Issen

Basically, yes. It's a game-wide factory reset. For everyone complaining, to be perfectly honest it is INFINITELY easier to simply do a game-wide sweep rather than pick through individual player accounts to see who qualifies and who doesn't.

Besides, 50 merits isn't a terrible thing and if you were someone who was really into farming for tips for AMerits this isn't going to put a huge dent in your schedule, simply set it back a day or two.

Well, to be honest, perhaps it's not an exploit so much as it was, "We didn't intend to have the rewards handed out in this fashion." If they want the merits to tie into the Alignment system (I should remind folks that both SSAs and Alignment are things that F2Ps and Premiums have to buy!) then making it a pre-requisite that you had to be a confirmed (aka, 10 tips + Morality) Hero/Villain makes perfect sense.

Sure, it's annoying, but it makes sense. As for the fact there's no warning...honestly, if folks AREN'T reading the patch notes that's not the dev's fault. I'm surprised folks DON'T check after patches to see what has/hasn't changed as a matter of routine/principle.

I do think that the "confirmed" status needs to be fixed, as several of my characters HAVE confirmed their Hero/Villain Status, but according to comments aren't eligible because they've reset whatever data-flag marks for alignment confirmation.

This. It's basically ridiculously easy to get those expensive low-level IO Procs which go on the market for hundreds of millions of inf. Heck, if you're willing to grind a little longer you can get your hand on the level 25 LotG Global Recharge, or Numina's if you push to 27 or 30. Solo this is harder, with a good farming friend this takes, as mentioned before, just a few minutes.

I doubt the devs intended to saturate the market with AMerits. Heck, I was noting to a friend the other day how the ease with which you can earn AMerits through the SSAs (Each part of the Arc grants you 2 merits for the first two times you run, that's FOURTEEN AMerits once all 7 parts are out) and how it'll be disturbingly easy to get those expensive IOs.

I'm pretty sure at some point the devs had the same thought and realized this wasn't the intended outcome.

...Oh hey, it's the Crows effect from the First Ward Missions! Sweet!

So the Force Feedback Proc DOESN'T function in Spring Attack? If that's true it needs fixing.

Actually, I'd argue that taking all the combo builders is a very good option for StJ characters for one very good reason: If you miss on your finisher. Unlike Dual Blades, your combo isn't broken by missing, and since combo level refreshes everytime a builder connects, Initial Strike (the one builder most commonly skipped) is great to toss out to keep your Combo Level at 3.

I won't argue that it's not skippable or otherwise something you could respec out of if you wanted to, I just don't see a reason to do it personally.

Eh, whatever. I respect Arcanaville's opinions, and after reading his post, I can see where he's going with it. I guess I'll just be the voice of the minority who liked the idea Zwill had.

Everything else Zwill suggested is meh. I don't use a vast majority of the other forums. I would suggest that either people make new guides for the power sets or that the old ones get taken down. As it stands, several of them are outrageously outdated.

But if you look at the character creation, the classes themselves are arranged by such playstyles. Brutes ARE listed as a Tanker class. Corruptors are ranged damage. Dominators are support for the same reason Controllers are (Mezzes are support).

While the ATs are indeed flexible (and I won't deny that!) it's obvious NCSoft/Paragon believes that at their core, they have an intended role and/or function. It doesn't mean they can't do other things (I've seen Tankers fulfilling DPS roles and of course there's Blappers and Tankerminds), but they have a role they were meant to fill.

For veterans, yes, it's confusing because we all know this information. But for people either new to CoX or heck, new to MMOs, it would be much easier for them to start with the established roles, and then branch out.

Uhhh...Brutes can tank, very well actually. Where is there a consensus that Brutes are not a Tanker-type AT?

And again, the point is CONSOLIDATION. If you have ATs appearing in multiple different sub-forums, people aren't necessarily going to know where to go to find information about their particular AT or power-combo.

This image is actually what I assumed Zwill was proposing. You have the larger categories that encompass the ATs (Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, etc, etc), and then when you click on that category, you have the option to click on the specific AT you want. As long as it's made very clear which ATs are in which category, as listed in the mock image Commander came up with.

As for people having problems with how the ATs are categorized: The new system in freedom is perfectly fine. Brutes can be BOTH tanks and melee DPS (for example, when you select the playstyle) And I don't see how arranging them in that fashion would be confusing.

The only confusing part would be if say the same AT appeared in multiple categories. If I wanted to look for a Brute build, and saw Brutes in both Melee DPS and in Tanks, where would I look? Now you might say that's simple, just pick the one based on your playstyle. But if I'm a new player with absolutely no prior experience, it could be confusing. Is my particular powerset combo more a tanking build or a DPS build?

Besides, Tanks can't have a sub-category all to themselves.

I would suggest that the EATs recieve their own category, however. It's a fairly exclusive set of ATs, and as long as each one has their own subforum, it should be fine.

I'm completely in agreement with the consolidation.

EDIT: One problem I have with the image Commander posted is how the ATs are arranged in their sub-forums. Try to keep multiple instances of ATs OUT of categories, or else new players will likely wind up jumping all over the AT Forum trying to find what they want. As long as the AT they're looking for is in ONE place, all the information they need will be available to them.

Aka, Kheldians and Arachnos should NOT appear in three different categories.

"Well in advance"?

What's your definition of "well in advance", because a day before is pretty good notice. Also, we don't know what sort of schedule they're on or how they operate. Maybe it WAS last minute and they didn't know beforehand.

Assumptions folks. You all know what they do.