DoctorDitko

Never made a PVP character. Never run a redside Hami Raid. Never made a really great base. Never gotten all the badges. Never hit the inf cap. (No comment on the debt cap, at least on Live.) Never gotten a Brute, Dom, Scrapper, or EAT to 50. (Makes me feel a bit of a slacker...) On the other hand: Never kicked someone from a team for anything but sheer obnoxiousness. Never hit the ignore cap. Never turned down a prospective teammate for archetype or powerset. Never needed to turn off the profanity filter to insult someone (Take that, you ectoparasitic, feather-feeding louse!)

I prefer Noscript and Ublock Origin (on Firefox). I have to whitelist or temp-allow many sites for them to function as intended. Kind of a pain, but worth it for me. As an added bonus, the only YouTube ads I see are the ones the creators film and include.

Citing sources! Very, ah, exciting! But, yes, we are discussing a game (inherently a simulation) based on a genre which has its own filters and tropes. In the real world? Crime does pay, and billionaires can usually walk away with a wrist slap or a financial penalty. (c.f. the Sacklers.) Comic book morality and criminology are less rigorously researched, though there are exceptions. Just saying, we're talking about a simulation of an abstraction of the real world. Reality can inform our discussion, but in this context, we shouldn't take it as definitive. How I wish for the opposite: That all the real world problems boiled down to Nemesis plots and alien invasions. If only!

Also, don't forget, there are Defenders without heals, and there used to be Tanks who couldn't Taunt effectively. Spread out a bit, try some oddball combinations. This game was specifically designed to avoid falling into the "Holy Trinity" trap. It really is forgiving of odd builds, the emphasis on individuality is one of its strengths.

I had something in my eye the first time I logged into HC and heard the Atlas music. But the first time I heard the Steel Canyon Blyde Square music again? Tear gas, must have been.

A Bots/Time Mastermind is a fun ride to 50. I'm also partial to Willpower/Super Strength Tanks. And, not to toot my own horn, but Illusion/Rad controllers are a heck of a lot of fun. And a Storm/Ice Defender is a chaotic, noisy, blast! (/Sonic is even noisier, but fun, too!)* Those are all the ones I mostly soloed to 50 (Bots/Time on HC, the rest on Live). Good luck and godspeed! * Migraineurs and others with sound/light sensitivities may wish to check these sets out on the Beta server before committing.

Citation, please?

I was bummed to realize that both international Talk Like A Pirate Day and Halloween fall on Sundays this year! (OK, perhaps I derive too much enjoyment from weirding out University students, particularly on the former. It's harmless fun.) The good sports at the Uni will probably show up in costume on pre-Halloween Friday. Didn't happen for pre-pirate Friday, though. And I'm certainly not going to RP a pirate out here in the woods for my dogs. Well, maybe a bit.* So, that leaves Paragon City. Is anyone planning anything for TLAPD? I'm obviously insufficiently organized to host, but I'll be running around as Professional Pirate (~20s MM) on Torch. Willing to follow a treasure map to another server, of course. Fair weather an' a strong tailwind to ye, me hearties! * And the hat.

Don't forget Embalmed Cadavers will switch sides with a little Confusion. I laugh every time one blows up his buddies.

I personally don't count the CT to-hit bonus when considering it. It may just be my 3d6 of Unluck firing, but at least the Warshade clone of CT seems to make it LESS likely I'll hit.* * Of course, the plural of anecdote is not data. It's Someone trying to tell me Something.

Thanks for the correction; my forgettery gets more powerful every year!

In the spirit of going through the superbase's sofas looking for pocket change: I grab the "internal inspiration" power from p2w on all my characters. This gives you 3 medium or large inspirations 2 or 3 times an hour. You can sell these to any vendor for a few hundred inf, or, if the RNG gods are kind, glom something that sells for tens of thousands on the AH. (If you don't have enough slots free when the power recharges, use, sell, or email yourself a few insps to free up room.) You won't get rich, but especially for low-level toons, it can provide some handy walking-around money.

Ah! You remind me of one of my favorite aspects of a WP Tank: No PSI-hole! OK, I'll never be the guy tanking Hami, but being able to seek out Rularuu, Psychic Clock King, Carnies, and Rikti -- where many tanks are too busy farming Council to bother -- is a sheer joy. "What can I say? I guess my mind is too small a target for your psi powers!"

Agreed on the Willpower set! Once the anemic Taunt was brought up to par, WP became my favorite Tank primary. I understand the Devs wanted at least some Tanks to be responding to different threats with different defenses, but in practice having to switch toggles mid-fight seems less like Tanking and more like plugging leaks and patching holes. WP, once you get your END issues solved, is just more fun for me. As long as you don't accidentally hit your Stoppable button. (The self-pranking Tank strikes again!)

Right up there with finding cash in the pocket of an old suit!

Does that make you plussed, or do you just break even? Anyway, I agree, I hate it when designers plus you without asking. I would love some more maps. But let's not worry about replacing the ones we have, let's just add some new ones that are more logical -- and some that are deliberately maze-like! I suspect that would be a lot less work.

Anybody else remember the classic "Badger" comic? I have 'em all... somewhere. He was "the psychotic hero for the nineties." Or maybe eighties? (Damn, I'm getting old when I can't recall my comic references.) "You got red on my suit!" But, on topic, sometimes ya just wanna play the Question. He's no Batman, but he still has his seat at the Watchtower. cf: The Cadmus arc in JLU.

Wow. A... friend of mine just saw it and... there were laughs, there were way too many tears, there was a feeling of redemption for a certain game's sudden axing. Also, And a very timely cameo! My friend can't wait for the blu-ray, there were probably way too many easter eggs to count. If my friend can be trusted (and he has never been wrong -- he thought he was once, but it turned out he was right all along) it's a serious must-see. Amazing how much fun a well-placed musical sting can be. TL;DR: Go see this movie.

I was delighted to learn that F10 Battlecrys can be fired off during cutscenes. One of the very few things you can do while the bad guys are monologing. (Apart from making a sandwich, walking the dog, or running out for beer.)

My namesakes, Ill/Rad and Ill/Time controllers, have used Arcane Bolt in attack rotation since it became available. Because controllers need direct attacks and it's very thematic. Now it is even gooderer with reasonable animation times and the Arcane Boost. If you are a controller, getting the bonus damage from mezzing a foe plus the Arcane Boost yields almost triple damage: triple controller damage, granted, but still, it makes me feel like a damage dealer for a few seconds. (OT, but I still say Mystic Flight is the best TP power in the game! Set yourself on autofly and hit Translocation every time it recharges. You'll beat the speedster to the door!)

Also extremely handy for NPCs that insist on dialoging under my minimap! Jerks!

Does it need to be said that there is a way to label your character as a Roleplayer, which might raise your chances of connecting with similar souls? Menu: Help: My Status: Roleplaying It's a way to be visible on everyone's RP-dar.* * It also helps if you play nicely with others. Just sayin'.

True story: After CoH was murdered, I was bereft, and my shrink gave me homework: meet someone. I reconnected with a 30-year-ago college crush and we wound up getting married. Good times. She later got cancer and died. Guess what came back? The timing was uncanny. It helped so much. I wish I could have showed her the game I kept going on about, but the timing was not to be. When I say I love this game, I mean it.

Excellent point! The only downside being, sometimes with Storm you actually push the bad guys into the wall. Targetable, but undamageable.* Which can be a pain on "kill-all" mishes. Walls are my Stormy's Kryptonite. * Yet another plug for the Teleport pool!

Trying to use Shadow Slip (with ridiculous 2 min recharge) to TP foes to my Warshade. Works as expected, 95% chance to hit, UNTIL I use Starless Step. Then, not only do I never hit, there isn't even a mention of using the power in the combat log. I think it's supposed to give a bonus, so this is not a good thing. Basically, in not-Kheldian terms, my TP foe fails if I ever have a bonus from my Combat Teleport. And apparently never even gets logged. My power is still recharging, though. So i can only try again after 2 minutes.