[Praetorian story flowchart?]

Night Ward feels like a fairly fast continuation though there can be a delay. First Ward is still a mess with spirits and the Talons are everywhere even if Selene is down by the end of the arcs, and the first part of Night Ward is following up on the promise to free Katie only to find things are suddenly worse 

[Post your best costume designs here!]

So Overstrike was my main villain back on Live, a bots/traps mastermind.   I've definitely made some updates to the looks (here's the old Virtueverse page for a brief comparison) but also took advantage of the costume slots to have level-appropriate wear.  Since she hit 40 this weekend it seemed a good time to put this post together.

 

Also how much the same face can look different messing around with mask, goggle, and makeup options.

 

When you're fresh out of the Zig with salvaged equipment and told to go kill some Snakes, you make do with stuff that is tough wearing and stain resistant over fashion.  The green is, sadly, an attempt to spice up looks but you really can't trust labels on the Isles.

 

 

Establishing a small name as more than just a small-time thug, piecemeal acquisition of better equipment has led to the base of the later aesthetic.

 

 

And Overstrike finally takes stock and starts working on tech synergy and branding a bit.  A proper battlesuit!  It's a bit bulky and also Overstrike finally found some better hair dye.

 

 

A slimmer, more cohesive model with a more tech way of keeping a cape aesthetic with less snagging and gloves that are easier to type in.  Man it looks good in the design stage but Arachnos keyboard designs are enough pain without having to hunt-and-peck.

 

 

  Easy access to Vanguard tech and dabbling with secrets culled from world-shaking threats allows the utter tech smugness of completely thrusterless flight.  The wings are more radiators than stabilizers but when you've made Arachnos blink, no one laughs if you go to the trouble of making them flap.

 

 

The power of the incarnates can be subtle, but when bringing your A-game against dark Gods and psychotic demigods, you might as well let all that power tweak your looks.

[Cognitive Interface?]

Degenerative -HP doesn't combat log either, though the toxic DOT does.

[Summaries of Henchmen pros/cons?]

14 hours ago, tidge said:

This does require investing into KB->KD for the Bots so as to not scatter enemies everywhere.

 

Pre IO on live I found myself grabbing patron powers with AOE Immobilization to deal with that, was as night and day as hitting 32 was. Assault bot loves knocking stuff around

[Kind of callous, aren't you?]

26 minutes ago, Troyusrex said:

I beg to disagree...never in the history of CoH has there EVER been a successful purse snatching. Many, many attempts, but no successes. 

The FBSA had to disallow grip strength as a registered superpower when the paperwork deluge threatened to overwhelm them.

[Favorite Mission Interior Map!]

For sheer comic-bookness I love the 'Primal' science labs with misplaced accelerators, giant energy spikes, unlicensed reactors...

[I feel like I'm missing something.]

12 hours ago, Rieitdd said:

First and foremost look for the IO auras , it will give a lot of defense and resistance to your pets, which will make them sturdier

Seconding this - Pets with extra resistance and defense are a lot tougher (especially the AOE one - guy with flamethrower to other ATs is well, fire damage.  MM not catching it in time is a mass resummon)

[Mastermind Incarnates questions]

Hybrid support also boosts defense which is useful on some set combinations (I'm honestly happy to trade out the timing trouble with assault and the extra damage for the tier 1 pets (especially) to be sturdier)

[MM Trick Arrow Slotting Tricks and Strategies]

The big problem for ninjas is the more + levels you add to notoriety, the even less their poor defense does, and the lack of resistance means they can't take many boss grade hits, at all.  Most other pets have some resistance which helps, but ninjas it's a pure binary for all the damage, and the odds aren't especially in their favor. 

 

So definitely less of a problem at earlier levels but as you reach a point most power sets would be throwing a  couple +1s on the enemies is definitely rougher.

[Favorite in-game quotes]

11 hours ago, Techwright said:

Wasn't there a scenario, where other NPCs were present and they all sort of acted as a Greek chorus parroting Fayte, calling him "a gifted surgeon, and nothing more"?

Basically every NPC line in that rescue mission. He is, after all, a gifted surgeon and nothing more.

[Patch Notes for February 25th, 2020 (Issue 26, Page 5 - Build 1)]

6 hours ago, The Curator said:

All players can now move through Mastermind henchmen and push them out of the way, not just their owners.

• You're welcome.

 

Well this will make a lot of my teammates happy.  Thanks!

[Fire the Architect]

The biggest sign of Nemesis' pervasive influence and long-range planning is how those Warhulks get up a '1500 lb max' elevator, honestly. 

[Fire the Architect]

15 minutes ago, HelBlaiz said:

Forget the backpack, they get those personal jet fighter things in there somehow!

Nothing throws me out of the game quite like seeing a Sky Skiff waiting patiently in a narrow hallway.

[Weekly Discussion 39: Incarnate Powers!]

I'm fond of things that 'push' the powers like interface or alpha but MAN Judgement can be satisfying to pull out. 

 

Wouldn't change - if one got added, we've got buff, nuke, proc, summon, so I guess some sort of control super-power would be next, so maybe it's good they stopped.

[Favorite in-game quotes]

2 hours ago, ZorkNemesis said:

Also, I think whoever wrote some of the Rikti lines was having too much fun.

 

 

 

RWZ has too much fun with this (especially when the nicer Ritki get better translators to 'handle your adorably primitive causation structures')

 

My favorite being technically an unquote from the super taciturn Psi-Scout Lk'Onik.  He actually gets the colon structure on his pauses.

 

Random Rikti 1: Quiet

Traditionalist Psi-Scout Lk'Onik: ... : ...

Random Rikti 2: Status Correction: Too Quiet

Traditionalist Psi-Scout Lk'Onik: ...  : Heh

 

Runner up is Kelly Uqua in case you didn't get the hints earlier and haven't hit the Rikti before as you help cover up her infiltration: "Esteemed Thanks: Character" 

[Why don't you play on the Villain Side?]

I do play redside though I can get how the aesthetic gets to people.  I also blame the tutorial; it's a later-style arc with more interaction but MAN is the villain a barely functional thug with a violence addiction through the Heart of Darkness arcs.  Most of the other stuff is much better. 

[Worst TF/SF in the game]

Is original Positron an option?  Shadow Shards were quicker...

 

Synapse isn't super travel heavy as slogs go and switches out the maps, so it doesn't bother me as much as Citadel, the Task Force of far too many Council maps.   The small narrow structures with  three level 'cooling ponds' with too many alcoves enemies can hide in.  And you have to find every. one.

 

It doesn't help the Council on Citadel is pretty tedious.  Lot of base soldiers in fire and force, maybe a little sonic, and no Warwolves, and few Vampyri or Galaxy to liven it up.  It's a lot of people shooting at you without many variations of buffers/debuffers, or super hard-hitters.  Yeah there are hover bots and Mech Men, but they don't do that much more different besides shooting.

 

Moonfire offers more variation in enemies and mission types, and Hess has a giant robot volcano base and is much more rare to see. 

[So how are mission doors selected?]

8 hours ago, VileTerror said:

I once had an Atlas Park Starter Contact give me a mission in Night Ward.

You should have been nicer to them.

 

I've had missions where I'm at 50 from old-school contacts decide Dark Astoria was a good place to go.  Why the Carnival of Shadows was throwing a party a few blocks from a god of death I will never know.

[When you're convinced the RNG goblin is mocking you]

33 minutes ago, roleki said:

That's any /Time I've ever run.  I can count on one hand the number of times that  a chain of Time Crawl -> Time Stop -> Slowed Response-> Attack have all hit.  

For the record I had a 95 percent chance I saw last night that missed 2 out of 3 times. 

 

I have taunted the goblin, and must suffer the consequences. 

[Patch Notes for February 18th, 2020]

Oh wasn't expecting the incarnate interface fix in so quickly! 

[How do the MM sets compare against each other these days?]

39 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

Kinetics is "good" for teammates, but "poor" for most Mastermind Pets.  That's because a LOT of what Kinetics does for you (and your team) simply doesn't translate all that well (or at all!) into Mastermind Pets.

Just to add on this as it comes up a fair amount - pets don't get affected by recharge boosts (pet summons do) because the selection scripts behind their attack patterns can't handle when the timing changes on the chain.  They'll get the +recovery but a big part of kinetics doesn't apply.

 

Teammates will still regularly love you but you, yourself, won't kill stuff faster outside the damage increases.

[When you're convinced the RNG goblin is mocking you]

"You had a 95.00 chance to hit, you rolled 96.87."

 

Alllll the time.

[The 105; the Worst of the Bunch]

On 2/12/2020 at 9:17 PM, Redlynne said:

Ninja/Trick Arrow ... NEVER PLAY THIS ... unless if you're a masochist.

 

Having messed with one - this is one of the few characters I feel a need to yell at the henchmen on screen ("Set the Oil Slick on fire!  Rain of fire! DO IT!") I like it but it's definitely better in a group than solo where you can take some pressure off hench survivability and still apply a lot of pretty excellent debuffs. 

 

Definitely one of the secondaries where 'Aid Other' from medicine pool comes into its own, though.

[Mercs/Traps]

Mercs as ranged got a buff on Homecoming recently so they're less likely to run into melee.  I've been hearing a lot of relief secondhand at improved shootingness.

[Lord Outgoing - Alternate Dimension version of Lord Recluse]

I know it's mentioned earlier - the personal story where you play as Tyrant has Recluse explicitly note he won't suffer his counterpart's fate, and Tyrant muses on doing the same. 

 

Billy was a member of Marcus's gang (Stefan was 2nd in command and much less of a 'cover all continencies plotter' before the Well.  He seems to have convinced himself he was in charge over the decades since)