DougGraves

You say that controls are binary, but they aren't quite. Enemies can have resistance so that a control has no effect, but they can also reduce the duration of the effect. So like debuffs work but at a reduced percent, you could also have controls work but for a shorter duration. A problem I see with controls now is that they are not universally resisted. Sleep works on many AV's. So you can use static field in electricity to put them to sleep on and off - not full control, but it still works. Whereas hold does nothing. The best use of controls for bosses that I have seen is Guild Wars 2. They have a defiance bar. Bosses with a defiance bar get some effect while the defiance bar is up or some penalty while it is down. The defiance bar is reduced by controls - different amounts depending on the control and its duration, so immobilize would lower it slightly and hold would lower it more. And after the defiance bar is down, it comes back after a short time. You can win without taking down a bosses defiance bar but it helps a lot. And since every AT has controls of some sort they can all participate in it not just controllers and dominators. Those ATs would just be better at it. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defiance_bar

I just don't bother playing most of the day. There is a window in the evening where finding a group is convenient. I play during that time. You can pretty much always find a dfb. And ITF's and other end game farming are done a lot.

Also - my big complaint about Red side teams is Council and Arachnos farming. If I go to red side, I don't want to fight the same enemies I fight blue side.

Mission teams are much more casual than TF teams. If you want a team for fun and maybe some chat, join mission teams. TFs are usually just about getting done as fast as possible. The lower level the team the more casual it is. Hollows, KR, Steel, and Faultline teams are people who want to have fun.

I rarely have that on my laptop, but kindle seems to like randomly going back pages. I just no longer trying posting on forums with my kindle.

I won't do radios in PI, too boring. But radios are good at lower levels because the arcs send you all around the city and that can be a pain on teams. And they don't throw in street sweeping or other mission types.

I tried resistance warden but got tired of running through the tunnels.

I've tried gold side a few times but given up fairly quickly. While I like that the maps and enemies are different than blue, gold side has some basic problems for me. Many of the arcs are evil. I don't like red side arcs for that reason Getting around in the tunnels is a pain. You can get somewhat used to it, but just finding your way through a 3d maze to get to a mission is not fun to me. But I have been playing the Loyalist responsibility path and it is fun for me. You are trying to be good. You run around a city instead of the tunnels. It is similar to playing blue side but with better stories and gradually learning about the evils of the regime.

The thing is CoH is not incredibly easy. But many people choose deliberately to play on easy mode. They choose the best powersets. They powerlevel past the challenging levels. They get the incarnate powers and IO sets that make the game incredibly easy. And they avoid fighting foes that are not easy. Playing at level 50 with IO sets the game is trivially easy. Playing PI radio mission teams only fighting Council is trivially easy. But soloing Night Ward with SOs is not trivially easy. Starting gold side is not trivially easy. Heck, starting red side is not trivially easy. But the fact that you can play the game and make it trivially easy shows that there is massive room to dramatically nerf the best powersets and still leave the game trivially easy to play. The argument that the game is easy is an argument in favor of nerfs.

I thought everyone loved Faultline because the Arbiter was so charming

There really needs to be an unofficial redside server so that those who want to play on redside at least all play on the same server. That might be enough to get one server of redside with enough players to get teams going.

I predict the devs will make changes and that players will complain that they cannot make more powerful characters with the changes than they could already, meaning that the changes are pointless.

After a few weeks of therapy I may start another one. Thanks to those of you who are brave enough to start mission teams. So many want to team but so few are willing to step up and organize them.

D&D is a rule system, the type of game you play is up to you. It can be just combat. It can be exploring with lots of traps, hidden doors, etc. It can be a social adventure talking to people, getting information, tricking them, etc. It can be a practical game of stone dungeons, iron swords, etc. Or it can be a fantastic game of magical realms, castles on clouds, shapeshifting dragons, etc. So decide what you and the players want out of an adventure. The most important thing is that people have fun and cool things happen. I am bad at this personally - I try to follow the rules and what is written for the module. But think of it as fan theory - if the module says the bartender is unimportant but a player suggests that maybe the bartender is secretly a spy for the king - and that seems cool - then go with it. Provide short but detailed descriptions of people and places. You are in a dark forest with giant trees 100 feet tall, and little undergrowth - the only sound is of distant birds. Let the players imagine the rest. You need some details - You are in a forest - does not really set a scene. But describing all of the details bogs things down - the players can ask for more details (what type of tree are they) if they want.

I know I ran some Night Ward missions pre-snap, but I have done little in Night Ward recently. Someone put a team together and ran what they said was the main arc - all about Percy. The final battle defending the mansion was epic.

Shout out for Asheron's Call. My favorite MMO until CoH.

Trick Arrow has 3 main issues: it is terrible at the start, it has no heal (self or otherwise), and it is very active making it hard to use with your other powerset. Trick Arrow has 3 basic advantages: it is more accurate than other sets, it has a single target hold, it has good high level powers. I am assuming that making changes to a set go in order of ease: tweaking the exiting power, porting over a power from another set, creating a new power. And re-ordering powers or changing powers impacts current characters so it should be avoided if possible. So while I would propose replacing Entangling Arrow with a heal, either Triage Beacon or Alkaloid, these proposals just tweak the existing powers. The changes are to 3 lower level powers to make them more useful and make the set better for soloing especially at lower levels. Entangling Arrow This immobilizes and does negligible -recharge. It is essentially useless and is required for controllers and corruptors. - Give this power a mag 1 hold (enough to hold a minion and stacked with Ice Arrow to hold a boss) and damage over time equal to Stone Prison. This gives the power actual control/damage mitigation and the damage makes this great for soloing. Flash Arrow This gives reduced perception and a -5% to hit debuff for 60 seconds. The to hit debuff is negligible out of the box. Stealth is nice but not important at low levels when you get this. - Change the to hit debuff to -10%. Ice Arrow This is a single target hold. - Give this power the same damage as Block of Ice. The damage makes this great for soloing.

I really like 3 of the 4. The 2nd one with the lightning chest symbol is just okay to me. But the others are great. I would happily play a character with any of them. Voltgeist looks more damagey. Battle Beetle looks for tanky. The last guy is definitely steampunk.

The basic rule is that if everything is the same it is not special and seems to just be there - not to be a choice. Adding a contrasting element makes the main element feel chosen. 1) Combine two themes. Zombie is boring. Cheerleader zombie, spaceman zombie, cowboy zombie, etc becomes something more unique and interesting. You can do it with any two costume sets or come up with your own themes. 2) Two colors make up most of your costume. A third, accent color, then stands out. Maybe your wrestling belt buckle is the special color, or the symbol on your chest, or your gloves, etc. 3) Mixing textures makes a character more interesting. An armor suited character with a cloth belt, or cloth cape, or other soft texture. Or a character in a cloth outfit with bulky metal helmet and gauntlets. Or chainmail under a trench coat. 4) Almost known of the costume design matters in game. We design costumes to look good when we peer at them close up. But most of the detail you fuss over is lost when viewed at normal in game viewing distances by other players. Other players notice "strong" costume design with large elements that are easily seen. So decide if you are designing for yourself or to be seen in game.

I don't think you understand the thread you are posting on. The thread is not saying "lots of people do not play old school" but "old school playing is getting rare." You cannot team with others if there is no one to team with. It does not matter how many people are in AE. It does matter how many people are looking for Steel Canyon mission teams. Those people are disappearing. Do you understand how not having other people playing on low level teams makes it impossible to play on low level teams?

Great use of varied costume pieces. I like the mix of the hard and soft

Tsoo's power comes from their Lts that heal and their swarms of minions that debuff. I find controllers/dominators work very well against them. Hold or even better confuse the sorcerers. You didn't say teaming or solo. But solo I would go with plant or electric controller or dominator.

I'm a big fan of teaming and playing lower levels. So I worry about what other people do with their characters.

I had a friends list of 4 people who ran low level mission teams all of the time. They never log on anymore. I can still find low level teams, but most often it is Positron or Yin. Mission teams are getting rarer.

I have no idea