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That was a fun time. Largely because I was playing so casually and my highest hero at the time was a level 16 fire/fire tanker. My mind was absolutely blown that they were going to raise the level cap to 50. I hadn't even made it out of Steel Canyon so to me, it was incredible you had players who had chewed through the content and had a number of characters at max level. What I didn't know at the time that players just had a tank bring like a hundred Freakshow into a dumpster and leveled instantly. There were no caps on the number of mobs taunted so this was abused mercilessly. This was just a different era in the game. Characters struggled until level 20 when you could get stamina. Everyone and their uncle 6-slotted hasten because how overpowered it was. Regen hadn't been nerfed yet (I regret I never played one of the ridiculous early versions), and then nerfed again and again. Haha. No one really knew how most powers worked. I remember a lot of manual testing to actually find out whether or not attacks were properly balanced against other similar primaries (haha, spoiler - they weren't. Remember how pretty and awfully slow the early martial arts powers were?) You also had things like fire controllers being able to summon 9 fire imps versus that sad solo pets that ice and earth controller got. There were so many balance holes. I think the devs had always planned to raise it to 50, and did it when their metrics showed that a significant portion of the player base hit max level. I think the APPs were really enticing at the time. Armor for a blaster? Fireball for a tanker? Sign me up! Also with fitness pool and hasten being near mandatory, a lot of players looked forward to additional power choices and slots.

Lol. You don't know me. I think projecting someone's motivations for an idea is silliness at best and somewhat ignorant at worst. My current play consists of leveling a staff/sr scrapper. She's badly built, and the animations are pretty but slow. I still enjoy it. I don't power game not because I don't know how but because I feel I've been there, done that. With that said, having modes where milestones for reaching difficult to achieve tasks and being acknowledged for that in game would not be bad for the game. I say that even though I may never partake in them myself. I forgot how fussy these forums can be. I should know given I was somewhat prominent on the old ones back in the day (no desire to repeat that here). For those of you who were constructive, I appreciate it.

Would love to an option for a hardcore mode. Basically, a bright red title or similar above your character that signifies you haven’t died yet. You lose your special title if you happen to face plant and the character just becomes a standard character. Perhaps a tiny star or similar symbol by the title for every souvenir you’ve collected. Might deter the PL folks a bit but I’m well aware you can get around a lot of that via multi-boxing. Would love to see someone solo a fire/fire blaster this way. And it would add a bit of fear / challenge into this game. Maybe a way to get true bragging rights.

This is a great change. DOs + inherent stamina makes the early experience so much better. I'm glad the Homecoming folks did this.

Shrugs. Given the fact how easy it is to get to 50 (PL, team up, play certain AT combinations, etc.), there's not much prestige in having a character at max security level. Has zero effect on me on, and if that makes them happy, well okay, cool. With that said, I derive enjoyment on trying out different power combinations (it's been years since I played actively and a lot of the sets were introduced after I left) and seeing a character grow. That's just me. If you derive enjoyment by just watching a character sit at the entrance of a mission as you ding levels every few minutes or so...okay. I'd find that as enjoyable as watching paint dry, but I've discovered there are some people who actually enjoy that kind of activity.

Probably a combination of being able to overcome challenges solo (elite bosses and troublesome mobs like sappers come to mind) and efficiently level at an adequate speed. I assume that most players at worst expect to take on challenges at their security level equivalent to a single player.

Ooh, that's definitely a contender. What about ice/empathy? I think mez protection would arguably be better than a self heal.

I'm kind of thinking some variant of defender. Emp defender maybe? Perhaps a sonic defender? I've soloed a FF defender (FF/Sonic) during when the game was live (non private servers) and while it was annoyingly slow, it was decently solo capable. Just about any defender with Sonic attacks had plenty of damage. I'm asking because I'm unsure of the newer (post issue 20) combinations.

No one willing to team with you with a teleport power? Maybe teleport you over to the Tunnel portal so you can get to Atlas?

Oh I had several 50s / Incarnates during live. And most were heavily enhanced - soft capped defenses, res cap, high recharge, high regen, all that jazz. Though I think most of the lurkers here can say the same. I'm very familiar with the old power sets, just nothing that was introduced post issue 19-20 or so. So Staff Fighting, Water Blast, Rad Armor, the new MM sets, etc. no experience. It's what makes this time around so fun. It's fun to be ignorant again.

Hi Denizens of the New Forums, I'm a player who started day 1 back in 2004. I think I played until the introduction of the Incarnate system. Real life caught up in a hurry, with the birth of our kiddo and a career reboot. Anyways, this game still slaps! Been here for about 3 weeks or so. Built a bug-themed Psi/Rad Brute (bug named "Pshoo"), probably the worst farming character ever (a Titan Weapons/Fire brute), and an all-natural MAN build (if some of you remember the old school, no travel power, no supernatural powers type of characters). Some impressions. The game is super easy. I remember reading that they made the fitness pool inherent, and boy does that throw off your build. You can actually have a full attack chain before your teens. I think you can experiment a lot more and gimp yourself less. I used to host Terra Volta trials for really gimped characters back in the day so this is a good change. Really enjoy female Skulls and Hellions, equal opportunity evil; and the new boss types. No idea when those were introduced but they weren't there when I played. Excelsior is rather busy, enough so that Atlas Park actually lags a bit. I play on a pretty underpowered computer, and so when about 20+ characters gather around Ms. Liberty powers going off, it's noticeable. I don't mention this as a bad thing; just surprised at the activity. I tried to donate, waited a day and they already collected enough for May. Nice! Don't make a female character wearing a leotard and pick staff fighting as a primary. I had no idea my character would flash the room as soon as you activate Eye of the Storm. I promptly gave her a costume wearing pants. Anyways, just wanted to drop a word and say hi. Oh, and here's my character, with pants. Oh, and what percentage of lurkers here are old players? Any new-to-COH folks lurk here?