Naraka

Stalker does engagement control. You can pick and choose who, when and where to fight. If a fight is going south? Placate and take a breather. Want to start sans a Lt or Boss? You have the tools to make it so. And when teamed, you can just scrap it out and get bonus crit chance for it. Why play a Stalker instead of a Blaster? Survivability and control. And just because an ambush is tracking you doesn't mean you're visible. You can still run and engage in a better location. All in all, if you haven't gotten into just trying stuff out of the ordinary and having fun with it, I don't know what to tell you lol. I play khelds because they are interesting and different as well as Masterminds for being management focused. Since the game is mostly going to be static, you're going to just have to take it or leave it. Either play around with Stalkers and get a feel for them your way or wait around until we develop ESP tech to infuse the mentality into your brain over the Internet. There's nothing inherently wrong with Stalkers that make then a poor choice or anything. They're just different.

Would be kind of cool to have a power that did nothing but combine the next 2 blast set attacks. Combine Flamethrower and Ignite into one animation but both their damage or M30 Grenade + Full Auto

So then it's inaccurately or unclearly describing the Overton Window. I say inaccurate because just because the perception of what is left or right shifts, the actual political spectrum doesn't change, just what people feel is acceptable at the time. The marked out spots don't cease to exist or ignored. Slavery and child labor still exists even if either side agree that it's bad, it just is being ignored since it's not here or is of a different flavor.

I don't understand this chart at all. So the left is shifting rightward and causing the center to get pushed further and further over? Who's perspective is this from? Someone at the center? Someone from the left? I don't get it...

Probably far fewer playing though...which could be an argument for going through with the change.

Forge is only available at level 28. So you want to move that lower too? [EDIT] i clarify, I don't think there's a damage difference for the earth pet, prior to level lvl23 at least, whether you picked /FF or /thermal.

As @dangeraaron10 mentioned before, those pets aren't really going to do much regardless of if you get them at 32 or 1 (well maybe it will pre-10 but I'd argue no one needs help pre-10...or are you?). And you think 'I suffered soloing until 32 without a pet so everyone should too' is convoluted? No, that's called playing a video game. What kind of entitled bullshit is this to think we need to just start implemented cheatcodes for everyone? Oh wait, that's just the standard course of video games now. If you want to solo faster on a Controller, proc out your hold, pick up an attack, use those SOs and change your difficulty setting.

I think it's the opposite on that last one. With suggestions and feedback from players, a lot of instituted changes have been to shift powers and powersets into a homogenous paint-by-numbers orthodoxy. That's how you got your snipes being just blasts with an opener option, same with your Energy Melee/Dark Melee, and a lot of the other changes to ATs too. Sure, to some, they are great changes that a lot of people like but they end up just making every set more the same with just different coats of paint. This suggestion isn't any different. You just want the opposing NPCs and your soloing experience to have as simplest smoothest an on-rails escalator to the top as possible. No bumps. No detours. No struggling with weather or anything. Just a samey-same paint by the numbers trip from 1 to 50 with no notable conflicts or points of interest on the way. No desperation and relief when you get that one power that mitigates your END problems. No sudden shift in power now that you have access to SOs instead of DOs. It'll just be the same trip you've taken dozens upon dozens of times before...but easier.

Why not? Why is Controller special in that it should do acceptable damage on top of excellent support and control? There are also solutions now that a Controller can use to do better damage and it's called taking/slotting attacks. You can even just proc out a hold to turn it into a blast. It's not even that I disagree that moving the pets down the pool list is bad, I just think suggesting a CC/buff AT is entitled to better damage when neither of its primary or secondary are for damage. And sure, you can outline the philosophy that every AT needs to be able to solo but that too falls flat because they already can. Just because they solo slower doesn't justify anything when they can also do it safer. Then there's other points such as power leveling being so popular, IOs, the changes to their inherent powers over time, P2W vendor attacks and so on that have bridged that gap in damage for Controllers but for someone somewhere nothing will ever be enough until they are practically a blaster with a full set of controls (like /plant and /TA Blasters for a while there). All in all, I think another server tried giving Controllers their pets at lvl 1 and it didn't cause the game to implode. You could probably put this suggestion in the "eh, if it changes it changes but it's certainly not necessary" box.

I know this was somewhat tongue in cheek but it really is a problem when it comes to making engaging AI that at least attempts to take the wheel sometimes. Not that I'm suggesting changing the game now but having it so mobs will just ignore better judgement and sit balled up for obliteration was never a good direction since way back when powers can no capped AoE either.

I could say the same about a lot of implemented changes...

That was a misread. I didn't say Bio, Rad and Shield lacked taunt auras, I was talking about the ones that currently lack them still do (i.e. the 1st sentence you wrote: "Yes, I know fully well why some scrapper armors lacked a taunt aura back before redside existed") And sets were introduced after redside that also didn't have taunt auras. (Hello there Electric Armor!! *GASP!* Oh my! When did you get here Stone Armor?) Stop playing dumb. It's exceptionally tiresome. [EDIT] And just to state it plainly as fucking possible. YOU know why some auras taunt for Scrapper and YOU know why others don't. It's not fucking rocket science WHY they were made to taunt for Brute and Tanker. While the issues you have on running mobs may be bullshit, your obfuscation of the point why there is a difference in tanking for Scrappers and others is just as bullshit. Fucking stop it.

Fixed. So why not replace Confront with a teleport attack and make the Fighting pool inherent and increase the amount of auto cast powers to 24? Or just allow everyone to pick and choose what pools, powers, inherent and effects every player can on any AT? I mean, since the game isn't retail, those limitations are fucking irrelevant now. I honestly don't have an argument about the AI tho. I really never cared that much about fleeing foes. If that is a problem, then address that.

No, you're trying to insult my intelligence as if now it's required to create an entire post explaining why some Scrapper auras taunt. You know why it happens so pretending it's somehow irrelevant now is disingenuous and pointless to the statement I made. This is just derailing the whole thread just because you want to withhold relevant knowledge.

You know why some Scrapper auras taunt while others don't. Don't pretend it's arbitrary.

That's not how proliferation works. You don't port it to the ATs that have the effects you want then import their unique effects that aren't for your AT. If you were against swapping Confront for a teleport attack, now you're in the position asking for unnecessary things. Go get a pool power, use other tactics or play the AT that is made to bunch enemies up.

Now you're just making an argument for the guy who wants to replace Confront with a teleport to target attack. You can use movement, ranged and pools like everyone else. Jealous of Tankers and Brutes? Good, go play one.

People don't like intangibility powers. Why not address that? And I don't mean by removing intangibility or just changing intangibility to just a simple hold effect. The problem is a lot of the content is too straight forward so esoteric tactics and effects either never get used or come off as detrimental. What kind of enemy or power could be introduced that incentivizes the target not be there? That might be harder to think about since no one wants to give the foes in the game any teeth.

Eh, name something that would be considered challenging that no one would consider annoying. I think the set-and-forget aspects of the game undermines a lot of what could be considered difficult in the game. I wouldn't particularly recommend the OP's change or any change, really since the game is already established and there isn't a need to make sweeping changes anymore...but adding some aspect to the game that directly counters set-and-forget toggles should have existed. Similarly to how we have debuffs to counter buffs and mez to counter certain actions (and protection to counter the mez), there could have been a subset of effects that target power usage...or they could have added these effects to certain mez to add more utility to them...like if Knockback had the chance of turning off a random toggle on the target. Of course, you'd also have to change mobs' powers to incorporate more toggle powers too to give that utility some added use.

Go start any armor powerset at level 1 and see how indestructible it is. Spoilers: none are.

Grrr, this aggravates me. You're comparing SR to other more "modern" sets but exactly how? Are you taking into account pool powers? Are you leaving out IOs for those other sets too? WP is great and all, but against a single hard target and no IOs or tough and weave, you better hope you picked up that tier 9 or that revive ability. Without a hoard of foes to back you up, you can just as easily succumb to the difficulties that SR faces too. There's also the funny prospect of "dodging" debuffs that defense sets benefit from that resist sets have to eat. At what point do we accept that pros and cons can and should exist for ATs and powersets? Yeah, SR scaling resist isn't going to be your saving grace for AVs but it's going to make crowds of foes your buffer (just like *gasp* WP's scaling regen!). And Bio's claim to fame is just its variety of options. Yeah, it's great, but how many are actually using Efficiency mode? Or Defensive mode for that matter? It's all about the Offense and that's why Bio is so good, because IOs can take care of those other two.

I heard Whirling Axe has crappy DPA compared to other PBAoEs.

I'm not against gap closers, per say. This notion of "add more gap closers to more pools" is just unneeded extravagance. There are plenty of gap closing options as is. Adding more is just bloat. Just because pool A, C, D and F have a gap closer, apparently every pool or more pools need them? Why? Eventually, we're going to see people looking at pools B, E and G saying those pools have toggle defense so every pool should get that too. The beauty of the system is, if you prioritize certain types of powers on your characters, your characters are going to look cookie cutter. But there are plenty of other options. You're not wrong for making cookie cutter builds but you are wrong for expecting sets and pools to be as cookie cutter as your builds and call that variety.

Power creep. That hurts everyone. You may not feel the hurt now but you will start feeling it a few months or so down the line. When the barrenness starts to spiral or your interest starts to wane. The worst part is, you won't even realize you took part in why the situation turned out that way. You'll probably look at other aspects of what went wrong and attempt to absolve spoiling the game over time rather than just admit, maybe leaving some aspects the same might have lead to a better outcome. Damage over time is tricky, you know. The other aspect I pointed out before wasn't even addressed so don't go saying no good points were made. I'm not against gap closers for melee, but that could be left to a whole new melee set as it's gimmick. Melee do not need more gimmicks, or is full mez protection and some debuff resistance not handy enough? Your gap closer is not being affected my immobilize. You have not made a good argument for lessening the requirements for Spring attack. At best, it might have opened discussion for making it recharge faster. You DO have enough pools and power picks to take it. And if you dare utter "Leadership" or mutter about Hasten or Weave, you've lost. You can take them and the leaping pool... Just because you can't take them all with no accountability means nothing. Do you want to lose inherent Fitness to get easier pool picks? I doubt you do. Or maybe pushing travel powers back to level 14+? You have it so good and the way you show your gratitude is to demand more lol