There's a reason why we video gamers, and MMORPG players especially, want game companies to make quick decisions on whether their production will include an End Game. And once decided, I really don't think they should vacillate. Just live with the decision unless something drastic is required to save it or pump new life into it.
End Game, in case you are unfamiliar, is what happens after your character has finally ascended to the level cap. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the level cap is 50. End Game is usually exclusive new content that is designed for those level 50 players, even though lower level characters can at least participate in those missions.
Typically, End Game offers a chance to improve your toon's performance above and beyond that of other lower level players. Better weapons. Better armor. More power. More endurance or energy. That sort of thing. And this is packaged in new content, with new contacts, new goals, and new objectives and new play environments.
End Game is pretty rare among the MMORPGs I've played. The Matrix Online didn't have it. Guild Wars didn't have it. Nor did Tabula Rasa.
World of Warcraft, by contrast, has always had an End Game. WoW has been devoted to veteran, top level players from the start. It's designed to make you keep playing your main characters. Periodically, they raise the level cap (from 60 to 70, from 70 to 80 and, just recently, from 80 to 85).
WoW's End Game content has always been pretty spectacular. They throw in a new continent and several new raids and new raid gear. The result, unless you are completely addicted and in serious need of professional help, is that you wind up having very few top level toons. We have played WoW almost from its inception, for example, and Roy and I had exactly 2.25 toons at the level cap. That "0.25" is a Death Knight, and you start at level 55 with them.
So, now that the new WoW End Game, Cataclysm, is finally here, we don't have to spend a lot of time wondering which characters we're going to take to the new level cap and work to get the best gear for. We have a Priest, a Death Knight, and a Rogue, and only one will have to be set aside as we level up the other two.
Not so with City of Heroes, Villains, Praetorians (it's getting to the point where I don't even know what to call it anymore.) There was no End Game during its more than 72 MONTHS of existence. So, I happily hit the level 50 cap and promptly started a new toon, with new powers, that promised to be as much if not more fun to play.
So, I have--ahem--FOURTEEN level 50 toons. Three scrappers. Two blasters. Two corruptors. One peacebringer. One brute. One controller. One defender. One fortunata/widow. One bane/crab. One stalker. Worse, there's only ONE of the bunch that I hardly ever play, the controller, and that's only because I get sick of people clammoring for Speed Boost.
So, now, finally, after more than SIX YEARS, City of Many Things has got End Game. That's in spite of the fact that the game's first big expansion, whicch added Praetoria, has more playing the game than ever before. So, it wasn't like they had to install an End Game to save it.
The End Game here establishes the Incarnate system, which is a third set of enhancements that will put any other enhancements you have on your toons to shame.
Bragging rights, for example, used to be on your POWERS page. If you nearly needed to scroll through all of the power sets you had added to see them all, you were certifiably Uber.
Now, they have removed all of that. In its place is basically a single 'You're Alpha or your not' designation.
My problem? Who the heck do I choose...between 14 toons?!? It could be worse, I suppose. Some people I know have as many as two dozen or more level 50 toons. But while every other player I know seemed to pick a toon and start right away, I spent two days just THINKING about who to choose. They were actually SEVENTEEN toons under consideration, giving the fact that I had three others at levels 35 to 43 that were headed toward 50 and perhaps worth the wait.
Once by intention and once by accident, my two blasters were the first to do the initial Alpha Unlocked mission arc, which merely qualifies you to start collecting the shards you'll need to make the new Incarnate enhancements. By tradition, the first toon through was my blaster Artemis the Archer. She's the one with the most badges, the most accolades, etc., but mostly by virtue of the fact that she was my first level 50 in the game.
But putting her through the missions--solo--and Jericho Mile (great name, huh?)--on a team--merely reinforced everything I DON'T like about blasters. And at this stage of the game I simply have no interest in playing through those flaws.
They are by far the best at delivering long range damage, but they can get knocked on their butts, repeatedly, by knockback. They can be put to sleep, stunned, disoriented, held, slowed, terrorized, and more, leaving you in the incredibly frustrating position of watching your defenses collapse and your toon slowly die as their health drops while you are unable to do anything to prevent it.
That brings me to the one good thing about this decision, since as a mom and a wife and partial caregiver for an Iraq/Afghan war veteran, I barely have time to play at all and really need to focus on one now when I do play. (My son has been playing more than me, and mostly on the Freedom server.)
It's made me think about which single toon embodies most of what I enjoy about playing this game, and has the fewest flaws.
I'm very vain, so my toons have to be cool and look great. They not only have to have a great repetoire of powers, they have to look sharp and stylish in how they deliver those powers.
They have to have great defense or great damage resistance or, preferably, both.
They have to have power sets that can deliver a lot of damage and kills.
They have to be great teammates, in that they buff their team members with either heals or improvements or great shields for defense and/or damage resistance.
And I'd also love them to be able to deliver great long range damage and great close up melee damage.
Any one of the 17 does at least one of those things extremely well. Several can do two or more of those things. A handful can do three or more. But there really is only one that can do it all, and with considerable style.
So, I'm giving all of the Incarnate play time to my Arachnos Fortunata/Widow who, as a rogue, can play in all three of the main game environments: Paragon City, the Rogue Isles, and Praetoria.
First, she just looks so cool in the modified Arachnos uniform. Nothing else in the game, except crabs, has such an exotic appearance. And I'm sorry, a girl just cannot get very excited about playing a toon (crabs) named after a sexually transmitted disease.
Not nearly as well as a brute, tank or scrapper, she can still stand at the center of a hostile mob that is focused entirely on mashing her into the ground and whip ALL of them because her long range, melee, AoE and psionic defense is so great.
She can't be knocked back, slept, disoriented, held, stunned, terrorized or anything else that prevents her from using her powers.
She has the perfect Nova, or 'mob killing in one blow' power in Psychic Wail. It lacks the brute force of a blaster Nova, but it's delivered WITHOUT a total endurance drain that leaves you completely defenseless for awhile. AND everything that isn't killed outright by her Nova is still disoriented and stumbling around like a zombie and completely defenseless.
She can immobilize, hold and stun and lock down an enemy as well as a controller or dominator.
She is a superb teammate because the leadership power pool is already included and does not have to be added later on, so she boosts team accuracy, team defense and team damage. She's also got one of the game's best team buffs in Mind Link, which provides even more accuracy and defense.
She gets a stealth power second only to that of stalkers and illusion controllers.
She gets tons of kills with her ranged powers, and then there is the fact that she can switch to a Widow/melee build and use some of the most powerful short range attacks in the game, with four of her attacks rated from high damage to extreme damage. That is more than my stalker or any of my scrappers who, at beast, have three attacks rated that high.
Tonight, I should be able to obtain enough shards to give her the first Alpha power.
