biostem

A few of my most recent Gravity/Force Field Controller - "The Attractor":

"The Attractor", my latest Gravity/Force Field Controller:

After seeing her in action, one person commented, "She's a wizard with that thing!", to which she innocently retorted, "Oh no honey, I'm a sorceress!"... "The Chainblade Sorceress":

The key, IMHO, is to look at those benefits the archetype-origin enhancements grant that no other sets have to offer. In that regard, the 3 key benefits are the bonuses to pretty much all control types, (most other sets, if they do grant a bonus to any control effects at all, generally only improve 1 type), then the chance for psionic damage from the Will of the Controller set, and the chance to summon an energy font from the Overpowering Presence set. The other effects they grant can be found, to varying degrees, in other sets. If you are looking to soft-cap defense or attain any of the other buffs those sets have to offer, then by all means pursue them. To be frank, though, I don't think those unique effects are good enough to justify the cost, (if you are trying to outright buy them off the AH), or the time investment, (if you are trying to earn enough merits to buy them that way). My general approach is to look at how that character has been performing and using set bonuses to compensate for areas they were coming up short in, (maybe I needed some better end management, so might pursue additional recovery, max end, an end discount, and so on), or to further leverage those areas where they were performing well, (extending mez effects longer, maybe see if I can eek out a few more points of magnitude, etc).

These - the generic IOs. Use and slot level 25 ones to cover your basic power needs. They're relatively inexpensive, are about as good as SOs, and never expire. They'll get you where you need to until 50, and then you can start focusing on set IOs, uniques, ATOs, and so on...

They could do a little tweak in the leveling scheme, to go from... 44 power 45 slots 46 slots 47 power 48 slots 49 power 50 slots To... 44 power 45 slots 46 power 47 slots 48 power 49 slots 50 slots

That acc is unenhanceable, though, right? They get 10% tohit w/ tactics, which can become about 15% w/ enh's, and IIRC tohit is a lot better than acc, and if you're having end issues to begin with, that extra cost really matters...

I never understood these broad "can you solo as a(n) X" threads - the answer, if they don't clearly state under what specific circumstances they are talking about, is always "yes" - Frankly, (and unless it is some outlier mission with something like an EB or AV that doesn't scale down), if you can't solo at x1/-1, then it's a player/build issue...

Only if they are all automatically added to the "Lonely Hearts Club Band" SG...

In a perfect world, characters should be able to "pull their punches", limiting the degree to which they knock enemies back or just on their butts, but CoH doesn't really allow for that sort of dynamic. IMHO, I think a better solution would be to introduce more KB sets that have typical and appealing set bonuses, including ones that apply some sort of -KB mag, (either per-power or globally, whose exact values can be worked out later). If you make these sets competitive with other alternatives, and treat the -kb as a bonus and not a penalty, then I think it could work...

I think an important distinction to make is whether we are talking about how our characters perform in-game, or as their players envision them performing on a more narrative level. For instance, even a level 1 "squishy" human character can survive multiple gunshots, but from a storytelling standpoint, you'd likely depict them taking cover, using distractions or misdirection, etc, just to take down a few enemies - not standing nearly toe-to-toe while exchanging gunshots.

There are polite or courteous ways of summoning & fighting Ada, and there are selfish ones. I wouldn't say there are any "obligations", though...

Gravity is one of the most "blastery" controller primaries. I rarely find that I need other attacks. I did notice that you didn't list crush, the ST immobilize - take it! It's mag 4 and helps set up containment. I also like to include stealth, so I can avoid unwanted fights, can get a bit better positioning before I start one, and it can take a LotG global recharge IO...

Are you saying to offer lower level versions of those IOs, or to make them all attuned from the get-go?

You'd have to recode all powers to be able to affect yourself, then you'd have to adjust the self-affecting portion to grant lesser values. Next, you'd have to adjust power costs, recharges, and durations to further limit how powerful they'd be. Just play an AT or powerset that already has self-affecting buffs/powers...

I've gotten the best results with setting 1 of the color options to black, and the other to something bright - you then get a hint of that second color, at least... but, yeah - it's annoying.

Right, but it won't let you do anything with that first build until you do place those slots, and without using a respec, you still wouldn't be able to 6-slot that lvl 49 power pick.

I wonder how difficult or unbalancing it would be to have an option to still level up, but just not place any enh slots "yet"...

I just can't seem to enjoy playing dominators. Controllers, I can have fun with. Blasters and melee ATs I enjoy, but the combination of ranged, melee, control, and seemingly no sustain or other such buff powers just makes dominators feel like a slog for me. I've even forced myself to get one to 50 and do the whole "perma-dom" thing, and still, it just isn't my cup of tea...

A earth support/seismic defender or seismic/earth corruptor would be able to get 2 meteorites, and an earth/earth controller would get 2 stone golems - both big no-no's. The powers should, in a sense, mimic what stone armor grants, only in ally buff form.

It would be interesting if dark powers could, for lack of a better term, be given a "bright" color option, much like how most other sets can get a dark one...

Their whole schtick is the transformation abilities. They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but dwarf form is there. Kheldians are supposed to be the jack-of-all trades ATs. Whether they live up to that is another story entirely, but I don't think shoehorning status protection in their human forms, (PBs do already have light form, to boot), is the answer...

I'm fine with just fighting them in CoH proper. Not sure why I should care to see what Hellions or Malta are like in a Marvel system, TBH...

I'll give you an example, but please keep in mind that I did this a very quick and dirty way. For a more useful method, you'd probably want to do a bind_load_file_silent to separately bind enter to begin_chat with the desired colors, instead of the quick one I did that triggers the costume change every time. /bind f1 "cc0$$beginchat <color red> <bgcolor white> <border red> "

You are missing what I'm saying. I believe there is an issue with trying to use certain key combinations as triggers for binds. As a test, I created a brand new character, with 3 different costumes, and bound both a costume change and a chat color change to single keys, (in this case, F1, F2, & F3), and it works fine: