AerialAssault

To explain, Hasten is a strong power. Again, no denying this. It's a power that any character, any build, any set could take and say "Yeah, that was a good pick." Even Claws/Willpower, which I mentioned earlier, doesn't need Hasten in any way, could take it and not be a waste of a power. Something with that level of power and utility needs a drawback, especially if any character can take it. That cost is a paltry one power pick, and using up one of their power pools (and then maybe two enhancement slots, really breaking the bank on this one). It's pretty easy to take that into account when building a character. By contrast, Stamina was not as powerful or impactful as Hasten. It worked out more like an arbitrary tax. I think if Hasten were a new power being introduced today, it would probably have a 1 Speed pool power prerequisite. When I say that it must be assumed that Hasten will be used, let me use an analogy; if you give someone the keys to a sports car, at some point, sooner or later, they will drive that car. So, if everyone has the Hasten power by default, we must assume that it is going to be used. Even an unslotted Hasten will provide a strong benefit to the character using it. And thus, we then need to take that into account in the future of the game, potentially requiring a lot of back-end fixing to ensure the game remains challenging. Again, it seems odd that you want the game to be more challenging (and there is nothing wrong with that, you'll find a lot of people here agree) but also want to have the Hasten power for free. So, to remain challenging the game would have to be worked up to account for Hasten. It sounds to me like two steps forward, two steps back.

If everyone has Hasten, then you have to assume that everyone will be running it, which means some powers may/will have to be rebalanced. You can say 'People don't have to use it', but you have to assume that they will with something as powerful as Hasten. You say yourself that people are upset that the game is too easy. Giving everyone easy access to Hasten would push the game further into the 'Too Easy' side. It seems counter-productive to make the game more challenging by .. giving everyone Hasten? To cut a long and drawn out story short, I don't buy 'But everyone takes it!' as a valid reason to make Hasten inherent. That's the way I feel, and personally, I haven't read a convincing argument otherwise. The most I could warrant is having it not take up a Pool Power selection.

Burn is an exception, not the rule. If I remember correctly, Burn used to make enemies run away, but this was massively counterintuitive for a melee class to make enemies run away from them. Similarly, enemies will try to run out of Caltrops rather than stand in them. It's probably one of the only 'smart' things for AI to do (not stand in auto-hit damage patches).

Let's talk about one of the other suggestions from the OP that surely won't start anything controversial... Buff Regen.

Fortunately, I started playing a few issues after the IO system came out. Back before then? Yeah, I can see why it would be popular. I picked it up on my characters because, back then, I hadn't realized the value of simply slotting Invention IO EndRedux into powers, which is what I do now rather than waste slots on Stamina. Invention IO's are my go-to these days, thinking back on all the inf wasted on SO/DO's makes my stomach curl. To keep this on topic, it's why I don't see Hasten as a must-have pick. Usually, two or three Invention IO Recharge enhancements do the trick for me. On my Mind/Traps Controller, Hasten is a massive pick to take because /Traps has a lot of long cooldown powers. On my AR/Dev Blaster? Not as necessary.

As @Outrider_01 said, Stamina and Hasten are not close to being comparable. It would be dishonest to say that they both have similar impact. Fitness was a trash power pool. Looking back on it now, I don't know why I ever bothered with it. If we're going to give players powers simply because they're 'popular', will that mean inherent Combat Jumping? Manoeuvres? Tough & Weave? By giving players these for free, you're reducing player agency in how they build their characters, which includes not taking something which might be considered 'meta'. A lot of people also complain that the game is too easy, giving all players Hasten is not productive for the balance of the game, and you can say 'well don't use it', but if you give something to players you have to assume that it will be used.

What if enemies hit by Ignite were hit with a burn DoT? The fire patch itself could inflict the burn on any enemies that wandered into it afterwards. The DoT would, of course, not stack and would last about as long as the fire patch does.

I think the thing to take in with Hasten is that it is a powerful choice. There is no denying this. For such a power, there needs to be a trade-off, and like most powers that trade-off is spending one of your limited power selections. I feel that this trade-off should remain. It could be it's own non-pool power that requires a power pick, but doesn't take up a Pool slot.

I don't believe that inherent Hasten, or Hasten in every travel pool would be productive for the balance of the game. I also strongly disagree that it is 'mandatory' to play the game. I have more characters without it than with it, and they're just fine. Even at the highest tier of play, Hasten isn't a requirement. It's only really of use to characters who have long cooldowns. A Claws/Willpower Scrapper definitely does not need Hasten. I don't know what kind of missions you're doing, or who you're playing with, but I've never been questioned or challenged on my use (or lack thereof) of Hasten. As an aside, there are plenty of characters with Hasten that still suck. Hasten isn't a flipped switch between 'Good build' and 'Bad build'. I just do not believe it is the wonder weapon people say it is. As much of a meme that Regen is, in my own experiences it isn't nearly half as bad as people claim it to be. Sure, it's not close to it's glory days, but those days were always numbered. Could it do with a brush up? Yeah, sure, I won't say no to that. But I feel that if people gave it a genuine chance and see it for it's own worth, they'll find something fun to play.

The Cottage Rule should always be a taken as a guide and not absolute law. Homecoming can be considered under active development. This means things will change, and anything could be subject to change. As some things are changed, new issues are discovered and brought to light. So it goes, so it goes. Homecoming is not a time capsule, nor a snapshot of the game as it was at Shutdown. It's more and better than that. It means some people are going to be happy with the changes that are made, and some people won't be. The Titan Weapons rework upset a lot of people, but it is ultimately for the better that a wildly overperforming set be reined in. If you want no-holds barred, balanced be damned gameplay, that's what WeHaveCake is for. In the end, Homecoming have an idea of where they want 'The Balance' to be. Not everyone will agree. That's fine. That's life.

I think expanding pools to 5 rather than 4 could be a good experiment at the least. Making more pool powers inherent? I can't really agree on that, especially with some of the more powerful pool powers. I also agree that some of the pools need a little extra something, but I think we have to be frank with ourselves; some pools are simply going to be more desirable than others, and without severely tipping the scales of balance it would be impossible to make them all equally desirable.

Talons of Vengeance also have some kind of earth upheaval power which does considerable damage and debuff. If you pull multiple groups you better hope you steamroll them fast otherwise this and the lightning power you mentioned will start overlapping, and then you'll get flattened.

For existing sets? I can't really argue with a straight up buff but I can see much twisting of teeth. New enhancements however? Now we're talking!

Counter-point: NPCs aren't players and shouldn't be treated as such.

Pass on this one. Giving everyone 9 points of KB protection is a criminally bad idea. I don't buy "well don't use it" as a counterpoint when the original post makes out that it's 'too good not to take'. If it's too good not to take, then why not use it at any given chance? You have to assume that if it is given, it will be used. At that point, you may as well remove KB from enemies altogether. If you're struggling with KB I'd suggest slotting 1, maybe 2 Steadfast Protection enhancements (you can also use Blessing of the Zephyr. You're probably not multi-slotting your travel power unless you're making a meme build). You do give up two enhancement slots, but compared to three power slots that's an easy deal to make. If you need more than 2 then your build is probably not cut out for taking on harder difficulties.

Hell yeah. I'm always down for more enhancements.

Paragon Protectors are one of those enemies where, if you have the right counters available, you can trivialize them. Not everyone has those available, but that's the case with just about everything. One team's steamroll is another team's brick wall. If I were to change something, I would probably change the duration to something less mind-numbing.

Expand the Titles so that any title may be put into any slot, as well as remove origin and alignment exclusivity. The title screen would likely have to be changed to a drop-down menu rather than a list, which is what I imagine would be the hard part. Suggestion over.

To add on to this, a lot of the feedback given during the open beta on Brainstorm did make it's way into the final cut. And a lot of it didn't. That's the nature of game development. If you want to get more involved, I would highly suggest doing some testing when Page 2 goes on to open beta and test out content using less-than-optimised builds so that this can be studied before it hits Live.

Perhaps a Min-Max Buy Price option? It would require some dreaded UI work to do but y'know.

It is said that if Regen were to be buffed an ancient and powerful evil would be unleashed upon this cursed land and usher in an age of darkness. So sure 🙂

Really good discussion all around. I'll share my thoughts. The Live game was, as we know, balanced with SO's in mind. Even the newer arcs are perfectly doable with only SO slotting. They might not be easy, but certainly doable. This should not change. All content that we have now should, in effect, be frozen in place unless there is a compelling argument for a total overhaul. Newer content provided by HC, I suspect, might not be balanced around SO's. I'm talking about the two new Story Arcs. This is only my theory, based on my own experiences. If any of the Dev team have said, or are willing to say otherwise, I'll stand corrected. On the test server, I tested the Hero-side arc with a fully tricked out build on a challenging setting (+2/x4) with a friend who was not tricked out. And my character had no issues except from the rave segment, which has since been tweaked. However, on the villain-side arc using only non-set Common IO's, I found it suitably challenging that I had to knock the difficulty down two notches. Does this mean anything? Maybe that I suck at the game, but I feel that this newer, post-Live content is generally more difficult than any of it's peers, that I believe it is balanced with Common IOs in mind. To be honest, if that is the way newer content goes, then I am in favour of it. But only for newer content or any revamped Task Forces.

What happens when the population of this quarantine shard (because that's what this suggestion is, let's face it) are upset because new content isn't made for them? Do we make a new dev team specifically for them? What happens if this 'power-gamer community' has a split over a proposed change? Do they make a new server for those people as well? The second we start tailoring for people's preferred playing style is the second the flood gates open, and people's entitlement spills over.

In what way are they accommodating the crowd you speak of? You said yourself this thread was made in response to a suggestion. I haven't seen any evidence that the Homecoming Devs have cow-towed to this 'crowd'. We don't have unlimited aggro cap, we don't have Mez Protection on every AT, and we certainly don't have all travel powers unlocked. If anything, the opposite is true, with the removal of the /enterbasefrompasscode command and de-scaling of Blaster secondaries. The Homecoming devs shouldn't be accommodating for anyone. They run a server in accordance with their own design philosophy. Our suggestions here are merely that, suggestions. They're not beholden to do, or even entertain any of them.

Personally, I don't think we should be making servers tailored for a specific type of player. That's what other places like Cake & Thunderspy are for. In any case, I could only imagine this dividing an already small community even further.