TygerDarkstorm

Whoops, my apologies. For some reason I thought that I had seen people say he was a Homecoming thing and that other servers don't have him.

No, that's one of the reasons Null the Gull exists, so you can change alignment at any time. As Fraulein mentioned, only tip mishes require you to be level 20. And I'll assume you ended up finding him? Answer wouldn't be on Paragonwiki since he's special to Homecoming. Null is a seagull that sits on top of the truck parked just inside the redside of Pocket D.

@TrixieKixx Hoping to have Robin of Beasts, a beasts/TA MM ready for next Saturday

It'll get better, but yes, it is a bit slow to start. I have a mercs/traps that I stalled on for a bit until I took her into a MSR and got her into the 20's and got more of the traps powers. She's now 31 and lots of fun. Since you're on Everlasting, Chaos United hosts 2 MSR's a night (usually around 4:30pm and 7:30pm PST). I like to use MSR's for quick levels (since CU hosts them for everyone of all levels) because it's powerleveling where you get to participate, and bots work decently once in the bowl because you can put them on aggressive and go-to. Unless gaining quick levels like that isn't your thing, which I totally respect and understand.

Oh the ITF! Yay, how exciting!

I forgot to get more pics during the missions, lol, but here's a few from our Silver Mantis TF today. 🙂

Revamped my savage/bio brute. She is now Cutsie Wutsie, a shapeshifter who has made it her goal to be as cute as possible outside of combat in order not to terrify the human citizens of Paragon City and to prove to them she's there to help. She's also found that she rather enjoys the attention that comes from looking "cutsie wutsie" and now tends to prefer assuming more cute-like shifted forms, with the exclusion of her 6ft tallish monstrous combat form. (Edit: Only have the 2 forms atm; still need to add more to her repertoire.)

I mean, you technically can. Not that hard to go to Pocket D after you create the character, then go to Null the Gull and change your alignment to villain and then go level villain-side.

I haven't put anyone on ignore for this, but it has made me wonder if I am the one on ignore or something. In some cases I've sent the person a tell twice and I still get no response and then see the request go again and team end up filling. Glad I'm not the only one who's had this problem though.

@TheSpiritFox covered all of the good stuff, but I'd just like to share this post in case you would rather use numpad binds for your MasterMind instead of some of the movement keys:

Normally, my bios for my characters don't look like this; they're more about how the character got to be super, a bit of backstory, etc. I see how with the way I've iterated them currently, they seem more like NPC's than player characters. I don't make AE content so debating whether I should just scrap the idea or try to redesign them into something that's more player-friendly. And the intent with the "looks" was to try and leave it open to interpretation--i.e. no 2 howlers would look the same. Hrm...

This. ^ Hurricane is a situational power and not one that you should have on all the time anyway. But, I mean, there's a reason that it's nickname is Herdicane. You have to practice with it (I still have some trouble getting it right), but once you get it down, you use it to herd mobs, pin them in place, etc. I do my best to either leave it off, or use it to help gather the mobs to the tank. Let's please not remove one of the defining features of that particular power in the set.

I wanted to post these guys up with their bios showing, not only to see if people like the concepts, but also to see if anyone likes the concepts enough to join me in fleshing them out more (i.e. Defining who/what the Nyghtmare is, the other types of henchmen, etc.). I really wish I could get an aura that cloaks the Howler completely in shadows, but smoky was the best I could do; thunderhead is more coverage, but comes with lightning, which I'm not looking for with these guys. The Nyghtmare Howler The Nyghtmare Consort

More likely is that you have the option checked at that vendor that says "Hide... Recipes missing ingredients". Have this option enabled only shows the things you can currently pay for at the P2W vendor. I.e. If you have 8 hours of dbl xp loaded up, you won't see anything in that pane.

Wednesday I ran an ITF with one scrapper (who didn't have confront), a dom (me), and I can't remember the others, but they were all various squishies--point being, we had no tank or brute. Sure, we completed the thing, but damn were we wishing we had a proper meatshield with taunt to keep the fucking AV's from running. We must have chased Rom over a quarter of the map and countless mobs.

I will be there on Gryff the Scallawag 🙂 Oops, forgot the other info; she's a Water/Storm Corruptor

@TrixieKixx My apologies but I won't be able to make it tomorrow. My daughter's father isn't coming over and I just don't think I can dedicate 2+ hours to this TF.

First things: This is the wrong thread to be asking about this sort of thing and probably needs its own discussion in the proper forum. Secondly: Not to be cruel, but if you're playing a controller as a healer, you're playing the AT semi-wrong (and would be even if you were a defender or corruptor). If you come from other MMO's, CoH requires a bit of a different mindset in that we don't abide by the holy trinity (tank/dps/healer). If you are trying to focus solely on healing, that could be some of your struggles, especially as a controller. If you're new to the game and want to play a support role, I'd suggest a corruptor or defender over a controller as their role in the game is a bit more straightforward. A controller is a tad bit more complex because you need to understand how control powers work, and how/why/when to use them. And before others jump on me: Yes, healing is useful in this game, especially leveling up, however, you really shouldn't be trying to be a "pure" healer unless you enjoy being bored and not contributing a whole lot to your team (if you team); and if you're soloing... well, good luck actually defeating anything. You are at your most useful to a team (or even yourself), if you are using your attacks interspersed with your buffs/debuffs. Also, many times, the best form of support comes from buffing your fellow teammates, and especially debuffing your enemies making them easier to kill.

Adraxia my Mercs/Traps MM. Just because she's a mercenary, doesn't mean that she can't look good. 😛

I agree with this, though I saw in the OP you mentioned grav/energy. It's a super fun combo, but if you're still kinda new to dominators, I have a hard time recommending it. It is a super busy combo that is a little bit at odds with itself because of the special mechanics tied to each. You're probably not gonna get that real dominator *feel* from it. Plant is definitely a good place to start, and with the many doms I've rolled, this is the one I've gotten the highest level. Her secondary is Martial which is... ok. I'm sticking with her for now, but plan to try either plant/psi or plant/fire next. But my plant/martial is the first dom attempt I've had where I'm like "omg I feel like a dom this is what people are talking about when they say doms are awesome omg omg omg"

Maskurade Plant/Martial Dom Interdimensional mercenary who is never seen without her/a mask on; no one is quite sure what has brought her to Paragon City.

I agree with pretty much everything that's been said in this thread, however, I am quoting this because I don't know that I would like to have the story of the TF linked to the loading screens. Even with my 5 year old laptop and running 2 monitors, I load zones/maps too quickly to even read most of the tips that show up there as is, let alone trying to read and comprehend a couple of sentences about why I'm doing this portion of a TF. Though it is pretty clear that there does need to be a better way to tell the story of a TF than the contact text that everyone can read. As many times as I've done Synapse, I had no idea the Clockwork King was a psychic brain in a jar thing! I'm usually on a ranged toon with the zoom out to max or near max, so I guess I've never had the opportunity to see him. I am also in agreement with those who have said to make the AV's and such in these more noticable/a threat. Half the time it seems you just breeze right through them and might be lucky if I even noticed they were there. While I don't want to see this game be like WoW in terms of fight mechanics (because CoH's playstyle is one that happens to perfectly suit the way I game as I am an average gamer at best and have semi-crappy coordination), I also don't mind seeing them present a bit of a challenge and really feel like I'm fighting an AV or something.

Welcome to the game! As a new player, Masterminds can take a bit of getting used to. MM's are hit with certain penalties compared to other AT's because our primaries *are* our pets. Thus, we take a bigger hit to our endurance and our personal attacks don't always add a lot to our arsenal until you learn how to proc them out and manage your endurance use. Now, I am by no means an expert. I do lots of reading and research and MM's are probably my most played AT because I love them so much. If you are looking to be a MM that is more involved with their pets, then I can't really recommend /force field as a secondary--it's typically considered the lazy MM secondary for a reason; you bubble your pets and sit back and watch the battle unfold. Great for people looking for that more slow paced playstyle, but since you're wanting to actively participate in fights with your pets, I'm not sure it's the right path. For something to try, this is Redlynne's Ninja/Time MM that takes and uses the personal MM attacks: Your combo of Beast/Kin mentioned in the OP is actually a pretty solid pairing. Mine is now... level 40 I think. I haven't soloed with her in a while, but I just recently ran her on an MSR, which was fun once I got the feel of her again. Point being, /kin is a very active set, and if you're grouped with anyone who can give you +recharge buffs (or bring your own via Hasten), then you really shouldn't feel like you're missing out being in the battle with your pets (and /kin is still pretty busy even without extra recharge added). And for beast, you want to use at least one of the personal attacks to help your pets build up stacks of the buff that cause your pets to crit and deal more damage. Your pets ARE your weapons--where a blaster has Fire Blast or something, we have our pets. Wield them; that's how you contribute to the damage part of a fight. Do not constantly resummon if just one or two goes down; it's a huge waste of end and time, especially if it's the tier 1 pets. Make use of the numpad binds here: Idk what I would do if I didn't have and use these suckers. I'm semi-lazy, so I tend to command all my pets to do stuff at once, but this will also allow for more precise control when and where it's needed. Don't be afraid to come out of defensive stance if you're on a team. Bodyguard mode isn't always real effective if you're teaming (if you're not taking any damage, then your pets won't move in on their own to engage). If you're careful about placement, many pets can be placed to aggressive, though with the speedy ninjas and beasts, you need to keep a tight leash on that and the passive button. When there's troublesome mobs in a group, I often target that mob and send my pets to attack my target (i.e. Malta Sappers, Ruin Mages, etc.). Also keep in mind, MM's are technically a support AT. Our damage, even with the pets, will never rival a blaster, scrapper, etc. Plus, we're at a distinct disadvantage once you get to a post level 50 world; once you start playing at level shifted modes, your tier 1 pets are now fighting enemies +5/6 to themselves, turning their damage and defenses a bit anemic. Not that an MM can't be built to handle that content or whatever, it's just a good thing to keep in mind. I'm not a huge fan of idle play either, so I tend to pick MM secondaries that are what people call "busy"--Electric Affinity, Kinetics, Trick Arrow, and to a lesser extent, Time, Nature, and Dark. Not that other secondaries aren't good. /Thermal has some pretty great debuffs (as does /Cold), but it can feel a bit boring at times compared to something like /Kin that wants to have its in-combat abilities pretty used on CD.

Y'all got some awesome screenshots! 😄 Put me down as TBD for now for next week's run. I'll have to see if I can level something up and make sure I have nothing going on that day so I have the time. Edit: @TrixieKixx I will be there on Maskurade - Plant/Martial Dominator

As usual, lots of fun to be had with this group today! I didn't get any screenshots during since I was trying to get the hang of my tank, but here's our before and after shots. 🙂