GGG247

My first alt (in 2004) was named Killdozer, a Stone/Stone Tanker who I rarely play anymore. Since that time, the Devs created a storyarc in game featuring a Freakshow boss named Killdozer, so I don't think I'll be able to delete my character and still be able to re-use the name on a new one.

Oh well, anyone got a /Kin on Triumph looking for a team? LOL

My only level 50 Tanker is a WP/Fire. He was a lot of fun, from start to finish, and he really played like a tough Scrapper. I ran him through all the Hazard Zones only (Perez Park, Hollows, Faultline, etc.) just for a change, and it was great.

"How to Be a Successful Professional Criminal" (#401500) is designed for levels 1-10 and gives you a variety of villains to fight (Trolls, Infected, & Family, mainly). It has a nice little story, spread over 5 missions.

Try my arc, "The Roots of Domestic Terror" (#103955). it makes you do EVIL things to many innocent people!

They're updating the Red Tomax site, but it's moved. You can find the new version at http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/

It's still a great place to get some valuable information.

Come to Dragon*Con!

Every year, we have a standing-room-only crowd for the CoX session; plenty of fans, no one from the game itself. We spend a lot of time discussing what we THINK the Devs are up to...

Who cares if it's the same weekend as another convention? Don't they have more than one Developer? Heck, we'd be happy with the Paragon Studios receptionist! She'd be showered with love and affection from a roomful of fans, especially if she brought us free stuff (or at least some good scuttlebutt about what REALLY goes on in the office!).

It looks like your date of "April 10, 2009" for the updated Guide to Tanker Guides should be "April 10, 2010".

I leveled my Crab up to 30 and got tired of him, to be honest. On teams, he's great, and I can't complain at all, but solo, he just seemed to tick off a LOT of mobs, who then attacked en masse. I created a second build (Bane) at 30 (one of the options the Trainer gives you, along with Choose a Title, Ask a Question, etc.). I love my Bane, and have taken him up to 46 pretty quickly. He's a lot of fun to play solo, and I can always switch out to my Crab build when I team.

Two cons to this: You need to buy all new enhancements for your second build, which can start to get expensie. And, as noted above, you're stuck with the Crab backpack no matter which build you're playing.

I recommend trying the 2nd build option, though, as you can start the alternate style right away and see which you like better.

The only other time I use the second build method is on one of my Tankers. I have a Team build (with Taunt, plus skipping an attack power and taking Icycles instead) and a solo build (more individual attacks). It works well.

You're right about Claim not working UNTIL the e-mail screen gets expanded. Thanks!

I went in and tried out the new e-mail system. I got on a villain alt and placed a Masterwork Weapon piece of salvage in the e-mail with the message "Here you go" (without the quotation marks of course). I then went into another villain alt and tried to retrieve the salvage, but was unable to do so.

I received the e-mail just fine (on all my alts, heroes and villains). The e-mail buttons are as follows: New, Reply, Reply All, Forward, Return, and Spam (we all know what the Spam button is for!). There was also a Claim button under the picture of the Masterwork Weapon. Clicking on the Claim button did nothing; it wouldn't allow any of my alts to actually take possession of it. Also, I was unable to "read" my e-mail, as there's no Read button, and clicking (and double-clicking) on the actual e-mail did absolutely nothing.

Also, how do I delete this e-mail? There's no Delete button available.

Fusion, your questions weren't dumb at all; I was wondering the same things as you, so thanks for asking here.

Now for my last question--Can I now use one alt to invite another alt on the same server to join my private SG? Or, do I still have to ask some random player to "help me out for a few minutes" by joining my SG and then inviting my other character for me?

I recently played this arc that I'd created last year and was glad to see that it's held up, despite all the changes to MA over time. Here's the rundown:

Arc #: 103955
Title: The Roots of Domestic Terror
Level Range: 1-54
Enemies: Custom
Difficulty: Challenging
Morality: Villainous
# of Missions: 3

This arc attempts to place real villainy in the CoX setting. Your character is asked to break into a Federal Pen and murder a terrorist being held for trial. You need information from him that the government hasn't been able to extract in a more PC way. After that, you take this terrorist's weapons and attempt to derail disarmament talks between the US and Russia, hopefully starting WW3 in the process. You're expected to kill many innocent people during the course of the arc, so be prepared to hear your victims plead for their lives.

Your opponents are a para-military group made up of the best of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. These brave men will stop at nothing to bring you to justice, and they can be tough to fight (the Marines being the toughest, of course! ).

Although it's a custom group, there's a mixture of minions, lts., and a Boss, so XP is pretty good. I was pretty happy with the # of tickets, too. I had all good ratings on this arc last year when I first published it, so I hope you'll check it out.

Most of my alts are white men and women, but here are a few of my ethnic characters:

Kremlin Colonel - Ice/Axe Tanker; I liked the name and it went with the Ice powers;

Latin Lava - Earth/Fire Dominator; This turned out to be one of my favorite characters to write for in MA arcs, as he's a real cad, yet utterly charming. He's from Buenes Aires.

Cusabo Chief - TA/Archery Defender; This one's my tribute to the Cusabo Indian tribes (Wappoo, Stono, etc.) who once lived around Charleston, SC (my hometown).

Habanero Hottie- Fire/Rad Controller; I got the name from the menu in a local restaraunt, and made her Cuban in origin. I have a couple of Cuban friends and thought the name, costume, powers, and background story all meshed well.

Avenging Disco Diva - MA/Regen Scrapper; ADD is a black woman in the mold of Pam Grier, Rosiland Cash, and Teresa Graves from early 70's (bad) movies.

I also have a couple of redneck characters (a hero and a villain), 2 robots, a werewolf, 2 Trolls, a hippie, a lizard, a ghost, and 2 demons. I also have a character based on a guy from my old high school, a TV character, and a movie character (with different names of course).

Ahhh, variety!

I made a DS/Poison MM last night and got her to lvl 13 with a great team. Poison worked well in the team setting, as we were of course taking on high-level enemies, and Envenom and Weaken really helped. I'll see this weekend how well it does solo.

I don't know how we're supposed to "get used to" not being able to see the numbers on screen.

If a large % of players can't see the enhancement numbers, or have to lean in really close to their screen and squint, that's a game error, whether the developers want to call it that or not.

I remember when street-sweeping was the best way to get XP and missions were really weak in that regard. My first alt (Stone/Stone Tanker) spent a couple of weeks just running around the streets outside of Perez Park, fighting groups of Helions and Outcasts. That was just the way it was done. Big groups of new heroes would team up in the lake in PP for Hydra fights, which were eventually replaced by the Sewers for most players.

My understanding of the trains at the time was that you start in the middle of the city map (Atlas/Galaxy/PP) where enemies are easier, and you work your way through the Yellow Line maps until you get to a high enough level, then move on the the farther-out Green Line maps. The whole thing was that the farther out you go, the more dangerous the environment. Founders Falls was the highest level map at the time, and had no train line going there. Heroes had to really hoof it to get to that high-level content.

Today, of course, that whole idea is outmoded, but at the time, it really made sense. The city was overrun with aliens, monsters, and villains. It had just repelled a major invasion that had left much of the city in ruins. You started in the middle of the map, where some semblance of order had been restored, and move out to the outlands, facing tougher enemies along the way. I used to picture this as a kind of "Fort Apache" type game, where you venture forth into danger and return in glory (or to the hospital) to report to your contact. It's actually not a bad way to design a game; this one just evolved in a different direction.

This is some good information to have! I think I may move Follow-Up to lvl 32 and drop Shockwave back to 41, as Shockwave doesn't work too well with Invincibility at keeping enemies close.

The vet reward where I can just go straight to a travel power is great, and it's really freed up my builds a lot. I usually take Flight on my characters, but since this one is a tiger-man type, I may switch to SJ instead.

I planned to have 4 slots in RPD, REn, and REl for eventual IOs. I'd read somewhere that by slotting 4 Reactive Armors, I could really build up my Defenses (from bonuses) in addition to Resistance. I like the idea of having both high Def and Res on a single alt. This plan that I read was for Tankers, though, so it may not work so well for my Brute. I'll need to think about that. (I got the idea for this when I lucked into a Steadfast Def/Res unique. Some Skull dropped it on me at level 6 or something, so I slotted that baby right away!)

Thanks for the help. I'm going to redo my build plan and see how it works. I'm at lvl 29 now, so I've still got some room to manuever.


EDIT: One thing I forgot to add--I absolutely hate missing when I attack, so I've learned over the years to slot 2 Acc unless the power has some great accuracy or to-hit bonus (like Archery). "Missing" is probably my biggest pet peeve in this game. Have you ever noticed how sometimes you miss non-character objects, like gigantic vault doors, cardboard boxes, or parking meters? I think this is something that should actually be changed in the game. Why would someone miss a stationary object? It serves no purpose! Anyway, /Rant over.

Anybody?



Anybody?

I just finished a low-level villain arc (401500) called "How to Be a Successful Professional Criminal". It's 5 missions, designed for levels 1-10.

You fight the Family, Trolls, PPD, and the Infected as you learn the ropes of being a bad guy, from street level Superdine sales to fighting dirty cops. Hey, it beats fighting Snakes for the 1000th time!

Please check it out.

Arc # 401500
Title: How to Be a Successful Professional Criminal
# Missions: 5
Levels: 1 to 10
Enemies: Family, Trolls, PPD, Infected
Difficulty: Easy

How many times have you wanted to make a new villain character, but the thought of fighting those blasted Snakes again made you pause? This story arc is designed for low level villains who'd like a change. Don Franco, a Verandi operative, agrees to teach your alt how to be a real criminal in exchange for taking care of a few jobs for him.

These missions involve hurting the Family's business interests on Mercy Island by disrupting their Superdine trade, their stolen goods operations, and their illegal gambling. Plus, you get to put the hurt on some dirty cops!

Please take a look at this and leave me feedback on what you liked and what you didn't!

I've been working on a Claws/Invuln Brute lately and have really enjoyed playing him so far (level 26). I've put together a build for leveling up, but am unsure of whether I'm on the right track or not. All the /Inv Guides seem to be outdated, as RPD, REn, and REl have been improved (are they worth getting now? slotting up?).

As you can see below, I've also pushed Follow Up back, as I thought it wasn't as important on a Brute as on a Scrapper, but this may be a mistake. Anyway, I'm looking for build advice as a leveling up, PvE, solo-and-PUG build.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Tiger Town Fanatic: Level 50 Science Brute
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Strike -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(9), Dmg(11), Dmg(15)
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- ResDam(A), ResDam(43), ResDam(45), ResDam(46)
Level 2: Slash -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(9), Dmg(11), Dmg(15)
Level 4: Temp Invulnerability -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(5), ResDam(5), ResDam(17)
Level 6: Spin -- Acc(A), Acc(7), Dmg(7), Dmg(13), Dmg(17), EndRdx(50)
Level 8: Swift -- Run(A)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(25), Heal(29), Heal(31)
Level 12: Fly -- Flight(A)
Level 14: Health -- Heal(A), Heal(43), Heal(43)
Level 16: Unyielding -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(23), ResDam(29), ResDam(33)
Level 18: Focus -- Acc(A), Acc(19), Dmg(19), Dmg(23), Dmg(27)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)
Level 22: Kick -- Acc(A)
Level 24: Tough -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(25), ResDam(34), ResDam(34), ResDam(34)
Level 26: Eviscerate -- Acc(A), Acc(27), Dmg(31), Dmg(31), Dmg(33), EndRdx(50)
Level 28: Invincibility -- EndRdx(A), DefBuff(36), DefBuff(37), DefBuff(39)
Level 30: Resist Energies -- ResDam(A), ResDam(45), ResDam(45), ResDam(48)
Level 32: Shockwave -- Acc(A), Acc(33), Dmg(37), Dmg(37), Dmg(39)
Level 35: Tough Hide -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(36), DefBuff(36)
Level 38: Weave -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(39), DefBuff(40), DefBuff(40), DefBuff(40)
Level 41: Follow Up -- Acc(A), Acc(42), RechRdx(42), RechRdx(42), Dmg(48), Dmg(50)
Level 44: Resist Elements -- ResDam(A), ResDam(46), ResDam(46), ResDam(48)
Level 47: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A)
Level 49: Unstoppable -- RechRdx(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 0: Ninja Run



The 4th slots in RPD, REn, and REl are there for future IO's, so they can be moved around as needed. I mainly need help in seeing if I've slotted up powers correctly and in the right order (should Invincibility get slotted sooner, etc.). Any help would be appreciated!

Mine is only level 33, but here's what I've found so far:

Take Char, RoF, and Air Superiority (or Boxing) for damage early on. These 3 will pump out some nice damage (for a Controller) and allow you to level up quickly, either solo or on teams.

Take Fire Cages to keep enemies off you.

Hot Feet is great, but it eats END like you wouldn't believe. Wait until level 22 (after Stamina) to get it, then 6 slot it (3 End/1 Acc/2 Dmg).

Take Flashfire at 12 and 6 slot it (2 Acc/3 Rechg/1 Stun).

Take Thermal Shield and Plasma Shield as soon as you can if teaming, later if mainly soloing.

Cauterize and Forge are really good. Take in 20s.

That's all I've got; I hope it helps. Mine has leveled up pretty quickly and painlessly, and it's only gotten easier since I slotted up my Imps.

I'm working on a new Fire/Rad right now and I've been very happy with Ring of Fire in my build (she's level 8). The damage when I'm soloing is great with RoF, and I can't imagine giving that up. I have Fire Cages, too, but I'm just using that as an immobilize, as no matter how much damage you slot in it, it'll be minimal at best.

Is RoF a power you guys take early on, and then replace later?

My Fire/Thermal (lvl 33) had Hot Feet early, but END issues forced me to move it back to level 22. It's a great power, but prior to Stamina, it was tough to solo with it and not use Rest between each fight to replenish the blue bar. How is endurance with both Hot Feet and CC running at the same time? Is this a turn on-turn off combo, or can they both run constantly?

I understand the need for the "accuracy" concept in the game, but this should NEVER apply to hitting static items. I hate that my high level superhero swings at a giant vault door and misses. How does THAT happen? Or when you blast a cardboard box and miss (!).

Make accuracy 100% on static items so we don't all look like putzes in from of our teammates ("He missed that trash can! Loser!! LOL")

I'm sure this has brought up before, but I can't figure out why "stores" in Nerva only offer to sell level 25 and 30 enhancements. Nerva is designed for levels 25 to 40, which means there are a lot of characters running around from levels 32-40 who don't need level 25 or 30 enhancements. We need 35s and 40s.

It just seems strange that my characters in that range do all their missions in Nerva and all their shopping in St. Martial.