Blastit

The time limits we're talking about are a month, three months and twelve months. If you aren't playing your level five character enough that you even log in on them in an entire month, it's fair to say you're not making enough use of the name to guarantee it staying with you. If we were talking about days and weeks you'd have a point, but this is quite generous. We could as well argue that casual players benefit from this policy because now they can get names that people who make hundreds of characters they don't play would otherwise block for them.

I'm almost feeling the allure of blasting again. My first character was a blaster and while I did eventually kinda leave him by the wayside, I did always want to try some other set combination than NRG/NRG. So maybe soon enough. I'm fairly certain that was a change to toggles in general (I forget exactly when, though). If you get mezzed, the toggle stays on, but it might not apply it's benefits during that time. Defensive toggles stay on but their effects are suppressed, while offensive toggles (afaik damage auras and debuffs) drop.

Yes, but it is one of the ones that actually work out fine for everyone involved. Nemesis is always particularly satisfied with win-win scenarios.

You can also get one of two different IOs that convert knockback into knockdown, and turn Tornado into a giant chainsaw that rips through vast spawns. Also don't be shy about using the free respecs you get by levelling to 10, 20, 30 etc. You can safely make power and slotting choices that make sense for your current level range and then redo it once you cross whatever threshold you feel things get weird at. Playing /storm without Tornado and Lightning Storm isn't quite the same as playing it with those powers, after all. So that means you can experiment some with your primary choices as well and see what things work for your little team. A small, themed group doesn't always have the same priorities as regular teamwork, after all.

Eh, you've always been able to make demon characters. There have always been dark-based powers (including stealing the life from people) and Mind Control, which is solidly not a good-guy thing to do. Masterminds can cover anything from the prodigal inventor to antiheroes so they don't really change that much. You could perhaps come up with a more neutral name. Dominators, Corruptors and Stalkers are even worse off in that department! Because having to work around restrictions can foster its own kind of creativity, and restrictions can be necessary to create a structure to your game and offer different gaming experiences. The idea behind having villain-original ATs only starting as actual villains is to give that side of the game its own style and to provide solid reasons for going red. The different sides having different group dynamics could be valuable from a game design point of view and from a variety point of view.

A game designer must take into account what most people will do, though, and judge whether that creates an environment that they want for their game.

They also have some pretty awesome designs going on- and Dr Vahzilok himself is a true nightmare creature, design wise. I ran some radio missions against them today and had forgotten about Abominations, who show up sometime around... level 15? Bigger, tougher zombies is such a simple progression but it makes perfect sense for the faction and makes you feel that, oh no, they've rolled out something new. I also like that regular embalmed zombies keep showing up but are at a few levels below the rest. They're just a cheap distraction while the new model of zombie does the real work. Very characterful. To this day I still don't know what the difference between Diseased and regular Abominations is, though.

The Vahzilok are pretty beefy for the level you get to face them at. They're a significant step up in faction variety and complexity compared to the dyne-slinging street gangs you've been butting heads with up to that point. I like them for that, they make me feel like I'm taking my first step into serious heroics. But dang those crossbows hit pretty hard sometimes.

I thought about Bio armour because it's got a damage aura so I can double up and because it's an otherwise interesting set that I haven't tried. But I ended up making a Spines/WP Scrapper purely because of the simplicity and the extra endurance recovery. So say hello to Pincushion, who ran a sewer trial and outlevelled the early free costume changes. Whoopsie. At least I don't actually have anything solid beyond his starting cactus suit and it'll give me something neat to work towards. If I end up really liking Spines I'll branch out in the future. I'm vaguely entertaining the idea of becoming a Spines gimmick dude and only rolling ATs with it or Dominators with Thorn Assault.

I've never really played Spines during all my time in CoH and haven't touched it at all ever since they redid the animations for the first attack, so I thought I'd like to remedy that. I'm torn between combining it with Bio Armour or Willpower but my biggest trouble is deciding which AT to pick. Scrapper, Stalker, Brute and Tanker all have access to it in I25 but not all power sets are created equal for all ATs, so I'm wondering if there's some quirk or shortcoming for the set with any of those? Are there any particular armour set choices that would change how Spines is evaluated for each AT?

As mentioned, Dark Blast and Ice Blast would be nice for their control options and their defensive debuffs, since both -ToHit and -Recharge decrease incoming damage. Their crowd control should help with any soloing, should you need to, although that's not what people look for when they make an Empath. If you want something that enhances the offensive capabilities of your team instead, Radiation Blast or Sonic Attack fit the bill. I believe the -Resistance debuff for Sonic Attack is 20% or thereabouts, which is quite significant.

Yeees, the Hellion motherfathers. That CoH had a native description box was really such a gift.

I think badges are just more fun and interesting than achievements, particularly exploration badges. They're a neat little world-building trick that rewards just travelling around.

I've remade one character, my widow, because I still really like the costume. Anything else I make will probably be new. I reimagined my plant/storm controller because I didn't like the old name anymore, for example. Maybe I'd do more revivals if it wasn't for suddenly having every single power set and costume piece and then some available.