Monos King

Right, they would be another group like Arachnos and Longbow that scale with the players power progression. Though those are slow, and consistent through the level process, and things like Snakes (and soon Skulls) are a huge sudden jump. My big concern there is that said Shauna and Eagle Eye arcs will be forgotten, as those were already building up for large developments in the Skull world.

On the lore discord, as well as in game, there are two controversial topics that launch into devoted discussion every time it's brought up. Multiverses Scale of Power Increases Multiverses (and similarly time travel) have their own issue amongst the story focused player base due to the convolution and complexity they tend to involve. Scale of Power increases refers to when the story's characters become so much more powerful and the scope so much larger over time, that whatever came before it becomes obsolete and incapable of being relevant in the future. In comics, multiversal stories signal more than unique variations of familiar heroes and villains -- almost inevitably, they will demand a multiversal threat. As such, one tends to lead to the other. But rather than address cosmic hierarchies, this topic will address this concern in a specific context. Should thugs remain thugs? Or in other words, how significant do we want the entry-level, low-end enemies to be? Should the likes of hellions and skulls stay basic, grunt class workers for more powerful groups? This is interesting, and I wanted to hear other takes on this because while the question is one that lightly overlaps with some existing Game Balance conversations, the storyline perspective is one that is heavily underdiscussed on the forums. This isn't to just ask if low level groups should ever be revamped or empowered or given higher level variants. For one, Longbow and Arachnos are groups we see grow in power with the player as they level, along with various other groups. This is more about the groups that have been established as low in the pecking order, both from design happenstance and from the narrative itself. The ones that stop at 20 tops, and are never heard from again. Do you want to see groups like the Hellions, Skulls, Contaminated; the true dregs of the power placement, see advancement in later story? Do you want to see stronger versions or permanent upgrades of previously unimpressive enemies? Or do you believe that there simply should be reliably weaker groups, who don't contribute to the larger stories at all? Making my own opinion known, I am heavily in favor of grunts becoming more powerful in later game content if it makes narrative sense. These days I experience the game through the lore first and foremost. This has been done very well with the Snakes, as well as with the Psychic Clockwork. I'm fond of what HC has done with Goldbrickers as well. I have also been open to a story development that allows higher level thugs, though I believe level 50 should be permanently off limits for them. But I also see notions that there should always be a mook tier that stays mook tier simply because it establishes levels in the story, preserves the hierarchy, or prevents contradictions later. I've even seen the notion that it's simply "lame" to have to fight enemies who you squashed easily early in your career, and that it disrupts the immersion of your own growth as a character. I'd love to hear the other forum goer's stance on this.

Don't think this is the way to handle the Skulls for reasons highlighted in my above post, but I'll have more feedback as it comes together.

I have to tack on that I am very much super not in favor of the sudden power level jump for Skulls. The skulls needed a more native, natural progression in power. This was being built upon by the past arcs, and there was set up for this kind of progression. A sudden, mysterious jump in power from mook to monster is very effective sometimes. The way that it was done with The Snakes is a great example of this. They went from the likes of an easily culled group to a powerful cult with potentially divine origins. But this worked with the Snakes for a couple of reasons. Spoilers below for Operative Grillo if that's a concern. For one, The Snakes did not have a greater narrative that was being built up to. They didn't have really any story from the level when they were introduced, allowing an essentially clean slate for later expansion upon. They weren't established as a weak group with reasons for staying weak, they just happened to be weak. Furthermore, they had an existing narrative that could easily allow a power climb. The plaques discussing the legends of the Children of Enos planted the seed of intrigue in the players, keeping them open to an eventual re-introduction to this low-level group. All of this makes it not only agreeable but interesting that the Snakes end up so powerful. And we find out what is really going on; what seems like a sudden power explosion is actually closer to the group returning to their roots. There's an actual Goddess involved. Not the case with Skulls. For one, their placement in the world is well established. They are intro magical guys. They are mere thugs, they run an illegal business, they depend upon other groups like the family for their supply, and they possess a piffling understanding of magic that leads them (and hellions) to manipulation. We find out that they actually do possess access to more impressive, knowledgeable members in their leadership, and that these people had big plans in the future. I had always looked forward to this being something that leads to actually powerful, high-level skulls. But like...Levels 30-40. That's the biggest issue here, it isn't Skulls are getting a power increase. As I said, I am actually very much in favor of that. I've even been talking about it a lot, because the existing lore is there to permit something happening. But we should really be using the existing lore. The current Skull situation leaves an entire arc, a very insightful one, pretty much dangling off a roof. It is something that needs to be addressed before the Skulls advance in strength and significance. And the other issue is that the Skulls got a power increase...to level 40-50. That's insane. That's Banished Pantheon tier. Even I had a hard time convincing people this should happen, and I was saying it would be like level 38 tops. Skulls at 40-50 is kind of insane. I'm not saying there's no way Skulls could be made to that powerful, far from it, but with this big a jump, there needed to be exposition before the fact, not after. As it stands, it will likely be jarring and strange even with the future explanation, as well serve to undercut or even abandon the Kings Row arcs. It wouldn't even make sense to connect them to the Kings Row arcs, because this big a level gap between the arcs is impractical from a story following perspective, not even considering the power jump. It would be difficult to follow that story during natural progression, and sort of limit the amount of story that could be added during said progression as well. The growth of the skulls could easily take place from levels 14 all the way up to 40, not unlike the Signature Story Arcs. This one might end up having some undesirable consequences. I appreciate the inspiration and passionate work, and I will be following the storyline closely however it ends up moving. Though I am heavily against these developments, as they currently stand.

Noted elsewhere, but would like to see these ported to PvP instances (though staff would still suck).

Power info is currently bugged and stated to be buffing the player. It does not appear to be actually doing this.

Would be nice to see this damage increase in PvP settings as well.

Current Dark Sustenance, in all of its +recovery, recharge time, heal, and +regen is simply phenomenal. It single handedly makes Dark Armor non-trash in PvP. I'll leave the PvE feedback to my friends Sai and Equinox, but I highly vote in favor of maintaining Sustenance at this type of performance. It adds Dark Armor to the viable armor list on it's own. Soul Transfer being absorb is definitely a nerf in PvE, but it seems better in PvP. I am in favor of all of the new/modified AoE based sustains being given a one target top heavy approach where a greater portion of the buff is awarded to the first target and it evens out to the same as in PvE as the subsequent targets award less. But this one is really good.

Some of these I feel are a little much for low level content. Snipe mechanics at the lower level are both sort of complex, but also sort of useless. Mooks are often in Port Oakes which is huge and has plenty of opportunities for them to be meaningful in the terrain. The Hellions are primarily heroside, and they show up at a stage where travel is less familiar. It might not be the engagement for this kind of attack. But more importantly, the types of maps they are in huge little in the way of distance protection (lower level missions have smaller maps or are clustered like the Sewers) and I don't forsee them being anything beyond sitting ducks in most encounters. While hellions do exist in Port Oakes, the mooks already have this enemy type covered, and I don't see hellions as being tactical enough to utilize snipers effectively anyway. I don't think Hellions should have traditional or impressive weapons outside of their upper ranked named members personally. Titan weapons is very dramatic and powerful, and some rando thugs with magic don't strike me as having the discipline or gravitas to have it. It'd be a bit jarring. This would be pretty cool. All of this is pretty much what I mean about it being too much though; this is an extremely potent assortment of debuffs and damage and summoning for a low level group that also isn't established as a threat in the storyline. Groups like circle of thorns with heavy debuffs and means to heal are also limited by very basic attacks at the lower levels. They have a couple of attack types, like spectres, and everything else focuses on control. But these guys will have it all. If the spawn in a large group, that's level of power that could be not only too much, but also undeserving of these mere gangsters.

Yeah legends PvP was my jam. I was a beast. I was a God. Why, if you hooked me up with Two Face I'd... Anyway, problem here vs DCUO is the huge stat variety between Ranks and how to balance that. Legends PvP had the characters quietly have vastly different health pools and crit modifiers without anything in-game actually telling you about it. But with the combat counter system and full-protection shields, it could be worked with. In CoH, if you play a minion you lose to a lieutenant most of the time, if you play a lieutenant you lose to a boss 100% of the time, etc etc. We could divide the NPC PvP by rank to avoid that, but some NPCs power profile is tremendously above others. Even at even level an outcast isn't beating a Cimeroran. And if it's Cimeroran vs Cimeroran, there really isn't anything preventing that outcome from being a coin flip. More importantly, implementing that is rough. Personal stories work on hand creating new temporary power versions of each the real NPC powers. Waaay too much tedious work. It might not need to be that way if this PvP actually made use of the dev commands or something similar to literally make you an NPC, but NPC base to hit stats are poor, along with other things. Ultimately it would still be fun and I'd like it, but there's probably a huge tedium behind it.

Pretty much you mean Personal Stories but for PvP. I do like the idea, although it wouldn't be very competitive unless we had a huge amount of NPCs to choose from with similar levels of effectiveness. If one of us unlocked an Olympian Guard or something that person would always win, even against multiple other people, if they weren't Olympian Guards. It could work but it would be a lot of work balancing stats depending on the method of going about.

Your suggestion probably can't happen due to aforementioned reasons, but it is my dream to update those missions. I think a lot of people have issue with those.

To be fair, there are a lot of damaging powers that can only slot a single proc due to lack of accompanying debuffs, and a lot of debuff powers that are similar due to doing no damage. Actually, this would be super good on short recharge debuff powers. However, it would be entirely useless on toggle powers which brings us back to the newbie trap issue. I think this could be a really interesting PvP enhancement category for that only purchasable from PvP enhancement vendor I am in favor of. The expectation of aand demand for higher level of game mechanics engagement makes it being a newbie trap less of an issue there. That being said, I have no idea how useful it would be after the proc changes that will one day be so maybe it'll never happen anyway.

One of my favorite mastermind concepts I've seen. The split slime function sounds amazing, it's the kind of uniqueness that draws people to MMs to begin with. Whether or not it would end up being too potent would be the main concern, but we play MMs to get as many pets as possible. Big fan. It is highly unlikely another -res MM would be permitted, so maybe it would have to be limited to a single power if that stays. It would be cool to see more uncommon debuffs like -special, -debuff res, -endurance strength and the like. Elemental infusion is a very cool idea, a sort of swap ammo for the pets. I would also not be opposed to a power that simply summons all possible slime splits (like forcing the main pets to die but without killing them) for an effect similar to current necromancy Soul Extraction. And, if when used, the split-slime summons are already active, it could even merge them to create a powerful elemental slime. That's just my pitch though. This set is thematically malleable and could be magic, tech, or any character origin, which is important. It's a good draft for a set, +1

Ah, okay, I'm understanding the dilemma better now reading through the thread. I like a lot of the suggestions here already. I would also think the Dignified Combatant badge from Graham Easton would work well.

I like emphasis being placed on the newer arcs, and greater attention being given to them. As long as the badge can be granted by simply being apart of the team running the badge granting mission, rather than needing to own the contact, I think it's aligned with pretty much all accolade hunting endeavors. Sometimes you just hop on a team to get the badge, and move on. Immersion in character morality is really important, but if you're also running for a meta inclusion like a CC protection power, I don't these particular terms for briefly "compromising" your characters ethics are your utmost priority. And again, that's a cushioned concern when just joining in a team for the badge anyway. Vigilantes/rogues are already compromising their ethics for 98% of the game and it shakily works anyway (though more of that content is warmly welcome).

Seems more likely to happen on NPCs when tar is stacked.

This has been verified on beta as of now, will have live checked later. The Brute/Tanker Dark Mastery power Tar Patch will turn off at intervals, not affecting enemies properly for the entire duration. When watching the attributes Window, the -Res listed under **Tar** will disappear every other half second or so, neutering the powers effectiveness. This does not happen with controller versions. This behavior most predominantly affects **players** in PvP, but still happens against NPCs in all environments as well, with it's frequency being somewhat lower by comparison. Zoning seems to make it happen more often, but I can't confirm this. Update: Live behavior is the same. This power is not working correctly on live and beta.

That sounds similar to a little something something...

The Frigid Wind power for scrappers and stalkers does not deal damage In PvP. The crit damage currently remains.

I'm doubting it would be too much work, and with player participation it should be even easier. I could see it being mostly player submitted and dev reviewed or something of that nature. Perhaps with dev prompts. +1 for me.

No way.

We were in the works for creating a Trivia Night already, but before we knew it, the 4th was here. It seemed like a good idea to do something impromptu, so what better way to celebrate Independence Day by doing some Statesman trivia! How It Works Today at 2:10 PST (5:10 ET) we will do a short lasting round of Statesman based trivia through the Lore Discord! Future Trivia contests will be both in game and in discord, so keep an eye out in game as well. Event host will put a series of 10 questions into the Event Chat on Discord Participants have 4 seconds to type out an answer Answering correctly will bestow a point, and answering first while also correct awards 1/2 a point. Whoever has the most points in the end wins the most prizes, with all participants receiving consolation awards. Prizes 1st Place- 50 Mill, Hami enhancements, Scroll of Ruin Temporary Power 2nd Place- 50 Mill, Hami Enhancement Consolation Prize- Hami or Boosted Enhancement Rewards will be mailed to participants, with the Temporary Power requiring an in-game process. Rewards and the trivia process itself will evolve for future contests. Here's the invite to the Discord once again. See you around! https://discord.gg/cdMY6WgE?event=1258525178577817600

Boy, a lot sure happens in this City. You're doing your heroic duties, disembowling and head splitting a couple of Satanic gangsters, and you start to wonder... Hey, how did these losers get heat powers anyway? You can feel electrical synapses firing off in your brain, puzzled at the access of supernatural powers to common crooks. Failing middle school gives you fire powers? It hurts your head, and, if you're an AE farmer, your pride. As you attend to this query and focus, it begins to feels like the electricity is coursing through *your entire body*. Actually, now your entire body hurts. And through the spams of your eye you spot yet another bewilderment: a pile of autonomous metal scrapps. Blasting you with electrical bolts. What in the world... But there's a lot more to ponder than just those two tribulations. When you kilSkuls, just what gods were they worshipping? Did you know drugs can give you metaphysical transdimensional awareness? And what's the deal with magic anyway? Was it made, discovered, or just always around?? And why do my space aliens know it!? WHY IS THE HAMIDON A TENTACLES?? Well, we've established a little spot to help ask and answer those many mind-mulching questions. We call it The Loredom CoH Loredom is a non-server specific Discord for players to discuss and learn about all aspects of the City of Heroes storyline. We have various writers present, including most of the HC staff (and some others walking about). Our goal is to make all of the information, popular and niche, known and easy to discuss. Like how enhancements and salvage connect to the lore. _What's There_ -Easy Access to the Lore Bibles -Documented Battalion (and other unused) character designs -Access to i24 and other unreleased content -Breakdowns and Guides to complicated story concepts -Contact with experienced player writers, wiki contributors, forum guide makers, and dev members -Wiki spot -AE help and feedback -Compiled and organized places for discussion of enemy groups, objects, power systems -other stuff We'll also be hosting contests and trivia nights through the discord for any eager loreists to partake in. Trivia Prizes will be low, but frequent. Niche knowledge is welcome. If you're looking for a place to talk Trolls, interact with the devs, or get opinions on your fan writing, this is the place for you. Once again, the invite link is https://discord.com/invite/MXQDsPkUTK. Hope to see you there.

Lovely read, I love how dynamic and focused transitions from one event to the next is. Makes me wish Bios in game had this much space!