ForeverLaxx

Aye. I specifically neglected to include the forums, particularly the Homecoming forums, when pointing out that most people in-game aren't this way. Around here though? It's pretty prevalent as people who post tend to be more passionate about the game. It was that way on Live, too, but the effect was diluted somewhat due to the much larger playerbase and a seemingly increased focus on appropriate subforums rather than just the General one. Must be the groups you associate with, then. This community has been, far and away, the most lenient and accepting group of people since the very beginning simply because of how it's designed. It doesn't necessitate the use of fully optimized builds just to progress, it doesn't use a team system anyone was using at the time, and it doesn't grant rewards in a way that traditional MMO players tend to find satisfying. I tried to get lots of people to play this game and they refused because they "didn't get gear drops" and "couldn't understand why you can't just put armor on". It's a more social, RP-style game by its very nature and that attracts a different kind of person on the whole and tends to turn away others. Your original post outright stated that these "dictators" were the majority, or at least make it seem that way and you lumped the entire community into their ranks with your next sentence. Only later did you start to backtrack and take a "technically correct" stance of how you never said everyone was that way. The implication being, of course, that there are apparently so many of these people that you allow their existence to completely sour your game and focus so intently on them that you see nothing else once one pops up. To suggest that they're such a huge problem says, to me, that you think they're a dominant voice in the system and your claim that they're holding sway over some imagined "narrative" all but confirms that stance. Hell, you even say it's the "root" of the community, which really says all you need to say. Clearly you think the attitude of the playerbase and desire to "control" everyone is just the natural order and we're poisoned from the start -- anyone that doesn't do this just hasn't gotten that passive-aggressive nutrient yet. You can say "it's not everyone", but it's obvious to me you don't really believe that. According to your statements, we're all destined to become busy-body no-fun-alloweds and it's only a matter of time. Normally I'm the cynical one, but sheesh. Anecdotes are anecdotes and all that, but as far as community opinion is concerned you seem to be in the minority of people that just can't seem to escape the meanies. I know you didn't say anything about Destiny 2, but someone else did and I have no idea how that person thinks their community isn't one of the most toxic in the universe, second probably only to MOBA communities.

I only ever really experienced this in two places: early in the game's life where the concept of the "Holy Trinity" was expected, and during early levels where newer players thought the "Holy Trinity" was expected. As the game aged and its players got higher level, that mentality started to wither. It never completely went away, of course, but it dropped off dramatically. That said, "healers" are your best friends in PvP.

I've never experienced this by more than a small handful of players over my entire time on Live or Homecoming and I've been around since at least Issue 1 (couldn't tell you if I was here before then, honestly). Even my time spent in the CoV closed beta, where you'd expect a bunch of people saying you're doing things wrong by virtue of them wanting analytical players to test things, didn't really occur. During my stint as a PvPer on Champion, the so-called "buttholes of the gaming community" weren't especially demanding with builds as long as your choice made sense for the team or strategy you were using. I still make whatever characters I want with whatever powers I want and when players ask for general advice I tell them the same: pick what you want if it sounds fun or useful. If they want something more tailored to their other choices, then I can get more detailed but my first answer is always "what sounds fun or fits your concept". Almost no one ever argues with that answer in the Help channel, and the one who does isn't on all the time and most people don't listen to him anyway because he's particularly abrasive and dismissive of anything he perceives as sub-optimal. That's still only one person out of hundreds. What it looks like to me is maybe you've got a bit of a confirmation bias and are giving more attention to a minority because you already believe that all of us are a bunch of "bossy busy-bodies", to use your terminology.

Honestly, I feel like while the original post (and perhaps the poster themselves) is unnecessarily demanding and locked in their viewpoint, the persecution complex of some people is getting tiresome. People that don't like farming or PLing, stating as such, but telling you to enjoy it if you want are not doing so to be "passive-aggressive" towards your enjoyment. More than likely, they literally don't care what you're doing and are telling you this because they want to make clear that your anger for being told "you're doing it wrong" is mostly in your head or only comes from a small fraction of people in the game. Whenever the "you're doing it wrong" narrative is brought out, the way it's told, you'd think there are people lining up around the block to remind this person every time they log in that they're "not playing right" or something. For the record, I solo 99% of the time. I've been here over a year and still haven't cracked level 40. I played as early as Issue 1 back on live and was a beta tester for CoV. I personally don't enjoy being PL'd because I'm not afforded the opportunity to "bond" to a character's concept if I skip everything. I'm not going to tell you that you can't PL, or that no one finds PLing/farming fun, or that my way of playing is the only "true way to experience the game" or any other such nonsense. Once you stop seeing opinions that don't match yours as insults, you're going to enjoy more of your time. In a way, you're almost the same kind of person that tells everyone else that they're "playing wrong", but in reverse. Instead of telling others how to play, you're angrily defending your playstyle by seeing attacks that don't exist and it's just as off-putting as anything else.

Overall Trick Arrow is fine in a vacuum. The nature of the set doesn't lend itself well to modern CoH's obsession with murderballs so the many location-based effects don't get as much use as they otherwise might. In the slower days of the past, TA was allowed the time to layer its many different effects to protect a team, especially when the old days focused a lot on corner pulling. It also has the stigma of being "terrible" even though it's really not and I think this stems from the set lacking strong visuals. It's hard to tell people what you're doing if no one can really see any effects. As far as set improvements may be concerned, the lack of an in-set way to ignite an Oil Slick can be an issue. You either take another set with fire or energy damage, or keep your ranged origin power on your bar specifically for that purpose. To remedy this, you could give it Tac Arrow's modification to Net Arrow (Electrified Net Arrow) to set the Oil ablaze. Acid Arrow might be able to justify a -regen effect as TA's contribution to taking down tough targets is only truly enhanced by Disruption Arrow which isn't enough most of the time. I've also never been a fan of how Glue Arrow works as I like being able to throw down slow zones before a pull but I know lots of people like it how it is. What might also be skewing things is the natural inclination to use Archery in combination with Trick Arrow. Archery feels weak overall and only picks up once you get the nuke (which is often considered a weak nuke anyway but it's much more spammable than others). Being "forced" to use Blazing Arrow on an Oil Slick doesn't feel great sometimes and the animation for that attack is also absurdly long. The prevailing opinion is that Tactical Arrow does everything better but I don't really agree. Yeah, that version has more damage which makes the powers feel more useful, but Trick Arrow is a stronger control/debuff set than Tac Arrow and it should exemplify that. Lean into the set's stronger debuffs and maybe make them available more often so players can "keep up" with the faster-paced game of today.

I'm not really in the mood to go into numbers or balancing at the moment, but I'd really like to see some kind of Whip Assault set so I can take my anemic Petless Demon Mastermind and make her something that isn't painful to use. There are 4 whip animations in the game that I know of and that's half a powerset already. When I get the time I'll maybe try to flesh something out and perhaps post up multiple versions so people can go ranged or melee depending on their preferences.

Actually, it is what you're saying. You're saying that this person, using the word "requiem" to describe their character, must know the person sharing that name and therefor must also be aware that their character is now automatically associated with said preexisting character and to "roleplay appropriately" (whatever that means). That'd be like finding a character named Revenant and telling them that unless they were part of the Revenant Hero Crey Project, their character isn't "lore-friendly" even if their character is a "classic" revenant by being an immortal of some kind. You're demanding that this person change their character identity to incorporate a character they have no involvement with based purely on a name and insist that it must be this way to maintain "continuity" and "game lore". Isn't that being a little ...dictator-ly of you?

I have one. For the record, it's a strong PvP Blaster combination so you're likely to run into more of them if you partake in that aspect or play on the unofficial PvP server.

There was someone who essentially called themselves the Clockwork King on Everlasting before they knew that was a "big-name" villain in the game. I think he ended up tweaking it later, but that happens a lot around here with people unfamiliar with the game's lore and history. Regardless, the idea that using the word "requiem" in CoH automatically means it must be associated with a space fascist and should be condemned is equal parts hilarious, sad, narrow-minded, and ironic.

I ignore every T9 that just gives the set more of what it already has (which makes it functionally useless, particularly in the world of IOs) or crashes when it ends. The only ones that get taken either have a unique effect worth consideration (Rise of the Phoenix), are the entire point of the set (Granite), and sometimes offer something the set itself doesn't already provide (Moment of Glory... sometimes. Current MOG is sad). It's hard to justify a big "I'm tougher!" button when, statistically, it's not making you tougher at all and then robs you of your endurance bar at the end. SR is especially guilty of this and particularly so on Tanks where Elude offers literally nothing but a fancy animation and useless movespeed bonus (SR Tanks can softcap Defense with just regular SOs). These types of powers are, I feel, better suited to squishy ATs with little to no in-set survivability and probably should have been in place of the toggle armors in the PPPs but I'm sure that ship sailed eons ago. (yes, I know Blasters can pick up things like Force of Nature, but the toggle armors should just BE these powers and the slot filled with something else) As it is, most of these T9s have no real place in any build beyond pure novelty. As much as I like having powers you can skip so that you can flesh out a concept or make room for other tough choices, having a power be skippable simply because it's *useless* shouldn't be considered a positive.

Not so much a bio as it is a fancy sermon, if you ask me.

Wait. You put people on ignore because they decide they don't want to jump redside? That reminds me of another pet peeve of mine: people who take the extreme response to something inconsequential.

I had forgotten that Scrappers/Stalkers have this (and is likely why they got Icy Bastion instead) but I'm sure there's a solution if this is a route they want to take. Perhaps they can add a debuff to Hibernate that prevents its usage during a set time (such as the base recharge of the power minus about half a second to account for latency) which would make having "double Hibernate" functionally pointless outside of combating -recharge effects. Though I suppose that would weaken any builds running Burnout specifically for hitting Hibernate twice (not that i know of any, but I'm sure they exist). Of course, having a power in a PPP that you have available as a main-set power feels really odd. Maybe then, perhaps, only Brutes and Tanks should get the split choice as they don't have any other option? Not really sure, honestly. Just spitballing here.

As other said, and will probably say for quite a while yet, is that the powerset itself looks ugly. Providing alternate options for appearance beyond simply MinFX could be warranted and may even contribute to interesting costume ideas if done well (though that can be said about many of the armor sets, if I'm being honest). As for the set on a mechanical level, it's overwhelming strength against Ice damage just isn't that useful. Very few foes use attacks that contain ice as a damage component so it feels like the thing you're best at dealing with never shows up. Being relatively "soft" to Fire as a compensation doesn't seem fair in comparison though I suppose it could be seen as thematic to the nature of Ice and might not be something that can be justified looking at. However, perhaps the Psi hole could be reduced and explained away by a sort of "brain freeze"-like effect so it only has the one glaring issue rather than two. I've always felt the damage aura should come sooner than it does, specifically for the ATs that have Ice Armor as their secondary. I know Chilling Embrace provides survival utility with the debuff, but it's strange for a strict damage aura to show up so late in a powerset. Although, I've always been of the mind that these two powers should be combined into one, making room for another power in the set that could then become something like what I suggested above with "Brain Freeze". Hibernate and Icy Bastion are both interesting and strong powers, but maybe they could be given to all sets as an either/or option sort of like how Sentinels get to choose whether they get toggle or click mez protection. Hibernate has important usage that Bastion can't replicate, but Bastion tends to work better for the average player and play-group. For something a bit more personal opinion, I think powers like Hoarfrost (which includes things like Dull Pain, Earth's Embrace, etc) should probably be converted to an Absorb rather than a +HP if possible. This effect more accurately describes what they're trying to do, though I understand that this would technically make them "weaker" in the sense that +HP provides incidentally stronger regeneration while +Absorb would provide no benefit of that nature on its own. Of course, this could be remedied by the power also boosting regeneration a small amount for the duration of the power, too. That's just a bit of a personal wish, though.

I prefer human-only even on the Warshade because transforming into a giant lobster just for a very short duration Mire was too much hassle. The only time I miss not having lobster form is when I get CC'd since you can transform into one to break out of it.

I have one, around level 35 or so. That chart only shows those that made it to 50 back in March, I believe, so it doesn't count any others that may exist.

It also varies greatly by class and spec. I was a rogue main in WoW all the way back in Vanilla and played WoW during my "breaks" with CoH (and to get my PvP fix). I played up through Legion (no longer the latest expansion, of course). During Wrath of the Lich King, almost all specs were in a "GCD Locked" state where you cycled buttons in a rotation the moment they came off cooldown and never had a moment where you weren't pushing something. Like, you'd press 1,2,1,3,4, repeating without having to stop or even manage resources. The devs didn't like it and slowly added abilities, culled abilities, then replaced it all with a heavy proc-based system. Most of the specs became a "hit the glowing button" game where you only used an attack because it made another attack light up sometimes, so the trick was to optimize your "bad" attacks to avoid losing DPS while you waited for things to light up and click. Tanks were much less complicated than this and healers fell somewhere in between.

I know that's the underlying reason, but it does mean that a lot of what each server comes up with for fixes/additions tends to stay on that server exclusively unless the devs of that server are on "good terms" with another dev team. In my brief time exploring this issue I found that the HC devs are being painted as villains by the other servers though I haven't found an exact reason as to why. Nothing I've seen here, save for maybe a couple moments, have indicated any sort of hint towards the other dev teams' animosity towards our own.

Won't fix your issue, then. Hurricane has a repel effect in addition to the knockback which can't be reduced.

And it's likely to stay that way. The devs of the other servers seem to want to make sure their players know that all the "other" servers are ran by power-hungry a-holes for some reason.

There's never a shortage of players who seem to only exist to tell you that you're doing things wrong or that you need to accommodate their desires for everything. I like that the enhancement exists, but as an old Energy/Energy/Force Blaster main from live, where the enhancement never existed, having it here has just made the aforementioned people add something to their list. The very enhancement's existence says, at least to them, that you're "expected" to use it and this shows a level of arrogance and narcissism that didn't exist on Live previously. In one of my previous posts, I stated I only use the enhancement on AoE knocback powers. If people want to get mad that the target I'm focusing gets knocked back while I'm focusing it, then let 'em. If they get upset, I'll point out that I defeated the enemy just fine. If I get kicked from a team (or leave) because one or two melee think everything has to be trapped in their deathball 100% of the time, it doesn't bother me anyway. Thankfully for these people I'm primarily a solo player, I guess. The teams I join are basically just TFs and people aren't willing to "rock the boat", so to speak, on a TF that doesn't have multiple teams advertising.

At the risk of starting this all over again, I suggest reading the thread. This has been hashed back and forth a million times and had absolutely nothing to do with some people having more influence than other people. It was to slow down inflation and it worked for that purpose.

While the option would be nice, if it were to happen, I would not want the current system to go away. Knockback is a very powerful personal defense system when used effectively and many players enjoy being able to push things away from them. Some powers actually become worse defensively if you turn the effect into Knockdown, like Repulsion Field or Repel, because they never leave the effect radius and constantly deduct endurance each time they're pinged for the effect trigger. With that said, I basically only use the enhancement for Knockback that I can't easily control the direction of. Generally this is limited to AoE knockback powers like Explosive Blast, Energy Torrent, and Gale. I also toss one in Tornado so it's not chasing down things it knocks away and ruining group bunches. When it comes to single target attacks though, my stance is that the melee can just deal with the occasional knockback. It's not like I knock something away and then ignore it to knock other things away -- I'm still targeting that enemy and working on defeating it. If having to step 5 feet away from where you are to fire off one more attack is that much of an issue, then target something else in range and attack it instead.

You don't even have to defeat the Engineer to stop the summon. All you have to do is hit them and interrupt the cast animation. DoTs are great for this purpose, especially the kind you throw on the ground in the event there are multiple Engineers in a spawn and you don't want to guess who is going to spawn a Generator.

My toughest challenge for that badge was with my SoA because the clones get access to powers you couldn't even have yet. They were dropping Disruptorbot Spiders and spamming Surveillance debuffs the moment I came around the corner. He eventually won, but it took a long while.