Memphis_Bill

I was thinking the rifts from Aion...

Did others see this as well? Otherwise, something goofy with the client, I'd think.

But I *so* want that effect.

Edit: Snagged my emp and bounced around atlas/guardian for a bit. Nothing happens with HA or HO, no odd mobs. *shrug*

Yes.

Yes.
Hasten's nice. CJ's nice for the immob protection (and the little extra "umph" on some jumps.) Hover fits in well, as does air superiority, and TP Friend or TP Foe? Handy.

Admittedly they may be taken in a different *order,* or a prereq from another pool taken instead, but they're definitely not rendered useless by City Traveler.

... of course (and I'm relying on somewhat rusty memory here,) you're also getting both sides, one of which (quite violently) says the information that comes in (that disagrees with the rest) is wrong. Pick a side, piece in the information - the Orenbangans do generally come out sympathetic in their history, though not in what they do *now.* The Mu are still in a bit of a "kill 'em all" mentality.

This ^^ This ^^ This ^^

I don't want my costume suddenly having impact on performance, either by having some bonus to a piece *or* by having "slots" tied to the costume.

YOu can do quite a bit solo. For regular missions, if you need more than one person, the game will do quite well at warning you (there are a VERY few, old "simultaneous click" missions still out there - where you need more than one person to click on multiple objectives.) Otherwise, you'll see "You may want to bring friends" or "<named boss> has been seen in the area" - you don't always need extra people to fight it, the game scales very well.

Instances... this is going to take a little getting used to for you, I think. Every mission, save the "Defeat X many bad guy group" hunt missions, is an instance - thus the comment to "don't look around and think it's dead." If you think about it, it makes sense. Most games have you running around a wilderness of some sort, or small town - so you're going to run across people. Here, you're in a modern city, having to find people inside warehouses, office buildings and the like. So everyone does stuff "inside." So in that sense, everything is "instanced" and can take varying amounts of time.

Now, there are some things - task forces, strike forces, a few raids (which for the last one you don't worry about 'til the upper levels) that are ... probably closer to the "instances" you're thinking of. You get on a team to do them, and you do need a team to start. That team stays "fixed" - people can leave, but nobody new can join until the task force is done. It will send you on a series of missions to finish some objective - you can catch the storyline, for the most part, by hitting the red "I" up in the navigation bar. They can take from under an hour to several hours, depending on the task force or strike force, your team and difficulty settings. (We have some which have taken 8+ hours to finish up in some cases.)

"Raids" - there are two. One, the Hamidon, (45-50, IIRC) goes up to 50 people. The easiest thing to do is join a global channel, or see your server forum (down below) for when these run. The reward is a HO or SHO - a special type of enhancement that is not an invention (get to that later, dont' worry about them for now) that enhances multiple aspects of your character. The other is the Mothership raid in the Rikti War Zone. The RWZ is a level 35-50 raid - best thing to do is go to paragonwiki and read up on it.

The level cap - The level cap is 50. The level cap, the way the devs see it, will remain 50. The game grows "sideways" instead of up - they add more content and more stuff to do instead of just piling more levels on the top. (For instance, the Invention system in issue 9, which can do... quite a bit to your character, and the upcoming Incarnate system which is designed specifically to make level 50s more powerful, but not be particularly *easy.*)

Rewards - Some will argue with me when I say this isn't a loot based game, so I'm going to clarify it here. Your powers and abilities are centered on *you,* not "the stuff you have." We don't go through a progression of armors and weapons, you don't pick up "noob leather armor," maybe enhance it once, throw it away to get the next one in five levels, etc. You don't replace powers, either - that basic punch or blast you start with, you get to keep. You do, however, get to add slots to fit enhancements in, adding accuracy, damage, or whatnot (and the powers will tell you what you can add.)

(By comparison, while I don't play WoW, I do play Aion. My Ranger is no longer ranged if I start using swords and daggers. The speed boosts she gets from boots, gloves, and other equipment go away completely if I upgrade to something that doesn't have those benefits. In COH, while the degree can be altered by enhancements, you don't "pick up" items for powers - aside from temporary ones.)

So - rewards. You will get multiple things dropping. Influence/Infamy = money, and it falls readily. (Plus you don't have to spend it on gear and skills.) Enhancements will drop that you can use to adjust your powers, or sell. Shortly into the game, salvage and recipes will drop - you can use them to make "Invention origin" enhancements, store, or sell them at a vendor or the auction house. Some are, of course, worth more than others - I'd generally say, as a start, watch them and look at what they do, but don't start worrying about them 'til you're comfortable with the basics. Also, some activities (some of which have prerequisites) as well as finishing your story arcs will drop "merits" of various sorts which can be used to purchase other items - another "don't worry about it at first" thing.

I will add, one thing that will be nice - you will feel more powerful than in some other games. Again, looking at Aion, most fights are 1v1 or 2v1 if you're solo vs mobs. More than that, you're in trouble. Elites are trouble. Generally, to fight a small group, you need a bigger group (and a "holy trinity" of tank-"healer"-DPS going on.) Here? You will regularly be fighting multiple mobs (of various sizes) and, while help might be *nice,* you generally won't need it ('til you hit named bosses, elite bosses, and Archvillains/Heroes - and even then, some powersets and builds can chew through them easily.) Giant monsters (if you're heroside, you'll probably see the Kraken, or Lusca in Independance Port, Jack in Irons or the like, villainside will give you Caleb, Scrapyard and his mob, Deathsurge and others) will need a team, generally. And for most things, pretty much *any* combination of ATs (classes) will work.

Apparently for the last month or so, my WoW account has been used almost daily for a transaction scam, has questionable transactions or the like.

I thought that was a neat trick, given I don't have a WoW account.

Only if they insist on remaining noobs (not newbies who want to learn, newbies are good) and complaining that the game isn't doing things like WoW.

/this.

As far as moving money, the only thing you can do ATM is find someone you can trust who will take X amount of Influence and give you Y amount of Infamy back. (Or get a good drop, sell it and make the money.)

Yeah. Melee and range preference for that "ranged' group really depends on the sets. For instance - Kinetics? (Controllers, Defenders, Corruptors) - Expect to be in melee to get the most bang for your buck. And dominators, in general, are going to be hitting controls and jumping in nice and close (with many sets) to take advantage of their Assault sets - again, depending on the set. (/Fire can be played well at mostly ranged, /Energy likes being up close.) Blasters, as well, have some hard hitting attacks in melee you'll want to take advantage of - and many nukes require you to be in the middle of what you're about to blow up.

And Red Dwarf is a TV show.

Prove it was a minority.
Then prove it was because of them it was changed.

(Personally, I don't care either way.)

/this. And over several routers, Linksys and Netgear.

4-series has the 465 (new,) 470 and 480. Word on the 465 has it.... let's just say "less than impressive." The 5830 from ATI is basically a crippled 5850, and it seems to be outperforming the 465 - and both, so far, are a bit overpriced for what they are. A 5770 does all right, though (I'm running one myself.)

All characters can be good characters. The question is, what do you want out of it? What do you enjoy doing/playing?

For instance, I have a hard time getting into Scrappers. They're an easy(ish) class to play - defense, status protection, and good melee damage - but they don't really "click" with me. I tend to like controllers and dominators instead - less damage, more status effects, debuffs/buffs or a damage secondary.

In any case, you have 11 servers (assuming you're on the NA servers,) and 12 free slots per server. Experiment a bit.

Was that broken for a while, or am I thinking of something else? (No longer providing TPF protection, that is.)