Lazarillo

They did, to kill the Peacebringer-type Kheldians, particularly. That they work on Warshades (which are basically Nictus traitors) is mostly just a bonus. That said, while Arakhn is pretty much loyal to the Nictus race as a faction, Requiem seems to see the source of his powers as a tool at best, so even if the Council wouldn't fight the Nictus, per se, the 5th...actually might. I'm not sure I'd be too eager to team up with the nazis, though, so maybe turn the event into an outright three-way war?

I mean, you can always buy them with Merits. HC has done plenty to reduce the grind already (not that you'll here me complaining!).

Slight spelling "adjustment" aside, "Carl Egon" is Dr. Aeon's real name. He is not, it seems, a firm follower of network security best practices.

Not really "useful", but for me, there's a generic villain Newspaper mission to steal some passcodes that allow a back door into Aeon Corp's network. When you get it, the clue mentions the code is NOGELARC. I never understood it and always thought it was a reference to some old movie or comic (since a lot of the clues are exactly that). Then a few weeks ago I was doing it and just happened to realize what it said when spelled backwards... How that eluded me all those years, I'm not sure.

So back in the day, one of the very first villains I ever created was a Plant/Psi Dominator. I'm looking at trying to build him again, but so much has changed with Psi Assault, especially, that I'm not sure what are "best practices" these days. I've put together a few thoughts, and a few questions, and would be glad for some feedback on them. Plant Control Strangler, Seeds, Vines, Creepers, and Fly Trap all seem like clear "yes absolutely take these" choices. I feel like I should probably take Roots. Seems like a good power for an AotD set and thus, more Recharge, and it could be handy to prevent post-Seeds scattering. Maybe pick it up somewhere in the 20s. Spore Burst seems like a clear skip. Entangle also I figure isn't worthwhile because I've got plenty of other, better ranged attacks I could take. Spirit Tree I'm also thinking is a skip, just because while I can be handy for some builds, in this case, I've got Drain Psyche. Psionic Assault Drain Psyche and Psychic Shockwave remain bread-and-butter type powers, as far as I'm aware. Building off those is the general "After Seeds, I want to close to and stay in melee if I can" strategy, so Mind Probe and TK Thrust are both good choices. TK will probably get Overwhelming Force slotted in. In addition, a ranged chain is probably not a bad idea. Options are for Psi Dart, Mental Blast, Subdue, and Psi Lance. I figure I don't need to use all of them, but three out of four are probably a good idea. "Skipping" Psi Dart would just mean dropping it from my tray and not slotting it...according to the latest Mids', even with the buffs it got, it's still slightly weaker than the others, but maybe not so much that it's worth sacrificing another power pick? Psi Lance seems like the next-weakest, but only without any To-Hit Buffs. That could change, potentially, depending on teammates or just taking Tactics (see below). Also a little unsure on Psychic Scream. I remember it not being popular before, but when I look in Mids', it actually looks stronger than Shockwave these days? Of course, it's also a bit slow and requires hanging back...if I'm not "safe" hanging out in melee I'm not sure I'm safe tossing around damage cones either. This may be misleading but I may be missing something. Power Pools Teleport will definitely be a travel power because the character's concept sorta ties him to the Malta Group. Similarly, Stealth feels appropriate (though not an absolute pick) and useful. Will also be dipping into Speed for Hasten. This leaves me one, maybe two potential pools. Any recommendations here? Is it worth dipping into Leadership for Tactics, which will improve hit rates and damage as well on Psi Lance, for example? Also not sure on what APP would work best. Again, this is a character who's already villain-aligned conceptually, so Patron Pools are doable. Fire and Ice APPs don't fit the concept, but anything else could be fair game, I think. Thoughts/suggestions?

It's 10-15, as a couple of the missions utilize Minions of Igneous who cap out at that point.

I mean...that's what the Seed. It's more or less a "normal" GM, with one extra little mechanic (like, say, Lusca). It's not, and never was, meant to be a raid.

Given what a certain rather prolific player gets away with on Everlasting, I doubt HC would come after you for this. Not impossible, as noted by the above-mentioned impersonation rule. But precedent seems to show they don't make too much effort regarding it unless you actively start trying to convince everyone you are that person (which would be hard in Stan's case).

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a thing. I always just assumed that it's a sort of digital mirror of that.

Well, for one thing, MM Pet sets already have attacks, some of which are just straight-up duplicated by the Assault sets.

That feels a little too much like MMs and Bodyguard, and I at least envisioned it a little more...lead from the front rather than "use them as a human shield" approach, thus wanted it to be a more offensive bent. Although it may not be a practical one, I'd admit. I don't have a lot of experience there. Brute-level HP does seem like it'd be needed, though, yeah.

This is an idea I've seen bandied about in a few places, and I admit I like it a lot myself. In my imagination (where I've always called it the "Vanguard"), I see it going something like this: Primary Powersets: Assault Secondary Powersets: Pets Attacks from the Pet sets are replaced by armors: instead of a t1/t2 blast and weak AoE, you get a couple lower-tier defensive powers (but including mez protection) from armor sets related to the motif of the pets. Beast Mastery gets Regeneration, Demon Summoning gets Fiery Aura, Mercenaries gets Willpower, Necromancy gets Dark Armor, Ninjas get Ninjutsu, Robotics gets Invulnerability, Thugs gets Super-Reflexes Rather than being defense focused, the Inherent would be an offensively-oriented type of thing where your pets did more damage if they were attack the same target you were.

Had this happen on a Pitstop TF the other day. One player kept running ahead, despite the leader repeatedly asking her to stop. When we got to the final mission, she ATT-ed everyone straight to the final room...and the leader ATT-ed everyone right back to the beginning to fight through. When we did catch up, leader kicked her right before Clamor went down. Normally, I'd find that to be kind of a jerk move, but it's not like she wasn't given a few "warnings". Personally, I just ask up front when I get on a TF and it wasn't pre-established: "speed or stomp?" Or if I'm on a stealthy/teleporty-type, I'll convey such once and then, if not asked to do so, will fight with a group.

I give it an "eh, I guess". I don't particularly enjoy the 50-TF "master" badges, though. "No deaths" doesn't say "mastery" to me, it says "tiptoeing and not pushing yourself". I think it'd be cooler if they worked more like the iTrials and you had certain bonus objectives (perhaps each with badges of their own, perhaps not) tied to winning them, to truly show your ability.

I wonder if this was why the old devs didn't run the event as long? Not that I'm complaining, personally. After so many years without it, it's nice to have a little more time. But I can see how it might feel a little taxing. On another note, were the Halloween decorations in a lot of the building windows something from the old days? I don't remember that at all, but I like it.

My general ideal for Energy Melee's single target abilities, which I've honestly thought would be the most fun ever since the animation changes were made way back in the day: Give Energy Punch the Heavy Blow animation. Increase the damage (and associated costs) very slightly to compensate for the new animation being slightly longer. Give Stun the "old" Energy Punch animation. Increase it to Mag. 4 (the same as the "old, old" Total Focus). Do not increase the damage. It is now a pure, but powerful, mitigation tool. Give Energy Transfer the "old" Stun animation, speeding it up by about 50%. Given this would also increase its already over-the-top DPA, it should also increase the self-damage component. The cost of ET has always been too easy to mitigate, IMO. This (potentially) makes it a true double-edged sword. Give Total Focus the "old" Energy Transfer animation. This also speeds it up a bit, and, frankly, the current ET animation looks a hell of a lot more like a "Total Focus" than an "Energy Transfer" to me. This buffs the DPA, but not in a completely out-of-line way, I think. I also had the idea of fixing Whirling Hands by having it do a small AoE centered on everyone. This would increase the range slightly, and potentially do more damage but only if a large number of enemies were gathered around. I was never sure how practical such would be, though. And then HC did a similar mechanic with the Sentinel version of Beam Rifle...

I'm honestly a little confused...the offense isn't notably different at all, so why be a "Huntsman" at all in that case? Why not just be a pure Crab?

Can't comment on that, I just want to wear Dark Watcher's jacket and yet also have Vanguard gloves.

Not necessarily. And believe me, I'd like something like that to be the fix, too. But I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect it to be so simple.

After accidentally blowing what was effectively several levels of precious early Veteran experience that I can't get back this morning, crafting a Barrier Radial Epiphany when I actually needed a Barrier Core Epiphany, all I can say is... Please? Pretty please? I'll be your best friend?

So regular Jackets have a regular and a "sleeveless" option, that allows them to be paired with some of the larger gloves and such that would typically be restricted by the sleeves. Any chance something similar can be given to the trench coat look?

Because of the way Recharge works, the more you have, the less it does, which can make it kind of hard to gauge. One thing I do is I've edited the database in Mids to only show the "permanent" effects of Destiny powers when I'm trying to figure out my builds. Perhaps look at that and see how close you are? If you're within a couple seconds, the full potency of the power is probably keeping it permanent. Also, bear in mind that certain edge cases (Domination) aside, being a few seconds off on permanence is not going to make a colossal difference

Ran into this problem just now too. It wouldn't be a problem if the team either weren't locked at the level they begin at (we were all level 15 by the time we got to her) or if the EB had the proper range, but the two combined make it pretty infeasible to complete, and you don't discover it 'til you're almost done. Very unfortunate.

Might be planned IO mules even if they're not being used as such yet. Might be they are being used as mules, but the character's exemped too low to benefit. Might be to fill a prerequisite. Might be they just needed to fill a power slot because builds tend to be a lot less stingy with those than with Enhancement slots.

Well, yes and no. They weren't meant to be so, but their pets were. It didn't work that way, which is why Bodyguard came in, but that was the idea.