Adeon Hawkwood

Name me an instance you want the KB protection? I can't think of any, or at least those instances would be few and far between compared to the times you would want your target to fall flat on its ass. Devices use the immobilization for the amazing -RECH which floors the damage output as much or more than immobilization anyway. When fighting on ledges (such as circle of thorns maps), when I'm fighting two spawns near each other and want to avoid knocking an enemy into a second group, stuff like that. Also please note that I didn't say I wanted knockback protection as often as the knockback, I said I wanted the knockback protection as often as I wanted the immobilize. So yes, I generally prefer to have knockback but I also view knockback protection as a critical part of Web Grenade. Honestly that's why I love Web Grenade, it's so flexible and multifunctional. Need to bring a sky raider down into melee range? Web Grenade. Need to immobilize an AV so he stops running around? Web Grenade. Want to debuff a bosses recharge? Web Grenade. Want to make sure I don't knock Rikti off the catwalks in the abandoned sewer trial? Web Grenade. So yes, Web Grenade is a lovely, multi-faceted utility tool and you are literally requesting to remove one aspect of that functionality. Given that the number of times when I want to avoid knocking down a non-immobilized enemy greatly exceed the number of times I want to knockdown an immobilized enemy I'd much rather keep the kb protection. No, it's not fine. Only Fire/ and Ice/ primaries do not have knockback powers (but even they have access to KB through Nemesis staff and such) and there are a great deal of power set combinations which these powers are at direct odds with one another. Since you have no choice in picking the tier one secondary, this needlessly limits your choices unless you're not concerned about such conflicts. I would argue exactly the opposite, removing the knockback protection is limiting choices. I like having the ability to shutdown my knockback when it would be an issue, if you remove the kb protection then you're removing my ability to make that tactical decision. So yes, if you don't want the option for kb protection that's fine you can pick one of the six sets that don't have it but don't try to force your choice on everyone else.

That's because Eagle-Eye doesn't buff To Hit, it buffs Accuracy and provides resistance to To Hit debuffs. Honestly Tactical Arrow is already very good, if it also let you easily get permanent fast-snipe (which currently only Devices can do) then it would be really OP. So yes like all non-devices Blasters if you want fast-snipe then you'll need to take Tactics, over-slot it (you need 90% enhancements pre-ED) and stick a Kismet IO in another toggle (combat jumping or hover being popular choices)

To the OP I'm going to say no, please don't. I play an AR/Dev Blaster and while I generally like knockback there are times when it would be a problem. I use Web Grenade for the -kb protection almost as often as I use it because I want to immobilize something. I think the current system is fine, we've got four sets (Darkness, Ninja, Mental and Temporal) where the immobilize doesn't have kb protection and two sets (Energy and Martial) that have a knockback power instead of an immobilize so basically half of the secondaries have an immobilize with kb protection and half don't. Not Devices Blasters. Web Grenade doesn't deal damage so there's no point slotting it for that although it's still worth slotting up a bit for accuracy and immobilize duration.

The thing is not all uncommon enhancements are created equal. Some uncommon enhancements are more reliable for converting to rares than others. For example check the prices of multi-strike recipes. Last time I checked those were int he 500K-1million range because they are reasonably easy to re-roll into Obliterations. So in general uncommons can be grouped into three categories. The first is ones like Multi-Strike which can be rolled into a specific, valuable rare. The second is ones like Rope A Dope which is guaranteed to roll into a rare but that rare then has to be re-rolled into other rares to get something of value. The third is ones like Calibrated Accuracy which aren't guaranteed to roll into a rare and if they do it's a low value rare. Uncommon recipes in the first category are selling well because it's relatively easy and profitable to buy them and convert. Recipes in the second category are selling ok, you can make a profit on them but it uses more converters, requires more clicking and is less reliable so fewer people are willing to do it. Recipes in the third category are still basically vendor trash since they require even more converters to get something good so they aren't really worth it.

Well one of the Mastermind ATE sets provides a nice AoE defense aura which can help mitigate that.

I'm one of those people who is both ebil and impatient. I spend most of my time converting IOs to sell and racking up my inf stockpiles and then when I want to IO a character I'm fine with overpaying (within reason) for enhancements to get them quickly.

Here's the simplest objection: it won't work. Unless you have a full time squad of chat moderators then you can't force people who want to DFB to use a specific channel unless they want to.

I'm going to disagree with the majority here and say no. While there are times that it would be nice there are also times when it would cause problems. The most common example is when people are running raids in either The Hive or The RWZ. In those cases people are often repeatedly trying to enter the zone for the express purpose of seeing if the instance that the raid is happening in has room or not. Forcing them to zone into another copy of the instance each time they check is making things more problematic for them.

I mostly agree with your assessment, with the exception of Smoke Grenade. A 5% To Hit Debuff may not sound like much but To Hit debuffs essentially stack with Defense so if you build up a bit of ranged defense with IOs then Smoke Grenade can give you the little extra edge. Additionally it's useful for stealthing missions since you can blind a group so that they don't see you getting the glowie (since your stealth becomes less efficient once you interact with a glowie). I'll also add that Caltrops is awesome. Sure you won't need it very often on a team but playing solo it makes it easier to bunch enemies up for AoEs and keep them out of melee range.

So a few good cheap sets: 6-slot Thunderstrike is great for Burst and Slug since it gives you 3.75% Ranged Defense and a few other nice bonuses. For Sniper Rifle you can 5-slot Sting of the Manticore (skip the Acc/Int/Range IO) for more ranged defense and a nice recharge bonus. For your AoEs Positron's Blast is the best option. It's not great but it's better than the alternatives. You can skip either the Acc/Dam or the Dam/Range depending on preference (the Dam/Range is the normal one to skip but in cones the extra range is quite nice and /Devices can afford to underslot for accuracy). Blaster's Wrath and Defiant Barrage are a little pricier but both sets are well worth it. For Blaster's Wrath I'd put it in Full Auto since it's got great stats and a damage proc (which due to PPM rules will always proc in Full Auto). Defiant Barrage is iffier, I've currently got it in Slug but I'm finding the status protection proc is less useful than I was hoping so I'm going to move it to one of the AoEs since I'd rather drop a Positron's Blast for another Thunderstike set. As a side note, the Status Protection proc in Defiant Barrage will only trigger once per attack in an AoE even if you hit multiple targets, I tested it in Full Auto last night because I was debating putting it there.

It's been up and down over the last few days. It seems to be some sort of instability with their server. I'm wondering if they had reduced their server capability to save money after the game was shutdown (and traffic dropped) and now that it's back up they aren't set to handle the increased load?

I'm not sure I would six-slot Field Operative but if you held a gun to my head and told me I had to six-slot it I'd probably do something like this: Attuned Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge IO 2 x Level 50 generic End Mod IO Level 50 generic Healing IO Attuned Numina's Convalescence: Healing IO Attuned Numina's Convalescence: +Recovery/Regeneration IO That maximizes the Recovery and Regeneration from the power itself, provides space for a LotG IO (since you can have up to 5 of them), provides a spot for the Numina Proc120 (I'll stick the Miracle one in Health) and picks up a 12% Regen set bonus as a little extra. The set IOs are attuned because there's basically no reason for them not to be, if I really want the couple extra percent regen from ED capping the power I can just +5 the generic healing IO, the same goes for the two end mod IOs although I think I'd have enough recovery without needing to do that. Actually now that I look at it, maybe it is worth 6-slotting Field Operative. In regards to your second questions the IO Sets page on t he wiki is a good resource for figuring out WTF people are talking about. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancement_Sets

So the recovery value is fully enhanceable, it's only the regen that is half enhanceable. So slotting End Mods is definitely worth it, the base recovery value is twice stamina so if oyu'd slot Stamina you should slot sustain instead. The value of health enhancements is harder to determine. Basically each SO you put in it is equal to 37% regeneration. At level 50 and assuming your have your max HP accolades this is equal to about 2.25HP/Sec. Personally I would say that's enough to be worth at least one or two slots but it's a lower priority.

Just make sure to do your research, some set types and levels are better for this than others. Also, whoops. I did one worse a few weeks back and accidentally bought ten pieces of rare salvage for 9,800,000 each instead of 980,000.

Enhancement drops from regular enemies are actually pretty rare. The reason they drop regularly in DFB is that AVs have a guaranteed (or at least very high) enhancement drop (and it's generally an SO). So running DFB will give you several SOs while Posi 1 and 2 combined will only give you one SO from the final AV and maybe a couple of other enhancements if you're lucky.

So what? It only took about 2-3 iTrials to unlock your slots anyway so just don't slot any abilities until you've run that many iTrials. Problem solved.

Literally nobody takes mastermind attacks unless they're Demon Summoning, so that's going to be a very low priority. My Bots/Traps Mastermind has two attacks (the AoE and the more powerful ST attack) and I may end up taking the third attack at some point. People talk about MM attacks as if they are absolute crap but the fact is they do almost as much damage as Defender attacks and no one ever suggests skipping those. Sure you aren't maxxing out the DPS charts with them but it's still extra damage and more importantly it's damage that you can immediately direct which can be useful for picking off runners. Additionally the attacks are well worth taking if you want to play a Tankermind, while Provoke is useful for grabbing aggro, due to the way the taunt mechanics work combining taunt and damage is a lot more effective than simply using taunt alone. So overall I would say that while not every Mastermind needs attacks the idea that the attacks are useless needs to stop, they are perfectly valid as supplemental DPS to add to your pets.

That does sound like a bug. Can you include a screenshot of your bid and the market history for the item?

1. Outdoor missions are incredibly rare so a lower population doesn't really matter there. In general a lower population leads to slower leveling since there are fewer teams and teams are the fastest way to level. 2. In general Scrappers solo better than Tankers. Extra survivability means you can potentially fight more enemies at once but if you take longer to kill them then this doesn't really matter. High AoE Tankers can potentially out-solo scrappers but those tankers tend to have Fire or Shield as their primary, not Invulnerability. For solo play I'd go with the scrapper over the tanker.

The P2W vendor let me grab one of each prestige enhancement. Might be a bug if it's only letting you take one...or maybe it's a bug on my end?! Right now the P2W vendor lets you take as many prestige enhancements that you want. Not sure if you can use more than 5 (haven’t thought to try) but you can get at least 10. They are unique so you can't have more than one of each slotted.

So one useful tip for fortitude. Membrane Exposures are brilliant in there (if you can afford them). Three of them will max out the enhancement for Defense, Recharge and To Hit which can save you slots for use elsewhere.

How are you converting uncommons to rares? When you do out of set conversions there's an option to roll within IO type (you have to change the drop down menu). Since most types have both uncommon and rare sets you can roll an uncommon into a rare that way. Also just to make sure that there isn't any confusion but rares I mean the orange recipes, you can't roll an uncommon into either a purple IO or a PvPIO in this manner.

So Montague is a special contact. You don't actually need an introduction to him, you can just walk up to him and introduce yourself. He's also considered high priority which is why your other contacts all want to introduce you to him. However once you have him on your active contacts list then doing a safeguard should give you a different contact in the right level range. So go and talk to him before doing the Safeguard and you should be introduced to another contact. EDIT: Also as a quick note, the classic contacts will always introduce you to another contact int he same level range after you do one mission for them. So if you want a specific contact in a level range just do one mission for each new contact and you can get all contacts pretty easily.

Your Protector Bots are seriously underslotted. You really want defense slotting in them since their shields are critical for keeping you and your bots alive. I'd also consider slotting at least a few of the Defense and resistance aura IOs in some of your bots to further boost their survivability. One thing to note regarding your use of Nucleolus Exposure's is that Hamidon Enhancements are quite expensive on the Homecoming servers. However if you get a level 50 Acc/Dam IO from one of the sets and use boosters to make it 50+5 it will be equivalent to a Nucleolus Exposure so that might be a cheaper option. Repair is overslotted, you only really need recharge in it. If your bots are having endurance problems then you should slot them for endurance reduction, not slot end mods in Repair (in practice the Assault Bot and Battle Bots are usually fine but the Protector Bots benefit from some Endurance Reduction). Also since you're /Pain you shouldn't need Repair that often anyway. I haven't really looked through the rest of the slotting in detail but I will add two comments. First, it's worth putting LotG Global Recharge in a bunch of your powers. Global recharge is great for keeping World of Pain, Anguishing Cry and Painbringer up. Secondly this is more of a personal thing but I find Victory Rush underwhelming and Vengeance is a great place to stick another LotG global recharge, just saying.

Just to clarify something, all of the attacks in Electrical Blast have a chance of doing -recovery, but only Short Circuit, Thunderous Blast and Tesla Cage are guaranteed to do -recovery, the others have a 20%-50% chance (and much shorter durations). Now personally I'm fine with saying that you need to use Short Circuit or Thunderous Blast to reliably drain groups of enemies, but I think you could make a decent argument for buffing the durations and/or proc chances for the -recovery powers on the single target attacks to make it easier to drain a single target without having to use Tesla Cage. As a side note -recovery is useless without -endurance so replacing the -endurance with -recovery would be a bad change.