Captain Fabulous

He does have a lovely sparkle, doesn't he?

Yes, I'm aware of why they were changed to AoE. But the point stands that at the time they could have been made to also affect the caster and purposefully weren't.

Ran into a blatant clone last night. Kindly let him know via PM that creating copyrighted characters was against the rules and he needed to change his costume before someone reports him. And that someone was me. 😂 No idea if he actually changed the costume/name or not. I lost track of him. But no doubt he's gonna log back in to GenericHero239482 if he didn't.

My suggestion was only to remove the "doesn't apply to caster" flag on AoE buffs. There is nothing in Empathy that fits this description. All the AoE buffs in Empathy already work on the caster. The list of powers that are flagged this way is very short -- FF bubbles, Cold/Thermal/Sonic shields, Speed Boost, and Increase Density. And none of them stack from the same caster (usually), so that's not an issue either. Considering the vast majority of buffs in Defender sets do affect the caster it feels like this very short list is a legacy holdover from a time when the live devs enjoyed making sure squishies died, a lot. I think it warrants a look at least. Allowing us to target ourselves directly would require a revision to the game engine. I'm not even sure it's possible and don't even want to think about what could break if they attempted to do so. It's a horrible idea. But unchecking a flag in the database for 10 powers? Easy peasy. Any balance adjustments that may be needed would be addressed in testing. Whether or not a Kin has end problems really depends upon their other set. Some are far more endurance heavy than others. And yeah, Transference might eliminate most of the value of the +recovery in Speed Boost (I for one prefer to have too much endurance instead of not enough considering the amount of -recovery and end drain in game), but if everyone else on your team is getting it why can't you? That is to say, if it's not overpowering to give it to your whole team with one cast surely it can't be overpowering to give it to yourself at the same time.

Stalkers don't get it either. I forget the exact reason but IIRC it's by design.

Siphon Speed requires a critter and a tohit check and doesn't give the +recovery or slow resistance that Speed Boost does. Giving the player a moderate +recovery boost, some smashing/energy resistance, and some mez resistance/protection is not a huge deal and won't suddenly make them godly, especially since they can't be self-stacked, and that other sets like Electric and FF get similar abilities. And of course TA wouldn't benefit as it has no team buffing abilities. I'm not sure why you would even bring this up.

I can see not allowing us to target ourselves with single target buffs. But I think all team buffs should be flagged to apply to caster as well, things like bubbles, resistance shields, Speed Boost, etc. And from a technical aspect it's super easy to do, it's a literally just a flag in the database. I don't see it being as game breaking as the powercreep people think it will be (I mean, is anything really as game breaking as they think it would be?), and of course can be balanced appropriately if needed. It's not a very long list of powers either.

I would refrain from thinking you know anything about me.

Yup, 3 slot Stamina with endurance modifications and put an end reducer in every attack and toggle power. If you do DFB or DIB you can also get a recovery buff that will help with endurance. There are also a number of global IOs that help, but they're pricey.

OK, if you say so. 🤷

You can make this change on your end.

Very well, thank you very much.

Choose the "No F/X" option in the tailor, if available. Set colors to something very dark. Lower particle effects in the game's graphics options. Use a mod that uses reduced graphics F/X

I don't even bother with Arcane Bolt. Treat it like Kick/Boxing -- something you have to take but will never slot or use. The needlessly long animation time kills it for me. Seems like whenever I try to use it my target is dead before it goes off. Flares and Fire Blast are the way to go. Honestly, Spirit Ward is a better choice, even if it's something you'll only use occasionally (like AV battles). Cause that's better than something you won't ever use at all.

It's not a Blast set, so no. 😉

/powercreep

Yes, you should take Evasion. The end cost is pretty low (same as the other two toggles) and it's your only appreciable amount of AoE defense. Also a nice chunk of defense debuff resistance. Stalkers get a higher scaling resistance in Agile and Dodge than other ATs to make up for not having Lucky.

I don't seem to have this problem on my Tank. The target takes damage immediately after the effect hits. Not sure what could cause something like this.

Endurance is a scourge for nearly everyone (except Blasters, cause this dev team LOVES Blasters, like, a lot), so I hear ya. Dark is notoriously end-heavy too. If you're finding DC useful now then continue using it. You can always respec out of it later when you can devote more slots to end reducers (you'll likely need 2 in every attack and toggle) and global IOs that give +end and +recovery. Accuracy and tohit are different things. You can't slot powers for tohit, only accuracy. Tohit adds to your base % chance to hit, which results in your accuracy enhancements working better because they are multiplicative off your base. If at any point you see yourself wanting to consistently hit +2s or higher you're going to need both accuracy and tohit. Soul Drain helps with this because it also boosts tohit, but with so many critters having the ability to debuff tohit (and everything in Dark having a tohit check, which for Soul Drain is a catch-22 because you need to be able to hit critters in order to buff your ability to, um, hit critters...) you really can't have too much unless you're sticking to +1s. @Snarky is a pro when it comes to Dark Brutes. Perhaps he can give his 2 pints of blood here.

Just my 2 cents -- I would drop Dark Consumption and Teleport and take Maneuvers and Tactics instead. The high recharge and low damage on DC makes it not particularly useful as a damage dealer or end recovery power. Maneuvers gets you that much closer to softcap and as Dark is completely reliant upon hitting things Tactics will aid there. If you really must have Teleport I would drop Kick and accept the 15% reduction in damage to Cross Punch.

Steamy Mist is a great power. Anyone who says otherwise is a clown.

Try reinstalling it cause Mids is up-to-date. The correct database version is 2023.5.522.

I have quite a few homage characters. And I agree it's something of a fine line between a ripoff and an homage. I like to think mine are "inspired by". 😂 In my head canon nearly all of them are characters that would be part of the copyrighted character's "family" and not a copy of that character themselves, with their backstories constructed to fit the world of CoH. Then I have some that are straight up parody. And I can't forget the 4 SGs that are dedicated to anthropomorphized animal homage characters. Honestly I don't mind homage characters unless they are really an obvious straight up copy, both in look and name. Knockoff of a knockoff of a knockoff??? That might be a new record. 🤔

Depending upon AT, Weave with level 50 defense IOs is only an extra 0.8925%-1.275% defense for 1 slot, 1.7395%-2.485% for 2 slots, and 2.0468%-2.924% for 3 slots. It's really not worth it. I admit I do have a few builds where I've put 2 LoTGs into Weave (one extra slot), but it's only on characters that gets a 4.25%-5% base. Most of the time you just don't have enough extra slots to give up for ~1% defense each.

All 3 honestly. And then the two +3% DEF IOs you can put in Tough. Hover is a substitute for CJ if you're a flyer. Plop a LoTG in each with an end redux in Tough, Weave, and Maneuvers and call it a day. None of them are worth slotting for +DEF beyond the LoTG. In theory you could have CJ, Hover, and Stealth, with a LoTG in each for about another 7% defense (depending upon AT), but it's really not worth giving up so many slots.