What is your favorite story archs and other kinds of content others may not know about for leveling?

[StarseedWarrior]

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Topic!

[DougGraves]

The big secret is that there are great story arcs in AE.  The trouble can be finding them amidst the farms.

But if you have not gone through dev choice arcs in AE you are missing out.

 

I made 2 arcs for levels 1-9 for leveling with enemies you don't normally fight blue side

 

#41022  

#40915

[Greycat]

Or, generally search for SFMA in AE. (Story Focused Mission Arc.) Not all actual-story-MAs are tagged that way, of course.

 

I'll also point out that several of the - I'll call them "story zones" (Faultline, Croatoa ... I *believe* the Hollows as well) will give you some bonus merits for doing all of the arcs in the zone, for a bit of a mix of story and payoff.

[Oubliette_Red]

I always enjoyed helping out Mrs. Peebles out on Striga Island. I get to put the hurt on The Family, Sky Raiders and even some Council and manage to return her lost wedding band to her, with a nice parting gift as a reward.

 

[Biff Pow]

I like those three arcs Mercedes Sheldon gives out at level 20+. Freakshow, Family, and Warriors.

[UltraAlt]

10 hours ago, StarseedWarrior said:

Topic!

 

Origin contacts!

 

When they started funneling during the last years before the Sunset, they stopped directing new players to the Origin contacts in City Hall in Atlas. A lot of the Origin stuff is left out of the contact selection if you don't follow it and get the next Origin contact. An origin contact will give you two Origin contact choices part way through their arc that are not the same origin. At the last level or the level after their last contact level (for missions) they will/can offer you another origin contact of the same origin. If you use the wiki to check out contacts, it will list what origin they are if they have one.

 

You can solo a lot of the Hollows, but it more fun with a team.

Perez Park is great for street fighting with a team.

And I second running the Striga arcs.

Croatoa is fun as well.

Edited March 16 by UltraAlt

[Ukase]

So, I'm all about the lagniappe. Lagniappe is kind of like heading west and your 6pm is suddenly 5pm and you get an extra hour. A little extra through no extra effort on your part. 

Faultline, Striga, Croatoa and RWZ each offer us all some lagniappe reward merits. Do each of the arcs in those zones and you get a bonus 20 reward merits. 

I like the first two arcs in Faultline; they're short. Nothing overly complicated. The third isn't too bad either. Not a fan of the 4th one, simply because of the map locations. They're way in the back of Faultline. It's an area where if you're not going for a badge, or doing this arc, you're not likely to ever go back there. For me, the best mission of all these arcs is rescuing Yin's father. The spacing of the npcs is perfect for me. I can kill everything, or just rescue papa Yin and escort him back, as long as I have a break free to make sure I don't get held. 

Striga...well, Peeble's arc is lengthy, relatively, but I like the temp power. Worth it. Long Jack's arc is quick; but Tobias Hansen has a great arc for the vamp badge. If I'm not up for the commitment of a Moonfire, this is the arc I'll do. 

The Croatoa arcs are great - but they each seem to insist you defeat npcs in a specific area, and they are often not in that area. I have to teleport them into the neighborhood to complete the mission. Very annoying. Or maybe I just haven't figured out the obvious place they hang out. But, other then the defeat X missions, they're all fairly short. 

I love to prevent the fir bolg from exiting the portal. It's one of my favorites! My ranged characters fare much better than my melee, for sure. 
I also like Buck Salinger's final mission. Thankfully, it's timed. I'd probably like it better with a 5:00 timer instead of 15:00, but it's still interesting to me. 

And, there's a fair bit of lagniappe in RWZ; the Vanguard merits I get won't stand out as any kind of great loot, but it doesn't hurt. Some of the Renegade Vanguards in Guassian's arc...those do hurt. Still, the arcs are pretty good. I don't really like clobbering Rikti, or I'd like them more, but they're a welcome reprieve from Tina Mac and Maria Jenkins. 

But, I think the best arcs are the SSAs. They're all short and rewarding, if you don't repeat them too soon. 

Edited March 16 by Ukase

[DougGraves]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

The Croatoa arcs are great - but they each seem to insist you defeat npcs in a specific area, and they are often not in that area. I have to teleport them into the neighborhood to complete the mission. Very annoying. Or maybe I just haven't figured out the obvious place they hang out. But, other then the defeat X missions, they're all fairly short. 

 

It's really just the hunts in the woods on the east side of the map that ask for the enemies in the wrong area.  Like you, I find enemies on the edge of the area and drag them in.

 

It reminds me of an event in Guild Wars 2 in the starting zone for the Norn.  You are guarding a tower and have to defeat a certain amount of enemies.  The enemies spawn, but they spawn a bit out of the area where killing them counts for the event.  And of course players camp where the enemies spawn and kill them immediately.  The event can be endless because none of the kills count and the players don't realize they are the problem.

[Uun]

Rogue contacts Bobby Curtin (25-29) in Nerva and Sgt. Schorr (30-40) in St. Martial

Hard Luck (30-34) in St. Martial

Mr. G (30-50) in St. Martial

Johnny Sonata (35-39) in St. Martial

Ambassador Kuhr'Rekt (40-44) in Grandville

Television (45-50) in Grandville

[Ukase]

6 minutes ago, Uun said:

Rogue contacts Bobby Curtin (25-29) in Nerva and Sgt. Schorr (30-40) in St. Martial

Hard Luck (30-34) in St. Martial

Mr. G (30-50) in St. Martial

Johnny Sonata (35-39) in St. Martial

Ambassador Kuhr'Rekt (40-44) in Grandville

Television (45-50) in Grandville

I can concur with Mr. G! Forgot about his stuff. I appreciate the reminder. I was looking for something to do with my new fire/dark corr, too! 

 

 

 

[Uun]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

I can concur with Mr. G! Forgot about his stuff. I appreciate the reminder. I was looking for something to do with my new fire/dark corr, too! 

You should have a tip "Inside Information" that introduces you to him.

[Herotu]

For levelling I often go with my favourites:

Matthew Habashy

Sondra Costel

Twinshot (yes, I do like the whole arc)

Aaron Thierry (if possible)

Habashy again, if I can - it's all squished in at these low levels, and easy to out-level stuff

Laura Lockhart - Steel Canyon (and the "secret not secret" Ouroboros follow up)

Field Agent Keith Nance - Talos

Ray Cooling - Talos - Good luck with the burning building one, there's a very, very hard badge in there.

All the Faultline arcs from Jim Temblor onwards

Montague Castanella - Steel Canyon

 

I get a bit lost after this because very few characters get through them all.

Edited March 17 by Herotu

[WumpusRat]

Laura Lockhart's mission was honestly the first one I can remember doing in CoH and being honestly angry at what happened to her. You don't get much real interaction with her, but she definitely made an impact. 

 

Though my favorite contact will always be Dean McArthur. D-Mac cemented himself as my favorite the first time I ran into him back on live when he high-fives you after a mission, and how he seems to honestly respect you. He may be a cheesy flirt if you're female, but he knows what you're capable of, and he's doing his level best to help you out.

 

There aren't many contacts that even my most hardened villain characters would lift a finger for, but if someone said "Hey, you know that D-Mac guy? Some vigilante guy kidnapped him..." that poor vigilante would get the beating of a lifetime. Probably from quite a few red-siders.

[Herotu]

10 hours ago, WumpusRat said:

Though my favorite contact will always be Dean McArthur. D-Mac cemented himself as my favorite the first time I ran into him back on live when he high-fives you after a mission, and how he seems to honestly respect you. He may be a cheesy flirt if you're female, but he knows what you're capable of, and he's doing his level best to help you out.

 

There aren't many contacts that even my most hardened villain characters would lift a finger for, but if someone said "Hey, you know that D-Mac guy? Some vigilante guy kidnapped him..." that poor vigilante would get the beating of a lifetime. Probably from quite a few red-siders.

I admit it. I am in envy of him having such a sartorially elegant cravat.

[Grouchybeast]

On 3/17/2024 at 3:22 AM, WumpusRat said:

Laura Lockhart's mission was honestly the first one I can remember doing in CoH and being honestly angry at what happened to her. You don't get much real interaction with her, but she definitely made an impact. 

 

Trying not to be spoilery...have you done the replays of her arc in Ouro? 

 

Laura Lockhart's arc was everything that I'd always wanted from Ouro, which always felt like it had so much potential as a concept, and I really hope that the HC will eventually follow up on that and do the same kind of thing with other arcs.

[WumpusRat]

1 hour ago, Grouchybeast said:

 

Trying not to be spoilery...have you done the replays of her arc in Ouro? 

 

Laura Lockhart's arc was everything that I'd always wanted from Ouro, which always felt like it had so much potential as a concept, and I really hope that the HC will eventually follow up on that and do the same kind of thing with other arcs.

Yeah, I've done the Ouro version of it too. I agree, it's very well done.

[rolandgrey]

For leveling?  I don't think any of them are particularly great for leveling.  However, if you're looking for late-game resources, To Save a Thousand Worlds pits you against a lot of varied enemies over a great many large missions, so that's good for grinding XP and getting what you need to largely kit out your character without much market scrounging.  The story is bland, though, and ends weirdly and abruptly (an Alternate Requiem is apparently somehow tearing apart other dimensions for "reasons" that go unexplained).

 

As for arcs I love to play?  Doc Buzzsaw's stuff is always a blast, even the original Paragon arcs have some nifty varied enemies and we get the first inklings of how wild the Freakshow can get.  For quick breeze-through, practically anything featuring most of the "military type" enemies, such as the Council, 5th Column, Sky Raiders or Nemesis.  Sure, they've got their quirks, but those quirks are usually a lot more manageable than the things the Devouring Earth or "magic type" enemies will throw at you.  However, there is also the Terra Conspiracy in 35-40, which caps off with an AV fight and a few spawning pods that are worth a LOT of XP.

 

There's not much on Redside that compares.  Granted, there are a lot of AV fights you can find, especially in the 30-40 range, and the writing is a lot better (with stories that are a lot more involved than Blueside's approach of largely bland "Go here, beat up a bunch of guys" for 7-10 missions; though even Blueside's comparable short arcs yield more Merits than ANY of Redside's arcs, which is something that continues to irk me and defies the "the rewards are assigned by arc length!" argument).  I would recommend Technician Naylor for 35-40 play.  His arcs have some interesting aspects, a bit of paranoia that's pretty well implemented and a funny bit here and there if you pay attention to dialogue and mission text.  For 45-50 content, Vernon Von Grunn and Television are just hilarious, and 40-45, you at least have to go through Westin Phipps's arcs at least once (if only to fight the Civic Squad; try to get a good team to fight all eight!).

[Mister Mass]

Lots of good stuff mentioned already, so I'll just add the Night Ward arcs.  The atmosphere is amazing, including a very Grant Morrison Doom Patrol afterlife vibe, sentient spells, a knight contact to whom your character's response is always "the quest goes on", a version of Malaise that is almost sympathetic, & an ancient Mesopotamian divine couple with some serious relationship issues.  The story arc is epic! 😎

Edited March 18 by Mister Mass

[Black Talon]

Best of the lot, stretching from CoH's origin days, is the Countess Crey arc, mid-40s.  When my main alt went through this one for the first time (back in '05), I was so damn impressed I sent off a congratulatory e-mail to the Devs.  Being turned into a pariah at the hands of a corporate predator who deserves the chair or lethal injection for what she's done - murder-one, identity theft and crippling your husband being the absolute least of it - make this an arc that I'm delighted to have every alt, before and now, have their turn at running through.  Always thought it was a shame that the police aren't the ones hunting your character down during this, or that other players couldn't receive a "wanted" notice that put your alt on the PvP smackdown list for.

 

The Striga Isle and Faultline arcs are top-rate as well; never miss a chance to run those gamuts through when the 20+ or 17+ level (respectively) are reached.

[Nutation]

On 3/16/2024 at 8:22 PM, WumpusRat said:

Though my favorite contact will always be Dean McArthur. D-Mac cemented himself as my favorite the first time I ran into him back on live when he high-fives you after a mission, and how he seems to honestly respect you. He may be a cheesy flirt if you're female, but he knows what you're capable of, and he's doing his level best to help you out.

 

Dean MacArthur and the follow-up contact Leonard give one of my favorite combined arcs for being a villain in charge.

I also like Brother Hammond's arc (15-24 Cap au Diable) for the same reason. The player character is the instigator and not a stooge.

[ZorkNemesis]

I always see shouts for scanner missions, but never tips.  Alignment tips are some of my favorite content because they have their own mini narratives and feel much more organic than just listening to the police radio or reading a newspaper, plus you get a bunch of merits for the 11th one! And they mostly accomplish the same goal as scanners/papers if you don't just blitz the objectives.

 

Honestly, please add more alignment tips!  10 per level range isn't enough.

 

Edited March 18 by ZorkNemesis

[DoctorDitko]

I agree on alignment tips!

What I like is the deliberate attempts to making them different from run-of-the-mill missions.

Sometimes you start a map at an unusual place, or the goals will be offbeat. Good stuff!

[Worm_Kalpa]

There are a lot of story arcs out there that have nice plots and make soloing pleasant.  All three of the 'seemingly inanimate object' contacts on redside are pretty good.

 

Television was mentioned before and it really has a lot of funny mission text and neat story arcs.  Your character being unsure if they were just hearing things or if a TV set in the slums and not plugged into anything is communicating to them through movies and shows. 

 

Radio is a low-level contact with a similar vibe.  Its mission text is more high-energy than weird, which fits for a radio DJ and trying to be the N-th caller to win something.  The Valentine's tip mission that brings in Internet is cool.

 

Slot Machine is an unlockable mid-level contact and its second story arc is simple but nice.  Helping a down-on-his-luck washed-up villain could be a rogue alignment mission.  I like having the contrast between more serious and/or evil contacts like Westin Phipps versus the 'honor among thieves' meets PG-rated bad guy stuff.

[Snarky]

I am not sure of the experience matchup, but Redside is the best storytelling imo.  

Kalinda, to Mongoose

Oper Kuzmin, Fire wire, Lt Harris

Mr Bocor to Radio

Dr Percy to Marshall Brass to Oper Wellman.  

Then on to Sharkhead at 20

those are fun, rough and tumble learn the ropes of arachnos and life in rogue isles arcs.  the Radio is epic.  

[Marshal_General]

Nothing really makes you feel bad for the villains like Oh Wretched Man.