Bloodspeaker

No, it is not always at mission entry. I've had them get stuck at ferries and helicopters when zoning. I've had them get stuck at the drop points after using a base teleporter or Oro portal. I've had it when EXITing a mission, by either the front door or the 'exit' button.

Definitely not just happening on mission entry.

A bit of correction, here. When he first spawns high above Thorn Isle, he circles above the island, more or less above the beach and outer cliffs that surround it. He's done this in a counter-clockwise direction every time I've been the one to spot him. I've never seen him "practically anywhere in the zone" even when someone else has aggroed him, and have rarely seen him farther than Primeva (the adjacent island) from his original starting point.

As mentioned, a perception-boosting power or a tray of yellows can cut through the stealth. It's also handy having a team mate with a -fly power, to get him "down to earth", so to speak.

Have deliberately spawned him for badge hunters several times in the past on Justice, not so much lately.

"I'm sailing away..."

Or Soul Extraction.

Well, you CAN...

Ages back, during one nerdrage sh**storm or another (one of very many...), I suggested the addition of a /nerdragequit command. It was supposed to:

1. Log you out of the game
2. Delete all your characters
3. Uninstall the game
4. Cancel your CoH billing
5. Block you from ever re-installing the game

Sadly, this feature has yet to be added. A one-step process would make it MUCH easier for some of those folks to "put their money where their mouth is", so to speak.

Please note, I am not trying to imply that you ARE one of those people. Your OP was far too rational.

Neither is anyone else, as far as I can tell.

It's a Massively.com contest. Go glare at them.

But... the dog has no wings!..

Can I use this as a CoH travel power, instead?
Cool!
Can I apply the game time that (presumably) comes with this to CoH, instead?
Can my Mercs MM replace his tier 3 pet with this guy?
Can I get the 13 months of Aion that I somehow suffered through applied to CoH? Or maybe transfer my Asmodean Sorcerer over? He was fun, but I don't miss him enough to go back.
Can I use these to remove the excessive, default texturing on some of the more recent CoH costume items?

Yes, I'm being... hmm, about 85% silly, 10% snarky and 5% serious, here.

I can't be the only one here whose first thought was "I don't play any of those other games (anymore), and I'm not likely to."

Still, a nice contest for anyone that DOES play all or most of these games. Good luck to any entrants.

Heh, well... one of my suggestions IS necro, but it really depends on the backset and understanding the necessary playstyle. With (for example) Dark Miasma, you have to follow your pets into melee to keep them healthy. The ones that stay at range can generally fend for themselves. I also spam the heck out of attack commands on one target at a time, to keep them on task. Yes, zombies r dum.

Ninja are even "worse", being even more melee-centric. Again, a point-blank support set helps immensely.

A lot of people will recommend Thugs/Dark. I'm one of them. With the tier 2 pets' +def, plus Leadership, plus any other backset that provides more of the same... win. Dark has that, plus -to hit, plus the AoE heal. Win squared.

A lot of people will steer you away from Mercs. Again, I'm one of them. They're a one-trick (Lethal damage) pony, for the most part. Against Lethal-resistant enemies (of which there are many), they can be very frustrating. That being said, my wife plays a Mercs/TA MM that is every bit the walking engine of destruction that most MMs aspire to be. The character should have been named "De-Buff Hell."

With regard to melee, I like Brutes, but my experience with them, or any other melee AT, is pretty narrow. I do have an nrg/nrg Brute, but I haven't played him extensively since the changes to Energy Aura, so I can't competently say how it plays, now.

So, how's your own game design coming along?

They HAVE done something. They treat it like the non-issue it is.

It doesn't affect your game play in the least, except beyond making a recipe you might want available on the market, where it would otherwise not be.

If the devs made PvP more interesting, the zones wouldn't exactly be the perfectly safe places they are to park AFK for hours at a time. If it bothers you to see it, either stop going there... or kill them.

Sure, it's a d*** move, but I'm sure you can muster the righteous indignation to justify it...