CaptSammy

Was only on for a few hours during the sneak preview. I was dualboxing. Getting onto teams and as soon as we would get back to atlas after defeating the megaGM, Altas (on Virtue of course) was almost ready to spawn another present to do it all over again. I rejoiced over a few repeated runs. #1) Juicy Merits! #2) Juicy Candy Canes, which i made 40 to 50 million on that night and stockpiled an extra 40 away.

However, during the live event, I do not expect CC prices to stay high for long; so that reward will be less desirable. I did enjoy the event, the problem is that it was not good for LEVELING.

We all play different ways and have different goals, and the great thing about COX is that the game caters to different people in different ways. However, with 50 virtue heroes (jumping to 71 when I can create villian AT's in praetoria and bring them blueside) I am trying to level. I have goals for how much lvling I do in a week and Lord Winter chasing will not be productive in that.

That said I will still be doing some of it, when I am looking for something 'different'. Even if the cane prices tank, the merits and fun will be enough.

To be fair, I sometimes I have to transfer money to someone to afford a few SO's. But only on the less used character of a level pact. They have some influence from kills that get split, but not from drops. But yea, if you actively play a character to 22 and market/vendor the drops depending on what they are, you should be good to go.

That being said, a quick 12million for some candy canes does help. :-)

I took down Lord Winter 4 times on my dual box and 5 times on my main box. thats 180 canes. Made 50 million off the early sales, and got 40 more saved.

Course get on a lvl 50 mission team while lvl 20 (you do have some good powers by then and would not be total deadweight) and get a couple common drops at lvl 50 and be set for SO's.

We beat LORD WINTER with 9 people last night on Virtue coming out of Skyway City. I had my lvl 50 Ill/rad, my lvl 33 cold defender was dual box following. Basically no offense from her, just spamming benumb and heat loss. I know we had a lvl 50 archer. (cant remember if TA/A or Arch/?? blaster.) Must have been a pretty optimal team since we beat him with only 9.

Im still trying to answer this for myself, but the convential wisdom is that since Gold rolls are 3000 tickets but only 20 merits, you use merits for the random rare roll, and use tickets for the bronze rolls because they are cheap ticket wise.

Once the event gets into full swing, the supply of candy canes will increase, the best time to sell is right at the start of an event, for the BUYITNAO crowd. So I felt they would sell well last night and for the next couple days till the even starts back. So I tried to grab as many as I could. Sold most last night for 250k to 300k. Kept a few just in case the price goes up further. But I was dual boxing WL runs so I made 50 million last night alone off canes. Thats not counting what I will eventually roll with the mertis.

Logged into Virtue last night and no one in PI was talking about WL teams. Heard on VU2009 that a WL was up in Skyway, but only one person was working on it. I was dual boxing with my lvl 50 ill/rad and lvl 33 cold defender on my laptop on follow spamming benumb and throwing out heat loss occasionally. We got maybe 4 to 5 on the WL and was whittling down well. When he neared defeat I broadcasted on major virtue channels again and a few more showed up. We went into the zone with 9 total people. We still beat him. The 9 seemed to know what to do and it went well. Zone to atlas and found that was where people were really going after it at, since that is where you get dropped off.

Did a second dual box run. had a few teams. Laptop was a lagfest (only 1gb ram) but was auto-follow anyway. My desktop was ok with 3GB ram but did boot out the desktop once. Got back in in time though. No second zone though.

Third run double boxing was even more teams. Second zone was spawned. We beat the Lord Winter with NO seconds left. (might have been the same run dumbleberry mentioned earlier in this thread). Logged off the laptop and was going to sell some canes and got another present message so I went off for one last time. First LW went down though there were alot of people who did not break off for the guardians. Spawned a second zone but not alot of people came over and though we had over 10 people we could not take him down again IN TIME. (we would have even with less people had we had more time).

Did make a boatload off candy canes. and have some merits i can roll with now. A dual box run beating both LW's nets you 18 merits apiece (if you helped with the first GM), and 80 total CC's. Yummmy!

Its two hours before I get home. So I am going to ask the questions.

1.) Would a cold defender be a help. She is only 33 but should have all the major shields and debuffs.
2.) Is there any good XP in doing this. ToT at least was great XP. I know you get canes and merits, but most of the time GM xp is horrendous. So I am assuming that trying to use this to lvl is highly inefficient.

60 month account and 30 month account is over $1300 for monthly fees. With boosters and game purchase, probably $1500 for 5 years. As a raw number that is kinda depressing, however, when you really think about it over 5 years and compare.

1 $50 new Xbox game every two months for 5 years = $1500.
Heck I have probably spent $1500 on my 'girl' in the last 6 months and we are only 'best friends'. (I know im a sucker for a cute face.)

Cost to play: $1500
Finally getting my first TANK (and sixth toon overall) to 50: Priceless.

If you gave somebody an old CoV account, would they have access to blueside because of the 'merge', or was that a one-time thing for those people who had CoV-only at that time?

Gray IS traditional for the blurring of lines, becuase it is the blurring of white and black, light and darkness, which is how we normally associate good and evil. In this game hero and villian is not usually referred to as white and black, but blue and red. In this instance the 'graying' (or blurring) of COH blue and COV red would be a deep purple. Besides the roman refernence, purple is also the color of 'Kings' or monarchy. While Tyrant may not be a monarch in the proper sense, he kind of resembles one.

So you are both right, I suppose. :-)

THank you all! Now I know Im not the only one. :-)

My two main characters were Captain Sammy (DM/INV scrapper that is a "blue boy scout" type. And Magic Master a illusion character based on a superhero concept of myself stemming around my hobby of magic.

Eventually made several other alts. Eventually made a TA/Arch and she was a descedant of William Tell and performed skilled archery feats. I created a fire/fire blaster who was a fire-eater girl and was the 'target girl' (the girl who gets the arrow shot off her head and such). They were a 'duo'. I then thought, well then they would probably know the magician guy. This started the cascade. I eventually got two accounts (for padding and PLing at first) And created characters for virually every powerset blueside. Then I started piecing them all together. I have 50 characters currently they are 7 teams (or themed groups or relations) of 7 people with Captain Sammy the head of them all. Each team is tied together and also have connections to other groups. Several characters had 'younger siblings' that are a teen team, etc.
Captain Sammy and Magic Master (both characters I personally identify with) are cousins. There are several characters that are part of the 'sideshow' group. I have hundreds of pages of backstory written in my MIND, but i find writing down (typing it out) is hard for me. There are a lot of 'couples' in there.

Several actual cool duos are

Mister Molten and Mrs. Magma - Fire/Fire Scrapper and Earth/Thermal Controller. A pair of anthropologists who are studying a remote tribe on a volcanic island when they are attacked. A tribe shaman infuses them with powers to help defend the tribe. Also the shaman summons stone sentinels to help the tribe, one of which survives (stone/fire tank) and works with the couple.

Commander Chyll (ice/ice blaster) and Icy Lass (cold/ice defender) that are from iceland/greenland.

Mindy and Mandy Mental (Mind/Son controller and Psy/MM blaster) who are twins and part of the "sideshow" gang.

My teams are however going to be 'retconned' a little to incorporate the 21 new characters that will be made with GR that will be villian AT's that I will start in Praetoria and bring them bluside to expand the roster. God im obsessed.

Here is the original 43 character setup (pre-I16). Now its up to 50 and that included a little retcon. And a bigger retcon is coming with the 71 character post GR version. However, if you want to see some of what I had originally its

http://www.virtueverse.com/index.php/User:CaptSammy

most pages were created and the pictures put up, but only a few had alot of information typed in, and most of that is a poor, quickly-written outline of all the stuff in my head.

In fact its actually BETTER that you lead the teams as a 50. Why?

Imagine you team up with 7 other lvl 24 heroes to do radio missions. If one of them leads you get exemped down (without all your powers after 29). You also run the radios in Steel or IP. In the pre-SSK days, this is how you would have to do it.
But now if you lead, everyone SK's up to 49. You run the radios in Peregrine. You get lvl 50 common recipe drops (worth FAR FAR more than lvl 25 common drops) and you get the chance of PURPLES. Win for everyone.

I started a couple months after launch and taken a month or two off along the way. I will hit 60 month vet on my main account in December.

My first toon was Captain Sammy, though I misspelled it "captian". Also he was a Inv/Ss and damage sucked back then. I also made Magic Master an Ill/Rad (before they were FOTM). They were both based on conepts I had been playing with in my mind forever.
This was before ED and GDN, so I got tired of the bad tank damage and rerolled him as a DM/INv scrapper. (DM being the only 'punch' set in scrapper at that time) I just RP'd away that the dark was actually just a chemical reaction (which is how he got his powers). Now that I can recolor it, its even better.

I still play those characters, though not as much. I have 46 current characters with 4 more planned but not created yet. I have an additional stable of 21 villian AT's to start in Praetoria and bring blueside characters that will created after GR. (which will bring me to 71 on Virtue so I might get a third account).

The one I play the most is Cosmic Heat, my 50 fire/kin on my main account, which i use as my farm/PL/market toon. When you have 50 characters your aloud to PL a little, though I do TF's too alot. (And ToT was a blast).

Favorite Build? Either my main Captain Sammy or my ultra-procced buzzsaw build of my fire/kin. Though I love each of 'my children' the same, as any good parent.

On my fire/kin I have two procs in fire cages. Because it does not have a great damage anyway and it recharges fast. I have two regular procs and a purple proc in cinders. They are all from hold sets so I can frankenslot some acc/hold/recharge in the other three slots, get a couple set bonuses, and now my AOE hold is an almost reliable damage power. It has 58% chance of doing at least minor damage. And in the cases were a couple procs hit (especially the more powerful purple proc) I have a nice start on defeating the mobs. Maybe I could take out a proc and put in a little more recharge or end, but i get almost up to the ED cap on acc and hold just in the other three slots. Whats not to love.

I have not played Captain Sammy much, and its not my 'exact' forum title, but have never been recognized. However, I do find myself teaming with people I recognize from the forums. It helps that I play on Virtue. (I am a native Virtuean though, not a transfer).

I know I have done several TF's with Zombie man, and I know I have had a few other "Hey i recognize them from the forums" moments, but cant remember who now.

"Farmers are all about speed. Marketeers are all about patience."

Great quote PeterPeter. You should sig that one.

I was looking some of those things up for another project I am working on. Rad, Therm, and Cold all have some big -regen powers (like -5) . Kin and Dark have small -regen powers that are stackable (-.5) If I am reading the RedTomax site right.

Pretty much any buff set BUT emp,ff, or kin have 20% or more def and res debuffs somehwere in the set.

Names I got on VIRTUE (of all places) in the last year.

Nick Awesome
Hot Steele
Pyroteen
Cryoteen
Bobby Bolt
Adam Amp

Probably some more. It IS a challenge sometime. I do admit, but not impossible.

Stupid delayed double post for some reason.

But you will not be able to START one in Praetoria. You will have to start it in the Rogue Isles, THEN (when you reach the minimum level for side-switching) go through the process to become a hero.

Well level 5 is one thing, but I have been taking lvl 20-30 characters to PI and doing quite well. Then again these people have IO's or SO's. I have a ton of lvl 14-17 characters and I have not tried it with them for the specific reason that i might not be as effective and thus a 'drain' on the team. However, a good buff/debuffer could probably still be quite effective even at a lower level to such a team.

I started having this problem last night and it continued tonight. I dual box with my laptop and my desktop. Last night, the laptop crashed while ToTing, but seemed more stable when I took it in a farm mission. Tonight the desktop is the one crashing while ToTing. I also got a lot of 10 second of so mapserves tonight, and was having the problem where a clicked power keeps spinning like it was a toggle. type of thing.

I have 4GB on my desktop too, so that cant be an issue.

The best thing to do when finding invention sets to use is to answer two questions.

1.) How much you are willing/able to spend.
2.) What do you NEED. What weeknesses are you experiencing or what is your goal.

On my lvl 50 main (DM/INV) I picked mostly for defense set bonuses.
On my lvl 50 Ill/Rad Im going for recharge bonuses to perma Hastan and AM (And MAYBE get enough for perma or close to perma PA)
On my lvl 50 fire/kin farmer I got lots of damage procs (3 in cinders, 2 in fire cages, etc.) Plus regen and some fire defense.


Some people might try to get a blaster with great regen, recovery, accuracy, and damage bonuses, while some might go for soft capping ranged defense, then playing a kind of ranged tank-mage game. haha. Thats the beauty of invention sets. from cheap frankenslotting to the wide variety of set bonuses, there are many options, all valid.

WoW!. Ok I will admit I have stayed away from the banner stuff. Tried four times now and three times I mapped out in the middle and couldnt log on those chars again for an hour or so.
But the ToT is phenomenal, especially with SSK. Take any character to PI (usually a couple of them on Virtue). Broadcast and look for a ToT team. Get on team. Start clicking and mass carnage ensues. Level better than 2XP weekend. Man, I am loving it.