Projector

Sure thing. First, if I believed time sinks were 100% inherently evil, I wouldn't choose to play any MMO. I can't quote within a quote, so here's what else you've asked me to respond to: "If it is so wrong to argue that maybe you shouldn’t get new Incarnate powers for free, I need to know why you don’t think the same about levels, IO’s, accolades, badges, temporary powers, prismatic aether costumes, etc. If my logic is so flawed, those all need to be free with zero time investment too, no?" Your logic is flawed, because the foundation of your entire point is not what OP, or anyone in this thread so far as I can tell, is asking for. The inherent cost of an incarnate rollback or respec would be that you lose the incarnates you had, not that you get additional things for free or no time investment. The workaround to getting incarnate components for "free" already exists via transferring unused emp merits from other toons on the same account, which still requires that toon to have gotten those merits in the first place. But there is no world in which the current or proposed systems would give incarnate powers to anyone "for free." You already invalidated both of our earlier arguments by claiming that mine wasn't compelling to you since we could find analogies for either side. If that invalidates my argument, logic would follow it would do the same to yours if we are acting in good faith. Now, your argument against this change is because of something this change wouldn't even give? Based on your wording, it seems like you are somehow mixing two ideas: 1. A respec which allows you to choose new Incarnate powers at the cost of old ones. 2. A respec which allows you to choose new Incarnate powers but also somehow lets you keep the ones you already made. #1 is what OP has requested. #2 is what people are turning this into by adding terminology like, "free." It's a disingenuous framing of the topic using inaccurate rhetoric. At least when I accidentally project my own assumption onto an argument, I have the excuse of it literally being my name. 😄 (That was meant as comic relief via play-on words, not as an insult, I promise!) ___________________________________ In case what I've said isn't clear, let's say I have Barrier Core Epiphany (T4) and want Ageless: Under the current system, to get Ageless Core Epiphany I only have 2 options: grind out the merits/threads on that toon or transfer them from another character on the same account that already got them, but hasn't used them. At the end, I would have both Barrier AND Ageless. The cost is my time and effort. With the respec feature, If I have Barrier Core Epiphany and want Ageless, I could use the limited rollback functionality to trade Barrier for Ageless. At the end of it, I would only have 1 of the 2 Destiny powers, not both. Instead of costing me my time, now the cost is losing what I had unless I choose to rebuild it. If I want both powers, I would still have to put in the work, just like before. I'm a player that runs T4 Incan Core, T4 Barrier Core, and T4 Ageless or Clarion on virtually every single 50 I make so that I'm always able to contribute when needed, and in both systems, I would still need to grind out everything I want, with the one difference being that I would no longer be punished for random mistakes nor for grinding them out on toons I end up disliking. If anything, this actually makes those emp merits we get through vet level 99 more meaningful because now I know for sure I can find at least one T4'd incarnate setup for my toon that I really like with the rewards that the devs are giving me for continuing to play my toon. In the current system, if I misclick, misread, or am otherwise uninformed, I am punished for it by having the components I worked for being gone forever, but the incarnate respec system would make those mistakes feel way less severe. I am failing miserably to understand how giving players opportunities to undo/remake choices they don't like is a bad idea or poor game design. Also, to address a different point you briefly mentioned: perhaps my sarcasm in my first post was a bit too far in what I implied about you or others opposed to such a change. I standby the overall examples, but I shouldn't have spoke condescendingly in giving them and I apologize for doing so.

Couldn't care less who you are in game versus forum, I'd give you the same snark. In fact, you'll probably get it even worse in Discord from me. Only difference is I'm slightly more "eloquent" in text because I have more time to think and edit versus the impulsivity of my cynicism via voice chat. Voltor losing his shit over something is far from an acceptable bar to set when demonstrating whether or not a change is worthwhile. But based on your seemingly random reference to him, I can safely assume we have played together, if not actively play together currently. I never said these things were a waste of time, at least not objectively. Subjectively, yes, it does suck to want to do something different with the people you play with and have to spend so long getting setup, but I don't consider it a "waste" of time, moreso just how I chose to spend that time, but if I could accomplish the same goals while spending that time doing other, more meaningful things, than great. And people using the "that's what the test server" is for--I guarantee you coding an incarnate rollback is way easier than shifting the culture in such a way that would regularly allow for things like iTrials to happen meaningfully on the test server. Most people don't want to spend their time doing something when the reward for it can't even be meaningfully used because it's stuck on the test server. Lord knows with my luck I'd get nothing but VRs on test server iTrials and nothing but commons on Excelsior. By the way, where's the concern for all those players that spent all that time building out incarnates and everything only to discover their toon is still weak or just not fun to play? There's a remedy for enhancements in that I can strip a toon of its enhancements and save a billion influence to pass on to another toon, but no such remedy for all the hours sunk into grinding incarnates. How is that honoring the hours that were put in? The line of convenience is always going to be entirely speculative, as well, and I see nothing wrong with adding convenience when the path do things the "hard" or "long way" still exists and is available for those that want to do it. They added double exp for those that don't value low-level content or play, and they added "disable exp" for those that value low-level content and exploring those story arcs, and neither really suffers all that much. You want to travel the long way? Don't use travel powers, Ouro, the Train, Ferry, or Long-Range Teleporter, or SG Bases. You want to play without respecs? Roll a new toon every time you want to use different powers or change slotting. Yet all those conveniences do nothing to curb the internal rage I feel when I have to click an elevator door 1,500 times just to go to the next floor (IYKYK) You may not find my argument compelling, but historically in society, the debate between "the way things were" and "the way things could be" has always strongly trended one way. Sometimes we've come out better for it, other times we've come out worse for it. That said, I do not find your argument compelling that adding a limited incarnate rollback function somehow invalidates those who prefer to get their incarnates the old-fashioned way or those who already have invested that time, and in my opinion, I find such a feature a greater act of respect toward those who have, and an acknowledgement that the old method wasn't good enough. In my opinion, the strongest argument against incarnate rollbacks would be the potential for a decrease in incarnate-based content being run when you don't have to grind out so much content. In smaller shards, I could see that being a real issue where getting enough people together to run larger-scale content is already problematic, but I have no data to back up what is only a concern. But the only position I've really seen communicated by anyone in this thread opposing the idea is some odd fascination with having their past efforts validated, but maybe we can fix that with a badge called "10,000 Hours" that says, "I got all my incarnates the long way" and players lose the badge if they use the rollback feature. Or, if this change were to actually happen, DM me and I will personally buy you an custom engraved trophy that you can display at home to show everyone who enters how much time you spent grinding out incarnate components, but be forewarned, the trophy itself will just be a middle finger.

I think frequency limits, or even the way to access the incarnate respec being limited would be good boundaries. The influence cost is "meh." What I disagree with is the "middle finger to veteran players." As a veteran player, I don't feel that I would be getting a middle finger if suddenly they made incarnate respecs possible. If anything, I would feel they are honoring my future time, instead of costing me future time because of some weird desire to honor my past. Cars are more convenient, faster, and all-around better than horse-drawn carriage, but it's too bad we couldn't have cars because the horse-drawn carriage people would have their fee-fees hurt. The best way to honor our investments of the past is to make the future better and easier. That's what progress is. And I for one would be far more motivated to play other toons. Legitimately, if I'm out of emp merits on a toon and need to craft a new Destiny for whatever reason, it's arguably faster to just farm up a brand new toon with the same powersets than it is to roll the dice on reward tables by grinding out iTrials and the Heather Townsend arc. In a pinch though? Doing an incarnate rollback every so often would actually solve a major issue, AND it would make Star content even more accessible to people, as I have newbies show up wanting to learn all the time who don't have the right incarnates and cannot craft them. They didn't know for whatever reason, and they are punished for it. My time means much more to me as I get older, so while in the past, I wouldn't mind investing so much time and it wouldn't bother me, now it starts to, and I feel the cost more and more. Especially with issues like Carpal/Cubital tunnel. But you best believe I'm dreading making incarnates and doing accolades for the 4 new toons I just made because a group of my friends are wanting to test/try a few things. Yet those friendships mean enough to me that they currently win out over the time cost, but if I could have the time with those friends while minimizing the time spent getting to that point? Oh what a dream. If I could roll back a toon that has sat unplayed for 4 years and could move those emp merits to a new one? Hell. Yes. That would be INCREDIBLE. Give me more time to play the content I actually enjoy with my friends so that I have to spend less time grinding rewards to be able to. The Accolade investment on it's own is roughly a 5- or 6-hour investment per character without a team. 2 hours for Sheer Willpower (if someone already has Mark & Recall, and you arena between TFs to reset its cooldown) 20 minutes for Invader 2 hours for High Pain Threshold/Demonic 30-40 minutes for Born in Battle IF you have Trapdoor plus at least 2 slotted healers 60-90 minutes for Mark & Recall, and that's if you do the tip missions really optimally and have the Monitor Duty Teleporter 60-90 minutes for GEAS if you get lucky with zone events, have a team of at least 2, someone has the TF unlocked, people have the Tank Summon from START Vendor, AND someone has Mark & Recall. If done optimally, Katie is done in 10-12 minutes. It's rarely done optimally. So yeah, I gladly welcome that middle finger. Hell, I hope the devs put a bow on it when they give it to me, and I will receive it as the wonderful gift that it is. But please, by all means, go on about how "back in your day you had to walk 5 miles through 20 feet of snow uphill to get to school--both ways."

Just to clarify, if you want the bind to aim at your cursor, it should be "powexeclocation cursor" and if you want it to aim at your target, it should be "powexeclocation target" So, Cursor and Target should never be in the same bind.

Oh! My bad, I just assumed flight would be more forgiving since I didn't know any context. then in the build I gave you, swap out the Flight pool. Take Combat Jumping instead of Hover, Take the two slots from Flight and put them in SS so you can 3-slot the Thrust set in it for more movement speed, and then make sure you set them all to minimal FX at the tailor for max realism 😄. Then instead of Evasive Maneuvers, you can take Maneuvers on it's own. I did make another build for you though that would be closer to what I would use with this toon. One thing that I thought would be a lot of fun to try, though not sure how effective it would be: Pop 2-3 purple inspirations and a break free (unless you don't expect any mezz protection), jump in between a couple mobs, pop Disruption Arrow and Glue Arrow down at your feet, then hit Fold Space > Rain of Arrows > Acid Arrow > Explosive Arrow. I imagine it would be super satisfying in something like a Kill Most ITF. Acid Arrow should land before RoA hits, so you should get the full benefit still, and Glue Arrow will ensure they can't get away from you in time. I also use a number of binds to make TP way more usable. I'll share them here, but you can assign them to whatever key you want. Just change out the letter after "/bind" and replace it with whatever key you want to bind it to. /bind z powexeclocation cursor teleport /bind v powexeclocation target teleport /bind g powexeclocation cursor combat teleport /bind c powexeclocation self combat teleport /bind b powexeclocation target combat teleport The combat TP to self is super useful because Combat TP gives tohit with like 0 animation time, so you can quickly stack 3 combat TPs in place and boost your tohit even more, and the TP to cursor is super helpful to get through blocked doors or TP quickly down hallways. I know a lot of people use macros for location-based AoE powers, but I don't like using macros for them since I can't monitor their cooldowns like other powers, so for powers like Rain of Arrows, Glue Arrow, Oil Slick Arrow, etc, I will put them where I want them on my trays and then rebind the key to "powexeclocation target." That kind of bind will make location based AoE powers work the same way powers like Fire Ball or Ball Lightning do. The only time to be careful of this is that it won't work while targeting through a teammate, so if I try to use a bind like that on Rain of Arrows while targeting through a teammate near me, I'll just fire Rain of Arrows on my teammate instead of the enemies. Here are some examples: I usually keep Rain of Arrows or whatever nuke I have in Tray 2 slot 1, which is alt+1. So, I would bind it as /bind alt+1 powexeclocation target Rain of Arrows If done right, you'll see the number under that tray slot disappear since since a specific power is now bound to that key instead of that tray slot. Disruption Arrow: /bind KEY powexeclocation target disruption arrow Oil slick arrow: /bind KEY powexeclocation target oil slick arrow Glue Arrow: /bind KEY powexeclocation target Glue Arrow You can also use your cursor to still aim them, just change "target" in those binds to "cursor" and it will aim wherever your cursor is when you hit the bind. The downside to this method is that in fights I use a mix of clicking powers and using my keyboard, so often times my cursor is down at my power tray. That's why I use Target instead of Cursor for these powers. To anyone else reading this who may ask--yes, you can use these binds for any location-based AoE -- Rain of Fire, Shield Charge, Blizzard, Lightning Rod, Ice Storm, Sleet, etc Trick Arrow - Archery Defender (more aggro).mbd

I've attached the kind of build that helped me out when I was learning the game. It's going to be very forgiving for being poorly positioned or overextending yourself. As you get more used to the game, your powers, and how to play your AT effectively, you'll likely want to respec out of things like the Fighting Pool. You shouldn't need all the survivability from the toggles when you learn how to use positioning, line of sight, and inspirations to your advantage. I'm at a point now where I go full aggro on my builds and just carry a bunch of purple and blue inspirations with me if I need them lol. Note that builds like this are expensive, but it has a lot of built-in survivability. You'll still want to pop a purple or some orange inspirations on occasion or if you're up against a lot of different damage types, but this will help you a lot more. Ageless Core Epiphany for the Destiny Incarnate slot will cover your endurance issues, but another option might be to go Barrier if you want more survivability in the moment and run Musculature Radial or Cardiac Core for your Alpha. I will say, you're playing a Defender, which has low damage already, and you're playing archery, which is also low damage. So you're always going to feel low on damage here. The Corruptor route would have been the stronger option, for future reference. I also gave you flight and Super Speed so you can explore a couple of different ways to travel. Personally, I always go Super Speed and Teleport, because you can always get a jetpack from the START Vendor, but the Flight will definitely help you keep enemies at range. That being said, before you get Ageless built, I really don't have much of an idea on how this will treat your endurance, so pick up some Recovery Serums from the START Vendor to help as well! The ideal opener on new mobs would be launch Rain of Arrows and immediately after activate it, use Explosive Arrow. The delay will ensure that Explosive Arrow keeps people in the full damage duration of Rain of Arrows. And you have Burnout to do it again immediately (though burnout has an 8-10 min CD). Rain of Arrows is the most important power in Archery and is the source of most of your damage. Learning how to use Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow to maximize your damage output is massive, too. Try different combos of attack chains and see if there's a safe way for you to land both powers before even using Rain of Arrows, as it will REALLY hit hard once you have their resistance and regen debuffed to hell 😄 Ice Arrow is going to hit hard, but also has a good debuff element to it, as does Acid Arrow. Those two will help your damage output significantly. If you're soloing a lot, I would also recommend picking up Envenomed Daggers from the START Vendor as well. I take those on every single toon I make. If you need some influence to get you started, email me in-game: @Project0r . I suck at checking forums, so I may not see your response here in a timely manner lol Happy Day-saving! Defender (Trick Arrow - Archery).mbd

Super Strength is going to be your best bet for the Tank skin, seeing as Tank Smashers already use Hand Clap. Electric Melee could be interesting too, with Lightning Rod almost looking like you are charging up all your cybernetics to unleash a surge of electricity all around you. As for the Rikti Tank, I would probably go for a weapon build like a Broad Sword, Battle Axe, or Titan Weapons. I'm pretty sure there's a Rikti sword in the customized weapons part of the costume creator, so you can check each one til you find a weapon that you think would work with the Rikti skin you want to use. If not, going for a diff AT and doing something like Psi Blast, Mind Control, etc. Could be interesting too. Or Psi Melee might work, but I have a feeling some of the animations will still look goofy with the RIkti skin.

Incredi-brawl

Thank you! I believe in integrity in my challenges, so the only concessions I made were ones I genuinely felt I needed to, and I made sure to list those concessions out specifically. I am pretty sure the only auto power I took was the alpha and only because I needed the level shift 😄

IF anyone has T4 barrier on any toon, regardless of build, I will be happy to bring you on a 4Star. Depending on your power sets, I may ask you not to use certain things at certain times because some powers can cause a failure of certain objectives outright, such as uncontrollable pets, but otherwise, anyone is welcome. 🙂 Just hit me up. Also happy to invite anyone to my public discord where I usually schedule and host runs throughout the week. And yes, you can even bring a Sentinel 😉

Except the meta runs already include Clarion and Incandescence, and the Barrierless runs I just referenced use Rebirth and even Ageless Radial. KM 4Star ITF runs sometimes use Ageless Radial. Meta Aeon runs swap to Clarion Radial during the last mission for the range boost, and Corrupted runs, which are a type of run where you only use Corruptors, Tanks/Scrapper-tank, and Blasters, but don't allow Kin, Nature, or Cold, utilize Ageless Core as well. Not really sure what you're looking for at this point, because if your issue is cookie cutter teams that all use Barrier, I've just given you a ton of examples that didn't use barrier, have varying ATs, with even a widow tanking instead of a tank, and hell, I've tanked it with a toggle-less tank that only uses Brawl. And any change that would make "bigger defense and to hit numbers" irrelevant would be a change that would likely affect full 8-man teams. Regardless, it's been consistently true throughout the majority of this game's history as far as I know that the smaller you make the teams, the more restrictive the team comps get. That even applies to iTrials (for some master of attempts). You say they are Charity ATs...but with the way the game is designed makes it so that in your scenario, the stuff that is currently considered meta would only be even stronger. One example: the reason we don't need Dominators or Controllers in Lady Grey is because every AT has access to holds, and it's just a fact that other ATs also offer more damage. In LGTF, if you hold Dragon, his stats drop considerably. Turns out though, that it's just faster to DPS him outright than it is to try and keep him held the entire fight. The DPS you lose trying to keep him held is worse than the reduced DPS you do when he isn't held. Same is true in ITF--if you hold the Emerald barrier nova, it becomes unkillable and Romulus' Regen drops to 0, making him easier and quicker to kill....except that you lose more investing resources in trying to keep that nova held than you do by just, again, outright DPSing and debuffing Romulus manually. The mechanics exist to do everything you're describing and to open up and encourage different strategies...the issue you moreso have is that most people don't want to spend hours doing one thing when they could spend one hour doing multiple things...so the speedier tactics seem to win the day when it comes to hard mode content, and as someone who leads them regularly and teaches people them constantly, I am in that camp. Leading these things is straight up exhausting, and doubling or tripling the amount of time I have to spend leading them is a prospect I dread lol The problem is moreso in how the power sets have been developed and how the proliferation via patron/epic pools impact that as well. As I said, you can basically do whatever you want. Just have to be creative with the team.

@Rudra is correct. Making the teams smaller would only further limit which ATs and powersets get brought. It's also worth pointing out that you can currently do any of the 4Star content any way you want, so long as you are hitting certain stat minimums regularly. I've seen teams of all Dominators complete 4Star ITF, all Masterminds complete Aeon and LGTF, and I know of one group that has done Barrierless runs of LGTF, Aeon, and ITF, and each with less than 10 deaths. The LGTF was 30:11 with only 1 death, the ASF was 52:54 with 4 deaths. The comp even includes a Dark Miasma Controller (because of Fade + debuffs). Also, the only deathless LGTF I am aware of was done with all Defenders. I've completed 4Star TFs with 6 people because of DCs, as well. It just largely depend on which roles DC lol. Honestly, if I have 6 Meta characters on the team, I can bring literally whatever for the last two slots and it would be exactly the same, just slower. That's really the only difference the added challenges give: It's slower. If you want to challenge yourself further in hard mode content, the means to do so are already there, you just have to dream up some crazy team comps. Happy to help you with defense/resist thresholds if you need! Proof of barrierless LGTF and Aeon is below, names blurred out for obvious reasons. The Widow was also the tank for both runs. If you want to do something different, no one is stopping you, just like no one stopped these teams 🙂

And then there’s me 🙂

At first, I thought it would be funny. Then, it turned into wanting to see how much survivability I could squeeze out from literally just set bonuses. Then, it just continued to be hilarious, and proved a lot of points about the meta conversation in 4Star content 😄 at this point he has tanked: Really Hard Way 4Star LGTF 4Star Aeon MoBAF MoTPN (was outside tank for Maelstrom) and I think he’s done more, I just can’t remember off the top of my head. :D

The mission ends (technically, the lab explodes, destroying everything inside) and your team continues on! You just exit the mission dead, which is convenient since the hospital is going to be near the Hami mission! It's a free 4Star Mission TP 😄

You can softcap, but as Psyonico said, you will have to make a LOT of sacrifices, basically neutering your damage output, which is the whole point of going Corruptor over Defender. Imo, it's best to aim for around 30% in either typed or positional defenses. At 30%, it just takes one small purple inspiration to softcap you for normal content, and 2 to softcap for incarnate content. This is the best compromise as it allows you to still include some meaningful damage, HP, recharge, and accuracy into your build while still remaining very survivable.

PVE - Archery-Tactical Arrow Blaster (Projector Version).mbd Unfortunately, as others will state as well, Archery is one of the lower DPS sets in the game, but Rain of Arrows -> Oil Slick Arrow + Explosive Blast is nothing to laugh at in terms of damage, and this will be your bread and butter for clearing mobs, which is why the build I'm attaching invests a lot in recharge. I've given you access to TP as well as Super Speed. TP is the most "OP" travel power, and by using a few keybinds, you can make it FAR easier to use. /bind KEY powexeclocation cursor teleport (this aims it wherever your cursor is on screen. You don't even have to aim the power manually. Just click this bind and it will auto fire toward your cursor) /bind KEY powexeclocation target teleport (Self-explanatory, but TPs you directly to your target, even around corners/without line of sight! /bind KEY powexeclocation self combat teleport (useful for combat teleporting in place for the to-hit buff without really interrupting your attack chain.) /bind key powexeclocation cursor combat teleport (same as the first one, but this is for really quick movement in a fight. Sometimes your animations may put you in a tough spot, and this can get you out immediately) I've made sure you have at least 30% on typed defenses, with the obvious exceptions of Psi, Toxic, and Negative Energy. One small purple insp will softcap all other typed defenses in normal content, and 2 will softcap it for incarnate content (iTrials, DA, anywhere all your level shifts apply, basically). I would normally make this a LOT more aggressive with less focus on survivability, but that's because I don't mind rolling with some inspirations to keep me going so I can maximize my damage in my builds. So, normally I wouldn't be using the winter sets and would be going with a lot more procs/HOs (so, more of the powers would look like Explosive Blast does). I don't know how much you play blasters, but as you get better with positioning and learn how to survive without as many toggles, you can spec out of Scorpion Shield and go for the Fire Mastery pool, which would give you Char and Melt Armor, which are both really strong powers and Melt Armor would give you access to some AoE debuff, too! For Incarnates, I went with Musculature Radial for the End Mod, but you can start with Musculature Core and switch to Radial if you are having endurance problems. I also gave you Assault Radial for the Hybrid since it will give you access to another free proc. If you take the time to get the health accolades, your HP will be just around 103 below the Blaster HP Cap, which means when those big hits do occasionally get through any def, you are much more likely to survive. Good luck to you!

What were the goals you had for the character and what were the outcomes you didn't like? The buff/debuff numbers will be better on a Defender than a Corruptor, but the damage output will be lower. On average, even when factoring in the increased buff/debuff strength that Defenders get, Corruptors will still out-damage them because of Scourge and higher base DPS numbers. So, if your goal is to be a hybrid of good damage and protecting the team, Corruptor would be the way to go. But I will also say that if I need to hard-carry a team from the support role, I'm bringing a Defender 100% of the time. If I get the sense that I won't be able to trust my team or that something is missing, I will whip out a Defender, especially if it's nature or Kin, because the heals are a lot stronger. My logic is: There's only so much I can do to kill tough enemies on my own, even if I'm playing a pure DPS role, but if I can keep my team alive for longer, they'll eventually find the right target, too, even if it's the last one remaining. I run into a lot of this in starred content, and I can tell you several runs where I've either played a Kin Defender or a Nature Defender because I knew the team was struggling, and there would have been no way we would have completed the runs successfully if I had brought my Corruptor versions of those characters. So, if your goal is to play more of a support role, Defender would be the way to go, imo. Your shields will all be stronger, you'll just do less damage.

Okay? My ask is that all armor sets grant it, not some. No specific reason to treat it any different from hold, stun, or sleep, imo, other than an arbitrary weak point.

I don't know if it's me, or if there was a change in one of the last major patch updates, but for the last several months it seems as though Tanks/Brutes get Terrified way more easily than they did before. I can't verify that's the case other than anecdotally, as it could be that I'm just playing content now where fear is a way more commonly used mechanic by enemy groups, but even if it's always been this way, my point doesn't change: Tankers should have fear protection. I don't really understand why the ATs that are supposed to be able to get into the action, take the brunt of the blows for their team, and stand on the front line, are just as easily scared by enemy attacks as the rest of the team they are trying to protect. I could understand it from the perspective of there being a threat so big/terrifying that even the Tanker gets scared sometimes, but then why do powers like "Increase Density" break them free? Suddenly I'm not as afraid of a giant Hamidon because I am more density is higher? Or Why can a random enemy fear me with Terrify, but not be able to put me to sleep with Mass Hypnosis if it's a they are both mental tricks? The logic isn't really consistent, and the mechanic doesn't really add any sort of appreciated difficulty for tanking, in my opinion, mostly it's just really annoying that there's a random form of mez that affects Tankers like it does everyone else and it feels disruptive in a way that is frustrating far more frustrating than it is interesting, because, again, why I am being feared feels entirely arbitrary and like it's just meant to give Melee armors a weakness just for the sake of having a weakness. Every time I've talked about this with other players who either main or have experience with melee toons seem to share this feeling. Especially since most mechanics that increase difficulty seem to exclusively punish melee range characters (which, unfortunately, seems to be a common trend in MMOs): Marauder's Nova Fist Anti-Matter's Atomic Blast Sentinel's white regen aura Avatar of Hamidon's end sapping Starred LGTF Rikti Assault Suit Neural Fields Starred ITF crystal explosions Starred Romulus Void Judgement Minds of Mayhem World of Anguish (While this one impacts the whole league, melee players specifically are unable to attack unless the AV is moved. You have a 7-second window between Anguish spawns to attack otherwise, while Ranged toons just move slightly to the side and can keep attacking for free.) To also have a form of cc that is all but guaranteed to affect melee characters of any armor set when they are supposed to be the ones that are able to resist cc in general just feels bad to play. (While we're at it, updating Plasma Shield to be on par with other mez resist toggles would be cool, too, but I'll take what I can get!) Can we please get some Fear protection in the Mezz protection toggles in the Melee sets at the same Mag protection level as other major forms of mez?

Happy to provide some clarification. It's going to be long, and I hope it's not taken as condescending or mean. I'm really trying to be thorough and clear in my explanation, and provide several examples to help that goal. I'm always down for the conversation and happy to engage :). With that said, I hope you brought your reading glasses! We begin our novel as thus: Yes, the bulk of survivability in team and league content comes from barriers and other destinies, and when it comes to league and team survivability, it's kind of a soup of buffs. Everyone firing their buffs helps the team. Yet this is not always a reliable thing. I run iTrials all the time where, in iTrials like MoM or UG, Clarion is an important Destiny to have, and I discover that no one has it. Or I have been in leagues where literally no one brought buffs or we only have a few healers, but no added defenses or other stats. It happens so commonly, it's a running joke now amongst friends how often I end up having to load in two accounts into a trial just to provide something the league is missing. I also lead a lot of 4Star content and run an open Discord where I help others learn how to approach hard mode content. There's a reason the strongest buff set requested in 4Star is Cold Domination--it gives defense buffs as well as debuffs. Literally 3 of them in a standard meta team. And you can absolutely feel a difference if so much as one or two of those Cold Dom players are not running Nerve Core Alpha for the increased defense buff--their shields really make a huge difference in the team's survivability, and that's with consistent Barrier rotations that keep the team above 125% Ranged Defense. Sometimes people miss a barrier or are late, or someone dies, rezzes, and needs buffs to stay alive until the next Barrier. Things like that are common. The buffer matters more than you think. And building for more individual survivability is not the answer to that problem, as it means you are likely sacrificing damage/recharge/max hp, which can make some fights impossible to complete. It's also true that you can accomplish 4Star runs with almost anything you want to bring, provided you meet certain stat minimums and have Lores. The further you get away from the stronger sets/powers, the longer the runs will take and the more difficult the fights will often be. Literally the difference between having 2-3 -heal debuffs OR not having a few -rech debuffs in the K'ong/Dra'Gon fight in LGTF is the difference between that fight taking less than 5 minutes or the fight taking almost all of the 25-minute timer you have to complete it. And trust me, one of those is WAY more stressful and difficult than the other. Needlessly so. There was a run recently where I was on the verge of tears from the stress and subsequent relief after leading through a 21-minute K'ong fight in which we did not have enough -rech and only one -heal. We were successful, which is great! But as a leader, I have a right to enjoy the content, too, which means I shouldn't have to subject myself to that level of stress every time I lead something just to make room for players who refuse to bring what will help the team succeed. I don't want that stress every time I lead a run, so yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with me asking for specific powersets/roles on a team. Just as there is nothing objectively wrong with a player building the way they want to build, there is also nothing wrong with other players wanting to do a faster/less stressful run through the content. If you had the choice between a 30-minute ITF with 15 deaths or a 90-minute ITF with 350 deaths (Immortal Recoveries cost ~1 mil, so that's an expensive run), which would you choose? Are you wrong for not preferring one versus the other, or are you wrong for not wanting to join a run in which the players prefer the option that you don't? I've been a part of both kinds of runs, and seen some 4star runs be as long as 3 hours with over 600 deaths. For the players that enjoy that, wonderful! That's never going to be me, and no one is wrong for either preference. Overall, I agree with your comments, I would expect the player to do the exact same as you would regarding kitting out their current build and when they would make a second build. In fact, I would bring OP on a 4Star run, but I would have to bring them as the 8th spot on the team once I have every other role and need solidified. Without shields, the thematic build provides almost no value to what a 4Star team needs aside from Heat Loss, Benumb, and Sleet. And btw, I'm not in any way trying to be mean about that, but I am being blunt, because knowing what I know after doing countless 4Star runs, there are several fights in which I would basically have to tell OP, "Only use Arcane Bolt, Flares, and Electric Fence/Shackles, please" and tell them to ignore 90% of their kit because it would actively cause problems in specific fights. It can also cause us to have to soft-reset certain missions (such as accidentally freeing a hostage before K'ong spawns). And resetting missions in TFs SUCKS because of a current bug where if everyone logs out, sometimes logging back in results in the team being literally split into 2 teams, forcing you to have to restart the whole TF. All that said, It's totally okay for OP to do whatever they want to do! I have never once said "don't do it." I've just tried to be honest about the potential outcomes they are worried about, and the reasons those outcomes exist. OP asked if they would encounter problems running a build in which they don't take key powers in the set. I am answering that yes, they likely will for certain content. Whether you or I think it's right or wrong for them to have those problems is irrelevant to OP's purposes. Also, no player is entitled to join a team that has a very particular goal in mind or is looking for a specific team composition. If I say I want to do an all Mastermind ITF, other ATs wouldn't be welcome by definition. If I want to do something in which I am looking for a source of additional defense buffs for the team, then players without those buffs wouldn't be welcome by definition. If I say I have one spot open for a Tank, a Blaster wouldn't be welcome by definition. To drive my point home: In my opinion, expecting a player to "have a full compliment of higher-end Enhancement set bonuses slotted" for MoX content is no different than a leader expecting a Cold Domination player to have ice/glacial shields for the same content. They both impact the potential for the run to be successful. I also don't know why the burden would be on any leader to accept someone on their team who isn't built properly for whatever is being attempted, and not on the player to build what is needed or preferred for that content? Why is it a tall ask only to ask players to bring a build that's relevant to the content, but not a tall ask for the leaders to accommodate that build when it could likely end up being a waste of time for the other 7 players on the team? It's an attitude I face quite frequently, and myself and many others who lead content regularly have either gotten burned out for periods of time or have had a hard time continuing to lead content because they are forced to either eat constant crap from players who are upset they can't come (for things as simple as the team already being full when they ask to join) or a much higher failure rate from trying to accommodate everyone who wants to come. After a while, that stuff does wear on you, thick skin or not, because it goes on for months and months. I see Hami leads get flamed all the time for the zone being full by the time that player tried to enter. Not even remotely the league leader's fault that the player was too late, but that disappointment and anger gets misplaced and put onto the leader. If I am going to take 30 minutes or an hour or however long to lead something, I would hope that the players that come would respect that time/effort enough to bring what is needed to do the content well. I would hope that the players that participate would want to do everything they could to make the run successful, and to be blunt, I'm not going to waste my time leading an MoLGTF, MoITF, 4Star LGTF, RHW, etc. that I have little reason to believe will be successful. I have RSIs in both arms, so it's actually really important for me to minimize how much I play and optimize how I spend that time playing. If players don't want to respect that, then that's okay, there are other teams and other leaders, and there is nothing stopping those players from leading a team themselves and approaching it whatever way they want to 🙂 I really don't think there is any bad guy here, nor do I think you're saying anyone is the bad guy. I don't think leaders are the bad guys for wanting to form their teams any specific way, nor do I think players like OP are the bad guys for wanting to build a certain way. They just have different goals for their playstyle, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is just a natural outcome of the choices both players made for how they are playing the game that day.

Hey, it's your build, your character, to play the way you want to play. Thanks for the context! I do want to be clear: I wasn't telling you that you shouldn't play cold dom, but was just trying to suggest an alternate route that may get you less friction in game, but I really think you won't encounter that friction super often (most will never look at your build or anything. I'm usually totally unaware of what powers my teammates have when I do just any random content). But yeah, I support people playing the game the way they want to play it as long as they are honest/upfront in dealing with the potential expectations their teams have. I think the main places you'll have problems is where those buffs matter: Master Of Task Forces/Trials in which deaths are not permitted, any hard mode content, etc. I lead a lot of hard mode and master of content and I can be honest with you in saying I would have reservations about having you on a coordinated team unless you had a second build that was more optimally-minded. Those shields provide a LOT of defense for the team. Again, I'm in full support of you playing the way you want to play, but I want to be honest about the opportunity cost with the decision, since that's what this thread is about. Looking at your build, and if it's okay with you, I wanted to throw a couple of suggestions slot-wise! If it's not okay, pretend the post ended 2 sentences ago. I tried very hard to not negatively impact your theme, though I apologize in advance if I suggest anything that bothers you. Again, not my intent, I just have to fight the "optimal build" part of my brain that would make a lot of changes. I want to help you accomplish your theme! 1. I would move the 2nd slot in Aim over to Tactics and give it a third Gaussian's set IO so that you can get the +max hp set bonus 2. Take the last two slots from Rune of Protection, move them to Arcane Bolt, and 6-slot it with Superior Winter's Bite for the Defense buffs 3. Swap the slotting from Sleet and Fire Ball. Sleet doesn't do a lot of damage period as its main highlight is the stacking debuff. Fire Ball, however, is incredible with procs. I would also put an Acc/Dam HO OR a +5 boosted Accuracy IO in one slot on any proc'd attacks as these do have a tohit check. Ragnarok works in Sleet just fine for the set bonuses and the flat damage will be better there, but you could also put Frozen Avalanche for the additional Defense. 3a. For Fire Ball I would do one Accuracy IO, Positron's Blast Proc, Bombardment Proc, Javelin's Volley Proc, and Annihilation -res Proc. 4. I do find it really ironic that you don't want to play this as a support, but you took Spirit Ward, which requires you to stay within a certain range of whoever you cast it on for it stay active, and Enflame, which is another targeted buff. You say you don't want to play support, yet took two support powers that are also objectively worse and harder to use than the ice shields. Take my suggestion here for what it's worth, but if you're going to go with support powers anyway, you may as well go with the best options that don't break the theme, which I personally think the shields fit as a form of defense/protection magic. You still get the runic symbol vfx with mystic flight, translocation, arcane bolt, and Rune of Protection. If you agree with me on this point, and if you remove the entire Leadership pool, and you would free up 4 power slots in the exact build you attached without changing anything else. That could get you access to Blaze, Blazing Bolt, Inferno, and Infrigidate (for a ice blast pew pew), 5. I'm not sure how intentional this was, but building for resistances isn't going to help as much with survivability as you might think since your max HP is low as a Corruptor. It would be overall wiser to build for Defenses, aiming for 30%, as then one small purple will softcap you in regular content. 6. Change Tough to 3 slotted with Aegis for the Fire/Cold Def 7. Switch from Electric Mastery to Mu Mastery to get Charged Armor immediately, and then get Electric Shackles, which is a better power than Electric Fence. Change the slotting on Charged Armor to be 3 Aegis + the Max HP proc from Unbreakable Guard 7. I would find a way to add one additional slot to Health for the Preventative Medicine Absorb proc and then add one more slot to Mystic Flight so you can do 3 of the Hypersonic set+1 KB Reduction from Zephyr 8. Put the Shield Wall +Res proc in one of the shield powers, and replace one of the Shield Walls in Arctic Fog for the Steadfast Protection +def proc I worry that you don't really do much damage, especially when up against single targets. Flares is the lower damaging fire blast power (though I understand the thematic reasons for taking it and I like it a lot). In a fight, I'm not entirely sure what role you functionally play. If you're not doing damage, you're playing a support toon, period. In this case, you do more support via debuffs and slows. So if you're goal was to distance yourself from playing a support role, I think you accidentally landed on playing another support toon, just one that interacts with the enemy more than your own team, and I worry this will be pretty frustrating for you long-term from a gameplay perspective. Missing Blazing Bolt, Blaze, and Inferno REALLY hurts, too. Still having a hard time accepting that one 😂 I have run out of time to make more suggestions, but I would definitely want to find a way to improve the S/L defenses, as it's only at 18% with all the suggested changes I made, versus fire/cold at 42% and E/NE at 25%. Again, I really hope you hear me as trying to be helpful, not critical. Anything I've been "critical" of has only been in the interest of speaking to your thread's original purpose--how the playerbase would react to such a build/theme. I'm not trying to tell you it's a bad idea to do it the way that you want, or that you shouldn't, but trying to suggest other options and ways of accomplishing the same goal that you have! If you're having fun and not ruining anyone else's fun, then no harm done and I'm happy you've found that!

At the risk of sounding overly pedantic, I feel it's important to point out that every power in Cold Domination is a "support" power. Debuffing the enemy is as much a support as buffing your allies. So if you want Cold Domination without the support powers, well, then you wouldn't be able to use Cold Domination at all. Admittedly, it is a little strange to hate one of the main highlights of the set. Every power in Cold Domination is either a debuff or a buff, period. There is only 1 power that does damage on its own (Sleet), and Infrigidate can do damage if you slot it with procs, but does no damage on its own. Along those lines, I think that the shields also work as a sort of "protection magic" within the mage concept. I would also group them with Arctic Fog with that classification, as it buffs defense in addition to the aoe stealth buff. So that's something to consider. You are a powerful mage that can protect and strengthen your allies while simultaneously weakening your foes. Add to that the fact that shields only have to be refreshed every few minutes means that you aren't really having to play an active buffing role all that much, and you only have to hit them once and they'll apply to all team/leaguemates in range. No one will care if you skip Frostwork, but I do think people will care if you skip the shields, which are a real highlight of the set. In some content, you may actually get rejected outright from teams because you don't have the shields, as that's a huge selling point of why you bring Cold Domination to specific content. Ironically, you'll also get a ton of grief if you don't set those shields to Minimal FX in the costume creator. People hate those blocky ice shields, which means you can lightly troll friends with them (not randoms!). As @BZRKR pointed out, the other value of shields is for IOs. You can get a ton of value out of what sets you put in those shields, or even individual IOs in terms of LoTG recharge IOs and other procs. Based on that, it really seems something like an Ice/Fire blaster or Fire/Ice Blaster would probably fit what you're looking for more, as it seems you are wanting to be more offensively minded. Especially seeing as most of the Cold Domination powers have minimal visual effects, I would wager that it won't feel as visceral playing it within the theme you are going for, whereas you could still execute your theme without worrying about how the player base might react. In fact, Ice/Fire is one of the stronger combos for Blasters, too. I have one that's a lot of fun! Ice/Fire/Fire on Blaster is a great triple-threat combo with access to powers like Char, Fire Shield, and Melt Armor that really add some variety to the kinds of "spells" you are casting! You can hold people with Freeze Ray or Char, you can trap them in an "endless Blizzard" with Blizzard/Ice Storm (and Burnout to really sell it), you can make the ground around you burn with Hot Feet, and because Hot Feet has a fear mechanic in it, enemies will try to run away from you as they realize they will burn alive if they get too close! You can trap enemies in a Ring of Fire, or conjure up a Fire Sword when enemies get to close, cutting through them and setting them ablaze. That being said, it's City of Heroes, not City of Shields, so play this game how you want to, and if you are willing to accept without offense that others may not want to have that playstyle on their team, that's okay, too. And I speak from experience, too. I have a Stone/Energy Melee Tanker that only uses Brawl and doesn't use a single power from either Stone Armor or Energy Melee. Whenever I play it, I am very transparent about what my team should expect from me, which is nothing. 😄

Again, standing right here. 😉

Damn man...I'm right here