LightMaster

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.

Lore: Document SG Name: Danger Hive RP/RP Friendly: RP friendly; ERP not recommanded Theme: Bee-themed Magitek empire with “be with the bros” and “fights as a living” ruleset; stationed in a galaxy far, far away from Praetor Earth Redside/Blueside: Goldside (but morally Redside) Recruitment Message: “In Praetoria, there is no true black-and-white situations, and where everyone have their own reason… or so they tried to led us to believe. In reality, the incredible incompetency of a certain Emperor Cole have doomed the Praetor Earth into everlasting oppression and supremacy of those siding with him.” “And now Hamidon is after the Praetor Earth. Not that I would miss it, but I know that people out there do not want to deal with this infernal planet anymore. As well as those having enough with the heroes and villains nonsense in the Primal Earth as I were told. This is where I came to give you a turn of the fortune, a chance to get a much better life than ever… at a price!” “By joining the Danger Hive, our bee-themed superarmy that was under the nose of many, many over the years until now, you are expected to do your responsibilities and give yourself and the others a chance to thrive, to become better than before. Be it becoming our soldier, personel, or even a Special Bee that keep your power and costume of your choice. So come on in, and don’t miss the beat! Hehehe…” ”So come to my lovely army, the biggest of them all, and I, the superbly awesome Vexpa Rex, will ensure that you will have a great time fighting, partying and living with us! Apply today to the Danger Hive, you don’t wanna miss the action!” The statements regarding the situations on Praetor Earth made by our beloved Vespa Rex are not reflective to the Danger Hive as a whole and should not be used as an excuse or prealable for any attempt of unprovoked offenses towards the kingdom. You have been warned. To join, send a DM to me in this site or in Discord, with samtendo09 for the latter. Be sure to have a few messages you sent in the official Homecoming server to ensure authencity, otherwise I am not taking chances!

Oh yeah forgot to mention, it’ll occur in Everlasting.

Have you ever wondered what happened if the Battalion (aka the Coming Storm) invaded has Live CoX not shut down in an untimely matter? Are they as threatening as people thought and the afternath is felt, or were they shut down easier than expected and is a result of an even more destructive collaboration? What if the effort by Mender Silos and Ouroboros as a whole turned out to be all in vain, or if they were right all along about handling the danger? And what happens if Lord Nemesis managed to know about Mender Silos’ true identity? Would the war between Paragon City and the Arachnos have a final victory for either side, or would there be something or even someone that causes a horrid aftermath for both? All that will be explored in the ALTER-U series, a bi-weekly event involving a custom AE arc. Each “chapter” will explore the happenings and aftermaths of the potential events, acting as a pseudo-sequel to the City of Heroes official story a whole, but with slight creative liberty on the characters to prevent things from being too predictable. This thread can be used for providing feedback, story critique, difficulty, etc, but remain civil for the thread as a general rule of thumb of Homecoming forums. There are simple rules for each chapter: Your actions might have weight on future chapters depending on how severe they are. That said, Godmodding and powerplaying actions will not be tolerated, which means you can’t kill an important NPC ICly without the agreements of the other players. Level range is 50-54, so yours truly will use any of my level 50 toons to ensure many have a chance to contribute in battles. You are not required to RP, but it can help making the story immersive. If your character die ICly, you may want to use another for future chapters. Following up on first rule; the missions outcome are pre-determined, but your words and actions toward NPCs when RP’ing may have an impact in future chapters. Do not commit any act of betrayal. Betrayals will be handled by NPCs anyways. And most of all, it’s meant for a fun adventure, so we adjust in Notoriety and other factors to ensure people enjoys. Chapter 1: Aftermath of Battalion Wednesday, June 4th 2025, 7:00 PM EST A decade after the invasion of the Battalion, the aftermath showed that the people of Primal Earth are still recovering from what is the biggest multiversal war to date. The heroes of Paragon City and villains of Arachnos are back to the old war, with no decisive victor this time. Then, you heard a threat from Lord Nemesis himself. “Consider your days numbered, heroes and villains of the Earth. I have discovered the method of immortality… that led me to become some time-travelling goody-two-shoes! If I cannot be immortal without becoming a fool called Mender Silos, then I will find another way to achieve eternity!” Same ol’ Nemesis, same ol’ unpredictable plans. You cannot run risk letting him get away from all of what he have done, and you and possibly a team runs to investigate an abandoned warehouse that is rumored to contain powerful artifacts…

Makes sense, but I myself doubt we’ll get them anytime soon given HC devs want to focus on the smaller details first and foremost. With how long we went just for a second page to come, and with the gap between the two issues, the planned iTrials might never come into fruitation. Even with the advances of a few Solo Missions and Dr. Aeon Strike Force, granted.

This user gets it. Redside barely got lucky thanks to their own Strike Forces and the Patron Unlock missions, and by the look of the story, Praetorian Earth is not gonna exist anymore outside of Ouroboros. But that does tells me something… What if Praetorian Hamidon managed to invade Primal Earth? It’s already a greater threat than Primal Hamidon, but the Battalion (the Coming Storm) is already established as the biggest threat yet when they finally comes, so adding Praetorian Hamidon on top of that might be overkill in stakes and can cause potential scope creeps to Homecoming devs.

@Uun@Rudra Both of you have a valid point. The reason why I only suggested in the first place is due to popularity of randomizers and I myself is a huge fan of those, but you helped me realized this is really not the game that could make use of it without breaking game balance to unrecognizable level. As for Rudra specifically, the reason for the PvP restriction is for the fact that there’s too much RNG involved for a viable build in PvP, while simultaneously even more difficult to balance than just PvE. It’s the opposite of Temporal Warrior only accessing PvP zones due to already starting at level 50 and having access to all Incarnate Powers for free, leaving PvE oriented players in the dust if they are allowed for PvE zone.

Have you ever wondering what happens if you have access to a Power Set of randomized Powers? And by that, I mean “powers from random, different power sets”, not just randomly picking up two power sets from the available power sets of your archetype. Part of why I made this suggestion is due to the enduring popularity of fanmade and even official randomizers that adds a lot with the game’s replayability, giving from simple reordered stages, to even a roguelite experience. Disclaimer: This is not a high priority suggestion and is more of a for-fun thing for advanced players to experiment with. As such, take it all with grain of salt and while suggestions are welcome, it is not recommanded to engage in snarks or sarcasms as it will not help with potential development. The Game Masters also have the right to lock this thread if they see unfit for Homecoming. Basic Premise The Power Sets Randomizer (or just Randomizer) allows you to roll two randomized power sets once you picked up your Origin, clicked on the “Randomized” mode in either Primal Earth or Praetor Earth, and select any Archetpye. Once fully created, your character cannot participate in PvP areas (such as Arena and PvP Zones), but can still participate in Gladiators and Base Raids. The reason for PvP restriction is due to potential combinations that would break the pace of PvP or makes whoever has it too powerful to fight against; for Base Raids specifically, it is up to the Base organizer to restrict it by explicitly says whether or not characters with Randomized Power Sets can participate. There will be three type of Randomizers: Logical, Off-Archetype and Chaotic. Logical simply follows the same type of Power Set your picked Archetype but otherwise puts different powers from different power sets, while also respecting the “Tier” of the finalized Power Set. While the VEATs can benefit from different starting power set and can exchange from each others, the HEATs have no benefits from selecting this option other than from each others, creating an “Hybrid” Kheldian. Off-Archetype means the randomizer can roll powers from another Archetype’s power set, but otherwise sticks to the general type of power sets. This means that, for example, a Blaster can roll a Dominator’s Assault Power Sets, and only those set for one Power Set, while also rolling the melee-type Archetypes’ Melee Power Sets with same rules as before. The Tier ruling remains the same. Mastermind’s Primary and Henchmen Power Sets are exempt due to being ingrained with the Mastermind’s Inherent Power and other factors in mind, but the Mastermind may otherwise roll a different type of secondary power set. The VEATs and HEATs remain the same as in Logical. The Stalker will always have a variant of the Assassin’s Strike for their Primary, and Hide in their Secondary, due to these powers being fundamental parts of the Stalker’s playstyle. Chaotic is the most complicated, disregarding logic and randomizes every single possible player power into two chaotic Power Sets. The only logics are the following: Mechanic-related powers remains exclusive to the Archetype. This means the Henchmen-summoning power remains on Mastermind and that Archetype always rolls three Henchmen-summons, one first-upgrade and one second-upgrade. It also means the Nova and Dwarf forms remain exclusive to respective Kheldian / HEAT. Stalker always receive a Hide and a variant of Assassin’s Strike. Tier 1 will remains tier 1 version, as to not make the starting Randomized character a sitting duck. In all cases, Powers of the same name (i.e. Total Focus, Inferno) will not roll twice within both Power Sets. Potentially incompatible power sets will also be taken in mind; if Shield Defense is picked first, then two-handed weapon Powers (including Archery, Dual Pistols, Assault Rifle and Beam Rifle unless AE logic applies) will not be rolled, and vice versa. In the Power Selection when creating a character, the player is given an option to reroll the entire Primary or Secondary Power Set if the combination would be too undesirable (i.e. too little good powers in general, or too many powers that don’t fit the Archetype). Once the character creation is finalzied, the power sets cannot be rerolled. Ancillery Power Pools and Patron Power Pools are also randomized using the same selected logic as above options and the general rules, such as no rolling the same power already picked in Primary and Secondary, and the Epic Power Pool versions are randomized within each others. The other Power Pools, as well as Incarnate Powers, will remain the same as normal. Any randomized player will have the option to have the Randomized player tag, akin to “Help Me!”, “Helper” and “Roleplaying”, with the tag name color in lime-green or white. Additionally, if possible, the player will also have an “R” mark alongside their Archetype icon in both Team and League windows. Other than a permanent 50% XP bonus (stacks with XP Boosters) until reaching Security / Threat Level 50, there is no reward exclusive to Randomized characters. This is to prevent messing with the already volatile economy of the Homecoming Auction House. The 50% XP bonus is just so Randomized Players doesn’t get stuck with weak or situational powers for too long. An alternative is to create a new Archetype called “Randomized”, “Shuffled” or “Mixed-Upper” with an exclusive Inherent Power that boosts damaging Powers with Light or Minor damage, but won’t have access to Mastermind’s Upgrade Powers and can only carry one type of summon power per Power Set. For the lore reason, it can be a friend of Null the Gull sent to check how things’ going recently, a sick experiment of a scientist / doctor, a human from an odd dimension, or a war robot that have a huge variety of built-in weaponry. What do you think of this idea? Would it be a fun experience, or would it have no place in CoX?

Methinks the Legacy of Light order of the Legacy Chain should have the Carnival of Light’s FX proliferated to them since their current effect are generic white-colored energy. Not a high priority list among the examples above, given the reflavoring of “Energy = Light” for some player characters works well in the context CoX so it works fine to the Legacy of Light, especially since Peacebringer’s Luminous Blast and Aura are Energy-based and Kheldians are being of light. Still, it may help for some consistency between the Legacy of Light and the Carnival of Light, given the Carnival of Light are partially remnant of the Legacy Chain in Praetorian Earth. Or if we one day get Light Blast / Melee / Affinity / (Praetorian) Mastery etc. proliferated from the Carnival of Light, given Illusion Control and the upcoming Pyrotechnic Control straigth up utilizes light as part of it’s flavor and as more direct contrast to the numerous Darkness-based powers similarly to Peacebringers and Warshades? The Legacy of Light will appreciate having them for use. (To reduce overlap with other Energy-based powers, they deal / reduce / dodge Energy + Psionic damage, akin to Illusion Control dealing Psionic damage.)

Not a bad idea, per say, but making each of these power pool the same for all Archetypes can end up making for very skewed balancing in execution. In fact, Archetypes that are meant to be held back by low Damage Scale (Defender, Controller, Tanker for single target) ended up risking of undermining their weaknesses too much. Additionally, with a damage scale of 1 for all Archetype, Scourge, Containment and Fury became a lot more devastating, and Corruptor is already very much capable of matching, if not surpassing even Blasters, with the right build, and is still very close in damage output. Combining their debuffs (particularly -Regen or -Res) or the ever-useful Kin, it’s essentially a top tier among the already well built ATs for a reason, especially as far as Four Star or Incarnate contents goes. With just one of these Scale-1 Power Pool, a Corruptor suddenly became even more powerful if their Scourge do work on them, or using those Power Pool to weaken the foes’ HP before finishing them off with their Primary. Fury, likewise, makes the Brute going from a solid (if relatively boring) middle ground between Scrappers and Tankers to overshadowing Scrappers in damage output because of the fact that Fury scales with almost every single power, melee or even ranged, and not just the Brute’s Primary. To give an example, Temporary Powers usee a normalized scale of 1, which allows the Brute to hit surprisingly hard with at least one of those after building at least 65% of Fury. 0.750 Damage Scale for Brute is to encourage to keep fighting; with a 1 damage scale, even a 50% Fury gives it comparable damage output to a Stalker or even Scrapper. Around 80%, the damage output goes insane. Remember, it also works with ranged powers despite the Brute’s playstyle, so picking up a mostly-ranged Power Pool aming your ideas can indeed turn it into a tankier, harder hitting Sentinel, allowing it to pick off fleeing foes or stragglers with ease. There is a reason why the different Damage Scales for each Archetype are included for power pools, both standard and Epic ones.

This user gets it. Maybe provide +ToHit bonus and small +Def (especially vs Psionic) for most of this Power Set’s powers? Those will allow Empathy to do some much needed Offense support by making their teammates to concentrate more by word of encouragement / calming aura, and Psionic enemies tend to be aggravating to fight against as very few means existed to dodge them. Power Sets that have lower than average Accuracy would also appreciate the persistant ToHit bonuses.

Welcome to the 2nd edition of More Ancillary Ideas for Sentinel! As before, the following three ideas use one of the new patterns: 3 Control + 2 Melee, giving pressuring crowd control while having viable Melee options… 3 Melee + 2 non-DMG PBAoE, granting Sentinel more tools to take advantage of their 1.100 Melee damage scale… And 3 PBAoE + 2 Control, for increased self-defense or helping teammates out. (Disclaimer: Most Control Power given to Sentinel in these ideas doesn’t have Mez, instead focuses on AoE non-mez debuff like -ToHit, -Def, -Recharge and -Res.) Idea 1: Physics Mastery (3 Control + 2 Melee), based on @megaericzero’s Physics Mastery Based on Kinetics and Gravity Control. “You have advanced Mastery over kinetics and gravity and are able to control foes. This combination allows you to overwhelm foes by decreasing their resistance or defense, while also having a few Melee options that also decrease the foes’ defense.” Tier 1-1: Quick Strikes (Melee, Foe -Res), from Kinetic Melee Tier 1-2: Crushing Field (Ranged, Targeted AoE, Minor Smash DoT; Foe Immobolized, -Def(All), -Fly), from Gravity Control Tier 2: Burst (PBAoE Melee, Moderate Smashing DMG; Foe -Res(All), Knockdown), from Kinetic Melee Tier 3: Gravity Distortion Field (Ranged Targeted AoE; Foe -Speed, -Fly, -Def(All) and -Res(All)), from Gravity Comtrol Tier 4: Fulcrum Shift (Ranged Targeted AoE; Foe -Def(All), Team and Self +Def(All)), from Kinetics Idea 2: Stength Mastery (3 Melee + 2 non-DMG PBAoE) Based on Super Strength and a pinch of Energy Aura. Leviathan Mastery already provide Knockout Blow for Sentinel. “You have gained humoungus strength that can break even sturdy foes apart. While the selection of melee attacks doesn’t provide much debuff, they make up for it with a devastating amount of power and knock the foes down!” Tier 1-1: Haymaker (Melee, High Smashing DMG; Foe Knockdown), from Super Strength Tier 1-2: Hand Clap (PBAoE; Foes Disorient, Knockdown), from Super Strength Tier 2: Strength Drain (PBAoE; Foe -End, -DMG; Self +End, +Def, +DMG), based on Energy Aura’s Energy Drain Tier 3: Foot Stomp (PBAoE Melee, Moderate Smashing DMG; Foes Knockdown, Disorient), from Super Strength Tier 4: Super Hurl (Targeted AoE Melee, Extreme Smashing DMG; Foe Knockback, -Fly), a stronger version of Super Strength’s Hurl. Idea 3: Poisonous Mastery (3 PBAoE + 2 Control) Based on Poison and Radiation Emission. “You have advanced Mastery over poison and weaken the foes’ strength, regeneration and defense. The poison you conduct is also radioactive, allowing for some crowd control by extracting radioactive chemical out of the poison and into the foes.” Tier 1-1: Envenoming Spray (PBAoE; Foes -Def, -Res, -Regen, -Heal), PBAoE version of Envenom Tier 1-2: Lingering Radiation (Ranged Targeted AoE; Minor Toxic DMG, -Regen, -Recharge, -Speed), from Radiation Emission Tier 2: Venomous Gas (Toggle PBAoE; Foe -DMG, -Res, -Regen and -ToHit), from Poison Tier 3: Fallout (Post-Defeat Ally PBAoE, Extreme Energy DMG; Foe -DMG, -ToHit, -Def, -Res), from Storm Blast Tier 4: Noxious Breath (Ranged Coned; Infect Foes + Light Toxic DoT; Infected Foes and nearby Foes -Def, -Res, Special (Hold Vomit)), combines Neurotoxic Breath and Mastermind’s Noxious Gas from Poison And a bonus for Defender + Corruptor, they have their own version of Light Mastery. Illusion Control, one of the basis for Light Mastery, already deals a lot of damage from a Controller, and the Defender + Corruptors’ existing Masteries has a good mix of self-resistance and self-boosting powers (with Psionic having Control instead) so I try not to give something too powerful for the two Archetypes as to not overshadow Illusion Control itself, especially since Corruptor is already top-tier for four-stars contents. Thusly, the Defense boost focus on Psionic, which tend to be painful at the hands of foes (including player opponents or custom foes using Psionic damage Power Sets) as not many shields offer defense nor resistance against it, making it valuable for Psionic-heavy midgame and endgame content where Seers or other Psionic enemies are common. Some aspects of Peacebrigner’s Luminous Aura, including their FX, are also taken to fit with the “light bending ability” that Illusion Control is known for. Light Mastery (Defender / Corruptor version) “You have mastery over Illusion and Light, granting you some much needed defense and crowd control by blinding them and boosting your defense from almost all type of damage, especially Psionic.” Tier 1-1: Blind (Ranged Targeted AoE, Moderate Psionic DMG; Foe Hold/Sleep), from Illusion Control Tier 1-2: Light Swirl (Toggle: Self +Def (All DMG except Toxic; higher DEF vs Psionic)), a less powerful but crash-free toggle version of Luminous Aura’s Light Form Tier 2: Spectral Absorb (Targeted AoE; Foe Fear, -DMG, -ToHit; Self +DMG, +ToHit), based off Illusion Control’s Spectral Terror Tier 3: Luminous Revival (Self-Rez, PBAoE Extreme Energy/Psionic DMG; Foe Knockback and Stun), from Luminous Aura’s Restore Essence with traits of Renewal of Light Tier 4: Summon Phantasm (Summon Phantasm: Ranged, Light (if Corruptor) or Moderate (if Defender) DMG (Smash/Energy/Psi)), from the Dominator’s version of Illusion Control