MechaCrash

I see that "can PB knockback be turned down/off" was already brought up, but I am going to echo that one again. I feel like I always have to hold back when I'm using my Peacebringer, because throwing enemies all over the place is not worth whatever damage I can get with the limited AOE I have in human form. I just kind of roll with it in Nova form, as I did with my Warshade back in the day, because I felt that the damage was worth the inconvenience. But human form PB? Absolutely not. A much taller order would be the ability to get extra slots. If I could trade some of my later power picks for more slots, it'd free up a lot of breathing room, because the reason Kheldians feel so much harder to build than any other AT, Soldiers and Widows included, is because you have way more powers in need of slots, so you need to lean on sets and/or HamiOs so you're actually good at anything, instead of being just kind of mediocre all around, and "mediocre all around" just doesn't feel good to play. But I am not realistically expecting this one, because I remember Castle tried to do stuff to grant extra slots back on live, and things broke pretty badly, so this is one I'll call a pipe dream.

So having had a few days to let it roll around, I am changing my tune a bit on Mr. G and the clown show he had me bust out of jail. I completely stand by "the arc is cleaning up the mess his plan caused." However, I no longer see that as as big a deal, for a very simple reason: a supervillain of the kind of stature doing things of this scale, people are going to gun for you, even if they weren't already. So if they're gunning for you because you broke some people out of jail at the behest of a guy whose fat you pulled out of the fire, is it really that much worse than them gunning for you because of a plan that was 100% yours? I figure that any "this is your fault" that isn't offset by "I would have been in this kind of situation anyway" is handled by "and the cleanup is done on TV in front of an audience." The rest of the crew still mostly don't measure up to the trouble I got into by fetching them, but yeah, I can roll with "these guys just need to get their footing and then they can prove valuable, a thread which will not really get followed up on because this is an MMO based on comic books so that kind of thing is going uphill twice over." The writers for this can't really assume you've done any given thing, after all, and "a new writer takes over and drops the prior writer's work like a hot rock to tell their own stories" is not unknown in comicry. On a semi-personal note, I did kind of skim over the wiki beforehand so I had an idea of what I was getting into, and I wanted to do it with a specific character for a specific reason. See how he dismissively refers to Bobcat as just "the catgirl"? Didn't go over so hot. 😾

Yeah, but these are their theoretical contributions, the things that Mr. G is selling himself and these chumps to me for. Their observed contributions fall well short of this mark. I know the writers can do "the rest of the team is doing cool stuff over there off-camera" type things, as we saw with the clone arcs in Talos and the New Praetorians, but mostly they tell you who's coming for you and sit around the base. Now, I am willing to walk it back a bit. Transmuter and Bobcat do find out who's coming after you and where they're mustering, but the reason they're mustering to attack is to cash in on that bounty that Wu Yin put on your head, which he did because you busted a bunch of Praetorians out of jail, which you did because Mr. G told you they'd be useful. And he's just really lucky that all these jerks I hauled out of the can are a package deal because "they cleaned up the mess my plan got you into" is not a good way to keep from getting thrown under the bus.

I was going through the arc with a friend, and something that he pointed out after we got done with the second part: what exactly do all these chumps you pick up do around here? The instigating incident is that you decide to see if you can snag some crumbs when Arachnos tries to loot the remains of Praetoria before Hamidon destroys everything, and what you find is Mr. G, who promises to be useful to you in exchange for getting him out and saving him. Which, okay, that's fair. Except that his big plan is "hey spring these war criminals I know," and most of them are not terribly useful or are only useful by accident. The rest of the arc is basically dealing with cleaning up the mess that all this results in and dealing with the giant target that springing these jerks put on your back. I mean, let's take a look at what we've got here. Mr. G? He got you into this mess and everything else is dealing with the fallout of his big plan. Bobcat? Depowered and useless. You couldn't know that at the time, but the one thing she does is spark the idea for "a TV show about you beating everyone up," which is not exactly "worth alienating Vanguard" level contributions here. Splice? Okay, Splice is very useful, absolute MVP who carries her weight here. Transmuter? Also useless and depowered, mostly, and his biggest contribution is helping Subjugator 5, who you didn't even know was there. Subjugator 5 was just a bonus plan, and one of the few people on this ragtag team of losers that's worth the trouble. I mean, sure, the plan involving her doesn't actually work out, but that's not her fault. General Alito was also not part of the initial plan, but you got lucky and picked him up. And his job is flying the helicopter. A job which Mr. G, the otherwise useless goober, can also do. And winds up not being relevant because the chopper gets bricked remotely! So you try to score some goodies out of a fallen empire before it's overrun by supermonsters, and all you get is a guy who gives you a plan that pisses off Vanguard, potentially pisses off what's left of the IDF, paints a big target on your back, and for what? Only one of the people he told you to rescue has any real utility at this point, and quite frankly if I could've made a deal with Vanguard for "I'm keeping Splice (she's useful) and Bobcat (out of pity), you can have the rest" then I absolutely would have done that. Bunch of useless goobers who are only still free and nominally on the payroll because the character I was using doesn't sell out her subordinates (because that is a quick way to ensure you do not have subordinates). About the only real good plan was taking over the Awakened, and all of that was purely a coincidence, and the whole thing feels like Mr. G flailing for a reason to keep himself relevant to your plans so you don't throw him under the bus after his first big scheme blew up in your face.

I was going to ask about exactly this, when I thought "hm, I should see if someone else asked for this already!" And it was, indeed, a thing that got requested! And so I exhume this topic from the grave and say "yes, can we have this please." There's only so many tricks to hide the human ears.

That covers most of it. I think the only one that's still a question mark at this point is Infernal, who I don't think shows up in any of the Incarnate stuff. Thanks for the answers!

The last Major Plot Thing that happened before the game's untimely end, as I recall, was the Magisterium trial. I recently did the Provost Marchand stuff that was in I24, and it reminds me that I want to make sure I know what happened to everyone. Keep in mind, when I say "what happened," I don't mean "what officially happened as far as our characters know," I mean "what do we, as players, know happened." I did all of the Incarnate Trial stuff back on live, but that was ten years ago, and the wiki doesn't consolidate any of this information. So, going down the list on the wiki in alphabetical order, then... Anti-Matter: Officially unknown, but he sacrificed himself to get Metronome to the space station. Battle Maiden: I think she was captured during one of the Incarnate Trials? But I am unsure. Black Swan: I have no idea. Killed during Magisterium when Cole nuked it, maybe? Bobcat: Captured, awaiting trial. This is brought up in the Provost Marchand storyline, in which they say she is dangerous, but not actively a threat. They don't say it's because she's lazy and dumb, but c'mon man. Chimera: I think he was killed during the Magisterium trial. Diabolique: Getting rid of her is the entire point of the Dilemma Diabolique trial. Dominatrix: Captured, awaiting trial. As per the Provost Marchand stuff once again, her help during the Dark Astoria stuff will buy her some leniency, but she's a scheming backstabber so they're worried about what angle she's working. Infernal: No idea. Malaise: He was pretty important during Minds of Mayhem. I don't know his fate in the wake of that, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of who he was is basically gone after Mother Mayhem used him as a fallback point. Marauder: As of the end of I23, basically depowered because Neuron is a sloppy moron. There's more to it, but that's a huge part of the Provost Marchand stuff, and since this is specifically about the game as it was at shutdown, I'll leave it at that. Mother Mayhem: Killed during Minds of Mayhem. Neuron: Officially unknown, but he tried sacrificing Bobcat while he escaped the Devouring Earth. She took this poorly and killed him. I think I read this on the forums or some other "official but not in-game" type source. Nightstar: I'm pretty sure she's dead in the wake of the Behavioral Adjustment Facility trial. Shadow Hunter: Officially unknown, but he's encountered in some of Number Six's missions, which did not exist on live at the time. I think what it shakes out to is "he got Devoured and now you have to put him down." Siege: I'm pretty sure he's also dead in the wake of the Behavioral Adjustment Facility trial. Tyrant: Captured, awaiting trial. I know that there were plans that basically shook out to "we need a figurehead, Statesman would be perfect but he's dead, fill in for your Primal counterpart and we'll take that into consideration while dealing with your many horrible war crimes," but I am unsure as to the status of those. Mostly because the only reason I know this at all is because that's what was going on with Statesman's appearance in Master X Master, NCSoft's MOBA. I think that's all of them? As you can see, I remember most of them, but the wiki does not put everything into one tidy "here's the deal" pile.

For some reason, snipes do not show enhancement numbers at all. The totals show the set bonuses applying like they should, as I saw when I put a full set of Sting of the Manticore in a snipe attack and no other sets, and the attack itself shows the modified numbers, but when you click on the "enhancement values" tab, it's blank, and the little thing at the bottom that shows your currently slotted things and lets you toggle it shows it with one empty slot.

The derisive nickname for people who do this is "Honest Healer," although I don't know the etymology of the phrase off the top of my head. It's especially annoying because the entire point of the story for Conjurer (the thing that becomes White Mage and the only sub-30 healer) is that standing around spamming heals isn't the most useful thing, so toss some rocks, ya dingus. Every single "healer" I have ever met in City of Heroes has been worthless, and every team that asked for a "healer" has been a disaster. The word is a giant red flag for me now.