Ultimo

Ah, that would explain why it hasn't been fixed

Ya, that was me. I thought it would have been fixed when it was updated, but it doesn't appear to have been. That's why I'm posting, to let them know.

So, I gather there was a recent revamp of Dark Armour. Today, I logged onto my Dark Armour Brute, and I found that he's STILL pulsing darkness all the time, despite the minimal FX setting his powers are using. The powers in question are Murky Cloud and Obsidian Shield. I can set them to minimal FX, but they pulse. If I set them to colour tintable, they're sparkly and obtrusive. Neither option is really minimally FX. I don't know if it's the same for other Dark Armour ATs, I gather the various ATs had different effects. If the revamp was meant to fix this, it hasn't done so, and I thought I'd post here to let the powers that be know about it.

As one who has frequently been the object of attacks for daring to speak my mind, I will agree that there needs to be some better moderation on some of the stuff that goes on here. Having said that, disagreement is part of discussion. If you disagree with an idea, explaining WHY you disagree can lead to a discussion that fixes whatever it was you disagreed with. So, I don't agree that disagreement has no place (you see what I did there :P). Personal attacks have no place in any discussions. All I ever ask of anyone is that they be reasonable, thoughtful and civil. Sadly, it seems it's sometimes a lot to ask.

Champions Online did this in a way. If you rescued a civilian being mugged or what have you, occasionally they would give you a mission to do. I kind of liked it, gave us a reason to do some street sweeping.

I have a mercs MM too (a couple of them, actually). They would melt things without ANY secondary, they're pretty awesome now. The thing I struggle with is that I don't see Traps being as capable as the other sets. I have Masterminds with many of the other sets available (Empathy, Dark Miasma, Poison, Radiation, Electrical Affinity, Force Field, Nature Affinity and now Traps). The MM currently using Poison USED to use Traps, which I got to around L20 or 25. The current guy is only around L10. So far, every set has been very effective at all levels. Force Fields is outstanding, as is Radiation. Dark Miasma is very good. The only one that seems mediocre is Poison, but I'm told it's actually rather good. I'm not seeing it, but Poison lacks any obvious visible effects to let me know it's actually doing something... so it's hard to tell. That leaves the Traps. Maybe it's good later on, as some have said here. Maybe I'm forced to slot for recharge to get some actual use out of it, but that strikes me as a poor design. Still, I'm new to the set, so I just don't know it well enough to say (again, it's why I posted). The last thing is the question of the CHARACTER. In retrospect, the old Big Jim figure depicted a guy who was an adventurer with his own abilities (like the karate chop and the bulging bicep! Remember that?). Perhaps the Mastermind doesn't suit him anyway. I'll ponder, I think I need to decide what the character should actually be at this point. Thanks all for the input.

I grant, I've not played the set to any significant level, so my view of it is limited. But then, that's why I made this thread. I still say the cooldowns are unnecessarily long, though... Perhaps that alone would be a sufficient change to the set? I mean, if I drop a triage beacon, and the team has moved on, I can't do it again, possibly for the rest of the mission. That's a bit prohibitive. I had planned on skipping the Detonator power, it seems out of character for a heroic character to explode one of his henchmen. This also might be something to change...

So, I was tinkering with another new character idea. The origin of the idea came from an old, OLD ad I saw online for the Big Jim action figure. If you're old enough, you might remember the Big Jim action figures (with other related characters, like Dr. Steel, Torpedo Fist and Bulletman). It made me want to create an AE story that included characters based loosely on the old Big Jim characters. Some were easy enough, but Big Jim himself is proving a bit tough. My first thought was to make him a Mastermind. Thugs (mainly so he can have pistols) would represent the "kids" that were part of the P.A.C.K. (kind of like Mouseketeers, Howdy Doody kids and the like... kind of a kids club devoted to their hero, Big Jim). The secondary I chose was Traps. I've tried to use this set in the past, and I keep coming back to it, because it's the only sort of gadgety set available to a Normal origin Mastermind. The problem is, it STINKS. Holy old crap, it stinks. The powers take forever to set up, and because they're almost all immobile, they are of extremely limited use, especially on a fast moving team. More, they take FOREVER to recharge, meaning that even if they WOULD be useful, they're liable to be unavailable because they're still recharging. My point here is, this set is awful and really needs to be revamped. I'm curious to know what others think of this set, and what might be done to fix it. Not having used it extensively, I'll hold off on my ideas for fixing it for now, I'm more interested in what the community might suggest.

I do think Rage should be adjusted, because the set it altogether TOO reliant on it... but that really wasn't the point of the thread. I was more interested in giving Super Strength a couple of AOEs, a bit earlier in the set. Putting an AOE on Hurl, and moving to an earlier point in the progression would accomodate that, I think. I'll post what I like. If you don't like what I post, you're welcome to not read it.

You know, I've always said that Gauntlet is of EXTREMELY limited use when solo. Most other classes get some significant benefit from their inherent, but not Tankers. Perhaps something can be done with Gauntlet to accomodate the issues?

Thank you, we don't have pennies in Canada anymore. Though, I suppose the US doesn't have pennies either, they have cents. The US never used the British pence.

I always find it interesting that people offer "all due respect" before making comments with very little respect. I don't imagine you meant it that way, but that's the way it reads. I have played the game for a long time, so I do have some sense of the power sets. I never said Super Strength was underpowered, I said I thought it was kind of middle of the pack, and deserves a little buff. Adding a bit of AOE to a set with almost none strikes me as a relatively minor buff. It's not going to greatly increase damage, it's just going to add a bit of utility. But, as I say, I don't really anticipate any changes will happen. I'm just putting the idea out there. If by some miracle they decided to make a change to knockback, or to Hurl, or what have you, I'd be as surprised as anyone.

I'm not trying to restart that particular argument, considering how antagonistic it was at times. I only reported what happened. Same thing with my example in this thread. The Shield/Broadsword guy WAS forever out of endurance. If you're going to tell me the Clockwork guys weren't contributing to that problem, then it must be a problem with the endurance system in general.

There's an interesting thing, and I know we're drifting off topic here, but is it an appeal to the bandwagon? I mean, if there's a lot of people playing it, doesn't that suggest there is some quality in it? I mean, if it was a bad game, wouldn't there be fewer players? Certainly the retention of so many subscribers suggests the addictiveness?

Ya, that's the one, I believe.