Lazarillo

You also have the option to call Harris out for this and/or betray him yourself. If players could similarly kill Strax and keep all the stuff you took, that'd be acceptable. And for that matter, Harris is also optional (as is all content), but if you find him distasteful and choose not to work with hom, it doesn't matter because he's the last arc in a chain, so thr choice does not cut you out of anything else. If you don't want to help nazis, you don't get to do Striga at all.

Ah, that makes sense! I guess kinda similar to the Mantle/Collar thing, if it's only supposed to be used with hats, maybe it's just the Patch Notes should be clarified (like it specifies for the stuff that's added to Half Helmets category, etc). Though yeah, it'd be nice if other Head categories got it too.

This is one of the combos that I've been looking at. Kind of a "back of my mind" character concept almost since Shield Defense was first introduced. Overall, appreciate the viewpoints, folks (anyone else, feel free too keep 'em coming). But to, I dunno, clarify, I'm curious what you feel makes the set particularly good for Brutes, specifically. Like maybe it's the fast-punching on Shadow Maul, or the...efficiency of movement, or just the fact that my very first 50 back in 2006 was a Dark Melee Scrapper, but DM just...seems to feel more Scrapper-y to me. Putting aside that if I wanna do the Psi Epic I have to do a Brute or Tanker, what about DM fits the Brutes and not other ATs, essentially, in your opinions?

The Patch Notes should probably be clarified that this is a "Mantle" design and not a "Collar" design (probably not on you, but since Collars are already a type of piece that existed, it'd probably reduce confusion...this stumped me at first too). Also, speaking of the notes, they mention a "Plague Doctor" option for Detail 2 for Male and Female skeletons as well. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be supplementary to the piece that's already in Detail 1, or just the same piece and two different ways to place it, but I'm not seeing an option under that category for that piece.

Just out of curiosity (for you or anyone else), is there something that makes Dark Melee particularly good from a Brute-y perspective. I'm trying to come up with a concept to go with the new Psi APP in the next update, and Dark feels like the closest, to me, for some reason, that isn't actually Psi Melee (which I hate), but I'm not sure how it'd feel on a Brute, specifically.

Apparently it is (as was noted in the topic I posted in the bug forum), but I can't say I'm fond of it. The game has too much poptext as it is, honestly, and it's not like you won't know you were knocked back. Doesn't feel too unfair to me. I compared it to Super Stunners earlier in this thread, who are also auto-hit and do comparable damage, and also inflict a massive debuff (the Galaxy version is purely damage as far as I could tell). They're rough on pets too, but 'tis what 'tis. If Pets are the problem then maybe they're what needs to be buffed to be resistant or something (similar to how they are unaffected by Battle Maiden's fire in Apex, or something). Or just buff pets. I think keeping the autohit in itself, is fine. Its problem for pets is a symptom of a different issue.

Is it possible that the doubling-up enemies are coming from different mobs? I believe the way AI rules power use is that two enemies from the same mob won't stack powers, but if you over aggro, then each mob can unleash one of each, and it is supposed to stack in those cases.

I mean, is that so surprising? Powers don't exist in a vacuum. If the idea is to make the sum total Storm Summoning balanced with the sum total of Cold Domination (and/or the sum total of any other set), that makes sense to me.

I mostly agree, but I'm glad the solution is to make the base experience a little rougher, rather than giving it parity with the annoying ones.

Not changing the minions makes sense, I guess. Less cool that way, but oh well...although now that I think about it, doesn't the fact that the higher ranks have big dark bubbles around them differentiates more clearly than the costumes anyway...?. Still, anyway. It ain't my call and I don't care enough to gonna press the issue. As for the Energy Punch, it's funny you mention the Praetorian resistance because I was fighting some of them earlier on "live" and thinking "oh, yeah, this is the same animation I saw on the Beta server, but man, it works so much better here since it goes along with the Energy weapons the resistance use, and their overall-blue color scheme". And while you making the connection as a lore nod does seem sensible enough when you say it here, it never occurred to me in-game to make that connection. If that's the goal, maybe just have a contingent of minions who also use the resistance rifles (similar to what the Family does), and/or give them some Resistance-oriented costume tweaks, so it doesn't clash as aesthetically?

I think it's one of those things that at least should be held off on for now. The intent behind it is good, but the implementation has some issues, and I admit, at least, I can't think of a good way to really make it work in a way that suits what I think about how teaming in this game is supposed to feel. I think that if you want more diverse teams, there's no real trick, only the "hard way"...have the ATs balanced in such a way that you don't have the majority of players all playing the same two or three (and good luck with that...it'd be the hard way for a darned good reason).

Did a little futzing around with solo Council missions, level 50, +2/x6. Kinda my "excellent solo" standard, at least, 'cause I figure there are probably enough people checking +4/x8 on radio teams. They honestly didn't come off a whole lot different than live most of the time, a little more of a bump, but fighting them plays the same way. That's good. Sometimes there's a confusion between being annoying and being challenging in content, and these guys definitely did not cross the line to "annoying". It was a little variant, of course, depending on how thick a mob was with Galaxy spawns (as a Kheldian lore lover, I kinda approve). The LTs and Bosses are both more notable and have a decent mix of abilities. The minions...did they get buffed? It seemed to me like they just stood back and spammed Shadow Bolt, same as they do on live. Might be an AI thing with such a quickly-recharging power, or might be I just missed it. Two cosmetic notes, but can we maybe get the minions and LTs to have looks modeled after the new boss look for Galaxy soldiers? It's sooooooo much better than the weird mucha lucha outfit they currently have. Also, the patch notes mention "Martial Arts' animations modernized with up-to-date animations" for the soldier types, but what I'm seeing is a lot of minions in those categories now throwing Energy Punch into the mix. Fair enough, I use that as sort of a "chi"-type MA theme on a character of my own, but I think the traditional Martial Arts attacks suit the Council better, IMO, or at the very least, maybe change the color of their punches if possible, the Heroic Blue clashes a bit and looks out of place.

Wrapping things up, with Mage-Killer Tatiana: Starting the arc as a player who knows who that is, oh no. Oh no no no, ohnononono. Y'all better not make me! It could make for an interesting callback to an off-the-cuff line from earlier in the arc, but that ain't how I roll! The comments about the Shivan Meteor being used by the Pantheon in this arc make me think it should maybe tie back to the ghosts/BP segment of the previous arc, in place of the Nictus-style Shadow Cyst. When scanning "rocks" on the second mission, the clickable area seems to be kind of finicky depending on camera angle. Might want to see if that can be adjusted. You made me. You bastards. She still shows up in-zone, dunno if she's meant to disappear like some of the Goldbrickers after the Aeon TF. I really wish I coulda betrayed Tatiana and changed sides at the end there. I wanna keep Striga a haven for the unwashed rabble, not beat up on someone who's still reasonably good to said rabble (even if I honestly got my tail kicked just as much). As a note, the boss uses the player version of Hurricane (which does Repel), rather than the typical NPC version (which does Knockback). Dunno if that's intentional or not. I like this alternative. Means his disposition wouldn't have to change much, but it'd be a bit more stomach-able. Alternatively, make it so you can just skip the first to arcs and start with Ragana. It'd mean skipping Francois too, and he's one of the highlights, but it'd still get some Striga life into characters. Since he hasn't popped up in this thread to say it directly, tell him "Mission Fragging Accomplished". Even if some of this was a little more "dark sided" than I really would've liked, it's IMO some of the best new HC content yet. A few final points, summaries, takeaways, and general zone feedback, some of it reiterating previous points but maybe worth bearing in mind. These story arcs are really written in the style that I enjoy most when playing this game. I know I'm a broken record but I really can't state my appreciation for that enough. Thanks to Headhunter (now that I know who wrote 'em!) and keep up the good work. I wanted something from Ernesto Hess. I'm a little sad I never got it. I feel like redsiders should at least be able unlock his TF, and maybe even make it a co-op experience. The Heroes don't have to know why we're going along with it. Maybe have Ragana give him an introduction? The start (having to work for the 5th Column) and the end (having to do that) are the weakest parts, probably, for a more Rogue-oriented player like myself. It'd be nice to have some sort of option or small rework to soften these two things. Finally, I'm going to re-suggest the point that I made based on observation even before playing the arcs, because I'm even more sure of it after doing them: there is so frigging much villain content in the 20-29 range, and so much of it is really among CoV's best, that this just overcrowds things even further. It makes sense, for these arcs to be 20-29, given Striga's setting and the villain groups involved, but I do think introducing even more to do in this range makes it bear looking at moving or extending the level range of some of the other arcs so that you don't have to permanently lock your level to sub-30 to experience all the great stories in this range. EDIT: Oh, wait, one more thing I was gonna mention but forgot. Near as I can tell, the only trainer in the area is the original heroic one, Ravenstorm. Given we duke it out with him twice over the course of the various missions...maybe that's a little bit of a stretch to ask of him? Add, perhaps, a villainous trainer hiding out in a corner like some of the early contacts, to help out the scallywags that come over.

Continuing on to the third arc (Ragana). I've realized there's a habit of these contacts being in rather "hidden" locations. That's a nice touch, and it makes sense for each of them. I do sorta get where the suggestion came from about her looking a little too much like Nocturne. To be certain, it's not a bad design, but a little repetitive in light of that. Also, just calling her "Ragana" in the contact window sounds odd to me. I understand from the Contact profile she's supposed to be undercover (if badly), but we know from the beginning who she's working for so something like "Operative Ragana" or "Night Widow Ragana" might sound better. The briefing for the first mission is a little confusing. It sounds like the alliance of factions will break up after at most, three weeks, but it would be bad for Arachnos if they succeed, so we need to break them up now. Conceptually, I get the idea behind it but maybe clarify the basis a little better. Maybe change the comment about the Fateweavers' predictions to being "they won't last long" to "but the Fateweavers have foreseen there's a real likelihood of them succeeding, in the face of all logic saying they'd never work together long enough", or something like that. Also, the conceit that she doesn't know the PC was behind the previous attacks on the Sky Raiders and such is pretty amusing, though it does then beg the question of why she intended to reach out to the player in the first place (and/or why she had Francois put us in touch). After the previous arcs were so good with their nods to continuity, I was so sure Hess would come up here, and that he didn't was a tad disappointing. Just a tad. Overall, this one felt a little campier than the previous ones, but no less charming. It could probably use a little more polish, though. A few things like mission objectives not being properly capitalized, or things that maybe should've been Clues relegated to system text instead. Clues also remained again after the arc was over, though they did go away after re-logging, and I did get the Souvenir right up front. Regardless, this continues the theme of "simple but fun" of the previous arcs. I'm still really enjoying them. And since Ragana's arc was pretty quick, onward to Orpheus as well: First thing I note a couple points about the Contact himself. Also, based on the promo blurb about his arc, and even some of his opening dialogue, it seems like you're supposed to be going into this suspecting that the Banished Pantheon are after you. But there hasn't been much in the storylines that would really have them singling the PC out for a curse (heck, in some ways, Ragana's arc probably ends with you being as close to good terms with them as anyone can ever be with the BP), and the introduction to Orpheus suggested he needed the player's help, rather than the other way around. Maybe set it up a little more by having the BP boss toss out a "you've served your purpose, now we'll carve out your soul!" or something in Ragana's final mission? Finally, he was willing to give me his repeatable hunt missions (including the one that's sort of leading his arc but not part of his arc) at 24, despite the promo saying he's supposed to be 25-29. Not sure if that's intentional. Regardless, after seeing the arc fail to start, I auto-leveled a bit and continued on. Having the first door mission be a "secret" defeat all might tick some people off, though there've been blessedly few so far in these storylines, and at least the objective updates to make it clear, so I didn't take too much issue with it. Mission 2 confirms that the BP boss from Ragana's arc was indeed the source of the curse, which felt like an aside to me, but Orpheus' dialogue seems to make it sound like it's supposed to be a sort of "A-ha!" moment. In the 3rd mission, putting the boss at the start of the mission and then making him chase you invincibly until you destroy the objective at the back as a bit of a jerk move. Consider spawning them together, or despawn him at first and have him re-ambush the player after the chained objective. Also, using a Nictus Cyst for binding BP spirits (when the ambient dialogue also implies the Council is using them not knowing what they really do) either needs to be followed up on in a major way, storywise, or the destructible object should probably change. I was surprised after the third mission to see Orpheus' bar only half full, but don't mind him being two arcs combined into one. Given how much the Warriors love their artifacts, him saying he doesn't care for magic felt a touch out of place. Two objectives here, I did the defeat all, because I'm a villain, but not a jerk, and yeah, I owed Orpheus. But then I clicked the glowie anyway. Not sure if that had an effect the following mission (Orpheus seemed like a bit of a jerk, but he got better in the end). Once again, simple and solid, and campy, and fun. As mentioned, I think the only thing this arc really needs is maybe some a few small bandaids on the writing so that there's a little bit better continuity between where things left off for Ragana, and where they start here.

It's entirely possible this is connected to a legacy bug (if I get a chance, I'll get on my live Crab and compare), but I don't think it has anything to do with attack animations, as what I'm seeing tends to be with powers used before engaging with combat, usually while running towards a mob and getting ready to attack, or when trying to catch an enemy that's moving away, stuff like that (which is the same as the Ice Slash issue, which is why I thought it might be related, and Ice Slash doesn't use the same animation as anything else in its set).

This is a good point. Nobody wants to finish recruiting for a TF, have one person go "oops, we need a Controller, brb gonna switch" while 7 other people who really don't care either way about getting one extra Prism just have to sit around waiting. But I could absolutely see it happening.

Finished Doctor Francois' arc. Second round of feedback: Once again, as indicated by my previous post, things are refreshingly succinct. Not too wordy, but not too terse, using just enough to sell what it needs to sell, so to speak. Francois is charming. Like a puppy. I want to kidnap him again just to keep him safe from all the other villain groups. Everything I loved about the first arc is still in full force here, without the...baggage Strax brings. Speaking of Strax, a slight follow up, but when I logged in this morning and started Francois' arc, I noticed the Clues from the previous arc were gone and the Souvenir was added. Not sure if that got hotfixed or was triggered by logging, or starting the new arc, or what. But worth noting for QA purposes. I did not have the Clue-retaining, no-Souveniring issue with Francois. Finally, just a couple points of minutiae (hi, Pincher!) for some of the missions. Second mission, going to the Mermaid? Yesplzthx. Again, that's just fun for atmosphere's sake. Maybe have the various barroom-brawling enemies as "yellow bracket" spawns that aren't openly hostile to you unless you engage them first. Gives it a wild vibe without making it feel like they're all there to stop you. Change the mission objective from dealing with the "competition" to something like "Pincher's unwanted company", or something and make only the Warriors around her actively hostile. For the 3rd mission to take the 5th Column base, consider reusing one of the two that was raided during Strax's arc. That'd be a nice use of continuity, IMO. And then in the Sky Raider lab mission, I think the base commander could use a name. Also "cargo ship" is two words. One of the clues has it all together, "cargoship". The final mission was fine, although Pincher mentions teleporting you both out at the end. She does it to herself, but are you supposed to be force-booted from it or anything? If not, changing her line to something like "I'll meet you back at base with the goods" or something might work better.

I'm still working my way through it, but so far, this has not been an issue. The writing in these arcs so far has done a great job at saying more but speaking less, as it were.

I've noticed a bug, though haven't been able to consistently pin it down, where Crab Spider attack animations don't, well, animate. It seems like it's maybe tied to moving right around the time of the activation causes them to just fire from the combat-ready neutral stance (resulting in lots of shooting into the ground or the middle of the air (sorta like what happens to Dominators' Ice Slash).

Yeah, I didn't see anything like that in the patch notes either. And even if unresistable KB is the intent, I think the "FREEM" probably isn't.

Stygian Return is the Warshade version of Soul Transfer. So presumably the enemy is dying and then using all nearby unfriendlies (that being you, your teammates, your pets, etc) to fuel a self-rez. It being auto-hit for sizable damage would fall in-line with Freakshow Super Stunners who can do the same. Just gotta joust 'em and/or let the ranged teammates isolate and take 'em out, I guess, is the idea.

So I finished Oberst Strax's arc on a new Crab Spider (to also test customizations and such), running the whole thing with XP off, at level 24. A couple notes: This arc is so...simple. Mission briefings that are like four lines long. Plant bombs, collect tech caches, normal missions against normal level 20 enemy groups. The bosses have one little nonsequiter and then a taunt when you start fighting them. Ships, warehouses, and abandoned lab...have we gone back to i6 villain content? I LOVE IT. Like, it's nice to just unwind with some straightforward missions, and this is fun and nostalgic and classic Striga Isle, y'know? And even with that, though, there are some really nice touches. Little references to hero arcs, stupid one-off stuff that made me laugh ("Our museum!") and Strax doesn't have a lot to say, but what he does really sells that 5th Column evil jackboot jerk vibe. Again, this is stuff that's very "Classic CoH" and might not be for people who were more into some of the game's later arcs, but it made it really fun for me. And I admit going into the final mission I was curious what sort of enemies would make up the base's "automated defenses". I was kinda dreading just a boring map full of turrets, but what was actually presented was something I hadn't thought of...but was solid. There were a couple small bugs here and there. After finishing the arc, all the Clues remain in the dropdown and no Souvenir (which would normally sum things up) is awarded. I am not sure if the Clues will eventually disappear once the arc is outleveled, but either way, it needs a little cleanup. Also, one of his repeatable missions was to do a Council hunt, and the mission even says "Defeat Council in Port Noble" on the nav, but the objective was "Defeat 20 Warriors". Also, the Clues for what's found in the first couple of missions describe the items indirectly, "this box contained...[x]" and describing the items in the past tense, while in the back half it was more direct presentation of the items themselves that were described. Making them consistent (I think the latter works better) might sound a little nicer. It also gave 20 merits! For 6 missions, but only one was a "defeat all"...I'm not complaining but that does seem a touch high. So all that said, I think we need to address the elephant in the room and remember that anyone can be a badguy, but villains have standards. The setup here is not good. Now, granted, I haven't gotten to the remaining arcs yet, and it's quite possible that this is going to go somewhere pretty fun and interesting (or at least build off of it while maintaining the classic/simple vibe I liked from it), but just going "anyway, so here you are taking a job from a Nazi guy" is not how these arcs need to start. It's far too limiting in terms of concepts that would actually start the arc. In the patch notes thread I suggested one alternative might be to do it like how Brother Hammond's arc has the PC "team up" with the Luddites by making it clear they're just playing along to exploit the contact and screw them over. Something like that, admittedly, might distract a little from Strax's simple but apt dialogue, though. Another option might be (if possible) to set up a different, mutually exclusive first Contact for the arc that gave the same missions but under the guise of trying to beat both the 5th and the other groups to the goodies? Set it up through Arachnos even, using the little never-followed-up-on teaser that Ernesto Hess was a plant for them (something that may come up in later arcs, I hope it does!). Regardless, "thanks for working for me, here's your money" is not really a good way to end an arc, nor motivate a character, when the person you're working for is in the 5th Column. That really needs to be addressed for this arc to be something I actually want my characters to seek out.

I am assuming this is in the beta patch only. I have not seen it on live, however, it does not relate to any of the actual patch notes I've seen. While running missions as a villain on Striga Isle, a Cor Leonis Archon transformed into a Warwolf. The Warwolf punched me, doing knockback. This is normal, because I am playing a Crab Spider to test that too, and don't have KB resistance in my build at the moment. However, when it hit, the FREEM! feedback text that pops up during the April Fool's event also appeared! I am pretty sure this is not normal.

Noted. I might swap 'em if things go live as-is then. I have a very...let's just say high concept build on my Bane that I love, so the build is really tight, but I could probably make that work, particularly if the updated Web Envelope can take targeted AoE damage sets.

Not sure if this is intended or not, nor whether it belongs here or in the APP feedback, but the Mace Blast from Scorp's epic pool still use the longer animation times, at least according to the numbers displayed in-game. I've been using that on my Bane to round out my ranged options since it's also a nice prerequisite for Shatter Armor, and since I need a prerequisite, I'll still be taking it over the primary version anyway, but I'm curious if the lack of parity is intended.