my dumbest challenge ever!

[ranagrande]

Even worse than that time I made a character who could only do damage with toggles!

 

I wanted a fun/painful new project in this game, so I looked through a bunch of other challenges people had posted and amalgamated them.  I am now doing all of the redside and blueside content at level, stopping experience frequently along the way, on a petless pool power-only mastermind that isn't allowed to buy anything.

 

I have currently completed the first (and easiest) step of this journey, everything up to level 4.

 

I have keenly felt the lack of P2W powers, especially athlethic/beast/ninja run and a jump pack when dealing with vertical challenges.  This was more of an issue on redside, but also a notable factor in one hero mission, in everyone's favorite layer cake cave.

 

There was only one mission I really struggled with so far, the one where you have to rescue Arachnos prisoners from Longbow.  I could not handle fighting more than one of the Longbow guys at a time, and often if I ran away after defeating one it would have already respawned by the time I got back, preventing the captives from ever being freed.  Eventually another villain showed up to do the same mission and I was able to mooch off their kills to complete it.  The counterpart blueside mission to defeat Arachnos Commanders was almost trivially easy.  I'm not sure if that's because the mission really is that much easier, or because I was rocking three DFB buffs by then, or both.

 

I've got a Thugs/Traps MM.  The only power I'll ever have from my secondary is caltrops.  I've been impressed by just how useful that power can be as a survival tool.  I am also a little worried that it will become much less relevant as I get more pool powers and become more melee-oriented.

 

Next stop, level 7!

[Clave Dark 5]

4 hours ago, ranagrande said:

on a petless pool power-only mastermind that isn't allowed to buy anything.

You're mad, mad I say!

[Luminara]

I played a Kin/Elec defender with only pool melee attacks back during I5/I6.  And no Damage enhancements.

 

Everything else was tolerable (survivability was so good that i could tank AVs and solo Adamastor (but it took almost half an hour)), but being Stunned, Slept and Held constantly was maddening.

 

Load up on Break Frees.

 

Good luck.

[Snarky]

7 hours ago, ranagrande said:

Even worse than that time I made a character who could only do damage with toggles!

 

I have a friend that made "Toggle Man"  Yes, only toggle powers.  period.  

[Techwright]

On 1/26/2024 at 5:35 PM, ranagrande said:

Even worse than that time I made a character who could only do damage with toggles!

 

 

I'm up too late and far too tired.  I read that line as "goggles" not "toggles", and was stunned for a moment.  😂

[Snarky]

10 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

I'm up too late and far too tired.  I read that line as "goggles" not "toggles", and was stunned for a moment.  😂

Goggle Man you say?

 

[wjrasmussen]

On 1/26/2024 at 10:17 PM, Snarky said:

I have a friend that made "Toggle Man"  Yes, only toggle powers.  period.  

You need to retell the story of Toggle Man!

 

Also, I just created a character named P2W Agent, who goes around using attacks from p2w.  It is expensive and currently not self sustaining.  Can't wait to six slot sprint though.

Edited January 28 by wjrasmussen

[ranagrande]

The second round is complete.  At level 7, I now have 59 badges and 142 merits.

 

I didn't mention it last time, but I took Stealth as first pool power at level 4.  It saves lots of time and makes outdoor travel much safer.  At level 6 I decided to solve my geometry problems by taking my first travel power, Super Jump.  So my attack chain was still just Pistols, Dual Wield, and Throwing Knives, with the occasional Caltrops and Brawl thrown in.  I'll start picking up more attacks and transitioning to melee soon.

 

Blueside was much, much more difficult than red this time around.  The first annoyance was a mission to hunt Vahzilok in King's Row.  You can get that mission starting as early as level 5, and most of the Vahzilok there are around level 12.  I did eventually find some 8s and 9s that let me complete it.

 

The Skulls/New Regulators arcs have some tough boss fights.  I was doing hit and run tactics against Chernabog, hitting one or two attacks and then running out of the mission to heal up.  After my third such re-entry, another mastermind with the same mission asked if I wanted to team up for it.  I'm not one to ask for help, but I won't turn it down when offered; this is a team game after all.  After that it was easy with two masterminds and two pets, both hers of course.

 

Veles I did solo with the hit and run technique.  I only had to enter the mission a dozen times.  I did have the timer run out while saving the guy afterwards, but as I mentioned in the other thread about timers, it didn't affect anything.  I was still able to complete the mission and I still got the badge for it.

 

The last thing I did on blueside was Frostfire.  He should have been much more difficult.  He was the first enemy to really stack mezzes, and my goto hit and run strategy wasn't working as well because he has higher regen.  I was beginning to think I might be in trouble.  But then Frostfire got stuck in the tree in the center of his room.  We didn't have line of sight, but if I jumped, I could shoot him.  And he could do nothing but run in place in his tree.  It felt like an exploit.  It felt like cheating.  But I won.

 

Redside was comparatively easy this time around.  The only difficult fight was 3k Kelvin, but I only had to re-enter that mission twice.  I had another mission that said I would need at least 4 villains to do, but the only hard part about that one was finding the target.

 

Now I get to double up with the most leveling I ever get to do at once.  Next stop, level 14!