UberGuy

Well, from my perspective you have a myopic view of "moving forward". That's not meant as a dig, though I think I probably can't avoid it sounding that way. But my reason for saying that is that I feel my characters are more powerful in an unqualified way. Outside of DA, they can survive higher difficulty settings beyond just moving the levels by +1. So if I was on 52/x6 before, now I'm often on 54/x6 or even 54/x8.

Inside DA, I am very, very sure I could not survive foes like the BP (and sometimes the Talons of Vengeance) at the settings I am on (again, 54/x6-x8) without my +3 shifts. In fact I am not sure I could survive BP that were +3 to me even if they didn't have +14% to hit me.

So, to me, the "progress" is real and perceivable, and directly related to my additional Incarnate powers.

Also, I don't understand your claim regarding foes with 50% resistance. No matter what resistance the foe has to you, if that foe is 54, the difference in being 50+3 and being 50+1 is that a 50+3 deals 38% more damage. That's not inconsiderable, and I definitely notice that difference on my characters. Is the problem here more Blaster-centric, where even such a large difference in DPS isn't enough to keep you alive because of lack of mitigation?

Yep. That's correct. I thought about that too when I was writing my previous post, but lost it somewhere between being undecided on how important it was to add and plain forgetting to add it.

Note that the Combat Attributes window shows the "bonus cap". Your total damage would be 100% plus that number, so when at the cap, MM pets are doing four times their base damage (100% + 300% = 400%).

Critters have ATs too. As far as I know, all entities that do anything in CoH have the same list of stats, whether we see those stats come into play. Tar Patch has hit points, mez thresholds and mods for +defense. Damage cap is one of those stats. No entity will ever have an infinite damage cap, out side of some fairly spectacular bugs.

There may be exceptions, but I believe the damage cap shown here is typical of all pet entities, even ones that deal damage for ATs with higher damage caps. That means that Burn patches from Brutes/Scrappers and Rain of Fire from Blasters may not be able to benefit from as much +damage as the ATs that cast them can. (This is known to be the case for some of those examples - I say "may" because I'm unsure if any exceptions exist.)

I mostly read the Pylon thread for fun, geek interest and inspiration. I have only rarely gone out and tried to mow something down.

On the note of both inspiration and the times I have gone pylon hunting, I'm fairly pleased though to have numerous melee characters in the 200-250 DPS range despite having things like Cardiac and Spiritual rather than Musculature as their standard Alpha. But I finally picked up T4 Core Musculature on my BS/Inv, combined that with T4 Core Assault, and took him out for a spin today and, by his standards, mutilated a Pylon. I need to build him an Ageless so he can actually do that sort of thing without winding himself halfway through. Rare will probably be fine for my purposes - I usually tote Rebirth or Barrier around for scary foes.

Edit: While I prefer to solo, I clearly have no issue running lots and lots of iTrials. Some of my 50s are starting to groan under the weight of their piles of iSalvage.

Problem Statement
For those fortunate enough to gather multiple Incarnate powers in each slot, managing them in power trays is becoming cumbersome. See below for more details.

Proposed Solution
Create a "slot power" icon. For example, imagine a single power icon for activating whatever Destiny you have slotted, another for summoning whatever Lore you have slotted, and so on.

Detailed Reasoning
First, let me mention that I'm aware that it's possible to create a macro that activates powers in exactly the way I am describing. I already use a keybind that does the same basic thing. The issue with macros is that they do not show you the recharge status of your powers - not particularly helpful for long-recharge clicks. To reasonably view the recharge status, you need the power icon in a tray. The "Powers" UI window is not suitable for this.

Even though we own a potentially large number of powers for any given slot, the "slotting" requirement of Incarnate powers means that only one is available at any one time. Even if all you want it in a tray for is to check on its recharge, you need to either have a bunch of Incarnate powers in trays (most of which are disabled) or to reconfigure your trays each time you change your slotting, neither of which is particularly ideal.

Since Incarnate powers to date that belong in a given slot all share the same recharge time, it seems that a common icon could be used to control whatever one happens to be slotted, and then represent its recharge status.

I realize that the UI and power activation "plumbing" to allow this suggestion may not exist. I am proposing that such plumbing might be a good investment, as our list of Incarnate slots is only going to grow, and long-standing characters are potentially going to accumulate more variants of previous slot powers which they then would need to manage. Having a single icon for each slot would make this much, much easier to manage.

Functional Specification
Something would have to be done with the "slot power" when nothing is slotted in a given Incarnate slot. Perhaps the power icon could become available in your powers list once the slot is unlocked, but would be disabled if nothing is slotted.

It's probably reasonable that we'll get more toys that allow temporary or conditional level shifts. Powers that boost our shifts for a short time or debuff foes with negative shifts for a short time seem quite reasonable options. Adding mechanics that do that in missions, via granted temp powers or effects like the Light of The Well are pretty good examples, because they keep the level shifts from being something you have to bring on your own.

Imagine a "level shift Build Up". Something like that might be reasonable, and yet still actually pretty powerful both defensively and offensively.

As far as I can tell, all the Hybrid versions have variations on these bugs. It sometimes won't turn off, sometimes won't stack, and sometimes you lose the passive. Folks I play with were reporting getting multiple passives going on after slotting different Hybrids.

It's all kinds of broke.

16/no pets is definitely easier, but 24 no pets is still very manageable. It just takes a little longer.

It's going to be so much easier when the various pets can get back into the fray. Yes, even the Mastermind ones.