NightshadeLegree

I've yet to team in Praetoria, and have no intention of doing so unless I've done that particular arc before, for exactly this reason.

I'll also take this opportunity to insert my standard gripe about TFs being impossible to follow unless you're leading the team, and even then a typical speed run will disregard as much of the structure of the missions as possible in favour of MOAR XP GO GO GO. So I'll also throw in my request for soloable TFs with EBs instead of AVs, for those who might actually care about why they're fighting.

I agree with Terminal Velocity.

Additionally, MM personal attacks are essentially useless past about level 20 (weak damage unless you waste slots on them, and disproportionately high end cost) The only time Nightshade fires her guns in the higher levels is if I'm bored watching my pets kill everything. Usually I'm too busy firing off my secondary powers and using Provoke.

I imagine it could also be too powerful. For example a /poison would have another slow to stack with Neurotoxic Breath, and Chem rounds to stack with Weaken. I'm not a number cruncher, but that's my impression.

I would pay good infamy to watch a group of blueside only players running their first Mayhem Mission.

Loyalist.

My Praetorian Hero will carry that title proudly throughout her career in Paragon City.

Look at it this way, to a badly played MM you and the rest of the team are valued allies and they're glad you're there.

To a well played MM the rest of the team are just extra pets with unpredictable AI

The devs have made a rod for their own back with GR. Praetoria looks fantastic, but this has the side effect of making Paragon City (and to a lesser extent the Isles) look terrible. Having a proper skyline, with y'know, actual sky on the horizon rather than energy walls, makes Praetoria feel like a real city. Paragon feels like, as the OP said, lots of little boxes.

The problem with the broker system is that in the early zones by the time you've completed 3 papers and a mayhem mission you've outlevelled half the contacts in the zone, and the smoothing of the xp curve in the early game has made that even more of an issue.

My latest villain ran Kalinda and Mongoose, mostly in a duo at 0/0 setting, and one solo paper at 0/x2/bosses. I didn't even do much street sweeping on the way. She's now level 10. So that's ALL of the PO contacts outlevelled except for The Radio and one unlockable contact at Fort Hades.

So what now? If I finish the papers and run the mayhem I'll get the Radio. By the time I finish the Radio and run the requisite newspapers and mayhem in Cap au Diable I'll easily be level 15, thus outlevelling the 10-15 Cap contacts.

If nothing else I wish they'd extend the level ranges a bit - make Vendetti, Heck and Bocor 6-15; put Themari and the other 10-15s up to 10-20; and extend Brass and the other 15-20s up to 15-25. This would also mean we're not forced to go to Sharkhead at level 20.

That said, Darrin Wade in Sharkhead requires no introduction, and when you conclude his arc I believe he offers you an intro to one of the other Sharkhead contacts, so you can probably skip the papers in Sharkhead altogether if you're so inclined.

You chose to set the sliders to +0/x2/bosses. Therefore the missions you are running are not designed to be solo'd. They are designed to be run by two (2) players.

Whether or not some missions can be run by some characters on +0/x2, or +4/x8 for that matter, is besides the point.

If you want to fight bosses (but not many) then reset to +0/x1/bosses. If you want to fight waves of easily mezzed cannon fodder then reset to +0/x2/no bosses. If you intentionally make the game harder (and you have) then you don't get to complain that it's now too hard.

Miss Francine the Freakshow Teacher: People already fail the last mission of this one on purpose, so let's make that an actual morality choice. Come to think of it, Phipp's arcs are full of opportunities for moral choices and side switching.

The Patron Arcs: Taking down Ghost Widow on Daos' orders really does not sit right with me. Given the choice I'd like the option to tell him to get lost, then fight whoever he sends to actually do his dirty work. I realise from a story point of view the Arbiters are supposed to be invincible, so the eventual outcome of the story would have to be the same, but don't force me to do it.

Limiting myself solely to my 4 currently active characters I can say only one of them will have a second build. My DP/Kin Corruptor will not be taking Speed Boost on her main build because I solo a lot and it's useless for soloists, but I can already hear the cries of despair that any future team will greet me with if I don't have it, so I'll keep it in reserve.

That's really all I use second builds for - making solo friendly set ups on characters with access to a lot of team support powers - so basically Corruptors and Defenders.

The animations I'd most like replaced, and these are powers that I either won't currently take or only use with great reluctance...

The Assassin Strikes for Energy Melee and Dark Melee.
Eviscerate - too showy for what it is, and what's with that weird grunt at the end?
Heal Self - a power I will probably NEVER take until I have the option not to use the 'tricorder'
Anything that uses the chest beating Tarzan animation.

Special mention for Dual Pistols (all) - although I love them as they are some of the moves are a little OTT for some concepts.

I started just before I13, and remember when base recharge was 5 minutes. Now, if you drop in one recharge enhancement it's down to 2 and a half minutes. If you need to Rest more than once every two and a half minutes your difficulty settings are too high or you're doing something wrong.

So /unsigned.

They all moved to Praetoria, where the citizens are healthier, better dressed and don't get mugged on every street corner.

a) When Freedom goes green.

b) When DCUO is released.

c) When the Devs start talking about I19.

d) All of the above

I like the ambushes.

I just ran the Investigate Pharmatox mission - the one with 8 waves of Syndicate ambushes in a row. Running a lvl 9 Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster I took them all down, and it felt great.

My playstyle feels like its on a different level in Praetoria. I'm making more use of positioning (thank you, tier 1 immobilise) and hover blasting and switching back and forth from target to target than I ever have. I love that this is the only MMO I can think of where you can fight your way through eight consecutive ambushes before your level is into double figures, and I love that the GR mission design actually recognises that you are super powered, even in the early levels.

Clearly it's not to everyone's preference, but personally I'm loving it. I just hope that when the devs turn their attention to the incarnate content they deliver something that challenges IO'd 50s as much as GR is challenging the lowbies.

Like the OP I was fully expecting the story of GR to come down to Resistance = Good and Loyalist = Bad. I held out hope that there would be at least a hint that the Resistance weren't all good, or that you could be a Loyalist without being a stereotypical villain, but I wasn't expecting much.

GR has totally exceeded my expectations. When I was running the hospital bombing mission with my Loyalist I could barely believe it - yes, these resistance guys I'd been fighting were terrorists, no question about it. I'm surprised, and very pleased, that the devs have been so willing to portray the 'good guys' like this.

Despite the very impressive new zone tech on display; the interesting and challenging new enemy groups and missions; the excellent new powersets... the thing that's impressed me most in GR is the writing, and how intelligent and well thought out it is.

There's a lot of talk about 'adult' content in games, and usually all that means is sex, gore and strong language... but GR is truly adult content - intelligent, challenging and thought provoking.

Bravo, Devs.

Let's say you can give the zone new contacts and/or revamp the contacts that are already there; new story arcs showing off the clever tech used in GR; revamped enemy groups and of course the visual upgrade to make your one of choice look as good as Praetoria.

Redside I'd go for St. Martial. It's my least favourite villain zone mainly because it promises so much (Las Vegas! With Demons!) and yet it's all a bit bland, with the villains acting like low life mob thugs working for the casinos or beating up Wailers over and over again for Hardcase.

It also features two enemy groups who could really do with a reworking - the aforementioned Wailers with their one minion/one lieutenant/one boss set-up (all sharing the same model give or take size and coloring) and the Family, a group so unsuited to higher level content they've had their xp cut, and who look even shabbier than they did now that we have the Syndicate to compare them with.

And of course the place would look fantastic with a cityscape of GR's quality.

Blueside I find it harder to choose, given how many lacklustre zones there currently are, but measuring it on potential awesomeness vs actual pointlessness the Shadow Shard wins by a mile, for reasons which should be obvious to anyone who's ever visited the Shard.

So what would you pick?