A pattern? anyone else see it.

Melee is the most popular play style in game I think most can agree with that I hope. The new power sets released or soon to be, well the free ones time manipulation and soon dark control. Pay for street justice, titan and soon to be staff.(plus beam was $$$) This is for VIP.

Am I as a VIP doomed to never get a free melee powerset again because it's the most popular and thus Paragon studios makes the most money off it? Why don't they when releasing a free powerset for VIPs let us decide what powerset we want and give us a token that lets us claim a powerset from the store.

I would like to know what the people think on the matter. Thank you.

Beam Rifles required a purchase and wasn't a melee set. But you've seemingly already addressed that point.

I'd also point out just how darn POWERFUL the two new melee sets are. Street Justice is basically Dual Blades on crack, and Titan Weapons AoE-fest makes melees weep for joy (seeing as melee sets tend to be somewhat lacking in the AoE department save 1 or 2 attacks).

I have no doubt that Staff (based on what we know of the mechanics) won't be just as buff.

After adding all of these melee sets in a row, I expect it will be a very long time before any new melee sets are added at all.

I thought you were noticing the pattern that the devs only make powersets that start with "st" except for "titan weapons" which starts with a "t" which is close.

I am sure that further analysis of these 3 isolated data points will come up with more patterns of DOOM!

Not at all sure where you got your original hypothesis - that melee is more popular than ranged (especially if you lump defenders, crruptors, and controllers in there, since they didn't get Tital Weapons or Street Justice the same as Blasters).

And wasn't there some info out there a while back that said that Blasters (mostly ranged, some melee in the secondary, definitely did NOT get TW or SJ) were the most common AT and either Dominators (mix of range & melee & control) or Stalkers (mainly melee AT) were the least popular AT? That would seem to fly directly into the face of the starting point of this thread.

Also, gotta agree with dug's point - not nearly enough data points yet to make a "trend".

T-Beast - dug has 3 data points - 2 sets that start with "ST" and a third one which starts with "T", which is "close enough" - but I'm nearly 100% certain that was with tongue firmly stuck in cheek.

Personally I think its a smart move to sell the melee sets.. melee ATs are often just more fun to play and have more diverse powertypes that they can be played with.

Not only that though but more ATs use melee sets. Best sellers will most likely be melee, buff, and ranged. Support, Control, and assault would likely not sell all that well. Mastermind pets would sell well simply because its a unique playstyle and so far each MM primary has played differently.

Personally I don't think I would ever purchase the following sets.. support (blaster secondary), Assault, ect.. because they are used only by a single AT so the value of the set is greatly diminished.. well that's not true...I'd be all over Assault if they added an Armor/Assault AT.

I looked at the pattern in the paragon market. I tried to pretend it looked like a spreading tree, shadows pooled beneath it, but it didn’t. It looked more like a dead cat I once found, the fat, glistening grubs writhing blindly, squirming over each other, frantically tunneling away from the light. But even that is avoiding the real horror. The horror is this: In the end, it is simply a picture of empty meaningless blackness. We are alone. There is nothing else.



(just to be clear, this is a watchman reference, the doctor that was giving Rorschach a Rorschach test said a variant of this. just a joke on the "pattern" thing)

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I'm fairly certain they just arbitrarily picked a few powersets to be 'pay for' and others to be free to VIPs based upon their profit projections and what they thought would entice players to 'remain VIP', and Melee powersets just got that end of the stick.

Street Justice, Staff, Stitan Weapons, Stbeam Rifle, Stime Control, Stdual Pistols...

I get it. I see where the OP is coming from now

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

We also have to remember that Street Fighting and Staff Fighting have been two of the most popular sets called for in the Suggestions thread. It makes sense from their point of view to charge for the sets that people really want.

Here's the Pattern:

Since FREEDOM, the Devs announced a policy that ever major issue will have a free power set. For Issue 21, that was Time Manipulation. Everything else is purchasable (and VIPs can use their stipend toward getting them 'free').

And that's it. One data point.

This is how it works:

* Dual Pistols, Demon Summoning, Kinetic Melee and Electric Control, which are not available by default to new accounts, were officially features of Going Rogue.
* Time Manipulation was officially a feature of Issue 21 and is available to all VIPs.
* Dark Control, Darkness Assault and Darkness Affinity are officially features of Issue 22 and will be available to all VIPs.
* Beam Rifle, Street Justice, Titan Weapons and Staff Fighting are officially features of the Paragon Market, and must be purchased even by VIPs.
* All Power Set Proliferations were features of their respective Issues and did not require purchase by anyone.

Now, I see where the OP is coming from, saying "Hey now, why are all the melee sets in the Paragon Market?" But it's important to remember that the melee classes have had it kind of sweet in the long run anyway; there are not only more melee/defensive sets than any other variety, but the melee Archetypes have received more "new" sets over the years.

Just in the time since I've been playing (Issue 6) up through Going Rogue, the following Power Sets were added (in chronological order):

* Thugs (not melee; Issue 7)
* Electric Melee (melee; Issue 7)
* Electric Armor (melee; Issue 7)
* Dual Blades (melee; Issue 11)
* Willpower (melee; Issue 11)
* Shield Defense (melee; Issue 13)
* Pain Domination (not melee; Issue 13)

A pattern... Anyone else see it? As far as new Power Sets go, there has been a disproportional favoring of the melee classes, and it seems that the Paragon Market is favoring them as well, albeit behind a cash curtain. They've already had their day in the sun, as far as I'm concerned.

For a while there, I was worried all new Power Sets were going to be Market-only, but they put those fears to rest with the Controller and Dominator Dark sets. I doubt we'll never see another VIP-free melee set, but for now I wouldn't go so far as to say that we need another VIP-free melee set.

To answer the OP, no, we do not have any sort of policy that melee power sets will be purchasable only.

There's a whole range of powersets we haven't explored yet, melee, defensive, support, ranged...I'm certain that as time progresses there will be a good mix of what's purchasable vs. what's VIP included.

I think people are taking the 400 PP for granted. They are essentially giving you a free for pay powerset by being a VIP.

I am not willing to look this gift horse in the mouth YMMV.