MrPengy

No, I play tons of characters. Most of my influence comes from a few 50s who I will use for ITF, Tinpex, and Hami raids on occasion. The rest comes from reward merits from story arcs. It seems weird to me that exploration badges are seen as an ideal money maker.

Is this some thing you check on a regular basis...? I can understand being amused by certain badges or lack of badges, but I can't imagine going out of my way or taking time to actually look for this. I'm not sure how you would judge my characters, since I don't like the "lower level" TFs, and I don't hunt for Exploration badges. Any exploration badges I have attained are accidental. Many of my toons have never done a single TF, because I don't always have time to commit. I'm not sure how that says any thing about me other than I'm considerate enough to not jump ship halfway through a Citadel.

I loved having Kick on my Earth/Kin/Fire troller. There is a certain mood to being able to manipulate energy, plus use the planet itself as a weapon, but choosing to take out a villain by kicking them. It's like, Yeah, I could drain your energy, encase you in stone and shoot fire at you. But you're not worth it. *kick*

They literally named it PU (pee-yew, like a skunk)

My Earth/Kin controller (remade from Live) is named Terra Fying. "Terra" because of the Earth powers, and it sounds like "Terrifying" ...I think that's my only punny character name. I'm a slacker, I guess.

I also hate outdoor hunt missions. If I have to complete one, I try to form a team. Having more players means more odds that we spot the glowies. And I can just sit back and kill stuff while the team looks for things. Plus if I have to suffer, some other people should have to, as well.

I was wondering how much power they truly keep. But any time I notice one person really standing out on a mid 20s to low 30s team, it's a level 50. I can understand some degree of being extra skilled with that toon due to time spent with it, but I think there's more to it than that. Or I'm wrong and this is just confirmation bias. Yeah, playing at 50 is vastly different from playing up to 50. I do enjoy the occasional "melt everything that stands in front of you" play session, but I rarely play my 50s except to do TinPex or ITF. Thanks for the replies, all. I think I just feel weird about excluding people. The community in this game is (typically) so friendly and welcoming. Telling people "Nah, you can't come have fun with us" just doesn't sit right.

Normally when I run a PUG (usually radios or papers, with an occasional arc like the Hollows) I invite characters of all levels. As long as you get a few high enough level toons, most teams can handle content even with some level 1ish heroes who are functionally useless against +2s. Some times though, a level 50 maxed out character will join our level 20 radio team. And it kinda sucks the fun out of it. These level 50s have tons of set bonuses, and tons of slots filled with much better enhancements than I can put in the measly 2-4 slots each power has. This is weird to say, but I actually like playing my characters. When a level 50 maxed out scrapper can solo an entire mob of the +1s I can barely hit, I'm not really playing, I'm just throwing powers into the ether while he murders every thing in sight. It prevents me from getting a feel for my powers, ya know? Like how is that new armor power I just picked up? Dunno, every thing dies before I can get hit. Is this debuff making the enemies powerless against us? Well, they were already powerless against the one guy. Is my control power even worth using? I can't tell, because there's no threat to try it against! Also, some times, I like to struggle. I have fond memories of less than perfect teams biting the dust almost every encounter in Faultline and still pulling out a victory. I can faceroll mobs while barely watching the screen when I hit 50, until then I want to actually fight. Now I get that I'm running a team, and I can do it any way I damn well please. If I want to run a radio mission where I only invite heroes with a banana theme, that's my choice! But how would you react if some one was forming a team, and not allowing any one over a certain level?

I have to say I don't care for the change either. I haven't really fought Council since the change, other than one quick solo map. It wasn't much harder, it was just kinda weird. I don't care if parts of the game are hard, but not everything needs to be. Was any one doing Council radios for the challenge? I would hope not. So why make that content, of all things, more challenging, complex, or slower? And not even optionally? And if it's for "balance," that's silly, since hitting level 50 is trivial anyway.

It was on a Broadsword/Dark stalker. It only happened on the one enemy, though I don't typically open with Assassin's Strike.

As an example, I was just soloing a mission on my Stalker. Up against an Lt. who was on his own. I'm hidden, Assassin's Strike one-shots him. But he managed to fire off a mace blast. Similarly, on my Arachnos Soldier, I'm hidden. I could stand near the enemy for 3 hours and not be seen. Yet every time I attack from Stealth the enemy sees me and retaliates before the attack lands. I don't remember it being like this on Live. I loved having a sneaky Soldier who would come up behind people and bash them across the head. But when they respond before I've even hit them, it's like Ehhh, why bother to be sneaky? Like did I miss a change? Am I doing this wrong? Was it always this way and my rosy shades are making be think it was better in the Before Times?

Also, I absolutely love the recent change that allows you to take the tier 2 power in your secondary at level 1, instead of being forced into the tier 1 power. I don't always want the tier 1, so it ends up being a wasted power choice on some characters. Being able to skip it is awesome. Especially on blasters. I never use the immobilize once I have the first few attacks, so for me it's a useless power after level 10. Not having to take it means I get more powers I actually want, and I get them sooner! However I am not a huge fan of being able to take the later powers in a set earlier. I know this kind of contradicts my whole feeling of wanting more power choice options, and being able to take powers sooner means less "I guess I'm gonna take this power because I have no other choices" situations. It just makes those powers feel, I dunno, cheaper? Being able to get your best attack power at level 26 makes it feel less awesome than if you have to work up to it a bit more. I guess I'm just used to getting a great power unlocked at 26, my best (typically) power at 32, another awesome power at 35, and then my build's "final" power at 38. I certainly wouldn't argue for them to roll that back. But that's how I feel about it. I've had quite a few characters now where I'm at the level up screen, looking at my tier 9 power, thinking "I could take it now...but it's early. But also if I can take it and don't, I'm gimping my character for no reason"

One of the biggest QoL improvements for me is being able to actually take more powers that I want. A few changes have made it so every character basically gained 4 new power choices, since you no longer have to take Hurdle, Health, and Stamina, and you can take a travel power with out taking the (potentially useless) requisite power before it. So on my blaster for example, halfway through Live I would have Hurdle, Health, Stamina, Hover, and Fly. Five power selections. In the current game I get the entire Fitness pool free, and could take Fly with out taking Hover. If I really wanted I could even use any of the numerous other travel options and skip Fly, effectively granting me a whopping five extra power choices. The ability to actually make the character I have in mind, instead of feeling locked into certain powers because I "need to" is incredible.

I'm sure it's doable. Most farmers I've seen don't rely on the primary as much as Burnout, Ball Lightning and Electric Fences. Although, you'd be missing the damage aura, so you'll be doing less "constant" damage.

I know the game has a reputation now for being super easy (and most of it is). But if you're on a team of lowish level characters, some with out their "good" powers yet, many with few or poor enhancements, and even possibly some players who are new, returning, or just not that good at this game...Enemy groups can be tough. If your team is struggling already, adding a Cyst to a mob can be brutal, and quite honestly a challenge that is not fun. When you're winning fights by the skin of your teeth, making one mob randomly way tougher is not very enjoyable. Personally I'm not opposed to Cysts, and would actually enjoy the shake-up to difficulty every so often. But let's be mindful that not every team in the game is IO'd to teeth max Incarnate super beings.