So what has Petoria/side changed the way level/choose characters?

Anyone giving up starting red/blue side? Or only going to use gold side if you want to level up a character on the opposite side then normal?

This killing any AT's for you? Blasters vs. corruptors vs. defenders? Scrappers vs. brutes vs. tanks? Dominators vs. controllers?

Say it with me: Praetoria

Anyhow, I have leveled one toon (brute) through Resistance arcs up to Penelope Yin, and went blue side. Now starting a toon (stalker) going Loyalist, but undecided if blue or red yet.

And now for the rambling!!!

All in all, the zones and stories are great. Mission designs are on the surface good, but have annoying features that don't make sense. Just how many of those missions have you find the mission exit? There was one mission I had to escort some one to the exit door to complete and the next objective was to find the mission exit - are you kidding? I am standing right next to it. Couldn't we just have a mission complete exit button come up instead?
The mobs are very interesting, esp. the ghoul ones. I would love some of the graphics like their police force mobs with those shield like power auras.
The solo only missions also interupt the flow for teaming.
And what is with the multiwave ambushes? I know Fitness will go inherent, but some of those were just too long and gasping for END and out of inspirations was not fun.
I didn't like zowies.
I did like contacts that disappeared when done (like that Seer one - that was a great arc, but seriously, mobs with both psi and sonic attacks?).

Now to your questions. Until they expand off-line SG invites and open up to 50, I won't be leveling any more toons in Praetoria and just start red/blue, depending on the AT. It is just a pain to be "virtually stuck" in a set of zones and can't jump in and join other stuff. Plus lack of other stuff (paper missions / TFs / diff settings) makes it not as fun. How I wish what they implemented on gold side could be rewritten into blue/red missions? It was challenging and required some new tactics. Egads, that AH too. I just emailed any stuff I got to another toon to sell. It was horrible going into that.

I like the mix up of ATs. I think we are moving into a new era of team make up and letting players try things we couldn't before.

Okay, enough blabbing. I am sure there is more.

"We were gonna call it 'Peterland,' but that gay bar down by the airport already took it..."

So far my usage of the whole AT proliferation thing has been pretty unimaginitive. I've made a gold Dark/Dark Brute that's going to be a villain. I've made a gold Fire/Kin Controller that's going to be a hero (but with a foray to the Isles so I can unlock the Patron Pools). I've got the basic idea for a Kin Melee/Energy Aura Brute that will be a villain, but I haven't really had time for that yet.

I guess I've also got a gold Dual Blades/Ninjutsu Stalker who will be a hero, and an Elec Control/Kin Controller who will end up as either a vigilante or rogue, probably the latter...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

I don't see myself playing a blaster or defender ever again due to having corruptors on blueside. I'm thinking about exploring doms pretty soon too. I love having the villain ATs on blueside. But I don't see myself making a brute yet or a stalker.

The new zone seems so disconnected from everything to me.

I think the zone looks great but agree that being excluded from early blue or red side lower level content is a bit of a drawback. I haven't played as much gold side as I thought I would but I am about to bring a Dom blue side.

And as for some ATs just going away, such as tanks, last week I was no a mid level team where we picked up 3 low level tanks that were all less than a week old. It appears that some ATs will always find a place to play.

I'll probably never run low level in the Isles again, unless I somehow begin to really miss Cap Au Diable, the only sub level 20 zone there that I like. But I had two lowbie villains run through there this summer, so I doubt I'll want to do it again soon. I really, really do not like Mercy and Port Oakes. Bloody depressing to run through and most of the stories aren't that amazing. Some of them are fun, but I've played through them a few times and they don't really make up for the locale.

I may run some characters through things in Paragon, as there's still something great about entering Atlas Park or Galaxy for the first time, and I like the Hollows. Having access to more content and team stuff is nice as well, I guess, but you can still run Faultline's last two arcs when you get in from Praetoria, and the Task Forces are there to run when you get back as well.

I'm probably mostly going to do Praetoria, as it's a lot more dynamic and interesting to run through. You can find teams to run through there, but it's also fun and good to do solo. I'm still making characters of all types. I had held off on a Brute until I could have him mostly blueside, but my two other new ones are a Blaster and a Scrapper. The only ATs I don't really care to play are Defenders and MMs, so those are the only ones I avoid. I doubt I'll make any new Controllers, though. They're pretty much team required for me until they get a pet, and I solo enough that this makes things difficult. Doms are the way, there.

Everyone else, I still like and will still play. All the ATs that I play are different in how they run so I can't see replacing one with another. The only reason I'm not going to have more than 2 Controllers is that I mostly like to beat stuff around, and I like to be able to solo when I need to. Doms are more fun for that, but I don't even play my one Dominator that much.

To be honest? I'm not sure I'll ever level up a character red side again outside of the Isolators supergroup.

But this gives me the opportunity to level up AT's blue side that would have otherwise been shut out. So far, I've made and got to Paragon:
Elec/elec dom (chosen over elec/* controller due to better matching of powers) (I'm a sucker for same/same power sets)
Kinetic/sr scrapper
Arrow/arrow corruptor (considered a defender, but decided w/ increased damage and blasters didn't have a non-redraw secondary)
En/traps corruptor (again, considered a defender but was interested in increased damage)

Since GR came out I have made:

Kin/EA Brute
SS/Fire Brute
Claws/SR Brute
Inv/SS Tank
TA/Archery Def
Kin/Rad Defender
Elec/Elec Dom
DB/Inv Scrapper

Yes, I'm an altaholic... Other than the scrapper, all are Praetorians. And I plan to take them all blue side. Most are still low level. The Kin/EA brute is the only one that's made it out of Praetoria (and I haven't played him since). Yes, there are little annoyances with the Praetorian arcs, but they are new and shiny and I must play them!

I love brutes. I doubt I'll make many more scrappers. I like the combos brutes have more than scrappers (like SS) and that they have higher hit points and resistance caps than scrappers, can do great damage and have an AOE taunt in their primary.

The only reason I created the scrapper, and put it in Paragon City instead of Praetoria, is because I have a pet project to do every possible hero mission while leveling up (turning off XP when needed). I want to do the same in Praetoria and am planning to use the Claws/SR for that. It's a little more tricky in Praetoria due to side switching and disappearing contacts.

Concerning defenders vs. corruptors, I've been on a defender kick lately and want to make one of each primary. I'll probably be staying away from corruptors for a while.

You know what's changed the way I level? Civ V. As in, I don't level anymore because of it.

I've been done with Defenders for a while now, I have a lvl 50 Kin and Emp defender that I love to play, but they cover that AT for me, I am more then happy to have the rest of my support characters be controllers, MMs, and CORRUPTERS. I also havent enjoyed blasters in a long time, so again, corrupters have replaced them for me, but that was even before GR.

I am glad that I will not get stuck as a scrapper if I want a melee hero that can bring some damage to the table, I am a brute fanatic, and would always prefer playing one of them, so that is 3 hero ATs I no longer feel a need to make (Well, 5 if you count epics).

GR didn't change much for me in that regard, but it did give me more options, which I am very happy about.

As far as where I start...I want to experience all the content and storylines, which you pretty much need 4 characters to do, and you almost have to do it solo, because you can easily make it to 20 solo before all the story arcs in a single path are done, teaming makes it even faster, but once that is done, it is unlikely I will make more Praetorians unless my friends all decide to make a group of new characters to go there, simply because I don't like being bound to the 3 zones. I think they are amazing, but the fact that I cannot just go jump in a mission in Talos or St Martial with my friends on a character I have been playing and enjoying is a deal breaker for me. I do not mind making a villain, getting them to 20, and starting to cross them over if I wanted them to be a hero.

I find myself despising MMs more and more since it's far more difficult to get away from them. Otherwise no real changes for me.

I'd rather solo through Gold side 1-20 than ever look at the other starting zones again. Screw officer Wincott, screw the snakes. :P

I made a Demon/Pain MM, an Electric/kin controller, and now a Mind/ice Dom. I want to have one of every AT, and those were three of the remaining four. I will have to go to Paragon for the Peacebringer. The first two I took to paragon. The story text hints very strongly that it is the most popular and heroic side, but it dumps you into the Dark Mirror story. Which is awful on hero side compared to the villain one. I'd rather go red side and switch.

ALL the Badges! (I can get. 1396)

I still think every AT has its place in the game. If fury wasn't nerfed then I think honestly, scrappers would have been out of a job (unless you really wanted to play a broadsword or katana).

Between Blaster/Corr/Defender. I think there is a huge variability. If you are going for pure damage output then its clearly blaster.

I think sometimes people don't realize there are differences between buff/debuff between Defender/Corr/Controllers. For example: Radiation infection: for a defender (out of the box, no enhancements) its 31.3% -def, 31.3% - to-hit. For Corrs/controllers its down to 25% for -def and - to-hit.

This is pretty huge, so while corrs can do more damage, their buffs/debuffs are weaker then defenders, again placing them in different categories in my mind at least.


Controllers vs Dominators- honestly, besides control powers they play totally different. One is a damage dealer the other is a buff/debuffer.

The only AT I really don't see a point to anymore is the Stalker. You can't out scrap a scrapper, you aren't needed anymore on a Cuda SF, for huge alpha strikes a blaster with snipe works just as well. Even in PvP with VEATs changing sides the Stalker is no longer safe to attack and retreat unseen.

I still think a lot of what hurts Stalkers is mission design as opposed to powers. You either don't need the stealth or the generic amount everyone else can get is satisfactory. Either changes to perception, fewer mobs that are mindless sacks of HP, or more missions with unique perspectives are needed.

As a newly returning player I'm loving Praetoria so far but I gotta say that in the teens my impression is that the Praetorian bad guys seem harder than the normal blue side or red side bad guys.

Of course it could just be the ATs and powersets I have been using in Praetoria to this point (mostly corruptors), but some of those villain groups are just plain nasty. Their damage types are quite varied, and they have a lot more special abilities than most of the old school groups.

In particular I have a very hard time with any orange clockwork lieutenants (menders and dismantlers) and some of the syndicate boss types. I find myself having to down rows of pills to beat a single orange lieutenant.

Still, I love the Praetorian story arcs so far and I have a lot of difficulty going back to the old school blueside missions that make you run all over the place before you get a travel power (kill 20 CoT in Perez Park, etc). I think I'll likely start most of my characters either in Praetoria or Mercy.