PoliceWoman

7/27/2010

Friday

Almost joined a Citadel TF, but we had 9 players due to a mixup on whether one person was definitely coming or not, so I volunteered to sit out.

I joined a Statesman TF instead, playing Spacegirl (50 mind/rad controller). In the final mission, I think I managed to stack enough confuse on Captain Mako to get him on our side for part of the fight. Facing Lord Recluse, we killed the yellow tower first, but repairmen rebuilt it right after we moved to the red tower, so we had to kill the yellow tower again. Finished in 45m 32s with no deaths (though we had not actually set the "Master of" settings, so no badge). I got a Golgi SHO.

After that I played Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) on a speed ITF, finishing in 24m 31s.


Saturday

I dragged Rain Dancer (50 storm/archery defender) out of mothballs (hadn't logged her in for most of a year) and worked on a respec for her. Previously she was slotted heavily for global recharge bonuses (to make Freezing Rain and Lightning Storm come up as often as possible), but I decided to switch to maximizing range defense instead. This is what I ended up with:


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Rain Dancer I17 respec: Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Secondary Power Set: Archery
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Power Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: O2 Boost -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(3), Numna-Heal/Rchg(3), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Numna-Heal(5), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(7)
Level 1: Snap Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 2: Aimed Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 4: Fistful of Arrows -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(19), Posi-Dmg/Rng(19), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), RechRdx-I(21)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 8: Freezing Rain -- RechRdx-I(A), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg(23), UndDef-Rchg(23)
Level 10: Blazing Arrow -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Steamy Mist -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(29), LkGmblr-Rchg+(31), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(31), S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(31), S'fstPrt-ResKB(33)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(33), P'Shift-End%(33), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(50)
Level 22: Hurricane -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(34), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(34), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(34), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(36)
Level 24: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 26: Tornado -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(36), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(36), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(37), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(37)
Level 28: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(48)
Level 30: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(43), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(43), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(46), GSFC-Build%(46)
Level 32: Lightning Storm -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 35: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 38: Rain of Arrows -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(42), Posi-Dmg/Rng(42), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Temp Invulnerability -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(45), TtmC'tng-ResDam(45)
Level 47: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 4: Ninja Run


This puts her at 44.5% range DEF, which I figure is close enough; I've had friends say they can't tell the difference between 44.5% and 45% defense. Despite not having Fly or Hover, I decided to ignore melee defense since I figure Hurricane can keep things from getting too close. Haven't tested this build out much yet, still need to do that.


San Min (45 MA/will scrapper) exemped down to a 7 player team doing Frostfire at level 11. We had an exemped down kin on the team also, so I got to have fun skating around with Speed Boost on ice. We ended up doing the Frostfire mission twice, for two different team members who had the mission (one had joined too late to get credit for auto-completing it). I got complimented on her costume, her background story (which I actually had thought was too short), and also had one teammate say "with San around, we could do anything!" which was cool. I got a Miracle (HEAL) recipe drop from the end of one of the missions.

After finishing the two Frostfire missions, some people switched which character they were playing and we ended up doing some level 45 missions in Peregrine Island, doing parts of Tina MacIntyre's story arc and beating an Infernal AV at the start of Maria Jenkins' arc.

I also played San Min on a Sisterhood SG event where we ran Sister Psyche TF (which inevitably got described as "hot Sister on Sister action"). Our 6 player team (which was mostly the same people as were on my previous Frostfire and PI teams) finished the TF in 1h 42m. All this got San Min to level 47.


Sunday

While marketeering at Wentworth's, I hit the infl cap again and emailed myself another 200M infl in dividends. I last hit the infl cap 7 days ago, so that's 200M inf in 7 days (slightly longer than last time, which was 4 days).

Spent most of the afternoon on the Rikti War Zone raids. I played Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) for one run (gaining 393 Vanguard merits), then Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) for the second run (gaining 492 Vanguard merits). Star Amethyst's dark powers seemed especially helpful, considering Shadow Fall helps against most of the Rikti damage types, and the AoE rez being very good in a raid situation. I ended up spending 500 Vanguard merits from each character to buy the "Vanguard Storage Sack" (+10 salvage capacity). Carrying capacity for salvage seems nice.

Finished the night playing Fire Maiden (23 SS/fire brute) on a 4-player team doing paper missions and a Brickstown mayhem, which got her to level 25.


Monday

Started off playing Fire Maiden (25 SS/fire brute) on a 4-player pickup team; did another Brickstown mayhem that got her to 26.

After that team broke up, I accepted an invite to another pickup team. This went poorly as the team leader was on +2 difficulty but our team could not actually handle this difficulty level. We had 3 brutes and 1 kin; the other two brutes were more squishy than me (and I'm a fire armor brute), and the kin, while good at keeping SB on us, was lackeyed up from DO level so could not actually hit anything with Transfusion to heal us. After two semi-team wipes against +2 Crey (everyone died but me; I survived by eating Lucks and strategically running away) the team kind of got discouraged and fell apart.

One of the other brutes and the kin offered to invite me to a new team, but I ended up switching to Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) and joining a speed ITF instead, which we finished in 27m 18s.

Added: Standing Within the Mists (#209473) V1-54, but author suggests V16-40
You plot a poison gas attack in order to steal a mystical artifact.

Source: AE search set to "Rating = 4 stars, Length = M/L/VL, not voted, my level (23)".

7/22/2010

On Monday night, I played Fire Maiden (22 SS/fire brute), duoing some missions in Grandville with a 43 fortunata, completing a Founders Falls mayhem, and getting to level 23.


Tuesday night, I played San Min (44 MA/will scrapper) on a Katie TF, finishing with no problems in 24m 50s and getting to level 45.

After that I did an Imperious TF on Shield Maiden (50 mace/shield brute), finishing in 30m 18s. I also had a random passerby compliment me on Shield Maiden's costume.


Wednesday night, I played Blond Justice (50 broadsword/shield scrapper), joining a force of 2 teams battling Lusca in Independence Port. I got teased on Blond Justice's blondness, but it was all in good fun. We beat up the squid, though his tentacles took a heavy toll on the other toons near me. However, with Blond Justice's soft capped DEF, I was largely untouched.

I was asked to play an empath for a Statesman TF, so I brought on Mystery Girl (49 emp/pistols defender). The team leader thought that empathy/pistols sounded like a fun combo (and it is). We had some stray deaths in the early missions (I think this was partly me being too slow to react, and partly squishies being reckless) and one scrapper who was kind of a slacker, often lagging behind us by a spawn or two, to the point where other team members were commenting on his inattentiveness (not their exact words ). In the final mission we fought all 4 patrons at once and this time I made sure to CM the tank heavily before even starting the fight; then I followed the tanker while he was keeping Lord Recluse busy. There was a slight difference of opinion on the order to take down the towers; the team leader called for the red tower to be attacked first (which is what the team did), but the invuln tanker thought yellow tower should go down first (to leverage his defense). Nevertheless we beat the encounter, completing the STF in 1h 3m. I got a Cytoskeleton HO and Mystery Girl hit level 50. Despite having rolled up a lot of empathy toons over the years (at least 5 that I can think of), Mystery Girl is my first empath to reach 50. I have several stalled in the mid 40s for some reason; I kinda think level 50 teams don't ask for empathy as often as rad, kin and other debuffs.

Finished the night playing Mayday (50 fortunata) on a Lady Grey TF. This team ended up with 3 fortunatas, as one team member was trying to convince us all that fortunatas are the best AT to play on Lady Grey TF, between the VEAT team buffs, the holds for the green mitos, and psychic damage to penetrate the Honoree's Unstoppable. There might be something to that, really. In any case we finished LGTF in 30m 2s, which seemed like a good time.

7/19/2010

Thursday

Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) joined a Lady Grey TF. I found that Energize (the new elec armor heal) works even when heal debuffed by Hamidon. We did have 1 team wipe while fighting the green mitos (we had killed 3 already and were pushing our luck I guess), but otherwise did fine. Finished in 41m 50s.

Fire Maiden (21 SS/fire brute) solo'd through The Horrors of Innswich, an AE arc that was a well-written Cthulhu mythos pastiche. I gave it 5 stars.


Friday

Fire Maiden solo'd through a couple more AE arcs; Glory Days, which was a good story but didn't really give the player much of a role to play (you're basically re-living the past adventures of a retired hero). I gave it 4 stars. Then I re-played Unfair Trade since the author had made some changes; this was about doing a favor for a prison buddy and I thought it started off strong but the ending didn't do much for me. I also gave that 4 stars.

A friend asked me if I had extra Kinetic Combats on red side, and I gave him 4 of them for 180M infamy; this was only about half the Black Market price, but I had told him whatever he could pay was fine since I didn't really need to make a profit selling to friends.

Yuki-Onna (50 ice/cold corruptor) did a Recluse SF in 38m 46s and got a Peroxisome. We all noticed load times seemed unusually slow.


Saturday

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) joined a Manticore TF; I didn't really need the badge, was just in the mood to team. My game crashed on the last mission, requiring me to reboot my computer. I came back to find the team had waited for me before completing the TF, which was really nice. Finished in 1h exactly.

Fire Maiden (now a 22 SS/fire brute) solo'd through Behind the Smiling Spark of Madness, which is about how pop music was leading people into some kind of nihilistic cult. This was actually kind of disturbing, but was a good story and well-written. I gave it 5 stars.


Sunday

I've started using the in-game mail system to mail influence to myself whenever Police Woman (my main character and main marketeer) hits the influence cap. I hit the influence cap selling stuff at Wentworth's again; looking at the timestamps on my in-game email, I last hit the influence cap on 7/14 when I emailed myself 200M influence. So it took 4 days (from 7/14 to 7/18) for me to make 200M influence on the market. I'm sure serious marketeers can do a lot better than this, but this seemed pretty good to me.

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) joined a Moonfire TF of mostly SisterhoodAndFriends, finishing in 1h 12m. I got 2 compliments on her background story from teammates.

Later that night, Mystery Girl (49 emp/pistols defender) joined a Sisterhood team for some Malta missions and battled the Kronos Titan. This team was moderately suicidal, with blasters running off on their own and pulling with Inferno and stuff; someone said they were "keeping me busy" to which I said "it's more fun for an empath when people are taking damage", which probably only encouraged their craziness. I wasn't always able to keep everyone alive, but I had Vengeance/Resurrect, so it worked out OK and was pretty fun overall. I had picked up Power Build Up at 49 and was experimenting with PBU'ing Fortitude/Clear Mind/Adrenaline Boost on blasters; seemed to work nicely.

Added: Behind The Smiling Spark of Madness (#255144) H20-54
Investigating strange pop music related deaths leads you to battle a nihilistic cult.

Source: default MA search, page 5.

Added: Silver Aged (#280017) H30-54
The archenemy of a retired hero escapes prison and menaces the city. Lighthearted adventure.

Source: MA search tool set to Rating = "4 stars" && Length = "Medium/Long/Very Long"

Added: The Horrors of Innswich (#403608) H25
A mysterious letter leads you to an accursed New England town. Cthulhu mythos homage. Challenging.

Source: The Horrors of Innswich forum thread

7/15/2010

Thu 7/8

Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) did a Sharkhead SF in 26m 37s.

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) participated in the Help Zebidiah the Zombie Hunter dev-sponsored event. I ended up leading the 4th team to form for this event, which was 2 tankers and 6 damage (no support at all). The event on hero side comprised of finding Zebidiah (an energy blaster) in Dark Astoria and following him around looking for his lost love, Allison, who had been kidnapped by zombies. Considering Zebidiah said Allison had been missing for several days, I was pretty sure she was dead (or undead) by now, but thought it would be undiplomatic to say so. Despite his reputation as a Zombie Hunter, Zebidiah did not seem to really have much of a plan for recovering his girlfriend, except for wandering around Dark Astoria hoping to find her. While following him around we got attacked by waves and waves of zombies; mostly the zombie apocalypse mobs, but eventually escalating to multiple Adamastor monsters attacking at once. I was rather paranoid that Zebidiah would get killed by monsters, so I stuck close to him, using Aid Other whenever he seemed low on life. Other players ranged ahead of the pack, intercepting zombies along our path of travel, but they were spawning all around us, so we all got a lot of zombies. At one point, multiple Adamastors doing Foot Stomp at the same time managed to kill Zebidiah (and also me). I totally thought this would either end the event or spawn an even nastier monster from his corpse, but I managed to Awaken and Resuscitate Zebidiah before anything untoward happened. Eventually we tracked down Allison and they had a happy (sort of) reunion. I wouldn't say it was great storytelling, but it WAS a fun event and helped draw the server community together. So, I thought it was terrific and I hope they do more. I also got a Steadfast Protection (KB protection) recipe as a drop from a random zombie, which was very lucky.

Fire Maiden (12 SS/fire brute) solo'd An Internship in the Fine Art of Revenge, a dev choice AE story arc about helping a novice villain get revenge on the hero that killed her dad. I thought it was quite well written and fun, and gave it 5 stars. This got Fire Maiden to level 13. I went on to solo the Plague Carrier mission.

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) joined an 8-player Rule of Three (Positron 1) TF. We mostly did fine, though we did suffer a team wipe during the big CoT ambush in the final mission. After recovering, we cleared the ambush, but this didn't seem to advance the mission objectives. Clearing an extra group of CoT under the Atlas statue seemed to do the trick, though. Finished in 1h 5m.

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) did a Statesman TF with a team of veteran players. Finished in 43m 38s. I think we only had one death, which was self-inflicted in order to get Vengeance. I got a Membrane HO.


Fri 7/9

I started having computer problems; it seemed to work fine in Windows, but entering City of Heroes or Everquest 2 would cause the screen to freeze up, drawing random static and locking up the computer. I'm not a hardware expert, but I guessed this meant my graphics card had died. So I ended up replacing my old graphics card, a GeForce 8600 GT (256 MB video memory) with a GeForce 9800 GT (1 GB video memory). This is a much better graphics card than I had, and was a lot less expensive than I thought it would be; I paid $110 and the store told me there is a $35 mail-in rebate, so effectively $80. I had a couple scary moments when trying to install the graphics card; at first, I couldn't get the old video card out. It took me awhile to find the screw that was holding it in; then took me even longer to realize the 9800 GT required plugging in a lot more power connections than the 8600 GT card (did I mention I'm not a hardware expert?). I eventually got it working, though, and it solved my computer problems. I can run Ultra Mode on higher settings now, too, and with better frame rate. It took me a couple hours to do this, but the end result seemed pretty good.

After getting this working, I played CoH some. Fire Maiden (13 SS/fire brute) joined an ill-fated pickup team; they were in the process of a wipeout when I arrived at the first mission, and then we had another team wipe against Wyvern.

Later I played Shield Maiden (50 mace/shield brute) on a quick Sharkhead SF (26m 13s) and 1st villain respec (10m 58s).

Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) joined a 5-player Silver Mantis SF where we tried to stealth or speed everything we could; this went pretty well and we finished in 42m 32s. Millie also picked up an Armageddon (DMG) recipe from the Black Market for only 75M infamy, which I thought was a good deal.

Primadonna (50 sonic/kin corr) did an ITF in 32m 19s.

Linda Lightspeed (29 rad/kin corr) joined a pickup villain team that started on the Darrin Wade story arc, then did the arc that unlocked the Midnight Club, then finally moved to St Martial for some paper missions, a Talos mayhem mission and the Bad Luck badge mission. This all got Linda to level 31.


Sat 7/10

Arrow Girl (33 archery/nrg blaster) did a Moonfire TF. Lots of people had connection issues during this TF, but we pressed on. We failed the Dr. Todd mission when the team got split up and the NPC got killed by an ambush. In the final mission the team got split up again, and we had a team wipe as a result; then the tanker ran ahead of the team and attacked Arakhn all by himself, but got killed by the AV. This resulted in some recriminations and drama between team members, though I managed to avoid getting caught up in that. Once the team was together we did manage to take down Arakhn and complete the TF in 1h 38m.

Spacegirl (50 mind/rad controller) joined a team that killed Black Swan for the Praetorian badge credit. This still wasn't the AV she was missing, so she's still 12/13 on Dimensional Warder. But it rules Black Swan out, at least.

I worked out an extensive respec for Primadonna (50 sonic/kin corruptor) who has needed one for some time; her original build was intended to be effective on Cap au Diable SFs, which I used to do frequently when you got a random recipe instead of merits. So this meant she had a lot of level 23 set IOs; good on a level 20 TF, not so good on level 50 TFs. After I worked out this respec, however, I realized that I couldn't actually do the respec, because I had never bothered to unlock any of the Patron story arcs, and my proposed respec needed 2 powers from Black Scorpion's patron pool.

So I ended up starting to solo Ghost Widow's patron arc; before long a few people joined me and I was leading a 5 player team through the arc. My game crashed right before the final mission against Numina, and the team kinda fell apart while I was disconnected, so I ended up trying to solo Numina. She was a little scary (even as an EB) and had a ton of ambushes, but I managed to beat her, with some heavy inspiration use. This got me 10 reward merits and a respec. This let me respec to the build I had designed, which is as follows:

Primadonna I17 respec

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Primadonna: Level 50 Mutation Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Sonic Attacks
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Shriek -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 1: Transfusion -- Nictus-Acc/Heal(A), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(7), RgnTis-Heal/Rchg(9), RgnTis-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Nictus-Heal/HP/Regen/Rchg(11), RgnTis-Regen+(11)
Level 2: Scream -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 4: Howl -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(37), Posi-Dmg/Rng(39), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Posi-Dam%(39)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 8: Super Speed -- Clrty-EndRdx(A), Clrty-RunSpd(17), Clrty-Stlth(43)
Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Increase Density -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 18: Sirens Song -- LgcRps-Acc/Rchg(A), LgcRps-Acc/EndRdx(19), LgcRps-Sleep/Rng(29), LgcRps-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(34)
Level 20: Speed Boost -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(25), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(29)
Level 22: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(23), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(36)
Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 26: Screech -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(27), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(27), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(31), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(31), Stpfy-KB%(31)
Level 28: Inertial Reduction -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 30: Kick -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(40), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(42), KntkC'bat-Knock%(43)
Level 32: Dreadful Wail -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Oblit-%Dam(34)
Level 35: Transference -- P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(36), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(40), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(42), LkGmblr-Rchg+(42), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 44: Web Envelope -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(45), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(45), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(45), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(46), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(46)
Level 47: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(48), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(48), RctvArm-ResDam(48)
Level 49: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(50), LkGmblr-Def(50), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(21), KntkC'bat-Knock%(23)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge
Level 4: Ninja Run


I felt really goofy about 4-slotting Brawl and Kick, but it's just for the Kinetic Combat bonuses. This build is heavily focused on smash/lethal defense, which is 48.5% ... 3.5% over the cap, admittedly overkill. I didn't bother trying to adjust the build down to exactly 45% defense, partly out of laziness, partly because that extra 3.5% will help a little against defense debuffs, which Primadonna doesn't resist at all. For most squishies I focus on ranged DEF rather than typed DEF, because it's easier to get good ranged DEF bonuses, but I went with smash/lethal DEF for Primadonna because I figure kinetics toons often need to be in melee range.

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) joined an Abandoned Sewer Trial with a team of 7 scrappers, 1 rad; we pre-arranged that we would split up into 4 sub-teams of 2 each for the shield generators, and that helped us speed the trial along, finishing in 23m 44s.

San Min (43 MA/will scrapper) joined a late night Sara Moore TF. This was actually a really bad idea for me; I said I'd help around 2am, but it took til 2:30am for the team to fill up and get started, and it lasted well into the early morning. I was kinda sleepwalking through the missions by the end. We had a team wipe against Rularuu, and I made an ill-fated attempt to try and stealth the final mission in the dreadful fog-filled cave, but got stomped and had to get TP'd back to awaken. So we had to clear the mission. We finally finished after 3h 7m (putting it a little past 5:30am my time). Not the fault of the team, I just shouldn't have joined a shard TF starting so late at night.


Sun 7/11

Managed to buy a level 50 Blessing of the Zephyr (KB protection) for 45M on red side, which seemed like a good deal.

Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) joined a pickup 1st villain respec; though this was "non-speed", we still finished in a pretty quick 24m 50s.

I joined a pickup ITF where I was asked to bring a tanker, so I played Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker). The team leader disconnected during mission 2, and the new leader was sidekicked up from 36 which bizarrely made our team level 49 for the rest of the TF (weird logic!), increasing the difficulty by +1. In mission 3, I ended up pulling generals to the bridge to reduce lag and risk, and got complimented on my pulling. I also ended up pulling the AVs down to the Phalanx Computer, which I think may have surprised my team (this is more of a speed TF move, admittedly); we ended up killing the AVs before the computer, which is kind of different, but actually worked well. Finished in 1h 7m; picked up a Prophecy and a Hamidon Goo as drops.

After that Primadonna (50 sonic/kin corruptor) did a speed ITF in 27m 23s and an LGTF in 34m 41s.

Fire Maiden (13 SS/fire brute) solo'd through A Penny For Your Thoughts, a Dev Choice AE arc where you help Penelope Yin save the life of the Clockwork King. This was rather surreal with some dream sequence missions, but was well-written and actually pretty cool. I gave it 5 stars. This got Fire Maiden to level 14. After that I joined a 3 player pickup team that did a Skyway mayhem.


Mon 7/12

Arrow Girl (34 archery/nrg blaster) joined a 5 player Sisterhood team. Our initial lineup had everyone but me as support, which meant I was running around with 2 Fortitudes, Speed Boost, Accelerate Metabolism and an occasional Adrenaline Boost. With all these buffs I was essentially in god-mode and ran around tank-maging everything with nonstop Rains of Arrows. We saved some lawyers from being turned to fungus, had a crazy fight against Crey, and fought a bunch of Nemesis. A teammate claimed that PB AOE attacks completely ignore the stacked defense from Nemesis Vengeance, so could be used to take out Nemesis reliably, but I had none of these on Arrow Girl so could not verify this. This was a fun team that got Arrow Girl to level 36.


Tue 7/13

After knocking out the last part of the arc to unlock the Midnight Club, Arrow Girl went into Cimerora and joined a pickup ITF. Our team was a little on the squishy side; we had a team wipe (all except the ice tanker) against the Phalanx computer in mission 3, then I got clobbered twice by ambushes while entering the final mission, then we had more stray deaths from ambushes while fighting our way to Romulus. Nevertheless we were able to beat Romulus and finish the ITF in 1h 32m, getting Arrow Girl to level 37.

I was asked to play a healer for an STF, so played Mystery Girl (48 emp/pistols defender). We did fine til the last mission, where we had a rough fight against the patron AVs; our strategy was to just jump the 4 of them, but we had a lot of loose aggro and so everyone started taking damage at once while the tanker got held by Ghost Widow and was yelling for me to CM him. Had a few deaths here (especially when Scirocco set off his nuke) but I managed to keep the tank alive and got enough CM on him to break the hold, then we wore down the 4 patron AVs. In the final fight against Lord Recluse, the tanker pulled LR to the doors of the tower, where I hung out nearby non-stop healing and buffing him. He was a shield tanker, and being defense based I was worried about the possibility of a lucky shot getting through to him, but he seemed to have enough HP to soak the hits long enough for a heal to land. I did notice he managed to use Eye of the Magus twice in the same fight, which I thought was remarkable; his recharge was buffed very high due to SB and AB. Finished STF in 57m 4s, got a Peroxisome and Mystery Girl to 49.

After that I played Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) on a quick ITF (26m 42s) and a LGTF (30m 3s). We had a corruptor disconnect during mission 3 of the LGTF and never return, so we finished it with 7. We had no controllers or dominators, but managed to beat Hamidon with only defender and fortunata holds. I also found that Hamidon's goo interrupts Recall Friend (when I tried to TP a dead teammate close to a mito in order to Howling Twilight him), which is probably not new but something I never noticed before.

Finished the night soloing Fire Maiden (14 SS/fire brute) through The Lazarus Project, a lowbie MA arc where I foiled a sinister Vahzilok plot. This was quite well written with lots of detail; I gave it 5 stars. This got Fire Maiden to level 15.


Wed 7/14

I played Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) on a Master of LGTF attempt. We were scrapper heavy, had no controllers or dominators, but decided we would rely on my 2 holds, Petrifying Gaze from a dark corruptor, and some epic pool holds from the scrappers. One of the scrappers managed to die against Hamidon while attacking a green mito, which he seemed to feel really bad about (he had expressed doubts about his Super Reflexes being enough to stay alive). The team leader thought maybe he got too close to Hamidon; I think maybe he should've broken and run a little earlier (on MoLGTF I now run away at the first sign I am taking damage, because of the DOT damage and the healing debuff). We finished the rest of the LGTF anyhow, completing it in 1h 4m.

Fire Maiden (15 SS/fire brute) joined an 8-player pickup team doing level 33ish missions in St Martial, including a Talos mayhem. As a lackey, this was quite good exp (though I tried to play the aggressive brute role to make sure I earned my keep) and got her to level 21. The SS/fire powers were really hitting my END bar hard, so it was a big relief to get Stamina at 20.

Added: The Lazarus Project (#124906) H5-20
Investigating missing newbie heroes leads to a sinister Vahzilok plot.

Source: Low Level AE Missions or Arc Suggestions

Added: A Penny For Your Thoughts (#348691) H20-20
Penelope Yin asks you to save the life of her friend: the Clockwork King. Surreal.

Source: default AE search, looking for level-appropriate arcs for my level 13 brute.


Some other minor tweaks:
* Upon review, I decided to reclassify The Butterfly Effect and its sequel The Return of the Lizard People as Villainous, rather than Heroic Science; partly based on Dr. Aeon being the contact, partly based on the presentation of the initial briefing (roughly "Hey, let's mess with the entire timeline of another dimension just to see what would happen").
* Re-did several contact snapshots. In particular changed all villain contacts to use the red background used on villain side, and updated the contact to be the contact of the arc with lowest arc ID in each category (which had changed for some categories).

Added: An Internship in the Fine Art of Revenge (#255146) V5-30
Mentor a novice villain and help her get revenge on the hero who killed her dad.

Source: page 1 of default AE search.

This was great fun! I'm glad Zebidiah and Allison had a happy ending. Sort of.

Please do more events like this.

7/8/2010

Tue 6/29

A friend asked me to kin for an ITF, warning me it was a weak team; I played Primadonna (50 son/kin corr). Our team mix was a little underpowered (not much debuff) and we ended up using zerg tactics against Romulus, several of us running back from the hospital to jump back in the fight. Despite this we were able to beat the encounter and finished the TF in 1h 4m.


Wed 6/30

Blond Justice (50 bs/shield scrapper) solo'd through Tales of Cimerora: Of Feathers and Fur, an AE story arc where Daedalus sends you to fight various mythical monsters. The story didn't initially grab me, but the custom mobs were very nice looking (albeit had a bit too much stacking debuff). I gave it 4 stars.

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) joined a Master of the LGTF attempt. On our first try, during the first mission a peacebringer attempting to stealth to Penelope Yin got held and killed. We restarted, then sent just 2 scrappers to deliberately fail the first mission by getting Penelope Yin killed. We cleared our way through the second mission with the Riders, then deliberately failed the third mission. In the fourth mission, against Hamidon, one of the controllers was assigned to target mitos and everyone was to assist through him. Unfortunately, our targeter was unclear on what we were doing, and ended up swapping between 3 different mitos, reasoning he could hold 3 mobs at a time. With no single target to focus on, we didn't kill any mitos before the controller quickly caught aggro and died, failing the Master Of attempt. We decided to continue on, though we switched who we were targeting through. We beat up Hamidon and the Honoree and completed the LGTF in 1h 8m.


Thu 7/1

I joined an 8-player Numina TF; the team leader asked for a tanker, so I brought Strong Woman (50 inv/ss tanker). I was a bit dubious about the necessity of a tank for Numina TF, though the team leader said we didn't need a tank, it would just help. The team was mostly blasters who needed someone to set the pace and soak alpha strikes, so this actually made sense. We finished Numina in 1h 15m; I got a Positron's Blast (DMG/RCHG) recipe as a drop.

During the Numina TF someone was advertising that they'd like to sell an Apocalypse (DMG) IO for 100M inf; this seemed like a good deal, so I immediately emailed him 100M inf, and he emailed me the IO right back. Email attachments are really convenient; I never had to leave the team or meet up with the seller.


Fri 7/2

Strong Woman joined a 6 player team doing Praetorian AV missions in Peregrine Island. We defeated Shadow Hunter, Nightstar, Siege, Bobcat, Neuron, Battle Maiden, Black Swan, Malaise, Mother Mayhem (her psi damage really hurt, owww!), Diabolique (long fight, she kept PFFing and running), Infernal, Dominatrix, Marauder and Statesman. Defeating Marauder got me the Dimensional Warder and Portal Jockey (+94 max HP, +5 max END) badges, and defeating Statesman got me Statesman's Pal. I got a Blessing of the Zephyr (travel) recipe drop along the way.

San Min (42 MA/will scrapper) solo'd through Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine, an AE story arc where you're testing an old training simulation and you encounter a heroine who has been trapped in the computer system for years. I wsa dubious about this arc at first, but it grew on me after the first couple missions; it was well-written and had a poignant ending. I gave it 5 stars. The author seemed very grateful for the feedback I left him; I caught some typos that had been there for over a year, despite the arc having over a thousand plays and a Dev Choice tag.

I had a big pile of tickets and made 43 bronze rolls side in the 30-34 range at 70 tickets a pop, using a level 33 hero to get level 33ish recipes. I'm not going to list all 43, but the best of this pile were:

Devastation (ACC/DMG) worth 14M infl
Eradication (ACC/RCHG) 1M infl
Luck of the Gambler (DEF) 30M infl
Steadfast Protection (KB protect) 3M
Crushing Impact (ACC/DMG/RCHG) 1.1M
Reactive Armor (RES/END) 1.1M
Reactive Armor (RES) 1M

That's an average yield of 17K infl/ticket, which is really pretty good. By comparison, buying a rare salvage for 540 tickets and selling it for 3M infl (another good way to spend tickets) is only 5.6K infl/ticket. I used to dislike Bronze recipe rolls because you got so much junk, but I'm starting to believe that they're the way to go.

I joined a Sharkhead SF; the team leader wanted brutes, so I played Mega (50 SS/will brute). She loses a lot of set bonuses exemped down to 30, but still did fine. Finished Sharkhead SF in 26m 29s, then went on to do a 1st villain respec in 12m 11s and a 6-player ITF in 29m 21s.


Sat 7/3

Arrow Girl (32 archery/nrg blaster) joined an 8-player Sister Psyche TF that took 1h 10m, which got her to level 33. I burned her 360 reward merits on 18 recipe rolls, getting:

Expedient Reinforcement (END/DMG/RCHG) 2M infl
2 Numina's Convalescence (HEAL/RCHG) 32M infl each
Stupefy (chance of knockback) 333K
Force Feedback (RCHG/END) 2M
Edict of the Master (5% def) 151K
Touch of Death (DMG/END/RCHG) 1.5M
Luck of the Gambler (DEF/END/RCHG) 10M
Kinetic Combat (DMG/END/RCHG) 66M
2 Mako's Bite (chance of lethal) 209K each
Malaise's Illusions (chance of psi) 300K
Blessing of the Zephyr (KB protect) 50M
Ghost Widow's Embrace (chance of psi) worthless
2 Scirocco's Dervish (DMG/ACC/END) 6M each
Devastation (DMG/RCHG) 2M
Pacing of the Turtle (chance of slow) 1M

...for an average yield of 588K infl/reward merit, which is an exceptionally good result (I normally average around 250K/merit). By comparison, buying a Luck of the Gambler (DEF/+7.5% rchg) for 200 merits and selling it for 200M infl gives a yield of 1M infl/reward merit. So probably I should be doing that, but truthfully gambling on random rolls is kinda fun, too.

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) did an ITF in 26m 2s.

Spy Girl (29 MA/ninj stalker) did a 1st villain respec in 14m 28s.

Linda Lightspeed (27 rad/kin corr) joined a 6-player pickup team which did a Peregrine Island mayhem, then after that team broke up, joined an 8-player pickup team doing missions in Nerva, leading up to a Brickstown mayhem where we fought Swan, but couldn't beat her (the clock eventually ran out on us). This all got Linda to level 29.


Sun 7/4

I spent another 700 AE tickets on bronze rolls; best of the bunch were a Steadfast Protection (RES/+3% DEF) (very nice!) and a Crushing Impact (ACC/DMG/RCHG) (kinda okay).

San Min (42 MA/will scrapper) joined a pickup ITF. We were very light on support; basically had a stone tanker, one rad (who could not rez and rarely healed), and 6 assorted damage types. As a result we had trouble beating Romulus in the final mission; we made a few human wave attacks, running back from the hospital each time. One of my teammates noticed that people weren't all attacking the same thing; once we all focused on just killing Romulus, we started to make some headway, and eventually won the encounter. Finished ITF in 1h 18m and got San Min to 43.

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) joined an STF that was asking for a blaster; this team went smoothly and we finished in 49m 27s. I got a Nucleolus SHO.


Mon 7/5

Water Lily (27 rad/storm corr) joined a pickup villain team that did a Brickstown mayhem, getting her to level 28.

Spy Girl (29 MA/ninj stalker) joined a pickup villain team that got her to level 30.

Deianira (22 SS/SR brute) joined a pickup villain team that did the Dean MacArthur story arc, then the Leonard story arc. While doing the Leonard story arc I saw a brute in Sharkhead asking for help with Protean, so I suggested that the team leader invite her. This brute rubbed the leader the wrong way by asking if we would immediately do her mission (we were all still in the earlier part of the arc) and not really pulling her weight during fights, and there was some sniping in team chat between them, but I think we eventually set her straight. We eventually beat up Protean (allowing this other brute to auto-complete the mission) and finished the arc, getting Deianira to level 26. I think I got 5 merits from each arc.

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) joined a 6-player Dam Heroes TF (new Posi part 2). We had an unbalanced team, with 1 tanker, 5 damage and no support at all. Fortunately our tanker was pretty durable despite being exemped down to 16, and I made heavy use of Medicine Pool and my hospital day job powers (used the day job Revive power at least twice). We had one team wipe against the CoT where everyone died but me, and I escaped to Assemble the Team and use the day job rez. I thought we might have trouble against the AV at the end, but we actually did fine, finishing the TF in 1h 3m. I got the Dam Hero badge (badge #717 for Police Woman).


Tue 7/6

I spent another 770 tickets on 11 bronze recipe rolls; best of this batch were a Thunderstrike (ACC/DMG/RCHG) (1.5M) and a Miracle (END/HEAL) (750K).

I had been hankering to make another fire armor toon for some time, and finally rolled up a new SS/fire brute. I tried to get the name "Miss Molotov", which I had used for an earlier fire scrapper, but someone else had taken it; so I started a "Pyre Woman", but I didn't really like that name, and ended up getting to level 3, only to re-roll to "Fire Maiden", a name I like better. Fire Maiden managed to solo Kalinda's missions to get to level 5.


Wed 7/7

A friend who plays fire armor toons a lot saw me on Fire Maiden (5 SS/fire brute) and wanted me to team with his level 50 fire/fire brute. I warned him I was only level 5, but he still wanted to do it, and we did a couple paper missions, fighting Council, in Grandville. I didn't really want to be PLed, so I tried very hard to be helpful, attacking stuff fearlessly and pulling when nothing was around. I managed to get myself killed a few times doing this but it made me feel like I was participating. My partner actually was pretty serious about mentoring me as a fire armor brute, saying that a lot of people get discouraged with fire armor due to its squishiness, but that it could be powerful if built and played well, and he gave me some advice on power selection and tactics. We stopped after 2 missions, but just doing that got Fire Maiden to level 12. I also got an Armageddon (chance for fire damage) purple recipe (sickening to get this at level 5) and multiple rare salvage drops; my partner ruefully commented that lackeys always get the best drops.

After that I joined a pickup 6-player Sharkhead SF with Water Lily (28 rad/storm corruptor). We cleared most missions; we had a lot of disconnects (one MM lost connection and never came back) but managed to get through the SF just fine in 1h 30m. This got Water Lily to level 29.

Added: Turg Fiction: Ghost In The Machine, Act I (#1013) H50
While trying an old training simulation, you discover someone is trapped in the computer system.

Source: Pro Payne: From 1 to 50 in M.A.

6/28/2010

My RL has been crazy busy lately, so I haven't posted in awhile. I'll try to catch up a bit now.

Tue 6/15

Spy Girl (26 MA/ninj stalker) did a Silver Mantis SF on +2 difficulty on a 5-player team; took 1h 29m and got her to level 28.


Wed 6/16

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) did a clear-most ITF; due to the original leader disconnecting, we did missions 2 and 3 at +3 difficulty (the setting the new leader was on). Downgraded back to default difficulty for the final mission though. Finished in 1hr 1min.

Psychic Woman (15 mind/emp controller) did a Synapse TF on a full team. We did fine for most of it, but had trouble stealthing the Bertha and Long Tom missions (most of us didn't really have stealth, and just ran past mobs, sometimes dying). Our team leader also disconnected at one point and our new team leader was at +2 difficulty; our team was strong enough to handle this, though, so we left it like that. We were able to beat Babbage without any outside help and finished the TF in 2h 44m. This got Psychic Woman to level 20.


Thu 6/17

Though bargain shopping at Wentworth's, I finally assembled a set of 6 Armageddon IOs, which I slotted in Thunder Girl's Lightning Rod power. I ended up overwriting the set of 4 Eradication IOs that I previously had in that power (it just didn't feel worth using a respec to recover them). This has the net effect of -2.25% max HP, -1.5% range DEF (but still soft capped; she was over the soft cap by a bit), +10% global recharge (now +97.5% total global recharge).

Linda Lightspeed (15 rad/kin corr) joined an 8-player pickup Cap SF. We had 2 team wipes against Attack Leader Zurabsal and his mob of CoT, mostly due to poor tactics (2 tries where some of us rushed them while some wanted to pull). Switching to pulling a few mobs at a time from his group let us beat him. Otherwise went fine, finishing in 55m 15s and getting Linda to level 18.

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) did a Hess TF at +2 difficulty in 35m 12s.

Finished the night playing Olivia Q (50 MA/SR scrapper) solo for a bit; a passerby complimented me on her background story.


Fri 6/18

Arrow Girl (31 archery/nrg blaster) joined a Manticore TF, which we mostly stealthed, finishing in 47m 14s and getting to level 32, which let Arrow Girl get Rain of Arrows, the main reason to play archery characters.

Psychic Woman (20 mind/emp controller) joined a 6-player team of Demolition Girls SG, an all-knockback themed team, for some missions in Croatoa. All-knockback didn't seem to work that well from what I saw and we had 2 team wipes against Red Caps. This nevertheless got Psychic Woman to level 21. A bit later I joined a pickup team fighting +4 Banished Pantheon; defeating these was slow going but the team praised my healing abilities. This got Psychic Woman to level 22.

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) joined a Statesman TF where we did OK until we got to the Patron AVs, which we rushed and fought all 4 at once, but got wiped out due to too many people going linkdead at once. On our second try we still had trouble, our tank and scrappers died several times (not quite sure why on the tanks; the scrappers were sub-50 and a bit squishy) which left me kiting Black Scorpion and Captain Mako around for a bit. Despite all this we eventually overcame the patrons and LR himself, finishing in 1h 26m. I got a Nucleolus.


Sat 6/19

Playing Linda Lightspeed (18 rad/kin corr) I duo'd the Skyway mayhem and solo'd Seer Marino's story arc.

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) did a Faathim TF; our team was somewhat light on support (1 tanker, 1 empath, 6 damage) and suffered several team wipes as a result; one against just a big horde of Rularuu, one against Mother Mayhem, and two against Lanaruu at the end. On our third try against Lanaruu I loaded up a full tray of green inspirations in Ouroboros, then flew all the way back to Storm Palace, and used the Wedding Band temp power for extra resists. I ended up using all my greens and narrowly defeating him with myself at very low life. Finished the TF in 4h 30m.

Blond Justice (50 bs/shield scrapper) did a speed ITF in 26m 15s.

Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) did a Recluse SF. We did fine up til the end, where it took us two tries to take down the Freedom Phalanx (though we got Numina, Sister Psyche and Synapse in the first attempt). It seemed to us that the "stacked vengeance" trick (involving queueing Vengeance and TPing the victim) no longer worked. Still finished in 45m 55s. I got a Centriole.

Geared up a bit on IOs after that; Millie managed to pick up an Armageddon (DMG/RCHG) from the Black Market for 75M infamy, which was a steal. Slotted sets of 2 Armageddon (+4% recovery), 3 Performance Shifter (+28.11 max hp at level 50), and spent 200 reward merits on a Luck of the Gambler (DEF/+7.5% rchg), which I slotted with another LotG (DEF/RCHG) for +10% regen and +7.5% rchg.


Sun 6/19

Millie Volt solo'd the Paragon of Vice mission in flashback, getting the Marshal badge. I also spent some time in Warburg picking up a chem nuke.

Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker) joined a pickup ITF. I ended up with the star due to being level 50. The team was rather light on support; essentially 1 tanker, 1 dark, 6 damage. I had to kick one of our scrappers who was obviously slacking, having AFK'd through most of mission 1 (he did not even enter the mission until we were up with Sister Solaris) and all of mission 2 (where he entered the mission but left himself parked at the door). He didn't even notice I had kicked him until 5 minutes afterwards, then seemed very annoyed at me; we exchanged some nasty tells. He claimed both family issues and internet connectivity problems were to blame. The final fight against Romulus was pretty difficult with our team mix, and we had to back off and let the encounter reset once. One of the other scrappers took the initiative to pull the healy nictus away which let us wear down Romulus and kill him. Finally finished the ITF after 1h 41m.

Linda Lightspeed (19 rad/kin corr) joined an 8 player team for mostly newspaper missions and a Founders Falls mayhem; this got her to level 23.

TokyoRose (27 son/son corr) joined a 5 player pickup team that beat up Synapse, wiped to Mynx then beat her on the second try, then beat up Mynx 3 more times and Synapse once more. This got TokyoRose to level 28.

Spy Girl (28 MA/ninj stalker) joined a 3-player team running the Midnight Squad access arc; I got to stealth/TP the team around a lot to speed things up.

Shield Maiden (50 mace/shield brute) did a speed ITF in 28m 54s; a teammate complimented me on her costume.

Blond Justice (50 bs/shield scrapper) did a speed STF in 42m 55s; I got a Centriole.


Mon 6/20

Teal Serpent (31 archery/traps corr) joined a 5 player team fighting Malta; for some reason this just wasn't working well and we died a lot.


Tue 6/21

Mega (50 SS/will brute) got some nukes in Warburg; also got a 38 Numina (HEAL) recipe drop while there. I also solo'd the Soul Taker badge mission in flashback, earning 3 reward merits.

Linda Lightspeed (23 rad/kin corr) led an 8-player team for the new Dean Macarthur and Leonard story arcs, getting 5 merits for each. The game seemed kinda laggy to us and we had a team wipe fighting PPD. This got Linda to level 25.


Wed 6/22

I ended up doing a respec for Spacegirl (50 mind/rad controller). Her previous build focused on recharge; this one I tried to give her more range defense, and picked up Fallout, Total Domination and Mental Blast; I dropped Mass Hypnosis, Levitate and some pool power that I can't recall. Her new build is:

Spacegirl I17 respec

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Spacegirl I17 respec: Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Mind Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Mesmerize -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(7), Numna-Heal/Rchg(9), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Numna-Heal(11), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(11)
Level 2: Dominate -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 6: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 8: Confuse -- Mlais-Acc/Rchg(A), Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg(27), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf(43), Mlais-Acc/EndRdx(45), Mlais-Conf/Rng(46)
Level 10: Hover -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(19), Flight-I(21), LkGmblr-Rchg+(21)
Level 12: Radiation Infection -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(23), HO:Enzym(23)
Level 14: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(25), Zephyr-ResKB(25)
Level 16: Mutation -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(46)
Level 22: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 24: Lingering Radiation -- Acc-I(A)
Level 26: Terrify -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(31), Posi-Dmg/Rng(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 28: Total Domination -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(29), Lock-Rchg/Hold(29), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(34), Lock-%Hold(37)
Level 30: Telekinesis -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 32: Mass Confusion -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(34), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(34), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(36), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(36), CoPers-Conf%(36)
Level 35: Fallout -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(37), Posi-Dmg/Rng(40), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(39), Lock-Rchg/Hold(39), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(39), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(40), Lock-%Hold(40)
Level 41: Mental Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(42), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 44: Indomitable Will -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45)
Level 47: Psionic Tornado -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(50), Posi-Dam%(50)
Level 49: Mind Over Body -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), ResDam-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 4: Ninja Run



I played Schadenfreude (50 AR/pain corr) on a 4 player Ice Mistral SF. We had massive lag in the last mission; it seemed like destroying the pink psychic crystals helped reduce lag, though. My theory is that Ultra Mode must choke on these crystals; maybe they have subtle reflections in their facets or something. Finished in 54m 9s.

Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corr) did a speed ITF in 25m 40s.

Deianira (19 SS/SR brute) finished soloing Seer Marino's arc, getting 8 merits and level 20, then joined a 5 player Cap au Diable SF. We had 3 brutes, 1 stalker and a thermal MM. The MM didn't use his thermal powers much (I finally had to ask him for fire shields in the final mission, which is almost all fire damage) so we were rather light on support. The stalker couldn't quite stealth all the altars in the last mission, so we ended up clearing almost the entire map. Had one team wipe against Bat'Zul (I think because we were fighting him in an awkard location, partly in the lava), but beat him on the second try. Finished the SF in 1h 28m. This got Deianira to level 21.


Thu 6/23

Solo'd Deianira to level 22 doing paper missions.

Star Amethyst (50 dark/ice defender) did an ITF; we had weird lag and unusually long load times when entering missions, with a lot of people disconnecting or mapservering. Though nominally a speed ITF, these delays caused us to finish in 35m 13s.

Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corr) did a speed RSF in 32m 59s; similar lag issues. Got an Endoplasm.


Fri 6/24

Psychic Woman (22 mind/emp controller) joined a Sister Psyche TF. We had some trouble stealthing through missions; at one point half the team had been teleported into a fight while the other half of the TP was still in a fight near the mission door, resulting in some deaths. The emp defender on this TF did not seem to heal very much; I ended up doing nearly all the healing and buffing, and even had to heal the defender, who seemed to draw an unusually large amount of aggro. Finished the TF in 1h 48m and got to level 24.

While checking Wentworth's on Spacegirl, a passerby complimented me on her background story.

Spy Girl (28 MA/ninj stalker) joined a 4-player Sharkhead SF; finished in 37m 44s with no serious problems, and got to level 29. The same team went on to do a 1st villain respec in 12m 36s; for some reason it wouldn't let me take a respec (I guess I must've already done so previously) so I had to take the merits.


Sat 6/25

Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) responded to a call for help on LB, joining a pickup team to take down Jack in Irons and Eochai in Croatoa. We initially had no debuff to speak off and couldn't dent Jack, but one scrapper switched to a rad, after which the GMs became easy.

Linda Lightspeed (25 rad/kin corr) joined a 4 player pickup team that got her to level 26.

Strong Woman (50 inv/SS tanker) joined a level 50 team on hero side. We were initially fighting +2 Nemesis and beating them up handily, which caused the team leader to get a bit cocky and raise difficulty to +4 for the Dreck AV mission. Nearly everyone on our team was lethal or smashing damage (we had a lot of dual pistols, archery, swords) so it took quite a long time to fight our way through the +4 Freakshow, but we finally beat Dreck, after which I called it a night.


Sun 6/26

San Min (40 MA/will scrapper) joined a pickup ITF at +1 difficulty that cleared most missions. We had no tanker, but a storm defender was doing a credible imitation of tanking, which was pretty cool. We had a partial team wipe after killing the first Romulus in the last mission due to a lot of people getting hit by the stun when he rezzes, but managed to recover. Finished in 1h 32m and got to level 42.

Spacegirl (50 mind/rad controller) joined the Sisterhood Eden trial event on a 7 player team. After getting into the first mission, we found the leader was on +3 difficulty. By default the mobs start at level 41, but our leader (and thus our team) was only level 39; as a result, we were effectively on +5 difficulty. We decided to restart the trial on default difficulty; with a level 39 leader this was still effectively +2 difficulty. We had a pretty strong team and broke through the various walls easily, but suffered a team wipe against the Crystal Titan due to massive aggro from the surrounding mobs. On our second try we cleared most of the mobs surrounding the Crystal Titan before attacking him, and this let us beat up the Crystal Titan more easily. Of note, the leader actually furnished the whole team with several Ambrosia each (not sure from where; purchased or a base?) which was a big help. Finished the trial in 1h 14m.

Spacegirl went on to join a hero team that beat up Neuron and fought legions of Paragon Protectors on some alternate dimension, which gave her the Infiltrator badge. I got a Luck of the Gambler (DEF) recipe drop, and got 2 compliments from teammates on Spacegirl's costume and background story, which was nice.

Finished the night playing Yuki-Onna (50 ice/cold corr) on a speed ITF, which took 32m 19s. A teammate suddenly realized that Yuki means "snow" in Japanese, which for some reason was a very profound realization for him. I'm not quite sure what he thought the name meant before that.

Submitted for your consideration:

Teen Phalanx Forever! (#67335)
Your young sidekick joins a teen supergroup for adventures and fun.

6/15/2010

On Monday night, I was asked to kin for an ITF and played Darla Doppler (48 kin/sonic defender) for it. Our team was very heavy on buffers and for most of the TF I was at the cap for resist, defense and damage, which was pretty sick. Finished in 23m 20s and got to level 49. This team went on to do a LGTF in 35m 2s; it only had one controller and one fortunata on it, but that was enough to overcome the mez protection of the (recently patched) green mitos.

I asked around on this team whether people thought a kin defender, kin controller or kin corruptor was best for speed TF runs, since I have one of each (well, 2 corruptors) and have been waffling on which one I want to focus on. Everyone who expressed an opinion thought corruptors were best, mainly for the higher damage rating.

Finished the night soloing Kashira (31 dual blades/ninj stalker) through a couple MA story arcs; first The Do-it-Yourself Doom Army Project, an amusing arc where the local henchmen union helps you recruit a private army to take over the Rogue Isles. I gave it 5 stars. Then I did There Should Have Only Been One, a 1-mission story arc where your mission is to prevent the movie Highlander 2 from being filmed; I thought this was a hilarious idea, but the mission could use a little polishing. I gave it 4 stars.

Added: The Do-It-Yourself Doom Army Project (#410418) V25-54 (mostly)
An unconventional advisor helps you recruit a private army.

Source: MA search with settings "Rating = 5 stars" "Morality = Villainous" and "my level" (while on a level 31).

6/15/2010

Tuesday

Thunder Girl (50 elec/SR scrapper) joined a 4 player pickup team (kin, 2 scrappers, tanker) that battled and defeated Eochai and Jack-in-Irons. It took awhile but we managed to do it. I went on to do a speed ITF in 25m 39s.


Wednesday

I was only online very briefly, but while I was on, Police Woman (50 AR/dev blaster) helped kill Babbage in Skyway.


Thursday

Mystery Girl (47 emp/pistols defender) joined an 8-player Crimson Order SG team doing Praetorian missions in Peregrine Island. We beat up Chimera and Shadow Hunter while I was with the team, getting Mystery Girl to level 48.

Indigo Ifrit (50 fire/rad corruptor) joined a speed RSF. CoH crashed on me during the final fight with the Freedom Phalanx; when I logged back in, I was dead, but somehow still got credit for completing the RSF (I'm guessing because the team had not broken up yet). I got an Enzyme. A teammate told me the SF time was 28m 58s.

Police Woman joined a Master of the LGTF attempt with tanker, 2 blasters, fortunata, 2 defenders, 2 controllers. We cleared most missions and were pretty slow and careful overall. With the new patch, the green mitos die much easier now. The tanker had a near-death experience from DOTs during this mission, but survived. Finished the TF in 1hr 14m and got the Master of the Lady Grey TF badge (badge #716 for Police Woman).


Friday

Quick Katie (50 plant/kin controller) joined a MoLGTF attempt with a fire tanker, inv brute, 3 controllers (kin, rad, emp), fortunata, scrapper and blaster. We immediately had to restart due to not having the "Master" settings on the first try, then we had a controller die to pylon damage between missions 1 and 2, which caused us to restart a second time. On our third try we made it to the Hamidon mission, where a couple people managed to die to DOT damage from the mitos. We were far enough along that we decided to just finish the LGTF, completing it in 59m 21s.

I had a teammate on the MoLGTF compliment me on my Two Tickets to Westerly arc! That was a nice feeling. I also had two players send me tells praising the Contact Tree for MA Arcs thread that I've been maintaining; one because it gave her some good MA arcs to play, and the other one because it had gotten her story arc played by more people.

A friend had made a newbie empath defender, even though she already had one, just because she likes empaths. I mentioned to her that I had made a newbie empath controller, and it would be cool to team up, but a lowbie empath duo didn't seem like it would really work. But we decided to try it anyway! So I played Psychic Woman (6 mind/emp controller) and ended up recruiting more people to help do damage for us, eventually getting up to an 8-player pickup team doing missions in Kings Row and Steel Canyon. We did an Atlas safeguard mission and most of the Midnighter arc; failed the Lady Jane mission on our first attempt (due to Lady Jane massively overaggroing everything in sight), but succeeded on the second try (where I set the mission of a lower level character). This got Psychic Woman to level 14.

Arrow Girl (30 archery/nrg blaster) joined a Sister Psyche TF. I didn't really need the badge, but was trying to help a friend get the TF started; he was worried not enough people would join, but actually the team ended up quickly filling up to 8. We had one rad who died a lot for no real reason (I think he would go off on his own and solo or something). I ended up stealthing through several of the missions, though I didn't really have proper stealth; just pool power stealth and eating some Lucks to survive aggro. The team had some weird idea to stealth the final mission, by sneaking to Clamor's room, beating the AV, then working our way back freeing the hostages; I'm not sure this actually saved any time though. Finished in 1hr 38min and got Arrow Girl to level 31.


Saturday

San Min (39 MA/will scrapper) joined a Rule of Three (Positron 1) TF on a 5 player team. Things were going pretty well until the last mission. The empath had just expressed how bored she was and how we ought to raise difficulty because no one was getting hurt, when this massive CoT ambush occurred on the front steps of city hall and killed everyone but the two scrappers. Life is ironic like that. I only survived because I ate 10 Lucks, which is normally way overkill but I had to eat this many to counter the massive DEF debuff from the CoT's earth control powers. After beating the ambush we fought our evil doubles (prioritizing the evil support toons first) and finished the TF in 54m 33s.

The same team was about to start the Dam Heroes (Positron 2) TF. The team leader asked if anyone objected to a 2-boxing player joining with both toons; I think the rest of the team was OK with it, but I expressed mild disapproval. But when the 2-boxer joined with his first toon, I decided this actually would bug me too much for me to really enjoy the TF, so I said I would drop from the team. After I quit, the team leader asked me to come back, though, and we ended up doing the TF without the 2-boxing player. In hindsight this might've been unreasonable on my part, but I felt like I would be pretty annoyed during the TF if we were dragging along a toon that wasn't really being played. In any case, with our 6 player team we ended up finishing the TF in 53m 54s. This got San Min to level 40 and the Task Force Commander accolade (which is +60 max HP at her level).

After that I solo'd Millie Volt (50 elec/elec brute) for a bit, doing the Welcome to Vanguard arc in RWZ (9 merits) and The Horrible Mr Caractacus in AE, an arc where a demonic butler agrees to serve you, but ends up dragging you into some kind of war against angels. The demonic butler was awesome, but I didn't quite follow how the plot pitted me against the agents of Heaven. I gave it 4 stars.

Spy Girl (26 MA/ninj stalker) solo'd through Signal: Noise, a horror story arc in AE. This arc gave terrible exp and was rather confusing, but the story was extremely creepy and well-written. I gave it 5 stars.

Spy Girl also solo'd through Hopeless, an extremely villainous arc where a rich businessman hires you to kill the people responsible for the loss of his grand-daughter. There was a pretty sinister plot twist at the end which led up to a "player's choice" for the ending; this ended up making me interested enough to play through the arc twice to see both endings. I gave it 5 stars.

Water Lily (23 rad/storm corruptor) lackeyed to a small LEGION villain team doing level 45 missions; we beat up the Goddess Hequat, Dr Aeon twice, and had a team wipe against Lord Recluse after a long fight where we couldn't out-heal his DPS and eventually ran out of END and died. On our second try I managed to hurricane away most of his army of minions and we managed to narrowly beat him. This got Water Lily to level 27.

San Min (40 MA/will scrapper) joined a 7-player team doing Praetorian missions, beating Neuron and Antimatter.


Sunday

I rerolled Linda Lightspeed (formerly a 30 rad/nrg blaster, but I got kinda tired of that) as a rad/kin corruptor, and ended up forming a lowbie villain pickup team doing missions in Mercy Island and Port Oakes for most of the day. We did an Atlas mayhem, Kings Row mayhem and the Plague Carrier badge mission. While on this team, I tried to straighten out some sort of drama between a couple veteran players, but without much luck; this was actually pretty difficult while simultaneously trying to kin for a team attacking the bank in Atlas. Nevertheless this got the new Linda to level 14. I kinda figure she'll be a candidate to switch to blue side when Going Rogue comes out; I'm thinking rad/kin corruptor may be more fun for this concept than either rad/nrg blaster or kin/rad defender.

Finished the night playing Deianira (19 SS/SR brute) through Scheduling Conflict, an MA arc where you seem to be portrayed as an assistant to a secretary working for Arachnos. The secretary character was written to be quite funny, but I felt the plot was a little weak and I never did quite understand why any villain would agree to be an assistant to a lowly secretary. I gave it 4 stars.

Added: Hopeless (#29262) V21-30
A weathy businessman seeks to hire a killer to avenge the loss of his granddaughter.

Source: Dr. Aeon's Dev Choice Suggestion Thread

Added: Signal:Noise (#341194) H20-29
Following a plea for help, you find yourself alone in Dark Astoria. Surreal. (Essentially no exp, but very creepy.)

Source: Dr. Aeon's Dev Choice Suggestion Thread