MTeague

This right there is something I wish could be changed. I'm not really holding out any hope. I suspect changing that to remember you were a Praetorian Warden who has become a Primal Hero and still show BOTH alignment icons would be.... non-trivial. But man oh man I wish it would remember these things. And yes, I do say "Warden" and not "Resistance". Not all resistance are heroic, and not all loyalists are villains. I really wish it could capture which of the four you are at the end of the praetoria 1-20, even if it only does so by "you used the mission from Provost Marchand to go to primal earth, so that's Loyalist, but you chose to go to the Rogue Isles, so we're going to say you were POWER, whereas if you had gone to Paragon City we'd tag you as RESPONSIBILITY". Another thing to add to my Endless Wish List Bucket.

I vote Derek!! * For a Clueseau-eque stumblin-bumblin-fumblin his way to herodom! ** * not a real suggestion ** but it would be funny

Well the good news is they have pretty much zero incentive to actually REMOVE any existing animation option. So I imagine Nightfall will always have the pew-pew-pew as the default, whether or not it gains more choices later.

I like Torrent. No, I don't reach for it as a damage power, but KB is still very nice to buy time and act as soft control / mitigation. Yes, when not soloing I take care to use it to shove things into a corner, but an enemy that is on their butt is not attacking you or anyone else. And I just like the look of them being swept away by a black mire. Nightfall, I just wish the animation didn't include the... for lack of a better term... "Dark Bullets". I'd rather an animation that has exactly the same time as it does now, but included one sweep of blackness vs pew-pew-pew with shadow bolts. Still. Animation issues, hopefully, in time, can just be a matter of adding additional choices when the devs think it's a good time to add some.

I ... am probably being contrarian. But I like that the names ARE unique. I get that it can be depressing when you cant' get the exact spelling you want, and that spelling MATTERS to you, either because of historical connections to live or character concept or both. But I'd be a little depressed to join a team of 5 players all names ShieldyMcPunchFace. (or being less snarky, all named Firethorn, or all named Glacier Girl, etc). I kind of like that people have to stretch a bit to think of something.

Just keep in mind, even under the outline I've seen for Name Releasing, if the character is lvl 50, it will not be released. Also, while you may view the name as "your" old Virtue name, it's entirely possible the name was claimed first by someone who sees it as "thier" old Freedom or Guardian or <server goes here> name.

I would like a "Leash" temp power to forcibly drag an escort NPC along even when Steamy Mist or similar AE stealth power is active. Or alternately, an option to bonk the NPC over the head and do the Fireman's Carry with them. None of the others bother me, but I am Map Clearing Fool. Have been ever since Diablo 2, when I was convinced the 1-2 mobs I missed on a map would of course drop the item I most coveted at that moment.

I do not powerlevel, will never powerlevel, and generally disable XP anytime I join a team. It's important to me to control the pace at which my character level, and to feel like each character's journey is under my control. That said. I have nothing against people who do choose to powerlevel. I may look at you askanse from time to time, saying to myself, "okay you just powerlevel and powerslotted 73 toons.... what are you actually going to DO to enjoy the game when you run out of characters to PL?". But it is your decision to powerlevel if that's your thing, not mine. I do not think any changes are needed "to save the game" or "to preserve the health of the game". If some players prove to be flash-in-a-pan and gone, that's their choice. Absolutely nobody is in any way beholden to take any single action to benefit someone else's enjoyment in this game. But I will say, if you can only enjoy this game if you have quick access to 8 man teams at the drop of a hat, I do wonder just how long this game will serve your wants. I find it far easier to become satisfied with the game by focusing on my characters personas, backstories, making choices not on what proves most beneficial but on what FITS that character, etc. I invent personalities for each character, I know which of my characters look up to which, which disdain which, which characters are Serious Business Heroes, and which are superpowered pranksters with a good heart. By so doing, it doesn't MATTER to me if I solo or team at any given moment. And so I'll enjoy this game for the duration. No matter how populated or not the server is.

My thoughts For Overwhelming Overpower (additional control mag), I'd need to play around with it somewhat before I can give a full-throated endorsement. raw proposed numbers don't translate well in my head to the feel of how it would play in practice. But I'm cautiously optimistic that it can be made to work well. For Overwhelming Overkill (chance to insta-defeat), it's simply not a thing that I feel is needed. Killing Bosses and below is not an issue for my Mind/Kin. Even for EB's or AV's, I can dish out enough damage.... if I can reliably establish CONTROL. Now, that said, my Mind Controller is, as stated, MIND/KIN. And Confuse is my hands-down favorite form of control in the game. Between Confuse and Mass Confuse, I do not lack for options to have clouds of foes defeat quickly each other at my behest. And with Terrify and Cross Punch, I don't notice any XP loss at all. It's really the Purple Triangles of Doom that are only brick wall my controller runs face-first into. Single hard targets that can't be reliably controlled but which can take me down in a disturbingly short time. When I'm faced with the Envoy of Shadow, I generally make a sad face and die, until I remember to go get myself a Shivan, speed boost the shivan, spam Transfusion and try to keep the Shivan standing before the Envoy can melt it. If the Shivan dies, I follow within seconds. If not, I win. I find that type of victory terribly unsatisfying, because at that point it's not MY powers making virtually any difference. If I spam cast controls between Tranfusions I can sometimes control the Envoy for approximately 10 seconds before purple triangles take over again and break him free. I get that all developers have been averse to City of Statues if Controls were made tooooo strong. But establishing Control is the only way a Mind Controller can solo anything. So far my solution to this, is grin and bear the use of Shivans for certain edge cases when I'm on a flashback marathon, or teaming. If I have greater ability to lock down through Purple Triangles, even if that ability is ONLY active when truly SOLO, then I'd feel more like I can walk into any missoin, anywhere, and emerge victrorious. That said, "teaming" is not really a dirty word, and it's not the end of the world if the devs decide there is no good solution and some things just require certain combos to team vs solo.

Largely true. However, it's noteworthy that under the current rules, the Lockdown, Chance of +2 Mag Hold is a virtually guaranteed proc in an AE Hold. Now the AE hold is simply not going to be up every spawn. Even with really good +Recharge. There's limits. And it's still not going to be enough for an EB / AV. But it does make for a nice opener against a regular bosspack. And certain control sets can do Hold - Sleep - Hold, and the sleep will park a boss for long enough to get that second single target Hold off. If Confuse / Decieve is on the table, I believe most single target Confuses are non-aggroing. Soloing, My Mind/Kin will AE Hold (if it's up), Fulcrum Shift, followed by Terror / Psychic Toranado to tag all foes with damage OR AE Sleep, Confuse boss, Confuse Boss, Fulcrum Shift, Terror, Psychic Toranado, Then standard single target lockdowns and Crosspunch

It's been true if every MMO ever. Gnome Warriors were legendary anklebiters in EverQuest.

While it's not related to naming, for headcanon purposes, I've always pictured it that when my Peacebringer talks, you hear both voices, a human voice and an alien voice, in stereo.

the quick answer is of course "it depends". If your powersets include powers that already give you a good chunk of positional defense (Super Reflexes, Ninjistu), then focus on stacking positional defense. If your powersets include powers that already give you a good chunk of typed defense (Ice Armor, Energy Aura), then focus on stacking typed defense. If you start with nothing (blaster, etc), then I personally prefer focusing on Positional defenses, because there's only 3 kinds (melee, ranged, aoe), whereas there's lots more typed defenses. But there are people who will say (and are probably right) that because certain types of attacks are vastly more common, you may be better off stacking typed defense, because if can max evne a few of those types that can cover all positions of when that type is in play. Just be aware if you do start with no defense from your primary/secondary, you probably can't softcap ALL typed defenses.

I suppose there's also the issue of impact on any changes to Pets, too.

this is really where I feel it should be addressed. I don't think the end drain powers need to be buffed per se. I do think enemies should actually need to have the correct amount of END before they can activate a power, same as the players. now, sure, it may take several rounds of finessing to strike a balance the devs are happy with. Maybe enemies should have to pay same endurance cost as players, but boosted recovery, if that's something that allows you to maybe delay them from attacking with some end draining, but not necessarily city-of-statues on 50 mobs all at once just because you used one "Short Circuit". And maybe mobs should get a 50% endurance discount if that helps balance things. But the whole "Oh, I have one teensy sliver of END, therefore I can fire off my nuke" is .... kinda bullcrap.

well... here's the thing. the "among the worst" sets? Still WRECK FACE. People rag all over /Regen and how it's horrible and everyone should just reroll Willpower. But you can make a *very* durable /Regen character who still invokes Full Terminator Protocol. "He'll find her. That's what he does. That's all he does! You can't stop him. He'll wade through you, reach down her throat, and pull her f***ing heart out." People rag all over Electric Blast or Assault Rifle and how they're the Worst Blast Set. But they still melt spawns and most groups are never really going to notice the difference in kill speed. Now if you are a Speed King, and you literaly set timers and measure speeds of map clear? Okay. You might notice. I bet quite a big chunk of the player base doesn't time it, and won't really notice. It's just received wisdom that certain sets are bad, even though they work right fine for how most people play.

I think I understand your position, and I can respect it. I just don't agree with it. As long as anyone can solo pretty much all story arc content on any character, I don't think they should necessarily have the same experience on every character, or have the same set of weaknesses on every character. I think it's good that some characters face "can openers" that others don't. I think it's part of what keeps the game interesting. I really don't have a problem with certain Powersets being unable to provide mez protection to themselves but being able to buff the rest of the team, or certain AT's just never ever getting mez protection at all (until incarnates, and I can go verse and measure on what I think of them, but this isn't the topic for that.) By all means, you have every right to push for such changes and argue for them. I'm just um... *cough* gonnahopethatfailssorryman *cough*

QFT It should be noted, that <ObiWan> From a certain point of view</ObiWan>, even Blasters are entirely unnecessary. Sure, they kill stuff fast. But everyone can deal decent damage. and its' rare that speed MATTERS. Even if you care about clear times, if you've ever been part of the glory that is an All Defender Task Force, you still steamroll things mighty fast. Is your AT "not needed"? Sure. Neither is anyone else's.

no objection, but I can't stay I've ever really noticed / cared about the dust.

I get what you're saying. But I can honestly say I disagree with you post completely. prophecy and destiny being part of the world is not the same as "its the sum total of everything". I can also honestly say, I would probably never play any game you produce. But hey. Lots of people would not play any game that *I* ever produced. So there is symmetry.

I've long looked at AE as a venue for perhaps crowdsourcing new "official" story arcs. If I was the developers, one of the first things I'd have done was add a checkbox, which STARTS UNCHECKED, because really, that's how it should be, that says "If you check this, you give the devs permission to harvest this AE mission and convert + modify it to become official content, if they choose to do so." I mean, it's all a private server, so maybe they could already technically do anything they darn well pleased with any AE mission at any time. But it would keep a lot of feathers unruffled if it were done on that basis. And for all I know maybe there even IS already such a checkbox? I keep meaning to play around with Mission Creators and ... keep loading up other things instead.

Agree 100% I would however, be perfectly on board with it using my characters powersets and costumes to appear as an actual NPC to be fought in someone else's mission. Where I would not be in control of that clone at that point, it would just be the AI doiing it's best to use what powers it thought were most useful at any given moment. Looks like @FoulVileTerror already posted that idea 13 hours ago. Man I gotta learn to read the whole thread before reacting and posting lol.

yea. My preferred solution would be to eliminate void skiff, rocket board, etc as P2W powers, and put the animations in place as an alternate appearance / Power Customization choice for Fly. So you'd still have to take "Fly" as a power in order to fly, but if you want to suddenly sprout a Raptor Pack whenever you activate fly, you could. I am however, aware of the current limitations on combat animations for things like Rocket Board. I hope someday that can be addressed, and then also made into a Power Customization for Fly. I do have a rather extensive "It would be cool if..." list that will probably never be done.

Chains (I think) should be just one alternate weapon look for a Whips set. <Obligatory 'Whips and Chains' joke goes here> I'd like a variety of such looks, to allow for an Indiana Jones bullwhip, or the Desdemona fire-whip, to something like Spawn whipping a length of chain around a foe. I wouldn't mind a Hawkman Ball-and-Chain.... .... but perhaps that should be under War Mace. I have no idea how much resources and time that would take to produce. I suspect it's not trivial just to decide what types of attacks would make for a balanced set comparable to other melee sets, and then produce the animations. I suspect we're talking a serious time investment. There is a fair bit of demand though, evidenced by the Petless-Demon-Summoners.

Somehow I missed this thread all year long. I gotta say, I ... will have to roll up a Kinetic Mele Scrapper, just based on the original post alone.