Cutter

I definitely enjoyed stretching my creativity with your contests, @Christopher Robin. Hopefully you'll revive this sooner than later - maybe not a weekly thing, but once a month perhaps. I've barely played at all in the last few months, but always logged in for this.

Final Four, thanks @Christopher Robin! Big ups to the other finalists, and @DJFM for the win. I have to say, the random draw element makes good sense given the quality of entries. I would hate to have to pick just one!

Hopping in early this time cause I had an idea. It's the love that never dies... DEADED BLISS! bliss.costume bliss.powerCust

Meet Wee Dieter! He's a friendly little gnome who has journeyed from his home in the heart of the Black Forest in Bavaria to see the world, in particular these "humans" he's heard so many whispers of. Turns out most are kind, gentle souls. Though he cannot understand why so many of them want to plant him in their gardens. dieter.costume

Is there a "close enough" colour matching consideration for power customization? Many of those colour grids do not align with the costume creator. And in this particular case, I have an existing hero who fits the theme perfectly, but I want to use some of the contest colours exclusively in power customization. Specifically looking for the best possible matches for D5 & G8 out of this:

Also hopping on the FireA/IceM tanker train. I'm looking forward to taking mine out for a spin when the new tweaks go live.

Having done a fair bit of exploration badging lately, I'll throw in a vote for an incredibly interesting but woefully underused zone - Terra Volta. Unlike so many of the early game hazard zones, which are just different riffs on "how much environmental destruction can we throw in here?", TV has basically every level/elevation change you could ask for; so many neat roads, ramps, tunnels & pipes to navigate around on; and a great deal of terrain and architecture variety to boot. I'd be all over this zone getting some new storyline love.

CLOWNSHOES! HEY LITTLE TIMMY WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING?? YOU BETTER LAUGH OR BOOM SIZE 17s TO THE FACE!! YEAH THAT'S RIGHT NOW WE'RE HAVING FUN!! NO I'M NOT YELLING YOU'RE YELLING!!

Good overviews, thanks! I can't see wanting to push for capped ranged - Plant seems like it wants to be close in for the Seeds cone, and Time so far (all of level 15) seems to want to get right in the middle with Time's Juncture. I don't know of much in terms of controller-power-friendly IO sets that lean to building up Melee/AoE def - which pushes me in the direction of PB-enhanced Farsight for maximum coverage? Soul could be spicy too if the recharge piece can be overcome, and both Dark Consumption & Soul Drain want to be in the thick of things. Ice for Ice Storm and an oh poop button is also appealing - I don't like Stone here as I prefer to pair Fissure with another stun & that's lacking in this pairing. So - Primal, Soul, Ice. I'll plug those into the ol' builder machine and see what I get. I don't need to be in a huge hurry as, again, he's only L15 and I suffer from crippling altitis...

So that's part of the thing: I don't know from epics. If it helps at all, I'm kinda going on theme based on his name. He defeats his enemies by imposing these ancient forces upon them - no matter what you build, nature eventually reclaims it, and no matter what you do, time eventually erases it. Dunno if one epic more than another fits into that overall concept. (Writing it down like that pretty clearly tells me that Mace Mastery just doesn't fit - but I could see a case being made for most of the others.)

Thanks for the frameworks @5099y_74c05. I'll pull them and see about populating & what I can come up with using those epics and slot suggestions.

Awesome, thanks again. PB sure seems like the way to go.

Thanks @Carnifax! Those are some spicy tweaks to mull over. With respect to the epic shield, I just went with the one that stacks the most def. Didn't consider anything with PB to be honest as I thought it had been nerfed? Or was Farsight spared from that? (I don't frequent the controller boards much 🙂)

I haven't built with either of these sets before. I cobbled this from pieces around the forums, but I don't feel confident in my prioritization (outside of hitting perma-all-the-things). So with that goal achieved, are there any glaring weaknesses here that I need to address & not lose perma-all-the-things in the process?

If it were me, I'd go with this version. There's a lot going on up top, the solid black bottom balances and grounds it. IMO & all that, naturally 🙂

Funny, I'd meant to make a comment to this effect with my latest entry. But then the comedy option long-winded description came to mind and it suddenly didn't fit any more 🙂 And it's not just the colours - I'm finding myself looking at costume pieces I haven't tried before, too.

Major Miner, Leader of the Seven Dwarven Armies, Slayer of Foulspawn, Wearer of Shiny Skulls, Wielder of That Really Creepy Axe Oooh it Gives Me the Heebie Jeebies Make it Stop Staring at Me. major.costume

Not Taunt... Warriors Challenge!

Random non-body-scale idea: give some of the elite named boss types a reskinned Gang War summons.

These are excellent. Love the weapon & armour progression too. That needs to become a thing.

Pulling an idea out of my butt, so take it for what that's worth... On first login to the city proper (not the tutorials, they're full enough), the Find Contact window should auto-open, with additional explanatory dialogue in the vein of: The FC window should populate the character's origin contact at each level band, and any other level-appropriate contacts outside of the origin chains (e.g. Habashy & Twinshot at L1 (requires reworking all the Shining Stars stuff), Wincott at L5, Montague at L10, Jim Temblor at L15, the initial contact for the SSAs (also at L15?), etc.). For stuff like First Ward, it should only populate whichever contact you need to unlock the zone (blueside that's Mistress Eva in Talos, no idea for redside) and allow the player to explore/discover the rest through the story. No spamming all the repeatables/alignment-locked dorks! THEN, remove all the other "X has contacted you" pop-ups, as well as the auto-added contacts. The onus is placed on the player right from go to use Find Contact on a regular basis to meet new people who want to tell them where to go and what to do when they get there. Finally, make the window sortable by, at the least, level band and zone.

The Find Contact system in general needs an overhaul. This should definitely be part of it.

The more I consider things, this (and other similar comments) start feeling more "right". The CoH Warriors are not about an ancient Greek theme - they are about an ideal, being physical perfection (and arguably weapon skill). They've adopted Greek hero naming conventions, but that's really about as far as it goes. With that in mind: I don't believe there should be any connection to Cimerora - there's no link there at all. If anything, I'd like to see (as I mentioned in an earlier comment) more grey-con mobs from other Smuggler's Run gangs showing up as occasional one-ofs. The 70's gang aesthetic should not, in any significant way, be compromised. I could even see any argument for leaning further into it, with factions/units within the Warriors adopting other 70's gang looks. Open the ranks to female members. It's right there in the lore that they don't discriminate; this should be a no-brainer. Any gear upgrades should be limited to the "simple weapons" group - do more with their existing bows/crossbows, maybe different skins for their axes/swords/maces; if anything gets added, spears/javelins is prolly it there. No guns obviously, and likewise no flashy blades; these guys are brute force over style. @RMS33's comment about scrounged weapons deserves a look I think. Those could be the tools of the minion rank-and-file, with "real" weapons being reserved for those who have proven themselves worthy. Added powersets should similarly limited - Willpower & Shield Defense would be pretty on-theme inclusions, while something like Titan Weapons is more of a stretch but not out of the realm of possibility (perhaps TW could be Odysseus' thang). I could see a spear user poaching a couple of the less-flashy Staff Fighting moves, but otherwise that one's out (actually, looking at the Staff animations, they are a lot more "slappy" than "stabby", which doesn't really fit spears AFAIK). I don't like the idea of them branching into unarmed combat at all. Leadership toggles and/or some kind of tactical updates (stirring shout kinda deal, calls for reinforcements/ambushes) would be totally appropriate. Bonus points if Leadership can be made nofx. "Come out and play" as a call for ambush would be amazeballs. No overt "power" effects. The only one who has a unique appearance (that I know of) is Heracles due to Steph's ring, which is as they say the exception that proves the rule. Part of their schtick is that they are "normal", with any enhancements being nofx deals. They're tough & hit hard because they are always striving to improve (and beat each other up on the regular). More appearances in missions / presence in zones would be appropriate for a gang that threatens to take over all the rest. Exploration of how they obtain the artifacts they traffick in would be a good way to add lore depth and introduce new/unique mobs. Consider new storylines that follow up the Alexander schism (or not schism), and give us a look at Odysseus' deal. Whew. Brain empty now.

Yes, some kind of tactical/formation combat upgrade feels appropriate. Maybe not for everyone, but certainly there could be some elite legion within the Warriors that would have this kind of training and discipline. Odysseus' personal guard sure would, if that's a storyline to pursue. Also conveniently close to Alexander's current in-game location... hmmm....

I didn't try Repulsing on the way up, so I can't say if it works or not. I find the T1-2-1-3 chain for single target to be decent, and Lightning Field helps a bit with otherwise anemic AOE. But yeah he's pretty hard to kill so gets things knocked down eventually. Definitely not the fastest tho.