dugfromthearth

I'm going to oppose the OP

no one should be fighting for things on the forums. Fighting breeds ill will and resentment, both in the people being fought and the people doing the fighting. People who fight for a cause get burnt out and upset.

advocating for your position is good.
Standing up for your community is good.

I don't have staff.

I did join a team yesterday that had 5 staffers out of 7 other players.

I think I see more staffers around then I saw titan weapons or beast masters.

asking why they don't double the number of costume piece and pattern locations?

because that is what you are asking for if you can choose separately for the sides of your body

50/50 face is asymmetrical
single mantle cape is asymmetrical
one robot arm is asymmetrical
gladiator and big skull shoulders are asymmetrical
tied belt is asymmetrical
the ancient pack has belts that are a thing on one side only
peg leg is asymmetrical
several chest detail chains and such are asymmetrical

it's hard to do a lot with it, but there asymmetrical pieces for almost everything if you look

I want the animal head hoods, I've been asking for them for awhile

costumes are already asymmetrical vertically and radially, now you want asymmetry horziontally as well?

some people are just never happy

DA has two major problems

its normal defenses like immobilize are scattered across a lot of toggles and they all use a lot of END - so the set just uses a vast amount of END. Fine at high levels when fully slotted, very painful at lower levels

the major survival in DA comes from Dark Regeneration. That requires having multiple foes around you and hitting them. It is still useful but not greatly reduced when fighting an EB or AV that is by itself. And when fighting other groups you need it when the foes are tough and you may not be able to hit. So when it works, it is fine. But face a bunch of CoT ghosts and you can't hit them and you can't heal yourself. Reliable panic buttons are better.

I think:

respcing to Bane gets rid of the crab legs

but dual-spec Bane and you still have the crab legs as a Bane

so where are there shots of the chainmail armor?

I am pleased that they are doing Night Ward. Not because I liked First Ward (I liked the survivor part at the beginning and disliked the ghost part of the second half), but because I am sick and tired of half done story arcs. Watch The Cape and they cancel it after a few episodes.

I would hate to play CoX and do SSA episode 1-3 and then find they had cancelled the rest due to not enough people playing them. If you cannot trust they are going to finish the story, it kills interest in trying it out.

So I will play Night Ward. Unless it is more heroic, more fun, and more upbeat than First Ward (which seems unlikely) I will only play it once.

But I will be glad that First Ward is not just left with a story half told

In the countless missions, tf's and even AE arcs I am rarely satisfied at the end of a mission or arc with the defeat of the boss. I would like to come up with a fairly standard set of rules for how to make the final boss fight satisfying - but not really knowing of satisfying final boss fights it is hard.

Defeating the boss should be the end. Defeating Dr Vahz and then having to defeat cadavers trying to figure out which of the endless horde down below is the magic one to end the TF. So anticlimactic and stupid. Or defeating Romulus and then having to go defeat 300 soldiers. If you want to require other objectives as well don't spawn the boss until the other objectives are done - make the boss guaranteed to end it. And make the boss be all you need - not the boss and clearing the room.

The boss needs to look unique. Worst among Council, but bad in teaming when lots of bosses spawn. Clockwork King and Dr Vahz look unique. FrostFire is hard to pick out even though he is a special boss. Make the bosses truly stand out so we even know we are facing the big bad.

Cutscene before the boss. Very cinematic - a pause that lets you know the boss is there, sets a mood, and makes the final fight seem special.

Little of this helps with generic missions. You can't have a unique boss in every radio mission (although it would be cool, and you have unique characters in almost every Tip mission which adds a lot). You can't do a cutscene in every radio mission - I assume that would be too much work.

Are there other things that make the final boss satisfying to fight and defeat?

fire/mm is the best "blaster" with its AoE until you can get your level 32 6 slotted
then archery/mm is better because of rain of arrows

Dropping Rain of Arrows from out of LoS is just crazy, and you can do it every fight.

Yes, all non-door missions should be removed from the old contacts

the door missions are fine

I've been to an actual police station several times but I had the sound off

Excellent. I just came to this forum to look for an SG. I will do my best to make this faire

yes, control/melee and control/pets both make sense and would be fun

I would love to see a poll on QoL issues so that players could vote on ones to fix.

I also wonder about paragon points. Imagine if 1,000 paragon points would get a map imported into AE for everyone. Whoever wanted could contribute points to the cause.

A QoL I would like to see would be a simple clean up of old contacts. Remove all patrol and defeat X missions from them - only door missions left. No new content so it shouldn't be a lot of work.

To make arcs or to play them?

I do try to play AE arcs. I find that the ratings in the game are useless - 5 stars typically just means a farm.

So I have to search for SFMA (story focused mission arc) in the in-game search or go to the AE board and look for arcs people have posted.

There are a lot of great stories in AE, it is too bad that more people don't play it.

For me the main reason I don't play it more is that it isn't good for teams. I am torn between wanting to play mission arcs, read the stories, read the clues and really get into it, and joining a team that just blasts through content.

I don't know that most controllers skip their single target immob. Most lvl 50 builds posted on the boards do - but that is very different.

Many doms skip their single target immob because they don't need it for damage.
Low level controllers can really use the damage it provides.
Low level controllers usually don't benefit much from the AoE immobilize (fire/ and elec/ do)
But high level controllers with AoE attacks from EPP's want the AoE immobilize for containment and may well skip the single target immob because they don't need the damage from it.

Likewise l33t builds avoid snipes because they only care about dpa. But low level defenders may find they need the extra damage to open a fight.

Sleeps are often avoided because teaming they may not be useful. But solo characters often love sleeps because it makes soloing much safer.