Coyotedancer

I've made two 'unicorn' characters. (Characters with AT/Power Set combinations that no one had leveled to 50 at the time the devs posted their last "Here's what you guys have made so far-" lists.) If making oddballs with combinations counter to the current meta is strange? We both are. Along with everyone else who's ever made a Unicorn. (And quite a few of us have, based on the posts in that statistics thread. XD)

You should have a mission door somewhere for that one, I think...

Seeing the word "skyrocketing" in news and opinion pieces just drives me up a wall. It's less common now, but a few years ago you couldn't read an article anywhere without that word showing up. It was like some sort of collective mind-virus had infected the entire journalistic community, demanding that "skyrocketing" show up AT LEAST once per article, no matter what the subject. Once I noticed the trend, it became impossible to NOT see. It still makes me grumpy.

Oh, hell no. Some of us don't have schedules that allow for forming or joining iTrials, and not every character is suitable for running the DA arcs solo. The level grants are a godsend for those situations. Also... grinding iTrials until our eyes bled was never fun. Anything that moves us back in that direction is going to get a hard no from me, period.

I ran a Trick/Archery Defender back in the Live days as half of a static duo with my husband's Demons/Thermal Mastermind, and they were entertaining. Not the fastest pair we had, but pretty much unstoppable. I can't say anything about how the set handles solo, though, since Zhen was never run without her partner.... or about how it compares on anything but a Defender.

I've had good fun with my "random roll" Archery/Time Corruptor... and I liked my Archery/Energy Blaster well enough back-in-the-day... But that Sent? Ooof. Archery is *defiitely* one of the Sent damage sets that could use a little help. I went Archery/WP and it was just a total slog. o_0

If anyone actually manages it... Please FRAPS or demorecord the run. And post your build. Because I seriously want to see it. As fond as I am of the things, my Archery Sentinel was the only one I completely gave up on. XD

You still have to have a character that's capable of it... It's not like you're going to solo an STF on +4/x8 with an Archery Sentinel running on SOs.

In Aion, ganking "soft targets" (That is to say, making easy kills out of any member of the opposing faction, in particular those who have little to no chance of defending themselves-) at every opportunity was pretty much a way of life. Ask to be left alone and you'd get laughed out of the game in a hail of "KED!"s and accusations of being a Carebear. AFTER they killed you. Probably repeatedly. That's typical PvP. (And why they ended up adding the non-PvP "rookie server" for leveling-) "Oh, would you be so kind as to leave me be whilst I collect these Shivans, good sir?" really.... isn't.

Welcome to my world. XD I've spent pretty much my entire time on Homecoming doing this. Make an alt... level and equip them... get them their iToys... and then leave them standing around while I get distracted by the next member of the crew. 35 characters I've done that with, now... #36 will probably hit 50 in the next few days... He's 45 currently. (Although, humorously, that particular Sentinel is one of the very first characters I made on Homecoming, on Torch. I moved him to Excelsior the day it went live.) I had abandoned Iah, along with the pair that will probably be #37 and #38, to concentrate on my characters on Everlasting. Prior to this week, he'd been untouched for more than a year.

I don't get the angst over that idea... but I doubt it'll ever happen.

Give yourself time. One alt or so a day for about three years...

*shrugs* The old devs put PvE content in PvP zones in order to provide the PvPers with extra targets. Expecting them not to take advantage of a relatively easy kill when they find one is probably hoping for a little too much. Just accept that you're going to be in somebody's sights when you go in and deal with it. It's not that big of a deal.

It's ever been thus... At least it was back in the Live days... and I haven't come across anything on Homecoming that suggests that dynamic has changed here. Your best bet is to just talk to people, I suspect. Eventually you'll run into that "somebody who knows someone who's part of an SG".

I'm sure there is... But anything out of the ordinary is more likely to be done among members of SGs or with specific groups of friends rather than by randoms standing around under Atlas or in Pocket D. That means that FINDING that kind of group and joining it is mostly a matter of knowing someone who knows someone who's already a participant.

For whatever it's worth, the rule I've always stuck with myself is that I won't say something out here in the 'tubes that I wouldn't say to the same person if we were sitting across a table from each other in the Real World. I may be snarky and not always flawlessly polite... But no moreso online than I am off. Being faceless doesn't mean we automatically have to be asshats to each other, in a game or otherwise.

Yeeeah. Starting to agree. It's not going anywhere good.

If you tell me something like, "Oh hell no! I'm not going to team with that Khalil guy of yours. He's made of stone! That's creepy!" I'd just laugh. If you said "I'm not going to let you join this team with Harry because he looks like a black guy" then... yeah. I'd raise an eyebrow.

Okay... How about this... Rather or not you, personally, consider it harassment... If you're doing some emote silliness that annoys another player enough to make them say "Cut it out!"... (( JUST STOP DOING IT )) You don't have to get it. You just have to stop. Otherwise? You're being That Guy. (Or That Gal, as the case may be-) Don't be That Guy.

In the old days, my usual pattern looked like "Whatever drops" until 12, then DOs until 22, SOs until 32 and Common IOs all the way up to 47, where they'd finally get their "real build". Favorite procs and specials were added as they became available along the way and once we had ATOs, I'd start slotting those in the teens. Sometime last year, I started adding a few attuned IO sets pre-47, too, but I never did that with every power pick on every character. These days? I've pretty much abandoned the 'Under 32' part of leveling entirely (I jump-start new characters by tossing them into a round of beating up cosplayers with my fire farmer-), so the DO/SO parts of that old pattern no longer apply. My current alts' first set of O's are typically the Commons/Attuned/Procs-and-specials/ATOs they get at 30-something. I still tend to hold off on doing their final Everything build until 47.

It is a very zen kind of thing... also pretty darn good stress-relief. XD

That's a good one, too. Red-side it's also used as Aeon City's music, IIRC.

I only have 35 characters here on Homecoming... I've had well over a hundred more between the Live servers and Paragon... I mean, you can certainly choose not to believe me when I say I'd rather never make another alt than run the lowbie drudge-trudge ever again... But that doesn't make it untrue. I don't play exclusively at 50+ by any means... The 32+ game is still fun, and I run my support characters exemped with mid-level teams the majority of the time. I've just come to really, really dislike the low levels and dropping a new alt into a fire farm with Harry is my solution to that issue. Anyway, hopefully hearing from someone who does short-cut their characters out of lowbieville has helped you guys see where at least some of us are coming from. You aren't required to like it or agree with it, but maybe it'll be less of a complete mystery to you now.

That's where you get into the types who like playing finished characters more than unfinished ones, I think. Not being able to hit the broad side of a barn just gets OLD. And it's nice not to have constant END issues. For myself, I know that's the case. So, even though I've probably done Unai's arc a hundred times now, and the gaming gods only know how many iTrials... I still find them a whole lot more enjoyable play-wise than re-running any of the low-level arcs. o_0 And not EVERYTHING is economic. I don't care what the content rewards are. I have a farmer. That means I don't HAVE to care that running at 50 gets any other character X-INF while running at 20 would get them X-Y. For other people? Maybe it matters more. They'd have to tell you themselves.

Zeus Titans who *always* seem to collapse right across the doorway, insuring that no one can leave until they fade away.... >_<