InvaderStych

As has already been demonstrated in a wall of quotes of your posts, this is, literally, what you are arguing/asking for. I am sorry that you cannot see that. Enjoy the rest of the thread. Said my piece. 🍻

There is no discussion to stifle as the circular nature of the last several pages demonstrates. Never mind that this was hashed out two years ago; if the goal is to make Confront useful then we should be talking ways to accomplish that because that would be useful. 5 pages of circular discussion surrounding your insistence that you get access to both the power you want and the 4 pools of your choice is not going to get the job done. Just going to get the thread closed. Not everyone agrees with this position; furthermore it is beside the point. What *you* see as useful/useless is not as important as the overall health of game-play. Granting scrappers a gap closing ability that already exists in 4 different available pools simply reinforces existing meta and does nothing to evolve builds towards different solutions than the "Big 4 pools." This is as much of a validation of my assertion as I'm going to get in this thread, and it is all that is needed. Emphasis mine. Constraints Foster Creativity. What you want to have already exists in the game. It's on you to adapt to include it.

Fair enough. Tone of everything else around it certainly did not lead me to infer jocularity, but whatever. 🍻 I followed the thread of it and I hear it in Skwisgaar's voice every time Bill uses the phrase. 😉 Take-Off does sound hilarious though. That's an outright deflection and you know it. 😛 Tell me, if you had the ability to take a CT clone instead of confront, what power pools would you then take on that character? What pool, specifically, are you not able to access because you have to take one of the 4 available choices which contain gap closing powers? Oh, was it Speed pool for Hasten? Was it Leaping for CJ and those precious defense set unique pieces? Fighting for Tough and Weave? Constraint Fosters Creativity. The real irony is that there is actually a technical precedent for a solution that would resolve main point of contention surrounding this change, but I'm not going to bring it up because there are other reasons outlined above that Confront shouldn't be made into a gap closing power that I've already gone on and on about. Gap closing powers are fine in power pools, and more would be nice to have for thematic variety.

I stand potentially corrected! Thanks! Doesn't that one KD mobs when the toon leaps away from them? Or does it work like Jaunt or SA? In general the origin versions could stand to have activation times shaved, but those are probably tied to the animations so ... 🤷‍♂️ Please don't be obtuse for the sake of continuing this nonsensical argument. There are 4 (maybe 5) different options available for creating a gap closer among various power pools. Please stop talking around your desire to get one of those options without sacrificing a precious "Meta Pool". It is not going to happen. That ship sailed two years ago. Either use one of the available gap closing options or don't. Dude, settle down. Seriously. Completely unnecessary.

Nope. Nice to see alternatives, but nope. There are already 3 available power pools with a gap closing tool within them, 4 if we're counting Spring Attack. There's no reason to change any scrapper primary powers for this purpose. Look folks. I was as big an advocate as anyone else for this idea right up until Combat Teleport dropped onto Beta. It is just not a needed change. We have these tools already. My friend, you are talking a very long walk around the bush of "I want to take Combat Teleport without Sacrificing my Meta Pools!" by using words like "expanded build options." Let it go. Advocate for more gap closing power options in existing pools and for the completion of the Origin Pool schema because changing Confront into Combat Leap or whatever just isn't going to happen. Sorcery, Experimentation, Leaping, and Teleport pools exist. Yes, we "all" "yearn" for the days of taking Speed, Leaping/Flight, Fighting, and Leadership pools on "everything," but that is not "expanded build options" it is merely returning to the "Meta Pool" schema. Putting gap closing powers into pools does expand both build options and build constraints. Constraints foster creativity and variety as players find ways to work within and around them. Truth. These comments are thinly veiled ways of saying "I shouldn't have to take a power pool to get Combat Teleport, other people should have to take a power pool to get Confront because that way I can go back to having my Meta Pools." Aside from everything that's already been said about why that's nonsense, it is somewhat disingenuous. Folks who are making this argument should just be honest about what they want. Combat Teleport, Hasten, Tough, Weave, CJ(or)Hover, and Maneuvers. The reason to walk around it is because that's just not going to happen.

I come bearing glad tidings! These options already exist. Sorcery has Translocation baked into Mystic Flight. A simple bind like ... /bind BUTTON4 powexec_location target Translocation (where BUTTON4 is one of my mouse thumb buttons, ymmv) ... turns Translocation into a Magic User's Gap Closer This can also be done with Jaunt which is baked into Speed of Sound from the Experimentation pool. (which is sort of a jump like the Spring Attack animation, iirc) Both of those can be taken with a single power choice. I see no reason that a similar power could not be baked into Mighty Leap from Force of Will which, iirc does not currently have an additional effect like the other two origin pools. While they are marginally slower than Combat Teleport I think that's totally fine. CT doesn't have the base range of the travel power based 'ports and it is from a dedicated pool rather than one with other combat abilities like RoP etc. The pool investment warrants the speed reward granted to CT, imo. Leaping also has the aforementioned Spring Attack which can be targeted like any other tele-nuke by using the above bind or similar. Not sure that taking CJ/SJ to get there is a big deal. Most of the time a scrapper is going to want those for the def sets in CJ and Winter's Gift in SJ. If there is ever a Gadgets pool then something that goes all Scorpion on a fool and snares them to you could be cool, but would probably need to be its own t5 for the pool rather than baked into a travel like the other Origin pools. Of course that might be too derivative and what-not. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Regarding Confront: Back when there was a monthly discussion thread the topic was, coincidentally, Scrappers in early 2020 when I first found HC. Turning Confront into a gap closer was discussed at length in that thread and was much the same as in this one. Shortly after that the Teleport Pool was revamped, CT was born into the world, and all was well in Stych-land. This ship has sailed. Confront is probably never going to become a gap closing variation of CT. Could it become something else? Maybe. Does it need to? Probably not. If anything it should remain single target but increase Threat (and apply -range, I know Taunt does but not sure on Confront) to the point that nothing else can out-pull it. Pools are where the gap closing powers go; there is room for more, but I would caution against adding one to Speed as we are then back to the problem of "Meta Pools" and enabling power creep in a fairly obvious way. Don't get me wrong, part of me would welcome having access to a CT clone in every scrapper primary as I have different builds on my scrappers from before it existed which were more durable than dropping a pool to gain CT. While incorporating a gap closer in the Speed pool (like the Origin Pool versions) would mean that "everyone" would just take that one because "everyone" takes Hasten on their scrappers. And before someone chimes in all "Derp, I don't!" can it. That's why "everyone" is in quotes. 😛 In honesty this should be an Origin Pool perk, just need to figure one into Force Of Will and ensure that remaining Origin Pools added have one as well. Regarding AS: How is this not two threads? 😄 Skipped over much of the thread as I'm not qualified to comment on AS; however, No, Katana does not need a ranged attack. Saw something about that in the scroll and ... just no. Want a ranged attack and a Katana? Take an epic blast or snipe. That's why they exist.

Rock beats Scissors. Paper beats Rock. Combat Teleport beats Runners.1 I like to imagine the surprise on a Gunslinger's face when they port away and I port right next to them and continue bashing said face. 😉 1 - Mostly. If they are still in motion when CT is activated you'll land where they were at the time of activation. If that happens then a Double-Tap gets you to where they've stopped to check their phone or whatever-the-ever-loving-cluck it is they're off to do in such a hurry. Agree completely that runners have become more frequent and run much farther than when I started HC in 2020, and 100% more-so than they ever were on Live. We have more tools to deal with them now though, so it mostly didn't bother me that much until a while back. Can't pin-point when, too much real life aggro lately. I will concede that something is amiss though as chasing them across an entire map is absolutely a thing that is happening and shouldn't be. Tweak to flee code or whatever could use an attitude adjustment. I don't mind them getting some range and turning to fire, that's logical if they're getting their proverbial handed to them by the scrapperlocked death-machine in melee range - but the distances they'll go and random direction changes are quite bonkers lately.

Some usage of powexecauto needs to go into your binds. Common way to juggle two powers on auto, which I know isn't the question, included as an example: A "+left$$powexecauto Hasten$$powexecauto Active Defense" D "+right$$powexecauto Active Defense$$powexecauto Hasten" S "+backward$$powexecauto Active Defense$$powexecauto Hasten" W "+forward$$powexecauto Hasten$$powexecauto Active Defense" Hope that helps.

I want to say that if the power activation starts within the window it should remain flagged for the effect regardless of the length of the animation based on complete guesswork and mild observation of stuff that is probably affected by arcanatime and thus not always evident with casual observation. @Bopper ??

Random thoughts: MS might be a better choice on a Brute than PB. PB's dpa is lower until 2 ticks of Insight damage kick in (based on the Boggled thread over in Guides), iirc. SupEntomb +Absorb can be slotted into GPB. I have not tried this yet, but the steady chance for Absorb might be interesting on a Regen Brute. Or maybe not? Someone's gotta give it a go before we'll know! 😄 GPB already hits like a truck full of trucks, so losing one of the 3.5 %dmg pieces isn't going to be that much of a loss overall. Vigor looks like a solid choice. Heal, Acc, EndRdx. Makes sense. FotG %(-Res) in PBS is useful to mitigate occasional mob psi resistance. Mass Lev is another option for that piece. Pairs nicely with the Achilles you have in AB. This thread reminds me that I've been meaning to circle back to Regen Brutes. 😄

Forum PvP! The Game Older Than Computers. Play on ANY Device! Now Online and Free 2 Play! ... ahem ... sorry, it had to be done. 🙂 The medium might change, but USENET PvP was definitely a thing. And I'm sure whatever came before that had some PvP too. Pretty sure authors, philosophers, random yahoos, assorted miscreants, and complete wack-jobs have engaged in Forum PvP since we first learned to put words to page. Humans love that Forum PvP. 🤣

Was it maybe this DB/EnA? I don't recall the math at the moment to translate 1:32 into dps, but it is fast to be sure.

I wouldn't over-think it. Want to bring damage? Bring a damage focused AT. Want to be durable at the same time? Bring melee. Want to glass cannon and lean on your team for support/survival? Bring a blaster. I rarely pick the toon for the team, just the one I want to play in the moment. In moments where we're doing something scheduled and difficult I'll glance at what we've got on deck and refer to the two conditions above to make my choice.

That's a keeper quote! 👍

Exactly my point. New content will bring a brief influx of players and I applaud the HC's teams efforts in this direction. But if the community is the typical internet shit-storm, that influx will bail after the content has been played. My point was about player retention, not recruitment. I can say, unequivocally, that if I was brand new to this game and read this thread I would react with the following on my way out the door:

This is the most correct answer. Emphasis added to emphasize the correctness. Removing options is not going to increase the player count. Those options are this game's greatest strength. The best way to retain players is Community. And new players finding this thread are not likely to find a compelling and inviting community within, despite the fact that this game does have an extremely compelling and overwhelmingly inviting community. Yet this thread does not demonstrate such at all. It doesn't matter what the in-game activity is: be it running arc teams, leading WSTs, AE/Mission farming, marketeering, starting "challenge" groups with self-imposed rule-sets, building bases and running an IC Real Estate Agent, leading Trials (incarnate and otherwise), organizing CCs, handing out free inf and purps to newbies, or whatever. It is not the content that will make this game inviting. It is the players. I am one of the many who returned to the game at the start of Lockdown2020; I remain first of all because of friends made during that dark time and secondly because this game above all others has always been "Play your own way" not "YOU MUST WEAR THIS GEAR AND FOLLOW THIS PATH OR YOU ARE TERRIBAD LOLOLOLOL" But I'm just an old weirdo, so maybe don't listen to me and just keep arguing in circles about things that don't matter. 🤷‍♂️

I am 99.9% certain I've already seen a similar reference in game previously, but not yet in thread: Cow: Secret Level (TW/WP Brute. Two-handed Axe, obvs)

All of this.

I mean, late 80s - early 90s weren't all bad ... ok, mostly it was pretty bad 🤣 ... but we did get this critically panned yet thoroughly enjoyable gem: Danny Aiello & Bruce Willis - Swingin' On A Star (Hudson Hawk, 1991)

@Techwright Civ VI definitely has a sense of irony. 🤣 Started a game as Kongo: Giant's Causeway within 3 tiles of my starting position revealed on turn 1. (Finding Natural Wonder grants inspiration for Astrology) Stone resource 2 tiles from my Capital. (Required for Stonehenge) Damn game gave me the perfect start for a religious victory. I went ahead and built Stonehenge anyway just to deny everyone else the pleasure. 😄

FWIW: The triple Superior Proc trick also works in either Echo Chamber, Deafening Wave, or Earsplitter (which hits like a truck full of trucks to start with) from /Sonic. /Sonic is ... quirky in other ways, like the -Res toggle dropping when a minion or underling so much as casts a glance in your general direction, but still a somewhat under-rated set imo. Not calling it a contender against /Elec, /Dark, or /Nrg for single target damage output though, just putting the info out there.

Well, not a bug: +Regen, +Recovery (or End Discount in the case of Energize) and Mez protection in Blaster Click-Sustains all appear to be coded as "Replaces Existing Effect." So Kuji is working as its code intends, and based on similar powers appears to be following design intent. 🤷‍♂️ https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=blaster_support.ninja_training.kuji-in_toh

I can't speak to a way to get all three to swap the "auto" ring between them, but here is how to get two of them to swap. Not full auto, as you'll want to keep an eye on which one has the ring and nudge the appropriate movement key to move the ring as needed: W "+forward$$powexecauto Hasten$$powexecauto Rage" A "+left$$powexecauto Hasten$$powexecauto Rage" S "+backward$$powexecauto Rage$$powexecauto Hasten" D "+right$$powexecauto Rage$$powexecauto Hasten" Swap Rage for Dull Pain if you would rather have that one on auto. Edit: Those are written assuming they'll be saved into a file and loaded into game using /loadbindfile. To enter them manually in game chat use /bind before each line and enter them one by one.