Amanita

I've got two incarnates so far- the living incarnations of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. I figure that the increase in power suits them- they're elders, and are likely to be more powerful, by virtue of training and experience. Of course they're going to be able to tap into reserves of power and perform feats that the younglings can't. (Yet).

My other two 50's are holding off- My level 50 scrapper, Anlek'Toh, is one of the young I mentioned above. She's strong, but she's not going to have the powers of an Elder. And my rogue, Seiglinde Ironwolff would most likely be firmly discouraged from trying to overpower herself at this point. Due to the things she's done in the past, her elders might think she's still not quite to be trusted, and since she is trying to redeem herself, defying her people's elders wouldn't help her case any.

My two incarnates are a Katana/WP and DB/WP scrapper, both took musculature. I'm looking to turn them into damage machines!

I'm not even that much into animals, and I want this! New costume change emotes and auras are always cool in my book. And I might very well find uses for these parts that I never thought of before! Egyptian dieties, anyone?

I've been playing THAT other MMO with a friend recently, and they always do great soundtracks for their expansions. In fact, the theme of "Wrath of the Lich King" was cued up on my mp3 player, and used as part of the soundtrack to my first ride into Manhattan this past fall, no word of a lie.

In City of Heroes, I only bother with the game music in Preatoria, because it's actually pretty good. Otherwise, I turn the sound off and don't bother. Most of the in-game music is stale and boring, IMHO.

Freaking sweet! I'm especially happy with the vanguard pack, as I get the vanguard costume parts and weapons for a lot of my characters, and this will save me worrying about what night and time the raids are at, among other things, so when I do catch a raid, I can bring my level 50's who need the shards and g'rai matter. instead of worrying about who needs what costume part.

And since I'm one of those who likes to mix and match parts and loves the vanguard weapons on whatever characters use them, the ability to use these costume pieces pre-level 35 is a real bonus.

Count me in as another who wonders just what the hangup is where men and long hair are concerned. Since I like long-haired men, there's only a tiny handful of men's hairstyles I can use- the rest don't work with my characters. I've been seeing requests for long haired male options since I joined, why don't we have more of them?
I would like more skirts for the guys too- we need loincloths for both genders. Even if we can't have the dynamic sybil-style ones, why can't we have the egyptian or Conan-styled ones for both genders?
And I'll also add my name to those who want to see the baron coat made available to women. While we're at it, a unisex version of the magic bolero jacket would also rock.

I feel sorry for any native english speaker who can't pronounce "Brooklyn Bridge" or "Manhattan Bridge", my two level 50 mains on virtue now.
But my other level 50 scrapper Anlek'Toh, might be a challenge.
It's Ahn-lek'Toe

The thing I wonder is- if people DO start getting hit with ban-hammers or other sanctions, then who is gonna get it?

The people who've been on a few farm missions on various characters just to get to SO-level, or to get past a troublesome spot in their levelling?*

Or the ones with accounts full of level1-50 AE babies, who do little else BUT powerlevel?

For what it's worth, I've been on sewer runs that got low level characters almost as many levels as one small AE farm map. And I did hear at least one guy say he had been banned for AE abuse- but he also said that he had made 11 level 50's, just from those green hami mitos or something like that. 11 characters from level 1-50. Not gaining a few extra levels here and there on characters he hadn't played with in a while.

*I've had this happen a few times- It's hard finding teams in your level range, it seems that all the teams forming up are higher level, and either they don't seem to want a lower level member, or they're doing level-gated stuff like task forces. So it's tempting to PL enough to get "over the hump" as it were. Like if you're 43 and it seems that everybody else just wants to do the level 45+ TF's

I suppose you guys are gonna crucify me here..Take a moment to go get some boards, a hammer, and some nails before reading further. Heck, I'll make it easier for you- here's the hammer from my leathercraft toolkit.

Got the stuff? Ok, resume reading.
Yes, I've done some PL'ing in AE. I've had a few characters who've just been sitting around not getting much playtime, who've gotten stuck at various levels. So I've logged in with them and joined a few farm teams of various sorts, to gain a few levels, enough that they didn't feel gimped, or to get them over a hump. Getting SO's is a big help- before that, characters tend to feel pretty weak. That and a decent selection of powers to play with, so I'm not as dependant on my vet attacks.

I've got a level 37 MA/Regen scrapper I'm having fun running right now- he gained some of his levels in AE, but has also gained a decent amount from normal gameplay, I'm working on getting him the TF commander accolade. FWIW, I've played MA/Regen before on Protector server. But Protector is dead at the times I'm online, and I thought it easier to reroll the character- whole new name, character concept, costume, the works.

That said, I do have some caveats about PL'ing- I believe that if you're new to the game, you should abstain from powerlevelling. Learn how to get around, how to use your AT and powers, the game story, and so on.
That alone would cut out a lot of the 50s asking where the tailor is, or how to get to King's Row.

Also, I've only PL'ed AT's that I know my way around- scrappers being my favorite. However, were I to make a character whose AT I am not so familiar with like a defender, I would be much more hesitant to PL- I would want to take my time and get good with the AT, getting practice you just don't in an AE mission.

I really don't see the point of PL'ing all the way from 1-50, doing the same mission over and over. It seems boring and pointless, and even with Incarnates, this isn't the kind of game where life begins at the level cap.

I managed to get my pack today, but won't have a chance to play with it until tomorrow!
I love the fact that all of these are not level restricted, so your character can look complete right from level 1. (unless you really want vanguard or roman parts)
Of course, I will still run cape and aura missions, just for more options on each character

I know some people ask what about the story or thematic reasons for the mission- what about statesman's edict that nobody wear capes in honour of Hero1? My feeling is that it's been years since Hero1's sacrifice, and a lot of the newer heroes entering Paragon might not know, or might not care. Like any tragedy, the impact wears off over time, having less import to those who may not have been there when it happened. And you would also have heroes who would pretty much tell Statesman to get stuffed- especially if their cape was a protective device, as some of these origin capes imply- the science and tech ones look like they were designed to be protective, not just some frippery or fashion statement. Likewise, the magic one could be enchanted with protective wards, or the mutant variety could be a part of the character's body and therefore not coming off anytime soon.

To someone whose cape is a vital part of their armour, being asked to refrain from wearing it out of respect would be like asking any other hero to forego their breastplates, flak jackets, or any other piece of armour.

I'll definately be getting this, I have a couple of high level characters whose 5th costume slot has been waiting for something cool like this.
I love the new auras and capes- not having to wait till level 20 and 30 to use them rocks

I've got a level 46 character I'm pushing to 50. Thematically speaking, he would be perfect for going Incarnate, unlike my other two 50's, who are much younger.

Okay, you all are going to laugh at me, but where was it announced that we'll be getting inherent fitness in issue 19? I must have missed that somewhere

Golden Girl, love the Old Spice Spoof! I have to ask, do you use Poser or Daz for those?
Nice work!

It might be that, thanks!

There's supposed to be an accolade or achievement badge titled "Going Rogue", and it's the only one my Praetorian is missing- how do I get this one, I didn't see it on the list here.

For some reason, it declined my new credit card when I tried to use it to pay my subscription. So I went to Paypal and added my new card, which it accepted no problem.
And now I use paypal to pay my CoH account, and buy booster packs.

I moved three characters off of Virtue that I hardly ever play, and moved one character from Protector to Virtue, who I have been wishing I had moved when the last round of free server transfers was in effect.
I also moved my Praetorian to Virtue.

A friend who has returned to the game moved his level 50 main to virtue as well, so we can play together.

I ended up going to futureshop today, and picking up a copy of the game. It's not the latest version, so I'm patching at the moment. Installing still took a long time, but it was better than the file fixing yesterday.

So my old hard drive croaked on me, and I'm having to reinstall everything..What a pain in the butt!
Anyhow, I downloaded the CoH game client, and it's "fixing files". It's only processing at 170k a second, give or take, and says it will take several hours. Is that normal? Is there any way around this?

Yesterday I finally got my new credit card (old one expired). So I went to plaync.com to update my CC info. I entered the info, but it came back declined. WTH? I had just activated the new card and made a couple of purchases on other sites, with no problems.
I tried again, in case I had mistyped a number elsewhere. Again, declined. So I called my bank to see what was happening. I had plenty of available credit, no flags on my account, the bank brought up my transaction records and could see no reason why my card would not work.

So what the hell? Residual mess from the store's issues with the GR launch? Do I have to remove the old card first, how do I fix this? I'm afraid to "just try it again" for fear NCsoft will think I'm up to something fishy and flag my game account for suspected fraud.
And I sure as heck do NOT want to go back to using time cards, those are a pain in the butt.

Just bought it
I'll have to play with it a bit later.

I know a friend of mine will love this- he's a furry with a dual-pistol wielding wolf character.
And yes, I am getting the mutant booster when it comes out

I updated the video driver,and it seemed to help, a little. But things were still sorta laggy. I got a message when I restarted my computer, saying my card wasn't getting enough power, and to make sure the supplemental power connector (I think that's what it was called) was hooked up. It also said that the card's performance would be reduced to safe levels to prevent damage. I recently put a new power supply into my computer, which is powerful enough. But something may not be hooked up in there.
Might that be it?