MTeague

A Challenge setting when setting up a TF or Flashback, similar to how flashbacks can do time limits or "no travel powers" or "no inspirations", might be a nice way to get it in there. You'd absolutely need to advertise the restriction up-front, becuase people unhappy with it would quit on the spot else. But it would be an OPTIONAL restriction that would be locked in place for the TF once set. No cheats, no "just this one spawn" or sidesteps.

I sympathize with the original poster in that, I hate the 45-50 run when everyone else is judgmenting and using lore pets and if you're still levelling up, you are of ZERO use to the team, you are being CARRIED, plain and simple. Now, I've never seen a team that minded that. No one ever said "hey lowbie, pick up the pace" to a lvl 47 character of mine. People are not being jerks. But because of this, I simply no longer join teams that are doing 46+ content until I am 50 and incarnated up. Because it drives me crazy to know I'm being completely carried whether or not anyone is saying anything. It's a personality thing probably. But it's there in me and not going away. I'll still join 1-45 teams. I'll still get exp, and then I can level up to 50 in a manner where I feel like I'm making some contribution. But I think that's really got to be the solution here. Not to take powers away from other people but just to use some judgement in which teams you join and which teams you pass on.

Hey, as a lifelong Red Sox and Cubs fan... Keep the Faith! Miracles DO happen even if it takes most of a lifetime! 🙂

Confuses are my favorite powers in the game, bar none. Do NOT take away my existing toys. Make a new set, sure, but keep Mind's Confuses in place. (although I'd happily have lowered cooldown on Mass Confuse to be on the same order of magnitude as Seeds of Confusion....)

I would like an option for "ignore mobs more than X yards from me" for MM pets. For actual NPC's, like the military guys in "The Mysterious General Z" arc... I dunno. They're not your henchmen, they're theoretically free-willed bits of pixels. OTOH, it really don't make much sense for said NPCs to go Guns-Blazin' off on their own into an even worse firefight with no backup if they were in need of being rescued in the first place. Fusionette and Lady Grey are a bit more understandable in that they're hero-type NPC's and may just be dumb enough confident enough to think they can pull it off.

OMG I can't believe I didn't already request this myself, this always annoyed me SO MUCH during Live, and a fair amount on HC too. The problem happens if you mouseclick your powers. It's really not a big deal if you keybind everything. But a lot of us old farts are more limited in our keybinding. If you misclick the leftmost power in a tray...or even if it's just LAG, and the game doesn't register your mouse where you think your mouse was when it decides to process the click, you can end up making unintentional clicks to the itty bitty arrows to move up a tray or down a tray. This can paralyze you for a few seconds if you're a clicker as you try to click the other way and get your trays back to what they were supposed to be before you can then click the power you had been TRYING to click on in the first place. Now, should people just keybind everything under the sun? Perhaps. But I would hope that just a "Lock in Place" YN option in Menu - Options - General right next to the lock powers in tray, would be a very very small lift in terms of code. I know, I know, spaghetti code can show up in the darndest places, and it could turn out to be that this would require completely re-engineering the power tray structure to be able to do this. Stranger things have happened. But I think that's all it needs. I don't need tray one to ALWAYS be tray one, I don't need tray two to ALWAYS be tray two. Just something to ignore clicks to this itty bitty arrows that change which tray you're looking at that surround the tray number itself.

I don't think pool attacks, generally speaking, should be better than your primary / secondary attacks unless you are an AT that was generally meant to have low damage to begin with. Case in point, I have Beast/Empath MM that uses Kick, Boxing, and Crosspunch, because those are DIRT CHEAP (endurance wise) compared to standard MM direct attacks, and its fun being a kickboxing Empath, and it keeps me in range of my doggos so I can do Tankermind tricks. But that's on an MM. And I have all three attacks to synergize them up. But it would be crazy if say, Kick, by itself, was better than an attack in my Spines stalker's primary tree. Now, pool powers that are NOT attacks.... those can vary quite a bit. Hasten in not actually must-have, but it's *really* nice for a lot of character concepts and +Recharge is just crazy good for any character with really good powers on long cooldowns. But on the flip side.... Presence? Is... um... well.... chock full of fertilizer... but one or two of my characters have sucked it up and dealt with it, because character concept demanded that they have a self-rez on tap, and they had no other to get one on a short enough cooldown to satisfy me. Leadership buffs are just excellent across the board, even more so on Defenders with the extra buff %. Medicine can be very nice on a Defense based build where you can actually USE Aid Self without being interrupted, and it's a nice option if you want to have a little bit of backup power to something that's 100% debuffing like Trick Arrow, or if you have extra power slots to throw around on a melee and you want to be able to rez a squishy after you go all scrapperlock and you're last man standing with dead enemies and friends all around you. 🙂

Frustration is entirely understandable but .... I'm with Yomo and Redlynne and a few others. This is ultimately a user issue. If things are laggy, either don't bid, or be very deliberate in teh exact number of zeros you click instead of holding the button down until it looks right. And wait a bit before clicking Post or Bid. It's better than being quick in wood shop and then being a 9 fingered carpenter, you know? game money is not that big a deal at the end of the day.

I would like a Teleport attack similar to [Burst of Speed] in Martial Kombat (blaster secondary). not super high damage, but not a huge cooldown, and lets you bamph around a battlefield a couple times in a row. Long Range Teleport seems the most sacrificial power, given that it takes you 3 power slots to do.... the same thing that a free macro can do for you. And while I'm aware of the thread talking about tamping down that macro, it doesn't really sound like they plan to TRULY take it away.

As long as it's not forced on anyone just because they have incarnate powers, I'd like it. Sure, your brute may romp through things nonstomp smashing away. But there's a variety of lower damaging powersets, that may get overwhelmed if soloing and they no longer have an option to do the currently-exiting options without downgrading some incarnate powers.

Now I want Hellion Foozball. A giant area with a 11 knockbackers on each team, restricted in moving to certain bands across the battlefield to emulate the 5 man bar, the 3 man bar, the 2 man bar, and the goalie.... and the Hellion must be unkillable, but always screaming "oh god! oh god noo!!! please stop!" as you slam him around the field. (if it makes anyone feel too guilty, we can have an NPC judge sentence him for a hundred different purse snatching from little old ladies, and stealing candy from young'uns)

If you are diehard against using set IO's, I can respect that. I won't say I agree with it, but I can respect it if I look at it as a self-imposed challenge. I have a small library of such things in other games. Domination will be just as powerful for you as it will be for someone who goes wild with IO sets. However, for them, Domination will have 100% uptime, for you, you will need to be signficantly more strategic and decide when it's time to activate Domination and when it's not. If you are not going to use sets at all, I would at least look into Primary and Secondarys that allow you to build up some personal durability, and/or which allow you some distraction ability. Confuses are a big tide-turner. Esp if Domination won't be up all the time, it's nice to be able to subtract one form thier side, and add one to your side. And it's always good to Confuse a Sapper, or a Sorceror, or some other mob with a REALLY annoying debuff. Pets to soak hits for you are nice. There aren't many Dom Primary Secondaries that allow for Health Recovery, but they can be nice, esp if you might take more hits from not having everything locked down 100%. I would really recommend you look at Plant / Psi Assault as a combination. Seeds of Confusion is an amazing power and it's far safer to dance about in melee when you confused a pack on your way in. You get a permanent pet in Fly Trap and pure chaos temporary pets in Carrion Creepers (which are hugely thematic and fun.... they just need a voice yelling "I am Groot!") You still get Immobs to keep big nastys away from you. You get TWO health recovery options, one in Tree of Life and one in Drain Psyche. If you only get one, get Drain Psyche. Hit 4 targets with that PBAE stacks of that and you're practically a Regen scrapper until it wears off. Tree of Life is also nice on top of it, but is much more into the optional category. Drain Psyche also gives you a source of -Regen debuffs, to allow you to punch hard targets. Telekinetic Thrust .... without a KB-to-KD enhancer.... is something of a quandry. Ragdoll Physics in Knockbacks CAN be very useful when soloing as a damage mitigation tool. And TK Thrust does SMASHING damage, which gives you a good attack to use against Psi-Resistant Robots, Undead, or things with Sky High Psi Defense (lookin' at you, Carnies....) If you are intent on NOT using Sets at all... and thusly, not having Permadom at all.... you may have to just accept that you may not be able to solo certain EB's / AV's, wtihout a pocket Shivan. No matter what your primary or secondary is. Seriously. Domination allows you to stack the mag really high really fast. Nothing else is going to get through purple triangles, and I don't think one cast of Domination will last long enough for certain EB's / AV's. Plus, Domination gives YOU status protection and Permadom means you have Permanent Status Protection. That's HUGE for some fights, and is part of what you are giving up by not using sets. That would be too bitter a pill for me to swallow, but at least go into it eyes open.

There are a bazillion paths through the game. Which is a GOOD thing, this gives you options to make each character's journey different. You can hit the Task Forces first, or not until 50. Entirely up to you. I personally have never done a DfB and I mostly doubt that I ever will, because I prefer to level somewhat slowly compared to most. Some contacts will stop giving you missions as you level, but any and all content you outlevel in this manner can be accessed again via Ouroborus (the single best thing ever added to the game). Therefore, you never really "miss out" on content. And you don't have to wait until 50 to hit Ouroborous and do earlier content. Safeguards/Mayhems can also be done if you "missed" them the first time around though, blueside, you need the Villain Disruptor badge, and redside you need the Hero Slayer badge to unlock the ability to do the ones you missed. Well worth it imho, I love Safeguards and Mayhems. I will say, some of the best story arcs I've seen, have been Goldside (Praetoria). If story arcs are your thing, treat yourself to them. Just be aware that Praetoria kicks it up a few notches compared to the rest of the starter zones, and there are fewer players (generally) in Praetoria. You can team there, but it's much rares. So I would pick my AT / Powersets planning that I might need to solo in Praetoria. Also, in Praetoria the story arc breakpoints are 10, 15, 20, so you might want to turn off XP (temporarily) at 9, 14, and 19, until you've done all the arcs you intend to at that level range on that character. The Praetoria arcs ARE available in Ouroborous as well, but I think they're best experienced levelling up as a Preatorian. You also get the option to do "undercover" work for the other faction that way, which you do not get if you just use Ouro.

I believe you are correct on Sleeps. They are a classic "Mezmerize" as they existed in EverQuest. The target can take no action until / unless disturbed. Primarily it's purpose is to park a mob until you / your team is ready to deal with it. Some sleeps are also Non-Aggroing, and can be used to bypass mobs you simply don't want to fight, as when it wears off they won't even realize you were ever there. Sleeps work wonderfully when soloing, and I would urge that any changes made should not screw with their utility when soloing. Sleeps CAN work nicely in a team, but I acknowledge this is rare, and generally only applies when the team is in over their head. This happens far less at lvl 50 / incarnate. The most classic example for team-use of Sleeps in today's CoH is generally for Positron against the Mirrior-Team, using Mass Hypnosis to lock them all down and then pull 1-2 at a time, or to buy a levelling team time against unexpected ambushes. But at 30+ (if not sooner), I rarely bother use it in teams, because the targets will be re-awakened. Although, from time to time, it has saved a partial wipe from being a complete wipe. It's just that that's so very very rare. Sleeps are also one of a few forms of control, like Immobilizes, that are not impacted by Purple Triangles of Doom.

A dark blasting defender can still provide plenty of support by applying to-hit debuffs against the teams foes. And it's not that a defender's damage output is nerfed on a team, is that it's boosted when they're solo. On a team, you go back to the "normal" for a defender. Should this be changed? Arguable. If they boost a Defenders team damage too much, that really undercuts Corruptors. Maybe there's a happy middle? but on my Storm/Sonic, I've never felt useless on a team. Smart Ragdoll physicis (particularly with KB-to-KD's) and and application of large -RES debuffs is still plenty welcome, whether or not my personal damage count is high. And don't entirely neglect O2 Boost. It's not super strong but its a fast cast spot heal and comes with a nice End Drain resist and can break a teammate out of some mezzes. Plus, if you're using the rest of your powers to ragdoll well, you probably don't NEED to be applying tons of big heals.

I do not believe it is possible to get to a situation where the vast majority of the playerbase is contented that every set performs approximately equally as well, and that none of them need work, without homogenizing them to the point that they lose any uniqueness. I believe some sets will ALWAYS be considerd to "need work". Even if which sets are considered horrible changes over time as changes get made to them. There will always be a few that are labeled dogs.

Well, influence only matters until your character is fully kitted out with the spec you want. After that.... um... well.... you could do a second build... but very few of my characters would change any powers or slotting in a second build .... the widow maybe to do both night widow and fortunata but most.... nope. And then Influence is just there to sugar daddy the NEXT alt. and the next after that. Once all the alts you care to create are taken care of, I could see influence start to become more "ya ya whatever, here take some". I mean, I have 30 alts, and I doubt they'll be fully IO'd out until June 2021, because I go at a casual pace. (well, I call it casual anyway....). But I'm probably never going to have 200+ alts. I'll still play the game with my squad of 30, but I can see there will be a point, someday (over the rainbow....), when I literally have very little use for influence.

Honestly I find it entirely plausible that it's just a bunch of people playing Converter Roulette. I did not know the seeded price was 100,000. I do know that I play converter roulette a fair amount, and I do know that I and others have pointed it out as an option to some new folks who were aghast at how much IO sets cost, or who wondered how they would ever get enough merits to fully kit out a character.

Lol. Please don't misunderstand. I have zero bones against farming in principle. I will personally not partake in the activity, but farming-for-drops has existed in EVERY multiplayer game I have ever played, bar none, and I would not expect CoH to be any exception to that. My only frustration is it feels like 97% of AE maps are fire farms, and I have to search long and hard to find a few here and there that are not. I only want a better search filter option. If you want to go nuts farming every waking hour, knock yourself out. Cheers.

As long as it's an actual player created story with an actual plot, and not "look more mobs that only do fire damage!" If I could ask for ANY ONE change to AE search console, it would be the ability to find mission that do NOT contain the word "Farm" in either the title or the description.

I remember typing "City of Heroes 2019" (this was back in June) and actually getting a hit for the first time in forever. I cliked on the link and was like PLEASE don't let this be epic level trolling PLEASE let this be real pleaseohpleaseohplease. And it was real 🙂 Really hit at the signon screen hearing the music. I lost the next few hours to ressurrecting my fav 5 heroes and fav 5 villians from Live. I got most of the names too (though they were kind of obscure names, OR, already contained a prefix... "Trifid" or "Agent Blackcat" or "Thundercrow", etc.). I didn't even TRY to get names that would be cool but I knew sight unseen would be long gone (Captain Obvious, Triangle Man, etc). But then, I never had those names in LIVE, either.

I've wanted "Alternate MM Theme's" for awhile now. It woudl be easier to do if they could pull from existing artwork and existing animations. Although how you would keep the other "look" mobs triggering the same powers is probably.... tricky, at best. But I would like to see something like Bots: exiting current Bots.... OR... Council Bots. (Hoverbots for T1, MechMen for T2, Warcry robot for T3) Thugs: existing current Thugs.... OR.... Family Goons. (Mooks, Capos, Underboss) Necromancy: existing current zombies,.... OR.... Vahzilok. (Cadaver, Abominations, Eidolon in place of Lich) Mercs: existing current Mercs.... OR.... Sky Raiders. Ninjas: existing current Ninas... OR.... well.... probably Tsoo. Knives of Artimis could work too, as a less eastern-flavored ninja, more straight up assassin's guild. Beasts: existing current Beasts .... OR ..... um....hm. tricky. Not that many other animal mobs. Snakes maybe? Open to ideas. Demons: existing current Demons .... OR .... um.... Rularuu? again, open to ideas here.

I will not turn down any /SR buffs. But my scrapper does not feel in any way shape or form underpowered.

Well, you'd have some primary / secondayr redundancies with the Immobilizes. Electric Manip gets immobs, and so would Electricity Control. Things like that, might need some ironing out. Still, I very much enjoy control-based characters, so I'm sure I'd play it. It would be interesting having offense and control but WITHOUT the extra shutdown on Domination. The Lockdown Chance for +2 Mag Hold would be must-haves for sure. Or you'd have to live and die on the softer controls. Confuses, Stuns like Wormhole, etc.

How do you know they're level 1's? How do you know they don't play anymore as opposed to say, are taking a 1 month break because of real life time concerns?