Rikis

We always knew Blasters were evil anyways. Just look at who they hang out with. Heck, they're more evil than the other redside ATs according to that chart .

Evil has better music anyways. Villains > Heroes, forever! Well, except Warshades, I've got a soft spot for them. Soon as GR hits, there'll be one more active Warshade in the game.

It's not unprecedented in MMOs. I recall Everquest 2 had a lotto system where you buy tickets, and the cost of the tickets is added to the pot. It was completely random, at times the pot was small before it was reset (because someone won) and others it was an absurd amount that many people started buying tickets, adding more to the pot at the same time.

The Magic Booster cloak. If my character doesn't have wings, I can almost guarantee they'll have it. At first I thought it was the ability to have capes right from level 1, but then I realized I changed a lot of my older costumes to have those cloaks. Only one or two of my characters from before the booster became available have their old good-old fashioned, stolen from heroes, capes.

Well, I guess I'll have to disagree, somewhat. To me, exploration is all about the unique places you will find in the game world. This is something that the game lacks (on both sides) mostly due to its setting. Exploration is about finding things you wouldn't have found if you had simply kept to the tracks that missions/quests lay out in front of you. I think one of the reasons I loved Everquest (and the only MMO to date that I played for 5 years) is that despite its name, the quests weren't clearly laid out. You had to find them, and most people didn't bother. Because of that, you were free to go hunt where you wanted, not where some NPC sent you.

The first time I went to their newly released Stonebrunt Mountains on the already out of the way Odus continent, I was in awe. They hadn't done an environment like it in the game (at that point in time). Sure I had to kill my way through some kobold tunnels in order to get there, but after the initial slaughter, I could explore without hurting a single NPC. To me, the accomplishment was reaching the Kejek village in the snowey peaks after starting out from being underground. Not how many enemies I had slain to get there. I didn't earn a single point of experience or loot, but I still felt accomplished. That I still remember the names of both places after an almost 5 year absence speaks volumes for how that made me feel.

In Guild Wars, I avoided most enemies despite being able to easily slaughter them to get more exp. I wasn't interested in progressing my character, I was interested in seeing what I could find. When I first laid eyes on the floating castle in Nebo's Terrace had me wonderstruck. Sadly, I couldn't reach it, but simply gazing at it was fun, and here comes the important part, for me. As others have stated, a sense of exploration is very much personal and the hardest to inspire within your playerbase. Eventually, the majority of every MMO's playerbase will be reward oriented.

I have to chime in and agree with the majority of posters here. If you're playing redsite ATs like you would blueside, you're simply doing it wrong. If anything, whenever I give blueside one of my attemps, I tend to play those ATs like I would redside ATs which leads to... less than optimal play in teams ("why is the controller in the middle of the battle? why is the tanker not waiting for us?").

Stalkers, I believe, have a 1.0 or higher modifier in their damage now, which makes them very much damage dealers. Not AoE, but damage dealers none the less. When you can one shot a minion without a crit without your tier 9 attack, it's pretty good damage. Not to mention Crab spiders (my second 50!) which does quite a bit of AoE damage. Granted, it's an epic and not till level 24.

How these forums survived without 5 days of strongness and prettyness is amazing.

This thread cannot end well.

I decided to go all out on the idea of a Melee/Debuffer and came up with four powersets (well three really, one is a 95% carbon copy of an existing one).


Archetype: Defiler
Hit Points: High
Damage: Medium

Inherent:
Sadism - The Defiler enjoys on the deprivation of others. This euphoria strengthens his ability to inflict pain on others. The more enemies are being affected by his powers, the stronger he becomes.

+3% Damage, +1% ToHit for every enemy afflicted by one of his debuffs (NOT controls) in a 15 feet radius. Max 10

And here are some of the sets that might be available. Numbers are just for show really, tweaking would need to be done:

Broadsword
1) Hack
1) Slash
2) Slice
6) Build Up
8) Parry
12) Indomitable Will (without the def to psionics)
18) Whirling Sword
26) Disembowel
32) Head Splitter

Shadow Aura
1) Dark Siphon: PBAoE Click, -15% Damage to targets, +5% damage per target hit
2) Abyss Tendrils: PBAoE Click, -90% Run Speed, -Fly, -Jump
4) Death Shroud: Toggle, 12.5 Negative Damage every 2 seconds.
10) Shadow Muck: PBAoE Click, -20% ToHit, -50% Recharge
16) Cloak of Fear: Toggle, 7.45s Mag 3 Fear, -5% tohit 5s duration.
20) Dark Regeneration: PBAoE Click, 401 Heal, 12.51 Negative Energy Damage
28) Oppressive Gloom: Toggle, 7s Mag 3 Stun
35) Chill of the Night: Toggle, 9 Negative Damage every 2 seconds, -15% tohit
38) Abyss Behemoth: Click, +100% Damage Buff, +20% ToHit, +100% Recovery, +20% Resistance to all, +60% Resistance to Negative Energy. 180s Duration, 1000s Recharge


Scythe
1) Strike: Single Target, Low Damage, Very Fast Recharge
1) Swipe: Single Target, Moderate Damage, Fast Recharge
2) Crippling Attack: Cone, Moderate Damage, -50% Run Speed, Medium Recharge
6) Build Up
8) Rending Assault: Superior Damage, DoT, Slow Recharge
12) Indomintable Will (Without the def to psionics)
18) Great Sweep: PBAoE, Minimal Damage, Knockdown, Slow Recharge
26) Vicious Slice: Cone, High Damage, Chance for crit, Slow Recharge
32) Reap: PBAoE, Superior Damage, Slow Recharge

Cold Aura
1) Heat Drain: PBAoE Click, -30% Recharge, +7.5% Recharge per target hit
2) Frigid Burst: PBAoE Click, -15% Defense, -jump, -fly
4) Icicle: Toggle, 8.9 Lethal Damage every 2 seconds
10) Freezing Wind: PBAoE Click, -20% Resistance, Chance for mag3 Root
16) Chilling Embrace: Toggle, -movement speed, -32% recharge, -14% damage
20) Energy Absorption: PBAoE Click, +3% Defense to all per target, max 15%, +20 Endurance, -35% Endurance to enemies
28) Shatterstorm: Toggle, -12.5 Cold Damage every 2 seconds, 3s Mag2 Stun
35) Arctic Air: Toggle, -62.5% Recharge, 3.7s mag3 Fear, chance for 3.7 mag3 Confuse, -movement speed
38) Ice Terror: Click, +30% Damage Buff, +20% ToHit, +100% Recovery, +20% Defense to all, +60% Resistance to Cold Damage, +50% Recharge, 180s

Probably the toughest thing for an early Defiler would be survivability. He lacks even the most basic of defenses, ranged. Since he is frail, there is no reason for a taunt power in his primary, which has been replaced by the only thing that will keep him alive in the later levels, status protection. The two sets I put up there have four toggles each, but each is very end heavy. Although his secondary tier 9 grants some survivability with limited resistances and defenses, its main purpose is to make them a killing machine. This is one AT that will not have problems reaching the damage cap which would be higher than most but lower than brutes.

I suppose if they ever implement something like this, heroes would need a new AT too. I don't know, something Debuff-Buff/Pets, for the heroic masterminds they've been clamoring for.

Edit: Completely forgot, their Patron Pools wouldn't be all that hard to design. Something along the lines of:

1) Ranged Attack
2) Shield
3) Ranged AoE Attack
4) Miscellaneous
5) Pet

I have nothing of value to add to this thread, but I will say this: the rep system reminds me of this little treasure.