Blue_Centurion

Scrapper Claws/WP may be the winner. I already have a concept from a long role playing story with my wife's metaplot. Thanks!

Just my take on this. I saw the entire start "My character is a terrorist..." as a smokescreen (Successful with me for a couple hours until I thought about it) that the OP was talking about a FISH headed guy named ADMIRAL AKBAR. The terrorist thing is just to justify the Akbar as saying its not really a complete Star Wars trademark ripoff. Once I read it carefully I was pretty much done. Fish headed guy named Akbar. To everyone who is posting about terrorists.... uh, you took the bait?

Okay, lets boil this down to brass tacks. Say you're some clever comic writer and illustrator. You get an idea for a new character. You do some doodling, you write some ideas down. Then, while you work on your storyboards you decide to go to CoH. You create your character, as close as you can. You name him exactly as in your comic. You include the backstory. You run him for 3-4 months as you write your comic. You engage in costume contests regular, you team, you have fun.

When you have your comic ready you go to XYZ graphic novels and pitch your idea. They get back to you in a week. They would love to publish your stuff, but somebody at ABC comics just published almost the exact same character and story, even with that name! Because it seems you inspired someone in one of the first costume contest you did. Maybe even the person running it, who was looking for an idea for their graphic novel. And they published first.

So, DO NOT put your stuff onto CoH until you OWN it. Period. Or risk not owning it, in a big way.

I like both the players posts. I might not have mentioned them by name to kick this off and just started discussing the issue lol.

Anyways, I hated the drop rate for the original trials, came close to rage quitting the game, and deleted a fully I/O'd Tank i was planning to run for all 2011 experiment based on his epic fail in the trials and very regular thread table reward. So, I am saddened to hear the solo drop rate in DA is well on target for that type of situation.

I will however be diving into this content with my meanest character, an Elec/Elec Scrapper that is mean as a wet cat. He is fully incarnated at many and alternate tier 4s. I will be farming DA for the promise of Catalysts, which I understand might drop faster solo there. Wish me luck. I'll also drop a line in a few weeks here to let peeps know my progress. In fact, since many honored posters here are data junkies I will commit to fully logging my DA work with this character and the rewards I gather. When i post in a few weeks i will post my build, my time invested, how I used the time, what I received. I'm to lazy to correlate that into detailed argument about the situation. But if you know me you definitely know I will offer my opinion based on my perceived experience. And maybe someone can use the actual data points in a useful way.

I am playtesting a Electric/Energy right now. I honestly have fully end drain maybe 2 individuals. Partially this is because I will not blap and use the PBaoE end drain. End drain is useless to me personally. I am testing Electric to see if I like it for ranged combat.

Fury can be generated and kept with just one mob. Slightly slower curve at first. And with the new Brute ATO even easier, and peak slightly higher. But I have run a SS/Fire/Soul Brute, and much like my Elec/Elec/Mu Scrapper above I would have concerns about whether it could solo AVs and GMs. I never did it on mine, and would not have wanted to try. Incredible Ghetto Blaster though. AoEs everywhere.

You actually just inspired me with a character from that post. Thats how bad my altitis is.

But you are right, that is a click. My counter argument is if your character is relying on global recharge to get that thing down to "all the time" you are really doing something wrong lol. On the other hand I had a Fire Armor Brute built with no defenses just so I could hit Rise of The Pheonix allatime (and he had huge glob rech) just cause it was funny to dive into a spawn, die, ROTP, and charge the next spawn. I would alternately play conservative/crazy depending on whether ROTP was up.

Ya, if you got a fish headed guy you call Akbar you are toast. I had a couple days e-mailing back and forth with GMs over my character "Zerg". In the end I was approved, and the GM said specifically it was because I was not (and there is no way to!) make him look like the Zerg race. But if You name a character Adm Akbar and make him a fish? Like CoH needs a Lucasfilm lawsuit. NOT! In fact, I am kindly asking you to delete that. Please.

My last post here. Look, we all live in "Free World" countries. Whether USA, or the European community, or S. America, but some "Free country" What is treasured in the USA and all of these places is the idea of individual success, creativity, and ability to succeed on ones own merits.

Individual success is a possibility, but it is not "free." You gotta fight for it. Much like a winning a Incarnate trial in the city, if you plan ahead your chances of success go way up.

You want your "Character Ownership" protected? Protect it. the guy who wrote Harry Dresden stuff is a celebrity in the cities, and he plays Harry Dresden. (Or so I'm told, havent had the honor myself of playing with him) His character is fully protected. Because he locked it all in BEFORE he started playing the character in the city. There is even a rumor that he had to prove who he was to be able to play the character, thats how protective CoH is of other peoples REGISTERED brands. So, you want to own your work? Be smart, own it! Do not leave your stuff out in a public area without your name on it and be shocked someone xeroed it while you went to get coffee. OR outright took it.

If you want to be an avant-garde bohemian artiste with no care for ownership "issues". Way cool. But don't expect to turn around 6 months later and go "I created all that stuff so now I need to register it." Sorry brother, you been hanging at the cafes sharing all your deepest inspiration with bohemian absinthe drinkers and hooka smokers. I hope your creative batteries got recharged, because that stuff is all "public domain" and shareable by all the other Bohemians. You gotta create fresh new stuff. AND you need to register it first. Then let the Bohemians see it, if they like it they'll buy the posters and action figures and books to decorate their dens of iniquity.

I have my main, I have found a squishy I like, it's time to get all relaxed. I want to make a something/Willpower character. Or even a Willpower/Something character. Melee, of course. But any Archetype that uses Willpower armor; no clicks, and Recharge does not help it. So, what to pair with it and build different to different goals? What Melee Primary (or Tank Secondary) benefits the absolute least from global recharge?

I am an altoholic, as many of you know, and many can relate to. So, there is no straightforward way to move a Catalyst from one character to another. But you can slot an ATO, Catalyze it, and then unslot it and e-mail it to another character? Only allows me to move extra catalysts earned to another similar archetype, burns an unslotter as well, but it does provide a ghetto workaround.

Is this doable?

Ich. So thats a definite no, not that I loved the power that much. Resistance on a Blaster is like putting a thick paint job on your house to protect against the nuclear blast.

It's a grey area. I advocate for making it much more blatantly offensive and enjoy the short hellish ride.

Does "Surge of Power" actually nullify your costume and turn you into a electrical ghost, like a Cap Gremlin?

I'm melee centric, after many years on Brutes. I also have about 3 firm (not concrete, but firm) rules, and 15 suggestions that influence all my logic in creating characters. But I submit my "Main" as a solid suggestion for this topic.

I use the Elec/Elec/Mu Scrapper, softcapped to S/L. I have of course incarnated him, season to your taste there, but rebirth's regen gives a solid when things get ugly. I run all 3 leadership toggles, and somehow still manage the End craziness with minimal trouble (10 toggles). He has decent range AoE, incredible PBAoE, and solid ST. I say he "doesn't tank" on any team/trial that starts asking. He does not have taunt, and his armors are not "perfect", but for 90% of game content, he tanks. AND I can farm huge maps when I need to. I find myself scrapper locked of course, but with this character I scrapper lock on long hallways of mobs to solo. Few things drop him, even without insp, and when I pop a mid/lg purp and orange before I jump in, the mobs are just useless against him.

I have never solo'd an AV or GM on him. Came close once with some really confused lowbies stalking the GM in Perez. Took 5 minutes trying for me to get the location from them. They kept inviting me to their team even though I was on a incarnate 50 and they were low level and I kept trying to explain it. I finally just dived at the GM, not sure if out of frustration with the discussion or what. They joined me about a minute later, seemed to confuse them. I know the lowbie GMs are cake though.

My latest squishy experiment has me choosing between these two Ancillary/Patron pools. It is a Elec/Nrg build set up for range and a decent amount of global recharge/hasten to patch alleviate what would otherwise be light AoE. (not sure on final figures yet, still jiggering around in Mids.)

Any opinions if either of these are better hands down? They look awful similar on the surface. What should I be noticing when comparing the two sets that I am missing?

Heh, real PLing? So, I started a character Saturday night. (One of endless attempts to create the perfect ranged squishy!) I got him to level 18 in about 2 hours. I log in Sunday morning, run another DFB and am at bottom of 19. My friend messages me "going on a AE ticket run before lunch, wants some exp?" I almost said no, cause my plan was to hit POSi1&2, and the rest of the TF commander stuff in order that day. But, was like, sure, cause the guy is cool. I dc'd partway thru the AE run, (Apple cramming stuff onto my comp) reloaded/rejoined TF. About an hour. From bottom of 19 to 30th level. One run, with DC. That is PLing, in case anyone wonders.

I will of course return the favor for my friend, although he was farming fire women of some type and my Elec/Elec Scrapper is more beastly vs Freaks, so I'll prob go that route. Got a feeling with i22 on Tuesday I may repay that pretty soon too lol.

Ah, I did get some of my TF stuff done as well, a Sis Psyche, a Posi 1, a Citadel, then a Posi 2. Was at 37 when I logged Sunday night. Best part? I actually really like the character build, probably more than all my other experiments. Light some incense and say nice things so my late level build plan and iTrials go well huh?

Yeah, what I was pointing to above is some very detailed leagal arguments made in response to my thread about a character named Zerg. Its free legal advice, so maybe worth what you pay for it. On the other hand some of the arguments made and legal precedents cited seemed pretty substantial. Of course I'm no copyright lawyer.

The gist of it seemed to be the City has the right to use your stuff insommuch as they need to show your character to everyone else in the city. However, they would have a much harder time taking one of your characters/backstory/name and using that as the basis for something they do without your permission.

However, as infinite as choices in the city are you can easily see 'waves' or 'trends". I created a character and ran him for a day in sewers/dfb. Completely different look that i had seen before in the city, looking a very very specific way, including a seldom used wing. Over the next week I saw dozens of almost exact copies in atlas.

My wife works in the news industry. Most of us know we have a "right to privacy", correct? However, did you know that the more your name appears in print, the media, on the news the less "right to privacy" you can legally expect? In other words, the more you are reported on the less protection you have from being hounded by the news media....

I bring this up to illustrate the slippery slope of creativity. Do not expect to create "a masterpiece work of art" (even or ESPECIALLY if it is) and then go stand in NY Times Square with it for a day and not expect to see it ripped off a thousand times by the next month in ad campaigns, slogans, stories, etc. Copyright or sell that bad boy FIRST, then get it out to the public.

I REALLY hate gambling. But I wanted the costume options in the packs. I bought 24, opened it, and got most of the costume pieces and 2 catalysts. I understand that once you have the costume pieces the odds increase. Although each card turn is a dice roll and no guarantees, argh, gambling.

I did use some of the team inspiration (2 med acc/dam and 1 huge Damage) to help my league in a Cathedral of Pain trial this weekend. We were struggling, and had made about 4 unsuccessful runs at taking down the three pillars. Time was running out, so I buffed our team. We made it by seconds. The buffs were still running when we rushed the AV a couple minutes later. Felt nice that those things might have helped in a situation going very south very fast. I wont use that stuff a lot, but at times like that where 24 people are trying to do something it is something I will root around in my e-mail for.

If you search posts that I have made with the keyword "Zerg" (in the thread, not title) you will discover some very interesting legal discussions about character ownership, although its a little past some of the smolder at the start.