It's been 2 years...

Hey DCUO community, after a long hiatus I'm ready to start playing again. I'm gonna need some advice on where to start though, I left when I had full Tier 5 gear. What DLC's should I buy or skip? Thanks in advance.

Don't buy any. It's a waste of money. Subscribe for a month and go from there. Premium is not the best way to experience this game.

If you are truly intent on wasting money on premium though.... I'd skip Af1. Do HoP1. Skip WoTL2. and buy AF2 and HoP2

Thanks for the heads up, I have a question though. Is the best gear in the game obtainable by buying with marks? Because a big reason why I quit 2 years ago was because I hated the fact I had to hope to get a drop to be the strongest I could be.

In fact, it's even worse than when you left. Vendor gear is 2 CRs behind the gamble drop gear. Basically, if you don't spend replay badges the Devs don't expect you to finish any gear set within the confines of that DLCs life spam.

Just pay 15 dollars and decide

Interesting.

Hey man, I have one more question for you sorry. What route should I go about gearing with the DLC's? Like which one should I do first, second and so on....and I'm talking about DLC's that come after Origin Crisis. Thanks in advance.

I'm actually not sure to be honest.
here is how I'd do it.
WoTL 1
HoP1
AF2

The issue is that these DLCs lack solo content . Meaning that you would have to rely on LFG and random que to progress which isn't fun.

If you'd rather go the solo route I'd say.
AF1
WoTL2
AF2

Don't take just my word for it though. I'd wait for some more feedback

My honest advice to a returning player? Turn around and walk back out before getting sucked back into this mess. I hate to sound pessimistic, but that's my honest reply. It's not even close to being the same game it was when you left, and not in a good way. You don't get Marks for content lower than your CR, stat clamping is in place, population is way down, they've added this crappy thing called Advanced Mechanics that put the game on easy mode, so now everyone runs around with identical loudest for each power pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, repeat, I could go one but... it's honestly nothing like you remember now.

Stick around if you like, you'll see. Best of luck.

Thanks for the honesty, I'm curious about the "Advanced Mechanics" you mentioned though, and the "stat clamping" could you elaborate a those a little bit more? Thanks in advance.

In a nutshell, Advanced Mechanics is basically power interactions that help you regenerate your own power, putting less stress on trollers for power hogs. The problem is that it's limited to only a few interactions in your powers, leaving many powers untouched, and everyone goes to Youtube or the shout channel for "the mostest beastliest load out possiblez". It's increased the number of DPS' in the game, and created even more bad ones who aren't learning proper mechanics of block and roll, when to focus on ads vs bosses, scoreboard chasers, etc etc. The other support roles are few and far between now, and the good ones... even further.

The stat clamping/NPC scaling basically means that NPC's in lower content than your CR are much tougher now, which would be a good thing if they got it right before they released it. Much of the lower content you run has/had enemies that were just stupidly hard to get through if you were running at or slightly above the recommended CR. They've fixed some of the instances, but not sure they got it all yet. Again, that would all be fine making the NPC's harder for higher level players, but when combined with removing marks for players above the CR of that content, itessentially killed any desire or point for higher CR players to go back to help lower league mates or new members with said content. It's just a waste of time. Because of it, newer players aren't getting the help and guidance they need from more experienced players that they should be getting since, you know... the game doesn't actually teach new players anything about this game and how the roles work or their importance. Not to mention that many of us enjoyed going back to lower content, but now people feel that they are squeezed into a very limited amount of content in the game, since the lower content only rewards them with loot (much of which is useless to them unless hunting a specific style... and good luck having a rare style drop).

There's a bit more involved to these things, but that's essentially what's happened. I could elaborate a bit more but I'm just too tired to think clearly at this point. Do a search for those keywords though, and you'll find plenty of threads on them.

The only stat clamping going on is in the seasonal content. People are STILL confused on the issue of stat flattening (go ahead, look it up in the Developers Discussion section). Suffice it to say, the effects of stat flattening have left certain pieces of content in lower tiers in a state of imbalance. The Devs are working on a fix, which is still in the internal build stages...and the populace has lost all patience waiting for the fixes. So...there's that to consider.

Bro save yourself the money and headache and do not return. I usually do not tell people what to do but this game is getting worse with each update. Ever since ESO made its console debut, you can hear a pen drop when you are in the Hall of Doom or even Watchtower. What this game once was is no longer the case. Nothing bad bad decision after bad decision. I even retired from PvE because that would mean I have to pay $15 per month to access all PvE DLCs and I refuse to do it anymore. So I sign on once a week to PvP and what not. Once my 3 month subscription ends in 2 weeks, I will be free to just let this game sit on my HDD on my PS4 never to be touched again.

Yes, sorry.. clamping has been on the brain for the past few hours. Flattening (or scaling.... I believe they also called it) is correct.

Stat Flattening and CR scaling are two separate things...working together to drive some people nuts and others to not really notice much.

Amazing, I remember when this game ran the PS3...it's kind of depressing to be honest. If you ask me the system they had implemented for Tiers 1-4 was brilliant. Do the content, get marks and some gear if you're lucky, but eventually get the Tier gear with those hard earned marks. I liked this system because as long as you worked hard you would be as strong as you can be, not if you get lucky on some drops. The only thing I didn't really like was the queue system, it's almost like the game just matched you up with any random player regardless of role, I didn't like how you were forced to shout in the WT anytime you wanted to do something.
I think I'll stay on Final fantasy XIV PS4 for now, thanks to everybody for contributing, to be honest I would like to see a sequel or spiritual successor to DCUO, maybe the devs just need to start fresh and return to their roots?

Too little, too late. The developers had more than enough time to fix things for the better. Instead they ignored our requests and probably figured we would stay because no other MMO was as good as DCUO. Well ESO finally hit consoles and they are now seeing exactly what happens when you ignore your true fans and please those who cry on forums all day.

So why is everyone saying this game is horrible now and advising him to not come back again? If you don't like this game anymore stop playing. If eso is soooo much better, go play that instead. Hell go back to destiny if you want. They left in droves for that one too and all cane back in a month trying to act like they never said dcuo sucks.

Heres the bottom line op. Devs leveled to over inflated stats to a smooth incline to resolve a pending issue that the dumb def and blind couldnt see coming. That issue was the eventuality of adds ignoring 100 percent or more your defense leaving you no way to mitigate any incoming damage.

In doing so they needed a way to make us feel stronger as we progressed. Previously done by super inflating stats between tiers. Thus cr scaling was born. What it is supposed to do is increase outgoing abd decrease incoming damage the higher your cr is above the npcs. This is the pay that's slightly broken atm. Some npcs seem to have this reversed making some content nearly impossible.

They also unified marks but now limit content you can receive marks from. And instead of constructively presenting issues and resolutions, these fools continue to call the devs dumb and scream how stupid they are and then spout off nonsense about mark System ruining game.

Play for yourself and decide for yourself, But do so with an Open mind

As much as I love this game for what it used to be, the current game is pile of horse poo. The system you speak off was the golden age for this game and it died out soon after. I stick around the forums in the hope that the developers sooner or later just might fix the game. My sub won't expire for the next 4 months but I have stopped playing DCUO all together.

If you play on PC, I would recommend you to try out TERA which is truly a wonderful game and totally free to play (not the scam DCUO calls free to play) and much better than ESO.

Why should I not express my honest opinion if someone asks for it?

I have enough things to do that to waste my time writing posts on the forums but I do so out of concern for the game I have played for 4 years. It has changed too much and all for worse.
Look around, the amount of negative feedback is raking in piles all over the forums which clearly reflects that a whole chunk of the population is totally unhappy with the direction of the game yet the said feedback is being consistently neglected.