MTeague

I'm willing to work with changes. But I have to ask, if only to throw the monkey wrench.... What is +Absorb going to really DO for force field? I agree, thematic. I agree, would not face the "but I don't need any more +Def" you see from max-kitted-out-players at lvl 50. HOWEVER... if said lvl 50 softcap players are not being hit in the first place.... are they even going to NOTICE an Absorb Shield? Are you just trading one defensive bubble they don't need for another defensive bubble that they don't need? I'm fine with "well the current model has too many issues we have to try something" but... I'm far from convinced this will make people say "I have a fever, and the only cure, is more force fields!"

Virtually anything that can be suggested is technically possible, given enough time. The devs will choose what to act on, and what not, based on what they think is the best use of their time, AND, based on what they think is the best direction of the game, AND, how long it takes the changes to happen is impacted in no small portion by thier own real life demands on thier time as well. For what it's worth, you've made your stance very clear, and IF the devs agree with you, you've clearly articulated what you want and what you don't want. I think what you're asking for is a gargantuan lift. Perhaps I'm wrong. I don't have the code, and I'd likely need weeks at a minimum (more likely months) to get up to speed with it even if I did. But I do think @Without_Pause is spot on with the issues for adding a +5 difficulty. And honestly, just cranking up the numbers on existing enemies to make them more "bullet spongy", to me, is a Boring As Hell way to increase difficulty. What I prefer is something like First Ward / Night Ward. Where enemies have access to many more powers, and many more effects to ruin my day, and where I need to actually be strategic in how I handle them, and careful not to grab too many at once. I personally would LOVE to see most mobs get First Ward / Night Ward treatment. So that you'd think twice and three times about charging into a big pile of Crey or Circle of Thorns or Council. But that, I also think, would be a gargantuan lift. Rewriting all the enemy mobs to have access to more powers, keeping a thematic feel, and still making it possible to beat them with good tactics would require tons of meetings, tons of discussions, tons of testing, etc. I want it to happen. But I don't expect it to happen. So when asking for things on that scale, I label them accordingly.

Brief Off-Topic: I would love to see "Kick" from the Fighting pool have an additional option for animation, to look like Thunder Kick. no boost to performance of Kick, but just look different. On Topic: absolutely love @Redlynne's suggestions. /signed if for whatever reason you did not want to do that, then it might make sense to look at where to squeak in some more AoE. I do not think it needs additional AoE with Redlynne's suggestions. A melee-control by stacking low-mag stuns would be great, but I can see that more AoE plus stacking stuns would be a bit much.

That's a fair point. I don't like what the wider industry has done with them. But Paragon Studios did maintain the subscription option the whole way through.

CoH is unlikely to forever vanish, given that the code is on the web, and a number of people have squirrelled away copies of it for safekeeping. Me personally, I can only allow myself to play here, and only because Homecoming is trying to become legit, in talks with NCSoft. If those talks fall through, I have a serious moral quandry to deal with. I am a programmer. I make bank because of copyright and intellectual property. I can justify playing here to myself because Homecoming has NOT received a cease and desist, and telling myself (and talking very very fast as I do....) that as long as the talks are ongoing, it's aboveboard enough. If they failed... by principle I'd have to stop playing. I don't know I'd be able to follow through on that. And I hope I never have to find out. I'm really really really hoping the talks either succeed or remain in limbo for at least a few more years. But it would be the right choice for me to make. Anything else really stretches any plausible "How can I earn a living as a programmer and still justify this?" too far.

I would say rather, if the people who are running this game have already made the decision to look at Titan Weapons and adjust it in a manner that they see fit... this evaluating has already been done by the available coders, and they have chosen a path closer to that laid out by @Twisted Toon than your own proposal. You have every right to feel disappointed, you have every right to ask that another path be taken. But at the end of the day, if the HC devs choose to nerf it, it's their call. Not mine, not yours, not @Twisted Toon's.

Exactly. This right there, is why I will never buy any game with microtransactions ever again. It's why I set aside City of Heroes in the last year it was up (and then KICKED myself severely for missing out on it's last year....) Microtransactions are never neutral, it always ends up driving the playstyle and game balance to hit your wallet instead of being fair play. I'll gladly play games with a one-and-done cost, or with a monthly subscription, or with a donation model. But never microtransactions.

Ultimately, it's your call. And me personally I would take any set that I think fit the character concept, regardless of performance concerns. However. If you are aiming for max performance... consider Psi. Link Minds should get you a nice 6% (or more!) defense to all to your entire team. That will mesh quite nicely with Energy Aura, making it much easier to softcap your defenses at high levels. Or just giving you some leeway for defense debuffs. I can't quite get Link Minds perma'd on my Plant/Psi/Psi Dominator, but it's very close. Even if you build less for recharge, and have say.... only 60% uptime with it... that's not bad.

I'd rather spend my money sugar-daddying my alts with IO's and particular uniques vs buying them temp status protection. Plus, and okay this is personal opinion only.... I just feel... cheesy / cheaty... using things like Defensive Ampliefier. Like, my squishies are to supposed to have to deal with things like holds / sleeps / etc from enemies. But generally speaking, I'm often illogical. Also, yes, I typically set my notoriety and would never consider adjusting it downward as I flashback, not unless I convinced it was Simply Not Possible to defeat via any other means. Lowering difficulty on missions, for me, is a Giant Hit to Ego / Pride. (again, I'm often illogical)

Unleash Potential is one of the 10 minute cooldown / lasts about a minute buffs. It's by no means meant to be up all the time. It's meant to be an "Oh-Sh**" button, or something you pop right before an AV. You may also want to check out Adrenal Booster in Experimentation pool. (Just be aware you can't have both)

Conceptually interesting. I like that it has no pet (though others may despair at that). it may be a bit limited with darn near everything being melee range. Somethign would be needed to make up for that hassle. On the other hand, you have almost every power as a damaging power, which is quite unusual for a controller. So maybe that's what makes up for it. I'd certainly want to pick up fly or super jump pretty early to handle things that stay airborn.

Epic Pools are a wierd mixed bag on Sentinels. So far I very much like them. But they have a different assortment of options than most other epic pools. I am a slave to character concept, so for my Fire/Fire sentinel, I could only take Fire epic pool. But it fits him. I'd really WANTED a sentinel on live but they didnt' exist. So on live, he was a corruptor. Using the Fire epic pool gives him a decent melee attack, and Fire Cages and Warmth, which he'd had in his prior incaration as a corruptor. (pretty sure on the cages anyway....) Psi epic for Sentinels: Mass Hyp is situational; better for soloing / bypassing trash than for groups. Mind Probe is a solid strong melee attack. Dominate is an excellent hold, and Quite popular for Proc-Slotting. Psychic Shock Waive, I'm guessing is probably a weaker version of the Psi Assault T9 power, but it's very nice. Fast recharging, Fast animating, very strong -Recharge, decent Stun effect. Link Minds is not quite the Fortunata Mind Link, but, it's STILL a very nice gift of +Defense to yourself and to your entire team.

This is good advice regardless of AT or powerset. You will burn more endurance attacking many times during a fight than will EVER be consumed by your toggles over the duration of that fight. My rule of thumb is: Get your bread-and-butter powers up to (around) 4 slots each. Depending on AT that might be only 3 powers, or that might be 5 powers. Really depends what is your bread-and-butter. For my Fire/Fire/Fire sentinel, it was Flares (Which I later respec'd out of, Fire Blast, Fire Ball, and Blaze) For my MM's it's the Pet Powers, and a FEW supporting powers in secondary For my Mind Controller, it's Mezmerize, Dominate, Confuse, Levitate. etc Once the bread-and-butters are decently slotted, then start alternating 1 slot to a secondary, and 1 slot to a primary, OR, 1 slot to a pool power, and 1 slot to a primary, to gradually build up a little bit of depth. When you hit the 30's and start getting 3 slots per level, and more levels that are slots vs powers, that's when you really start to backfill.

Now, I do think Teleport pool is overdue for a rework. Unless they plan to totally remove the Base Teleporter slash command / macro, and NOT put anything in it's place, then Long Range Teleport is entirely obsolete. No one is going to spend THREE power choices to get what a macro can do for free. Teleport, I have no issue with the End cost. My controller can zip north/south across Independance Port without running out of end (although, admittedly, it's pretty close). But I do have an issue with the animation time, and the enforced hover effect. I think that's a holdover from the days of Dial-Up Internet and really bad connection speeds. I'd love to see regular teleport just BAMPH you more along the lines of Jaunt from the Experimentation pool. (only, able to just keep casting no cooldown) Teleport Other is very niche. Can be useful when soloing to thin minions away from a boss before aggroing the boss. But no team will ever wait for this. Recall friend is similarly niche. It would become more useful if the Base Teleport macro were removed, but I have given up hope that that will ever happen. Still useful to yoink people across the Shadow Shard, or to grab the team leader if he was busy recruiting other people while the rest of the team moved to the next mission door, etc. I would like to see a "Teleport Attack" power, similar to "Burst of Speed" from Martial Combat, added to the set. Long Range Teleport seems a prime candidate to sacrifice for this, given its redundancy to the teleport macro.

I think you mean "I've made choices to mule LotG 5/5 and I've made choices to add hasten and weave and I can't even concieve of my character relying on team buffs for recharge and defense, so I only ever pick these choices". Only 40% of my characters take Hasten. No more than half of my characters touch the Fighting pool at all. Not all of my characters take Combat Jumping. Really there is quite a bit more choice involved than you seem to think there is. It's easy to work in Medicine for /SR. I have a Dark/Dark corruptor with the PRESCENCE pool for the self-rez option. I have a Mind/Kin with the Concealment pool. My Plant / Psi dominator does not use the Fighitng Pool at all. My Fire/Fire/Fire sentinel does not use Leaping OR Speed pools My Invuln/SS tanker so far has only Leadership from your list... No Speed, No Leaping, No Fighting. He has Leadership and Experimentation.

I... do not see it blink. I just see the word "Email" in red. Honestly, that kind of irks me because the word is ALWAYS red, even there's no new character items, just the same ones from last week that I have not yet claimed. The indicator should really mean "something is new to you", not "the list isn't empty". But I would not put this anywhere near the top 1,000 list of things to change. I would put it on that list if it were a blinking indicator, though. I do not like blinkies or screen flashes of any kind.

Plus if these were sonic bubbles, thats +Resistance, and more resistance to layer on top of defense is always a good thing.

I would find this puzzling. I mean, I'd be disappointed, but I could kinda understand it, if they just didn't take the "ally only" buffs. But if you actually TAKE the buffs, I'd be surprised if they didn't use them. Maybe they only took them as IO mules? Or maybe they've read 835 threads about how everyone is softcapped (fallacy) and how bubbles are useless (fallacy), believed them, and therefore gave up?

Also, unless you're a die-hard soloist (And there are some....), it's really not that big a deal if your character only has 30% defense. You'll almost certainly get the remaining amount from misc team buffs, or if you don't, it's quite likely your team will include a tank, or a few controllers/doms, who will do lockdown and set the table for you.

This much I can understand. None of my current heroes use Patron powers at all. I have a few lower level characters who conceptually are much more in the gray area between hero and villain and it's *possible* that some of them might use patron powers.... maybe. If there isn't a better-fit ancillary pool that speaks more to that character concept. Even my villains, only 40% of them take a Patron Pool. Most, I'm still happier in terms of character concept with an Ancillary pool. That said. These are choices I make. Those choices have consequences. I means some of my characters have a much harder time pinging a softcap for defense. I can still build up quite a bit from set bonuses, but some of my characters may end iwth only 30% range defense, not 45%. I'm okay with that. And I don't see a need for Afterburner to be changed to accomodate my choices. Heck, if it were up to me, as long as Afterburner was on you would be FORCED into forward motion at top speed. The ONLY way you could stop would be fly into a wall or toggle it off.

Scrappers can semi tank for small teams, but it's generally not by means of a Taunt power. I will accept, in principle, that somewhere, some Scrapper, has actually taken Confront. I've NEVER seen it, but I'll accept that it's possible. Scrappers don't really...."tank"... in the traditional sense. They dive first into the pile and soak an alpha, and they carve things up. But they're not controlling aggro, they're just presenting themselves as first available target for mobs to shoot at, and then it's a complete free-for-all. Alpha goes to the scrapper, but Beta Strike and Gamma Strike? Round and round she goes, where it stops, nobody knows! Anything not aggro'd more by someone else still attack you, but it's unrealistic to expect to hold ALL the aggro. My Spines/Regen Stalker does this all the time when he teams. You can do exactly that with a Sentinel, as is. Shields up. Do not hang back. Hop directly into melee ahead of the rest of your team. Unleash your attacks as fast as you can. You'll soak the alpha. Probably a few will die before Beta and Gamma strikes so there will be less firepower to go around. But those strikes will be mixed. Some to you, some to the blaster, some to a debuffer, etc. That's already enough for a Sentinel, "tanking", I think. I did exactly that last night in a lowbie Praetoria group (Imperial City 14-16 range).

Stooges Mastermind?

Traps and Trick Arrow are *wonderful* sets, don't get me wrong. But I'm not sure they really evoke a mythological trickster deity. I definitely like Mind Control for this (I am seriously biased in favor of Mind out of the gate though.... so.... grains of salt) Illusion control conceptually is GREAT, but as implemented, I've never liked it. Sure it's effective, but should be much more about Deception, and less emphasis on Phantasm Pets, at least, if I were going to design a set by that name. Time as a warping / altering / yank your reality out from under you is good, workable there. MOST importantly, you should have a wide variety of costumes with different heights, some male, some female, some huge, all with good costume change emotes 🙂

The downside of a front-loaded burn is if you pop it too early, you lose a big chunk of damage on any late arrivals that miss that first big tick. And yet they're standing the same fire, for almost as long. So I would not be against it returning to a simple HIGH ticking DoT. But I have pretty fully adapted to it's current iteration on my Fire/Fire/Fire Sent, and I do get quite a bit of Oomph from it. And it's certainly easier to pair up with an Aim/Gaussian's Proc to make sure that first hard tick gets extra use when I hop into a crowd and pop Burn. So I'm fine with it staying as-is, too.

For what I would do for Sents.... I'd like to see the activation of Defensive / Offensive Opportuntiy divorced from your T1-T2 blasts. Give them two click powers instead, not unlike how a Dominator triggers Domination. Your opportunity bar still fills same as it does now, and when full you can click EITHER Defensive Opportunity OR Offensive Opportunity. But it doesnt' matter which power you used to trigger it. Yes, it would make it an extra mouse click, but it would also allow some alternate power selection choices along the way. I'd like to see a mild increase to Sentinel damage. They should still hurt things less than a Blaster (because Sents have personal armor and status protection), and less than a Scrapper (because Sents have Range). But maybe look at the current gap, and try to bump it half that distance. That's really about it. I'm not sure they need any more.