Chris24601

The problem is they (particularly Mu) are SO generic there’s no reason to justify them being patron specific. Scrappers, Stalkers, Brutes and Tanks don’t have a generic Lightning epic option and I’m reasonably certain the reason is “Because Mu Mastery.” So if you build a heroic Elec/Elec Scrapper and want to cap them off at 35+ with being able to throw lighning the ONLY way to do that is break character, use Null the Gull, run a villain arc, and then hit Null again to go back. Meanwhile a dark/dark, fire/fire or ninja themed hero could just snag dark, fire or weapon and stay entirely in character. There is NOTHING about Mu Mastery that says, this and only this elemental energy should be available only to one-tims villains (except the Summon... which no one wanting it for their hero would take anyway). THAT is exactly the sort of thing that makes me resent Red-Side. Its something really generic needlessly gated to being a villain that keeps an alternative for Blue-only characters from being developed. IMHO; the next actual content arc that needs to be added is a pair of level 35 arcs “Get Scirocco out of Arachnos” (a simplefied version of the original devs plans where you play as yourself... with the final mission allowing you to steal power from Recluse’s lieutenants) and “Monsters to Fight Monsters” (an arc where Manticore recruits you to a team that hunts and kills villains to take their stuff... including patron powers). Then either do my idea of linking the summon to completion of the original villain arc(s) or put a mutually exclusive sixth power choice that lets you summon a Legacy Chain (instead of Mu), a Midnighter (instead of Widow), Longbow (instead of spider-bot) or ??? (Coralax are probably sufficiently neutral they could be summoned by either side). Basically pick one or the other, but like the Widow Build-up options, you can’t have both.

My biggest complaint about the Patron Powers is that Mu Mastery is basically an excuse to not bother giving Scrappers a proper “Charge Mastery” type pool. You could build a heroic Electric/Electric scrapper, but if you want his epic powers to be using lightning at range you have to hit Null, run a villain arc, and Null back. Seriously... fire, darkness, laser eyes and shuriken does not actually supply much in the way of options if you want a consistent theme for your scrapper. That you have to jump through hoops just to get lightning is kinda lame. Mace Mastery in general I think suffers in that most of the ATs have some other sort of weapon/munitions option that ISN’T explicitly tied to a common Arachnos weapon. Also, are you really telling me that you can’t just take an Arachnos Mace off one of the thousands of Arachnos mooks you’ve pummeled before level 35? Likewise, Soul Mastery is conceptually similar to Darkness, just with slightly fancier graphics. Leviathan Mastery has similar issues to Mace in that it is such a specific theme that it’s only going to serve a very limited pallet of characters. The overall result is just sort of “blah.” It worked okay before faction swapping and proliferation of the epic pools across the ATs (i.e. when they were the ONLY option for Redside), but that ship has sailed. So to sum it up; - Mechanically there’s nothing about them that makes them any better than a thematic ancillary pool. - Other than its pet, Mu Mastery has no business at all being locked behind side-specific Patron arcs... so says every elec/elec build that doesn’t have an elec ancillary because Mu Mastery exists. - Mace and Leviathan are almost too lore specific in their FX, which limits their usefulness to either those with a very narrow theme or those who don’t care about thematic cohesion in the first place. Now a suggestion; The only real thing that sets the Patron sets apart from the Ancillaries is their pets. So turn all the patron pools into generic ancillary sets EXCEPT the pet. The Pet becomes a power akin to the prestige sprints (i.e. both permanent and slottable) that is awarded for completing an appropriate Patron Arc. Meanwhile, Mu minus the pet becomes a generic Lightning Mastery set. Soul becomes generic and gets alternate animation options from the generic Darkness sets. Mace becomes a generic high-tech weapon set with alternate skins. For example, the Scrapper/Stalker set features all ranged energy blasts and a web grenade effect... so allow that set to choose any of the skins available for Beam Rifle; opening up a lot more ways it could be used. I’m honestly not familiar enough with Leviathan to know what a generic would look like; maybe allow some of the water blaster effects to be swapped in in place of spectral sharks and the like? This keeps a real tangible reward for those who run the patron arcs (and a pet from the patron’s faction is much more power/theme agnostic... you don’t need to summon up souls of the dead to be authorized to call for backup from a fortunata) while those who want certain sets for thematic reasons unrelated to Arachnos can select the parts they’d actually want.

For me, the problem with WASD is that the forward and back keys aren’t lined up like the arrow keys are. I tried, but that misalignment made it basically unusable for my brain. This goes double when you’re using an ergonomic keyboard (I do a lot of typing and it’s a carpal tunnel saver). Being able to slide my finger smoothly from forward to reverse by feel is the only way I can play a game. If I can’t remap my movement to the arrow keys, I just don’t play that game. Likewise, I’ve never seen the appeal of clicking your powers with a mouse when you can hotkey them and never have worry that you’ll accidentally fall outside the power’s bounding box when you click.

For me, this setup dates back to DOOM, the old Dark Forces FPS and Mechwarrior 2; arrow keys for movement, number row for weapon selection, space for jump/up, x for crouch/down. The main reason why I mention Mechwarrior 2 though is that because of how it’s jump jets worked (they were fully directional vs. later versions and used the inverted “T” on the that block of six keys to handle jump jet steering just like the arrows controlled ground steering) I got into the habit of binding commands to those keys because they’re easy to reach while still steering with the arrows (that CoH also pauses your movement when you use powers makes it even less of a hassle). To this day Insert up there is always “Target Nearest Enemy” and Delete, Home, End, PgUp and PgDn are my core attacks.

I was just about to post that this is what I do. I appreciate having the basic sprint NOT have any extra FX because sometimes you just want to run quicker; Surge is my goto for the Stealth IO since it’s just adding some extra FX to what’s already there and the glow associated with movement makes it easier to see where you’re at in some crowded scrums. But then, I’m someone who had to delete and re-roll my Devices blaster over their sustain also making you almost unseeable (which was not reflected by the power customization bar at creation at all... “Blue aura, but you can still see yourself? Okay, I can live with a blue aura.”). I like looking at the characters I painstakingly design... not at some empty space they occupy because of stealth effects.

I feel like the Rogue Isles would have worked better as a Gotham to Paragon City's Metropolis; a US city awash in crime where everyone in power is on the take and no Batman has arrived on the scene yet. It could be insane for some, but not all... it wouldn't be for Captain America, for example. No one would accuse him of insanity for doing so, even if the odds were long... because motivation is key. Regardless of their actual ability, the end the hero is trying to achieve is the continuation of things like running water, prepared food and being able to binge Avatar the Last Airbender on Netflix. If they're capable enough to live through the effort their life and that of those in the path of the giant robot get to continue to enjoy good things that if the robot was left to run rampant you and others probably would not. Likewise, even if you know you can't beat it, but are willing to risk your life to give others the chance to get out of the robot's path while you distract it, then you're not crazy, unless you consider every law enforcement and rescue services officer to be crazy for risking their lives to protect others. By contrast, regardless of whether a villain is capable of conquering the world to rule it with an iron fist or intending to cause the world to burn, you are objectively making your life more difficult. You are either desiring your life to become an over-complicated mess where you'll never know another moment without rampant paranoia or desiring to live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the few remaining people are fighting over the last Twinkie and roll of toilet paper. In short, being a hero (if you're capable of it) is generally in your long term interests... being a villain (if you're capable of it) with the conquest or burn the world motivations is against your own long term best interests. The only sane villain path is "acquire large quantities of money by whatever means you're willing to pursue and then spend it on things you want; hookers, drugs, politicians, a movie about how awesome you are, an endless supply of Twinkies, your ailing mother's medical bills..." because that is the only villain path where you're not automatically making your life harder in the long run (you still might if you piss off enough people getting that money, but its not automatic). Too many Redside missions involve you doing stuff just "for the evulz" and while it can be fun for a mission or three; long term it just starts to get one-note because your villain isn't building towards anything... even conquering the world; they're just committing random acts of violence for the sake of causing violence. Its Saturday Morning Cartoon level villainy like Cobra Commander or Megatron who are being evil just to be evil so the heroes can stop them from their evil.

Taking over the world and/or watching it burn is for the clinically insane. In the first case, why put up with all the bureaucracy and scheming underlings that ruling the world would entail when you can just buy-off various politicians to pass/enforce whatever policies you want and not have to deal with either paperwork or all those plucky heroes/rebels and other would be conquerors putting targets on your back? Hell, if you buy off the right politicians and media groups you could get anti-superhero laws passed and make it look like it happened because of popular support of the masses have turned against them and you can then sic the police on them if they try to interfere with whatever you're up to. In the latter case, unless you're one of those complete nihilists who wants to off themselves after killing the world, isn't it better to have all sorts of pretty and interesting places (not to mention food and nice clothes and gas for your luxury cars, planes and yachts... if this Covid thing has taught anything its the importance of infrastructure to civilization) to see as you enjoy your stolen loot and legal loopholes that allow you to indulge in all your vices without fear of prosecution? Seriously... does your supervillain want to live in a world without toilet paper? Cause if you burn the world down that's what you're going to be doing. See... that's the fundamental problem with most of the CoV content; it presumes you're mentally ill instead of a criminal genius. :D ETA: What I would MOST like to see Red-side is the canonization of what the Live Dev running Lord Recluse said during the "Going Rogue" invasion event... "Protect the Shrimp-Industry! Do you really think we can sustain an economy off an endless cycle of bank thefts?"

This has ALWAYS been my hangup playing red-side and why my Red characters basically turn hero around level 35 or so (Hardcase the demon hunter being about the last contact I regularly deal with). I have zero interest in playing complete monsters. There's a reason most stories with villain protagonists generally center on their dealing with someone even worse (ex. John Wick) or on a heist where skill and deception is the primary method of the criminals (ex. Ocean's 11) rather than just busting in, shooting everything that moves, and then taking the money. Too much of CoVs content is written as if you're the antagonist of a hero protagonist (i.e. plant these toxin canisters that will poison innocent people in exchange for money) instead of how comics that actually use a villain as the protagonist are written (ex. trying to get back at someone who's wronged you, taking down a corrupt business by robbing them blind, etc.). Too many include "eliminate all witnesses" kill-alls despite stalkers and stealth being a thing that could let you get in and out without being seen at all like a proper cat-burglar. Way more options to rob from the rich and corrupt and give to... whoever you choose... particularly at level 35+ would go a long way towards making Red-side playable for me. As it is I've got one rogue at level 42 who hasn't gone hero yet solely because I've introduced a friend to the game and they wanted to play red-side; but I spend almost all the time on that toon when I'm not on with them running radio missions, blue-side rogue to hero missions followed by red-side rogue missions to hold my alignment, First/Night Ward and RWZ content because actual level 40+ red-side content is generally repugnant.

No... Blame (and nerf) Regen. It’s always a solid call. Seriously though; it probably has something to do with the costume files not being designed to hold more than two weapon models so with Dual Pistols counting as those two whatever your third is just doesn’t render and keeps defaulting when you go into the costume editor. If it’s a hard coding issue that makes keeping a third weapon model from being possible, I’d like to suggest adding an alternate animation to tactical arrow and munitions mastery (and any other weapon using secondary/ancillary) where the attacks are animated as grenades instead of arrows/rifle launched. The Ninja blaster secondary should probably also get an optional animation for the attacks that use a sword as well, just in case it gets combined with dual pistols as well.

The problem is, not every group has EBs and bosses/EBs alone melt just as quickly to groups as weaker mobs. The fundamental problem at the top end is that there is a MASSIVE disparity in power between; - a fresh 50 toon with SOs and no incarnate powers. -and- - a one with full purple-set IO slotting and all the incarnate slots fitted with tier 4s. Where exactly do you set the balance on that? A 50 with SO’s and all incarnates at T4 will steamroll anything set for a fresh 50, but will get curb-stomped by content that would challenge one that also had full purple IOs on top of the full incarnate powers. The main problem with the endgame right now is there’s too much disparity in the level of power there to get much consensus on the difficulty of content... and adding more incarnate powers would just INCREASE that disparity even further. Honestly, before we even look at new incarnate powers, we need to figure how to make the current ones (and top-tier IO slotting) play well with others. What’s needed isn’t JUST one tier of difficulty increase for incarnates; we actually need several to cover that range in a manner that would probably require being able to add attributes to existing mobs beyond just their level; things like buffs to to-hit, defense, damage, resist and mez protection. The biggest issue at the high end is the way everything gets taken to extremes; You have to be accurate enough to hit the guy with 55% defense without just being auto-hit to the guy with <30% defense and, at the same time, deal enough damage to matter to a target with 90% resistance without one-shotting someone with <25% resistance... ...and to top it off you can have someone with both 90% resist and 55% defense on the same team as someone with both <30% resist and defense. What will threaten the first will one-shot the second... what will threaten the second won’t even scratch the first. I don’t even pretend to have an answer to that. Short of literally disabling set -bonuses and/or incarnate powers there’s no good way to bring the top and bottom ranges into line... and people who put the work into those things want to be able to use them. The ONLY thing I could think of that might work (and be utterly HATED by a lot of people, probably even myself if I were honest... I like my 5 LotG and 5 Thunderstrike sets as much as the next guy) would be to; A) put a hard cap on the degree to which set bonuses can be stacked (ex. say +25% defense from sets no matter how you slot to get there). B) limit the use of incarnate powers outside of the content specifically created for them (ex. can only use the Alpha plus one other slot at a time outside of incarnate content with say, a five minute timer on swapping which incarnate power you’re using). Like I said... that’d be hated and screamed about, but without something like that, all adding new incarnate powers would do is just make the end game balance issues even worse (conversely Alpha+1 would allow any number of incarnate powers to be added since they’d be balanced around using only one at a time).

I really wish it had been a standard PBAOE; PBAOE’s really help during MSRs and Rikti invasions where tab targeting gets difficult. A PBAOE will auto target the first target it hits so you can then wail on that target. As it stands I have to typically park my StJ scrapper for such events and go with one with a proper PBAOE.

Not only a lost cause, but the Crusader faction considers some of the First Warders to be traitors for not wanting to die in Calvin Scott’s insane cause. I also chalk up some of Katie’s memory problems to the statement early in the First Ward arcs that staying there too long makes you forget the good things of your life and makes you a little crazy... and Katie’s home is much closer the epicenter than the guy who tells you that. Also, if you wait for Night Ward to be done before using Sheridan’s portal (and choose hero) then Katie is back in uniform with other seers she’s freed and still there to send you off to Primal Earth... which puts a much happier ending to the whole thing. So, for my money, I say Resistance Warden is your best bet, particularly if you decide to go Blue-side afterwards as both Katie and Noble Savage are there to send you off. The fact that the New Praetorians arc you can run right after that lets you see a bunch of familiar First Ward faces* including Grant Creston and Pendragon as teammates. * I know the after mission text says everyone survives the UPA attack, but it’d be really nice to get a follow up mission or some of the notable First Ward NPCs standing around Brickstown via phasing tech like the New Praetorians do to actually SEE it.

Repeating this from back on the Kheldian topics; Please add a minimal effects option for Nova and Dwarf. The game already has human-form animations visible in the costume editor for the form attack powers so we really just need the toggles to not change the model to nova and dwarf. I love my costumes, but tri-form Khelds basically make them irrelevant since you end up looking like every other nova or dwarf most of the time. Having a minimal fx option for the forms would let me enjoy my costumes all the time.

Yes, sadly the game engine can’t animate the upper and lower body separately. All those flight attack animations are a completely separate set from being on the ground. Jetpacks work because they don’t change the default flying animations. You MIGHT be able to cludge it with the flying disk because the base is large enough that the standing animations might work and not fall too far off the sides of the board (rather like a path aura). BUT, I don’t have any idea how hard it would be to switch out all the flight animations for ground animations while the fly power is active.

Aww... No Night Widow Costume. I was hoping that'd be a way to do the "helmet on/off" on my Widow. Still awesome though.

I kinda liked this idea. As it was explained in the AMA it would have technically been two separate zones; the normal 8-15 level zone with some of the forest maze cleared out would still be there, but there’d also be a level 50+ floating outdoor Orenbegan city floating high above it. Heck, in terms of geometry, we technically already have at least part of such a city in the form of the map used for the conclusion of Scirocco’s Mallus Mundi arc. Place it high up in the sky (above the ceiling so you can’t actually reach it directly) so it can been seen, but not reached from Perez Park. Then add “Orenbegan Embassy” to the TUNNEL portals and make it a separate zone with some DA-style mission portals scattered around the Orenbegan city (you could put one at each ritual sight in the Mallus Mundi mission) and some level 50 contacts with story arcs/repeatable missions nearby those and you’ve got yourself a whole new zone to put missions in that would fit with those original plans. Alternately, use that outdoors Orenbegan map and the “visit the Nemesis base in the Shadow Shard” map as part of a Shadow Shard revamp so you can actually visit the bases that the CoT and Nemesis are using for their Shadow Shard incursions. Swap out the generic soldiers in Firebase Zulu for Vanguard troops and make the Shadow Shard accessible to both factions through the existing Vanguard depot portals as a co-op zone. While you’re at it, add click portals/doors between the main islands to make travel easier for the non-flyers. Add some new contacts with story arcs, relocate/revamp the repeating mission contacts, give the existing Shadow Shard TFs the Positron treatment, and maybe even make Cathedral of Pain accessable via a contact/portal in Firebase Zulu and you’d have yourself a Shadow Shard update.

Honestly, one of the biggest turnoffs Red-side for me is when an arc/mission goes and assumes your motivations. For example, the “extended tutorial” arcs with Dr. Graves make all sorts of assumptions that you’re just a brutal thug who’s perfectly okay with betraying your fellow outlaws and people willing to be your lackey. The mission where you have no option in giving that Skull who wants to be your lackey over to the sadistic serial-killer Crosscut after he’s been nothing but helpful to you rubs me raw and is a prime example of how Red-side’s assumptions of motivation can drive people off. I literally re-rolled one of my few Red-Side toons the first time I finished that mission because my concept was an honorable thief type... not someone willing to throw people to serial killers for their own gain. Having to research missions on a wiki so you don’t end up with your lovable Rogue concept crossing the moral event horizon into a complete monster because you started the wrong arc just make Red-side a lot more work than playing Blue-side, where you never have to worry about an arc turning you into a mass murderer Frankly, the number of “leave no witnesses” missions you’ll find just dropped in the middle of random arcs Red-side is rather obnoxious. It’s bad enough that the only toon on HC I’ve actually kept Red-side past about level 20 (typically I only roll Red-side to play through the villain-to-rogue-to-hero tip/alignment missions for a “rocky-start rogue who becomes a hero” concept) has subsisted on virtually nothing but double XP, very select contacts (ex. Bane Spider Reuben, Dean MacArthur/Leonard, Hardcase, First/Night Ward, Vanguard), defeat other villain newspaper missions and rogue tip/alignment missions. Hell, the only reason I even rolled that one was to help out a real life friend who I’ve introduced to the game and wanted to try Red-side. If not for their sticking out on Red-side I’d have already turned my Rogue Widow to Blue-side and not looked back. That’s largely because the further up the levels you go, the more often the Red-side missions assume outright degenerate villainy as your character’s motivation. If you’re in that 90% who prefer classical plot construction (and I’m actually so far into this category I honestly can’t even pretend to appreciate the artistic merits of non-classically plotted stories... they’re garbage storytelling from my PoV) then those sort of missions just sap your desire to continue playing a Red-side toon. Seriously, I’m to the point with the Rogue I’m using to assist my friend where I’m seriously considering running the rogue-to-hero tip missions and then use Null to go vigilante-in-name-only so I can solo Blue-side hero content and still team with my friend. All because of Red-side’s rather odious habit of presuming actively malicious motivations for characters on Red-side even though Rogues are also present.

The only reason I ever take a hero redside is because my desire for thematic purity (ex. there is no charge mastery option and nothing about lightning makes it deserve to be villain only) outways my desire for my hero to remain pure. There’s also NOTHING about the patron pools that makes them a power gaming option compared to the ancillary equivalents. Theme is literally the only reason to take one. So take away Mu Mastery from my main after I sullied them with villain missions/badges because my theme was just that important to me and I’ll just be pissed off, stop playing the game for awhile and never touch the character again when I come back... and I’ll never use my Red-side character again just to spite whichever person suggested taking it away to get me to play Red-side. So I agree with you. The ONLY thing that will make Red-side more populated is to give people real character concept reasons to want to stay. I know, for me, I relate a LOT with the backstory of Dean MacArthur. A good cop has a bad day (his father is murdered and the perp gets off on a technicality) and goes too far in the heat of passion (kills his father’s murderer) and then has to go on the run because the cops he served with now see him as a villain (never mind that they looked the other way at Blue Shield beating a teenager to death because the kid’s out of control powers killed a cop). There’s a sense of injustice to what befell him and his claiming that things are “more honest” (and more free) in the Rogue Isles is something several other contacts repeat in the earlier levels that appeals to the romantic notions of noble rebellion against a corrupt authority (bolstered by several earlmissions that show off the corruption in Longbow). In a way, Red-side could easily be recast as the Freedom (good and bad) to Blue-side’s Order (good and bad). The Rogue Isles are a corrupt nation led by authoritarian tyrants (aka Arachnos) and the players are going after the corrupt authorities and power brokers using theft, blackmail, assassinations, etc. for whatever reason you care to invent. Remember, Robin Hood was a criminal. Danny Ocean and his crew were criminals. Batman and the Joker are both criminals in the same corrupt city where the authorities outside of Jim Gordon and a couple of cops are as bad as many villains. The Joker and Batman could both do a mission chain to take down a corrupt businessman. The only difference is motive... Batman is trying to expose the man and force the corrupt authorities to save face by putting him away while the Joker just plans to murder the man because his comic themed demise will be a public spectacle. And Deadpool might do either depending on who’s paying him to do it. A tech-themed villain might do it because the guy’s company has proprietary tech they want. More missions where the motivation is more open to interpretation because the target is sketchy would certainly make Red-side more appealing to more people I think. Your motives could be as selfless as Robin Hood robbing from the corrupt rich to give to the poor... as selfish as just hitting them for a payday... or as villainous as wanting his resources for a bigger evil scheme... or as petty as wanting to inflict pain on someone better off than you are. Basically missions open to villains, rogues and vigilantes where the main differences are a couple bits of dialogue due to your motivation.

I know they’re not films, but the generally linear nature of missions makes them much closer to traditional storytelling than not. That means much of the appeal is playing out the role of protagonist in a story. It’s not an accident that Red-side populations hover at around 15% or less of the total player base... it’s human nature. Human nature is that most of us perceive reality through the lens of being the protagonist of our own stories who actively struggles to overcome external forces (even if its really an internal problem, human nature is to externalize/cast blame outside one’s self) in linear time with a defined beginning and ending and we hope to receive what we feel out our just rewards for our efforts (and that those who wronged us get theirs too). In general, the number of people who don’t ascribe to that worldview and thus find other story structures appealing is around 10% of the population and nothing is going to change that. The reason my professors spent so much time time drilling that into the students was not to say “don’t write that way” but to make you understand that the potential audience for a story with a non-classical plot is much more limited and to budget your project accordingly. Bringing this around to Red-side it means you’ve basically got two, mutually exclusive, options. You can have a larger playerbase (by focusing on writing for the rogues) or you can have your “monsters win” content (by focusing on writing for the villains) But you can’t have both because there’s just not enough of the player base comfortable with playing an outright villain to ever get you past that 10% threshold (the extra 5% Red-side are most likely those running the arcs where they can feel like the villain protagonist, more a rogue, in a classical story construction).

The key thing for me in improving Red-side is understanding the appeal of a villain protagonist and, further, the tropes you need to employ when said stories about a villain protagonist end with their victory (versus one that ends in failure or a pyrrhic victory). As someone who actually took classes on screenwriting, the most important thing you’re ever taught is that stories which don’t employ classical plot structure appeal to less than 10% of the population. This is important because one of the most critical elements of classical plot structure is that the protagonist must get their just deserts. That means if your story protagonist is a straight up villain (ex. MacBeth) they need to be defeated in the end. Darth Vader is cool and people may fantasize about being him, but most who do are NOT fantasizing about when he murdered the younglings. They’re mostly fantasizing about having the power to do whatever they want to people they feel have wronged them. He also gets bonus points for his ultimate heroic sacrifice proving that he wasn’t actually “all bad.” The way you write around this issue and allow the villain to win in fiction is right there in the fantasy... the audience needs to feel that the villain’s victim(s) deserve what comes to them. That’s why heist films often revolve around stealing from a corrupt or evil target (or is being done under duress and a critical part of the story is how the protagonist(s) ultimately reverse the situation to deal with the villain who put them under duress). It’s also why many villain solo titles end up pitting them against a bigger bad (including hypocritical heroes; one reason why the “Longbow is mind controlling villains” arc works because their righteous comeuppance feeling earned). The number of potential players who will enjoy arcs where you get away with harming the innocent is, if the numbers the professors of screenwriting provided hold true in this medium, about 10% of the audience of a heroic one (including one where a villain targets someone deserving). Basically, if you want to grow the Red-side population you need more content that is less Westin Phelps crushing the hopes of the innocent (appeals to maybe 10% of general audiences) and more like the Rogue alignment and morality missions where the plucky protagonist outplays the bigger bads and/or hypocritical heroes and walks away with whatever they were after in the process (appeals to 90% of general audiences). Or to be even more succinct; write mainly for the rogues with an option for being a complete monster instead of writing arcs for complete monsters as the default (that may or may not have an option to fail a final timed mission to feel a bit less like a heel). The biggest problem vanilla Red-side had, from my experience was that while there were a fair number of more rogue-ish missions in the lower levels... those really started to peter out in favor of “be a complete monster” missions the higher in level you get. In lieu of new content (which will take time), one way to help make Red-side more appealing would be to clearly label the existing contacts/arcs as either “Rogue” (primary targets of the arc ‘deserve’ it) or “Villain” (primary targets don’t deserve it) AND adjust contact introductions so that you don’t need to finish a villain arc to be introduced to a new rogue contact or visa versa. This will create a cleaner path for those who want to experience Red-side without playing as a complete monster (and make it easier for those who do want to be complete monsters to pick the right contacts as well).

My issue is that my theme pretty much required an electricity based epic/ancillary pool, but charge or electricity mastery just isn't available to a scrapper (or tanker or brute or stalker for that matter). You've basically got fire, dark, weapons and laser-eyes; while lightning, a rather significant elemental theme, can only be gained via the villain arcs (adding cold mastery for the melee ATs would also be appreciated). I solved the problem in my head by declaring that my character also has an evil Praetorian version who went to the Rogue Isles at level 20, and that the unlock missions were done by said evil twin who didn't actually need the arc to unlock their innate ranged lightning powers, but did those things because they were a villain (rogue technically). Maces and Spirit Sharks and Ghost Widow's particular brand of necromancy? sure, make those patron dependent. But LIGHTNING? That's just such a generic power concept that gating it behind a villainous dip is ridiculous. Leave off the tier-5 Summon, re-color the default to blue and make Charge Mastery with only four picks a thing for the melee ATs. And yes, add a cold mastery option too while you're at it.

Indeed, this is kinda where all of these various discussions ultimately break down... there is a truly massive gulf between; - a fresh 50 slotted with SO’s and has “normal” thematic power picks (i.e. picks pool powers based on theme rather than mechanical strength). and - a 50 that’s taken all the “power” pool picks (hasten, tough, weave, etc.) that’s been fully IO’d with purple sets and all six incarnate slots filled with tier-4s. -Throw in a well-slotted 49 IO build into that evaluation as well, because it probably outperforms the SO-slotted 50. So where exactly do you balance a theoretical level 50 piece of content? Because what will be a challenge for the SO’d 50 at +0/x1 would be a cakewalk even at +4/x8 for the purple IO’d perma-hastened full t4 incarnate and what would be a challenge for that uber-50 would utterly destroy the SO-only 50. THAT is the perspective that many of these “nerf” threads are coming from... that the state of the late game due to the combination of IO’s, incarnates and powers like hasten create such a disparity in performance that creating content that can challenge without being either overwhelming or a cakewalk to non-trivial portions of the playerbase is virtually impossible.

In regard to the bolded part, I wonder what the behavioral change would be if they just swapped Hasten and Burnout in the Speed pool. Would it become like the pre-inherent Stamina of old? The thing you sacrificed two much less useful power picks to obtain? Or would it's utility with the availability of IO recharge set bonuses and the cost of two of Burnout, Flurry and Superspeed be enough that other power pool picks would start to look more attractive? Because I think a big part of how universally Hasten is regarded in many builds stems from the fact that it takes so little investment to get it. It is literally a single power pick to obtain its benefit... you don't need to suffer through the bad picks in Presence to get to the top tier pick of the pool. You don't have to take one of the weak melee attacks first like you do for Tough and Weave. Its as close to FREE as a pool pick can possibly get in terms of its utility. And if it IS still so good that it's still worth taking two rather subpar powers to get it (see Old School Stamina), then I think that would also argue for just how overpowered it is as a tier-1 pool power pick and that the solution either needs to be; A) make it universal like the Inherent Fitness pool, B) make the swap between Burnout and Hasten permanent, or C) scale back the level of recharge bonus Hasten provides.

Regarding the changes to Enhancements effectively dropping TOs and relegating DO's to role of cheaper slotting at the lowest levels, I'd like to make a suggestion; Color-code the Enhancement text using the standard colors to make it easier to see at a glance whether something is a DO or SO and make it easier for new players who are familiar with traditional color coding by rarity to realize that DO's are meant to be inferior to SOs. My suggestion would be that DO's titles would be green (default level -2 colors) while SO's titles would be blue (level -1 color), leaving common IOs as white and the set IOs as yellow, orange and purple. That way when a new player gets a drop they'll see green (traditionally a mid-grade drop in the green, blue, purple, gold hierarchy used by many other games) DOs and blue SOs (a step up for both CoH and the common hierarchy used elsewhere) which plays to the common expectations that a blue is better than a green. Then, by the time they get to IOs they should be familiar enough with CoH's color schemes to judge white, yellow, orange and purple IOs appropriately.

Oh, I don’t disagree on that. A class without at least a required t1 attack can’t even reliably deal enough damage to deal with a -1/x0 mission. The P2W attacks lack the accuracy and recharge needed to make them a sustainable attack chain leaving you basically Brawl and pool attacks... and if you’re selecting those you may as well have a primary or secondary set with real attacks in it. By contrast, a support/assault (i.e. dominator secondary) based character would be something worth pursuing... though I’d rather see it done by proliferation of dominator secondaries to defenders and corruptors than building another AT. For that matter an Assault/Armor option for Sentinels who want a mix of melee and ranged attacks in addition to reasonable protection would also be an interesting thing to see tried. But doubling up on the same set category, particularly when neither has attacks, seems like a recipe for disaster... akin to someone running a “pure healer” empathy defender with the leadership toggles and only the t1 attack with no slots.