MissInformed

It's really hard to set a time without knowing when we need to be back for events, panels, etc. I sent a PM to Avatea asking her if she has this info and could post it. I'd hate to see us all agree to a time, difficult as that can be, only to have them announce the first panel starts 30 minutes later.

EDIT: I heard back from Avatea and she says the schedule should be posted soon. She also said that if we can finish breakfast by 9:00, we should be fine. But she wasn't specific, so I don't know if that means registration opens at 9:00, the store opens at 9:00, or panels start at 9:00.

Either way, sounds like we might be in for some early mornings. I'm afraid I might see Karo drink Mountain Dew for breakfast again! I sense tears coming from the East Coasters.

Then step away from your computer and do something real about it. Harrassing people for pronouns and winking isn't going to remove any glass ceiling.

This. If you can rationalize the energy bolts flying out of your hands, how is the other part such a stretch? Illusion characters give you mental/imaginary wounds. You may have noticed that if you're hurt by a Carnie Illusionist and then defeat her, a moment later you get a large green number over your head. That's the illusion wearing off. No reason ALL your powers can't be illlusions, even if you didn't choose that as a powerset. Fire is easy to imagine as an illusion. Broadsword and Disembowel is harder, but again... you rationalized flight. You can do it!

This is my answer, as well. I had a character stuck at level 15 for nearly 3 years. She's been 50 for two years now and sometimes she does nothing for a few months, then I play her at least once a week for another few months.

There's no "done" or "end content" in a game that doesn't end.

It's been that way for centuries. It doesn't bother me. If I want to fight for gender equality, there are far more serious issues on which to spend my time. The use of "him" vs "her" isn't high on my list. When I write for business I alternate for each example or use "him/her." I also alternate names like Smith with Garcia, Huynh, etc. I don't agree with using plurals for a singular, so I avoid that.

My dilmena with the "him/her" issue is the global economy/business world. When I get an email from someone about another person, I often have no idea how to respond with a pronoun, since I don't know if the person named is male or female. I find myself writing very long sentences repeatedly referencing the person by name. Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla, indeed.

If you really just started playing this month, don't spend your real money on a respec. Wait and do the mission to earn one or re-start your character if you are way too low level to wait. There's nothing you could have screwed up so badly you should have to pay $10 to fix it when you can earn free respecs. Those are mostly for players who have used all their respecs. Or have no patience and extra cash. If you're of the latter group, by all means, spend the $10. But you should be aware there are other ways that won't cost you a dime.

Speak for yourself. My Dark Defender doesn't run, doesn't run missions on "easy," and is no lowly sidekick. Sure, I can't do as much damage on my Defender as I can on my Blaster or Scrapper, but there's more to being Heroic than doing damage.

A Defender is what you make it. If you make a team-based Empath and don't slot your blasts, don't cry about not being a Blaster. Some are more difficult to solo than others, but much of that depends on the character level, powers chosen, and slotting. You can choose create more of a support build or more of an offensive build. My Empath is a team defense build and slow to solo, my Dark is an offensive build and solos very well. With the dual-build option, you can even be both on one character.

And that Blaster, no matter how hard he tries, will never be able to res 4 teammates at once. Talk about feeling heroic.

If you think a Defender has to be a lowly sidekick, you don't know what you're talking about.

Stamina will help. When you get the 12-month Vet Reward badge, consider taking the Ghost Slaying Axe on any Dark-based characters you have and Sands of Mu on the others. The Ghost Slaying Axe is pretty situational, doing bonus damage to any "true" undead, but not much damage to anything else. It does 130% bonus damage against Circle of Thorn spirits, which is good news for any dark player. It can't be slotted for accuracy and the recharge isn't fast, but I've found that if I can hit a ghost before it drops a debuff on me, the CoT fights can go much more quickly than without the Axe.

Doms and Brutes do go well together. Really, the only thing I don't like mixing in CoV is melee and Masterminds. Seems as soon as I've hit a target, the pets decide that's the one they want to kill and they do it faster. Robots Masterminds are the worst for my melee characters to team with. If I get on a team with bots, I'll likely quit or switch to one of my non-melee characters. Players with Energy or other knockback powers can knock things down, into corners, etc, but bots just knock them all over the place. They're more fun to team with when I'm not melee.

Dominators are mostly melee fighters when it comes to secondaries, but my Plant/Thorns Dom has several ranged and all her Dom powers are ranged. I have no trouble playing her on a team with bots.

I've run in windowed mode for years now and I still lose my cursor. Happened several times last night.

Options to change the cursor would be nice.

I suppose I could say it's totally unfair that all the reactivated people get to play for free something I've been paying for all 5 years now. It's all just how you look at it. You didn't get something for free. The rest of us pay for it. I dug down, but I still can't feel too badly about your boo-hoos and hurt feelings.

It shouldn't be that surprising, considering how negative people have been about the game on the CoH forums for years. Some changes didn't go over well and some people are still mad about the "purple" nerf, the addition of PvP, Enhancement Diversification, etc etc.

Why bash something you love? One person's treasure is another's trash. We don't all like the same things and you shouldn't expect that something you love is going to be loved by all. And thank goodness, I say. It makes the world a more interesting place full of more choices than I know what to do with.

Aside from the fact that you can "switch sides," I don't know anything about what GR includes. Until I hear more, I don't see a reason to decide one way or another. Switching sides isn't anything I'm interested in, so I'll wait to hear more about what comes along with that to see if I want to upgrade. If the other content sounds fun and like something I'd want, I would likely preorder.

Anything you want. You can retire it, delete it, use it to earn lots of inf/inf for low level characters, if it has crafting memorization badges, you can use it to craft IOs to give to your other characters, and you can play it.

I play my level 50's more often than anything else. I run task forces often and there's always a level range to consider. With a 50 there is nothing I can't do, so I never have to say, "Gosh, I'd love to join you, but I don't have any characters in that range." My 50's rake in the influence/infamy and can hold more slavage/recipes than any other characters I have. Since they have access to all their powers, they're a heck of a lot of fun in the higher level TFs, too.

So, what happens to your level 50? Anything you want.

I don't care what you told us when you started, I think "Manoa" is Hawaiian for "very wise woman."

I absolutely understand what you're saying and I'm a big fan of venting and recovering. But I also know that it's generally never a good idea to capture all that raw emotion in writing and on an internet forum. You never know what your legacy will be, but there's a better than average chance that you'll be remembered by someone for the worst thing you said or did, despite any good you've done the other 364 days a year. The devs do read the forums and while they can't read everything, Murphy's Law suggests they'll somehow stumble on the one where you called them names and cussed them out.

Anyone who knows me knows I love a good rant and even the occasional full-on freak out. But pick your rant-mates with care. Rant in your team channel, on Skype, with your neighbor, whatever. But always think twice before you put it in writing for the world to see.

And believe me, if I've given good advice here, it's not because I think I'm above all that or would never do it myself. I'm giving it because I know first hand that it can work against you and if anyone else can learn something from my experiences, hopefully before they make the mistake on their own, then I think that's making the best out of a bad situation.

I don't know what the mysterious "server maintenance" entails. I don't know, for example, if there's a person who needs to push the button, do stuff, etc in that time frame. If so, that makes things more complicated, but I wonder if they would consider a rotating schedule. Week 1 is inconvenient for Group A, Week 2 is good for Group A, but inconvenient for Group B, etc. Maybe they could switch every other week or every three weeks. If they posted the schedule in a prominent place for people to find, which it currently isn't aside from "we're making a change/special times" posts, that would help ease some confusion on the player end.

I blame the costume contest, which more people know about this year. Get ready for the Catgirl Invasion.