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Paragon's intention with the group is 100% irrelevant, for one. I'm speaking purely from a "should Nazis continue to be glorified in a modern video game" standpoint. Also, I understand that both are fascist groups. That's fine. Especially as an enemy group, it makes sense in the general theme and history of comic books. But I will correct you on one point: the 5th Column are 100% actual Nazis, with direct historical ties to Hitler. From their wiki entry (emphasis mine): Before they were taken over by the Council, The Fifth Column stood as the last remaining threat from World War II, a group of super powered fascists still fighting a war the rest of the world left behind fifty years ago. The Fifth Column has the nefarious distinction of actually triggering the United States' involvement in the war against Nazi Germany. Hitler first sent the covert super team to Paragon City in 1939, tasked with spying on and sabotaging US shipping and naval development. I won't debate the nuances of having them as an enemy group at all. But absolutely players should not be encouraged to interact with a group of literal Nazis in a supporting role (ie. doing missions for this contact).

This is something I'm going to echo for entirely different reasons. Even outside of the concept of "my villain/rogue isn't actually evil enough to work with Nazis", this is just not a group that needs to be given more screen-time in the game specifically because they are Nazis. Not even an analogy like Council. There's a reason they got mostly excised from the game fairly early on -- it was in poor taste then, and it's still in poor taste now. There's enough other enemy groups in the game that this shouldn't be necessary.

Oh interesting... good to know, but I'm not sure how I was supposed to figure that out without just trying random things. 😆

Made a level 50 soldier and played some mishes. The changes feel really good. I like that we can ditch the gun now if you just want to go all mace and still have access to some of the grenade powers. Though I agree, frag grenade not being included seems like an oversight. Also Shatter still feels a tad ponderous in its animation speed. Did it somehow miss the cast speed update? Maybe it's just me.

I really enjoyed the design of this mission. Top notch! A few minor notes: The dialogue speed for the cutscenes and NPCs conversing with each is a tad too fast. I consider myself a fast reader, but it felt a bit frenetic to me. Perhaps add about another 1-2 seconds pause before the next person's line. Some of the NPC caption text is unreadable in the chat box (half black gradient, see screenshot). There was a marker on the map at one point for an "incapacitated hero" but for the life of me I could not figure out how to get onto the building where it was. Piecemeal doesn't have travel powers, and there didn't seem to be anything nearby to use to get to it (there's a fallen building that I thought might work, but it's too steep to climb). Luckily it's not needed to progress. See screenshot. The first map marker for "access the arena matrix" is at the bottom floor of the AE building, which kind of misleads you from where you really need to go (into the arena). Should this mission reward a badge? I feel like all the other personal story arcs do, maybe I'm misremembering.

I'm just going to point out this expectation is unrealistic and has never happened in any forum ever in the history of the internet. 😄 If you really don't want us influencing each others' feedback or replying, you should use a feedback form that just goes to the devs and no one else can see it!

That's unfortunate. I do agree with you, the power set is fine, but only just so. It won't stop me from playing it; I'd already formed some ideas for Storm Blast characters when it goes live. I will agree it's not broken or unplayable. But it could be better, without being out of line with other power sets. Designing a power set that only gets to shine in a small percentage of the game isn't good design. Most of the game is not protracted fights. And other sets get to function at 100% in both types of content. The fact that the devs ignored this in both closed beta and now open beta is disappointing at best. An unwillingness to deviate from some imagined "vision" for the set in the face of so much feedback shows a lack of empathy for the players. Edit: Actually, I'll go ahead and apologize to the devs for that last statement, because it's unfair. I should say there's a perception of lack of empathy, because we have nothing else to go on than the lack of responses and the one offered change that didn't really address the issue.

There's no problem except this huge problem... 🧐 Characters clipping through walls and doors is the exact kind of jank I'd hate to see come to Homecoming.

A bit late to the party, but I'll add another perspective on SB. Caveat, I was mostly just testing one of the story arcs so I was playing on +0x0. Not gonna offer any opinions how it performs in the current "meta" 😛 This is on a level 40 sentinel with mostly basic IOs. Overall, I think the set is good and one that I would play if it were released live. I like the synergy with storm cell and the variety of effects makes it feel truly unique in the current offering of blast sets. That said, there are a few flaws, so it could definitely be better. Gust/Hailstones - these 2 pretty much serve their purpose as basic attacks. Only complaint I have is the sfx/vfx feel a bit weak (even with them set to bright with red/blue colouring, they were really hard to see). I tend to like sets where a hit on an enemy feels like it has a real impact. I do love that Gust has -fly - it comes up rarely, but really useful for certain enemy types that like to soar all over the place. I'd love to see -fly in Storm Cell as well, I think it makes sense and would just be a nice cherry on top. Jet Stream - Mostly same issue as previous 2, vfx/sfx feels a bit weak, but at least the after-effect of repel/KB is more visible so it doesn't feel quite as bad. I know the repel has been a topic of debate; while soloing it was small enough it didn't bother me (also I had storm cell up 90% of the time or so), but I could see it being a minor annoyance in teams. Storm Cell - Like a lot of others here, this is the one part of the set that really feels a bit off somehow. I think I understand the intent, and having a lot of powers synergize with it does feel cool. I think the weird part is having it function like a pet - it's a bit difficult to get it into the right position after initial cast, and it follows you way too slow to actually drag it from group to group. It was just easier to recast as often as possible. I think personally I'd prefer it if it were a ground-targeted aoe with a shorter duration/faster recharge so I could just put it where I want each time. But I'll leave people savvier in systems design to debate that. Intensify - Does what it says on the tin, no real issues. Though due to the long wind up / DoT centricity of this set, an aim power feels somehow less useful in this set? Lightning Strike - love this one, calling down lightning bolts on people's heads feels so satisfying. I kinda wish it were a lower tier power so I could spam it more 😛 Chain Lightning - similar to lightning strike, the vfx/sfx are satisfying here, and it's effective. I will say, having -End on only two powers in this set seems kind of pointless since you usually have to stack a lot of -End to really do anything. But it's on-theme for electricity powers 🤷‍♀️ Cloudburst - goofy, but I dig it. DoT feels powerful enough, so it's fine. I did notice it seems in some situations the vfx for the cloud and the rain can get separated from each other which looks odd (I think caused by enemies running around in the middle of my cast?) Category Five - This one is close to being really good. Not like a typical nuke, but once it gets going inside a storm cell, the damage is definitely good. I just wish it had less of a wind up. I feel like in a team setting, everything will be dead to other people's instant AoEs long before it has a chance to get going.

I built a level 40 storm/energy sent and added mostly basic IOs, a couple uniques, and ATOs. Overall I think the design is fair and balanced, good pacing. Writing is done well and kept brief. It really feels like something Paragon could've made themselves, so kudos for fitting into the overall feel of CoH. Mission specific feedback items: Interview Striga locals Love that the 3 bosses are optional and also grant temporary powers, felt worthwhile to spend the extra time to hunt them down Claymore, however, disappeared from my inventory after the mission whereas the other two did not Not sure if they’re normally elite bosses or if they’re just ignoring the solo bosses setting? (Feel like it’s probably the latter) Old Toby didn’t have a marker like the other objectives, not sure if that’s intentional Investigate the PCNB HQ Once you enter the HQ, the marker stays on the exit through the following objectives until the hidden door, which is a bit confusing Unseal the blast door objective directed me to a control panel that when clicked says “You can’t complete this objective yet.” Didn’t take long to figure out I needed to go grab an NPC from the next room, but it would be nice if the message was clearer, like “you need to find a way to unlock the door” or something Also the blast door just fading out of existence looks a bit unpolished, wonder if you could replace with something that would make more sense to fade out, like a force field? Burgle the Family Money-ship Was mostly confused by this one. I clicked on the first cart, and then it said a patrol had found me, and then a bunch of guys started spawning right on top of me, I finally kill Tommy One-Eye, and the mission is over. Never walked more than 20 ft from the entrance. Not sure if this was how it’s supposed to go down? Riots in Talos Like the blast door earlier, using a van model without openable doors is a bit jarring. But it’s less so than the blast door since you barely see it before the loading screen. Not sure what the spawn with Vulcannon, Bronze Bird, Little League is about? I defeated them (tough fight!) but nothing happened. The NPC they were guarding wouldn't talk to me. Steal the election I appreciate the map markers for the targets, “find the 1 guy on the giant open map” is not one of my favourite mission types Ending with an EB was a nasty surprise, but luckily I was able to beat him with Inspo dumping While “Waiting for Election Results”, you can start Dr Arvin’s dialogue again, which is a bit weird This took me about an hour and a half to do solo while pausing to go afk a couple times. 20 merits feels fair.

For me, my favourites are Mortimer Kal, Penny Yin, and ITF. I like the ones that have meaningful rewards for the time invested, and have a decent variety of mission types and enemies. Posi 1 & 2 are pretty good too. Generally I also want a TF/SF to be less than 1 hour (for casual play-through/kill most) so it doesn't feel like I have to carve time out of my schedule to plan around it, and it doesn't encourage people to feel speed strats are required b/c of how boring it is. Synapse is probably the exact opposite of what I enjoy, b/c it has lots of 'defeat all' missions and basically one enemy group that gets very boring and repetitive (though I'm willing to do it when it's on rotation for the copious merits, I guess).

Based on how it's designed, I think the idea is that it's like an "oh crap" button when you start taking the heat in a battle with a team. In that case you can pop it and protect yourself while the team regains aggro or finishes off the mobs. That said, I do agree it's kind of poorly thought out, and probably not even close to relevant the way the game is played today. It's also a baffling choice for a level 1 power since as you pointed out, it's kind of useless in 99% of scenarios.