Demetrios Vasilikos

Its always nice to see someone take the first steps into really becoming part of the paragonverse.

I myself have loved the story and run countless solo missions through out the game with my characters. It was what lead me to begin creating Lore based RP concepts rather then generic fit into any comic world concepts.

Should you happen to be curious about such things and are not yet on it, consider playing on virtue server, rich with RPers and no few Lore based ones like myself.

Look up Bentley Berkeley on virtue anytime I run TFs of all level ranges frequently and enjoy RPing as a mentor to young heroes as well.

BTW yes its very true that blue side is richer in content then red side. Since COV launched its always had a smaller pop and tends to attract more solo minded players back when that was the only way to play the vil ATs.

This is why I have most vigilantes and rogues as having access to the full world is really worth the loss of hero/vil merits imo. At least if your more about playing then grinding.

LOL this isnt thread worthy. Different incarnate powers exist to give options. Im one who favors Spiritual on most of my toons. Those who use something else usually have little interest in healing or recharge boosts at all.

I really just dont get these number cruncher threads that have no real meaning and certainly dont offer any useful advice.

ANYONE can look at a given incarnate power and see what it offers and think him do I have more recharge powers or toggles, will recharge help me enough or not for it to be a major component of my incarnate boosts? There are many toggle heavy sets with powers that boosts heals, like in will power for example, who enjoy a boosts to thier healing and dont have any need at all for more recharge compared to some other effects.

Its great to have some aspects like Heal be shared between mutliple incarnate alphas because when it comes down to it all have health, so all can benefit at least minimally from a health incarnate boost.

Plenty of builds now days live without hasten thanks to IO set bonuses, I cant imagine any of those builds crave any more recharge from another source, but might well enjoy some more healing boosts.

I personally have witnessed a friends account taken over.

One day I was chatting with a in game aquaintence when they suddenly logged out. I assumed an emergency or a DC. We had been at the talos tram so I walked over to WW to do some browsing.

A few minutes later I saw them log back in. With in another minute I was hit by a gold spam and thought thats odd that global handle looks awefully familiar. Sure enough it was my friends global.

I saw them standing by the tram and walked up to say high and whats up.

They immediatly logged out. A bit later I got an email from an unknown account, saying it was my friend on a new alt account they just made after mysteriously losing access to thier own.

I told them what I had seen and we both filed reports. However they never got back control of thier account, and soon after left the game.

Eventually they admitted to me they had purchased influence from a gold seller site and thier norton anti virus took weeks to wipe out all the trojans and keyloggers it imbedded in thier system.

Personally I just dont see the need. even a brand new player once they learn the ropes can earn enough to decently IO out and in time even buy the purples they may crave to feel equal to the old timers.

Although I have seen some MMO experiment with legal trading. It usually hasnt shown much success at garnering support. Vanguard specifically comes to mind.

Just remember kids true heroes dont buy thier way to the top. Batman might have billions but that isnt what made him mighty.

All I can say is as much as I enjoy this series since it first began, I absolutely LOATHE Doctor who since Moffat took over. He not only ruined his best addition to Who with Blink and the weeping angels being mucked up in 5+ but seems proud that he has done so. Amy and Rory are the best part of it and keep being given minimalist roles in to many episodes, and not nearly enough doctor light ones to balance it out.

And River Song....BLEH! I liked her plenty back in 4 in the library....as a tragic femme fatale who might of been a terribly interesting character if they had never developed her. Sometimes the mystery is alot more fun.

Really I wish the damn writer would just focus on this series and leave who to the writers who actually like the Doctor.

Dear Op I am sorry that the Selfless Icon you love NEVER EXISTED.

Here are the facts that I have been aware of since year one that apparently it took blatant spelling out to make most aware, or retconning of plots to change what was.

Marcus Cole ceased to exist the moment he drank from the well. The entity called zeus consumed his soul, and took his body for himself. This isnt the first time zeus has done such, how do you think heracles was concieved.

Zeus being an extra dimensional entity that exists as a fixed point in existance uses the many avatars that are the various marcus coles through out the multi verse to wage a one man war to create a pervasive aura of fear permeating many Earths. This leads to more worshipping his various selves and increases his power exponentially. I know some who even suspected for the longest time that is what made Cole special, he is kind of like Jet Li in The One and connected. Zeus stole his bodies to usurp that connection.

The war with the rikti was actually started by Statesman using the excuse that he has the right to police the multiverse he harrassed nemesis forces while they conducted peaceful trade with the rikti. This was later retconned to be a nemesis plot but was infact always meant to be the actual truth. Much as it was another heroes fault that Hal Jordans beloved home city was destroyed and drove him to villaindom. The rikti long ago did away with thier meta and see them as inherently evil. It is not at all evil but a desire to free humanity that drives thier cause.

Also is the strong possibility that Nemesis is just a creation of statesman. Another tin soldier being used to manipulate how humanity worships statesman.

I personally dont even feel one of him dieing is enough. Until all Coles are dead across the multi verse none of us our free.

Until that day comes, know people of earth Count Alphonse Crey and his loyal wife will do all they can to protect us.

Crey! Because they care.

Ive run a few ITFs this week on Virtue with my main blaster Bentley Berkeley. From the OPs description it could of easily been one of my groups.

My typical ITF takes around 45 minutes, Ill take any AT lvl 35+ who wants to join.

SOP for each part is as follows.

Part 1: Secure the hostages. Once they are done we move on from the caves. WHat else would a hero do, waste time fighting or rescue the damsel?

Once OUtside Fly straight up, I really dont give a rats *** if the team follows or fights thier way up. I am securing the oracle and getting her to the altar asap.

Part2. Get it done ASAP. Keep moving, dont slow down for ambushes, and if one or more are capable of going off solo to speed it up all the better. That is real team work in my book.

Part 3: I designate a point tank for the team and go point blanker myself. General leap frog is the name of the game, when a generals number drops grab some sky and move on to the next.

Part 4: Rommy and Roofs. No time to waste, rommy is on the verge of gawdhood and even a second spent on needless battle while he lives risk more then the moment.

I only lead them. I never falter or fail them, and will take anyone willing with me.

Yet I can still recall those old days. When the ITF was brand spanking new, when you didnt always have enough 50s and had to work with lower lvl capped groups and no incarnate powers. For those this TF goes from fun to frustrating to say the least.

You see the game is at its best for all when you dont NEED anything but the company of others doing thier own thing to have fun to. If I need something from someone else besides just thier company then it goes from fun to responsable for others fun and that isnt really all that fun for anyone.

Although i dont see Hasten as universally needed as it once was, thanks largely to IO sets, still it has a place in many builds, and concepts.

However I do have characterts without it, typically they are toggle heavy and lack any paticularly special move on a lengthy recharge. An example might be my old MA/Shield scrapper who between his large amount of attacks and mainly being toggle in power use, extra recharge especially at the cost of glowy hands that dont fit his concept, was all part of choosing to not use hasten on him.

However my BS/Regen scrapper i focus very heavily on recharge both in IO sets and using hasten to compliment the large amount of click based powers in my defense set, and make my best attacks and parry that much more available to me as needed.

Its really as simple as that for what should help you decide. Clicks or toggles. which do you use more? if answer is clicks then hasten + all other recharge bonuses you can fit in is really the ONLY viable option to make the investment of IOs really worthwhile.

I think the show is just to smart and gutsy to last. Alot like firefly despite being different genres.

From the trampoline episode that dealt with racism to the D&D episode that dealt with suicidal depression.

Just too smart alot like Sucker Punch, people can only get the obvious and miss the real point of the story every time.

the great thing about COX is the vast amount of love they have given to psifans. telepaths to teleporters we just love our masters of the mind. My personal fave is the Talents series by the late and great Anne Mcaffrey which started with The Rowan. The dragons of Pern where also some pretty well rounded psionic beings.

My personal fave is my psi/ment blaster bentley berkeley on virtue. You want to see what its capable of come look me up there anytime. As far as sets go its my fave blaster combo ever and I havent wanted to use another blaster set since.

I feel very X-Man like with the build I have to be honest. So although I know alot diss it, dont discount the psi blaster as a valid option for a psi concept character.

BIG GRATS!

Inspite of my forum date Ive been around since year one. So i know the old days and how hard it could be for more casual, oft times handicapped with sub optimal power comboed players to get thier first 50s. My own was a katana/SR scrapper named T'Keron Valmaz on my older vet account. It took A LONG time to reach 50 at least a year plus, maybe more.

I wouldnt even have another 50 for a long time as Id take up the delete if it didnt suit me by 38-41 attitude for a good long time afterwards.

Even now I only have a handful of 50s across the AT spectrums. Mostly scrappers, my main blaster, a PB, brute, etc.

Sure now days if you just want to lvl its pretty easy, but imo those like yourself who take the slow and serious route will have alot better grasp of how to use your character.

the man marcus cole has been dead for a long time. His body is just a shell possessed by an entity that once was called Zeus. He has used this guise to subvert the faith of humanity once more for himself. Feeding upon the latent psionic energy inside every sentient life.

Do not kid yourselves. Should one avatar fall many more exist. Our war is far from over. Fear not though for we the good people at Crey will not yield earth to the enemy.

Crey. Because we care!

well I myself hav3e always thought a few MM sets based on in game villain groups would be cool. Maybe a carnival MM, plenty of ladies in thier groups. Or a vahzilok MM. Female eidelons are scary and sexy no two ways about it.

Id play an MM if there was more sets inline with game lore. the ones we have are just too generic for me to be honest. I really dig the incarnate lore pets because of that and am working on collecting them all personally.

A new blaster...dies alot. Know what though? So do new everyone elses. Some ATs have an easier learning curve. This is especially true for sets with built in self sustainability powers.

Its also no secret that there are those who are stuck in, and I apologize for the negative connotation but it is there for a reason, of being too much a wowtard or holy trinity mentality.

COX has survived and even come to thrive in the shadow of WoW becuase it is NOT WoW. Even in first year people struggled to break the limits of thier ATs. Tankers wanted to do dmg, blasters wanted to survive, defenders wanted to do more then support.

And through long trial and error along with no little effort in time we did so. We all together won that war to get to the game we have now. However its not always easy for people to accept, to trust in the unknown which is maybe most especially true when dealing with unknown blasters.

Its also hard for some to admit thier own weakness, thier own inability to be truly adaptive, which is what those defense gifted ATs admit to when they suggest that mobs being knocked back from them might make them vulnerable.

I only have one 50 blaster. I have played many as I have said, but I deleted every one somewhere along the way, even my first years, and have no regret thanks to my success with Bentley Berkeley.

Scrappers on the other hand I have numerous 50s, in a variety of powersets, Including my oldest 50 and only first year I have left.

Among them is my claw/will power known as Invisble Falcon of virtue. WP ofcourse is one of those sets that thrives on massive aggro. Yet claw ofcourse has several notable KB including a good sized cone one. I never hesitate to use ALL of my attacks especially AOEs to thin herds of trash quickly. I ofcourse am a master of using KB to herd groups where I want and favor it to the dull aggro and let em come style found in less interesting MMO.

If you dont like KB and one on your party uses it, leave the group. DOnt ask others to ruin thier own experiance for you. GO find a new group or learn to play better with others. Every power is here to be chosen if someone enjoys it. That is why people take certain powers. COX is not a game ruled by numbers style play like others as most so driven on that aspect tend to be TERRIBLE players in my experiance. Using character builders, or forum cookie cutters rarely lead to a player developing into an effective citizen of paragon. COX is alot more skill based and when I say skill I mean actual practical experiance in game using the various powers in a variety of content, at a variety of levels. If your build Only works once it reaches a certain threshold, or falls apart when it exemps down, your as gimp as they come. A real COX player can just pick 2 sets and in his head instantly see what powers he will take at which lvl, how he will slot them, how he will set them, and how he will even respec them later for differenent higher end sets.

You know what I was wrong earlier, we real cox players are kind of mentats when it comes to this game.

Id highly suggest virtue, strong population of long time RPers. Lots of sword and sorcery themed ones out there. And praetorians definatly have a strong presence. both pro and anti cole types.

I am bentley Berkeley of Virtue. A 50 Psi/ment/force blaster who has NO EQUAL in my fields of leading pug TFs of any AT configuration at an exceptional pace and being an all around old time lore RPer who mentors many young heroes. My ego ofcourse fuels my psi/ment powers so dont be surprised by it.

Its no secret many speak il of the psi/ment set. Making such insane claims that the set is the weakest DPS and most useless all around. All false and based on something as meaningless in a world of fiction called math. pff math. No mentats exist among these forums. None can take into account years of experiance, a spiritual connection to the AT, nor an absolute devotion to the art of Blasting.

Blasters do not need major overhauls. They do not need every 2ndary redesigned to a defensive so we can mimic vile corruptors.

I would say perhaps every old secondary from launch could stand a review and have one or two current throw away powers in each set changed to somekind of real self heal/recovery power.

But in general the reason why most blasters complain about thier play experiance is a lack of understanding created by the falsehoods spread on these forums.

Blasters are no less then any other warrior caste AT and are the true front line.

Simple facts like yesterday I lead an ITF I formed in about 5 minutes composed of random puggers varying in level from 38 to 50+ like myself.

The poor brute who was a valiant warrior mistakenly assumed they where the front line. Soon they learned to follow where my psi tornadoes where flying towards. We had several other blasters on the team including another almost mirroring myself which was lovely. we had no Healers per se though the bubbler def was ideal to compliment my own self healing style of play. Never do the teams complain at the end but give thanks for the swift and painless tf. In this case it was about 45 minutes as Id promised based on my initial expectation based on the team that had formed.

When you have a stallion let it run is what I say.

or last night I ran a 4 man synapse tf. under 2 hours. tank spent most of the time trying to catch up to me, the defender joked about not ever needing to use thier major powers, the stalker had fun getting to AS now and then which usually put down the odd boss I didnt bother to focus on. Again thanks from all of them not a oh no you dont hang back behind the tank, oh no you follow KBed targets around and charged right into mobs. Why because a real blaster does those things ALWAYS and real players know this. A real blaster ofcourse doesnt need the rest of the group but is there to help them anyways out of selfless kindess. Be thankful when a blaster comes to speed up your otherwise slow dreary day.

I wont claim to know the how or why.

What I suspect is this is just long overdue. the shadow of jack has kind of haunted paragon since cryptic moved on. No one Ive met has ever argued it felt wrong letting any other employee run states for live events etc. So its time to end him. Also with Tyrant and reichsman becoming more promiment, the best way to really make them more imposing is to remove our own version to put us at a disadvantage in the meta arms race.

Especially because now slowly but surely, due to the incarnate story arc. when we finally finish it will be considered more powerful then statesman in lore content. And haters over at Champions call us city of sidekicks yeah right lol.

Greetings. You must be here to learn about Paragon City and what goes on here. Well thats a complex question with no easy answers. If you want the fairy tales the media feed to the masses then I am sure you can go find some archives at the library and read up on the glory days of the Icons of the city.

If you want the truth, free of the propoganda fed by the powers that be into the mouths of the starving and frightened, then take a seat and Ill introduce myself.

You got the stomach for it then I see. Well good for you kid. They call me the Invisible Falcon. No I am not dead, those rumors have been greatly exagerated by my enemies.

For a long time now our city has suffered. From nigh immortal madmen bent on murdering every citizen to war with extra dimensional alternate versions of humanity, we have watched our fair city be battered and scarred.

You must ask yourself as you go to bed each night, why? Why does so much from so far across the stars and time itself seek out Paragon to fill every childs night with terror that a monster may swallow thier home whole?

It is because of Statesman ofcourse. It always began with him. But I do not mean the man who wears the helmet, not that body once human though it was. No I mean the thing that infests it. An entity timeless and hungry for power, and to be worshipped by the masses of sentient life all throughout existance.

Once in history he was called Zeus, and myth is full of his mecurial actions against Earth and humanity. molesting and murdering us on a whim as if it was his right.

For reasons unclear to me Marcus Cole was special, special enough we have seen evidence that even in other timelines Zeus seeks out this body for a host over all others.

Why? Its difficult to be sure, but I suspect Marcus Cole possessed the unique ability to connect with himself in alternate timelines. Drawing upon a hidden reserve of power as infinite as possibility itself.

Zeus I believe controls all of these avatars and uses them to play us against one another. This war with praetoria is in my eyes as tragic as the civil war in history. Humanity at each others throats for the amusement of a false god.

Those who suspect the truth are hunted without mercy as I once was and nearly lost my life. If not for the heroic actions of Crey following the protocols left for them by the noble Count Alphonse Crey and lead by his loyal wife Clarissa during his time in the coma induced by Sister Psyche at the command of Statesman, then surely Earth would already be lost and humanity throughout existance enslaved for all time.

Crey is corrupt you say. Really? What is the worst thing you know for certain they have done? Is it really worse then any goverment has during a time of war. Is it really worse then when a hat salesman dropped two nuclear bombs on civilian population centers?

No I think not. As I said I am not dead. Crey saved my life that day when Statesman and his lackey crew left me for dead. With my blood crey made thier first generation of clone slugs, and with DNA samples I helped them to aquire from fallen heroes, we made a real difference in halting the heavy toll the rikti war was taking upon us all. To this day no one can look back on that fateful day when the blue and gold of the Paragon Protectors took to the sky and pushed back the invasion that had begun to break through the badly depleted Heroes lines and not give thanks to Crey for saving the world.

So kids thats enough for you to mull over for now I think. Take some time, let it sink in, and if you think you have the heart to hear more come on back and ask.