Ossuary

My Archery/Dev Blaster has Cloaking Device and the jump stealth IO in Combat Jumping. Since the only time I do not have Combat Jumping toggled on is when I am Super Jumping, I spend most of my time with complete invisibility.

A while back I came up with the goal of getting each AT to 50. This was before CoV, though. That threw a wrench in the project, as I simply don't play as much as I used to.

Anyway, I finally hit 50 on my last hero AT needed, a Controller. That was about 2 weeks ago, I think. Seriously, I tried, but just couldn't stick with Controllers.

That means I have hit 50 with 2 Tanks, 2 Blasters, 1 Defender, 1 Scrapper, 1 Controller, 1 Warshade, 2 Peace Bringers.

Villains have 1 Brute and...well, that's it. I have my MM in the mid 40's, have been enjoying my lvl 30 Fortunata, and just made a Corrupter. Stalker and Dominator are awaiting GR.

I was going through the 45+ Carnival of Shadows arc for the merits when I hit the first "Arrest more Carnival minions than exist on Peregrine Island!" It struck me that I could do radio missions, but when I checked there were no Carnival in sight. I had to abandon whichever mission I picked about 5 times before one showed up, but the defeats counted, so I was thrilled. Never going to fear those missions again.

Thanks, Abandon Mission Feature!

I, on the other hand, enjoy expressive faces. My Bots/Traps MM that is plotting to take over Paragon City has the huge, zany "muahahahaha!" smirk. My hands on hips, spandex wearing, cape sporting super hero Nuclear Dander has the goofy grin. It, to me, adds so much to the character.

When I first made Nuclear Dander I gave him one of the souless faces. It never fit. It made him dull, just like all the others. The goofy grin fits him perfectly, and makes him feel more alive than the blank stare faces.

There is a place for all the options, I think. I have other ideas for heroes that just scream for some sort of golden age grin. I'm always appreciative of new options, but I, too, would like a bit more variety.

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This probably seems like a silly thing to be frustrated by, but I used /em flip to force characters into the idle cycle for screenshot and demo purposes.

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Use /em none, instead.

*edit*
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I kinda like the new version. Maybe what we need is /em idle so you don't need to use a workaround to get you into the animation loop you want?

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Just to address the other occurrence of this - /em none does just this. Breaks an emote or stance and returns you to the idle animation cycle.

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Never heard of that one. Nice to know. I always just hit the "Esc" key, though.

Kheldian.

A while back I was wanting to make a human only Warshade, but I already had my lvl 50 tri-form and wasn't sure I wanted to re-level a Warshade when there were other sets I wanted to try. With this I can now have both a tri-form and human only, and in my case, the added benefit of a lvl 50's income to slot it out.

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The same way I spend every double-XP weekend: leveling a character that I suspect will be more fun once I get above the low 20s, but that's so painful from around level 11 to 21 that I can't ordinarily stand to play them. In past cases it's been stalkers and dominators, two villain ATs that I sense I'd love to play, but not in the low levels. (Ironically, I have never yet kept a character I PL'ed during double-XP weekend.) This time it was a WP/DB tanker that I ran, more solo than I'd like, from level 10 to 25 in a weekend. Now that I've got a continuous attack chain and a partial set of SOs, the character is already a heck of a lot less painfully annoying to play than it was at level 11, where the AT damage mod was making all fights take forever and where my attack chain plus a single toggle was enough to make me have to rest every other fight.

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This mirrors my weekend.

Made a Fire/DB Tank, a concept I've wanted to make for awhile. Many was the time where, after having to stop and let my end bar build back up (just about every fight), I would just shake my head, and realize that there was simply no way I'd put up with this under normal circumstances.

I got her to 23. Stamina and stronger enhancements took away much of the pain. I went from frustration to happy fun. Glad I thought to make the character Friday. Any other time, and she would not have made it.

No.

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That said, I do kinda wonder how useful this is, given CoX characters live in the CoX world and are therefore confronted with a whole bunch of concept-breaking temptations. If you took a 'natural' hero from our world, ran them through a CoX mission that resulted in a flight pack - how do you explain not using it?

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No matter how open ended CoH is, it is a video game. And, as such, there are rules that have to be layed down, and there is only so much time that the devs can spend on things. Guides, such as this one, serve only to show people how a concept they like in comics, (which is not nearly as limited as a video game), can fit into the CoH/V world. As said, I thought the guide was great.

To further explain, let's take Batman. For this purpose, let's throw out the argument of whether he is "tech" or "natural" origin, and just focus on the fact that he is a mortal, a human being who has pushed himself to the limits that can be reached.

There have been many instances in the comics where Batman got ahold of a magic talisman, or some exotic weaponry, and used it to defeat the villain. Does this mean he is no longer of "natural concept"? Not at all. He was granted an extra piece of tech, or magic, that would normally be outside of his reach. Nothing wrong with that. He is still the same human that pushed himself to the limits. And, in next months episode, he more than likely wont have said tech or talisman.

This is no different from us getting a temp power in game. My Earth/FF Controller can summon wolves. Could he do that on his own? Nope. But he was given a whistle as a gift, so he can use it. If you get a jetpack, you can use it. If you really don't want to, then you can delete it. (shrugs)

Now, if these abilities were permanent, THAT might raise some eyebrows. But they aren't, thus, the core of the character remains, even after the temp power is gone.

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In the CoX world, this guide would have you building a Luddite (who, it is worth noting, can breath fire *smiles*).

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In the CoX world, this guide would have you building a Scrapyarder (who, it is worth noting, cannot breath fire *smiles*)

Seriously though, you replied to Contempt, who just explained how he had a natural hero with fire powers. And, I think that's a very neat, (did I just say "neat"?), take on it. After all, fire dancers, and yes, fire breathers, have been around for centuries. I would say that his character, as described, DOES fit the natural concept, and in rather interesting fashion, I might add.

Well, this is wierd. I read the guide, thought it was great, then had the unfortunate idea that I should read the responses, as opposed to simply replying, "Hey, great guide!"

From what I can tell, and this is just my interpretation, Enantiodromos here is just a guy that enjoys the natural concept character in comic books, and has written out a guide for others who also happen to like such comic characters. I see nothing more than that. I have no idea how, or why, people got offended by that.

For the record, my Earth/FF Controller is of natural origin. How can this be, you ask? First, he was made for fun. Second, I simply described it to come across as a "natural" ability that maybe ALL humans posses, that he simply discovered during extreme stress.

I realize that my Controller doesn't fit the natural concept in any way. Nor would I try to argue that it does. Given that, however, at no point did I feel that Enantiodromos was insulting me, calling my character's concept "weak", or anything else he's since been accused of.

I guess it just irks me a bit that an entire guide is being thrown down over a debate on what "natural concept/origin" means, when it was VERY CLEARLY stated in the guide what Enantiodromos meant. I mean, the minute I began reading it, I knew what he was going for. I knew what kind of character he was talking about. It wasn't hidden.

As I tend to be more of a concept player myself, I thought the guide was great, and a good way of seeing how we can fit certain sets in CoH/V into a concept we may not at first think about. Concept is not, and never was, defined by the "origins" of characters in CoH/V. Which is why I can have an Earth/FF Natural Controller without batting an eye. Enantiodromos was, quite obviously, discussing natural human characters. Humans who pushed themselves to the limit of their respective ability. How Superman and Khelds got into this, I don't know.

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I guess it depends on what you're playing. I got to 40th with my stalker, solo'ing missions against Longbow in Warburg. I thought they were pretty damn easy even on the 4th diff setting. Longbow is easy because...

- No caltrops
- No debuffing powers
- No pet summoning
- No particular resistances to anything
- No healing other than some bosses
- No holds, imob, or sleep other than the rare stun or web gernade
- No phase shifting or teleporting
- No self rez'ing

Hmm, maybe I'm missing something, but I think they're the easiest fraction in the game at all levels. Arachnos are way more dangerous, especially the Crab Tankers that have Lethal Resistance. You can AS them with your claws, but that just seems to make them mad.

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This is my experience as well. I had no idea that Longbow were "overpowered". I've taken them out, solo and in groups, with my Corruptor and MM.

Actually, I always considered them the easy group, like the Council over in CoH. Whenever I'm not in the mood for a big challenge like, say, CoT, I pick a mission that should go smoothly, like Longbow.