Adeon Hawkwood

Very nice, there is one small point I disagree with though:

The reason for the lack of guides is that it's only recently become possible to make an AR/TA (or a TA/AR defender for that matter).

I haven't played AR/TA but I have played both those sets so overall I'd say it's an ok pairing. AR is a VERY good AoE damage set and TA is an ok buff set with several -res debuffs. So overall you're going to toss out a LOT of very good AoE damage.

The main downsides are alpha-mitigation and redraw. TA is not a great set for mitigating the alpha-strike, it's got ok mitigation overall but not in the types that mitigate alpha-strike damage (it relies a lot on slow and knockdown). Redraw is also potentially an issue since you're redrawing when going in both directions. The upside is that TA works reasonably well if you set out your debuffs first and then switch to blasting.

This is probably the best TA guide out there:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=122243

I'm less sure about AR guides but in my opinion it basically comes down to: take Burst, Slug, Buckshot, Ignite (if you solo a lot and have a mez to hold enemies in position), Flamethrower and Full Auto. Fit M30, Sniper Rifle and Beanbag in if you can and if they fit your style (of those three I'd probably only take M30 on an AR/TA, Sniper Rifle costs you the element of surprise for laying down debuffs and TA has several holds already which limits the usefulness of a ST stun).

Your intent here seems to be making it easier to get IOs. What I think you are neglecting is that IF the devs were to implement such a system they would almost certainly price the various items so that the time you have to spend grinding for them is equal or longer than is is currently. So switching to this system wouldn't actually make it easier to get items, it would simply remove the various shortcuts you can use to get them faster (such as selling your drops to other players). In other words if they did this they would almost certainly set the prices so that we are FORCED to farm if we want IOs.

If you want proof I'll point you to the merit prices that they set for IOs. The rare enhancements are between 125-275 merits each and even the uncommons are 50-75. That means they expect you to spend between 2.25 and 13.75 hours for every set IO you want (and purples would presumably cost a LOT more). So fully equipping a level 50 with set IOs would take you between 200 hours and 1250 hours of play depending on exactly what you wanted, and goodness only knows how long it would take if you wanted a purpled build. The advantage of the current system is that at the moment you can do an end run around that. Even if you have no interest whatsoever in marketeering or farming there are plenty of IOs which have an inf price far in excess of their merit cost (LotG 7/5%s are the prime example). Trading merits for one or two of those can easily provide the inf required to fully equip a character with a good set of IOs.

Now before you say that the times I quoted above are unrealistic and that the devs would set the prices lower I will point out two things. First off those are based on the prices they set when they introduced the merit system and secondly the merit system was specifically designed for people who wanted to get gear without farming or marketeering. So clearly the devs believe that those sort of time lines ARE reasonable. Secondly this game is casual friendly but not all players are casual players. there are plenty of people who want to have to spend time acquiring a full set of IOs, it's a goal to work towards and for some people that is a good reason for playing the game. They don't want to have full IO sets handed to them on a silver platter. On the other hand IOs are not required for any content so the game itself appeals to both casual and non-casual. Casual players can use SOs and still enjoy everything the game has to offer. Non-casual players have goals to work towards.

tl;dr version: This would be fine for farmers and suck for everyone else.

It is neat, I don't use the costume a lot but I have it as an alternate costume on a few characters. I also use the weapons on several others (and the shield rocks).

This is very unliekly to happen. It would basically require the devs to make three times the number of animations for every blast set in the game. This is a HUGE amount of work for very little benefit.

Yeah, I've heard a few people having the problem. My advice is to exit the game, open up the loader and run the "verify files" function. Hopefully that will fix it, if it doesn't let us know and maybe someone will have another idea.

EDIT: If verifying doesn't fix it, check this thread:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=213867

Some people there have posted instructions for forcing it to re-download the affected files.

They are also not affected by damage buffs (i.e. Fulcrum Shift).

I'd probably go and see it. Unless it was directed by Uwe Boll.

In terms of performance IOs level 26 and above are equal to or better than SOs. So people who want exemplar friendly builds tend to slot in the 30-33 range (as Cat said). IOs in this range are slightly better than SOs, keep set bonuses when exemping down to level 30 and almost all sets are available in this range.

However, the problem is that actually getting recipes in this range can be very difficult. The vast majority of recipes generated are at level 50 so recipes in the 30-33 range are in short supply. This means that you often have to wait a long time to get them, particularly if the recipe is in something other than pool A.

1. This has nothing to do with pistols.
2. There is no point to this thread. The OP already posted this in another forum