HelBlaiz

My personal take (which I've posted in similar threads a couple times now I think) is to go the Support/Melee route. The class should have higher base health than Defenders, since they're required to wade into combat, and have relatively low damage output. I want a Support who fights shoulder to shoulder with the Tank, not a Glass Cannon with Healing Aura. The job is to survive and enable/disable for the good of the team, not solo AVs. As such, the Inherent I would go with would build stacking Resistance and/or Defense for landing attacks (aoes grant stacks for each target hit) and are refreshed any time they use a Support Power. "But wait!" I hear you cry, "That means they have to attack to be tough! And they'll be squishy at the start of fights!" Well, their secondary replaces the Taunt power with Demoralize, which is like Taunt with a lower magnitude (ideally able to peel aggro off backliners, but not Tanks or Brutes) that applies a Damage Debuff to targets affected and grants Inherent Stacks. Demoralize to initiate, get max stacks, support at will, attack when able. This also makes them work in an Off Tank role, if the Blaster is in trouble, Demoralize the danger, it now deals less damage, is aggro'd on you, and you now have a helping of mitigation stats. You, being a smart guy, are standing next to the Tank, so when the danger reaches you, they're likely to Aggro onto the Main Tank. This is ignoring all the shenanigans you can pull off due to your support powers, like heal yourself, deal knockdown/back, stun, and debuff between roundhouse kicks. That's my vision for a Support/Melee AT. I'd also demand we get a Shield Support set, because damn it I want Support/Melee Shields.

A cult of Banished Pantheon A troupe of Carnies A (sleeper) cell of Malta A (faustian) pact of Circle A plausible deniability of Crey A (flying) saucer of Rikti A charge of Warriors An arson of Hellions A throne of Skulls A bridge of Trolls A click of Clockwork A bureaucracy of Drudges A chopshop of Freaks A pilgrimage of Lost

My compromise on the topics of things to grind or feel accomplished about has always been "Anything but costumes." That's the compromise, you can have your grindy accomplishments, just don't make them costumes. However, since it's been thrown about a couple times now, don't lock Power Sets behind gates either, those play into character creation similarly enough to costumes that locking them is just as bad, and arguably worse. Anything else, badges, accolades, Hami-Os, whatever are fine. I really like the idea of locking cool, challenging boss fights behind gates. Your reward for playing the fun, engaging thing you enjoy is more of the fun, engaging thing you enjoy, with more accomplishment warm fuzzies that come along with it when you win. Of course, this hinges on designing cool, challenging boss fights that are fun and engaging, despite people claiming this game is too easy. Could be a bit of a trick to pull off.

Going to restate my stance on this: Never lock costume pieces behind content. Outside of that, something @Piecemeal said in the last grindy thread sounded pretty neat. Apparently having certain badges or the like would provide a bonus fight in their new story arcs. That sort of content gating seems neat to me. A pseudo-customized experience in story missions depending on what other content you've done. Content locked behind similar other content. I could get behind that. It even provides some replayability!

That just makes it harder to make a comparison. Regardless, trying to paint free access to costume pieces as exclusionary is still disappointing. The only thing being excluded is one alleged way to play that is essentially a form of gatekeeping.

The women's suffrage comparison makes no sense. Voting is an aspect of being recognized as a person with autonomy. Unlockable content is a matter of access to resources. A more apt comparison would be one based on resources as well. It's hard to come up with a GOOD analogy, because we'd need something that's freely available to everyone, regardless of time investment or wealth status. Right now we have full access to all available costume pieces. Whatever we compare to would need to be just as widely available. Like breathing, but breathing is a terrible example, because what would the equivalent of unlockable content be? The right to breathe tobacco smoke? Kind of a nonstarter. Could go really archaic and use something like common grazing land, but even that doesn't work because grazing land was made available with the understanding that people would use it sparingly to leave some for other farmers' cattle. We can just go with 'access to resources' in general? Everyone technically has access to any resource they want, they just have to put in the time and effort to get it, through money or mining/gathering it themselves. That sort of works? At least in simulating what you're looking for. Yes, technically anyone can run a piece of content (earn enough money to buy something) but those people with more time (money) can get it rather quickly while those without much time would need to do it over a longer period of time ('save up') or wait until they have the time free (wait for a tax return or a bonus). But even THAT isn't a good a good comparison because the devs could literally just give it to everyone free with zero cost and avoid the class divide entirely. It'd be like the government waving a magic wand and giving everyone a sub sandwich in real life, where magic doesn't exist.

Well, let's take a look at that shall we? What does it mean to be exclusive? What does it mean to be inclusive? Exclusionary behavior denies people access based on some parameter. Women for most of American history were Excluded from the draft. Before the civil rights era, black people were Excluded from many businesses. Players in a game would be Excluded from using a costume piece if they haven't run a specific storyline. Inclusive behavior allows people access, so long as they're Inclusive of others. Straight people are Included in any law that would protect people from prejudice based on sexual orientation. Men are Included in female dominated career fields and vice versa. Players are Included in playing on Homecoming, regardless of whether they want unlockable costume pieces or not, despite the fact that Homecoming has not costume pieces for them to unlock. Sure you can't play your way in the sense that there's nothing to unlock, but that is because leaving things unlocked Includes people who, for whatever reason, have no interested in running a specific piece of content. Being Inclusive means giving up things that would be Exclusive.

I'm already disappointed that I have to argue the point to begin with. I'm MORE disappointed that you think giving people free access to any future costume pieces is somehow exclusionary.

Who view unlockable costume pieces in what way? Needlessly arbitrary? As a carrot to lead people through content they're otherwise not interested in? A byproduct of conspicuous consumption?

One third of the forum population is an insignificant, tiny percentage of the whole Homecoming population. Everyone you talk to in game is also an unsatisfactory measure, unless you have well kept records of the for and against ratio you can share with the class, and even then. The devs themselves would probably have to run a poll and solicit opinions of everyone online throughout the week, if not month, to get a sample size diverse and large enough to be worth talking about.

Metaphorical guns may not be dangerous, but they still hold sway over our thoughts and actions. There are a lot of things in our lives that could be metaphorical guns. The crux of the argument comes down to 'if you want X then you MUST Y.' As the game is set up right now, if I want to use a costume piece, I MUST use settings that allow for that costume piece (certain belts can't be used with Jackets for example) and that is basically the limit of restrictions I have to worry about. If a new costume piece were added, without need for a badge hunt, then the same restrictions I'm accustomed to would apply. The devs have been slowly cutting away costuming restrictions in the form of decoupling path auras from regular ones and the various asymmetrical options they've provided. If they were suddenly to put new costume pieces behind in game achievements, they would not only be going against the precedent set by themselves by auto unlocking everything and they're efforts to create more freedom in costume creation, they would also be enforcing an entirely new, entirely arbitrary restriction on the players' ability of self expression. If we want [glowy eye skull mask] then we MUST [complete some arbitrary task, probably with some thematic link to the Skulls]. They have the power and means to just LET us use the [glowy eye skull mask] from the start. Refusing to do so would be an unwelcome subversion of expectation. As for how costume pieces are different from powers/merits/contacts/levels? Well one is a completely cosmetic form of self-expression with no connection to mechanical performance to the character wearing it, and the others are a direct progression of game play, use powers to defeat enemies to get xp/inf/merits to get stronger to defeat stronger enemies. That's the game play loop. That's character progression, that's literally why you run content, because the content is entertaining and lets you run more entertaining content. If that game play loop isn't satisfying, if the content isn't entertaining enough to run on its own merit, then locking costume pieces, things that have NOTHING to do with character progression or performance away behind the less than satisfyingly entertaining content isn't going to make the content worth running intrinsically, it'll just be a chore to do. A task to check off a list in order to access something that has nothing to do with the content in the first place outside of a shared theme, at best. It also taints the costume piece with the 'haves and have nots' that currently don't exist in the costume creator. Everyone who advocates for unlockable costume pieces say they don't want them just to feel special, but you're not going to convince everyone of that even if it is 100% true. Because the truth of the matter is they DO make you feel special. They make you say 'I earned this' and it makes you proud to have it. It makes you want to show it off, to use it, and that is indistinguishable on the outside looking in from 'I have something you don't.' If the task to get it is super hard it carries the extra weight of 'get on my level' and if the task ISN'T super hard to get and just a matter of nose to grindstone, then what you're feeling isn't accomplishment. It's a sigh of relief that says 'glad THAT'S done' because you only did whatever it was because the costume piece was withheld from you in the first place. Or perhaps that's just me. Again, badges are tailor made to not only give you goals to achieve, but a mark of honor that you did. It gives everything a costume piece would without the arbitrary limitation on character creation. If a piece that was locked behind content on live no longer has that 'special' feel because it's unlocked in the first place, it's probably because there was never anything special about it. It's just like a diamond, it looks shiny and seems worth the high market price, but the only reason it's not cheap is because the endless supply of them is artificially throttled to keep prices high. The original restriction on Capes and Auras, I remember were ultimately a lore decision to explain why things that needed new technology to work right weren't available at the beginning. Capes were a planned feature that couldn't get done in time, so they created the lore of earning the right to wear a cape. Hero side it was a sign of respect and living up to heroic expectation while villain side it was a sign of power you had to rip off the neck of a hero to count. I'll admit that's a cool bit of lore and world building, but I still think the game is better off for not restricting anything at creation, even capes and auras.

I stand by my dramatics. In order to use any costume piece I want to design costumes, I would be forced to do something completely unrelated to costume design/character creation. I don't "have" to do the content, but I'm denied a costume piece if I don't, and for no other reason than to artificially inflate a dopamine response. If I'm not invested in doing the content without the reward of more costume pieces, locking costume pieces behind it will only make me resent the content. This is not the effect anyone wants. Badges are the reward for running content/completing challenges. Let's keep it that way.

Must Accelerate Expeditiously. Slotting checks out.

I do have one character concept that would be better with asymmetrical wings. Got a space dragon who needs one necrotic wing and one live wing. Gladiatorial accident and crappy necrocratic healthcare plan. Not a good mix.

Homecoming is the server where you dont need to unlock anything (costume wise at least). Changing that now seems silly. Locking aesthetic items behind combat milestones seems especially silly and limits people's ability to play their way. "No one is putting a gun to your head," some fellow said earlier, not realizing that they would be. If the developers did gate costume pieces behind content, the developers would be the ones holding the metaphorical gun to my head if I ever want to use that costume piece. And they would be doing it on the order suggestion of anyone who wants to unlock things again in a misguided attempt to get bigger hits of dopamine. All I want to do is make costumes, guys and gals. Please don't make me jump through unnecessary hoops to do so. We have badges for accomplishments. Please hunt those. Alternatively, some of the other servers have content locked costume pieces, maybe they would be more fun and to your liking?

I remember mention that rad blast has fairly long animations that get in the way of safe/high performance. A bit of extra dot toxic damage could help smooth it out.

Extra max HP is like resists in that they both increase the amount of damage that needs to hit you to reduce you to zero. 50% resist doubles your time to die just as well as 100% bonus hp. In a game like CoH that doesnt really work in percent max hp damage, that will always be true. The only thing that would ignore max hp buffs are one hit ko hax in incarnate trials. Those also ignore resists, and I imagine are auto hit if you don't run away hard enough, so they ignore defense too. Max hp buffs are damage type agnostic though, so act as resistance to all damage types, but are often not as strong as the type specific resist bonuses you can get in return. Im fairly certain the 75% resist cap for most ATs is also more effective when the specific damage type applies than the hp cap to continue the trend. Like previousy mentioned above, building for both can make you extra durable.

I have one or two mute characters, and if I'm feeling in character, I'll write out a description of their reaction or pantomimed response. Providing only ellipses even if the character wouldn't say much seems like bad form as a first impression.

That's not too bad without the detail 1 actually!

The alien face, specifically with eye covering detail 1. Big goggles or the like, with the Xmen's Wolverine style spikey sideburns.

A click happy set like regen really needs immediate effect on its powers. It can have an animation, but reconstruction's heal should hit 0.1 second after the click if not sooner (latency willing). Trading some peak spike performance potential (aka all of its uber clicks active at once) for some more sustained/base performance(regularly reapplied absorb or more resist) would be nice. Other than that, make all the regen it gives enhancable, since I remember something about only half of it improves with slotting.

The eight man gang war dream. Shame doppels don't get burnout.

The asynchronous pvp idea does have some merit, I think. Say every time a player completes a bank mission, they contribute to a communal meter for their side (with side objectives adding extra progress). When the meter fills, it triggers a Rikti raid on the opposing side. If the devs were interested in designing new world events (Arachnos attacks Paragon, Longbow attacks the Isles) that would be far better thematically. People often like those world events and band together to fight them all the time. There would probably need to be a lockout timer, though, so even if people are zerg rushing bank missions, there's only a couple events a day. Too much more would get tedious I imagine.

Dark manipulation is a melee oriented set as is, so a mitigation sustain pbaoe seems fitting for it.

I'd advocate for a simple hip fire shot with -def, an aimed shot with kd, a warning shot with a fear effect and -tohit maybe -damage, a double tap that does more damage against enemies similar to scourge, and maybe a pistol whip stun.