Apparition

This is a large thread that I haven’t read through yet. Let’s see what’s going… on…

Yeah. I can safely say that I have never seen that on either Excelsior or Torchbearer.

I have found that far too many CoH veterans assume that everyone else is as well, and think that there aren’t any new or newer players to the game.

Plus, we now have numeric evidence that shows that knockback is detrimental to DPS. Just slotting a KB to KD IO enhancement in powers that do KB removes a minute or more of mission completion time. People can no longer say that knockback doesn’t actively harm teams. Using SOs on Blasters at 0x8: Using SOs and KB to KD IO enhancements on Blasters at 0x8:

Yeah. I think you and Mezmera are talking about different levels of difficulty. The Vanguard heroes fight in Relentless ASF is difficult, no doubt about it. But there are missions in AE that put that fight to shame. Any team that doesn’t have an Electrical Affinity, Nature, or Thermal support character will be obliterated. Trick Arrow character on the team or otherwise.

That is a great guide, and what I used as the foundation for my own. Just be very careful following it, as the level ranges are wrong and doesn’t account for a couple of long-standing gold side bugs that I encountered trying to follow that guide, (see earlier posts in the thread). Redlynne left Homecoming two years ago and is never coming back, so there’s no way to correct her guide. That’s why I wrote my own.

I'm glad to hear that the guide has been helpful. Yes, you can leave Praetoria at level 20, no earlier. You will get a mission from either Steven Sheridan (Resistance), or Provost Merchand (Loyalist), that will send you to Primal Earth. Once on Primal Earth, talk with Mistress Eva (blue side), or Carter Mordesen (red side), and they'll send you to First Ward. Just be sure to start First Ward by level 28, and don't go past level 28. Then at level 29, you'll automatically get a new contact that will start the Night Ward story arc.

Thursday night was the test. Excelsior went boom.

There actually is a way, although it isn't free, and I don't recommend it. I have played Homecoming on my iPad using this method though. It's called Shadow. You basically rent a Windows 10 computer on the cloud for $30 per month, and you can do anything with it like an actual Windows computer (within the company's agreement), including play Homecoming. There's a Shadow app for iPhone, iPad, and even AppleTV, along with Android devices. Shadow is partially owned by the same company that owns the data centers Homecoming uses, so it has a fast connection to Homecoming's servers, (barring your own connection to Shadow).

I encountered this issue tonight. With @GM Impervium 's help, the mission was auto-completed. However, my character had not stepped foot in First Ward yet. I've been playing gold side a lot the past year or so, trying different ways of running through all of the story arcs. See what works, see what doesn't. Here was my latest go around: Do all of the Nova Praetoria story arcs naturally, turning XP off at level 7. Do all of the Imperial City Loyalist Responsibility, Loyalist Power, and Resistance Warden story arcs naturally, turning XP off at level 14. Do all of the Neutropolis Loyalist Responsibility, Loyalist Power, and Resistance Warden story arcs naturally, turning XP off at level 18. That left the Imperial City and Neutropolis Resistance Crusader story arcs remaining. I dinged level 20 running missions from Clockwork A87952, and then used a Pillar of Ice & Flame crystal in a SG base to Flashback to the various Resistance Crusader story arcs in Imperial City and Neutropolis. My plan was to do all of that, and then leave Neutropolis and go red side to Sharkhead Isle. I got through all of the Imperial City Resistance Crusader story arcs. No problem so far. Got through Crow's story arc no problem. Helix's story arc though, I ran into a brickwall called the Ghoul King. All of the Ghouls in the mission "Negotiate with Ghouls" were blue/friendly. I ran to the Ghoul King, and tried talking with him... however, he thanked me for saving him, when I hadn't done so yet. He should take the serum, then the Manslayers around him should become hostile... but that never happened. I tried resetting the mission, same thing. I tried abandoning the mission and reobtaining it, same thing. I sent in a petition, which GM Impervium responded to very quickly. He asked if I had done any missions in First Ward but, as I said, my character had never been to First Ward. The only zones he had been in were Precinct 5, Nova Praetoria, Underground Nova Praetoria, Imperial City, Underground Imperial City, Neutropolis, Underground Neutropolis, and Pocket D. So, this issue seems to extend beyond First Ward. FWIW, my character is a Loyalist. For reference, other threads I've found discussing this issue are:

It has been done before. Two Kronos Titans vs. Babbage and Council Goliath War Walker.

I really don’t recommend Stalkers for gold side. My gold side experience and intuition, not to mention many complaints back on the old blue boards, made me think that Stalker would be a poor choice of AT for gold side. However, I have read many posts here over the past three years proclaiming Stalker as the best AT for gold side. So I made a Staff/Stone Armor Stalker gold side two weeks ago. I was right. Many of the gold side ambushes completely ignore your hidden status and will start attacking you as soon as they are in range. Plus, gold side has many escort missions where you need to disable the Hide power. You’re essentially a slightly more squishy Scrapper with fewer AoE attacks. From my years of experience playing gold side, the best ATs for it are Brute, Corruptor, and Scrapper IMO.

You can also get the badge from fighting the Kronos Titan in the second mission of the Lord Recluse SF.

Only play blue side. Red and gold side content is much better written, and more challenging. Sometimes substantially more challenging. They help give you a better understanding of the game and its mechanics.

I highly recommend the AE arc #47119 by @TheZag . It is hard though, and basically a Task Force, complete with a GM. So I recommend either getting a team together for it, or play it on a character with both decent damage and decent debuffs. The story is that you are invading the innards of the Rikti mothership in the RWZ, and trying to end the Rikti threat once and for all. Being Rikti, if you do it on a team, some form of AoE mez protection is also recommended.

As I have posted before, red side players tend to be better on average for a few reasons. Quality versus quantity. 😛

Blasters aren’t ranged characters. Never have been. Next.

Welcome back! Excelsior is having issues ATM and GMs on Discord have been advising people to play on other shards ATM. That said, you get five shard transfers every three days.

I would be good with level 50 tokens… as long as they cost two billion INF per.

I am quite sure nowhere near as many super packs were bought on live. That would have been over $6.2 million in super packs, in 2012 dollars.

Super packs used to cost real money. Something like $10 per pack. They were not bought and opened anywhere near as frequently as they have been on Homecoming, and it sounds to me like it’s hitting a database wall as a result. Population has nothing to do with it. It’s the number of super packs bought and opened.

Redlynne’s guide on the forums is great. I used it as the foundation of my guide on the wiki. However, the levels in Redlynne’s guide are wrong. At level 8, some of the Nova Praetoria contacts will not talk with you if you haven’t started their story arcs already. Level 15 for Imperial City. Provost Marchand is bugged and will not talk with you when you are level 19, so if you haven’t at least already started both IVy’s and Dr. Hetzfeld’s story arcs by level 18, you will not be able to get the breadcrumb missions for either. So I put the cap for Neutropolis at level 18 to be on the safe side.

I have been enjoying Staff Fighting/Stone Armor as of late. For a Stalker, it’s an AoE machine.

Time to roll up a new character on Torchbearer.