William Valence

The primary complaint of the thread is the defense crash, and how it is inconsistent in it's severity, not the damage crash. OP for reference

You don't try to perma it. You perma Farsight. The way Farsight works is that it only cares about your buffs and enhancements at the time it was cast. Even though Power Boost lasts 10s, Farsight keeps the enhancement for it's entire 120s duration. So what he's saying is that you'd have more defense all the time not just the 10s if you removed weave and picked up PB, in addition to the other benefits PB provides.

Coming from the perspective of a MM /poison player. I don't believe /poison is as bad as I used to. I'd do three things: Allow neurotoxic breath to take Hold IO sets. Turn Noxious Aura into a toggle like Venomous Aura, or at the very least reduce the recharge so the uptime can be made 100%. It's a very important part of the set's power. And this is the big one -> Make poison trap a ranged, ground targeted summon that can be seen by enemies, and that they can attack. The last on is the big one IMO. Buff sets are easy. They are agnostic to mob size, and they work for the alpha and everything after. Debuff sets are harder. You have to apply the debuff first. For /Dark there are multiple ways to break an alpha. For /traps you have seeker drones and a +def power. /rad's two anchor abilities pump their effect faster than /poison can. I think if /poison had a way to summon something like seeker drones that ate the initial hit, then I think the set would be much more fun to play and perform better to boot. You summon the trap. The mob nukes the trap, and whoops trap card activated. While all that's happening Neurotoxic breath has been vomited out, and while the orbs of mob neutering are being hucked about, either the player or their pet have moved in debuffing the group further with the aura.

Inappropriate context for comment. /jranger is for things that have been suggested/discussed ad nauseam but the person failed to do a cursory search to see their discussion fails to cover any new ground. This -is- the discussion on the topic. Dismissing opinion out of hand seems inappropriate. A majority of the claims I've seen haven't said that the crash itself is inappropriate, rather the implementation through a -def debuff is poor. It either does nothing, or is over punitive. Creating a new power so that Rage can stay in a poorly implemented place doesn't satisfy the people who want rage more usable in more situations. And to clarify, making it more usable doesn't mean just removing all the penalties and keep all the benefits.

Pulling out the tarot cards and crystal ball my guess is this, NCsoft is willing to negotiate. I don't know who, specifically, they are talking to but I know all CoX related comments and questions were at one point filtered through *name removed*. He was quite considerate when I bugged him in the past, so hopefully if it's him that continues. However it doesn't make sense to go through a fake negotiation if you have no intention of possibly reaching a deal. It's a waste of time and resources that doesn't get you anything a legal department couldn't, faster, and cheaper. There's almost certainly going to be a monetary cost. I don't mean in the form of subscription or the game becoming for profit, but NCsoft is likely to say something like $240,000 to get the IP (Number pulled from ass) which would then require a fundraising phase. There is going to be an ownership issue. A non-profit and board can be set up, but that's still centralized, and we've seen with the reddit how that can be manipulated. If given the rights, this non-profit could C&D other servers as easily as NCsoft could now. A deal would have to give someone the rights, but hopefully it can be decentralized from there. I doubt the character database is a part of the negotiations, but that would be a nice surprise. My guess right now is one of the biggest sticking points is the right to continue development. There's a big difference between just setting up a private server, and taking over further development of the game. And right now, between the different servers and branches, there's a lot of groups involved that aren't actually part of the negotiations.

Still having issues with this. I'm not asking if it could be compensated for, obviously it can. And while there may not be an answer to how much extra damage it takes in it's current form, that doesn't mean there isn't an answer to how much extra damage it -should- take. The question is how much more damage should the player take to compensate for the rage buff. 20% more, 35% more, 50% more, double, triple? How much more damage taken compensates for the additional damage dealt, and if certain sets (see the SR example cited many times) can dismiss it casually, shouldn't the penalty be implemented better because there is a need for the debuff to compensate? Otherwise you could just remove it outright.

Play whatever you think is fun, but just ranking by power I'd say: Bots S tier -> -regen for hard target killing and burn patch missiles for AoE. Defense buff affects the player, and energy damage while resisted by some isn't resisted to the same tier as S/L. Exceptional synergy with /time, but still fantastic with most secondaries. Thugs A tier -> Lacks -regen, defense doesn't affect player, and uses the more resisted S/L damage type. Has Gang war, good AoE, and good ST damage. Survivability is there through Strong Lieutenant Maneuvers power. Demons A tier -> Lacks -regen, compensates with -res. Has multiple damage types, and it's mitigation extends to player. Strong ST and AoE damage. Exceptional synergy with /Thermal Necromancy B tier -> Lacking in AoE damage and T1 pets are just plain weak. Grave Knights Carry the set. Lich is the primary mitigation of the set which is very hot/cold. Affects player, though is at the mercy of the AI. Mercs C tier -> The first set where stuff doesn't really work right. Pets have abilities on loooong Cooldowns and the AI gets wonky with the medic in particular. Survivability comes mostly in the form of Spec ops who are, even combined, an inferior Lich. With too few abilities at the mercy of their AI on long cooldowns. Ninjas D tier -> This set is about ST damage. Mitigation? HAHA no. Has -regen, however it's implementation is poor finding itself in a power that's as likely to hit that minion as it is the AV. Oni AI takes the taco for being stumphumpingly useless. Has as much AoE damage as it does mitigation. Never played beasts to a high enough level to comment.

How much is that? How much extra damage does the current Rage crash cause? That's the problem with the implementation, it's either nothing or an absurd amount depending on the set and the quality of the build. If it were a resistable -res for example, then it would at least be knowable and consistent. If you want them to take 35% more damage than you add a resistable -35% resist. It would affect both resist sets and defense sets equally, and you could know the crash does a specified penalty when it hits. There are ways to implement things better is my point. It's just no one say how much extra damage a player should take from the crash to compensate, through the thread I only see people saying it's either overly crippling or does nothing because of overbuild defense and the complaint is overblown. I haven't seen people say X amount of negative effect is needed to counter the ability's positive effects. If the power isn't going to change to something else a la Arcana's idea, and a crash remains, then it's not unreasonable to have that crash be specified, understandable, and consistent.

Well then I'll ask again, how much extra damage should a SS user take as a result of the crash to compensate for the buff?

I'm curious, how much extra damage should a SS user take to balance the damage buff from rage? This is an untargeted question, I'm mostly interested in opinions.

I'm not going to belabor the point, but I will mention once my opinion on this. I don't have faith in the Homecoming team. That's the crux of the original questions that I asked. I'm willing to give them a fair chance, but all I know is I'm concerned and hoping tremendously for community-driven checks and balances. CoX won't be taken from me again. I've got the code and can play on my own, but I would like to see the community back. I'm just very, very concerned about the implementation.

This seems like a more PvP centric opinion, not that that's invalid, but in PvE at least uptime would be better. That makes it a trade-off. You can't start with it, but it has a 65% uptime potential with basic slotting, and can be perma'd domination style with high recharge. Compared to 33% uptime with basic slotting and 62.5% uptime with permahasten recharge for build up. As for PvP, not everything has to be best at PvP, and it would be a straight buff to Stalkers in PvP as they would still be able to frontload. Literally the only reason I recommend doing something like adding a gameplay hook is because the dev that was looking at the set when the game was still going was planning to modernize the set with one. He gave me a lot of his time that he didn't have to, something I very much appreciated, and while it may seem stupid that's why I added the idea. A sort of homage to their intention. Whether or not it takes a form in the way I described, or a different one, I think it would be cool. Haven't paid any attention to beta, cool that they're doing stuff with it, but to answer your question the animation for Energy Transfer has always been popular from what I've seen, just frustrating at the mechanical impact of it's implementation. Porting it to TF lets you keep the animation, while both improving TF's DPA and ET's DPA if you give it a better animation. Regarding ET's animation, that's my bad, I thought Seismic Smash had a mild uppercut animation with the same duration, but you're right it's the overhand air superiority animation that Bone Smasher has. The animation I was thinking of was Psionic Melee's Telekinetic blow animation also at a 1.716s animation. Thanks for pointing that out.

*Way back when, Sonic Resonance was a set that had graphics that could injure individuals susceptible to seizures. So I stopped playing my Ill/Son Controller, and made this story to kill him off. When the set was fixed to not be harmful to other players I modified this story to this iteration to reincorporate him back to my roster's shared world* Oh so often a story is easy to understand. It has a neat little beginning, middle, and end. However, very little of William Valance’s life has been easy. Most of his story is a scatter shot of the vastness of time. What might have seemed, at the time, the end of an amazing hero’s story, is truly just the beginning. It started on a nice day, just after the end of the first Rikti war. Paragon City, everywhere for that matter, was rebuilding. Heroes were attempting to keep a safe city, but the least of society was busy trying to capitalize on the situation. Individuals have always tried to blame the heroes of Paragon City for some issue or another, and often these heroes are brought to the court. Targets of unwarranted, irresponsible, and wrongful civil suits. This is where our intrepid hero enters the narrative. William Valance has always worked in the court of law to defend those who defend. Refusing payment, he worked pro-bono. A protector of protectors, he was often the only thing standing between a crippling lawsuit and a person invulnerable to bullets. With the Rikti war, the number of cases he was responsible for skyrocketed. Tired, he walked down the steps of the courtroom. The end of his day, he was going to eat and get some much needed sleep. The best laid plans of course, as the ground shook he noticed two Freakshow members harassing a young woman. He assumed the tremor was their doing, but decided to deal with the matter at hand, ignoring his phone for the moment. It was an incredibly easy fight. “Why are you hitting yourself, Freaks?” the words had power, and it took all of three seconds before the freaks were flailing on the ground crying out in imagined agony. He gestured for the woman to leave, while checking his phone. A message from an old friend from WWII, a Warshade called Moonshatter, containing only one word. William took off like a man possessed. Rularuu …. “We don’t know he’s free?! How can you say that with a straight face?” The longbow rep was fuming at a man that Will could only assume was a Midnighter. “The wards are strong” the Midnighter managed to get out, but he was quickly stopped by another presence. The Statesman moved forward to address the room, his experience showed as he was a calming force in a room filled with panic. “They are strong or were strong, it doesn’t matter. Rularuu’s aspects are tearing through the city. We need to prepare a counter offense, and the sooner we’re all on the same page the more of the city will be left when we get them sealed away” William made his way through the various checkpoints of the Forward base, the ground shaking the entire time. He followed the group from their previous position to a more formal meeting area, more appropriate for a proper briefing. As he looked around he saw very few people he knew, and he could count the number of people in the group he trusted on one hand. With fingers left over. It was an unsettling situation, but when he reached the briefing room, he was all business. Video of Rularuu’s aspects littered the room. “Uh, Moonshatter was the one to fill me in on the situation, where is he?” Will noted Statesman’s near wince at the mention of Moonshatter. He knew the two had issues, but he didn’t realize it was that bad. Sister Psyche was the one to respond, “He’s not in any condition to help with a situation of this level. Evacuating the civilians during the war left him incredibly weak.” His heart sunk a little bit and with Statesman’s reaction to the mere mention of Moonshatter, his list of trust dropped by one. This was not looking to be a promising day. He took his seat as the leaders of some of the most well know Super Groups took theirs. Will couldn’t help but wonder; what in God’s name am I doing in the midst of these great people? Snapped out of his self doubt, the briefing was started with the Midnighter speaking, “Ladies and Gentleman, Rularuu is breaking free from his imprisonment. As we speak, his various aspects are targeting mystic leylines throughout the City. Their goal is to disrupt the magical energies of our dimension enough for Rularuu himself to tear through and enter Paragon City.” “Our plan is simple but difficult, each team with take a leyline with the objective of disrupting the attacking aspect’s form. If successful the aspects will be forced back to the Shadow shard, and Rularuu stays where he is. Our contingency, should Rularuu be freed before we can stop him, is to have the assigned Midnighter rep in each team to restore the leyline, and rebuild the anchors that imprisoned Rularuu” Will was impressed with Statesman’s ability to end the previous disagreement, and get people focused as the Longbow rep barked, “You’ve got your orders people, go knock’em down!” He stood up slightly confused. He didn’t have his orders. Looking around he found Sister Psyche, but before he could ask anything she piped up. Her solemn tone reinforced the idea in his mind that this was not going to be a good day. “William, good, I needed to speak with you” …. “I don’t want to die…I don’t…I’m not ready” The pain in his voice was palpable. He couldn’t imagine the possibility of death. William Valence had been alive for a long time, before WWI at the least. He didn’t know where he came from, he wasn’t magic, he had no mutation and when he first appeared science and technology were limited to discovering things like penicillin and building bicycles. All he knew was, he existed and now he might not. He was terrified. “You know why we have to ask you to do this. I know you’re scared, we all are, but we need you to do this.” Manticore’s voice was almost pleading “No one wants you to die, no one wants to die themselves, but this is dangerous and we all know it’s a possibility for any of us” “You might die, I will die!” Will was yelling at the pair. He always hated Manticore, he knew his heart was in the right place, but he couldn’t stand a person that smart believing it was ok to go as far a he was willing to go, because he believed he was right. He didn’t see him as any better than the might makes right villains who litter the Isles. Money, however, seems to afford a certain level of control over people’s perspective. Today…today he just happened to be right. Will took a deep breath before addressing the two “You’re both right, I’m sorry.” Sister Psyche’s voice was calm, but she was visibly shaking “Don’t apologize, it’s a terrible situation no one blames you for being scared, or angry, but if Rularuu goes free he will beeline for the teams trying to imprison him. They wouldn’t make it. We need you, your illusions; we need you to distract him if he gets free.” “How likely is it that he’ll get out?” “Almost certain,” Sister Psyche motioned to the monitors in the room showing each fight, some just starting, others that have been raging for a while. None showed any sign of a quick win. A few seemed to be losing battles with very little chance of victory. “We know where Rularuu will enter the city. It’s the place where the magics will be most disrupted soonest. As powerful as he is, we expect him to go for a quick return instead of waiting and trying to surprise us with a return location.” “I’ve got a helicopter on standby that will take you to the location; Shalice will stay here, coordinate the teams, and keep you updated. I’m praying for a miracle I really am.” Manticore put a hand on William’s shoulder and accompanied him to the helicopter. As he got into the helicopter, will looked back to Manticore “I have a feeling today is gonna suck for me, but that just might mean I’m the miracle you’re hoping for” With a nod Manticore closed the helicopter door, and Will was off. …. “This is Task force Resonance…We’re not going to make it in time…We don’t, we don’t…It’s taking too long, he’s not going down in time. Prepare for contingency” “Task force Clarity reporting a similar situation, requesting mission order clarification, how are we supposed to defend against Rularuu himself? This Fragment is tearing us apart!” “Task force Mach reporting in…I think it’s happening this aspect is falling back! Requesting the same clarification, how are we defending anchors from Rularuu?” “This is Statesman and Task force Sonar…The Rularuu aspects are moving to the return point, they will be absorbed into Rularuu…they will not be a concern.” “Task force Mach again, I’m not concerned about the aspects! We were surviving them, how are we going to survive Rularuu!” “Affirmative on that, Task force Resonance requesting information on how to prepare for Rularuu” “This is Sister Psyche, the diversionary team has reached the return point. Rularuu is already back. All Task forces should focus on preparing the anchors and imprisonment asap!” “Diversion team? There was only one other person available for the mission, what orifice did you pull a team from, and why didn’t they help prevent him from breaking free?!” “One other person, five task forces of eight with Psyche and Manticore leading support and coordination efforts, who’s the extra?” “That lawyer William Valence, which task force was he assigned to?” “Not Resonance” “Not Mach” “This is Statesman, knock it off! Cut the chatter and get to work” “Oh God…Oh God no. HE’S THE DIVERSION TEAM! Are you out of your mind, one person can not stand up to Rularuu!” “I said cut the chatter! The faster we work, the less he has to distract. If you’re worried about how long he’ll survive; SHUT UP, HURRY UP, AND GET DONE!” …. “With lots of places to run to…and if she had to die tryin’…she had one little promise she was gonna keep”, The irony was not lost on him, but Will marveled at how much better he felt with a good song stuck in his head. He walked toward the fearsome god. It was a terrifying thing to see, but he had a job to do. It was an immediate realization, Rularuu was interested. If he was forced to guess, Will believed he just wanted to crush the plans of those who thought they could defeat him; but who could claim to understand such a being. It was like the world was crushing him, the focus of the monstrous deity crashing down on him, the sounds of the city were nothing and it was Rularuu who broke the silence. “One person, one insignificant being, is that all you could muster to save your world?” “Not at all, there’s way more than just me. I’m just the only one available to play with you right now” “Is that so? They believe one worm like you is enough to hold me off? I could destroy you without effort on my way to crush whatever allies you think you have.” William laughed, time to push things a bit, “You haven’t yet, and I know why…” “…You’re weak…” The words had power, they echoed through the deafening silence of Paragon City’s terror. Reaching the Shadow god, the illusion took and the tremendous being buckled at the legs, his surprise could be felt in the air. William dropped to the ground in exhaustion, his whole body in pain. He couldn’t imagine the effort it took to use one of his bread and butter illusions on Rularuu. Rularuu regained his composure in moments, “A flash of power, but it is nothing compared to me. What would you do now, despair?” “I don’t need to do anything,” Will stood up dusting himself off, “The earth itself see’s your threat, the earth itself is against you!” The ground shook as earthen pillars closed in on Rularuu in a serpentine path. A terrible crash was averted with Rularuu’s laugh shattering the illusion. “I’m a devourer of worlds; did you truly believe I would be concerned if one of them decided to fight back, did you believe none of them have before? You are not grand enough to stand before me” Taking the mask of his costume, a mask he wore proudly as a hero since WWII, he responded “No, but you are…” “…Atlas…” … Sitting at the edge of the bridge in Independence Port, William watched as the ships were loaded. Destined for the British war effort, he looked over to see his friend Atlas standing and watching with him. The giant of a man, gentle as he was massive, spoke up; breaking the silence. “Do you think we should be doing more? With the war I mean, are we helping enough? Their homes, they’re…they’re dying. Will is it ok that we’re just sending them stuff, shouldn’t we be fighting with them?” William sighed “Nobody should be fighting, but they are. I fought in the last war; I can’t begin to think about sending that many people to die again.” The despair in Atlas’ voice seemed out of place for a man so large, “Do you think it hurts, dying? So many people, I hate to think about how much pain that is.” “Sometimes, sometimes not. I know some soldiers were specifically ordered to use less effective ammunition, making the victim die slower and with a great deal of pain, to demoralize the enemy. God I can’t believe I’m saying this, but fear for the day when we have to kill quickly because we’ve grown accustomed to people dying in agony.” “War is a distur…” Atlas was interrupted by the sound of an exploding ship. The pair watched in horror as the ports were overrun by soldiers, bullets cracked, and explosions burst. William leapt to his feet “It looks like lesser men have made the decision for us! What’s the plan?” “Run. You need to let the city know we’ve been invaded. I’ll hold them off, you go get help.” “You can’t hold off an army by yourself! We can take them on together; a bystander will call the police.” “Stop! We don’t have time; this isn’t the type of fight for you. They’re too far spread, they won’t hear your voice; they’ll just shoot you. Go get help.” “I’ll be back soon, I swear!” William was in a dead sprint heading for the nearest building, the nearest phone, “Don’t die while I’m gone! Hell, don’t die after that either.” Atlas turned to stare down the army. It was a whisper of determination “Live or die, their invasion stops here” … It was disturbing. A moment before, William was facing down a mad god. A devourer of worlds, intent on making Earth just one of many destroyed. Now he faced the ghost of a Memory. A long dead friend who in Will’s mind’s eye was the same stone Behemoth holding the world on his shoulders outside city hall. He couldn’t let himself be distracted, if he didn’t play this right, the Illusion wouldn’t take. “Atlas! Stand tall buddy, we’ve got a fight on our hands!” Will looked over his shoulder, and as he said the words a monstrous form emerged from behind a building. “Rularuu’s here! We can’t let him hurt innocent people!” “Not possible, no. I’m Rularuu!” As he said the words, Will showed no signs of concern. This was part of the process. Rularuu looked to the glass of the neighboring building and saw Atlas’ form. “Am I going mad? Why would I think I’m…” Trailing off, he faced the image of Rularuu. Though an illusion, his face was etched with a legitimate determination. With a mighty swing, the false Atlas engaged the illusion with quick but disappointing results. “I can’t even hurt him! Will, what should I do?” “We can’t beat him Atlas; Rularuu is too powerful. All we can do right now is distract him. Just don’t die before the others are ready.” William began to choke up, an act not lost on Rularuu. The memories of Atlas’ death were getting in the way of the illusion “What’s wrong Will?” The words were terrifying to those who were paying attention to the fight, a mixture of Rularuu and Atlas’ voices. Not skipping a beat, it was an almost miraculous save, “We’re going to both be dead, this is Rularuu, and he’s going to make sure we’re both dead by the end of this fight Atlas.” Pushing the Illusion harder, with equal determination, Will echoed the last words he heard from his friend, “Live or die, his invasion ends here” Wiping his face, he brushed aside tear shed for a friend long dead. He brushed aside the memories that pained him, and brought forth the good memories of fighting alongside a true hero. He brushed away blood, dripping from his nose. Not nearly enough to pay for the sin of bringing back the memory of someone who died to save innocents, just to die again. His only comfort was knowing that there would be more blood to follow. … Sister Psyche watched in a confusing mixture of horror and amazement. William Valence was succeeding, he was holding off Rularuu. Her repulsion needed to be suppressed, she was finding it difficult to watch the legendary hero Atlas being brutalized by the illusion of Rularuu, but she realized what was going on. “How’s he doing Shalice?” Manticore, speaking with a great deal of concern, he walked up hoping for good news. There were no cameras watching Will’s fight with Rularuu, the only way to see what was going on was for Sister Psyche to open her mind and show him what she was seeing. “He’s doing it; he’s actually holding him off.” The astonishment in her voice gave Manticore some hope. “So he might pull it off, this is actually happening?” He looked to the various screens, and checked the progress of the various task forces, “We might want to update the other teams; they’re tending to casualties and could use a morale boost” “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Will’s holding him off, but he’s dying. Maintaining the illusion is putting too much stress on his body. Justin, Rularuu is dying too.” “I need to see what’s going on there; I need you to show me!” Manticore felt a familiar feeling. As Sister Psyche entered his mind, the images of the battlefield flooded in. He could see Atlas, an unmistakable figure. There he was battered and bruised on the ground, the illusion of Rularuu looming over him. William on his hands and knees panting in much the same way as the false Atlas, however Will was not battered and beaten, instead he was bleeding. The blood payment for the outrageous sin of a mere man defying a god, the sin of stirring memories of long dead heroes that deserved their peace, his blood was his payment. Anywhere his life could escape from him it did. His eyes, ears, his mouth and his nose; he was even sweating blood through his skin. He wasn’t going to be able to keep on living let alone maintaining his illusion. And a powerful illusion it was. Perfectly targeted, Manticore could see why Rularuu was dying. “He’s killing himself, Rularuu that is.” He looked at Sister Psyche in disbelief, “He thinks he’s fighting himself, and he sees himself as the most powerful being there is, he’s using his own power to kill himself. He’s knows that Atlas wouldn’t stand against him and live. He thinks he’s Atlas…” Devolving for a moment to rambling, Manticore quickly came back to reality with a startling thought. “He’s going to die too soon” … On the ground he couldn’t catch his breath. William could feel his life escaping from every part of his body. He wondered to himself for a moment, was he trying to escape from this fight, or was something pulling it from him? He looked to the ground, counting the drips as they fell from his face. Everything was going black “William! You’re not done yet. William, we need more time!” Sister Psyche’s voice brought him back, but not fully. Everything was blurry, and he couldn’t muster the strength to stand. “It’s time for me to go; I don’t have anything else in me. I’m done, I’m dying, I don’t even think I have moments let alone the minutes you need. Goodbye, I’m really sorry I couldn’t be strong. I think that’s just who I am, you know, the type that runs away.” Poking at his mind, Sister Psyche wouldn’t let him rest. “We need you, you can still be strong. We need you to live just a little longer!” “I…please, please just let me die”… “We need you Will, stand up”… “I can’t, let me go, I’m too weak!” Back and forth Sister Psyche and William Valance were both in tears, begging. Both at once. “I’m sorry” An invasion the likes that Shalice never believed she would do. Connected to as many Psychics as Manticore could wrangle in the short time they realized Will was about to go, she did something unthinkable. As his vision once again faded, William saw in his minds eye images rushing in. He was connected to the minds of as many people as Sister Psyche could manage. Millions, hundreds of millions he couldn’t tell. He saw birthday parties, first steps, marriages, birth, and deaths. Celebration and tragedy; he saw life. He could feel their terror, and hear them beg him to stand. She felt it was a truly terrible thing to do, but it forced William to face the consequences of his weakness. See everyone that would die if he couldn't get to his feet. Sister Psyche couldn’t tell if he was asking her, but she didn’t have the ability to respond. All her focus was on maintaining the connections she made to his mind. The various Task forces encourage William, begged him to continue, but he made up his mind well before that. “Does it hurt, dying?” He was asking Atlas, but he didn’t care if anyone knew, he didn’t expect an answer. That made it all the more shocking when he got a response. He’d never know if it was the voice of a friend trying to help him, or an illusion he made to ease his mind, “Yes, it hurts a great deal, but let me tell you this; it hurts a whole lot less then knowing you couldn’t keep the people you care about safe. Die proudly, and die with purpose.” “Atlas get up! We still have work to do, get up!” He yelled at the image of the Titanic legend. “Leg me go, let me die” The words were almost an echo of Williams pleading, but William knew what to do. “You’re going to die friend. I’m sorry but you have to stand up.” The words had power, but not the power that made Rularuu believe he was Atlas. Instead it was the power of a friend helping another do something that needed to be done. William had love for his friend and at this time that love radiated to his enemy. “Stand up, Stand up and keep fighting. Fight until you die, and fight after if you must, just keep fighting.” Turing his attention to the connections in his mind, he went to communicate through them. Speaking rather than thought, his words had power, the power of a person desperately trying to mend what might not be within his reach to do so. “Thanks for making me better than I could be, thanks for making me live up to the image I tried to hide behind, and please try and forget this horrendous tragedy.” Manticore and Sister Psyche looked at William for the first time since he stood up. His eyes were glossed over and blood was dripping down his face, on his face was a loose smile. He had passed on a while ago, his desire to meet the heroism of his friend his pure strength of will, that was all that allowed him to reach beyond death and hold out those last few moments to do what needed doing. Still standing he maintained the illusion long enough for the task forces to finish their jobs. Banished once again, there was no trace of Rularuu left. And as the desperate battle for their very existence came to a close, the greatest heroes of Paragon city found themselves wondering what they were doing. Shutting down the forward base, they felt little need to check the tapes; even the mysterious death of the Enigmatic William Valance, found in a pool of his own blood, found in the middle of a street. Even that was not enough for them to question recent events. Too busy with repairing the city, the Lawyer’s funeral was sparse in attendance. A few non-essential coworkers from his office, his friends Moonshatter and Trueshooter, but there was one truly notable attendee. With little understanding of why she was compelled to attend his funeral, Sister Psyche was just having an odd week. Blackouts, stress from the war, and a death that she couldn’t explain why it affected her so much. Listening to the Eulogy, her mind wandered. She couldn’t help but think, with all the tragedy and dealth, how much better it made her day to have a good song stuck in her head. Admittedly it had been stuck in her head since the blackouts, but it did provide some comfort. “She was…an American girl”

Alright I've been driving myself nuts trying to remember the structure for the EM idea I had back before the shutdown, but I can only remember the overview. So, I decided to essentially rebuild it. This idea will not completely revert certain nerfs, because there was some need for those changes in specific situations. However it will compensate through other means. The targeted balance levers will be secondary effects and ST damage improvements. The main mechanic of the change will be "POWER UP!" which is initiated by a Build up replacement that goes by the name "Power Up!". Power up would have a recharge time of 120s, and while active will provide the "POWER UP!" buff for 40s. With the buff, EM powers would grant a stack of "Power!" that refreshes the duration of other stacks of "Power!" when gained. When activated Power up consumes all generated "Power!" and grants dam/tohit for each stack of "Power!" consumed. This makes the general combat loop: Activate Power Up -> Attack and build "Power!" -> Activate Power Up once it recharges to consume "Power!" and gain buff -> Repeat. The Buff wouldn't stack so part of the play would be working around the duration of the buff to maximize "Power!" stacking before activating the buff with the least overlap possible. TF would get Energy transfer's animation to bring it more in line for ST DPA. Thunderstrike has an AoE aspect that TF doesn't so it's more reasonable for TS to have the 3.4s animation. ET would use Seismic Smash's animation with EM FX upping it's DPA to a more reasonable 2.66 scale. Stun could gain a -regen effect saying the energy disrupting the target's motor functions is also affecting their ability to heal. Which would serve to provide an increase in ST DPS without increasing the actual damage of the power, or creating degenerative situations with weaker mobs or PvP one-shot nonsense. Barrage and TF would build 4 stacks per use, Bone smasher and ET would grant 3 per use, Energy Punch and Whirling hands would grant 1 per target hit. Stun could be made more useful, increasing effective DPS by reducing the regen rate of hard targets like AVs/GMs without upping the raw damage of other attacks. ET would have the highest DPA of an immediately usable attack, to my recollection, but not be so high that it would be be unreasonable to port to scrappers for instance. For Stalkers, just make the animation changes and modification to stun, as they are fairly dependent on Build up's front loaded nature. The addition of an alternate Build Up mechanic is a callback to the stated goal of Synapse to Modernize EM. This is -not- the iteration I saw prior to the shutdown, rather an attempt to hit that goal while retaining the big hitting feel of the set. Additionally it would keep the ET animation in the set, and remove the TF animation which from my recollection was complained about constantly. Anyway, that's my idea for changing EM.

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here, this is at least fixed with binds. Sandolphan's being the standard.

Down but not out, we're building bridges to overcome the obstacle?

It was better for my sanity to get out of that one. Though I'm glad to know I contributed positively to the popcorn industry.

Then that's not the one I was thinking of. There's one that's used by community rec centers, but I don't think it's limited to that type of org specifically. May just be under 501(c)(3) as maintaining a public building. I don't envy whoever is working on this, because it's sometimes a subjective landmine that you just have to try your best to not set off.

Nice. Knew Tony didn't have anything to do with CoT, but was mostly worried with the idea that the results of a negotiation could wrap CoX into the Titan Network. It's also good to see that there will be a board in charge, rather than a single individual. Question on the non-profit status that I just thought of. A 501(c)(7) is the closest type of not-for-profit that I can think of that applies to the situation? Or are you guys applying for a different classification?

Out of curiosity, when all is said and done, should everything go perfectly, is this going to be something that is part of assets owned by and individual or will there be an organization set up to maintain it? I don't know how things are already structured, if @TonyV is the owner of Titan network, or just the head of the org "Titan Network" or if @Leandro is the owner of CoX Homecoming or just the head of a nonprofit that's responsible for Homecoming. Will things be structured to be in a ways that are fluid and can survive individuals leaving or being removed (as long as the org remains), and how much control will individuals have over the whole project? Will the community be a part of the running of the project, and if so what will be their input?

Nope it was this part that annoyed me. The whole acting super superior like you're shooting down everyone's comments and you can't even be bothered to read their posts. And then it's funny to me the disingenuous presentation of your idea like it's there to save tanker players from the boredom of the AT they picked. Well what is it? Do you want it to give more things to consider as a tanker, or is the idea just a thinly-veiled attempt to dumb down the use of powers you think are too annoying to have to deal with? Like you said yourself, it makes you not have to think about things, so how would it give you more things to keep track of? You say you want it to be more engaging. What do you want? Do you want it to be more engaging or less? Do you want to have to interact with the game with actual decisions on what to target or where to position, the hooks as you put them, or do you want to remove those hooks to AoE powers, so you can have a tanker with shadow maul hitting 5-8 guys without lots of positioning? My problem is I actually read what you say; you're only consistent on your claim that balance is irrelevant to you. And you obviously aren't concerned about balance, you said it yourself, you just don't want to think as much to use a power. As if not thinking as much to use something makes it more engaging. So don't try to get fancy and say you're trying to make Tanker play deeper or engaging. This would do the opposite. Less positional play not more, push attack button, get more damage numbers, done. No hooks to have to think about, just more damage, and a refocus from being a survivability/aggro AT to an AoE damage primary AT. Because the change would make AoE damage the primary output, not the ability to survive or manage aggro. Just say what it is, melee cone AoEs are too hard for you and you don't want to have to think about them. No, you already said that, I guess just be more consistent with what you say. This thread is essentially 9 pages of people doing two things: 1. Discussing ways to make tankers better at what they're primarily intended to be. Meaning Aggro management and survivability 2. People being frank and trying to tell you that pushing takers towards an AoE melee damage focus as a balance lever is a half-baked garbage idea You aren't willing to take feedback; you are only defensive and dismissive. If people disagree with you, they either have an inferiority complex, are only going for balance rather than something that will be noticed (as if that's something bad, still can't figure out how that's a criticism but you've said it quite a few times), or are inexplicably opposed to the idea of increasing engagement by removing positioning and targeting decisions. Because everyone knows removing decision making and positioning is key to increasing engagement. You talk out of both sides of your mouth to push an idea that would increase the work to implement AoE powers, and could potentially overpower tankers. Because of course I'm sure you considered there is a thing such as areafactor when assigning damage and recharge times to AoEs because you want to be careful about giving PBAoE powers 80% increases to their radius Like jumping soul drain from 10' to 18', increasing Footstomp or Spin's radius, or tripling the area of a power like shadow maul that was already upped in damage to violate the areafactor rule, so that it would feel better to use. Oh and of course not trying to increase damage, just increase the potential damage by doubling or increasing by 1.5x the number of targets that can be hit. I mean being able to output 1.6 or 1.2 scale damage with a power that a scrapper can output 1.125 scale damage with isn't out of line, right? You know I gave you the benefit of the doubt so I decided to reread the thread. From post 1, hell from the title, the thread had been about trying to bring tankers into spec by using brutes as an example to show that tankers are under performing in areas they should be best. And again if you would choose to read the things that people post in their responses, my reason for responding was that buff saturation eliminated the differences that were baked in, and intended, with a goal that they should be improved in the areas they are intended to be best. This to ensure that they are in fact the best choice for someone looking for that role. I have been incredibly consistent in that.

Interestingly enough my suggestion didn't push resistance, defense, or aggro caps. It provides mitigation for types of attacks that other ATs have no mitigation for. I don't need to change truths because I fully understand them and decided to use a different method to achieve the goal. People already think tankers are fun. Remember my approach is that perspective and balance don't have to be directly tied. Which seems to bear out despite your dismissal of my "Old anecdotes" Something that's in spec may not be engaging, or something that's out of spec may be fun. I'm not saying tankers aren't fun, you are, and while you don't have to like the way tankers are, that doesn't mean they have to be morphed into something you'd rather them be. They have a defined identity already. This varied AoE idea may just be better suited as a passive to your new AT suggestion. I don't really care about your arguments with other people or what they're saying, I'm responsible for what I say not what they say, argue their arguments with them. Also if you paid attention I said in the limited options you provided it would be closer to underpowered. I think they are a good AT, and a fun AT that I've played a lot, that has important aspects out of spec in certain situations. Talking about what could put them better in line isn't unreasonable. I also don't think it would be the end of the world if nothing happened. In fact, I'd rather no change than your change. I don't think you've handled anything. Honestly I don't think any argument could sway you, you seem pretty set that tankers need to be something else, because you don't think they're fun and don't seem concerned that others do. I'm pretty sure you don't care about other people's opinions and just want to push to change the AT to match some Idea you had for an AT in the time the game was shutdown. You don't seem to be concerned with the fact that people who do like the AT keep telling you your idea is not only not better, but bad. It doesn't make Tankers better Tankers it makes them something different as long as: And you get a better shadow maul. Something that I'm confidant that, and glad in that confidence, will never happen. Tankers are Tankers and it's incredibly unlikely that changes to them will push them away from what they are rather than improve what they're intended to do.

This is something that I feel is incredibly wrong. Think about it this way please. Let's say that accuracy was in fact accidentally nerfed. People, other than @arcanaville of course, would be unable to notice or perceive the change, does that mean that fixing it would be unnecessary? Additionally almost any action is an appeal to a perception, the question being can you show the perception to be right through non subjective means. In the case of Brutes Vs. Tankers I think it's pretty easy to show that with the same aggro cap, resist cap, and effective defense softcap, that in buff saturation situations brutes get the best of both worlds and outdo tankers in both the things they're supposed to beat tankers at, but also in the things tankers should be better at. Of those very limited situations presented, I'm more leaning toward I'm saying tankers are underpowered. They are intended to be the most survivable and best at managing aggro. They are not in definable non-trivial situations. So their power in their intended areas should be addressed. Do they die? That's a boring question. A better question is can you create sufficiently damaging situations to benefit the additional survivablility. For example an autohit, unresistable damage patch on KIR that you could pull AM into to dramatically reduce his defense and resist, even possibly damaging him. If tankers had the ability to mitigate those types of attacks then you create a situation where their survivability creates an option that the league didn't have before, without eliminating or modifying the leagues ability to run content like they currently do. I should find a copy of the source to look at. To be honest I have no idea how easy or complicated it would be to do.

I'll give it a shot: I don't care if people can perceive it, because I don't trust people's perceptions. Think about how many times people said that accuracy was nerfed, and would argue with Arcanaville about it. It wasn't, but **** me try telling them that. Or the "Defense myth" and how many times it was necessary to explain why going from 40%-45% defense was more important than going from 0-5%. People's perception is the last thing I'm worried about. Arguing with people on the CO forums was a pain enough. When their perception says that a character that has a 14k bubble on top of 5k health is losing compared to a character with effectively 60% resistance because the bubble doesn't have resistance. I become less inclined to worry about what people notice. So basically my concern is balance not whether or not people notice, because to be honest I don't trust people to be able to notice, just going by precedent. As for aggro changes. I got bored and started wondering. What attributes can a pet inherit from the summoner? What if Gauntlet summoned an invisible pet that occupied the same space as the tanker's hitbox. It inherits the Defense, Resists, and threat output of the tanker. It has a power that functions like BG mode transferring 100% of the damage it takes to the tanker. The hard part would be making it immune to AoE attacks and autohit AoE attacks, so the Tanker doesn't take damage twice. I wonder if you could piggyback the method used to do autohit to make and automiss mechanic.

Are we talking about the flavor of the mechanics or not? I guess it doesn't really matter, but I was thinking Spider-man as a tanker when I made the SR/MA tanker example. As to why can't scrappers have those things, they could, and do, just not to the same level as Tanks. Same as Tankers can hit, just not as well as Scrappers. Hell we only figured out how Taunt worked because WP scrappers once had the most punchable face in the game since Empathy when healing counted as DPS for threat. So using the example from earlier in the thread: Dark Melee: Shadow Maul [Current - 7 ft, 45 degrees, 5 foes] ; (Gauntlet - 9 ft, 135 degrees, 7 foes| 4+ Team - 10 foes) In order to make that work, it would need two overlapping AoE damage effects with the modified ranges and target cap values. One effect can't have multiple ranges or areas, for example Thunder Strike. Each of those would need a variable trigger to have one apply rather than the other depending on gauntlets teammate count. In a nutshell effects can be conditional, but their numbers can't. If you want a power to behave like one of three powers depending on circumstance, it has to *be* three different powers and call the proper effect conditionally. Effectively tripling the work to do a power. At least that's how synapse described it, and how it showed in every real number dive or the tomax site. Again, a lot of work to ignore the things the class is supposed to do in favor of making it something else.