Roderick

The max is 20. Which is a pain, because I've come up with several 21 character names I've wanted to use.

Also note that /friend isn't fool-proof. Just because you get the error message indicating that "Wolverine", "Batman", or "Professor X" is free, doesn't mean that you'll be able to use them.

Another thing to keep in mind is how the game handles "the". If you enter a name that starts with "the " (including the space), it will be moved to the title. So "The Super Dude" becomes "Super Dude", with the title "The". The /friend command isn't smart, so just like going over or under the limit, "/friend The Super Dude" returns a message indicatint the name is free... But you'll never be able to use it.

There will not be any with the release of Issue 22. Beyond that, nobody knows except employees of Paragon Studios. And if they haven't said already, then they probably aren't allowed to say.

It boosts the crit rate of all your powers that normally can crit. Note that the purple (Superior) version is bugged and offers no bonus at all; this has been fixed already on Beta, and will go live with i22.

Use Titan Sentinel to copy your build from the game to the clipboard as a Mids' export.

Elec/WP will be a good set. With a good build, you should be near unkillable, and able to dish out a good amount of damage. You don't see any topics on Elec/WP because it's not a top-end build, and that's what most of the chatter revolves around.

Much like Scrappers, you have to actually put effort into making a bad brute; any combination is pretty good by default.

When they introduced "No Fade or Pulse" for Dark Armor, it was only for Cloak of Darkness; it was to stop Dark characters from going completely invisible when using that power. Before I went to check just now, I had never seen it on any other power before.

I see a "No Fade or Pulse" option for Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud, Obsidian Shield, and Cloak of Darkness on Scrappers, Tankers and Brutes, and on Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud, and Obsidian Shield for Stalkers. DE, MC and OS all react exactly the same on "No Fade or Pulse" as they do on "Color Tintable" for me. Note that I'm just going by the character creator; I haven't tested on any characters in-game.

I can't believe you missed the obvious winner.

A chance to fail is fine, IF there's an oppurtunity to try again.

Trials (the original kind) were only differentiated from Task Forces by a chance to fail. Some (like the respec trial) make you restart the failed mission. Others just outright fail and you have to start over.

Most failable missions cost you nothing more than the end-of-mission rewards. This is fine by me.

Incarnate trials can be failed, and doing so costs the entire league their potential rewards. This sucks, but it can be retried, so I don't mind.

Things where failing once means that you will never get that reward are not cool in my book. Yes, I'm talking about you, Efficiency Expert Pither. They annoy me so much that I've never even attempted Pither's badge, even though I've had several people tell me how easy it is, even though I'm fully IO'd out with T3/4 Incarnate abilites, even though my girlfriend got it by accident when she didn't even know the badge existed, just because I know that if I do try for it, there's a chance that I may have a hiccup in my Internet, or a power failure, or a lag spike, and fail a mission, losing the badge. In my mind, not having the badge, but having the chance to get it later is better than losing the one and only chance to get it ever.
There's a few other newer badges that I would look at the same way, like Vincent Ross's for doing the side missions in his arc, or the Hero one for rescuing cops in a burning building. Screw those up and lose the badge. But those ones are in Ouroboros, so I can try again - so they don't bother me.

Short version: Failable is fine. Failable with no chance to ever try again is bad.