Sovera

For what you say go with Rad. But as Bzz... Bzk.. As Berserker said both will do the trick. Rad is more defensive with a shield and endless endurance. Bio is more damage oriented with a permanent 25% to damage with Offensive Adaptation while also having a shield and good resistances. To be honest both can be very survivable. They are Tankers, they are survivable out of the box. But Rad will be more survivable all around, IMO. It is the meta tank for a reason.

Raw damage I would say Super-Strength. Double stacked Rage is hard to beat and the accuracy bonuses allows to faff around with the rest of the build's slotting. But even with trickery and damage procs and a secondary that survives Rage crashes it can and does become annoying to have the constant 10 seconds of downtime. Also, the AoE starts late at 30 but can be paired with Fire Armor to have it at 18. Honestly I'd love to get my hands on SS but Rage crash is a nuisance. Also, smash damage ends being resisted a fair bit. Energy Melee is the ST beast, but, eh, in our world 'beast' is something that is 30 seconds faster. It's not like in OG Titan Weapons where it meant over a minute. So despite Energy Melee being the strongest ST it does come with some caveats like a messy ST rotation and mediocre AoE (the cone is just eh). But, the CC Energy Melee has is pretty potent and even AVs can be made to stagger. It pairs well with Fire Armor for the second build-up power it brings as well as a much needed second AoE to help clearing mobs. Also, Burn is a good filler to help with the messy ST rotation I mentioned above. As everyone else mentioned already Fire Melee is probably the best allrounder now. Two PbAoEs so no need to aim, exotic damage, a snappy ST rotation with no lengthy animations. It lacks the oomph of EM but it also does not have the lengthy animation of Total Focus. Don't sleep on Battle Axe though. Even though it's Slash damage it has even better ST after the tuning patch and good AoE. The only set with an AoE that pulls mobs in (even though technically it's not adding anything to the game it's fun), it adds soft CC, AND it takes a FF proc so it speeds all of the build's cooldowns. It's one of the few sets (Stone, Martial Arts, Kinetic Melee, Claws) with an AoE that allows this and this has an effect not gauged simply by looking at the powers and numbers when heals, Build-ups and etc all recharge faster.

You've hit it. At some point I found the peak gaming was doing endless runs of Mephisto in Diablo 2. I would wake, sometimes early, then grab my crapstatic amazon, teleport to the map, wander around to find the entrance to the third level, kill the boss, collect my crap loot (I wasn't even geared for magic finding, or had the fancy teleport armors, or a good fast killing character), log off, repeat until midnight. And to the me at that time that was the best thing EVER! I don't think it's going to be fair comparing our 20 year ago selves to our present selves.

Check the newbie guide in my signature, at the risk of re-re-re-repeating myself on the subject. I've added a lot of the stuff we re-re-repeat, and there's probably some stuff not spoken about since it's taken for granted that everyone knows (right, sea people!?!).

The Plex has it right. This game breeds the 'stand strong, gird your loins, don't move, tank it all' that people die from things they could just walk out from. Enemies debuffing? Kite for a bit until the debuff runs out. Lots of enemies? Pull them. But no. Gotta jump in, face first. To be fair the game also allows it. We're super and it shows, but those conditioned reflexes work against the player when something moderately hard is tossed their way.

You were a better Oubliette than me 😄

Nay. I'm as guilty as some here for the snarky answers (@Snarky ever reaching pervasive influence, mebbe? Lets go with that) but even if Comet may have not done the best introduction they still seem genuine. It's up to us not to fan it instead of paying lip service to being 'one of the best communities around'.

As the years go I changed my low level approach. Now I no longer do AE or DFBs or teams other than Synapse (takes too long to solo so I always team for it). My run is always starting by saving the guy's wife, which then opens the cop contact, which ends with the Arachno collaborateur. I don't remember their names... Anyway, that leaves me at level 9 which is good enough to start my TF trek but with some merits to my name. I only resume teaming at 40+ for ITFs and Tinpexes. Before that I used to do the kill witches in the tunnel AE mission since one map would leave me at level 12, then solo TFs except Synapse. Before that I used to grab the new alt and another account and do two AE farms which would leave it at level 23. Solo TFs, etc. Very efficient and the best way IMO since I can slot most powers straight away instead of playing with empty slots and then resume low level play. Solo TFs except Synapse. Before *that* I used to create a team and run two DFBs and then create a team and start an all TF run from Posi 1 onwards always teamed up and that's how I played for the longest time.

To be fair it's been 20 years and memories may have been distorted. One thing I do understand is loving to feel like a super-hero, @CometCometh, and here I'm 100% on your PoV, but this game is singularly well equipped to let you do that. Unlike games like WoW where we face a group of 3-4 mobs in an instance (and in a team, unable to solo those 3-4 mobs) here we can wade into a group of 10-12 mobs while solo and cackle as we destroy them. Funny enough my advice for new players is a trusty Fire Armor/Ice Melee Tanker (people in this forum must be tired of me harping about it). It's the Allrounder build in my signature.

- Early game IS boring. Even I will say that. We are just so used to it we don't notice it anymore, but, few attacks, endurance running out, waiting for attacks to recharge while we stare at the mobs, then whiffing, etc. But the good news is that with the double XP you get from the P2W vendor the early game flies. Eventually the goal is having just enough powers (not too many that they are not used) but not too few you have to wait until another power has finished recharging. Some powersets can do with as little as three attacks and some as much as five. If you're expecting a dynamic rotation it will not happen as there are no variables. So if you set your powers as 1,2,3, then it will be always be 1,2,3. - Map design will mostly not change. Some rare maps are open world but most will be inside offices and warehouses and etc. - Questing is questing. It's the same in every game? Something bad is about to happen, please go kill X of Z to prevent it from happening or find X of Z items. That will be the same through the game. By level 22 things will get better in terms of feeling more solid but it doesn't mean the early levels have to be a slog: - Take your first two attacks since they recharge the fastest and can be respecced out later. - Take the free attacks from the P2W vendor (especially the free IOs). Take the double XP. Very much in particular take 8 of each Amplifier (8 of each will cost 23k which is nothing) at level 1. - Use your Origin Power (it's not by default on the bar, but if you press P it can be found (someone with Natural origin will have throwing knives, someone with Technology Origin will have a Taser, etc). This power is super useful up to level 10 or so and is meant to help with the lack of early powers. By level 10 there is barely a point in using it since it will just chip an enemy and we will still be using one of our attacks to kill a mob anyway, but I find myself using it as a filler until the 20s or have a better fleshed out attack chain. - Use and abuse inspirations. Purple ones (Luck) are the strongest so try to keep a few in reserve for when in trouble, yellow ones are the ones I find super niche and not worth keeping (your mileage may vary) and if you're playing any of the melee classes or a Sentinel then the protection against mez inspirations are also useless. Get rid of those and make use of the more useful purple, greens and reds. If possible replenish these via the /ah since /ah can be used anywhere as long as it is the open world, Check my newbie guide for more tips.

I'm trying not to snark because everyone likes what they like, but yeah, his only point is that once there was no longer a way to herd a whole map and defeat them in complete impunity then the game wasn't fun anymore. What am I to argue about that? I can't say you're wrong for enjoying that gameplay. It sounds more like a Cookie Clicker idler where numbers go up. I can see why the devs changed it.

I start a new character and don't transfer money or IOs so it starts from scratch. That said it does slow the game a lot, but the first character after a good while the right moment for 'slow game'. By the 5th alt we don't want slow anything. But returning after a while? Best time. Your mileage may vary.

I'm going to be snarky and say not worth your time. Now I'm going to be helpful and say the nerf was A) 20 years ago, B) at least 20 updates old (by the time the game closed so let it go let it goooooo) and C) the new systems let you be about as strong as before without making a mockery of the game. I know it was fun to play with cheat modes on, but heh. Still in helpful mode: don't slot how you were used to. The reason you were unable to defeat anything when you logged back in 20 years ago was probably because you had no accuracy. Three slots dedicated to damage, 1-2 for accuracy, 1-2 for endurance discount or recharge. Once you get into Inventions Origins (or just IOs) you can get pretty powerful. But, you know, in that game type powerful, as in, you can die, there is risk, you need to actually play the game. But that's how games are, right? Anyone plays their Skyrims and Last of Uses and WoW to ignore mobs and one shot the bosses solo? That's not a game, that's a walking simulator. It's never going to be that peak gaming you described of AFKing and killing an entire zone worth of mobs while invulnerable, untouchable, and watching Netflix. And even then nowadays you can do AFK farming where you literally just start a new map every so often and mobs die to Burn.

No, Storm Kick is not an AoE, it's a ST attack that grants defense to melee, ranged and AoE. It's that '+defense (melee, ranged, AoE' tag that confuzzled Pulverizer. But yes, you don't 'fix' MA's AoE because there is nothing to do about it other than incorporating a secondary that has AoE as well. Now one one hand I would not undersell ST damage. In a team everyone's AoE will clean the minions and lieutenants in seconds anyway, right? So the focus should be on targetting the mobs that we already know will be alive after that (there's a way to show all the mob's HP and bars in my newbie guide right at the end). But on the other hand when solo or even team split apart or whatever it feels nice to drop some AoEs and see the HP go down. As Pulverizer pointed out the MA + Fire Armor Tanker build is the one that has pleased me the most because Burn is a decent AoE on its own and Dragon's Tail has the opportunity to slot in a Force Feedback proc that pretty much ensures it will go off in an AoE situation in turn making the next Burn have a few seconds shaved off. On a Tanker it's a build that's gimmicky AF making it have permanent 45% defense to melee/ranged/AoE as well as 90% resistances to all. But even without all the gimmicks it's still a Tanker and breezes through the levels with the combo of Dragon Tail + Burn. Anyway, it's the Turtle build in my Fire Armor signature. I did make a Brute version but too many sacrifices were needed to do the same gimmick so it might be smarter to just focus on resistances and simply aim for 45% S/L which is really easy thanks to the 7.5% from Storm Kick. If Fire Armor does not please you then you only have Radiation Armor left in terms of boosting your AoE. As Carnifax said you can proc out Radiation Therapy and Ground Zero. One of the downsides of doing this is the recharge being killed to max out the proc changes... which Dragon Tail and Force Feedback helps fix. Serendipity! I don't consider Cross Punch a 'real' AoE alternative partly because we can only realistically take it in the 30-35 range due to the requirements (unless we push out more important powers for later) but it's something to look into since you're probably taking Tough and Weave anyway, so it's all a matter of finding 5-6 slots and one power slot.

Gentle bump for visibility towards the new arrivals.

I went and checked and no, we can't do any missions at level 1 but we do get the ourobouros portal at that level if someone opens the portal for them. I'm not talking about the roleplay aspect of flashing back to the past to do missions. We out level low level arcs and are unable to finish them. This can be worked around via locking XP, but it's a leveling game so not many would want to block their leveling. That said I agree level 15 is not that far to level, but it is just a QoL thing for those who want to level and not outlevel a contacts in the admittedly narrow window from 1 to 15. Still, it's my suggestion to the devs and I'll let them sort it out if it has merit or not. That's a dev's prerogative to do or not. Don't try to inflate your self worth making it seem like you have any influence by barging in with your muddy shoes and say no to a suggestion as if your opinion was the linchpin. This is the suggestion forum from players to the devs, without our suggestions they would not know what players might want in the game. This infantilization of the dev team as if they were hapless naive babies that need the big strong elite players to protect them from bad suggestions is as silly as it is ridiculous.

Well, okay, but since you're a dev you should think not everyone will play the same way as you do and you want to think of other players playstyles, right?

Not everyone wants to lock their XP.

First I will acknowledge that reaching level 15 is not a big hurdle so this suggestion does not have a huge weight to it. With how we outlevel contacts and can be shut off from finishing arcs it would be nice to have this option straight away. It is not a big deal regardless so it is a suggestion only.

As a rule the aim is building for both with Bio Armor. Bio has strong Smash and Lethal resistances but weak to Energy and Negative. But it has strong defenses to Energy and Negative while having no defenses against Smash and Lethal. So you want to boost your resistance and work your E/N defenses up. At that point and with a Tanker it's just easy to crank all resistances as much as possible (while trying not to go past 90% with the ATO stacks) and bump S/L defenses to at least 40%. Now you have a tanker that has both defenses to S/L as well as E/N, with strong resistances to S/L and mediocre to E/N. Neither those defenses get protection though, and can be quickly whittled down. It's not a huge problem with S/L due to the resistances but with E/N if it happens (the murderbots in the end game do this) then it's a glaring hole in the armor set which has to rely on the absorb shield. But in order for those defense debuffs to work they first need to hit and that means a healthy buffer makes that take longer since defense makes the debuffs miss. If we are at medium defenses (25-30%) the whittling starts right away and each subsequent hit is easier since there are less defenses. A vicious and cascading cycle. But if having a softcapped defense (45%) and knowing that the faction that will be fought does the defense debuffing then sometimes it is no worse to simply eat a small purple inspiration before fighting. By the time it ends or the mobs have overcome the buffer and whittled defenses down most will be dead which means less mobs hitting, less mobs debuffing, etc. It's how my Fire Armor Tankers deal with stuff.

The enforced roleplay of not being usable while not on the ground made it so I never touched it. Heroes gotta fly

Even in this thread we have people acting like we are in a 100 meter dash race and we gotta be first. Which brings me back to the earlier example I gave of GW2 and how a casual game (at the time, ever since they introduced fractals and raids and etc) was hellbent in shaving every second off a run since they were 'meant' to do X runs an hour. But CoH is not a 100 meter dash. There isn't even a DPS meter to be ashamed of. Any and all 'downsides' of a Sentinel are in people's heads. It doesn't do as much damage as a Blaster? So what? Few things do more damage than a Blaster. It's not as sturdy as a Tanker? So what? Few things are sturdier than a Tanker. Does that mean we delete all other ATs other than Blaster or Tanker? 'But a Sentinel does not bring much to the team other than damage'. Bruh, it's not the kind of game where team compositions matter outside of hardmode TFs, people solo TFs, people do TFs with 8 of one type of AT. A lot of stuff is in people's heads or in spreadsheets. Lets have a team with a Sentinel. Lets do a TF. Now lets keep the exact same team composition and take a Blaster. Will the TF be finished earlier or more easily because the Blaster is there?

It's Punisher's style of armor. (No, not plot armor). Bleeding, broken, fighting against many or a strong opponent and going through it on grit alone where someone else would have fainted from pain or blood loss. Even the midling psi resistance fits since it's canon (in the comics) that a 'strong willpower' can resist telepaths. Seriously though (hah!), gravity armor! And since we can't have Wind control then... WIND ARMOR! We have ice armor, fire armor, stone armor, we lack only wind for Captain Planet! And an Empath, of course.

I remember back in the day before IOs and people roleplaying their iron man concept. In roleplay and roleplay forum posts, sheesh, so strong, then I played with them and the occasional faceplants we were meant to ignore 😄

Sentinel. I have a soft spot for Tankers though. Basically anything durable and that has CC immunity. A Sentinel is more 'durable' than a tank by hovering in the air but a Tanker will go x8 more quickly. They will both kill at about the same speed.