Jacke

It's been made public news elsewhere, so I feel confident that I can share this. Hyperstrike had a stroke a few months back, in late November, I think. He's still in the process of recovering both in his life and his ability to play the game and be present on the forums. He definitely wants to. He's mostly posted simple messages of how things are and some requests for help on the Closed Beta forums. I can see he's struggling but progressing. He's in the process of getting back on the Closed Beta Shard Vanguard. Hopefully things will continue to improve for him. And I see Hyperstrike is posting a bit on these forums now. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/profile/114420-hyperstrike/

Hmmm. I'm not one way or another. I can see the point of both the current Henchman-target AoE buff and an auto/passive MM-based PBAoE. But can the auto/passive work? Let's look at two current example MM Henchmen buffs, from Thugs. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=mastermind_summon.thugs.equip_thugs&at=mastermind https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=mastermind_summon.thugs.upgrade_equipment&at=mastermind Each is a whole bunch of 'Apply "Grant Power" (all affected targets)' effects that cover all the added or replaced Powers on all Henchmen. Does applying it more than once break things? No. Probably because the code that does the 'Apply "Grant Power" (all affected targets)' doesn't break the Pet if it was already done. Could an auto/passive Power do the same to the Henchmen. Yes. But how often would it check and would it soak up too many clock cycles? Welp, the current click Powers seem to take less time than their animation. And there are already a bunch of checks for effects, whether they expire or do something. And they seem to run well enough. So it could be made to work as a auto/passive MM-based PBAoE. But should the change be done? It's a fundamental change to how MM's currently work. Yes it is a QoL improvement, enough to make things better. There doesn't appear to be any reason to not have the Henchmen upgraded. So it comes down to: How hard it would be to implement, do so thoroughly, and be tested to be sure it's working right. Does it deserve to take up dev and tester time to do this. As opposed to other projects pending. Only the devs can answer them. It seems to be a good idea. Especially as Henchmen need a lot of replacing. But I don't know enough of the fiddly bits underneath to be sure.

Here's a guide to Praetoria on how to complete all the contacts' arcs in all the zones on a new Praetorian Toon. Here's a command to make a macro to toggle XP off and on. /macros oXP "optiontoggle noxp" If you have access to an SG Base with a Pillar of Ice and Flame, a Goldside Toon can use it to run Flashback missions and arcs in Praetoria by...well, definitely by Level 20, maybe earlier. But the Moral Choices in a Flashback mission aren't permanent, though they do count for the Praetorian Accomplishment Badges. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Praetorian_Accomplishment_Badges

You do realise there's multiple meanings of the word "fixing" ? 😺

Think this is bad? Homecoming forums has the nicest and most appropriate moderation. Way back in the day, the rules of the board wargame Imperium Romanu II (1985) included a section on how to adjudicate rules disputes between the players. There were 3 options (paraphrased because the game is buried away someplace, so I can't look it up): Can't remember the first one. The two players should arm themselves and settle the matter like Noble Romans. Settle the dispute with the roll of a friendly die. You're lucky Homecoming didn't decide on going with option 2. 😺

Group Teleport has a 30ft radius but a 25ft base range. I don't think it's that great a travel power. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pool.teleportation.team_teleport&at=mastermind

Take a look at the CoD2 page for the IO: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=boosts.crafted_panacea_f.crafted_panacea_f It only targets the caster ("Self"). Its stacking is per-caster as well. If it procs, the caster is the only one affected and at most only once. It will attempt to proc every 10s in an Auto or a Toggle Power. It will attempt to proc whenever a Click Power slotted with it is cast.

It's been a long while, but as I recall, what made Freeform (the original character method from the launch) in Champions Online so gamebreaking is the presence of many powerful "Pool" Powers (with little or no prerequisite Powers needed) that could be combined on one Toon. When it went free-to-play, the free Toons were limited to Powers templates (can't remember the exact term) that prevented a massively powerful combination of Powers on one Toon. As for this idea for "Saga Mode", @Snarky has a point that being able to take Powers at any point in a build does smack a bit like the Freeform problem in CO. Powers balancing is hard enough now. Stop it with those negative waves, man. You can disagree with an idea without being so...snarky. Follow @Snarky's example.

I believe buff procs like the Panacea special will only proc at most once when they fire, even if in an AoE mob-targeting Power.

Except that Mu Mastery's protection at T1 was better than Electricity Mastery's at T2 until there was a change. Then the Electricity Mastery one was made EXACTLY the same as Mu Mastery's, but still at T2. Protection shields are not made better in Epic Pools because of their Tier. And @Icecomet's thought on making the first 3 powers T1, similar to the Travel Pools (and should be spread to the non-Travel Pools), is a way to implement this thread's proposal without upsetting existing builds.

I have an AR/Devices Blaster. With 3 builds, currently Arsenal Mastery, Force Mastery, and Mu Mastery. And I've got a lot of other Toons either at L50 or with full L50 builds. I'm aware of the tradeoffs due to the current nature of the Epic (and non-Epic) Pools. There is already massive complexity in builds just in what Pools to take, what Powers to take, and where to put the Extra Slots. EDIT: And what Enhancements to slot, which often drives where those Extra Slots go. The different ordering of the Blaster Epic Pools is just an irritating extra on top of that. Changing the ordering of ALL the Epic Pools for every AT to some sort of reasonable canonical sequence will give more flexibility in choosing the Epic Pool. It would create choices, not remove them. As I expanded just above, this could be a goal for ALL ATs for their particular Epic Pools.

Well, this discussion has been all over the place. I agree with @Icecomet's position. I have a reason that I don't think others have mentioned yet. Build are often tight or very tight. What 4 Pools? Which Origin Pool, if any? What Power picks when? What Extra Slots picks when and where? And what Epic Pool? Some builds will only have 1 or 2 Power picks free for an Epic Pool. If that desired pick is deep in the Pool for no specific reason, that means it's either passed over or the rest of the build needs to be changed to allow going deeper into the Epic Pool. Sure a common trade-off all over any build. But to Blasters, that Epic Pool protection, whether Def or Res, is a critical part to improving their survivability.

Ah, a man of excellent taste, I see. I've mained an AR/Dev Blaster since early 2006. Never did a completist run, but trying to get everything at L50. My most beloved Toon. And I've started a 2nd AR/Dev Blaster as a Goldside Completist. 😺

It's too bad we can't get the Star Trek TOS fight music in game. 😞

For glowies, especially after the mobs are taken care of, I often turn up the sound effects volume so to better hear them.

If Secondary Mutation turns us into a Rikti Monkey, I wonder if we could get an appropriate jaunty hat:

I get turned into a Rikti Monkey, I'm getting stuck in and giving the mobs everything I've got!

My feelings about Hasten are very similar to @tidge's. Because most Toons can make a good attack chain without Hasten (with the Global Recharge from IO set bonuses), I really don't think it's necessary. Most of my builds use all 4 Power Pool picks. Having to use 1 of this tightest resource just to get more Global Recharge means leaving off Powers from another Pool I want. And Super Speed is my least favourite Travel Power. More likely to be a concept Toon that takes Flurry for the LOLZ. What has me take Hasten is a Toon with several critical very long recharge Powers. Like Illusion Control's Phantom Army. Or a Nature Affinity Toon. Otherwise, I make do with IO set bonuses for Global Recharge. A critical conflict. Especially considering Ninjitsu, Shield Defense, and Super Reflexes Toons have a Click Power that provides their Mez Protection. I may consider using the Force Feedback %+Recharge Proc. But I'd not want to depend on it. I'll still likely limit Hasten to Toons with several critical very long recharge Powers. Back in the day, I'd limit taking Hasten to around L18 or higher, as I'd want at least L20 Recharge Reduction IOs. Now that there's +3 SOs available from L2, if I can, I take Hasten just before the very long recharge Powers I'm looking to get back way sooner. Here's another factor @tidge didn't mention. If a L50 build is to be Exemplared and Hasten is still available, Hasten (and those Click Mez Protection Powers) really needs 3 total slots, as the L50+5 Recharge Reduction IOs slotted in their are really reduced when even just going down to L25, worse at L20 and L15/L16.

I don't think it's needed to have any UI change. Here's my standard Tray layout. I use a stack of 3 extra Trays and set them up as so (they used to be in 8-6-4 order, but I swapped due to wanting what was in Tray 4 and Tray 8 to swap). I put particular Powers/Macros in each Tray. Trays 5, 7, and 9 are just a click away. This is rather compact and fits in the lower-right corner of the screen well.

I sure don't know. I also don't know how TF Darrin Wade took out you-know-who. Where do these has-beens get it from?

Birds can be big. But they are usually light so they can easily fly. And besides their claws and beaks, they aren't tough. And they know if they get injured, they ain't flying and that's a death sentence to them. So we can usually scare away big birds. Also, @Luminara, I know you're a different person. But without @Snarky posting any more, I look to you for those interesting posts. Like this one. 😺

So, what you're saying is.... "It's bigger on the inside than the outside." 😺

Talos Island shouldn't have had the islets to the north. That should have been a Hazard Zone all its own (and did show up as that for Redside, "Monster Island"). Then the focus could have been on the main island and the shores to the West, South, and East. Independence Port, bloody enormous. I think most Toons go around it for the Badges and Plaques and otherwise is unvisitted unless a group is going after Lusca. Even the Smuggler's Submarine is awkwardly placed.

Further to what @tidge is saying, there will be a problem with Char whether to slot it for Hold or Damage. With a full slotting, can do both, but that will sacrifice going for a 5 or 6-IO set. I'd say for Blaster, especially with an Epic Hold which are hard or impossible to stack, go for slotting Char for Damage and think of the Hold as interrupting the mob's actions, maybe.

I don't farm much now, but for my Spines/Fire Brutes, I settled on a build that with the +MaxHP Accolades works well enough on AFK as well as Active Farming, while also good enough for other content.