Memphis_Bill

Nope. The times I get concerned, I eat a couple of purples first. Other than that, they're dealing with smoke, or locked down, hit with one or two AOE stuns, deuffed by hurricane, flopping around on ice... they don't have time to shoot at me.

How about because I've put time into that character. I've made that character, for myself and those I play with (who are, by the way, interested in RP as well as "big numbers,) more than a collection of pixels. And if that name has a direct tie to why that character is who they are - changing it alters the character.

The game would become *less* fun if I had to change something that fundamental to who those characters *are.*

For instance, one of my 50s is a Peacebringer named Voidbane. (Also not 50 on another server.) Not Sam Voidbane. Not Void.Bane, not Voidbane II. The name has specific meaning, and is fundamental to who that character *is.*

You may not care. Others do. (And yes, I *am* among those that, if I were forced to change them, would quit. See also Aion, which not only merged, but added initials to the end of every character - even if there were no duplicates. Irritated me enough that I killed the sub - and, given the severity of the merges, don't expect to see it running in the NA servers at this time next year. Mentioned what they did to the names to the friends I'd had started in it - who had also quit for a bit - and it turned them off of resubbing as well.)

Agree with most of this - except the bit about smoke. I like to have a little more control, personally, about when that next group gets aggroed (even solo I run some rather packed maps) and Smoke helps with that.

And yeah. Fire/storm = END hog. Almost as bad as my BS/SR.

Going to be watching this as well. I need to finish mine up (one of my Virtue characters. Very fun.) I'd post what I have going in the late 30s, but it's been changed a few times, and is going to change some more as I tweak. (No 02 boost here, too much other stuff going on - and I'll fully admit to still not having the hang of Hurricaine. Mostly use it to debuff and nudge stuff into nice little groups.)

Use the wiki, Luke!

Brief rundown, patrol XP is awarded when your character is offline. It helps speed up advancement when you're playing lesser-played characters. And, as mentioned, no debt before level 10. (And if you did get debt, Patrol XP eats it first.)

I'd say not.
(a) See prior comment on shivans, and
(b) IIRC, the fleet involved was using Khelds for fuel. Not needed by Praetorians. (Twilight Son. Unless I'm tying that in to the wrong thing.)

Different sort of challenge.

Yes, grouping here *is* needed at times - task forces, giant monsters, a few raids. But on the other hand - ATs are not like classes in other games (that I'm familiar with.)

For instance, if I see a Ranger in Aion, I know they'll be focused on range, have stealth, possibly rely on stuns. A Gladiator (working from memory) is going to be kiteable, etc.

If I see a blaster, I don't know if I'm going to be dealing with damage-damage-damage (fire,) endurance draining, control (ice,) what their secondary is going to be like, etc. I don't know (for one that seems to trip people from other MMOs up) if that Defender is even going to have a heal - there's no "healer" in the game, though there are powersets that have a little more focus on healing than others. They may be able to give me shields, or debuff the enemy to the point where they're no threat, or buff me. They may choose to stay at range (say, Force Fields) or be right in the middle of the action (many Kinetics.) The same AT can play vastly differently depending on the sets chosen. Essentially, yes, SGs are guilds - permanent (well, you can join/leave/etc) groups. There are some large ones that show up as collections of SGs - the Repeat Offenders, for instance, have groups dedicated to Empaths, Kinetics, and the like - even non-Def/Controller ATs. (Even smaller ones can do this for themes or whatnot - f'rinstance, I'm in one that has our main group and a Kheldian offshoot.)

Pop down to the server boards, find the server that looks interesting, find out about the global channels. Just mentioning "LFT" in broadcast doesn't tend to do much.

Nope.

And one blatantly obvious thing missed in the OP - the Shivans are mentioned as the "scouts" ahead of the storm. Which pretty much rules out Nemesis, the Council, the Nictus (already here,) etc.

There was another thread about this, edit: here.

But when I took a look, Guardian showed as justice (Edit: correction, both accounts.) The other servers I tried (including justice) showed correctly.

There aren't any powersets that will "nerf" you later, quite bluntly. Play what looks interesting. Play something that doesn't.
Nope. Pay attention to positioning. Take taunt the first time you run a specific tanker primary, then decide later if you need it (easy to respec out of if you decide you don't.)
Ahh.. .the "holy trinity." Nothing's *needed.* You can play with a group full of Defenders if you want and be perfectly fine. Pretty much any combination works. Still, people do like having tanks, and control (with a buff/debuff secondary - which is any of them) is very welcome.
Controllers are going to start slower and pick up - they're not (generally) high damage (with, of course, variation between sets.) Some combinations can become incredibly powerful (and then there's what you can do with IO sets.)

Tanks have a defensive (or resistance based) primary, with offense secondary, so they'll get attacks slower - that said, you'll also *tend* to find you can crank up the difficulty (again, set dependant on how far) and mow through groups on your own if you choose later in the game.
There's a market (which is currently separated by side, but which will be merged when the next issue/Going Rogue comes out.) Crafting - generally IO sets and the like. I'll let others go into detail there.
Coming from other MMOs, it's going to seem empty - one reason being that it's heavily instanced (not to mention travel powers, teleporters, etc.) There's not a bunch of people running around a small area trying to hunt the same 10 Giant Bats to get Bat Ear Hair drops - everyone's inside. Try the various servers. That said, its' generally Virtue, Freedom, and Infinity at the highest load - the servers list as "last on on the top, then lowest to highest load." That said, try out a few servers - wander down to the server boards, make alts, find a server that fits you. (Or just go alt crazy - I play on all of them, for instance.)
Hell no! Frigging newbies. Sheesh.

... I am, of course, kidding.

It is to me. Know what's dry and boring? "Hey, I'm always perfect, and things always work out for me."

Oh, and you made the "made sense" argument:

... in this game? Really?

I'm not talking about the "We have people who can fly, jump a half a mile, teleport, shoot lasers from their eyes" bit. If you want "make sense," then:

- Why does the enemy who ran from the group you just beat up walk calmly back to take his beating, instead of gathering everyone else on the level to beat on you?

- Why do the groups that guy runs by, on fire, trailing ice/radiation/tendrils of the netherworld, etc, not bother investigating? "Hey, he's on fire!" "Yeah. Jim does that all the time. What a kidder."

- Why can the boss - who obviously is going to kill the hostage - not react to the sound of fighting two rooms away (or see you *standing in the doorway*) and just shoot the hostage? (Or the group that has taken time to gather around the crate/desk/computer just stand there staring at it instead of destroying it on arrival?)

- Why did the designer of the various office buildings in the game keep his job?

- Why is Longbow allowed to face down thugs who are obviously armed with pistols, knives and baseball bats and counterattack with flamethrowers, miniguns, etc? (see "Excessive force")

- How is it that powers like Smoke Grenade don't cause aggro, or at least some concern on those it's used on? ("Hey, it's suddenly really smoky here." "Eh, it's cool. Probably just Jim again. Just hang out.")

Seriously. "Making sense" is not an argument that really flies well in this game.

Confirmed.

Account 1 logged in on Guardian - shows on Justice.
Accoutn 2 logged in on Virtue - shows on Virtue
Logged acc2 on Justice - shows on Justice.
Triumph, Victory, Pinnacle, Infinity - all reporting correctly. Haven't tried the others.

Post-ding advancement.

Um... no, it isn't to "keep unwanted powers available." The devs tried breaking the cottage rule with PPPs. You'll notice that, instead of replacing "unused" powers, we now have five choices.

Guess why. The devs were reminded when they were nearly (virtually, even) lynched by the beta community for doing so.

Assuming a power in a set is "not useful" or "unused" is assuming a lot. (See arguments about Dimension Shift/Black Hole, snipes, Rise of the Phoenix, etc.)

I'll say right now I don't see the thread ending well. On the other hand, I do agree there are powers that could use tweaking or even adding to - something the devs *are* known to do (see also Energize) - *as long as the basic purpose of the power is unchanged.*

THAT is the cottage rule. And a reasonable guideline.

That said, my initial submission:

Stalker snipes (all APPs.)

Problem: Duration. A regular Blaster/Defender/Corr/Dom snipe has a four second activation (windup, two "tohit" checks, animate, damage.) Now, I like snipes - I use them with some frequency. Even then, though, that four seconds is plenty of time for a target to wander behind a beam, or make it across a room behind a corner. Eight seconds? There's a reason stalker snipes are generally seen as set mules. That's too much time for an AT to stand around when they could run up, AS, placate and clean up.

Suggestion: Simply reduce the "wind up time" to the standard four seconds. If Hidden damage is an issue, adjust as needed, though it should still be a heavy enough hitter that the payoff for waiting is worth it.

"basically guaranteed to start falling?"

Sorry, Sam, that's flat out wrong, unless you're a TP'ing Stone tank that left Rooted on. (I have Teleport on many characters. I have yet to have a "guaranteed fall.")

Besides, the *instant* I arrive, I can activate my next teleport hop. Yes, it animates. No, I don't fall.

... and quite obviously, I disagree with the OP's characterization of the travel power.

So someone that lives for VAMs... is a VAMpire?