biostem

This set gave me Castlevania flashbacks, lol!

But the wiki says "Peacebringers are formed from the fusion of an alien energy being called a Kheldian and a willing host."

I thought there were people advertising that they'd make a simple base for you for some in-game inf. No need to destroy their business... 😉

No doubt, but I think a reliable "build resource - consume resource" mechanic is pretty well-tested at this point, (see water blast's 'tidal power' or street justice's combo system)...

Well, I can get behind radiation melee attacks applying the contaminated effect reliably, sure. Radiation siphon consuming or otherwise relying upon said contaminated effect can remain as-is...

Beyond the animation issues discussed earlier in this thread, I wish the set's siphon ability worked as reliably as savage melee's "blood frenzy" mechanic...

So in a comic book setting, (or any sci-fi/fantasy one, for that matter), the concept of an "energy being" that is incorporeal isn't that far out there. That being said, a Kheldian's ability to traverse interstellar distances is kind of handwaved away, as in-game they don't exhibit that level of power. Moving past that, it can basically be boiled down to 2 categories, (with a further subdivision of the 2nd). Those being: Did the Kheldian join with their host willing or unwillingly? If willing, then they become a Peacebringer. If unwilling, they start off as a Nictus. Now, players cannot be Nictus, instead they can play as a "reformed Nictus", henceforth referred to as a "Warshade'. The "forms" you mentioned, ("squid" or "lobster", "Nova" or "Dwarf"), are merely memories or afterimages of previous hosts that the Kheldian can also assume with their current host. Theoretically, it wouldn't be impossible for a Kheldian to have merged with other such aliens in the past to assume their forms, but that isn't available in-game.

I view them as a sort of "echo of reality" - not exactly a sentient entity or them being brought back from the dead, but sort of an image, illusion, or memory made real, if that makes sense...

I don't think the OP has replied at all, have they? Makes me wonder how many such posters are just trying to "stir the pot", so to speak...

I would like some visual directional indicators for glowies, (if for no other reason than if you are hearing impaired)...

IMHO, these debuffs shouldn't be looked at in a vacuum; The question is whether those debuffs contribute to the overall goal of keeping you alive and defeating your opponents. The hard part, here, is determining just how much of those goals they actually help with. Frankly, I select sets based upon what fits a particular character's theme/concept or what about teh set as a whole interests me in playing it...

The thing is, mission objectives *should* be a bit hazy, if there's a good in-universe reason for it - like a contact that doesn't have all the information on the enemy they're sending you against, or enemies that change their objectives "on the fly". What they should do, however, is to increase the mission rewards for each "curveball" they throw at you...

The "blue pancake cave" notwithstanding, most missions are actually quite straightforward - Kill all, Kill named boss & surrounding group(s), collect X glowies, escort an NPC out. Yeah - this ain't a "Next-Gen" game, but if you're here for that, then you're doing something wrong. In general, could things like finding glowies use some TLC? Of course, but I don't think your suggestions are the best way to go about doing that...

I'd love to be able to incorporate some "small arms" into the mix on some of my Scrappers. To that end, I present "Pistol Mastery": 1. Pistols - (As per the Dual Pistols attack), deals minor lethal damage with a -DEF debuff, (treated as if you had none of the ammo swap toggles running). 2. Suppressive Fire - Acts as if you had cryo ammo active, so deals moderate cold damage and holds the target. 3. Pin-Down - Uses the animation from Empty Clips, deals minor lethal damage in a cone, and immobilizes targets hit. 4. Shootist's Eye - Toggle similar to Focused Accuracy, (perhaps with a slightly lower end cost since it's further down in the set). 5. Hail of Bullets - As per the Dual Pistols attack of the same name, acting as though you had no special ammo toggle running, so you'd get the +DEF buff.

Cones are one of the few areas where I do actively build for +range, since it really improves their general usability...

Not gaudy enough! Needs more spikes!!!

Conversely, there is something to be said about powers like Char, which have very simple a no-nonsense animations - "I stick out my hand now suffer"

It'd be interesting if this set utilized the absorb mechanic, with certain powers allowing you to target allies, with the catch being that you can only replenish X amount of absorb points per "tic", so spreading it among too many allies thins out the protection. Perhaps this set could have a "Build Up"-like power that replenishes a large amount of said absorption points. It'd also be interesting if your status protection was tied to said shield(s) being intact - so them getting depleted leaves you vulnerable. Perhaps have a passive that grants a small amount of base status protection, and perhaps also increases the base rate this absorption is replenished...

I just wish they'd fix that bug that prevents the back/underside of many of those cloth pieces from being colored unless you select "Apply to All", (or w/e that option is called)...

Savage melee/radiation armor also makes for an interesting combo - you'll never want for end/recovery and get tons of recharge buffs. The only thing you'll need to learn/adjust to is when to use up those stacks of blood frenzy, or when to let one stack drop off so you don't consume all 5 stacks and exhaust/lockout said buff for a little while...

There is *something* that permits cutscenes to be skipped, at least in BAF, as we sometimes don't have to sit through it at all...

My guess is that they'd have to significantly rewrite the TFs/SFs in order to work around this limitation; Clearly the game can place mobs without a cutscene, but if they were initially written to include them, then they rely upon them to the aforementioned enemy placement...

"Delay of gratification" and all that - you could get fully IO'd out without having to spend tons on the market, if you are patient and willing to slot a little at a time...

What we colloquially call "demons", at least in the CoH setting, may actually originate from vastly different planes/dimensions. Further, the method or terms under which they have been brought to Primal Earth and in what ways they serve their new masters, (unless they entered our world of their own volition), differs greatly, etc. In short, I envision the Hellions serving as little more than potential sacrifices or vessels for which the CoT can bring forth more ancient members of their lineage or just to harvest some additional magical energy...

That's why my advice is to go with level 25 generic IOs, then replacing those, (either in the same build or on one of your other builds), with various set or other such specialized IOs/HOs/SHOs/D-Syncs/Etc, as you go. Nothing unobtainable and certainly not overly expensive...