DoctorDitko

The upside of the Shard is the Day Job: when you log out there, your character gets a free jetpack, which gains charges the longer you stay*. So hang out in the Shard for a couple weeks before you hit Grandville. * The other upside is, it looks like something Steve Ditko would design. Or an album cover.

If there was an option to play redside as a good guy in deep cover, I would like that. If I could flag my bad guys as potential opponents of my good guys*, I'd love that! My main beef with redside is the mission arcs. You want to be Lex Luthor and you're stuck licking boots to someone who got hold of one of Bruno Manheim's second-rate Apokalips weapons instead. And you never really get to graduate! * And vice versa.

The time that cracked me up was an anecdote a friend told me: Friend is leading a Posi 1, character X dings, and asked if he can level up before the next mish. They are near the center of Steel, so the leader says, "Sure. Just hurry." The team are talking for several minutes, then someone notices, "What's up with character X?" Leader says, "X how you doing? Need help choosing?" X "Almost there!" Then the team sees him zone into Atlas. Yeah, he was running to Lady Liberty.

Honestly, I expected to hear about folks recruiting for a "Kill Most ITF" which changes into a speed run. I hate those! Communication solves most of these problems: LFG, we need a 50 to lead, then assorted levels are welcome.

I usually slot Stamina (in order of utility): (Corrected thanks to Maelwys!) Performance Shifter proc (gives END) Performance Shifter END Mod (increases Stamina) (Also, having both increases Movement speed by 7.5%, but that's irrelevant) And in Health (again, in order of utility): Panacea proc (gives END and HP) Numina's Convalescence +END +HP Miracle +Recovery (Is it weird that the best END mods come from HP enhancements? Yes, yes it is. This is CoH, where the temp power Tough Hide gives you +Defense, and there are bus stops but no buses.) Panacea can be pricey, but the two Perf Shifts aren't too bad. Run missions, explore zones, get Merits. At an ATM, trade Merits for Enhancement Converters, sell Converters on the Auction House, you'll afford the PS ones in no time. Once I have it slotted that way, along with the Health ones Moon recommends, I don't worry about Stamina unless I'm fighting Malta or Carnies. (Which I love to do; many players are scared of them; I find them a welcome challenge!)

My main problem with the writing, especially in the most recent stuff, is the incredible verbosity. Seriously, three pages of dense text to set up a mission? Ideally, you should never need to touch your page down key in normal play. It's like Kevin Smith's later comics; good writing, but I pity the artist who has to cram all those words into a panel!

One thing I noticed: Psyche was at 0 hit points (confirmed by using Soul Extraction on her, with excellent results) and she was still going strong. Beware the Bride!

Welcome home! If you can't find a team on Victory, HC have made it very easy to jump from server to server (it's the double headed arrow at the top of the character selection screen). You can also jump back, of course!

Looks like fun! But I'll warn you, as a better Doctor once said: "I always dance at weddings."

I know that sometimes you can tab-target a stuck mob and free them with Teleport Target (Or as my friends know it, the Doc is Lost Again power). There is also a bind you can make to target enemies by name, not sure if that helps. I will have to try Fold Space next time.

P2W vendors sell two, for a million each, which are both permanent and share a 60 min cooldown: Renewal of Light rezzes you to half health, and blasts the critters around you with knockback and a debuff. Return to Battle rezzes you and grants the effects of all the Large Inspirations (sort of like when you level up). So, effectively full health. As Wolf mentioned, Events and Bank mishes can grant temporary self rezzes, which I think have their own cooldown. And don't forget a large Rez, Breakfree, Heal and End insp in quick succession are pretty damn effective! Stack 'em vertically and hit, e.g., F1 four times fast and you're back in business right away! I speak from ignorance here, but rumor hath it that an Incarnate power choice includes a self-rez. (Edited to add: I think Techwright beat me to it, but IIRC, the Day Job power from AE only works in AE missions?)

Hammerspace. (Warning! TV Tropes link! Not responsible for lost afternoons.)

Am I the only one who thinks shortguy's voice sounds an awful lot like Death*? * ("The Turtle moves!")

I just wonder what they do when the basement gets full of Down elevator cars! (And the attic full of Up ones, of course.)

This! Even a modest set bonus to movement can make escorts a nightmare!

A couple of points I haven't seen mentioned: Paper/Radio missions give you a certain amount of choice of opponents. Story arcs often award a handful of Merits upon completion. Bonus: Mayhem missions, available redside after completing enough papers, are some of the most fun things to do in the game!

Hmmm. You may be right about the War Walls. As for lazy? Keep in mind this was a tiny development team compared to the WoW army of creators. Nut you are spot-on about Mayhem missions! Once you get "Lord Schnauser" as a contact, you can come back at 50 and run them all, in order if you like! Brilliant fun, and if you get all the explore badges, it satisfies the requirements for one of the stat-boosting accolades, in the most fun way! Here's to more Mayhem!

Stealth kill alls are the worst! The War Walls, simply, were there for the age of dial-up. There was no practical way to load a larger area via 56.6K modem. As far as geometry... sigh. I had a lovely Stormie who was enjoying terrorizing the Cimerrorans, almost entirely steamrolling, and then rogue Romans started getting stuck in walls. A lot. Even TP foe wasn't of much use. Now that Fold Space is a thing, I should get that and see how useful that is. It would be great if that solved the geometry issues! Still and all, love the game. And the fact that it was once optimized for dial-up makes it quite playable even on the shitty end of my Verizon Wireless "home internet" service.

I have a macro: /macro BOSS quit$$dialogyes (Not that I spend a lot of game time at work, but that's the traditional name for the function.) Sometimes at lunch I log in to check my auctions, etc. AFAICT, it's pretty random. I can log in, check /AH, and log out several times in a row, without moving, and the time will vary, usually between instant and ~15 seconds. When I get a 30 second countdown, I can cancel and try again, and usually get a shorter one. This is all without moving my character. TL;DR: I think it's random.

Snarky, you probably won't see this if you're already in torpor, but don't go! We have the proverbial large assortment of morons, but very few incisive and witty commentators.

Yep. Check out Englehart and Rogers' run. Classic.

Welcome home, Victory! I just spent a very enjoyable evening running DFBs well organized by People's Hero 22. Victory folks seem friendly and affable. Good addition to the HC family!

Thanks for the heads-up!

Damn, those are good names! You guys play them to live up to their names, please!

I can't speak to the Offense or Defense categories, but I've been maining a Plants/Nature toon, and it's got insane levels of Support. Seriously, as an Ill/Rad from before it was meta, this character has CRAZY buffs and debuffs. Would you kindly publish to https://arxiv.org so we can attempt to replicate your results?