Sailboat

On the other hand, the way it worked in Rain powers and DOTs was so transparently stupidly overpowered that a change can't be a surprise to anyone.

How well would each of these powersets defend themselves against a man armed with a banana?

I realize that the atmosphere of the thread was poisoned a bit early on. Hence, I was glad to see the OP return to the thread. It shows character to remain engaged in the discussion despite feeling put off. I'll admit I've occasionally ditched conversations that went horribly wrong and never returned.

But the thing is, you're not quite engaged after all. You're swimming in the thread, but you're not getting wet. Harshly as he came across (and I myself tried not to be harsh, you'll have to judge that for yourself), ClawsandEffect is right -- measurably, supportably, provably right. It's not JUST that the build he demonstrated is "better" than yours at the specific thing you posted about (survivability), it's that a significant portion of your slotting and cash expenditure is essentially doing nothing for you. Even if your positional defenses reach approximate parity with typed, you'll have spent most of the money and slots just raising it up to tie the level the typed defenses were at before you bought IOs at all, and were just on SOs.

This isn't some stunt we're pulling on you; it's not differences over a concept-driven decision; nor is it a matter of playstyle per se. It's just the way the (admittedly complex) game mechanics work.

You don't want to admit that? Well, that's your choice. But you could be learning, and making Tam better, faster, stronger (admittedly it'll cost you more than $6 million these days).

Put a "player note" on everyone with whom you have significant interaction, even if it's fairly inane, like "Ran Posi TF with my Scrapper, chatty." This is a great way to help yourself recognize people you might otherwise not remember, as well as helping you appear aware and involved. You can start adding the good ones to your friends lists and maybe joining channels and supergroups.

This game makes it much easier than some games for new players to participate on a somewhat more equal footing with established players and groups. Taker advantage of that. Don't be a stranger!

*sniff*

Smells like a suggestion.

Eagle's Claw + Cobra Strike does almost as much damage, and stacks the stun (well, that 75% of the time CS stuns, anyway).

Under "Options" in the User CP, there's a checkbox called "Enable Private Messaging." Is it possible that these people have left that box unchecked? That would explain why it's the same specific people each time.