Heraclea

Vangelis - Chariots of Fire Theme RIP Ben Cross

Ran that over the weekend, eventually made it through. Quite well done. Thanks for putting in all that work.

If anyone asked me what these favorite old films are all about, I'd send them first to: The Triumph of Maciste, also known as Triumph of the Son of Hercules. The Sons of Hercules were my introduction to superheroes. Me and my high school friends would gather to watch these, and then inject them into Latin class whenever we could. It was also through this medium that I discovered the Marvel Conan comics, which struck me as a version of the same thing, and how I got started on comic books. This one is from 1961 and stars Kirk Morris as Maciste and Cathia Caro as Queen Tenephis. It was restored from a better print than the Sons of Hercules version by a fan. These really were the first superhero series; the character Maciste made dozens of films from 1919 (the silent classic Cabiria, with Bartolomeo Pagano) to the mid 1960s. In the US, Maciste often turned into Hercules, Samson, Atlas, or Ursus ('the bear' ???) because US audiences did not know the character. The main thing to notice is how relentlessly kinky these films are, especially for 1961. Watch and learn.

Many of my favorite films, many European (and especially Italian), are on Youtube, having fallen into the public domain when no one renewed them after 1979. I give you first -- Sappho, Venus of Lesbos (1960), starring Tina Louise and Kerwin Matthews. Directed by Pietro Francisci, who also made the Steve Reeves Hercules and Hercules Unchained. If you want a picture of everyday life on New Colchis, this is about as close as you're gonna get. Also released as The Warrior Empress. If you have favorites freely available on video sites, please add them,

I always aim for around 2.25 per second over what toggles (inc. anchor powers) consume. The gross amount you'll need to achieve this is going to differ from one character to another. II can't abide an end-bound character; each one that I get serious about starts with Panacea at 7.

Eric Burdon and War - Spill the Wine

I went with Kinetic Melee/Radiation Armor scrapper for my speedster concept, and loaded her with slow resist and movement speed IOs. Any of the armor sets that have +speed and +recharge (rad, ninjery, reflexes, electric, probably forgetting some) will work. Shields and Kinetic Melee's busy animations are also helpful; Dark Melee might also work. Problem is, run speed is not all that helpful in ordinary game play. Mostly what it does is gets you hung up on a pipe or torch, or falling off railingless catwalks. Combat Jumping is much more helpful.

Leopold Weiss - Passecaille RIP Julian Bream

Dorothy Dandridge - Cow Cow Boogie

I am particularly fond of buf fand debuff procs in toggles. Willpower's RttC takes a Dark Watcher's Despair recharge slow. Invulnerability's Invincibility likewise gets Chance for Buildup.

Babes in Arms - Shakin' Street

Heraclea, Invuln / Dark Melee, is still my gold standard. Where DPS is an issue she wouldn't be my first choice, but for getting through from start to finish she's who I want to bring.

Note also that leaving thrugh the entrance into a zone that lacks a teleport destination, you will reappear where you were last (if an open zone) or outside the mission door (if you entered the base from a mission.) In other words, ALWAYS rez in base if you die in Cimerora or the Shadow Shard.

Well, the thread has at least inspired me to roll an Ice/Ice tanker. Got her to level 12 running DFBs, will try on a TF. My initial impressions are: 1./ The set is not the graphics disaster that I feared. With dark colors for the powerset and Minimal FX chosen, the various armors are almost invisible. Probably helps that I also chose most of the Spectrum costume pieces, all but the head, and made everything a very pale cyan, with one of the Imperial breastplates and metallic skirts. 2./ The set is VERY toggle heavy, As I typically do with baby tankers, the only toggle I run before 22 is the mez protection. Apart from that the only primary powers I have at 23 are the mez protection and a passive power. I generally find that toggles and damage auras don't repay their endurance costs at those levels. 3./ The values of the defensive powers I do have look quite inadequate, and 4./ I did in fact take Taunt. 5./ The self heal is good out of the box but takes WAY too long to recharge. We'll see how the character fares taunting on a Posi 1 and 2 in the near future.

I've been getting a fair amount of use out of the Garden Arch (Cityscape) and the Roman/Ruined gate (Doors and Windows); these work in somewhat formal contexts with a lot of stone walls, not sure what would work with them in a more tech environment, For the garden arch I usually put some kind of stone object between them and the walls so characters don't get in there and get stuck. The Roman gates can just be set inside the doorway with clipping on. AAR I would like to see these posters from a very early Azuria mission added as available wall decorations. They're just too funny.....

I don't think I've ever seen another: Ice/Plants blaster, my Hami raider. Kind of a difficult concept to swing. Punny name helped. Fire/Regen scrapper. Staff/Regen brute. Scrapper recreates a character from Victory. You would think there's no synergy between primary and secondary; you'd be right. Gets trotted out for under-35 task forces where Regen still works well, and Shadow Shard stuff, where Regen is no worse than anything else. Staff/Regen brute exists because I wanted to see how much would be needed to make a Regen brute tanky. No synergy was a deliberate choice. I chose Staff as part of the experiment because I wanted animations that would interfere with click heals as part of the experiment; and besides, I didn't have a Staff character at the time. More synergy with the Stone/Regen brute. Another lowbie content specialist. Stone Melee was chosen because it gets good early. Plants/Poison controller. I can play support only if almost everything is aimed at enemies rather than teammates. This is the one that clicked for me. Lots of debuffs that just work without having to worry about the longevity of anchors.

Control, control, control! I would work in Cloak of Fear, and plan on the Control hybrid. possibly replacing Soul Transfer. Not sure where giving all those slots to pool powers gets you. I would move at least a couple of them to your single target attacks and add a bit more defense on top of your native defense, by slotting a few Kinetic Combats. I had a dark/ice tank on old live that I built as a melee controller. Good times, that.

Witchfinder in a bikini. Sounds like a date!

The King's Singers - Ach Elselein

Trini Lopez - La Bamba RIP Trini Lopez

Spirogyra - Bells, Boots, and Shambles

I usually abbreviate Penelope Yin TF to Penny Yin TF. The original Sister Psyche TF is available in Ouro, and still gets run semi-regularly on Torch. The most confusing official name to me is 'Soul of the Woodsman' for Numina (Numi). I associate the Woodsman more with the Eden trial, which I just call Eden Trial, not sure what its official name is. Mairenn MacGregor's trial likewise is the Sewer Trial. The real issue is with the official names on the LFG list. No one calls the ITF 'Time's Arrow', no one calls Moonfire 'Kheldian War', and so forth. Also potentially confusing are DFB, standing for Death from Below, the 1-20 lowbie trial that successfully replaced sewer runs as a way to get a character started. This should not be confused with DIB, 'Drowning in Blood', another relatively low level 15-30 trial that has nothing to do with sewers. Also taking place in sewers is the Underground Trial, an incarnate trial; this is usually abbreviated UG and is never called a sewer trial.

Still rather sad, or rather wistful. but DC has been flushing itself down the tubes for years. Twaddle like Batman v. Superman, current event boks like Death Metal and DCeased (notice a common thread? I thought you could) are simply at odds with the way their flagship characters ought to be written. Sacking the people who dragged them in this direction like DiDio and Harras might have been a good fresh start. FWIW I have enjoyed some of the digital first titles they've been making. Stuff like Superman: Man of Tomorrow has remarkable virtues: stories told in a single issue (a lost art!) and clean and attractive DC style art gave me the luxury of thinking that things were turning around. May have been too little, too late.

Kundalini Genie - Can't Get You Out Of My Mind

Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime