JKCarrier

It doesn't matter how much "testing" you do, Ultimo, because nobody (particularly the devs) agrees with your basic premise: That literally any character, no matter how poorly-built, poorly-slotted, and poorly-played, should be able to last a significant amount of time against an AV. That's just not a reasonable expectation. If you only want to put minimal effort into your characters, then the base game has tons of content that you can faceroll through. Have fun! But if you want to take on more challenging foes and missions, you have to be willing to put in some work. There's an old saying that "Insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over again, and expecting different results". This applies both to fighting AVs, and posting in forums...

"Just cause" - Scrapyarders, maybe?

The game is pretty solo-friendly, by MMO standards. It's very possible to take a toon from 1 to 50 doing regular missions and never have to worry about facing an AV. I do it all the time. You can even solo your way through the Incarnate System, although it'll take you a while. EBs are a pain, but there are ways around them. If I can't cheese them with START vendor powers, and my social anxiety won't let me ask for help, I'll just leave the mission unfinished and come back after I've levelled up a couple times. Or if I'm fed up and just want to move on, I can auto-complete it. If the devs re-tuned the game so that even a dope like me could cruise through a Task Force solo, they'd lose half their playerbase overnight. The more skilled players (and there's a lot of them!) would be bored out of their minds. If you want to experience every single challenge in the game, you need to either Git Gud, or Git Help. But if you're like me, and don't want to work that hard, you have to resign yourself to passing by some of the higher-end stuff.

If it makes anyone feel better, there's a blueside Tip mission where you have the option of beating the living daylights out of Phipps. I always assumed that was inspired by the strong reaction some folks had to his story arc.

Sorry, Brain, but the more you explain, the less I understand you. As far as I can tell, the only benefits of this change that you've been able to articulate is that it will make the game a) more "modern" (which I don't care about) and b) more challenging (which I am emphatically against). Oh, and something-something-Meta and something-something-Damage Bomb, whatever those mean. I am not a hardcore MMO fan. The only reason I play CoH (besides enjoying the superhero theme) is that it is very solo-friendly and casual-friendly. I generally run at the minimum possible difficulty. I struggle against Elite Bosses. I will, on rare occasions, join a Task Force if someone invites me, but I usually regret it (and whoever invited me will almost certainly regret it). I tried running through the Incarnate system on one character, didn't enjoy it, don't plan to do it again. I haven't set foot in the Labyrinth, and don't plan to. I have never farmed, and don't plan to. When a character reaches level 50, that means it's time to roll up a new character. In short, the way you want me to play is the complete opposite of the way I want to play. Sorry, not interested.

This. I am categorically against anything that makes the base game harder. You already have plenty of tools to increase the challenge for yourself, if you want to. But have some pity on us scrubs who just want to log in and work off some stress by steamrolling over bad guys.

Rogue Isles Reprobates?

I can empathize with your frustration, Ultimo. I've played this game for years, but never gotten very good at it. I've come to accept that there is certain content that I'm just not skilled enough to do. There's no way the game could be nerfed down to my level without ruining it for the players who do know what they're doing. So I stay in my lane, run regular missions, and take my enjoyment from the parts of the game that are within my grasp.

Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred, Tan me hide when I'm dead. So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde, And that's it hanging on the shed...

My badge count on my main is 1200+ and I'm fairly terrible at the game. Having lots of badges just means I'm stubborn, not that I actually know what I'm doing. Trust me, you do not want me on your Master run.

I don't know the system well enough to use Mids, so I generally just wing it. I might look at a build online, but as OP pointed out, it's rare to find ones that aren't purpled-out endgame builds. I mostly solo and just run regular missions. I use SOs until level 20 or so, then switch to generic IOs, which I replace every 10-15 levels. If I'm having trouble with endurance, I might throw a proc in Stamina. If I feel like it, and have Inf to burn, I might throw a few sets in random powers. No idea what I'm doing. Most characters get retired at level 50. I have one character, a Mace/Shield Brute, that I dragged through the Incarnate system long enough to put something in each of his slots. Wasn't much fun, though, so I probably won't do that again. Since I put so much work into him, I pull him back out occasionally to see how many badges I can get for him. Basically, I'm about as lazy/casual as you can get.

I guess I'm fairly unusual in that I tend to play one alt at a time, get them up to level 50, and then "retire" them and start a new one. When I do, I email whatever money I have to the new guy. Depending on how aggressive I've been about IO-ing, that usually amounts to 300-500 million inf. I don't marketeer or run farms, but between that "inheritance" and normal play, I usually have more than enough for whatever I want to buy. I'm very impressed by you folks who have learned how to play the market and rake in the inf, but I don't have the savvy or patience for it. I dump all my drops in the market for cheap to get rid of them, and then overpay so I can get that LotG set I want right NOW. You're welcome. 😄