Akisan

Is it too early to talk about the cowbell powerset? Or am I supposed to still be shredding stuff with my axe?

You've got my vote...

That works too! I would also be OK with simply removing it from the WST rotation, but that removes some of the incentive to run it at all. Mostly, I just want it to not be a trap, where the WST bonus is only 7 merits instead of the usual 20-40. (Also, so I'm being clear - the bonus rewards/removal from rotation would simply be a temporary solution until something more substantial can be done, like a revamp.)

Related to this limitation: Can we please get boosted/alternate rewards for the Eden Trial when it shows up on the rotation? It has a really low merit reward (7), and still locks us out of the double reward of the other WSTs (it's essentially a trap). Adding some other reward to it (triple merits, extra Prismatics, an extra crystal titan enhancement, or whatever) would help it be a more reasonable choice to run for the weekly bonus.

Same. Even at level 50, it will stop nearly all single holds - only Carnie Illusionists reliably get through it with their first hold, but even that's not 100% (I'm pretty sure there's a chance for +Mag on their Holds). That minor hold protection does way more than most people give it credit for. That retoggling is the real reason I initially took Acrobatics, way back when. I was running 7 toggles (including all 3 leadership toggles), and retoggling after nearly every fight with certain enemy groups (Malta and Carnies especially) got really old, really fast. (It didn't help against Malta - they mostly use Stuns, not Holds) Not sure I agree on the rarity of Mez Protection. It is far less of a hassle now that toggles don't outright drop, but it's still quite frustrating to be just standing there, unable to act, while enemies shred me. I'll second the bit about Mez resistance being underpowered though - I've picked up a fair amount of it (about 150% global mez resist), and it... barely makes a difference. Even at 40% duration, most enemy groups can do significant damage to a mezzed squishy, if they don't kill them outright (resist and defense toggles suppress while mezzed, meaning most toons won't be capped for those few seconds). Malta's extra dangerous with their Flashbangs - 12 seconds (40% * 30s base stun duration) is easily enough time for a Malta spawn to tear squishier heroes to pieces. As it stands, the values of mez resistance could be doubled, and that might make enough of a difference (for reference, that'd bump my mez resistance to 300%, lowering durations from 40% to 25%. Still plenty of time to take significant damage, but not so much that a stray mez is potentially lethal) And yeah, the current system is probably a bit too binary. It'd be nice to have some sort of system implemented where characters (players and enemies) lose access to their higher tier powers when they get mezzed, with higher magnitudes of mez locking out progressively lower powers until they're all locked out (fully mezzed and unable to act).

This is exactly why I usually recommend running Acrobatics on new toons/accounts until you can afford to start getting IOs together. So many enemy attacks have KB/KD, and negating 95%+ of that nonsense with a single power pick is very, very worth it.

Very well. The mez protection toggles should act like the Hybrid toggle - it detoggles itself after a certain duration, and has a long cooldown. This will also aid in those classes getting the Jailed badge, something they traditionally have a hard time with. I kid. I did skip Unyielding on an Invuln/Mace Tank way back before ED, then fully slotted his passive armors (as he kept getting CC'd). Somehow, that was enough to make him indestructible, but it took painfully long to clear even +0x1 missions (especially Malta. Do you know how long it takes to beat a Sapper to death with Brawl? Everything they do has CC on it.) I don't know if that build would be viable now, nor do I want to attempt finding out.

It comes up surprisingly often in help chat on Excelsior. Not a constant debate, but it is a semi-regular discussion.

For a stinky character? I'd probably try to make something using Cheese Control/Armor/Melee/whatever (probably Stone or Seismic sets, assuming that the rock is tintable somehow), and add in the Volcanic Gasses aura with that "smelly" green/brown color. (and as many chance to stun or toxic damage procs as I could!) And, of course, a few possible names (there's so many cheese puns out there for this): Dr. Limburger, Wight Cheddar, The Muenster Monster, The Great Gouda

Can we instead get a "no Thread drops/incarnate XP" option in the menu, for those rare characters on a Silver- or Golden-Age challenge run? (Ideally, they have to earn their incarnate powers through iTrials/DA, as it was on Live... assuming they're even allowed to get them in the first place). And Shards do have some nice utility - they're a cheap and easy way to fill out your Alpha slot. Only problem is, the quick-start veteran level rewards are even better utility. If we didn't have those, there'd be a reason to save Threads for the other Incarnate slots. (Also, if can easily get on teams running end-game TFs, it's possible to build a T3 Alpha with just Shard materials in a day or two - assuming you get 8 Shards to drop across 8 or 9 TFs.) (And I do get it - the whole "Shards are useless" misinformation campaign got old a few years ago)

I could see quite a few Vigilantes working with the cops (there's a few contacts that are cops) - they'll still take the same missions (go save this person), but the perpetrators will "mysteriously disappear" instead of being teleported to the Zig infirmary. (Whether said disappeared mobs die, get taken back to a hideout for "interrogation", get fed to Rularuu, or whatever, is 100% up to the player to determine). As far as visiting another zone's trainer (because you don't want to deal with cops) - many Paragon City trainers effectively are cops. They're generally registered as Heroes, which means they do what they can to stop crime and assist the PPD when they need to. If you don't want to deal with the law at all as a Vigilante, a trainer hidden away in a SG base (whether as a raw NPC or cleverly set up inside a training/meditation area) would likely be more in-character than going to a shady trainer hidden away in KR. As for Rogues, they're still technically Villains. They're tolerated in Paragon City (unlike true Villainous characters), as they're ostensibly there to clean up their act and become proper Heroes. Visiting a shady, open world trainer might be in character for their attitudes, but doesn't do them any favors as far as continuing to pretend to be cleaning up their act. As an aside: given the text of the tip that leads to the (Wo)man of Vengeance badge, Blue Steel is less "former cop" and more "Paragon City's Chuck Norris": "If you can see Blue Steel, he can see you. If you can't see Blue Steel, you may only be seconds from defeat."

Scramble Thoughts no longer being Autohit is very welcome. As for my relying on CC and Positioning, that has less to do with Type vs. Positional Defense and more to do with not being at the Defense cap. Some enemies I let into melee so I can either shred or perma-hold them (Like EBs or tougher, low-priority mobs), others I have to keep at bay (most AVs). Letting myself get surrounded usually ends badly. That's a playstyle preference, though, since I like that it keeps combat more interesting. It also means that buffs to enemy groups generally do more than simply slowing me down, which seems to be the main complaint that many capped builds have. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to suspect that that cap is what's being balanced around, which really shouldn't be the case, as that'd discourage build diversity. I thought that was called living off the land, which is a whole 'nother kind of challenge...altogether. The only time I've ever even attempted that challenge also involved a lot of stopping XP - both so I wouldn't outlevel arcs, but also so that I could even pretend to have any realistic fighting capabilities. I can't even imagine trying to keep more than half of my enhancements from going red doing that at normal XP rates.

Crey was updated on a previous page. Arachnos got changed on page 7 though: Bane Spiders (all) got 4 pts. of CC protection, as did minion Crab spiders (Lts. and Bosses already had it), Blood Widows were added, and the auto-hit Scramble Thoughts (-perc, -acc, -25% def.) from the Tarantula Mistresses is no longer auto-hit. (As I recall, anyways. It's been a bit since I've engaged them solo, since I rely on CC and positioning to stay alive, and they're rough to play against now.) And as far as my comment about them having too much CC protection: Bane Spiders, Crab Spiders, Widows, and Fortunata Mistresses all have 4 pts. of CC protection. Only Mu, Tarantulas, and minion Fortunatas are vulnerable (at level 50 anyways).

I'd noticed the bit about keeping tails, didn't know about the holstered weapons. Bug or not though, I do like the bit about keeping my tail while disguised (it's true to lore and in-character - according to some legends, kitsune can shapeshift, but can't ever shift away all their tails). If this ever gets fixed, can details like that be an option at Null or the tailor?

And? That entire arc should have been flagged as higher difficulty content anyways (just like most of Praetoria), or at the very least, not actively pushed by the contact pop-up system. I can't count the number of times I've helped people clear either Chernobog or the very heavy-handed ambush mission (3x player-seeking, door-camping ambushes, and a double boss fight is way more than a lot of solo level 7-11 toons can handle). Sorry about that - there's a few issues/topics that the community's pretty divided over, and, unfortunately, game difficulty's one of them. I'd much rather players ate a few well-deserved, high-end nerfs (like diminishing returns for set buffs, or crippling Incarnate powers in non-Incarnate content, or doing something about Fighting/Hasten, or keeping us off the soft caps, or <rant continues...>) instead of continually buffing enemy groups, as simply buffing enemies makes the game that much harder for newer (or non-meta) players (and really reinforces the gap between them and the "elite" group of players that have mastered - and thus trivialized - all the game mechanics). That's rather unlikely to happen though, but hey, a girl can dream. That said, I am a fan of the Council and CoT buffs - they really needed them! Those two groups were really stale at 50. Not a fan of the buffs for Arachnos and Crey, though. Arachnos was already either pretty dangerous (way too many of them have CC Protection now), and while Crey needed a refresh (they were a slog to wade through, with no variety), their buff felt a bit targeted towards countering Lethal-centric builds. As for handling the refreshed groups, Council and CoT don't do well against hard CC. Holds/Stuns keep Council Lts./Bosses from transforming (and stop most of the Nictus shenanigans), and take most of the buff/debuff capability of CoT Bosses/Lts. away, and both groups go down pretty easy after that. I'll get back to you guys on proper handling for Crey/Arachnos... right after they get off my Do Not Engage list. (They're rather unfun to play against right now - even Malta's a better choice of groups to fight, and they're supposed to be one of the more obnoxious groups. Your mileage may vary, though - just because they're counters to my build, doesn't mean they're counters for yours!)

Yeah, one of my teachers put the following on the board. It does a great job of summing up how awful English is for spelling/pronunciation. These are all pronounced the same: Narc Nark Pnark Knark Gnarque (One of my brother's friends got P is for Pterodactyl, an alphabet book with a lot of silent letters, for my nephew. Here's a reading of it!)

The real painting is "hidden within plain sight" - He's already a high-profile (and high-risk) target, why not make things that much more interesting for art thieves? Besides, it's also simply possible he really likes what that particular painting does to the aesthetics, and doesn't care that most (or all) are forged.

Or my personal un-favorite: The MM who took Team Teleport and used it to teleport all the squishies into melee. As the opener for each fight. Often right as (or just before) the Tank was engaging. (AKA: The reason I have the teleport prompt enabled on all of my toons.) As far as KB goes: There's good KB (keeping critters off the back line, mashing entire groups into walls/corners, perma KD), and bad KB (keeping critters off the tank/front line, scattering groups, knocking critters into your support). (I don't have a good, succinct way to explain why/how KB can be good to a nay-sayer. Breaking people of that kind of dogma is surprisingly hit or miss)

So... can we get half (or quarter) XP weekends instead then? So we don't have to mess with stopping our XP while running arcs? Levelling speed is kind of a thorny issue, so it may be better to offer a non-XP related reason to run regular contact missions (or equivalent Ouro flashbacks) - something like higher recipe/salvage drop rates (either from enemies or from the mission completion bonus), brainstorm ideas granted on mission completion, higher inf. rates, or even a (small) chance for a super pack to drop as part of the mission bonus (like PA occasionally does). Heck, I'd even take Legacy Salvage dropping, if only because it fleshes out the lore of the villain groups.

"ERIS" (based off of Discord), which has (various) users send players to perform crimes for them (some of which might undo the player's previous work). The arc could involve the player being the proxy for 2-3 competing entities, without any of them realizing it, so the player gets to get rich over maintaining the status quo between them (con game?).

Having actually had more time to solo a few of the upgraded Council and CoT - the new versions of these groups are more fun to play. I actually have to prioritize targets against the Council now (including tossing a Hold on every non-wolf Lt./Boss before they reach critical HP), and the CoT has more variety now, so they're less of a boring slog to wade through. My only complaint about the groups so far is the "Freem!" mechanic. I very deliberately put my main up to 13 pts. KB protection so I wouldn't be tossed around - and that's much less about the "unable to act" portion (Stuns/Sleeps do that just fine, thanks), but really about how jarring it is (as a player) to be suddenly sent flying. Having random 20 pt. KBs throwing me around is not fun to play against.

Several other easily-perma powers (Practiced Brawler from SR, Active Defense from Shield) have components to them that stack. Is this the case for Kuji-In Toh? (I don't have a /ninja Blaster, and the wiki/in-game tooltips don't specify if it stacks or simply replaces itself).

Kinda have to agree with this one - between power effects, music (in-game or otherwise), background noise, CoH sounds turned too far down or off, the glowie sound isn't always audible. A separate volume slider that only affected the glowie sound would actually be a nice addition. And no thanks on all the extra noises - footsteps, NPC "rescue me" noises, etc. The game's already busy enough, audio-wise.

This is also great in Echo: AP with the clockwork (lower level = more KB, and Clockwork have an inherent weakness to KB...). (Echo: because they added all those huge buildings that block flying clockwork). Besides, the clockwork might actually survive landing on Mars, so the King could establish the first Martian colony!

(Mostly) unchanged from Live - each room could only have so many storage racks in it (1-3, depending on room?), but each base was still hard-capped at 18 total storage racks. HC removed the restriction about how many storage racks could be in each room (as well as the restrictions for which rooms they could be in), and bumped the storage cap per salvage rack to 100 (from 30). And yes, each item in storage counts against the 20,000 item cap. I'm fine with storage limits as they are, but then, I have a smaller, mostly inactive SG and only use 13 storage racks (6 rare salvage, 5 enhancement, 2 inspiration). If my SG was larger/more active, I'd probably add several more enhancement and inspiration racks. (It's very convenient to be able to pop back to base to load up on super inspirations if a particular AV is giving me a hard time).