Techwright

Episode 8 dropped and it is a doozie! (and yes, hero vs villain) Give it time. Marvel-Disney is playing the long game, and doesn't want to rush those characters into the MCU. They are moving that way, however. Eternals next, and strong evidence that the Fantastic Four will arrive in the next year or two. X-men unfortunately will be later than that. Deadpool, that one I'm not certain about. But What If...? has the potential to run for years, dropping a new season after every major shift in the MCU.

Yep, I finally discovered the term while doing additional research.

You got that right! Mine has been simple trial and error. I first started with separated bins for orange, yellow, and white salvage. Too much work and too fast a fill. Dumped that concept and now store alphabetized. I do agree that white salvage should probably not be stored. You can literally buy it for chump change on the market. Actually, I do store certain whites, but only those of certain recipes I buy in bulk on the market, craft, convert, and sell for profit. Having many of these handy speeds my work. I will keep yellows handy as well, but set a limit on how many of each. As to the IO enhancements, I first tried to store everything, which proved ridiculous. A big change came with the addition to the game of the Upgrade button on the enhancement screen. Again by trial and error, I realized that upgrading SO's was more effective than basic IO's all the way to level 38. At that level the basic IO's fare better. So I never store any basic IO's less than 40, and will sell any basic recipes less than 40. (I find the vendors generally offer a better return on basics than the market). I advance characters fast enough that I don't bother with using or storing set IO's until 50. There is one exception to this. I will craft and store lower level knockback-to-knockdown conversion enhancements and use them in any power with native knockback. Any other lower set recipe I may craft and convert for sales, as there are some fine prices to be had for the right lower-ranked piece on the market.

Huh. I never noticed that before. Not that I have a stalker or anything. I've got a MA scrapper, and Dragon's Tail is a critical part of his design. I wonder what the developer thinking was that swapped out Dragon's Tail rather than the lightweight Stormkick?

Loved that. Absolutely loved it.

I almost posted this, then I saw you answered it. Spot on. But then I saw Wavicle's note and realized it is correct, too, as exhibited by the setting down of the hammer. Only Thor and elevators. We mustn't forget them.

Never have I ever read this and wondered what everyone is doing. 😉 They're late bloomers. In the original design of the game they really were a struggle until security level 22, and teaming was almost manditory. It's easier now with things like DFB teams and Posi 1 & 2 task forces (not to mention the 2x XP from the P2W vendor) to more quickly push them up to the mid-20s, where they really start to come into their own. While never extreme damage levels (someone's going to disprove me on that), by level 50 many of them are quite the terrors. I've said it before, but illusion/storm controllers, for example, are a joy to play. So much variety to choose from!

Yeah, OP, I've seen it. I don't mind when one or two stealth to the end then tp everyone to the end room. That's a team effort just trimming down the time. What concerns me is I've seen more and more, especially on task forces and missions with AV's, where they'll deliberately race to the end, NOT use team teleports, and try to finish off the elite boss or AV on their own leaving others to try to fight their way to the destination with a reduced team. It could be that those one or two CAN solo or duo the AV, but that's not what the team experience is for.

That's 'cause it isn't one, but two shorter ones. Their contacts (Tin Mage & Apex) are adjacent to each other making running them back-to-back a logical arrangement. Well, until this summer, I'd never never participated in a Hami raid. Have now checked that off my virtual bucket list. Have also checked a failed Hami raid off my list. I've never run all four parts of the Summer Block Buster. I've only done it one time. I've never done all of the "Who Will Die?" storyline. I have teamed to others on one or two bits. I've never done the Seed of Hamidon zone event. I've never used a widow archetype. I've never actively done PvP in the game. I have, however, been attacked in PvP zones trying to badge hunt.

Are you sure you didn't find one of the Freakshow? Better check his arms.

Yeah, both Steve Rogers and Tony Stark went through a development phase, with Tony having to work in primitive conditions, then with better conditions, learning how to fly, etc. We actually have seen something like this recently with Sam Wilson learning how to wield the shield. I suppose a case could be made for Wanda as well. Admittedly, we didn't get to see her initially discover her powers, just a brief end credits scene where she was toying with some blocks she apparently made. But in WandaVision, she was actually opening up a whole different level of her powers and coming to grips with it, and we left her studying that out. (Meanwhile Photon walks through a magic field one too many times and instantly understands rudimentaries of her new power).

Character powers can be delivered in an instant (Captain Marvel, Captain America, Photon) , so I'm guessing you're referring to them being able to use said powers to the fullest without experimentation and training?

Episode 7 thoughts:

Tried out the generator. Venombite -- hmm, not bad. The Aqua Termite -- 's ok. Messy Prodigy -- okaaay, I'm not sure you're understanding.... Commander Brave Robin -- um, yeaaah, I don't know... Colossal Katana -- 😳 No. Just...no.

Looks like Void Hunters and Nictus Shadow Cyst in...Boomtown? Badges for street hunting those would be very interesting, though it's probably some mission or task force. Shadow Cysts are one of the few things in game that I feel genuinely threatened by, and I like that sort of challenge. The gold guy with the boulder, I don't recognize the curved blue-glass building behind him. Might that be the original hero Faultline? And one of the others is clearly the long-hoped for upgrade to the Warriors. Yassss... Not sure what the deal is with all the Gold Brickers and a portal(?)

AAAarrrrggh! How have I never known this? I never hear anyone talking about it. I actually went looking for it a year ago as I'd had multiple builds in other MMOs and thought surely CoH would have this. I searched for a while in fact. But either I never searched on the right term or in the right corners, I guess. This is a game changer! Now I can build solo and team builds, especially for my energy/energy blapper. Unleash the knockback! Thank you soooo much for linking that @Glacier Peak!

Fire/Ice blaster. Though I don't remember exactly how bad the end drain was to level 20 doing it the old-fashioned way. I just remember every character suffering massive end drain until the early 20s. F/I deals a lot of damage for low levels, and any ice powers help control the melee range. Now if you're soloing only, energy/energy blapper is a heap of a lot of fun, and you can cut loose and send guys flying, but if you're going to team, you'd have to reign in the knockback. I would have said ill/storm controller, they're a blast, but not for soloing until about level 22 or so when he gets all his pets. If you're teaming the old fashioned way, then yes.

I rather like that one. I may use a few pointers from it for one of my own characters.

While admittedly the Victorian Era is ultimately a phase that current story writing is going through, it does have some elements of its nature that appeal to works like this. It was an age of radical change, fantastical invention, significant engineering feats, and discovery. All this was preserved in its writings which gave us heroes like Sherlock Holmes and Alan Quartermain, and fantastical worlds through the Lost Worlds genre of Verne, Wells, Conan Doyle, Haggard, and others. This in turn gave rise to the modern parallel of steampunk (still around), but also a lasting interest in their time period, or at least interpreting it.

How do reboots fit within a massive continuity? They really don't. You have to wipe the whole continuity. That's why I was suggesting the multiverse concept gets around that. The only time I could see a reboot fitting into a massive continuity like the MCU would be if a result is so disliked that it threatens the franchise, and excising it is the salvation. I'd have though that would be the so-called Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars, relegating it to the "Legends" pile, but it's not happening there, in fact there are signs that they're trying to use other parts of the Star Wars continuity to make the Sequel Trilogy a somewhat better fit. Since this is ultimately coming from Disney, if something were to happen in Marvel like this, I think the outcome might be the same.

Might have to dig up my old ghost pirate Captain Stormalong for the occasion. Maybe start a hero SG for reformed pirates: The Pirates of Pen'ance 😉 🏴‍☠️

This is where the multi-verse may become vital to the franchise. You could have multiple Iron Men, each played by a different actor, each representing a different universe. Rumor is that the canonical What If...? series will have an event that pulls heroes and villains from several of these variant timelines into a single universe to fight a multiversal threat. If this proves true then it sets the precedent for other crossovers. You could have a Tony Stark (played by a different actor) whose universe was destroyed travel to the MCU universe, and become Tony Stark II there. Not necessarily marrying Pepper Potts and taking over the company, but bringing his battle armor, skills, and personality back into the main story line. While thinking of the future of the MCU, there is a thought on my mind: the next big movement from the MCU, beyond the multiverse, should be space exploration and colonization. Move beyond a reflection of the real world. Think about it: Earth is already aware they are not alone in space, and now, after Endgame, the universe is aware of Earth. Sure they might have known of it for years, did know, in fact, as Yondu and crew visited Earth in the 1980s. Until Endgame, though, Earth is seen as a backwater world. Now, the Ravagers, Captain Marvel, and the Guardians are all going to carry word of how the mighty armies of Thanos caused the snap/blip that devastated every sentient race in the universe, and how, 5-years later, everyone reappeared. They'll then tell how Thanos was obliterated by this same backwater planet's champions. If nothing else, alien tourists would show up wanting to see where this happened. More likely, races will begin to reach out to Earth, perhaps curiously, but perhaps with intentions to help this world advance, seeing a potential for a surprising ally (or just some resource they could exploit). This leads to a trade, possibly raw resources for technological info, and pretty soon we're in a position to colonize Mars and perform long distance trading across the galaxy, with adventuresome types signing up for deep space crews on alien ships. Even if none of that happened, the Asgardians of New Asgard alone could aid the world in reaching to the stars. About the only thing (besides a silly hand wave from the writers) to hold MCU Earth back at this point would be if a significant power in space declared Earth a protectorate, and gave orders to leave it alone to develop on its own. The best candidate for that which I can think of would be the Shia'ar empire, and they're not likely to appear until well into the next X-men story line. I suppose S.W.O.R.D. could achieve this as well, though in a much weaker stance. The events of the upcoming Secret Wars might give us a S.W.O.R.D. capable of that.

Just for clarification: did the Rikti actually hit the rest of the world? I mean more than the North American coast and probably the Rogue Islands. I was always of the belief that their dimensional portal technology was limited to one access point: Paragon City, which was why Omega Team was effective, as opposed to having to shut down dozens or hundreds of access points.

Is that still available to see online, and if so, where? (please)

Isn't the article writer describing sort of a Recluse's Victory scenario, though? There's no question it would be opposed. Recluse's Victory is opposed. What the writer would need is some scenario which allows Arachnos to retain this beachhead without being pushed back into the sea by a coalition of governments and heroes. Like a massive domed shield or something. Not saying I like what is proposed, just considering the possibility. Incidentally, and not to get political, we actually have real world, modern scenarios where a foreign population takes over a town of a 1st world country and creates such a threat that the country removes all its population, effectively ceding control. It's unpleasant to think it can happen, but it has. (This is assuming, of course, that the reports I read are accurate.) I do agree, however, that control of a turf by backdoor threats, manipulations, and acquisitions is far more likely until enough is acquired to step into the open. Actually, I'd find it far more interesting if the Rogue Islands took a page from the real world news and started building a series of man-made islands extending its sovereign territory closer and closer to Rhode Island, until it forced a confrontation in international courts over sovereign waters. If it gains a court ruling that the closest island to the mainland can stay, The Rogue Islands (and lets face it, that's just a political front for Arachnos) could use that island to base Arachnos. Still a big threat, still a thorn-in-the-side of Paragon City and the USA, but not a mainland grab.