Organica

You can tell that I've only ever leveled one Kheld to 50... :/

Only today I learned that there was a Phoenix tail. :/ I've been using the Phoenix wings for a while now, part of the Fire/Ice T9 costume set, and very cool looking... never realized there was a matching tail until today.

And I know the costume creator pretty darn well.

Glad someone else said that, I was thinking, "Wasn't that created back in November?" but I wasn't there and Dumple sounded so certain. ^_^

1. Hero Epic Power Pools work like regular power pools, at 35 you can choose a power from one of the four pool options, just like you'd pick Super Speed from the Speed power pool. Ultimately you can have powers from 4 regular power pools and 1 epic.

The Villain Patron Power Pools require you to run one of the four patron arcs first, but after that they work the same.

2. You don't need to be VIP to access these. They've been in the game since pretty much the beginning... at least since the 40-50 game was added. (Patron Pools were added with CoV of course.) Generally speaking, stuff that was in the game at the beginning or with the first few issues is all stuff than you can access for free.

3. Talk to a trainer to create or switch to a 2nd build. The first time you'll have to repick all of your powers as if you're leveling up again, after that you can switch between the two instantly. There's a cooldown period after you've switched, I forget, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, something like that, before you can switch again.

Another great hero name has been claimed on Virtue!



He's a classic, iconic, four-color super hero! (It says so in his bio).

Personally, I DO feel I have have a great build/softcap build on nearly every one of my characters, and I structure a lot of my game around that. I market aggressively so that I can afford whatever I want, I place long-range lowball bids on the things I do want, and I earn a lot of regular merits and hero merits and spend them. But I enjoy immensely getting a character's build together and seeing how they improve, so I don't consider it too much of a chore.

My builds are almost always build knowing that I run TFs a lot and exempt down a lot, so they're not perfect level 50 builds, but still very strong at 50.

But I'm also an alt addict so I can understand, not everyone can be bothered to do everything I've done. ^_^

I like Citadel, but I can understand why most don't.

1. It is not as long as Synapse.

2. The maps are smaller.

3. The enemy is less annoying... if not exactly exciting.

4. You have more powers available to you.

That's about it... Synapse has the advantage of a nice ending with Babbage and then the Clockwork King on a unique map. Citadel just kind of ends like it began, except one of the Council looks slightly different and has more hit points. You can rework Synapse just by consolidating repeat missions. If you consolidated repeat missions on a Citadel... you'd have 1 mission.

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but as I understand it, to take advantage of the scrapper's AAO bonus it's best to jump into the group of enemies and THEN nuke, rather than teleporting in from a distance.

Provided you have the defense to survive leaping in of course.

Sparks Fly is my elec/shield scrapper and one of my favorite toons as well.

I build for defense on everything, (well... not regen I guess), but generally speaking willpower performs very well without a lot of defense, and resist sets like dark and invul mostly do too. But I softcap my wp/dark/invul/electric toons (smashing/lethal at the very least) so I can really be awesome.

My regen toons are built for recharge, so that my heals are up quickly, but they are all katana or broadsword, sets that include a defense-building mechanic.

If you want to completely avoid defense and still feel really sturdy... I'd say Willpower.

I go through stages. For a long while last year I was playing my 50's and hardly ever gaining new levels on my lower-level characters. In the past 4-6 months, I've been making new characters and leveling characters up like mad, and pretty much not running ANY of the incarnate content. I literally ran like 1 MoLambda (3 runs) and maybe a couple of BAFs since Januaray or February, and about a month ago I was on a MoUG which was my first ever (and only, so far) UG run. I had never run TPN, MoM, DD, or the new MAG trials. I'm often afraid to even admit to that because the people I run with are mostly very familiar with these trials and often doing master or badge runs. So in the last week I've done several trials -- a couple of BAF/Keyes/TPN runs, two MAG badge runs -- still haven't tried MoM or DD, but I at least feel not so in the dark about newer trials now, and I'm more interested in working on my 50's again.

(Working on some of my 50's... I counted, I have 40 now. )

I think "good" names are more scarce on Virtue than any server out there -- it's one of the two most populous servers, and it's one where people REALLY care about names that fit a concept.

If you want a strong single-word name for your character, you'll have to search very hard to find one, but sometimes they can even be found on Virtue. I suggested several water-themed names in the Virtue Name Watch thread a few days ago that were one word or a word made of of a combo of two words. Someone already claimed "Sugarwater" and "Drowning", the second of which I thought was a particularly good one-word water-themed name that happened to be free.

If you go for a two word name there are many many more options, and it only takes a little creativity to produce a good name. Again, I play on Virtue where good names are at a premium, moreso than probably anywhere else. In the last year or so I've created characters with the following names:

Trinkets
War Maid
Last Splash
Destruction Diva
Disruption Diva
Decimation Diva
Devastation Diva
One Divine Hammer
Prisstina
Chelan
Moonlucent
Clockwork Lass
Lunar Mist
Terran Angel
Harlequin Fist
Tiffany Twisted
Twilight Maid
Silver Bride
Clockwork Vixen
Sunlit
Black Embrace
Nightime Bird
Gamma Power
Godlike Machine
Midnight Babe
Ash Valentine
Sister Kate
Eternal Sweeper
Divine Wish
Dog Aggro

and my most recent, candy-colored stone melee brute I named -- Candy Smash.

You may not like all of those names, but the point is even on the server where it's likely hardest to find good names, you can still find names to work with, even after 8 years.

I do wish they could free up names on old accounts, but eh... you can complain about it, or you can find a way to work with what we've got.

Manbearpig, manbearpig,
Doing the things a manbearpig does
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a manbearpig...

(incarnate spoilers alert)

So I hit 50 this morning on my TW brute, and I was curious how Mender Ramiel's arc worked post- Statesman. As you probably know, the old hero arc sent you to talk to Statesman about incarnates because he's such a well-known incarnate, and he basically refuses to say anything important until the well takes over and speaks through him, forcing him to give you the info. Because States doesn't want awesome power being thrown about by anyone who can get ahold of it, but the well does.

So I talk to Mender Rameil. He says that the best-known incarnate around is Lord Recluse, now that Statesman is gone. Okay, so far so good. But he doesn't send me to talk to Recluse of course. Instead he says, "Talk to Positron, he might know something, he's been researching incarnates."

Well, okay. Kind of a lame dodge, talking to a non-incarnate, but it works I guess.

So I go talk to Positron about incarnates. Surely the well isn't going to possess him -- that would make no sense. Positron says, "I know some things about incarnates, but that's dangerous information, we don't want great power getting into the wrong hands!"

"S'okay, Posi," I say. "I'm cool!"

"Oh, well then!" says Posi. 'Why didn't you say so right off? Here's everything you need to know to acquire massive power for yourself! Because you'd obviously never abuse it, I have your word as a strange hero that I just met!"




(Actually, I leveled to 50 on a Ms. Liberty Task Force earlier this morning, hitting 50 as Recluse fell. One cool touch was that when I said hi to Positron he immediately said he'd heard about how I'd helped stop Recluse -- nice touch! So I guess maybe he knew I was trustworthy after all, right? It's not like he'd just give power out to any level 50 yahoo that said, "I can handle it!" Right? )

Warwolf Whistle. 5 charges, 1 character only.

Saw someone in Ouroboros today with a warwolf following them around. ^_^

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities only come around so many times.

Looks great!

I was on my mace scrapper One Divine Hammer a couple of weeks ago and someone asked me if I was a Breeders fan... naturally that's where the name came from. And I spontaneously said that "Last Splash" would make a great water based character name.

They said I'd better reserve it... and so I did, on Virtue. ^_^

Penelope Yin Task Force: It's not up to the level of the Positron revamp, ie no really new maps or anything, and I saw someone in game call it a "trash TF" (they didn't elaborate), but for my money it's a vast improvement over the old Sister Psyche TF. Not that I particularly hated Sister Psyche's TF -- it was one of the better of the old Freedom Phalanx TFs, possibly even the best of the six. I mean, old Positron and Synapse were/are both pretty horrible with endless repeat missions, and Citadel gets knocked for the same thing, and Numina suffers from all the problems associated with the zone hunts... and Manticore is just really generic and boring... so yeah, probably Sister Psy was the best of the six. But the new version is an improvement. It's fast, it actually takes place in the zone it starts in, and most importantly, just like Posi 2 it ends at a location where the enemies are actually providing a threat, instead of bombing another random, generic sewer. It takes one of the cooler old maps and instead of twenty minutes of boredom you get a really exciting battle on the same map. That's all good!

New Power Sets and Costumes: Yes. Moar please! (I think they need a "magic blast" or "magic staff/wand blast" or somesuch....)

Dark Astoria: I think most players would agree that they hit this one out of the park. Well done!

First off, I should point out that I'm really fishing for a concept for each set that works for me, as I'm certain I will try to play both at some point. So the idea of coloring the powers works really well, gives me some ideas to work with. Thanks for the replies. ^_^ Maybe when I get around to making these characters I'll find this thread and post pictures.

Second... I'm beginning to think Ice Melee is quite possibly the least-played set in the entire game. That alone makes me want to try something with it, heh.

I was going to do a long post about all of my various projects... well, I wasn't actually going to post it because it's boring to anyone but me. But I at least wrote about it during lunch and breaks today. I get obsessive about my projects at times, and I have to write stuff down even if I don't show it to anyone. Did you know I have six different private Super Groups on Virtue, all with fully functioning bases (all teleporters) that I've been slowly fleshing out design-wise? No, because I haven't bothered to bore people talking about it. and I readily admit it's one of my more insane projects... but it's true.

One of my latest projects is playing some of the very few melee sets left that I still haven't hit 50 on. To that end I have a new Mace/Shield scrapper named One Divine Hammer that I'm liking a lot, and I have yet to hit 50 on my Titan Weapons brute Megami Hime. I'm working on two staff fighters... a ninjitsu stalker named Eternal Sweeper and an energy aura brute Princess Ozma (my first energy aura ever).

And last night I made a new brute, dual blades/electric armor. Dual Blades is another set I haven't played to 50 yet. I've always wanted one with the rularuu blades, ever since I saw someone with those a few years ago. I've tried the rularuu broadsword, the katana, the axe, even the claws... and I'll probably try the mace out too eventually. Anyway...

I've played katana, broadsword, martial arts, street justice, dark melee, energy melee, electric melee, fire melee, spines, super strength, and I forget what else to 50 (I've actually played broadsword to 50 twice so far, katana twice, street justice twice, fire melee twice, dark melee twice, and martial arts four times). I've played willpower, dark armor, shield, regen, invulnerability, fire armor, electric armor, and super reflexes all to 50... and I've at least played ice armor and stone armor to 25 and 33 respectively. And.. am I forgetting anything?

But I realized suddenly that I've never played Stone Melee or Ice Melee. I mean never. Not even to level 2.

And... I don't know if I even want to. Stone Melee, at least, is something I see other people play. I assume it's pretty powerful. But I don't think I even see people play ice melee. Like -- ever.

I know some people say they don't like fire melee because of the sword (same for fire and ice blaster secondaries). Those never bothered me. But the whole stone melee thing -- now I have stone on my hands, now I have a big massive stone sledgehammer -- it just never made any sense to me. I didn't like it, so I never played it. I suppose I have similar problems with ice melee, but in that case since it's ONLY available to tankers, who I don't play as much as scrappers/brutes/stalkers, and because it has always seemed pretty weak... I've just never even thought about it.

So tell me why I should play either, and what kind of concept works for these two attack sets.

And while we're at it... is ice melee ever going to be ported to anything else?

Princess, a character on Exalted. ^_^