biostem

Cuz they're spiders, duh! 😋

Maybe I'm missing something here, but "lower fire rate" means fewer attacks per second, and "higher fire rate" means more attacks per second. Giving the former more damage and the latter less damage would help balance that out, no?

I wonder if, to give it a little more of a distinction from other such firearm sets, a sort of "variable fire rate" ability could be implemented, where lower fire rate would increase damage but lengthen recharge times, and higher fire rates would do the opposite, maybe even changing animation lengths as well...

Weird, then, because it does look different in hand position to me. ** shrugs ** Without getting too much into the weeds on the issue, I'm not terribly concerned with what other CoH private servers do/have done... I'd also like to note that the Council troopers that use chainguns also have differently named attack powers than their AR-wielding brethren...

Isn't it held differently, though?

Well, a precedent could be found in air superiority, and presumably the -range effect would persist for a short while, so tagging an enemy with that would be yet another way to keep them close. Which is something that melee ATs have very limited access to, and ranged ATs don't really need. It would still be useful if you can tag an enemy with a melee attack, (by jousting or other means). I wouldn't be adverse to adding a ranged variant as well.

I made a savage/ea stalker using the twin-hook cosmic corsair hands for both hands, called "Hookz", and was surprised it wasn't already taken...

Why would the -range component of an IO work any differently than it does in taunt, though?

I have not experienced this behavior when using taunt on enemies...

I don't have the full set details figured out, but I'd love to see a melee IO set, (or two), that include a -fly and/or a -range proc, (inspired by this thread).

One of the biggest problems I think both Marvel and Star Wars have experienced in recent years is this tendency to gloss over years or even decade's worth of events in order to rush to "now". We really needed to see more of, (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers), what happened between Captain Marvel and The Marvels, vs the numerous "info dumps" we're given instead...

Is the version available from arena vendors usable outside of there? If a web grenade temp power is reliably attainable for villains, then I see no reason why some parity couldn't exist for heroes, and visa-versa. A quick search also shows that there is at least 1 APP/PPP with a -fly power available to all melee ATs. Lastly, the -range in taunt and confront are also kind of meant to address the lack of range, so they're an option as well.

I've been experiencing a bit of a dry spell, so I've been trying a few different things out to see if something clicks. Here are 2 that I think turned out rather nicely; One's kind of comical, and the other a bit more on the horror side... The Savage/Energy Stalker "Hookz" and the Staff/Ninjitsu Scrapper "Knave of Staves":

I dislike autohit powers as well. If they're going to exist "by necessity", then they should be used extremely limitedly...

On the one hand, I agree with your sentiment. OTOH, I would prefer the ATO procs offer something that either compliments an ATs strengths or compensates for their weaknesses in some meaningful way. To put it another way, if an ATO doesn't offer something on par with what any other IO set can offer, then why bother with it?

I've generally taken to playing a melee AT or a Sentinel, in part due to their ability to lead a team from the front. Given that playstyle, what kind of Blaster could fill a similar role? Please note that I am not looking for some build that can pull this off only after spending large sums on IOs and I'd prefer they not rely too heavily on Incarnate abilities. Thanks for reading!

I see no problems, here...

Your best bet would be to either roll a beast mastery mastermind with a secondary that'll make them tougher and take various pool melee attacks. I suppose you could create a suggestions post for some sort of beast APP that includes a summonable wolf...

It's important to keep in mind that they are also no longer tied into using their 1st 2 powers to debuff enemy resistance or provide a slight heal to allies attacking their target.

I love Sentinels and mainly play them. That being said, I've found the absorb proc to be nearly useless - not only does it occur too infrequently, but the amount of absorb is way too low. I'm not in favor of making it global, but perhaps the amount of said absorb could be tweaked up a bit. As others mentioned, the current iteration simply gives the slotted power a chance to grant the character some additional opportunity for the AT inherent power. That being said, I'd rather something like a chance to instantly refill your opportunity bar to 50% and/or recharge the inherent power.

I could see a "Pterosaur serum" that uses the existing "super serum" costume change emote, and just has you sprout some generic bat/demon wings for its duration. We also have the "drink forumla" emote that could work nicely for the flight potion. As an alternative to how others work, I could see it having a 10-15 min duration, but cannot be turned off. The winged boots might be a bit trickier to rationalize, as I don't see why they'd only last a couple minutes. Maybe just treat those like the jetpack? I'm not a huge fan of the ones where an entity carries you around. Maybe just make it a temporary costume replacer item, since it'd have an "only affect self" effect anyway.

This may sound weird, but how about some sit emotes that basically spawn a chair under you, in which you can sit perfectly, instead of having to awkwardly stand over an existing one in order to get into just the right position...

There are precedents in comics where a character can't fly on their own, so instead relies on something like a ring or belt to gain that ability. That being said, and especially given CoH's diverse sources of such items, it need not be something as bulky as a jetpack or as conspicuous as a large bulky belt. Heck, I see no reason why it couldn't be a serum that temporarily causes you to grow wings or something similar. From my perspective, I wouldn't use any of these - I don't like the uncertainty of such powers running out mid-battle, so I tend to just take the fly power, but the cat's out of the bag thanks to the existing P2W jetpack, and all that's being requested is an alternative appearance.

Frankly, I'd rather have some of the generic NPC "call-outs" when they've aggro'd on you get a bit of speech added. These would have to be used sparingly, though, as on a x8 instance it'd quickly turn into a cacophony.

I dunno what's going on with your guy there, but something ain't right with his hands, arm, knee/leg...