Tahliah

I have experience with only one game that had player dueling, and it was horrific. There were flame wars in chat because someone didn't want to duel and got called out, then they got angry for being called out, then they finally did duel, which only encouraged the rudeness. And no, duellers do not pick a particular zone or area to gather, they literally just walk up to you anywhere and everywhere and ask to duel. That said, we do have an older, though not necessarily more mature, player population, but from my experience with this dueling thing, ti's a disaster for anyone who is not interested. People would absolutely try to bait people into it, and if even one person bites, that's the end of civility because sending tells or calling people out in chat worked. Also, PVE dueling might attract a completely different player to our game, to our home. I don't want to fling open our doors to the unkempt masses who have no interest in the game beyond bugging people in PVE to duel. But I'm unpleasant like that. :)

Something that always seems to get lost in these discussions of "official" events is that the vast majority of players are not on the forums, have no idea when scheduled events take place, and are happy that way. I wasn't there for the drama described, but I would hope that it is exaggerated. For someone leading anything to "ban" players from their raid because they joined an earlier one is . . . insane. And rude. And unnecessary. I do sort of agree that the original organizer should have just said, "oh cool, I'll join that one in 30 mins then!" But I am also sympathetic to the fact that nothing requiring a team, much less a league, is filled up quickly.. There's always a lag time where everyone is just waiting, so why not merge the league started 30 mins early with the later one? The "official" raid seems to be the reason, and that's no reason at all. That's ego getting in the way of the heroic, friendly behavior that does mark this server, and this game more broadly. I think that's why I am more upset with the reported (again, I wasn't there, so am only going by the OP) behavior of the vets on the "official" team than by the uninformed player who is probably not on the forums and doesn't know there are player-scheduled (but in no way at all "official") events. Banning people from joining because someone's ego is bruised is not a good look. We need to do better.

Heh. Sorry if you find it unpleasant that I have no desire to deal with PVP duels in PVE zones. Particularly the case I was quoting when someone is trying to "bait" me into it with insults about "your momma" or whatever. That would definitely happen and our only recourse would be to ignore and report. So yeah, I'm unpleasant to not want to deal with people not being content that I've opted out and insist on sending me a tell or using local (or other) chat to try to "bait" me into it despite my clear lack of interest (I've shut it off for a reason).

Yeah, but then how do you stop them from trying to "bait" you into it? They send a tell, you put them on ignore. They start spamming local (or some other chat) with crazy insults or whatever. This is not a good idea. Not good at all.

Absolutely not. If this change were ever implemented, I'd turn it off immediately. AND I do not want to have to do so on every single toon; it needs to be a one-time global / account-wide click (so in Options, not via Null). Then I'd have to ignore every idiot wannabe PVP dueller who decided sending me a tell would be a great way to try to "bait me" into something I have less than zero interest in. In fact, I would report anyone who sent me such a tell for harassment because that is exactly what it would be. Ditto getting called out in Local chat or whatever. The more I think about this, the less I like it. Dueling in non-PVP zones . . . What an absolutely horrendous idea!

I am SO happy about the fixes to group fly! My demons are adorable flying along behind me, and they don't drop out of the sky if I fly too fast (i.e. if I fly at all). So far, I have only enjoyed this wonderful upgrade solo; I really do feel bad that others have to visit Null to turn off Group Fly (even though I turn it off on all my toons because I can't stand being "flown" against my will). I see all-flight MM ITFs on the horizon and can't wait!

Oddly, the things I miss most seem to be rooted in nostalgia and not in actual enjoyment of the game. I do miss double-xp weekends, but then again, I can have one any time I want via the P2W vendor. Our sg might decide to schedule one for our members, and if I'm simply swamped or out of town or can't get online on the rare 2xp weekend, I don't stress it now because any weekend I want can be 2xp. Any day I want can be 2xp. I like that. I like it a lot. Yes, the Hollows used to be a unique challenge, but it really really sucked at the time. Hard. Sure the taxibots helped with the suckage, but it was a slog, and while shining up a debt badge may seem like fun, it was, in fact, not fun to get "this close" to the mish door (on the far side of the map. because of course) only to be struck down by a mob that spawned in the time it took you to run back from the hospital. And this was on every single toon, so the novelty wore off super fast. So then you go to KR instead of dealing with the Hollows with no travel, and that was much better (running straight down the middle of the road, anyone?), but it took forever to get anywhere, and once you got there, you were out of inspirations, on the verge of an end crash (pre-inherent stamina), and had to sit inside the mish door and rest. Then you had to rest after every fight. Just like you had to in the Hollows. Yeah, don't miss any of that, not at all, not even a teensy tiny bit. Even those things that I remember fondly (like earning capes and Roman costume pieces, etc.) are just fond memories. I didn't unlock capes on the majority of my toons, let alone stress out that I didn't have Roman sandals. I did all that on one, maybe three or four, toons, but I couldn't be bothered on the vast majority. It was a slog. So yeah, I did do the Steel Canyon Midnighters Arc on all my toons just so they could get into Cim, but I didn't see it as fun. CoT, Lady Jane, meh, grind through it, I told myself, get access to Cim. NOW, though, I do that arc quite often because I want to not because I have to in order to enter a zone. I love the freedom we have on HC. I love being able to pick any costume piece, any aura, any cape, any wings, etc. that I want from the get-go. I love not being forced to complete or even unlock (or hope someone's on who is running) mishes for those items, for access to Cim, for respecs. It's just a million times better now, and I wouldn't go back to live if I could. I hear there are servers running COH that still have live requirements; you couldn't pay me to join them now (and this after my being a paid subscriber to just that for many years, and I'd still be subscribing now, of course, but I wouldn't know how much more awesome the game is when you aren't stuck in grindy stuff on every single toon). Sure, it was fun to earn my cape the first few times, but that wore off fast, and I got to where I just didn't use capes on the majority of my toons (ditto all the other fussy stuff we had to do for this thing or that). Sure, my main and one or two others had all the goodies, but that's it. Don't miss a bit of it, not really. I think back to fun times doing them with a great team or to that first time I did it and felt so awesome I couldn't wait to get to the tailor, but that's not missing a game mechanic, that's just missing that one moment in time, one that was never recreated even on live. You can only earn your first cape/etc. once, and after that, it's just not a thing. At least it wasn't for me.

I love love love so many of these suggestions. The only thing I would add is that Clear Mind should be a team-wide (or those within range) buff. This upgrade has been made to all similar buffs in other support powersets and is long overdue for Empathy. I don't mind the click-heavy playstyle of emp (it's one of the things that makes it fun), but on my /kin or whatever, I can now (finally) buff everyone with one strike at the main group (and then hit stragglers if need be). On my emps I have to hit everyone individually with CM, and this is ridiculously, unnecessarily tedious on lower level teams -- on higher level teams, you don't really need to CM the tank/brute/scrapper/stalker/warshade types, of course, but early game, you do have to hit every single team member. Individually. On an 8-person team, this can become crazy and undoable, so you wait for people to type in "zzz" or whatever, and that's no good because they should all be buffed, but you can't buff them all because by the time you finish the 7th buff (you can't target yourself with CM, which is fine), you need to start all over again. So awful.

Yeah, I 'm a great big "no" on this unless I can turn off all duel requests in Options or via Null. I want nothing to do with PVP; if I did, I would go to the PVP zones and do it. I see no benefit to "bringing PVP" to the PVE zones where people have chosen to be in order to enjoy the game and not be accosted by random PVPers. If PVP peeps want to "duel" that option can be explicit to the PVP zones, which make more sense anyway because they are level capped. Geez, if I could have an option to be automatically "invisible" to wannabe "duelers," that would make me happy, too. So not a fan of this idea.

Although you seem rather frustrated with parts of the game, I'm so glad you took the time to share your thoughts with us! On this one point, you don't need to actually click "follow" on a hostage (or an NPC of any kind) that you are leading out or that is "helping" you with the mish. Instead, just stand near them and they'll latch onto you. This can get complicated on older content if you are running on a stealth proc or have a stealth or invis power activated because they can't "see" you, and so you'll leave your hostage or NPC "helper" behind. Turn off whatever is making you not register for them (stealth, invis), and try again. Newer content has addressed this issue, and your hostage or whomever you are rescuing can still follow through stealth and invis powers. That said, sometimes you WANT to leave your NPC "helper" behind because they are completely crazy and will run or fly into mobs with a death wish. This can be bad if the mish needs them to live to complete, etc. Typically, I will leave some NPC "helpers" behind unless the mish requires I keep them with me. For example, I tend to ditch Fushionetta whenever I can, she's a PITA, there are others who are more trouble than help, but you'll get that as you go along. Glad you are here with us! Don't be shy about asking for help in the Help section of chat, too, people are always happy to help, even to literally join your team and get you through a mish that seems bugged (but likely isn't).

The thread in which @DoctorDitko realizes that moar biographies are not necessarily a good thing. :P I love a good bio, and always shoot off a positive message when I see one (ditto great costumes), but unless we are all lounging around waiting for an unpopular TF to fill, I don't look at other players' bios . . . unless a team is taking forever to fill. Even then, I am more interested in AT, power selections, bonuses, and etc. than I am in the biography. So if the team is really taking a long time to fill, I will read the bio out of desperation/boredom to kill a couple secs. until the team fills. After that, I start disco dancing, so beware! I think that the people who are clever and fabulous at writing bios are already doing that. The rest of us just dash one out for random reasons that have nothing to do with how we play the game. Ultimately, my MMs and trolls without a backstory/biography do just as well as those who have one.

I'm not sure what might encourage me to write more bios. An influx of cash might help, but even then, I never win contests, so I would probably not enter one if one existed. Your question about what made me write the bios I did write might get us closer to an answer, though. On my plant/emp troller, I chose the name Trapper Jayne. Well, of course, I needed to explain how Trapper John's daughter (he didn't know existed) ended up with plant powers and how Hot Lips (my flytrap) aided in her discovery of her true parentage and eventual ability to use her trapper skills combined with her advanced medical knowledge to fight evil. So in this case, I guess I loved the name/theme and then thought of how Trapper Jayne might have happened. The other one of my toons who has a bio is a my beast/nature MM. She went through a few incarnations, but all, oddly, had a bio. She ended up as Peace Pack, a wolf-human hybrid who was the result of horrible experiments that tried to rewrite her wolf DNA to make her a human. It failed, she was half-wolf, half-human. She plotted her escape, and she planned to take every single animal used for dastardly and cruel experiments with her. And she did; she ended up with her Peace Pack, a motley assortment of lab experiments who wanted only to be loved, to bring joy and love and, above all, peace to Paragon City. So in this case, I just wanted to have an excuse for my toon to have a wolf head and use beast run (almost) exclusively. Not sure why that mattered, but since I usually run humanoids, I think I felt compelled to explain what this freaky furry wolf girl was doing running around in a mini skirt surrounded by wild beasties. 😛 If brevity is the soul of wit, I am clearly bereft. Or witless. Heh.

Heh, this made me laugh like a 12-year-old. Naked bio breaks in AP. Snicker. As to your point about biographies, I have a severe case of altitis, and I usually become enamored of some punny name or concept or read on the forums that everyone HATES "x" powerset (so of course I have to roll one or three), and etc., so I don't bother with background too much. I do have a biography on a couple of toons, but I've never once got an "atta girl" for them, so I guess they must be awful. I'm probably not particularly gifted in this area, so I don't take the silence personally. Also, I was never very comic bookish or really that into RP, so I think that I just see my toons differently than a lot of biography-gifted players do. I don't care why my ice/ice/ice blaster is able to do what she does or why she likes to wear purple. I am more interested in how she works, what she does, how she does it . . . and just zooming around on my rocket board. :P

Heh, okay, if are just itching to ditch your moneys, I'll roll Pinball Blizzard on Excelsior. When you come back, you can hit me up for your cash back. :P

This is so true, and I love the idea of a mass rez or some kind of tweak to Emp's rez to make it more fabulous. It's an old set, and there is definitely room for improvement (with the rez and also making Clear Mind a one-shot team buff--rather than having to hit each team members separately--like they made other such powers on support sets).

I feel the same way, but i had never really been able to articulate why I don't follow anyone else's builds. This is it exactly. And it's one of the reasons that my ice/ice/ice blaster is my favorite. She's the product of a LOT of time and energy and respecs. Trying out this iO set or that, trying out this Frankenslotting combo, trying out ALL the available powers before settling on the ones I think work best , trying out . . . well, you get the picture. She is a labor of love, and she's all mine, my "creation." That definitely adds to my enjoyment playing her.

I'm not sure if this is a typo, per se, but I was looking at my combat stats on my ice/ice/ice blaster because I was curious about how much debuff I was doing. Anyway, I couldn't figure out what was being conveyed because the text was all about my "fire ball" and "fire blast" and "fire breath," and etc. I was on an ice blaster, so it was completely wrong. I don't play fire blasters enough to know what the fire set equivalent of snow storm or shiver might be (I'm guessing ice blast and ice breath are the same as fire blast and fire breath, but ice doesn't have a "fireball" type power). Anyway, it was decidedly unhelpful since it was telling my ice blaster she was shooting off fire blasts, and etc.

I love empathy, but I do think that as you level, you need to focus more on the buffs than on the heals. As someone else said, early to mid game (and I'd argue until 50), emp is still king in terms of heals and auras, but as you get into incarnates, everyone has their own heals (or regen) under control, so the heal part becomes unnecessary (unless there's a rikti/zombie invasion or if you are doing Hami or a RWZ raid, etc.). Given the shift in powers available to everyone at that stage, it's best to have a /"x" that is always useful (like dark, archery, radiation, etc.). That said, I think empathy still has a role since you can run your emp def who is 50 on lower level teams to help them out (and still get incarnate threads/shards, etc.), and there are always tfs running on LFG, and such teams always like a good emp. @Psyonicojust a quick note on your point, most players say "nice heals" if they stay alive. It's not a comment on the "heals," but on the fact they didn't die. No one is going to "nice heals" an O2 boost alone (with its nominal heal, it's not really useful in that regard, but it does provide res and perception increases that are very useful), so take it as a more generic "yay! You kept me alive! Nice job!" That's all they care about, and if you do that, you are "healing" even if you aren't literally spamming a healing aura. One thing I've learned over the years reading these boards is that there are a lot of players who are super good at what they do, but don't really understand what other ATs do. There are a bazillion threads across the forums (and were back on live) from various non-def or non-support ATs complaining about this or that, but then when the def or support AT weighs in, they're like, "oh! I didn't know your sleep also dealt moderate damage" or that "your immob kept baddies from being knocked back out of melee range." We shouldn't be so touchy about the blanket use of the word "heals" by players who have no idea at all what defenders do. "Nice heals" really does mean, "yay! I didn't die and I thank YOU for it.." The best response is a well-deserved burst of pride and a sincere "my pleasure!"

What a fascinating topic for discussion! In the spirit of the question, I'm writing my reply having just read the OP and no other posts (I'm going to go back and read them immediately upon posting this of course!). My favorite toon is my main and badger; she's an ice/ice/ice blaster, and I love her to pieces. The only game I had ever played for any length of time before COH was Diablo, and in that game, I played a cold sorceress. So when a friend of mine at work (way back in the day) told me about COH (this was before Villains), I immediately gravitated to what I knew best: cold/ice blasting. I was so excited to find a game in which I could play "my" cold sorceress and be able to fly and go where I wanted and do what I wanted (and not have to click on stupid chests for goodies). It was so amazing, and I still remember what it was like to create my first toon ever in COH, an ice/ice blaster named Tahliah. It was that feeling of finally having all the pieces and they all fit. I didn't need to find this perfect piece of armor or weapon or whatever to build my ice queen. I could ice blast away and explore and kill stuff and eventually (this was back when you couldn't get travel powers until lvl 14) fly! I ended up re rolling my first ice/ice blaster after she hit 50 (I didn't understand how respecs worked back then!), and the new and improved version I decided to name Ice Ice Baby (in my mind for the primary and secondary powers and, yes, as a nod to that song). I knew, from playing that first one through the game what I did and did not want for powers, and I did finally figure out that I could respec, so I got to play with her powers, slotting, sets, and etc.). No matter what other ATs I rolled on live or here on HC, I still love my ice/ice/ice blaster best of all. She's so freaking fun to play! I can solo her, run her on teams, play however I like whenever I like. She's the only toon I have that has every costume slot not only open but filled (I even recreated my first costume I ever created, and it's silly and dumb-looking and basic since you had to unlock capes, various costume pieces, and etc. back then, but I love it still). When COH went dark, I was on Ice Ice Baby in AP with friends I'd met in the game and had been playing with for many years; it was a sad day, and I literally cried. When I found out that HC was out, that we could do more than fly around an empty Paragon City (which of course I did, and was very very grateful to be able to do even that), I was elated. And yes, when I first logged in, got the log-in screen (that music!), then the character creator . . . and then actually got into the tutorial and there were people there, other players! I cried again. I was so happy, it was so truly like coming home! There was no doubt, never a question in my mind, that I would remake my ice/ice/ice blaster as my very first toon on this wonderful miracle we got access to after seven long years of missing home and friends and trying (with many of those same COH friends) to enjoy any other game (closest I came was Secret World and SWTOR, but both lost their luster very quickly). I have other favorite toons, but she is my all-time favorite of all-time ever.

I like Pinball Blizzard! They're all great names, but why would you release them (and apparently our enh/inf) if you are just taking a break/hiatus? I'm sure you have your reasons, but I do hope things improve soon and you can come back!

What is your in-game global? Edit to add: not being creepy, just want to send you some cash. :P

Wait! You are griping about trolls using immob on SYNAPSE? That's a lvl 15+ tf; it's not rocket science. Level 15s don't have a lot of options, including usable tankage (in whatever form it comes) because the tanky types are capped at , what?, level 19 or 20? AND so typically don't have their "best" powers yet (and/or the end to use them effectively) AND are unlikely to be fully slotted even with DOs, let alone IOs or sets, etc. They're typically leveling and not even training up, let alone wasting time with enhancements. I'd rather lose your two seconds of your lvl 20 fire ball than have everyone tottering off to train and get enhancements after every mish. Geez, I didn't know you were complaining about lowbie teams with limited powers just trying to slog through a Syanpse for a badge, xp, and some merits. That kind of makes me wish I hadn't even commented on this thread. At all. On Synapse! /smh

/this I intentionally target Fake Nems, Carnie Mistresses, and PPs just to stop them armoring up. One of my favorite things to do (this is on my blaster, but also will do this on my planters) is to freeze/strangle them and then kill them before they can do a thing. Good times.

How much slower are we talking here? Seconds, right? Yeah, probably not a problem on teams that are rolling over mobs like butter (as is so often the case). That you aren't doing the most damage you possibly can is not really the team's problem. I don't shriek at teams that completely demolish an entire +4/+8 mob in the time it takes me to hit aim + build up, I just get that the team is rolling fast and that I don't need those to help with team dps. So I adapt. Adapting to teams is a good thing, and much more productive than waiting for teams to adapt to your preferred playstyle.

Is this really a problem, though? Why would a troll rush into the alpha and toss an IMMOB? Now, I can see rushing in with vines, and following up with Creepers, but all the immob does is anger the baddies who immediately drop the troll in his or her tracks. Do a significant number of trollers even DO that? Much less consistently? Or did it happen like once to you on a team and you thought it would make a fun forum topic? (which it has!) Just asking because except on all squishie teams, most teams I am on that have trollers don't have this problem (and on all squishie teams, we don't lead with our weakest powers, anyway). Or if someone does drop an early immob and the tanker, brute, WS says to not do that again, the response is typically "oops, kk." I wonder, too, how much this is tied to the changes to the game whereby tankers don't really seem to tank as much as they used to on live (i.e. round up mobs and hold aggro). I actually prefer that style of team, myself, and I run blasters and support almost exclusively. But so many teams now don't even have a tank or a brute or a WS who is capable of--or competent at--old-school tanking, so an MM does it, or a corr, or a dom, or a scrapper (some of whom are freaking brick houses in their own right), or the troll has to lock down the mobs wherever they be while blasters, et al. clean 'em up. Also, if you are team lead, and a troll refuses to comply with your request, just kick that person. Problem solved.