Kelenar

Assertion that everything the OP mention was caused by AE farming and/or marketeers and that aforementioned groups are willfully attempting to destroy the game.

Is it weird that I'm most excited about the Posi revamp and extra mission slots?

I've gotten them pretty low from weird sources, like mentioned above. As far as just beatin' guys up, see Paragon Wiki.

It sort of depends on what you want to be unkillable against. Some sets, like Willpower, Dark Armor, and Invulnerability, can have different results depending on how much cannon fodder is around. Things that will be practically invincible in many circumstances would be not so much while, say, facing down a fully-buffed STF Recluse alone, while some things that can tank him alone wouldn't do so well in other situations.

If they're doing a major overhaul anyway, all the little things we can't have now for gameplay or engine reasons, like...

• Powers that do knockback toward the user
• Cottage Rule breaking overhauls of existing sets.
• Weapon customization that extends to the actual type of weapon (like allowing a crossbow to be used for Archery)
• Toxic defense.
• Powers that reflect damage or cause damage to enemies who hit the user.
• Asymmetrical costume pieces and more attachment points for costume pieces altogether.
• More spots for costume pieces to hook on.
• Animated costume pieces. (But not animated hair, just to annoy GG.)
• Major overhaul of enemy damage types and resistance to spread some of the focus away from Smashing/Lethal on both ends.
• Non-total respecs.

If you've only been gone a few months, you haven't missed an issue, since the last released was Issue 16 in September. It's mostly been some smaller changes while the team works on Going Rogue. New cape mission for heroes, Martial Arts Pack, new Halloween event (which still triggers sometimes like zombie invasions), and the addition of a Walk power... bits and pieces here and there, but no huge updates that spring to mind.

Agreed on Terra Volta vs. Superspeed.

Dunno, I've always liked SJ in Steel Canyon, but that might be because I like how it has so many densely-packed tall buildings so you can actually bounce from building to building easily, like God intended. As long as you don't go through the center of the zone, they're still low enough that you can make a beeline for wherever you're headed. I think it might not so much be that SC is bad for SJ as it is that it's one of the better zones for SS.

I found Grandville to be very problematic for Teleport. With obstacles in all directions, it's hard to get a clear line of sight to anywhere, and you never know when you'll pop into existence next to a wall covered in Banes with web grenades...

See above for the standard disclaimer on taking the alpha vs. tanking. That said, of my Defenders... My FF/Dark, Dark/Elec, and Traps/Dark can take alphas with the best of them. My Storm/Elec, Storm/Archery, and Rad/Dark all do pretty decently at it if the spawns aren't too big or mez-filled (especially indoor for the stormies). Only my TA/Archery and Cold/Ice aren't that great at it, and even the TA/Archery can do pretty well on a few mobs in a pinch.

Several back in the day, and a slightly smaller scale one recently.

The huge huge huge huge necessity is finding other characters that actually log on more than once a week, don't get abandoned for a new shiny alt after two days, and are willing to do something other than flirt, tell their backstory, or emote buying drinks. I've had pretty lousy luck with this end of things for the past year or so.