AerialAssault

It's okay to admit that you're burned out. God knows the honeymoon period of City of Heroes is back?! was long and euphoric, but like many things, the wonder wears off after a while. City of Heroes has long suffered from a problem that a lot of older MMOs are now running into; it's figured out. Everyone knows the meta, the speedrun strats. It's down to a science and distilled to such a degree that a numbskull like me can, eventually, completely trivialize the game. All you can do is find new experiences. An AT/Set combo you might have never considered. Maybe you'll only do story arc content, or make sure you clear all of zone's story missions before moving on. Badge hunting alone could keep you tied up for hundreds of hours. No game is infinite, and no, the AE doesn't count. At some point, you'll have seen everything, or if you haven't seen it, you can probably make an educated guess. It comes with age and experience. So take a break, a long break if you need to. But you'll get The Itch eventually, and while some things might have changed here or there, it'll still be the same game when you get back. And if it's a permanent break then you are legally and morally obliged to redistribute your wealth, mostly to me because making character builds ain't cheap. @Aerial Assault on Everlasting, thank you for your generosity.

I should do my civic duty and report back with some testing. I made a Regen/Dark Melee Tanker and kitted them out with the usual accolades, a suite of T3 Incarnates and a modest but not extravagant build. I'm by no means a master crafter when it comes to builds, it was hastily thrown together. It was a build that someone who plays somewhat casually could reasonably attain, given time. (By casual I mean, hops on for a few hours, runs a TF or two and flips the merits into quick cash). I am by no means a top-tier player, so I just did a few missions at +1/x6 w/ bosses. It was very strong with a lot of sustain potential. The only issue I had was with Arachnos and their portable Mu battery drainers. Things might be different at +4/x8 but I figure the Dev team want to know how the set performs at all tiers of play, not just the absolute maximum. Ailment Resistance in particular synergizes well with Siphon Life. At 3.2k health, Siphon Life was healing for ~500hp every 4 seconds with my build. A competent build maker could probably push that even higher. That said, since I've never played Dark Melee on a Tanker I wouldn't know if that was a significant amount or not, but it was enough healing that I barely needed to touch the self-heal powers. While it wasn't exactly fast at clearing mobs, I felt little to no danger in doing so. Again, I caveat this with the fact that I tend to play casually, so, take from this what you will. I sincerely encourage everyone to test it out because, to me, it feels very strong and has a lot of potential. I would consider it an upgrade to the current Regeneration set.

For the OP's benefit, there are other servers out there which will let you do that stuff because they're making no attempt to play 'above board'. I won't mention which ones specifically, but they are out there. If playing as copyrighted characters is a deal breaker then I would suggest they or anyone else like them to strongly consider migrating over. However, Homecoming has, from day 1, implemented a stringent "No copyrighted characters" rule. I promise you, this isn't some mandala effect or site-wide gaslighting attempt. It has always been this way. If you're in doubt as to whether something would be considered in breach of that rule, you can always reach out to a GM or, ask yourself "Would any reasonable person be aware that I am lifting this character's name & appearance from a copyrighted IP?" and if the answer is "Yes", then it's probably for the best to abandon that idea.

Smart mission design can coerce players into, well, playing the mission. Penelope Yin Task Force is a good example of this. Four missions, short and sweet, each one no more than a few minutes long on a half-way competent group. A lot of people don't realise that you don't actually have to defeat all the enemies on the map, so you could, with a well-coordinated team, "stealth" them. However, those objectives are pretty much all hostage rescues, so anyone who wants to 'speed' needs to be confident in their ability to take down the enemies around the hostage. Furthermore, the maps are presented in a very linear fashion; there are no side-routes, short cuts or 'optimal' paths. There is just one way to go. Positron Task Force is similar in this regard, but typically takes longer due to the lower level and, in my opinion, much tougher enemies. Again, these task forces use multiple objectives which are hard to be stealthed or sped through. Bad examples of this are Synapse & Citadel. Just endless slogs of Defeat Alls in huge, sprawling maps. 'Speed' in these task forces means literally killing everything as quick as possible, I can forgive any team choosing the speed through the missions which aren't Defeat Alls. Ambushes are a lazy solution to something which isn't really that much of a problem, and a terrible one at that. I have a long history with complaining about how Ambushes work in CoX, and it boils down to this: Ambush AI isn't consistent. I think Ambushes have a time and a place and that certainly isn't when the players complete any objective. As @Greycat mentioned above, Praetoria operates on this for a lot of the story content and it gets very dull, very fast. Clicked a glowy? Ambush. Cutscene? Ambush. Opened a door? Ambush. Loaded into the mission? Ambush. Ambush? Ambush. In summary: I don't necessarily think it's wrong to dissuade 'speed' Task Forces (there's something to be said about making skippable content within a mission, surely you want all of the mission to be engaging?), but if it is going to be done it would be better to do it in a more intelligent manner through clever mission design that everyone can benefit from, rather than a 'forced engagement' setting.

Personally, I don't think the devs should remove a feature that was heavily requested, that they spent hours, days, months of working on.

I don't RP on City of Heroes nearly as much as I used to. Call it burnout or whatever. I've been glancing this way more recently. Maybe 'The Itch', has started to form again, and the new updates are certainly piquing my interest some more. But, when I do RP, it's (almost) always in-game. Not that I haven't engaged in other activities, but my personal feelings are that, if I want to roleplay in City of Heroes, then it's almost certainly going to be in-game. Most of my in-game RP, however, will usually be with familiar faces. I'm not adverse to RP'ing with strangers, but with my limited time I'm more inclined to play with people whose company I enjoy. Perhaps that makes me an introvert, and maybe I'll branch out again. Some day.

Skill issue. If a simpleton with a low C grade in maths like me can crack the Endurance code then anyone can. For any new starters struggling then there is General and Help, with no shortage of helpful folks to guide the way. Unlike ME, who had to figure it out myself, uphill, both ways, in the snow, against the wind with nary a candle for light! And I LOVED it.

Me trying to follow this thread I'd love to see more of War Witch, but in her own adventures. I like the Freedom Phalanx but they get enough spotlight.

I think even if everyone followed the 'RP Code' drama is inevitable. Roleplayers, by and large, are invested and passionate about their characters and projects. That passion can cause friction between parties where passion is not reciprocated or even challenged, which leads to fallout and drama. At this point we're talking about sociology, so I'll stop there. I don't see anything inherently wrong with this. It's the nature of the beast. It's upsetting for sure, but you'd sooner turn the ocean waves backwards than change it.

I don't think AR needs fixing. Fixing implies that it is wrong or broken, it's neither of those things, but I agree it could use some tweaks. Beanbag, I think, could do with a damage boost, at least on par with, or just below Cosmic Burst. I think Ignite's utility could be improved by having it apply 50% of it's total damage as a DoT to enemies who are hit by or walk into the fire patch, and also reduce the flee time by half. As for the Lethal damage aspect, I don't see a damage type change as necessary. Perhaps Assault Rifle can have an inherent mini-crit passive called Headshot, or something to that effect.

+4 Synapse has been classified as an act of self-harm or a form of aggravated assault in international law. Please contact your local authorities if you see someone attempting +4 Synapse.

This gets a down-thumb from me because I've scammed more than a few people out of enhancements when I told them that if they want me to slot KB->KD so bad they can buy the enhancements for me and at this point it's financed some of my character's builds. Don't take this source of income from me.

He later went on to nuke Praetoria so I wouldn't say that thinking bad things about his underlings is his worst take.

Next time someone asks me to slot a KB>KD I'm going to slot some extra knockback in, just to make a point.

If anyone asks me to slot a KB-KD enhancement I tell them to buy me one first. In the one scenario someone did, I slotted it, then immediately unslotted it and sold it once the Task Force was done. If you're reading this, Random Task Force Member, I do not apologise. Thanks for the money.