Genesis Man

Try this one on for size. Not quite as pretty, but insanely accurate.

http://www.uncannyxmen.net/images/ar...nshipmapv2.jpg

Linked to avoid GIANT IMAGE!

You can also do something similar by making the skin itself a bit redder, then adding "Diamond Blend" as the Chest Detail, coloring it a light gray. Basically exactly what Oathbound has done, I just find Diamond Blend to give a more natural look.

In case you missed it, here's a much better quality version of the pic.

The Incarnate system, though still in its infancy, is a much better option than raising the level cap. Why?

Raising the cap changes nothing but where the cap is.

The Incarnate system makes the cap mean something, and allows you to grow past it with a good deal of work.

He's really pulling off the look well, in and out of costume... but then his look wasn't my concern to begin with.


Also, Hugo Weaving is a perfect casting choice. Should be interesting to see how he and Chris play off each other.

I've seen several ideas pop up recently regarding Praetorian EATs (or just new EATs in general) and what they should entail. One thing I've not really seen is... what should their "unique factor" be? Kheldians have form switches to adapt to roles not filled, Soldiers of Arachnos have branching power trees to allow for specialties tailored to the player. What, exactly, should drive the Praetorian ATs?

In my head, the clear choice is... side-switching. It's the main feature of GR (which I'm sure would be required to own for w/e the Praetorian AT will be). The question then is, how would side-switching play into the design of an AT? Again, referring to the side-switching mechanic, the switch is a moral choice. The best way I can possibly think to reflect that in an AT is to have branching powers. That is, start with common, founding powers and have the powers diverge once a moral choice is made. Dark, villainous powers for red-side (and rouges). Light, heroic powers for blue-side (and vigilantes). The next thought is, what pre-existing backstory/NPC group has a clear distinction between villain and hero?

The Carnival of Shadows and The Carnival of Light.

As with the other EATs, there would be two ATs, the Ring Mistress and the Master Illusionist.

I've started working out WHAT these powers would look like, how they would function, etc... but before I go too far into it, what do you think? Is this a path/set/backstory people would be into exploring? The Carnival of Light is almost completely unexplored at this time, but the Carnival of Shadows has a long-standing, rich history to draw from. So... thoughts? i'll post my powerset ideas later on, if people are interested enough.

I still haven't been able to play a stalker. I love aggro too much.

Not that I mind MOAR Ninja in the game, I just see the set as you've outlined it is a) recycling other sets already available to a Stalker (albeit mixed up a bit) and b) attempting to do something that is hard/impossible to code.

Trust me, I love the teleport-attack idea in general, but it's just not doable (Shield Charge was originally going to do something similar). KB TO a caster is, as far as I recall, also challenging if not impossible to implement with the current game engine.

Note: This belongs in the suggestions forum.

Mez protection in toggles won't ever happen, at least according to everything we've heard from the devs over the years. However, I think adding a bit of mez resistance in each toggle would be fantastic. Sure, you'd still get mez'd, but the more armors you have active, the less the duration of said mezzes would be.

As I said at the beginning of the thread, buffs to PBs are always welcome, but the AT really only needs a few minor tweaks to vastly improve it's performance. Changing Solar Flare to KD would completely change the usability of the power without even touching the cottage rule. Adding stun to Proton Scatter to bring it in line with the WS version would also help with leveraging Pulsar. Sure, WS's can do it better with Inky Aspect + Gravitic Emanation but as it stands, PBs have very little active damage mitigation, outside of KB.

I think the Build Up being changed to a Rage-like power suggested previously is an interesting idea, but seems too good to ever happen. The above changes, however, seem (on paper) to have a lot of pay off for little changes.

1) Controls and Dominators have essentially the same primary powers, with Controllers only having one additional set (Illusion).
2) Controllers have a support (buff/debuff) secondary while Dominators have an Assault secondary (mix of melee and ranged attacks).
3) Controllers have stronger controls out of the box and their inherent allows them to do additional damage to mobs controlled by their primary (Containment).
4) Dominators have slightly weaker controls and middle of the road damage from their secondary. They can temporarily double the effectiveness of their mez powers, resist all mez types and regain endurance with their inherent power, Domination.

There's a lot I'm glossing over here, but that's the gist of the two ATs. Though their primaries are practically identical, their playstyles are very different. Many (not all) controllers play best as a support character, locking down mobs and becoming (in effect) a damage modifier for your team. Dominators similarly can lock down mobs, but take a much more aggressive approach to simply blasting away at the mobs directly.

While the aggro cap is limited, this play style still does work. I use it all the time on my tanks, though not at all times. If a tank is pulling just a single mob at a time, there really is no benefit over steamrolling a mob at a time. However, if you factor in the "conga line of stupidity" and a large room full of mobs, herding still works wonders. Example:

I'm on my Ice/ tank and the team comes upon one of the "rooms of death," a room usually so packed with mobs that multiple spawn aggro is common. I run in and aggro the entire room (or a portion thereof, depending on the team) and come back to where the rest of the team is waiting. Due to the aggro cap, only a portion will come at first. However, mobs will "remember" the aggro and come running as soon as a NPC is defeated, constantly replenishing the mob gathered around me. Done right, this can turn a large room into a stream of ambushes (essentially) which are MUCH easier to manage at a choke point than standing in the middle of said room. It also tends to eliminate the ranged-mobs from raining death from afar, which can be much harder to manage as they tend to scatter out of range of most debuffs/AoEs.

Again, if a tank is ALWAYS doing this, there are definitely issues. However, in certain instances, it's still very useful. Now, if you have MULTIPLE tanks, herding from two or more different sources and bringing them back to the main team... well, then some truly awesome carnage can begin.

Beaten to the punch! Glad to know I'm not the only one that still sees the benefit! :P

It really depends on the AT. Sweep and Attack Vitals are definitely the two better combos and from what I understand, those are the only two scrappers really bother with.

Tanks, however, are forced to take the first attack, which is part of the Weaken and Empower combos. Therefore, if you want the Sweep and Attack Vital combos on a tank, you'll be forced to take every attack power, granting you the two less-useful combos by default.

Note, they're not useless, I just find that I'm rarely executing either combo in favor of the other two.

You can have multiple trees out. With global recharge like that, there will be some pretty significant overlap, which is a good thing.

I'll be praying for them both as well, and their families.

I have a sneaking suspicion Sam isn't going back to normal... but I do hope I'm wrong. Last season was dark enough a return to the lighthearted stuff would be welcome indeed.

While Sam's out and out evil persona was a little surprising, this feels like they're rehashing the same old conflicts of last season, with Sam possibly being an evil Dean'll have to put down or deal with. The jury is still out on this season for me. I've still not seen anything that says, "Yeah, there's a reason we should keep going after the bloody Devil got sent packing."