UberGuy

Every set doesn't need strong AoE damage. Though we know that AoE damage is superior for a lot of "power progress" purposes such as XP/time or inf/time, it's not a good enough reason to make everything slanted towards that.

A regular refrain from the few people I know who still play the set (primarily because they still want to play characters who pre-dated the ET change) is that they get sick of stuff dying to teammates while they animate ET. A big chunk of CoH's playerbase is addicted to this game because it features fluid, fast moving combat. Having part of your attack chain be "take a coffee break" doesn't mesh well with that.

Before the ET change, EM was the pack leader in single-target DPS. Now, it's not leader in anything, and the multiple long animations make it distasteful for multiple reasons. While the debate back when the change was made suggests that the devs may be painted into a corner on ET itself, they aren't on the rest of the set. They could improve the set's single-target DPS using changes to other powers. The set was never particularly impressive in the levels before you got to ET, and those earlier powers look like the best option for improvement.

Whirling Hands does blow, and I'd love to see it improved, but what I really want back is the ability to do strong single-target damage. If I could get that without being able to take my hands off the keyboard for like 2/3 of my attack chain, that'd be spiffy too.

I don't have it, and really the only reason I've considered it is the endurance boost. As infrequently as it would come back, it would still leave me looking for more, so it doesn't actually solve my endurance needs, though it would help. Ultimately, though, since it doesn't serve even as a good "mule" power for IOs I need, I most likely won't ever take it.

I had several characters which I got very close to 50 and then stopped, because before I9, there was very little to do with them, and I didn't want them to feel "retired" by having that "50" label on them.

Once I9 hit, I went nuts, and leveled characters in this order (as I recall).

American Steele (BS/Inv Scrapper) - Arguably, Steele is the closest thing I have to a main. He's my 2nd character, created in the first couple of weeks after the game went live. I love his look and his story. Invuln has had ups and downs, but IOs are presently pretty good to it, so he feels tough and powerful once again. He was not my closest character to 50 when I decided it was time to start hitting 50 on people, but I stopped playing other characters specifically to hit 50 on Steele first.

Nightfall (Dark/Dark Defender) - Created before Issue 1, for a very, very long time, this was the character people saw when they saw me playing. She was the one closest to 50 when I switched and leveled Steele. Like Steele, she's got one of my favorite backstories. It doesn't hurt that a DDD is just amazing against a lot of standard content, even with large numbers of foes. Nightfall was started with a kind of "off blaster" concept in mind long before I knew how the AT damage attributes diverged in later levels. Time has, by and large, been very good to Dark Miasma, and thus, to this character of mine. Nightfall was a favorite of mine to bring to Hamidon raids, and she was heavily equipped with HOs until inventions hit the scene. Nightfall was my first character to get a TF recipe drop (on the first time I ran the STF), and it was a Numina's unique. She was the first character I "purpled".

Fortune's Shadow (Dark/Psi Defender) - What can I say, I really like Dark Miasma. I was impressed with a Rad/Psi a friend made, but was really just too attracted to how DM played. (I made both, actually, and the Rad/Psi is level 24.) I made this character on my 2nd account around I7 or I8. She was my first character equipped with set IOs in I9, as I replaced her level 45 SOs with cheap IOs. Fortune was my 2nd purpled character, and my 1st to 500M inf, which, at the time, seemed an impossible amount of inf on hand. (Later I got both Fortune and Nightfall to 1B more or less simultaneously.) Fortune is my 2nd account "backup" hero badge collector.

Sable Slayer (Dark/Regen Scrapper) - This character, created just before I2 landed, took over a lot of my playtime from Steele. I created her simply because I wanted a no-strings-attached mez protection toggle (back then, Unyielding was Unyielding Stance, so Steele had to be rooted, TP around, or get mezzed). Little did I know how powerful Regen was, and I was hooked once I found out. I only just respecced her out of a HO-heavy build into one with purples and other IO goodies a few weeks ago - now she feels like a little DPS engine, which is a lot of fun. Sable was my first hero to the inf cap, though I got there with many villains first. Sable is my primary hero badge collector.

Shadowslip (Dark/Dark Corruptor) - See, I told you I liked Dark Miasma. Shadowslip was my 3rd villain created. This character is, in essence, Nightfall's evil twin. I mean, not literally, but almost. Nightfall didn't have a very good childhood. Shadowslip is supposed to be the incarnation of her negative emotions, making her sort of like Nightfall on a really angry day. On my villains, I gave Shadowslip the same treatment I gave Steele on heroes - she wasn't closest to 50, but I stopped leveling another character to let her get there first. Shadowslip was the first villain I seriously invested IOs in, the 2nd I got to 1B influence, the 2nd villain I "purpled" and the first I got to the inf cap.

Golden Ember (Stone/Fire Brute) - My 2nd Brute, but the one I had more fun with, Ember really had ups and downs. FA is great for most normal content, but not a great choice for trying to do things like solo big hard targets like EBs and AVs. I solo most of my content, so that made some spots kind of rough, but I really enjoyed all the non-EB/AV fights. Then IOs allowed me to get endurance under control, and Ember really took off. I find Stone Melee is wonderfully visually "SMASHy", and the buff to Healing Flames was a big deal. Ember was in the lead to be my first L50 villain, but I held her back to level Shadowslip first. For a long time, Ember was my villain money maker - it didn't matter that Ember lacked much in the wayt of AoE damage - smashing the bejesus out of things one at a time worked pretty dang well. Ember was basically tied for 2nd place in terms of villains hitting the inf cap. Ember is my "backup" villain badge collector, on my 2nd account.

Final Rest (MA/Regen Stalker) - I'm almost as bad with Regen as I am with Dark Miasma. Final was my 2nd villain created. The 1st 25-ish levels were kind of a pain, something I find often the case with Stalkers because their lower level power picks often limit their ability to build a full attack chain. However, once I hit that mark, I enjoyed the character an amount that surprised me. I think I have figured out that I'm addicted to low-HP characters that are hard to kill if played well. IOs were a big help, and I made an early build with decent melee +defense, because getting smacked while placating or assassin-striking is really annoying. I later figured out better ways to do that and now have even better melee and decent ranged/AoE defense. Final's Regen build informed what I ended up doing with Sable Slayer when she got a respec. Final was the 3rd villain I got to the inf cap.

Abyssal Frost (Ice/Dark Corruptor) - Yeah, I know. Another Dark Miasma. Created a couple of months or so into CoV's existence, Abyssal's mix of control and damage was quite addictive to me early on. She lingered in the upper 40s for a long time as I leveled and IOd out other villains, but about a year ago I sat down and burned through what was left. Abyssal is my only L50 villain I didn't hit the inf cap with, but she's the the 1st one to 1B inf and the first I "purpled". She's my main villain badge collector.

Archaidae Noir (Arachnos Widow) - I made this character at the very end of I12, and had hit 50 and earned 1B plus decent IO investment by the beginning of I14. She hit the inf cap during I15 at the same time Ember did. One of the 1st characters I leveled up from low levels since I9, this was one of the first characters I "twinked" with any IOs. I didn't go full bore, rather just going for strategic things like +recovery or +recharge single IOs that I knew would help, while slotting mostly common IOs before then. I like my characters to progress largely on their own merits, but I'm not above smoothing the road some.

Almost all of my characters have bios. Most of the ideas for them are formed while in the character creator. I always start with a AT/powerset combination in mind - my characters are never driven by concept, rather, what I want to play informs the concept. Given the AT and powersets, I fiddle around in the costume creator, and by the time I have something I like, I have an idea for a story explaining someone with that origin and those powers who looks like that.

Because of this, most of my characters get their bios by level 20 or so. That gives me some time to flesh things out in my head. Sometimes I get a solid enough concept that I write it in the creator or immediately after, but historically it takes me a little longer.

Most of my characters follow one of a few tried and true formulas explaining their backgrouns. Most were either empowered by some accident or experiment, and most were transformed as individuals by some tragedy, betrayal, or other life-changing event.

My favored root causes for transformation into a hero or villain are.

• Experiments by Portal Corp, Crey, Arachnos, the 5th Column / Council, or regular national govenrnments
• Dimensional portal experiments (Portal Corp or other)
• Events surrounding the Rikti War
• Interaction with demonic/netherworldy forces (But never via the CoT. Wow, is that overused, and really often in ways that just don't fit with known canon.)
• Interaction with the Entities (the old-school way the game referred to gods). I have a character who's backstory sounds a lot like an Incarnate, but I wrote it in Issue 1.

Most of my characters are Magic or Science in origin, since I associate these most readily with the above sources of power. A few are Technological, a couple are Natural, and only one is a Mutant.

Edit: That was so long, I forgot to answer one of the most important questions. Yes, a bio always helps me connect with a character, and improves my enjoyment of them even if they aren't rocking in game. This has definitely saved a few characters I might have shelved if not deleted (it's very rare for me to delete a character over level 20 or so). Ironically, game changes have brought many of them back around such that they are actually now quite powerful, meaning I have characters with a backstory I dig, a long history of play, and who really kick butt. It doesn't get better than that.

Re. Cape mission: Couldn't have been level limited 20-50 do deal with this "problem"?

Are we making a big assumption here? Was this really why it was yanked? Personally, I thought it was damn strange that it was the only Ouro arc that rewarded zero merits.

I have not met these people you speak of.

Originally it was so I could have more slots on my home server. Then they added more slots, so it became mostly moot for that. (I'm not in danger of running out soon.)

However, once I had a 2nd account, I found it insanely useful for all the following reasons.

• SG management. I can invite myself using my other account.
• Inventory management. I can pass items to a character on one account to give to a character on the other. There's no way to do this with recipes, though you can do all the rest with base storage bins if you have room.
• Padding missions for larger spawns. I did this all the time before I16. It's still worthwhile for the teaming inf bonus if you're into farming for cash.
• Getting badges. Before Ouroboros, this is how I got missed badges on characters that may have predated the badge in question, now outleveled. I still use it for characters who missed a badge that's not in Ouroboros (usually Mayhem/Safeguard). It's also still useful for defeat count badges, particularly for getting such badges on lowbies.
• Multi-boxing. My preferences in ATs and powersets aren't actually that great for this, but I still do it from time to time. I've "soloed" GMs controlling two Dark Defenders at the same time, for example.

If I wasn't such a stickler for leveling my characters the old-fashioned way, it would be huge for leveling my own lowbies up. While SSK may have made this slower, assuming you could leverage the old optimal XP spread, the lack of a sidekick "leash" has made this so much more reasonable to manage. (You can door sit without an anchor.)

FYI, the history is back. Based on the reply I got in my petition, it seems that this functionality is actually maintained in a separate server and/or process. In short, something wasn't running that should have been, and has been (re?)started. I've verified that previous history has been restored. I was tracking the history of some slow-moving items, and the old data is definitely back.

I saw this early this morning after the servers came back. I submitted a petition with the info I had (BM was working, hero side not, etc.) under Technical Issues. I also put into the text that I meant the petition as a heads-up in case there was something they could do and/or wanted to do about it.

I got back a reply saying it was being escalated to a senior rep, which surprised me. They also said there was a high volume of tickets this morning so it might be a while. I let them know I was in no rush and reiterated that I didn't actually need anyone to reply to me, per se, since I don't actually need this fixed. I told them that if the history was gone forever, I felt sure we'd make a new one.

It's a neat question, but I do have issues reconciling the need for character "death" with it being me behind the keyboard. In the fictional setting, I definitely have characters who would go on such a mission in such dire circumstances. After all, the Rikti seemed poised to wipe out all life on Earth, and even a lot of villains would rally (possibly poorly) to try to prevent that.

I don't know how we could reasonably translate that through the screen to us as players. I wouldn't send my well-liked characters on a TF where they get deleted at the end. I'm not sure what they could do to motivate me to do such a thing. To have analogy with the events of the Omega Team's sacrifice, they'd have to arrange something like a raid where if failed the game would shut down forever... something that seems unlikely at best.

If the benefit lists no conditions on its use, such as "chance of" or "for 120 seconds", it always affects you, continously, and no one else. In fact, it has nothing to do with whether you use the power or not. Examples of this include the damage resistance set -KB IO. You don't need to use the power it's slotted in - it just always does its thing.

If the benefit says "for 120 seconds", it always affects you. It lasts for 120 seconds after the power is last activated. Since passive powers and active toggles continuously activate their effects on timers, this means that slotting such special IOs in those will give you continuous benefit. In toggles, the benefit will essentially last for 120 seconds after you turn the toggle off (possibly a bit less).

If the power says "chance of" whatever effect, the answer is: it depends. In general, you have to dig into the power details to find out who is affected by the specific piece of the power you're enhancing, as well as who the proc targets.

Sometimes, such as with the Performance Shifter: Chance for +Endurance, the affected entity is the target of your power. So if you put the proc in Speed Boost, you have a chance to grant +end to your target. But if you put the proc in, say, Power Sink, even though that power gives you endurance and steals it from foes, since the proc affects your targets and not you, it will end up giving endurance to your foes.

Other procs list the user as the target. For example, the Touch of the Nictus: Chance for +Endurance lists the user as the affected entity. Thus, no matter who you hit with your accurate heal, the +End always goes to you.