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At level 50+, I rather like running through the Heather Townshend Dark Astoria arc at x8 (at 'even' enemy levels). Clear times vary per character... but these four missions don't require clearing... typically I find that it is usually between 30-40 minutes to clear all of the maps. This is slower than AE farming, but you can get a couple of Empyrian merits out of the effort. I try to keep the levels 'even' because of drop rates. Two runs is usually 'about right' to get a level 50 PVP or Purple recipe drop.

In the context of 'solonly', I disagree (with caveats). If nothing else, the other AoE mez powers are typically much better at helping clear maps, because of %damage. As I implied in the linked post... Mass Hypnosis is pretty much a contingency power (in solo, on teams) for use when things go pear-shaped. A well-slotted Terrify (also from Mind Control) is IMO a far better power to use whenever it is available.

I'm with @Supertanker. I don't use Mass Hypnosis very often on my Mind/Poison Controller, until: I'm on a team that is missing a LOT of attacks, I'm suddenly drawing a LOT of aggro It is mostly true that (2) isn't that much of an issue... up until a second spawn has its attention drawn to me! The first condition is (in my experience) rather common. All it takes is running x8 missions at a higher level of difficulty(*1), and/or "splitting the party". I don't a priori object to players on a team splitting up, this circumstance is most problematic when players are not entirely sensitive to the capabilities of teammates. If everyone is hitting with their attacks/controls... an AoE Sleep is far from optimal. If a majority of players are making and missing attacks... it can be a godsend. (*1) For example: that first room on a Frostfire mission with a +4x8 setting.

I don't have any Radiation Blast blasters, but it is a set I use on other AT. I do have an /Atomic Manipulation Blaster, so perhaps these nuggets of experience will help: For Atomic Manipulation, I took every power in the secondary except Electron Shackles (I don't like single-target Immobilization, except in corner cases) and Positron Cell (same reasoning, but for single-target Holds on a DPS character). My picks/slotting for /Atomic. The melee attacks offer the chance to lean into a wider variety of Enhancement sets/bonuses. YMMV. Atomic Manipulation is a solid Melee set. Some caveats: It may not pair very well with Radiation Blast across all levels. I work the melee attacks into my attack chain, using Combat Teleport to position/reposition myself between range & melee. Melee/PBAoE means you have to make the character able to 'hang' in melee. Atomic Manipulation isn't for a "Range/Hover" type of play style.... unless perhaps the powers I skipped were taken instead of the melee powers. You are (more-or-less) going all-in on Energy damage. I don't recommend trying to build only for %damage on DPS characters, except for the no/low-damage AoE powers. %damage as part of a Enhancement set is fine by me. It is necessary to one-two (negatrons/positrons) with Atomic Manipulation powers to get the Gamma Burst effect. IIRC the only way my choices can get the Gamma Burst are via the Negatron Slam and Positronic Fist combination... so I don't see it at lower levels. I can't say that I miss not having it across all content. If you want it earlier, you have to take Positron Cell. Ionize is IMO a GREAT build-up power. I typically prefer the secondary "Build Ups" to those in the Primaries, although I often add the Primary ones to the builds at much later levels. I wasn't originally sold on Radioactive Cloud, but once I found myself in melee combat (at least half of the time) I saw how useful it was, especially on x8 content. With Radiation Burst in the primary, the Atom Smasher attack from the secondary may not be necessary... or the two powers could be tag-teamed. The animation time on Atom Smasher is painfully long IMO. On my build Atom Smasher is the attack I use the least; I use it primarily when I am dog-piled and haven't yet selected the specific target I want to focus on.

I have a Shield Defense Tanker (and love how it plays, and don't have any disagreements with the assessment), but it isn't as good a 'meat shield' across all content as my Invulnerability Tanker. As noted, I think it is the difference in max Health/HP/Healing (in addition to the spectrum of resistances) that gives the edge to Invulnerability. Pretty much all Tanker primaries can be made really Tuff (see also Bio). The main difference I see in my play style between Invulnerability and Shield Defense is that I have to play my Shield Defense (/Battle Axe) Tanker such that I am having to pay a LOT more attention to the positioning of both enemy mobs and teammates... which leads to more of what I suppose could be called 'kiting' with the Shield Tanker, but otherwise I don't consider 'kiting' to be a Tanker play style. The Tank ought to be able to toss a Taunt at any group at a distance they would engage with (modulo range and direct lines-of-sight for BAMF). I don't mean to imply that I slack when I play the Invulnerability Tanker... it is more that it feels like it is easier to 'sweep and keep' enemy aggro easier with it.

I pretty much agree with @SwitchFade. Invulnerability (all by itself) goes pretty far. Power pools are useful for 'turning it up'. If the focus is on being a 'meat shield', i think the secondary comes in by making sure you are getting the attention of as many mobs as possible... via Taunting and hitting (accurately and repeatedly)..

See Health Regeneration. From memory: Every player gets (Total Health ÷ 20) healing per tick. The time between ticks is (12 seconds ÷ Regeneration rate) Obviously, a player needs to have taken damage for this sort of Healing to mean anything. For my way of thinking... unless the character has a high base Health (Tanker, Brute), or is otherwise not even trying to have Defenses or Resistances, chasing more Regeneration (beyond what players get from the base Health (40%?) isn't likely to be particularly noticeable... as opposed to Endurance/Recovery, since toggles and clicks have an Endurance cost. Tankers/Brutes start with more HP and so getting it back with shorter ticks allows them to keep 'spending' Health. Any character that is considering increasing Regeneration as a viable strategy to avoid defeats should probably consider slotting the Reactive Defenses: Scaling Damage Resistance piece first, because it will further add to the base resistances while the character is not at full Health.

The only other unusual thing I noticed in the market recently was that Converters had been sitting relatively high (my opinion) and then fell back to a price that looked as if they were being dumped at a higher rate than they had been (just previously) bought at. I usually start to dump uncommon salvage when the individual stacks in a character's personal inventory get close to '10'... otherwise I'm generally using them to craft (recipes, or SG buffs). I do have an alternate strategy... keep reading. I notice the jump in prices, so I switched to... Pulling the yellow salvage I had sitting in personal vault space or in the AH and dumping it on the market. The alternate strategy is to slowly build up these stacks for times when folks go cuckoo for yellow. It's peanuts, but I like to imagine that there is either: a single 'returning' (from live) player that has some crazy scheme to corner the market, after they've built their first full-kit farmer natch', or a relative newbie trying to follow a market guide and has decided now is the time to get their BInf ASAP via crafting uncommons.

Welcome to the Procity of Heroes! Imagine what the vocabulary would be like if instead of Lord of the Rings it had been the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant!

I'll offer a minority viewpoint of (perhaps) no relevance for the Fire primary: My "Mystical Blaster" used the Sorcery pool as follows (page 5): Level 4: Mystic Flight (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) (*) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance Level 12: Arcane Bolt (A) Apocalypse - Damage: Level 50+5 (*) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage (Negative): Level 50 Level 24: Rune of Protection (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% I landed on this because (A) I wanted Rune of Protection somewhat early in the build and (B) I didn't have enough power picks to get everything I wanted (mostly in terms of powers to mule Enhancements). The DPA on Arcane Bolt isn't great... but it isn't terrible. I ended up using it as a place to 5-slot a Very Rare set. Because of my choices I was going to end up with a gap in attack chain or have some other sort of performance gap across a lot of content. For this character: level 24 is when I wanted Rune of Protection, often my builds that take it get it somewhat later. To be honest: unless my character looks like some sort of magic user, the Arcane Bolt animation kills the immersion for me. This guy leaned hard into the mystic aspect which made the above choices easier.

Even though I think it is a mundane option, when I want an actual power for a squishy's mezz protection I lean into the Sorcery pool for Rune of Protection. I'm not crazy about burning a couple of pool powers to get it unlocked, but there are reasonable precursor mule powers, and Arcane Bolt isn't a terrible single-target attack for Controllers... although I prefer other pool power attacks. Often with Controllers I simply don't sweat the risk of enemy mezz and try to have a column of "Break Free" Inspirations on stand-by. Also keep in mind that the temporary SG base buffs (mezz resistance) can be crafted with some salvage... this isn't the same as protection of course.

Dull Pain is a power my Invulnerability Tank has (and has "perma") yet almost never uses (after having leveled up). It may be the only early-pick, 6-slotted power in my roster. Every once in a while there is some exemplared content where I find myself using it, depending on the PUG. While leveling, I do use it more regularly. I completely agree that in certain high-level content it gets put on auto, for the reasons described. I find that certain content requires juggling it with the Incarnate Rebirth!

I don't have a Necromancy MM, and I didn't want to yuck in anyone else's yum, but I find myself wondering if the Healing %effects/globals might only have been applied for 120 seconds on the henchmen. I can't explain what people think they see with Endurance Reduction. I assume that Robotics can also slot those Healing %procs and globals, but that they would only trigger when the MM casts the power. Maintenance Drone is where I 6-slot Preventive Medicine.. I suppose if I made some different choices the %absorb piece could be muled by Upgrade Robot. As @StrikerFox notes, the upgrade powers (for Robotics) have a pretty steep Endurance cost, but I don't have any context for comparison (I was bored with a Thugs MM, and I simply never felt like rolling up any others).

I can't imagine 6-slotting Health. A Healing piece (e.g. an IO) does improve Regeneration, so for Tankers and Brutes (high HP characters that will be taking damage and benefit from Regeneration) I recommend slotting the Numina Healing/Absorb piece along with the Numina global to double-down on improving Regeneration (2-piece set bonus!). Squishier characters are less likely to see as much benefit from the Regeneration as much as extra Recovery (because spamming attacks or running toggles that burn Endurance). Of course, Tankers often have another power than benefits from slotting Healing sets, so there are more dimensions to what gets slotted (and where). I usually don't chase Regeneration, except on characters with a large base HP. There are a few other sets (Willpower, Super Reflexes, VEATs) where I will consider adding more Regeneration to go along with something like Scaling Damage Resistance.

This never occurred to me. I have no argument against Boosters dropping, except that I have never felt that I was missing much by them not dropping.... and one +1 booster would excite me about as much as one Enhancement converter (not much)... of course they could be sent to the market, but my builds are eventually going to use them. This wouldn't be a priority for me, as it is nearly trivial for players (even with solo, low-level characters) to quickly run content (assuming zone exploration badges have been collected) to collect enough merits to buy a Booster (or a couple of Unslotters) from a merit vendor. IIRC each starting zone has at least one quickly repeatable (~6 minute) arc that gives at least 5 merits. The SSA1 (Theoden) arc can be rerun in about that time (all ATs) for 5 merits each run... not counting the 20 merits for first time and first weekly repeat.

I tried something similar (as I was desperate to find a use for a lvl 53 Golgi I had floating around as well as spare 50+5 Endurance IOs ) and I couldn't see any difference (in any henchman's blue bar). Whatever is happening with Necromancy does not appear to be happening with Robotics. If Upgrade Robot somehow improved Endurance consumption of all the henchmen, I'd probably just single slot it with a level 50+5 Endurance Reduction IO, as in practice my Protector Bots don't do as much healing as I get from my six-slotted Maintenance Drone.

I feel like the Accuracy slotting is important for Drain Psyche, so I usually shoot for 3x Touch of the Nictus. After that, I tailor choices. The %+Endurance is used when: The character burns Endurance like crazy (Doms with high Recharge tend to fall into this category, despite Domination refills) The power is likely to be used in every spawn, against multiple enemies This is how I have it slotted on one of my Dominators (Fire/Psi): (A) Theft of Essence - Chance for +Endurance (*) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage (*) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (*) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing (*) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb (*) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime On this build, this is where I could fit the Preventive Medicine %+Absorb) piece, and if I wasn't on the razor's edge with Endurance (across all level ranges) I think 5x Touch of the Nictus (and the %+Absorb piece) would be my second choice. I don't typically try to enhance EndMod on click powers.

Are you sure about this? My understanding was that the endurance reduction was on the cast (by the Mastermind) of the Upgrade Robot power.

I think I've noticed (corner?) cases where the performance of Robotics (/Traps) has improved, and some where it is worse. I can't be sure, as I had mostly mothballed by Homecoming Day 0 MM for a year or more until the more recent changes. I also had leveraged the MM primary attacks, so I didn't have to radically change my playstyle. What follows is purely anecdotal. The area where performance is worse is in solo play against PI/Eden/Abyss Giant Monsters. My guess is that this is because previously the -Regen from 6 henchmen was doing a LOT of heavy lifting against these big sacks of HP. I don't regularly tackle enough different content to see this, except that I feel like high-level zone's Event GMs also take slightly longer to solo, whereas low-level zone event GMs (e.g. Winter Lord) have roughly the same (solo) defeat times. The improvement I see is against: Low level zone GMs are defeated in shorter times (defeat times are faster, presumably because -Regen only from the MM is "enough") Even-level x8 instanced missions are cleared faster (presumably because of increased damage, and not needing to slot KB->KD) Fore example: I don't recall being able to reliably defeat the Grandville Arachnos Flier at a single landing site (with only Robotic henchmen) prior to the recent changes. Since the update, I can be reasonably "late" to a landing site and still have a 50-50 chance to defeat it before it takes off with its shields up. I feel like noting: even with the longest path between landing sites (is it Beta 1 -> Beta 2?) that allows the flier to nearly completely regenerate, the Robots can eliminate the flier at the next site. Also complicating things for me: RNG provides wide swings in defeat times against certain GMs (notably Jurassik).

Is this how I am supposed to find out +4 bosses can be teleported? EDIT: or that Threat and Fear now have PVP or Purple Enhancement sets?

Simple answer: No. Slightly complicated answer: If I want a Tanker build that can more-or-less focus on surviving whatever, and I don't lean too hard into trying to hit (with click powers) as many enemies as possible (with attacks, not Taunt) I have a couple of builds that invest slots into powers such that I can boost Psi Resistance via Enhancements. This is me wanting to provide a Tanker that is better at being a classic Tanker such that teammates have to worry about my Tanker over a slightly wider range of content. In the complicated thinking: My opinion in this case is that it is almost certainly going to be more obvious to teammates that the Tanker is crumpling to certain enemies than it would be that the Tanker is doing more %damage to some enemies or has slightly faster recharge times on some attacks. Again for me, this varies a LOT between my characters.

I have no disagreement with the facts as explained, but I do disagree with the assessment (bolded above) that a MM with ONLY an Assault Bot was effective (prior to recent updates). [I have no real disagreement about the caveat of only using the most survivable Robot on Teams, except that MMs Tank better with all henchmen.] On my Robots/Traps MM, my "one big robot" build was painfully slow solo. As noted, this is primarily because the Robots excel at AoE and DoT... with all the henchmen out during combat, it is less obvious (at least to me) all the DoT and AoE that is accumulating on an average (large) spawn... but with only the big guy, it was pretty clear just how hard it was to take out even lone bosses. I haven't played as much with my revamped "one big robot" build... mostly because the revamped standard build has been so much fun. One of the recent Homecoming changes that have helped all MMs: being able to take the higher-tier powers earlier in a build lets MMs have a better spread of henchmen across more content. Theoden's SSA1 arc now allows solo MMs to finish in roughly the same time as other ATs... still slower, but times are not a factor-of-two difference.

IIRC, the game engine prevents boosting of (all, not just PVP) pieces that only offer %effects or global effects, but you can boost all the other pieces. It is possible to play converter roulette to roll a 50+5 PVP piece into one of the types that can't otherwise be boosted, but those will have a "red" border (normally identifying a piece as 'unslottable'.) In my calculus, there are two reasons to boost (level 50) PVP pieces, as opposed to picking a different strategy (*1): The build is getting a PVP set bonus A PVP piece is offering a combination of enhancement attribute boosts that aren't otherwise available The Boosted PVP pieces I usually work into builds (mileage varies because of available powers) are similar to @Yomo Kimyata: Shield Wall Defense, Defense/Endurance (because I will be using the global) Gladiator's Armor Resistance, Resistance/Endurance (because I will be using the global) Javelin Volley Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (Ranged AoE %damage attacks, accompanying the %Lethal proc) Gladiator's Net Accuracy/Hold, and typically Accuracy/Recharge (Holds take a LOT of %damage, and the set bonuses form PVP are IMO better with fewer pieces than with other sets. I do like the Superior Entomb Accuracy/Hold/Endurance piece if the Hold is being spammed. Experienced Marksman (5 pieces only, no "Fast Snipe" piece), when the Snipe is taken at a low level and I am not using an alternate set in the power. Panacea pieces (other than the global) always get boosted, but my build will typically need something like at least two healing/absorb powers (besides Health) requiring slots before I know I'll be using more than just the global from this set. Mileage varies of course. The Healing/Absorb sets are in a weird spot in my head: Numina's Convalescence is a set that seems tailor-made for high-HP characters, Preventive Medicine has great 5/6-piece bonuses, and of course the Miracle and Regenerative Tissue sets set have a useful Global +pieces. (*1) Alternate slotting strategies include: Simply boosting lvl 50 IOs (for cases where the PVP piece only enhances a single attribute) Llvl 53 HOs/DSyncs Attuned "Superior" ATOs or Winter pieces Using a lower rarity (and lower cost!) piece that offers the exact same enhancement potential as a PVP 1,4 are cheaper options... and the enhancement gap between a 50+5 dual piece and (the same combination) 53 Hami-O is pretty thin. 2: "Identical" 53 Hami-O's offer higher enhancements because they start higher at 50, but the costs are higher. 3, 4: I always keep an eye out for pieces that offer a combination that doesn't exist in another form. This is obvious with (some) Hami-O/Dsync pieces, but I'm always amazed that there are so few Accuracy/Endurance pieces (not counting Pet/Henchmen enhancements) available at level 50 (to be boosted). A personal favorite is Multi-Strike: Accuracy/Endurance for Melee AoE %damage builds.

Unfortunately I won't be able to give a complete answer; I did (one upon a time) set up a series of "bind files" (bound to the same key) that would: Select the henchmen I wanted and then load the next keybind, such that the next press would... (goto 2) Apply the single-target buff to my (now selected) target, and then reload the keybind such that the next press would...(goto 1) This isn't a great system, because it is possible to have the binds "desynchronized" for what you want, because of power recharge times, missing henchmen, lag, whatever. IIRC, in olden times (long before Homecoming) this was one of the mechanisms for sequentially applying buffs to each teammates on a team.... because some buffs didn't automatically hit all friendlies in a certain area. A tangential comment: The "select" feature is one of the best reasons to give each henchman a unique name, as a targeting macro/bind can pick something you don't want to buff. I have a Defender with IIRC this (as a macro): target_name Dark Servant$$powexec_Name Spirit Ward IIRC, this is the order because if If I don't have Dark Servant targeted, it targets the Dark Servant, if I do have it targeted it applies Spirit Ward. The weird thing I notice is that sometimes the power picks something like a Carrion Creeper Vine (not one of my pets) to target! So it's a double-click to apply the power to the pet. I'll have to try changing it to pet_select_name!

I'm happy you like World of Confusion; but you seem to be missing the point of Endurance cost of a toggle that must be toggled on, versus a mule power that doesn't have to be toggled on. I evangelize for Unrelenting, but it isn't an easy sell, no matter how much performance I get out of it. I had some Doms that need Hasten (and/or FF: %+Recharge) to hit perma-Domination, life is much easier on builds that can hit perm-Dom without Hasten (and/or FF: %+Recharge). Unless the build already has five LotG +Global Recharge, there is room for at least one more (by skipping WoC). I brought up Combat Jumping specifically because of it's role as a toggle that provides (Defensive) benefits and a low Endurance cost such that even if it is "just" a mule it could still be toggled on to improve the defensive profile of the character.