Yomo Kimyata

No matter what, your first character isn't going to be particularly self-funding until you get into your upper 30s. I'd suggest something that can use SO (single origin enhancements, available from most vendors) and be effective, like a broadsword/willpower brute. As you learn more, you can dip into IOs (invention origin enhancements, which provide set bonuses and other yummy stuff) and try more exotic characters. Also consider if you want to solo or team. I'm happy to give you, or anyone, start-up capital. Look for my "Salmagundi" thread in this forum.

1. Not stellar. I would not consider spines as an AV killer, but it will certainly get you there for just about everything else. As mentioned, having Moonbeam or Zapp will help a bunch with single target. I'd think that targeting bosses with your ST and letting your auras take out minions/lts on their own is a sound strategy. 2. Absolutely keep Throw Spines. I'd even keep it over Spine Burst unless you needed melee AoE specifically for set bonuses. 3. Mud pots is probably superior to Quills if you are only going to keep one, but as mentioned this is kind of the point of this combo! Endurance is going to be a real bear. For good times, put an Avalanche knockdown proc in one aura and Overwhelming Force knockdown proc in the other. Knockdown is your friend when using passive damage!

Case Study: A while back, I wanted to make a themed SG named the Defcon Five. It was to be a quintet of female special agents whose primary purpose was to protect the U.S. and the world from nuclear disaster. Now, there are five levels of DEFCON, and each one has a code name associated with it (From least serious to most serious they are: 5: Fade Out; 4: Double Take; 3: Round House; 2: Fast Pace; 1: Cocked Pistol). As you can imagine, most/all of these code names had already been snatched up, and names like DEFCON Two were not available across all five members, so I kludged together names for each of them like DC5 Fade Out, and made power sets that made sense and had a pretty good backstory for both the individual members and the group as a whole. But, the names sucked, and I was never really able to play them out so they are all languishing in their early 20s and I consider it a defunct project. So that is a sad story. However, I also decided they needed a nemesis, and so I created a cyborg monster from a post-apocalyptic future whose sole goal is to bring nuclear holocaust to our present. The clear name for this unstoppable beast would have been DEFCON Zero, which was taken. However, DEFCON Zer0 added just a bit of flavor, in a post-apocalyptic/steampunky way, and I ended up creating variations of that character with that name across a few shards. They are all awesome and terrifying and fit the name perfectly. And that is a happy story.

Do you even chuck wood, bro?

I think the question is how much wood would you chuck? I mean, if you *could* chuck wood.

Sometimes I find an even better name.

I've had an Ice/Thorns dom for a long time, and this thread inspired me to pull it back out again. Currently at lvl 45 and running with Ice as the epic pool. Now, you could write everything I know about dominators on the rum of a shot glass with a blunt crayon, so I've been playing this pretty organically. Not focusing on perma- anything. Having Ice Slick, Thorntrops, and Sleet is pretty fun. Set up a macro for casting it on a target or for casting it on your current position. I went Sorcery for Rune, and I think I will end up with Presence in order to increase fear exposure. Hibernation is a very fun and useful power, but make sure you activate it early enough!

Be careful; seals can be dangerous. I heard that a bunch of them killed bin Laden.

You've won the game as Superman. The question is do you want to continue to win the game as Superman or try to win it as, say, Wendy and Marvin? Teaming is always going to be problematic, since there will generally be at least one Superman on any given team, in my experience.

Welcome new players! Yes, this is for you!

If this is your first time through, you’re going to find that it’s tough to stay fully equipped until you hit your 40s. See my post search “salmagundi” for some start up capital.

Hahahahahaha ... noob

Be careful; they are pricy! I could give you a few but, meh, I don't really want to.

Helsinki if I know.

Thanks for doing this, and more importantly, thanks for sharing your knowledge!

If they had made the Deceleration DSO Slow/Accuracy/Endurance then all would be right in the world.

I’d really like to see an A/E, either DSO or HO.

I feel like there is a Necromancy/Time Manipulation mastermind concept in here somewhere…

This is very important to remember. You can trade with a different character on a different account, and you can trade with a different character on the *same* account. But one of the first things the algorithm checks is if there is a high enough bid or a low enough offer *and not on the same character*. There are lots of times that people accidentally mess themselves up by locking or inverting a market. In general, it's a good idea to not have bids and offers for the same item on the same character unless you really know what you are doing. When you are buying or selling large amounts of the same item, I have noticed that it tends more towards LIFO (last in, first out) rather than FIFO (first in, first out) and I'll change that in the initial post. According to Uberguy (all hail), each time a new bid/offer comes in at the same price, the ranking of the lists reset in a way that I think is inherent to the underlying computer language rather than being specifically programmed for the /AH. I think that my LIFO observation (and this is mainly noticeable if you are using different characters) is based at least in part of the increased size of the pool. Example: If you have bids for 100 widgets at 100 inf on Character A, and that's the highest bid, the next widget put up for sale at or under 100 will trade to Character A (but it's difficult to tell which slot it will be allocated to). But if Character B puts in bids to 200 widgets at 100 inf, even if the allocation is completely random, it will trade to Character B 2/3 of the time. That said, it isn't quite random and it isn't quite orderly and I'm frankly not going to worry about it one way or another.

Battleaxe gets pendulum at level 8 now. A former T9 at level 8! (Admittedly, they tuned back the damage a bit). Axe Cyclone with a few slots in it (let's say by level 25) would have you dominating in your mid-20s. [EDIT: as @kelika2 notes, a tanker gets burn at 18 and pendulum at 20, which will be very very powerful in your early 20s.]

It depends on how the inspiration came about. If the name is the inspiration, and if it is already taken, then I move on and don't even start. If the powers are the inspiration then I work until I find something I like. I frequently end up changing costumes and names. I like to get to 7 or 8 right away. It doesn't take very long, especially with double xp, and I've got a pretty good system for those early levels. Even though they have not instituted any name givebacks yet, I like to get them above the short level break (5, I think?). I've got a short attention span, so when I stop spending time on a project it's usually because something else more pressing has come along. Sometimes it's even outside of this game! Recently, I've started pruning characters, but those are mainly theme or challenge characters that stopped being interesting. I only delete it if I can honestly say to myself, well, never gonna play THAT one again. Never say die! Sometimes I come back to old concepts that have new life due to changes either in the Homecoming rules or in my increased understanding of the mechanics.

I did some editing on the initial post, and I think some people might be well served if this guide were higher up, so shameless plug!

You will probably get lots of people who will tell you to convert them to xxxx and sell them and to do it in the most efficient manner so as to maximize your inf. And there are several ways that can net you about 20mm inf for 100 merits. You can also use them to get items that you want to use for yourself. 100 merits for a Winter-O is totally reasonable. 100 merits for a purple is fine, but you could probably net out a little better by selling items and buying the purple directly and have a few mm inf left over. 100 merits for an ATO is also fine if you really want that ATO, but again you could almost certainly net out better by selling items and buying the ATO directly. That said, there is no problem with using them to buy an item you want, even if in theory you could get it cheaper some other way. It's not like you are starving your children. Saving them for badges is also reasonable, but since I am well versed in the conversion process, I spend all mine on converters and use them to convert.

Not actual gold, but crypto. Based on what I learned years ago on how gaming "gold farmers" worked, this seems very similar and relevant! The link should be paywall free: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/25/technology/bitrush-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-china.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ik0.d0YQ.weFDLDR8ATzG&smid=url-share