Dispari

What would they call the tutorial? We already have Breakout and Outbreak. Outout? Breakbreak? Boutoreak?

I'm hoping for this too, but also expecting that it'll happen. The last expansion gave us more slots. Though, to be fair, it also gave new archetypes and a whole new world. But this new expansion will have a new world, and we don't know about archetypes. All I know is I'm full at the moment with around 25 characters and already plan to make at least two new characters when GR hits. Probably more if there's more than just Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning waiting for us.

I think GR would be a good time to up to 48 slots per server, and give everyone who buys it about 4 (give or take) free slots to experience the new stuff with. Would rake in some dough for all the people who would start buying past the current 36 limit.

Travel is already getting a lot easier, with jetpacks and all the ways to get to other zones. Some zones are still irritating to get to though, especially blueside. I also hate having to memorize what zones each method (Pocket D, Cim, Oro) goes to. Would be nice to offer more universal travel options.

And a tailor. Maybe like a computer you can use to access Icon's online store!

A mail system like WoW has would be very nice and convenient. It wouldn't allow us to do anything we can't already do, just with fewer steps.

This one probably goes without saying since I doubt they'd launch an expansion without new stuff. However, I do have high expectations for both the quality and quantity of new parts considering how quiet Jay's been lately, and since they hired another artist girl.

I feel as though it may be a must-have once we can switch sides at will. What would happen to all your stuff on the market otherwise? But I agree it's about time they were joined.

Especially those damn patron contacts!! It would also be nice to revisit some older content and cut down on some of the mindless hunts and zone-switching. Redside did its best to avoid all the "hunt 75 x in another zone, then come back here and be sent to another zone" stuff. And newer content is less annoying. It makes old content too bothersome to play.

I'd like to add this to the list:

Some uniformity and balance between hero/villain accolades. Especially since the recent tweak, redside accolades are a lot easier to earn. Hero ones are very time-consuming and grindy. I've never earned Task Force Commander (because it requires you to do half a dozen full Task Forces) or Eye of the Magus (because of illusionist decoys). I've only earned Portal Jockey (because of all the AV fights) and Geas of the Kind Ones (...all the requirements really) once.

Whereas I have no trouble getting any of the HP/end accolades on all villains (although Marshall takes more work, but at least it's only 1/2 a TF instead of a full one or SIX of them). Magus is easy to get, and even Force of Nature wasn't that hard, although it did require a day's worth of grinding out mayhems. Still nothing compared to some of the hero accolades.

And if when we side switch, we have to re-earn those accolades on the side we're on? My widow is not going to be very happy at all.

As long as it's impossible not to, I won't try to put for the effort to avoid it!

Wish you happy holidays and let you be on your way.

Is that any different than the 8-man soloist melees you mentioned?

I'd be down for a melee/IO nerf, right after they change the fact that team-oriented ATs with non-passive status protection are capable of soloing larger spawns more quickly than any melee AT, and capable of soloing AVs and GMs much more easily.

Something's getting lost in the equation here if people are saying melee ATs are too good because a select few with awesome builds can do things like face x8 spawns, when squishy ATs, who some people in this thread say are too difficult to play solo, can do that and much more.

What makes you so sure it doesn't offend other people? Just because it doesn't offend you? Neither the badge, my above comment, your quip about Saint Patrick's Day, or the Christmas thing offend me, but that doesn't mean I can't put myself in someone else's shoes and see that something could upset someone.

It's easy to kick back and say "Why's everyone so sensitive? Just do stuff my way and we won't have any problems." You show a prime example of insensitivity in your post. You celebrate Christmas, so think everyone else should too. What about other people who aren't celebrating it, but you're trying to forcefully exclude them by not even acknowledging their beliefs? You're annoyed enough that people say "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas," so how do you think they feel when you show up and not just ignore their beliefs, but shove yours in their face? And what about "happy holidays" is exclusive to your beliefs that you'd be offended by the usage of it?

It's thoughts like THAT that are ruining this "country" (though I wonder which country of which you speak since no doubt the people in this thread are from different ones). An egocentric view of the world around you, wherein as long as YOU are happy, satisfied, and content, everyone else should be too. As soon as your beliefs or world view are challenged, something must be done about it.

I'm inbetween you two. I doubt that they'd be ignored OR super-highly-desired.

Knockback IOs right now are a good baseline. But stuns and holds are pretty rare by comparison. An IO that gives you protection to stuns which you'll really only face, well... at high levels, against Malta basically, wouldn't be stupidly high in demand. It would be about average, I'd expect.

Some people would buy them, some people would ignore them like they do with knockback IOs. Depends on the person's level of want. But would they become mandatory/omgrare/gottahaveit? Very doubtful.

This is a pretty wild thing to say. Nobody's trying to deny history. But there's an ocean of difference between a history book and throwing something like that into a game, which is just for fun. There's no reason for it to be used, and plenty of healthy alternatives. There's a difference between trying to burn history books and saying "Hey the 5th Column should have concentration camps. That'd be fun, right?"

It doesn't offend me, but I can see how it might offend others. Can you not see that? Are you that insensitive that you don't CARE that it might offend other people?

Based on your reply, one of us has a broken sarcasm detector.

You're trying to condense the "use a breakfree" into being the only argument against not having mez protection for squishies.

Breakfrees are meant for occasional use for when your character occasionally gets mezzed and needs a hand. All ranged ATs have advantages and abilities that allow them to deal with mez before it happens. Melees do not. However, inevitably something will miss, you get unlucky, there's a guy you didn't see. That's when you use a breakfree.

If melees didn't have mez protection, they'd have to have a breakfree available all the time, every single time they jumped into a group with any mezzers. They would have to have a breakfree for every single spawn of enemies. Because melee units can't do anything until they've closed into melee range. Even if they have a mez or debuff, it's going to be touch-range.

If you're actually playing a ranged character and are needing a breakfree all the time, you're just simply not playing your character very well. There are dozens of ways for ranged characters to prevent or lessen the effects of problem units before the enemy is even aware of their presence. If you choose to ignore those options, that's nobody's fault but your own. That, or you're fighting a very mez-heavy group (such as Malta) that is just not a good fit for your AT. Believe it or not, there are some groups that aren't made for every AT to solo. Carnies can be a severe headache for melees, for instance.

Blasters and Controllers can already achieve 45% DEF, which is far more mitigation than 50% RES. My Blaster has almost 30% DEF without any rare or expensive sets, and that's more mitigation than 50% RES. Even if those squishies could CAP their resistance at 75%, that's less mitigation than 45% DEF offers.

What's more, you can just add ranged defense and have mitigation against almost every attack in the game. Because no melee attacks can hit you if you stay at range, and AoE attacks are pretty rare by comparison. To get the same effect with RES, you'd have to add resistance to smash, lethal, fire, cold, energy, negative, toxic, and psi. Granted, you could just do S/L and cover most of your bases.

And with a careful implementation of the set bonuses, you'd be able to prevent getting 45% DEF as well as 50% RES. Right now you can't get much more than about 5% RES to something if you try, and it takes some pretty strange set bonuses to get certain things like S/L.

Like what? Like enemies with autohit -RES and -DEF powers, powers that do -regen, stacking high mag mez, enemies who highly resist your damage type, PBAoE -ToHit powers, fleeing enemies, enemies who stay at range, enemies who sap endurance?

Because those are all "difficulties" that NPCs can and do have, which are more painful to melees than ranged units who have ways to avoid, prevent, or lessen their effects.

That's an absolutely terrible analogy. But if you hate it so much, you should be doing something else. No point in forcing yourself to do something that isn't fun.

If you want a ranged character who can deal with mez no problem at least most of the time (if not all the time), may I suggest:

1) Forcefield Defender
2) Forcefield Mastermind
3) Forcefield Controller
4) Traps Defender
5) Traps Mastermind
6) Traps Corruptor
7) Sonic Defender
8) Sonic Controller
9) Sonic Corruptor
10) Peacebringer
11) Warshade
12) Crab Spider
13) Fortunata
14) Any good Defender who has heavy debuffs
15) Any good MM who can stand behind good pets
16) Any good Controller who can not only mez enemies but debuff them
17) Any good Corruptor who has heavy debuffs
18) Any good Dominator who can not only mez enemies but has Domination protection
19) Any good Blaster of any kind
20) Another game

Um, huh? You're saying that the game is hard and/or annoying and certain enemies are a pain to deal with, but when people suggest methods for dealing with them you complain that you shouldn't have to "play their way," and instead we should change how mez works. Are you really so unwilling to alter your tactics that you think we should change how stuff works just so you can keep playing "your way?"

This I very much doubt. I don't see Dark Controllers replacing Rad or Kin for farming or overall debuff potential. Or popularity, outside of the initial "new stuff" phase that all proliferation causes.

Do Rad Controllers ever really worry about getting hit? They can debuff ToHit as much as -40% with one power, plus have -20% damage and can debuff recharge and regen too. And they can debuff DEF and RES just as well. And that's just in a secondary. They still have a whole primary to lock down and mez enemies so that they don't get attacked.

The thing is, Controllers don't need that stuff. And it certainly wouldn't overpower them. Giving Controllers more control is like giving Tanks more taunt powers. Once you hit a point, there's no reason to have more.

So Dark has a ton of -ToHit, and an AoE fear, a single target hold, and an AoE stun. You really think that'll make it the only Controller secondary people will play...?

Want to know the most popular Controller combination? Fire/Kin. Guess how many ToHit debuffs, fears, holds, and stuns Kin has. Zero. Want to know how many AoE mez powers it takes to lock down a group of foes? One. A Fire Controller doesn't need extra mezzes. Neither does an Earth, Plant, or Mind Controller.

Dark is a good set, and there are nice uses for all of its powers. A Controller could cycle the powers to mez more than one group, or to stack over mag 3 when necessary. But Dark isn't the most popular set for Defenders, Corruptors, or Masterminds, so why would it automatically be the only set Controllers would ever play?

That's a valid decision. Dark would still be a powerful secondary. But you'd be losing out on DEF and recharge debuffs for the team. As well as recharge, recovery, and damage buffs for the team. Each set has things others don't. If you favor the things Dark offers, more power to you. I like Dark. I have a level 47 Necro/Dark MM. If it came to Controllers I'd probably do something with it too. But I enjoy my Ice/Cold Controller. It does things Dark can never do. And so does Rad. The opposite is also true, though.

It's impossible for that to happen because no amount of proliferation will make a Scrapper and Tank so similar that either of the ATs should not exist, much less make Scrappers anything like Controllers.

In my humble opinion, AT "purity" died when Brutes and Tanks got Dual Blades.

There are already 3 ATs with Dark Miasma. What exact reason is there for Controllers not having it, when all the other support classes do?

There's a big difference between Scrappers and Tanks other than "play style." Besides, Scrappers started off with Dark Melee/Dark Armor, but all four melee ATs have it now. Is that to say nobody but Scrappers should be playing them? Because I could find a lot of happy Dark Melee Brutes you'd have to argue with first.

Energy Melee on a Scrapper would be something new. The way the set plays out is different for each AT that has it. There's a lot of stuff I still want proliferated.

I'm still against Super Strength being given to Scrappers because I always thought of Scrappers/Stalkers as "skilled, agile" while Brutes/Tanks were "brute force, power." That is to say it doesn't fit MY concept of a Scrapper, so I wouldn't make one. But ever since Brutes got DB and Claws, and Scrappers have Elec Melee now, the lines are more blurred. I'd rather let people make the decisions on what their character should be than have it be an arbitrary and forced decision by devs.

I know the devs' reasons for it, whether I agree or disagree. Much as I agree and disagree with some of their proliferation decisions. The list was just to note what all COULD be ported. I wasn't advocating an empathy port so much as saying it's still possible.

The two sets have enough significant differences that they can coexist on the same AT, however. They're really no more identical than Thermal is to Empathy or Pain Domination.