biostem

I'd prefer some sort of "grogginess" debuff that affects slept targets that get awoken - a mild tohit, movement speed, and recharge debuff. Another cool idea might be some sort of narcolepsy effect, which causes targets to randomly fall asleep if they've been hit with X sleep effects in Y time. I also like the OP's "sleep -> coma" effect should you stack enough such effects on the same target.

I foolishly bought a lifetime sub to CO back in like 2009. I check in every now and again, but there just isn't enough there to hold my interest. When you have access to the freeform system, 1 character can respec and take every power whenever they want. Not only that, but you can test them in the Powerhouse and undo your power selections for free whilst there. On paper, such a freeform system seems great, but in practice, it basically makes everyone a fully self sufficient tankmage. Further, once you grasp the energy building/unlocking mechanic, you can basically just spam your hardest hitting powers forever, since most have no cooldowns. Lastly, and quite possibly the greatest issue, (at least for me), is how the character models sit firmly in the uncanny valley; It's hard to get a character that isn't fully armored to look good, (again, IMHO).

A horse is a horse of course of course...

The version of Penny that you want to talk to is the one in Independence Port, next to the hospital.

It's certainly a fine-line, but from my perspective, if it is mainly the user doing the thing, then it's natural, whereas if it's more about the device doing the thing, then it's tech. As you say, though, a lot depends upon what said utiltiy belt contains...

What I find interesting is how, if you do a circuit of Perez Park, you'll run into some enemies that you don't generally see elsewhere, (Girlfriends from Hell, Death Dolls, Death Walkers, etc). To your point, though, groups like The Outcasts would be perfect to receive varied updates. I don't recall if they rolled them out yet, but didn't they want to update The Warriors with some shield and titan weapons powers as well? I could also see The Trolls getting some street justice powers and maybe titan weapons as well. Maybe Warwolves could get savage melee and so on...

Can you be interrupted while using those powers, or are you just asking for shorter animation times? If it's the latter, then I say just reduce the animation times...

They added smartphone emotes - just have our characters access whatever info system we need via that...

But you don't eat food, anyway...

I envision that this would take more work than you think, since how the game handles the little placeholders when you type in may not contain the actual characters of your password. Turn off your taunt aura, then. If you are actively using powers with any range against such enemies, then that's on you. Not all missions that are presented as "stealthable" are so. If it's meant to be an intentional twist, I say leave it be. If it's just a holdover from when the OG devs wanted to prolong the grind, then it can probably be done-away with.

From my understanding, it would not be feasible to implement anything like a "wall-crawling" power, since vertical surfaces are not coded to interact with player models in that way. That being said, I would like to see some better interaction between said crab-spider backpack legs and travel powers...

We need this!

I've tried mind control a few times and it just doesn't seem to bring enough to the table. One thing I'd love to see changed is to really dive into the, well, mental aspect of it. Putting an enemy to sleep or confusing them should be small matters for such a being. For its capstone power, I want to be able to completely brainwash an enemy and make them mine! The availability of AoE confusion powers in other sets, and earlier to boot, doesn't help things either.

You're obfuscating the question - how would this translate into the game? What would make this proposed set "arcane", but not fire blasts? What would make this set, necessarily, come from or otherwise be derived from secret rites or long-lost practices? Could electrical blast be arcane? Could radiation blast? You'll note that we have psychic blasts, but it doesn't mention you have a mutation or that you're of a race that has natural telepathy. Powersets don't tell you that they come from secret techniques or mysterious corners of the CoH universe, only what they do or what kind of effects they produce.

And now you're just being pedantic. We're talking about a world based upon comic book tropes, so in that context, arcane = magic. The big difference here is that throwing fire or electricity doesn't tell anything about WHERE or HOW a character does so. I'll ask you again - what makes something "arcane"? What visual cues would such a set entail? If your answer is runes, glyphs, magic circles, etc, then you are showing your hand. It's not the damage type, and it's not a particular set of buffs/debuffs or other such in-set mechanics. And such things could be accomplished by providing the relevant graphical effects. What would make this set "arcane"? What's the distinguishing feature(s) of arcane things? See the famous Clarke quote, but that doesn't answer the question. Feel however you like. Doesn't make it so.

There is no "one size fits all" answer to your question. If your character specializes in AoEs, then more, but weaker enemies is probably the better route to go. If they instead focus more on single target attacks, fewer, but tougher enemies may be ideal. If they can take a lot of damage, and possibly even have an aura power that grants them buffs for each nearby enemy, maybe you'll prefer larger groups. In short, you have to find what works well for your particular build and playstyle...

You do not seem to be able to separate the ORIGIN of one's powers with the powers themselves. I'll ask again - WHAT makes something magic, arcane, or whatever other synonym you want to throw in there? This highlights the confusion even further - Beam Rifle is only "blatantly technological" if you conflate the appearance of a thing with the source of a thing. The limitation of gun = technology only applies to real life. Heck, one of the weapon models is blatantly called a "Rune Soldier Rifle" and another is "Celestial Rifle". What separates that from this proposed "Sorcery set" is that it doesn't shove a specific origin or source down your throat. It's the same with dark blast - it only describes WHAT the attacks consist of, not how your character goes about projecting them or where or how they go about doing so.

Give enemy factions full-fledged debuffers, and you'll have yourself a challenge.

I love the little floating islands around the main area of Echo Plaza - some really cool visuals from different parts of the game.

What makes an attack "magic", though? A fireball can be magic. A lightning bolt can be magic. A chunk of metal traveling at high speeds could also have been caused to do so by, you guessed it, magic. The difference here is that seeing someone lift up a hunk of material and cause smaller hunks of material to go flying out at high speed doesn't actually tell you how it's been caused to do so. *You* may be satisfied to label that as "technology" and go on about your business, and IRL you'd be totally justified in doing so, but not in the world of CoH. Heck, I'm surprised there aren't entire villain groups that use tech to pretend they're magic users or visa-versa, (though I suppose the Council/5th Column Vampyri and War Wolves are kinda close). When you get right down to it, it's how the powers are labeled; Dark powers tell you they're coming from or tapping into some nether realm, but still don't dictate *how* you're accomplishing such a feat...

Maybe add special temp powers one can buy with tons of threads or shards, instead?

There are a few ways to deal with mezzes: 1. Rune of Protection from the Sorcery pools can be used proactively or reactively, as needed. 2. You can email yourself a few breakfrees, so you can access them in or out of instances and even while mezzed. 3. Take some sort of stealth power or slot a stealth IO, (or otherwise use abilities to allow you to get the jump on your opponents), and mez/take out those troublesome critters first.

Obviously with everyone soft-capping def via IOs, the enemy's chance to hit should be able to be lowered, and we should be able to reach 100% dmg RES.

More likely it's an easy origin to go with, and the costume creator has many options for shiny armor or horns & spikey bits.