Keeping the Sleepy Toons Active and Happy

I got to thinking about this today regarding toons that we build, get them to 50 and then park them because we needed a break from them for awhile or maybe we wanted to work on a new build. When I first started up CoX back in Jan. 09' I would always try and make a concerted effort in getting one to 50 before I would start up with another toon. When the Demon Summoning came out, I had to build another MM with that set and try that out. When the Electric Control came out, I had to build a Dominator and try that out. I got curious about being a Scrapper so I started one of those out about a month ago. Needless to say, I had a few toons scattered about below level 50 that I didn't play long enough to get to level 50. Besides, its the journey in this game not the race that counts right?...heh..heh...

Anyways, this got me thinking now that GR is out and we now have the advantage to "wake-up" those sleepy toons we seldom play. Out of my 13 toons I built so far, I would say about half are villains and the other half heros. So far, I have moved two toons over. One to red side and the other to blue side. I eventually plan to switch them all over from their opposing sides. Normally, when I don't play them, I would park them to earn some day badges, moving them every-so-often to get new day badges.

With that being said, this also got me thinking about those out there in CoX land who have tons, and I don't mean 13, 20 or 30 toons, I'm talking 50 plus toons. I think I recall one person who said in one of these forums they had maxed out all the server slots with their toons. At that time it was 12 slots per server times, what 12 servers = 144 toons? I have a hard time managing 13 toons let alone 144 toons..lol. Didn't know if they were pulling someones leg or what? My thinking in this game is to build, develop and experience new toons. Should I like a particular Archetype, I may build more. I think everyone has their own pace they might like to go at.

I have yet to build a Arachnos Soldier and a Brute. I did build a few Tankers only to delete them as I didn't care for that Archetype based on my playing style. I also built a Defender only to delete them as that was not my playing style to be the "healer". I can appreciate those who do this build to keep us alive though..hehe...heh. Built a Peacebringer and deleted them as I was working only on the human form then got bored with them. So back to my question on those of you who "do" have a plethora of toons at hand. How do you manage them? Are you parking some for day badges or trying to experience every Archetype so you can decide what works best for you? I'd be really curious to know how you keep those "sleepy" toons active.

170-some, probably closer to 180, over two accounts.

I just play what seems interesting to me, play what is tied in with friends' characters RP wise, play something I haven't played in a while, run through the servers to pay base rent and see someone I haven't played and play them, get a new idea and play them, etc.

(Also... defender != healer. Don't want to play like that, don't. :P Roll a Stormy. Roll a TA. Roll a controller and use the defender primary as a secondary. )

Edit: Correction. Just looked. 217 active characters. Most (total of both accts) on Victory (44) and Pinnacle (35,) fewest on Freedom (6) .

See my Guides and Tutorials

My active account has 84 characters at the moment. 7 of those are 50 at this point. Like Bill, I just play whatever I feel like at the moment these days.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

Over 3 servers on one account I have only about 16 toons, Freedom has the most of mine. I thought that was a lot until I came to the boards.

Like Bill, I tend to gravitate towards whatever seems to make the lightbulb pop up above my head as I stare at paragonwiki.
"heeeeey! haven't tried THAT yet!"

It's that open-mindedness that helps you find out what kind of player you are on a team, though, and what kind of AT suits you best for soloing/teaming, and what powerset combo suits best, etc.

My newest, fresh-out-the-oven toon is a Praetorian AR/sonic Corruptor. I actually have had that combo in mind for a month or so now, but moments after logging into my PC at work, went to P-wiki and already have plans to create another corruptor when the chance arises, Dark/Therm.

The 50's I have all have their awesome tale of how they got to 50, and I still have much love for each one, but sadly they do sit parked on the 2nd page of the char slots screen, and usually only get used for making some inf for the new toons, or whenever I feel like running a high-level SF.

My sig needs to be updated. Probably about 5 more villains than whats stated. I've got probably around 50-60 all together (including 50 and non 50)

I pretty much play my brutes though. My Fire/Invul is my baby. Billions put into him, capped to S/L with just one baddied in invince (48% actually), damage out the wazoo, all accolades....I'm usually on him a LOT. Other than that, whatever the SG is running or whatever I feel like doing. Laziness? Solo on a brute or scrapper. Feeling active? Emp. Feeling frisky....wait, nevermind that last one.

I have 462 toons over six accounts. I used to have one of every hero archetype primary/secondary combo, but it has become impossible to keep up.

My current goal is to get them all over lvl 11 so they can hold 10 recipes (maybe 30 or so are not lvl 11 yet). I log in every 40 days (sometimes more often) on each of them that are on active accounts (I sometimes let a few accounts drop) and trade with them, move them to new day job badges etc

I think I have quite severe altitis :-)

About 20 of them are lvl 50. Have been playing since June 2008.

At this point I'm at 18(ish?) toons on my home server of Pinnacle, with some other toons in various states of pre-20 leveling on other servers.

As far as waking up sleepy toons goes, GR has revived my Rad/Rad Corr, whom I've always envisioned as a bit more of a Rogue anyway (a thief to be sure, but not strictly evil). I finally got her to level 20 and Stamina (delicious Stamina) after sitting at 19 for a while, and right now she's at something like 23 or 24. I think I probably need to respec her for at least the second time, but she should continue to see progress now that I understand Corruptors a bit better after leveling a Fire/Kin into the 30s. I'd like to return to some of my other neglected toons, but with so much new badging to get done alongside real-life events, I haven't really had a lot of time.

I have maybe 24-25, mostly on Pinnacle, of which 6 are 50s.

I just don't have as much time as I used to to spend playing, so I create characters as the ideas come to me, and they gradually get leveled. I set goals for a particular play session, like: I'm going to get this level 9 corruptor to level 12 today, or: I'm going to get this character to SOs. Breaking it down into chunks like that is more managable than looking at my character list and seeing the number of characters between level 6 and level 40.

Since my son is going to be born any day now, I will soon have even LESS time to play, which will basically end up being: The baby is taking a nap, so I have time to run a couple missions. The only reason I can even post on the forums is because I do a lot of it while I'm at work.

Eh, I don't keep all of my characters active.

By level 35 at the latest, I generally have a pretty good idea of whether I really want to take a character all the way to 50... for about 95% of them, I don't really have much motivation to. I stop playing them when leveling becomes a grind, and I might pull them out now and then if there's a TF or something going at their level or I feel like RP'ing them. For a couple of them, they've gotten to big new powers like this and I end up taking them to 50 anyway. For all the rest, they're still pretty safe unless I really need a slot or want to reroll them as something else, in which case they get deleted.

Once a character hits 50, I'm usually pretty bored of them... for about 75% of them I actually usually get bored by the mid-40s, but I tend to push for 50 because I'm a completionist. Once they're at 50, I don't really delete them, but I still only pull them out for a TF or two per year. These are the characters I just pull out when I feel the sudden urge to play their powerset again.

For the most part, I just play whatever character I'm currently trying to level... but there's also that ~1% that both get to 50 and I still enjoy playing at that point. Those guys, I'll try to do a TF or two per month on, or maybe just join some PUGs or farm a little if I'm bored. This is currently about four characters for me: Sorrow-Weave, my Dark/Elec Brute; Liora Kate, my Earth/Fire Dom; Blazeknight, my Fire/Shield Scrapper; and Shatterware, my Rad/Rad Defender.

I have about 25 characters on Virtue, 12 of which are 50 (look at signature for what they are). I've deleted numerous characters and have poked other servers so I have another probably 25 there, but only 4 over level 20 (3 on Liberty, 1 on Triumph). Overall, I just log on, click Virtue, scan through my characters and pick whichever has the most draw at the time, assuming when I was driving home or walking from my bed to the computer I didn't have a character in the back of my head already.

My most recent project has been my Elec/SR stalker. It's quite a bit of a change up from my usual support feel. Yes, my support (including my Empath) are not healers, they are support with or without a heal or heals.

GR has only exacerbated my altitis, I think I've only touched one pre-GR toon since it hit and I've made like 5 new ones (and yet only actually played 3 of them ).

GR aside, I usually have my "current toon of the moment" that I'm working to level up, which rarely ever hits 50 because I get an itch to roll a new one when I get a good concept I like. They're doing good to get past 35, really; some get left behind in the middle forties, but it's usually about 32 (I know, I know, bad place to do so). On the other hand, if I get an itch, I can play a troller at 32 at the drop of a hat, no need to level him up first. Also, if a friend pops onto a certain few servers, I'll already have a decent toon there ready to go.

I know I should play the Day Job Musical Chairs with them while they collect dust, but... I never bother too, that takes too much planning. To tell you the truth, other than the AE building, Pocket D, ferry docks in redside and, what, the hospitals?, I have no idea where the day job locations are, just never bothered to learn the list. If they do anything, it's sit on low-ball bids on the markets.

I have delitis.
I try new characters, and then when I feel the concept was wrong, or I feel like is not fun anymore, and I cant find anyway to rework the characters, I delete them.
I guess Im a deletholic
Is good for the money btw...

I have less than 40 chars over most of the servers. I deleted very few of them. I worked out a system to roll a die weighted to mostly 2 of my fav servers and 3 on each to determine which to play. Sometimes, over 50 days since I played a char on my 2 fav servers does it. Sometimes, I play one what my mood decides.

Mostly, it is just random.

Okay, I have to admit this here. I have 55 characters and no 50s. Look at my join date. I am a sad puppy.

But I play all of them except for about 4 or 5. One is 47. But lately he's been my market guy.

Don't make fun of me. Too much.

About a 100 characters, with about 60 I regularly log in and dayjob/tradehouse/mission or two with.

Of late though havent had time to more than a mission or two per session, and tends to be one of my 6 or so main characters.