Do you remember the first time?

My first character was a spines/ da scrapper. I had to put her on hold at about lvl 32 (?) the mutually exclusive armors and end costs were not fun. I then started a grav/kin controller that I took to 40 (when it was the max lvl). I now favor controllers and doms, but still like a bit of melee action from time to time.

I started a 3 or 4 weeks after the game went live when some of my friends talked me into it. I made an AR/Dev blaster on Freedom called Targeteer. Then I realized that all my friends were actually all playing on Victory. Whoops. Targeteer still sits on Freedom stuck at level 2 forever more.

My first character on Victory was an Ice/Ice Blaster named Magic Flake that was my first 50 and my first incarnate.

My first character was a psychic/fire blaster which got to level 10 before I decided to delete and roll a rad/rad defender which got to level 24. Then altitis hit and about a year later I stuck with my Katana/Regen which became my first 50 and is still my main today.

My first character was an NRG/NRG blaster. Mutant, of course, being the comic book geek that I was. Unfortunately I didn't realize at the time that the account name ended up being the name of my character, so that was a big turn-off. And being new and not knowing the annoyance factor of knockback, I was kicked off a couple of teams and decided it was time to try something else. I did finally got that character to 50, and keep him for the history.

My favorite AT is probably controllers, closely followed by brutes and tanks, of which I have several each at level 50, and play often.

My first character was/is Ray of Sunshine. He's an Energy/Ice blaster, and was the first toon I created in the original COH beta. He was inspired by the Legion of Superheroes character Wildfire (who I thought as a kid was the coolest).

I recreated him when the game went live, and he still has not reached lvl50.

I think he was "on ice" for a couple of years, but I sorta rediscovered him when we were able to customize the color of our powers. Having golden energy beams really made a difference on a guy called Ray of Sunshine.

I went through alts in rapid succession early on. I was sharing my account with my brother, and eight slots just did not go very far.

My first character was named Soviet Fury or something along those lines - My gaming group had invented KGB Special Section 8 around the gaming table, specifically in reference to City of Heroes, which was just coming out and not a single one of us was intending to play. She was a martial arts/regen scrapper loosely based on the character Konoko from Oni.

I was up to level three or so when I saw someone standing around the statue of Atlas with a fire sword. I wanted the fire sword, so I immediately logged out and created Comrade Smersh, Inv/Fire tanker, who is still my favorite character to play seven years later.

I remember how much of a grind he was, too. I didn't know any better, so I didn't start taking any fitness powers until level 20. From 20 to 27, I only got passive powers, and was getting quite disillusioned with the character. Fortunately, level 28 brought me Fire Sword Circle, which re-invigorated the character for me.

The only other character on my account that dates back to those early days is King Jones, but he was rerolled from a dark/regen scrapper to a Peacebringer (when I3 launched) and never looked back. Someday I'll level him up to 50...

I got into this game mostly just to make my main, Captain Sammy. He started as a Inv/SS Tank though. In the 20's I rerolled. At that time (pre-ED and too low for Rage) tank damage was horrible, but an Invul scrap could till soft cap on resists (this was before hard caps). So I rerolled as the only 'punchy' scrapper set DM/INV.

Still play him. Had not played him ALOT until Incarnates. Was leveling too many characters and when playing at 50, everyone wants me to bring my ill/rad. I was also playing (farming) with my fire/kin.

But not with IO's, Captain is a beast, and even more fun to play. The DM utility powers are awesome. Just fun all around.

My first character was Major Decoy, an Invulnerability/Super Strength tank. I joined at the same time a friend did, and the name carried over from LAN parties, where in first person shooters I would draw fire while my friends did other stuff.

Major Decoy was envisioned as a cross between The Tick and Captain America. He was the first character I got to 50 and my first Incarnate.

Secular Energy was my second character, an Energy/Energy blaster. I got him to level 41 two weeks ago. I'm looking forward to getting Magic Missile eventually.

My third character, I made just after badges were introduced, and Troimille Ile, a Radiation/Electric was my first character to get Isolator. She's level 37 now.

My First villain was Admiral Whiskers, Energy/Regeneration stalker, and the second character I got to 50. I seriously considered deleting him to re-roll him as Electric/Willpower. Instead I've just got a Praetorian version: Dame Frisky Tibbles.

Two of the four characters I've gotten to 50 are tanks. One is a stalker, and one is a widow.

My first character was Dr.Gamma, my Rad/Rad Defender on Freedom. I picked the server simply because it was first on the list then and poor Dr.Gamma suffered incredibly due to my many newb mistakes (at least I played mostly solo, so my mistakes didn't cause any suffering to others):

- One thing I remember is that it took me ages to place ANY slots in my first blasts (SOLOING, and I actually completed the Faultline arcs before doing it), because I had read in some guide that I would mostly only use my debuffs, AoEs and CB after I got all of that (not true then, especially solo, but curiously a little bit more true now that I team a lot with him). Having come from a really grindy MMO before CoH, doing unslotted defender damage (not even sonic blast and before the new vigilance) did NOT feel slow at all for me back then!!! I pity people I know who STILL play that grindy thing... Still regarding powers, I thought EMP crashed my end (not only my recovery) and only ended up grabbing that amazing power at 38, after people in the forums set me straight.

- It was playing him that I learned where everything was. Exploring and getting badges with a low level squishy with no stealth and SJ (not fly!) for a travel power. I remember how scared, and soon kissing the floor, I was the first time I saw Supa Trolls while looking for what to do after my first contact had no more missions. I got sniped to death in Founders (and, much later, by the ****ed Pylon 17 in the RWZ). For a long time I thought Giant Monsters liked sniping me randomly while I traveled through the zones, due to the huge amount of damage I sometimes took in places I had outleveled... Until I figured out it was just ambush mobs 10 levels above me left unattended! And to this day I ALWAYS kill my outdoor ambushes (unless they get lost, and NO, that does not include that Malta Titan GM).

- Took me forever to learn how to use inspirations with him. For most content, his powerful debuffs and the small but quick heal were more than enough to survive even before I got the tasty CB stun, so when faced with a more-annoying-than-usual boss, multiple bosses, or especially AVs (toned down to EBs) with PToD, huge debuff resistance and tons of mez and damage, it was painful. By this and what I said above about exploring, I'm sure you guess I quickly got lots of debt badges (and then rarely died with the characters that came after, including squishies). I DID learn about anchors, herding (which I don't use anymore, but was handy when I played my first tank later) mobs into my debuffs from behind corners, pulling, and about every single enemy who had any mez (that was before toggle supression, when it all dropped). With him, I NEVER learned about hard-to-hit mobs (such as Rikti Drones, veng'ed Nemesis or CoT demons with dark attacks and auras) because of all the def debuff he put out.

- I failed my first two bank missions with him (had NO idea what I was doing in the first one and got stunned and defeated with a kick in the face in the second one - see about not knowing how to use insps properly), so for a long time I avoided bank missions with any squishies and instead went for the [old] hollows arcs. Without the flight pack. Then I started loving doing bank missions with every character. Nowadays, not so much anymore: I only do the first one, hero-side, for the pack. Redside I love mayhem missions, though, and always have.

And I still play and enjoy him lots today (although he had been mostly retired for years before the incarnate stuff came out), mostly in teams but still having a blast soloing with him now and then. I have done all the high level TFs with him (except for Tin Mage, need to find a team for that), love using him to take down EB-watered-down-AVs or to help with real AVs (never really felt like trying to solo those, though, with any characters) and he was my first character to get the Very Rare Alpha slotted, even though he is probably not my most powerful (as in damaging and very tough) character solo (but he's probably up there among them), with his cheap but quite effective IO build. He's also my character who did (and allowed me to read) most content, since I played him before xp smoothing, the debt nerfs and patrol xp. I fought -everything- hero-side with him. I loved to fight mez-heavy DE and Freaks and to bust up Redcaps while in my 20s and 30s, and in my 40s I fought KoA, Malta (damned Sapper ambushes), Carnies (I only noticed much later that they drained when dying), Vanguard (never figured what the big deal about them was... until I went at 'em with a Scrapper) and everything else. I was surprised by how wimpy my hated CoT turned in the high levels.

My other 50 I've been investing most of my incarnate time on is my Crab (though having her in Champion, and having soloed almost exclusively until recently, makes it considerably harder to find teams for the higher level TFs there), made years later. Second character I ever made was my Fire/Fire Tanker, also on Freedom, who is a powerhouse but only hit 50 recently (after the FA buffs, yay!), after a bunch of others.

I never deleted any of the multitude of characters I've made (that's why I'm spread around 4 servers).

my first was a kin/psi defender.

She didn't last long - to 20 something but by the time she was at 15 or thereabouts I'd rolled Scarlet Shocker who instantly became my main and continues to be so.

I rolled a lot of blasters subsequently, a couple of which got to 50 (one was subsequently deleted) but now I'm much happier on a controller - of whom I have maybe 4 or so at 50.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

My very first character was a Fire/Elec Blaster. Unfortunately I made her Science origin and she swiftly was eaten by Doctor Vs little minions trying to run the first few missions. So I abandoned her (she's probably part of his meat suit now) as all she could seemingly do was get ripped apart by zombies.

After that I chose a Fire/Stone tank, which I played (badly) as a Scrapper more or less. He got abandoned in the teens as I wasn't enjoying the melee experience much.

Finally was the character I was initially going to roll anyway but wanted to get the hang of the game a bit first, Carnifax, an Illusion/Storm controller who looked like a cross between a Jawa and an imp (the initial concept was "a tiny, harmless looking little thing, which can nonetheless cause absolute chaos").

I found a few old pics of her online too, although none are the original, hooded cossie she had (my new avatar is her original cossie, but it's not like you can see much of it amongst the bloom) :

I had made a temporary character on a friend's account to try the game when I was over at his house -- an MA/SR Scrapper. By the time I actually bought the game it was Issue 2; I remade the character on my own account. As Arcanaville says, early MA/SR was pretty iffy; the infamous "smell my foot" Storm Kick, the pre-buffed Scrapper damage, and /SR when it was not only low numerical values, but also hampered by level differences. Standardizing defense against anything up to +5 was a huge improvement to the game, but that would be years away; until then, +1 enemies did more damage to both a defense-based and a resistance-based character, but also were likelier to hit, a relatively greater penalty to the defense-based character, who in effect suffered reduction of his mitigation twice.

I really didn't have my heart in the character anyway, and knew at the time he was just sort of a test bed.

Seeking something that would be sturdy to solo, I picked, of course, a Force Field/Energy Defender (based on my hazy understanding that Dispersion Bubble would give him status protection). My level of understanding of the game's mezz system was thus inhibited by learning on a squishy who was unaffected by most mezz; for example, for a long time I thought there were two types of holds, one of which let you still attack (of course it was "immobilize" that had me confused). The game screens' inconsistent use of terminology (immobilize/snare, stun/disorient) further confused me.

So on the first or second day of having my own account, I made my first real character, Airacobra, ominously named after a promising early-WWII fighter design that ultimately turned out to be disappointingly underpowered. I liked the "air stories" pulp genre; his first costume inspired by his 1930s Army Air Corps theme, and my very first attempt at a description/bio, are visible here.

I played him for years as a "main." At first, people would put him on high-level teams for the bubbles even when he could hardly contribute anything else, but I felt like I was leeching when I didn't attack. So I perversely tried to keep him from leveling too fast.

Eventually I got seduced by Controllers, then later Scrappers and Tankers, but I still have Airacobra with his original costume in slot #1. He's still only 43 or 44. He's lain largely dormant for years. At one point, when free server transfers were offered, I moved him to free up a slot; later I moved him back when another free transfer and the ability to buy character slots made room for him at home again.

When I finally got into IOs, I formed grandiose plans to rebuild him into a soft-capped defense build with high recharge attacks; but the inability to have all the power pools I wanted thwarted me -- he had to have Fitness, Speed (Hasten), Fighting (Weave), Leadership (Maneuvers) and, uh, taht didn't leave room for Flight -- and if he's named after a fighter plane, he HAS to fly. I could imagine people saying "For crying out loud, your name STARTS with AIR!"

It's only recently occurred to me that Inherent Fitness suddenly makes this build possible. AND the new high-end content seems to be making defense buffs a bit more appreciated once more. Hrm...hrm indeed.

Above-right is Elizabeth still with only a few zombies and in her original costume. Over 4.5 years ago.

I started her the first week of May. As I only had teh COV box it would have to be a villain. Thought long and hard about the most evil things and beings I knew or could remember. From memory I came on Elizabeth Bathory and as a vampire. So looked for the best powersets to go with lifedraining vampire powers. My memory sucked though. And I mispelled her name as 'Elizabeth Balthory'.

So I started my Necromancy / Dark Miasma. Knowing her legend/history I created my SG at level 10. And ofcourse I wanted to check how base editing would work. And the 'Court of the Blood Countess' was born.

My gaming was baaadd... Died so many times... It took me at least 6 months before I learned that you could drop inspirations on your pets?! But I had FUN! Managed to play whole nights long. And the debt! So high back then. It took me way over 5 months to get her to 50. And I didnt had altiris back then.

The moment name changes became possible I changed it... and noticed many versions of the name where taken. Except for the officially written one 'Bathory Erzsebet', at the same time I changed my global to @Elizabeth Bathory.

Now.. she was my first 50... and she is my first incarnate... and she is my main rp toon. And the character I keep returning too. My first is still my main! And I am sure she will be my highest min-maxer ever...

My first character was Stone Quas a Stone/Stone tanker way back in Issue 1 and he was great but SLOW. It took me a week to make level 16 and I'm talking about playing for hours on end. Please remember that debt started at lvl 5 and xp was much harder to come by. Anyways, I finally got him to lvl 18 after about a year or so and deleted him as I saw no true future for him.

My favorite character is Shadow Hunter Q Energy/Energy blaster and he was my third and still with me today.

My first 50 was heavily pl'd the final 15 levels he is a Ice/Ice blaster.

Rich the Character Guy

My very first character I created during the pre-launch and later recreated on virtue, which was the unofficial RP server of course. She's Taboo, a Illusion/Empathy controller, still around, heck she is level 50, but not my first one. She was my first incarnate though. I made several noob mistakes with her too, took Teleport at my travel power, which took me some time to get used to using. But, I kept at it and now love it (of course adding hover helped ).
I had trouble soloing with her and usually either played my ice/ice blaster Icicle, or my scrapper Velvet Phantom (gotta love being one of the first in a superhero MMO ). I do remember working my tail end off to get her the witch hat from the Kattie Hannon TF and then being so disappointed that her hair disappeared when wearing it. As she was a magic based character I so wanted it too, so glad the new magic pack solved that. I struggled with that character at the lower levels, then hit 18. Phantom Army love at that point she was a blast. Still is in fact.

My first was a fire/fire blaster. It was pretty cool, but once I made my second character, a dark/dark defender, I was in love. Now I'm a devoted defender player. That dark/dark became my first 50.

--NT

My first character was right before I3, and Emp/Elec defender, that I duo'd with my wife's Fire/Energy blaster. He was my first character to 50 (years and years after creating him). He is still my main, and has gobs of hours of playtime on him. Once IOs came out, he went from being a "healer" to being a sapper, which made it much more enjoyable to play. The only other character that I have enjoyed as much, though for completely different reasons, is my second 50, a Kat/Reg scrapper. That's the one I play when I really just want to go bash stuff, and not think about how to defeat the bad guys. Point and kill.

My first character was a TA/A defender who also became my first character to reach 50 -- and then, like all my other 50s, retired.

As for my preferences, I play pretty much everything, and I always have. So I can't see that changing much.

my first and second character were my two mains who i still play, rian frosdrake and seraph blue. owing to a curious bug, i had to re-roll rian 6 days after making him due to a strange log in bug (this was 7 years ago) which is why he has different horns than originally planned. he is a ma scrapper, i tend to like to play martial artists in any game i play, and have pointedly not played games that lack a martial artist class, no matter how popular the game is. its my thing. ma wasn't that great back in the day, but that just meant i got to see rian get stronger and stronger thanks to course corrections by the devs.

seraph is an empathy/lit character. not gonna lie, emp is slow going solo, luckily my friends play and my work schedule was a lot more agreeable back then, don't think i could run an emp up these days. would have loved to switch her to an archery secondary rather than lightning one, but i hate re-rolling. her concept is as a traditional christian interpretation of an angel, but back in the days we didn't have real wings pre-issue 8, so i had to cheat with organic shoulders, and later the insect cape. other characters i started with i have tried to bring back in some form or another when new powersets out. cuddle bug, originally a spines scrapper i got rid of because its an ugly set, im thinking he might be back with a time controller. sea anemone a mermaid who also was a spine scrapper) was reborn as vendace, a kin melee fighter, because i just loved the character.

i also still have the same villain as my main and a secondary as i did in cov beta, violet tendencies, a plant thorn dom and dire worg, a ss brute, his secondary changed due to energy aura being a bit lacking at beta-launch. and yes, i know thorns is basically spines, but on her, it clicked.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.