Lazarillo

That's actually a neat idea, I feel like, though I don't think Dominatrix has the...discretion necessary to pull off such a ruse. Maybe Chimera? Manticore rubs everyone the wrong way anyway, so it probably wouldn't be difficult (and he's also one of the few Praetorian AVs who IIRC we never got the final fate of).

My man Scirocco really deserves this. It'd be frustrating not to still get to be all judge-y of all the "heroes" who nonetheless sold their soul to Black Scorpion for a defense boost, but I suppose I could live without that for a good redemption arc.

Wasn't BaBs the original alt-Statesman for the endgame Hero TF? I seem to remember they did that to give him something when Galaxy got destroyed (and so Mizz Libby wouldn't have to be in two zones simultaneously). Not sure if that was something the original dev team never implemented or HC changed it back or something, but I distinctly recall that being a point of discussion in the old days.

I joined one for the first time earlier today and it was a lot of fun. My only notable beef (but it's a big one) is "Why is this a Strike Force?". Seriously, it's so heavy on story and dialogue and when you've got seven teammates rushing forward, to borrow a phrase, ain't nobody got time for that. But soloing it is also infeasible because as a SF, it's filled to the brim with AVs (and worse!). My villain's inevitable kingdom for an "SSA" version or the like that lets me actually enjoy all the story, the dialogue, and the Becky.

Something vaguely Widow-centric would make sense, given the 20+, 25+, and 35+ SFs are connected to minions of Scorpion, Mako, and Scirocco, respectively. So GW got left out. I'm not sure what sort of story would really fit her side of the organization in that range. Something DE-ish like Vanden mentioned would be a cool bit of lore, but I don't know that it would fit. Or, ooh, rather than that, another bit of background lore to maybe touch on is how in the Rogue Isles, everybody just kind of knows who/what Malta is, even though they're supposed to be super-secretive even through most of the first arc that actually introduces them heroside (never mind Roy Cooling's terrible, retcon-y arc please). Given that Malta takes an interest in Wretch during Scirocco's patron arc, maybe something that could "introduce" them to the setting and give an explanation to the public awareness of them, while also giving a little bit of background on what sort of special interest they might have in Widow/Wretch in the first place?

The thing about that aspect is, though, that even if the absorb gets used up, the bubble stays, so it doesn't quite fit that aspect. You'd have to make it a ticking absorb which would lessen (a)the purpose of power-boosting it anyway, and (b)be kind of annoying out of combat.

I have a Thugs/Traps who's very similar. She took down a gang too "minor" for the heroes to do anything about, and decided to reform them rather than arrest them.

I honestly like Infiltration a lot and would rather it mostly stay as-is. That said, the toggle being mutually exclusive with other Stealth-granting powers is, while reasonable, also pretty annoying on a travel power since it detoggles other stuff that might considerably more...build critical. I wonder if there would be a way to suppress just the stealth part while other similar powers (Mask Presence, Arctic Fog, et al) are in place.

Well, I know I'd play the heck outta this sit with it like this. I feel like the HC team prefers to rebalance with gimmicks (see Energy Melee, Electric Blast) though this is more along the lines of how I'd want things to be done. Keeps to the cottage rule and makes it a solid set. If anything, it might be a little too strong with the changes to Repulsion Field. The ticking-KD would have to be pretty infrequent to make it not effectively hold enemies in place while close to you, which isn't quite up to snuff with the current form. I think maintain it as KB would keep the area denial (while still allowing a KB->KD enhancement that could reduce the rate but eliminate the KD, a la Bonfire, rather than Hot Feet).

Were they on the same team in the league? Rewards are not league-wide, you only get credit for what your team does.

From what I understand of it, it's the the "Well of the Furies" is more or less a nickname that was given to it by the people who discovered it (most notably Marcus Cole, a giant mythology nerd), while "The Furies" are, y'know, the actual figures of myth.

I haven't done it yet but am thinking about trying a Seismic/Nature Corruptor. Not only does feel very thematically sound, but it seems like there would be some mechanical synergy too, being able to drop and stand on Lifegiving Spores to buff myself while Seismic Pressure makes the area less happy for enemies that try to get to encroach on my little mobile Eden. Assuming I understand how Seismic Pressure works (janky mechanics and I don't exactly get along great). My big wonder is with Stalagmite and whether it's worth it. How "Extreme" is "Extreme"? Is it worth giving up the KD aura (which, granted, Shards does too, but it seems a little more overtly "worth it")? Or should it just be seen as an easy skip (or alternatively, should one of the t1/t2 powers be skipped instead...I doubt the set needs all five single target attacks)?

I feel like sets are a little too gimmick-crazy as-is these days.

I mean, I'm just not getting the feeling that we should apply our pitiful, three-dimensional understanding of space to where he's standing in the first place. He did, actually. In fact, he was added specifically because they needed a band-aid for functions that they couldn't add to the option menu. So if anything, the idea of being able to summon him is, to my mind, honoring the original intent best of all (since it's not like you have to go anywhere specific in-game to open the options window...or do you think that being able to change whose broadcasts you see from anywhere is also spoiling players too much?). That said, of course, in the game's original form, he couldn't change alignments (which as others have noted, is probably better off being left out if an idea like this one I have is implemented anyway). The only other functionality HC added to him was disabling the extra travel popup bar, but that's because HC added that bar in the first place. So I don't think leaving that functionality in a summonable version would be too over the top, either, since it only wasn't on "live" because the problem it solves wasn't there either.

That's a fair point ( @MHertzcaught that, too), so yeah, I think the best choice would maybe be for a summonable Gull not to offer that particular service, maybe?

Actually, this raises the point of whether it might be helpful to have a tag in the fashion of Helper/Help Me/Roleplaying that people can use to show themselves as actively streaming, too.

Operating under the assumption that the options for Null the Gull are still not in the options menu rather than being confined to a somewhat-out-of-the-way NPC for mechanical reasons due to spaghetti code and whatnot, is there any chance that said NPC could be made more convenient by granting a new power, purchasable via the Pay-2-Win vendors (or otherwise) that allowed characters to directly summon or call it from the field, so to speak? It'd be a real boon when, say, my team gets to an Oranbega mission and suddenly those run speed boosts are not helpful, or joining a raid and discovering once you're there that someone's running Group Fly, or heck, even just on new characters so they don't have to go running a zone or two away to disable the popup when they get their first travel power. Plus, it's just not good for a seagull to be cooped up inside a sweaty (and likely smelly!) ravehouse all day.

First thing I'd note is that you probably shouldn't for now. One of the "drops" gives you something useless and that won't be fixed until after the event ends. That said, they'll be put into your salvage. You just right click, open pack, and then the items from the pack are placed under the "Character Items" section of your in-game email for any of your characters to claim.

Fair point, though that does not carry over to XP/Incarnate Shards/etc to my recollection. Also, good freakin' luck finding someone running an instanced version on Everlasting (on the other hand, last I checked, Indomitable does 'em all that way, so this is admittedly a case where one's mileage may vary). Though I still maintain that in terms of fun factor, pulling is at least as boring as being in the bowl. I wonder if, like, an "infinite aggro field" could be maintained in the vicinity of the mothership, so you could just grab as many as you can and get a nice little tail, without having to wait to see if they care?

Done that too. It's still standing around waiting for Rikti. The only difference is that they're supposedly chasing you (very slowly), and that you crater your reward potential. Ultimately doesn't change that the main reason to join is something you're done with when it "begins". As much as they're a chore and a part of me would really like to, I'm generally not so crass as to do this, but this could be solved somewhat, perhaps, by making badge credit for him work like Hami, maybe? Because as it is, the only way to make progress is to join the raid. (Alternatively, just make it so it doesn't take 10 raids at a minimum to get the badges)

Nope, Temp powers. Non-slottable Prestige Powers as well.

Some can, at least. It's under the same tab as Accolades, IIRC.

I could get behind something like this. In addition to the general boredom of the experience, it's kind of unfortunate that the MSR has no real "win" condition. You just fight until "oops, out of time" with no sense of having accomplished much at the point of completion. Giving the raid a goal would be nice, since in its current format, the closest thing to one is done by the time the main event has even really began.

The potential limitation I see is that you can't have "The" at the start of your name at all because it gets automatically moved to a title. Given that one's mutually exclusive, some people might not want to be stuck moving the "Mr." or "Dr." in their names to the title preface. Although I suppose in those cases, they could spell out the word fully? Although that might mess up some pun names like a Robotics master mind named "Dr. One".