Llewellyn Blackwell

having a bit of trouble with quoting on the forums eh bud?;) While its been a long time my memory for such discussions on the forums isnt to shabby. I seem to recall BL being expalined as a base like 15% bonus, that drops by 1% each lvl after lvl 1. Thats why its called beginners luck after all. Your not really a beginner anymore by the teens. A lvl 15 acc Io is 19% that is actually a really healthy boost. and since it wont go bad can be left till a major Set twink out usually done by most at 22 when sets like lotg become available. keep in mind we are discussing lvls the vas majority of players are largely zooming through now days. I mean even street sweeping Ill go from 1-22 in a casual play session or two. So its basically a non issue.

Sorry no and I use WP on several toons. But frankly on non tanks I never take Rise to the challenge I see its taunt aura as a liability so great its not worth having. Considering my character Invisible falcon the first WP I made that didnt take RTTC was frequently called powerful by players on far more meta optimal builds I assure you RTTC is not where the power comes from on your build. And its PVP you know the purely after thought non major aspect of the game that should not eat up another moment of dev energy. Its there for amusement at best, not a major aspect of the game nor should it be, And if you are a melee in PVP for the love of Valmaz be a stealthy melee. Never let a sniper see you coming!

Id say 1 merit per arm plus 6 for the head would be fair.

You cant access the ah from your base because your base is not in the game world space. Its basically a real pocket dimension unlike pocket D. Why Should a base allow across the account storage? Most of us do not keep all our toons in one SG. Leave my email alone, its not just for self trading, its used for actual communication as well. Frankly it sounds to me like you have a problem with hoarding and let stuff build up to the point it becomes difficult to manage, thats a you problem not a dev problem nor game flaw. I can use the mail to send a full 6 bit set to an alt quite rapidly.

Screw that stored items eat up the 20k item cap used for making bases. we dont need more stinking storage eating up precious space used for creation. if its really that big a deal for you create an alt account and a storage mule to dual box transfer. Or just craft the recipes. But its not really needed, has no one explained to you that really now days just sale everything on the ah and buy attuned set Es to you? Only lvl 50 purple recipes are worth crafting and storing. with the expanded enhancement storage on each character and the practice of just mailing a few hand me down attuned set bits as needed to later alts of capped characters that have unslotted their old lvling sets for lvl 50 purple sets you shouldnt need to do more then a few email transfers at a time. Because seriously crafting set bits is basically a newb trap now. Sell recipes, buy already made attuned. and leave the recipes and crafting for those who just like crafting. Me I dont have time to craft Im busy playing, running multiple SGs and mentoring dozens of players. Who has time for crafting blah!

Frankly havnt seen that on everlasting 5-7 mil seems to be the range the lotg stays in. since you can buy the recipe for 50 merits, and 50 merits is equiv to around 12 mil, if thats waht the greedier types want for the recipe on the ah they are not really being out of line, but at that price Id just burn merits on them myself rather then give the inf to others. This is why most sell things for around 25% less then their max value. Take E Cons themselves. I tend to sale mine at 88k, while the top value for them is around a 110 k each. Most want the inf fast when they list, they dont post and say well Ill check tomorrow and hope some fool paid top dollar for my shiite. E Cons are not being speculated with, they are basically along with merits the market stabalizer. When things have a solid merit price at the merit vendor and one of those is commonly being used to make inf, it helps create a standard value. Combined with the better drop rates now where we can expect a purple drop just about every hour or so of playing, and catalysts which have a nice 2-3 mil value drop usually several during a play session as a 50 inf is just easier to amass then ever. Im no hard core and yet have had zero issue fully decking out my capped characters. I do however agree we need mor in game inf sinks and feel the best way would be to add more temp powers to P2W. There are a great many through out the various missions blue,red, and gold. While some are regettable usually at a reduce duration via flashback like the wedding ring, Id think also having the original 2 hour version on P2W for like 5 mil, or sale it at a base 10 min for a mil with each additional 10 min for another mil up to a max of two hours etc would be great ways to keep those focusing on one or only a few capped toons from being miles ahead on inf of those of us alting a lot, and thus spending more time at the lower lvls where inf just doesnt come as fast. Alternatively they could just standardize the inf rewards from mobs rather then let them increase with lvl, if for example if was universally awarded at the amount currently 50s give, then people playing toons they want to play wouldnt be punished just because they dont enjoy playing finished toons all that much. A great many retire a toon from major activity as soon as they hit 50, alot of players on live and now just dont care about the incarnate stuff and basically ignore it. Thats the divide that needs to be avoided, the play only capped toon players who are amassing tons of inf each play session, and those who enjoy alting and lvling basically either having to make do with poor man builds or play in a way they dont really enjoy by running a character they see as done and mostly there for things like helping out their sg with a high end tf or raid. Hell on Everlasting most 50s seem to just be on for RP purposes. So while I do understand your concern over all I think the aspect your worried about, enhancements like LOTG are abit unfounded as worse case you can run a penny yin and moonfire, both easy fast mid lvl tfs and have enough merits to get an lotg, If people are jacking up their price so much as to make it basically equal to the merit value, just use the merits and play. I mean an hour and a half a day on those 2 tfs will see you having all the lotgs you need in 5 days for a given build. Same thing happened on live after merits got added. at first people used the merits to make them to sale for like a 120 mil a pop, but within a few weeks of merits being added the avg for an lotg special was down to around 60 mil and eventually dropped to like 20 mil a pop on virtue that I can recall.

Bloody Hell! Where do I even begin. T9s crash or not being made perma was a goal for every and I mean every good player pre ED, and losing Perma did not make them less worthwhile to take. Likewise the holes in various defense sets should not be getting filled by T9s, Those holes in those sets are there by design for a reason. A very good one and filling those wholes by clever pool, and IO set bonus build choices is something to praise not to replace by no brainer power choices in the sets themselves. Lets start with Moment of Glory though, as my toon Demetrios Vasilikos was a BS regen with no peer on virtue for years and lead countless TFs with puggs composed often of mostly first time TFers and always lead them to smooth fun completions. as every power set has by design optimal pairings lets look at Regens. Dark, Katana/Broad Sword are the natural superior choices for regen for well established reasons. And MoG compliments those choices making it a clear must to take for smart builders. In Darks case MoG used at the opener gives you time to apply your to hit debuffs with impunity, with the sword sets it gives you time to stack your parry def bonuses. It also will allow a quick button hitter a perfect combo with self rez to get back up even solo surrounded by tons of mobs and get your arse out of there so you can retoggle as needed and prepare for round two. Now lets take SR, Dont even think about frelling with Elude. T'Keron Valmaz was legend on Lambda Trials for soloing the turrets while the teams cleared the streets. I could do so because my eludes down time was so low that phase shift covered the down time, and a simple blue was all it took to counter the end crash. Its not some big deal its something you have to simply plan for and that is a good thing, that is tactical preparation. I literally only use hte autos and elude on my SR scrapper. The toggles are the powers to ignore if your a good builder and playing an SR user. Ice armor is the best partner to super strength, Hibernate is the perfect counter to the rage crash issue. Again every set has ideal partners and bad partners. The issue perceived to exist in rage on SS comes from too many wannabe superman builds using a less optimal partner with it like Invuln or WP. Use bad power combos and get less then epic results. Yes Bio armors is basically an OP game breaker that clearly was not ready for live play. Hence why EVERY META GAMER is using it now. Frankly I hope the HC team breaks the knees on it sooner then later. Its cool but way too over performing. Basically it sounds like you just want everything to fit your narrow view of good, rather then see that having a variety of mechanics increases diversity in build and rewards build ability rather then catering to those who dont want to have to work for superior performance. As the HC devs have said in other threads they dont want to remove current build options. And this proposal would kill many great builds out there either by reducing the power of T9s to compensate for no crashes, or make defense sets OP by removing their intentional and thematic weaknesses.

Who fights equal lvl mobs at low lvls? I exclusively am facing at min yellow if not orange and reds at those lvls for MOAR XP! 2nd a lvl 15 acc Io still gives a 19% boost more then BL. and that bonus from BL goes down steadily as you lvl up from 1, By lvl 12 its nearly gone. I like lvl 15 Ios because their bonus is enough I can not need to worry about reslotting again until 17 when I start using a collection of variou sets for franken slotting to get usually around 40% or so to 4 aspects out of 4 slots at a lvl range when most players are getting much less effect out of each slot. I only use attuned set IOs after lvl 17 for attacks and defenses. only things like hasten get common IOs after that. I am also taking into account the fact skulls, a major enemy for that early lvl range uses dark, and will debuff the frell out of your to hit so having your ability to hit buffed up a fair bit is damn handy in KR during those skull story arcs.

What I would suggest and am hoping this doesnt come across as telling you how to do anything, is make your bio a living thing and update it as you lvl. For example in the bio of my character T'Keron Valmaz I make it very clear T'Keron was a war wizard second only to Infernal in power on their native world, and Valmaz is ofcourse the Lord of Demonkind. However the same event that brought Infernal to primal earth also fused T and V into a new unholy being. Unlike a being like venom however, they are not now a instant super being, but instead Valmaz must exert his demonic will heavily to maintain control over the body, a body he is also no longer certain of its capabilities nor if it can survive channeling his true demonic powers. He starting at lvl 1 makes sense and while being a fusion of two extremely powerful beings, is instead now having to relearn the limits and slowly expand the powers he uses while doing so. This is a remake of my oldest lore based character on live made in year one. So I will be leveling pretty quickly as I am trying to get him back to what V1.0 was but this kind of concept makes the nature of leveling and growing ones power makes sense. Keep in mind security level is a part of the game world. Its not simply a meta game aspect. a lvl 1 hero is still miles above a common person. So there is nothing wrong with calling your character and pets an elite black ops group, compared to those in the army etc you are elite. But when compared to hero PCs etc your the equiv of a special forces group going after wolverine. Basically as bad a day as any soldier could have. A great many RPers I knew on live and most who I play with now on everlasting take lvl into account because one of the most brilliant things the coh devs did in its making was make so many normally meta aspects of an RPG be natural parts of the game world.

Ive pondered this concept abit since I first noticed this thread but didnt want to just spout off random ideas. Here is how I would do this AT basically, The partner wouldnt be a mere pet, but basically a 2nd character. Id make both pools basically be various offensive power pools, melee, ranged, and hybrid mixtures. Basically the primary pool would be character As abilities, and partner/pet would be using the powers of 2ndary pool. Id make sure the pools all had abit of survival utility like the martial set in blaster 2ndary, dark melee primary etc. some modest ways to heal but focus this as mainly a very offensive approach but basically youd bea blaster who didnt have to actively use your 2ndary attacks as that would be handled by the computer through the partner/pet Alternatively it could be something akin to a defender, where the primary character uses the offensive powers, and the computer guided partner/pet would be handling the use of the support powers, Id see this as a way for those who favor playing blasters etc and ignoring AT like defenders play offensively while bringing strong support. Id say this is enough different then an MM where the primary offense is from the pets and the support from the player. Basically flipping the roles and functionality of the MM AT.

accuracy in general early on is abit rough, once you hit lvl 12 and can make accuracy IOs a pair of those should end all real to hit issues. Keep in mind when fighting dark themed users like skulls, or the ghosts in the cot for example your acc is going to get wrecked as soon as they land a glove on you. Hit them hard and fast and carry plenty of yellows to prevent being made basically blind. Ive tossed dice at the table top long enough to know there are things as hot and cold streaks. I recall one night a player in a D&D session had a very well built and equipped character die when a lucky kobold who began with a charge with a spear rolled 3 20s in a row against him and while that heroic kobold then got shredded by the rest of the party he had still killed their single strongest party member. Sometimes quantum entanglement is just not going to be on your side. Blame it on bad karma from a previous life, work on improving your karma in this one, and hope that in your next life you are so blessed as to only ever roll nat 20s!

Nope you are very very wrong my foot in the mouth friend. As most I knew on live on virtue, and here on everlasting put RP before all else. and an RPG should always put RP needs before anything else. Without prestige the single biggest reason for large SGs has been removed. Storage limits make larger SGs limiting as every enhancment, every inspiration, every bit of salvage set aside for empowerment buffs eats up the 20k item limit. The single biggest utility feature of SG basesm the teleport system is something anyone can use, and a macro can allow anyone instance transport to a base they know the entrance code for. For example on my main toons base we only have 3 salvage storage racks open to all, 1 inspiration for all, and a couple enhancement storage for all. I keepa private room for 3 inspiration storage divided for heal/recovery, def/dmg res, and acc/dmg insp of med and large sizes. This is only accessible by the upper 3 ranks of the SG which is basically myself, my 2nd in command/base builder, and my other alts that fit that SGs theme. Meanwhile I use basically a throw away toon to keep a private base for myself to store things I want to set aside for future alts, mainly the random purple set drops. All my toons have a macro button set up to take them to my mains base to use the teleport system since I am lazy and dont feel the need to make a teleport base though that is a public service Im surprised the old paragon taxi service hasnt though of and set up. a simple base only for teleporting to all zones and putting the code for it out on the various server sections. My point is, that forcing everyone to be part of 1 SG only isa horrible idea that frankly is deserving of animosity and its taken all my willpower to keep this post as civil as I can. When every issue those who want mega SGs or global affiliation are simply not making use of the various tools fully enough as is to deserve to be treated as having a valid opinion based on expansive knowledge. We have global friends lists, and local friends lists, When Ive spoken to others about my own need to constantly clean up my global lists because its always reaching max I find most seem surprised by this as very few I speak to about the issue in game back on live or now have ever even reached a global friends cap. Put those you always like to team with on global, put toons that work well with a given toon on their local friends list, and use coalitions to help stay in touch with the wider crew on coalition chat. Considering the effort the HC team went through to give us the new expanded base building option, most good base builders are so prone to hit the 20k item cap, that they very rarely want to waste too much on storage space for stuff that can be kept by players in personal storage bases and mailed in game as needed to their alts. So really what benefit could stripping all of us who already have built up multiple SGs and bases personal and group themed serve other then pissing us off and driving us away? Because Id sooner play this game solo on a personal server then be on a server that makes me choose between my midnight mansion for my magic themed characters, and my cloud 9 space station for my more cosmic themed characters, or my 2 crey themed SGs and their bases for characters of that theme. Not to mention all those who have given to the community great social expanded city zone RP bases that dont get used for personal needs at all. They keep those bases in existence on basically a storage mule alt. And keep their main toons in main bases for their private needs. Your want would destroy that constantly growing and expanding game world being built by the best creative base builders of our community.

I think your just experiencing part of why red side has always been so dead. it seems like a large number of those who do favor RPing redside do so to justify very negative behavior under the guise of RP. Used to encounter a fair bit of that in pocket D to back in the day, people claiming it was just RP when using slurs and being derogatory to anyone not kissing their arse.

You sure do seem hung up on me and my personal preferences. I often find it funny how its when I am not doing other then offering my own opinion that I trigger some easily offended type. Frankly I feel dirty even responding to a clearly off topic personal attack post like yours. Mine was just a comment on PLving as a whole and how I avoid those who partake of it. Yours pure personal attack on myself. Now I am sure you think your some do gooding forum paladin, but what you are in fact is pure trolling here as you couldnt even bother to attempt to make your reply to me relevant to the topic. Hell you even brought in other thread discussions, which while Im not 100% on the HC forums etiquette is often against the rules on most other game forums if its done with intent to harass another player rather then expand a discussion. But since you care so much here is who makes my friends list. Those who run TFs I lead and do so without conflict with me or others or complains. Those who I RP with that I meet that have well done bios, good character designs, dont have any major conflicts with the game lore etc. Those whom I help and wish to stay in touch for further help. Even with my apparently high criteria that seems to offend you so very very much, I have to constantly clean up both character friend lists and my global because I am always needing to make room for new folks. I mean if I didnt have standards my lists would be bloated and serve no real use. Please feel free to put me on ignore in game because I certainly would never want you joining one of the TFs I pug out.

CoH has never been of the logic that because you wield it your immune to it. I mean look at blasters. However as the subject of psi is near and dear to me Ill direct you to the concept of the Psion from D&D and the mindwalker from Alternaty PnP game systems. While both do give one paths to developing psi defenses they are not fully inherent in the classes either. In D&D the Psion does get psi attack and defense modes, but honestly those are usually the iffy part most house rule out of existence, and that leaves it to active power choices to develop ones ability to resist another psion. Much like with wizards there isa world of difference between the elemental themed pyromancer, and a war wizard who focuses in tactical applications of offensive magic and adaptable defensive magic to deal with a wide variety of threats. Or the counter speller, a specialist that really only shines against other powerful casters but is less then handy against non casters. In Alternaty the Psion again had to choose which broad and specialty skills one had and developed. while most psi players in it did usually take mind shield as everyone hates being mentally dominated. many did not bother with other psi only defenses. choosing instead abilities that effected non psi attacks far more. IMO Energy Armor isa great 2ndary fora psi melee. and can easily be explained as having honed their telepathic ability to be offensive, and their telekinetic ability is more a defensive tool be reflex.

Opening salvo against an enemy with Energy Blast at 60 ft. range: 20 to 50% chance they land on their ass and go outside of my range, requiring me to move to keep up pressure on them, and you rarely get single pulls, so, interrupted DPS. You close much more than that and you also make it easier for them to reach you. This is not +defense. The AoEs aren't really any better. I experimented a lot with various set-ups and invariably I found I killed faster and died less if I actually put up a KB-blocking AoE immob and then just cut loose immediately, a beneficial quirk of the interaction between Sentinel immobs only being Mag 3 (that is, not enough to trap a boss, who tend to be the most dangerous and yet also poor immediate kill targets for Energy's atrocious ST damage -- better to kill all of the support first instead) and knockback. I'm going through the exact same leveling content with a reroll of the exact same character, only changing Energy Blast to Beam Rifle, and I die far less and fight far more effectively. (All Praetoria content. If it ain't gold, it ain't bold.) There was a mission my EB/EA died to four times straight up that was instead an exhilarating, intense, but reasonable challenge on BR/EA. And I've made a point of not getting anything I didn't get on my Energy Blast version of the character -- no money handouts from my main or handmedown IOs. Water Blast shows what 'throwing people around' can do when it's done right. Energy Blast... doesn't. Solo or on teams. Not for Sentinel. Single Pulls? on a sentinal? your a literal mage tank. what is your 2ndary? Ive a dark regen sentinal and def see why folks call the entire AT brokenly OP. I personally feel they have made PBs unique niche obsolete. And you shouldnt be cowering likea blaster, you want to rush in close the distance I personally prefer mighty judgment with an energy primary. So I like to get in close and knock the whole group on their ass before using other aoes then going single target on any bosses who are starting to get up. Rapidly switch targets if multiple bosses and knock them back as much as possible hover is on so if by chance I am overwhelmed zip up in the air. my hover is about 46 mph so am actually quite fast and have no travel speed supression. It sounds like your treating your sent as a blaster, and a bad blaster at that. Because yes you do need to try all the sets as much as that one to really know. And theya re not meant to be full on blaster dmg and next to dmg 10 ATs all DPS feels trashy to be honest. Thats why I have a tendency to play all sorts of mixes on certain ATs. I knew instantly a dark regen sentinal would be a monster as ofcourse everyone knows how good dark regen scrappers are. Its raw dps isnt on par with something like fire melee, but because you are pretty much an unkillable monster with to hit debuffing making regen have so much breathing room no one is killing you. If energy just isnt working for you fucking re roll already, I mean it takes 3 weeks tops to max lvl a toon now and thats playing casually. alts are already easier because you can twink em out while lvling. If you want more DPS take a max dps AT, I mean its clear you only care about the biggest numbers.

I by now have collected a number of good lower level attuned IO set bits that I pass on to alts after capping and perfecting a characters build. Frankensetting attuned IO sets can allow a great amount of use out of minimal slots while lvling. the right mix can make 3 slots give as much as 3+ SOs at very early levels. Usually its around 22 when I am starting to plug in lotg attuned global recharges that I start to really look at my powers and slots use a respec to clear out all the lvling bits for sets for specific set bonuses.

Should of ignored that C and not recalled him at all. By the time you were at the King you should of had a good feel for the most survivable team mates and grabbed them as you saw fit. Then again I just duoed that on a stalker with a brute a week ago, envenomed daggers make short manning tfs so easy. though we both were also psi melee and clocks dont like psi much. On the subject of risk when recalling Id of looked for a safe as possible loc, even if it meant we would have to clear an extra group or two before the king to avoid needless risk. Hell Id likely of bought everyone stealth IOs if I liked them enough now days. Slap that into sprint and boom everyone is partly stealthed really reducing risk of grabbing aggro on arrival. Over all Id of put that C on ignore after his first bit of bitching. Dont need to hear anything he has to say. Do your job and do it to the best of your ability and the good team mates will see that.

A lot of not thinking of the bigger picture in this thread by a few posters. As has been stated fly itself compensates by not vertical limit. Trying to argue comic characters can do this or that is moot as there must be balance a give and take in a game system. Powers like group fly and team teleport while situational do have builds that thrive on them, Mastermiind mainly. But during a MSR a group fly support build can be highly useful in keeping a team together and flowing along. IME flight is the most favored and most useful travel power during an MSR, with recall friend getting a lot of use to when people die. Speaking of Recall Friend is always damn good, a real must for any stalker especially one who is going to run TFs frequently. All my TF leader builds tend to have stealth and recall by lvl 14 for Positron's. It can be the difference of an hour or more on TFs like synapse. Teleport without hover can be abit tricky I tend to use it for roof porting more like nightcrawler would do meself. Ironcally on my Stalkers I ususally ignore teleport, instead taking recall friend, tp foe, and long range teleport. Which in many cases is def the king travel power shame it doesnt have more zones on its list. SS has a built in steath definately always good. many stalkers wont go without it and a stealth IO by high lvls due to rikti drones. There are always going to be builds and ATs that view certain things as a must have. The idea Hasten is a universal must isa real myth. Since IO sets. if you can just build in 70% global via set bonuses you have old school perma hasten levels of recharge. more then enough fro those with toggle heavy builds who dont need to focus on global recharge as much as click heavy builds. Some powers will always be meh on a great many of options but on a few niches shine through as the above mentioned masterminds with group fly and group teleport. being able to scout around with your whole group of minions then teleport into the middle of a group as a team is so damn effective it nearly breaks the game. yet because MM are more often then not used as a solo AT by a great many MM players most who dont play MM have no clue how effective those fringe powers become.

If you want to build out of the bunker so to speak you need to get your base entrance portal above the roof using clipping mode, the trick to outdoor bases is your building on the roof of the old base area, which basically becomes a basement area. Ive been to a great many highly detailed city scape bases that did not know this trick and effectively wasted all their energy because a roof that looks like open sky is still roof. Meanwhile on Midnight Island we have a skyship high in the sky we can fly up to and party on. When its polished and done Ill be sure to put it on the passcode thread for people to see. Until then base builders, reach for the sky!

The problem with this approach to finding an SG is it means those trying to build up their ranks have nothing to offer you. They can never become an active SG if no one will join them in the first place. Ive been slowly building the ranks of my Midnight Club, I dont general broadcast nor really use the forums to recruit, I keep an eye out in game for magic themed characters with good bios and ask them directly. We are up to about 15 active members, and even just the other night had enough on all at once to do a 7 man sg tf which was a lot of fun all of us RPing to various extents and building bonds between the characters. Yesterday while running a TF I met someone who had started a hogwarts school SG who was sad that she had found very few harry potter fans to join and RP with, I suggested a coalition with the midnight club which seemed to add more to their sadness because they said that was usually all they got asked about never people wanting to join her directly. Felt bad, offered to keep my eye out for more kid aged magical characters to send her way. I get that people want to be in large active SGs, nothing wrong with that. but keep in mind that mega SGs are not exactly something special, and tend to be filled with a lot of drama and inter player conflicts over time. Seen my share back on lvie as well on other MMO and frankly hope more people look for SGs of like minded players and RP themes before looking at the membership numbers. Ill take one good regular sg mate over a dozen I dont really know and dont really groove with.

Lets begin with the obvious, TIME TRAVEL. Especially when I am exemping down, I treat it as having traveled into the past. Doing some historical research or a mending job. My main Bentley Berkeley is an immortal, who is also a founding midnighter, and literally has seen and dealt with certain villain groups for a long bloody time. He is also a full spectrum psionic. Meaning not just telepathy and telekinesis and teleportation but also clairvoyance, Pre and Post cognition, Psychometry and even Data linking with computers. And that is in addition to being an ancient wizard versed in both Mu and Circle magic. I made this character concept around year 2 of live specifically because I wanted a good mentor character who was in game going to know most of what I know as a lore nerd. He knows the war with the rikti is a nemesis plot, he suspected long before it was confirmed that Statesman was little more then an avatar of Zeus not to be trusted. Now not every character of mine is like that. My character Skylord is hero who was fostered b y the elderly galaxy girl and who suffers severe PTSD from the first rikti invasion. He hates Rikti uncompromisingly, is a soldier in a war with no end in sight and is basically the punisher with super powers. He ignores any truth offered about the Rikti being manipulated or just doesnt care. For him the Rikti have 2 choices, leave earth entirely or die. So there is a place for lore based RP both giving one plenty if insight, and a place for it to be a reason for a character to have blinders on. I especially agree with the point made in this thread by Vanquished Fool about Crey. the vast majority of people should treat crey as not bad guys, and the fact they attack you in game being used to see them as bad is abit too meta imo. I tend to treat it more as we are trespassing and they are legally justified to attack us. Also for good or bad, it is a matter of lore that the Paragon Protectors are the reason the Rikti didnt win. When heroes fell in mass, it was the blue and gold mass produced soldiers that filled the gap and held the line. I tend to view Crey as a rogue faction at worst and maybe even as a vigilante faction seeing beings like Statesman and his cronies as a far bigger threat to earth then anything else. Same with the Circle of Thorns, when one looks at the lore surrounding them, one could say they were the first heroes fighting against tyrannical gods intent on using their power to subjugate humanity. Now yes they made pacts with demons, but as Ive oft said as T'keron Valmaz, its not demonkinds fault the only things of value humans had to offer were flesh.blood, and soul. You wouldnt take sand instead of gold dust would you? Nor was it they that made the mages grow so desperate for life ever lasting and a rage to avenge themselves that drove them to become body snatching ghosts. We can literally lay that at the feet of Tilekku and her zealot Hequat. Which is funny since they use Tilekku as some good entity in the DA arc. She was the first great villain against humanity not really any better then the so called evil gods she Banished like Mot.

The game isn't difficult to understand. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of resources on how to play this game. There is no "civic duty" when it comes to letting people have fun. If you play an MMO, you know how tanks, healers, damage dealers, and CCers work. The game is very forward and is even easier to understand. Not to mention the amount of people who will help one another learn the in's and out's of a character, the sets, and/or the AT. I got a Tanker to 50 after never having played either of the sets (Bio Armor/Ice Melee) or the actual class. It was not difficult to understand, and infact, it was incredibly easy and mind numbingly boring. Guess what? Not only did we clear the task force, but nothing bad happened. TLDR: This game is not difficult and people should stop gatekeeping people who want Level 50s. Stop perpetuating the idea that this game is hard, when it isn't. Sorry but this is very much not true. back and live and now, very few tankers are competent let alone good. Even fewer blasters are competent. Some ATs like brute and scrapper are pretty uch impossible to not be at least competent with, while some like MM and DOms take a fair bit of understanding the ins and outs of things like magnitudes on CC abilities or the modes of their pets to be more then a spectator in teams. At 50, one or two incarnates will often so thoroughly dominate non incarnate content as to carry the worst of players and many of those same bad players egos wont let them see that they are just bodies filling space and not actually being of any use. A power set like Bio Armor has been well stated at this point as being brokenly OP, it never made it to live nor got the fine tuning it obviously needs to not over shadow every other defense set. So basically it is a crutch that bad players can use to feel competent While in the hands ofa skilled player it basically is an I Win button. If someone cant climb their way to 50 now with the xp boosting etc, in a few weeks they likely are struggling enough with that power set that they either need to learn or need to try something else. Personally I put everyone advertising for farms or asking for farms on ignore. As Ill never want them in my TFs or among my SGs ranks.

There has always been a certain prejudice for the kheldians due to the multi form aspect. as a nova they cant blast half as well as a serious blaster, as a dwarf they cant tank half as well as a good tank. Human form is pretty much the only good WS or PB and yet many go tri form because of the COOL factor they find in shape shifting. Then there is the RP aspect. my namesake in game is anti nictus to the extreme. And he sees war shades and peace bringers as little different. Body thieving parasites wearing skin suits. They can talk about a merge and blending as something noble etc, but to Ol Berk they are all enemies of mankind serving the path of the dark and he rarely tolerates their presence for long. In fact only when I am running pug TFs and rp is put on the back burner does berk ever work with them. However if someone makes it clear in their bio theya re not a kheldian just as I do in my 2 human form PBs bios then I respect that RP and treat them as non khelds. So from a meta perspective I understand how someone super anal and wanting their ideal team etc would avoid khelds, which for the record I think is douche bag elitism. I am all about all ATs welcome when i run TFs and dont care what the AT make up ends up being. And from an RP pov I can see why people might not want them on teams either. A former arachnos soldier free of their cultish masters is far more relatable then a space demon in a skin suit.

All I am reading is that yet again someone wants to basically just stand in one spot wailing on a training dummy. There are tools to lock down a mob, and if mobs didnt react and try to evade and avoid things like patches of fire, or run out the clock on dots by breaking contact you would basically make control and taunt almost pointless. Not to mention fast combat movement like hover. Once upon a time in the early days mobs did just stand around in fire patches, it was so heavily abused by players that it was made a priority to alter AI, and frankly i love the reactive dynamic nature of mob movement in this game. It makes for example having exits covered by allies while some go into clean up a large room a very viable strategy that can over all save a lot of time vs everyone running around clearing the room and in the chaos a few runners slipping away. If your soloing, especially at an increased group size dif, then that is part of the increased challenge. If your trying to solo a TF, that to is part of the added challenge of running group themed content solo. AV have powerful regen, and part of any good regen players tactics is knowing when to evade and buy time to let regen do its job.