Winterminal

While I cannot speak to other origins, the Blood of the Black Stream was originally a concept for a Villain Epic Archetype, along with Coralax.

*scooped by Bill.*

I was re-he-he-heally hoping to see the actual start date... boo. But "soon" is better than nothing!

Though I doubt I'll be starting any new level pacts between now and the global launch of Freedom, consider it noted :P

I approve of A LOT of your choices up there. Many of them make perfect sense.

I know it is a bit stereotypical, but I would totally cast Christopher Lee as Rularuu the Ravager.

Some others I'll just throw out there, since we are talking voice only:
Sunstorm: Liam Neison
Ms. Liberty: Emma Stone
Doc Delilah: Michelle Pfiefer
Faultline/Jim Temblor: Jeremy Renner
Fusionette: Abigail Breslin

You're a sick man. You also might be a genius.

Stay safe 0mega! We'll see ya after the storm passes.

Blasters, hands down. 4 out of 5 of my 50s are blasters.

Ice Blast is my favorite power set. Nothing is more fun than being able to hold Bosses AND inflict crazy amounts of damage upon them.

What she said.

That really sums up exactly what I thought when I ran the trial the first time. But I could not have articulated it. All I knew was that I was immediately "irk'd" when everyone scattered to gather objectives around the first reactor.

It sounds like you are running two instances of the game at one time (through one method of another). If that's the case, then two Traps/Sonics would not be smart. As Pyro Master said, Traps is a very active Defender primary because, well, you are placing traps for every mob. Really, only Seeker Drones and FFG will follow you around. Your auto-follow character won't be contributing much in that case.

2 Sonic/Sonic Defenders would leave your auto-follow character contributing much more. At the beginning of the mission, you put up the auto-follow character's Sonic Dispersion, have them put up shields on you, then toggle Disruption Field. Switch over to your active character, put his/her Sonic Dispersion on, and shield the auto-follow character. Finally, target the auto-follow character with Disruption Field.

Now, both your characters are benefiting from shields and stacked Sonic Dispersion, plus any bad guys that gets within melee distance are going to be turned into butter by TWO Disruption Fields. And that's all before the application of Sonic Siphon, Liquify, or the debuffs from the attacks in Sonic Attack.

That all being said, you could mix and match, and make the auto-follow character a sonic/sonic, and make your active a traps/sonic, which would also be a fun, active experience and be very effective. But as long as that second character is just auto-follow, don't do 2 Traps/.

Kamin Holtz and Meg A Zap, a married couple that ran the Atlas Avengers Europe super group on Pinnacle.

They were the first to take me in a newb (even though I did not live in Europe, nor do I now), and show me the finer points of the game. While I learned how to play each archetype by myself, and what costumes looked good, they were the first to help me understand all the technical stuff, and gave me a home base to ground myself. For that, I thank them.

I will continue treating blind invites as I always have:

• If I can/want to team, I will accept the invite, and if they are doing something in which I have no interest, I will politely excuse myself.
• If I cannot or do not want to team, I will decline the invite and send a tell as to why I do not wish to team at present.

Since Free players will be able to receive tells, there shouldn't be a problem with that.

CCs are tough. I do not wish to alienate any of the incoming players. These will just have to be dealt with delicately. Considering they are completely player-sanctioned events, there is little room for consternation. The contest manager should make it clear that any free players entering the contest will be unable to claim their prize should they win. At that point, any negative feelings can only be directed at the developer-imposed game restrictions, rather than the player(s) running the costume contest. And if a free player is going to get indignant about not being able to claim contest winnings, and refuse to make a one-time $5 purchase for 400 PPs to enable the ability to claim similar rewards, well... do we really want that player sticking around anyway?


As for other things to be aware of:
While I can only speak for myself, I have become fairly reliant on global channels to find/form teams, and I have to constantly remind myself that many players do not use them. So every time I open up the teammate finder window, I usually manage to pull in a couple more people. That is probably something we will want to put to better use, since I am sure many free players will mark themselves as "Looking for Any" on that list.

Titan Weapons. This will be a large-weapon-based power set. Think buster swords, street lights, rail road crossing signs, etc. The set will introduce a new mechanic, known so far as "momentum." The attack animations start out slow, and increase speed with each following attack made. Many are speculating that this will work like a Brute's "fury bar" where you will build a certain amount of momentum that will decrease over time when you are not attacking.

Also, as said above, it is possible a staff melee set is in the works, but due to the rapid deletion of the leaked video, and the lack of any comment from Paragon Studios staff, it remains speculation at this point.

Round half-helmet.

Also, Maverick Goggles (from Super Science booster).

First and foremost: I also dislike the fact that Soul Drain is remaining a PBAoE, like its counterparts throughout the game. As someone who plays ranged almost exclusively, Dark Manipulation's power lineup was a severe disappointment.

That being said, I completely understand why Soul Drain is remaining as a PBAoE: Dark Manipulation is a very close-range set. I appreciate the Devs' efforts toward making further Blaster secondary sets more unique when compared with one another, despite disagreeing with or disliking this particular instance. While I wish the two impending Dark sets had more synergy with each other, given their themed similarities and matching secondary effects, they are not the first to suffer from that "problem." The two Fire sets contrast with each other as well.

When Issue 21 goes live, I will still attempt a Dark/Dark Blaster. I will probably end up abusing Penumbral Grasp, skipping most of the melee attacks (as well as Dark Pit because I have always thought it sucked), and saving Soul Drain and Dark Consumption for teaming. If it works, hooray! If not, well, I have other alts...

I have to go with SlickRiptide on this: I'd rather use the Thesaurus than skew my original name idea. If my name were John Adams, and I happened to know another "John Adams," I would change my name. I would not turn my name into "J0hN AdAmS," or "Real John Adams."

A character's name is an identity. I'd rather have a completely unique identity, rather than a skewed version of another character's.

Even if my first choice of "identity" is taken by an inactive trial account...

_

I once went on a sewer run with a guy who was mildly rp'ing his tank, and said out of context that he was unhappy with it and wanted to re-roll it. So he shut off all of his defenses, said, "GO! Everyone run!" And charged into the nearest mob of Lost and Self-destructed. Then he logged off. On the one hand, the rest of us on the team were left thinking, "Holy ****, he really just did that." But after that initial response, I have to say it was the best character write-off I'd seen in-game so far :P

I've never gotten rid of an RP toon (then again, I've only been into RPing for a short while). I suppose if I were to do it, I would make it count. Find some task force, preferably a fairly epic one (my favorite is Lady Grey), run it with your RP group, and let them know that your character is going to die on the final mission. If I were in your group, I think it would be damn awesome to watch (for example) a blaster run in to the fray in order to save his kinsman, blow his Nova attack, and then go down fighting.

Then again, that takes a decent amount of planning and timing. "Going into retirement" as Cende suggested, is also perfectly legitimate and probably easier.

I got my fifth 50 over this past 2XP weekend, an Archery/Devices blaster. He has 3 IO sets: Sting of the Manticore, Dampened Spirits, and Time and Space Manipulation. That's all he will every have. The only thing I have yet to "fix" on him is to raise his recharge numbers, because I find it ridiculous that I have to wait a while before launching another arrow. Whether that comes from LOTG +Recharge or a written-off Spiritual Alpha power remains to be seen. And even when my build is mostly standard IOs, I still get compliments on his performance.

My point is not every one of your characters needs to be Incarnate, or even fully IO'd out. Ironically, any one of my 50s only has one Incarnate power: two took a T3 judgement, one took a T3 interface, and one has a T2 Alpha. None of them have a level shift. And that's all because that is the most that fit their characters. Honestly, NOT taking all the Incarnate powers is what has kept my interest in the low game alive.

But you've heard that over and over already, and probably thought about it yourself, so here are a couple other options:

- Start/Join a concept group. Honestly, it is one of the most fun experiences I have had. The story is happening to you and the rest of the your supergroup/team; you are all living the same saga. You aren't running missions with a bunch of random heroes/villains. Rather, you are running missions with people who have a dynamic together, which leads to a much tighter teaming experience. Also, since it is a static team dynamic, you never feel useless on the team. Your role becomes crucial to the dynamic, and your absence is very noticeable.

- Try out a bunch of different power set combinations to find a new one that fits. In my case, I am currently in love with my Sonic/Sonic Defender. I always disliked Defenders because, to someone like me who usually plays Blasters, the lack of damage output was depressing. But this guy turns teammates into monsters, and thanks to the debuffs, has a decent amount of damage output as well. Find something else that works for you?

- Take a break! Sure, stay subscribed, but step away from the game for a week or two, or more if needed. Odds are, you will be drawn back to the game, just like you are drawn back to playing the game now. Except, after being away from it, exactly what it is that you find fun in this game should be crystal clear, and you can focus on doing that once you return.

I blame today's technology. We as a culture are so used to fast everything that actually having a few minutes between "events" is ridiculous to us. It was only about 15 years ago when web pages took about 20 seconds to load. Now, if it takes more than 5 seconds, we start wondering about what could be wrong with the router.

I like using my travel powers. We play a game where most people can create the perfect incarnation of a certain hero/villain idea that they have. Unfortunately, that leaves the expectation for most other things to be perfect, and we as players forget that perfection is almost non-existent, or at the most, is a matter of opinion.

What about the epic archetypes? In my opinion, Warshades epitomize the theme you are looking for, and a human-only build is very viable. The darkly colored, amorphous powers combined with the dark-star eye aura that activates with any power really captures the idea of "discord/chaos" in my mind.

But if, for whatever reason, you dislike Kheldians (and I can sympathize on that front), then I think a Mastermind is the way to go. Necromancy or Demon Summoning are probably your best choice of Primaries, and then Dark Miasma, Time Manipulation, Storm Summoning, or Pain Domination all could fit for secondaries, provided you color everything the right way.

Another suggestion that might be fun, though you'd be doubling up on archetypes, would be a Gravity/Energy Dominator. With all the push/pull/hold/knockback of those two sets, it would definitely have a chaotic feel to it.

Finally, I also like Rock_Powerfist's idea of supplementing the chaos with Pool Powers, so you could do that as well.

Got my 4th about a month and a half ago, first tanker to 50. Phalanx Falcon (Shield/SS)

And just over 2XP weekend, got my 5th: Sagittarrow, Archery/Devices Blaster.

Interestingly enough, the novelty of "50" is starting to wear off, despite that we now have an endgame. In fact, I purposefully turned off Sagittarrow's "earning XP" twice in his 40s, to finish story arcs. Methinks I will be doing that even more in the future.