Contempt

There was a Scrapper in Siren's Call who didn't seem to want to fight anyone, just try to lure them into the drones.

So after playing cat and mouse for a bit, the drones never getting me and me never getting him, I took off. Decided that he'd leave eventually and, though I had him as my Most Wanted bounty, it would reset soon enough. I happened to go past the hero entrance a bit later, though, and I saw something happen.

A Brute jumped into the gate area, taking a swing at the Scrapper. The drones, of course, melted him quickly. He was followed by a Dominator, who was also melted. I saw a Corruptor about to jump in, and decided I had to take my shot as well.

The Corruptor threw a couple attacks that hit the Scrapper, taking him down to about 60% health or so, and then was melted by the drones. I had hovered above and dropped down right next to him, hit Build Up and AS. STABBY, killed him just before the drone had recharged and turned on me. I managed to type out "SO VERY WORTH IT!!" in local as the drone locked me down and disintegrated my body.

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Will the Alkaloid or rez power from the Master Mind Poison set ever start giving credit for the healing badges or the super group healing badge again?

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Er. They do give credit.

My 39 Ninja/Poison Mastermind has the first two healing badges. Alkaloid is his only heal- the only possible way he could've received it. And he just received the second one, "Doc", recently.

So Alkaloid, at the very least, gives credit. I don't know for certain if Elixir of Life does so.

Question for you, Positron.

Last night, two friends and I got together in Nerva Archipeligo and completed Mu'Drakhan's "Destroy Circle Rituals" mission. The goal of this mission is to defeat the Circle AV, Baphomet. Due to the new patch, he was only an Elite Boss, but you said above that this would make no difference in awarding badges or not.

In any case, we succesfully completed the mission, thinking we'd get the Demon Slayer badge or a CoV equivalent after smacking him down, but received nothing. I opened a petition, and received a response indicating, essentially, that Baphomet awards a Demon Slayer badge in City of Heroes, but not in City of Villains.

Is this the case, and is it intentional? If so, fair enough. If not, any way my friends and I will get our badge? (If not, not a huge deal- we can just do the mission again when one of the two of them gets it.)

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Uck. Give us ONE dagger.

Dual is too cliche.

Also, if we got dual, there's a good chance they'd just reuse existing dual-wield animations. So we'd all look like Scrapyarders.

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Dual is the generally agreed upon preference. Throwing fireballs and lightning bolts is cliche, too.

<points at Redcaps> Gimme those.

I'll be honest, I'm a tad disappointed.

Not that I'm unhappy that Stalkers are getting DM/DA. That's fine. I was just hoping we'd see that Dual Daggers set.

But oh well. Perhaps the future.

As for what DA will lose in the transfer- I should think Death Shroud and Cloak of Shadows would be prime candidates, given one's uselessness for a Stalker and the other's redundance. Though it would be nice to have the second stealth already available in the secondary set, I doubt that's a precedent Cryptic would want to set.

Now, what will DM lose? I'm guessing Dark Consumption.

Ouch. That's.... not a great change. It was a pretty decent power before, situational but handy. Now... eh. I won't be taking it, anyways.

But I guess if it had to happen, it had to happen. No better options, though? If it was doing perma-knockdown, could you maybe grant enemies a few seconds of knockdown immunity instead of switching it to knockback? That'd at least make it reasonable for melee heroes/villains to use.

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Is it Ice Minstral, or Ice Mistral?

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Ice Mistral

A Mistral is a cold wind.

A Minstrel is a traveling musician.

Elude does nothing to get you past the Repel in Hurricane.

Stacking Elude and Super Speed similarly does nothing. You can still be trapped in a corner and unable to escape unless you have verticle movement.

The repel is what really messes it up, in my opinion, and I believe some more powers need a way around that. Virtual melee immunity is a bit much.

Nightshade since before 2.2 spec and the instant DD spell. And I was violently opposed to buffbots, and did my best to build myself so that I could take out people with buffs. Tons of DoTs and that DoT-crit RA (Wild Arcana?) were the key- lay it on them, then kite. Viper if you have it.

I'd say a Stalker most closely resembles a 2-hander Shadowblade. It's all about that massive opening shot, the damage after that takes a significant drop.

I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars went into researching and developing the enema arrow. Sounds like only a slightly better idea than the Rage Arrow mentioned in the comic.

Pft, and he's supposed to be the "smart" hero. No wonder villains rule.

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He did call Stefan Richter/Lord Recluse a 'Brute' in places, but he did work it into the prose in a comfotable manner.

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It's been previously confirmed that Lord Recluse is a Mastermind/Incarnate, not a Brute. The use of the word "Brute" was just a description, not an archetype assignment.

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Taking your suggestions into account, I've added Defense to the Power Pools to EVERY single damage type EXCEPT Psi. In other words, the Pools are no longer limited to Smashing and Lethal.

Frankly, my original idea didn't account for the fact that some pools would have been situationally more useful to certain Tanker and Scrapper builds...This change addresses the inequality.

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Good call.

And, frankly, it makes just as much sense that you'd have defense against a flare thrown by an enemy because their aim is messed up by your Stealth as it does against a bullet.

Wow, that's quite a resume. Welcome to Paragon City.

I disagree with a few points from the original post.

For one, I have a Sonic Blaster currently at level 24. The sound affects are not irritating at all to me (now I've got a Dark Armor scrapper at 44, if you want to talk about annoying sounds...). I've only actually had one person complain about them. Not once have I ever been refused a group on the basis that I was a sonic blaster. I like the sound effects the way they are and would feel pretty underwhelmed if the sounds weren't unique- I'm hurting guys by screaming at them, it should make a noise. The sound effects for Howl and Shout are actually my favorite in the game (particularly Shout, really gives that "<deep breath>... BOOOOM" feel). I can agree about the visual effects in Sonic Resonance, though. Doesn't bother me personally, but I certainly see how it could. (To be honest, though, I find the Force Field graphics far more irritating)

The bit about new content is entirely opinion and anecdotal. I can, for instance, say that I have no problem with the amount of content in the game and would simply prefer that they focus on optimizing that content (for instance, stop sending people across the map in the Hollows). That's true, but it's my opinion and doesn't mean much really. Did you survey people about the amount of content in the game, or did you put that together based on gut feeling?

We don't know and, to my knowledge, it hasn't been said what costume options will migrate from City Of Villains to City Of Heroes. I certainly hope that the vast majority make it across.

I agree with the point about Maestro, but it's really NOT that hard to look for a group to help you. But still, you're right- you are forced to group fairly early in the Striga arc and I'd personally prefer that not be the case. The Croatoa Task Force is extremely casual friendly, lasting only about two hours if you take it slowly and requiring only 6 people in total. I completely disagree with the so-called "dreaded" Stop 30 Fir Bolg From Entering Portal mission. I don't understand how this is difficult to complete alone. So far I have done it three times- once in a large group (on a Defender, we nearly lost), once as a duo (same defender, paired with a Peacebringer, completed easily, but it took a long time), and once solo (as a human-build Warshade, this time was by far the shortest and the easiest). Even for character types who have difficulty soloing, you would at this point have the Rune of Warding temporary power available which deals quite a bit of damage to the Fir Bolg with a pretty decent recharge. Even solo as a Controller I can't imagine having too much trouble soloing this mission, as long as you play competently. Perhaps the biggest problem with this mission is that, in order to complete it as safely as possible, you must be patient.

I would like costumes to get more attention as well. I do not think the current state of the costume generator is causing lost subscriptions. But seriously- give us some more hair styles please. As it is I go between Short 4 (the so-called anime hair), Long, and Ponytail. I'd like some different long hair or stylish hair options. But I'm getting off topic.

All in all, I agree with some of what you say but feel you're being just a bit too "Doom!"-y and basing a lot of your assertions off of anecdotal evidence and conjecture.

Well, I am totally surprised. I guess I should've put it together with Turner's disappearance, but I figured they'd just find him again.

Sad to see you go, Gil. Thanks for all the tips you've given me when I asked. I appreciate it.

I'll say goodbye the same way I do to everyone in-game.

Good luck and have fun.

Also, who's the lucky successor? Do we know him?

I just wanted to add that you guys have handled this in a way that once more proves Cryptic's class. A lot of companies would just say "Nope, we can't do it" and left it at that. That you guys go to such effort to keep us informed just shows why Cryptic has fanboys like me running around still preaching The Way Of The One True Game.

A few questions:

I don't believe it's been covered by a developer response, though I've heard a few players speculate on the matter- Why did the alternate reality "Axis America" become the Council Empire? Does Axis America still exist and, if so, has it just been sealed off from "our" dimension? If it doesn't exist anymore, what happened to the Reichsman frozen in the Freedom Phalanx Headquarters?

And I think I know the answer to this one, but I'll ask anyways;
can you drop any hints about the upcoming archetypes that haven't already been dropped?

Will we hear more from the Kingdom of Mu; perhaps a reality where Mu won the war against Oranbega?

Oh, and what's the deal with the sidekicks- Malaise we pretty much know through the exploration badge detailing his history, same with Mynx. Infernal has been detailed as well. What about Swan? Valkyrie? Why is the in-game Luminary female when the fiction describes a male (I know the answer here, but I'll be a lot of people don't)? Ms. Liberty also doesn't have a lot of in-game information, but it can be pieced together.

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My main concern is that my worst fear has been realized. Similar to DC and Marvel, and with no offense intended to anyone, Top Cow basically removed any black character. So with Horus gone, no story arc with the Brawler, CoH comic is now just like the mainstream comics, devoid of anyone of African descent. So while playing the game is great in that it allows for diversity, the same cannot be said of the comic.

While it is free, I'll just be using it for fireplace fodder unless I see some changes...

And for what its worth, I thought the first story arc in the initial comic book held truer to the game.

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What?

Similar to Marvel? Uh, Storm? Hello? Major character, anyone? Or Ultimate Nick Fury? Or Blade? I could go on, but do I have to?

Hell, if I was more familiar with the DC Universe I'm sure I could start listing them off there as well. But I can point one out off the top of my head- Cyborg.

Did we forget the definition of "minority"? Wouldn't really be a realistic portrayal if every single character out there was black and there were only a couple white heroes now would it? Maybe there aren't as many black heroes as white heroes because there aren't as many black people as white people (at least, in the USA- if we're talking internationally then I'd like to point out the Black Panther).

I know I'm late in this response but wow, I couldn't let that just sit out there.

I'd like to chime in and say that I'd be happier if I never saw Apex in a comic again. I really like the newer books, and would just as soon forget the older ones.

Very pleased with this. A little editing is needed but, as mentioned, that's on the way. Good stuff, I'm actually interested. This is a comic I'd tell my friends they should read.

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2) XP debt will be halved on mission maps (that includes outdoor mission maps, too).

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Oh jeez, ok, yeah, this balances EVERYTHING. People aren't getting to 50 slow enough and enjoying our content? People are getting to 50 too fast and getting bored and leaving?

Rationalize all you like. This action is complete #$&*.

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Hi.

What they said will do is lessen the penalty for being defeated in a mission. This actually increases the levelling speed, because you'll have less debt to work off when you die in a mission.

Ok, bye.

Oh wait, one more thing. This should help you out.

I remember looking up in the sky and seeing a giant UFO hovering over Atlas Park. Then I remember running around while looking up and running smack into a group of Rikti.

I remember the first time I visited Founder's Falls and I saw some Rikti, and I thought "OH CRAP" even though I knew they couldn't see me and I was safe. They were just that powerful to me.

How about LlavaCon?

That one's in Arizona... in my back yard.

There'll be punch and pie!

I can't wait for the mission.

The Skulls are everywhere, HeroName.

Ask About Available Missions

Kill Skuls!
--OR--
A Skull called Marrowsnap has etc etc etc.

And when you accept the mission, the top of the screen will say:
Kill Skuls
Defeat 10 Skulls

And then it will only be a matter of time before we have to stop the freakshow from jerk hacking the war walls.

Big yes. If I can use 3 trays, I don't need to switch between control bars. The problem is solved before it is created.