Leogunner

You decided to latch onto the term "consequences" in the context of me explaining a complex idea. You also seem to not understand the point I made about the effectiveness of the new style invalidating the old which I know is going to net you less DPS especially if circumstances go against you and you get dropped from hide. Overall, this is more a critique on the "modernization" that sets and ATs receive and how they can be perceived differently by different players. It can seem like a positive to some and a hindrance to others. I've learned that having been the biggest advocate of the Tanker AoE range buffs (I want to take credit for seeding the idea but I'm sure id be proven wrong somewhere) and even suggested my own versions of combo features for Energy Melee and Dark Melee in the past.

You're reaching. I said "forced feel". Over all, I really don't give a duck primarily because power creep had already gotten it's clutches in the game. Trying to divide posters into binary camps here doesn't change that. You're obviously playing forum debate class then. I have no intention on mincing terms just because you decide to latch onto one single word of a paragraph. At this point you're making the point that I hold my arm behind my back for style (which I do) and that I should be ignorant of what I'm holding myself back from or just don't play. Yes, you're literally complaining that I know what the AT can accomplish and I'm stating it on a forum. Ah, do you not see that hypocrisy here? So you missing an AS made you feel like your performance was dropping. Rather than concerning yourself with target prioritization, you feel DPS is most important so that is what the AT should be focused on even at the detriment of the AT's role. I don't understand why you're coming off as defensive here. No one's taking away your Stalker buffs. This is all just criticisms and you've decided to attack the debater rather than the facts. The attack chain thing? Not really. AS replaces an AoE which you likely aren't using in an attack chain primarily. In the early levels, AS is so much better, you really out pace a scrapper with an equivalent attack chain+AoE simply because you can drop an LT or a Boss with BU. The rest of that is mostly growing pains that come with any AT in the early game sans Brute. Hit and run was primarily used as a crutch but it never was more efficient, only safer. Hit and scrap is mostly what is done now with most emphasis taken off the hit part.

Lol I like how you drop your Stalker cred but apparently couldn't use it on teams (even if something happened and you get knocked out of hide, you just keep rolling and anticipate your Placate set up). Nothing against you tho. I think a lot of the main criticisms of Stalkers was how it performed in PvP as a hit and run AT which carried over to expectations in PvE despite that not being optimal

Huh? I could BU+AS on teams just fine. I can still do it, in fact. The only thing that might hinder that is not dropping back into hide by the time I reach the next spawn. The consequences are primarily the BU window, crit opportunities and overall DPS suffer for effectively the same or less performance. Did you not read my post?

When I made the set, I forgot about the signature anime aesthetic of a spinning scythe. If they ever improve Battle Axe, I hope they make Whirling Axe a decent fit for such an attack. That being said, yeah, I'd probably remove the AoE fear for the sleep in dissect instead and make the rift attack an actual spinning attack. The main hurdle with chain weapons is likely the lack of support for such animations. The only one I can think of off hand is MM Demon summoning whips which, when first introduced, was expressed by the devs to be very difficult to animate. As for a kind of blend of blades, you kind of have to go either or. With weapon customization, you can only customize one weapon this that determines the animation. If the powers are projectiles or not directly connected to the character, you can customize the options in power customization but you don't have weapon customization. Although I could just be misinterpreting your idea here... Much appreciated. I spent a good few hours on that one post but @malonkey1's formatted post helped massively too. Coloring the icons was the most fun part.

Yes, @Bopper was expressing his dislike for certain combo mechanics, but he also expressed why he dislikes them (i.e. he feels forced to conform to the combo mechanic to feel like he is performing efficiently). It's not about not liking the mechanic of combos, it's not liking the forced feel to use them or suffer the consequences.

Disagree with what? That Assassin's Focus is a charging combo mechanic? That it was added to the whole AT? Or that it mostly replaced the standard Hide+AS mechanic? I never said anything about liking it disliking it, just that it exists.

Imagine them changing an entire AT to function that way while mostly discarding the rest of its style.

Comparatively. I don't really keep up with how the meta holds up but sets like Mental Manipulation, Energy Manipulation, Plant Manipulation and Tactical Arrow were the cream of the crop in either utility, damage, sustain or all of the above. Sets like Electricity, Atomic, Temporal and Martial were somewhere in the middle while sets like Ice, Fire and Devices were kind of missing crucial aspects to make them outright better than other sets. The actual bottom of the barrel is Ninja Training but being near the bottom is just as bad to some players trying to keeps within arms reach of the meta.

Interesting concept. So its primary unique mechanic is it can make the user intangible for a short period (I'm assuming it would still allow you to continue attacking foes while you cannot be harmed). Overall, pretty neat but kinda unfair. To help balance it, maybe have a similar "lock out" period like Psi Melee and Savage Melee have with their mechanics but there would be an obvious reason why you'd be locked out of the permeable state whereas it doesn't make sense why you're locked out of Insight. The revenant thing is a bit wonky and I see no mention of Taunt, which every set has and I see no mention in your post why it's absent. Overall, this set reminds me of a set I created, partially because I could possibly see creating this set as a reanimated version of Dark Melee or Psi Melee. If you chose one of those to copy the powerset activations while creating the new animations, you could make them swappable so your cool new Soul Melee animations could be used for that other set too. To elaborate on that, the suggested set I made was a 2-handed melee weapon set but with activation times that mimicked Battle Axe so you could have a 1-handed version of my proposed set or a 2-handed version of Battle Axe. You can read more about the idea here:

Realistically, both sets are likely in the minority now-a-days but if we're trying to determine which is the one closest to the bottom of the barrel, I could see Ice Manipulation picked less often and that likely has more to do with Ice Manipulation being a CC oriented set with several powers doing 0 damage while Fire Manipulation, every power in the set either does damage or increases damage. If self-sustain/survival was more an emphasis of a build, I would likely choose Ice Manipulation if I could also either capitalize off the sleep or the knockdown whereas I'd be mostly relying on the fear in Hot Feet to be keeping mobs away from me (if it's still toggled on). On the prospect of making Frozen Aura a toggle, beyond the power having the word "aura" in it, it doesn't really benefit a Blaster who wants as few toggles to bounce around in case they ever do get mezzed. If the question is is Ice Manipulation too weak or is Fire Manipulation too strong, why not just ask that?

You can still stealth a few missions to suppress those high crime areas solo. That one is the least offensive example considering it's counterable by just decreasing the team multiplier to have fewer enemies to fight. So you view an issue that could hamper an idea. Is your first response to hyperbolize the issue so you can complain more about it? Or would it be a suggestion to make it more accessible? Suggesting the inoffensive "let me model the game to be exactly the challenge I'm comfortable with" is just a cop-out because we're talking about a PvE game (player vs ENVIRONMENT). You shouldn't really be dictating the stakes of the environment. Next you're going to tell us we should get to decide how many merits we get as a reward or choose which enemy factions show up in a TF. The point is to make the environment dynamic rather than static. You can already change notoriety from anywhere, tune the levels and remove bosses/EBs/AVs. As for your hyperbolized example, the easiest solution would just be the TF giver giving you a pre-mission to activate the TF or spawn a zone event related to the zone whose completion activates the TF. Something completable solo in maybe 10-15min or a team in 3min. Like I said, I don't care about shifting traffic (revitalizing lower level zones, as you say). I mostly care about making missions change over time. Like the example above of a shift worker playing at late hours working high crime zones isn't barred from completing the same missions as before, they just have to change their tactics (or their difficulty setting). I could be encountering a mission solo in a High Crime area which might force me to change tactics in a few fights or have some other mission where now Trolls are turning into Supa Trolls in a mission that didn't have them before. But the suggestion overall is mostly pie-in-the-sky as I'm certain it would be more difficult to code than any kind of notoriety options added. It's mostly a kind of forum springboard to see what ideas bounce a bit more and identify the people that would rather clutch their pearls about how Jimmy can't play because he's blind, in a wheelchair and only awake 2 hours of the day. Nothing against those people and their situations but it's not fun for everyone to have to compromise for the least common multiple while they do nothing to compromise their play....or rather, I'm tired of people using other peoples' situation as an argument. Not exactly. More like Temp powers granted to mobs in a zone and its instances.

That and it also leaves the concept more open to more than simply psionic melee. With the advent of weapon, power color and power animation customization, fire melee can be more than just fire melee. On my Fire/Shield/Leviathan once-Brute-but-now-Tanker, his fire melee is actually a manifestation of his Dragon-necromancy powers while the rest of his fiery moves are literal fire since he's a dragon...but fire really only comes from his mouth (dragon heritage and all that) so he only uses the swords, Combustion (only while flying) and Breath of Fire. If the rest of the melee attacks had sword attacks, I guess he would use them as other dragon-necromancy sword attacks but the fun of his concept is that he can swap out his "throat" for that of other elemental dragons. He's got a sonic mouth blast, ice breath and acid breath to accompany his sword that melts living flesh to bone. Overall, I think it's what you make of a concept that's the most fun about making characters in this system.

It's not zone events, it's more like "zone effects". Like I said before, low level enemies were intended to be faced with TOs, DOs or no enhancements at all. That has changed so you already aren't facing these groups at their "intended level". That and very few ideas are being prompted or discussed about varying difficulty outside of stuff like notoriety setting that are in complete control by the player while simultaneously ignoring the fact the player has settings to make the game *easier*. The game is in dire need of a challenge boost injection. If you have to ask "but what about the noobs and 1st-timers", the obvious answer is to change your settings! I'd bet you money a noob with no enhancements can solo that mission at -1x2 with no enhancements at all in a hypothetically High Crime area.

My initial idea wasn't to push people into low population zones but I could see that being something to do when you're not busy just to help others. My initial purpose was to add in some variety to engagements but also to toss around an idea to give you some kind of tangible effect on the environment like in some of the PvP zones. Making more zone events gives the zones a bit of variety but they are merely things that happen to you. This would be something that you have an affect on the zone. As for limiting TFs inside the zone if it's overrun, I think is a neat idea but probably would be unpopular. It happens in other games but people aren't expectant of the game to cater to them in those cases. Having the TF initiator tell you to defeat a few groups of enemies to be able to start isn't that inconvenient but I'm sure someone will see it as supremely inconvenient.

I'm probably in the minority that either doesn't mind the animations or actually likes the juttery motions as they were trying to make it feel impactful. They could probably improve that though. My Psi melee Stalker has the powers colored to look like air since his attacks are meant to be condensed super-chilled air emitted and controlled by his mind and trying to hurt someone with air might be a bit tougher than anime portrays. I wouldn't mind them giving alternate animations to help people that want consistency but I get the feeling the design was aiming to make a kind of "construct" melee that creates various objects to attack their targets, not a specific object that you manipulate for all your attacks (like a weapon melee set). That said, yeah, give all the sets a "sword" version and a "hand" version but maybe add in a spiked mace, a gatling gun (for the cone), a pair of wings beating (for the tier 9), or something as wild cards to emphasize the set's concept.

Lower your difficulty. Set yourself to +0 or -1 and x1. You got SO enhancements at lvl 1, I don't wanna hear "Oh, but it's suppose to be easy in the low levels". Psssh...

I could see a zone pressure effect that randomly swaps in a Nemesis automaton into a faction dressed like one of them that has a special version of Vengeance that it casts upon entering combat and again upon defeat. Would be a sting to an early 20-30something team to mix things up. How that zone pressure could come into effect...well, it could always be in effect because everything is a Nemesis plot.

I've read plenty of suggestions for extra notoriety settings and what not. All well and good. But that's not what I do (keep making/posting the same ideas). My personal view of "challenge" is adaptation. You can't always be in control of everything because it won't ever force you out of your comfort zone. Sometimes things change and you just have to deal with it by changing your tactics or difficulty levels. An idea I had been knocking around occasionally is a more thematic event-oriented change called "Zone Pressures". Overall, it just means actions that have occurred (or haven't occurred) has an effect that is zone-wide that can affect the enemies you face or even your team's abilities. Some basic ideas- High Crime: Occurs in a zone where villain activity has not been suppressed (no one doing stuff in that zone). Enemies in an area (or the instances in that zone) of High Crime gain AoE defense and gain +ToHit for every villain ally that is within 15ft. High Crime suppresses if 5 or more missions are completed within 5min in that zone (or a certain number of enemies are defeated outside of missions) for 1 hour. Police Presence: Occurs in a zone where villain activity is mostly suppressed (high traffic zones, lots of street sweeping/TF/missions completed). Enemies that flee will seek the nearest escape and exit the scene permanently. All enemies gain a 5% chance to do a massive critical hit ONLY on their first attack in combat. There could also be zone/faction specific zone pressures- (Skyway) Troll Supremacy: Only occurs during the Supa Troll raves, all trolls in the area have a 50% chance to transform into a Boss Supa Troll at low health, healing themselves to full in the process. (IP Port) Sky Skiff Retaliation: While engaging Sky Raiders in IP Port (instances too), Sky Skiffs will do a fly-by and shoot missiles at any heroes in the immediate area. Occurs for 5min after a successful Sutter TF.

One could say that is either a "you" problem or one could use this as another example of just how exceedingly easy the game is that mostly no thought is utilized when committing to a combat engagement. Some might respond that "they like the game easy so they can relax" to which I'd reply "turn your settings down then".

It's a "free buffs" button. If a spawn has an Lt that tosses out a force field generator or defense bubble or an Accelerate Metabolism buff at the start of a fight, you get to just claim that yourself. Or do you not like extra defense, attack, recovery, rech, etc?

It also has to do with concept. People that expect a "Wolverine regeneration" set should play Willpower. To explain, in the comic books and media, while it's often depicted as "wow he was just hurt but now he doesn't have a scratch at all", the prospect of time still has a place in the concept. But really, you're not going to be able to make a set purely regeneration without giving it the opportunity to trivialize most encounters unless mitigation also helps facilitate that "over time" recovery. Willpower, mechanically, functions almost exactly like the media/comic book regen because it scales its regen by situation and it looks like it's mostly healing over time because it also lessens the incoming damage to be more manageable by said scaling regen (he also has a measure of damage resistance thanks to that skeleton of his). Regeneration (the set), has never functioned like that unless you assume there is some span of panels between the time you get hit and the time you heal it is somehow traversed instantaneously by the power Reconstruction and Dull Pain. Otherwise, it's not really regeneration from an injury but rather injury negation and making the injury disappear or revert oneself to a previous state. It's like Tom the cat getting smashed by a piano, visibly showing his crushed body and missing teeth but then instantly being back to normal in almost the very next action he takes. Not saying you have to make a cartoon character if you're playing Regen, just saying part of the concept is actually *getting hurt*, illustrated by your decreased HP and then recovering it instantly. For the "grow your skin back over time", you need def and/or resistance to give your regen time to conceptualize that (i.e. Willpower).

You still can. Just die, go AFK, come back and hit Revive.

3D printing?

The point I was making is, it's too late to change anything now. But it's not really draconian if it was a system that works and was in place since many of the introductions of the new systems. Like imagine if tips were exceptionally rare to get and the bonuses inside them were vast. If that was just how tips were since they were introduced, that's just how they be similarly to how we just accept that street sweeping is more like a last resort throw-away activity with limited novelty that has no exceptional value besides the title given to the activity by players. It's just accepted that street sweeping is going to net you fewer of the same rewards as any other activity and I doubt any future updates with change that. Off topic, but if I were suggesting how AE would have been implemented, you wouldn't even get xp in it, only tickets. The tickets would then be used on lotteries and roulettes for rewards to include recipes, salvage, bonus powers, special salvage/merits AND xp with each roulette having various values for returns with the most prominent part being you have to take time out to get your rewards rather than them being automatic. That, in and of itself would create a balancing factor between normal arcs/radio missions and TFs. But none of that is either here nor there since no one is going to advocate for reducing the status quo to reallocate in other content. It's a mental exercise to frame why certain content is vastly more rewarding than other content.