Psi-bolt

Cole meets you in Primal Earth and doesn’t countermand the order made by Marchand.

I once would have agreed with you, but a person in this particular situation has a different issue that precludes them from staying in Praetoria. You're told by Marchand to go to Primal Earth. If you're willing to be a good soldier for the regime, then you do as you're told. You were told to go to Primal Earth and show the primals that all Praetorians aren't evil goatee versions of themselves. That's what your job was. Those higher in the food chain sent you there. You're an agent of the regime. You support the regime even if you would prefer to stay home. By the time you reach 50 and watch as the primal Incarnates tear down your home, I don't see how you have a choice at that point. There will be no regime to support soon. You can't support Cole's vision any longer. It's like the USSR. Even if you truly believed in Lenin's vision for the country and wanted to keep trying to make it work, the USSR collapsed (yes, I know it's not an exact analogy). Praetoria is in even worse shape because Hamidon is going to conquer the world. You have to adapt to the circumstance. This is very realistic. Sometimes, no matter how much you might wish it to be different, your home is taken away from you. For the hyper loyal Praetorians that's the story of their life. First they are sent far from home to a strange world to live with the "enemy." And then, despite all you believed to be true, the enemy won. Utopia was lost. Frankly, it's much more poignant that they probably intended. Hence the many, many requests over the years to allow Praetorians to stay and defend their home. I understand the idea, but Praetoria was neither worth defending nor possible to defend.

Because ultimately Cole's vision is corrupt totalitarianism. As a super-powered individual, it is presumed that you have finally accepted that truth since every single path makes this crystal clear. And then you have some options: Try to make Cole's vision of a utopia real even if Cole's motives/real goals are wrong. (this is somewhat the thought process of a Responsibility character) You really can't do that "in the system". There's no path by which you can reform the system because all power flows to Cole. Even his minions, the Praetors work their own schemes in the shadows. See that Cole is toppled and let Praetorians have a chance at real freedom. This works neatly into becoming a hero and going to Paragon. It's most closely associated with the Wardens. Game recognizes game and you decide that Cole's real goals are bad, but hey he does get all the statutes and people call him Emperor. Not a bad gig if you can get it. So you try and get it for yourself. Just like with the Responsibility characters there really no way for you to get that power for yourself while Cole exists, so toppling him is the only way. Obviously a Power path character would go to Paragon to seek out a means to get their own slice of the pie, either as a hero or a villain (Rogue more like). Finally, you always knew that Cole was full of it. You always knew that this corrupt society would fall. The revolution was not televised. So you bounce. Either to leave the sheep to their slaughter, or to come back and watch Cole fall. I really don't see how any selfless or self-interested person stays with Cole after the story arcs. The only motivation I could see that make sense is that you personally love Cole and don't seek power for yourself. That's possible, but hard to fit a narrative around.

But he didn't keep the city safe, he managed the propaganda that the City was safe. There's a big difference. Malignant narcissist authoritarians do that. If they can't have their way, they aren't willing to suffer that people have freedom that doesn't adhere to their vision. When Going Rogue came out, I honestly couldn't see how any reasonable person could believe that Cole's vision was correct. Certain real life events in the interim has shown me that people are willing to accept the loss of their freedoms for the illusion of economic gain and/or safety. For those reasons, I have really come to appreciate the Praetorian stories much more than I did when I first played through them.

I think this is the right solution. There no real gameplay to looking around for random glowies.

If I were on a normal PUG just doing a TF or whatever and someone just told me straight out that they are having fun using KB, I wouldn't be annoyed, I would think that was awesome. Personally, I find it more tiresome when folks try to convince me that they are being "effective" using KB. No, you're not. You are having a good time and that's what we play games for. I feel exactly the same way when I see a non-tank using Fold Space constantly. If you're having fun, that's the best and only excuse needed.

Is that true though? I don't know that anyone wants realism in this game in particular. I don't expect the OP to care, a year later, about my response, but I would tend to just be honest. Say something like, "I'm sorry [insert player name here], I play an Energy Blaster specifically because I enjoy KB and want to use it. I understand that it can be annoying sometimes, but it's really fun to cause enemies to go flying and I hope you can indulge me." I wish more folks could just be honest about this. There really isn't many use cases for KB in relation to KD or KU. KD/KU is just better to keep things in place. The reason to use KB is that it's fun. If you're going to make the team go slower, then lean in for goodness sakes. Send crap flying. Be an engine of chaos. Don't hover over the spawn to effectively just cause KD. If you're going to be a KB player go for it.

The only one that is really annoying is the Siege mission, which is mitigated on Excelsior, at least, by BAFs being run quite regularly. If the Siege mission gave a badge (and thus was in Ouro) it would be fine IMO.

That's fair, but that wasn't what I suggested. I specifically just want to make Tina a level 40-50 contact. Not just to deal with outleveling but because her missions "feel" (subjective I know) more appropriate to the end game. In that respect, you would still have to do her arc without the Ouro lockout.

I guess it's my turn to be a contrarian, but I do think it's nice that there are some things that you have to earn in the game, even if that's really easy.

You are correct, but it's an eleven part story arc (I have it down to a science, but not everyone does). The one part with Ouroboros is that you're locked out of everything else until you complete it. It's why when I'm leveling an alt I like to ensure that I get to Tina before 45. But you really didn't respond to the idea, do you have an issue with extending Tina's range or are you just being contrarian (not that there's anything wrong with being contrarian, it allows folks to refine their ideas)?

May I suggest a friendly amendment: I think regarding Siege it would be sufficient if Maria was coded to always give the Siege mission first instead of the Infernal stand alone mission. Infernal is already in the story arc. Regarding Anti-Matter, I really, really think it would be better if Tina McIntyre had a 10 level range from 40-50. She's a pretty unique contact in that level range in that her main story arc has to do with the threat of the Praetorians just like Maria. There's also a precedent because the RWZ story arcs can be done from 35 onwards. To be honest, I think that Portal Jockey is already a pretty easy accolade to get and don't think it's a big problem that you have to do two story arcs to get Dimensional Warder. I don't have a problem with the OP suggestion exactly, but I think the biggest problem is the outleveling of Tina's arc.

A toggle that allows me to change all of my KB powers to KD. Kheldians to get similar levels of mez protection as Bane Spiders do. Shorten the Synapse (or break into two like Positron) and Citadel Task Forces. Give Force Field and Sonic, sleep protection in their AoE protection toggle. [EDIT] Assign Tina McIntyre and Maria Jenkins a specific portal in Portal Corp so we aren't running all over the place [EDIT] Reduce cooldown of Team Transporter, Assemble the Team, and Mission Transporter to 10 minutes [EDIT] Allow pure heroes/villains to visit Rogue Isles/Paragon City respectively, even if it's very dangerous (like the drones will target you) [EDIT] Give VEATs, Sentinel Epic power pools

Sorta on-topic, but honestly the game is in such a good state right now IMO. This last major patch really put the game in a good place.

I was thinking about new Incarnate slots and what they could do and what if, new incarnate slots improved the current incarnate powers. Something like an Alpha slot but it only works on Interface, Judgment, Destiny and Lore. Genesis Trees Force (Improves Damage & Damage Resistance/Healing [for Destiny]) Alacrity (Improves Recharge of the activatable powers & Proc Rate [for Interface]) Precision (Improves base Accuracy & Area of Effect [for Destiny]) Substance (Improves all secondary effects) Obviously, this would have to be heavily workshopped, but you get the general idea.

You joke, but could you imagine how awesome it would be if you could instantly build a small cottage that had services like crafting stations, stores, trainers and the like? 😌

What if someone genuinely enjoys maximizing their DPS, efficiency, etc.? Why is your idea of fun more valid than theirs? Personally, I'm somewhat in the middle. I don't do pylon tests and all that nor do I obsessively min-max my characters, but at the end of the day, this is a game. It's not unreasonable to just want to do really well at the game. This response doesn't really relate to KB, but more to the general idea that there is a "right" way to have fun. Back to KB, this is why I would like a KB-KD toggle that you can buy at START. That way people can decide for themselves how they want to play. Yes, some team leaders and some teammates will ostracize those who won't use the toggle. That's OK, that's those players enjoying the game the way they like to play. Nothing stops the KB player from starting their own team, like you suggest here.

I guess it depends on what folks consider a significant build sacrifice. I usually don't spend a lot of time min-maxing for proc activation rates to be honest, so I might be leaving some offense on the table. I usually find the sacrifices needed to stack recharge very high to be more distasteful, recognizing that recharge helps both offensively and defensively.

I more or less agree with this statement. I will say that stacking Smashing and Lethal resists to max is usually extremely easy and doesn't require any significant build sacrifices. Just doing that, I find that I'm around 30-40% resists in everything else without trying to be.

This is not a criticism, but I think your post and especially the highlighted statements reflects how much of a change in approach Regen needs over other sets. Everyone has their own playstyle and like I said, I'm not criticizing yours. But for me Regen is near perfect in its current iteration. The way I build is to stack as much resistance and regen as possible with additional HP on the side (although I don't build for it). I always cap out Smashing and Lethal resists and get as far as I can with the reset. For most of the my regens I ignore defense altogether (although my Scrapper does have an experimental build that does very well.) I don't think the set is particularly recharge dependent these days. With SOs maybe, but certainly not with an IO build that layers defensive options. I have a Regen in every AT that allows it, and while most of them have all the powers, I barely have to activate the click powers. Most of the time I only use MoG when I know I'm dealing with a large amount of non-Smashing, Lethal damage. My Regen Tanker doesn't even have Reconstruction and I don't miss it. Even where I do have it, I don't always treat it as a burst heal. I have one character that has a resist set slotted for the set bonuses. One of the things I love about Regen is that it requires a completely different approach than other sets and it really pays off when you go in a different direction.

Not to hijack the thread, but I always wondered why they didn't give Dominators pure Blast secondaries. I just don't get the idea of forcing squishy characters into melee range. Blasters I can kinda see it because they have a choice and it's goes along with the suicidal playstyle.

Reconstruction can be pretty easily skipped. Low level, it's helpful, but not up enough to delay attacks or other powers like Tough. Reconstruction is a good power but once you layer on enough resists, you won't need a burst heal as often. I usually still take Reconstruction very late in the build because I often run out of powers I want at the 47 and 49 slots.

You say that like it's a bad thing. 😁 Seriously though, I would love the God-tier opponent to go along with them.

I feel that, but I think we could have more Incarnate abilities that are passives like Alpha and Interface. I understand the whole theory of having super strong flashy powers that you can only use every so often, but heck I would love moderate boosts that are on all the time. Even if they were a toggle.

I somewhat jokingly need to thank KB for putting my altoholism in remission for awhile. This last week, especially with Market Crash as the WST, I have been playing my many level 50s and having a blast. I really wanted my next alt to be some sort of ranged blast having character but I have run out of options that don't have an AoE KB power. I don't want to pay the slot tax so I've been working on T4s Incarnate powers and earning money. Nice thing is when I can't wait any longer, the next alt will start with a nice inheritance.