Fade

People are giving a lot of great suggestions in this thread. I dig a lot of the Sonic/Symphonic ideas, and using Leviathan Mastery or Force of Will as well. While the Water/Mental blaster might be closer to what the OP originally asked for, I think some kind of sound-based set would be even more interesting. I like the idea of pairing something with Storm Summoning, or even Empathy might be suitable as a psychic-ish support set.

Is a water blast/mental manipulation blaster off the table?

He also likes to hang around about 5 feet from an NPC having their purse stolen by a Hellion, near the parking lot behind City Hall. When you aggro the Hellion, he says a quip and runs off, and the NPC calls him useless.

To be clear, Discord.io is not the same thing as Discord. Discord.io seems to be a tool that some Discord server admins could use to create custom links to their Discord servers.

I dig both ideas, though I suspect permanent versions of Envenomed Dagger and the buffs (Offensive Amplifier, etc.) would likely be too powerful.

I think having some free (both in terms of influence cost and endurance cost) toggle powers available at the Pay 2 Win vendor would be a great way to implement it. That way anybody could pick up all the ones they want, use them when they're desirable, disregard the ones they have no interest in, and maintain any costume visuals they already enjoy on their characters.

Just gonna throw a link to a similar thread I made awhile back in here. Seems like maybe it was under consideration for a bit but newer, shinier ideas popped up and this got put off to the side.

Uh oh!

The game I played the most during the time between the live server shutdown and the Homecoming startup was Warframe, and that game was (and is) great in a lot of ways. I'd suggest taking a page or two from Warframe's book for some endless waves type missions. They have two mission types that would fit particularly well in CoH with limited modifications to the mechanics: Defense missions are about protecting an object from waves of spawns that are pathing directly to it. Enemies can attack players or the object, and if the object is destroyed, the mission fails. This one would probably work as-is with very little alteration, but would work on limited arena style maps that would need to be purpose-built for it, like the Terra Volta reactor. Survival missions involve picking up life support devices, which spawn at random locations on a map or from defeating enemies. This kind of design keeps players from picking a tasty chokepoint and camping there until the end of the universe. Survival maps in Warframe are the "normal" map types and are much more similar to normal CoH map types as well, with relatively linear paths that may branch at points. For CoH, though, the "life support" justification of the system wouldn't make as much sense, but the mechanics are solid - a bar slowly ticks down, and defeating specific enemy spawns or clicking on randomly spawning glowies partially refills the bar.

Hopped onto the Beta server to test out the new Effect: Flames power (the one bought with Prismatic Aether Particles). I was playing my corruptor with Fire Shield from Flame Mastery, which uses the same visual effect as the new Effect: Flames power. I found that when I had both powers toggled on, and then toggled either power off, the visual effect associated with the power turned off. This could result in Fire Shield still providing its buffs, and consuming its endurance, but with no visual feedback. The issue was first noticed using the default power customization themes (Original, Bright Flames, etc.) for both Fire Shield and Effect: Flames. Messing around in the tailor, I found that if Fire Shield is using a different power customization theme than Effect: Flames (say, leaving Fire Shield on Original and changing Effect: Flames to Bright Flames) both effects become visible at the same time, and as a result do not affect each other when toggled on or off. When using the same customization theme with different colors (setting both powers to Bright Flames, but turning the colors of one power red and the other power blue), only one power was visible at a time and toggling one power off turned off the effects for the other. I also tested this on my dominator using Mind over Body from Psionic Mastery and Effect: Psionic, but the bug did not occur (turning off one toggle caused a momentary visual effect drop, but the effects of the other power immediately activated). I have not yet tested using any other archetypes.

I see where I went wrong. I was missing the highlighted parts of the following (using Entropic Aura from Brutes as the example): 100% chance 2.25 second Taunt (Mag 3) if !target.HasTag?(Raid) && (target>enttype eq 'critter') 100% chance Apply "Execute Power" (all affected targets) ● Redirects.Inherents.Fury_Proc_Aura So in Raids, you get the 2.25sec taunt. Otherwise (including raids, or no?) you get the standard Fury proc, which includes a 13.6sec taunt. Meanwhile, the Scrapper is still only getting a 2.25sec taunt from Entropic Aura because they obviously don't get the Fury proc. Interestingly, the Scrapper version of Entropic Aura also has the "if !target.HasTag?(Raid)" tag on it. Seems to be true of other taunt auras as well, even though they all seem to work outside of raids, so I'm not sure if that tag means what it seems to mean on the surface. But anyway, all of that was a diversion from the point of the OP, so that's my bad.

Brute's Entropic Aura seems to be limited to 2.25 sec as well: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=brute_defense.energy_aura.entropy_shield&at=brute

For specifically the T-shirt request, that option is (somewhat) available. Set your character's torso texture to Bare Chest (or to any other option, like Tights, for a layered look), and use the Tshirt pattern (where you might otherwise select Stripes, or Blend, for example). Unfortunately, I can't get into game at the moment to take an example screenshot, but that combination will get you the look you're describing (if you don't mind a hint of nipples poking through your shirt). That said, there are a number of other female-only patterns that would work well for males (and presumably huges too). Athletic, Belly Tee Short and Belly Tee Long on the torsos, and Athletic Shorts on the legs, would work great as-is and only need to be enabled for those body types in the code.

A possible neat mechanic: The single target blasts create little ghosts, that linger around for a little while (say, 6 seconds to be conservative). The AoE attacks can damage those ghosts, and when a ghost is defeated by its owner, it causes an additional little AoE attack around itself. Perhaps one of the single-target attacks can, instead of summoning a ghost, be cast on a ghost to consume it for a self-heal or endurance bonus. On second thought, 6 seconds is VERY conservative for the lifetime of the ghosts. It seems like the Necromancy ghosts can last for 90 seconds, though there is a limit of 1 active per attack. Maybe they could last for 15 seconds? The point is essentially that they could be a temporary resource to be used, rather than an army to be slowly summoned over the course of a fight.

You're likely looking for the "costume colors linked" and "skin color" buttons, as shown in the picture. Welcome back!

Unfortunately, that IS working as intended. Back on the original servers, Paragon Studios decided that the "signature" task forces should always be fought at max level. I don't remember the reason given, and I could speculate on a few, but more info can be found on the wiki. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me at this point, and seems a bit outdated, but that's the way it is.

I'd love it if all the capes released at that same time (Autumnal Cloak, Cloak of the Eighth Circle, Unified Field Facade, Spliced Cape) had short versions as well.

As a long time Munitions Mastery user, I think the set has some benefits and some downsides. Body Armor was much more useful before blasters had sustain powers, for sure. I don't know that it needs to be changed, but if it did get a buff of some kind I would rather it stay an auto power rather than turn into a toggle. Cryo Freeze Ray is not much worse than the other holds available in the APPs/PPPs. Sleep Grenade, I will admit I have never taken and never used. Could it get buffed? Probably! Surveillance is a great power as is, I take it and I use it. No notes. LRM Rocket is easily the most disappointing of the powers in the set. Its usable, but not nearly what you might expect when you take the power in the first place. If I were asking for the moon, I'd ask for it to receive the same treatment that the snipes did: keep it at the same damage if you use it out of combat, and give it a "fast snipe" version that reduces the damage it does proportionally to the other snipes, and let it use snipe IO sets. That would make it a great targeted AoE power for characters that want more of it (such as my Beam Rifle blaster). Then, if you wanted to buff its damage as well, I certainly wouldn't turn it down. Also LRM Rocket has a redundant name. I am copying Troo with my formatting in this part.

Love your Option C. Very elegant, already uses a feature we have in the game. Only tweak I'd suggest is having the "me and my pets" functionality be the default option of Group Fly, and the extra toggle allowing it to affect other players (who don't have it turned off at Null the Gull). It's probably just my own personal associations, but that seems to me like the best way to indicate the ideal use while not removing functionality for players who like it the way it is. I'd probably not have the two versions have any difference in endurance cost, either.

I think this is still fine. Like any Peacebringer or Warshade player, who is limited by the number of powers they can select due to game mechanics, a player who chooses one of these APPs would get to select the powers they want to use. And if that player would prefer to have more than the limited number of powers available to that archetype's PPP, they can roll up a proper Peacebringer or Warshade, which would represent them choosing to focus on using their new powers over any of their old ones. I'd look at it like this - if my character got a Bane Spider mace from Black Scorpion, and used it from time to time, he has the Mace Mastery PPP. If that character then chose to focus exclusively on using that mace, I should reroll as an Arachnos Soldier and go into the Bane Spider powerset. Likewise, if my character learned some Mu magic from Scirocco, I can use the Mu Mastery PPP. And then my character who has particularly strong ties to her Mu bloodline, who primarily fights using those magic powers, can be rolled as an Electric powerset user with the color tinted red. I'm already doing this one, with my Electric Control/Electric Affinity Controller. That's the source I was referencing when I mentioned my cursory research on the topic (though I retrieved it from the Homecoming wiki, rather than the original Paragon wiki). I didn't see any specifics on the topic, though, which is why I was hoping you knew of any extra sources, like if it appeared in any mission text or what have you.

This is an interesting point, but I have to disagree with it. In theory, the game is balanced in such a way that a Blaster is equally as powerful as a Brute, and both are equally as powerful as a Peacebringer. Game balance may not play out this way in practice, but that is the goal that is being aimed at, and that is the way the world treats these characters. No matter what archetype you are, security level 40 is higher than security level 20, and therefore you are capable of doing missions for a particular contact, or joining a particular task force, or what have you. So when giving any archetype powers from another archetype, are we tacking on that extra archetype and saying it's too powerful? Is it too powerful to give Brutes ranged attacks like a Blaster? Because we're already doing that, and the mechanical difference here is that Laser Beam Eyes (Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe -DEF) from Energy Mastery looks different than Glinting Eye (Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe -DEF) from Peacebringer Mastery. So this "increase in power" comes at the expense of an alternate, equally viable increase in power. And if your character would abandon their old powers in favor of the new kheldian abilities, that's what the Peacebringer and Warshade archetypes are for - including the more exclusive form-shifting powers that seem to be a sticking point here (or maybe it's just a sticking point for me, I can't tell 😄). This is interesting, do you have any specific source for this one where I can read more about it? I did a cursory scan on the wiki for more information, but while I've seen plenty of references to characters gaining greatly extended life due to their symbiosis, I didn't see anything stating that there are no kheldians younger than the millennia scale, except for remembering something similar from Twilight's Son's arc. But I hesitate to draw any conclusions based on that, as he is stated to be a time traveler from far in the future. Regardless of the age of any one being, the point I originally made stands - there are already human-form-only Peacebringers and Warshades, that do not shapeshift, so the presence or absence of shapeshifting powers doesn't limit their viability as a patron power pool. On another topic - Paragon Studios already opened the door for this lore-wise when they introduced the Imperious Task Force in the first place. Romulus Augustus, when encountered in the third mission of the ITF, is a Broad Sword/Shield Defense user (archetype unknown, but unimportant). Before you encounter him in the final mission, he bonds with a nictus and gains powers from it - but still very much uses his Broad Sword and Shield Defense powers. Specifically, he does not shapeshift into a Dark Nova or a Black Dwarf, but he gets about 5 new powers, according to the wiki. I haven't yet tried the hard mode ITF, so I can't say for certain whether he exclusively uses nictus powers in that, but I'd say the Homecoming team has even further opened this door in some of the new content that was released in Page 4. Shadow-Stepping Cimeroran Surgeons immediately jump (heh) to mind, but they're far from the only new enemy type that gets new nictus powers and keeps their old. Either way, this has been an interesting discussion! I have to admit, I was expecting to get more pushback on specific power choices with these ideas rather than pushback on lore grounds, but I appreciate hearing your thoughts regardless.

I think that you're seeing a limitation here where I'm seeing an opportunity. You're saying that kheldian powers and the patron pools are apples and oranges, but I think that's simply because it hasn't yet been done. A kheldian has access to these extra forms and powers that aren't being expressed in the patron pool, that's true - but how different is that to a Peacebringer or Warshade player that chooses not to take those powers in the first place? Could the kheldian that merges with one of these players simply be a younger, less powerful individual? I think this is a good compromise to saying that a character is focusing on certain powers and not using others, just like any other character does. I like this idea a lot, and I think these particular suggestions are already most of the way there. Bow Mastery would work very well as a Wyvern patron pool, completely unchanged. Mental Mastery isn't quite there yet... you could say it's a PPD Mind Cop patron pool, but that's a bit of a stretch. Perhaps that would work better for goldside patron pools, were those ever to be implemented, as a Seers/Mother Mayhem set. What powers would you give to a Longbow patron pool set, and what other hero organizations would you choose for the rest?

I recall seeing that thread at the time, but had forgotten most of what I read there, it seems. Looks like we had some different kinds of ideas about what some kheldian patron pools could look like, and I bet there would be room for both to be implemented if kheldians could get access to epic power pools opened up. Ah, and I see you're a bowman of culture as well!

Perhaps I didn't phrase my point well, so I'll try to reframe it. Why would someone who already has superpowers lose them when they merge with a kheldian? I'd see these APPs as a good way to be both a kheldian and have powers from other sources.

I concur! That said, why Freezing Touch over the ranged Block of Ice, from Ice Control?