Akisan

It was fun, but it was really awkward (and somewhat toxic) having blasters ask (or in some cases, demand) to not be healed. (I played both a Blaster and an Empath defender in those days, and yeah... awkward on both sides. I *did* get really good at maintaining my HP between 10 and 30% though!)

A lot of these say "eldritch" or "chaotic" energy, so... maybe it rolls a random damage type (and amount) each time? It might be a fun way to bypass some of the resists that the various factions have, but in the long run it'd basically be applying damage against the average of each groups' resistances. (For all we know, there's no relation between the netherworld and the various eldritch energies - these eldritch powers could deal any damage type).

Blue Steel has Vorpal Judgement - but doesn't use it because it would make the fight "too one-sided".

While this would be great to have as a challenge/preference option (I can't count how often I've wanted to disable my level shift [but not the attribute enhancements] while teaming with 45-47 teams), please keep in mind that that level shift only affects your effective combat level. For the purposes of rewards, a 50+1 character is still level 50, so you get the same reward from a level 50 Boss - regardless of whether you're 50 or 50+1 (or 50+3).

You're absolutely right - it needs to be at least 5 keys for proper nerd cred. From my base building days back on Live - knowing exactly which pieces hid things, or allowed the camera to pass through would have been nice. I'd made an obstacle course of several kinds of crystals & rocks, and didn't learn until testing it that A) it was nearly unrunnable due to the camera jumping in and out as I ran the course, and B) nearly all of said camera jumps caused my skirt to disappear (most translucent things did back then, including water. My Sailor Moon inspired quintet avoided IP and FF like the plague back then). And more recently - some base objects emit sound. I had no idea, as most of my base editing consists of me turning off CoH sounds and turning on my music. At least I got lucky, and my base is pretty quiet as-is (no need to go around fixing the sound).

/TA would like a word. Range is an excellent mitigator for incoming damage - not all builds can just sit in melee range and be fine (hence the existence of tactics like hover blasting and jousting). Also, our secondaries aren't "Melee" (all attacks, like a tank or scrapper) - they're "Manipulation", a mix of melee damage, controls and utility powers (designed to keep us alive by either keeping foes at bay or quickly burning down any that do reach us). Yes, melee attacks (usually) hit harder than ranged attacks, and some secondaries lean into this, but that's not the only viable strategy. And this would be one of the reasons why the nerf to Fire Mastery > Char hurt so much - it lowered the effective range on my controls to 100 ft (from 135 ft), which is in range of most return fire (most enemies have 80-100 ft range on their ranged attacks).

Range is underrated, yes. Especially if you do any CCing: any mob you can immobilize outside of the range of their attacks may as well be Held - and immobilize powers tend to be fast recharging with long durations. As an added bonus, AVs don't have special protection vs. immobilize, so you can easily mitigate AV damage this way.

The geysers are still quite accurate (even with SJ/SS/Sprint on), but there is a trick to them - all travel powers (including sprint and hurdle) add some amount of air control. If you hold any movement key while launching or after launching, it'll throw off the jet and you'll (likely) miss. The only reliable method I know of to be accurately launched (nearly) every time is to run up the channel on the geyser, and stop moving as soon as you touch the geyser. (If you hold forward even a moment too long though, it overwrites some of the imparted momentum, causing a miss). With this, it's pretty easy for me to navigate the Shards with SJ left on (for easy correction if I slightly mess up a jet), and a jetpack handy (in case I really mess up a jet).

I'm guessing this would be a bad time to pitch a trial reward called "Mentoring" that gives someone else a bar of Patrol XP? I'll occasionally take the "Choose Nothing" option if there's no reward I care about (of my remaining choices, if on diminished returns). It'd be nice if the HC Devs got tallys on that choice so they have an idea of what trials need better reward tables.

I would rather not, but if the devs decide this set is worth making, they may decide to put it or some variation of it in. Fair. It kind felt like I was describing an alternate version of Dual Pistol's ammo swap while writing it up, which kinda dilutes the identity for both sets. Also, the urge to use these hammers in melee would be insane. Would this also work nicely as an Assault set?

Is there room in this set for Imbue? Imbue - Augment your hammers with the elements! Choose between Fire (lingering DoT), Lightning (-End, chance of sleep), Cold (Slow, chance of Immobilize/Hold), or Stone (-Defense, chance of Stun). Casting this power again allows you to change the selected element.

But... the gravity jets are the best part! If you're good at them, it can be faster than Teleport. (Though, if you're not, transport is a huge problem there). There are a few mole points scattered throughout the 1st shard. As you progress through the story arcs in the zone, you unlock more of them, and the ability to teleport to and from the mole points and FBZ. They could easily expand out this teleport network as they progress the story in the Shards. Either way with the transport issues, I'd love to see the shards expanded on, as it's such a great set of zones (if a bit lonely and empty).

But everyone loves trying to rez the person that used Self Destruct! I'm looking forward to lots, lots more fun playing the "why can't I rez you?" game. (Dunno if it still works, but back on Live you could rez an untargetable SD'd teammate with a ST rez if you were fast: If you clicked on their name in the team window, they stayed targeted for a couple frames before deselecting. If you had your rez readied, and hit it within those couple frames, you'd rez the untargetable teammate)

But... the Mediport system is canon. And not all toons are mortal (I've seen a few robots, demons, undead and even an enchanted suit of armor around). I'd personally settle for my main reverting back to a fox when defeated, or said enchanted armor crumbling into a heap. (Bonus points if everything but the chestplate is classed as "debris", so other players could kick bits of armor around until the suit is rezzed)

Thank you! And sorry about that, I ran it since I love mazes and puzzles, and had somehow totally missed that the prize was to be a contestant.

Archery/Ice/Fire blaster main here - I'd also look into Intuition Radial instead of Musculature - yes, it's only +33% damage, but it does pick up +slow, +range, and +hold. Slow is really nice to have with /Ice (especially with the sustain - it caps the movespeed debuff against even level mobs), the +range lets you engage at a 135ft range (80ft base, +20% intuition, +50% snipe buff), and it's a nice bonus for Freezing Touch + 2nd hold.

Toy Bat now has a 25% chance for Mag 3 Stun (30s duration) Toy Bat now only affects self. The animation has been updated to reflect this.

This came up in help channel on Excelsior earlier today - can we get Allowed Enhancements info added to the Detailed Info pop-up for powers? Someone was asking why they couldn't put a set in an appropriately-themed power, and while they posted the power to chat, that pop-up doesn't list how the power can be enhanced (like the tooltip in the Enhancement Window does). Can we get that info added to Detailed Info, so that those of us without a specific power can more easily give advice on how said power can/should be slotted?

I thought they just buffed that though? The stars aligned and everything, and they had to chose between that and buffing Regen.

I rebind the F# keys as well, which gives me a few more easy-access trays. I have to click inspirations (no quick-use key), but it's worth it on my end.

Very possible - The Council have traditionally been the go-to group for mindless mayhem. I could see some people preferring the original Council (with nerfed XP/drops) over the revamped group. And while I missed the beta when they redid Crey (RL stuff), definitely not a fan of those changes - they went from an "Avoid/Drop to +1x3" to a very explicit "Do Not Engage" for me. It's crazy that a group that used to just have obnoxious resistances got a bunch of buffs/debuffs/control added... with no change (straight proliferation) to those resistances. (Yeah, I'm gonna keep bringing it up. They're awful and need rebalancing.)

I believe that's WAI. The holiday/anniversary inspirations don't affect your teammates, and instead repeat their effects for each nearby ally - so if you pop a +damage while near 5 teammates, you get +300% damage. Edit to add: It counts pets too, not just other players!

And yet, I still occasionally just bounce around the zones with SJ, just because it's fun. Very, very few games give us the freedom of motion that CoH does, and it's quite enjoyable to just cut loose and enjoy it! (It was sorely missed while CoH was down, and I'm so glad it's back. Thanks Devs!)

6'5"!? No wonder I feel so tiny, even at average height. I thought most people were bumping their male toons' height sliders up. (Should clarify - the world feels close to IRL sizes, the guys are all somehow crazy big; it's kinda intimidating)

Thank you for the update on Malta, @Eiko-chan. I remember that mission, but thought it was a Tip for some reason. While the bit about not needing to be that moral is true, my main needs to stay fully Blue for RP reasons. I'll definitely keep it in mind for any alts that get to 40+ though! (None yet, but they might get there eventually...)