_eeek_

That was total GREATNESS, Steelclaw!

To answer you question, LSK: "The only power pool I take is usually fighting and CJ as extra def for my tank, what other power pool you have?"

1. I have hasten, so usually I have superspeed (to save using another power pool) and leave it on in missions. I like feeling more mobile, more maneuverable, though admittedly this my be entirely subjective on my part.

2. Also have fighting pool.

3. CJ. Not just for the defense, but because it makes superspeed wonderfully maneuverable.

4. Leadership pool. Maneuvers, for more defense. If there isn't anything I prefer to take, I'll go for tactics or assault, too - I have a brute or two with vengeance, as well, because vengeance seems, so darned... brutish!

NOTE: I do have a hovering tank. Can't remember offhand if I omitted leadership, or CJ (which also makes hover much more maneuverable). I love my hovering tank, there is nothing like the rush of all the bad guys clustered under my feet trying to take a swing at me! Bit this tank, burns a fair amount of endurance using ranged attacks from the epic pool, and even vet ranged attacks if need be. (This was my first 50 tank, and based on previous experiences as a blaster, felt there was nothing for getting a bad guys' attention like a fireball between the eyes)

I really have enjoyed this thread - thank you all for posting your experiences and observations with the higher tiers of the different alphas! Great stuff in here!

I've tried both Musculature and Nerve on different tanks, and noticed no difference whatsoever. None. Might they be noticeable at higher tiers? Maybe. Have used Spiritual and Cardiac on others, however, and the effects were both immediate, noticeable and very, very helpful.

I run a lot of toggles on my tanks. Not only from the primary, but also from the pool powers. My blue bar tends to start flagging in a log fight, regardless of how many extra end reducers I have. Thus, my default position - not only on tanks, but all my melee toons, and all for the same reason - is Cardiac, unless there is some game-making/breaking power that really needs more recharge.

When puzzling out which Alpha to choose, if there isn't an obvious choice, then it seems most sensible to check out what will save the most slots.

Since the sets I use are chosen for the bonuses, I'm not about to break up these sets. The attack sets make up the majority of my full sets, probably yours too. These all have maximum (or higher) damage, and ample accuracy. Also, global accuracy tends to run so high that most of us would need NO accuracy in our powers, I think! That means the damage and the acc. Alphas are immediately disqualified for me - their primary powers would be utterly wasted. That leaves Endurance and Recharge alphas, since neither one or the other of these of attributes seem to be as high as anyone really wants in any given set (Oblits, my blue bar is lookin' at you, fella!).

I check the number of common IO's in my build. In my WP build end and rech IO's were about equal, so I went with Cardiac. Why? Because that also saved a bit on resist enhancements - those powers are now 2-3 slotted, instead of 3-5 slotted. The set bonuses were poor enough that I could get more of the bonuses I wanted by slotting up some of those attack powers.

All told, my end is better (obviously) and I was able to save enough slots that my WP has all of the usual defense-enhancing pool power toggles, and can also 6) slot 6 attacks AND buildup, which for me is an almost obscene abundance of riches.

Just an suggestion, but I'm happy with the choice I made. If you don't "need" any of the Alpha's, then choose the one that frees up the most slots.

I get to feeling the same way sometimes My suggestion for The Slump is not for you to find a new powerset or new toon to level, it's to find a New Project. I got into a slump the first time after I'd figured out how to play a few different AT's (I'd never played so much as a computer game before hubby cruelly FORCED me to play this game. much less an MMO. ). So, it was time for a Real Project!

I think my first idea was to become a badge hunter. Think I got over 300, flying back and forth over blacked out map zones, went to odd places where I could find lots of some odd villain group to mindlessly mash, and finally did a posi or something, which, being lvl 50 at the time, was the last straw for me in terms of pointless tedium. So, ok, Maybe I wasn't cut out to be a badge hunter?

Time for a Next Project! I had heard of people who had no money problems, though I never knew any personally, nor did anyone I knew, so decided to see if I could become filthy rich. Not because I thought riches were all that important, but just to see if I could figure it out (This was a few years back, before there were guilds on marketing, and such.). Thought "huh, time to start fa..." and that's as far as I got even in my head, since I find farming even more tedious than posi's. So, attempted to see if I could figure it out just buying and selling stuff.

That one worked. I did figure it out, and was very proud of myself, and like less of an MMO doof. If I could puzzle THAT out, why I might be able to figure out other stuff, too, who knows? But you can't market forever - eventually all your toons have all the expensive stuff (being completely unaware that this did not necessarily make them GOOD toons, or course), and the base gets full, and I was risking alienating everyone I knew by always asking if they needed money.

After levelling up a few more toons, I found myself in another slump, so time for a New Project. Time to try some new AT's that I hadn't been able to do well before, with the goal of figuring out how to not suck at them. That was fun, but now I had a new problem, necessitating a New Project.

By this time I had dozens of 50's, had to move some out of Virtue (only 36 slots? EVER? Are you KIDDING ME?!), and decided that I needed to bite the bullet and delete (or move) some of these toons I never played. But before I could justify that, I needed to see if they were worth salvaging. This ended up being a huge project (and if you don't think soloing a dark defender all the way to Grandville and back for some armor isn't a really, really, slow process, well, I don't know what to tell you!). This was probably the most rewarding project of all, because it taught me how to make good, solid builds, rather than just throw purple stuff at them and call 'em done.

Latest Project is (probably obviously) getting incarnate stuff for them. This is more daunting because I will go a month without ever wanting to see another trial ever again, but I am sure I'll get there eventually. I only have a few more to get the 4th tier alpha, then trials in earnest. (What? You heard me groan all the way where YOU ARE?!)

Anyway, hope this wasn't too rambling and dull. My intent was to toss out some of the things that worked for me, in hopes that it might spark an idea or two for you, too. Good luck, I am sure you will find what you need, if you take a good look around and see what piques your interest. Happy hunting!

My Arch/nrg blaster almost never dies, mainly because she stays well out of normal weapon range. Yes, I put in ranged defense wherever that was an alternative, but honestly, I rarely died when I was level 30, too. I have a number of trollers and defenders who I worked really hard to get soft-capped defenses, but never considered it on Arch/nrg, because there was no need. Hover + range = robust health.

Took fire epic, so I have a hold if anyone gets silly, and bonfire if more of them get silly. Also, Rise of the Phoenix, which is so good I don't mind getting killed one bit - I think of it as a part of my offensive strategy. Sadly, I almost never die, and RotP is largely unused.

Went for recharge, incl spiritual alpha, as primary slotting goal. Next, ranged defense. RoA is up quickly, used once or twice a normal spawn, more if they are +4's or something stupid hard. And through it all, I'm still not dead. (darn it!)

So the scrappers, tanks and brutes should stay on the fringes and mop up, eh? LOL! Yes, let's post that now, and let them all know! I'm certain this will go over beautifully! *still chuckling*

Let me say right off the bat that I would never, ever, refuse to put someone on a team because their powerset might be poorly played. I even take khelds on the rare occasions I lead a team, even though their KB is the least of the issues one can face with a poor player. It's a game, for heaven's sake, and to my mind, what's great about the CoX community, is how inclusive and friendly it is.

That said, I HAVE left teams (quietly, without finger-pointing or fussing) when I'm on a melee toon, and someone uses their KB powers where I am - even when they use them thoughtfully. Why? Because my melee toons are usually AoE types, and it's incredibly discouraging to spend the time gathering a nice, juicy cluster of foes to start decimating, only to find the foes are suddenly on the other side of the room. Repeatedly.

Ever shield charged into a clump of... nothing? Set a burn patch on... air? Crowd controlled a suddenly crowd-less area? You don't have to be a poor KB user for this to occur - you simply have to not be able to read my mind when I try to gather up a big cluster of foes, and (logically) think to yourself "what a juicy cluster of foes this is! Why don't I use my lovely AoE powers and helpfully shove them all into a corner?"

I am embarrassed to admit that I have, on occasion, been one of those less-than-helpful melee players who moves on to the next spawn before the current spawn is under control (unless it's a tank. Then I'm S.O.L.). I'm not proud of this. However, it's what I've done when I'm starting to feel homocidally inclined toward my fellow teammates. I don't like feeling this way. I want to like my teammates. Sometimes, in order for this to happen, I find I need to be where my teammates aren't.

KB is an awesome power for soloing, or playing on a small team. And one of the most fun teams I ever played on was an all-KB team - stuff was flying everywhere, and it was pure carnage! But on a large team, if there are any AoE melee players (and there probably will be several, single-target melee players being almost an endangered species), using any AoE KB powers is going to be viewed badly.

PS Yes, I also want to cry when I come across trollers who do an AoE immob as an opener. I play trollers probably more than any other AT, including KB queens: illusion and storm. I really am sympathetic to the plight of those with KB powers. I really loved the suggestion of a proc that allows a KB power to do KD instead. Instead of arguing which side of the issue has the smallest IQ or weenie, or other unnecessary comments, why don't we petition the devs to make such a proc?

Ok, you win. I vote for Freem AND Back Alley Bunny!

1. The corsets clip all over the bosom area. If you move the chest slider up or down, or the physique slider up or down, it doesn't matter. It still clips badly, even at the underside of the breast. The corset hasn't been adjust under the arms, it still juts way out - it looks like the only place the corset's been minimized the breast area, which is the one place it had been fine. The Victorian belts clip more than they had, too. (I used to have to cinch the waist way in to get a smooth line on the top edge of the belt. However, I also thought that was appropriate, and fairly cleverly done of you, too!) Now, regardless of where the slider is, the top edge of the belt clips a bit above the clock.

2. I also tried the corset (and bustier, just to see) with a variety of outerwear (trench, magic bolero, jacket - still unwearable with any of these.

3. When I have logged into any of my character wearing the steampunk boots, the colors have been changed. on 2) characters, tall black boots with red toe/heel are now bright red up the leg, and the toe/heel is black. On another toon with the shorter boots, the trim color was garishly brighter. Also, the skirt color no longer matches the top color, either. The skirt is even darker than it had been. Even outfits which I'd made the skirt one shade lighter to better match the top, are now again a shade darker.

The above changes all show up on the character select as well as when I log onto the character - the inverted colors, clipping, and changes in hue.

Though I did not check the chokers, I looked at everything else, and found no other new costume bits or hats. Only the two-color Victorian hair was new. Oh, and the peek-a-boo corset

Good luck with the bug fixes - this must be far more frustrating for you guys than it is for us.

My latest project has been to revisit all the 50's I don't play on my home server, and either delete them, or figure out what isn't fun about playing them any more, and fix whatever that is. Turns out, most of the problem with each of them has been a lack of defense. So, I have had this peculiar conga-line of characters going red side to get their nifty villain armors. Since you are considering this trek, thought I would share some of my experiences so you can avoid my mistakes, and maybe get an idea of what to expect.

1. I found the vigilante to villain missions really vile, so be prepared. Apparently, one does not just think "hmm, a life of larceny sounds good." No, one is forced to murder people repeatedly, often only because the victim said something to bruise one's ego. I believe (in my own head, if nowhere else) that one can be a dedicated bad guy, without being any sort of murderer, much less a sociopathic serial-killer. A white collar criminal is not an option here, unless you exercise a lot of denial and imagination, but luckily, since I am pretending to be a super hero in a made up game, I feel I have those qualities in excess! MENTAL HEALTH TIP: Don't read anything in the missions at all if you have an alternate idea of why and how your hero turned evil. If that is "cheating", too bad. I feel it is just as "cheat-worthy" of the writers to insist all villains must enjoy torture, murder, and the pain and suffering of others, so there! (Defensive? Moi?)

2. I discovered that it's really pretty easy to solo the tips and the patron pool arc. In fact, you don't need to complete the PP arc, you just do the first 5 (I think?) missions. To my delight, I discovered that you also get a free respec. when you unlock the patron pool! The time it takes to do these missions is about the same amount of time to get the tip missions (go to sharkhead) and complete them, which isn't too long, especially if you do some stealthing.
The downside is that this arc was written eons ago when it was MMO fashion to make you do any number of pointless things, all at the furthest possible location. I've only done GW's arc, but TWICE Ghost Widow makes you go from some far-flung island back to Grandville to talk to Scirocco... WHO IS STANDING ACROSS THE TABLE FROM HER! The only tough mission in her arc before you unlock the PP is the last one, when you have to kill Numina (an EB), and stupid Longbow keep spawning to try to protect her. My dark defender died a lot before figuring out how to survive it. TIP: LOTS of big green and purple insp,, including extras in your e-mail.

3. This same dark defender decided to pick up the Incarnate arc over there while trying to pick up a few villainside badges. Found that they had changed the 1st Trapdoor mission since I'd last done it, and I couldn't figure out how to defeat him (have since figured it out and soloed it on other defenders, so it is doable). Couldn't find a team to assist, so went hero side to get some help. SURPRISE! It's a different Ouroboro! (??!) And it's a different Mender! (!!??) You CAN'T do it heroside! Nor can you drop the mission unless standing next to alternate, evil-side mender. No, you have to go back to full villain! (!!!!) Aarrgh! TIP: you can open the alpha slot doing BAF and Lambda, but you will carry that stupid Trapdoor mission forever, unless you go evil again.

4. The Scorpion Shield armor is really quite attractive. In fact, I can think of several toons who would use that effect as an aura, were it available at the tailor. It's a ripply glow - purple till they let you color pool powers - that is far enough outside your costume to not hamper your look. The downside is that the other powers are not so hot. The immob is a good one, but it's only single target, so not all that useful for AoE's like Rain of Fire, or Hot Feet. On the other hand, it was that very immob which allowed me to survive the Honoree in the incarnate arc on a solo defender! Still, I really, really miss my fire epic powers on each toon who has lost them - they are just that good. But alas, I can't use any epic powers at all if I'm dead.

5. It doesn't matter which patron arc you take - when you unlock one patron pool, you unlock them all. Also, of course, they do not disappear when you return blueside - all the patron pools and epic ones will continue to be available to you.

6. I don't RP with others much, but I do RP the essence of the toons I'm playing (if that makes sense), and there are many of my heroes who just would not go villain for any reason. Gotta honor the spirit of the toon, is my feeling. So some of these would (and did) use the gawd-awful ugly armor available to heroes. For controllers anyway, both earth and ice armors are available. Both, butt-ugly. However, none of my blasters has the need for armor. The melee fighting blaster is ice primary with lots of holds. Another has the energy secondary with perma-boost range, and almost never dies because she's too far away. The fire blaster has devices secondary, which offers a lot of mitigation, and also rarely dies. She also took the Cardiac alpha for the extra range, though it's really not all that much range. However, in a long fight, you can maneuver to find the position where you can hit them, but most of them can't quite reach you.
My point being, are you sure you need the defense armor? Are there other means available to you, if you don't really want to take the trip to the dark side? For squishy toons who have to be in melee range (kins, hot feet users, heavy AoE users, blappers) then getting defense armor might be your best bet.
Another alternative is to figure out what TYPE of damage you're dying from, and use set bonuses to defend against that particular type. If you are a range-only blaster, then perhaps just a lot of ranged defense might be enough for you? My fire/rad troller was constantly getting mezzed. To the extent that it was really not fun playing her at all. I read in the forums that most mez attacks have a ranged component, so I tried that before taking her villianside, even though I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work - I was in melee range all the time, after all. To my HUGE (and delighted!) surprise, my 36% ranged defense worked beautifully! I have no idea why, since I also read how little you actually defend against by having that much under the soft-cap.

That's all I can think of, though likely will remember something else as soon as I post this. Hope something in this might help, but regardless, I certainly wish you the best of luck with whatever you choose. Happy hunting!

The big draw of this game isn't the game. It's the people.

You've probably checked out the superhero MMO competition. Both other games have had to scramble to try to make themselves more like CoH. The constant complaint being that they can't team easily, and people can't meet and make new friends, heck, they can't even find their old friends on those games.

This game offers a wonderful community. That's what sets CoX apart, and that's why those new, shiny games keep getting compared (unfavorably, and in their own forums!) to us. Our community. It's not just players, but a dev/management team who listen and really care about this game. Who else has that? Seriously! Can you name any other game?

F2P was the last refuge of a dying game. It isn't any more. The tricky problem is how to avoid having paying customers being driven out of the game by griefers, RMT spammers, and obnoxious kids, while expanding the (paying) player base.

Another vote for FREEM!

Alternatives:
-"Neener-Neener-Neener"
-"Not Hurt By The Recession"
-"Uppityville"
-"2 L33T 4 U"
-"UP URS"

Honestly, if it had a pretentious name like Paragon, after making some gagging noises and a possible dash to the bathroom, I would not only stay far away, but (mentally) mock anyone who played there.

In general, it's a very good suggestion - but in this (elitist) context, it ranks pretty high on my personal "ick" scale.

On the other hand, if it had an amusing and clever name (Bob, Bacon, all good!), I probably would send some alts there and give it a chance.

I think many of us are excited at the thought of getting more players into the game, we're all just leery about what KIND of players we get into the game. No one wants a return of the bad ol' days of gold spammers or obnoxious 13 year olds hurling profanities and insults. So, the problem would be, how do we make the game feel inclusive to new (and returning) players, without being driven crazy by the flotsam and jetsam we're also going to be getting?

Here is my list of ways to break things:

1. Have letter explaining CoX etiquette. Not the formal code of conduct, we have that. Have this written out as something you have to read through along the other agreements, and something everyone can go back and refer to as well.
I think one reason we get new players who are heavy on the obnoxious side is because that behavior is the standard on other MMO's. New players want to seem MMO-savvy, want to avoid the dreaded n00b label, and want to gain respect. (Heck, we see this behavior on the help channel every day NOW!) Let them know off the bat that a) this isn't how things are HERE, b) your response is going to be negative if you do act like this, and c) if this is what you're looking for, don't bother logging in here, you won't be happy.
I know there is a page of suggestions for getting involved when you buy the game, but it doesn't address the issues we all see. Innocuous statements like "be friendly and you will find lots of nice people" can easily be interpreted as "show your inner L33tness and spam profanities, and make sure anyone who responds negatively to this is called a <homosexual slur>, so they know you're nobody's <female dog>" This is not just a product of unsupervised children run amok. It's very much due to the fact that this IS norm elsewhere.

2. Don't treat the F2P people like pariahs, even if some of them will be. Give them a little taste of the fun stuff here, and make them want more.
-I agree with 2 toons. This is a taste of our beloved altitis.
-I even agree with the people who have suggested that the VIP server should be a F2P server. Let them make starter bases there - 1-2 teleporters, 1 insp container, no sg members (don't feed the potential bullies here), and by all means, decorate your little suite to your hearts content, perhaps with limited access base items. I think this would be HUGE in terms of whetting the appetite for more! If we are insistent about a VIP server, make one. (However, since we have a gazillion more servers than we need, could we think about merging some of the less populated servers?)
-let them view (but not speak in) other channels, as previously suggested by others. Allow them to send personal tells to join teams and etc., hopefully with a disclaimer to the one getting the tell that it's from a F2P player. Look, most of us WANT to include new people! We also want a warning that this might be a belligerent jerk, too. This would also let team leaders know that perhaps the F2P player can't join, as they can't access the type of mission they're doing. As others have suggested, give an option to refuse all tells from F2P players, too. Many may like doing community service, but don't make the ones who are not interested have to deal with it.
-not sure about having their name in a different color, identifying them as second (third?) class citizens. How about on a mouse-over, or a click on player info?
-Have sufficient support staff to jump on spammers and jerks immediately, as well as we as players doing our part to report this stuff when it happens.

Quinchs' comment about how to prevent F2P players from having multiple accounts is a really sobering thought. Any ideas on how this is being addressed?

The very last troller I made (that I kept past teens) was earth/rad. Was very reluctant to try earth, as I hate, HATE the big rock graphics which keep you from seeing what is held, what isn't, where everyone is, where YOU are, and so on. (REALLY, REALLY hate those things!) But I love trollers, and had tried everything else, so gave it a try.

Turned out to be my favorite troller ever. Why? Best team controls ever! An earth/rad troller just OWNS any room, period. Some form of AoE control is always up, because instead of the standard 1 AoE, you get, what, four? I don't have my build out, so let me try to be more accurate: you get AT LEAST four AoE controls that I can think of off the top of my head. THEN you add stuff like a slow, a heal, and a bunch of glorious debuffs.

As for the horrible rock graphics, turns out that these are only the immobilizes. As one who utterly loathes immobs, it was not a tough call to pass on that obnoxious AoE immobilize. As an aside: this is further reinforced by the fact that immobs destroy the knockdown effect - and thus the entire power! - of almost every earth trollers favorite control, earthquake.

On damage: if you want damage output, make a scrapper or a blaster. Otherwise, it's all pretty sucky damage till the epics, imo. Sometimes there is the occasional, single power in a troller primary set that actually does some damage. One. ONE! I do not consider this grounds to alert the media and proceed to solo GMs. Until you get the epics, the only way to provide real, serious dps for your team is by keeping the actual damage doers alive. 'Course, once you get the epics that all changes, and you utterly rule the CoX world, just like all trollers do.

Yeah, it is silly. You need to be on the ground to go into Ouroboro, but not to go out. Huh? Is this the result of some super-secret Mender mojo or something? Makes no sense. I can hover and use shield charge, but I can't to use lightning rod. Though the mechanics are just about identical, I have to admit it does make some sense from a physics standpoint. However, SINCE I CAN FLY, I'm not sure that we are being very diligent about the laws physics in this game. And I submit that the "burn" thing makes no sense from any standpoint!

Now, personally, I don't object to different powers having a limitation of some sort. I DO object to the fact that the description isn't truthful, though. If it says you need to be "NEAR to the ground," this isn't true. You need to be ON the ground. Apparently these limitations were added years ago, but the descriptions weren't changed. Which begs the question: why would the devs go to all the trouble to change the whole way the powers actually work, and not spend the few minutes it takes to change the word "near" to "on"? This also makes no sense!

This really is a problem when designing characters who are, say, winged, only to find out at level 35, they can't fly in combat (well, without being gimped). Now have a mutant birdwoman who has to explain why she has super speed, and can't fly. So even SHE makes no sense! ....Which is, apparently, just fitting right in with the whole rest of the goofy subject.

I honestly think the reason you see so many scrappers and brutes hanging about is because no one will INVITE the scrappers and brutes! I am on for roughly 3 seconds without a team invite on an empath or rad troller. The scrappers and brutes don't get invited without a lot of work involved.

I get that thinking with the STF. It CAN be done with melee-intensive teams, but that's more of a crap-shoot, and I can see why PUG teams wouldn't want to chance it. I didn't even bother to bring out my melee toons for STF (with the exception of one now-demoralized tank). My own alts are about half damage and half support, along with 2 tanks (which would be support, but no one thinks of them that way for no reason I can fathom). So STF, I get the need for lots of support. But for Kahn? There is nothing tricky about Kahn! 1 def. debuffer and the rest can be damage, no prob. (Yes, I did it once without a def. debuffer a few months ago. We finished it, but it was a loooooong process to slowly whittle down Reichs. So "needed"? No. Good idea? Oh, yeah.).

But this isn't how the teams are being made up. They want support-heavy teams. Yes, a full team of trollers can steamroll anything. But so can a debuffer and 7 scrappers. But right now, all the scrappers are languishing, while the empaths (who would barely be needed with a scrapper-heavy team) are in high demand.

I seriously don't get it.

As to the original question, I've tried all the different alphas on one toon or another. Many of them have had to change their slotting though, as the only ones which I've found to really make any difference are Cardiac and Spiritual. Which does make sense, I in retrospect. If I look at my builds, am mostly using sets, which have more than enough damage and accuracy already in them. What I need to get the set to work best, is an extra recharge or end reducer. These tend to go into the 6th slot. Thus, the ones crying for more rech take Spiritual, and the ones where I see a lot of end reducers sprinkled about, take Cardiac. Have a fire blaster who took Cardiac for the range boost, but honestly, it doesn't feel like much difference at all. However, fire is pretty end heavy with the AoE's, so I'm fully satisfied with that choice.

Takes ages to log on. Also takes ages to zone. I haven't done anything to my computer. I thought it was me and needed to defrag, or something was about to blow up. Am sooooooo relieved to see this is a known issue.

Is this related to all the crashes of late? Have been running the WTF (so silly they changed the acronym - this one is far more amusing) to the exclusion of everything else, really (er, lots of 50's) and someone is crashing on every TF, sometimes multiple times.

This morning I logged on and found e-mail I'd sent myself, containing 120 million. Yes, I did send myself 120 million, but the thing is, I collected that money yesterday morning, soon after I'd sent it. I re-sent it to the same alt who gets any excess, and she is 120 mil. over what my notes indicate she should have - so I did indeed get extra.

If y'all want it back let me know how to go about doing so, I don't feel any need to take stuff I didn't earn.

I had a similar thing occur (Virtue, appx 8pm, EST) tonight. At the character select screen, one (maybe more, I only checked the first one I noticed) of my toons had a different color script, and when I clicked on it, there was a message saying I had to buy the Going Rogue issue to play this, complete with a nice big button saying "buy now!". I couldn't log onto this toon or any other toon, either - the "enter" button on the bottom right was grayed out.

I bought GR ages ago, the toon in question is 50 (hero) brute originally created in Praetoria. I backed out to the log-in screen, and everything was fine when I got back to character select.

This seemed similar enough to your "Trial Account" prompt that I thought I'd toss it in. Hope whatever this is gets fixed - good luck guys.

Fire/Devices Blaster, whom I love beyond reason.

I tell everyone what a great combo it is, and they roll their eyes and politely change the subject. I've only seen one once on Virtue, but I don't go looking around for them, either.

Am no expert on corruptors (read on for proof!), but do have a (37) arch/rad, and thought I would share an experience with friends I had teamed with the other night. I was somewhat apologetic about my lack of damage, and teammates teased me unmercifully, saying I was a killing machine, and what kind of standards did I have that wiping out an entire spawn was "wimpy" and so on. I was kind of stunned - I remembered going >plink< >plink, plink< and seeing really sorry damage output. What were they talking about? I mean, yeah, everything died fairly fast... I thought it was THEM!

Paying better attention as we continued, I realized it seemed like I wasn't doing much damage because it's played rather opposite of a blaster (again, not what I'm used to - especially with all the fun shard-hunting going on). Blaster starts out with RoA, and picks off whatever is still alive with the usual attacks. Corruptor should start off with the usual attacks, and at the end of the attack chain, use RoA. Voila, thanks to scourge, everything is dead. Yeah, I knew all this in the back of my head, but all those tiny >plink, plink< numbers were hollering louder at the front of my head that I was a wimp.

So, it seems wussy, because your first attacks ARE fairly wussy. Friends were right, I was a doof - it does plenty of damage. It just does it backwards.

Maybe those who say it's got poor damage output have been looking at it with "blaster eyes" like I was?

In regards to concerns about bright effects... I usually hate that too. On one toon it can be attractive - on an 8 man team of them, it's just a hot mess (and in a cave, you'll see nothing BUT effects.).

If you use the "bright" color customization palette, and use the darkest gray (top left corner), the effect comes across white, but the brightness is toned down a lot. I use that on a lot of stuff I wish had no effect at all.

Conversely, you can use an aura on top of the innate one you have toned down, to mask the unwanted effect as well. If she's an all-powerful energy being, I sort of suspect she would have some type of "look" to her, like some kind of shimmer, or all-body halo effect which could be achieved in-game via some sort of aura, possibly muted down to more of a shimmer than a HEY LOOK AT MY AURA thing.

(As an aside, I feel your pain. I've never been able to think up a character and find a powerset - or even proper costume, for that matter! - which satisfies the concept. When I've tried to approximate, I've never really felt more than "meh" about the character. It feels sort of like a fake, or something. Now I go about characters the other way around - that is to say, I think of a set that sounds fun to try, and then think about what kind of a being would have such powers? Sometimes, have even looked at a set and felt I knew just who should be playing that, too. 'Course, now I have a ton of beloved alts I never play because they have stupid powersets. )

Anyway, good luck, keep us updated, ok?

I really liked Cardiac for my SD toons. REALLY liked it. Tried all of the different Alphas on various SD toons, but the only one for shield that made an immediate and obvious change was the end-reducing Cardiac.

Not only was I getting not tapped out after long fights, found I was able to save enough slots from various powers by removing end reducers here and there, to respec into 4-5 slotted maneuvers (instead of 1 slotted recall friend). Also no longer needed the epic with physical perfection and conditioning, so got a ranged attack (which I use alternating with taunt, to get bigger groups on me) and a hold (for sappers, illusionists, and other pests). Not necessary, for sure, but useful little luxury powers, which then allowed me to use 2 more purple sets for the rech bonus.

My defense (positional) is 50ish-55 (scrapper being lower, tank higher), which is helpful with the 54's in Tin Mage and Apex, but I could have easily opted to keep the 45 def. cap, and gotten still more rech instead. Now, if your armor uses full sets for the bonuses, then that won't help you much. Mine use hami's (cyto's) with partial sets of LotG in the armor, more for the rech bonus. A few of the end reducing IO's I was able to remove were cyto's, which was nice, since they're expensive little buggers.

Having such good results with the SD toons, I tried Cardiac on a WP brute, believing it had to be the best on all melee toons, only to see no grand and dramatic changes, and saved all of 1 slot. DOH! (Think Spiritual will be the way to go with WP, to restore end and health? Dunno, but going to try that next!)

Spiritual didn't do a whole lot for SD imo, despite True Grit being 6 slotted with heal set. YMMV, but it didn't do much at all for me.

I agree with all the previous comments, and really like it for several reasons, but regardless of anything else .... ANY regular attack (ie, stuff that isn't terribly time consuming/end draining/obnoxious secondary effects) that keeps doing damage while you're busy doing OTHER damage has gotta be a great thing!