Draggynn

I definitely like the idea of splitting off the AI work into a separate thread. Maybe we could even asks the mods to move AI work there in the future. Pulling it back to actual human artists: This is the commission that I have been waiting at least 15 years to get. Ever since I learned that original Magic the Gathering artist Douglas Shuler (of Serra Angel, Demonic Tutor, and Prodigal Sorcerer fame) played City of Heroes, I've been wanting a commission by him of Draggynn. At the time the game shutdown it was outside of my price range, and post shutdown I basically stopped commissioning art (it was too sad). When I discovered in 2020 that the game had come back and started commissioning art again, Shuler was always at the top of my list. It took over a year, but here it is! I told him to envision a portrait that City Hall might commission to hang in the rotunda, and he felt the iconic Atlas statue would be a fitting back drop. This is rare in my collection in that it is a physical oil painting rather than a purely digital artifact. You can find Douglas Shuler on his websites: www.douglasshuler.com, https://www.facebook.com/DouglasShulerIllustrations, and on instagram: @douglasshuler_illustrations

Oh my, I do not look happy.

I spent a while messing around with Dall-E and got some interesting results. Doing variations on a theme feeding in my reference sheet, can give you a sense of the training sets it might be using: It generally tends to do okay with generic guidelines: As you try to get more specific though, things can go a bit haywire:

Those all look great @Kubani! I've resigned myself to the fact that drawing is not one of my talents and so I'm jealous of those of you with the skills!

Ooo, I really like those! Will have to keep my eyes out for the next time they do commisions! Good finds! I've got my eye on my next commissioned piece, but I'm torn because I think I like the theory of the piece more then I'm going to like the result.

Now that the holidays are over, the pieces keep coming in. Another new piece just completed by keelerleah. Draggynn and his teammate Swirl (A duo also known as Team Horns). I'm glad to see other artwork and artists posting so that I don't feel like I'm monopolizing the thread!

It's been a while since I've posted, the holiday busyness slowed down my commissioning a bit. Here's Draggynn by Jim Tessier, a local artist who introduced himself two posts earlier in the thread! Work is in pencil which he then mailed to me! (It is now one of only 2 physical commissions that I have of Dragg, if you don't count the two, let's call them, soft sculptures 😉 ) You can see his other work and reach out to him for a commission through: https://www.instagram.com/jtessier3art/, https://www.facebook.com/jt3artwork

A couple quick thoughts: 1) Steamy Mist provides a lot of resistance, so it's a shame not to get at least 2 IOs worth of resistance in there (and the four LotG accuracy bonus is easily skippable) 2) I usually avoid procs in Tornado (although the Force Feedback proc in Tornado is pretty great). The problem is that the procs will have a chance to fire once when you summon tornado and then once every 10 seconds afterwards, but that 10 second timer may hit while tornado is chasing something else in which case the subsequent proc is just wasted. If you're primarily intending to take on AVs or GMs where Tornado will have one target and won't move (or you're comfortable with only getting the proc on the summon of Tornado) then maybe they're worthwhile, but I usually find them more frustrating than satisfying. I would gladly swap a proc for more recharge. 3) I haven't loaded up mids to see how close you are, but I generally like to soft cap ranged defense on my Storm Defender which turns him into a veritable tank. I don't see a Gladiator's armor anywhere in the build which would help you get closer, and then you probably need to be more intentional about targeting bonuses. Of course, whether that's a worthwhile goal or not will depend on your intended play style.

That thread is certainly a good resource, and there are several artists with their work linked there that are active in City of Heroes if you want an artist that is familiar with the game. In terms of where to find artists otherwise, these days I tend to find them all over. Deviant Art was my go to place to hunt artists for a long time, but these days I've also found artists through Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and commiss.io to name a few.

Although the endurance drain, disorient, and sleep protection are nice, I really just like it for the heal. With the high recharge wanted for Lightning Storm and Tornado, even without investment, it will cycle very quickly so you can actually get pretty high healing throughput. I like to couple it with Power Build Up and I can get a few powerful 650 hp heals if a Tank ever gets in over their heads (or for specific encounters like Hami or Keyes that can do large chunks of damage at once). Since many of our support abilities have a high recharge or are location based, it's nice to be able to hit someone far away with a heal to keep them standing when you can't otherwise get over there.

-Knockback in Hurricane will stop the periodic knocking back of enemies but not the repel. I generally wouldn't spend a slot on this. Tornado and Lightning Storm have long enough recharge that Force Feedback should proc almost every time you cast them which ends up being a hefty recharge bonus if you have enough global recharge. In terms of the build, just some thoughts looking at it (haven't loaded it up in mids so don't know where you are defense/resistances, but if you'r handling +4x8 then you're probably fine): Ice Blast: I would probably stick 5 Apocalypse in here for another 10% recharge bonus, the bonuses aren't great except for the KB protection. Steamy Mist is a hefty chunk of Resistance as well as defense. I would split the slots on this for defense and resistance (3 luck of the gamblers and 3 gladiator's amors will net you 3 points of KB protection, and then you don't need the 6 overwhelming forces which have mediocre set bonuses) Freezing Rain doesn't do enough damage to make slotting the Positron Blasts sets worthwhile (there are better ways to get recharge). Also because there are so many ticks and it has a defense debuff, accuracy is wasted in it as well. Mostly you just want recharge, endurance reduction, and if you want a proc (it will have a chance to fire on casting and again at 10 seconds), I would stick the -res achille's heel in there and then frankenslot for endurance/recharge (and slow/defense debuff if you want) Frost Breath: I really like splitting Vigilant Assault into two groups of 3 to get that 10% recharge bonus twice for relatively cheap (don't need the 5 slots most purple sets will cost you) Hurricane: As discussed I wouldn't do the KB/KD here, swap it for another Dark Watcher's despair and get another 5% recharge. Ice Storm: Armageddon is a straight upgrade unless you've already maxed out your 5 10% bonuses. Tornado: I wouldn't put the Achille's heel proc in here. It will have a chance to fire every 10 seconds whether enemies are nearby or not. Better to put the proc in things that will more reliably be hitting things. Lightning Storm: I tend to hover above enemies and so Lightning Storm's KB becomes a psuedo knockdown even without the proc. I wouldn't use a slot for that, but depends on your playstyle I'm a huge O2 boost fan, but if you mostly solo or that doesn't fit in your playstyle, no reason to take a power you won't use.

I think it's a shame that those things turned out to be mutually exclusive because I think they each serve a purpose, so it would have been nice if they could have existed together. I'm certain that it wasn't anyone's intention to destroy the community that you valued.

Reading this I definitely feel saddened that a robust art community was killed off. I wish we had more art on these forums (although I suspect much of that is just a much smaller player base now). I got into the commissioning game fairly late in CoH's life (I did not really have disposable income until 2009, and at that point, my available funds were still fairly limited). As someone with limited income I would often scour the art forums looking for artists to commission whose prices I could afford. I appreciated recommendations from other players because I could see how artists had interpreted CoH assets and also get a sense of who would be pleasant to work with. So from my perspective at least, as a commissioner, being informed about other artists I could commission for CoH art felt like valuable insight that made sense on the CoH forums. Especially given how often various artists would be closed for commissions, having a robust selection of available artists at different price points felt like an important service for those of us that just enjoyed seeing City of Heroes art. I can definitely understand how that would feel different to the artists, though. In order to meet my price point, this often meant that I was commissioning CoH artists who were just starting out (Pirate Cashoo for instance) or else I was commissioning artists from overseas. I know that, personally (and anecdotal evidence does not a good argument make), if at that point in my commissioning journey, the only options had been above the point where I felt comfortable spending money, I would not have saved for commissions. I did not have a "Commissions" budget that I could either spend on a more expensive or a cheaper option, but rather a "fun money" budget that I could either spend on commissions or something else entirely (like eating out at a restaurant I liked). At that point, for me at least, artists weren't competing with other artists, but with everything else I might spend my money on. Being a decade later, I am now in a much better financial situation and am more often looking for an artist rather than a deal, and have continued to try to commission CoH artists where I can. However, I still rely on the forums (like this one) to help me identify artists who are taking commissions because just the search process can often feel daunting given the number of platforms artists can be on. I am under the impression, @battlewraith, that you have not been open for commissions of late and have been busy with your own projects. If I'm wrong about that, I suspect I'm not the only person that's had that misimpression, although our commissioning community does appear to be a bit sparse of late.

A couple new pieces to share by two fellow City of Heroes players! I really do love commissioning from our fellow players. It's always fun to work with an artist who you know shares an appreciation for the source material! I decided that it had been a while since Dragg had taken flight, and I needed a couple pieces that showed that Storm Summoning was more than just Rain and Lightning. First up a piece by Impious Imp: https://www.deviantart.com/impious-imp featuring some nice hail! They are still open for commissions at very affordable prices, so definitely reach out to them!! Next we have a piece by Illay Konon, Lightning Bolt on Discord, featuring a fabulous Tornado. Dragg likes to have at least two of these out at all times! Illay is not currently taking commissions, but message him (his profile should be hyperlinked above, if I did that correctly), and I bet he'll let you know when he starts doing them again!:

Awesome piece my MysteryMouse, as always. There's clearly a story there, are you going to share it with us? 🙂