MTeague

If you are diehard against using set IO's, I can respect that. I won't say I agree with it, but I can respect it if I look at it as a self-imposed challenge. I have a small library of such things in other games. Domination will be just as powerful for you as it will be for someone who goes wild with IO sets. However, for them, Domination will have 100% uptime, for you, you will need to be signficantly more strategic and decide when it's time to activate Domination and when it's not. If you are not going to use sets at all, I would at least look into Primary and Secondarys that allow you to build up some personal durability, and/or which allow you some distraction ability. Confuses are a big tide-turner. Esp if Domination won't be up all the time, it's nice to be able to subtract one form thier side, and add one to your side. And it's always good to Confuse a Sapper, or a Sorceror, or some other mob with a REALLY annoying debuff. Pets to soak hits for you are nice. There aren't many Dom Primary Secondaries that allow for Health Recovery, but they can be nice, esp if you might take more hits from not having everything locked down 100%. I would really recommend you look at Plant / Psi Assault as a combination. Seeds of Confusion is an amazing power and it's far safer to dance about in melee when you confused a pack on your way in. You get a permanent pet in Fly Trap and pure chaos temporary pets in Carrion Creepers (which are hugely thematic and fun.... they just need a voice yelling "I am Groot!") You still get Immobs to keep big nastys away from you. You get TWO health recovery options, one in Tree of Life and one in Drain Psyche. If you only get one, get Drain Psyche. Hit 4 targets with that PBAE stacks of that and you're practically a Regen scrapper until it wears off. Tree of Life is also nice on top of it, but is much more into the optional category. Drain Psyche also gives you a source of -Regen debuffs, to allow you to punch hard targets. Telekinetic Thrust .... without a KB-to-KD enhancer.... is something of a quandry. Ragdoll Physics in Knockbacks CAN be very useful when soloing as a damage mitigation tool. And TK Thrust does SMASHING damage, which gives you a good attack to use against Psi-Resistant Robots, Undead, or things with Sky High Psi Defense (lookin' at you, Carnies....) If you are intent on NOT using Sets at all... and thusly, not having Permadom at all.... you may have to just accept that you may not be able to solo certain EB's / AV's, wtihout a pocket Shivan. No matter what your primary or secondary is. Seriously. Domination allows you to stack the mag really high really fast. Nothing else is going to get through purple triangles, and I don't think one cast of Domination will last long enough for certain EB's / AV's. Plus, Domination gives YOU status protection and Permadom means you have Permanent Status Protection. That's HUGE for some fights, and is part of what you are giving up by not using sets. That would be too bitter a pill for me to swallow, but at least go into it eyes open.

There are a bazillion paths through the game. Which is a GOOD thing, this gives you options to make each character's journey different. You can hit the Task Forces first, or not until 50. Entirely up to you. I personally have never done a DfB and I mostly doubt that I ever will, because I prefer to level somewhat slowly compared to most. Some contacts will stop giving you missions as you level, but any and all content you outlevel in this manner can be accessed again via Ouroborus (the single best thing ever added to the game). Therefore, you never really "miss out" on content. And you don't have to wait until 50 to hit Ouroborous and do earlier content. Safeguards/Mayhems can also be done if you "missed" them the first time around though, blueside, you need the Villain Disruptor badge, and redside you need the Hero Slayer badge to unlock the ability to do the ones you missed. Well worth it imho, I love Safeguards and Mayhems. I will say, some of the best story arcs I've seen, have been Goldside (Praetoria). If story arcs are your thing, treat yourself to them. Just be aware that Praetoria kicks it up a few notches compared to the rest of the starter zones, and there are fewer players (generally) in Praetoria. You can team there, but it's much rares. So I would pick my AT / Powersets planning that I might need to solo in Praetoria. Also, in Praetoria the story arc breakpoints are 10, 15, 20, so you might want to turn off XP (temporarily) at 9, 14, and 19, until you've done all the arcs you intend to at that level range on that character. The Praetoria arcs ARE available in Ouroborous as well, but I think they're best experienced levelling up as a Preatorian. You also get the option to do "undercover" work for the other faction that way, which you do not get if you just use Ouro.

I believe you are correct on Sleeps. They are a classic "Mezmerize" as they existed in EverQuest. The target can take no action until / unless disturbed. Primarily it's purpose is to park a mob until you / your team is ready to deal with it. Some sleeps are also Non-Aggroing, and can be used to bypass mobs you simply don't want to fight, as when it wears off they won't even realize you were ever there. Sleeps work wonderfully when soloing, and I would urge that any changes made should not screw with their utility when soloing. Sleeps CAN work nicely in a team, but I acknowledge this is rare, and generally only applies when the team is in over their head. This happens far less at lvl 50 / incarnate. The most classic example for team-use of Sleeps in today's CoH is generally for Positron against the Mirrior-Team, using Mass Hypnosis to lock them all down and then pull 1-2 at a time, or to buy a levelling team time against unexpected ambushes. But at 30+ (if not sooner), I rarely bother use it in teams, because the targets will be re-awakened. Although, from time to time, it has saved a partial wipe from being a complete wipe. It's just that that's so very very rare. Sleeps are also one of a few forms of control, like Immobilizes, that are not impacted by Purple Triangles of Doom.

A dark blasting defender can still provide plenty of support by applying to-hit debuffs against the teams foes. And it's not that a defender's damage output is nerfed on a team, is that it's boosted when they're solo. On a team, you go back to the "normal" for a defender. Should this be changed? Arguable. If they boost a Defenders team damage too much, that really undercuts Corruptors. Maybe there's a happy middle? but on my Storm/Sonic, I've never felt useless on a team. Smart Ragdoll physicis (particularly with KB-to-KD's) and and application of large -RES debuffs is still plenty welcome, whether or not my personal damage count is high. And don't entirely neglect O2 Boost. It's not super strong but its a fast cast spot heal and comes with a nice End Drain resist and can break a teammate out of some mezzes. Plus, if you're using the rest of your powers to ragdoll well, you probably don't NEED to be applying tons of big heals.

I do not believe it is possible to get to a situation where the vast majority of the playerbase is contented that every set performs approximately equally as well, and that none of them need work, without homogenizing them to the point that they lose any uniqueness. I believe some sets will ALWAYS be considerd to "need work". Even if which sets are considered horrible changes over time as changes get made to them. There will always be a few that are labeled dogs.

Well, influence only matters until your character is fully kitted out with the spec you want. After that.... um... well.... you could do a second build... but very few of my characters would change any powers or slotting in a second build .... the widow maybe to do both night widow and fortunata but most.... nope. And then Influence is just there to sugar daddy the NEXT alt. and the next after that. Once all the alts you care to create are taken care of, I could see influence start to become more "ya ya whatever, here take some". I mean, I have 30 alts, and I doubt they'll be fully IO'd out until June 2021, because I go at a casual pace. (well, I call it casual anyway....). But I'm probably never going to have 200+ alts. I'll still play the game with my squad of 30, but I can see there will be a point, someday (over the rainbow....), when I literally have very little use for influence.

Honestly I find it entirely plausible that it's just a bunch of people playing Converter Roulette. I did not know the seeded price was 100,000. I do know that I play converter roulette a fair amount, and I do know that I and others have pointed it out as an option to some new folks who were aghast at how much IO sets cost, or who wondered how they would ever get enough merits to fully kit out a character.

Lol. Please don't misunderstand. I have zero bones against farming in principle. I will personally not partake in the activity, but farming-for-drops has existed in EVERY multiplayer game I have ever played, bar none, and I would not expect CoH to be any exception to that. My only frustration is it feels like 97% of AE maps are fire farms, and I have to search long and hard to find a few here and there that are not. I only want a better search filter option. If you want to go nuts farming every waking hour, knock yourself out. Cheers.

As long as it's an actual player created story with an actual plot, and not "look more mobs that only do fire damage!" If I could ask for ANY ONE change to AE search console, it would be the ability to find mission that do NOT contain the word "Farm" in either the title or the description.

I remember typing "City of Heroes 2019" (this was back in June) and actually getting a hit for the first time in forever. I cliked on the link and was like PLEASE don't let this be epic level trolling PLEASE let this be real pleaseohpleaseohplease. And it was real 🙂 Really hit at the signon screen hearing the music. I lost the next few hours to ressurrecting my fav 5 heroes and fav 5 villians from Live. I got most of the names too (though they were kind of obscure names, OR, already contained a prefix... "Trifid" or "Agent Blackcat" or "Thundercrow", etc.). I didn't even TRY to get names that would be cool but I knew sight unseen would be long gone (Captain Obvious, Triangle Man, etc). But then, I never had those names in LIVE, either.

I've wanted "Alternate MM Theme's" for awhile now. It woudl be easier to do if they could pull from existing artwork and existing animations. Although how you would keep the other "look" mobs triggering the same powers is probably.... tricky, at best. But I would like to see something like Bots: exiting current Bots.... OR... Council Bots. (Hoverbots for T1, MechMen for T2, Warcry robot for T3) Thugs: existing current Thugs.... OR.... Family Goons. (Mooks, Capos, Underboss) Necromancy: existing current zombies,.... OR.... Vahzilok. (Cadaver, Abominations, Eidolon in place of Lich) Mercs: existing current Mercs.... OR.... Sky Raiders. Ninjas: existing current Ninas... OR.... well.... probably Tsoo. Knives of Artimis could work too, as a less eastern-flavored ninja, more straight up assassin's guild. Beasts: existing current Beasts .... OR ..... um....hm. tricky. Not that many other animal mobs. Snakes maybe? Open to ideas. Demons: existing current Demons .... OR .... um.... Rularuu? again, open to ideas here.

I will not turn down any /SR buffs. But my scrapper does not feel in any way shape or form underpowered.

Well, you'd have some primary / secondayr redundancies with the Immobilizes. Electric Manip gets immobs, and so would Electricity Control. Things like that, might need some ironing out. Still, I very much enjoy control-based characters, so I'm sure I'd play it. It would be interesting having offense and control but WITHOUT the extra shutdown on Domination. The Lockdown Chance for +2 Mag Hold would be must-haves for sure. Or you'd have to live and die on the softer controls. Confuses, Stuns like Wormhole, etc.

How do you know they're level 1's? How do you know they don't play anymore as opposed to say, are taking a 1 month break because of real life time concerns?

Would absolutely love this. Just because my Rogue had to head to Paragon City two steps ahead of the death squads and lay low for a bit doesn't mean he's gave up trying to rob people blind / earn a living / make take some money!

In the case of the OP, I kinda get the frustration, because I was told, and Google confirms, that "Canadian Shield" is also the name for a large geologic formation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield So, I can appreciate it would be cool to have a name with that kind of duality going on. But....yea. First Come, First Serve. Sucks if you didn't find out about Homecoming until semi-recently but.... it is what it is. No matter how much you want it, it ain't a gonna happen. So you need to find something else you can accept, OR, go with a different character theme entirely.

Maybe I've been lucky in which powersets I choose. But I've never had Endurance managmenet be an ongoing problem past lvl 30, and often not past lvl 20. My Fire/Fire sent was among the toughest to get under control, but he was running EIGHT toggles, and really, I could have should have turned some of them off rather than OOM'ing shortly after each fight. Endurance Managment is just another aspect to the game, much like building up Defense and Resistance and damage potential.

This is a very recurring concern. Search a couple different forums and you'll find several posts related, every few weeks. That said, Devs have confirmed that while they have an on-paper idea (linked in the FAQ.... very very top bar..... Browse, Activity, Account Center, FAQ, etc......) on "Name Release Policy", it has not been coded, and I'd guess they're wrestling a bit with pros and cons and when is just vs unjust. I mean, in LIVE.... I don't remmber if there was ever a name-purge. I know I heard it talked about as an idea.... but I don't know that it ever HAPPENED. And I had to come up with different names for all my characters on Guardian server back in the day. Several of my first tries were rejected. Some few I got. A few I wrestled with how much mispellings could I tolerate, some I said no and came up with a different name entirely or scrapped a character idea for lack of a name. I DO think the problem is probably amplified because of the sheer number of characters that each account can create on the same server. On Live, I think we had ... what? 12 slots per server? Thereabouts? And multiple accounts meant $$ per month, at least for much of the life of the game, so that probably toned things down. I'd be open to the idea of maybe being able to flag X number of names as "Untouchably mine" on a first-come first serve basis, because everyone probably has a "core" group of characters that they very much identify with couldn't bear to lose. And any number of names above that number being at some state of risk. But I will admit freely, part of why I say that is I have only 30 characters, and some of them have very obscure names to begin with. So I would be less likely to be personally impacted, and as such, it's probably not entirely fair for me to suggest the idea. Most of all I'm glad I am not personally responsible for having to choose and implement an idea, because you know that person is going to catch flak no matter what, even if the ultimate decision is "do nothing."

Realism? In a comic book super hero game where people routinely fly by act of will, control gravity and time, magic is an actual THING, we have hoards of alien invaders and parallel dimension evil-opposite-universe counterparts, and .... "Realism". That's a good one. 🙂

epeen, like hatred and vengeance, is a hunger that cannot be sated. Let it go.

I'm just amazed at the number of threads that say "this game is too easy, give me another challenge" AND threads that want "a purpose" to levelling and exping at max incarnate. To be blunt, that is a losing game from the developers standpoint. Wonderful if they can pull it off, but if a couple decades of gaming has taught me anything it's if devs take a year (or More!) to write an expansion or carefully crafted raidsets, there will always be many groups of focused players who blow through that in 2 months, tops, and are looking for even newer, even shinier content and rewards. And that's with a fully staffed AAA gaming studio running it. Quite frankly, HC devs dont' stand a chance to produce enough content to keep people always having something new and shiny over the long term. I'm not saying they should never produce anything new. I am saying, you'll always finish whatever they produce fast. And if you're a competitive gamer, you'll always be at a point where you feel overpowered and that content is trivial. Your best bet is to come up with your OWN reasons for playing established characters at 50. Don't look for a reward from the HC devs. Decide on goals for yourself. Immerse yourself in roleplay-vs-enviornment. Dive into AE and try to come up with a convuluted story arc that you think other players would enjoy. Whatever does it for you. Because there's gonna be a limited supply of dev-supplied-shinies to chase after.

If it's an OPTION, via Notoriety settings, I'm fine with that. Don't force it on a low-damage controller or defender.

I'm pretty happy with Martial Kombat as a blaster secondary. Ki Push is hilarious and buys you a few free hits, and I just having a hero who can kick things in the face as well as blast from range.

they don't always in your build, but I do like the sets that produce "% end discount to all powers" as a set bonus. My Fire/Fire sentinel got a lot more manageable after those.

They could do "keycards" or something needed to get the elevator oto the next floor or open doors. Because doors totally stand up to pounding on from Super Strong titans and block even phase shifting mutants and.... oh never mind.