Create an Heroic arc to unlock Patron Power Pools.

I was thinking today about how much I'd like my Fire/Rad Controller to have Soul Mastery, but how I don't really like the idea of making him a Villain to get it. I'm not saying that I refuse to do so (I totally will), but I got to thinking and stumbled onto this idea...

Why not, in the future (say around Issue 21 or 22), create an Heroic arc where you can unlock the Patron Power Pools? Much like Villains and Rogues currently get to choose which Patron they want to study under, Heroes and Vigilantes could be alerted that the four Arachnos Patrons are striking four separate locations, and go off on a series of missions to thwart one of them. Upon defeating them, you end up being exposed to their source of power (or something like that), gaining the ability to use Patron Power Pools on your bluesiders.

Just as a set of examples:

• For Ghost Widow, you could stop her from binding more souls to fuel her powers, and the spirits reward you by adding their power to your own instead.
  
• For Mako, you could save a group of still-partially-human Coralax from his wrath at not serving him, and gain their support and abilities.
  
• You could defeat Black Scorpion as he goes to pick up a new power mace from a staff of kidnapped engineers and be given it as a souvenier for your heroism.
  
• For Scirrocco, you could stop him from attacking priests of the Temple of the Four Winds or even Serafina, and be rewarded with mastery of the lightning magicks of Mu.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This was brought up in the beta, but might as well keep bringing it to the attention of the devs.

My idea is a mission to steal or "borrow" the power of the Patrons. This isn't explained Villain side, maybe it could be said that a device is the mechanism behind the transfer of the Patron Powers. Then when it is, um, borrowed, either the power can be stored in the device for the character's use, or one of the heroes can "recharge" it.

This could lead to future Patrons being added as well, both some for the hero side, and even others for villain side. And of course the villains would gain these new Patrons at the same time the heroes do. (Maybe the final mission of the arc the villains steal it back after Longbow or Vanguard or whoever is done "tinkering" with it)

The idea here is that you don't exactly fight the Patrons for their powers, since some of them would be heroes, but you might fight the signature villains in the arc. I'd also like to see some pet choices that aren't Arachnos, since that's jarring to me.

I don't really think you have to go so far as to add lore to justify it. Instead, one could complete arcs that are functionally identical, but textually different, to unlock the same badges (don't quote me on this, but doesn't the patron badge name change when you go hero?). This way you would do the same tasks to get the same reward, but for a different reason. and since all the patron arcs have you betraying you mentor but still getting the power, and as mentioned how the power is gained is never specified, it could be possible to defeat them and steal the power.

I fully agree that an arc to unlock Patron powers is a good idea. One thing that has always bugged me is when performance is tied to character concept. I'm not saying that Patron Pools are "better" than Epic pools, but they represent more options, yet the only one to get them is to be a villain, putting them out of reach of heroes who are not willing to meta-game switch to villain-side just for an Epic pool.

I understand they're linked to Arachnos, but considering how many villains already explain this as "I'm not their pawn! I STOLE the powers!" it just makes sense for heroes to be able to do the same. Tap into Ghost Widow's source of power, grab some of Black Scorpion's tech, etc. It may require a bit of sideways thinking to justify, but it's well within the realms of decent writing to pull off.

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.

*cough*

This sounds like a good idea to me. The pure win that is Scorpion Shield is going to tempt my defender (temporarily) to the dark side, but I would prefer keeping her blue.

Or:

Add the ability to unlock Patron Pools as a one-time STF reward.

I'm against any way for heroes to get Villain Patron Pools directly.

Partly because I'm still jaded about the whole APP vs PPP debacle from way back, specifically the lack of support from Heroside players.

I'm mostly against it because I'd rather see Hero Patrons implemented with stats identical to the Villain Pools.

Eh, truthfully, I'm not really for the Hero's get access to the PPP's without crossing over.

Not really for the Hero's get HPP's either. My hero isn't a sidekick.

That said, I'm all for more Epic Powers!

Defenders and Corruptors have no Arctic Mastery?!

Corruptors lack a Fire Mastery!

Dominators need an Earth Mastery!

The list goes on!

Also more choices in the Epics!