Rudra

(Edit: Can't strike through emojis, so deleted instead.) Okay, as a history lesson, I remember when the Fitness pool was actually a power pool. And I did not take it very often. A carefully built character could get by just fine without it. And yes, I was not happy when they changed Fitness from a power pool to an inherent. In point of fact, while we still had the option to choose whether we wanted legacy fitness or inherent fitness? Guess what I chose. I chose legacy fitness instead of inherent and then just didn't use it. Then even that choice got taken away from us. (Edit: And yes, on pre-inherent Fitness characters, we could choose to still not have inherent Fitness at the time. And then all characters were auto-changed to inherent Fitness.) As for Hasten being too good to be without, not a single one of my characters has Hasten and they all do perfectly fine without it. That's at +0/x1. That's at +4/x8. That's playing solo, on a team, or on a league. You have four pool choices. If you are dead set on taking Hasten, that is your choice. And so uses one of your pool picks. And the part I find absolutely hilarious? "Hasten is too good to be without" followed by "having Hasten permanently gimps your character". So either it is too good to be without or it permanently gimps your character. You can't claim both. They are contrary. And if it permanently gimps your character, then why are you taking it? Edit: Okay, I see what you are saying. However, taking a -40% REC when a player can easily hit +200% or higher REC, is not a gimp. Also, if you are set on nerfing Hasten, then why are you taking it? "They aren't taking Weave or Maneuvers for the defense bonus"? Then what are they taking those defense powers for? If you want build diversity in your characters, then you build it into your characters.

Pretty simple actually. Activate Hover and use an ability with the casting animation.

The lightning is a triggered effect. If it was the main effect, then it would always be active when the power was used. Edit: Hells, two days ago, on my Storm Blast Corruptor, Storm Cell didn't trigger lightning even once in a couple of fights. So how can it be the main effect?

You're only looking at the lightning though. Storm Cell's base effect is -movement, -recharge, and -ToHit. The triggered High Winds/Wind Speed effect is likewise -movement, -recharge, and -ToHit. So out of three possibilities with Storm Cell, one of which is its main/base effect, you are arguing against being able to slot slow and accuracy debuff sets or generic/SO enhancements because they won't affect the triggered lightning ability?

The inherent powers are called that because every character gets them inherently. No need to choose Swift, Hurdle, Health, or Stamina because they are inherent to all characters, so they always have those powers available and active. And Hasten should never be an inherent power. It is a speed power. That so many take it does not change that. If the logic for Hasten going inherent is that so many take it, then there will also be a call for Maneuvers, Assault, Tactics, Tough, Weave, and Combat Jumping to be made inherent. If people want to stick with the Holy Quad, then that is their choice, not need. No to inherent Hasten.

Yes, please! Since those are the always active effects, it makes no sense to me that it can't.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SarcasmFailure Edit: Or perhaps this is more accurate in this case: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CannotConveySarcasm

Yes. The only fires I am aware of being subject to being put out (destroyed/defeated) by players are the Steel Canyon event fires and the fires in Mercy island.

Basically, what it boils down to is some players will get enough shards to craft their Alphas and others will not. And it seems to come down to what they do and where. My involvement in this conversation is based strictly on the flat claim that shards are 5x more useful than threads. Which in my experience, is a completely false statement. So I had wanted an explanation of how shards are supposedly so much more useful, and finding the responses to not be anything like what I personally have experienced, continued to argue. If you pursue shard collection, then you can wind up in the situation @Lazarillo and you describe. If you pursue thread/merit collection, then you wind up the total opposite. If you don't pursue either shard collecting or thread collecting, then you still wind up with way more threads than you do shards. So the need for compensation in boosting the reward of threads and merits is based solely upon the pursuit of shards and Notices. Edit: And this is from someone who still needs to do most of the iTrials to get their badges and start working on the WSTs. So I consider myself as a reference for someone who pursues neither shards nor threads. (I got all my merits from vet levels, the incarnate arcs, and from Hami rewards pursuing the Buddy badge.)

But 26 levels you don't have to do to finish your build. You could play an alt (or use those 26 levels to fund an alt, giving you more time you could be playing your main). I was probably fully T4'ed around vet level 30. And even if I wasn't, your comment that the 26 vet levels I haven't achieved yet are no longer necessary to T4 this character falls under the "Are you seriously making this comment?!" heading since this character has, as has already been stated, been fully T4'ed for a "very long time". Because I had the resources available to do so. Most of my characters I make no plans for making incarnate. They are still fully T4'ed incarnates. Your focus in this conversation seems rather skewed to me.

73. So I still have 26 vet levels worth of threads and merits to get through. And I've been done with T4'ing that character for a very long time. Edit: And since I don't farm or grind for components/threads, your grind comment doesn't apply. I played for fun, not to T4. (And to show all arcs/missions as being done in Ouroboros. So that part counts as grinding.)

Not in my experience. Take my main character for instance. This MM made no shard conversions. This MM is fully T4'ed out. This MM did not use shards to craft anything. I don't farm, but I run regular content. This MM has 135 incarnate shards and 1,361 incarnate threads. With only using threads. Your comparison that the drop rates are equal when compared to what they can individually buy is very biased.

Your comment ignores that shards are still rare drops, or at the very least uncommon compared to threads, and that unlike shards which only come from drops, threads come from drops, from Notice/Favor conversions, from shard conversions, as selectable mission rewards, and as veteran level rewards. (Edit: And that is on top of their higher drop rate.)

Shards were always meant to be a rare drop. It was meant to be a grind to build up our Alpha slot. Part of the relief that was felt when threads came into play, at least by me, was because we could craft incarnate components faster with threads than with shards. Had the devs kept the shard system for the incarnate slots other than Alpha, it would have taken a lot longer to build up an incarnate. At a 1:5 ratio, by the time a player had the 5 shards necessary to craft a common salvage, that player had enough threads to craft a common salvage and was already 5 threads in to the next salvage. So I doubly don't get @Lazarillo's 5x as valuable useful comment.

For the purposes of buying the incarnate salvage, shards only buy the salvage used to craft Alpha slot powers using the shard system. I just checked to make sure I wasn't remembering wrong. So shards are still worthless past Alpha. And even for Alpha, they are pretty worthless because you still need Notices and Favors of the Well to craft the T3 and T4.

This.

How? I don't ever use shards except to convert to threads. I never found shards worthwhile after the Live devs introduced the post-Alpha incarnate powers. I have never found enough shards to build anything. And I don't farm Heather's arc or anything else for threads.

The OP was about taking an existing mechanic that does not do damage to anything other than fires and applying it to a power that also does not do damage. (The only damage that Storm Cell does is a triggered ability. It itself does no damage.) Those other powers, except for Hand Clap, all do damage. They just don't do the correct damage to be able to affect the fires. (Though for the record, I believe all water powers should do damage to those fires. I just am very aware of how enormous a job that would be and believe it is not worth the effort.) (Edit: Also, I can accept those other powers having as good a claim to being able to affect those fires. Not a better claim. Water is water and a good rain storm is great at putting out small fires like those.) (Edit again: Yes, I know the entire building is on fire, a raging inferno. We put out small fires on the building until the building is destroyed or the fires are all out though.)

That's disappointing as hell, but fair. A body can still dream though....

Great! So if you want a flight power that doesn't have a jetpack or other associated model with it, then you know you can take Fly or Mystic Flight. I am very much against a new version of the jetpack that has no model or an invisible model. Take Fly or Mystic Flight. That is why they are there. So that you can have a flight power that works with wings, other player chosen costume pieces like a tech belt for an anti-gravity belt, or nothing at all. Having a jetpack with no model or an invisible model would defeat the purpose of the Fly power pool. Edit: So basically, the tradeoff for using a jetpack is that you have a jetpack. If you want alternate versions of jetpacks? I'm all for it. If you want no jetpack for jetpack? No. The price of being able to enjoy a pool power without taking that pool is you have a set model defined as providing the flight power. (The higher END cost of jetpacks is also part of the price, but face it, no one really cares about or notices that 0.114/sec extra END cost.)

I'm rather partial to the way the hotspots work right now. I can go to a hotspot, pick a fight with the opposing side mobs, and rack up some pretty good xp. And if the fight goes badly for me, I can retreat to the friendly mobs and let them screen the opposing side off my keister.

The reason behind that is the combat animations and their current (in)ability to interface with the Rocket Board and similar powers while in use actually. If you want a flight power that lacks the VFX of Jetpack, there is Fly and Mystic Flight. They don't have any linked models with their use.

You can also take the Void Skiff and whatever the flying carpet is called. The down side to those is you can't use any powers while on them. Alternate "jetpacks" could also be an option. (Though as far as the P2W jetpack breaking theme? Your character bought a jetpack. It's not an inherent power, it is an item bought from a vendor. So not really part of any theme. If you want a flight power that doesn't have the attached model and is already available, you can take Fly or Mystic Flight at level 4.)

I can't speak for others, but I don't take the buff pets because like you said, they aren't worth it. Last I checked, they had 1 HP and -1000% resist. I'm not sure about the resist though, I'm running off memory. So if an enemy sneezed and the buff pet was affected, it died. (I think the vanity pets are the same way actually.) I would love for the buff pets to be worth fielding. I'm fairly confident others don't field them for the same reason. (I mean aside from the fact that like the vanity pets, they aren't persistent and have to be re-summoned every time you change maps.) I have a few characters that having the buff and/or vanity pets fits, I got the pets for them, but I don't use them. So count me as in favor of anything that made them worth taking and fielding. I would be perfectly fine with them staying a toggle, in fact I prefer they stay a toggle, as long as that toggle stopped turning off every time I went anywhere.

You are definitely misreading my posts. Okay, let's try this.... Limit the application to partied entities at that point, that would resolve most of the issues with trolling using that system. And if that doesn't, then you'd just need to remove the person responsible from the team. Dunno if that's possible in the game's programming, but it's a way of changing it. The only power that I know of that can affect friendlies and only affect those on the team is Incandescence. If that is applied to the OP such that it can only be applied to a teammate, then sure. I would still request that doing so work like Teleport Other. You activate the power on a teammate (and only a teammate), and that teammate must choose to accept it. No just throwing it on someone and to hell if they are willing or not. You're talking about how you have to manage the ability constantly, which is why I'm suggesting this change in the first place. I don't really see how I'm misreading that? My comment that time about my thinking you are misreading my posts was your implication that I liked my enemies running off with my debuff toggles, rather than my expression that there is a need to watch for that. " By applying the ability to an ally as an "Anchor" for it, then I wouldn't need to worry about an enemy running off and pulling more aggro than is necessary. Perhaps you enjoy that situation, which is fine." I am limiting myself not based upon the text of the powers in question, but because in my mind I would only apply such a power to my enemies to affect them. Hence the lines: "I understand why my character would afflict another with a snow storm. I am trying to hamper that target. It makes much less sense to me to afflict an ally with a snow storm. What did that ally do to upset me? And why isn't my power affecting him/her/them/it? Now, as far as theme goes, I can still figure out how that works. As in I will figure one out eventually. " So, I can and will think of something I consider plausible, rather than just player requested mechanics, for why a power like that would be applied to an ally instead of just being thrown on my enemies. Given how those powers work, nothing comes to mind for why that would be, but like with the ice armors from Cold Domination, I can eventually puzzle something out. Then the purpose for bringing up Hurricane was entirely "you already have an ability that is centered on yourself"? I don't really see how that helps in the conversion, but please correct me if I'm wrong on that would, as I could be misunderstanding that. I'm trying to be as clear as I can, but apparently I am as clear as mud-baked obsidian. I brought up Hurricane not to say "we already have a power that can be used on ourselves", and not to contrast Hurricane's effects with Snow Storm's, but to say that if Snow Storm were to be changed to not target an enemy, then it makes most sense to me for it to be a PBAoE like Hurricane is. This was much needed clarification. Thank you.