Solar Mongoose

He never said he wanted a min and max build.

That said, I don't know anything about anything so I'm just gonna use your build on my toon for now, plainguy.

I'm slowly learning how things work in this game. So the only thing that separates someone who does missions at 4/8 from someone struggling to do them at 0/1 is that they have more defense?

Ahh, thank you, thank you. I was seeing it not fade out and just taking that as "that doesn't work."
And I thought only masterminds had access to pet windows, so that's very helpful to know too.
My ignorance is shedding away bit by bit.

Thanks all for all the help and advice! I've got a window with a bunch of global channel tabs now, and I think I'm (starting to be) getting the hang of things. I'm on the Freedom server, for what it's worth. So far, the channels seem to get relatively little chatter, but I suppose I could do the unthinkable and just initiate communication myself, ie: say hi or something.

I still am unsure about my build with DP and such. I have tried looking for topics and guides about them, but what I've found just sounds... foreign to me. I think it's just that the focus of discussion is usually centered around "sets" and perfecting things, while I'm still unsure I even have the basics right. I'm sure I'll figure it things out on my own over time though.

Just a final question, Mr. Beggar here says to get grant invisibility so I can use it on my force field generator. The thing is, I do actually have that, and it seems to me that... you can't do that. My machine just warbles at me in opaque defiance when I try. Am I missing something or is he just trying to lead me astray? All totally on purpose, I'm sure.

So, Too Long; Don't want to Read?: read the bolded parts at least, please. But I feel like elaborating and giving some context will help me get the answers I'm looking for, so...

I've just been playing for a few weeks now. All I've done so far is played one hero and one villain up to ~level 20, and a praetorian-villain-rogue that's level 27. I've been spending my time figuring junk out, going through story arcs, and doing Death-From-Below sewer-thing-trial a bunch... in that order. (Well, more or less. I'm still figuring junk out, obviously.) Now I don't know what to do. What I want to know, I guess, is what... what should I... do?...
Well, that's a bit vague; let me elaborate.

The things I've been doing up to this point fall under either going through missions alone, going through missions with a random team (none of which are mine, the missions), or... DFB. And I don't feel like doing that trial much more any time soom.So (question 1) does the majority of the content boil down to random-minor-story-arc/newspaper/radio missions? That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I just feel like I'm missing out on things.

While I'm still on the subject: to be honest, I don't really know what to look for in such missions. Most recently, I had just grabbed all the missions I could find on Sharkhead Isle and buckled down to just do some of them. Then, luckily, while browsing the Paragon Wiki, I read about the Ouroboros. I found out that doing one in particular will get me the power to go to the Ouroboros.
(2) Are there lots of story arcs that give you important things like the Ouroboros Portal? I just happened to stumble upon this bit. How do I know what things are important; how do I know what I should do before I accidentally outlevel something?

Not that I'm leveling fast, really. In fact, solo, I seem to do things especially slowly. I (well, my "main", the rogue) amis a Dual Pistols/Traps corruptor. I kinda thought my primary would be more important to me for soloing, and the secondary for team...ing, but it almost seems like the opposite. I've been focusing on my primary powers, but I seem to kill things extraordinarily slowly regardless. So my traps have been the only things keeping me alive while I chip away at an enemy's health. When I do stay alive, that is. Conversely, in a team, there have usually been power sets with far better crowd control than I have, and things go down so quickly anyway that the only help I could give is if I helped us plow through things even quicker. But aside from maybe when lowering enemies' resistance, I don't really seem to contribute much in increasing damage output either.(3) Is going solo just a grueling crawl for everyone? For every corruptor? Or am I doing something wrong?
(4) For my primary powers, I'm throwing in lots of (three max) damage enhancements, recharge reduction, some range on the shorter range powers, and occasionally an accuracy. Is that... "right", or "wrong" for any reason? And I'm not worrying about getting "sets" any time soon. Would anything like this be handicapping me? Also, specifically about the DP set, what situation(s), if any, would it be prudent to actually use ice or toxic bullets? (Sorry if this particular question... group should go somewhere else. Just thought I'd ask all at once)

If I should just plan on always running with a team, that's fine too. Things are fun with more people, and I don't slow others down too much by being new (trying to at least skim mission text, asking questions, etc. I try to keep my questions briefer in game... Try.) I can find teams just doing regular missions usually, and it's pretty hard not to find teams doing DFB. But that's pretty much it.
(5)Aren't there a bunch of things you can do with a team that you can't do solo? Where... and what are these task/strike forces I hear about? Is DFB the only "trial"? Or the only team activity you can readily find people wanting to repeatedly do?
(6)And if not, more than anything, how does one find people doing these things? I mean, I guess I can just go with the tried and true, throwing a "lfg" or "lft" or "lfw"hatever other variations there are onto the help channel. But, like with DFB you can go to the beginner zone and find people around the square wanting to do it, is there any easy way to find a lot of people wanting to do anything else?

And about the Signature Story Arc. I have VIP for a month for now, and would like to try this thing out while can. I at least want to start it.
(7)Am I likely to find anyone wanting to do the Signature Story Arc? Well, ok, probably yes, but anyone who also can do it? If not, is it something that can be reasonably soloed? Also, is it worth it to start if I can only do the first one or two episodes or chapters or whatever right now? (Right? 'Cause I'm only level 27)

That's a lot of words. Bluh whatever, sorry. I'm just at a bit of a loss for some reason, and I don't know what... just... what should I do? There just seems like there's so much content that I just don't know about.

Anyway thank you for your time, and your help if choose to give it. Hope you have a good day or happy hunting or some closing statement! I dunno, I feel like I just wrote a dissertation or something. I just... don't know what that is.