Red_Zero

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The real problem I have with the current MA content is not that some of it is harder than standard PVE content or should only be solo'ed by purpled out scrappers - its that there is no real way to tell how hard something is going to be just from the ARC description.

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It sounds like some of the MA designers are actually playtesting their arcs with purpled out scrappers on Heroic/Villainous (Challenge Level 1). heh.

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Fixed it for ya.

I have a mission where I wanted 3 events to occur during the course of the mission. I choose a fairly linear small tech map (doesn't branch) and placed the objectives in order I wanted the player to logically encounter them as part of the story, one front, one middle, and one back. The problem I am having is that objectives 1 and 2 are sometimes encountered in reverse order, and other times objectives 2 and 3 are encountered in reverse order. Its like there are overlapping areas where areas are both Front and Middle or Middle and Back, or it might be that Middle on the small map can be anywhere, and when placed, displaces something that would should be put Front or Back. I checked the map's allowed objective allowances, and I should be okay.

Anyone have any insight into what is going on here?

I don't know if Text Compression technology is really used much anymore in today's world of high speeds and high volume computing, but it would seem to me to be just the thing to get more out of the Mission Architect as much of the memory limit tends to get used up when adding in the Text. If I am thinking this through properly, the Custom Mobs are probably all stored as large text files of their costume items/variable names too, so that would also be affected. That would allow players more effective use of the room in that 100 Kilobyte limit if it could be effectively stored as a compressed volume. Even a simple Text Compression scheme would greatly expand (at least double) the limits of what players could do with the Mission Architect in flushing out a story arc.

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Arc #1026, "To Hell and Back"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: bugged mission, possible death trap, weak theme
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Yes, this arc is jumping the queue. It's pohsyb's, he asked me to review it. Yes, red names get professional courtesy, deal with it.
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What they don't get is mercy.

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I played the Arc in Open Beta twice, once with my Primary Blaster, and the other with my Primary Mastermind.

I'm sorry to hear it got bugged getting ported over to Live, but I personally thought that the theme was fairly strong. The Possible Deathtrap though is very accurate. I played this both time on Challenge Level 4 and my Blaster squeeked through Act II just barely without having to go to the hospital ward. My Defensively Heavy Mastermind, held on for longer than I thought going it, but I still had to make one trip to the hospital. Both times pretty much emptying my insperations tray. But don't get me wrong, I thought it made for a good mission.

I personally gave it 5 stars then, but I can see where someone else would rate it 4 stars or possiblely 3. There is a morality/ethical dilemna question I did have at the end with what your character has to do and does, but that will largely be dependent on the player.

AE System
--------
Welcome to Architect Entertainment -- Neutral
Death for Dollars! -- Neutral
Bare Knuckles of Rage (9304)
Signal to Noise -- Neutral -- 67277
*

Character/Supergroup Origins
--------
Birth of a Fossil -- Heroic
Secret Origins(Tech) The Snake Women of Epsilon V (42221) - Heroic
Noah Reborn -- Heroic (2370)
Jumping in Feet First - Heroic - 1345
Midnight Bells Toll ----Villanious
A hero is made, not born. -- Heroic 20863
*

Classic Super-Hero/Super-Villain
--------
THE BOMBER --- Heroic --- Arc 16607
In The Shadow of Statesman --Neutral--1160
A Show to Die For! --- Heroic --- 30645
Check... and Mate #15095 - Heroic - Mini Task Force
Teen Phalanx Forever! -- Heroic (67335)
This Life Immortal - (5756) Heroic
*

Comedy
--------
The Extadine Lab -- Heroic
MacGuffin Delivery Service (1567) -- Villainous
ParaCon -- Heroic
The new and improved Lord Recluse Strike Force -- Villainous (though I wouldn't recommend against a hero )
The Fire Bunnies - Neutral, They are only bunnies after all...
You Say It's Your Birthday! (3630) - Neutral
Trademark Infringement -- Heroic (2220)
Hail to the King Neutral (34640)
Walk On the Wild Side - Neutral - 3580
Shirley You Jest (25474) -- Neutral
The Invasion of the Bikini Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! - Heroic - 61013
Gnomish Madness (30204) - Heroic
Doctor Nadir and the Hellion Heist (49661) - Heroic
Laugh? I Thought I'd DIE! - Heroic
The P.U.G. Strike force (arc 35585) -Villian
A Translator is the Wind or the Thunder in Turns -- (2936) - Heroic
*

Comedy/Drama
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The Running of the Bulls -- Heroic 29973
A Super Team is Born -- Heroic
Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings #1481 -- Neutral
How to Survive a Robot Uprising -- Heroic (12669)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare -- Neutral
It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding (9059) -- Neutral
TURG FICTION: Ghost in the Machine, Act I - Heroic (althoughs romantic villains could try this too )
Rum Runners of Bloody Bay (3691) - Heroic
Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! (2019)
The Toypocalypse! (49280) - Heroic
*

Crime/Gangs
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Bricked Electronics -- Heroic (LIVE! 2180)
The Bravuran Jobs -- Villainous (16809)
The Monstrous Regiment of Lesbian Hellions -- Heroic (27178)
Win the 2009 Freak-Lympics (2150) - Villainous
Ninja Crimewave! (2142) - Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
The Internet is for Crime (53385) - Villains
Plastic Pistol Peril (1135) - Heroic
Friends in Need (Of Body Parts) - Villainous (31005)
A Little RnR - Heroic (17523) click for Promotional Poster
*

Drama
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The Conciliators: Simone -- Heroic (4010)
The Fan Club -- Heroic
Matchstick Women -- Heroic -- 3369
Of Mentors and Legacy - Heroic - 1589
Digital Love -- Neutral -- 3571
*

Global Domination
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Axis and Allies -- Villainous (1379)
*

Heist
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Celebrity Kidnapping -- Villainous (1388)
Easy Money -- Villainous (31490)
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Historical (Realistic)
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Wrinkle in Time -- Heroic(68920)
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Historical (CoH Lore)
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The War on Superadine - The Regulators in their 1980's drug war (Heroic) (Arc 7959)
Origins - Volume 1 (57077) -- Heroic
*

Holiday
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Hectic Holidays -- Heroic (36999) also comedy
Santa's Missing List - 34961
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Horror
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Astoria in D Minor (41565) -- Heroic
Dark Dreams (3615)
Don't Play With The Dead (31813) -- Neutral
The Amulet of J'gara (1709) -- Heroic
Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit (#3586) - Neutral (Unless you happen to be a mad cultist, in which case, go nuts!)
Small Fears -- Heroic
Lights, Camera, Scream! (#68627) - 3 Mission arc that get's you into the B-Horror film circuit.
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Large-Scale Crisis
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A Hero's Halo -- Heroic
This Is War, Part I - the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz -- Neutral
Win the Past, Own the Future - Heroic
A Warrior's Friend - Heroic
The Clockwork War -- Heroic (18672)
Flight of the Valkyries - Precursor (20272) -- Neutral
The Human Hive (#1632) - Neutral
*

Magic
--------
The Magical Miss Fitz (5079) -- Heroic
Chains of Blood (5492) -- Heroic
A Deal with Destiny -- Heroic
*

Military
--------
Redoubt Operations #1: Fires over Kalago -- Heroic
Red Storm Rising (Arc 4912) -- Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
Axis and Allies -- Villainous (1379)

*
Misc. Adventure
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The Portal Bandits (3326) -- Heroic
A Glitch in the Wyre- Arc 73197-- Neutral (Fun for both the good kids and the bad kids too!)

Mystery
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Blowback (18575) -- Heroic
Dream Paper -- Heroic (13030)
Dream Paper 2: Restless Sleep -- Heroic (16797)
Dream Paper 3: Broken Dreams -- Heroic (13064)
*

Mythology
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Atlantis Attacks! -- Neutral (30898) -- Click for Promotional Poster
Anactoria's Descent Into the Underworld -- Villainous
The Seelie War -- Heroic
The Unseelie War -- Villainous
Tales of Cimerora, volume 1 : Of feathers and fur -- Heroic
The Aegis Affair - Heroic
Witches and Warriors (53006)- Heroic
The War of Fate(12220,46722)- Heroic
Rites of the Maenads (61159) - Heroic
The Parable of the Fruit Salad -- Heroic -- 65369
*

Nemesis Plots
--------
Brass Reaver: Part 1 -- Neutral
The Handbag Plot -- Heroicish -- 36414
*

Player-Chosen Outcome
--------
Hunting the Dark Dragon -- Heroic
Playing Gods -- Heroic (51106)
*

Sci-Fi
--------
Adventures of the Space Marines -- Neutral
Adventures of the Space Marines 2 -- Neutral
Above Mars - Part 1: The Wellington -- Neutral (13215)
The Final Nemesis
The Adventures of the United Earth Rangers -- Neutral (29549)
The Continuing Adventures of the United Earth Rangers -- Neutral (70237)
Spaced Invaders --Heroic(56856)
That Mysterious Buzzing Sound - 12774
*

Un-themed Survival/AV/Time Challenges
--------
The Meatgrinder -- Neutral
*

Puzzles/Riddles
--------
Grim Riddles (#1396) - Heroic

I finally managed to get a solution. I went with Tech Abandoned map #7 Large. It supported 3 bosses in Back in a single good size room without spreading them out too much to keep the battle chain running, and the four allies spawning in the Front and Middle of the mission. Just have to be careful not to allow anything else in Back that may compete with the bosses for spawn points.

Tech Abandoned map #7 Large is a bit deceptive on the name. I really think its more of a medium sized map as far as Tech Maps go. It has 4 Floors in it and each floor is rather small, with only one or two rooms max and not a lot of hallways so its quick to traverse. I just said in the mission text that this is an older style of Arachnos bases and that it had fallen into disuse, implying that it was not up to the current Arachnos achitectual style and was somewhat out of date.

I am still trying variations on attempt #4. The big problem I am having is that there are no Arachnos map that will support 4 Allies Total and 3 Boss spawns in Back. I need the Bosses to spawn in succession as to moderate the potential for overkill on the Player(s). The best I have been able to do is 2 successive Boss spawns in one room with the last Boss spawn being somewhere else in the base. This unfortunately breaks the "running battle" scenario. Being able to spawn only 2 Bosses in Back is pretty limiting. I strongly wish I could control some actual placement for them.

As a result I toned down the Ally spawns to just a LT, 2 Bosses, and an Elite Boss.

I am thinking of trying a different map set as a result. The problem with a different map set is that it would break the immersion as you would be invading an Arachnos Stronghold but that it looks like someone else's generic base (perhaps Longbow even ) That could potentially ruin the story.

Still thinking about going back to attempt #3, but I would have to find some other way of moderating the carnage on the players.

I suppose another option would be to wait and see if the Devs will make a scaling version of AV Dr. Aeon (non-taskforce), where he would spawn as an EB Dr. Aeon and produce Boss Dr. Aeons at lower difficulties, an possibly even downgrade to a Boss Dr. Aeon that spawns Lt. Dr. Aeons at the very lowest challange rating when soloing. However, I am not holding my breath on that.

Dr. Aeon is perhaps my most favorite villain in CoX. He certainly is not on the top of the food chain, but he does have a particular flair for mad science that I can really respect. He may loose more battles than he wins but that would never keep a True (Good or Evil) Mad Scientist down. After all, many of the best discoveries have come from analyzing failure.

As a result, I wanted to add him in an arc as the centerpiece to what is suppose to be a climatic battle in the 4th mission before the anticlimax of the 5th mission which ties the whole story arc together. This proved to be more difficult that I had initially thought and I have tried many different solutions, and not really satisfied with any of them. This is part of ARC ID: 34961 if anyone actually wants to know.

The scenario involves 4 allies which you (and your team if any) would pick up, Two Bosses, an Elite Boss, and an AV (Hero). This was all to help with the final battle at the end of Mission 4, though it does help immensely in getting there considering your battling Arachnos all the way.

In the First attempt, I plugged in Dr. Aeon the Archvillian, thinking that the added allies would help whomever was soloing the mission actually be able to take him on. This failed disasterously as Dr. Aeon spawned as an ACTUAL AV instead of merely an EB version of the AV like usually happens with AVs in a standard solo mission below Challenge Level 5. Dr. Aeon then proceeded to spawn 6 other Dr. Aeons like he was suppose to as EBs and proceeded to not only outright kill me, but wipe the floor with all four allies assisting myself. That made the mission basically unrealistic to accomplish.

The Second attempt was just putting in the Basic EB version that you find in several CoV mission. However, with the four allies, who were critical as story elements, it proved to easy, and he became just a road bump on the way to mission completion. In no way was that going to be a challange, and so I scraped that idea.

For the Third attempt, I tried something more clever. I took the Pet Dr. Aeons and put some of them into Custom Groups. I then had them spawn as custom group ambushes to reinforce the Elite Boss Dr. Aeon at 3/4ths and 1/4th health (a group of minor custom group allies spawns at 1/2 heath just to add to the fray). This was more balanced than the first two attempts. This was not without ramifications though. The ambushes did spawn the Pet Dr. Aeons as EBs but it would spawn a minimum of 3 EB Dr. Aeons (all in different costumes, which was cool, even though it was all the same Pet Dr. Aeon powerset). This actually wasn't a huge problem because of the amount of allies involved, but the fresh Ambush spawns would focus on the Player Character first until one of the allies could grab its attention. This meant nearly garrantteed death every time the ambush spawned, unless the player knew what was coming down the pipe in advance. So even though it was doable, that pretty much failed the attempt in my own opinion right there.

For the Fourth attempt, I replaced the Ambushes with Boss spawn events. Whenever the first EB Dr. Aeon got to 3/4ths health, it would spawn another EB Dr. Aeon with a group of Arachnos reinforcements. This is the method I am employing now, but it hasn't been a real success. It has the advantange that for every new Dr. Aeon that spawns, I can write in a few more lines of witty banter into combat. The disadvange has been that the new spawns don't necissarily spawn at or close to the battle point with the first EB Dr. Aeon (The last Dr. Aeon typically spawned somewhere far away even though it was set for BACK of mission.)

I can't create new Boss Level Dr. Aeons as those would be Custom Characters that would add to the Memory Buffer, which is pretty much maxed out already with 5 mission, a Custom Character group and several supporting Custom Characters already. Otherwise I would try doing that for a Fifth attempt.

I fully understand that I may be trying to set up something that is really not doable within the existing limits of the Mission Architect, and even if it is, with 4 fairly powerful allies, may be impossible to balance well (either the Allies win with minimal help from the Player Character, or the Dr. Aeons walk all over everyone and make the mission undoable). I want the Player's Character to be a factor in the battle, and not be displaced. I am toying with the idea of downgrading the allies status, but I'm a little worried it might take too much away that they just won't survive to the final battle in Mission 4, especially on large teams (if that ever would be an issue, I don't know, I can only test for solo myself, but my past experience with Boss Allies in CoX says that on large teams they tend to get wacked early if not cared for.)

Any advice, suggestions, ideas on how else this may be approached, or am I just trying too hard at something that really can't be done within the limits?

Arc Name: Santa's Missing List

Arc ID: 20125

Enemy Factions: Council / Crey / Malta / Arachnos / Circle of Thorns

Allied Factions: Holiday Heroes

Creator Global/Forum Name: Red_Zero / @Red Zero

Difficulty Level: Mild to Medium, Plenty of Allys, Only one Elite Boss, and only 2 Defeat All, Meant as a light-hearted holiday mystery. Should be easy enough to solo.

Synopsis: Santa Claus's list of who has been Naughty and who has been Nice has been digitally absconded with by some mysterious elite hacker with mad skillz. Find the culprit and find the list and save the holiday season for all good boys and girls.

Estimated Time to Play: about 1 to 2 hours

Objective:

*Cost Scaling versus Level (Excluding +Special Recipes): A Level 20 Acc/Dmg is not going to be as long term applicable to a character as a Level 30 Acc/Dmg, Level 40 Acc/Dmg, or Level 50 Acc/Dmg. Also, the time required to possibly earn enough Merits to buy lower level Recipes is enormously disproportional to the cost for anything other than a Level 50 character (or a character that has stopped level advancement.)

*What is suppose to be the "Obvious" in-game difference between a Random Trial Recipe and a Random Taskforce Recipe other than cost? On what criteria should a player evaluate this in-game (beyond out-of-game web searching). Would it make more sense just to roll Trial and Taskforce into the same Rare Random Recipe Roll, rather than keep the now outmoded categorizations?

*How many levels of advancement would a character naturally progress through (non-power leveled, likes to do story arcs, occasionally teams, and does his/her/its Task/Strike Forces) to earn 100 merits? 250 merits? 500 merits? 1000 Merits? How would this natural level advancement affect how a character choose which recipes they would buy or could buy?

Subjective:

*I feel that if merits are too hard to come by during regular game play, that I will simply horde the merits til either I can earn a garanteed hard-to-get, marketed over-priced recipe that does not loose its character value as the character progresses (like a +Special Recipe), or keep all merits earned from levels 1 to 47, to simply spend them to help, flush out a level 50 build.

*I don't think it is realistic to use merits to acquire an IO Set, or a significant portion of an IO Set during regular level progression, which is something I think should be reasonablely achievable before outmoding the purchaced IOs.

*I really think that the Merit system has great potential, but adjustments need to be made. I understand that prices may be high now or Merit earnings are low because it is easier (i.e. better player reaction) to adjust merit earnings up and Merit prices down than vice versa.

* When Winter Horde spawn from opening Presents, it should use the same code as does the Zombie Apocolypse and Rikti Attack waves do so that the spawned Winter Horde is equal to all players and not random excessively high or low, but on equal footing.

* All spawned Winter Horde should have a chance to drop Candy Cane salvage, and not regular invention salvage. This gives player a reason to fight the Winter Horde and not simply just run away to open the next present, especially those who have already obtained the Defeat X Winter Horde badges.

*Ski rentals at the Ski Lodge (maybe pay by Candy Canes) as a temp power that grant Super Jump and Super speed status when activate. Make the Ski Temp powers in two flavors: Regular Skis and Rocket Skis

*Add an Ice Rink to the Winter zone. Maybe even a speed skate race, and a speed skate obstacle course. Make Ice Skates available at the ski rental.

*Add a new winter event missions, like: Repel the snowman horde in a challenging 10 wave onslaught! OR: Instanced mission: Snow Patrol, remove all snowmen from the Pocket D Ski Lodge, or just something original, fun, and/or interesting to improve the Winter Event mission list to more than 1.

*Winter Horde Invasion waves!

I believe this is meant for more casual gamers, and not those who can crunch out 50 levels in less than 50 days.

I, for one, think this is a pretty cool idea. I want to see more of the new costume options though.

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BTW: I wonder how many people took EMP on blasters considering the 800 second recharge? Or Bonfire? Or Sleep Gernade/Flash Freeze (I considered it as the only useful thing to stack with Frozen Aura)? Or the 360-second recharge Consume for Controllers. I wonder if the the balancing includes this, or is just a massive Focused Accuracy/Power Boost change?

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I took E.M.P. on my Blaster, but only because I couldn't get a power that allows a Blaster to shoot Death Rays out of his eyes. (Regardless, E.M.P. IS a very good power, but I don't have the slots to give to it )

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Patron Pools and APP
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1. They all got looked at by Posi, Castle, and minion. Datamined which ones were taken and which were ignored. Buffs, nerfs, and power replacements!
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2. If powers are replaced, when you log in, you'll have the new power. No grandfathering.
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3. About 20% of the A/EPPs were replaced.
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4. As one example of the Epic/Patron changes, Castle mentions that Weapon Mastery for Scrappers will now include Focused Accuracy. If his memory is correct.

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So why replace a power, unless it was really that broken (3vry1 must taek 1t 2 b 133t!) or that loathed or neglected by players (wait... you took what again?) ?

Why not instead make a power branch? Give a player a choice to take the old power (even if other changes diminish it), or take the shiny new power, but never be able to take both?

Does this also mean (and I know it's not an Epic or PPP) that since the advent of power replacements are now on the table, that Teleport Foe could go bye-bye and get replaced with something else for PvP reasons?

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* Eight configurable new power trays let players customize their User Interface by placing them anywhere on the screen.

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That. That right there is pure, undiluted win.

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Thought I'd post a further explanation about the Blaster damage explanation in "Ask Statesman."
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That was - and is - the reason why Blaster damage is capped lower than Scrappers. I did forget to add that the ranged attacks of mobs deal less damage (typically) than melee attacks - and the Blaster is generally the target of raned attacks.
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But many issues have come up - most notably, the perception that Blasters are too fragile at levels 35+. Their damage potential does not compensate for their low hit points.
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And, of course, there's the complaint that some Secondaries have too many melee attacks - something that the Blaster avoids at all costs.
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At the moment, Scrappers, and to a lesser degree, Tankers, are being analyzed. Once we establish a baseline, then we'll be in a better position to look at Blasters.

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Wow, talk about "The Post that Rose from the Dead".

2 Years, 6 Months, and 1 business acquisition later....

I feel sorry for anyone who will have to play the equivilant of a Blaster in MUO. Maybe after that, they will come here to CoX and play with us.

Now that I have had time to think about it and digest it, its definately time travel. This is just exactly the kind of thing I could see Dr. Aeon doing, and even operatives in Arachnos have a hard time keeping him under control. I can see Lord Recluse's forbiddence of time travel in the Rogue Isles was more the justified from his perspective, of course, he was messing with time travel himself with his "Recluse's Victory".

I'm wondering now how extensive the changes will be if Arachnos is largely gone as an organization from the Rogue Isles. For one thing, all those Arachnos bases may be disappearing, Grandville itself will probably undergo a huge remodeling! Imagine that, all that lag going away from Grandville because all the Arachnos architecture will not be there in the time alteration. No lag, no turreted walls, no vertical hassles, no Arachnos Flyier to hunt for a badge..... O.O-!!! Waitaminute! I still have to get that Arachnos Flyier badge!

Wow! Its like either a Paragon Times from an alternate dimension, or someone has been messing with the time continum! I would doubt this is Recluse's doing as it certianly doesn't favor him at all, and how did Manticore, of all people, get caught in the middle of it?

Dimensions of infinate possiblities or the infinate continuity of time itself?

Just a quick question here:

Does anyone know how much of Pool A is Uncommon, and how much of Pool A is Rare? Just need numbers, not particulars of which is which.

Need to make this correction and clarification in the next revision of MM Notes to Henchmen Powers:

I will need to change that in the next revision because it is off a bit and not very clear. This is basically how it works, assuming you pick up each Henchman summoning power when they are first available:

Levels 1 thru 5: 1 First Tier Henchman at +1 your level

Levels 6 thru 11: 2 First Tier Henchmen at +0 your level

Levels 12 thru 17: 1 Second Tier Henchman at +1 your level, 2 First Tier Henchmen at +0 your level

Levels 18 thru 23: 1 Second Tier Henchman at +1 your level, 3 First Tier Henchmen at -1 your level

Levels 24 thru 25: 2 Second Tier Henchmen at +0 your level, 3 First Tier Henchmen at -1 your level

Levels 26 thru 50: 1 Third Tier Henchman at +1 your level, 2 Second Tier Henchmen at +0 your level, 3 First Tier Henchmen at -1 your level

Since Story Arcs award Souviners and Trials and Taskforces as well as some particular Story Arcs award badges, and that is all on a character's record, any chance of being able to retroactively award salvage and recipe drops for each character to give a jump start to the whole system going. Also, that would allow characters that have already completed Story Arcs and have out-leveled doing any future Story Arcs (aka level 50's) to benifit from previous play experience. Think of it as a bonus or special reward for not skipping content and playing out the game.

This could be done on Test to try out and if it works okay, go live.

The first pic, Lord Recluse's new crown, was done by standing on the inside statue's head and slowly rotating in place laying each mine.

The last pic, features my main on CoV, Magenta Rogue, a Robotics/Traps Mastermind, and was a final screenshot from a mission which I believe is given out by Tavish Bell contact in Grandville in which you fight an Arch Demon in a wrecked Crey lab facility. It is a very cool map, mission, and story arc. Had a lot of fun on that one.

Lord Recluce's new crown... maybe he will loose his head over it.

That teleporter bug is part of a Fiendish Master Plan.

After all those all too generic, bland objects in missions, Finally a glowie I can actually get interested in.

After a dreadful, deadly battle, a Mastermind emerges victorious from battle!

To be honest, I fail to see the point of your post.

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...because of the pathing AI that henchmen have...

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...the horizontal component of Super Leap is small, regardless of the horizontal velocity they may acheive in that distance that they can leap.

The whole point of saying that the vertical component is large, and in relation to, the horizontal component is small, is to illustrate that the power of Super Leap, even though it may most likely be working under the same jump mechanics of all jump powers, is limited, and as a result performs differently than Super Jump, a power that players are familiar with.

Even IF the power of Super Leap is capable, the restriction of the AI's use of the power makes this point mote. Players, therefore, should be made aware that in taking the power of Super Jump, they should not be expecting Henchmen to follow, bounding after them in great forward leaps, in the like. Thus the foundation for the following statement, which is correct:
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Super Jump: Super Jump is not to be confused with Super Leap (the henchmen, pet, and mob power)! Unlike Super Jump, Super Leap only has a small horizontal component, about that of Combat Jumping, and a large vertical component equivalent to Super Jumping. ALSO: See Traveling with Henchmen.

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This is not a bug in the power, this is the way it has operated for all NPCs since the begining of the game.

I was thinking about the "Sliver of Life" dilemna when it occured to me how it wraps into the Mechanics of Defiance.

Damage can be represented in blocks of damage representing each attack. As every mob-foe can be expressed as having a set of hitpoints "X". "X" is the total amount of hitpoint in damage that must be delivered to defeat that foe, including the damage that is mitigated by damage resistance.

Pre-ED, Blasters would do significantly larger blocks of damage to defeat foes with "X" hitpoints. These larger blocks of damage helped ensure that the Blaster could reliably blow past the defeat point with fewer attacks, thus avoid the "Sliver of Life" problem more reliably, as damage from attacks subtract wider bands from the life bar spectrum. A blaster could more reliably predict with more certainty, what attacks he/she would use to defeat a mob-foe or group of mob-foes, and how to chain and branch attacks.

Post-ED, Blasters now do smaller blocks of damage. The smaller blocks of damage subtract small chunks from the life bar spectrum, making the chance of leaving a "Sliver of Life" greater. This also means that more attacks must be made to take more chunks out. This adds more time and leave the Blaster at longer exposure to danger granting more risk, and the increased chance of a "Sliver of Life" remaining also grants more uncertainty.

Now, how does this wrap into the Mechanics of Defiance? It does so two fold.

With the increased time required to defeat mob-foes, granting longer exposure to danger, a blaster will loose more hitpoints in the process Post-ED than Pre-ED. Now according to Defiance, the fewer hitpoints a Blaster has remaining, the more damage they can do. At first this would seem to balance out. That the increased time and longer exposure to danger, and thus greater chance for loss of hitpoints, would be mitigated by the subsequent increase in the block size of damage due to Defiance, thus balancing out the risk vs the reward, and finding some kind of parity. To that end there was a small increase in hitpoint totals, granted to Blasters in order to better enable that.

However, the increase granted by Defiance is chaotic and variable. A Blaster by concept, has no direct form of defense for damage mitigation. There is a very narrow window between mob-foes that miss a lot and do little damage to the Blaster's life bar spectrum, thereby ensuring that a Blaster has a portion of life left or even a "Sliver of Life" themselves, and mob-foes that hit often and do large chunks of damage to the Blaster's life bar spectrum, thereby making it likely that a Blaster will not have a "Sliver of Life" left if they are low on hit points.

The the first type of mob-foes who hit less and do less damage are typically easily and rapidly defeated. The second type of mob-foes, who hit more often and do damage in greater chunks, are typically harder to defeat and take longer. Somewher between those two types of mobs is a golden window where Defiance should optimally work out.

However, what happens with Defiance through the course of the game is interesting. At the start of the game, a Blaster player will probably find that golden window and get use to it as most mob-foes are still relatively weak. As the game progresses, that golden window is going to get narrower and narrower as mob-foes progressively get stronger. This could get increasing frustrating as what looked great at the begining, gradually looses its luster, and slowly becomes more awkward. Towards the end of the game, mob-foes are typically much stronger, and that window can become typically closed all together on average, meaning the Archtype has pretty much lost general use of their Inherent Power. A player must gradually increase the size of the band in thier life bar spectrum that they must retain to be able to survive the next attack when it comes and still be at at least a "Sliver of Life", thereby working against what ever advantage Defiance may give them.

Defiance, from Level 1 to Level 50, progresses from Above Parity (working excessively in the player's favor), to Parity (helpful in general, but not overly so), to Below Parity (not useful the majority of the time.)

This, as has been mentioned before, is the inverse of what was requested and stated by the majority of the player base. That the early and mid game was fine, it was the late game that the Blaster Archtype needed a boost in.

Also, it is painful to see other Archtypes that can rely consistantly on the performance of their Inherents evenly through out the game, even ones that are chaotic like the Scrapper "Criticals" which do a highly noticable burst of damage, and is not tied to how poor thier health bar is.

Also Defiance creates conflict with a player's thinking if they are trying to factor it into their stratagy. The base typical stratagy for almost every other game I've played it to minimze the amount of damage you sustain and retain as there is no benifit to defeat, and that full health should be obtained when ever possible, barring the need for conservation of resources. Defiance works against that, introducing the desire for that "Sliver of Life", but that desire creates extra risk in a already risk adverse Archtype.

You must work against your Inherent Power to survive, but you must work against your better health to thrive. <-- This is the internal conflict that does not leave players with a good feeling, and that which creates internal conflict is unbalanced.

This would make a much better Tanker Inherent if combined with Gauntlet, since Tankers, by definition, are typically stereotyped as some-what masochistic.