Intermipants

In options you can change it so that player rating is shown all the time. I think it’s in the windows options menu.

I can’t believe that I’ve been playing for this long and I’ve only discovered in the last month the add note feature. It allows you to give ratings for players (and notes obviously - speed boost showcases a vibrant ruby color with aromas of blackcurrent, oak, and burnished leather) and for someone like me who plays almost exclusively on PUGs it’s fantastic at reminding me of who I’ve played with before. My rating system is based largely on chat quality: 5 stars (15% of players): initiates interesting chat / is hilarious / amazing costume / super helpful and considerate 4 stars (25% of players): joins in with chat / is funny / is helpful with tt, advice etc 3 stars (50% of players): everyone gets 3 stars for showing up 2 stars [9% of players): bit moany / bit miserable / look at me everyone I’m soloing causes team wipe 1 star (1% of players): actively unpleasant (only happened once and we all cheered when they were booted) Does anyone else use this feature? Does everyone else use this feature and once again I’ve been a complete plonker for not knowing about it? If so, what’s your rating system?

I’ve really enjoyed kinetic melee on my regen tanker. The way I look at it to maximize the benefit of regen (huge health pool and eye popping regeneration) as well as the reactive regeneration power (increasing regen when you take damage) you want to get hit as often as you can but not very hard. To that end kinetic melee’s -damage effect on mobs is great, it’s like a surrogate for resistance that enhances your primary. I’ve found that regen also benefits hugely from recharge and the two aoe powers in kinetic melee trigger the force feedback +recharge proc all the time so with hasten and various set bonuses I can be at +200% recharge all the time. The key powers for this to work are repulsing torrent and burst. I’d also add that the turbine spooling up sound effect is ridiculously entertaining.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, it’s interesting to see all the different approaches to the game! I tried to change but it doesn’t feel right to me, as someone said above, it feels like the character in disguise.

Ahoy everyone! Philosophical dilemma that I fancied throwing out there. Here's the situation. I've got two characters: Kendo Barbie - a tank with a perfect build that's been tremendous through absolutely everything. Really average to slightly poor concept with almost no opportunity for fun. Elastic Bandit - deeply average tank that will never be as great as Kendo because of the powerset choices. Has hilarious much beloved rubber band costume. Question. Can I rename and reskin Kendo Barbie as Elastic Bandit...and pretend that Elastic Bandit was always this build? In other words can you transplant a beloved character's identity onto a different build and just carry on? Is a CoH character a person defined by their powersets and journey? Or are they a persona - a theme or costume that can live again in a new build? Would love to know if anyone has made a "better version" of a character. Yours worriedly, - Elastic Bandit

I used to do the same thing where I’d butcher the original concept to shoehorn extra defense or recharge or whatever. However, I stopped doing it once I found that the characters I play the most are the ones that stick to the concept. I also really love the whip powers in the demon mastermind set and I made a whip kinetics petless mastermind that was fairly useless but looked fantastic and was fun to play and that definitely broke my min max addiction.

Four tanks and three controllers on every team! Fling fire with reckless abandon my friends! What a time to be alive!

Reactive regeneration works better the more often you get hit and so I’ve gone with a secondary that allows me to get hit often but softly - kinetic melee. I also like the thematic synergy where the healthy regen primary is complemented by a secondary that looks like a morning yoga class.

It’s gotta be Dr. Aeon for me - noisy, untrustworthy, and hilarious, a bit like my trousers after a curry. Shoutout to Frostfire too for being a legend.

I’m in the same boat. I was absolutely devastated when I used the Wedding Band in the final AV fight on an ITF and realized I hadn’t switched it off while I was selling my stuff at Wents afterwards. I had used up at least four minutes of it in the shops. Devastated.

I love that the game allows me to be creative by providing a vast array of power set combos, costumes, and different ways to play. It’s a blank canvas that can bring to life some of the things that I imagine. I love that it satiates my apparent need to create superheroes with stupid names like Disorient Express and Careless Crisper. I love that it also feeds my analytical side where I can plan for hours about things like getting an extra 0.75 ranged defense without sacrificing recharge. I love that I can meet people who make me laugh and have fun on PUGs (I more or less play exclusively on PUGs on excelsior). I love that the game I started playing before my kids were born I now play with them. Thanks Scarlet Shocker for a brilliant post - too often I take the things I love for granted, it’s great to have an opportunity to say thanks to the devs for bringing this game back and looking after it and the community so well.

Thinking of the very starting game in 2004.

Ahoy everyone. I was on a few PUGs tonight and there were lots of new players - which I love and think is a brilliant thing. I always try to encourage new players as much as possible and compliment their costumes etc. because it’s great to add new people to the game and I don’t want them to disappear, and also because it’s dawning on me that this is probably quite a difficult game/world to jump into the first time around. I think it’s much more intimidating than it was when I first started on live. When I first started playing ages ago on live I didn’t even know what an MMO was and it blew my mind that the players with blue names were real people (that’s really quite embarrassing to admit – I think I was in my late 20s at the time!) Needless to say, with that starting point it took me a long time to learn a lot of nuances of the game. I play loads and got back on in 2019 and even today I’m still learning new things – I did a 100 badge run challenge thing recently and learned two weeks ago that blarf is something in Pocket D! Who knew?! Today I can’t imagine what it must be like to jump into this where lots of us know all the travel tricks, have fifty different TPs, understand IOs, can race through TFs etc…and where it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Having said all that, although the pace has changed I think the one thing that’s stayed the same is the kindness and generosity of this community and I’m pretty sure that’ll keep anyone new hanging in once they get into it. So anyway, just a bit of random musing tonight.

Apologies for hijacking the thread but I’d like to announce that I’ve decided to take my appetite to the Outback Steakhouse.

Thanks for the tip with the open gift! I got a 19:29 with my stalker. Used SG buffs on run speed and flight speed to move things along a bit. Also experimented with the invisibility buff on the warshade but was killed in Perez. Perez is so good though, that cluster of 6 badges - I just can't leave it alone. I also sold all my salvage for the Wentworth badges while I was flying around Cap, which saved a bit of time. Need to change my route a bit though because I'm still wasting time.

loved that run! The ski runs were inspired and when you told me you were doing it with a ws the other night I was blown away, great to see it in action. Quick question - what’s with all the Christmas packages? im still stuck at 20:25 with my stalker approach. I think I can get a minute off that but now im tempted to go warshade. also how do you get the timer on your screen? again, well done! That was brilliant.

Brutally dull conference call at work almost interrupted a blistering 22:45 run! My friend on the same call ran a 27 even.

Couldn't resist another go and I smashed it: 25:57. Sub 25 is possible.

This sounds great to me. I’d be up for it. I can definitely help with the first 100! 😉

So I gave it one last go and got it down to 28:06 thanks to Blarf and his nutrient rich goodness. 101 badges: 58 explorer, 20 AE badges, 11 achievement, 7 accolades, 1 day job, 1 ouro, 1 event, 2 gladiator. (Forgot to do the Wentworths ones which would probably have shaved off 30 seconds). That'll be my last go, I don't think I can go much faster. But where one door closes another opens - I now have a level 1 character with 101 badges which is the perfect starting point for the Snarky inspired how many badges can a lvl 1 toon get challenge. I'll be doing a few zones a day with this little fella if anyone's interested in joining. I spent a lot of time working on the build for it in mids and I'm pretty satisfied where things ended up but if anyone has any build advice or guidance it'd be much appreciated. Thanks again everyone for the great tips on blarfing, stalking etc. (it's not every day I get to say that).

Done! 28:48. Trick is to get explorations near to trains and SG bases, sell salvage, do AE badge arcs, and flip to red side as a vigilante. Echo explores are great and being a stalker is a must.

I’ve seen plenty of 50s with 30 badges. I’m laughing at the idea of seeing a level 1 join a DFB with 800 badges! Badge run?

Blimey, the lowest level for 1000 badges, and this sound so good. I’m gonna go for my sub 30min century of badges and then start thinking about the marathon challenges!

Fair point. I’ve been doing it solo. I alt invite to my SG, and then I drop an ouro, log on my level 1 and go for it. It’d be fun to get a few people trying it for a cannonball run type race - a prize to whoever makes it back first to the top of Atlas with 100 badges.

Also sewer badges are great because they’re super close to the entrance