Rudra

And after the OP, no one said Stealth was a better power than Energy Cloak. Out of combat defense is only a non-benefit if you only choose to fight everything you come across. For players that like to sneak their missions, it is very much a useful benefit. All I am saying is that Stealth is not as bad as you are making it out to be.

What difference does it make if the player is on a Blaster? You use your attacks and blast the targets. If it takes time you don't want in order to use some abilities, then you don't use those abilities until they are actually needed. You can still slot your attacks for damage. You can still floor stomp everything in your path. And then when things bog down, you cut loose and utterly annihilate your foe(s). (Edit: Though honestly, a 2.03 second cast time is not actually that long. And would likely work just fine even on high damage teams on Hard Mode content. Or on +4/x8 runs where multiple spawns are in close proximity to each other.)

Is there anything (else) in particular you are looking for?

Life support works just fine. Look at the Terra Volta respec trials. Most players make routine forays out of the reactor room to get the shield, otherwise their health keeps ticking away just for being in the room. Conversely, it could work like that arc I can't remember the name of. The one where you have the two missions to click the glowies, which can only be used once, to heal your NPC ally in their fight while you run around doing your part of the mission. For example, one has you running around destroying the new, improved Vampyri chambers, but you also have to click glowing canisters to heal... Riptide(?) in his fight against the Big Bad until you can get there and take over. Well, make it so that the players can't reach their NPC ally so they have to keep hitting the NPC ally's life support glowies and fend off the waves of enemies trying to reach him/her. For instance, a field hospital where the NPC is being treated, has lost its primary (only) generator, and the players are stuck running around restoring/providing power to the field hospital's improvised trauma center tent, while still fending off waves of enemies. Just a thought.

If you are on a high damage team like that, then you don't need the time setting everything up. Add your available damage, buffs, and/or debuffs to the mix and keep going. If you run up against a Monster class foe or something else that slows the team down? Then open up with your full power. I'm glad there is a set that plays differently, that isn't trying to be Fire Blast Redux. It can still mesh well with the current meta for team play, you just have to focus on doing what you can instead of trying to be the star eating everything on the map.

If you are trying to stealth a mission for any reason, the out of combat bonus helps keep you stealthed against other spawns even when a mob or spawn sees you and throws attacks your way. Provided they miss. If you're using Stealth and you're hit and you've flown past that group that sees you? You are now in combat and very likely to be seen by every other spawn that will now shoot at you, at your reduced defense value, making stealthing the mission pretty well impossible. It's the difference of having full health when you get to your target or being almost dead from everything that blasted you as you passed making you wonder why you didn't just murder everything on the board in the first place. Niche? Yes. The absolute tiniest possible benefit? No. Edit: And if you are playing up through the levels? Then its not so easy to soft cap your defenses with Energy Aura until later in levels. Low to mid levels, sometimes even into some of the higher levels, when you are playing up through the content, you aren't likely to have soft capped defenses.

There is no clipping with the hair? No tangling with cloaks or wings? If the cape-hair works fine, then yes, it would be really nice to have. If there are any issues with it, then I don't see the HC devs releasing it to the player base who have access to more athletic attacks like that jumping kick from Martial Arts, Jump Kick from Leaping, and so on.

Pretty sure there are still no base pathing beacons. So those events would be a lot less exciting than you think since the mobs would never be able to move.

The model is a tanker rather than an Age of Sail vessel because it was built in 1932. Well past the Age of Sail. https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Paragon_Times/20041201 (For clarification, while ghost ships are normally attributed to Age of Sail vessels, they are not limited to such. Though stories about modern vessels are less well known than Age of Sail ones, they are available. You can find some with a quick online search. [Edit: Though modern ghost ship stories tend to be more mystery or weird breakdowns than ghostly.])

In the "Seek Shadow Hunter" mission from The Magician, when you choose to fight Shadow Hunter, his weapon keeps shifting to the stowed position even as his hands remain in the combat position. This happens frequently during the fight.

That would be feasible. Eliminate the event sound effects (introduction music, howl, and thunder; as well as closure effects) so as to avoid possible confusion during the annual Halloween Banners event when it is launched, and those in zone that for any reason do not notice the Ghost Ship event notice in their chat window will still be very aware of the event if in the zone. Without compromising anyone's ability to do anything in the zone. (I still want to be able to place Echo: Dark Astoria fog in some of my bases though.... Not to fill the entire base, just the sections where it is thematic, like my maze.)

Ghost ships don't have any docks to berth at. Their crew don't get shore leave and their passengers don't disembark. That's the point of ghost ships. They're cursed to forever sail with their doomed crew/passengers. The only times I know of that a ghost ship docked was when it was a real ship, just derelict or abandoned, and towed to the nearest port. (Edit: Usually though, they are just sunk if not needed for anything to clear the ship lane.) Stories about ghost ships say they can add passengers to their numbers, the unfortunate souls that find and board them only to die in often mysterious circumstances, but they never reach a destination. The ghosts left behind in the Ghost Ship's wake aren't technically disembarked. To the best of my knowledge, they are not on the actual ship model because the devs couldn't make it so that players could fight on the ship model, so the ghosts had to be spawned in its wake.

I love Echo: Dark Astoria. Love the ambience. Love how it fits for a home for several of my characters. (Edit: Wish there was a way to create that kind of fog in a base. The current fog options don't even come close. Even layered vertically with several stacked on top of each other in a given space in the base. Though creepy is still very doable with existing options.) The problem arises in that the fog drastically reduces visual range. So I've faceplanted into a few buildings multiple times flying through the zone. I don't see a way (or reason) to make the Ghost Ship spawn under those conditions and still be visible at any useful distance. And given that there are multiple routes the ship can take through Talos Island and Independence Port, such an obscuring fog wouldn't do anything more than make the ship that much more annoying to find, as well as impede players who are looking for specific spawns other than the ghosts for their missions. (Edit: Especially since the ghosts don't spawn at the ship, they spawn further back along its route after the ship has passed.) As for levelless ghosts, as I said earlier, I am against that because of the spawn sizes. If they go levelless, squishy characters will have no means of going after the ghosts when no one else wants to because they will be annihilated by the ghosts with their hazard zone size spawns. When an invasion starts, the mobs may be levelless, but they spawn near your character and only in groups of 1-3 depending on the event. So you can fight them solo or go find a team. Ghost Ship spawns don't spawn at player locations. They spawn at set locations along the ship's path. So they spawn in hazard zone size groups. I am against making them levelless.

There is also the Monster Construction (Monstrous Construction? Something like that.) in King's Row. And if not destroyed, spawns Paladin in King's Row.

Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psi Damage. Taunt sets don't have END reduction because taunts don't cost END to use. (Edit: Any toggles that also taunt are not specifically taunts, they are damage auras or debuff auras. So they cost END to use for being an attack or debuff.)

*shrug* No idea.

The point I was making is that some players do want all stealth powers to have less transparency. So if transparency itself is to be addressed, I'm certain they would be opposed to tiered transparency as opposed to no transparency. Now, if you were to make this an option? So that the player can stick with current transparency, choose for minimal transparency, or choose to have the tiered transparency, I'm more inclined to believe there would not be push back. Except maybe from the devs who would then be asked to make all these options for us. That is what @Uun meant. The entire spawn. A mob is single mobile object in the game. (Edit: So basically, as long as Cloak of Darkness or Energy Cloak are active, other spawns, meaning other groups, in the area are still less likely to notice your character smashing their friends just a little ways away from them. Stealth [the power] is not so helpful in this regard.)

Given the repeating calls for all stealth powers to have less transparency, not likely going to be a popular request.

Then you must think a lot of hunt badges are not really badgeworthy either. Some players earn badges by fighting things at level or higher. Some players earn badges by going back and smacking things when they can crush them quickly to rack up the required count. Some players do a bit of both. If a player wants to tackle Ghost Ship spawns at or near level, they can do so while at or near level, or use Ouroboros to get to at or near level. If a player wants to just wipe out a bunch of grey mobs, get the badge done, and then get back to doing other things, they can do that too. Neither is right or wrong, they just are.

Not saying that is a bad idea, but doesn't the event announcement do that? Also, if by foggy you mean Echo: Dark Astoria? Then good luck finding the ship.

According to City of Data, Energy Cloak grants a +3.75% defense bonus and Stealth grants a +7.5% defense bonus. However, Energy Cloak stays at +3.75% during combat where Stealth drops to +1.875%. So yeah, Energy Cloak grants the higher combat defense, but not a higher defense bonus in general. Still leaves me undecided on the subject though. Edit: I of course post at the same time as @Psyonico, and @Psyonico makes a very strong point. Consider me no longer undecided.

You're thinking of the Zenith Mech Men and Zenith Warcries of the Council and the Mek Men and Wolfpacks of the 5th Column. I suppose those could be used as a base for pincers, but they would still need to be (heavily) modified and new animations made for the various powers players get access to.

Nope. That is part of the reason why I know I am dreaming. They would have to be designed, modeled, and animated from scratch. That would include making them able to grip weapons too. So it's not going to happen. (Edit: Not to mention finding a way for them to use weapons not suitable for pincers like rifles and pistols.)

This would be nice. So would a modified version that looked like a regular giant scorpion tail. And pincers to match. I'm dreaming here, I know, but monstrous characters can be lots of fun.

Probably because of the "you gain some damage" since it doesn't actually say "damage buff". Gaining damage easily reads as suffering harm. At least to me.