Powerlessness

Okay, so, when the job search is going more poorly than expected...when the wife cannot get a moment's sleep and still works all day...when the finances dangerously approach the zero mark... when the baby looks at you with tears in her eyes, it's kind of hard to feel heroic, even through escapism. Well, if you think that's a bummer of a feeling regularly, try waking up to just that reality after having had a lengthy dream about ice blasting illegal u-turners with my fists. Ugh! If only that were a job on Monster.
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Double XP Weekend Feb 8th!

Villains, prepare to plot your take over of the world in double time! Heroes, clean the streets of scum twice as fast! The ever popular Double XP weekend returns! Starting on Friday, February 8th following our weekly maintenance period, all defeat rewards, including experience, prestige and influence or infamy will be doubled! This will continue through the weekend and conclude the night of Sunday, February 10th.To discuss this announcement, join us here.
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Server Upgrades

Link to the thread on the Forums here.

According to the Forums, NCSoft is upgrading their server hardware in a series of cascading down-times across servers this week. Goal is to offer better performance and reduced lag for the upcoming (newly announced) double XP weekend, Valentines Day, real combat numbers, and "XP Curve Smoothing" (whatever that means). Looks like Triumph is being upgraded this Wednesday, so we should be OK for Tight Night on Thursday.

Sounds exciting to me, and I like that they are re-investing in the game like this. Lately I've been running into a bunch of new players online, so maybe this is a sign of a healthy business cash flow for NCSoft. That bodes well for the future of the game.
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Reptilor on Triumph

Well, as a change of pace I generated a new "teaming" character to fool around with on Triumph. I re-used the name Reptilor from Freedom, but with a decidely different twist.

The "new" Reptilor is a Kinetics/Electrical Blast Defender. He's all duded up in a tuxedo with a scarlet vest and matching bow tie. His body is slim for a neat tailored effect, but his skin is green reptilian with a matching smooth reptilian face with dull red eyes. He also sports a small beard to accent his mouthless face. Capping it all off is a black and gold Youjin headband with matching gold crystal crown and vampire ears. Overall, the effect is exotically formal and yet arcane at the same time. Which was exactly what I was going for with his Magic origin. The little light RP I throw in has him as a bit formal with an extensive vocabulary and some dry humor.



This is my first exposure to Kinetics, and frankly, I'm impressed and underwhelmed at the same time. Some of the base powers are absolutely great for teams. Transfusion is a targeted AoE heal centered around the enemy you hit. You need to hit to use it, but it's a STRONG heal. Siphon Power is also great, as it debuffs target damage by 25% and raises team damage (for everyone) by the same 25%. Coupled with Assault that I have running (18.75% damage buff), the team is routinely running with just shy of a 44% damage boost. It's significant and turns Tanks into damage dealers and Scrappers and Blasters just go nuts. Aside from those and the coming "big powers", SpeedBoost, Transference, and Fulcrum Shift... Well, I'm a little underwhelmed.

The set has two powers that are basically ghetto travel power replacement: Siphon Speed (aka SuperSpeed Lite) and Inertial Reduction (aka SuperJump Lite). Increase Density is a nice buff, but is really short so you have to constantly re-apply it. And Repel... Well, Repel is just crap, IMHO. That means out of your 9 powers, 3 are gimp, 1 is "meh", and 5 are good. The flip side of this is that since the "big 5" are so good, it gives some room to dip into the leadership pool without gimping your attacks completely.

Reptilor is now Level 9 and a potent force on the teams he invariably forms. Being a weak soloer, forming a team is the easiest way for him to get that XP bar moving. At Level 9, he's got Transfusion and Siphon Power slotted up. Attacks are Charged Bolt and Lightning Bolt for a 1-2 single target attack chain. I've held off on getting Ball Lightning since I don't want the aggro it generates until I get a bit higher. Pool powers are Combat Jumping and Assault so far. CJ provides some extra mobility and immobilization protection, which is good because I need to keep moving to keep my heals in-range of the team. Future power selections under consideration are Hasten at Level 1o, Speed Boost at Level 12, SuperSpeed (or SuperJump) at Level 14, Swift at Level 16, Health at Level 18, Stamina at Level 20, Ball Lightning at Level 22, Tactics at Level 24, Transference at Level 26, and Tesla Cage at Level 28... And so on.

I decided to go with Electrical Blast as a secondary because of the nice range and 30% chance for endurance return on the attacks. Currently I can spam both attacks and buffs non-stop without completely draining my Endurance bar. Once I grab Stamina and have Hasten running on auto, the secondary should give me margin to really go nuts with the primary. I'm designing the build to be essentially an offense magnifier for the team with stacking damage buffs, enemy debuffs, and better to-hits (Tactics).

The build is still developing, and I'm sure it will change as I get deeper into the power combination. That said, the character hook and the offensive nature of the Defender (a bit of an Oxymoron there, I know) make for a very interesting experience. We'll have to see how he develops. Oh, and Troy was able to invite him into the SG, so he's out racking up Prestige as well. Good times...
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Great Tight Night!

Just had to say it. I had a great time on Thursday. Having Troy playing as ColdFusion made a big difference in the team dynamic. It's also nice to see our characters rounding out as they go up in level. We are getting a nice mix of control and damage going, too. Mr. Eclipse is dealing some nice holds now and Radiation Infection is a noticeable debuff. Cadabra is doing some nice damage now and that Touch of Fear power is proving very useful. Having a Tank is also a nice touch, as ColdFusion is adding some aggro control that's going to be useful and keep Cadabra out of the hot-seat for a portion of the fight. Watching Cadabra and ColdFusion go to work was great.

On top of that, the post-respec Galvanic Guardian is a damage machine now. I'm seeing a side-effect of the Electrical attacks is that they have a chance of returning about 1/2 the endurance cost for the power when it hits. This helps his blue bar a lot in sustained fights. It also is useful because when Hasten is up (which it is a fair amount of the time), he has a non-stop attack chain between Charged Bolts, Lightning Bolt, and Ball Lightning. Zapp is nice for pulling and as a filler when other stuff is recharging, but the long animation time and fact it can be interrupted makes it used a bit less than other attacks once we get rolling. The new Defiance really favors a fast attack chain, and being able to 2-shot minions with a fast 1-2 attack chain is great. It's a BIG change of pace to sit back and just plink away, but the ability to watch the fight unfold and select targets accordingly is really neat.

I'm really looking forward to us hitting Level 15 on the characters, as that will open up Faultline and it's mission arcs to us. Lots of neat missions there with AVs and some great story-lines. Also, it has a selection of enemies that will be easier for us to handle. Vahz (that we fought a lot of early on) just utterly and completely suck. They do a lot of toxic damage that just about nobody resists, and the Reapers and Mortifactors have that dart attack with a big -Recharge effect to it. And that cleaver HURTS when it connects. And the Eildolon are plain nasty as well with the debuffs and stuns. Easy to see why people dislike them. We actually did very well considering the hordes we faced. In Fauline, you fight some Vhaz, but mostly Lost (who deal a lot of Smashing/Lethal that Ice Tanks have strong defense against) and some Arachnos (again, Ice Tanks do pretty well). As long as we don't get overwhelmed with too many opponents, we should be good there.

That brings me to another assessment of the team's development. We are going to be most effective vs fewer but stronger opponents. Cadabra has some great attacks, but the one AoE is only a short cone with Shadow Maul (discounting Death Shroud). ColdFusion will pick up Whirling Hands and Icicles (maybe), but neither are "knock your socks off" AoEs. Mr. Eclipse has some nice control elements and group effects, but AoEs aren't his thing either really. And Galvanic Guardian has Ball Lightning and Short Circuit (melee PbAoE), but again, neither are "uber" AoEs. What our foursome does have is some great single-target capability. That means that we'll do much better against say 6 +1 con enemies than we will 9 even-con ones. I was pulling missions one up from Heroic to get more enemies. Next time I'll bump it up one more for less enemies, but harder ones. Should suit our group much better and make missions smoother.

Anyway, all said, Thursday was a hoot. We are all finding our groove and it's going to be nice to watch our prowess grow as we level and our characters flesh out more. Good stuff. Really good stuff.

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Ideas for GG's Licit Loot

So The Galvanic Guardian has almost 19M sitting around from my limited time market experiment (or "Millions on 5 minutes a day!"). Lord knows I don't need it for anything...

I was thinking about a signature gift for each of the characters in our SuperGroup (Cadabra, Mr. Eclipse, etc.) Some of the ideas were: (see below)

Steadfast Protection -Knockback IO (Damage Resistance powers)
Steadfast Protection Resistance/+ 3% Defense IO (Damage Resistance powers)
Karma -Knockback IO (Defense powers, like Combat Jumping for instance)
Kismet +5% Accuracy IO (Defense powers, like Combat Jumping for instance)
Costume Recipe (wings, boots, etc.)
Impervious Skin 30% Mez Resist IO (Damage Resistance powers)
Celerity +Stealth IO (Sprint or SuperSpeed)

It would be a little token and improve quality of life for our characters a bit while we play without significantly imbalancing anything. What got me thinking about this is that Rob's Scrapper is going to have no knockdown protection for a long time. A single -KB IO would greatly improve his play experience without really impacting his character...

Thoughts?
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Plan for 01/17/08 Tight Night...?

OK gang, what's the plan? I'd like to get on the Incredible Squad for Thursday if at all possible.

The Galvanic Guardian is all respec'd now and his ranged-heavy build appears to be working well. I tested it on a few spawns in Steel Canyon, and it seems effective. The addition of the high-damage sniper attack Zapp! is showing some real merit. It has a crazy range, so I think I will be able to snipe at range now with much greater effect. I still want to pick up more of the melee attacks, but I pushed the ranged stuff forward in the build to complement our new tactical evolution that we are developing.

Let me know who's in and what (if any) issues folks have. Cheers!
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Respec for The Galvanic Guardian?

OK, here's the deal. I've been reading the forums and looking at how the new Blaster Defiance works. Based on the info, for every ranged attack you land, it provides a short duration 12.5% damage boost for your attacks. With a fast attack chain you can stack it to a certain degree. It also only applies to ranged attacks, and I *think* single target ones at that.

Considering the way our little quartet is shaping up, I am very tempted to respec GG into a more ranged-intensive Blaster as opposed to the mixed Blapper/Blaster I had envisioned. Partly this is because when I stay at range and blast away, it seems to be way more effective than when I charge in. Survival-wise it's also better for me.

The way our fights seem to be shaping up, we tend to have Cadabra charge in. As he does that, Mr. Eclipse lays down the holds/mez's on the group Cadabra is heading at. Once Cadabra starts throwing down, the rest of us alternate between his targets and any that are charging us in the back row. Past that, it becomes something of a melee.

As we get up in level, I would likely pick up more of the secondary powers, mostly since their damage is VERY high and they have some nice stun/knockback effects. This will also be easier once Troy gains access to Dwarf form on his Peacebringer.

Build I was considering looks something like this...

+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: The Galvanic Guardian
Level: 21
Archetype: Blaster
Primary: Electrical Blast
Secondary: Electricity Manipulation
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Electric Fence ==> Empty(1)
01 => Charged Bolts ==> Empty(1),Empty(3),Empty(9)
02 => Lightning Bolt ==> Empty(2),Empty(3),Empty(9)
04 => Ball Lightning ==> Empty(4),Empty(5),Empty(5),Empty(11),Empty(11),Empty(13)
06 => Hasten ==> Empty(6),Empty(7),Empty(7)
08 => Short Circuit ==> Empty(8),Empty(15),Empty(15),Empty(19)
10 => Combat Jumping ==> Empty(10)
12 => Zapp ==> Empty(12),Empty(13),Empty(19)
14 => Super Speed ==> Empty(14)
16 => Swift ==> Empty(16)
18 => Health ==> Empty(18)
20 => Stamina ==> Empty(20),Empty(21),Empty(21)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)

Thoughts?
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JerkHacking

Just... Read it.

This is how it start's jerk hacking (dupin)

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And now for something completely different...

Had an idea for something new and very different for our CoH team. Stay with me here:

Lowbie arena night.

Yep. Low-level PVP action in the arena, either 1-v-1, free for all, or teams of 2-on-2.
Thought process is that it takes next to no time (a couple hours at most) to level a new character up to Security Level 4 or so. We could give people 2 weeks or so to get the character together (I know Rob's time limited in particular). Rules in place for the match(s) would be no inspirations and no temp powers. Troy could probably "ed-u-macate" us on the how-to's of the Arena (I've never done it). Trick of this would be for each of us not to know what the other people's characters are. I could fill the base Enhancement Table with whatever IOs/TO enhancements people want so there's no money concern. People would send me a list or I could just plop some high level enhancements there that you could grab and sell for the needed funding (thought it might be easier for me to do the buying, save everybody the in-game time).

Night of the event, we all log our "secret" PVP characters and head to the arena to see who's top dog.

Sound interesting? We could also do PVP Villain characters too (even more of a departure)...
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Musings

Much as that very old and very long email I'd sent out about things I think should be added to the COH game, anticipation as to the surprises that await players in D&D 4.0 this coming 2Q 2008 has made me think a little further. While we played the other night, I couldn't help shake the desire for metapowers, like metamagic in D&D.



Sure, I don't think a direct thieving of the D&D system is in order, though a maximize range or maximize power might come in handy on the Shadow Shard. Yet, the thought of gaining a temp metapower that allowed, say, two of my existing powers to be fired exactly at once was a little pipe dream I couldn't shake. The combinations could be infinite, but more importantly, they would be another functional chance at further individuating our toons beyond expansive slotting. Just thinking.

Then the mental list began:

1) Temp metapower allowing two powers to manifest simultaneously

2) Rogue-like temp power to absorb the powers of those around you

3) Temp power that shows the map location of any enemy type you are hunting

4) Temp metapower that makes one other temp power permanent.

5) Animation flourishes on the final blow of a battle.

6) A standing X-ray machine with large display panel in the hospital

7) Outer space missions.

8) A wall of fame in the Pocket D tiki lounge

9) A temp metapower that allows existing powers to fire off in sequence without cheating at keybinds, but that is interruptable.

10) A temp metapower that gives you a special toggle that doesn't target your next enemy, doesn't target your next friend, but target's the NPCs that have aggroed your teammates only from strongest to weakest.

11) A temp metapower that matches your profit on a market sale, doubling your influence as a great trader.

12) A temp metapower (flourish really) that uses any power with a bright flash to temporarily burn the shadows of those in the fight onto the surrounding environment.

13) A temp power that reflects NPC powers of a certain type back onto the NPC who manifested them.

14) A temp metpower that allows our team to view a camera panning instant replay of the last battle with all names and brackets turned off as in a film

15) A temp metapower that allows visible power manifestations to change colors while in battle

16) A metapower that can customize an aura

17) A temp metapower that allows you to try a fantasy power slotting without a full respec or the actual enhancements

18) A temp power AOE that mixes up everybody else's keybinds while in range.

19) A temp power that allows you to change one other hero's status, temporarily to villain.

20) A temp metapower that allows an "Uncle Istvan" affect. (Deflects all your damage to another friendly on the team.)

21) A temp power that quotes interesting and powerful lines from the U.S. Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, The Pledge of Allegiance, and other meaningful moments in U.S. speeches every fifth manifestation or so as you pound on baddies.

22) A temp metapower that allows you to choose a favored enemy for more damage on that gang.

23) A temp metapower that doubles the effect of the power of your choice.

24) A temp metapower that allows your nova, health, and end' to fully recharge immediately after expending it once.

25) A temp metapower that allows one power to keep being used after end' reaches zero.

26) A temp metapower that allows you up to 12 teammates on a TF.

27) A temp power for PVP villains that automatically sends a multiple angle screenshots of a hero's death to the email associated with the hero's account.

28) A temp metapower that allows a blaster's blast to go straight through the first NPC target, eviscerating it, to do normal damage on the target just behind him.

29) An anti-grav temp AOE power that causes all NPC foes to hover at slowest speeds

30) A temp metapower that offers a menu of death animations for NPCs to be applied to your existing powers. Hence, when you deal the death blow a foe bursts into ashes or burns or gets quartered or crumbles into tiny pieces of ice or changes to a permanent statue, etc.


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Ater Custos in Action (video)

This is an example of Ater's combat style that I wrote to Rob about. I used the RWZ since the spawns there are sizable and Ritki have somewhat typical AI response to melee and ranged combat threats.
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Greg's Quick Guide to Working the Consignment Market

OK, so you're a brand new hero. No influence to use to power-up and play with the big boys? Look no further. Here's a quick guide to affording those "special" recipes and enhancement that you are sure would make you more Super than you already are.

Step 1: Starting Fresh

OK, you just stepped out of the Outbreak zone and you're wondering what to do now? It's actually easy. Hit your first contact, get a mission, and hit the streets. Here's the most important part: SAVE those two big inspirations from the tutorial. Once you have a pocketful of influence from defeating lower level foes, Sprint on over to the Consignment market. Post the "Big Red" Inspiration first. Lowball your sell price at 5 influence or so. It should sell immediately. Get the influence from the sale and then post the "Big Green". Post either at 5 influence, or use your current funds to cover the listing fee of 5% and list it for higher. When it sells, you should have between 5K-10K worth of influence. Plenty to buy inspirations and Training Enhancements from contact(s) or the Field Trainers.

Step 2: Salvage Enters the Picture

Any character can solo easily at low levels. Atlas Park is best "startup zone" for this, I'll hit on why in a moment. As you defeat enemies, etc. you'll get more and more powerful. Around level 5, foes start dropping salvage when you defeat them. Here's the kicker. Hellions drop Arcane salvage. Clockwork drop a mix of Arcane/Tech salvage. Vahzilok and Skulls drop Tech. Don't fight Vahz or Skulls if you can help it. The Tier 1 Arcane salvage is worth a lot (Luck Charms sell for 25K each). Just play as normal, sell all salvage you get at the consignment house. Post at 5 influence just to be sure you don't lose money. If it doesn't sell immediately, don't sweat it. Go do something else. Keep doing this as you level and after buying TO enhancements you should have about 20K or so left over by Level 8-10.

Step 3: Starting to Work the Market

Head over to King's Row. You'll be going there anyway to run Safeguard missions for the temp travel powers. When you have a spare 5 minutes or so, head over to the consignment house. Here's the start of your market journey to riches. Identify common Tech salvage (under the auction menu Salvage -> Invention) that shows White in the list. Ones I like to focus on are Hydraulic Pistons, Circuit Boards, Kinetic Weapons, Silver, and Ceramic Armor Plate. Put in bids at the max of 10 items (sliding the circle on the bar below the bid entry field to increase the quantity to 10) at 5 influence each. Fill all of your bid slots on the auction house with these 10 piece salvage bids. Quick and easy. Wait a couple minutes (get soda, go streetsweeping, whatever) and check the auction house. There should be a BUNCH of salvage you have bought. Get it off the consignment house and head straight over across the parking lot to the area where Blue Steel is (less than 100 yards). Sell all that salvage you bought.

With roughly 30 salvage slots on your character, buying at 5 influence and selling at 250 nets you a profit of 7,350 influence per run. Your first time doing this, you can probably make 3-5 back-to-back runs, placing new bids as the old ones are filled. That's about 25K influence in 5 minutes with virtually no startup capital required to make it work. It's also easy. Place the bids before logging off. When you log in, you're still at the auction house, so just grab the salvage you bought while you were logged off and then sell it. In a couple nights/sessions of 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there, you can amass a goodly amount of influence.

Step 4: Crafting for Profit

When you have about 150K in your pocket from buying/selling salvage, you are ready for the next step. Buy recipes and sell the crafted enhancements. I like to start with Thunderstrike IO recipes. They are common drops, have great set bonuses, and offer good enhancements (out of the 6 set Ios, 3 of them are triple enhancement bonuses), making them desirable. The enhancements also sell for reasonable prices, making them attractive to higher level players who don't mind paying for the convenience of not having to mess with the crafting system.

As to the mechanics of this, go to Recipes and select the Ranged Damage sets. From there select the Thunderstrike group. At the top of the auction window, just to the left of center, there is a drop down menu to screen the auctions that should say "For Sale and Bidding". Change that to "For Sale Only". That will only show what's available at the market. Now cruise down through the list, opening up each recipe as you go, level by level and checking it out. Start with Acc/Dmg/End and then move to Acc/Dmg/Rech and then Dmg/End/Rech. Those are the three most popular for people buying. Now cruise through the recipes, avoiding the L50 recipes (they cost twice as much to craft, ~490K influence). You are looking for ones that have recipes for sale but have zero (0) bids against them. These are the opportunities. Place "lowball" bids of 10K against one and wait a few seconds. Usually nothing will happen and the bid window will update to show items for sale and 1 bid now (yours) outstanding. When this happens, cancel your bid. You get the money back, so no loss. Continue doing this, sequentially placing bids for the opportune recipes. Since some people sell recipes low to get more influence (listing fee is less), you can snag some great bargains. This morning I grabbed 2 for 10K in less than 5 minutes. Usually it takes me about 10 to look over the list and cycle bids. It goes fast once you are used to it.

Once you get a recipe at that great price, look at the salvage required. Should be 2 commons and 1 uncommon to craft. Buy those items, don't worry about scrimping on cost, I generally pay "market rate" of 250 for commons and 1-3K for the uncommon. With salvage in hand, be sure you have enough influence to craft the IO and then some left over (~30K or so) to cover the listing fee later on. Head over to the plaza with Blue Steel and take the doors behind him to the roof. From there, hit the SG Base portal and head to the crafting station next to the vault. Craft the IO and then head back to the consignment market. List it there for as much as you can cover with your remaining funds, up to a max of 85% the lowest last listing price for the IO (you can see this in the bid history window for the item). Most Thunderstrike IOs sell for around 1M-1.5M, so this is a great way to get you rolling on the way to funding IO sets and other expenses. Note it may take a day or a week to sell that IO, but when it does, you have enough to bankroll your upgrade plans for quite a while.

Step 5: Expanding the Operation

This next step is really not required for anyone. It's largely a "for fun" exercise and may be used to try and afford those "Uber" IO sets and Unique IOs that are tickling your fancy. With Ater Custos, I started at step 5 with just a hair over 5M influence. At the end of a week and a half (once a day or so for about 15 minutes), I had (discounting the purple IO I sold for 15M) turned a 23M profit. And that's discounting the roughly 6M worth of items up for sale or roughly 1.5M worth of outstanding bids.

Here's the approach I took (and I am sure there are others). Apply the methodology in Step 4 on a broader scale. Start with 2 IO sets: Thunderstrike and Crushing Impact. Both are sought-after sets with great IO set bonuses and solid enhancement benefits. Crushing Impact is actually the hottest ticket item here, so tackle that one first. Skim the list of IO recipes for the Crushing Impact set the way you did previously, identifying the "opportunities" that have few (less than 10) or no (rare to see this) bids. For the opportunities, place standing bids of 300K at a QTY of 2 per bid slot. Continue this for as much as you can afford. Now, you can also "mix it up" by then using the methodology for Step 4 (getting those 10K gems) and then going back and placing standing bids of 100K at a QTY of 2 per bid slot for the Thunderstrikes to round out your market coverage. This is essentially setting your nets to see what swims in. You can now log off and check your bid status daily/whenever. 15 minutes is all you need to crunch this out.

Once you have snared some recipes, buy the salvage to craft them just like in Step 4. When I place the IOs up for auction, I try to find a "reasonable" price and list it slightly lower. For example, if a Thunderstrike is listing for between 1M and 1.5M, I would probably list it for 910K. Posting lower than your competitors is essential, since the market awards the sale based on lowest posting price (910k would win the sale over a competitor posting at 1M) and if there is a tie in price, is awarded to the oldest posting. Rationale for the 910K is that lowball bids won't get it, but it has a good shot of undercutting people just slapping bids in at the current sale price (based on the last-5 sale history window).

Repeat this process, checking the market bids/sales and crafting as needed. In a short amount of time, you'll be raking in the influence, as the net profit on each sale is between 800K and 2.5M influence. All without "grinding" for hours on end in hazard zones and with very little risk (it just may take some extra time to sell some items, but be patient).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So there it is. Take it or leave it, but there should be some good information in there if you are looking to make some money and spend time playing without worrying about financing you enhancements. You can dabble a little or as much as you want, it's up to you. No exploits, no cheating, just honest trading with other players over a week or so can get you where you want to be. If you have questions or need clarification, just let me know. Oh, and please don't disseminate this to buddies online, etc. Let's keep this in our little SG for now.
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