NightshadeLegree

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Right now, it feels like Redside is like it's own separate country instead of simply a different breed of super-powered denizen living in the same city.

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The Rogue Isles are a separate country.

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There is, however, no going around the fact that Sharkhead Island is UGLY

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It's supposed to be ugly. The powers that be in Sharkhead are Cage and Mako, and I don't think either of them care much for urban renewal and environmental protection.

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and I'm FORCED to spend at least 5 levels there because there is no alternative zone.

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Here I agree with you. I'd love to see a new 15-25 villain zone, to allow my characters to take a break from the second half of Cap and half or all of Sharkhead.

As for enemy placement... I think it matters for more than street hunting - the type of enemies you see on the streets can add a lot to the atmosphere of a zone, and none of the enemy placing in CoV is as incongruous as in some older zones of CoH. I'd expect the CoT to be lurking in any out of the way area, wooded or otherwise, but if they were placed according to the same logic as Founders and Peregrine they'd be sacrificing hapless citizens in the middle of the St. Martial streets and under Recluse's statue in Grandville.

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The Midnight Club, Cimerora, the War Zone and Ouroboros HAVE helped quite a bit, and they're going in the right direction. However, there's no denying that CoV has no more than a third of the content there is on the hero-side, and while people may argue that it's BETTER, the fact that I can quote most of the contacts takes a lot of the quality away, especially when you consider that most of it ISN'T better, it's just shorter and closer by. Easier access to a crappy story, however, does not make it better, just more tolerable.

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Redside is smaller, no question of it, but the superior quality is there. If you doubt it ask yourself this...

When Going Rogue is released do you want the contacts and missions to be more like those of CoV or of the original zones of CoH?

I've got nothing against the newer heroside content, as I've said, but from what I've seen so far the older content (which makes up a lot of heroside) isn't up to the same standard.

If someone really wants to lend a helping hand then a buff or non-damaging debuff is usually welcome. I was definitely grateful to the passing controller who feared a very purple Paragon Protector who was in the process of shredding my scrapper at the time

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I still hate how villain-side content land-locks me on the same island, visiting the same five doors, following the same 5 routes day after day. Once I hit Sharkhead Island, I know I'll be bored to tears for the next five levels because I'll I'll see is grey buildings, black sand and the Hell Forge.

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Sharkhead is far from my favourite zone, but I'll take that any day over being sent halfway across the city to Perez Park by a contact in Founders Falls.

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Not that there's much to see even if you zone. You switch from one black-grey-brown dump into another that's almost exactly the same, anyway.

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The visuals of the zones are a matter of individual taste, but at least the enemy layout of redside makes some kind of sense. The CoT in Sharkhead are in Potters Field - a creepy graveyard that people avoid (understandably.)

Now let's go to Founders Falls, where we step off the train and, oh look, there's an 8 foot tall demon sacrificing some poor civilian in the middle of the street in broad daylight. I mean... what?

There are plenty of enemy groups that I can accept loitering around the streets, especially in the less populated or more run down areas... but Portal Corp should spend less time worrying about what's going on in other dimensions and more time worrying about the behemoths standing around in the car park.

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And as much as people talk about redundant missions and faceless contacts hero-side, the fact of the matter is I've been here for five years and I STILL don't remember all their names, locations and missions. Villain-side, I knew all the contacts with all the missions and all the locations within a few months. Less is not always more.

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Villainside contacts are memorable - they have unique appearances and well defined speech patterns. Heroside contacts are a pack of sickly looking (what's with the coughing?) non-entities who all talk in exactly the same way, and for every interesting mission they hand out they've got three defeat alls to do first.

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All of the old TFs (pre-Striga) would be vastly improved just by cutting out 1/2 to 2/3 of the missions.

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As would many of the older story arcs. As it is there's way too many Defeat Alls and huge maps of not terribly interesting or challenging enemies - I almost fell asleep during my latest run through the 'Deliver Outbreak' map in McIntyre's arc.

The newer hero side content is often excellent - Faultline, the Hollows, the Midnighters - but the old stuff needs reworked.

I've solo'd that TF with Nightshade, my MM, on diff 4. Requiem and the others were EBs not AVs.

Nosferatu and Burckholder can be more of a liability than a help since they have a tendency to charge the podium and aggro the 3 EBs before you've cleared away most of the rank and file. If you're lucky they might take down one of the EBs before they are defeated.

After the initial frenzy I took to using hit and run tactics - pull a handful of the lower ranks into the side corridor and take them out, then repeat. Same with Requiem, Vandal and Maestro. Individually they're not that bad. All three at once is, I'd imagine, a guaranteed faceplant, unless you're running some uber AV killer build.

It's a great mission though. One of my favourite battles in the game

Which makes me wonder, has anyone ever solo'd that one on Invincible/Relentless?

I put forward a similar suggestion, for solo friendly TFs, a couple of days ago here

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But a task force of one isn't a task force. It's a mission.

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And a task force of 8 isn't a task force. It's a merit run.

I15 has been on Test for what... hours? I took a glance at a couple of threads about it and already there's discussion of how fast it might be possible to do them, and whether or not they'll be a viable alternative to repeating the ITF.

A team of 6 or 8 is the worst way to experience any new story in the game for the first time. From my point of view, if this is all there is to the next issue, then I15 is a non-event, because by the time it goes live the speed run tactics will already be up and running, and that will be the norm.

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I wouldn't do this to the existing TFs though, as it probably wouldn't make sense storywise for those tasks to be undertaken by a single person.

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I see your point, in theory, but in practise TFs are being done with near total disregard for the story - the ITF being a prime example.

The irony is that some of the TFs have good stories, unique maps and unusual enemies - all of which are things that the content doers are always craving more of - and yet they're frequently done by teams who approach them as nothing more than a quick merit grab.

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I don't really have a problem with that, but there should be a massive reduction in merits if you're fighting EBs and the entire TF is spawned for 1 person.

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No problem. Like Samuel said, I'd happily forego any and all merit rewards if it meant I had the chance to experience these particular stories at my own pace.

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And I'm perfectly fine with keeping the Statesman and Recluse ones team-only.

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Perhaps, but wouldn't it be fun though to take on the entire Freedom Phalanx single handed?

Mind you I expect that would be like the final room of Mender Lazarus x 2, with no allies, so even as EBs it would still be far from an easy win.

I'd like to suggest that the regular TFs/SFs be reworked along the lines of the Oro TFs - specifically that instead of AVs you have the option of facing EBs.

Why? Because the core of I15, so far as I can tell, is 2 new high level TFs. I'm not overly excited about that, since although I've enjoyed the TFs I've been on with various characters - Synapse, Moonfire, Katie, the Cap au Diable SF and the ITF - in every case I've only been able to follow the story by reading the Wiki entry after it's over.

The ITF is probably the worst case - I didn't even know that Imperious is supposed to be an ally in one of the missions - as far as I recall the team skipped past him in accordance with the rules of 'speed' TFs. It would be nice to be able to stop and follow the story, drink in the atmosphere. I'm not saying make them easy - I've done the Mender Lazarus SF and that last room is hard, even if they are 'only' EBs.

It works for the Oros - indeed 'A Spider Spins His Web' in particular feels like it was written as a solo TF - especially the second mission where you have to fight Recluse's champions.

AV soloing is, I think, not for everyone. Downscaling the AVs, as is done in every other mission and story arc in the game, would open up the TFs to people who, for one reason or another, seldom experience them.

I like the hazard zones. My scrapper went from 39 to 40 almost entirely in the Abandoned Sewer Network. The cacophany when you dive into a group of 10 or 12 rikti drones and they all start firing at the same time has to be heard to be believed

If anything I'd rather see some of the regular heroside zones reworked. I spent several levels in Founders Falls and got no sense of the place at all - because nearly every mission those contacts gave me sent me to a different zone.

Edit: Some of the hazard zones could do with a few arcs telling the story of the zones. The Hollows and Faultline are probably my two favourite hero zones, and I'd certainly welcome more like that.

Nightshade hit 50 close to the end of my 4th month in the game - the first 42 levels or so being done in a single month, and mostly soloing. All in all I think it took just under 200 hours.

I had a lot of free time that month

The first character I took to a high level, and eventually to 50, was a Thugs/Poison. Thugs are very straightforward - there's no tricky abilities to get used to, just damage, damage and more damage - and /Poison is a very active secondary.

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The more i look at it the more i like Bots/FF or is that to boring?

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I'm playing a Bots/FF at the moment. Insanely survivable, but not exactly action packed. I'm pretty sure it's Bots/FF that led to the stereotype of Masterminds who just stand around and watch their pets kill stuff, because that's pretty much what you do.

After just recently slogging through The Terra Conspiracy for the first time I can see your point. It starts well, with the really cool wrecked office, but after that there's an awful lot of Save 5 Techs then Defeat All before the story really gets moving. It didn't help that, personally, I find DE quite boring opponents.

It's one of the reasons I'm still preferring villain side. The arcs tend to be shorter and sharper, with less filler missions.

Still, often even the most routine mission can be livened up by some good combat, and luckily there's a lot of that in this game. I remember one perfectly routine mission that put my Claws/SR scrapper against some Tsoo in a warehouse. Since /SR seems to make you virtually immune to siphon speed and caltrops I was bouncing around all over that warehouse, fighting super fast Tsoo and chasing down the sorcerors in a running battle where each spawn just blended into the next. I ended up doing almost the entire mission in a single adrenalin fuelled rush. Good times

Their perception is hilariously bad. It's possible to use Assassin's Strike on one without alerting another that's standing right next to him

AVs only appear on Relentless/Invincible. She's an EB, conning red to me.

I'm sure I can beat her on 2. I just wanted to see if I could do better than I did when I went up against her with Nightshade. Well now I know...

I rarely fall back on Shivans. The only two occassions I recall doing so were the Crey mission you get pre-20 with the Chief Plasma Scientist, and the final room of the Mender Lazarus TF (along with a rikti drone and a snowman - not that they helped much.)

Speaking of pets... I took another go at it tonight, and whittled down the LC around her. I had her down to 1/4 health before my End gave out, and then got swarmed by imps, an animated stone and the Servant of Light (I think that's what he's called) who'd been conspicuous by their absence up to that point.

Oh goodie... MORE knockback

Time to swallow my pride and drop the diff to 2, I think...

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Edited: Like Steel above said, those Scrapyarders and LC can make the fight a lot more difficult. (They seem to spawn infinitely in that mission too, though I can't say for certain. I've been on teams that have cleared the map first, only to have more pop up from somewhere. Considering the story of that arc though....)

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There's at least one or two patrolling LCs, who call for reinforcements when you take them down, leading to at least three waves of ambushers that I counted.

I've done a lot better with the rank and file this time than I did with Nightshade - superjumping to each end of the ship and taking out the LCs and Scrapyarders without aggroing Sea Witch herself. Nightshade could never manage that - one idiot pet or another always ended up running towards her at the wrong moment...

I'll take another shot at her tomorrow. Tonight I switched to my scrapper for a break - only to spend the next 3 hours fighting the first Arch-Villain I've encounted in hero side outside of a TF. Ah well, I do like a challenge

U'kon Gr'ai cons gray to Blue Steel.

There's an arc in Port Oakes, from Mr. Bocor (I think) where you run into the Sea Witch, and she's not that difficult. Then you run into her again in Sharkhead, and she's an absolute nightmare.

I last did that arc in December, with Nightshade, and it was easily the hardest fight I had up until I started running into the signature heroes in the mid-30s. In fact that was the last time I dropped my difficulty below Vicious (3) until I faced Lord Recluse himself.

So this time I'm running a SS/Inv brute, and as I'm aproaching the fight I'm reassured by the sight of Unyeilding running in my power tray - no knockback this time, I think.

And there isn't... at least until her blasts flatline my End bar, and then it's bounce bounce bounce... faceplant...

Is it just me, or is she an extremely tricky opponent, considering the level you face her at?

I really like the Empty Clips animation, but I can't justify taking it, because post-20 or so MM's personal attacks drop drastically in effectiveness (unless you slot them, which is a waste of slots) and the End cost is disproportionate.

I did take Dual Wield though, and still keep it in my build for those occassions when I do a low level arc in Oro or if I mal down, because...

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It's just plain fun pulling em out and firing.

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...and it looks really cool

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I would prefer to see a more sensible Endurance model. Make armor toggles run at a bare minimum until they're being used. If you've got an armor that protects against Fire/Cold, and you're not taking very much Fire/Cold damage, then your rate of consumption should be low. Against Fire/Cold enemies (say, Circle of Thorns at certain levels) then it should go up. Throw a Ball Lightning against 1 guy, and it drains 1 target's worth of Endurance.

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Alternatively, don't fire off AoEs at single targets because it is, quite literally, a waste of energy, and don't run toggles unless you think you'll actually need them.

If I incorporated Spin (a PBAoE) into my scrapper's regular single target attack chain I'd run out of End fast, and deservedly so. I also, frequently, turn off Tough unless I'm fighting bosses, because with 3 /SR toggles and Weave running I don't need to resist damage since I'm taking very few hits in the first place.

Thugs - Queen: Another One Bites The Dust (for the arsonist)

Mercs - Stan Ridgeway: Camoflague

Bots - Chumbawumba: Tubthumping, since these lyrics...

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

...could apply equally to the Bots and to whoever they're fighting.

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20 for adult entertainment.

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Included in you $15 to CoH, at no extra charge, is access to Pocket D and a multitude of catgirls.

What more do you need?