Hedgefund2

Put me on team hoarder, based on convenience of reacquiring. Shivans I'll use fairly freely because replenishing those is easy enough. Others like Amy or the Warwolf I have to be in really dire straits to use, since the refill on those is capped at 1 use (I do believe). Anything that just needs inf (e.g. Envenom Daggers, the P2W rez or the power analyzer), I'll use freely. Attacks and armors I tend to hoard just for hoarding sake. They tend to not be that good. Unenhanceable accuracy means they have issues connecting against higher cons. I suppose Tactics helps, I never bothered to check.

Your recharge is such that my my main suggestion is to proc bomb Poisonous Ray, you can do without the bonus from Decimation and not lose perma hasten nor PA.

I'm looking through this in some detail but wanted to make a post first to emphasize that the FF +recharge proc in Phantasm was no bueno. It won't benefit the pet, no pet is affected by recharge buffs or debuffs. You might benefit on summoning it but that's not going to happen frequently enough to make that worth the slot. The SA kb2kd is a fine choice though. More later.

I do want to mention one of the main reasons for my disdain of respecs is "error correction". It's happened more than a time or two that I'd go through to the "last mile" where I'm slotting enhancements only to find out I've screwed up and added a slot to the wrong place and I have to undo a potentially significant amount time spent to fix that T1 secondary power to have 6 slots instead of 5 (for example). Even if the old means of choosing powers is kept, having some Mids-style way to edit slotting would be such an improvement. Edit to add: I'll leave the original post as is, but I was confusing mass leveling (like with a 2nd build) with respeccing. A respec does allow the user to just drag an IO out of a slot and eliminate it, so at least it has that going for it, less of a pain than making a 2nd build from level 1.

I'm curious to see if there are any "yes" votes to 1). As for me 1) hard "no" 2) yes, anything is probably better. I do like the idea of importing something, probably a Mids build. It doesn't even need to include the enhancements, just the powers and slots allocated. 3) another hard "no". If I find I'm going to revisit some retired characters then maybe (like some Plant Control users) but otherwise nope. If respeccing wasn't such a pain, I'd be more likely to.

I really like the thought of an incremental cost for using the upgrade button. Not just for new players either, I'd certainly be using that more, at least for non-set pieces, as I level up. Someone should post that in suggestions (won't be me).

Not just farming, but all play probably would be cut in half. Players need their pellets. "But I'm RIIICH" one of you will respond, I'm talking about the other 95% of players. I kind of like the prior post's conclusion - SOs free, everything else unchanged. The main complaint I hear is "I can't afford to upgrade" from new players and those same player won't have the savvy for how to acquire IOs effectively. So I do like that.

Just for yucks I wanted to remake the above chart to include SOs at the beginning (that chart starts them at 25, now they're available from stores when you're level 2) and I wanted to include +5ed IOs. I have about 4 basic IOs that I've +5ed to use while leveling, like 2 level 35+5 recharge IOs to slot in something like Hasten, or a level 30+5 accuracy for something like Sonic Siphon that doesn't take sets and these have enh values greater than unboosted level 50s. I'll unslot or respec these out at 50. Note - this is not advocating for +5ing sub 50 IOs, especially in a thread that's lamenting a lack of funding, just informational.

I've always like this chart from the wiki

I didn't look at the above revision. You're a long way from perma-PA, fortunately there's lots of opportunity to add in +rch. I'll the medicine picks since you mentioned they were important but I'll change their slotting. Generally when I do build reviews I like to keep the "spirit" of the build rather than making wholesale changes so for the most part I'll keep power choices. I'll go point by point for changes. Blind - the 6th slot gives toxic/psi res which I don't find valuable for Ill. I'll take one slot away to play with (the hold/rch to up the proc rate) Sonic Siphon - not really something I spam on my sonics. Hit a hard boss and move on. It doesn't stack so you've got 30 seconds. I'm going to consider the recharge and end reduction pieces as freebies. Superior Invisibility - great place to add one of our newly available slots, put an LOTG 7.5 here. Injection - I'm skeptical that the +tohit proc works when using this on an ally, but I don't know that for sure. If you're intending to use it as a debuff, it will first need to hit before the proc has a chance to fire. With global accuracy of 33%, against a +3 enemy it will have a 64% chance to hit. I'd slot an acc if you're using it as a debuff, or, I dunno, an end reduction if just on allies, that is if indeed the +tohit proc only has a chance to fire on enemy use. If you can get it from friendlies then sure, keep it as is. Phantom Army - the key to perma PA isn't just high global recharge but local recharge, that is the slotting of PA itself is a major factor as well. 6 slotting Expedient Reinforcement does not get the job done here. I took out the D/E and +resists to include Soulbound Allegiance D/R/A and D/R. This exceeds ED for acc, dmg and recharge but sometimes for perma PA the small gains still matter. Sonic Dispersion - Let's change the res/rch to res/end/rch, it's a an end hungry power. Aid Self - not a great place to include the Pana proc, which will only fire when you using Aid Self. One might say that's when you want the HP boost and that's an interesting point but still, the 7.5% recharge bonus comes from 5 slots so I'm going to take out the proc for later use. Resuscitate - This is an even worse instance of a proc being in a power that will only go off upon that powers activation. Let's change this to 5 Pana pieces for the better recharge. Phantasm - no recharge bonuses to speak of here at all. Let's go 6 Expedient Reinforcements. Clarity - redundant with Injection and Sonic Dispersion. It's just one slot but I think a short slotted spectral terror or flash will provide more utility. Let's loop back to this. Hibernate - another example of a proc that's only going to fire in this long recharging power. Really not adding much upon activation anyway because of how quickly you regen in this state. I'm going to steal the proc slot for now. At this point I've got 4 slots to play with. I'm going to take out Clarity for Flash to use some Basilisks Gaze. With 1 free slot I added Pana proc to health and changed the Miracle Heal to Pana Heal (better values, same bonus). Some before/after results: Hasten (+5d in both cases) 132 seconds to 123 PA 76.5 seconds to 65.2 5 slotted Ragnarok in lieu of Posi Blast results in Hasten at 122.1 and PA at 64.55. I normally shy from alphas that include +rch but that's because I'm a proc abuser. This build is not a proc abuser so you won't be harmed by either agility or spiritual which will supercharge your recharge and get you well in excess of what's needed for perma PA. I would add a request to include a chunk or attach the mids file in the future, otherwise the reviewer has to construct the build from scratch. Controller (Illusion Control - Sonic Resonance) review.mbd

Mission failure would be better than nothing. As is you're simply stuck, unable to proceed which is not an acceptable outcome, period. I have a vague recollection of this that it had been fixed, maybe it was on test and never pushed live. Maybe I'll get my CB rights revoked for mentioning that but it's also possible I'm misremembering (though I'm pretty dang sure there was a fix)

The recharge formula is 1/(1 + Σ(recharge enhancements + buffs)) Here's what it looks like for a power with a 30 second base cooldown with increments of 50% recharge: recharge cooldown 0 30 0.5 20 1 15 1.5 12 You can see that a 50% recharge does not increase dps here by 50%, in fact the DPS increase is decreasing (confusing phrase, I know) with additional recharge. To answer the original question, I take it quite frequently. I'll tend to look at a build with Hasten activated and not activated to see how quickly key powers are available. Sometimes it's a no-brainer, Cold Dom, for example, certainly needs it to perma-ish Benumb or Heat Loss. Out of over 170 fully fleshed out 50s by now I imagine no more than 5 don't have it. The opportunity cost is minimal, one pick, one extra slot, dip into a pool I'm probably going to take the travel power from anyway (superspeed).

I took my latest Planter - a Plant/Marine controller out for a spin. As is, with no respec, I earned a new debt badge rather quickly. A current "standard" plant build is no bueno. Standard meaning no Spirit Tree nor Spore Burst. I did a non-holistic respec to include those powers and omitted 2 "lesser" powers I had included, just so I keep slotting the same for what was in the old and new builds. Including Spore Burst and Spirit Tree did wonders for survivability. I can't say that Spirit Tree was all that impactful, it did draw some stray aggro on occasion but that's not what kept me alive. Spamming Spore Burst was impactful though. This isn't me giving "thumbs up" however. Seeds is still the "bread and butter" and no other control set has their bread and butter opener capped at 10 targets. Changing recharge and duration, fine, I suppose, but the target cap goes too far. Short editorial - Plant is strong, yes but we far from live in the game "city of Plant Control". I've got plenty of other characters that I would use in its place if I were looking for either mass slaughter or control. This happened to be a fun combination of both. It seems odd to me to choose this set for aggressively hitting with the nerf hammer after 20 years, being largely unchanged over that time.

You are not RC (recalling correctly) here. End Mod slotting in Chrono Shift definitely increases recovery for 30 seconds. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=defender_buff.time_manipulation.chrono_shift&at=defender The 15% endurance boost is not enhanceable.

I agree with the sentiment that Merc personal attacks are worth taking, but the actual number is 3.33%, not 33.33%. See the description for Burst, for example. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=mastermind_summon.mercenaries.burst&at=mastermind

Just so you know there's an icon in your buff bar that lets you know if you're playing debuffed. I find it to be a good practice to scan the buff bars for anything unusual. This especially after I was on a MC where the leader had clicked "players debuffed" and it took a couple of minutes of whiffing and drawn out fights before the team said something. That numnut leader - was me! It was a mis-click. I certainly very carefully peruse those buffs when I began a tf now.

I have a Bots/Cold that I played before the p5 changes but I have made an updated p5 build. It hasn't gotten a lot of play since this update but I wanted it to be ready if I did. To OP questions: Nothing in Robots upgrade slotting includes anything that makes me say "did they really mean for this to happen?" like some of the other pets have (no beans spilled from me regarding this). I put 3 Glad Armors, including the unique in Equip and +5d the pieces that enhance resists. One basic heal IO, +5ed in Upgrade. Impervious Skin was tempting but between prot bots and Maint Drone regen really isn't that much of a factor for bots. If Miracle or Numina affected all bots I'd consider them for Upgrade but alas, it's only for prot bots (as noted above, after they heal). To the question of "how did I build it?" 1) Build up some defense 2) Recharge, recharge, recharge. Benumb and Heat Loss have high base cooldowns and it takes a lot to even get them close to perma. Some lucky rolls with FF proc in Pulse Rifle help. I only took 2 primary attacks because I ended up with a seemless chain of Infrig (proc bombed out) >Grenade>Burst. My rating - A+. As for lack of a heal, as a MM it behooves you to git gud at using macro/binds for inspiration usage.

I don't know if talking about other servers abstractly is frowned upon, but one of them allows buff sets to apply ally buffs to the caster. I don't even remember which server it is so I couldn't name names if I wanted to.

I decided to give this a go after seeing this thread bumped up. I've got a LOT of lvl 50 MMs across 3 accounts and many of them Cold. I did a little back of napkin math to see that 3 colds give 67.5% fire resists with no resist slotting, so I just needed to fill in 22.5% resists to get to 90 from 0, which is covered by the one of the two pet IOs granting 10% and the superior Mark of Supremacy resist/regen IO which grants 15%. I fired up an asteroid map with a bots + thugs + demons, all Cold. All the minions checked out to be well in excess of 45% to all the defenses and 90% fire. I didn't monitor time, didn't think it would be relevant given that I wasn't trying to set records, just wanted to experience it. It was... effective. I only resummoned 1 pet for each of the 3 MMs (so 3 resummons total). I did nothing to put a leash on them which I think would have made a huge difference because there were a lot of runners and subsequent chasers and a lot of dispersion amongst the pets. I just kept changing windows to drop sleet and perhaps heat loss. So I think I get the appeal, if I were in a phase of "stuff accumulation" I'd consider this as a means of farming, but those days are long behind and I shan't be doing this again. Most distressing, when I was checking all the resistances of the pets, I noticed one was at 30%, where I was expected 35. It turns out I never made superior the ATOs (3 groupings of 2 Mark of Supremacy, 1 set of 4 Command of MM). Making those superior took 26.25% recharge bonuses up to 40%!!!!!, taking me from "close to perma Hasten" to "easily perma Hasten". This was on a vet level 25 (no farming) so I put in a good amount of time with this character. Ugh, I feel like I shortchanged him all that time.

Real talk - this would just lead to afk PVP farming like people used to do when PVP drops only dropped from PVP.

I would absolutely /signoff on the ability to knock out and carry out a hostage, I'll happily take a -speed debuff (about -10) in exchange.

Stealth does stack, you can see in the first image. 35.5 (AF player 1) + 35.5 (AF player 2) = 71

"Toggle exclusivity" is for A player's toggles not stacking, for example Steamy Mist and Super Speed. It does not involve interaction with other players. All my Stormies happen to be on the same account, but I do have Colds on different accounts so here's the result for Arctic Fog's stealth using 2 different Colds: This one shows def and res stacking for different AFs.

Odd, the top 2 threads in the Corr forum at this moment are about aoe stealth/def/res auras (Steamy Mist and Shadow Fall) and how some players are saying don't take them because Stealth is a better power. I wish it were easy to get them to be more informed, these are obviously not just good powers but even keystone powers. There are just dum-dums out there that want to stay dum-dums it seems. To directly answer the question posed in the OP - Steamy Mist (like Shadow Fall and Arctic Fog) is fantastic and I can't conceive of ever skipping it. All of these even have a "secret" (not really a secret it's in the info but not a primary reason people take these powers) resistance. Mist for confuse, SF for fear and fog for slows/rch debuffs.

I'm a MEGA fan of the Surfer. I periodically do homages to my favorite characters but refuse to do so for Norrin because nothing in game is going to remotely approximate his power. Having said that it seems Energy Blast (or Energy Assault) would be part of the answer.