_Laxx_

I'm sorry, Ultimo, but I think "close your eyes and start having fun instead of trying to fix nonexistent problems" is a valid point of argument. There isn't anything wrong, but you're insisting on seeing something that isn't there so you can get a buff that you don't need. Rather, it's a buff you want, and you're trying to reason why this "want" is actually a "need".

He didn't tell you to stop discussing it. He merely stated that there is no problem and, therefor, there is no fix required. It was probably also written in the way it was because of your usual threads and your tendency to ignore basic facts about the game. That is, it was made short and to the point because, frankly, trying to argue anything with you is almost always an exercise in futility. What I mean here is, you assume that the way you play the game, and what you think the game should be, is how everyone plays the game or how the game should be and... most of the time, the things you notice are faults in your character design/playstyle and have nothing to do with the game at large.

In short, I'm agreeing with him: there is no problem to fix, so go back to playing the game.

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5/9 (yes, i was wrong about Emp's total number of +regen buffs, didn't account for AB). Resurrect isn't a heal.

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Healing 100% of HP and restoring the dead to life isn't a heal?

OK.

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Scroll up and read some more. It won't hurt, I promise.

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I read what you wrote above. It's the same tortured logic that the anti-healer forces have been using for 5 years. Empathy is a set focused on restoring life, i.e. healing. That doesn't mean that that is all it can do, it's just what it's focused on.

But that doesn't work in the anti-healer playbook so we take ridiculous logical leaps to avoid calling something that heals a heal.

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I'm what you'd call an "anti-healer", but I explained why the Rez is a heal. Twice. I even asked her to go back and read my post, but it appears that never happened.

Or I'm ignored. /shrug Doesn't really matter to me in the end.

QR

Vahz Zombies are weak to Lethal damage, if I remember correctly. Clockwork were already mentioned ...those are the only ones I usually care to remember.

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If you have ENOUGH stealth you can safely plant the bomb without drawing attention. Cloaking Device by itself will not be enough. However, as was already mentioned, if you stack a +Stealth IO or Superspeed with Cloaking Device you should be fine.

Time Bomb is a fun power, but you definitely don't want to make it your primary strategy. Also, don't bother on teams, it will end up being a waste of endurance because the team WILL kill the entire spawn before the bomb goes off.

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I know teams won't wait, and that I'd have to stack CD a stealth IO or something. I figured that would have been obvious.

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Er, that was a quick reply, I was addressing the OP's question.

I didn't put QR in front of my post because I didn't feel it was necessary.

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Uh huh. Sarcasm noted.

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I hear that virtue is one to stay away from.

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Hahaha...I think someone was pulling your leg.

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More likely the OP has been reading some of B_I's posts. She starts foaming and frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog whenever Virtue comes up in a thread.

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Maybe, but B_I foams and froths at the mouth at nearly anything. Mention Speed Boost and Virtue in the same thread, then watch out!

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If you have ENOUGH stealth you can safely plant the bomb without drawing attention. Cloaking Device by itself will not be enough. However, as was already mentioned, if you stack a +Stealth IO or Superspeed with Cloaking Device you should be fine.

Time Bomb is a fun power, but you definitely don't want to make it your primary strategy. Also, don't bother on teams, it will end up being a waste of endurance because the team WILL kill the entire spawn before the bomb goes off.

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I know teams won't wait, and that I'd have to stack CD a stealth IO or something. I figured that would have been obvious.

I don't have a link handy that details what each server is "known" for, but why in the world would you think Virtue is one to stay away from?

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Mature as in "established?"
Mature as in "grown-ups?"
Mature as in "R-rated?"

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Or X-rated if you're a catgirl.

Please spay and neuter your catboys/girls! It's for the good of the catperson population!

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RPing in a "mature faction" just makes me want to shudder. "Mature RPers" indeed, heh. Of course, he could just be talking about a group that says whatever the hell they want without anyone getting offended, which I guess would fall into "R" or "X" material, depending on the circumstance. That's usually what the people I've come across that want a "mature" group mean, anyway, which usually leads to anything but maturity in said group, but I digress.

And don't spay your catgirls, please. They're rare enough in the "real world" as it is.

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Since when? Cloaking Device suppressed as soon as you activated Trip Mine or Time Bomb the last I checked, but it's been quite awhile since I've logged my Elec/Dev into the game and tried any toe-bombing.

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Since at the very least I13 when I got my first Devices Blaster set up with Cloaking Device, Trip Mine and a Stealth Proc. I stealth bomb all the time without being detected.

I haven't gotten to the point of adding Time Bomb to the menu yet, but I'm sure much more destructive hilarity will ensue.

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Like I said, it's been awhile since I've used my /Dev blaster. I never bothered with Toebombing really anyway. I was content setting a few and TP Foeing someone into it, heh. Maybe if I grab a Stealth IO I might switch my tactics up a bit. It may give me a reason to pick up Time Bomb, assuming you can toe bomb with that.

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Rezzes can restore HP, but they aren't heals.

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I'm boggled by this statement.

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+Regen "restores" HP as well, but it's not a heal according to the game's standards for what constitutes a heal.

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I can see Resurrections being counted as heals.

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Is the Awaken inspiration a heal, then? Do you use it to recover HP during a fight?

No and no.

Rezzes can restore HP, but they aren't heals.

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Read my post. As far as the game coding is concerned, a Rez counts as heal because it counts towards the heal badges.

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The act of setting the bombs wouldn't break stealth, but you would need another type of +stealth to add to CD in order to jump into the middle of a spawn. A +stealth IO or Super speed will work(or both, or even SS slotted with a +stealth IO and no CD)

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Since when? Cloaking Device suppressed as soon as you activated Trip Mine or Time Bomb the last I checked, but it's been quite awhile since I've logged my Elec/Dev into the game and tried any toe-bombing.

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+regen heals. This is the hind leg of the horse. AB also regens. That is the tail.

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The only reason I never count +Regen as a heal is because +Regen doesn't get you any credit on the healing badges. Powers that heal other targets, including Rez powers, do. Thus, Rez powers are heals purely due to a game mechanic. Of course, this brings up self-heal powers not counting towards healing badges, but then again, the healing badges only count heals done to other players. Since you can cast +Regen powers on other players, but it doesn't budge your heal badge count, it's not a heal in my opinion.

Of course, I figured that would be obvious, but players love to stretch their definitions of things to account for as many things that fall outside of it as possible. I've had people try to argue that +Resist was technically a heal because it effectively increased your HP and "preemptively healed" damage that would have been dealt to you in full if not for the +Resist.

I've already chimed in on the topic at hand, but I'll reiterate here that anyone advertising themselves as a "healer" regardless of AT or character build will get passed over by me. I'll take someone who I know will use all their powers instead of the person who, more often than not, just follows the tank and puts their heal aura on auto.

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what's a Strike Force?

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It's exactly the same as a Task Force, but for villains.

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You mention wanting to be in the "top 10" and I just have to ask ....why? The ranking system is based purely on your prestige numbers, and I have to say, that literally means diddly-squat to me if I were a prospective member. In fact, I usually point this out to people who advertise their SG as being "Number 27 in the server" so the people they're trying to pick up aren't confused about what it means. Now, I'm not saying you're trying to use this meaningless ranking as a tool to get new players, but it's what I see most frequently on Champion. With the changes to base pricing, the amount of prestige your group has for a base means even less than it did before.


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You may feel that way, but the vast majority put stock in it.

Also, if a SG goes from say, #50 to #25, in a short time, it shows that they are active (especially on Freedom; where it's hardest).

The fact that you call out recruiters like that is kind of rude...and something you might want to reconsider. You're talking to people that have worked hard to get it, and they have a right to be proud.

Shooting them down simply because it doesn't matter to you isn't right.

Still reading the rest of your post

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I'd like to know who this "vast majority" is. In my experience, the only people that put any stock into it are people that don't know how it's calculated, don't know what it actually means, are unaware that it really doesn't mean anything regarding the quality of a SG (and to me, it just means the group cares more about prestige than having quality members), or they're trying to use it specifically as a recruiting tool to grab some ignorant newbies to fill out a roster. I'm willing to entertain the idea that this is probably restricted entirely to Atlas Park recruitment spam, which isn't a good way to get members who will stick around regardless.

All I mention when the "top X on the server" is announced is what is actually used to calculate it. Quite a few people aren't even aware that it's based solely on your gathered prestige numbers, including those who are using it to advertise their SG. I've rarely gotten into "broadcast fights" about it because I don't announce it in a "matter of fact" or "condescending" manner. It's purely informative and most people appreciate the explanation and clarity.

The only reason I say it doesn't matter is because what required a lot of prestige to maintain (large impressive bases) requires significantly less now.

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I really should make out a longish post in notepad or something that I can copy/paste into here detailing everything about farming, similar to Bill's copy/paste responses.

I really do get tired of feeling compelled to respond to these farming threads and trying to go over all my points all over again from scratch to a group of people who refuse to see certain facts -- preferring to hold their biased and destructive opinions over everything else.

And before someone jumps down my throat, this post isn't directed at anyone in particular, but rather, it's a general post for everyone in these "Farming is 100% A-OK in all forms always!" and "Farming is the most vile of gaming sins and we must wash our hands of this filth before it contaminates the rest of our souls!" groups.

I'm going to stop here before I decide to lay out my usual Farm vs. AntiFarm things. I really do need to make one in notepad. /sigh

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Firstly, that 10-day activity requirement is kind of obnoxious. I bet that has cost you some potential members. We have NO activity requirement. Once you're in, you always have a *HOME*. We're not herding cattle. The only time we kick for 'inactivity' is when we're full and want to add someone new.

Second, having X number of people in the SG online at once isn't necessarily your goal. My SG has our own global channel and all members (and some non-members) are on it. We might have 3-4 people *online in the SG* but 15 or 20 *on the channel*. You're recruiting PLAYERS, not specific characters. When we have SG events, people can bring any character they want. They don't need to bring the toon that happens to be in this particular SG.

How are you recruiting? If you're broadcasting or posting on the forums, I don't think people take that seriously. If there is no entry requirement beyond "Invite me?" "You're in.", people don't feel they're committing to anything. They may decide your base isn't big enough or the SG name isn't cool enough and leave. After all, what holds them there? At that point, they don't know anyone.

We don't specifically 'recruit'. If we meet someone in-game AND they don't have an SG AND they're fun to play with, THEN we'll try to recruit them. At this point, you've gotten to know them and have become friends (at least to some extent). True, this means we add members very slowly. But it also means that they are likely to stick around for a hell of a long time. I don't recall if we've ever had 20 online at once, but if we got 12 to show up for a *SHARD* TF, we must be doing something right.

As for specific things to do to increase activity. Schedule stuff. If people log on at a random time and see two people on, it doesn't make an impression. If they log on for something planned and see a dozen or more, they'll take notice. You need to have the players get to know each other. Once that happens, they'll start to make plans to team even when nothing is scheduled. If you get multiple SG members on a team and a new player sees them playing together, it tells them it's an active SG. This helps you find new members. You need to work hard to get this sort of thing started but, once you do, it builds on itself.

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Having people in the SG online "in the sg" is exactly the point in our case. We're faced with trying to make the Top 10 on the hardest server to do so (Freedom).

Using the current method, we are nearly always full, and about 20-30 toons are logged on daily...but I suspect many of them are alts of a limited few.

I see your point on the Global channel, and I actually joined an SG on Virtue that did this...the result in that one was the SG itself was very inactive...like 3 people on daily. That's something I want to avoid.

My goal is to successfully make the SG a proud place to play...friendly and enjoyable.

I might do the global thing though. It would actually come in handy if the newer members don't have alts in the SG.

We have a themed sister SG...it never really caught on because of the theme. Maybe I'll make that an Alt sg.

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You mention wanting to be in the "top 10" and I just have to ask ....why? The ranking system is based purely on your prestige numbers, and I have to say, that literally means diddly-squat to me if I were a prospective member. In fact, I usually point this out to people who advertise their SG as being "Number 27 in the server" so the people they're trying to pick up aren't confused about what it means. Now, I'm not saying you're trying to use this meaningless ranking as a tool to get new players, but it's what I see most frequently on Champion. With the changes to base pricing, the amount of prestige your group has for a base means even less than it did before.

Creating a global channel for your group is a very good idea. People make new characters all the time, and they may not want every single character of theirs physically in their main's SG. Just as an example, I'm an extreme altaholic. Our SG channel will probably show me as being online at any given point, but not all of my characters are in our SG so the SG might appear "dead" if it weren't for our global channel. I'm constantly switching characters and some sit untouched for 2-3 weeks at a time. Having a global channel with your members in it will show that while they might not have used a particular character in a while, they're not actually an inactive member and kicking them out because they (people like me, now) can't stay on one character for more than a few levels (or less) is just silly.

I also agree that having a 10-day inactive restriction is extremely restricting. Hell, 14 days is still pushing it in my opinion though that's a bit more reasonable. Not to drag another MMO into this, but I'm reminded of a certain player in WoW who wanted to do scheduled guild raids. He took it upon himself to try to set them up, which was good... except his schedule only worked with his own personal time openings. He had no job, no obligations, and his raiding schedule reflected this. He eventually left the guild due to "lack of raid interest" even though we explained that his schedule didn't let anyone but two or three others show up.

That's what I'm picking up here. Your policies seem to reflect a system that you, personally, can handle and you're not taking into account the variables of other peoples' lives. Things can happen, people might jump around on some alts for a couple weeks, or a life emergency occurs and they can't really log in for 2-3 weeks. Coming back and finding that the SG they had fun times in has given them the boot because of a inactive period that's far too short doesn't usually sit well with most people. My suggestion to you is to find a system that accommodates the largest possible selection of your members without being so lax as to allow the SG to become cluttered with throw-away alts.

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ok gents, im about to post up my opinion. please stop salivating, getting ready to type like little madtrolls because "YOUR OPINION IS WRONG NOOB!!!"

the OP was talking about a stormy getting in as a response to a broadcast for a healer. this means it was puggy

its way easier to be a good "mere healer" than it is to be good with your whole set.

amongst your S/VG or with friends, id agree with all the healer haters in the thread. I am not, however, going to take a chance puggin it up with some sonic cause he says things like "once i buff/debuff you wont need a healer!" and have him turn out to be some nubby nub nub.

laymans:
good buff/debuff > good healer
bad healer > bad buff/debuff

pugs are all about statistics. you have a better chance with someone AT'd for healing than the stormy or TA.

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I'm not sure what you're supposed to be trying to say here, but if I get stuck with a bad player of any AT, I'm dropping them as fast as I can and I'll pick up a replacement who isn't terrible. For clarity's sake, "bad" in this case refers to this player's inability to play his/her AT while simultaneously refusing to heed the advice of the rest of the group. I have no problem trying to help a new player figure out the intricacies of a particular combination (or to break them of previous MMO habits), but the minute they think that their bad play is how it's supposed to be played and WE all suck? Yeah, they're outta the group.

As to the topic of this thread, the only thing I've ever associated with the "healer" title is a player who only takes (or only uses) their heal powers and does nothing else. This type of player is completely worthless to me for many reasons, not the least of which being that I can find a real Defender or Controller who not only uses their heals, but isn't afraid to click their other power buttons. This is also a hot-button topic with me specifically because my Dark Defender spent a lot of time being kicked from teams because she wasn't an Empath and I wasn't spamming my heals enough (nevermind the fact that nobody was even taking damage that my single heal fired off every 15 minutes couldn't patch up).

As far as I'm concerned, if you choose to represent yourself as a Healer, I'm going to assume that you fall into my definition of the term and I won't knowingly pick you for my team. I couldn't care less if you actually play your Defender like a defender and use every power in your primary and secondary -- if I see you asking for a team, and you call yourself a Healer, I'll never know because I refuse to take the chance on grabbing a bum leech teammate.

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It's balanced once you save up a billion inf to spend on your toon. Good luck going in with no sets.

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And this is different than WHAT games? In any MMO game with pvp, if you want to "be" the best, you'll have to have the "best toys/gear" to get there with. Add in your own personal skills, and you have a top performer. Yes, even WoW requires the "best" gear and classes to actually put up a good fight in pvp.


CoX is no different in that sense.

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It's just the most common complaint given from people who want all the top shinnies, but don't want to put in even a modicum of time/effort to attain them.

While it's true that to "compete" you "need" the "best" stuff (notice all the quotes), CoX is a bit more ...forgiving, I'll say... to the player who doesn't have these things due to how PvP currently works. They're at a disadvantage, yes, but it's not something that can't be overcome with sufficient teammates and competent play. On top of this, the "top of line" is comparatively easy to get when put next to the difficulty or time investment required in most MMOs. Nearly everything you need is readily available, or is maybe a few hours of time away (all combined, not per IO). Compare that to not being geared in WoW until a few weeks go by with constant raiding/PvPing to get there and you've got a system that doesn't completely lock out the Newbie PvPer.

And that last point there is where CoX differentiates itself the most, beyond the quicker pace of course, from the usual PvP formula.

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I know I've mentioned it before, but I couldn't name the Lich "Necromancer" for some strange reason.

I'm gonna go with "arbitrary naming rules" on this one.

The only time I find myself avoiding a damage aura is in the low levels. It really is unneeded endurance spent during a part of you character's life where endurance consumption can be problematic.

Other than that, though, damage auras are very nice sources of additional "micromanage-free" dps and I usually try to fit them in eventually.

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no mithril chain mail

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If done properly, the Mesh pattern can look like a decent set of chain mail.

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fooling around in RV, a dominator summoned ice slick under my feet, I wasn't KB'd once while the ice slick was down, and I only have the steadfast protection IO right now


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To be fair, Ice Slick is a knockdown power so the magnitude of the KB is less than one.

Still, even a single IO will make a large impact on your character's performance.

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I said Empathy, as a name, doesn't sound villainous.

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Actually, the meaning of the word is neutral if you bother to look it up. You're confusing it with 'sympathy'. But even that aside, "doesn't sound villainous" is still a double-standard. 'Dark Miasma' hardly evokes anything good. Miasma is a word used to describe vaporous pollution or disease. And there are many examples of power names such as Eviscerate or Disembowel that sound more like means of torture than tools for fighting crime.

Again, don't get me wrong. *I* don't have a problem with these names, just as I do not have a problem with the name "Empathy" or "Poison". I say leave it up to the player to justify or roleplay the actual powers as some different thing entirely (if they even care about such things as concept).

I am just pointing out that "doesn't sound villainous" is most definitely a double-standard to use when it has not been applied to powers that heroes have access to. Heck, even Pain Dom itself has "Soothing Aura". Isn't that pleasant?

What's in a name?

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If you read the rest of my post, you'd see that I mentioned empathy tends to invoke a "sense of goodness or caring", which is why it doesn't "sound villainous". I'm all for just letting people RP what they want and I've never accepted the "doesn't sound villainous" excuse. However, I also realize that if wasn't for the way empathy is typically portrayed, Pain Domination would likely not exist. Whether or not that's a bonus or a negative is up for interpretation.

I'd like to see all sets (or tweaks of certain sets) to be passed to every AT that could theoretically use it, but I also know that can take as much time as making entirely new sets would. In my cursory glance around the game and the forums, it seems more people would prefer an entirely new set than simply "existing set, version 2".

I don't think it's a double-standard, at least not insofar as the developer's reasoning. Most of the time, the "not heroic" or "not villainous" is bandied about by the players themselves in an attempt to defend/counter their reasoning behind the desire to see/not see certain sets proliferated. The only standard I think the devs go by anymore is trying to keep a bit of "uniqueness" to certain ATs by limiting or plain not allowing certain sets to be proliferated. How long that will last remains to be seen.

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My bet is, when it came to the decision of "do we port Empathy over to villains or not?" they decided that they would probably have to rename the powerset and come up with new names for some of the powers. Empathy, as a name, doesn't sound villainous at all.

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That's no bet. This is their stated reason.

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Regarding your claim that heroes have "decidedly unheroic sets", I think you're mistaken. A power is not inherently good or evil -- it's what you do with the power that decides your alignment.

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Oh I quite agree, but how then do you reconcile this statement with "empathy doesn't sound villainous"? If you can imagine your axe wielder isn't actually splitting the skulls he shouldn't split (like say, a purse-snatcher in Steel Canyon) then I can well imagine a villain who empathizes with other villains.

It's really a paper-thin argument as to why villains didn't get Empathy. Again, if they want to go to all the trouble to create a new powerset, fine. I don't think it's necessary and don't want it to hold up future proliferations. That's my point.

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I said Empathy, as a name, doesn't sound villainous. I was very careful with my wording because of my next point regarding power origin and "apparent" alignment. The powers in Empathy aren't inherently good or evil; however, the word "empathy" tends to invoke a sense of goodness or caring, and while the powers contained within the set don't necessarily apply to either, the over-arcing powerset name does.

Many of the powers in Pain Domination are either identical in function or design to Empathy with minor tweaks. The healing auras are the same but with different names. Absorb Pain and Share Pain are the same, but Share Pain gives the caster a buff for using it, etc. They both have their truly unique powers, though, most notably Pain's HoT aura and it's lack of a Recovery Aura, as well as it's PBAoE buff that's "similar" to Fortitude. At least, I think that's supposed to be the analog power -- I'll have to look that one up.