Sterling

I am running a DS/Therm on Open Beta right now and am really liking it. I may go with DS/FF when it goes live though. There are some skippable powers in /FF that would allow me to go with more of the DS/ attacks. Which are are very useful for MM attacks for a change.

I'd like being able to have a tail and a belt please.

The first defender I have rolled was an Emp/Rad. He's one of the first toons I made and is still sitting at lvl 36. I only play him once in a blue moon, mainly because when it comes to doing anything outside of a group it's painfully slow killing anything. Being able to solo him more effectively may entice me to actually do something with him. I'm not looking to be able to roll through mobs like a scrapper with that toon. But there are times where teaming isn't viable or you just don't want to team. In times like those playing a defender becomes a much bigger liability when compared to the other AT's with buff/debuff/heal capabilities, such as the Controller or Corruptor. Defenders don't need to be made into damage machines but a little more parity between the three AT's that have support sets would be nice.

My Controllers don't have the fighting pool and do quite well. But neither of them is built specifically for farming. For farming specific kinds of mobs with certain IO builds, having Tough and Weave would be very useful. But if you aren't making a toon for being a primary farmer that power pool is quite skippable for a controller.

Thing is with fat sliders I think that if you pick a fat character you shouldn't be able to make that character skinny in any other costume, even with the science pack.

I think all fat characters that want to slim down should be required to go into "diet mode" where logging out in the hospital (or create a gym to log out in) lets you move your slider bar to slimmer bit by bit depending on how much time you have been logged off in that location and give us some badges like "Dieter" and "Nutritionist". Of course logging out in front of an "Infront Steakhouse" automatically starts to shift the slider bar back towards the fat direction.

I wish I could have an opinion on this. I wanted to see how PVP was in this game now...I ran a baby Fire/Dark Corruptor into BB on Justice server just to see what was up. I expected to get my butt handed to me, no big deal. But I saw no one at all to mess around with. It was just completely dead. It's hard to find out how PvP in a game is if no one on your server is actually PvP'ing. Might have to give it a try again later.

I made a Fire/Dark Corruptor to make into a hero eventually. I may make a Dom as well to move over to hero side. Not to interested in moving any of my heroes over to redside though. For ranged I like those two AT's better then blasters or defenders. I like Controllers just fine. So I may get rid of the two Blasters I have and replace em with either of those redside AT's

Just started a Fire/Dark. She's only lvl 9 but for performance at low levels I am quite pleased with her. I am looking forward to getting a larger variety of powers to play with. It looks very promising.

This method is still valid. I have nothing on redside and I just started a Corruptor. I made around 500K Influence in about 20 to 30 minutes shuttling back and forth to the quartermaster on Mercy with Ninja Run...It isn't a ton of cash but It will see me through DO's and if I do it a few more times it should see me through SO's. I'm planning on moving her over to blueside once GR comes out so I am not worried at all about sets for her right now. I get a few mill and I am good to go to 50. Though I may make some Invention IO's in the 25 to 30 range so I wont have to keep replacing the standard SO's.

Well the OP did mention that he was "Curmudgeonly" from the get go...Can't exactly expect puppies and rainbows from a self-admitted grump.

I don't really feel the need to gratz all the time myself. Though I am a generally friendly guy. I mean going from lvl 12 to 13 isn't that big a deal. If someone else gratz's I might as well or just say "me too". I do try to throw a gratz out there when someone hits the big five-oh though.

I do Like Steelclaw's list though. I may have to steal some of them for myself :-)

I like this suggestion...Took me nearly a week to get a lvl 29 Posi that I wanted for my controller. Of course I'm not suprised with all the new pistoleras running around. But still it would have been nice to put one bid out for something in the 25-30 lvl range. May have saved a bunch of time.

Admittedly a FF defender without individual bubbles is an odd build. But did she contribute to the team's goal of finishing the TF? Was the problem your personal desire of having a bubble so you wouldn't be so squishy? Seems like you finished your TF? If you want an optimized speed run team I suggest being the team leader and putting it together yourself. But I think you have to keep in mind, spending the time to find the "right" team can end up outstripping the time spent with the "OK we gotta enough warm bodies lets roll." method.

Been playing a Plant/Storm 'troller. I don't have O2 Boost. Nice power, I just don't have the slots to make it worthwhile. Would you want me kicked because you expected the /Storm to have a heal?

I like the idea. There is already a ton of precedence for robot Super-Heroes...I could also see it being popular with the AE writers.

As other posters have said, other video games have been made into movies. The vast majority of them sucked. I think that the Resident Evil movies may be the best out of the lot and that isn't saying a whole lot...

Given the right script and directing I would give it a shot. I'd probably be more inclined to see an animated movie then a real life one though. Super-hero costumes don't generally translate well to real life and in a COH movie there would be enough spandex to blind you.

Paid level-ups to 50 is a bad idea in my opinion. It won't stop RMT anyways. Actually giving the player-base legitimate pre-leveled 50s with 0 influence would only increase the RMT market. Also, while you are leveling you get to know how to play your character better (In theory at least). Furthermore, it isn't like it is hard to get a toon to 50 these days anyways.

I realize the OP was being conjectural but I think it is a bad idea all around in my opinion.

Yeah, Lightning Clap is pretty useless. About the only thing I can think of is that if you have a /Regen or one of the defensive sets with a heal it may give you a little time to get more health back if you bite off more then you can chew. But there are very few power sets that don't have a turkey or two in them.

The invention system is still new and shiney for me. I am coming back after about a three or four year hiatus from the game and really like all the new options you have available to toons to improve themselves with the system. One of the biggest things I like about how invention sets are handled in this game is that anyone can get them if they want to. Between random drops, a few easy WW techniques and Merits nothing is out of reach for anyone who wants them. It is all a matter if the individual in question wants to expend the effort to get what they want.

I have one toon, an Elec/SD scrapper (yes I did build him to farm :-D) that is totally IO'ed out except for one LoTG recharge. The build I use is a semi-budget build...cost me around 450-500 million total. The difference is amazing. The toon was semi-squishy before I IO'ed out. Now that I have my IO's that scrapper is soft-capped for all three posistions and I can run into +0/X8 spawns without blinking an eye in most cases. I also have like +20% damage, +38% Accuracy and +40% recharge (+47.5% when I get my last LoTG.) It does takes a lot of work and you dont need them to play the game but they do make a very noticable difference in your toon. The thing is, if you do a decent build you only have to do it once. Also, I would only do this with toons that I know I will keep playing regularly after I hit 50 with them.

That said, most of my other toons have a mix of SO's, Invention IO's and a handful of Hami's. There are a few other toons that I have that I really want to IO out eventually, but most will be fine with SO's. I'm lucky enough to be in a SG that "pays" you for staying in SG mode up by having bins full of lvl 30 Invention IO's for you to use as you level up. Not having to worry about upgrading your SO's every few levels is a big plus for me. My toons outside of that SG mainly just craft what recipes they find with whatever salvage they happen to have. As far as a time vs. effort reward I think that getting at least what IO's your toon gets and can happen to make is at least worth it. Also, if you get a set recipe for your toon and have most of the salvage already it is usually pretty cheap to make them. You can have more room for slotting options when you frankenslot a few dam/end, acc/recharge or whatever recipes.

This is a good guide. My only beef is your suggestion to hold on to purples. I have come back from around a three to four year hiatus from the game. I got lucky and managed to get two expensive purple drops. Those two drops alone allowed me to IO out a fairly decent build on my Scrapper. For people that already have influence to burn I would suggest holding onto the purples for whatever toon will need them. Since it will save them a lot of influence in the end. Your suggestion of giving them to someone else if you can not use them since they are so rare is nice and all. But I don't feel it is practical for a lot of people who really do need the influence to do this. As an alternative to your suggestion. You should ask around your SG and friends and see if anyone would like to buy it at a reduced cost. That way you are helping yourself some as well as helping out your friends. I don't know of any of my SG mates that would get ticked off at me for wanting 100m-150m for a 200m+ recipe. Any who would buy it from me would be very appreciative and most would just call me crazy and tell me to get my money's worth out of it. Just giving away a purple recipe is coming from the mindset of someone that has a lot already. We aren't all in that boat.

O2 boost is definitely not bad to have. But I have noticed that Fly Trap generally hangs out and fights at range and I dont have a need to heal it that much. So I just went with a second travel power, even though I don't really need it. Generally if my Fly Trap does die my cool down on my power is up and I can just summon a new one. I took Super Jump cause I like some vertical movement in getting around. But O2 Boost is a good choice as well. My main problem with O2 Boost is that it is a relatively small heal. To really get it worthwhile you would need to invest more slots into it then I am willing to.