Ultimo

So, started a mission on my newish Blaster. He's Beam Rifle/Atomic Manipulation. So I sniper shot one of the three minions just inside the door (Skulls). I went through ALL my attacks, all hit, but failed to defeat the ONE minion I was shooting. Very strange. One of them then shot me with a shotgun, which knocked me down. As I stood up, he shot me again, which knocked me down. As I stood up, he shot me again, which knocked me down. While all this was going on, the Gunner was shooting at me and the Brawler was hitting me while I was being juggled. I had the -tohit toggle turned on, so it baffled me that they all NEVER MISSED. I'd forgotten how squishy Blasters are, but this nonstop juggling was something to behold. I've not had to deal with nonstop CC like that since The Old Republic Online.

Well, got both of them to L20, and I have to say I'm enjoying the Blaster more. He just feels more in character, and more effective overall. So, I believe I'll stick with him. I already have a bunch of Defenders anyway, and they're awfully slow to solo. Appreciation for the input.

I'm trying a different approach for the character, and made him a Blaster, Beam Rifle and Atomic Manipulation. There's some decent holds in there, and it fits his scientist background. We'll see if I feel any better about it.

I meant no disrespect. You meant what you meant... but it looks like you meant Glass Cannon. You've clarified that now, but on first glance, it doesn't look like that. It's the same when someone suggested I use the name Canadien Shield (using the French word) because I couldn't use Canadian Shield. It's technically correct, but it LOOKS like a spelling error, or a mistake. That's all I was saying.

I'm aware that glace is ice in French. However, cannon isn't a word in French (it would be canon, not cannon), so it's kind of a forced expression. I do get the in-joke, but as I say, it's kind of forced... at least in my view. (on the other hand, I love his civilian name!)

See... I don't think of it as much of a victory if you've settled for an obvious misspelling or a ludicrous or silly name when you clearly wanted something else. Glace Cannon was obviously meant to be Glass Cannon... but you couldn't have that, and were forced to settle for something else. It would be no different than me accepting Canadian Sheeld, when it's clearly not what I wanted it to be. I've never seen any convincing argument why they shouldn't do the @handle thing, as I suggested.

The @ part wouldn't be displayed (I suppose they could include it as an option). If two players named their characters Ultimo, you would just see two Ultimos. You would have to look to see the @handles in the info menu.

Ok, so it's not the set, it's me. That's really what I was asking... It must mature a bit later, the character is only just L20 now. There are plenty of sets I don't think underperform. Invulnerability is very effective, as is Willpower, as is Shield Defense (though this one is HARD on endurance)... For Defenders, Force Field is pretty awesome (though it would be nice to be able to benefit ourselves), as are thinks like Empathy and Radiation.... Time is not bad... but matures a little later, too... I'm just trying out other sets and experimenting with characters... and I often find them a bit lacking in one way or another... because I'm comparing to sets like those I named. EA struck me as underwhelming because the heal was pretty weak, though I could spam it... I just couldn't keep up with the damage the team was taking. Faraday Cage does provide a little resistance, but it's not all that much. It does provide the status protection though. I hadn't thought of that. I suppose I'll stick with it. The only alternative I had in mind was to change to Traps/Beam Rifle.

I wish they would change the way naming works, so every name has our @handle applied to it, so that anyone can have whatever name they like. For example, if I made a character named Canadian Shield, as far as the server is concerned, it would be Canadian Shield@Ultimo. That way I could use the name, but so could anyone or everyone else. It works in other games, I don't see why it couldn't work here. We already have the @handles.

I create a bio as soon as I create the character, often even before that. Not one of my characters has no bio.

So... I've been leveling a character (based loosely on Reed Richards). I gave him Electrical Affinity and Beam Rifle. Now, the rifle is pretty fair. He's a Defender, of course, so it's not doing a ton of damage or anything, but it looks right. The issue I feel I'm having is with Electrical Affinity. At first, I thought it would be good for him, but I'm rather underwhelmed by it. Its healing power seems pretty weak, and it offers little actual protection, either to the team or to the character (Mister Mech). I don't know, what's the general opinion of Electrical Affinity as a power set? Am I missing something? Is it awesome and I'm just not seeing it? As a secondary thought... I'm not sure what else I could give him. Obviously, there's no stretching powers, so that's out... He's known for his gadgets, so the beam rifle is good for that. His actual powers, though, are essentially melee. He's a puncher, and soaker of damage... more, he often controls his enemies by binding them with his arms or body. Ideally, Mister Mech should be using the same kinds of tactics, binding and hindering enemies... and I can get some melee and toughness from the Fighting pool... so what other set would you use (while keeping the beam rifle), and how would you rationalize it?

I actually did try that, but it grated on me. I kept seeing it as a misspelling... or perhaps the thought that others might see it as a misspelling... and that that bothered me too much. What can I say, I'm a victim of my high school English teacher, spelling errors are like nails on a chalkboard to me. (Do younger generations even know what nails on a chalkboard sound like? I mean, it's usually all whiteboards and Powerpoint these days...)

Ya, I do have a variation of Canadian Shield now. I tried Canadian.Shield, but that was taken... so was Canadian-Shield, Canadian SheiId, Canadian Shie1d, -Canadian Shield-, -Canadian-Shield-, CanadianShield, and so on. Brackets aren't allowed, the game doesn't recognize most letters from other alphabets that look the same as english, and so on. So, I ended up with two versions of the name (one is on a Tanker, which is what my character was on live, and one is on the new, Brute version), Canadian'Shield and Canadian - Shield. Being a little bit of a purist, I still find it really frustrating that my characters have those extra little blips in the name, but it is what it is. We do have @ handles, I wonder why they don't do what Champions Online did, and include that in the character's name? That way if I made a Canadian Shield, his actual name on the server would be Canadian Shield@Ultimo (though it would only display Canadian Shield). If you also made a character named Canadian Shield, you could use the same exact spelling because as far as the server is concerned, the name would be Canadian Shield@Tahlia. Of course, in the game, they would appear to have the same name, but the server would know different. That way, everyone could have whatever name they wanted for their character, without worrying if someone else already used it. I'm no programmer, but I can't imagine it would be all that difficult to do...

Ya, I've tried things like that before, but they're never quite good enough, or else they're already taken too. I wish there was a way to know if the characters sitting on the names are actually characters people are playing. For example, if someone made a character and called him Canadian Shield, but hasn't played in years, chances are they're not going to, and they're making it impossible for me to name my character correctly.

Oh, that's a good one.

I've been tinkering with the idea of making him a Blaster... Beam Rifle and Radiation Manipulation. The premise is that he's manipulating subatomic particles to soup up his rifle and to beat up enemies. This works for me in that he's got the gadget gun, and also fights in melee fairly well (which Reed does), plus there's a couple of holds and debuffs, which also suits his style. Of course, he'd be pretty flimsy, but in the FF, Reed often doesn't get as directly involved. I mean, the typical story has Reed and Sue off coming up with a plan while Ben and Johnny keep the bad guy busy. Then he drops in and finishes them off with some kind of gimmick. I don't know... Still considering it.

Perhaps the way to go about it is to analyze his role on the team. The Thing is clearly a tank, so Tanker. Human Torch is likely their DPS, probably a Blaster. With her force fields, Invisible Girl is the "Healer," though in this case it's more support through bubbles. That covers the trinity... so what role does Mr. Fantastic play? How does he fight? Usually, he's binding up the bad guys, wrapping them in his arms or whole body. That suggests a Controller or Dominator. He's also often the one that takes the foes down with a single brilliant strategy or last minute device that counters the foe's specific abilities... but I'm not sure how that would work in CoH. When actually in a fight, he also does throw punches, which I could easily get from Fighting... He's proving to be a challenge, conceptually. Right now, I've got him in the game as a Defender, Beam Rifle and Electric Affinity. The Beam Rifle seems in character, in the comics he's often depicted with a gigantic complex gadget zapping the enemy with something. It's the Electric side of it I'm struggling with, I think. I took it initially, thinking I could rationalize it as being a connection to technology in some way, that he draws power from it... or something.

When I created the character back in the day for live, he was called the Red Death. Unfortunately, like most other names, it's not available.

To clarify, he's not THE Red Skull, he's just based on him. His powers are Mercs and Radiation, so I initially thought scourge or blight. He wears a red helmet and rebreather mask to protect him from the toxic clouds he produces, which gives him a vaguely skull-like appearance. Scourge was my first choice... but as with most of my characters, the name isn't available.

That raises an interesting question. Many moons ago, my brother and I used to make comic books, and many of those characters inevitably found their way into City of Heroes (and Champions Online). Ultimo was one of them (and I know Marvel has an Ultimo... but they used Speed Demon after we did, so I call it all's fair). I wonder if NC could lay claim to those characters when they've appeared in other, prior work?

What you guys think? The character is based on Red Skull, but I can't decide on what name I want to use. My first thought was the Red Scourge, but that's in use. So, I looked for other names, and came up with the Red Blight... but I'm not sure it carries the same sense of menace. I recreated him as the Red Bane... but it just lacks a certain something I can't quite put a finger on... I thought about the Red Woe, but I can't play if I keep hearing Keanu Reeves in my head. What do you guys think, Blight? Bane? Something else?

Ya, I've tended to go to Electric Blast because it has a couple of "constructs" along with the blasts (eg. Tesla Cage). Even the Ball Lightning has the look of being an object he's constructed out of the electric energy and tossed at an enemy. I've got him to around L10 now... and I'm liking it pretty well. His blasts hit a lot harder than the Controller or Defender, and his defenses seem to be fairly decent (I also have an Energy Blast/Invulnerability Sentinel, and he's fairly tanky too, and a Water Blast/Willpower one who is pretty darn tough...). I miss being able to support the team, though... but I solo 90% of the time, so that may not be an issue in the end.

Green Lantern's powers usually involve some kind of beam effect. Neither Gravity nor Time provide anything like that. More, Grav relies heavily on Propel, and GL isn't known for teleporting things at enemies. Moreover, I already have a Dr. Strange/Fate type character who uses that combo. I did think about Energy, but it's just a bit too blasty. I mean, GL doesn't do a lot of just zapping enemies, he's creating objects to bash them with, or containing them in bubbles or chains or what have you. I'm trying out the Electric/Energy Sentinel now... we'll see how he goes.

I've actually been tinkering with an Electric (or perhaps Radiation?) Blast/Energy Aura Sentinel. The defenses are pretty decent, and in keeping with the GL look and style, and the offense still includes some control effects while also hitting rather harder than a Defender or Controller.

I really wish we could alter its appearance. I have a Darkness character for whom a big wolf is just not his style. Some kind of specter or some such would be better.