Abraxus

Welcome home to you, and anyone else recently arrived! It's great to have you back! I'm sure there are more folks like you who long to play this game again that don't know it's back. If you know any of them, be sure to tell them!

Welcome home hero!

Out of curiosity, I created an Electrical Affinity Defender, and had such fun with it that she was L50 in a matter of days. To be honest, I didn't find it any more click intensive than any other set. At least, not noticeably anyway.

Gladly done!

It was the ultimate in lonely nostalgia. You could create characters, save them, and even travel around the various zones. You could hear the theme music for those zones play. But, after the excitement of being able to do those meager things wore off, it just made me sad. The next iteration was Paragon Chat. There you could do all that, plus interact with other players. You could badge hunt, do some form of holiday events, and costume contests. It was a bit better, and certainly better than nothing. But, once the actual game burst back on the scene a year ago, there was obviously no going back to either of those environments. For me, they had served their purpose to keep the embers of hope burning, until my fondest wish to have the game back was finally, and miraculously granted. The costumes, and power customizations I saved made recreating my mains from the "live" game a very fast process indeed! I had 10 of them created in a matter of minutes. It was like I had studied for this moment for a long time, and that study finally paid off!

This was my one, and only Mastermind that made it to Level 50 from the original game. Back then, it was such an...arduous journey for me, I said never again. In the new era...who knows?

Actually, I was on Virtue way back when. While I played a few tanks, this guy pictured in my forum avatar was my signature character. He lives again on this server, again as a Blaster, but because of my original issues with KB in the Energy set, this time he used the Dark Blast set. I created a new Blaster (Irresistible Force) to experience Eng/Eng with the KB to KD conversion, and I obviously LOVED it! She made it to L50 in mere days, and I look forward to player her much more in the future.

This is my current desktop wallpaper. A picture I took in Morro Bay earlier this year. Before all of this calamity.

That's one of the things I love about this game. There are so many ways to go with any powerset, depending on what works best for you! You literally can make things just the way you like them, in whatever way best accommodates your preferences, and playstyle. If embracing the KB is your thing, more power to ya, and godspeed sir!

I left the KB on the punch, and the snipe. Everything else got a KD converter. The punch I actually enhanced the KB, because when something does get through the melee shield, and comes for me, I knock them back as far as I can, so that I can go to work on them from distance.

You bet! I, along with my SG pals do a team like that a couple of times a week. Typically, we run with 4 or 5, and we have done very well. Back in the days of live, we ran with a team of 8, and even the Giant Monsters just burned to the ground before this mighty group of squishies!

My very first character in this game (pictured in my Avatar) was, after very careful consideration (back before I knew what to actually consider), an Energy/Energy Blaster. It fit with the image I had in my minds eye about the character, and what he could do. It fit with the backstory I created for him. I loved the mix of ranged offense, cones, and AOE. It also came with some respectable melee for those moments when something got through, and wanted to make it personal. However, after a time, I found out that most of what made the set so powerful offensively, also had a side-effect that just turned other players (mainly the melee players) totally off. That being, of course, knock back. I could do a lot of damage, but I did so at the risk of alienating my teammates in short-order. In time, I settled for using the single target powers, and picked on the outliers in enemy groups, so as to minimize the adverse effect for everyone else. Even though he was my first toon, he was nowhere near the first to make it to L50, for that very reason. He just wasn't as fun to play with the restrictions I had placed on my play style to accommodate my preference for teaming. I desperately wanted to play these sets on a Blaster again, but there remained that same old problem. Then a friend, who is BIG into I/O stuffs, told me about one that turned knock back, into knock down. Well, I was sold! He gave me three of those ENH; attuned no less! I bought two more myself. So, Irresistible Force was born. With the knock back problem solved, I was free to turn loose the full power of this set, without concern for alienating teammates, and it has been....well for lack of a better term, a BLAST! The character has been so much fun, that she is already L44 before she has earned her first Day Job badge! Knowing that I'm free to use every capability I have to help win, was just liberating in the extreme! I don't know if this converter existed in the original game, because I was not much into I/Os back then. But, I have gotten more into them in Homecoming. Somehow though, I was still unaware of this one until I was told. After all these years, this game still finds new ways to amaze, and thrill me! EDIT: She now has hit L50 before getting her first Day Job badge. This one is gonna be the one to pile on some serious veteran levels!

Let me add my own "Welcome Home Hero!" to the mix. I believe you'll find a few things as you dive back in. A lot of QoL improvements, a new AT, some new powersets, and some new content. But, most of all, prepare for the overwhelming sense of nostalgia that you will encounter as you relearn what you knew so well, so many years ago. I dare you to hear the Atlas Statue theme music, without getting a little misty.😎

I feel the title, and its meaning should be able to stand on its own, with no explanation necessary. "Sweet" as in part of "Sweet Sixteen" doesn't meet the criteria for me. Plus, there is isn't a single character in my pantheon that I feel any permutation of the word "sweet" applies to, in any context. "Resurgent", and "Legendary", on the other hand, does. I voted for the former, but I'd be fine with the latter. Just my .02 of a dollars worth there.

Welcome home hero! I'm sure it's been a long time, and I'm sure you are gonna be overwhelmed with nostalgia logging in for the first time. I know I was! As for organized events, just watch the forums, and the Discord channels for things like that. Also, the LFG tab in-game. For myself, I managed to put together a few of the folks I played with back in the day, so we get together fairly regularly to play now. We too had a RAD group way back when, made up of Defenders, and Controllers. We were powerful! Now, we have a group of 5, mainly Corrupters, and a Controller, and we are darned near as powerful! That group is currently in their mid-40s playing once or twice a week, for a little over a month. Yes, I think you'll recognize a lot that is familiar, and see a whole lot that is new as well. Feel free to ask if you have questions, and know that there is a LOT of information contained in this forum for research! Paragon Wiki (link at the top of every forum page) is still about 85-90% pertinent as well. Enjoy!

On a side-note...48 pages, and still going? Never thought this thing would go the distance. 😉 You many now resume your regularly scheduled posting on the topic.

Not useless. Just less lucrative.

Yes, questions are fine. But, that was more of an assertion. I was trying to be nice. 😉

Really? We have reached the point where we question the folks who look at this game from the code level? All we as players can offer in these cases is our own perceptions, and anecdotal accounts of how things work. These guys see it from the code level, and can tell you exactly what things mean from the database level. And, when you clear away all the pretty pictures, this game is really a real-time updating database. So, let's try to refrain from telling the folks who maintain, and alter this code on a daily basis (for free) how the mechanics work, and give them some credit for knowing something about what they do.

I/Os should NEVER be made the only choice. You wanna argue that SOs make noobs too powerful. Perhaps. So, crank up the difficulty accordingly. But, nobody should be forced to learn the entire I/O system for casual play.

Basically, the game can cater to any player. You can make things as easy, or as difficulty as you like. You can hit the random character generator to produce a new toon, or spend hours making the perfect costume. You can just take the same powers, and leave them at their default presentations, or you can spend time customizing every individual power, making everything unique. You can choose from numerous ways to get that new toon from level 1-20. Street sweep, mission work, task forces, marketeering, farming, incarnate process. All there, and NONE mandatory. Spend an hour, spend a day, spend a week solid playing. There is something for everyone at one end of the spectrum to the other. My list of played MMOs isn't huge, but this one is the only one that I looked forward to playing, and couldn't wait until I could play again. When it was gone, it was the only one I missed, and wanted to play. Now that it's back, it IS the only one I play once again. And, it just keeps getting better with the new additions, and QoL changes. Paragon City is my home, and probably will be for as long as it lives.

Still having SOs in the game allows casual players to do what they like, without the necessity of the level of planning, shopping, and spending that a kitted our toon requires. They can play perfectly fine that way, and be happy doing so. If they want a little more, they can do crafted enhancements for that 42% goodness. If they wish to go beyond that, they have that choice as well. Three levels of complexity, all perfectly valid, and satisfying to those that use them. That kind of choice is one of the things that makes this game as special as it is. These changes make it possible to more easily do what we have done all along. That is a good thing. A QoL change that adds to the others already there, which combine to make it better than it was on live IMHO.

This still beats the heck out of most MMOs with the way their gear expires, or degrades. Once of the reasons I have stuck with this one, over so many others.

I love the idea of these changes! My mouse will probably last longer with the reduced number of clicks to upgrade enhancements! Not to mention the time spent!

**Edit: Dang it! @Tahquitz beat me to it! Welcome home hero! Glad you found your way back! - Yes, there are LOTS of veteran players! I'm one of them! - Donations to the Homecoming effort happen on the last Saturday of each month. There is an announcement when it starts made here in the forum, and in their Discord. - Best server to use? Depends on what you're looking for. The highest population is on Excelsior. However, if you're more into PvP, there is an unofficial server for that too (though I forget which one it is) - Two fingers, of course! - I have not heard of "Tanker Tuesday" being a thing, but I don't hear about everything. If there isn't one, by all means, MAKE it a thing again! Tanks are more powerful these days, so it would be pretty cool! - Read the pertinent sections of the forums that deal with your preferred subject matter. There are a lot of smart players, who love documenting their experience, and wisdom on the game. It's worth the time to read their stuff! Also, the Paragon Wiki page is still about 85-90% accurate, so it's still a resource, with a link right at the top of every forum page!. Hopefully, that kind of covers your questions. I'm sure others will chime in with more.