TheMoncrief

How well (or poorly) do you think that would work out switched to Water Blast? I have a Water/Time Blaster I've been wondering what to do with...

My pet peeve - the way any area based enemy attack completely erases your pet AI. Like, I cannot do any Knives of Artemis mission with a MM, because they 100% ignore my commands in favor of running halfway across the map because there's a caltrops field somewhere. I guess it kind of makes sense for the MM sets that are supposed to be alive and free willed, serving you because you pay them or something. But my Robots should dang well be willing to stand in the middle of a nuclear blast if I tell them to. Heck, they *ARE* willing to do that. But god forbid I tell them to stand in a field of sharp rocks.

I know that whenever I play a character that depends specifically on controlling the enemy, nothing but Fungi lieutenants show up. Defense sets? Crystal lieutenants. The crystals are particularly annoying, because their eminators are called Quartz - the exact same name as the crystal minions. So while I'm desperately trying to find the specific Quartz enemy that is giving all enemies the massive to-hit buff, the entire spawn is brutally mauling me because they can no longer miss me when they attack. I don't actually believe that DE spawns are actually set to counter the specific solo player they are facing - but it does feel that way sometimes. They are probably my most consistently disliked enemy faction to face, at least hero side. Villain side and Praetorian side do have some even more dislikeable enemy factions, I admit.

A transparency slider would be great. The fact that my character is visible as nothing but an outline is the problem - if he was just a bit translucent, I wouldn't mind so much. Although I'd probably just turn off the transparency entirely if it were an option. If that interferes with my ability to see whether he's stealthed or not, that's on me for choosing to turn transparency off in the costume creator. Although possibly calling it "minimal FX" might not be the best name, just to signal people that it is turning off a source of actual information about your character.

And let's all be thankful that they're doing such a good job of it. Keeping inflation in check is not easy, and MMO's with full (and more than full) staff rosters of paid professionals typically do a much worse job of it than the Homecoming devs have done. I'm honestly really impressed, which is part of the reason I choose not to quibble too much with things that I personally wish were different. Like, I'd love a Winter Pack sale, but the devs are doing enough right with the economy that I'm not inclined to complain all that much.

I like the Energy Aura power set, except for one thing - my character is invisible if running Energy Cloak. I mean, I get it, the power grants full Stealth, but I don't like not being able to see my character and costume when I'm using it, and it provides too much Defense to just ignore it. Can we please get a Minimal FX option for Energy Cloak and similar powers (I think Ninjitsu has one) that provide non-suppressing Defense and Stealth in the same power, for those of us who don't feel like playing our Brutes and Scrappers as if we were roleplaying Stalkers?

Somebody has to be at the bottom, and now BM is it. It's still nowhere near as bad as Mercs used to be, but it definitely could use some work. I feel like Demons and Thugs just need to be modernized with actual enhanceable effects in their upgrade powers to bring them back to glory, but Beasts do need more than that. They were nowhere near as good as Demons and Thugs before the changes, so they really need some help.

I'm pretty sure Electric Armor still lacks any mitigation against Toxic damage. Like, at all. I like the set in theory, but man does that gaping hole really hurt when facing anything that does even moderate Toxic damage. Especially in a set that doesn't even have any +MaxHP power either.

Here's a concept somebody suggested in chat the other day. Make recharge slotted into MM pet powers function as +MaxHP for the pets instead. As it stands now, there are several pet focused sets that are very poorly suited for Mastermind use, including the Pet purple set and one of the MM ATO sets, because they include a bunch of recharge enhancement which has absolutely no effect o MM pets. This suggestion would make those sets actually useful, and would allow Masterminds to slot their pets for more survivability. No idea how hard this would be to code, nor how potentially abusive players could make it. I mean, at best it would essentially double MM pet health totals, given ED, but it would be a step in the right direction. And I don't imagine it would break the world to have some Masterminds choosing to slot a 50+5 Recharge IO in their pets to get the extra MaxHP bonus, if they wanted to use pet sets that didn't natively have any Recharge.

I would argue that Shield Defense is superior for any character concept that works with carrying around a shield. But the requirement to actually use a shield completely invalidates for any character concept that doesn't work with having a big portable wall attached to your arm.

Shield Defense is quite solid, especially if your primary is light on AoE attacks, as it comes with quite a good AoE attack of its own. It's got a decent layer of resistance, excellent positional defense, and a bit of +MaxHP. Plus the aforementioned AoE attack, and a taunt aura (even for Scrappers) that gives you a damage buff. The only real downsides to Shield Defense are its lack of Endurance support and the cosmetic requirement that your character use, you know, a shield. Willpower is decent as a basically zero effort secondary that will keep you alive through most things. It does tend to fall apart in the face of debuffs, but is respectable against pretty much anything else. Honestly, all the secondaries are at least functional. But my experience is that Shield and Willpower are the right combination of effective and fun to be worth playing even when I'm not in the mood for most of the other secondaries.

Defeat All missions are inherently annoying in the first place. I've come to accept them, but I'll never like them. Especially in outdoor maps. Most especially when they are timed. Worst of all when the mission pretends it has other goals then springs a "Defeat All" on you after you complete the actual listed mission objectives. I don't fine Freakshow to be just annoying. Yes, the endurance drain is a challenge, and the self rez can be an issue too. But it's only the Super Stunners who really strike me as pure BS, and they are usually rare enough that they don't make me hate the world.

Since your Alpha slot is an enhancement that is slotted into all of your powers, if it includes Endurance Reduction, it should have the same effect as EndRed slotted in your pet powers - which does in fact reduce the End they have to spend on their powers, as well as reducing the End you have to spend summoning them.

My Sentinel (Elec/Bio) definitely feels better. Like a character I might enjoy bringing to 50 instead of doing so merely as a chore for completion sake. That said, it was already a set combo that was, IIRC, pretty solid by Sentinel standards. No idea if the changes can redeem any of the under-performing (even by pre-patch Sentinel standards) combinations.

I get why Willpower isn't at the top - it's not that tough on a Scrapper, and doesn't do much to enhance damage output either. Still seems wrong to lump it at the bottom with /Regen. /WP is significantly tougher than /Regen, in my experience. It does fall apart in the face of debuffs, though. Which might be why it does so poorly in the tier list - debuffs are not uncommon in high end content.

Wait, it only does cold damage, or only checks cold defense? There is a non-trivial difference, as resistance based sets like Electric Armor are not getting any coverage for their weaknesses (Toxic in the case of Elec) and having all Toxic attacks be 100% Toxic damage is a non-trivial nerf to sets that already have some issues.

If I could customize my robots, I'd make them look like Clockwork. Primal Earth Clockwork with the wind-up toy look. If I could customize my beasts, the tier 3 would be a bear instead of another wolf. I mean, lots of animal looks I'd like, but I really think right now it's weird that you get wolves, then lionesses, then another wolf. Either all wolves, all lions, or 3 different kinds of animals.

So, I really like the looks of the Sky Raider jetpacks - the ones the Wing Raiders use, which are also the ones you get as temporary powers from Mayhem and Safeguard missions in Atlas Park. I have a tech themed character who flies anyway, and decided to use that as his flight costume, except... it doesn't exist! There are several other jetpack options, but not the Sky Raider jetpack, or at least not that I've seen. Am I missing it? Is it hidden somewhere, or I'm just going blind and sliding right past it? Or is it a costume piece I have to unlock somehow? Or is it really just not available for use in player costumes? If it's not available, is it possible to add it? Obviously, that would be a request from the devs, and as a non-programmer I can't say with any certainty how hard it would be to add, but it ought to be relatively simple. Players can *ALREADY* use it as a temporary power, so the art and tech to show it on a player's back obviously already exists, as does the tech to have jetpacks in general as costume parts. Still, I suppose the art might be hidden deep in the code somewhere ant not be easy to extract or convert for use as a costume piece.

SR, Nin, and Shield are also being entirely unimpacted by the attack typing defense changes. A defensive hole against Psi and/or Toxic is becoming more significant in Page 4, because Psi and Toxic typed attacks will no longer check other typed defenses - only Psi or Toxic defense and their positional component. This change would make typed defense sets much weaker than they were previously as they go from fairly significant practical defense against most Psi and Toxic typed attacks because of their S/L components, to absolutely none. Thus, typed defense sets are getting their holes somewhat patched up. Essentially, instead of having capped defense against most Psi attacks because they mostly have S/L components and Invincibility and Tough Hide both offer S/L defense, Invulnerability will have (presumably) lower defense against those attacks because of the added Psi defense, but it will apply to all Psi attacks instead of only those that are purely Psi typed. Is it properly balanced? No idea. But the intent should be pretty plain. And since SR, Nin, and Shield aren't touched by the nerf, they also aren't being touched by the compensating buffs.

Heck, most of us can barely even begin to figure out why we do what *WE* do, much less anybody else.

Universally, Regeneration rate, Recovery rate, and Endurance consumption. Situationally, positional or typed defenses and damage bonus.

Sadly, neither NInjitsu nor Energy Aura appears to have a no-fx option for their stealth powers.

Is there a way to make Stealth and Invisibility powers less, well, stealthy and/or invisible? I put some effort into my costumes, and not being able to see them when I'm running around in the game is kind of off-putting. I don't mind a slight translucency, but these powers seem to make my character into not much more than an outline. I'm specifically asking about Energy Aura and Ninjitsu, where the stealth powers are an important part of the defense of the set, so skipping them isn't really an option. At least not a good one. I'm less fussed about the powers in the Concealment pool or Illusion Control, where the invisibility is really the whole point. Sorry if this is the wrong forum, I couldn't find a forum for costume discussions.

The sentinel is for people who like having ranged combat options but don't like being made of glass until they can kit themselves out wit set bonuses. It is particularly for people who cannot stand playing without status protection. The AT is probably somewhat undertuned, but taken for what it is, it's not without merit. There's fun to be had playing a Sentinel, you just cannot compare yourself to better tuned damage dealers. Or play with people who will do the comparison for you. Bio Armor as a secondary really helps, as it's respectably tough when soloing but gives a useful damage buff when you have teammates to take some of the aggro.

Katana/Super Reflexes. Felt like I was a ninja long before Ninjutsu was a set. And I still take Elude, because being completely free from toggles, even if only briefly, just feels so dang good. I miss perma-Elude, though.