MTeague

I don't believe it's actually possible to balance all combinations of powersets for all archtypes, and have them all perform the same by whatever metrics you choose to use. I do believe it's possible to make them fun to play, and that is where the rubber meets the road for me. Heresy #1: I do not care about clear times. Not one bit. Heresy #2: I do not care how fast or slow I finish a TF. It's not even on radar for me. I never invite people based on what powersets / archtype they bring. I invite people for fun. Bring the player, not the character. It hasn't let me down yet.

I tend to do a combination of turning off XP for each character until I choose to outlevel a certain range of arcs as my characters level choosing which arcs to run based on my characters concept / backstory. (my magic based mind controller goes all in for the Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon, my science defender whos backstory has a burning grudge against Crey spends a lot of time vs Crey, etc.) making more and more characters. A couple will flashback until they hit nearly everything. Doing all the flashbacks on all my characters? Highly improbable. Maybe if I retire from my real life job. Maybe. But the ones I really enjoy playing the most, sure. Of course, some of these decisons are easier to make if you're not brand spanking new to the game. If this is your first character or two, then just run with it and enjoy. Don't overstress. Unlike most MMO's that seem to punish you for spending time on alts that you "should have spent" gearing up your main, City of Heroes is gloriously Alt-Friendly. When you get into your 20's? Don't forget the Tip Missions. They're Very well written. And they do vary by Alignment, and by Level Range. You absolutely do not need them to change alignments anymore, but the Vigilante tip missions are different from the Hero, which are different from the Rogue, which are different from the Villain. At least, I find them vastly more compelling than another generic "go beat up some sky raiders or council" mission.

I did not know that. That could make Galaxy City tutorial 95% less irritating. (I still begrudge the loss of old Galaxy City, that's the other 5%...)

I will not set foot in the Galaxy City tutorial until the voices are silenced. The guy screeching in my ear about how I must go help Blue Spectrum .... it's not pleasant.

I have to admit, I prefer AE sleeps for the "don't notice me" grabbing of glowies. Of course, I do main a Mind/Kin, so I may be slightly biased there...

Obligatory: Technically, absolutely no procs of any kind are "essential". You can build a decent character using only Single-Origin enhancements for the entire game, though you may be moree dependant on team buffs and inspirations during certain content. But if you're asking me "Okay wiseguy, which ones appear in over 90% of your characters?" Welllll..... OK, you got me. Panacea: Chance for +Health/+Endurance, Performance Shifter: Chance for +End Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Protection (unless already covered by an armor set) Steadfast Protection: 3% to all defense Gladiator's Armor: 3% to all defense And then some conditionals: melee's (and Sentinels) will also have the +Resist all uniques. anyone with an Aim or Build-up will have the Gaussian's anyone who doesn't have Tactics, but does get any other +ToHit power, will have Rectified Recicle, or perhaps Warp (if a teleporter), for +Perception LotG +7.5%'s are nice, but only nice. I'm not going to take powers I'll never use JUST to mule them. Still, they Do Not Suck, so I'll fit them where I can. generally most ATO's, because I like the set bonuses Damage Procs, it depends a lot on the build and the powersets. They can be very nice, but part of me always mourns the four-five-six set bonuses I have to choose to forsake to make room for proc-bombs. Most of my characters don't use a whole lot of them.

Beast Mastery is completely Hero-able if you make a decent backstory. So are Robots, even Mercs. Thugs, take a bit more spin, but nothing some RP can't do. And Desdemona is an NPC Hero demon summoner. That said, while I don't think it should be difficult to rationalize a heroic Mastermind, I'm very much in support of new options.

I'd be happy if I could just RECOLOR the Oni, and/or recolor some of his powers. If I have a Ninja/Cold, I'd like a Blue Oni who uses Blue fire. Even if it's still all Fire damage under the hood. I can handwave that.

I do not farm. (Well, unless you count Stardew Valley...) But I have always been very Very happy with my Spines/Regen stalker tearing up huge groups of mobs and ending at full health. Yes, he is fairly well tricked out, and yes, there are limits, and particular kinds of enemies that can make him faceplant. But for the most part he's a demon, and has handed out wakies after finishing off huge groups of CoT or DE that killed everyone else.

I demand Martial Arts styled attacks for the Snakes. Purely as a nod to EverQuest teaching snakes to kick. Storm Kick Dragon Tail and especially a flying kick like Eagle's Claw, all using the snakes tail to swat the foe. (okay, okay, Eagle's Claw for snakes can have an alternate animation where it's a lunge-and-bite. as long as one of the animations is a flying snake kick)

Well, I did some housecleaning. I've released a few names on Excelsior, available for anyone who wants to give them a good home. Solarhawk Sagitarrius Trifid Hephaesto Red Havok Dog Mom Kodachrome Doctor Kelvin Enjoy!

Well if we consult the Book of Armaments.... "Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three." But I suppose given your login name, I grok a preference for two.

They have to fit my characters concept and look "right" for them, otherwise, I just don't use them at all. My Mind/Kin controller uses Polar Lights, since they seem to fit a magic based character, and look not unlike some of the wisp type things in Croatoa. My Claws/SR scrapper simply doesn't use any Lore pet. At all. Period. And Never Will. Because none fit my concept for that character, and they DON'T work with Longbow or Arachnos or any other group. For that character, I choose to leave that tab on the table, unclaimed and unused. Any team that doesn't want me to bring that character for that reason, is free to kick me. I won't look back. Carrion Creepers. No, they're not a traditional "pet" as such. But the forest of vines going nuts in a spawn of mobs is perfect for my Plant dominators concept.

In principle, I agree completely. I do think we'll all need a great deal of patience, however. My understanding is animations are the most difficult part of adding things.

I mean, to be fair, the proposed change would put that issue beyond doubt, at least.

Ok. That's important detail. Then I'd say the people who summoned him anyway were being unkind / inconsiderate. Absolutely nothing wrong with the whole crew putting them on gignore and never teaming with them again. But it really is an interplayer thing to work out, not something I really think needs developer efforts.

I am not certain that counts as trolling, vs people being impatient and fed up with waiting. Now, were they doing what the team leader said? clearly not. That does not automatically mean they're at fault. Were those players being as considerate as possible? Arguable. Honestly it depends how long they were waiting, or how long those family matters were expected to take. If it sounded like something that might literally take an hour or more (very possible depending on what was going on and detail or lack thereof that was provided), then you know what, maybe the team leader needs to realize that waiting is not really the practical choice there. If it's a long wait, I'd say do the kill, and message the guys saying "Sorry, look buddy, I'll help you with teh kill any other night this week when you're free, just shoot me a tell" If it sounded like something that would take short minutes (ex: "hey guys, I need to help carry some groceries in, brb"), then I would be willing to wait. But.... there is no hard and fast rules on what's reasonable vs not. Consider also, those players could simply drop team, no longer be bound by anything the team leader wants, and then immediately summon Adamastor anyway.

I mean, I hear what you're saying? It is best and preferred (to me, anyway) if players are collaborative and try to share a common goal when they can. And yet, the person isn't really doing anything wrong as such. It's a spawnable mob. They fulfilled the conditions to spawn it. That easy. Yes, you may be trying to organize something in various chat channels (including Broadcast), but they may have chat windows off or minimized while they're just doing their own thing. Maybe this person plays once a week, and has been wanting to solo Adamastor, just to see if they can, for a long long time. MUST they park their goal for the 4,125th time, because every time they log on, some other group is trying to organize it, just because other players are waiting for a few more people to show up from several zones away?

I hate the over-the-top animations on Dual Pistols. (and yes, I'm well aware that for many players, that's 90% or more of why the love the set). My impression is it does better going proc-heavy and therefore for Defender/Corruptor, as opposed to Blaster. But I haven't played it a lot in the last 6 months.

Just on the "wasting my energy" point. To be clear, the vast majority of endurance issues are not with toggles. It's with attack powers that have not been slotted for endurance reduction.

In my often unhumble opinion, SR does need not any changes. It's already amazing, particularly adding in a Panacea Proc, Power Transfer Proc, and an Absorb Proc, to effectively add in some strong regen-ish-ness in between the rare hit that lands on you. Then also stack some IO resistance buffs... it gets beastly. Admittedly, my /SR toons are Scrapper/Stalker, not tanks. But the posts above give me pretty good confidence SR is not hurting for tankage either.

Given how the market works already pools inventory levels together by rarity, this is kind of already in place. Yes, it does require people to KNOW that in order to leverage it. But it wasn't exactly hard to learn, either. I would personally prefer no change be made, as I like the flavor on each of the pieces. Especially nice to have some Black Blood of the Earth lying around in storage. But I would also not be deeply sad if a change were made.

Now I want pistols that buff the target's Resistance.

"Vee haf veys of making you talk. Some of zem.... unpleasant."

But for "is there any worse pain than this?", I respectfully submit: the mental torment of bad management.