Rudra

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.

As @biostem said, events are going to pull players away from other content. It happens with every event every year. Especially when new badges are added to said events when they are re-released. Also, when you get something that has such a large draw and is open to all levels for rapid leveling, as is actually encouraged by some devs and players for ToT'ing, you are going to get players that choose to do nothing after joining. It is unfortunate, but also inevitable, and there is nothing that can really be done to change that without punishing the player base writ large to stop whatever proportion is just passively earning. All that said? As you are noticing, the focus on events dies down after a week or two. This happens every time as well. To the point that latecomers to events struggle to get new badges or large enough teams for event specific elements after the first couple weeks. While this is not the solution you want, nor a solution at all for that matter, just waiting a week or two for a large enough player base to be bored of the event alleviates the problem of forming teams/leagues for other content.

Can we get a moderator to close this thread? The author is obviously not open to feedback and is the only voice in favor of the OP.

No, he isn't. His sole response to even daring to ask for more information is to thumbs down the questions.

Nope. Every response is wrong. There is no correct choice to not have the Nictus get suspicious of you and reveal you. I tried all of them. Toggle suppression is supposed to be a thing now. I'm really surprised it is not in that mission. I mean, it's not like the Skulls mission where you have to use a Gravedigger's power instead of your own. So yeah, retaining toggles, but suppressed would really be appreciated in that mission.

Haven't run anything yet. No opinion. (Edit: The characters I've been playing are already past the changes, so can't test them. The characters I can test with, I haven't been playing recently and won't until the computer with their planned builds is operational again.)

I soooooo miss original Phase Shift....

There was never an actual chicken costume in CoX. As @starro said, there were some very creative individuals who took available costume elements, colored them as close to chicken as they could, and did a really good job of blending them into a chicken costume until you took a close look at them. (Edit: Suspension of disbelief made them very good chickens. Only if you were pointedly looking for flaws would the illusion break.)

Then what would be the point of the Sentinel AT?

*shrug* Indifferent on that. If they do that? Okay. The heads can have their mouths open just enough to hold weapons and still work for the OP. Or weapon holding specific heads could be created, though that would entail a lot more work and redundant entries in the creator list. Edit: Let's be honest. I really don't see the OP being used by anyone except for very niche characters. Except for the new heads. As in for the actual character head. Please at least give us serpent, cobra, lung, and drake heads for our characters. If I don't get the head hands? I can live with that. At least give us the actual heads though, please.