Sovera

I find interesting to see Icy Bastion drooled on so much when it doesn't seem particularly interesting to me. Resistances are fine and all but what tends to kill people are a massive case of the debuffs to which Icy Bastion doesn't really do much about. Now a full heal (ok, it takes a few seconds to get to full) I can pop every one minute (not every three minutes), and not just that, but it cleanses debuffs (in the sense we can huddle in and let the debuff wear off) and a great panic button (complete and utter invulnerability)? With no crash? And it refills endurance? Damn, I'm kinda jealous. Even Barrier takes two minutes to cycle for a panic button usage. The downside is losing agro but this is not the bad problem it used to be back on live (and I say this as someone who played up to I14) since most people nowadays are durable enough to survive 10-15 seconds (we don't need to use the full 30 seconds of Hibernate) before the Tanker comes out and starts rounding up mobs. As much poo pooing as Hibernate gets as far as I'm concerned both it and the freezing/slowing aura are the reasons to take the set.

Reichman does not require the trinity. It is one of the few TFs in the game that -does- require a few team slots dedicated just for him. Just like Lady Grey's TF -must- have Controllers or the team stalls so does Reichman nearly demands the team leader being savvy in bringing something that can debuff it efficiently (and the knowledge to run the TF at whatever difficulty they want, but do the last mission at +0 if they want to save themselves a lot of time).

I don't know. Sounds like a newbie team more than the worse Synapse ever in history. The truth is that if you can be the glue of the team then things will work much better than expecting others (newbies as it appears that team was) to just know things. Bring TT instead of expecting others to have it. Say you're going to use it before the mission ends. Get mission transporter and ATT so you can scoop everyone up in things like Bertha's mission that can be in the the africas. Bring your own stealth IO into Sprint if you intend to run past mobs. Replenish purple inspirations between missions with /ah so you can be a durable rock. Remember the team they can replenish inspirations with /ah between missions. If you're going to a tough moment (I.E. last bosses of Positron part one) come prepared (in that particular example I make sure to arrive with 2-3 oranges and then I also nom on 2-3 purples. Between that jumping in first this ensures the team is mostly safe as the 8 bosses focus on me). Remember you can get Ouroboro portals up at level 1. If you don't have it grab it. Remind other people to use it so they get their own as this can cut down on a lot of running. Get Fast Travel (costs 1 mill). It's up every 10 minutes. Use this macro with Fast Travel: /macro Portal "enterbasefrompasscode zone-8888" Remind your team mates they can use the above macro to move around in the game by pasting this into the chat: To move around in the game: /macro Portal "enterbasefrompasscode zone-8888" If they say they don't know how to make money and don't have one million paste this: https://tinyurl.com/HomecomingNewbieGuide

That as well. But mostly we -are- trading defense for offense so we are squishier. I'm not selling snake oil. Want to be uber impervious? Roll invuln. Want to trade uber imperviousness for damage? Fire Armor. In a world without Barrier this would be pretty dangerous (and can still be in the AE with purpose tailored mobs to mess with players), but playing with just 40% defense is fine until push comes to shove and then Barrier can be relied on to survive a difficult moment. 90% of the content is just easy. Incarnate content such as you mentioned comes usually with a league and that makes ridiculous things such as stacking shields or incarnates that the uber imperviousness of Invuln is just not required. Certain things can really mess up even Invul such as sapping, but those Fire Armor handles with pre-emptive use of Consume,

Not really a problem, just be wary of mechanics.

Getting super good defenses/resistances/recharge/etc in a low level is complicated. I will preface it by saying that emphasis in accuracy is not something that particularly needs to be chased after. We are fighting +0. Tweak your Mids to +0 (I believe it's 75%) and even exemplared down we should be safely in range considering some of the heftier accuracy bonuses that do not go away such as the purple sets. The best way to mimic exemplaring (since Mids does not at a baseline) is changing 'level of enhancements' to the level you'll be exemplared to. Without shields (and even with them) it's hard to get good defenses above something like 25 or 30% at a very low level. If we were to focus on something I would say S/L defenses since a small purple insp can turn median but still porous defenses into a bullwark and S/L can be found mixed in pretty much everything. Aiming for specific things like psi or toxic or even energy or negative can be a trap. These need consolidated stacking to be of use. Going from 3-4% to 15% may be good at a spreadsheet level but it will not keep someone alive in combat. Further more they are very specific and will not protect against the rest. Ranged or Melee or Smash/Slash defenses will work on most, especially Smash/Slash who will work for AoE, ranged and melee as long as this (very common) damage component is included, where for example Ranged protects against every ranged attack, but will do nothing against melee or AoE. But a punch is melee but also Smashing, a bullet is ranged but also Slashing, an electric blast is ranged but has Smashing in it. The use of inspirations is something that needs to be considered as well.

People still run radio missions? No, seriously. They were my bread and butter back on Issue 7 to 13-14, but in the two years I've been in HC I don't think I've run enough radio missions to need more than one hand to count them. A radio mission only gives XP. A Task Force gives XP and merits. But you do you. That said, yes, the post history is a bit cringy. I'm sure everyone is evil and mean and forced the OP to delete all their characters and change their global. It has absolutely nothing to do with the OP at all. Just a mean server. I'm sure. No, really.

No need to toggle off Hover before dropping Burn. Just hug the floor before activating. I have Hover on all characters and Burn goes off without a problem.

Absolutely nothing has changed for sentinels since that oldie (muh first guide evah).

But Snarky, the guy said he was going to run it at +3 or +4. If you say 'If you run this at +3 or +4 I'm not doing it' and they insist then you leave. He stated his terms, you state yours.

Some small sacrifices are needed to insert the teleport pool. Also, don't take this the wrong way but I will have to roll up a newspaper and swat you for taking team teleport and not Fold Space. *swatswatswatswat!*

I mean, all gurus? I'm not sure I qualify. What's the pay though?

Fair is a weird word. Maybe you're looking for 'impartial'? They can rarely be impartial. Just for an example the main populace loves huge titted barely clad females with body sliders to minimum except chest who goes in the opposite direction. That wouldn't even register on my radar so good luck selling me this awesome (to the person's eyes) costume. Same person who loves those may set a costume contest and barely glance at any male character while a clone of their character will get max points.

Because you're misunderstanding the game a bit. It's not on you though, it's just a bit different from other more mainstream MMOs who have subs or B2P, or F2P mechanics. With the current CoH we can level to max extremely fast. We can gear up very fast (full T4 incarnates and most purple IO sets in two weeks). We have a thousand character slots instead of 8, or 3 and having to pay for more. But then what? There isn't a tremendous lot to do. My highest 'level' is a Fire/Claws Tanker who was my first baby and it cured me of altitis for a good two months. I would log in, I would do random TFs, I would create teams for TFs, I hunted a few badges, etc etc. But there is not really a lot to do so we end up drifting back to 'well, okay, I've done Claws. What could I try next?' And that's how we end with 50-70 characters. The Fire/Claws has something like 90+ vet levels which is a huge amount for me. Most of my alts I would make a different character by vet level 12 or so. But even my favorite baby I eventually stopped to make something new, something different. I seldom log it nowadays. It's still one of my best characters who exemplars really well and does great damage from Posi 1 to the ITF. But once everything has been done it's trying new things that comes up. So I have a second baby who is a Fire/Martial Arts Tanker and nowadays I'm usually tinkering on a Fire/Ice. Are they strictly 'better' than the Claws? Eh.

Someone tested part of the answer:

You never needed to join a SG to use the portals. If you already have a base that has these portals just input your code with your new character. If you don't have a base then use this for a new character: /macro Portals "enterbasefrompasscode ZONE-8888" I prefer the keybind option ( /keybind numpad9 enterbasefrompasscode ZONE-8888) since then I save keybinds to default and all my new characters already have the default numpad 9 as teleport to portals, no need to add new macros for each character I make. Edit: This is actually Everlasting's portal hub. But each server has a portal hub and if you ask on the general chat someone will say which one is your server's.

So much brouhaha over the D's entrance. People actually used those? When ever I want to head in there I hit my Fast Travel button.

Thank -you- for raising the awareness of this.

Well, I need XP to level, and money isn't bad either, so I can not do TF Commander or I can do TF Commander, get XP to level, get merits to turn into money and get the accolade. Seems win win win to me.

No need. Synapse is part of the accolades we want and it has all the gears we might want or need. I have never had to seek them out.

EA then. Anything with defense debuffs makes everything fold (you would think only defense sets would fold, but no, resistance sets too) and EA has protection against it. Scrapper for damage, Brute for easier early leveling and more tankyness with buffs from the team.

Dark is good against everything and its main selling point is a uber heal that recharges under 12 seconds. It's downside is a hefty endurance cost that has no counter from the armor itself (unlike for example Rad with two sources of endurance, or DNA Siphon of Bio, or Consume from Fire Armor) but IOs can help. A good middle ground is Energy Armor. It lacks heavy resistances but has them, and also has defense as well as defense debuff protection. It has a decent heal that doubles as endurance reduction and later on you get Energy Drain which gives endurance and a small defense buff.

Bio is squishy but offense oriented. It works well against easy content, but folds harder against hard content. Depending on how you intend to play it, solo VS team, damage VS tanking, it can be fine though. It's one of the highest offense oriented secondaries on par or a bit better than Fire Armor, though Fire Armor brings Burn which is better for burst.

Radiation Armor without a doubt. Instead of a slow ass heal you get a heal that doubles as an endurance clicky, then also a shield that -also- doubles as a recovery buff, and instead of a damage aura you get a recharge aura that makes those clickies faster. The damage aura can be replaced by proc monstering the heal and the mini nukes Rad Armor has.

Gravity/Kinetic would be my take on that. Grab the sorcery pool for Spirit Ward and Enflame. Your low level experience prior to 32 will be Speed Boosting everyone and Spirit Ward&Enflaming the tank. At the low levels your SB and the healing will be extra buddy and everyone will love you. By level 30 try to have grabbed Teleport Target (and make a macro so it auto targets your Singularity pet). By level 32 you get Singularity and you change your gameplay to instead stop using Spirit Ward on a tank (since by level 32 they shouldn't need it anymore anyway) and place both it and Enflame on Singularity. Now your opening salvo is to run just behind the tank, use teleport macro, drop Singularity on top of the tank (which both makes mobs all start flopping like mad thus negating their damage and also start pulling all mobs closer). The need to heal will be lower by now but you can still do this when needed. You can repeat this teleporting combo in less than 10 seconds so it's up at every spawn. Just be prepared o slowly whittle mobs if you're trying it solo because you got separated from the team. 38 and above you add dropping Fulcrum Shift after Singularity has been teleported in to boost everyone's damage in melee range. The thing is, and I know I am in the wrong sub forum to say this, but it's mostly not needed and just faffing around. CCing mobs has little value and killing them works better so a Corruptor and dropping actual AoE works better in the long run than to try playing with CCing and dropping Singularity on mobs when the whole spawn has a tendency to be vaporized in seconds once combat starts. You can actually kill solo spawns with a Fire or Water or whatever Corruptor and still provide the Kinetic buddy buffs. That said the magnetic pull Singularity does pulling all mobs close into a clumped ball does have some value and other than the lack of AoE Gravity does decent ST damage which can be boosted with damage procs.