[Hop on over to the beta server to test out some Page 5 power updates!]

Obviously I am going to put certain pieces of this through the paces because I roll with them.  Specifically Mercs; that has me excited.  There are definitely going to be some tweaks considering the upgrade powers (on all pets) are always the default slot only.  Now maybe it gets slots.  Also I am gonna will look to see if there are trade offs that are better for some of those pet-centric DEF and RES buff Set IOs that I might now put elsewhere (plus that note about changes to the call to arms proc).  Respecs will be performed for sure.

 

I am not sure how I feel about the changes to level availability relating to powers.  It feels . . . needless but I am not going to have a drama explosion about something that is mostly about how you play.

 

I am not a big Sentinel guy (I have 1) but I will take a look there because the reason I don't really play sentinels.  I agree with a comment made by Bill Z Bubba about power creep.  But like I said, I don't really play Sentinels.

 

I have a baby Necro so those changes look interesting.

 

 

[I don't want the Granite Armor look. I want to be original and RP the look.]

Same goes for Unstoppable on an invulnerability tank.  I took it on live and almost never used it and don't even have it in the mix on HC.  But then again Unstoppable doesn't change your look.  I wonder if Paragon Protectors debate takin their Tier 9 because it makes them look fat in their costume 🙂

[Halloween event?]

On 10/2/2022 at 2:22 AM, Clave Dark 5 said:

 

The layers of creepy in this image are glorious.

[Halloween event?]

5 hours ago, roleki said:

Oh man.  Halloween Event is live now and I'm stuck earning money so I don't die from starvation or exposure to the elements.  

 

I *knew* I should have transferred my consciousness into a robotic chassis when I had the chance years ago.

Lord Nemesis says you are not meeting your daily performance benchmarks and must attend remedial work efficiency training.  Meet at the O'Gaffney Law Firm after the pact is signed with the Circle of Thorns.  No hero would be foolish enough to disrupt that.

[SHARDTOBER 2022 BEGINS]

That is very good information.  On live, for me, the Shard TFs were the ones I did once, and only with my Badge Hunter then never visited them again.  Now I will have to sit and prepare because while I am not OCD about badges like I used to be, I am interested in revisiting all of the content I may have dismissed or just straight missed.  Your tips are helpers and your positive write-up motivating.

[[Petition] Removal of "EARTH FOR HUMANS" Billboards]

On 10/1/2022 at 3:20 AM, Six-Six said:

1) you invaded earth.
2) you lost.
3) you don't get to ask for things that will make you feel better

Why not, the Confederacy lost and they got statues and military bases named after their treacherous Generals.

[Wiki Format Question]

Yeah I am having to retrain my web page muscle memory on it as well.

[Tell me about your "main"]

3 hours ago, momentarygrace said:

Her backstory is the old "parents were scientists on an isolated island in the Bahamas working on genetically enhancing animals, killed when some of the experiments went all wrong, baby orphaned and raised by genetically enhanced intelligent cats, eventually making her way to Paragon City to seek out humans and help them in exchange for treats because she's just nice like that."  =^.^=

 

Walk on two legs not of four, walk on four legs breaks the law.

What happens when we break the law?  What happens when the rules arent fair?

We all know where we go from there?

To the House of Pain.

[What kind of masks?]

I like these Masks

[Picking AT and sets based on concept only]

I evolved.

 

I have been, since I was like in the second grade, a lover of writing, and I love to write.  Most of that writing even now, bad.  Short stories, long stories, paragraphs to whole books (not kidding).  None of it published, and the web site I used to post my stuff on, I let go.  Dungeons and Dragons and other RPGs of eighties spurred a lot of my writing and that was where character creation and back story became a big thing for me.  Then real life as an adult and 20 years in the Navy put some of that on the back burner but also pushed more traditional writing to the forefront.

 

Then came City of Heroes and initially I created characters based on the powers that sounded the coolest then created the story around them; and most of those stories were crap.  Their back stories were riddled with comic book tropes and in general zero actual creativity because I was trying to craft stories around the actual powers.

 

Then I evolved.

 

And started to create characters based on story ideas I had.  and that was it, the rest of my characters on live and all on HC had their story written up before I even picked powers and as such, there are a lot of hard to play characters in my alts stable. And because of this, many of those alts don't go very far as my attention span from a story concept starts to wane.  I have six and a half full books (650 + pages each) about the Munitions Mistress (a recreation of my live 50 Mercs/Traps Mastermind) who still sits at level 38 on HC (nobody picks this because they are teh uber, she epitomizes theme over function) yet in those books she is a high end incarnate, and I am still writing about her.  And now, pretty much any new character I create is built on a character from that writing if at all possible due to power constraints.

 

And that is where imagination is awesome and this game is awesome because it spurs that imagination.  Runeslinger (daughter of the Munitions Mistress) is a DP/Atomic Blaster but in the writing that atomic isn't atomic but lucent energy, I just chose atomic because the mechanics of what it did fit the mechanics of her light powers.  So I pretend she isn't radiating radioactive mist when Beta Decay is active but rather she is radiating rune-infused light auras that do the same thing.

[Most Survivable in Croatoa, 25-34?]

25 minutes ago, Ringo said:

I want an Illusion/Grav troller

I meant to say Illusion and Grav Controllers two separate controllers.  So many alts.  thanks for the catcxh.

[A formal complaint against one "heavy RP" group that discriminates against Redsiders.]

On 9/28/2022 at 12:20 AM, Buffy Barritt said:

Society is where we *all* make the rules

That is in fact incorrect.  Society is where a set group of individuals establish a set of rules or "societal norms" and others agree to follow them, or at a minimum follow most of them and then, over the course of time small numbers of individuals speak up and make or force changes, generally minor that build up over time.  But most members of a society never contribute, no less make any rules, because humans are as a whole lazy which is how tyrants or morons come to power even when we say how is that possible.  Those that defy those norms are generally ostracized and shamed.

 

And remember societal norms are not about right or wrong, they are about what that specific society defines as right or wrong.  The societal norm of the United Sates once said slavery was fine, once said women didn't rate a say in things.  That changed in American society yet there are other societies whose norm still says these things.  If the game is a society then there are most definitely norms and they are most definitely not defined by everyone.  More importantly it is a game so the societal norms outside of the game may not play inside the game.

 

Now are there certain core values that transcend societal norms?  Of course.  But those also tend to show up in all societal norms.  Don't kill people for no reason.  Try to be nice.  Protect the weak.  Drink more Ovaltine.  Beyond that, its fair game really.  Just think about the words in the American lexicon that were considered socially acceptable not a decade ago that will now see you excoriated for saying.  The societal norm shifts.  There is an old saying that says just because you don't like it doesn't mean its wrong.

[Discussion - "Ownership" of public game spaces for roleplay purposes]

On 9/26/2022 at 4:42 PM, MistressOhm said:

 

It's one of the bar areas in Pocket D.  Suffice it to say that through traffic is fairly high, and the NPC tending the bar is pretty vocal.  🙂 

 

And yes, its not like there's any shortage of RP space, Kallisti Wharf is completely target-free, so the whole zone is one big space to hang out and roleplay.

Oh hell, all the more reason to just wander in and cause chaos.  I mean drunks do that in bars all the time anyway.  I mean bars are role play right, some guy telling some girl lies in order to get in their bikini 1.

[How and Where to Hunt - Defeat Badge Guide]

Talos Island was my old go to with regards to catching large numbers of multiple badges.  I would head southeast at night to get a good 10-12 BP masks then work around popping Warrior Elite and Tsoo Sorcerers, then get the DE to drop emanators (cairn, etc.) and by the time that cycle was back to the southeast, it was dark again and more masks had spawned.  I am not saying it trumps certain missions but if you are doing cyclic sweeping, Talos is some good badge hunting grounds.  Plus don't forget there are Freakshow so if for some reason you don't have Tank Buster you will catch some of those there.

[Most Survivable in Croatoa, 25-34?]

I generally run characters with a Magic origin through Croatoa no matter what.  Two blasters were run through in real time leveling with just SOs, a DP/Atomic and a Seismic/Seismic, no problems and not blown timers or escaped dudes).  They didn't take very long and there were zero deaths.  These were set to normal difficulty (0/1).  I also ran through the entire Croatoa arc via Ouroboros on a DP/MC Blaster (not magic but secksi awesome) when she was in her early forties.  I note that part because I had not slotted much of anything in the way of Set IOs or even IOs at all.  Mostly all SO and a smattering of IO.  Bottom line there for me at least is blasters with AoE fare well.

 

Now the Empathy/Psychic Defender, a little slower and had trouble with the "stop the escape" or "protect the thingy" missions.  My Illusion/Grav troller was also slightly problematic.  But to me the Croatoa arcs are less about hard and more about tedious and sad really.  By sad I mean as you move through them you realize that there are no really good guys in that zone; everyone is kind of a jerk and it makes you want to not care about them.  Okay Sally isnt a jerk but if you are having a hard time fighting her you might want to respec.

[/Traps - Caltrops Procs]

Yeah, PT and AM both have slots allocated for procs because my mercs need all the help they can get.  It has made a big difference.  I have since slotted a Positron's Blast in Caltrops and I am pleased.  I will be slotting the proc from Impeded Swiftness.

[Things you enjoy that other people seem to not enjoy]

I like a team that occasionally stops mid-mission to just make goofy remarks.  Obviously in larger doses it can get annoying and when its one something that clearly says "speed whatever" then that is not cool, but a team that isn't freaking rushing and all stops to find humor in something in a mission is great.  OMG look at those two guys stuck to the war wall!  Their positioning is so WRONG!  Part of what makes this game great (at least to me) is the semi-casual nature of just about everything you can do in the game so the absence of stopping to laugh at things seems alien to me.

["Do-it-all" AT?]

Don't forget the apparent requirement for stealth and ATT so you can do content as fast as possible skipping as much as possible in order to get the Merits/whatever's because its the destination not the journey!  Because leadership is defined by winning not quality of the game right?  Le sigh.

 

Wait, I am not Snarky.

 

Yay everything!

[Tell me about your "main"]

10 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Only reason I never recreated my ice/nrg tank from live is that I can't remember her name or what she looked like.

I am going to say Belly Bubbles, at least that's how I see it in my impending fan fiction.

[/Traps - Caltrops Procs]

Thank you for that response.

[/Traps - Caltrops Procs]

Caltrops - I have perused the forums and have found no specific conversations in this arena.  I have seen some builds with damage procs in Caltrops (Positron Blast for one), others do not and I am wondering if those are proccing when someone steps on them or are they procing when first tossed and there happens to be some targets in the toss, or are they even firing and someone was just Mids theorycrafting?

[Tell me about your "main"]

My main on HC is not my main from Retail.  Retail it was High Beam, based on the character Thunderball I created from the old P&P days playing Champions and MSH with my brother and I drawing really bad comics telling the story of the adventure we just ran.  But when I discovered HC I tried to recreate her but the name was taken and even though I created a copy with an OG name in front, that coupled with the fact that I actually got sad when I played her forced me to stop and move on.  I have in fact avoided recreating any of my characters from those days (Highland Hammer, Eternal Amazon, Snap-Shot, ParaMedic, Siberian Shield . . . if those names are available, take them and have fun!).  If I could get High Beam (No underscores or X’s or any of that junk), I would run her back up but yeah, it hurts.  I guess the old saying you can never go back applies.

Here on HC its Di Di Guns, a DP/MC Blapper whose name is a tribute to an old SG mate from Retail (though the original DiDi was an AR Blaster so mine is her daughter).  Or Runeslinger who is climbing the ranks of regular go to and my Nukems of course (at least two of them).

[Are Elite Bosses too mediocre?]

Yeah as everyone has said, it depends on the EB and the AT you are playing.  Nosferatu has ponded me into cheese flavored dog food so many times on so many ATs that I have to pull up the wiki every time to make sure its not the mission where he kills me 40 times because I have forgotten the exact one due to trauma.  Then again I have a couple of characters that are so Brokey Smurf that -1 Bosses wreck them 🙂

[We need to talk about HeroCorp]

I have some fan fiction involving them and certain other corporations secretly working together for a greater purpose based heavily on the AMA Lore relating to the Coming Storm.  People should think long and hard as to why the Freedom Phalanx which also included the Dream Doctor as a member at one time, pushed so hard against the establishment of HC.  I have never trusted Rebecca Foss.

[What to pair with Devices?]

The first thing I would ask is why?  I am not being snarky (different Snarky), I am trying to figure out how you could be that put off by any powers at that low level because that might be what defines why you dropped it in the first place.  You can sneeze and get to level 10 at the most casual level in like a couple hours.  Did you take a 1-1 balance of primary or secondary or did you load up the 5 Primaries leaving only 2 devices.