Alt-itis Therapy

[Story Archer]

So upon discovering that my beloved CoH had returned, I completely spazzed out over the new (to me) options and all of the changes that had happened since I hung up my cape years ago. In an effort to get things under control, I've finally committed myself to two of each AT, not including Khelds or Arachnos (one day, maybe). I wanted to give myself a good mix of playstyles and power set experiences while avoiding the random things that I know I'm not overly fond of. This is my final list, my dedicated 22:

 

Blaster:

• Alpha Spectrum (Fire / Atomic)
• White Star (Energy / Energy)

 

Controller:

• Speed Orchid (Plant / Kinetics)
• Time Shadow (Illusion / Time)

 

Defender:

• K-D1VA (Kinetics / Sonic)
• Fear the Never (Dark / Ice)

 

Scrapper:

• Serrated Angel (Katana / Willpower)
• Ladyshrike (Claws / Energy Aura)

 

Tanker:

• Iron Anvil  (Willpower / Super Strength)
• Lady Mossad (Shield / Martial Arts)

 

Brute:

• Crimson Skye (Staff / Electric)
• GenX 4 Life (Street Justice / Radiation)

 

Corruptor:

• CoX and Chill (Ice / Cold)
• Mujere de Agua (Water / Storm)

 

Dominator:

• Defoliator (Plant / Fire)
• Mistress Montclaire (Mind / Psi)

 

Mastermind:

• Sheen 2.0 (Robotics / Time)
• Drakken Ruhl (Necromancy / Dark)

 

Stalker:

• Hyperstrike 2.0  (Street Justice / Energy Aura)
• The Eldramoor (Dark / Shield)

 

Sentinel:

• Hurtz (Electric / Electric)
• Six-Gun Angel (Dual Pistols / SR)

 

Almost all have been made and most advanced to 20th at least - a few are still pending and a couple of the names haven't been checked, but the rest are all well on their way. Honestly, I'm not really sure why I even posted this - I'm just really excited to have it settled and looking forward to the adventure. 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Story Archer

[Shenanigunner]

Welcome home. 🙂

[Story Archer]

1 minute ago, Shenanigunner said:

Welcome home. 🙂

 

🙂

[Without_Pause]

I'm currently hovering around 40 on my main account. A thing I am doing is making sure everybody is at a certain level. Lets say 10. I get everybody to 10, or delete the character. I then go to level 20, 30, etc. I'm close to hitting the level 20 mark with only getting rid of one character so far. 

[Story Archer]

3 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

I'm currently hovering around 40 on my main account. A thing I am doing is making sure everybody is at a certain level. Lets say 10. I get everybody to 10, or delete the character. I then go to level 20, 30, etc. I'm close to hitting the level 20 mark with only getting rid of one character so far. 

 

That's an interesting approach - are you using it to winnow out characters you've made or do you have to catch a new character all the way up if you make one?

[Without_Pause]

12 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

 

That's an interesting approach - are you using it to winnow out characters you've made or do you have to catch a new character all the way up if you make one?

A bit of both. I weed ones out and the last couple I did I only played them until I wanted to move on to a degree. One hit 41. Another hit 35 last night, and I'm still playing them. My newest one is 9, but that's partly on hold due to getting a build about 95% done in Mids. Once I'm happy with the build they will get a bigger push. It's mostly being intentional about which ones I make. 

[Andreah]

The travel pools have been changed and improved enough I think you should take pains to try each of them fully. And also a no-travel pools trial, as well. See how well you can do without any of them at all (hint: pretty darn well).

[Saiyajinzoningen]

welcome back, please stay awhile.

I separate my stable by pages

 

1st page, old reliable, can solo, team, fully kitted and ready to go

2nd page, fully kitted, not meta but fun, built for solo play

3rd page, fully kitted, not fun but playable if I'm really bored and need a change of pace

4th page, Recycle bin, fully kitted, obsolete, ready to be stripped

5th page, stripped of all inf, ios, costumes, names. storage banks

6th page, reserved names, potential ideas

 

the only cure for alt-itus is more alts 🙂 

[Shenanigunner]

46 minutes ago, Andreah said:

And also a no-travel pools trial, as well. See how well you can do without any of them at all (hint: pretty darn well).

 

I have yet to build a no-travel-powers alt (but then, I don't have alt-itis!), but yeah... with various collateral powers and a little shopping at P2W, formal travel powers are optional. Especially if you team a lot.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Look upon your alts and despair; there is no cure.

[High_Beam]

It's good to have plans.

[Spaghetti Betty]

 

You say I have a problem, I say have I only have 14.3% of a problem.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Spaghetti Betty

[Andreah]

18 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

 

You say I have a problem, I say have I only have 14.3% of a problem.

A streamer friend of mine is well over 500. :O 

[UltraAlt]

20 hours ago, Story Archer said:

Almost all have been made and most advanced to 20th at least - a few are still pending and a couple of the names haven't been checked, but the rest are all well on their way. Honestly, I'm not really sure why I even posted this - I'm just really excited to have it settled and looking forward to the adventure. 

 

Welcome, home!

 

Yes, embrace that altoholism! 

5 servers and 1000 characters per server ... and it isn't like you are limited to one account!

 

That's a good start. Enjoy the game your way.

I'm sure you will end up making more characters ... before too long ... /e plot

[Without_Pause]

20 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

I'm currently hovering around 40 on my main account. A thing I am doing is making sure everybody is at a certain level. Lets say 10. I get everybody to 10, or delete the character. I then go to level 20, 30, etc. I'm close to hitting the level 20 mark with only getting rid of one character so far. 

Actually down to 40. I honestly can't recall the first of three I got rid of so there's that. Axed DB/sr since I have three /sr characters already. One being Claws and I just find leveling and the experience smoother overall with Claws. I axed a Claws/nin simply because I already have at least 5 other Claws builds not counting my Fort.

[Ghost]

Welcome back!

[Enchantica]

OH! that Dark/Ice defender looks like a super fun combo. You have some pretty awesome names for your heroes as we🤠ll.

[JasperStone]

Welcome back!

 

I have been tackling Atl-itis by focusing on one monthly until I hit them all.

 

Get their build refined and IO'd out.

Incarnates done, in sometimes cases with options

Badges, accolades, etc.

[WumpusRat]

Alt-itis isn't something to be ashamed of. Embrace it.

 

My current project that I've been working on for the last 6 months or so has been my group of D&D/Pathfinder characters who were punted into Paragon. 

It's been a lot of fun coming up with builds for each class, and making sure I don't repeat any powersets, unless it's a slightly altered version of one of them (Sentinel Regen vs Scrapper regen, for instance). I was GOING to just make the "standard" 12 classes (barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, warlock, wizard), but along the way I kept finding more concepts and classes that would be a lot of fun to build in CoH. So now I've got a dozen more that I've leveled up. 

 

My rule I made for myself was that I had to get a character to 50, fully unlock all their incarnate abilities (just at tier-1, didn't need to get them all to tier-4) and fully kitted out before I'd let myself work on another character. Helped me figure out if I really wanted to stick with them, too. A bunch ended up getting abandoned in the 30's and 40's because the build just didn't feel right for that class, or it wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped. 

 

But it's definitely been fun. Especially coming up with their little quirks in the bio. I have a fairly standardized "here's how they got to Paragon" that is in every bio for them, and then their stat block. Alignment, stats (str, dex, con, int, wis, cha), race, class, etc. It's fun coming up with them all.

 

Once I'm done with the latest few I think I'll be "done" with the adventurers. Then I might start working on the group of elementals idea I had. All four main elements (air, earth, fire, water) and the quasi-elements (smoke, mire, lightning, ice). 

[American Decoy]

You are not alone:

 

(This is an old post of mine from live.)

You have Altitis, in the early stages.  You can seek treatment or enjoy having two accounts with all the slots full on 3 servers.  I always have a mid-level-what-ever-AT you are looking to fill you team.

 

1. The first step in recovery is admission.
2. Make a choice between fighting to be normal, OR enjoying your alts.
3. Delete all of your toons, OR indulge your wild side to be whoever you feel like at the moment.
4. Roll ONE well thought-out toon, OR roll a new alt to experiment with those new exciting power sets.
5. Invest all of your emotion in that one toon, talk about him until coworkers and family avoid eye contact with you, OR meet new players every day, even old ones will think you are new on your new secret alt.
6. Get in a support group, fun SG, or like-minded friends—PL Farmers are surprisingly supportive if you have transferred all of the influence from your alts before deleting them—OR see how many Super Groups you can be an active officer in at the same time—going on 5.
7. Set daily goals to achieve you end goal of 50, OR be flexible to switch alts to achieve the current team’s objective.
8. Grind away for experience points, OR find out what mission is lined up in that old toon.
9. Grind away some more—TFs, special story arcs, and large SG teams are good—OR dual box your two accounts.
10. Be a leader in Paragon City—run TFs and PuGs—OR be a leader and switch to secret alt when you screw up.
11. DING! Hit 50! OR DING times 50—no not a level 50, but most of your alts have advanced some.
12.  Now you have a 50, now what? Seek help from a higher power, OR ROLL AN NEW ALT!

Hmm, somehow it always works out to 12 steps, I wonder why?

 

[honoroit]

dont gamble either, thats 2 six sided dice.

 

we're so good at wiping history, its off kilter, but i sometimes wonder - was 6 fingers common, in the past, and bred or killed out then covered away? it'd not be humanity's first hurrah with genetic prunings.

 

we'd all be base 12, 'imperial', inches by feet, and so. and if you had that, youd be at an advantage to count, naturally.

 

today, its still at around 1/1000 births.

 

other species tend to have 5 digits in mammals, but really 5 fore, and 4 rear.  and so for 340 millionish years. we're told.

 

so why 1 in 1000, and why of that over 70% matched, and often not vestigal?

 

because jealous, and rare, and marked of giantism, or other such horror lullaby.

 

so murder, most horrid, and gene line exclusion. then we forget, dont write about it, its easy when there was no electronics.

 

maybe? probably. if humans are involved - hate, and murder, and bashing in of skulls often follows.

 

just be glad you dont have red hair.

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by honoroit

[pawstruck]

I always tell myself: The character creator is at least 50% of the game.

 

Sometimes I'll spend an hour making a character and never get it past level 4, but I still love it. I'll click on it briefly at the character select screen and think, "Heh. Yeah. Cool." ...and then promptly log in to another character. Ha! Maybe I'm weird, but I'm at peace with that.

 

The combat system is solid-if-outdated, people on teams are nice, and the "lore" of the game is pretty neat. But the truth of the matter is I've played Map #258 about a jillion times, clicked an uncountable number of glowies, and screenshotted myself on the Clockwork King's throne. The thing that keeps me booting up this game is the inspiration I randomly get for a character concept to match an odd power combo. Sometimes, even just imagining how Blackstar would synergize with Flash Arrow is enough to justify this entire game in my mind.

 

Ok... I'm weird. Sue me. 😅

[Techwright]

On 10/27/2023 at 8:37 AM, Andreah said:

A streamer friend of mine is well over 500. 😮

Only half-committed are they? 😉

[biostem]

It's good to have a stable of characters to switch between, in order to see which you most enjoy playing and to know what it's like for other ATs, while you're playing other characters.  That being said, I do think there's a difference between having dozens or hundreds of characters that you aren't really invested in, and those handful of characters you truly connect with and enjoy playing...

[Ael]

Embrace the alts! Don't ask how many I have. It might be 855... Then again, I am the literal reason we have the 1,000 character slots. XD Story time! On live, I ran two accounts, had bought almost every available slot on Justice, and every other server was full, otherwise with the base amount of slots available. A few years after shutdown, my spouse and I were invited to Secret, where, I believe there were something like 500 slots available. When they went to import my old toons, they paused. I had 730 between both accounts and they couldn't fit on my new one. So they raised the amount to 1,000, which then transferred to here, and there you go. XD