Scarlet Shocker

Useful info! Thanks. So -res procs it is! 😄

your point?

Wouldn't that make it ideal for some of the odder Hami-O Enhancers?

I can't help feeling your sarcasm detector needs rebooting.

Reasons to slot range enhancements #1 maybe?

For the record, I wasn't defending the policy, simply trying to explain it's raison d'etre If I remember right, Shadow Shard was designed to be, if not quite end-game, tougher content for more experienced players, so it stands to reason that it should give that experience. Also with a much less mature game it gives options that occupy players time on a single task. One of the big issues with MMOs is creating content fast enough for the players. Devs can spend months designing new content only for players to rinse through it in a couple of hours so all content has to be challenging and repeatable. Sadly, that sometimes means that enjoyment is the consequent sacrifice of that. Sure, people don't often have time to commit to something like that, but that in itself does allow for a sense of achievement when you do get it done I guess. Ultimately, we now have a great deal of content in the game from superb high quality right down to... let's just say less good. It is what it is. Do it, or don't do it. But bitching about it serves no real purpose for what is effectively a 20 year old game.

TFs were conceived to take time. They were meant to be played over several sessions, generating community and team cohesion, and to give the players a "rich playing experience" with commensurate rewards (an SO IIRC) we had to run everywhere because a new game by definition lacks content - so making folks travel from a-b with shank's pony means they play but are not soaking up that content. Task forces were designed by their very definition to require more than simple casual input. It needed a team effort, dedication, and a commitment to see it through over a few evenings. And you'd get great (comparative) XP from doing the Shard TFs simply because of the massive defeats you scored - so in theory it was worth it and all the time you're spending 4 nights on an Shard TF you're not soaking up the newest content that the Devs struggled to publish. We ran everywhere, we had to meet contacts across the maps, we had to do pointless missions just to get them to talk to us. But despite that, it's still the best MMO ever.

An academic as a troll? Surely, that's impossible? Nobody would ever consider going into the "teaching" profession to mask their own feeble insecurities and improve their sense of self-wortth by belittling others and then writing papers about their inadequacies? That's not what our entire history of psychology is based on after all. Is it?

Ok, I'm posting this from memories of early experience on live so... a) don't shoot me for something I half remember 17 years ago b) I could be completely missing the point But I have it in mind that early days on live to get Enhancers, you'd have to go to either FF or Bricks and do a mission to be able to get your next level enhancements and I remember as a natural all Electric blaster (sure, totally logical) you visit Agent Six (Be seeing you!)* and then get sent on a mission that may spawn an ambush? It would make sense to ensure that the other ambush didn't happen in FF or Bricks because that could potentially leave the ambushers floating to catch PCs who were there doing other stuff. I'm struggling to remember when this all got junked and I feel sorry for these NPCs that offered missions (there was a kid - one of few in the game - and I recall inappropriate photos in the day) did the same thing and mad scientist. There was therefore a potential that several ambushes could spawn in one zone and in those days they just hung around, so players could get ganked by other peoples' spawns. It was bad enough when we visited Serge, but you could still be on low travel - hover being the most likely for non-tanks IIRC. Again, memory hazy and I'm possibly not explaining this well but if you'd got lots of toons spawning ambushes from Enhancement givers, then adding a costume ambush in the same zone might be considered problematic. Worth trying again, go do it and see if the ambush spawns when you zone *reference of the damned

a lot depends on your play style. If you team lots, then you probably don't wanna piss off the tank. If you solo, KB is a very good way to keep mobs away from you. As for proc function there's a few recent threads here worthy of a brief search

I'm gonna have to reread now (not a bad plan was a good yarn) but I think it's a discrete universe, another of the amazing Marvel Multiverse kinda things More detailed explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimates

Not sure if you're aware, but Samuel L Jackson as Fury was a bit of a joke by Mark Millar in Ultimates, when he rewrote Fury as a black man instead of the original and the ensemble spent a couple of pages chatting about who'd play them in a movie. Fury chose SLJ to play him, and a snowball was created.

I remember when Romulus did this lots on the ITF

Giving an AV Telekinises from the Mind Control set would be very challenging. At their level, they'd be able to pin all heroes against the wall and no melee toons would reach them. Could be a fun challenge to overcome - how to avoid being picked up and pushed slowly away while still taking the AV out?

I see we're bringing out that old alter ego of a superheroine, Rose Tinted-Glass. Everything was better "back in the day" of course, and it was in the spring of ought six that I finally arrived at Paragon. I think the game has improved greatly since I first joined. There are always some things I dislike, for example the Hollows revamp - but then again I learned to loathe the Hollows quite early on, despite it having some of the absolute best content in the game. I learned to hate it not because of the difficulty of the zone compared to what I'd been used to but because it was the only feasible way to level through without street sweeping, which I also loathe. There was no alternative at that time so it became a thing to be endured through gritted teeth. Frostfire, Wincott et al have great stories and make you actually feel quite heroic if you complete the arcs in sequence. You go in as a rookie newbie in spandex, and come out having taken down some serious threats who have fortified themselves in Eastgate, rescued a kid from certain death, and learned that you and a small team can do what the whole of Longbow, Hero Corpse and the PPD could not. But that glory palls after the 117th time. The Hollows revamp was less necessary than the option of a good alternative to it - an ability to choose paths perhaps. Now of course it's so easy (arguably too easy) to miss the entire zone by levelling superfast to 20 and doing stuff that grown-ups do - which again cheapens the zone and in many ways I'd say the game overall. Sure, if you're a veteran, you don't want to do the boot camp thing too many times but now we have the option of all the origin arcs, plus DFB it's a lot easier to be selective - but I fear we all have a less rich experience by missing low content entirely.

I dislike the Warriors as a group here. They are just kind of bland and their lore is entirely avoidable - it seems intentionally so. That said they are simply a blip in the levelling adventure and I wouldn't get rid for two reasons: 1) having bad enemy groups is a good mirror for good enemy groups and helps us appreciate the good more easily 2) I might not like them others may well enjoy them greatly and it's not for me to say they shouldn't exist or be heavily modified Also did the Freakshow not just recently get an upgrade in lore? I haven't played that particular content so I'm unclear but it I recall reading that they merge with another faction or something? Arachnos are a core component of the game as it stands. It would be dangerous (and very messy) to wreak any changes on them.

Those traits are not mutually exclusive!

Good find. Personally I don't always hate when the Devs retcon stuff to make new stories fit. I completely get why they changed the 5th Column into the Council with the launch in the EU. IT made sense and showed sensitivity. We have enough flexibility that we can consider them thing in any way we feel appropriate and I'm good with that.

Snarky!

As others have pointed out you have some options to create buffs (and debuffs IIRC) but they look pretty... dull. I love the idea of jazzing up those stations to give them some character. I'd also like to point out that ideas can be interesting because of their madness 👺🧞‍♂️🦏

and....?

Is there a flow chart, organogram or similar to highlight the choices we can make for this? Some sort of visualization would be very useful with some of these arcs

largely depends on the character and powers available. I used to usually take fly - especially on characters like hoverblasters - but I found myself leaning more towards mystic flight. Now I will often choose something like combat jumping for characters who get up close and personal and then hover board or sky skiff for the main powers. It's useful having the choice which is the intention of those purchasable powers

In Lore, my presumption would be that if a signature NPC is defeated, they'd be able to either insta-rez or TP to the Hospital, as per PC heroes. If the threat is so large a general warning would be sent out, as per Zombie/Nemesis/Rikti invasion. I imagine game mechanics wouldn't permit those people to be defeated in public though. It would need a very special event to down one of them, such as a SF or major event - or occasionally, a really weak story line.