The Alignment Imbalance

I try my best to keep my complaints to myself, but I think it's time to let one out.

This is obviously just picking at the smallest things to some people, and I could see why, but I have a huge amount of Vigilantes/Rogues and now I've finally noticed that to me, I hardly see a point in playing ordinary one-side Heroes and Villains anymore. Let alone any Praetorian now that I've finished all of the arcs and Issue 21 allows starting as any Archetype at level 1. Okay, they get Hero/Villain merits sure, but how is that really equal to being opened to twice as much content as someone who is able to get those merits? Maybe we could get some pure hero/villain arcs, or maybe some other benefit for heroes/villains? Or, maybe, some slight restrictions on Vigilantes/Rogues?

tl;dr: Vigilantes/Rogues have more benefits than Heroes/Villains/Praetorians and I'm mad about it but a bit shy about complaining about it.

Funny you should post this, because I usually feel the opposite way: to me, being able to do any mission on one character (in a game that encourages alts) doesn't feel like much compensation for easy access to rare and expensive items from hero merits. Also, the alignment powers for full heroes/villains are generally better than the rogue/vigilante powers.

But if I think heroes/villains are unfairly better, and you think rogues/vigilantes are unfairly better, maybe really they all have enough benefits and downsides to about even out.

IMO, Vigilantes and Rogues have it much worse than heroes and villains. If I want to do content on one side or the other, I can just use a different character. Considering I hate redside, I only have one or two villains anyway and see no need to give up the love that is hero merits just to spend time over in that hellhole.

I disagree with what you just said.

The benefits of being able to play twice as much content are intangible, and therefore a matter of taste. However, Heroes and Villains have access to Alignment Merits, which are both tangible and far more substantial than your brief mention would indicate. I am having a difficult time justifying playing Vigilantes and Rogues, because I already have Heroes to play Hero content and Villains to play Villain content.

To be honest, I'm glad to see that someone values the ability to play the same character on both sides, even to the fairly limited extent that Rogues and Vigilantes can. From the thread title, I was expecting an argument that Rogues and Vigilantes are pointless, not Heroes and Villains.

If you look at it from a gameplay perspective, you garner the most from having a roster of heroes, villains, vigilantes, and rogues. You have access to all the story arcs and TFs/SFs though some will be "character gated" as well earning bonuses towards very hard to acquire goods. If you only play Hero/Villain or only play Vigilante/Rogue you miss out on something. Play all of them and you have access to everything.

Just remember, as you try to figure out why the other side "doesn't benefit," - you're not everyone. Not everybody values the same things you do. You like having access to all the content, all the time - though, for "pure" Heroes/Villains, that becomes somewhat less of a selling point in the mid 30s with the RWZ and Cimerora (not to mention the iTrials.)

Play the way you like, and enjoy it. Let others play the way they like, and enjoy it. Neither "pure" alignments or "grey" alignments are right or wrong, and you don't hurt each other by existing. Nothing to complain about.

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The fact that roughly half the players with an opinion seem to think heroes/villains have the advantage with alignment merits and the other half seems to think rogues/vigilantes have the advantage with on the fly side switching suggests to me the devs aimed at about the right spot in their respective benefits.

I disagree that there is an imbalance. Alignment Merits are a powerful advantage for pure alignments.

WARNING: I bold names.

For someone like me, who has more Inf than he knows what to do with... and doens't really use IOs at all (except on a few characters), A-Merits don't seem like much of anything. I would MUCH rather play Vigilante/Rogue than pure Hero/Villain. I guess I just make far too many characters to worry about IOs on most of them since I basically stop playing a character once it hits 50 (except my Badger).

Alignment Merits are a very strong motivator... but they cannot be realistically attained on unlimited characters. Depending on your dedication, it makes sense to have a few characters to generate Alignment Merits. The alignment of the rest of your characters can be freely based off teaming flexibility (Rogue/Vigilante), stronger powers (Frenzy/Call of Justice), or just theme.

I don't intend to play any non-50 Rogues/Vigilantes through the Signature Story Arcs yet, because the Alignment Merits are the best rewards on that table and the Astral Merits or Threads aren't available as choices pre 50, leaving you with just 20 Reward Merits.

Which is one Recipe roll compared to 5 from 1 Alignment Merit.

May as well wait till they're 50 and get iRewards.

As I read the thread title, I wondered "Okay, let's see if this one is about Heroes/Villains lacking or Vigilantes/Rogues lacking!".
And I mean zero disrespect about that.
It just seems to be argued on both sides. Which makes me think that they did a pretty good job...
Oh, wait... Arcanaville already posted here... why am I bothering to try and put my thoughts into words when they've already been expressed!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville The fact that roughly half the players with an opinion seem to think heroes/villains have the advantage with alignment merits and the other half seems to think rogues/vigilantes have the advantage with on the fly side switching suggests to me the devs aimed at about the right spot in their respective benefits.

Everyone have their priorities. First alignment merit I ever got was on Signature arc, since I do hero tips just to go vigilante/rogue.

Am I the only one who sees this complaint as just a little bit convenient in light of recent threads complaining the rogues and vigilantes don't get Alignment Merits and just a bit too carefully worded? Maybe I'm just a suspicious git, who knows?

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.

Personally, I prefer to play Villains. Pragmatically, many of my chars end up playing rogues over content and grouping access. Less incentive now, however, that the WSTs aren't really pursued [a shame, such decent potential there, but oh well].

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Mechanically, the Alignment merits are a great way to produce funds [perhaps less so now, but time will tell], and potentially a path now to get purples without going batty.