The Classic Hero Challenge

[Greycat]

1 hour ago, 0th Power said:

I'm in, next time I'm online, I plan on rolling a classic hero.  Blaster or tanker?

 

Is everyone using a standard naming rule, or just whatever?

AT: Whatever you want to play.

Naming rule: None, really.

[Doomguide2005]

15 hours ago, Greycat said:

<snip>

- Blast from the past: "You are getting too far from your mentor." "Your mentor is too far away!" (I'm tempted to put those in as local chat macros.)

 

Yeah while it wasn't i0 I recall basically killing my sk once because of the distance requirement.  I'd gotten stuck in the foliage inside a mission (which made up the outdoor mission boundary).  Used /stuck, reappeared near the mission entrance and my duo partner sidekick got immediately killed by his suddenly +too much mob.  Oopsy.

 

Edit:  be a heck of a way to lose Iron Eagle status 🤪.  Speaking of which did the /stuck command exist from the start?

Edited December 11, 2020 by Doomguide2005

[Knock!]

19 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

. . . Speaking of which did the /stuck command exist from the start?

It did. It's in the Prima guide.

[ineffablebob]

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Speaking of which did the /stuck command exist from the start?

It definitely did, 'cause I remember using it quite a bit! Those early patches were...not pristine. And it didn't always help. I remember one mission in particular where we all fell through the floor on entrance, landed WAY below at 1 health, and nothing we did would get us out. My buddy's regen scrapper in the group was at full health in a few seconds and he said "well, at least I know my Fast Healing is working". Ended up having to relog to get out, and then call a GM to get rid of the mission.

[cranebump]

Ported over to Everlast, and actually getting to run FF on the Hollows on a small team. It's the little things... (that's probably cheating, I know...I CAN'T HELP MYSELF! THINGS JUST AIN'T SIMPLE! (yeah! simple!):-)

Edited December 11, 2020 by cranebump

[0th Power]

Tanker 2004 is alive (and in the tutorial)

[cranebump]

Classic Cranebump (formerly, classic Acrobattle)

 

Start: King’s, Lvl 9

So, first off--a name change a shift from Torch to Everlast, and a change of togs (I'm cheating, but if you knew my character, you'd brush that off). As I noted last time, I have no toon that carries my sig, and well, goshdurnitt, why not? So, the result…

This is my friend and tailor, Blue Steel. He’s a big ‘un ain’t he?

 

Synopsis: Left off last time in KR at lvl 9. Here’s what’s in my mish window:

I know you’re out there, evil-doers…

 

Knock out the 10 Lost, which takes Rachel Torres off my radar (I presume til I gain a level). Then a bit of running around.

 

Oh, no! Someone’s stolen the Cranemobile!

 

No problem. We’ll just get a new one, ‘cuz we gots money (or so my backstory sez. Vanity plates in the mail!):

 

Off to kill Vazhies! And find G. Sanders contact. On the way:

 

I free you from these guys, and THIS is how you repay me? (Just so you know, she hit me with a sledgehammer--while I was taking out the Vahz.)

 

Annnd DING!

 

Level 10

After hitting Sanders, she gives me Haley Pastor. I now have 2 contacts in Sky, which is where I’m likely to go when I hit the teens. For now, I have jewelry heist thingee to take care of, and my first encounter with these guys…

Seeing as how I passed on Practiced Brawler for Focused Senses, I am not in for a good time if I meet a Mage.

 

Wouldn’t say this is an ideal spot for a picnic…

 

Did I say “if?” I meant “when.”

 

Okay found the boss finally…

Amaruuuuuu-uuuu-n! He’s not a vegetarian! (Ama-rune, Ama-rune)*

 

*yes, to the tune of “New Age Girl”

 

Beat ‘em up! Beat ‘em up! RAHRAHRAH! (then a quick break, because laundry, damnit)

Hmmmm...why is this newspaper wet?

 

HMMM..: Didn’t know there were so many CoT in Royal Refinery. At least there are while I have Sanders’ hunting mission.

 

Speaking of…

I have to use THESE things?

 

Okey doke, so WDSA, WDSA, etcetc, and I’m on the roofs. Beat 'em up s'more...

 

Then to Perez to run consecutive clears. No problem if they chase, ‘cause:

The Drones are your FRIENDS.

 

Know something? When you don’t have AoE’s, and you have to do this:

...you discover that the MA set is the tortoise in the melee race…

 

See, I KNEW the Family was somehow behind all the gang activity in the Row. PROOF!

 

NOTES:

Mishes and such: Completed several arcs. Jill Pastor (35 merits! That I can't use yet!). Genevieve Sanders. Samuel Pierce. Rachel Torres. Haley Philips. Picked up the Spelunker badge. Knock out FROSTFIRE! Ended up at LEVEL 15. Travel power!

 

I Like Tunnels: One thing I’m doing a lot more of is using tunnel connections. When I hit my Sky contacts to grab mishes (that returned me to KR), one of them was right next to AP tunnel. Rather than heading to the ‘rail, I just trundled on through there. Getting a nice tour of each zone! I even ran around Perez to the Sky tunnel, just to uncover some of the Fog of War coverage and locate zone markers.

 

Assorted odds & ends: Got some good AE ideas while running a mish involving 2 Docs. You get an escort from Doc 1 and lead them to Doc 2, who, as it turns out, has been turned into a Vahz. You “free” (fight) him and mish ends. Just glad my escort was immune to embalmed explosions (wish I was).:-)

 

Oh, and Pastor capstone. Vahz have barrels that do DoT to me while healing them. Had to pull after finding that out the hard way on barrel #1.

 

Summary: My character is developing an interesting history. All the Vahz mishes makes them something of a “favored enemy” (which he is really unsuited to take on, given no resistance to all that toxic). CoT madness mages constantly mez him. But he pushed through and came out on top! The slow pace really does bring back that sense of wonder. Levels are achievements. Rewards are truly earned. Being able to slot enhancements--godsend. And, of course, travel power opens up a whole new realm. It was a long slog to get here, but I feel like I really have rediscovered aspects of the game I’ve taken for granted, I intend on following similar paths with future characters, if only because I get reintroduced to the city that I love.

 

Well, that’s it for now. Merhappy Hannakwanzas to all!

 

Crane




 

Edited December 12, 2020 by cranebump

[Jacke]

Got through the standard bit of the Outbreak Tutorial

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Outbreak

(slowed because I was taking notes to review the Tutorials for future revision).  Here I am back at Coyote.

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Coyote

Quote

• This character is named after the first pre-beta City of Heroes message board member, Kiyotee. Kiyotee, who was named Matthew Bragg in real life, was always the one to help out new people on the message boards. He died shortly after the game was released, and the contact was renamed in his honor. —IMDB, check External Links below
• When he was added, Coyote replaced Detective Wright.

 

But there's still the Isolator Badge!

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Isolator_Badge

 

Defeats Badges doesn't show progress on Isolator until it gets up in number, but I'd say I've got about 12 so far.  Even with L1 Contaminated took at least 3 hits from Brawl and Claws T2 Strike from my L1 toon, worse for the Lieutenants.  Imagine this without Beginner's Luck giving base 90% ToHit at L1, 89% at L2, but 75%....  Not using the 2 L1 Talisman of the Initiate (Damage) SOs (AKA the new Yin Damage SO, all Origins).   But I am L2--which was always advice even back in the day, get Isolater after hitting L2.

 

So it's off to get another 88 or so Contaminated, with just Brawl and Strike. 🙂 

 

EDIT:  Still took 3 hits to put down each Contaminated, at least one being Strike.  When Strike missed, Brawl even when it kept hitting didn't finish them off before I could put in another Strike.  With my A key bound to "targetenemynext$$follow", I moved from pair to pair of mobs quickly, so it was down to the recharge of Brawl, as though it did less damage, it did the most hits.  (Thinking back to the famous toon Brawling Humiliator, a War Mace/Willpower Brute who only used Brawl, Build Up, Hasten, Inspirations, and a Red Wisp Pet to street sweep from Levels 1 to 50, getting Outbreak's Isolator Badge, even as a Brute, would take a while. 🙂 )

 

A bit slow on getting a screenshot, but here's the finale defeat and the Badge.

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jacke

[Jacke]

Anyone have any idea when selling Inspirations to vendors and stores was added?  I think it wasn't in game Issue 5/Issue 6 when I started.

 

Hospital nurses selling Inspirations was added in Issue 19.  Before then and still after, even when other contacts were added to the game, I always wanted to unlock the traditional contacts just to have more places to buy Inspirations around the Zones.  That was tricky as originally contacts wouldn't sell to you unless you did a mission or more.

 

Managed to luck out and used an O-Portal to get to Ouroboros and now have the power.  But only for those sweet Issue-0-like Echos, maybe.

 

Anyhoo, off to Azuria to started grinding through the Hellions.  Dodging Badge locations and taking the front doors to City Hall, as the back ones were added in the Atlas Park/Mercy Island makeovers in Issue 21.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jacke

[wjrasmussen]

Yes, the /stuck was used too much.

 

A couple of things I remember from release day:

1)  Ran out of missions had to kill on the street (could have been my ignorance).

2)  If you took a knee and got attacked, you died. //this should still happen.

3)  death debt was worse than now or my memory is wrong.

4)  stuns would caused toggles to drop.  //this should still happen.

[Jacke]

29 minutes ago, wjrasmussen said:

Yes, the /stuck was used too much.

 

A couple of things I remember from release day:

1)  Ran out of missions had to kill on the street (could have been my ignorance).

2)  If you took a knee and got attacked, you died. //this should still happen.

3)  death debt was worse than now or my memory is wrong.

4)  stuns would caused toggles to drop.  //this should still happen.

Oh I remember using /stuck, even recently. 🙂

 

Wow, @wjrasmussen, you were there on Release Day?  Cool!

 

1) Do you remember what level you ran out of missions?

 

2) It's supposed to be Run Away! first, then Rest. 🙂  And Resting near mobs--or where some mobs will be running past in a moment (painful memory from last month)--is still a good way to eat floor no matter how you play City, what with its big debuffs while running.

 

Like running down the middle of the street to avoid overlevel mobs when you've got a mission door in the red part of a Zone.  And Perez Park runs through the forest....  Which is why I started going with Stealth on every toon.  No Grant Invisibility Base Buff or Celerity: Stealth at Level 12 for Jacke Shadowclaw, it's get to Level 20 and Cloak of Darkness. 🙂

 

3)  You're right, Debt was worse.  From

Issue 5 "Debt reduced inside mission maps and no debt is earned until level 10"

Issue 6 "Debt Cap reduced"

Issue 11 "Debt lowered by 20%"

And https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Debt

 

4)   In PvE right now, you get mezzed, attacking toggles drop, defending toggles suppress, which I think is a good compromise.  As I remember, still frustrating for my old Fire Control / Radiation Emission Controller with both Hot Feet and Choking Cloud, one I will get around to recreating on Homecoming.

 

And completely off-topic, but I found where Shadowstar hangs out, in the back of the S.E.R.A.P.H. office.  Not surprising, as Warshades were traditionally Science origin, though that got opened up, I think.

 

I just had to check with a test Warshade. Can make them any origin, they don't get the Tutorial, Shadowstar is the initial contact, and can talk to all the contacts.  That first one is just wrong.  Peacebringers (and Arachnos Soldiers and Arachnos Widows) are Natural origin, Warshades are Science!

 

There's also a LOT of contacts in City Hall's basement, many saying not until Level 35 or 40 or something strange.

 

The things you find when you go exploring. 🙂

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jacke

[Greycat]

Debt cap reduced... I remember going to a hami raid and going from 0 to... I think it was 1.1 million (cap.) Also running out of missions by 37 or 38 (blaster. Lots of debt to work through on the way up.)

Also, I do recall it was changed so you could not be one-hit-killed. (Though some attacks have two components, like (IIRC) Rikti swords, that counted as two "attacks," one - for instance - energy, one lethal.) In part due to people doing things like TPing people just off the edge of a skyscraper.

 

Other changes - Rest has essentially no recharge. Brawl has no END cost.

[wjrasmussen]

51 minutes ago, Jacke said:

Oh I remember using /stuck, even recently. 🙂

 

Wow, @wjrasmussen, you were there on Release Day?  Cool!

 

1) Do you remember what level you ran out of missions?

 

2) It's supposed to be Run Away! first, then Rest. 🙂  And Resting near mobs--or where some mobs will be running past in a moment (painful memory from last month)--is still a good way to eat floor no matter how you play City, what with its big debuffs while running.

 

Like running down the middle of the street to avoid overlevel mobs when you've got a mission door in the red part of a Zone.  And Perez Park runs through the forest....  Which is why I started going with Stealth on every toon.  No Grant Invisibility Base Buff or Celerity: Stealth at Level 12 for Jacke Shadowclaw, it's get to Level 20 and Cloak of Darkness. 🙂

 

3)  You're right, Debt was worse.  From

Issue 5 "Debt reduced inside mission maps and no debt is earned until level 10"

Issue 6 "Debt Cap reduced"

Issue 11 "Debt lowered by 20%"

And https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Debt

 

4)   In PvE right now, you get mezzed, attacking toggles drop, defending toggles suppress, which I think is a good compromise.  As I remember, still frustrating for my old Fire Control / Radiation Emission Controller with both Hot Feet and Choking Cloud, one I will get around to recreating on Homecoming.

 

And completely off-topic, but I found where Shadowstar hangs out, in the back of the S.E.R.A.P.H. office.  Not surprising, as Warshades were traditionally Science origin, though that got opened up, I think.

 

I just had to check with a test Warshade. Can make them any origin, they don't get the Tutorial, Shadowstar is the initial contact, and can talk to all the contacts.  That first one is just wrong.  Peacebringers (and Arachnos Soldiers and Arachnos Widows) are Natural origin, Warshades are Science!

 

There's also a LOT of contacts in City Hall's basement, many saying not until Level 35 or 40 or something strange.

 

The things you find when you go exploring. 🙂

I was still in Atlas park I want to say 7.  I remember sneaking into skyway to see if it was better.

Oh, I also remember combining enhancements at that level.  How silly. 

 

Running away yes.  But those darning persistent clockwork.  Plus mobs you didn't see.

 

On day 2, created a character and went to each zone that I knew about.  Learn about hospital travel.

[Jacke]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

Debt cap reduced... I remember going to a hami raid and going from 0 to... I think it was 1.1 million (cap.) Also running out of missions by 37 or 38 (blaster. Lots of debt to work through on the way up.)

Also, I do recall it was changed so you could not be one-hit-killed. (Though some attacks have two components, like (IIRC) Rikti swords, that counted as two "attacks," one - for instance - energy, one lethal.) In part due to people doing things like TPing people just off the edge of a skyscraper.

 

Other changes - Rest has essentially no recharge. Brawl has no END cost.

I remember Debt being harder.  Also reading Red Tomax's site where he put together all that information.  Gathering it for the arcs needed a lot of Debt to play through else the content was easily outleveled until I think the 30's.

 

I can't remember when and if there was a time that massive hits like falling damage on a full-HP toon was changed to always leave at least 1hp (which is still true).  I think the big AV hits (think Marauder enraged on a Lambda iTrial) can still one-shot, but that may be due to toons being less than full-HP.

 

There was a SG in the pre-Shutdown Repeat Offenders Coalition called Death From Above.  One of their tools was with Blaster Defiance 1.0 (i5), they'd drop from great height onto mobs, go to 1hp and massive amounts of +Dam enhancement to wipe them.

 

I think Rest originally had a 180s recharge and you always slotted it with a Recharge Reduction and some people (like Blasters 🙂 ) added slots.  Now it's a 30s recharge and the base slot, maybe with an Interrupt Reduction (base 6s) or a Heal SO or IO, is more than enough.

 

Brawl going to no endurance was in Issue 16, same as this clue for the conspiratorial: "All references to ‘Talsorian’ in-game changed to ‘Vanguard’"

 

1 hour ago, wjrasmussen said:

I was still in Atlas park I want to say 7.  I remember sneaking into skyway to see if it was better.

Oh, I also remember combining enhancements at that level.  How silly. 

 

Running away yes.  But those darning persistent clockwork.  Plus mobs you didn't see.

 

On day 2, created a character and went to each zone that I knew about.  Learn about hospital travel.

I still vaguely remember the first time taking the tunnel from Atlas Park to Steel Canyon, probably in Issue 5, maybe 6, thinking the worst it could be would be like the Hollows (which was definitely the first zone I tried after Atlas Park) or Perez Park.  More open, sure, also mobs with 3 more levels, at least.

 

Combining Enhancements is still mostly silly but become less so.  Once read advice saying it was always faster once the 'Combine' button was clicked to exit the screen before the result showed and select the power again.

 

Still have problems with Clockwork and others.  I've been running a lot of low level toons through all the Zones, rotating them through the Day Job Badges.  Even with the Base Buff Grant Invisibility and 25ft PvE stealth, there's a lot of dying.  And the suicide express to the nearest Hospital, or to my Base.  And sometimes the Base Buff doesn't survive, but mostly it does.

 

Back to the present, did the first Azuria mission to take down 5 Hellions, which leads onto a door mission.  Just Level 2, so I decided to do a bit more street sweeping.  Finding Lts to be significantly tougher.  No wonder @ineffablebob had to use all his skills on Bosses...which reminds me, need to adjust the Difficulty to enable solo Bosses and AVs...done!

 

And then I got in over my head.  Level 2, Atlas Park by Wentworths, a few too many Hellions (I think 4 with at least one Lt).  Then 3 Winter Horde Frostlings from behind me joined in.  I think some were conning more than Yellow....

 

But I'd taken Death Shroud over Slash as it was better damage when facing 3 or more targets.  And I had a full 4 Inspirations, 2 of them being the large ones from the Tutorial.

 

Here I am, having just finished off the Winter Horde after doing in the Hellion Minions, eyeing the remained Hellion Lt.  We're both on a sliver of health.  (Quick screenshot, forgot to hold CTRL with F12 to get the interface.)  After this, I ran over and finished him off.

 

Jacke Shadowclaw has yet to be defeated! 🙂 Still level 2 though....

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jacke

[ineffablebob]

12 hours ago, Jacke said:

But there's still the Isolator Badge!

Not at launch, there wasn't! No badges until Issue 2. And man, was that the subject of some angst, let me tell you. Because until they added Recluse's Victory and had an Infected occasionally spawn near the tram, there was no way to get Isolator on existing characters. (Issue 7, I think that was.) I remember people camping it, and of course then someone would try to murder them, it being a PvP zone. I never did, and when Ouro came around (Issue 11) my patience was rewarded when the Ouro intro arc made getting Isolator (comparatively) easy.

11 hours ago, wjrasmussen said:

1)  Ran out of missions had to kill on the street

Yep, that happened frequently. Even not counting buffs like 2XP, XP in general was slower at launch. Mission rewards were lower, arc completion bonus was *way* lower, and I believe even per-minion XP was lower. You'd often be level 4 and have nothing to do until you hit 5 and your contact would pass you along to the next tier, and the same at each 5-level interval.

8 hours ago, Jacke said:

I can't remember when and if there was a time that massive hits like falling damage on a full-HP toon was changed to always leave at least 1hp (which is still true).  I think the big AV hits (think Marauder enraged on a Lambda iTrial) can still one-shot, but that may be due to toons being less than full-HP.

I'm pretty sure you never died from falling alone - I remember dropping off buildings even in the CoH beta and surviving. Although I suppose it's possible I just got lucky. However, the one-shot-kill from mobs was definitely a thing prior to Issue 7. After that, a single hit would at most put you at 1 HP - but in big fights, there would often be another little hit that got through so quickly afterward that it still felt like a one-shot.

10 hours ago, Greycat said:

Other changes - Rest has essentially no recharge. Brawl has no END cost.

Oh goodness, yes - I actually slotted Rest for recharge on my first tanker. And it was not a particularly bad choice for the first dozen or so levels! Of course, I regretted it later on, since there was no respec yet. That guy got shelved for a long time...

Edited December 12, 2020 by ineffablebob

[cranebump]

Tried entering the join channel command, but I got nuthin'. Is there a way to join the chan using the "add tab?" Does the channel appear on the add list?

Edited December 12, 2020 by cranebump

[Jacke]

27 minutes ago, cranebump said:

Tried entering the join channel command, but I got nuthin'. Is there a way to join the chan using the "add tab?" Does the channel appear on the add list?

The channel only shows up in the Tab menus once it's joined.  To test, I've just left the channel.  Then rejoined the channel using this slash command.

/chanjoin "Launch Re-enactors"

If you're already in the channel, doing the join again will just get this error message in the Error channel.

You already belong to channel 'Launch Re-enactors'

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jacke

[Doomguide2005]

For quite a while my on again off again badge hunter was jealous of a friends Katana/Regen scrapper.  He joined a bit after us probably i4 and couldn't figure out how to get out of the tutorial.  Running around in their for a couple hours trying to find the exit ... well he defeated a lot of Contaminated and was the only one of us to have Isolater badge for quite a while.  He eventually phoned one of us and learned how to escape the tutorial.

[Greycat]

... man, I haven't used Rest so much in a long time.

 

 

Also, look at all the civilians run... and fill up the map. (While it's not "issue 0," I remember bank missions being horrible with this on COV's release.)

And yay, level 10!

Edited December 12, 2020 by Greycat

[0th Power]

Tanker 2004 is lv 4

 

i decided on using DO drops but I won’t use SOS until 22

 

[Jacke]

2 minutes ago, 0th Power said:

Tanker 2004 is lv 4

 

i decided on using DO drops but I won’t use SOS until 22

It's understandable.  TOs are now only available from SG Base Quartermasters.

 

If you want to use TOs, only one Accuracy per attack and maybe base slot End Reduction on toggles are worth it, everything else just don't buy and sell the drops until level 12.  And a lot of the drops won't be usable by your Origin (with the current system, the drops can't be restricted in Origin without other unwanted effects, just can't remember them at the moment).

 

If you don't have access to any other SG Base, you can use mine.  I have 5 NPCs including a Quartermaster right at the entrance to my simple SG Base.

 

When within 45ft of a Base Portal, here's a macro to enter my SG Base, a base on every Shard (gives 4 error messages but the one that works has you enter).

/macro "JACKE" "enterbasefrompasscode JACKE-459$$enterbasefrompasscode JACKE-83$$enterbasefrompasscode JACKE-439$$enterbasefrompasscode JACKE-673$$enterbasefrompasscode JACKE-53"

Supergroup Bases weren't available until Issue 6, but a minimal use of a Base to get access to TOs for more of the Issue 0 experience is worth it, I think.

[Greycat]

Tanker2004 is in "We have no issues" now. Everyone is going to have invite permission. I know, I didn't give everyone "spend raid points," don't get out the pitchforks. 🙂 But there is a vendor in there to snag TOs from if you want.

 

Also, I'd forgotten - yay contact in steel! ... Who's sending me to kings row! ... to fight COT on the rooftoops when I have to hoof it up there!

[Six-Six]

BLASTRO join the channel. What time are you guys usually on?

[cranebump]

I am on right now. Everlast. Running Sky contact mishes in Steel (yeah, they sent me to Steel):-) Other than that, for me usually THU evenings EST, beginning around 6. DEC 21-23 I'll be on on and off at various times during the day. My classic global is @cranebump2.

Edited December 13, 2020 by cranebump

[Greycat]

On and off at various times during the day. (which is why everyone has permission to invite others to the sg.)

Edited December 13, 2020 by Greycat