RikOz

I don't recall ever seeing these at all.

I stopped even bothering with my immob on my fire/fire blaster because it never, ever worked when I really needed it to. And now in her 40s enemies go down too quickly to worry about Ring of Fire. EDIT: LOL, my lvl 19 Ninja Blade stalker just had to chase a same-level Outcast all over Steel Canyon. C'mere and let me stab you, you crook!

I've boggled a few times at orange-conning lieutenants running away from me. One time I had Morana, a red-conning elite boss in the KR Skulls storyline, try to run away from me.

Yup, like I said, this was alt #47, so it's fun to take different approaches on different characters. Amongst my alts I have two themed "super groups" of ten members each. But since I can obviously only play one character at a time, I have to spread out my time on each character to keep the characters within a particular "SG" at or about the same level. So in those cases, the "RP" outweighs the leveling.

My question was about why it felt so much easier at level 5 than the same missions at level 8-9, when my initial thought was, "If these are so tough at 8-9, they must be a real bear at 5". I know we're meant to be gaining XP - that wasn't the point. As far as NPCs helping, the screwed up pathing of the NPCs in the Shining Stars base makes their help extremely unreliable. Half the time they start to follow you, and then turn around and run back the other direction. When you go to rescue Dillo, Twinshot doesn't want to budge past the room's entrance, so she's no help unless you can kite the mobs over to her. The last few times I've done the mission that introduces Grym, Flambeaux hasn't shown up for the final fight at all - she's still back there running between the elevators or something. And the Save Manticore mission is entirely solo.

I'm one who likes to level by doing missions. My usual progression through Atlas Park goes like so: Matthew Habashy's initial quests -> Officer Fields or Sondra Costel -> Aaron Thiery and by the time I've arrested Thiery and defeated Arbiter Mesten, I'm level 8. At that point, I typically go talk to Twinshot and do the Shining Stars missions, then I'm off to Kings Row. Every time I've done the Shining Stars stuff I find that I'm confronted with Orange-conning "Arachnos" lieutenants, and they are quite a challenge, regardless of AT and powersets (though, naturally, I've gotten better at dealing with them as I've done it more). The main challenge has been those lieutenants' Web Grenade - it kinda sucks having all your recharge speeds slowed down when you only have maybe three attack powers to work with. That got me thinking, "Atlas Park is a level 1-5 zone. Are these missions even doable at level 5, when Twinshot first becomes available?" So I set up an experiment. 1) Rolled alt #47, a Radiation Melee/Regeneration stalker. 2) Train only first two powers in each powerset. So took Contaminated Strike and Hide at creation, Radioactive Smash at level 2, and Fast Healing at level 4. Also allowed myself to use Brawl and my origin power, Mutagen. 3) No XP buff (unnecessary), no Prestige Enhancements. Took Ninja Run to make it easier to get around. 4) Complete all of the storylines and all of the missions from the origin contacts in City Hall, and the followup missions from other AP contacts I'm introduced to, as long as those missions take place in Atlas Park (so ignoring any missions that send me off to Kings Row). 5) No starting Inf from other characters, but converted first three Merits earned into Converters, sold for starting Inf. 6) Used Inf to purchase and equip full load of level 5 TOs (2 +ACC in each attack power, 2 +DEF in Hide, 2 +Healing in Fast Healing), then used TOs from drops to eventually upgrade all TOs to 5++. 7) Turned off XP at level 5. Capping at zone level, preventing outleveling any contacts so that I could take and complete every single mission available. 8 ) And, finally, talking to Twinshot after everything else was completed, and attempting the Shining Stars missions up through "Save Manticore", at level 5. It was ... much easier than I expected. In fact, it was probably the easiest run through the Shining Stars missions I've had. And I'm not sure why. A couple factors I've considered: Being a stalker gave me a bit of an advantage, via the big crits when attacking from stealth? Previously waiting until level 8+ to start the quests meant that the "Beginner's Luck" buff was lower than it was at level 5? Thoughts?

It was just really odd seeing them all of a sudden. It was just those two, no others that I could find. I level all of my alts via missions, so I've covered most of the ground in Atlas Park many many times on many alts, and this was the first time I'd seen them.

Well, I did think about asking if Mirror Spirit is supposed to be gender-fluid.

Deepfire, Radiation Melee/Regeneration stalker:

Last night, some time after the Everlasting server was taken down and put back up, I encountered these charming fellows in Atlas Park. Previously, I'd never seen these mobs anywhere but in the Rogue Isles. Odd glitch, or on purpose?

I suspect the technology was developed by Loki and Hela.

Spotted this confusing bit as I flew past the AE building in Faultline: "She was in his street clothes..."

(Nothing really fancy about this, more of a fun concept.) I rolled up a character named "Cybernetic Queen", named for a song about a sexbot by German power metal band Iron Savior. I decided to start her out looking robotic/Clockworky, and have her gradually upgrade her body with more human-looking parts. And then she gives them All their fantasies Their lust and dreams She brings them down Down to their knees Cybernetic queen of passion Is guaranteeing satisfaction And while she burns in fire Melting down in sweet desire Her heart stays cold (Based on the lyrics, she's a Fire/Ice scrapper)

Oh yeah, I already had Flight and Combat Jumping. Ended up grabbing Hover as well, since it was pretty much either that or Quickness.

Ironically, later on the same day that said I avoided group content, I ended up joining in on a Citadel TF (though it was on my SS/Rad brute). That was much more enjoyable than I expected. None of the poison I was conditioned by WoW to avoid! The "defeat everything" nature of most of the missions meant there was nobody trying to skip over stuff. I did go ahead and respec my Dual Blades/SR character last night to get rid of Quickness, but that led to my ending up needing to take a pool power that I didn't really want because at a certain point, Quickness was literally the only option available between my primary/secondary powers.

Heh. Years ago in WoW I made a female blood elf warlock named "Hexpot". Then I had fun insisting that it was pronounced "Hesh-po". EDIT: Oh, and one of my main characters in that game was a female gnome rogue, who wielded a pair of razor-sharp daggers. I named her "Jillette", and was quite astonished that the name wasn't already taken.

Nah, not rude - I pointed out the age thing my own self. I don't mind the blue caves at all - I too have always wondered what the big complaint was (though I kinda understand the frustration with the "cake room"). My own complaint is strictly about it being difficult for me to navigate places like that at a full sprint. It becomes doubly difficult when the sprint is combined with stealth - on top of moving too fast for comfort, I can hardly see what I'm doing. In a more "open" map it's not a problem, but the textures in blue caves combine with the stealth to greatly confuse me. I don't recall having these issues back when the game was live, but I only got into the game a year before it shut down, so it's possible that I simply never leveled a Super Reflexes or Ninjitsu character high enough to select those powers back then. I may take to just toggling the stealth/speed power on only when required, specifically when I'm ready to enter combat. The mob spawns aren't usually so close together that I can't stop and turn on the stealth before I enter aggro range. Alas, can't do that with the Quickness power, as it's an Auto power, not a Toggle. I'll admit that I'm generally not big on speed. My playstyle is pretty deliberate and methodical, and I honestly enjoy fighting my way through an entire map and clearing everything. I saw somebody mentioning that they like using Super Speed's stealth benefit to race past everything to the end of the map, where they defeat the "boss" to complete the quest. More power to them, I say. But from my perspective, that defeats the point of this kind of game. I saw the same kind of thing in WoW all the time, where it was "Go! Go! Go!" and people's only concern was the reward at the end rather than enjoying the adventure. In that game, people were constantly complaining about getting "dazed" every time they rode their mount through a crowd of mobs, when the solution was to go around the mobs. But no, that would take them four seconds longer and apparently expecting them to go around was an outrage. Plus, I always thought it was pretty funny that people would go out of their way to avoid fighting in a game where the primary activity is fighting. But when it comes down to it, the "hurry up" mentality is why I generally play solo, and avoid group/team content. Being in a hurry frustrates me, and my methodical deliberation is going to frustrate the other people, so I stick to myself. When I was a comic collector I always preferred the "solo" titles over the team books, too.

Perhaps its just my advanced age and the inevitable declining reflexes, but ... I'm finding that I really despise powers that force me to sprint everywhere if I want the power's other benefits. Right now it's "Quickness" from the Super Reflexes PS: "Your Quick reflexes allow you to move faster than normal, as well as resist slow effects. This power is always on and permanently increases your attack rate and movement speed." Another one is the stealth power from the Ninjitsu PS - if you want the stealth and the benefits of attacking from stealth, you have to also sprint everywhere. At least I can toggle that one off when I don't actually need the stealth. Dammit, I do not want to sprint everywhere! It's complete hell when I'm in a blue cave or a Council/5th Column base map and I'm running too fast to make corners, or I run right past side passages because I'm moving too quickly to notice them. Or I can't stop fast enough and zip past one group of mobs just far enough to aggro the next group as well. I had the Quickness power slotted with a level 30 Flight IO, and a lvl 30 Run SO. I unslotted both of them, and I cannot see any appreciable reduction in my speed. I've never yet done a respec - would doing one allow me to "unselect" the Quickness power altogether, or do respecs only let me reslot everything?

I was doing Mercedes Sheldon's storyline to retrieve those artifacts, and while doing the Warriors mission inside that entirely-too-large cave map, I found myself asking, "How did they get these cars in here?" I mean, before even considering that the cave entrance isn't nearly big enough, there are the facts that the cave was on an island, half a mile from the nearest significant land, and there's no bridge. I was flying around Talos Island when I spotted a lone car driving very, very slowly. First thought: "That guy is cruising for hookers." Why are all of the hospitals completely windowless? (Headcanon: Paragon City hospitals are purposely heavily fortified.) What combat advantage, precisely, do Sky Raider Porters and Tsoo Sorcerers derive from teleporting away the instant you engage them and then teleporting back after you've kicked their buddies asses?

Seahawk: Water Blast/Willpower sentinel. Former pro football player who had to retire due to his physical mutations being incompatible with the uniform. I also have a SS/Rad brute with Super Leap for his travel power. His origin is that, despite warnings from everybody he knew, he was always pounding down energy drinks. But they gave him superpowers! Who's laughing now?

Yeah, and there is a complete lack of "impact" sound effects for melee characters when attacking an object. It ends up looking like the character is just waving their fists at the thing.

Another potential confusion is the fact that the Midnighter Representative's name and reticle are gray, which is usually indicative of a "decorative" NPC you don't need to interact with.

Heh, here's what one of my characters looks like before she drinks her super serum:

I'd like to see a guide that organizes when I should talk to certain contacts so that I'm not missing half of the storylines due to outleveling them.

Of course, in a mainstream comic book universe, all of the characters aren't confined to one city like we are. There could be multiple characters using the same name, but they all operate out of different cities, distant from one another, and in the case of C-list characters on down, may be completely unknown outside of their own stomping grounds. Kind of like band names. There may be a bar band named "Rock Monster" in every city, but nobody cares except for avoiding duplicate names within the same city. But if Rock Monster from Spokane, WA lands a record deal and becomes nationally recognized, all those other Rock Monsters are going to need new names.