Llewellyn Blackwell

Its been seen a fair bit all over that many in the military decry the militarization of the police force. I cant even begin to count how many times Ive seen someone who states they are current or formerly a combat soldier, who have said something to the effect of " Do not say what those cops are doing is remotely like a military action. Soldiers are trained to not point their weapons until they have a clear and present threat to aim it at. They are not trained to assault unarmed noncoms and knock elderly people onto the ground then ignore them as they lay there bleeding".

I truly appreciate your efforts. It cant be easy, as its clear some here seem intent on shutting down this conversation, and then cry oppression when their vitriol is called out. Some ofcourse express a desire to see it end but do so in a far more civil manner which I totally encourage. Civility. That is all it takes folks. Civility the foundation of civilization.

Considering most of us by now have seen the videos of cops attack EMTs, and medical tents, as well as destroying bottles of water, and eye wash stations for those hit by mace, I tend to think its not the protestors putting the emergency service folk in the cross hairs.

How about nerfing regen in RL? Have you read about the almost magical powdered pig matrix particles? They have been used to completely regen the end of a finger that was severed on an old man, the new finger tips knuckle was completely free of the arthritis present in the rest of the hand. Its also been used to grow back about 30% of the lost tissue and muscle of a soldier who lost a leg to an IED. Its still got a long way to go, but one day regen might seem like it needs to be buffed in game just to reflect the real world version of it;)

I think for my area it has more to do with the history of the Stewart Indian school. It was one of those places tribal children got forcibly taken to, to be educated and taught to live like the white man. It was only shut down in the 1950s,and a great many elder alive today lived through basically being abducted from their home and forced to go to that place. It still stands in Carson City as a museum both to the traditions of the tribes of this area, and the injustices they suffered.

A lot hm? You relize in the world today only 3 true mega powers exist right? The U.S., China, and Russia. Only we 3 truly have the massive land, resources, and populations to be considered as such. Hell the U.K. has basically become an antithesis of its old colonial imperialistic ways to save face in this modern world. Hence ofcourse the push back there from their far right bigots who hate seeing their country invaded by foreign people and culture, when they had no issue pushing their people and culture onto the world for centuries.

Odd, I live in Nevada, and have grown up , lived around, and known no few few members of the tribes. Not one has ever used the word indian to describe the tribal peoples of the Americas. That is something typically I only hear the real old cowboytypes around my area who are bigots towards the tribal peoples use when talking about the natives of this region. I mean Im only very little myself as my great grandmother was the last to be born on reservation land and live in that world. I certainly dont self describe as native. But I certainly do find the term Indian directed at people other than those born in the country of India, as far more insulting than an innocently said Chief.

Well to be fair, comic books have long been a means of expression in support of liberal movements. I mean the X men were in fact from the beginning meant to inspire counter culture and liberal movements. And unlike say a sword and sorcery setting, CoH like comics is set in a world based on our own modern reality. As such we tend to use a lot more from RL in the creation of character concepts and backgrounds. Look at for example Daredevil, touches on human trafficking and sexual slavery. Jessica Jones touches on mind control and full on sexual assault via super powers. Luke Cage well, Im wondering about now if Disney is wondering if they shouldnt reconsider forcing Netflix to cancel that one right about now. Comics typically touch upon real world crimes frequently, I know I can recall reading an issue of batman as a 12 or 13 year old that was about a modern day jack the ripper copycat murdering working girls on the streets of Gotham. Thats pretty mature stuff and certainly not really promoting escapism from the brutality of the real world.

Ill concur with you on this one sir.

Would that not technically then be more of an inanimate object you have chose to invest and create an identity for? More like how primitive peoples would create shrines and then invest their belief in as a form of guardian or deity.

Well Disney would like to say your very very wrong, see literally every single fairy tale retelling they have ever done. See every retcon in comicdom when a new head writer takes over a title. Hell see LOTR, which is basically just old myths and folklore retold as a single epic narrative and very little truly original beyond character and location names created by the writer. Your point is about as solid as the body of an imaginary friend.

I am curious why you feel like its just impossible for people to discuss this with civility?

Well to be blunt as many high profile black celebs have gone on record saying of late, its not enough to not be racist, or to join in a protest about one event. Its about actively countering these things in any way someone can. Now would locking blue steel up make some world shattering difference? No. Would it possibly make those who have suffered at the hands of violent LEOs who play this game feel perhaps a wee bit better knowing that even a literal super cop in coh lore, who crossed the line and abused their power and authority was punished for it? Possibly. That possibly is enough for me to say yes lets do it.

Honestly hard to take it seriously after their reaction to my suggestion to remove Blue Steel as a trainer, since in lore he is very much your classic violent cop, given a free pass on his violence because of his connections to and protection by Statesman. Hell Ill probably get another infraction just for saying this. But actions speak louder than words. and if they are really in support of the current protests against police violence, a simple symbolic gesture like locking up Blue Steel would be a real message about were the HC team stands in this historic moment as we see a 2nd civil rights movement born like a Phoenix rising from the tragedies that time and again have been swept under the rug. Go ahead HC team infract me ban me whatevs, dont even care because I feel what I have written needed to be. You can not claim solidarity or support while saying an out of control super cop can beat someone into dead meat and continue to be seen as a hero. Because lets be honest here, if these RL events did play out in Paragon, Blue Steel would not be siding with the protestors. Hm that would be a awesome sight Back Alley protecting protestors as Blue Steel leads the charge of riot police. I am now retracting my statement about them taking this seriously. The action in this thread has proven to me that they are indeed supporting the need for a complex and uncomfortable discussion. And it was in no way my intent to sound as if removing Blue Steel was some kind of demand rather than a suggestion to use the medium of art, as has it been sued through history, to express through imagery and imagination, the desire to see the world improve.

Quite an interesting insight, and makes me wonder is anyone around from the rhode island area where Paragon is meant to exist? Whats the age of consent, and the typical age range a term like young adult might typically be directed to there? Because if we are gonna get hung up on the phrase young man, perhaps we should try to discern how a local to that region would consider a young man, rather that a ,man or adult in general.

Well your certainly entitled to your pov. However I am just the opposite. I put the will of the writer above that of publisher and editor. For example there are those who say that with the way the new Trek series Picard ended, Picard is actually dead, and its just a copy. The writers for the show have stated clearly that in the trek universe that is still the real Picard, not a clone, not a copy. In mind and soul the same ol original organic picard. Many fans argue canon does not support this idea. That he has to be a new and distinct being. That having the mind and form do not make him him still. However we then counter by bringing in other sci fi like Altered Carbon, or Doll House, where the mind becomes a distinct and separate aspect from the organic sleeves they may wear. Or how even within trek verse, it ws made very very clear taht when we met thomas riker neither riker was more real then the other. So yeah the fact I heard from the mouths of the makers that CK was a 14 year old mutant just manifesting his powers, who had been in the classic vein of marvels mutant stories, kicked out of his home and was trying to survive on the streets of Paragon while trying to come to terms with and get a grip on his massive powers. And while readers dont forgive adults who take life in comics easily, characters like Cyclops of the x men whose early power manifestations often include the tragic loss of life, are always given a pass.

While I certainly love me some Watchmen, its not really mainstream comicdom and not what we should be aiming for. Instead we should look to the example set long ago by Marvel in reaction to readers, when it came to Jean Grey, The dark phoenix saga, and how Jean Grey was eventually brought back ( not via redemption but, due mainly due to fan backlash, washed her free of the blood upon her hands. Because in general comic book readers do not feel that any action can redeem a hero who has fallen from grace and taken innocent lives. DC holds this same standard, hence why the modern batman that never kills has become such a heroic icon to rival a living god like superman for main icon of DC. Not all get held to this standard ofcourse. Green Lanterns perhaps most of all, because of being basically an intergalactic military police force whose laws supersede the planets laws at an interplanetary level, is basically immune to having to abide by traditional heroic standards because a Lantern isnt a hero so much as a super powered soldier. Hence why some have been violent etc and yet not held to the standard( though look how they did the whole parralax retcon so Hal Jordan could come back untainted) Basically I feel that no arc, no act, could ever redeem Blue Steel, and I know I am far from alone among comic book fans who feel this way.

Well as Ive mentioned in these forums before I did spend a a fair bit of time back on live having regular lore chats with several devs. So I do have this habit of mentioning details that didnt always get clearly stated in the lore. Though I must say you have a pretty broad age range suggested. Maybe its my part of the world but round my parts, the term young man or young lady usually gets directed at those of around puberty age, up till around the age they are sexually active( age of consent in my state is 16) unless its a rather elderly individual speaking to well anyone in general who is not within 10 years of their age. Pretty sure they dont mention how the kings brain ended up in the jar either, but did you think anyone short of synapse and positron in traditional coh lore would of had access to the kids body fast enough to get the brain out and preserved before it died? Yep Synapse the speedster, and yep thats why its Synapse and the king for a tf.

Concur on the being able to call a detective for the bank mish, not with putting detectives outside the stations. It may surprise you but adding more internal buildings we could go in and actually explore/use as RP locales, and reason to go to them was a constant want among the players on the live forums. Ill be honest, I cant fathom anyone having any trouble walking inside a station to talk to the contact inside. Hell the station is one of my main log out locales for a couple toons. Fun bug tale. One time I logged out in the cop shop, and when I logged back in I was trapped in what amounted to an interview room with no way to escape. Had someone that day not shared the base port macro Id of had to wait on a GM to get that character out as Id tried relogging several times with no luck. I assume that room always exist, the door just isnt interactive. They totally should so we can RP good cop/bad cop with players playing as criminals

As per the title, but why some may ask. Well because he is a violent monster who once nearly beat a 14 year old boy till the point all that was salvaged by Synapse and Positron for research was the kids brain. We know that kid today as the Clockwork King. One of the most misunderstood and at times almost likeable and even adorable so called big bads of coh. One can literally put every bit of violence of the clockwork king on Blue Steel and his unforgivable, truly evil actions that day. I think if we are gonna do any real updating to the game world and setting we need to start with this. An end to the era of glorification of basically a child killer, and some arcs to really put the King on the path of redemption. At the same time I say lets put blue steel in orange and drop him in the zig. make him like a random EB spawn around it, or maybe create a new outdoor event in which Blue Steel leads a break out of the rogue members of groups like the Vanguard. Because to me Blue Steel has been blight on the reputation of Paragon City. Since year one I typically have avoided using him for training unless Im in a pug in KR and dont want to ask them to wait on me for a RP hangup.

Uhm specifically the OP is trying to push a build on a elec/energy blaster to be able to safely and reliable solo+4x1. Whilea few have gone so far as to basically say bad build get gud, I think in general most of us are trying to also understand the motivations and interest of the OP when making build advise. Over all though most seem to agree that making the power into a combat ability would go against the very nature of the power. Thus why the somewhat soff topic/side topic of the OPs build. And there is a big different between saying consider this or that to improve oneself for specific game play scenerios vs saying bad build get gud and do this and this. This player for example has given specific desire to recreate an old toon from live. He has a personal goal he wants to reach, we are trying to offer useful tips and advice to reach that goal without having to see the game itself altered to make that possible. Because most of us here seem to feel there is nothing to fix. Afterburner does what its always been meant to. Its a final tier power and really nothing else in fly could possibly rank higher then it. Hover or AS or fly all have to be low tier. Group fly well ok yeah we could toss it out and maybe a handful of players would notice( I do have one RP toon with it to effect being able to lift allies telekinetically). But if we did toss out group fly, and lower afterburner down to 1 pre req power, what would you want to see made to replace its end teir power? Another attack like in leaping but based on cannonball? I mean it could work but fly already has one damn handy attack and is in general a very popular pool. giving it a strong targeted aoe attack for its end tier power could easily make fly the most powerful pool to take.

Funny enough I call what you want a major nerf and say uhm hell to the never ever ever as long as the sun burns in the sky above should what you want be allowed to come to pass. I love regen as it is on my several regen scrappers/brutes. I like that it excels at leveraging global recharge as a set theme, I love how that makes it synergize oh so well with claws and follow up to make a real wolverine concept come to life in game. Or on a katana user so I can spam parry every other attack being nigh untouchable while always having oh shit buttons ready, a self res ready and mog ready when i self rez to stay safe. As others have pointed out orignal regen was too broken, everyone just went perma mog and called it a day. Now it is one of the few active and reactive 2ndaries for scrappers that isnt just toggle up and go. This may surprise you but some of us hate toggle heavy builds. Regen imo is one of the best, most fine tuned, and well balanced vs content sets in the game. Out of the box its useful and when paired with a strong partner gets magnified further, such as with dark, or any set with a def buff like Parry. Add in IO sets and yeah, rarely will you not be the last man standing if shit goes bad if you know how to play it. Also seriously man, with all the shit going on in the U.S. politically and the civil unrest and you think ending on a variant of the MAGA chant is acceptable on a game forum? Especially one like CoH were most characters would if in this real world of ours atm likely be deemed gone rogue because they would be out beating down cops faster then a red sider would in cohverse.

Something to ponder, Tanks especially have no issue reaching the res cap on their own. Yet I cant think of one build that lets a scrapper keep max dmg cap for any length of time. I think it would be quite fitting and fair for at least one scrapper primary being able to maintain a near max dmg cap buff in some way, and SS's rage and crash is likely the only way that could be done without utterly breaking the game( as we know SS tanks while always strong, simply due to the powers rage and crashes kept many away from it, and should still do so on scrappers keeping it from ever truly becoming fotm.

Bud I dont know who you had as a mentor to teach you the ropes of this game but just wow that is some head shoved in a box poured over with concrete and then buried in the sandy floor at the bottom of the Mariana Trnech closed minded thinking there. Leaping, fighting, and leadership have wide appeal due to them having various CC protections that many favor simply due to a universal dislike of being locked down.( Common theme in complaints across all MMO and games in general by certain players who need the constant action of movement and if its denied them for a 1nd they deem the game play flawed and bad) Speed, well we all know how addictive it is. Ruin of the world really. Shame we cant get like a laaid back stoner chill pill pool to act as its rival and opposite. But seriously many use speed because they like super speed as the premier zoom zoom vibe( hell many QQ that fly cant go that fast, and we all know if it did everyone would always fly) And ofcourse Hasten but that isa power many take evenw hen it really is holding their build back by denying them access to another entire pool option. For example sorcery with its Rune of pro is amazing on a high recharge build blaster to add extra DR and break out of CC effects(( I know a quite a few CC and Defs also using it now days. Then there is Unleashed potential in force of will. Nice def boost, mix it with soul masterys shadow meld and you can give regen and bio scrappers as an example a very nice soft def layer without all the hassle of a bar full of toggles( also due to the synergy of regena nd recharge builds, it especially leverages the above mix quite nicely. Leadership is likely my most used pool because I team a lot, pug a ton, and get no end of chances to use veng which I for the thematic of. Stealth next because most of my characters are not mass murderers lusting to slaughter legions( cept when Im killing nazi and space parasites!)

I was using the fighting pool for a melee themed PB build. Nice decent hitting attacks now with the whole 3 attacks buffing each other thing. Cross punch has a decent aoe effect to. Presence I have tried no few times to make work on a variety of concepts, but sadly have never found enough synergy to justify keeping it.I actually used to ignore the fighting pool mostly but now the attacks are nice enough I want it for those on a few concepts.