Faction Exclusive Sets

With the release of GR coming soon-ish, I was thinking: are keeping sets faction exclusive really necessary to keep sets, such as Poison, Empathy, and Pain Dom, faction exclusive anymore? I'd love to play a Mind/Pain Troller or an Ice/Poison Troller, but the current argument of Poison not being "Heroic" and having Empathy instead of Pain Dom prevents this from happening.

P.S. Not sure whether to post here or "Suggestions and Ideas" so if it needs to be moved let me know.

Poison and Empathy were once the only two powersets that were distinctly heroic or villainous, and they introduced Pain Domination as a villainous counterpart for Empathy. I think when they port Poison to heroes, it'll be something more focused on "Potions" rather than actually infecting your enemies with deadly chemicals.

As for side-switching and Going Rogue, we'll be seeing Empathy villains and Poison heroes; there's no way around that. But there's actually precedence for this: Warshades. According to Kheldian lore, Nictus altered themselves by cannibalizing their fellow Kheldians and absorbing their life energy, and the Warshades had a change of heart and are now fighting for the good guys. So whenever you roll a Warshade--which is a Hero, by the way--you're fighting crime using the stolen life force of one of your previous friends and/or family members. But since you switched sides, it's okay!

Also, I have a moral obligation to say this: "Faction" is dead. "Alignment" is the new supreme ruler.

Poison was only on MMs, right? They might just go "meh" at proliferating it and focus on bigger stuff. Like more Power Customization proliferation.

I think it was a pretty meh set for MMs, anyway. Making your allies get disoriented and begin puking everywhere after reviving them was always good for a laugh, though.

Might I remind you that Dual Pistols was also only on MMs.

*Takes his not-quite-an-argument trophy home with all the others he's won over the years*

I do wish Controllers got Pain. As a mostly soloist I can't get the most out of it. A /Pain Corruptor is saddled with a bunch of powers than are useless solo; and a Mastermind doesn't really benefit from the perk that /Pain has over /Empathy, self boosts. What do I care if my Bots/Pain gets a boost to Brawl? Controllers on the other hand have both pets and do a significant amount of personal damage; they'd get the most out of /Pain solo.

Next thing you know, you'll be telling me heroes will have access to these so-called ' 'dark' ' powers!

Given that Going Rogue is going to blur the distinction between hero and villain a great deal (moreso than proliferation has already) it seems reasonable that even "good" or "evil" power sets should proliferate across faction. It could be easily argued that it's not the powers themselves but how they are used which determines whether the wielder is one of the good guys or not. Let's face it, hitting someone in the face with a big axe/club/shield/power bolt would be considered a bit naughty to most right thinking people but here it's considered heroic by many so we're already stretching the realms of fantasy. No reason we can't stretch it a bit further then huh?

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

I'd reeeeally like this too. I came to realise the other day that the reason I can't get my elec/pain corruptor off of the ground is because in my head she is a villainous pain/elec defender. I don't really see why they shouldn't be proliferated with GR, but hey, fingers crossed.

Heh...here I thought the thread would be for faction exclusive costume sets. Like, Nemesis band uniforms, Malta standard-issue blues, Goldbricker Gear, maybe Rikti body types...

Since I was never a fan of faction (or, indeed, AT) exclusive sets and only handwaved Pain/Empathy as "fine, let there be SOMETHING," I see no reason to disagree with this. Part of it has to do with letting people play what AT they want AND have what powersets the want to play, rather than locking them behind an AT the player may not like, and part of it has to do with the distinction between good and evil being action, rather than nature. It's not what your powers are, it's what you do with them that counts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Folks have disagreed with me when I wanted individual ATs to have one unique powerset each. It seems that they want pretty much every powerset ported everywhere possible, so I doubt that any set will be Faction-specific for too long.

It's kind of a shame, IMO. ElectricMelee/Electric Armor is what drew me to Brutes, and thus to Redside, which I have enjoyed a great deal. Otherwise, I would have likely stayed Blueside, which I was starting to get burned out on.

I want something other than my Inherent power to be the one thing that sets my AT apart. Especially should that inherent be something like Vigilence.