Mezmera

The most sappable arrow is EMP Arrow. I use a couple End Mod/Recharge in that one plus Agility Alpha and have like 117% end mod in that power and it still gets me to like 85% sapping when it drops. Which is funny because on my Tactical Arrow blaster I slot the EMP Arrow a bit the same for end mod and its a full sapper. But I'd far and away take the Trick Arrow version with all that other extra stuff it does.

Yes it's a decent power with that -resistance but for me I go with the Force of Will pool and already have another ST -res debuff in Weaken Resolve. I'm already getting the same effect in another power and with how busy everything is in TA I just wasn't getting to use everything in it. Of all the arrows to me this is the one I found I could skip but most certainly won't fault someone taking it.

The thing about trick arrow is that it's a straightforward build in that if you're looking to IO it with some sort of particularly best set its not really like that. Aside from Ice Arrow you won't get too much mileage out of sets and procs. So you can save yourself a lot of slotting by just chasing the most important attributes in enhancement values especially recharge since you will travel a lot on TA. I take all of the arrows but for Entangling Arrow seeing how even the situational ones like Glue Arrow have great synergy with Oil Slick and EMP Arrow. I slot Ice Arrow with 5 dmg procs and a 50+5 accuracy and use it in my main attack chain so as to always get the most out of the debuffing. Other than that it's kind of a pick and choose what you want to enhance. Slot the -resistance procs where you can is pretty much what else I'd have to say to aim to do for slots. It is a real powerful set especially if you stay aggressive with all of those arrows. You will also want to learn binds for this one. Getting a couple of those target location arrows to auto hit for 20ft in front of my character with a push of a button has really taken the burden off of trying to keep up with all that this one does. As far as secondary I love Dual Pistols on Defender. Your TA will already be doing lots of great -dmg and then chem ammo adds so much on top of that for the tough fights and then you have incendiary ammo you can switch to for additional damage. Dual Pistols looks cool with Trick Arrow and plays well with it. Sonic is good on Defenders too. The secondary you go with you will want it to be fast paced animating to catch up with all of that debuffing you just laid out plus gives some good secondary debuffing value.

I've run tons of Aeon with EV. Easy for you to qualify should you want to know instead of disbelieving in powers you have no familiarity with by calling others crackpots that have plenty of diverse game experience outside of the limited scope that you know. Again, let it go before this thread gets more trimming since this is getting childish again.

Let it go...

I've tested my dom on these arcs. No theories here. Those invisible enemies are still grouped with the other enemies and are just as likely to get hit with a power boosted double applying Contagious Confusion proc'd Mass Confusion which will also instantly control the Elite Bosses. Seeing how EV is back how about you ask how my Mind dom does in the Relentless Aeon since he's seen it up close and personal. That way he can reaffirm my "theories".

Mass Confusion is the only aggroless aoe confuse control. Thanks to Domination Mind doms can instantly confuse packs of critters with no blowback to them if they are especially running a high invisibility build. Then you have things like the Contagious Confusion proc and power boost to maintain a silly amount of control whereas most other control cannot because again they will catch aggro or they will be spending all their time single confusing target after target. I can walk through a lot of these AE missions on my Stealth/Burnout build with ease, just like on Relentless Aeon. The only catch to combat this aoe confuse tactic is to give critters a breakfree ability like vengeance that the Gold Brickers employ but you can still reapply another round of control so as to not overdo it and neuter all control like on the ITF when those Cimerorans shout and are uncontrollable except for slows. So on @Linea's arcs if there isn't a manufactured difficulty slider in a whole pack of 16 AVs then the Mind dom can easily go through these with groupings of EBs and less.

Relentless calls for people to be adaptable and have options to bring in various characters available to use from support, high dps, hard control or a beefy tank. It's highly recommended to have the Destiny Core Barrier to bring, you will want at least a few and at minimum 4 people on Barrier duty if you want to do the special Vanguard fight. Leadership powers are also well recommended. Moving as a team with Maneuvers and Tactics powering everyone should keep the team chugging along. I'll not go off on my own unless I'm on a high invisibility character and will rarely engage on my own because I miss so much more frequently on my own. But I will say this has pushed me to be better on all of my characters. On my dom I know Domination gets me a huge burst of +tohitt for 15s after I reclick so now I will wait to drop all my best control right after. It really comes down to the lead assessing the team makeup and have options available of their own. I have no problem PUGing one of these so anyone that feels up for some fun I'm sure I'll be running this often enough on Excel after the next update drops.

50%

Yes the debuffs and travel are why I slot for the recharge. I get the debuff for say 45s, down for 45s then back with more ridiculous aoe debuffing. You get 15% resist all, 30% end resist and a mez shield for whenever you like and it also comes with the dual feature of -1000 regen for 15s and then 500% for another 30s plus all the other debuffs I won't be bothered to log onto to list. You're basically getting an aoe Benumb along with some real nice team buffing all packed into one power.

Entangling Arrow I find to be the most skippable of all the powers. Flash Arrow is auto hit and against +4 AV/GM's the -tohitt is still real good since half of it is unresistable. You get 70% of the 1st value and all of the 2nd so 13% and lets say 9%, that's -22% tohitt before any powerboosting. That's quite a nice defense shield. Glue Arrow is a nice situational power to keep critters in place and at bay. Ice Arrow is stupid good. Single best debuff you get which is great on AV fights. It also procs real well so load it up with 5 damage procs and a 50+5 accuracy IO. It is now your best ST attack which you will also want to be using for that debuff. Poison Arrow is -50% damage which half is unresisted. So like -40% damage. That's quite the resistance shield. Acid Arrow is crazy good and magnifies everything in TA. Disruption Arrow is -40% resistance... Oil Slick does great dot and also by the way can house a few -resistance procs. Sure the proc rate is low since it's a quasi rain but it's not unlike all the other rains that house those procs. Place this power at your feet and watch everything melt around you since they can't run away because they are glued. EMP Arrow I slot for as much recharge that I can. Not sure where you're getting that it isn't perma since I could maintain 3 of those at a time if the first applications didn't disappear for me. Fantabulous t9 power. There's only so much defense and resistance you can net out shielding characters. The debuffs in TA net you these same type of feel as these shields all without the encumbrance of a cap.

Well I've seen the TA excel the most on a Relentless Aeon in comparison to seeing a few Nature's on my team and an Elec. It's quite a good bar for measuring so if it outperforms on Aeon I'd assume it translates just as well to those made up engagements with packs of AV ambushes since you can maximize your invisibility to choose how and when you want to engage. @Linea's stuff is a decent little test for your character but after a certain point it's just masochism and it's no bar that should be used to judge things by. My Mind dom can just walk through most of those invisibly Mass Confusing mob after mob if I so like so long as I know to be wary of the ambushes there's no real threat to her. I can do those on my dom much easier than any tank can, does that make her better than a tank...? Well yes actually I'd take my dom over most tanks but that's besides the point The dev team did a great job on Relentless Aeon with optimizing the difficulty just right for all comers. If there's a bar I'd use it would be these hard tested Relentless difficulty setting Task Forces which I believe one might be coming that will be right up your alley.

Well you're capable of being up there with the stealthiest characters in the game so you have first crack at how you want to engage. Lead in with a Power Built Up Flash Arrow so you're defenses are magnified then you can always power boost things like Unleash Potential if you feel inadequate then you can commence with laying down all your wicked debuffs. Flash Arrow then get the party started with EMP Arrow when you're ready to fight along with all of those other debuffs and watch everything around you melt with barely any potential scratches. I know Nature is quite good and tanky but all things being equal I'd take a TA first and foremost on something like a Relentless Aeon run if the player's skill level is equal.

It's not just purely a debuff set. You should have a gander at what all EMP Arrow does. Not only is it a great target location debuff but it gives you a self buffing ability with lots of nice resistance, resistance to end drain and a mez shield. What other sets have a self applying mez shield? Then you have Acid Arrow which debuffs unique things like the targets mez resistance and all kinds of other special things that compound on top of all of your other debuffs. Stealth + the Stealth IO = Pretty much invisible. Then toss in Flash Arrow on top of that yeah no ones seeing you. If you're already defense capped and have high resistance what good is more defense and a resist shield? All the -dmg and -tohitt would seem to me to be a much more effective way of magnifying your resist/defense. About the only thing TA doesn't bring is a way to heal but that's what things like Rebirth and the Medicine pool are for.

Yeah I'm a bit surprised too but I take it that most haven't played it much since it is a real busy set. I was tanking the special Vanguard fight on Aeon with a TA/Dual Pistols on the team, the fight felt much easier than any other time where I didn't have a TA on the team. Went ahead and made one the next day and I am not disappointed. The variety of debuffs available in the set is outstanding there's all kinds of tricks in TA's sleeves plus EMP Arrow is such a great power along with being a mez shield. I had to learn binds to get the most out of it but once I set that up it's such a strong fun character to play and making me learn binds only served to make other characters I play easier. The only thing I'd take would be the TA/DP; all that -dmg, -tohitt, -resistance, -regen and Acid Arrow with all of those unique debuffs.

Will there be green eggs & ham?

With my DP Defender I did go with Stealth too for the added defense since I was skipping the Fighting pool. You HAVE to take the Leadership pool on a fender, the values you get are far too good to skip on Assault, Tactics and Vengeance. As far as what all powers I take in DP I have Pistols, Swap Ammo, Bullet Rain, Executioner's Shot and Hail of Bullets. I run pretty much exclusively Chemical Ammo for all of that -dmg unless there's nothing too dangerous then I'll switch to Fire Ammo. Here's how I slot them: Pistols: Full set of Superior Defender's Bastion Swap Ammo: Nil Bullet Rain: 5 of the other Superior Defender set plus a Force Feedback proc Executioner's Shot: 5 of Apocalypse and an Achilles Heel proc Hail of Bullets: 5 of Armageddon and a Fury of the Gladiator -res proc

Agree. I LOVE where Energy is at. Total Focus, Power Burst and Snipe is a vicious ST attack chain that'll give any blaster a run for their money. I'd also suggest Dark control for some serious ST damage output. As far as aoe damage yes the only passable thing is Whirling Hands which they had overtuned when they first revamped Energy Assault which they've since got it undertuned but that's alright Energy is known for being stronger ST damage. When they nerfed WH I just put Darrk Consumption from the Soul Mastery pool into my attack rotation and added more damage ability. Between Soul Drain, Dark Consumption and Dark Obliteration I feel no lack of aoe from not taking the ones from Energy. The knockback in Energy Assault really isn't all that annoying since the best stuff is ST and they get knocked half the time. It's a nice set to slot the force feedback proc but all of the attacks recharge so fast this proc is wasted except for in the snipe which is where I have one.

My favorite assaults are Fire, Energy and Dark they pair well with just about all control sets. Although I don't play Fire I appreciate how strong it is for doms to have a nice ranged blast set like Fire when most assaults are a mix of powers you want to use in melee. Energy is great with the revamp and fits my style very much. Dark is great as well and has great utility with the heal and Gather Shadows. Other assaults are good in their own right but pair well with certain controls and feel underwhelming on others. Psi assault is good for all of that pbaoe damage plus that regen boosting but it feels much stronger on something that already feeds good damage from your control like Plant or Fire for instance. Some assaults I don't like too much because it feels like there's too many good attacks when it'd be better to have 4-6 great powers you must take and the rest you're free to skip. As far as controls there's all kinds of good ones, most do something unique to their set. Dark for instance is a lot better for single target engagements which you can grind into an AV real well. Plant is the bar if you want to start with the best I'd make one of those. Mind is great on doms thanks to all of the control boosting you can achieve through Domination and power boosting which goes well with all of that aoe control. If money is no object I'd get the dom to lvl 30 and build it for perma to see how you like it, plus it gets you well practiced to pay attention to reclicking Domination. Another thing I'd say would be to experiment with the pool powers and Epic pools. You'll want a lot of pools that give you defense powers which some really benefit from a power boosting ability your assault may have. The epic pools I think are the best on Doms, there's lots of diverse power choices to round out your dom. Take into mind that doms are late bloomers, you're control until around lvl 30 and then you start getting your best attacks and the additional slotting starts to pay out. Hope you have fun!

Any heal I take on an armor character I look to 6 slot it with Preventative Medicine too. The set bonuses are real good and play into constructing a better armor character plus its a good way to slot that absorb proc if you're looking for a place to slot it. I also occasionally will slot a full set of Numina for that ranged defense bonus but I like Preventative Medicine bonuses a bit better. As far as True Grit goes I 3 slot it with Numinas so I can make use of that unique and get high enhancement values for more hp then I slot the rest with resistance IOs. Healing back the damage that was just done to you thus doubling the amount of damage it takes to kill you is totally another form of damage mitigation.

I like them both and have both crafted. The regen one is more suited to my tank if I was doing it just for me but the hp buff one seems to me to be more optimal for squishy teammates for the sudden damage spikes, I'm not completely maxed out hp anyways so either one I'm fine with. I'm always teaming on my tank so the hp buff one is typically what I feel gets better use.

Oh that was you? Not sure I want to ruin your fond memories but I had confused a Mito to be your pocket healer so the others were fooled into seeing how well you were doing that way they would jump into the pool too so I could hurry up and leach the reward. Instant Healing just took the blame for it, sorry about getting Regen nerfed all! If its any consolation I got an Accuracy/Mez Hami O.

Why would you want to solo Hami when you can confuse him to raid the Rikti Mothership for you?

Nope. The first time doing the special Vanguard fight in ASF since it went live with some top flight players the tank they brought and we did real well with was a Rad tank. We had a few Colds which I believe fixed the Rad armor weakness. If I didn't feel like Id be cheating on my Shield tank I'd have made one of those, plus I hate the fx of the set. You'll be well off with one of these.