Scarlet Shocker

Player or character? If it's the former that seems really weird.

Seems to be the OPs first ever post. Allowing for upset I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. Yes, it is a rant and could have been articulated much better but the underlying critique does have some validity, even if you disagree with much of the rest of their post. If we want this community to be as good as it can we need to recognise that people can post in the heat of the moment and may not always express themselves amazingly. Not pointing my finger at anyone but berating posters for their content is not generally a good way to build inclusivity and harmony.

Perhaps, if you can make it at your stage in the game, an SoA backed by something like an Ice/Dark Defender? SoA's are tough sons of bitches and the Ice/Dark (or Ice/Rad) gives great defence and enemy debuffs too

Ok?

That would work The point of the warning is that they are then able to make an informed decision. If they read (or skip) the warning, they have nobody else to blame but themselves if they run into trouble and fail. I believe some missions Gold side already come with such warnings - so it's very unlikely to be a difficult thing to implement.

Given how easy it is to get to 40 without barely stepping outside of the AE and/or doing the easy boost missions (DFB/DIB et al) I disagree. Especially when it's so difficult to get a lower level team in the current game.

Perhaps the issue here is not the Difficulty Level per se - because most players are veterans and have been playing a long time and experienced. But for newer players (and there are quite a few) that can be problematic. I know from my own experience some missions are much tougher than others. Maybe there's a need for a caveat warning to alert newer players to the fact that some missions are meant for more experienced players and they can then choose whether to accept it

If you wanted to play something more team oriented I'd offer a couple of choices with solid debuffs and great attacks - a Poison/Water Defender - great for debuffing enemies, especially AVs and water gives a very good attack chain If you wanted something offering more control a Poison/Dark Controller - again the excellent debuffs and the Dark gives you a some solid holds and -ToHit. You haven't mentioned PVP but this is very solid that way and both can be built relatively inexpensively If you want to buff your team then anything with Thermal is very useful, but less easy to play solo than the previous options. I'd especially recommend an Earth/Thermal controller for its top class controls and excellent team buffs. Rocky is also a very solid [sic] pet

Sorry if some people are getting bogged down on this thread might need a GM to come wipe it, or at least go through the motions.

Great I sent you a DM

Garrett stole the real deal long before the Rikti invasion.

I love Knockback as a power. It's great for mitigation and controlling the battlefield. The biggest issue with it is when a ranged player (eg Energy Blaster) targets through a melee toon and blasts that opponent into the distance. We need less knockdown and more knockback

I am very unsure what your point is here. I make my own characters in a pre-existing universe here. Scarlet Shocker exists in Paragon City but there is also an iteration of her in The Secret World. (Although she's different there for obvious reasons.) Would I make Capt John Sheridan in Star Trek Online? Absolutely not, and Batman has done battle with Predator so I'm not sure that particular crossover analogy works well. I'm not naturally a fan of crossovers - I always find their denouement to be exceedingly dull because for the most part all the protagonists have to come out smiling and happy, which is dull, because almost nothing has changed in either universe. I don't feel it necessary to give anyone a finger, v, middle or otherwise, when they are providing content to entertain me. I am not so entitled that I expect them to think I have some right for them to provide me with a thing that isn't part of their thing.

a) you are completely derailing this thread with something irrelevant to the subject at hand b) I'm not interested or responsible for what happens in Hollywood or the wider movie industry. They pay fortunes to decide what will play well for an audience. c) in City of Heroes, the audience is largely the creator of the toon. I don't think there is a single person in the known universe who gives a shit about Scarlet Shocker's back story, aside from me. TL;DR - Hollywood produces shit for mass markets to make money. Gamers play their own fantasies within an environment. Apples and Oranges

Ridiculous, specious point. Profit is their motive rather than imagination!

they have expensive lawyers who will say it's "a tribute" HC doesn't have that kind of clout.

There's also Squadron Supreme which is Marvel's take on the JLA. But just cuz Marvel did it (and don't even mention Swamp/Man-Thing) doesn't mean we can, or should.

That's comparing apples and oranges I love many characters I grew up with but I also love my own creations. If I were to cosplay, it strikes me that making my own CoH characters would fall flat because they wouldn't be recognizable to a wider audience at a comic convention - but that isn't relevant to this thread. My point was merely that we have all the tools we need to create amazing, original and interesting characters without coming close to doing naughties to trade marks or copyrights and yet still having something that works well within our game.

These threads always make me sad. We have so many different archetypes, power sets. and costume pieces it's incredibly easy to come up with an original character that won't infringe any copyright and stands alone by itself - regardless of the fact that some powers are similar to existing comic book characters. There are plenty of legends out there that lend their powers to superhero tales as well. Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Sinbad, Gilgamesh and Perseus could all easily be reinvented for Paragon City with very little work and there could be no infringement there. I have never understood why people want to clone something borderline when they can make something unique, exciting and control their creation's back story.

We have toilets in our own bases, and also in many civilian and municipal buildings. There's even a famous one in Grandville where some guy seems to be suffering from the effects of the previous evening's phall. But whenever we go into an enemy base or lair, inhabited by those we must "defeat", they seem to have no sanitary facilities whatsoever. I understand that perhaps some of ghosts and demonic presences such as found amongst the Circle of Thorns may not require what we euphemistically refer to as "comfort breaks" but most of our adversaries are entirely human and thus I'd presume, have the same requirements that we all do. What the hell do Warwolves do? How do the Carnies manage? Are we to assume that Archvillains never get taken short? We have to do a significant number of missions in sewers, so it is not unreasonable to presume that ordure from billain bases should have at least rudimentary connections to them... but these are significant issues and one must conclude that generally most of those responsible for designing enemy bases are a bit... well... crap

That's fair comment. Personally I pretty much gave up on Incarnate lore after my first ever play through on live because I just find the story to be completely sub-par

I like this concept What shard do you play on mostly?

This is exceptionally unhelpful and unnecessary. The OP is specifically asking for guidance - which when trying to understand a concept is a pretty good strategy. To retort with such a worthless response comes across as small-minded and petty. Perhaps you should consider more carefully how you post in the future

much of it will depend on whether you take the lore as scripted and played as verbatim or whether you put your own spin on it. Personally I see them as physical manifestations of your own power, like some of the controller pseudo-pets that must be resummoned periodically. They cannot exist on their own - they need you as the PC to give them even a temporary life - and their form is whatever their caster wishes - usually a manifestation of creatures the caster has encountered and defeated previously.