JD_Gumby

More likely it's the result of the lower Villain population - either less choice of quality players, or having to start the raid with a less than optimal number of people, or a combination of both.

Don't see why. Spewing a mouthful of poison at your opponent's an ages-old tactic. (for an example right off the top of my head, assuming the 'Deadliest Warrior' has any historical truth in it at all, the Zulus would use that tactic)

Really? How strange. For me they're just meat shields that should be keeping the baddies away from my precious robots. Then again, my favorite MM secondary is Traps, which isn't really too team friendly, except for the FFG.

Well, that's why the costume screen (both in character creation and at the tailor) has a Save button...

Anyways, don't listen to the negativity. If you've found it fun so far, keep going. with it.

Just be careful around machine enemies - apparently they get very good resistance to psionic damage. Make sure you take Telekinetic Blast (half of its damage is Smashing) to have something useful against them for when you solo (on teams, of course, you can usually fight other things and let your teammates handle the machine types). Also grab Psychic Focus (this set's version of Aim - not as good, damage-wise, as a Build Up, but better than nothing) for a little bit of extra OOMPH.

Drop Medicine (and then team with Defenders and Controllers or carry some greens) and take Combat Jumping (+Def all and excellent mobility in combat) and Super Jump for two of those picks, leaving you with a slot.

Not that you need either of those for actual *travel*, of course, with Ninja Run and Hurdle (60mph+ jump speed and 40ft+ jump height is more than enough in most places, as is the 53mph+ run speed with Sprint & Swift, if you take the latter).

Come to Freedom, then. My characters do it all the time.

Well, my AR/Dev is level 35 right now and was solo most of the way, so it does fairly well. Just make sure you take Cloaking Device and Smoke Grenade - they will help you pick and choose your fights for those times when getting through the mission is more important than getting every last bit of XP. Can get away without Smoke Grenade solo, though, if you keep the player equivalency at x1 so that spawns generally won't fill corridors.

Other than those two, Web Grenade (which you have to take), and Targeting Drone (+accuracy is good), the other Devices powers can safely be ignored, if you wish.

Trip Mine's pretty decent solo - the Cloaking Device will not be enough to let you place it at enemies' feet, however, so get used to using it pretty much only against melee-oriented foes you can draw to you or on maps where you can get stuff to chase you around corners.

Taser's got too long of a recharge and is only good against Minions and Lieutenants, so is easily skippable.

Caltrops are fairly useful since they'll gain you a couple of moments of peace as the enemies under it concentrate on moving away.

Time Bomb is useless unless you can draw the enemy to it (since, like Trip Mine, Cloaking Device isn't enough to let you plant it at their feet) and the fight lasts long enough for it to go off.

No opinion on the Gun Drone since I haven't used it yet. I'm assuming it's useful, though, except for when you want to stealth through stuff...

For Assault Rifle, well, it's all good. Mostly Lethal damage, though, but thank the Devs for Flamethrower. I personally use everything in it, other than Ignite. Made the mistake of skipping Beanbag for a long time, but if I started a new AR/Dev Blaster, I'd grab it the instant it came up. Only mag 3.00, but since that's more than enough for early player murderers like Headman Swordsmen, it's awesome. And Full Auto tends to make stuff that doesn't resist Lethal melt - usually, if any minions survive the first onslaught, an M30 Grenade as a followup will generally finish them off so you can then start on any LTs or Bosses hanging around...

Oh, and even if you don't get Super Speed for travel, grab Hasten and 3-slot recharge it.

Perhaps there *MIGHT* be some *SLIGHT* truth to that on the lesser population servers. On Freedom, though? Uh-uh. Tons of teaming going on (especially if you accept blind invites), be it sewer, radio, badge hunting, giant monster teams, or just standard missions. Plus, of course, AE farming, though most of that disappears once you leave Atlas/Cap, as does the spam from people begging to be power leveled.

Really, if you can't find normal teams, it's your own damn fault (especially if you're aware of the existance of global chat channels).

It seeems to be still hanging around. Dunno how, though, given that after maybe a month after release it was already suffering price cuts on the box (down to half, now, in my area - $20) and being tossed onto the bargain racks at Wal-Mart.