Tenzhi

I didn't read the comics. Statesman still formed an impression with me of being an arrogant, aloof jerk.

And at the time I thought the change to Whirlwind was unnecessary and mildly annoying. Not quite as annoying as when ragdoll physics apparently changed the appearance of Whirlwind, though. If you've already brought it up in multiple instances and ways and been moderated for it then it's likely they already know about it and either can't do anything about it or else (as you actually pointed out yourself) it's not really a major concern.

Nope. The advantage to it is minimal at best. For the most part you don't manually dodge in this game. If an attack gets initiated on you it doesn't matter how well you move away while attacking it will still hit you. It might make kiting - an inefficient strategy - slightly less irritating in certain circumstances. They could remove rooting altogether and the only bad thing about it would be the wonky animations that might ensue.

Unless you're suggesting that they somehow only manage to show up in missions my characters (or yours, or anybody else's) never do, then you are, in fact, suggesting they're involved in said storylines.

I generally wouldn't want these guys involved in my characters' storylines. On the other hand, I think it'd be neat if we got some story arcs where we got to play *as* the signature characters in their storylines. The SSAs would've been a good place for that sort of thing.

I wouldn't say that I loathe it, but I don't like it as much. I still like the current Doctor's run more than Peter Davison's, though.

Brilliant having the werewolf being scared to death by a hound. A good episode, I thought.

If you're referring to Task Forces, those are far from casual either.

Given your parenthetical exception, you are inherently conceding the point that iTrials aren't casual by GG's definition. I disagree with her definition of casual, though. "Casual", to me, means you can just jump right into it and it doesn't require an excessive amount of time to do. AT least some of them succeed on the latter point, but they all fail on the former.

I'm redefining nothing. A Pick-up Group is a group that picks up whoever comes along. As opposed to cherry-picking by AT and/or Level/Level Shift. If it were a matter of being 'mostly strangers', nearly every group in every MMORPG would be a PUG and the term would be meaningless.

A team carefully constructed over 20+ minutes is something more than a PUG.

Hogwash, analogies are rarely 100% analogous. And this one doesn't have to be to make its point, which is that the temperature of the bonfire relative to the sun is irrelevant to its temperature relative to my hand, the latter being the most important as far as my hand's location is concerned.

Also, there may be a lot of people living on the sun. I've never been there, myself.

Compared to the sun a bonfire is cool, but I still wouldn't want to stick my hand in it.

The Trials aren't what I would call "casual".

Or they could just not make quickly scrolling through temp powers a necessity.

I'm a VIP and I disagree with this statement. Not that I necessarily think they're bad, either. But I don't subscribe because they've garnered binary good faith from me. It just happens that what I would describe as a mediocre create-your-own-superhero game is the best that's available.

Are you suggesting that people should only ask about things we already know, then?

I heard it all back when I was having the issue not too long after it had gone live. I tried various suggestions (nothing involving crafted or acquired-in-PVP-zones Temp powers) to no avail. I have no explanation. My Tanker did it in pretty short order, and I would think my Blaster would pump out enough damage to do it at least as quickly. I tried it three or four times with that Blaster with no luck, though. IIRC, on one of those tries I got two-shotted despite a stack of Inspiration Defense buffs.

The experience reminded me of trying to solo my Patron arc back when facing Heroes/Archvillains was compulsory. Use 'Fluffy' they said. I did, and 'Fluffy' died nearly instantly (which, along with his look and my other experiences using him afterward, ultimately made me regret respeccing into him at the boards' suggestion), doing very little to even slow Numina down before she laid waste to my Dark/Dark Corruptor. I think that was the first and only time I ever created a "team" - which is to say I begged for help from some higher level Brute to come punch Numina in the face for me.

If I can jump right into a task and the task itself doesn't take a gratuitous amount of time and it's repeatable, then I don't mind a possibility of failure.

Of course, if I can't jump right into it and/or it does take a gratuitous amount of time to do, then I might lose interest in doing it regardless of whether there's a possibility of failure. Likewise if the reward for success hardly seems worth the effort. Thus why I'm largely disinterested in doing TFs, and why I don't go out of my way to do iTrials.