Zhym

There are so many. I remember, when The Incredibles came out shortly after City of Heroes was released, how simple and unimaginative CoH powers seemed compared to those in the movie. Elastigirl has no in-game analogue at all. Violet could be a bubbler with invisibility, but force fields that enemies (and objects) bounce off of have so many more uses than mere +def fields. Dash's only real power is super speed, but he can use it to hit people really fast and run on water; in CoH, it's just a travel power with a (comparatively) mild attack rate bump. (Super Speed is one of the powersets that really pales in comparison to what it means in the comics—compare it to the Flash, for example, where super speed also means phasing through walls, traveling through time (and royally screwing up timelines in the process), etc.) Frozone would probably be an ice blaster, but here again, you've got things like using the ice blast as a travel power (creating a snow pile and sliding down it, for example). Mr. Incredible is the only one who could easily be reproduced in game, and that's because he's your basic "big, strong, and tough" hero. But even here, I don't think anyone in CoH can take out a helicopter by throwing a car. You could plausibly make a CoH version of every one of those characters except Elastigirl, but I think the CoH mechanics would make for poor copies of everyone except Mr. Incredible.

I think you're right. If a thread involves posting MIDs builds, it's probably more likely to get moved. Maybe the Archetypes forum could be renamed "Builds and Archetypes" to reflect how the forum is actually used?

I recall a few months ago that Tom Cat, Tom-Cat, and Tomcat were all on Excelsior at the same time (the latter version of which was mine; I'm not sure which was created first). I'm still a little sorry we didn't all get together and form a team. We could have run Bobcat's missions.

Nearly all discussions of archetypes involve discussions of powers. That doesn't mean that any discussion of powers is necessarily about archetypes. And while the main "Archetypes" forum does have lots of discussions of powers, so does the General forum. I mean, it's a popular topic of conversation! Getting picky about it being posted in the right forum seems like an unproductive and unsatisfying battle to me. Maybe if the forum were named "Archetypes and Powers," that could make sense, although then I'd wonder why the top-level forum had subforums for ATs but not for powers. 🙂 (And now I'm waiting for this thread to get moved to the Suggestions & Feedback forum.)

I agree with some of your complaint, @Snarky. It seems like a GM has recently decided that any discussion of powersets belongs in the Archetypes forum. Personally, I don't see it—as you mention, a discussion about Dark Armor isn't about any particular AT or about ATs in general. Powers ≠ ATs. And it seems like discussions of powers have been getting moved more recently than they used to, too. I'm all for putting posts in the right place, but this seems like misfiling to me.

The only gold side non-exploration badges I can think of that you won’t get through flashback are the zone events in each praetorian zone. But those are easy enough to get and you don’t even need to flashback for them. Also, make sure to choose Loyalist and Resistance each at least once for both of those badges. Oh, and don’t forget Denial of Service. But yes—all the badges you get from running the Praetoria arcs can be had by running them through flashback.

Just the 20? This is the mission that gives the message on completion: “You defeated Shen and probably every last Go Ganger in Imperial City.” By the time you’re done, that seems about right. ….unless you’re playing a stalker, where you run in, quickly take down Shen, then run out. Or this is one of those missions where the adds completely ignore stealth?

I just did some more testing on this, using hero/villain alignment changes instead of vigilante/rogue, on a character who had not done any of the missions on either side yet. And after the first mission (from Ganymede), I got the same result @Aurora_Girl did: when I completed the first mission, the "Return to contact" mission disappeared as soon as I switched back to hero. But then I did the mission from Scratch, switching alignments as needed, and I did get the badge when I was done. So: If you complete the Ganymede and Scratch missions solo using Null the Gull, you may not be able to talk to the contact to "complete" the first mini-arc after you're done, but it doesn't matter—you can still get the badge. When you complete the second set of missions (Scratch, if you've done Ganymede, and vice versa), you will get a chance to close out the mission with your contact after you switch your alignment back (you don't actually have to; you can go on your merry way, but you'll need to switch back to clear out the "Return to contact" mission from using up space). Once you've gotten the Handsome/Beautiful badge, either Ganymede or Scratch will give you the DJ Zero missions, depending on your alignment at the time, regardless of who you started and ended the two mini-arcs with.

That's odd, because I just did the alignment switch method with my rogue who had already done Scratch's missions. Here's what I did: Switched to Vigilante with Null Got the mission from Ganymede Ran the first mission, then entered the second mission and defeated a couple of enemies Left the mission, talked to Null and switched back to Rogue Re-entered the mission and completed it. <-- At this point, I got the Handsome badge Switched back to Vigilante Talked to Ganymede, completed the mission. The only reason I even had to switch back to blueside and talk to Ganymede at that point was to clear the mission from my list (and get referred to the DJ Zero missions).

Wait, someone is picking on Sally? Name names! We can form a task force to defend her! (I mean, we can't, because Croatoa isn't a PvP zone, but poor Sally needs a champion.) As for MSR: yeah, unless I'm chasing badges, the only times I really do MSR are with either (1) a tanker or (2) an emp defender with heals on auto. Sitting around for half an hour spamming attacks isn't really my thing. With the defender, at least I can chat while contributing somewhat to the MSR.

There really ought to be a badge for level-rezzing.

Ah, that makes sense. I thought you meant a full respec with selecting different powers and/or allocating slots differently. Many of my toons have powers I decide I shouldn't have taken, or I'd like to use the spot taken up by a T1 power for something else, and I totally plan to do that when I hit 50...but then when I actually do hit 50, I can't bring myself to go through the respec interface to do it. Swapping out enhancement sets and IOs for purples (or catalyzing ATOs into purples) is indeed one of the very first things I do when a toon hits 50.

While I'm leveling virtually every toon, I'm thinking, "I will totally have to respec this mess when I hit 50." Then I hit 50 and remember that respeccing is such a pain, and the incarnate abilities make up for many weaknesses, so I'm not sure I've actually done a level 50 respec yet.

I think you're asking "What do you do with a Level 50 character?" more than "What do you do once your character has hit Level 50?" But FWIW, here's my list of stuff to do with a character as soon as they've hit 50: Do Mender Ramiel's "Power Overwhelming" arc to get a quick Alpha slot unlock (and play in God Mode for a bit). Run the Dark Astoria arc to get lots of incarnate components and make progress toward unlocking the other incarnate slots (the story is also great). Talk to Dream Doctor until you have the "Complete the Dilemma Diabolique Trial" (this will give you credit—and a badge—for having done the trial whenever you do it). Run the incarnate trials. If you care about story order, see this post and this thread. Basically, though, the story order starts with the Apex & Tin Mage trials (the start of Cole's invasion) and finishes with the Magisterium trial. But if you wait for PuGs for the trials to form in order, you might be waiting around a while. Some iTrials happen all the time (BAF, Lambda), others less often (Keyes, Underground). Run Belladonna Vetrano's arc. If you care about story order, do this before Magisterium but after all the other iTrials. Join a Magisterium trial, if you've been following story order. Do the arcs from Provost Marchand (for heroes) or Mr. G (for villains). These are both some of the best story arcs in the game IMO. You can do both of them as early as level 35, but they make much more story sense if you wait until after doing the content listed above. "Finally," finish off the Praetorian arc in grand style with "Praetoria's Last Gasp" from Number Six. I don't do all of that on all my 50s, of course. I think I've done all the above on maybe a handful of characters. Some, I just do "Power Overwhelming" and then iTrials. Or I go just far enough into the Dark Astoria arc to farm Heather Townshend's arc for incarnate components. And then there are the few toons where level 50 is the time to say, "Yup, I'm done with that power set." But when I want to keep playing a toon I like, the list above is my starting point. There are still some regular arcs at level 50, too. I suspect everyone will have done Maria Jenkins's arc already, but Crimson also has an arc; although it's kind of annoying in an Issue 0 way (so many defeat-alls!), it's not bad from a lore standpoint. There's also the series of missions in the Rikti War Zone that goes through the Levantera > Serpent Drummer > Gaussian > Dark Watcher series of contacts. After that, then it's time for the stuff other people have mentioned: badging, exploration, flashback missions, etc. Lots of stuff to do at 50!

You mean other than changing City of Heroes from being a game I wished I could play again to something I actually could play again? Gosh, everything else (as great as the QoL improvements and contents updates are) kind of pales next to that.

The alignment missions are quite good and don’t get enough love—probably because you don’t get much in the way of rewards from them now that you can’t get almost instantly by visiting Null the Gull. But the stories are great, especially when changing alignment. On the one side, you’ve got some missions showing where someone might go vigilante because they no longer believe the system can bring bad guys to justice, and then going so far that they fall into villainy. On the other, you’ve got missions where a rogue ends up doing accidental heroism, and starts to like it. It’s all really well done and worth the round trip at least once. My only quibble with the whole system is that when your former hero finally goes too far and turns outright villain, they’re treated as if they have the same history (e.g., Destined One nonsense) and motivations (greed or chaos being the usual ones) as all the other villains. I realize it would be way too hard to write ex-hero motivations into all the red side arcs, but it does break the story a bit for me. (Villains who turn hero don’t have the same issue, since blue side is less concerned with why heroes are being heroic.)

Ah, yes. "Trading Places." I really want to like that arc, because it's so earnest in a print-comic kind of way, but it has so many problems. As the description says, it "was originally published in issues #10 - 12 of the City of Heroes comic book," which is probably why the story seems over the top and way too focused on NPCs, IMO. Maybe this arc would be more engaging to someone who had been keeping up with the CoH comics. But I hate feeling like a bit player or a Mary Sue, and Trading Places gets way too close to that for my tastes. And you're right that the "Did Manticore turn EVIL???" plot is a very well-worn trope. The game play just isn't that great, either. I'm sure there are multiple missions, but all I can remember is that last one where you have to find and rescue various members of the Freedom Phalanx and Vindicators, who will then try to follow you...and fail. I had no idea some of these heroes had such pitiful perception! And I would have sworn most of them would be faster, too. Of course, if you're buffed up enough, you can just rescue them all, ignore them, and fight the big spider (which is kind of cool) on your own, but I'm sure that's not how the mission was meant to be played. It's really a waste of having all those NPCs —including Statesman!—when they're hobbled by such moronic, broken perception and movement logic.

I love that arc—but somehow, I'd never read the letter from Dr. Aeon in the souvenir. That's just wonderful. Another nice touch in that arc is how you always have to talk to Brother Hammond in person, not call him—because he's a Luddite. Of course he wouldn't have a cell phone!

It's easy to miss, but when you run the arc a second time, there's a glowy (a crate) in the first mission that wasn't there the first time you did it.

I tried running this three times in Ouro and got the same bugged map all three times. Kind of a PITA to get that far, too. I wonder how hard it would be to remove the bugged map from this mission. Fairly hard, I guess, given that it hasn't been fixed in all this time. :/

Man, times have changed. Back on Live, a person would just post their flounce from the game on the forums (followed by the obligatory “Can I have your stuff?” replies). Posting a 30-minute video about it…well, we truly are living in a modern age.

Some power combinations are more click-heavy than others. My SS/Inv tanker has spare open slots in the first power tray because most of his primary and secondary powers are toggles, leaving only the attacks—which can be fired off using the number keys. Other sets, like /regen, are really click-intensive, and I’d leave those alone if I were you. Blasters sometimes also tend towards lots of clicky powers, from my experience, but my DP/MA can mostly get away with one tray of attack powers and some toggles. Others, like my ice/Ice and fire/fire blasters, have so many attack powers that I have to put things like Aim in a second tray. So I’d suggest checking what power sets you like to play and whether they have a mix of attack and toggle powers that will work for you.

That’s just Keyes. I’ve been in it more than a dozen times, including a couple of master runs, and I still don’t know what the heck is going on most of the time.

Also, the first mission is great for farming Fake Nemeses at x8. Should take about three runs for the badge.

That's a great arc (BTW, it's Maxwell Christopher, not Anderson, just in case anyone wants to look it up in the wiki). Really dang long, but a great story and blessedly free of the defeat-alls and escort missions that plague many other Issue 1 arcs.