Redlynne

Easy to say/post. Insert STANDARD CODE RANT here. Do you know what happens why you try to do that? You ADD KNOCKBACK PROTECTION to your $Target. There IS NO "reversed vector" functionality supported in the game mechanics. I talked to Arbiter Hawk at the 2012 Player Summit about this very issue. The game mechanics DO NOT SUPPORT what you are so blithely assuming that they do/can. The game supports two (and only two) vectors for Knock effects. AWAY from Caster. AWAY from Ground/Down. The first is called KnockBACK. The second is called KnockUP. You don't get a third. I repeat ... YOU DON'T GET A THIRD OPTION. With the current functionality of how powers "work" inside of the game engine, just about the only way to "suck" a $Target towards you is via Teleport. Warshades can already do this with their Level 8 power (in Human form) to a single $Target. Now, I will freely admit that it would be amazingly COOL to reprogram Gravitic Emanation into being a sort of "hacked port" of Wormhole from Gravity Control ... such that everything within the (line of sight) Cone of effect gets Teleported to a location FIXED AT 7 FT IN FRONT OF THE CASTER'S FACING WHEN CASTING so as to dump everything "Wormhole style" right in front of you (in melee range) that you catch in the Cone(!) ... THAT could be done. But you wouldn't be using a Knock effect in order to achieve that result ... you'd be using a Teleport to reposition $Targets. Rig the visual FX right and it will even look like everything "streaks" towards you as you "pull" them in with your Gravitic Emanation.

Well ... if Unslotters did not exist ... I can see how that might be a (first world) problem for you. But since Unslotters DO exist ... um ... plan your respec unloading better?

One of the challenges with toggle suppression is that because of the way the game mechanics are programmed you'd still be draining endurance for having them up while they toggles are suppressed (which hardly seems fair). What I would personally do about this situation would be to (in effect) proliferate the way that Swap Ammo works for Dual Pistols into (non-form) toggle powers for Kheldians using this rule of thumb: Human form = full buff effects Nova form = quarter buff effects Dwarf form = half buff effects So the "bubble" shields for Khelidan forms would yield Resistances like so: Human form = +22.5% Resistance Nova form = +5.625% Resistance Dwarf form = +11.25% Resistance That way, the toggles don't "suppress" (per se) but they also don't yield "full value" in Nova and Dwarf forms. You can then copy/paste this methodology to apply to Pool power toggles (like Leadership) so as to back door your way into a "suppression-ish" kind of behavior where you lose some of the value of keeping your toggles running while in forms, without losing ALL benefit(s) of those toggles (while still paying full price for their endurance cost maintenance). I'd actually argue that this would be perhaps the biggest possible "love buff" that Kheldians could receive. -1 MAG Mez Protection per Khelidian Shield power (there are 3 for Peacebringers and Warshades) You could even incorporate the above notion of limiting that buff in Nova and Dwarf forms like so: Human form = -1 MAG Mez Protection per Kheldian Shield power Nova form = -0.25 MAG Mez Protection per Kheldian Shield power Dwarf form = -0.5 MAG Mez Protection per Kheldian Shield power The game simply doesn't allow this behavior to happen. The underlying game mechanics simply AREN'T THERE. I'd be perfectly happy to limit all Warshade Knock* powers into following the Air Superiority precedent of doing 0.75 MAG KnockUP ... which would dump stuff on the ground by flipping them keister over kettle where they stood. Heck, incorporating -Fly into Warshade GRAVITY powers would make a whole lot of sense, in addition to the Slow and -Recharge debuffing they do.

Try doing it from the top of a skyscraper and letting them rain onto the street below where 1 HP of damage can defeat them. Extra bonus points if you can nail them with a Gravity Distortion Field before they fall out of range so you've done at least SOME damage to them and they "SPLAT!" on impact from falling damage because they aren't at full HP when they hit.

I think what @Burnt Toast is saying to the OP's ideas is ...

So ... basically ... THIS ...?

The best way to keep Pets alive is to take the aggro onto your Mastermind and share that damage out to your Pets via Bodyguard Mode (Defensive/Follow or Defensive/Stay or Defensive/GoTo). That way they help you "soak" the incoming damage. Of course, then you need to be able to heal them of the damage that they're taking ... so an AoE Heal power of some sort is your best option. Empathy, Pain Domination, Traps, Nature Affinity and Time Manipulation will all help you with keeping your Pets healed while you are Tankerminding them by keeping aggro on yourself (or at least, trying to). Note that it is a LOT easier to hold aggro on your Mastermind when your Mastermind is dealing damage to $Targets. If you're playing your Mastermind as a pure "buffbot" who does nothing aside from summon/upgrade and use secondary powers it's going to be hard for you to hold aggro on your Mastermind ... in which case build/plan accordingly. After that, it's really all about slotting the Pets with the +Defense and +Resistance procs that are available, coordinating your secondary powerset with the needs of your Pets for their survival and ... working on tactics/positioning in engagements to help keep them safe(er) than if you just let them all cut loose (and suicide like morons). A LOT of what makes a good Mastermind a GOOD Mastermind is how much work/attention/situational awareness the Player is expending on staying in control of an inherently chaotic set of circumstances and situations.

If the Target Dummies had 100,000,000 Health and +9900% Regeneration ...

Considering what a hacktacular mess of prematurely optimized spaghetti coding Cryptic Studios produced, I can TOTALLY believe this. Still voting NO on the idea.

Finally decided to take some (first person) screenshots of the meager base building I've done for the base I've got for all of my alts, just in case anyone else is inspired by what I've done (hey, it could happen...). However, unlike some people who post around here, I'm not even doing anything "outside the box" (mainly because I haven't got the time for it). There are some 3D elements however that may prove useful to some people wanting to know how to get more floor space out of "interior only" base editing. The first thing to note is that I like to keep the ambient room lighting OFF inside of my base(s) so as to allow use of ambient lighting sources. This winds up creating a sort of "cathedral-like" ambiance inside, even when enclosed by walls and ceiling, since your eyes will just naturally gravitate towards the lit areas while spending little (to no) energy observing the walls that bound the space. My personal preference for lighting sources are either Shoji Lamps, Tech Lamps or Fires of some sort (like Bonfires), as you'll see. The advantage of the approach of using localized lighting sources is that it allows you to show off bright visual FX to their best advantage. So I kept my 2x2 Entry Room ... but I raised the entry portal above the ground and "jazzed" it up a bit. The Ceiling Dome is positioned such that it is exactly above the top of the Entry Portal "pillar of light" below it such that they look like a cohesive 3D object in their own right. Under the Portal I put the Arcane Floor Seal and added a visual FX to circle around it (which also adds sound FX to it as well). I then used Arcane Platforms and Wooden Stairs to create a walkway around the edges of the room that ramp up to the (lifted) Portal for easy walk access. A Medium Tree Planter is placed in such a way as to "conceal" the Portal from the floor and leverage a sort of "treehouse effect" upon entering the base. See if you can spot the visual joke with the bathrooms ... The (tech) monitoring station for maintaining the (magic) Portal Entrance is located directly under it. I figured that this Praetorian Display lent itself to the idea that it was involved in maintaining a sort of "wormhole transit" conduit to the outside world, and if necessary could be used to "close the door" against intrusions. It's important to have safety equipment (to meet fire code) and trash receptacles for a suitably "lived in" feel in interior spaces. For the medical services, I've recreated on a 1x2 plot what I originally did on Virtue in a 2x2 room. It involves putting the (arcane) Res Rings on top of a (ringed!) "planet" that hovers in the air over an Inspiration Storage Bin parked over a Bonfire (which makes the fire essentially not visible, but the smoke FX rising really cool looking). This whole vertical assembly is then flanked by trees in planters, with one of the trees having a Tree of Life grafted onto it in a way that moves with the swirling of the leaves so as to look like it's all part of the same "tree" (kinda sorta). All of the light you're seeing here comes from the Bonfire under the (arcane) Inspiration Bin. Here on Homecoming, I was able to "jazz up" the appearance of these items with a few extra visual FX and the addition of the Oranbega Lamps hanging from the four spike pillars of the Inspiration Bin. I added the extra "rainbow rings" FX to the Rez Rings on top of the "planet" so as to make it look more impressive upon actual use of the Base for Hospital services after a defeat. Well, that's another way to do water fountains, I suppose ... I'm somewhat proud of what I managed to do in the Workshop room, since in this case I just took a 3x3 room and built everything on the ground (didn't see much need to go 3D this time) and did it on a diagonal divide so that one triangle half of the room is Arcane themed while the other triangle half of the room is Tech themed, with the entrance in the corner. This is what the Arcane side of the room looks like from the entry. I'm really proud of how I managed to combine some of the Arcane Control items with visual FX in ways that I've never seen done before. For me, though, the coolest thing about this configuration is that when you're on the Arcane "side" of the room it SOUNDS Arcane because of the T1 Arcane Control item ... but then when you move to the Tech "side of the room, the sound changes to sounding all technological ... which I think it pretty neat. In the back corner of the Workshop room, furthest away from the entry, is where I parked all of the Service NPCs along with the T3 Empowerment Stations and the Merit Vendor. I went with a Hero/Villain split on the NPCs so as to have Trainer, Tailor and Reputation services available inside the base. There's even a Midnighter there who can serve as a Vendor. The Tech side of the Workshop essentially mirrors the Arcane side (I deliberately went out of my way to make them as similar as possible using the two themes) and yet still manages to have its own distinct ambiance rather than feeling like a knockoff copy of the other side of the room. And just for fun, I decided to put in a "launch tube" for fighter jets. One of these years, I might even open the wall at the end ... or just make a big "door" array out of wall vents on it, which can be rolled up and opened ...

Since my Peacebringer is still level locked at 14 (wanting to do ALL the contacts/content on my way up to 50) I could only test the Gleaming Bolt, Glinting Eye and Radiant Strike attacks in Human form, along with the Nova form attacks, and they all had the requisite Peacebringer "whine/hum" sound on them after importing the sound files. I think the volume balance is in a good place since the actual/original sounds put a bit too much emphasis/volume on the repeating whine/hum sound such that it tended to drown out other sounds, but this volume balance is just right where it needs to be because it isn't so loud that I can't hear anything else.

Vote No.

That's because the game engine works on a Resolve First/Animate After system.

Hey ... it could happen ...

LINK

You can wait until 50, but that's not necessarily an "optimal" answer to the question. You'll see in my builds that I figure you can start slotting non-attuned set IOs (aside from procs) starting at Level 24 (for Level 27 IOs) and at Level 28 (for Level 31 IOs). They can be added at any time, but if you're building out (on a budget!) then it's often times best to try and acquire sets as sets, but slot them into your powers as you acquire them. Don't think in terms of "unless I've got it all, slot none of it" since that's going to gimp you until you can get everything. Fill in the gaps as soon as you can.

My Gravity/Time build does not anchor to $Targets at all, and what anchors are in there are to locations rather than to $Targets. Mind Control has a single anchor power (Telekinesis) that can be easily (and is often) skipped. Everything else in Mind Control is Click attack powers on $Targets. Mind/Kinetics can be a real roller coaster of a build to play.

For a market to function equitably/fairly/competently there has to be a source of GOOD information on what is happening in that market. The system chosen by the City of Heroes team a decade ago is perhaps the LEAST useful way to attempt to get GOOD information on pricing in the market. I vastly prefer the system used by World of Warcraft over the Wentworth's rubbish.

This is why we use build planner programs to do that, since the game itself doesn't.

That display item is available in the SG Base editor. I've got one near my base portal inside the base, beside a computer console for regulating the portal entrance.

The Self vs Other distinction in powers baked into the game. I shouldn't have to have TWO powers in order to Aid Other AND Aid Self. If I have a $Target selected, and it's friendly ... Aid Other. If I have a $Target selected, and it's hostile ... Aid Self. If I have no $Target selected ... Aid Self. With that kind of functionality built into the game you'd only need ONE power ... Aid ... and could use it on others AND yourself.

Outsource.

Aid Self can be used IN COMBAT so long as you've got 45% or more Defense against what's attacking you (roll a natural 20 on 1d20 to be hit) and don't stand in DoT patches that will interrupt you. Being MISSED by incoming attacks, due to high Defense does NOT invoke the Interrupt, while moving or taking damage does (and Defense helps prevent you from taking damage). You can pull off this trick once you've got your Defense built out sufficiently to make almost everything miss you with their attacks. Until then, you're best off using Aid Self between fights, rather than during, due to the Interrupt problem. It is ... and it NEVER gets old. Energy Absorption is the Ice/Ice Tanker version of Rage. Use it and abuse it! You're looking at Growing Pains™. Until you get your build FULLY slotted out you're going to be starved for accuracy/damage/endurance/etc./etc. while you're leveling up. A really BIG help in that regard is getting the Accolades that increase your Endurance and being able to start slotting in set IOs. Having Panacea, Miracle and Numina's procs slotted into Health ... along with a common Endurance Modification, a Performance Shifter Endurance Modification and the Performance Shifter proc in Stamina will make ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD for your endurance budget and being able to manage all those toggles running. It would also profit you to work towards getting the Accolade powers that increase your HP and your Max Endurance to help. It is, but it's also one that you will eventually outgrow. Once you are FULLY built out, you'll need to rely on it less and less. But definitely use is now while it is still valuable to you. In my experience ... no. They cost just as much endurance and are what I call "selfish" options over the more expansive and team friendly Leadership pool powers. Ultimately, both you and your teams will "get more" out of Leadership powers than you will using Tough and Weave. Pretty much the only time when Leadership is the "inferior" option is when you're either soloing or when no one else on your team has Leadership powers aside from you, and it's better to be a part of the solution for that than to be part of the problem for that.

PEBKAC is a thing, agreed. Unfortunately, modifying the game can't solve it for you.

Assault Rifle is just ... old ... as a powerset. What I mean by that is that Assault Rifle has been around since, what ... Issue 1? Issue 0? A LOT of the design and mechanics concepts that underpin Assault Rifle hail from a time when the game was VERY different from how it is now, and Assault Rifle is "getting long in the flash suppressor" if you know what I mean. As for the fire attacks in the Assault Rifle powerset ... they just are NOT worth it. Long animation for teeny tiny little DoT patch that may actually do damage to 0-1 $Targets (often zero)? Not exactly all that useful. For its time, Assault Rifle was pretty decent as an "omni-gun" type of slug/grenade/flame thrower weapon set, but it's a throwback to an earlier time in the history of powerset development ... and it shows. Go Beam Rifle.