Rylas

Great guide. Very helpful for those just starting out. +1 because of this reminder. How did I forget about this!?

I was constricting myself to OP's original question, but personally, I'd go with this. If you're really struggling with a toss-up, then take the middle and get the best of both worlds. You can IO a brute pretty easily for Tanker survival and great damage. Brute's can easily solo a lot of content in the story arcs. You'd probably be pretty happy with the performance.

I used to think the same thing until someone sent me a build that achieved soft cap DEF and high levels of RES. Granted, it would be an uber-expensive build, but it is possible. I'll post it here when I get home after work.

I feel your pain. New me (which is to say the older me) keeps trying to live by old me's (that is to say younger me) standard of living in game. But new me doesn't have the leisure time old me had. Or rather, new me just ended up being more responsible. win/lose?

Agreed, love seeing researched input on a post. I was already using generic IOs at 25 and up and *knew* they were saving me inf. Now I have proof! Also, with all the respecs we're given as we level, and with the 7 enhancement trays we have, it's possible to recycle your IOs for even more savings.

Sounds like the devs followed your advice. Not sure when the next patch is scheduled, but it'll change the conversion rate to 30:1. Sad to see it go, as this was my best method to build out a top build with a more limited time for playing. But oh well, I get needing to keep Reward Merits at similar time/reward ratio. Though, I wonder if this has kept the market at lower prices than it otherwise would be.

Sorry, can't really help much beyond speculation since I haven't been red side in years. If you're just soloing, then maybe it would help for those hunt missions, but outside of that, I don't really think either would have any advantage in the solo area. Hero-side would definitely take the lead if you're looking for teams. Seems like you're answering your own question here. If you want to handle more at a higher difficulty, and prefer killing slower and dying less, then go tank. If you plan on going IOs though, you might consider scrapper if you're boosting defensive numbers.

Depends on what you would find more fun in the support role? Healing isn't all that in this game. It helps, but buffing or debuffing will do more for your team's performance and survival. What sounds more fun to you? Buffing the defense/resist/damage/speed of your team (some sets let you excel at one or a mix of things)? Debuffing enemies defense/resist/damage/speed? Using control like abilities to take your enemies out of the fight? As for secondary powers, don't shy away from being able to do damage as well as support. These game EXCELS at making both quite possible. Some secondaries will have more synergy with a primary than others. So if you can be a little more specific on what excites you, you'll get plenty of great suggestions from this community. Welcome to City of Heroes!

You should have lead with that... ;)

Oh yeah, problem totally solved. Somehow, being able to type something like "/zonepop" with an instant message from the system saying "$currentzone population is X" sounds way better. I can't imagine going to the tram, seeing 4 different Talos Islands and going through the search to tally up how many people are in each being nearly as helpful as just having zone population totals next to the zone selections.

My go to (I mainly run tanks or brutes) for stats are: Regen, Recovery, Defense/Resist numbers (usually S/F/E and Psi), To Hit, Damage and Recharge. OP, you should know the most you can keep monitored at a time is 10 stats.

The only issue with that is bonuses follow (roughly) a schedule for how much bonus they give and for what amount of slots are required for that bonus. And on top of that, you can't go changing out set bonuses in a set. Some people have used those sets for those bonuses. So outside of adjusting what an IO enhances, I'm not sure what else you could do to those sets to make them more desirable. It would be less problematic to just introduce a few new sets for that category.

Fisrt: Hey, it's ok, we all have to learn as we go. Build planing should be fun. If you're getting stressed by it, take a step back, do something else, and come back to it later. It should never be a stressor. Second: If you have concerns on Endurance, the best recommendation would be to slot your attacks for end reduction as much as you can with the sets you're using. Don't worry about end reduction in your toggles so much. Especially your main armor toggles. Your attacks will burn way more end per second than your toggles ever do. Third: So other than soft-capped defense to all, is there anything else you're trying to get? What kind of budget are you working with? Because people could certainly give you a build for what you want, it just might also be very expensive.

set IOs came after ED so I'm sure there's a reason for the surplus of damage Yeeeeah, that's not exactly undebatable reasoning though, is it? "I'm sure there's a reason, I can't tell you what it is, I just really want to say "no" to a somewhat reasonable talking point." I'm all for constructive criticism, but you're not really providing it. You made a fair enough point, as have I, about balancing set enhancements with bonuses. But, come on, 125% damage enhancement is reasonably questionable. If you don't have the answer for it, it's ok, no one's asking you to.

Perhaps this exists and I just haven't heard about it, but a nice little QoL addition to the game would be having slash commands that can tell you some of the stats of the zone. Say, for instance, zone population. It would be nice when forming a RWZ raid to know if the zone we're in is too low or too high on population before getting these kinds of things started. Or before choosing a zone instance to enter, put the population next to the choice. So for example, you click on the tram and "Altas Park : Full, Atlas Park 2: Population 45, Atlas Park 3: Population 5, Atlas Park 4: Population 70" were the options you'd see. I think this could help with keeping zones from being overloaded sometimes, or help us to consolidate populations so unneeded maps can close out and put less demand on the servers. "Oh, just 5 people in that zone? I'll go to AP2." Or, "Better tell our team to head to AP2 for this hunt mission, since AP4 could get laggy." Thoughts?

That's kind of what I was eluding to earlier. But how much damage is in the set is actually a pretty valid complaint. Why waste so much on damage? Putting more in end red or acc would be more balanced between the enhancement values and the bonuses.

True, but to OPs point, it is a high level rare set. Its enhancements seem wonky for that. Also, Targeted AoE sets have a pretty small selection to pull from, so it would be nice if those few options gave better value so people have something they feel is an actual choice.

I think original development specifically didn't allow this to keep people from just full on automating all their game play to just one or two binds. And as mentioned, didn't want to open the door to bot programming (and thank goodness). I can't speak for the minds of the Homecoming team, but I would imagine this particular area is one they mean to keep the original spirit of.

I plan on seeing it soon. Hopefully this weekend. I mean, Evil Superman Kid? Yeah, I'm sold. Makes me think of how Ultraman could have been in his universe.

8 Central is a little toward the end of my evening, but I'll aim to be there. Is there a discord channel for those who don't mind a little vocal socializing?

This really won't solve any of your problems. As mentioned, people having access to 2xXP and hitting 20 can happen quickly. That's going to be a big reason you won't find many people to team with below that level. Second, for people already familiar with the game, rehashing the first 20 levels is tedious, there's going to be too many people justifiably eager to have a quick route to 20 in a format that's easy to set up and doesn't require visiting 4-5 zones before they get there. Again, your suggestion won't fix this either. There's a whole tutorials your anecdotal newbie decided wasn't necessary. Some people will never care to learn the game the way you think they should. It's frustrating, but you can't make it completely avoidable. Better to ignore what you don't like and can't change than let it ruin your day. Have you tried forming a channel or super group to help find people willing to play more to your preferences? Maybe start a thread in your server's subforum? When you find someone from a PUG that you like playing with asking if they want to team more often? It makes more sense finding and utilizing the people who think and play like you than trying to force everyone into doing that.

Not gonna argue against wanting some better enhancement values, but I always thought the thinking for things like Posi's was that the bonuses were part of their enhancement balance. Still, I'd be ok with improving some of them.

Scroll further down, every alpha slot is craftable with threads, shard are only useful for using the once a day recipe to turn them into threads I'm not finding where threads can create some of the higher tier Alpha components. The Tier 2 Musculature I want to craft requires an Infinite Tessellation. Which requires a Dimensional Keystone. Both require shards to be crafted. Is there somewhere I'm not looking that allows threads to create these items?

Do you think proton sweep is worth? The cone/range looks small and hard to make it work It's useful, when I can land it on 3 mobs, but in melee range and with how mobs like to cluster around the player, that's not terribly easy to do in the heat of battle. Worth it? Maybe not. But my current build has room for it, so I use it. If you're looking for increasing AoE damage, you can probably find that more easily in a pool power than taking PS. Irradiated Ground and Atom Smasher and contamination do way more in that area.