ClawsandEffect

That's exactly why I used a brute for the example.

50% of Quickness is still a 10% global recharge bonus and a 10% (enhanceable) speed bonus.

75% of Granite Armor is 11.25% defense to all except Psi and 28.125% resistance to all but Psi, both enhanceable to 16.8% and around 43% respectively with creative slotting.

Focused Senses and Evasion (which can't be blocked from running because it would be this hybrid's taunt aura) would be 6.95% each. Enhancable to just over 10%

If you add in set bonuses and pool powers that would allow you to have a softcapped Granite brute with a 10% global recharge bonus (which can also be added to through set bonuses). I have seen characters with zero defense powers built to softcap, so it IS possible.

On the primary side: SS would be the dominant set so it would get 75% and Fire Melee would get 50%

Perma Rage would still be possible with enough set bonuses. At 75% effectiveness it is STILL a 15% to-hit buff and a 60% damage buff. Fire Melee's 50% debuff is eliminated by Rage, while actually still getting a 10% damage buff. SS will still get a 35% damage buff with Rage active. Add in Fury and your combat effectiveness doesn't drop that much.

Build Up at 50% effectiveness will still be a 10% to-hit buff and a 40% damage buff.

End result: Even with your reduced effectiveness factored in, this would still be an overpowered character.

You state that it's purpose is not to make an uber-build. I believe you on that....

....but look what happened with AE. It's purpose was to allow players to write their own stories and missions, and look at how it is being used.

Your intentions seem good, but you can't ignore the proven fact that, if you hand people something with this much potential to be abused, it WILL be.

That's just ONE example that I came up with after thinking about it for a few minutes, I'm sure if this were implemented people would come up with combos that are even more broken than this.

The devs have said things will never happen because they couldn't do it due to manpower of coding restrictions that they found ways around.

In this case they said it will never happen because they don't want to do it.

Big difference.

The potential for extreme overpowering exists here.

Let's look at a Brute

Primary: SS/Fire

Jab
Fire Sword
Haymaker
Build Up
KO Blow
Taunt
Rage
Fire Sword Circle
Foot Stomp

Yeah, just a LITTLE overpowered.

Secondary:Stone/SR

Rock Armor
Focused Senses
Earth's Embrace
Practiced Brawler
Rooted
Evasion
Crystal Armor
Quickness
Granite Armor

You would be able to take Practiced Brawler instead of Rooted. And you could get both Quickness AND Granite Armor. Giving you the best part of Stone Armor, while circumventing a lot of the downsides to taking it. You still couldn't jump in Granite form, but you would have mez protection that doesn't slow you down, and Quickness to help make up for the -speed and -recharge of Granite form. You would be nearly unkillable, while giving up very little of your damage output. Pair that with the primary I outlined above and you would have a seriously broken, overpowered character.

Interesting idea, but there's no way I can see that it could be balanced to keep things like this from happening.

Hate to be the parade rainer here.

I could see it for Teleport, but the other 3 wouldn't work from a canon lore standpoint.

The war walls are there to keep the Rikti out, if a hero could just zip right through them, obviously the Rikti could do the same, making the war walls pretty useless. They also have a ceiling, to prevent aerial attacks (the Rikti hack in and shut the walls down during invasions)

I could see this as an option for PI/Talos/Croatoa/Striga, but in the main city zones it wouldn't make much sense.

I don't have any major beef with the idea, I just think it would be unlikely based on the fact that it would make the war walls redundant (which really only exist to keep the zones managable sizes anyway)

They could remove the war walls entirely and add some countryside between zones, but then you'd have the problem of a Rikti raid in Talos causing lag in Atlas, because it would effectively all be one zone.

So, neat idea, don't have a problem with it, but I just don't see it happening.

The only problem I see is that characters are balanced around everyone having the same number of powers and the same number of slots at level 50.

As Bill and Whisper said, most people build to take a power at 49 that requires little or no slotting. A lot of times that power is unnecessary for the build in the first place. Would be a little unfair for one person to have more slots than another because there was nothing left their character needed, while the other person took a useful or necessary power there instead.

I'm not especially against the idea, I'm just pointing out that it does have a sizable hole in it.

I'd be okay with this as a "if we have time" addition. I'd rather they not divert manpower and resources to this unless their goals for an issue were already met.

I, and probably a lot of others would rather see new content, zones, missions, task forces, powersets, etc. first.

I'm not against the idea, I just think it should be a stretch goal rather than a focus point.

I would support the ability to change a character's origin as a one time only deal.

I would probably only use it on two of my characters, my main hero and my main villain.

My main hero is a cyborg. His claws are either a ceramic/titanium composite, or energy blades, depending on which costume he is in. I created him long before I completely fleshed out his backstory. He is Science origin and he really should be Tech. The Tech SOs would actually be perfectly logical for him (not that he's using them anymore, but still)

My main villain is an alternate dimension future version of my main hero. He is so old that the technology that powers him is failing, so he experimented with different power sources to keep himself alive. He is Magic origin currently, he should be Science.

The hero is Claws/Regen and the villain is a DM/Nin stalker. The stalker's claws are still there, sheathed in his forearms, but they don't work anymore. He gained the DM powers from his experimentation into alternate power sources. The nanomachines that accounted for the Regen part of my hero aren't quite as effective anymore, so he only has one heal instead of many. The alternate power source jumpstarted his metabolism, so he now dodges or avoids attacks instead of taking them and healing it back, which is good because the nanomachines probably can't repair him as fast anymore.

Just an example of how origin can be very much tied into a character's history. A one time change would be nice if your concept changes over time like those two did.

The reason I don't farm is it bores the hell out of me. I have zero desire whatsoever to spend my time playing a video game that I play for enjoyment, only to be bored while I'm playing.

Even a lot of the farmers I have talked to admit that it's boring. Apparently it's about the rewards and not about the fun you're having (or not having as the case may be).

If you truly enjoy running the same mission or killing the same spawns over and over, more power to you, far be it from me to hinder your enjoyment.

If you're just farming for the rewards and boring yourself to death, that's when I question why you're doing it.

My characters are barely IOed, in fact I only have one who's build is close to finished. I found that when I acquire things over time I appreciate them more, and I get to see my character gradually become more powerful.

I understand that I see things differently than a lot of people. I'm not even going to ask for the draw to be explained to me, I've asked before and it's been explained before and I still don't see the appeal.

I'm not an anti-farmer, or a pro-farmer, I'm just a non-farmer.

I ran a boss farm once....and I do mean once. I have no particular issue with people who enjoy farming, it just bores the hell out of me, so I don't do it. I had a Comm Officer farm of my own that existed for a grand total of maybe 4 days. I just can't get into the mindset for it to be fun. Farming almost feels like work, I don't play a video game to do work, I play it to relax AFTER I do work.

I have issues with people exploiting, but that's different.

I also have issues with the hordes of AE Babies being created daily, but I'm only partially blaming farmers on that. It's the people asking for fillers that aren't very particular about who it is that seem to create them. Hopefully that will change with I16 when fillers will be unnecessary.

Have fun with your farms, I'll go run a TF or stomp some Council into the dirt or something.

Eh, I could care less about the rep meter, will be interesting to see if I acquire any, or if I piss enough people off to get into negative rep.

As it currently stands it's giving the impression that my avatar is taking forever to load.

*stands in the middle of the thread watching it go around and around in circles with no end in sight*

You guys done yet? You're making me dizzy here.

Here's a thought: How about everyone take a break from the internet nerd-raging and go play the game for a while. I mean, that IS why you have an account, right?

Or, if you'd rather stay on your respective soapboxes and scream at each other, at least put a hat out so the amused passerby can drop a dollar in. Keep going long enough and it might pay for a month or two for ya.

Screaming "You're wrong!" at the top of your lungs does nothing to make either side any more right.

Marshall Stack was born a mutant. Unlike most mutated children, his powers did not develop at puberty, he has had his since birth. His first cry deafened everyone in the room and destroyed half a million dollars worth of medical equipment.

Unfortunately, Marshall also had a genetic defect that resulted in a complete inability to control his powers. Any time he used his voice it was accompanied by a destructive sound wave that could destroy anything not heavily armored against it. So, he grew up isolated from other children out of fear for their safety, as even an involuntary noise could kill his playmates. it wasn't until a special school for kids like him opened that he got to socialize with children his own age. Sadly, with children being as cruel as they are, he was cast as being a freak among freaks and picked on daily. The only exception was a young girl named Lora Hennstridge. She was a powerful telepath who was placed at the school because she was having difficulty controlling her powers. Finally, Marshall had met someone he could communicate with without hurting them.

Marshall and Lora began dating shortly before their junior year and it seemed like everything was finally starting to normalize for him. Fate would not be that kind.

After seeing a movie in King's Row, Marshall and Lora were walking back to the train to return home when they were accosted by a group of Skulls. Brandishing guns they demanded all of their money. After discovering they had none, the Skulls decided to take Lora instead. Marshall grew enraged, but since he had been working on restraining his powers for years he never thought to use them, lashing out with a fist instead. One of the Skulls, already nervous, squeezed the trigger of his submachine gun and sprayed the area in front of him with lead. Miraculously, none of the stray shots hit Marshall. Lora was not so lucky. She was hit with several rounds and crumpled to the ground bleeding. Ignoring their assailants, Marshall rushed to her side just in time for her to die in his arms.

With tears running down his face, Marshall did something he had never consciously done in his life.....he tilted his head back and screamed.

When the police arrived minutes later, they discovered a sobbing, nearly catatonic Marshall cradling Lora's lifeless body. They asked him what happened and he could only pantomime the events, as his one link to the world was lying in his arms staring emptily at the sky. The police discovered the corpses of several gang members with ruptured eardrums and evidence of blunt trauma over their entire bodies lying several hundred feet away, having been smashed through a brick wall.

At his trial Marshall was given an ultimatum...either spend the rest of his life in prison or register as a hero and learn to use his powers for the benefit of others. The choice was simple, but Marshall's reason was simpler still....he registered as a hero and vowed to spend the rest of his days in penance for the girl he allowed to be killed.

Some of the older TFs could really use some streamlining.

The signature TFs are the ones that spring to mind here. Positron is the worst offender by far. Do we really need to defeat THAT many CoT, Vahz, and Clockwork to get the idea that they are interested in the dam? You really can make that point in the space of 4 missions: 1) Fight Vahz and find out they are interested in the dam 2) Fight Clocks and find out they are interested in the dam 3) Fight CoT and find out they are interested in the dam 4) Save the dam.

A little filler isn't always a bad thing, but do we really need 12 missions worth of filler? Especially seeing as how a lot of them are redundant.

A lot of the newer TFs don't have that filler problem. They are maybe 5 or 6 missions long, and they get to the point rather quickly.

If you want to extend the length of a TF, make it fewer, but longer missions. make them less susceptible to being gamed and run super fast.

Perhaps random length missions. Say, an information gathering mission where one mob on the map has the information you are looking for, but there is no indication which mob it is, or where on the map it is. You could finish it in the first fight, or you could kill the majority of the mobs there before you find what you're looking for. And if that mob's spawn point were truly random it would be nearly impossible to get efficient at running that mission.

Or maybe a black ops type snatch and grab mission where stealth is required. Have the contact issue a temp stealth that lasts the duration of the mission so you don't find yourself unable to complete it because you don't have a stealth power. You have to sneak in to get to a specified point past patrols, defeat a few bodyguards who will sound an alarm when defeated, and then fight your way past a few ambushes to get out. If you fail at stealthing through it, the objective flees and you fail the mission. Could even make it the first mission of a TF that you HAVE to complete to continue, if you fail the TF automatically disbands. Using stealth in CoH is not difficult, so it shouldn't be a big deal for it to be required here. The precedent has even been set in one of the RWZ missions.

There's my ideas. Those would add some dynamics to TFs that are sorely lacking currently.

A true Giant would be cool in Cimerora. Maybe a Colossus? It would fit the mythological theme of the zone and would be interesting to see. Maybe even have several different target areas to aim for instead of just one box, similar to how you have to defeat all of Luscas tentacles individually before she is defeated.

Maybe if you take out it's legs first it becomes immobile, but still able to fight while losing it's footstomp attack. or if you take out the torso, it would lose it's attacks it uses it's arms for but can still footstomp. Maybe the head could have a breath attack that it loses if you defeat that portion.

So, 3 areas to defeat, each making the rest of the creature easier to defeat. But, if you take too long, a defeated portion could recover and you have to do it again.

Just a thought. The GMs in the game seem a little simplistic to beat, and I thought it would be cool to have one that was a little more dynamic.

My sonic/devices blaster's name is Marshall Stack. It sounds superheroey, what with being a reference to a very loud guitar amplifier and having connotations of being both sound and devices related.

Except....it's his real name. His parents are Irwin and Elizabeth Stack. He is a distant relation of the actor Robert Stack. His parents named him long before his powers became apparent, and were unaware of the Marshall amplifier company. He makes no secret of the fact that it is his real name.

My main and namesake scrapper Claws and Effect has a secret ID that he does not share. Teammates and people close to him (but not close enough to know his real name) call him Claws for short.

I'd like to see a feature where you could choose a name for contacts to call you after a certain level of familiarity. Marshall Stack would insist that once you become his friend you just call him Marshall or Marsh. Similarly, almost no one uses Claws's full name (not even me ) My fire blaster, Return to Cinder, goes by Cinder most of the time if he doesn't know the people he's with that well. His friends call him Kyle, because that is his real name. Contacts would not get close enough to him to call him Kyle, so they would call him Cinder.

It would be optional, if you don't want the contacts getting more familiar with you, you can leave that field blank. But if your hero ID is your real name, you can set it to where they drop your last name in conversation, as most people would do after working with someone for a while. Or even if your character's name is John Smith, and he insists on formality in a professional setting, you could set it so they call him Mr. Smith.

I say only contacts because A) it wouldn't be as difficult to code as every single NPC in the game, and B) they are the only NPCs I can think of that would have any real reason to call you by a more familiar name. Your average hostage isn't going to call my scrapper Claws. Superheroes are larger than life figures, your average citizen stands in awe of them. Most would not presume to refer to someone of that stature in such a familiar manner.

Just like if you met a celebrity and you happen to know that his close friends call him "Headache" in reference to an amusing accident he had in his youth. You would not say "Hey, Headache, how's it goin?". You're not a personal friend of that celebrity, so you don't have their permission to call them that. A superhero would be much the same.

Well, I was only refering to secondaries, since that's what the OP was talking about.

Also, I did count Chilling Embrace as a melee power, it was Ice Slick I wasn't counting, but to be fair I probably should have, since I counted Burn in Fire Manipulation. So, yes, Ice would be 6 of 9.

I was only counting those powers that melee range was required to use, which is why I didn't count Trip Mine or Time Bomb, since you don't have to be in melee to activate/get use out of either one.

Hot Feet, Blazing Aura, Lightning Field, Chilling Embrace, and World of Confusion can all be activated outside of melee range and left on, but they do nothing if there are no foes within melee range of you.

All I was illustrating was the abundance of melee range powers found in blaster secondaries, which pretty much debunks the notion that blasters aren't supposed to go into melee. The relative lack of melee powers in primaries I wasn't touching on because they are SUPPOSED to be ranged damage sets. Nukes are the only exception in most cases. And technically you CAN use Rain of Arrows and Blizzard in melee range, as they are Location AoEs, drop it at your feet and it effectively becomes a PBAoE. But it is true that they are not melee specific powers since it is not required to use them.

I'm going with Ghost Widow's powers on one brute (DM/SR). I want Gloom to up my DPS for AV/Hero soloing, and Darkest Night to help with the same.

My Shield/SS will be taking something that gives me more AoE, not sure which yet. As far as story arcs go, I will run through all 4 of them at least once, because I have never run them before.

I too was under the impression that you wanted to change primary and secondary powers.

I was pleasantly surprised that such was not the case. I like the idea of respeccing only what you want to change without having to rebuild from the ground up. My main scrapper hasn't changed anything at all from level 1-24 over the last 6 respecs that I've done on him. The ability to start at level 25 and go from there would be great. Or even just an enhancement slot respec. It is annoying as hell to have to completely rebuild your character just to move 2 or 3 slots to a different power.