Patteroast

I find if I'm on a character who doesn't have an Ouroboros Portal, broadcasting in a populated zone asking if anyone can drop one has always worked very quickly. Or a badge channel.

This isn't exactly a helpful way to get your own portal, but one of the more obscure ways to earn it is to have a really old character who logged in during the first and second anniversaries. That awarded the '5th Columnist' gladiator, which unlocks the portal. I have a level 1 character on test who lives in the tutorial who has one through that method.

I've done the LGTF a dozen or more times, and not a single time did we ever hold the greens. We just attacked them and they died. They needed more damage, more quickly than the other mitos, but they died. So apparently I've done it wrong a dozen times, and was really supposed to never succeed once? I appreciate all you've done for us Castle, but I'm pretty sure you're in the wrong here. It was plenty challenging before... I had a couple teams that could not kill the Hamidon in its old form.

Definitely Defenders for me.

Followed by Scrappers, Stalkers... then Tankers, Dominators, Controllers... then Brutes, Blasters, Masterminds, and Corruptors. Not counting the EATs... not sure where I'd rank them.

As for level 50s, I have 13 of them, reached in this order: Defender, Scrapper, Mastermind, Tanker, Controller, Dominator, Stalker, Warshade, Brute, Controller, Controller, Scrapper, Arachnos Widow. Then again, that list tends to overstate how I feel about Controllers and doesn't take into consideration that my opinions have changed over time.

I've never had people 'hate' me for being a Stalker on a team... a good stalker can be a boss-killer. On a big team, being single-target can feel like you're not doing as much, but on smaller teams I've never had any complaints... /em shrug

If you are looking for AoE, Electrical Melee is definitely the way to go. Build Up + Lightning Rod + Assassin Strike the biggest thing in the group while they're all knocked down, or Thunder Strike... mmm.

In the early days of CoV I was pretty unhappy with Stalkers... I'd made an Energy/Energy Stalker and had played him into the upper teens, but I'd really lost interest... it just didn't seem fun. He ended up sitting at about 18 for around six months. Then one day when I was giving him a try again, a friend asked about my build. I mentioned how I'd been worried about my survivability, so I didn't take that one power that took health away. But other than that, I had some problems keeping my damage up, so I had taken Barrage to try to fill the gaps.

A few minutes later I had the most lopsided respec I've ever had... I got rid of Barrage for pre-nerf Energy Transfer.

Now Stalkers might be my favorite villain AT.

As for stupid losses of huge amounts of money... I remember way back before the market was around, when the most outrageous amount of money imaginable was in trading Hami-O's after a Hamidon Raid, I once accidentally deleted my Hami-O. Was pretty devastating at the time.

Also, shortly after the market was added, I saw one Hami-O which had a history of selling for 100 million. At the time, that was an unbelievably outrageous price. Then mixed in, one person had sold for 100 thousand. I like to imagine the saddest mistype ever, and someone else with a very pleasant surprise.

Edit: Oh man, I forgot one that definitely merits mentioning... my Stone/Stone Tanker never had teleport until a LONG time after he was 50. His travel power was super speed. My greatest enemy was a foot-high wall... I'd have to turn off Granite and Rooted, hop over, and then turn them back on. More than once I died before I could get Granite back up. After just dealing with that for the longest time, I ended up getting rid of Hurl Boulder for Teleport... I'd taken Hurl Boulder so I had another option to grab aggro from people across the room that would take me about twenty minutes to get to.

My Energy/Energy Stalker got a clone who was Cold Domination/Electrical Aura. I got shields out of the deal, and he seemed to be throwing the debuffs at enemies and running around with Lightning Field on... it was interesting. The survived until I left the mission

I didn't get booted for this, but it's close enough and in the same spirit...

A friend asked me to join an ITF a friend of theirs was starting. I asked if I could grab my Tanker, and he said sure. I get on the team, and it turns out the team lead is a Brute who wants to be lead tank. Okay, somewhat disappointing, but I can deal with it. We get rolling, and I very carefully wait until they get a groups aggro before running in as well, avoid taunting except for stragglers, do my best to be useful and making a lot of effort to not step on the lead's toes. However, he keeps telling me to stop tanking so much. Well... I have to tank a little. I can't be expected to turn off all my armor and brawl somewhere in a corner, can I? I'm being careful to let him play lead. Suddenly, everything stops. Nobody's talking. Then the leader quits. My friend informs me that the lead was sending him tells about how I was ruining everything and making it impossible for him to keep his fury up. Keep in mind, we had been steamrolling everything. It was pretty perplexing... my friends joke about it to this day.

As for actually being kicked... yeah, I've had it happen to be occasionally. I've been kicked for not being a healzor on several different Defenders. I've been kicked for not having Speed Boost at level 8. Lots of other silly things like that... plus I've played some things that apparently a lot of people in this thread would kick me for... a support-only Empath (and no, I'm not smug about it... just have fun with it. I do have five of my secondaries, although only three are slotted for damage. And no, I don't just stand there with Healing Aura on auto.) Also, a petless Mastermind (although I have my search message set to clearly state that he doesn't have pets, don't invite if it bothers you... he mostly exists just to see what it's like.) I've never been kicked for being either of those, though.

As for what it takes for me to kick people from a team I'm running? Being a jerk. That's pretty much it.

Man. I live in a parallel universe compared to all you people. I never got very hardcore into the Market...

I consider people with several hundred million to be very rich. The most money I've ever had at one time on one character was 380 million, and that's because I respeced a crafted purple IO that I'd found a long time ago and sold it for 275 mil. I honestly couldn't imagine having a billion.

I only have a few characters I bother getting IOs for at all... most of my characters still get SOs. The ones that do bother with IOs at all just get common sets, rare sets for my best people, and occasionally a couple of the very cheapest ultra-rares if they need a sleep or confuse set...

And I've been playing since I2. /em shrug

Congratulations! I'm another person going for this as well... my 50s are three Controllers (Fire/Rad, Earth/Sonic, Illusion/Trick Arrow), a Defender (Empathy/Electric), two Scrappers (Claws/Invuln and Spines/Regen), a Tanker (Stone/Stone), a Warshade (tri-form), a Brute (Stone/Willpower), a Dominator (Ice/Ice), a Mastermind (Mercs/Poison), a Stalker (Energy/Energy), and a Night Widow. Still need to get there with a Corruptor (40 Rad/Kin), Blaster (33 Sonic/Electric), Arachnos Soldier (33 Bane), and Peacebringer (22 all-human). The main interest the game holds for me is trying out all the different powersets on all the different archetypes. I don't need them to all be 50, but I want to experience them all.

(Edit: Oh, I've been playing since I2... I'm not the fastest at leveling, it's taken somewhere from 6 months to 5 years for each 50. I definitely have alt-itis... 100 characters and counting... sheesh.)

I've enjoyed most of the servers. I have at least one character on each US server, although I wouldn't claim to have any real experience with the least played few... My main is Infinity, I have a lot of friends there. My secondary servers are a tie between Pinnacle and Freedom, next are Virtue and Liberty, then I have a few each on Guardian, Champion, and Victory, and finally one each on Triumph, Protector, Justice, and a native on the Training Room.

I've enjoyed high, middle, and low population servers (and keep in mind, just because a server is popular on heroside doesn't mean the same for villains...) I'd say try some servers out, and the best advice I can offer is if you have any friends who play other servers, play with them. Always fun to play with friends.

How has nobody mentioned StumbleUpon? Granted, I don't use the site itself but the toolbar, but it should count. I'd say it competes with Wikipedia and TVTropes for greatest potential for sitting at the computer forever.

I remember a long time ago, a friend and I were able to duo one of Lusca's tentacles... in theory we could have done the rest. I seem to remember the head taking a bit more effort though, so we might not have been able to finish. (This team was a scrapper and a defender, if that matters.)

I find it strange how many people say they don't like Energy Melee since it was tweaked. I didn't find it any less fun to play afterwards, myself. Sure, old Energy Transfer was fun, but from the first time I got it I knew it was way overpowered. It is still a mainstay of my attack chain. (Then again, like I said in my previous post, I don't seem to mind longer animations as much as most people I know...)

I'm fairly certain that almost nobody is in the beta yet. I think it's in the very early 'friends and family' phase. Nobody said that 60+ monthers and loyalty program people would get in closed beta on day one...

I think the only reason they announced the date when the closed beta was starting was so when the servers went down for everyone, people wouldn't all be going "WTF WHERE DID DUAL PISTOLS GO?"

Be patient. Someone's promised to bake you some cookies, and you're angry that they're giving them a few minutes to cool first.

I don't think I can say I there's anything I won't play. Visuals generally don't bother me, animation times don't generally both me (I'm often mystified by my friends complaining about how slow some sets are...), sounds don't bother me (I always play with sounds muted and music playing)... sets that can't solo don't bother me unless I happen to be on a low population server and have trouble finding a team, but that's more a server complaint than a set complaint.

In fact, I often try powersets because I hear people saying they're bad. I like trying suboptimal combos and seeing how they work. I firmly believe any powerset combination in the game is playable. Some are definitely easier or harder, but I think they all can work at some level. (So far the greatest test of this opinion has been my petless Mastermind... they certainly push the limits of 'playable'.)

When it comes to ATs as a whole... well...

Blasters: One of the ATs I've had the hardest time getting into. I can't say I'm entirely sure why, though... just haven't gone that far with them. I have eight, my highest is 33. (Sonic/Electric)

Controllers: I have oddly mixed feelings about Controllers. Despite playing them a lot, and generally having fun, I can't say I ever am playing something else and think to myself, "I'd rather be on a controller." A lot of them collect dust. I have ten, three 50's. (Fire/Rad, Earth/Sonic, and Ill/TA)

Defenders: One of my favorite ATs. Most cases need a team to be really fun, but a few of mine can solo quite easily. I've done everything from a totally team oriented Empath to a very hands-off Force Fielder who spends most of his time happily blasting and a Dark who likes to herd. I have twelve, one is 50. (Emp/Electric)

Kheldians: Mixed bag. My main Kheld is a Warshade who spent a large portion of his life trying to figure out how to play, but he ended up being pretty powerful in the end. I haven't played Peacebringers as high, but they definitely seemed to be easier to play at low levels. I have five Khelds, one is 50. (Triform Warshade)

Scrappers: My first AT, a pretty reliable standard for me. Always fun on a team or solo. My Spines/Regen took a while to find his feet, but eventually became one of my favorite characters. I have ten, two are 50. (Claws/Invuln and Spines/Regen)

Tankers: Most of my tanks are somewhat slow at soloing, although not as bad as my most team-oriented Defenders. But since I usually take a team if I can find one, I'm generally happy. I enjoy taking the role of aggro sponge, and am willing to work however my team wants me to so I can be the most helpful. I have nine, one is 50. (Stone/Stone)

Arachnos: Still working on checking them out thoroughly, but my Night Widow and Bane Spider are both lots of fun so far. Although they're both built quite stalker-y, and I'm into Stalkers... I have four, highest is 48. (Night Widow)

Brutes: My feelings towards brutes have changed over time. At first I didn't like them, but over time I came to appreciate them more. I seem to enjoy them more on teams than solo. The biggest example of me finding a set I didn't enjoy was /Energy. I remade a character who had it and currently don't have anyone with it. I have nine Brutes, one is 50. (Stone/Willpower)

Corruptors: Despite repeated attempts, I mostly find myself disappointed by Corrs. I've seen others do great things with them, but I can't play them at all solo. On a good team I have fun with them, though. I have nine, the highest is 40. (Radiation/Kinetics)

Dominators: I'm very grateful for the changes to their damage. A lot of my middling characters became very enjoyable. Really, it solidified my feelings for Doms from 'okay' to 'fun'. I still need to rework my Ice/Ice though, as I never really figured out how to play them right. I have eight, one is 50. (Ice/Ice)

Masterminds: As is probably obvious, I have a crapload of characters. However, it just doesn't seem as necessary to me to make MMs. I think that might be because I want to try things I haven't tried yet and there are so few primaries... I'm sure I'll make a Demon Summoner ASAP when it's available. I seem to enjoy using my attacks more than most players I know. I've always felt I should be adding at least another pet's worth of damage. I have seven, one is 50. (Mercs/Poison)

Stalkers: If Defenders are my favorite hero AT, Stalkers are my favorite villain one. It's funny, since early on I hated Stalkers. A lot of my shifting feelings are thanks to my main Stalker who has, in my opinion, one of my best backstories. One of my strongest opinions on individual powersets is about Energy Aura. Although I felt like it was crap on my Brute who respec'ed out of it, I think it's a great secondary for a Stalker. I have nine Stalkers, one is 50. (Energy/Energy)

Overall, one of the things that keeps me interested in the game the most long-term is the vast number of powerset combos. My goal is to try every powerset on every AT at least once.

I may be only one in the game who feels this way, but I think exploration badges in the Shadow Shard would be awesome. I really hope they add some!

I still randomly spend time exploring the zones on occasion. Last month I discovered an underground area I'd never seen in Skyway. New exploration badges are a thumbs up from me.

I know this is a pretty late reply, but my first MM/first villain/first 50 villain is Mercs/Poison, and it worked well for me.

Mercs work best from range. I don't know if I'd say they're the absolute best compared to other MM sets, but they seem to be decently well rounded. The Medic in among the Soldiers does have a tendency to be a bit crazy... running off to kill something instead of healing. But any healing he does do is good, plus you can use Alkaloid on someone he's missed. Spec Ops have a really good blitz of mez with their Flashbangs. And the Commando's the best damage. Mercs' big wildcard power is Serum, which is pretty much a tier 9 power for one of your pets. It really does make them into a killing machine for a while (complete with a health and end crash when it drops.)

I think Poison's an under-appreciated set. It's a very nice debuff set, with a couple team utility powers. Alkaloid, Antidote, and Elixir of Life help with teammates, and pretty much everything else makes the enemies weaker. Poison Trap's pretty skippable... but in my experience, Poison shines the most in tough AV fights.

Envenom and Weaken are great to use against an AV, but the best bit of synergy between the sets happens when you take the Commando, give him Serum, cast Noxious Gas on him, and tell him to go fight the AV in melee. Serum is good enough to let him be able to survive easily, and Noxious Gas is an awesomely good debuff. I can't really speak for solo, but with a good team the AV will turn to tissue paper after you do this.

It was interesting! I went on as a villain. I got into the special map and heroes started attacking... but when I died, I assumed there'd be a hospital like the normal Ouroboros map... there wasn't. Couldn't get back in.



I wish it was a bit more clear that you should be 50 for it... I brought a level 40 villain and about half of the event looked like this for me... (That's Vanessa de Vore standing on my character's head by the way.)



Eventually a level 50 joined my team and I got to beat on some Carnies, so that was fun. And there was some fun with Wonko/Ocho afterwards, too...



Thanks for the event, guys!

I think my closest character is about two or three days jobs away from done... but I'm doing it the silly way and doing them on all my characters. I have exactly 100 characters.

(Well, 99 that count for day jobs since one character is on Test and "exiled to Outbreak for the rest of his life," just so I could be amused by having an outrageous number of badges in Outbreak...)

I just make sure all my characters always log out in a day job spot when I'm done playing, and once every 23-ish days (so I don't have any who aren't ready yet) I log them all in and move them. Most of the rarely played small alts are a day job away from getting all the can until they level up, though. Vanguard Recruit, Midnighter, Cimeroran, Chronologist, Predator... all still need a minimum level to get on your own.

Oh well. I guess when I'm done I'll just pick my favorite temp powers and always log out to recharge 'em. Some of them really come in handy! My Trick Arrow Defender has a temporary 'Healing Arrow' thanks to Day Jobs!

By my count, there are 682 possible combinations, counting four for Arachnos as eventually you need to pick one of the four branches, and the starting set is still there for branched characters. In more detail:

54 Blasters (9 primaries x 6 secondaries)
63 Controllers (7 primaries x 9 secondaries)
90 Defenders (10 primaries x 9 secondaries)
68 Scrappers (9 primaries x 7 secondaries, plus 5 primaries that can go with Shields)
79 Tankers (7 primaries x 10 secondaries, plus 9 secondaries that can go with Shields)
87 Brutes (10 primaries x 8 secondaries, plus 8 primaries that can go with Shields, minus 1 for Claws/Stone)
90 Corruptors (9 primaries x 10 secondaries)
42 Dominators (6 primaries x 7 secondaries)
40 Masterminds (5 primaries x 8 secondaries)
63 Stalkers (9 primaries x 7 secondaries)

And for epic archetypes, 2 for Kheldians, and 4 for Arachnos, reasons stated above.

Here's a post where I even break it down historically by how many sets were available at different times!

(PS: Here's a list of all the combinations.)

I'm really thrilled about the changes, especially to Empath. My main badger is my Empathy defender who was my first level 50, and I've just recently gotten back into badge-hunting on him. I've never farmed for his healing badge, and I don't play him super-often anymore... but I've played him a lot, and am currently about 95% of the way to the 4th healing badge on live. When I16 hits, he'll be 95% of the way to Empath. This makes me happy. That is all!

Not much of one, but there's an odd pair of islands in the Storm Palace past the Storm Palace itself that's not on the map, and has no enemies. They have a couple gravity geysers, although one just shoots you straight up and the other shoots you off into the void and resets you at the start of the zone.

Also, since I'm thinking of the Shadow Shard, there's a giant throne in Firebase Zulu.