Seldom

I'll go back to what I said: most instigators run. Why fight back when you most likely will have no victory.

The times I've fought back, coming with a build that could beat the aggressor, the aggressor re-appeared as a build that specifically countered mine, or called in friends.

Most zone PvP'ers stand to 'undo' the progress the person getting shivans and nukes and the like has accomplished...more than that, they lose it TO the aggressor. Even if they haven't started yet, they still don't want to waste their time providing something they want to their enemy.

Fighting is what the fighter wants....the runner is taking the one thing they want away- the fight. If all the characters that don't want to PvP in PvP zones leave when someone comes to PvP, eventually the PvP'er will stop coming to the zone. This is what happens. Most who come to PvP in a zone won't wait a couple hours for the target to finish some missions and come back. The person who wanted to avoid incursions can go without worrying about wasting their time.

And if you're looking for heroes to use RP reasons to PvP you, you're probably looking to the LAST group to PvP you. The way PvP functions around here is to build toward function, not theme. Why would X character have tactics, the medicine pool, and flurry? Most PvP'ers would respond on the basis of what the powers could give them in a fight. I doubt any would say it goes back to the heart of their character. Along with this, the RP'ers are often put off with the complete lack of story/role-playing usage that the way they perceive PvP verges on disgust.

/\
What she said.

Strangely enough, the times I've "fought back" the aggressor runs when they take damage, only to return when I get involved in other stuff.

The "Energy Assault" comment in the list might be revisited. It's been buffed.

Most buffs are pretty easy to see, but I have to admit I've never looked at the character for buffs. Coming from more support-ish standpoints, I always look at the team status windows, and the icons there help. Besides that, checking the team's info as things start up gives you a good idea of what they're up to. Knowing their primaries/secondaries means you'll know what they can do, irregardless of colors.

...And let's be honest, what are the persitant buffs in this game? Cold, thermal, forcefield, sonic, empathy, kinetics, pain, and in a more limited way, radiation and poison. None of those are very similar, even in different colors.

Strangely enough, I've been more surprised by how many people don't modify their colors than by those that do. ....and in my experience, most have changed them to be more subtle, or at least changed the colors tastefully.

Yes, you'll run into the occasional "bublegumpopstarPrincesscatgirlgigglesLOL" character with some awful neon pink, purple, and yellow coloring, but such is pretty rare.

I'd have to look, but I could swear Posi himself said the leveling 1-50 thing as well. Not sure where you're getting the whole "it's not for leveling" thing je_saist.

For my Necro/Poison mastermind, "Silent Seth:"

Minions:
Daddy Dearest
Old man Howard
Cousin Phil

Extracted Soul:
Officer Jones

Lieutenants:
Uncle Tib
Deputy Davis

Boss:
Gran'pa Len

Seth is a child who was abused by his father/family whilst his town turned a blind eye. He got loose one night, and found a book of dark magic. His dad got scared and thought he's say some spells, so he sowed seth's lips closed. Seth used a chemistry set to get back at all of those he blamed, then dark magic to make them more amiable.

The issue I have with the present AE system is that it has been implemented in such a way as to punish players from using the biggest feature, the critter creator in a plausible, non-exploitative manner. The mantra of risk vs. reward is simply out of whack when a minion with full armors and build up is given the same reward as a dev minion with a punch attack and couple gunshots.

The only way to fix this is going back to the dev reward metric, which rewards based upon the difficulty of the abilities. This gets real tricky, but I believe is the best way to do it. Fulcrum shift is simply more dangerous than targeting drone.

I see Umbral's (and other) posts that simply send the message 'stop whining and organize a raid" and I really have to scratch my head.

Why so defensive about such a reduction? Vanguard pieces have no effect on the character's performance, so no balance issue comes into play. Is there a worry that if the pieces have a reduced cost, interest in raids will decrease? Even if a character could unlock all pieces in a couple raids, there would still be other characters to earn for, and the raid badges require at minimum 10 raids per character. This overlooking the xp/inf earned from raids, as well as other badge progress. (The raids are good for healing badge progress and the like, or debt if things don't go well. )

I believe the issue comes not to the avoidance of raids, but the impotence of the OTHER way of earning merits. Yes, there is another. The devs put it in the game. It's there for a reason- is it working towards it's purpose? Vanguard merits have one use, that is to access items in the vanguard store. But is the current functionality of vanguard merit progress outside of raiding present a viable to getting the vanguard store costume items? No. The original post went to this: the Vanguard merits earning rate just does not functionally jive with the asking price of cosmetic/non-functional items. If raids were meant as the only way to purchase the items, you could not get them else where. Such is obviously not the case.

If running a vanguard arc yielded a vanguard heavy every time, I'd see a problem. If completing all the tasks the Vanguard representatives handed you unlocked the uniform for their organization, I see no problem- in fact it makes sense. As such, I believe that the pricing for the costume items should be geared in such a way that the 'alternate' way of accessing costume bits be made more viable- and the best way would be to re-price the bits. (Making 'big ticket' things like the heavy and salvage storage items that DO impact gameplay still require greater efforts and achievement.)

I'd be up for some AE action, if this starts again.

Amygdala had to let this one go, as she does a lot in-game already and real life placed time limitations. Too bad too, as it was fun- even if the turnout was going down a bit. It was nice to have a place to go over arcs, give feed back while authors were on, and run some genuine stories. The AE is fun, but it's got a lot of dross you run into if you don't know what you're choosing.

My first:
Dreameater. She is a mind/psi dom. I had started the game playing defenders, whose support led me to controllers, whose control led me to dominators...which has become my sweet spot.

I love how the character can help the team and herself by preempting any threat through some well placed mind manipulation. The attacks to go with that means she can actually get rid of threats, not just stop them. (An issue my controllers had, especially pre-containment.) The update to dominators' damage has made this even more true. Oh, and drain psyche rocks. No need for fitness, and with some recharge, the controls lock stuff down well enough that I've stopped carrying any but a couple emergency greens/blues. Getting her to 50 happened when I found a regular group to team with, oddly enough.

My second:
My EM/DA brute, The Deathsman. A brute geared towards control. .....what? he can keep 3 bosses permanently stunned, and can turn a mob into a mush of drunk cowards. Before the energy tranfer changes, he put out enough damage to solo a good many AV's. Now I'm not sure he could, with less time to react, but he still does some eight man missions for the heck of it. He hit 50 mostly through solo play.

My third:
My main controller, Persephone Lee. She's Ill/emp. Soloing her up until PA was tough, but then I found some groups to play with, and the army with targets for empathy to buff made her seem far more useful.

My 4th:
Lady Vasilisa, bots/ff mastermind. My land are bots with forcefields tough...this character makes me worry about possible mastermind nerfs. (But then I play my necro/poison. )

My 5th:
Mr. Kanker, a rad/kin corruptor. He was my 'main' villain for a bit, but mostly because I teamed with a /stone brute a lot. I love the guy, but especially over on redside, he's just so darned vulnerable. So many mez-heavy mobs mean he can pack only break frees, and go through almost all of them. That said, fulcrum shift>nuke>pop a blue>transference>scourge remaining to their knees=fun.

My 6th:
Artemis Young, an Arch/Em blaster. My land, the damage and range. There's something wickedly fun about being able to wipe an entire spawn out at sniper range.

Wait somebody got a cape before level 20? I'm done with this game- that ruins it forever.

It's blatantly disregarding the memory of hero 1, that great hero.
...wait- didn't I meet him in the rikti war zone at one point?

....Wait a sec...


Why are we waiting around for capes again?

100% of my characters have a bio.

I may be odd in this, but when I'm thinking of powers and what I'd like, I make a character based upon the story that comes to mind. Unsurprisingly, the story becomes their bio.

I kind of wonder with the way rogues are 'villain lite' and vigilantes 'hero lite,' will rogues/vigilantes require teams to get on badge missions from the other side? In other words, though you are allowed in opposite faction territory, are you still capable of accessing contact or not? This could be an issue for some trying to retain neutrality...will they have to 'piggyback' on 'opposing' faction players to get badges?

If such is the case, getting neutral-zone badges may prove simpler.

While I agree the server is not dead, I have to say it isn't all that lively, (Particularly redside.)
.Let me re-phrase.

It's not that lively outside of social groups. Seriously, I only got onto BMT recently. For those without BMT who do not enter the forums, where is the action? Many of those in the long-established social circles can become comfortable with those folks, form teams with ease. Because they have those connections.

But odd as it seams, the best way to build a server community is look outside the established community, pick up the odd stranger with the 'lft!' flag. Spare slot? Search the team finder window before BMT. -And talk with them, to them, not just your buds. I know it's a bit 'riskier,' as this goes into the PuG territory, but it does help those joining up or starting up to find company and start to get a feel of who plays around here...and you wouldn't believe how far a little civility and kindness from a stranger go to making a player's time more fun, and keeping them involved in a server.

-Seldom

The only advantage of perma-hasten is more recharge, more often. People oft forget this. Many of the better powers in the game are balanced by animation times, recharge, and endurance. Since animation times are set in stone, this is glossed over. Endurance usage can be reduced, and recovery enhanced- but there's a certain level where it becomes 'acceptable,' and extra is not very valuable. Recharge, on the other hand, makes your 'shiny' powers more available, more often. The more consistently you can use your most powerful abilities, the more powerful you can be. Of course, you still have the same toolbox. This is where people get messed up.

Some sets fare wonderfully with their abilities up more often, while other are lackluster. Fortunately for the OP, the best sets, in my humble opinion, with extra recharge are control sets and long recharge buff /debuff sets. Control being as binary as it is, the 'either it's there, or it isn't' is helped by recharge for it being 'there' more often. This is actually where I find control builds skewed in bonuses' performance. Nothing in the game improves control abilities as much as extra recharge.
This with buff/debuff sets' slow abilities being such based off of how strong their enabling/weakening abilities are, controllers are very often simply more powerful with more recharge. (Toss in the fact that their damage is limited by a small attack arsenal, the recharge makes attacks more available.)

But to be clear, this is not an absolute thing. If there are no powers you depend upon that you must wait for, extra recharge won't help as much.

I'd have to agree that very few will 'replace' other archetypes. People will, however, try new options.

I foresee a huge boom in masterminds, many of which will be badly managed, and thus making them less palatable blueside.

"Alpha male" tanks, the ones who demand all buffs/aggro/attention, will be become brutes. The buffs they get will make them just as tankerly, and they'll love smashing the mobs they herd.

Dominators might get play time by controller players wanting offense, and want to be appreciated for control rather than being invited for heals they may or may not be capable of giving.

I have dim hopes of what scrappers will do to stalker populations.

I submit that blasters will be very popular redside.

......but though I love defenders as my first archetype, anyone with an ounce of sense will make a corruptor. Sorry, but the suport disparity is slight, and they can just plain assist more damage-wise, especially versus AV's and such.

I'll submit my own: (the same I submitted previously)

Arc Name: DOOM for me, DOOM for you
Arc ID: 88385
Faction: Neutral
Creator Global/Forum Name: @ChicagoDoodler
Difficulty Level: Hard
Synopsis: A new threat is rising. Can you stop it before it becomes a established? There could be profit in it for you!
Personal Note: This one is the arc I'm most satisfied with...I tried to make it feel like a mini tf/sf. Have fun with it!
Estimated Time to Play: Long (It has generaly taken me around an hour and a half)

Some handy ways of dealing with some of the problem mobs:

Sorcerers: Kb/mez. Many sets have at least one of those. while getting up, they cannot port or do anything. mez shuts off toggles....if you can, use range. All of their debuffs effectively give them melee defense, but none elsewhere. Watch the debuff disappear with distance, then fire away. (If you can.)

CoT lieut ghosts: see above for debuffs. Though the invis/run away and heavy heal are nasty, this is their one true trick. Hitting them with a hold/stun/confuse eliminates this.

Vahz: covered this earlier, pulling is golden.

Longbow: they don't fare well vs. controls, though officers give unholy ammounts of confuse resistance. I find much of their AoE is placed, so aggro away from where you want to fight, leaving the sonic grenades and fire patches behind.

KoA: stun or kill them all. They all are troublesome. Un the other hand, going all-flight helps a lot.

PPD equalizers: glue patches give no -fly or -flyspeed. Raptor packs=win. Hate the acid mortar, though.

Malta: control/defense/-tohit. That's it; make sure stuff isn't hitting you. If you can't lock down the mobs consisting of TP'ing gunslingers and their unholy defense, operatives and their stacking alll-fight long duration stuns, the sappers and their bright blue energy vacuum, you will have a tough fight ahead of you.

Vanguard: controls/range. That's it.

Romans: controls, but do NOT use a stun/fear/sleep/hold on centurians. This cues a mass break free, making the entire group mez resistant. Confuse? not the case.

Nemesis: lieuts must die last. (Snipes as well.) Vigilance with it's +defense/damage/mez resistance is best left to when it only affets the last bit of health on a lone survivor.

To the OP: I do not PvP. The prices of those recipes have made me interested, as I could do things with my characters I'd never dream of otherwise, but if I did PvP, it would be against friends, where there's an understanding that it's all about fun. Drops or no drops, the experiences I've had vs. other players have been this: the player targets the character with fewest defenses, runs before retaliation, then tries again. Any sign of possible defeat, they take off...and re-appear soon with a character that does not have the weakness the original had.

In other words, it's about winning, not playing. Long fights avoided in favor of distinct advantage.

Perhaps I've been unlucky.

The new changes made this worse, as characters just don't play as they do in the rest of the game....I stay informed, I tried to tell my team when we got shivans what to expect, they were less than happy.