biostem

Taking combat jumping and acrobatics can mitigate *some* status effects, and the Clarion Destiny Incarnate ability can be made perma if you get one of the 120 second duration ones.

So I was bumming around the RWZ, and saw a Vanguard HVAS in one of the bays within the base. I was curious was "HVAS" stood for, and the Wiki calls it a "Vanguard HVAS", but then goes on to state that "HVAS" stands for "Heavy Vanguard Assault Suit". So, in effect, this unit is called the "Vanguard Heavy Vanguard Assault Suit". Also, I thought this was a robot for the longest time, but apparently it's piloted?

It would change the meta - the name of the game would be more on recharge to maintain the higher mag you could get. Powers that granted only 1 or 2 mag effects would become more useful as they could be improved to affect bosses. I think Dominators would lose out a bit, here, as controllers would be able to achieve the higher level mag effects without stacking, which was kind of the doms' thing while domination was running. All those mez effects strewn about the APPs/PPPs for other ATs would become a lot more useful, as they could hold bosses with a single application. Synergies like time wall granting the delayed effect, which in turn gives time stop an extra mag of hold, would become less important, since you could just slot time stop directly for said extra magnitude. Would domination double the magnitude before or after this bonus?

Yeah... but none of them are interdimensional. That being said, it would be interesting to know how DJ Zero would treat those that litter. Heck, wouldn't it be cool to have 2 of the NPCs start a fight randomly, only to have something said over the loudspeaker or have some sort of "portal entity" appear and poof them out of the club...

I would love the torch model, from the 'hold torch' emote, (with and without the flame effect), to be made available for war mace characters, (possibly for dual blades or other sets, too)!

I've made the updates to the description.

You need to set yourself to "No solo bosses", then those EBs will become bosses. I've been using that farm now for several days, and it routinely gets my new alts from about 1-6 on the 1st run, which can be done in under 10 mins. It is easier if you start at level 2, though, as you'll have another attack and rest to use as needed between enemies. I'll adjust the description of ARC ID 51582 to reflect needing to adjust that setting - it was common to do that in the other tunnel farms...

I mean, running the same TF more than once yields fewer reward merits as well, so diminishing rewards for repeated runs does seem to be the norm, or are you saying that those diminishing rewards are on an account-wide basis, and not per character? Either way, some clarity would be nice...

A hero from another time - "Tricorne":

Doesn't work if that NPC can't see them... Thereby giving away their position. Which also would give away their position. Stealth isn't the only tool in your toolbox. So... problem solved?

Are you honestly arguing that some civvie hostage should be able to detect a hidden stalker, (or anyone with any concealment power, for that matter)? The special units you described would ostensibly have either superior training, specialized equipment, or a combination of both, to allow them to detect you... Be honest here - how much of your gameplay do you actually spend having to be visible, due to these circumstances? If a circumstance requires you to be visible, then you just gotta learn to adapt to that. It's just like powers that need you to be on the ground/not flying, or cases where you may need to get closer to an enemy than you may like...

Here are my results:

It does not follow that, if your character is truly undetectable, that some hostage could see you in order to follow you out. If increasing their perception, to reflect you surreptitiously giving them direction isn't an option, then maybe have them make their own way toward the exit, (stopping if other enemies catch them), or just change it to mission complete upon clearing the surrounding enemies...

I put "followers" in quotes for a reason. It's not meant to be taken literally. What I meant is how the game handles these NPCs, vs something like a mastermind or Lore pet - those follow you regardless of your stealth. When Batman rescues a hostage in the comics, that person is vulnerable to the enemies - they can be killed, recaptured, etc. That is not the case for most such missions in CoH. The simplest solution, IMO, would be to give these NPCs much higher perception.

The CoH archetypes are extremely broad categories that have to account for everything from your "peak human" to your "god-tier" characters. I mean, is it even fair to try and categorize both Superman and Captain America as "melee ATs"? I also think a lot depends upon the writer. Most comic book characters, if translated into CoH, would have one or more unique powers - Wolverine would have something like the old instant healing and a self rez with like no cooldown, which allows him to get right back up from any fight. Supes would have some sort of damage threshold power, where nothing dealing less than that value would hurt him at all. Spiderman, in addition to his webbing, would have a unique variant of super reflexes, which had much higher values, (not to mention his wall crawling). Captain America would have a few shield throw/trick throw powers, and teh ability to deflect enemy attacks back at them with it, and so on...

The thing is, the NPCs we're guiding aren't "followers" in the sense that'd be required for this to work. I'm not necessarily against making such a change, but as long as they are basically neutral parties that just follow, then they either need their perception buffed way up, or you have to turn off your stealth powers... I mean, they can't be harmed or recaptured, either. Would you be willing to make those concessions as well?

Why not just have her go to the altar as soon as the mobs around her are cleared? You can have her go back into her "captive status" if more enemies reach her, or something...

Well, I was thinking something else that's 2-handed, or maybe "hand and a half"...

I wish we had something between broadsword and titan weapons - slower than BS but more damage, yet faster than TW, but without the momentum mechanic - something like a "greatsword melee" set that was a good compromise between the two...

I wonder if they could make the granite FX translucent, so your character model appears in the middle of a semi-transparent granite form. Alternatively, maybe they could do something like some of the bio armor FX, where you get encased in the granite visual when first activating it, then burst out of it...

I really enjoy the pairing of savage melee and radiation armor, (bio armor is also good, bit I've come to love particle shielding). I'm also having fun with my dual blades/electric armor brute!

I get not wanting all these FX floating around, but at the same time, those animations are meant to convey what is active on a particular target. I suppose, since you can still see the buff icons in the pet window, this wouldn't leave you "blind" to what effects they're under, in which case, I could get behind an *option* to suppress said FX...

I would be in favor of being able to basically "fireman's carry" the hostage/escortee, but then you shouldn't be able to attack or hide.

Think about it - you should have to become visible or otherwise give your position away, for someone else to be able to follow you...

I'm not sure why it would cost you any inf. If you take into account the time to create a costume I like, we could be talking several hours. That being said, I usually just grab the utility powers from the P2W vendor, but *not* the XP booster, so I can get some "seed money", then I'll sell off any medium or large insps from the "Inner Inspiration" power on the AH...