Rudra

There are 11 IO sets that grant range set bonuses, 6 if you drop the ATO sets completely. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Set_Bonus_Comparison_Tables (Edit: And if you're talking about Teleport range instead of attack range? Warp and Jaunt have two enhancements each that have a range component, while Time and Space Manipulation has one enhancement with a range component. Further, Warp also has a global range bonus as a set bonus. So all three teleport sets boost teleportation range.)

Want to make it even lore aligned or weirder? Have the AT start the player as a Lost. At level 12 or 15, you can go either Headman and Pariah route. At level 24, if you stayed regular Lost, you can go Rikti (grunt). If you went Headman, you can go Rikti Soldier (gaining access to basic Rikti attacks as well as Headman and Chief Soldier attacks). If you went Pariah, you can go Rikti Mentalist (as described previously). Or to keep the insanity simple? The player starts as a Lost with access to lieutenant tier attacks as well. Then at 24, you go Rikti, either the Soldier tree or the Mentalist tree. Previous suggestion would be a homeworld Rikti. The character would be a Traditionalist if blue side aligned and a Restructurist if red side aligned. This would have absolutely no mechanical effect. It would however, explain why you can talk to either Traditionalist or Restructurist contacts like other PCs without the contact trying to blow your head off. (So it is just the Hero/Villain alignment.) The version in this post would be a Primal Earth Rikti, like how most of the Restructurists are. However, some are in the Traditionalist ranks as well, so no harm no foul for a PC Rikti starting and progressing this way. (And since the Traditionalists have the flaw of not allowing former Primal Earth humans into their upper most command structure, it makes sense that they remain in the field interacting with other PCs.) (Edit: Yes, the Lost option would require the PC first slot costume model to be replaced with an appropriate Rikti model at level 24, so this is not an approach I recommend. At all. It is just a bit of insanity I couldn't keep to myself.)

Or? The proposed Rikti AT could work like the Soldiers of Arachnos and Widows of Arachnos. Wolf Spiders as mobs have a very limited selection of powers available to them. Crab Spiders and Bane Spiders as mobs even more so. And yet the SoA AT is full of options for players to make their characters with. Whether they want to stay a Wolf Spider, go Bane Spider, go Crab Spider, or go hybrid Wolf-Bane Spider or Wolf-Crab Spider. (Personally, I loved how my hybrid Wolf-Bane Spider worked back on Live. And eventually I'll be recreating that character on HC.) (Edit: So like, start as a basic Rikti, at 24 you can go Mentalist or Soldier, gaining access to either the Mentalist (lieutenant and boss) options or the Soldier (Headman and Chief Soldier) options. However, I would cut out Rikti Monkey, Rikti Drone, Rikti Heavy Assault Suit, Rikti Communications Officer, and Rikti Magus.)

Thing is, I get why it may not be actively used. AE isn't the only place where players farm, particularly for power leveling. I remove LFG, Help, and General channels from my chat tabs, but I still find myself aware of when someone is say doing a Council Empire Earth farm at Portal Corporation anyway. (Typically because it gets repeated in the chat channels I do maintain, whereas AE farms do not.) Since Portal Corporation missions are also used for farming, it makes sense to me that players would use the LFG tab to look for farms instead of AE chat channels. (It also doesn't help that the AE channels are channels that must be player added to their chat tabs. If it isn't a chat channel I expect to use, I don't put it on my chat tabs. So they go unused and often unknown by me.)

They show up for me too, and I've certainly never joined any Architect channels on any of my characters. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that yeah, those two are official channels.

DOs and SOs drop as a matter of course and can be slotted into powers for free. Or sold for some extra inf'. IOs always have to be crafted or bought. Removing DOs, and possibly SOs, means that a character can't slot enhancements except by buying them. (Which includes crafting them since you have to pay to craft them.) Doesn't get much cheaper than free. Edit: So if it comes down to losing DOs/SOs because improving low level IO sets makes them worthless? Then I am very much opposed to the idea. While I usually just leave my enhancement slots empty until I can get the set IOs I intend for them to use, there are many times I find myself throwing SOs or DOs in them as a stop gap measure because I can't afford anything and hey, I've got several drops I can use that are of more benefit slotted than sold. (Edit again: I also find funny your comment that some things and systems may have not needed to exist in the first place, on a discussion about low level IO sets, where you seem to imply it is the DOs and SOs that should have never existed in the first place, considering that set IOs were a much later addition on a game where TOs, DOs, and SOs were the benchmark for having a capable character. Especially since it was ED that prompted the IO sets to be created since players were in an uproar that they could no longer slot their powers for their play style or full effectiveness. [Lord knows I was rather upset when my Dark/Dark Scrapper found itself only able to barely use 3 of the 5 red SOs I had in each attack. And it was slotting that way that made the character suddenly very capable instead of struggling to face off against equal level mobs.])

You do realize that reducing Consume's recharge will necessitate reducing its duration as well? Two minutes of improved max HP and END drain resistance are going to have be smacked down to account for an improved recharge. And I have no problems keeping my toggles going and using my attacks on Fiery Aura characters unless its paired with Radiation Melee. (And Radiation Melee has its own concerns I'm still learning to manage. Not a set I've used before until this character.) (Basically, I still don't see why you want Dark Consumption and Consume to have their recharges reduced. They aren't supposed to always be recovering our END, just periodically giving us that emergency boost to keep going. We are supposed to manage our END use, not rely on things like Dark Consumption and Consume to keep us in the fight. For END hungry sets like Dark Melee and Fiery Aura though, they are great for keeping us in the fight as is while also doing damage to our enemies. When needed, as opposed to being part of an expected attack chain.)

Set IOs are also static unless attuned. They just don't lose effectiveness from us leveling past their slotted level.

Especially as that call would very quickly get echoed on other ATs. (Widows anyone?)

*grumble* *grumble* *bites tongue about people thinking Placate is or was ever worthless before says something that gets self booted from forums*

Repel doesn't have a distance setting, it can't push or pull X feet, it only has a duration. If that duration were a set amount, it would either drop the target short of the user, or continue to pull the target after it reached the user. Thus, the duration would have to vary with distance in order to make it bring the target into melee range regardless of where the target was previously, but also stop pulling when melee range was reached. I get that, except that Singularity uses an inverse repel to draw targets to it, with the result being the target reaches the Singularity, moves past it, is drawn towards it for not being at it, and the target keeps shifting around the Singularity because of the constant attraction. The constant duration as long as the Singularity is not defeated or times out keeps targets moving to it even if they get drawn past it. Hence, my expectation that the variable duration would be necessitated by Confront not being a sustained power.

What if it instead gave the target a minor movement buff to close with the Scrapper/Tanker/Brute?

I actually agree that every power in a power set should be a desirable pick. However, I find that Confront already is a desirable pick depending on my character and build. I'm actually fine with Confront being made a little stronger, as long as it isn't changed, and most definitely not replaced, but the repel may be a bit much or otherwise unworkable.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess the reason for the variable duration is because it isn't a constant effect like Singularity?

I just caught this, for the snipers bit, so I apologize for the late comment. No taunt ability will draw snipers over to you. Snipers have no movement ability. That's why they never reposition to keep shooting you if you duck around a corner or behind a crate. (Edit: You can drop an array of damage patches on snipers and watch them just stand there and wither away because they can't move.)

It might be because the buffs from the auto powers are listed as having a duration for their effect. So despite being always on when selected as a power, they may have had recharge left available to them by the dev because they forgot they are auto powers and more looked at being able to use the power again as soon as possible? I don't actually know, just making a WAG.

Good point. Brute Taunt should be single-target, too. Brutes have been nerfed more than enough. Please don't take this away from them too. (Edit: Especially since the taunts and confront already work the way you say you want them to. Tankers get -100 as an AoE, Brutes get -75 as an AoE, and Scrappers get -75 as a ST.)

Which is incredibly disappointing. I would gladly take that trade back. I have no opinion on the matter other than my usual players are using existing powers bit. However, it does make sense to me. Chilling Embrace is an offensive aura toggle, which doesn't make much sense on a dedicated range AT, whereas Frost Protection is useful at all ranges. That's my guess on why it is the way it is at least.

Most toggles take a second or 2 to "recharge" after you drop them, so they take recharge enhancements to shorten that downtime (Chilling Embrace has a 10s recharge, IIRC). Normally, this wouldn't matter, but offensive toggles (like Chilling Embrace) drop when you get mezzed, so a recharge might be useful there. I don't recall if offensive toggles just suppress now, but I do recall that *all* toggles used to drop when you got mezzed (which frustrated me to no end - I've run 9 toggles on my blaster for years!) (And is probably why I hate Stun so much...) The power is Frost Protection, which is an auto power that accepts recharge enhancements. @Burk was musing about Frost Protection being the Sentinel's replacement power for Chilling Embrace, which Sentinels lack.

To the best of my knowledge, and contrasting how quickly my characters level on Homecoming versus how quickly they leveled back on Live, before Homecoming was Homecoming and it was still a very private server that only some people knew about and could access, the amount of xp characters got was boosted, reducing the amount of time it takes to level up. I don't use XP Boosters. I don't typically farm/power level my characters. I still get my characters to level 50 in less than a month, playing for less than an hour a day, for maybe a few days a week. As opposed to back on Live when I played for 4-6 hours a day, every day, and still took longer than a month to get to 50. (Edit: In fact, back on Live, my friends would have me power level my current favorite character so I could be more than token help on missions because it often took me a couple months to get to 50. So yeah, there has been a massive change in xp rates.)

Per the author, a GM requested this thread be posted in both the Bugs and Suggestions and Feedback sections. And OP states is posted in both locations.

This. Oh so very much this. (Edit: Being told how to cut the amount of time it takes to get rid of patrol xp to 15-20 minutes is very helpful and greatly appreciated. However, being able to play for those 15-20 minutes by actually doing content is so much more preferred.)

If my build calls for higher level than me set IOs? I often just leave those slots empty until I reach the minimum level to start slotting them. The exception being if my build calls for level 50 required IOs like Hecatombs. Those I will slot with a generic IO to keep the power competitive against high level mobs. You're most definitely right about the leveling progression though. Between the constant patrol xp and the heavy xp boost the game got when it went private pirate server so that those that knew about and were granted access to the game could very quickly recreate their lost level 50 incarnate characters, there isn't much call for the low level sets unless a player is looking for the set bonuses. And that is even before you get into the XP Boosters available from P2W. The current iteration of the game is set up to get you past all the content and to level 50 as quickly as they can without just cutting out the content. Which is why blue side and red side characters that want to do content at level have to watch their progression and mind the Turn Off XP option, let alone the poor gold siders that had that problem even before the game had its leveling shifted to high gear.

If Ageless is added to my build, Dull Pain's recharge drops to 126.3 seconds. And if Revive is dropped in exchange for Maneuvers or any other +DEF power (with only the LotG proc) and Dull Pain replaces Numina's Convalescence with Panacea as well, the recharge is exactly 120 seconds. At the cost of 3.75% ranged defense. (Edit: Of course, turning Maneuvers on would grant +3.04% DEF....) Personally, I would rather the ranged defense and the emergency Revive.

According to City of Data, since Mids doesn't show Dull Pain's duration that I can see, Dull Pain has a duration of 120 seconds. The recharge of Dull Pain in my build is 167.4 seconds. So you would be without for 47.4 seconds. So not perma. While it was active, you would have 2,311.15 max HP and 605.4% regeneration rate..