UltraAlt

I would say that Empathy always has to be part of the mix if you are going for "non-violent". Defender Empathy/(water or ice). Ice more so if you are trying to be "chill". ... possibly Empathy/Psychic blast Leadership power pool for sure.

You wrote a whole page to avoid reading the last paragraph of my post. 😕 What your point? You say ... You pretty much indicate that you most probably do use your own power rotations that you found yourself by playing the game. I don't see how that changes anything that I posted. My points are accurate. I don't need to post that paragraph in a reply to prove that I read it.

Yes. They are a force multiplier and team reinforcement. The larger the team, the more impact that they have. How much impact that they actually have is often based on the tactics of the team. The more Bull-in-the-China-Shop AKA "Hulk smash!" aka "Run and gun", the less impact that support characters have on a teams success. Unfortunately, most teams over 50 seem to be using the Bull-in-the-China-Shop AKA "Hulk smash!" aka "Run and gun" tactic based on what little I've actually particpated in level 50 content and attitudes that I see in the forums. What server you are on and those that are on your team always have direct impact on the style of play that people on your team are using. Leading a team can have the most impact as you can recruit based on how you want to play and are willing (as the leader) to make leadership decisions to make sure your (you are leading. it is your team) is using the tactics the leader (you as leader) have decided that your team should be using. [This does not mean you should be a dictator. It does mean that other players should respect that you are the leader. Being disruptive to a team is being just that. Kicking too many players from your teams may get you a reputation.] Teams of all support characters can be devastating. The great thing about City of Heroes is that practically any team can work as long as they work together. <--- some would call that teaming up versus soloing as a group. You are going to run into players that think that you have to have a tank on your team, and that you have to follow the tank. This is not true. And, just to be clear, that does not mean that you must have a Brute on your team if you don't have a tank on your team, or that you have to have a scrapper on your team if you don't have a tanker or brute on your team. You do not need any melee characters on your team in order for your team to succeed. The great thing about City of Heroes is that practically any team can work as long as they work together. <-- That's reinforcement. It is a kind of support.

So what does MIDs do? MIDs tells you what combo (combination) of powers, slotting, and enhancements that it thinks is most effective. Combos don't restrict any one's freedom. You are always free not to use them. You most probably use a power rotation. You might not even realize you are doing it. However, in doing so, you have your own combo (combination of button presses). Those combos are based on power selection, power recharge times, and other factors; all of these things are built into the game as well. You're going to be in a cage - no matter where you go. Pick your own cage. If you think that combos are a cage, you can avoid them, but you have to accept the new cage you put yourself in by not using them. Combos have been a part of gaming for a very long time. "The earliest known competitive fighting game that used a combo system was Culture Brain's Shanghai Kid in 1985; when the spiked speech balloon that reads "RUSH!" pops up during battle, the player had a chance to rhythmically perform a series of combos called "rush-attacking"." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combo_(video_games)#:~:text=The earliest known competitive fighting,called "rush-attacking". + (from the same URL) "John Szczepaniak of Hardcore Gaming 101 considers Data East's DECO Cassette System arcade title Flash Boy (1981), a scrolling action game based on the manga and anime series Astro Boy, to have a type of combo mechanic. When the player punches an enemy and it explodes, debris can destroy other enemies.[2]"

So open it back up a shivan filled hazard zone! Yeah, a Hazard zone. With like meteors crashed into stuff and Shivans running around. And the Hazard zone would have at least one Giant Shivan! Yeah. And Archnos are running around there too ...and you know if they are there, then Longbow might be involved as well. It could be a co-op zone .... maybe even for new level 50+ content focused around the Shivan invasion/infestation... Yeah, shivans running around. They have to be stopped!

uh, I don't dread it. Complicated because you are following a sequence for some benefit? I think most players figure out a power rotation that works for them and they stick with that. To me that's pretty much a player's combo even if they don't have some extra combo benefit. They are benefiting by using powers in a certain rotation because that yields a benefit for them. Combos have been around in games for a long time. I don't see them as being anything new. I don't know. When you lauding something, you are praising it. How is praising something bestowing negativity upon it? Who is fussing about them? oh, yes, the people that find them to be confusing. On this, I can agree. People that don't understand combos can be confused by them. They can set-up a rotation in their trays but the combo isn't set-up by them. It's predetermined by the game. One has to find out what the combos are, figure out which ones that one wants to use, and then set them up in their trays in an order that make sense. **** Combos versus Charges *** Combos are a set sequence of actions that trigger a bonus. You follow a set sequence to achieve the goal. Charge Powers are built up and then released. Any order of certain power will add to the charge pool that usually isn't accessible until it's full. Dual Blades has combos - and, yes, they light up a circle to carry though the chain. I set-up my dual blade trays to work the combo system. Tray 1 - power slice - ablating strike - vengeful slice - sweeping strike - Follow - ? Combos : Attack vitals :: ablating strike - vengeful slice - sweeping strike Tray 2 - nimble slash - ablating strike - blinding feint - vengeful slice - follow - typhoons edge Combos Empower : nimble slash - ablating strike - blinding feint Weaken : nimble slash - ablating strike - typhoons edge The trays are set-up like a rotation. Controllers get containment, so by setting up containment, a controller is actually using a combo. Nothing as built-up over time, it happens immediately. Use a power to set-up containment, use the benefit of containment until it dissipates. (same goes for the dual blades combo benefits) This is why triggering build up, and then using all your high damage powers in a row before the power's duration ends is a combo. It's your own string of power activations that yield a benefit to you. You don't charge the build up other than using recharge time. Charge powers are build-up or activated by charging something (tidal, momentum, etc) Obviously, you have listed many of the charging powers. These aren't combos. Even blasters have charge powers. Arcane blast is a charge power. You have a chance to charge it when you use other powers. Using certain powers will add charges, but you don't have to use them in any set sequence. (in all actually, someone with a charge power probably does set-up a rotation of powers that they use - which kind of throw it back into being a combo because you have a predetermined set of actions that you do for a benefit. You're just using a combo to charge up.) So let's go back to the dual blades tray set-up Tray 1 - power slice - ablating strike - vengeful slice - sweeping strike - Follow - ? Combos : Attack vitals :: ablating strike - vengeful slice - sweeping strike Tray 2 - nimble slash - ablating strike - blinding feint - vengeful slice - follow - typhoons edge Combos Empower : nimble slash - ablating strike - blinding feint Weaken : nimble slash - ablating strike - typhoons edge If you look at Tray 2, the sequence seems to make more sense. The first power recharges faster, than the 2nd, etc. It's even set up so that you alternately perform the two combos. When a combo is complete, trigger the vengeful slice if it is charged or switch to the other tray. You might even want to do tray 2 Empower combo, then switch to try 2 and perform the attack vitals combo, then switch back and do the weaken combo. Power slice is in tray one for the same reason that vengeful slice is in tray 2. it's a power to use while your sequence is recharging. I could make a bunch of trays with all the different combos in them, but that would make it overly complicated. Pick the combos you want to use and set-up your rotations to use them. Now keep this in mind. I play with a Logitech controller that looks like a Playstation 2 controller. those tray slots 1-4 are the right face buttons. 5-6 are the right and left shoulder buttons. Slot 7 is my heal insp (down left face direction button). Slot 8 is my tray flip from tray 1 to tray 2 (up left face direction button). Slot nine fast travel (left stick button). Slot 10 slower travel powe (right stick button). I alt jump a lot and my power trays are all basically set up the same. 1-4 are generally all single target attacks. 4 might be an cone attack. 5-6 are cones, AoE or PbAoE. It's seeing how the game works as a whole and using that to set-up predetermined sequence of button presses that are only minorly changed by the difference of the relation of how long they take to recharge but with the powers sequenced by recharge time most of the time and by combo sequence when that really makes a difference, the key presses sequence differences are really minimal. It's about taking time to organize. If you don't take time to figure out what the combos are and set-up your tray to use them easily ..... of course, they are going to seem complicated and hard to deal with. I'm a character conception player and I like to be able to jump characters on the fly ... sometimes to one I haven't played for a long time. If I didn't have organization in advance, this would make it very hard to do. I would have to relearn every character every time. I might have to regear myself to the nuances, but I have a basic set-up in advance. Just a little bit of advance preparation makes combos make a lot more sense and fun to play.

I've been getting jumped on for a while. Sometimes it hard to tell what direction things are going. Some people try to be satirical so that they can get away with mocking people. Other people can't get away with satire and get burned for it. It's hard to tell sometimes. The world is like that. You can relate; some other people are like "Well, if you can make a super L337 character without MIDS, then I guess you don't need it." I could care less about making a UBER character. I'm character conception player and some people can't understand that. I rarely respect. I think I've /respec less than 5 time since I've been back. If something is a little off, that's just extra character flavor to me. I don't even know what my point is at this point. I'm tired. That would have been sweet of you.

Er, what? I didn't join yesterday. I joined Homecoming November 12, 2019. I have 838+ posts I started playing City of Heroes before Episode 2 dropped. I'll never use Mids. I don't need it. You don't need to use Mids to play City of Heroes. No one ever did.

With 2 left for sale, I doubt any bids for 20 Mil are still left to fulfil.

I generally let players learn from their mistakes and try to answer questions in the /help channel. I suggest refraining from saying something unless they are falling in battle a lot. I would expect some feedback from the other side before offering any more "advice". Everyone is exploring the game at different levels. No telling when it someone that doesn't know something or if they are just exploring a different game path for some reason. I agree that upgrading pets is pretty basic and essential. At the same time, I don't know if I've always picked that as soon as it was a new power choice during leveling.

You can also park in the Shadow Shard (can be accessed by the warp thingy near the tram in Atlas) to get a day job that unlocks a raptor pack that changes when you log out in the Shadow Shard. It can be charged up to 2 hours of flight time.