RemusShepherd

Welcome back. As has already been mentioned, the Empathy powerset is as strong as it ever was, although players now respect its buffs more than its heals.

You might find that your /Psy secondary is much better than it used to be. Psy really, really sucked when the game was released. Since then they've improved both the casting times and its damage, and it's on par with the other defender attack sets now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: YOU are the Coming Storm. All the echoes in the first incarnate mission talk about how you have misused and gotten drunk on the power of the Well. The Coming Storm is a future where you, the player, have gotten too much power and destroyed everything.

That gives heroes a perfect opportunity to avert the Coming Storm, by learning humility and self-discipline.

...I'm kind of at a loss on how villains will prevent the Coming Storm, but I'm sure the story writers will decide on a motivation for us.

...went to Disneyworld, and saved *them* from orbital halberd bombardment. Goofy even thanked my catgirl with a kiss. I'd show you pictures, but Hamidon ate my camera.

Paragon Studios should sell 'lifetime' subscriptions, with one twist: They should announce that the 'lifetime' will be only 5 years, and they will spend the money they get from the subs to develop CoH2 during that time.

Given that situation, I'd buy two subscriptions. (I only have one now, but I'd like to encourage them to develop a new game.)

There's a lot of talk and a lot of guides about how Spines/Fire and Spines/Dark are the AoE champions in the scrapper world. But I was looking to make a new scrapper, and I thought Spines/Electric might be just as good. It would have almost all the AoE damage as /Fire and /Dark, but without any of the crippling endurance problems, and some nice benefits of its own such as the global +recharge in Lightning Reflexes.

Does anyone have experience with a Spines/Electric they'd care to share? Does the combination work? Is the aggro you generate with your AoE attacks too much for your electric armor to survive?

Just to throw another monkey wrench into this mangled conversation...

I expect the primary reason that the Lore pets are all praetorian is graphical. They are the latest enemy groups created, they are fully enabled for ultra-mode, so they have the most animations and on high end machines they look the best. If the intend to attract new players, they want new content to roll-out with their best stuff. If the devs are eventually planning on upgrading all the art, then any non-praetorian content they use is going to have to be upgraded as well. Why not use only content that won't need revisiting?

In hindsight, what they should have done is introduce more variety of enemies in Praetoria. There are zero fantasy-based enemies. The Praetorian storyline is almost entirely composed of science, tech, and natural elements. So of course it clashes with fantasy, magic, and mutant-based heroes. That missed opportunity is coming back to bite them on the spandex briefs.

My suggestion -- use the floating swords from the Apex TF. They're reasonably fantastical, and can be retconned by the player as magic, tech, or their own telekinetic mutant powers.

I would tolerate a delay for more variety in Lore pets. I don't want a delay, but I would tolerate it. It would make the game better. I want it now, but I can be patient if the end result is improved.

My advice is to not think of a Dark Armor tank as a 'tank'. Think of it as a Melee Controller. Most of your mitigation is not from your armors, it is from debuffing and status effects on the enemies around you.

This is easiest to achieve with a secondary that has reliable mitigation in its attacks -- /Ice, /Dark, /Axe, /Mace, or /Stone. (I probably forgot one or two.) /Fire is not one of those secondaries. There's nothing wrong with a Dark/Fire tank, it's just not as controller-ish as other Darks.

The purpose of Dark Armor (and all armors, really) is to reach what Arcanaville called the 'Immortality Line', where the damage coming in is not enough to balance the healing you get off of Dark Regen and your natural healing. Once you hit that point, Dark Armor is the best ever, anywhere, period, because by definition It Cannot Die. But it takes some effort to reach the Immortality Line.

Tough gets you near the S/L hardcap, and a Cardiac boost and/or some IO slotting will cap you. Kinetic Shield and the Wedding Ring will give you super-tanking powers for short periods of time. Grab all the +endurance and +recovery IOs you can find -- Numina's, Miracle, Performance Shifter, Theft of Essence -- you will need them. I've heard good things about the Stupefy: Chance for Knockdown IO in Oppressive Gloom, but I haven't tried it yet myself.

And aside from all that, you have to be patient. Dark/* will take a while to mature, and it will cost a lot in IOs to make into a real monster tanker. I think it's worth the trip, but it's not an easy road.

Strikeforce: Morituri.

Change the invading aliens to Rikti and you've got the plotline for City of Heroes: 2.

The most recent iconic characters I can think of aren't from Marvel or DC. Empowered (2007) is probably iconic, but not as widely known as she should be. Certainly Girl Genius (2001) is iconic and widely known. Other indie titles that created iconic characters might be Witchblade (1995), Hellboy (1993), and Lady Death (1991). I certainly think Spider Robinson (1997) qualifies, and another Ellis book, Doktor Sleepless (2007) *might* fit.

The big two comic publishers haven't created many new characters lately. They prefer reviving old characters. Marvel had Gravity (2005) who was doing well as the new Spider-man -- young, powerful, and irreverent -- but Marvel being Marvel they killed him off rather than let the character grow. Marvel also tried introducing Machine Teen the same year. And there's Skaar, Son of Hulk (2008)...Marvel has been desperate to attract the angsty teen demographic, it seems.

For DC, well, there's Jack of Fables (2002) -- he's very iconic, but not as a superhero. I don't think OMAC (2005) makes the cut. Doomsday (1992) is probably their most recent iconic super-powered character.

I give all my toons a Numina. It's 2 A merits, that's no problem at all.

Those with endurance problems also get a Miracle +recovery.

Those with *severe* endurance problems, and/or those with a crash nuke, get a Performance Shifter +Endurance. That's actually a relatively cheap IO.

I only have the Regen Tissue on one character. I think it was a drop.

Not every character needs every one of these IOs. If they did -- as in, if they were unplayable without them -- then it might be a big deal. But I usually don't IO out my characters until level 50 anyway, and by then they usually have 100 million and a couple A merits anyway, so it works out.

IO late in your character's career, and only the ones that you need, and you'll be fine.

When building new characters for the Animal Pack, I was surprised to find that both 'Echidna' and 'Electric Echidna' were both taken.

I eventually went with the name 'Cyberparrot'. Yes, altitis is a humiliating disease.

In the past I've been lucky enough to grab names like 'Sponge', 'Catdroid', 'Shriekling', and 'Spillover'. I'm still holding 'Imager' and 'Gnawer' for when I have concepts to fit them, but maybe I should let them go...

I'm calling the Hulk right now. His title is now the 'Hulks', plural, with Son of Hulk and Red She-Hulk and other lesser hulks filling out the cast. He's surplus to requirements right now.

The great thing about Thunderous Blast is that it can be slotted for endurance drain. That makes it into a ranged AoE power sink that saps all the endurance out of an entire spawn...which means they can't hit back, at least not for a few seconds. TB and Blizzard (which can shoot around corners) are the safest nukes a blaster can use.

But I agree that the -recovery should be removed from most or all blaster nukes. They're already balanced by the endurance crash and the very long recharge time.

Hey, when they give out these free packs, they're actually giving out codes that anyone can use, correct?

I think I'll go to the party, and if I win a code I have some poor friends who I know will appreciate it as a gift.

Hmmmn. I have a character on Virtue named Hyeness who would be perfect for this party. Her costume is the wildest thing I've ever done in the game.

But I have money and I want to buy the pack, to support the studio.

Should I attend, or should I not...hmmn...

I just wish that I could buy the pack the same day they were giving it away to other people. Then it would be an easy decision.