Ms. Mesmer

I still find it strange that you confuse repetition-reinforced pattern recognition with elitism. I don't expect those that are new to these trials to know where the things are, but, after 20 or so attempts (probably low by a factor of at least 5 per side for me by now) I've just happened to memorize where these static spawns are, and generally know which ones get skipped over on the "average" team's routes. I'm far from elite in these skills, since I still make wrong turns inside Aeon's lab in the STF, but I do tend to think that I have at least the learning skills of the average laboratory mouse running through a set maze.

No. You only have to be level 50 and have Going Rogue. You can even unlock Alpha through iXP on the trials and avoid having to do Mender Ramiel's arc that way.

Forget just Mission Architect, I'd make the whole game like this. No experience for directly defeating mobs, instead having all experience come from objective completion.

This would mean that you would have to have enough objectives available to get the player from start to level cap right at launch.

I would also design the objectives differently. You could still beat up whatever amount of mobs were necessary to complete the objective, but there would be alternatives for stealthiness, control and whatever else, or a mixture of all of them. This would cater to different classes, powersets and playstyles, and allow people to play their characters closer to their own concepts.

Aside from that, no level restrictions on costume parts, or on travel abilities, and probably a better integration of travel abilities, movement and environment with a character's powers.

I'm to the point where, even if I die halfway through and spend some time coming back, I can predict which ones haven't been hit by the time I return.

The base time is 5 minutes. It even tells you that when you start. You can increase it by up to 9 minutes, since the 10th dual assault ends the phase. You end up getting half of the objects in a little over a third of the time, but with double the firepower concentrated on that half of the objects. They might be marginally more difficult.

Of course he's not part of the magical backstory, but An Unnatural Order at the very least leads us to believe that that Will of the Earth (if we assume that it is not the same Will of the Earth that Hamidon used on himself, which it might well be), if not the original Will of the Earth that Hamidon used on himself, requires mystics to create, as well as scientists. Either that, or the Devouring Earth are very amused by card tricks and Tarot readings. In all honesty, there aren't many details about exactly what happened during Hamidon's actual transformation. Tanya tells us virtually nothing, and she appears to be oblivious to the details of what the Will of the Earth even was.

The Elder God story (written by BaB before we really had interacted with him, but apparently with details provided by Positron) was obviously wrong, because it completely contradicted the established story of Hamidon having been a human who changed himself. There being at least a magical component to his transformation does have some basis in game lore that has existed since the beginning, the Devouring Earth using mystics in some capacity to (re?)create the Will of the Earth in that arc that chronologically takes place before the Terra Conspiracy arc, and might be happening right alongside the break-in in which Hamidon Pasalima transforms himself. The Devouring Earth are a post-Rikti War threat, after all, which pushes their creation to near the game's launch, and possibly during the time that our characters are gaining their levels.

In reality, they traded server lag for network lag. The change to buff reporting for leagues dramatically reduced network lag if you turned them off, but something in that fix increased server lag. Now that they disabled the buff sending change, the network lag is back, but the server lag has decreased somewhat, so it's only really noticeable during things like the escapee phase.

Both situations are bad, and I hope that there can be some solution that allows people with somewhat more limited bandwidth to not get lag-related crashes while also keeping the things from becoming time-dilated.

This bug dates back to launch, or at the latest Issue 1. It happens with non-arc missions in the 30s on Hero side. It isn't rare, and I've encountered it on literally every hero that I have taken through those levels. I seem to also recall a couple of missions in the 20s that would repeat from different contacts, as well.

Now, an actual arc repeating, like Master-Blade mentioned, is something that I've never had happen, except for Mender Ramiel when I switched sides. Even that's not exactly the same, since you get sent to Statesman or Recluse depending on which version you run.

Many mystical telepaths exist in Marvel and DC. The Enchantress even called Professor X's telepathy clumsy when he tried to use it on her during Secret Wars. Doctor Strange and other mystics communicate via telepathy. I think most players tend to think of Psi and mutation as linked because of Sister Psyche and the Origin of Power arc, but that kind of generalization completely disregards Numina.

Speaking of Numina, Diabolique is both Praetorian and almost-certainly magical.

Oh, and Sam, go and do the An Unnatural Order arc again, or just read the clues and other text on ParagonWiki. You might be surprised at the origin of the Will of the Earth.

Doubtful. The build is still 2010, not 2100.

The Shield is there for new characters on my account. It's an oversight in the description only.

Edit: The Seven stars Chest Detail is listed as Star 16, in case anyone missed it in there like I did the first time through.

It bit a friend of mine on a League that I was leading tonight, too. This is a nasty bug that needs to die as quickly as possible. I'm beginning to wonder just how common it is.