Lines

I was on a Cathedral of Pain run the other day (some if you Ronions might have been there) where we simply couldn't take down the Aspect of Rularuu, despite three full teams. We were fairly well coordinated and we had good leadership. Even post-mortem, we couldn't figure out why the run wasn't working. We do it often with barely a thought. The team looked good on paper. Either our dps was somehow low or we weren't packing enough -regen. It was the only time so far on HC where ignoring the team build possibly* led to not being able to finish the trial. *if anyone has any other theories why Rularuu might have out regen'd our dps, I'd like to know. It's still a mystery to me.

I also reliably get no countdown in universities. Could there be other factors at play, such as time since last in combat?

The Freedom Phalanx TFs are old content from launch. Back then, the endurance test (both of the players and of their connections) was the big challenge. Navigating the city was also a major part of the philosophy (Hence Numina). You'd have to plan a week ahead, block out your calendar and commit a solid few hours to get through the original Posi TF. The philosophy of the game changed a lot later, between CoV or the Faultline Overhaul, and many of the conveniences you mention started to get added. But that old content was slow to catch up, except for Posi and Penny Yin. I quite enjoy exploring the city between missions. It's time I spend chatting and being social and I've never gotten bored of flying around the cities - especially redside. I think it would be a shame if the game goes too far down the 'QoL' conveniences. Heck, it's too far down that route for my taste as it is (The TUNNEL system bothers me immensely). But some of the TFs really do take the piss, especially Citadel which has you ping ponging back and forth between Talos and IP. There's certainly a demand for it. In actuality, these TFs need a rewrite to bring them up to the quality and pace of the new Posi. Posi is a pretty solid 'gold standard' for what a TF going forward should look like. Though isn't Penny Yin all in IP these days? Not sure which TF you might be thinking of there...

Veluta fell in love with Marco, which GW didn't like. So GW ordered her to kill Marco. She did and I guess GW was like "damn son, I didn't think you'd actually do it" and bound Marco's spirit to her. I don't know if the apparent parallel is intentional or if that played into why GW bound Marco's spirit (she definitely has a soft side somewhere in there), but that's the long and short of it.

What's the mot-o with you?

If I remember right, it used to be the only place you could spend alignment merits. But I only ever stepped foot in those places once.

I echo Megajoule. I like to read the bios of other players, but I'd clock right out if they take more than half a minute to read.

*jazz hands* Excitement!

Sure - and actually, good thinking. But Kallisti isn't even a PvE zone currently. I think some sort of gimmick (this or anything else) would go down well.

There's a definite 'opt-in' to this idea, and since the GM is a prefab entity that would be independent of the player's build, balance would be relatively easy to achieve. But I hear you, if this were to become routinely designed content then the dynamic of the game starts to change.

Shh

I quite like exploring the city, but Citadel does take the banana a bit. Rather than ping-ponging back and forth between zones, it would work for me if one half the TF took place in one zone and then the second half in another. So Citadel would start in Talos, stay for half the TF and then move to IP (in a rewrite, maybe Striga or Boomtown?) for the second half. Posi 2 does this with Steel to Faultline. Synapse nearly does this with Steel to Skyway, but sends you on an annoying excursion to Boomtown too. I could see Manti just doing Bricks to Crey’s Folly too. CF is a cool zone that needs more loving.

Burn it down and start again.

I guess it depends on how often you use healing flames versus your endurance issues. In health (or any passive with a healing component) the proc fires off as often as it can, which effectively makes it permanent. If you use healing flames often enough, then the proc fires regularly anyway. It lasts 120 seconds, so if you use it within that timeframe I think it’s permanent for you too. If you don’t use healing flames often and are having recovery issues (or regen issues, but I suppose if that were a problem I’d say use healing flames more), maybe consider moving it. 6 slotted numina’s is a good bonus for ranged defence, so that’s worth factoring too. You won’t want to be 6-slotting health. edit: edited with I think more accurate information, having read on Paragon wiki that Numina’s proc fires 100% of the time.

Same boat. Can’t go too slow for me. I enjoy teaming, particularly on builds that have a clear place in a team, but I can’t beat kicking my feet up and quietly meandering along through the stories.

They don’t prevent it in CO. When I saw it happening, folks were organising what they would do ahead of time for what benefit. I love the idea. Maybe it’s a reward in itself. Say a TF or Zone event. At the end of it, everyone is rewarded the same badge, but one player (who collected the most mutagen/was hit most by the serum/at random) becomes the GM. Then it turns into a no-stakes PvP thing. That way there’s no incentive to cheese. Just beat up your friends.

Curse these fat fingers!

I’m also unclear on how exactly this change helps. But I think that’s more because I’ve not been aware of there being a problem. But moreover, I’m in the camp of needing to earn things in the game. I’d hate to have free patron badges, let alone free access to top range powers. If this is a needed change, for whatever the reason, could a better move be to lower the level range of patron arcs (though I foresee issues with villain groups) and have mirror blueside arcs to get the same badges? I think that last thing would be nice to have regardless, but I think that’s irrelevant to this subject.

I think OP is asking a fair enough question. It does come up quite regularly, though, to which the answer is always whenever the volunteer HC team has time, so there's not a lot to be said. Road maps will only serve to create disappointment - there are a few GM and HC team posts saying this scattered around the place. I think your indicating that this is for a review, and that you create videos, implies an agenda. But I'd give you the benefit of the doubt that it's an unbiased comparison of servers. Actually, the last unbiased comparison I saw was really helpful for seeing where other folks have taken the game - there is too much vitriol out there from the rocky relationships some of these servers had to start with and I hope it eases off soon. For me, the rate that other servers appear to be putting out content is a deterrent rather than an attraction to them. I hear mixed reviews about the quality of them and I'd prefer to play it safe. HC can stay in the state it's in indefinitely, I've buried my feet in here.

*Consults the Tome* Looks like levellings pacts were i14 and supersidekicking was i16.

I'm sorry that you have had bad experiences, but this makes me wonder if your review may be coloured by your own individual experiences. I've found homecoming very satisfactory as a service. As for content, I only expect as much as CoX had when it was shut down. The fact that it has had any development at all is a miracle. As others have said, the 64-bit client is a massive bonus. I think the other servers are having some really cool ideas and testing out some awesome stuff. But Homecoming has everything I expect the game to have and more, with the benefit of a large playerbase. I don't know what it would take to tempt me elsewhere; I doubt I could be. New ATs and Powersets are pretty, but feel premature at this point when we've not really got a handle on creating new visual assets. CoX had plenty of content as it was and I'm a very long way from being done with the existing game.

Also a bit confused; I think OP might be misreading things as more hostile than they actually are. Besides a few chilly phrases, I don't think anyone was aiming at being alienating here, but the prevalent response seems to be that not many people have the same issue as the OP. There's good discussion here about the effects of seeding the market with recipes (dunno if anyone mentioned how easy it would make playing the market with converters, but that was my first thought). Some have pointed out that the inf to merit conversion basically means this exists anyway. Folks have recommended looking at crafted IOs rather than recipes, and given good reason why. Finally, some have expressed that IOs are an unessential luxury anyway, which I agree with. I like having to earn mine over time. I've also never had a problem buying what I need off the AH, though I sell on it a lot more than I buy off it. Maybe if the game population lowers dramatically, this might become necessary. I think this was a valuable thread, and I'm a bit sad the OP didn't see it that way.

Unless a build is actually struggling (endurance issues usually being the culprit), I always play like this. i have one totally decked out toon, the rest I’m slowly working on. Wouldn’t do it any other way. (edit: oh, I do buy salvage)

It’s worth noting that the Kheldian Forms are energy ‘memories’ of prior alien hosts thats the Kheldians have used. The forms themselves aren’t Kheldian. Novas are Hulmanim and Dwarves are Kurukt. That gives the potential for a lot of scope, if you expand the repertoire of prior Kheldian hosts.

This is what I think isn’t being understood; we’re not asking for more grind, we’re asking for less. We’re not roleplayers, a sandbox is just sand to us, we don’t want to take the single most efficient way to 50, because that sounds like a grind. Eight hours of AE? Forget it, sounds like hell and I’ve not got that sort of time. That’s more than a day’s work of pressing buttons, I want to have fun and do a lot of things. You guys who want the sandbox have been catered for. HC is easy. Yay you. We want incentive to take a different path: do one arc once, get the hat reward for it, never do it again. That gets us the levels to the next point. If you’re PLing over 8 hours, what’s 20 more minutes for that one hat that’s so freakin essential for your character concept? Or do you need to be immersed while you PL as well? At the moment, the rewards system heavily incentivises doing the same few things repeatedly, especially AE. The same few taskforces, the same MSR. That’s grinding, even if you do it quicker. Many of us take the slow and steady way because we want variety and to not grind, but there’s only so many months of kneecapping ourselves we can take. I have a rule not to run the same TF twice on any one character (with the sole exception of Mo badges on my badger) because I don’t want to grind. I want it to matter that I’ve chosen to do The Hollows or to street sweep Perez Park rather than do my fourth or fifth run of DfB, but the game doesn’t encourage it. It encourages DfB. It encourages the grind. All I want is a hat. I’m not trying to show off here. ”Hey, I’m missing the vahzilok hat, does anyone know where I get it?” ”Sure, that’s John Doe’s arc.” ”Sweet, thanks. Anyone else need it?” ”Yeah, I’m missing that one. Can I come?” Or, y’know, that eighth ITF. To me, this server has more nonsense grinding than live did, because rewards are so unvaried and heavily concentrated in certain areas. Live had a variety of rewards for a variety of content. We’re asking for some of that back so that the way we play can have some meaning. This is me compromising. If it were up to me, I’d be sticking costume sets behind arcs, but I’m happy to meet you at literally hats. ”But my RP requires the hat!” Alright, then spend the half hour it takes to unlock the hat. ”No! I haven’t time for that! I shall farm AE for eight hours and press my ‘instant-all-hats button’!” It just doesn’t hold water. But yeah, if HC is gonna be a sandbox then I’ll be out. I don’t want to grind either.