NightSable

The wind was still and the sky darkened, but she hurried. The end was near, but an hour ago, she got the call, the one she had been waiting for for the last 8 years. Chase could now go home. Paragon City had been her home for 8 years now. Her cell rang again.

"Dr Q, I'm on my way. I had to say goodbye to some friends"

"Hurry dear, I can't maintain the energy levels much longer..., and for lack of a better expression, the sky is falling"

She ran at superspeeds down the streets of Paragon. She had been running these streets so long now. She looked at fearful Carnies and Malta and almost felt sorry for them. There was nowhere they could run to now. She made it to the Portal Corp. Firebase Zulu, a different dimension, but still seemed subject to the impending darkness. Some heroes were making a stand. She wanted to stay with them, protecting them with her force fields, and fighting whatever this was with her trusted beam rifle. She had made her choice.

She saw her friend and embraced him. It would be the last time.

"Here Chase, take this." as he game a metal box to her.

"What is it?"

"It's the history of Paragon City. Of our dimension, our world. Don't let the memory of all these heroes die today." He stood strong and proud as he said it, but the cracking in his voice in the end gave away his fear of the unknown doom that was descending. "Anyway, get in the portal now. It will take you to a similar dimension. There you can fight the darkness. You may not have your powers. You may look different, but you will be safe for some time until the darkness swallows that world. Perhaps, you can figure out how to stop it. Maybe, just maybe travel back in time and save this world"

Chase burst into tears. She had held back. Dr. Q was her good friend and had always vowed to get her back to her own dimension. He never kept the promise, but he figured out how to get one hero out this world to a place the darkness could not touch right now, a secret world.

"I'll always remember you Q."

She began to enter the portal, but then she remembered how she was accidentally pulled from her own world during portal corps first experiments. She stopped and could even feel the energy course over her body, but did not enter the portal.

She looked back a tear down her cheek. "Doc?"

"Yes, my dear"

"Change of plan"

In a moment of superhuman speed, she grabbed him and stuck the metal box with data in his labcoat. She held him in the vortex as the energy creeped over him. "GO, enter the secret world and figure out a way to reverse this."

"How?"

"You are smart, you know time travel and dimensional travel exists. Figure out a way to combat this darkness"

She gave him a kiss on the mouth. The old scientist could not believe it. He then felt the energy around him as he was pushed away and could see the shadow of his true love dissappearing.

Chase stood alone. She took out her cell and made a call.

"You still here?" a voice said.

"Yep, I sent Q instead. I hope he figures out a way to come back in time and reverse this, correct this..."

"So you in then?"

"I'm in. See you in Atlas."

"You know this probably won't work?"

"That never stopped us before. Besides, it's not the first apocalypse we fought against"

30 minutes later, in Atlas Park, the darkness descended now. About 5000 of the bravest heroes and villians flew into it. Chase looked around and grabbed the hand of scared Arachnos soldier and smiled. He was barely 16 and shaking, but like everyone, there was no where to run. Chase looked the other way and grabbed the hand of another female hero.

"I can't believe you did not go hun" she said.

Chase took her mediporter off and let it fall to the ground as she knew it would do no good.

"One last fight" she whispered and she flew to the front of the group. It was time to face the darkness...

Epilogue: Dr. Q awoke in a different body in a bed in London... He was younger and did not feel himself. He looked in the mirror and did not recognize his face. It was warm and he opened the window and laid back in bed. He then fell asleep as if a bad dream had happened and slept so sound. He dreamed of a beautiful girl, a hero in a world of heroes. Chase. That was her name and he loved her. He dreamed of her fights against evil. He saw other heroes that looked familiar. So many. He felt like he knew them, like he actually may have been them. He glanced and saw a metal box and remembered everything suddenly. Then he grew so tired again and slept. A buzzing sound. It slowly woke him, but he was in that place where he could hardly move while he slept. He felt something crawl in his mouth. He thought to himself, "if i did not know better, I would swear a bee just crawled in my mouth, What a strange and Secret World I have come to. Time to see what this secret world holds for me and I hope one day to find my true love, if she ever existed at all..."

((And with this short story, I leave my heroes behind with my memories. Chase Baptiste was one of my most favorite bubble/beam rifle defenders. I will move on to the Secret World, but if a miracle happens and COH is resurrected or COH2 comes to pass, I shall return. I have more 50s than I care to admit, and I am not naming them, but it has been a honor playing, dying, pvping, rping, farming, marketing and just hanging out will all of you. Farewell and remember, heroes never die! and neither do the villians....))

Signed,

Night Sable, Atomic Tera, Edenfire, Lady Vampire, Fatal Bliss, most Fatale's and most Huntress characters you saw and many many more on Virtue and a few on Freedom back in the day...

Thank you for seven+ years of scrappers kicking ***!!! I plan to scrapperlock in whatever future MMORPG I settle on! Don't give up the way of life. They may take our game, but they can never take our scrapperlock.

Three things that went wrong. IMHO, these caused the demise of the game.
(1) Fracturing of the population. This was accomplished with CoV, Praetoria, and too many servers. They should have reduced the servers to about 6-8 total. CoV introduced new classes which were great, but they should have allowed all ATs on all sides and switching early on and make it very easy to swap sides. Praetoria was beautifully designed with decent stories, but sadly the low level content was tougher than the other zones and did not appeal to the masses. I liked the zone and the challenge, but low levels were something that people just wanted to get through and not dwell on by most. I would have saved Praetoria for a new COH2 perhaps or made zones to 50 upon its release. The problem in the end however was with all the servers and zones, finding a team was sometimes a challenge unless you played blue, so a lot of resources were spent fracturing the group.
(2) Incarnate System - Grinding short TF's over and over was a huge mistake. They should have made incarnate system like an accolade, but with choice of powers. The accolade could have required certein tf and mission badges of course. The new trials were fun, but after the 50th time I did a SLAM and still was not tier 4, it was depressing.
(3) The marketplace - Loved the idea originally, but the marketplace made it quite challenging to for new players to enter the economy of the game and therefore, they probably turned a lot away. The inflation rate after the market was introduced in the game was ridiculous and players that used to have 10 million were considered rich once, but now 10 million became laughable. New players would take 6 months to a year to earn enough influence to really enjoy the IO system. I think the marketplace introduced a facet to the game that was unnecessary, and the occasionaly time iron cost 1 million influence would even bother me.

There were lots of small mistakes, but in the end, the mmorpg needs to build community, and to build community, the players need to be kept together close, have new challenges and focus on playing the game, not taking lots of time to build IOs or such. The devs should have revamped missions and arcs more frequently than they did. They spent too much time worrying about closing exploits and not updating content. Lot of new content started to show since GR, but there was a large lag time until updating the content really took off.

I also have to add that CoH did a lot of things right. Great character customization, great animation and powersets that really created so much alt-itis, and some great task forces and great events. While we are saying what the did wrong, remember, they did a lot right. Over 7 years of active players and so many of us in an outcry means they did quite a lot right I would say.

On a conflicted note, the mac beta for GW2 is up (or coming very soon). The rebel in me wants to say NEVER AGAIN to NCSOFT. The mac user in me is excited for any game that works on a mac. Probably will try out the beta to see if I like it

Somehow, I just had not gotten around to the Night Ward story arcs, so I decided on my final project, The Last Huntress ( MA/WP scrap- I went for the ease of WP and the single target of MA as solo a lot and it looks...pretty). I just wanted to say the Night Ward arcs were better than I expected. Nice to come off the First Ward arcs straight to this too from a story line point of view. Anyway, I have at this point now played every story arc from level 1 through incarnate hood. At this point, at least I can go into forced retirement saying I have done it all.

If you have not done Night Ward yet, I highly recommend you give Night Ward arcs a whirl when you hit 30 (32 is better number) or you simply try them via Ouro. They were great and once again, it shows me that the game was headed in the right direction with great new arcs and zones and the potential was soooooooo great. So sad the end is near. Oh well, 6 more levels, then I decide if I want to incarnate this one out or just reroll another. I may have time for another finale.

Great replies and ideas and I am leaning toward TSW as it looks unique.

The PLAN:

(1) Play CoX until Nov 30. Play my heart out. Do the stories I never did or haven't done in a long time. Solo AV's ITFs and spend every influence I have on ultimate toons.

(2) Dec and maybe Jan - Go Cold Turkey. No new games for a bit. Truth is I am going to be gone for three weeks on holidays anyway, so it won't be that much time away.

(3) Re-evaluate TSW and give it a whirl. I may do another game if something else is promising. I would really like to get on the ground floor and I think TSW is already about to drop "Issue 2".

Anyway, I have loved this game for almost 8 years now, and sadly, it is about to die. It has become a part of my life in a way I never expected, but like everything, existence is finite and everything eventually dies. (One day, even WoW will die). This being said, the denial stage of grieving is over. The bargaining is over and I moved onto acceptance. I salute the game, the devs and the players. I wish it could go on, but it's time to move on.

I have seen a lot of great scrapper videos. Soloing AVs, TFs, some epic and some funny. Anyway, This is not the best quality video, but it is my favorite. Good action and a bit of story and the song is kinda cool too. I rolled a MA scrap after I found this years ago. Post your favorite scrapper vids!!!!

SCRAPPERS FOREVER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTSQ8Q7X8Co

Three way tie for 2nd:

Earth/Rad troller - Atomic Tera
MFing Warshade - Shadow Huntress
Plant/Fire Dom - Edenfire, my first villian to 50

My number one fav: Katana/SR. I had about 15 lvl 50 scraps, but this was my favorite simple combo.

They are immortal in my memories anyway and when they go to that great big hero/villian place in the sky...

While I am hopeful the petition will save the day, I am preparing for the end. I am making one great toon to rule them all so to speak. A Mastermind. Why? They are a team by themself and I am not sure in 30 or 60 days, how many of us will be around. Also, I have 7.9 years here and it is the only AT I never took to 50. That was the second reason. So with this, I am off to create my finale, my thugs/dark MM to be played Virtue blueside.

Thanks everyone and thanks to Virtue, Infinity and Freedom, my various homes over the years.

If they do close this down, I am hoping that it will be reborn with COH2 somehow. I know that this is fantasy and perhaps, some other smart company will pick up the license and realize that the fanbase here would come back most likely. Anyway, as a mac user, my next choices are likely to be limited, and so while I hate to say it, the orc you may slay in a few months may just be me ;-P

So I feel like my home is scheduled for demolition with the impending doom of Paragon and the Rogue Isles. That being said, any other games that one could recommend. No NCSOFT games obviously please. I am looking for good character customization, decent gameplay of course, mac compatible and occasional RP.

I don't have mids on my mac, but a few things. The build itself has issues IMHO. With regards to power choices and slots.
I really have three basic recommendations and you can consider building/slotting as you like.

(1) Softcap yourself and make your team SR scrappers. This is easy and requires little work. One thing is that with FF, you should get the defense for your team as high as possible. Get your two team buff shields, dispersion bubble and scorpion shield. Maneuvers on a defender is great addition. This gives you 5 defense powers to slot LOTG recharges. Boom. Also, put the steadfast protection/defense in tough. It's easy 3%. basically, you can softcap this build with plain old IOs. I would also replace assault with maneuvers or better replace another power with maneuvers.

(2) recharge for HoB - DP is weak in terms of damage on a defender in general, however with hail of bullets, things begin to change quite a bit, so you want your recharge bonuses from IOs plus hasten to have it up as much as possible. You have good defense and mez protection, so play like a scrapper damnit. An SR scrapper too. HAHA. Linea_Alba has great DP advice in various posts and you may want to search those out to look for further slotting tips with DP. HoB is what makes DP a respectable set in the end actually, so you want it up as often as possible.

(3) Get in the middle of the action (you are softcapped and have HoB). So you have repulsion field. Avoid KB since you need to use HoB as much as possible. Keep the baddies next to you.. I don't like stuns either as they wander away. I find incendiary rounds makes the folks run a bit more than usual, and you always want to use those rounds, so no KB and no stuns. Get rid of repulsion field. I'd dump force bolt too, however if you keep, then one slot for accuracy and use those slots elsewhere. I admit that force bolt can be used as a get off me button quite effectively, so keep if you like. I enjoy the huge KB in secret when tanks, brutes and scraps aren't watching. Still in general, avoid KB, fear and stuns as these are not going to help you. Web Coccoon helps some, but usually I just take the scorpion shield and move on.

(4) Force bubble - Situational, and you do not have it. That is fine and actually makes a lot of sense, but bubblers are fantastic on trials for keeping melee damage down as they keep enemies away from the squishies. This goes against my HoB advice, however if you plan to do a lot of ritki raids or some trials, this is really helpful to the group. In this case, you are playing the defender more and less the offender. Anyway, I take it, and use it once and awhile, and slot it with a lvl 50 End IO (maybe modify it to better if you like). It's personal choice, but given some situations, I usually take it for those few times when it is awesome. If no room in build, no worries, but think it over. Ritki raids for bubblers are nice easy ways to get some inf and shards later on.


I admit I am not the best build advisor and without mids, I am limited, so hopefully other forum gurus will give more input, but I think building toward basic principles will make you much harder to kill and provide enough recharge to unleash some damage.

Consider a Cold/Sonic Def and become a big game hunter. Rad/Sonic would work too. Prefer a corr, then reverse it up.

Get perma eclipse on a warshade and enjoy divinity.

Wanna do support in itrials, go Sonic resonance or thermal with anything. Most itiral type folks are softcapped at late levels and many teams pick up def buffs, manuevers, etc..., but squishies love extra resist which is less common. Sonic give mez protection for those without as well.

Want redraw, Go Beam Rifle/TA/mace corr.

On a more serious note, I made a FF/Beam Rifle and really loved it as I only needed a few powers from FF, easy to softcap and could focus on BR attacks and blasting. I also hate mez, so you only have to worry about sleep. The BR has great ST damage with decent secondary effects and you can have fun with disintegrate.

Want to be in control, Earth/rad or Illusion/Rad (or storm). Great fun.

Personally, if you do not have a GM or AV soloer, then go with my first suggestions. Soloing a GM or AV is a great source of fun and challenge and after you start to collect 50s, its kinda the last real challenge.

Good point on the damage cap. However there is some significant -resist in the tier 1 power alone, so that may help quite a bit. Obviously MM's and corr's pump out more damage. A good mix NA AT's with minimal slotting would probably still be a steamroller. If everyone got and slotted maneuvers as well (as most Superteams too), it would/could be at softcap.

The other issue is that with the +to hit, the def's/corrs would all have instasnipes being well over the 22%to hit.

The mechanics is weird still, such as angling heals and such. It would never be as potent as the FRAD's or Brutal Speed, but I think it would still be interesting.

I think I will need to level up my NA and start an all def NA ITF or something for kicks.

My work and travel is not conducive to starting this, but look at the def numbers and say.....hmmmmm, this is some crazy buffs/debuffs. Now multiply those X 8. Drool.

NA/Fire or Ice ST? If you build it, they will come.

Devices will be to "to hit" what SR is to the softcap for defense for scrappers. Some sets have it easier to maximize one aspect of the game, but may be weaker in other areas. Everyone knows this and has been living it as long as they played the game. The good news is that all (except MM which was working perfectly) sets got some love, but clearly this was designed to balance devices. By the way, still no build up in devices, so it won't be the best secondary necessarily. If you have build up, when you use your snipe, you always click build up and aim anyway, so....., for the most part, it really won't be a huge deal.

The challenge will be remaking builds that now incorporate the to hit bonuses needed and the snipe when we used to skip it. End management seems to be handled by tier 4 secondary changes, but until I see the powers, not so sure. Snipes use a lot of endurance, so I could see potential issues there on fast recharge builds.

Anyway, changes are good step in right direction. The "I WIN" power set comes out in issue 35, so just keep waiting for it if not happy about these changes.

Stocks up on Kismet +6s

Dust's off devices alts in anticipation.

Looks at primaries with snipes again.

This is all good news. Going to require some restructuring as I have a lot of blasters.

Interesting with the targeting drone + kismet, I think you could be around the magic 22% to hit pretty easy perma. Devices seems like it is finally getting a little love. The new survivability powers sounds great too.

Get a kismet +6 to hit with the AR/Targetting drone combo, and you are pretty much not missing much of anything.

Timebomb is pretty much a solo power. Too bad. Good idea, but not practical the way teams play. I would prefer they call it "Sticky Bomb". Change it to a targetted AOE where you select a target, and if it hits, then a 5 second countdown to the massive AOE blast (16 targets max) happens would go off. This is much like the redcaps boss "dwarf tossing" power. The short countdown and targeted AOE would make it reasonable in teams, but not totally OP. To make it fair however, I think a to-hit check for the initial hit (and missing means no bomb) would be fair followed by to hit for the explosion. Truthfully, the damage on Time Bomb is actually pretty damn good when slotted, so devs would have to be careful not to make it OP, but it needs love. Animation could show a bomb stuck to the chest of the enemy and that alone would make it pretty damn awesome. I suppose a fear component would also be reasonable while bomb is attached to someone (NPCs run from NPC with bomb) once again giving the power some balance (on a team, one troller would solve this problem,...or should in theory). Otherwise, scrap time bomb all together, and replace with Fragmentation grenade or something like that.

OK, if solo, I am old school "toe bomber". I timed the time bomb and trip mine set up time to get them both to go boom at same time, and that is a very powerful double "nuke". This is a good use of timebomb. Also, hell of a defiance booster.

Also, given the powerpools and new epics, I pretty much have little excuse these days to take timebomb, but the devices set is interesting that you can get away with picking a handful of powers, which can be of use at time to be honest depending on build concept. Devices has one thing going for it, and it is kind of trivial, but at the same time, it makes it unique. Only blasters get that choice. I would trade it away for build up in a heart beat however. Hence, my lack of new devices blasters.

Server status says up, but.... LIES!!!! ALL LIES!!!

I did the plant/dark thing as well. Black Ivy is born!!!

Devices - Traps replaced it. IO's replaced a couple of powers as well effectively. Lacks Build up. Outside of concept, I really dislike it now. If you want a secondary that frees up a lot of options, then go for it or for concept, but it really blows overall and needs an overhaul.

Stone Armor - It is a great set, but I hate being slow. I'm also not the tanky sort by nature. Any set that requires IOs to be playable is not for me.

Any Mastermind - Don't misunderstand me. Masterminds are great, but at +4/8, there is nothing that can't be soloed, even before IOs and lvl 50. I got bored with the playstyle, so it is not for me. Also, pet AI ticks me off often, even, and personally, I still think they are a bit buggy.

Sonic Dispersion - Requires team play, and I don't like any set that really requires team play. I usually do team, but I like the option of solo.

Finally, my the set I loathe the most is and will never likely never play again is Ice Control. I'd rather use cold domination or storm summoning with another primary. Ice Slick, one of the sig powers is often negated by other players. The pet is weak. It's not very good control or I never figured out how to use it best (probably the latter). There is a very good reason it is rare to see an ice troller out there anymore. I haven't played on a team with one for at least 6 months... I play daily. I don't think I am alone on this one.

I'm glad to see a few characters actually getting killed off. It brings dimension to the game. Statesman could also be replaced like DC replaced all the Robin's. Problem is Statesman was created to be a symbol more than a person. Never really identified with him. Too goody goody for my taste, but most symbols are.

This all being said, why can't Numina just resurrect them? Why did his hospital teleporter(or whatever they call it) not kick in? Losing powers is one thing, but death is a bit challenging the way CoH was built. Some unanswered questions or mysteries for the next episode perhaps.

For what it is worth, I agree with some previous posters. His death was kinda lame. Watching the animation, I was like, "States, don't walk into that circle on the ground. It's a trap!!!". OK, i did not really yell that out, but I thought it. Anyway, I would not be surprised to see him resurrected or replaced with a new Statesman. Maybe Tyrant can fill in....They look alike.

Here is the question for all of the +4/8 lvl 50+3 purple/pvp IOed toons with 59% defense already, maxed out resist and who simply look at the enemies causing them to simply drop dead...., would you say, "oh, you are a bubbler... kick em from the league?" I really doubt it. FF does need some love, and it is not the best set in the world, but it has it's use, and for a new player who likely does not have a ton on influence, it is actually a decent choice. The group mez protection and endurance drain resist is really nice for large groups where some players are not going to be as maxed out as others. I don't mind extra defense (on many toons I do not need it, but some I do...).

Tips to the OP (feel free to ignore as many good tips have been given already and this is merely one player's opinion):

(1) Watch the repel powers. They piss people off and unfortunately have some cool animation and feel fun. If I was reading a comic, I would love to see people getting knocked back through buildings or off ledges, but in CoH, this is taboo. KB powers are great if used properly, but as a new player, I advise you to be careful with these until you get a good feel for the game. Hint: KB into walls and structures, use corners.

(2) You absolutely need to take dispersion bubble and your two small shields (no argument here). I agree with taking Repulsion bomb (do not slot for KB though and be careful using if other have KB powers going (like earthquake or Freezing Rain, etc. as KU can become KB quickly). All other powers are skippable IMHO, especially for a beginner.

(3) Go redside for a bit and get scorpion shield. Softcap defense is essential to avoid sleeps (your kryptonite) and you just do not need to IO out to get softcap defense. Protect yourself first and you will protect the team better.

(4) Do NOT ask teams to gather for bubbles. Learn to do it on the fly mid battle. Usually two applications can get the whole team (assuming someone ran ahead out of range). Also, if someone keeps out of your bubble range, that is not your problem. They either know what they are doing and can handle it, or they will die and they did it to themselves. Learn the approximate timing on the bubbles too and get a feel for re-bubbling. If you aren't bubbling, you aren't defending as much as you could be.

(5) Team a lot, so pick a more populated server. FF won't solo quickly, and not getting a new power is what leads to alt-itis. Get in a good SG/VG (especially if on an unpopulated server) that is active and team up with folks. IF you want to solo, then think MM, scrapper, brute as better choices for a beginner. Hey with a MM, you can have bubbles too (goes well with bots for concept and actually works well with them too). You can solo, but it will be slow. Servers with low populations are harder to find teams on.

(6) Learn to lead teams and start leagues early on. You are FF, so you got defense & mez protection covered for the team. I find myself on teams of pure offense which means once and awhile, we do get our butts handed to us, so it is nice to get some support once and awhile.

(7) Have fun. Concept is awesome. BR has a unique mechanic, enjoy it. FF allows lots of other choices if you want from power pools. Look forward to having your bubbles protecting me and my teammates.

So in a comic universe (and this is part 5 of 7 of the story), perhaps, he will die, but the question is whether or not he will remain dead. Numina can resurrect people as well, so the other question is how will he die where he cannot simply be resurrected? Will the well of the furies "react" to this death?

By the way, Peter Parker died in Ultimate Spiderman 160.