Luminara

One adorable little duck to follow me around, quack occasionally, ruffle its wings once in a while... and a /e throwbread emote, so I can feed it.

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With the release of what the next round of Power set Proliferation holds for City of Heroes, and specifically Blasters, many have been wondering how some of us have been able to add Radiation Blast to Mid's Hero Designer.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was going to wait to see what Steiner was doing with the application, but not having to wait is so much nicer. Now I have TA for corruptors, and my Dark/TA build completely planned out.

* * * * *

Those are all yours.

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Archery Anyone?


Gonna be interesting!

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Dark/TA. Already have a name, costume, 115 million infamy and some nice IOs waiting.

Goodbye Dark/Traps. I'll miss ye. Not.

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Is there much benefit to placating something you're putting to sleep? I guess it's okay for bosses.

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Placate is a debuff, thus it's unaffected by status protection. It can be resisted, by a very few critters, or by other players, but it can never be completely negated even in those cases.

Additionally, since there is no way to negate the effect, it means whenever the proc triggers, you're guaranteed that the target is Placated. It might be a shorter duration, due to Placate resistance (again, there are very few critters with Placate resistance, i've even seen screenshots of Hamidon and Mitos being Placated), but it will still be a guaranteed effect, just like Defense debuffs, Resistance debuffs, ToHit debuffs, Damage debuffs, etc.

So yes, it does provide a benefit. You can't "unplacate" a Placated foe, but you can wake up a Sleeping foe. It will provide more benefit in low mag Sleeps, or when used against foes with status protections, but it really can be beneficial for practically any situation where you find yourself using Sleeps.

You can slot level 40 IOs any time from level 37 onward. The bonuses will apply at level all levels 37 and higher. If you exemplar to 36 or lower, you'll lose the set bonuses, but the enhancements themselves will never "go bad".

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This is complete crap.

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That's a pretty concise summation of Ultimo_'s entire posting history.

Different month, same tired old tactic of picking a combo that he knows he can force to perform poorly by not using half his powers and making bad power selections, trying to "prove" something so he can promote his idealistic dream of the game where he finally gets to dress up as Superman and one-shot everything by sitting on his keyboard and flexing his buttocks.

Why anyone falls for it these days, I'll never know.

In other astounding, late-breaking news, it was recently discovered that water is wet.

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I don't understand what's up with the Oil Slick Arrow...
In missions, I can never get it to light, yes, I have blazing arrow. I target the oil slick and go to shoot it and I hit another target like the oil slick is targeting a foe and i target its target.

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OSA is bugged in AE missions. It works exactly as it always has everywhere else.

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Also, when I'm out in the world and messing arrown'ed with the slick to see whats going on with it, sometimes it lights all on its own.

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It doesn't. A critter, another player, you or a pet you have summoned hit it with Fire or Energy damage (or any kind of damage in a PvP zone or the Arena). That is, still and always, the only way to ignite OSA.

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This only seems to happen with hasten active and i see the hasten graphic glich in the center of the oil slick.

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Hasten doesn't affect OSA in any way, including mysteriously causing it to self-ignite.

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Any clues how/when/if these are new gliches or something that is going to get fixed soon?

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The OSA-AE bug is being investigated, it'll be fixed when they figure out why it's broken.

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They have said that not having reliable repro steps makes this particular bug nigh-impossible to track down, so if anyone can figure out a way of making this happen 100% of the time, I'm sure those guys would name children after you or something.

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Make a few bids/sales in the market. That always triggers it. Always.

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The hero version was beyond easy if you take the time to get every single ally.

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That's where I get stuck. I'll save 3-5 of them, then it starts getting messy. One will aggro one spawn while I'm trying to get close enough to a different spawn to use my debuffs, and it all AmTraks after that.

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I find that after my initial 4-6 or perhaps a year run of the game... I can only handle this title for no more than 2 months at a time now... Actually I wanted to cancel prior to my 2nd month being charged, alas was late by one day....

I mean /farm @ 50? /boggle WHY I did it last night on 50- Brute and it was painful..just to gain influence for some IO's or drops? nahh

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Acquire badges. Run S/TFs. Run around in low level zones using Knockback powers. Hold costume contests. Meet new players and help get them acquainted with the game. Respec into a really unusual build and see how it works. Play the market. Start or join a supergroup. Join some global channels and meet people, make new friends, get familiar with old friends and find teams doing things you enjoy. Write your own story arc(s). Redesign your costume(s) from the ground up. PvP a little. Or a lot. Explore. Experiment.

There's more to the game than power leveling and farming.

Or quit and go play something else. Entirely up to you.

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It use to be a really an MMO light, perfect for Casual gamers or even “Carebears”;

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It still is. Nothing has changed, except your perception and/or expectations.

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I believe that Cryptic really thought that Marvel and/or TR would take off and that COH was just a building block for future MMOS from the company. It was a controlled experiment I believe. Doing all this kind of pushed the casual gamers away and left the game open for the l33t crowed that during the first few years-while there were some-it wasn’t as prevalent as it is now.

I think that the devs really didn't foresee the game lasting this long, so when Marvel MMO fell through and TR tanked. So to make cake and to cater to the typical mmo player, they added Arena matches, then PVP (horrid implementation never add PVP to a PVE MMO game, always ends bad) and to please the min/maxers the first drops "Drops" (Hammis) then finally IO's and /farming just to keep said crowed interested and $$ flowing.

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Okay... now put your tin foil hat back on and get your facts straight.

Cryptic wasn't working on, or in discussion to acquire the rights to, Marvel's MMORPG when I4 (The Arena) was released.

Nor were they in talks to do the Marvel MMORPG when they started working on, or released, CoV, which was when they added "real" PvP to the game (meaning more than just the Arena).

Tabula Rasa was in no way related to Co*. Completely separate development team.

Hamidon enhancements were added long, long before the Arena, PvP, CoV or Cryptic's attempt to design the Marvel MMORPG.

IOs were planned before Cryptic acquired the license to do Marvel's MMORPG, and IOs were why ED was created and implemented.

Players were farming before I1 was released.

And CoH was not designed as an experiment to see if some imaginary grand plan to create an MMORPG for a large comic book company was feasible.

I'll also add that you don't appear to be aware that Cryptic sold off the Co* franchise to NCSoft quite some time ago. Other than retaining a licensing agreement on the engine, Cryptic has nothing, at all, to do with Co* now.

So you might want to stop, think, and reconsider before posting any more fantastical theories based on raving lunacy and spoiled pizza.

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Perhaps CO will be balanced around PVP from the outset, at least that allows you to pick and choose powers. While I’m sure the l33t d00ds will find the best set ups, at least you can still be an original in that upcoming title.-not that I’m putting much faith into CO but it does look promising. Hopefully the DEvs learned a lot from their experiment and moving forward apply this knowledge to future titles.

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So this really isn't a discussion, this is your feeble attempt to justify your "final" departure from the game so you can go play Champions Online without feeling guilty or "dirty" because the mean, nasty developers (almost all of whom are working on CO now, not Co*) ruined the game by adding PvP, IOs and farms just to see if they'd work for a Marvel MMO.

'K. Bye.

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Is the standard rate of 1.67 the only part that can be enhanced because the rest actually comes from [Conditioning]?

[/ QUOTE ]If this was the case, that'd be a bug, as VEATs are supposed to actually have an increased base.

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Every inherent is a power, including Conditioning. So it is separate from the base, and not enhanceable.

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So if that WAS the case... we'd actually have two bugs on our hands... a display error, and a... whatever that first thing would be classified as

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PM Castle. I don't think there's actually a bug here, just a misunderstanding, but it's best to go to the source for this kind of question.

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I meant never in the literal sense: Not ever.

The only way NCSoft sees an advantage to free transfers is if a sizable portion (100's at least 1000's probably) of players would rather quit the game than pay for a transfer or roll an alt on a new server.

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More likely tens of thousands. A few hundred players canceling their accounts and giving the reason for cancellation as: "Couldn't freely move characters between servers" wouldn't even be a blip on NCSoft's radar. A few thousand players leaving for the same reason still wouldn't be sufficient to cause NCSoft to seriously consider making server transfers a free process. Ten thousand, twenty thousand, that would probably get their attention and get them to start considering offering free transfers on a limited basis.

Anything less, though, is just too little to matter. For every player who purports to be leaving because he/she can't openly hop from server to server with a single character, another player is joining and doesn't give a damn. Anything short of a mass exodus simply won't matter.

And I sincerely doubt we'll ever see a mass exodus due to lack of free server transfers. I'd honestly be surprised if such a thing did happen, because it would be extremely childish, and stupid, and the Co* player base doesn't tend to be childish and stupid as a whole.

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I don't really follow how being allowed to keep only a limited number of earned in-game items is being generous.

In other MMOs, when I replace earned in-game items with ones of higher quality, I can generally sell the originals or use them on alts.

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How many of your Soulbound pieces of equipment do you get to pass off to your alts in WoW?

How many of your Customized pieces of equipment do you get to pass off to your alts in GW?

Let me answer that for you. Zero. At most, you can sell those special bits of equipment to vendors, for far, far less than you might have paid or that they'd be worth if they weren't locked to your character.

We have a much more lenient system already. With enough respecs, you can remove and sell or trade every enhancement on any given character, and receive as much as you paid, or as much as the market average, or potentially even more than you paid or would expect to receive based on the market average, or you can completely outfit a brand new character with 0 inf* to its namel. And if you don't want to make a trip to the market or a store, you don't even have to do that much because any enhancements you don't slot or store in the enhancement tray are automatically sold for you.

And you think this is too restrictive because you can't empty your entire character of enhancements and sell/trade them for full market value or hand them down to other characters, freely and without any restrictions whatsoever, including no "soulbound" or "customized for Character X" restrictions which would make those enhancements completely worthless for anyone else and thereby act as some small balance measure?

...

Would you like a pony, too?

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Bee girls are hawt. Except for when they sting you into unconsciousness and use your body cavities to store honey.

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Don't be foolish. They deposit eggs in your orifices, not honey. Then, when the eggs hatch, little larval baby bees eat their way out of your body.

Slowly. Typically through the softest parts, like the eyes, genitalia or abdominal region.

Then they emerge as lovely new bee girls, dry off their shiny wings and go off in search of new hosts for the next generation of bee girls.

Love. It's a beautiful thing.

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Solves many of the AE problems without placing undue restrictions on it or the players.

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Expect that you could never team with anyone who isn't around your level.

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The level restriction would be in one direction only. Have a level 1 character which you want to team with your level 50 friend? Go to PI/Grandville.

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Unfortunately, newbies don't know they can use it. If you're told that's what we do in the game, as a newbie, that's what they'll believe. They're more likely to Quit the game than quit the team.

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That's on the individual. It has nothing to do with where AE buildings are, what level they're introduced to said individual, or anything else. Isn't the idea of these games to explore them, to some extent? If someone is too lazy or braindead to look around a little, good riddance. The game is better off without toolsheds like that.

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Rotten attitude. It's not on the individual - it's a failure of the game to show what is available. Just because a player is new, doesn't mean they are stupid.

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Level lock the AE buildings. Force players out of the AE buildings at certain levels, make them go to other zones to go back to their AE activities.

Example: Mercy and Atlas AE buildings allow access for characters level 1-5. At level 6 and above, characters may no longer enter or remain in the Mercy or Atlas AE buildings. They have to go to the next zone to resume AE activity, which stretches from 5-10, and so on.

Now, if players are missing all of the other content in the game because they're unaware of it and believe that the AE is all there is, this gives them an opportunity to explore, pick up a scanner/newspaper (notable because as soon as those players enter a new zone, they're automatically granted a new scanner/paper contact, which is highlighted in the compass) and start checking out other stuff, like S/TFs. Perhaps they even see other players dashing about outside of the AE buildings, on their ways to missions, wonder what's going on and ask questions.

And the players who choose to stick with AE content from 1-50 aren't restricted in any other way, they still have full, complete access to that choice, they just have to go to different AE buildings to do it.

Solves many of the AE problems without placing undue restrictions on it or the players.

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1.03 mag knockback.

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1.95 for brutes and tanks, 1.56 for everyone else.

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Is that .03 a database typo (please please please)

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More likely it's scaling with level, but if it is a typo, it's displaying a lower value than the power actually has.

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and why does that .03 knockback so far?

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It doesn't. Mag 0.75 or below is Knockdown, mag 0.76 and higher is Knockback, and at mag 1, a target shouldn't be knocked back more than 1-2' unless it has a weakness to KB (Clockwork, for example).

Sorry. I know you were hoping that it was a typo and there'd be a way to talk Castle into lowering the KB that 0.03 so it did Knockdown instead of Knockback, but the reality is that even if it was off by 0.03, you'd still be knocking things back.

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For the heroes and villains out there, what end of the world situation would you like us to prevent/start as an ingame event? Could it be a new class of giant monster causing havoc?
A meteorite shower?
A doomsday device?
A superpowered virus? You decide! Lets give the devs some ideas of some actual more "threat worthy" events!

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In conjunction with new zones using deformable terrain, giant monsters attack. I don't mean Babbage, or Lusca, I mean giant monsters, fully half as high as the zone ceilings. Entire buildings being destroyed, enormous craters being created, full scale monster versus monster and hero/villain versus monster battles raging all over the zones... so much destruction. It would be glorious.

That, or an insane artificial intelligence starts taking over the world by biogenetically modifying people and taking control of robots. That would be... nice.

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Or even /kinetics?

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Nothing.

But I'd bark like a fish for a Klondike bar.

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As it stands, there are no attacks in game that deal varying degrees of damage based on distance from origin.

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Thunder Strike.

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It cons as an enemy. It is targetable, but will not ignite in about 20 attempts that I tested it.

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Normal OSA behavior. When it fails to ignite once, it will typically fail to ignite on most subsequent attempts. When it ignites, it will continue to be ignitable unless/until the bug kicks in again. Logging out and back in or zoning into/out of missions has been reported to "reset" it.

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My MM is decked out pretty well for accuracy. Tactics is runninng also.

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Irrelevant. OSTarget has -10,000% Defense. Even if you were debuffed to the 5% minimum hit chance and were using an attack with a base 5% Accuracy AND had no +Acc affecting that attack, you'd still be capped for the purpose of hitting OSTarget.

The bug is in what happens after you defeat OSTarget (OSTarget summons Fire), and that's really not anything you can alter, no matter what powers you have or are using.

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My recent 50 heroes, don't take travel powers. With O-portals, Base TPs, and since FBZ sells Raptor packs I just rebuy when time runs out.

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My gosh... but they are so SLOW. How does it not drive you mad? NONE of my 30+ alts have ever went TPless. Not once. And any of my flyers always 2 or 3 slot it for speed.

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I can make a Hurdle + Combat Jumping build which moves faster than the Fly cap. My "normal" speed on characters ranges between slightly faster than Fly with two Fly Speed IOs and slightly faster than Fly with three Fly Speed IOs.

The temp jet packs are slow by default, but even those can be improved if you know what you're doing.

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The fortune teller buff is a bit overpowered for a booster pack power imo, but, then again, it's balanced a bit around the fact that it's a random buff and can't be used on yourself.

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My point stands though. The Mystic Fortune power provides a real, tangible in-game benefit only obtainable via purchase.

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A benefit for whom? Not for you.

Yes, I know, you're going to trot out the "what helps my teammates helps me" argument. Irrelevant.

The buff is randomly determined, so you have no assurance, at all, that your teammate is getting a wanted or needed buff. Giving a soft-capped character another 5% Defense isn't doing anything useful. Giving a capped blaster another 15% damage is pointless. Giving someone some extra ToHit when they're already at 95% versus +4s does absolutely nothing for him/her or you.

The power may apply a debuff, which certainly doesn't help your teammate.

And the buffs are minor, typically not even as strong as what you could get simply by giving that teammate some salvage and sending them to your base to craft Empowerment buffs.

So no, your point doesn't stand.

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Upon reflection, I think if the devs came up with a SEPARATE line of IOs that were obtainable via micro-transactions, I don't think any of the contrary arguments made here hold water. Especially if those IO sets were no-trade. Everyone keeps saying, "Keep micro-transactions fluff." Well, that horse left the barn.

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The horse is still safe and secure in its stall. There's an entire world of difference between spoon feeding players IOs which they can use to completely trick out a character, including enough set bonuses to acquire "desirable" effects such as perma-Hasten, and giving players access to a power which randomly grants minor buffs.

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The mission transporter, and purchased Jump pack provide about as much real comparative benefit as an unslottable travel power: they're not going to make you harder to kill in a fight, but they'll let you get to your missions faster.

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Respectfully, that's not the point. After the blaster buffs and the introduction of reward merits, we know that the devs balance around the speed characters obtain rewards. They do NOT balance, except superficially, around difficulty.

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That's a wonderfully self-serving observation. It's wrong, of course, but it's very nicely stated.

Speed is only one aspect that they examine when determining how/when/where/why to buff or reduce things. They do measure other aspects of difficulty. PM Castle, ask him about his 3 +3 minion test. It's not simply a measure of how quickly a character can defeat those minions, it's an examination of many things. How many inspirations does the character need? How much health/endurance is left when combat ends? Did the character have to resort to unusual or exploitative tactics to succeed? How is the character slotted? How many powers did the character have to use? How many times was the character defeated before succeeding?

They do balance around difficulty. Speed is one way they measure that balance, but it's not the only one. It's not even the most important one, because the fact is, there is no predetermined speed model for all ATs, all powersets or all builds.

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Thus mission transporter provides a great boon, shaving some significant time off certain tasks in the game. For example, the Freak and Rikti respecs are much quicker when everyone can port to the reactor when the last mission is up.

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Except that this was already possible simply by having one player with Recall Friend or Assemble the Team waiting at the reactor door.

And, of course, this completely ignores human nature, things like that scrapper going off to sell when the rest of the team wants to move on to the next mission, or the blaster stopping to work on a badge, or the defender who decided she needs to upgrade/replace enhancements.

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I believe this is the reason that the power has a 2 hour recharge, purely as a balance to avoid people using it to supercharge their earning rate.

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What's already possible in the game doesn't support your belief.

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As I said above, micro-transactions already provide tangible benefits to the PvE game;

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No, they really don't.

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Does it have an adverse impact?

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Nope.



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Well, some teams might leave you behind if they're not willing to wait for you to sprint to the mission.

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Then Hurdle to the mission. It's almost as fast as Fly. Pick up a few +Movement/+Jump set bonuses and cruise. Or play a character with access to +Run Speed, like Banes or /SR scrappers.

Still haven't been kicked from or denied a team due to my lack of travel powers, on any character. Or had my choices questioned. So if you find those mythical "some teams" who do refuse to play with people who don't take travel powers, let me know, because in over three years, I've never encountered them.