gameboy1234

We can buy anniversary badges with merits? How does that work? Do the regular merit vendors have them or do you get them elsewhere?

I decided to plan out a build because I have one character who is getting fairly high level. I located and installed Mids' OK but I can't seem to find how to access IO Set inventions to add IO Sets to my build. In fact all of the Enhancement options seem to be empty. Am I just missing something? I right-click on an empty power slot, and a dialog box comes up for Enhancements. I click on the IO Sets icon (far right choice) and then nothing comes up. Shouldn't the dialog box allow me to chose from available sets for that power? Do I have to select something further? The rest of the choices in the dialog are just blank. Any help is much appreciated!

I think this is a little misleading. You do need healing. Especially early in the game when no one has all of their powers, and the powers they do have aren't fully slotted up with IOs or other powerful Enhancements. You also need healing to minimize downtime and keep the XP flowing in. What you don't need is a "dedicated healer" or a "pure healer". In other games these are desirable and useful. In CoH as long as there's a couple of heals in the group you're probably good to go. Powersets with broader range of effects -- like Dark Miasma, Nature Affinity, Kinetics, Radiation, etc. -- are perfectly viable, and even far preferred in the end-game. In the early game a focused healer will be useful. Try to pay attention to your other powers though. Understand when it's better to prevent damage by using your secondary (or primary if Controller, Dom or Corr) so that your team has an easier time all the way around. Throwing green numbers around is basically hitting the panic button and admitting that the team messed up, so look for opportunities to prevent the damage from happening in the first place. This also means that as you level up, you should look at becoming less focused because as players level up they will need less and less healing. Concentrate more on your other powers, and understand how you can branch out as a player. What we don't need is someone who puts their healing aura on "auto" and assumes they're contributing. They're probably not. And don't be afraid to talk to your teammates, ask them questions and understand how they like to play the game. Some folks prefer to corner-pull, some like to wade into mobs and just fight them in place. There's advantages to both. Some folks are a lot more powerful when they have a certain power up, but that power might have a long recharge, so the team might need to be a little more careful once that power is used. Stuff like that helps you play the game, learn the game, and also play better with the particular group you're in.