Narkor

If they haven't, allowing Corruptors and Defenders to switch sides and, with the upcoming issue 21, allowing them to START off as heroes or villains, respectively, pretty much shows that they are heading in that direction.

I think one of them mentioned, during the proliferation preview/chat/whatever, that they were looking at porting every possible set around.

Then again, we may never know unless they say it themselves. So this is mostly speculations.


As for the topic at hand; I'm guessing someone hasn't played with Defenders a lot? Or even played one, for that matter.
I mean, making a whole team, or even a league, indestructible, unstoppable or whatever you want to call it, is hardly 'useless'. Especially when there are still many ATs, or even powersets, who do not build for the softcap, let alone the resist cap (beside Warshades, I can't think of anyone who can have capped resistances). And there aren't that many powersets that can reach the damage cap. Oh, and I don't think there's a recharge cap.

Really, if you want to see how useful Defenders are, I suggest using your EYES and keeping track of some of your stats (say, defenses when playing with a FF/, resistances when playing with a Sonic/ or (soon) a Thermal/. And don't forget your damage when going around with a Kin/).

Oh, and look at those orange numbers, will you? I've started playing a Rad/Sonic and while I don't make a whole team bulletproof, -anything- melts in front of them. Why? Because I apply a ton of -res and other nasty things to whatever comes at the team.

Could I do this as a Controller? No, because they don't have Sonic Blast. Yea, the debuffs would still be good, just not of the same magnitude.
Could I do this as a Corruptor? Maybe, since they do have Sonic Blast and Radiation Emission. But have you looked at the numbers? 5% more -res on all the blasts with -res and Innervating Field has 7.5% more -res. How does this translate in practice? 7.5% more damage to any foe affected by IF and 5% more damage, per blast application, to a single target.
That red/purple boss over there? He'll take a second or two more than the minions, tops.

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I've been on a series of Lambda where dancing during the Marauder cutscene is the 'in' thing to do, so there's always a bunch of people doing it.
I'd say, more then half the time, someone will aggro him and either drag him out (intentionally or not) or bring him to the league.

It's been putting me off from doing some recently, but with the OP's post, I might have regained enough faith to run a few...

I'm just going to hop in here and mention that putting the stealth IO in CJ on my Fort build was my WORST decision ever (on that character).

Also, it's not like if the end cost was actually troublesome, since you're only using Sprint to stealth (when slotted with the IO, obviously) through stuff. Once you arrive at your destination, you can just toggle if off.

So, you'll get pl'ed in PI or through a TV farm?
I'm sure there were other farms before those, but these two were the first ones that I was introduced to.
The only thing that AE did was simplify farming and change the zone in which it was done. Don't let the idea that because you didn't see people advertising for farms, there weren't any fool you. (hope I worded that correctly) Farming is a common practice throughout just about every MMO. Especially more so if players can greatly benefit from it (Powerleveling comes to mind).


Now, with that out of the way, I'd mention Katana/Willpower or Regeneration works wonders. It's also the first thing that popped in my head when I read your post; seems to fit everything just fine.

Mace/ has some nice mitigation tools, so that might be an option to consider. Though I'd guess the redraw on Mace/Regen may not be to your liking (I know it isn't for me).

I've seen a bunch of BS/Inv characters running around and I'm about to roll one... if I can find the time to do so. Guessing there's some sort of conspiracy or something

Almost everything can have good damage, to be honest. Especially if you pick an AT that is meant to dish it out, it'll be really hard to pick something that won't deal enough.

As for the 'light on the inf' part, you can decide to stick with SOs or just the common IOs. Both are fairly 'cheap' and affordable. If you feel the need to invest more into your character, you can then decide to move on to set IOs.

Also, you can get fairly lucky in terms of drops. Especially more so if you decide to do TFs and the likes as you level. Reward Merits can come in quickly easily and will grant you access to a large variety of IOs.
Once you hit level 20, you can start doing tip missions; if you do hero or villain tips as a hero or villain (respectively), you'll end up getting an Alignment Merits every two days or so (depending on your frequency of doing said tip missions). These Merits can also be spend on some expensive IOs (Luck of the Gambler 7.5% global recharge for 2 H/V Merits comes to mind).

You could also play the market for inf, but that's subject to taste. I know that I'm not that good at it and find it rather 'plain', but it is a nice source of income.

Beside that, I'd say; look at all the weapon sets (if you haven't already) and try to picture your future character. If only for a moment, it can very well get you started.
Bonus points if you try the sets up to level 5-10 to get a certain feeling of how it goes with each one.

Hope this helps.

I've read it's a MM only thing, which is pretty plausible from my point of view.

If I could name my pets, I dunno, I'd probably find a name that would fit the maximum number of characters available. But that's just me.

I, hum... I...

I like this.
So I'll third that, if it counts anyhow.

Was trying to be funny by thinking it'd sound like haxor. Y'know, the way an axor would be, well, hax.
Guess it didn't go through as planned!

Silly me; funny guy? Course not.
I need to stop trying... some day.

Axor.

This.


And while we're on the subject of backpacks, how about some word on that crab backpack?
Yes, the one that sticks around, when you don't need it.
Yes, it's also the one who's preventing you from using cloaks, wings and other back details on your Soldier.

If only it could disappear when I decide to play whack-a-mole, I'd probably play my Soldier more often.

Free transfers? Aren't we talking about new players coming in for the first time?

There is a huge difference between those, to be honest.
Players who are, well, already playing are less likely to change servers, considering there are many factors which may hold them onto their existing servers (friends, supergroups, the general community, etc.).

On the other hand, new players? New players don't want a half-dead server. I'm pretty sure everyone can be quite guilty of that. Just try a free to play game. Pick one, any of them, as long as it has multiple servers. Which server would you choose? The one that only had a single bub out of three? Isn't that server less likely to have players running around, forming groups and providing help than the one who has two or three bubs out of three?
The main reason behind a new player's server selection is generally the population of said server. Since, really, there isn't anything else that the new player can base himself on.

It really feels like CoX:Freedom will be relying on the returning players to boost up the population on the low-pop servers and make them attracting to new players.

As someone who has been thinking of making alts on another server once Freedom goes live, I'm also concerned about this. If the huge influx of -new- players decide to play on the Freedom or Virtue server, and not on the others, well these other servers will surely become underpopulated.

Really, from a first glimpse at the replies, I think some may have missed the point (possibly blinded by the 'idea' in the OP).

Oh and yea, that's how I chose to play on Freedom when I first started playing. Pick the highest populated server and roll. Granted it wasn't specifically my idea (to roll on Freedom) at the time, but still, I can see many new players making that same decision and leaving the other lower populated server, well, with a lower population.

Would be pretty neat if there was a customizable option to do so (say, kind of like changing the colors on the Judgement or Destiny powers at a tailor).
For those of us who can very easily fit in using non-ghostly essences into our character concept, that would be awesome.