Nyghtmaire

@aethereal Thank you for your post and clarification of your solution. The suggestion appears overbroad, to address of small set of issues, I.e. IO set bonuses, softcap targets, playing through more controllable environments (s/l enemies without accompanying debuffs of any serious nature). Certainly, market fixes have created more easily attainable “amazing” builds. Is your proposal Overall, the proposal is a widespread response to a minimal problem. First, the theoretical target player (or more precisely, character), is less prevalent than forums would suggest (while merely an anecdote, I’ve come across more masterminds than I care to count that don’t take the level 6 and 32 upgrade powers in-game. These players are not the target in your proposal. Nor are the number of melee ATs that are running with basic IOs or a smattering of frankenslotted sets). Second, the game itself provides sufficient levels of challenge and increasing difficulty for those who choose to play it. Ouro settings, spawn size and level selection, enemy selection, etc... Choice matters. When players are routinely farming Carnival groups, for example, there might be a cause for concern. Though I have seen one advertised on Everlasting, but now most “high challenge” groups seem to focus on AE 801 runs. Third, like challenge selection, build choice matters. A great strength of this game is the presentation of meaningful choices. This includes building for defense softcap, resistance At-specific hard caps, sufficient recharge for either attack chains or “important” long-recharge powers, while balancing HP goals, regeneration, debuffs, procs, and endurance. (I recall the discussion earlier in-thread re diminishing returns for recharge/side issue. In a vacuum you’re certainly correct. I’d suggest that recharge is only valuable in tightening an attack chain or making permanent a long click power. Any recharge over those goals is wasted - like extra defense - unless building for protection against slows. Again, much like added defense can substitute, albeit less effectively, for DDR). May I recommend you check the detailed work going on the Tanker (and by extension, scrapper) forums to assess survivability metrics. Much of what your suggesting/discussing is being deconstructed by the active posters in those threads. As one very small example (which also addresses the relative value towards survivability when one exceeds an identified softcap as a way to approximate DDR):

David Bowie - Alabama Song (for @Heracleafor that Mack the Knife song earlier)

Soul’s key power is Oppressive Gloom - good for minion mitigation but doesn’t work too well with hovering/flight. OG does provide an interesting layer of mitigation, and stacks with the disorient in Howling a Twilight. The AOE Immobilize is useful as the only one available to MMs containing a -KB tag. Also a good power to slot the TAoE -res proc. Depending on play style, that may or may not be useful to your build. For addressing your pets’ endurance issues, frankeenslotting end reduction is a reliable way to go, allowing access to either Barrier or Clarion as your go-to destiny. Cardiac is another option, helping all of your powers (letting your skimp on end reduction), helping your pets, and boosting the tier2 demons resistance shields and shadow fall (along with tough and/or your patron shield if you took a resistance shield). Lots of ways to build a demon/dark. For pet slotting, there are many good approaches on the boards. here is one for demons/storm One for demons/dark And demons/time As you can see, there are some similarities that bubble up in the pet slotting from the discussion. good luck!

Perfectly encapsulates this proposal. Issue spotting and definition was skipped.

Blood on Saddle - Please Quit Calling me from Jail

Re Supremacy, one proposal from another thread addresses the slot tax masterminds experience, specifically: Add the aura buffs from ATOs to Supremacy, rising in effectiveness from level 15-50 until it is at the same strength as they are now (credit to Everfreefire, et al. for this one) The TLDR summation, addition of scaling (by level) AOE defense and resistance to Supremacy specifically targets survivability challenges inherent to all pets, as well as the AOE “problem” from bodyguard mode (when in BG mode, pets caught in the effect take damage individually and as an unresistable share from the player). This also permits a bit more flexible slotting for pets rather than going down a shopping list of IOs. As always, thanks to @Monos King and@Galaxy Brain for all the work on the linked thread(s), and @Everfreefire(and the rest) for the specific idea. Highly recommend review for the mastermind-specific balancing discussion.

And procs can turn a barely no-damage, team-only combination into something playable at a middling difficulty solo. My procc’d Earth/Sonic Controller can now keep pace with an unprocc’d defender, at 0/3 nonetheless!

Full agreement. In addition, Bonfire with the Force Feedback proc (usually clamped at 90% unless the power’s recharge is also slotted to the max) supercharges your global recharge right at the beginning of the encounter and on each successive cast, which is usually when you benefit from more recharge. Generally, I’m finding *more* recharge *more* valuable in combat that when out, but that’s a big YMMV perspective. I appreciate the discussion in this thread about the relative mitigation value of bonfire + cages vs. bonfire with the KD conversion. I think the opportunity cost of additional damage (with KD), e.g. keeping mobs in the patch, outweighs mitigation for a controller in most instances. However, OP had a good use for the power without the IO for her/his play style. Different strokes and all!

Second Intuition, especially if you’re slotting any procs. The global recharge from your Alpha will reduce the chance that proc goes off.

“Dang, I’ve proofread this [item] too many times,” said no one, ever.

Pistol Annies- Hell on Heels

I appreciate seeing everyone’s approach to this process. For me, I build as I go, hoard purples for later that drop for my small number of 50s, and expect each character to pay their own way after ~10 million or so gift (mainly Panacea proc and maybe, MAYBE another 1 or 2 IOs, the rest being an outright gift). If I don’t like a character by about level 20, then their slot is recycled for another concept. I respec fairly often, so level 25 IOs are often passed between characters as they cycle through the leveling process. By the time I get to ~43 -45, I’m filling in my level 50 build I’ve been working towards for some time on the self-funding model. Trading merits for converters, flipping IOs after roulette on the market, etc...

Decent for leveling though it comes late. The remainder, not junk, benefit is the availability of a different range of recharge bonuses from healing sets.

In defense of farming, it is an elegant solution following an analysis of game mechanics towards an identified goal. No difference from this play style (and discussion) and, for example, the Scrapper Pylon thread analyzing single target DPS and breaking down theoretical attack chains. Identify a problem/issue, work out the maths, and apply the tools of the game to address the issue. I understand the qualitative preference of a player determining they *like* farming or not, and these points are two wildly different things. @Hyperstrike, you hit the nail on the head that this development was foreseeable and utterly predictable. That said, all for a more robust search function for players to locate AE story content. And a big thanks to all the creators/authors of such content. I’ve seen some inspired missions that have been an utter joy to play. While I’m here, may I redeem one AE coupon for two signature story arcs? Is this the right number.... hello...hello? ....you’re breaking up.... Only between 8 and 4?....But it’s 8:30 now...mountain time?!? ... Is there a supervisor ...*you're* the supervisor?.... I wouldn’t expect a supervisor to use that sort of tone...yes.... uh huh....right.... Fine, I’ll hold *click*

In that vein, there needs to be a brute and tanker MA supergroup called “The Adverbs.”

I love the premise and the design goals. This approach accentuates the strengths of the AT, providing greater play flexibility in the general game as well. In light of the above, do you envision a range-cap focus, or plan for more broad-based levels of defense and resistance (leaning on teammates having defense powers, maneuvers, etc.). My very limited experience in this AE mission - and truly, only on the lowest difficulty - stressed target selection and positioning. And the villain alignment power (frenzy) is a real boon following the inevitable/likely death to refill domination. That said, it certainly let me fall in love with my fire/fire dom again. And yes, the melee centric focus of my build was a disaster, so back to drawing board for a more range-focused build.

Ugh. I misread the title from my phone view, thought this thread was about Secondary choices for “debt”... Edit: My two favorite secondaries with debuffing are ice and mental. (I don’t have experience with any other secondary other than fire or atomic to comment on). /ice has a sleep and a hold in addition to -recharge and slows all over the place with a PBAOE -dam. /mental has a decent -regen (though really only useful against AVs and GMs). Both require being up and close and personal, so it would come down to a play style preference.

the Wedding Present - Dalliance

Sign me up! And thank you @Solarverse!

Unrelated to the topic, congratulations @MTeagueon your elite status!

If the spawned zombies were healed by Judgement powers, that would solve a lot of concerns expressed on these boards... Great idea overall!

My spouse has been listening to Sinead nonstop for 2 weeks. I’ve been enraptured with this live performance (“Nobody moves, nobody gets HURT!”) S.O’C: The Emperor’s New Clothes (live)

When I played Mercs pre-shutdown, I ran it with /pain and an S/L defcap tankermindbuild (Mace Mastery). It was ... adequate? Most of the time was spent micromanaging the pets for placement, so it turned into a chore after awhile. Definitely not a character to zone out with. If you choose to go this direction, feel free to consider the following. Build goals will be a bit easier to reach defensive benchmarks and enough recharge to bring anguishing cry and world of pain up to permanency on Homecoming. Painbringer helps with the Commando’s damage, but it’s not a game changer by any stretch. Web envelope WAS helpful. The pets will have some serious challenges for slots. If you take tactics with world of pain, you can skimp on accuracy (with the end challenges that come with it, basically a choice between tactics or assault). Still need room for the def/resistance IOS. Likely prioritize the resistance uniques to build on top of world of pain’s resistance if you have to drop some. Achilles -res procs in the soldiers, along with at least on -def set damage proc. Here are the pets’ resistances (from last I checked): Mercenaries Soldiers: 25% Smash/Lethal Resist -33.33% Confuse Duration +2.0 Confuse Protection Spec Ops: 26% Smash/Lethal Resist -33.33% Confuse Duration +2.0 Confuse Protection Commando: 26% Smash/Lethal Resist 6% Toxic/Cold/Fire Resist -33.33% Confuse/Terrorize Duration +4.0 Terrorize Protection +2.0 Confuse Protection At level 50, MM pet uniques will add 35% resistance of all three are selected. With World of Pain, those are respectable S/L numbers, and decent resistance for everything else. I never got around to crafting incarnates so I can’t comment on that aspect. Good luck and let us know what you pick!

Sisters of Mercy - Some Kind of Stranger

for @Ashington The Dickies - Toxic Avenger