Coyotedancer

Another thing to keep in mind... and a point that tends to get completely lost in these forum discussions, if it's even brought up at all... is that there's a very big difference between how this game plays for someone with a Min/Maxed to the nines, billion-INF build rolling on an eight-player smash team vs. how it plays for a solo or a duo/trio small-team player running a non-optimal build on common IOs or even SOs. What feels OMGOverpoweredLikeWHOA in the first case might not be so ludicrous in the second. When we're talking "balance" here, are you shooting to balance around the highest end or the lowest? In these discussions, it's almost always the high end that seems to be drawing most of the "Nerf it!" attention, while very little attention is given to how Thing X may handle under less than high-end situations. Granted, I'm biased here. I'm a mostly-solo or small-team player who typically runs solid, though far from top-flight, builds... So, I see more of how the "other half" lives than the average forum build-wonk, I guess. It's just something to keep in mind. There's a population of players out there, in game, who don't always run in PermaDom/Soft-capped/SoloingTFs territory. You need to think about the effects nerfs have in that space as well as in Ubertoon Land.

I'm just a little weary of seeing the same pattern over and over and over again... "Oh, hey. Thing X works really well... Obviously, we need to nerf it."

People are actually complaining somewhere about KD Specials in Bonfire?! Seriously?? o_0

Brax, You have NO IDEA how many times Harry (my farmer-) has had to chase that flippin' clone of your's silly butt down as "the last guy on the map".... I swear his ability to run off and then not come back to the fight is just uncanny. XD

Yep. I remembered you were one of the Libertines... Kestrel and Chanter ran around a bit with BC back-in-the-day. (Sometimes it seemed like everyone who ran a red-sider on Liberty had at least met most of the other red-siders. There weren't very many of us. XD) Anyway, some of the Ouphs and a bunch of the Badgers are on Ex, along with a lot of the Sisterhood folks. You'll see some familiar globals, I suspect.

Mr.Coyote and I have had a great time with a matched pair of Illusion/Time Controllers of all things. We joke that they're what "Limitless Radial Freem" looks like. XD

You'll be missed among the Ev maniacs, Snarks... But there's a good crew of people over on Ex, too. A lot of the old Liberty people ended up there. (Including me, part time. I may have my Creepy Oranbegans on Everlasting, but I put my current generation of "Bird Things" over on Excelsior. XD)

Mine's name is Ferrian… I haven't had time to do much with him yet, so he's still a wee little lowbie. XD

I ❤️ my Stalker ATOs... 'Pretty fond of the Defender versions, too. I just wish I had better drop luck with the Super Packs. My results are usually pretty dire when it comes to the things actually HAVING any ATO or WInterOs in them. o_0

No Claws/Fire Stalkers yet... (grins) Time to make another Unicorn, I'm thinking. FOUR of us managed to get Kin/Fire Stalkers to 50 since the first set of numbers came out. Let's see if we can do it with Claws./Fire, too. XD

Both, I suspect.

And that, yeah... "Remember when debt was SCARY" is another one.

RE: the no-tailors thing... The lesson here is not to assume that dottery old geezers are wrong, just because they don't remember exact details. XD

Way, way back in the very earliest days... there were no tailors. (Now, what I *don't* remember is if that changed before or after the headstart and official release, or if that was just a pre-release thing. My memory isn't that good. I also remember NOT HAVING vidiot's overlays, though, and that was a pain in the butt. XD)

My very first Praetorian back in the Live days was a KinMelee/WP Stalker. I soloed her through with absolutely no problems. You may not be keen on repeating the KM set, but it really did work pretty well against everything she ran into.

My favorite version of that is.... Remember when you had to have a specific face/head to have elf ears? And had to completely restart the character to change a costume detail?

Tossing Harry (Haroeris… my Claws Brute fire-farmer) into a big map full of goons and just plowing through them is honestly a pretty relaxing thing for me. It's active enough to hold my interest, while still being low-stress to the point that I can just kind-of go into zen mode with it. It's very easy to lose track of time when you're Zen Farming.

We've always had a large number of goons that specifically favor the Brave Sir Robin approach to dealing with heroes. (That is to say "Run away! Run away!") The little flying Clocks, Longbow Eagles, Tsoo Sorcs and Ancestor Spirits, Circle Spectrals, Skyriader Porters and Wingmen, Malta Gunslingers, Rikti Drones, Cabal witches of every type, the flying Knives and Talons... and things like them. A whole host of annoying enemies that just LOVE to jet off at top speed to who-knows-where. Mobs NOT subject to the same speed-suppression we are, of course. Oh no. Having your movement speed set to "snail in a glue bottle" is only for *player characters*. <_< Will they come back eventually? Probably. If you're a tank or a brute or someone who took Provoke. Otherwise, they may just stop running... eventually... and slowly mosey their way back from the far end of the map, having completely forgotten about you.

My experience playing a Nature Defender is that no one spends much time in the spore patch... *unless* I drop it in a central location where the melees are pulling in multiple groups that take a few minutes to clear. Otherwise? They're all over the place and half the gang are already moving on to the next targets by the time my animation's done. I just can't see this being much different, and the game being the way it is, I don't think it's reasonable to tell people "No you! Don't chase those Clocks that are jetting off across the map in all directions! You have to stay RIGHT HERE." either. Not with the way so many mobs take off to the four corners of the world. It's just not practical. If more people played Controllers? Maybe... But given the current mindset of "control is useless", I wouldn't build a new support set on the assumption that they'll have crowd control back-up to keep everyone bunched up. o_O

Agreed, that it seems like a fine choice for a Mastermind... Honestly, though? I just can't see it working very well on most teams, particularly at high level. People just don't tend to bunch-up often, and having the "mez bubble" work like it does? Your people are going to be moving out of it an instant after you cast the thing. As mobile as most teams are, and as scatter-prone (Which we sort-of HAVE TO BE given the number of things that run for the hills if you sneeze at them... Yeah. I may have been dealing with Longbow and Skyraiders recently. <_<) the static placement really limits its usefulness as team protection.

Just what we need! Something else to have to grind/farm! Yay! ( So very, very NOT. <_< ) /jranger

t3h S00p4rFr34k's dialogue never fails to crack me up. He is, after all, l33t b3y0nd l33t. XD

The Young Warriors are coa-ed with the Young Paragons, who are a group of teen hero types played by RPGNet folks. They also have a red-side group called the Wasted Youth.

That's because they're only "active" when someone is in them and (as I understand it-) for a short time afterwards... And at any given time, the majority of them aren't in use, and so aren't going to be taking up any resources by... existing.

I can't imagine what "constant resummoning" would do the MM's Endurance bar... Holy hell would that add up fast.