Recommended upgrades for returning player?

I've recently returned to the game, and while I could probably search the wikis for a list of all the upgrades, I'm curious what sorts of things people are using and enjoying.

I am under a VIP membership, but I'm willing to pay a few dollars to enjoy some of the more advanced things. My biggest problem is sometimes I don't know what's already available to me, so I might accidentally buy something I don't need to.

A few upgrades I purchased, and enjoyed were:

The rocket board. Saw someone using one while I was grouped with him and decided I wanted one, too. Nice little thing to have when you can't fly normally.

The panther stealth ability. Have found it useful in little missions where I've wanted to sneak by something instead of fighting two or three oranges.

An endurance tab. Found that really helpful.

What else would you recommend? I tend to play mostly tanks or brute-like characters.

Two items I recommend are the "Aura Unlock" and "Back Slot Unlock" which allow you to use the Aura and Cloak costume pieces at character creation without having to get to level 20/30 and do a mission first.

Other than that if you like melee characters there are three new powersets for melee characters that you can buy: Staff Fighting, Street Justice and Titan Weapons. Plus Bio Armor is coming in the near future (on beta now so we'll probably see it in late August).

One "upgrade" I find quite useful is the Team Transport Power

It is a bit more pricey than the Mission Transporter Power, but it has a shorter recharge time and can be used playing solo or in a team.

Other than Super Packs, I've spent most of my points unlocking new power sets.

The market is the only way you can unlock those sets, and some of them are pretty cool. So far I like Street Justice and Staff Fighting. I haven't found a combo I like Titan Weapons with yet, but it's gotten glowing reviews from others.

Haven't gotten any of the ranged sets yet so I can't speak on those, and I despise Masterminds, so I can't say anything about Beast Mastery (My wife loves it though)

Anything with a description prefaced by "VIP CONTENT: " is included in the sub.

Also, it won't let you buy stuff you already have (due to the market's setup, it returns a quanity error)

I was always annoyed by running out of space in my inventory and I hated having to hunt through base storage or vault then finding I don't have the thing I need. I bought both expansion trays for Enhancements and Salvage and never regretted it. (I don't need to go to 50 enhancement slots though)

Really depends what you're into. I think I have all the purchaseable/VIP costume sets, since I spend an eternity or two in the editor. Same with the power sets - anything that'll "make" a character for me.

Of course, you don't say how long you were gone - there may be some free, in game QOL items that help out (like the combat attributes monitor - see signature.) I set that up on pretty much every character.

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