RemusShepherd

This is a role-playing observation, not a gameplay complaint. I'm happy with the gameplay.

I wanted my Ice tank to have Mako's Arctic Breath. It would fit perfectly into his character concept. So I figured that I'd move him redside, do Mako's patron arc, and move him back to blueside again (because the character concept *is* a hero.)

This would be the first character that I would have taken from hero to villain. (I've brought several back the other way.) I decided there were two ways I could roleplay his brief stint as a villain. I like the idea of him going undercover to infiltrate Arachnos, and a lot of his villainous deeds could be staged to trick Arachnos into accepting him. Alternately, he could be having a short mental breakdown during which he did some bad things while learning some new powers, like a vision quest gone bad.

I did not realize how bad.

At the moment he has finished 8/10 villain tip missions, causing him in the process to slaughter 'countless bystanders' at a parade, throw 'countless CoT' into damnation, destroy the souls of 'countless partygoers' at a Carnival of Souls bash, and also murder a new superhero and his aged aunt. Whoever wrote these arcs likes the word 'countless', and hates Aunt May, I'm guessing.

While I applaud the devs for giving us missions with *real* villainy for a change, it makes it difficult for me to rationalize my tank's conversion back to the light side. There's no redemption for a mass-murderer on this scale. Especially if I read the well-written after-mission texts that talk about how you rationalize your killings. It's also making me look sideways at any blueside villains I see, wondering if, before they became heroes, their bodycounts were in triple digits or 'countless'. The legal system in Paragon seems pretty lenient on genocidal maniacs.

I'm big on character concepts but not so big on roleplaying in CoH, and this is why. You have to perform some screwy mental calisthenics to make any character's plot arc in this game believable.

Right now I'm ready to consider the entire blue->red->blue arc to be a fever dream that happened to my tank while he was in a coma, or something.

Anyone have any other roleplaying ideas on how I could justify the descent and redemption of my hero?

I just wanted ice breath...I didn't want to hurt all those people...

This is not my best character bio, but it is a recent character of which I'm proud. He's an Inv/SS tanker whose name should be obvious:

***

Hi citizen!
My name is Adolf Chattanooga. (Yeah, yeah!)
You know, the honor's all mine
to save this city from crime.
I'm from a far off world where everybody is shy.
Your planet's much more fun, I thought I'd give it a try.
But when I picked a label,
my license to enable,
your last sixty years of speech was untranslatable.
So now I am known
as hero Adolf Chattanooga. (Yeah, yeah!)
My language should be now fixed,
with an occasional glotch.
My voice is strange because it's from a box in my throat.
In fact, the Adolf android's piloted by remote.
I'm safe aboard my saucer,
Watching over all, sir.
But I'll beam the droid in whereever there's a monster!
I guess I'm still shy,
even as Adolf Chattanooga. (Yeah, yeah!)
But in my alien way,
I'm here and saving the day.
Yes, any hero would say,
I'm here and saving the day!

***

I've soloed Trapdoor on all my characters, if I recall. Only one had any problems -- the MA/Regen scrapper. I jumped into the fight with scrapperlock on, ignored my health, and got him to a sliver of health before I died. Totally surprised me. I took round 2 without breaking a sweat.

The Honoree, on the other hand, is impossible for some character builds. My knockback-specialized AR/Storm corruptor could not defeat the Honoree, no matter how many inspirations he swallowed. My defenders also had some severe problems; it might have been possible, but I decided to get friends. Controls -- both hard and soft -- are worthless against the Honoree, as are To-Hit debuffs, and that negates a lot of strategies that are valid everywhere else in the game.

No biggie, though. I don't mind if there is content that my character cannot solo. Even Superman has kryptonite.

I'm sorry, guys. I should just let this thread die, but you're misunderstanding me so completely that I feel the need to make myself plain.

Money is not the problem. It affects how I'll reslot him, and it eliminates the option of high-priced builds (including permaDom), but I know that I'll be able to afford the basics for my guy. I even know how to do it. Check my start date; this is not my first rodeo.

The problem is the playstyle. I don't remember it, and even if I did it won't play the way it did before. I wanted some assurance that Grav/Psi is still fun to play, and maybe some hints on how to play it.

For example: I took my guy for a short spin the other day and remembered his solo attack chain. I'd Wormhole (if it was up) a group of mobs, then run into the midst of them, hit PSW, Drain Psyche, Soul Drain, then PSW again, then clean up whatever was left with Subdue and Mind Probe and more PSW. If anything got near me I'd hit them with TK Thrust (which is slotted for knockback) and throw holds and (unslotted) Crush. Domination and Phase Shift (!) were my emergency buttons.

That attack chain is no longer valid. PSW does not recharge fast enough, and no longer has a 100% chance for stun (is that correct?). TK Thrust is now a damage attack that is wasted for knockback. The attacks I didn't take (Lift, Propel) now look like the best available.

I haven't remembered how he plays in a team yet. He has 6-slotted Psionic Lance. I think I stood back and threw Lance and Subdue, and went into my solo chain if anything got close or if I needed endurance. That's a laughable strategy now -- level 50 content is too full of enemies to rely on a sniper attack. I honestly don't see what my guy brings to a team. Certainly not control -- all he has is Wormhole and the single-target hold. I don't think he contributes much to damage from range, either.

More importantly, the level 50 game has gotten a lot more dangerous, and I don't know if a character with zero defenses can run into a horde of mobs anymore, even with Drain Psyche. I have never played a Blaster who worked at melee range. I have a scraptroller; she has capped S/L resistance and some defense, not to mention her controls, so she can survive in melee. I do not know how to build a melee Dominator. ('Scrapinator'?)

This guy was, somehow, a scrapinator. Probably because he was relying on the broken PSW. It don't work like it did no more.

So what is a successful play style for a Grav/Psi dominator? Probably one using the powers I haven't taken or haven't slotted. If I had played him up to 50 in the current era I'd have discovered the correct attack strategy for him. But his current attack strategies are suicidal and unfun.

I don't know how to respec him until I have an idea of which powers and strategies to rely upon, and that's why I came here. But there probably aren't many Grav/Psi players around to give playstyle and build advice.

It's probably best that I shelve him. Don't worry too much about it. One dominator retires; another one rises in the ranks. It's the circle of life.

Any ranged archetype that starts with Fire/, or most melee archetypes that start with Spines/, will be great AoE characters. The ranged ones will do more damage, while the melee ones will be tougher.

Another option you may consider is the villain epic archetype Crab Soldier. A crab is almost all AoE with a sprinkling of pets, team buffs, and durability. Your damage is a little less than a fire blaster but you're almost as hard to kill as a scrapper. It's a nice option for more advanced players who want to spray AoE death everywhere.

It's just you.

My Kin/Energy defender is probably the most powerful character I have. I pull her out whenever I want to be sure that we'll have zero problems on a task force.

She's probably the second hardest-to-play character I have. (The Regen scrapper is just as clicky but less forgiving of mistakes.) I think that I would need seven fingers on each hand in order to play her perfectly. But she does well enough with my piloting her. All her teams live at the damage cap, have infinite endurance and ignore status effects. What else can a team want?

Also, Fulcrum Shift + Nova is one of the most beautiful things in the game, if your video card can handle the flying bodies.

I have a level 50 Grav/Psi dominator that I retired some years ago. Now that there is content for level 50s to do, I'm tempted to play him again. But there are some issues.

First of all, he's dirt poor. He was retired before merits existed. He has only the IOs I could afford with infamy, and has a savings of about 4 million inf left over. I could mail him a cash infusion from my other characters, but obscenely priced items are not going to happen.

Second, his build is totally *****. He did not have stamina; he relied on Drain Psyche and Dark Consumption for endurance. He has end slotted all his attacks, with no thought to recharge and little for damage. And worst of all, the entire /psi powerset has been radically changed from what it was before, so I'm questioning all his power picks. I mean...4 PBAoEs and no status protection? His only defense is Stealth? I'm not even sure what to do with a character like that.

I'm a big fan of learning how to play an AT by actually playing it. But this isn't the guy I played up to level 50.

So I'm asking for opinions and advice. Is it worth it, do you think, for me to puzzle out a build for this old relic, just so I can play it like a clueless newbie? Or should I leave him in retirement, give up on the /psi powerset, decide that he's not worthy of being an incarnate, and go play my other level 50s instead?

I just worry that it's going to be a lot of work and a lot of inf to get this guy playable again, and his concept and powersets may not be as fun as they used to be.

I've been trying to get published for a few years now. I've never heard the word 'database' used in regard to queries or anything else.

The traditional path is you query an agent, who then talks to a publisher. You can also query a publisher directly. In general the author doesn't interact with an editor unless 1.) A publisher has already given you a contract, and wants you to work with one of their editors, or 2.) You're paying for a freelance editor to look at your book before the query stage. (That latter scenario is almost always a scam.)

It sounds to me as if your friend met a freelance editor who isn't going to do any actual work for him, but who is pointing out the steps he must take. A freelance editor -- if paid -- would correct the manuscript for the author, and they never to my knowledge involve themselves with queries. Maybe one would critique and edit a query, if paid to do so.

Check to make sure he's not paying this 'editor'. If not, your brother may have just found a mentor who is trying to teach him the ropes...but if you do everything for him it's not going to help anybody.

Yesterday I saw the movie known as Tangled, although the full title is X-Men Origins 2: Rapunzel -- Code Name Tangled, or something to that effect.

Minor spoilers below.

Tangled follows the standard plotline of mutant awakening and rebellion. Rapunzel's main powers include her magical hair that heals, pulls heavy weights and dries instantly without a hair dryer. But they overloaded too many powers on Rapunzel in the film version. Beyond her mutant hair, she also has the typical X-Men powers of exceptional strength, intelligence, and fighting skills, and in addition to that they gave her the Disney princess power suite of extraordinary beauty, luck, the ability to command animals, and the power to walk through miles of uncharted forests in her bare feet. With all these abilities, Rapunzel comes across as a protagonist who is never really in danger. She's the Silver Surfer with golden hair.

Serving as her most loyal friend is Maximus, a riveting character of incredible strength, speed, and dedication to duty. Maximus is the best hero in the movie, and I'd like to see him appear in more X-Men films as well as the comic book. Sadly, one of Maximus' mutant adaptations is a complete lack of genitals -- the film makes that very plain -- so the role of Rapunzel's love interest is farmed out to a boring and trite minor character with no powers whatsoever.

The film draws many background characters from the comic books, including a sinister-looking but noble group that were obviously inspired by the Morlocks, and -- in an innovative departure for Marvel comics -- a villain who is a female version of Ra's al Ghul. They aren't enough to pose a threat to the many-talented Rapunzel, however. It would have been much better if Sabertooth or Magneto had shown up, although I'm pretty sure Rapunzel as depicted in this film could have handled them too.

If you don't mind me spoiling a little more, one of my pet peeves with Hollywood adaptations of superhero movies is that they always want to take the superhero out of costume. Tangled commits this error also. When will they learn that superheroes are iconic, and they just aren't as interesting when you take their masks, costumes, or hair away? I understand the urge to make superheroes more human, but we want them larger than life and kicking ***. Well, I'm sure that in the sequel they'll replace Rapunzel's hair with cool metal claws or heat ray vision. Just as long as they don't overdo it.

All in all I'll give it three out of five stars. Children may enjoy this film, although Maximus' lack of genitals may disturb them.

I'm terrible at deciding these alpha slots.

I'd like to get my crab the Spiritual boost for the recharge. But it wouldn't help her get her pets out much more as they're already max-slotted for recharge. Musclature is another choice, not so much for the damage bonus (because she's max slotted there also) but for the defense debuff. But she has endurance problems in long fights, so Cardiac is appealing also.

I think she's going to have several enhancements and swap them out at need. I'll probably solo with the Cardiac, and wear Musculature or Spiritual if she's on a team with endurance recovery buffs.

I've now soloed this arc with my Plant/TA Scraptroller. If she can solo Honoree then anyone can. I ended up not scrapping much -- I threw slows and immobilizes until the EBs stopped moving, then hit them with resistance debuffs and whittled them to death.

Still haven't been hit with this 'Curse' everyone's talking about. I'm beginning to think that it's mythical.

Well, I only have two difficult ones:

Cryomino -- 'cry-om-in-oh'. Just mash 'cryo' and 'domino' together.
Byangoma -- 'buy-ang-oh-ma'. I have no idea how to actually pronounce this. It's a legendary bird from hindu mythology.

Soloed this with my Ice/Dev/Munitions blaster last night.

I cleared the front portals, then set up a minefield and pulled Holtz. She was taken down to half by the mines. I spammed my three single-target holds and put her on ice, then killed her. Piece of cake.

Honoree was a different story. I laid down 8 trip mines and set up a gun drone, then pulled him. The mines cut his health in half and I thought it was going to be easy. But he actually regenerated health while I threw attacks -- mostly holds. Eventually he got close enough to two-shot me. No stuns or sleeps, I was hopped up on break frees the entire fight.

Lesson learned from this round was that Honoree can't be held, at least not by my blaster.

So I went back in, laid down 10 trip mines, and after I pulled him into them I took a big red inspiration and hit Call of Justice, and then threw damaging attacks, no holds. He went down pretty quickly. Sometimes damage is better than control. I love that this character can do both.

As an aside, I don't think I've seen this 'curse of weariness' yet, and I've done the mission on six characters so far, three of them solo. Either the curse is missing me, or my characters' recoveries are high enough that it doesn't bother me. I did run out of endurance with my blaster fighting Holtz, but one medium blue was all it took to finish the fight.

I think you should also note the effects of debuffs.

Defense debuffs are common, and are not naturally resisted unless you have a power that specifically resists them. All tanker defense sets have a defense debuff resistance power in them, if I recall. I'm not all other ATs do, and the ones with debuff resistance have lower values.

More importantly, resistance debuffs are resisted naturally by resistance: If you have 90% resistance, you also have 90% resistance to resistance debuffs. This gives tanks a very strong advantage against resistance debuffs, as their cap is much higher and their base resistance values are larger. A scrapper at his cap of 75% resistance will feel 2.5 times as much debuff as a tanker at his cap of 90%.

These incremental factors -- higher health, layered defense and resistance, much better debuff resistance -- all combine to make tanks much more hardy than other ATs.