Fulmens

I've never seen any evidence for [or against] "pool A" recipes being weighted. It doesn't FEEL like I get more melee damage than snipes, which is of course utterly scientific I've also never seen any evidence for or against purples being weighted.

As far as linguistic subtleties, I don't see dividing up "random rolls after beating some guy" and "random rolls standing in front of a vendor" as a useful distinction. I could be missing something.

Welcome to the game!

One warning: People often post "suggested builds" that are ... not for new players. That's a kind way to put it.

There should be "Suggested build" bingo:
The free space in the middle is "Designed for level 50."
Some of the other spaces:
- Costs ten billion inf [Everything's free in Mid's Hero Designer!]
- Works really badly when you exemplar down [e.g. under level 28 has only one attack]
- Math Does Not Add Up
- Only includes the data chunk from Mid's, not the actual slotting
- Important powers slotted for set bonuses, not actual functionality

I'm going to give you some "Very new player" advice. Some of this is bad advice if you're an advanced player- but it will work well enough.
1) Pretend there is no Invention System, for starters. Sell every piece of salvage and every named recipe for 1 inf. If it stays on the Auction House for more than ten seconds, take it back and sell it to a vendor.
2) You should have enough inf that you can always afford to have white-to-green enhancements: single-origin at level 22, dual-origin at level 12. This works because Wentworth's prices are so very much higher than store prices; you can give people good bargains and still have plenty of money.
3) Slot your attacks for two accuracy, as many damage as you can get [DO's] and one accuracy, three damage [SO's]; slot your defensive toggles (Defense, Resistance, Heals) for their main function with DO's, and "one End, three main function" with SO's.
4) Hit stuff!

... oh, I didn't answer the actual question. If you like the ice tank, play the ice tank! The Mace/Willpower brute will be simple and strong. The blasters will be fairly simple and very strong in the early levels, and suddenly you'll start getting killed a lot. (If it was me I'd play the rifle instead of the pistols, because I hate Devices. You are not me, so this advice may not apply to you.)
I don't have enough experience with Soldiers and Widows to talk about them intelligently.

Hi Belle!

Other people can come along. They don't get a Hero Merit unless they have ten Alignment Missions done, but they do get credit for doing an Alignment Mission.

o hai yomo- I got your purple. Soloing a FF defender at +0/x1 .

'Sokay, it was a Confuse.

Bru' tal is now a paid up member of the guild. (And the next 3 billion inf gets us TWO slots!)

I just listed an 80 million inf item at 20 million. It sold for 41MM.

So there was a discussion about music on TheMarket. Specifically, the "Buy It Nao Fight Song." My first though was this, but I was cheering for the wrong side.

Anyone got a better idea than "Wrap it up", by the Fabulous Thunderbirds?

We can rule you wholesale, credit where it's due!

Donation received, earmarked, sitting safely on character. Will be delivered tomorrow.

In other news, Bru' Tal has put pools in the main room. Pools of tears. You can swim in the tears of the impoverished.

It's inspiring!

We have a base builder! Please welcome Master Tinkerton to the SG. By which I mean "make it rain." It takes 2 billion inf into prestige to be promoted to where you can do base edits. [I promoted them on spec.] I'm still a little short on cash after my last melodrama,but I can sponsor at least a billion. Anyone want to help sponsor?

AE tickets: Out of curiousity, I took a L15 [or so] character, locked XP, paid for an AE run, and rolled bronze.

I paid 10M and got income of something like 60M, but I only tried it once...

Sorry I haven't been donating recently! I cleared myself out of inf and started over from scratch.

Just dropped 1.2 Bn into the pot, and now we're #19. Getting a base any day now!

Oh, and if you DO go for Field Crafter, don't get all the way though the crafting and realize you've forgotten to get Inventor. It's a monstrous anticlimax.

Reasons to get it that I know of:
1) You're a badger
2) You spend a disproportionate amount of time crafting things
3) You like shinies
4) Something To Do.

As far as neat freaks: I did have a friend who actually took all the salvage out of each rack and re-added it in alphabetical order. (You need a near-empty rack to do this, obviously.)

Are you farming because you love to crush the weak? Or for inf? (I ask because farming Wents is a very, very profitable activity and you can do it on a L17 defender.)

The Level 2 PI Race isn't what it used to be, that's for sure.

("get shot in Steel Canyon" being one of the great shortcuts)

Dammit, Yomo! Some of us are buying at 2.5 Bn and selling at 2.9 Bn here!

(Yeah, I know where I'm going to slot it when I get stuck holding one in the big collapse.)

I had an issue with stuff from email being stuck in limbo and trying to get it out.

The item in question was a billion inf.

Exciting!

... Yeah, if you want to see most of the people playing type /search .First it will show you everyone in zone, but if you make any selections [or none] and hit the button again it will show you everyone on your side [H or V] in the game, 50 at a time.

As far as "I still have base-building, super-groups, inventions, recipes, architect, and a ton of other things to take in as well":
Base-building: Very much optional. Maybe I've been lucky that I've always had friends who thought it was a cool toy, but I've never built a base with more than one room in my entire 7 years.
Supergroups: SOMETIMES they can work like "Guilds" in other games. USUALLY they're just a background layer of socialization and occasional help. But I had a group of friends in the game before they put SG's in so my experience may not be your experience.

Inventions and Recipes: I'm going to give you some sort-of-bad advice. Don't play with inventions on your first character at all. Sell everything you get (recipes, salvage) for 1 inf at Wentworth's. You'll give a lot of people some great bargains not make nearly as much inf as you could... and you'll still have way more than enough inf for regular dual- and single-origin enhancements. Once you have your feet under you, you can make money and build inventions if you like; we on the Market Forums have secrets for making money and we do not shut up about them, ever.

Architect: Given the ability to build and run anything you can think of, most people build and run stupid, pointless, linear, farms. I can't blame them much- it's really hard to create something that's got a good story, gives reasonable rewards, works for small AND large groups, doesn't instakill players, and doesn't make players miserable because every one of your minions has Caltrops (or whatever. ) If you want to try Dev's Choice and Hall of Fame arcs, you'll probably have an entertaining experience. But the same also applies if you're running the original story arcs that shipped with the game for the first time.

Welcome to the game!

... traditionally, the heads on pikes went on the high, difficult-to-defeat wall around the place, it is true.

If we go Mad Max level, your best investment is good shoes and weatherproof clothing; second best is some way of purifying water; lawyers guns and money are way down on the list.

Edit: found my source.
"You can live to be ninety without a Rambo knife, but hypothermia and dehydration will kill you deader n'dirt by this time tomorrow."

You're fighting with your channel window open?
Some of your windows are at a much larger scale than others?
You're in Talos Island in a group called No Heroes Allowed?

... it's the costume, isn't it?

Oh, I'm no good at these things.