Duckbutler

I think it would be more satisfying to give the story a facelift. Consider the original Positron task force vs the current one and the old Maria Jenkins arc vs the post Going Rogue version. In its current state, the Positron TF moves you around a bit, but that movement feels necessary if you're following along with what's happening in the mission briefings. You get little cutscenes so that everyone in the group has an idea what's happening, plus they get to see it rather than merely read a description of it. With Maria Jenkins, it's the same story but all the maps got updated to use the new tilesets, the new villain groups, and new versions of the AVs. Now, I'm not suggesting something quite as radical as the MJ arc's update. That's pretty unrealistic. But maybe add a few things to help with the immersion like a cutscene here or there and eliminate some things that break the immersion like Citadel's back to back defeat all missions from the same door. The travel time would be more forgivable if it felt less artifical. And there's always team teleports for those who've invested in them.

It doesn't need to be more than a slap on the wrist to make a difference. Making it A) proportionate/appropriate to the offense and B) clearly communicated to the player would be key. Right now, I'm unaware of any way to check on your lock outs for task force and giant monster rewards, something already in the game. If a leaver penalty were implemented we would also need an easy way to track it. Perhaps as a tab in the LFG system?

When I asked this question a while back, I was also told that the reward merits per task force were originally assigned based on the average time it took to complete the task forces. You can roughly gauge how involved the TFs are based on the merit awards. WumpusRat's numbers for the TF commander TFs are close to what I've seen on average, with maybe a +/-50% based on team competency and team teleporters in the group.

I've no strong opinion here. On the one hand, on FFXIV we have a leaver penalty for duty content. All it does is lock someone from joining another duty for 30 minutes and then life goes on just as it did before and all is well. Technically I think it can balloon into something larger, but nobody I know has ever had a problem with that. There's also the caveat that it only applies during the first 15 minutes of the run. It's very minor, any given dungeon or normal raid can be completed in that much time so it does encourage people to stick it out unless there's something truly awful going on. If you accidentally eat the penalty because of a DC or a child pooped her pants when you thought you finally had 15 minutes to yourself to do something fun and now she's relentlessly pulling on your arm and accidentally hits a button... Well, the penalty is usually mostly done by the time you're back. On the other hand, I've been playing this game a lot the last few months as a nice low stress alternative. I exclusively and explicitly PUG, even when I'm running into some of the preformed groups that are only filling empty spots with people from LFG. I cannot think of a single case in the last 4 months where someone leaving early was a genuine problem. Any case where it was a problem, that team had other issues that were far worse.

You don't have to farm if that's just not what you're into. If you need some tips for alternatives, there are write ups in the guides section for other ways of making money that aren't farming. I personally focus on merits and don't consider an alt "done" until they have at least tier 3, if not tier 4 incarnates for all slots. That forces some more time spent at 50 so I can make some extra cash.

Definitely something with rad. Probably buffs, including choking cloud. Controller maybe?

Just as important, is there a way to turn off the bubbling noise? It's cool, but I very quickly realized the constant sound effect would get irritating over an extended play session.

I got a new profile avatar out of this thread, so I have to say thank you to the OP. Also a greater appreciation for how problematic AI art is for the art community. That is still not going to stop me from using the avatar or posting the image of my alt it generated for me... For whatever reason it had trouble giving him blond hair, but I'm willing to overlook that. Otherwise it came out badass enough I even considered changing his hair color in game.

I'm sorry for the derailment, but can someone explain what the banjos are supposed to mean? Other than looking like a confused turkey on a small screen?

I think it's better to just let them have greater control of their own group. Instances also limit their reach so that the shared resource of the server zone cannot be monopolized. Others are more free to create competing groups, just like we see with TFs and iTrials. The player base may not be so large as to support many competing groups for large raids, but I think that's more of an argument to play nice than anything else.

I would tend to place extra value Lauciana and Okie's opinions on this because they are both known to put these together a lot and they do a pretty good job with the coordination as far as the runs I've been on. Aside from that, the trend over most MMOs has been to lean towards instanced content with many of their concerns as factors. I personally have found it to be a better experience when I can actually get into the groups as opposed to just tagging along

Ah, thanks. I had it backwards. Other autohit powers have the target icon on some of the line items to indicate a portion of the power that still requires a hit check and that's what I was looking for. None of those are here.

Oh. Am I overbuilding? Do I need to start recruiting for my 4* Penny Yin, 1 death = delete character? Edit: Here is the CoD entry for the power. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=freakshow.super_stunner.reserve_power&at=boss_grunt I don't see any autohit tags on it. Could be the entry is wrong, could be the rez always goes even if the drain does not. It's also a numbers game, and as long as it hits one person, the stunner gets up.

Incarnate powers paper over a lot of AT weaknesses. I would not consider a build complete without including them. Unfortunately this can be very difficult to get a handle on when first starting out.

The blasters I've played on Homecoming have been quite far removed from the misery of blasters I experienced back on the live servers because they've had so many QoL improvements. Depending on how you build the blaster it can play very kamikaze or it can be quite safe. I built an Ice/Plant blaster - a little fairy to make my daughters happy - and it plays a lot like a corruptor. It's extremely safe and has excellent single target damage and control. AoE isn't stellar because while the rains look good on paper, frontloaded burst AoE from the team usually kills things while I lose half the duration of the rain on an empty room. I mostly team. If I'm not teaming, I fill that time with the market and crafting, grabbing exploration badges, polishing off accolades, and unlocking specific content. I wouldn't play a character that can't solo at all to accomplish those things. It's not fun to feel helpless. The best rewards come from teaming up anyway, though, so don't feel too bad about it. I drop the difficulty to -1/1 while I'm solo hunting those AVs for the Portal Jockey accolade on my melee characters just so I can get the arcs over with and get back to something that will earn merits.