Aitchuu

There is no question that customization and content are the heart of generating micro-transactions needed in the free-to-play model. It was proven years ago with the Wedding Pack that players were willing to pay for the expense of getting a Dev to sit down and do the work involved for costume parts and emotes. Indeed, costume customization got its second wind in Freedom.
But costumes pale when compared with the interest in power customization. Yet that barely got any attention in Freedom. Oh there were new power sets with their trick game mechanics. But a far simpler plan that arguably would have been more profitable would have been for every power set and every power pool to consist of two items: a basic pack and an expansion pack.
For each archetype, make six primary and six secondary sets free to play. Additional ones are free to VIPs/available for purchase. The basic pack contains the 9 set or 4 pool powers (including ancillary) and the original animations and color effects. This is plenty for anyone to experiment with each archetype and its core capabilities.
In the expansion you get all the power customization and alternate animations. All pools add a 5th power and all sets add 3 powers (one for each tier), bringing them to 12 total. The availability level for pool powers drop to the more recent values. And pools get some customization/alternate animation luv. The four movement pools could even get customization in two ways: one being the pool expansion pack, the other(s) coming from costume set expansions.
Much as I wanted Beast Run and Flying Carpet, the fact that they were not enhance-able and not usable in combat (since they suppressed other powers) made them annoying more than fun. But had they simply been alternate animations to Sprint/Fly included as part of the Animal or Arabian costume sets, I would have happily paid, and not-so-patiently waited for combat interactive poses.
The epic archetype power sets would get also expansion packs. Who was not ready for Kheldian customization? Admittedly, I would have played a dirty trick by moving the morph/specialty powers into the expansion packs. I’m suggesting that the Nova and Dwarf powers come in the expansion, but their associated ‘Pools’ expand to six abilities, reserving the fifth and sixth to higher levels. For Arachnos, ditch the respec at level 24 and have the expansion simply offer Night Widow /Fortunata /Bane /Crab ‘patron’ pools open at level 1. Each pool contains 12 powers (6 primary and 6 secondary) that are level dependent.
In a similar manner, the ‘Patron Pack’ unlocks Arbiter Rein and the mission arcs for each patron and a similar contact (Ghost Falcon?) for new heroic patron arcs. And again, the ‘Patron Expansion’ adds a fifth Patron power to each pool, lowers the level requirement, and provides color and pose customization.
I feel there is little question this would have generated more micro-sales for the game. These changes would have caused disruptions for players who let their subscriptions lapse moving into the Freedom model. But would that disruption have been severe enough to cause the demise of the game, or would players have re-purchased the affected customization options?

I didn't start playing until a few months before i9 went live (remember staring in the doors of those Wentworth buildings and thinking "wutzis?"). The game was awesome though, was meeting people, making friends online, looking forward to week-end game events. So nope, nerfing and ED and all that: not a game killer.
I agree that it did jump-the-shark. But the event occurred somewhere around 2009-2010. Adding Rikti Invasions was great stuff. Adding the Midnight Club and Cimerora though, was not. As a comic book enthusiast, I have always felt the magical origin a bit cheap. Don't get me wrong - Dr. Strange and Dr. Fate and Hellstrom and such are all interesting comic characters, just not what I'm attracted to. At first I was fine with the Midnighters, they looked like some alternate content. Much like the Vanguard and the Rikti War Zone - you don't have to play it if you don't want to.
But I immediately had trouble with them. Why? Does this sound familiar - "ITF?" "Ah, no thanks." "We'll be fast." "Look, I'm not a Midnighter, so I can't get to the zone." "Wow, it's been out for months now, why haven't you gotten your badge." "Because I'm a tech toon and I believe that magic is just science that we don't understand, and I want nothing to do with your hokum voodoo club and I'm not interested in your %#@!-ing ITF. Leave me alone!" And my horror only grew as the Devs continued to tie the Midnight Club into new content...
Praetoria had a huge build up. Looked to be the third major installation in the game. People were thinking up their Praetorian alter-egos and siding with the Loyalists and Resistance before we truely knew what they were. Then it came out and it was like getting half a game. It was hard to tell who were the good guys and who were the bad guys (both sides did a number of things that just made me say they were ALL wrong). I certainly had no clue the Devs had only meant it to be a alternative for low level play.
But I think I will point to Merits as the real culprit. To me, Merits caused the reverse problem that you all talk about with ED. Until Merits came out, the trials and task forces were the province of players and teams who wanted to level up and do the missions kill-all style and get immersed in the game lore. But Merits enticed The Gamers. Gamers are those players who figure out the rules and then push them to the cliffs. No role-playing, no stepping back to savor and make jokes. This task force generates that many merits, we do X, we do Y, and we get it down to 45 minutes.
My first experence with The Lady Grey TF was on a team like this. The whole TF took 22 minutes. I never had a clue what we were even doing, and I generally didn't even make it to the door before the rest of the team was on the final boss for each mission. So traumatic that I black listed the entire team as people I never ever wanted to play with or even see in the game again. There are many kinds of people in this game, and I applaude the Devs for trying to get us to mingle, but some groups clearly do not mix.

Kid Konquer (on Victory) - the Praetorian alternate to Kid Kourage - has reached level 40 as a true son of Praetoria. He is no traitor and will never abandon his homeworld.
I outleveled all the content of First Ward before i23 came out, and by that I mean I beat the snot out of every gray thing in sight till it stopped giving xp. When I played it the Hetman and Noble Savage never occurred together. Haven't really had a need to go back to the compound since. So I haven't noticed any of these issues.

Howdy,
I started playing City of Heroes in February 2007 (actually I got the game in July of 2006, but my 56k modem just couldn’t do it. I had to wait for my neighborhood to get DSL). In June, I got a friend of mine to join; and like me, he was hooked instantly. I had already decided to get the Good versus Evil edition of the game when we agreed to try to manage an open enrollment super group; but we wanted a uniting theme not just some haphazard mess. Put a little thought into it.
Step-brothers Dangerous Lee (“just a toon, looking for some action”) and Courageous Lee (“where the action is”) were born. We raced up to level 10 and founded Adverbs on July 1, 2007. We began recruiting immediately. My friend felt that we should block out a couple names so people wouldn’t think those Lee’s were somehow in charge. So we made alts of Elder Lee and Original Lee. And these two formed the backstory of Adverbs.
Elder Lee was a tribal shaman from a distant land immigrated to America. His son (now known as Original Lee), with his lyrically bass voice and hypnotic abilites, would become a government operative known as The Velvet Voice. His missions took him all over the world and he saved many damsels in distress (just like any other super-spy of the 60’s and 70’s). And so in the present day, there are untold numbers of descendants. ‘Dan’ and ‘Coury’ were located by their grandfather, and they set out to help him find their siblings.
For a year we were modestly successful, attracting maybe a dozen or so players to the group, many of them making several alts. We formed friendships with many other groups and coalitions with a few. A couple from California took a real interest in the group and founded the villainous counterpart: Adverse. I created Severe Lee (Coury’s brother) and agreed to be the back-up in leadership.
But then, as real life often does, things changed. My buddy got a job across the country, relocated, had marital issues, and on… well, there was no room for City in that mess. The couple from California became beta testers for Champions Online and I have not heard from them since. Others started/graduated from college or the military.
By the summer of 2009, both groups were pretty much down to just me. My friend was the true heart and soul of the ‘Verb, so I elected to shutter both groups, kicking out all but our toons, emptying the bases and turning off the lights; hoping the day would come when we could restart.
Not to be. So to all those of you who were Adverbs: Adept, Tru, Ginger, Hot, Positive (and Negative – I still think you should have given one name up so both toons could appear at the same time), Cold, Accurate, Loud, and all the rest; and to those in The Beast Kids, The Prinny Squad, The Sabres, The Order of the Vigilant, The Taxibots, Paragon City Search & Rescue: I raise my glass and hold it high. Adverbs Rule!!! Good times, good times. I will miss you all.

“Adverbs - We’re all over the action!”
“Obviously.” “Where?”
“Adverse - We are the action.”
“Too is here! {wait, Too is adverb not noun} Too is here… too! {that still not right}”
“Oh man, I’d love to get a piece of that action!”
“Adverbs describe other words (specifically verbs, adjectives and other adverbs) in order to enhance… Hey, get back here!!! I gotta find a shorter battle cry.”
“This calls for an Adverb! And maybe an expletive or two.”
“That was amazing Lee.” “No, I’m pretty sure that was Accurate Lee.”
“Where’s Clear Lee?”
“Never agree to a team-up with Late Lee, Slow Lee, or Timid Lee.”
“I don’t get it, fire/fire and you’re calling yourself Dead Lee?” “Yeah, I’m a Blaster.” “/e Pause /e Blink /e Smack /e Hard.”
“Too is here! {wait, secret base is ‘Here’ - Too not at secret base} Too is here… not… too. {sigh}”
“Never fear, Adverbs are here! Specifically the first and last words of the previous sentence.”
“Bare Lee, not Bear Lee! That isn’t even a word.”
“Adverbs describe… wait, let me get aggro first…”
“Which of you is the Lee-der?”

T.U.N.N.E.L. does not impress me. It smells of the ‘I only get to play this game 2 hours a week and I don’t want to spend it running from door to door!’ complaint. Mission teleporters are already a limo ride straight to the door. How do you improve on that? There’s a fine line between free and just giving it away, and I think T.U.N.N.E.L. goes too far.
What would be far more useful is the ability to open the map, click the city tab, then highlight the zone I want and click to open that zone’s map. Simply the ability to see where my missions are will help me decide which order I want to do them and how to best get there.

“Officer, where is the Tricorp building? There’s a bomb and I need to get there immediately.”
“Oh, that’s in Steel Canyon Superdude.”
Blink, “so… like 59th Street or closer to Independence Port? Never mind, I’ll just fly around until I see a building explode.”

It used to be that the access to zones provided by base teleporters was the coolest part about having a supergroup. Supergroups encourage group play, which in my opinion entitles their bases to premier access throughout the game. Drop T.U.N.N.E.L. and restore Base access as the ultimate way to travel. How about:
The Garage/Hanger
The game already has vehicles for ‘travel’: ferries, submarines, helicopters, black helicopters, portals, trains, and even trucks. Click on them and you go somewhere else. So what’s wrong with providing a room where such a vehicle waits? Click on it and you arrive somewhere else. Exactly where is dependent on 3 things: which city you are in, what the vehicle is, and how much you invest in it.
For example, a submarine will never take you to Skyway City no matter how much you try. A secret railcar on abandoned spur of the PTA light rail system might only take you to the green line stations for one price, or to any station for a higher amount.
Perhaps the Garage can take advantage of beacons. Picture a 2x1 room with a motorcycle facing a garage door. This Garage supports 1 beacon and that’s where the Motorcycle goes. Picture a garage as an elevator door that opens out onto a 4x4 pad where a helicopter is warming up. This ‘room’ can support 12 beacons and that’s all the places the helicopter can take you. Or a 3x2 room with a Portal gateway on the wall and 4 beacons; you could chose mundane locations within Paragon City, but this Garage allows you to slot places like Pocket D, Shadow Shard Zones, First Ward, Dark Astoria, etc. (which would all need beacons).
Perhaps the Garage can take you to missions that normally require a train or truck. Perhaps you can craft a one use beacon at a workbench (or buy them in the Paragon Store) that allows the vehicle to travel to a given zone or even right to a mission door. Should I point out that players can already buy and use such a vehicle? But bases cannot be equipped with this service - even those containing that exact vehicle.

And as long as I’m talking about making bases fun again, here are some other ideas.
Trophies
When’s the last time you opened the Souvenir tab? How about fixing that whole thing and dropping the idea of icons in the souvenir tab in favor of actual trophies that can be placed in the base? Trials, Task/Strike Forces, and Raids all add Supergroup badges if a member of the group (in supergroup mode) completes them. These badges form the ‘Trophies’ tab, and the trophies can be clicked to open a window with the mission recap. Story arc souvenirs form a tab on the personal items menu, and these are smaller mementoes that hang on a wall or sit on a desktop.
Personal Items
The personal items menu should have four tabs: personal, souvenirs, collectable, and crafted. The crafted tab is exactly what it is today; you craft a device for the base and install it. The collectable tab is all the prestige items an individual can accumulate. The souvenirs tab is filled with souvenirs from all the story arcs you’ve completed.
The Personal tab is a handful of predesigned posters that just need your character’s profile to complete. There’s the ‘Super Pose’ Poster: pick an emote and a costume slot: bam that image is framed for posterity and ready for hanging on a wall. There’s the ‘Headline’ Poster: “$target Saves City/$target Robs Paragon City Bank” with your mug shot (straight from your ID card). A simple portrait that goes on the wall along with every other member. Assorted personalized awards: the Fire Marshall Award, A Commendation from Vanguard, the Key to the City, etc.
Quarters
Okay, the group members have gone crazy pasting trophies and souvenirs everywhere. Enough already! Keep this junk in your own quarters. Oh… …right.
Much like the decorative rooms, Quarters come in various sizes and can only contain unpowered items. The size represents the quarters of a single member, and either comes with a preset budget that each member can spend to customize it, or the base designer is allowed to set aside a budget of prestige that each member can spend. This room is accessed by a sliding door. Click on the door and you get a list of all members in the group. Select the room you’d like to visit. In your own room, the base designer menu appears so that you can edit it.
Misc Other Stuff
Kitchen appliances, gymnasium equipment, lockers, benches, single doors, signs [exit, supplies, junction room, laundry, office, meeting room], elevator doors (just decorative, they don’t have to work), circuit breaker panels, clocks, framed copy of the group charter, windows, a mirror.

And might I suggest the Paragon Store as the vehicle for some of this development? If it takes a couple bucks out of my pocket to get this type of stuff, I’m fine with that. Cause I want it!

I can think of 3 sets that are not well represented:

Elastic/Absorption would be a defensive set that absorbs the energy of an attack by storing it metabolically. In basic state is would be good Resistance to smashing, lethal, cold, heat, and energy, and toxic. Thermosetting (or vulcanizing) would add Defense. This set could contain a self-buff for Running and Jumping, and possibly a range buff to all Melee attacks. By that I don’t mean giving a 10’ melee range a 500% buff to reach out 60’, just an unenhanceable +50%. This set should be powerful against Knock(any), Stun, Immobilize, and Hold, and presumable even Cage; since you either absorb it or are so flexible you can escape. But this should be due to a greater that 100% Resistance factor, not through Protection. As I see it, there would be three main toggle powers that provide the bulk of resistances and each buffs one of the following: regeneration, recover, and recharge. These simulate the effects of internalizing the absorbed energies during a fight to augment yourself. Since there is no mechanism to buff ‘per hit’, handle it the way Super Reflexes does. As overall health goes down (which tends to indicate you are in battle and therefore absorbing energy) these recovery rates increase. Finally, there could even be a PBAoE recover or recharge debuff emanating from you that also provides a Taunt effect. This set is probably best for Brutes and Scrappers.

Adaptation is the ability to adapt to any circumstance/environment. The top power, which could be called Transmorph, should be similar to Hibernate in that it makes you Untouchable for a decent period (but does not necessarily heal you). This set’s core ability would be the number 5 or 6 power, which enables 8 inherent resistance toggles:
Resist Smashing (toggle, yellow glow) +30 Defense and +50 Resistance to Smashing damage and Protection Mag: 12 to Repel, Cage; untoggles Resist Toxic when in use.
Resist Lethal (toggle, dark glow) +30 Defense and +50 Resistance to Lethal damage and Protection Mag: 12 to Stun, untoggles Resist Psychic when in use.
Resist Heat (toggle, orange glow) +30 Defense and +50 Resistance to Heat damage and Protection Mag: 12 to Hold, untoggles Resist Cold when in use.
Resist Cold (toggle, blue glow) +30 Defense and +50 Resistance to Cold damage and Protection Mag: 12 to Immobilize and Teleport, untoggles Resist Heat when in use.
Resist Energy (toggle, bright glow) +30 Defense and +50 Resistance to Energy damage and Protection Mag: 12 to Sleep, untoggles Resist Negative when in use.
Resist Negative (toggle, purple glow) +30 Defense and +50 Resistance to Negative damage and Protection Mag: 12 to Fear, untoggles Resist Energy when in use.
Resist Toxic (toggle, green glow) +75 Resistance to Toxic damage and +100% to Slow(any), untoggles Resist Smashing when in use.
Resist Psychic (toggle, red glow) +30 Defense and +50 Resistance to Psychic damage and Protection Mag: 12 to Confuse, Taunt, Placate and +75% resistance to Perception Debuff; untoggles Resist Lethal when in use.
As you can see, up to 4 of these could be active at one time (along with the parent power) which should be extremely draining to endurance. Much like a Nova or Dwarf power, the parent power is where Enhancements come from, in the form of additional Defense, Resistance, endurance Modification, or in Recharge – meaning how rapidly you can switch from one to the opposite and back. This would be an advanced power set, as it requires a bit of skill to identify and balance which to use at any given moment.
You might take it further so that only 1 or possibly 2 can be active at a time and crank the Defense and Resistance way over the soft caps so that no amount of hit buff of defense/resistance debuff by your foe stands much chance of hurting you. For you damage type is like a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors; except you get to tell your opponent he cannot pick ‘Rock’. A high damage or hyper accurate one-trick pony has little hope of defeating you. A well rounded foe with a back-up plan (or partner) is far more dangerous. And yes you can keep switching types to use the Protection value like a ‘breakie’, though this may leave you wide open to attacks until you can switch back.
The remaining powers of the set provide decent additional Defense and Resistance that do overlap. No special bonuses to movement powers, no buffs, no heal/recover/recharge powers. Debuff resistance is not a characteristic of this set whereas piling on protection is. The weakest link in the set is Lethal damage, with Toxic a modest second. Why? I (for one) am tired of Smashing and Lethal defenses always being joined at the hip, and I (for two) feel that the hardest type of damage to adapt to would be getting punctured, perforated, dismembered, and/or disemboweled. Likewise, while disease and poison might not be a danger to an adaptor; acids and other actively caustic or corrosive agents probably are. This set is probably best for Tankers and Stalkers.

Simulacrum means that you only look human, but you truly are not. You could be a robot lacking in emotions, feelings, and sensitivity; an alien or being from another dimension with a morality and perspective different from our own; or a being made of another substance entirely with organs and senses unknown to humanity. You have excellent Psychic, Toxic, Lethal, and Negative protection, and decent capability against the elements and Energy. You are nearly immune to Fear, Confusion, Taunt, and Placate. You do not Sleep, eat, breathe, or age (at least in the human sense). You have extraordinary senses and stability so you cannot be Held, Blinded, Stunned, or Knocked(down). The defenses you have are extremely resistant to debuffing. You have back-up systems, reserve power, and even the ability to self-repair (including self-rez). You might have built in wheels or range finders or blinding strobe lights that allow you to improve your movement rates, your hit chances, and/or Blind your targets.
Yet you have only modest protection from simple Smashing damage, Repel, Cage, Immobilization, Knock(back/up), or Slow(Move) attacks. This set probably works equally well for any of the Melee types.

Oh no question the damage goes down. The Status Effects (Stun, Knockback, Fear) do not, which is what I'm playing them for. As long as I do more damage than their regen rate, I don't really care if it takes all day with a dull butter knife. Cause they do nothing in return.

Bison Boy is my experiment in how to make a lesser Tank (say Luke Cage rather than Superman). I don’t play him often, and I rarely team with him. PUGs hire a Tank to hold agro and be a meat shield, and that’s just not how BB rolls. He’s up to level 45, and while highly unconventional, he’s great fun to play.
Some history: in mid-2007, a buddy and I agreed to make alts into a small super group we’d formed a coalition with: The Beast Kids. I latched onto the hooves and horns and came up with the name quickly enough but what could a ‘Bison Boy’ be? The name pretty much screams Tank; and in particular, an Invulnerable/Super Strength Tank. Trouble with that was the toon I was already running for my own supergroup is Invulnerable/Energy Melee. I really did not want to be playing two of essentially the same thing. I loved the look and name, but I just could not commit to Bubbler/Trick Arrow with it. So I let the idea percolate.
The following weekend, we did a competition Positron (we lost but we were just happy to finish, it was our fourth attempt) and I was disgusted with the number of Fear recipes I’d received. However, it cemented the idea on how Bison Boy could be different. First, get into the Presence Pool for the fear powers. They are comparatively cheap, and offer some interesting set bonuses. Second, commit to the secondary set – play down the Invulnerability.
I rationalized that, as bovines have no particular affinity to healing Dull Pain was out. Unyielding was also out. I’m not entirely sure what my thinking was since it’s easy to conjure up images of an angry bull that would seem fit the notion of Unyielding, but it’s not in my original design notes. Invincibility is, and I think it was because I felt it was a power I was going to need to rely on with the rest of the set missing. Tough Hide was perfectly bovine, as were the other auto powers. As an immediate way to dumb down the Invulnerability, I noticed I could take Tough rather than Temp Invulnerability. Plus, taking Kick fit cleverly with the hooved theme.
Taking Swift seemed reasonable under the ‘charging bull’ notion. That would open the door to Health and Stamina. The best I was ever able to say for the Fitness Pool was that it saved slots for other powers. But my theme was all about taking lesser powers, and auto powers have always been that. Overall it did make me a bit worried that I wanted to dive deep into 3 Pools.
There is a kicker to the story. Bison Boy never made it into The Beast Kids. Sure I was a ‘boy’ but the rule to join up was that I had to be “Kid insert-animal-name-here”. But I had a concept that was just too cool to walk away from it, so I kept him as a solo experiment.
I started with a huge list of mostly low level powers, and my planned order of selection was: Resist PD, Jab, Punch, Haymaker, Provoke, Resist Elements, Swift, Resist Energies, Intimidate, Kick, Invincible, Invoke Panic, Health, Tough, Tough Hide, Rage, Knockout Blow, Unstoppable, Weave, Stamina, Hand Clap, Foot Stomp – leaving room for 2 ancillary powers, which I decided to hold off until I’d played the character a bit to see what I needed. Turns out I needed a plan, because this list – while it was carefully and deliberately considered – is the reason respecsification exists.
At the low levels, it’s hard to go wrong with anything. I loved being able to Provoke at level 6 when Taunt isn’t available until 10 or 12 in most sets. I didn’t really need it, but it was fun. Getting Intimidate was even more fun. And while the Invoke Panic animation was disappointing, making entire mobs cower was a riot! But after level 20 the fun ended. I think it was battling Avalanche Shamans in Dark Astoria that made me give the whole thing the boot. Invincible was nice but Unyielding was absolutely freaking necessary! So I did a respec-o-shame.
Took the Unyielding when it was available, and backed the rest of my picks up a slot until dropping the Invincible. It helped, but not much. With Haymaker as my most significant damage dealer, I was generally running out of Endurance before I was running out of mob. Getting Rage at least made it possible to win battles, but I was having doubts about the future of the toon. Trying to determine if it was smarter to stay with KO Blow as my next pick or switch to Stamina to try to stop the hemorrhaging of endurance.
I retooled again. The real problem seemed to be not doing enough damage – I was not really committing to my secondary. Tough had that nice chest-beating animation, but I was hamstringing myself with it. Lastly, I could just slot Sprint and give up on Fitness by slotting a bit more endurance reduction amongst my other powers. Resist PD, Jab, Punch, Haymaker, Provoke, Unyielding, Resist Elements, Resist Energies, Intimidate, Kick, Swift, Invoke Panic, Knockout Blow, Weave, Tough Hide, Rage, Temporary Invulnerability, Unstoppable, Hand Clap, Foot Stomp, and 4 future considerations. I now had 5 attacks to work with Rage and still managed to sneak Swift in there.
When the Fitness pool was made Inherent, I tapped out again, replacing Swift with Boxing. And I could not resist tinkering some more with the recent alterations to the Ancillary Pools (because Hurl… really?) opting for Energy Mastery. Now my power list stands at (and this time I’ll include the slotting): Resist PD (2 resist), Jab (5(+1) Rope-a-Dope), Punch (3 Bruising Blow), Haymaker (6 Crushing Impact), Resist Elements (2 resist), Unyielding (2 – resist and endurance), Provoke (3 Perfect Zinger), Resist Energies (2 resist), Intimidate (6 Nightmare), Kick (4 Force Feedback), Boxing (3 Stupefy), Knockout Blow (6 Ghost Widow’s Embrace), Invoke Panic (6 Glimpse of the Abyss), Weave (3(+3) Gift of the Ancients), Tough Hide (3 defense), Rage (2 recharge, 1 Hit Buff), Temporary Invulnerability (4(+2) Impervium Armor), Unstoppable (4 Efficacy Adapter, 1 recharge), Focused Accuracy (1 Endurance, 1 Hit Buff), Foot Stomp (3(+3) Scirroco’s Dervish), Physical Perfection (2 heal, 2 modification), Hand Clap (1) , Dull Pain (1), and Conserve Power(1) {these last two are only planned for as are 9 slots} which allows me to 3 slot Sprint (Surefoot).
Tidbits of what I’ve learned:
Taking both Resist PD and Temp Invulnerability is one key to this set. Can’t have them both at level 1, but don’t forget to circle back and grab the other at a later date.
Invincible dictates your tactics. Using it well means collecting up a mob around you to gain defense and to-hit boosts, and then using that buff to battle bosses and work your way down through the ranks in a mob. If you try to work your way up, you just undercut this buff when you get to the bosses. Not taking it lowers your survivability but allows greater tactical flexible.
There are two ways to play Unstoppable. Plan A - If you are heavily slotting the rest of this set, you won’t need this power often; maybe once every half dozen missions or so. If this is your preference, then stack up on the Modification and/or Resistance. You’ll blow way past the soft cap and never notice when you step in a big pile of debuff. Plan B - Three or four slotting some IO set to get a 5% recharge reduction on all powers is a silly thing for a toggle power with a 20 second recharge time (you paid how much influence to knock 1 second off the clock???). But for powers with this humongo recharge period (960 seconds) that same 5% can actually be measured in playing time (48 seconds). Slot only for Recharge here and get the timer down to 8 minutes or less. You get 3 mad minutes of use then take one minute to recover and click everything in the room – and the power is already halfway recharged. Either way, remember to turn your toggle powers off towards the end of this power’s use so they will be recharged and ready for the crash. Hold a few blues and greens for it, retoggle those other defenses, and you should be fine against whatever else is still standing.
I wanted Fighting for the power Tough. In the end, I have everything but. Huh!
When I first got Rage, I played it for hit buff, hit buff, and hit buff baby! Then I discovered recharge mania and now the crash time between uses is mere seconds. Just be sure to have enough endurance in reserve when it starts blinking so your toggles don’t abandon you. And if you love to Rage, then you really do want Hand Clap and Foot Stomp and any other AoE or status effect power you can find – because these are not affected by your damage debuff during the down cycle. While the mob dances the dizzy jig, you can suck down some recovery in peace.
Tankers cannot use Challenge properly. During different respecs, I tried out both Challenge and Provoke and found no real difference. It was not until I tried Challenge on a Controller that it only affected one target in a mob, and it dawned on me that Gauntlet was the culprit.
Why don’t Fear powers prevent defensive actions of the target (such as summoning gun drones, force field generators, healing allies, teleporting, etc.) like Sleep and Hold rather than Immobilize? And what’s up with Nemesis goons and fear resistance!? You’d think Circle lackeys, with all their hanging out with demons, hordlings, and such would be somewhat inured to Fear. Not at all (I can even frighten the demons). Nemesis punks – with those gas masks and Warhulks – you’d suspect of having resistance to Sleep/Toxic attacks, not Fear. Whatza matter, they can’t see out of those things?
You might think that Glimpse of the Abyss (the rare set) should be used with the ranged Intimidate while Nightmare should be used with the PBAoE Invoke Panic. Not true. Because Glimpse contains a ‘chance for negative energy damage’, Nightmare actual provides more total buff. The only reason to use Intimidate is to remove a victim from the fight as you charge in, so you might as well crank the duration to max and see if you can make one target miss the whole thing. Putting Glimpse on the PBAoE Fear power really maximizes the special by providing a stack of targets.
I personally feel the game would be far better served by replacing the Taunt/Confront powers from each of the offensive sets with a new power suited to each particular set. It may be the only ranged power in the set, but any player who wants this sort of thing can take Provoke/Challenge from the Pool. Besides, what happens when you use Taunt at 80’? Pets get summoned, drones and emanators get deployed, and everybody else pulls out rifles to shoot you (not your teammates). Activating every possible defense a mob can muster while doing zero damage - Way to Tank! But this is all a bit off topic for today.

What makes Bison Boy so unlovable as a Tank is that he replaces Aggro with other status effects: Fear, Stun, Hold, and Knockback. The real fun of playing Bison Boy is in the Knockback. Often I charge into a mob by ‘F’ollowing a minion only to kick him out and continue the chase – cue the Yakkity Sax. Punt a target from this mob into the next to get them all riled up. If the Panic or Stomp or Clap works, then pick a single target and take it down while the rest recover. Otherwise, cycle through targets making attacks, spreading the stuns and holds amongst the crowd. All these tactics keep the entire mob off balance as I whittle them down. And since I’m analyzing each target in turn, I’m not button mashing as fast as I can, and no longer bleeding the blue bar dry.
As far as I’m concerned, these other Status Effects are superior to Aggro in that the target(s) do nothing for the duration. Being ‘less-that-Invulnerable’ this is key to my defensive strategy. I am just as capable at stopping nothing as anything else in the game. I’m fine if the bad guys just want to stand next to me and bask in my awesomeness. When the Fear don’t work then I rely on stunning / holding / knocking-down a few victims in a mob and switching targets to another still in the fight. I’ve been careful to slot so as to extend these effects for as long as I can.
These tactics do actually build Aggro. By switching targets as I work the whole mob, Gauntlet is focusing the crowd on me. But it’s slow, not very potent, and doesn’t have a long duration since I’m not slotting Taunt. And it seems to annoy teammates who target through me to no end that I do not finish one target before moving to the next. Many casual teammates fail to notice that I’m relying on effects other than Aggro. They don’t except it and they’ve never seen it done. I freeze a mob in place and they begin lobbing AoE attacks with impunity. Which leads to strained conversations with ‘expert’ players about how to Tank.
So I'm putting the build out here for comments. I cannot be the only player to discover the usefulness of the Presence Pool, but I’ve never seen anybody else use them. There have to be other unconventional Tanks, how does team play go for you? Or is this combination of powers just totally insane?

Add Perception to the Mastermind and pets. Beasts have senses/vantage points beyond the human norm – including the ability to track by smell alone. Invisible targets or being Blinded should less a hindrance for them; and as a member of the pack, the Mastermind can take advantage of these senses as well.

Oh, and can some NPC groups get some Animal Masters? Groups such as the RIP, PPD, Vanguard, and MALTA should have canine units (a handler and one or more dogs). The Carnival of Shadows need animal tamers. And I'm sure some group (Luddites anyone) would try Falconry.

Fighting - I'd say no to even more defensive powers in the pool. A PBAoE attack would be good though.

Concealment - I see low level (say a value of 2) Placate powers in 2 ways. In the Concealment Pool, this is the 'Disguise' way. You put on the enemy uniform and try and sneak in. It works okay for a short period of time, but then the opponents begin to realize that nobody recognizes you, and you don't seem to know the pass codes.
It would definately be a tier above Sneaking or Granting Invisibility. But I don't think it's on par with Invisibility or Intangebility.

The other version of Placate would be 'Diversion', the top power in the Presence Pool (requiring two previous choices). When you need a second to recover or think, get your opponent started on a megalomanical rant ('Monologuing' from The Incredibles), or just intimidate mobs by striking a heroic/villainous pose.

I agree that Placate should be open to the other Archetypes, however, you don't want Stalkers getting multiple Placate powers (well, at least the Devs probably don't). Either of these Pools work good since you make Stalkers 'waste' power slots to get them. Why use Stealth or Invisibility when you can Hide? And how much use will a Stalker get from Challenge/Provoke?

I too think the endurance reduction method is better than +maz endurance in the leadership pool.

And as for Medicine - I think that whole Pool needs to be redesigned in light of all the temp powers available to rez and/or heal and/or recover.

I find that the Medicine Pool is now nearly redundant with all the game additions. Stimulant is half as powerful as just handing your teammate a Break Free. Aid Other is less effective than a Respite and interruptible. And Resuscitate? Now that all these temporary powers can do the same thing (not to mention having teammates swap inspirations around to trade in for a Wakie, or using the paragon store, etc.)! Only Aid Self seems worthwhile; and again, it is not as good as Respite. So this pool needs some serious revamping or replacing by 'The Inspiration Pool' – to give the user more options using Inspirations.

The Inspiration Pool
Inspire Other (auto) – Target a teammate within 60’ and then click an inspiration which is used on that teammate. Enhancements: Range
Group Inspiration (toggle) – While toggled, all teammates within 20’ gain the advantage of the inspiration. Enhancements: Endurance, Range, Recharge
Grant Inspiration (click) – You can grant a random tier 1 inspiration (includes team and dual inspirations) to any player. You must be level 14 and have 1 other Inspiration power. This power is interruptible and has a very long recharge time. Enhancement: Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Charisma (toggle) – While toggled, any inspiration you play is treated as one tier higher in effectiveness. You must be level 14 and have 2 other Inspiration powers. Enhancement: Endurance, Recharge.

The (new) Medicine Pool
Stimulant – this power frees an ally from Sleep or Disorient effects, and provides protection from Regen, Recovery, and Recharge Debuff powers for 90 seconds. Enhancements: add Defense (to boost the protection amounts).
Field Medic – this power grants an ally Health and Endurance. It can be used on yourself (do not target a teammate) but the interrupt time is doubled when used this way. Enhancements: Add Modification.
Pain Killer – this power grants an ally Resistance to all types of damage and raises their Health maximum for 90 seconds. It can be used on yourself (do not target a teammate) but the interrupt time is doubled when used this way. You must be level 14 and have 1 other Medicine Power. Enhancements: Endurance, Heal, Interrupt, Resistance.
Triage* – you communicate the injuries of a fallen teammate while teleporting him/her to a hospital. The teammate is revived (in this case, with half Health and Endurance) and returned to the teleport booth. You then use your own beacon to Recall that teammate (which is a 15 second interruption/debt protection phase). Enhancements: Interrupt (debt protection remains 15 seconds though), Heal, Modification, Range

*This power essentially incorporates Recall Teammate with Resuscitate. As with any teleport power, it can be declined. If you are interrupted then your teammate must return by normal means. It may also be possible that the teammate is teleported out of your recall range.

When I saw the game offer dogs as pets, I wondered if the Devs were experimenting with a four-legged model for some future purpose. Then Beast Mastery caught my eye over at Paragonwiki, and I thought “such as this!” I don’t know what source that article used or how close it is to becoming a reality, but I have to say SWEET! Yet thumbing through it, my enthusiasm already feels short of my expectations for such a set.
I immediately conjured 6 animal types to mind as potential henchmen: wolves/hyenas, big cats, bears, snakes, great apes, and birds (raptors – but you know, I’d settle for dinosaurs). The proposed set, rather than focusing on one type, offers a mixture. This is fine for a Tarzan-esque character, but not so much a lion-tamer or ape researcher injecting his charges with a super-serum.
Customizing the henchmen has never been offered, despite the fact that alternative models may already exist. Thematically, the Mercenary Mastermind could be customized with models from Vanguard, Longbow, Council, Sky Raiders, Wyvern, or Malta. The Thug Mastermind could be customized toward the PPD, Cage Consortium, Family, and possibly the Outcasts. Ninja could use the Tsoo, Warriors, or Legacy Chain. Robotics, Necromancy, and Demon summoners would all seem to be more limited, or require a more liberal matching of their power sets such as using Freakshow, Goldbrickers, Circle of Thorn, or Carnival models. These provide a ready theme; allowing the Mastermind to represent an agent/detective calling in a tactical team for field work or a rogue commander using his team for his own purposes.
Within Beast Mastery the wolves, cats, and bears will all use the 4-leg model so they could be offered as three variations on the archetype. Snakes, apes, and birds would remain 'future considerations'. The Tarzan type picks different models for each Henchmen rank; while the Lion-tamer stays with Big Cats all the way.
Don’t get me wrong, any new Mastermind is a great thing as far as I’m concerned. I just keep hoping for a little cup of Awesome to go with it. Certainly there would be more than a little work involved to ensure play balance and decide what the advanced powers of the selected models would be. But this would be customization indeed!

Aha, you want to discuss the whole of Force Fields. Then I have a bit more to say. I see your point(s) that adding to the overall defense value is too simplistic, and - as you point out due to the soft caps - not very effective. I'm also very puzzled why the Devs always want to balance 'delivery' tags with 'type' tags. So...
Things I would suggest changing in the FF set:

Personal Force Field
Add +20% resistance(defense debuff) not enhance able

Deflection Shield
Change defense tags to only include: melee, AoE, smashing
Add +10% resistance(defense debuff) not enhance able

Insulation Shield
Change defense tags to only include: ranged, energy
Add +10% resistance(defense debuff) not enhance able

Dispersion Bubble
Change defense type to: base (drop all tags)
Add +10% resistance(defense debuff) not enhance able

Repulsion Field
Change radius of effect to 25’ and these powers affect you and your teammates inside the radius:
Add +30% resistance(defense debuff) not enhance able
Add -25% range debuff not enhance able
Add -10% to hit debuff
Enhancements: Endurance, Knockback, Recharge, To Hit Debuff
Enhancement sets: Knockback, To Hit Debuff

Force Bubble
Change radius of effect to 30’ and these powers affect you and your teammates inside the radius:
Add +10% defense(AoE, energy, smashing)
Add +10 protection(knockback) not enhance able
Add +20% resistance(defense debuff) not enhance able
Enhancements: Defense, Endurance, Range (increases radius), Recharge

Repel is a rare power and seems to only exist at a magnitude of zero or ten (most significantly, Controllers are not better with this control type power than Defenders or Masterminds). I feel there should be some gradient to this power. Allowing the radius of effect to be enhanced provides this gradient. Yours works at 30 feet, mine works at 36 feet (by slotting range), so when I push (i.e. move) you get repelled first.

Repulsion Field and Force Bubble now provide another layer of team protection on top of the Dispersion Bubble and not by just increasing the defense values. They combine for 50% defense debuff. The Repel and Knockdown effects interfere with melee opponents. The Range Debuff gives these effects a chance to interfere with opponents using Ranged attacks, and so the Defense boost is only needed against AoE attacks. And of course, the To Hit Debuff adds a completely different flavor of ‘Defense’.

Years ago one of the Devs stated they felt they never quite got Tankers right. The archetype was meant to have a feel of being able to put on a burst of offense, not just be the team punching bag. They are that type of character from comic books who utters a suitable battle cry and then lands punishing hit after brutal hit after bone crunching hit. And I thought, that’s so simple to achieve in game terms. But looking back over my notes, it seems I never submitted my suggestion, nor even wrote it down anywhere.
For Tanks (and possibly Brutes) with the Build-up power in their offensive set, get rid of it. Replace it with Charge/Berserk/Mighty/whatever you want to call it. This is a toggle power that lasts until you fail to hit or go 15 seconds without making an attack. While toggled, all self defensive, protective, resistive, recovery, recharge, and regen powers are debuffed 50%. For this, you gain accuracy and damage buffs to every attack you make. A simpler method might be that when toggled, this power debuffs max hit points and endurance by 50%, and when untoggled it will apply a 45% loss of total hit points before releasing the debuff.
This is exactly the sort of to-hell-with-defense-lay-it-all-on-the-line-right-now action depicted in the comics. You give up the D and claim the Offense till it’s done!

Ever had a character where you felt that the basic value of one or more powers was too high? One power in this set is ‘iffy’ or you should be vulnerable to something? Or even “I never asked for the Fitness pool, how can I remove it”? I suggest Dehancements. These look similar to training level Enhancements except that they reduce/diminish the displayed power attribute rather than enhance it. They are noted with a red outer ring and bend (akin to road signs such as ‘No Parking’).
They drop like Single Origin Enhancements, but at one-tenth the rate. However they have no level so they may be used by any character. They may be placed into any unused enhancement slot of a power which can be affected by the symbol on the Dehancement. They have a constant effect of -50% to whatever power aspect they display. Whenever you assign a Dehancement, you gain one Enhancement slot to assign to any power. Each power may only slot 1 Dehancement, and the limit of slots available per power remains six. An additional -50% is applied when the power is an Auto power – to offset the fact that Auto powers generally offer smaller bonuses than other types.

Can't resist I love these powers so!
Since you've brought it up I will repost my own suggestion from years ago.

Growth and Shrinking are power pools where the effects are generally derived from the amount of the power the player is actively using. They are controlled by Magnitude (or M - initially set to 0). As Growth or Shrinking powers are activated, the value increases or decreases causing changes shown below. Each Growth/Shrink power enhances 1 aspect of size changing but that enhancement affects the total magnitude bonus.
If M is positive you stand 5*M + 5’ tall, if M is negative you stand 3’/M tall.
All characters get:
+(10*M)% running and jumping speed
+(3*M)’ radius for all PBAoE Taunt attacks
+(2*M)’ reach (range bonus to melee-type attacks) to both you and your foes (min 1 ft).
+(4*M)% resistance to lethal, energy, and toxic damage {enhanced by Big if M>1}
+(1*M)pt. of knockback protection
+(1*M)pt. of knockback added to all melee-based attacks {enhanced by Huge if M>1}
-(50*M)’ stealth radius {enhanced by Slight if M<1}
-(4*M)% ranged defense {enhanced by Small if M<1}
If abs(M) > 1
+(2*M)% resistance to smashing, heat, and cold damage {enhanced by Big if M>2}
-(2*M)% melee defense {enhanced by Small if M<2}
If abs(M) > 3
+(2*M)% defense debuff on target’s melee defense {enhanced by Colossal if M>3}
-(2*M)% accuracy buff {enhanced by Tiny if M<3}
Growth
Each power is interruptible while it activates (as you grow to a new height). If you try to activate a power but have no room to grow (due to a roof), nothing happens. If you are too big to fit through an opening, you must turn off growth powers until you can.
Big (self & toggle) – (+1 M). Your body mass helps you resist damage from pinpoint attacks. Enhancements: Resistance, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Huge (self & toggle) – (+1 M). Your size gives you a PBAoE taunt attack on foes within a 5’ radius, and gives you additional leverage to knock opponents down. Enhancements: Endurance, Interrupt, Knockback, Taunt, Recharge
Gigantic (self & toggle) – (+1 M). You are so much bigger than your opponents that you do an extra 10*M smashing damage with all your melee attacks. You must be level 14 and already have 1 other Growth power. Enhancement: Damage, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Colossal (self & toggle) – (+1 M). Your fists are now the size of your foes enabling you to ignore their attempts to block your melee attacks. Your size is frightening (2*M’ PBAoE fear radius). You must be level 20 and already have 2 other growth powers. Enhancement: Defense Debuff, Fear, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Shrink
Each power is interruptible while it activates (as you shrink to a new height).
Small (self & toggle) – (-1 M). Your size makes it easy to find cover and dodge attacks. Enhancements: Defense, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.
Slight (self & toggle) – (-1 M). Your size makes it easy to sneak and hide. Enhancements: Endurance, Interrupt, Range, Recharge
Puny (self & toggle) – (-1 M). You are so small that opponent’s have trouble tracking and targeting you; +(2*M)% to-hit debuff. You must be level 14 and already have 1 other Shrink power. Enhancement: Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge, To-hit Debuff.
Tiny (self & toggle) – (-1 M). Your foes are so much bigger than yourself, it’s ridiculously easy to tag them. You must be level 20 and already have 2 other Shrink powers. Enhancement: Accuracy, Endurance, Interrupt, Recharge.

There could of course be temp powers (magic elixirs or proton belts, etc) that enable Growth or Shrink; and new controller or corrupter powers to grow/shrink teammates. But only characters who have the power(s) have access to the enhancements, so there will probably be a noticeable difference in performance. External boosts could, in theory, grow or shrink a character by any amount, but presumable with a 1-byte control limited to numeric values makes 9 levels becomes the ceiling, which is down to 4” tall or up to 50’.
I think it would be cool for the Devs to create “The Macrocosm and The Microcosm” as new zones. A group like Portal or Crey learns how to manipulate the dimension of scale. Players could go there, (and like at the Portal Corp) use the machinery to intentionally transfer to one of these dimensions. But players could accidentally manipulate their Magnitude beyond a factor of 9 – causing them to ‘ghost out’ of our reality into one of these neighboring dimensions, from which they must find a way back (and no, it wouldn’t be as easy as just turning the powers off – cause the Magnitude byte would reset to zero – the ‘norm’ for this dimension).

As for the technology to block or force detoggles - sure it exists. You can't Hover and Fly at the same time, can you? Though this suggestion gets around that since toggling all 8 powers at the same time returns you to an M of zero. Massive endurance use for no gain.

Repulsion Field/Whirlwind/Hurricane
These three powers are conceptually similar in that the user generates a constant (or pulsing) outgoing force to counteract any and all incoming attacks. Yet they are not similar in game effects.
Hurricane provides a to-hit debuff, a range debuff, a Repel, and a knockback attack against all foes. Whirlwind offers a paltry knockback in comparison, and imposes speed and endurance penalties on the user. And while you might expect a Pool power to compare poorly to a Set power, the same is true for Repulsion Field. This power imposes an endurance penalty on the user and only produces a knockback attack against any foe (which is weaker than Hurricane). But the sad thing is that all three powers contain a flaw in their concept that makes their inequality pointless.
As any good comic book hero knows, when the target makes itself somehow unassailable, you switch to the indirect (area effect) attack. And yet returning to the concept, such a change in the enemy’s tactic should be meaningless. No sleet, smoke cloud, fumes, caltrops, rain of arrows, nor any other AoE attack should stand much chance of overpowering the waves of outgoing force.
My recommendation is to give all these powers the same baseline capability, that being:
+10% AoE defense
-20% ToHit debuff
-30% Range debuff
5.0 Knockback
1.0 Repel
For Hurricane: make the ToHit Debuff and Knockback enhanceable, double the Range debuff.
For Repulsion field: make the Defense and Knockback enhanceable, double the Repel.
For Whirlwind: make the Knockback enhanceable, add the self Slow(movement), and then add 3.0 Hold Protection and 30% Slow(movement) Resistance.
Make the appropriate adjustment for Class (ie Defenders would have 13.5% defense, Controllers 6.5 KB, etc).

Force Bubble
Let’s also rethink this power. It too is missing key features. The PBAoE Repel provided by this power is the top PUSH power in the game, and yet it provides zero defense in kind. It needs knockback protection, it even needs Repel protection. It needs AoE defense improvement for the same reason the three powers above do. And it could certainly stand to have a little ToHit Debuff. Let’s go with:
10.0 Repel
7.0 Knockback protection
5.0 Repel protection
-10% ToHit debuff
+15% AoE defense
Make the Defense and ToHit debuff enhanceable.

My main point here is that top end Bubblers rarely take (and never use) Dispersion Field, Repulsion Field, and Force Bubble together. Redesign the powers in this set so these three powers overlap and interlock into a comprehensive and powerful defensive package that makes the top end Bubbler the go to toon for area denial and point control. Of course, running all three of those powers at the same time will consume a lot of endurance forcing the Bubbler to focus on the thing they are best at - Defense!

Grant Flight has been suggested before, and I find it a great idea. What has been missed about the idea is that it represents a temporary power - just like buying a raptor pack or any other temporary power. When you craft/are granted the power, you should receive an icon in an empty tray slot. If you choose NOT to use it, nothing happens.

Group Flight and Teleport should be heavily reduced in endurance cost but then applied 'per teammate' in radius, who accepts its use. This yeilds a power with speed somewhere between the tier 1 and 2 when used solo. In the case of group teleport, my feeling is the interrupt time should be significantly less than normal teleport. Used solo, this faster activation, shorter range, and heavy endurance use becomes a combat significant teleport, which is acceptable since it's the top tier power for the pool.

I suggested Escape Artist years ago when trying to split the invisibity/intangibility pool apart. The ability to slip out of handcuffs and similar binding effects is a ready made tier 1 alternative to intangibilty.

I'm all for customization - particularly the ability to set your default fly pose!

I continue to argue for Whirlwind offering a small amount of AOE and/or Slow(movement) defense. I'm a spinning mass of cyclonic energy and your plan is to toss caltrops at me? You honestly feel that should work?

And I'm even going to go against my own previous post where I said that Sprint (effectively the tier 1 running power) should behave like all other tier 1 movement powers - namely it should shut off when the tier 2 (Superspeed) is activated. Instead, I'm going to offer up that all other tier 1 movement powers should behave like sprint (though the tier 2 animation wins out). That's right, I'm suggesting the tier 1 and tier 2 can be active at the same time. Let's bounce off those speed caps and jam the endurance use throttle wide!

I continue to advocate the Swimming Pool (snicker) along with the inability to use Rest while underwater unless you take the tier 1 power Water Breathing (or equivalent temp power). If we ever want to explore the world of the Coralax, this sort of pool is a prerequisite.

I suggest the Medicine pool be retooled as the Inspiration Pool (cause really, what you're doing handing is out wakies, breakies, and greens to your teammates).

I'm all for expansion of the Pools - senses pool, manuvers pool, origin pool, ally pool, wildcard pool, growth pool, and shrinking pool. I've posted these all before and been hammered for it, but I totally agree with the initial sentiment that the Pools flesh out our characters in a way the Sets do not. In game terms, what's the difference between the Hulk and Power Man? One's green?!? NO - one superleaps and the other... wears a blouse.
And the more Pools there are the more diversity will exist.

And I don't mean to hijack the thread by mentioning Growth, so please if you wanna toast my ears on it just send me a message and allow this thread to continue on its true topic. Atlas, Talos, and Giant Monsters are proof that growth powers exist in the game mythology that the Devs themselves created. Every day we have to look at those statues and be reminded of it is another day they need to be reminded as well.

I've been dreaming of the inside of the Zig for three years now. And the preatorian zone events gave me my latest crazy idea. Here's my two cents on the topic:

Any Arachnos Archetype character approaching the pilot of the Black Helicopter in Double Down can pick up the ‘Agent Jenkins’ mission. This is really a zone event affecting the Ziggurat neighborhood of Brickstown, and can only occur once every hour (or multiple instances of the Brickstown zone would need to occur – one per team). The player(s) will be transported near the Ziggursky Correctional Facility (this would appear in the Black Helicopter zone list as a mission). This is a timed mission, and much like a mayhem mission, has minor objectives that provide bonus time upon completion. An all points bulletin would go out on the hero events channel, warning that the Ziggurat and Prison Power Station neighborhoods are under attack as Black Helicopters break through the War Walls and land at the prison.
The first order of business for the villain team is breaking into the facility. The next move is to reach various cellblocks and begin releasing prisoners which will provide them some back-up against the guards, Longbow, and any heroes brave enough to interfere. With that accomplished, they can turn their attention to the smaller supervillain wards where they can get bonus time by releasing arch-villains such as Doctor Vasilok, the Clockwork King, or any of the Rogue’s Gallery characters. And, of course, the most important side mission would be to break into the power station in an effort to disable it, which would debuff most of their other tasks significantly.
So should actual Brickstown neighborhoods be made PVP? It is a traditional city zone, but the villains only get 15 minutes (and the bonus time offers perhaps an additional half hour to 45 minutes?). Obviously, the villains could simply march around the neighborhood causing whatever mischief they can but the bonus minutes are all found inside the Zig/power station. With only one team of villains allowed, they can easily get swamped by hero responders, so they need to be inside releasing helpful NPCs. Heroes have very few missions that take them inside the fences of The Ziggurat or the Prison Power Station. So my thought is yeah, let’em fight. But this could also take on the look and feel of a base raid using a special map. Perhaps an entire league of villains can assault the Zig with a league of heroes able to respond. Villains enter at the black helo and heroes enter by clicking on the door to the Zig.

I love the idea. And it all hinges on the game adding four-legged models for the pets. There's plenty of call for it- horse for Nemisis soldiers, big cat or bear tamers for the Carnival, dog handlers for Malta, infected DE animals, strange Rikti/Hydra beasts, nightmares and hellhounds for the COT. There should even be a pool option for characters that have a familiar (characters such as The Falcon, Kazar, or any cowboy and his favorite trick horse). So when that day comes (and don't hold your breath) like they say, "I'm gonna roll me one of those."

Do there need to be villain/praetorian hazard zones? It has been said that the zones of the Rogue Isles are a bit more difficult than Paragon City, which makes up for the lack of Hazard zones. I haven’t really found that to be true. What I have found are places like Fort Hades, Agincourt, Villa Requin, Vagabond Hills, Fortune’s Wheel, and The Fab. Very few of your missions ever take you into these neighborhoods; but if you go explore them, the fighting is pretty good. Monster Isle might be the only actual red-side hazard zone, but is sooo boring. Access to the Rikti War Zone was huge. So there is certainly demand and potential for a new hazard zone or two (I’d love to know where that bridge in Imperial City leads). But I’m inclined to ask that the existing zones be improved first.

Do the Hazard zones need to be co-operative? Once a villain reaches level 20, he/she can switch to Rogue alignment and gain access to the Hazard zones - which skips over the content of The Sewers, Perez Park, the Tunnels, and Boomtown. If you stay true to the villain path, then you have to wait for the War Zone. I can see the dangers behind Dark Astoria, Eden, and the Shadow Shard zones making them co-operative. And Striga’s a pretty tough place, so why invite even more trouble by messing with the enemy camp too (call it non-combative). But why would villains care about Crey’s Folly, Terra Volta, or The Abandoned Sewers? My vote is some, but not all. Even to the point of Praetorians sneaking into Primal Earth.
I like the non-combative idea – where multiple alignments can co-exist but not interact. They won’t interfere with each other, but they won’t help each other by teaming up with ‘the enemy’. Great trigger for a zone event would be when two teams, one from each alignment, meet up causing a third group – say the Council in Striga – to discover them both and attack. Do they go back-to-back and take on the entire garrison, or does one team abandon the other. An opportunity for content that might allow/require some reluctant interaction from both sides.

Can Hazard Zones be made fun? And by fun, I mean can you make players want to go there. When The Hollows was first added, it was all Hazard zone, but it had a story line that played out in the mission arcs leading to a Trial for a finale. That was fun. Then Faultline got rebuilt with its own story arc, but became a city zone (only the area behind the dam remained Hazard). That was also fun, but no longer qualifies. Striga is a great Hazard zone that not only has a story line but 2 task forces within. Then the Crash Site became the co-operative Rikti War Zone with a story line, repeatable missions, and a trial. So absolutely they can be made fun. And now that there are triggered zone events, the possibilities are endless for fun in the Hazard zones!

Any chance the forum guards can make a topic for each hazard zone within the suggestions section for us to post our collective wish list? A place to collect the ideas of the fans for each of these zones?

Here are some of the things I’d like to see in these zones:

Perez Park – knock the hazard region down to just the park area. Make the northwest corner of Bettis Hills an abandoned zoo or amusement park that’s in the same state of disrepair. It could even contain an underground section extending under the park border and street to the old ‘Park Parking’ garage. Using a small building near the Atlas gate create the chapter house of the Loyal Order of Lions, a civic group that fosters involvement between the ordinary and heroic citizens of the city. Here, elderly contacts talk about the park in its heyday, and signature heroes make public appearances for various charities. On the Galaxy side put a police substation. Much like Borea and Meg Mason these are simply repeatable mission contacts. Both offer missions to knock down the populations of different gangs and/or in different neighborhoods. The Lions also recruit heroes to escort groups of citizens to various park landmarks; while the police enlist heroes to go into the park looking for lost children or to rescue foolish citizens who wandered in by themselves.

Actually the one Villain Hazard zone I’d love to see would be underneath Port Oaks and Cap Au Diablo – running from the closed tunnel in Port Oakes to the ruins beneath Aeon City. On the one side, grottos filled with Coralax and caverns used as hiding places by pirates of old and mobsters of today. In the center you access the labyrinth of caves used by the Power Transfer Authority, filled with Arachnos agents and electric demons dueling for control. And finally to the west the ruins of the old town over which Aeon City was built, filled with Luddites and Clockwork and Vaziloks all probing the ruins.

Dark Astoria –Being the outer side of Paragon Bay, I feel the zone should not have so much urban development and should extend all the way north to a lonely point where the Minden Lighthouse stands. The Moth Cemetery should be back to back with Elleusia (in the Talos zone) while Argo Highway connects with Romero Heights. All the other neighborhoods should take on a small town flavor making Astoria more of a neighboring town or suburb rather than yet another district of Paragon City. Add Coralax living off the coast who hate the bright light of the lighthouse and attack it every night. They might also attack random container ships approaching the bay (triggered by heroes going out to check on the vessels).
Keep the motif of the Moth Cemetery for war dead, but make it known that many heroes from Paragon City are also buried here. In each neighborhood, have ‘The Fog’ apply an environmental debuff to perception range, which also applies to Confusion, Fear and Sleep protection. But change the system from random spawns of Banished Pantheon foes milling about to a system where Pantheon lieutenants and bosses go into the cemetery, raise a mob of minions, and then march into the other neighborhoods causing random destruction. They attack specific locations (building or park or parking lot, etc). As each location is smashed, the value of the Fog goes up in that neighborhood, and the mob deactivates (cue the mindless milling). Some of the resurrection parties do not spawn mobs, instead they seek out the graves of Paragon City’s heroes from earlier times, intent on re-animating them into elite boss zombies to serve the Pantheon. Once the Fog reaches a certain value in Moth Cemetery, the conditions are right to summon Adamastor. Milling packs from other neighborhoods are re-activated to return to the cemetery. They converge, perform their dread ritual, and combine the energies of their minions plus one Mask into the mighty monster (much the way the Clockwork create Paladins). There is a minimum number of minions required, so if heroes interrupt the process, more of the marauding mobs will be recalled, which lessens the Fog factor, and could eventually cause the Pantheon to give up the attempt. As heroes defeat Pantheon enemies, and restore damaged targets; the Fog in that neighborhood weakens.
Create a Task Force about a Banished Pantheon plot to uncover the resting place of Atlas or Talos. They plan to re-animate the giant hero to spread terror and despair in Paragon City. Successful completion not only proves the usual rewards, but resets the environmental debuff to its starting value and eliminates all outstanding mobs in the zone. As the Fog thickens (threatens?), the Tsoo and the Circle of Thorns also appear in greater numbers to combat the plans of the Banished Pantheon. Once the Fog reaches a critical level, a desperate Tsoo or Circle of Thorns contact in Sharkhead might offer to smuggle villains into the zone for the purpose of combating the Banished Pantheon (not the heroes). Villains who agree are then smuggled into the zone as if it were co-operative. There might even be a Strike Force mission where the Circle of Thorns or the Tsoo hire villains to scout out what exactly the Banished Pantheon is up to, which again allows villains to enter the zone co-operatively as they proceed through the story.

Monster Island – It’s called a villain trial zone, but there doesn’t seem to be any actual trial. It’s the same Tempest Quay and Cutlass Islands that are part of the Peregrine Island hero city zone (which is also marked a Trial Zone on the map that comes with the game). Why not cut it free from the city zone and make it co-operative. Create contacts in Peregrine and Grandville who enlist the players to go there and search for evidence that Arachnos/Longbow was secretly behind the facility that was studying the Rikti monkeys. Perhaps they were experimenting on some which now have weird mutated powers? Or maybe the Devouring Earth have infected some of the monkeys creating hybrid Rikti/DE critters.

Eden – what would make Eden great would be moving the remains of the old Portal Corp. buildings from the Hive into ‘the Hive’ neighborhood which Praetorian characters use to access the zone to learn more about the Devouring Earth and Cole’s war with them. But alas, Praetorians don’t come in high enough levels to be effective in Eden. However, the DE hang out in Terra Volta which is just about the right level for finishing Praetorians, so maybe this idea could be used there instead.

The Shadow Shard Zones – need to be co-operative. The Beta site needs a place on the map so that villains can enter. Some Arachnos agents should be scattered about to hand out repeatable missions that are tailored towards exploiting the Shard Zones. Their presence is annoying, but not something the Shard Expeditionary Forces is prepared to tackle right now. All contacts (SEF and Arachnos) will offer their missions to anyone willing to take them, which should often be at crossed purposes.

Voice your own ideas about the possibilities of the different hazard zones.

I suggest that movement is underdeveloped compared with other game aspects. Since there are a number of topics, I think the best approach is to post each separately.
First some definitions: What are the ‘Stop’ powers? They are a sub-group of what most players call mez powers. They reduce your ability to maneuver, not your combat status (and thus are not truly ‘mez’ powers). Specifically they are: Slow(movement), Hold, Immobilize, Knock(back, down, up), Cage, and Repel.
What are the ‘Go’ powers? Powers that provide movement – specifically: Sprint, Superspeed, Combat Jump, Super Leap, Hover, Flight, Group Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport, and Team Teleport. Swift, Hurdle, Swiftness, and similar powers improve the values but do not themselves cause motion so they are not movement powers.
Go powers are often labeled as being Combat (Sprint, Combat Jump, Hover) or Travel (Superspeed, Super Leap, Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport). But such labels are inaccurate, and these are the definitions I’m using in this discussion.
Travel powers are the Trains, Ferries, Helicopters and the various Teleporters (Pocket D, Oroboros, Supergroup, and Hospital). These are the true Travel powers because they have no combat application, and hence won’t be discussed here.
Speed powers are: Recall Friend, Teleport, Super Leap, Flight, Super Speed, and Group Teleport. These powers may you fast (more than 40 mph).
Mobility powers are: Sprint, Hover, Combat Leap, and Group Flight. These powers won’t make you fast, but do make you agile.

Topic 6) Breakies, Counter Powers, and Suppression
Break Free Inspirations: The inspiration is known as a Breakie because it boosts your protection value. Suddenly you have more protection that the power has grip, and you ‘break free’. No other inspiration works this way. Can you take a green (or purple or orange) after you’ve been defeated? Not at all. It’s a game mechanic that has no ‘fix’; or does it?
a) The inspiration provides say 10% or 25% of its current effectiveness all the time.
b) The remaining effectiveness is based on situation. If you are NOT currently subject to the effects of a Stop or Mez power then:
i) the remaining effectiveness is added 100% of the time, otherwise
ii) there is a 50% / 75% / 90% (depending on size) chance the remaining effectiveness is added.
The result: if you want to guarantee full effectiveness, use it before you get caught, not after.

Counter-Powers: So I’m an Earth Controller and you’re an Earth Dominator and you trying sticking me with Quicksand. You honestly feel that using my own powers against me is going to work? My suggestion for all Controllers, Defenders, Dominators, and Corrupters is that each of their set powers provides Protection and Resistance equal to their own Magnitude and Duration against any power bearing the same name.

Suppression: Suppression could be replaced with interruption and disabling of the movement powers. By combining all the ideas presented in the preceding topics, here are the resulting effects:
Offensively, each attack you make reduces your concentration from movement. Make an attack and any Speed power immediately drops to the matching Mobility power (or simply un-toggles if you don’t have it). Make another attack within 2 seconds and any Mobility power also un-toggles. Essentially, the faster you make attacks, the more your motion simply grinds to a halt. You must be constantly refocusing on (reactivating) your movement powers if you want to keep using it.
Defensively, any attack that activates faster than your interruption phase will un-toggle your movement power. Any power with a successful Stop component will disable/debuff all your movement powers. Knock(any), and Repel simply un-toggle your movement powers. Cage, Hold and Immobilize disable for their duration. Slow(move) debuffs your overall speed.

By comparing attack activation time to the interruption time of the movement powers, you quickly correct an imbalance in combat. All the Speed powers have an interrupt time of over 1 second (1 unenhanceable second, plus one enhanceable second) and are thus relatively easily to interrupt using the powers from the low end of the offensive power sets. This makes the lightweight offensive powers an important tool in the combat locker, allowing you to put and keep your opponent off balance. All the Maneuver powers have an interrupt time of one second or less, so they are harder to interrupt. This makes them valuable for more than just enabling you to purchase a Speed power.

So that's everything. Take it all in, think it over, and start picking away.

I suggest that movement is underdeveloped compared with other game aspects. Since there are a number of topics, I think the best approach is to post each separately.
First some definitions: What are the ‘Stop’ powers? They are a sub-group of what most players call mez powers. They reduce your ability to maneuver, not your combat status (and thus are not truly ‘mez’ powers). Specifically they are: Slow(movement), Hold, Immobilize, Knock(back, down, up), Cage, and Repel.
What are the ‘Go’ powers? Powers that provide movement – specifically: Sprint, Superspeed, Combat Jump, Super Leap, Hover, Flight, Group Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport, and Team Teleport. Swift, Hurdle, Swiftness, and similar powers improve the values but do not themselves cause motion so they are not movement powers.
Go powers are often labeled as being Combat (Sprint, Combat Jump, Hover) or Travel (Superspeed, Super Leap, Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport). But such labels are inaccurate, and these are the definitions I’m using in this discussion.
Travel powers are the Trains, Ferries, Helicopters and the various Teleporters (Pocket D, Oroboros, Supergroup, and Hospital). These are the true Travel powers because they have no combat application, and hence won’t be discussed here.
Speed powers are: Recall Friend, Teleport, Super Leap, Flight, Super Speed, and Group Teleport. These powers may you fast (more than 40 mph).
Mobility powers are: Sprint, Hover, Combat Leap, and Group Flight. These powers won’t make you fast, but do make you agile.

Topic 5) Powers that interact with Movement Powers
The effects of certain movement affecting powers:
1) Self-slowing powers (ex. Granite Armor) disable (thus preventing) the use of certain movement powers (usually the Speed powers), as given in the power.
2) Stealth (and set powers providing a Stealth radius) does not debuff movement, movement debuffs Stealth. All Mobility powers debuff the Stealth radius by 20% and all Speed powers debuff the radius by 50%. Going Stationary buffs Stealth radius +30%. Activating Travel disables Stealth (as it is not a movement power).
3) Invisibility and Phase Shift are neither movement nor non-movement powers (can use with Travel or Stationary).
4) Hide is debuffed 10% by all Mobility powers and 20% by all Speed powers, and would be disabled by Travel (as it is also not a movement power).
This power is very nebulously defined – is it a ninja-like maneuvering in shadows and blind spots, the use of disguises or chameleon-like abilities, light-bending invisibility? So I make this suggestion by placing it somewhere between Stealth and Invisibility.
5) Disorient and Sleep powers un-toggle your movement powers and Travel/Stationary stances.
7) Fear and Confuse powers can randomly toggle or un-toggle any movement power and stance.
8) Powers from Defensive sets (not pools) which Protect against or Resist the Stop powers are reduced to about half of their current effectiveness.

And what posting by me would be complete without yet another irrational attempt at a few new pools:

Amphibious Pool {Snicker - Swimming Pool}
Gills (self & auto) – You can breathe underwater. You do not take damage from the underwater environment, and you may activate Rest while underwater. You also swim slightly faster. Enhancements: swim
Grant Water Breathing (target & click) - You can enable another character to breathe underwater for a few minutes. Enhancements: endurance, recharge, range
Super Swim (self & toggle) - You can swim at incredible speeds and are remarkably agile in the water, making you a hard target to hit. This is a Speed power, so you have 4 points of protection from Hold, Immobilize, Cage, Knock(any), and Repel. Enhancements: defense, endurance, swim. You must be level 14 and have 1 other Amphibious power.
Water Affinity (self & auto) - You regenerate and recover faster when in contact with water. Enhancements: heal, modification, swim. You must be level 20 and have 2 other Amphibious powers.

Notes: It would be interesting (of course) to introduce Swim Enhancements, but you could make due with Running. If they were introduced, I would argue that the super reflex power Quickness be allowed to slot it as well as Hurdle (I would pick Hurdle both to even out the number of powers Swift and Hurdle modify and because swimming requires a whole body coordination like leaping. This also brings up the question of an inherent Mobility power for swimming or simply allowing Sprint (and related prestige powers) to slot the swimming enhancement as well.

Daredevil/Xtreme Power Pool
Boards (self & toggle) – You have a board (skate, surf, anti-grav, magic carpet) that enhances your movement speed. If you are successfully attacked by a Slow(move) power, then the Board un-toggles and throws you clear of the effect. It takes as long to recharge as the Slow duration, but leaves you free (it gets stuck, not you). It can even improve your Teleport range. It does not enable you to fly but can augment your flying speed. Enhancements: endurance, fly, leap, range, run/(swim)
I’d love to see Board recipes to exchange the basic model for a surf- or boogie- board model, or man-hole covers, flying carpets, etc.
Gliding (self & toggle) – Using a chute, sail, or wings, you manipulate the effects of gravity so that you fall much slower and are able to move horizontally as well. Enhancements: endurance, fly.
Wall Walking (self & toggle) – You can walk on walls (or even ceilings) like someone in an Escher drawing. While this power is active, gravity does not affect you so you can walk on any surface. You are also protected from Knock(any) and Repel powers [6 pts] Enhancements: defense, endurance. You must be level 14 and have 1 other Daredevil power.
Most people want to see wall walking like Spiderman does it, but that involves a ton of animation work for hunched up figures. Besides, the ‘skin’ of each toon is somewhat nebulous. This is why toons can partially disappear through walls – the ‘bones’ are solid and won’t pass through the wall but the’ skin’ is just animated from there – so it partially ‘disappears’. This is least apparent at the feet, which is why I suggest the Escher approach. The question is, can the game apply ‘gravity’ to vertical and upside-down surfaces?
Fearless (self & activate) - You take a deep breathe and focus or your task, not the peril you are in. For a short while, you are protected from Confusion, Fear and Taunt powers, and your accuracy is slightly improved. Enhancements: accuracy, defense, endurance, recharge. You must be level 20 and have 2 other Daredevil powers.

I suggest that movement is underdeveloped compared with other game aspects. Since there are a number of topics, I think the best approach is to post each separately.
First some definitions: What are the ‘Stop’ powers? They are a sub-group of what most players call mez powers. They reduce your ability to maneuver, not your combat status (and thus are not truly ‘mez’ powers). Specifically they are: Slow(movement), Hold, Immobilize, Knock(back, down, up), Cage, and Repel.
What are the ‘Go’ powers? Powers that provide movement – specifically: Sprint, Superspeed, Combat Jump, Super Leap, Hover, Flight, Group Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport, and Team Teleport. Swift, Hurdle, Swiftness, and similar powers improve the values but do not themselves cause motion so they are not movement powers.
Go powers are often labeled as being Combat (Sprint, Combat Jump, Hover) or Travel (Superspeed, Super Leap, Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport). But such labels are inaccurate, and these are the definitions I’m using in this discussion.
Travel powers are the Trains, Ferries, Helicopters and the various Teleporters (Pocket D, Oroboros, Supergroup, and Hospital). These are the true Travel powers because they have no combat application, and hence won’t be discussed here.
Speed powers are: Recall Friend, Teleport, Super Leap, Flight, Super Speed, and Group Teleport. These powers may you fast (more than 40 mph).
Mobility powers are: Sprint, Hover, Combat Leap, and Group Flight. These powers won’t make you fast, but do make you agile.

Topic 4) Revisiting the Movement Pools
Speed Pool (and Sprint)
Sprint: add one second interrupt phase and 25% resistance to Slow(movement), Hold, Immobilize, and Cage and allow the power to slot: Resistance and Interrupt reduction.
Superspeed: add the complex interrupt* and 4 pts. protection from Hold, Immobilize, Cage, Knock(any), Repel and allow the power to slot: Defense and Interrupt reduction. Remove the speed increase per level.
Whirlwind: add +10% AoE defense (since the vortex is presumably pushing caltrops, burning hail, and freezing rain away from you), +4 points protection from Immobilize and allow the power to slot: Defense. This power is not a movement power (cannot use with Travel can use with Stationary).
Leaping
All the energy of a leap comes from the initial burst, so it is less effective against Knock(any) and Repel, but more effective against slow fields than other movement powers. Also, the running broad jump is more effective than the standing, so Sprint is an equivalent Mobility power.
Combat Jump: add one second interrupt phase, 30% resistance to Slow(movement), 20% resistance to Hold, Immobilize, and Cage. Allow the power to slot: Resistance and Interrupt reduction. If triggered with Sprint active, there is no interruption phase and the leap gets a +20% speed (but not height) boost.
Super Leap: add the complex interrupt*, 4 pts. protection from Hold, Immobilize, Cage, and 2 pts. protection from Knock(any), Repel and allow the power to slot: Defense and Interrupt reduction. Remove the speed increase per level. If triggered with Sprint active, there is no interruption phase and the leap gets a +20% speed (but not height) boost.
Acrobatics: This power is not a movement power (cannot use with Travel can use with Stationary).
Flight
Hover: add one second interrupt phase, 25% resistance to Slow(movement) , Hold, Immobilize, and Cage and allow the power to slot: Resistance and Interrupt reduction. Remove the defensive component.
Grant Flight (target & click): This power grants 1 teammate the ability to fly for 4 minutes (they will receive a temporary power that they can utilize). This is a Speed power but not as fast as Flight. It does not buff any flying power, and it does not stack. Enhancements: endurance, flight, range, recharge. Available at level 6.
Fly: add the complex interrupt*, 4 pts. protection from Hold, Immobilize, Cage, Knock(any), Repel and allow the power to slot: Defense and Interrupt reduction. Remove the speed increase per level.
Group Fly: add a one second interrupt phase, 10% accuracy debuff 30’ radius, 25% resistance to Slow(movement) , Hold, Immobilize, and Cage 30’ radius and allow the power to slot: Resistance and Interrupt reduction. Reduce the endurance cost and apply it ‘per teammate’. Double the speed but debuff it ‘per teammate’. When activated, send a warning (like teleport) to teammates allowing them to opt out (of ALL the effects).
Group Fly a team of 8 and it uses a lot of endurance and is slow, but to group fly only 1 or 2 additional characters makes it more effective.
Teleportation
The servers make no attempt to calculate line-of-site for porting critters – they simply pick any valid spot within range, often behind walls – a feat that players cannot replicate. So, Teleport and Team Teleport enable an additional ‘stick-pin’ on the player’s map feature. Players can use it to set their target point as well as using the targeting reticule. When using the map, you cannot set a target point obscured by ‘the-fog-of-war’ (so you cannot teleport to a spot you’ve never seen).
Teleportation is useless against Knock(any) and Repel – though you could teleport inside a Repel field and hope to get off an attack before it affects you.
Recall Friend: add a two second interrupt phase, 6 pts. protection from Hold, Immobilize, Cage and allow the power to slot: Defense and Interrupt reduction.
Grant Teleport (target & click): This power grants 1 teammate the ability to teleport for 4 minutes (they will receive a temporary power that they can utilize). This is a Speed power but not as long ranged as Teleport, it does not buff any teleporting power, and it does not stack. Enhancements: endurance, range, recharge. Available at level 6.
Teleport: add a two second interrupt phase, 6 pts. protection from Hold, Immobilize, Cage and allow the power to slot: Defense and Interrupt reduction.
Team Teleport: add a one second interrupt phase, 10% accuracy debuff to affected characters, 4 pts. protection from Hold, Immobilize, Cage, Teleport Foe and allow the power to slot: Defense and Interrupt reduction. Reduce the endurance cost and apply it ‘per teammate’. This power also protects you and teammates against enemy teleportation in a 30’ radius.
Note that Team Teleport has a shorter interrupt time and shorter range than Teleport, which allows it to be used as a kind of combat teleport when solo.

* the complex interrupt goes like this:
a) If equivalent Mobility power is not active, then perform a one-second unenhanceable interrupt phase.
b) Then perform a one-second enhanceable interrupt phase.
c) Then apply power values.

I suggest that movement is underdeveloped compared with other game aspects. Since there are a number of topics, I think the best approach is to post each separately.
First some definitions: What are the ‘Stop’ powers? They are a sub-group of what most players call mez powers. They reduce your ability to maneuver, not your combat status (and thus are not truly ‘mez’ powers). Specifically they are: Slow(movement), Hold, Immobilize, Knock(back, down, up), Cage, and Repel.
What are the ‘Go’ powers? Powers that provide movement – specifically: Sprint, Superspeed, Combat Jump, Super Leap, Hover, Flight, Group Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport, and Team Teleport. Swift, Hurdle, Swiftness, and similar powers improve the values but do not themselves cause motion so they are not movement powers.
Go powers are often labeled as being Combat (Sprint, Combat Jump, Hover) or Travel (Superspeed, Super Leap, Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport). But such labels are inaccurate, and these are the definitions I’m using in this discussion.
Travel powers are the Trains, Ferries, Helicopters and the various Teleporters (Pocket D, Oroboros, Supergroup, and Hospital). These are the true Travel powers because they have no combat application, and hence won’t be discussed here.
Speed powers are: Recall Friend, Teleport, Super Leap, Flight, Super Speed, and Group Teleport. These powers may you fast (more than 40 mph).
Mobility powers are: Sprint, Hover, Combat Leap, and Group Flight. These powers won’t make you fast, but do make you agile.

Topic 3) Enhancing Movement
Movement power benefits increase as the character levels up. Example: Flight, at level 14 the base speed enhancement is +276.65%; by level 50 it is +350%. This means a level 14 character with 3 slots devoted to flight enhancement (and losing some bonus due to repeat slotting) is doing about the same speed as a level 50 with 1.5 slots devoted. So a speedster will devote more slots early in the career and then respec to reclaim a few slots later on when the level bonus makes it practical. Also the maximum flight rate is fairly close to what a level 50 with 2 CO’s can achieve. Why not simply eliminate the level based component? This puts the cap further out of reach and requires careful character building strategies to achieve.
Yes this would make everyone slower, exactly the opposite of what people are crying about. I have already outlined a response to this in Topic 1. Consider this, achieving huge offense or defense requires a player to slot carefully and take IO’s that build toward the goal. The same rational needs to hold for building a character towards speed. If you want to be fast, then slot those movement powers and live with a little less offense or defense. If you are not willing to devote the slots then take the train. The Devs need to stand tough about this.

A body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a body at rest tends to stay at rest. This is inertia – think of it as resistance to Stop powers. All the Mobility powers need to offer Resistance to the duration of Stop powers, which can be enhanced by slotting Damage Resistance (not sets). Why? Because you have already volunteered to move at less than maximum speed. Seriously. The Speed powers are all about moving fast where the Mobility powers turn that same motive power into agility. You give up raw speed for maneuverability. Example: Caltrops - the reality of caltrops is that they do the most damage to things moving through them fast. A slower moving object is able to more carefully maneuver through the field and so takes less damage.

The actual motion of a body is the sum of all forces acting on it. This is acceleration – think of it as protection to Stop powers. All the Speed powers need to offer Protection to the magnitude of Stop powers, which can be enhanced by slotting Defense (not sets). Again why? Well for Cage, Hold and Immobilize it’s a matter of forming your snare around a high speed target quickly enough; the faster the target, the harder it is. For Knock(any) and Repel it’s a simple matter of force. A 200 lb. superhero flying at 50 MPH requires an applied force of 455 lbs or so. If you can generate more force, then your power defeats the flight power and sends the target reeling.

None of these concepts apply to Teleportation powers. There is no inertia or acceleration imparted by the instantaneous movement of an object from one location to another, and so Teleportation powers are neither a movement nor a non-movement power. Teleportation powers actually should behave like a Breakie. If your teleport power can overcome the magnitude of a Stop effect, then you escape. So all Teleport powers should have higher base Protection and can also slot Defense. Team Teleport can also uses its defense component to protect against the magnitude of enemy teleportation effects in a radius around you.

Acceleration does not exist in the game. Toggle Flight, press the ‘W’ key, and you are instantly moving at top speed. This behavior needs to be corrected. Activate any Mobility power and there should be a 1 second interrupt phase before it applies. Activate any Speed power and there should be two one second interrupt phases before it applies. However, if you already have an equivalent Mobility power toggled, then the Speed power only cycles through one interrupt phase before activating. This interrupt phase applies to all Teleport powers, and is two seconds long. Slotting Interrupt reduction reduces the length of these periods; and in effect, introduces variable acceleration to the game.

What I’m suggesting here is that the Go powers themselves should be the primary counter to the Stop powers. There are numerous powers that offer protection/resistance, but right now, the bulk of them come from defensive sets. This is like saying that Tankers fly ‘harder’ than Defenders.
For the most part only players who would want to use the movement powers as part of combat will find this extra slotting attractive. And sure, this still won’t make a player think that 6-slotting a movement power just isn’t enough. The real purpose behind an interrupt phase will be discussed in Topic 6.