Greycat

... sorry, just found this funny, to be clear 😄

*makes alt.*

No. From the person who came up with it, no, /jranger should not be an emoji, and frankly, shouldn't be allowed on the boards.

So if you don't need it (edit: weave, to be clear,) take fly instead of the power pool (fighting) you yourself said you don't need on your softcapped scrapper. You obviously don't need the fighting pool, from your own admission here. Problem solved. You now have fly. Hover, too, if you want that +def and/or LOTG mule, since you're not taking boxing or kick. And nice (well, tired) dig at people who disagree. There is no "cartel," but hey, you do you.

No, your assumption is incorrect. I do mostly solo or small group stuff. I'll join in on an mothership raid (for instance) since, frankly, it's usually time spent BSing with up to 47 other people - the raids are mostly an excuse to get together. Also, I think you missed the "I'll be off mowing through enemies when the team turn left five minutes ago." As mentioned, I don't "do builds." I'm not in any way a min/maxer. And yet I can still sit there and fight a team's worth of enemies solo for a while. That's a sign it's too easy. As far as "before level 50?" You talk about taking a MM through Mercy... what would your suggested changes do to fix that? You definitely DON'T want tough/weave (for instance) at super low levels - the END cost on them is too high for nearly no benefit. And, frankly... yes, the game *is* still easy at that level if you pay the slightest bit of attention. It's more annoying than difficult, since you don't have many powers and might sit there waiting for *something* to recharge... but that's why we have Brawl and the P2W vendor's attacks. It's not that "it takes 3 minutes less" (and tough/weave wouldn't affect that, by the way - hami's attacks ignore that. You need the inspirations that drop from fighting monsters beforehand... which I counted in that time.) You seem to have missed the point that *they're run twice in 30ish minutes, three times a day,* when they used to actually take time and have risk. It's trivial now. It's not "put an hour aside for a single run." Hami was the end game raid. Now he's a merit/hami-o/incarnate component vending machine. That's the point which you seem to have missed. Content has *already* been trivialized, it doesn't need to be trivialized further. Especially for people who want to min/max, which isn't needed to begin with. Because the "hard" content isn't interesting, *as I said,* and the rewards for it aren't particularly interesting to me either, *as I said.* I don't need merits. I'm not interested in prismatics for either costumes or money. It'd be a tedious grind (or rushing along following someone on a speed run, which I also don't find fun) for something I don't care about. I'll bump up rep regularly. But that doesn't make general content harder. Just more tedious. Content that's interesting to me? Even that's been made trivial. For instance, the "Prevent 30 fir Bolg from escaping" mission. I have an actual *goal* there. I used to feel good about zero escapes there - which, granted, I got fairly regularly. Now, with the power level availability changes? I get top tier powers from my primary to deal with it, which makes them even easier. Now I just expect zero escapes, because that's what happens. "More HP" or "More stuff piling on you" isn't that interesting. Most of the little gimmicks that get added... aren't that interesting. Oh, you now have four whatevers buffing? Take 30 seconds to wipe those out, keep beating on the bag of HP you need to take out to finish the mission. And you're also ignoring part of what I said in my *original* post. I *want* content that I have to pay attention to. I play Kheldians. We *used* to have to pay attention to Quantums and Voids. We *used* to have Cysts spawning - live ones, as in they'd spit out Nictus in quantities related to team size. *THAT WAS TAKEN AWAY.* I no longer *have* my actually interesting, throughout-the-game hard mode, because people didn't want to actually have to pay attention. Voids and Quantums are now basically "oh, look, some extra XP from an extra mob." Even at low levels. Khelds used to *be* a hard mode - an actual one. Now they're just slightly trickier to slot than a normal AT. "Which buffed certain powersets..." Are you sure that's an argument you want to make in *favor* of these when talking to someone who says the game is *already* too easy? And other than FF (with personal FF,) I've never really understood anyone saying the T1s on MM secondaries would be "useless," especially low level where they tend to be healing (typically the AOE, so you're healing yourself and your pets,) slowing/stopping enemies and/or debuffing them. Single target, sure, but they're still quite useful. But, no, they're not as good for "I need to min/max and need to fit a LOTG in and ..." And stalkers... the T1 in the secondary is *hide.* Part of the trio of powers that define a stalker. Part of what gives you the ability to control what and when you want to crit. You skip *that?* Let me reiterate... as someone who played stalkers from the COV beta on, you skip *hide.* At that point, make a brute or scrapper instead. You'll have your armor powerset then. Tough/weave is not required. People like bringing up fitness to compare. It's not even apples and oranges. It's apples and lug nuts. Tough/weave is not required. Tough/weave is a "I want I want I want" to min/max. Which isn't something that's needed to be done by default for anything in this game. So there 's *zero* reason to make it easier to get by skipping powers. So don't hold your breath. Also I see the nice, insulting "Are you playing at -1" nonsense in other replies. Such as... Mayhem missions on low level are insanely easy. I don't know how to even start thinking of them as difficult. Mayhem missions at *high* level are insanely easy. Even on a stalker, yes. Yes, even with ambushes that "know where you are." (Are you aware there are three types of ambush "logic?" There's go-to-location, go-to-player-location-at-spawn, and the player tracking one. Takes me moving all of a few feet to see which it is. It's *hilarious* to watch a "rescue" ambush run past you because you moved a few feet down the hall, in plain sight.) All you have to do is pay attention to what's going on. The people I see having trouble with them tend to just expect to rush through and ignore *all the clues about what's happening.* There are almost no missions "At appropriate diffilculty" (have to throw that bit of insult in, huh) that are "tricky" in any real way. Ambushes are not "tricky." Controlling your aggro is not "tricky," it's a basic game skill. Protip: Put your NPC dialog in another window. Ambushes are almost never stealth ambushes, and will typically announce themselves with a line or more of dialog, which can give up to *several minutes* warning. For my own amusement on mayhem missions, I'll often do exactly what Longbow says - "Stop right there, villain!" So I'll stop. And wait. And let them take the first shot. Then tell them "Thanks, that video footage of my compliance and you shooting anyway will be appreciated by my lawyer" before beating them down in "self defense." Which I can do without a min/max build at "appropriate difficulty" because the game's just not that hard to require one for that. But if your response is this sort of nonsense, you don't want a conversation.

Kind of funny you mention that. On live, I made a bots/FF. Why? Theme. Yeah, it could be untouchable, too, but - especially after the change of buffs to be AOE - it was *boring.* To the point it nearly turned me off masterminds entirely. But it does very much depend on the secondary. I went to the forum and said, basically, "I can't stand playing this. I feel like an observer, not a participant. Is this just masterminds, or is there something that would work better?" Wound up with a Thugs/Poison that I absolutely loved playing. Hell of a trip to 50. Some people like them, some (like me) just ... no.

Oooh. Granted, I have that on several platforms... still have a CD around somewhere. Hope folks got it if they never played it. It's one of those must have games.

None.

1. It's a touch hyperbolic, sure. But that's because the suggestion is silly with the state of the game. So it's only a touch. 2. Fitness is not "gone." If you open up your enhancement window, you'll see it *right there,* all four powers. Fitness was *very* hard to get around not needing (actually needing - let me tell you about my BS/SR Scrapper or Fire/Storm controller running out of END *every fight* on SOs... with endurance reduction slotted frequently,) and getting TO that required two other power picks from a pool, so it was made inherent. Given IOs, I half wonder if it could be made non inherent. That said, yes, I had characters at shutdown from before that change was made that still had a build with non-inherent Fitness. They could have gone another route - like massively reducing or rebalancing END costs and/or adjusting recovery - but the route they took was taken on live, and it's part of the game. 3. Never said anything about "not hardcore enough." That is the exact opposite of (a) what I said (it's already sleepwalk-easy) and (b) isn't something your suggestion would move the game towards, anyway. 4. "Are you doing no inspiration +4/x8 ITF solo then? I've seen a guy on youtube to that. Looked impressive." Given how *simple* it is for people to farm up a character and run +4/x8 ITFs, especially with incarnates and level boosts? No, that's not particularly impressive these days. Look around some. The ITF *used* to take time to run. It *used* to be difficult. People, even at 50, *used* to have a hard time fighting Romulus. Hell, even respecs had an even-odds chance of having team wipes at every level. Now? They're run in, what, 15 minutes? 20? They might as well have a Romulus vending machine at the end that just dispenses merits. Apex/Tin Mage is run as a duo in less than an hour - less than half an hour, as I recall, to finish both in total. Hamidon? Big end game raid that used to threaten team wipes? Everlasting runs pairs of them three times a day, day in day out (with, I believe, another one earlier on Saturday.) They're usually done in about half an hour. There's almost never a problem with them, certainly not with *finishing* them. Usually the biggest problem is Hami taking longer to spawn than usual. *The game does not need to be made EVEN EASIER.* 5. " Why would this change make the game easier? " ... are you *even serious* asking that? Have you thought through what these suggestions would do? "Oh, no, I have to take Boxing or Kick and probably not slot it." And take... what, Adrenal Booster with no prerequisites, as well as Hasten? (+Tohit +Dmg +Rech +Special.) That took all of two seconds to think of. No prerequisite, after all. Rune of Protection? Quick one pool, one power pick. One pick Fold Space. Of course, then we'd "have to" get rid of the limitation on the number of power pools, I'm sure. And no, I'm not reaching or making that up. That's *already* been suggested a few times. I'm sure we'd get people complaining about "wasted picks because there's nothing else good in the pools" once they've taken the "must have" (hint, they're not) powers. 6. " Are you ok with other changes that made the game easier?" Depends which changes. Some, sure. Stone Armor's movement penalties were thematic, but overdue to be reexamined and/or removed, for instance (or have them be granted an inherent teleport, because that was pretty close to a must-take.) Frankly, I'm not with quite a few of them. I positively hate the power level availability change that was put in recently. It's made leveling *less* fun to me, because... surprise surprise, I'm able to take top tier powers and wipe out enemies that weren't designed with them in mind. I think set bonuses should be reduced to a "rule of 3" from a rule of 5 to try to veer back into having *some* semblance of default challenge. I think Incarnate powers should be toned down outside of Incarnate content. But, I've pretty much resigned myself to the state of the game. I know those changes won't happen, so I play in the reality that the game that exists is the game in the current state. I don't make "builds," I don't really use Mids, I don't aim to perma-this-cap-that, and I'll still find myself going "Oh, wait, the team turned left five minutes ago" while blasting through mobs without much of a care. I *Prefer* the game having people have to make choices, yes. I feel *much* more satisfied if I have a good build knowing I had to decide "is power X worth a pick of a pool and these other powers?" and that I'm not just cramming every nuke, shield and godmode trick in that I can. Yes, I even prefer having dangerous Cysts and unresistable Nictus damage from Quantums and Voids on my Kheldians. It made me have to pay attention. And yes, I preferred actually having crashing nukes and T9s, so using them was something you had to think about - instead of just ignoring the T9 armors because you're already untouchable thanks to set bonuses and don't need them. The game's already sleepwalk easy. It's certainly not any sort of *challenge* that keeps me logging in. It's because I love the world, the character creator, and the RP with my friends. And yes, I know there are "hard modes" for some TFs. I don't care. I don't need the rewards, and the ones I've done have been more tedious than challenging or fun. Prismatics? I don't care about the costumes, and don't generally need the INF. Merits? For what? I used to chase those (or, before, recipe drops from TFs) because, again, there was *some* challenge that needed them. There isn't now. And merits drop freely. And yes, I *do* have characters on SOs only - with other restrictions. I know how they used to play. Even with that, the game's nowhere near as challenging and requires nowhere near the thought. (No, I don't run them with characters with IOs. It'd make the point of running them that way moot.) (Edit) Or, hell. How about soloing GMs? First person that did it, it was an *accomplishment.* Illusion controller - I *believe* on SOs. Took a long time (though they were tackling Lusca.) It was something to brag about. Now? You can probably point out multiple people who do it regularly when bored. A team - not even a full team - can go GM hunting and rack up a pile of merits without much effort, a few minutes per GM. So, no. The game does NOT need to be made even easier, which yes, this would do, you shouldn't even have to pretend to have to ask that. You do NOT need even less standing in the way of a beyond-godmode build. And no, from someone who *does* do RP builds and makes non-optimal choices (for instance - picking Leviathan mastery because of a character's backstory... or because they're a cat and a cat throwing fish around amuses me) and still can sleep through missions, RP is not a reason for it either and I'm personally insulted that that was even thrown in as a reason. If I want the sort of godmode this'll give access to, I'll create an AE, throw the toughest mobs I can in, go in in test mode, turn invincibility on and walk around clicking the "Kill target" button. I've done it. It's amusing for about a minute. Maybe two if I've had a particularly annoying day. As far as I'm concerned, the game's about a quarter inch away from that as it is. Aren't you glad you asked for my position? Trust me, *this is toned down and not even close to everything I think.* Oh. Yeah. You had a thing on extra slots. As I'm recalling, it was tested and broke things badly. Though at one point, there was a bug in respecs for Kheldians that one person took advantage of back in the day - as I'm remembering (might be slightly mistaken on exactly what they did as far as slotting,) they put all their slots in one power and one-shot Hamidon. That - obviously - got fixed.

This is not in the least a difficult game. How much easier do you want it to be? Premade, preslotted characters that start at 50 so you don't have to make ANY decisions? Single button map clearing?

Just using it on its own? Yes. Hittling LRTP and using it? Nope.

Eh, I don't know how major that is. They were all over DA because Mot. Striga has... nothing much that should attract them. They just feel like they were dumped there because "something has to give magic origin DO/SOs" back in the day.

... unless it's somewhere from issue 0-2, no they haven't. Having to hop onto the rooftops in KR to hunt them has been a thing since I started in issue 3, and they've been in missions up to 50.

Pfft, I use the COT in a Posi to show how useful sleeps are... sure, they get woken up with an attack, but the -tohit patches and bubbles are gone... COT - are interesting, sure, but I think could use a bit of revamping for people to *see* their storyline instead of just avoiding it because they don't want to rescue 18 hostages in the Orenbanga caves' nooks and crannies. I *half* suspect something was coming with the whole "emergence of Orenbanga into the hollows" (which... I'm not sure I'd have been fond of) - but there should, perhaps, be more sympathetic Circle you can work with, who want to curb the others whole... kidnapping and soul-snatching. As a group you see through your entire career... there should be more to do with them and they should have more depth than they do now. (Heck, having *even more* to do 1-50 for Magic origin for them might be interesting.) Cabal - I'm torn a bit. Pretty much just in Croatoa, and ... ok, storyline wise they've got some reasons for what they do, but .... they're kind of meh. And annoying because they fly away at the drop of a pointy hat. (And those outfits ...) Plus, as far as open world mob spawns in Croatoa, they show an apparent "interest" in some male NPCs by their dialog that would have people screaming if the gender roles were reversed. Legacy Chain - honestly... just forgettable. There's some design there, sure, they're sprinkled around here and there, but ... they might as well be Luddites. There's just not all that much interesting about them. Mu - Bleh. OK, 1-50 for redside. Story intertwined with the COT, and Mu. Can anyone tell me what it is? Or are most people just going to remember the Mu are the "floating bondage boys?" There's potential in them, given their loyalties, that I just don't think is really taken advantage of. Honestly, I mostly remember them from the pure *annoyance* of having to face groups of them Redside at low level when you have no real chance of having anything slotted (or available) to deal with all the END drain from their attacks. As far as other magical groups... I'm going to say "magic related" here, too - The fir Bolg and Tuatha - it's mentioned a time or two that some of the citizens have been converted to these two warring groups in easily missed dialog snatches. Having that emphasized would have been... interesting, I think. Midnighters - other than Night Ward, you rarely really see them as "magic." More as librarians. Something to make use of that (which *is* done in various arcs, sure, but I mean more so) would be interesting. What right off hand, I don't know. One of the chances to create something origin-specific - from reactions to magic characters to having a Midnighter contact for magic arcs/one off missions that explore a bit more of the magic lore, that sort of thing. Banished Pantheon - there's a lot of implied horror to them. In the *old* Dark Astoria, I had a character pretty much adopt the zone just because of the citizen-spirits - and who made it a point to try to stop the rituals that fed them to the BP gods. "New" DA should be a BP triumph - but it doesn't feel like it. Sure, they're out in force, they fight for Mot, etc, but ... it doesn't feel like it's anything major for them, to me, more like they're upleveled and just happen to be in the zone. I think a lot of that was just taken by the Talons and trying to shove *their* story in (because hey suddenly there's a link where there wasn't before, or wasn't obviously one, to this ... what's supposed to be tiny group of assassins.) They could be fleshed out. Deal with *their* gods - at least face bigger avatars than the "hit me for badge progress" masks at some point - heck, even do a "so you want to be a *real* villain?" redside where you could serve their ends. (I don't believe there's anything redside that gives the various powers from the WHeel of Destruction arc blueside.) They could be fleshed out and the horror aspect leaned on more, versus mostly just being "the guys who have masks and don't have underwear" before DA. (Also, I don't think it's ever explained why they're in Striga, past "it's in their level range.")

French fries laid out in a path. *nods*

Looking on the enhancement screen and power listing window (whatever you want to call the window that comes up whien you click "powers,") Head Splitter on a Stalker is listed as a Melee attack. It's an AOE - it lists the allowed enhancement categories properly (Melee AOE instead of Melee,) but in both locations just the power description lists as plain old Melee. (Haven't checked on any other ATs.)

Ummmm.... Why not wait a few seconds, finish the fight, then click it? Or do it at another time?

There is (or was) an explanation - especially of taunting - somewhere, at least from live. I don't have a link right offhand... While it doesn't just talk about aggro, there's always the Wiki's Taunt entry - https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Taunt_(Status_Effect) - to start with.

... I'm picturing Circle of Thorns mystic "power armor" now...

No, it wouldn't. People already don't go into PVP zones - or spend as little time as possible there, just to get a Shivan or Nuke or a badge, maybe racing through to get 5 merits from the explore badge. A server? ... why waste the space (or donation funds?) If *YOU* want that, *YOU* can dedicate (or rent) a machine, download COH's server (they're honestly pretty easy to set up) and see if you can set such a flag up, then advertise it and see what sort of response you get. I'd probably grab the I24 code, since some folks are... kvetchy about anything dealing with SCoRE's changes. If it lasted 3 months with a population above 500, I'd be shocked.

... you need to look at the dev diaries and other commentaries. PVP was intended to be in from the start. Before player *villains* were. Just like the top level being level 50, despite only starting with 40 levels. It was not forced on COH by NCSoft. From a pre-release where Rick Dakan was discussing why there weren't any villains in the game, his thoughts on PVP (generally open world) and acknowledging players would want to face off against other players - thus, the arenas - https://web.archive.org/web/20070210151142/http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/366/366748p2.html Date: Aug. 7, 2002. Obviously, things changed later - we have villain players, and since they wouldn't be allowed to saunter around the city looking for an arena to play in, we have PVP zones. But the intent to allow PVP - just not open world - was in *very* early.

"How to grief other players...." Yeah, it's the cynic in me, and no, I don't think that's the OP's intent. I just don't trust human nature enough to not see that as the result.

Eh, 5th Column and Council are sort of ... bland. Which is why (aside from "fun to punch fascists") they're used as radio-mission farms in the upper levels. No real challenge to them. I'd rather see them diverge more and have their own flavor. Push the mechanized, tech, superhuman side more with the 5th. The council - well, technically the Nictus were defeated and driven offworld through the Kheldian arcs, and it's shown much of the Council doesn't really know about them (and sometimes gets implanted without their consent - but then again, fascists) but pushing them *even more* in that direction would probably differentiate them. (If it can be done without stomping all over current lore.) Honestly... they're one (well, two) of the long time (and few) low-level-to-50 groups we have, but there's no real payoff to them. There's striga, sure, but that's - going through the story arcs - two peoples' projects, not "the Council." If we were going to expand something - there's Axis America already in lore. Doing a little trip through Portal to free a freshly conquered world (which should be multiple arcs and, potentially, a TF) wouldn't be bad for the 5th column, perhaps, and I don't think would require much as far as "new assets." Sure, same old maps, but still. The Council, as mentioned, should have more of a public Nictus reveal with them coming in with a big, final push or something. (Again, though... how to do so without contradicting or just walking all over the current Kheldian arcs...)

I think the devs are big boys and girls who can figure out what they want to spend time on on their own.

... you haven't paid attention to badgers, have you. 🙂 But.. yeah, I pretty much see a month's worth of "Mary farms" being the main result of this.