biostem

I was looking through the costume editor to see if there were any newly added pieces that I missed, and found that they made the Paragon Protector helmet and patterns available to players. With that in mind, I present "The A S P", or "Armored Strike Protector":

Use the existing "underling" category and implement swarms of weak enemies. Why not try it out in AE and see how it'd play out, then get back to us about how good or bad it feels.

That'd be Longbow. Still, some PPD units would be awesome!

Probably the same reason why enemies will take a gunshot to the face and just keep standing like 5' away, waiting for the next one...

Malta, Knives, DE, Crey, etc...

Not a particular powerset or combination of sets, but rather a particular mindset, is who I prefer to team with. Namely, a defender who knows that their support/buffing/healing set is merely half of their character, (less if you also count pools/incarnates/etc), and that you neither need to chase around every teammate nor do you need to spam your powers to be effective. Being cognizant about where you're standing, who you're attacking, and where the rest of your team is, (i.e. a high degree of situational awareness), makes for a far far better teammate than any particular primary or secondary, in my mind...

Here's a weird thought - what about going with a bane spider - you get the mace, which has some nice spikey options, and fires energy, toxic, and even some sticky web attacks! Go with soul mastery for some extra oomph and to mix up the damage types & tools at your disposal.

You're reading too much into it - options are there, therefore they are meant to be used. An automatic transmission car, though you may be in drive like 90% of the time, is still intended to be able to reverse or be placed into a specific gear or neutral, if and when needed. You may not see the need, but the capability is still there. Compare and contrast it with SR, where you really only have 1 way to play the set - turn on the toggles, then either click the status protection power as needed or set it to autofire. There are no modes to switch between, no variety of buffs/debuffs to consider using depending upon the circumstances you run up against...

Oh no doubt. My point was that the set kind of wants you to switch modes on the fly, which is why you have a variety of buffs/debuffs depending on the mode. I'm not saying you *can't* just set a mode and leave it on 24x7...

In a very general sense, any armor set that you, as an individual, cannot make work for you, is "the worst". Now, there are many reasons why one may not be able to get a set to work for them - like constantly running out of end, a set having holes you cannot or just aren't yet able to patch, or just not liking the style of play a particular armor set "wants" you to use, (like switching between bio armor's modes or maybe having a backup source of healing for SR, when hits do get through).

Y'know what'd be funny - a toggle power that periodically scatters caltrops in a PBAoE around your character, (which also taunt enemies to yourself).

Yeah, I mean, you can unslot or replace enhancements anytime, so I don't think it has to do with the permanent or transitory nature of the powers. IMHO, it's probably because Incarnate stuff came after the system that shows power details in the character window, and they either didn't have time or didn't care enough to include them in said info display...

Maybe give the power an effect like Blasters' "Reach for the Limit", where it simply has a proc to grant a temporary damage boost, or perhaps up the base defense a little bit or have it grant additional KB protection...

Agreed. Brute & Tanker Dark Armor gets the stealth power, and Brute Energy Aura keeps its stealth power, so I don't think it has to go away.

I really like how that costume turned out! Aping off of the use of the 2-tone hair as a head covering/hood, I present "The Cold Crescent":

I'm curious if you mean to do so as an extensive reworking of the existing game code, since trying to get a hold of a new game engine, then create everything else basically from scratch is nearly insurmountable, given what other "successors" have run up against...

Do you mean animated/glowing/ones with FX? I think we already have static ones as patterns...

Opportunity costs; You WANT tough and weave - gotta invest to get them. It's like one of the last "tough" choices players have to make in-game. Don't take it away!

It's basically an unavoidable consequence of any rigid upper body piece that extends below the waste.

Empathy is actually an extremely powerful set - it just isn't "set-it-and-forget-it", and the trend seems to be that people don't want to actually have to select which teammate to use what power on and when. I think that there are alternatives that cater to the former already, so taking away other options is not a good thing, IMHO. Not being able to have every power perma on everyone is actually *NOT* a bad thing...

It is unique to Shadowhunter, but yes, it does exist in-game.

You're fundamentally changing the power - it's supposed to be that *YOU* are absorbing the other character's pain, not that you are helping them to do so. This would be too good, IMHO, and steps on the toes of those sets that specifically provide various resist shields. I could see the psi component, though. Again, probably too good. The buff values would also have to be significantly reduced if such powers were made into AoEs, which I don't like. Dark's rez, IIRC, needs a target. What would be the tradeoff, here?

Also chain/scale mail briefs & bikini tops/loinclothes!

I was thinking of mechanics that might make for an interesting blast set, and my thoughts wandered to the Dreamcast game "Ikaruga", where one of the core mechanics is that you can switch between dark and light shots, which grant immunity and extra or reduced damage to like/opposite types. To that end, I present "Polarity Blast": The set would have a swap mechanic similar to dual pistols' swap ammo, but only between light and dark, (or negative/positive, etc). Attacking with one type would apply a special debuff to the target, and being hit by such an enemy while in the same or opposite mode, (the specifics can be ironed out later), would result in reduced damage or such from said enemy. Perhaps the set would also include a short but potent self buff for switching damage types, in order to encourage use of this mechanic, Other than the switching mechanic, the set could easily draw from existing attacks and animations. To simplify things, perhaps the 2 mutually exclusive mode-toggles could simply apply an additional graphical effect, so as to not have to deal with how to handle each attack having 2 separate FX themselves...

That's an odd place to put, well, a "hood"...