UberGuy

I'd be surprised if they stopped the WSTs just because of the 50 "assists" badge.

I prefer tougher to more, and I prefer both to just tougher.

When leveling, I increase my foe levels, not my foe numbers. Once I'm 50 and I am expanding what a character can fight, I prefer +2 and x(as much as I can survive). Most of my characters run on +2/x6, a few run on +2/x8 and a my one single-target-only characters runs on +2/x4. With Incarnate level shifts, I increased this to +3 so that my foes were still +2 combat levels above me. +3 foes are OK, and you get plenty of those in regular missions set to +2, but +4 are too slow to defeat for my tastes.

I always play with bosses enabled, even at level 1. I usually level up with AVs enabled and try soloing them for giggles (though I may use temp powers and the like), but if they're a real pain or for more mundane stuff like Safeguard missions I turn them down to EBs.

Knockback Enhancers apply their boost to two attributes, Knockback and Knockup. The link is to City of Data, and Mid's database also shows this. The Archetypes spreadsheet leaked by Iakona lists CoH entities as having a Knockback and Knockup Attribute.

That's fine, perhaps its intermittent. Regardless, it does happen, as evidenced by the info I posted above.

I've played with binds like that in the past, and unfortunately they drove me nuts because moving would cancel queued powers. Otherwise I'd use this too.

I actually did not remember that all of Fire's mez protection was in Burn.

The problem is described somewhere not everyone may have forum access to.

If the team leader runs a TF that has foes fixed at L54 with their difficuluty settings on anything but +0 levels, the shards do not drop.

This happened to me last night. I was the team leader. I did not adjust my difficulty settings because I knew they would not matter on the Tin Mage TF. I can confirm this actually happened and just wasn't me missing the message, because support actually awarded my character the shards.

A patch is in the pipeline.

You're on target for two of what used to be the "big three" items. The other recent one was Blessing of the Zephyr knockback protection, specifically level 10 versions.

In general, lower-level pieces of all of these have historically sold for more than level 50 pieces, but the sale throughput rate is lower. Also, it's often possible to make (sometimes significant) money selling the crafted item and buying the raw recipe off the market.

Some other pieces to look into are Kinetic Combats rare pieces, even the ones which cost one A-merit. These can be very good deals on a profit/A-merit basis.

I haven't been tracking as much lately, but prices on a lot of these historical "go-to" items from Pool C/D have been decreasing lately, sometimes significantly. You might want to do some research before going the A-merits->sale->money->purchase route.

Their travel powers. Unless they had to travel cross-continent or something, in which case most of them would either use suggested but not usually implemented magical or technological means of translocation, like magic gates or spacial portals. Most of their backstories means they have the means to achieve things like this, at least by the time they're in the level 30+ range.

Only one of my characters has a secret identity. He would either own a car or use Paragon's public transport. He's also a honest to goodness PPD, and so probably has access to a department car. In hero gear, though, he would use his powered armor to get around, again via travel power.

Another one of my characters is an extremely wealthy inventor and socialite, a-la Tony Stark. He doubtless owns a fine stable of cars and motorcycles. He wouldn't normally ride into battle on one, though. He has inventions for that stuff - rocket boots, anti-grav belts, stuff like that. If he needs to get somewhere distant, he probably owns a jet.

All the rest of my characters live in what I'll call "hero life", where super science and metaphysics are basically a part of everyday interactions. They don't really have "civilian" existences (for both better and worse), and tend not to have the usual trappings of ordinary life. If they really need a car or something like that, they can probably get one on loan from authorities (if heroes) or just walk up and ... appropriate it (if villains).

It's easy to create an AV in the AE that has no actual attacks. They make great punching bags for things like this.

Longbow minions above level 10 or so are resistant to L/S damage - the most common sort dealt by many player characters (particularly melee ones). They also consistently debuff defense with their rifles. They start including their stealthed, end-sapping mobs in the 30s. Wardens have dangerous versions of player character powersets, such as Illusion, Mind Control and Rad Emission. Longbow are everywhere in CoV.

Arachnos mobs contain Mu from extremely early levels; being end sapped before inherent Stamina and before level 20 was just rude. Due to wide array of debuffs and exotic damage types (pure energy, psi, toxic), high burst damage, and mez potential from a wide array of mob types, Arachnos are an NPC faction I always think carefully about diving into on any character. Arachnos are everwhere in CoV.

Paragon Police, in the 20s and 40+. 'Nuff said, in my opinion.

Level 25-ish PPD are comparable to Malta in terms of annoyance, against player characters who are not at all as well equipped as those facing Malta normally are. Glue arrows, Acid Mortars, ranged (though lower damage) assassin strikes, and defense debuffing bullets makes these mobs a nightmare. Combine them with the fact that they can appear as stacking ambushes in Mayhem missions and they are something that, IMO, transcends challenge and goes off into annoyance, because they're so overwhelming that you can't do much about it unless you happen to have lots of AoE mez - unlikely at level 25.

Level 40+ PPD are mostly dangerous because they deal lots of energy damage and, in any significant numbers, will debuff your defense into the sub, sub, sub basement - at range. It's common for my defense to hit the hard floor in mayhem missions with PPD in them. The only other mobs that do that to me are Cimerorans.

Tsoo extend into the 30s in CoV. Level 30+ Ancestor Spirits use Knock Out Blow. If it connects, it applies a hold, and it does enough damage that one more hit will take out a "squishy" AT. (This was a nasty surprise to me the first time it happened, a long time ago.)

For some reason, only Villain-side CoT get Succubi. These add a lot more danger to CoT spawns in that level range, because they apply more direct mez and one of those mezzes is a confuse, which is otherwise extremely rare. Therefore many players - especially of melee characters are unprepared for it).

AV/EB foes start appearing very commonly in normal CoV story arcs in the 25+ game. In CoH they are extremely rare at such low levels in original, pre-CoV content, only really appearing in level 40+ content. The fact that they were so pervasive was one of the reasons given for the AV->EB downgrade feature, though originally it was tied to your notoriety, and not selectable as a distinct option.

As mentioned already, CoV versions of AVs that heroes ostensibly faced were often significantly more powerful. Back Alley Brawler makes original Marauder look like a complete chump. He gets his own chapter in my book of Mary Sue critter design - he's got all the serious attacks from both Super Strength and Energy Melee, and all of them are 15' AoEs - even the ones that are single target attacks for players. His Hand Clap also does damage comparable to Foot Stomp (at AV damage scales).

In terms of NPC faction design, placement of EBs and AVs, and giving more NPCs versions of player powerset powers not previously seen in the hands of common NPCs (things like Knockout Blow, Total Focus, etc.) CoV definitely was harder at release than CoH was. This has been watered down to some extent by reuse of CoV critters in CoH missions. Still, some of the critters are still unique to CoV content, and you don't see things quite like them as a hero without switching sides or going into the AE.