Who *don't* you want to die?

The cocky speedster?
The sarcastic lady's man archer?
Either of the women, who are both psychics with healing powers?

I couldn't care less really. None of them have ever engaged my imagination in the slightest.

The pillar can take the powers from one person and put them into another. It can't affect Numina or Citadel (in theory), but the others are fair game.

I'm hoping that it shifts some of the powers around. Statesman can get Positron's power. Manticore can get Synapse's power. And so on.

After the power switch, someone loses control of Positron's power, and vaproizes Synapse (likely holding Manticore's power of "nothing"). This sets the powers in place for good.

Well, if we're talking about ANY of the signature characters, I'd be most sad to see Ms. Liberty or Swan die. I know several people don't like the junior Ms., but I think she's a good character who's learning to control her temper like so many had to do. Swan I want to see stick around just because there's so much that can be done with her character. We've gotten very little development for her character and not much more for her Praetorian counterpart; that interests me greatly. What kind of working relationship do she and Manticore have? Is it fairly antagonistic like States and Ms. Lib, or is it more of a teacher/student like Citadel and Luminary? Does she have to get the things off the tall shelves in the Freedom Phalanx base for him, or do he use a ladder like in his mansion?

Now, if we're only talking about which of the Surviving 8 do we not want to see pass into the great beyond, if indeed the poor soul stays dead and doesn't return in some way, shape or form, then I'd be most sad to see Sister Psyche go. I'd love to see her costume go, though, and be replaced by... well, anything, really. Shalice herself, though, I think is the best character of all the Surviving 8. She's conflicted, she's emotional, she's been through loss and pain and emotional trauma and still come out the other side stronger and smarter. She's messy and confusing and doesn't have everything together, and that makes her ultimately more heroic AND more human.

Who do I think will be the one to go? Citadel. Manti makes more sense, but he's got all these cameo appearances in the new hero arcs, and it wouldn't make much sense to write him into all of them only to turn around and have to take him out less than three months later. Citadel hasn't made any real appearance at all other than in Ouroboros and as scenery at the beginning of a single mission for years. His task force is the most boring and monotonous, and it's by far the one most needing revamping of the original 6. Maybe his circuitry could be grafted into Luminary, upgrading her into a more advanced state while still finding a way of keeping a spark of him alive. However, I could also see a scenario where Positron is actually the one to die, sacrificing himself to save others and maybe being turned back into anti-matter again, thus having his physical body "die." He could stay in the game with only minor changes (i.e. the helmet would go back on).

On an unrelated but recurring note in this thread, I think much of the animosity toward Statesman is really lingering resentment toward Jack Emmert, who was one of CoH's original dev team. Jack created Statesman and used him as his in-game alter ego, and Jack's arrogance and negative relationship with the player base was legendary. So legendary, in fact, that many old players direct those negative feelings toward the most obvious remnant of Jack remaining in this game: Statesman. It's really misplaced in most of these cases, but old habits and grudges die hard. The best revenge we got against Jack and his ego was that the game became orders of magnitude better after he left and Paragon Studios formed to take over. (Interestingly enough, the other signature character Jack created was Sister Psyche, and not many people channel their dislike of him against her.)

Statesman. because if they do, it'll be because of "Jack hate" and not "This will be awesome or this will make people think or anything" it'll be because people associate Statesman with Jack.

Dont want Sister Psyche or Numina to die. And if they did, OMG YAY, more WIR threads >_>

And really, I like Numina and Sister Psyche, but I think they could both use some new outfits!

The rest imo is good to go!

I wouldn't really care if it was Synapse, Citadel or Back Alley Brawler.

I would actually enjoy it being Statesman (and no, not because of Jack Emmert, because the 'Star Spangled Super Guy' is the absolute most hackneyed cliche there is in this industry and I find Statesman to be a very uninspiring instance of it).

I would rather keep Positron, Numina, Sister Psyche, and Manticore.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

I really hope it's not Positron... my books aren't done yet. (And Synapse is a close second.)

The only one of the Phalanx I'm REALLY 'meh' about is Citadel. Sorry, big guy, but it's true. You and your TF just do not do it for me. If I had to root for one of them to go, he'd be it. Damned if I know how they could make it dramatic and emotionally engaging, but stranger things have happened.

But Statesman doing the heroic sacrifice thing? Facing down some truly devastating fate, jaw set, shoulders back, and the last word on his lips being, "Monica..." Oh yeah. THAT I'd buy.

(Damn it, now I'm suddenly seeing the scene of Vegeta vs Majin Buu near the end of DBZ. So I'm a geek - I admit it.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

There's three characters I hope don't die.

1) Synapse. C'mon, that would just turn the whole SSA thing into a joke. Bad stuff happens to Synapse all the time, killing him off would be too easy.

2) Numina. She's already dead! It'd be unoriginal, and it would be waaaay too easy to bring her back (you wouldn't even have to come up with a half-***** comic book style resurrection. ).

3) Citadel. Citadel is just way too anonymous. And also a robot. If you want to be all "look at us, we are killing a major character!!" you don't want the reactions to be either "Citawho?" or "can't they just build another one?" Also, if he's not the dumbest sentient robot hero ever, he'll have his brain on a backup disk somewhere.

(Back Ally Brawler gets an honourable mention because A) he's not in the Freedom Phalanx, and B) because it'd be kinda bad taste after his namesake Dev got sacked)


So I really hope they man up and kill off someone significant.

I personally hope that Manticore does not die.

I don't have a compelling reason that he's integral to the mythos of CoH, or any other well-thought-out justification. I just like him the most out of the Phalanx, because I thought he was awesome in the comics. First, he stared down three villains at the same time, each of them more powerful than him. Then he successfully bluffed the god of knowledge. To finish his act, he literally cheated death itself. He was the only character in the series that I really enjoyed reading about.

Statesman will die, and we will see Positron upgraded to be an Incarnate, CoH franchise main new hero with new awesome armor and all.
I think Im fine with it.
This game needs some shacking and new status quo for the main heroes.

Kill em all! It's time for a new gritty, edgy style of hero to emerge!

I do not agree that the dislike/hate for Statesman is mainly lingering hate for Jack, although no doubt that doesn't help.

The Statesman character is generally written as an authoritarian, belligerent no-it-all. The Statesman character in game (until the introduction of the Incarnate stuff at least) was operating at dreamy heights our characters could never achieve. None of this is particularly conducive to warm relationship.

I, as a player, do not like the character. The characters I play in this game (hero and villain) don't like Statesman either. Thats not entirely bad though because on a number of occasions I have been able to put him in his place, either but saving his bacon or whuppin his butt!