MTeague

Just remember, it's only while they're in range of Supremacy. So I think about 20 or 25 feet away? I don't remember the exact radius, but we'll definitely notice is FAST if Ninja Bob runs too far away from us to get in a spinning kick. We really will want to charge right in two steps behind our pets most of the time. And if they're split, you're gonna have to pick one group. Still. We kinda already do that for the ATO auras, so maybe not so bad.

Quite nice, thank you. I'm still holding out hopes for dreams on additional MM powersets / new henchmen types, but what we get in this patch is Very Welcome, and ticks off several wish list boxes for lots of people, I'm sure. This one alone: 40% of your Set Bonuses now applies to henchmen that are within range of Supremacy Will be game-changing for several henchmen (Ninjas immediately leap to mind with Defense++), though the MM may need to maintain a solid awareness of Supremacy Range and keep pets on a leash as much as possible. also: The Galaxy City connecting tunnel has been restored. Secured by Vanguard, some familiar-looking heroes fight to ensure the danger brewing in Galaxy City can't leak out onto the streets of King's Row! *Hoooooorb!!*

If the devs want to add this, that is their prerogative. But it's really not difficult to just roll a new alt, nor is it that difficult to max level them to 50 if you want it now-dangit-now instead of enjoying the ride.

That's Consume, not Combustion. Easy mistake though. The nice thing with Consume is the end drain resistance is quite substantial, and stacks. So if you get good recharge, you can basically be immune, and laugh at a crowd of sappers as they all hit you and it Doesn't Even Matter.

Unlike many other MMO's, the content to play during levelling, is very much worth playing. I still rank Ouroborous / the Flashback system as the best thing the Retail devs ever added. AE there will be a fair bit of chaff to sift through. But there are some truly amazing player created story arcs. SFMA ("Story Focused Mission Arc") is a good keyword to search for in the AE navigator. There's nothing wrong with leaving them for last, but don't assume that everything in AE is garbage. (There IS garbage of course, but it's worth sifting through to find the gems after you've done the regular story arcs many times)

I mean, technically you could be walking down the street when a stray gust of wind blows the winning lottery ticket into your face. Then you win (unethically) without ever buying! Re: the OP, I'm not opposed. I don't mind the "wasted" missions, but I run so many missions with "No XP" set, that all the missions kind of blend together for me. I mean, historically, it was all designed this way so that you slowly gain the contacts trust, and then they trust you enough to help with the Big Important Stuff. Which, probably makes some kind of logical sense when you're the equivalent of like a brand new Daredevil who nobody knows yet. When you're OMG it's Superman! or OMG it's Captain America!, contacts should just trust you on sight. Even if they never met him in person before, the citizens of each comic-verse would be thrilled to meet them and deeply grateful for their aid, without being like "Ok, Kal-El, but before I trust you with this, I need you to run up and down the docks punching 30 random dudes from faction X..." And of course, there's still the "screw logic even for the first few levels, sacrifice it on the altar of playability" angle...

When we can "arrest" Hellions with a Battle Axe to the FACE, (or any number of moves that should be instantly fatal to a purse snatcher) less than 100 yards from City Hall, and people just thank us, I don't think the Paragon City court of law is all that concerned. Or possibly, they're afraid of us. And I think many players probably have some kind of character roleplayed as an "I AM the law" type of Vigilante, or at least roleplayed as a "You can't HANDLE the truth!" type of character who honestly does not consider themselves answerable to the PPD, even if they're still registered hero / vigilante to the city. Either way, we get to chop up similar council dudes standing on a soapbox in Steel Canyon or Independence Port. I would not object to them making this recruiter in Brickstown similarly maul-able. But in terms of priority, I would put this about as low as it could go. I'd worry about things like the wierd extra characters consumed in the backstory editor, first. For anything short-term, an AE vigilante themed mission is probably best.

Curmudgeon? I prefer "tenured veteran player eager to dispense advice". 😃 (Even if I am only slightly younger than dirt, and do remember watching the news announce Jimmy Carter being elected President...)

I ignore most events, and have for years. I'm not against events existing even for a month-long period, but I very much play CoH on my terms. An event being live, or not, won't convince me to change the goals I already had in my mind when I logged in. If by "Kill the game", you mean that people aren't joining you in the content you prefer, and that certain city zones "feel dead" to you because of it, well, the best way to get a group is usually to start one. There tends to be plenty of people waiting for someone else to start a group and provide a direction. So be the change you want to see. "Starting mission team! All levels welcome, but will be doing story content lvls 30-38!" isn't that hard to spam into LFG channel a few times. If by "Kill the game", you mean something else, I'm all ears, but I haven't noticed any real fluctuation in server population numbers. Just fluctuations in where people spend their time in game.

Much like Regen, having a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, means you still benefit quite a lot from team buffs. I know, I know, people are used to looking at Empathy or Force Fields as "sub-optimal", but sometimes it can be nice to pair up with a buff-heavy set.

I main'd a Tank in Warcraft from launch until the end of Pandaria. It is true that CoH tanks, and really every archtype in CoH, play very, Very differently from their counterparts in a "traditional" MMO. This is a Good Thing. The brilliance of CoH, is that in the VAST bulk of content, no single archtype or powerset is ever necessary. Want to run with 8 blasters? You can do that. 8 scrappers? knock yourself out. 8 Defenders? Go to. No matter the config, if people are willing to adapt and play nice with others, you can get the job done, and generally have a good time. Now, I will say, when I personally am playing a tanker, I have a few rules of thumb. If the entire group is charging past me, I'll apologize and ask for a buff to fix whatever is holding me back (often END). If it cannot be remedied, i will gracefully bow out and wish them well. If the group is mostly staying together, but 1-2 players charge forward without the team, those that charge ahead are Not My Problem. Whatever they get into is on them. If any player faceplants a lot in the first few spawns, I'll make it a point to keep an eye on them for the duration, and keep punchvoke or manual taunting whatever needs it. (I always take Taunt, it's nice and handy for runners or annoying flyers) How much you need to watch out for teammates varies a lot. An exemplared 50 on a Synapse who has several paragraphs of set bonuses, is probably Just Fine without me. A true actual lvl 17 player on Synapse who is sidekicked up to 20, can benefit from a tank paying extra attention. As with most things in CoH, be friendly, be adaptable, and if something isn't working, be collaborative vs blaming people or trying to lock teammates into certain "jobs". You'll enjoy it a lot more.

Diablo 2, in Hardcore mode, was Permadeath from the word go. That was just part of the risk of choosing that mode of play, and it was one HECK of an adrenilin rush. I didn't really object to the permadeath as such. But in Diablo 2, any and all PvP was nonconsensual. Nonconsensual PvP+Permadeath is a recipe for maximum possible grief. Every Diablo 2 player was, on paper, one of the heroes supposed to be fighting evil. But any player could declare hostility on you, at nearly any time. Even while you were deep in combat and surrounded by other PvE enemies, like Act Bosses. The PvP'ers had to go back to town in order to flag themselves as hostile, but they could still use waypoints to bamph right back next to you, and I'm 90% sure they could use a third players open town portal to get back to the party nearly instantly, too. The culture at the time was generally people joining games with random players, and it was always a "how far do I trust them?". After finding a small cadre of players I trusted, we agreed to us a particular set of password protected games to block out any players except someone we were personally willing to vouch for.

Toxic Dart also works quite well on Controllers / with Containment. No, it's not Arcane Bolt, but it's ... pretty nice.

For me, it's too many bad memories of player-killers in Diablo II Hardcore (perma-death) who would surprise-gank you and laugh that your lvl 57 paladin, or your lvl 73 sorceress, was now permanently dead, and could never be played again, because they lured you into a trap. That left a very, Very sour taste for all things PvP for me, evermore. There are NO circumstances in which I will ever really embrace PvP again, in any game, even when there is no permadeath. I do tolerate PvP and accept the risk of being ganked just long enough to acquire a Shivan Stone or a Warburg Nuke. But I grab them off-hours, only, and I do not linger once I have them. So far, that's been enough and I have never actually been attacked in either zone. But make no mistake, that's not embracing PvP, that's tolerating it just long enough to get a shiny. As far as That's true if and only if they were to change PvP to match PvE. If they were to change PvE to match PvP, I would very much consider that an issue.

Honestly, I hadn't thought it through for Dominator secondary, or for a Blaster secondary. Certainly the punch-powers from Luminous Blast / Umbral Blast are low-hanging fruit for the melee attacks. Umbral would probably get more on the Immob side of soft controls, or very-short-term holds, as per Gravimetric Snare / Gravity Well. Luminous would be more knockback focused, I'd think. Though really both Blast sets do have their fair share of Knockback powers.