Returning Players... 50 so now what?

Good morning all!

My wife and I have returned to Paragon after a few years away, and wow what changes have taken place. We have found a new home on a new server, and tommorrow we transfer our 50's and get them back into fighting shape!

The question we have, though, is... how best do we do that? I'll admit, I'm completley lost when it comes to the new stuff. Do we grind Architect missions? Go back and complete old arcs? Or just run tips/whatever becomes available?

I know we need to unlock our Incarnate abilities (Fortunately the server we are going to has trials running almost constantly day and night we can jump into). So I'm not too worried about that, merely making a good showing in them.

Any other tips that we need?

Thank you in advance!

I don't know when you left, but there are now, approximately, two main paths for increasing your power.

1) Invention Origin enhancements. For a few million inf you can get the equivalent of a couple hami-Os in each power through "frankenslotting". For a lot more inf you can get a lot more power and evolve your characters into quite different beasts. (A tank with Footstomp every six seconds and enough end to use it is very different from one with Footstomp every fifteen seconds. A Blaster with 40% Ranged Defense is not like one with 5-10%. )

You can generate some of the enhancements directly; you would need to buy others on the market. Costs are silly if you're only buying stuff, and not selling your drops. As long as you're both buying and selling stuff, it's all the same units. (And you can be an Ebil Marketeer and buy stuff and sell it for more. We have secrets and we don't shut up about em.)

2) Incarnate abilities. I'm still learning these. There's the Alpha slot (which uses "incarnate shards" as the base material for building your stuff) and the next four slots (which use "incarnate threads" and lots of 'em.) The Alpha can give you an extra slot or two in ALL your powers, and part of that is not affected by ED; it can also give you a "level shift" which makes you fight like you're level 51. Your enhancements all work like you're level 50, they don't become junk, but it's like you're sidekicked up an extra level.

There are more level shifts, but those mostly seem to be either temporary [there's a super insp that gives you a 3-minute level shift] or only work on trials.

I'd start with your Alpha and go from there.

Welcome home to both of you

Thank you both of you

Yes, I am an ebil marketeer lol. Even in this short time back I've stockpiled quite a lot of inf through some strategic purchases, creations, and resales.

So it seems that the Incarnate is the way to focus at first. Then working on the IO's while we are bouncing around earning our Incarnate experience.

It's going to be a long strange trip lol. Gotta say, we love the changes to the game. After years running a WoW guild (and podcast... that was the hardest to give up but when you dislike a game so much you can't even talk about it...) it's nice to be around FRIENDLY people who want to be in Paragon City.

and ty Golden Girl, from both of us

You may want to read this guide if you want the fast-track on figuring out the Incarnate stuff:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=257011

And to catch up on all the other things that have changed in the City besides what to do with your 50s, check out this link on ParagonWiki:

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Issues

Really, the hard part is going to be getting the chance to run whatever TFs are new to you... lots of people are running the two trials, comparatively few people are running TFs right now. ^_^ But the newness of the trials will wear off soon I think.

Welcome Back to the game

I didn't see anyone else mention it, so I will. To access the Incarnate system you have to purchase the Going Rogue expansion. It's a very worthwhile product in it's own right though.