Vanden

Back on the Live servers I had a Mind/Psi permaDom, and I don't think Mind Control needs a true pet. If the set's damage is lacking I think a better option is to just boost the damage of Mesmerize, Dominate, and Levitate. Also, just as a QoL, remove the delay on damage from Levitate. Before i6 it was synched with the moment that an enemy hit the ground, but since they added ragdoll it never synchs properly. What I think the set could really use is a change so that Interface Incarnate abilities that add DoTs to your attacks don't affect Mesmerize, so taking those abilities doesn't make Mesmerize useless.

Transfers were turned on for about a minute before they broke something and had to be turned off for now.

Alpha slot powers are not buffs attached to your characters, they're like global enhancements that affect every valid power you have. They won't show up in the combat monitor.

If you're only interested in whether the Story Arc gives merits at all, the answer is every story arc gives reward merits.

Also, Combat Jumping is not the one with knockback protection, that's Acrobatics. And you don't need to grab that power any more, since knockback protection IOs can be easily had for merit rewards.

Reward Merit costs are greatly reduced on the i25 servers; it's generally 20 merits for uncommon recipes, 50 for rares, and 100 for Purple/PVP/AT items. The loss of alignment merits for reinforcing your alignment isn't so bad in light of that, but it kind of ruins the rewards for doing signature story arcs because they haven't been replaced with anything there.

Did you ever take a screenshot while teamed with this player? Screenshots in CoH have a bunch of metadata that includes the names of everyone on your team when you took the screenshot.

You can still get perma-Hasten with global recharge buffs from IOs, but it's kind of just a novelty since the amount you need is actually greater than the boost from Hasten itself.

The message to talk to Wolfe is just part of the error message when using the /respec command; it doesn't necessarily mean you can get a respec from him. On the live servers at least, respecs earned from trials needed to be redeemed using an NPC, but the /respec command was usable with the free respecs that were granted every now and then by the devs to keep those NPCs from being overcrowded.

Jump Kick is only a 20% chance for Knockdown (technically knock-up), compared to Air Superiority's 100% chance. It also looks goofy as hell and lacks AS's -Fly effect.

I've reinforced my alignment as a Hero twice now, expecting to get a Hero merit, but both times I've just gotten reward merits instead. Have they just been removed in i25?

I think saltydog is talking about diminishing returns in PvP.

You can just convert Hero Merits to Reward Merits at a rate of 1:50 if you need to.

Most targeted buffs were made AoE on live a while before the shutdown.

Looks like I owe some people an apology; that Knockback-to-Knockdown IO is part of the Universal Damage category. Since Hand Clap doesn't do damage, you can't put it in Hand Clap. That's my bad.

I'd also appreciate official word from the Homecoming team what the plans are going forward with regards to i24 and i25. My understanding coming in to this setup was that i24 was the ultimate goal, while running the i25 servers was a stopgap solution so we could play immediately.

I think you're underestimating the mitigating power of Knockdown. Punch, Haymaker, and Knockout Blow can be cycled to keep a single target off its feet most of the time; if you supplement it with Air Superiority like I do on my Inv/SS, it's pretty much all the time. Put a Knockback-to-Knockdown IO in Hand Clap and pair it with Foot Stomp and you're also knocking down crowds of enemies at once. Plus, Dark Melee's doesn't have -ToHit on its AoEs, so by trading the knockdown for -ToHit you're losing your ability to mitigate damage from groups.

Well I'm not in-game now so I can't tell you the names of the pieces, but I remember players used to use the Full Helmet option with a Detail 2 that looked like large goggles to make compound eyes. Edit: I checked and it turns out there's an actual Compound Eyes option in there. Whoopsy.

Why don't you just make a new account?

I've heard that a few times, but if you can bear the queue they might come back if you reconnect.

Contrary to there being powers to absolutely avoid, I always felt that Stalkers have possibly the worst case of "gotta take everything!" of all the archetypes. I was never even able to get a Stalker out of low levels until they made Fitness inherent because I just couldn't find a build that didn't feel like it was missing something essential until the 30s or so.

The names for the buttons are button4 and button5.

Homecoming - For general chat. Better than the Help channel. Paragon Chat - Also for general chat. Seems to be focused on the community for the actual Paragon Chat app.

I was doing missions with a Lightning Ri'Ashi just a little while ago when all of a sudden they said "I don't feel so good" and vanished!

Echo: Dark Astoria is still available in Ouroboros, and it has exactly as much content as it did before the revamp.