Timeshadow

Not opposed to a VEAT inherent rework. It's definitely not a super impactful part of their kit, especially for the more melee-focused branches. That being said, I think it's a question of triage. I'm sure the VEAT rebalance was no small undertaking for the Devs. Understanding they can only do so much at once, I'm not salty that Khelds had to wait. If VEATs get another look when our turn comes, cool.

Ok. That's what I thought. Had me questioning my 16 years of play time for a second there 😅

Wait. Is this a bug? I've always thought it was intentional.

The easiest way would be to get a +Stealth IO from the Celerity set and put it in Sprint. Combined with Shinobi-Iri, you'll be invisible to most mobs. I don't remember if SI stacks with stealth from other powers like Super Speed or the Concealment pool. If it does, then you could take one of those powers to achieve the same effect.

Recently, I've found myself a little frustrated with some of our newer players. I understand we're all here to have fun and this community is exceedingly friendly by MMORPG standards, but I've run into several (seemingly) new players who just won't listen. For example, there's that last mission on Posi1 with the CoT ambush at city hall. Multiple times now, I or a teammate have said, "Stay away from the door until we clear the stairs." Almost without fail these days, somebody hops on over to it and triggers the ambush anyway. Sometimes we wipe, sometimes we don't, but I've gotten in the habit of looking to see who does it. More often than not, the character creation date is the same as whatever the current day happens to be (I know this isn't a definitive sign of a newbie. I usually check other things like badges to be more certain). So I come to you asking for any strategies you've found for communicating these kinds of nuances to our newer heroes and villains. Trying to maintain our welcoming reputation without pulling my hair out.

I'll add one thing to what the others have said. Sometimes, the game can get hung up on a macro if you're in the middle of an animation. Normally, this would have the opposite effect of what you're describing (The tray would change but you wouldn't change form) but it's something to look out for.

Always good to see a fellow Kheld come back from deep space. We're still here doing what we do best, confusing the hell outta the uninitiated 🤪

Honest opinion/theory? Because a lot of people aren't great at creativity. When making anything, most people start with an idea of some sort and then just shoehorn in a bunch of derivatives from things they've seen, heard, or read someplace else. For example, the recent popularity of the Amazon Series, Hazbin Hotel (Which is all about the conflict between Heaven and Hell) has probably influenced a good number of newer players in some way. Thus, they pick the powersets they want to play and wrap the combo around an angelic/demonic character without any real consideration of the fact it's FoTM material. They don't really care about how creative or derivative it might be, they just want to have fun with something. As always, that's just my POV. YMMV.

@FlammeFatale Thanks for the analysis. Always good to see some data backing up a point. I should be clear. I'm not saying Lethal based sets are bad by any stretch. I've just noticed when playing them that it seems to take an extra attack or two to down some mobs at higher levels. This isn't an issue on teams since there's a wide variety of damage types flying around all the time. As for solo play, I generally keep my settings pretty tame. +2 is usually as high as I'll go once I've got my build situated and comfortably slotted with IOs. Nothing against people who enjoy running at +4/x8 but I've never been a fan of games where enemies are just bullet sponges. XP aside, the slog just isn't fun for me to handle alone.

Awesome! Thanks for the builds, y'all. While I generally avoid sets that primarily deal Lethal damage because of the widespread resistance, I'm open to putting up with it for the theme. The character is magic origin but focuses on mystical weapons as opposed to things that could be considered spells or energy attacks. I'm open to considering other primaries if you have suggestions.

Perfect. I'll definitely get those set up ASAP. Any other tricks (See what I did there? 😝) I should know before taking the plunge?

Thanks for your responses, guys. @Carnifax I was just reading your thread the other day. From my understanding, your macros basically turn TA's location-based AoEs into targeted AoEs, which sounds much more enjoyable than having to manually place the patches all the time. Do I have that right? @evetsleep Really appreciate the insight on Archery. I've heard the set can be kinda wimpy in terms of damage, largely due to some powers having longer animation times and the general suck of majority Lethal damage. Knowing that Scourge effects Rain of Arrows is a big plus in favor of a Corr. One of the things that's really stumped me is slotting. Should I focus primarily on +Rech to keep my debuffs available, +Def for more survivability, or some kinda frankenslotting to maximize the impact of my effects?

Greetings, Defenders. For the first time in a long time, I'm considering rolling a support AT. My very first character back in 2008 was a Defender but I found out pretty quickly that DPS was more my style. So what's brought me back to the more ally oriented side of things? A great concept, of course! I've got an idea for an Archery/TA toon but I'm torn between rolling it as a Defender or a Corr. I've heard about (and seen) the nasty debuffs TA can put out and I'd like to have at least one other toon (Besides my Khelds) that can do more for the team than just straight up kill stuff. I understand that the basic difference is a simple one. Defenders have stronger debuff values while Corrs are more damage focused. But that seems overly simplistic. What, specifically, am I missing and how do I choose between the two?

While I definitely like the concept of having form-specific powers automatically switch the character into their requisite form, I don't think the engine supports this. Maybe my binds are just out of date but I have to press the bound key twice, once to drop the form and a second time to fire off whatever power I want. My understanding is that's a hard technical limitation that can't be bypassed but I could be wrong. I have to agree with @Laucianna on the other proposed solutions to this. Frankly, I'm not sure complexity as a barrier to entry is necessarily a bad thing, provided that complexity isn't arbitrary and serves to give the AT a unique identity. I'd say Khelds definitely do this. You can play one in a more simplistic manner without being gimped but you won't be capable of the more high end feats that experienced players can pull off. IMO, that's less an issue than it is good management of the skill floor/ceiling that tends to be inherent in RPG shapeshifters. As for the lackluster WS Human form, I think that's another example of what distinguishes WS from PB. A PB can stay in Human form their whole career if they want. The only thing they lose by doing so is utility. WS is a different design philosophy altogether. All three forms are intended to be parts of a whole, giving the AT a more fluid playstyle than its counterpart. Do you have to get good at the form dance? Yeah, but that's the point. If someone wants to play Human-only without impacting the AT's core gameplay loop, PB is right there. The inherent is a problem, for sure. It's useless solo and, depending on team comp, might as well not exist in groups either. I'm not entirely sure what to do with it but my immediate thought is to have it buff you based on the number of mobs in your immediate vicinity. Maybe have different enemy classes (Minion, Lt, Boss, etc.) provide the different types of buffs? I dunno. Just a thought.

I think the larger issue with underwater design is that it's not fun. Plenty of MMORPGs have tried to do 3D combat underwater and it usually flops with the player base. Most famously, Blizzard developed a whole underwater zone for WoW a while back. It did not go over well. If you think about it, underwater movement would likely be similar to flying. That probably works ok for ranged toons but if you've ever tried to have a midair duel as melee, you know it's significantly less enjoyable.