Patient_V

Down for a Numina, pass on the Ice Mistral runs.

Going to give the devs a pass on what we've seen of Lore so far. There's no way they could be so incredibly dimwitted as to force Praetorian pets onto Primals headed to incarnate-dom, so I have to believe those are placeholders at the moment. Getting incarnate powers from The Well is fine (and easy enough to ignore if you want to), but tying The Well and incarnate powers to Praetoria is an awful idea.

Re: the rest of it, in no particular order.

I will always be a snowflake. You can't take a step without tripping over a shield scrapper these days, but that won't stop me from playing and enjoying mine. My costume, my build, and my playstyle will define me more than what flavor of incarnate-dom I choose.

The Judgment slot sounds like it will infringe on DPS-oriented characters, but CoH has always considered DPS characters fluff. They're the place fillers on teams, the padders, the pity spots. The disparity might grow with the Judgment AoEs, but I don't see DPS classes disappearing anytime soon. (And if AT mods can affect Judgment and other incarnate powers, blasters might see some level of parity in the endgame - maybe a blaster's Judgment power will have a shorter cooldown or easier casting prereq).

Same topic, different perspective: the other incarnate powers may shore up the gap between AT roles. After all, if your team's blaster can toss out +defense for the team and load his attacks with resistance debuff procs, support characters become less necessary (think Soldiers of Arachnos).

I'll take a spot on both nights with whatever the team needs.

A good Kin. I can count the number I've run into over the years on one hand.

You never learned how to deploy Traps on a mobile target on the way to 50? Or that the majority of AVs, including Battle Maiden, are easy to immobilize with web grenades?

The weakest part of this combo is TA, imo. That's another topic, though. I'd recommend going with a defender unless you're in love with Scourge and faster access to the DP powers.

Redraw is a non-factor if you learn to interrupt animations with the draw animation that plays when you acquire a target by initiating a weapon power. Even if it's impossible to overlay the Archery animation with a Dual Pistols animation (like Acid Arrow), your character will still transition to the DP animation without drawing his pistols.

You also gain the benefit of being able to unroot your character and stay mobile, which is a pretty nifty trick limited to the weapon classes in CoH (abusing temps can net you the same effect, though).

I'll take the last spot if no one has claimed it.

Ranged. Common sense and a little twitch skill will make melee/AoE a non-factor and an epic shield will help with the odd S/L shot that does get through.

I'll help if I'm online, but this one is a little past my bedtime. Don't reserve a spot for me.

FWIW, the last Master run I was on didn't involve any temps. We had one teammate Assemble the Team back outside the warehouse after the blinkies were all clicked, then we reentered, pulled Director 11 to the door, and gunned him down from the doorstep. No flying, defense, or Shivan hijinks, and no mines in sight the entire time.

Concept, lack of information, or the desire to be a unique slowflake in a game that has long since evolved beyond the scope of the set.

It's sad, because updating the set while paying respect to the infamous cottage rule doesn't seem like it would be difficult to do at all.

Remove the player control aspect and turn it into regularly scheduled, AI-run matches where players can bet on the outcome. Allow players to view the events as spectators and give tangible rewards for bettors - vanguard merits, reward merits, recipes, maybe even badges for the kids. Make the events low frequency to boost their significance and make attendance mandatory to be eligible for a reward (in other words, no dropping a bet and running off for an ITF).

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
COMING THIS SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE TALOS ARENA!
IT'S TEAM ARACHNOS VS THE CIRCLE OF PAAAAAIN!
SMOKE GRENADE! ABSORB PAIN! ALL THE PSYCHIC WAIL YOU CAN HANDLE!
DON'T MISS THE ACTION!

(I'm only half-joking about this idea. I don't see how this isn't ten times more interesting than day jobs.)

I'll take a spot with whatever the team needs.

Props to the guys preaching for Traps. Also

No point building for melee defense if you can joust with any measure of competency. Go for ranged defense and get within a purple of the soft-cap. Cardiac for the Alpha unless you run with a crew that can cover for your inevitable endurance issues.