Grim Saint

I should be around to help with this. I eagerly look forward to putting a cap on my badge count... maybe forever... but maybe not!

I play one character almost exclusively. I've poured countless hours, countless badge grinds, and countless billions into him. I spent upwards of 6 billion on prestige to outfit my solo SG.

And yet I'd reroll that character in a heartbeat. In fact starting from scratch knowing everyone else is in the same boat would be a breath of fresh air. It would bring me back to my early days.

Since the CoH pacifier was knocked from my mouth I've been frantically searching for one of the same size, color, and quality.

DCUO... no. CO I can't even spend 2 minutes in since I find it so kitten-murderingly ugly. The style just isn't my style I suppose. SWTOR feels small and boring, Secret World feel buggy and unsubstantial. Everything else is elves and dwarves which simply doesn't appeal to me. The only one that looks enticing at all is Guild Wars 2 but it's still elves and dwarves and the guilt of buying it would stab at my brain.

I have a hard time staying in CoH now knowing that it's ending, especially since I was so eagerly awaiting an i24 that will never happen.

I guess I'll go play Mass Effect again.

ALSO! VIPs get access to VIP beta.

As a severe non-altoholic I find this to be extremely beneficial. I get to test new content on my main... and then play my main! YAY!

I think the ultimate "benefit" of PPM is making it more casual-friendly. A newborn player isn't necessarily going to assume that an IO with a with a 20% chance to proc is better off in a fast-recharging attack (even though he should, the stupid bugger). NOW someone can slot a proc in just about anything and achieve relatively the same benefit overall with a few notable exceptions.

Ultimately I think it's a good thing. It gives min/maxers more options and allows casuals the ability to slot in a way that doesn't require any pre-knowledge or math.

Most people don't like math. It's true. Look it up.

The fact that endgame content (ie: incarnate) is gated by a VIP subscription makes a lot of sense to me. Long time players are loathe to pass up the opportunity to uber-ize their main toons and free/freemiums eventually become jealous of those same players and decide a subscription is worth it.

If you're casual then go premium. But if you're like most of us then at some point you'll begin salivating over the prospect of laughing maniacally as +4/8 mobs tremble beneath your mighty, spikey, rockety boots.

That's why I do it anyway...

Well it appears I've been humbled.

Averaging 2 minutes/pylon I killed 14/18 before they began to reappear one by one. The odd the thing was that which one reappeared seemed to be random, at least at first glance. It appears that each individual pylon isn't on its own timer, rather the whole of them are on a universal 30 minute clock, with each separate pylon respawning according to hidden order.

I used no temps or inspirations. I probably should have.

If the limit is 30 minutes you'd have to average about 1.6 minutes per Pylon in order to get through them all in time (this is counting travel time). This is well enough beyond my means at the present moment.

That leaves another question that I'm curious about - are the Mothership's shields dependent on ALL Pylons being active, or just one? If it's one then there's really no hope period. By these standards even if I managed a minute per pylon I'd only have 12 minutes to set the requisite bombs, pull U'Kon and murder him.

Of course if each bomb gives me, say, 10 minutes there might be hope if I manage to set one just under the wire, but if U'Kon only spawns with 2+ I'd still have to login under multiple separate toons just to get him to appear. At that point I'd still need to pull him and hope he doesn't bring a squad of Magi as well.

I think it probably COULD be done if I brought every dual inspiration/amplifier/shivan/nuke/signature summon etc. to bear but that just doesn't seem worth it. What glory can there be when you are able to literally BUY a safe's worth of buffs? I have a hard time using REGULAR inspirations during normal play. It always feels like cheating to me. Maybe with another level shift or two I'll give this a try.

All in all I'm ultimately glad I couldn't accomplish this feat. The fact that power has creeped enough to let me entertain the idea that I could solo an event designed for 24+ players is probably a bad thing.

So good. Good that it bested me. I still probably got further than I should have...

I love hearing these stories!!

If there's one aspect in common it seems to be about a single hero (or villain) tackling insurmountable odds against a single notorious enemy (or small group of powerful enemies).

I have concede that Dear Old Jack may have been on to something with his three-on-one threshold of difficulty. My greatest thrill comes from tackling immense challenges against a small number of powerful foes. It's more personal, more immediate, and at the very least you can see what the heck it going on.

As much as I enjoy running incarnate trials the thrill and immediacy begins to evaporate when you're just one among 24 blurs of FX pounding on an AV you can barely make out.

Sparing mano-a-mano with a notorious baddy exemplifies the super hero experience more than any trial can in my book. CoH is a community experience, obviously. That's why I keep coming back. But reducing the number of personalities while upping the stakes is simply a recipe for good drama, and excitement.

So I've been on a soloing kick recently and have been tackling more and more absurd challenges as my cockiness expands. My latest exploit - soloing Lusca, was something I had once thought impossible. Now I'm turning an eye toward something even more absurd...

I'd like to spawn and take out U'Kon Gr'ai. By myself. Before attempting it however I thought I'd do some recon considering the time investment in requires. I've done several Mothership Raids in the past but am having a hard time remembering/finding the exact info I require:

-How long does it take for a Pylon to regenerate?
-Once all Pylons are down how long will the shields stay up?
-How many bombs does it take to spawn U'Kon?
-Is it possible to set enough bombs as a single character within the allotted time in order to spawn him?
-I'm aware that each bomb set extends the timer. But by how much?
-I can't find any stat information on U'Kon himself. I've taken out every other GM but am worried he might have immense S/L resist (I'm a StJ stalker) or some other tricks I'm unaware of.

I'll make a note that I don't utilize any inspirations or temp powers. Doing so seems cheap in this day and age due to dual inspirations/emailing inspirations/signature summons/HVAS/shivans/nukes etc. There are so many "one time" god-mode temps these days that it seems unfair to attempt something like this while using them. I do intend to use all incarnate powers, however.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SSA2 PART 3 BELOW!

**************************************

I'd like to describe a solo fight I had with a +4 AV if I may. It was thrilling/frustrating/rewarding/nail-biting and forced me to think outside the box. Pretty much what any good boss fight should be. It set a new standard for my enjoyment of this game.

I'll mention that I play pretty much exclusively on my main, a StJ/Nin stalker, and as a consequence I only play on +4/x8 w/ bosses and AVs to try and keep things interesting. I also try not to touch inspirations or temps. Sometimes I bite it but it's worth it just to feel like there's still some challenge left out there.

Flash forward to this morning when, while soloing the new SSA arc, none other than Capain Mako appears having slaughtered a building's worth of Malta. I smiled wide since Mako's my favorite in-game villain and I'd missed my chance to spar with him during Mako Week.

Now normally when soloing +4 AVs it's the same basic narrative - chain until dead while using my self heal and Rebirth whenever a hit manages to get through. It normally takes 8-12 minutes, depending. Death only occurs when the AV gets lucky and my heals are on recharge. THIS was different.

The fight began as normal, but at around 50% health Mako got nasty. First he began using Placate, which meant I had to RUN in case he got a lucky melee hit from hide - an event that's essentially a one-hit KO. I'd kite until the placate expired while praying I got hit with a less damaging Spirit Shark that would break his hide. Staying out of melee was difficult of course because Mako moves like a blur. While I fled he would also take the opportunity to murder my Lore pets if they had the misfortune of still being alive.

Then around 30% health he started using Follow Up, which on top of his 1.5 accuracy modifier amounted to almost half of his attacks getting through my 53% defenses while active. Sometimes he would use Follow Up and THEN Placate, which is basically instant death. My answer was Kuji-In Retsu, Ninjitsu's Tier 9 that boosts your defense for 3 minutes before crashing. I thought 3 minutes would be plenty...

At 20% he began using his notorious Elude power, boosting his defense from 20 to 60. Without the aid of yellow inspirations I was forced either to flee or to to try and scrap with him while only getting about 10% of my hits in. Considering the Follow Up-->Placate combo he was using at this point, I usually opted to flee.

When the Elude wore off I thought it was all over. He'd thrown everything he had, was at 10% health, and now his god mode was used up. But it wasn't. Because you see at this point Mako uses Elude every time it's recharged. Which is every 75 seconds. That meant I had 75 seconds to do more damage than he could regenerate while under its influence, all the while dodging, weaving, T9 popping, crashing, and fleeing.

I died six times before I learned enough to eke out a victory, and every second of that 20 minute brawl was a thrill. At no point did I feel like it was a slog or that his tactics were cheap. The fact that his health hovered between 5% and 15% for nearly half the battle effectively dangled victory in front of me like a crack-covered carrot.

When Mako's face finally hit the ground the rush of reward was immense. It felt like an accomplishment, maybe my character's greatest. I solo'd Lusca the other day and wasn't nearly as elated. That was just a 90 minute slug fest. I spent most of it watching TV.

I realize my style of play is very much in the minority, but I'd like to thank/congratulate the devs for affording me that experience

That's very helpful, thank you!

I'm finding that at +3 your average AV is about the same difficulty as a GM overall - it's just trading less health (and thus regen) for more damage output. So while I can solo Eochai and take 10 minutes without much fear of death, I can also solo a +3 arc AV in 5 minutes while constantly fearing that lucky one-two punch of doom. This all of course depends on the specific enemy but that's the general pattern.

Incidentally I've only found two AVs whose regen I can't overcome - Scrapyard and Jack in Irons. I'm guessing either they have significantly more health or are resistant to smashing. Maybe if I try Diamagnetic Interface...

Keep in mind this is without inspirations/temps or Lore pets. I took down a tentacle today so I could theoretically solo Lusca - it would just take me around 90 minutes.

I'm aware that Giant Monsters are a step up on the ladder from Archvillains, but at what con level does an AV meet or exceed a GM? Or does it? Since GMs only have a single "non-level," would fighting an AV at +4 actually make it the more powerful/difficult of the two?

I ask because I've been on a soloing kick and find that fighting say, Bobcat at +3 is actually marginally more difficult than soloing Adamastor (for instance). Anyone have numbers on this?

Once the pets came out it seemed folks were paying less attention to the lightning. Then they died and so did their pets and spare ultimates.

That practice round was helpful though - by the end of that run practically no one was getting lightning-melted. It's just too bad we couldn't keep it up at the finish line.

Did others find it more helpful to fight him out-of-the-bowl? I find myself getting pinned sometimes when he was backed against the wall.

Looking forward to the next run

Ninja Reflexes and Danger Sense give you 17.3% each, for a total of 34.6%. So it's not terrible, but cascade failure is something a /nin should always look out for. If you're softcapped you'll only need to be careful around certain kinds of mobs - Longbow and Cims come to mind, but only then really when you're fighting at x8.

The best defense against this is more defense. I like to try and have around 52% positional so as to have a decent buffer. Making heavy use of caltrops against these enemies is also a good idea.

I'm there. Happy to take the bus from Virtue for a well-organized RHW

Will be there on Grim Saint, my +3 stalker. T4 all with Cims, Rebirth, and Assault. See you then!

The one piece I've always wanted is a large cloak/cape that extends to the feet and wraps around the shoulders. Something like this.



The high collar cape actually comes very close. In fact it would be perfect if we had the option to use it without the collar! Any love for something like this?

(PS - Amazing work on the Celestial Armor fix. Can't wait to use!)

The current theoretical maximum is actually 1403 by my count, due to three badges that can only be acquired by a Praetorian:

-Moral High Ground
-Resistance Member
-Loyalist

Edit: This is actually not true since GR was released in August 2010, so Praetorian characters would be missing at least 6 badges (5 anniversary and 1 loyalty). Maximum is indeed 1400.

You can actually raise that maximum by 8 by exploiting X Times the Victor. Doing so is lame, however. They also won't be counted by any badge hunting websites so your verified count would remain the same.

I've listed the "unobtainable" badges below for reference. This includes ones like Bug Hunter and Passport, as well as anniversary, loyalty, and event badges that once missed can never be earned.

-8 Veteran
-8 Anniversary
-Vigilant
-The Constant
-Tempered Through Fire
-Defender of Primal Earth
-Doorbuster
-A Nemesis Plot
-Passport
-Bug Hunter
-V.I.P. (you need to buy the Collector's Edition for this)

That's 25 altogether. So depending on when you started playing/collecting that's the margin (add 3 if you start Primal).