Zemblanity

Full Auto does seem abit underpowered compared to Rain of Arrows, considering they share the same recharge. Anyway, I hope that, if the devs do remove the crash and reduce the damage, they also lower the cooldown to 2 minutes, like Hail of Bullets.

Yeah, like Ms. Liberty was any help, standing around looking pretty while we were getting thrashed by Warwalkers and a thousand DE seeds. She didn't even turn around and look when Hami made an appearance...

BTW, the end part was weird. I was in Exalted - Atlas 4, and Hami only went away about 5 minutes after we defeated all of the seeds. I suspect we need to clear all Atlas maps to advance in the zone event, not just the map we're currently occupying. Good news is that the new server is completely lag-free, unlike the invasion a few months ago

Good morning, then

My point is that if you don't balance a popular vote with some sort of legal restraint (inviolable rights that every citizen is allowed regardless of the elected ruler's wishes) then democracies can be as evil as tyrannies.

Elections with a Constitution = Free Democracy (USA prior to the patriot act)

Elections without a Constitution = Mob justice (KKK)

No Elections with a Constitution = Benevolent dictatorship (British royal family)

No Elections and no Constitution = Tyranny (Starwars empire)

You didn't get my point.

Here's an example of democracy at its worst: "The crops have been terrible ever since that old woman moved into town. She's obviously a witch, and I say we burn her! Who's with me?"

Now, if the town's sheriff stops the villagers from burning the woman alive, he'd be opposing the majority and protecting a minority. That, my friend, is the basis of a modern free society, not blindly following a popular show of hands. You have the right not to be burned at the stake even if you're an old woman with a crooked nose and everyone else in town wants you gone.

Cole was (apparently) elected by popular vote and given free reign to do whatever he deemed necessary to ensure the survival of the human race in Praetoria. Unfortunately, no one bothered to put restraints on what he could do, and we see his lieutenants abusing their power every day (not Cole himself, though).

Opposing Emperor Cole's regime because it allows psychic women into bondage, that's laudable. Saying Cole's martial law should have been abolished by now is debatable (because we know the devouring earth are still a threat). But accusing Cole of being evil simply because he hasn't scheduled a new round of elections is just plain demagogy.

Mother Mayhem is evil. I've seen it myself.
Michael White is evil. I've seen it myself.
Justin Sinclair is evil. I've seen it myself.
Praetoria is evil. I've seen it myself.
Marcus Cole? Probably, but I'm not sure yet.

Arcana actually presented valid numbers to prove nukes are underpowered, not just the abstract whining the rest of us tend to do in chorus. Be graceful and offer a thank you rather than a flame, will you?

I haven't seen Cole doing any of those things.

The invasion of Primal Earth was more than justified in my eyes, considering that Praetoria was attacked by Ultimatum, Malta, Arachnos, Longbow, Vanguard and the entire Freedom Phalanx before they finally decided to strike back in 2011. You were there during the invasion, as was I, and thanks to Synapse's blunder we both heard Cole's broadcasts live. Apart from threatening to tear off Synapse's head if he didn't shut up, I didn't hear anything that suggests Cole is a murdering psychopath willing to commit genocide, only an opposing general trying to win a war he didn't start.

It's very likely that the Cole we met in the Power storyline was the only real one we ever met (not counting the Maria Jenkins arcs or the recent Freedom-server invasion). For starters, we met him in Praetoria rather than Primal Earth, and he had an actual reason for being there - the player summoned him to snitch about Synapse's little side project. Then there's the fact that Cole was actually surprised to learn about Project Olympus, making it much more believable that the other Praetors might be keeping their own dirty laundries from him. Cole did not rant like a madman in the Power storyline, instead he seemed genuinely upset, disappointed and mostly tired of all the plotting, contrasting sharply with the grinning psychopath we met in Primal Earth.

But most of all, my lvl 20 Responsibility character survived. He actually came face to face with Cole on Primal Earth, showed him the finger and lived to tell the tale. Now I don't know about you, but in my mind either Cole's not the monster I suspected him to be or that "Cole" was the same shapeshifting guy who had just released an evil clone of my toon into Faultline just as he set foot into Paragon City.

Personally, I think Cole is at least somewhat evil, but nothing *yet* suggests he's Nemesis-like evil, mwahahah fear my 150-year-old masterplan! Rather, Cole's probably a very cold person who had to make very hard decisions in the midst of a very real vegetable apocalypse, and has since withdrawn himself from the world, keeping his interference to a minimum while letting the Praetors handle day-to-day affairs. It's very likely that he doesn't know alot of what's happening in Praetoria, and mostly because he chooses not to get involved. From what I saw in the Powers storyline, Cole's very much afraid, not of the world ending, but rather of what else the world might demand of him to ensure its survival. Just picture how the pilot who dropped the Nagasaki bomb must have felt...

Or he could be a really good actor and fooled me along with the rest

That'd be like an X-Files forum where you can't talk about government conspiracies

Samuel, this is a very good idea. May I suggest you post it on the Suggestions forum and maybe PM a red name about it?

Or increase the rewards of beating hard targets. Beating a boss, EB or AV should give *alot* more exp/inf/salvage/recipes than beating minions/lts. Even something as simple as giving a couple of merit rewards for each EB killed would raise the value of ST-oriented sets.

I met *someone* at the end of the Responsibility path as I left Praetoria, but I'm pretty sure that was Protean, not Cole. What would Cole be doing on Primal Earth anyway? Stopped by for a chat, to confess his evil plans to a low-level Powers Division about to defect? If Cole even knew Provost Marchand was sending Powers Division across a portal to interfere with the upcoming invasion, I'm pretty sure there'd be another set of teeth flying.

I think the devs (and particularly Protean) have been extra careful to give Cole an aura of plausible deniability, where all the dirt and ugly things that happen in Praetoria are the sole responsibility of his minions until proven otherwise. Of course we all *know* Cole is evil, just as Superman *knows* Lex Luthor is evil, but I dare you to point your finger at something evil you personally witnessed Cole doing.

There are alot of rumours, accusations and innuendo, but as of yet all I'm certain is that Cole was willing to invade Primal Earth (while trying to keep civilian casualties to a minimum) and that he's willing to kill in cold blood to prove a point (he killed Duray in front of several witnesses). All else is speculation.

Assuming good triumphs in the end, we'll either be able to pin something relevant on Cole or prove he's just a misunderstood vigilante who had to make hard choices to save mankind. In the meantime, we Primals seem to be adopting typical Longbow behavior - shoot first, and let God sort out the innocent.

Plus, even assuming Cole knew of some of the horrors being committed in his name, it's not yet clear if they were actually necessary to keep Praetorians safe. For example, Mother Mayhem is enslaving all psychic women in Praetoria, often times their families too. DeVore claims she's a psychic vampire, Mother claims that psychics are potential threats to the general populace. Until First Ward came, I bet we all assumed Tilman was lying (I did), but after seeing mutated tentacles grow out of a Seer's head in a base full of dead soldiers, I'm not so sure anymore.

My point being, wait and see. Praetoria's tale is far from told and you can't guess an ending that hasn't been written yet.

This.

CoH, is, after all, a superhero MMO. If you want to play a grunt there's always Counterstrike and Modern Warfare.

Not saying the AI couldn't be better (I hate it when enemies run away), but let's keep in mind that when I play a hero or a villain, part of what I'm looking for is being almost invincible, except for the occasional challenge by another super-powered rival.

Didn't know that, but I always suspected that Tami Baker (Praetor Sinclair's assistant) was Protean in disguise. She was just way too creepy to be true ^_^

Not true, mission Tips have him repeatedly replacing high-profile heroes (and villains) with his automatons. Who knows how many of our NPC peers have been replaced already?

Considering that in upcoming Freedom non-VIPs will have to pay 12.50 USD to unlock Peacebringers (and only PBs, Warshades aren't included in that package), I'd say the devs' perspective might change if the general consensus among players remains the same - that PBs are a very poorly built, poorly neglected AT not worth investing either the time or the money. Ultimately, that's their call, though, and if the devs think Peacebringers are fine, well, there's nothing we can do but accept it and play something else.

That's lvl 38+, does lvl 1-37 not deserve mez protection like the VEATs, scrappers, brutes and stalkers, who get it no later than lvl 16? Pure human form plays a similar role to those ATs, and yet it receives differential treatment regarding both damage, defenses and mez protection. On that note, it's the same with warshades but, since there's a very good end-game Tri-form combo for them, it's like they don't deserve a buff...

The only counter I can find is the hypothetical abuse of a Kheldians' inherent, where they snatch +140% damage bonus from their team-mates, OR +7 mag prot, OR +70% res. It's the only circumstance where it's justifiable to fear "Peacebringers becoming overpowered". Some might argue that Human Form is only weak if you don't team, or if you team with the wrong kind of people, and [sarcasm]woe to you and your future grandchildren if you haven't yet learned the value of massive knockback in your attacks![/sarcasm]

There's your counter. A weak one, I know, but enough to keep the buffs away for the moment. IMO, until that inherent is looked at, there's never going to be any serious buffs coming this way.

There's a trick for that, just copy-paste the text before you Submit Reply.

Also, Dark Blast is pretty solid with all those ST attacks, including a hold and a heal with fairly decent range (60ft for lifedrain, 70ft for the hold, 80ft for the tier1/2 attacks).

Don't read too much into the kb in the cone, because it's 100% chance at 80ft range, and since every mob gets pushed back they all end up relatively close to each other (barring anyone you fail to hit). Knockdown would obviously be better, but the real problem would be if it had something like 60% chance to knockback, which would cause them to spread.

Beg to differ, merely adding Fighting Pool's Boxing to the White Dwarf's attack chain would make things much, much smoother, and I'd trade that one change for all the others about to go live.

The lack of a true role for their human form part... well, that's true. As far as I can tell it's a blaster/scrapper/defender hydrid like the VEATs, only without the VEATs' damage, team buffs or inherent mez protection. But keep in mind that Kheldians are a relic of old, they were (poorly) designed back in issue 3 and have barely been looked at since.