biostem

Without some armor toggles or controls, this AT would suffer greatly while in melee, survival-wise. You could do something like this, (I'm just using a mix of empathy and invulnerability as an example, here): 1. Healing Aura 2. Temp Invulnerability 3. Unyielding 4. Resurrect 5. Clear Mind 6. Fortitude 7. Recovery Aura 8. Regeneration Aura 9. Adrenalin Boost You'd likely need to swap in more Invulnerability powers or adjust the specific numbers/durations/etc until you find a good balance, but it's doable. For instance, maybe you could turn clear mind and fortitude into toggles that benefit the user and their allies in a small radius, instead of including armor powers at all. Sets like radiation could be turned into user-centered AoEs that debuff nearby enemies, thus increasing that character's survivability that way. As for a class ability - what about some sort of "tagging" system, where enemies suffer a debuff, and you gain a buff for every such tagged enemy within 15' or so...

If I had to guess, they were probably added around the same time as the female Skulls, Hellions, etc...

It's more likely that they could add a few combo pieces to the existing categories - like goatee + cigarette, or shoulder cat + collar.

I thought it was more like "I don't have weekends off, but my buddy does, so instead of neither of us being able to play our characters until those rare times when we were both on, we could continue to play them, yet remain in-step with each other"...

No no... that'd be the "Player control" MM primary set, where you get to directly control other players via MM commands...

Look up the "Guardian" AT - it's something they're working on over at Rebirth - it's assault primaries and a combination of support & armor as their secondaries. It could be very interesting to play, but tough to balance - just how much survivability would you give them? What kind of HP/defense/damage numbers were you thinking?

I made a staff/bio character, and could use both the "forms" and the "adaptations", so I don't see why this couldn't work. I could see nun-chucks being used in 1 of 3 ways; To strike, to deflect/distract, or to entangle, so perhaps these 3 "modes" could be reflected in secondary effects, much like staff's...

The user 'Shenanigunner' has made a really useful list of all the power icons and their names here. I'm sure you can find several icons that would serve your purpose...

It could be due to a few factors. First, many of the hud/menu overlays are actually quite taxing - try disabling such labels unless its your selected target or on mouse-over. Second, reduce the world draw distance - I've noticed that sometimes the game tries to render objects that are quite far away, and it can also be quite taxing. PI is rather enemy-dense, so maybe trying to draw and track all of them is to blame. Third, CoH seems to sometimes have an issue with Phys-X/debris objects - try dropping those all the way down. Hope some of this helps. Cheers!

It's the same way you can justify your level 1 character taking repeated gunshot wounds and not being disabled/killed immediately. Soldiers: High-end armor and training Ninja: They're just that good at dodging Beasts: They are enchanted or super-agile Other possible "outs" is that your pets aren't actually all the powerful, but you have lots and lots of reinforcements to replace your losses. Maybe your henchmen aren't real at all, but manifestations of your psyche/holograms/cleverly disguised robots. How do you rationalize that regular Malta soldiers can stand toe-to-toe with heroes in that level range?

I haven't played it firsthand, but over at Rebirth, they are working on a "Guardian" AT, which is basically assault primaries + support/armor secondaries...

Champions Online has several gloves with "palm projectors"... are you sure you didn't see them there?

Objection!

I wonder just how difficult it would be to add mutually exclusive power choice options at different tiers, similar to have SR has - like you could pick up haunt, or you could take a cone hold or something...

That's not a "need" per se - it's a "want". Very important distinction.

Are you collecting tons of temp powers or just doing things like playing a shapeshifter where you change costumes and entire power loadouts?

You are misunderstanding - the "hangup" I mention is this notion you have that you "need" set IOs to play your character - That is patently false. But this is not "the real world" - it is a game world (Homecoming), and you are talking about in-game items that basically render any character they're used on "OP". It is no more "our game" than any other F2P game is those players'. Because of how drastically IOs elevate the performance of your characters, and with power creep already being an issue, some method of throttling it is very much called for. Since you seem so keen on identifying other people's motives without providing any evidence, I'm going to do in kind, and say that you just want everything "now" without having to work for it. Why not just run missions, buy other recipes from the same set, and use the enhancement converters? I don't play the market, and I have very few characters that have multiple full sets, much less completely IO'd out, so my only stake in the game, so to speak, is to simply be able to play and realize some of the character concepts/ideas I happen to have and/or find fun to play. I'm only familiar with Homecoming and a teeny bit of Rebirth, but if "Pineapple" is a server where you can get any IO you want very easily or for free, then yes, it is probably the server for you. The fact that it has a low population is a tradeoff you are going to have to consider, just like the rarity of those highly sought-after IOs are here...

Well, the attacks could entail a little gun turret or other device "popping out" of you, kind of like spines, then firing off the attack. There are some blaster secondaries that are more toward the self buffing side than additional melee attacks, or you could go with a sentinel...

This seems to be more a hangup of yours, than of the game/AH itself. You absolutely *can* create any character you like. Try playing your characters with regular IOs and run missions for recipes, craft them, and use the enhancement converters as needed.

This seems super specific, and probably better suited to an "integrated weaponry" blast set.

Personally, I've been enjoying bio armor or radiation armor on my brutes - the simple reason is because you get some powerful +recovery buffs early on in both sets, so you can keep going-and-going-and-going, with little to no downtime. Willpower and regeneration do get quick recovery, and while willpower can be quite good, I find that their other powers are somewhat lackluster, (but that's just my opinion). Cheers!

I wonder what would be involved in making this a reality - from my understanding, character models have "attachment points" and there are only so many per character...

Start here, paying special attention to the Apple/Mac portions...

Well, it'd be interesting if the heal chained, (as you indicated). I wouldn't make it enemy-dependent though; Just have it chain from 1 ally to the next. I'd also give the set a lot of different ways to aid yourself and your allies in recovering end - either through a direct buff, or what if you summoned some "support voltaic sentinels" that floated around and emitted a +rec and +regen effect or something? Maybe there could be a power which is a toggle damage and -regen -rec aura that you can place on an ally as well. Another idea would be a sort of "electrical link" power, which connects you to an enemy - they suffer a DoT and/or -end while you simultaneously emit a HoT and/or "end over time" effect to you and your nearby allies. I feel like a res shield for allies has already been done in other sets, so maybe have i be an absorption over-shield or something that protects against *everything*, only at a lesser value than the separate typed ones...

Why not just allow *any* damage type to ignite the oil slick, or change entangling net arrow to electrified net arrow? I certainly agree that TA needs a lot of love, but either of those solutions should be (relatively) quick and easy to implement...