MTeague

I mean.... anyone who's worked in Customer Service can feel for the poor guy. I forget exactly which ring of Dante's Inferno was Tech Support or working a Service Desk, but It's GOT to be in there, somewhere.

For a long, long, time, I was not an organ donor. It just felt creepy. Who wants to know that, after you die, they're going to scoop out your eyeballs, harvest some lungs and kidneys, a liver, and generally go all Doc Vahzilok on your corpse? It was reading stories like this, over my 20's and 30's that finally got me to tick that checkbox when I renewed my license in my mid-40's. If it's not a theological non-starter for people.... keep stories like Rose's in mind, next time you get that "time to renew your license" email.

Grats!!

6 piece Gaussian *is* quite nice. But on a blaster specifically, it'd be hard not to slot proc for Build-Up into Aim. If you get Aim, of course. My AR/Martial Blaster just shrugs and presses on with just a 100% unslottable ReachForTheLimit, so she might grab tactics and 6 slot it.

Sure. Okay, let's say, for the sake of the argument, and presuppose that some differences ought to be baked in (on the theory that the debuff might be resisted?... though Poison debuffing resistance to debuffs is *mighty* strong....). Small FF Bubbles (not the big bubble) provide +15% defense to allies, and +10% to you. Or whatever scaling the devs felt appropriate to decide that a Buffing Defenders secondary set provided them a commessurate boost that a Debuffing Defenders secondary set provided them. But I do think there ought to be something.

I'm sold. I acknowledge I used to be among the "If you let a FF bubbler use his own bubbles, you have a Status Protected / Def Capped / Slightly Weaker Blaster, that's OP." But a) your arguments are pretty persuasive. and b) "status protected def capped slightly weaker blaster"... *thinks about it some more* *looks at Energy/SR Sentinel* "Huh". Plus the FF Bubblers status protection would not be nearly as strong / cover as many types as the sentinel's armor set. Soooo okay. I withdraw objections to buffers buffing themselves.

Seventeen kinds of NO for this. You can't legislate manners / politeness / common decency. That's really what the issue is here. There's a fundamental disagreement to exactly what the social compact is when you join a TF, or whether or not there's even a compact at all. I don't quit out of TF's for anything less than an emergency. Holdover from EverQuest / WoW days of "If I joined the raid, well the guildmaster scheduled it from 8-11, and I will be here at LEAST until 11, and won't start getting fussy until 11:30." But if for some reason, I really needed to go? Maybe because of a RL emergency? Maybe because I was getting really angry and decided I should walk away before I crossed some lines on what to say and what not? And the game refused to let me log outt? I'd just kill the process on my machine. Or if I'm REALLY ticked off, I'd outright deny electricity to my computer. Sure. Keep my character logged in if that makes you feel better. I still wouldn't be there.

My Ninja/Cold MM is basically Lo Pan from Big Trouble In Little China, but with an Ice Mage twist. I'd love to have a BLUE Oni, instead of a red one. Wouldn't even care if the powers the Oni uses stayed the same. That said, it's firmly in the "it would be nice if" bucket, not anything I consider a Dire Need. But how cool would it be to have some Thugs that looked like mobsters? Or ninjas that looked like Knives of Artemis? Or Beasts that looked like Werewolves/Werelions? Necromancy minions that were more like Apparitions / disembodied spirits for a Soulbinder take instead of a Zombie Lord take? It is probably a LARGE lift, because I don't think they want them being visually indistinguishable from existing enemy mobs. But is definitely a good sized crowd who would squeeeee for joy.

The only thing is Ok, I write an AE story that kills off the entire Freedom Phalanx, and Lord Recluse, and has Captain Mako and the Coralax rise to power. Note: I have no such arc. This is 100% theorectical. But for sake of argument, let's say I did. Such a story is never going to be on par with, and as "legit" as, a developer released story. We don't get to decide Who Will Die in the same way. We can only offer up stories for consideration and enjoyment of other players. But I love the idea of AE missions that are actually Story-Driven, to be available in AE (because why take them away?) and, available "in the wild", like regular contacts, if you chose to Add that group of missions to some kind of Preference List / Bookmark / Favorite. There would need to be some way for the mission writer to say "I intend this to start in the Founder's Falls" or "I intend this to start in Imperial City", or "I intend this to start in St Martial", but I would love it.

Some degree of raid / trial / TF fights to keep things interesting? Maybe. But there should be limits. I served eight years in a raiding guild in WoW. I hung up those gloves, and they're NOT coming back down. I will not do any content that requires me to watch a video to understand key mechanics of the upcoming fight, and requires me to install Deadly Boss Mods or something like that to do sound alerts, and have everyone in the same VOIP channel so a raidleader can bark out instructions to members of the team. Never again. Never.

In the case of Posi specifically, there's also the option to run "Classic Posi" (1 + 2, combined) via Ouroborous. That just has an EB at the end of it. No Archvillain at all. Still counts to Task Force Commander. But... yea.... I have definitely noticed difference in the population numbers when I choose a shard to log onto.

*stands on soapbox* The increased XP/Time from Confuse pays for itself! You can easily tag bosses / lieut's before they die, and honestly, who's even going to NOTICE the lost XP of a handful of minions across a mission map? *yields the floor*

I *like* the Shadow Shard! Butt I also don't mind travel time and I'm one of those players who generally never used /enterbasefrompasscode, and only uses mission teleporters when the team is busting htem out on a regular basis. If travel time is anathema to you, I could see it being an issue.

I mained an Enchanter in many years of EverQuest. Part of me wants something like this. Charming a critter that would rip your FACE off and playing the dangerous game of Hasting it and sending it to kill things for you and being ready with your PBAE stuns to re-establish control? Good times, man. OTOH, that's... sort of... what Confuse is? I don't know DAoC. I know of it, but I never played it. But in EverQuest, there was no Perma-Charm until for the first five expansions or so. ALL Charms in EQ invovled the risk that your charm pet could break from of your control at any time, and when it did, it was going to Hate Your Guts. It would beeline straight for you unless a Warrior/SK/Paladin taunted it off you. And might STILL come at you, if you'd charmed it a few times in a row. Later on in EQ, a permanent Charm was added as an "AA" (alternate xp) ability.... sorta like incarnates? But it was lvl capped, and even at lvl 65, you couldn't permanently enslave any critter higher than lvl 45. So permanent charms.... while tempting from several RP angles.... well, they'd probably be massively OP. Limiting it to "the duration of this map / does not zone with you" would allow some containment of unintended consequences. Would also have some issues with "Defeat All" maps. Can you release it to kill it? Would enslaving it count as Defeating it? All in all, I think I'm.... probably happier with Mind exactly as it is now. Lots of Confuse, but no permanent mental enslavement of a foe. Though I would like to see Mass Confusion's recharge dropped by about 50%.

Personally, I'd prefer a plethora of lvl 44-and-below TF's. But I'd be okay with 1 lvl 44-and-below TF created for every 3 lvl 50 TF's that are created. MOST people will want the max-level-content, or, such is my perception. I'd just like an occasional bone thrown to the non-incarnates.

"Now You Don't"

Not gonna lie. Biggest reason I haven't gotten any P2W pets is the letdown of having a german shepherd and not being able to name it.

Definitely interested to fire up my AR/MC blaster and check out faster cast Ignite / Full Auto. Also, curious to see how Enflame works on characters without a Taunt aura. If they all ignore it can cook, I'll have a couple characters I'll want to use it on just for concept, whether or not it's the most effective attack.

All in all looks fantastic. I foresee some agonized decisions for where I can chisel out 1-2 more slots for Fly Speed. But it's a good problem to have. Also huuuuuge Thank You for the changes to Rooted. I may be able to make a Non-Granite Stone Armor character now. (My OCD forbids Granite itself, I have to see at least hints of the costumes I spend so much time on....)

Clearly the proper solution is to name the new power Stinvisibility. I have more bad ideas too! Available upon request! 😀

My only characters with softcap defenses have defense-oriented powersets. SR, Energy Aura, Ninjitsu, etc. But all my characters generally have decent defenses, which I define as 27-33% range. Close enough to pop a luck or two. For my controllers / doms, ,it's generally not an issue. Within a couple attacks I've locked down the entire spawn and they're NOT getting away after that. Support characters, either I'm using a lot of debuffs, or I'm ragdolling them, or I'm tankerminding and incoming damage is pretty well distributed anyway. For my blasters, *most* spawns solo, I do right fine with mid-range defense, and then pop some Luck's or an Adrenal Booster when Brown Matter Impacts the Rotating Blades. But I honestly don't care if my characters can solo +4x8 or not. It's nice. But it doesn't govern my power selections. Theme > All.

Seriously. I have so many unclaimed respecs from superpacks, I literally don't know what to do with them.

I don't use mids. Never have. I just wing it. very rarely more than 1 respec during 1-50 levelling. Happens sometimes when a power that looks good turns out to be a stinker, but pretty rare. at 50, one respec, not to change the list of powers I've taken, but to massage which powers get how many slots. sometimes another respec after a patch, if the patch changed something very significant to my character. However, I do not do "incarnate only" builds. I do builds that are meant to be played at all levels of content. Take them for a spin, flashback to ANY LEVEL, and it should work just fine. But nothing ever relies on Clarion or Barrier or Ageless, etc. Within those constraints, I do go wild with IO's and slotting for a good mix of bonuses that should serve me well at various levels of play. But a) most of my characters never take the fighting pool at all, b) only about half take Hasten, c) the only once who softcap are characters who have a Defensive armor set to begin with. A lot of my characters will get up to 28% or 32% defense. But 45% or higher? I'm generally not concerned with unless it's an SR or a Ninjitusu or Energy Aura, etc.

Argent Tina Wanda Fire Klonk

I recently rolled up a Psi Melee/Fiery Aura brute, for the 1-20 praetoria grind. It's NOT goin to be all smiles and sunshine and the perfect most complimentary sets. That's not my intent. This is Fun/Concept > All Other Concerns. Though I will be sugar-daddying the heck out of the character with ATO's and misc unique's. I'm deliberately starting behind the 8 ball, so why not. Partly I just want to do a Fiery Aura character who is NOT a farmer, planned around general content and mixed damage types from the word go. Partly I like the look of mixing in a bit of orangy-fire looks into the Psi attacks, and mixing in a bit of purple/psi coloration into the Fiery Aura's. It works for me.