kittowam

Rebuilt my Inv/SS tanker on Beta and dropped the fighting pool in favor of the new Unstoppable, which I previously never took. Have to admit, I really like it. It gave me more than enough survivability to get past +4/8 Romans and Arachnos before adding incarnate powers. Looking forward to this change making its way over to Live.

I only have one SS character, an Inv/SS tank. Rage never fit the concept for the character so it was an easy choice to switch to UM. Took a couple of respecs to find the right build, but I ended up going with all of the powers from SS, sans Rage. I find the changes to be perfect for this character, though the damage dropoff from not using Rage is obvious. But I would rather take a little longer to clear the mission and have the powers better fit the concept. No opinion on the changes to the crash since I don't plan on using the power anymore.

Verified my files, pulled up my Level 9 controller. Already had Mikey queued up, checked again, still Kings Row. Turned him down, stopped XP, did 3 new newspaper missions, checked again, still Kings Row.

Rolled up a temporary character, got to level 5 and went to Port Oakes. Did the 3 newspapers, hit level 6 and got the Atlas Park mayhem. So, it does appear to be specific to level 9, or maybe 8 as well. But, even without an XP gain, getting to Port Oakes and knocking out 3 missions without hitting 9 isn't easy. Unless you leave unfinished arcs in Mercy Island or turn off XP gain, which I rarely do.

First time, I do 3 newspaper missions in Port Oakes, ding Level 9. Go to the broker, Drea the Hook, get offered Kings Row. I'm not paying much attention and do the mission, end up facing a Level 12 Boss despite my difficulty set to +0. I realize it should have been Atlas so I turn off XP, do 3 more newspapers and this time get Atlas Park. Also of note, after doing Kings Row I didn't receive any temp powers. New character today, I do 3 newspapers in Port Oakes, hit level 9 again, Mikey the Ear offers me Kings Row. I try quitting and restarting, no good, still offers Kings Row. I turn him down, disable XP and do 3 more newspapers. Again, offered Kings Row. This time I accept and do the mission and fight a level 11 Boss, again with my difficulty at +0 and, again, don't get any temp powers. Exit the mission, do 3 more newspapers and, again, offered the Kings Row mayhem. At this point, I gave up. Beyond not getting any reward for doing the mayhem for Kings Row, there doesn't seem to be a way to get the Atlas Park mayhem. This is with 2 different characters and different brokers.

I agree. Other servers have done this and I don't think it broke the game. But... this is Homecoming, so... I wouldn't hold your breath. You could post it as a Suggestion though.

There's synergy to stacking the same debuffs on enemies. Three players should be able to run +4/x8 from start. Without knowing what powersets have already been played, I would want to go for a more diverse group that could cover anyone's weaknesses, especially from early levels. I would probably look to go Fire/Rad Corruptor, Demon/Cold Mastermind and Illusion/Nature Controller. This gives you more than enough debuffs, defense and damage resistance and should allow your friend to explore the Mastermind changes while providing scourge. Also, Illusion Control gives you a tank to help draw aggro. If you've already played those sets, then Marine/Time/Sonic/Kin are all good choices too.

Melee characters can take Energy Mastery for their APP for additional recovery and/or endurance discount powers. For my non-melee characters with endurance issues, like Storm Summoning, I use recovery serum and the Increase Recovery base empowerment. Beyond that, I look for set bonuses that provide global endurance discounts (Unbreakable Guard, Reactive Defenses, Preventive Medicine, Cupid, etc.) or +Max Endurance, or +Recovery. There's also the accolades that provide +Max Endurance. Those can help too. At 50, Cardiac or Vigor and Ageless usually solves the problem.

Psychic Blast / Psionic Armor Sentinel would work well. The random mez effect from Aura of Madness can be a lot of fun.

Guess everyone's experience is different. I've deleted three tankers since the patch that just aren't as fun to play anymore and I've shelved plans to roll any new ones. Did two task forces yesterday and not a single tanker on the teams. Part of that, of course, is because there were quite a few new Pyro controllers and dominators, but still the lack of tankers was noticeable. If the goal of the changes was to get people playing tankers less then it's working like a charm.

I finally got a chance to test my Plant/TA controller under the new changes. I tested the same way I test all new character ideas, running at +1/x8 against Council, level 50 but before incarnates. These were my thoughts with each change: Seeds of Confusion. The lowered target cap didn't seem to affect me much. My luck with seeds is horrible, I rarely hit more than a few targets, even on live. The plus side is that it usually recharged in under 8 seconds, so I could use it multiple times in the fight. The negative is it did feel like I could have skipped seeds entirely. I expect it's still a valuable power for levelling, but it may not be so useful at 50. Spirit Tree. This change worked better than I expected. I changed my bind to summon at target location and used it as an opener. The spawns started attacking it immediately, though I couldn't tell how long it lasted since the other power effects made it hard to see. Spore Burst. I didn't really notice the changes for this power. I ended up dropping it in favor of Poison Gas Arrow since they both have similar effects, but arrow includes -20% damage. Carrion Creepers. I dropped the procs from it and replaced them with a set of Bombardment. The power performed well and with the other TA powers minions and lieutenants died pretty quickly, but bosses were a lot more difficult. Vines. Added this into my usual power rotation and it worked really well. Conclusions: The set felt fine overall with the latest changes. The increase in enemy regen rates seemed to be the biggest problem and clearing the map is definitely slower. I nearly ran out of endurance trying to finish off the bosses. I don't see these changes keeping me from enjoying my plant controllers and dominators or making new ones in the future. Though I would like to see a damage increase on some of the powers.