Best Direction to Take

I've recently started playing COH again due to being bored with WOW. What is a better approach:

Get one guy to level 50 and max him/her out.

or

Slowly get 10-15 toons to level 50 and then work on maxing them out.

Also

When is the point on your level 50 where you sit back and go.."I've done all I can possibly do to make this guy the best that I can." ?

Do the first one.
Getting inf on a 50 is much easier. That inf will fund your following toons.

And the point you sit back and say a toon is finished is when it has all its purples and its build is finished. Then you still gotta T4 all your Incarnate powers. Then you can sit back and say, you are done. Feel free to keep collecting Isalvage on the toon so it can craft new Ipowers right away.

My toons are finished when I get bored with them and don't want to spend any more time improving them. The level that occurs at is variable.

Do the first one, but don't let that stop you from making more characters if you get an idea for one. Versatility is good. Say you play a Tanker. If you join a TF and see that there are already 3 Tankers on the team, being able to bring something else would be useful.

I'd start out with a handful of different characters until you find the one that you want to take to 50. i.e. which is most fun Then I'd get that one to 50 and then decide if you'd like to take any of the others there as well. You may find you want to tweak your 50 some more or you may want to get another one to the same level.

I get bored playing the same character all the time, so I'd go with the second option. But that's a personal decision, and as others have said - it's easier to get inf on a 50 and that will let you fund other characters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

"Best" depends on what you want to do. COX really isn't about the "end-game" so much as the ride along the way. A couple of things to consider, though.

1.) Although the fastest way to make influence in COX is via market shenanigans, a level 50 playing the game regularly will earn more influence than lower level characters.

2.) A level 50 can participate in a greater range of content than a lower level character.

3.) Unlike WOW, some IO sets are just as good at level 30 as level 50 (because their power isn't affected by level, or because the set caps out at a lower level etc). It really isn't considered "twinking" but just part of how you design your characters if you have the influence. Nothing is BOP, and only a few of the most powerful IOs are reserved for level 50s. In fact, I'd go so far as to so that there are certain IOs that really *ought* to be slotted by level 30 unless you are powerleveling so rapidly that it makes no difference.

4.) Having several alts that you regularly play can give you a couple of a advantages, however. Some rewards are on timers, particuarly Signature Story Arc rewards and Tip/Morality missions. Additionally, the way the market works in COX rewards people who can use patience and leave things up for a week or so. That's easier to do with alts.

Taking all that into consideration, my advice would be to try maybe 4 or 5 different characters up to 22, and then push to 50 with the one you enjoy the most while keeping 2 or 3 other alts in regular rotation. Playing the different ATs gives you insight into good team play. I don't think you would be able to get a good sense of progression if you spread your attention out over 10-15 different characters, but focusing intently on just one character might lead to burnout.

As far as when a character can be "done", it depends on if you like badges or not. Personally I enjoy them, and am impressed when I can see another player has bothered to get a significant number of them. The other factor with "done" is that most folks don't bother to go beyond a certain point in enhancing their powers because it seems like overkill . . . for the same amount of expense/effort you could kit out 4-5 other characters as that last little bit for your main. But if you don't care about how marginal the returns are, there are all sorts of things you can do :-) You have 3 different builds per character, you could purple them all out!

I'd suggest making one ranged, one meleer and one support. The variety will keep things interesting and will also give you options in case your team is lacking in one or the other. And if you're relying on drops, you can pass them around to which ever can use it.