Nalrok_AthZim

I've gotta echo Scarlet's sentiments; this whole racket with Cole is pretty much garbage in my eyes.

The worst part, for me, is how the Responsibility storyline comes to a screeching halt after you walk through the portal to Paragon City.

You spend 20 levels in Praetoria, helping it's citizens and being a good person. At the final story arc, you find out that Cole's going to Overnight FedEx a crapton of War Walkers to Primal Earth in hopes that the gargantuan smashbots will completely decimate all super-powered beings. Yeah, sure, good idea.

Except that it will cause countless civilian casualties (until you find out otherwise) and, until now, you thought what you were doing mattered. Seriously, the entire Responsibility storyline does not matter. Not one bit. You run through it all, uncover the invasion plans, and end up having to kill Interrogator Kang because he wanted to TELL SOMEONE ABOUT IT. So much for being a good person. So you're "forced" to off the poor guy, with the now-bizarre notion of "God forbid anyone doubts Cole" floating around your moral choice and then... that's it. You're done. You now know of the whole mess Cole has planned and suddenly Marchand rings you up and says "Hey, get the **** out of Praetoria for the good of the Emperor."

You follow through for the sake of level progression, and once you run to the other side, there's Cole waiting for you. He basically tells you "Thanks, man. But you know too much, I know you know too much, and if you ever come back I'll kick you in the taint so hard you'll vomit your own colon. GTFO my empire."

What? I spent all that time keeping your damn city safe just for you to tell me to screw off after I found some dirty laundry? No option to convince him otherwise, no option to say "but maybe I can turn people to our side over in Primal", no nothing?

Then, 30 levels later, you're pitted against the Empire with no explanation to Responsibility Loyalists as to why. I mean, you know why, but here's the part that sticks out the most to me (this is one hell of a storyline clashing):

Being sent to fight the forces of Praetoria in Apex/Tin Mage, as well as the new Incarnate Trials, directly conflict with the choices you made in the Responsibility Arc, and further proves that the Responsibility arcs don't matter.

If you end the arc with the Loyalist choice, you kill Kang. You KILL HIM to keep him quiet, because if he blabs he'll "send Praetoria into a state of turmoil and unrest." So what happens? You take the knowledge of the invasion with you to Primal Earth and DON'T MENTION IT TO ANYONE, not even States or Recluse or hell, I'm sure Nemesis would have loved to know if he didn't already. You hit 50, run Apex/Tin Mage and the assault happens anyway. Your actions as a Responsibility Loyalist didn't matter.

If you end the arc with the Resistance option, you and Kang transmit the information you find to the PPD and the Resistance, exposing Cole for what he is and essentially earning the reply you get from Cole, though he doesn't mention anything at all about the "unrest" you and Kang supposedly caused. You do exactly what the other arcs avoid, and inform the people of what's going on. You leave for Primal Earth with that knowledge and AGAIN fail to tell anyone important. You hit 50, run Apex/Tin Mage, and the invasion happens anyway. No interference/assistance from the Resistance, no uprising or rebellion from the PPD/Praetoria, no nothing. Your actions didn't matter.

The remainder of the morality lines in Praetoria flow pretty normally and work out in the end. For Responsibility Loyalists, however, your actions are both fruitless and, inevitably, nonsensical.

Relevant here; Belladonna Vertrano does this in Praetoria in the "Take Down Cockatrice" mission given by Sinclair. She "teleports" away and then proceeds to shoot the crap out of you as an untargetable, invisible enemy.

It literally makes the mission impossible to complete.

My Dark/Dark/Soul needs this mission. I want to make another video. Muahahaha.

He's a Skrull.

It's funny; I just rolled up a Necro/Poison. While I can't mow down anything more than x1 at this point, I can solo +2 at level 17 with no problems. Envenom/Weaken will both shred a boss. Neurotoxic Breath is a gem, and the single-target focus of Necromancy (for the most part at my level) really combines well with Poison. I myself am having a blast with the combo; YMMV.

Of course, his concept is also amazingly fun for me. He's an energy drink entrepreneur; he designed and formulated an energy drink called Orange Venom. With the right changes to the vitamins and acids, it goes from an energy drink that can boost your overall attitude (Alkaloid) to a deadly liquid that can destroy your immune system and bring your five senses to a grinding halt (Envenom, Weaken, Neurotoxic Breath). Reformulated again, and it can bring people back from the dead (Elixir of Life). A third reformulation causes it to enhance your nervous system's synapse bridges (Antidote). Another change and it will seize your muscles (Paralytic Poison) and, should this change be heated and evaporated, it will cause leprosy, decomposition and brain damage (Noxious Gas).

... sorry, I just REALLY love his concept.

Recommendations:

Invul
Willpower
Dark
Elec

Anything with resistance will synergize well; the -Damage components will layer on top of your resistances.

All in favor of forming a petition to have this added to the game?

Aye.

SIGNED.

God dang, Geko. Good show.

Nalrok would wait for you to stop by, then chat with you about why he's imprisoned and if he could form an allegiance with you.

If that didn't work, he'd smash out one of the walls, get blown to a black paste, then reform slowly and make his way out.

So mac users need to wait? Also, will the NCSoft Launcher cause any problems with the already-problematic Mac Client? I would really like to keep my updater bypass script and not have to use NCSoft's third party junk. No offense, but the less memory I need to run something the better.