Sanguinesun

Just confirmation bias. Everything is just cyclical.

Too little context. You've seen from responses by people that its a spetrum of yes, no and maybe answers... all being qualified on the context of taking/use or not. As a general rule, if you're 1-50, working casually through content either on groups or solo, using just enhancements keeping you in the equivalent % value range of level 30 IO's, you're likely not going to need to use or take unstoppable except in some unlucky and very limited circumstances where lots of inspiration popping would've been sufficient. So asking whether your overall build as you level would be better suited to other powers for 99% of situations makes for compelling evidence to not bother with it. Similar then holds true once you're fully set IO'd and incarned too. Lastly, in such casual play situations, if you're on death's door, either a tank is attempting to be a wow tank by running ahead when their 1 team healer is healing the rest ofthe team still fighting(in which case the tank deserves to die), or the group dynmics vs the difficulty setting of the mission is a mismatch, or some other mistake occurred. In which case, again, insp or just licking the carpet is just how it goes vs having that one situational emergency power that something else may be overall more beneficial to your build. All in all, its a spectrum of answers for a spectrum of variable based situations.

First, -how- entrenched with farming min/maxing do you want to go? Farming's general metric is influence per hour for influence farming(yes there are other forms of farming and dont require a level 50 but can earn millions of influence... just not 50 farmer level). With that in mind, the differences between tank and brutes for influence per hour on builds isnt very dramatic in their relative differences. Some same builds between a tank and a brute can be simply a million or less influence per hour others a few million. There's been various threads about people's testing in these regards but ultimately people even settle for less than optimal builds and choices just simply because it matches them best. Next, we also have to make distinctions between active and passive(afk) farms. Active being the ones you are moving around actively in the farm, clicking to hit etc. Passive farms you are dropping your farmer in the mission, activating its attack(s) to be auto, and then waiting for the mission timer(most of these missions(more on that) run on timers) to end and returning from afk to do the mission up again. And lastly we have to speak to the missions themselves. There are tons of farmer missions out there. Some include EB's(as some builds can efficiently kill them quick enough), others just bosses being the highest to accomodate their builds. Some prefer long maps where they can killl constantly without resetting missions(ie down time from influence earning). Others perfer short maps and the trasitions(like AFK ones. And others just simply do what someone else recommended to them without really figuring things out. Additionally with this, how the mobs are designed is a factor too. 2 going on 3 years ago many had to shift to different missions or make new ones or revamp old ones because the fire sword related attacks added -def causing defense cascades and death very easily. Also there were other changes made as well around that time that essentially had players dipping into many other power sets powers to make their mobs capable of farm worthy. In some instances, this meant that some maps made since then have mobs that arent necessarily giving full 100% exp on kill but "near 100%. Other missions have 100% but some builds will find it a little harder to down at the same speeds they used to have on other maps. Its really then a puzzling out of the maths to get your toon survivable, clearing a mission efficiently for the most influence per hour. But again, -how- people do those puzzles varies. Some dont care if its the absolute best exp per hour for their mission or their toon but happy it just clears. Everyone will give you different answers then because, like much else in this game, there isnt one solid cookie cutter option that matches everyone. As for your thoughts from reddit, one is more afk farming focus consideration(and has lots of caveats) the other also has some caveats. Both are also better suited to S/L vs fire though both can be built to be fire farmers as well. There are reasons why as well Fire/ tends to be the most common choice for fire farms and as well why Radiation/ is also an easy common choice for s/l. As for melee's Radiation is common because with an armor set having an aoe damage toggle, you're getting 2 damage toggles at once. Also radiation has containment with is often underestimated it its extra(albeit small) splash damage. However there are other sets with just as strong or stronger damage capabilities depending on factors mentioned above(mission/mobs-build, utilities and other aoes in their sets, fast aoe recharge etc. So you're asking for builds but you're needing to be more specific on what sort of farming you're truly wanting to do, and whether you're wanting to even go into this sort of efforts for influence farming if you're really not necessarily needing(or wanting) to kit out all toons you make to 50 anyway(as there are other methods that can just earn you 10's of millions on a toon as you level it covering just your standard IO (non set) needs) and have lots left over to bank. There's also a thread or two in other sections on farmers and builds you should look into.

It happens on HC too. You've just been fortunate not to encounter them.

Here you go:

You're not wrong though its not only excelsior either these days(everlasting sends some there too). I've sent more than a few other there because they didnt realize that it was double exp and that they can plvel what ever they want there, then xfer them back to excel/everlasting. Or yes, they just keep their afk farming running there while they play the other servers of their choice too of course. They do of course else they'd've not expressed their passion on the subject otherwise.

Welcome back. Few things then to consider/understand. 1. Home Coming servers are not the original live servers. Over the years since live went dark, HC has modified, changed, added many things. To that end, it is best to consider that its in some ways a new game so that you do not get hung up on the "but thats not what it was on live" potential frustrations or disappointments. Then again you may find all such changes and additions pleasing to you as well. But the point is, just consider yourself learning things anew. 2. HC servers do not have access to the original server databases that would've stored your live character. Originally HC was from a clandestined(if you will), rogue server code that was then for years not public and played by a select set of people only; and then years ago, it went public. You're going to essentially, as others pointed out, have to recreate your original characters as best as can be from memory and with the changes/additions that HC has. Not to worry though(as again others pointed out). The Live slog of leveling a character doesnt exist on HC. You can in effect get a toon to 50 in a matter of hours, days or a couple of weeks depending on: -Solo, group, pleveling(as people do this too still) etc forms of play. -Using exp boosters that can go up to double exp of the base rate of the server(which is also faster base rate than live was). -Playing on one of the low population servers that have also an inherent double exp rate (thus with boosters stacked is even faster). - And other variables. In other words, its currently very casual/relaxed, easy to level toons. 3. Your next concern then may be also earning influence in order to support kit'ing out fully any toon with sets and more. Methods to earn influence easily even from level 1 exist; and once 50, any toon doing content even below level 50 earns at 50 level influence and incarnate rewards. 4. You'll eventually come to find that unless you're someone seeking to play HC's hardcore mode 4 star task forces or similar content, most level something to 50 with gen pop invention origin enhancers(not sets) and then play casually the same 1-50 content.... and/or some post 50 content just with those IO's and do not even bother with fully incarnating or set slotting. This is because the content allows for people to choose to enjoy at such a casual pace. People have pages and pages of 50's that they even just enjoy the climb to 50 then park a toon at 50 to make a new one with different powers and play. Remember that the slog to level and incarnate was artificially and intentionally slow on live servers so that you paid to keep your subscription going to play. That doesnt exist anymore obviously. However again if you're intent on incarnates, playing the more challenging post 50 content and just sticking with a few toons in such a manner, it too is not a slog per what was already mentioned. 5. You may remember patrol exp and day jobs. Finding explorer badges on a toon now earns explorer exp vs the flat exp from live. In essence, this means more overall exp as time goes on and if you choose to stagger hunting exploration badges as you get into the later levels. 6. In relation to point 5, this month you also get a 5 uses half a level of patrol exp per use temp power for just simply logging in for the month on a toon. Best uses of this are to either use them in your last 5 levels of climb to 50 OR post 50 while trying to earn incarnate levels. 7. Upon hitting 50 on HC and training your toon to be 50, you can start earning incarnate exp to unlock your slots and arent required to hit the incarnate starter mission for it. Again the incarnate exp and resources can be earned doing any content at any level even if you're exemplared down as well. 8. Familiarize yourself with the START vendor and all its free powers, enhancers, and other items(you can purchase later if you choose) which can help you with your climb to 50 or post 50 with some of those items. Also this vendor is the one where you get your exp boosters from too(free). 9. Grab the mids reborn hero planner from the subforum section here to not only help you plan toons but also familiarize yourself with some of the details and changes that exist for characters. Additionally too of course read the different AT and related subforums here for info in a similar regard. 10. While pvp is very niche on servers for the most part(ie really not many bother), you can make instant 50's for the pvp zone access only. Additionally, the beta testing server allows you to make instant 50's and actually fully kit them out for free with all the best enhancers etc too in case you wanted to test out things more from what you planned on mids as well. All in all though again, welcome back and dont worry on what you lost from live. Just look forward to what you'll have on HC.

The Archons when killed will do a aoe damage rez that if you get multiple in the same vicinity rezing(and it does happen commonly, it can near or completely wipe toons. For mm's pets its worse if they're on body guard, and as well if they're con'ing much lower that the mobs themselves as often is the case unfortunately due to mm's pets level down dealio.

Lets not forget Storm defenders doing the same for everyone in Perez park who would wait at the entrace from Atlas in massive numbers either hehe.

If that was in part or whole against the agreement with NCSoft or worse that because the licensure ties NCSoft representatively with HC, then you can sure fire bet that NCSoft would have the rights to pull the licensure and as well because they own the IP, tell officially, once and for all HC to cease or face legal issues. Its even possible that the licensure now has liability clauses too. Obviously that's a worst case likely to not happen scenario but the point is again, The license is a contract with NCsoft and again, HC is beholden ultimately unto them. You're thinking the thousands(yes thousands as people play from all over) as being miniscule, but if something occurred that cause PR/optics to paint NCsoft in a bad light due to having given HC the license, I assure you, that license would be pulled immediately. That'd of course probably not prevent them from going (again) underground like they did quietly for years either.

What if there were no stop signs.... and a corporation was tasked with making one (or more akin to saying a player team/council):

1. The current structure of HC relies on volunteer donations as they're only allowed to be a non profit per the conditions of their licensure. Not saying people would abruptly and long term stop donating of course but it is a similar model of consideration for sustainability you're attempting to counter your "business" example of. 2. Licensure also is on certain terms and conditions on how the HC conduct themselves. Failure to do so could result in loss of that licensure as well as stringent cease and desist orders from NCSoft. Not saying again that any of these things would occur. But making statements that HC is wholly unbeholden or accountable to anyone just isnt accurate.

Anything that has chocking/vomiting power reactions or holds that you can color that also have a potential stink look. Poison, Earth control(stinks n poo man), radiation, Some darkness if changed,etc. Water blast (I've a pee'd in the pool concept toon in the past) but you could go green/brown sewer water I suppose. Necro mm (stink of the grave if you will). and really the list goes on. It just depends on how committed you are to the stank theme.

1. Under 50 still get double merits and big exp bonus from WST. Post 50 are incentivized as well to run WST with more incentives to essentially have teams have more folks running tfs n the like. Its really win/win in this regard. 2. You can still have a chance to get a prismatic(as someone else metioned) from mission completions of any type up to and including yes the WST just not a guaranteed chance. 3. Prismatics really are either for 2.5mil sales currently on the AH(and it keeps dropping... was 60mil when prismatics first launched and just a month and a half ago was 3mil) every other consideration for them is simply cosmetic. There is in other words really no "need" for them(that's truly a good thing) and really its primarily meant to be something 50's on to get and either utilize for their 50's or save up to pass along to another toon. And with it currently being 2.5mil, unless you're going for the insanely high number of prismatics needed item(s), that amount of money(once you know how and yes even for a new player to achieve 10's of millions (and no not ah flipping methods either), its not too hard to get needs for money to buy aethers. However, I think saving that money earned for other more pressing needs for leveling 1-50 or post 50 if someone ones to kit out their toon would be wiser to consider. 4. Wait until October. During the weeks of the Halloween event, we've constant 24/7 trick or treat league teams running. For each toon you run in them and get all the respective badges for --AND-- the toon reaches level 30 or above, you'll earn a total of 10 prismatic aethers for each toon then. If you get all the badges below though you'll get the prismatics after you hit 30. So during these weeks people make tons of toons or just pull out tons of previously made (but yet unbadged) toons to get tons and tons of aethers. I also suspect by that time, the aethers will drop even further in value then unless the Devs/player council sets an instant buy out rate higher to shift value of it higher(doubtful... their trend has been lowering not increasing on items on the AH). All in all, the point being that rewarding a prismatic in the WST doesnt necessarily have to be done. Mind you, it ----easily---- could be done for pre 50's. But the likelihood the devs/player council would choose to at this juncture is pretty thin even though we're just talking 1 prismatic per toon per week on doing that. Maybe if the prices/demand continues to drop it'd be a non issue to add but yeah, I just dont see it happening.

What was changed as the way the AI handles the cap vs how it previously was done once cap was reached. That was impemented by HC servers 2 going on 3 years ago. Additionally at the time, power ability radius was changed for some powers for tanks, damage increased, brute's nerfing etc all at the same time.

From reading your initial post here and as well the other posts from you in the thread, I think, over all, your wants do not match the reality of the dev/player council wants for the game as it stands. Yes. aggro is capped. Yes control is limited and limited within specific power sets etc. It is intentional that everything isnt to be focused centrally on the tank or capable of being locked down wholly either. Years ago on HC when they changed the AI of the mobs in addition to the aggro cap considerations to where anything more than 16 will start targeting others in a group and some other AI things they were changed to do in these regards. Only other thing that others havent mentioned is opting to go into the hybrid incarnate Control Radial Embodiment for its application of an immobilze fear and if both already on a target a 100% chance to disorient when you're using most damaging attacks. This still though isnt going to handle everything and certainly this would only help post 50 level toons too of course(meaning most of the group dynmaics of teams leveling up would not have this applicable.) and of course this would also perhaps not match with other goals for a tanking toon. All in all, I understand your frustrations on this but Homecoming(as opposed to say some other non current licensed CoH servers) has a pretty specific view on all of this in the name of challenge as they feel it should be.

1. We do not know the circumstances for their choices(or force to due to comp/net issues) to not be in a mission. 2. We don't know if the leader or other members of the team were being toxic or otherwise contributing to a run being unpleasant etc. 3. Game is not hardcore raiding centric. It is (for now... segements of the player base who are marginalized certainly wish it to be the opposite) for the most part a rather relaxed, casual, game and unless doing star mod ITF's, even the regular ones are rather casual. 4. It becomes a slippery slope when you want to start enforcing player base wide punitive measures for circumstances that arent always within their control or in their control due to other extenuating circumstances where they were rightfully justified to exit a run. All in all, the best option for you, is simply to put someone you feel didnt follow through with a run due to your perception of their being bad on global ignore. This way you ensure they'll not be joining you on a run you coordinate in the future. Reverse also holds true for leaders or individuals in a group you or someone else dislikes too of course. Eventually over the years, this helps sort out the ones who involve themselves in bad habits as they'll end up self marginalizing themselves if they truly are so particularly prone to various problems in groups. But if you're looking to impose more than that though, unless devs join your cause from the dev team/player council to implement a change(unlikely I would think), then your wants arent going to match the reality of the situation.

Again, this notion that people not doing the beta testing but instead come after its gone live, notice what's transpired and then provide criticism etc are then invalid simply because they didnt beta test and misdirecting blame to them for what was implemented is just silly. Things can be changed once its gone live. You know this but seem extremely adamant on shifting the blame to any who didnt beta test and offer feed back. But lets also remember that even when people have beta tested, it didnt necessarily stop changes that were heavily criticized either. Again this "you didnt beta test so the changes are your fault" sort of sentiments are just common tactic used over and over again for years on HC to be dismissive and invalidate criticism post release and usually by supporters of those changes.

There really isnt an answer to be had as you pointed out because its just part of the continued feature creep of the game and would require either vast unpopular changes of supression being impossed on everyone graphically in large group situations, and or a complete rehaul of the game with a new engine etc. At least to a certain extent, comps capabilities over time have increased to accommodate handling some of the stability sides of this hardware wise. But with suppression of effects comes the other side of it: not knowing if affects are applied as the the visual cues were one of the intentions when originally implemented. It'd basically turn fights into mall flash mob interpretive mime dances only hehe.

Their comment was to misdirect and shift blame on you for not having contributed to affecting change prior to the changes being implemented. Its a common tactic on HC. Change isnt cemented once it goes live and things could be changed/reverted at any time per post implemented feedback given as you have if the powers that be really wanted to(and they do not). Its again just a tactic(among many) to be dismissive of criticisms is all.

This. The ones calling for content to continue to be harder, leveling to take exceedingly longer, influence to be harder to gain etc just basically do not care that the majority of the player base as it currently is do not have the same view of the game as they do. They know this as well and are 100% ok with because they actually detest it being relaxed/inclusive/etc . That's part of the mindset I was referring to earlier. To them, the game should be this ever imposed challenge that filters out the rest(majority) of the current player base. They'll continue to misdirect with "well dont play against x group of mobs" or "well dont play against x difficulty" or any other reasons to shift focus away from content being changed to be harder. Then the next time when the next change(and yes there will be more going forward as again this isnt the first time) they'll rinse and repeat similar misdirections for the next batch of feature creep that goes in.

And that's the short sighted feature creep I was mentioning. But its the goals/mindset behind such changes that is what is the most contentious, imo. People still seem to forget that the "challenges" that live had were primarily to make people time sink/play longer to keep them subscribed and thus generate revenue for the company. Some people do seem to want to drive the game to return to that point; and then when other people mention that seems to be what's happening, the people who who want that are quick to offer the rebuttal of how its easier now still than live. Yet, when HC went public after years of being a select/secretive group, it was much -much- easier and more casual than now; but slowly it has been changing in the direction going towards that live slog in the name of challenge. They added the starred challenge content, and arguably only a very limited segment of the player base care for it and bother with it. But more people arguably prefer playing things more relaxed, casual, or just simply the antithesis of that of hard. Its as divisive as the inclusivity/exclusivity debates that also crop up on threads too(and that's not a coincidence either as you can guess who wave those flags similarly are one waving the "challenge" one also). But all in all, some may say this is just a vicious circle but really its a vicious spiral that slowly creeps on.

I consider the Archons to now be mini AV's. They're essentially over-tuned, but as you've seen, the response you get is "bring them in line with" or they were too easy etc. As the feature creep tree marking continues, more will be "made more in line" to the point that it'll cycle up and up. That's the intention. Not smacked all at once but over time with the dismissiveness against those criticizing it, as has been seen for a few years now. This wasnt the first and certainly wont be the last to be sure.

Whose idea? A segment of the devs that have been actively for years now trying to slowly make the game harder and "more challenging". Personally, I think having multiple Archons in a PI paper mish kill off many players when they rez at the same really makes me think someone on the team has a council fetish.... Make no mistake. This was intentional. Make no mistake, they're going to continue to make it harder as has been seen before, supporters of it marginalizing the naysayers such as yourself as you've seen in the thread so far, and more. They may think its improvements but its just feature creep.

Outside of all the discussions, i'll circle back to the OP's questions. No. They're meant to be a perpetual foil/conflict. Then there's the limited resources/time of the player dev team too.