Shred Monkey

This isn't how it works. Nobody would be buying them. They'd just sit unsold in the AH.

Unless they went out of their way to disable them, they're still getting recipe drops which they could sell for inf. If the person they're door-sitting with is level 50 the vendor price will still get them around 1m per hour just on the commons. OK.. so they're level 50 with 2-3M inf and I feel even less sympathy for them when they complain.

I have an 8 year old that likes to play with me sometimes. I gave this idea some thought. I ended up making him an Ice/Regen Sentinal. Sentinal because ranged damage doesn't require you to be in melee range. When he played melee toons he would usually get hit a bunch before starting his attacks because he wasn't in melee range to his target and didn't really get that his attacks weren't firing because he had something targeted that was out of range. Yeah, you can use follow and target nearest and a dozen other things to resolve this, but the "easy" fix was to just use ranged attacks. I chose Ice because it provides some mitigation while doing damage. I chose Regen because I wanted him to benefit from his secondary at the early levels (like below level 10) and regen's first few powers are things worth taking and using right away unslotted, whereas most other sets have a toggle that just burn endurance you don't really have for very little mitigation. Rad is another good option. If the players is going to be leveling up to 50 I would probably choose different powersets, but I still think Sentinel is the way to go.... I would add in hover/flight and you can just sit back out of melee blasting away while not dying.

I have an Interdimensional Bounty Hunter. It's not a coincidence that this idea came to me after watching the Mandalorian. But all my toons actually start with a build concept. The backstory concepts and costumes solidify later as I level up.

I think OP overlooks the biggest group of complainers: Door Sitters Getting farmed to 50 with 2X exp on = 0 inf/hour. Now you have a level 50 with no enhancements, and no INF to buy some, and no merits. Unless you have an alt to provide inf/merits, you're up the creek without a paddle.

On a team with multiple tanks you get this tanker-competition thing happening where one tank ends up getting the agro and the other doesn't get to do the thing they built their toon to do. It's rather off-putting, IMHO and it tends to be an artificial cap on ratio of tanks to non-tanks playing at any given time. If you get too many tanks, someone will often switch to a non-tank rather than continue to compete for agro.

Thunderstrikes in ranged attacks, mako's bite in melee attacks (even if it's just a set mule... it's not uncommon for me to slot brawl for this). Check the winter and ATO sets... I remember there's a +5 range defense set bonus, but I don't remember which one has it. Also, don't forget the two +3 defense to all IOs. (Steadfast protection and Gladiator's Armor... both typically slotted in tough). 6 slotting guassian's in targetting drone might be an option, too if you have room. It's 2.5 defense to all positions, which includes ranged and you'll benefit from the endurance and tohit enhancements in a power that will be running 24/7. You can't run both stealth and your sustain power at the same time, so ignore that pool... go with combat jumping and/or maneuvers with weave.

I know you're probably looking for balance discussions, but I'd like to address the color customization and animations. As mentioned before there are very few "natural" options. The work around for this can be more/or better minimal effect options to avoid having burning, or freezing effects on my natural toon. Similarly, but for the opposite reason, I'd like also like to have more/better options for the bight color pallet on every power. Faded color pallets like the ones used on ice shields and earth powers make it difficult to mix and match colors with my primary/secondary sets.

I was going to say screenshots or it isn't true... but then i scrolled down and I think I've just lost a few years off my life expectancy.

I have a fire/energy blapper who is pretty much my main these days. I don't see many people blapping. I like how it's both unique and very powerful. It's like playing a scrapper, while also having a nuke, and a snipe to pick off mobs trying to flee. I have 4 powers in my attack chain and they all 1-shot minions without having to crit. I went with 45% smash/lethal defense and 45% ranged as my primary build goal while maintaining enough recharge for my optimal ST DPS chain. Then I squeezed and tweaked to try to boost my regen as much as I could. This almost certainly means using either Cold Epic or Mace Epic to get the smash/lethal defense toggle. Also liberally using Kinetic combat and Mako's bite sets including in a bunch of set mules. My build is a single target focused toon, you're probably looking at more AoE damage with your powersets, but I think you would benefit from a similar defense goal to what I built. I find myself tanking a lot, and my defenses and regen are enough to handle it. I'm not claiming I can survive what tanks and brutes can, but really, as long as I don't do something stupid, can still handle all villian groups +4x4 solo and most I can go to +4x8. I agree with your feelings about mezz protection... yes, I use clarion and have it to trigger every time I switch targets if it's up (my auto cast is in hasten). But I do find that exampling isn't so bad with the soft capped defenses. Most mezz powers are classified as ranged and most stuns come with smashing damage. There's a few exceptions, but generally speaking it's rare that I get stuck in a mezz while running in my 20s, 30s and 40s. As others have suggested the ATO proc in a tier 1 power helps. I used it when I was leveling up. But it's not a full solution. Being missed by mezzes helps more. I no longer have mine there as I don't use those powers anymore.

I agree. I don't understand this Hami-mania some people seem to have. I've seen arguments about people trying to form stuff when THE ALL IMPORTANT Hami-raid is forming. Like the entire server should stop and wait until it is over. Or complaints, like this post, where people whine about how it's to hard to get in. I only do Hami about once a week at most, and I could do it 20+ times per week since the daily runs are during my normal play hours. Frankly, the rewards/minute aren't that great and it's really just middle of the road in terms of fun/minute. Heck, just the other day, I was standing there on the staging point with Hami spawned and about to start and I decided to quit to join a Market Crash TF cause it just sounded more fun to me. I'm not saying that Hami sucks. I just don't understand why some people care so much.

The world we live in has instilled in me a tremendous fear of clicking links that appear with no explanation. I know a GM has said it's ok, but I'm still not clicking it. Nope. No way. You can't make me do it. I just know it's going to take me to a never ending "news" story about a waitress that left shocking note on a the receipt that left the wife speechless.

The very idea of comparing/contrasting two different versions of this game gives me an instant headache. Seriously, nothing good can come from this.

He said PREforms. He means that he doesn't care how forms before it ...um... does ...the thing.

I feel like we just need some new content that is advanced. Don't rework what we've got, but add new. Personally, I want Task Forces, not trials. The standard 8-man dungeon crawl semi-random mission is really what makes this game unique among MMOs. Most games 5-25 unique dungeon maps. This game has hundreds of maps and multiple ways to spawn random maps with random enemies. Don't lose this, build on it. Level 54 AVs are actually pretty difficult to solo when at 50+1, so a +3 AV is a good starting point. You could create more boss confrontations with level 54+3 AVs plus an added battle specific mechanic. Battle Maiden in Apex TF is a one example (although she needs follow and move off her damage patch quicker so Melee don't get stuck twiddling their fingers for most of the fight). Marauder in Lambda is another good example of final confrontation that has an added mechanic that makes it easier if used properly. Keyes and TPN are actually really well done, but horribly lacking in explanation of what's actually going on. Learn from that and make sure any new mechanics being introduced are difficult because they're tricky, but not difficult because they're vaguely defined. Also 1 last thing... I'd like to see a bonus reward for running a TF on +4. Maybe a guaranteed purple drop or Hami-O. It needs to be something of enough significance that people will make +4 attempts. Perhaps this can be done with incarnate threads or super inspirations. But it needs to be something people are willing to work for. You can put this reward on a cool down timer if it scares your sense of balance by too much.

All of these are good definitions. But I think this can be further understood by considering what the opposite of Min/Max-ing. Min/Max-ing is the opposite of: "I'm a powerful ancient alien species who uses mental powers to manipulate foes, so I need to take only mental powers or powers that could be explained with telekinetic or mind manipulation and I'll slot them for maximum duration because I'm just that powerful." or...."Maria Jenkins says I may need help to raid the Preatoria lab. I better form a team of great heroes to defeat this dangerous foe and rescue our lost hero." It's not that you can't be both a min-max'er and a concept player. But the min-max'er is calculating how much recharge is needed to make that ancient alien species toon have perma-dom while maintaining an optimized attack rotation. They also know that they can clear that Preatorian lab if they bring a long a few purple inspirations and a handful of greens for the AV fight at the end, even though they may bring along a team.

OP gave the solution to his problem in his own post. If you want to do hami, get there early before the zone fills up. I don't see the point of complaining.

My wishlist.. I think some of these things may exist in part or in whole, but need updated. 1. A combat log parser for CoH. 2. The current version of "city of data" as mentioned above. 3. The web-based version of mid's (could include the city of data above, but bare in mind, ideally I want to be able to pull tables of data out to drop in a spreadsheet) 4. A way to export and import builds into the game 5. A way to sync my online badge progress to an offline tracker 6. A MOD that gives an unmistakable visual clue when i'm within the sound of a mission objective glowie (I almost always play without sound and don't intend on changing this).

It also is not critically important which one you choose.

Two comments. First, this is how YouTubers act. I wasn't able to watch the video until I got home last night, but I think this guy is pretty normal as per what my 9 year old normally watches. The guy earlier who mentioned Pee Wee Hermon makes a good point. People sometimes put on a crazy persona and it works. This isn't a new thing. Personally, I find it unbearable, but 13 million subscribers disagree. Second, getting publicity from a guy like this is great for a game because he drives a TON of potential new customers do your business. But we're not a business, so it not that important.. and neither is it a big deal that the video is down.

I hoard the screams of my defeated foes and the tears of their loved ones.

This won't help until level 50, but all of my blasters use clarion for their destiny incarnate slot. If you pick the one with 120 second duration it gives permanent status protection. And you can use it while mezzed, so if you forget to click it, you're still ok.

If I logged in and there were 3 atlas parks filled with kids playing Hulk and Wolverine clones, I'd be happy. New blood into an old game is good. No bad can come of it, so it's all good.

Whatever you do, don't play a blaster. If you do it well enough, you're friend is gonna get jealous and wanna make one, too.

You can also get a bunch down around Nightstar's body while waiting for them to pull Siege.