UltraAlt

I think they were designed to be intentionally hard to play. I think that is the whole point. To me, it is a shame how much those who hunt Kheldians have been nerfed. They were part of the challenge. Kheldians were also built to be a complication. When people say that game isn't challenging enough, they should get sent back in time and made to play a Kheldian before the massive nerfs to their enemies. Heck, they should get sent back in time before there were IOs. This the skank of Kheldians being on teams even a thing any more? I remember when teams would disband after a Kheldian on the team left because the team would still draw Kheldian foes until a team that had a Kheldian on them disbanded.

When I'm playing masterminds, I'm mostly in defensive mode and use either the primary attacks, teleport target, or just jump into a bunch of enemies to start things off. After that, I'm mainly buffing my pets and letting them do the work.' Meanwhile, my petless demon masterminds (all my demon masterminds) get all the whip powers and use teammates as their minions. I target through teammates to attack their same target and use that character as my main buffing/heal/etc. target.

I don't know about "evil", but the "ebil marketers" out there have been known for a little market manipulation now and again.

You have to decide why you came to THE CITY. Did you come here to be a superhero, supervillain, someone caught in a dystopian reality, or did you come here to mini-max and farm your game time away? I love comic books, and I love creating. This game is full of the potential to create. If you don't want to be creative, there is still place for you here. But if you want to be creative, you can make practically any kind of character you want to here, but it's going to take time to learn all the systems. I strongly suggest starting on the Hero side. Play the tutorial (it will teach you much of what you need to know to get started). If you are a hero, go into City Hall and go down into the basement and find your origin contact and run their missions. Each of the origins will take you on a different path to fight against different enemy groups. If you follow the contacts the game currently gives you, it will lead you into funneling content. Content set-up to condense the lower-level characters into the same content and away from the origin paths. The game will currently route you into First ward and Night Ward, which is also funnelling in from Hero, Villain, and the Praetorian side. On the heroside there is plenty of content you will miss if you follow the funneling path, but you can always make another character or 5 or 10 or ... well, 100's if you really want to feel creative or just want to have a bunch of characters. There are side zones on the Hero side that you can miss and outlevel if you don't know about them, but, then, you can alway make another character and plan to run through it with them. From my point of view, to get the most fun out of THE CITY, you have to use your creativity and make the kind of characters you want to explore the world with and use their characteristics and traits to explore the world through that character's point of view. There are plenty of us here that are ready to help. Don't fear to use the /help channel. You will find that on most of the servers, that this isn't like the /help channel other games. Don't be scared to ask questions. But https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Main_Page is a great source of information as well. If you want people to team up with you, just ask on the /lfg (looking for group) channel. Click on a name in the chat window and it will give you a list of options that include inviting them to your team. You can make your own supergroup and build your own base https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Supergroup_Base (starting at level 10, I think), but you can enter a base at any level through a base portal https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Base_Portal as long as you are on a team with someone that has an open base or if you use a passcode. At the bottom of https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Supergroup_Base there is a list of servers. Pick the server you are playing on and it will give a list of open bases with passcodes. The main thing that you have access to in most bases (other than simply going in and exploring) is the teleporters to different zones (you can also travel to different zones by trams, ships, etc.) You can even create your own stories in the AE (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Architect_Entertainment), but it's probably best to enjoy the game for a while first. There is simply so much to explore in THE CITY that it can be overwhelming, so just take your time. There is no rush. And, if you want some extra free stuff, talk to the nearest P2W vendor. People will direct you if you ask, just use the /help channel.

I think I follow now. You want people to pick which powers are the most OP (OP meaning "overpowered" in this case). Meta meaning “most effective tactics available” vs "the parts of gameplay such as systems, mechanics, and loops that a player repeats to make progress". I actually was reading meta as targeting on fitting into the World/"City" lore. "Best to play" meaning "which is the most powerful" vs "which is the most fun to play". And ... "Most effective" to meaning "which is the most powerful" vs the facts that the effects of different power effects and set dynamics are situational and are augmented in different ways by team synergy. That is to say, all three terms mean the same thing "overpowered" So I yield to my error in not realizing you were asking which of each in a category are "overpowered". I apologize for bothering you with my request for clarification. This understanding changes my results to more complexly: I don't care. I don't judge or play sets because I or anyone else thinks that they are overpowered. I'm a character conception player. I pick powers to fit the character that I am designing. Thanks for posting the poll. I have given my final answer here in this post.

I understand that. The confusion is in the "Most meta / best to play / most effective" I can't vote on "best". I can't even really vote on "favorite", but I would be better able to vote on "favorite" than "best". Your goal is good. People have had problems with my polls as well. Please do not take my criticism harshly. I provided my vote in text versus using the poll provided as it doesn't allow me to vote the way that I would. And that goes for all three categories that they poll allows me to vote in. I guess I can say that: I play less Sonic, Radiation, and Fire than the other primary sets. I'm not even sure if I have a Blaster with Radiation as the primary. I play less Dark, FIre, Ninja, and Sonic than the other secondary sets. I don't think I have any Blasters with Atomic, Devices, or Temporal secondaries. I only have one character with a villian epic pool power, and I don't think they are a blaster. I think I only have couple of blasters that have picked an epic, and the only ones that I know for sure that would pick epics would take Munitions to get the LRM Rocket due to character conception. So you see, it is impossible for me to vote in your poll due to my situation.

I'm pro-blaster, and I'm fine with polls. I'm just not sure how to approach the poll based on the way that it's set-up so gave my "polling" information in text versus voting.

I'm thinking Most meta / best to play / most effective should be three different pools. I'm not even sure how to judge what is "most meta". "Best to play" is alway the one I'm currently paying. "Most effective'? I don't care! It about character conception to me!

What other colors people pick is up to them. I don't expect other players to pick color to please me. I pick different colors on different character. It isn't a matter of enraging. It's a matter of my eyes not being able to take/endure it. (It hurts my eyes to stare at/read a white screen with black text on it. Dark Mode [Black with white characters] is a real God-send for me.) Pure white is the worst. The lightest grays can be an issue over time. Likewise, bright "glowing" colors can be an issue over time. As indicated, it is the people the pick completely white powers ... especially auras and large area of effect ... that causes an issue with my eyes. (If I stay outside more than a couple of hours outside during the day even with sunglasses on, I start getting a sunburn inside my eyes. And, yeah, I can feel it.) Oddly enough, I play a good number of ice power characters. I tend to give the powers a bluish tint. My eyes seem to deal with that better than making the ice grey and the blue still has the icey feeling to me. I think I pick mostly 2 lower than the brightest color if I pick a brighter shade of something. Some colors that appear to be dark show up much brighter then they are applied to a SFX for some reason. Before I knew about the /noparticles command, I had to quit some teams and I stayed away from mass player situations that would include higher level characters (the more levels, the more of a light show it becomes). I don't think I have had to quit a team since I found and started utilizing the /noparticles command.

My eyes are light sensitive plus I like to see what I'm fighting. The /noparticles command works best for me. There seem to be no reason to repost what I had written since a link to my recent post should suffice. This even mostly works for those inconsiderate enough to make all their powers and costumes, etc. pure white ... well, not their costumes, but the other stuff ...

oh, boy. I don't even know where to start, but I hopefully know what not to even touch with a ten-foot pole (Yes, I have my 50 foot of rope, iron rations and 200 torches in my backpack.) Okay. So your Empathy Control set isn't about being Empathetic. It's about plaguing your opponents with feelings of empathy. It looks like you are suggest a Gaslighting control powerset to me.

From my point of view, it looks like the problems is ... I don't see that or the other things that you listed as a way to stay interested. The way to stay interested for me is through creating characters based on character conception and playing that character in the game (vs the end-game). I play with that characters limitations and mindset. I'm not mini-maxing. I'm dealing with the characters limitations and differences. Picking powers and power pools that might not normally be taken. Not taking powers because they don't fit my character conception. And, often, not respec-ing if I make a "mistake" while leveling and, instead, dealing with that as part of who that character is. I have a couple of 50's at this point, but I don't like the end-game. I don't plan on leveling any of my characters to level 50 any more. At this point, I have even started xp-locking characters at levels that fit their character conception. I already have characters that I should probably have locked in the mid 20's so that they didn't outlevel Striga Island, but I can simply go to the Ouroboros and run those Striga missions from there (I probably should go ahead and xp-lock them where they are as I don't plan to play higher level content with them.) This xp-locking (level lockin) is based on character conception. When I want to play that kind of content, I can switch to a character in that related range. I always take placate on a stalker. To me, not taking placate on a stalker is the same as not taking the assassin power. That isn't to say that I don't play masterless masterminds simply to have the whip powers. Playing different ways is the way to keep the game interesting. I have over 100+ characters. They are all based on character conception. Some started with character conception. Some were created around power sets that I wanted to play, but I had character conceptions for the character before the entered the game. I think I have only had one character that I created and then their character conception had changed once I was in the game (due to game changes altering mechanics of the characters appearance due to interaction of powers.) I'm not playing to use certain powers. I'm not playing to "beat the end-game" or even to "beat the game" for that matter. I'm playing to play the character. I'm playing to team with other players. Mostly with players playing characters that I haven't team with before. The game plays differently when you have other players teaming with you, not just because of the different power sets and power interactions, but because of the tactics and strategies that different players use. I like looking at how a team is operating and figuring out how my character can help augment with the team is doing or fill in the gap where something seems to be missing. One of the differences between playing the end-game and playing the game is the ding. The pleasure and feeling of accomplishment by dinging is a thing. That is part of why it is there. All of a sudden, your powers are boosted for a short period of time. -plus- "Finally, I'm getting a new power!" "Finally, I'm able to pay back the Tsoo for all the beat downs they gave me!" The Ding is real. I usually end up ding-ing a couple of times per play session with one or more characters. I like to ding.

It depends on character conception. It would take me a good while to figure out what percentage of characters that don't use power-pick travel powers. Some of them only use the P2W flight powers. They always get one of the P2W run/sprint powers. Some of them rely upon the Shadow Shard Day Job flight pack (you can use this while in combat, and it can be charged up to 2 hours): https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Dimensional_Explorer_Badge I didn't post on this yesterday on this thread because of this question. It pretty much negates any reason for me to reply, but seeing this thread again, I thought that I should go ahead and post. I don't make characters to mini-max, just to "defeat the game", or farming characters. All of my characters are based on character conceptions. A majority of my 100+ characters started with a character conception. I already have a basic idea of who they are, what they look like, what powers they (will) have, and how that character will interact with THE CITY. I do have some where I wanted to play a power set and created a character conception to match the power set, but this is rare and, generally, when a new powerset is released. The quick answer here is "no". Which isn't really worth taking the time to post. So why take the time to write the rest? I feel that if you take time with character conception and play the game (vs the end-game) that you will become more attached to the character and it will be more enjoyable to play them when you play them.

Several of the CoV archetypes are "inbetweens" of hero archetypes. Brutes are the inbetween Tanks and Scrappers. Tanks can more easily handle pulling/holding agro than Brutes due to their higher hit points and, generally, better resistance and defense. This makes Tanks better for protecting teammates if they actually take time to taunt. They also generally require less healing and endurance buffing than brutes. Brutes can keep attacking as long as they have someone to keep them healed and, especially, if they have someone to buff their endurance recovery. Tanks tend to need less concentrated healing and (other than Dark) are able to manage endurance (keep from running out of end) over a prolonged period of time. That being said, Brutes aren't expected to have perma-fury by game design. It's a mechanic to mimic the Hulk getting stronger the more angry (in a fight) that he gets. If you want to have more protection than a scrapper and want to do damage heading toward a scrapper, then go with the Brute. If your goal is to protect a team and are willing to keep taunting so that your teammates can take out opponents with less (or no) risk of falling in battle, then play a tank.

Then that is why you don't see the downside to sleep. If you are on a team and have sleep powers, pretty much as soon as you use them, someone is going to wake up whomever you slept. I do feel sorry for you that you don't team up though. Teaming up is what makes the game really fun for me.

I understand. Don't worry about changing the FX settings aka "turn the graphics down". Use the two macros below instead. /macro fx0 "noparticles 1" /macro fx1 "noparticles 0" fx0 turns off particles fx1 turns particles back on - in some cases you have to zone before the particles will completely reset. This doesn't get rid of all the SFX but a huge amount of them. It's even good if it is just a matter of too much SFX spam and you simply would like to be able to see what you are fighting. ( @Scarlet Shocker )

Do you ever team up with other players?

I'm used to people using the term "Chiclets". My favorite kind is the green ones.

Makes sense. There is a vendor in First Ward that sells "Group Fly".

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Inspirations Detailed information is posted on the wiki link for all inspirations.

So you are for an increase the the amount of debt you get for falling in battle? How about cutting off the x2 XP and zeroing out all patrol XP when you get debt? Is that good enough? Would you rather have it turn off all XP gain for an hour if you fall in battle? Back when the game first came out, there was no x2 xp booster or patrol XP. If you weren't a damage dealer, it was really hard to get influence because it was based on damage done. There was no market. I had characters that had so little influence (non-damage dealers, especially heal-focused Empathy Defenders) that when they reached their lower teens, they didn't have enough influence to fully slot training enhances. I think I had a character that was like half slotted until the Wentworths went live. Debt was crippling. It seemed to take forever to get out of debt back then. And, as you might imagine, with only half slotted with trainings only, it was pretty easy to end up defeated in battle. So you are correct that debt doesn't mean all that much at this point. So I'm back to, are you asking for a stronger punishment for defeats?