Melancton

And don't forget everyone's favorite, Six-Slotted Brawl! Not only did you need to run the Respec Trial badly, but you had trouble succeeding at it because you had lousy attacks, etc. My brother-in-law only four-slotted Brawl, but he had also four-slotted Run. Fortunately for him, the Devs dropped a Free Respec a short time earlier, so when I discovered these problems, I could fix him up. I handed him a Mids print-out with a build for him to follow going forward, and he wound up a very fine lvl 50 hero.

I must note in passing that he was an AR Blaster, and EVERY time we had to go to Perez Park later in his career, he would Full Auto any big groups of Hellions he saw. Apparently they picked on him once too often in Atlas Park when he was a lvl 1 newb.

True enough. Everything I know about avoiding aggro came from skittering around the Gulch... once I knew it was there, and once I had a printed map to navigate with.

Of course, I vividly remember being 63 feet from the mission door on the top of that mountain in the NE when a boulder took me out, and I got to start again. From Atlas. *sigh*

I once tried Hovering across the Gulch. Yeah, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Of course, Travel powers were in a state of flux when I joined. If you took Fly, you would run out of Endurance at some point and drop out of the sky unless you watched out. Fly was an End Hog back then, since changed, and it was slower than it is now, too. I eventually took (and respecced out of) every Travel power in the game, trying to figure out what would work for my poor confused Hero.

Another thing I watched carefully back then was that the mission that granted the Nemesis Staff temp power (oh, how I loved that thing!) would grant it for three real-time consecutive DAYS, not an "in-game" amount of time. I very carefully saved the mission for early Friday evenings on each hero so that I could play the complete weekend with the Staff before it fizzled. This was fortunately changed as well... but I was GRATEFUL to get what I could back then!

LOL LRN2PLY, NOOB!

I mentioned these same problems with the PP Maze in a long-ago thread and pretty much got told the LRN2PLY bit. My respondent airily dismissed my problems, recalling that running past the mezzing Clocks and CoT was no problem at all "if you had any skill" or some such snide rejoinder. Perhaps some Tanks and/or Scrappers could "run past" the mobs in the maze, but not my pathetic Blaster, who was often solo to boot. I was later frustrated by the fact that once I got to 50, I did not often need Inspirations, much less having that many available, but I could have used 20 BreakFrees alone just getting to any mission in PP as a lvl 7. Of course I was GRATEFUL to get a mission at all back then, Sonny!

Hey, Sam, you talk about what you know about.

I entered the game in March 2005. I was desperately reading guides in the forums, printing out hard copies of maps (the locations of the stores being VERY valuable information!) and fumbling my way through all manner of things. I went to the Hollows because it was next to Atlas Park and seemed to be the "next" zone to tackle at lvl 5, and I had no other idea of how to do things. I went to the Hollows to team, since that was where most of the heroes seemed to be at that level. I was amazed, for example, to get a Tell asking me if I wanted to join a team from someone I could not physically see. The way I had done it was to go to the Atlas gate in the Hollows and invite anyone I saw who was close in level. So when I would be invited to a team from an Invisible Someone, I would ask how it was that they knew to ask me to join, which must have sounded idiotic to my inviter. Eventually I got a comprehensible answer, and my team formation took a major leap forward!

The few missions my contacts sent me on to Perez Park were nightmares. The "maze" was simply a colossal pain and was incomprehensible to me. The paths were continually blocked by large groups who, even if they were not several levels higher than me, could mez me before I could get past, and then back to the hospital in Atlas I went. There were not any large groups of heroes sweeping the streets, much less working the maze, when I hit PP as a young hero. I therefore avoided Perez Park whenever possible. It was a godsend to get the Pocket D teleporter, since getting OUT of the maze was pretty much as deadly as getting to a mission IN the maze.

For someone entering the game in say, March 2009, hearing me ramble on about the Hollows would likely sound pretty odd, since by that time the usual way newbs conducted their affairs would not include the Hollows so much.

It will be very interesting to see where all the newbs for Going Rogue congregate, since I will be among them.

Jus remember, folks, here is no " " or even "L" in Irony.

I do have o wonder, hough, if he Mods will consider his "off-opic." I would hae o see his hread ge ossed off he Forums.

I hink ha can be avered if he posers menion Saesman a ime or wo and sop bohersome hings like aling on posers ha insul or aun hem. He Mods ofen ake acion when "haers be haing" on poor vicims. Ry o conduc maers using Ruh and Jusice as he foundaion and be beer han he oher poser.

Jus my wo cens.

Which reminds me of a wonderful conversation in "Casablanca":

Major Strasser: Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?
Rick: It's not particularly my beloved Paris.
Heinz: Can you imagine us in London?
Rick: When you get there, ask me!
Captain Renault: Hmmh! Diplomatist!
Major Strasser: How about New York?
Rick: Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade.

Well, Sonny, back in Oh-Five we did!

Problem was three-fold:

1) We had 8 players on the team

2) Difficulty was apparently maxed out, providing not only caverns filled to overflowing with Trolls but packed with Bosses galore, and

3) We were Newbs that barely knew how to play. I was playing my first Blaster and had no idea about tactics. It was a success for me just getting to the mission in the Hollows!

The result was that we got overrun with every group. My Electric blasts were not the most powerful against Trolls, and the concept of a Pull did not exist with us. It did not help that the Controllers either did not have or did not use their AoE Immobs, but the Fire Blaster invariably led off with Rain of Fire, leading to a charge every time. The Trolls were all over us constantly. The Empath about wore out their rezzer.

It took about 3 hours to get it done but we didn't know any better. And we were GRATEFUL to have done it!

I would not doubt that the Caves of Atta don't get run much nowadays... I have not run it in forever myself. It was certainly an Epic when I did it then, by cracky!

The Infernal mission was very, very tough as a result. Team wipes were common. If there were too many demons out, you had to reset the bloody thing, because you sure couldn't DROP it, Sonny! *waves cane*

One way that could work was getting the entire team invisible and up to the portal and then everyone but the Tank would pound on the portal with everything they had, and hopefully, not TOO many demons would get out before the portal went down while the Tank waltzed with Infernal.

My Ice/FF Controller granted everyone Invis and had everyone bubbled up and another teammate Team Teleported us to the portal. At which point my Jack Frost immediately smacked Infernal in the kisser with an iceball.

I hadn't thought of that.

Something immediately ensued, it was not hilarity.

Well, it was sort of funny if ultimately grim. Jack had the Heart of a Lion and the Brain of a Duck. Pet AI is much better nowadays, kids, MUCH better.

Well, except for Imps, who are about the same.

...while the Raid is causing horrific lag, which is probably why the tray changed in the first place. Indeed, the lag allows you to overcorrect in changing the tray back, too. Even when you are faceplanted, (which is what will likely happen,) it is still a dicey proposition to get the tray back where you started.

This is a fine idea.

I actually have been considering that... except my Bots MM is going to be a Robot himself... and you know how cute those little nippers are, anyway... how can you look into their big mechanical puppy eyes and blow them up, real good?

Still a possibility, though, BBQ... still a possibility if I really want to play /Traps. I just don't like the motif as such, although when you get right down to it, there would not be a whole lot of difference between blowing up your bot and using a cruise missile. Still a possibility.

Let me chime in with a second. My Grav/Storm was also my very first /Storm, so he was pure fun out of the box. I was bemused by Lift, with its UP/KER-SPLAT. Propel was hilarious; Forklift to the Kisser FTW. It was great to toss Freezing Rain and be able to use Crushing Field on top of it. Wormhole cleared the MultiLevelScienceRoomOfDeath beautifully. The first time Lightning Storm fires for you is truly a wondrous moment.

That said, you do have to be careful with KnockBack, since you have no way to mitigate it, etc. I agree that Grav/Storm is the way to go.

Wouldn't that be a dead giveaway to the villains??

Haters gonna hate.

Forum Trolls. Gotta love them.

Methinks that the "immature" part was gilding the lily there, Dec. I bet you avoid the "mature" ones, too.

A couple of nights ago I was on Vampyr Mountain hunting for the missing scientists in that bloody Council map with all of its twisty winds and concrete fortifications that make no sense. I found the 3rd and was relieved that the map would now show the location of the 4th and final. It did not.

What a letdown!

Does it not show the final missing hostage, as opposed to a glowie or the last critter that requires defeating? I /bugged it, so I guess I will find out in a bit.

***

Marvel threatened to sue again over infringement, I take it.

Presumably she hails from Bassoon?

(The reference is to Deja Thoris, the main squeeze of John Carter, Warlord of Mars... Mars being known as Barsoom to the natives there.)

I also enjoy silly or satiric names. Of course, when you broach this topic, it invariably attracts the attention of Troy Hickman, who is a master of such names. But he also gave us Cyrus Thompson and the "Smoke and Mirrors" arc in the CoH comic, so he does have a serious side as well.