Rudra

The brackets are the same as for red side and blue side. Chloe is available up until level 10. Hit 11? She stops being available. The problem is not the bracket size. The problem is how quickly you level gold side compared to red or blue. And that is partially due to the sheer number of ambushes you are not allowed to skip and the increased xp the more difficult foes give.

I like that, except for one thing: Whatever affects mobs affects players too. And players are more than likely to complain when not only do they have to wait out the mez, but now they also have to wait out standing up after the mez wears off further delaying their ability to do anything.

Point is, is that it is already overly easy to outlevel Praetorian contacts while solo. So the xp gain enticement is there. Praetoria is heavy on ambushes and more difficult opponents, so xp gain is already fast. The only way people like me are able to play the content without fear is by turning off xp. Which is not something most teams would be willing to do. So how would you make Praetoria more team-based? The xp gain is already there and is the primary problem in trying to play the content in a cohesive manner. What else could be done? Especially if the goal is the playing of the content with a team. Edit: Adding TFs to Praetoria fails for a few reasons. First, because outleveling content is already a problem in Praetoria, so the TFs would just make it possible to completely miss entire level ranges. Second, because of the way Praetoria is set up, there is very little justification for a large scale endeavor by Powers Division. Hamidon is leaving Praetoria alone as part of his deal with Tyrant. The sonic fences keep any Hamidon (or other external forces in world) out of Praetoria City (all of its sections) lethally. The Syndicate are covert in that they are trying to operate under Tyrant's and the other Praetors' collective gazes. (That's why most of the Syndicate are psychics. They use their abilities to screen their activities from the Seers.) The Resistance is pretty well contained underground where the Ghouls are being released to terrorize and kill them. (And Vanessa Devore uses her psychic abilities to shield all of their minds as well.) Any large scale operations done by the Syndicate or the Resistance is very small scale compared to anything going on in Primal Earth. The Destroyers are a noticed problem, but even they are relatively contained compared to Primal Earth. So what TF could be made that does not break the illusion so carefully maintained by Tyrant and the Praetors of Praetoria being a perfect utopia? Because as soon as anything like what we get for TFs/SFs in Primal Earth were to happen in Praetoria, the lie of Praetoria is exposed. Even the 3 events in the primary zones are specifically low-key and easily dismissed by the populace, contained to a very small area.

Can also just drop an AoE immob on the group after the tanker, brute, or whomever is gathering the aggro gets their attention. No more runners! Yay!

Sounds good to me.

Considering the frustration of runners in the game, I would think being able to pin them down would be welcome for a team.

That did not answer the question. At level 1 with the changes made, you have 4 powers to pick from, 2 primary and 2 secondary. At level 2, you still have 3 available, 2 primary and 1 secondary. So you still have options available and are not "forced" back into taking the T1 secondary everyone advocating for this change was so keen on avoiding and that you cite as the basic problem in the OP. For dominators, that means if you took your hold at level 1, you still have a ST immob and an AoE immob available for keeping foes at bay. Foes that have a single ranged attack and a single melee attack. Some of which lack any real range, like the Shotgun lieutenants of the Skulls and Hellions. (Edit: And most pistol using enemies as well.) So an AoE immob would at least keep enemies at range, forcing them to use their weaker ranged attack. And since it is an AoE, you can even pin down some of those foes outside of their range, forcing them to sit there and glare at you.

Because noone saw this ask coming. Edit: Why not just grab a 2nd primary power at level 2? You have 2 choices there. And then the pool at 4.

Appreciated, but mobs aren't as considerate. (Edit: Keep them looking like the Arachnos units? And we're fine.)

I finished my second edit after your post. Apologies. And yeah, I was already thinking of it latching around an enemy's throat. Edit: Sorry, the as-is for Hell on Earth is for the animation. It would still need to target an enemy and do its own damage. Unless you're feeling sadistic and want to be able to summon the fire imps by using it on a friend....

I wouldn't count Hell on Earth since it is still a summoning attack. Not for a pool set. Unless you strip out the summons. Let MMs keep their signature abilities, specifically their summons. Strip out the summoning aspect of Hell on Earth? Then sure. Edit: Of course, given how this conversation went, why not just play a petless Demon Summoning MM? Edit again: If you really want a new power set from whips? Take the Corruption, Lash, and Crack Whip abilities and make them T1-3 powers. Add Aim as a T4 or 5. Take the Hell on Earth animation, strip the summons, add a reverse energy flow animation to the hell fire animation, and make it a damaging heal like Life Drain for the other T4 or 5. Make some T6 and 7. Use Hell on Earth as is for the T8. And for the T9, a flaming orb appears that the character catches with the whip like with Hell on Earth and rapidly grows it (for the normal T9 activation time) before it detonates. There, a new primary set using whips.

*Imagines a brutish, masked figure dragging a railroad crossing sign on the ground walking up behind a random mob, completely unnoticed, gripping the railroad crossing sign with both hands behind his head as he psyches up and muscles ripple preposterously in strain, then slams the railroad crossing sign down on the poor unsuspecting mob killing it. While on fire with screaming ghosts wailing around it the entire time* ... ... ... Okay, I imagined it. Now what? Edit: 😜

Huh. I was told CoX went archetype because everyone just made flying mage tanks. So the archetypes were added to create some diversity.

It's my understanding that Brutes were the villain tanks. MMs got Bodyguard Mode added after the fact because enemies liked to ignore the MM pets and go straight for the MM. And after Bodyguard Mode was added, MMs became the red side version of tanks. I would love for pet customization, or at least a list of alternate pets for each tier of each set. I would love for more power sets for MM primaries. (Please no spider sets. I like not being terrified of playing the game.)

No thanks. The two upgrades are fine for me. First tier upgrade is advanced training or equipment for the minions. Second tier upgrade comes after I develop specialty/expert training or better equipment than I already had access to. And with Bodyguard Mode, MMs get better damage mitigation than most even with their armors. I get to divide incoming damage 8 ways, take 2 of those, and then apply my damage resist to it? Yep, works great in my book. (Though I do agree with you on the Dire Wolf bit. I just can't think of anything that would make sense as an animal that could be given a ranged attack, would make for a good tank/brute pet, and be part of a pack for the Pack Mentality.)

That's a relief. Was afraid I was going to have to go back and respec most of my characters.

So... stealth got nerfed? My MM won't be able to sneak past mobs any more by virtue of having a stealth proc and shadowfall? That's as frustrating as when they "fixed" Phase Shift.... Edit: Sorry, changed Phase Shift. Since it was never declared a fix that I know of.

Here's an odd thought @PoptartsNinja 's comment gave me. What if Time Bomb worked as it currently does, but also included the Proximity Bomb's delayed triggered detonation when triggering characters move near? So you place your Time Bomb, and it stays there until its timer runs down or enemies move near, at which point it explodes. Edit: Or using Time Bomb triggers a popup power called Trigger on the player that (s)he/it can use to detonate the bomb early. (Yes, it is a valid pronoun. Not all characters made are biological.)

If it is going to be player triggered, then why should the triggering damage be limited? Any damage type in the game would be able to penetrate the casing and detonate the explosives somehow. Some just have really specific circumstances/types for it to not seem overly weird.

Main group: Brass Men. Unique members: Brassmen or Brass men or Brass Man. (Edit: Just like the game has Red Caps and Redcaps.) Currently unavoidable unless you don't put them in a group and assign them to individual Boss Objective spawns. Using RIP, Arachnos, Snakes, Longbow, Skulls, or Hellions as your map filler group. I get your desire to be able to flag specific mobs in a group as unique, or at least not available for random draw for map population. It would help me too. If the devs are willing to do so, that would be great. In the interim, all I can say is what I did.

Honestly, I think more people should avail themselves of the beta server. Since the reasoning for recycling a character is that when a person finishes progressing a character they find out the power set combination isn't as fun as imagined, trying it out on the beta server first would give a feel of how fun that player will find that character. Just like @Sneakers said. And they can already start at 50 with all powers that character would be planned for, so it makes for a good character concept testing ground. (That said? I'm not one to really talk. I don't spend any time on the beta server at all. So when I make a character and don't like it? I just delete it, recovering what enhancements I can, and make a new character. So I guess I should probably take my own advice. Except I'm weird in that I'm fine with a slow progression and going "Well, damn. Not my type of character after all." and starting over.)

I should have commented on this earlier. Apologies. The OP reads like the author is able to get his/her unique character to spawn in a boss objective just fine, but is troubled by having that same unique character spawn in regular spawns as well. The simple solution is to not have that character part of the enemy group (s)he is using for the mission, but instead have that character not in any group or in a specific for objective draw group.

Also, given how fast some people on these forums said they can take a brand new character to 50, I don't really see a need to add more code to a game notorious for its code just to shave a few hours off the already existing process. Just my take on it. Edit: I know I said on another thread that I was fine with players recycling their level 50s, but this isn't the same thing. And my stance on even recycling existing 50s is rather fluid right now.

I did not know that! Thanks! (Now I just have to remember it for next time....)

I don't know if you have tried this or not, but what I do in AE is if I have a character that is unique, I have a group just for them. And that uniques grouping is simply not used by me as a faction in any AE mission. Any faction characters I make go into their respective AE faction grouping I make, and so the uniques in their group are never pulled from in AE unless I set up an occurrence where that character is supposed to be there, such as a specific boss spawn. Even if the unique is supposed to be part of that faction I am using in the mission, the unique is kept in the uniques group and not in the faction group.