biostem

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...

I like the set overall, and think an earth-themed buff set would fit nicely with what we have. That being said, I'd probably rename/rework "Wellspring" to be something more earth/rock/lava themed - maybe an inverse of volcanic gasses, like "invigorating minerals" or such...

It's probably for the limited VOs they added with the updated tutorial and a few other places, back when the game was live...

I'm not against it as an option, but given that I can typically read faster than VAs can talk, and I find the current AI voices to sit firmly in the "uncanny valley", I'd rather it not be forced on us.

I'm not against the idea per se, but IIRC, there is also an indicator for the number of flood frenzy stacks under your HP/End bars as well.

Sometimes even knowing the base numbers isn't that useful, what with it not taking into account enhancements, set bonuses, or other such "meta-powers" like assault or other such buffs. Still, those numbers can be handy to determine, in a very tight build, which power has a recharge/activation or other such factors that may make it more or less desirable to include or skip...

Oh man I'd love to see the wireframe globe like in early alpha footage!

"Super-deformed" usually refers to that trope in anime, where a character is depicted in a simpler, cuter style. For example: Think of a cookie cutter as just an outline. You would have to add any detail after baking via icing/frosting, or edible ink. That's why I was suggesting using a fairly generic male/female/huge outline, then adding the details after the fact via the aforementioned toppings.

The problem is that cookie cutters can't really have too much fine detail. You might be better off with a generic male/female/huge form, then decorating them accordingly with icing. A better approach might be to try and come up with super-deformed cookie cutters, or maybe just make AT icon cookies...

Now I'm picturing Count Orlock signing the lead for "Baby it's cold outside" with some hapless Film Noir heroine...

Maybe take a relatively unused zone, like Kallisti Warf, and trigger an end-of-beta-like invasion of old school Rikti. Alternatively, could they utilize something like Ouroboros to allow us to go back and see the 1st Rikti invasion, and fight along side all the signature heroes?

It's good to have a stable of characters to switch between, in order to see which you most enjoy playing and to know what it's like for other ATs, while you're playing other characters. That being said, I do think there's a difference between having dozens or hundreds of characters that you aren't really invested in, and those handful of characters you truly connect with and enjoy playing...

For me, it's an ironic mirror-image type thing: I played CoH from about 2004 to 2009, then came back for a little when it went F2P. Before my return, I bought a lifetime subscription to Champions Online, which was a huge waste of money, looking back at it. And here I am, spending a lot of my gaming time playing CoH all over again, and still hardly ever check in on CO. Heck, I played Neverwinter for a good bit as well, and have all but abandoned that game after some of the changes they made there...

I use an "attack defensive" macro to command my pets to attack only what I want. I also use lalt+lbutton to issue a move-passive command so my pets go exactly where I want and do not attack under any circumstances. That being said, unless you are using your pets as the front-liners, it can be sufficient to send them in and issue an offensive-attack commands, so they can do their thing and you can focus on your secondary. What's crucial, though, is to be hyper aware of what you and your team's goals are and not just fall back to letting your pets run wild at all times...