Coyotedancer

The character that I use RoP with most frequently in-game (And so the one that I picked to test the changed duration with-) is a Demons/Time Mastermind who "leads from the front" so to speak, jumping right into the middle of things with her minions. That may color my opinion of the change a little differently from people who are looking at it more from the ranged Blaster or Defender's point of view... The character is strictly solo-only, so will never have team backup to depend on. (Demons are loud, huge, obnoxious horrors who, until recently, just *loved* to block doors and corridors and to shove team-mates away from their targets, so even though I like the set a lot, I decided a long time ago not to inflict them on other players. 😝 ) She has what I would call a solid, but not really super high-end or UberL33T IO set build. She's a full Incarnate with T4 Alpha and Destiny, and T3s otherwise. I typically run at x6 with her, but only +1 or +2 depending on faction. With factions where status attacks are uncommon, I use RoP reactively and only as-needed to break a hold or a stun. With factions that are more mez-a-palooza? I do hit it preemptively as she and the boys dive into groups that look like they'll be problematic. I habitually carry a row of Breakfrees as back-up, because without a heavily recharge-intensive build (Amtes doesn't even have Hasten-), RoP has never been an ever-present option on highly mezzy maps. To test the RoP change, I went with what's probably the single "worst case" goon-situation she's likely to face in ordinary play... A +2/x6 difficulty Devouring Earth tip mission. Helllloooo mountains o' mushrooms! As things stand now in the Live game, that mission would be a little annoying. I'd have to use RoP every time it was recharged, and would likely still burn through the last of my Breakfrees, too, right around the time the last Crey scientist was running for the exit. It's a mission that can be managed without a lot of grief, in other words. Not a walk-through ROFLStomp, but not bad. On test it still wasn't by any means impossible, but the difference was pretty noticeable. Less up-time on RoP meant I was relying quite a bit more heavily on the Breakfree supply, which was gone completely about half-way through the map. After that point, things got dicey any time RoP ran out in the middle of a fight. I found myself standing around a few times waiting for it to recharge before I jumped into particularly fungi-intensive spawns, which isn't exactly fun when you don't have a team to trade bad puns and Princess Bride quotes with, but the alternative was worse. When you're a mezzed Mastermind you can't control your minions and THAT's the real root of the problem with status effects for them, I think. Our Pet AI isn't the sharpest tack in the box. You really need to be able to micromanage the gang sometimes (especially when it comes to chasing runners and picking targets to concentrate fire on-) and NOT being able to do that for what can seem like a pretty excessive amount of time just compounds the problem of dropped toggles and your inability to use heals and buffs on your minions. It's not hard to find yourself stun-locked with groups of DE (It only takes three or four mushrooms cycling their little spore bombs to make life utterly miserable-), with some minions scattering to the four winds chasing runaways and who-ever remains getting picked apart. Does the change ruin Amtes and her guys? No. I'll still play her after the change... But what I WON'T do anymore is take her into DE missions. Hami's goons are dead to her. Possibly along with Carnies and their Illusionists. And maybe the Talons. We'll have to see about them. I could solve the issue by switching her Destiny from Ageless to Clarion, of course. But... Demons. They benefit too much from Ageless to make that option attractive. I could stay at range, I guess, out of the path of the 'shrooms and such.. But... /Time. The guys benefit a lot from my personal toggle power's slow and hold effects, and my heal has a pretty limited diameter. Or I could load my entire tray up with Breakfrees, but that seems pretty impractical. Likewise spending a small fortune on amplifiers. (I've got alts to equip, people! I can't afford that. 😆 ) Maybe the best answer is a structural one that has nothing to do with RoP... Let Masterminds retain command of their minions while mezzed.

*give Moon Knight the side-eye*

Do three minute combats take twelve hours to resolve? 😝

Nice catch on the SG name. 👍

*Imagines Kai hanging around the Sanctum in Greenwich Village with Stephen Strange, debating rather or not the Void is actually connected to the Dark Dimension* Actually, yeah... I think she'd be just fine. 😝

I suspect minds were already made up on the Rune situation before it ever showed up in a patch note... The lack of any sort of commentary makes me think we might as well have been talking to a pile of rocks.

People who are fine as-is rarely make threads complaining about how awful everything is.

I actually built my birds with the travel changes already in mind. 😆

I did the Numi/Perf pair on my two, with a few other favorite procs and specials for fun... but no sets and no more than one of anything that allows multiples (Like the Perf Shifter +END).

Tamenaten (bright-phase Elysion Time/Fire Defender, whose name means "Blessing of the Sun") and her brother Asari (dark-phase Broadsword/Willpower Scrapper, whose name is the Sumerian's translation of Osiris) No real biographies yet, since I haven't played them and so don't really know them.

Yep. In the end I went with the Scrapper option... I figured he'll still be pretty survivable at that level, with Rise and Confront to pull at least some of the aggro if he needs to. And though I'll definitely be missing the extra END that my WP types usually pick up from Physical Perfection, QR and a couple of procs (Perf Shifter and Numina's, I'm thinking) will definitely help. Otherwise... yeah. As toggle-heavy as the set is he'd have issues in a drawn-out fight. Broadsword being as slow as it is actually works to his advantage there. I remember all too well how much "fun" it was playing Summer Moon (Claws/WP Scrap) in his mid-levels on an SO build way-back-when. He grew up to be the Tasmanian Devil, but for awhile there... Yikes. Burned the blue like mad. 😝 ETA: Given that END issues may be something we all face to some extent with SO builds, I should probably switch out Tam's Veng for Victory Rush. That's a nice little boost if you kick it off on a boss.

Indeed. Imperial City in particular is just a gorgeous city zone.

It's been awhile since I had a WP tank running without IOs, but my memories of Palrah at that level (He was my WP/DB tank back-in-the-day, and was leveled with SOs only-) put him more in "heavy scrap"-territory than Seriously Tough Tank anyway, so the difference is likely just going to be a matter of how much damage he can do.

'Went ahead and built Asari (the other half of the Elysion bird-thing pair), but haven't leveled him yet. As of this morning he's a mighty level 1 WP/Broadsword Tank, but I'm still debating the final Tank vs. Scrap question.

Tam's 38 and SOed out now... and I switched her over to Vig. At some point I may make the "other half" of the pair. (I've always made my Elysion in pairs. It's a tradition that goes all the way back to Palrah and Ty'ree, the first ones I played back on Liberty-) Since we're a little short on melee so far I'll probably go scrapper or tank if I do end up building that one. RE: timezones and such. I'm in Seattle, so Pacific time zone. I'm on at all kinds of odd hours. The only "typical" playing time I'm not available is Saturday afternoon. That's reserved for running around with the Wolfepack. (Family team... Me & Mr. Coyote, Sib-in-law and the CoyoteNephews. 👍 )

Visually, I'm fond of the Shard zones (Yes. I play fliers. 😝). I think the Primeva sections of Nerva are nice, and I like Saint Martial a lot. Story-wise? Night Ward, Dark Astoria and Striga are favorites. I'm pretty fond of Croatoa, too.

*watches one of the mages blow up just for fun* It would have to be multiple choice for some of us.

True that

Sounds like a plan to me... 'Just finished building a new Time/Fire Defender for the gang... Tamenaten. One of my "bird-things". (The rest of them are over on Ex, so she's a flock of one here on Ev. 😝 ) I'll get her to 38 some time in the next few days.

Hmm.... I'm mostly a casual-type roleplayer these days, but I do love me a good RP mission team and my support characters traditionally live their lives running with groups in the level range you're looking at. Color me potentially interested in a support role. (I wouldn't hop in with any of my existing gang, mind, as much as I love running them in that range... They're all fully-attuned IO-built, "finished" 50+ Incarnates who just run exemplar at lower level, so NA under the terms you've set out. But making someone new just to run with the 38 Specials? That I would do.)

'Worth noting... there are also limits on the number of groups you can form a coalition with. It's fairly limited.

... That moment when you realize that you really should *NOT* have given the Fire Controller's imps that package of Jiffy-Pop

The babies might be more likely. (No joke, I was picking up some fancy-pants candy for an Easter basket the other day and the shop had all sorts of little marzipan creatures. Including an assortment of little putti. They were adorable, but also... a little disturbing. Biting the head off of a chocolate bunny is one thing. Chomping a little baby cherub? Yeeeah. Maybe not. 😝 )

Ah, yeah... That's the way I thought they worked. One at a time, to get an extra effective +1 when you needed it.

Different versions of the same old saying, I suspect. What I'm saying is that all any of us have here are opinions, one way or the other. Yours are no more gospel truth than mine, if you want to get right down to it.