All I want (and I am relying on the forums for this) is a clear indication of the powers available and the "item" you have to hold to use them.
My character concepts are very important to me and I dont want to be running around with my Plant based toon (for example) and all of a sudden whip out a wand that shoots lightning bolts.
I need to pick my patron based on Patron, Patron's motives, powers given, AND item of power.
It is like picking kids for kickball: All the patrons standing in a line with their goodies hoping not to be picked last 
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What if I wanted to "RP" a scenario where I change my allegiance? It goes both ways. I'd go so far as to say that being "locked into a patron" is far more RP-limiting than the reverse.
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I wanted to RP a Science Origin character who went back to normal after the Terra Volta trial and had to then rely on gadgets to perform his previous duties as a hero. I can't just change him to a Tech Origin in the middle of everything. This sorely limits my RP.
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It is like picking kids for kickball: All the patrons standing in a line with their goodies hoping not to be picked last
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Black Scorpion better have something really darn good, because he's looking like the out-of-shape kid in line, to me.
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Oh no. You're not forced to do the patron content. This won't prevent anyone from PLing to 50. It'll just remove any incentive to do so. They finally came up with something that doing the content can offer, but PLing can't (other than the story, of course). The reward from doing the storyarcs won't just be XP any more, it'll be patron powers.
I'm sure people will still PL through the odd level here and there, but zooming straight to 50 will be seen as idiotic.
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I don't think that's going to be true. Since you won't be able to change the Patron once you have one, it would make sense to go straight to Level 50 without taking any Patron, then switch over to the test server and try out each Patron and thier powers and find which one works for you. Then once you find the one you want, write it in stone on live.
Typically, I've made good power choices for my characters in the past, but every now and then I've screwed up and having that respec option available has always been a comfort even if it would be many levels before being able to fix it.
Then let us not forget the respec nightmares of the Global Defense Adjustment and Enhancement Diversification. If it wasn't for respec availablity many people would have outright quit from the damage done to thier characters and the inablilty to change them to compensate or rebalance.
I suppose in the end, I do not have to take a patron. However, so many of the few details that have been released about Patron Powers have not been favorable in my veiw. Non-Respec'able, I don't want a Mace for my main character which some if not all patron powers are to be "imbued in", and for roleplay purposes, I my main character would never join Arachnos or tie himself to them as he is a free agent or rogue operative to begin with.
The question is, is their an alternative to all this, or would I be missing out? Supposively, each Patron offers a different type of power sets to each Archtype. Other than that, details have been scarse, and that lack of knowledge combined with what few facts have been handed out so far I think makes people very leary about all of it, like we are about to be handed a giant bombshell of an idea that just isn't going to go over well when push comes to shove.
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I don't think that's gonning to be true. Since you won't be able to change the Patron once you have one, it would make sense to go straight to Level 50 without taking any Patron,
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... by which point you've outlevelled the relevant arcs. Or at least the 41-45 part.
My problem with it being permanent is multifaceted...but here's my main one:
Nerfing...
What happens if I pick a power and they discover everyone is picking that set/patron because of some gross imbalance? Even if I just picked it because of my origin.
Also Origin has almost no bearing on this game so touting that origin is also permanent holds little sway, not to mention it isn't very comicbook-ish (See current Spider-Man) then again ED, Suppression, "Invincible" characters taken out by 5 street thugs, etc aren't comic-bookish either...anyway, Primary an Secondary powersets (as someone mentioned earlier) cannot be changed but early enough you can see they aren't for you and re-roll.
What I expect from patron powers:
Balanced. Never Nerfed. Ever. Unless they give us a respec option for them.
Complete divulging of all information regarding them. This includes hard numbers about damage, cost, enhanceability, "cast" time, etc.
Videos of every power being used so we can see the animations before choosing, because frankly, some people wanna look good while being bad.
Lady, I think you read Posi's comment a little off. From how I see it, what he says about the not forced to do Patron content, I think he means You dont have to do the missions associated with them but can still choose the powers.
I could be wrong but I dont think he was trying to say you dont get access to Patron powers at all if you dont do the missions. I dont see it removing an incentive to PL because people always find a way to PL off things.
Hell, back when it was all about Family or Wolves or Freakshow, we never thought we'd be farming off Ninja's, the ones we hate in that mission with Chimera but we found a way to until the devs caught on and fixed it.
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... by which point you've outlevelled the relevant arcs. Or at least the 41-45 part.
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Who said it would be limited to 45? I don't recall any mention of a level limitation other than the fact that you won't be able to talk to them until after 40?
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... by which point you've outlevelled the relevant arcs.
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I don't think this is about powerleveling at all.
First of all who said there was a max limit at which time you could get these?
You mean they'd force us to hold off on getting that last power or two from our Pri/Sec just so we could start in on our Patrons?
Are you saying that someone who might not have seen all the powers in action yet or who might want to wait a while to see if they get nerfed couldn't just go from 40-50 w/o training then go get their Patron powers arc?
Also I'm betting it's just 4 powers like the APPs. Otherwise they might have powers we'd want all of and force us to choose only a handful...
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Videos of every power being used so we can see the animations before choosing, because frankly, some people wanna look good while being bad.
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That's actually one of my quirks.
"Eagle's Claw has the best damage in the MA set?! Screw that! It's ugly!"
"Laser Beam Eyes is decent? BAH! I'll get Energy Torrent, instead. At least that looks cool. Low damage? Pft. I don't care."
So, I do hope they at least show us footage of this stuff before expecting us to pick it.
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Lady, I think you read Posi's comment a little off. From how I see it, what he says about the not forced to do Patron content, I think he means You dont have to do the missions associated with them but can still choose the powers.
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I believe the whole reason for the PPs being unrespeccable was because they were directly linked to the content.
The way I'd imagine it works is: you do storyarc for patron, storyarc unlocks a pool power, you can then take that power when you level.
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I'm just saying it's a bit difficult to reply with actual feedback that could be considered helpful when the feedback isn't based on factual knowledge.
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Well, we do have some facts, but I catch your drift. There's only so far you can go with feedback at this point. I do think it's constructive to communicate there are concerns about the non-respecability of PPPs.
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And posting an opinion based on past occurrences or based on likelihoods is like a...
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Yeah, we get it. Discussing hypotheticals is not foolproof. 'Wait and see' doesn't work much better, statistically. Discussing what we know now may be messy and go down some dead ends, but silence does less.
I'm just saying that some leeway and patience for other posters makes for better posts than, "You don't know for sure - you can't say that." No one can prove that concerned people are necessarily wrong about certain points either. Very few things in life are factually bad or good, in fact. They are what they are, and people have preferences.
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Absolutely. I agree with that completely. But, there are ways of conveying concern without being so blatently negative. That's all I'm saying.
"His Imperial Majesty's Minister of Restraints and Leather" -LHF
Two naughty acronym teams / Ascension / Convenient / Artic and the Chillz / Fap / Other teams I can't remember (sorry.. mind is goin')
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Who said it would be limited to 45?
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If the powers are unlocked by mission content, and that's a big if, then they'll likely fall into the usual 40-45 45-50 division.
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Videos of every power being used so we can see the animations before choosing, because frankly, some people wanna look good while being bad.
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Quoted for truth.
Love that avatar BTW, that guy in Port Oaks just cracks me up.
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If the powers are unlocked by mission content, and that's a big if, then they'll likely fall into the usual 40-45 45-50 division.
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I'd say unlocking new powers via missions is anything but the "usual" so I don't see why the level range for the missions would be the "usual" either...
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If it's a trial that unlocks it, then you pick, I think I'll do the trial and then copy my character to test and try each set.
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So you're going to make multiple copies to Test and play ten levels on each just to see if any of them are worth taking? Have fun.
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And don't forget to write a guide so the rest of us don't have to go through that. 
Man...if you can't respec out of it...then I don't think I would risk it. Even a guide would be subjective. What one person thinks is great might suck for me.
Its possible. We'll know whenever QA gets done playing with I7. I think how Posi was saying it was that the Patron pools are tied to content thus not making it easy to just switch pools/content. But the content in these pools arent required but they are still tied to the pools in case you did (and I doubt people will just skip arc's because I know the 40-50 arcs will have some memorable things, just like CoH had)
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True if anything I think the permanent nature of these powers will cause more Powerleveling though it may be limited to the test server just so people can find out what powers they like an what they don't, unless Cryptic bumps everyone transfering a level 40 villain to TR up to 50 on TR so they can take the powers for a spin...
Because Black Scorp is apparently the "tech-ist" of them but I really don't want my ice/cold pulling a mace out of that mystical region around his butt where every other gun/staff/sword/axe/mace is pulled from.
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Because of this, hard numbers are given, in-game, about the powers and what they do before you even choose which arc you wish to partake (and will most likely be available on the website as well).
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Hard numbers? yeah, right. I'll believe THAT when I see it.
205723: A Different DESTINY
When Soldiers of Arachnos got their names added to the Destiny List, Longbow managed to get a copy of the list and began rounding villains up. But one name on the list shocked them...
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This just ignores reality. Positron stated that the choice is TRULY permanent
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Yes, I'm not saying otherwise. I'm saying that we don't know what it is we'd be permanently committing TO yet. A pool of four powers? Six? Eight? Preset, in a given order, or fluid? Like the hero ancillary powers, or not?
I've shifted my position a bit now, anyway. I'm pretty much convinced it's all about removing the incentive to PL.
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I don't think it would eliminate PL. Let's say Fred's VG needs a Corruptor for their PvP team. PL Fred to 40, Do Fred's Patron arc, PL Fred the rest of the way to 50. A level 50 anything will burn through Fred's arc in no time. At best a speed bump on the express to 50.
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Do Fred's Patron arc,
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I doubt a patron who's supposed to be with you from levels 41-50 would only give you one arc. Even regular contacts give you at least two as a rule.
Actually not all contacts give two arcs...
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Do Fred's Patron arc,
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I doubt a patron who's supposed to be with you from levels 41-50 would only give you one arc. Even regular contacts give you at least two as a rule.
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Even if there were 4, it wouldn't take a significant period of time to do them with a level 50 helping.
On a different note, does anyone not working for Cryptic/NC Soft know exactly how the pools are going to work? 20 pools (4 Patrons X 5 ATs) or 4 largeish pools (like Kheldian powersets)?
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Patron Powers are truly permanent. This powerset, once chosen, is as much a part of your character as your Name, Primary Powerset, Secondary Powerset, Body Type, and Origin.
There is currently no way for us to let you re-spec out of them and into a different one. This is because it is tied to specific content for that Patron.
Because of this, hard numbers are given, in-game, about the powers and what they do before you even choose which arc you wish to partake (and will most likely be available on the website as well).
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This is how I am reading this. Please correct me if I'm off base :
Once you pick your Patron, you're locked into that Patron.
Now, each Patron has N powersets to choose from. Once you choose that powerset from your Patron, you're locked into that powerset.
Now, if the above two points are true, does that mean that individual powers within that powerset are Respec-able?
That's how I'm reading it but would love it clarified.
Thanks Posi.
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Good question. I don't think I know enough to panic yet.
There might be enough choices in each Patron set to give you respec options if you screw up. I'm hoping so.
I'm also hoping some of the choices are kinda idiot-proof. Like I would like a stealth power. Not much to debate about with a stealth power. I would know exactly what I was getting beforehand. (Would still be nice to have the option to repec into a different power from that Patron pool later just in case.)
If these work anything like Pri/Sec then you'll be locked into the set but not the powers therein
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This just ignores reality. Positron stated that the choice is TRULY permanent
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Yes, I'm not saying otherwise. I'm saying that we don't know what it is we'd be permanently committing TO yet. A pool of four powers? Six? Eight? Preset, in a given order, or fluid? Like the hero ancillary powers, or not?
I've shifted my position a bit now, anyway. I'm pretty much convinced it's all about removing the incentive to PL.