Seldom

NPC aether reward costumes, for civilian identities, shape-shifting human forms, disguises, or just to straight-up play as a non-buff human that happens to be super-human. Dog/Cat animal heads. Not wolf/werewolf tiger, I mean straight up doggo/house cat. Yep, not only do I want to be able to run around town as a civilian, I want to be able to play as a powerful pet. MM pet alt skins: Zombies use the zombie event models, robots use the praetorian clockworks, beasts use the Nightward animals, Ninjas use the Tsoo, Demons use the CoT demons...with aether rewards you already let us dress like enemies, so cat's out of the bag there. The models exist, let us use some of those to mix up the pet looks, please?

The only time I've ever taken/used an intangibility and liked it was on a Gravity dominator I took dimension shift as a panic button. I play with a group that doesn't min/max their characters, especially early game, and we started a goldside group. With all the ambushes in missions goldside, it was pretty handy a few times to be able to 'pause' any extra groups until we finished the first group, but an actual control would've actually do the same thing. What made this sort of work was that it was a toggle by this time, so when we were ready to handle the added enemies, I could drop it and pile on them. Also to note, once the characters got higher level, the above never really became an issue, as once characters have their full loadout, even an extra group can be handled pretty quickly by a 5-7 person team. I still never take the sonic/forcefield single intangibility powers, because on teams all I end up doing is protect the enemy from near instant death, and solo it's hard to note when the 'timeout' enemy will come buck into play.

Just did a +3x8 on my "Main," a fully incarnated full +recharge mind/psi dominator, not trying to do anything 'sweaty', just rolling through a Circle of Thorns mission. Honestly, with the improvement to telekinesis and the improved AoE control have made what used to be a much more deliberate pace far faster, far safer. This was eye-opening to see how much faster everything came up, and how easy it was to group them, lock them down, soak up all that lovely regen/recovery via drain psyche and damage/+tohit via soul drain. I have been in the habit of holding certain powers in reserve, but found the control powers at hand when I needed them. It was glorious. The last time I felt this much improvement was back when the damage was decoupled from Domination. Much love for the buffs, I can't wait for this to go live! 💜

Please consider changing "Absorb pain" from being a heal to being a true "absorb." Currently, the power's effects are rendered redundant against Heal other/heal aura which in many cases do what Absorb does just with lower values and no downside. Shifting the power to a true absorb would not change way invention sets in the power power are used, allow it to give Empathy some pre-fight protection, and honestly give Empathy characters a reason to choose the power! After all, it's in the NAME!

Pleeease add the civilians as Aether rewards! And specific, not random ones. I'd like to choose to look like granny, a chubby guy in a suit, etc! Great for secret identities! Great for a disguise, when infiltrating Paragon/Rogue isles as an opposite aligned character! Great for a human skin for non human creatures! Great for playing a super powered person who just wants too look like a normal human! Pretty please with candy on top?

I actually was thinking about something like this. What if part of the 'incarnate' system would be to give your character a buff, but with a weakness? It all started with me thinking of my main character, whose story is that she she 'feeds' from psychic energy while she dream and they dream. The idea would be, what if my character couldn't deal psychic damage unless both she and enemies were sleeping , but in return she could cast attacks while sleeping, her own sleep control could affect herself, and her attacks wouldn't wake foes on first hit while dealing extra damage? Obviously none of these would work for any other characters, so no luck building in a character-specific weakness. But it got me thinking of similar weaknesses with strengths: Control incarnate: all control powers get a bonus to both control magnitude and a containment-like bonus to damage against controlled foes, but with a debuff to all their damage. End result: better at control, better at damage against the controlled, but worse at damage on the fly. Affliction incarnate: Similar to the above, all debuffs add a special effect that make the debuffer deal more damage to them, but the debuffer also gets their base damage reduced. Benevolence incarnate: All buffs that usually only affect other allies partially affect yourself, but with an across the board debuff to yourself to damage and debuffs. Elemental incarnation: Buffs all cold/fire/energy damage, debuffs any that aren't. Mental incarnation: All psychic powers reduce psychic resistance and do more damage, but all other damage types are debuffed. Physical incarnation: All slashing/smashing attacks have a chance to bypass all resistances to the same, but all other damage types debuffed. Resilience incarnate: as health declines, regeneration, defense, healing, and resistance are all buffed, but damage is debuffed. Speed incarnate: recharge is buffed, as is recovery, but damage is debuffed, allowing characters to throw out many more attacks, while also needing to do more attacks. etc! Could this be gamed? Absolutely. But I like the idea that players could specialize their playstyle more, and differentiate their characters from the next character of the same power combo.

As a completionist, I play all four. I have two scrappers at 50, they are by far my least played class. I personally see little point to scrappers when stalkers and brutes exist. Brutes have similar consistent damage, and on teams can be buffed to be as good as a tank, and have taunt. Stalkers have better burst damage, and when I kit them out, barely different survival. But this is me. I get that you'd like scrappers, I play with folks who swear by them. The scrapper lovers I know can't stand that stalkers have to invest so much to get where scrappers even start, survival-wise. They hate that there's specific attack orders stalkers have to do to reach peak damage. They don't find joy in managing aggro AND damage the way many team brutes do. The thing is, there's a clear progression from team protector to damage-specialist across the melee classes, and folks have places on that scale that they prefer. The fact that I can love tanks and brutes, and you can love scrappers and see brutes as pointless actually points to reasonable balance.

I can only speak to my experience, Tanks do great (as mentioned) against crowds due to their larger AoE's and target limits, not to mention their ease of keeping large crowds in AoE. But brutes, while not able to wipe as big of crowds, have killed fewer faster, as do scrappers. Against big bosses? That's where the differences show. When I get to 50 and solo a mission like "retrieve stolen incarnate container." I've done it many times with many characters, and you can really feel the difference between the 4. I've brought DPS to help tank buddies because they were at a standstill trying to solo Holtz/Honoree, and my own Tanks usually just bring a vanguard heavy for the DPS if I want because otherwise it takes so long. Meanwhile, my Brutes don't need the heavy and survive decently, my scrappers tend to bring the better inspirations to last against the enemy crowds and two bosses, and my stalkers carry big inspires and let the vanguard heavy aggro/wipe the portal summons. Yeah, these could be me bringing non-incarnates, often SO-only fresh 50's, but that's been my experience so far.

So long as you have different definitions of fun, and some folks who know how to bend the invention/incarnate system playing alongside those who feel out basic enhancements, let alone the solo vs. team dynamics, 'true' balance will be impossible. Let's look just at the 'pure' melee archetypes: Tanker: On basic Single origin enhancements, with no knowledge of 'best' powers, power pool picks: Durability: ★★★★☆ Damage: ★★☆☆☆ Single origin enhancements, knowledge of best powers, best power pools: Durability: ★★★★★ Damage: ★★☆☆☆ With inventions, pools, epic/patrons pools, incarnates all highly tuned: Durability: 👑 Best in game Damage: ★★★☆☆ Tanks start easy to use, end easy to use. The 'problem' is that they can max out what they are best at pretty easily, so the only thing you gain from all that work around invention investments is to make a tank that can withstand the end game bosses or the enemies meant to trouble multiple teams at once. Tanks also don't scale well on teams, as with two you start to be redundant if you play to protect or survive. Literally nothing can last better than a fully built out tank. If you love looking out for friends, this is the most fun you'll find. If you play to damage...? It's okay, but slower than any other. They do WAY better against swarms of enemies than against single targets. Brute: On basic Single origin enhancements, with no knowledge of 'best' powers, power pool picks: Durability: ★★★☆☆ Damage: ★★★★☆ Single origin enhancements, knowledge of best powers, best power pools: Durability: ★★★★☆ Damage: ★★★★☆ With inventions, pools, epic/patrons pools, incarnates all highly tuned: Durability: ★★★★★ Damage: ★★★★☆ These start as tougher scrappers, with some crowd control options that mean they don't have to chase enemies. With extra power pools layered on, the most defensive armor sets can be as strong as the least defensive tanker sets. With Invention sets built toward survival, brutes can survive as well as tankers AND do close to scrapper damage. Scrapper: On basic Single origin enhancements, with no knowledge of 'best' powers, power pool picks: Durability: ★★☆☆☆- ★★★☆☆ (depending on secondary) Damage: ★★★★☆ Single origin enhancements, knowledge of best powers, best power pools: Durability: ★★★☆☆-★★★★☆ (depending on secondary) Damage: ★★★★☆ With inventions, pools, epic/patrons pools, incarnates all highly tuned: Durability: ★★★★☆ Damage: ★★★★★ Scrappers do good damage, but their lower hitpoints and resistance caps mean some armors will work better than others. Scrappers will always do good damage, and with good boosts to their endurance and procs, they can be amongst the most reliable, continuous single target damage around. Unlike brutes, you will also find yourself having the chase foes down, because none of your attacks will taunt foes. Stalker: On basic Single origin enhancements, with no knowledge of 'best' powers, power pool picks: Durability: ★☆☆☆☆- ★★☆☆☆ (depending on secondary) Damage: ★★★★★ Single origin enhancements, knowledge of best powers, best power pools: Durability: ★★☆☆☆ - ★★★☆☆ (depending on secondary) Damage: ★★★★★ With inventions, pools, epic/patrons pools, incarnates all highly tuned: Durability: ★★★☆☆-★★★★☆ Damage: 👑 Best burst single target damage Stalkers suffer the same as scrappers when it comes to survival, but worse. Some armors just work better than others for their lower survival, and their survival starts way worse. Even the most ideally built stalker survival will only hit the upper scrapper limits. But if you're playing a stalker, survival isn't the top priority: damage is. Even the base stalker can blast a boss faster than almost any scrapper, but stalkers will have extremely limited ways to kill crowds. Top end stalkers' ability to kill a single target fast can only be rivaled by nightwidows. You may have to chase enemies, but if they have time to run, something might be funky. Because many of your tools to survive involve not being seen, certain high-perception enemies may give you WAY more trouble than they seem like they should. So, what do we have? One archetype that can survive with little work, and with even a bit of focus, can walk away from 90% of fights, though boss fights will last a while. The second needs to work a little to get that tough, but gets damage pretty easily. The third gets damage without trying, but has to really try to survive the dangerous fights. The last does the best damage, but has to almost always be super careful, and has all sorts of caveats to their 'best' performances. Having played all the above, both on SO's and with full 'end game' invention shenanigans, the balance is surprisingly good. It just depends what you're aiming for, expecting, and comparing against. Throw in exact power sets or combos, and yeah, there are some bad comparisons to be found. A base willpower/kinetic melee tanker won't compare well to a fully kitted out Energy melee/Ninjitsu stalker. But that's apples to oranges. In general most will be pretty good at doing what they're made to be on that sliding scale of 'tough guy' to 'dangerous person' scale.

It only makes the power Chrono Shift come up faster. Currently, there are no ways to directly enhance the +recharge effects of any powers.

Yup, both +max hp and +regen work together, as do +max endurance +recovery. My usual priorities: +recovery +end +hp +regen Why? While +HP/+regen DO stack together, but unless you're a Regeneration or other support/armor set character with substantial +HP +regen, the values won't have enough impact to overcome most enemy damage. ESPECIALLY now that rest has a short recharge for worst cases, and it's easy to email/carry green inspirations for emergencies. There are reliable health tools that's have more use than +5hp or +.5% hp per second. While +HP +Regen get better the more you stack them together, they're even BETTER with +resistance+defense on top. But you know what? +Defense/+Resistance will be way better than +HP/+Regen in most cases. Meanwhile, most character actually survive better using their primary tools- control using endurance to lock things down, damage to lay enemies out, defensive characters to heal/protect, and support to recover/weaken/buff to overcome threats. On most character WITHOUT sufficient endurance to use these tools, you end up tasting pavement. No blue = no green. Of the two 'blue bar' tools, +max end can easily see similar results by slotting for -End costs in powers, but there's little outside of stamina to help get blue back faster in the fight. So that's why I lean toward +recovery. ...Though yes, +10% recovery is better when you have 150 endurance than when you have 100 endurance. Unfortunately character can't get everything, so that's why I prioritize as above.

Having played all support sets except marine to 50, I would argue Sonic Resonance as being the worst support set, especially if you have no other support available. It gives resistance to damage, but in no way alleviates from any of the side effects from any attacks. Add to this resistance is patently worse than defense on the majority of archetypes because damage doesn't scale to hp, and hitting its caps is almost impossible while doing far less. Empathy is 'Fine.' the problem is that while it can stabilize a bad team, its tools offer diminishing returns the better your team is. Dark miasma, Cold Domination, Radiation emission, even Traps all do better. Strangely enough, even the below-average Sonic Resonance got a buff in its 'Liquefy' uptime, making it way better than it used to be. My issues with the set: This set has no flavor. If you just labeled the set 'Support' it would fit in with any generic vidjagame healing set. To make the set work really well, you have to go all-in on +recharge. WHEN you do this, it can be pretty good- fortitude on the entire team and permanent Adrenalin Boost on a target is no joke! But it seems the set is balanced around a maxed out recharge, rather than SO numbers, as though more +regen/+recovery would be gamebreaking. (Meanwhile, other sets can easily have such big effects up non-stop, looking at you, Time, Nature. ) The set has too many redundancies. Healing Aura, Heal other, Absorb pain have literally the same effect on the target, just in different ratios. Why 'Absorb pain' was never tweaked to use the ACTUAL 'Absorb' mechanic I'll never understand. Has Empathy EVER had tweaks? Too many of its powers are skippable/skipped. 'Clear mind' actively punishes the Empath that tries to keep it up on their whole team. What do I mean? Far better buffs last far longer, do more to help survival, and they don't tempt user to stop attacking/doing better buffs/debuffing to cast this largely useless effect. Blegh, full rant here: 'Resurrect' is way less useful nowadays with the plethora of self-protection and self-rez powers available in combat, and ally-rez capabilities for out of combat. It requires melee range in a big fight that just killed someone, and offers its target no defenses except against debt. Heck, its closest power is 'Rebirth' from Nature, a set that gets to cast for all the same effects from 45 ft away, with heal over time and Bloom tacked on. 'Absorb pain' endangers the LAST person in a team that you want going down, while only giving marginally better healing that is usually just as available from the quick-recharging 'Heal other.' That's a full THIRD of the set that situational/ignorable.

My updated post-ToT Alt tracker spreadsheet! (Names redacted) AT Primary Secondary Level Fully Incarnated Finished build Page # Alignment Dominator Mind Control Psionic Assault 50 ✓ ✓ 1 Rogue Dominator Fire Control Fiery Assault 50 ✓ ✓ 1 Vigilante Dominator Plant Control Martial Assault 50 ✓ ✓ 1 Vigilante Dominator Gravity Control Dark Assault 50 ✓ ✓ 1 Rogue Dominator Illusion Control Earth Assault 50 ✓ ✓ 1 Vigilante Dominator Ice Control Savage Assault 47 X X 1 Vigilante Dominator Symphony Control Sonic Assault 50 ✓ ✓ 1 Vigilante Dominator Arsenal Control Psionic Assault 29 X X 1 Hero Dominator Earth Control Electric assault 25 X X 1 Hero Controller Illusion Control Time Manipulation 50 ✓ ✓ 2 Vigilante Controller Electric Control Kinetics 50 ✓ ✓ 2 Vigilante Controller Fire Control Radiation Emission 50 ✓ ✓ 2 Villain Controller Darkness Control Empathy 50 ✓ ✓ 2 Vigilante Controller Symphony Control Electrical Affinity 50 X X 2 Villain Tanker Bio Armor Radiation Melee 50 ✓ ✓ 3 Hero Tanker Ice Armor Staff Fighting 50 ✓ ✓ 3 Hero Tanker Radiation Armor Street Justice 50 ✓ ✓ 3 Rogue Tanker Willpower War Mace 50 ✓ ✓ 3 Hero Tanker Super reflexes Super Strength 32 X X 3 Hero Tanker Invulnerability Stone Melee 25 X X 3 Vigilante Corruptor Radiation Blast Radiation Emission 50 ✓ ✓ 4 Hero Corruptor Sonic Attack Poison 50 ✓ ✓ 4 Villain Corruptor Pain Domination Assault Rifle 50 ✓ ✓ 4 Vigilante Corruptor Radiation Blast Electrical Affinity 35 X X 4 Rogue Corruptor Energy Blast Trick arrow 25 X X 4 Villain Corruptor Seismic Blast Trick arrow 25 X X 4 Vigilante Corruptor Psychic Blast Sonic Resonance 25 X X 4 Hero Corruptor Fire Blast Marine Affinity 29 X X 4 Vigilante Brute Electrical Melee Regeneration 50 ✓ ✓ 5 Vigilante Brute Broadsward Dark Armor 50 ✓ ✓ 5 Vigilante Brute Titan Weapons Energy Aura 50 ✓ ✓ 5 Villain Brute Psychic Melee Shield Defense 38 X X 5 Vigilante Brute Spines Stone Armor 32 X X 5 Hero Defender Force Field Electrical Blast 50 ✓ ✓ 6 Villain Defender Traps Sonic Attack 50 ✓ ✓ 6 Hero Defender Nature Affinity Ice Blast 50 ✓ ✓ 6 Hero Defender Dark Miasma Psychic Blast 50 ✓ ✓ 6 Hero Defender Poison Water Blast 40 ✓ ✓ 6 Hero Defender Thermal Radiation Beam Rifle 28 X X 6 Rogue Blaster Dual Pistols Devices 50 ✓ ✓ 7 Hero Blaster Psychic Blast Plant Manipulation 50 ✓ ✓ 7 Vigilante Blaster Archery Energy Manipulation 50 ✓ ✓ 7 Hero Blaster Sonic Attack Sonic Manipulation 40 X X 7 Villain Blaster Archery Tactical Arrow 36 X X 7 Rogue Blaster Water Blast Temporal Manipulation 25 X X 7 Vigilante Blaster Seismic Blast Fire Manipulation 30 X X 7 Vigilante Arachnos soldier/Bane Bane Spider Soldier Bane Spider Training 50 ✓ ✓ 8 Villain Arachnos soldier/Crab Crab Spider Soldier Crab Spider Training 50 ✓ ✓ 8 Vigilante Arachnos widow/Fortunata Fortunata Training Fortunata Teamwork 50 ✓ ✓ 8 Rogue Warshade Umbral Blast Umbral Aura 50 ✓ ✓ 8 Hero Peacebringer Luminous Blast Luminous Aura 50 ✓ ✓ 8 Hero Arachnos widow/Night widow Night Widow Training Widow Teamwork 27 X X 8 Rogue Arachnos soldier/Crab Crab Spider Soldier Crab Spider Training 28 X X 8 Vigilante Sentinel Fire Blast Radiation Armor 50 ✓ ✓ 9 Hero Sentinel Storm Blast Electrical Armor 50 ✓ ✓ 9 Vigilante Sentinel Dark Blast Dark Armor 50 ✓ ✓ 9 Villain Sentinel Water Blast Bio Armor 37 X X 9 Hero Scrapper Energy Melee Darl Armor 50 ✓ ✓ 10 Vigilante Scrapper Fire Melee Electrical Armor 50 X ✓ 10 Rogue Scrapper Ice Melee Stone Armor 29 X X 10 Vigilante Scrapper Battle Axe Shield defense 26 X X 10 Hero Scrapper Street Justice Radiation Armor 25 X X 10 Vigilante Scrapper electrical melee Super reflexes 30 X X 10 Hero Mastermind Demon Summoning Cold Domination 50 ✓ ✓ 11 Hero Mastermind Necromancy Nature Affinity 50 ✓ ✓ 11 Villain Mastermind Robotics Dark Miasma 50 ✓ ✓ 11 Rogue Mastermind Beast Mastery Sonic Resonance 50 X X 11 Vigilante Mastermind Thugs Time Manipulation 38 X X 11 Villain Mastermind Beast Mastery Kinetics 28 X X 11 Villain Stalker Dual Blades Ninjitsu 50 ✓ ✓ 12 Hero Stalker Savage Melee Fire Armor 50 ✓ ✓ 12 Rogue Stalker Martial Arts Super Reflexes 26 X X 12 Vigilante Stalker Energy melee Invulnerability 25 X X 12 Vigilante Stalker Dark Melee Bio Armor 25 X X 12 Rogue

At first, it was all about one character, I just wanted to get them to 50. (That was back on live.) This with life, though, led to burnout. So I'd have one 'Main,' and one backup character who was very different. This was usually when playing PuGs and solo. Then I started playing with a regular SG, so I started making characters to play along with them, and wanted to try something new each time, and something that would complement what others were bringing. Then I got my first character to 50, the character I played most. They were 'shelved' for some time, the focus being to catch my other characters up to them. ...But badges would still bring my 'main' character out again Then I noticed I had most archetypes to 50, why not ALL of them? Then inventions were introduced, why not have a full IO build for all of them? My main came out again, as did my 'runner up' 50's. The INCARNATES were introduced, so, why not get every 50 to be fully incarnated? This brought out my 'Main' again, as did badges. Then new powers were introduced, so why not have not just every AT to 50, why not a 50 for every power set? Now...I have so many 50's, of all AT's, of so many powersets... I just like to play my 'Main,' and certain characters who have their own stories and characteristics that I like, while the rest gather dust on the shelf, and the occasional almost-50 of a power set I haven't 'finished' yet. Before, a character was 'done' when they hit 50 with inventions and incarnates. Now, that's well-trodden ground. Most characters are 'Done' when I just don't care about them anymore. Woo! Wet blanket answer!

'Downtrodden" Is totally the Lost already. Things I can think of: 'Heroic' mercs: (super-squads that are purely in it for profits) these could be grey area, sometimes helping, sometimes at odds. Not associated with a giant organization like crey or Malta, but more like the 'Rogue island villains' that show up. Named hero bosses and their support crew in spandex but doing everything for the Benjamins. You could see them both in the city fighting crime, and threatening store owners who hadn't paid their monthly protection fees.