biostem

There are 3 "psi blade" powers in psi melee for scrappers. Theoretically, you could dip into the fighting pool for boxing, kick, and cross punch, (not to mention tough and weave, which are nice to have), to make up for not taking those 3 powers. You could then take your ancillary or ancillary power pool of choice to fill out the ranged attacks, as desired, (soul or mu mastery would work nicely, IMO).

Can you clarify what you mean by this - did you mean "blaster" or "scrapper"? You could do something like a psi blast/martial combat blaster if you wanted psi damage but also with some bare-handed attacks as well. Could you give a little background on how you want the character to look/perform, so we can offer more suggestions...

I'm assuming allowing Red-siders to visit and do content in Croatoa is one way of "expanding" its use...

Well, if I remember the history of the game correctly, it's supposed to be only a few years after the Rikti War, so maybe it's just there to reflect the continued paranoia. Also, even though there are clearly friendly aliens, as you pointed out, Vanguard troop chatter definitely belies a blatant disregard for all things Rikti, so it kind of makes sense in-universe. The problem is that even with the 20-odd updates the game went through before sunsetting, not much was done in all the "regular" zones to reflect changes the game as whole underwent, (Kheldians, etc).

My thoughts:

AFAIK, there are currently no alternate animation options for psi melee. Is it the particular damage type that you are locked-in with, because you could basically RP any melee set to be "psi melee" if you really wanted to...

The little splashes of blue are a really nice contrast with the browns & golds!

I'm not privy to the feedback that was given during Alpha - was there enough calling for drastic overhauls, or were most ambivalent or positive, that it moved ahead anyway?

You have to differentiate between a "Closed Beta" and an "Open Beta". What we have here is more akin to the latter, where anyone can try out the new stuff and provide feedback. This means that large sweeping changes are unlikely to happen. If we're thinking "pie in the sky" sort of stuff, then ideally we'd have alpha, then a closed beta, where a larger, but still exclusive group, was able to test the changes, provide feedback that could involve major overhauls, then the open beta, where anyone can try, but things will only receive minor tweaks, before going live...

Just as long as we can keep CoH's art style; CO's makes every character look like they're made of plastic...

I play what I find fun. Performance is only a secondary concern, to me. I have an AR/Invuln sentinel that is quite fun to play. I think a lot has to do with what you are looking to get out of such a character, and adjusting your expectations accordingly. If you already have it in the front of your mind that "AR sucks", then you're going to have a bad time...

The question is what is the goal for the beta period of testing - if it is merely to elicit feedback with the intent of only performing minor tweaks to the set, then no amount of "scrap this and go back to the drawing board" is going to be heeded, and only those providing the kind of feedback the devs are seeking, will be listened to.

I'm leaning toward a storm/ninjitsu sentinel. An ice/storm or ff/storm defender could be interesting, though...

I wonder how difficult it would be to repurpose the various Mace Mastery attacks into a tech-themed control set...

Why not kill 2 birds with one stone, and use the existing members of WISDOM and add-in their Praetorian counterparts, along with related storylines/arcs... From the trailer viewable here, we have a good idea of what kind of powers Spark Blade has, but Rose Star's are a lot less clear, (maybe some kind of invuln, but not sure about what Mirror Spirit did to her). Spark blade could basically use katana powers, (only with an electrical effect and energy damage added), then some single pistol attacks. Enabling him to use both at the same time would be more difficult.

On a controller? o.O

I have a few level 50 characters with ONLY generic IOs and NO tactics, and they take part in end-game content without issue. If you think that the only way to hit +4s is with set bonuses, then YOU are very much mistaken. I've already stated my agreement that if the powers cannot benefit from set bonuses, then that need to be looked into further...

Patently false; Players routinely use powers with 1.0 or lower base acc against higher level enemies all the time. You want it to hit +4s reliably? Gonna have to invest in those acc slots. That I can agree with; If they are going to permit various IO set slotting, but can't benefit from them, then that needs to be looked at. See my 1st point; There are many other powers with a lower base acc that get used against +4s all the time.

Unless it is a direct 1-1 parity, then you'll run into the same issue we had with the O.G. Galaxy City vs Atlas Park, or CoV vs CoH - one will become a near wasteland, while everyone flocks to the other, and you'll waste precious developer resources.

I don't want the server/city I create a character on/in to dictate what content is available to them, or are you saying that each such "city" would be 100% identical to each other, save for their names?

Unless those 2 powers aren't able to benefit from acc slotting, then 1.1 should be fine - you should, after all, have to slot for acc in powers that you want to actually hit higher level enemies...

Not sure what you mean, as there is only "bio armor" within the game, that's why I asked if you were suggesting a new blaster secondary. regardless, that would be better proposed in the suggestions section, perhaps with an outline of how such a set would function in-game...

A key here, as you touched on, is availability of AoEs and other considerations. For instance, a dark melee character, who wants to leverage soul drain, wants more targets rather than a few really tough ones. Similarly, there are several armor set toggle powers that provide a greater benefit the more enemies that are around them. On my sentinels, which tend to be more single-target focused, I'll prefer fewer, tougher opponents. It all comes down to AT, powersets, level, and play style...

Just a note on the above combo: "World of Pain" is kind of a lynchpin of the build, so I slotted it to get it to be permanent. It provides a damage, tohit, and resistance buff to all in range, which is really nice! I also opted to take stealth, so I could drag my animated stone into enemies so it got aggro, since controllers lack the mastermind's ability to command their pets.

One combination that I really enjoyed, but was more of a "defensive" playstyle over a damage-dealer, was earth control/pain domination. It's superb for supporting a team, but solo it can be a slog. Still, if you want to try something different, give those a try!