Heraclea

Patrols and custom critter "boss" fights are your friends. These are the ways you can insert talking NPCs. Patrols will simply spawn and wander around; you control the difficulty, and if you're using standard critters, they're the best option to add talking NPCs.

With custom critters, you can set up a "boss" fight, flag the fight as not needed for completion, and add a custom lieutenant or minion as the "boss" to be defeated, and give that character an even longer set of lines. (Standard critters cannot be used in a boss fight without an actual boss level enemy.)

I like to add in multiple instances of my joke NPCs. This way the lines can be read two or three times (more than that and it might get old). Occasionally, your patrols can step on each other's lines.

I've also used joke clues on occasion, and unnecessary clickies. Before, those clickies were good for badges as well.

[ QUOTE ]
I disagree. Mud pots is one of the best agro generation tools out there and on par with any of the other taunt aura's. Mobility can easily be built around.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mud Pots is a good aggro aura, I agree. If you succeed at getting the mobs into it, it works as well as any other available in the game. The specific problems Stone has involve:

- getting the mobs into the aura,

- having Taunt up and available to reclaim the attention of outlying mobs, and

- reliance on Speed Boost, which creates problems for anyone trying to position a PBAoE power for maximum effect.

The thing that Regen needs most is something that every other set needs as well. Lag, including intentionally generated animation lag, is a serious problem for any set that relies on click powers. It does seem that the devs are resorting to making longer animations to tune attack set balances, knowing that no power selection or invention set is out there to reverse these changes.

Self-heals, click powers, and inspirations should be instant and take absolute priority from a systems perspective. They should take effect even if some other animation is playing and some other power is queued. They should be something that exists outside the regular power activation queue.

I would suggest Inv/Dark Melee, Inv/Fire, or Inv/Stone as the best all-round tanking configurations available in the game so far.

I have a level 50 stone tanker. I do very little with the character. I'm not even sure she has ever actually completed the ITF, and last time I logged on to her, she still had base salvage. Stone is the best "tanker" if your ideal tanker is the one character that remains standing while the rest of the team returns from the hospital. That is Stone's forte. The movement and recharge penalties, and especially the annoying -jump that never goes away no matter how many Kins you have, make it less likely that the Stone tanker is going to be able to react quickly to emerging situations.

(And the false belief that Stone is the best team defense only encourages those players who want to play buffing sets to roll up the quite useless and very annoying Kinetics -- and skip Increased Density, the one useful buff in the set -- rather than the Sonic, Thermal, and Force Fields characters that they ought to be playing.)

Invulnerability has its issues. The slow suicide tier 9 has no value to me; I do not take it. On the other hand, it is easy to cap S/L resistance with it, and to stay close to the defensive cap for exotic damage while the mobs are still alive. It has no mobility or recharge issues, only an endurance issue that you will need inventions to fix. It has no aura taunt issue like Willpower. It is second in survivability to Stone, but faces none of Stone's reaction time problems.

Dark Melee helps with the endurance issue. It gives you a small self-heal on a much faster recharge. It gives you some control. Slot for recharge, and it is an entirely adequate AoE set as well. The only real need for AoE is for your own alpha, anyway.

I wrote a brute guide that focuses on slotting up cheap IO sets in those powers that take them.

For scrappers, you may want to swap in Shadow Maul for Smite, since you do not need to worry about Fury. Siphon Insight does not seem to be prodigiously expensive, and it is also attractive for slotting in Touch of Fear, if defense bonuses are preferred. My DM scrapper is DM/SR, and needs all the help there she can get.

Those are destroyable Superadine Labs. They appear on the destroyable objects menu.

They are AFAIK the only buffing objects available. I don't think you can add the Oranbega crystals to a mission.

Around these parts, chili is a ground meat and tomato based topping for spaghetti. Pinto style beans are an optional topping, as are diced onions and shredded Cheddar cheese.

The chili itself is seasoned with seasonings that include a healthy dose of paprika and smaller amounts of cinnamon, cumin, and powdered cloves as well as ground chili peppers.

I like the WP/DM combination a lot, myself. You can easily achieve excellent toughness, especially when you have Tough and Weave.

But don't skip the Fitness pool: aim at having Stamina at level 20 same as you would with any other character. Having Health definitely plays to your strengths, and the two purely defensive toggles (Mind over Body and Heightened Senses) do more harm than good at the levels before you can put SOs into them, so I postpone them until after Stamina. By doing this, you will have a tanker that is a lot more fun to play as you level. And you will actually be able to sustain Tough and Weave when you get them.

The only secondaries I'd really steer away from on a Willpower tanker are Energy Melee:

--- almost no AoE, stuns actually hurt WP tankers, and even its single target damage is no good until 35-38;

and Dual Blades

--- random requirements of the combos means taking every power but Taunt, which you also need; and you will not know which combos you want until you try them all.

Everything else can be made to work, though if you solo a lot I'd also avoid Ice. (If you level entirely on teams, it is quite useful). I wrote a guide that contains a discussion of the merits of the several secondaries from a team tank perspective.

Genres A-L

AE System
---
5th Anniversary Flashback Smackdown (126896) -- Neutral
Bare Knuckles of Rage (9304)
'Captain Dynamic, the Great, Faces the Great Face' - Tryouts (190069) -- Heroic
Death for Dollars! -- Neutral
Mission Architect Playable Tutorial (28470)
Signal to Noise (67277) -- Neutral
Welcome to Architect Entertainment -- Neutral

Character/Supergroup Origins
---
A Hero is made, Not Born (20863) -- Heroic
A Mother's Nightmare (6955) -- Heroic
A Rose's Thorns (113224) -- Heroic
Birth of a Fossil -- Heroic
Jumping in Feet First (1345) -- Heroic
Midnight Bells Toll -- Villainous
New Flame Rising (161066) -- Heroic
Noah Reborn (2370) -- Heroic
Polar Emergence Neutral Government User Interface Network (PENGUIN) (29205) -- Heroic
Secret Origins(Tech) The Snake Women of Epsilon V (42221) -- Heroic
The Amazing Rat Race (1144) -- Heroic

Classic Super-Hero/Super-Villain
---
A Crusher Crimewave #1 : Crisis at The Citadel (50271)
A Crusher Crimewave #2 : Escape from The Zig! (83458)
A Crusher Crimewave #3 : The Fall of Mocker (123613)
A Show to Die For! (30645) -- Heroic
Check... and Mate (15095) -- Heroic
Deadly Sins! (99366)
In The Shadow of Statesman (1160) -- Neutral
Marketing Opportunity (83747) -- Villainous
Paradox Paradox (69221) -- Heroic
Sidekicks Can Be A Pain In The Cape (28430)
Teen Phalanx Forever! (67335) -- Heroic
THE BOMBER (16607) -- Heroic
This Life Immortal (5756) -- Heroic
To Save A Single World (83744) -- Heroic
'Tis Nobler in the Mind -- Heroic

Comedy
---
The String Thief (15726) -- Neutral
Mean People (16690) -- Neutral
The Extadine Lab (2595) -- Heroic
MacGuffin Delivery Service (1567) -- Villainous
ParaCon (1684) -- Heroic
The new and improved Lord Recluse Strike Force -- Villainous
The Fire Bunnies - Neutral
You Say It's Your Birthday! (3630) -- Neutral
Trademark Infringement (2220) -- Heroic
Hail to the King (34640) -- Neutral
Walk On the Wild Side (3580) -- Neutral
Shirley You Jest (25474) -- Neutral
The Invasion of the Bikini Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! (61013) -- Heroic
Gnomish Madness (30204) -- Heroic
Doctor Nadir and the Hellion Heist (49661) -- Heroic
Laugh? I Thought I'd DIE! -- Heroic
The P.U.G. Strike force (35585) -- Villianous
A Translator is the Wind or the Thunder in Turns (2936) -- Heroic
What's in a Name? -- Villainous
None More Black, Dude! (86312) -- Neutral
Rise of the Drakule -- Neutral
Return of the Revenge of the Son of Drakule Part 2: First Blood -- Neutral
Martian Chimpanzees and the Cyborg Cheerleaders of DOOM! (69947) -- Heroic
Daytime Divas (94504)
Death to Disco! (84420) -- Neutral
Too Many Bunnygirls! (101165) -- Neutral
Invasion on Earth BX1132! (98943) -- Neutral (poster version B)
Ee=Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! (3662) -- Neutral
The foul-mouthed Handyman! (1076) -- Neutral
City of Norms (132994) -- Neutral
Killing The Meow Farm (141625) -- Neutral
Shortbow - (143566) -- Heroic
Jerk Hackers! (162482) --Heroic

Comedy/Drama
---
Kidnapping an Idol (136188) -- Neutral
Fashion Apocalypse (14840) -- Neutral
The Running of the Bulls (29973) -- Heroic
A Super Team is Born -- Heroic
Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings (1481) -- Neutral
How to Survive a Robot Uprising (12669) --
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare -- Neutral
It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding (9059) -- Neutral
TURG FICTION: Ghost in the Machine, Act I -- Heroic
Rum Runners of Bloody Bay (3691) -- Heroic
Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! (2019)
The Toypocalypse! (49280) -- Heroic
Fishing for Fame with Red Herring (66861) -- Heroic
Putting Out Fires: A Corporate Satire (20100) -- Villainous
The Rise and Refall of Pets'n'Things.com (1061) -- Heroic
The Cat's in the Cradle (8776) -- Villainous
Females for Hire (110723) -- Neutral
Freaks, Geeks and Men in Black (161629) -- Heroic
Death by Snoo-Snoo! (247372) - Heroic


Crime/Gangs
---
Bricked Electronics (2180) -- Heroic
The Bravuran Jobs (16809) -- Villainous
The Black Flag Is On The Rise (Pirates!) -- Villainous
Win the 2009 Freak-Lympics (2150) -- Villainous
Ninja Crimewave! (2142) -- Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
The Internet is for Crime (53385) -- Villainous
Plastic Pistol Peril (1135) -- Heroic
Friends in Need (Of Body Parts) (31005) -- Villainous
A Little RnR (17523) -- Heroic click for Promotional Poster
Mechanical Mayhem (76712) - -Villainous
Females for Hire (110723) -- Neutral
Battlin' Tom's Murder Extravaganza! (99803) -- Villainous
Meet the Demon Spawn (151099) -- Heroic
Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons (100045) -- Heroic
[ZQ] Power Play (187269) -- Villainous
Fatale Attraction - Part 1 of 3 (181264) -- Heroic
Fatale Deception - Part 2 of 3 (227466) -- Heroic
Fatale Corruption - Part 3 of 3 (232783) -- Heroic

Drama
---
A Flame the Burns Bright (112548)
Clonus, Parts 1 & 2 (21499) -- Heroic
Digital Love (3571) -- Neutral
Matchstick Women (3369) -- Heroic
Of Mentors and Legacy (1589) -- Heroic
The Conciliators: Simone (4010) -- Heroic
The Fan Club -- Heroic

Global Domination
---
Axis and Allies (1379) -- Villainous

Global Destruction
---
The Twilight of this Blue Orb (98529) -- Villainous

Heist
---
Celebrity Kidnapping (1388) -- Villainous
Easy Money (31490) -- Villainous
The Great Diamond Heist (96169) -- Villainous

Historical (Realistic)
---
Wrinkle in Time (68920) -- Heroic

Historical (CoH Lore)
---
Origins - Volume 1 (57077) -- Heroic
The Consequences of War (212069 and 212073)
The War on Superadine (7959) -- Heroic
[ZQ] The Once and Future King (71601) -- Heroic

Holiday
---
City of Ho Ho Ho (18775) -- Heroic
Hectic Holidays (36999) -- Heroic
Santa's Missing List (34961)
Santa's Workshop of Misfit Toys (134140) -- Heroic

Horror
---
Astoria in D Minor (41565) -- Heroic
Creepy Crawlers (82553)
Dark Dreams (3615)
D!E COUNT DADDY MACULA D!E! (10119) -- Heroic
Duality (84105) -- Heroic
Don't Play With The Dead (31813) -- Neutral
Hunting the Hunters (93362) -- Villainous
I Will Dance On Your Grave (92630)
Lights, Camera, Scream! (68627)
Movie Monster Madness.. (102058)
Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit (#3586) -- Neutral
Small Fears -- Heroic
Something Comes to Yarmouth (58812) -- Heroic
The Amulet of J'gara (1709) -- Heroic
The Children of Astoria (217499) (masearch link)
The Zombie Apocalypse Task Force: Something wicked this way comes.

Large-Scale Crisis
---
A Warrior's Friend -- Heroic
Alpha and Omega (60015) -- Heroic
Bleed the Freak (6919) -- Heroic
Flight of the Valkyries - Precursor (20272) -- Neutral
Is it Live or is it Memory-X (70210) -- Heroic
The All-Seeing Eye (57352) -- Heroic
The Clockwork War (18672) -- Heroic
This Is War, Part I - the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz -- Neutral
War of the Worlds - The Anakim Invasion - Part 1 (15006) -- Neutral
War of the Worlds - The Anakim Invasion - Part 2, The Terran Revolt (46711) -- Neutral
Win the Past, Own the Future -- Heroic

Arc ID No. 247372
Title: Death by Snoo-Snoo!

Alignment: Heroic
Length: Short (1 mission)
Level: 53

Rogue Amazons have reverted to their old ways of kidnapping men. But this time, they have set their sights on Paragon City's hero population! The unfortunate heroes are not quite equal to the challenge they present.

Are you tough enough to take on these Amazons?

This is a high level (53 only) mission, intended to be a physical challenge as well as being humorous. The minions have been designed specifically to resist attempts to avoid them in melee. It is suitable for teams, and will automatically SK every player to level 50.

Arc ID No. 247372
Title: Death by Snoo-Snoo!

Alignment: Heroic
Length: Short (1 mission)
Level: 53

Rogue Amazons have reverted to their old ways of kidnapping men. But this time, they have set their sights on Paragon City's hero population! The unfortunate heroes are not quite equal to the challenge they present.

Are you tough enough to take on these Amazons?

This is a high level (53 only) mission, intended to be a physical challenge as well as being humorous. The minions have been designed specifically to resist attempts to avoid them in melee. It is suitable for teams, and will automatically SK every player to level 50.

[ QUOTE ]
Wha? You mean I would have to supliment a set that comes with 3-4 nice AoE attacks with another pool AoE? So to prevent having to do this I should pick a set like SS with only ONE AoE?

[/ QUOTE ]

Technically, SS has two. Just because one of them is never taken - it actually hurts Willpower tankers, and doesn't really help anyone else - is no reason to ignore it.

On multi mission arcs, I put a brief synopsis in the Mission Exit text. This way it pops up for every player when they leave the mission.

The other form of mitigation in Dark Melee that Willpower benefits from is, of course, the to hit debuff that almost every attack has to some extent. These stack as well, and can be stacked fairly easily on high priority targets. This also strengthens Willpower's defensive side, which looks unimpressive on paper, and do still more once Weave is in place.

This benefits Ice and Shields even more, of course.

The blueside task force is pleasant, has mostly clear goals (except for that second mission to defeat the invincible Reichman), and can be run quickly.

The redside task force gets the short end of the stick because of the immensity of the ambushes and the need to clear the entire map to find the AVs before Reichman will even spawn. There is a strong discrepancy between the blueside and the redside rewards. Neither of these two task forces really offer enough to base an entire issue around. As in too many of the task forces, they value debuffs too highly and put defensive sets at a disadvantage.

I think the 5th Column should have been reintroduced and restored generally. There are some old line story arcs - the Ubelmann arc in particular - that still make no sense in lore when "Council" is search and replaced for "5th Column".

I am only starting to play with the dominator I rolled when CoV debuted, and who's only recently gotten to 36, the point at which my villains have typically taken off. The new faces are nice, but so far I've only used one of them outside the AE - on my wp/dark tanker, for her "Natasha" dress.

If you like Invulnerability, check out Willpower, which is another concept friendly set that occupies territory between Invuln and Regen. I made a Spines/WP scrapper a couple months ago, and that character was my fastest levelling ever.

[ QUOTE ]
You want to zero-star my arc? Hey, go right ahead. Arc number's 188971, titled "Avgrunden Oppnas".

[/ QUOTE ]

Please tell me you wrote an arc in Swedish. (ICYW, that means 'the abyss opens'.) I am going to have to seek this out.

With three multi target attacks, Dark Melee would seem on paper to have a generous helping of AoE attacks. The problem is a simple one: recharge. Get enough recharge in your build, through Hasten or set bonuses, and the native AoEs are more than adequate to get first-strike aggro.

On my WP/DM tanker, I supplemented the two native AoEs I took (Shadow Maul and Soul Drain) with Salt Crystals. My alt build skips Strength of Will to pick up Quicksand as well; and once a WP tanker has both Tough and Weave, SoW becomes almost entirely redundant IME. You could get three Pyre auxiliary powers in a standard build if you also skipped Touch of Fear. I keep it, mostly for the big to hit debuff it brings.

All of my current published arcs are playable 1-50, and none contain auto-SK features.

"World's Great Philosophers" is the one that's been most changed for i15, because the custom group there is a mixture of standard issue mobs, who now have all been renamed or recolored, with custom mobs. Being a mixture, the standard mobs will only spawn if they are right for your level range.

I evaluated the several secondaries available from a team tanking perspective in this guide.

Personally, I really like Willpower/Dark Melee to make a character with plenty of utility that can be quite hard to take down. Stone, Axe, Mace, Super Strength are all pretty good performers solo or teamed.

Willpower or Dark is definitely your friend on this task force. Those two are the primaries of choice for facing down Countess Crey and Vanessa De Vore. I was wrong; two or even three tankers would not be out of place on this TF.

The HOs are reminders of a time long past, when Hamidon didn't take three or four hours to complete, and there was little else to do with a level 50 hero anyways. I know I could sell them, and get a lot of influence for them.

I just never put in the accolades. I have all the +hp or +end accolades except for Task Force Commander. One of these days I will have to knuckle down and run Positron. None of them were run all that regularly on my server when I was levelling.

Not the last time I checked. I also checked the NCsoft store.

Arc Name: Who is Kidnapping the World's Great Philosophers?

Arc ID: 86347

Keywords: Soloable, Elite Boss, Moral Allegory

Length: Short (One mission)

Morality: Neutral

Enemy Groups: Custom, Modified Red Caps (level contingent), Modified Trolls (level contingent), Modified Cimeroran Traitors (level and team size contingent).

Player Level Range: 1-50

Description: The great philosophers of history have gone missing. You must rescue them and defeat the villain responsible for their disappearance. As you release them, you will find that they have a message to impart, about the Golden Rule versus the supposed virtue of selfishness.

Updated for I15: I made some cosmetic and naming alterations to the standard mobs this story uses. The Red Caps are now explicitly Gnomes, which is what they were there to represent from the beginning.

----------------------------

All of my arcs are i15 compliant. Most were already built around either custom mobs that did not require significant changes, or game standard mobs used as is. I do expect to recycle some of them soon, especially if the buy extra slots feature takes a while in coming.