biostem

I think that when the original devs proliferated the regular ATs over to both sides, it kind of ruined the damage-survivability-aggro balancing act that existed. Stalkers should be the most "bursty" damage-wise, scrappers the most consistent, tankers the bottom, (I'm ok with their increased AoEs), and brutes should deal the most damage overall, but should require some work to get there. I think reworking the mechanic by which fury is generated and how full of a bar one can reasonably maintain should be the first priority. Maybe further reduce the secondary effects of those powers, (sort of opposite of what defenders get), but raise the resultant damage bonus that fury grants, perhaps allowing them to reach 100% more easily - say 5 foes or such...

My understanding is that Null the Gull was really kludged together by the original devs, and the current ones are loathe to go messing around with it further. If that is indeed the case, then a regular menu option would be preferable.

I wonder how difficult it would be to add an option that simply says "If there is a minimal/No FX option for a buff applied by another player, use that option whenever such a power is cast on me"...

I don't think the problem is going to be rectified by turning a brute's fury bar into some sort of extra/temporary HP. I think the solution is to give them back their damage.

Check out the 'petsay' command - it can be used with text or emotes!

The question is how to you provide for such circumstances while not unduly burdening newer active players who simply want some of the shorter or more desirable names? Maybe give each player a number of tokens that flags certain characters as immune to the name policy...

Well, we're active players, for one thing. That by itself should trump anything that inactive players have to contribute. But. as I'm sure others have pointed out, asking someone to check in once to even twice a year is not too much to ask, (maybe even 3+ times).

It's a weird conundrum; If you got the name you wanted first try, there'd be no discussion, so that's moot. OTOH, of course someone is going to argue to have a name released that they want! All that being said, it seems to me that any and all policies should be in favor of active players over potentially returning ones. I don't think it's an extreme stance to take that people should play their characters periodically in order to keep their name9s)...

My comment was somewhat meant to be tongue-in-cheek. That being said, I think missions where you need to defeat X enemies in a certain zone or specific part of that zone should reward players who actually contributed to said defeats.

I kind of feel like XP should be limited to line of sight and/or possibly requiring each character to do *something* - whether that mean using attacks, buffs, or otherwise contribute in some way...

I mean, if they can get 8 different powers to come out of a beam rifle, then I see no reason why they couldn't do an eyeblast-only set. That being said, I would much rather see them spend the development time on creating a variety of eyeblast animations to fit all the various animation times to be used as alternate animations for other powersets...

I was messing around with different colors and patterns, and just kind of stumbled upon a combination of pieces that I really liked: "Lyte"

The problem is that you'd have to essentially rewrite all powers to accept such enhancements and to have variable target types, (like ally-only to enemy-only for that healing power you used as an example).

IIRC, the current devs are loathe to add anything to Null the Gull. Maybe they could add a sprint-like power to the START vendor, that imposes a speed cap or something...

I tend to over-detail my characters. I've tried to go back to basics a bit with "Maiden Tempest":

Storm melee Non-spines toxic melee (Corruption melee that maybe incorporates the demon MM whip attacks?) Other such combined damage type sets (thermal shock set that incorporates fire & cold, maybe some sort of "combi-weapon" that has energy, lethal, etc)

I wonder if the brim of the hat/helmet for Flux Mage below is what caused Krea to interpret it as a large pair of ski/safety goggles...

Does the staff AS still do that weird redraw partway through the animation?

Yeah... Krea really really doesn't like submissions with visors/face plates, or anything else that covers or otherwise obstructs a character's eyes. Look at how it totally removed Sage Shadow's goggles: Or took away "Right on Cue's" glasses:

Sounds to me like what the OP wants are blast and armor sets that use plants & vines...

A few more I tinkered around with:

And a few more I messed around with in Krea:

Finally got around to trying Krea out. Lithe Spectre turned out beautifully! I am very impressed! (The 1st image utilized an art commission I had made):

Now that'd make for a really interesting mini-arc. Kind of reminds me, if you're at all familiar with it, how you learn about the process used to create Robobrains in Fallout 4's "Automatron" DLC..

Could it be that the tendrils/vines literally just move the robot around like a marionette?