Do you have a 'main'? What makes a main? What's the main things about your main that made it your main?

[DrInfernus]

I've always been a bit jealous of people who can settle on one alt they proudly proclaim to be their 'main'. Right now I only seem to want to play two characters (Dr Infernus, Fire/EM blaster, and Arctic Envoy, Cold/Water defender) and it's probably as close as I've ever come to having a 'main'. I dislike melee immensely so this way I have DPS and a support to pick from depending on what the team needs. However, the elusive 'main' is still beyond my grasp. 

 

Have I just not loved one particular toon yet enough yet? 

Am I just not capable of having a main?

Am I alone in that, or are others similarly-minded?

Do you have a main? 

If so, what is it that sets that particular alt apart? 

 

Many questions, no mains. Help me out here. 

[Bopper]

Mainly, it was his mane that made him my main man. 

[Clave Dark 5]

My mains tend to be toons I had such a blast playing that they rushed to 50 and then I built up with some good slotting and bothered to take Incarnates on.  Trouble is, then I sort of wander away and then find myself playing another toon all the time.  All my mains are listed in my sig.  Here and there I've pulled one out and done something simple with them, but then again I've also not been playing too much as of late, guess I got a little burned out.  But I always seem to get seduced away with a new toon, so I don't really have "mains" either.

[Jacktar]

Hi, have had two mains, one on live and one now on homecoming. 
My live main was a claws/sr scrappie and now is a fire/em blaster.

Both mains were also the first alt I created both times and both were/is my solo SG leader. ( too many boths but.....)

More importantly to me is that both were/is my Badging alt and as I am a badge hound had most badges( missed bug hunter and one other bah forget which) on live and am well on my way here.

So spend a lot of time playing main.

I used the prior knowledge from first main and ease/difficulty getting badges on it when deciding which AT was going to be main this time round.

I run solo usually so plumped for blaster and it has been a joy to collect with and a joy to run content with.

Oh one male and one female alt.

 

I do have a whole stable of other AT alts but my main is the go to one usually with the others as diversions and for a short change play.

Cheers

[Peacemoon]

Well I do have multiple characters, but only in the single digits. I’m not really into light flings with my characters and tend to go all in! I spend a lot of time on Mids trying to figure out a build I would enjoy or have fun with before I begin proper. If I can’t find a good balance between concept and gameplay fun then I lose interest. My favourite characters are when the concept aligns with fun gameplay. 

So I sort of have two “mains”.
My Rad/AR Defender, Fallout Engineer, who has a really fun concept and is super fun to play. Plus is really powerful both in teams and solo. He has the two canisters on his back, a gas mask, and uses flamethrower a lot (among other things!)

 

Then I have my “if I were a hero what would I be?” character. So this is where I try to imagine myself as a hero and what powers I would have (don’t we all have these thoughts?!). So that is Peacemoon, and I’d definitely be a psychic because I’m pretty mental lol...but I’m still struggling to finalise what he’d be. It’s either Mind/Psy Dom (who is currently stuck at 39), Mind/Empathy Controller, or Empathy/Psy Defender (just finished soloing praetoria with). Leaning more towards Defender since I’ve had so much fun on Fallout, and the powers fit me more I think. Problem is Peacemoon was a Mind/Storm Controller on Live, and I’d miss the Mind Control powers. 😕 Anyway...

 

A great antidote to altitis is badgitis. Pick a character with whom you want to get all those badges with. It’s too much work to do it on more than one character, so you really have to narrow it down to just one 😉

 

[FrauleinMental]

Most of my friends are altoholics--they're interested primarily in making a lot of comic book characters with different backgrounds, costumes, and power sets.

 

I'm quite the opposite--I fell in love with one character early on and spent a lot of time playing her (around 2,500 hours on Live, already 600 hours on HC).  I played mostly solo until the mid-40s early on Live, 8 months in 2006 to get to level 50, during which she was the only character I played.  I'd built up head canon for her on Live, continued it through the shutdown (Existential Shutdown Crisis, I've called it), and into her comeback on HC.  Badges are also a driver--she's almost to the Voyager badge (1232/1250 badges, as of a couple days ago).

 

I do have a handful of other 50s, but I could lump their play time together and not get close to my main.  (My second has around 60 hours of play on HC.)

[Greycat]

One thing to remember is that mains don't have to remain your main. And you can have "mains" aside from your main main.

 

When I started, I made a few characters trying to get a feel for the game. I eventually had an elec/elec blaster who was in an SG, who I'd started RPing, getting a feel for not just the powers but for the "person" I'd created. She was my "main" for years. Of course, she also ended up not being one character, having made her a PB when she hit 50 and continued her story from there. So the "main" was more the character than the specific name/AT/powersets. Eventually that faded away, I joined a different group and had another main - and alts. Oy, did I have alts. And that sort of became the pattern.

 

The main doesn't have to be the "most played," to me. It's more... the character you identify with, the one  you immediately think of when thinking of playing COH. It's not necessarily the most played, most IOd, highest level, etc. And it doesn't have to stay the same. Heck, you can even have sub-mains - an RP main, a PVP main, etc.

 

What a main is, in the end, is really up to you and what you feel it is. And it's perfectly fine not to have one. You have fruit salad instead of a main. 🙂

[seresibyl2]

I think my main is fire farmer, unfortunately... lol

 

[MangoKulfi]

Dark/Psi Defender

 

In online games, I like having a lot of tools to help the team.  It's my only character where I don't think I'm "missing something" other than the sword I'd be using if there was an Epic Pool that offered one.

[Marine X]

Marine X was my Main on Live and now on Homecoming. He is an Invulnerability / Super Strength Tanker. and was my first 50. I just identify with him more than any other character that I have and playing him is effortless. I soloed thru the Dark Astoria Storyline @ +4X6 and never died, granted it was slow going at times, especially the one with all the groups of Cyclops and the like but I got thru it, and got the Lone Wolf Badge. 2nd place would go to the Twins, Bubba ( Reunion ) and Sonny ( Everlasting ) Burns, ( Mutant Sons of Enos and Ophelia Burns of Rural Croatoa ) my Fire Armor/ Radiation Melee Brute Rednecks just because they get a lot of long stares, ( Not even the least bit Metro-Males ) and even though they weren't built for farming they do okay and are fun to play. They just aren't as Tough and comfortable for me as Marine is.

 

My Main Marine came from Maine mainly.

 

I do have other Toons I have brought back from the Abyss; Livingston ( Stone/Fire Tank ), A.C. Volt ( Electric/Electric Tank ), Warhorse ( Shield/War Mace Tank ), Gold fever ( Illusion/Kinetic Controller ), and Crimson Cage ( Peacebringer ).

 

I also have some new ones such as Major Meson ( Radiation/Radiation Tank ), Hawkstar ( Fire/Invulnerability Sentinel ), and Grimmwolf ( Bio Armor/Savage Melee Tank )

 

Still Play Marine More.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Marine X
I'm a Dumass...

[Xeres]

I have a main - a MA/WP Scrapper.  I like her theme the best and I just enjoy playing her the most.  This character was my main during live, and even though I've tried many other characters, this one is just the one I keep coming back to as my favorite.

[Heraclea]

I don't do 'mains', really.  Heraclea (Invuln/Dark Melee tanker) is probably my 'main', in that she was the first character I made, and  is one of the few characters I have to have full T4 incarnate stuff as well as a build that is basically finished.  And this means that she doesn't get played all that often any more, but I am happy to bring her out for master badge runs on task forces. 

 

She is not my badge collector, though,  She isn't going to be a villain.  I tend to distribute badge collecting among several characters rather than trying to collect them all on one, which I realize is kinda the point of the badges game.  Heraclea does specialize in the crafting badges.  Stealthists collect exploring badges, ranged DPS and control characters do incarnate stuff.

 

I have many niche characters.  Ice Minstrel (ice/plants blaster) goes to Hamidon, so when I need reward merits I turn to her.  La Faiseuse d'Anges (ninja/ninja stalker) unlocks locked content best unlocked on a stalker, while Jungle Jenny (rad melee/electric armor brute) also does this.  Pomba Gira (dual blades/fire brute) grinds inf for what can be bought with inf.  And so forth.  This is why I don't have mains, I have specialists. 

[ShardWarrior]

I recently remade my namesake main from MA/Regen to StrJ/Nin Scrapper. She always has been a lot of fun to play and I just have a fondness for the backstory I made for her. 

[Rathulfr]

My main is the character with which I most identify on an emotional level, the character I enjoy playing the most above all others, and the character that made me fall in love with the game in the first place.  For me, that was my original Energy/Energy Blaster, Rathstar, created in I1 or I2 (I wasn't there at launch, but I did join shortly afterwards in early 2004).

Edited May 22, 2020 by Rathulfr

[Coyotedancer]

Traditionally, the characters that I've called my Mains (Grey Kestrel, Palrah and Nemissary back-in-the-day. Kaikara here on Homecoming-) are the ones that are flat-out my favorites. The ones I have the most fun playing. The ones I'll tend to pick when I just want to play around instead of working on whichever member of the crew is 'in progress'. 

[EmmySky]

On live, my main was a defender to follow my (now ex) hubbys blaster.  She was my main because he always wanted to play that pair.

 

Now, if I had to declare a main it would be TankYou.  If I can't find teams with any of my (now 84) alts, I jump on her and chill in a fire farm.  If I see someone advertising awesome content I havent tried yet, I jump on her and join in.  She is primarily a farmer but is capable of any game content (that I have tried so far).

 

I have quite a few 50+ I can switch to to help out a team in whatever capacity they need, but I really enjoy the 1-25 journey the most so altitis reigns supreme 😁

[Bill Z Bubba]

My main is Bill Z Bubba. Prince of Hell. Claws and Super Reflexes Scrapper Extraordinaire. He's got 4 different bodies (tank, brute, scrapper, stalker) in a single universe (Excel.) Each body looks slightly different but all have the same horns, same white hair, same cigar, same wings, same tail, same hooves.

 

My main is the CoH virtual embodiment of how I see myself in real life. He didn't start out that way but he became it and often I become him. No, I don't mean I go on glorious killing sprees leaving behind a riverbed of dead and eviscerated bodies in my wake but I am a scrapper. I latch on to problems and I don't let go until they are resolved. I do share a penchant for destruction over creation, though.

 

Plus, you know, Hail Satan and all that. 🙂

[Uun]

My main and namesake (a MA/Inv scrapper) was the first character I made back in 2004. Remade him for HC after it became clear the servers weren't going to be wiped. 

[Troo]

Wait, we can have more than one character?!

[EmmySky]

15 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

No, I don't mean I go on glorious killing sprees leaving behind a riverbed of dead and eviscerated bodies in my wake but I am a scrapper.🙂

Mmhmm.  I bet you just say that to throw the cops off your trail 😝

[EmmySky]

6 minutes ago, Troo said:

Wait, we can have more than one character?!

No.

[Bill Z Bubba]

3 minutes ago, EmmySky said:

No.

I liked this just so you could have 666 post notes. Crap! I shoulda refreshed 1st.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Bill Z Bubba

[EmmySky]

1 hour ago, Rathulfr said:

...the character I enjoy playing the most above all others, and the character that made me fall in love with the game in the first place.  For me, that was my original Energy/Energy Blaster, Rathstar,...

For me that'd be Spitfire Flash, MA/regen scrapper of old, before all the regen nerfs and ED and such.  Untouchable!  

 

Yes, I am still sad.  😢

[Troo]

Mainstay = "the character I enjoy playing the most above all". This is a great definition.

 

Troo - The energy melee/regeneration stalker. All toons since are merely this little demon pretending to be someone else. The nerfs have been tough but he seems to always find a place.

[DrInfernus]

Some really interesting replies! 

 

I've actually never remade the character I played most back on live. In my had I think I had almost mourned him and made peace with his loss! Very silly, I know!