Dante

Yes, yes and treble yes. I've wanted better tattoos for men and any kind of tattoos for females for years. Ever since I spotted this young lady in the 'Spelunker' mission, I've yearned for tattoos for women:

I did find the final arc fights tough but not insurmountable with enough inspirations and a Shivan or two. But I do agree that difficulty should be up to the player to decide.

Oddly enough, the thing that killed me most was the fact that I played both First and Night Ward on my Warshade and both of them are full of enemy groups that love to go 'poof' once they're defeated, leaving no bodies behind. For a Warshade, that's a killer! I need more corpses dammit!

Less wispy disappearing things! More dead bodies!

What Sam and Techbot said. I couldn't have said it better.

Helmet still looks weird.

He's got the grimace dead on though IMHO.

You're not alone.

I found the iTrials to be an amusing distraction at first but now I don't go near them. I play to be a hero or villain, not Generic Character 0026 beating on a sack of HP with cheating mechanics.

I too wish that there were more people about levelling their characters rather than grinding endgame raids. Right now I'm trying to complete every story arc listing in Ouroboros on my Warshade and having a great time doing so, even on the really old ones.

How interesting. I was about to make a post on a similar topic. I've just run both First Ward and Night Ward back to back and although I was entertained, I left the zone asking, "So what?"

The problem I found was that both zones, if you'll forgive the abuse of the metaphor, fall between three stools. In trying to write one story for three different alignments, the Devs have failed to make it engaging on any front.

Primal heroes have no business in First Ward. We're recruited to help the poor people of First Ward but the majority of what we see out there has nothing to do with protecting the innocent and more to do with facing whatever foe is causing trouble next. The people in the zone make it quite clear over and over that you are an outsider and that you don't belong there. Through all the story arcs, none of them have any relevance to Primal affairs. Are you helping to diffuse the war between Primal and Praetoria? No. Are you recruiting their help? No. Are you taking down the machinations of Cole's regime? No. The only real 'Cole-aligned' presence in the zone are D.U.S.T. who are pretty much redshirted by the Apparitions the moment you meet them.

The story arcs never even try to suggest that anything you're encountering might be a threat to Primal earth. We know from Dark Astoria that they will be but there's nothing to suggest that in FW or NW. Plenty of opportunity, especially as the missions even send you back to Primal earth to speak to people who could warn you of the danger the Talons might become. But no, not even a squeak. In trying to make FW a continuation of Praetoria, they alienate any outsiders, making the whole affair irrelevant to Primal earth concerns.

Praetorians have no business there either. From any the four alignments in 1-20 Praetoria, FW and NW ignores at least two of them, possibly three. None of the returning contacts remember you or your actions (i.e. whether you betrayed them or helped them) and it's broadly assumed that you're there to help them, even if you consider that Cole was right to send all these people into oblivion. In trying to make the story open to outsiders from Primal, it fails to follow up on the great promise of 1-20 Praetoria where your decisions made a difference and makes massive assumptions about your motives for being there.

Primal villains have no business being there either. This one is enormously irritating to me. Aside from a few minor options to be more brutal towards your foes, both zones don't even try to cater to villains. There's not even the chance to seize power for yourself or the desultory offer of payment should you help. In trying to keep the story mostly heroic, villains are simply forgotten about as if they never existed.

Finally, and this is the most frustrating thing, the zones are beautifully crafted, the arcs fun and challenging and the characters (mostly) well written for a change (Master Midnight can die in a fire, permanently this time). Had these zones been part of Paragon or a contested island between the city and the Rogue Isles, it would have been far more relevant, far more interesting. But because the writers are trying to cater to all players, they end up catering for none. Had the zones remained co-op but had arcs for all three alignments, they could have been so much better. But instead, I just left them feeling that it was as if I had temporarily placed my character in a post-apocalyptic game rather than a superhero game for a short period.

My apologies if that came across as a rant but I do feel hugely disappointed in both zones. Just as I did when Cimerora came out, I remember that I play City of Heroes (and Villains) to be just that. The whole of Praetoria just seems to be the Dev's Folly and a huge waste of resources. A real pity.

Great, I feel old now. And I'm only 36.

All I'll add is that two of the three examples provided could not be participated in unless some of us got a transatlantic flight to the Plummit. So no, not really relevant to those of us who have limited methods of interacting with the Devs.

Oh and for the record, I'm quite calm about it all, just disappointed. At least this mess has prompted me to get AdBlock installed.

I always love reading your updates and the adventures of your geek girls. As my own daughter approaches her fourth birthday, she has begun to take an interest in what Daddy does on the computer and likes to sit and watch me (although it's never long before she wants to take over and do some typing). I'm hoping we can both follow in the Sister Flame school of games education.

Hey SteelRat, good to see another old timer.

Unless I really like a character, I tend to only IO them once they hit 50. And out of the three Defenders I've taken to higher levels on SOs, I'd say that my Kinetics/Ice had the best time of it. A little squishy in earlier levels as others have said but Ice is very safe to work with and Kinetics gives great recharge and endurance buffs. Kinetics doesn't tend to gain much from IO sets, lots of its powers don't take inventions so the difference between my IO build and my SO build is not huge.

Kinetics/Sonic is also another solid choice (Siren's Song is just awesomeness in a can, especially if you can gain some stealth in some way). Mine's only 30 at the moment though so I can't speak for what it will be like at 50 yet.

Interesting, I just rolled a Claws/Fire Brute for precisely this reason.