Tahliah

The vote part is the scariest.

Thanks! The in-game message sounded like it was a done deal.

Oh, and on the topic of oldies but goodies, I have a support toon (plant/emp troll) named Trapper Jayne. I totally love her, but it's always so much fun when a teammate recognizes the (admittedly tenuous) allusion to Trapper John from MASH. It happens more often than one might expect, actually, so yeah, we're a bunch of codgers. :P

Airplane! OMG, that movie was hysterical back in the day. Of course, I doubt it's permitted viewing today, but back then, it was the funniest thing after Animal House (another movie that is likely not recommended viewing these days).

Heh, so funny! I was on a team once and noted that I had to reboot my laptop because it was sluggish (or something along those lines), to which a team mate hysterically (I literally laughed out loud) noted that I sounded like an "80's thowback." I found that hilarious and responded that "I AM an '80s throwback," having grown up (or at least reached adulthood, if not maturity) during those years. These kids today . . . . :P

I would love to see group fly fixed for MM pets. In fact, I would love to have a completely separate group fly for pets that doesn't affect teammates at all. I love seeing my gorgeous demon darlings flying in the air . . . I don't love to see them crashing to the ground because they can't keep up with me. I'm not even talking about flying MM pet attacks, though that would be awesome!, I just want my pets to be able to keep up with me when I am flying in group fly mode. Yes, it's a novelty thing without their ability to attack from the air (which I'm guessing we'll never get), but I wants my MM pets to fly with me.

I feel like a complete dip, but when I logged into the game, I got a message suggesting a bazillion things had changed with powersets and powers and the like, but I can't find anything on it here. Obviously, I am in the wrong place, but I really want to know what powers / powersets have been "improved" and etc. Where can I find that announcement. (Sorry in advance since it's probably obvious to everyone but me.)

Well, it kind of depends on what you are looking for. I main an Ice/Ice blaster and have created (and let sit on the dusty, this toon sucks shelf) a couple of ice/ice corruptors and doms, the highest level of which is the mid-twenties. I found it painful to get her that far, though. Neither can compare to the damage a blaster does, and I am all about the damage. I see a lot of ice/ice blaster builds that are so focused on survivability that they are not as damage-inflicting as they might be; in fact, they may as well be sents. These have built-in higher survivability numbers and would seem to make more sense for the death-averse ice-caster. That said, for pure fun and damage, I vote ice/ice blaster. I do everything on mine (she's my badger, too, so she solos a lot) and is by far my most fun and effective toon.

Mine is proc'd out. But as others have mentioned, it depends on what you are building for. I built for damage, so my procs tend to be focused on survivability (since I don't take "survival" pool powers like tough, weave, etc.). To fill in that survival blank, I use procs to make sure I can always move away from danger and can always use all my powers. Therefore, I proc for resistance and defense (in addition to the "normal" end/recharge/acc procs). I keep thinking about a second "survivable" build, but I never do anything with it because my main is already pretty durable. Blasters die when they can't move and when they can't drop their nuke/most killer powers. Proc'ing to ensure I can always get out of harm's way and can always fire off my most devastating powers means that I am killing stuff before I have to worry about duck/weave/etc. kicking in. This doesn't mean she never dies, of course, but she's pretty resilient with the procs and some of the set bonuses (geared toward damage in my build) that she gains incidentally. I'm impressed that you proc out all your toons! I only do that with my main, though I guess I am kind of moving that way on another toon I really like. It just takes so much time/energy/infl to build a beast that I don't bother except on the one I play the most.

This is nonsensical. Obviously, if you want to avoid "awful" blaster powerset combinations, you are interested in avoiding losing and being bad. The statement actually suggests that you are very interested in winning and being good, no? And that wasn't a platitude, either, it's true that any combination can work for a variety of players. The key is to find what works for you, not what is the failsafe click and win blaster combo/build. There is no such thing, and that's what makes COH so freaking awesome! I main an Ice/Ice blaster, and I love her and use her primary and secondary powers as I deem necessary to my play style. That said, a lot of players find /ice lacking and make decent arguments for their stance and for their suggested secondary replacements. But I love /ice and make it work for me in a way that another secondary would not and could not. I understand the set, how it works together, how I can maximize damage, and how I can survive (almost) any battle. But that's me. Others love the ice primary and prefer to run it with /traps or /poison, both of which are killer (in both senses of the word) options. With those players, ice/traps or ice/poison is impressive and drool-worthy, but in my hands, it wouldn't be as great (because I run /ice and understand that secondary and use it optimally). It really is about the player--their style, their preferences, the content they run most frequently, and etc. That's not a platitude, it's a fact. As a weird sort of experiment, I built a blaster with the least popular/arguably least useful primary and secondary powersets for blasters, she's electric/atomic, I think (honestly, I can't remember, but I made her after one of the most/least played combos came out, picking least played). Totally off-the-wall, in other words, an "awful combination," even, but she works. Granted, I don't play her that much (I have a dual problem of a deep love for my main and altitisis that conspire to keep me from playing test and fun toons). My point is that even purposefully choosing a supposedly doomed blaster combo, she works. Keep in mind that the player behind the toon matters. I've seen and been in complete awe of other ice blasters, but I could never play those builds as successfully or well because mine is built (and played) so completely differently. Likewise, my main would be a bumbling disaster for someone who has never played a blaster, much less an ice/ice/ice blaster, before. Sometimes platitudes are repeated because they are truth. As in this case.

This is a good point. When I'm in the lowbie mood, I love me some Hollows, so I will LFG a Hollows team. This typically gets me on teams that are doing the Hollows, but on one occasion, I was invited to an AP AE farm. I joined, not knowing that's what it was, but I just as quickly left (obviously not even entering the mish) explaining that I was looking for a Hollows mish team, not PL. Communication is, indeed, key, even when you think you are being clear. PL people can't fathom anyone who would rather enjoy (to them, slog through) low level content, so they seem the least likely to understand low level mish teams.

An honorable intention to be sure, but part of being nice to each other is not to stay on a team with which you are unhappy and to repeatedly state that you are not happy (expecting what? The team meet your needs? That's not very nice, is it?)--the result is spreading your negativity to otherwise happy team mates. That's not very nice to the established team you just joined, right? If you're not happy on a team, leave, that's the nicest thing you can do. Frankly, if you've just joined an established team, no one really cares why you aren't happy, but if you really feel the need to say it, just say it once. Twice at the very very most. If no one responds, so be it, take that for what it is: no one cares. In fact, by not responding, they are probably trying to be nice . . . until your repeated complaints put you on the wrong/un-nice side. You wanted to run a Posi, joined the wrong team, then complained until the leader finally responded somewhat harshly. You joined an existing team, even if by blind invite, and then stuck around to voice your unhappiness, over and over by your own account. If your message is "be nice," let's explore what being 'nice' means in the game because it most certainly includes not repeatedly complaining, not expecting an existing team to do our bidding, and not spreading our angst to otherwise happy players. 'Nice' includes being personally responsible for our team choices and not trying to change--by being annoying--a team we just joined. As I said, I would have kicked you after the second, probably, but definitely the third complaint. No one likes a whiner, and if our ignoring your complaints didn't send the message, getting kicked would (and if it didn't, who cares, the team is already full again, and you are a distant memory). Why not just start a team of your own? That will alleviate these problems, and you can model niceness to your own team rather than trying to impose it on someone else's. Every time a new player joins your team, you can ask them how they are doing, if the content is too hard, and if it is, you can abandon your team's content to accommodate the lowest level, least experienced player . . . if that's what you think makes an ideal team. And I'm sure this would be appreciated (though not by me or anyone I know, but there's always someone who will like something no matter how repellent it sounds to others). Or you can have a struggle session with your team over everyone's preferences and goals and feelz. Whatever you like! You're the team leader, so you get to set the rules, including forcing your team to do whatever the newest, least able, squeakiest wheel wants to do. Be the change you seek.

It sounds like you got a cold invite rather than for the Posi (it may have been someone trying to help as @Snarky noted). As other suggested, I would have just said, "oops, I was looking for Posi, good hunting, all!" and dropped the team and tried to get back to the Posi leader. I think the response was a bit harsh, but then, again, and no offense, but why would you keep telling them you couldn't do anything. Once is really enough, and if you're not comfortable, not having fun (and I don't find it fun to be unable to hit stuff, either, so I get it), just make your excuses and leave. It sounds to me like the leader was just frustrated by your repeating the same thing even though no one responded the first couple of times. You weren't really complaining that you couldn't hit anything, right? You wanted to do Posi. I mean, you didn't expect the team to switch to content you could handle, right? So what was the point of saying it over and over? No, I'm not making excuses for the abrupt and yes, rather rude comment, but I don't really see what you hoped to accomplish here. You knew it wasn't Posi, so why even stay on the team and then enter the mish? So I guess I have mixed feelings about this. You should have left immediately; the leader could have more gently told you to leave or just kicked you (what I would have done, tbh--but I never send cold invites, so this wouldn't happen anyway and is therefore moot). There's enough blame here to go around, and I think only part of it lies with the team leader (the cold invite, the unnecessarily harsh reply). But the substance of his/her message was spot-on. Don't stick around and complain, just leave and go find the Posi team you were looking for anyway. /just my two cents

That was completely awesome! I went from goose bumps all over to being all teary and back again. Fantastic vid.

This is kind of open-ended, so in order to get some feedback, perhaps provide more information? Alternately, and perhaps more usefully, check out the bazillions of blaster builds posted throughout these threads. As an aside to all, It seems like there used to be a single one-stop-shop for various archetype builds on the old forums, and it was stickied to the top of each one. Build guides for [X], I think it was called (but I could be misremembering). In any event, that would be a nice thing for some enterprising player to put together for the blaster forum (or any / all of them). Then players post their fave builds to a single thread, not for critique but just to share their best builds.

The only reason I would want to be able to reject them is that they appear at the top of the slotting screen, pushing down actually useful powers. I'd love to see them moved to the bottom of that third column just because scrolling hard. :P

Careless -- Your fairy/drone/wisp/oscillator pet has been defeated 200 times Careful -- Your fairy/drone/wisp/oscillator pet survived a complete Task Force Flying High -- You have spent X number of hours in flight Water Baby -- You have spent X number of hours swimming Rock Star -- You have thrown X number of rocks at your enemies Rock Your World -- You have thrown X number of rocks at your allies

I was going to suggest beast/nature. Mine is in her 40s and has solo'd pretty much the whole way (through Praet and into Paragon City), and she's been an absolute blast. /Nature is perfect thematically and really good with the beasties. I did make a beasts/time but haven't really run her yet, and after reading this thread, I'm definitely making a beasts/storm. I have a demons/storm, and she is tons of fun, and I think a beasts/storm will be just as good (or maybe even better). I tend to solo MMs except for TFs; they are my me-time toons, and I absolutely adore them (well, the beasts/ and demons/ anyway, I'm still trying to figure out how to love bots/).

Noooo! I love my incarnate powers and would hate to lose them via carrot or stick. That said, I do avoid using my incarnate powers when doing "regular" content (not DA or iTrials) because it just feels . . . wrong. To me. If I could turn off my level shift for regular content, I would do so in most circumstances (there have been times,--on pug PI radio teams, for example--where I do use my incarnate powers just because the team is so . . . um, in need.), but generally speaking, it's not fun to steamroll over everything in two seconds flat. Specifically speaking, there are times when that is exactly what i am the mood for or when I appreciate saving the time on Shadow Shard TFs. Heh. I think the biggest issue with incarnates is not that they exist (because fun!) but that they were made available outside of incarnate game content. I wouldn't mind seeing that gone, with incarnates and level shifts only available for incarnate content. But for that to work effectively and with minimal uproar, there would have to be more incarnate content. Currently, there is only DA for a handful of story arcs and the iTrials for incarnates, and that does limit player ability to flex their awesome. More incarnate-level content (more mission arcs, some TFs, a couple more trials) would be so amazing that I probably wouldn't do "regular" content on my incarnates every again (except to badge, but in flashbacks, you lose your incarnate powers anyway unless doing late level content, so that is moot). Okay, so all that said, that's just me. If people love the access to incarnates in the regular game and would hate to see it gone, shrug. That's okay, too. We aren't forced to use our (castable, anyway) incarnate powers and the level shift available there is only +1, so . . . .

You can see your badge progress via the Badges tab on the Nav bar. There are progress bars for every badge listed. You can see how many kills you have/need for defeat badges and how many requirements you are missing on the others. Granted, it won't tell you exactly what you are missing on the badges that require you to get, for example, all the exploration badges for a zone or for completing badges that require numerous elements. While it won't tell you exactly what you are missing, if you have completed six or of seven requirements for a badge, it will tell you what the seven are, and you can see what your earned badges are, so you can figure out which one you are missing.

When I read your OP, I thought understood what you were asking, but then I read this, and now I'm just confused. So you aren't looking for things to do (you agree that there is A LOT to do), but you are concerned about "why" you would do any of it? I do not and have never played WOW, so perhaps I am missing your meaning. Again, I find this confusing. What "motivation" do you mean? What goals do you want to be "forced" to reach like in WOW? For me, though, there is motivation in badging. I'm not just killing this and that or completing this arc or mission, I'm doing it because I'll get a glorious shiny new badge at the end. While I'm not "forced" to this, it's fun for me and for all the other badgers out there. It's a goal that makes me happy. Min/maxing is something a lot of players enjoy, the goal being to achieve their best "X". One goal I set for myself is to complete all of the missions in the entire game that are available via Ouro/pillar of flame. I did this on live for blueside and am now motivated to hit Red and Gold side this time around (once I finish Blue). A lot of people love their supergroups and find motivation in those. Active super groups set goals, have varying requirements (from Hard Core to Old School to weekly task force challenges--all one AT, all master of, etc.), and generally make things fun and challenging for their members. Motivation, in other words, to compete with and/or to work with your sg to achieve sg goals. There are some truly great arcs and even a few really good single mishes in AE. Maybe get motivated to write a stellar arc that gets dev. noticed and rewarded? Get motivated to try something new among our great communities. Never tried role-playing? Give it a shot. What about PvP? Whatever your PvE main is, get motivated to adapt his/her second build for PvP (totally different builds required for that! A challenge!). Never farmed before? Build the best darned farmer in the game and become a rock star farmer. In short, you don't need the game/devs to give you motivation, motivate yourself (or find an sg that can motivate you). If you aren't motivated to motivate yourself, I'm not sure anything the devs can do would ever help.

I'm another vote for an MM, just about any kind will get you through without too much trouble. I think you can probably manage on many others, but the thought of slogging through Praetoria on a freshly-rolled blaster/troller/dominator/etc. makes me cringe. Doable, but ugh! I would never have the patience for that kind of "challenge." I've solo'd through on a variety of demon/bot/beast MMs both on live and Homecoming and have had a lot of fun. In fact, that's my go-to AT for Praet since I mostly play trolls and blasters and had a horrible time soloing those Goldside back on live. I ended up having to get my SG mate to help me get out of there (he tends to run tanks, brutes, etc., so it was a great duo combo to get my squishies out of there). That said, my ice/ice blaster has solo'd it all (she's my main and my badger), but she was 50+ and tricked out, so of course that was easy, but a new roll--even on my fave ice/ice blast combo? Shudder.

Sure, my ingame is the same as here: @Tahliah

Welcome home! I love playing MMs, but you should know that group fly still completely sucks. I'm hoping that one day they will fix it, and I can fly around with my Demons doing massive damage and looking amazingly awesome in the process. :P Otherwise, a LOT has changed since live, so dive in and see what's new. Also look at the links provided by others and read through the boards, patch notes, especially. As to people to run with, I'm on Excelsior and would be happy to run with you. :)

Well, everyone has kind of said it already in that dedicated healers are just not needed in the game anymore, particularly once you hit 50/incarnate. That said, however, I have a plant/emp that I love to run, but my focus is not on healing, it's on controlling the mobs and providing my teammates with buffs (CM, AB, Fort, and the auras, particularly pre-50). I ran a version of this plant/emp on live, and in that toon, I put a lot of slots in the heals and setted them up. Now, though, the main thing to do is ensure that you can use your buffs as often as possible and hit as many teammates as possible with them, so recharge is more important than healing at bazillion points on a heal aura spam. Ditch the medicine pool, focus on your buffs and on your ill/ debuffs, get your recharge up for perma PA and keep your pets up and running at all times (don't need perma for that, most recharge quickly enough if you are paying attention to recharge in your build). I guess the key here is to think about not being a dedicated healer but of being an /emp who ensures your team needs as little healing as possible. That said, though, ignore the rude people offering UA about your build; I have never understood why anyone feels they have the right to criticize someone else's build without being first asked to critique it. And frankly, if you want to run a dedicated healer that just spams heals all the time, go for it. There are plenty of teams looking for "healers" in LFG, and they usually mean just that (and sometimes become very upset when you DON'T spam your healing aura at all times, even when just waiting outside the door--yes, I seriously had a team leader complain that I didn't have my healing aura on while outside the mish, I explained that my having Hasten locked was more important but . . . . . lol).