Six-Six

@Yomo Kimyata Brenda's been asking about you.

A general rule I follow is to slot SOs until 35, unless I'm desperate for specific set bonuses. ACC and End are the most important for attacks. You want your attacks to connect, otherwise you're just fanning your foe with your spanking weapon or fists (I'm looking at you Sands of Mu). I've even come across people who slot 2 ACC over DMG. Don't ignore the End cost of your powers. You don't want to be taking the knee everytime after a tussle. If I have an extra slot, I'd just stick a proc for the lower levels. SO values will be much higher than attuned IOs until that level. Around 35-40, the SO vs IO values start to even out, to be surpassed by IOs after 40. That's when I start slotting sets. Bear in mind that you don't HAVE to slot IOs. You can get through the game with just SOs. But them IO set bonuses and Hami-Os tend to be a must-have for most people. Also, some yellow IOs have better set bonuses (depending on your overall needs or what your power needs) than oranges.

Stay away from Brenda. She'll say that a small penis is non-issue with her, but I'd still prefer she didn't have one.

10 million is usually enough to get you by until 35-40, if you use it wisely. That equates to an ACC SO for each attack, END for most, RECH for some. 3 END MODs on Stamina, and the upgrades for each level. They can "earn" the rest with Merits, Crafting and converting and playing the market or just by selling off boosters, converters, etc. If the recipient wants IO sets early on, then 50m would be more like it. while 100-150 can slot a full build sans ATOs, Winters, PVPs and Purples. I used to give out a PVP + 10m to as much as 100m in one go. I used to also bump into @Yomo Kimyata giving away 10 -50m in Mercy like it's a strip club.

Here's pretty much my journey. Bear in mind that it wasn't a conscious effort, more of a hindsight. I started by frequenting the AT-specific forums and discord. There, I'd pick up not only which powers to take, but also what/how to slot them. Most of the time these would be in bits of info, not a concise guide. Other times, I'd snatch a build from someone, then make little changes as I adjusted it to my play style. I believe that builds are intimate things -- the same exact build may not work as intended or work better depending on how you play. I even have several duplicate toons slotted differently, and so perform and play different (depending on the concept). Along the way, I found that I've familiarised myself with the IO sets--not all, just the ones I liked and tend to slot often. keep in mind that higher rarity is not always better. Some uncommon IOs have arguably better set bonuses than rare ones. Also, sometimes I decide that the power doesn't call for set bonuses, just an ACC and/or End IO + a proc or two. After a while, you'll start to get a feel for it and your own "style" of build. Mine depends on the AT as well as the powers. Also, it's not a finished thing. It keeps evolving. I've recently revisited some of my older toons and respec-ed them to my latest build style.

Search for Solaverse. (S)He's done some really good sound mods and sfx mods. and I recall that he even edited the main theme to be slightly better.

It's doable. And peaceful... bordering on lonely, but possible. Things get tough for the last stretch (45-50), unless you factor in AE missions. If you do, check out Darmian's sig (the bloke who commented before me) for really good content and gold-side related stuff.

confuse doesn't work so well against Nemesis and Automatons.

Or pistol + shield

Fenders aren't really my thing, and Empathy less so, but I'm currently levelling up an ice/cold troller solo. seems doable.

I don't think they're that hard to find. There are 2 missions from Technician Naylor alone that would get that badge done in 20 minutes without going out of your way to look for them. So, I propose raising the limit to 500 snipers. If it was easy, then it doesn't deserve a badge.

You're going to need to narrow down your choices. VEATs are so versatile and can go into several paths: SoA Huntsman: AR + Nades pure ranged (sentinel on steroids) Huntsman with melee: AR + Nades with a couple of melee attacks Huntsman/Bane: AR + Nades + Mace Ranged Bane, not the most optimum use of the mace, but still fun Melee Bane (basically a beefy mace stalker) Ultimate Bane. Mace + Nades (one of my all-time personal favourites) Slicer Crab (melee) Longfang Crab (ranged) Webmaster Crab (melee + ranged) Crabbermind Widow: claws stalker on steriods (pure melee or toss in a couple of ranged STs and cones) Night Widow: Claws and mind games Pure Fortunata: massive AoEs and mindbender Fortunata with claws. And this doesn't even go to Masteries which can further add dimension to your gameplay Now you can opt to use Wolf Spider powers to animate from either the mace or crablegs, which solves the weapon switching delay Secondary-wise, spiders are incredibly resilient even if you suck at builds. They're virtually impervious to cc, and you can build them to be tanky enough even without a self-heal (though the Crab has Serum, and you can cobble one up from the Tertiary Power Pools). You also don't need to double up on Leadership. As a bonus, the ATOs give you a nice global toxic proc to most attack powers as well as a cc (Terrify) to one -- preferably slotted in an AoE opening strike.

Welcome Home (as they say). I, too, never played the game until a few years ago. Like any game, there is a learning curve. The wealth of info available (unsolicited or otherwise) can be overwhelming. The best thing to do is just jump in and learn from mistakes. However, one thing I'd like to highlight, underscore and emphasise is that the community here is one of the best I've encountered in any game. Sure there's the occasional ass-hat, but they seem to be the minority. People are more than willing to lend a hand or at least an ear. Lets begin! 1) The game is very solo friendly. Because of where I'm located on this flat earth, my time zone and my schedule do not line up well with other players. So I mostly solo. The PVE content is rich enough that I am still not tired of it after more than 100 toons. The caveat is this is an MMO, stress on the second M--multiplayer. There is a different kind fun when you interact with other mortals. Also, keep in mind that it's just a game. you can AFK whenever you need to, just make sure to inform your team. As a tank, you can probably even AFK in the middle of a mob and come back to find him still standing. 2) I'm sure there is, but it would take a huge effort to find it. Once you get over the initial learning curve, you'll find the game is very forgiving. it is for this reason that other players have come up with different "challenges" to infuse some more difficulty in the game. In terms of difficulty, you can adjust it from one level below yours up to 4 levels above yours, and even go out and seek pain by confronting giant monsters alone. 2,5) Yes, there is the meta. And yes there's the obscure build. I for one am a huge fan of the latter. There is no right or wrong way to play the game. what matters most is that you're having your own idea of fun as long as you're not stepping on too many toes. 3) just type /altinvite [insert toon name here] on the chat bar. the system message will notify you if you've succeeded or not. Base building is an entire game on its own. you can design your own base (again with a rather steep learning curve). But I've been in bases that are absolutely incredible. I don't know how it was on Live when SG bases were a premium, but these days the only advantages of bases I can see are: Teleport Hub (gets you to where you want to be a little more convenient) and a repository of "stuff". You can also set up Trainers, ICON (costume edit), Crafting Tables, Merits ATM and other convenient NPCs in one place so you don't have to run across town to do what you need to do. *I believe they used to have Base Raids back in the day. I don't think that's a thing now, at least I haven't encountered one in several years. 4) The game is as easy and casual as you want it to be or as difficult and tedious. totally up to you. What I find lacking is competitiveness. There are no leaderboards, almost non-existent PVP, and general lack of one-upmanship. In its place however is a pretty chill and friendly community that lets you do your own thing at your own pace. One very important thing that no one ever mentions is that your COSTUME determines how powerful you are in the game. That and how hard you hit the keys on the keyboard. Enjoy.

I play on an ancient Mac (yes, I know, I know... every new one I buy gets commandeered by my kids, so yeah). There was a time when we just moved and hand had yet to secure an ISP. I was playing on my mobile hotspot (<4g over wifi) and this is on third world internet. The game played fine as long as I turned all the visual effects to low or a notch below mid settings. The point is, you can play this game on dial up I reckon. There was also some time when I played on a stock Macbook Air (for work) in starbucks and KFC while waiting for my daughter. played fine except for distractions. What I noticed that factored in terms of lag was 1) server population, and 2) local internet traffic. Odd times when most regular people were not sharing their lives and fake food photos, it played beautifully. high internet traffic times and high population times (like MSR, iTrials and certain times in the US -- I'm in Asia) would result in rubber-banding or being downright unable to play.

I would love a Poison/Thorn or Traps/Arse. I like how dom secondaries is a more realistic rendition of one's powers, a mix of ranged and melee. The inherent could be something similar to the Brute Fury bar that gives you a Tanker T9 minus the crash