Emgro

1) Drink
2) Study for LSATs
3) Resist the potent urge to roll an Elec/Earth Dominator
4) Give in to said urge

*pops up from a previously nonexistent manhole and looks around*

What day? Yeah, not touching this one with a ten-foot pole. Also, hi.

*drops back into the floor*

*pops out of a manhole cover that wasn't there before, complete with wrist brace and eyepatch*

I should probably run a WTF at some point.

Regarding making new characters, I'd sum up the three tutorial zones (assuming you have access to GR) as follows:

Hero: Atlas: Oldest tutorial that dumps into heroland, where you'll want to join a race-to-level-10 sewer team. Quickest, easiest start, assuming you want to be a hero character.

Villain: Mercy Island: Tutorial that dumps into villainland, where you'll join a team mass-running either Kalinda or Burke's missions until you hit somewhere between levels 8-12. Bit slower and tougher than starting in Atlas, due to distance between missions and finding your way around. Only applies if you want to be a villain.

Nota bene: Many people HATE the villain starting area. Some people hate the entirety of redside (City of Villains; blueside is City of Heroes). Some of those people have posted in this thread. I prefer the more unified visual theme of the Rogue Isles, with their improved graphics and gritty, dirty feel to Paragon's unevenly themed and designed zones, some new, some old. I won't say you'll like it as much as I do, but I do suggest you try both at least somewhat.

Praetorian start: This can be done with either a hero or a villain. The newest of the tutorials, it is somewhat better written and much better looking than the other two. It also allows you to move into the much more interested Praetorian morality missions. There is one big problem: once done the tutorial, you will find many of the Praetorian enemies to be oddly tough, making the game seem hard.

My advice would be to start with a villain, complete the tutorial (the Zig) and get the character to Mercy Island. Then log out and make a hero, and run that tutorial. Pick whichever you prefer to continue with, or keep experimenting.

I thought Radiation damage was energy, not toxic? Or maybe I'm losing my marbles, not having played Radiation Blast since I5 or so.

Shouldn't Dark be pretty solid for it? Decent toxic resist, good resistances across the board, easier to buff defense than some sets, and resistance to slows and end drain. Plus, Dark's end issues aren't as bad when you aren't running Death Shroud/CoF/OG (none of which affect him in any meaningful way).

My Earth/Psi dom felt that way, whenever the difficulty was too low.

"Here, let me drop this, and this, and then this one, and then I'll charge in and kill everything... wait, guys? Guys? DAMMIT."

The defense debuffs (slotted up, I don't remember why I did that) in quicksand and earthquake generally meant white or yellow mobs evaporate on most teams. So after quicksand-earthquake-stalagmites, I'd usually charge into melee to fire off DP and attacks only to find nothing left.

*gets run over, because apparently, that's what Emgro does*

Dark is an awesome choice, for nearly every situation. I've played Dark Miasma on every AT that can take it, and it's always nice to have.

Other options for powerset include Kin (already got a booster for that, and the brute will love brute crack, also known as Speed Boost), and while not everybody likes it, Thermal is a nice set. It's got a good mix of heals, shields, and debuffs, meaning you will have plenty of time in combat to blast since you'll shield beforehand and drop the debuffs pretty quick.

*wander in wearing a tie and wrist brace*

Greetings, Rookerarians.

Jury duty was dutifully performed. And by jury duty, I mean sitting in a room for four hours, waiting to see if I got picked for a trial. Done for two years, and home shortly after noon. I love how my county does it.

*unhelps with cleaning up by pouring melted butter on Fedor's donut crumbs*

*comes in with a wrist brace*

I got hit by a car at work today. Specifically a van. Hellz yeah!

It's not hard for a player to make a teenage or childlike character. The devs have allowed and to an extent, encouraged that with some of the costume options. So I wouldn't complain about that too much.

As for child NPCs, there's always Baby New Year. Creepier'n hell, and that explains why there aren't more of them.

Booyah. And I say again, booyah.

I'd steal bacon from a puppy. Pretty evil, eh?

Carnival, eh? So if I win these games, I get a cursed mask as a prize?

I have to admit, playing characters that fit into the game world is much more conducive to spontaneous RP than grab bag selections from other genres. For instance, a team made up of:

An actual Praetorian, acting like one
A legit evil mastermind-type villain from the Isles
An expat hero, whether full-on evil or just vigilante
An SOA as an SOA, whether formal or on Destined One discharge

Is ripe with all kinds of potential.

Some characters fit into the game world better than others, and it's much easier to get compatibility when all that lines up.

Emgro's mini-guide to attempting a team Redside during off hours.

Step 1: Watch Broadcast for 5-10 minutes, looking for the following:
People looking for a team
Teams recruiting
People looking for help with a mission
Lvl 50s looking for a mayhem

Step 2: Assuming you can't join someone else's during the wait, you should have a basic idea of what's going on activity-wise. This is when you start recruiting.

Ways to recruit:
Broadcast that your team is LFM and PST for invite.
Move to an adjacent (in terms of level range) zone and broadcast again.
Recruit anyone who was LFT in broadcast.
Open the Find menu and look for anyone in a decent level range who is flagged as looking for any team or a mission team. Send them a polite tell asking if they'd like to join a team.

Is my Redside experience at 2PM EST (I work very early, so get off early too) a constant string of 8-man steamrollers? No, but I have yet to be unable to ring up three or four people for a decent start, and manage to keep recruiting between missions to replace losses and increase team size.

Sure, Redside might be dead, but I like it anyway.

*steps in, looking serious*

Mentlegen...

Have you ever noticed, that when you can fix almost everything, nobody wants to believe it when you can't fix something?

Welcome back!

My knowledge of the Sinestro Corps is limited to something about yellow, but I forget what. That being said, if you're back from a very long break, power customization allows you to modify colors and sometimes, textures, so you can use it to re-theme a number of powers to suit your taste now.

As for the other, the only thing in lower demand is Scrappers, and everyone always wants more team support. Which includes: Masterminds, Controllers, Defenders, Corruptors, VEATs, and to a certain extent, also Dominators. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. So play what you enjoy, although if you plan on teaming alot, I would suggest any of the above except Mastermind unless you particularly enjoy it, since I find them a bit dull.

I'm off from work today, but it's my only day off in the next fourteen days (work 13 of them, have jury duty on the remaining one). So grinding missions furiously on my new redside tanker while I can.

I'll check my stable of alts and see what I have near 50 for that then.

Someday I need to learn how those work. Though I'd need a 50 I actually like for that.

See, what Dechs won't tell you is that Dark Armor has a big KB hole, leaving you vulnerable to being knocked up in RP.

For an off-the-wall suggestion, maybe a fire/fire dominator? You're surprisingly tough when the enemies can't attack, and the damage is pretty solid.

Do the old-fashioned brawl-only MAN builds count?