: I have three single-target powers that I usually open with against hard targets when solo: Repulsion Bolt / Disintegrate / Lancer Shot. My Accuracy is such that I never miss two these three attacks (streakbreaker for class +95%)... any two of them have me in set up pretty good shape against that target. None of these are the tier one attacks of course. I realize I could do without one of the two initial secondary attacks and free up a power choice (and some slots) but I haven't worked myself to that yet. I need to see what the attack options look like in the level 50 build.... if I am never casting one of the first two attacks, I will probably make some changes.

The Power Transfer %heal appears to be tagged as "on cast", which was the big reason for changing my mind on Patron pools. I have been playing with Mu's Power Sink and I rather like it for my button-mashing-pew-pew Defender. I don't have the character at its level 50 build yet, so Endurance management is currently "ok", with a forecast of being "even better". If that is correct: think the only other "global" I could drop in would be the Synapse Shock Run Speed piece. I have the Preventive Medicine %Absorb into Spirit Ward, so I'm not doing without it. If I didn't have that power I agree that its a good option for a high-level mule power.

The default slot get the Kismet +6% ToHit. I think every one of my Stalkers has (eventually) added a second slot for the LotG global +Recharge piece.

I was going to use each of them as a mule, but the mule options for Hibernate are mediocre.

Revisiting a not-too-old thread.... I'm noodling around with a Force Field / Beam Rifle Defender. This is not a primary I've used since some early days on Live; I've only played with Beam Rifle on Blasters. Here's the Power picks I think I'm going with (spoilers for shrinkage): Force Field Beam Rifle Sorcery Leadership Leviathan Mastery There are more attacks than a Defender needs, but I found myself wanting to leverage: -Resistance in Repulsion Bolt %-Resistance in a few Beam Rifle attacks more Beam Rifle attacks to spread Disintegration multiple quick-fire attacks (again Disintegration) I wanted the Stun from Lancer Shot (it felt weird not having any sort of mezz) I am juggling the ATOs and %damage I felt like it fit the concept to be spamming the Beam Rifle attacks. I'm running Dispersion Bubble as my Kismet +ToHit Mule (plus 3xShield Wall and a LotG), and Maneuvers with 6xReactive Defenses. I'm not sure where I'll land with Epic/Patron. I won't have an extra slots once the Resistance toggle is 4-slotted... so the leading candidates were Leviathan or Soul Mastery. I like Power Boost (Soul Mastery) but aside from the Defense buffs I don't really have anything worth boosting, and I know if the short-duration boost is something I could pull off reliably for teammates. I think with some juggling of slots (by swapping out Victory Rush for another LotG mule) I could get the recharge time down to about 42 seconds on Power Boost.... but I am never sure if I want to make those compromises for a high-level power pick... with those kind of returns.... since I'm selfish, I wonder if Mu Mastery's Power Sink (at 42 second recharge) isn't a better option? I'm not sold on the order of the final 4 powers.

Thanks for the correction. I remembered the 50+5 and 53 being close.

It's been a while since I've seen this bit of advices offered regarding how to (relatively easily) get attuned enhancements: The market house (/AH) buckets/auto-converts an enhancement at a specific level with enhancements that are attuned. It is possible to "convert" a non-attuned enhancement to an attuned one by putting a non-attuned piece on the market and buying an attuned one in its place. You do have to pay the price of the auction house's "vig", and any buy-it-now inefficiency of course. Once a character is level 50, Enhancement Catalysts will drop one-per-24 hours, assuming the player is actually defeating enemies to get drops (it doesn't take many defeats, maybe 50). If there are set bonuses to be had, I almost always go attuned (or use sets that don't need to be attuned). The times when I don't attune but use boosted (max level)+5 pieces instead are: There is no set bonus I want, and I simply want as much enhancement as possible. Common examples from my builds include Healing/Recharge, Accuracy/Endurance reduction. Every once in a while there is a power that only takes a certain type of enhancement, and the set bonus simply isn't something I care that much about (as much as I want the actual enhancement values). Examples include the Adjusted Targeting Recharge piece (a ToHit Buff set) in Link Minds (also falls into previous category) or when using only a couple of pieces from a set like Analyze Weakness (Accurate Defense Debuff) I don't feel like spending Inf on the market for something like a Hami-O or D-Sync for the equivalent set of enhancements. I don't object to shelling out Inf for Hami-O's or D-Syncs, but in order to get the maximum boosts from those, it typically becomes necessary to buy multiples and combine them. A Merit Vendor can be used to buy boosters. IIRC the enhancement values of a boosted 50+5 piece are just above the enhancement values of an "equivalent" level 50 Hami-O. The gap widens of course for higher-level HO/DS.

A quick comment on using Perfect Zinger %damage: The Tanker's Taunt is not an ideal place for this piece, as %damage requires a ToHit check, even when slotting in powers that otherwise do not require a ToHit check (like Taunt). IIRC, there are a couple of Accuracy/Recharge options in Threat enhancements... but slotting Recharge is working against the %proc rate for the already quick-cycling Taunt powers. This sort of calculus is one of the reasons I prefer the Mocking Beratement set over Perfect Zinger... I'm either single-slotting or 6-slotting Taunt. Perfect Zinger's %damage is a perfectly good piece to add to actual attacks, as described by @Spaghetti Betty, if the attack is going to also have Accuracy slotted. For Tanker Melee slotting, I am more likely to slot Accuracy/Endurance Reduction (at 50+5) than I am Accuracy/Damage (at either 50+5 or 53 via Hami-O or Superior Winter or whatever). This is because the %proc attacker benefits from spamming those AoE attacks (via as much global +Recharge as possible, since global recharge does not hurt %proc chances) so the Endurance cost is often a limiting factor. There also exist Accuracy/Damage/Endurance Reduction pieces as a compromise.

The 'Tanker Buff' was that the area of their Melee AoE attacks increased, so they will have more possible targets near them as compared to a Brute using the same attack. It's not that their %proc rates are different, it's just that they have more potential targets. This buff was IMO a pretty fair one, as Tankers used to commonly take a long time to clean up all the scrubs in a spawn. Of course: most of the mobs in a typical spawn are scrubs, so hitting more of them with %damage whittles the size of the spawn even faster than it used to (for Tankers). It used to be embarrassingly slow for (some) Tankers to clear large numbers of scrubs, let alone a couple of bosses being in the mix (at least for the ones I played). For me: Tanking play-style hasn't changed, except that I'm far less worried about quick-changing targets (for Punchvoke) when a Tanker is completely surrounded. The only circumstances when I do anything like 'herding' with a Tanker for my own benefit are: The spawn is down to a small number of hard targets; I'll drag these to the next spawn if it is close by There is another spawn in range that I want to get the attention of; this is essentially dragging the next spawn to me

As mentioned above: If the MM attacks are now doing something they didn't used to do (e.g. -Regeneration in Robotics), perhaps they should be examined. Even before those recent changes; I always found the AoE MM attacks to be better at drawing aggro than Provoke (Concealment pool). Also: the AoE attacks can be slotted with a soft control (like Knockdown) or a %-Resistance piece.

There is also a spectrum of 'the meta' favoring something, versus punishing something. Without %damage the spectrum for rewards is significantly wider between AT and play styles. without %damage, it's not as if a non-damage-dealing class can finish a -1x8 'defeat all' mission in anything like the time it take a Blaster to complete the same mission at +1x8.

No disagreement; I want to point out that Rewards (Inf, XP, Drops, Merits) come from defeating mobs, not surviving mobs.

Just so I understand... is the proposal that Homecoming has to have radical changes to %procs (and seemingly most everything else about game mechanics) because somebody imagines that in this wonderfully fun game (for all players and playstyle choices) some hypothetical person is maybe having (exponentially) more fun than somebody else?

I'm doubling down: Every proposed change to %procs appears to me to be either: An overhaul to address some marginal part of the game, or A solution in search of a problem Furthermore: any attempt to build a complete overhaul to %procs that has its origin in a single perceived problem with %procs (e.g. "IMO, that Tanker cleared a x8 spawn too fast!") is NOT approaching this issue in a holistic manner. The Homecoming game is at a VERY good place: pretty much every AT can solo play a HUGE amount of the game's content at roughly an equivalent pace (i.e. order of magnitude completion times) for a commensurate level of rewards. The current %procs make this possible.

Absolutely not: %proc damage is pretty much the ONLY thing that allows solo ATs with relatively poor damage scales (e.g. Controllers) to get clearing-defeat-all-mission-times within the an order of magnitude of the DPS-oriented ATs. The game's rewards... Influence, Drops (not counting Prismatics or Brainstorms), and Merits... fundamentally come from defeating as many enemies as possible in as short amount of time. My perspective is that some folks often want to tweak %proc based on some second-order consideration of a couple of ATs (or even more narrowly: a couple of different primary/secondaries in the same AT) while ignore the zeroth-order effects of just how poorly entire ATs perform without a potential boost from %damage... should the player of such an AT choose to make slotting compromises. AFAIK: Damage scales already come into play for Temporary (attack) powers... if you want to experience a difference in mission complete times run a level 5 (or 10) Blaster and a level 5 (or 10) Controller through content using only P2W temporary attacks.