Gulbasaur

Ah, my mistake!

Comparing WoW to CoH isn't really fair. WoW is still top five in terms of MMO population with many servers hitting tens of thousands of "active" players (whatever that means). Homecoming seems to have plateau'd a while ago at around 1k off-peak, 2k peak. While it would be nice to see them regularly at the 2k point, the majority of CoH players are, I would suspect, nostalgia junkies. CoX was never one of the top games in terms of numbers when it was live, so I wouldn't expect it to see those numbers on a private server.

I think the term is "pool boy" for that kind of build. A few people have done it! Warshades are very good at buffing themselves to higher damage and higher survivability, provided you're always in the thick of it in melee. You'll also be dipping in and out of human form, though.

I was actually thinking of Eden - it's a really atmospheric zone with very reason for players to visit it.

Hmm. From experience, tankers are actually very good solo. They were, in my opinion, slight over-buffed when they were reworked. Stalkers are a fun solo option. Defenders do more damage solo, so are more competitive in that department than you might think.

I haven't used the XP boost for a long, long time. Like @Snarky, I'm a story player. I try to hit every mission in a level band that I think fits the character. I've spent more time with XP paused than with a XP boost active. I don't think I'm rare in this, though - my good missions guide has had over forty-seven thousand views and the villain equivalent has had over sixteen thousand. There are dozens of us! Dozens! Weirdly, I see it recommended by other people, which is really gratifying to see. I've actually been recommended my own guide before. Anyway, my real answer: Peacebringers and Widows. Widows are the least-picked archetype and peacebringers are often seen as a weak choice in the post-IO game. They are so much fun. I'll take a jack of all trades over a master of one any day. Also, exploration badges - there's some really nice map design out there that has literally no relevance to anything else in game, other than it looks cool and some dev clearly enjoyed themselves, all those years ago.

Define "end-game", really. You can absolutely play shape-shiftin' peacebringers up to and including incarnate content. Dawn Strike and Photon Seekers do a very respectable amount of AoE damage. The melee attacks in human form are clunky because their cooldowns mean they don't slide easily into a melee rotation, but they hit like a truck. Incandescent Strike deletes quantums and void hunters. Human form also has a number of click buffs, including a heal, and HP boost, a damage boost and an endurance discount. The other big one is LIght Form - it brings your damage resistances up to Dwarf numbers, but allows you to keep using the heavy-hitters. If you've got permanent Light Form or are on a team and getting the passive resistance buffs, you're probably not lacking survival skills. This sort of eats into Dwarf's space unless you're tanking and need the aggro control and extra hit points. I think, fundamentally, both forms hit a plateau, but human form is a late-bloomer. The vast majority of "high tier" powers are only useable in human form... but they don't really "fit" until you've got enough of them to make it worth staying in human form. Nova's blast powers area great for the level you get them, but they never really get past the equivalent of tier 4 or 5 powers for other ranged sets - your nukes are in human form. Dwarf is mathematically one of the better resist-based tanks at the level you get it and does okay (but not spectacular) damage but ten levels later it's just a resist-based tank with no T9 power and your high damage melee attacks are in human form so you're middling tank doing middling damage. Personally, I think all three forms have a place. By 50, I slide into human form for big damage numbers and self-buffing, hit nova and rain down balls of energy to keep up the pressure and drop into dwarf when I need a big sack of HP with a taunt on every attack. There's also the point about flashbacks, Ouroboros and exemplaring - you won't always be operating at top levels and sometimes being able to turn into a giant space lobster is exactly the right choice. Kheldians, having a solid toolkit quite early, scale down very well. @Doomrideris Homecoming's resident Kheldian-whisperer. The GD peacebringer guide is good, too.* The crafted IOs will generally take you all the way to top level to be replaced gradually. I'd recommend looking at the Archetype Enhancements, if only to get the Form Empowerment one - it's a flat damage boost to nova and then some other bits that aren't nearly as useful. The usual suspects (the two 3% defence boosts, performance shifter etc) are probably with slotting too. * although I feel like there is a better pun somewhere (c.f. the MF/MultiForm/MotherFumblin' Warshade). OP Peacebringer? Orl the Phorms? Go home, Gulbasaur.

I'm concept all the way down, even if the concept is "let's see how hard I can break X". I really like matched sets. Rad/rad on a melee artchetype is small scale AoE glory. Dark/dark on a melee archetype has nice synergy, particularly as one compensates for the other's shortcomings (low defence, but lots of -ToHit, endurance heavy but an attack that restores endurance). Storm/water - strong area lockdown, very strong power combo synergy, knockdown can convert to recharge via procs and Storm scales in efficiency hard with extra recharge. Dark/dark on a corruptor is cones-a-go-go and the -ToHit stacks very quickly. This is one of the best puns I've ever seen:

Well, sentinels ain't exactly squishy...

The trapdoor test is probably a good one to run. It's a very straighforward "actual mission" with mixed enemy types.

MIDS isn't 100% accurate and likes to apply certain bonuses by default and then not apply others. Anything situational (like both the Corruptor and Blaster inherent powers) has to be set up correctly by the user or you get results like you did. It's generally excellent, but it gets quirky when powers get quirky. Those numbers are with Scourge applied all the time and without Blasters' inherent giving additional damage buffs. Personally, I think blasters are one of the weaker archetypes and their main contribution is often that you can cast Vengeance on them while they hold floor aggro, but they're not that bad.

You can continue it until the end of an arc. If you start the contact at level 9, you can keep going until that story arc is done. You can always finish an arc you've started. There are a couple of contacts that give you more than one story arc (more common redside, though), so make sure you don't outlevel the next story arc.

It's definitely a thing. I think a lot of endgame builds seem to be designed to be totally self-contained with massive recharge, stamina and defence buffs, and that's against the spirit of an MMO, especially one with such a cool buff and debuff system as CoX. It's not uncommon to have like +90% in defence buffs floating round when you hit level 45 and at that point it just becomes a mob grinder. I'm a big fan of slow levelling - pause your XP at any levels with a 4 or a 9 at the end and only move on when you're ready. I'm currently enjoying "self-sufficient" character levelling, where you don't just shit a load of inf on a character at level 1. It makes the game much more interesting. It's also pretty easy to find groups of 3-5 players if you run mission teams - a lot of players don't really want to run the same 3 task forces week after week. Mid-level builds tend to be more chaotic and less I-can-solo-everything and this means that the game feels more challenging. There's a sweet spot around the time that players hit Founders Falls, in my opinion, where characters are quite well rounded but not overpowered. Writing "chilled out" in the the LFG if you post seems to instantly increase the quality of team if you're not clock-watching. I play on Everlasting and RP-friendly groups are often the most fun to roll with because people tend to have a bit of a sense of humour and not focus completely on converting mobs into inf.

I think that's probably a large part of it. I was unemployed for a significant chunk of the pandemic and I inhaled MMOs because they were a social activity. City of Heroes was a big nostalgia trip and GW2 is good for achievement hunters and boy howdy did I hunt achievements.

"Smoke inhalation from too much fire farming," diagnosed Doctor Fortune, whose doctorate was definitely not in medicine.

Me? Assuming everyone on the internet is American until proven otherwise? Never. I'll just be over here quietly eating marmite on crumpets fight me, you know I'm right and drinking ale that is brewed to be drunk at cellar temperature in the same manner that red wine should not be chilled, causing some people to assert that it is "warm", contemplating the finer points of morris dancing.

I think this is very much the case. Occasionally, you get people on reddit using the drop-off from 2019 numbers as evidence that HC is on its way out, but the reality is that a few people came for the novelty and figures have been pretty stable. Also, I'm English so write the dates as DDMMYY and wondered why you were using an incredibly detailed view of early January to base your numbers on... but you're probably North American so dates are MMDDYY. Homecoming numbers are pretty stable, though. Certainly doesn't feel hard to get teams, and I've been playing in UK hours on an American server when half of you are still asleep.

During the Infiltrate the Skulls part of Eagle Eye's story arc, you're disguised as a Skull. All mobs are friendly, except for quantums, who spawn as enemies. Mobs do not react when you beat them up.

Arachnos welcomes tofu-eaters, free from prejudice. Throw away the shackles of Paragon City! Discard your petty grudges. Join Arachnos for appropriately cooked tofu.

It's purely the lack of customisation on the forms that bothers me. They don't grow beyond whatever buffs you slap on yourself.

One problem I have with Khedlians is that the forms plateau as soon as they get out the gate. Yes, tri-forms can buff up in an endgame build and become high maintenance magetanks, but so can anyone who can afford a few IO sets. The pool power the attacks are somewhat mediocre by design. They fill in gaps or add utility, without being overpowered. Kheldians don't even get epic or patron pools, so something that allows some customisation would be fantastic. Allowing dwarf form access to the Fighting melee attacks would allow for some variety and customisation. A nova form with access to Project Will isn't going to be a gamebreaker, but will allow players some customisation options on nova form past level 6.

Procs are fine. Set bonuses, on the other hand... there's no reason why a current game blaster should have the same defence and resist values as an early game tanker.

Storm is one of the odd sets that is arguably more suited to a defender. Lack of Scourge + high pet damage + higher debuffs on a defender mean that Storm Defenders slightly outperform Storm corruptors in terms of DPS, based on pylon testing. This particularly true solo when the Defender inherent power does increase pet damage.

There are a couple of good build threads if you dig a bit: and both have a number of good builds nestled into them. Unless you're really focussing on soloing +4x8 AVs all the time, I'd really suggest looking at a melee-focussed fortunata build - they've got a lot of utility at the cost of a handful of more powerful melee attacks and a little recharge. I think it's strongest (generally) if you lean towards a hybrid. Night widows play something like scrappers with a little stealth. Fortunatas play like dominators in armour. Welcome to Arachnos!

Defenders get a damage buff solo, so the difference can actually be cancelled out by stronger -res debuffs. There are a couple of supprt sets that edge defenders ahead of their corruptor equivalent, particularly solo and before taking damage procs int account.