rolandgrey

I still haven't done the Summer Blockbuster. I also rarely do any of the Strike Forces, even though I team regularly with folks who play that side a lot. I'm super familiar with the Virgil Tarikoss SF, but can't even recall what the Silver Mantis or Ice Mistral SFs are about.

To Hell with the Old Days. Without being able to Email items between our characters, we wound up with a pile of junk we couldn't use on each character. That junk then gets cast into the market, where people have gamed it to the point of trivialty. Unless you got a "moneymaker" piece, there's no point in putting it on the market. Without IOs and IO sets, there WERE such things as "Bad Builds." Cripes, a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Scrapper? In the days of JUST Single Origin Enhancements? One Dragon Tail and there went half your endurance... Good luck fighting the Malta Group or the Carnival of Shadows without sucking wind! Before Super Sidekicking, you wound up with two things. One, a team leader who had to find just the right mix of teammates so that everybody was getting rewards; and if they were unlucky, they were told to keep the "bridge" teammates five levels below them so the other sidekicks could get maximum rewards from enemies six levels higher. That brings me to the next part, where once you hit level 45, like almost the SECOND you did, you were BOMBARDED with Tells from team leaders desperately trying to fill those teams with bridges. So, get ready for five levels of not actually playing your character, because the Fire/Spines player is going to kill everything while you sit and twiddle your thumbs. Before Ouroboros, content missed was content never seen again on that character. Content played and enjoyed was still never seen again on that character. Maybe you could get Exemplared down, but that ran into the exact same problem from before Super Sidekicking. Before, before, before, it doesn't matter what the topic, THE PLAYERS DIDN'T LIKE HOW IT WAS. We BEGGED for the ability Email items to each other. We BEGGED for a better teaming system. We BEGGED for a way to explore old or missed content. WE THE PLAYERS demanded these improvements to the quality of life in this game. Sorry to all of you scavengers of human misery who got outvoted, but the game is MORE FUN THIS WAY. Hell, even the much maligned Enhancement Diversification was necessary, because you were left with utterly BORING builds ("Ope, no reason to slot anything but Damage and Defense! Just like all my other characters..."). You want difficult? You want miserable? You want to be forced to play a game in as clunky a manner as possible? Go play Tarkov. Go play Marauders. Go play Dwarf Fortress. Hell, go play Champions Online, it's still clunky and crinkly after all these years, lacking all the things you're whining about. Then, when you remember why you stopped playing those games in the first place, because after all the lessons learned by the Paragon Devs were never implemented by anybody else, that after all these years, game companies are STILL just turning their games into Inverse Skinner Boxes (that stab you when you don't do what they want, which is pay them more money), when you're tired of your entertainment turning into work because it's Raid Night and you need to be in top form because the Guild Brass needs their shiny pauldrons for 2% more damage reduction (Maybe this time they'll recognize your efforts and give you full Guild priveleges... But don't you DARE roll Need, you f*cking scrub! That's grounds for getting kicked out!)... When you're tired of all of this crap... Welcome back to City of Heroes, where players can be wacky and weird! Welcome back to City of heroes, where there's no "right" way to play. Welcome back to City of Heroes, where the last years of the game's development were focused on improving the Fun factor, not figuring out how to fleece more money from our wallets. Welcome back to City of Heroes, where the Homecoming Crew is figuring out how to eke out even more story from the zombie setting, and we get the thrill of discovery again. I will never understand anybody who fetishizes "The Good Old Days." There's no such thing. EVERYTHING can be improved upon, and you shouldn't hate those improvements just because people are having fun without being forced to deal with you.

Hm... Let's see... Movement - 4/5 - The only place I haven't mastered traversing is the Shadow Shard. If I'm not flying or not getting ported, I'm not there. Leading task forces/raids - 1/5 - I could do this, there's not much to it anymore [thank you, Super Sidekicking! (b^.^)b ]. I just have bad luck that nobody's interested to go when I am. Character builds - 4/5 - I don't have a build planned out from beginning to end starting at level 1. I don't use Mids. I don't crunch the numbers. I don't bankrupt myself of Inf in an effort to have the absolute best IO sets to plug into each character. However, I have characters who can take on threats higher than the default, characters who can go way beyond the default and when teaming, no matter what the team leader has set the challenge to, I never have a sinking feeling that we're going to fail. I'm having fun. Badging - 2/5 - There are some badges I know and seek out, otherwise, I don't pay much attention. Key binds - 0/5 - This is a thing? In-game knowledge - 4/5 - I LOVE me some lore in this game. I often shake my head and sigh when people complain that they don't understand why things are happening. If you spent so long ignoring the lore then start complaining, what right do you have to complain? I mean, understanding the lore is why players didn't like the Who Will Die arc, because it was a bunch of disjointed murder plots that ended with some rando killing Statesman when he had absolutely NO indication that was something he wanted to do or even had that kind of pull in the setting before that moment. It left players wondering if the Paragon devs even cared about what they were writing. Now, playing through the game again and again on my many, many characters and seeing the lore largely frozen in place, I can see that era of the game's writing was reflective of the Comic Book Industry's "Dark Age" of comics... It doesn't make it good, but it does make it ironically funny.

That's a good build! I've got one that looks like a dragon!

Good solo builds? For survivability, anything with Willpower. A Willpower Tanker can survive almost anything, even without using the Tier 9, and it's almost as effective for the other melee types. It's good against just about everything. That said... It's a little slow. It's no-frills. You've got good defense, good resistance, good regeneration, good recovery. You're not hitting the enemies any harder, you're not pulling out any special tricks, you're just dodging attacks, soaking the ones you don't, regenerating almost as quickly as a Regen character and recovering energy quickly so you can move from fight to fight without pause. For some serious damage, though? You might want to go with a /Fiery Aura Brute. It doesn't really matter what you pick for your primary, because once you get it, Burn is going to be the bread-and-butter of your build. For ranged, you might want to look into the Sentinels. They're pretty much the Blasting Tank that players demanded a lot during the Paragon days. However, they might lack the damage output you might desire. /Fiery Aura is a good aid in this one, too, as it has a power that helps boost your damage output. If you're looking to eschew Mez Protection for a high-risk/high reward style, then Blasters might be your next bet, as they can hit hard and even when mezzed most of their powers available at Level 1 are able to be fired off (which can be handy if you get the Archetype enhancement PROC that activates a Mez Protection when it triggers, so slot it in that Tier 1 power you usually ignore and spam it like your life depends on it, because it probably does!). I say most, because HC made a change that allows us to pick up the Blaster Secondary Tier 2 power at Level 1, and those were left out of the "Still Able to Fire When Mezzed" table. I would say let your heart be your guide for Blasters, but /Martial Combat has a Mez protection power in it. Dual Pistols/Martial Combat is a quick, hard-hitting combo that puts Maelstrom to shame (because, ostensibly, that's what he is, but you, the player, can make it SOOOOO much better). If you're looking to lock down enemies, like Controllers and Dominators, Symphony Control is a good one. It has a bunch of AOE mezzes, some of which recharge quickly. There's also the ever-popular Fire/Kinetics Controller, which supposedly does massive damage (probably once you can get Fulcrum Shift; lock down the enemy with Cinders, Fulcrum Shift, then Fire Cages and watch enemies burn to death; you might also have Hot Feet running at the same time, adding more damage to the mix; I'm sure there are some other Fire/Kin players who can give a more nuanced explanation of how it works). If you're looking for a challenge, then I recommend a Defender. They're low-damage, high support, but this means their Debuff abilities are some of the best you'll get out of the box. You'll need to really put in work to improve their damage output, though, and you'll have to engage a lot more tactically rather than just rushing into a fight and laying the smack down. Radiation Emission is a GREAT powerset for debilitating the enemy and cutting them down. It also has Accelerate Metabolism, which can be used as a self buff to increase your attack rate, regeneration and recovery, as well as getting you out of mezzes faster.

My adherence to "Holy Trinity" team cohesion disappeared when a gamebreaker invited me to an all-Controller and Defender Moonfire TF. I then watched as group after group after group melted before our eyes and we were done in twenty minutes. This was before IOs and IO sets and in the midst of Enhancement Diversification. I was absolutely floored. The gamebreaker explained it simply: Controllers synergize really well with each other, and City of Heroes's force multipliers are some of the best in any game you'll ever find. Just one support character of any kind is a game changer in terms of party strength. Debuffers cripple Giant Monsters, Arch Villains and Heroes. Buffers turn teams into wrecking machines. With that as a general rule, then it just becomes a question of "HOW do you want to win?" and not "What will it take to win?" Of course, that leaves City of Heroes having entirely different debates (and sometimes arguments). Sometimes players just don't understand the mechanics of a powerset and get angry somebody's introducing an entirely new strategy. Back in the Paragon days, I had somebody yelling at me because I didn't despawn my MM's minions as I was throwing Envenom at Romulus. Never mind that all my minions promptly died anyway, but then the team promptly stomped Romulus into two dimensions, despite all of the Heals he was getting (because at the time, Envenom caused a 100% Healing debuff, regardless of target; Romulus's healing Fluffy wasn't helping him anymore). There was another time when Protector folks got to arguing about how best to tackle Hamidon, with one camp demanding that it be "ALL FIFTIES, ALL THE TIME!" I was in the "Buffs are still helpful" camp, but the debate raged on about how "None of that matters to Hamidon!" which, from the regular Hamidon Raids I'm seeing on Torchbearer and how often the League leaders are ordering "Okay, buff up!" before attacking Hamidon, I think the "experts" back then might have been mistaken. Damage, Tank, Healer may be the Holy Trinity of MMOs. It's a perfectly viable team makeup in City of Heroes, too: a Blaster, a Tanker and an Empathy Defender. You can play through all of the game's content like that, it's a solid team. Heck, that can be the core of your team, with everybody else just being poutine on top. However, Holy Trinity gameplay often becomes a chore, with Tankers being demanded to spam taunt in order to crowd control, Empathy Defenders demanded to only spam the heals and Blasters to focus on only using the "strat du jour" that the team leader thinks they need to use. It leads to a tunnel vision in team build, where a team leader gets stressed that he hasn't built a proper party if it's all Tankers and a Grav/Kin Controller because the Grav/Kin Controller's "heal might miss," utterly ignoring everything else the Grav/Kin can do for the party. Don't be surprised when the other players you encounter have found other ways to play the game. Ways that the game gives them the freedom to ignore the Holy Trinity. Ways that give them freedom from the stress of having to adhere to it.

I have 150 characters. My first 50 sits as my "Mr. Moneybags" character, holding a couple hundred million Inf that I will dip into on occasion to kit out my other characters. For new characters, it's a simple 10M to carry them while they burn through a maxed-out Double XP booster. That should carry them as they slot in SOs (I don't even bother with DOs anymore). Usually, I start to encounter whatever deficiencies the builds are having when they hit the mid-20s, so then I start looking into IO sets to help mitigate the issues (usually endurance issues, but sometimes it's damage output). Once my characters reach level 37, I start looking into the basic IOs in earnest, as they're the equivalent of slightly better than maxed-out SOs (35s are equivalent to Your Level +1 SOs and 30s are around same level equivalent SOs), with some of my mid-range characters currently stockpiling 40 IOs (if you can build a 25 IO, you can build the equivalent 40). Normally, one of my characters will pick up a Prismatic Aether they can sell, which have been pretty consistent in their 4M value on the market, so they can usually sustain themselves. As for what I focus on, it goes like this... All attacks get Accuracy first. Most then follow a pattern of Damage, Damage, Damage, Endurance Reduction, Recharge. While leveling up, it's rarely in that order (usually starting with Acc-Dam-End), but once the build is solid, it's just a matter of a respec to get the power looking the way I want. There are a few attacks that get two Endurance Reductions. Nukes get two Recharges, an Accuracy, then the rest are Damage. Defense and Resistance powers usually only get four-slotted, with two Endurance Reductions and two of their respective ability improvement. Shield Defense's first power, Deflection, gets six-slotted because it can take both Defense and Resistance. Invulnerability's Invincibility also gets six-slotted, this time with ToHit Buffs to go along with the Defense buffs. When it comes to actual IO sets, I get what I can into the builds. I don't chase sets unless I absolutely have to. If there's a set that is REALLY suffering Endurance issues (Martial Arts/Super Reflexes comes to mind), I scour the sets for any buffs to Recovery and reductions in Endurance cost I can find. Sometimes, this leads me to slotting in ways I much rather would not, but there are a couple sets that have what I need only at the fifth slot. I never plan my builds out in Mids.

Ohmtown, the Freakshow secret agent who shows up during the Diviner Maros missions, needs an upgrade. For too long, he's been a bog-standard Juicer Chief and gets wiped out when the inevitable ambushes rush in (though he makes it a meatgrinder to take him down!). The dude throws down with Metal Shift and Barracuda. He's got spine to go with his balls, and he's competent to boot since Drek turns to him to perform investigations. He needs to be made into a Super Stunner. Heck, if the HC Devs can swing it, it would be neat to see him turned into a Sneaky Super Stunner.

My favorite moment was when I and a bunch of Protector people worked together for an entire Saturday to arrange the perfect moment. Several teams were on standby to summon Babbage, several players had played through the World Wide Red arc and had finished the Defeat All Wildflower Agents mission. All we needed was the stage... Then somebody found it. A Steel Canyon fire that JUST started. Everybody used their base teleporters, Pocket D teleporters, and any other way they could force the game to keep from spawning the Giant Monsters as normal, all so we could converge on Steel Canyon, frantically shout in Broadcast for the location of the building fire and make our way there in the hope that our giant monsters wouldn't catch the wrong end of a police drone. Why? Because one player wondered if the Backdraft would kill them the same way it kills us. On top of that, we also experimented to see if we could get these two giant monsters to fight each other. We had six Babbages, I think two Kronoses, all battling on the rooftop of a burning building. Yes, it turns out that once you get them to aggro each other, the Kronos Titan and Babbage WILL fight each other. Also, when the Steel Canyon Fire event ends, the Backdraft obliterates the giant monsters, too. The hilarity occurs when you learn the Backdraft has enough damage output, it could kill Hamidon. It turns out the Hellions actually know how to make a damn good fire! It was great seeing so many disparate people come together to set this up. It was like watching a dominos arrangement being knocked down. It's moments like this that make me feel that all the talk about "optimum build" and "maximum dps" really makes people forget to have fun with a game.

Every tailor mission has an ambush. Well, they're supposed to. I think there might be a bug involved that's keeping them from spawning 100% of the time... Or maybe the spawn point is randomized and sometimes slaps the adds right next to a very hungry drone.

I take travel powers based on the character concept. The temps, day job and PTW powers go on characters I rate as my "normal people." These are the guys and girls who are weapons specialists or gadgeteers, with Rocket Board usually going to the inventors. There are also a couple magician types who use the flying carpet because it's so imperious. Mystic Flight goes on most of my other magician characters. It's some handy versatility. I'm not really keen on its teleport as a boost, but it can be useful and you can always lay off the teleport and recover End while still flying. Flight will often go on my power-armored or android types or others who have powers where they could conceivably fly without the use of magic (such as winged characters or some of my psychics). Leap goes on my powerful characters. I've also got a couple characters for whom I want to build toward using Acrobatics. Mighty Leap is used on characters who have psychic abilities. I don't really like how this set really pigeonholed itself like this, but I have found use for it. Speed winds up being the odd one out. I only have a few characters for whom I have super speed as a concept. Experimentation's Speed of Sound goes on even fewer characters, but I do have a couple who can make use of the other powers in the set, so I use it then. For both versions of super speed, I will usually supplement them with Beast Run, Athletic Run or Ninja Run for some verticality. Had an interesting moment in a TF where I was playing a Vampire:TM inspired character (a remake of one of my first RPG characters, in fact) running both Speed and Ninja Run and wound up bouncing off a pair of walls to get to a rooftop. You can get some really neat effects if you understand the game's physics. Finally, Teleport... I RARELY use this power. I do have use for its set, but the teleport itself I have found to be too expensive in endurance and too limited in range. Frankly, I find Fold Space much more handy, especially with a character who can lay landmines. Spend a couple minutes putting down a minefield, Fold Space, watch everybody in the area die. Now THAT'S handy! EDIT: I forgot about the Stealth power, Infiltration. This is basically a power pool version of Athletic Running or Ninja Leap. I think I've got ONE character using this. It's okay. I almost never enhance travel powers. They never get more slots, so they'll only get the most basic enhancements (Flight: Flight Speed. Leap: Jump Height. Speed: Run Speed. Teleport: Endurance Reduction). Sometimes, I might slap a Stealth Proc into Combat Jumping or Hover, or I might put slots on Hover to further boost a characters Defense on a Defense build. Big MIGHT. I think I've only done this on one character. I get that there are some people who enhance their travel powers, but I don't see the point. The set bonuses you can get are available in plenty of other sets. Group-based Travel Powers tend to be more of a hassle. Most players don't want to be dragged along on a Team Flight and I don't think I've ever seen anybody use Team Teleport. If anything, they've gotten more use out of Summon Teammates (player rushes to target location, finds safe spot, zaps whole team to spot). I've rarely seen Roboticists using Team Flight to see that rare "Flying Robots" animation. They probably have Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries playing in their heads all of the two times they do it. If I could make a travel power? Hm. I would probably introduce some vehicular travel powers. A Speed putting us in a car or on a motorcycle, a Flight putting us in a Sky Skiff or Chaser... The advantage of using a vehicle? You don't get attacked while using the power. The Disadvantage? You can't attack and they can't be used in Instanced Maps, they can only be used in Overworld Maps. Is this likely? Certainly not. I don't think the game's coding allows for it. An alternative? Same vehicles, but now the other powers in the pool add armor and weapons. This might be a little more possible. Might.

I wouldn't remove any faction. I would update and evolve just about any group. The Hellions and Skulls have changed a bit, but they remain a lowly street gang. I would put effort into updating the following factions... The Igneous. These rock monsters show up in the Hollows and then promptly disappear from the rest of the game. I would have them show up as an antagonist force against the Devouring Earth, to better help explain why Hamidon is having trouble overwhelming this world the way his Praetorian counterpart did. Considering the fact they're essentially living lava, this makes them more representative of the "life force" of the Earth far better than the plant monsters do. Probably the only new enemy type I would introduce is the Obsidian, which would be similar to the gem-based enemies of the Devouring Earth, but would be a high-damage lethal striker with bleed effects as opposed to the DE's high-accuracy glass cannons. The Outcasts. Right now, they're just another group of thugs, no different from the Hellions and Skulls except for the fact that their varied onslaught can actually be dangerous. Since this group appeals to characters who are ostracized, I would have them incorporate lower-level Praetorian refugees, a few more unique members (maybe give them an arc in Steel Canyon which showcases they have more leadership than just Frostfire). I would probably get rid of the mundane weapon wielders, though, or at least give them abilities to go along with their pistols, knives, bats and axes, something that sets them apart from the Skulls and Hellions (who already have full ranks with the same kind of gang member). The Legacy Chain. First, I would mix up the representation. I absolutely hate the design philosophy that made the factions lock certain types of enemies to certain level ranges. This means we lose the Legacy of Steel and the Legacy of Light in the post-20 levels. I would mix that up and have those groups show up again at later levels. I would also extend the Legacy past Level 30, so we'd start getting the Legacy of Water and the Legacy of Darkness. I would include plots that show this group is getting way in over their heads. The Legacy of Darkness adherents would be showing extreme changes to their physiques (pale skin, darkened eyes, with bosses having monstrous, deteriorating hands) and a few unique members who are showing signs that their magic use is having deleterious effects (such as an Inferno of Flame EB/AV with burnt robes and fire jetting out of him, a Tellus of Earth who has become part stone, a Radiant of Light who has become living light or an "Umbra of Darkness" who has become a liche). Finally, I would lean hard into the idea that the Legacy Chain is a bunch of know-nothing-know-it-alls, and has had a schism in their ranks as a result, with some going full Crusader in their efforts to use magic to "bring justice" to the world (to the point they're doing just as much evil as they're trying to stop) to others who have realized they're out of their depth and need to learn more before their pursuit of hidden knowledge consumes them (Archivists?). The Council and the Fifth Column. I agree with Greycat's assessment and have nothing further to add. The Malta Group. This organization has effective weaponry and technology, but they stagnated. They've got a mad roboticist in The Slinger and just gained access to Praetorian technology through Battle Maiden. They need to start leaning in that direction. With all the work they've done for Crey (because the troops we fight are mostly a mercenary company in the same vein as Blackwater) and their other work with various technologists (like Dr. Quatrexin), they would definitely see the benefit in utilizing powered armor. We need to start seeing more of their mad science. Maybe enemies armed with weapons that make you out-of-sync with reality for a little while (an expression of Slinger's weird weapon from the Recluse Strike Force) or some brainwashed heroes and villains, or maybe some that have gone mercenary like Moment. The group is terrifying in concept, but is largely irrelevant in actual gameplay. Aside from a few enemies, the Malta Group just isn't that challenging. The Sappers and the Zeus Titans are a shock when we first encounter them (especially when you see two Hercs combine for the first time), but that novelty wears off quickly. The Nemesis Army. More robots. That's pretty much it. This group needs variety. I also wish we could get some new map sets that are reflective of their steampunk theme. We get one where they're engaging in an incursion into the Shadow Shard, but that's it, and it's so neat. I want to see more of that. The Sky Raiders. Give these guys some flying pistoleers. A group with Captain Castillo in it needs to start exuding that "rakish knave" style. They could probably use some more flying robots, too. It's weird that it's the Fifth Column and the Council that have flying robot minions, but not the Sky Raiders (especially since the Sky Raiders have worked with the Praetorian Army, so should have access to some advanced schematics). The Jump Bots are helpful, but their rank makes for limited deployment. The Tsoo. I would do with them the same as the Legacy Chain's ranks, in that I would mix up the enemy types. Otherwise, their story is fine. I just hate getting into the post-20 levels and suddenly I'm fighting only ONE type of Tsoo enemy (Red Ink Men, Green Ink Men, later, the Blue Ink Men, who are just the same as the Red Ink Men, just in a new suit). I miss the ninja at this point. Also, I would make some lieutenant versions of the Boss types, because Sorcerers are much too annoying and the many different Tsoo bosses are just so neat, I would love to see more. The Warriors. I don't agree with the assessment that they're just a reference to a late 70s movie. Really, the only reference to the movie is a line said by antagonists in some of the pre-aggro fights we see dotted throughout Talos Island. However, the group does need to start using those magic items they've been trafficking. We've got a couple who do, such as Heracles, and we get hints that the Warriors do place importance on the use of various magical items (like the Crown of Glory). Since they're narratively the whipping boys of Talos Island, this should inspire a desperation in them to whip out the magic weapons and armor and start fighting back. It would be nice to see some alternate weapons models on these guys, too. The fact they're still using the basic sword and axe models just further marks them as out-of-touch with the changing world. The Devouring Earth. The normal DE I wouldn't touch. Plant and rock monsters attacking players. Neat. It's the Devoured I would modify. We get a hint at their capability with Pyriss, and the higher level Devoured explicitly have it in their descriptions that they are consumed meta humans. These higher leveled Devoured should be doing more than just hitting us with big claws, vomiting on us and spitting bees. They should have access to the powers they've consumed, like Pyriss does. It would be neat to see some alternate colors on them, too. Finally, Longbow. Rank-and-file, I wouldn't change. It's the Wardens I would change. I would like to see them using some COLOR. It's so irritating that we can never tell what the Warden is until they attack us (unless we break the gameplay loop and check their Info box before the fight). Since they're supposed to be the in-house heroes of Freedom Corps, maybe they should dress the part. So, those are my major ideas for which groups to update and how.

I have 148 characters. Only around 20 are 50s. None of them are "retired," though. Usually, I just have an arc I'm saving on that particular character because I know it has an AV in it that I want to share with my friends. Usually, I'm just not in the mood for that particular powerset combo.

This was an excellent cap to a great Saturday for me. It's so great we're able to pull together to do this sort of thing.

The Council and the Fifth Column are too much alike in terms of gameplay. They're both military terrorists, they both have robots, they both have werewolves, they both have vampires. The Council winds up with the benefit of having the Galaxy troopers and sonic-based weaponry. In the end, they're both speed bumps as far as challenge. I usually treat the Council and Fifth Column as little more than an establishment of "par." Is my character build good enough to easily get through a Council mission? If so, then it's at the basic level to play. If not, then I clearly screwed up somewhere. Fifth Column just doesn't appear in Police Band or Newspaper missions, so I can't really use them for comparison, but since they lack the versatility of the Council, I'd probably fare even better against them. At least one group needs to change, though it would be preferable if both did. The Council just got a pile of technology from Praetoria, if any group were to have a change in appearance and capability, it would be them. Maybe let the Fifth Column keep the robots, werewolves and vampires while the Council starts to get backpack weaponry, magicians, pistoleers, personal drones and psychics. Of course, then the question becomes "Where do the lieutenants go?" Vandal, Maestro and Arakhn would probably stay with the Center and the Council, as it's the (very slightly) less problematic organization. Nosferatu (and his counterpart, Schadenfreude) and Burkholder would probably return to the Fifth Column because Requiem is more likely to indulge their vices (plus, he's got a pocket Reichsman). Let Vandal play around with the new gear he finds with the Praetorian refugees, let the Fifth Column tumble deeper into the dark recesses of the occult and super science. Finally, they've been back long enough. Perhaps it's time to have the Fifth Column start showing up in the police band and newspaper missions.

If I'm in a poor mood, playing my DP/Martial Blaster or my Strength/Electric Brute tends to pick me up.

Yeah, I gotta chime in on the whole "advertising" thing with my agreement. All too often on Torchbearer, the assumption is that it's a speed run by default. This was funny for a little while, but I'm not too keen that people actually assume it. There are still a lot of people who haven't done much of the content of this game, either because they don't feel they're "up to speed" with other players, or they were just dragged from Point A to Point B and have no idea what was going on. So, yeah, if people are advertising they're doing a speed run, then that's great. If I'm in the mood to burn a half an hour or so (and usually much quicker, anyway), I might just be up for that. However, speed run organizers have got to stop assuming that everybody already knows it's a speed run, and players joining events have got to stop assuming it will be a speed run. It can be just as annoying to have one or two players rush a mission before most of the team has even arrived.

I don't mind speed runs for the most part. They're a quick way to crank out some content to get some of the end rewards, which is fine when you're in the mood for it. However... I'm usually in the mood to get more XP. I'm usually in the mood for more chances for loot drops. I'm usually in the mood to chat with my teammates. It's great that people have figured out the surefire ways to wipe out most of the enemies in the game, or have fine-tuned their builds to be near godlike against most, if not all, of the game's challenges. However, I would like to play the game, not just crush its numbers.

Deaux Reimi and Fasso Latido. Say them quickly without the "and" between them.

Oh boy, oh boy... So, Masterminds are an interesting joy for me. Tex of the Black Pants Legion tried to explain them to some of his associates on their podcast, but he didn't quite convey the difference between a City of Heroes Mastermind and the average MMO's "Summoner" class. In other games, the Summoner gets ONE creature. They can then improve the creature over time or replace it with better ones. The one franchise to defy this has been Diablo, but it does it with summons that are laughably flimsy compared to City of Heroes's Mastermind pets. Even more, City of Heroes's Masterminds were designed with controls so a player can send their minions ahead of them rather than always moving like a mob from fight to fight. Give it some time, and you can start to set up devious ambushes. Masterminds really made City of Villains stand out when they were introduced. Crowd control, but shockingly tanky and scrappy crowd control, the Mastermind filled multiple roles simultaneously on a team. It was truly a gem of a design, which only improved as time went on. So, that said... My favorites... I know there are a lot of people who despise them, but I love Mercenaries. Six rough-and-tumble troopers who put the other military types to shame. They throw damn near everything at the enemy, from so many bullets you'll stop walking on the floor with all the ejected brass around, to bombs, to poison gas to flamethrowers... They've got nukes, they've got knives, sharp sticks... The mercenaries are just vicious, and the enemy learns that lesson fast. Their distant cousin, the Thugs, isn't that impressive in terms of variable threat response (it's mostly smashing and lethal damage, with a little fire from the Arsonist Corrupter-lite), but their strength lies in tactics and overwhelming numbers. Gang War is probably one of the absolute favorite powers in the game: A group of disaffected thugs bust out of the woodwork to beat super soldiers and plant monsters to death with nothing more than six-shooters, baseball bats and sledgehammers. Ninjas used to be quite terrible. They were as tough as a wet paper bag and had barely any fighting strength. Then Homecoming found out a bunch of their powers were locked for no discernible reason. After the Ninja update, they've become a genuine threat on the battlefield. Now the ninja are hacking and kicking enemies to death. Probably one of my favorite memories of these guys was when the Jounin threw carpets of caltrops onto Odysseus in the museum warehouse mission of the Mortimer Kal Strike Force. On top of that, they can finally heal themselves and prepare for the next fight without the constant thought of "Well, looks like I better get the next batch of Ninjas 'R Us ready..." The Oni kind of stands out, though. You have this group of smooth operators, but then you've got a weird-faced demon... And more fire. Don't get me wrong, I like the help, but I would have figured a big, badass ronin would have fit the bill better. Beast Mastery takes some getting used to. It encourages "In the thick of it" play as the beasts are like 80% melee fighters. Having seen Savage Assault, I kind of wish we had some of the melee attacks rolled into this set to make for Beast Masters who are one of the pack with their beasts. Still, there's nothing quite like watching your wolves and lions pounce on and tear apart an enemy. Robots are the machine, high-tech version of mercenaries. Fully kitted out, they throw almost everything at the enemies, so they're not really vulnerable to anything. On top of that, the Protector Bots put force fields on the crew, and if you're a FF Secondary, then most enemies won't be able to hit you. The new Repair Bot is a welcome upgrade from the slow-recharging Repair power. Another good secondary is Sonic, as the Mastermind is able to boost the resilience of the robots while the Protectors make them harder to hit. Necromancy is still a bit flimsy to me... But then you engage the Soul Extraction and for a brief moment, you're volleying grim death at everything around you. It's not quite the same as Gang War and doesn't last nearly as long, but it hits HARD, making the set damn effective. Finally, Demon Summoning is... Clunky. The demons look kind of goofy (especially the Demonlings, with those weird blocky mask-like heads), they're surprisingly squishy despite the Demons putting armors on everybody in the group (and even slapping Thermal Radiation armors on them only helps a little more). They hit okay, but it's still weird to me how little "impact" they seem to have. They're serviceable, but they're not that impressive.

I like to put the different sets in tiers. Tier 1 is for ease of use and comfort in most situations. Willpower, Invulnerability, Bio Armor, Stone Armor and Electric Armor definitely fit in Tier 1. Most of them have a nice blend of Resistance and Defense. Willpower practically speaks for itself. Resistance to everything, Defense to everything, boosted Regeneration, a Recovery power, a self rez, and a "You Can't Beat Me" power. Probably its only downside is that its Aggro Aura causes enemies to have a -ToHit, which was theoretically supposed to be the inverse of Invulnerability's Invincibility (which boosts Defense for the enemies around you), but there's a severe difference between stacking your own defense and reducing each individual enemy's ToHit. At least Rise to the Challenge ALSO boosts your Regeneration. The only other problem with Willpower is that it's kind of dull. Visually uninteresting, even more if you turn off it's FX, and no damage auras. Still, if you want to feel like Batman, this is the one. Its "ultimate" power is Strength of Will, which massively boosts your Resistance and Recovery. The boosted Recovery is a bit of an odd duck for the power, though, as you lose a significant chunk of Endurance when the power crashes. Invulnerability catches a lot of flack, but I think it's only because for a long time it just didn't work as intended, and when it was fixed, a lot of players who invested heavily into making it work were angry that their efforts were now detrimental. Back in the early, EARLY days, this power apparently used to lock you into place when you activated the Mez Res (Unyielding), which apparently is the basis of Ajax's story (he was completely invulnerable, so long as he was standing still or some such thing), but it was quickly learned that was a frustrating way to play this game. The version of Unyielding that existed after that made the Invulnerable character easier to hit, almost like turning your character into a bullet magnet. Players solved this by cramming Invincibility with Defense enhancements and staying surrounded by enemies. Then Enhancement Diversification was implemented, which severely diminished those returns, the developers revealed there was always a 5% chance to be hit (which NPCs tend to hit a lot more than you would think), and later Invulnerability was tweaked again. It was exhausting watching the drama unfold. However, I rather enjoy Invulnerability, especially since Homecoming added some Psi resistance into it. It's a weird set, in that it needs almost every power to function at peak performance, but once you've got all the resistances and the defenses solidly slotted out, you're damn hard to kill. You don't even need to plan it out, you can just take the powers you want as they come and slot them with basic enhancements or IOs as you can afford them, and the set functions just fine. Probably its only real drawback now is that it lacks an endurance mitigator. Also, it's ultimate power, Unstoppable, is probably the most dangerous to use. You better be sure you can win the fight before you pop this, because while it lives up to its name while it's running, it wipes you out when it's done with probably the harshest crash of all the ultimates. You lose most of your health, all of your endurance and you can't recover endurance for a time. A kid could kick you in the shin and you'd faceplant. Bio Armor is almost too much. It has TWO attack auras, one of which is reducing the enemy's Resistance. It can heal itself, it can improve its Regeneration and Resistance, it can give the character temporary hitpoints, it has a Reneration AND Recovery power (depending on how high your health is). Pretty much the only thing it's missing is a self rez. I also like its "Are you more Defensive, Damaging or Efficient?" mechanic, which probably is what should have been implemented in Tankers as a whole (or maybe that's just me). Stone Armor was once the be-all, end-all in terms of resilience. Its Defense is high, its Resistance is high, it has solid Regeneration and the taunt aura damages and slows. Its drawback was that it was so damn slow when the Mez Res (Rooted) was active. Homecoming has removed this debility, and reorganized and tweaked the set. Now, Crystal Armor has a boost to Recovery. I'm not too keen on Brimstone Armor being moved to near the end of the set's progression, though. That's Fire and Ice resistance, and we encounter those WAY earlier than Psychic damage, and in much greater quantity. It doesn't make sense that it's next to the last thing we unlock, especially when other sets unlock Fire and Ice Resistance much earlier. Finally, there's Granite Armor. People freaking love this power. Unless your enemies are using psychic attacks, Granite Armor can take almost any hit, even from Lord Recluse. However, Granite Armor is still very, VERY slow. Scrapper and Sentinel versions of Stone Armor get Geode, which is like Ice Armor's Hibernate. I'm not really fan of that. Electric Armor stands out from the others, though, because it is a Resistance Only set, but it also has a LOT of fun secondary resistances that other Resistance sets don't have and makes it handy for dealing with all those enemies that are extra annoying. Enemies slowing you? Not when you have Electric Armor. Enemies draining your endurance? Not when you have Electric Armor. Recharge slowed? Not when you have Electric Armor. Just about anything that could annoy you about an enemy group, Electric Armor ignores it. On top of that, its self heal power also gives you an endurance discount. It's just great. Its ultimate turns you into a being of electricity, boosting your Resistance. Its crash is similar to Invulnerability's Unstoppable, but with an added boost of blasting out an EMP that (notionally) keeps enemies from attacking you for a time. You could probably include the Arachnos Soldier defensive sets in here, too. Lots of defense, Mez Resistance, Resistance itself readily available, Arachnos Soldiers were a breath of fresh air compared to the other epic archetype. Tier 2 is for sets that are good, but need the player to pay a bit more attention. Fiery Aura, Dark Armor, Shield Defense, Radiation Armor, Energy Aura, and Ice Armor settle into this tier for me. Fiery Aura isn't very tough. Two resistance toggles, one for Smashing/Lethal, and one for everything else and Mez Res. No knockback protection. Its self heal recharges quickly, but its Endurance Drain power doesn't. It doesn't even have an "I AM UNBEATABLE!" power. Why use this set? Because you want to HURT the enemy. Blazing Aura, is fun, but Burn is where the damage is. Gather enemies around a corner and set them ablaze. Even with Homecoming's changes to the power, you can still roast enemies easily. Phoenix Rising picks you back up and blasts enemies all over the place. Dark Armor is like Fiery Aura, it's not very tough. Also, if you're running with all of its toggles, you will drain your endurance quick. However, it's stealthy and intimidating. It also has a couple decent pick-me-ups in Dark Regeneration and Soul Transfer. Soul Transfer is like a personal version of Howling Twilight, so it rezes you and stuns everybody around you, very handy (just make sure there's at least one enemy around you when you activate it). Like Fiery Aura, though, it lacks an "I Win, You Lose!" power. Shield Defense would normally fit into Tier 1, except it has pretty bad endurance issues and that clicky Mez Resistance. You'll be in the middle of an attack chain and suddenly you're Held, so now you need to either wait for the power to recharge or for it to activate. I don't like clicky Mez Res. Shield Defense and Super Reflexes both use this, and it doesn't make any sense. It just interferes with the action, and if your character is a weapon wielder (like a shield character would most likely be), it forces redraw. Anyway... So, for a long time, I didn't realize Deflection was a Defense AND Resistance power. The defenses of the set are similar to Super Reflexes, in that it's vector defense as opposed to damage type defense (so Melee, Ranged, AOE instead of Smashing, Lethal, Fire, Cold, Energy, etc.). The aggro aura is a fun one, as Against All Odds boosts your character's damage, turning even Tankers into hard-hitting monsters. One With the Shield, the set's ultimate, boosts your Resistances. You're not invincible, but you're a lot tougher, and as a result it's crash is just endurance and isn't as harsh as most other ultimates. Radiation Armor is also not very tough. It makes up for it with multiple self heals, some damage inflicted against the enemy and an ultimate power that not only makes you tougher, but also boosts your damage output. On top of that, the ultimate power doesn't have a huge shutdown of your Health or Endurance (the drawback is that it doesn't last as long, though). I get a kick out of Ground Zero, though, where you literally nuke your enemies (it also heals your allies somehow). Energy Aura is a solid Defense set, but it's basically the inverse of Dark Armor (Energy and Defense instead of Negative and Resistance) to the same result. It even has a Stealth power. However, instead of a Fear power, it has an endurance drain power, much like Ice Armor (and on Brutes and Scrappers, Energy Drain also boosts Defense, just like Energy Absorption!). However, once the enemy slips past your defense, you're gonna feel it. Still, if you want your character feeling like a Yaut'Ja from Predator, this is definitely the set for you. The ultimate power, Overload is probably one of the best ultimates with a crash, in that it boosts your Defense AND your Resistance, and when it crashes it only tanks your Endurance. Ice Armor, I'll admit, could fit into Tier 1, because its defenses are solid, it has a nice debuff aura that slows enemies down, an attack aura, and an endurance drain, but it winds up in the second tier in my opinion because it winds up with a hefty endurance management issue for the bulk of its run. Even with the endurance drain power, the ice armor character still has severe endurance issues until they can either slot in some IO sets to mitigate it or they've got the high level basic IOs to deal with the endurance issues through raw numbers. Ice Armor's ultimate is one of the strangest. Hibernate encases you in ice and makes you nearly impossible to hit or damage. It's basically Rest in the middle of a fight, though, so you're not really contributing to the fight anymore. Ninjitsu fits in here, too. A bit of a rare powerset to see, as right now only Sentinels, Scrappers and Stalkers can use it. It's like blending Super Reflexes with Regeneration along with some dirty tricks. It's got the same vector defenses, some Resistance to all damage, a Self Heal clicky, a Self Recovery clicky, caltrops, blinding dust, boosted mobility and its ultimate is basically the same as Super Reflex's Elude, with the same Endurance crash. Tier 3 sets need a lot of investment from the player. Super Reflexes and Regeneration go here. Yes, I know there are people who swear these sets are amazing. I happen to AGREE. However, I have had to put way more effort into my Super Reflexes and Regeneration characters than I ever needed to put into any other sets. Regeneration is about as tough as a wet paper bag, and all that regen isn't going to help you when the enemies are hitting you constantly for near-full damage. It's funny in a comic book or a movie when the bad guys shoot the hero down, but then he gets up from the bloody pool to kick their asses when they aren't looking. It's not so funny to try it in a video game, where the enemies aren't so surprised when you get up in their midst and start shooting at you again before you can even get your few auras up and running. Pool powers don't provide enough defense, really the only helpful power I've found has been Tough, prompting me to build for Healing, Resistance and Recharge, in that order. Healing also boosts Regeneration, Resistance helps mitigate the damage, giving you more time to click the two healing clickies in the set and Recharge gets those clickies ready for the next fight faster. Regeneration's ultimate power, Moment of Glory, is probably one of the most heavily debated powers in the game. You can still see its old version in the Paragon Protectors, where it drops your Health and Endurance to minimum levels, but ramps your Defense and Resistance to "No, you can't hit me and no, you can't hurt me" levels. At least, that was the idea. It works just fine on the PPs, but on PCs? Not so much. So, the Paragon Devs "fixed" it... Now it's a generic Defense and Resistance boost, with its only saving grace that it has no crash at the end of it. Whoo. At least it isn't nearly killing us from the get-go anymore. Super Reflexes costs more endurance than it needs to. I don't know what the philosophy is behind this set, but it's flawed. Run one of the auras and it's okay. Run two and you immediately start seeing endurance issues. Run three, and some builds can barely get through a fight. May whatever gods you pray to help you if you try to incorporate any other toggles into the build, such as Tough to mitigate the damage you'll STILL be taking. On top of that, the Mez Res is a clicky, which doesn't make any sense. Otherwise, the defenses are great, because they're vectors rather than damage types. You'll dodge a bullet as easily as you will a fireball or a psychic bolt ("If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a saw blade!") The set's ultimate power, Elude is effective enough... Except it's just more Defense in a set that's nothing BUT Defense, and no matter how high your Defense is, the enemies have a 5% chance of hitting you anyway. On top of that, back in the Paragon days, a game breaker pointed out to me that it doesn't take much to soft cap Super Reflex's Defense, so getting Elude is really a waste of a power choice that crashes your endurance when it's done. Tier 4 is Kheldian. Kheldians need work, not the least of which is figuring out how to fit a Mez Resistance into the sets. As it is, they're practically outshone entirely by Sentinels, especially since now everybody is vulnerable to Quantum Array Guns (at least, QAGs actually inflict real damage on the average character now), and Kheldians are the only ones attracting their attention. Practically anything you could want in a resistance set is available to a Peacebringer or Warshade (except Mez Resistance), along with a smattering of other abilities. However, they're not very good at it. One thing that always bothered me about Kheldians was the idea that they had this special damage type that wiped them out, but bullets were hurting them as much as they hurt a Fiery Aura Scrapper. Peacebringer's self heals recharge slowly and aren't that effective (most other sets' self heals include secondary effects, too, where PBs just get some hitpoints back to rapidly deplete again). On top of that, one of the main draws of the Kheldians is the shape changing... Which cuts off access to whole swaths of powers when you use them. It's a good idea that was poorly implemented and here we are, almost twenty years later and these are still some of the rarest characters to encounter in the game because it's such a slog to play them. So... There's my diatribe. I play a lot of melee characters, to the point where I'm having trouble figuring out new combinations to try (I made a Dual Blades/Bio Armor Scrapper recently, and realized I already made that combo... on a Brute; I also have a Beam Rifle/Radiation Corrupter and a Radiation/Beam Rifle Defender, much to my grumbling). I tend to surprise people when they encounter my characters running any of these sets. I don't use the ultimate powers in most of them. Radiation Armor is probably the only one I use, and that's because it does more than just boost my defense and resistance and it doesn't have the crash. It's like any other Click Buff in that respect. The other ultimate powers? I feel like they're crutches. I still remember the incredulous chatter when I informed a team on a Statesman/Ms. Liberty TF when I told them I didn't have Granite on my Stone Tanker. We still won, shaking the players out of their "There's only one way to do this!" mentality, and that's one of the reasons why I still avoid the ultimate powers of most of these sets. I feel the ultimate powers in these sets are a crutch. With a proper team, you don't even really need them. But, I understand people still like them, so I don't judge.

A friend and I have been seeing stuff like this a lot, too. Probably one moment that really surprised us was when a group of Longbow performed an honest-to-goodness ambush, not a programmed "Charge at them from the spawn point!" one, but one where we attacked somebody and then the mob jumped down from upper platforms to medium platforms, then fired upon and kept distance from us while their Warden closed in with a small support team. We still made it out of that, but it was one of our longer fights in that mission and it hurt us a lot more than the average fight. Though, lately we're just bothered by the penny pinching of the various factions. Longbow has been keeping their Wardens from us unless we increase mob size to dangerous size (two guys vs. mobs meant for six guys at least; though that's not a guarantee either). Other factions have been just as stingy, much to our grumbling. Then we'll do a Safeguard Mission at +0/X3, an run into Ice Mistral. Shake our damn heads...

I was so surprised that Gator Man wasn't taken on Torchbearer.

Dang. That's just a straight misread on my part.

Look, it was late, and I was using Unofficial Homecoming Wiki for quick notes rather than hop on my Trick Arrow Corrupter or my Dark/Dark Defender. So, I missed that Entangling Arrow has a -Resistance. It's still a single-target. Might be helpful in an AV fight, but that's about it. As far as Flash Arrow, though, the game's enemies have a tendency to ignore -ToHit debuffs unless they are heavily stacked. My mistake on the Tar Patch, though. I must have read something else and it just stayed with me while I was writing that up.