Lazarillo

I can accept reused animations across multiple different sets, to a degree. Like, it doesn't bother me that Gash (from Axe) and Pulverize (from Mace) look identical, or heck, that all the Axe attacks have identical Mace attacks have identical equivalents. It's a bummer when two from the same set are the same, or nearly so, though, and don't just at least have alternatives (like Super Strength has identical animations for Punch and Haymaker in one customization format, but you can always swap one to its alternate, at least).

It's disappointing how Gash and Swoop look almost identical (and the same for their War Mace equivalents). There's a minuscule change involving stepping forward with the right leg in the latter version, but it's not enough to really feel like it's offering variety to the set. One or both should be given an alternate animation so that the two can look distinct and the set doesn't have to be so repetitive.

He (it?) is one of the original BP deities and gets name dropped occasionally in BP banter in their original level range. Not related to DA.

Also, I was holding out for one more patch before I commented on this, but now that there's a release candidate, I just want to say it's extremely disappointing that being the 5th Column's obedient lackey is apparently going to be the only way into the new zone content. I was pretty hyped for this, but Striga's prolly DoA for my Redsiders if that's how it's going to be. 😞

You're thinking Hess, not Moonfire. But I'd be all there for a chance to fight it, regardless.

Speaking of new player experiences, defaulting the annoyances to off, or at least putting an equivalent PC in earlier stages of the game that don't require a side-trip, might be recommendable.

Do they not? 'cause I'm pretty sure other similar sorts of mobs do on live. For example, if Hercules Titans combine into a Zeus, you'll get XP for one or both (depending on whether you damaged them) and I could swear Warwolf-transforming Council do it as well. It may not say it's for the defeat, though. There'll just be a notice of receive an extra couple thousand XP or whatever in the log.

I'mma just note...the same power that IIRC, it was this team that changed to make it so that any damage could trigger it rather than only specific types, because the old way was too restrictive and semi-unintuitive? 'cause I'm pretty sure that wasn't a think back in the game's original lifetime.

The problem is that the "logic" guiding the puzzle is too arbitrary to be practical. "We have to have exactly one role per AT and exactly two ATs for each role, but also EATs each get three roles and they can be whatever" is, as you noted, not a representation of how the game works. But there's nothing that says the requirements can't be a representation of how the game works except for stubborn adherence to rules that were made up for the sake of having rules in the first place.

The irony being now that I realize that, I'll probably want to avoid doing GMs so as not to end up with stray salvage confuddling characters' inventories. If it can be converted into Prismatics (sellable), just make it sellable, I feel like.

Did a few more tries on these guys since apparently not having it scaled to x8 on my last run didn't give me a good feel for the bosses. This time I was on a hoverblasting Fotunata, to see if, with the Tar Patches and Earthquakes, Group Fly was gonna be the new team meta for handling these guys. It did have an effect, but not the one I was expecting! As it is, it seems the Masters of Ruin and Death simply won't cast their ground-based debuffs if their target is in the air. But, and this is a little interesting to me, if I landed in order to bait them to cast it (or at one point when something hit me with a -Fly), the debuff would hit me while I was in the air above it! I'm not sure if this is WAI or not...for lower level Ruin Mages, notably, staying airborne stays out of their quakes, a method that really helps make stuff like Positron's TF or Drowning in Blood tolerable on some of my squishy alts. It's possible that these are special Earthquakes and such and specifically designed, while at high levels, not to be dodged so easily? If so, that still feels a little cheap...finding ways around these things is part of the fun for me, so just being told "nope it hits you" is a little disappointing. But then again, the point is to keep them challenging, so I could see why some might prefer it this way. That said, I strongly feel that even if it's WAI for high-level enemies, characters need the out at lower levels. Anyone want to climb into a DiB or similar and sometime soon and make sure that lower level Ruin Mages didn't also get a buff that, frankly, they really don't need (seriously, are any low level bosses as beastly even with the fly trick?).

It's preeeeeettier. Honestly, I can't say I noticed much difference, though I hadn't played it in a while. The cone on Psychic Scream sure feels small, though. Probably I'm just used to wider cones from playing other sets more recently. That said, I feel making it wider-but-shorter to be something closer to the Night Widows might be nice, if, based on the Thunderstrike changes, part of the idea is "consistency" among powers. One other relatively small element I noticed is that Fate Sealed does not appear in the Enhancement screen. Fair enough in a way, since at least as-is, it doesn't seem like it would benefit from any particular type of Enhancement. That said, to maybe lessen confusion on whether the power was taken and/or working, perhaps consider having it still show up as a zero-slot power (like Swap Ammo)? And/or give it something enhance-able, just for us OCD folks. But I'd settle for the former.

Quick question on the Thunderstrike update (since I don't have any alts to check): on live, as far as I know, some versions of the power (Dominators, Blasters, APPs too maybe?) do Knockback, while some (from the melee sets) do Knockdown. There's no mention of this being given the same "consistency" pass in the patch notes...has it been, despite this? And if so, is that particular lack of consistency intended, or simply an oversight?

Hmmm, coming back to the talk of First Ward earlier, is it possible that this is why those contacts also don't pop up?

Granted after more than a decade, my memory's hazy regarding exactly how it worked, but I believe you got the Doorman (or one of the others) auto-add popup leading you to the new zone on all characters, Primal and Praetorian, kinda like Hellewise and Maria pop up in the current server for Night Ward (which never made much sense to me, but that's a whole different tangent).

What's interesting is that such dialogue was in the game during its original lifetime.

Since you opened the door, what would be the odds of simply raising the level caps on each arc, since they're overtuned for their levels and yet so easy to outlevel anyway, to the point of adding an alternate experience that goes even further (at least for the players that want it to)?

Because Galaxy City is not really an effective tutorial.

Malta are one of the four main groups redside (instead of Arachnos), so maybe that put the idea in your head? I know I frequently got confused by it in Peregrine too for that reason.

You should probably post about this in the actual thread for related feedback:

I realize this is a little tangent, but just to beg a little, while all this proliferation is going on, can we maybe get a Shard Cannon that doesn't have the laser sights? Those always look so wonky.

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.