Lightfoot

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we like new people and don't bite

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LIES!! I like new people TO bite.

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LOL. There's a time and place for everything.

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...and that's college.

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Sorry for wasting your time, and when i really tried the game i will repost my opinion about this game.

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That's all we ask. It may still not be the game for you, but it is radically different from WoW, so most things will seem strange, or wrong, or counterintuitive.

This is why we often recommend that you forget all of the "conventional wisdom" you learned in other MMOs. They simply don't apply here.

For example:

The holy trinity of Tank, DPS, Healer doesn't exist here. Three Tanks, three Blasters, or even three Defenders can take on most challenges in the game. The strategies will need to change, based on what they are trying to fight, but the game itself is very forgiving to "non-optimal" teams and builds.

As a corrolary to the above, buffs are more valuable than heals. Our buffs are shorter duration than WoWs, but much more powerful. A good Force Field Defender can prevent far more damage from happening in the first place than a good Empathy Defender can ever heal. This isn't to say that the Empathy Defender isn't valuable, but the one who concentrates solely on healing is shortchanging themselves and their team (Empathy has some of the best buffs in the game).

The game is balanced on every hero or villain being able to take on three even level minions at once and win (or one minion and one lieutenant). At lower levels, some Archetypes will have an easier time than others at doing this. As you get better at the game and understanding which mobs pose the greatest threat to you, this ratio will increase. At level 50, my Scrapper thinks nothing of jumping into the middle of a dozen or more +1 enemies and lieutenants.

Don't be afraid to ask for help. This game is not the 800 pound gorilla of the MMO world. It is in our best interests to provide a positive gaming experience to every new player that walks in the door because every new player is valuable. In general, I think we succeed. I encountered a lot of jerks in my short time playing WoW. I think this is partly because the new player isn't considered as valuable. After all, there will be another chunk of fresh meat along within half a second after someone who "can't hack it" decides to leave.

Like I said, after your trial, you may still feel it isn't the game for you, and that's okay, at least you gave us a chance.

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hi guys,

now i tried city of heroes and i must say i'm not excited about it. the gameplay is not what i expected and the combat system is slow and not really impressive.

When i compare the gameplay to world of warcraft it's not even close. I didn't come further then a few levels, then i got bored by the game.

sorry to say this to the people that love the game

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Funny, I had the exact same impression from the first 10 levels of World of Warcraft. Combat for my low level Shaman was slow and plodding. I hated the fact that aggroing more than one or two even level critters was tantamount to suicide. The low level quests are, for the most part, uninteresting (okay, "raiding" the pirate lair was kind of cool). I REALLY hated the loot dropping system ("You need to get me six scorpion claws," but I needed to kill 12-13 before I had completed the quest because, for some reason, the scorpions I fought, which had claws when I was fighting them, suddenly lost them when they became corpses. Last time I checked, scorpions have two claws each, and none of the ones I fought looked handicapped. When CoH tells you to arrest ten Hellions, you only need to arrest ten Hellions) Nothing in the low levels requires strategy (beyond "don't make the thing next to what you are fighting mad at you, too"), or encourages creative use of your powers.

Honestly, the gameplay here is miles faster and more complex than WoW, if you take yourself out of the WoW mindset. Seriously, pop a Purple inspiration or two, and then jump into the middle of a group of six or eight even con or +1 level bad guys, and waste them all (I regularly do this in the Hollows at level 6). You can even do this with a Defender if you know what you are doing. Nothing WoW has comes even close to this kind of seat of your pants, adrenaline rush kind of gameplay. When you get to higher levels, you can jump into even larger, higher level groups, and do the same thing.

Old time vets talk about how they don't feel "super" any more after all the power balancing that has happened over the years. I say, go play WoW, or EQ, or Guild Wars for a bit, and try to take on the same things you take on in CoH. You will feel practically godlike when you come back.

Honestly, you are on a trial. Don't compare your low level gameplay experience here with your high level gameplay experience there. Take a long, honest look at what the low level gameplay is like over there, and then make your comparison. If you still feel the same way, then you gave it an honest chance, and this isn't the game for you. Sorry to see you go, and good luck wherever you land.

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I'd say it's when your creation of new characters and tendency to switch between characters prevents you from developing an existing character to the point where you enjoy them.

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And I'd argue that's wrong.

I'm most certainly an altaholic with 170-ish characters. But I've developed multiple characters, both in terms of getting them to higher levels (at least one of every hero AT at 50, most villain ATs with 1 at 50) and having bios, "personalities" to RP with them and such. And I certainly enjoy playing them overall, even without bios and such.

It's hard to say when you *become* an altaholic. I'd say when you start feeling like you need to find or make a spreadsheet or other list to keep track of where and what all the characters are, it's a good sign. It's a stronger sign when you realize the list can't keep up with you

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/em raises hand

Guilty!

Over 140 characters, and the stable keeps growing. I will play any of them at the drop of a hat and enjoy it. The ability to buy character slots has only made it worse. It used to be that I had to delete something before I could make a new character. Not any more. Now I only delete if I have redundant combinations. I made a new Elec / Elec Brute, Core Meltdown, after the Cyborg pack was released, and retired Professor Ohm at the same time. Professor Ohm will be rebuilt whenever the Devs finally produce Electric Control, and he can be the Dominator he should have been.

Every new powerset inspires at least three new characters (oddly enough, Demon Summoning will be the exception, I'll make one, because I think it will be cool, but I only have one character idea brewing). What helps keep me interested in all of them is that I have taken the time to write a background for them. Knowing what makes them tick helps me select missions and Contacts, and gets me more involved in that character's story.

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Yes, I always wonder what QFT means. Quoted for time? Queerly fragmented tamales? Quick fried tomatoes?

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QFT = Quoted for Truth

QFE = Quoted for Emphasis

A QFT is usually left at that (becoming roughly equivalent to "I agree.").

A QFE is usually expanded upon.

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What you guys me by "HEAT"?

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HEAT = Hero Epic ArcheType (Kheldians - Peacebringers and Warshades)

VEAT = Villain Epic ArcheType (Soldiers of Arachnos)

For the purposes of City of Heroes, Epic uses the "vast, sweeping storyline" definition, and not the "OMGWTFBBQ!!!Godmode!" definition.

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(Energy Melee also has a Self Heal)

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Uh, no it doesn't.

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Abosultely right, don't know what I was thinking, fixed post.

Sorry for any confusion.

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Actually, it sounds like he isn't asking for animal skeletons, but more animal body parts.

Snake heads, better canine heads, feline heads, instead of just faces, bushy tails, feet with paws, that kind of thing.

In which case....

/signed!

This is my hope for the Mutant Booster Pack. I'd love to be able to make decent looking anthropomorphic animals (it's what I get for growing up in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle / Usagi Yojimbo era).

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This is exactly what I'm looking for. And I think your idea of a Mutant Booster Pack rocks!

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As it isn't really an exclusivly MA related request, this suggestion should probably find its way over to Jay's Costume Suggestions over in the Developer's Corner (If it gets into our creator, it will be available for the Custom Critters, too ). Jay has vowed that he will only add things to the costume creator that have been posted in that thread.

I'm pretty sure that animal parts have come up there before, but I don't see the harm in adding another request for them into the thread.

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INV / SS is s solid teaming and solo choice.

DM has the benefit of ToHit Debuffs, and is the only Tanker Secondary with both a Self Heal and an Endurance Drain / Recharge.

Willpower is considered a very strong Primary, somewhat better regarded than Invulnerability. Ice Armor is seen as weak, as it is a Defense based set, rather than Resistance (I enjoy it, but I build for concept and rarely build for "peak performance.") Shields is still being figured out by folks. Some like it, some don't. It will be stronger as part of a team then it is solo.

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Yeah, I try to drop missions as little as possible because it feels like just giving up. I'm musch more likely to broadcast for help than to drop a mision. Unless it's a low level mission I've done a dozen times, or it's the like the Defeat the Infected mission where the travel time:reward ratio is high.


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This mish isn't quite so problematic any more thanks to the permatemp powers. Mission Teleporter to the mission, complete, get HUGE arc completion bonus. Self Destruct back to Fort Darwin, level, get Clear Snakes out of Area mission and move on.

Actually, it sounds like he isn't asking for animal skeletons, but more animal body parts.

Snake heads, better canine heads, feline heads, instead of just faces, bushy tails, feet with paws, that kind of thing.

In which case....

/signed!

This is my hope for the Mutant Booster Pack. I'd love to be able to make decent looking anthropomorphic animals (it's what I get for growing up in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle / Usagi Yojimbo era).

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I have a sneaky suspicion that "Power Customization" is goign to end up a jazzed up version of "Costume Change Emotes."

Open the power Info Tab, select one of 3 or 4 preset "emotes" and then that emote replaces the power animation up to the point where it "fires."

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This is more than I'm hoping for (this is what I expect, at best, from COs "Full Power Customization"). Being able to choose from a selected list of animations for each power would be amazing, and unlikely. I don't think Champions is going to be able to pull it off despite the promises (at least, not at launch, even in September).

My only expectation of Power Customization here is the ability to change the colors of the powers. (This is is also what I expect, at worst, from CO's Power Customization).

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I can tell you one thing: this idea that the majority of the playerbase was against the fast xp farms is a complete fabrication.



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The idea that the people who expressed their concerns to Positron at the virtual meet and greets were the only reason for the crackdown is equally laughable.

This was presented as a justification, but not the only reason. I believe that one of the responses Posi gave to one of those players was that the Dev team shared their concern. This means that the Devs were wondering what to do about it before the first meet and greet.

Easy powerleveling in low level zones is bad for the long term health of the game. It gives new players the impression that City of Heroes is a "begins at 50" game. Most of us can agree that the endgame of CoH is anemic at best. New players, who get powerleveled without a plan in mind, especially if they came here from a "begins at <level cap>" game like WoW, see that there is a lot of "not much to do at 50," will quickly get bored and leave the game without ever experiencing most of it.

I have no problem with experienced veterans powerleveling to get past the parts they have decided they don't like or to get to certain milestones (Travel Power, Stamina, Tier 9 of Primary, Tier 9 of Secondary, or PVP, to name the common ones), but new players should be allowed to experience the content and make their own decisions about whether they would like to skip it.

Powerleveling used to be confined to Peregrine Island and Grandville. If a new player found it, it is because they were looking for it. Post Issue 14, it was almost impossible for a new player to not get sucked into AE power farms.

In the end, City of Heroes is a business venture, anything that could reduce the life of the game by even one month needs to be smashed immediately (Anything that is under the Devs' control, obviously. They can't simply crack down on the Economy or the competition). The real crime on the Devs' part was that it took the Devs three weeks to start the smashing.

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But changing the fundamental paradigm of the archetype is just another step backwards by the Dev team.
All to combat the minority player base of permadoms?
Sweet!
Could there be a more useless waste of developer time?


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They aren't "combatting permadom." If they were, the easy way to do it would have been to increase Domination's recharge enough that permadom became impossible.

What is being fought is the perception that you need to be permadom to be useful to a high level team.

The bigger waste of developer time is developing an archetype that no one plays. Aside from the EATs, Dominators were the least played Archetype. This is truth, provided by the Developers' datamining tools. With these changes, Dominators aren't "good only while Domination is up" and "suck when Domination is down." Now Dominators will be good all the time, and even better while Domination is up.

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Changed title again. For the last time -Mod08

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This won't end well...

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It will end with a pruned thread.

Given that it began with the OP posting a bogus Dev post, I'm surprised Mod8 posted in the thread instead of deleting outright.

So I guess that makes this IBTD+1.

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I've been toying with a gadget based EAT that is highly dependant on Inventions. The basic idea is that there would be a number of Recipes that create permanent powers for the "Gadgeteer," but temp powers for everyone else. There is a lot of work involved in the concept, and I'm not sure how to work it into the story of the game, as yet.

Maybe I'll be able to finish it up while my girlfriend is on vacation.

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Four legs good, two legs better!

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Walk on two legs, not on four.

Walk on four legs, break the law.

What happens when we break the law?

What happens when the rules aren't fair?

We all know where we go from there.

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im wondering how its ok to farm tf's all day and night and THATS ok..cant farm one mission but a series of the same missions ...THATS OK?..lulz

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What would be "lulz," if it wasn't so sad, is the fact that you are perpetuating the "Devs hate farmers" stupidity.

The TV farm is still there. The Battle Maiden farm is still there. The Behemoth farm is still there. They are all waiting for you to harvest them.

The ONLY place farmers are being made to feel unwelcome, at least officially, is the Mission Architect. From the moment we were informed of the concept, the Devs told us that they did not want the Architect being used for farming. This is the only place that they are actively squashing farms.

The paragraph above is the truth. Put your hysteria and fearmongering away and accept it. Or don't. Your refusal to accept reality does not make you right, though. All it does is make you insane.

On topic:

Did the Sister Psyche Task Force with a PUG on Triumph last week (Wednesday and Thursday). Started with six, lost the tank in the middle of the second mission, and completed it with five (IIRC, it was two Controllers, one Defender, one Scrapper, and me, one Blaster) in just under three hours. We had one teamwipe (in the second mission) because we aggroed three spawns of Freakshow at once while the leader's difficulty was still cranked.

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Party Like its 4940 Degrees is a low level arc, I'd suggest taking it between level 8 and 11 (the final mission caps at 12 thanks to the Elite Boss).

There is an Elite Boss at the end, and the final mission is really short, so I would suggest stocking up on the Inspirations first, instead of hoping that enough will drop. Dual Blades / Regen will have a tough time at level 8, but should have an easier time of it at level 10+.

<QR> There is another way to do it, which is kind of a workaround, and it only allows you two choices.

Have your "moment of decision" be at the end of your first arc. At the end of the arc, break the fourth wall a little with some "choose your own adventure" text:

Do you accept Dr. Nefarious' assistance against your mutual foe, Professor Evil? Or do you finish off Dr. Nefarious, confident in your ability to defeat Professor Evil by yourself?

Accept Dr. Nefarious' help? Play ARC ID XXXXXX next!

Go it alone? Play ARC ID XXXXXX next!

The downside to this method is that it would eat up all of your publishing slots for a single, albeit large, story with only two branches.

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... please!!!!

Everytime someone finds a problem with MA it turns into a big disccussion -- and often ends up with the devs nerfing something great.

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Like what? What "great" things have we lost?

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For example, power select customization: For story tellers, it would have been great if you could delete certain powers from characters like MM (the pets!!!) But because farmers could exploit this, everyone loses it!

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Actually, I'm pretty sure this is Dev fiat, and not an anti-farming ploy. I'm pretty sure that, since they are "Summoning sets," the Devs decided that they should have to summon at least once. I see this as an oversight, maybe to be corrected, maybe not. Critters use the critter damage scale, and not the MM damage scale, so a petless matermind might actually be a threat as a custom critter.

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BUT THERE WILL ALWAYS BE FARMERS!!!!

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Agreed! Of course, the only place the farmers are being asked to control their agricultural tendencies is the Mission Architect. Every other plot of land where they grew crops is still around, waiting to be harvested.

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Farmers don't affect the way we play.

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Wrong. Farmers have an effect on the game as a whole, some good, some bad. The good is that they keep the market supplied. The bad is that they sometimes pester other players to pad their teams so they can get maximum yield. With Issue 14, famers clogged the architect with farms, spam every zone's broadcast, not just PI and GV, and powerleveled hordes of new players past the part where they actually play the game.

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But by fighting against them tooth and nail we keep affecting the way WE play. It's self-defeating.
I'm not talking about exposing exploits. But I am talking about exposing "exploits" that if dev's fixed would destroy your enjoyment of the game.
We complained about farmers getting rewards too fast. And it resulted in everyone getting rewarded at HALF the rate. Who do you think this hurts most? Farmers? Or people who don't farm?

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What?!? Rewarded at half the rate? Since when. Enemy mobs in the Architect, except for Rikti Comm officers give exactly the same XP as they do "in the world." No travel time makes up for the lack of mision and arc completion XP, at least through the 20s. The ticket cap? I bang into it very rarely. Were you seriously making over 2400 tickets per mission in missions that weren't farms?

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The most recent example: I'm reading a current thread about people wanting devs to "fix" rezzors because some nincompoop tells everybody that players can kill a boss over and over, and let the rezzor keep rezzing him ... for tons of experience. The proposed solution: "fix" rezzors!" Eliminate them from the game or allow them to rez once or eliminate experience after the first defeat. This is all absurd!

If some farmer wants to spend 2 hours killing the same boss over and over again, it will not affect you or me. But "fix" rezzors and destroy your ability to use them the way they were meant to be used is ridiculous.

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It seems to me that the fix is pretty easy. Put the Custom Critter rez powers on a 20-30 minute timer, and it will never be up again before the second defeat. Any farmer willing to wait around that long for the NPC rez to recharge is a horrible farmer. This will still let mobs rez themselves once, as they are supposed to.

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We are shooting at vermin with elephant guns ... and all we are accomplishing is blowing giant holes in our own MA homes.

While I know that many of you will use this thread (if you use it at all) to tell me that I'm wrong.

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No, we arent. What is happening is that you are overreacting. The sky isn't falling. Cooler heads will prevail.

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But I would much prefer it if you used this thread to cite example after example of what has been lost to the everyday non-farming player because of "fixes" that were supposed to address the problem of farming. Thanks.

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Like I said, I bang into the ticket cap very rarely, so the impact of that fix is minimal. The loss of commonly farmed badges will have a minor effect on me, mostly because the badges that I lose that I have, I earned through normal play, and not farming them. I can see how someone who specifically hunted those badges, and jumped through hoops to get them would be upset. I never used the "broken" mobs. The removed maps were removed because they were having problems with critters appearing either inside the geometry making them untargetable, or they were appearing outside the map altogether. Once these problems are fixed, I expect to see those maps, i.e.; Perez Burning Map, etc., restored.

What is this "great loss" that you are lamenting? I simply don't see it.

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Next dumb queston...Can I have more that one hero/villain on the same account..or do you have to pay for each character you create? Or can you have like two or three villains before you have to pay another subscription fee???

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You should have access to both heroes and villains.

You should have access to all eleven servers

You should have access to twelve character slots, per server.

You should have two "floating" character slots that you can add on to the server(s) of your choice. You will earn another of these slots for each year you have been subscribed to the game.

That is 134 potential characters before we get into the fact that you can purchase additional slots (as singles, doubles, or quintuples), which you can then add to the server of your choice.

Each server has the potential for 36 character slots.

Make lots of characters, and don't feel tied to just one server.

I have well over 100 characters, with plenty more that I am willing to make at the drop of a hat. (yes, I have bought slots, 24 of those characters are on Champion)

Alting is accepted (Nay! Encouraged!). The game begins at level 1, and it is near impossible to see it all on one pass through. This is by intention. With so many Archetype and Powerset choices, I can't imagine being tied down to one character. There is also a sidekick / exemplar system which allows you to play with your friends, no matter how many levels seperate you. Caveat Emptor: There are some zones that are gated by level. You will not be able to join your friends if they are playing in these zones unless you are above the minimum level to enter the Zone. There are more of these Zones for heroes than there are for villains.

The versions (except the Mac) version are mostly the same. All give you the same access to the game (all servers, etc.). The difference lies within the perks.

Good v Evil Edition includes two exclusive costume sets (Justice and Sinister) and two exclusive powers (Pocket D telporter and Junp pack).

Architect Edition includes a "coupon" for one of the two Super Boosters (Cyborg or Magic). Each of the Super Boosters includes exclusive costume sets, emotes and powers.

The Mac edition (if you have a Mac, I believe you can get this or Architect) includes the Valkyrie costume set and the Mission Teleporter power.

All of these goodies are also available seperately.

If you are buying from a brick and mortar store, I would get the Architect Edition. It is the most up to date set of discs, which means potentially hours less of downloads to get current. The Architect Edition discs also contains both the Mac and PC versions of the game.

If you are bying on-line and are going to download the client buy whichever version comes with the costume sets and extra powers you would like to have instantly. Someone should be along shortly with the wiki links so you can see what the powers do and what the costume sets look like.

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Honestly, I don't think there is a lot of point in specifically grinding out that badge. You fight enough Longbow throughout the Villains story that you should be able to get it without jumping through any hoops. My main villain had it by the time she was level 30, IIRC.

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Of my five Soldiers, only one might switch. The other four are firmly set upon their paths of evil.