Parabola

And you are more powerful because you have extra enhancement and abilities. If they shouldn't be +4 why should they be +3 or +2? The conning is completely arbitrary.

If this was a single player game I would wholeheartedly agree with you. I've played plenty of games that were very poorly balanced but that offered huge scope for manipulating the game to create possibly unintended but fun playstyles. I played years of Skyrim while CoH was mia and thoroughly enjoyed breaking the mechanics of the game and self balancing to create a satisfying experience (that game company couldn't balance mechanics if their lives depended on it). However, CoH is a very different kind of game. MMO's are built around a very carefully constructed difficulty curve. They need to offer just the right balance between challenge and reward to incentivise play and they need to provide a satisfying experience to everyone playing different roles in teams. They can't be user balanced because we all have to share the environment and play together. This isn't saying that it is the devs responsibility because I demand that they do what I like but that the type of game this is requires system balance to work. In my opinion the original devs got things quite badly wrong when they introduced the incarnate system. Giving all AT's access to pets and nukes was just crazy in a role based multiplayer game for example. The alpha slot is actually the part of the whole system that I think was the best designed. It fits seamlessly into the existing mechanics and it doesn't affect AT balance at all. My only issue with it is the level shift in regular content. I still cannot see what the point of it is. It just seems bad design. The difficulty curve only goes up to 54 and the alpha slot both makes 54 easier because you are more powerful and then completely arbitrarily transforms 54 from +4 to +3. There doesn't seem a need for it and removing it seems to be of benefit to everyone. If you currently run at say +2 with the incarnate shift, what is the difference with running at +1 without it? Presumably you have to remember to change when exemping down anyway so it would actually save you time. The incarnate content itself is a slightly different matter and not one I'm addressing directly. I see plenty of responses in threads like this that say something like 'we just need more incarnate content'. Well that's fine but new content takes time to create. Surely it's much easier to remove the level shift and allow players to run all the existing regular content at +4? I should possibly say that I used to be a developer and now I am a systems architect. Nothing so fun as games sadly but I can dream! I love CoH because I love its system. I've never really had more than a passing interest in the genre, I've read watchmen but that's it. My background is fantasy through and through but this is and hopefully always will be my mmo because it appeals to me on a system level. I have every respect for the current devs and fully appreciate the limitations they are working under. They are curating the system however and as such I feel they should give serious consideration to removing the level shift in regular play if it is possible to do so. I am certainly not demanding this, nor is it suggested for my personal gain but for what I perceive to be the good of the system.

But the alpha ability itself gives you a reward with more enhancement for your powers. All the level shift is doing is removing the ability to use that newfound power against +4s. I agree that the alpha slot is the best part of the incarnate system but it doesn't need the level shift in regular content to be powerful or rewarding.

Have a look at the quote. This person is inserting links in their quotes, I wouldn't advise clicking on them. I've reported it.

I dislike the 'tie one arm behind your back' line of reasoning. The game provides mechanisms for gaining power and utility and everyone should be free to use those to the fullest. It is incumbent on the game to provide enough challenge to make using those tools worthwhile. What is the level shift in regular content actually achieving? What benefit is it to anyone? If there is anyone who struggles at -1x1 at lv50 I would be astonished. I cannot see why taking it away and allowing regular content to be run at +4 is anything but a good thing?

It's a bit of a tangent but I feel the best approach with procs is to target them where they have the most impact. If a power doesn't proc well or only has one or two available I switch focus and use it for good set bonuses. If a power takes a load of procs however I do everything I can to maximise the number in it, even slotting nothing but procs. That does mean getting global to hit and accuracy high enough that a power without any accuracy in it can hit +4s. This can be done with well slotted tactics, the kismet unique, and at least a couple of purple 15% acc bonuses and normal 9% ones. Accuracy is of course not the only concern and you soon come to appreciate the end reduction that sets give you when you regularly use a power with only procs in it... Building like this has seeped back into my more normal set based builds though. I'm using the kismet unique as a matter of course and taking tactics more often. In general I try to get at least 95% against +4s where I can.

I've long been of the opinion that the level shift in normal content was a terrible idea. It removes headroom in the difficulty curve at exactly the point at which the players are gaining extra power relative to the game content anyway. It makes absolutely no sense to me and I really can't see that it achieves anything worthwhile.

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but could anything be done about the male run animation? It looks constipated. I create nearly all my alts as female simply to avoid it...

Mids isn't entirely clear when it come to a few of the Radiation Armor powers... Are all the effects of Beta Decay autohit in pve? And does the Achille's Heel proc function well in here? Radiation Therapy is listed without accuracy at all but I think it simply has very high accuracy? It also seems to be applying -50 regen to the character when toggled on ... A mistake I hope! Similarly Ground Zero is listed without accuracy, this I think is another error? Thanks.

One that i see queried in game quite a bit: Pst: please send tell. When recruiting for a team/task force/league activity people often use this. They are requesting that you click on their name and select 'send message' if you would like to join rather than replying in a global channel.

Another thing that would be great would be to extend the colour palette available for different customisations. The one available for ice powers is particularly limited. I'm not sure I understand the need for a seperate palatte for earth/plant powers either.

So many things to second but yes very much this. All procs with visual fx would benefit from customisation options. I'll also add my voice to the chorus calling for the ability to neuter our own view of other people's customisations. I think two options would be useful, one that sets everything you see to default settings and another that sets everything you see to as minimal as it will go. I would use the first in busy teams as necessary and the second all the time in leagues. And more customisation options for everything please :). Particular bugbears of mine are the lack of any customisation on trick arrow/tactical arrow and the visual loudness of earth control fx. The latter really don't need to be as physically big as they are. Most immobilise powers have fx that reach up to the knees of enemies at most and tend to be transparent anyway. Stone cages utterly obliterates the enemies in ugly and opaque fx. I love earth control but hate some of the power fx. Oh and one more. Auras currently don't apply anything to wings (and probably other back items). This looks really odd. The one option we have is for a smouldering effect on wings but that doesn't even match the smouldering body aura properly. Options to extend auras to body+back would be great.

Merits can be bought for 1m inf at merit vendors so in effect the badges already have an inf cost.

Yeah I think they changed this before shutdown iirc. Mids is a little slow catching on sometimes!

Trick arrow as a debuff set needs a bit of love. However, it takes procs like a champion so if your aim is to create a support character I'd look elsewhere but if you want to create an offbeat little dps machine then you can do a lot worse than trick arrow on a defender. I'd stear well clear of archery as a secondary though. My trick arrow/dark blast proc monster is one of the most fun things I've played recently. I also have an archery/tac arrow blaster and she is great also but in a much more straightforward way. All ranged hover blasting; simple to build and simple to play.

Not really odd as such but I arrange my powers in pretty much the same way in the powertrays for every character. Barring the odd exception like a mastermind this makes swapping between alts much easier. Travel powers, toggles, single target attacks and aoes all have designated places. I use keybinds on the numpad to fire things off using modifers for different trays so I always know that shift+0 toggles my travel power regardless of the character for example. Oh and if enhacements are not in set order in a power it drives me nuts even though it makes absolutely no difference and you only see it if you go looking. Any odd procs go to the right and anyone who says otherwise is wrong ;). Also am I alone in being a bit annoyed that purples don't have the attuned border? I use attuned enhancements almost exclusively and having the purple sets look different is untidy to my eyes. I'd never considered myself to be ocd but reading this back I'm starting to wonder!

This is very well thought through. I certainly wouldn't be upset with it. No flame retardant underwear required!

Don't play dark armor on just SO's?

Yeah that's pretty much the size of it. Dark armor is an exotic toolkit but one that only really functions with IO's. Using them it can be one of the strongest armor powersets but without it's got to be somewhere close to the worst. I'm struggling to think of another set with such a disparity between its SO and IO performance. On the mez auras i think opressive gloom is fine. It's a one slot wonder that provides some mitigation at the expense of wander. Take it but only run it when you need to. Cloak of fear just doesn't function though.

This gets brought up quite often. There are a couple of benefits to clicky protection: they can be stacked and toggles can be dropped by end drain etc. It's a no from me. This. And this. Also remember hasten is neither mandatory nor is it mandatory to put it on auto if you do take it. On my shield users I usually have active defences on auto and click hasten. Active defence comes around much more often and is more important to cycle quickly so that is the auto fire priority. They would but so would every afk farmer and for that reason alone I very much doubt this will ever happen.

I agree with a lot of this. I think I'd prefer to have a greater range of fx options than to have no fx at all for non natural armor sets. Another idea I mentioned in another thread would be to have a saturation slider alongside the existing colour options. It would be great to be able to tone down certain fx without removing them completely.

All this is true but both those sets (eventually) get an end recovery power. I think you mean not running cloak of darkness rather than murky cloud? I would never leave cod out as it's a less costly weave with other benefits but I take the point that it would be pretty optional on a SO build. Than fire armor? Sure. Ice armor? I don't see it. An ice armor tank can softcap typed defences on SO's and be endurance sustainable due to the absorption power. It also has a hefty debuff aura to take the edge off what does come through and a heal/+maxhp power. Ice has holes that are harder to plug with IO's but I'd rather run an ice on SO's than a dark (and in fact did back on live pre i9). Indeed. IO's again make balance difficult for this power. Not only is it easier to build in more end reduction alongside the other things you need (acc, rech, maybe heal), but there is also the theft proc that can make the power endurance neutral or even better. This is a massive change in performance between SO's and IO's and it's hard to get away from that when talking overall balance. As I said in my first post in this thread dark armor is really strong on IO's but I still remember what it was like on SO's and I wouldn't want to go through that again...

I've found myself going the other way. Back on live I'd abandoned tanks and scrappers in favour of brutes but now I'm rolling mainly tanks and scrappers again. With the recent buffs tanks do decent damage and are still the best answer when a team needs a tough guy up front. And the scrapper ato's and the way scrappers react to +dam in general just makes them the better choice for damage dealing with a lot of powerset combinations. The only thing that makes me think brute at the moment is armor sets where they get a taunt aura that scrappers don't. Oh and farming.

Yeah I like this in particular. The two most dangerous debuffs for dark armor are -tohit and -recharge, both neutering dark consumption. Resistance to one of these would be very helpful, not to mention thematic.

What if in a two birds with one stone kind of way soul transfer drained end while you are concious? It would step on the toes of dark consumption but the devs are looking to change that into being primarily an aoe attack anyway. It would need a bit of rebalancing obviously but might be a thought?