Ineffable_Bob

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I must say, you have a very nice guide and cograts on getting so far soloing. I have looked for a while and have been trying to find a solo build that i'd like to try out. I have heard of a few but those were the widely used ones. I wanted something that not everyone used.

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Thanks, appreciate the compliments. As for builds...well, I found out there's a reason everyone uses a few types. It's just not a lot of fun to solo a toon with no defense, holds, or end drain protection in the 40+ game.

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Nicely Done Ineffable_Bob.

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Thanks, I appreciate it.

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I run a SS/Fire brute myself and have experienced many of the same challenges. My main issue is endurance. I have a end redux in every attack, toggle, 3 in BA and 3 in Tough. The toon has endurance issues all by himself and when you add endurance draining foe's it makes it that much worse.

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Yeah, it has been an issue, but Consume helps a lot, and I would often Rest during the Rage downtime. The Rage drop actually helped when I timed that right - if you have to be doing nothing for 10 seconds, why not Rest? Of course, when I didn't time it right, the drop would sometimes run me out of End and then it got ugly.

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I've been seriously considering an Aid - Self type build to drop tough. I don't have end mod's in my consume but that will be soon to come so that I can cast it even with just 1 foe surrounding me.

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I never really considered Aid Self. I already had Healing Flames, and the time needed to cast 2 heals would really eat into the attack chain.

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I have to agree with you that if I ever create a brute SS / Fire would not be it.. The Rage drop, Lack of defense, and stamina issues can hamper the fun sometimes. There are benefits to Rage but it seems to drop at the worse time.

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I know the Devs have looked at the Fiery Aura secondary recently. I hope they take note of this. Sure, it can be played - but it's just not as much fun as other secondaries because of everything you have to do in order to fill the holes. The damage from Burn and Blazing Aura just isn't worth all the problems we have to put up with - especially Burn, which is really only usable for L41+ Brutes with a Patron Immobilize.

Super Strength has a similar problem, although Rage solves most of the issues related to enemies resisting smashing damage. The Rage drop is very annoying to say the least, although at least it doesn't stun you any more. I won't be playing another SS toon any time soon, that's for sure - why put up with the annoyance when I can go with Energy Melee? Not only is there no drop, but the damage is better overall anyhow, and I get a stun effect for damage mitigation.

L45-46

Steady Arsonist was moving up - literally. Many of the new contacts he was meeting spent their time high above the ground level of Grandville, and many missions were located there as well. For the first time, he envied those with the power of flight.

I hate Grandville. I spend more time getting to missions than actually doing them. At least the contacts tend to give you a phone number after one mission, so you only have to climb the tower twice to talk to them.

Shadow Spider lives in an interesting world. Steady Arsonist captured Agent Indigo and nearly nabbed her partner Crimson as well, thanks to tips from Shadow Spider.

I nearly got Crimson, had him down to about 10% health when he escaped. I wasn't really expecting to get him, so it didn't bother me much - I've read everyone else's complaints about that mission.

After running through most of the missions from Shadow Spider and Abyss, plus a few from Efficiency Expert Pither and Tavish Bell, Steady Arsonist hit 46. I can see already that I'm going to be short on missions, I have 4 levels to do and only 3 untouched contacts. Well, 4, if you count Viridian, but there's no way I'm going to hunt down all the crap you need to unlock him.

At 46 I slotted up Footstomp the rest of the way, and dropped one more in the Web Envelope.

Recluse's Victory. Even the name sounds evil. A tough place, by all accounts, and Steady Arsonist decided it was time to experience it for himself. It was pure chaos. After many battles, some won, many lost, Lord Reculse's vision was realized in the alternate Atlas Park. But victory was fleeting.

I'm not much of a PvP player. I actively dislike it, most of the time. But when the Victory server hosted a RV mass-PvP event (thanks to SatanicHamster for organizing), I decided to give it a shot.

My build is not at all optimized for PvP, but surprisingly I did OK. Part of that was due to teammates, of course - I wasn't about to go in there solo. A lot of the time we were scattered, though. Still, it usually took 2-3 heroes to bring me down, and if I got some villain support we laid some pretty decent hurt on them.

I discovered that my web envelope was pretty much useless on its own, since it seemed like everyone was running combat jumping. I did use it to bring down a flying blaster once, but that's the only time I saw it have an effect.

I spent almost 2 hours in there, so I got my mini-game bar filled up and got the Arachnos Mini-Blaster pet. I hear it's not that great as a pet, but hey, it'll help with the next Elite Boss I see.

Steady Arsonist is currently level 46, with 172 hours played (49 since Issue 7, 24 overall as a malefactor).

L46-47

Crey Industries is always looking for the next big competitive advantage. Sometimes, though, they poke into the wrong corners of the universe looking for it. One of Crey's security personnel hired Steady Arsonist to take care of some problems in one of their labs. Little did he know that the lab had been destroyed by a demon lord, summoned by Crey's research into mystical powers. The lab - and most of the Crey - had been melted. Luckily Steady Arsonist can take the heat.

This was a nice little story arc. Crey summoning demons while trying to improve their Paragon Protectors, sounds like something they'd do. I got to fight a couple of PP Elite bosses that were supposedly demon-possessed, which basically just meant that they had some extra fire damage - no problem for a */Fire brute. I like those PP Elites a whole lot better than the normal PPs, since they have Inferno and Blackstar as their big powers instead of Elude, Unstoppable, or the always-annoying Moment of Glory.

The real challenge wasn't the bosses, it was the minions. Crey in CoV now have Cryo and Voltaic tank minions, and Power tank Lts. All of those do a lot of energy or cold damage, both types that Steady Arsonist has trouble with. Plus the Voltaics sap End, and the Cryos slow recharge. They're a royal pain. I found myself doing a lot of waiting between mobs while Healing Flames recharged.

The last mission map was great, a lab with a bunch of melted holes in the walls. Even the elevators were melted, and you could jump through the destroyed elevator shaft to the next floor. Nice touch, whomever designed that mission. At the end was a big demon boss, who apparently counts as Baphomet, even though his name was different. I got the Demon Slayer badge out of it, which is nice since I missed it back in the 40s - the Baphomet mission was bugged back then.

It seems the heroes of Paragon City just can't resist the Rogue Isles. Pursuing leads given by bounty hunters, Crey, and Arachnos, Steady Arsonist went up against Ms. Liberty, Synapse, and Mynx. Maybe if enough of them get beaten to a pulp, they'll learn to stay home.

The Heroes started coming fast and furious, which is no great surprise in the 40s. I can't overemphasize how wonderful it is to be fighting Elite Bosses instead of Heroes/AVs - I know I keep repeating myself on that subject, but it's just that good for a solo toon. It took over a year for that change to make it into the game, and I have no problem thanking the Devs for over a year.

Ms. Liberty was a complete surprise to me. There was no warning in the mission description that there might be a big fight, and she spawned in a room that I couldn't see into until I was practically on top of her. And since I was on Ruthless, she was +1 and had 2 Longbow Nullifiers with her. Needless to say, I was toast. Double Liquefy from the Nullifiers killed my resistances, and she took me out in 2 shots. A quick hospital trip and some inspiration buying, and the tables turned easily enough. A few defense inspirations and I was able to get rid of the Nullifiers, a few more and Ms. Liberty wasn't so tough. She did use Unstoppable, but I just did the Burn-run away-Burn-run away cycle until it dropped.

My contact warned me about Synapse so I was prepared. He was really easy because of his speed, ironically. I cleared out the floor except for his spawn, then ran into Disruptor Blast range and fired at him. That aggroed his Longbow guard, of course, including 2 Nullifiers, but I simply ran to the other end of the floor and left them in my dust. Synapse happily followed me the whole way, and I proceeded to wipe the floor with him. All I needed was a few defense and End inspirations - blasters are easy to take out when they're alone. Then I went back and took out the Longbow.

Mynx was another surprise - kind of. My contact said something about cleaning up a Malta base, which sucked, so I reset to villainous difficulty and went in. But there were no Malta. The mission description still said Malta, but the objectives said defeat Crey, find some glowie, and defeat Mynx. OK, so it's actually Crey and Longbow. Back out, reset to Ruthless, reset mission. I wiped out the Crey, found the glowie, and again made liberal use of defense inspirations to take out the Longbow guard before tackling Mynx. She does some pretty significant damage when she hits, so I was glad of the defense. Eventually she hit Elude, and that was a royal pain, but I had enough defense inspirations to survive until it dropped, at which point I crushed her.

I walked out of that mission and called my contact - who immediately sent me after Mynx again. After fighting my way through a huge Longbow map, I found her in a room with 2 Longbow spawns practically sitting on top of one another. Not a good sign, but I had plenty of defense and some pets, so I summoned my last Rikti Drone and a Shivan, popped a bunch of purples and waded in. The Longbow went down quickly enough, but Mynx vanished, and I wasted some time trying to find her. Seems that she'd run into one of my Burn patches while I was killing off the minions, ran away from it, and with Quickness she managed to run away far enough to de-aggro. Took her sweet time getting back, too. She finally came back and I got her down to where she popped Elude, but at that point I had run out of defense inspirations. I probably should have tried to run away at that point, but I figured with the pets I had a shot at her even through Elude. Wrong. I spent about 30 seconds trying to hit her, while she got in a few shots bringing me down to about half health. And then - Eviscerate critical hit for 990 damage. Dead brute. She was practically standing on my head, so I had to hospital, and because of the normal pain-in-the-rear travel through Grandville plus the giant map, she had regenerated back to nearly full health by the time I got back. This time I came prepared with 3 full rows of defense inspirations, though, and was able to maintain defense through her Elude cycle. Once it dropped, she went down.

Steady Arsonist thought he was long since done with the Snakes that infested Mercy Island, but Operative Grillo had different news. Somehow some of the Snakes had grown massively more powerful, and they were making short work of all the new recruits in Mercy. So Steady Arsonist went back to Mercy Island and his old contacts Kalinda and Mongoose, once again descending into the Snakes' lairs.

I like the story arcs that tie back into old storylines, they seem to be well written. Although I'm not fond of having to bounce back and forth between Mercy Island and Grandville. At least base teleporters make it a little easier. This wasn't the only story arc to bring up old missions and contacts - I also got to fight Pyriss in a different arc, although she looked a lot better as a heroine than a Devoured.

The Snakes got a major boost, to be expected when they gain 40 levels, I suppose. Toxic damage is always a pain, and they have plenty of that. The assassin snakes add some pretty solid damage, too. Their assassin's strike must not be interruptable, because I've been hit by it after I already immobilized them with my Web Envelope, but it only does about 1/4 of my HP bar, so it's manageable.

I hit 47 on one of the Snake missions in Mercy, so I went back to Grandville and leveled up. I picked up my Arachnos Blaster pet, just on general principles. I don't expect it to actually be useful, but there's nothing else I wanted.

Double XP weekend is coming up, but I haven't decided if I'm going to play Steady Arsonist or not. He's only got 3 levels to go anyway, and I have more contacts left than I'd expected. Maybe I'll play a few missions, finish a story arc or two for big bonuses, but for the most part I'll probably spend the big weekend on other toons.

Steady Arsonist is currently level 47, with 180 hours played (57 since Issue 7, 24 overall as a malefactor).

L47-48

Steady Arsonist finally tracked the dangerous Snakes to their source. Invading their base was easy. Defeating the fanatical guards of their leader, who called herself the goddess Stheno, was not.

The final mission in the Snake arc is quite a challenge. The whole place is infested - I nearly died right inside the door when I went down one of those steep inclines and ended up aggroing two mobs. It took quite a while to clear out the regular spawns, but eventually I found the AV, Stheno.

Stheno and her guard didn't look too bad, but the room itself was a problem. There were a ton of snake eggs around. I tried to kill one, but I'd barely made a dent in it when it hatched - a red-con boss. Actually 2, since all the eggs spawned in pairs. Ouch. I did some running, used all my inspirations, and barely managed to take both of them down. I left, got more inspirations, went back in and took out two more egg-bosses. After 4 repeats of this, one half of the room was finally clear enough that I could pull Stheno herself over. After all those boss fights, the AV herself was no challenge at all.

Abyss was so impressed with Steady Arsonist that she sent him to take out Ms. Liberty again - this time in her own base. Oh, and by the way, Mynx, Luminary, and Valkyrie probably won't be too happy about it.

What is it about high-level CoV and multiple signature heroes? Everyone's seen the Recluse strike force reports, I'm sure, fighting the entire Freedom Phalanx and Vindicator crew at once. At least this mission isn't quite that bad, since you can fight the heroes one at a time. But still, 4 of them in one mission? 5 really, since Valkyrie always uses Revive. It's a challenge, certainly, and I don't mind that, but all it really does is force me to spend a bunch of time all in one sitting to get through this huge time-sink of a mission.

The first time I did this mission, it was about 45 minutes before server maintenance. I took out Mynx, Valkyrie, Valkyrie again, and Luminary with my usual method of using tons of defense inspirations and pets. I had to run out of the mission after each one, twice on Mynx, to get more defense inspirations. They were all +2 to me, since I was on Ruthless and they spawned in the higher-level rooms. Ran out of Shivans before I got to Ms. Liberty, but since I only had 5 minutes left before downtime, I figured I'd better try it. She spawned at +1, but in a room with 2 Longbow groups right together, no way I could get one at a time. So I wasted my first set of inspirations taking out all the minions and Lts. Then I beat on her for a minute until Rage dropped, got her down to about 25%. Then as I was running away during the Rage downtime - she healed herself! Argh! I assume it was Dull Pain, although I didn't check her total HP. With her back up past half HP, I ran out of time before I could take her down.

Later on I went back to do it again. Same setup, although the first three Heroes spawned in different rooms than before. Still +2s though. I'd gotten more Shivans, which helped, and I got through all 3 of them fairly easily. Took forever still, since I kept having to run out for more inspirations. Ms. Liberty spawned in the same spot with 2 Longbow groups, so I did the same thing as before - but this time my defense let me down and a Spec Ops managed to hit me with a web grenade. That slowed me enough that I couldn't get out of range before the defense dropped, and Ms. Liberty nailed me with a Total Focus. At least I managed to take out all the minions. Revive, yet another trip to buy inspirations, use yet another Shivan, and she finally went down.

They say that TV can rot your brain. Not sure about actual rotting, but Television sure seemed to do something to Steady Arsonists' brain. Strange stuff, but there seems to be no lasting damage. He got paid, so it doesn't really matter where the jobs came from.

The Radio was a great low-level contact and the Television is just as good, if not better. The only complaint I had was that I had to fight Malta a couple of times, but I made it through. Even stayed on Ruthless setting for it, although I did almost pay for that a couple of times when KO Blow missed a Sapper. I got lucky and stayed alive, though.

I changed my mind and decided I'd play Steady Arsonist some on Double XP weekend, because all of my contacts except the Television and Vernon gave up on me right about the time I hit 48. I still have Black Scorpion's arcs, but I figure I've got about one level's worth of missions left - which is 2 levels with double XP, so the timing couldn't be better.

At 48 I put my 3 slots in the pet. It sucks slightly less with 3 recharge in it, and I threw in a damage too. Nothing else I really wanted to bother slotting.

Steady Arsonist is currently level 48, with 188 hours played (65 since Issue 7, 24 as a malefactor).

L48-50

For some reason everyone in Grandville started feeling generous. The rewards Steady Arsonist was receiving for pulling jobs doubled overnight. Something strange was going on, but why look a gift horse in the mouth? He decided to work overtime while the generosity lasted.

Gotta love Double XP weekend. I also made use of the Double Infamy - since I'd mostly been playing in SG mode, I was short infamy to buy my L50 enhancements. A few missions out of SG mode fixed that quickly.

I hope this whole thing doesn't backfire on Cryptic. It's going to feel really slow after this weekend, watching the old XP bar go back to its normal pace. People might just decide it's too slow, and either quit playing or join the herding powerlevelers.

Television has enemies. First there was the Radio, jealous of Television's success. Then Nemesis, trying to use Television for his own ends. Steady Aronist put a stop to that. What would he do without his Television?

As I've said before, I like seeing tie-ins to previous stories, and this was a good one. The Radio didn't like Television stealing its listeners, makes sense. Getting to beat up some Freaks along the way was a nice bonus. And the entire arc is worth doing just for the description of American Idol. When I got the Radio itself, I was out of inspirations, but I figured I'd give it a try anyway. 10 seconds later I was running for my life, with Healing Flames being the only reason I wasn't dead. The Radio packs a serious punch, with all the resistance-lowering sonics. After buying inspirations, I came back and had no trouble taking it down - when it can't hit you consistently, the sonics don't hurt too bad.

Later the Television sent me to repel invaders - inside TV! The entrance to that mission is one of the upper-level Grandville pains-in-the-butt, but it's worth it for the entrance animation. Love watching my toon get sucked into the TV screen. I have to wonder, though, what the Devs were thinking with the last mission in the arc - Nemesis on the ruined-world map. Are they just trying to encourage farming?

Vernon made a serious bid for the 'mad' part of mad scientist by messing around with the Devouring Earth. You have to be insane to try to make them grow faster! Steady Arsonist made a few trips to Paragon City, fighting DE, Longbow, and the Woodsman himself in pursuit of Vernon's mad schemes. But Vernon wasn't done yet - he sent Steady Arsonist into a Crey lab after a cloned part of the Hamidon! Mad science, indeed. In the end, though, evil won out as the heroine Zenflower was defeated and Vernon ascended to full mad-scientist status.

L45+ DE seem to be all Boulders and bosses, at least in this arc. Pretty easy stuff, even though you can't immobilize them. I learned to herd up a bunch, lay Burn, then Footstomp to knock 'em flat. Not as good as using the Web Envelope, but you use what you have. As an added bonus, the Rubble tended to die from Burn and Blazing Aura before they could run away.

The Woodsman wasn't much of a challenge, but then I did have a lot of help. I felt like a mini-mastermind, with my own Arachnoid pet, a Shivan, and a Razorvine from the Summon Creeper temp power. He did summon some helpers, looked kind of like Tuatha, and he confused me once. But with my own helpers and a Break Free, he didn't last long.

Moving from DE to Crey was less than desirable. Stupid Crey tank minions with their cold and electric damage. Things went a lot slower, but I got through it. Then it was time to take out a heroine that was trying to pacify the DE, using Vernon's own mad science against him. Zenflower was pretty pathetic, I didn't even have to use a second set of inspirations. I did use a Shivan, but I shouldn't have bothered on her. The only thing of note that she did was use Carrion Creeper vines, but I just ran away from them after she was dead.

With the double XP, I managed to make 50 without touching my Black Scorpion story arcs. Abyss decided to talk to me again right as I hit 50, too, probably another one of those screwy story arc things. That's fine, I'll probably run them as SG events later, actually play with a team for a change.

When I hit 49 I took Rise of the Phoenix. Who knows, I might PvP again sometime. At 50 I put 2 slots in Health, which I probably should have done earlier instead of slotting the useless pet. I also put another recharge slot in Rise of the Phoenix - why not?

Steady Arsonist is currently level 50, with 194 hours played (71 since Issue 7, about 10 on Double XP weekend, 24 as a malefactor).

Conclusion

So, the journey is over. It's been fun, but I have to admit I was getting tired of this toon. At the high levels, a lot of holes show up in a SS/Fire Brute build, and normal play becomes a chore. I am pleased with Brute-ing in general, though. The combination of decent defense and Fury's crazy damage is perfect for a solo character.

If I had to do it again I wouldn't go with the Fire secondary. While Burn and Blazing Aura are nice for damage, the holes in the secondary are just too big to overlook. When you're soloing, you don't have anyone else to cover for your lack of knockback protection, non-Fire resistances, End drain protection, and defense. You can take powers to compensate for some of those, and I did, but it means you have to put off other nice powers or skip them altogether. Plus you don't even get a tier-9 uber power for use on bosses and such. I'd probably go Energy or Electric defense for a solo build now.

On the offense side, I like Super Strength, but again I wouldn't do it if I was starting fresh. The Rage drop is a pain - a manageable pain, but a pain nonetheless. I'd rather go with another set that doesn't make me stop every 90 seconds. Dark has some nice utility powers and the negative energy damage isn't resisted as much, Energy just has huge damage, or maybe Stone for all the knockdown effects.

I'm not impressed at all with the villain patron pools. The heroes get all kinds of nice utility powers; villains get a couple blasts, a useless pet, and an immobilize. While I got lots of good use out of the immobilize on this toon, for anyone without Burn it wouldn't have been worth picking up. Poorly done, Cryptic. You guys should at least buff the pets to make them worth taking.

All in all, I'm impressed with the City of Villains content. While I can't say I actually like ruining people's lives, the stories are interesting. Some contacts, like the Radio and Television, are pure genius. The newspaper system and mayhem missions are awesome. The content designers can be proud of what they've done.

The zone designers, on the other hand, should be ashamed of themselves. It's a royal pain trying to get anywhere prior to travel powers. The lowbie mayhem mission temp powers help, but only to a point - and Nerva and Grandville are a huge pain even with travel powers. The look and feel of the zones is great - the usability is horrible. And when you play for a couple hundred hours in those zones, usability is just as important, maybe more so. Give me Paragon City any day, stupid level-restricted hazard zones and all, over the Rogue Isles.

A couple of changes during the life of this character made soloing much more manageable - the AV/Hero-to-Elite-Boss change, and the promotion of Shivans to work above level 25. On behalf of everyone who ever tried to solo a character above level 20, thank you, Devs. While the majority of players may not solo a lot, some of us do, and we greatly appreciate the ability to get through the content on our own.

I hope all this has been useful to anyone interested in some tips and tricks for soloing a Brute. It's been fun!

Here's my L50 build:

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Steady Arsonist
Level: 50
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Super Strength
Secondary: Fiery Aura
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01) --> Punch==> Acc(1)EndRdx(3)Rechg(11)Dmg(23)Dmg(43)Dmg(43)
01) --> Fire Shield==> EndRdx(1)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(7)
02) --> Haymaker==> Acc(2)EndRdx(3)Rechg(11)Dmg(43)Dmg(45)Dmg(45)
04) --> Healing Flames==> Rechg(4)Rechg(7)Rechg(15)Heal(15)Heal(19)Heal(23)
06) --> Hurdle==> Jump(6)
08) --> Knockout Blow==> Acc(8)EndRdx(9)Rechg(9)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)
10) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(10)
12) --> Boxing==> Acc(12)EndRdx(13)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Plasma Shield==> EndRdx(16)DmgRes(17)DmgRes(17)DmgRes(19)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18)Heal(50)Heal(50)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(22)
24) --> Rage==> Rechg(24)Rechg(25)Rechg(25)TH_Buf(31)TH_Buf(31)TH_Buf(33)
26) --> Consume==> Acc(26)Rechg(27)Rechg(27)Rechg(29)EndMod(29)EndMod(31)
28) --> Tough==> EndRdx(28)DmgRes(34)DmgRes(34)DmgRes(34)
30) --> Blazing Aura==> EndRdx(30)EndRdx(33)Acc(33)Dmg(37)Dmg(37)Dmg(39)
32) --> Foot Stomp==> Acc(32)EndRdx(36)Rechg(37)Dmg(45)Dmg(46)Dmg(46)
35) --> Fiery Embrace==> Rechg(35)Rechg(36)Rechg(36)
38) --> Burn==> Dmg(38)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)
41) --> Web Envelope==> Acc(41)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)Immob(42)EndRdx(46)
44) --> Disruptor Blast==> Acc(44)
47) --> Summon Blaster==> Rechg(47)Rechg(48)Rechg(48)Dmg(48)
49) --> Rise of the Phoenix==> Rechg(49)Rechg(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)EndRdx(13)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
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L40-41

Finally! After weeks of roaming the Rogue Isles, searching for a challenge worthy of his skills, Steady Arsonist finally found his way into Grandville. It's a disturbing place, its twisted architecture reflecting the twisted mind of Lord Recluse. It took a while to find his way around, but eventually Steady Arsonist met up with someone that knew the territory, and the villainy began in earnest.

After weeks of waiting at L40, it's finally time to continue with Steady Arsonist's soloing journey. When Issue 7 released, I'd logged 123 hours on Steady Arsonist, 23 of those as a malefactor (counting no-XP-at-L40 time as a malefactor).

The first thing I did was run newspaper missions in Grandville to pick up my new contacts. And the first thing I noticed was what a pain it is to get around in Grandville. Practically every time I went leaping toward my mission, some Arachnos guard would throw a web grenade, forcing me to wait for it wear off. The zone design is horrible for non-flyers. Even with Super Jump it's tough to find the right spot to drop into, and easy to fall off into the depths, forcing you to find your way back up. I pity anyone trying to use Super Speed in there.

The newspaper missions themselves were uneventful - easy stuff. I actually skipped the first two Mayhem missions by letting their timers run out while I did more missions. Prior to L40, Mayhem missions are fun. After that, the Longbow ambushes are so annoying that I'd rather just skip the whole thing. I did run the 3rd Mayhem mission, in the interest of getting a temp power. I got ambushed by Longbow Spec Ops several times, and just about died twice when the dreaded End drain hit. Twice the ambush had 2 Spec Ops in it. The hero was easy once she was alone - I popped a ton of purples and took out the minions (yes, one was a Spec Ops), then dealt with the boss.

My contacts gave me several interesting missions. I like the Freak arc with the teacher, nice story to that. I also got the arc with the Arachnoid leader, Biff, but I ran into the knockback-means-failed-mission bug there so I couldn't finish it. At one point I had to go to St. Martial, and I realized that my Broker bar there was full, so I quickly did a Mayhem mission there for the temp power. Ran through it as fast as I could and only had to deal with one Spec Ops ambush that nearly killed me.

Then I got the worst mission I've played yet - all Spec Ops. The whole mission, except the boss at the end. Always in groups of at least 2, sometimes up to 4. I actually survived due to Taunt. I'd Taunt away 2-3 of the Spec Ops in each group, let them end drain me, and then Boxing/Brawl them to death slowly. That only worked because I could pull the groups apart with Taunt, and because the Spec Ops don't actually have status effects (well, they have immobilize, but no holds). Horrible mission. Took me nearly an hour, and at the end...I failed it due to the knockback bug. Awful.

Then I got a mission to rescue 3 Spiderlings, did that and cleared out all the mobs I could find, and...nothing. No mission complete. Reset it, did it again - same thing. Petitioned a GM, gave up waiting after half an hour. Finally I decided to just move on and do something else.

I still had the last mission in the Freakshow teacher arc, so I went there. I was able to pick off all the Spec Ops along the way, a nice change of pace from constant End-draining. A L41 Elite-Boss Luminary was guarding the teacher at the end, but a couple of Good Lucks were all it took to keep her at bay. Well, that and some Catch a Breath inspirations - it's hard work beating up those EBs. Never was in any real danger, though. Upon completing the mission and finishing the story arc, Steady Arsonist hit L41.

I picked up Fiery Embrace. I don't figure it'll be a big help, but nothing else looks useful either, and I haven't done a Patron arc yet. I have 3 unused respecs anyway, not to mention the one you're supposed to get with the Patron arc, so I'm not worried about making a bad choice.

I think I'll take a break from Steady Arsonist until some of the Issue 7 bugs are fixed. There's way too many in the higher level missions to be seriously trying to play a solo toon. At least one with knockback powers - that bug alone cost me two missions and a story arc. More to come once the missions are actually doable.

Steady Arsonist is currently level 41, with 130 hours played (7 since Issue 7, 23 as a malefactor).

L41-42

Grandville certainly had some challenges in store for Steady Arsonist. Just finding his way around without running into Recluse's elite Bane Spider Commandos or rogue Arachnoids was a challenge. For a period of time he laid low, scouting the area and learning its secrets. Finally, he was ready to master Grandville as he had mastered the rest of the Rogue Isles.

Steady Arsonist did indeed lay low for a while, mainly waiting for bug fixes. That running-boss bug is finally fixed (at least according to the patch notes), so I figured it was time to give it another shot. Grandville is still laggy for me, no matter how I tweak my graphics settings, but I'm learning my way around well enough. I'm really glad I have Super Jump as a travel power, I'd hate to have to try to figure out Super Speed, or deal with the Teleport targeting bug, or twiddle my thumbs waiting on the slow Fly speed.

The Spiderling mission was fixed, too, although there was no patch note about it. Or maybe I just got lucky and did the right things this time. It's finally off my mission list, anyhow, and the three failed attempts to complete it are behind me.

Steady Arsonist had recently learned that one Terrence Dobbs needed some assistance with Arachnoids. Dobbs wasn't much to look at, but he had cash, and the jobs he wanted done were another opportunity to spread a little fear. Some of those Arachnoids pack a punch, but none of them could stand up for long to the combination of strength and fire that Steady Arsonist brought.

Arachnoids are a pain. Toxic damage, slows, and those webs that the Lts use have -jump. The Super Arachnoids have some pretty impressive HP regen, too, but Rage and Fury gave me enough damage that it didn't matter too much. The toxic damage was a killer until I started hitting Healing Flames before I jumped into a big group. The little bit of toxic resist helped quite a bit, especially when I was fighting 5-6 +1 minions.

It didn't take long before Dobbs was out of work. He said he had some tougher assignments, but he wouldn't say more until Steady Arsonist took care of some old business. Steady Arsonist didn't realize he even had old business, but Dobbs seemed to know, so he went back to some old contacts. And sure enough, there was more work in Cap au Diable and Sharkhead Isle. Steady Arsonist made short work of those old jobs.

Dobbs gave me about 3 missions then refused to talk any more, so I knew I had story arc issues. Nothing in my Clue window, so I went back to some old contacts, and found 2 willing to give me story arcs. I really wish they'd fix that. I hadn't taken any of the old story arc missions, but simply talking to those contacts apparently opened the arcs. There's no indication that the story arc is open until you actually do one of the missions - except for your higher-level contacts refusing to talk to you. Extremely bad user interface.

Dobbs sent Steady Arsonist into the Gutter to cull the Arachnoid population a bit. At first things proceeded all right, but then he got a little too cocky, and took on a few too many Arachnoids. Good thing those emergency teleporters are working.

A group of 5 +3 Arachnoids, including a Lt and a Boss, is a bit much, I learned. With a few defense inspirations, I took a similar group of +2s, but then then +3s took me down quick. I didn't see any spawns under L43 in the Gutter, so I think I'll leave that mission alone for a while.

Steady Arsonist decided it was time to think about alliances. Many other villains in the Rogue Isles have already chosen one of Lord Recluse's Lts to ally themselves with - failing to follow their example could leave him vulnerable. After much thought, Steady Arsonist decided to approach Black Scorpion. He has the virtues of being easily fooled (when necessary), reliant on technology (easily broken), not dead (yet), and has no magical or strange animalistic powers. The perfect patron.

I decided to finally break down and choose a Patron. I have 3 respecs banked anyway, so the fact that the free respec still isn't working didn't bother me much. All the Patron Pools are pretty much the same, but I decided to take Scorpion's Mace Mastery for one reason - Web Envelope. Not only is it an AoE immobilize, which lets me use Burn, but it has -Fly and Slow effects. Also, from what I read on the forums, it appears to still allow me to knock mobs down with Footstomp, unlike some of the other AoE immobilize powers. I may pick up the Mace Blast later, too, for hitting runners. The other powers are nothing special - I hear the pets are especially bad, but I suppose you can't expect much as a Brute. I may try 'em out on Test when I get up to 47.

Black Scorpion sent Steady Arsonist after some Crey that had stolen some technology. Not much of a challenge, especially when they tried to hurt him with fire. But then the trail of the stolen tech lead to the Malta Group, and that was a much more difficult fight. In the end, though, the outcome was never in doubt, and Black Scorpian's technology secrets were safe.

The Paragon Protector Elite are kind of neat. The Fire one was sort of pathetic against a Fire brute, but the Dark one gave me a good fight. Nice to see some different powers being used - and especially nice to not have to worry about Moment of Glory.

The Malta, of course, were supremely annoying. All it takes is one Sapper hit and I'm screwed, and unlike my Fire tank hero, my Fire brute villain doesn't get any way to take them out of the fight early. All I could do was try to hit 'em with KO Blow, and about half the time they'd still get one shot off and drain me. I did a lot of hit and run. Oh, and this was on Villainous, too - as soon as I saw Malta I dropped the difficulty. Every other group I can run on Ruthless, but Malta - no way.

Now I'm sure someone's saying, "What's the big deal with Malta Sappers? You've been fighting end-draining Spec Ops for 10+ levels!" True, but there's one major difference. Specs Ops don't use their End Drain as their first power - Sappers do. That means that I can jump in and smack a Spec Ops with KO Blow, and as long as I hit, they never drain me. Sappers drain me half the time even if I hit them. Plus Spec Ops supposedly got nerfed recently - a very necessary nerf, considering how they often spawn 2 or more at a time.

After Steady Arsonist had proven himself, Black Scorpion brought him into a confidental plan - a plot against Ghost Widow! That caused some second thoughts about his choice of patron. Not a very smart move, going up against Lord Recluses' pet spirit. And sure enough, before long, Black Scorpion's plans had him in deep trouble with the Arbiters. Steady Arsonist ended up in a fight against Scorpion's chief Lt, Silver Mantis, which did not end well - he barely escaped without a hospital trip. After that, he decided to go straight to the top and take down Black Scorpion himself - for his own good, of course.

Silver Mantis is harsh against a Brute. The slows from the caltrops that you have to stand in, big damage which is partly toxic, and she hit Unstoppable when I got her down to about 20% health. I was OK until Unstoppable, but after that I turned tail and ran. Unfortunately that left the guy I was supposed to be protecting wide open, and Silver Mantis made short work of him.

The good news is that failure on that mission didn't seem to matter much, because I was still given the next mission to take out Black Scorpion. Apparently running around in Grandville isn't annoying enough for travel purposes, because I was sent to both Cap au Diable and Mercy Island in this story arc. I pity anyone doing it without base teleporters. Anyway, I got to Mercy and defused some bombs, and then Scorpion came after me. He was pathetically easy compared to Silver Mantis. All he did was normal attacks, no slows or debuffs. A few defense inspirations was all I needed - Fury and Rage did damage, and he went down fast.

Black Scorpion wasn't too happy about Steady Aronist's role in his defeat, even if it did mean the Arbiters didn't get him. So it was back to his other contacts for a while, while Scorpion cooled off a bit.

After I finished Scorpion's arcs, I went back to Regent Korol and she gave me a mission to rescue Night Widows from Carnies. I had to buy a bunch of defense inspirations so I'd survive all the boss guards, but once I got my posse of 3 Night Widows, it was all good. 3 debuffing, psionic, stealthy pets. We completely pwned the final Master Illusionist boss. If only the pets in the patron pools were anywhere near that good.

Then Westin Phipps gave me an arc that ended with a shot at Swan. Kinetic/Psionic is a nasty combo, but at least she didn't use Siphon Speed on me. Her Fulcrum Shift didn't buff a huge mob of minions, either, because I was careful to knock them out quick. I was really glad for Acrobatics when she turned on Repel, and the damage debuffs made the fight last longer than I'd expected. I needed a lot of inspirations, but eventually I won.

Speaking of inspirations, I decided to make use of them to get rid of that Arachnoid hunt in the Gutter before I leveled. So I went to my contacts and loaded up on defense. With 3 or 4 Lucks, I was able to take out the L43 spawns, which usually were 2 minions, 2 Lts, and a boss. The Lucks wouldn't last the whole fight, so I was using 6-8 per battle. I had to shuttle back and forth between the Gutter and my contacts a few times for more Lucks, but I finally finished my 20 Arachnoids.

Steady Arsonist is currently level 42, with 139 hours played (16 since Issue 7, 23 as a malefactor).

Respec

With Black Scorpion's patronage, Steady Arsonist was able to requisition an Arachnos Mace. Quite a powerful and flexible weapon, in the right hands.

Respec time. I delayed it until I hit 42 just to save a little infamy - this way I just sold all my enhancements and used the cash for L45s. Probably not necessary, but I figured why not?

Ever since patron pools were announced, we've been hearing what a good combo Fire Brutes have with Burn + AoE immobilize power. Time to try it out:

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Steady Arsonist respec
Level: 44
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Super Strength
Secondary: Fiery Aura
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Punch==> Acc(1)EndRdx(3)Rechg(11)Dmg(23)
01) --> Fire Shield==> EndRdx(1)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(7)
02) --> Haymaker==> Acc(2)EndRdx(3)Rechg(11)
04) --> Healing Flames==> Rechg(4)Rechg(7)Rechg(15)Heal(15)Heal(19)Heal(23)
06) --> Hurdle==> Jump(6)
08) --> Knockout Blow==> Acc(8)EndRdx(9)Rechg(9)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)
10) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(10)
12) --> Boxing==> Acc(12)EndRdx(13)
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)
24) --> Rage==> Rechg(24)Rechg(25)Rechg(25)TH_Buf(31)TH_Buf(31)TH_Buf(33)
26) --> Consume==> Acc(26)Rechg(27)Rechg(27)Rechg(29)EndMod(29)EndMod(31)
28) --> Tough==> EndRdx(28)DmgRes(34)DmgRes(34)DmgRes(34)
30) --> Blazing Aura==> EndRdx(30)EndRdx(33)Acc(33)Dmg(37)Dmg(37)Dmg(39)
32) --> Foot Stomp==> Acc(32)EndRdx(36)Rechg(37)
35) --> Fiery Embrace==> Rechg(35)Rechg(36)Rechg(36)
38) --> Burn==> Dmg(38)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)
41) --> Web Envelope==> Acc(41)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)Immob(42)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)EndRdx(13)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------


A quick test on the Training Room convinced me that the combo is indeed good. Web Envelope has a decent immobilize duration with one slot, and it recharges fast enough with 2 recharge enhancements that you can use it on every group. I could probably get away without any slots in it, but I figure I'll end up with 3 Recharge/2 Immob, and maybe I'll be able to stack it on bosses. Burn does enough damage to take out most orange minions with one patch, so a little herding + Web Envelope + Burn, with a Footstomp if necessary, can clear out a room pretty easily.

L42-44

Steady Arsonist got a chance at a rematch with Silver Mantis when Dr. Forrester wanted a sample of her armor. This time he came prepared. She was begging for mercy by the end.

First mission the Doc gave me was Silver Mantis, so this time I went to Bloody Bay for a Shivan, and stocked up on defense and heal inspirations, and set myself to Villainous level. With all that it was still a long fight to take her down, but I managed.

Manticore. Positron. Citadel. Swan. And a bunch of miscellaneous lesser-known names. Those heroes just don't know when to leave well enough alone. Steady Arsonist faced them all, and took them all down.

It is so much better doing all these missions with Elite Bosses instead of Hero/AVs. Even as EBs, they're plenty tough. Other than Silver Mantis, I've taken all of them on as +1s (since I run on Ruthless), and the fights often last 10 minutes or more.

Citadel was an especially big pain, because he hit Overload and I had to wait it out - no way I was hitting him. I got some good use out of the Burn fear effect there. I'd run around a corner, lay down a Burn patch, and he'd run right into it then shoot away at top speed. Find another corner, repeat, until Overload finally dropped.

I also ran into a Ballista, which I barely managed to take out. The resistance on those guys is insane. KO Blow was doing barely 250 damage with a full Fury bar and Rage running. It didn't help that he kept hitting me with Detention Field, giving him time to heal up. With Healing Flames and some inspiration use, I stayed alive OK, but it took forever to pound down his HP.

I also spent some time in lower level mayhem missions, grabbing badges. I'm to the point now where I only need the Founder's Falls and Peregrine Island badges. I'll grab a mayhem mission of my own to get FF, and PI will be available in a couple of levels.

At 43 I slotted up Haymaker, so now I have 2 attacks slotted up with damage. Honestly, I'm not noticing a lot of difference most of the time, since Web Envelope+Burn is doing most of my damage. But it helps on bosses.

The rest of level 43 was uneventful. A few more Elite Bosses, a bunch more random missions. The story arcs in L40+ CoV don't seem as good as the stuff in the pre-40 game, but maybe that's just because I don't like a lot of the obviously villainous stuff. I cringed all the way through Westin Phipps' missions.

I considered trying to beat up enough Toxic Tarantualas for the badge, so I could get the unlockable contact for them. But it was taking me about 90 seconds per Tarantula. Let's see, 90 seconds * 200 Tarantualas works out to 5 solid hours of nothing but Toxic hunting. I don't want the contact that much, thanks anyway.

Anyhow, I reached 44 without undue difficulty. There was one interesting mission against Valkyrie - I defeated her very easily, and only after that did she hit Revive and then Moment of Glory. Strange, I'd have expected MoG first, but it made things a lot easier on me, so I wasn't arguing.

At 44 I picked up the Disruptor Blast. I don't really need another AoE, but it's ranged, so why not?

Steady Arsonist is currently level 44, with 155 hours played (32 since Issue 7, 24 overall as a malefactor).

L44-45

Mage Hunter ZuhKara certainly lives up to her title. Steady Arsonist did several jobs for her, all involving magic in one way or another. Running into Lilitu again wasn't particularly enjoyable, but she had no better luck now than the last time Steady Arsonist put her down.

Running CoT missions doesn't bother me any more, as long as I remember to bring along a couple of Break Frees in case I see a Succubus. In fact I prefer CoT to any other mob group except Council at this level, because they don't drain my End. Well, the Air Thorns do, but they've pretty much disappeared at this point. The Ice Thorns are annoying with their cold damage and slows, but not really dangerous. I might feel differently if more spectral demons showed up, but I haven't seen one in a while. Finally - 40+ levels of those things is more than enough.

The Lilitu arc was easy except for the two Elite Bosses that weren't Lilitu. The demon herself was no problem - a couple of break frees and some defense inspirations, no problem. But in that arc there's also two Elite Boss cold demons, and those were harsh.

I ran into the first one in Oranbega, and he nearly killed me outright with his first couple of attacks. I ran away, grabbed some more inspirations, attacked - and he hit me with a Fear attack. Good thing I had a Break Free, I was able to kill his minions before it wore off. Ran away again, more inspirations, went back toward him - and this time he was standing in one of the hallways. When I hit him with KO Blow, he got stuck in the ceiling, and I just pounded him. Yeah, it's cheap, but against a fear-inducing cold-damage self-healing Elite Boss, I'll take anything I can get. I did /bug it.

On the second one, I had Lilitu's help, so that wasn't so bad. I just let her walk in first and take all the aggro, then jumped in and finished them off.

I ran out of missions about halfway to 45, so I ran a few Warburg door missions. That got old fast, so I went back to newspapers and did a Mayhem to finish off the level. I slotted my last 2 damages in Punch and put one in Footstomp, since I haven't seen a need for any other enhancement.

Steady Arsonist is currently level 45, with 164 hours played (41 since Issue 7, 24 overall as a malefactor).

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
ok, Ive tested this numerous times, MoG ends BEFORE the warning timer even starts blinking. All the other tier 9 powers are working fine though. Devs, pls fix this, MoG already has enough trouble as it is.

[/ QUOTE ]
Technically, it's not a bug -- it works as designed. The problem is that MoG is the exception to that design. That doesn't help YOU folks at all, it's mainly me straightening out my thoughts on how to approach it. In order for this to be fixed, it will require a code change. So, I'll add it to the queue.

[/ QUOTE ]
And people said the blinking icons would make HeroStats timers obsolete.

[ QUOTE ]
If this goes well, I'm going to add an option to keep your pre-existing characters up-to date every time you use the CGT/Herostats software. So please, try it out, see if it works, and what if anything could be improved.

[/ QUOTE ]
Excellent. Let me know if you have any issues with that. I added Steady Arsonist to the site this morning, let me know when you've got the automatic update going and I'll see if he's getting updated.

[ QUOTE ]
My NPC villain never leaves the station with me. I exit and he doesn't come with. I re-enter and he's gone.
Bug? Intended? Pie?

[/ QUOTE ]
I've noticed that on the Founder's Falls map. It's always a stalker there, at least it has been for me. I don't have that problem with my lowbies on the Atlas Park map, when I rescue the corruptor.

I've started working on L40+ with Steady Arsonist. You can find the continuation of the journal here. I'll update this post - or maybe make a new one - once I've got him to 50, but that'll be a while.

I'd much rather pay for a year than spend a week (or rather, a few days) trying to level up a Test character. Dumbest contest idea ever.

[ QUOTE ]
FYI: Electric Shields' Grounding Power will have Immobilize and Knockback Protection added. The set will still not have a Heal power or HP Buff power.

[/ QUOTE ]
Excellent. Thank you, now I can take something other than Leaping for a travel pool. The other drawbacks make sense for a set with the benefits that Electric Armor has.

[ QUOTE ]
I did not have the opportunity to go into The Hollows and Perez Park like I would have liked, but I did manage to get some time in to at least pull spawns out front of mission doors and remove some of the nastier mission doors in the HEART of the Perez Park maze. (not sure if anyone noticed that change)

[/ QUOTE ]
Best. Change. Ever.

War Witch rules.

[ QUOTE ]
In the 5/16 notes:

[ QUOTE ]
• Mayhem Missions: Signature Heroes now only spawn for groups of 4 or more on appropriate maps.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yay, no more getting jumped on by the Freedom Phalanx while I'm solo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good change. Not ideal - ideal would have tied it to difficulty, so that if I really don't mind fighting them, I just set to Relentless and let 'em come. But this will work.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
anyone else not feeling the whole red electric thing...just doesnt feel right to me

[/ QUOTE ]
I like it. Just wait till the power color customization comes out if you dislike red.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sure. We've only been waiting 2 years now for color customization. Don't hold your breath.

Did some stuff in Grandville this morning before work. Comments, in no particular order:
<ul type="square">[*]Yesterday's patch fixed whatever was causing my Brute to crash whenever I tried to go into a mission in Grandville. I hear others are still having zoning problems, but mine is working now.[*]It's a real pain to go into that conference room where Ghost Widow is, and you have to do it a ton of times before she gives you a phone number. Couldn't the signature villains be more accessible, considering how often we have to go talk to them?[*]I hate the Recluse voice. Any way we could get an option to turn it off? I'd turn down my background music volume, but I actually like the music (in other zones too), just not the voice.[*]{Your deity here} help anyone that tries to get around in this zone with Super Speed alone. I had to do a lot of backtracking and double-jumps with Super Jump, I shudder to think what it would be like with SS. Is there some Dev-rule that says L40+ zones have to suck for super speeders? First the CoH Shadow Shard, now this.[*]I don't see a thread for comments on story arcs, so I'll say this here. The first Ghost Widow mission absolutely blows. It's a defeat all Longbow, which is bad enough on its own, but there's also this gigantic room at the end with multiple levels and no way for a vertically challenged toon to get to them all. Even with Super Jump I had to jump to a pipe, then another pipe, then up to the highest level. And on top of all this there are ambushes which follow you into the room and then fall down and get stuck, so you have to search them out. Horrible design.[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
Nor do they change the rating of the game by allowing players to kill helpless civilians.

[/ QUOTE ]
Then why don't they disappear nice and clean, like when mobs get hit by a police drone? That would be much better than having a bunch of invincible civilians running around.

Spent some time in RV last night before and after we ran the Cathedral of Pain (which was pretty easy with 24 heroes, by the way). Some thoughts, in no particular order:
<ul type="square">[*]While it's cool to see the signature heroes and villains, I won't be bothering to attack them. There's no point, they're impossible to take down. Before last night's CoP, we had 20+ heroes attacking Lord Recluse, all the heavies in the zone, and who knows how many pets - and his life bar barely budged. I think I saw it drop to about 80% once. Lag was horrendous with all the power effects being thrown around. Either tone these guys down or people will just ignore them.[*]After the CoP, I must have hit a villain-fest, because I couldn't get anywhere near a pillbox without my controller being one- or two-shotted. With invisibility, which is apparently useless. On an 8-man hero team, too, so it's not like I was trying to go it alone. I eventually switched to my scrapper and that helped, at least I was able to get a few attacks in before the stalkers killed me.[*]The rez-with-no-health-in-the-hospital bug needs to be fixed badly. I was getting killed so fast on my controller that Rest hadn't recharged between deaths, so I couldn't even go out to try again since I had no health.[*]Is there a reason the heavy platforms aren't on the map? I understand that the big holo-map has them, but why not the normal map? It's annoying.[*]I logged back on this morning before work and was finally able to find an unclaimed heavy. They're pretty cool pets. Kinda slow, but that's to be expected. Only thing I'd like to see changed is to give them a better pathing AI for climbing steps. Mine got stuck trying to get up the City Hall steps, took me a good 5 minutes to convince it to walk around instead.[*]I like the new mobs - I saw some Arachnos commando-types run past my corpse after the stalkers killed me. Dunno if those are RV-only or part of the 40+ game for villains, but it's cool either way.[*]I'm very disappointed that there isn't a patrol mission in this zone so my L50 can get the badge (Risk Taker, I think it is). There isn't any missions at all, so far as I've seen. Can we get Warburg missions extended up to L50 if you're not going to put them in RV?[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
- Man, I know (or hope) it's just perception, but the accuracy on the attacks (especially JL) really seems slack. And before anyone says I'm "used to" SOs, I'll note that the grand majority of my characters are still working with Trainings. However, I'll bow to HeroStats view of this.

[/ QUOTE ]
No. It's really crappy accuracy. As the folks I've been running with have been saying: "We couldn't hit the broadside of a friggin barn if our lives depended on it", and that's coming from a DM player, which I had always thought had the lowest base accuracy of any set. I honestly think ELM has managed to sink lower...

[/ QUOTE ]
Everything was fine on accuracy when I ran HeroStats through 3-4 missions. It's just the usual perception problems.

[ QUOTE ]
Lack of KB protection is -not-, I repeat NOT a major issue in a set with this much utility. Hell, there's a lot more utility here than /fire tanks get, and the lack of KB protection hasn't stopped them. Either way, however, you're beating a dead horse. The devs are fully aware that no KB protection is a hole in this set. Odds are, they intended it to be.

[/ QUOTE ]
Just because existing sets also have this problem doesn't make it right to add it into a new set.

[ QUOTE ]
The entire argument is like receiving a free mansion to live in, and [censored] about the color of the tile in the bathroom. It's an excellent set, with good utility that makes it stand out above the other sets, who friggin' cares about one dinky hole that's easily filled with something else?

[/ QUOTE ]
No, it's like getting a free mansion that is entirely missing a front door. And the only way to get a front door is to go down to the Home Depot and buy the same generic front-door that every other Tom, Dick, and Harry uses on their manufactured homes.

Good post, Tal_N. If the purpose behind Electric Armor is to provide players with a set that can give them some 'special' protections (i.e. end drain, teleportation, energy damage) that don't exist in other sets, at the expense of raw defenses, then I think you're exactly right.

That doesn't mean I'll play it. I think that in a game where the developers refuse to provide enough information in-game that players can make an informed decision about what they're playing, every powerset should be equally effective. Clearly that's not the case here with regards to the most common situations in the game. The same argument can be made for other sets as well, and that's the reason why I don't have a high level Ice blaster or Dark scrapper. When I realized that those sets didn't do a good job at what the AT is primarily focused on, I switched sets.

The solution to this may not be to fill the holes in the Electric set, but rather to give players better information up front. At character creation, when you're making choices that are irrevocable, things you can't change with respecs or anything else down the road. Sound familiar? It should, they're already providing better information about Patron Pools for the same reasons.

What kind of information would I like to see? How about a list of all the possible status effects, with highlights showing which powers protect from each, and which effects have no protection? How about real numbers on how much resistance/defense each power gives (or even some kind of graphical presentation for easy comparison between sets)? How about a way to see End cost?

Provide information like that when I'm making my irrevocable choice of powersets, and then sets like Electric make sense. Without it, a 'specialty' set like Electric is just a way to confuse and annoy players who aren't 'in the know' about its weaknesses.

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1) The more damage and side missions you do the more powerful the end hero is so there is no need to gripe that you were unfairly seated with a AV/EB/B You brought it on yourself.

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This is either completely wrong or bugged. I did a L40 mission with my brute, solo, did none of the side missions, and was attacked by an Elite Boss version of Numina.

After doing pretty much nothing but newspapers and mayhem missions for 14 levels on Bolt Lass, I have a few suggestions and comments:
<ul type="square">[*]When in a larger team, the time bonuses for mob defeats should be increased. It takes a lot longer to beat up an 8-man PPD spawn than a 2-man spawn. 30 seconds isn't helping at all. I suggest that the time bonuses scale similarly to the way XP scales up in a group of 5+.[*]On the KR map, there's one spawn of PPD that always is stuck inside one or more crates. Pretty obvious when you look. It's been /bugged a few times.[*]The villains you rescue are really dumb. They attack whatever is closest, which is usually a parking meter or cardboard box, while ignoring the Longbow beating you down. Suggest their AI be updated to treat moving targets as higher priority. Also, they won't follow you as long as they still can see any targets, including inanimate objects.[*]Other people's mayhem missions seem to count to move your Broker bar along. I have no problem with that, but I suspect it's a bug.[*]If you get and complete a Heist from the newspaper, it will reset your Broker progress bar. This is a very bad thing, extremely annoying.[/list]I also have an earlier post in this thread with some other comments from running a higher level mayhem mission with my L40 brute.

Having said all that - these are minor issues. Overall, mayhem missions are easily the best thing in Issue 7, and arguably the best in the history of the game. Well done!

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I heard that thunderstrike knocks down even con and higher - when it hits.

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That's my experience, playing up to L13 so far. AoE knockdown is great for survivability in teams.

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Why does it have to have knockback resistance? WHy does it have to have immobilize resistance? Shouldn't the set have inherent weaknesses that you could choose to cover with pools or ignore and play to the sets strength?

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You have got to be kidding. Lack of Immobilize protection, I can maybe see playing that way. But have you ever tried playing a scrapper or brute with no knockback protection up in the 30s and 40s? I have SG mates who have shelved characters until the next free respec comes along because they got sick of trying to play without knockback protection. I teamed with a L41 Dark/Dark scrapper once who didn't have Acrobatics and it was just painful watching him try to fight +1 DE. We ended up kicking him from the team because he was worthless - barely did any damage and he died whenever our Empath glanced away for more than a second.

Even in the lower levels, lack of KB protection is a major problem. I got on a team just this morning with Bolt Lass (13 Elec/Elec) and 4 MMs. It's a good thing all those pets were there to take aggro, 'cause every time I jumped into a mob group, I ended up on my back. Once I was knocked down 5 times in a row and was down to a red pulsing sliver of life before I could even use an inspiration.

It is annoying to play a melee toon without KB protection in the low levels. It's downright not fun to play a melee toon without knockback protection in the 30s and 40s. It's not fun for you, it's not fun for your team. If you're a real masochist you might be able to solo that way, but you're going to go very slowly and probably die a lot.

It just makes no sense to keep making new sets that don't have knockback protection. Take away something else if you have to, like the previous suggestions to make the KB protection a toggle with -Jump and -Fly. But give us something that doesn't require taking specific travel pools.

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On a side note, how are the rest of you pulling numbers? HeroStats doesn't work on test (and even if it did, I still don't know how to read it to get an percentage numbers)

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It does if you use the latest unstable build.

Debuff %s are notoriously hard to calculate. Mob accuracy (or player defense, same thing) isn't tracked by HeroStats because the game doesn't put any useful messages about it in the chat log. So a debuff of mob accuracy isn't going to be tracked either.

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I wish I could run herostats to confirm this, but it doesn't work with I7 as far as I can tell.

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The unstable version works. And I think you'll find it's just your perception, as long as you get a decent sample size. Say, 2-3 missions.