Patteroast

Numina: 26-1=25
Synapse: 32
Citadel: 28
Statesman: 6
Back Alley Brawler: 44+1=45
Manticore: 33
Positron: 33
Sister Psyche: 37

I have a Mercs/Poison at level 50, and a quite new Mercs/Force Field at 13. I think that Mercs/Force Field is a very good choice, I'm really liking the synergy. I tried it out on beta during one of the level-bump-to-50 times, and my build with Leadership, Medicine, and Field Mastery worked out better than I'd hoped.

As for Mercs/Poison, I thought of that exact same plan for a Serum+Noxious Gas'd Commando, but I guess I had more success, because I found it to work rather well, at least for AV/Hero fights on a team. Telling the Commando individually to go to melee range and stay is vital. But once it's set up, and if the AV isn't a weenie who runs around all the time, it's gravy. Used that strategy on my first (and only) Master of Statesman TF run. My commando even took over tanking a couple times when he was on Serum, and the Brute was healing up. Right now, I'm rather excited to see how my character plays with the Poison changes coming in I21.

Of course, Dark Miasma should work pretty awesomely as well, since it's just an overall awesome set.

What will I play? All of them.

I hope to eventually play each of the new sets for each archetype it's on, continuing my long-term goal to play every set on every AT.

I haven't made any really concrete plans yet (my computer recently died, and it's uncertain that I'll have a new one anytime soon... putting a slight damper on things), but the other day I tried making up a rough pile of powerset combos to have as a starting point. As follows:

Dark/Mental Blaster
Beam/Electric Blaster
Fire/Darkness Blaster
Titan/Stone Brute
Super Strength/Regen Brute
Broad Sword/Willpower Brute
Street Justice/Energy Brute
Electric/Time Controller
Gravity/Poison Controller
Psychic/Time Corruptor
Dual Pistols/Poison Corruptor
Beam/Something Corruptor
Time/Beam Defender
Thermal/Radiation Defender
Storm/Fire Defender
Robotics/Sonic Mastermind
Thugs/Time Mastermind
Battle Axe/Fire Scrapper
War Mace/Energy Scrapper
Titan/Willpower Scrapper
Street Justice/Dark Scrapper
Street Justice/Willpower Stalker
Something/Ice Stalker
Shield/Martial Arts Tanker
Super Reflexes/Dual Blades Tanker
Electric/Titan Tanker

... and probably more, since that doesn't cover everything. Although I should probably wait to see if there are any more new powersets on the Paragon Market after I21, that could change plans as well. As for what I'll make first? Defenders are my favorite, so probably Time/Beam.

Numina: 29-1=28
Synapse: 31
Citadel: 26
Statesman: 11
Back Alley Brawler: 40
Manticore: 33+1=34
Positron: 33
Sister Psyche: 36

I'd be happy if this change happened. It seems unlikely to affect me, as nearly all the SGs I'm in are composed of myself and a few friends, but I know the frustration of putting time and effort into an SG, having a nice big number to show off as proof, and a simple mistake wiping it all away. I'm not sure how there could be any negatives tied to this change.

I find this post kind of fascinating, as I'd say I'm somewhere around the exact opposite in playstyle.

I'm not sure if there's a way to simply 'turn off' or get over your desire to play the 'best' character, because in comparison, I don't think I could ever enjoy the playstyle you describe. I personally find my fun in seeing how each powerset combination plays, and I absolutely love seeing what I can do with the 'weak' powersets. Since my motivation is more of an 'exploration' driven one, it would drive me nuts to ignore powersets that are available to me. There are plenty of levels of play below the min-maxxed always-most-uberness, and personally I'd never give them up to try it. I think being the 'best' would make me grow bored of the game, while I revel in struggling to survive on a solo defender through the low levels, or trying to figure out how to make a sloppy PUG work through the teens. Of my fifties, only have even have IO sets, and maybe one has a purple set. I've never had a PvP IO, and I only have an Incarnate ability on one character.

Though I can't say I can truly understand where you're coming from any more than you could me, I think the best advice I've seen in this thread is to either take a short break from the game or try starting anew on a different server. Another idea... maybe try making one of each AT that is as uber as possible? I'm not sure if you'd be able to enjoy the 'lesser' ATs enough to get to that point, but it's a thought.

Hope you find your fun again!

For taking on an AV, probably the easiest set to do it with is Stone Armor, one you get Granite. It's not a particularly forgiving set before that, but one you have Granite you can tank just about anything out of the box, without a fancy build or even anything more than SOs.

However, with a well-built team, any Tanker can hold aggro on an AV. Hell, a Scrapper can do it. My first level 50 was an Empathy/Electric Defender, and together with a friend's Broad Sword/Invuln Scrapper, we duoed just about every AV in the game... we even took on Lusca, although we gave up after two tentacles when it became clear it would take forever.

If you're looking to solo an AV, I'll leave that to more knowledgeable people in this thread, but if you just want to get through, absolutely anything can solo an EB with the right strategy, caution, and inspirations. If anyone wants to dispute that statement, I can point to my petless Mastermind, who soloed an EB in the teens, pre-inherent-Stamina.

Numina: 30-1=29
Synapse: 30
Citadel: 27
Statesman: 12
Back Alley Brawler: 40
Manticore: 31+1=32
Positron: 33
Sister Psyche: 36

I think the problem might be that you can't control who your pet is targetting, other than telling them to attack your target. I don't know that they even CAN target friendlies...

I once had a level 12 character on redside who I didn't play for a couple issues, and when I got back my mission was filled with level 35 Prisoners.

I also once had a mission on my main Dominator randomly change from St. Martial to Recluse's Victory. I held onto it for the novelty of it until that character went Rogue and had to give it up to visit Paragon.

Finally, shortly before the Mission Architect came out, a friend got a mission full of something like 'generic critters', which all looked like Longbow, had the descriptions that were later used to describe generic minions, lieutenants, and bosses, and had no attacks.

Yeah, radio/paper missions break pretty easily.

I don't think that should matter? If you're able to do the arc, you should be able to get the badge.

Hah, nice. I've got a somewhat similar character, an Arachnos Widow whose work in Arachnos is towards the government of the Rogue Isles. Undersecretary Liv is second in command of the Arachnos-run Rogue Isles Department of Education. I don't think there's much of a school system in the Rogue Isles, but she wants to be an arbiter with a cushy job. Though she has full combat training from Arachnos, she doesn't spend much time on the front lines. She's well described as an 'evil librarian'.

Keep in mind, not every new powerset will need to be purchased by VIPs. Time Manipulation is coming to them for free.

As soon as they said there'd be a store, I kind of assumed it would be this way from the start. There'd be a bunch of goodies, VIPs would get free points to buy some, but if you wanted everything now you'd have to pay. All the while, even without putting any money in, Issue 21 will be a rather huge issue. Issue 21's free stuff + the stuff I can buy with my points = awesome issue, even if I can't afford buying all the extras and have to wait a couple months.

My fastest was probably about six months. My first 50 took about that long, and I was playing him nearly exclusively for a while. Another time, I made a character based off a friend's main, and playing together with me SKed up, it went rather fast.

On the other hand... the longest it's taken me if somewhere over five and a half years. And there are some characters that are still well below fifty that are older than that already. (I've got a level 20 Scrapper that I made in the spring of '05... obviously, I play him pretty infrequently, but he was 19 just last month )

Then again, I'm an example of someone who plays alts HEAVILY. I currently have 117, and I21 has given me ideas for as many as 25 more.

Every character I've brought to fifty took the time to accumulate history and by the end, the journey felt suitably epic and exciting for me. I can look back on being a tiny lowbie, no cape or anything, running around and not knowing how to really use my powers. Then, hopping around the mid-level zones, starting to feel 'super' for the first time, probably joining a giant monster fight I wasn't really ready for. All the wins and defeats, perfectly strategized victories and sloppy mistakes and close calls. That's what makes a level 50 for me. The character I feel that way about the least? The one that took 'only' six months while SKed up to my friend's character the whole way. I never bring him out because he doesn't really feel like he's mine, like someone just lent me a 50 who I don't understand.

You'll keep those extra slots either way. If you keep subscribing, nothing will change in that regard. Game keeps going like normally, you can play all your characters.

If you stop paying, you'll have all the extra slots plus two to pick which characters to play, or make new ones. If you go free, you will NOT be able to access all twelve slots you got originally per server, and the 2+Extra slots that you get to use will be across all servers. (Not two+ per server, two+ total.) However, you would be able to choose which characters to keep playing, and the ones that you didn't choose wouldn't be deleted, just greyed out until you either a) bought some more slots and chose them, or b) resubscribed, and all your characters became available again.

Hope that helps!

Also, please add the European servers to the same list as the North American, since they're merged now!

I've tried to integrate the first Rikti War into quite a few of my characters' backstories. It seems unlikely that any of these would be helpful, as most of them are rather far from Galaxy City...

Explomadoza, my Empathy/Electric/Power Defender had his abilities for years before the war. He was in a UN Peacekeeping mission in Sumatra at the time, and went to the nearest center of battle, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to help. (This has to do with a bit of lore that I once read that other than Paragon City, the cities with the heaviest fighting in the Rikti War were Rome and Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, no idea where I read that...) Afterwards, he responded to the call from Statesman that Paragon needed assistance.

Patteroast, my Claws/Invulnerability Scrapper gained his abilities a couple years prior to the war. He lived in Minnesota at the time, and fought a couple loose patrols of Rikti raiders in Minneapolis, and then Chicago, before heading to the main fighting in Paragon City. He wouldn't have arrived until after the first day, however.

Dr. Fejwol, my Stone/Stone Tanker was a nanotech professor at the University in Steel Canyon, and a contact working with a number of tech heroes. When the Rikti arrived, he used his nanites to assemble a rough armor and went into battle. He fought in Steel Canyon, and in Kings Row, where he grew up.

Particle Accelerator, my Energy/Energy Stalker was a hero before the war, but after feeling ignored after being severely injured in a mission, he improved his invisibility cloak and robbed a bank. He was caught, convicted, and during the Rikti War was incarcerated in The Zig. Later on he was broken out by Arachnos, spent a couple years doing odds and ends in the Rogue Isles, before finally returning to Paragon during the second Rikti War to help.

Patticus, my Illusion/Trick Arrow Controller was a former pickpocket-turned-stage magician who lived in White Plains. When the Rikti struck, he projected a rather convincing illusion that his apartment block was already destroyed, giving his neighbors time to evacuate.

Bill Bowman, my Trick Arrow/Archery Defender was a normal citizen of Atlas Park, owner of a hardware store that his father had run since Bill was a child. He enjoyed archery as a hobby, ever since he tried it as a whim when someone had told him his name made him sound like an archery hero. Like many civilians, he spent most of the first hours of battle trying to hide from the invaders, but then he caught a glimpse out the shattered window of his store of Manticore fighting off the Rikti with nothing but a bow and arrow. He gathered up some material from his store, grabbed his bow, and headed out to protect his home. He mostly fought a few stragglers in alleys, and after the war registered as a hero.

A couple other characters fought a couple small groups of Rikti, but there aren't any others involved in major battles or changed as a person because of the fighting.

Well, I'm not sure how to make it into a funny joke, but my computer got fried last week, and despite that I'm currently desperately browsing the CoH forums on the terrible browser on my Playstation 3, trying to sate my appetite for CoH that way. So... yeah. I think that counts as addicted.

I've never cared much at all for only playing the more 'uber' powersets, so I've been happily playing all sorts of secondaries the whole time. I've always thought that Energy Aura worked just fine on a Stalker (it sure does on my Energy/Energy... I would say he's one of my top three favorite characters out of more than 115...)

As for Ninjitsu, it seems fine to me, but not zomgneverplayanythingelseeveragain good. My fourth highest Stalker has it, and I'd like to level them up more (they're only 26 at the moment.) Ahead of them is my 50 /Energy, my 41 /Willpower, and my 35 /Dark.

For me, this will just mean that my awesome character will get even more awesome. And that I have another secondary to try on Stalkers, so I'll need to make a new character to try Ice Armor.

I've played with patriotism as a motivator on a number of my characters, mostly to bolster the reasoning that some of my less-than-evil characters have had to stay in the Rogue Isles or be Loyalists in Praetoria.

I've got an Arachnos Soldier who I'd like to end up as a vigilante. He was born in the Rogue Isles, and despite the fact that he knows quite well that the system is horribly corrupt and even actively harmful, he's naive enough that his fondness for his home was enough to make him think that he could do some good by joining Arachnos. Of course, following the VEAT storyline, by the time I start playing him, he's already seen that he was wrong and is trying to get out.

A good example in Praetoria is a character of mine who grew up there and has a strong drive to protect his city and the people living there, and at least at first, thinks that although Cole's system of law is imperfect, it's the best way to do good. He likely would have a rude awakening as soon as he tried reporting abuses that he's witnessed.

As for purely heroic characters, the Primal Earth version of that Praetorian is a man who lived his whole life in Atlas Park, and despite not having powers of his own, simply had to go out and fight when the Rikti came. Nowadays, he spends most of his time running a small supergroup whose goal is to keep Atlas Park safe.

On the other hand, my first level 50 is a nearly entirely team-oriented Empathy/Electric Defender who works with UN Peacekeeping missions, going aroung the world trying to protect innocents from oppressive regimes and natural disasters. He is definitely more motivated by his sense of morals than his affection for his home. (He happens to have grown up mostly on various atolls in the Pacific where nuclear testing occurred... his parents were globe-trotting medics as well, just of the non-superpowered variety.)