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I rebuilt my DB/WP scrapper from Live, was just as much fun as I remember. I am rebuilding my Claws/DA scrapper build from Live. Requires a certain level of masochism but this will be the…fourth? fifth?…time I've played 0–50 with a Claws/DA scrapper. I first did this combo back with the looping DA sounds and no IOs…we were a very rare breed back then…

@Blackfeather It does, thank you. But it's unfortunate. It still means using the power(s) very sparingly and generally if I have to concentrate too much on how stingy I have to be before using an optional power, I just don't bother. If it's not reliable, I don't want to count on it. If I have to try earning a bunch of different powers to make it work, it's too complicated. If I have to exit a mission and spend time deciding if I should use a teleport power (or which one!) or run to the transit…I just stop looking and run to the transit. That's just me and likely NOT the majority of players as I see it on Homecoming. Also unfortunate. It was a fun run, we were told not to rely on the slash command. Point taken; I'm not allowed to consider this a nerf. I was just hoping for…something closer to the convenience of the dev command, that's all. I've played this game since i3 and will survive going back to transit/tunnel/ferry/Ouro/fixed SG Portals. Maybe I'll luck out and tailgate through someone else's dropped portal now and again as an added side effect. 😉

Even one of those would do it, yes. THANKS @Blackfeather. Since I don't usually go looking for the Day Job powers (I just park where it's handy), how are these two earned? Is it still 10 days worth of logged out (so more practically probably 12–15 calendar days depending on your daily game time)? So basically unavailable to new alts? Are the day jobs the ones that rely on "charges"? If so, how many charges would build up over the course of 20–24 hours logged out in the proper location? Would it be the max of 30 charges? Depending on the circumstances I've been known to use the base macro now a dozen or more times in a 2–4 hour session either solo or farming (it's just convenient to go to the base for most transportation needs, bop into base for recipe pieces, bop out to use auction house, bop back in because I forgot something…).

I tried reading entirely through this but my eyes and brain started to hurt. Overlapping options, expensive P2W stuff, long recharges…can someone just clarify: Is there ONE power, that is free (or nearly so…I don't marketeer or farm at a level where 10m is remotely "affordable"), that has a sub 5m cooldown, that replaces the current base-slash-command-we-shouldn't-have? Okay maybe TWO powers...use one while the other is cooling down. SYNOPSIS. My brain needs *easy*. Otherwise, this all loosely translates to "welp, buck up and use the oldschool transit options unless you happen to be near a base portal." I mean that sucks, but whatever…just give me the Cliff Notes version. I tend to like options, but this change needs an Excel spreadsheet and detailed instructions…

For folks like me, a "great bio" is all you need to do to put a huge smile on my face for that day's play session.

That's no excuse! Even my cookie-cutter "inexpensive" fire-farmer has a bio. Granted, it's creative sarcasm about the confusion of farming and auctioneering in a super hero game, but…still has a creative bio told as a very basic origin story… 🤪 Back to the OP…I'm okay with the current length. Sure I'd like a tad longer, but that's straight-up selfishness, mostly. I agree too much longer and it wouldn't get read by non-RP players. Back on Live there were special purpose wikis for full character stories and people would write a synopsis with a URL for the in-game bio, which is better for RPers anyway (you can include pics, lots of details, formatting, etc.). So if the devs threw another 250–500 or so characters that probably wouldn't be the end of the world. But as much as I like bios, I'm not pining away in dismay over the current limit. As @Zepp said, it just forces more creativity.

Color me confused on this a little, maybe my memory is fuzzy since live was so long ago: Doesn't dom build faster on Homecoming than it did on Live? The second alt I rebuilt here was my Mind/Psi dom, but I was too broke to use his MIDS build into permadom until after he hit 50. But my one surprise was that I could have dom up for almost every fight in mid-level play. I had this memory for Live that dom seemed like it took forever to build and yes, that was tedious. But on HC, it hasn't felt like a big deal. So either HC has already made it easier or I got alot more aggressive in my playstyle (because I'd done it once and knew how it worked) and build dom quicker because of it. Either way, playing without permadom was quite fun (and team-useful). I plan to rebuild an Earth dom and he won't have permadom, and I expect to have fun with him. On a side note, I'll also argue against "CC being useless in the higher levels" Just because the team didn't notice you saved them from themselves doesn't mean it didn't happen and had the effect of making play faster and safer. 🙂

My first drafts go over limit almost every single time. I write bios for all my alts. I even have all sorts of side Lore and headcanon in many cases. Normally I'm only over a couple hundred characters (have a decent feel for the synopsis length). I got used to Live where a large percentage of players had bios, and they were alot of fun. It's super-rare here on HC (at least on Torchbearer), but I keep looking for them since they are fun reading when they exist. SIDE NOTE: A request for all you bio writers: use paragraphs please! It makes it so much easier to read than a solid wall of text.

Back on live when I was playing CoH far too much, and destroying $100 office chairs in 12 or less months, I invested in a Herman Miller Aeron. I'm well past my 12 year warranty and no issues whatsoever, and I can sit in this chair all day long (which is good because like so many others, I work from home now). My girlfriend debated, delayed, balked, and then after 3-years of going back and forth between wanting an Aeron or a Steelcase; she finally got an Aeron a couple months ago. We both agree that any chair that has padding/cushions is destined to be uncomfortable in 1–2 years. A high-quality mesh/suspended chair (Herman Miller, Steelcase, etc.) is your best friend. Quite fiddly to set-up and get perfect, but once you do you will tear the limbs off anyone who touches your precious adjustments. 😜

This. I am a bit stubborn in my refusal to PL my alts; I feel I learn my power combos better being forced to level oldschool. But so help me I wish Veles would just stay dead. I'm also odd that I find I really enjoy the Twinshot arc…it has less of the annoying "go to Perez/KR and hunt purple mobs" that all the low level arcs seem to have. Even the Hollows are more interesting than the all the "hunt" missions every lowbie arc has. So…more missions would be my biggest ask. I'm okay if the maps are a tad boring if we could just get new content. ATs are cool but…meh.

+1 to this. Even if they weren't trying for an agreement with NCSoft, I'd still +1 this for the other reasons.

Having dipped my toes in the farming pool out of frustration, I can make a number of observations: Even with an a not-too-expensive farmer and a decent farming mission, Influence and XP comes faster for me than any missions I've ever been on, including PI Council Radio roflstomps and Ephram DA mission endlessness. I can't speak to the influence/XP generated on TFs or iTrials as that is content I don't usually participate in. In the hands of an experienced farmer with a wicked-expensive build, this effect only intensifies. In the hands of the above experienced farmer and one or more support buddies, multibox mules, or multibox helper alts, influence and experience go off the charts. I have see truly insane farming setups that blow my mind. Being the farmer and doing some types of farm missions is no less exciting than silent chat during endless Council PI Radios (some of the farms are actually quite clever and interesting). Actually, farming is more fun in alot of ways than Council/DA roflstomps. I'm going to have to take back alot of bad things I've said about farmers in the past (*stares at feet in shame*). So honestly, for XP and influence: farming wins. The vehemently anti-farming part of me can't argue with that; I've seen it for myself now. At least this is the experience for me, anyway; YMMV. Mind you, except for this one farming alt of mine, fairly new, all my other alts go 1-50+ "the hard" way; no farms (I find I learn my alt and powersets better and the teaming is more fun). I built my farmer to generate a extra funds for my altitis. So my farmer is a practical matter; a way to make a necessary chore more fun. For my other alts, I'll see you on one of those teams, woohoo!

I did try looking for a set of inspiration macros and the search engine wasn't as helpful as I'd hope. Anyone have a link for a good set of binds for inspiration management? Thanks @Krazie Ivan for the Incarnate power tips!

For a "budget" Brute like this, what would you recommend for the six Incarnate powers?

Add Super Speed for extra hilarity. Anyone ever tried flying while using Titan Weapons? Had me in tears. I play almost exclusively animal alts so…Beast Run hilarity. Actually I rather like it, since if I have a rabbit at a very small size he feels more like he is scurrying quickly, and so on.

Playing any short character in "City of Tall People" where the animation doesn't point upwards a bit more leads to hilarity. On my small DB/WP scrapper: Every attack looks like it's taking them down by the groin or lower. My girlfriend says I like look like I'm kneecapping people all the time, especially all the 7' tall Council. I must be the boon of the prosthetics industry though. The best one was the attack that thrusts both blades forward and I was aiming at a mob behind the one directly in front of me. Looked like I shoved the blades dangerously past the first guy's bits to skewer his buddy behind him in the nuts. I was laughing so hard I had to explain it to my confused girlfriend…who proceeded to laugh. If you're short in this game, you are truly a vicious person; at least according to the animations. 😱

My first 50 coming back on HC was a rad/rad defender. He 50'd faster than my dom and my scrapper; no shortage of people wanting him on teams. So support still has value in some people's minds 0-50 and even for basic 50+ PI radio roflstomps. The incarnates might not need it or care, but the lowbies tagging along do. And something I've noticed playing the above rad/rad defender and a mind/psi dom: the debuffs and controls DO make a difference. I can watch mobs melt faster when I get my rad toggles off sooner. Less deaths and near deaths happen when my dom controls that mob we accidentally aggo'd without anyone noticing at first. I think the trick to feeling like you shine is to not back-seat play…learn to get in sooner. Don't player a defender, play an "offender." Learn the patterns of the team and time the debuff just as the tanker gets things under control or that scrapper dives in. Pre-emptively lock-down that second group everyone ran by accidentally. Follow the tanker into the fray with your PBAoE debuff (except KB ones!); I learned a long time ago that often standing next to the tanker is often the safest place to be, not on the edges. Adapt, be daring, and STILL be useful.

Thanks for the explanation; didn't mean to pour salt in a wound or open up a verboten topic.

Can someone explain what SCORE is, at what's the controversy with SCORE and "Leo"? (And is "Leo" aka "Leandro"?) I keep seeing these terms/names used without explanation…

Jeez, keep some challenge on Homecoming…and force people to use some strategy once in a while. Next someone will ask for Night Widows to have their Smoke Grenade nerfed… Tell all the Voids and Quantums to go home… Or to have Succubus confuse removed… Or force the Roman Surgeons to use children's bandages… May as well just give all the badguys NERF weapons and call it a day. It would certainly end the vicious Game Balance arguments…

According to Apple, Mojave is the upper limit for a mid-2012 Mac Pro (big cheese grater). In the Mac Pro line, a Late-2013 Mac Pro is required for Catalina. You're probably thinking of a MacBook Pro (laptop). On a mid-2012 Mac Pro, to even go to High Sierra I had to get an aftermarket video card recently that supported Apple's Metal technology (most Macs of this type did not have the higher-end Apple video card required). Basically, the mid-2012 barely makes the cutoff for Mojave. Besides, as stated above, I'm in no hurry to get to Catalina until apps I need catch-up...need Controllermate at minimum, or a similar app (of which essentially none exist). And by the time I get forced to get a new Mac, it'll all be ARM-based which will probably cause all kinds of havoc, as mentioned above.

Let's hope Parallels or VMWare support the move to ARM with their offerings. I almost went that route to play Homecoming until I saw the Mac-specific loader. But then again, I have the benefit of an old XP image for Parallels, and CoX-on-XP-on-Parallels on even my "Mid-2012" Mac Pro probably outperforms the PC rig I had back when I played. 🙂 But…this doesn't bode well for folks with more modern Macs. Given my needs, I can't skip off to PC land. And not everyone will run out and buy Parallels to run CoX. This mid-2012 Mac cannot go farther than Mojave so it can always stick around as a CoX game machine if pressed. (I have OTHER reasons to worry about new Macs. I rely heavily on Controllermate and Xkeys for ergonomic improvements as well as gaming, and Catalina broke that…so I'm not even in a hurry to upgrade to a newer Mac for that reason.)

This might seem silly or naïve but: Is the game still balanced against SOs, or is the gold standard IOs now? I feel like alot of forum dwellers here are talking in terms of fully-IO-kitted, or even pretty nice semi-kitted in the lower levels, builds. To me, HC feels like City of Gods in this way and if one is merely on TO/DO/SO their entire 1–50 that they are somehow lacking and not playing correctly. Is the HC expectation that everyone is wealthy and has IOs even well before 50 and that is the basis of balance discussions?

It's not about "leadership" as much as complainers: up the diff, only pick Council, get here quicker, the one who enters the mission and starts playing without the rest of us, and I could go on and on. I am a manager at work, I prefer to be passive when playing CoX. Let someone else call the shots, get the mission, pick the diff, decide whether the outlier is being an *sshat and to kick them (if they don't, then who am I to complain...maybe it's a buddy of theirs...). I can solely concentrate on doing the best I can for the team in the mission, then enjoy the little breaks between missions. Things that irk me about other player's "style" when I am "leader" don't bug me when I'm just tagging along. Maybe it's an over-active sense of "responsibility" or maybe it's analysis paralysis. I just know it lessens my enjoyment. Someone in this thread mentioned people not chatting on teams. What's that all about? On Live, people had fun, cracked jokes, and bantered. Teams now are quiet as a graveyard. That silence really sucks the fun out of teaming sometimes and really makes leadership feel like a job that requires maximum efficiency and minimum downtime.

I always play all of my alts to 50, I have yet to quit one alt. Some slower than others. I play on concept, so that drives my playing not how uber or difficult the alt is to play or team or solo. Most of my alts will hit 50 and then stop, no incarnates, no set IOs (beyond basic utilitarian one-offs like Celerity: Stealth, etc.). I saved many custom-made MIDS files from Live (provided by a wonderful in-game friend); am rebuilding those. About a dozen of them, and those will be my only incarnates. Eventually. When I win some sort of in-game lottery. 😜 As for "how far I incarnate" the goal is always T3 for the powers that give a level shift. The others will depend on how often I play that incarnate alt after that. I rarely T4, though I am well on my way on one of two incarnates I have right now just because I play/grind them alot.