MadBishop

I am thinking of making either a defender or corrupt or with these sets. I was wondering if anyone had any advice one way or another. I am leaning towards the defender,just because the time powers are so good, I would like to get them earlier. What do the forums think?

I still plan to run my mind/ta through some incarnate content just because I think it will make the character even more fun in general. I figured though, looking at her performance against AVs, that it would be a little rough. Still, I am sure that most I trial teams can absorb a character who isn't good against AVs. There are still hordes of trash enemies to deal with.

That confirms my suspicions about the build, which is unfortunate because it is a great build for normal team content. In any case, thanks for the reply.

My Mind/TA is approaching level 50 and she is a fun character to play -- definitely one of my favorites. However, I am a little concerned with her performance in trials. Has anyone run a Mind/TA through some trials? How did it do?

For me, and I believe for the vast majority of players, the joy of an MMO is to develop my character. I want to see a build go from 1-50, learn how it works and watch it become powerful as my level increases. Sure, I enjoy zones and missions somewhat, but they are repetitive and tend to be monotonous. The thing that keeps the game novel is the fact that every so often, I ding a new level and get either a new power, or more slots to make my powers better.

This in turn, allows me to fight more and tougher enemies, feeding that craving for novelty for a while, but then these new foes start to feel samey. Ultimately, my character is the only thing that changes significantly throughout my run from 1-50. So in my mind, the endgame is not backwards at all -- the entire game is a "get game". All themepark MMOs are about getting new powers, new items and new effects.

The reason endgames are so hard to design is because your character is "done." For most players, this means there isn't much reason to continue on because the "do game" isn't all that interesting taken on its own merits. This has been the case throughout the history of MMOs and so you get raids, EQ's AA points, and WoW's gear grind. Incarnate trials are CoH's gear grind. You pound the same set of missions over and over to get currency to make your character better to be eligible for the next set of missions/grinds.

You either like it or not... but in my mind, nothing is backwards, you have been "getting" all game.

I would be all for making the "do game" more interesting, and I think sandbox games achieve this to one degree or another. Darkfall and Eve Online are two that I can think of off the top of my head. Both games have cash and character progression, but focus more on PvP and inter-guild politics, so there really is no true end game.

Thanks for all the replies. I will check out PinnBadges and the Pinnacle forums.

I am on Pinnacle and I am generally online 7pm -- 12am any given evening.

Greetings,

I have newly returned to CoX after a long hiatus and I was wondering: In the age of IO'ed out super-incarnates who solo +4/x8 on a regular basis, do low/mid level folks still get together to just run missions? Are there still low/mid level folks left?

Thanks,
Chris

My suggestion would be loosening the rewards on the Story Arcs and allowing anyone on a team that completes the final mission an arc a chance to receive a recipe reward. What are the pros and cons of this change?

CONS:

-- Characters can repeat arcs as often as they can find someone that has them, exemping down. This makes arc loot much more common than it would have been otherwise.
-- A character who is close to completing an arc can invite several friends of his to "tag along", having a chance at nice loot even though they only completed a single mission.
-- Goes against the current rule of "only the arc owner gets the reward" and thus, would require some change to current game systems.
-- Possibly encourages "farming" arcs (by broadcasting "lft for arc missions, willing to pay $$$") to get the rare drop.

PROS:

-- Avoids creating a class of "ultra rare" loot.
-- Allows players of all levels to have a chance at all sets without guaranteeing them any specific piece of loot.
-- Encourages continued teaming because I can outlevel or miss an arc on my character but still help a friend complete it for the drop.
-- The chance of getting a drop could be made proportional to the number of arc missions completed as a team. Thus, the owner would have 100% (or whatever the base is) chance at a drop. Someone who just joined for the last mission would have 1/5 that chance, since they did only the last of five missions. This would encourage forming teams for the entire arc and discourage people trying to jump on teams to farm arcs.
-- Encourages more people to team through story missions, as opposed to just teaming newspaper missions. As it stands, anytime I am on a team, unless there is a specific purpose, we immediately jump on newspaper missions because they are more convenient. Story missions have been relegated to solo-only, teaming only to defeat AVs and the like.

Can anyone think of any others?