FluffballOmega

1. I can't wait until we can see the new weapon models.

2. I really want more info on this combo system, is it just for dual blades or is it for ever melee power set or is it for all power sets?

I mean sure there are some super-combos right now, mostly flashfire+fire cages+fulcrum shift+fireball, but will that now result in even more damage? Or when we say knock someone down with footstomp and immediately follow it up with punch will we get an extra damage proc or an extra chance to disorient or something?

Very exciting time.

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I really wish we could get a couple more folks who like the look of dual blades in here. It's just a bit depressing reading all these statements dogging their look without any counter-arguements.

I really think that the blades aren't all that huge but the screenshots are kind of misleading on size.

As for the golden-hue of Willpower, well there is precedent. Miss Liberty, wife of Statesman, grandmother of the current Miss Liberty was a MA/Willpower scrapper. She would have a golden glow materialize around her after a while from practicing.

Anyway Dev's good job on the blades and I can't wait to see how they look in actual combat.

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Don't you mean Maiden Justice?

/nitpick

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You say TO-MAY-TOE I say big red blueberry.

And for the record I'm so happy they didn't go with daggers and even happier than that they didn't go with a reversed grip (knife going down from the palm instead of up from the thumb.)

Yes I know daggers are more lethal but they lack the chutzpah that spinning two scimitars have.

As for the reverse grip, well that's just not a good way to hold a knife. Don't believe me? Go to your favorite steakhouse or just grill up one yourself and try cutting the steak while holding the knife down that way.

Anyway, if I keep hearing folks asking for shorter blades/daggers I'm going to start championing these.

Only with chainsaw motors and blades on them.

I MEAN IT!

I really wish we could get a couple more folks who like the look of dual blades in here. It's just a bit depressing reading all these statements dogging their look without any counter-arguements.

I really think that the blades aren't all that huge but the screenshots are kind of misleading on size.

As for the golden-hue of Willpower, well there is precedent. Miss Liberty, wife of Statesman, grandmother of the current Miss Liberty was a MA/Willpower scrapper. She would have a golden glow materialize around her after a while from practicing.

Anyway Dev's good job on the blades and I can't wait to see how they look in actual combat.

The blades look about thin enough given the general look of the stances for the animations. The thin blade is easier, lighter and faster to move, especially when it's that big.

The Dev who stated that he thought EAT's came too soon was Posi in the last issue of the community newsletter. He's probably right.

Also like someone mentioned before trenchcoat guy is in the screenshots, which begs a really interesting question. Was he just a stock character that the dev's liked or have they been working on this powerset for multiple issues?

I LOVE the look for Dual Blades although I was expecting a smaller blade for the off-hand.

Also remember folks, this is only the Scrapper set we're seeing here. (I'm guessing scrapper anyway, definitely the blue-side set though.)

Judging from how Claws and I think Ninja Sword look different from scrapper Claws and Katana I'm pretty sure we're due for a different look for the other AT's.

Definitely going to reroll my gentleman adventurer scrapper though.

Kudos Cryptic!

Hitting a blue pill while your endurance is dropping is skill.

Double stacking rage so that it overlaps and avoids the endurance penalty is a bug.

I'm ok with the whole not being able to affect anything. More often that not it gives me the only rest I get. Then again I could get along fine without the crash and just rely on EA.

I find #1 the most reasonable out of the options you listed Tic.

I'm ok with the crash as it is, I've found that if I just toss a taunt out right before and with just one taunt enhancement in CE that I don't lose the aggro.

On my ice/ss I hardly notice it at all. Then again I solo or run in only 4 man groups more often than not.

Anyway about it, that's what hibernate is for.

Ol, we covered the Rikti a while back. I have my own theories on them that were mentioned.

Also you aren't taking into account that the Coralax aren't some crazed cult of frog-men. Their goddess pretty much animated coral then eventually went to sleep. My guess is that the EAT will involve the mutliple factions within the Coralax and how they are still struggling after who knows how long to figure out what to do without the guidance of their Goddess.

AFAIK coralax are immortal, so many members of them remember their Goddess talking to them, so the old ones might be in contest with the younger ones who never had that influence.

Anyway, I was running around collecting badges and reading plaques today when I came across this one in the Hollows:

"This building once housed the lab of Dr. Calvin Stewart, who pioneered Eastgate Bay's Seaview project. Dr. Stewart has been forced to abandon the lab, and communication with the Seaview project has been erratic. Very little is known by the public about the scientific activities in Eastgate Bay."

I think it kind of points to there being Coralax in IP.

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My think about the new epics is that they all (except Incanate) seem so... ikky. Brown blobs of coral and tentacle squids. Is that really superheroic?

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Sorry you don't care much for what we do know of the Coralax and for the Khelds, but if you read their back stories the powers make perfect sense and so do the forms.

The actual characters though are just folk with powers. Whether you are heroic or villainous really depend on how you spin the story and what you present yourself as.

So you aren't just being "super-squid" you are turning into an energy-construct of a former kheldian host.

And yeah, I find Khelds very heroic. A person being bonded with an other-worldly entity and then fighting crime and corruption? Don't get much more heroic than that.

I imagine Coralax will be very similar, except you'll be bonded with Coral. That or they'll just have Coralax specific costume options.

Only number 4 really has merit.

Sorry, but all the others can be negated through experiences of bad teams (sometimes even the one you create), reliance on post-32 and 38 powers, and an unwillingness to group street sweep (or even solo if you are a kheld or AoE blaster) in hazard zones.

If you just want to level up stick with a character and play them exclusively. Avoid the alt-itis and just work on them for an hour or so each day and you'll get there.

As for the person who was talking about only solo, couldn't help but notice he had essentially the two biggest PL-Farming characters.

In other words YMMV.

Just thought I would mention, even though the Khelds were released in pairs, that doesn't mean all the epics will be released in pairs.

Nah, I think it's a little too early for Requiem to be making his move. I think he's going to wait a bit before his coup, although that could be how they bring Nictus to CoV. Requiem sending folks to destabilize the Council by bonding with Nictus, or Arakhn bonding folks with Nictus to increase their numbers and fight off Requiem. Arakhn is more loyal to the Nictus than to the Council.

Anyway I just think it's too soon. However a general move by the Council to take over, that I could buy. Especially if it later put in the groundwork for the 5th to come back.

Ok, now that I've read all that a lot more is making sense. The circuit being the circuit to the computer (I was thinking he just meant circle before).

Good bit of research and a great read.

Only down side?

Now I'm even more interested in them but there's just way too little info!

And concerning the I8 stuff mentioned in the interview, I'm thinking that it's mostly going to be the revamping of Boomtown and Faultline, possibly adding missions versus Arachnos and their agents there, since there is at least one mission where you go and destroy rebuilding supplies/mess with a construction site in Boomtown.

The interview does make mention of another faction stepping in to take advantage of the fight between Arachnos and Longbow, my money is on the Council. They seem to be the little para-military darlings of the game and since they are seen at all levels it would make sense for them to want to carve more space out. Rikti are too weak right now and I think everyone is a little tired of the CoT, those right there are the big three. I suppose it could be mentioning the BotS coming in for that, but I doubt they'll show up just yet.

Unless of course they show to try and prevent certain things from going on in Boom or Fault as part of a destroyed area is needed to fulfill part of the circuit.

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First off, the Rikti. They hate all humanity (because they don't know they're humans too, albeit severely mutated).

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I'm pretty sure they do know they are human. Otherwise they wouldn't waste their time mutating homeless people and absorbing them into their ranks. Remember there's a long story line in CoH where there's civil dischord in the Rikti between humans transformed into Rikti and Rikti from their homeworld.

Also we have seen that the Dev's seem to enjoy giving out updates and events based on holidays. Memorial Day and Halloween being the two big ones it seems.

Really just wish the PR machine would start spinning. Especially with Comic-Con just ending, you would think that they had some info coming out.

Yeah, but Positron said August-September for I8. I really want to see what new hero content they have, even if it's just kind of weak sauce moving over of some power sets.

hmmmm, super-strength/regen scrapper....

Anyway, we've gotten off the beaten track.

Would someone whose head isn't kind of foggy and in need of sleep care to summarize what we do know and what's conjecture?

I'll start with the easy stuff.

What we know:
There will be a retail box expansion in 07 at some point.
There will be issues prior to the expansion.
These issues will help make the CoH mission structure more like that of CoV and have various other quality of life improvements.
The rewards system will be put in place and all the little emo-kids can finally have their trenchcoats if they've been a long term subscriber.
I8 should have the start of a system to make your characters better post-50, the method is supposed to take more time than just leveling up.

What's conjecture:
The expansion will be called City of Legends.
The next AT will smell of rosemary and do your taxes.
You will also get a real live unicorn if you log in on Statesman's birthday.

Megalith, I agree, but damn, what's up with the nipples on everything? Heck, used to be the "Tights 2" option (many moons ago) had nips.

Then again the bondage costume for males with skin showing has pierced ones.

Do the devs have a fetish they aren't telling us about?

Anyway, concerning the Rikti, yes their dimension is separate. And I'm not saying that Tyrant tried to take them over. What I'm saying is the Rikti dimension Statesman went rogue, like Tyrant did. Then the Rikti overthrew him by mutating themselves and since he was the embodiment of a god they now hate all gods.

I'm just wanting some more info on I8 at the moment. We're within two months of the proposed deadline and we haven't heard anything.

Wiki on Fae:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fae

I think in Hero-One's case it would be used more for otherworldly faerie help. Also fits with the whole "fated to die" thing.

Kheldians are energy beings. They can exist outside of a host, but if they do so their life span is limited to just a few years. By bonding with a host they can increase their life span. Nictus are Kheldians that have scientifically altered themselves into negative-energy beings. The biggest difference is that while a Peacebringer will tell you up front that they want to bond with you a Nictus will essentially drive you mad until you accept it and then take over your personality.

Exceptionally strong personalities can actually stand up and take control of the Nictus form. Requiem is one of these, while weaker personalities are entirely subsumed by the Nictus, Arakhn is one of these.

I actually don't see much difference between the two because PBs pretty much go to someone about to die and say "join with me or you'll die." which is just about as jerk-hole a thing to do as a Nictus driving someone insane to take over their body.

Warshades are reformed Nictus, they have left the hosts that they took over forcibly and have sought out a mutual bond. They also limit their powers by not doing things like detonating their enemies or ripping out their soul and turning it into their servant until they are dead.

And finally for the Rikti here's some....

[red][SPOILERS]The Rikti aren't Aliens. They are mutated humans from another dimension. Which is why I was saying that in their deminsion Statesman may have gone the Tyrant route, declaired himself God-King, then got a psychic beat down by the mutated masses. Now the Rikti are striking out not as an invasion, but in their minds a liberating force seeking a way to remove the threat that heroes posed to their home dimension. Now they are sealed off from their former dimension and are spending their time trying to get back home and doing shady things with homeless folks to bolster their number. My guess is they view themselves as freedom fighters. Speaking of which, when are we going to see the Lord Recluse from Tyrant's dimension?[/SPOILERS][/red]

Oh and from what I've heard the next expansion will probably be called City of Legends.

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It's just that it doesn't really link up. The story and the vibe the BotBS gives out is more.. of a puzzle. It's about this "great circuit" and it's tied to Gadzul Oil. It has it's own story, and Mirror Spirit and Hero-1 are just too far from any possible connections.

Also, she didn't explode her teammates if that's what you mean by "splode", haha. She just borrowed Rose Star's energy and used it as an attack. Her other power was a nuke power as well, and most (if not all) Corruptors and Blasters have that.

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I'm not saying the link isn't a bit of a stretch, just that I happen to think Mirror's power set (TPing by turning into a puddle, releasing the powers of your teammates to cause damage) are neat ones and would like to see it in game.

And yes, I do mean explode when I said 'splode. And while it's a nova it's a nova based around the Tanker that drained the Tank of all endurance (which is why the Tank collapses and not Mirror), which I think would be an exceptionally cool power set. Mostly because I can see a lot of uses for it, even if it puts your character in the way. The biggest use I see is right before the crash on one of the "God Mode" powers or right when one is activated.

Imagine if you will a Tanker just hitting unstoppable, a Brute doing Overload, or a Stalker or Scrapper on MoG or Elude, then you come along and POW set off a nova centered around the two of you.

On teams where you are working well together and they know it's coming it would be a massively powerful ability. On teams where no one has seen it before it would be a gigantic [censored]! kind of deal. Sort of like Howling Twilight ("What you mean you can rez all of us? At once?!")


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They wouldn't do that. For one, they'd lose ALOT of customers. Two, the Kheldians "had" alot of work done for them, but we already have templates for the villainous kinds. It's not like they're gonna make new ones. I wouldn't be surprised if they release the same Kheldians here only with different inherent ablities and different names.

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You aren't getting what I'm saying. I'm implying that at one point in time the Khelds were going to be a retail box called City of Shadows, in play testing or whatever though the dev's said, "You know, it might be better if we release these as a reward for getting to 50 instead." Thus keeping with the theme of the issues where they are rewarding long-term subscribers over trying to just bump cash out of them and hope for resubscribes via an expansion pack.

So they scrapped a City of Shadows retail box, possibly to come back later. Again, this is conjecture and it doesn't really figure into the other conjecture we've got going on.

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Also, it's already been confirmed that the villainois Kheldians/Warshades/Nictus will be released (if they still plan on transferring them) during an issue before the retail box release - which would probably be I8 or I9 .. or I10 if it takes long enough.

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I know and I'm looking forward to seeing what they are doing with them to make them match the Nictus in game canon.

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And as for a *new* EAT, they promised us one will come in the retail box.

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And like a good helper monkey I'll be there with cash in hand and ready to upgrade as soon as I can.

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Tyrants not on our plane, lol. I meant someone more powerful than Statesman or Lord Recluse right now. If there was, this game would go to only one of two sides: either that being that's more powerful than Statesman/LR rule the world with kindness, or rule it with evil. By being the more powerful ones, Statesman and Recluse balance the good and evil side. It's just for the game though because if any of us were to be more powerful than the game, we'd overthrow Statesman or Lord Recluse in a heartbeat. It could be possible in the comics.

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Um... how much of the Rikti history do you know? While I don't think it's spoilers I'm not sure I should reveal the big, yet obvious, plot twist concerning them here.

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Well, yenno, the gods in CoV might have a connection to the already existing gods in different mythos, but they're not the exact literal copies. For example, the goddess Hequat of the Mu people, her name is quite similar to a real life mythological goddess named Hecate.

So, I wouldn't take it so literally. The devs probably took the name Tartarus and made it their own. I was surprised to hear the name Zeus when I first heard it because I never thought they'd go there.

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It's in my nature to think pretty literally concerning mythological names, which is pretty handy just considering the sheer amount of "mythological" content that the City of... games have managed to cram into them. At some point I'll need to pick up the books methinks to get a better handle on some more of the history.

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If I remember correctly, the Kheldians are the voluntary ones, and the Nictus are the mandatory ones.

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As mentioned before anyone can reject the bond. It's just that while in a weakened state you are more succeptible to their manipulations and more willing to accept them. Kind of a sick mental torture thing.

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my judgement from the only BotBS-related story arc, I'd say those are quite.. off the BotBS category. For one, they're egyptian themed and are, according to Statesman, Shapeshifters. So, I would suggest a couple things: try and get a vibe of what the BotBS are about by doing "The Book and The Burning" arc by Mr. Bocor and reading all the clues. And second: try and relate the ancient Egyptians to Shapeshifting, to the game.

So IMO, Mirror Spirit (the asian lady) and Hero-1 can't be BotBS.

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Well I'm just not ruling it out. Especially Mirror Spirit because, well I just like the idea of 'sploding my teammates. Also we don't really know much about Hero-One aside from him leading the strike force vs. the Rikti. Just going by various rumors and presumptions I've heard.

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It would be hard to ingest if the Kheldians get that spotlight. That would mean the devs are favouring one EAT from the rest.

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What I meant by saying City of Shadows was that it was possibly that the Dev's were thinking about making khelds part of a retail box and calling it City of Shadows, only to cancel it and just make it part of an issue release since the khelds do require a pretty large amount of work to get, thus lowering the value of a retail box for many players.

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Yeah it's true about the Rikti, how they despise people who are.. religious. I'm not sure if that aspect of their personality was emphasized in the game. And I don't think there are others who drank from the well, for there will be other heroes/villains that would be as powerful as States and LR.

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*cough*Tyrant*cough*. Remember where the Rikti are from and what they are. It's possible someone came along, drank the waters, then went insane and declared themselves God-King and the only way the Rikti could fight them off was by mutating themselves to increase their psychic potential to gain powers strong enough to defeat the God-King.

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Also, Lord Recluse isn't the recincarnation of Hades, but Tartarus.

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Ok, wasn't really sure, and that makes more sense aligning him versus Zeus. I just assumed it was a typo before considering how Tartarus is considered less a god and more a place, also find it kind of silly considering how Tartarus is the embodiment of chaos and Arachnos is overall a very structured and organized group.

Wiki on Tartarus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarus

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No one should be more powerful than Statesman (none of us PCs anyway.) From my understanding, it violates the imaginary game rule.

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No it doesn't, it's pretty definite about how a super-powered being who drinks of the well would probably exceed Statesman and Recluse who were both normal people who drank of the well.

They would still win though just based on each of them having about 100 years of experience with their powers, compared to you just having got them.

And yeah, it's about as likely as frogs sprouting wings so they don't bump their [censored] when they hop, but it sure would be nice to turn your character into a giant monster class.

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Asfor EATs being Incarnates, you gotta realize:

1. EATs revolve around their own story. It's a story within the game that's somewhat apart from the "main" game (other than the Incarnates - MAYBE.)

2. The Incarnate EAT just may not be what you think it is. It's been talked about how the devs aren't going to make the "hybrid" system that people think they'll be getting, but instead, they'll make a whole new EAT that revolves around the Incarnates' story - and what that story is, is yet to be told. Sure, we know of Statesman, Lord Recluse and Stheno, but we don't really know the story behind the Incarnates yet.

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If they work in ATs the way they are now, with something akin to the APPs only more powerful and just a base increase to all stats, letting tankers do scrapper like damage and increasing resistances to pre-ED levels, then I'm just wondering what pools would open up for Khelds or any other EAT that is released with kheld type restrictions.

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Haha, it's alright. Thanks for your input and your interest in the subject.

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Thanks for an interesting discussion.

Really we're all just hampered with a major lack of knowledge here and the only thing we can do is wait. We can try to consolidate our knowledge, but it's so conjecture filled and full of holes that we might be doing the community a disservice by setting unreasonable expectations.

Wow that was a long read....

Anyway figured I would list what I know of the history of the Khelds:

Kheldians are a race of energy beings with a very short life span, they can however extend this life span by merging with another being, any being they have merged with they retain that 'pattern' and can transform into it. (Which is why they turn into Nova and Dwarf forms.)

This merging always has to be voluntary, even for Warshades/Nictus.

Now some of the Kheldians were upset about their short lives so they altered themselves into negative energy forms and enslaved the regular Kheldians. Eventually, like all tyrants, the Nictus were overthrown.

Since then the Peacebringers have been on a genocidal campaign across the stars. Killing any Nictus energy being and their host that they came across. Eventually they found the earth and sought out suitable host organisms. It is only through the good of humankind that Peacebringers have been kept from continuing on their genocidal rampage. Since who the peacebringers typically merged with were heroes, police, and other people who wouldn't kill indiscriminately.

Meanwhile the Nictus had been here for a long time. Shadowstar being in egypt, her energy form passed down through the family line and various other ones such as Arahk(sic) and Requiem having a negative energy form locked away somewhere in Italy (at least Requiem's was) and people would be joined to the Nictus if they followed the Brotherhood of the Dark Path or some such name as that. Requiem has been around since WWI and the rise of Mousilini and the Council and was one of the leaders of a splinter group of the Council who came to America during WWII as the 5th Column. Another splinter group of the Council is Arachnos.

Anyway Shadowstar was able to convince Sunstorm that the Warshades were seeking to repent their former ways and that they have given up their ways of ripping the life force out of their victims.

Now the big problems with Warshades being CoV ATs are that they have a lot of very strong powers that require the usage of defeated foes around them. Nictus however have no qualms about using the undefeated forms of their enemies to cause mayhem. Ways to balance it would be for accuracy checks in the former auto-hit powers and large endurance increases and increased recharge time, all indicating that it's more stressful to try and 'splode a live person than a dead one.

Also the info for the ATs of the various named characters posted a while back has been wrong for a bit. I can point to Miss Liberty, whom I believe now in the LR SF has a flaming Broadsword, not MA for her primary. I'm just nitpicking there though.

As for City of Shadows, I've got a couple thoughts. It could be related to the Kheldians (possibly they were thinking retail box and PBs and WSs seem pretty light and shadow to me.) or it could be Blood of the Black Stream, which just sounds kind of shadowy to begin with. Very spooky.

I've also heard mention that the Asian Lady who 'splodes the Tanker to free Statesman in the Korean CoH trailer could be a BotBS. Which would be a very cool thing, I would love to have a teleport built around turning myself into a puddle (would probably be more like a phase-shifted super-speed) and damage enemies by attacking my teammates.

I've also heard rumors of Hero-1 being a BotBS who weilded Excalibur but left it in the care of Miss Liberty before he led the assault on the Rikti homeworld.

Kind of funny thing about the Rikti too. They HATE Gods of any sort. Which kind of implies that the Rikti might be the result of a massive experiment to change their genome to fight off Statesman and Lord Recluse, the Incarnates of Zeus and Hades, and the possibility of other people who drank from the Wells.

Then we have the Incarnate AT, which I think might be built more into making your hero better. If I remember correctly the description of the waters from the Well say something like "If it turned a normal guy into the living embodiment of a God, then just think what it could do for someone with powers!"

I kind of like the idea of being more powerful than Statesman... that does leave some questions unanswered though. Specifically if the waters can be used to increase your powers or open up another pool, then how and how will it effect the EATs as well?

Gotta say it would be nice to be a Warshade Incarnate.

Oh also most of this is just stuff I'm going by from memory and my memory is like a steel trap. Dangerous, rusty, full of holes, and outlawed in most states.