Skyhawke

The Blood Bank has sales?

1. Play hero or villain side first. The Going Rogue choice in the character creator will take you to Praetoria, which is a lot harder on new players who don't understand mechanics. 2. In Atlas Park and Mercy Island, you can find these women in black skirt/suits that are the Pay To Win vendors. They have a lot of free goods that will be a monumental help early on. You can get 5 really good enhancements that will last you til level 21, some extra melee and ranged attacks, a rocket jump pack, various running types (used with Sprint will make you very zippy and able to jump fairly high). AVOID the double xp boosters. It's tempting, but play through normally at least once to progress and learn at an even pace. 3. Go to this thread and get the vidiot maps overlay. 4. Once you have that and are in Atlas/Mercy, run around (with your spiffy new extra run and jump powers) and get all the exploration badges. This will give you the Long Rang Teleporter power and Atlas/Mercy as a destination. That way, no matter what you'll always be able (as long as it's off of cooldown) to get back to a safe zone. Also, when you hit new zones, grab at least one of the exploration badges there and you get that as a location for your teleporter. 5. In Atlas (unsure about redside), you can get what's called the Orobouros Teleporter right at the start instead of having to wait/ask for one to be dropped near you. To get it, go into CIty Hall, hang a right, go down the stairs, go to the last door on the right and head towards the elevator that just happens to have one of those awesome exploration badges in front of it. Go down the elevator, go forward and jump down to the floor. You'll see a big portal. Go through and when you zone in, you'll have the Orobouros power. It won't pop into your tray like the Long Range version, you'll have to click on the "Power" tab on your powers tray and click it to make it pop into your tray. Orobouros isn't exactly a zone, but it has missions once you're high enough level, is a hub for a lot of people putting endgame stuff together and you can access missed missions via one of the pilalrs of ice and flame. Also, you can use it as a travel hub since it can reconnect you to several zones. If for no other reason, it's worth getting as an extra means of convenient travel. 6. At level 5, you'll get a contact (Twinshot for heroes and Dr Graves for villains). Do their mission arc. At level 10 and again at level 15, you'll get another little arc from them. Each arc introduces you to new aspects of the game and gives mini tutorials on most things you need to know. They're also pretty neat. 7. During those prior mentioned missions, you'll be sent to a University to learn about inventions. There's a guy in each (when you walk in, look to your left and you'll see him) that will start the invention tutorial. You'll get to make a free invention origin enhancement. These are nice because they don't degrade in usefulness as you level past them. 8. Merit Rewards. Every so often, you'll get merit rewards. From story arc completions, from doing Take Force/Strike Forces and from getting all exploration badges in a zone. These can be spent for various rewards. I personally hoard them until I have enough to buy what are called Archetype Origin Enhancements. These are for the various Archetypes and will confer set bonuses as you slot more into the same power. 9. When you finish a mission, don't backtrack your way out. Unlike other MMOS, you get to pop right out of a mission when done. On your compass (top middle screen by default) you'll see a blue button next to Mission Complete. Click it! 10. Remember above all: Have fun! This game rules and here's hoping you and all new players get to have those first time moments the rest of us did and build fond memories from!

That joke was udderly horrible. 😁 As for zerg vs herd, it truly is a defining moment for a team. Do Posi 1 and either everyone stays in the herd and things go smoothly or zerging happens and the coin gets flipped. I've been on teams that just gel so well and so quickly that zerging works. I call those "Task Force Steamroller". I've also seen that become a team wipe. Then, decisions get made. Sometimes people give up, but man...there are times where everyone rallies, strategizes and makes it work. Long story short, communication is key. If you set boundaries beforehand, nobody can complain if they stay. Especially now, we'll have people who've either never played or are rusty. You can't take for granted everyone can just go in on autopilot. For the new and rusty: speak up! Don't worry about people getting upset. 99% of this community will be glad to help and explain things. Just the other day, I had to ask for a refesher on the Hollows trial (which was a bear, but we persevered and won). This game was, is and will be amazing. Like many here, it's my comfort food and my zen. Everyone should have the same opportunity to have a good time. Like any good relationship, it requires work from all involved. There. Now, Go. Hunt. Kill Skulls.

Redside is nowhere near as busy at Blue, but I have noticed it's busier than I've ever seen it (on Excelsior, at least) over the past weekish. My problem is I usually build solo Villains because I like seeing the stories, so I rarely bother teaming. That's a me thing, though.

What an ancient Egyptian cult kept all their files on?

And these...are not the hammer.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend following the conversation flow from the link lemming put on Prometheus' name. On more than one occasion, I've found my self in Orbouros yelling "Just give me the badge you @$%@!" at my monitor while adamant that I've clicked everything there is to click.

I did do a housecleaning a few weeks back. Any alt under level 20 got the "does this bring me joy" treatment and some pruning ensued. Other than that, I've also taken to keeping my main in the #1 slot, current projects on the first 2 pages, all my 50s go on pages 3 and 4, there's a buffer page for more 50s then on page 6 onwards is the land of misfit toys. All over 20 and kept around to tinker with.

New people, returning people and people who've been here since the beginning are all putting their experiences out there and some are clashing. Now, nobody's come out and called someone a Cotton Headed Ninnymuggins...yet. I think that last thread was starting to heat up and a GM just pulled the plug before it got hotter than Sister Solaris's outfit.

Lot of different viewpoints in here, but I think the one thing we can all agree on is Nerf Regen.

Do or die scenario? My main, Sky-Hawke the Rad/WP Brute, for many reasons. 1. Sky has been my character (powers and AT have changed at times) since live beta. 2. He's built to wreck face. 3. It'd feel weird to not have him.

I was unaware Regen Melee was a thing.

Potentially undead cats...😉

The answer is "Yes". Duh. Also, what if this is all a Nemesis plot? What if it isn't? But...but...if it isn't, that usually means it is, but that's totally what Nemesis wants you to think, but he always plays 8th dimensional chess, but yes, pineapple on pizza is gross. Whew. Brought it back to sanity-land.

If, IF you decide to go to Pretoria (the Going Rogue option in character creation) before really playing through blueside, might I recommend an Ice/Electric brute. Ice gives you Ice Patch early on which is great for the metric butt ton of ambushes you'll face and Electric Armor gives you energy damage cap almost unslotted. Guess what most things in Praetoria dish out.

Would be kinda funny if they all worked at EA, though. 😄

Yes, they're leaving. They're leaving Atlas Park jam packed with 2 instances! They're leaving redside busier than even back on Live. They're leaving me with whiplash trying to spy a team forming for what I'd like to do while watching LFG zip by at mach 5. Whoooole lotta leaving going on. 😁

The guy under the helmet.

At level 5, you'll get a contact (Twinshot heroside and Dr Graves villainside). Do their arcs at levels 5, 10 and 15. For vets, they're cheesy fun, but for a newcomer they do funnel you into all the different aspects of the game. Do NOT play on the Going Rogue side as a newbie...it's geared to be harder without that nice learning curve. Also, send Yomo an ingame email to @Yomo and you'll get 100 million influence/infamy for free (totally legit).

On a plus side, I've never seen redside this busy.

Ooooh, that joke's quite the boner.