Triumphant

Sadness. I really like thinking of the guy as Higher Big Toe.

If it matters to you, I also run an nrg/nrg/force blaster and I don't proc out the attacks. Like Biff Pow, I try to slot full sets and I take the melee attacks (+ combat teleport, because I like to blap). Other than the fact that you seem to have built with an eye towards specializing in hover-blasting, our builds are quite similar. I'm quite satisfied with my build and have a lot of fun playing it, though I'm sure it could be improved form a performance standpoint (I'm sort of... mediocre when it comes to character builds). I can solo this guy at +4/8 on paper/radio missions, though I have to be quite careful and methodical when I do so (pulling targets from a distance with snipes and teleport target, etc.).

It's neither vampirism nor herpes: It's its own uniquie disease. I suggest we call it "Snerpies".

I follow Wes Roth's Youtube, so I had actually seen this before (well, a different podcast, but still). It's certainly impressive in the scope of what can be done with it. A.I. still has a lot of gaps and flaws that need to be corrected for, but once (if?) they solve things like hallucinations and what not, it's going to transform society. Of course, those changes are likely to both bad and good, as is the case with all new technologies. Let us hope the changes are less of the former and more of the latter.

I think your point of view and your opinion of what makes a good game (including this one) is every bit as valid as mine, even if they are different. You may also be right about most people enjoying levelling systems. Just because I don't enjoy them, doesn't mean that's the collective experience of most players. I appreciate you taking the time to offer a clear explanation of why you feel this way. So many people comment in the forums with nothing more than a thumbs down, without providing any further context, and I find that incredibly frustrating. So thank you for not being one of those.

It's in my Prime Watchlist. 😄

I play a lot of it repeatedly, sure. But the fun of the game mechanics aspect of CoH. for me personally, is when I have all of the powers, IO's and slots with which to customize my character, so that I can make precisely the character that I enjoy and imagine. When I just have a handful of powers, I don't enjoy the mechanical aspects as much. Customization of what the character can do is a big part of what makes it fun for me. Also, there are plenty of powersets where the coolest looking (and most fun) abilities don't become available until the higher levels and don't perform in a satisfactory way until all of the slots are available to distribute to them. Also, because I am an RP'er, I don't want to go from zero to hero every time, because that doesn't (with the exception of a few tech-based heroes, perhaps) model the way it happens in comics. Sure, sometimes a characters looks change, more rarely they will get new powers and abilities, but basically, Captain America, Spider Man, Superman, and Green Lantern (as a few examples) have always had the same sort of powers and abilities. They didn't "grind" to get there. Grinding feels like D&D to me, and I want to play a comic book game. Maybe I'm an outlier, and most people enjoy the slow, levelling grind of traditional MMO's, but I don't. That's one of the things about them (though there are a lot of other things that I DO like) that I don't like at all, and never have. Crafting systems are another thing that I dislike. They often follow a grindy, formulaic method to making gear that is tedious and not at all a very creative and engaging sort of activity. Thankfully, CoH allows me to sidestep that, for the most part, and get on with playing the parts of the game that I enjoy. I don't want to convince you that you would (or should) enjoy the game the same way that I do, though. Why can't you just like what you like and allow me the same courtesy? We don't have to agree on this topic, and in our particular case, we are lucky enough to have a game that allows us both to pursue enjoyment of it according to each of our preferences.

Not at all. I've been playing CoH since 2019 and I find the game to be endlessly diverting: But not playing in the way that you describe. I enjoy interacting IC'ly with other player characters in RP and I enjoy playing fully fleshed out lvl 50 characters with all the bells and whistles in high level content. Some of the mission and/or story arcs in CoH are pretty good. On the other hand, many of them are not, and the cut-scenes are often downright painful. These days, I'm running with The Orbweavers, an Arachnos-themed group of baddies and we do awesome RP's (sometimes with coalitioned villain and/or hero groups) and do paper missions, SF's, etc. as a group, rp'ing as we do so. It's a total blast. But I didn't have to slowly grind my way up to level 50 in the process of that. And thank goodness for that, because to me, it's a total bore.

I play a lot of brutes. I think it's because I like the style of play. Very aggressive, attack, attack, attack. I'm close to as tough as a tank but not expected to do the tankers job, as my role is DPS, and I just like to focuse on destroying things as swiftly and brutally (if you'll forgive the pun) as possible. Yes, Brutes could use a better ATO special ability, but I can live with what we've got. Overall, I'm pretty happy with where Brutes are at, power wise.

Just kill them all and then come take an extended vacation in the Rogue Isles. They were fools, anyway. Red Side is Best Side! 😁

What happens in real life when a car reaches stairs, cliffs, or water? Answer: You stop and turn around. If you're asking about players that don't care about that, that drive up cliffs and across water, up stairs, etc? If you want to try to explain it within the context of the game environment (I wouldn't- it sounds like a zero-sum game to me. But whateves)... I dunno. Speed Buggy? Chitty-chitty-bang-bang? Or whatever. The whole game and it's associated genre stretch the bounds of credulity, though, so I don't see the point there. 🤷‍♂️

I will concede your point, but I have to say that I haven't ever played an RPG that involved levelling slowly that did not involve boring grinds. If you can provide enough interesting material to make it fun and engaging all the way from lvl 1 to lvl *insert lvl cap here*, then swell. I'm all for it. I've never seen that game, though. 🤷‍♂️

FWIW, I'm not against expanding the enemy types present in paper/radio missions. I run a lot of paper and radio missions. They're quick, fun and convenient and play nicer with PUGs (imo, at least) than some of the more complicated SF/TF/Story arc stuff.

My explanation: My character is a reckless maniac. 😝 I don't think I would want to use it in a building/on a combat map, though, as the S.T.A.R.T. vendor travel powers turn off all your other powers. Would be fun for just tooling around zone maps in friendly/low-hazard areas, though.

I like energy blast for knockback effects and energy manipulation because I hate endurance issues and energize solves this problem for me and the powerful melee attacks make blapping with combat teleport really fun. For epic pools, force mastery lets me take personal force field, which makes me feel impenetrable, like Magneto or Kang when they activate their forcefields. There's a ton of blaster sets I haven't tried yet, so I'm sure there are plenty more that I would wind up loving.

Right. I did know about the one's just standing around in-zone. The OP was specifically asking about radio missions,though.

I don't agree, though I do agree (as other's have commented upthread) that they shouldn't appear when the "No Bosses" option is selected in notoriety settings. In every other case, simply turn your difficulty setting down. I enjoy them and think they were a much-needed upgrade to Council for high-level play.

I do believe that you get Malta as an enemy in PI radio missions at times. If you keep taking them, they should eventually pop up. Some of the tip missions at that level may provide a greater variety of foes, as well. For Devouring Earth, I recommend you try Tina McIntyre and Maria Jenkins contacts in PI. Rikit, I believe, are pretty much exlusive to the Rikti War Zone, though there may be certain contacts/arcs in PI that will provide missions with them (I can't remember, to be honest).

Now that would be an interesting challenge. Actually, some nut has probably already done this. If I was patient enough to scroll through the forums with the search engine, I could probably find a topic about it. 😝

You can farm with any reasonably sturdy, well-built character but it can be quite difficult and fiddly to accomplish this without a tough melee AT like a Brute or Tank. I've done reasonably well with a hover-blasting Sentinel, for example, but it's just not as efficient as the Brute that I typically use for that purpose. I think you'll be happier just building a brute and/or tank. This is my recommendation.

If you can't get it done with a single petless mastermind on your team, you need to boot yourself for incompetence, instead. Unless you're talking about an entire team of them, of course (but that scenario seems so unlikely as to be ridiculous, so... yeah).

Well, not a team, but I do have this guy, who would fit nicely in such a team:

What? No, of course not. This game has thousands of players. I'm sure there are probably like... 5 or 6 more people who also like them. Well, okay, maybe closer to 3 or 4.

I can see how you'd feel that way. Having said that, they aren't necessary to enjoy the game. I have several T3 incarnates that can run +4/8 content and the only accolade they have is the long range teleport power (which you can just buy outright from the start vendor). I wouldn't get too knotted-up about it, if I were you. The powers are handy, but they arent THAT great.

Stryker APC. Plow through the bank entrance at 60mph. Debark with my crew of 10 minions/thugs. Blow bank vault doors. Grab loot. Hop back on Stryker. Drive away at 60mph, shooting anything that tries to stop us with my MK 2 .50 Cal and MK 19 40mm grenade launcher. Has an operational range of 300 miles (easily enough to get us back to our secret headquarters).