Winterminal

Well first, for crashless nukes, do not forget about Dual Pistols and Archery (Rain of Arrows is phenomenal). But that's off topic...

Devices has a few fantastic powers, but the rest are pretty meh. Caltrops, Smoke Grenade, Cloaking Device, and Targeting Drone are all great, and come early. Heck, Caltrops taken and slotted early + Targeting Drone will probably aid Disintegration nicely. But the rest of the power set is mostly not worth taking (Trip Mine is for some, not for others). Also, you miss out on Build Up. You can work around it, but that power is so joyous.

Energy is a great set because of all the clicks. And true enough, Boost Range makes Disintegrate + Penetrating Ray (100% chance for Disintegration Spread) a very deadly and effective combo. Plus "Energy" also works conceptually with the energy-based nature of Beam Rifle.

Most of the rest of the secondaries tend to be a bit heavy on the close-range powers, which you probably want to avoid (since you like playing range) but they will all have some good utility powers that will serve you, besides the ST immobilization and Build Up. However, I'd say either of your first two choices will be worthwhile.

/signed

Zombie Man is right. Items locked behind merits are now available in the store. Items locked behind content completion are now available in the store. There really is no reason why it all cannot be in there.

Although, here's my guess: they are saving those things to be released as weekly releases. For now, since Freedom and the store is still very new, they are front-loading us with genuinely new stuff (CoT, Barbarian, Street Justice, etc.), but I bet we'll see some of these items released on "off weeks" where they want to give us something, but do not necessarily have anything new ready to release.

P.S. I agree with Techbot regarding the Vanguard back piece...

I recommend reading CuppaManga's stickied guide in this forum, found here. That will definitely answer your questions about where to find your screenshots (there's a section labeled "Retrieving Screenshots and Demorecords") and may answer your question about running the client externally.

Though there are some of us who are familiar enough with Mac systems to find work-arounds, he's the "Macstraordinaire" (as his title says).

I am all for the suggested implementation of an option to accept or deny tells from Free and/or Premium players. Like others, I don't know what the technical difficulties behind this are, but it seems to me like the best way to keep RMT from becoming intrusive while also providing a very vital chat option to incoming players.

As I just recently opened up Tier 5, I have plenty of incentive to stay subscribed...

I will agree that that server transfers aren't necessarily that useful to most, especially long-time veterans. But as Voidstalker stated earlier, you could use 2 as a round-about way to rename a character.

Though, as long as they are handing them out, I am adopting the mentality of: I would rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them. If, for whatever reason, I no longer desire to play on my current lower-population server (i.e. everyone leaves for SWTOR, all my friends quit, I want to relocate, etc.), a stockpile of server transfers will be very useful at that point.

I say just hold on to them. From a business standpoint, it is highly unlikely they will give us an option for more points, so just keep a stockpile and use them as needed.

Hats off to Mr. Jobs. I was a staunch PC user before college: didn't understand Apple OS, didn't see the attraction. But since I didn't want to deal with viruses while away at school, I bought a Macbook instead of a PC laptop. I never got an iPhone, and don't really want an iPad, so I'm far from a cultist. But the Macbook won me over and I've been a happy Mac user ever since.

Rest in peace, sir.

Something about bases?!? Please? Will all our base belong to us?

FPARN!

My main is an Ice/Ice that I have been playing forever. But I am on a Mac and do not have access to Mid's. If you can paste in a visible/readable version of your build, I'd be more than happy to offer advice!

True, it is now October. But if your billing cycle rolled over 2 days ago, that was still September, which means those points that you would have received on that day were front-loaded to you with the release of the head start. That also means that your next points will come in late October, since that is when your next billing cycle occurs.

Today is the first day since the i21 head start that any account will be awarded points when their billing cycle rolls over.

1 Range IO in Disintegration and one Interrupt Redux in Penetrating Ray, and I bet this combo can succeed 9/10 times. I am loving Beam Rifle so far, probably because I am typically a ST oriented blaster.

Those that aren't big fans of Beam Rifle are most likely used to AoE heavy blaster builds, and Beam Rifle is not made for that. Using the above combo you can get some decent mass damage out of it, but the set is built for taking down single targets FAST.

I wonder if it has anything to do with what server you play on. Pinnacle, for the most part, seemed fairly normal. I saw a few help requests from what sounded like returning Premium players who were trying to remember how to do everything, but other than that, I did not see a whole lot of spam. Granted, it has not even been 24 hours yet, and I was in combat for most of the time I was on. So maybe I just haven't noticed?

But I hear ya, JayBoh. I can't say that I am the least bit surprised. We all have to remember that this new model has been ill-advertised for the past couple months as going "F2P" which for most gamers out there means something entirely different than our hybrid model. And I would bet money that only a small percentage of the Free and returning Premium players combined have read the side-by-side comparison of what they are actually getting.

It has been mentioned, and if memory serves, it was Zwillinger who responded along the lines of: it is definitely a worthwhile idea, and within the realm of possibility, but there is no forward motion on that front currently.

My guess is that they need more time to calculate the cost/benefit of such a plan. How many people would buy them from retail stores, would that be enough to counter the production costs of the cards, etc.

I also think this is only a possibility at this point because they don't have the tech necessary, since a system that involved "point codes" would probably be the same system used for "gifting points," which received a similar response from the community reps.

Personally I am not buying the costume slots simply because I have no current need for more than 5 costumes at a time.

I actually expect to see depreciated pricing in certain things over time. That's just good business: you put something on a market for a higher cost that the "gotta-have-it-now's" will buy. Then, after a period of time, you lower the cost to entice those that were on the fence about buying it. Granted, I have no doubt that this rapid change in costume slot price was due to feedback, but I would keep your eyes open for other price decreases as newer things are added to the market.

As for the "212 MBs of stuff," just wait for the patch notes to be posted. That will tell us what was changed.

I gotta agree with this. In a world of good and evil, I have felt that we have been missing the "evil" for a good amount of time, especially with all the co-op events/zones we currently have. I have never been able to get into villains and, since the revamp, I have very much gotten behind my Dark/Dark blaster.

Granted, the character is the embodiment of the Netherworld, with an unconscious need for disruption and destruction. So for him, the new more sinister arcs work. I can see where they would not work for some. But I cannot deny that I am pleased with the overall more rough experience.

"Pay for what I want, skip what I don't" has been my mantra since the Store was first announced, and it is essential considering I am attempting to spend nothing except my monthly stipend.

I'm with Sam when I say "I want to support Paragon Studios" and I intend to, so long as it is something that I will use. I bought the Rocket Board and Beam Rifle right away because I knew I would use them. I skipped the fantastic sale deal on character transfers because I knew I had little use for them.

As for the Circle of Thorns pieces, I'll play around with them in the costume editor as I do indeed have a few costume concepts for which they will work. But if I don't need them, or won't use them at the moment, I'll skip them from the time being. The wonderful thing about the store is that, outside of the Tier 9 Rewards, everything in there will be there for a long time, possibly indefinitely. And so far, they have been good about telling us if something will disappear from the market (i.e. the Pirate costume power) so that we have a chance to get it before it is gone.

Just going to bide my time.

Good game, so I'll play!

That said, this is tough. I think if I was "off doing my own thing" when something went wrong, I would feel guilty for not being there regardless of whether I was a public or "secret" superhero.

In the ideal world, I would be a public superhero with either the monetary means to support myself, or receiving compensation from the city/govt. for my services.

In my current life, with the current state of the world, I would prefer to have a secret identity. Saving people would be my own good will at work, rather than an obligation to anyone.

I'd be willing to bet we are not getting the "pope hats" due to animation conflicts as opposed to costume geometry conflicts. Any overhead animation would probably conflict with a tall hat. A few that come to mind would be Power Slice from Dual Blades, Neutron Bomb, and Repulsion Bomb. Add to that the fact that the hat would probably stick out of bubble shields, ice shields, and the like, and you likely have your reasoning for why we don't get them.

Sure, most of use would prefer to dictate whether or not we care if a piece clips with stuff, but the Dev stance toward animation clipping issues is pretty staunch (see: long skirts vs. Martial Arts).

Never met ya but welcome back to the server nonetheless!