Without_Pause

I ran one in a hardcore SG. Also did the brute version. Currently have a tank version. Just waiting for its turn in the queue in terms of leveling. Back in the day I asked someone from my SG about end game brute version, and they said they liked it a lot.

1. Not many servers so population is fine. Red side will have fewer players. There might be too many people in the newbie areas for blue side. *cough* 2. Scrapper, brutes, MMs, and sentinels. 3. There's A LOT of story content. There's only so many factions and they are broken via level ranges, but the game ran for like 9 years, so there's a ton of content. 4. Just go to a place like Croatoa at some point. Hint, it is the Halloween zone they made official. 5. MMs can be busier to handle although since the pets to the attacking, it might be boring. Peacebringers and Warshades were originally unlocked after hitting 50. Every mission there is someone there designed to kill you asap. 6. IO related salvage and recipes are worth keeping. Little else until end game content happens. 7. I'm trying to recall. Via missions, absolutely. 8. I never found it that bad. I've done a fair bit of soloing while taking heroes to 50. If you team all the time, you can get there at a reasonable pace. 9. Some servers are specified for EU, RP, PVP. I go where the people go so Torchbearer.

Ill/rad. Perma PA, and the needed debuffs. I know scrappers and brutes can do AVs. I'm not sure on GMs.

As someone who detests Shadow Maul, I would look at sets like Claws, SJ, Staff, and Kat. I think all of them have rather good animations to say the least. I ran Claws/regen to 50 once and working on Claws/wp now, although as a brute. I'm pretty sure I got my Kat/sr to 50 as well. Added SJ recently and been looking at Staff, so I think that's another add soon enough. Mere talk of Kat makes me want to roll one again. I slightly like the speed of Claws more, but I have no qualms with Kat.

So many builds and ATs play differently. Don't worry too much about making new heroes and trying out things to see what works for you. I played when it originally came out. I had 40+ characters. This time around I started with 8. Rerolled 7 and added 3 more. I have rolled one character with a power set that wasn't around when I played last, so I have a number to go if I ever get inspired to. In other words, even knowing what I like, I still have over a page worth of characters. A Willpower brute will likely be one of the most straight forward first time characters to use. Select your primary, toggle up, and go.

I would try to global friend whoever I could. You could even ask in the forum for whatever server you play on for people who play red side. A bit of networking will go along way.

(flips coin)

Had a Claws/regen scrapper at 50. It is a very active build since /regen doesn't offer any real mitigation outside of healing/regen. I played a bunch of Kin as well and both combos are very click happy but that worked for me. Others might not want something which can and will go from everything is fine to "Uh oh" in a heartbeat. I did reroll with Homecoming to /wp brute just so I can focus more on using attacks and less panic button pushing. The good news is /regen benefits from IOs when you can add in resists and defense which will make life even better. So, it isn't a playstyle for everyone, but it was a fun ride for me.

I play on Torchbearer, and you practically trip over DFB teams. I have seen three teams being formed in the sewer at one time. I'm on Eastern US time.

One end redux in toggles and one in attacks. I've never felt the end to go with two in an attack unless at DO level. Make sure the single target attacks are slotted as well since they should be getting the most use.

Honesty depends on what you are looking for. Brutes and scrappers are among the best for damage while staying alive. SS/fire or Spines/fire brutes can put out a ton of damage while being fairly safe depending on the situation. As said before, something like a Fire/kin corr or controller can put out quite a bit via teams but are more on the edge.

Grav does get mentioned on the Dom forums. /thorns less so. I never played either. I would grab Pine's Hero builder and post up what you have in the Doms forum to see what can be worked on if anything. Also will help to know what level you are. I think the biggest issue with Grav is how resisted it's damage type is, so even if the single target damage is good, it can come across as weaker.

/sr likely due to the ability to speed up attacks.

You forgot one: In global sending you influence or enhancers because a couple million influence is nothing to them. Damn it those scoundrels.

One way to increase damage is by putting a toggle PBAoE -res debuff on a teammate. That obviously won't work while solo until you can get a pet.

SS on a scrapper would be nuts. SS/shield would be all sorts of crazy. I know scrappers ran numbers back in the day, and it was agreed the numbers would likely need to be modified. Imagine SS with crits.

Farmers are gonna farm. Lets be honest. Their impact on you will be: None as they or you solo. None as they are farming or in AE in general and you aren't. On your team helping you complete content faster since they have more pimped out builds. On your team not knowing how to play a build but not really impacting the team's performance is a real negative way. On your team not knowing how to play a build to the point of having a negative impact. Fighting you in PvP, and well, I don't recall PvP having rules about budgets. So ultimately one thing is bad and having a global friends list and or SG can vastly limit that aspect. One could argue they are driving up prices on things, but they are also generating more items as well, so I think it is a wash at best. I have no clue why people still find farming to be an issue, and even more so when they likely aren't running around in your circles to begin with. Let people play how they want to. Getting butt hurt about what people do in a game just seems petty.

They are looking for damage, and while I absolutely loved my Earth/storm(maybe Top 3 or Top 5 from my list of 40+) and she was a control beast, damage is only something which really starts to happen 40+.

My Cap type build is a SJ/Shield scrapper. I did play MA for a bit back on the day, but honestly SJ feels a ton better and works well with /shield. It also has more AoEs, so yeah. To me I honestly didn't even think about MA this time around. I looked at SJ and didn't look back. And yes, /shield works better on Scrappers.

Loved my Plant/fire dom back in the day and since it died in a hardcore SG, that's the one dom I made here.

Dark/dark. Enough controls and debuffs to easily help out a team and enough pets to help solo the build as well. If you played the defender version, it won't feel completely new, but there is enough differences here I rolled one as well. Early returns have been good, and one person made a comment how things were smoother once I got on a team.

Since Water has an attack + regen ability I would say /storm and /cold are the best pairings. Works theme wise as well. /kin's heal is huge so the attack wouldn't be as much of a priority.

I need a concept/name/look for a build, and I've got nothing for Bio. It has been getting good feedback. I'm definitely taking the Claws/wp to 50. I don't think I would do another Claws after that. SS/bio might be of interest, but I did 40+ alts when CoH was live, so trying to keep a sane list this time, which has already gone from a small number to "I could do 12."

Had a Claws/regen scrapper and wanted to reroll it in CoH's new life. Spent a brief time going /sr on a brute only to switch /wp. Having a secondary I don't really need to click on feels like it cements the idea behind the name, Without Pause. It might be the smoothest build I have played. Dark/dark controller and blaster. Pretty much as advertised. The controller is having me hold off on rerolling my Ill/rad which is one of the very few I was willing to do again. SJ/shield scrapper. Liking the animations for SJ. /shield helps complete the Cap like look. The pairing just feels right. Water/nin sentinel. Played Water to 12, and rerolled from /sr to /nin mostly to try out /nin. I had a Kat/sr back in the day, so no opinion on it yet, but Water? Has to be in the running for most fun new powerset. Like, but never keep one around. Super Strength. Someday I will get one to 50. I even had a SS/elec brute previously and rerolled it here, but rerolled it again to the SJ/shield scrapper. Likely a SS/wp brute at some point. Skipped on it. Tried Time, and the noise to it was annoying. I tried Bots/time, and I just ended up deciding I would skip on MMs this time around. I had one. I don't feel like need to go back now. I know Time is one of the best support sets, but passing on it for now. I ODed on support sets, certainly defenders, during my original play time so I am kind of shying away from playing them much this go around. A Cold/ice is slotted to be played at some point. I feel like I need a token defender in there somewhere, and I need to reroll my main but go Kin/rad, but again, I ODed on Kin in my first go around. Honestly, this likely had more to do with the AT than the powerset although were they intentionally going for something which sounded annoying? Waiting on, Staff. Might even go stalker as I have little experience there.

Only got it to 12, but Water is one of the most pure fun sets I have seen. Went Water/sr, but changed to /nin since I haven't done that yet and coming back I want to try as much new-to-me stuff as possible.