TwilightPhoenix

I don't know why I didn't say this earlier, but I'd seriously love it if Assault Rifle (and, by extension, AR attacks in Mercs) had an option to fire from the shoulder rather than the hip. While I can get past it, it always bothered me that we can't use the weapon properly.

Conversely, for those who like hip-fire, give them a fire from the hip version of Sniper Rifle.

Also going to second (or third or however many times it's been brought up before me) for MoG animation for build-up/aim. Would look pretty awesome with weapons I bet.

Also, Blazing Bolt animation for other elemental snipes, like Proton Volley!

Also, Sniper Blast needs some kind of "charge-up" effect rather than the character holding a vibrating arm.

Fire Assault: Some Firesword options for the melee attacks would be awesome.

Radiation Emission/Empathy: I'd love some sort of change, whether it be animation or just sound effects, that differentiates Healing Aura from Radiant Aura. At the moment, they are the exact same animation and sound-wise. Maybe something for Radiant Aura involving the particle effects in other Rad Emission skills or Rad Blast attacks?

Tough and similar animated powers: Please remove the /tarzan from these powers or give us a different option. It's hugely concept breaking when my elite soldier starts pounding his chest and screams like an idiot.

Teleport: It popped into my mind that the smoke clouds used it /e alakazamreact and /cce prestochango would be perfect as an alternative teleport.

Thunderous Blast: From what I've seen, Electric Blast's Tier 9 looks a little... lame. However, giving its AoE splash the same animation Lightning Rod has would turn it from "meh" to "AWESOMEZ!"

Broadsword: This set really needs some love. Really badly. I'd love to see some animations that look quicker but are really just more elaborate rather than looking like you're swinging Excalibur with the stone still attached. I so badly want new Broadsword animations, I'm even listing them individually!

Two-handed options for Broadsword would be awesome, but I don't see that happening.


Slash - A quick diagonal slash would be a nice change, though any other direction would work too. Maybe throw in some flashiness, but the animation time is kind of short.

Hack - Not sure here, I still want a downward strike personally, just something that doesn't look so... slow. Perhaps some sort of "I'm about to hack you!" pose and then a much faster strike? Ferocious Strike from Gladiators/Templar in Aion comes to mind.

Slice - I mainly hate the "gotta get my balance back" movement at the end that at least feels like it makes up half the animation. Beyond that, perhaps the character could spin and then slice for a flashier look? Heck, I can even see them doing a spinning jump, slash as they land in a crouch with some sort of semi-dramatic/dramatic pose before standing.

Parry - I'm envisioning an overhead block with the sword held horizontal, followed by either a quick downward slash or a stab to the gut, whichever looks better. For flashier, perhaps overhead block, quick spin and gut thrust or half-spin with a backwards thrust? Similar to Parrying Strike for Chanters in Aion, except with a sword instead of a staff.

Confront - Dual Blades taunt animation please! In fact, give Katana the same one too! It'd be perfect with the two bladed sets!

Whirling Sword - How 'bout a Zelda-style spin attack? Maybe spin twice to make up for the animation length without making it look lethargic?

Disembowel - The existing animation is probably one of BS's better ones, but doesn't look entirely like a Disembowel. I'd say start by sticking the sword in the opponent's gut (assuming the enemy is using a human-like model and other characters are of about even size). Since we need to include a knock-up effect, then we can have the character yank the sword straight up to pull it out. The ending result in my mind kind of looks like the Climhazzard animation from FF7.

Headsplitter - Well, a two-handed above-the-head blow is out. Well, maybe if he cupped his other fist around the first it could work, but I don't know if that'd look good. Another ideal would be an aerial jump attack, whether it be a more basic one like Katana's tier 9 or a more flashy one that involves flipping or something and then bringing the blade down on the enemy as you land? I don't remember the name of the skill, but Templar in Aion on their third chain skill for Ferocious Strike chain have a sweet jumping attack with the sword that'd look awesome for this move. I'll get the name next time I log into that character...

I'd really just be happy if they made ranged attacks not miss by a huge amount. It seems like you either always hit dead on or miss by a mile. Why can't attack animations just barely miss?

I have Confront on my BS/SR, mostly as a filler power. Wouldn't have taken it if I could have grabbed a non-filler, but it works pretty fine. -Range is handy, even in AV soloing where I can pop with it and then jump back to kite through a +To Hit or to use Aid Self safely. It also recharges rather quickly and the single target taunt does offer advantages over regular AoE taunt in some instances, like grabbing the attention of a specific Nictus to separate from Rommulus without risk of getting their attention too.

This particular proc will check for each enemy hit, but it will not stack. Ever. Additionally, it'll also suppress itself after its five second duration is up. I think the suppression is for about ten seconds, during which time you can get the buff back, but it won't do anything and will trigger a fresh suppression after five seconds.

As much as I like that change, I don't see it flying because you're putting Provoke at level 14 and requiring a power to get, something that'd screw up everyone who has Provoke but not Challenge or has both before level 14.

As Iggy said, with bosses on too. This was made back in the day when the most difficult we could set was Invincible, so that was the intended difficulty. However, there's nothing stopping you from cranking it up!

Presence, in my opinion, definitely needs looking at. Especially since, also in my opinion, it's the most useless power pool in the game. Period. Just about everyone who wants to taunt already has superior taunting capabilities. Just about everyone who wants a fear either has superior options or doesn't want to waste picks on useless taunt powers. And if you just want Invoke Panic, then that's two powers you don't want to get it.

I'm not sure what direction the pool needs to be taken to make it ideal. I just no -range on the taunts would be a no-go since I doubt ranged-toons having access to ranged -range debuffs would be considered balanced.

Remember, RI only roots for about half of it's animation. You can always run for cover while it's still casting, allowing you to debuff in complete safety. EF and LR can't do that unless you do it mid-jump-into-cover.

I'd like to throw out one benefit Slash does have in the upper levels: replacing Parry on a soft-capped build that doesn't have enough recharge to fill all the gaps with just Hack, Disembowel, and Headsplitter. My own BS/SR uses Slash over Parry since it does slightly higher damage and I don't need the defense. If I had a fair bit more recharge, however, I could probably live without it. But to get Hasten, I'd need to drop a whole power pool.

I would advise against Kin/blast set/Dark, as the big reason to go Dark APP is for Soul Drain. You should already be capping damage with Fulcrum Shift, so you won't really benefit from it. Also, Transference will be better for you than Dark Consumption. Though, if you were to get it anyway, Soul Transfer and Oppressive Gloom are always nice.

I'll go different and throw out a Dark/Rad Defender. Extremely safe from low levels on and very AoE happy (and not too shabby on the end either). While not the high damage of other ATs, Defenders have the best buff/debuff modifiers, allowing you to floor the enemy's hit chances against you with dark, drop their resistance more than any other Dark Miasmaist, and can heal itself about 2/3rds of your max HP at pretty much any time (with SO slotting). Tar Patch and Petrifying Gaze will pretty much glue the mob wherever you want it, allowing you to use your AoEs and cones rather easily. The downside is you won't get all of your AoE attacks until later (mine is only level 28 and won't get Neutron Bomb until 35), but by the teens you should be able to handle 3-5x pretty easily.

And also, you can tank too.

And also also, teams will love you. Especially when you got their XP going nuts because you keep having them crank up the difficulty because it's still too easy.

This is one of those points where I'd say give up on explaining it to the guy. He thinks he's superior than all of you who've done all the math and studies countless times just by miss-using some of your own data. At this point, he's gone far off enough from sane reasoning that he probably isn't going to come back.

Plus he isn't funny anymore.

Oh, I can beat a crapload of Blasters too (I play a Rad/Sonic). Good ones though can Build Up - Aim - Boost Range (if EM) and blow away 2/3rds of my HP before the toggles even get down. In the arena where travel suppression and heal decay are often turned off, I fare much better since I can dump toggles on them and then find something to super speed around while spamming my heal. But even then, a the good Blaster will win the majority of the time. Especially if they have a mez. Zones, however, I can't have those settings. So there the only way to get a good Blaster is to catch them off guard or when their Build Up + Aim combo is down.

I don't have Phase, which would probably help a lot, but I'd rather be able to see through all the stealth. All the phase in the world wouldn't help if I can't see the Blaster with just a stealth IO sneak up on me.

Now, that Dark/Sonic. Was Heal Decay on or off?

My personal experience as a Defender in PvP says any half-decent Blaster will mow down a Defender several times before the Defender gets a kill in.

-Def on the PB's attacks isn't that big of a deal. Those who get a lot out of -Def are the ones with huge-def debuffs that have high accuracy or auto-hit, such as a Rad/ Defender.

Took a crack at FrostArgent. Made two versions, one without the bolero and one with. You can't get shoulder fur without the bolero, but the bolero limits my options. I personally like the without version better.

And yes, they have two different faces. For some reason the character I made the without costume on was glitched and didn't have bolero/trench coats access, so I swapped to another character to build the second costume and forgot to change the face.

If you can't see it well because of the aura, I used Santa Gloves.

If I recall, getting taunted didn't drop my Rad toggles off the other guy I used them on in PvP. All PvP taunting does is force you to target the taunter for your offensive powers. Your target won't force change until you try to shoot at something else. I don't recall if you can still target freely if you're not attacking.

Alternatively, a convoluted way to make an enemy taunt without actually giving mobs taunt would be to give all the other guys a huge, AoE placate. But... that seems kind of pointless outside of being silly.

Flashbang Grenades. Why is this one power allowed to reduce my level 23 Dominator's final to-hit chance from 75-95% down to 10-15%? Why is this one power on a level 20ish minion? And why does it last so long? I can understand making certain enemies annoying or difficult. Heck, I don't mind the likes of Sappers or Nem Lts. However, those neither A) appear at low levels and B) neuter your character for 30ish seconds without having a tray full of yellows. And did I mention this was an AoE debuff that can be very difficult to avoid landing on multiple teammates due to the SWAT's Glue Grenades (a whole 'nother issue mainly from it being that strong at that low level).

The suggestion? Please weaken this one power! There's no need for a level 20 minion to be able to say "GG" by hitting me with one power. Heck, not even being hit by a Sapper, a level 40 minion who are well renowned for being hated, is "GG". And running isn't an option because of Glue Grenades, though those suckers aren't nearly so nasty (but do compound the issue a little bit). Lower the to-hit debuff on these suckers to something like 5% and the duration to something like 10 seconds. I recall the precise debuff value (City of Data's domain expired?), but it's pretty silly high, like 40%.

Please, let's make these foes more reasonable. Things being hard is fine. I like hard. But this power is more along the lines of Nintendo Hard or Fake Difficulty.

I'm going to disagree with this idea. It'd trivialize gameplay on my Grav/TA, for example. She's IOed up, but mostly just sets picked on whim and a bunch of Hold procs on that for (far more effective than intended) kicks and giggles. She's not a min-maxed build (heck she has Group Fly for concept). Yet, she can trivially hold somewhere around three bosses on her own with just single target holds. She can solo hold an AV outside of the PToD without breaking a set (and I'm willing to bet if I threw in Hasten and a bunch of global recharge, even the triangles wouldn't be an obstacle). She's stopped whole ambushes in their tracks with a couple of powers (or less). Green Mitos in the LGTF cower before her (haven't taken her on a Hami raid yet).

And again, this isn't a mix-max build like a perma-dom, but rather a "hey, I feel like slotting this cheap IO set" and "hold procs? Could be fun" build. While her lockdown prowress wasn't so silly prior to the IOs (mainly the procs), she could still rather effortlessly lock a pair of bosses running on SOs with just single target holds.

Allowing her to "kill" targets just by having them sit there for awhile would make her extremely silly powerful. If AVs were affected and the timer was short enough, she'd solo AVs better than my Scrapper who I've spent I have no idea how much inf on.

For the same reasons, I'd also be against "hold residue". A solo Controller on SOs would be able to lockdown the entire game just about.

Ok, now let's get off of that and on other issues. For example...

*Why bother with Reichman's huge bag of HP, Unstoppable, AV ambushes, and other nasty tricks when you could just form a team of Controllers, hold him for a minute, and call it a day?

*Heck, why bother with any ambushes an AV can summon when you could just recruit Controllers and hold them until they drop dead for no reason?

*Why bring anything without holds when fighting GMs?

*Why bring anything without holds on a TF?

*Why bring anything but Controllers to a Hami raid, outside of a token group of melee for Yellows? Drop lingering mezzes on top and why even deal with the other mito-spawns?

*Why let Fire/Kins farm so we... wait, never mind.

I could go on, but I feel unless you still had to mez the target for inordinate amount of time and/or it didn't work on anything higher than a lieutenant, the game would get trivialized by a huge amount and almost every AT would fall to the wayside for anyone who cares about performance.

I really don't see a way to implement this in a way people would really use without nullifying damage except in instances where mez is useless. If you're just doing damage, the enemy can fight back. If you're just mezzing him, they can't. Why would I take the riskier route when the safer one is just as rewarding and just as fast?

I'd like to see NPCs taunting, but I'd want to see it in an enemy group that is built with one or more of the mobs having taunt or would rather benefit from it. The best existing group I can think having this would be Cimeroran Traitors. They have one minion, the Immunes Surgeon, that can make a huge difference but is defenseless and tends to get targeted and killed first. Hence, the Praefectus, the bosses, could have Confront/Taunt so they could protect the Surgeons.

AVs could also perhaps taunt you off of their ambush mobs. Or Rommulus taunting you away from beating on his Nictus pets.

I'd rather not see a poor use of it, like a common-spawning minion using an AoE taunt and then phase shift while a high damage boss has free reign of butt-kicking on everyone. Or just throwing it in to existing enemy groups "just to have it".

Here it is, guys... the big question. Has it been asked before? Probably. Has it been answered in full? Not that I know of. So, it's still on the table.

What advantages does a Brute have over a Scrapper? Scrappers have about the same amount of HP and do more damage. On top of that, if we're imagining, say, a brute vs. scrapper PVP match, the Scrapper will kite so the Brute can't build Fury and spike it down with criticals before the Brute can make much headway. In PVE, the damage differences are huge, and the Scrappers can keep that damage 24/7, lazy or active.

Once Going Rogue hits, will Brutes be obsolete? Should I delete my level 24 elec/*? Which TASTES better, cake or pie?!?