Bosstone

I don't think you can say this for certain, although I agree it's probably true.

However, given that one of the vet rewards is 50% off tailor, and for people who don't have that there are the Day Job 25% discount tokens, and given that at tier 9 of the vet rewards every new character gets 6 free respecs (in addition to the trials and respec recipes that drop in game) and 10 free tailor tokens, I don't think anyone is really hurting for free/cheap respec or tailor options these days.

As for the inventory...how the hell much do you want? The amount you get in-game and through existing vet rewards is quite a good amount; the increases you get through the Paragon Market are frankly overkill. I know, because I bought a few of them.

And of course, let's point out two more things:
1) You haven't lost anything even if rewards have frozen.
2) You still get a VIP stipend. If the inventory increases matter that much to you, save your stipend for those. No extra money spent.

Okay, one: We got a free respec just this past month for the 8th anniversary.

Two: ...When did we ever get increases to salvage/recipes/auctions as a yearly benefit? Or character slots? I do vaguely recall slots, so I might be wrong on that, but inventory has always only been increased either by in-game badges/Vanguard, which haven't changed, or by veteran rewards, which are now Paragon Rewards and are identical to the old vet rewards but with added functionality.

Hasten is nice but never necessary. I don't use it in my TW build and it's still a monster.

That's going to be a matter of personal opinion and preference, of course. I never leveled any character as fast as my TW Brute for two reasons: It's too much fun to stop playing, and the set felt like I was holding onto the handlebars of an out-of-control motorcycle. I made it a point to hit all the mayhems while leveling, and I had to be super-careful not to overlevel them. And I didn't take Build Momentum until level 47, after I had destroyed any endurance problems.

I'm enjoying my Dark/Staff Tanker, although progress on Staff is of course slow because Tanker. Damage feels pretty good, too; I've dropped Tankers in the past because they just weren't doing what I felt was reasonable damage, but I'm fairly happy with Staff so far.

1. Why are you using travel powers in missions? Yes, SS gives +stealth, but close quarters also makes it a giant pain in the patella to use. And there aren't many door missions where Fly is more useful than Hover or even Teleport; Teleport is useful both where Fly is useful and where it isn't.

2. Teleport, once the effort has been made to utilize it properly (set up the keybind and put a couple slots in it) is the fastest travel power. That's not in question. It is objectively the fastest, by a long shot. The significance of that has been diluted these days with all the changes to zone travel (the train lines merger, Midnighter Club, Ouro, and RWZ), but even now, when most of my characters travel by temp power, SS, or SJ, I definitely feel the slowness when crossing a zone that has no other shortcuts.

No, as I mentioned in my post, it stays a fuzzball when attacking. And Energy Aura's cloak isn't a 100% alpha the way Cloak of Darkness is, whether in combat or out.

Yes, but the post I responded to was talking about default.

Not necessarily. There's nothing wrong with having an 'expert' power in a group which requires more effort but pays more dividends.

Ehhh, I can verify that it's a big black fuzzball. I started a Dark/Staff Tanker last night because I just have to see Claws' build in action. Now admittedly, my character costume is nearly pure black, but from what I could see the fuzzball pretty much just replaced my model entirely. Even the staff was hidden.

It looks kind of cool, though. The staff is invisible but the motion effects aren't, so it looks kind of like the fuzzball itself is lashing out with long strikes.

Nominated for understatement of the year. Good GOD. I want to try this now.

There's smart and there's perfect, and perfect is impossible and not fun.

I assumed (which is not always wise, granted) that Arcana was talking about behavior once the decision to flee had been made. Rather than the enemy fleeing to the far corner of the map then walking back, as they do currently, enemies would flee to an intelligent distance, then continue fighting. That's a different case than the enemy keeping a certain distance away at all times.

This is what makes Teleport amazing. I just wish it didn't have to be a non-obvious solution, but instead baked into the power.

Exactly so. See, TheDeepBlue:
You're forgetting that even if everyone who made this complaint genuinely did stay redside, that legion of other problems you're not addressing would prevent redside from really living again. I'm pretty sure redside is never going to be able to hit critical mass, where there's enough people playing that newcomers stay instead of leaving because it's too quiet, because there's plenty of other reasons to leave than 'it's too quiet'.

And frankly, I don't play to immerse myself in the content. I play to hang out with friends. And my friends are all blueside. I leveled my current main through redside because it was easier to get most of the stat accolades that way, and I felt the disconnection. I was very much relieved when I finished doing everything I needed to redside and could swap back to blue. What am I going to do, try to convince an entire SG who are happy where they are that they should go redside instead, just because I might want to stay there but it's too quiet? That's pretty selfish.

I actually quite like redside. I think of Sharkhead Isle as home. But I'm not going to play there extensively when all the people I want to play with are blueside because they don't like red for all those other reasons you're choosing not to castigate people for.

It's not like you have a choice in the matter other than not playing City of Heroes.

...Sorry, what?

You do realize that I'm comparing selling the Super Packs with exclusives to the hypothetical situation of selling Super Packs without exclusives, right? And that, as such, these two situations are mutually exclusive? And that, as such, if one happens the other must necessarily be a hypothetical? And that, as such, if Super Packs were sold without exclusives, we would not in fact KNOW because then we wouldn't have the data for Super Packs with exclusives.

In short, while we would know Packs sold 200,000 and EO sold 200,000, we would not then know that Packs with EO would sell for 600,000.

I'm with you that I'd prefer to see the powers charging. I stick all the powers I access with a two-key popmenu in a floating tray. That way I can see them charging, but I don't have to worry about being able to access that tray, whether by binds or by mouse.

In fact, synergy is a very real possibility. Had Super Packs had nothing exclusive, they might have only sold 200,000 packs and 200,000 EO sets.

I can't say how probable this would have been, only that it's a possibility.

They're noticeable because you make a flipping lot of them.

SPEAKING OF game features people probably never knew existed:

The magic of Popmenus. If you put in the effort to make them, they make gameplay wonderful.

I have one on my Traps Mastermind to access most of the Traps powers. So slick.

It's not a normal distribution. The costume pieces are significantly weighted so that they appear early. It's entirely possible for a player to not receive the whole set after 20 packs, but the chance of that happening is extremely low.

I'll never get beyond Thunderdome.