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Hello! On April 28th, 2004, the game we all know and love, City of Heroes™ was released to the public. 21 years later, we here at Homecoming, alongside all of you, the players, are keeping the City alive and stronger than ever. In commemoration of the 21st anniversary (and the fact that City of Heroes is now old enough to drink in Rhode Island*) this year's anniversary badge (picture above) is titled Cheers!. It will be awarded to any and all characters that log in from today until May 31st. Luna's shop for all the previous anniversary badges will be open throughout the month of May. This year's anniversary event is being activated right now, and will continue for four weeks until Tuesday, May 27th. We can't wait to celebrate with everyone! Thank you all for your six years of support. We hope this coming year will be the biggest year for Homecoming yet! *Disclaimer: in spite of the badge title, the Homecoming team does not recommend drinking while playing City of Heroes and does not take any responsibility for any horrific mistakes you might make while doing so.

I've been watching this thread for a while, taking notes on the amazing costumes. Here's a few of mine. Added some color correction and blur to a few, but otherwise just fussy screenshots. Captain China - Beam Rifle/Martial Combat Blaster Queen of Diamonds - Earth/Plant Controller Jova - Energy/Psychic Blaster Blackstone - Mercenaries/Pain Mastermind Abraxas - Fire/Dark Dominator Relay - Martial Arts/Energy Aura Scrapper Nom de Plume - Psionic/Ninjitsu Stalker Mogul - Titan Weapons/Electric Armor Brute Sea Lion - Savage Melee/Willpower Scrapper Whiz Kid - Arsenal/Traps Controller

Continued! Why not just go nuts and post 'em. Everyone here likes costumes, right? Astroman - Radiation/Radiation Brute Black Orchid - Necromancy/Plants Mastermind Boogeyman - Dual Blades/Dark Armor Tanker Cliffhanger - Trick Arrow/Archery Defender Dungeon Master - Demons/Traps Mastermind Facelift - Claws/Bio Armor Stalker Pyre - Fire/Fiery Aura Sentinel Silver - Street Justice/Invulnerability Brute Leapfrog - Super Reflexes/Street Justice Tanker Ophelia - Dark/Poison Corruptor

..and this is the last round of my characters. I swear! I apologize for the deluge but I really enjoy character design and I'm thrilled that you like them. Thanks guys! Gloss - Symphony/Energy Dominator Ghaziya - Dual Blades/Invulnerability Scrapper Psychopomp - Staff/Willpower Stalker Toro - Super Strength/Regen Brute Miss Minute - Time/Radiation Defender Sky Captain - Assault Rifle/Storm Corruptor Proteus - Water/Earth Blaster Mister Mystic - Illusion/Darkness Controller Living Locomotive - Invulnerability/Super Strength Tanker Larkspur - Archery/Energy Sentinel Incarna - Shield/Sword Tanker Junkyard Girl - Staff/Radiation Scrapper Nina Harker - Pistols/Regen Sentinel

Hello again, everyone - we made it! We’re thrilled to finally unveil the winners of the 2025 HC Base Building Contest! To every builder who poured their heart, time, and talent into an entry: thank you. You turned this contest into a true celebration of everything we love about this community. I can't even begin to tell you how many judging records this contest broke. The number of eyebrows raised, double takes taken, and jaws that hit the floor - all completely off the charts! I'm not exaggerating when I say that many of these showdowns were truly hair-splitting (and yes, hare-splitting, too). In the spirit of growth and transparency, we’d like everyone to know that we're offering participants the option to request a copy of their judging evaluation. If you’re interested in receiving constructive feedback and using it as a tool to sharpen your skills - we’re happy to share your evaluation. This can be a great opportunity to understand how your work was received, and where you might grow for future events. That said, a gentle reminder: no matter how thoughtfully given - critique can sometimes sting. If you know you’re likely to take the feedback to heart in a way that may cause more hurt than help, we encourage you to consider whether requesting your assessment is right for you. This offering is meant to support, not discourage. If you’d like your feedback, just DM @Easter Bunny, here or on Discord. And now, finally, without further ado... Let’s meet your 2025 Champions! But wait! There's MORE ... Introducing The Base Building Spirit Awards! Capturing the Heart of Base Building on Your Shard The Spirit Award honors one recognition-worthy base on each shard that, while not a top winner, stood out for its passion, creativity, and spark. It’s not just about polish or technical complexity - it’s about showing up, playing along, and creating something memorable. This award goes to a base that may not have taken the top prize but made the judges stop and smile, saying, “Now this is what base building is all about.” We define base building spirit as: Creativity: Doing something unique, unexpected, or clever with your space - even if it’s not perfect. Effort & Enthusiasm: A sense that you enjoyed the process and poured yourself into the build, no matter your experience level. Shard Personality: A build that reflects the community, humor, or style of your shard - intentionally or otherwise. Participation: Showing up. Submitting a base when you didn’t have to. Playing along. That counts more than you might think. To all our Spirit Award recipients: thank you for showing up and sharing your passion. Some builds whisper instead of shout - and still manage to echo. To our winners: you earned this. We’re in awe of what you built - congratulations! Special Thanks Huge gratitude to our judging panel - BBB, Deep Six, Garbage Wizard, Gem, and Interrabang - for your time, passion, and thoughtful evaluations. And thank YOU to everyone who participated, supported a builder, or toured the entries. You continue to make this contest something truly special. What’s Next? If you didn’t win this year, don’t let that discourage you! The skill, artistry, and fun on display this year has us inspired - and we hope it inspires you, too. We encourage everyone to keep building, keep experimenting, and keep sharing your creations with the community! Until next time - Happy Building! ❤️ Easter Bunny, Dacy & the 2023 Base Building Champions BBB | Deep Six | Garbage Wizard | Gem | Interrabang

Strong Defense Super Strength / Shield Defense Brute

My new characters! War Dove War Bound Pyro Muse Beware The Owls Blue Rose Gilded Raven God Complex Odyssey Vladimir Green Light Odyssey Golden Ryan Golden Diana

I got it all. 145 full sets of Trap of the Hunter.

I'm talking about the Concealment pool. It seems to be quite effective against most enemies but there is a massive problem with it. Civilian pedestrians wave at me as they walk by! 😱

The protest sign. "Or my mom will shoot" written backward. 1992 movie ---- Why did it take me this long to find this? I just located a reference to an obscure movie.

To those that have been there since before Issue 1, through the close, leaving and coming back again, and those who are just now joining us... 👋🥳🎉

A couple of new characters from this month! The Bloodbender (Water/Bio), the fanatical and hemoglobin-slinging leader of the Crimson Order, an ancient doomsday cult. And the Omniblade (DB/EA), a corporate-sponsored cyborg deployed to clean the streets of Paragon and protect its citizens. (my hommage to Robocop and my opportunity to fully use the "Perplex" pattern and Enforcer pieces)

This was to be one character However, I'm having so much fun testing two different powersets, I may just have to write one as a Praetorian counterpart. Names: Discarded & Discard Nix Card-based character(s) drawing inspiration from both DC Comics' Royal Flush Gang and Marvel's Gambit. The rough lore concept is that of a character(s) that has been disavowed from an unnamed organization and has found a new start as a powered individual in Paragon City. "Discard" being an obvious card pun as well as a synonym to disavowed. "Nix" playing a dual role of "ending" and "darkness/night" as the sentinel wearing a 2 of diamonds pattern (an often discardable card) uses Dark Blast instead of staff fighting. The brute with the staff has no clubs image, as the game doesn't give a chance for a 4th graphic. I guess he "discarded" a full suit. Not pictured, both have the card aura when in combat.

Recently made the Imperator (Beam/SR), a veteran of the Hamidon Wars and legendary IDF commando, initally working for Powers Division as a special operative, now an armored representative of the Praetorian refugees. His main outfit following his transition to Primal Earth, meant to evoke the style of a Halo armor but in the colors of the Praetorian society..

Living Candle, a Fire/Time Controller: Name, AT and powers in the flux for this one: (The) Anniemaly, a Dark3 Dominator:

When you want it back... eventually, and don't have a lot to spend, call upon "Kat Astro-Fee"!!!

Back in my day we had to do a few hours community service just to earn the chance at a respec. That's if you didn't miss the guy that ported under the reactor and ruined your day. And if you chose poorly you were Super Speeding uphill in the snow through Terra Volta. We didn't have those fancy schmancy jetpacks these kids have nowadays.

Supreme (Fire/Fire/Fire Cosmic Blasta) not from around here..

I was there in those early days following go-live. It was the first MMO I had ever played, and I was hooked from the start.

What started as my attempt at a generic "surfer girl" turned into some kind of Blue Beetle + Invincible + a tiny bit of Namor = "Tidewarp":

My Peacebringer's Incarnate costume:

Some 21 years ago...

Some more from me. I did a run of characters with a Ghost in the Shell/Cyberpunk full body replacement. One of the early ones was a USAF veteran of the first Rikti invasion, Miko "Panzer Wench" Garrett (Invul'/Street Justice Tanker). After the second Rikti invasion Nanomech Industries established a biosynthetic and cybernetics-based project for the most seriously maimed service personnel. Transferred to a secret Nanomech Industries facility, Miko became the first “volunteer”. After months of psychotherapy in virtual reality, Miko was liberated from the remains of her body and transferred into a life support shell that housed her brain. Installation into a new cybernetic body soon followed and allowed Miko to lead an almost normal life. With the advent of the Nanomech Avatar series Miko accepted an invitation from CEO Verity Lucas to trade in her old Mk 1 body for a new Mk 6 “Guardian” chassis styled after the Mecha that dominated her childhood. More recent refinements have streamlined it. Xarynn the Barbarian (Battle Axe/Ninjutsu Scrapper) Basically my main character from hours of Age of Conan ported across when I found out Scrappers could pick ideal power sets. Gothique the Dark/Dark/Soul Scrapper. I figure the libraries of Paragon City University are basically a battleground for villain factions and she got caught in the crossfire with residual effects. I'd tried Dark/Dark in Issue 6 on live and couldn't get it to work back then. To my surprise Gothique is actually fun to play. Lastly Zorsha the Titan Weapons/Ninjutsu Scrapper. The combination is comical so I had to make one. She's a sort of rebellious semi-demonic bodyguard summoned by Rollister. I started her Red-side and organically ran her through the alignment change to hero. This is the hero costume version, the villain one was black and red with skulls. The rogue costume was a sort of halfway house (grey and orange).

My characters already have an inherent weakness The person behind the keyboard 🤣

Homecoming game population is higher than it has been the last few years:

The Entry Period is Now Closed! You all have done it! - 102 bases entered into the contest! 🎉🎉 That’s an incredible milestone and a true testament to the creativity and passion of this community. Thank you to everyone who contributed! Judging begins now. With 100+ entries, it will take some time. We also plan to schedule guided tours with the top finalists, which adds to the process. While we’d love to announce winners in two weeks, it may take up to three weeks to fully deliberate and tour. Please remember our judges are volunteers with real-life responsibilities, so we ask for your patience and grace during this phase. And one more thing… Because of this amazing community response, we’re thrilled to announce that the HC Base Building Contest will return next year! Thanks again for being part of something so special - and good luck to all our entrants!

everyone died looking like a gingerbread man The Blackwand was called 'the Hockey Stick' The original Atlas Plaza The original Paragon Map The original Registration ID Card

Yea, same thing happens if you exit the midnight club. They need to add an option such as the "Hide Cooperative Zone" Dialog.

That's just legally 🤫

It ... is.... actually OK to just, NOT get the badge on every single character. I know, I know, I'll see myself out .....

I just feel sad for Americans having to wait until 21 before they can raise a glass to City of Heroes. The rest of us were holding drunken street parties 3 years ago 🙂

Greetings controller enjoyers. I've been having a blast with my grav/ff controller for a while now, I haven't seen people play in a similar style with all these powers, so I'm making this post to get it on more people's radar in case they could have some fun with it. The focus here is on packing enemies tightly together so your teammates can AOE them easier. You accomplish this with powers that manipulate the positions of enemies. The play-style is similar to a herding tanker but with a very different kit. Note the character doesn't really come online until you get Singularity at level 26, but people will appreciate your shields until that point I'm sure. I've added a spoiler section to select powers to include all the information I can think of about the power, you can skip these sections if you're just getting started. These sections address challenges you will face and to give you ideas on how to build your strategy. Warning: This is not a simple build to play when using the full kit, there is nuance involved in using each power. You can cause your teammates grief when you mess up or are too disruptive. Proceed with care. Disclaimer: I am not responsible for those who misuse these powers to disrupt your gameplay (unless it's me). Power overview I'll skip explaining the overall power sets of grav and ff and assume you're familiar, this topic will focus purely on moving enemies around. Gravity Control Lift Lifts enemies over ledges. This is useful here and there. You need Repulsion Field or Singularity to do the actual pushing as lift just raises the enemy. Enemies in the air are pushed harder by repel. Crushing Field Don't bother using Repulsion Field or even Singularity TP without it. It stops mobs from moving around while you try and group them up. I'm not a fan of immobilize outside of soloing but this is an incredible use of it. Wormhole Teleport outlier mobs to the main group of mobs. You can wormhole entire packs of distant enemies but it's likely you will not pull them all. The target mobs should be tightly packed or I wouldn't bother using this power, you can group them up yourself if you want! Have a remediation strategy for dealing with the remaining mobs. I will either provoke them, bump them with Repulsion Field so they agro and kite them over, or Crushing Field and Repulsion Field to push them toward the main clump of mobs. The choice depends on the number of remaining enemies, how far away they are, their relative level, and the obstacles in the way. Extra Info: Singularity The reason to use Gravity Control as a primary. You've likely seen grav controllers teleport their pet in the middle of a group of enemies. Singularity attracts enemies toward itself with a large radius. This is the primary way to group mobs together and you often don't need any other powers other than Crushing Field. Extra Info: Force Field Deflection/Insulation Shield Keeps your pet alive longer. Singularity will take a beating so this is useful. Repulsion Field The reason to pick Force Field as a secondary. The basic idea is to push enemies toward your Singularity. Singularity makes Repulsion Field more forgiving and effective, the repel/attract effects work together. Be aware the knockback effect has a smaller radius than the repel effect, sometimes you won't want to trigger knockback as repel has no effect if the enemy is knocked on the ground (more relevant to lower level mobs) Extra Info: Dispersion Bubble On the defensive side of things Dispersion Bubble gives you access to a very welcome amount of defense (nearly 12%). Good defense is important as you will receive a lot of attention from mobs. Power pool: Teleport Combat Teleport A very useful way to maximize Repulsion Field uptime and effect. Rather than moving to the position you would have the best repel you can teleport there. Can be used to get around mobs without disturbing them with Repulsion Field as well. Extra Info: Teleport Target Needed to teleport Singularity. See the Singularity Extra Info spoiler section for more info. Teleport For repositioning where Combat Teleport won't move you far enough. Fold Space Obviously a great way to move mobs, similar to Wormhole it often won't TP every mob you wanted it to. Ideal for situations where mobs are scattered around you in many directions and too far for Singularity to pull in. Gather the remaining mobs similar to Wormhole. Extra Info: Power pool: Presence Provoke If there's mobs far from the main clump you want to pull in a good old-fashioned taunt may just be the best tool available, you wouldn't want to Repulsion Field a bunch of mobs over long distances. Provoke can be nice to get the leftovers of a pack you partially Wormhole'd to the main pack. You don't get the range reduction on the target like tanks do, so you have to out-range or LOS to get them moving. Bumping the mob with Repulsion Field to get agro can fill the same role, nearly. Extra Info: Macros There's several macros that are useful, generally to make teleport powers less clunky. Teleport to cursor: /macro_image "Teleportation_Teleport" "tp" "powexec_location cursor teleport" Combat Teleport to cursor: /macro_image "Teleportation_Teleport" "ctpcursor" "powexec_location cursor combat teleport" Combat Teleport up against your target. You'll appear on their closest side if they're not moving: /macro_image "Teleportation_Teleport" "ctptarget" "powexec_location target combat teleport" Target your pet with a keybind to then teleport it: /macro pet petselectname YOUR_PET_NAME Teleport Singularity the maximum distance possible in front of you: /macro_image "Teleportation_TeleportFoe" "tppetfront" "powexec_location front:39 Teleport Target" With boosted zephyr 3 set I get the value of 39 as my max distance but yours may be different. You could put the pet select in the same macro though it requires two button presses, not sure if there's a way around this: /macro_image "Teleportation_TeleportFoe" "tppetfront" "petselectname YOUR_PET_NAME$$powexec_location front:39 Teleport Target" Example Build I've been leaning toward building damage heavy so you have more impact than just gathering the mobs. Make sure you have the target immobilized or held for containment damage. ST rotation = gravity distortion -> lift -> propel -> repeat. AOE = gather mobs (use crushing field doing so)-> force bomb -> umbral torrent. could go mu mastery for ball lightning if you want.dukedukes damagev1.02 (Gravity Control - Force Field).mbd Some things to shoot for: Good defenses. I aim for high ranged defense, good aoe defense, balanced resists. Force feedback recharge procs 95% to hit chance for fold space and wormhole Good range boost for teleport target, but all teleport powers (including wormhole) are better with range Gameplay Here's a +2 Yin TF. Keep in mind relative mob level affects how strong repel is via Purple Patch, +2 is pushed very hard compared to +4. Thanks for your time. If you try these power sets out I hope you have fun! My global name is Ducks if you have questions and happen to catch me online, or ask here.

Mariam Barghouti grew up in the West Bank, raised by her grandmother after her parents, an imprisoned poet and a schoolteacher taught her to fight with knowledge and care. At age 10, after her home was destroyed, she and her brother were sent to live with an aunt in Providence, Rhode Island. There, Mariam became a nurse, working in the ER by day and witnessing the same patterns of injustice she thought she escaped exploitation, abuse, indifference. One night, a bloodied man was brought in, handcuffed and brutalized. When Mariam stood between him and those in power, something awakened in her: not a superpower, but an unbreakable will. She became Liberation a protector of the oppressed, wrapped in Kevlar and history. No cape, no mutation, just knives, skill, and ancestral fire. By day, she heals. By night, she resists. Her mission is not vengeance, but dignity for the silenced, the exiled, and the unheard.

I think the Council has been having personnel issues. I caught this guy having a moment after taking down some 5th Column.

Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Twinshot took the lead, With her guns held high, But she shot the ceiling down, And debris filled the sky. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Proton’s clone-tech whirred, From dimensions afar, But he warped himself to France, Now he’s lost in a bar. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Dillo’s hoorb rang out, In the snowy fray, Slipped on icy ground, And rolled into the bay. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Flambeaux flipped her hair, Flames on grand display, But she torched her own costume, And ran screaming away. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away! Grym sniffed out the foe, With his hound-like flair, But he chased a squirrel instead, Left the team in despair. Jingle bells, Shining Stars, Bumbling all the way. Oh, what fun it is to see The villain slip away!

Two new ones: "Barely Contained": "Divegirl":

Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek. Stop. Breathe. I just need to draw (serious) attention (again) to this (valid) objection so I'm now using tasteless humor. Now continue... My toons are either Vigilante or Rogue. That's just the way I roll. But when I'm a Vig and I'm in Pocket D I get this *extremely* annoying popup (attached) when I attempt to exit to ATLAS PARK!? Excuse me? Am I not blue enough? This happens in the Midnighter Club too, when I attempt to exit to one of the available blue zones! This is discrimination on the basis of color! It's that simple. The same goes for when my toon is Rogue. *Every* zone that is "Blue Supremasist" or "Red Supremasist" is racist against Vigilantes and/or Rogues. Regardless of your offense against my tasteless (but extremely funny to the "right" people) humor, this is a valid objection. The pop-up is annoying. So, while this post is tongue-in-cheek (remember I said that?) I would appreciate it if I could simply do what any blueside/redside "pure blood" would be allowed to do and never experience it. I'm willing to compromise with Vigilantes experiencing this pop-up when entering red zones and vice-versa, But "come on, man!?" What made it necessary in the first place? Just answer that *one* question. Give me a good answer and I will erase the contents of this post faster than... Well... As fast as I can (editing the original post to ensure context is maintained from the answer, of course.) If you've read this far without banning or reporting me, I appreciate your patience! And I beg your forgiveness if I've offended you. No, seriously. I just wanted awareness of a real problem.

Hailing from the stars, arrives "Psylvia":

Ignore is only as permanent as you choose it to be. You can remove players from your ignore list at any time. That lets you temporarily or permanently ignore a player as you see fit.

Sister Psyche TF was effectively revamped when it was replaced with the Penelope Yin TF. The only way the Sister Psyche TF is accessible is through Ouroboros, which is intentionally left unchanged so a player can experience the old version.

The good old days are now. We have it better today than we ever did before shutdown.

From the floorboards under your bed to the depths of the ocean: "Wyld 'n Tidal"

Pyroclastic Crow's a lava alien who accidentally entered a wormhole to Primal Earth. His body is made of lightweight volcanic rock, and his only vital organ is his molten core - anything else can be regrown/reforged thanks to his species' innate ability to manipulate lava and molten stone. The Wraith of the Wastes is an extra-dimensional ice lich with a penchant for flash freezing living beings into ice sculptures. Arachnos' experiments with Portal Corp tech accidentally opened a rift straight into her display gallery, and she's been gleefully collecting exotic new specimens from the Rogue Isles as recompense ever since.

Woohoo!!!!!!! 💛 Big thanks to @Wispur @Zaldra5 and the rest of the Elysian Guardians 💛

Homecoming has been shrinking ever since they introduced Mini-Mode.

sometimes people are just annoying and spammy in chat but in a community this small I feel like perma ignoring is a very drastic measure only saved for true spammers in chat who are intentionally being disruptive. I wish there was a middle ground like ignore for a day or week and afterwards they get auto removed from the list, people can be annoying but not to the point I usually want them ignored forever. The chances I remember their global name as only mildly annoying and then remember to remove them manually later on from global ignore is basically zero. so, I'm actually almost never using ignore because I feel most people don't warrant such an extreme response, for these reasons a temp ignore would be great!

The contest bases look amazing, whatever base that wins each category will be absolutely amazing, given who all they have to beat!! Good luck to all! Check out all the bases through the hubs: Everlasting: TOUR-33691 Excelsior: TOUR-30788 Indomitable: TOUR-11167 Reunion: TOUR-9105 Torchbearer: TOUR-14480 Victory: TOUR-893