HelBlaiz

What have I done?

I know Paragon City is canonically built over Oranbega, and would have collapsed in on itself ages ago from all the tunnels if it weren't for Oranbega's magic holding it up.

From the sounds of it, Nemesis could probably invest less of its power into Vengence stacking to get some Leadership toggles, as suggested earlier in the thread, plus a buff to damage, potentially. That way, things are harder at the start of the fight, spike in difficulty once the first LT drops, and slowly turns back in the player's favor as they manage to whittle down the rest. I think that would be more interesting than a team throwing eight AoEs and being left with one nigh unkillable minion who wasn't in AoE range and can't out damage the tank's regen.

I remember running some blueside DFBs with a couple demons who kept spouting about how they'd destroy the world and enslave its people... Right after they were done consuming coopious amounts of delicious Earth food and pop culture. Just a product of how MMOs typically go. People looking for social interaction or at least teammates will flock to where they Are already, leaving low populations low.

Well you could probably get away with "vehemently loath gatekeeping with the passion of a thousand suns" so long as you keep the hate targetted at the topic, and not the people. The point is more to let people know you dislike something that can be changed and isn't targetted at them. If people think you aren't respecting them, they'll just double down on their side of the argument because that's how psychology works. "He obviously hates me and therefore can't be reasonable. So his point is unreasonable, too." Of course, by your own admission, you're not here to change anyone's mind. So all of that was me spitting into the wind, I suppose. But you are right that you can't control how people react to your side of a conversation. Some people will take insult from innocent comments or abruptness in general. That doesn't mean an attempt can't be made in the name of diplomacy. The worst case scenario, they get offended anyway, but at least people observing the discourse can vouch that you were being reasonable.

@jubakumbi I'd say the only issue with your tone is whether you prefer convincing people you're right, or just telling them they're wrong. Being abrasive just makes people hate rubbing shoulders with you. Sure, it conveys the point that you think they're wrong fairly clearly, but you're not going to win over anyone who disagrees with you. You don't have to be fake to be respectful, and you don't have to be aggressive to be blunt. A simple "I'm not a fan when people try gatekeeping. Can we let people play how they want to play?" Will win you more support for your ideas than accusations of herd mentality. Back on topic, the influence inequality has been discredited by this point, it seems, but I still think increasing recipe/salvage drop rates would be beneficial.

That is the most shit-eating smirk of an emote I have ever seen.

From the sounds of it, everyone seems to think the idea of infcome inequality in City of Heroes is overblown, but there's some support for making things at least a bit more rewarding (unless I completely misinterpretted the point of the replicator analogy). I don't mind there being an "optimal" infcome strategy like marketeering, but it would be nice to see some love given to less optimal strategies. Specifically if said love comes in the form of increased salvage/recipe drop rates for completing radio missions. More rolls means more chances for something good, reducing the number of flips needed for profit, or having to buy what you need from the auction house, while providing more supply for all the players to draw from.

While allowing the jerkhacking commands to work would be awesome, I still don't see the problem with boosting drop rates for Radio missions.

I was under the impression the request was to make radio missions and the like more rewarding, not tearing down people who make Inf in other ways.

Someone mentioned boosting the drop rates on things. I think that sounds like a fine idea. No real need to overhaul influence gain, you can just boost supply, making it easier for everyone to get what they want. Maybe even seed the recipes on the auction house if that's not a thing yet?

My crazy brain just imagined a City of Heroes parody of "We Built This City" sung by Atta. "Me built this city on rocks and Trolls!"

Frostfire's entire thing was he wanted to be a hero. He tried stopping a robbery that ended up causing major property damage and injury/death because he lacked training/control. They arrested him, and he decided "if you're gonna treat me like a criminal, I might as well be one." He never stopped wanting to be a hero, he was just too angry to get past that first slight against him. It's been a decade or so since then, so I'm cool with him turning it around.

I don't want to write up all that on my phone, but I'll see about making a post once I'm at my computer. In the meantime, I think the biggest hurdle for how to make a support/melee class is deciding on their scalings. I'd personally love for the AT to have powerful enough support scalings to be the main draw. The only reason the AT should have "better" damage numbers compared to a Defender should be more because of Melee sets usually having a slightly higher base damage to compensate for range.

One more thing to add that is purely wishful thinking and pipe dreams, I want a Shield Support set. So I can play a melee support with a shield that's focused on the team's survival rather than their own.

I second the "because it's cool" justification. I have a pain domination/war mace inquisitors to make. And a force field/broadsword guardian angel. And a poison/spines xenomorph. And a time manipulation/kinetic melee spiral power user. And a kinetics/katana Tsoo red ink man. I can definitely go on, but I won't. But I could.

I'm not sure which sets being popular would change all that much. The popular sets will remain popular, with the only upsets I see being Force Field and Sonic Resonance since they provide mea protection and defensive stats to the caster, making them better choices compared to on a ranged character. Time is already popular, and safe with Time's Juncture and Farsight, debuff sets like Rad and Dark will still be considered better than Empathy and other buff sets that don't affect the caster, Kinetics still has Fulcrum Shift. I wouldn't worry about passive versus active support unless testing shows its a problem.

Storm Summoning suffers a similar issue to Force Field with Hurricane. Thunderstorm, Tornado, and Gale to a lesser extent. I'd personally make Hurricane a slow instead of a knockback/repel, at least until someone makes reverse repel a thing. As for the others, hard to say. Kb>kd ios are a thing, and some melee sets have kb in them already. For Thunderstorm, shifting the oh into a hold or stun, maybe? Using the electrocution animation of Tesla Cage? Might have to suffer the I'd in Gale and tornado without the io though.

I'm not sure why a DPS bonus consolation prize is needed to incentivize using active support powers. Anyone choosing a support class has already decided they want to provide support. Defenders don't get DPS boosts when they heal or shield allies, they don't need it. "DPS loss" from using their support powers is part of playing the class to its full potential. I've never heard a pain or emp player complain about having to spam heal other during a tense AV fight because of a loss of DPS. However if the inherent granted stacks that fall off if you don't attack constantly, people will complain about being "punished" for having to spam support powers in a tense fight. Which is why the refresh mechanic is part of my idea. Anyone who's in a position where they can't attack because they need to constantly be doing support things doesn't have to worry about losing their stacks. And spamming shields out of combat to keep the stacks up wouldn't be much of an issue once they can open with a decent ape or the taunt replacement Demoralize I mentioned earlier. They can start every combat at or near full stacks, sO why waste endurance maintaining it?

I'll always throw my support in for a Support/Melee AT. I'm partial to the title Warder for it, personally. I'd say keep the ally and personal modifiers for buffs the same. I don't know if giving them Defender numbers would exactly be balanced, but compared to a Defender, the class will be giving up some level of safety and utility granted from a longer ranged attack set. Without an armor set to protect them, they have to rely on their self-buffs to get by in melee. And with that in mind, I'd also say instead of giving them moar damage on their inherent, I'd have it provide a small bit of survivability. I personally imagine a passive that provides a resist(all) buff that stacks up to five times. Hitting with attacks builds stacks, and using their support powers refresh stacks. I'd also increase their base/max hitpoint pool to be one of the tankier support ATs as well. As for Taunt, I have ideas for Taunt. Rename it demoralize, make it so its taunt mag is JUUUUST enough to peel aggro off a blaster/defender/controller, but never off a scrapper/tanker/brute, and add in a -tohit or -damage debuff to it as well. If using my idea for a passive, have it grant a stack of the passive for each target hit, up to the max of five if you taunt the cap of five targets. This makes the power useful on its own, reducing incoming damage while instantly setting the AT up to join the brawl safely. Keep it in the T6 spot, so they have to wait until level 20 to get it from their secondary. Quite a few powersets need some form of modification to fit. One of the most problematic I can think of is Force Field, as it was designed to synergize with a ranged set. Two of its powers are PBAOE that actively inhibit any attempt to close into melee. I'd replace repulsion field with the Disrupt aura from the Stalker's Energy Aura set. As for Force Bubble, I'd love for the game to allow for a 'reverse repel' that drags targets into a clump around you, but that seems like it'd be way too code intensive, so probably just make it a strong slow, a damage debuff, or apply a pulsing Absorb to any allies in the area? Oh, and I'd have the AT's Epic Pools include a Mez protection toggle as the fifth slot capstone. The only issue I'm having trouble justifying that is the fact that the Patron Pools have PETS at their caps, and a support AT with a pet seems like it'd also be amazing, but then that means they couldn't get a Mez protection toggle as their T5. They'd either have to get it earlier, which would make them MORE appealing, or not at all, which would make them a "bad" choice, potentially.

Admittedly, being an AMAZING tank takes more than what I mentioned. I wouldn't even call myself a great Tank, and I consider myself at least respectably good at CoH, since it's not an execution heavy game and more strategic. The point of suggesting a Tanker is that it's the least punishing AT in the game. If a blaster throws an errant fireball, they die. If a defender misclicks a buff, debuff, or isn't on the ball with heals, it can feel terrible if disaster ensues shortly after, also an errant fireball can get them killed as well. Tankers? If they accidentally aggro a spawn, it takes so long for them to be bursted down, that you have time to run in and help, and the entire time, they're contributing to the group by eating the alpha anyway. Shield is great specifically because it provides yet another passive buff in grant cover to stack on top of the leadership toggles.

I'd say a shield Tanker with leadership toggles. Them existing boosts the team's hit rate, damage, provides direct survivability with grant cover and maneuvers, and will be respectably durable. They will also provide indirect survivability by shield charging in, knocking things down, staggering the alpha and holding aggro with against all odds and taunt alongside provoke on all their attacks. As long as they exist, they're helping, and they're tough to kill. They don't need to refresh buffs, micromanage pets, leverage debuffs, or hit clutch heals. They don't need Teh Uber DPS cycle, they just gotta attack stuff with whatever and taunt when it recharges. Just help them with their slotting and you're golden.

Yay, context! That definitely makes some villainous sense for the pantheon then. Since their gods are forces of negativity.

The only way it would make sense to me is if "Fame" was the original totally-not-xp-you-guys mechanic. Messing with xp, as previously mentioned is a common undead thing usually flavored as messing with your soul. I could see losing xp on death as them taking a part of it before you mediport out, or extra debt as some sort of curse. But it also mentions losing influence and favors. People think less of you for dying to the Banished Pantheon. Do the Circle of Thorns get the same effect? What about the Carnival of Shadows? Why does losing to brown skinned tribal shamans affect your social standing mentioned specifically? Are they less of a threat? Are you supposed to be superior? Again, if it weren't a very lovecraftian style cult villain group, I probably wouldn't even be asking.

Why would being beaten by shamans worshipping eldritch abomination gods and zombies make people hate you more than being defeated by anything else? Combined with the lovecraftian inspiration, it seems like the concept of losing face by failing to beat them might carry some unfortunate unintended implications.