[New Content Suggestion]

You know, I'd settle for just getting some spawn points and level 40-50 mobs added on the streets of Khallisti Wharf at first. Its too gorgeous a location to have NOTHING there except a few trainers. It doesn't even need to be new types of mobs; anything with a level 40-50 variant could be put on the streets there (ex. put PPD units on the streets of both sides that con blue to heroes and red to villains). It might also be a chance for some other enemy groups that didn't see much play from the i24 material outside of specific story arcs.

 

For example, per the patch notes the Unified People's Army enemy group actually goes up to level 54 as do the Awakened and Praetorian Devouring Earth. So have the UPA planning terrorist attacks against Paragon City in Khallisti Wharf in retaliation for the death of their leader (with the covert help of Arachnos) while the level 40-54 PPD opposes them. Have one of the idiots in the UPA unleash the Praetorian Devouring Earth with the thinking of "lets see how they feel losing their world" and you've got a reason to put them there too.

 

Likewise, in lieu of specific Incarnate-level content, it might be worth expanding on the "Post-Praetorian War" theme of the factions by integrating re-purposed Praetorian mobs into them. Arachnos already has their own version of the battle droids in their mobs and the Council has/had war walkers. So just take it a little further by adding in some of the other Praetorian units to the existing groups and recoloring them to match that faction's assets (ex. after the New Praetorians arcs, the Council rebuilds by equipping its troops with more IDF gear... mechanics-wise, take all the non-psychic IDF units and recolor the red to the council's dull green and take the white down to a medium grey., then add some Nictus mobs to it... viola upgraded Council forces).

 

Anyway, that's my thinking on new content... fill in Kallisti Wharf piece by piece starting with street mobs so its not so dead and then maybe having new story arcs like those added with i26p3 set there going forward until you've got a Faultline sized story arc (about four contacts worth with three-ish missions each) going on there for each side.

 

I'll also follow up by adding that while the Battalion may have been the original dev plans for the future, that doesn't have to be the future for Homecoming unless that's where the current devs also want to take it. There was significant Praetorian fatigue in 2012 because everything since Going Rogue had focused on it, but seven years is a long time to rest up and if using the existing assets is the easiest way to get new content going, then I'm fine with the Praetorian story being not quite done (i.e. continue the New Praetorian and Mr. G story arc fallout into level 40-50 content).

[How hard is it to mess up on builds?]

8 hours ago, Amyante said:

Thanks. It's not about AV min-maxing, i haven't gotten a character to 20 yet because i keep second guessing myself, but there are other games that vigorously punish you if you dare to take anything resembling a subpar ability somewhere down the line, or slot anything other than an ideally RNG'd McGuffin to each specific position. 

 

Good to know this game isn't one of them 🙂

Not only is it not one of them... its a game where the community will actively support you if you're running a "challenge build." One guy I ran into last night was playing a blaster, but was going to use nothing but brawl and temp powers to get through content and was having to turn people away from trying to give him millions of influence so he'd have all the temp powers he'd need because he wanted to see how far he could get using only influence he earned himself.

 

Less extreme examples of self-challenging include things like "Forever Young" (use only your level one powers), "Petless Mastermind" (what it says on the tin) or "Slotless" (i.e. no enhancements in any powers) runs.

 

Honestly, as long as you put at least one accuracy you qualify for (training, dual- or single-origin depending on level, the vendors automatically include the ones you can use at your level) into your attacks, you'll not be so gimped you can't at least run solo missions.

 

Also worth noting is that you have an alternate build and a number of free respecs as you level up too. I'm stingy with mine because a lot of times you can build out of a hole and the problem is more the order your powers are taken in (I often make the mistake of not getting my defensive set powers on scrappers until I start face-planting repeatedly because I want something like a full attack chain ASAP... lots of inspirations to carry me through until I can pick up the defensives ASAP fixes it).

 

Related to this, the level-based power unlocks also serve to help prevent this from happening, or at least give you a chance to catch up if you made some bad pool picks. Your primaries hit a wall at certain points (no new option at level 10, 14-16, 20-24, 28-30, 35+) and you'll HAVE to have picked at least 1 pool power at level 24 simply because if you pick nothing but primaries and secondaries you'll have every unlocked one picked at that point. You'll have to have at least 2 pool picks at level 30 for the same reason. The ancillary/epic powers can be useful in the 35+ range, but they can be skipped too in favor of more primary/secondaries.

 

And if its STILL awful at that point... I believe you get a free respec every ten levels and can buy more with merits. There's also respec trials you can undergo that helpful players will gladly assist with too if its really bad.

 

The point is... there's almost no build out there that can't become playable. And the help channel in-game is extremely useful as a resource to do so if you're ever in doubt.