Grey Pilgrim

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No, i believe he is correct. Why else would have states have stated that "looks can be decieving", and then in the credits it stated that loyaltys will change. I think states is gonna go "Rogue". Basically all for one, one for all. Last man standing kinda stuff.

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Here's a quote from their press release. "In the Going Rogue expansion, hero and villain characters will become immersed in the new parallel universe known as Praetoria, which is governed by Tyrant™, the evil incarnation of the game's main protagonist, Statesman™. As gamers search for Tyrant and the rest of his Praetorian guard, implacable foes and fierce resistance will arise to face them from all sides, causing heroes and villains alike to question their loyalties."

With that and having another hero go rogue already (and being highlighted in the video, etc.), I'm not sure why the devs would want their face of City of Heroes to go bad, especially when he already has an evil alternate version. So yeah, I'm quite sure that is Tyrant.

Looking at the video again, the first bit where States is with Desdemona (villain becoming a hero), he's referring to how Praetoria looks nice, but isn't really, as she said "it looks like a paradise." Then Statesman's helm transforms into Tyrant's (I remember it being a bit more rectangular/angular as well as golden). The guy that looks like Tyrant is standing next to the hero "going rogue," as well.

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The dropoff in pricing on some recipes when you go down a few levels is just....stupid.

Reactive Armor Resistance level 40, last 5 sold are 5 to 8 million each. Level 39s are 1-2 million each. Level 38 and below you can get one of some decent level for less than a million unless you need it NOW. I got a level 35 for just over 300K today.

And the level 40 IO gets you 0.5% more resistance than the level 38, if you outfit completely with level 40s vs. level 38s you might net an additional 1% total resistance after the ED effect kicks in.

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Which is why I gleefully sell off those end of the level range recipes and buy a couple levels lower. The same thing happens with Impervium Armors and Numina's (I think a straight up Numina Heal at 50 sold for about 25 million more than the 49 at one point, or something like that). Some people seem to think the few percentage points (or hundredth of a percentage point) are worth spending a lot of cash on, but I don't.

Well, I will say this about CE. It CAN attract more aggro than you can handle if you're not careful. I know this from personal experience on Tanker Tuesdays... when I have it on, I'll sometimes die because I'm picking up more aggro than I can handle. With it off, I'm still getting attacks on me, etc., but not more than I can handle.

From what I can see and know of it, CE makes you into an aggro magnet- more so than the other auras in-game. Still useful, but an Ice Tanker should take care with it until they get their defenses up to par, at least on large teams.

Oy... if they add ANOTHER currency to this game... I'm not sure what I would do. But I would not be happy. There's too much stuff to keep track of now, and it's not all balanced/gets harder to balance with the more types they add (even with today's tweaks, I would say tickets and their rewards are out of whack compared with merits).

And really, anyone that requires a certain setup of ATs in their team is kind of being the MMO equivalent of a snob (unless you're trying for an all Kheld ITF or something like that). Obviously you have to think about selection some (I'd rather not only have Scrappers on a Katie Hannon TF, for instance, though it probably would be doable), but it's not that big a deal.

I believe you are getting Tyrant and Statesman confused. The video and documentation show/mention both, and there is the in-game info about the Praetorian world belonging to Tyrant (wonder if they're going to retcon any of those Maria Jenkins maps... the Praetorian world seen in that video don't look like Boomtown).

Tex, I wouldn't be surprised if they combined the markets with this expansion, especially if people can switch sides.

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I'm betting we'll see a damage reduction and the implemention of an inherent power where Inf, salvage drops and recipes are automitically removed from the Tanker's inventory at regular intervals and evenly distributed among his teammates...

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The sad thing is, I can't tell if you're joking with this. Seriously.

Ummm, Scrappers and Brutes have to work a little bit more to get to the cap, yes, but it's not THAT much harder (I don't have Weave on my Tanker, but grabbing that on my Scrapper Build made up the difference mostly). The quickie build I threw in Mid's is not that different from the Tanker build I mentioned. Which, once again, is not that expensive. I got him to the defense cap through normal play (solo, plenty of teaming, some TFs, etc.).

I also see in your original post that you mention prices "depending on the server." The only division for the markets are for redside and blueside, so there is no "depending on the server" for price.

Costs of IOing your build are not as high as you suggest... I do it all the time in the course of normal gameplay (I don't play the market, I just sell what drops for the best price I can find). And even just getting a few sets can improve performance. I'm not sure what percentage of the playerbase does it a lot, but it's not that hard or expensive to do.

A... billion? My Shield Tanker is at the cap and he hasn't spent even that 200 million figure you mentioned, sorry. Maybe it's the sets you're going for, as there are some cheap ones out there that can boost your defense still. Also, there isn't much rare salvage out there that is in the millions on the market... I think Empowered Sigils were at 400k last I looked (blueside).

Well, since their FAQ basically says "it'll be ready when it's ready," I don't know how much they'll be rushing things. Just having this in the works and supplying info about it will be enough for some people to stay with COH or buy this when it comes out. Though I'm guessing most of us will be staying anyway.

Yeah, I was wondering about the patrons as well, though Tyrant's world may have its own version of Recluse and gang that are actually good, which would then be your new patrons or something.

At any rate, it's interesting, though you would think they would have waited until they could have said more about this, since I15 is still in the works and not in beta yet. I guess they want to show they're ratcheting things up, which is a good thing.

Yeah, there was a lot of speculation as to whether they would release something at the same time as CO, so this might be it. Or they might release it a bit after to entice people back, when they see how not fun CO is, how it has new MMO kinks to work out, etc.

And as for the OP, read that title carefully, or we're all going "rouge." No thanks on that one.

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They have to have been working on this behind the scenes. Notice the content-light issues of recent memory: I13, I14, I15 (we were right, GP! ).

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I know. I'm interested to see what they come up with this, and hope that it will be coming out this year, too. A paid for by us expansion still makes me wonder where NCSoft's investment in this game is. It's probably another one of those things where they inaccurate words to describe what they are shooting for (see "Epic AT," where people wonder why their Kheldian doesn't have an "I win" button). Sure, they're "investing" in the game by creating a new expansion, but that's not quite the impression given when they tried to emphasize NCSoft's investment in the game.

Anyway, as everyone is pointing out, this has the potential to be a sizeable release like COV, so it should be interesting to see where they lead us. I'm still more inclined to think we'll have access to a new Praetorian AT than a spy class, just because there have been rumors of Praetorian stuff with Cimerora, etc. The devs do make pretty good content, so I'm keen on seeing where this goes (and hopefully it will come sooner rather than later).

Oh, looking WAY back earlier in the thread: Smurphy, I meant if there are any disparities between ATs redside and blueside, they'll be highlight by putting them together even more. People are already inclined to complain about some things (Scrappers vs. Tankers), so I'm sure they'll have even more things to talk about now (some real, some whining). Heh.

QR

Tanks and Brutes already overlap in the co-op TFs, so letting side switches happen won't change things that much, but will highlight disparities between any ATs... so Castle will have fun with balancing powers, that's for sure.

For me, there are some good things. I'm going to take a wild guess and say there may be a new AT in the works with this, the rumored Praetorians, since the e-mail mentions that prominently. Since they're trumping this as a new expansion, it should hopefully have oodles of content, which is good.

My pessimistic meter is ringing a bit, though. Guess NCSoft's investment in this game is to make a bunch of cool stuff and make us pay over and above our $15 a month for it. *sighs* Maybe I'm reading the e-mail wrong, but this sounds like a paid expansion, since they're comparing it to COV's release. Not so keen on that. I just wish they'd make up their minds as to if this game would be a pay per month or pay for expansions.

For Shields, like with any other Tanker set, I just adjusted as I needed to... I didn't pick up AAO until after Stamina and that worked okay for me. It's really not any heavier early on than any other set.

I'm also wondering if you wrote a typo with the Invince at 28 thing... as I can't imagine waiting until 28 to pick that up... that's a very important power for an Invuln Tanker to pick up. You can set up your build to get that at 18 and still get Stamina at 20, and I would recommend doing that to any Invuln.

I would say Ice and Fire have the easiest time of it for Tanks because of their end recovery powers (though they do have some heavy toggles)... Fire the easiest because you can get Consume while you're in the single digits, which is quite nice.

I'm not sure what the perception is that makes people think Shields is heavier... part of me wants to say maybe it's because they haven't leveled up a Tank in awhile, but who knows. All I know is that the numbers aren't any heavier than other tank sets and that I had no more trouble with end on my Shield/SS than I do with any other tank.

I've seen a few posts from people saying something like that about Shield's endurance use, but Shields doesn't use more endurance than other sets... I believe it's on par with other non-damaging aura sets and AAO boosts your damage to boot.

For the OP question, I really would say a properly built Fire/Fire tank could fit the bill. Adding Tough and Weave to Fiery Aura makes for a sturdy Tank that can also dish out the damage. Other combos can work, too, of course.

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Not enough drama for you this time, Voo?

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Honestly, I'd like to see a single pistol blaster; I just see a character holding and properly bracing 1 pistol as a whole lot more dangerous and skilled than someone wildly firing 2 pistols.

I would treat that set a lot like the Malta Gunslingers; different ammo types that have different effects, and perhaps a silencer to give you a special attack that doesn't generate aggro.

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Well, I'm not BaB and co., but my guess is that they will do something like this for some powers... it makes sense, it's already in the game, and it's in line with other Blaster powers (Blazing Arrow, etc.). Though the silencer idea will probably be more like the sniper power... I'm imagining a wind up like from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet- John Leguizamo breaks out a sight for his pistol, sights, and fires. Hehe.

Yeah, since a fair amount of people missed that, a summon demons powerset is in the works too. Probably just for MMs, but maybe they'll work it in with a Control set, hard to say.

QR

Mental and I had fun tonight trying to keep our team alive. Unfortunately, they were all about as good as the arsonist at getting aggro (and surviving it), so it was a challenge. With one encounter, I hit DC with Soothe, Share Pain, and then Soothe again... I think his health was still half full after all three of those. That's a lot of damage!

Anyway, I'm not sure what to do about the enhancement situation... Kong has the whole 30 bin full of enhancements already (yes, full- 100 enhancements full), so it almost feels pointless to keep making enhancements! Too much time/money on your hands, Kong (at least I thought it was yours character dropping all those in the bins)?

Happy B-Day!

I hope yours goes well. I'm up late because the upstairs neighbors have loud music going and seem to have left the building (for some reason, management is taking forever to get in there, too). So yeah, I hope your day is better than that.

The 15s and 20s I made I put on the far left, just because there was room, and we're all able to grab 15s and 20s (for the most part). Someone grabbed the 20s I made and put them in the bin second from the left, as well as some they had made- I was just saying that in case someone had seen the previous way they were placed (I didn't want them to think there were no 20s left). Separating them out makes sense, I was just making sure it was clear where they all ended up.

Ready to go, and there are a lot of 15 and 20 IO enhancements around for people to grab... someone (MP?) crafted a bunch on top of what I did (and reorganized the bins a bit so 15s are on the far left, 20s second from the left), so we have plenty for all.

Ah, one other thing. I was debating whether you could set up those two middle missions as "try to defeat all the enemies so no one can report back" (in the mission text from the contact) to satisfy those that don't like absolutely having to defeat all, but also to maintain the story sense.

Or would that just be confusing? What does everyone think? I know some don't like defeat alls no matter what, but it does make sense for some, and I wonder if this is a way around the problem.

When did you run this, Baryonic? The patch this morning added in ranged attacks for bosses (Bladed Justice is also a boss), so I changed the final boss to have Invuln as a secondary. It also supposedly changed up the AI for characters using Dual Blades, so I'm curious as to how that worked out for your ally. I'll have to try it out again to see how it goes with him (before it was hit or miss if he would attack, like it is with most melee characters... I was hoping the AI tweaks and ranged addition would help out more with him).

I also like the Tsoo and Warriors a lot, so it was easy to choose them, especially since they intersected with one of my hero's backstories (the Family are also fun in a way... who doesn't like dropping some goombas?).

I'm not sure why you're miffed at having to help a fellow hero. Most contacts in the game (hero and villainside) have heard about your exploits in some way and want your help. And hopefully it's clear as you go why this contact does need your help (I also would hope that this story becomes your hero's as well, and more involved and interactive than most arcs from contacts- you're the first to say you felt like it was someone else's story).

Hmmmm, not sure what to say about the two missions to rile up the other groups. I would say dropping one as you said makes it less of your hero's story, and lowers the stakes a bit for that last mission (I also wanted to make sure it wasn't a lucky chance that that final boss shows up in the last mission). If you drop that Family mission, their placement in the last mission would feel a little more random and tenuous.

Also, after the setup for the third and fourth mission, I didn't think I needed too much info about you planting evidence. I thought about planting a glowie you could interact with, but I figured it simplified it to just put in the mission end text that you planted the evidence (and since you fought the Warriors a lot in the first two missions, I didn't think you needed too much info on how you got the stuff).

And this is more of a random comment, but I find it weird that a five mission arc is even considered long... you get to that many missions (that take longer to play) before or during the twenties. Most story arcs in game are even longer, even if you took out all the fedexes. Just an odd sentiment that confuses me from some... MA seems to foster a need to go fast, fast, fast, when it already cuts out travel time!

Anyway, food for thought. I'll have to think it over, as I think there is good logic for the way things are... so we may just be looking at things differently (such is the nature of creative works, heh). Thanks for the help.