Rudra

Removing Empyrean Merits in their entirety would work against the incarnate system. They existed as part of the incarnate system back on Live so players could buy the salvage they needed to make their incarnate powers without relying solely on random drops as mission/arc rewards.

Even magic gets blocked. Even in CoX there is a Dispel Magic spell. And a Counterspell as well. You are conflating sources with effects. A magically created shockwave is still a shockwave and can be dealt with as such. In every reference source of magic, magic creates specific effects. You know what? I'm not up to dealing with your post line by line. Just look at my previous post for my response.

You're correct. Arcane energy is not an element. Neither is it a specific effect, it is a specific source. Arcane energy as used in comics, anime, movies, novels, and video games is the background power through which the mage, wizard, witch, warlock, sorcerer, or any other different variant of arcane caster creates a specific effect such as fireballs and lightning bolts. However, the power sets in CoX don't deal with the How of a power, they deal with the What of a power. So a lightning bolt in the Electric Blast set can be arcane energy, biochemical induced projection, capacitor induced, divinely granted, and so forth. So the whole idea of any character using arcane energy to do anything is covered by the How. And the How is defined by the character's origin (in this case, magic) and the character's bio (if desired). This can be further supplemented through the use of auras, specifically the Runes aura. And a request for additional options for the Runes aura to make it look more like Dr. Strange, World of Warcraft fan art, or whatever is definitely an option. Edit: Also the claim that magic does more damage due to being magic is rather biased. The effectiveness of magic in any given world or setting is dependent on how the creator (writer) of that world sets magic to be. So it can range from so meager as to only be able to achieve some minor mostly unnoticed effects all the way up to "I am a god of destruction!" levels of power. (It is also dependent on the specific character's strength of magic in that world setting within the provided limits of magic's scope.)

Seems a bit OP to me, but I guess that would really depend on the final numbers. Aside from that? Looks interesting.

The initial dead drop mission is to familiarize the character with the dead drops so (s)he can receive orders. The initial mission briefing includes the following line: "I need you to place these orders for other Void Sanction agents and familiarize yourself with the drop locations." (https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Major) So the initial run is passing along orders for other agents to perform other missions as part of familiarizing you with the sites. Then when you go back to those drops, you are picking up orders other agents are leaving for you. (Possibly even other PC vigilantes as part of also joining the Major.) As for re-arranging the mission order? The only way to get the Major as a contact is by being a vigilante. Which means you've already done some very questionable and most likely very illegal/murderous acts. Though in the context of testing the character for loyalty and compliance, it does still work.

Yes, there are characters who have no control over their powers in the comics. And if players want top tier powers like nukes at level 1 to simulate that? Then sure. As long as those powers have the following flags: Affects enemies, Affects allies, Affects non-combat NPCs. After all, they can't control their power, so using it is going to hurt everyone other than themselves. I doubt anyone is willing to play that kind of character though. Makes teaming unpleasant and escort missions almost impossible, but that is how the characters in comics that start with the uncontrolled powers and have to progressively learn control work. The power progression in the game shows a character that has control over his/her powers and improves on it. I don't get why anyone would play a character that has no control and progressively gains it, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. However, a lack of control over powers means those characters are as deadly to their teammates as they are to their enemies. And to random bystanders like NPCs needing to be escorted out. (Edit: And yes, that would apply to the T9 pets too. They can't be controlled, so they keep attacking everything.)

I don't think pets can check character facing. Just character position. So having the sentinels advance slightly in front of the character could be problematic. Maybe a wandering mechanic instead so that when not in combat, the sentinel floats to various points around the character?

Go to. If you want pets to come back to you, use the go to command. Just click a spot near you and they all come running to you. (Edit: Or set them to passive until they get back to you. Both options work.)

Yes please. When I join ToT leagues, it is quite common to hear the league leader calling for the current team leader of some teams to promote a specific member so the team can have a 50 lead instead of the current 20-something that most commonly seems to be the default leader. And those leaders are not paying the least bit of attention, so the entire team is useless against the mobs and getting nothing for it for quite a while. Even with those of us that are 50 on the team asking the team leader to promote any of us in team chat, league chat, and tells.

Because we don't have any mages in the game. Haven't seen a single one anywhere. Nope. No enemy factions that are all mages or mystics or arcane. No warlocks either. Not as NPCs or as PCs. Okay, putting sarcasm aside. Mages can be made as Blasters, Defenders, Controllers, Sentinels, Corruptors, Dominators, and Masterminds. (Necromancer anyone?) Unless you want a more melee focused character. Warlocks? I'm going to guess that means something like the WoW warlock class. The one that summons demons. Like the Demon Summoning Mastermind. Except you can have 6 demons out at once instead of just 1. If he wants a multi-element power set? Fine. A magic origin specific power set? What about the technology, science, mutation, and natural origins? Weapons are not restricted to technology heroes. Devices aren't either. (Edit: Hello, technomancer.)

Those pics are basically the Runes: Fists aura. You want it with the discs too? We can ask for an alternate aura with the discs added.

No reason to be confused. What does arcane energy look like? You said we need a pure magic energy power set. So what does magic energy look like? Also, would only magic origin characters be allowed to use the proposed Arcane Blast power set?

What does arcane energy look like?

I grabbed Plasmatic Taser to look at it. Plasmatic Taser: As used by a level 50 Blaster Average Damage:102.81 Damage Per Activation Time:96.08 Damage Per Cast Cycle:7.87 Activation Time:1.07s Recharge Time:12.00s Endurance Cost:14.82 Accuracy:1.00X Fistful of Arrows: MM primary attack as used by my MM at level 50. Average Damage:52.86 Damage Per Activation Time:45.18 Damage Per Cast Cycle:10.91 Activation Time:1.17s Recharge Time:3.68s Endurance Cost:8.01 Accuracy:1.84X Available Level:8 They are both cone attacks. Both at level 50. The innate Fistful of Arrows has the higher damage per cast cycle, much better recharge, better END cost. and way better accuracy. Taser is the faster attack with its activation time. And I only have Fistful of Arrows 4-slotted. (I can't get Plasmatic Taser on that MM because that MM is on an ITF with a friend. And she can only play 2 days a week. And my other remaining MMs are not yet 50.) We're obviously not going to convince each other though. So sure. We agree to disagree.

I don't know about other people's builds for MMs. I don't really care how other people slot their MMs. I don't even care if the END cost for MM powers is reduced. It won't hinder me at all. I always slot my MM's innate attacks. Ranged attacks typically do less damage than melee ones, so of course I expect the melee attacks in the OP to outdamage them. The claim that MMs can't even clear a spawn of green minions without crashing their END reserve and the claim that MM innate attacks are too under-powered compared to temp powers is what is getting me. Even with no enhancements, I have never played an MM that ran out of END taking down white con minions, let alone green. Until I see an MM unable to take down -2 minions, I will hold those comments to be garbage. What is so uncivil about the comment? I didn't say anything about you personally, I said that claim is pure garbage. And I showed why. Your comment was that even after accounting for enhancements on the MM's attacks, they could not compete with temp powers. And they obviously can. It's not just accuracy that makes or breaks a power. Not even. You have to look at the power in its entirety if you are going to make comparisons. I don't have a Thugs MM any more. Didn't like the set. Will probably try it again later to see if changing other elements makes me more inclined to keep playing them. Otherwise, I would take the Thugs innate attacks, find the most comparable temp power I can, and run a comparison between them. I've never respecced my MMs unless a new enhancement set was released that I thought would be of more use. Neither will I run +4/x8 missions on my MMs. The slog of clearing the missions is way more than I am willing to deal with. So let's sum up here. You build your MMs however you want. I don't care how you build or play them. I don't care if MM innate attacks get their END cost reduced. I care about the fact that easily disproven claims are being made about MMs.

Aimed Shot is 5-slotted. I treat my MM's innate attacks the same as I treat all the other AT's attacks. My MMs have 6 attacks that are slotted as attacks. 3 just happen to be pets. Temp powers cannot be slotted. The argument that got me to do this was Riverdusk's quoted statement, which is pure garbage. Aimed Shot: As used by a level 50 Blaster with no enhancements of any kind slotted anywhere on the character. Average Damage:82.58 Damage Per Activation Time:49.45 Damage Per Cast Cycle:10.77 Activation Time:1.67s Recharge Time:6.00s Endurance Cost:5.20 Accuracy:1.15X Bow and Arrow: Temp power attack as available on my MM at level 50. Average Damage:175.63 Damage Per Activation Time:105.17 Damage Per Cast Cycle:18.16 Activation Time:1.67s Recharge Time:8.00s Endurance Cost:10.66 Accuracy:1.15X Uh oh. Looks like Blasters need a buff too. The Bow and Arrow temp power blows the Blaster's unenhanced Aimed Shot completely out of the water. So what metric do you really want to use for MMs?

The difference is that existing Alpha powers can supplement how you enhance your powers. Having an Alpha slot that converts KB to KD does not supplement anything. It replaces the existing enhancement sets that exist for that purpose. So, no.

I'm all for this. Any time a team works together to get something done, the entire team should get credit for any badge associated with what was done. This includes any mission badges where only the mission holder gets credit. Why is only the mission holder getting credit when the team is doing the mission? (I think this is only relevant to some missions in Dark Astoria though.) Basically, team does something, entire team should get credit, regardless of task involved.

That takes away from the enhancements. No.

Fistful of Arrows: MM primary attack as used by my MM at level 50. Average Damage:52.86 Damage Per Activation Time:45.18 Damage Per Cast Cycle:10.91 Activation Time:1.17s Recharge Time:3.68s Endurance Cost:8.01 Accuracy:1.84X Available Level:8 That is copied and pasted straight out of the game. For comparison to your Plasmatic Taser. Something a bit easier for me to compare since I have them: Aimed Shot: MM primary attack as used at level 50. Average Damage:58.09 Damage Per Activation Time:58.09 Damage Per Cast Cycle:20.46 Activation Time:1.00s Recharge Time:1.84s Endurance Cost:4.88 Accuracy:1.84X Available Level:2 Bow and Arrow: Temp power attack as available on my MM at level 50. Average Damage:175.63 Damage Per Activation Time:105.17 Damage Per Cast Cycle:18.16 Activation Time:1.67s Recharge Time:8.00s Endurance Cost:10.66 Accuracy:1.15X The MM's innate attack does more damage per cast cycle, is faster on the attack with its activation time, has significantly better accuracy, almost half the END cost, and less than 1/4 the recharge. I'm not sold that temp powers are better than MM primary innate attacks. Edit: And the funny part is? Aimed Shot is listed as a light damage attack to Bow and Arrow's moderate damage, but hits harder per cycle. And since I can get 4 Aimed Shots in per Bow and Arrow, I'm doing approximately 232 damage with my "moderate damage" attack as listed on the OP to the closest temp power's 175.63. And if you want to cite using attack chains? Then I'll go back and add in Snap Shot to the cycle too.

Then what would you make for the Mutation Blast or Natural Blast sets? (Edit: The reason why the power sets are as generic as the devs could manage is so they work with all the origins. Even the weapons and devices sets can be magical devices/weapons.)

It's not the powers they throw at you that come into play. It would be the resists and HP. The background mechanics. The main thing I look at for considering how well mobs can deal with player powers is how easily I can waffle stomp a mission in Ouroboros compared to running it at level. There are 3 variables to account for in doing that: available powers while exemplared as compared to at level, available enhancements as compared to at level, and available set bonuses as compared to at level. I'll be honest: I have no means of measuring those independently and can only run off my perceptions of doing the content. And my perception is that the content is significantly easier when done exemplared than at level. This would seem to be further validated by the comments I'm still occasionally given of I should just get to 50 and then go back and do the content. Since I use my other characters, gained reward merits, and random drop rewards to fund my characters' progression with attuned IOs, the two biggest changes between being exemplared to the mission and being at level are the available powers and the set bonuses. Since I can stomp missions at a higher difficulty level while exemplared as opposed to the standard difficulty I have to play on until I get to that point, it looks to me like it is the additional powers that make the biggest difference. Particularly having access to the higher tier powers.

*looks at @Troo's emoji response to my previous post* See? They serve a purpose.

Magic attacks are covered by the magic origin in use with any power set in the game. Rune combat auras if you prefer a more mystic appearance.

The problem with "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" is that too often simply disagreeing with a post is taken as saying something not nice. Emotes/emojis are going to be used however people want. The aggressiveness or lack thereof with any emoji is highly subjective. Just like the aggressiveness or lack thereof when someone tries to explain their support for or opposition to any given post. I'm against the OP. Even in the feedback rules provided for the forum, we are told we can disagree with a post and not have to give a reason for it. I would prefer the reason be given, it makes it more feasible for me to understand where another is coming from, but still does not mean it is required. Let people have the thumbs down and confused emojis. Feedback should not be limited to thumbs up I agree or silence (which more signals lack of concern/interest than disagreement).