Primacy

I am recently returned, and never really played CoV side so I am unfamiliar with the quests and contacts. And add to that the fact that after a 2 year break, some stuff is still fuzzy. Here is my issue, which maybe isn't an issue at all.

I created my new brute. I leveled him up to 8 doing missions from Kalinda and Mongoose. At level 8 Mongoose had no more missions and didn't give me a new contact. So I leveled to 10 in AE and then tried him again. No intro to a new contact.

I popped into Port Oakes, and the only contact I have is Drea, but he won't give me missions either.

I know on CoH side when you hit multiples of 5 your contacts that you have worked up will introduce you to new contacts. What am I missing?

Feel free to call me a moron.

Holy crap Ton, thanks SO much for the information. This is my first brute, and I am newly returned and am still figuring out IO's, so this is EXACTLY what I was hoping for.

I really appreciate the help!

Having never played a Brute I am unsure of what powers to select while leveling (with no infamy other than what I earn). Can someone post a decent leveling build for me?

I took a long long break from CoX, and am enjoying the game again. In the past I mostly played Blue Side controllers. Initially, I thought I would enjoy playing a dominator since I liked controllers so much. Alas, I found dominators much more frustrating and ended up shelving CoV, more or less.

I have recently been playing my first scrapper on blue side and I find I like the frantic pace, and the "KILL KILL KILL!!!" mindset.

I would like to translate that to a CoV experience so it seemed to me that Brute would be a decent AT to start at, and I have come to ask your advice.

Caveats
I will have little to no influence, apart from what I earn as I level (I may be able to convert some Influence to Infamy, but all my blue side toons are poor as Influence was basically worthless when I left CoX)

I solo almost 100% of the time due to wife aggro

I would like this toon to be able to farm infamy for any later villains I bring up, so Farming at 50 is a goal.

I do not PvP, ever

Anyone have some advice as to what powersets work well for the solo player?

My wife ran a Stone Tank and it worked out great. The bonus is that she will round everyone up and get them nice and clumped for you to dismantle. Whatever primary you take, you should make sure it is a decent damage dealer, but I would skip Illusion, since she will set up good scenarios for AoE containment and damage. Illusion wont work as well bcs of Knockback and lack of AoE containment set up powers.

I played a Fire/Kin with her. Fire works great as it offers great control, AoE damage + high damage pets. I haven't played plant, so I can't offer anything on that. I would also say that Mind does offer good AoE containment capability as well as AoE damage prior to epics.

Ice and Earth are low damage powersets. You wont need as much control with her able to take the hits. I would skip these. Grav is decent ST damage but a slow hitter. Again, I think Mind and Fire are superior for the holes you need to fill.

I would definitely stick with Kin, as speed boost will make your wife's experience with a Stone tank so much better. Also, you guys are a team waiting to happen. You can add pretty much anyone you want and you will still steamroll.

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Second today. Same teammate, but we did my PI SGM. We kill off a few mobs that spot us and head to the bank. We get close and get ambushed by Arachnos as the robbery starts. My teammate dies, rezzes to the entrance and comes back to me. I was fighting the bank robbers right at the bank entrance (initiated the fight right as they exited). We nearly had the boss killed when all of a sudden... Loading screen. Mission failed. I /bugged that. Horrid. We were in the mission maybe 5 minutes.

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My experience was similar on the PI SGM. I Super Jumped to the bank, zoned in, and during the first fight I was kicked out to PI. I didn't get a FAILED notice, nor did I get a XP reward or nifty little power.

Was wondering if I did something wrong. Was I not supposed to head into the bank?

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You'll notice in that quote I said "I think" -- turns out I was wrong. It's a timing issue in code and would need some serious work to address. It's still on the list, but it's low priority due to the difficulty involved.

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Couldn't you make the heal immediate, but then keep the caster frozen for the animation. Quick fix. It makes Trasfusion a little better, so drop the heal amount a little bit to compensate for the buff.

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when the entire game is about damage and you do less than anyone else and if you have defenders and control - you don't need tanks.

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That may be true...but if you have defenders and tanks....you don't need controllers.....and if you have controllers and tanks, you don't need defenders.

I don't see this as an issue. No AT should be required.

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I or someone on my team would come to one of those big open caverns with lots of enemy groups in them, but it would be completely empty. When you got into the middle, all of a sudden, like five groups would spawn around you and start attacking.

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Wow, I had forgotten all about that. I remember telling PUG's I was with to 'trust me, there are a TON of trolls in there..you just can't see em! No, really!! Let me go in invis alone first. Wait!! Don't go in yet!" *team wipe*

Yeah....what he said! Mind Kin has some great synnergy. It one of the few Primaries that has an AoE damage power to take advantage of Fulcrum Shift and Siphon Power.

Not saying that single target doesn't benefit from them, just that....AoE.....crap.....you know what I mean!!

Wow,

My Controllers and my Invul tank already took one in the shorts with this upcoming issue, now my Fire/Ice Tanker does too.

My Fire/Ice Tanker, now level 35, is built entirely around the Burn power. Just as a poster above stated, I picked my secondary to compliment the power. The fire primary was more offensively geared, so I picked a secondary that was more defensively geared.

With this change, my offense has been effectively neutered. Though I know you won't give one, I too would like a full AT respec for my Fire/Ice. I feel like I have wasted a few hundred hours with this alt. I could live with the decreased damage, since I could just take longer to kill stuff, but the increased recharge time (from 8 seconds to 26 seconds?!?!) is crazy. Since I fight my solo missions one group at a time, and don't herd, I already have to chase the stragglers around to kill em. With this change, I will almost have to herd up a group and make em stack to be effective.

I am waiting for a nerf to Ice Patch now, so I can't perma stack that. That's about the only thing that could make this even worse.

Forget that....at this point, I am seriously considering leaving. I see that statement so often on these boards that I know it must ring hollow, especially to any Devs reading. I guess I wait to see what actually makes it to Live, and decide then.

By the way guys, I have a Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster that hasn't been castrated with this issue, you need to get on the ball with that. Wait....did I read somewhere that Full Auto had been nerfed?

Primacy - 50 Illusion Rad - Justice Server

ALT's - many to be retired soon

Udder Kaoz - 35 Fire/Ice Tank - I5 casualty
Cryohawk - 24 Ice/Empathy Controller - I5 casualty
Dev-Null - 18 Invul/Ice - I5 casualty
Udder Kaos - 16 Warshade
High Command - 12 AR/Dev Blaster
Mercurius - 10 Grav/Kin Controller - I5 Casualty
Tasty Cake - 4 Dark/Elec Defender - at level 4, not really a casualty