Seldom

The list goes on a ways, but the main things that stuck out were these:

Devs that cared, and listened. This wasn't just 'a' product, it was their product, and it has always showed. And even though they were so invested, they took time to listen to players...this game wouldn't be the same without its community, but the community would never have had the same impact if devs didn't hear us out and even put some of our crazy ideas into the game.

Character building: the costumes, the variety of powers, customizations...I could play the same powers twice with different archeytpes and new slotting and it would be a different experience. I could (and did) have 10 different characters of one AT and they all were unique. I could tell my story in a bio, I could tell it through binds, I could make the characters all look their parts. While playing their game, the devs' character creator let me make something entirely my own

Team play: No other game has as good of multiplayer as I've found here. Every team member contributes, regardless of level and build, but the game doesn't stop being doable when someone has to duck out. You can have thousands of different powers, but any of them will work somehow to help the team, often making a unique chemistry that brings new ways of playing with the other team members. 3 controllers, 2 doms, and 3 kheldians? Sure, roll with it. 4 blasters, 4 corruptors? Yep, you'll be good. 8 tanks? Why not!

Seriously, there's so much this game does well it boggles my mind others aren't stealing Paragon's ideas. Thanks CoH for all the fun, and thank you for spoiling me for any other mmo's. They can't compare.

Wow... I just realized I've played this game almost a quarter of my life. There have been many fun times, and the direction, especially looking at i24, was looking better than ever. Then just this? Wow.

Heh...it's been awhile since domination did anything for damage.

Dominators do blaster/scrapper-ish damage at all times now. Domination does four things: Refills endurance, boosts the magnitude of all direct controls, boosts the duration of all direct controls, and gives protection to knockback and all mez. Powers that indirectly control (like the electric sleep patches, and the earth drop controls) are not boosted. Also, Aura controls tend to not be changed by domination.

In the next issue there is talk of domination also giving +25% tohit for a limited time to allow dominators to fast snipe, but that's still in testing.

Honestly, I have the accolade on all of one character. Having it available elsewise would be no worry to me at all...I have absolutuley no plan to ever earn it again, and the thought of earning it on all my characters...yeah, no, not going to happen. Leaving it as a free reward but having a fee for the convenience of broader use more easily? Certainly.

Oh, and the only reason I got the accolade? The crazy number of badges to earn it, for the badge count.

Thought this may sound like an odd suggestion, for the theme you might also try Gravity control. With a dark color palette, the final pet, singularity, looks something like a roving black hole. Just bear in mind gravity has fewer/less reliable control options than dark control, and is a bit trickier to get used to. But for the theme, it might be worth exploring.

My issues with sonic resonance are threefold:

1. It has no possibility to scale- it provides as much mitigation in a 15 second fight against minions as it does against a ten minute fight vs. a giant monster.
2. It has very little to no mitigation against debuffs. As it gives no defense, does very little to stop enemies from attacking/connecting with their attacks. In fact, forcefields has better debuff protection, despite bubbles providing 100% debuff protection when they work. This is the biggest weaknes sin my mind, as though allies will take less damage, they will still be slowed, sapped, have their defense debuffed, have their tohit and regen debuffed, you get the idea. In my mind sonic shields should protect against the debuffs commonly carried by the attack types they shield from.
3. It has almost no reliable attack mitigation. The best you can do is click your powers, keep your toggles on, and that's it. Aside from the long-recharging liquefy, the 'pay to toggle AND to knock back {double charge toggle} of sonic repulsion, and the 'it can't hurt you but is invincible' sonic cage, nothing in sonic will affect the enemy end of the damage being received spectrum. As liquefy is purposefully situational, repulsion uses all endurance if used to aggressively mitigate, and cage is both mitigation from AND for an enemy, I do think sonics need something always accessible.

Sonic is a good 'backup mitigation' secondary, as it fills in holes that other mitigation can't fill. It's good if healing is around. It's good if defense is around. It's good if controls are around. But standing on its own, it pretty much guarantees that after it's powers are down, there is nothing more the set itself it can do...and the lack of mitigation with only resistance means that unlike other support sets, your allies can and will be vulnerable to sustained damage, and as mentioned earlier, almost 100% susceptible to debuffs. They will last longer, but in long fights that is often not enough.

Here's what I'd do for Sonic resonance:

I completely agree about clarity: it protects the mind, so it fits both a thematic and mechanical hole. I see little reason for sonic resonance to leave allies completely vulnerable to psy damage, despite somehow shielding their minds from control. This also solves the somewhat redundant nature of a mez protection power on a set with a mez protection toggle.

Other changes I would suggest:
Rather than a KD toggle, something that can be hard to balance, I would go the route that energy aura went for stalkers: change the KB toggle to a stun toggle. This would be basically a mag 2 (minion strength) ally-targeted toggle.

Disruption field costs the same to run as radiation's enervating field, despite requiring an ally and doing half as much. As this requires an ally to get in close with enemies, I would suggest it provide mitigation for the ally that needs to do so. As such, I would suggest this be a -res, -damage toggle.

Sonic siphon: This is where I would peg the 'stackable' mitigation I think sonic needs. I would add two things: a stackable -10% damage (this is in keeping with power siphon from kinetics, but weaker as this is also a stron -res debuff) along with a +absorb to self. This means that the set could weaken the damage of a target the longer a fight lasts, making a nice mitigation scalability, and the power would live up to its 'siphon monicer, 'taking' protection from the target. This would, incidentally, give access to heal sets to sonic resonance, and allow the set to shield the sonic user better. I think this is a nice (but slight) counter-balance to how very vulnerable the set leaves solo users.

Make sonic cage a timed toggle similar to dimension shift for gravity: this is both a nerf, as things could no longer be perma-caged, and a QoL buff, as the user could decide when to make the enemy vulnerable again. Side note: have this toggle last through mez, ala the sustain toggles for blasters, so that the 'caged' foe would not be freed when the sonic user is vulnerable.

Liquefy could use a recharge reduction. Not to crazy, but I'd say down to about the same range as oil slick arrow or the like.

Lastly: all +res powers give debuff resistance to the following effects:
+energy res gives -end/-recovery debuff protection
+cold res gives -speed/-rech debuff protection
+lethal res gives -defense debuff protection
+neg. energy res gives -tohit debuff protection
+toxic res gives -regen debuff protection
+Psy res gives -recharge debuff protection
This way the shields shield against the effects that the attacks usually carry. I would leave the debuff protection on dispersion half that of what the ally +res gives, so that the debuff resistance is in keeping with the damage resistance.

I had a quick though, inspired partly by the new stacking effect used by several new powersets. The idea is this: give all Ice control powers stack a "chilled" status on enemies. The duration of these effects could vary by the speed of the power, but once an enemy had a certain number of stacks of "chilled" on them, all ice control powers could freeze a target solid with an additional mag 3 hold with additional cold DoT. This hold removes previous 'chilled' effect, so additional ice controls would be needed to stack more chilling on them.

The idea is that any ice powers could freeze an enemy solid who had been sufficiently chilled, giving both reliable but not constant hard control, along with a bit of extra damage to the set.

I think some folks are verging into defining good/bad players, whereas I would term skill as more a personal matter of knowledge, awareness, and ability to combine the two in practice to reliably good results.

Knowledge of your own powers, and how they will work in a certain environment, how it will act when solo, how it will act on a team, how it will act against a certain enemy. Then using timing to gauge and correctly how/when to use those for best effect.

But you know what? I've met many skilled players, and would prefer what I term as 'good' players. (Yeah, I know, that's a VERY subjective term, but let me explain)

Skilled players can solo a +4x8 mob and still act like a jerk. Skilled players can coordinate with a team to run an ITF in record time, and care less if the newer player is getting blasted as they barely keep up in the back. I've met "good" skilled players, "bad" skilled players, "good" unskilled players, and "bad" unskilled players.

In the end, while having the ability, knowledge, and awareness to master this game mechanically is great, if you aren't willing to listen, respect other players, and try to have fun ALONG with other people, (rather than only focusing on what YOU enjoy) I would rather play with a newbie who would. Listening, cooperating, and keeping interactions at least pleasant aren't something that take "skill", they just take the will to choose to do them. These are things that differentiate the "good" from the "bad" in my mind; (and yeah, there are many shades between the two) though skill finishes missions quickly, earns badges, and takes down enemies without hassle, I would rather a player who, regardless of reflexes, knowledge, or realiable results still makes being around them a fun time. As such, I find skill to be far less important than whether you can act well with others.

Glad to help.

Just to note, Invention sets would help firex3 doms quite a bit, and not just for the whole perma-dom thing. Standard SO's take a lot more slots, so just using a set, even to franken-slot, will give you better power enhancement and more wiggle room to help other powers. When you end up having so many really good powers with so little space to work with, that helps a lot.

Here is a rough build I threw together:


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.958
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Dominator
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Assault
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Char -- Acc(A), Hold(3), Hold(15), RechRdx(19), RechRdx(29), EndRdx(50)
Level 1: Flares -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(7), Dmg(43), EndRdx(50)
Level 2: Incinerate -- Acc(A), Dmg(5), Dmg(7), Dmg(33), EndRdx(37)
Level 4: Fire Breath -- Acc(A), Dmg(5), Dmg(15), Dmg(34), EndRdx(37)
Level 6: Super Speed -- EndRdx(A)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(27), RechRdx(46)
Level 10: Fire Blast -- Acc(A), Dmg(11), Dmg(11), Dmg(40), EndRdx(40)
Level 12: Flashfire -- Acc(A), Dsrnt(13), Dsrnt(13), RechRdx(17), RechRdx(17), RechRdx(50)
Level 14: Fire Cages -- Acc(A), EndRdx(34)
Level 16: Embrace of Fire -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(19), RechRdx(25)
Level 18: Cinders -- Acc(A), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(42), Hold(42)
Level 20: Combustion -- Acc(A), Dmg(21), Dmg(21), Dmg(25), EndRdx(37)
Level 22: Hot Feet -- Acc(A), EndRdx(23), EndRdx(23), EndRdx(42)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- EndRdx(A)
Level 26: Bonfire -- OvForce-Dam/KB:50(A), RechRdx(27)
Level 28: Consume -- Acc(A), RechRdx(29), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(31)
Level 30: Stealth -- EndRdx(A)
Level 32: Fire Imps -- Acc(A), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), Dmg(34), RechRdx(43)
Level 35: Fire Ball -- Acc(A), Dmg(36), Dmg(36), Dmg(36), EndRdx(43)
Level 38: Blaze -- Acc(A), Dmg(39), Dmg(39), Dmg(39), EndRdx(40), RechRdx(48)
Level 41: Fire Shield -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(46), ResDam(48), ResDam(48)
Level 44: Rain of Fire -- Acc(A), Dmg(45), Dmg(45), Dmg(45), RechRdx(46)
Level 47: Rise of the Phoenix -- RechRdx(A)
Level 49: Hover -- EndRdx(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(9), EndMod(9)
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Set Bonus Totals:
Some notes: this is a 'pure' SO build, but can easily take a few VERY handy inventions, namely luck of the gambler +recharge in any +defense powers. Fire/fire, and especially fire/fire/fire can be a VERY tight build. Fire control has fewer protective powers than most control sets, (though the bonfire with ~KD proc brings that up a bit) so what it has should be well slotted for safety. Add to this that fiery assault has so very many good powers, as does fire mastery, and the powers will always be tight. I kept fire breath in and slotted flares, if you find yourself in melee you may want to drop the slots from flares, and perhaps skip fire breath, especially after fire ball. That said, it's a good follow-up attack to use before diving into a mob.

Your cornerstone powers are flashfire and char. These will be the difference between winning and dying...in most cases your survival will be only as good as flashfire's recharge/duration. The new bonfire should help things, though. Fire cages is pretty much only used for holding foes in place once stunned by flashfire. Also note that fire cages will stop the mitigation bonfire brings, so use it carefully. Char is for hard targets or foes flashfire misses, or making certain a single foe doesn't give you troubles. Many skip cinders, I like it as a panic button.

Blaze is awesome. Use it early and often. I skipped blazing bolt as you'd mentioned you play melee...with the snipe changes, keep an eye on this power. It could be awesome depending how they end up handling insta-snipes and if you team, but again, to your taste decide. Fire ball+combustion are great, and have good overlap. Rain of fire+bonfire or rain of fire+fire cages are also good 'stay put and BURN!' combos.

Also note: fire/fire/fire is THIRSTY for blue. Toggles make this worse, so be careful. Unlike scrappers and such, your best bet to stay living is to stun/hold, stopping attacks rather than taking them. Low hitpoints make dominators, even with decent defense, still die fast. Fire's handy trick is that it kills everything fast enough you don't need to hold things as long.

No, unfortunately, you can only use one level 35+ pool of any sort, be it ancillary or patron. For the very reason you asked to do so, I presume.

Telepath: I had never thought of the celestial aura to get the 'northern lights' feel. It's a brilliant touch, and looks great.

Hats off to you!

I always thought of genesis not so much about being about creation as being about 'beginnings.' In the way this could be applied to the game, this could be applied to perhaps a new beginning, or fresh start.

The first thought went to the 'inner will' power for blasters, that gives the player a boost, but only if they are under a certain effect or their stats fall to a certain point. So perhaps a choice for a self-heal if at low health, a way to cleanse oneself from heavy debuffs, or control?

The other idea that came to mind would be perhaps giving another a new beginning, so maybe a supercharged ally buff.

And just to note: I'm offering to help, but if someone else needs the badge I would gladly step aside so they can get it.

Global Handle:@ChicagoDoodler
Vindicators: Aurora Borealis, Infernal, Luminary, Ms. Liberty, (x2) Mynx, Swan, Valkyrie

Vindicator: Aurora Borealis

Why: The vindicators have two 'all white' costumes. As Aurora and Swan already overlap in abilities in many ways, changing Aurora's look would help her stand out more. But more importantly, her name gives the idea of vivid and varied colors...and what does she wear? Plain white. The above costume blends many tones in faithfulness to her name. I actually like the base of her costume, and do like the ring motif she uses. I tried to continue this as best as possible, keeping the sleek spandex look that works quite well. This alongside the shift towards varied the color tones. I also added the cape/cloak to emphasize the colorful/ethereal feel of the auroa borealis.

Vindicator: Infernal

Why: Infernal's costume gives less of the feel of an extradimensional demon-binder from another world, and more the feel of a very large knight. My idea was to make infernal's fiery and arcane origins be more visible, while keeping his armored/medieval aesthetic. I did, however, want to make his armor more like that of a comic hero, and which led me to a pseudo-pulp warrior look. The face and chest reveal the fiery, inhuman flesh, something I imagined him having as a result of his dealings and mastery over hellfire beings, while his arms, legs and head bear heavy plated armor for battle.

Vindicator: Luminary

Why: I had a bit of trouble here, as I really do like the base costume, in its sleekness and simplicity. Yes the face and lack of accents to offset that simplicity do keep the costume from being memorable. In keeping with the original design, I wanted something smoother than the standard 'robotic' pieces. To me that always seemed to look more advanced. I also wanted to make the energy part of her more apparent, hence the power-core like back and chest detail. The face has been revised to look more abstract, showing the odd duality of her highly advanced robotic shell with strangely humanoid personality.

Vindicator: Ms. Liberty

Why: Though I do not actually mind her costume, and find it a good heroine uniform, Ms. Liberty is one of the characters that seems to have grown/advanced the most in the game. From sidekick to head of not just a super team, but the founder and leader of longbow, and now standing in the place of her grandfather, I thought she needed a uniform that showed a bit more of authority and maturity, while reflecting her different influences. Daughter of incarnate blood, patriot of paragon, commander of longbow, and figurehead of the vindicators. I wanted something that reflected the regality, heroism, and patriotism of her family while hinting toward the more vigilante/paramilitary-like notions she is capable of at times. This costume leans more heavily towards the longbow connection.

Vindicator: Ms. Liberty

Why: Same reasons as above, giving a costume that looks the part of the new roles Liberty has taken on. This costume leans more heavily toward the incarnate connection to her Grandfather, her Grecian armor referencing her links to Greek deities. (Zeus by her grandfather, Hera by her girdle) The colors are more patriotic, again referencing Statesman's more nationalistic apparel. The costume eschews a skirt for armor, as it assumes that as she steps up into greater roles she will face danger far more often.

Vindicator: Mynx

Why: I enjoy understated/simple costumes many times, but mynx had something less costume-like and more like stripes for fur. While this helped emphasize her cat nature, her facial features were very human. I skewed the balances a bit, giving her more of a hero's costume, but giving her a more feral face. The costume itself is supposed to be part heroic, part street, and part escaped experiment. (This in keeping with her rougher origin) I also wanted something that fit her petite but feral vibe.

Vindicator: Swan

Why: Swan missed the memo that heroes are supposed to wear their underoos ON TOP of their costumes, not instead of them. Added to this the fact that legacy white colors are transparent on flesh, and it just looks...not very superheroic. I wanted something that would make her look sultry but sophisticated. The mask is to match the dark markings around a white swans' eyes, and the wing-like cloak pays homage to the name as well. The 'club' hairstyle seemed a bit like plumage to me, again fitting for swan's namesake. I would actually have loved to keep her feathered shoulder piece, but c'est la vie. In combat mode I would have runes appear as a combat aura, reinforcing the mystical source of her abilities.

Vindicator: Valkyrie

Why: Valkyrie has always been interesting...her power source is pure tech, yet her aesthetic and the source of that tech lead to a more ancient/mythological bent. At the heart of it all seemed to me to be the whole 'super advanced tech becoming similar to magic' idea. The new costume is meant to continue that 'armored maiden warrior of old' vibe while still appearing as advanced technology. Basically high-tech ancient armor so advanced it seems mystical. In my take, she also uses a far more advanced blade. Her spear is not depicted in this revision, but would be included if I could. The 'old' look did not appear very advanced or mystical, so I gave it a new look using the more recent game additions.

This is by far one of most awesome competitions P.E.R.C. has done, and you guys do some pretty cool competitions. I can't wait to get some costumes together!