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Again, I think the point was missed: The favoritism angle, and whatever motivates "agreement" was literally the first reason mentioned in the stickied/recommended post for avoiding granting your specific wish. No one in a position to even consider granting your wish has called out your posts on this topic as nonsense; to make that claim is dramatic. Why, when given a pretty direct response that your wish is not going to be granted, with rationale, was your response to a user responding to that rationale... That bit reads like a "STFU, I don't want to read what you have to say." We aren't owed a dev response to our responses to their response, especially not when it was made from a point of clarity that many users appear to have understood. I'm not writing for any of the powers that be, but the response we got is fair and just, and sustainable going forward. There is a very short list of (pretty minor) world changes I'd like TPTB to make, and for those, TPTB have made it clear that not only won't they make the changes but that there won't be discussion about it, for reasons. I don't know what those reasons are, but I can guess. Ultimately it doesn't matter because that one part of the game won't change, unless and until TPTB decide it will change. I can live without knowing the precise rationale, but in this very thread the rationale for not granting this specific wish was provided, which was not the case for the item I'm referring to. That horse, and this one, deserves no more beating.

When did I write this in this thread? If this is some general advice, why quote anyone? It comes across as a form of denial that the reality is something other than what it is. I think the advice from @Rudra to take time to grieve rather than self-cultivate anger and frustration online is not a bad idea. It's been made clear what isn't going to happen, trying to negotiate is another classic stage in the Kübler-Ross model of grieving. I've seen several good ideas presented in lieu of the wish that isn't going to be granted... and I can completely understand why the wish won't be granted, and it doesn't appear from the conversation that I'm the only one.

Is the request that I stop participating in this thread (the one on general policy) because I am disrespectful and derailing, or is there some other reason that applies to me specifically?

Except that we all can read the response that shows the people who have some say were listening. There has got to be better outlets for this than wanting to argue... with devs, with forum users, with whomever.... and some of those outlets can even happen in game, but it has to be up to the individual players to take the lead, and not try to impose something on the devs and/or the open world: The base tribute has been mentioned, even if "hologram" isn't a thing An AE mission could be created that features the passed person's character If the player was some sort of leader in in-game content, honor them by leading as they did

I feel obligated to write: This feels exactly like the "popularity contest"/"favoritism" angle that was explicitly called out as being a reason why the devs will hesitate to add such NPCs in the future. That sort of policy is not directed at any individual, it is directed at everybody individually and collectively.

I've soloed it (blue side) through the Atlas (Hashby+) arcs and it is now solo in the Hollows (level 12). I haven't teamed yet, I was trying to get to mid-teens to have some slots before joining up with others. I've been using Domination almost entirely to refill the Blue Bar (as opposed to more easily locking down enemies). It has been fine at +0x1, although I'd forgotten about the Accuracy penalty for the AoE controls. with slotting bonuses and Targeting Drone this should be less of an issue, but for these early levels something like Combat Jumping (early) with the Kismet +6% ToHit piece may be a good idea. It a couple of levels I will probably go to -1x3 for solo, but I really need some more Endurance management first. I specifically chose to NOT take Lift or Propel for this character because of (a) I already have a Grav Controller that uses them and (b) I wanted to emphasize the gun for concept. Generally: I find Lift (or any other damaging attack) to be a better choice than Crush (or any other single-target Immobilize), given the choice at level 1. I went with the single-target Immob here because I express such a negative view of the single-target Immobs that I want to see if I can make them work, where they can work, and if I can make it sing. I don't see a lot of discussion about Propel for Dominators, and it looks like I won't be able to provide any insights. This build does have/allow an unexpected (to me, because derp) amount of Knockback. I was expecting the Crushing Field to include -KB, but it does not. Knockback doesn't really bother me in game play (no matter the source), and if I was motivated to use the Force Feedback %+Recharge piece I would have a lot of options.

A thousand times this. The only positive thing I think I can say about World of Confusion is this: It was the one power that got me to take a HARD LOOK at pretty much every enemy-affecting PBAoE self-toggle in the game. In my experience, there are very few of them that end up performing as well as I hope they will; almost all of them require build choices to make them work.

If costume holograms for memorializing other characters are a thing, and AFAIK costumes can only be shared (outside of the game itself), there would probably need to be a mechanism to "grab" another player's costume (and body scales, whatever)... and for characters not actually logged in, this would provide a further issue. I don't know if implementing a slash command to try to grab another player's costume file (of which any character may have more than one) would be well received, and asking for the devs to provide one outside the game would likely present issues.

Coincidentally, I've just started a Gravity/Arsenal Dominator too! I try to get permaDom without Hasten (or FF +Racharge %procs) so here is my first thoughts on a level 50 build. I'll be making different choices for slots (obviously) as I level. The only other things specific to global Recharge bonuses I feel like mentioning is that I prefer to have set bonuses which scale down below level 27, so I'm not completely sold on the Expedient Reinforcement set in Singularity... it's providing a small buffer in Global Recharge anyway... I happen to quite like the Force of Will pool, but I can understand folks that don't use it. The powers I wanted to take from the primary and secondary (I have a specific concept for this character) meant that I could have the cone attack Wall of Force and Unleash Potential as soon as they are available, which is a nice bonus (for me, MMV). There are definitely different choices that could be made, especially with respect to which sets can offer a +10% global recharge. I should disclose that I will likely move the Ascendancy of the Dominator to one of the AoE controls (Crush needs no Recharge slotting) .... this is just my first pass at set choices. EDIT: PvP is probably a mixed bad for this sort of Dominator... my build wouldn't be particularly sturdy, and it (as planned above) it would pretty much be relying on controls, which I don't think are super reliable solo in PvP. For a PVP build, Sorcery is probably a better choice than Force of Will. I think I'd want Winter's Gift (for more Slow Resistance) somewhere. The only other thing I can think of for PvP would be to try to boost resistances and defenses, but that is an escalating fight. For PvP, Hasten is probably a must, as it allows for less of a slot commitment to certain powers.

IMO neither the thread expressing sadness over the loss of a friend nor the thread asking what the dev's thoughts on 'memorials' was trolling. It is disingenuous to suggest that. As for why the devs chose a conservative path (i.e. a reluctance to make physical changes to the open world), this should be no surprise. The game has certain elements dating from live that a tied to some rather problematic personalities (no need to bring them up, as those threads get "hidden" and are not-to-be-discussed for reasons) which haven't been particularly addressed in-game. It isn't like the powers-that-be have a hate for the lost friend (because the memorial threads still exist!), it's just that they aren't going to implement wholesale changes in-game to the (potentially tiny) fraction of players that feel strongly about the personality.

Blasters in this era pretty much only have one weakness (getting hit and taking damage), but they can pretty much overcome that by dishing damage reliably. They get some time of sustain (so that Endurance isn't much of an issue), they have fast-cycling attacks that do a lot of damage, they can make (some) attacks while mezzed ... and there are plenty of powers (and insps) to deal with being mezzed... and they have access to many other types of powers to fill gaps (in concept, as well as strategically). They also have access to several different self-rezzes if things go pear-shaped. I write all of the above because a Blaster is probably one of the easier AT to slot: Blasters can use a wide variety of really good sets in both primary and secondary (for example: not all AT can slot the ATO in either primary or secondary powers) Blasters can get a perfectly viable attack chain without taking too many attacks. My attitude for Blasters is: Get global recharge bonuses from attacks (which will also make them hard-hitting). 5-slots of most Very Rare sets gets a 10% global recharge, if the power has a "long enough" base recharge time, maybe it gets a sixth %damage piece, maybe not. I typically pass on Hasten because (by level 50) it usually only shaves a few seconds off of the longest-recharging power that I use regularly. The most common issue I have with building Blasters (and many other ATs) is getting enough reliable AoE to potentially damage lots of enemies at once. This is obviously a way to clear spawns quickly, but for me I seek out AoE because the RNG will regularly dole out a LOT of misses (even if the final ToHit is at the ceiling) , and missing against a single-target feels a lot worse to me than missing one-of-three critters with an AoE.

My recent Bane/Wolfsman also ended up not using a Patron pool. The 30+ power selection went (upon respec, powers were taken in a slightly different order while leveling): 30: Surveillance 32: Shatter 38: Combat Training Offensive 41: Combat Jumping 44: Tactical Training: Assault 47: Maneuvers 49: Aid Other The 41, 47, 49 are all essentially mules. I dislike taking Shatter so late, but for concept reasons I was delaying all of the Mace attacks. My original plan was to use the Fighting pool for melee, but it simply felt wrong to handicap by not using VEAT Placate or Buildup (because Mace) and burn at least three picks for Boxing/Kick/Cross Punch.... and still have Cross Punch come so late in the build. The Bane's synergy with VEAT powers was simply too good to pass... and for concept I can believe the gun gets put away to SMASH with the mace. None of the Patrons were going to preserve that illusion for me, except possibly Mace Mastery, but I'd be burning a power pick to get Shatter Armor, and that would only come at level 41. On my other VEATs, I definitely have used Patrons... but for those I didn't mind until waiting to end-build to have the powers I wanted.

Brickstown isn't that bad (as far as distances between gates/portal/train and missions/contacts, but somebody dropped this huge thing in the middle of the zone. For Paragon City zones, I think Talos Island is regularly "the worst". With the exception of the one door near the Dark Astoria gate, there is no quick option for any door along the war walls or on the northern islands. The Ouro drop point, SG base and Tunnel are all within sniper distance of the Train station, and the dance zones exits are pretty close by as well. I'm tempted to say "Independence Port" because of its sheer size, but at least it has the Smuggler's Submarine in the north and a train station/Brickstown gate in the south.

In-game memorials are a wonderful gesture; I agree that requests for physical game assets is an incredibly slippery slope. IMO the best way to honor a lost friend is to keep alive and showcase the attitude that the lost friend had. That is: pick up the slack for them, preserve the good feels through actions, and don't ask for a memorial that over time no one will know why such a specific memorial exists. On the negative side, I recently got a "Don't you know who *I* am?" public comment(*1) from a player that is actually relatively new to the shard, and (my words) spams LFG for a relatively narrow amount of content that isn't exactly gated (by level or skill)... and multiboxes... and while they get joiners, it isn't as if the direct impact by that player (at least publicly) is particularly big. They aren't otherwise a jerk, so yeah it would be sad if they passed on... but I can easily imagine one of the regular joiners asking for a memorial for that guy. I wouldn't want to see this become a popularity contest. (*1) The comment came as a result of suggesting an alternate, time-proven, strategic approach to common content. It didn't even rise to the "my way or the highway" reaction I can expect from a team lead.

I agree with the sentiment of the quoted post, but wanted to remark: Ultimately, I don't think %damage is making builds "grossly overpowered". If we ignore the whole Incarnate System (*1), the game is far more "imbalanced" IMO by enemy critters more-or-less unable to hit or hurt players. Combat with critters is pretty much a zero-sum game, performance between ATs is NOT a zero-sum game. There is no need to roll back to a time before enhancement set bonuses, or before nukes that caused crashes, or before sustains, or before %damage was a build option. (*1) I believe there are some significant number of folks that argue that %damage is somehow bad for the game that mostly focus on potential only for builds at 50 or 50+.

Not the person tagged, but here is my Warshade Tri-Form build. I don't exploit teh quick-change, but it should work just fine if I did. Obviously this isn't going to be 100% applicable to a Peacebringer, but it should serve as a starting point for a tri-form of that flavor. If the non-human forms were skipped completely, obviously major changes would be made. Personally: I wouldn't skip the Dwarf forms, as they are pretty great at what they do, and I feel like I could do most everything a human-only build can do with some other AT... and if I wanted to try such a thing with a Kheldian it would just be using a second build of an existing character.

I do a few different things, sometimes in combination. 0) I'm pretty good at pacing myself, so I try to be aware of what 2XP, Patrol XP, etc. can do if I am trying to do specific content. I mention this only because if there are later levels of the game you want to go through faster, you may want to hold off on collecting Patrol XP from exploration badges until those later levels. 1) I do zone arcs, either at-level or via flashback. These are all pretty well-contained and good for solo play. Blue side has more of these, the red side arcs from a similar era are also good, but they tend to have more zone hopping (even on short arcs). 2) For lower level characters: If my character has an AoE, and somewhat has Endurance under control, I'll solo whatever content I have handy but at a difficultly like -1x4. The ToHit mechanics mean taking fewer hits on the chin, but there are more enemies to deal with. It makes content a little bit more of a mad scramble while leveling up.

On my new Stalkers, I always try to take Placate (since the rework). On about half of my pre-rework Stalkers I have rebuilt with it, on the other half I like how they play without it, and those builds are pretty tight so they did not get reworked. While leveling up, I try to include Placate reasonably early... I find this helps me get a feel for using it. The base recharge time should be only two-thirds as long as a Build Up, so with minimal slots I find it to be a good power to use while leveling.

I have a Seismic/ Blaster and a /Plant Blaster, but not in combination. Seismic is IMO pretty straightforward. My personal experience with /Plant as a Blaster secondary was that for my choice of primary I wasn't able to leverage the Melee attacks such that my build was IMO very compromised by trying to work them in. I went with: Level 1: Skewer: 5x Hecatomb Level 10: Toxins: Gaussian's %BuildUp and Recharge IO Level 16: spore Cloud (HO Enxyme only) Level 20: Wild Fortress: 5 (franken) slots Level 28: Vines: 3x Gladiator's Net, 3 more %damage I don't like single-target controls on Blasters, unless I'm leaning hard into wanting to stack that control on a single target. So I skipped Entangle and Strangler. I tried to make Ripper and Thorn Burst work, but as noted above they simply weren't being used enough to justify including them, even for set bonuses. Skewer was the compromise pick for the set bonus and to have something that was a melee attack... plus I like having some damage-over-time for certain enemies. With Seismic, I don't think you would really miss Entangle.

I have a Psi/Mental Blaster that I chose specifically for the attack animations. Don't judge me, the concept didn't really work with anything else! The problem with damage typing as mentioned by @Uun is real, so this build uses a LOT more %damage than I would normally recommend for a Blaster. I don't have a MIDS or a text version, but here is a screenshot from my personal spreadsheet builder to show my choices:

There are variations-to-taste, but generally I find my Homecoming MMs always taking two of the attacks from the primary to leverage a secondary effect of some sort that helps the henchmen. Those attacks pretty much always get slotted for a group of useful set bonuses... primarily because Endurance burn is real for MMs and it is pointless to try to out-damage the henchmen with %damage proc-bombing from MM attacks IMO.

I started experimenting with Fear by using the Presence pool, and then leaned hard into it as a control with several different ATs that either get Fears or can easily incorporate them (e.g. via the Soldiers of Arachnos ATO). I rather like it as one of the 'softer' controls, especially as an AoE. In my head canon, I believe that Fear hasn't been seriously considered (especially for a new Enhancement set) because of the game's history with AI behavior tweaks (from launch) and the attempt to refactor Fear/Terrorize as an effect. In the same mind-space I feel that Fear wasn't really improved in a meaningful way because of some perception about how it might imbalance things in PVP. Observationally from game-play: The most annoying Fear-user that I regularly encounter is the Giant Monster Jack in Irons. Its 20-second fear can feel like an eternity, especially while it continues spamming its other powers. Somehow I don't feel like I ever get the chance to do anything during the duration of that fear, but this could just be high defenses not allowing other attacks to land.

I've been advocating for a "Contagious Fear" piece for years, for one thing, it would make the single-target fear powers more viable... similar to how the Contagious Confusion can make single-target Confuses more viable. (At leats for level 50s). It would also be nice to get another Acc/Fear piece that exists at level 50. The Hami-Os are pretty affordable, but still! Maybe and Acc/End for those Cloak of Fear power users out there (Which also needs accuracy BTW!)

My general advice for considering %proc damage to a build involves two points (to first order): The build has relatively little inherent damage naturally, such that an extra 70HP damage per attack is something of a big deal for that character. The build is saturated with a single damage type that can end up being heavily resisted by some critters (for my experience, commonly this is Psychic) Against single-targets with huge amounts of HP, occasional %damage is probably less important than debuffing Regeneration, or something else indirectly, like reducing Endurance costs. This is not to say that a %damage-focused build will necessarily struggle against an AV or GM, just that it those are the focused targets there may be better options (from set bonuses, for example) than slotting for lots of %damage.

"Invite to League" is just like "Invite to Team". The League lead has the additional ability to move characters from one team to another, or to their own team if the league has fewer than 6 teams in it. This is typically done as the mechanism for a league leader to have a character of level 50 leading each team, and to adjust the composition of teams. I recall that there was some adjustments made to League rewards (versus team-in-a-league rewards) relating to badges, I don't know how extensive those changes were and if all of the potential areas where this can make a difference have been addressed. AFAIK most content that more-or-less explicitly requires a league has been adjusted.