Lazarillo

Yes, and then never use them so that my beautiful pattern remains in tact. Actually, though, there's a practical reason for it, too, in that by sticking an Awakening in the f5 slot, if I alt-tab to a web-browser and refresh the page there, a slip in timing doesn't end up popping an inspiration by accident.

I've been feeling both a strong urge to give /Marine a try, and to make yet another new Mastermind, so two points put together, and figuring out which primary I want, and I'm leaning towards Thugs with it. It feels like it could have some interesting synergies, and so if anyone's got an general comments on how they work together, consider that question 0, I guess. But more specifically I'm wondering a few things: Soothing Wave works the same as Nature Affinity's heal, correct? Just sort of a general cone in the direction I'm facing? So for situations where I wanted the power directed towards a certain target, I'm told working it into a macro/bind with /follow would work. I seem to remember binds execute in "reverse" order but also that they carry steps out simultaneously, so I'm not sure if this would work, but if I wanted to ensure my character turned towards the target and used the power, but didn't start running towards them I'm wondering if this would work: /bind b "backward$$powexec_name Soothing Wave$$follow". Anyone tried to do something like this and can speak to its effectiveness (or not)? How big is the Shifting Tides? I figure my own character is likely to play pretty close to enemies thanks to Whitecap, and obviously the Bruiser will be in close, so we're both getting the benefits regardless. I'm not sure if the otherwise-ranged t1 and t2 henchmen should also be brought into it when possible, given the risk of getting hit by enemy AoEs, but it might be possible to keep them closer to the edge? Or it might not matter at all? Power of the Depths: Is it worth it? Because it looks cool, admittedly, but also looks like kind of a dud power, with even the half of it that lasts the full duration having kind of lousy relative uptime compared with the power's Recharge, and Marine seems to be a pretty "hungry" set in terms of both "needed" powers and in terms of slotting. So this feels like a possibility to free up some room, but maybe there's something about it I'm missing. If there is something I'm missing, is there anything else that's skippable? What's more worth focusing on when slotting Barrier Reef: absorb or defense? Or should I try to split it 50/50 (or some other similar way)? Finally, any recommendations on an Alpha slot, when I get that far? Vigor's one I like for MMs just because it shores up a lot of issues henchmen seem to have, and being able to heal a little harder is also nice (also, do Healing enhancements influence the -HP in Brine? Mids shows it taking them but it's wrong on these sorts of things sometimes). I could also see an argument being made for Cardiac, Nerve, or Agility, or maybe even Spiritual or mayyybe even Resilient (and then there's the common fave of Musculature, though in this case it seems like there are so many other, potentially even more valid options that can help build into the buffs). What do other people like to use?

Director 11 has an actual "power" that makes him run around like a chicken with his head cut off that will supersede taunting. I wouldn't be surprised if Battle Maiden has something similar that makes her "want" to stay inside her damage zones. Both of these AVs being non-responsible to taunts is probably "working as intended", for better or worse.

This, to me feels like the most in-tune with also boosting its (already more than sufficient given its small AoE) target cap. That or, yeah, maybe more damage against the primary target, though that feels a little banal. Either one would make it not feel like I have to hold it back during EF lest I "waste" it. I'll anti-vote the chance to KD, if only because I almost always slot it with a proc for that anyway, and I'd have to change that so I didn't knock stuff back...

I've got no particular beef with it, though I don't log in multiple simultaneous characters particularly frequently. It'd be nice if the launcher better reflected what the current in-game status was. Excelsior's showing up as two dots right now, then you log into the game and it's at three.

You could have just not allowed it on the Discord altogether. I'm in quite a few servers where that's their stance towards art posts. In light of that, allowing it at all does indeed come off as implicit support.

I have a fair number of characters I don't play as much because they're more team-oriented, and when I jump into the game to just play a 50, I rarely have a plan, and, relatedly, don't have much interest in starting and/or finding a team. But even once I'm on and I see something forming, it's "too late" and I'm already playing whatever else was more solo friendly, even if/when I end up joining what I see. Mostly these are (non-Mastermind) support ATs and other squishies. Most notably, I have an Ice/Martial Dominator who I made as sort of P&P game tribute to CoH during the dark years, and was one of the first characters I made in the game when it went public again. But Dominators can feel like such a slog to play outside of specific setups that she never gets the attention I'd like to give her.

The focus should probably be a matter of making it work at all (or honorably admitting defeat and rolling it back), especially since Dimensional Warder progress is effectively missing from the game right now, before they start looking into how to add more bells and whistles to something doesn't even serve its base functionality.

Hmmm, on that note, feels like maybe there should be a "foot entrance" to KW from IP. There isn't, though, AFAIK, or am I wrong?

In fairness, one of the most notable "Hexing" superheroes out in the comics world is of the Mutant origin (when they don't randomly retcon that from time to time, at least, I guess). That said, perhaps "Entropics" would work. It's a neat set, regardless, though I think a lot of the OP's idea of using "stacks" from powers to produce effects should just, like, be power effects, instead, should such a thing be produced.

It is, as someone pointed out to me, basically the same base duration as the other mid-tier hard controls from other sets. Stuff like Stalagmites, Confounding Chant, Synaptic Overload, or Heart of Darkness, all last about as long as Seeds does now. Honestly, this seems relatively like parity, to me. And its Recharge, even when at the max that the Adaptive Recharge gives it, is still slightly less than many of those comparable powers. It's honestly a pretty fair change, better than a lot of the alternative, and rather than what the far-more-gutted versions of the power looked like, this pretty much puts it in parity, which is what sets should generally kinda strive for.

Any server is this, if you choose to play it this way.

This was originally going to be a complaint specifically about Psi Armor, but I went to confirm that it was the only set that didn't have No FX for Hide and it turns out it's not quite. Bio Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Fiery Aura, Psionic Armor and Radiation Armor all lack a no/minimal FX option. For none of these sets is there anything actually thematic in the power appearance. All of them use the default squiggly lines that look like a mess, particularly over a character that's already invisible. So it's clearly not the case that these are meaningfully tied to the powersets themselves in any way. Every set should be able to eschew the squiggles. Give the same minimal/no FX option that every other Stalker gets, that turns the character transparent while hidden without using the same VFX that's default to the other sets, but which the other sets can opt out of.

Yeah, that's kinda what it seemed but it was also looking, or maybe I'm just hoping, that with other changes this Page, and the existing of Hypnotizing Lights, it might be less of a loss. But thanks, I do appreciate the insight.

I mostly ignored the set in Beta, but looking again, this Pyro/Time combo seems pretty keen. Question as far as skipping powers goes...particularly with the "Deep Sleep" addition, how badly is it of a self-handicap to take Hypnotizing Lights but skip Brilliant Barrage? I suspect this is would be considered kind of a bad idea but the latter power just seems kinda janky to use, and I worry that it'd be too easy to "waste" by applying both statuses to multiple targets, or something.