Thunder Knight

People don't want to get rid of the Gun-fu animations for Dual Pistol, they just want alternate options. Players want to make cowboys and gangsters who just, you know, stand there and shoot rather than jump and flip all over the place.

And the thing is, the "stand there and shoot" animations are already in the game, for both players (the Thugs powerset for Masterminds uses dual pistols for its attacks) and NPCs (the Gunslinger, from the Malta enemy group), so people aren't asking for new animations, but for already-existing animations to be given as an option for the new powerset.

For the record, there's plenty of places across the Internet that let you play as canon characters (for example, I used to play on a superhero MUX whose theme was that a ripple in space-time was grabbing people from their own various universes and dragging them in), but this is the first case I've heard where people play as canon characters on the very game that the canon comes from.

I definitely see the appeal of playing canon (or "lore", if you like) characters, but it sounds like a lot of the lore... isn't being used right, if some of the things I see here (like using the wrong name for the Mu goddess, and Count Crey not being in a coma, which throws the entire Crey storyline into a cocked hat) are accurate.

(That said, I'd never play CoH characters on CoH. I'd consider playing them elsewhere, perhaps, but I'd be far more likely to play the characters I created on CoH than CoH "lore" characters)

The thing is, some people are talking about it (and avoiding the mission and arc entirely) as if the Botched Ritual debuff were inevitable. It's not.

The effect isn't called "Made A Slight Mistake On The Ritual", after all. The game guides you to get it right, and failing it doesn't automatically mean botching it. You have to REALLY screw it up to botch it.

One note here:

From another topic floating around on the forums, the effect apparently doesn't stack, so botching it twice is no worse than botching it once (i.e., it shouldn't make the character any more "unplayable" than it was after the first botch)

Yeah, I'm not sure how badly you have to mess up to actually botch it. I stumbled through it, guessing all the way, and still completed it.

You'd have to choose really badly to totally botch it twice.

Still, it's a mean trick to have in there at all. This isn't Halloween, devs!

Already up on City of Data, it seems: http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power....Ritual_Debuff

It's that -20 Max End that really stings, I imagine.

(I managed to pass the ritual on the first try, somehow, so I didn't get this debuff, or even hear about it until now)

Tier 9 is always the second upgrade for Masterminds.

I'm not sure what sort of attacks these guys would have, or how they'd be different from one another, or what the upgrades would do. (Poo-flinging jokes aside, that is)

Also, nitpick: chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas are all apes, not monkeys.

I think if you unlocked the EATs before Freedom started (i.e., by getting to level 20 as a hero or villain), they're still unlocked now, even if you drop to Premium now.

... at least, that's the only reason I can think of why mine are unlocked (even though I'm Premium at the moment).

Just so you know, not all the EATs have the shapeshifting powers. The Villain EATs (Arachnos Soldiers and Arachnos Widows) instead use branching paths for their powersets - where they start off as one base archetype, but can branch out into one of two other powersets at 24, and can even use their different builds to play as both branches on a single character.

Further, the level requirement for the EATs (heroes and villains alike) were lowered to 20 some time ago, and the devs have said they consider making it 50 in the first place a mistake and wouldn't do it again. (I think they can only be bought now, not unlocked, but that's how it used to work)

Not that this is a bad idea (I always love the idea of new classes and/or powersets), but new epic archetypes probably shouldn't copy Kheldians' style. New EATs should probably have completely unique mechanism to make them different from the Kheldians, Arachnos, and the basic archetypes.

I did post in one of those threads (oops), but I didn't actually post what I voted for. It was the space suit thread, and I really like parts of all three options. It's too bad we can only have one, because I'd like to mix and match all three of them. (Or maybe they'll do the other ones later?)

Tricky. I like the chest, pants, and "belt" from C, the boots and gloves from B, and the chest emblem from A.

I haven't rerolled the character I consider my "main" - Thunder Glove, my Elec/Invul Brute - as such, but I've played off of the villain-side clone plot (in Sharkhead) to create a hero-side version of the character (Thunder Mirror, an Elec/Elec Tanker - the Brute's powers are magical, so they weren't included in the cloning process; instead the Tanker uses Crey armor technology to simulate the Brute's powers).

I've also remade the Brute as an Elec/Elec on the Beta server, but I'm sure that's long since been wiped.

(Belated Edit to add: since posting this, I've actually deleted Thunder Mirror and rerolled him as an Elec/Elec Brute with the same backstory. I just like Brutes better than Tankers)

Even stranger, some of the Assault sets didn't get the alternate animations that the corresponding Blast sets got. (For example, in Electricity Assult, only Zapp got the new animation; Charged Bolts and Lightning Bolt did not get the new animations). The same goes for Fire Melee's Breath of Fire not getting the alternate animations that Fire Blast's Fire Breath got, despite being visually the same move.

They don't even necessarily have to make new animations, just port some of the alternate animations they already have around. Animations from Super Strength (Jab, Punch, Footstomp, and Knockout Blow, as well as the "heroic" alternates for Jab, Footstomp, and Knockout Blow) and Martial Arts (all the kicks) could be used to replace the same old punches that the other sets mostly have.

I'd say use Street Justice animations, too, but that may be asking too much, considering you have to pay for Street Justice. Maybe purchasing the set would also unlock Street Justice alternate animations for other sets.

The problem with the "villains are mercenaries" angle is that Going Rogue changed that: Villains are supposed to be in it for the power and the glory, while Rogues are in it for the money... but most villain missions written before Going Rogue have them just in it for the money as well.

Newspaper missions that have you stealing things are particularly bad at this. You find some fabulous piece of technology or magic, and instead of using it, you're told your character just sells it to "someone a little higher up on the food chain" because "a buck's a buck". (Both direct quotes from the missions)

Why can't I use that Sonic Device or the "weird weapon"? Why can't I make the Crown of Enos work for me? Why can't I become powerful enough to control the Dagger of Erishkigel? Keeping things like that to give the character more power for further schemes would be more villainous (as the game defines "Villainous") than just selling them and forgetting them. Give me the option to sell them (for a larger Inf bonus on mission completion) or keep them (for a limited-use temporary power).

Newspaper missions also treat you as if you're a former jailbird - which, to be fair, you were, according to the old Tutorial, but that doesn't apply anymore - who's living in a tiny apartment with walls so thin that your neighbors can hear your every action, even if you're a newly-arrived space alien who has his own supervillain group base.

The Dean MacArthur quest is an example of how to do a story arc that isn't about your villain working for someone else. Dean is working for you, and you gather even more people to work for you as the plot goes on. (Sure, it still ends in failure, restoring the Status Quo, but at least the trip there isn't full of the contact belittling and insulting you)

The Mayhem missions are also good about this, in that they don't ascribe any motive to you at ALL, letting you decide why your character is doing the mission. One player can say their character robs a bank because they want the money (which he'll spend on making himself comfortable), but someone else's character robs a bank because they want the notoriety (including the chance to take down a hero).

A villain doesn't have to be an Omnicidal Maniac to not want to work for other people, and just because you, the player, know that your character isn't going to get to rule the world doesn't mean the character shouldn't be allowed to try.

No, Mids is right. The travel-related Power Pools were changed to let you take the third power at level 4 (so there's no need to wait until level 14 to take Fly), but you still have to get to level 14 and take one of the first two powers in the Concealment pool to get Invisibility.

I don't know which is better per se, but having played both sets (Regeneration to 14, Willpower to 29 and counting), Willpower is easier.

Willpower is a Set And Forget set with layered defenses (about 5% Defense, 50% resistance to the most common damage types, and a whole lot of regeneration), but no real "Emergency" heals like most melee defense sets have. Regen, on the other hand, is almost nothing but "Emergency" heals and very little anything else (about 10% damage resistance), so you have to keep a close eye on your health and consciously heal yourself whenever it starts to flag (which it will a lot, because you're taking almost full damage from everything).

Some people like to be more involved in their defense, some like to just focus on attacking. If you're the former, then you'll probably like Regen; otherwise, you'll probably find Willpower more to your liking.

Both sets, fortunately, have Quick Recovery, which will mean you'll have very little endurance problems, regardless of which you choose.

That eases my mind.

... hm, maybe it's like the PvP-only powers (which, as I recall, only appear in Detailed Info when you're in an actual PvP zone), in that they only appear when an enemy is actually in range of the power.

I'll have to check that.

Edited to add: Nope. And now I'm not even sure about the PvP part of what I said above.

Still, though, it's nice to know that it's working. (I don't have any direct way to check debuffs or taunts on enemies)