crayhal

Sort of. I purposely invite lvls 40-49 on my lvl 50+2x8 tip missions just so they can help defeat bosses who are likely to drop shards. And if any shards drop, all of it goes to me.

I have dual boxed with 2 incarnates with 6 lowbies tagging along. I don't get shard drops on both at the same time. Sometimes Incarnate 1 gets a shard, sometimes Incarnate 2 gets it. Sometimes Incarnate 1 gets two shards seconds apart while Incarnate 2 doesn't get any.

If you don't mind not having a lvl 50/40/30 recipe, the recipes at other levels can be cheaper. I got a lvl 46 Numina's +R recipe for 26 mil.

Other folks have made suggestions:
- tips
- join TFs and convert R-merits to A-merits
- AE

If you don't want to pay 325 mil, feel free to earn it yourself.

FYI, my kin doesn't have any of these, but my brute does. Both have several "Master of" badges and are Alpha T4. I guess it depends on your toon.

Yeah... that built up gas can be uncomfortable. Best to release it.

On redside, you could try running a Patron arc to unlock the Patron power pools. If you want something easy, select Black Scorpion's arc.
For something rather interesting and will keep you on your toes, select Capt Mako's arc.
For a mix of AVs and story, do either Sciroco's or Ghost Widow's arc.
There are also a lot of excellent Dev Choice missions in AE.
Ouroborus flash back missions are another option.
Does your SG plan MS raids? Doing raids is another option.

If you need 1 more to fill out the 2nd team, I can come with Azure Spirit (rad/kin corr) or Voltez Y (elec/shield brute) to help out. Both already have MoLRSF, so you can put me on the Alternate to the Alternate list if someone else wants to come on the 2nd team.

Get a controller or a dom to help out. Anyone who can get to ouro can help, lvl 25+. Not being lvl 50 doesn't prevent a toon from participating in the Incarnate arcs.
Spam holds on Trapdoor and get any bifs that show up. He won't make bifs if held.

My soulmate!
I'd wallow in mourning with a bottle of sake for a day or two.
Then when I get out of my drunken stupor, I'll drive down 2 hrs to Leghorn St in Mountain View and demand that they either make a new CoX or I'll code a new super hero MMO.

^^^ This. People have a lot of 50s to outfit. My personal reasons:
1) The Taskforce locks the team. If someone DCs or drops, they can't be replaced. There is a bigger chance of players dropping on longer taskforces and if enough players drop, the rest of team can't complete it. Basically, wasted time for those left behind.
2) Limited play time. Some folks play this after work and only have a couple hours to play. Spending 1.5 - 2 hrs in a taskforce cuts down the other things a player could do like doing tips, leveling lowbies, etc.
3) The challenge of beating the time. A power team is an awesome sight to see when they complete the LGTF in 30 mins or less or ITF in 20 mins. Truly Incarnate.

For the villain power pools, you need to complete the Patron Arc to unlock access to them.

You must have the Going Rogue expansion to switch between hero and villain and to make a new toon in Praetoria.
If you want to be wrong, be a villain. They're up to no good.

You must have the Going Rogue expansion to access Incarnate content. If you have it, go to Ouroboros and talk to Mender Ramiel to unlock your Incarnate Alpha. When you complete his arc, look in your Accolades for the Alpha Unlocked badge. If it's not there, talk to Ramiel again to make sure you finished all his missions.
If you don't have Going Rogue and your Alpha Slot, you won't be allowed to participate in Apex or Tin mage Task Forces. The team will kick you off.

I agree. For lvl 50 content, soul is very useful. For example, you could put Darkest Night on a GM DE (Stratopeia?) on Monster Island and go make a sandwich. Occassionally, the GM will hit, but your brute will either regen or heal itself until the next hit.

My condolences to you and your friend, Luna. Take care!

IMHO, I think +1x8 gives a good xp over time ratio for leveling, but can be AT dependent.
Here's what you can do to test yourself.
1) Look in your paper for a steal something mission.
2) Pick the mission and set your difficulty to +0x8 ( or whatever you want )
3) Write down your XP.
4) At the mission door, write down the current time.
5) Enter and kill everything, but leave the glowie alone.
6) After all the kills, write down the time and your new XP.
7) Calculate your XP per minute. For example, old xp = 10000, new xp = 20000, and time in mission is 12 mins, so xp / min is (20000 - 10000) / 12 = 833 xp / min.
8) Don't click the glowie and exit the mission. Change your diff to +1x8.
9) Reset the mission and go to step (4).

I think you will find that +4x8 will give you the worst xp per minute since mobs take much longer to kill, but the xp rewarded doesn't scale by 4. Ie, if a minion gives 100 xp and takes 20 secs to kill at +0, it doesn't give 400 xp at +4. Instead, it gives something like 130 xp but takes 60 secs to kill.

I add another "much" to the pile.
I've played support where we had 2 brutes, 1 /FA and 1 /SD for LRSF. FA brute will do a couple of mobs and faceplant. The SD brute holds the agro from the heroes until the FA brute rezes and then eventually goes down again. The FA brute was pretty much a glass cannon, short burst of high damage and going down in a blaze of glory. Well, eventually, he'll get back up, but by that time, the rest of the team already finished off the hero.