LightMaster

Chapter 2 completed! The heroes and villains are too worried about the Miso Mountain than some rebellious members of the Legacy of Light and focused on the former, which proved to be for the best. The heroes and villains tries to stop the Miso Mountain from infecting the entire planet. While destroying the piles of Misomania Seeds and the enraged Hydralites greatly slows down it’s process, it isn’t enough to entirely power it down., Rollister wants revenge by controlling the Devouring Earth as he and his men, including recruited desperate Hellions as their new footsoldiers, attempt rituals to brainwash them by stealing a few Leaves of Cruelty. This did not work partially due to Cruelty expecting it, and partially due to outside intervention by Task Force Pacify (me and the team)., Rollister tried to escape by using Shadow Simulacrums as distractions, but the rampage of Devouring Earth and intervention of Arachnos (and recruited Hellions who do not agree with other members joining the Thorns) slowed him enough for Task Force Pacify to catch up and apprehend him., Cruelty took advantage of the chaos in Orenbega to attack the base where Serafina hides, forcing Task Force Pacify to rescue her. She and the Legacy Chain managed to “reverse-engineer” the Misomania Pollens into Peace Pollens, with incredible calm-inducing effect that not even Cruelty himself can resist., This repelled Cruelty back to Eden, and as the team planted Peace Flowers and rescued an injured Woodsman, the Praetorian Devouring Earth invaded. Turns out, as the team defeated Cruelty, the Praetorian Cruelty is helping out the Primal (ALTER-U) Cruelty to avenge his own Praetorian Hamidon., The fight ends with Praetorian Cruelty fusioning with Priaml Cruelty to eventually become strong enough to surpass the Peace Flowers, then spread rage all over Earth, but is defeated once and for all before they could do that, and are sealed away for a long time. Teaser for Chapter 3: Black Scorpion: Not bad, not bad at all. Pretty good, in fact! Right after Captain Mako betrayed the Arachnos, the villains of Rogue Isles proved that they still have the strength to defeat those ugly Cruelties! He and that twerp Barracuda are gonna miss the action, but I sure will not miss them! Now… as of you, smart guy… Dr. Aeon: Look here, I know I got some… very unfortunate and embarrasing situation, but Lord Recluse told me-! Black Scoprion: Ever since he lost connection to the Well of Furious or whatever that called, he got put into a coma, leaving him vulnerable to Captain Mako’s assault. With that doublecrosser Mako pretty much banished, Scirocco quitting behind our back, and Ghost Widow’s AWOL, I can pretty much say I’m the only one Patron left! Dr. Aeon: By technicality, that is true, but I doubt you’ll be the remaining Patron for long! As I let you know, the Ghost Widow will undoubtfully come back as she is a ghost, one binded to Arachnos I say! Or was it somebody more specific? Black Scorpion: Fret not, I do not forget about that, doc. You know what I really, really want right now? Dr. Aeon: And why I, the fantastic Dr. Aeon, assist a simpleton like you given your own troubles from-? *Heard some skull bashing smashes* … Can’t argue with that. Black Scorpion: Already tired of talkin’, genius. Start workin’ on it, the “Hero Killers” are not gonna be strong enough by themselves! Oooh, the heroes of Paragon City will not know what will hit them, I can already smell their fear! He he ha ha ha! Starting at here, there is a vote for Chapter 3, 4 and 5 to decide the PoV of either Heroes or Villains. The vote poll will be done in official Homecoming Discord.

A severe lack of AVs in missions 40-50 do sound like a large problem, and whole new or in-lore powered up AVa pop up suddenly when you become an Incarnate (or what In-Character equivalent you became), so adding at least two AVs in these mission arcs willd bridge the gap. For the 50-54 specifically, it has to do with the player became an Incarnate (or an in-character equivalent of), so non-generic bosses that aren’t part of the Banished Pantheon or Talons of Vengeance wound up to be just EBs because of the gap of the in-universe power level between you and them spreading further.

I managed to figure a list of potential Lore pets, with one “standard”, one “support” and one “boss” each. Example: Standard, Support, Boss; common damage type and effect Nictus: Essence, Dark Nova, Dark Dwarf; Negative damage and Foe -ToHit Awakened (PPD Awakened): Awakened, Unleashed, Quantum; Energy damage and Foe -Def Paragon Police Drones: PPD Drone, PPD Guardian, PPD Enforcer; Energy damage and Foe Disorient Legacy Chain: Radiant of Light, Inferno of Flame, Tellus of Earth; various damage and have their own summon that dies as fast as a Mastermind’s henchmen, but can put more DPS and even debuffs if maintained Nemesis Army: Jaeger, Sergeant, Fake Nemesis/Warhulk, Various damage and Foe Knockdown; Sergeant have Vengeance that can work on downed players (other than the summoner for obvious reasons) or even other pets We already have that one, my bad Devouring Earth: Razorvine, Deathcap, Devoured; Toxic damage and Foe Hold And for two “out-there” types like Polar Lights, Phantoms and Drones; Halloween: Werewolves, Vampires/Vampyres, Reaper; various damage and Foe -Recharge Little Guys: Swarm, Clockwork Gear, Rikti Monkey; various damage with focus on Toxic, smaller HP vs other Lore pets but can provide leaguewide support and inflict longlasting Foe -Res(Debuffs)

Luminescence as the “orbital laser” and Location AoE sounds like a really clever idea that stands out from other Judgements, and can either go for for the weaponry-themed like RiktiHater said, or going with the name and interpret it as a smiting strike of light. There isn’t a true “Energy” Judgement with Ion being the closest by virtue of dealing Energy damage, so this or mine can fill this gap. Of course Chance Jackson’s Luminescence and my Refulgent might overlap thematically, so I’ll gladly have Jackson’s idea taken over mine due to the LAoE making it more unique. With additional -Res chance on Core, and as a cue from my idea, have the Radial effect of -Regen to make it a solid pick for GM-hunting.

Following last post, I decided to form a tier list based on my perspective on their general usefulness. For specific buffs for each C-tier to F-tier Archetypes without replacing their Power Sets or forcing the Holy Trifecta onto them… Brute: While not as desperate for buffs as the one below, it will appreciate either QoL buffs or improving tweaks that help them stand out more. Brute would benefits having Fury to do more than just boosting damage. Examples include inflicting small, short-living but stackable -Res and -Def on foes at 50% or higher Fury, allowing the Brute and teammates to kill them faster if a -Res Power Set is not present, and it works with damaging auras many Brutes relied on. Increasing scalars for Brute’s Defense Power Sets (in between Scrappers and Tanker) instead of copying Scrappers’ scalars will also help making Brute more survivable, but not to the point of eclipsing Tankers. Sentinel: While still in a better position than before, their buffs aren’t enough to make them truly noteworthy when compared to above. I used to think the HEATs being master-of-none, but I got convinced that they are, indeed, better than a master of one, and of course that’s not getting into how monstrously strong Peacebringers can be in 1v1 Cage Fights, so thus leave the Sentinel not doing enough Ranged damage when compared to the big two, Blaster and Corruptor. Possible solutions to make the Sentinel stand out without overlapping with the Blaster or Corruptor is to either put emphasis on single target damage among Ranges akin to Stalker among Melees by dealing more damage to Vulnerable enemies than any other AT, allowing Vulnerabilities to stack on one target. Alternatively,or take a page from the Kheldians and make Sentinel’s AoE attacks (including Melee from APP or PPP) more damaging compared to others to compensate lowered range, as well as putting emphasis on AoE in general by allowing some of Sentinel’s ST power to deal AoE damage. This make them akin to today Tankers but with damage instead of aggro control. Don’t take these suggestions as be-all-end-all as there are others’ idea that might sound better than mine in practice, though I made sure my ideas doesn’t force using the Holy Trifecta as the basis as the City of Heroes doesn’t revolve entirely of this. Another thing to bring to mind is that the tier list here is only on a basic level; Power Set combinations, player skill and context also mattered just as much, if not more. Fire/Dark Controller can put a lot of work compared to Fire/Any Dominator, Brutes remain the best solo AT for most scenarios, Poison/ and Empathy/ Defender is generally superior to /Poison or /Empathy Corruptor, etc. And CoX is generally an easy game to play, so even a thematic but “bad” power set combination can put up some great work with enough skills.

As with the impending changes, the Tanker AT is gonna be reworked again so that they won’t be as potent for AoE as before, just more specialized for aggro control compared to other ATs. I don’t think Brute will still have a serious place in teams other than “Oft-Tanking” since, as incredibly solo-friendly it is, it has some severe downsides that need to be addressed such as the below-average ATOs, Fury only increasing damage when attacking when other ATs’ inherent are more immediate or in Dominator’s and Corruptor’s case, far more impactful when conditions reached, and otherwise not bringing much to the table compared to other melee ATs. I feel like a combination of these two may help the Brute stand out above the others, both of which involve Fury and make that mechanic more rewarding to keep up; Allow the Brute have access to two / three Ranged powers in their Melee power sets as individual alternatives (and not replacement) on top of the Ranged powers within APPs / PPPs, akin to Practiced Brawler and Master Brawler of Sentinel and a few more mutually exclusive powers in the upcoming Page 2. This makes the Brute one of the rare melee-ranged hybrids akin to Blaster and Dominator but as an option, so veterans won’t have to worry about Ranged powers forced upon them. The reason why is because Fury boosts damage to every damaging Powers, including Temporary Powers, and not just Melee powers, as Fury directly grants Damage Bonus to the Brute. Even a Revolver (otherwise unnoteworthy) from a Brute with high Fury can deal some serious damage. Ranged Powers also allows Brute to consistently pin down fleeing foes, safely destroying an exploding object / foe, or finish off a cowardly foe. In addition to Damage Bonus, Fury also grants To-Hit / Accuracy bonus. A fictional character that is brutal or enjoys fighting a lot will eventually overwhelm an opponent that relies on dodging or deflecting moves, so the Brute will have To-Hit / Accuracy bonus to similarly being able to hit dodgy opponents, especially higher-leveled ones. This in turn makes Brute even more solo-friendly and early game efficient, as they do not need to buy Accuracy Enhancements thanks to Fury’s theorical new bonus. This is up to the developers to figure out, but those suggestions can help Brute to stand out while still fitting the Archetype flavor and without strictly overshadowing other Melee Archetypes.

Unless it’s a Melee Cone, it might be thematically overlapping with Ion as both are lightning-based Judgements. Council sounds fun. Other additions I’d like to see are Circle of Thorns wizards (Demons are Circle of Thorns’ hellspawns), Primal Clockworks, the Mu, Skulls, Hellions, Carnival of Light / War / Vengeance, and the Legacy Chain.

Have you ever yearning for more type of Incarnate Power to use? Is there a very devastating NPC power out there that makes you go “Wow!” and wished to use it as a Judgement Power? Is your favorite official enemy group, or a thematically fitting one for your toon, not represented yet for the Lore slot? Think that the choices for Hybrid power are too limited? Here we can ask for what Incarnate Power we can add into the old slots to give players more option to use. Using old FX and animations are preferable to save time and manpower, ensuring efficiency. I will start with ideas for two particular Incarnate Slots: Judgement Viral (Extreme Toxic damage) Targeted AoE; Core have up to 20% chance of inflicting a Mag 5 Hold on foes; Radial will additionally inflict up to -50% Def(All) on the foes. Bleeding (Extreme Lethal DoT, slightly above overall damage due to DoT) Targeted Self Teleport, then PBAoE; Core have up to 20% chance of a Mag 5 Fear on foes; Radial will additionally inflict up to -30% Res(All) in the foes. Refulgent (Extreme Psionic/Energy Damage over Time) Cone (akin to Vorpal); Core have up to 20% chance to inflict an additional damage at least 1.5 Energy damage, applying up to LT (Lieutenant) at middle tier to all ranks at top tier; Radial will additionally inflict inflict -Regen in affected foes. Hybrid Defense Auto Resistance(DMG) and Def(DMG) by a small amount; base and Core grants chance of increasing Res(DMG) and Def(DMG) per hit to self; Radial grants chance of Continous per hit, which grants a +5 Mag Resistance to all mezzing statuses for ten seconds. Order Auto To-Hit by a small amount; base and core grants chance of increasing To-Hit per hit to self and nearby leaguemates; Radial grants a chance of giving Leaguemates +Res(All) for several seconds per hit. What new ideas for old Incarnare slots you have in mind?

Don’t forget, Brute’s Fury affect all of the Brute’s damaging power, not just Melee. If the Brute AT retain their 850% or even 800% Damage Bonus Cap today, not even a well-built Blaster can keep it up in DPS because of the obscene combination of typical Melee pain, decently high survivability and on top of that, capacity of high ranged damage via Temporary Powers (Envenomed Daggers and Plasmatic Taser being two big examples), or from the Power Pool like Arcane Bolt and almost all of the PPP powers for the Brute. Compare that to a Corruptor, the AT that just happens to be well-rounded yet deadly AT thanks to great DPS, decent survivability and aggro control, and of course Buff/Debuff secondary set. But not so immensively good that it made other ranged Archetypes redundant / useless just by existing. And the Defender AT, while much less damaging than even Controllers, compensates with unparalleled buffs/debuffs, numerically at least. And their damage are still decent enough to finish off a job or get a random Minion off their back. So neither the Defender nor Corruptor overshadow each other completely either. I don’t think even today Homecoming’s Tanker would be able to be a viable alternative if Brute can deal an obscenely high amount of DPS other than greater aggro control and better survivability. EXTRA: Maybe a new thing exclusive to Brutes to take further advantage of Fury, is allowing them to pick at least two alternative Ranged AoE / Cone options from their Melee sets that is mutually exclusive with a true Melee one (i.e. Inferno instead of Greater Fire Sword), but are mutually exclusive so if you pick the AoE / Cone option, you can’t pick the Melee version from the same level availability. This is akin to Sentinel’s mutually exclusive Practiced Brawler and Master Brawler. Flavor-wise, brutal fighters aren’t all about melee all the time, so they can and will throw things, shoot things, cause a ranged earthquake, etc. And in CoX, Black Scorpion, the Arachnos Patron that represents the Brute back in CoV, is armed with arm cannons and tail-cannon for ranged attacks, alongside his brute force and durable armor, despite player Brutes not officially having this capacity unless they pick an APP or a PPP. While you may argue that giving more Ranged attacks to Brutes as “mutually exclusive options” for Melee counterparts will make it overlap with Sentinel, keep in mind that Sentinel are designed, or are in practice, made for DPS over survivability while focusing on Range, while Brute still have a big focus on Melee and, while not a top dog for Melee DPS, have second best survivability among ATs next to the Tanker. It’s more making the Brute the opposite of Blasters; big melee with capacity of using ranged powers without needing to access of Epic Power Pools. As an aside Sentinel themselves don’t have access to Melee powers unless using an APP or a PPP so there’s that.

Chapter 1 is completed! An user with “Primal” on their name helped a lot for recruiting missing spots, particularly at the fifth and final mission, and switched from Brute to a more well-built Tanker to ensure things goes smoothly. As of the chapter itself, here are some aftermaths based on our actions and what we witnessed: (Teaser for Chapter 2) Radiant of Light: “You will regret not checking on the Legacy Chain… They had made a slave out of ourselves, the Legacy of Light, in fear of becoming what became the Carnival of Light of the other world… But I will not let it slide, and neither will many of my friends. From now on, watch yourselves… For that we will come back, shining brighter than never.”

As far as CoX goes, “Energy is the new light”. While there are explicitly called Dark powers, and there are plentiful such as Darkness Assault and Dark Miasma, with the Warshade having a conbination of darkness and void (two related concepts), the only true light elemental powers so far are Peacebringers, Illusion Control and the soon-releasing Pyrotechnic Control. That’s not counting the still-unreleased Holy Light, either. But like the D&D series, darkness powers deals Negative Energy damage, while Energy is considered to be it’s own distinct damage type rather than being the “generic” one. By this logic, one may consider Energy-based sets as a convenient type of power for light-flavored toons. If you find Energy Blast too much of knockback, or if you think Energy Melee focuses too much Single-Target for you, then here are viable alternatives to use if you want to create a light-flavored toon without the need to play as a “human-only” PB. Recommanded Color for all sets: White, Bright Beige, Sky Blue (akin to Peacebringers), any bright color (for a Green Lanturn reference / tribute) Elemental Sets: Radiation, Psychic / Psionic, Fire (solar), Electric (speed), Time (gleaming FX), Kinetics (support Power Set specifically) Weaponry: Beam Rifle, any melee weapon set with customization, Shield Defense Hard Light: Shield Defense (Gem Shield), Earth Power Sets (Crystal), Spines and Thorny Assault (Crystal Spines), War Mace (Fire and Ice Mace), Fighting Staff (again), Titan Weapons (Fire and Ice Mace / Fire and Ice Sword) This one’s simple; hard light is a fiction trope that involve solid holographic project of light. Think of Phantom Army, but real and solid. If there’s anything missing, let me know. I hope this will help those creating light-flavored heroes without being forced to resort into PBs or Energy Powers!

On mostly-Ranged Defenders, Corruptor and Sentinel*? Might be pushing it. Although, Super Strength would make for a fun secondary for Blaster (Powerhouse) and Dominator (Strength Assault), with same slow animation but lots of oomph per hit! * Sentinel have a 1.100 Melee Scale damage so a potential Melee-oriented “Strength Mastery” can work for it.

Adding to what Snarky said, part of what makes Corruptor a more definitve top tier even among the ”really good” Archetypes is the insane flexibility it can go, especially with power sets that complement each others. Being able to do at least decently all of the Tritiny roles, more consistently compared to the HEATs, is something that must not be ignored. Any ranged Archetype can do, the Corruptor can do that (perhaps better) and more. DPS? The Blaster hits harder in every time, but the Corruptor’s Scourge mechanic and -Res / -Regen spam allows it to make it close second, or far better against critters with huge HP like Arch-Villains / Heroes alongside Giant Monsters. Heals / Supports? The Defender is incomparable in numbers and can never go wrong for important buffs, but the Corruptor is second best at providing heals, buffs, debuffs and more, and pack up more immediate and eventual damage at that. Aggro control? Even if a Corruptor is nowhere as tanky as a well-built Brute or Tanker, it and the Defender can come close thanks to a combination of self-buffs or neuteuring enemies’ damage (i.e. Poisonous Gas), access to armor, or have second best DPS in most situations next to Blaster (because, again, -Res / -Regen and Scourge) means it can finish off dangerous foes very fast. In essence, what seems to be “Defender but deals more damage for less powerful support” ends up being the true jack of all trade among standard Archetypes, if not a master of all. The better part is that it’s not overpowered to a fault, just great all around as a ranged Archetype, allowing other Archetypes to shine: Blaster, as already stated, has the best immediate DPS, so if all other roles are already covered, more Blasters never hurt. Defender, as stated above, have even greater buff / debuffing potentials, at cost of dealing less damage than even a Controller. Scrapper and Sentinel as third best DPS overall that, while having less survivability than Defender and Corruptor in practice, each have their own values; Scrapper being top-notch overall Melee DPS while Sentinel have Opportunity / Vulnerability for unmissable -Def / -Res debuff to add more damage. Stalker have built-in Stealth and Assassin’s Strike, making for highest ST damage among Melee Archetypes. Their Hide also makes them great for stealthing through missions. Tanker, at least in Homecoming as of today, have a very strong aggro control with unparalleled survivability. Brute is in-between Scrapper and Tanker, and have the bonus of least responsibilities (the “do whatever I want” Archetype), oftentimes named as the most consistently good Archetype for soloing, and a viable alternative to Tankers for those who think Tankers deals too little damage. Controller and Dominator for more straightforward crowd control, with Controller leaning to additional support while Dominator for more offense approach. Illusion/ is a different beast with more emphasis on aggro control and damage than mezzing. And finally, the Mastermind for focus on pets and being more powerful if there’s two or more Masterminds due to the simple nature of “More buffs for my henchmen, please!” While the HEATs and VEATs’ jack of all trade attempt got overshadowed by the Corruptor as time goes by, they can still be very fun Epic Archetypes to play, have unique mechanics and can still fill in roles just fine. The Fortunata variant of Widows in particular makes for a rare tanky controller-esque type that not even the Corruptor can fill so easily. tl;dr Corruptor’s top tier due to filling all Tritiny easily, but not to the point of making other Archetypes obsolete.