Issue 13 Announced!

Okay! Writing our own missions? This is where Greg will get really out of control!

ISSUE 13
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Double XP Is LIVE!

Hell YEAH!

Whoooooo!
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Another Great Tight Night

Yep, no surprise, but I found last night to be another great Tight Night with the Incredible Squad. It's exceedingly interesting to see our characters developing. As they do so, their powersets are overlapping quite a bit. ColdFusion is developing into a solid Tank with good aggro control. Cadabra is toughening up quite a bit and has some nice control elements and a single-target heal attack. Mr. Eclipse is really starting to show his potential with his holds and controls, with heals and debuffs to back them up. Even the Galvanic Guardian has a well-fleshed out attack chain that's dealing some significant damage. I can only imagine what kind of damage he'll be throwing down later on with Hasten near-perma and Aim + Build-Up to boost alpha strikes. On top of that, the electrical set(s) still have drains and holds that I haven't touched yet. Lots of potential there.

Overall, we are doing a lot better in missions now. Things are smoother and the amount of faceplants has significantly decreased.

One thing I'd like to work on with Troy is how to herd up a spawn. I'm normally not a big proponent of herding/gathering, but with the best Taunt aura in the game, he really can maximize his aggro control along with our AoEs by keeping the foes clumped and in close proximity. I'm not trying to say he's been doing anything wrong or poorly, but it took me a while to get the knack of herding, mostly from watching other Tanks do it. I was thinking he may need the same kind of visual cues to really get the hang of it. Just food for thought.

Oh, and the costumes are still one of the best parts of it. I see so many complex modern costumes that our Silver Age look is really (I think) distinctive. I'm looking forward to Level 20 since I'd like us to pick up matching costumes as a Super Group uniform. Something Fantastic-4 ish I think. Simple but allowing our character elements to come through. Anyway, give it some thought.

Thanks again, I had a great time.

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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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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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Ah, the long road...

Well, my little Claws/SR Scrapper is kicking on Triumph and so far so good. He's not leveling that fast, since most missions with groups are spent chatting and making bad jokes. It's remarkable that people are so patient compared to Freedom. Folks will sit around outside missions chewing the fat waiting for someone to level or get another character. Wow.

Anyway, Windup Hero's up to Level 12 now and I'm working Perez Park for salvage to build my L15 IO's. According to the word on the street, once you slot in L15 IO's you're set until you get to Level 22 and can slot L25 IOs. Since the IOs don't degrade over time, the L15's are better than DOs for the duration. Problem is there just aren't pre-made IOs made on the market right now in that level range. So... That means taking down Hellions to get that Arcane salvage to make the recipes.

At Level 12, his defense boosts are starting to get more appreciable. This means better survivability and enhanced success rates taking on larger spawns. Lack of any healing/resistance abilities is somewhat of a pain, and I can see how the pool power Aid Self is a popular pick for /SR Scrappers.

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Scrapper Summary for Rob

Ideas/Feedback for Rob's Scrapper:

Firstly, character concept is the big driver here. Pick something you like and work the powersets around it. That being said, I'll try to give you my perspective on the Scrapper Primaries/Secondaries to give you a little more info to work with.

PRIMARIES:
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Broad Sword - One of the heaviest hitters of the Scrapper primaries. Pretty much whipping around a big hunk of steel that packs a whollop. Slow-ish recharge on attacks, but high damage puts the DPS (damage per second) almost exactly the same as the Katana primary. However, at later levels with recharge IOs and set bonuses, the set deals out some sick damage. It has the Parry attack which is a stackable defense buff for melee, a staple for any Broadsword attack chain. It deals primarily smashing/lethal damage, the most resisted damage types in the late game. Downside is the set is a bit of an endurance pig until you get SO's/IO's. Some knockback/down in the set.

Greg's Take: Great concept set and good at all levels. Early attack chains are solid with excellent take-down potential. I like this one a lot.

Katana - Very similar set to Broadsword power-wise. More stylish animations and faster recharges, but less powerful attacks. Almost exactly the same DPS as Broadsword.

Greg's Take: One of my favorites, bar none. However, not a good choice for a Silver-Age hero. Steel Blossom has this set.

Claws - Great set for a beginner Scrapper. Fast attacks, low endurance usage, fast-firing "Build-up" attack that buffs accuracy/damage, solid attack chain with some nice cones/AoEs. This set's got everything in an easy-to-use package. This is a great set for non-stop Scrapping regardless of the secondary you pick. Deals primarily Lethal damage, which is highly resisted in late game. Some knockback/down in the set.

Greg's Take: If I were going to recommend a starting Scrapper set for a new person, this is it. Easy and forgiving with fast, low-endurance attacks. Also the set could easily lend itself to a Silver-Age character concept (cat man, panther, etc)

Dark Melee - Interesting utility set. Not a raw-damage set, as it has control elements, a built-in accuracy debuff, self-heal attack, single-target Fear, etc. The Shadow Maul cone attack is the identical animation to Sands of Mu, including the rooting effect. Deals primarily negative energy/smashing damage, which is pretty unresisted throughout the game. Damage output is middle of the road with several DoT (Damage over Time) attacks smoothing out the damage curve. Somewhat endurance intensive.

Greg's Take: The utility knife of the Scrapper sets. Also a great concept set with the smoky attacks. Problem is, IMHO, this is a difficult set for beginners. It has some quirks and needs some careful slotting/power selections to make the most out of the set. Take it for the concept and you'll grow into it. Given we have vet reward respecs, there's room for tweaking if you're not happy with how it's progressing.

Spines - The AoE set for Scrappers. Many single-target attacks with some nice AoEs and a built in -rech effect in the attacks. Fast-firing similar to claws, but somewhat endurance intensive. AoE damage is where the set shines.

Greg's Take: Good set, but difficult to get rolling. True AoE capability blooms somewhat late in the build, as you need Stamina to run Quills. Some interesting Silver-Age potential here, but despite my love of AoEs, not one I get excited about.

Martial Arts - Kicks, kicks, and more kicks. All smashing/lethal damage with fairly fast animations and some stuns/slows/knockback effects mixed in. Some of the attacks have some spectacular animations. Less popular than other Scrapper sets.

Greg's Take: Cool set, decent attacks with a few questionable ones mixed in. The mixed bag of status effects (stuns, slows, knockback) is less appealing than a set that's consistent. Decent set for a Silver-Age Natural origin character, but the lack of any punches/hand attacks makes pool power attack selections a must to round out the visuals.

SECONDARIES:
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Regeneration - A quick pick for many Scrappers and a popular choice. No damage mitigation, but tons of heals/regeneration/recovery to make up for it. Integration provides a 100% base regen boost and all the status protection you need at an early level. Dull Pain and Reconstruction are the heals, with Instant Healing coming in later if needed.

Greg's Take: Solid set that lives up to it's popularity. +Recovery bonuses = non-stop Scrapping with no breaks. Set is sensitive to burst damage though, alpha strikes from a spawn can floor you before you can hit the heal powers. Fun and forgiving set, but Tough and Weave pool powers really round it out.

Invulnerability - Same as the Tank set (i.e. Mantlet) with lower resistances. Resistance based set with a nice heal that adds a 40% boost to HP for a while. Very strong set against Smashing/Lethal damage, less so against other types, big hole against psi damage. The only Scrapper set with a Taunt aura.

Greg's Take: Even as a gimped version of the Tank set, it still performs well. This is by far the LEAST popular of all Secondaries though. The Taunt aura (Invincibility) can be a killer drawing excessive aggro without Tank HP or Resistances to take the heat. Still, makes for a tough combo. Passive resist powers are next to useless

Dark Armor - The second most unpopular set, except for AoE builds. Resistance based set with a couple nice utility auras (fear/neg energy damage) and some interesting heal/resurrect powers. Kind of an odd set in that the theme is mixed, somewhat like the Dark Melee primary. No real focus for the set, but a lot of interesting powers. End usage is really high for a lot of the powers though, forcing some early choices to be viable only after Stamina.

Greg's Take: Similar to Dark Melee, this is not really a good set for beginners. The lack of ANY knockback protection in the set also pretty much guarantees needing to take the Leaping pool to pick up Acrobatics. Despite that, the set has some real play-style advantages (stealth/fear etc.) for those that can build some synergy with the Primary they pick. Great pick for a Silver-Age hero with all the dark smoky effects.

Super Reflexes - Probably after Regen in terms of popularity. Defense based set with Toggles and Passive powers against positional damage types. No self-heal in the set and the myriad of good power choices often forces a very tight build. Practiced Brawler gives great status protection and Quickness gives a run speed boost and essentially a +Rech DO level boost to all powers.

Greg's Take: Great set. Matures somewhat late due to the Defense boosts, but a killer set once it hits its stride. Lots of toggles means it's a good match for the Claws primary, there's a lot of synergy there. Quickness + Fast Claws attacks negates the need to pick up Hasten out of the power pool. Good set for beginners, as the set requires little "click" management to be effective. Great Silver-Age powerset (think Flash or Spiderman).

SLOTTING:
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As far as slotting goes for all these different Primaries/Secondaries, there is a great thread here that goes into some detail about slotting recommendations from a TO/DO/SO (primarily SO) perspective. Naturally Issue 9 and the IO enhancements make this even better, but the original post is still solid.

FORUMS:
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I also started a thread on the Scrapper forums here to get some input/recommendations from the Scrapper community on what a good starting Scrapper Primary/Secondary combination would be. Take a look if you get a chance.

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Babbage!

Here's a nice screen-shot from last night. Orlean's is powering up, Mantlet's winding up, and Cacaphony is bubbling (although obscured behind Babbage's monster frame). Midnight-Lord (aka Silver-Suit) is also in there as well.



Congrats on Cacaphony reaching 50, as well! YAYYYY! Been a long time coming. Despite Double XP weekends, Orleans is still ahead of Mantlet, as well. But, it's not a race, it's a scenic journey. And a great one at that...

Cheers fellahs.
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FN Set Bonus Calcs

FYI if you were interested... Added 2 Cleaving Blow in Consume (Acc/Rech and Dmg/Rech), added Acc/Dmg Scirocco's Dervish in Blazing Aura.


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What's the plan for 8/9/07?

OK, Thursday is right around the corner. I had an idea for a special "event", if you will. Also have some other options to consider for the evening...

Neither Orleans nor Cacaphony have either the Atlas Medallion or the Freedom Phalanx Reserve Member accolades. The first gives a permenant +5% Endurance Increase. I believe the second gives a permenant +10% Hit Point Increase.

Both Cacaphony and Orleans are missing one critical element for each.

For the AM, the Spelunker badge is needed. It's obtained by rescuing the fortune teller in a mission given by magic contacts in Steel Canyon. My proposition is to get the mission with Reptilor and then team with Cacaphony and Orleans. Once they are in-mission, I'll drop out with Reptilor and join the team with another toon (so I keep the mission for later). The team can complete the mission and get the badge. After that I can give you a guided tour with Mantlet to the plaque locations required to get the needed history badges for the accolade.

For the FPRM, the key is the Unveiler badge. It's gained by defeating 100 Fake Nemesis. Since we have been running missions for a while versus that villain group, Orleans and Cacaphony should be pretty close. We can either hunt for them in Peregrine Island or head to the Cascade Archipelago (they spawn all over in there). Once again, there is some tourism needed to read the required story plaques, but since everyone flies, not a biggie (just some zone hopping).

Now, both of these badges require some "grinding" so I can completely understand if nobody wants to do this. I thought I would offer to help out, since soloing to get these with Orleans or Cacaphony could be somewhat problematic. No pressure to do this at all. I'm just throwing the offer out there. Mantlet has both, so I have no vested interest either way except to help you guys out.

Other options on the table for Thursday include:
* Running more missions in the Ritki War Zone
* Heading to the Storm Palace in the Shadow Shard to check it out (we are high enough now to get in IIRC)
* Logging some of our Alts for the evening (Steel/Rickey/Fjordbotten)
* Hitting the Arena for some friendly PvP action
* Heading to Recluse's Victory PvP zone to lay the smack down
* Door missions on our story Arcs (mebbe more AV's in Peregrine Island)

At our levels with Caca/Orleans/Mantlet, we have access to essentially ALL the in-game content in CoH now. As they say, the world is our oyster...
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Flambeau Noir hits 41

Hey guys,

Flambeau hit 41 tonight at the end of the Clockwork King mission in Peregrine Island. He's looking pretty buff these days, I figured I'd throw in a couple screenshots (including his slotting) and a shot of my Vault inventory with the offer to share anything I have that someone needs...







Cheers!
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CoH/CoV Planner for Issue 9

Link to Mid's Hero Designer 1.20 here

It's a great tool, I'm just starting to use it over some other planners I used previously. The nice thing is that it appears to correctly status and stack IO Set bonuses, which is key for planning a comprehensive build. Try it and see...

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Great Planning Tool for IOs

Link here to the website:
http://tinyurl.com/2szq8o

Converts recipes to needed ingredients (based on level desired). Also summarizes all recipes that use a specific ingredient. Hovering over the ? will also bring up a list of the global bonuses for the set. Interesting database. I'll have to use it when planning Consignment House runs.


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Thanks for another fun Tight Night

Hey guys,

I appreciated the session last night with you two. I realize Rob was handicapped and Eric ended the evening just this side of incoherent, but I had a great time. I put in bids with Mantlet to get some magic SO's and I'll check those tonight to see what I bought. Getting some decent capability in Mantlet's enhancements is gonna be a short term priority. Now that he's getting close to the end-game (taking L50 IOs, etc), I need to rethink his slotting and build. Particularly where the Damage enhancements go (two L50 IOs are damn close to three SOs at the ED cap). I also need to think about a setup that supports the Set enhancements to get the global bonuses. That gets tricky, since that kind of "optimized" build is gonna take a trainload of cash, KHEX runs, and rare salvage drops. I'm not sure that I want to put that kind of time into Mantlet right away. He's part of our prime set and I'd like to keep him "old school" for a while.

Anyway, I may jump online sometime with him and join some 8-man teams (if I can find any that are not farming/bridging/PL'ing) to get those 3 bubbles so Orleans and I are at the same point as far as XP goes. I've noticed that our leveling has slowed down a lot since we pushed past L45. Hopefully there is another Double XP weekend brewing in the next 3 months that we all can participate in. Eric's been missing out and I've been reluctant to play Mantlet and create a gap between our (Eric and I, anyway) two highest characters. We'll get there, though. Mebbe we all roll PeaceBringers/Warshades then and go nuts in the Hollows... : )

Anyway, we'll see what happens. I logged Flambeau for a bit after you guys left to get that little sliver of XP needed to bump him up to L40. Now that he's at 40, the CoT in the Abandoned Sewer system should be Green/Blue/Yellow to him, which is perfect for working the salvage drops. Hopefully I'll get lucky again. The spawns there have an inordinate amount of bosses in them, so each boss has a 25% chance to drop salvage. LTs are 16% and minions 8%. With a spawn of 12 or so with 4 bosses in it, odds are I'll get 1-3 salvage drops per spawn. All arcane salvage too, which is the sweet spot in the market right now.

Oh, and I did some thinking last night about Eric's 30M profit. If you could post a little about your methodology there, I'd appreciate it. Sounds like with the right startup capital, you can really make hay if you do it smartly (I assume with L50 IOs). I have a vault full of rare salvage I can always liquidate to make more influence, but I'd like to have another option and Eric's methodology sounds intriguing... : )

Thanks again guys, I had a great time.

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Shadow Shard

This is a freaky, scary place.

(Click pictures to enlarge. The pictures, that is.)


This is what you see when you enter.

I put on my "heavy suit," just in case.

Once I figured out how to get out of the firebase, I went to "The Chantry." One of the first things you see are these nasty bitches.

They're called Netterlings, and they go down easy enough unless they're in a group of 20. The LTs are Bull Netterlings and have a nasty hold.

Yeah, and they fly, too. Don't fly after them, though, or you may run into a HORDE of things called Watchers. I din't get any pics because I was too busy RUNNING FOR MY FREAKING LIFE. And I ran around the corner into a bunch of "Shadow reflections" of other villains - Rikti, Council, Crey, Malta - all in one place. Not fighting, just standing there and waiting for someidiot to come flying around the rock so they can cream him.

So, with all of that, I died twice. This is all within about ten minutes. And I never even traveled past the horizon line from the entrance. Oh, and nothing I encountered was above level 45.

Regular strategy is not going to work here. If you're not afraid of multiple wipes, I suggest we go. Stock up on wakies.

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Ideas for 6/28/07 Tight Night

And yet another week's adventures in Paragon City draws near. How will Apotheosis rise to challenge the rampant villainy plaguing the streets of the battered metropolis? What shining heroes will emerge from the fortress of justice that acts as their base of operations? Tune in Thursday at 7:00PM for the riveting continuation of... APOTHEOSIS RISING
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The Triumphant Triumvirate

Heya guys,

For the record, I had a pisser time last night. I did find myself reflecting on the ride into work this morning that now all our Primes are over L47, I'm REALLY looking forward to the missions and high-level content that's opening up. It's a thrill to square off with AVs and the alternate dimensions in the Portal Corps missions are really cool. Post level 47 we have access to L50 IOs, have essentially all our powers, and are extremely well-rounded (since we've been through several respecs each by now). It's shifting out of a "let's level up" mode and into a "let's go play and do fun stuff" mode. Which I suppose we have been doing all along, but now (at least for me) it's taking on added focus.

I really liked that all last night nobody even came close to face-planting. After some of the thrown-together pick-up groups I've been in with Flambeau, our little Trio are like a SWAT team moving through the maps. Everyone knows their role, but is proficient enough to be flexible. Like Orleans playing Blapper on a couple maps and giving Mantlet a heart-attack trying to keep people off him.. :)

It's too bad I haven't really gotten excited about CoV. The gameplay, motives, and powersets are so similar to CoH, that I have a hard time getting into just the "villainy" aspect of it. Given my somewhat Paladin-esque playstyle preferences, I guess that's not much of a revalation. Looking forward, I don't see CoH becoming boring enough to want to indulge heavily in CoV. The only viable way I could see that happening is if we all decided to do it for a change of pace. I'd play online backgammon with you guys on Thursdays if that was the consensus, so CoV wouldn't be bad at all. Still, I do prefer the "hero" vibe you get in CoH. CoV is just lacking that little "kick" I get out of the missions and story arcs. I like to be the guy in the white hat (or helmet, in Mantlet's case).

Anyway, that's it for now. I still have to completely revamp my enhancements for both Flambeau Noir *and* Mantlet now, so something tells me I need to get that squared away before next Thursday. After the level-up, Mantlet's attacks didn't have the "Ooomph" they used to. I'm thinking some selective IOs and recipies will change that.... :)

Cheers,
Garthamatic
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Neuron goes DOWN

As you can see after the break, the senior members of Apotheosis had no trouble taking care of Neuron.

Here they are softening him up...

and then putting him down.

Way to go Cacaphony, Mantlet and Orleans!

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