biostem

Frankly, I find fantasy themed MMOs to be worn out at this point. I like being able to play anything from a "peak human" with a sword and shield to an alien or guy in a power suit. I'm also not a fan of how amazon handled the LotR IP, and am concerned that this game won't be able to "just be" a fun game, divorced from any real world politics and/or acting as one giant advertisement for future seasons.

For me, aesthetics are just as important as actual effectiveness. I mainly play sentinels, but I've gotten ones with elec and storm blast to 50, so I think I have good experience with both sets. Elec is by far more straight forward and direct to use. That being said, if you want to project the feeling of actually conjuring a storm, storm blast is the way to go. It also has the advantage of dealing a variety of different forms of damage - energy, cold, & smashing. It also has 2 location-based powers, if you prefer those over more insta-cast ones. With all that said, level 35 is a sweet spot, progression-wise, so if you are already enjoying the character, stick with them. If you're not sure, install the Homecoming Beat/Test server, where you can insta-level a character to 50, (or whatever level you want), so try out storm blast there and compare it to your experience on live.

We have to look at this from 2 perspectives: The "easy" approach is just to add the coordinates of the plaques into the rotation for the tips/exploration missions. The more involved approach would be to create mini-arcs that take you through the related plaques, along with an associated mission or other such task...

When the game was live, I complete wrote off super reflexes. As of late, I've tried it on both a Sentinel and a Tanker, and it's actually pretty good!

I've installed CoH on many computers with fresh & updated versions of Windows 10. Missing OPENGL would not, IMO, cause the kind of "login loop" that the OP described. My inclination is to believe that a firewall or other kind of filter kicked in, blocking the actual game server/shard connection, vs the initial login one...

I can't speak to Musculature, but I have a dark blast/super reflexes sentinel with Intuition radial paragon, and they use virtually all of its buffs; hold, range, damage, & tohit debuffs. The only thing they don't really use is the bonus to defense debuffs & slow effects, (but they could if I picked a different APP).

One thing to keep in mind is that many items that can be bought with merits can also be found on the auction house, (bought using influence/infamy/information), so if you have a lot of inf, you may be better off using the merits for something that sells for a lot there, and using that inf to buy what you want off of the AH instead.

This is a good place to start.

Mastermind minion customization is a frequently-requested topic. I know other servers have implemented it, so I don't know if it's some mechanical, developmental, or other limitation that is preventing it from being implemented here - only time (or a dev) will tell...

I also think, (though I could be completely wrong, here), that the original cigar was intentionally a bit comical looking in order to keep the base teen rating, while the gunslinger one was added at a point where the game was well past the point where it would have to be submitted to the ESRB rating process.

I've seen something like this before, where a firewall pop asking if you want to allow the connection was minimized or closed without allowing it, and the game loads to the login and character select, but won't allow connecting to the game/shard servers...

Go with poison/water - color them some sickly hue. Water will also give you a heal that poison lacks, and go with a flies combat aura.

It would kind of be counterproductive if you want to continue to unlock and develop your incarnate stuff. That being said, I'm not sure on the double inf thing...

How is spending a bunch of converters to reroll embody "inventing" more than buying a recipe and crafting with it?

It's one of the few penalties in this game. you simply gain XP slower until you've worked it off. Frankly, don't let it stress you. Take a break if you need to - playing should never feel like a job...

Or just run content that gives you merits, then spend them on exactly what you want...

At the very least, it would be nice if selecting the enhancement reward would match your level.

Not saying it's a guarantee, but if you remember the exact server and character name you played before, you can create a new account, login, then try to get the global of that character, and see if anything there rings a bell...

This hurt my soul.

Could do something like a mutually exclusive siphon speed toggle that grants you increased recharge, or a siphon power toggle that grants you increased damage, (with an appropriate debuff applied to the enemy).

Sentinels trade some damage output for better survivability. On top of the higher base damage, pretty much every blaster attack grants them a further short-term damage buff. Lastly, enemies generally have lower energy damage resist than lethal...

Well, you give up Aim for swap ammo, and if you were used to also having a Gaussians in it for an even greater damage buff, then it's even more noticeable...

Support can buff dmg, tohit, def, and "special" for you and your entire team, so it can be of some use if you want all your bases covered...

It'd be great if the powers had a chance to siphon the strength from enemies, even outside of when power siphon is active...

I think it's when selecting one of the "form" powers, where you kind of tap the staff against the ground - very cool pose if you could remain in it afterward... Similarly, the heal, end recovery, and T9 powers from ninjitsu have some cool poses.