biostem

A lot depends upon the particular archetype, powersets, and the way you choose to enhance your character. There is certain content that is extremely difficult to solo, (though IIRC a few people have done so), but none are required, in a strict sense, in order to advance your character. You get several free respecs as your character levels up, there are a few in-game trials you can run to earn additional ones, and respec recipes can be bought or earned, (also in-game - no RMT stuff), so you can always adjust your powers and enhancement slots as needed. You canNOT change your archetype, primary, and secondary powerslots, however. You get 1000 character slots per server, so I'd suggest trying out all sort of different ATs and powersets combos to see which are to your liking. In a loose sense, perhaps - there are certain unique invention-origin enhancements which dramatically improve a character's performance, and there are certain powers which improve the performance of your other powers, (hasten, tactics, etc), but none are absolute "must have these or be kicked" sort of thigns. There is the /altinvite slash command that you can use for that purpose. You can read more about the in-game commands here. If you're comfortable with keyboard and mouse control for PC games, it's not that difficult. Getting to know the nuances of the game engine, the bind and other slash commands, or general other quirks of how powers and other such game mechanics work, takes a bit more time, but is definitely doable. Hope that helps. Cheers & welcome aboard!

We can get energy blades for katana and broadsword. Titan weapons has models that should be lethal or smashing, and yet both as allowed. We can fire bursts from various long guns that clearly shouldn't be capable of that. We never have to reload our pistols. I'd say breaks from reality, (or at least one's surface-level interpretation of how the powers should work), is the norm, not the exception...

I used a lot of different prompts for the various images. The key, at least from my own experimentation, is to provide the source images each time, to tell Gemini to disregard any previous renders when you wanted a new one, (it tends to start copying itself if you let it go for too many iterations of the same source images), and to be very specific with what you're looking for. For instance, with 'Aluca', my grav/marine controller, (the vampire), I told it to create a 70s horror magazine style for the last image, a graphic novel style for the 2nd to last image, and something similar to The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride, but in a Victorian style, for the 3rd to last image. The diagram image of 'Infernoperative', (the fire blaster), was prompted to create a technical schematic, then to create an image of him igniting his flame abilities for the 2nd. 'Shouldn't Bee' used "graphic novel style in an action pose" for the sideview image, and "charging the camera while shooting golden electricity" for the other one. Again, I've gotten the best results by providing Gemini the screenshots I wanted to use at each request, then specifically prompting it to discard all prior renders of that character and to create something entirely new. It also helps to provide slightly different descriptions of what you want each time - so don't keep saying "in a graphic novel style" - switch between watercolor, charcoal, and even things you might not think of - like I even tried telling it to create an image "in a courtroom sketch artist style" for a few of Eeleanor's renders...

A few more I've been tinkering with...

My War Mace/Ninjitsu 'Battle-Maid' Scrapper, "Whispermaul":

Frankly, I dislike enemy-reliant toggles altogether; I'd rather location based ones, (be they buffs or debuffs). Still, I see no reason why any enemy-anchored buff couldn't be implemented, but IMHO it should be a bit stronger than similar ones, due to its less reliable nature...

A few more, reflecting the duality of her offensive & defensive adaptations... *Note, I'm aware Gemini messed up some details...

Here are a few more of Eeleanor, in her defensive adaptation/more heroic outfit:

Oh no doubt, and those that are on top of things, with wormhole or fold space like you've indicated, are a huge help, but the fact still remains that there are some, for whatever reason, that just love to keep inching up those ramps...

I've found that "ramp heroes", who try to engage the spawns far away from the central cluster of players, tend to hamper things more than low-level players - since even such low level players will usually have at least 2 ranged attacks that they can cycle pretty quickly, and with the number of buffs flying around, almost all will hit...

Try working retail around the holidays - all the xmas music on repeat will make you wanna gouge out your own ears! Seriously, though - maybe only have the events pop off once, at the top of the hour, instead...

Bio/Elec Tanker. That particular outfit is her offensive adaptation. I haven't done her defensive yet. I haven't even decided on a costume for her efficient adaptation, yet, either...

A few more of Eeleanor that I think turned out rather nicely:

I just told Gemini to create an 80s action figure with packaging, and provided it a screenshot of my character...

Eeleanor in a few different art styles...

I think this one turned out a lot better - Eeleanor as an early 2000s premium figure:

As did I, but I went for a more vintage look:

I went in a slightly different direction, but I hope it's something you can use... water girl01.costume

If that's one of the Resistance hairstyles, the second color does nothing, IIRC.

Yes, there is! At the character select screen, in the upper right, there's an icon that looks like a a pencil touching paper. It should say "Rename this character", (see below). Hope that help!

I picked up a used Ryzen 7 laptop on eBay for under $250, and it runs CoH quite nicely. If you're good with computers, and know what to look for or to look out for, then that's a solid choice, (check that seller has good reputation/ratings, etc). I could even run it semi-decently on my previous Ryzen 3 one, but I had to make a lot of compromises on graphical quality in that case. This is just an example. Please make sure to do your own due diligence: https://tinyurl.com/Ryzen-7-laptop-example Another note: You can add the -usetexenvcombine command line parameter to the Homecoming launcher to use a simpler rendering method for the game, to extend the life or up the performance a bit with your current laptop.

A few designs I've been tinkering with: "Absolute Bastion", "Scorch Lizard", and "Radium Roach"

Awesome! Still, it doesn't seem to be catching on, so keep up the good work!

If 1 boss is too squishy and 1 EB is too tough, why not just tweak things to have a boss and another boss who is their right-hand person, or maybe incorporate some sort of self rez or maybe the boss gets' tp'd away and you have to fight them a 2nd time...