Lorax

Hey,
Is the start time 9PM or 8PM? I ask because I have been trying to get a few of my freinds up to speed and showed the Protector Vigilance calendar and it has 8PM. I thought it was at 9PM.

Praetoria is a good idea. Teams help there a lot.

Thanks. That's how I thought it would be going.

I've got 4 friends that have returned to CoH after a long while away, and I'm trying to coordinate with them. So hey, if things line up, I could be bringing several folks to the party that Friday. I'll know more as we get closer.

Thank again.

[QUOTE=Stone Daemon;3763546]
Friday, 9pm- Badge Hunting


I have a minor clarification question about the "Badge Hunt." Are these going to be done in the order stated, starting at 9, or are all 3 kicking off at 9?

My money is on Back Alley Brawler. This is all pure speculation:
1. No TF, so no massive re-code to kill him off. Considering that "more incarnate trails" are coming all the time, revamping another TF, as well as updating any arc that talks to a Surviving 8, none of which go to BAB, sounds like a heck of a large code-load.
2. Brother Principle not just for horror movies
3. Losing his home zone anyway, so keeping him and sticking him somewhere else requires more coding than just killing him off.
4. New intro has BAB out and about - possible tie in to have him die in the new tutorial, upping the stakes immediately and immortalizing his fall to every new toon.
5. Lack of "fame." Even with "Just Said No to Superadine" and other in-game references to BAB, he just doesn't have the fame as some of the other Surviving 8.

This is all speculation, and a bit of humor. I personally hope BAB is kept around. I hope he's coded a new place to hang, given a task force, and is around in-game forever. Whatever happens, I'm sure as heck enjoying the ride. Seems like things just get better and better.

Eh, Statesman doesn't bug me as much as some of ther others. Though I approve of any they choose to kill, 'cause I don't really lurve any of them. Should be fun.

I've been goofing around with a lvl 50 toon and want to go back and get some of the defeat badges. You know, tolls, outcasts, titan, warriors, etc. I pretty much know where to go to get these, but was wondering if anyone knew of a hunt guide on the forums? What with all the badgers out there, I was hoping to find one. Perhaps my search-fu is weak. Anyway, any direction would be helpful. Thanks.

Another new thing:
TIPS
You will get random tips for defeating baddies. Doing tips missions allows you to affirm or change your alignment. By afirming your alignment, you get Alignment Merits which you can use to buy Rare (including PURPLE) recipes. This is pretty big too. By changing alignment, it is possible to do content in both rogue isles and paragon city.
Villain - Red side only
Rogue - Red and Blue (Villain who isn't all EBIL)
Vigilante - Blue and Red side (Hero is a bit EBIL)
Hero - Blue side only

Hero -> Vigilante -> Villain
Villian -> Rogue -> Hero

This is pretty darn big, and should have been in first Cliff Note. Sorry 'bout that.

If you've got a 50 (your FM/Shield scrapper or brute), then you can start the Incarnate content.

Alpha unlocks from Ourobours in a fairly straight forward arc. I've soloed it with a Storm/Elec Defender, so you should be fine.

To unlock the other slots, you have to do Incarnate Trials. These are hero/villain co-op trails that people usually run out of rikti war zone. Show up there and anounce on broadcast that you're looking for an incarnate trial.

This leads into another recent change: Leagues. Basically, it is possible to have more than one 8 person team in a league. The Icarnate trials all can take 2 or more 8 person teams. This League interface is pretty much like the team interface, quick learning curve.

Once you unlock a slot, you still have to make the power to put in it. For Alpha, you use shards that drop at random for killing stuff with a level 50 toon, as well as components that are rewards for completing certain task forces. You also need to do the weekly strike target (announced each month on the forums & paragonwiki) to get some particularly rare components. This week it is ITF. For the other slots, once unlocked you make stuff for them by using incarnate threads (drop in incarnate trials) and incarnate rewards (awarded for completing an incarnate trial).

So that's a bit more than cliff notes. You should be great to unlock your alpha. Incarnate trials are pretty straight forward. There are guides published by the devs, other players, and also info on paragon wiki.

Welcome back, and I hope you enjoy the post 50 content.

New starting zone of Praetoria added. Alt dimension where you play whatever archetype and decide if hero or villain when you leave at level 20.

New level 50 content. Incarnates. These are represented mechanically as slots that may be unlocked and then equiped. Higher versions of the 1st one will give a level shift (50+1). Each slot has 4 or more "powers" that may be chosen. There are currently 5 slots.

Some new lower level content as well to integrate with the Incarnates stuff.

Biggest change is the endgame content.

Suggested 3 person teams:

Melee: Shield/Mace Tanker; Broad Sword/Shield Scrapper; Axe/Shield Brute (or another /shield Scrapper - can even be axe once I21 hits). Simple basic walk in and kill it combat style, with incredible synergy from Grant Cover & Phalanx Fighting. Basic and fun. Few pools of aid other and aid self covers the heal gap.

Ranged: Pure damage blaster, Storm Defender, Buff Corruptor. My first Defender was Storm, so really, they aren't that hard to grasp. Freezing Rain is your friend, it is a massive debuff. Get a blaster specced for all ranged damage, have a storm backing up with slow, debuff, and heals, and have a corruptor filling in gaps with damage and buffs. Suggest more damage on the corruptor, but with some buffs to further juice and protect the team. I'd suggest something like kinetics or radiation.

Mix: Tanker, Blaster, Controller. Basic plan is the controller screws with baddies while keeping the tanker buffed. The Blaster kills everything. Safe, but less exciting than say:

Crazy: Brute, Corruptor/Defender, Stalker. This is kind of manic, and my not be as good as two Defenders/Corruptors chaing the Brute, but it can be pretty awesome. Basically, Defender/Corruptor keeps the Brute alive and buffed. Brute runs from one group to the next killing as fast as possible. Stalker aids in being both stealth to jump missions quickly if desired as well as being a Boss/Elite Boss killer allowing to Brute to keep one-shotting minions. Pretty crazy, but can be a heck of a lot of fun.

Welcome back and good luck.

July 28th is my 10 year wedding anniversary. My wife and I are heading out of town for a long weekend to celebrate. When I told my wife double XP weekend was the same weekend as our anniversary vacation, she suggested that new matching laptops may be great additions the the anniversary plans. Yeah, I married the perfect lady.

Cool, thanks for the info and the suggestions.

Epic ATs (Kheldians & Spiders) able to start on opposite sides out of the box? Red side ATs immediately on Blue Side without spending 20 levels Grey side? Nice.

Though I may play some more Mercy with the revamp. At least once. Kinda hard to get really pumped over more "Kill Longbow" missions on redside.

Aside: Will miss you, GC, my favorite starting zone for like 6 years now.

I have a recent 50 toon that skipped Striga Isle when leveling up. I'd like to run the Ernesto Hess Task Force with him, but he's never so much as spoken to Stephanie Peebles, much less Lars. So if I go flashback with my toon and complete Lars' arc, will Ernesto unlock for when I'm not in flashback mode? I'd guess yes, but wanted to check.

Not everyone knows about this feature in CoX, but it is possible to give PLAYERs a rating. The only criteria is based upon your experience with them. You can also set it up so that this info is always displayed. Thus walking through a crowd, good former teammates, friends, and even bad teammates stand out. Here’s how:

Right-Click a player and select Add Note. A little dialog box will appear allowing you to makes notes on the player. Also on this will be a Star Rating section for you to rate the player from 1 to 5 stars. Just select the number of stars and (optional) make a text note on the player. This is attached to the @Name of the player, not just that one toon. To make sure you always see your rankings, go to Menu -> Options -> General -> Player Rating: Show Always. This way when you see player toons you will see the star rating all the time over their names. You can also add notes to players you see talking in channel or from tells. In this case you LEFT click their name, then select add note as before to give them a star rating and notes.

Example, I joined a PUG in Faultline and a team member did a great job tanking. Like didn’t just charge in and taunt the boss and his closest 4 minions, but watched the health of the squishies and taunted baddies off of the support toons, one of which I was playing. So I R-Clicked, rated the player @Generic (not his real name) a solid 3-stars and put the note “Great Tank.”
Now, whenever I see this player, I know immediately with a 3 star rating that they were good. If I R-click again and select Edit Note, then I can see my notes on this player.

If you want to change that rating based on new information, you just select Edit Note by R-clicking the player (or L-clicking the name in chat) and select Edit Note. Like say I encounter that @Generic from before with another toon. This time he’s playing a Stalker and he keeps running off on his own to try and solo all the bosses on the map. It goes poorly and he keeps dying, usually after leading most of a group back to the main team unexpectedly. So I R-click and select Edit Note, changing the star rating to 2 stars and editing the note to “Great Tank, bad Stalker.”

This is a completely personal and optional quality of life factor in the game. Other players have no idea how you rate them, it is merely a way for you to ID the good and the bad players based on how they played with you. I personally use the following scale:
* Bad teammate, pervert, griefer, just all around someone I don’t like playing with.
** Generic rating. This is a reasonable teammate.
*** Really good teammate. Quality specialist, funny, friendly, etc.
**** Outstanding teammate. Excellent communication, knowledgeable, skilled, cool, fun.
***** I use this for Real Life friends only.

Again, this star rating thing is entirely subjective to you as a player. That’s how I do it.

I’m maybe getting long winded. The point is, there’s a way in-game to keep track of former teammates in a quick, easy to read fashion. It is ready and waiting if you ever want to use it.

I've had that happen over on Champion. I didn't find other players there, I had people I played with comment on my playstyle. I actually talked to other players during TFs and made sure everyone knew of potential pitfalls. Then they mentioned that they didn't reconize my @Global. I said that am usually on Protector and they were like, "Oh, that explains your teaming." Seriously when they heard I was from Protector, they were unsurprised I was a cool teammate. That's good to hear.

In defense of some other servers, I've always had a good time on Victory as well. They've got a Protector feel to them.