Scarlet Shocker

Ok I guess I'm gonna have to type slowly... When I say "Stand Off" I mean specifically those characters that do their damage from range, and very rarely if ever get into melee. A character who can prevent all but the toughest opponent from approaching and engaging in melee combat due to holds, immmobs, slows etc so that any foe is discombobulated en route to delivering the big smackdown that sends you scrabbling for a wakey.

I have followed their progress since they first announced their project. I think when they changed it to "Ship of Heroes" it lost some magic for me. I mean, they could have made it work. They could have made something darker - Babylon 5 with a superpowered crew maybe? But this is just "Capes in Space" and my few dives into various demos and betas have not given me any zest for it. I don't feel any affinity with it nor do I feel the need to look for another Supergame because I have one here. I wish them the very best of success and I don't discount ever visiting them again but currently there is nothing in their offer that is enticing me to do anything than casually observe their progress from a distance.

Latest Scientific theorems suggest we might actually be living in a Black Hole. That's kinda scary too

I'm thinking of reworking my Angel of Mons character. Read "The Bowmen" by Arthur Machin for further details and the legend here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Mons Obviously Bow and Arrows are a big part of that tale - a lot of course harks back to the legend of the Battle of Agincourt where the English archers decimated the French knights - sometimes history is a heavy burden. So she needs at least one arrow component and I've never warmed to her as TA/Archery Defender In my own mind, she's not the symbol of good heroism she is often portrayed as. Despite the fact that this is an entirely fictional story I imagine her much more as a parasitic leech character living off death. Historically, had the BEF been defeated at Mons, it's likely that WWI would have taken a very very different turn and there would likely not have been a sequel in WWII. So I figure she might be rogue-like at the very least if not a villain. I am leaning towards TA as a stand off set but in the light of these discussions what do you guys think would be an appropriate complimentary power set? Please show workings for extra credit 🤣 Edit: I've looked in Mids and I don't like any pairing with TA for this toon so I'm thinking Archery might be a better option. I've not fully decided. I leave it to you, dearest forumite

You thought of this on the hoof, I can tell! Bendis, Oeming, Dark Horse. A Study in Scarlet - repurposing a very famous title for my main!

Storm is excellent for that. You've got a few powers that tell your opponent "gerrof" in no uncertain terms.

As I said above I wouldn't change any of the old content but I am a big fan of the entire Hollows arc. The only criticism I have of it is that there were few alternatives on live until later on so it became a bit repetitive. Taken in the round the entire zone has some outstanding content

I perhaps should have been more specific. I love Poison as a set. I've got a couple of great toons that use Poison. A plant/poison troller is pretty lethal and I've also got a poison/water blast defender that's useful but I've yet to find anything as potent as my dark/poison troller

Try it? Truthfully I don't know. I doubt I could do it. I know there are those who would probably give it a go and be successful. A lot would depend on your skill level and the quality of your build etc

"Don't wank over the BAF Mother cutscene"

I think we need a "Yog-HURT Delivery" badge in game now

I just want a Cherry Picker set now with the T9 being "You're Plucked!"

I love slotting the KD PRoc you get from START in Caltrops. That's a thing of beauty for sure!

They certainly used to be great back around Issue 9. I would regularly PVP with my friend Proximity and they would be devastating. But with the insistence of the player base that KB is bad it's been nerfed to near on impotency. It used to be that Knockback would be one of the most effective defence mechanisms - it would send enemies flying, then they'd have to pause, get up and run back into the fight. Now they just get back up and punch you in the face. Players are idiots sometimes.

I love Poison as a set but I've never seen it as stand-off. It's primarily a melee set and it has a lot of powers that are team oriented and the T9 requires you to be in melee range for it to be effective. I would love to know your thinking on this

It's not important but you're welcome to search! My point is that it's about the outcome of that conversation not that conversation itself.

Referencing a conversation with @Snarky re his corruptor build it got me thinking of other sets that are great at stand off combat for characters with few defences. It would seem relatively obvious that a controller set would come top of the list given their ability to lock down and immobilise foes but I'm wondering what other ATs and sets excel at this and what your preferences are. I'm imagining a scenario where you want to do reasonable damage (not many controllers' fortes) and yet not get clobbered by bosses before you've had a chance to deal with minions. What would you choose and more importantly, why?

"Because it's there!" George Mallory

I wouldn't change too much - I would not remove, retcon or otherwise bugger about with what has gone before for a myriad reasons, not least that people have played and enjoyed a lot of this already and to change something is ultimately going to piss a few people off to no good end. I would move the story forward in significant ways: FINISH the fucking Praetorian arc. It's been dangling going nowhere for over a decade and it was so close to being done then Matt Positron Miller got bored and decided to move on to the next shiny without finishing what he'd started. Bring some of the less well known signature characters into the spotlight. There's a habit of creating new important NPCs characters when we have perfectly viable existing characters who could do that job and it would flesh their stories out significantly. Hero1's story needs finishing properly. Poor zombie bastard's been in hellish limbo for a very long time and deserves either fixing or putting out of his misery at last. Who is Lady Grey really and what's her deal with Nemesis? Interesting plot points abound. Bring Back Statesman and Sister Psyche. No don't just bring them back as if they'd never been gone but update their stories, give them new, exciting and different roles in light of past arcs. Nobody in comics is dead forever, why should they be different? Scirocco and Frostfire also deserve some story love. Where are they going? They seem to be seeking redemption (a mistake in my opinion) but they're also stuck in limbo. There are so many loose ends that need tying up. I know we've got limited dev time for new stories and arcs but some of this stuff is important. Also: Where are the Praetorian signature characters? Are they alive, dead, in gaol, or a different dimension? Similarly, Reichsman. What is Praetorian Hami doing? With Praetoria in disarray why hasn't he decided to destroy it after Cole broke his word? Who can stop him?

A thing worth mentioning: It's an important arc in Lore. If you're a newer player (which I sense you may be from your original post) it may be worth being familiar with all the signature heroes in game (try doing the relevant Task Forces) before attempting this and I'd strongly urge you to do the WWD arc in sequence.

I'm not even sure how a Praetorian shard would work. What would it bring to the player experience and to the game environment? The existing shards tend to function for specific communities in a very loose and "unofficial" way. Reunion is aimed at European players, Everlasting for RPers and the other shards give you options for your population preference. We don't even have a specific "Villain" shard or even Hero oriented shards (not that one is needed) so I have no clue what OPs vision for that would be. Remember, we're a niche game with few resources and an entirely voluntary management structure. What we have serves us well but even trying to get a Goldside team on Excelsior is enough to make dogs cry and babies howl sometimes so creating a new even more ghostly shard seems like a great waste of resource and unless I'm missing something, adds little to the game. Rather than adding to choice, this would seem to detract from our existing choices.

However hip you think you are, it would be a waste to encourage that kind of thinking

I have found that as I've aged my vertical progression has largely become static whilst my horizontal progression seems to increase exponentially.

This I find genuinely interesting. You're playing a 21 year old game, with a huge amount of history, and for the vast majority of players, a huge amount of emotional attachment, that literally came back from the dead and you buy into none of that? I'll take what you say at face value but I admit to finding it strange.