Legree

That sense of 'been there, done that' is definitely a factor for me. I still enjoy the individual powersets, just not in those combinations, because broadly speaking I know how they play out against most enemies. What may tempt me back to them one day is that they were originally levelled before the changes to notoriety settings, and from time to time I wonder how they'd do on missions set higher than Invincible/Relentless.

Since that wonderful, undreamt of day when City of Heroes came back I've let my altitis run wild - as I did on live. Some old characters I never played as much as I'd have liked have recreated - some with their original primary/secondary, others with new ones (new to me at least) that fit them better, and many new characters have joined them. The funny thing is that while I did recreate my original 50s - redside thugs/poison MM and blueside Claws/SR scrapper - I've barely played them. Not only that but MMs used to be my goto AT and yet I find that they are just not clicking with me now, and I'm spending far more time on ATs I rarely if ever played on live - defenders, dominators and khelds being the big three. Anyone else finding that their old favourite AT, or even favourite main character, just isn't now?

I think it's a combination of players importing their idea of the trinity from other MMOs, and/or applying the approach to team building for Incarnate Trials to regular content. It does strike me as bizarre when I see something like "lvl 30 radio missions in Bricktown. Need Tank and Heals" in LFG. It's always been a thing - especially on blueside with their tanks and healers. It does seem more prevalent now though, albeit it also seems to vary from server to server. I admit I may be biased. I mostly played redside on live, and noone cared about your AT in building a team over there outside of maybe LRSF. Redside didn't even have /empathy for a long time, and brutes were as likely to describe themselves as DPS as they were as tanks, if the subject even came up.

Consider it done.

+ 1 Being surprised by a Rikti invasion event in Kings Row during my original trial was the single most memorable moment I had in the game up to that point. One minute I was fighting street thugs, the next the sky turned green, the sirens wailed and I found myself battling an alien invader who just teleported in from... Holy <BLEEP> There's an Alien Spaceship Up There! Awesome. Sure, with the scaling and being on a level 8 scrapper it took me several minutes and a full tray of inspirations to down one lieutenant, but it was still an amazing, exciting experience, and I hate that my new characters will have to be level 25+ before I can relive that moment. Please revert the change.

Would this AT have bodyguard mode? If so then unequivocally no to this idea - it'd be far more powerful than an actual MM unless the buff/debuff sets and/or pet powers were made less effective than those of an MM. The other big issue is that few MMs actually take their personal attack powers, except for fun or flavor - so swapping them out for defensive toggles and a self heal is extremely unbalanced.

Technically they scale, but I dimly recall someone once said that they do have a base level of 15, so they are in effect scaled up or scaled down level 15 mobs, and are weaker or tougher than an actual level 15 in the same way that exemped characters are depending on their true level. So my lowbies in Kings Row or Mercy would have epic battles against 1 Rikti ltnt mob, while my mid-30s MM in St. Martial would massacre anything in range without stepping out of /em boombox. Anyway, I really wish they'd reverse this change. My first Rikti invasion event was the most memorable experience of my original trial period of CoH, and I miss them, even if it does take me minutes to beat down one Rikti.

Agreed. Anyone who played on one of the lower pop servers on live (i.e. any other than Freedom, Virtue and Infinity) will remember how hard it could be to assemble a team for some group content - and harder still if that content wasn't tied to a 'must-have' reward like an accolade. The character I ran through the Hollows from 6-15 was level 50 before I managed to finally get a team together for the Caverns of Transcendance to properly 'finish' that zone's story. I already see people talking about running Synapse through gritted teeth - give those people the option to skip it (and who knows what else besides) and they will take it.

The only thing double/quadruple/whatever XP would do to Praetoria is screw up the pace of the story. I don't want to be level 15 upon entering Imperial City, or 20+ by the time I reach Neutropolis. Praetoria is also - by design - very story driven, and I doubt that anyone who plays there currently is doing so for any reason other than story, fidelity to character concept and/or challenge.* Even if the zones were higher pop it's still not very team friendly, and again I feel that's by design. I don't see increased XP being that much of an incentive to visit redside either. If a player is that motivated by their rate of XP gain then they'll probably just keep running DFB/DIB or AE anyway, because that'll still be faster and easier XP. *all three of which are likely among the reasons why people play redside too

It's not a feature I would use myself, but I'm quite won over by your proof of concept piece - great read!

Redside has always been less populated. Always. I imagine that it's only moreso now that all ATs are available on both sides. Incentivising villains with extra xp, inf or merits won't work - unless it's so off the scale good that it outdoes blueside teaming, blueside TFs, maybe even blueside AE, and all that will do is annoy players who already like redside and find themselves being involuntarily PL'd by the game itself. I think the only way to bring people over to the Isles is to point out that there's a lot of good story and atmosphere that they're missing out on if they never leave Paragon City.

No. I like the cave maps. They're interesting to fight in, and a change of pace from the more flat, open maps like the blue science bases. Those I do find a bit dull at times, but I wouldn't want them removed.