DoctorNorth

I tend to prefer solo play. There's less pressure, I can play in smaller portions of time, or a slower pace without ruining a mission or task force. As an old Gen-Xer I like the appeal of only relying on your self to hunt and survive the game. YES, you can survive as a Blaster, solo. My highest level and most powerful hero back in the 00's was Doctor North, an Ice/Ice blaster. He hunted solo in every major hero zone back the from 1-50. I have other examples The key playing solo, is to treat it like camping in the wilderness. You need to rely on yourself for everything. First aid. Escape. Shelter to rest. Knowledge of terrain and potential threats. Use your inspirations liberally, (purple shield and green cross pills were often my friend). Assess mob threat correctly, the rule of almost all MMOs is to destroy "top down". This is very true of solo play. Avoid any mob that has more than one healer. Two teleporting Sorcerers can own you unless your AOE and timing is really solid. Know the mobs that stun/sleep you. This is DEATH to a blaster. Inspirations are gold here. Leakage, adds kill you in solo. Avoid maps or missions that "bleed" badly and add unseen risk. If you're surprised in battle as a solo blaster, that's NEVER a good sign. The rest is all about killing them before they can kill you. DPS is the "fun part". Indulge. It keeps you alive. Speed kills. Controllers/ Defenders often have to "win" when they play solo, by a deep, methodical application of patience. You do not operate this way. You get in. You destroy and once its tricky, you bail. Fast. Remember solo XP is slooooooow XP. It's the price MMOs make you pay for enjoying the challenge of solo play. But a successful destruction of a tricky mob all on your own is an EXTREMELY satisfying achievement at times. Good luck! One word of warning about solo play: You can become so accustomed to surviving on your own in the game your toons can sometimes fail to be good team mates. This is not just because the fact you had to optimize your build for solo play, but adapting playstyle after hours of solo play can sometimes take time. So while solo play is a lot of fun, there is often a price to pay for it.

Soul Star - Issue 4 Killed by Death! Synopsis: In this issue: Sol is being hunted by the Marcone family, on a "kill order" that has all of Independence Port hunting for him. REVIEWS: Issue 4 of Soul Star tries a little too hard to pay homage to the author's love of Marv Wolfman and Motorhead. Great influences, just not sure they should be mixed together. -@IndieCoutureComics So I'm supposed to believe a kid has so much neutronium in his body, a vial of his blood is worth 1,000,000 influence? And he's hunted like a rat every day because of this? Ok, I'm in. -@GuyLovesComics I read it when I went to the bathroom on a Tuesday morning. Kinda glad I did. 3-stars. -@MangetoutComics ((OOC: I earned the "Gangbusters" badge! 🙂 )) -------------------- KILLED BY DEATH: Independence Port is long past its prime. Riddled with black markets, Freakshow goons and the territorial Tsoo, the foghorns here echo across hollow urban sprawl. The tale of ghosts and dirty sailors mingling with the salty air of a rusty pier. Each street corner is marked, owned and requires a toll. Longbow helicopters fly far away to solve the latest crisis, while getting to work without paying at least two extortion fees per city block is impossible. You don't come here lest you got business or worse, are forced to work an d live here. Hospital workers some of them, allies of Yin and her constant need for heroes. Or the array of monster hunters here to bag another giant squid that grace us with their presence at every blood moon. But I'm not here for glory, or the spotlight or another task force. I'm here because I got beef. Like I said, you don't come here lest you got business. My business is with the Family. Actually, more accurately, their business is with me... -------------------- ((OOC: I'll be trolling Talos Island now from level 22 to like 27. I think the Freakshow will be prominent in the next issue, as Soul attempts to make a renegade wing of this gang into allies. Please if you see @DoctorNorth and want to RP a little, say hi. Each issue will try to pay "homage" to a classic City of Heroes mob.))

Snippets of Issue 2 of Soul Star, titled, of course, "SUSPECT DEVICE". Much love to Stiff Little Fingers.

PAGE ONE — FULL SPLASH PANEL Paragon City at midnight. The skyline seethes beneath a violet thunderstorm. Black lightning tears across the clouds, swallowing light rather than casting it. At the center of the chaos stands a young man with charcoal skin and yellow eyes blazing with solar fire. NARRATION (top-left): They say I’m a freak of nature. NARRATION (bottom-right): Aren’t we all? ---------------------+++-------------------- PAGE TWO — THREE PANELS Panel 1: A prenatal scan bathed in distortion — a fetus outlined in a flicker of dark light. NARRATION: They call it a mutation. Exposure in the womb — dark matter, neutronium, a quantum flux that struck me shortly after conception. It rewrote my DNA before I ever took a breath. Panel 2: Microscopic view — twisted helix glowing with black plasma, particles orbiting like trapped suns. NARRATION: Now I can attract dark matter particles and weave lightning from the void, I can even see neutrinos slice the night sky. Panel 3: Close-up of Soul Star’s eyes — tiny solar eruptions flare within them. NARRATION: So yeah — “Mutant.” And proud of it. ---------------------+++-------------------- PAGE THREE — KING’S ROW Panel 1: Soul Star striding through rain, mohawk sharp against the glow of a flickering streetlight. A worn paperback copy of Camus’ The Rebel sticks out of his back pocket. NARRATION: I wear a mohawk. Cuz' I figure I might as well double down on the freak card. Panel 2: He confronts the Skulls in a graffiti-stained alley. Lightning arcs from his fingers. NARRATION: You might see me around Paragon. Picking fights with the SKULLS. Don't ask why. One must imagine Sisyphus vengeful. Panel 3: He gets slammed against a dumpster, grinning through blood and static. NARRATION: Hey, I said I was a freak. Didn’t say I was powerful! ((Everlasting Roleplayer, new toon, combination of the old Marv Wolfman Teen Titans meets Gaiman's Sandman. George Perez art, but only after he'd listened to Disintegration by the Cure and used it as a muse. Come say to me. I go by @DoctorNorth or for this toon Soul Star. I like to RP old school, in local, a very low-level hero, naive, angry about something, favorite anthem is "Don't Believe the Hype" by Public Enemy. Hero side, looking for RP friends! ))

I've been live streaming CoH for two weeks now and it's been a great way to meet players! I build AI art for the channel daily, to keep the look of the channel fresh and to promote the characters and RP within each broadcast. If you wanna join the party, come join us, we are a casual easy group to hang out with. We are the kind of easy going channel that talks about how to make good homemade hummus, or last night we began to discuss our favorite muppet movies and characters! This art features "Cobalt Wolf", a lovable, fluffy blue werewolf who owns a donut store and has a friendly Arachnos Spiderling, (named Lana), for a pet. Join us: https://www.twitch.tv/veedasher Thank you all for letting me share this with you.

((The weird fanzine inserts and flyers above are apparently related to some of the gossip on the yellow-tabloid podcasts in Steel Canyon. There is rampant gossip about a series of bloody massacres of any and all Circle of Thorn muggers in Steel Canyon)) IN THE NEWS: A crazy Minotaur has escaped a psychiatric ward and the creature has begun to murder any Circle of Thorn member seen preying on the citizens of the Canyon. One woman, named Karen Everight, claimed to have been rescued by the creature. She claimed the minotaur "reeked of weed and superadine" and "was singing Cruel Summer by Banarama while hacking the Circle disciplines to ribbons with large ceremonial knives". This minotaur is apparently distributing flyers espousing absurdist philosophy and lifetime dedication of increased self-awareness through mind-altering substances and Daft Punk disco. Police warn all citizens not to approach the minotaur and to keep all discussion on the current shoegaze revival to a minimum. ((If you RPers on Everlasting ever see Malik the Shoegaze Minotaur, please say hi. Existential indie-rock lyrics are not required ))

The Fourth Lesson ((Mature themes below)) Paper Idols - James Bond (Official Video)

The Third Lesson It's a cruel, (cruel) cruel summer Leavin' me here on my own It's a cruel, (it's a cruel) cruel summer Now you're gone --Cruel Summer, Banarama Banarama teaches us to embrace our alienation and existential angst. Banarama also teaches us that a common "absurdist" coping mechanism for this angst. is to simply sing and dance "in celebration" of this alienation. The third lesson also teaches us that you should never judge a band by their haircuts. Banarama - Cruel Summer (Official Video)

The Second Lesson Where you going to be? Where will you spend eternity? I'm gonna be perfect from now on I've gotta be perfect...starting now --Randy Describes Eternity, Built to Spill Built to Spill teaches us that the concept of eternity and penance are absurd. Therefore our relationship with time and the universe itself, is also absurd. *Note the teachings of Albert Camus are also instructive for The Second Lesson, see "The Myth of Sisyphus". Randy Describes Eternity, Built to Spill (Live 1999)

((A strange fanzine has been seen distributed in the lower echelons of Steel Canyon. It looks like it has been put together with a crude Xerox machine and bizarre collage, like a ransom note from 1982. *Everlasting server)) The First Lesson "With the flick of my knife, I could change your life There's nothing you can do." --Problem Child, AC/DC AC/DC teaches us that we are not fully in control of our destiny. That the turn of a single blade can twist the fate of even the gods themselves. This is the First Lesson. Problem Child - 1977 (Live)

Malik - Part 5 - Late, Late, Late! Old Doctor North taps his datapad nervously, his pale white frail hands delivering small bouts of arthritic pain which he lets himself feel with each tap. "Late! Way overdue! I should have never given Malik a day pass," this thought keeps echoing through his Super-Ego and his Id has no counter-argument. The door to his office has a gentle knock and then opens... In strides a tall woman, mid-30's, disheveled blonde hair tied hastily into a loose bun. Her shoes are practical and comfortable but the business suit is expensive, well-tailored and stylish, she is holding an old school newspaper. "You need to see this Doc," and she throws down the latest Paragon Times and turns to page 5, in front of him. "It's buried because there's so much going on in Paragon right now, but this story here, I saw it and I had to come in here to show you right away..." -------------------- Paragon Times, Page 5 Multiple Mages Murdered in Gimry Ridge! The abduction of innocent civilians in Gimry Ridge by the Circle of Thorns has long been a problem plaguing the Steel Canyon. Apparently, one vigilante has had enough, murdering seven Circle of Thorn Mages last night after they had abducted a young, unidentified woman in Gimry Ridge. This was not an arrest. This was a brutal massacre. According to numerous sources and an anonymous law official, the mages were found butchered to death with ceremonial knives. The Circle of Thorns have fled the ridge and so far and have not yet returned, but many worry the retribution for this murderous act will be swift and violent from the Circle. Citizens are instructed to avoid the Gimry Ridge area at night! There is no description of the assailant and police have no further comment on the murders at this time. ------------------- The Doctor gently lets go of the newspaper, letting it drift gently to the ground. He hangs his head, "Ceremonial knives...Circle of Thorns...Steel Canyon...it all adds up," he realizes in defeat. "It's Malik! This could put my entire institution's funding at risk once its realized. He was on a day pass here! He was supposed to be going to an audition! Worse, I think Malik could be in HUGE trouble now. The Circle will not take this lying down. Sara, we need to get on top of this immediately. Thank you for bringing this to me right away," the wizened old Doc springs from his chair abruptly. "And get Red on the phone! He'll know where Malik is hiding!"

FAVORITE: Circle of Thorns - They just became a staple villain for all my characters, so my RP stories revolve around the circle a lot. LEAST: Tsoo - I was never comfortable with the depiction and iconography of this group, I think it might be outdated. Plus all that psychic damage and sorcerers that teleport to get more help are a total butt. I really dig the Snakes on the villain side, love the way they slither so fast!

Malik - Downtime Doctor North browses his data pad reviewing his notes. Malik has progressed nicely since being placed in his care. "Lot of trauma in this kid," North muses gently to himself as he reviews the discussions about Malik's childhood, or genuine lack thereof. The doctor removes his glasses and massages his eyes. His wizened porcelain white hands shake a little as he places the glasses back. The doc is still active, even at age 90, but the long hours and the tough hill fight of putting a kid like Malik's life back together again have long since taken their toll on him. The door opens and there stands a 7 foot bull-headed minotaur, as if from Greek legend itself. Two crooked horns protrude from his head, black nostrils flare with each deep breath, toned, muscular, fit, lean and strong, Malik is a sight to see, even for the old doc. "Hello Malik," Doctor North smiles gently as he places the data pad under his seat. "Hey Doc, someone answered my ad...you know about playing bass!" Malik is enthused, his shoulders are square, his head is up, his smile is luminous. "Brixton Clash...some punk band that plays out of Bronze Way..they need a player. Mostly old covers, Stiff Little Fingers, Killing Joke, Wire, kinda perfect actually," the minotaur eagerly grabs a seat across from the doctor. "We need to talk about downtime then Malik, I feel the time has come," the Doctor offers this statement up with a huge grin. "Downtime?" Malik cocks his black bull head sideways and the brass ring between his nostrils dangles back and forth with the movement. "You didn't expect to have to stay in the institution the whole time did you?" the Doctor asks. "Well as part of my parole conditions, yes I did," Malik confesses, suddenly staring at the floor in shame. "You keep that ankle bracelet on and I'll issue you a day pass," the Doctor's voice is suddenly cautionary, low and resonant. Malik stares at the bizarre cue-ball head of Doctor North. "Are you for real Doc?" "Look Malik, you've been here over a year. You've gone from threatening to kill us all with a plastic knife every day to playing bass guitar at night and writing kind letters to your old Mom in the morning. You are responding well to your meds, you help out the staff with chores, you attend therapy regularly and eagerly. You are ready for this level of trust. Keep the ankle bracelet on, call us if you have any troubles. Good luck with the audition." The Doctor then leans down to pick up his data pad and looks at the door to indicate the session is done for the day. "Wow, downtime, okay guess I'm going to stinkin' Steel Canyon to play bass guitar. The bougie boomers over there better prepare!" And with that the happiest Minotaur that ever was grabbed his bass guitar and set out for adventure...

I am trying out a tank version of this build right now. Thanks for the tips and I'll follow much of your advice along the way!

Almost all my characters are cursed in some way, Malik will continue this tradition of mine. He's inspired by a lot of things, The song "Minotaur by Thee Oh Sees" and indeed the entire album that song is on is a key inspiration: Thurston Moore is also a huge influence and radical, radical punk that's light years beyond all reason and comprehension is played loudly when playing him...