Lunar Ronin

No problem. Yeah, I've been asking for some kind of TF/SF/Trial tutorial to be added to the game, because a lot of new and returning players simply don't understand what they are nor how they work. Homecoming removing the signature part of the Positron TFs didn't help any, as it gives new players a bad idea of what the remaining signature TFs/SFs are like.

It means that mobs will be a minimum level of level 20 if ran at +0, up to level 24 if ran at +4 (why you would even want to do run Synapse at +4 is something you'd have to discuss with a therapist), but anyone from level 15 on up can join. So, if you form a Synapse TF at level 20, a level 15 Blaster named Joe can join, and be lackeyed up to level 19.

Honestly, I'd say Electrical Affinity is equal to Nature, only outdone by Cold and Kin. I am always extremely grateful to encounter one on a team. It just gets a bad rap because it's best played on Masterminds, IMO.

It's not a bug. Most Task Forces and Strike Forces are signature, meaning that the mobs will always spawn at a minimum level of whatever the highest level of the TF/SF is. The Positron TFs are a rare exception. If you plan to lead a TF or SF, your character should be at least the level of the highest level of the TF/SF, unless you want the increased difficulty.

It's a perfect support set for Mastermind play, IMO.

As well as Fort Trident and The Crucible.

In case anyone missed it, Homecoming provided stats of how many characters have been made on each shard, as well as how many characters of each AT have been played in the past three months. You can find it here. No real surprises here, personally. Hooray for Mastermind, the fourth most played AT.

Staff Fighting is best on Stalkers as you get more single-target damage. I would pair it with Stone Armor, personally. It's a very good combination. Katana is good on Brutes, and the extra +defense is nice for slotting options. For secondary, I would personally go with Bio Armor or Electric Armor, but your mileage may vary. Dual Blades is best on Stalkers like Staff, but doesn't suffer as much as Staff on other ATs, so Scrapper. Dual Blades really likes as much +recharge as humanly possible, so Energy Aura would go well with it.

Resistance-based armor sets like Electric Armor are generally better on Brutes and Tankers because of their higher resistance cap (90%), compared to Scrapper or Stalker (75%). That's one reason why you don't see much about Electric Armor in regards to Scrappers. Another reason is because Radiation Armor is close to Electric Armor in that it is resistance based and has a high amount of energy damage resistance, but is also (yeah, I'm just going to say it), a bit overtuned with Ground Zero and proc-bombs. So it can do more damage than Electric Armor between the combination of Ground Zero's brokenness, and the brokenness of procs. The last couple of years of live, Electric Armor was actually one of the top meta armor sets on Brutes and Tankers thanks to the large amount of energy and psi damage in Incarnate Trials. It's just overshadowed by Radiation Armor these days. That doesn't make it a bad power set (at least not on Brutes and Tankers), it's just IMO Radiation Armor is a bit overtuned.

The easiest way would be to test out between an OuroDev server which is based on the Issue 24 beta, and Homecoming. But I'm pretty sure nothing has changed in regards to XP.

From personal experience, it rocks with Symphony Control.

Ultimately, play what you want. But you asked for opinion, so... Darkness Affinity by far. It puts Dark Miasma to shame. It has all of the potent debuffs from Dark Miasma, with Fade and Soul Absorption. Both powers are so good.

It's both. Echo: Galaxy City was made due to badges and plaques. The others are, AFAIK, due to major changes.

If possible, I'd like an Echo: Mercy Island zone, yes.

FWIW, the Homecoming forums has two-factor authentication. I have it enabled myself. It's not a perfect solution, but it does provide some protection as you'll ultimately be able to recover your game account if something happens. To enable it, go here. It mentions Google Authenticator, but you can use other authenticator apps. For Android, I recommend Aegis Authenticator as it is open source.

To be fair, a large part of that is because of WoW. So many companies decided that any MMORPG they develop must have similar player numbers to WoW (EA, Microsoft, Funcom, Trion, to name a few), and they all failed with the exception of Final Fantasy XIV. As a result, large companies just stopped bothering. MMORPGs just aren't a popular phenomenon, especially non-fantasy ones. There's also a bit of a generational divide. None of the newer games interest me at all, partly because most of them are fantasy, a genre I strongly dislike. But also because they do have faster dopamine loops, so there's less attachment to characters. Making City of Heroes more new player friendly is an admirable goal. It will help some, but I'm not sure that it will help a lot. Older generations like what they like, younger generations like what they like. As far as gaming is concerned, there doesn't seem to be much overlap.

No problem. TFs/SFs/Trials were never meant to be soloed, although most can be by particular ATs, power sets, and builds. And yeah, the Positron TFs give a bad first impression for soloing as most TFs/SFs are signature, where the mob levels are locked at the highest level of the TF/SF.

Yes. TT can be used for any tram mission, including the Dr. Kahn TF. It will also work for the Market Crash Trial, but everyone on the team has to be the same alignment range for it to work in a co-op zone,

The Eden Trial is some of my favorite blue side content. It's actually different. But I haven't been around Homecoming for a bit, so I asked a friend that has been playing the past couple of years, and it seems that this has been an issue since the Master of Eden Trial was added in Page 3. Just so few people run the Eden Trial that only a couple of people have complained, and those that haven't complained have shifted their strategies to go entirely ranged with flight, and use a combination of inspiration spam from their e-mail and procs to defeat the Crystal Titan. The Eden Trial is pretty clearly not working as intended. Even the regular Eden Trial seems to be instant death for Brutes, Scrappers, Stalkers, and anyone else melee with the Crystal Titan's Foot Stomp.

Nice find! I looked for something like that, but I missed it. Going blind in my old age I suppose.

I would flip Responsibility to Hero and Warden to Vigilante personally (Wardens break laws for the greater good like Vigilantes), but yep.

Actually, it's funny. I consider the Resistance Crusader the true "evil" storyline in Praetoria, even though the game considers it technically a "hero" alignment. Power is mostly just selfishness and glory hounding. Blowing up hospitals, setting up bombs everywhere, and feeding people to Ghouls however... Those are just evil. Yeah, out of the blue side ATs, Blaster and Controller are my favorite. Controller solely because of Darkness Affinity, which is so good. I'd love it on Corruptors and Masterminds, although I realize that it will never happen.

This. It's not that I play red side and gold side exclusively because I prefer being the bad guy (although sometimes it is fun, especially when I'm secretly role-playing Lex Luthor), it's that most blue side content (especially the issues 0 and 1 content), are dry and boring. Doing them is like watching paint dry. I tried doing an all blue-side solo run in 2019... and I just couldn't finish. Plus I'm biased as I much prefer what were originally the red side ATs, which is what drew me to red side back in October 2005.

Yeah, the Crystal Titan is a lot harder than he used to be, even outside of Master of Eden Trial. I ran the Eden Trial with some friends a few weeks ago, not a Master of run. Just a regular ol' Eden Trial. We're all long time players, all of us playing off and on since the mid-2000s. Some are very hardcore speed runners. We got absolutely curb stomped. The Ambrosia inspirations did not seem to be nearly as effective as it used to be, as the Crystal Titan was two shotting most of us. We got team wiped three times and called it. I think part of the issue is that Crystal Titan now seems to pretty much require some form of flight to not get near-instantly defeated with his Foot Stomp, but most of my friends don't use Fly and just got pwned. It's like the Master of Eden Trial Ambrosia weakening now applies to the regular Eden Trial as well.

Nope. There's a mod that turns the Praetorian gold enhancement screen to green, so I imagine that hero and villain enhancement screens can be modded to Praetorian gold. The issue is getting someone that has both the knowhow to do it and the interest. Speaking of mods though, this one may interest you.