50 and Out? Or Not?

[Herotu]

I barely play my 50 characters. 

I wonder why?

 

I recognise that Ouroboros exists, but;

• Is all the content at 50 Incarnate trials?
• Is there soloable stuff for 50s that isn't Ouroboros?

[Pyriold]

Soloable depends on your build, but generally you should do the number 6 arc, its pretty great and different. Then there are the dark astoria arcs of course.

I take it that you prefer to solo. If your build is very good, you can try to solo some TFs, like the ITF... for me the most fun TF of them all.

[Grouchybeast]

There are all the normal level 50 arcs, redside and blueside, which you don't need to play through Ouro since they're level-appropriate.  Doing all of those should take a while, before you even get to the Incarnate mission content.

[MoonSheep]

herotu - one of the most rewarding things i’ve done on my main is following the ouroboros badge guide (the badges you get for completing ouro arcs if enemies buffed, or no inspirations, enhancements etc)

 

even if you’re not into badging it‘s a really rewarding challenge to pass through a number of storyarcs from lvl 15 to 50 with a variety of debuffs/limitations applied depending on the challenge

 

a lot of the challenges made me think about the approach to take and strategic thinking - def recommend it

[Yomo Kimyata]

This is exactly why I issued my scrapper contest this thing here

 

I really enjoy getting progression on my characters, but when they hit end game I usually start anew.  So I'm trying to rethink that.

[Ukase]

When you ding 50, there's still a lot of things to do, outside of the incarnate path. 

You've read it already - ouroboros and badges. Just because you've dinged 50 doesn't mean you can't revisit arcs you've not done on any given character. 
And do I need to open up the HC Wiki and search for level 50 contacts? Nah, you can do that. 

Off the top of my head, Crimson, Unai Kemen, Maria Jenkins, Harvey Meylor, and that's just on blue side. 
There's also more than a few Sig Story Arcs that have broad level ranges that are good for teaming or solo play. 

There's also the shadow shard. It's an area most of us overlook; we tend to only think of Dr. Q and the other shard TFs. But there's three contacts in FBZ, and pretty sure there's more in the other shadow shard zones. The only down side is there are no story arcs. Just repeatable missions. No badge missions, either. But, plenty of Rularuu to tackle for some defeat badges, if that becomes an interest. 

 

RWZ has several arcs that can keep you busy for a little while. 

Much depends on what content you did while leveling. If you're like me and you do Maria Jenkins' arc at level 45, then when you ding 50, she's not going to give you any more story arcs. Same with some of the contacts in RWZ; if you leveled up doing Gaussian's arc, then when you're 50, no more arcs from him. 

Obviously, even with Ouro, there is a limit to how many story arcs you can do at 50 before you're repeating content. But, for the most part, there are dozens of vet levels of play left before that happens. 

[Luminara]

I leveled my characters to 50 because they were enjoyable.  I continue to enjoy them long after I've "run out" of content.  There are always tips and scanner/paper missions, RWZ/Cimerora/DA timed missions, etc.  Never "nothing to do", only "nothing I feel like doing with this character right now".

[Greycat]

My characters are characters. They're not done at 50 if I'm not done with them, and it has nothing to do with game content. *shrugs* Most of the time, I don't frankly care what level they're at.

[biostem]

The issue for me is that being able to advance my character is a big draw that gets me to play them - once I hit 50 and get all my Incarnates unlocked, there's a little further advancement via IOs, but beyond that, I get a feeling of stagnation.  While I do enjoy revisiting many of them, it sometimes feels like I am spinning my wheels, so to speak...

[Doomguide2005]

     I don't really emotionally understand this question.  Intellectually perhaps I do but from my point of view the entire game is there to do at 50.  Ouro isn't the only way to do lower story arcs.  Exemplar is a thing.  And there's level 50 stuff as well.  If I enjoy my character level really doesn't matter ultimately.

[Paragon Vanguard]

No one even mentioned the PvP stuff you can do (and I don't mean actual PvP) when you are lvl 50 if you are bored with other content. I know the rule of thumb is don't do PvE in a PvP zone, but it almost doesn't apply with so few (have never run into anyone) PvPing. I hear it called out for, literally only twice, but have never run into anyone in PvP zones. So I go do some of the content or street sweep to kill time, since everything will be your level no matter which zone you go in, or more you will be at the zone level. Just tossing that out there. 

[Six-Six]

I'm not too fond of league-sized runs myself. I feel like I'm the only headless chicken running around not accomplishing anything. Other than that, the entire Ouroboros lore doesn't appeal to me, but they do have that nifty Pillar (of which I got a knock off and put it in my gloomy dystopian base--Ouro's too dang bright). 

Like Lumi, I enjoy the levelling up journey of figuring out how to not to die with what powers and slots I have available at the time. depending on my notoriety settings, I get to do most of the content at-level, I rarely turn off XP and never get XP boost. By the time my toon dings 50, I go to the Pillar and do the missions I missed, and some missions over. But generally, after a toon becomes 50 (I actually start to lose interest around 45+ because of power creep, but 50 brings closure), I fire up another spanking new character. So many alts so little play time.

Due to the recent Page 4 free respec and tailor coupons, I've been revisiting my old toons. I realise that yes, I do miss stepping into their shoes (each of them has a different personality that takes over me when I play them--even when I take my meds). A lot of them I wouldn't mind playing again or still. The only thing that's keeping me from doing that is the attraction of novelty, and maybe the lost muscle memory of the attack chain. I also realised that some of my 50s I'd rather not play again... unless by some divine bolt of enlightenment I figure out what I'm doing wrong with their build and play style. However, they're already 50 and it seems a shame to discard them.

[Clave Dark 5]

Often by the time I hit 50 I'm either getting slightly bored of the toon (I'm so sorry my children!), or - more likely - have a new shiny to poke at instead.  I have had a fair amount of fun from pulling them out once in a while for a spin or three though.  My most current "new 50" was a stunt build with lots of TP powers to jump around the battlefield; now that he's 50 and I have all the slots in place, he's not too shabby!  I intend to hop around with him a fair amo8unt for a bit, but I'm already looking at a new Controller too... or maybe a Dom???

 

The Incarnate grind after 50 doesn't grab me that much, but I'm also not against it if I have a 50 I really like playing.  I have an MM I tend to do a lot of BAFs and solo Tips with, for instance.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Clave Dark 5

[Luminara]

13 hours ago, biostem said:

The issue for me is that being able to advance my character is a big draw that gets me to play them - once I hit 50 and get all my Incarnates unlocked, there's a little further advancement via IOs, but beyond that, I get a feeling of stagnation.  While I do enjoy revisiting many of them, it sometimes feels like I am spinning my wheels, so to speak...

 

I'm constantly tweaking my level 50 characters.  The more I play them, the more I find things I can remove, replace, revise, and there's usually a lot of room for change because I tend to get stuck in a rut when I'm building, using the same IOs on everything, chasing the same set bonuses, making the same decisions even when they don't make sense or serve no purpose.  Why do I have the 5% +Res (All) unique on a character who never gets hit because everything is always mezzed?  Get rid of it!  Do I need a fifth attack for a character with a perfect attack chain using four powers?  No!  Can I wean myself off of all of this extra Slow Resistance I've accumulated and replace it with a little more Fire/Cold Defense?  Yes, I can!

 

It keeps the game fresh, even with characters that would otherwise be "done".  And that's a critical retention feature for me.  If this were another MMORPG, I'd be at max level and have no real path forward, nothing to do but level another character or wait for an expansion.  There are only so many ways you can adjust a "skill tree" build, whereas the flexibility of Co* offers almost endless possibilities, even within a single build.  And half the fun is testing theoretical improvements and seeing how they actually perform in the game.

[cotesan]

I like playing my toon, so now he is vet 170.

[UltraAlt]

On 8/30/2022 at 7:52 AM, Herotu said:

Is there soloable stuff for 50s that isn't Ouroboros?

 

Most of the Tips are soloable, I think.

There are the "Who will die?" and "Pandora's Box" story arcs (see them in LFG under the Story Arc tab). I think those can be solo'd.

Police Scanner/Newspaper missions can be solo'd.

There are actually story arcs in the AE (oh, no! This AE mission isn't a farming mission!?! How is that possible?!? Farmer rage quit) and most of those can be solo'd as well.

[Neiska]

I continue to play several of my 50s even after they are fullly T4'd. My main is my Robot/Electric mastermind, with my main backup is my Crabber SoA. The MM is vet level 400, the Crabber is 100 or so. Most activities I do is Farms, run random PI missions, do random things with friends, badge hunt, sometimes playing Ouro missions, and so on.

 

Personally I think there is more to do at 50 than in 1-49.

[Random Axis]

Plenty of good suggestions, but there's nothing wrong with getting to 50 and starting a new character if you want. If you like leveling more than the incarnate stuff, play the game however you like.

[pawstruck]

I have crippling alt-itis, but I personally think that the character creator is at least 50% of this game.

 

Nothing here demands a ridiculous level of skill or knowledge, so CoX is really just about playing pretend (RPG) to me. It's actually a little embarrassing, lol. I should probably be channeling this creativity and love into something real/productive...

[DoctorDitko]

If I'm playing my 50s, it's usually because someone wants help with a cool TF or story arc, and I have the perfect specialist for the job.

 

I don't build so that Incarnate powers "fix" my build, so exemplaring holds little fear (and I don't hate having a few extra powers and inspiration slots when exemplared).

 

The only Incarnate power I actually grind for is Destiny's "teleport everyone you've ever met, plus their friends and relations" power  (with a 2 minute recharge)!

Love that thing!

 

 

[Clave Dark 5]

16 hours ago, DoctorDitko said:

The only Incarnate power I actually grind for is Destiny's "teleport everyone you've ever met, plus their friends and relations" power  (with a 2 minute recharge)!

Love that thing!

I just got that for the first time for thematic reasons and so far find I don't use it much.  How do you use it?  Rush from mish to mish and TP the team?  Stealth a lot?

[DoctorDitko]

It's a great way to turn a Doctor Q TF from a day-long grind into a 2-hour funfest.

 

When hunting GMs, it can bring everyone to the spawn point when it happens.

 

Halloween event, the whole ToT league can bounce from gate to gate, with side trips to hunt GMs.

 

Hami raids, when a Golden Dawn happens, you can get everybody out of the pool in seconds.

 

That sort of stuff.

 

[Snarky]

There is a metric crapton of content (non OURO!) available at 50.  It will require alignment switching to catch it all.  All 35-50 content, all 40-50 content, and all 45-50 content.  This is a LOT of play.  Just poke around the wiki for contacts in those level ranges.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Snarky

[Black Talon]

Have over a half-dozen 50s on Torchbearer at current, and am working toward getting my one Excelsior guy through the 40s, slowly but surely.  I honestly have no difficulty in taking My Boys, who have officially reached retirement age, out and working on a selection of police scanner/paper missions, even though I've done pretty much all of them several dozen times over.  The question of why? occurs...and it's largely because of the visual/audio aspect.  I am never going to get tired of my Storm Summoner/Electric Blaster calling up Lightning Storm and turning Council Boss X into a convulsing worm, praying for a quick death, or my Martial Arts/Super Reflexes guy pulling off the mega-windup Eagle Claw (no, there's no way in the name of God and all His little angels I'd ever attempt something like that in real life, but still) on Council Boss Y, scoring a critical and turning his head into a pumpkin dropped from the top of the Sears Tower.  I've stated it before, and will state it again: the Devs and CGI/audio artists outdid themselves with this game, especially considering the limitations of the time.  Looking forward to my not-so-defensive Defender once more hitting Gale, throwing that Circle of Thorns mage into the wall, calling up Freezing Rain and then zapping him till I just can't zap no more.

[Jawbreaker]

If anything, the main thing that changes for me when a character dings 50 is Incarnate stuff. The incarnate system just doesn't work for a lot of characters I have, concept-wise. Which sucks because it can limit endgame content for me as far as teaming goes, but it is what it is.