Greycat

So, double XP. Split between two people (since, as I recall, it did split the XP) so... XP. Do it with multiple people, they all level slower. It would be more efficient to bring them all on at once and just doorsit without a pact for ... what, an hour?

With 2 being an option and 3 being ignorable if you don't want to do it, I don't have any real argument against it. I'd only argue against 2 being a forced change, which isn't what the OP is asking for.

Redside would need a huge revamp. More zones. More paths. Some that completely skirt Arachnos. Less "We're evil so we're also grey and dingy." Redside needs fewer "You're a lackey (and possibly stupid)" storylines. Redside has the issue of making *far* too many assumptions about your character and their motivations. Honestly, even if something happened like, oh, "Redside gets 6x reward merits," someone would just switch, run the content giving the merits, and swap back. Also, some of the Arachnos maps are just ... annoying. The "reactor" map, especially, comes to mind - most annoying in a kill all to have this 50 story high, mostly empty space with just a few elevators here and there to deal with (and don't forget the few catwalks, almost all with long drops.) One of the reasons I avoid redside - and, blueside, Theiry's arc - is to avoid these maps. I'll take layer-cake-cave maps over these any day. Honestly, I don't think the "Hero takeover of Mercy" made things any better, either. (For much the same reason I don't really like the Arachnos presence in Faultline, but it's also... just sort of jumbled and not fun.) Personally, I think revamping Redside to try to get a bigger population woul dtake a *lot* of work - and you still wouldn't come close to matching blueside, because of one common refrain - people wanting to be *heroes.* I think you'd almost have to get a "redside underground hero" path going. Me, I don't mind being a villain sometimes - I just want more to do, and not as a lackey, dupe or sadist.

Wouldn't Whirlwind without the spin just be... wind?

If you're looking for comments or ideas - I'm not a build guy so I can pretty much say "Yep, that's a brute!" (assuming it is) 🙂 - you may want to put this down in the Brute forum.

I don't know if they stack, but several are available elsewhere (plenty of jetpacks at P2W... I *think* the jump pack too? I'm forgetting the others.)

More rewarding? You mean smashing up everything in sight isn't enough? 🙂 As far as SO enhancements - meh, but I believe you can get them *depending on side missions.* I think it's pretty much done for parity with blue side (who got theirs afterward, after all.) That said, some reward merits, a reward table, something like that would not (IMHO) be out of place - on either side.

... unless I'm recalling incorrectly, their Veng still has an AOE hole. Rikti drones, too.

To be honest, I pretty much read this and went, "...ok, and?" Call them groucho, harpo and chico for all I care. Honestly I don't worry about what's on a team as long as the people aren't jerks.

Major issue - this is a text environment. We don't have our usual social cues to tell someone's being snarky or whatnot. Humor falls flat. Things are worded badly. And everyone has their own internal, subjective meters for how something is posted. Example. Live forums, for some extremely frequently posted suggestions, I made up what came to be known as "copypastas." Even had a blurb in the beginning which stated, basically, "Hi, this is suggested a lot. This post is not meant as an insult, but to let everyone know what we know about this suggestion, such as dev comments, known issues, and common pros and cons." Some people still took them as insults or belittling them, which they weren't - if anything, cutting to "this is what we know, this is what we've been told, let's see if you have something to add" should have cut old arguments off at the knees. Other people took them as intended. (And yes, they did get modified with some discussions.) Basically, it's hard to state in many instances if the person actually is being passive-agressive in an attempt to troll or if it's the way (generic) you read them. It's hard to come up with an objective proof that can be used.

I still do that on occasion.

Nope. THat's the binder, you can tell by the "tabs" on the side. Plus the original book was almost entirely black and white. Mine's due to arrive monday. I'll end up posting the faultline entry for the sake of general interest.

I'm kind of doubting the "large teams of players to group together," at least here, and for more than a brief run. I also don't think having new content geared towards it, *here,* would be wise given limited resources - we've got a small pool of volunteers, after all. Honestly, as a "setting" in the middle of Homecoming, I just don't see it flying.

But is that from the Prima *binder* or the older *book?* I think they took out references to the zone being a trial zone in the binder, since the book was being written pre-release and it hadn't been removed from the idea for the zone yet.

Looking through, I had one that was close enough to the base colors to do some modifications. Whispering Wynn (which I think I liked better than Wind's Whisper on the rename.)

All my villains soloed mine. And no, they have not redesigned "every single TF in the game to be soloable." They haven't touched the TFs. They may be *allowing* you to start them solo, but that is not how they were designed, any more than because SOME people can solo GMs, GMs are considered "solo" content. Should redside get more WTF options? Sure. Doesn't mean the patron arcs should be it.

From day 1, they didn't require you to form a team. You talk to an arbiter, look at the plaques, pick a patron to do arcs for. Much like any other story arc you can run solo. As opposed to - well, any TF or SF. You *were* around on live? Or no? Because that seems like a rather ... misinformed question. If you're used to "I can go to LFG and pick Posi and start it solo" (something ELSE you'll notice is not a Patron arc option, as unlike task/strike forces it's ... not a task/strike force, but a story arc) then you may well not know the difference. Positron: Task force. Meant for groups, no matter what it has. Posi 1 was also (as you'll notice from the 1) part of what was a LONGER TF, the original Posi TF (available in Ouro.) Patron arc: Story arc. Meant to be able to be soloed. No workaround to start solo, not listed in LFG. Just talk to a contact and go. Of course, there's also just that it's called the "Positron Task Force (Part 1)" too... There's also Paragonwiki, which lists: Patron Power Pools, which require completing a Story Arc from Arbiter Rein

Since I'm standing in another CC delayed for sunlight... just reminding folks about this base! (And taking suggestions. I'm not a super base builder, but tweaks are appreciated.)

Ramiel's arc is completely soloable on SOs. Just don't jump into it on +4x8. And generally you can ignore the bifurcations. Just rush up to trapdoor and start beating him down. I don't think I've ever had more than 2 show up at most since... geez... not long after it was introduced. Other things - if you ignore that pile of glowy "debris" in the Honoree mission, you can clear the room before the holtz/honoree room. If you're a traps or devices, you can lay down all sorts of trip mines where the front portals spawn, too, then run back and click it. The portals (which can be ignored,) Holz and Honoree won't spawn until then, so you have a big, clear room to pull them to (one at a time of course) and fight them. Pay attention to NPC chat. The Rikti will start throwing 5 ambush waves about the time you start fighting Crey. (I forget the wording, I think the NPC chat starts with "invaders:crey?" and the last one spawns with "Mercy: show none." You can ambush them at the end of the tunnel which goes into the crey hallway - or just fight them where they spawn at the end of that first bridge near where you come in. Yeah, have the curse breaker handy for Holz. 50% END being taken for 5 minutes is annoying. Honoree is... mostly "chew purples." Maybe some reds depending on how much damage you do.

Work them down with non-KB powers. Then knock them down and finish them off. If they still pop PFF, head to the next mob, since that boss will be nearly dead when they drop out anyway.

COH is a pretty casual game overall. Fortunately, even "casual" players can get purples dropping. Seriously. Saying anything that smacks of "I am more hardcore than you and deserve this more" is like bragging that you're the best at teeball. In your 30s.

*shrug* I don't mind when they pop that. Finish off the other stuff that might be around them, have a drink, waiting a few seconds won't kill me. Now, if you want an annoying PFF/intangible, we can talk about Diabolique...

Functionally, by the time we got to live, nothing. The Hive and (possibly) RWZ are the closest we have to trial zones - and the RWZ is maybe 1/3 of one at best. Basically the zone was designed with an overarching, multi-team (yep, before leagues - I don't recall if that was part of the problem they had) push to get to and defeat some overarching goal. You'd fight to the dam, pass through (which you couldn't do on the live version - unless you could find a map glitch - so Echo got tweaked a bit) and save the generators or whatever it was on the far side of the dam. The entire zone would have functionality around that. Hazard zones are basically "There are bigger, nastier spawns. Have fun!" Actually found a Prima guide on ebay cheap, I'll see if I can find the description there again. Not digging through all my boxes in storage 🙂

Pfft. It's called preventing burnout. You can jump around all sorts of levels and deal with different content.

You can do anything. Incarnate content (trials, DA missions) will give other bonus Incarnate rewards, though. (So will the SSAs.)