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I remember this set…the first introduction to how important tone is in Mandarin. And why I spent months trying to master the phonemes first before moving on to words. Mandarin fricatives were brutal. But as long as it's written in pinyin like that, learning and using the tones are not all that bad (they are tones use in English, just not in the same way). Hearing them is tougher if the speaker is native and speaks quickly. The proper use of the "questioning tone" (má) is the habit hardest to break coming from English, since it's just a tone in Mandarin, and not an indicator of the sentence being a question. I heard it referred to as learning the "song" of a language. Each one has a cadence, a rhythm, and certain flow. English's song is fairly simple, and Spanish isn't too tough for me, but Mandarin's song I was only just getting the hang of.

Mandarin has 5 "tones" and yeah learning to say them properly is one thing, listening is another. And if given a word without the accurate pinyin marks, it's a crap shoot for me (since I can't read Mandarin in native glyphic form). I understand Cantonese has 9 tones…yeesh. You don't have to be a high-level musician, but you do have to listen really carefully. And it helps if you properly learn to use the tones yourself so you then recognize them when listening. I'm not as good at listening, but have managed to say the words properly (been confused for a fluent speaker more than once). You do have to train yourself. Some of the aweful anglicization of Chinese words and placenames I suspect was from "lazy listening."

Basically the same. I was borrowing from the blend of "ts" and "tz" sounds used in words like "tsetse fly." Best I can descibe it anyway. American English is my native tongue, but my pronunciation of Spanish and Mandarin words is apparenty really good, so probably borrowing from a wider phoneme set.

You can certainly play with just SOs, I have a whole group of friends that tends to. When everone is at this level, it can be quite fun because you have to use your brains as much as your brawn. And you just don't turn it up to +4/x8 or level as fast. Not really an issue in the company of good friends and players. I used to run SO-only to 50 on Live since I was generally too broke and couldn't make a fancy IO-based build to save my life. So I'd level to 50 and retire the alt. The caveat is you really can't play with the big kids…incarnate content, Dark Astoria arcs, Cimerora all are quite tough on just SOs and can make you feel like a bit of dead weight. At least that's how I always felt in the post-40 game after IO sets were a thing. I'm not quite as old as you are, but no spring chicken either. I still can't build my way out of a paper bag, but I learned to find builds in the forum, use MIDS to view them, and sometimes make a frankenbuild. And I found ways to make the funds I need to build them and still satisfy my altitis. As for the "when"…I tend to wait until around 32 before bothering to kit-out a build with IO sets. I just run SOs until then, since I've rarely found trying to use a pre-made build was worth the time, expense, or awkwardness until 27–32 or so. I slowly go from 0-50 playing as near to the correct level as I can…no farming and only a very brief use of XP doublers.

Human nature? Ever send a bulleted or numbered list of issues to a typical support desk and notice they only tackle the first one, maybe the second one? Ever send a longer email to someone and not get any indication they read more than a handful of sentences from it? I changed my entire style of dealing with others via email years ago to accommodate this problem.

This is something more low-DPS alts should do to drive the point home with with the "DPS squirrels" (love that term). I do it all the time (just skip the stragglers if the bulk of the team has moved on), but there's aways that lowbie controller on a 50+ team who stays behind and hopelessly tries to take the boss the leader (or tank) left behind because the leader wasn't paying attention. I just figure I'm staying with the group where I'll do the most good and not die in a futile battle.

Being seeing the same thing, same room, multiple maps. It's particularly wild when you have Mastermind Pets at play, as the pets start running to the new location of the mobs and then back to previous location like a bunch of Keystone Cops if I try to get them to heel. They gete very fixated.

As a MM, I've seen glitches like this occassionally. For example, when as a Level 39 MM on a Level 50 team, I went to my SG base before quitting the team and I got "stuck" at Level 50. I quit to the character select screen and logged back in to get back to the correct level. I didn't think to see what happens if I tried to play…was I really stuck at 50, or was it cosmetic? No idea.

You don't need an 8-person team. I get mildly annoyed by leaders who wait around to fill a team because it can take forever and we could have done a mission or two in that timeframe. I log in to play, not stare at teammates who don't engage in discussion or banter (so many PUGs are so quiet). You adjust the difficulty and recruit as you go, as someone else mentioned. That being said, the annoyance passes if the leader is a good one I enjoy teaming with so…it varies. I always try to stick it out to the end of a mission. I have quit mid-mission because of prior commitments and a mission runs alot longer than I figured; and generally apologize profusely to the team and the leader. Most people (except OP it seems?) realize that IRL trumps gaming, always. The only time I usually see a bunch of people leave at once is for advertised activities like TFs, Hami, etc. or because it's dinner/lunch in a certain time zone. And most people who leave tell you why (at least on Torch). You should see the mass team-emptying for the daily HamiHamiHami runs on Torch; and good luck getting an 8-person radio or mission arc team during that time. All that being said…I have mid-mission quit teams who had crummy leaders, or other players whose behavor was just driving me up the wall. It's one of the reasons I have stopped doing TFs and iTrials because, as mentioned, it's bad form to quit a TF but I don't always feel compelled to stay if the team is irritating/stressful. So I don't join most TFs because of too many bad experiences and not wanting to be that player who bails mid-TF. PUGs are PUGs. As a leader or a joiner, you just roll with it.

Anyone want to share their build for a Pistols/Radiation sentinel?

Add me to the list. Does seem to be related to alts parked in Atlas.

Defenders blast well on small teams, not on large teams. Adapt playstyle accordingly. Sometimes ya blast, sometimes ya "defend" (debuff, etc.). And some combos allow for pretty good damage even on a full team. When my Poison/Dark defender (Cute Little Stinker) goes Blackstar after a couple of seconds to let Venemous Gas to do it's thing…she hits hard. Her other attacks are "meh" except for Moonbeam but…no one has ever accused her of not contributing to damage. 🙂 Oh, and Venemous Gas is a great way for a little defender to take-apart Malta Gunslingers even with "meh" damage…sweet revenge.

I do the same thing PeregrineFalcon, and am curious as to a firm answer as well. So far it doesn't seem to be an issue on existing alts or new alts. My load file was based on a complete export of parameters previous to the change, complete with me putting "nop" on default binds I didn't want to use. So am hoping since everything is explicit when loading these files it essentially reverts to all the old default binds with my custom ones on top.

I've been using a custom set of keybinds for years that explicitly "nop" the defaults I don't want to accidentally use. I never save keybinds to a default file, each alt gets a named file. What exactly changed? I haven't noticed any of my alts acting wierd so I assume my existing keybinds survived the issue? Did the changes over-write stuff? I mean if it did, then I guess I'd need to save-out one set of defaults from a new alt (before loading mine) and see what the big deal is and modifying my custom ones appropriately?

Nope, never use Discord (and am slightly annoyed by some companies that rely on that instead of emails or chat forums for support and news), don't even have it installed anywhere. Beyond that I see no need while playing, there is a chat system in the game. I also don't use any voice apps while playing because it really messes with the immersion (tried that once on Live, it was jarring). I come to Paragon City to pretend I'm elsewhere and let my imagination fill in the blanks.