Crashen

If I remember correctly, the Rogue Isles and Arachnos are actually part of the U.N. They have treaties and politics with the United States and other places, as well as economic ties. St. Martial is a huge destination spot, Aeon City and Grandville are enormous research and development centers of the world. Arachnos most likely publicly condemns supervillain attacks on the United States as rogue agents and unaffiliated terrorists. The actual Arachnos agents operating on U.S. soil are a different can of worms, but some blackmail, bribery and backroom deals probably smooth any incidents over. Beyond that, the rest of the world is pretty messed up as far as we know, post Rikti-invasion. Other countries exist and operate, but took more damage from the Rikti because they didn't have the same concentration of super-powered resistance that North America had. So whether anyone likes it or not, Arachnos and the Rogue Isles are a global superpower that everyone else puts up with, because while they might be dangerous villains, at least they are dangerous villains who can be reasoned with and can reign in the truly apocalyptic monsters. Recluse doesn't want to destroy the world, just rule it.

That was me! I am Umbral Blaze! I figured Torch Breaker seems like a pretty appropriate name, since we have Luddite Torchbearers, and the Luddites literally bear torches, and also 'bear the torch of Father Martin Henri's teachings". So you know. It fits.

Merc/Force FIeld or Merc/Sonic might pair nicely with Fighting as well. Sonic and Force Field are very passive, 'set it and forget it' sets, with a few skippable powers if you are so inclined. Mercs lack a 'tank' pet, except maybe sorta the Commando. So buffing up the pets with sonic/force bubbles, and then charging into melee tankerminding with Fighting skills and maybe even a splash of Presence could work pretty well. Especially if you keep the minions close to you for Supremacy. It might be tricky keeping pets alive without a heal, but Medicine does a pretty decent job of patching up minions, since Force Field gives such crazy defense, combined with MM auras. It also works thematically, if you are a commander who believes in the 'lead from the front' school of thought. The nice thing about MM's is that the mastermind themself isn't really expected to do much damage, so the Fighting powers (or Force of Will, which is what my thugs/force MM uses) don't need to compete with 'real' attacks. And if you take a very passive secondary like Force Field you don't have too many debuffs or secondary things to juggle. So you can justify closing in and focusing on beating an enemy up. And the Fighting attacks have such short cooldowns/activation times, and reasonably high Disorient/knock chances, that you can pretty effectively lock down an enemy. Toss in Air Superiority and you can definitely serve to take priority threats out of the fight while your minions go to town.

Okay so my Pie in the Sky idea? Swap Mass Confusion and TK Scrap TK, replace it with <Insert Clever Name Here> <Insert Clever Name Here> disorients X amount of enemies in Y Large radius (above average for an AoE) for Z seconds. During the disorientation period, the enemies run/walk towards the center of the AoE. At the end of the duration, enemies take a medium amount of psionic damage based on how many reached the center/area around the center. As in, for each enemy that reached say a 5 foot circle in the middle deals a moderate amount of damage. So the more enemies that reach that center point, the more damage dealt. (This damage part could be scrapped entirely) Enemies Held by Total Domination are also affected by Levitate when it is cast on an enemy held by Total Domination. When Mass Hypnosis ends (whether through damage or duration) enemies are Disoriented for X seconds. <Insert Clever Name Here> probably is impossible, I don't know how the coding would work for that. But I feel like it would be both thematic and synergize really well. Nothing says "Mind Control" like making a group of people walk to their certain doom. And it sets them up (without just straight up picking them up and dropping them *cough*wormhole*) to be controlled better. They all clump up, and then you can hit them with Terrify for some sweet Containment damage while they are disoriented, Mass Confusion to ensure they actually hit each other, or Total Domination to lock them down. Then a nice mass levitate to hurt them some. Mass Hypnosis having a Disorient component helps it fulfill it's role as an AoE CC even in a group, though an immobilize would be suitable too.

I was leveling a mind/dark 'troller. Was having fun going along, until I got to First Ward and started fighting the Awakened. After my third unfortunate death at the tentacles of an Awakened boss who was essentially immune to psionic attacks, I rejiggered my abilities, dropped a travel power (I just bought a jetpack instead) and skipped Telekinesis (yes it can be very very powerful, but I solo mainly so the end-suck isn't worth it) and squeezed in Kick/Boxing/Cross Punch. Whew boy that was a game changer. Robots, zombies, and Awakened? Yeah I beat them to death with my own two fists now. It's a ton of fun. Containment is great with the Fighting synergy. Boxing and Kick do about as much damage as Dominate and Mesmerize, Cross Punch quite a bit more. Containment doubles it all. But Boxing/Kick/Cross Punch have much, much quicker cooldowns and activations. So I can get quite a few melee attacks in between Dominate. It feels good, it plays well, and I can easily skip Black Hole, Telekinesis and a travel power and get by just fine. I wouldn't take it on a Dominator, as they have better melee attacks available (usually), but it might be worth taking on a Defender or a more passive Master Mind. I started a merc/rad MM using the Fighting pool, but swapped to Force of Will when that became available. Then made a Thugs/Force FIeld MM with the intent of building it around Force of Will. No reason you can't take a more Set & Forget secondary powerset on an MM and pair it with some melee minions, or be your little posse's 'tank'. Buff em all up with bubbles, and then punch away. Maybe grab medicine for spot healing.

Okay lets see! I am only going to focus on a couple power pools. The Origin pools are interesting. Force of Will and Sorcery are undertuned in my opinion. The activation time for Force of Will powers are way too long, for way too little damage. The trade off seems to be that they have very short cooldowns. But they really seem underwhelming. I have a Thugs/Forcefield/Force of WIll mastermind, that I made specifically to utilize Force of Will. It's fun. It's the closest I can get to a psychic mastermind. But is it actually effective? Probably not. But I wouldn't use Force of WIll on any of my other characters, because the attacks are so incredibly slow they break the flow of combat, especially for how little damage they do. Experimentation though? Seems like you guys threw the "pool powers should do low damage" rule out the window. It has high damage and low cooldowns. It pairs really nicely with Containment for 'trollers. It's versatile and can be combined with a lot of different sets in fun ways. I like it on my elec/ controller. So I guess my opinion is that Origin pool powers should be comparable to AT powers, since you can only take one Origin. If they don't do much damage, they should have useful utility. Force of Will is weird, because it has the most offensive powers (so far) of the Origin pools... But also insanely low damage output. Sorcery has some nice buffs/debuffs so it doesn't need a ton of damage. Experimentation has two offensive (high damage DoTs) abilities, and some snazzy utility. Force of Will has two attacks (Single target and cone) as well as a single target debuff and the standard travel power & long cooldown buff. But Project Will and Wall of Force do so very little damage, with very long activation times AND slow travel times. I'll often start Project Will and my thugs will kill my target before it even reaches it. Project WIll and Wall of Force DO have a slight knockback/down chance, but it is so weak and so infrequent I wouldn't even bother keeping them. I would just increase the damage, and remove the knocks entirely. Another pool that I really really like is Fighting. I took boxing/kick/cross punch on my mind/dark controller for all those damn robots and zombies and Awakened Seers. And you know what? The Fighting synergy is really nice and really satisfying. I like that with one or two, the attacks are 'okay' but with all three, they are pretty powerful. Combined with Containment, and I feel like an even more vicious version of a Dominator. I love it. It's fun and satisfying and it all fits together really well. My 'troller feels powerful and versatile, and I feel like I have multiple ways to complete a fight. And it's because Fighting adds something different to my set. I can't compete with a Dominator for instantly hard locking enemies, and I can't compete with a Scrapper for crits and toughness. But I can still get a lot of enjoyment out of putting a group of enemies to sleep, debuffing them and then beating the crap out of them one at a time. So I STRONGLY suggest doing some sort of inter-pool synergy for the Origin pools and maybe even the other ones that have attacks. The more Force of Will powers you have, the stronger Project Will, Weaken Resolve and Wall of Force are. The more Speed powers you have, the stronger Flurry and Whirlwind are. Maybe do the unthinkable and tone down Hasten baseline, then have it ramp up to it's regular overpowered state with a couple other Super Speed powers. Things like that. Though honestly I would limit the synergy to attack powers, since the utility ones tend to be decent as they are. No one takes Flurry, Air Superiority is only good for the knockdown, etc. Make them desirable if you are willing to build them into your character, rather than cherry-pick them. Finally, and I don't actually expect either of these suggestions to come to anything: Add another pool, comparable to Fighting but with a single pistol. Three simple attacks that build off each other, that aren't fancy or crazy. If any Hero or Villain can learn to throw a punch or deliver a simple kick, any hero should be able to pick up a 9mm and learn to shoot. Again, it doesn't have to be crazy gun-fu or complex. Make it function almost identically to Fighting. Several low/medium damage attacks with a higher damage one. Maybe some toggles that are the inverse of Fighting. Resistance instead of Defense, Defense instead of Resistance. Maybe even make it so those toggles are mutually exclusive with each other. So Tough and Weave can't be active at the same time as whatever the Small Arms pool toggles would be, so people aren't double-dipping too much. There are already a few single handgun animations in the game used by NPCs. The other suggestion is add power customization to Fighting. The way Martial Arts can switch between kicks and punches? Let Fighting switch between unarmed, and simple melee weapons. I would limit the skins to the more mundane options. So no Rularuu or Nictus Romulus swords. But a Nightstick, basic broadsword, or simple mace? Sure why not. And if the attacks are paired with a primary/secondary AT's powers that have a similar weapon, let them all flow together seamlessly. Let my Psionic Assault/Ninja Training Blaster use The Lotus Drops with "Katana Punch" as if they were all part of the same set. I know these last two suggestions are highly unlikely, but I feel like they would open up so much build diversity and concepts.

I don't have too much to add, besides seconding Huntsman becoming an officially recognized build. Something they could add for a Huntsman build is the ability to summon a pair of wolf spiders. Not sure how you would differentiate it from a Crabbermind though. Or give a Huntsman a Wolf Spider version of Gang War, where you summon a strike team of Arachnos Soldiers for a minute or two on a long cooldown.

Completely agree. It is important to remember that we are all here to play and enjoy the game, and the game doesn't need to turn a profit (just get enough donations to keep the servers up). So a lot of the artificial difficulty/exclusivity that goes on behind the scenes to generate money can be thrown out. The costumes don't need to be incentives to play longer (and therefor spend more money), and they don't change the actual gameplay, so there doesn't need to be an unreasonable challenge in obtaining them. Personally I think it would be neat if the first one was free, subsequent ones could be purchased OR earned via badges. Get the badge for killing a ton of Rikti, or complete certain story arcs (like the ones with the Ambassador in Grandville, or in Rikti Warzone) and you unlock the costume for that character (if you haven't purchased it). That way if say you are like me and really want to play a Rikti, you can make a character and get the Rikti costume for free. But you can then later earn the Freakshow Tank via an appropriate badge. But if you want a tank, you can get that for free. You still accomplish things, and it is in fact very thematic and appropriate, but it doesn't hinder your ability to make a unique character.

I definitely think 10mil would be too much, and I don't see the appeal of exclusivity. I doubt everyone would give up their custom made costumes to look like a rikti or freakshow. The people who want the costumes probably want them for fun or for concept (thats me) not to make a statement about my grinding skills.

I have been dying to make a Rikti since Live (I left before they introduced the market, so I guess I missed that chance) so this would be a dream come true. Especially after seeing some of the npc-costume adaptations that are being done elsewhere, I really would love to see this be made available!

I was wondering if the various shapeshift costumes would ever be made available, such as the permanent rikti mentalist one from the market. I have always wanted to play as a Rikti, but unless Homecoming chooses to make the Rikti costume pieces available this is probably my closest bet.

Sometimes they might only have melee attacks or not enough energy or they are recharging. I don't think feared enemies can move + attack. I really like Fear in CoH.

A lot of the time, I think of psionic characters as broadcast equipment. What I mean is, you have transmitters and receivers. A transmitter can project their thoughts outwards, but it is a one way thing. He could look at you, and force his thoughts into your head, bending you to his will through brute force or making your brain explode, but he can't listen in on your thoughts. Likewise, he can't really block his mind or what have you, all of his psionics are one-way directed outwards. A receiver, on the other hand, can listen in on someone's thoughts. She couldn't force her mind into yours to make you do things, but she could say scan your mind as you talk to her, and tailor what she says to whatever would make you do what she wants. She could listen to your thoughts and find exactly what you need to hear, guiding the conversation (and your thoughts) in whatever direction she needs. It's extremely subtle and extremely tricky, but it's still impressive. Most psionics are probably a little of both, two way transmitter-receivers that can project their minds outwards, but also take in other people's minds. Your character could be a hardcore transmitter, so strong they can project their mind outwards defensively in a physical, tangible, telekinetic aura. But because they are so outwardly focused, they are sort of "psi-blind" and don't really have any way to protect against someone else's mind punching into theirs. Kind of a "best defense is offense" sort of thing.

I really like my merc/rad/fighting scrappertankermind. I have skipped the merc attacks (though I might pick up burst just to have a fast ranged attack at some point). I took the full fighting pool, and it works pretty well with rad. I debuff the shit out of an enemy, then close in and start punching the shit out of people while giving everyone radiation poisoning. Fighting is pretty decent damage (for a Mastermind) and is fast and satisfying. And with all the debuffs from radiation, it works pretty well.

I am leveling a merc/rad mastermind and have taken all the fighting attacks in place of MM attacks. It is actually really fun debuffing an enemy, then running in and just beating the hell out of them. The only problem I have run into is that I tend to get so absorbed in the fisticuffs I forget to keep my mercs healed. I have actually thought about doing a necro/fire/fighting mm. Most of the Thermal Radiation powers are set and forget, shielding up my pets and then healing as needed. And since necromancy has melee heavy pets, they would be close to me, while the lich can toss out some cc. Demons are another okay idea, except they tend to be more mixed range. But the demons do have some group buffs and heals, and two out of three demon attacks are melee so it might go well.