Rudra

I don't do PvP, so thank you for the clarification about the empowerment station. Having a teammate with Tactics and your character having Tactics though, means that max stealth Stalker will still be visible at 10 feet away and can't use AS without getting punished for it before it can go off. That Stalker may be able to zip in and out of view too fast, but not attack. And attacking will murder the Stalker's stealth. (So will smacking the Stalker while (s)he/they/it is positioning for the attack.)

You don't combine inspirations or make them at invention tables. You combine them directly in your inspiration tray. "Probably" from Rebirth? You haven't seen it again? You've spent almost this entire thread complaining that something that probably but not definitely was done on another server that is not Homecoming, and think that is supposed clear anything up? It does not matter what Rebirth or Cake or any of the other servers do or don't do. They aren't Homecoming. So complaining that something happens on one of those servers as justification for Homecoming is out of left field bullshit. You have evidenced over and over in this thread that you have not a clue about Homecoming. Let me give you a hand with your max Perception: You want max Perception? On any AT? Grab the Leadership pool and select Tactics. Right out of the box, Tactics grants a Blaster +242.2 feet of Perception. Controllers? Get +346 feet of Perception. Dominators get +259.5 feet of Perception. Then you hit up any empowerment station in a SG. It really doesn't matter if it is a baseline empowerment station or the super deluxe model. You craft the Increase Perception buff for a single piece of common salvage and it grants your character another +100 feet of Perception that lasts for 90 minutes. With the 500 feet of Perception every AT gets as their base, that means a Blaster is now at 842.2 feet of Perception, a Controller at 946 feet of Perception, and a Dominator at 859.5 feet of Perception. Add in Rectified Reticle on any Aim/Build Up power or in Tactics itself, and now the Blaster is at 942.2 feet of Perception, the Controller at 1,046 feet of Perception, and the Dominator at 959.5 feet of Perception. Grab any friend that also has Tactics and now you are sitting at the Perception cap. Even without that friend, if you are doing PvP? You can see everyone other than a max stealth Stalker. In PvE? You can see everything within Perception range.

Dumb question: If blowing up the vehicles on a Mayhem mission is already something you find to be the most fun thing to do and will continue to do so after you have the badge for it, then why do you need more badges to entice you to keep doing so?

For the record, I did not and am not saying you or anyone else is doing the MSR wrong. So kindly don't put words in my mouth. What I said was what I experience on the rare occasions I do an MSR. Melees that ran up the ramps were told by the raid leader to stop doing so and bring the mobs to the bowl. The mobs never had to enter the bowl itself, they just needed to be in range of the ranged characters gathered in the bowl. Other melees I saw would run around the perimeter of the bowl focusing on finding Rikti Priests and Rikti Magi. Some players I knew had macroes set up to find just the Rikti Priests and Rikti Magi, and would run laps if melee to find them or be spinning in place if ranged to find them. Tankers and Brutes would go up the ramps just enough to taunt and then pull the mobs closer. If other melees were jumping on the targets? The Tankers and Brutes would either go melee them or go grab other Rikti. That is my experience. I am not saying that is the correct way to do it, just what I have always seen on the raids. The entire point of my previous comment was that your comment four up from this one was painting players in the bowl in a very bad light with a very generalized statement like you were lumping everyone gathered in the bowl like they were leeching. And that is very much not my experience. Were there players just sitting AFK with an attack on autofire? I don't know and to be frank, I don't care either. Because I was too busy summoning replacement pets, spamming heals, and throwing attacks as fast as I could juggle those tasks to bother looking. And the few characters that I saw whenever the game auto-turned me for an enemy I have targeted being to the side or behind me? Were throwing heals or attacks or I have no clue what, but were busy doing whatever they were doing.

That sentence does not specify inside a mission or not. It just tells me that you were on an active TF. (Which, again, I didn't know was possible, but did not directly address my own comments.)

For the umpteenth time, what ice cage power are you talking about? You keep harping about 'ice gets +Perception from its ice cage' without ever actually saying what that specific power is. So either finally say what that power is or I'm just going to run with you're full of shit and be done.

From inside a current TF mission though?

Huh. And here I thought we were the supports and ranged characters huddling together for mutual support while shooting Rikti with our ranged attacks. Yes, you can. You hit TAB to target foes you can't directly see or click. On the rare occasions I do an MSR, that is what I do. Someone calls out a Rikti Priest or Magus in a direction and I can't see the target to click for any reason? I tab to the target and start shooting it. Or maybe they are targeting through their HVAS to be able to shoot targets that can't be player targeted yet like we do in invasion events. Edit: The rare MSRs I've been on, the raid leader would routinely remind melees to not go far up the ramps and pull mobs back to the bowl. So your response is doubly confusing to me. The bulk of MSR fighting is centered on the bowl in my experience.

The VEATs have their leadership powers in their armor sets. So yes, VEATs can absolutely double dip in leadership and also take the armor sets. I am seriously starting to question if you even play the game now. And this line is gibberish. "Options do not make up for what you actually pick"? (I'm intentionally dropping your redundant "in actuality".) Options make up your picks. Your character's primary and secondary power sets provide options for you to pick. Not just power pools. Power pools expand your options for building your character. And yes, what you pick matters. It really does. And from starting to question if you even play the game, I'm moving into "are you a troll?" territory now. The way the PvP'ers were layering Perception was by taking Tactics and any other +Perception power they got from their ATs. Like Targeting Drone. Then the team's Perception would find even the stealthiest character. Edit: And you still haven't answered what ice cage power you are talking about for boosting Perception.

I definitely agree with this part. If you already have the temp power and you get another use of the temp power, the game should not be throwing duplicate icons all over players' power trays. The costumes don't seem to drop duplicates, but things like Snowstorm and Snow Beast? I'm fine with getting more uses of them from opening presents, but since I already have the power, can the game please not keep throwing more icons on my trays? The game should check to see if the character has the power, and if not, grant the character the power and load a power icon. And if the character does? Just increase the charge count if able to have more charges and not add another icon. Don't even check to see if an icon is in a power tray. If the character has the power, do not add an icon for getting it again.

Like @lemming, my trays are usually pretty full. So I might have one tray with open slots depending on the character. And since that tray is my 'rarely used but visible in case I need/want' set of powers, I just ignore whatever costume show up in the tray. I might go through costumes in the list and place one I might be inclined to use during the event on the tray, but mostly I just ignore that tray unless I need a relevant power on it. So I don't notice the costumes there and they go away after the event on their own.

Your team tried to restart the TF while still in the TF? (I didn't know that was even possible.) You can't be on more than 1 TF at a time. And it seems like you were trying to run 2 at once. Of course the game doesn't know how to deal with that and dumped you to your desktop if you managed to get that far. If you want to restart a TF, you have to quit the TF, reform the team, and then start a new TF.

What drugs are you on and why aren't you sharing? In PvE, Stalker Hide provides 150 feet of stealth radius. (PvP gets 500 feet.) Procs like Celerity's +Stealth grant 30 feet of stealth radius. (300 in PvP.) That is 180 feet of stealth in PvE and 800 feet of stealth in PvP. Other than the travel procs, I am not aware of any way to boost stealth through enhancements. And now you want to compare illusions? Okay. Let's see just how much it sucks to be an Illusion Control Controller for stealth versus any Stalker. PvE PvP Superior Invisibility: 200 feet stealth radius 1000 feet stealth radius Cloaking Device: 200 feet stealth radius 1000 feet stealth radius Any form Hide: 150 feet stealth radius 500 feet stealth radius Stealth Procs: 30 feet stealth radius 300 feet stealth radius Let's take a look at the stealth caps now. Stalker cap: 300 feet stealth radius 1143 feet stealth radius Controller cap: 200 feet stealth radius 571.5 feet stealth radius So those Controllers using Superior Invisibility or Cloaking Device? Are already at their stealth radius cap without needing to slot any procs. Stalkers? Are still below the Controller's stealth radius cap even if they slot a stealth proc. (180 feet stealth radius from Hide + Stealth Proc < 200 feet stealth radius cap of Controllers for PvE.) In PvP? Stalkers are still below the Controller's stealth radius cap unless they slot a Stealth Proc. So please enlighten me what Stalker is running around with 1000 feet stealth radius. Because the only way I know for a Stalker to get there is for someone else to use Grant Invisibility on them to get there. Illusion Control gets to use illusions. They cause illusory wounds on their enemies. They cause their enemies to hallucinate that their allies are really their enemies. They create illusory allies that deal lots of real damage. They create illusory allies that create more illusory allies, and they also deal real damage. They use illusions to hide from their enemies and to hide their allies as well. And their illusions hiding them work better than Stalkers. Where is your complaint about Illusion Control coming from?! VEATs get better armor caps than Stalkers. VEATS get to double dip in leadership powers. VEATS get to build as full melee, full range, or hybrid melee-range characters while still retaining full armor sets. Soldiers of Arachnos don't get any AT stealth powers unless they go Bane Spider, and that grants them one stealth power, not two. And as far as I can remember, Widows of Arachnos only get one stealth power as well, but it is found in both upgrade branches of the AT. So how is the VEAT stealth cap being lower than Stalkers a complaint? Of course Tactics doesn't get you to max stealth. It doesn't have a stealth component. It has a +Perception component. Are you seriously upset that an AT that is purpose designed around stealth gets a higher stealth cap than the ATs that are not purpose designed around stealth? Have you even tried an Illusion Control Controller? Because I haven't seen any of them "shoot really big lasers, not actually deluding your opponent". Illusion Control consists of one illusion wound ability, two illusion target disabling abilities, one illusionary enemy ability that makes your enemies see each other as enemies and attack each other, two forms of illusions to hide in, and three illusionary allies that either deal direct real harm to your enemies or become their worst nightmares filling them with fear. You still haven't told me what ice power does this. And seeing as how your post commented about Tactics granting stealth, I'm starting to think you completely misunderstand whatever that power is. Edit again: Oh yeah. The lowest Perception cap across all the ATs is 1,153 feet at level 50. The highest stealth cap across all ATs is 1,143. So trying to max out your stealth is basically a waste of time anyway. The last time I did any PvP, the players were focused on layering +Perception bonuses. There was no way to hide from them. And in PvE? It simply doesn't matter. Stalker Hide is more than enough to sneak past even snipers once you reach the level for it. (Edit yet again: And before you make a strange comment about illusion Controllers should be able to as well? They can.)

SHRIMP BLAST PLEASE

A video game needs to be balanced for how it is played. RP has no role in that. If RP is a consideration, it is a consideration of the player, not the game, and is based on how the player conceives of his/her/their character and that character's interactions with the game world and other players. (Edit: Yes, this is a MMORPG, but given the extremely wide range of how people RP, you can't expect anyone to design RP into the game. The RP is done by the players.) And that has to be done within the framework the game world provides if there is a game mechanic component to it. Let's use Perception as an example. A player makes a Blaster and declares the character has super enhanced vision, able to see targets through their attempts to sneak and at longer than normal ranges. That player can either build for that enhanced Perception by taking Tactics or by slotting enhancements that grant extra Perception on a constant basis, or that player can simply say his/her/their character has it and not take Tactics or slot any enhancements to boost Perception. In the latter case, that player still has the option of using a SG empowerment station to boost his/her/their character's Perception for 90 minutes at a time to grant said character that ability, or that player can stock yellow inspirations to counter enemy stealth and attempts to blind the character, and merge new inspiration drops into more yellows for a "constant" stream of increased Perception. Outside of combat, that character can have all the Perception in the world when roleplaying with other players and not a single person is likely to care if that character actually does or not. PvP combat was changed because it used to be Rock-Paper-Scissors. A Controller or Dominator could permanently lock down Blasters, Corruptors, and Defenders who never got to do anything except die while being completely unable to do anything with a Brute, Scrapper, Stalker, or Tanker other than run away or die. Melees couldn't do anything to ranged characters because those ranged characters were always out of reach. And so on and so forth. So player powers were changed to have a PvE and PvP version so that a semblance of balance and competition had a chance to exist in PvP. (Note that mobs in PvP zones still follow PvE rules with their powers. Mobs cannot engage in PvP.) Stalkers start with the highest stealth radius of all AT stealth powers except for two specific powers Controllers get access to if they select the correct primary. That's PvE. Stealth powers do not stack stealth radius any more. (Except for the procs and Grant/Team Invisibility.) And stealth is a Stalker trademark, so I wholly understand why they would get the higher cap. So your complaint about Stalkers getting better stealth rings hollow to me. What ice cage are you talking about?

RP is not something to balance powers around. I've seen players whose RP was absolutely nothing could affect them and absolutely nothing could resist them. That isn't balanced. PvP has its own balance going on. Our powers work differently in PvP than in PvE. Positron does not debuff anyone's Perception, so what are you talking about? Who is Siren? Arachnos Night Widows and Tarantula Queens/Mistresses love their smoke bombs, no doubt, but Tactics has always been enough for me to laugh their smoke bombs off.

My last comment on this, because again, you have good points but I'm still not convinced. Because I don't expect people writing backstories for a video game to do that much delving into period writing when it has already been shown they did not even check with their fellow writers. So again, to me, it still works for the timeline placing Talos in the 1850s and 60s rather than the 1950s and 60s despite that every time I read his entry, I automatically default to the 1950s and 60s. And the issue I see with the plaque is that the writer neglected to include the century because (s)he/they possibly didn't understand the rest of the city's history/timeline or because whomever wrote the Rabinowitz bit didn't understand the rest of the city's history/timeline. Regardless, either Talos needs to have a correction clarifying what century he was in if he was in the 1800's, or the Rabinowitz data needs correction to fit the timeline.

You have a point, but I'm still not convinced. Mostly because I don't see period papers of the time constantly referring to Talos in such verbose manner because of how much print it would eat up over time in their articles. Also because of these two things: a 300 feet tall horned man would still be terror inducing to the public at the time and because according to the Oxford dictionary, as early as 1743, "terrific" also referred to "tremendous". And "Tremendous Titan" being referred to as "Terrific Titan" also makes sense for the period. (Edit: In this case, the use of "terrific" can be a double meaning referring to the terror of a 300 feet tall horned man running about the area and the tremendous size of being a 300 feet tall man.) Edit again: Oh yeah, as far as the referring to the 20th century bit? I agree, believe it or not. As I said in my first post, I also read it that way. I just have to contend with the possibility that there was likely a misunderstanding in the writing at the time, and Talos was meant to be in the 1800s, but got referenced to the 1900s when the data was written. I think there were multiple writers tackling different parts of the game. Yes, that would confirm the OP as it being a bug, and I'm not arguing that part, I'm asking about the overall timeline and how events may have fallen together given the data we have for pre-1920s activities.

Not to doubt you, but the only reference I can find to the 1920s and 1930s was Krylov's mention of mutants appearing, Statesman from 1918 and 1931 (with Statesman becoming empowered in 1918 and publicly fighting crime in Paragon City in 1932), and Baron Zoria in 1914. There are comments about super activities, including the aforementioned Baron Zoria in 1890, Giovanni Scaldi in the 1600s, and a few other entries, that pre-date the 1920s. So are you sure Talos Island didn't exist before 1950? Talos' data only says the 50s and 60s, and while it is easy to read that as the 1950s and 1960s and I for one would definitely read it that way, it doesn't really specify that.

So yes, stealth powers now only stack with the IO, Grant/Group Invisibility, and maybe Labyrinth of Fog's Font of Malevolence. Thanks.

Oh yeah, uhm.... Wasn't stealth changed to not stack any longer except for a very few specific cases?

I have to go back and check, been a while since I paid attention to the transformations, but I am pretty sure they do already award xp and inf' when they transform.

Dark/Dark/Dark +Perception: Brute: Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Dark Mastery -> Dark Armor: Cloak of Darkness Scrapper: Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Dark Mastery -> Dark Armor: Cloak of Darkness Sentinel: Dark Blast/Dark Armor/Dark Mastery -> Dark Armor: Cloak of Darkness Stalker: Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Dark Mastery -> Dark Armor: Shadow Dweller Tanker: Dark Armor/Dark Melee/Dark Mastery -> Dark Armor: Cloak of Darkness Psi/Psi/Psi +Perception: Brute: Psionic Melee/Psionic Armor/Psionic Mastery -> Psionic Armor: Precognition Scrapper: Psionic Melee/Psionic Armor/Psionic Mastery -> Psionic Armor: Precognition Sentinel: Psychic Blast/Psionic Armor/Psionic Mastery -> Psionic Armor: Precognition Stalker: Psionic Melee/Psionic Armor/Psionic Mastery -> Psionic Armor: Precognition Tanker: Psionic Armor/Psionic Melee/Psionic Mastery -> Psionic Armor: Precognition Edit: Dumb question: why the need to get to max Perception? It doesn't take much to laugh at mob attempts to blind you or see invisible enemies at a distance well before they ever see you. (Edit again: Also, you can craft a Perception boost at any Empowerment Station (doesn't matter if tier I, II, or III) that boosts your Perception by 100 ft. for 90 minutes.)

If you attempt to Teleport Target on a target beyond Teleport Target's range, the power does not activate. If you activate Mission Transporter and you have a mission, it activated. If you have no missions and you try to activate Mission Transporter? It does the exact same thing as Teleport Target. It gives you an error for not having a mission and it does not go on cooldown because it was not activated. So Mission Transporter already works the same way Teleport Target does and does not go into cooldown if there is no "target" for it. Assemble the Team always activates. The moment you designate where to bring your team to. (Edit: I haven't checked to see what happens if you hit Escape to try and cancel out.) Regardless of whether you have teammates to yank or not, so it goes on cooldown. Edit again: That was interesting to find out. You can cancel Assemble the Team. And doing so does not put it on cooldown. You just hit Escape after activating it but before you click the location. And I told you how it works. You can look in City of Data and see for yourself. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pool.teleportation.recall_friend&at=tanker

I don't know anything about adaptive recharge. I don't have any characters that have adaptive recharge powers. And as far as snipes and assassin strikes go, you are looking at the interrupt time having an interrupt applied. Interrupt powers are designed to stop before use when interrupted. Assemble the Team and Mission Transporter don't have interrupt periods. They work when used. If the conditions for their effects to function are not met, the powers themselves still worked. They weren't interrupted. They weren't cancelled. They were used under conditions in which their function served no purpose. And as I said six posts up, if the author wants Long Range Teleport's cancel to function like an interrupt and simply turn off the power without use, that is a separate matter. I don't see enough of a difference between initial activation of Long Range Teleport and re-use while the red ring is active for me to care if that re-use period were to go away and the power simply did not activate if the cancel button is clicked. It is the convolutions of adding a new timer to the teleport powers because a player used them under conditions in which they can't do anything that I have issues with. To me, that is like claiming that since a PBAoE melee attack didn't hit any enemies for their being no enemies around, it's recharge should just go away. The attack worked, so why should the recharge not apply?