The Trouble

EQ @ level 1: A rat kills you after a harrowing 3 minute fight. CoH in the tutorial mission: Beat down multiple minions in about a minute. Both of these scenarios can be fun, but guess which game I'm still playing?

My main will always be a Peacebringer. I guess that would generally mean he would grant powers like a Peacebringer, but I decided against powers that would overlap with his. Cosmic Boost (Power Boost) Sunspear (Snipe) Blinding Pulsar (Ranged Cone -ToHit & mid/low Magnitude Hold) Quantum Entanglement (slight -Res + Enemies around this target take a portion of their damage) Lightspeed (10% auto-hasten) I'm okay if this is considered overpowered. I means I'd get more patrons 😁

I'm glad we're finally talking about this again because Cottage/Rules Controllers are way overpowered.

This is the part that blew my mind when I first started playing twenty years go. I was so impressed that powers from level 1 continued to be useful through the entire character's journey. While CoH isn't the only game designed this way, I wish way more RPG's (and especially MMO's) would adopt that philosophy. As for CoH being more difficult to learn than in the first years? No. It's easier to grasp, not just due to streamlining, but also thanks to players like you, @Intermipants. Veterans have peeled away all the layers, and can explain the denser mechanics to new players in a holistic way. NPC text tends to half-explain a thing in a vacuum.

I have one more warning: This is not a level-up build. It's better to respec into. Unless you pick up some freebie attacks from the START vendor, you'll only have 3 attacks (including Brawl) until level 16 if you follow this to the letter. I noticed you're new to Homecoming, but I don't know how new you are to City of Heroes, so I figured I should clarify a bit more.

Here's mine. For standard content, this thing is extremely durable. Things to keep in mind: I avoided attacks that didn't have those sweet psionic blades for Rule of Cool (TM). There's nothing wrong with the non-blade powers. Changes are coming soon for Cloak of Fear that look pretty darn good, but this build doesn't utilize that power. It's probably a bit pricey. Check out the Market forums for some inf making strategies. I think this build could be a great jumping-off point for flavoring to your personal taste. Datachunk: Formatted: Shadowmind Tanker (Dark Armor - Psionic Melee).mbd

They did a buffnerf when they should have done a nerfbuff!! Remember that thing that happened 0.01% of the time back on Live? It's still happening!! UGH! And where's the Armor/Armor archetype I demanded?! I can't believe after all this time, and multiple warnings, that this game has completely gone to the Americans. 🤦‍♂️

Firstly, I've altered the build slightly. Shatter's Knockdown seemed to become Knockback in more situations than I would have expected. That's got Overwhelming Force in it to compensate. It's nice to be able to open with an Executioner's Strike whenever you'd like without flinging your target somewhere. Revised build attached. The "Invincible" name I put on that is, understandably, hyperbole. Damage resistance numbers are a bit too low, and there's no Defense Debuff Resistance to protect you. That said, this build gets pretty darn sturdy quickly. Lean on the Wide Area Web Grenade. This keeps mobs grouped tightly for your numerous and quickly recharging AoE's. Toss that Web Envelope right after, and you'll see bosses get tangled up. Venom Grenade (especially when the -Res proc goes off) is absolutely devastating. Speaking of... the two melee powers are appropriately named. If you've already broken from Hide, start with Shatter Armor before using Shatter since the first one has that beefy resistance debuff. If you play this Huntsman like a Blaster, you will very rarely see defeat. Open with grenades: Web, Venom, Frag. Then Heavy Burst before you pick off stragglers with your single-target powers. Or go back to your grenades, since they're probably recharged already! I don't normally include Incarnates when I post builds, but I'll break tradition on a few here. Alpha: Musculature Core was made for this. Everybody loves more damage, but this build loves the +Immobilization even more. Web Grenade ties down mobs for about 45 seconds with this one. Judgement: I went with Ion mostly for convenience. In a rare twist, I wish I could make it appear to come from the mace (and the opposite for Buildup) Interface: Reactive Core lines right up with the abundance of -Res this build leans into. Lore: Not included in the build because this is so user-specific. For personal lore reasons, mine has Vanguard. Equip the one that best fits your meta. Destiny: Also not included. I've crafted Barrier, Clarion, and Incandescence to be equipped for the content those powers are most needed. Hybrid: Support Radial all the way. For one, your blue bar will hardly budge. For two, you probably noticed how much utility this build brings to a team, and Support fits so well into that theme. This is my favorite character to bring into league focused content. You'll find the extra Defense, ToHit, and -Res you bring will be universally welcome. When solo, x8 is mindlessly trivial, so bump up the enemy levels to match your personal skill. Trouble Huntsman - (Bane Spider Soldier - Bane Spider Training).mbd

I hate to admit it, but your post title got me. 🤦‍♂️ Trolling level: Expert. If only civvies had that level of perception when rescued in a mission!

You suggested that ranged DPS wouldn't be appreciated, but even that has a welcome place in any scenario. So let me reiterate the wisdom already shared here: everything works. My suggestion is to find the archetype and powerset that excites you the most. Find a character combination that's so fun that you literally forget about the experience bar. You'll re-learn the game in short order, and become the player everyone wants on their team. There's no gearscore. Forget the "build police". Fun will lead you to victory in City of Heroes. It's what makes this game so special.

I find the crafting badges less tedious than these arcs.... but the Shining Star/Brightest Sun/Supernova titles were way too good for my Peacebringer to ignore.

My Peacebringer's Incarnate costume:

There are a handful of agreeable recipe sets that I can rotate though, but Converters are unique in that they are always necessary. My Converters come almost exclusively from Reward Merits, and keeping me insulated from any wild market fluctuations make those Reward Merits priceless. Gotta keep that profit margin higher than Cheech and Chong.

The standard of quality in this thread is ridiculously high! Here's my Street Justice/Ninjitsu Stalker: Night Warden

I'm cheap and lazy in wildly inconsistent ways. "500k+ for rare salvage?! No way am I paying that much! Time to spend hundreds of millions on booster packs to get some more Brainstorms..." Now at least half of my base storage is dedicated to rare salvage the RNG dumped on me while I was waiting for one Hamidon Goo. It's convenient for those purple recipes, but I would have a hard time recommending my method. At least whatever ATO I might want is readily available!

Kismet in Infiltration? 🤢 Of those two choices, Energy Cloak is the "correct" choice for that one. I can understand the movement globals being in Infiltration, even if I wouldn't bother. It's a perfectly fine travel power. A LotG +Recharge there would be fine, too. All that extra stuff is bizarre as all get out. Sounds like a great way to waste both slots and endurance. You're going to have to ask the person that made the build because their logic might transcend our universe.

....but I am making a profit. I've got a really bad case of altitis, and every single one of my characters is tricked out. I spend 80% of my time actually playing, and about 20% on the market. I barely do any flipping at all, but even that serves the community by removing influence from the economy. I'll be the first to admit I have a thin skin, but this "show receipts" response implies we're both in a cabinet with the other pots and kettles. I reached out to the community to commiserate on a pretty universal experience: Trying to help someone who ended up lashing out. I don't think I was being hyperbolic, but I'm open to introspection. I generally try to be a supportive member of this community, and speak up only when I feel I can help (or be funny) so I'm sorry the things I said bothered you. I won't paint with such a broad brush in the future.

Your current method is just fine for now because each Primary/Secondary combination will change the flavor of your tactics considerably. I've always seen Blasters as being a very reactive archetype - especially to the environment. Corners, bottlenecks, distance... all of these things matter just a tad more for the glass cannon. Situational awareness is what will make your Blaster shine. If you've ever played a Controller, then adopt a similar mentality. You're a "Diet Controller" that can also punch holes through solid impervium. Also, @Hatchet_Manners has given solid advice that shouldn't be ignored!

So let me get this straight... I encountered a player that complained about how much time they had to spend making imaginary money. I said, in two sentences, a strategy to quintuple their profit in the same amount of time. For this, I "deserved" a minutes-long tirade about how I'm ruining a part of the game that's 100% voluntary? I'm really surprised that folks who don't understand the CoH economy at all apparently frequent the Market forums (?!) to vent their self-inflicted frustrations. I'm glad I was completely ignorant of their rabid and illogical hate until recently. To all the supportive people in this thread that actually "get it", thank you very much. I appreciate you.

What we don't know is that our radiation powers have been killing thousands of tumors that were cultivated by decades of exposure to the War Walls. You think that radiation powers bring an even more dangerous element to Paragon City? Here is the only possible rebuttal:

Including the uncomfortable confrontation in the post that started this thread - THIS is personally the most frustrating thing in the entire game. Nothing else comes close to the mind-numbing boredom of attempting to cash in a bulk of your email rewards. If I recall correctly, this restriction is due to the system sharing resources with the Auction House, and was the dev's solution to ease transaction overload. Even if I am remembering the stated reason correctly, I think the real reason was to dissuade booster pack addicts like myself. I just want 12 unslotters to switch my enhancements on Jab and Haymaker! Why does this need to be a 30 second chore? Sometimes I buy stuff on the AH that I technically already own because I lack the patience to click-wait-click-wait. Add that to the list of things you should never admit to Normies as an Ebil Marketeer.

I know Infigidate is single-target, but proccing it out changes it from a good debuff to a good debuff that also dishes out a shocking amount of damage. Include an Achilles Heel -Res, and you can lean even harder into its debuff potential.

I do most of my playing on a small server because I enjoy the predictability and comfortable small-town vibe. It's easy to quickly understand what the regular event organizers expect from their leagues. You've touched on the downside. I've given up on one of the scheduled raids on my main server because the leader can't help but randomly blurt out extremely divisive political statements. Thankfully, nothing I've seen them say is overtly hateful, but it makes me uncomfortable enough that they're now on my ignore list. On the big shards, I can easily find multiple opportunities to engage with raid leaders that don't use the game as a soapbox. So Excel will give you more opportunities to interact with jerks, but also more opportunities to avoid them.

Only if the run is advertised as "optimized". I generally avoid Hardmode stuff due to a strong dislike of micro-managed builds/Incarnates. That said, I'm not against soft guidance like communicating who the primary and secondary Incan folks will be, or "Let's get 1more debuffer" (as opposed to "We need an Ice/Cold Corrupter!"). I don't want to be accused of bringing the league down because I didn't equip T4 Barrier.