Author's Note
This isn't your average guide. It's more of a journal of my experience playing my Brute up to L40 in CoV/Issue 6. And it's really long. But I think it will be of help to anyone considering playing a solo toon, Brutes especially, so I wanted to post it here since the boards ate the original thread. If I decide to continue the same playstyle from L40-50 once CoV has been expanded to that level, I'll add entries here.
Steady Arsonist hit 40 in Jan. 2006, so he didn't have the benefit of the Elite Boss-instead-of-AV/Hero change. Nor did he have the L1-10 temp powers, or anything else that came out since then. I expect soloing to be signifigantly easier for toons starting now, based on the AV/Hero->Elite Boss change alone.
If you're mostly interested in tips and tricks, I recommend reading just the final section. There's also no spoilers in that bit. I posted my final build there as well.
Spoiler Warning: I talk about some of the missions I've done in the recap below. If you don't want to know, don't read on.
Introduction
He has loved fire ever since he was a young child. Playing with matches caused several mysterious fires during his childhood, but he was never caught. Then as a young teenager, he went to a circus for the first time, and was instantly captivated by the fire-eaters. Within a month, he had run away to join them. He had to work to earn his keep - being a strapping young lad, he was put in the sideshow as a strongman. But he never forgot his first love of fire, and learned all he could about it. Not long ago, the circus went bankrupt, and soon after he was thrown into the Zig for attempted arson. It seems that Lord Recluse sees potential in this pyromaniac, and now Steady Arsonist is loose in the Rogue Isles....
I finally picked up City of Villains at the start of December, and decided right away that I wanted to dedicate one of my toons to soloing. I play in plenty of teams as well, and I have lots of other characters to team with, but there's times when solo play is a lot of fun. So I looked around at the ATs and decided on a Brute. The high sustained damage, decent defense, and status protection that Brutes can obtain are all things that are very useful to a soloer.
For powersets, I considered several options. I knew I wanted an End recovery power and a damage aura, so that led me to */Fire or Dark/Dark. Despite my ridiculous number of CoH characters, I've never played a super strength toon more than a few levels, so that primary set looked appealing. SS/Fire it was.
After a few posts on the forums, and some good feedback from various folks, I settled on this build:
---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.3.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Steady Arsonist
Level: 35
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Super Strength
Secondary: Fiery Aura
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Punch==> Acc(1)Rechg(3)Dmg(7)EndRdx(11)Dmg(15)
01) --> Fire Shield==> EndRdx(1)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(9)DmgRes(13)
02) --> Haymaker==> Acc(2)Rechg(3)Dmg(7)EndRdx(11)Dmg(15)
04) --> Healing Flames==> Rechg(4)Heal(5)Rechg(9)Heal(13)Rechg(19)Heal(27)
06) --> Hurdle==> Jump(6)
08) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(8)
10) --> Knockout Blow==> Acc(10)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)
12) --> Boxing==> Acc(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Plasma Shield==> EndRdx(16)DmgRes(17)DmgRes(17)DmgRes(19)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(22)EndRdx(23)EndRdx(23)
24) --> Rage==> Rechg(24)Rechg(25)Rechg(25)
26) --> Tough==> EndRdx(26)DmgRes(27)DmgRes(29)DmgRes(29)
28) --> Consume==> Acc(28)
30) --> Blazing Aura==> EndRdx(30)EndRdx(31)Acc(31)Dmg(31)
32) --> Foot Stomp==> Acc(32)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------
I'll worry about 35+ when I get there.
L1-10
The Rogue Isles felt like home as soon as he arrived. Mercy Island even had fires burning in random locations! But Steady Arsonist wanted more from life than simple fire-setting pleasures. It was time to start thinking big. Beating down traitors and taking out Snakes for Kalinda was a pleasure, and brought him closer to a place in Arachnos. A place where he could set fires bigger than mere flame, fires that would burn through his enemies and leave behind their wealth for the taking.
The first five levels was nothing to write home about. Operative Burch, Snakes, yada yada yada. After finishing Kalinda's missions, I was about halfway to 6, and decided to head straight to Port Oakes instead of bothering with Mongoose.
The newspapers in the Rogue Isles have a lot of good information. It wasn't long before he'd found leads on stolen technology, missing magical artifacts, and good old cash rewards ripe for the taking - for anyone with the brawn to take them. And he had the brawn. Soon, his exploits came to the attention of Mr. Bocor and Bille Heck, both of whom were more than willing to pay for his services. The name of Steady Arsonist was becoming known - and feared.
Newspaper missions are great. I hit level 6 with the 3 missions needed to get my first contact. Thanks to Mr. Bocor, I have 5 zombie pets waiting to be used. Well, 4 now - I used one when I accidentally took a CoT newspaper mission, and needed a distraction to take the alpha strike from the Madness Mage boss - no sleep protection until L16. Mr. Bocor's story arc and a few more newspaper missions took me past level 8, and what a difference Combat Jump+Hurdle makes! This was pre-holiday jetpack, so any traveling help was welcome.
By this time I'd moved my difficulty up one notch to Malicious. Multiple +0/+1 minions at this level aren't a big deal when you have some disorient resist and smash/lethal resist. My only real challenge was that CoT mission, which spawned multiple +1 Energy and Life Mages, but some inspirations got me through. Increased XP reward for taking down a real boss (rather than a Villainous-level forced Lt) and better mission bonuses are good things.
I got Billie Heck's story arc next, and everything was going well until I ran into the mission with Guido, the Elite Boss. I had to take a break and do some more of Mr. Bocor's missions and a few newspapers to level, then I went back and cleaned Guido's clock. I repeated that process with Emil Marcone, another Elite Boss, a couple of missions father into the arc.
L10-20
Sometimes information comes from the strangest places. A radio, of all things, turned up a lead about a chance to stick it to those goodie two-shoes over in Paragon City with a viral outbreak. Some scientist over in Cap au Diable had some good information, too. He never would have thought to check there on his own - good thing those Brokers deal out the information cheaply.
I was nearly L11 before I got to the L10+ contacts, thanks to finishing up Billie's story arc. I love that Radio mission to plant the Outbreak virus - not only is it a cool tie-in with the CoH story, but that Longbow outdoor mission is some awesome XP. I did the Radio's story arc, too.
Then I headed over to Cap au Diable and started in on Shelly Percey's missions. Unfortunately, her story arc was still bugged, and I couldn't complete the mission to 'Save Dr. Percey's work'. Rather than wait for a GM, I just reset the mission and purposely failed it by allowing the mobs to kill the object. Oh well. I was still nearly 15, and a few more newspaper missions got me the other two contacts just in time to outlevel them.
One of his contacts sent Steady Arsonist back to Mercy Island to meet with an Arachnos seer named Marino. She paid well, so he helped her out in her search for her brother. Little did he suspect that this task would bring him to the personal attention of Ghost Widow! Lucky for him, he chose the right side of the conflict. A commendation from Ghost Widow will look pretty good when he makes his move into Arachnos.
The Seer Marino arc is easily my favorite story so far. Ghost Widow is a sexy dead chick, of course, which is cool all by itself, but the story behind her 'undeath' makes a great arc. Having her and Wretch both show up in the missions was a stroke of genius. Many kudos to the writers on that one.
This arc got me to 16, where I finally picked up some Hold/Sleep protection with Plasma Shield. Now I fear no bosses, although the ones that do knockback take some patience to take down. It'll be level 22 before I can stand toe-to-toe with those. Until then, it's just a matter of having the right inspirations.
Cap au Diable has some interesting features. The demon trapped under the nearby mountain, for example. Disturbing it doesn't seem like a great idea, but he decided it's no concern of his, and kept it secret from the public. That's what Marshall Brass paid for, after all, and it's more good press within Arachnos.
Another Arachnos contact, Operative Wellman, had some tasks in Paragon City, and Steady Arsonist was happy to oblige. Breaking some more new blood out of the Zig was fun, and if those villains ever amount to anything, rest assured that they'll be reminded who got them out in the first place. Stopping the reconstruction in Boomtown was even better. Setting fire to construction supplies and equipment - just like old times at home.
Brass' mission to rescue the power workers from the Clockwork was a royal pain. Not only was it Clocks - End drain everywhere - but the map is a nasty mix of buildings, alleys, walls, rooftops, and catwalks. I leveled after taking out only a few groups of Clocks, and then spent a good 20 minutes jumping around the map, followed by hordes of blue Clockwork that I'd aggroed, trying to find the hostages. The spawns in that mission are really close together - I'll do my best to avoid that one in a big team.
I discovered around this time that I actually did more damage over time with an End Reduction DO in both Brawl and Boxing, rather than accuracy. I missed more, sure, but they still generate Fury when they miss, and they're my most-used attacks, since they recharge fast. Less End use = more attacks = more Fury, and my SS attacks are the ones doing most of the hurt anyway. And when I hit L18 and picked up Health, my survivability went up another notch - every little bit helps.
Also I learned that against non-status-effect mobs, it was better to not run my shields at all. Even though I took significantly more damage without them, especially Fire Shield, the End I saved made up for it. With no shields, I could run through 2-3 groups of minions, ending up with both Health and Endurance at low levels (and then I'd Rest). With shields, I'd only go through 1-2 groups before running out of Endurance; I'd have lots of Health, but that doesn't matter much when you're out of End. So I only ran the shields if the mobs could stun (like Mooks, or RIPs) or if facing Lts/Bosses.
The Zig Breakout mission was awesome. Those villains you're rescuing are pretty decent fighters in their own right, although the Brute annoyed me by aggroing everything in sight. I especially liked the energy blaster, his damage was the best of the three. Then I went to the Boomtown reconstruction map, which I really liked - well designed, with the construction sites overlaying the familiar Boomtown areas. It didn't hurt that there were 6 bosses on that map, and normal spawns were 5 minions each, so the XP was great too.
I ran a couple of Bloody Bay missions, too, mainly just to get the badge and temp power. I hear that you can get some great XP in those missions, but they seemed kind of boring. I'll keep the PvP zone missions as a backup plan, in case I get stuck on AV/Hero missions and need something to get some XP.
Finally I picked up some missions from the Golden Roller to push me up to 20. I was surprised to find an Elite Boss version of the Sea Witch at the end of a mission simply described as "Defeat all Luddites", but I didn't let it stop me. Combat Jumping+Hurdle for the win - I'd jump in next to her, lay down some smack, and then when she turned on Hurricane, jump away behind a wall or crate. While Hurricane stayed on, I kept up the hide and seek, recovering End and waiting. Once it dropped, back in for the smashing. About 5 iterations of this and down she went.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 20, having just picked up Stamina, and the nearest citizen with an 'M' name told me that I'd been playing for 21 hours.
L20-23
Steady Arsonist received word through his contacts that Kalinda, his first Arachnos contact, had another job. It was time to prove himself ready for the next level - by going to Paragon City and defeating a hero there. As a reward, he'd be given the right to wear a cape. Capes aren't really his style, but Arachnos doesn't need to know that - they just need to see that he can get the job done.
Around the same time, word on the street said that Arachnos was hitting Longbow shipments headed to Paragon City. Apparently the do-gooders are looking to get into the Christmas Spirit, and Recluse is playing Scrooge. Steady Arsonist couldn't care less about gifts for the needy, but getting another good word in at Arachnos is what he calls getting into the holiday spirit.
The cape mission was pretty easy. Longbow in the 20s are pathetically easy for this build. The flamethrowers do only minor damage, the gunners only slightly more so, and they don't seem to have much resistance to smashing damage. The only real challenge is the bosses - well, that and chasing down the darn Eagles when they fly away. My cape Hero was a Energy/Energy blaster. I never went below half health against him, but I did spend a lot of time getting knocked down. If I ever do this again, the cape is waiting until after I have Acrobatics.
The holiday mission is extremely easy as well, which I assume was the intent. I'm glad they made it a one-shot thing for each character, or that would be another powerleveling craze like the Winter Lords were. Glad to see some lessons have been learned - although apparently QA testing has gone downhill, judging from all the lag spikes and other issues.
Sharkhead Isle is home to the Scrapyarders, people that Steady Arsonist can relate to - after all, they blow stuff up. One of his contacts, Captain Petrovich, had some leads on these miners, and on their leader. The Captain said he was after their leader, so Steady Arsonist played along to get a chance to meet her. The leader was a disappointment though - her morals were too high for his tastes, so he turned her over to the Captain.
Along the way, he decided it was time for some training. Keeping his feet in battle had become a real chore. In between missions, he sought out and trained with some martial arts enthusiasts. He's still not close to the acrobats he knew in the circus, but his fighting skills are much improved.
Level 22 and Acrobatics, hooray! SOs too, but I can't really afford those yet. Acrobatics is much more important to me at the moment. Now I really fear no minions, and the bosses are a lot easier when you can keep on smashing without fear of being knocked onto your rear. I did manage to afford a couple of End recovery SOs for Stamina, and that helped a ton as well.
Scrapyarders are pretty tough. The Demolitionist fire damage actually does hurt me, even with all the resists I have - it's gotta suck for an Invuln. The minions have some tough melee attacks too. I saw the Ghost of Scrapyard a couple of times while I was roaming around the zone, but I have no desire to fight him. His train of Scrapyarders is pretty cool to watch, though.
That Sea Witch heroine just won't go away. Lorenz Ansalso of the Family put Steady Arsonist on her trail again, and together they tracked her down to a ship that the Scrapyarders had taken over. Somehow she's gotten a lot stronger, though. He took one look and decided to save that fight for another day. Her boyfriend is in the hands of the Family - she's not going anywhere while that state of affairs continues.
The Hero Sea Witch is a royal pain. Debuffs everywhere and huge HP. I could handle the debuffs in a short fight with inspirations, but she's just got too many HP to take out quickly. I decided to wait a few levels on her - the mission is L22. Maybe around L24 I'll go back.
One of those Sky Raiders has been asking for help, and Steady Arsonist decided he'd answer the call - for the right price. Lt. Chalmers sent him after Wyvern and Longbow agents - easy money. Then Longbow attacked the Sky Raiders, and brought along some new battlesuit codenamed Ballista-1. That was a worthy opponent, but even that new Longbow tech wasn't enough to stop Steady Arsonist.
Ballista-1 was tough, but he didn't do any of the toggle dropping that people were complaining about after CoV release. It would have been a different outcome if he'd still had that power, I'm sure. Even as it was, he was tough, mostly because he seemed to resist smashing damage - resist it a lot. I got him down to 1/3, ran out of End, and had to leave the mission to restock on inspirations. When I came back, he was back up to 3/4, but with the inspirations, a zombie from the Loa bone, and that 1/4 HP head start, I managed to finish him off.
Steady Arsonist is L23 now, with 29 hours played.
L23-26
Steady Arsonist was introduced to Vince Dubrowski and therefore to the Cage Consortium - because Vince lives for Cage. After the disappointment of the Scrapyarder's leader, he had no problem thwarting their schemes. He had to wonder, though, if the Consortium machine would even notice Steady Arsonist - and he was sure they wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice him if it fit their needs. Taking Vince's money was all well and good, but he wasn't sad when Vince eventually turned him away.
This guy's missions took me through level 24 and most of the way to 25, but I hope to never see them again. Why? Two reasons: CoT and that damn Cage complex map. The CoT only showed up on one mission, but that was plenty - I came close to dying around a dozen times on that one mission. Even with Rage going, which I had picked up at 24, the spectral demons could debuff me to the point where I'd miss constantly. And their negative energy damage is huge. Then there was the Cage complex map, which showed up in several missions - all of which required finding between 3 and 6 glowies. What a pain! There are tons of hidden nooks and crannies in that map where a glowie can hide, and of course you can't see most of them unless you happen to be looking in just the right direction or stumble right into the spot. I must have spent a good 2 hours in the three missions on that map, when most mission only take me around 15 minutes each.
The good news in these levels - Rage. What a great power! At 24 with one recharge SO it had about 20 seconds downtime, and at 25 I got 2 more SOs into it and it's permanent. The 10 second 'cool-down' time where you can't attack is a small price to pay for the damage and accuracy increase. With Rage and only a small Fury bar, KO Blow one-shots most white minions, and once the Fury builds up, same for yellows.
Vince was still useful in one way - he knew Crash Cage, who had some jobs to do. Steady Arsonist decided to take the job to collect some kind of special coral. But first, it was time to deal with an old problem - the Sea Witch. He went out to the boat where the Witch was known to be awaiting word on her kidnapped Scrapyarder boyfriend, and found quite a crew of Scrapyarders and Legacy Chain mystics. None of them could stand up to a punch, though, not even the Witch herself - although she did take a few good knocks before going down.
As soon as I hit 25, I decided to take care of that Sea Witch Hero mission - which you may remember was level 22. Three things made me decide it was time: the three-level advantage, perma-Rage, and a new row of inspiration slots. I slotted up Rage, filled up the inspiration bar with blue Endurance pills, and headed in. After clearing one half of her ship, I pulled the Witch (who conned orange now) over to the deckhouse and started smashing. It's a good thing I had those inspirations, because her End drain was still seriously nasty, even with the level advantage. I had her down to about 1/3 when I lost my toggles - the Rage drop plus her attacks knocked out half my End bar at once, and her Thunderstorm and Hurricane immediately knocked me down. As soon as I could stand up, I ran off, reset my toggles and got Rage going, and came back to finish the job. All told, it took about 4 minutes to take her down, even with the three-level advantage - glad I decided not to try it at level 22!
With the Sea Witch defeated, he was free to finish the coral job. At first it was easy, tracking the shipment and heading to an old CoT base to retrieve it. But then Arachnos got involved. Going up against Arachnos wasn't the best idea for someone hoping to end up in their organization, but he had a job to do - and payment waiting. Things went smoothly at first, but then he ran into none other than Silver Mantis! He decided that maybe this job wasn't worth it after all.
After that, it was back to missions. Cage's coral hunt mini-arc seemed pretty innocent, but a 'Defeat all Arachnos' mission turned out to contain Silver Mantis! I actually jumped right into her mob spawn and started beating on a minion before I realized that the funny-looking Lt a few feet away was actually an AV. Needless to say, I jumped right back out again. That's one Arachnos that I wasn't taking down easily! I decided to show the better part of valor and leave this mission for later. I may be able to get by with a two-level advantage instead of the three I needed for the Sea Witch, since debuffs won't be as much of a problem.
Sharkhead Isle was starting to get boring, so Steady Arsonist decided to head over to the Nerva Archipelago. A lot more tough guys here, but a lot more opportunity, too. A couple of run-ins with the Tsoo caused some trouble, but he tore through some Council, Sky Raiders, and Freakshow that made the mistake of boasting about their loot.
Tsoo show up a lot in newspaper missions in Nerva. I had no option but Tsoo for my first mission, and that one almost killed me. Why? Three words - Green Ink Men. Energy attacks stacked from three +1 or two +2 Greens is enough to break through my disorient protection. They almost killed me twice in that one mission, but Break Frees saved my life. I also had gotten a ranged temp power from a previous mission, a gun of some kind, and I used it liberally to pull from groups with more than 2 Greens.
Why +1 and +2? I'd moved up my slider to Ruthless. And with the exception of the Tsoo, it worked out well. As long as I used a few inspirations before jumping into a mob with a +1 red-con boss, all went well. Even the occasional +2 purple boss wasn't that bad. The +1 yellow minion fights were actually the hardest, usually, because there were more of them, and they could put out bigger damage over time that way. Once I got some Fury going, though, they were no big deal either - just beat 'em down before they do any serious damage. The big reason I could do all this was Rage - the extra damage and accuracy let me hit consistently and take them down fast.
He met a new contact, known only as 'Shadowy Figure'. For a guy who seems to spend all his time in a back alley, he's got some interesting information. Steady Arsonist went up against some Longbow goons in pursuit of information and equipment needed to bust one of the Figure's buddies out of jail. He made it into the jail, and even to the right cell, without incident, but then he was distracted at a crucial instant. Defeated by Longbow! The hospital teleportation system worked, though, so shortly he was back on his feet and anxious for revenge. This time the fight was quick and bloody - with all the blood on their side.
I hit 26 somewhere around this time and picked up Consume. That's an extended-smash power. Now, after rolling through 2-3 minion groups, instead of stopping to rest, I'll hit Healing Flames to top off the health, jump into the next mob spawn, and hit Consume to top off the End. Ready to rock! The only problem right now is lack of slots - the recharge is too slow - but that will change, probably at 27. I know this a small departure from my build as posted above, but I felt that Consume made more sense than Tough, and I can take Tough at 28.
All was good until the end of the mission to rescue some villain from the Zag. Longbow's prison guards weren't any tougher than normal up until the last room, where a +1 boss, Lt., and minion group were guarding the prisoner. I popped a few inspirations, hopped in, pounded the boss into the ground, and turned to the Lt - when my attacks stopped working. I pounded buttons for a few seconds, then thought 'Oh crap, Rage must have dropped.' But no, a quick check of my buff bar showed Rage still up, and HeroStats said I had 30 seconds left. OK, time to run. And they didn't follow!
Great - until the dreaded Mapserver popped up. I hadn't been running - I'd been lagging and my toon was still standing in the same spot, getting the stuffing beat out of him! Turns out that the hotel Internet connection had died on my laptop (I'm traveling on business this week) and I had to reset it. By the time I got the game up and running again, Steady Arsonist was face-down in front of the Longbow.
My first debt.
I'd died before, but nothing since level 10 when debt started. Ah well, nothing you can do about the Internet connection death. It didn't take long to get back from the hospital and pound those last couple of guys, and finish the mission. The mission bonus took care of almost all the debt anyway. Still going to try to avoid that in the future, though.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 26.5, with 38 hours played.
L26-29
He met an ex-Longbow operative, Lt. Demitrovich. Or maybe she's still working for them as a double agent, he never really paid enough attention to that. Regardless, she knew a lot about Longbow and their weapons, including a new one meant to sap super powers. Retrieving it was easy, and it could come in handy some day.
Steady Arsonist also met Darla Mavis, an ex-hero out for revenge after her powers were permanently drained by her one-time allies. Darla has some serious revenge issues, and she's going after Aurora Borealis. He helped to find the heroine's itinerary, but he's not ready to go up against Aurora just yet.
Going from level 26 to 29 was something of a grind. Demitrovich's missions were kinda cool, but fighting Longbow isn't very challenging at this stage. And there were a LOT of Longbow. Other than the occasional newspaper mission, I didn't see much of any other mob group. The Longbow did get a little more challenging when I hit 28, since Spec Ops started to show up. The web grenade they use has some serious slow on it. I used to go after Eagles first, since they're annoying to chase down, but Spec Ops are the primary target now.
Picked up Tough at L28, which helps against bosses and large numbers of minions. It's an End hog, though, so I started my slotting with an End reduction. I may go all the way to 3 End reductions in that power someday, but one will do for now. At 29 I added 2 damage resists to it.
Around 28.5 I actually ran out of missions, since no one in Sharkhead would introduce me to the L25-30 contacts. I assume that's a bug - Crash I can understand since I had an open mission, but Lorenz had no excuse. So I went to Siren's Call and ran some door missions. More Longbow, but the XP is insanely good. I think I did 4 missions and got half a level. At 29, Lorenz finally decided to introduce me to Operative Kirkland.
Silver Mantis finally succumbed to Steady Arsonist. Several times he had faced her and been forced to flee, but eventually she was worn down. Crash Cage sent him to Mr. Bocor with the coral shard that caused all this trouble. Those shards are going to be trouble.
At level 27, 28, and 29, I reset to Villainous difficulty and tried to take out my L25 Silver Mantis AV. At 27, I didn't last more than about 30 seconds - she still did way too much damage. At 28, I was able to stand up to the damage for a while, but I had just gotten her to half health when she hit Dull Pain - pushed her from approximately 7500 to 11000 HP. I gave up at that point - no way I'd be able to take her down before running out of End inspirations. Finally at 29 I was able to take her out, but even with a four-level advantage it took me nearly 10 minutes to wear her down. The combination of Temp Invuln (which she turns on and off through the fight) and Dull Pain makes Silver Mantis extremely hard for a Super Strength toon to take down.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 29, with 45 hours played.
L29-31
Those coral shards did indeed turn out to be trouble. Crash introduced Steady Arsonist to Diviner Maros, a Circle mage who didn't seem to be totally in touch with reality. He knew plenty about a Freakshow cult, though, built around those coral shards. The Freaks weren't much a challenge, but then Barracuda showed up. Seems she thinks these shards are important to her past somehow. He wouldn't have minded just letting her do the dirty work, but Maros refused to pay unless she was taken out.
Steady Arsonist decided to head over to St. Martial for a while instead. Maros could wait. While he was there, he checked out Warburg, too. Something satisfying about having your own ballistic missile just waiting to strike.
AV #3, Barracuda. There's an Elite Boss in the mission as well, but he's only level 26, which I'm sure is a bug. Got this mission at level 29, and decided to wait a couple of levels for the AV fight. Now I had two AVs, Barracuda and Aurora, so I was stuck doing PvP-zone and newspaper missions. But that wasn't a bad thing, really, because after just a couple of missions I hit 30 and could use the time to get new contacts in St. Martial.
Hitting 30 changed my tactics, since I picked up Blazing Aura. Now I could herd up a few groups and let the aura do the lion's share of the damage. As long as I kept up a steady attack chain to boost Fury, the aura took down minions quick. My defense wasn't enough to handle more than a medium group, say about 10 +1 minions, but that's what inspirations are for - and the inspiration tray refills fast when you're dropping 10 mobs at a time.
I got my second debt when I was a little overzealous and herded up 3 mobs of +1 Freaks. I didn't scout well enough to realize that there were 4 Stunner Chief Lts. in those mobs, and when all 4 hit me with their sleep attack at once, it broke through Plasma Shield. Detoggled == dead. A valuable lesson - I stayed with only 2 Freak groups from then on, and made sure to check the number of Lts.
Warburg's rocket launch is easily the best PvP zone mini-game, in my humble opinion. After I hit 31, I did a few door missions there, then rescued some scientists and picked up a chemical missile. Why chemical? Debuffs are the key to defeating big enemies, and I had two AVs waiting.
I decided to test the missile on Barracuda. After resetting to villainous, she was L29 to my 31 - only a 2 level advantage. The chemical missile worked like a charm though. I got her down to about 1/4 life before the debuff wore off - until then she really wasn't able to hit me. That last 1/4 was harsh, though - she nearly killed me when Rage dropped, and I had to run out of the mission for more inspirations. She had only regenerated up to a little under half health when I got back, and the inspirations were enough advantage that I was able to take her down.
With only one AV mission taking up a mission slot, I was able to start in on my St. Martial contacts. I'm working on Hard Luck and Vivacious Verandi at the moment. I'd like to hit 32 and get my enhancements upgraded before taking on another AV - and of course I'll bring along another chemical missile strike.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 31.25, with 54 hours played.
L31-33
Maros wasn't done after the defeat of Barracuda and the Freak cult. The master shaper behind the cult, Calystix, was still at large, and was planning some kind of large-scale destruction. Steady Arsonist wasn't ready to let him destroy the Rogue Isles just yet - not after all the time he'd spent making a place there. Still, time wasn't a major factor, so he decided to build up his strength first.
St. Martial has the usual Rogue Isles mix of crazies, low-lifes, and would-be heroes in it. Steady Arsonist met up with a Carnival madwoman and a hard-luck gambler, both of whom paid well for a few jobs. The Carnie tried to set him up to release some sort of demon plague, but a demon hunter alerted him to the plan in time. He couldn't really blame the crazy woman - if she's hanging out with the Carnival she's obviously not right in the head. The gambler was a lot easier to deal with. A few simple jobs against the Freaks and Family brought in a tidy profit.
I spent some time in St. Martial to get to 32. Vivacious Verandi and Hard Luck are easy enough contacts to work through, and neither gave me an AV/Hero, for which I was grateful. I had to be very careful managing my Endurance bar, but other than that I had no trouble with any of the enemies I faced. I also went back to Warburg and grabbed another chemical missile and did a few more PvP zone missions - good XP on those things.
At 32 I picked up Foot Stomp. I'd originally thought I wouldn't use that power much, but I put it in the build since AoE attacks are hard to come by for a Brute. I'm glad to say I was very wrong - I use it all the time. Not so much for damage, but for the knockdown. Gather up a dozen enemies, knock 'em down, and Blazing Aura knocks 'em down by 1/3 while they stand back up. Very happy with the Foot Stomp.
The best part about L32, though, wasn't the power - it was the L35 enhancements. I'd saved enough infamy to get all the important enhancements - basically everything except for Brawl/Boxing accuracy, recharge in Rest, a couple of damage SOs, and jumps in the travel powers. Endurance management suddenly was a whole lot easier with L35 End Mod SOs in Stamina plus L35 End reductions in every attack and the toggles.
I tried Calystix at L32, but he spawned at L30, and his psionic damage plus the minions he summons were too much, even with the chemical rocket. I had to turn tail and run, and just barely made it out alive. I'll probably wait to 34 on that one - he was summoning bosses, and I have a hard enough time with the AV alone.
St. Martial was getting a bit boring, so he decided to see if anything else was shaking in Nerva. A couple of new contacts floated up - a creepy psionic mastermind, and an Arachnos operative. The psychic was weird, especially when he sent Steady Arsonist on a psychic journey to clear out his personal stable of psychoses. But nothing he asked for was a major challenge, so it was easy money. Operative Rutger was a different story - after a few easy tasks, he wanted Steady Arsonist to take on Luminary. He declined for now. That's a job that can wait.
I did enough newspaper missions to get Hardcase as a contact, but decided to head back to Nerva for a bit before started in on his stuff. Psymon Omega's storyline is interesting, even if I did have to fight Circle of Thorns a couple of times - hate those guys. Luckily none of his CoT missions were defeat-all, so I could just take out a boss or a few groups, which I did. The mission to defeat his psychoses is fun - listen to what the bosses are saying, there's some funny stuff in there. Although the Fear of Commitment maybe reveals a little more information than I needed to know.
Operative Rutger only gave me about 3 missions before dropping Luminary in my lap. Luckily the mission description actually mentions her, so I was able to avoid filling a mission slot. I'll pick that one up sometime after I've cleared out Calystix.
He also met Timothy Raymond, an ex-Lost with some major mental issues. Dude had a serious beef against the Rikti, which suited Steady Arsonist just fine - beating up aliens is just as much fun as kicking human butt. Maybe more fun.
Eventually it was time to head back to St. Martial and work with Hardcase. The Wailer demons that Hardcase is hunting don't seem that tough. He cleared out a whole cave of them without any trouble. The snow beasts infesting the Rogue Isles recently, though, are a different story. A horde of them were staking out Hardcase's location and sent Steady Arsonist to the hospital when he showed up looking for work. It can't warm up too fast for his taste.
Raymond's got some Rikti missions, the first I'd been assigned on this toon, and they proved to be no major challenge. The only trick is to make sure you tab through all enemies when you see a Lt by himself - because there's probably a horde of invisible drones. (At least on the graphics cards I have, on both machines, they're invisible until you get within about 20 feet - it's a glitch, not game invisibility like the Longbow Spec Ops.) As long as I didn't take on more than 4 or 5 drones at once - their energy damage adds up fast - all went well.
I started in on Hardcase's missions, too. Wailers are easy as long as you take them on in small groups - they're only dangerous when the debuffs stack up. I turned off Blazing Aura and went single-target for them - a little slower but a whole lot safer than using any kind of herding tactics. He did also give me a Carnie mission which I couldn't do until I dropped my difficulty to Villainous, because there was a Ring Mistress right inside the door who never seemed to miss with that -regen/-recovery attack they have. I must have tried 10 times to get inside without being debuffed before I finally gave up and lowered the difficulty. Even with her lowered to a Lt, I had to use most of my inspirations to take her down.
Getting to Hardcase himself was a real problem, too. With less than a bubble to go until L33, I headed back to him to pick up my next mission - only to drop immediately from the horde of L38 snow monsters standing right next to him. Debt #3. Apparently super-jumping right next to the contact there is a bad idea. Someone had hit the present that always spawns right next to Hardcase and failed to clean up the beasts. Whichever Dev put in the spawn point for that present right next to Hardcase is a sadist - not only does it screw anyone trying to get to the contact, but there's a mission door right there, too. I went back and used my temp stealth power (from the PvP zones) to get close enough to grab my mission - and I still had to hit some inspirations and jump away fast to stay alive.
I worked off the debt with some other missions and hit 33. I decided to go with a couple of slots in Rage for To-Hit buffs rather than slotting accuracy in Blazing Aura - that way I can go with 3 damage enhancements later on. I also got the 6th slot in Healing Flames - 3 recharge and 3 heals in that power, plus the 3 recharges in Consume, lets me keep fighting through an entire Rage uptime without running low of either health or End against most mobs. Longbow especially are very easy - although they got a damage buff in the 30s, Healing Flames plus the resistances from Fire Shield and Tough are enough to keep up.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 33, with 62 hours played.
A quick team-up
Yes, I finally broke down and joined a team with Steady Arsonist. Some SG mates were going to run the first respec strike force, and while I don't need a respec, I figured it would be nice to get the prestige for the SG. So I joined the team, malefactored at L28. I figure as long as my XP all comes from soloing, I'll still consider this guy a solo toon.
One guy accidentally picked up a timed Council mission, so we decided to clear that before the respec. Shouldn't take long, right? Famous last words. Our whole team wiped on numerous occasions as ambush spawns popped out of nowhere, pets aggroed entire rooms, and half the team ended up in the jail room and had to be rescued. That mission took us a full hour to complete, with multiple deaths for everyone.
After that fiasco, we decided the respec could wait. I earned a little infamy - about 2k - but most of my reward was prestige. And debt worked off toward the debt badge.
L33-35
Hardcase wasn't done with the Wailers. Steady Arsonist went back after those demons several times, and even broke into a Circle of Thorns base to stop the two mystic groups from making an alliance. Those mystic types are tough - not easy pickings by any means. Once they even sent him to the hospital, but he didn't give up. A job is a job, and he wasn't about to give in.
Tough little buggers, the Wailers. Easy enough one on one, even the bosses, but get more than 2 or 3 together and bad things can happen. Hardcase gave me a 'psychic plane' mission that had the same map used for one of the Carnie AVs. That map has a huge number of mob spawns, many of which are very close together. I got my fourth debt in that mission when an ambush spawn jumped me while I was fighting another group. My life went from 3/4 to zero in about 2 seconds when all those sonic debuff attacks nailed me. Luckily that was the only ambush spawn I saw, though, so no additional deaths followed.
I got most of the way to 34 finishing up missions from Timothy Raymond and Hardcase. Then every contact I had stopped offering me missions - except for the Luminary Hero, of course, so I finally picked that one up. Then I did a couple Warburg missions to finish off level 34. I deviated again from my planned build and put End reduction slots in Brawl, Boxing, and Knockout Blow. I'm very happy with the results - I almost never have to worry about endurance now, just Consume and the occasional inspiration get me through.
Warburg is a dangerous place, but nothing he couldn't handle. There's plenty of Longbow activity going on in there. Steady Arsonist took out a good dozen Longbow bases and retrieved a good amount of Longbow tech for Arachnos scientist to look at. Always nice to stick it to the heroes while getting in good with the spiders.
I spent all of level 34-35 in Warburg doing door missions. Doing PvP zone missions is a lot faster way to level than doing normal contacts, but it's a lot more boring, so I save it for a last resort. I forgot to keep an exact count, but I think it took 13-14 missions to level. I do know how long it took - just over 4 hours. I actually was about 2k short after the last one, so I just found a few wandering minions outside to finish up the level. That 2k came from my 5th debt - I forgot to watch my health bar when fighting a group of 6 +2 Longbow, and they got me.
I picked up Taunt at 35 - none of the other powers seemed all that useful, and I could use a pulling tool when a couple of groups spawn too close together. Hardcase decided to talk to me again once I hit 35, and a couple of other contacts opened up. I also hit a few explore badges to bump my total up over 50 - that gives the Obsessed badge, and opens up Johnny Sonnata. I'm sure I'll only get a couple of levels out of those contacts, but it beats doing all Warburg missions.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 35, with 72 hours played (1 of which was as a malefactor).
L35-36
There are still plenty of people who need the services of a guy like Steady Arsonist. He met a few new contacts, including Kelly Uqua from Crey Industries, Johnny Sonnata, and a madame working out of the Giza. It didn't take long to earn a spot on their regular call list as a head-buster. Johnny in particular had some strange jobs - one even sent Steady Arsonist to a strange dimension to capture a ex-CoT mage. And one of Johnny's jobs sent him after a Lord of the wailer demons - tough, but nothing he couldn't handle.
After hitting L35 a bunch of contacts opened up, so I spent a while doing missions to get their phone numbers. Some of those were Carnie missions, unfortunately, and one even had 2 bosses. I had to leave the mission to get more defense inspirations between bosses, but I managed to take them down with no deaths.
Johnny had one mission that sent me to the Shadow Shard where Longbow was holding Akarist prisoner - that was a fun one. Then later he sent me after a Wailer Lord Elite Boss - taunt showed its usefulness here, as I was able to pull away a Lt and several minions before facing the big fella. He hit hard - lost close to half my life whenever he used Shout - but he was slow, and even though he was a level higher than me, I had enough inspirations to take him down.
After getting all the phone numbers, which put me at about 35.5, I went back to Warburg to push to 36. I figured there's no way I'll get all the way to 40 on these contacts, so I might as well do a few PvP zone missions at a time. I also picked up another chemical rocket, in case I had trouble when I finally decided to take out Luminary. At 36 I put a couple of damage enhancements in Blazing Aura and one in Knockout Blow.
The Circle of Thorns have made a lot of enemies over the years - and they're not all human. A demon from some accursed plane of existence has hooked up with Arachnos for revenge on the CoT. Steady Arsonist teamed up with a group of like-minded villains to follow the demon's instructions and steal a source of power from the Circle - for a price, of course.
I once again joined a team in an attempt to do the first respec strike force, and this time we actually did the thing. We had a full team of 8 - thankfully only one mastermind, but the lag was still horrific. Fortunately 6 of the 8 team members were auto-malefactored to L30, so most of us were higher level than the mobs. So the lag didn't kill us. I did die once on the way to a mission, but the debt went away fast. The final mission was pretty easy - cleared the vines and took down the AV in short order. Total time, an hour and a half.
I can certainly see how that respec TF would be really tough if you were running without many people at L30. Just like the hero respec, I suppose - usually very difficult at lower levels, but easy if you get people at the higher end of the level range.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 36.2, with 78 hours played (2.5 of which were as a malefactor).
L36-38
Kelly Uqua's bosses at Crey must either be very gullible, or they think they can use a Rikti in the ranks. Uqua dropped enough hints to let anyone with half a brain know she's a Rikti impostor. In the end, Steady Arsonist had to stop a Longbow officer from revealing her deception. Maybe the Crey higher-ups have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Uqua gave me a mission with a Longbow Ballista elite boss, which I wasn't able to do even on Villainous difficulty. I beat one of those guys earlier with a lot of inspirations, but I had to zone to a contact to buy more in order to do it, and this one was 3 floors deep in an office building. So that strategy was out. Luckily I'd been doing some missions from other contacts, so I wasn't very far from 37. I just did a few Warburg missions to level and then beat the snot out of that elite boss. One level advantage is enough for those guys.
At 37 I added some more damage slots to Knockout Blow and Blazing Aura. Honestly, I haven't noticed a huge difference - Fury and Rage add enough damage that the enhancements are just icing on the cake. But it can't hurt, I figure. Then I went back and beat up Luminary. Didn't even need to use the rocket, not with a 4 level advantage.
Johnny Sonnata kept Steady Arsonist jumping through hoops on various jobs for a while, but finally revealed what he wanted. Seems Johnny sold his soul a while back, and now he's regretting the deal. So it was off to a mystic portal to the realm of Johnny's being - and that's one ugly soul he has. It'll be a while before that thing is reclaimed.
A Wailer AV, eww. Johnny's Soul is not something I plan to face at even level, not when a mere Elite Boss was able to take out half my life with one shot. A +1 Elite Boss, to be sure, but AVs are much worse. Then one of my other contacts gave me another Longbow Ballista Elite Boss. Two mission slots filled, so it was back to Warburg.
I actually tried to get a couple more rockets so I could take out the Ballista - I figured that with all three types I could take him out with one tray of inspirations - but I couldn't even find a scientist with all the other players and snow beasts down underneath the city. They really need to do some server maintenance, to clear out winter horde spawns if nothing else.
So instead I was back to PvP zone missions. I don't really mind - this is the last level I'll be able to run on Ruthless and not have to face Spec Ops EMP grenades. About a dozen missions later, I was less than half a bar to 38. I reset to Villainous, went into the elite boss mission, took out enough minions to level, and then smacked around the boss.
At 38, I picked up Weave. Yeah, I know, it sucks. But nothing else seemed worthwhile either, and if I drop a few slots in Weave it'll be 5% defense. That's like having a permanent Luck inspiration - nothing great, but every once in a while it'll save your life. For now I'll only use it in situations where defense is more important than endurance - basically only when herding or fighting nasty cold-damage enemies.
Steady Arsonist is currently level 38, with 89 hours played (2.5 of which were as a malefactor).
L38-39
An Arachnos operative in Nerva has been working on portal technology to explore alternate dimensions. Steady Arsonist decided that was an excellent opportunity to both impress Lord Recluse and search for some powerful allies - or enemies. Some of the missions took him to the Shadow Shard, an alternate dimension inhabited by aliens called the Rularuu. The ones he met weren't much of a challenge, but he has a feeling they'll be major trouble down the road.
Rularuu minions are easy. The eyeballs do -defense attacks, but no status effects - those are Lt level and above. And the Brute minions aren't any challenge whatsoever. I'll do Rularuu missions any time, too bad there aren't more of them.
The alternate dimension missions are generally pretty fun. They're also usually pretty large maps, which at this level is great, since you need lots of XP and herding up a lot of +1 minions is a great way to get it. Good for a Brute, anyway. I fought a lot of DE and Longbow, both of which are pretty easy minion fights - although with Longbow you have to be careful to take out the Spec Ops quickly.
Nemesis soldiers started to show up in some of the alternate dimension missions that he went on. Strangely, they all treated him as an ally. Soon enough he learned why - they thought he was one of their automatons! Steady Arsonist wasn't about to let that stand. He fought his way into a Nemesis base - and shut down their plans to infiltrate Arachnos with automatons. Well, one of their plans, at least.
Excellent story arc, that Nemesis automaton arc. I like Nemesis, the whole "plans within plans" thing makes for some great stories. The arc was fairly easy to run through, although there was a Longbow Ballista in it at one point. (At least I think it was part of the arc. Same contact, anyway.) I was nowhere near leveling at the point where he showed up, so I decided to bite the bullet and use my rocket on him. With the chemical debuff, I had no trouble taking him down, even though he was a level above me.
Steady Arsonist isn't a big fan of the Mu Mystics in Arachnos, but he likes the Circle of Thorns less. One of the higher-ranking Mu Mystics sent him on several missions, mainly against the Circle. Most of those were no real challenge, but in one case the Circle was trying to summon some kind of demon lord, Baphomet by name. His contact told Steady Arsonist that he could prevent that summoning by taking out the Circle mages performing the summoning ritual, but that was wrong. No sooner had he attacked the first mages than demons began to appear, and they kept coming even as he defeated them. Finally Baphomet himself appeared. Steady Arsonist decided it was time to exercise the better part of valor and leaped away - only to land in a patch of quicksand! Baphomet had no such problem and quickly caught up - leading to a trip to the hospital.
Ugly. That Baphomet mission is clearly meant to be a surprise, since he shows up right after you attack the first of 9 rituals. It certainly surprised me. At least there's warning in the form of those 'Herald of Baphomet' demons. The debt was my own fault - I tried to run away from Baphomet, but still stay on the map, so he'd de-aggro and I could find the other rituals. But as part of an ambush spawn, he doesn't seem to de-aggro no matter how far you run, and I got caught in an Earth Thorn's quicksand patch - game over. Oh well. On the up side, the mission was timed, so I just let it expire. My contact wasn't happy, and refused to give me more missions for a while, but eventually he changed his mind and all was well.
One of Steady Arsonist's associated in the Fallen Legion was having some trouble with Aurora Borealis. He remembers that heroine, and not fondly, so he was more than happy to help take her down again.
I had debt after the Baphomet fiasco, so I malefactored down to help an SG mate with Aurora. She was L30, and with an L30 corruptor, L33 MM, and me malefactored to L30 she was no challenge at all. Her defeat, plus a few spawns of her Longbow minions, cleared out my debt quick.
I was pretty close to 39 by this point, so I did a few newspa
