Dante

I use it on my Sonic/Energy Blaster as an opening move. The knockdown is nice and reliable even if the stun isn't and it allows me to supplement my single cone attack with another AoE attack. Even if the damage is mediocre, it can really mitigate eating an alpha strike and adds to overall cumulative damage.

Be warned though, the animation is very long and the further away the target it, the longer it takes to get there. It's not a power you can pull out in the middle of a fight easily but it is a handy attack and very good mitigation.

In fact, I think I started a thread about it a while ago:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=247451

I hope that helps!

*Crosses fingers and toes and prays hard to his gods that this new zone has absolutely nothing to do with Praetoria for a change.*






Yes, I know I'm going to be disappointed, but I can hope can't I?

I'm coming in disguise this year. Better if no-one knows who I am.

And sure, I'm not going to be glued to my screen all day. I'd say let's have a think about events first and ensure that there will be enough free terminals to do them on.

I'm double booked but I'll try and be there for some of it.

However, it's a shame it's another trial set in Praetoria. Hopefully there'll be others set in Primal with something a bit more epic than guard towers to fight. :P

Dear gurus of the Scrapper forums…

I’ve been here for a number of years now and among the many things I still haven’t achieved is having a Scrapper I can be proud of. I have witnessed Scrappers doing amazing things, most notably soloing the end room of Dark Watcher’s final mission while the rest of the team was faceplanted (Dark/Regen Scrapper IIRC). But my Scrappers tend to be… well, a little weak. I know I slot ok and fairly sensibly but they struggle to run anything higher than +1/x4.

But here’s the thing: I don’t have oodles of inf or the patience to marketeer for rare recipes. My builds tend to be inexpensive and eschew PvP or Purples, favouring fun over uberness. For the majority of their career, my characters live on SOs, only getting IOed if I really enjoy them.

So, getting to the point, I want to roll a Scrapper that can be awesome with little investment and perhaps astounding with a lot. What powersets would you recommend this is easiest to achieve with? Current favourite is an MA/Inv Scrapper which I am told can be great with a bit of effort. Fighting Pool and Body Mastery are a must but is there anything else I should look at adding? What’s good to aim for with a ‘great’ Scrapper? None of my builds tend to get anywhere near the softcap without a ton of Kinetic Combats so should I look at maximising my recharge or HP perhaps?

Any advice is gratefully received.

I can't say I've ever been of the kind for Base RP, or Bar RP for that matter. :P I like my RP on the fly, in between smashing mobs and taking names. Each to their own I guess.

Good luck in whatever you go onto next.

Was there anything else you wanted to ask us Zwillinger while you've got our undivided attention?

I think all of us appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and would be happy to give you more information on the EU experience (as long as you can put up with some of us grouchy residents).

I'll be there (no dancing this time) and will need to claim a desktop pc. My laptop has a hissy fit if I try to run CoX on it.

Not bad. Shame about the evasiveness around PvP.

Sometimes me namesake character, Dante, a D3 Defender, is like that. I played for three years with no 50s, always flicking from one idea to the next. Hell, before I had a stable SG, I had never got a character over level 20!

My problem is that I like to do a little bit of everything. I like to blast, scrap, control and debuff, preferably all at the same time. You'd think Kheldians would be right up my street but I only have two, both stuck in their mid 30s.

Dante was the first character that I decided 'right, I'm getting my 50' on and I made myself play him, even when I didn't feel like it. Fortunately, once I got over the 30s hurdle, there were plenty of high level teams that welcomed the awesomeness that a Dark/Dark/Dark Defender can bring them and I still love taking him out on big teams as he becomes the barbeque sauce to their steak, making good teams great. I can control, blast and debuff the hell out of most mobs with impunity and it feels great.

Since the Alpha Slot allowed me to slot a Cardiac and the introduction of Inherent Fitness, he's improved even more so, allowing me to get Leadership into his build. Also, a build that gives him great Defence to go with the -ToHit and a 50% damage bonus before the 30% solo bonus means he can solo very effectively. This doesn't mean I don't alt (hell, look at my signature!) and not a day goes by when I don't think of a new character concept but at least now I can say I've got a 'main' that is a reliable addition to any team.

As for people more dedicated than me, I have known some roleplayers that only play one character. Even when they have alted, they've abandoned them after only a little time, preferring to go back to their main. Also, I know a few people, including myself who use different powersets for the same character. So if I fancy scrapping, I have a Katana/Dark version of my main with the same costume and bio (although you could call this cheating).

I agree with you as far as the changes to Dark Armour and Dual Pistols and a revamp of the Shard, not so sure about the rest.

With Praetoria at the beginning and now at the end, I'm already sick to the back teeth with it. Let me fight Rularuu for my Incarnate status, not guard towers!

For me, merging the server list between EU and NA would be enough to make my year.

As a fan of Hades, I'd suggest looking up Thanatos before calling him 'the god of death'.

You don't want to get on the wrong side of him you know.

Made me giggle.

Late to the party, so sorry for the long post.


Why do you play a millionaire?

I don’t. I’ve never been a fan of the uber rich type characters, I prefer more earthy types, the kind that have to scrimp and save for their next bit of kit. I can see the appeal of a playboy type but I reckon I’d get bored fairly quickly. Dante is certainly wealthy from the amount of time he’s been alive but I feel no need to play to it. He owns an apartment in Independence Port, not a mansion.

I think the real compulsion for playing millionaires comes from the fact that we’re told very little about how heroes are remunerated. Are they paid by Hero Corps? Or do they volunteer to help the city in their spare time? If the latter, how do they balance it? How do they afford the exotic herbs for magic or the highly advanced tech for their devices? Being rich presents the easiest solution, it renders money (either for subsistence or equipment) a non-issue.


Where do you draw the line between game mechanic and lore

Wherever I can, I try to make them work together. As much as I love sandbox RP, we can’t do that here. So whatever RP ideas I put into practice, I try to make them work within the limits of the game world. Admittedly, that means I can’t blow up any tower blocks but then it’s only like a scriptwriter being given a limited budget, you have to recognise your limits and be creative within them. It can also stop aggressive god-modding by the GM.

There are places where this isn’t possible. Anathema is a character left permanently disfigured by Dr Vahzilok’s organ harvest and as such, I built her with no Fitness Pool (this was before Inherent Fitness of course). Unfortunately, it made her impossible to play so I had to grudgingly accept that mechanic in order to have a playable character. Conversely, if I can find a game mechanic that fits a character perfectly, they tend to become my favourites. Third Degree Byrne’s super strength and burning aura become more powerful the more angry he gets which is why the AT of Brute suits him down to the ground thanks to Fury.


Why do you play a god?

I don’t. I can’t think of one roleplayed god where I wasn’t god-modded or abused in some way so I tend to avoid them like the plague. If any of you do play gods, I’d be curious to know how you do it. I have characters who are associated with gods (one lord of the underworld, one nature incarnate and one Cthulu type) but it doesn’t make them all powerful.

Also, I always find it hard to resolve gods with the environment we’re given. The few gods we encounter in game don’t hang out in PD, chatting up the girls. Now if you were a god that had been stripped of his powers and sent to Earth to redeem himself, that I could handle but when I’m being told that I’ll be smited by some random god represented by a level 11 Scrapper, I’m glad that the screen is between me and them so they can’t hear me laughing. How on earth do they explain what happened when a level 16 Troll defeats them?


Why do you play a demon?

Ah ha! Finally a question I can answer with some experience.

I have a number of demon, or demon associated characters. The main reason I have them is because I created a hellish dimension for some RP and it became such a fertile ground for creative ideas. (Not, mind you, hell itself. Caer Infernis is just an alternative dimension where demons became the dominant species, not humans.)

I find demons useful for creating a character that is completely inhuman, someone removed from the normal morals of humanity. Sometimes I like to play that for laughs, such as with Imari, who applied for her hero license in nothing more than a loincloth, not aware of humans and their silly rules about modesty. Other times, such as with Pyralith, I want to play someone who is evil to the degree where he sees humanity as being nothing more than insects beneath his feet. The same could be done with aliens or extra-dimensional characters, but I like demons and the costume creator is kind towards that kind of thing.

You're a brave man making this thread and I thank you. Bravo!

There are plenty of issues to be addressed, most covered by previous posters but be prepared for a download of disparity issues between server clusters. However, as to your questions:

1) Most of the time, between 8pm and 12am GMT. I do, however, browse the forums throughout the day.

2) I'd say the latter is more important. As much as I like a good forum chinwag, I'd rather that our issues were escalated to those who can do something about them. For years, we had an infestation problem of Supatrolls in Skyway. They would spawn and then not despawn leading to a huge lag issue and making SS a no-go zone. Despite numerous requests and petitions and PMs, it was only when War Witch herself saw the problem on one of her visits to us that something happened.

So latency isn't an issue, but getting things resolved is.

Your next question?


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