Fleeting Whisper

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

NO! You've doomed us all!!!!

D:

Yes, it's a fact. But it's also a fact for near every subscription-based MMO on the market. MMOs have to fight a battle of survival by increasing retention (slowing the downward slide) and constantly updating the game (each update hopefully drawing new customers or bringing back old ones). Some otherwise unsustainable MMOs ride on the backs of other games from the same publisher (I believe EverQuest is in this situation with regard to EverQuest 2). Even Ultima Online still has updates. UO had a game patch as recently as last December, and a major expansion last September.

I believe the only subscription MMOs which do not follow this general rule are WoW (the 800-pound gorilla in the room) and, strangely, EVE Online. While WoW is obvious, I don't believe EVE's subscriber base has decreased over the course of a single quarter more than a few hundred players, and it is generally increasing.

Y is the vertical in this game

I like Guild Wars' solution to this. In GW, you can create a "PvP Character". PvP characters start at the level cap, and have access to every skill you've unlocked with normal characters (or, you can buy the $10 PvP skill unlock pack...). However, PvP characters may only do PvP. Normal character may run through the storylines, and may PvP if they choose, but PvP characters can only do PvP.

CoH doesn't really have skill unlocking like GW does, but the basic idea would be the same. Make the PvP zones connected, and put arena terminals in them. Allow people to make PvP-only characters which start at level 50. Done.

Yes. You can also use a Gladiator match in the Arena, which is accessible earlier than RV. While it's possible to get a gladiator at level 1 (for example, the first and second anniversary badges together give you a single gladiator), you're more likely to get it at level 10 (everybody gets a gladiator when they train to level 10).

The Total Focus animation looks really cool while flying, too. It's the main reason my Rad/Dark has TF, because I Hover through battle, and the flying TF animation kicks ***.

I was under the impression that Flower Knight was added to the tutorial before the game originally went live; that it was only during the original beta that the tutorial door mission had just the scientist to save (who turns up again in the Ouroboros version of the mission)

Depending on build (Thugs and Robotics especially), and particularly since Psionic Assault is no longer ridonkulous, MMs are tankmages. They can deal a large amount of damage, and they can take tons of damage. Plus, they have buffs/debuffs. If anyone is skipping over MMs, it's more likely that they don't want the lag of the pets on screen than because MMs aren't good. Because even with a poor (non-petless) build, MMs are top-tier, if not best.

MMs won't solo AVs and GMs which deal large amounts of AoE damage very frequently, because the AoE will catch all of the pets at once, which is a problem (thus, MMs soloing AoE AV/GMs depends more on player skill coordinating the pets than it does on build)*. But on a team or facing less/less potent AoE, MMs are gods.

* For an example, look at the majority of MM players who cry when given a mission with Demolitionists. If you don't have fairly fine control over your pets, the Demolitionists will tear the pets apart. Apply that problem to an AV, and multiply it.
On the other hand, my Thugs/Dark MM has soloed +1/x3 spawns of Malta while I was AFK (ambushes), and the only pet that died was Dark Servant, and that was because his timer ran out rather than because he was actually killed.

It's unlikely that whips will be given to anyone but MMs at launch. After all, MMs only need 3 attacks, while a Blast or Assault set would need 7 or 8. The whips may be proliferated at some point in the future, but not at launch.

And Kheldians can't run the Praetorian tutorial (and SoA don't even get to do the villain tutorial )

"Offender" doesn't mean "Ignore primary". It means "Stop ignoring secondary".