BigDemonicBunny

Beyond the Doc Delilah Dissapearing issue there is also the issue that in the first Ruin mission there is a very small chance that the rubble glowie spawns inside the room behind the Excavation Boss that is impossible to get into without teleport (possibly impossible to get into even with teleportation). Re-loading the mission will solve that issue (since the glowie is spawned in a different location) but it's still annoying.

So far Faultline gets a very good score from me, it's possibly even better than Striga but from what I've been told there is no unlockable mini-taskforce at the end, which is bad imho because Taskforces have a certain allure that regular missions just lack (they just feel a bit more epic). I have the feeling that Agent G could easily have been converted to a Taskforce contact (3 man minimum), which would have been awesome (with the exception that the bug I detailed above would have been really bad in a Taskforce).

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Here's my attempt at it. I kinda ignored the chess theme, but whatever.

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I like this one. Though personally I'd have it animated with first a blank screen, then *Assassin Strike* then the _Castle_ followed by *Placate* and back to blank.

Hmmm. I don't know about you, but from what I've heard (back when CoH had just been released) was that "Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls" was actually a part of a mission description back in the CoH Beta?

Maybe I'm mistaken though.

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<.< err... unm.... looking at that picture of Lord Recluse.... did he forget to wear a pair of his spider arms? He only has 3 sets on his back there, but on the comic covers, cov boxes, loading screen! he has 4 sets...

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Based on the joints I'd say he still has 4 pairs, except that three legs are hidden behind his body.

Gost Widow rules Mercy.
She has her tower there and I'm fairly certain that there has been a few other mentions of her being set to watch over the "destinied ones" (source: uncertain).

Mako rules Sharkhead, no dispute. It was given to him as his personal domain in exchange for his loyalty to arachnos (Source: mentioned several times both on this site and in the game)

Port Oakes is disputed. On one side we have Emil Marconi and on the other side Guido "the mooch" Verandi. (Source: Mentioned in the game on several occasions as well as on the site).

Dr.Aeon rules as Civilian govenor of Cap Au Diable, with Marshal Brass as his military advisor/commander (Source: Marshal Brass story arc).


Black Scorpion?
Scirocco?

I havn't found any sources that either of them is in charge of any specific domain. In the Seer Marino arc we get confirmation that Scirocco is indeed in charge of the Mu mystics.
We also have mentions that Black scorpion is in charge of the Arachnos scientific divisions (Source: CoV site).

To assume that both of them are in charge of a domain just because Mako is (and to an extent Ghost widow) isn't exactly a logical conclusion. Recluse isn't exactly consistant (and in that being true to his fascist roots).

Personally I quite like fault and overall with Ragdoll Knockdown, Knockup and Knockback has improved quite alot since it takes a while for your enemies to get up, especially Freak tanks.

And Seismic smash might just be the most smashtastic strike in the game.

I just played Kalindas mission where you got to save the arachnos goon squad and I noticed that they're actually following me even though I'm hidden. I was quite pleasantly suprised.

Can anyone confirm this with hostages?

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Sparcetriel (First Respec Trial)
Trasprecial (2nd Respec Trial)

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What the heck is with both these names being anagrams of 'Respec Trial?'

Anyone? Anyone? Devs?

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It's just one of those things people like hide in their creations.
We noticed it during the beta, can't remember who pointed it out though.

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'Prohibited' behavior will include any kind of immorality, non-Christian religious activities, any kind of labor union or Socialist activities, and any kind of non-state-sanctioned speech, such as illegal newspapers or radio broadcasts.

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I think you captured the Fascist fairly well, but I don't think you entirely gripped the nazi attachment to the religious. Mainly because it was highly inconsistent, as it had its root in heavily doctored versions of many highly diverse philosophies and beliefs.

A part (and an important part) of the nazi beliefs and religious doctrine came from Nietzsche (a by nietzsches sister heavily edited nietzsche), certain of Jungs ideas on psychology and merged it with the "jewish conspiracy" theory, coming to the conclusion that Christianity was a slave-religion constructed by the jews to "enslave the aryan spirit".
But on the other hand they were highly conservative and as such christianity had a role, or at least protestantism.
However the Catholic church was quite heavily persecuted.

Concerning the occult they were highly antagonistic against the various forms of "oriental occultism" that modern folklore associates with gypsies and witches as well as in Freemasonry, Rosicrucians etc etc.
All of these were persecuted not because they were non-christian, but because they were based in oriental occultism.
Occultism that had "teutonic" roots however were gobbled up hook, line and sinker, especially by the party elite, Hitler even tried to instate his own religion among the nazi loyalists based on nationalism, teutonic occultism and fascism.

As such I'd redefine the "typical nazi".

The typical nazi is almost without exception an overall hardline moral conservative (or will at least try to appear as one) with the possible exception of his/her views on nudity (The nazi ideology in general embraces naturalism, or at least did during the third reich).
Abberrant behaviors, homosexualism, prostitution and pornography are all heavily condemned (but as said by the OP, the "party line" and reality doesn't always mix). He's also quite sexist and believes that the woman is as the caretaker of the family while the man is the breadwinner and protector.

When it comes to religion his beliefs are not in organised religion as such but in the national spirit (the aryan spirit in general), a national spirit that MAY incorperate organised religion (most likely christianity) but can easily be a form of occultism or atheistic. As such the nazi invariably also views himself as a patriot.
A typical nazi is loyal to the group (the nazi party in general) and the groups ideals but not to the particular individuals in the group.
If a member displays weakness or incompetence he'll gladly cutthroat the individual (the weak does not deserve to live or rule).
If anyone diverges from the group ideals the typical nazi will report it to an authority figure. If he's living in a nazi/fascist state it will most likely be police or other goverment officials, while in a state that embraces communism, democracy and similar "weak" beliefs it will most likely be the leader of the local nazi political organisation, expecting the organisation to deal with the abberant.

The nazi belief can be summed up as Elitism, Authoritarianism, Nationalism, Might Makes Right and a belief in the Corperate state.

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The magicians today don't seem much different from the Peaceful Oranbegans. I don't see anything to support your assertion that Ermeeth was trying to teach them some magic more powerful than what we currently have, except that it's required to support your argument that Tielekku was doing the right thing.

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Alternate dimensions cannot be used as a "It's a proof that I was right" without further evidence determining the motivations of each party involved.
In an alternate dimesion Tielekku could have been different (and judging the magic as harmless or willingly stepping down and dying or what ever), or Ermeeth could have been differently motivated and teaching the Oranbegans magic for enlightenement (or something like that) and not "to displace the gods" kind.

When push comes to shove the facts we have is that when the Oranbegans were pushed they turned to dark powers that corrupted them. If that "Push" hadn't been the Mu it could have been something completely different. Say, the Rikti? Or the Rularuu? Or any other kind of lethal monstrosity that the Oranbegans were unable to fight "straigh up". Not very enlightened at all. "Spitting in the face of your killer" is something villains do. The oranbegans of our dimension released their magic A-bomb, and the demonic pollution is still here. Even if you're defeated the consequences are too harsh.

As for "the mu has magic! Self-defeating!". Who says the Mu learned the SAME kind of magic as Ermeeth was teaching the Oranbegans in our dimension? Maybe the Mu learned a different type of magic (the not-leading-to-challenging-the-gods type of magic).
For one thing, judging from the text on Magic enhancements our powers come through the gods and not entirely indepent from them.


P.S: MAD worked.....barely, with several crises, and that just in a scant 40 years. Also that was in the hands of people who the people (or the party in the russians case) had selected as the best canidates for the job.
Would it have worked in the long run? A big maybe.
Would it worked if every little joe-schmoe had access to a triggerbutton? Never.

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It basically comes down to whether or not you trust humans to use power responsibly.

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Oh, I trust men and women. I just don't trust EVERY man and woman. So I'd be all for limiting something that could wipe us all out if just one man messes up.

Or to take advantage of our medium and condense it into one webilicious question.
Would you trust these people to handle Nuclear weapons?

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Ok, so now I understand the change from Oranbegans to CoT and the CoT not being on the side of good at all, but it still seems like Ermeeth was looking out for humanity and that Tielekku her pantheon was not.

Even if Hequat was operating outside of normal mission parameters when using selective breeding & eugenics on an entire empire of people which Hequat founded solely to destroy Oranbega, by all accounts Tielekku still did not want humanity to learn magic but rather wanted humanity to stay depended on / worshipers of the various pantheons of gods.

They (the former nature spirits) ascended to additional power and she a) did not want humanity to have it and b) wanted humanity to continue to worship as required to keep her energizer batteries charged up.

Whether or not Tielekku supported the creation of what was effectively a race of slaves fanatically devoted to Hequat and brought into being for the single minded purpose of destroying (peaceful?) people who were in the process of being enlightened, she’s still not starting from a very benevolent position. (*)

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(*) Assuming, of course, that the godhood packages do not come marked with cancer warning labels and that you can still operate heavy machinery after ascending. Could be that she was trying to save us from ourselves, but with the information revealed to-date this does not appear to be the case.

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Why would the (*) not be the case? Consider that:

A ) Power does not equal enlightenement.
The Oranbegans were seeking power. Did they seek enlightenment and the wisdom to guide that power.
Apparantly not, after all they did summon demons and became the CoT, hardly the actions of an enlightened culture.

B ) Handing the power of the gods to mortals is....well, pretty much like handing an A-bomb to every guy in the neighbourhood.

Goverments during the Cold War, backed by (hopefully) brilliant men, with full knowledge of the devestation an atomic war would bring were on the brink of releasing mutual annihilation SEVERAL times during the scant 30-40 years it lasted. Most notably during the Cuba crisis.

Now consider all the hiddeously illogical crimes commited out of jealousy, despair, insanity etc etc.
Now imagine if everyone of those guys had an A-bomb?

You might argue "But if everyone has gargantuan magical powers they would stop them!".
Well, consider that the Oranbegans were losing against the Mu, yet when they consorted with demons they were able to wipe out the Mu civilization and scatter the Mu across the world. This implies that by doing unwise things (and ignoring the long term consequences) you could gain an advantage against everyone who doesn't have a deathwish.


So the final conclusion would be IMHO (as presented in a mere semi-serious manner).
Conspiracy-mongerers. Your anti-authoritarian streak (a remnant of the evolotonary mechanism striving to achieve independance from your parents and form your own family unit) is decieving you. You will now cease with hippie and commie logics and instead submit to The Man for your own good.

To sum it up, Tielekku is IMHO a benevolent diety.
Ermeeth, while maybe (but not necessarily) having benevolent intentions was essentially misguided and had to be stopped, for the good of the gods and for mankind. In the process the "golden age" of symbiosis between gods and mankind had to be sacrificed, and a very dangerous pathway was opened (the presence of dangerous spells and artifacts capable of disturbing the balance), one that requires eternal vigiliance.

In one thing Tielekku (or Hequat) succeded. Magicians today might be powerful, but they're nowhere near godlike (which was probably Ermeeth intention).
And while the gods are not present they're not per se displaced (no one has taken their place, yet) nor dead.

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I do find it mildly ironic (and somewhat irrational, which makes me lean more towards Akarist's interpretation of Hequat) that in order to destroy the civilization that Ermeeth taught magic to, Hequat taught magic to another civilization that wound up becoming the source for all the people who know magic today. Yep, that worked out real well for keeping magic from the humans.

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No. The deal wasn't to keep magic from humans, it was to keep the gods from being displaced by magic-wielding mortals (who probably wouldn't be mortal after their aquirement of incredibly vast powers), and they're definitly not displaced, so Hequats mission succeeded.

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This is due to the fact that most myths were passed on by word of mouth. Time would fog up the memory, and each teller would have their own take on it.

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Not necessarily. Egypt was long literate and underwent several mythological revisions to suit the political fortunes of various cities and regions.

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Which is why egyptologists are often reluctant to call the egyptian mythology a religious mythology and instead a sort of explaining mythology, an approach to explaining the universe. When the known universe changed, so did the myths. Pretty much like science today changes with what we know, and nobody thinks that's strange at all. Ie. Egyptian mythology has more in common with science than with religion...of course with the difference that science follows it's rules (scientific approach etc) and egyptian mythology had theirs.

Today we really can't say if the Egyptian gods were "gods" per se or more like embodiments of concepts and explainations (since our knowledge comes almost exclusivly from funerary goods and legal/administrative records). The Egyptian multiplicity of approaches (the more important a phenomenon is, the more explainations there are) and tendency to combine gods support the theory that Egyptian mythology while indeed being a system of belief (and a constantly developing such system of belief), it wasn't a religion as in the "this is the ultimate truth" variant.



To sum it up.
Egyptian mythology can be viewed more similar to science than a mythological story. Also, the egyptian mythlogy we know isn't exactly the religion of the egyptian masses (who worshipped quite different gods), but the gods of a powerful elite, and in the hands of a highly educated priesthood. As such embellishment is probably not a cause for religious change, but instead part of a concious process of development to change the religion as the world changed.

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Well, more nitpickiness, but the Vikings were pretty darn nasty. They didn't relish battle, they relished loot. That's why many of their attacks were directed against essentially undefended targets: Coastal Villages, Monastaries and churches, etc. And they seemed to get a big kick out of slaughtering everyone wherever they landed, whether offering opposition or not. Viking mythology certainly glorified battle, but their actions simply glorified the acquisition of wealth. (Hmm.. sounds kind of familiar actually. )

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Ehhhh, I think you've read too many silly stories.
While there were indeed viking raiders during the 8th-11th century the majority of their trips abroad were mainly for trade. Viking traders sailing as far as Constantinopel (modern day Istanbul) to trade fur, amber and other goods for the goods of the continent (such as silk and jewelry).
At other times they build small kingdoms, such as Normandy (which btw is a good place to start, being a synthesis between frankish and viking customs and ideals).
And sometimes they raided, primarily for wealth (because no man has ever been able to fill his stomach with glory).

As for wanton slaughter, that was the standard praxis for EVERY army until the 19th century, wether viking, christian, muslim or celtic.

When it comes to "relishing battle" they did it mostly on the home court and the constant feuding between the various "clans" didn't really cease until the establishment of a strong central power, which for example in sweden wasn't until the early 16th century with Gustav Vasa.

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No, Sparta was a city state in a time where the concept of Greece didn't exist. Saying that is like saying that all Canadians are American.

Sparta was Sparta, a nation in their own right. Athens, who everyone commonly associates as the "Ancient Greeks" were completely different.

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You're right, and you're wrong.

Sparta WAS an independant city state (and actually the leader of a league of greek cities) and very different from Athens (in all it's different incarnations, from Tyranny to "democracy").
But they were greeks and they themselves said they were greeks, just like the athenians also said they were greek and while they would fight against each other they would unite against foreign invaders like the Persians.
The thing is that greeks had things in common.
They shared their style of architecture weapons and armor (and style of warfare), they shared their view of physical labour as a thing for slaves (free men were warriors and thinkers, not workers), they shared their structure as a slave society, they shared their love of physical perfection and athletism etc etc, and in front of all they shared their belief in their own superiority above anything not greek.



In any case, back to the original subject.
It could very well be that the greek gods decided that the age of "heroes" was to be reborn, but the greeks definition of "hero" is hardly the same as ours (just read the Iliad and you'll know what I mean), so chaos ensues.

So statesman is the Incarnate. Incarnate of whom or what?
My guess would be Law and Order and as such he would be a protege of Zeus.


Now here is where people start disagreeing

Lord Recluse then. He calls Statesman his brother. He also says "lets see then who is truly cursed".
Now some here may have interpreted that as he would be the incarnation of Hades (the brother of zeus), but personally that sounds a bit off. Hades was a dealer of justice (crimes in life has their reflections in death), and while he's described as merciless and somber he's not evil or injust. He's simply unforgiving.

Now this is my theory.

First of all, Marcus Cole was made the Incarnate of Law and Order.
As such, is he not to a certain degree cursed? Cursed to be the incarnate of law and order. He's Law and Order both physicly (stronger, faster, tougher, in general simply better) but also mentally! Mentally to the point where he is no longer Marcus Cole. Cole no longer exists. His "persona" has to a part been overwritten as he's an incarnate of law and justice, and as such he is only Statesman, no longer a man or in truth even a "person", but an ideal made manifest. Thus you can say that he's no longer truly has an Ego.

Lord Recluse on the other hand.
Personally I'd say first of all he's not an incarnation of evil (as has been suggested, but the greeks had no concept of evil).
No, he's the incarnation of Strife and Discord (which is reflected in his organisation, judging by the strife and discord between his 4 lieutenants), and thus protege of Eris. For the people who don't know who Eris is she's the goddess of strife and discord, a minor goddess but definitly a talented one. For example because she hadn't been invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis she arrived at the wedding anyway and threw in a golden apple inscribed with the words "to the fairest", and thus the goddesses Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite starts bickering which ultimatly leads to the 10 years of war and suffering known as the Trojan war.
In any case, as the Incarnation of Strife and Discord Lord Recluse has also been given heightened strenght, speed power and abilities (not to mention a snazzy eightlegged backpack/extra body parts). But unlike Statesman his ego has been boosted to very heightened proportions, for after all, isn't Eris foremost weapon the Ego?
This Ego also brings him into conflict with statesman, because his egos narcissistic tendencies cannot tolerate an equal in power and status.

Lord Recluse calling Statesman "brother" is not as in physical or blood brother, but more brother as in status as physical beings. They're both incarnates.

When he says Cursed he referring to their differences.
Who is truly cursed?
Statesman, the man without an Ego, who could be said is a slave under the need of others?
Or Lord Recluse, driven by his own Ego and his own ambitions, a slave under his own needs?

It should be noted how perfectly Dark Embrace blends with the resistances of Steamy mist to provide (unslotted) a 20% resistance against everything but psionic.

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As you say, I have one contact from each origin. However, if you cross reference this list against my site list, you will see none of these contacts give out the Tsoo Coop. The Tsoo Coop is given out by the Mutation origin contacts (Hinkley Rasmussen, Manuel Ruiz, Tyler French, or Dennis Ewell). I have Amanda Loomis for a mutation contact, but she doesn't give that mission, and therefore I cannot get the Tsoo Coop ever with this character.
Ron

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Amanda Loomis DOES hand out the Tsoo coup, at least I believe so since one of my characters has Loomis in her contact list and the Dagger as a souvenir. Thus it's my belief that all contacts of a certain origin share their missions.

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While I can see saying perhaps that psychic is the best, I don't agree that it is by a long shot. I've seen bubbles defenders with dark and rad quite enjoy their choices in secondary sets.

I just didn't believe it made as big of a difference with bubbles as it did with others. YMMV.

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Well, Psychic doesn't STOP you at all from working with tankers&scrappers. It's just that with Psychic powers positioning is nearly irrelevant, which means that you can be where the others of your team are. While with radiation with a bunch of Energy blasters you'd be crippled.

Also psychic has a better synenergy with Forcefields because basicly when you're a FF defender you're always less protected than anyone else (No Deflection or Insulation for yourself) and since psychic is very much a single target set you won't attract heaps of aggro (as you would with for example the cones in the dark set).
No. I'll maintain my stance. Dark blast and Rad blast are two sets that are less than ideal when you're FFing. You can be happy with them, but then you can be happy with almost any Defender combo.

The best sets are Electricity and Psychic. Psychic because it has several strong single target attacks (and they all have built in debuffs, TK with its built in knockback and Will domination with Sleep). It doesn't draw alot of aggro, and who ever you hit is less able to hit back.
Electricity may lack the high powered TK&WD, but it does feature Tesla Cage which is VERY nice if someone starts gunning for you.
Energy isn't an FF Offender set, but can work well if you're primarily using your secondary as defense (balanced or supporter strategy) since it features knockback with everything it has.

Dark likes its cones, which are short ranged and require offensive positioning and pulls aggro like there is no tomorrow. Of course it CAN work, if you're mainly using Dark blast, Gloom, Moonbeam and Dark Pit (and not Tenebrous Tentacles and Night Fall). If you go the single fire route you will have ACC debuffing and decently powerful attacks which don't require loads of positioning. But Tenebrous and Nightfall are really the most lovable parts of Dark Blast, so giving them up....well, it would pain my heart.

Rad is a lost cause if you happen to end up with blasters, and a dangerous route even if you don't. It doesn't reduce enemies attack with longer ranged attacks and it has short ranged with all its bread and butter. Rad means DYING alot unless you got expert tankers with you, so rad needs a set which is more self-defensive, like Radiation Emission or Dark Miasma.



Of course ALL of these sets (except Rad, and in this case Electricity) work well if you're going to Solo (because you need to debuff enemy aggression) and don't have to care about covering a team, but FF isn't really Solo friendly since its holy trinity (DS, IS, DB) are highly team oriented.

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Forcefields works well with any secondary set, Since Forcefields is so straightforward it does not synergize particularly well or poorly with any of them.

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I disagree. Forcefields has quite a poor synenergy with in particular Radation, but to a lesser degree Energy and Dark Blast.
The reason? Range.
While Deflection bubble and Insulation Bubble don't particulary mind you running around since it's basicly Fire&Forget powers the last part of the Holy Trinity of FF defenders, Dispersion Field, definitly does.

And since Dispersion field is, in my own not so humble opinion, a defining power of the forcefield set alot of people (me included) mold their other powers around it.
That means more PBAoE buffs like the Leadership Powerpool.
That means that positioning is all important, and you will have to compromise that positioning if you want to do all that running required for Cones and short range powers.
And if the FF defender chooses to go the disputed Force Bubble route, then they REALLY don't like those short range powers...because you won't even be able to get that close to your enemies!!

So in essence Radiation Blast is right out since Electron Haze, Irradiate, Atomic blast (which isn't really suitable anyway since you're a Toggler) and Cosmic Burst are all powers with short range and much running required.
For the same reason you have a problem with Dark Blast since it's a powerset that just loves its cones, and cones are best when you get a chance to position yourself (which 90% of the time isn't the ideal position for PBAoE team buffing).
And for the same reason you have some problems with energy (although not as much as with Dark&Rad) since Power Burst, Energy Torrent and Nova arn't all that compatible with the FF philosophy of positioning.

On the other hand Forcefields LOVE the Psychic set because all of the bread&butter Psychic powers (Psionic Lance, TK blast and Will Domination) are single target long range powers which require virtually no compromising at all when it comes to positioning.