rolandgrey

For leveling? I don't think any of them are particularly great for leveling. However, if you're looking for late-game resources, To Save a Thousand Worlds pits you against a lot of varied enemies over a great many large missions, so that's good for grinding XP and getting what you need to largely kit out your character without much market scrounging. The story is bland, though, and ends weirdly and abruptly (an Alternate Requiem is apparently somehow tearing apart other dimensions for "reasons" that go unexplained). As for arcs I love to play? Doc Buzzsaw's stuff is always a blast, even the original Paragon arcs have some nifty varied enemies and we get the first inklings of how wild the Freakshow can get. For quick breeze-through, practically anything featuring most of the "military type" enemies, such as the Council, 5th Column, Sky Raiders or Nemesis. Sure, they've got their quirks, but those quirks are usually a lot more manageable than the things the Devouring Earth or "magic type" enemies will throw at you. However, there is also the Terra Conspiracy in 35-40, which caps off with an AV fight and a few spawning pods that are worth a LOT of XP. There's not much on Redside that compares. Granted, there are a lot of AV fights you can find, especially in the 30-40 range, and the writing is a lot better (with stories that are a lot more involved than Blueside's approach of largely bland "Go here, beat up a bunch of guys" for 7-10 missions; though even Blueside's comparable short arcs yield more Merits than ANY of Redside's arcs, which is something that continues to irk me and defies the "the rewards are assigned by arc length!" argument). I would recommend Technician Naylor for 35-40 play. His arcs have some interesting aspects, a bit of paranoia that's pretty well implemented and a funny bit here and there if you pay attention to dialogue and mission text. For 45-50 content, Vernon Von Grunn and Television are just hilarious, and 40-45, you at least have to go through Westin Phipps's arcs at least once (if only to fight the Civic Squad; try to get a good team to fight all eight!).

I for one, am angry about the Council changes. Not the improved models or the increased challenge. No, that stuff's baller! I love that the Council are no longer just simple speedbumps! They actually seem like genuine contenders on the world stage now! But there's one thing that filled me with intense, seething rage. They got the Freem!. I fought Council in the 30s and at level 50. Both groups had the Freem!. THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE OURS! WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE IT FIRST! CITY COUNCIL! GIVE US OUR FREEEEEEEEEM!!!!

I'd like to see Infernal's story get fleshed out more. His backstory is him coming from a fantasy setting where he's a knight who fights and binds demons. His coming to Paragon City involved him and his friend being sucked into a portal with a demon and getting separated during transit. Now, you would think this would mean that the Praetorian Infernal is actually his friend, but no! The Praetorian Infernal is lazily written as just an alternate version of K'Varr D'Shall. We NEVER meet T'Keron or Valmaz. Then, when Going Rogue came out, there was virtually NO effort to do anything with the character of Infernal, with some rumors that the lead writer of the new Praetorian content had some sort of extreme dislike for the character. Praetoria has a lack of magic content for its initial Going Rogue opening, then we get First Ward and Night Ward to help flesh out the mysticism of the setting, but instead of Infernal, we wind up getting weird King Arthur cosplay that's clunkily crammed into the story. Redside utilizes Infernal a bit. He shows up for a couple Strike Forces, usually acting as a parallel adventurer trying to accomplish a separate goal from the PC Villains and often getting in their way somehow. Then there's the missions involving Lilitu, where the players learn that she's Infernal's mother. Then the story featuring them basically stops at that. There's a lot of potential for everything involving Infernal, especially with an enemy group as pervasive as the Circle of Thorns. Instead, he seems shuffled off to the side, like the game's embarrassed of him or something. Another character I'd like to see get more screentime is Doc Delilah. There's a lot of weird architecture going on in the world, and she'd be an interesting ally to explore a lot of it. Maybe missions featuring her could be utilized to flesh out the lore of the setting.

Torchbearer has the Saturday Night Synapse, where we merge a bunch of teams into a League or two and perform the TF simultaneously. We all finish at roughly the same time, somewhere around two hours, because the point of this is to have everybody wait to gather up the Babbages into a big brawl. Some finish the Clockwork Lord mission early and have to twiddle thumbs, some finish the Clockwork Lord mission late and don't have to wait very long. I've been on big map teams and little map teams, and the average is roughly 90 minutes after start. It's fun! Frankly, I hate speed runs, so I like this event where there isn't really an incentive to speed through... Even though porting to the end as much as possible is desired SOP after the first half of missions (because that's a LOT of Defeat Alls).

Well, I've been here since almost the beginning of Homecoming. I might have commented on this thread earlier, but I think it got lost in the shuffle or something.

Heya, folks. MrGrey here. I've remade all my characters and then some on Torchbearer. I like to think I'm a bit more humble, a bit less dramatic. I'm also in Jello Shooters in case anybody ever wants to chat. I keep an eye on the channel on all of my characters. It's always good to see ya.

I guess it depends on the definition of "bad team." If it's a team of folks who are just learning, but tend to teamwipe, then it's just teething troubles. You talk, you joke, you reassess, you try again. That can be fun. However, if it's folks who are rude, or don't listen to advice or instructions, or they say mean things (even when told to stop), then that's not fun. Even trolls don't like teaming with trolls. As for teaming with a good team... Who WOULDN'T want to team with a good team? Or is this subjective, too? Like, some people like to get on a good farm. Others like to get on a good team that works together and pummels its way through groups of enemies. Some like to take on massive challenges, some like to settle into a Raid routine. There's all sorts of flavors of "good" teams. I guess if it's what you're in the mood for, then it's fun. On the other hand, if you wind up on a team that's not scratching your itch, they may be impressive, but they'll be agitating you at every turn, too. To answer the more pointed questions, however... I like both. I like a team that can work together like a well-oiled machine and wipe out enemy spawns like they were a special ops crew taking down a target. But when things go to pot, you didn't notice a spawn was too close or an ambush just spawns right on top of you while all of your characters are waiting for their greatest hits to recharge, then it's fun zipping about and struggling to survive. I feel a player should always be ready for both scenarios, but I don't really favor either. Steamrolling foes can get tedious and can engender bad attitudes, even if you're advancing well. Frenetic chaos can be exhausting if it carries on too long. As the sayings go, you can have too much of a good thing, and variety is the spice of life!

General Chat is a lot more active. You get to see some real gems in there sometimes. Big events and TFs have a much deeper pool to draw from now, too. So far, so good.

Well, here's the new Paragonwiki for the new story arcs... https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Homecoming_Story_Arcs

It depends. If it's a melee character or a Sentinel, characters built for resilience from the get-go, I just solo through the contacts, trying to tackle tasks that would best fit their concept. If it's a support character, I get them to ten as quickly as possible any way I can so they can provide some basic varied support when teaming with friends. Blasters... Well, lately my Blasters have been going the same route as the Melee/Sent types. Their damage output is just fantastic, and they don't have the inherent endurance issues they used to have anymore, so Blasters are a lot of fun. I don't play many Dominators, but my behavior with them is similar to that of the Support characters. I know they're along the same lines as Blasters (though mechanically they keep getting lumped in with Controllers), but they lack that "click" that Blasters have with me, so I don't get the urge to solo them. The same goes for Kheldians, though the Arachnos soldiers can usually go solo with my playstyle. As for favored content, I don't really have anything that stands out from the low-level stuff. There's the Hellions/Skulls gang war that starts over a magic cloak of all things and leads to the then-leadership of both factions being taken out (Bonefire, I think it's called). Sure, it's a lot of "Fight Skulls or Hellions" content that you would normally have left behind by that point, but it's also a way to burn through some of the more annoying levels (11 and 12) easily. Plus, it has the added humor of both of these starter gangs getting KO'd because they were fighting over what would be the D&D equivalent of a minor magic cloak (like, one that would keep them warm in winter or one that would add 1 to Dex saves but at the cost of a point of Charisma). For cranking through levels, though, I'm a big fan of Torchbearer's Saturday Night Synapse, a player-made event (by Kalikamata) where numerous teams League up and tackle the Synapse TF simultaneously, then pause after defeating the Clockwork Lord until everybody's caught up so we can have a group of Babbages to fight all at once in a huge melee. A big chunk of merits, a big chunk of XP, and even more when the Synapse TF is the weekly strike target. EDIT: There's also the Vahzilok Plague arc, an arc that was infamous in the heyday before Inherent Fitness, and still cringe-inducing afterward. It's an arc where you get infected with the Vahzilok Plague and it severely reduces your recovery and regeneration. You only suffer it for a mission, but MAN, what a slog that mission is! However! Get through it and push to the end of the arc and you get to fight Dr. Vahzilok. You don't have to, mind you, but you can, and you can set it so he appears as an Arch Villain, making for an excellent capstone to the 15-20 range without going through a TF. For post-20 arcs, the only real arc that stands out for me is The Mysterious General Z. Its opening mission features Ambassador Alwane, an actually competent rescue NPC (because he's armed with an assault rifle and knows how to use it!). It also has the "US Ambassador" (used to be Alwane's bodyguard, but I guess a writer realized the Sky Raiders wouldn't leave a bodyguard alive when they revamped the arc). This "US Ambassador" also wields an assault rifle to devastating effectiveness... Almost as if he's got training from some clandestine PMC... Finally, there's General Z, or as some people also know him, General Aarons. THAT General Aarons. And sadly, he's been nerfed after the arc was revamped. Gone is his assault rifle (at the time, Heroes could get an inkling of what it was like to be a Mercs MM), replaced with his Vanguard Arc Pistol and Pistol Whip attacks, but he still has all the cocky overconfidence he had before... Meaning he's probably going to taste floor soon after your rescue him. It's still a fun arc, though, and has a sense of intrigue you rarely see in a lot of the game's story. Plus, it's the one that spells out who the Sky Raiders' "mysterious benefactor" was (though he's probably more than a little miffed at them in recent events, now that it seems they've decided to go into business solely for themselves).

People have been telling you to just play the game. If you're just here to whine about "Mah good ol' days!" you have definitely come to the wrong place. People have been playing this game for years, both in the Paragon days and in the Homecoming days. They've been meeting every challenge the devs have thrown at them and finding ways to do it efficiently. They're having fun, and plenty people on this thread have tried to tell you ways to play to enjoy yourself, but you seem obsessed with this mythical power level that plenty other people have made clear exists only in your own head. If you can't figure out how to defeat enemies, that's on you, pal. Everybody else seems to be doing just fine.

What other little objects will we be able to put in place of a head? I do so hope we can use the kittens and pandas!

*laughs in low-pop server*

It's the Wonderful Windup Wings for me. They're so neat-looking, but I've rarely had a character concept that could use them properly.

Congratulations, HC Team. I guess now we'll be calling you the City Council. This is fantastic news.