Viable to level through FLashbacks?

Being new to the game, all of the contacts are new content and I want to experience them all. However, I'd also like to get at least one character to the level cap as quickly as I can via soloing.

My question is, is the experience gained by using the Flashback system in Ouroboros comparable to that which I'd get via moving from zone to zone meeting new contacts?

Thanks.

Yeah, Flashbacks should work fine. Before Issue 16, characters could not earn XP while they were exemplar'd down to run Flashbacks (or anything else for that matter), but now that you can earn XP while exemplaring, there shouldn't be any problem with leveling efficiently through Ouroboros.

The only thing I'd mention is that while Ouroboros contains all of the contacts' story arcs, it doesn't let you run one-shot missions from those contacts unless they are badge-awarding missions. Some contacts have cool one-shot missions that you can only experience by doing them 'normally' at the appropriate level, and some of them can award useful temporary powers.

Though you will miss out on single missions as already stated, you will get a bunch of merits from only doing story-arcs. =P

I didn't see it mentioned, but currently Ouroboros access is gated at level 25 (although this seems to be changing downward to at least 14 with the release of CoH: Freedom from what we've been told so far).

So you'd have to level up at least that far without consistent Flashback access (lowbie Flashback via base access, the viability of which people disagree on, notwithstanding).

Okay, so I'm 25 now and just did my first Flashback Arc. I;m curious, do I not get the massive chunk of exp I usually get after finishing an arc if I do it via Flashbacks?

It doesn't matter if you're in flashback mode or not, the story arc completion bonus is weird.

Take Darrin Wade's arc on the red side. If you run over and do it the instant he becomes available, you'll get an ENORMOUS bonus - 6 or 7 bubbles of XP usually. However, if you do his arc just before you outlevel him, you only get about a half bubble of XP.

I think that the reason for this is that each arc has a fixed reward. If so, that would explain what happens in my example above. Unfortunately, that means that low-level arc might give a 5000 XP bonus, which is huge to a lowbie, but the same bonus to a 40+ character is slightly more than what you get for defeating a single boss.

My suggestion, if you want to maximize your XP rewards, is to start at the bottom and work your way up, so that as you do the arcs, the gap between their level and yours is as small as possible. If you're close to the level the arc is meant for, the XP bonus should at least be noticeable, even if it's not huge.