Grey Pilgrim

To be fair/thorough, your "gimped" statement depends more on the player's expectation. For my MA/Regen, I'm fine fighting at 2-3/+2, since he's ST oriented, and I'd rather fight EBs solo. I have a decent chunk of global recharge (30ish percent) and Dull Pain and IH are up as much as I need them.

I'm sure that would be gimped to some people, but it's good for me (and I could up my difficulty a bit, though I tend to like running through the stories more than having a decent challenge with each mob- I just like beating stuff up). So it depends on what the OP wants. If he wants and needs to play at the screaming edge, he'll want more global recharge than I have or hasten.

I'm still debating what to do with the level 49 power pick on my guy. I grabbed CAK to see if I like it (I don't) there, so I'm debating either Hasten, or Warrior's Challenge to help teammates if they get in trouble (and to slot it with the Perfect Zinger proc for the lulz of dropping Hellions when I taunt them). As you can see, I lean more toward the fun and goofy with my Scrappers.

I sincerely hope that they don't have hard to unlock contacts with GR. Viridian's requirements are just... ridiculous, and I have never done them. Other contacts don't require quite as much, but needing history badges, etc., to get a contact is still rather annoying.

The new move seems to unlock at a certain level range, which works for me- I hope things stay that way.

That's a good money-making thing to keep in mind. If you go to the trouble to craft an enhancement for them, people usually are willing to pay more for it. Just make sure there is a demand for the enhancement before crafting it, and that you can make money off of it. This gets harder to determine if the enhancement uses rare salvage, but you can make a good bit of money off of it if you do it right (and you're lucky... though you can do this with moderately wanted recipes).

For the direct OP question, I know some people that just use commons or whatever until level 50. I like being able to exemp my characters down, though, so I tend to slot level 30-33 recipes (whatever I can find/buy easiest). I'll sometimes slot lower level ones if it won't affect performance too much. This usually works fine for the accuracy and damage levels (though some sets like Mako will only get to about 85% damage enhancement), though you might lose some percentage points for end reduction or recharge. I don't really notice any issues there, and the global recharge I usually pick up more than overcomes anything I'd miss.

Slotting higher, I think the only thing I'd notice is not being able to exemp as much.

And your boundless pessimism on this score, MG, makes me a sad Pilgrim. Yes, I am sure that hundreds of missions will only include 1-20 level range and the morality system. I'm not really sure what to expect and I don't want to expect too much to keep my hopes from getting up, but I refuse to join you and the rest of the "make my arguments with winkies crowd."

Frosticus, I do rather hear you. Going Rogue and the issues after it (which need to come reasonably fast) have to do a lot for this game so it keeps up with other mmos (new and current). I really would like more particulars at this point so we know what to expect.

I honestly can't remember how things built up to City of Villains... were they this hush-hush about it? I just don't get how they're marketing this expansion, or how they're developing it (it had a big impact on other things they were doing for the game for the past year)... it almost feels like they're still adding stuff in to GR, which is odd... you'd think they'd have the set list by now and would be polishing it up.

It's a business... I've had dental places try to push whitening on you, they'll try to use the more expensive fillings (that your insurance doesn't cover), etc. Kind of sad, but that's the way it is.

Some people don't take kindly to advice no matter what, but it is worth pointing out. One thing that works well is to just make a general statement (rather than talking to one person in particular), or to even mention a gameplan if you are playing with a bunch of people you don't know. You can even add in a "sorry if this is obvious" and I haven't found too many people to take it badly. If they weren't sure, they know now, and if they did, you mollified them.

Kind of silly that you need to soften up good advice so much, but I have found that it helps.

To the OP, I have run into all kinds of people that play their AT oddly, given its capabilities. I have a tendency to want to dash in even when I'm on my blasters or VEAT, even though there are more risks for them taking the alpha.

In my Four Rules of Tanking in my sig, I kind of talk about the same problem. I have played with other Tankers that sit back and don't rush in first, when it should be Tankers that should be known for rushing in (rather than Scrappers). Getting aggro and taking that alpha first is what Tankers are built for, and they should be doing it. It gets frustrating when I play my other ATs and I have a slow Tanker like that... it makes me want to break out one of mine, even though I like playing most of the ATs in the game.

Look out, devs, Viv is on a mission!

I do wish just once that there would be something they would attend in the middle of the country. Kind of sucks for a lot of people.

Rather than hiding, you should have put them on ignore, or even better, reported their behavior. That certainly qualifies as harassment. I would say it's in the best interests of everyone to do that, too. I've had people ask to be PL'd, but never abusively. We do not need to see that kind of behavior spread.

It is. But I teamed with him and didn't get a t-shirt, let alone an avatar!

Oh, and hi, Viv. Hope you're doing well.

I forgot to note that in my first post. My first night back, and my internet connection fails on me. It's been wonky ever since we got back from Vancouver. I supposedly got it fixed with our IP this morning, though (some setting was off). Sorry, Ham. Did you guys get past the end? I was rather disappointed when my room clearing power only took out a few guys... it's not very helpful if it only takes out the target cap or whatever. Is that a new bug?

I'll have to try it with you again sometime... that's a pretty fun SF, though I don't like having to find each of the four patrons in the last mission. I wouldn't want to fight all four at once, I suppose, but having to hunt for each on the map is kind of weird.

Penny, we actually went up to Whistler one day, though it's obviously not the same right now. A very beautiful drive, though. It was foggy and rainy, and we didn't get a good view of that huge waterfall on the way up (I forget the name), but it was sunny on the way back, and we saw it perfectly from the road-- amazing!

We didn't like how you had to pay through the nose to park anywhere in Vancouver (think it was about $2 for 30 minutes in some spots, and that was better than others), but it was great otherwise.

? I don't know that Shields is really that much better than other primaries, other than Shield Charge. Outside of that, it's just decent option with pros and cons like other sets. Hence the issue with Shield Charge getting numbers it wasn't intended (as has been discussed to death in this thread).

And Fiery Aura just has some wonky things in it that don't work well/make it weaker than it should probably be (and I say this as someone that loves Fiery Aura)... I don't think the other defense sets in game currently really need much work. Invuln is solid after its tweaking, etc.

Because everyone's favorite is the bestest +1!!!!

That freaked me out the other day. I was playing later at night, and I thought some guy was behind me, clearing his throat. For some reason, that sound REALLY sounds like it's not in the game world, but right next to me. Same thing with birds near the Talos Wentworth's... it gets particularly weird when some birds really are singing out the window- I have a hard time knowing which is which.

Yup, that does help a lot. I also picked up the Achilles -res proc for Gambler's Cut, which also helps. Bloody expensive, but I notice when it's active on a mob.

Quite good. My original character, Grey Pilgrim, was an homage to Gandalf the Grey (while still being firmly rooted in the CoH world), and he has an outfit somewhat similar to that. Though I went with baggy pants that tuck into the baron boots, and other differences, of course. Which is all to the good... I would hate to have my characters look like other players. I catch myself using too many of the same costume options on my own characters, as it is.