PoliceWoman

Tue 3/8/2011

The weekly strike target changed to Numina/Ice Mistral. I'm kind of "over" the mad rush to get Notices of the Well, and consequently for Numina/Ice Mistral I tried to play toons that needed the badge and/or needed exp.

I ran Virtual Girl (35 rogue kat/fire scrapper) through a Numina TF in 44m 48s, getting to level 36.


Wed 3/9

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) did an Ice Mistral SF in 33m 44s.

Kyrie Eleison (42 vigilante archery/fire blaster) did an Ice Mistral SF in 37m 54s and got level 43. At the very start of the SF I was asked to mission TP to the first mission (way up on Thorn Isle in Nerva) and veteran team TP everyone there, which was a slight speed-up.

Sakura (10 hero plant/storm controller) duo'd the Fortune Teller mission, getting to level 11.

Mercy Beaucoup (51 hero ice/kin corr) did a Numina TF in 48m 40s.

Mayday (50 hero fortunata) did a clear most ITF in 50m 50s, getting an Armageddon (DMG/RCHG) recipe drop.

Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corr) did speed ITF in 27m 4s and crafted a Spiritual boost.

Police Woman hit the inf cap at the market, and I emailed myself 500M inf.


Thu 3/10

Kyrie Eleison (43 vigilante archery/fire blaster) did a Numina TF in 54m 30s. Kyrie had already done Ice Mistral, so I didn't get the bonus exp at the end, but she needed the badge anyway and it was still worth exp.

Strong Woman (51 hero inv/SS tanker) did a clear most ITF in 36m 11s, followed by a speedy Apex TF in 23m 33s.

Mayday (50 hero fortunata) did a clear most ITF in 43m 49s.

I did some downtime badging on Mercy Beaucoup (51 hero ice/kin corr), getting all the explore badges for Freedom Phalanx Reserve. When I got the last one I didn't get the accolade, though, and after searching through my badges, I realized I lacked Gearsmasher (I even had Unveiler already). I normally automatically get Gearsmasher just leveling up naturally, but Mercy came over from Praetoria so never fought any Primal Earth clockwork. I'll need to do Synapse sometime for Mercy, which should solve that problem and work towards TF Commander too.

I solo'd Arrow Girl (9 villain archery/TA corr) to level 10; I'm not that excited about archery/TA so far, but getting to level 10 at least let me email myself the 500M inf that a GM had dumped on Arrow Girl as reimbursement for a lost email.


Fri 3/11

Mayday (50 hero fortunata) did a Numina TF 51m 57s. A teammate complimented me on her background story.

Indigo (50 villain fire/rad corr) did a clear most ITF in 44m 48s, which let me craft a Spiritual Core (RCHG/STUN) boost.

Sakura (11 hero plant/storm controller) joined a 6 player team doing lowbie radio missions in Steel Canyon, then we moved to the Hollows and did all of Wincott's and Flux's arcs, culminating in the Frostfire mission. This got Sakura to level 16.


Sat 3/12

Fire Emerald (31 hero fire/mental blaster) joined a 7 player team that did the Frontline badge mission at level 39; this got Fire Emerald to level 32.

Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corr) did some badging, picking up enough explore badges to complete the Demonic and Born in Battle (+54hp +5end) accolades. Then joined a 4 player team that beat up consiglieres in St Martial that got her the High Pain Threshold (+107hp) accolade. This got her max HP to 1361.

Millie Volt (51 rogue elec/elec brute) joined a 7 player Numina that finished in 37m 55s. I got assigned to beat up the Council in Boomtown, which resulted in my getting KS'd a lot by 5th Column, even adopting the strategy of not looking for the Council until I was ready to kill them. There was the general feeling that a blaster or other range DPSer would work better for this hunt.

Spy Girl (42 rogue MA/ninj stalker) joined a 3 player Ice Mistral SF with one extra toon as contact sitter. We had no debuff at all, and our team wiped out except for me on the final fight with Archus as an AV and the mad ambushes. I managed to survive and tank him for a time on sheer inspiration power, long enough for our brute to awaken and help pound the AV down despite the lack of debuffs, finishing in 43m 10s. This got me level 43 and a "ur a good player" from a teammate.

Water Lily (39 rogue rad/storm corr) joined an 7 player Ice Mistral SF with one contact sitter, finishing in 39m 40s and getting me level 40. This SF finished on Thorn Isle just as another team was forming to fight Caleb there, so I joined in to take down Caleb, though this took two tries; our first try I think people jumped in before everyone was ready, got beat up, and Caleb escaped to fly around invisibly a bit before we tracked him down to beat him on the second try. After that I did a little crafting, slotting 2 sets of 6 Thunderstrike and 1 set of 5 Thunderstrike for a total of +8.75% range def.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols def) did a Kahn TF. I got called Carmen Sandiego again (I'm pretty sure it's the red fedora that causes this), which was an unintentional likeness, but I don't want to change Mystery Girl's color scheme because I like it. We had 2 emps on this team and since the other emp was good about keeping AB on our lone blaster, I decided to put my AB on the other emp for the extra recharge. Finished in 34m 32s.

I started a newbie ice/ice dom in Praetoria, my latest attempt to find a dominator that I like. I gave her the name Irena, with concept that she was a Praetorian version of Ice Mistral, and used Ice Mistral's color scheme with the Resistance costume pieces. This combination ended up making her look more like Quorra than Ice Mistral, but I liked the look so I kept it. I decided it would be fun to meet up with the Praetorian versions of the other Arachnos characters, so I started down the story arcs that let you encounter Belladonna Ventrano and Paolo Marino, getting to level 6.

Virtual Girl (36 rogue kat/fire scrapper) helped a couple corruptors with the missions that unlock the Midnight Squad badge.

Yuki-Onna (51 villain ice/cold corr) joined an all-corruptor clear-most ITF. Despite bringing 8 corruptors somehow none of us brought a kin, which made things run a little slow, finishing in 51m 27s. I got a Fortunata Hypnonsis (Chance for Placate) recipe drop.


Sun 3/13

Blond Justice (51 hero broadsword/shield scrapped) has a rare Cardiac boost slotted, but I decided I'd try to switch to Musculature because +damage is sexier than lower end usage. Towards this end, I joined a STF and was in scrapperlock for most of the TF, charging heedlessly into everything and slaughtering it. Our tank disconnected during mission 4 and I ended up tanking all the AVs but Dr. Aeon in that one; fortunately the tanker got back in time for Dr. Aeon since he had the temp power to make him vulnerable. In the final mission, a blaster single-pulled all the patron AVs, then our fire tanker tanked Lord Recluse while flying while we beat up 3 of the towers. Finished the STF in 49m 51s.

Also on Blond Justice I solo'd 2 hero tips and a hero morality mission for a hero merit, which I blew on a pretty junky random roll:

Touch of Lady Grey (RCHG/END) worthless
Ghost Widow's Embrace (chance for psi) worthless
Decimation (ACC/DMG/RCHG) 9M
Luck of the Gambler (END/RCHG) worthless
Obliteration (chance for smashing) 35M

Star Amethyst (51 hero dark/ice defender) joined a clear all LGTF. We had 3 tanks and no kin and clearing all seemed likely to be slow, but we actually had quite a lot of debuff so were doing fine. One of our tankers disconnected a couple times, then finally never came back, and we all joked that we couldn't go on safely with only 2 tanks. The leader wanted to fail the mission with Infernia/Glacia, but our method of failing was to clear every single mob on the way there. I didn't see much point in getting them killed if we were just going to clear the mission anyway, so I managed to talk the team into rescuing the heroes. I ended up tanking Dra'gon somehow while the other two tankers were clearing Rikti, but I managed to survive until our fire tanker noticed the AV and taunted him off. He was actually pleasantly surprised that Dra'gon did fire damage (which he was near immune to); apparently he had only fought Dra'Gon once previously and hadn't noticed then. (I guess practically everyone deliberately fails this mission instead of winning it.) In the Hamidon mission we really took our "clear all" strategy to heart, even clearing all the mobs innocuously standing around in the fields leading up to Hamidon. I was worried this meant we would have to fight giant DE monsters, but apparently those guys are just decorative in LGTF and you don't actually fight them, which was something I hadn't known. We also cleared a path to the end in the final mission, even detouring down dead-end tunnels to get every last thing. This all took awhile but I didn't really mind the kill-all mentality, since I needed the SG prestige; finished in 1h 47m. A teammate also complimented me on my power colorization (everything recolored purple; Star Amethyst was originally a warshade but I eventually realized I just liked the warshade colors, not their actual powers). The incarnate salvage from this allowed me to upgrade her backup alpha boost to a Cardiac Radial.


Mon 3/14

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) joined a Kahn TF, finishing in 35m 6s. This let me craft a Spiritual Core Paragon (45 rchg/33 heal and stun, level shift), my second toon with the ultra rare boost.

Star Amethyst (51 hero dark/ice defender) joined a Master of the ITF attempt with 2 VEATs, 2 defenders (dark and cold), 2 blasters, scrapper and fire tanker. We were a little more careful but not really that much more so than a regular clear-most TF, finishing in 49m 37s and getting the Master of ITF badge.

Police Woman hit the inf cap at the market again, and I sent myself another 500M via email.

Had one of the forum reviewers on the MA Arc Finder channel find my Papers and Paychecks arc after wading through a sea of farms in the MA search tool, then teased me with a complaint that "They're attacking me with fire damage! It must be a farm!" (Turned out this was a Longbow flamethrower.) It turns out she liked it, though, and gave me a positive review.

Tue 3/1/2011

The Strike Target switched to Apex TF today and I dutifully did a ton of Apex TFs.

Mercy Beaucoup (51 hero ice/kin corr) did an Apex TF. In the final fight our team was half wiped out when Battle Maiden returned accompanied by clouds of blue death, but we nevertheless beat her and finished the TF in 29m 18s, getting the Master of Apex badge.

Blond Justice (51 hero broadsword/shield scrapper) did another Apex TF in 31m 35s, nothing too notable, got Master of Apex.

Fire Maiden (51 hero SS/fire brute) did another Apex TF on a very high DPS team, knocking out the TF in a speedy 18m 38s. Again got Master of Apex. At this point I stopped tracking which toons got the Master of Apex badge for the rest of the week.

April Fool (50 villain thug/TA MM) did an Apex TF with 2 masterminds; we all thought the MM pets would get utterly wrecked from Battle Maiden's blue stuff, but it seemed like we did okay, finishing in 27m 19s. For my part I pretty much ignored the horrible deaths inflicted on my pets, concentrating on keeping myself alive and occasionally summoning more pets to replace the dead ones. So, pretty much the same as how I play my mastermind in normal gameplay, I guess.

Kyrie Eleison (39 hero archery/fire blaster) duo'd with an emp defender who was trying to go Vigilante, doing 5 vigilante tip missions. Kyrie does lots of damage but has no survivability, while the defender had lots of buffs and heals and not much damage, so this duo worked pretty well for both of us.

Spacegirl (51 hero mind/rad controller) did an Apex TF on a fairly weak team that had been begging for debuffers to join; I and a friend on another rad agreed to help out. In the first mission we cleared through the sewers, which was slower but safer than jumping past the hydra. In the final mission we kinda zerged Battle Maiden; most of the team did not seem to understand the blue stuff was killing them despite being told, but I and the other rad managed to stay alive and keep rad toggles on Battle Maiden; it felt like I was tanking Battle Maiden for most of the last half of the fight as our tanker was dying a lot. Nevertheless we beat Battle Maiden to successfully complete the TF in 46m 54s.


Wed 3/2

Yuki-Onna (51 villain ice/cold corr) did an Apex TF in 25m 10s.

Thunder Girl (51 hero elec/SR scrapper) did an Apex TF in 24m 59s.

Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster) did an Apex TF in 21m 51s. This gave me enough shards to construct my first ultra rare alpha boost, a Musculature Core Paragon (DMG/IMMOB/DEFDEBUFF with level shift).

San Min (50 hero MA/will scrapper) did an Apex TF. It seemed like our tanker was having trouble keeping aggro, or staying alive when he had aggro, and one of our rads had powers colored almost the same as the blue stuff, making it difficult. Nevertheless finished in 26m 23s.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) did an Apex TF. We had a stone brute tanking for us and it seemed like I just couldn't keep him alive, he kept dying even to generic (albeit level 54) mobs. He did have an alpha boost slotted, so I'm not quite sure what it was; I started feeling bad that I couldn't keep him healed, and started buffing fortitude on him for more mitigation (something I don't normally put on stone armor toons). In the final mission the scrappers just couldn't stay out of the blue stuff, dying a ton. It did not seem like there was much I could do about this, but I still felt survivor guilt for not being able to keep them alive. Despite all this we still finished the TF, in 37m 8s, and I got an Absolute Amazement (STUN) recipe drop.

Kyrie Eleison (39 hero archery/fire blaster) joined a clear-most ITF. I ended up dying a lot due to excessive aggro, and had a scrapper complain that my Burn special effects were making it hard to see. I had picked a brilliant blue-white color which admittedly is pretty blinding; later I ended up making another costume with different colored fire powers in case that comes up again. Finished the TF in 48m 59s and got level 41 and an Apocalypse (RCHG/ACC) recipe drop.


Thu 3/3

Schadenfreude (51 villain AR/pain corr) did an Apex TF in 20m 21s.

Star Amethyst (51 hero dark/ice defender) did an Apex TF in 23m 54s.

I started a new plant/storm controller named Sakura, a name I was quite pleased to be able to get. Soloing lowbie missions got me to level 5. I was struck by how empty the low level zones seemed to be. I am guessing that this is the flip side of the popularity of Weekly Strike Target TFs; there's a lot more incentive to play level 50s now than there ever was before.


Fri 3/4

Police Woman hit the inf cap at the market; I mailed myself a 500M inf dividend.

Mayday (50 rogue fortunata) solo'd 5 hero tip missions.

Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster) did an Apex TF in 20m 52s. Our team got a "you guys rock!" from someone whose last 2 Apex TFs went bad.

San Min (50 hero MA/will scrapper) solo'd 2 hero tip missions, getting a Soulbound Allegiance (DMG/RCHG/ACC) recipe drop.


Sat 3/5

A peacebringer asked Police Woman for help against Captain Castillo, so I exemped down and we duo'd an EB-level Captain Castillo 3 times; he kept running away and respawning as part of the script for the mission. This was very annoying because he respawned at random locations on a HUGE map (the Sky Raider floating base) which resulted in us spending probably 10 minutes searching an empty map for him at one point. We had one team wipe against a Malta ambush that included an elite boss Zeus Titan.

Mercy Beaucoup (51 hero ice/kin corr) joined an impromptu RWZ raid. This was initially just one team clearing pylons, but quickly grew into a 3 team raid. The team leader had us kill 6 grates before clicking any bombs, then 4 of us dropped from the team and each solo clicked a bomb, so as to get more credit for bombs than a small team normally could. I picked up 595 vanguard merits at this raid.

Millie Volt (51 rogue elec/elec brute) joined another RWZ raid, gaining 526 vanguard merits. I used most of these buying the Vanguard storage sack. Millie then did an Apex TF in 22m 49s; I tested standing in the blue stuff in case it was energy damage; I had hoped that Millie (near the energy resist cap) might be immune to the blue stuff, but found it was unresistable "nanite" damage. I took some damage but fortunately didn't die from it.

Mayday (50 rogue fortunata) solo'd 4 hero tip missions.

Virtual Girl (35 rogue kat/fire scrapper) malefactor'd to level 8 to help with an Atlas mayhem, to get the exploration badge. After that I solo'd the villain Midnighter arc for Cimerora access.


Sun 3/6

Fire Maiden (51 hero SS/fire brute) joined a clear most LGTF at +2 difficulty. Our team was very high DPS and I didn't notice we were on +2 until mission 2 when I noticed the Rikti monkeys were red to me. The team leader complained about having to run back to Lady Grey between missions, asking "In the age of phones why must we run back to talk?" I explained this by saying "People keep destroying the cell towers in RWZ thinking it'll drop the mother ship's shields," which got a good laugh. In the Hamidon mission I found Fire Maiden could actually stack holds, between Char and Knockout Blow. Finished the LGTF in 1h 21m, admittedly a long time but it was a fun team. With the incarnate salvage I crafted a backup Cardiac Radial boost (eventually to become a component of an ultra rare boost). I also slotted the Apocalypse (RCHG/ACC) IO found by Kyrie earlier into Fire Maiden's Fire Blast power, making a set of 5 which gives +10% global recharge. After that Fire Maiden joined a speed ITF which finished in a very speedy 17m 16s.

Schadenfreude (51 villain AR/pain corr) joined an RSF team. We were pretty light on support (only me as pain corr and a level 46 cold corr, with 2 brutes, 2 doms, a bane and a blaster rounding out the team). Our first attempt at the Freedom Phalanx we suffered a team wipe without killing any of the heroes, which was rather worrisome, but on our second attempt we beat Numina and Psyche before suffering another team wipe. On the third attempt people got serious and used Shivans and Warburg nukes and we cleared them all. Finished in 52m 58s and picked up a Performance Shifter (END) recipe drop.

Rain dancer (51 hero storm/archery defender) did an Apex TF in 25m 34s. I kinda liked how Hurricane and Tornado worked against the hydra and the animated swords, because you really just want to avoid those; I'm not sure what my teammates thought of the knockback though.

Police Woman hit the inf cap at the market again, and I sent myself another 500M inf. Prices on rare salvage were falling, much as I had predicted, so I was making a tidy sum trading these.

Kyrie (41 hero archery/fire blaster) duo'd another 5 vigilante tips with an emp defender. We were doing great until a tip mission where we fought Arachnoids, which killed me repeatedly with their stacking poison debfufs until I got careful and started pulling them instead of charging into them. We also had a team wipe to Paragon Police during the vigilante alignment mission, but we were able to break the vigilante out of the Zig and both changed to Vigilante alignment. This also got Kyrie to level 42.

Mayday (50 rogue fortunata) also solo'd the hero morality mission, changing to hero alignment. Again. Hopefully for the last time.


Mon 3/7

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) duo'd some of Maria Jenkins' Praetorian missions with a blaster. We beat up Bobcat, Neuron and Battle Maiden. After that team broke up, I joiend a Kahn TF that finished in 19m 25s. In the final fight I tried to stack around 6 to 8 Clear Minds on our tank and brute, to keep them from being stunned by Reichsman's lightning; I think it helped.

Mega (51 villain SS/will brute) did an Apex TF in 25m 58s; our squishies seemed to die a lot in the Battle Maiden fight, though, due to a combination of the ambushes and blue stuff.

Sakura (7 hero plant/storm controller) joined an 8 player Frostfire mission on +1 difficulty; this was fun for nostalgia value (I love the Hollows) and a couple people commented that it was a nice break from incarnate TFs. Our team was damage heavy, and I was the only "healer" with my 1-slotted O2 boost; a lot of people died early on, unslotted O2 boost just isn't all that. Fortunately we had a force field defender who was good about keeping bubbles up, or it would've been worse. Everyone leveled up a couple times through the mission which made things a lot easier too. Team members were wisecracking and uttering "deep thoughts" while beating up Outcasts, leading one player to describe us as "like a team of *** kicking philosophers" which was very funny. I got a costume compliment from a teammate and level 10 from finishing the mission.

Strong Woman (51 hero inv/SS tanker) joined an Apex TF that had been asking for a tanker; I kinda think the team bumped someone else to invite me becaus they really wanted a tanker. We had a mix of novice and veteran players, and in particular our emp and kin had no alpha boost, so were at a -4 level penalty for the whole TF. I was a little worried this team would have trouble, but I tried to explain how the TF worked in detail, and people actually did a pretty good job, letting us finish in 29m 30s and getting several people the Master of Apex badge they were looking for.

Note: I have 9 arcs published currently, which means that not all of my tickets are necessarily from my Dev Choice arc, Two Tickets to Westerly. Most are, though.

3/3/2011 8pm EST: 8241 tix.

3/4/2011 10pm EST: 8386 tix.

3/5/2011 1pm EST: 8501 tix.

3/6/2011 4pm EST: 8621 tix.

3/7/2011 8pm EST: 8696 tix.

Got this really nice feedback:
[Tell] 2011-03-07 07: 40:13 Message From @T: Feedback on Architect Mission Teen Phalanx Forever!: Got to give this one good marks. After the first mission, you had me RPing with the NPCs. Very well done.

3/8/2011 8pm EST: 8786 tix.

3/9/2011 9pm EST: 8881 tix.

3/10/2011 8pm EST: 8906 tix.

3/11/2011 8pm EST: 9101 tix.

3/12/2011 10pm EST: 9386 tix.

3/13/2011 9:30pm EDT: 9471 tix.

3/14/2011 8pm EDT: 9541 tix.

3/15/2011 9pm EDT: 9726 tix.

3/18/2011 10pm EDT: 9856 tix.

3/19/2011 7pm EDT: 9906 tix. Claimed 1000 to avoid hitting the cap, down to 8906.

3/24/2011 8pm EDT: 9431 tix.

Loved this comment:
[Tell] @G: Feedback on Architect Mission Talos Vice: Outstanding, starting playing smuggler's blues and in the air tonight

3/26/2011 11am EDT: 9596 tix.

3/29/2011 8pm EDT: 9951 tix. Claimed 1000, down to 8951.

[Tell] 2011-03-29 03: 54:47 Message From @S: Feedback on Architect Mission Two Tickets to Westerly: All I wanted was a phone call!

Is there an in-game person that people who are interested in doing this can contact?

I'm a bit unmotivated to create new arcs too, but for a different reason....most of my free time on CoH has been absorbed by doing the Weekly Strike Target repeatedly. I am a sucker for TFs, and the Weekly Strike Target has probably tripled the number of TFs and SFs that occur on my server every day. Also I am technically out of story arc slots, though I don't view that as being as big an obstacle as others do. I am a little tempted to write something new up for the Irish/Roman-themed AE contest, but haven't come up with a good enough story concept to justify it yet.

I'm not really that concerned about the "game lore" issues posed by the incarnate system or other recent developments. I read through the story presented by Mender Ramiel's story arc, but found it to be a little silly, so I don't regard it as canon (see: Denial).

I did make some minor adjustments to the flavor text in A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight TF in response to Going Rogue, though a purist would probably still argue that my arc is incompatible with the Praetorian canon.

I also noticed that Mender Ramiel had stolen the name of Venture's protagonist, which reminded me of how Venture recommended I change the name of my villainous contact in Axis and Allies, Schadenfreude, after the Kahn/Barracuda TFs were released. I see that Venture has come to the same conclusion I did ("I had the name first, so I'm keeping it, dammit!") which I shamefully confess fills me with a sense of ... schadenfreude.

Fri 2/25/2011

Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster) hit the inf cap marketeering again, emailed myself another 500M inf dividend.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) did a Silver Mantis SF on a full team; we stealthed some but had several people new to the SF, so weren't going full-out speed. We had a warshade on our team and encountered multiple level 30 Quantum bosses; since we were malefactored to level 25 for the SF, this meant we were fighting +5 bosses. I assume this is some weird side effect of bringing kheldians to red-side, where they weren't originally supported. In the final mission I used my jetpack to fly around trying to heal people fighting turrets; I found on this SF that I really need knockback protection, will need to be sure to include that on my next respec build. Finished in 1h 5m.

Schadenfreude (51 villain AR/pain corr) did another Silver Mantis SF on a full team in 51m 28s.


Sat 2/26

Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster) crafted and slotted a Musculature Total Core Revamp (DMG/IMMOB); this was previously my "backup" alpha boost, but the +45% DMG on this boost made it better than the one I was using before, another Musculature Revamp that only had +33% DMG. I had enough shards for Favor of the Well, too, but was still several incarnate salvage drops short of completing the ultra rare. I solo'd the Cimerora wall a bit looking for shards, then did 5 hero tip missions.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) solo'd a couple of Maria Jenkins' missions, defeating Chimera (though it took me two tries) and Nightstar (on the first try), both as EBs. It's kind of silly to solo EBs on an emp defender, but I wasn't doing anything better at the time and thought I'd try it. My EB-soloing strategy was very simple: eat 4 lucks to get to the defense cap, then shoot the EB a lot, especially with fire ammo and piercing rounds (my only debuff), eating a few more lucks or casting Healing Aura when necessary.

Virtual Girl (34 rogue katana/fire scrapper) joined a 7 player clear most Renault SF; one player (I assume a vigilante hero) abruptly quit during the second mission because she "didn't like the villain play style", which I think meant that we were playing more like 7 toons each soloing through the mission, rather than working as a cohesive unit. No one was really offended though, we all kinda shrugged and continued, finishing the SF in 1h 16m.


Sun 2/27

Police Woman joined a clear most ITF finished in 45m 24s and got 7 shards.

Mega (51 villain SS/will brute) joined a 5-player (including 1 contact sitter) speed Silver Mantis SF; I had already done the Strike Target on Mega, but the team needed a brute. Finished in 35m 27s and got the Assistant badge.

Police Woman joined a 7 player Kahn TF that finished in 20m 32s. I solo'd another 5 hero tips, then a hero morality mission for a hero merit.


Mon 2/28

Tour de Force (32 hero ff/nrg defender) joined a Katie TF. Eochai and Jack were up in Croatoa while we were forming the team, and we decided to attack them; despite having a full team, we were light on debuff (only FF and pain for support) and it took us about 12 minutes to kill each of the mobs. This was pretty painfully slow, and I had my doubts that we would be able to beat 10 Mary Macombers with that team, but one person switched from scrapper to a stormy before the TF, after which we were fine; despite lacking a proper tank we still were able to beat Mary 10 times. Mission 2 had changed to a "lead hostage out" mission so we ended up clearing a path to the hostage, then taking her back -- with a scary moment when Amy got stuck on a wall, but we somehow got her unstuck after a few minutes. Had a little aggro on Katie's spirit in the last mission but we were able to clear it and lead her home, finishing in 44m 22s and getting Tour de Force to level 33.

Kyrie Eleison (38 hero arch/fire blaster) joined a Sister Psyche TF; we were playing a little fast and loose, and had a couple people die a lot (though not me, to my surprise, despite being a blaster aggro magnet) but it didn't really slow us down, finishing in 56m 22s and getting Kyrie to level 39.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) joined a clear-most ITF; we had a very support heavy team, prompting the leader to raise difficulty to +1, but despite clearing most of the mobs we still finished in a speedy 33m 7s. I used the incarnate salvage drop to upgrade my backup Spiritual boost to a Spiritual Radial Boost.

Tue 2/22/2011

Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster) did a hero tip, then a hero morality mission for a hero merit. A friend suggested I'd be better off going vigilante to get access to Silver Mantis for this week (since it's much faster than Sister Psyche) but I kinda like the hero merits and Call to Justice power, so I'm currently sticking with hero.

Fire Emerald (29 hero fire/mental blaster) did a Sister Psyche TF in 1h 28m, getting 100 merits and 127K bonus exp at the end. This got her to level 31.

Mega (51 villain SS/will brute) did a 7-player Silver Mantis, one of which was a 2-boxed contact sitter, finished in 34m 1s.

Police Woman did a Sister Psyche TF in 1h 27m; this gives her a fourth Notice of the Well, enough to make the ultra-rare, but I still need a ton more incarnate salvage to assemble all the other components.

Fire Maiden (51 hero SS/fire brute) did some badging to get the SG explore badges for Galaxy, Kings Row and Skyway, then did a clear all ITF. We really cleared everything, mopping up stragglers, clearing a path up the valley of lag and everything; our DPS was simply ludicrous though, so even with clearing everything we finished in only 45m 8s. I'm becoming convinced that Fire Maiden is my highest DPS toon, mostly due to burn and foot stomp.


Wed 2/23

Millie Volt (50 rogue elec/elec brute) did a Silver Mantis SF in 34m 41s; as a brute I was asked to lure mobs of opposing factions together so they would kill each other. This was a little tricky due to how squishy I was while malefactored to 25, but I did fine between Lucks and Energize.

Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corr) did another Silver Mantis SF in 37m 35s.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) joined a clear most ITF that finished in 35m 19s. A corruptor friend kept harassing me for AB, but we had two blasters on the team and I was convinced that AB was better used on them. With the incarnate salvage from this TF I crafted a Spiritual boost (not for slotting, eventually to be combined to make an ultra rare).

Fire Maiden (51 hero SS/fire brute) did a speed Kahn TF in 25m 40s. Our tanker was pretty focused on Reichsman in the final encounter and not taunting the secondary AVs, so I ended up taunting and herding them to the center.


Thu 2/24

Rain Dancer (51 hero storm/archery defender) joined an animal costume themed ITF, in honor of the animal booster pack. I spent about half an hour before the ITF trying to make a decent eagle costume (since Rain Dancer uses the tribal-looking eagle as a symbol) but just couldn't make it work, and for lack of a better idea I made a semi-Egyptian catgirl. At the actual ITF we had a minotaur, a gorilla, a ton of catgirls, and someone brought an amazing eagle costume that I had to run back to a tailor just to copy. Midway through the TF I felt really guilty about plagiarizing a teammate's costume, though, so I changed back to my cat costume from guilt. Our team had a massive amount of AoE and debuff and while fighting Romulus, we killed 2 of the Nictus AVs by accident due to AoE. Finished in 40m 33s and got an Unbreakable Constraint (chance for smashing) recipe drop.

After that Rain Dancer joined a 5-player team that did 5 of the Valentine's Day Snaptooth missions for various costume pieces and badges. On one of these missions, the leader set the mission of a level 50 toon who was on +4 x8 difficulty; everyone on the team but me was killed by redcap ambushes, but I managed to survive them and eventually kill +4 Snaptooth due to hurricane and my high ranged DEF.

Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corr) joined a full team on a RWZ raid, gaining 582 vanguard merits, which I needed for Gr'ai matter incarnate salvage.

Virtual Girl (33 rogue katana/fire scrapper) joined a full Sister Psyche TF that finished in 1h 4m, which got Virtual Girl nearly to the top of level 34.

I spent some time upgrading my hero base's teleporter room to the biggest room, then crafted and installed 6 additional teleporters....then realized I didn't have enough control or energy to power any of the new ones, and had used up all my available prestige. So now I have a gigantic teleporter room with 2 working teleporters and 6 large paperweights. Doh.

The market in rare salvage had prices go up to around 4M-5M per item for awhile, which I've been trying to profit on. But looking at the quantity in stock at Wentworth's, I'm thinking the bubble is bound to burst soon, so I'm trying to sell inventory before prices fall. We'll see if that ends up being a good prediction or not.

For some reason I'm not feeling that excited about doing Sister Psyche TFs on all my level 50 heroes, so I've been focusing on running my lower level heroes through Sister Psyche for exp, while high level villains do Silver Mantis. I'm finding that even my toons with 4 Notice of the Well can't make the Ultra Rare alpha boost yet because I need so many other things to make them, so I figure it's not that urgent, and I can catch up my level 50 heroes on Apex TF next week anyway.

Fri 2/18/2011

Thunder Girl (50 hero elec/SR scrapper) joined a LGTF on +1 difficulty. Due to the hubbub on the forums about speed LGTFs versus rescuing the hostages, we joked around about saving Infernia and Glacia and some of us tried to save them while simultaneously other players tried to get them killed. The team was mostly friends though so we all took this in good humor and no one was really mad about it, and in fact, in the final mission our grav controller managed to Dimension Shift the Honoree, just for laughs. None of us had thought you could even do that to an AV. Despite this silliness, we still finished in 33m 10s.

Schadenfreude (51 villain AR/pain corr) joined an LGTF that cleared the first two missions, then tried to speed through the rest. This took 58m 12s.

Strong Woman (51 hero inv/SS tanker) fought a Rikti invasion in Peregrine Island, getting the Elusive Mind accolade.

Tour de Force (32 hero FF/nrg defender) joined a team getting shivans in Bloody Bay, for no really good reason except the company.


Sat 2/19

After all the debate on the forum, I conceived the idea to form and lead a clear-all LGTF. I played the lead tanker role as Strong Woman (51 hero inv/SS tanker) and we cleared all the way to Penelope Yin (though I said it was OK to team TP her back, since there's not much to fight on the way back), cleared all the way through the Riders mission, and saved all the heroes and hostages in mission 3. The Hamidon mission was pretty much the same as usual, then we cleared a path to the end in the final mission. We had a good team with high DPS and finished in 1h 7m. This was a little more than twice as long as a "speed" TF, but I still thought it was fun, and I needed the prestige and shards; it definitely helped to have a good team, though.

Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corr) solo'd a flashback of the Exterminator badge mission (needed for an accolade), then joined a speed LGTF that took 29m 16s.

Yuki-Onna (51 villain ice/cold corr) did a speed LGTF in 21m 52s.

Millie Volt (50 rogue elec/elec brute) did a speed LGTF in 30m 1s.

Teal Serpent (49 villain archery/traps corr) did an RSF, very support heavy with 7 corruptors and 1 brute. Finished in 30m 35s, and Teal hit level 50 on Statesman's death, perfect timing.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) joined a RWZ raid. The team I was on was really scattered, with some people staying with the raid and others roaming far away, making it hard to keep everyone buffed and alive. Nevertheless picked up about 600 vanguard merits, which should cover Mystery Girl's Gr'ai matter needs.

April Fool (50 villain thug/TA MM) joined an LGTF; got 2 compliments on her background story and a couple remarks that her chat binds were "creepy", which was pretty much what I was shooting for, as April is meant to be a psychotic clown. I was a little worried about playing a MM on a "speed" TF, but aside from dying once on the first mission, I seemed to be mostly okay. For some reason my pets would not spawn during the Hamidon mission, no matter how many times I tried to call them; a teammate said they had seen that bug before too. Finished in 29m 10s.

Kyrie Eleison (36 hero archery/fire blaster) talked to the Latin student to unlock Cimerora, along with 4 others I invited for the badge, then did a clear-most ITF. Got a costume compliment, and we noticed that my character, a fire-using angel all in white, was almost exactly the opposite of another character on our TF, a cold-using fallen angel all in black, which was a funny coincidence. Our team was support heavy which let me survive more than I expected as a lowbie blaster with no defenses. Finished in 43m 37s and got to level 38.


Sun 2/20

Teal Serpent (50 villain archery/traps corr) solo'd Ramiel's arc to unlock the Alpha slot. Trapdoor was not a pushover but not too hard for me. Holtz and Honoree were a little tricky due to Rikti ambushes setting off my traps prematurely, but I eventually wore them down. I played through the whole arc with my RSF reward menu (from last night) still up on my screen, allowing me to take the Essence of Incarnate salvage reward at the end.

Strong woman (51 hero inv/SS tanker) joined a sewer trial; we staretd with 7 but one player almost immediately disconnected and never came back. This left us with a team comprised of a stalker, a peacebringer, an emp who doesn't buff or heal, some damage toons, and me. I was not hopeful for this lineup, but the team actually was quite good at coordinating destroying the shield generators. I died a couple times to the Hydra, mostly my fault because I underestimated how much damage its psi attacks did; after that I finally started to use Elusive Mind, which was a big help. Managed to finish this in 53m 2s; I took the merits.

Fire maiden (51 hero SS/fire brute) helped fight a Rikti invasion in Atlas Park.

Spacegirl (51 hero mind/rad controller) joined an LGTF. The leader wanted to speed the TF, but half the team was really too squishy to survive speeding, so we had some deaths. I was assigned to be the targeter for the green mitos; this worked fine for most of it, but I accidentally targeted Hamidon once (doh! targeting with TAB!) and instantly got both our blasters killed as a result, which I felt bad about. In the final mission, we had one teammate that was absolutely convinced the Dimensional Grounding Ray (temp power from Kahn TF) would debuff the Honoree, and I gave it a try; the other guy was convinced it was working, but I really couldn't tell any difference. Finished in 46m 7s.

People were PvPing in Warburg, so I went there with Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster). I arrived shortly after a 6 player team had chased most of the opposition out of the zone, so I ended up quixotically attacking them 1v6 several times before a couple of them swapped teams to join me. This gave me an emp and a TA for support, which was good for lots of kills and lots of laughs. Some of the PvPers noticed I had no travel powers and was relying on ninja run to chase people down in PvP, which resulted in one person praising my audacity and another person laughing at my stupidity. Heh, it evens out.

Teal Serpent (50 villain archery/traps corr) did a LGTF in 34m 54s.

Primadonna (50 rogue sonic/kin corr) did a LGTF 32m 55s, upgrading her alpha boost to a Spiritual Total Core Revamp (RCHG/STUN, level shift).


Mon 2/21

Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster) joined a pickup Master of the STF team, with a lineup of:

stone tanker
rad defender
kin controller
2 fortunata
fire brute
regen scrapper
AR blaster (me)

I don't think we were too serious about the MoSTF, it was mostly "just in case it happens". Our regen scrapper basically committed suicide repeatedly trying to fight mobs off on his own, which dashed those hopes. I couldn't help noticing our kin never SB'd anyone, not even the stone tank. We pulled the first 3 patrons then rushed Ghost Widow, then the tanker stood up to Lord Recluse straight up, with no support but lots of inspirations. Finished in 1h 8m and got a Gaussian (TOHIT/RCHG/END) recipe drop. I crafted a Musculature boost (not for slotting, a start on a second boost to combine for the ultra rare).

Olivia Q (50 hero MA/SR scrapper) did an LGTF 38m 31s and got an Unbreakable Constraint (HOLD/END) recipe drop. I had been pretty unhappy with Olivia Q's I19 respec, and ended up burning one of her earned respecs to dump fighting pool, which I felt was sucking up all her END, making her unfun to play. The new build is still defense capped but lower END cost with more END tools (bringing back Conserve Power and adding Physical Perfection), with 62.5% global recharge (not counting hasten).


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Olivia Q I19 respec 2: Level 50 Technology Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Martial Arts
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Storm Kick -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(9), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Dam%(11)
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(3), LkGmblr-Rchg+(3)
Level 2: Thunder Kick -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(13), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(13), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), T'Death-Dam%(17)
Level 4: Focused Senses -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(5), LkGmblr-Rchg+(5)
Level 6: Agile -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 8: Crane Kick -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(19), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Mako-Dam%(21)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Aid Other -- IntRdx-I(A), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(36), Mrcl-EndRdx/Rchg(37), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(37), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Mrcl-Heal(39)
Level 14: Aid Self -- IntRdx-I(A), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(23), Mrcl-EndRdx/Rchg(33), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(33), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mrcl-Heal(34)
Level 16: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45)
Level 18: Dodge -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 20: Quickness -- Run-I(A)
Level 22: Warriors Challenge -- Range-I(A)
Level 24: Focus Chi -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(29), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(34), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(42), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(42), GSFC-Build%(43)
Level 26: Dragon's Tail -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(27), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-Úm(31)
Level 28: Lucky -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48)
Level 30: Resuscitate -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 32: Eagles Claw -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(40), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(40), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), T'Death-Dam%(45)
Level 35: Evasion -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 38: Hover -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(46), Zephyr-ResKB(46)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-End%(A)
Level 47: Energy Torrent -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(48), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(48), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(50)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(33), Numna-Heal/Rchg(39), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Numna-Heal(40), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(42)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(7), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(25), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(25), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(31), P'Shift-End%(45)


Mercy Beaucoup (51 hero ice/kin corr) did another LGTF in 26m 26s; she had already done one, so this got me the Assistant badge.

Police Woman did two more LGTFs, one taking 22m 2s and another taking 23m 48s, taking a hero 1 DNA the first time and merits the second time; I did both these to work on the "help with WST" badges. With LGTF week wrapping up, I found that I have done the LGTF now on every level 50 on liberty except two that aren't getting played much recently. That felt like a lot of LGTFs, and I was ready for a change of pace. I also got the Resolute (75 months veteran) badge somewhere in here, not quite sure when.

Mercy Beaucoup then did a very speedy ITF in 17m 49s. I also learned Daedalus sells inspirations in Cimerora (for heroes; presumably Sister Airlia does the same for villains), something I had not realized before.

I used to try to get the team to rescue the hostages when I'm on a hero, and try to get the team to kill the hostages when I'm on a villain.

I eventually stopped doing that because for the sake of expediency, very few teams ever want to rescue any of the hostages except Penelope Yin.

Mon 2/14/2011

I'm now reporting level-shifted characters as being "level 51", since they effectively are a level higher for most purposes.

Police Woman (51 hero AR/dev blaster) did a Kahn TF in 26m 38s. I got a Performance shifter (ENDMOD/RCHG) recipe drop, a dimensional keystone, and Assistant badge credit.

Maid of Awesome (48 hero sonic/rad corr) did Kahn TF in 31m 34s; this wasn't as good a team as the previous one and we died a lot. This was the second Kahn TF Maid of Awesome has done this week; I was hoping for the big exp bonus for the Strike Target like before, but wasn't too surprised that you don't get it for the second time. I did get the Assistant badge, though.

Shield Maiden (47 rogue fire/shield scrapper) did a clear-most Kahn TF in 54m 58s; this was her first Kahn TF for the week, so I got a juicy 60 merits and 1956150xp at the end, which got her to level 48.

Mega (51 villain SS/will brute) did an ITF; all 4 of the brutes and tankers on the team were superstrength, so everything we met got flattened by foot stomps, which was fun. We had a kin who didn't SB and rarely fulcrum shifted, despite hints from a couple different players. I finally asked point-blank for SB and got it...once. Gave up asking after that. We cleared the first two missions and sped through the last two, finishing in 37m 36s and getting an Ancient Nictus fragment.

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) did a Kahn TF. We had a stalker disconnect in the last mission, and we waited several minutes before killing the very last AV, for him to return. But when he did get back, he mysteriously quit, we weren't sure why; I almost think the game forced him to quit somehow, maybe due to faction problems.


Tue 2/15

The Strike Target changed to the LGTF, and so Police Woman did an LGTF. We had a very messy time against Hamidon with lots of deaths, but still finished in 33m 42s. I took a Hero 1 DNA and a Notice of the Well, which is what I took from every LGTF unless otherwise noted.

Star Amethyst (51 hero dark/ice defender) joined a very smooth LGTF that finished in 23m 27s.

Fire Maiden (51 hero SS/fire brute) joined an LGTF where there was some drama because one team member had the leader on ignore and the leader was very unhappy about that. Nevertheless finished in 32m 53s without anyone getting kicked off the team or quitting.


Wed 2/16

Blond Justice (50 hero sword/shield scrapper) did an LGTF. I had a moment of coolness during the Hamidon mission where I solo'd all the yellow mitos right before the tanker arrived in the mission and announced that all melee should focus on yellow mitos. Finished in 36m 2s and got a Luck of the Gambler (DMG/END) and a Red Fortune (DEF/END/RCHG) recipe as random drops. I also upgraded her alpha boost to a Cardiac Partial Radial Revamp (END/RES/RANGE/FEAR and level boost).

Mercy Beaucoup (51 hero ice/kin corr) did a speed LGTF in 21m 36s. One thing we did different than previous speed runs I've been on, was that we rushed the Rikti AV and the Honoree in the final mission, fighting them at their spawn point, instead of pulling them. I do think this shaved a minute or two off our time, but is something that only a durable team should attempt.

Mayday (50 rogue fortunata) did a speed LGTF in 20m 7s, the fastest one that I've ever done.

Mega (51 villain SS/will brute) did a speed LGTF in 24m 48s.


Thu 2/17

San Min (50 hero MA/will scrapper) did an LGTF. Both of our controllers seemed to be having trouble; one of them was worried about aggro, and with good reason because he literally died every 2 minutes, I'm not quite sure how. The other one was nominated to target green mitos to be held in the Hamidon mission, but kept attacking Rikti instead. After some explanation, she seemed to get the idea and started holding the green mitos (while the other controller was returning from the hospital) allowing us to finish the LGTF in 35m 11s.

I messed around editing my Crisis at Talos Towers story in Mission Architect. I had some custom mobs representing "fire hazards" and "fallen rubble" and decided to switch them for Minions of Igneous, who looked perfect for representing fire and stone. This lowered my mission's maximum level to 15; previously it was 50, and I'm a little worried it might be too hard for a level 15, which seems borne out by my playtesting so far. Haven't quite figured out how to fix that yet.

Some friends pressured me into running an ITF for them, and I was getting a little tired of LGTF, so I agreed. I played Mega (51 villain SS/will brute) as lead tank, and filled up the team with pickup players. One player wanted to speed the ITF, and no one else seemed to care, so I agreed to speed the TF. This perhaps wasn't the right call as most of the team was pretty squishy, and we suffered a number of random deaths as a result, and about halfway through the TF one of my friends complained that he hated speed TFs. I was surprised by this and said, you should've said something earlier, or run your own TF. He said he didn't say anything when we were talking about it, because he was busy watching TV. This actually made me mad, that someone would ask me to start a TF for them, then purposely slack on it. I ended up threatening to kick him if he watches TV while I have the star. In hindsight, this was an overreaction, but I really thought it was uncool. Despite these hijinks, we still finished the ITF in 26m 38s. I took an ancient nictus fragment.

After that Mega went on to do an RSF with a high DPS team that finished in 26m 21s, which was a new record. I took the essence of the incarnate, which I used to craft a Spiritual Core Boost, progress towards a second boost to combine into the ultra rare.

Rain Dancer (50 hero storm/archery defender) did an LGTF. The team leader showed me a different way to team TP people into the chopper for the Hamidon mission; he had me stand in the center of the ramp leading up to the helicopter, then placing the teleport reticule right under the pilot. This worked this time (and didn't work the next LGTF I tried it on, but it might've been me). I got held a lot in the last mission but managed to survive. Finished in 25m 53s and crafted a Spiritual Total Core Revamp (RCHG/STUN and level shift).

Mystery Girl (51 vigilante emp/pistols defender) joined yet another LGTF. We had an awkward team mix, with 6 damage, with a trick arrow and myself as the only support. It was late and it felt like I was playing really badly, getting nonstop stunned, held, knocked back and even killed; I burned through my pile of break frees really fast. In hindsight, I think my main problem was that Mystery Girl's superspeed/stealth IO isn't enough to sneak by Rikti, and since she's slotted for recharge, she doesn't have the DEF to survive their attacks while speeding by them, or even fighting them with no tanker/controller around. Against Hamidon the leader called for range damage to target through me; I tried to work with this, but it felt awkward because this prevented me from casting buffs or heals. I seemed to catch a lot of Hamidon aggro too, which didn't help. In the final mission, we didn't have quite enough debuff to kill the Honoree before he went unstoppable, but after waiting it out, we beat him up and finished in 39m 53s.

Tue 2/8/2011

Spacegirl (50 hero mind/rad controller) joined a Kahn TF (the weekly strike target). The team was low on support and got off to a bad start with lots of death; we were speeding the TF but our team was squishy and not really up to it, but we got better at it by the end. Finished in 40m 38s and got a Notice of the Well and a Dimensional Keystone. (I took a Notice of the Well and Dimensional Keystone for every Kahn or Barracuda TF listed below, except where I played a toon that wasn't 50.)

Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blaster) joined another Kahn TF with a better team mix; it took awhile to drop Reichsman but most of his AV helpers got dropped by AoE. Finished in 34m 15s.

Mercy Beaucoup (50 hero ice/kin corr) joined a Kahn TF with what I consder a perfect team mix (tanker, 4 debuff, 3 damage) and finished in 23m 5s.

Wed 2/9

Star Amethyst (50 hero dark/ice def) joined a Kahn TF. The team leader had me skip the third mission and go to Tina McIntyre to talk to her, then teleport the team to the PI mission. My dark servant used Tenebrous Tentacles to immob the AVs, which annoyed the team because it prevented herding them; will have to remember not to summon it for this encounter. We finished in 18m 56s, which was a record time for the server as far as I know (but was subsequently beaten as people got faster and faster at this).

Schadenfreude (50 villain AR/pain corr) joined a RWZ raid and got 384 vanguard merits. I used this to craft a Gr'ai matter, then upgraded my alpha boost to a Spiritual Partial Radial Revamp (RCHG/STUN/HEAL/SLOW and level shift).

San Min (50 hero MA/will scrapper) helped a Synapse team beat Babbage in Skyway, then joined a Kahn TF that finished in 27m 26s.

Fire Maiden (50 hero SS/fire brute) did a Kahn TF in 24m 12s.

Rain Dancer (50 hero storm/archery defender) did a Kahn TF in 26m 1s.

Strong Woman (50 hero inv/SS tanker) did a Kahn TF in 25m 16s. At the market, I carelessly did a "Get All Inf" and went over the 2B inf cap, losing probably 30M or 40M inf as a result. I'm not really sure how Strong Woman ended up with that much inf, I hadn't really been working the market with her; guess it just gradually accumulated. I sent 500M to myself via email, but the next day the email had vanished due to a rollback. I petitioned on Thursday, got a response Friday asking for more detail, sent a response on Friday, sent another query on Monday, finally got the 500M inf back on Monday.

Thu 2/10

It seemed like City of Heroes was running really badly and crashing frequently on Thursday, which seemed very suspicious, but it went away the next day and didn't happen any more.

Blond Justice (50 hero broadsword/shield scrapper) did a Kahn TF. On this run, one player re-entered the second mission by mistake after we all left (fleeing from Invincible Reichsman), then went AFK inside the third mission, preventing us from getting the fourth mission for several minutes and frustrating several of our team members who were speed TFers. It turned out, however, that AFK person was playing from the hospital in RL and had to disconnect tubes and stuff just to go to the bathroom, which made everyone feel guilty about being annoyed at the delay; we were all really nice to him after that. There was some debate on whether using Tornado against Reichsman in the final encounter messes him up; the stormy agreed to the leader's request not to use it, though. Despite the delays, still finished in 26m 5s.

Mayday (50 rogue fortunata) did a Kahn TF in 21m 52s.

Primadonna (50 rogue sonic/kin corr) did a Kahn TF in 25m 29s.

Fri 2/11

Police Woman hit the inf cap again and I emailed myself 500M, though with some misgivings since I hadn't had my last lost email restored yet.

Thunder Girl (50 hero elec/SR scrapper) joined a Kahn TF. We were a little light on debuff and the team leader called a Shivan against Reichsman, and I decided I may as well call one too. This let us finish in 16m 45s which is the fastest Kahn TF to date for me (though I know others have beat that time). With the goodies from this, Thunder Girl upgraded her alpha boost to a Spiritual Total Radial Revamp (RCHG/HEAL/STUN/TOHIT and level shift).

Fire Maiden (50 hero SS/fire brute) joined a speed ITF that finished in 15m 45s, the fastest ever for me. Our team was 3 fire aura brutes (burn is SO good now), an elec/shield scrapper, an inv tanker, a fortunata, a kin corr and a rad corr, and we did all the latest speed tricks.

Maid of Awesome (47 hero sonic/rad corr) did a Kahn TF in 18m 3s. Reichsman ran away from us a lot in the final encounter, and the team leader was convinced it was tornado. I had originally thought AVs aren't afraid of tornado at all, but it did look like he was running around a lot. Not being level 50, Maid of Awesome did not get the incarnate shard drops, but instead got a fairly sick amount of bonus exp; completing the TF was worth 60 merits and 1956150 bonus exp, getting her to level 48.

Olivia Q (50 hero MA/SR scrapper) did a Kahn TF in 19m 0s, and used the salvage to craft a Cardiac (END) boost.

Fire Maiden joined small team in Pocket D doing the Valentine Snaptooth mission at level 26; I got a compliment on her background story. We ran this several times and unlocked the toga and sandals costume pieces, a badge and got a Numina (END/RCHG) recipe drop.


Sat 2/12

Fire Maiden solo'd 5 hero tips and burned her I19 free respec to dump the old fitness pool. Her new build is as follows:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Fire Maiden I19: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Super Strength
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Punch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), RechRdx-I(7)
Level 1: Fire Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(13), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(13), RctvArm-ResDam(15)
Level 2: Haymaker -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 4: Healing Flames -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(42), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(42), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Dct'dW-Heal(43), Dct'dW-Rchg(43)
Level 6: Blazing Aura -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(15), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(17), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Oblit-Úm(19)
Level 8: Knockout Blow -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 12: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 14: Kick -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(27), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(34), KntkC'bat-Knock%(43)
Level 16: Plasma Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam(31)
Level 18: Rage -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(31), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(33)
Level 20: Consume -- P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(25), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(27)
Level 22: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(33), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33), RctvArm-ResDam(34)
Level 24: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(34), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 26: Fly -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 28: Burn -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Oblit-Úm(37)
Level 30: Temperature Protection -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 32: Foot Stomp -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(39), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Oblit-Úm(40)
Level 35: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 38: Rise of the Phoenix -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 41: Char -- HO:Endo(A)
Level 44: Fire Blast -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(45), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(45), Apoc-Dam%(46), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(50)
Level 47: Fire Ball -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(48), Ragnrk-Knock%(50)
Level 49: Taunt -- Range-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(46), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(50)

I made this build with a mix of smash/lethal defense, resistance and recharge; as I see it, Fire Maiden is much more of a scrapper (i.e., survivable DPS) than a tanker. I don't have the full sets of purple IOs yet, but I threw about a billion and a half inf at the market (purple prices are really pretty high right now) and have picked up about half of them. Though, truthfully the purple recipes aren't key to the build, they're more of a luxury. This build puts Fire Maiden's sm/lethal defense at 37%, which is not soft capped, but is close enough that a single Luck or some stacked Maneuvers or Grant Cover would get her there. The build is very thirsty for END, but Cardiac incarnate boosts have helped with that a lot.

Virtual Girl (33 rogue katana/fire scrapper) joined a 3 player team for KR mayhem, getting the explore badge and clearing all the side missions.

Millie Volt (50 villain elec/elec brute) did a rogue tip mission, then a rogue morality mission, changing alignment (yet again) to Rogue. Millie then ran a Kahn TF in 20m 24s.

Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corr) joined a Barracuda SF. Reichsman seemed really very easy compared to my (unhappy) memories of previous Barracuda runs; he didn't regen much and died quickly. We had a rad, 2 kins and a cold for debuff, though, one of which was a defender who got the power to disable his phase, which may have had a lot to do with that. Finished in 47m 45s.


Sun 2/13

Another player who had asked me to "invest" 200M inf in his trading scheme a week and a half ago, paid me back 300M today. I had been somewhat skeptical of this moneymaking scheme, but can't argue with the results so far.

Yuki-Onna (50 villain ice/cold corr) joined a clear all ITF that took 1h 14m, though a lot of this was the team killing every single mob we could find, even after missions were completed. Got an Ancient Nictus Fragment and upgraded her alpha boost to a Spiritual Total Core Revamp (RCHG/STUN and level shift).

Fire Emerald (27 hero fire/mental blaster) helped an emp defender friend flashback the Spelunker mission (she had basically no attacks at Spelunker level so needed help). After that I joined an 8 player pickup team that did a hero morality mission (the one where you go to Grandville and save a rogue bane spider), then one RWZ mission where you try to rescue the diplomats from Nemesis, but this mission quickly failed because one of the hostages got all crazy and suicidally charged into the bad guys. After taking a break, I joined another team, a 4 player team doing Gordon Bower's story arc in Croatoa, which got Fire Emerald to level 29.

Mega (50 villain SS/will brute) joined a Barracuda SF. A couple players were complaining on LB that Barracuda SF was impossible without a mastermind, and as it happened, we had 7 players and a MM walked up to the team and asked for a slot right then, and so of course we invited him. I was lead brute, and as a speed-up, the team leader asked me to take Mueller in the second mission and lead him directly to the computer he uses (ignoring all mobs; Mueller didn't seem to mind), while the rest of the team got team TP'd to the final room. In the final mission I and another player got assigned to free each patron AV and lead them to the kill zone; they didn't aggro on the 5th Column in between, but could get stuck on them occasionally if the 5th Column filled the hallway, so sometimes they would need to be cleared, or at least shaken up; I used Foot Stomp a lot to knockdown the mobs, which I think made it easier to get by them. In the final fight against Reichsman, however, his ambushes rapidly overwhelmed the squishies on the team, and several of them had to hospital and return (some more than once). I and a Crab spider were able to keep tanking Reichsman until the rest of the team regrouped and came back to help; despite there only being 2 of us, we still made a decent dent in Reichsman's HP; his regen must be a lot lower now. Once the rest of the team got back, we were able to make more headway, and finished the SF in 1h 3m.

Thu 2/3/2011

Mystery Girl (50 vigilante emp/pistols defender) joined a RSF team with a team mix of 1 VEAT, 2 scrappers, 2 stalkers, 1 blaster, 1 rad defender, and me as emp defender. With no tanker or brute, and not much debuff, I said there was no way this team could win against the Freedom Phalanx. After talking it over some I ended up quitting the team before starting the RSF; I understand they later picked up a tank instead, and succeeded against the odds.

Instead I started and led my own STF, with a very debuff heavy team, finishing in 49m 59s and getting a Notice of the Well and Essence of Incarnate. I used these to craft a Spiritual Partial Radial Revamp (RCHG/HEAL/SLOW/STUN and a level shift). I guess the SLOW component technically helps my ice ammo; the level shift and the reduction in the ED soft cap were the main bonuses though.

Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blsater) did a Kahn TF in 29m 33s for a Dimensional Keystone.

Strong Woman (50 hero inv/SS tanker) tanked for an STF, finishing in 50m 39s and getting Essence of incarnate and Notice of the Well. I crafted another Spiritual Partial Radial Revamp (RCHG/HEAL/SLOW/STUN and level shift).

Mercy Beaucoup (50 hero ice/kin corr) joined a clear most ITF that finished in 41m 2s ITF. I got a Hecatomb (DMG) recipe drop and the Ancient Nictus salvage. I crafted a Cardiac (END) boost, replacing the Spiritual (RCHG) boost I had before; even with Transference, I found I was constantly running out of END while using the Spiritual boost.

Mayday (50 villain fortunata) solo'd 4 rogue tips.


Sat 2/5

Police Woman solo'd 5 hero tip missions. I ended up having to raise my difficulty to +1; I was previously on +0 but with my level shift, the level 50s were all blue to me, which seemed a little sad.

Mayday solo'd 1 more rogue tip and the rogue morality mission, changing alignment back to Rogue.

Mercy Beaucoup joined an STF with a mix of experienced and not so experienced players. We did fine until the last mission though I did notice our brute seemed awfully squishy and of our two rads, one was good about casting debuffs, the other almost never did. In the final mission our ice tanker charged the patron AVs, but I found it was really hard to keep the ice tanker up against them; he got held once (my fault, I only had 6 IDs on him at the time which wasn't enough) but even when not held, the AVs seemed to maul him, requiring me to madly spam transfusion. At one point I died to Ghost Widow somehow (not quite sure how, maybe I was too close) and the tank ran away and kited the AVs a bit. After we lost aggro and the team regrouped, we ended up pulling the patron AVs in ones and twos, which was much more manageable for us.

After that, we got confused as to whether to attack the flyer or Lord Recluse; the team leader first said one, then said the other, and part of our team ended up attacking each of them, resulting in a team wipe. We focused on LR after that; our tanker, scrapper and warshade all started flying around on jetpacks hoping to fly-taunt him with varying success. Despite having multiple people trying to fly-taunt, we had a lot of loose LR aggro and he repeatedly turned and killed team members fighting the towers. Most of our melee had DEF-based defense sets (ice armor, shield) and seemed to be struggling, so I suggested we take down the blue tower to help, which we did. We eventually beat LR down and finished the TF in 1h 10m. I got an Essence of Incarnate and a Notice of the Well, which I used to craft a Cardiac Partial Radial Revamp (END/RANGE/RES/FEAR with a level shift). I don't really use the fear component, but END RANGE and RES are all great; this brings Mercy's lethal resistance up to 57%, which is actually better than the lethal resist on some of my brutes and scrappers.

After that, Mercy Beaucoup joined a speed ITF; we had a little confusion about when to move during the first mission, but even so we finished in a blazing 18m 6s. I think this was a combination of better speed tactics and more people with the +1 level boost. I got an Ancient Nictus Fragment. I ended up buying and slotting 2 sets of Air Burst for Mercy's AoE attacks, which gives me +1.5% max HP and +1.25% smash/lethal resist; normally this is a pretty marginal enhancement, but I wanted to raise her lethal resist a little more (both DEF and RES are "the more you get, the better" type things).

After the ITF, Mercy solo'd Island Hostages, a 1 mission story arc where you fight Rogue Island Police. It was a quick mission and had reasonable gameplay, but didn't have much story; I gave it 3 stars. I got the Mission Engineer accolade as a result of finishing a story arc. Did some more badging after that, getting the Pupil history badge from plaques, and doing a flashback of the Spelunker mission for the Atlas Medallion accolade. I also joined a small team killing Fake Nemeses in Peregrine Island and Firebase Zulu, which got me the Unveiler badge.

Star Amethyst (50 hero dark/ice defender) did another STF in 50m 16s, with no serious issues. Got an Essence of the Incarnate and Notice of the Well, and crafted a Cardiac Partial Radial Revamp (END/RES/RANGE/FEAR).


Sun 2/6

Star Amethyst used the tips from her last TF to solo 5 hero tip missions. I also solo'd Millie Volt (50 villain elec/elec brute) through 1 rogue tip mission.

Fire Maiden (50 hero SS/fire brute) did an STF; I was DPS, another player tanked. Finished in 33m 19s and got an Essence of the Incarnate, a Notice of the Well, and a Respec recipe drop; I didn't quite have enough shards and fragments to make the rare boost, though. I got a "love your brute, she rocks" from a teammate, which was nice.

Mercy Beaucoup (50 hero ice/kin corr) did a kill most ITF; we had 1 player disconnect in mission 1 and never come back, and another player was so laggy that he almost never could actually attack, so it was more like a 6 player ITF. Finished in 53m 10s anyway.

Mega (50 villain SS/will brute) joined a team on a successful RWZ raid and got a bomb credit, 2 reward merits, 663 vanguard merits and 4 shards. I converted vanguard merits into a Gr'ai matter to make a Spiritual Partial Radial Revamp (RCHG/HEAL/SLOW/STUN, level shift) boost. Slotting this alpha boost, Mega was 2556 max HP, 51HP/sec regen, foot stomp every 10.53 before, and 2598 max HP, 56HP/sec regen, foot stomp every 9.39s after. This felt like a good improvement.


Mon 2/7

Police Woman helped an 8 player team do the Alpha Unlocked story arc in Ouroborus; unfortunately the team leader was at -1 difficulty for most of the arc so I was mostly fighting level 49 mobs with no chance of dropping shards. Nevertheless we easily beat up the various EBs and AVs.

Yuki-Onna (50 villain ice/cold corr) joined a RSF of mostly veterans; it ran very smooth, finishing in 27m 55s. I got an Essence of the Incarnate and Notice of the Well, but didn't have enough shards to make a rare boost yet.

Spacegirl (50 hero mind/rad controller) joined an STF; went well up til the last mission, where the team was a little strung out as the first team members charged into the patron AVs, resulting in the lead brute and a cold dying immediately, and we struggled to regain control. Eventually beat them, then against Lord Recluse our brute and tank took turns trying to fly/taunt Lord Recluse, ending as each of them got END drained and killed. Meanwhile the flyer (which we had skipped) aggroed us at the red tower, and we had to take a break to kill the flyer while our tank was still trying to taunt Lord Recluse; after the tank died LR rushed us at the yellow tower, before the brute managed to taunt him off again. Despite these hijinks we eventually beat the towers, LR and the TF itself, finishing in 41m 56s; I got an Essence of Incarnate and Notice of the Well, but didn't quite have enough shards to make a rare boost.

Primadonna (50 villain sonic/kin corr) joined a RSF that went pretty well, finishing in 34m 20s; it was pretty lucrative, too, as I got an Essence of Incarnate, Notice of the Well, Soulbound Allegiance (Chance for Buildup) recipe and a Doctored Wounds (END/HEAL/RCHG) recipe as drops.

Rain Dancer (50 hero storm/archery defender) joined an STF. I got a "cool toon" from a bystander. I kinda went crazy with stormy-ness on the STF, and maybe used Lightning Storm and Tornado more than I needed too, dying a couple times to aggro, but it sure was fun. Finished in 35m 19s and got an Essence of the Incarnate and Notice of the Well. I upgraded her Spiritual (RCHG) boost to a Spiritual Core Boost (RCHG/STUN); didn't quite have enough to make the rare boost.

Arrow Girl (5 villain archery/TA corr) joined 4 player team that was running villain tip missions; after a couple of them left, I was duoing with a traps corr and we had a wipe to Malta gunslingers. I accidentally clicked on the Knives of Artemis costume (I have this costume code from an earlier contest, and it now automatically puts all my costume codes on the power hotbar of all my new toons) at one point, then decided I really liked how this looked with the bow and arrow, and two of my teammates agreed it looked good.

At the end of the first week of the "Weekly Strike Target" feature, I find that I've run a ton of STFs and RSFs; most of my level 50s have done one for the Notice of the Well. The only level 50s on Liberty that have missed out are my mastermind, 3 scrappers and a brute; this is mostly because masterminds aren't considered too useful for RSF and it seemed like everyone else wanted to play damage dealing toons (scrappers, brutes, blasters or stalkers) on STF/RSF for the goodies, but STF/RSF really need buff/debuff, so I would usually end up bringing one of those to make things work better. Should be interesting to see what the dynamic is for future weeks; my feeling is that Kahn TF is kinda bland but not too hard, while Barracuda SF is simply horrible. So my prediction is that most of my heroes and rogues will get a Notice of the Well in the upcoming week, whereas pure villains will miss out unless they Go Rogue.

Here's my suggestions (none of them are by me):

Forget the Rose, Send Me the Thorns (#8925) V45-54 (seconding Eva's recommendation)
Help a CoT mage with his love life. Oh, and save the world. Comedy.

Why Do Bad Girls Like Bad Boys? (#63910) H41-54
Help a villainous Lothario solve problems with his love life. Romantic comedy.

The Dead and the Damned (#87912) H11-14
Help an unlikely couple get together, against the backdrop of a supernatural gang war.

Mon 1/31/2011

Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blaster) joined a 5 player team in Talos Island that did 4 hero tips and a morality mission (not mine, but counted as a 5th hero tip).

Fire Emerald (21 hero fire/mental blaster) joined a 4 player Synapse TF. Despite being small, it was a very nice team that moved through the TF quickly, finishing in 1h 55m. This got Fire Emerald to level 25; this seemed like a lot of exp, which made me realize that double exp was still going.

This realization prompted me to join a late night Citadel TF, which went pretty well, but I was very sleepy by the end. We finished in 1h 21m and got Fire Emerald to level 27.


Tue 2/1

Double exp finally ended, only to be replaced by the "weekly strike target", which caused a veritable STF/RSF frenzy.

Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blsater) joined an STF with a team mix of:

fire tank
fire brute
2 blasters
2 scrappers
rad controller

This seemed much too little support to me, and I offered to switch to a debuffer, but the team leader thought we would do fine and started the TF. Despite being a weak team mix on paper, we had very good players and did quite well. The fire brute tanked the patron AVs with no source of CM/ID and subsequently used a raptor pack to fly-tank Lord Recluse. Ironically LR gave us the most trouble after we killed the 3 towers (red/yellow/green), where he was still mean enough to kill our melee a couple times, but we managed to drop him eventually, finishing in 52m 44s. I got a notice of the well, essence of the incarnate, and nearly half a million inf for finishing (bonus inf/exp for the strike target?). This let me upgrade her Musculature Core (DMG/IMMOB) Boost to a Musculature Partial Core Boost (DMG/IMMOB/DEFDEBUFF and +1 level shift).

I immediately played Police Woman on another STF with mostly the same players. I was skeptical about re-doing the TF but a few others were also re-doing it for badges. This run had a lot more debuff and went faster, finishing in 40m 42s. I found it rather weird to see mobs that con blue to me on the STF. I got an Endoplasm HO and the Assistant badge.

After that I played Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corruptor) on an RSF with heavy debuffs, finishing in 27m 55s and getting Essence of Incarnate and Notice of the Well.

Did another RSF playing Mega (50 villain SS/will brute). Our whole team mapserver disconnected during mission 2 (apparently this was a bug with the level shift boosts) and we had to re-do Kronos. I was the lead brute and suffered an embarrassing death to the Vindicators due to underestimating their alpha strike, but did fine tanking the Freedom Phalanx. Finished in 32m 49s for a Notice of the Well and Essence of Incarnate.

Some friends were playing lowbie villains, and I restarted Arrow Girl (formerly an arch/nrg blaster, but I had kinda lost interest in that) as an arch/TA corruptor in the Rogue Isles; joined a 3 player team to get to level 3, then solo'd Kalinda's story arcs to get to level 5.

Police Woman solo'd the hero morality mission, gaining 50 merits; I had actually expected to get a hero merit since I had confirmed hero alignment once before, but I guess this is the first confirmation since switching back from villain side, so it reset whatever internal counter it had from before and gave me reward merits. I hit the inf cap at Wentworth's again and emailed myself another 500M inf.


Wed 2/2

Millie Volt (50 villain elec/elec brute) solo'd a rogue tip; I'm thinking I want her to Go Rogue (again) so she can join the high end hero TFs. My impression is that elec armor does better on STF, Kahn TF and LGTF (due to the high energy resist) than it does on the RSF or ITF, so being hero aligned would be better.

Star Amethyst (50 hero dark/ice defender) joined a speed ITF. We tried a new strategy on the last mission that the team leader had heard was used on Champion server: clearing the two towers first, before attacking Romulus. On Romulus we killed Romulus, then 2 Nictus, then Romulus again. This did seem to be a noticable speed improvement, saving travel time and leveraging the cut scene time, and we finished in 17m 35s (not a record for us, but still fast).

Schadenfreude (50 villain AR/pain corr) joined a RSF. This started off kind of rough, and I managed to die to minions twice early on (due to just plain carelessness, I think), but I got better by the later missions and the team beat the Freedom Phalanx on the first try. Finished in 31m 25s, and I got an essence of incarnate and a notice of the well. Schadenfreude upgraded her Spiritual (RCHG) Boost to a Spiritual Radial (RCHG/HEAL) boost, mostly from converting 16 incarnate shards (I didn't really have any of the right ingredients, just tons of shards). I finished the night soloing her villain morality mission for 50 reward merits, starting the Countdown to Frenzy timer.

Submitted for your consideration:

A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force (#260284)
Travel to a faraway land of samurai and ninja.

Tue 1/24/2011

Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blaster) helped a 4 player team beat Babbage.

Fire Maiden (50 hero SS/fire brute) did a speed ITF in 22m 4s, took merits.

Mayday (50 villain fortunata) did a speed LGTF in 24m 2s, took the hero 1 DNA.

Yuki-Onna (50 villain ice/cold corr) did an RSF in 31m 55s; we were support heavy and DPS light, but did fine. Got a Centriole. I used Yuki's free respec to make her I19 compliant:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.90
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Yuki-Onna I19 respec: Level 50 Science Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Ice Blast
Secondary Power Set: Cold Domination
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Ice Bolt -- 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: Infrigidate -- Achilles-ResDeb%(A), LdyGrey-Úm(39), ImpSwft-Dam%(39), ShldBrk-Úm(46), HO:Lyso(48), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(48)
Level 2: Ice Blast -- 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 4: Ice Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(29), LkGmblr-Def(37)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-ResKB(37), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
Level 8: Freeze Ray -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(13), Lock-Rchg/Hold(13), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(15), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(15), Lock-%Hold(17)
Level 10: Glacial Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(29), LkGmblr-Def(37)
Level 12: Ice Storm -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(39), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(40), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Posi-Dam%(42)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-ResKB(33)
Level 16: Frostwork -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(17), Numna-Heal/Rchg(34), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Numna-Heal(36), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(48)
Level 18: Bitter Ice Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(19), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 20: Arctic Fog -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(23), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(25), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(25), RedFtn-Def(27), RedFtn-EndRdx(27)
Level 22: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(31), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFtn-Def(33), RedFtn-EndRdx(33)
Level 24: Hover -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(34), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 26: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 28: Benumb -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(34), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 30: Snow Storm -- P'ngTtl-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(A)
Level 32: Blizzard -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(43), Posi-Dmg/Rng(43), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 35: Sleet -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 38: Heat Loss -- P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(46), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(46)
Level 41: Shark Skin -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), ResDam-I(42), ResDam-I(42)
Level 44: Hibernate -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 47: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A)

This gets Yuki-Onna soft-capped to range DEF with decent resists (32% sm/leth, 22% fire, 54% cold, 15% energy). Dropping the old fitness pool let me take Super Jump, Frostwork and Snowstorm.


Tue 1/25

Playing Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blaster), I started a hero tip mission, but couldn't find the last debutante to rescue. Ended up giving up on that mission and switching to Rain Dancer (50 hero storm/archery defender) for a 6-player ITF; despite being short-handed, we had a very strong team and finished in 29m 22s. I took the ancient nictus fragment.


Wed 1/26

Fire Maiden (50 hero SS/fire brute) solo'd 3 hero tip missions; I got an Obliteration (DMG/RCHG) and a Positron's Blast (ACC/DMG) recipe as drops. I also picked up the Steel Canyon explore badges, getting the Canyon Carver accolade and 5 merits and unlocking the teleport beacon for my private SG.


Thu 1/27

The double exp weekend got a head start on Thursday. I played Maid of Awesome (41 hero sonic/rad corr) on a RWZ raid; the raid really struggled, probably because we had a lot of lowbies (admittedly including myself). We had a raid wipe to Ukon Grai, but beat him after regrouping. I got level 42, 205 vanguard merits and 2 reward merits.

Kyrie Eleison (20 hero archery/fire blaster) joined an 8 player Sisterhood team on the Shadow Seed story arc, which got her to level 25.

I was soloing rogue tip missions as Spy Girl (41 rogue MA/ninj stalker). Some friends wnated to team up, and I ended up leading a 4 player team through 5 rogue tips, and we also beat up a Lord Recluse EB as part of a team member's patron arc. We ended up merging with another team, and I switched to Water Lily (38 rogue rad/storm corr) for another 3 rogue tips and a paper mission, which got Lily to level 39.

After the team broke up, I solo'd Spy Girl's morality mission, getting her to level 42 and 30 merits for confirming her rogue alignment. I had actually thought confirming alignment was worth more merits than that, but apparently it's only 30 for the first time, then goes up to 60 after that.

Sarcasm Lass (13 loyalist sonic/mental blaster) solo'd a Praetorian mission to get to level 14.


Fri 1/28

I took the day off from work for double exp weekend, suffering a little guilt for taking a day off just to play video games...but not that much guilt.

Virtual Girl (26 rogue kat/fire scrapper) joined a 7 player team in Nerva. We were very light on support; I tried pulling occasionally, but usually someone would either rush in, or immob the mobs before they could get to us. We ended up having a team wipe against Longbow and another team wipe to Arachnos. Nevertheless got to level 29.

Maid of Awesome (42 hero sonic/rad corr) did an ITF on a squishy, low level team. This was pretty much the story of the double exp weekend -- everyone wanted to play their lowbies for exp, resulting in underpowered teams. We had a team wipe at the end of mission 1 to the ambush, but had managed to get Sister Solaris to the altar before dying, so the mission completed anyway. In mission 3 somehow the team split up between attacking the Phalanx computer and attacking Romulus and Requiem directly on their platform, resulting in another team wipe. After recovering from that, we focused on the PC but had another team wipe due to being overpowered by the last robot spawn. Final mission went okay though, finishing in 1h 3m for 26 merits and level 43.

Maid of Awesome went on to join a mission team in Peregrine Island; we ran some radio missions and a Peregrine Island safeguard, where we beat up a Black Scorpion AV. Then did part of the Unai story arc and Maria Jenkins' story arc, defeating Infernal, Marauder, Chimera, Nightstar, Bobcat and Neuron. This got Maid of Awesome to level 46; I also got an Apocalypse (DMG/RCHG) recipe drop. After the team broke up, I crafted and slotted 6 Numina and 6 Red Fortune IOs for extra range DEF; this got Maid's range DEF up to 27%.

Kyrie Eleison (25 hero archery/fire blaster) solo'd the Midnight Squad arc, getting her to level 26. After that, I formed and led a 6-player Sister Psyche TF; this was a very strong team with veteran players that steamrollered all opposition. Highlights were one player saying "Pile of dead bodies...yup, our team has been here" and a team member asking "What happens when you pour baking soda on a sonic freak? You get Arm and Clamor." Finished the TF in 1h 18m and got Kyrie to level 28.

Shield Maiden (43 rogue fire/shield scrapper) joined a RWZ raid; all teams were full when I arrived, so I rounded up all the people who were still LFT to form a new team. The raid was a bit of a mess, and we died and had to hospital a lot. Quite often we were getting overrun by Rikti magi. We finally seemed to get the upper hand against the Rikti when the shields came up and kicked us off the ship. I got 207 vanguard merits and level 44. After that I crafted and slotted a set of 6 Red Fortune for an extra +2.5% range DEF and +5% recharge.

Kyrie Eleison (28 hero archery/fire blaster) joined an 8 player Synapse TF. We were very heavy on support and so I went all-out on doing damage, spending most of the TF in scrapper-lock (and actually surviving, mostly). It was neat to see that some of the new Praetorian tech maps were used in the TF. Finished in 1h 48m and got to level 31.

Tour de Force (31 hero ff/nrg defender) joined 7 player team for part of the Midnight Squad arc. The team was totally lost in Oranbega when I arrived on the scene, and I got to use Recall Friend to round people up. I was the only support toon and ended up occasionally using repulsion field to save squishies from aggro, which was kinda neat. This got Tour de Force to level 32.

For some reason I conceived the need to have a blaster with Inferno, so I started a new fire/mental blaster, re-using the name Fire Emerald (which I had previously held, but had kicked to another server to make space some time ago). I solo'd newbie missions to level 4, then went to Pocket D and started soloing Baby New Year missions. Beating Snaptooth (an elite boss) was nearly an entirely level each time. This got Fire Emerald to level 6.


Sat 1/29

Maid of Awesome (46 hero sonic/rad corr) joined a pickup Kahn TF. The leader was using speed TF tactics but the team really wasn't able to handle that; we had a pretty poor tanker who had poor aggro control, and suffered 5 deaths by the second mob spawn. At that point I questioned whether the team could actually handle this TF due to our poor performance so far, and got kind lectured on having a negative attitude. During mission 3, after the initial boss was defeated, the leader and the tanker left to go to the next mission, apparently assuming the rest of us could finish the mission quickly. But none of us actually had stealth, so we had to clear the whole mission to find the last glowy. In the final mission we stealthed to Reichsman, but had poor aggro control when fighting him; twice he attacked the squishies on the team (causing a couple of us to ask the tanker to start taunting), and two other times the tank got stunned and died. I think our team mix maybe was a little off; we had 3 rads on the team for support, and probably would've been better off switching at least one of those for a kin or emp. Despite these misadventures, we managed to finish in 39m 42s.

The same team wanted to do a STF and I initially didn't want to join, basically saying I wouldn't do an STF with the same tanker, but the team agreed to do some personnel switches; the tanker from the previous TF switched to a defender, another player switched to tank, and I switched to Mystery Girl (50 vigilante emp/pistols defender). With more buff and debuff and better aggro control, this TF went a lot smoother. Finished in 1h 11m and got a Nucleolus SHO. This team also did something I hadn't seen before: stacking vengeance by having one person call a 3, 2, 1 countdown, then having everyone press Vengeance at the same time. This worked much better than the other method I've been seeing, where someone teleports the body (which now causes everyone to lose target on it) then have everyone try and retarget and Vengeance.

Maid of Awesome (46 hero sonic/rad corr) joined a 6-player Numina TF; we had no serious issues and finished in 1h 10m, getting Maid to level 47.

I rerolled Marcia Law to a newbie pistols/dark corr to join the new Gun theme team that was just starting. I think there were three nearly-full teams on Saturday night. We started off trying to attack a Winter Lord, but this went poorly as he would keep spawning frostlings that were MUCH higher level than us. After wiping to the Winter Lord a couple times, we gave up on him and started on Praetor White's missions. With double exp and a big team, we leveled very fast. One player commented "There is just something about a guns character that needs a hat of some kind," which I think was true; my character and most of the others had hats as part of the costume, it just looks right with the guns. After finishing Praetor White's arc, we did the first Cutter Cain mission, then called it a night, having reached level 11. I like dual pistols and I like dark miasma, but I'm not sure whether I like them together yet; we'll see.

Mercy Beaucoup (50 hero ice/kin corr) joined a Tin Mage TF. We actually had a tough time against the War Walkers in the first mission, with a lot of deaths. The leader had us try a rather strange strategy against Director 11, where everyone spawned Shivans and HVAS and stuff, then had everyone try to fly above Director 11 hoping the pets would take him out. This didn't work, partly because most of the players weren't hurting Director 11, and partly because some of us couldn't fly. We eventually beat him, but didn't get the Dodger badge. In the final mission we pulled to get Neuron solo; we were able to defeat Neuron (and his clones) and one war walker that ambushed us without getting Bobcat or the other war walker involved. Then we pulled the second war walker and killed it, then charged Bobcat to finish her off. This was slower than the "get 'em!" strategy I normally see used, but seemed safer. Finished in 1h 6m.

Fire Emerald (6 hero fire/mental blaster) was soloing in Kings Row, picked up a level 3 scrapper and eventually grew into a 6 player team that did missions in Kings Row and Steel Canyon, including a Kings Row safeguard. While doing this I met a brand new player (everyone seemed very supportive of our newbie, who had to be guided on very basic things that most of us take for granted), and made a new global friend; this was cool. This also got Fire Emerald to level 16.

Shield Maiden (44 rogue fire/shield scrapper) did a late night ITF, finishing in 1h 6m and getting a Ragnarok (DMG/RCHG) recipe and level 45.


Sun 1/30

Virtual Girl (29 rogue kat/fire scrapper) joined a full team doing paper missions, which got her to level 33.

Kyrie Eleison (31 hero archery/fire blaster) joined a full team that did Kelly Nemmers' and Buck Salinger's story arcs in Croatoa, saving Salamanca and unlocking the Katie TF. This got Kyrie to level 36.

Fire Emerald (16 hero fire/mental blaster) did a Posi 1 TF; we ended up wiping to the Circle of Thorns ambush in the final mission, but otherwise did OK. Finished in 1h 31m and got to level 21.

Kyrie joined an unsuccessful RWZ raid; I got a bomb and GM credit, but the raid wiped out 3 times trying to take the bowl of the Rikti mother ship, before giving up. Got 98 vanguard merits.

Teal Serpent (48 villain archery/traps corr) joined a RSF. I mistakenly thought I was joining a LGTF and was waiting in RWZ for quite awhile before the leader told me they were wanting in Grandville. Once I joined the team, it seemed to me the team was very weak; we had a level 40 tanker, which I thought would prevent us from starting, but it turns out he actually had enough exp to be level 45, and simply had not chosen to train (saving it for when he unlocked a patron pool). The rest of the team was 2 blasters, 1 stalker, 1 dominator, me as traps corruptor, a sonic controller and a dark corruptor. I really thought we would have to kick the tanker and get a new one to start the SF, but surprisingly we were able to start even though he hadn't trained to 45. We had not enough support and poor aggro control. Our dark was complaining vocally in team chat and the team leader asked me if I would be upset when the dark corr quit; I told her it would depend on the situation, and truthfully, I didn't think we would be able to complete the SF either, but I was still there because I thought it would be rude to just quit. This got an "ouch" from the leader. We got through the first few missions just fine, then in the final mission, we tried to pull the Freedom Phalanx members. We were able to successfully pull Manticore to the entrance of the mission and kill him, but then had 6 straight pulls where we got 5 or so heroes at a time and died. I think we probably needed both a tougher tanker/brute and better buffs/healing. After that a couple members quit and we gave up. This was pretty demoralizing; I probably should've brought a stronger toon and/or insisted on a stronger team mix at the start. Teal did get to level 49 along the way.

Finished the double exp weekend with another late night ITF on Shield Maiden, finishing in 53m 30s and getting her to level 47.

Over the course of the weekend I traded endless grief with friends who were spending the time farming/PLing versus my insistence on playing on teams and TFs. There is no doubt that they got more exp and levels, and probably suffered less frustration, but despite ending up on a mix of both good and bad teams, I'm still convinced I had the richer play experience.

But then I'm stubborn like that.

Way to go Nebulhym!

Thanks American Legion for running this fun contest

My main character can run in high heels over rough terrain while laying down automatic fire at Nazi vampires and giant robots.

Tue 1/18/2011

Shield Maiden (42 rogue fire/shield scrapper) did the first villain respec in a speedy 8m 13s, getting to level 43. Followed that with a speed ITF; I had some trouble surviving the cysts in mission 2 due to weak AoE defense. In the last mission we tried a new technique against Romulus, where we killed Romulus (he eats one Nictus AV rezzing), then killed the other 2 Nictus AVs, then killed Romulus again. This was for sake of speed, and it did seem to be a faster method than killing Romulus 4 times in a row; possibly because we skip the downtime waiting for Romulus to rez. Finished in 20m 10s and got 26 merits.

Indigo Ifrit (50 villain fire/rad corr) did a speed RSF; we had no problems, finished in 28m 14s and got a Nucleolus HO.

Blond Justice (50 hero broadsword/shield scrapper) did another speed ITF, doing the same kill Rom/kill 2 Nictus/kill Rom tactic, this time finishing in 19m 11s for another 26 merits. Followed that by soloing 4 hero tip missions from the tips that dropped on the ITF, and helped kill the Kraken in Perez Park for 2 merits.


Wed 1/19

Mercy Beaucoup (50 hero ice/cold corr) joined a pickup ITF. The team was rather weak, with low DPS and an inability to stay together, and the leader was initially on +3 difficulty, so we died a ton during mission 1. No one had an actual rez power, so I got to use my "kin rez" (a crafted Resuscitate temp power) a lot. The leader turned the difficulty down to the default after mission 1, then we managed to more-or-less get through the rest of the TF, aside from a stalker teammate deciding to AFK for most of a mission. Finished in 1h 9m and got 26 merits.

After that Mercy joined the kin superteam for some Praetorian AV missions, beating up Neuron, Battle Maiden and Black Swan.


Thu 1/20

Mayday (50 villain fortunata) did 5 rogue tips on 4 player team. A nice corruptor from this team helped me duo the Honoree and Holtz to finish Mayday's Alpha Unlocked arc.

Kyrie Eleison (19 hero archery/fire blaster) duo'd one vigilante tip, then joined an AE pickup team. The leader originally wanted to do a farm but I managed to talk her into trying my Teen Phalanx Forever! story arc instead. She actually liked it! This got Kyrie to level 20.

Playing Mega (50 villain SS/will brute), I formed and led a pickup ITF. We had a lowbie stalker who died a lot and a FF controller who never actually bubbled anyone (he had the powers, he just never cast them...not sure what the point of being a FF toon who doesn't bubble is, though), but despite that, we finished the ITF without any serious problems in 40m 32s. I took the ancient nictus fragment.


Sat 1/22

I did an I19 respec for Mega. She previously had taken all 4 Fitness powers, and dumping Fitness pool let me take Superior Conditioning, Physical Perfection, Strength of Will and Resurgence. None of these 4 powers are especially amazing (except maybe Strength of Will; considering I started carrying around trays of oranges for bad situations, I'm starting to believe SoW may be better than I thought), but none of them needed to be slotted very much, which worked out well.

After the respec, Mega has 56% lethal RES, 45% lethal DEF, 60HP/s regen (no enemies in range) when using the Cardiac Radial boost; or 53% lethal RES, 45% lethal DEF, 51HP/s regen when using the Spiritual boost (which also increases her attack rate). Despite the better resistance and regen of the Cardiac Radial boost, I'm leaning towards using Spiritual for the extra DPS. I'm not too worried about dumping Cardiac's ENDRDX for Spiritual's RCHG (which drains END faster) due to having 4 stamina-like powers in Mega's build.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.90
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Mega I19 respec: Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: Super Strength
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Presence
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Punch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(5), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(7)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam(34), Heal-I(36), Heal-I(37)
Level 2: Haymaker -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(9), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(11), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(11)
Level 4: Fast Healing -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(19), Numna-Heal(19)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 8: Knockout Blow -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(13), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(13), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(15), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 12: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(21), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(21), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(23), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(23), Zinger-Dam%(27)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(40), Numna-Heal(42)
Level 18: Mind Over Body -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(39), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RctvArm-ResDam(40)
Level 20: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(37), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(45)
Level 22: Rage -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(40), HO:Membr(42)
Level 24: Kick -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(25), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(25), KntkC'bat-Knock%(27)
Level 26: Hurl -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(43), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Apoc-Dam%(45)
Level 28: Heightened Senses -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Rchg+(39)
Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam(31)
Level 32: Foot Stomp -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Oblit-Úm(34)
Level 35: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 38: Strength of Will -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 41: Superior Conditioning -- P'Shift-End%(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- RgnTis-Regen+(A)
Level 47: Provoke -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(48), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(48), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(48), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(50), Zinger-Dam%(50)
Level 49: Resurgence -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(42), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(45), KntkC'bat-Knock%(46)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(46), Numna-Heal(46)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(17), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(50)


After that, Mega did a 7-player ITF in 20m 31s and got an ancient nictus fragment. So far I like the new build.

April Fool (50 villain thug/TA mastermind) did an RSF which went very smoothly despite having 2 players new to the RSF. I played April mostly because I'd seen a couple other MMs on previous RSFs have trouble getting around with pets in tow, and I wanted to see if I could do better. Despite having pets and no stealth, I seemed able to run through the RSF missions without much trouble; eating a couple purples, setting pets to passive and simply not caring if the pets died (resummoning when I got to where I needed to be), seemed to work for me. Finished in 35m 12s and took an Essence of Incarnate.

Shield Maiden (43 rogue fire/shield scrapper) joined a 7 player 1st villain respec. We had one 2-boxer who sat at the contact. Speeded through it in 8m 50s.

Mega joined a clear-most LGTF that went straightforwardly, finishing in 54m 8s. I took a Hero 1 DNA and crafted a Spiritual Radial boost (RCHG/HEAL) which boosted Mega's HP from 2556 to 2591, and her regen from 51/s to 55/s. Solo'd 5 villain tip missions after that.

I finally dropped Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blaster), my main character, from Liberty Force, my old SG, due to that SG being inactive for...well, a few years now. I added her instead to the personal hero SG I had started. I guess there was nothing really wrong with the old SG base (I still have an alt in that SG so continue to have access), but earning prestige for the new SG pushed me into making the leap. I need prestige to build a nicer base. After making the jump, I solo'd 5 hero tip missions.


Sun 1/23

Tour de Force (30 hero FF/nrg defender) joined a Dam Heroes (Posi 2) TF. We had a good team mix; only real issues were, our leader got disconnected for one mission, and a warshade teammate bailed on the team midway through, not quite sure why (ran out of time I guess?). Nevertheless we finished in 1h 15m and got Tour de Force to level 31.

Playing San Min (50 hero MA/will scrapper), I solo'd through The Hydroponic Psychotropic Freak Out!, a villainous single-mission AE arc where you basically are beating up peaceniks for Arachnos. The story was not exactly deep, but the dialog and objectives were good, and the hippie custom characters worked for me. I think if the arc were longer, the joke would've worn thin, but 1 mission was just right. I gave it 5 stars.

I joined the level 2 peacebringer PvP event on Justice server, and participated in 3 matches. The first one was mistakenly set with "no travel powers" and most people quit out, but I stubbornly stayed and fought it out with people. Got called a cheater a couple times for using inspirations and arena temp powers (mostly web grenade - it works really well if you web grenade a flying peacebringer, then cut off fly so you can follow their plummet, then tag them after they suffer falling damage), but I don't think anyone was too serious about it. Despite these cheater powers, I never actually won a match, but it was good fun.

Finished the night on a pickup Statesman TF. I was asked to bring a tank, so I played Strong Woman (50 hero inv/SS tanker). Our team was low on DPS but heavy on support, and didn't have any serious problems. Against the patron AVs I got to jump in and tank all 4 at once; I was a little paranoid about getting held, but the kin kept a decent amount of ID on me. Against LR I flew and taunted him from above, and we killed all but the blue tower before killing Lord Recluse himself. Finished in 57m 45s; I got a Numina's (END/RCHG) recipe drop and took an Endoplasm HO as reward.

Added: The Hydroponic Psychotropic Freak Out! (#1960) V1-54, should be 25-50
Beat up hippies for Arachnos. Parody, single mission.

Source: recommendation from MA Arc Finder channel.

Fri 1/14/2010

Kyrie Eleison (10 hero arch/fire blaster) formed a Rule of Three (Posi 1) TF, though I handed over the star to a higher level character before we started. We died a lot to the CoT in Oranbega, the Vahzilok in Dr Morben's office, and the CoT again in the final mission, mostly due to getting swamped by ambushes. Despite this we finished in 1h 9m, getting Kyrie to level 14. After that I joined a 5 player pickup team that defeated a level 21 Protean for the Singular Vision badge.

Yuki-Onna (50 villain ice/cold corr) joined a RWZ raid, picking up 4 shards and 600 vanguard merits, which I used to buy the salvage storage sack and a Gr'ai matter. This let me craft and slot a Spiritual boost (RCHG). A second raid started and looked to be struggling, so I brought Mystery Girl (50 vigilante emp/pistols defender) over to help, but I never got a team, so I left after picking up 2 reward merits for tagging Ukon.

Mercy Beaucoup (50 hero ice/kin corr) joined an ITF that finished in 1h 7m, getting an ancient nictus fragment and 4 shards.

Teal Serpent (47 villain arch/traps corr) did the Welcome to Vanguard arc, then joined a late night RWZ raid for 381 vanguard merits and got to level 48.


Sat 1/15

Mystery Girl helped farm EoEs in Peregrine Island for that night's Hami raid with a 2-team force. I ended up with 6 EoEs. After that I joined a team doing the Maria Jenkins arc; we killed Nightstar, Bobcat, Neuron, Battle Maiden, Black Swan, Malaise, Mother Mayhem. I both started and ended with one AV to go on Dimensional Warder; you'd think that keeping all the notes that I do, I would know which AV I'm missing, but I'm really bad at that and have no idea.

Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blaster) messed around in Warburg for a bit, tangling with people freeing scientists for nukes; I got 2 kills and died twice.

Mystery Girl joined the Hami raid (empaths seemed in demand). I ended up on a scrapper assault team; there seemed to be some loose aggro from one of the yellow mitos, resulting in some deaths. We cleared the initial spawn and one bloom of mitos, then the raid leaders dropped LOTS of nukes and the raid powered through the last 2 blooms. We ended up killing Hami in a blazing fast 12 minutes after entering the goo. I took the 53 merits as reward.

Tour de Force (29 hero ff/nrg defender) joined a Citadel TF that finished in 1h 48m and got her to level 30.

Mayday (50 villain fortunata) solo'd 2 of Fortunata Hamilton's arcs for 2 merits each; this finally allowed her to get Ramiel's arc. So, confirmed that the special VEAT story arcs will block the Alpha Unlocked arc. I managed to solo Trapdoor by killing all his clones and forcing him into the lava; haven't finished the rest of the arc yet though.

Mercy Beaucoup joined a 7-player speed ITF; basically 6 melee and me as kin. Finished in 26m 41s and got 26 merits, 4 shards.


Sun 1/16

Mega (50 villain SS/will brute) joined an RSF. We had a team wipe on the final fight with the Freedom Phalanx, but managed to drop Numina and Sister Psyche before dying; we beat the rest of them up on the rematch. Finished in 46m 26s and got an Essence of Incarnate and 5 shards.

Spy Girl (40 rogue MA/ninj stalker) joined a Citadel TF. I got to stealth/TP the team around a lot; I'm like having Recall Friend on a stalker, it makes me feel more useful on TFs. Finished in 1h 18m and got to level 41.

Olivia Q (50 hero MA/SR scrapper) joined a LGTF. I've already respec'd her for I19 but it seems like I was constantly running out of END, and eventually decided to leave Tough and Weave off. They were unnecessary anyway, the team had enough maneuvers that I was soft capped even if I left all my toggles off. I may need another respec to dump the overkill defense powers and improve her END. We cleared most of the LGTF, except for stealthing the last mission, finishing in 1h 36m. I got a Hero 1 DNA and 5 shards.

Olivia Q went on to do a Kahn TF in 42m 31s; this time we had a kin so I didn't have any END issues. I got a dimensional keystone and 3 shards.

Kyrie Eleison (15 hero arch/fire blaster) joined a team to fight off a Rikti invasion in Atlas, which got her to level 16.


Mon 1/17

Spent most of the day working out an I19 respec for Police Woman (50 hero AR/dev blaster). Unlike most of my other toons, my main character mostly ignores defense and instead focuses on getting capped HP with good RCHG and DMG, and I continued this trend in my I19 build. I changed the slotting in my attacks to add procs for more damage

I had a hard time deciding on 3 powers to take instead of Fitness; for "natural" concept reasons I won't take a travel power or Hasten or other really super-powered looking powers. I ended up taking Sniper Rifle (which I previously hated because of the lengthy interrupt time), Smoke Grenade (used to like this power, but respec'd it out a couple years ago) and Grant Invis (purely as a mule to hold a fifth LotG +7.5%, but I might use it once in a while).

My resulting build gives me 1606 HP, 101.25% recharge, +30% damage and despite ignoring defense, +16% range defense. I doubt anyone else would use this kind of build (it's both expensive and has a lot of weird personal choices), but I'm liking it so far. I tested by clearing the Cimerora wall for a bit. Watching the combat spam, I see the procs fire a lot, making me think they add a lot of damage; the purple proc easily doubles Burst's damage each time it fires.


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.90
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Police Woman I19: Level 50 Natural Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Devices
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Burst -- Achilles-ResDeb%(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(3), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(5), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Apoc-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- GravAnch-Immob(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(23), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(23), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(25), GravAnch-Hold%(25)
Level 2: Slug -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(9), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), ExStrk-Dam%(11)
Level 4: Buckshot -- HO:Centri(A), HO:Centri(13), HO:Centri(13), ExStrk-Dam%(15), Posi-Dam%(15), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 6: Aid Other -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Numna-Heal/Rchg(31), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Numna-Heal(36), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(36)
Level 8: Caltrops -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 10: Targeting Drone -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(39), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(39), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(40), GSFC-Build%(40)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 14: Aid Self -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(27), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(27), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Dct'dW-Heal(29), IntRdx-I(31)
Level 16: M30 Grenade -- ExStrk-Dam%(A), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(17), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(19), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(19), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), Posi-Dam%(21)
Level 18: Beanbag -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(43), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(45), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(45), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(46)
Level 20: Cloaking Device -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 22: Taser -- Amaze-Stun(A), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(43), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(46), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(48), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(48)
Level 24: Resuscitate -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 26: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 28: Tactics -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(40), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(42), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(43), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(46)
Level 30: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 32: Full Auto -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(33), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(33), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Posi-Dam%(34)
Level 35: Sniper Rifle -- Mantic-Acc/Dmg(A), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Mantic-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(50), Mantic-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(50), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 38: Smoke Grenade -- HO:Lyso(A)
Level 41: Body Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(42), S'fstPrt-ResKB(42)
Level 44: Surveillance -- UndDef-Rchg/EndRdx(A), UndDef-Rchg(45)
Level 47: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Grant Invisibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- HO:Micro(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(36), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(37), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(37), P'Shift-End%(37)


While at Wentworth's, I found that the "Get All Inf" button does not check to prevent you from losing inf to the 2B cap. While carrying 1930M inf, I did a "Get All Inf" which collected influence packets of 19M, 30M, 23M, 20M, 25M, leaving me at exactly 2B, effectively deleting 47M inf. Oh well. This seemed clearly a bug, so I submitted a bug report; no idea whether they will do anything about it. On the bright side, having hit the inf cap, I emailed myself 500M inf.

Another player was asking on LB for people to send him influence to invest in his market flipping enterprise, promising a guaranteed return after 1 week. This seemed rather suspicious to me (anyone really good at the market wouldn't need to ask people for money) but a friend vouched for him, and I ended up investing 200M inf. I figured, I can afford the inf, and worst case, I lose the inf and get a good story to tell. To my great surprise, this other person repaid me 300M the very same day, with a level 10 Gladiator's Javelin (ACC/END/RCHG) IO as a "bonus" for helping him out; apparently his investments paid off faster than he thought.

Maid of Awesome (41 hero sonic/rad corr) help a 4 player team beat up a Winter Lord in Steel. The leader wanted to try the Lord of Winter; one person left, and I said I didn't think we had enough, but ended up trying it anyway. With 3 players (2 tankers and me as a debuffer) we were doing visible damage to the Lord of Winter, but could not handle the aggro from the Northern Lights who ended up pinging myself and the lower level tank down.

Virtual girl (23 rogue kat/fire scrapper) joined a team in Pocket D doing Lady Winter missions. I died a lot due to being weak against cold damage, and we had a couple team wipes, but we ended up beating Lady Winter twice and doing a Baby New Year mission once, getting Virtual Girl to level 25.

After that Virtual Girl joined a Rule of Three (Posi 1) TF. In the final mission, one of the teammates was trying to get us to leave one hero unrescued, to control when the big ambush would spawn, but we ended up rescuing them all and just fighting the ambush. Finished in 42m 9s.

The same team wanted to do the Dam heroes (Posi 2) TF, and I switched to Kyrie Eleison (16 hero arch/fire blaster) for that, finishing in 59m 16s. This left me near the top of level 18 and I ended up soloing a little to get to level 19.

Yuki-onna (50 villain ice/cold corr) joined a RSF. We had some bad luck as one player, a mastermind, disconnected at the beginning of mission 4 and never returned, then when we attacked the Freedom Phalanx, two people (including our "tank", a shield brute) had some sort of weird client problems preventing them from controlling their toons. We beat Numina under these conditions, but lost most of the team doing so and weren't making any headway on the next hero. The leader called for a retreat, the two people with client issues rebooted the game, and we won on the second try with the 7 people we had left. Finished in 47m 17s and I got an Essence of Incarnate and 5 shards.

Olivia Q (50 hero MA/SR scrapper) duo'd with another scrapper for 3 hero tips.

Police Woman solo'd Krusaders Adventures, an AE story arc where you meet various members of the author's supergroup and fight crime. Each mission was okay, but the plot didn't connect them together very well, so it felt more like a series of radio missions than a story. I ended up giving it 3 stars.

I doubt there is a conspiracy or anything ... having your arc at 5 stars naturally makes it more visible on the search engine, which generates random plays from players. Some of those players may decide they like your arc, while other players may decide they hate your arc. Since most "random" plays are not people you personally know and aren't in some sort of 5-star voting cartel with you, they are less inclined to 5-star your arc even though they may not particularly like it.

So, essentially, being higher profile gives your arc more opportunity to find players who don't like it.

It seems to me that your response to low ratings has been to either publicize it more (in hopes more people will 5-star it) or publicize it less (in hopes that fewer people will torpedo it).

Purely in my opinion, you would be better served to fine-tune your arc using the feedback people have been providing in an effort to improve the overall quality of the arc. Then when you get random plays, this would give you a better chance to earn a 5-star rating from them instead of a low rating.