Robotech_Master

[ QUOTE ]
One question, why isn't this simply called the Powerlevel guide? Granted, you don't super-explicity lay out character builds and techniques, but you do mention enough to get people started on the path.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, if you look at the list of links to prior editions at the end, you'll see the first edition was in fact called a powerlevelling guide. But then I expanded it to include more techniques that couldn't really be considered powerlevelling--tips on playing smart but not cheesily--and calling it a "powerlevelling" guide was not entirely accurate anymore. Also, the word "powerlevelling" has taken on such negative connotations that naming the guide for it would be unnecessarily confrontational--akin to trolling. So I named it my "Rapid XP Gain and Debt Loss" guide instead. I only wish there was more space in the subject line so I could write out the complete name.

Honestly, what I've found is that the difference between "powerlevelling" and just playing smart (or, as I call it, "poweradventuring") is mostly just one of degree. You can team with someone four levels higher than you and not do anything while they clean house, or you can team with someone just 1 or 2 levels your senior and help out. You can herd hugely for a team full of bridged lowbies, or on a smaller scale for just your own solo self. You can disband a team at the start of a mission then reinvite everyone to snag a series of quick end-of-mission bonuses, or you can quick-solo the missions to grind for yourself. If you're going to address the one, you might as well address the other while you're at it.

And finally, once I'd done that, I also wanted to talk about some of the same questions I've seen popping up over and over in various threads discussing powerlevelling and why people did it or didn't like it--and I also wanted to warn people away from the more "illegitimate" methods. In this way it became more than just a how-to guide, but more of an overall FAQ covering as many aspects of the practice as I could think of. Maybe in the next edition I'll rename it from a guide to a FAQ--but then, it's both a FAQ and a guide at the same time, so I don't know.

In the next edition, I'll probably revise some of those sections just a bit based on some of the comments I've been getting here. I probably could stand to be a bit more clear on how double-boxing isn't such an illegitimate technique; I lumped it in with the less legitimate ones because they all share the common factor of spending more real-world money to improve your standing in the game.

Hey, whoa, people, don't make me turn this thread around. I didn't go through multiple rewrites to try to be fair to both sides of the PL'ing debate just to have people invoke Godwin's Law and get the thread locked. Please keep it civil with as few invocations of genocidal nutcases as possible, okay?

POWERLEVELLING HALL OF SHAME

This section looks back at rapid XP gain techniques that used to work, before the developers added patches to make them less possible.

1) "By Grabthar's Hammer, You Shall Be Avenged!" or "Stop Dragging My Corpse Around"

From v3.0 of the Guide:

There is a trick that I have heard described on City of Heroes forums using Vengeance, the fourth power in the Leadership power pool. Not a toggle like the first three Leadership powers, this is a click with a fairly lengthy recharge time that is activated by using it on a fallen team member; it immediately provides big Defense and other bonuses to the still-living members of the team. (Note that the power description suggests it has to be used when the person who has the power dies, but this was changed in beta and is no longer accurate.) I have not actually seen this power in use, but do plan to get it eventually and try it out.

The trick involves getting two or more people with Vengeance and at least one with Recall Friend on the team and and inviting a lower-level player (within the 9-level XP window) to the team. The lower-level player is then allowed to be defeated, and left that way--he does not revive, just lies there. Before each battle, the teleporter recalls him to their current location, then the two party members with Vengeance take turns (to ensure continuous group coverage) casting it on their fallen companion. The team is then able to beat up enemies remarkably effectively, and the defeated lowbie gets the debt worked off and then powerlevelled very quickly.

This technique will no longer work in Paragon City itself due to the new XP Range/dead XP gain timeout system introduced in I4, which means that dead characters will no longer receive any XP for group kills within a short period of time after dying. The XP range/death timer change is not in effect within missions, but most missions are small enough that the Vengeanced lowbie may not even work off the debt he took from dying, let alone gain powerlevel-worthy XP. However, there is nothing preventing a below-level-10 player from joining the team just to die; he will not earn any XP, but he will not accrue debt from the death either.


2) The Seasonal Event was the Event of the Season!

From v3.0 of the guide:

Every so often, City of Heroes has a Seasonal Event (related to holidays, anniversaries, and so forth) whereupon hordes of special mobs show up and start attacking the city, special temporary powers may be granted, and badges are given out. Some of these events can be lucrative powerlevelling opportunities.

For instance, the Winter event that took place over several weeks in January, 2005 featured a frequently-spawning Giant Monster named the Winter Lord. The Winter Lord would appear in the vicinity of five or six preselected spawn points per zone, get killed, and then spawn again right away. Unlike most mobs, Giant Monsters are worth a specific amount of XP per level, that does not change as the level of those who fight it goes up or down. This meant that if the Winter Lord was worth 2,000 points (note: I'm making these numbers up for the sake of the example; I can't remember exactly what the WL was worth) to a L50, he would also have been worth 2,000 points to a L20.

He would also have been worth 2,000 points to a L1, except that the devs had recently added a stricture that the maximum amount of XP that a character could get from any one kill was limited to 5 bubbles' worth at their current level. However, this stricture meant that a low-level character really didn't have to do that much damage to get his maximum benefit of XP out of a given monster. If a low-level character was limited to, for example, 200 XP points from a single kill, he (or his team) only had to do 1/10 of the total damage capacity to a 2000-XP Winter Lord to get the full benefit out of it. Up to about level 10 or so, it was quite possible to earn one level per two Winter Lords killed...and by the end of the event, Winter Lords were spawning in droves all over the place.

An awful lot of new players (and alternate characters of old players) were levelled up into their 20s on Winter Lord XP. The howling of the anti-PL contingent on the web boards could surely have been heard all the way over to World of Warcraft.

The developers have stated that the Winter Lord's cornucopia of XP was a big mistake, and one that they do not intend to repeat. As it is now, giant monsters provide little enough XP for the time that they take to put down that they tend to be considered not worth fighting.

It should also be noted that earlier, before the devs had emplaced the 5 bubble limit for monster XP, high-level players were able to get low-level players several levels of XP at once by fighting monsters in Peregrine Island with them.


3) "Just follow your nose! It always knows!"

From v3.0 of the Guide:

Much fuss has been made on the boards about Kora Fruit missions and Phase Shifting. Detractors are claiming that, the way Phase Shift currently works, Kora Fruit caves amount to a free pass to powerlevel; others reply that there's nothing wrong with Kora Fruit caves as they are now and powerlevellers are a relatively tiny percentage of the people who make use of them--and leave my Kora Inspirations alone, if you please.

For those who haven't yet reached level 40, a little explanation may be required. Kora Fruit is a kind of vegetation that grows in certain caves in the Shadow Shard, a set of zones restricted to level 40-plus heroes. Once you've done a couple of missions for Dr. Boyd, your second contact in the 'Shard, you will be introduced to a Dr. Huxley (located in Mole Point Charlie in the Cascade Archipelago). Dr. Huxley will send you on a never-ending chain of missions to gather Kora Fruit in caves (full of Rularuu, the zone's primary mob faction) that may have anywhere from 1 to 15 fruits in them. The fruits appear as "blinkies" in these missions--and in addition to fulfilling a mission goal, each blinkie you click gives you a 50%-effectiveness (that is, the largest of the three possible sizes of) Health, Endurance, Damage, Accuracy, or Defense Inspiration, provided you have room in your tray to receive it. A cave may contain all the same kind of fruit, or some of each of the five; Dr. Huxley will say which when the mission is offered.

Where the controversy enters into this is that it is possible to click on blinkies (and receive fruits) while Phase Shifted. Thus a character who has the Phase Shift power can go into a Kora Fruit cave, phase shift, and walk merrily around picking fruit for as long as his Endurance holds out while the Rularuu whiff ineffectually at him. Not only does the shifter get the 50% Inspirations essentially for free, he also gets the end-of-mission XP bonus--which is what the detractors focus on. It's XP for free, they say, available in a constant and never-ending stream. (NOTE: Dr. Boyd will give you a stream of "examine the monument" missions, another form of "click the blinkie" which you can do while phased--however, these are interspersed with "rescue the scientists" missions which do require fighting, so are not as reliable as fetching Kora Fruit.)

The problem with this theory is that doing one's own Kora Fruit missions with the hope of levelling really takes too long to be effective. Even assuming that you've worked up to be able to call Dr. Huxley instead of having to visit her in person, and even leaving aside the time it takes to travel from mission to mission in the Shard (which is one of the most difficult-to-travel areas in the game for anyone lacking teleport and/or flight), the XP-per-minute of soloing Kora missions simply isn't an effective way of powerlevelling. If you divide the end-of-mission XP bonus by the five minutes or more that it can take to clear all the fruits out of one of those twisty-turny caves, you begin to see that you can get much better XP by doing ordinary missions or just by street-hunting.

Of course, if you gather together four or five phase shifters in one place, and concentrate on doing the kora missions of the highest-level member of the group, missions can be cleared faster and the lower-levels can get the magnified end-of-mission XP for completing a higher level mission. But even so, I have my doubts that this XP gain is much (if any) more lucrative in terms of XP per minute than simply doing missions the old-fashioned way (such as the Flynn missions I will go over in a few paragraphs) with the same group.

That being said, I have a hard time justifying the ability to click blinkies while Phase Shifted. It seems like a pretty solid recipe for exploitation. While the exploitation is relatively benign (top-tier Inspirations for free, hoorah), I still wouldn't be surprised if, sooner or later, the devs take away the ability to click blinkies while phased.

Shortly after Update 3 went into effect, the developers added a "defeat boss and his minions" requirement to Kora Fruit missions. This meant that the missions could no longer be completed without combat simply by collecting all of the fruit; a boss and minions had to be defeated as well. This may not necessarily be an obstacle to rapid completion by large teams; part of the team could go to the end and take out the boss while the rest collects the fruit (especially if they use the disband-and-scout trick discussed in "Farming the Newspaper" in the Powerlevelling section). Still, it requires more time and effort than the old way.

This change is actually a good thing for people who consider the availability of the fruit, rather than the end-of-mission XP bonus, to be the primary benefit of these missions--now they can collect every fruit in a mission without worrying about ending it, instead of having to leave one as in the past.


4) "Monster Ranching": Let's Get Kraken!

From v3.0 of the Guide:

For players in the 36-42 range, there is one source of XP available that is better than any other I have yet seen in the game. There is a monster who can be defeated who has the potential to be worth, depending on character level, literally hundreds of thousands of XP per defeat. Better yet, six of these monsters can be found together in one place! Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, in some ways it is. I am referring to the infamous Abandoned Sewer Trial, otherwise known as the Hydra Trial. For this trial, it is necessary to get the mission from Maren MacGregor (trial contact 2 on this map) in Founder's Falls, traverse miles of Hydra, Rikti, and Circle of Thorns-infested sewers, defeat 150 Rikti there, get out of the sewers and back to Founder's Falls, then get all the way back into the heart of the sewers again--and that's just getting to the start of the actual trial itself! It can be a daunting task, but there are ways to make it easier.

In Update 4, the XP from Hatched Krakens was cut by 90% or more; reportedly the end-of-mission XP bonus has been increased to compensate, but I have not yet been able to complete the trial since I4 so I do not know if this is true, or if so how much the increase was. At any rate, it is no longer farmable for huge quantities of XP the way it was through I3. Also, though not directly related to using the Hydra Trial for powerlevelling, the loophole that allowed Controllers to hold the Hydra Head through the forcefield was closed.


5) Herding: Rikti Portal Milking

Whereas I5's defense cuts and target caps have reduced many forms of herding, the only one that has been made completely obsolete is:

Rikti Portal Milking was mentioned in a response by Humanist to a previous version of this guide. It is based on the fact that Rikti summoned through a portal created by a Rikti Communications Officer are worth full XP value for mobs of their type (unlike the demons summoned through demon-summoning portals in certain Circle of Thorns missions, which are worth nothing). Read the post for a complete explanation, but the technique involves aggroing every Communication Officer on a Rikti map ("The best way to aggro them is to simply walk up next to them unstealthed (but with other non-taunt defenses on), wait until they start the portal animation (won't take very long at all), then get out of there."), waiting 10-15 minutes (during which time you should defeat the groups of Rikti that have no Communications Officer to free up mob count), then going back and taking out the mobs that have teleported in while you were waiting. If you've done it right, enough mobs should have teleported in to hit the limit of the maximum number of mobs that can be generated in a single mission--and as you go around defeating the ones that have come in, more will spawn from the remaining Communication Officers as the count is freed up. Humanist points out:

[ QUOTE ]
Since the groups coming through are entirely minions, they give better xp/time than herding an 8-man wolf mission (once the killing starts). Also, it's unnecessary to gather a large team for these, both because the minions are easier to kill than the mixed groups and because the number of members you bring in does not affect the maximum number of mobs the mission can contain.

[/ QUOTE ]
I have not had the opportunity to test this technique myself, but the theory sounds solid. The only caveat is that, considering the amount of time you have to spend as a whole (in terms of setting up the spawns), the XP/minute may not be as good as you could obtain by other methods.

In Issue 5, Communication Officers' portals were adjusted to spawn only a set number of Rikti, and in I6 the Rikti were changed to be worthless with the XP value in the portal instead.


6) Miscellaneous

These other changes have also been rolled into the main guide itself, but since they fall into the area of closing powerlevelling loopholes, they merit a repeat mention here:
<ul type="square">[*]I3: Addition of ranged Disorient powers and mission timers to Wolf-herding missions in 40-50 arcs.[*]I4: Implementation of XP range/character death XP gain timers to curb powerlevelling in Paragon City areas: characters must be within 300' of a mob and dead for no longer than one minute to receive XP for the mob's defeat; these changes are not effective within missions (including outdoor missions).[*]I5: Phase Shift, Quantum Flight, and Nebulous Form have all been given limited durations (30 seconds to 2 minutes) of effectiveness, meaning that high-low game powerlevelees will have to rely on other means to keep safe. The devs seem to feel that these powers were intended only to be used for emergency escapes, not slipping harmlessly through entire missions and obtaining hard-to-reach badges. Also, Defense levels are cut across the board (with mob accuracies also decreased in partial compensation) and caps are placed on the quantity of mobs that can be affected by AoE powers.[*]I6: Enhancement diversification makes everyone less effective; XP-earning level spread is contracted from up to 9 levels to up to 4 levels and must be no more than 2.0 levels below team average.[/list]

POWERADVENTURING

This section is for some play tips that I've found help me earn XP (or earn off debt) reasonably fast when I'm interested in doing it without deviating from my ordinary play style. These aren't so much "tricks" as they are slight changes you can make to the way you already play. Some of these may seem like common sense, others you may not have thought of before; I encourage people to add their own to the discussion thread I hope this starts and I may collect them into a future revision of this guide.

The biggest key to levelling fast is also the most obvious: AVOID XP DEBT. XP debt is negative XP, pure and simple. They show it in the form of a brown segment added onto the end of your pink XP bar, but they might as well just have chopped that length off of the end of your pink bar instead for the practical effect it will have. That death has stolen XP from you, XP that you will never get back. Sure, you'll get a pretty badge when you pay off enough of it, but is that really something for which you should strive? Here is a [url=http://city-of-heroes.livejournal.com/1234057.html]LiveJournal post[/a] full of very helpful tips for avoiding debt.

I'm not just mentioning this to state the obvious, but to remind you to keep it in mind when evaluating the rest of the tips in this section. When you plan to put one of these techniques to use (or, indeed, when you plan to try anything in the game), evaluate the situation and ask yourself if using the technique is likely to lose you more XP (in the form of debt) than it earns you. If so, and if your goal is to level as fast as possible, then don't do it.

Here are those tips:

1) "Big Brother/Big Sister"

Search the LFG list until you find a character 1-2 levels higher than you, of a complementary archetype to your own (i.e. if you're support, get a damage-dealer; if you're a damage-dealer, get a Tanker or another damage-dealer, etc.) who is looking for a team. Invite that PC to your party, and, if he comes, do his missions exclusively--not your own. (Needless to say, this also works if you have a friend or SG-mate in the right level range, but you may not be able to find one when you need one, and LFG-find is always there.)

At the core, this is a very weak version of the High-Low Game technique described in the last section; the difference is that you're going to be an active contributor to the team instead of a leech. Because missions spawn at the level of the player whose mission they are (modulo his Difficulty setting), this will get you missions full of yellows and oranges, and perhaps some reds and purples (to you; they'll be the standard white/yellow/orange/red to your partner). Since there are just the two of you, they shouldn't spawn in numbers too excessive for your partner to handle with your help, and they'll earn you more XP than you'd get doing white/yellow missions by yourself. Also, the end-of-mission XP bonus will be that much higher (and since they raised those rewards with update 2, the difference isn't trivial).

The downside is that you'll probably only be doing your partner's missions, because yours will be green and blue (and boring) to him. This could lead to you outlevelling those missions and their becoming green and blue (and boring) to you. (However, the Difficulty system means that this can now be remedied to an extent.)

It is important that you make sure you and the character you invite will be an effective duo; if not, it will just lead to more debt. If you plan to do this, you should slot your attacks with more Accuracy Enhancements than usual so you'll be able to hit the higher-level mobs more often. This technique works best with Defenders and Controllers whose ability to buff or heal the higher-level member of the team is unchanged by the relative level of the mobs he is facing; it is also helpful if one of you has Tactics to help you hit better.

And just to note, even if you don't team with a higher-level character, duoing with an even-level or even a lower-level PC can still be an effective method of levelling without debt, provided that other PC's abilities complement your own. If so, you can be more effective together (and tackle missions at a higher Difficulty setting) than either one of you could alone. Also, the overall principle works for teams larger than just duos; if your character is the lowest-level member on a team that does mostly higher-level missions, he will still get more XP than he would on a team of heroes his own level (though not as much per mob as in a duo).

This technique is less necessary now that the Mission Difficulty adjustment system has been introduced (see the section describing it below), but can still be used to good effect or even combined with that method (by having the Big Brother or Sister set a higher Difficulty on his or her missions).

(A variation on this technique is to be sidekicked to a higher-level player and do his missions; you will be effectively one level lower, just as above.)

2) Safety in Numbers

Fighting higher-level enemies is the most obvious method of being able to earn good XP. But another excellent method is to be a part of a large team. It may seem counterintuitive--after all, XP on large teams is split in more ways, so you get less XP per mob defeated. However, there are three other factors to consider.

First of all, there is an XP multiplier that is applied to the XP given by individual mobs, depending on the number of people who are on the team. The larger the team, the more actual XP is generated by the team, even if it is split more ways.

Second, larger teams are usually capable of defeating enemies faster than smaller teams, which leads to more enemies defeated in the same amount of time.

Finally, larger teams cause more enemies (and higher-level enemies for a team of six or more) to spawn inside of missions, meaning there will be more to defeat, and more XP gained by defeating them.

Combining large teams with the "Big Brother/Big Sister" technique and a good Mission Difficulty setting, can thus lead to rapid XP gain for lower-level members of the party. However, bear in mind that some enemies get tougher out of all proportion to the difficulty setting as the team grows larger--particularly Longbow. It may be better to lower the difficulty for a larger team, lest you risk receiving more than enough debt to offset the XP gain.

3) Task (or Strike) Forces, Care and Feeding of

Task Forces--or at least successful Task Forces--have a reputation for gaining people at least one, and often two levels over the course of an evening's adventuring (at least at the lower levels, where levelling is more rapid; by the 30s and 40s a successful Task Force may earn 9 or fewer bubbles). Why is this? Simple--the Task Force is a series of missions set at a particular level that may be undertaken by anyone up to five or six levels below that. As the High-Low and "Big Brother" techniques show, if you do higher level missions, you get more XP. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive Task Force guide, so I'll just hit the high points of how to get the most XP out of a TF while getting the least debt.

a) If at all possible, put the Task Force team together yourself. This will give you enough control over the quantity, level, and archetypes of the other participants that you can implement the rest of my suggestions. If you don't want to lead the TF, then arrange to promote one of the other players to the leadership slot before you start.

b) Take no more than five members, unless the task force specifically requires that many--and even then, take as few as you can. For most normal missions and TFs (there are exceptions for things like the Abandoned Sewers Hydra Trial; ask an experienced player if in doubt), adding that sixth member bumps all the mobs in the mission up by an additional level of difficulty, and more members than that add more bosses to the mix. This means the TF will take much longer to complete, be more likely to have crucial people drop as they run out of play time, and be much more difficult (and likely to engender XP debt). Note that most Task Forces can be completed with fewer than the minimum quantity of players, so if you wish to do a TF requiring 7 to start with only 5 people, you can have two people join for long enough to start and then drop once the TF is underway. Conversely, if you are experienced and powerful enough to handle anything the Task Force can throw at you, and you don't mind it taking longer and having higher risk of debt, you may wish to go at it with a full team of 8 (as per the "Safety in Numbers" method above). You simply need to decide whether the increased gain is worth the increased risk.

Also, try to be as balanced as possible in your selections; one character per "main" archetype (i.e. one each of Blaster, Controller, Defender, Scrapper, Tanker) has worked very well in Task Forces I've run, but isn't always possible to get; Kheldians can serve as surrogate Blasters, Tankers, or both in turn depending on their build. See other folks' Task Force guides for more suggestions on picking the ideal team.

c) Be aware of your party's Difficulty settings. There are conflicting reports as to what effect Difficulty settings (see the section on Difficulty settings below) have on Task Forces. Some say that only the leader's Difficulty counts; others say it's the setting of the hero with the highest Difficulty setting on the team; still others claim it is an average of the Difficulty settings of all the members on your team. Depending on your party composition, you may want to make sure everyone sets his Difficulty as low as possible, for the same reason that you want to have 5 or fewer members as per b); however, the higher the difficulty, the more experience (and the higher-value Enhancement drops) you will get. If you have a sufficient number of high-level characters who feel they can handle it, you should set to Invincible for maximum XP gain. (This is particularly true if you have a number of characters exemplaring down from higher levels--especially if they are levels 47-50 and kitted out with Hamidon Enhancements.)

d) Make sure most of the party members are toward the high end of the level range (or can be sidekicked that way)--except you. In order to be an effective team, you're going to need some heavy hitters (especially if you have more than 5 members and/or a high Difficulty setting). If you're going on Positron's (L10-15) TF, for instance, at least 3 out of your 5 members should be at least L14. You're going to need that firepower to take down the masses of L15 and L16 mobs as fast as possible with minimal casualties. A Task Force will only help you out if you don't get killed much during it.

Note that since late Issue 4, characters who have outlevelled the Task Force now have the Arena-style automatic exemplar when participating in it--meaning that they do not need to rely on a lower-level character to be eligible, and that they do not get dumped from the Task Force if they or a lower-level character should disconnect. Higher-level heroes who are willing to exemplar for a Task Force with you are generally better and more capable than heroes of your own level, because they will have more slots and better enhancements (possibly even including Hamidon Enhancements) than heroes of your own level.

So, you should have as many high-end-of-eligibility or exemplared heroes as possible on the team. However, in order for the TF to be of the most benefit to you experientially, you should be in the lower to middle part of the level range--either naturally, or, if you must be, SK'd up to it. The ideal level, in my opinion, is minimum-plus-two--12 for Positron, 17 for Synapse, etc. This means you're high enough to be able to land some hits (especially if you've put extra Acc enhancements in your attacks) without having to be sidekicked (and thus lose out on some of that level-based XP adjustment), but low enough to get a lot of XP from the level adjustment. If you can get by without debt, you'll probably earn two full levels before you're finished if you run the TF at this point. This does work better for Defenders, of course, since they're not expected to attack as much. If you plan to do this, you should be sure to put two Accuracy Enhancements in your attacks so you will at least be able to hit the higher-level targets reliably.

(And, of course, this is strictly optional and may not always be possible depending on the situations your team runs into; if your team is getting creamed, you'll take your sidekicking and you'll like it. You'll still end up ahead in the end.)

Done the right way, a Task Force can lead to rapid experience gain (and the SO you get at the end ain't chickenfeed either). Even if you aren't able to apply all of these tips, you'll still come out ahead as long as the Task Force ends successfully.

4) "Want Some Candy, Little Girl?"

One technique that is clever, if obvious in retrospect, involves getting around the limits on the number of Inspirations you can carry by buying them from a street contact located near spawns of tough mobs, immediately popping them, then buying and popping some more, then tackling the mobs while the inspirations are still good. Although I have not tested this technique extensively myself, one poster found that it allowed his Scrapper character to solo crowds of red mobs for good XP gain. It might offer similar promise to other archetypes as well. Even if a Rage is only good for 25% of base (that is, unenhanced) damage, popping enough of them at once will still bring you to the damage cap.

5) The Sliding Scale of Justice

With Update 3, a system for adjusting mission difficulty was introduced; it has been tweaked in subsequent patches. It is only possible to make missions more difficult, not less, because the developers do not want people blowing through their missions too quickly (since it is already possible to run out of missions from all contacts as it is). The more difficult a mission is, the higher-level the mobs are, and the higher the end-of-mission XP bonus is.

Levels are adjusted by talking to a Hero Corps Field Analyst (usually found in the vicinity of a Trainer, as well as a few other spots such as by the Portal Corps sign in Peregrine Island) and paying some Influence to set your "reputation" to one of five levels. This new ability to make a mission more difficult, and thus face higher-level mobs, means it is no longer as necessary to use the "Big Brother/Big Sister" method to get the challenge of, and higher XP for facing, mobs that are higher-level than yourself in missions.

These are the five levels (listed by CoH/CoV name), and what they apparently mean (there are some reports suggesting that these descriptions may not be entirely accurate):
<ul type="square">[*]Heroic/Villainous (formerly Hard-Boiled): The default setting. Foes are 0/+1 of your level. Normal quantity.[*]Tenacious/Malicious: Foes are 0/+1 of your level. Higher quantity. [*]Rugged/Vicious: Foes are +1/+2 of your level. Normal quantity.[*]Unyielding/Ruthless: Foes are +1/+2 of your level. Higher quantity.[*]Invincible/Relentless: Foes are +2/+3 of your level. Normal quantity.[/list]There is a special case involving the Heroic/Villainous setting when soloing. In order to make missions more solo-friendly, named Bosses in solo missions set to Heroic/Villainous will instead appear as Lieutenants with the same appearance, powers, and description. They will still be Bosses as usual for Tenacious/Malicious on up, however.

There has been some discussion about what is truly the most efficient setting for maximum XP gain. The Unyielding setting has the highest quantity of moderately-tough mobs, which means more XP on the hoof for herding and the like. Unyielding mobs are easier to defeat than Invincible, and there are more of them to defeat. However, according to an analysis one player did, counting up the quantity of each type of mob per mission and XP thereof, the total XP per mission is actually slightly higher for Invincible than for Unyielding; the higher level of the fewer mobs combined with the larger end-of-mission bonus pushes its count over the top.

The upshot is that if you are actually completing the missions, you will get slightly more XP for completing an Invincible mission than for completing an Unyielding one. The assumption I made in prior versions of this guide was that since Invincible mobs are harder to defeat than Unyielding mobs, the Invincible mission itself could take a longer period of time (particularly if your main method of damage is AoE), meaning that you would not earn as much XP per minute overall.

However, upon more recent testing, I recognized a factor I had not taken into account before: bosses. The Unyielding setting has a higher quantity of bosses than Invincible. For example, a Freakshow instanced portal mission that has no bosses in its Invincible spawns for a 6-person team will have 1 boss in each spawn on Unyielding. And bosses take more time and effort to defeat--a length of time that is usually out of proportion to the higher amount of XP you get from them. If XP per minute is your goal (for example, if you are herding and resetting a mission), you may find it faster and more lucrative to take out higher minions and lieutenants on Invincible than to take out lower-level bosses on Unyielding.

6) Earning XP the Classy Way

If you want to earn XP as quickly as possible on your current character, the other methods in this guide are for you. But if you are not averse to creating a new character, one of the best ways to level quickly is to make a character from one of the fastest-levelling character classes--characters who are able to use the PBAoE Mass Pull techniques described in the Powerlevelling section while soloing, for example. Being able to manage Hazard Zone-sized spawns of mobs by oneself leads to much better solo XP than a class that can only take out a few mobs at a time. If you've never played such a class before, the difference can be really amazing. Plus, once the character reaches a high enough level, it can easily be used to powerlevel others.

The two fastest-levelling character types in City of Heroes are probably Spine Scrappers and Fiery Aura Tankers. The Spine power set has a variety of AoE and PBAoE attacks of different types, and each of these includes a slow effect. Spines/Regen Scrappers were at one time considered by some to be "the" class for powerlevelling; another possibly good class is Spines/Dark Armor because they have two PBAoE damage toggles (one each from their primary and secondary sets).

Another extremely popular fast-levelling class at one point was the Fire Tanker, who had the toughness to stand amidst a hazard-zone-sized spawn and the PBAoE damage to take them down quickly. Prior to I5, the Fire Tanker was arguably the best powerlevelling class in the game due to Burn, a fire attack that could take out a crowd of enemies while the Fire Tanker did nothing but stand there. Issue 5 reduced Burn's damage, lengthened its recharge rate, and magnified its fear component to make enemies run away when it was used. Issue 6's Enhancement Diversification reduced the amount of damage it could do, as well. Since I5 and I6, the Fire Tanker is still decent, but now requires help from a Controller or Dark Blast Defender for the best use of Burn. The most popular variations include
<ul type="square">[*]Fire/Fire -- Good all-around PBAoE class; early-game Blazing Aura and Burn coupled with Fire Sword Circle and Combustion later on.[*]Fire/Energy -- Energy Melee has the highest single-target damage of a Tanker set; reportedly able to solo monsters and AVs.[*]Fire/Ice -- The Ice secondary provides Ice Patch, which has very good synergy with Burn and helps to counteract the terrorize/Taunt changes introduced in I4 and I5.[/list]See Mephe's Fire/Fire Tanker Guide v2.0 for good advice (though largely outdated by Issues 5 and 6) concerning Fire Tanker building, slotting, and playing, which can easily be adapted to other Fire/* types as well. Also, Yours Truly has written an expanded guide to Fire Tanking in I4 and I5 that you may find worth a look. (I will eventually get around to updating it for I6...judging from past history, probably about the time I7 comes out.)

The changes in Issue 5 have added a formerly unlikely class to the list of possible fast levellers: Controllers. With Issue 5, Controllers received the inherent ability Containment, which allows them to do double damage to held enemies. If you pair a high-damage Controller primary, such as Fire or Ice, with a Defender secondary that includes damage resistance debuffs, such as Radiation, Storm, or Sonic, you have the potential to do a great deal of damage to many enemies at once simply by combining the damage resistance debuffs with the group and single-target holds--and because they're held, they can't attack you back at the same time.

On the City of Villains side, it is somewhat hard to say what the fastest-levelling class is; due to CoV's emphasis on more damage with most of its classes and its reduced travel time, the levelling process in City of Villains is noticably faster overall than in City of Heroes. However, the all-around fastest of the fast classes are probably Brutes and Masterminds.

Brutes are City of Villains's version of Scrappers, but with access to Tanker sets in addition to the usual Scrapper--and with an insanely high 800% damage cap and the Rage inherent to help them reach it. Once they get going, Brutes are basically juggernauts; they may not be true "Tankers" in the CoH sense, but if they can take down enemies faster, the enemies won't do as much damage to them anyway.

Masterminds do not have a City of Heroes equivalent as such; they are the leaders of tiny armies who do (and take) most of the damage for them. They can be a bit slow starting out, but once they have all their minions fully upgraded, they can do insane amounts of damage. Masterminds are good in groups (particularly to have their minions open attacks and take the aggro) but can also solo pretty quickly (though they do have to spend a couple of minutes at the start of a mission getting their pets out and upgraded).

Some Mastermind primary and secondary sets are better than others. Probably the best all-around damager is Robots, who have decent ranged and melee attacks using energy and (for the Assault Bot) fire, and a good chance at disorienting once the final upgrade is in; Necromancy is good in melee and for the sort of control effects that come with Dark Energy power sets.

It is generally agreed that the Dark Miasma secondary power set is one of the overall best values for a Mastermind secondary. Dark Miasma offers the only aura heal available to Masterminds, decent control and damage-boosting powers, and a pet. Force Field is also decent if you don't mind bubbling like a madman every four minutes; the bubbles make your pets a touch more slippery, Force Bolt can knock pesky foes on their backsides, Dispersion Field provides personal mez protection, and Personal Force Field is an excellent debt-avoidance panic button when you bite off more than you can chew.

7) Play to Your Strengths (and Their Weaknesses)

Whether hunting or doing missions, getting the most XP per minute (and the least debt) requires making the most defeats as quickly as possible. To do this, you should start to become aware of enemies' strengths and weaknesses. For example, the two main enemies you will encounter on the streets of Perez Park are Skulls (west side) and Hellions (east side). Skulls are resistant to Dark Energy; Hellions are resistant to Fire. Thus, if you are playing a Fire Tanker and want to find the mobs you can burn down as quickly as possible, you should concentrate on Skulls because they will take more damage from your attacks and go down more quickly. If you are playing a Dark Scrapper or Dark Blast Defender, however, you would be better off concentrating on Hellions.

Some enemies have weaknesses that can be exploited to take them down even more quickly. For instance, Freakshow are weak against energy attacks--so if you have an Energy Blaster or Tanker (or Peacebringer Kheldian), you will find you have an additional advantage in hunting Freakshow or taking Freakshow missions. You should try to avoid, as much as possible, mobs who are strong against your attacks, because they will take longer to take down--and also avoid mobs who have attacks against which you are weak.

8) Rapid Mission Completion

It has long been known that burning quickly through missions you can do over and over could be useful in powerlevelling; the hall-of-shame Kora Fruit and the current newspaper-farming powerlevelling techniques are only the most obvious examples. It is common sense that the more of those large XP awards you can cram into the same amount of time, the bigger your overall XP per minute will be.

However, you don't have to get together a full team and disband it at every mission in order to do this. Repeatable missions can easily be harnessed for reasonably fast XP gain in soloing or duoing. All you need to do is take a mission that you can complete as quickly as possible and repeat infinitely, and then do it again and again and again. If you can stand the monotony of doing the same mission over and over, you can grind out the levels pretty quickly.

As it stands, there are currently three sets of infinitely-repeatable missions in the game: City of Heroes's level-40-plus Shadow Shard contacts (including Kora Fruit), City of Villains's Newspaper, and the PVP zone missions common to both games. (City of Heroes will probably get its own newspaper-equivalent sometime in the next few updates.)

Barring Kora Fruit and Nemesis hostage-rescue missions, most Shadow Shard missions are probably not as suited to this technique as the others due to taking an excessive length of time to complete, even solo. The best missions possible (except, perhaps, for Stalkers) are probably the PVP zone missions because their end-of-mission bonus is something like 25% higher than the same level and difficulty of mission outside of a PVP zone.

A Brute-playing friend swears by the "plant bombs" PVP-zone missions on the lowest (Heroic/Villainous) level of difficulty; with the 500 extra XP from each bomb, spawns of two or three easily-defeated white minions, and no boss to fight (only a Lieutenant), he estimates he can clear out an entire mission in about five to seven minutes or less, meaning he can get in 10 to 12 such missions in an hour. It is also worth noting that the "destroy supply depot" PVP-zone missions are another good candidate, as they do not seem to have bosses in them at all.

Stalkers, or other fighters with good stealth (or a stealth temp power), may find the newspaper missions more lucrative--particularly the "steal item" or "defeat boss" missions, which only require that the last room be cleaned out and do not require leading a hostage back to the entrance. Thus, one can sneak all the way to the end, quickly clear the room (especially on Heroic/Villainous where the Boss will be a Lieutenant), exit, and proceed to the next mission.

These missions are best done on the Heroic/Rugged/Invincible levels of difficulty--the ones that only spawn the normal quantity of mobs--with just one or two people. More people and other difficulty levels will spawn lieutenants or even bosses, making the missions that much harder (especially for the Longbow PVP-zone missions).

9) PVP-zone hunting

No, not hunting for other heroes/villains, hunting mobs. A mob taken down in a PVP zone will provide 25% more XP than the same mob taken down in a non-PVP zone would. As an added bonus for Masterminds, the auto-sidekick to level 25 in Bloody Bay means that they can summon all five of their minion- and lieutenant-class henchmen, even if they would not have access to them yet normally (this only applies outside of missions). Thus, hunting and herding in a PVP zone could be potentially more lucrative than the same behavior in a hazard zone. This is not without some risk, however; if you are interrupted by a PVPer and the mobs you are fighting get the killing blow in on you, you will receive the full non-mission quantity of debt.


DEBT CLEARED FOR EXEMPLARY CONDUCT

Exemplaring has several very handy uses for debt removal. The most obvious is, of course, that by exemplaring, you artifically become a lower level--so you can apply the "High-Low Game" or other powerlevelling techniques to getting debt removed instead of to gaining XP. (Exemplar to a low-level character teamed with a higher-level character; let the higher-level character do the hunting while you earn debt-clearing XP as if you were the lower character's level--as long as you stay within 300' of the mobs, of course.) But there are a couple of creative twists that may not be so obvious, and they are both based on the fact that the "High-Low Game" level-based XP adjustment does not just apply to mob kill XP, but to end-of-mission XP as well. With these techniques, debt doesn't need to be something to fear anymore.

1) A-Hunting We Will Go

I originally stumbled onto this technique by accident. I had taken a mission to hunt Banished Pantheon in Dark Astoria at level 29, and exemplared to some level 22s to get the job done because I couldn't find anyone my own level to help me hunt. When the end-of-mission bonus came through, it was so high that it almost entirely cleared my debt. This was when I first realized that when you exemplar down to complete a mission, the game thinks you completed a mission as many levels higher than your own level as the number of levels you exemplared down. Not only does the entire experience reward go to debt-busting, but it is also multipled by two to three times or more over the amount it would otherwise have been--and since XP debt is nothing but negative XP, this means that you have effectively multiplied your positive XP benefit (in terms of XP earned later that doesn't have to go to pay off debt) from that mission. Also, the Prestige bonus you receive (if in Supergroup mode) is also increased--so even if you have no debt, it might still be worth doing if you're willing to sacrifice XP to build Prestige for your supergroup more quickly.

This is probably the easiest method of clearing debt I have ever discovered. After all, defeating X mobs is just as easy to do if you're level 16 defeating level 16 mobs as if you were level 20 defeating level 20 mobs; the only difference is you get a much bigger reward at the end. Almost without exception, every new contact you make will offer at least two and often three "hunt X mobs" missions the first few times you first speak to him, and at least one of those is usually a "hunt this type of mob anywhere." So, if you get a "Hunt Council Anywhere" mission from a contact in Independence Port, you can exemplar down a few levels and hunt them in Steel Canyon (or on a few-levels-lower character's Council indoor mission) instead. If you get mobs that don't spawn below your own level, or have to be hunted in a specific high-level zone, you simply need to find a buddy your own level to do the actual hunting (or at least to defeat the last mob; you get the same end-of-mission bonus whether you defeated all the mobs while exemplared or just the last one, as long as you waited for the XP freeze timer to run out before defeating the last one) while you're exemplared to another buddy several levels lower.

Note that this technique also works for the XP bonus from "Fed-Ex" missions--missions that involve taking something to or getting something from a particular contact.

2) "Don't Blinkie Or You'll Miss It!"

A slightly less easy but more convenient variation on the same technique can be used when you are doing a mission which has interacting with one or more glowing, blinking objects (colloquially known as "blinkies" or "glowies") as one of its mission goals and you have at least one character who is up to 4 levels below the highest-level member in your party. You can tell these missions because after you enter them they usually have "Retrieve 2 files" or "Destroy 8 crates" or some other "do something to X objects" message in the subtitle under the main mission goal. (You can also use this technique when you have to "rescue X hostages" but it's a bit more difficult.) Why are these missions so important? Because having that blinkie there essentially gives you control over when the mission gets completed.

So, while you are doing this mission, it is important to leave at least one blinkie untouched until after you have cleaned out all the other mobs in the map (or in just the boss room, if it's a "defeat named boss and his minions" mission). Make sure the other members of the team know and agree to this stipulation going in, or else the mission might be ended prematurely. After the map is cleared, it is time to rearrange sidekicks and exemplars. If you have at least one team member who is up to 4 levels below the others, there are two basic tricks you can do with this.

The most obvious is to let the lowbies unsidekick for a higher XP bonus (assuming they'll still be no more than 2.0 levels below group average). This can add a great deal to the amount of end-of-mission experience they receive, and that isn't bad at all. If nobody on the team has debt or a pressing need for more Influence, this is the extent of what you will do.

The other trick is a bit more devious: exemplar a team member to an unsidekicked lowbie. This gives the exemplar debt-clearance (or Influence) as if they had just completed a mission a number of levels above their own equivalent to the amount they exemplared down. As with the exemplared hunt method above, this can clear a truly astounding amount of debt in one go. You won't believe it until you've tried it yourself.

IMPORTANT: After sidekicking and exemplaring has been arranged, you must wait for the XP freeze timer (which prevents people from almost-killing a mob and then exemplaring to get big XP gain for it) to run out before clicking the blinkie and ending the mission! You must wait at least 1 full minute to clear the timer.

3) Rock and Reroll

A player described this method to me in-game.

The indebted player has a buddy roll a new hero at level 1 (skipping the Tutorial). The indebted player exemplars to the level 1 character and they do the first assigned mission, which is a small room with only a half-dozen or so mobs. The indebted player receives the full end-of-mission XP bonus for this abbreviated mission, and the buddy then deletes and rerolls the hero and they repeat the process.

The problem with this method is that it only provides a standard end-of-mission XP reward--not the higher bonus provided by the other two methods--and it is necessary for the buddy's character to be deleted, recreated, and contacted between each iteration of the mission. It seems to me like entirely too much effort for the amount of debt cleared in return, but the person who told me about it swore it worked for him.


IS THERE LEVELLING AFTER 40?

Most of the techniques in this guide so far have been aimed at powerlevelling someone who is relatively low-level. However, once the powerlevellee gets into the last ten levels of the game, things change a bit: with each level closer you come to the level 50 ceiling, the high-low powerlevelling game becomes progressively less effective. Going from level 49 to level 50 can take a very long time.

This section will look at a couple of the specialized methods that have been found to work for levelling after 40 in City of Heroes.

1) The 40+ Grind

There really isn't any "magic bullet" for getting through the 40s to 50; the only thing that can be done is to apply the same techniques that have already been covered, accepting that those techniques grow less effective as the range between your own level and the highest possible level who can help you shrinks. Since the largest benefit of most powerlevelling techniques relies on that range, by the time you reach the late 40s you will find that simply grinding through challenging adversaries and missions (but not challenging out of proportion to the XP they provide) is the most effective form of levelling you can do.

But what is a good technique for grinding from level 49 (or 48, 47, etc.) to 50?

One technique is to play the High-Low Game in the Storm Palace, the farthest zone of the Shadow Shard, accessible only to level 44 and up. This is where the highest-level free-roaming Rularuu can be found. If you have a good level 50 Lethal-damage (such as Katana or Broadsword) Scrapper who can deal with Psi attacks (Regen, Dark, and Super Reflexes seem to be the best at this) and focus on Wisps (which are weak against Lethal) you should be able to earn XP at a decent rate (not to mention collect many L51-53 Enhancements, which can be either used yourself or traded to someone who can).

Thanks to the new portals that were added in I5, the Storm Palace is easier to reach than ever, so that is no longer an obstacle to your adventuring. However, thanks to the non-Wisp Rularuus' heavy resistance to damage and all the Rularuus' many annoying mezzing and debuffing powers, the Rularuu are hands-down the toughest and nastiest mobs in the game--unless you are able to stick to Wisps exclusively, the XP reward is often not worth the hassle of obtaining it. And this method became much more dangerous with I4, since the lower-level character now has to stay fairly close to the higher-level character while they fight, and I5, since the lowbie can no longer rely on Phase Shift to stay safe.

Fortunately, there is a better way...

2) In With Flynn (and Volkov)

In Mole Point Charlie, standing not too far away from Dr. Huxley of the Kora Fruit, is Colonel Flynn, another member of the Shard Expeditionary Force. It is necessary to do a couple of missions for Dr. Huxley before Flynn will speak to you. When he does, Flynn will offer you a choice between two of the following three types of missions, located in the Cascades, in a never-ending stream:
<ul type="square">[*]Defeat 50 Nemesis or Circle of Thorns [*]Raid a Nemesis base and destroy crates [*]Raid a Circle of Thorns cave and free hostages[/list]Lieutenant Volkov is another contact, in Firebase Zulu, who is obtained by doing some missions for General Hammond. He offers a choice of three timed missions to rescue soldiers, in the Firebase Zulu zone:
<ul type="square">[*]A small Nemesis base, with a 45-minute time limit[*]A medium-sized Nemesis base, with a 60-minute time limit[*]A large cave system full of Rularuu (which probably should be a Nemesis base, but isn't for some reason), with a 90-minute time limit[/list]What makes Flynn and Volkov so valuable is that these are the only non-Rularuu missions you can reliably obtain in the Shadow Shard--and thus the easiest missions you can reliably obtain in the Shadow Shard.

Ignore the hunts (though they can be useful if you have debt and a lower-level character handy for an Exemplar). Get yourself a good Level 50 Scrapper (or other damage dealer(s)) with mission difficulty set to Unyielding or Invincible. Have him take the base/cave raid missions from Col. Flynn or the timed missions from Volkov (Volkov's missions tend to be easier to get to without travel powers, being located in Firebase Zulu) and go along with him. At Unyielding, the missions should be full of a lot of L52 and a sprinkling of L53 mobs, which provide a decent amount of XP but can be put down decently quickly. The end-of-mission XP bonus doesn't hurt either.

Let the damage-dealer do his thing while you help as best you're able while not getting killed. (If you're 48-49 and a damage-dealing-or-tanking class, you can probably do this reasonably effectively. Otherwise, you should still be able to buff or heal from the sidelines.) Even at level 49, it is possible to earn two bubbles' worth of XP per hour in this way if you and your mentor keep at it constantly.

Needless to say, you can also run any of the level 50 character's missions from normal contacts and get similar XP benefits, but Flynn's missions are uniform with no nasty surprises and will never run out.


DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME...IN FACT, DON'T TRY THIS AT ALL

After thinking about this for some time, I concluded that this guide wouldn't be a truly "comprehensive" guide if it didn't look at some of the less legitimate methods of powerlevelling--the ones that may violate TOS or, at the very least, draw an especially large portion of ire from other players if they find out you're using them.

I am NOT condoning or recommending any of these methods. I am simply listing them in the guide in keeping with my goal of a reference guide about powerlevelling in all its forms, legit and not. It is my intention to explain why these methods are to be avoided (except for double-boxing, which is sort of the odd man out, but I include it in this section because of the following).

What do these methods have in common? Money. Real-world cash money, not Influence. Whether people are paying extra monthly to double-box, or are buying stuff on eBay, they are parleying dollars into an in-game advantage. Many players, even those who aren't opposed to non-monetary methods of powerlevelling, don't like that at all, because they feel it spoils the egalitarianism of the game. They believe an MMORPG should be a level playing field, where everyone has an equal shot at success or failure. Buying one's way in with real-world money introduces an external factor that not everyone is able to apply equally. (The buyers will argue in return that they are not able to apply the same amount of time to the game as the non-buyers, so the field isn't level to begin with, but it isn't the point of this guide to argue the case.)

1) Double-Boxing

Double-boxing, or dual-boxing, takes its name from the fact that you have two computers, "boxes" in geek parlance, that are each running a City of Heroes account. (Or it may be because you had to buy two "boxes" of the software to play the game on both computers, but I think the other explanation is more likely.) You are only actually playing on one of them at a time; the other is in "zombie" mode with a character either left in a safe spot or slaved to follow you (and perhaps auto-spam attacks, buffs, or heals while doing so). You then use whatever powerlevelling tricks you like from earlier in this guide, using the higher-level character that you're playing to level up the lower-level character. This is a favorite method of some of the fastest PL'ers.

The advantages include that you never have to worry about finding someone willing to PL you--just a bridge to bring the lower level character into PL'ing range, if that--and you get double the usual number of characters per server. The disadvantages include that you're paying twice the usual amount per month, and your characters are split between two different accounts.

Of course, this method could also be used if a friend or family member were to give you access to his account for a while, as with one of the eBay methods of powerlevelling below, but that would be a violation of Section 3 of the Terms of Service. (A violation everyone whose kid, spouse, significant other, or roommate makes a character on his account commits, but a violation all the same.)

Unlike the other methods in this section, there is nothing in the EULA (that I know of; I'm not a lawyer so don't take this as legal advice) against double-boxing, as long as they're both your own account. However, if some other players find out that you do it, you may earn yourself a special place on their personal schist-lists. Even players who condone ordinary methods of powerlevelling may not be terribly fond of people who do it with money, "legit" or not.

2) eBay

Aside from never-opened game boxes and time cards (both of which are perfectly legit), there are four City of Heroes-related things you can (but should not) buy on eBay: used accounts, Influence, Hamidon-Origin Enhancements ("Hami-Os"), and powerlevelling services.

Accounts might be sold by people who powerlevelled their character to 50 with the intent to sell, or people who just want to get out of the game and move on to something else. Influence is often sold by level 50s who no longer have anything to do but earn money. Hami-Os are sold by the same people, taking advantage of the fact that Hami-Os are relatively easy to come by these days. Powerlevelling services are sold by people who are really good at PLing because there's money in it. (And quite a bit of money, too--last I checked, the fee for PLing a character from L1 to L50 was around $800!)

All of these violate the City of Heroes terms of service.

Selling accounts falls under Section 3 of the City of Heroes EULA, which states in part, "You may not sublicense, rent, lease, loan, or otherwise transfer the Software for profit." Sales of Influence or Hami-Os are forbidden by Section 6, which indicates that everything on City of Heroes servers is the property of NCSoft, so by selling it you're actually selling something that isn't really "yours" to sell. And powerlevelling services--which work by you temporarily giving the service-runner access to your account--fall under Section 3 as well.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking, "Oh, they'll never know." NCSoft runs the servers. They can track what IP address you regularly connect from, not to mention whether the name and address on the account should suddenly change. They can see if the same IP address shows up on lots of different accounts. It would be easy enough to set up scripts to watch for changes in these things and flag the accounts for investigation.

If NCSoft determines that you've bought an account on eBay, they will cancel that account--no ifs, ands, or buts. This is why it is so important to make sure, when buying CoH on eBay or other on-line flea markets, you're buying a sealed box, not one someone's already been playing. Even if you delete all the characters on the account and start new ones, NCSoft will still cancel it. This is a certainty; I've read forum posts from people who bought accounts on eBay and deleted all the characters, only to have the account cancelled when it came out how they got it. Even if NCSoft did not delete the account, the original seller of the account could retain control over it at any time by using the serial number on the game to access it. I'm less certain that they'll cancel you for using a pay-PLing service, but I wouldn't take the chance (or spend the money, for that matter--the rates those services charge are highway robbery!).

As to whether CoH watches Influence or Hami-O auctions to try to divine the in-game identities of sellers and buyers, this is unclear. It seems like it would be a petty thing for NCSoft to spend manpower tracking down, but I wouldn't take the chance--especially since the need for extra Influence vanishes entirely once you have a character in the late 30s, and Hami-Os are easily acquired by the time you're actually able to use them.


IN CONCLUSION

Often, when I'm asked by someone to powerlevel him, or asked for tips on the best way to get powerlevelled, I'll plant my tongue firmly in my cheek and say, "Make a really good friend around your own level, then go away and play another character for a few weeks--then come back and get your now-higher-level friend to help powerlevel you." I can say this because in all likelihood someone who wants to be powerlevelled is going to be way too self-centered to be able to make many friends--and if he's trying to make them them only so they can powerlevel him later, it's even less likely. The dichotomy is that someone who wants to powerlevel himself instead of relying on others is probably the most likely to be able to make friends along the way who will want to help him.

Some of the techniques I've recommended may seem slightly mercenary--but hey, nobody is ever 100% altruistic anyway. Is there really a difference between inviting someone to a team because he's higher level than you so you get bonus XP, and inviting someone to a team because you need his help to beat a tough mission? Is it "taking advantage" if all parties involved still have fun? Mercenary or not, the low man in a Task Force will still give his all to seeing that the Task Force succeeds, because he has the same stake in it everybody else does--and that benefits everyone.


I hope that this guide sparks some worthwhile discussion. If folks have any other tips or observations about powerlevelling, poweradventuring, or debt removal, I hope they'll post them; likewise, if folks have any corrections or clarifications, I'd be happy to incorporate them.

Thanks for reading this far. Let's be careful out there!


EARLIER VERSIONS
<ul type="square">[*]R_M's Comprehensive Guide to Powerlevelling[*]R_M's Comprehensive Rapid XP Gain/Debt Loss Guide[*]R_M's Comprehensive XP Gain/Debt Loss Guide v3.0[*]R_M's Comprehensive XP Gain/Debt Loss Guide v4.0[*]R_M's Comprehensive XP Gain/Debt Loss Guide v5.0[/list]

CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSION
<ul type="square">[*]Added Influence benefit to list of reasons in favor of powerlevelling.[*]Updated section on herding to account for lesser ability to herd post-I6.[*]Added herding subsections on 6-man teams and the effective uses of bins and boxcars.[*]Added Powerlevelling segment on newspaper mission farming.[*]Updated difficulty setting section with CoV difficulty names.[*]Added Brutes and Masterminds to Poweradventuring segment on choosing classes that level quickly.[*]Added Poweradventuring segments on playing to your strengths, rapidly completing missions, and PVP-zone hunting.[*]Updated "Hall of Shame" miscellaneous section with changes from I6, and some changes from I5 I forgot to mention in the last version.[*]Removed links to forum threads that no longer exist.[*]Moved list of links to old versions to the end of the guide.[*]Changed various sections to adjust for game changes, grammar, and clarity.[/list]A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY: This new edition contains some advice specifically for City of Villains, and most of the other techniques will probably work just as well on the City of Villains side as they do in City of Heroes. However, since this guide was originally written for CoH, and I think it would be extremely silly to go through and S&amp;R every instance of "sidekick" with "sidekick/lackey" and so forth, I will mainly be using the City of Heroes terms for things like Influence (Infamy), sidekicking (lackeying), exemplaring (malefactoring), Task Forces (Strike Forces), and difficulty slider settings (Heroic = Villainous, etc.). I apologize if this confuses any of those folks who got into the game with City of Villains and have never played City of Heroes.


FOREWORD

So, you're sick of being stuck down at at a level you don't have to take both shoes off to count to, and you want to be up there playing with the big boys. But whenever you ask someone to powerlevel you, they look at you like you've got a big ugly wart on your nose. (Apologies to those of you who really do have big ugly warts on your noses. They have surgery for that, you know.)

Or, conversely, perhaps you've just come off of a bad Task Force experience (or otherwise had bad luck on your missions) and want to get rid of that nasty brown stain on your level counter so you can once again make rapid progress toward that next level and the shiny new superpower that comes with it.

Or maybe you're reading some thread about why powerlevelling stinks or why wolf-herding missions were nerfed and you just don't understand any of it. Or you heard someone refer to "dual-boxing" and don't know what it means, or want to know why buying pre-levelled characters from eBay is so bad.

Well, in any of these cases, this guide is for you. I'm going to explain what powerlevelling is, why some people hate it, why others do it, and so on. I'm going to lay out a few common-sense techniques I've observed for accruing XP and/or dropping debt without ticking other people off--including a section on tips for getting through the mid-40s-to-50 grind. And I'm going to go over the known "illegal" methods of power-levelling--not because I condone them, which I most certainly do NOT, but because everyone should know what they are and why they are so bad.

Let's begin.


INTRODUCTION

What is powerlevelling?

According to Wikipedia, powerlevelling is "the process of sustained, fast leveling in computer role-playing games." When used in an MMORPG context, it usually refers to using secret tips, tricks, and possibly even exploits to gain levels far faster than the game designers actually intended.


Why is everyone so down on powerlevelling, anyway?

It is easy to get the impression from the message boards that a good many people think powerlevelling is (to put it mildly) not a good thing. Its mere mention can engender such extreme suggestions as level-restricting higher-level non-hazard areas such as Peregrine Island, or limiting the number of times a given mission can be reset and repeated. Even Statesman is on record as not particularly liking it (although he has also said in the past that he doesn't see anything wrong with players trying to outsmart the developers, which is something that is most often done for the purpose of powerlevelling, so go figure).

Clearly there is a lot of built-up frustration here. But why? A perusal of message board threads on it can give you a pretty good idea--but to save you the trouble, here is a digest of what I've seen in my own perusals. There are several fundamental reasons.

1) "Where's the 'Any' key?"

The City of Heroes designers and developers have been particularly clever in the way they've laid out the levels of their game. By doling out new powers every other level (then every third level starting in the 30s), they give players rewards to work for and look forward to--but they also give players plenty of time to learn to use the powers they already have. Mission after mission, mob after mob, task force after task force--it may seem like "grinding," but it's also learning. Time and again, it has been shown that we human beings learn the best not by reading or studying, but by doing repeatedly. By playing through the game, we also learn and understand how to play better.

If someone just starting out in the game gets powerlevelled to a high level before he barely even gets his feet wet, he simply does not have the time to learn how to play properly and well. He looks competent on the outside, from the level he's attained and all the powers he's gotten--but he will not know how to play his character as well as someone who took the "long way" up. He may not even know how to play his character at all (let alone the strategies for dealing with various types of villains that only show up at the higher levels)--which makes him the team's "weakest link" and can spell the difference between failure and success.

One poster told a story of encountering a level 25 Emp Defender who wasn't healing at all--and when she asked about it, the Defender's player confessed that she didn't know which one was the "heal all" button.

[ QUOTE ]
After talking with her for a few minutes, she told me she had gotten this game for Christmas, but hadn't been able to activate her account until last week. Her friends came over, made a character FOR her, then proceeded to get her in game, and pushed her from 1 to 25 in less than a week.

This poor girl was left with a character she was now trying to play, on her own, with no understanding of what her powers were, how to use them, nor even the basic mechanics of the game.

[/ QUOTE ]
Others have told of meeting Kheldians--an Epic Archetype which can only be unlocked by reaching level 50--whose players are somehow ignorant of the most basic facts of the game, such as where the stores are in Talos Island. And almost everyone has a favorite "my team was torpedoed by a PL'd n00b who didn't know his donkey from his elbow" story. There's a lot of frustration there.

Not all powerlevellers are bad players, of course, just as not all bad players have been powerlevelled. Nonetheless, there is still a good deal of correlation between the two sets--enough for a stereotype, anyway.

2) "Hey, buddy, can you spare a dime?"

The surest way to get powerlevelled is to have friends who will do it for you.

The surest way not to get powerlevelled is to pester everyone you see about it. However, this doesn't stop just about every newbie in the game from trying. And in their rush to garner unearned XP, they trample all over their manners. Rude and/or annoying behavior often seen in powerlevellers includes:
<ul type="square">[*]filling broadcast/request channels with requests or sending /tell requests for powerlevelling. (Sometimes to characters who have no possible way of doing it. "I'm a Mind/Emp Controller. What am I supposed to do, make you think you're higher-level? Heal you some XP?") The l33tsp34king n00b is a cliche, but it's only a cliche because it's so true.[*]filling said channels or /tells with requests for people to join/bridge for wolf-herding or Kora Fruit-plucking teams, or other such ventures.[*]spamming unwanted /invites.[*]standing around in "safe" but high-traffic areas such as near the Peregrine Ferry or the Talos Tram while teammates wander around killing things, causing area lag levels to skyrocket. (The "XP range" change in I4 ended this practice.)[/list]And I'm sure there are others that I just can't think of at the moment.

Ironically, it's mostly only the unsuccessful powerlevellers who give powerlevellers a bad name in this respect; the truly successful ones have high-level friends to help them with it, and thus no need to broadcast requests. Anyone who panhandles or otherwise annoys for powerlevelling is not too likely to get it; the higher-level people who could do it have much better things to do with their time than help out rude newbies.

3) "Content? What content? I think I blinked and missed it."

In regard to powerlevelling, Statesman once said this:

[ QUOTE ]
I have to say that I'm not fond of PLing. It ends up cheapening the game experience. Someone is quickly and unnaturally leveled up--and then complains that the game has "no content."

[/ QUOTE ]
Inexplicably, there seems to be a certain class of powerlevellers who will race to the end of the game like a VCR on super-fast-forward--and then, when they get to the end, claim that the game was "too easy" and there's "not enough content." Well, sure it's easy when you don't actually have to do anything to get there, and you bypassed 95% of the content in your mad rush to level 50.

(To note, this complaint can be considered legitimate if it comes from people who have already made multiple high-level characters and have experienced the only available lower-level content until they're fed up with it. It's the people who have never bothered to play the game at all whom I'm talking about here.)

Now, the City of Heroes developers engage in "data mining" on their server logs. That is, they analyze the logs to see what people are doing and how they are doing it. This way they can tell if certain powers are too effective or not effective enough, if the game is too hard or too easy, and so forth. Some players are afraid that powerlevellers, by getting to level 50 faster than people who advance without powerlevelling, can somehow skew the data mining statistics to make the game look easier than it actually is--and this, when taken together with their vocal complaints of "too easy" and "no content," could cause the developers to make City of Heroes unplayably hard in response. These players will often point to such things as the difficulty increase of higher-level bosses in Update 3 (thankfully rolled back in a subsequent patch) as proof. Others are concerned that this skewing will lead to more endgame content being developed at the expense of lower-level content, as has happened in other MMORPGs. However, the City of Heroes developers have not as yet showed any tendancies in this direction; if anything, there is still much less endgame content than there is early- and mid-game.

It's not this guide's intent to opine whether or not these concerns are founded, just to point out that people do feel this way. Nonetheless, the devs do at least claim to base their decisions on more data than just that which they mine.

4) "Hey! No fair! You're not supposed to have more than 12 items in an express lane! The speed limit is sixty, you bum! If I have to follow the rules, then you should too!"

Finally, whether they admit it or not (even to themselves), and whether it's their main reason or not, a lot of players seem to be upset that they aren't the ones being powerlevelled. This can take the form of indignation at someone else getting so easily what they had to work for, or of envy at the PLers' high levels while they're still stuck down in the oughts or teens. It isn't so surprising, really; it's human nature to feel resentment toward a perceived injustice. Still, non-PLers should try to remember that though the powerlevellers may have attained a higher level, they did it at the cost of some of the very things that make the game so much fun for non-powerlevellers like them.


So Why Shouldn't I Powerlevel?

The intent of this guide is to present a balanced view of powerlevelling in all its forms--not to serve as a promotion of or indictment of powerlevelling. That being said, let us look at the reasons why you should not powerlevel. Depending on where you are in the game and what you are looking to get out of it, these might not apply to you.

1) City of Heroes as a Learning Experience

City of Heroes starts out pretty easy, then ramps up the difficulty slowly. Likewise, you gain your first few powers pretty quickly, but more powers increasingly slowly after that. The idea is to give you a chance to learn and grow into your powers, working out as you go along exactly how they all work and how to integrate and combine their effects with each other. Yes, it takes you a long time to play up to where the "good" powers start coming, but that's actually a good thing--by the time you get them, you'll have learned everything else pretty well and will only have to worry about learning one power at a time.

Even if you're a CoH veteran, no two archetypes--or even variations on the same archetype--play exactly the same. It would still be a good idea to play through at least the first few levels to be certain you know what you're doing.

If you haven't taken the time to learn how your character's powers work and to develop good strategies for using them, sooner or later you will get to higher levels where it's expected of you--and when you let the other members of your team down because you don't know what you're doing, they aren't going to be very happy with you.

2) Content Contentions

You're paying $15 a month for City of Heroes. Some people use this as a justification that they should be able to do whatever they want. After all, it's their money. Ironically, this is almost always a red flag that they're in the wrong; such people are usually willfully ignoring that whatever it is they're wanting to do impinges on the enjoyment of other people who are also paying $15 per month for the game.

But this is beside the point: you are paying good money for this game. Enough money that, for what you spend on it in a year, you could have bought a used video game console of recent vintage and had cash left over for a game or two. What, then, is the point of not getting your money's worth?

One of the buzzwords that people use a lot on the forums is "content." It's a media term; it used to refer primarily to TV shows, then webpages, and now MMORPGs are included, too. It means, basically, the stuff that you watch the show, read the webpage, or play the game for. In this case, new adventures, new mobs to fight, new things to do.

There is content all through the game, starting the moment you first appear in the Outbreak parking lot (you could even argue that the character creation process counts as content, but that's getting a bit too fiddly for this guide) and going all the way up through level 50...and then you roll another character and start all over again.

Inexplicably, some players don't want to spend the time to play the game for the first time, to experience the content all the way from the beginning to the end--and that's a real shame. Apparently all that matters to this particular type of powerleveller is having a high-level character. And if that's how they enjoy the game, I imagine that's up to them. But this sort of racing through the game is like renting a movie then fast-forwarding to the end, or checking out a library book only to read the last few pages. Sure, you get to see how it ends, but it's ultimately unsatisfying.

What's more inexplicable is that a lot of these powerlevellers will then turn around and complain that there should be more content, or that the game is "too easy." Well, the reason there's not enough content is that they skipped it all, and of course it was "easy," they didn't actually have to do anything.

Furthermore, even if you have played one character from the beginning all the way through to the end, there are enough missions out there that you still probably haven't experienced all that City of Heroes has to offer yet. And even if you have, more new zones and content are being added with each expansion, and even old missions can become "new" when you play through them with a different archetype.

If you powerlevel, you may miss out on contacts, missions, badges, temporary powers, and other things that could be helpful to you. You might end up having no contacts at all in a particular city zone (one of my characters, who levelled several times doing other peoples' missions, has no contacts in King's Row at all. This can be quite inconvenient if she has missions there); you might end up having to backtrack and broadcast offers of money for a particular badge mission that you have to have for an accolade. This can be a pain; I speak from experience.

Ultimately, a hero's career is like a journey, but getting there is not "half" the fun--it's 99% of the fun. You can choose to skip it if you want--it is your $15, after all--but you should understand that you're passing up a lot of what makes the game worth playing.

3) "Hey, buddy, can you spare another dime?"

When you level the normal way, you earn a lot of Influence along the way--not just from mob defeats, but from carting mob-dropped Enhancements back to the stores and selling them. Debt also serves as an "Influence buff," because you are earning Influence at the same time you're earning the extra XP necessary to pay it off. This is how you finance the Enhancements that fill out your slots. However, when you powerlevel using certain methods (taking down Winter Lords, for instance), you won't get as many of those drops, as much debt, or or as much defeat Influence--which means you could find yourself at level 20 and not able to afford even a full set of Training Enhancements.

Of course, if you've got a Level 50 helping you to powerlevel, chances are money isn't going to be a concern for you no matter how you do it.

4) "No dogs, tinkers, or powerlevellers allowed."

Finally, if people find out that you powerlevel--no matter how "noble" your intentions--many of them may hold you in a certain lack of esteem, for the reasons given in the section before this one. There are supergroups that don't allow powerlevellers, and players who won't have anything to do with them.

If you're inclined to powerlevel, you're probably going to do it regardless of what anyone else thinks. All the same, it's something to keep in mind.


Then Why Would I Want to Powerlevel?

Up to this point, I've said some pretty negative things about powerlevelling. Nonetheless, there are several reasons that people have found that are, at least to them, good justifications for powerlevelling. Here are the ones that I know of.

1) "Just one or two more levels..."

There are certain threshold points in a hero's career where he gains an especially useful power. Level 14's travel power, for instance, or level 32 and 38's final primary and secondary slots. Sometimes, when a hero has only a level or two to go, he might get impatient and want to get that power as quickly as possible. In such a case, he might get himself powerlevelled to that one particular level, and play on normally from there.

2) "I don't want to play a baby hero, this is boring."

Sometimes experienced players simply don't enjoy the lower-level content (especially after having played three or four characters through it), and want to get up to a level they remember as being particularly fun. In this case, they will deliberately powerlevel through however many levels they consider to be the "un-fun" part, and then stop. (Level 20, where the Striga Island missions begin, is a popular threshold point.)

3) "Hey! Wait up, I'm almost there!"

Sometimes someone will discover that a friend from real life has made a higher-level character...on an entirely different server from his own. This means it's time to make an alt on his friend's server and do the best he can to catch up, level-wise.

Sure, the sidekick/exemplar system makes it possible to assist each other on missions, but only if those missions are outside a hazard or trial zone where the lowbie can't go. Likewise, they can't go on the highbie's Task Forces together, and the lowbie will never be as effective on high-level missions as an unsidekicked character of the same effective level. Thus, powerlevelling provides a way the lowbie can catch up, and a way the highbie can help him catch up.

4) "Come back when you're a little older, kid."

Heroes, especially those who don't ordinarily powerlevel much, can sometimes find that they've done all the missions that all their contacts have available for them, but none of their new contacts will talk to them until they put on another level or two. At this point, the only thing to do is street-hunt, team up and do someone else's missions or Task Forces, or add the necessary level or two through powerlevelling. Heroes who want to get back to doing their own story arcs as quickly as possible will sometimes find powerlevelling to be the least objectionable alternative.

5) "I knew this TF was a bad idea when the leader started bragging about his debt badges..."

Sometimes even the best player can have a run of bad luck (or bad teammates), and wind up with one, two, or even three or more bars of debt. Some people find that seeing all that brown debt can be very depressing, and they want it gone as quickly as possible. They may not even be inclined toward powerlevelling to gain XP--but getting rid of debt is a whole different ballgame. After all, XP debt feels unfair at the best of times, so even the most ardent anti-powerleveller might feel no qualms over getting rid of this penalty that they don't think they really deserved. (There are some special tips later in this guide expressly aimed at getting rid of debt, by the way.)

6) "Shake your moneymaker!"

There have always been advantages to having a high-level character other than the obvious acclaim of the lower levels. In particular, money matters. Due to Influence inflation as levels increase, level 50 characters can earn astonishing amounts of Influence just over the couse of normal adventuring--and at level 50, they have all the Enhancements they will ever need to buy (barring respecs, of course) so they have no further need for that Influence themselves.

Someone with a level 50 character can pass excess Influence using an intermediary, or "mule," to his lower-level alternate characters so they can buy the best Enhancements right away. He can even pass it to alts on entirely different servers than his own if he can find a trading partner with a high-level character on the other server and a low-level character on his own. At the rate at which a level 50 can earn Influence, he can support a number of lower-level characters easily.

Issue 6/CoV's introduction of supergroup bases and Prestige added a new wrinkle. Starting at level 25, staying in Supergroup mode to earn Prestige takes a bite out of the Influence a character earns for mob defeats and mission accomplishments; at level 34, a character in Supergroup mode earns only Prestige and no Influence whatsoever save for what he receives by selling Enhancement drops. However, level 50 characters in Supergroup mode earn pretty much the same Prestige for mob defeats as level 1 characters. Thus, the smart thing to do is have the supergroup's level 50 characters play outside of supergroup mode to earn Influence to subsidize lower level characters who play in supergroup mode.

7) "I wanna be UB3R!!!!!11!!1!!oneoneone!1!!"

And then there are those people who, for whatever reason, just want to have a high level character. They don't know and don't care how fun playing a lowbie might be, because they've never bothered to try it. They're the ones you used to see standing around tram stations and ferries--the ones who get their character levelled to 50, then make a Kheldian and powerlevel it too. These are probably the same people who use god-mode cheats on single-player games. Why? Who really knows. Perhaps they feel that having a high level character gives them a degree of control over one thing in their otherwise-uncontrollable lives; maybe they want to see "the ending" even though there really isn't one in City of Heroes.

These are, needless to say, usually the ones who give powerlevelling the bad name that it has today. They frequently don't know how to play those high-level characters, and just as frequently have terrible manners.

There may also be other reasons; if so, I will add them as they come to me.


What NOT to Do

Do not ask random strangers if they'll powerlevel you, or broadcast/request chat (or, for that matter, post on a server's message board) asking for a powerlevel. Frankly, in my experience powerlevelling a lower character is a chore and not very much fun at all. I have the utmost respect for those friends of my characters' who have shown a willingness to do it in the past, and even those I try not to prevail upon too much.

When you ask someone to powerlevel you, you are asking them to give up some of the fun and enjoyment for which they are paying good money in order to give your worthless keister a boost up. That's something you should think twice about asking even your best friend to do, let alone a complete stranger. Thus, asking for a powerlevel is not likely to endear you to anyone at best--and, at worst, it's likely to get you invited by some joker who thinks it'll be funny (not to mention deserved) to drop you into a cluster of higher-level mobs and earn you a half-bar of experience debt.

In other words, just don't do it.

Also, don't use the illicit methods for powerlevelling I describe later in this guide. Which I warn there, too, but it bears repeating.


POWERLEVELLING

The current methods of powerlevelling that are in vogue rely on taking advantage of the way experience is parcelled out among party members. To oversimplify the process, when a group of PCs kills a mob, the mob's "base experience" is divided up proportionately by level among the PCs in your party, then the base XP that each PC gets is modified up or down depending on the difference in levels between the PC and the mob. (Yes, I know there is also a "party bonus" XP multiplier depending on how many people are in the party, especially if there are 4 or more party members--I'm oversimplifying, okay?)

For instance, if a party consisting of a Level 2, a Level 3, and a Level 5 PC kills a Level 4 mob, first the base XP from that mob is divided into 10 parts (2 + 3 + 5 = 10), and then the Level 2 PC gets 2 parts, the L3 3 parts, and the L5 5 parts. Then, since the mob was level 4, the L3 PC's XP award is adjusted up slightly, the L2 PC's is adjusted up more, and the L5 PC's is adjusted down, because he was higher level than the L4 mob. Who got the best end of the deal here? It's probably the L2--even if he got the least pre-adjustment XP, he still got the higher upward adjustment and also has the shortest XP distance to go before levelling. So out of all three of those PCs, the L2 earned the most distance, proportionately, toward his next level.

There is a limit to how far apart in levels this will work, however, and they were tightened up with Issue 6. It is now necessary to be a) within 4 levels of the highest member on the team, and b) no more than 2.0 effective levels below the team's "average" effective level in order to get experience. Characters below this level must be sidekicked up to within the level in order to receive XP.

1) The High-Low Game:

The most common form of powerlevelling, and the one people are usually talking about when they refer to powerlevelling in general, is what I call the High-Low Game. It involves teaming two heroes, one up to 4 levels above the other, unsidekicked, so that the higher-level hero can kill "easy" mobs and the lower-level hero cashes in on that level-adjustment bonus.

There are two basic configurations for the High-Low Game:

a) The duo: One PC teams with another PC up to 5 levels (if over L20; if under, more like 4 levels) his junior. For example, a L40 might team with an L36. Subsequently, the higher-level PC goes around killing mobs around his own level, experiencing no great amount of difficulty in doing so, while the lower-level PC hangs back and tries not to get himself killed. The lower level PC gets extraordinary amounts of XP and Influence, as his less-than-half share of the base is increased by several levels' worth of difference adjustment. (He will also receive a lot of blingbling in the form of Influence, Inspirations, and sellable higher-level Enhancements.)

b) The trio: If a PC wants to power-level another PC who is outside the 4-level limit, the two of them find a "bridge"--a third PC, who is 3 or fewer levels lower than the high-level PC. Subsequently, this bridge sidekicks the lowest PC, then the highest-level hunts while both the lower PCs hang back and soak up the XP. The lower-level PCs get less XP than if there were only one of them, but they both get more than they would hunting solo. (Sometimes several PCs are power-levelled at a time this way--1 or 2 higher-levels do the killing for 3-4 lower-levels.)

These methods may also be used for obtaining defeats badges, such as those needed for accolades, for characters who would otherwise be unable to obtain them at their current level since the mobs for whom they are awarded spawn outside their level range.

It used to be that the higher-level character could hunt on his own while allowing the lower-level character(s) to wait in a safe place such as the tram and rake in XP while doing nothing. However, in Update 4 the developers instituted an XP range limit so that characters have to be within three hundred feet of a mob to gain XP for its defeat while in Paragon City. This means that to play the high-low game outside of missions, the lower-level character will need to stick close to the higher-level, and have means of preventing either drawing aggro or taking damage (stealth, invisibility, flight, etc.). It was formerly possible to use Phase Shift for this, once it had been slotted such that it could be run continuously. However, time limits were added to all Phase Shift-like powers in Issue 5, so that is no longer feasible.

This range limit does not apply within missions, even instanced outdoor missions. Although this change will not affect mission-herd-and-reset powerlevelling, it will decrease the level of lag near trams from powerlevellers clustering there.

As noted above, Issue 6 added the 4-level-difference, 2.0-levels-below-average restrictions on the levels of people in a team. Even at this smaller level spread, the high-low game will still work, and bridging is still possible--however, it will not be quite as lucrative as it has been in the past.

2) "Just Me and My Shadow":

One method of powerlevelling I've seen talked about, though not experienced so much myself, is to have an unteamed higher-level Defender or Controller shadow your character around and cast buffs and heals on you, and mezzes on your enemies, when you're in combat. You can even invite him to your team temporarily to bring him into a mission with you, then drop team and continue as before. I gather that this was particularly in vogue before Exemplaring came around, as it was the only way a higher-level character could help a lower on one of the lower's missions.

I can see that this would be at least somewhat effective; indeed, I've often had my high-level Emp Defender hang around in places like the Hollows or Perez Park to help out lowbies in just that very way--drive-by buffs and heals. But even though this method would theoretically let a low level character kill mobs as fast as he could, and perhaps kill mobs 1 or 2 levels higher than he could usually hit, he would still be limited to the mobs that were within his power to take down--even if he could hit a mob 7 levels above his own effective level, he would do only miniscule damage; if the mob landed one hit on him it would probably one-shot him--and would still take a fairly long amount of time in doing it. (Although, if the class being buffed was a class that already kills killable mobs rapidly, such as a Fire Tanker, the bump in effectiveness would be that much greater.) I don't consider this to be the most effective way to spend either your or your helper's time if you're really interested in rapid powerlevelling.

3) "Why don't you pull the other one, it's got bells on":

Another method of powerlevelling is what's known as the "mass pull" or "herding." Before I5, the form this took was that one hero, often (but not always) a Tanker or Scrapper with Invulnerability and Tanker Taunt or Pool Provoke, runs through a whole mission, aggroing every mob he comes across, then, once a galloping horde of mobs has been assembled, they can be taken care of by massive AoE attacks. The mission would then be reset and it would be done again.

However, in Issue 5 Defense was reduced dramatically, and caps were imposed on the number of targets that attacks and Tankers' Taunt could affect. This means that there is no longer as much benefit to rounding up a massive herd: more of them will be able to hit the Tanker, they cannot all be damaged at the same time, and Tankers can no longer hold the aggro of the entire group should someone else in their party attack. To add insult to injury, Issue 6's addition of Enhancement Diversification means that a Tanker no longer has the Defense, Damage Resistance, or self-healing recharge rate necessary to survive even a moderately-large herd on his own.

I have debated moving this section to the "Hall of Shame," given that it is no longer possible to do the sort of solo herding in safety that could be done in days of yore, but I have decided to leave it here for the present; there have been times in the past that I believed herding was dead, and I was mistaken then. It is possible I might be mistaken even now. If you do use these herding techniques, bear in mind that you should keep one or more Defenders on hand to heal you up while doing it. Kinetic Defenders work well for this, as they can also increase your own damage rate and perform other useful tricks.

It may still be possible to herd on a small scale, on the order of two to three full-team-sized or hazard-zone spawns, or a larger number of smaller-team spawns. It must be done slowly and with care, and is ideally done by a Tanker with a good attack set who is able to deal with the mobs without outside damage help that could draw aggro away (but with support from Defenders or Controllers who can buff and heal since he will probably not be able to survive long on his own without it). And since XP per enemy was actually increased in Issue 5, small-scale herding may actually be more lucrative than large-scale herding was before--if the herder can survive.

It used to be that a series of wolf-related missions in the 40-44 and 45-50 Praetorian arcs were considered to be the archetypal mass-pull missions; wolves were fast enough to keep up with a character at a run, did not have any particular resistances, and only dealt basic smashing damage--a sure recipe for easy gathering and disposal. The broadcast channels in Peregrine Island echoed with the cries of people requesting additional players to fill out wolf-herding missions, bridge on wolf-herding missions, or even supply wolf-herding missions for powerlevelling. People would be blind-invited for wolf-herding missions, page-spammed for wolf-herding missions, and so on.

This constant spam resulted in a great deal of ill-will toward powerlevellers, which was in turn responsible first for wolves gaining a ranged mez attack, and then for most of the wolf missions (including at least one archvillain mission) having timers added so they could not be kept and reset-farmed. (Heroes who currently had the mission in their mission list were unaffected--meaning that someone who never completed the wolf-herding mission would still have it available to him untimed to this day.)

The irony is, any mission, especially instanced outdoor missions, can be herded by the right player with the right character. The loss of the wolf missions was not really a permanent setback to mass-pull powerlevellers.

a) Tanker-Blaster Mass-Pull: In this variation, the Tanker (though I suppose a Scrapper (or, on the CoV side, a Brute) could be used in a pinch, their version of Invulnerability is slightly weaker than the Tanker's and could thus lead to a bad case of carpet-examination), optionally buffed to a fare-thee-well by a convenient Defender, scampers hither and yon getting mobs mad at him, then runs them all back the mission entrance, or to a conveniently tight spot (in ruined city maps, the long rectangular bins are a favorite for this) like a rabbit being chased by greyhounds--where a bunch of AoE Blasters and Scrappers wait to rain fire and death. (Controllers or Dark Defenders are helpful, too, to lock them all in place. Tenebreous Tentacles work very well in this situation.) Note that since Issue 5, it is no longer possible to hold the aggro of massive herds, so it would be best to limit this to two or three groups at a time on large teams, or their equivalent on smaller.

b) PBAoE Aggro Mass-Pull: You usually hear about this being done by a Spines Scrapper, but any melee class with a PBAoE attack (Spines Scrapper, Dark Armor Scrapper, Fiery Aura Tanker, etc.) can do it. There are two variations to this technique. In one variation, the puller's AoE aggro powers are used primarily to draw and hold the the aggro of the mobs to lure them back to Blasters in wait, as in the Tanker-Blaster Mass-Pull above; in the second variation, the puller is also the damage-dealer who puts the mobs down solo once they've been gathered. Since Issue 5, the latter technique is the safer one.

The latter variation on this technique was immortalized in a movie-capture that someone posted a while back, as an advertisement for selling his character on eBay. The movie showed a Spines/Invulnerability Scrapper wandering through an instanced outdoor mission filled with werewolves, hopping into the middle of a group of wolves, firing a PBAoE spine burst to aggro it, and moving on to the next one. Before long, he had a herd of wolves milling about him that would have done credit to an old-west cattle drive ("get along big doggies" instead of "get along little dogies"?)--at which point he proceeded to serve up an extra-large batch of doggie sashimi. (Or maybe shish-ka-bob.) This movie polarized the audience who saw it--half of them demanded that Spine Scrappers should be nerfed, and the other half pooh-poohed the feat but probably secretly went and rolled up a Spine Scrapper themselves.

The easiest classes with which to accomplish this feat are the aforementioned Spine Scrappers (due to their large selection of AoE spine/toxic attacks whose slowing effect helps keep the Scrapper safer) and Fiery Aura Tankers (whose Blazing Aura's punchvoke serves as a PBAoE taunt to keep mobs stuck to the Tanker like glue). I have also seen Dark Melee Scrappers pull huge clusters of mobs into a narrow fenced-in area and use Shadow Maul to eliminate them all once they had bunched up, though this takes some skill.

c) Debuff Anchor Aggro Mass-Pull: Dark Miasma Defenders, Radiation Defenders, and Radiation Controllers have debuffs (for instance, the Dark's Darkest Night) that are placed on anchors--specific mobs--and radiate a debuffing effect to the mobs around those anchors. Any mob that is touched by the debuff effect is immediately aggroed on the hero who cast the effect. The hero casts a debuff on a mob, then runs around a corner (meaning that the mob can no longer stand in place and use ranged attacks, thus has to close to melee range), forcing the mob (and any surrounding mobs) to run to him. He then leads those mobs past another group, aggroing them too, and repeats the process until he has a fairly large crowd following him. Given that, when the debuffs are properly slotted, a debuffed mob cannot hit the debuffer very well, the debuffer can actually serve as a decent stand-in for a Scrapper or Tanker (as long as he is able to keep all the mobs within the debuff's area of effect). This technique is often used by solo-capable Defenders to bunch up as many mobs as possible for more effective AoE attacks. Note that since Update 3, the Defender or Controller must remain within two hundred feet of the anchor for the debuff to continue its effect.

Sonic Defenders and Controllers have a a PBAoE-on-ally toggle, Disruption Field, which can be cast on a tougher character but draws aggro not to that character but to the Defender or Controller casting the power. This could be used in a variation on the above technique, having the anchor walk around the corner to draw fire while the rest of the team waits with the Sonic character to take them down.

These methods are impressive, but a few things should be noted about them. First of all, the build of the Spine Scrapper in that movie (as mentioned in a forum post on some other CoH web board) was very skewed, with certain powers chosen and slotted in such a way that the Scrapper was optimized for this one specific task, and would have done poorly soloing (or perhaps even in groups when there were not massed hordes to kill). This led some people to speculate some kind of weird conspiracy theory in which the Scrapper was made and powerlevelled just to make that movie to cause divisiveness in the CoH-playing community (though I may be misremembering some of the details). PBAoE mass-pulling can still be done with a more all-around build, but it really should have the help of Blasters and other damage-dealers as with the Tanker variation to be safest and most effective.

Second, herding techniques work best on certain types of mobs--ones like Skulls, Hellions, and War- or Werewolves that only have fairly ordinary damaging, mostly melee, attacks. Try to go up against Tsoo or Thorns or others who can mez and unless he has plenty of Break Frees or a pet Emp Defender (or both), your aggro-magnet is faceplanted before he ever knows what hit him. (Of course, this is true mainly for the Defender mass-pull variation; Scrappers and Tankers get decent mez protection from their defensive power sets, though less so since I6 decreased their effectiveness.)

Third, there is a tradeoff inherent in mass-pull mission situations. In order to spawn the masses for you to pull, you have to have a fairly large team going in--because mission mob spawn count, even for instanced outdoor missions, is based on the number of people in your team. Even that spine Scrapper from the movie had to have seven other people along, hiding outside of camera view, to cause that many wolves to spawn. (One of those other people chimed in on a forum thread about the movie to note how impressive it had been to witness.) The more people you get on your team, the more mobs (and the higher the "party bonus" XP), true--but the more different ways the experience is split, too. (Of course, this particular drawback does not apply to Hazard-Zone Herding.)

(An interesting method of getting around this drawback was suggested in a post by LiveJournal user bittercupojoe: the Tanker or Scrapper goes to a lowbie area and invite six or seven lowbies join his team and up the spawn count--then fights all the mobs himself. Since they don't go into the mission, the XP and Inspirations from mob kills all go to the Tanker or Scrapper in question--who can then reward the lowbies with an Influence payment or other compensation for their time. bittercupajoe writes, "An hour of this at level 45 with a fire/ice tank can easily net me 4-5 bubbles. And the newbies get a nice little nest egg to start their careers with.")

Since Issues 5 and 6, it is no longer possible to do a true "mass" pull; the largest mob count that can typically be handled safely by one Tanker is 10 to 20--and some of those will make a bee-line straight for anyone else who fires an attack into the herd. If the Tanker must have others' help, it would probably be safest to stick to the non-aggroing buffing and healing varieties--or else use Scrappers or Dwarf Kheldians, who will fight at close range and thus not split up the herd.

For this new, more limited form of pulling, expertise in how to get the enemies locked onto you is more important than ever. This guide goes over the basic Tanker techniques for initiating battle, including the importance of breaking line-of-sight to cause the enemies to bunch up and give yourself a few seconds more of recovery time.

It is sad that the era of huge pulls is over; it was quite an impressive sight to watch a single Tanker gather literally dozens of mobs all around him until he himself could not be seen. But at least it is still possible on a smaller scale--and thanks to the XP buffs on individual mobs, it may even be a more effective gain of XP for the amount of time spent.

One caveat about successful Tanker pulling: If the Tanker dies in mid-herd (often by getting overload-mezzed and losing toggles), there is a natural impulse on the part of less-experienced party members to rush in immediately and try to "save" him, and/or take out the mass of mobs while they're all still packed together. This is something that should above all else not be done--with the Tanker down, there is nobody left to hold the aggro of the mobs he's pulled together, and the would-be rescuees will be joining him on the floor before they know it. Better to cut your losses and teleport the Tanker to safety for a rez, or let him go to the hospital and pick up more Break Frees and Awakens on the way back.

And as mentioned in the PBAoE mass-pull variation, certain classes such as Spine Scrappers can both pull and kill multiple groups of of enemies by themselves. For soloing, this is usually done in Hazard Zones, where the mob spawns are large enough to make it worthwhile without needing a team.

City of Villains lacks a true Tanker analog--Brutes are essentially Scrappers, with Scrapper-level resistance and defense. It may be possible to herd with a Brute, but for herding on any sort of large scale, he would probably need plenty of buff and heal assistance from local Corrupters and Masterminds.

The Gold-Herd Variations

Herding is really more of a meta-technique--something you can do at the same time as you do other powerlevelling techniques, such as high-low missioning. That being the case, there are undoubtedly dozens of ways to apply it. For example:

Six is the magic number of people to have on a team for mission-herding--no more and no fewer. Six people (on diff settings Heroic, Rugged, or Invincible) is the required number for an optimal spawn count. 6-man spawns will be bumped by one level over normal spawns for that difficulty class of mission; they will spawn with a couple of lieutenants and a big bunch of minions who all go down pretty quickly. Adding one party member also adds one boss per spawn group; adding two for a full team of eight adds two bosses per group--which would mean that if you herded three groups together, you would have to deal with six bosses beating on you at once. Before I5 and I6's double-whammy of Defense cuts and Enhancement Diversification, all this would have cost you was extra time (which is bad enough on the XP-per-minute rate), but now it has a very good likelihood of being downright lethal as well. Avoid this problem by capping your team size at six.

Hazard-Zone Herding adapts the Tanker-, PBAoE-, or Debuff-pulling techniques to play in a Hazard Zone rather than a mission--a puller aggros several large groups of mobs and herds them to the waiting Blasters, or else to a boxcar or dumpster where he can eliminate them himself. This has the advantage of not requiring a large team to get a good spawn count (though hazard zone spawns are affected by the number of people on a team, they are less so than mission spawns), so the XP is split fewer ways. If doing Hazard-Zone Herding, take special care not to herd the mobs onto unwary uninvolved heroes who happen to be in the same hazard zone. This is terribly impolite, and will not improve your reputation. In fact, it's best to try to stay away from other heroes altogether; if some other hero attacks your herd, gets wiped out, and petitions you, the GMs will take the other party's side--even though it was their own fault for attacking--because your herding produced an unnatural concentration of mobs in the area. See this guide for more information about Hazard Zone herding etiquette.

Bins and Boxcars: In hazard-zone herding, as well as herding instanced outdoor missions in city or ruined city zones, it is good to make use of terrain features. A couple of particularly useful terrain features are the bins and boxcars (often erroneously called "dumpsters" by players) that are scattered around.

Bins are long metal train cars that are open at the top; boxcars are closed at the top with an opening on the side. (There are also boxcars with no openings whatsoever, but they are generally not useful in herding.) They have similar, though slightly different, uses depending on the types of mob you are facing and whether you are in a mission or a hazard zone.

The use of bins and boxcars is a specialized form of corner-pulling--it takes advantage of mobs' tendancy to try to keep the object of their aggro in sight at all times. Thus, after attracting several groups of mobs' attention, the herder jumps into the bin or runs into the boxcar, causing the mobs to follow him in where they can be dealt with AoE or PBAoE attacks, such as Blaster level-32 "nukes." Since I5 and I6, these attacks will probably not hit every enemy, but they will hit enough to thin them out such that the next attack will be more succesful.

Bins are useful when fighting non-flying mobs, such as Trolls or Council in Boomtown. Aggro several spawns, run back to the bin, and jump in, breaking line-of-sight. The mobs will pursue and jump right into the bin with you, grouping up nicely for you and others to take out and giving you a good overhead view of the action. The only problem with using bins is that they do not break line-of-sight for most flying mobs--meaning that they will cheerfully hover overhead, just out of reach, and continue to pelt you with their attacks. This is not so much a problem when you are fighting enemies with only a few fliers (Outcasts, Clockwork), but when you are facing enemies like Freakshow that are about half fliers it is a different story.

Boxcars are what you need when facing fliers. When you run inside the boxcar, out of sight through the doorway, the fliers will lose sight of you, and the only way they can regain it is to come down and enter the boxcar themselves. This will bunch them up nicely and keep them from getting away while you put the smack down on them. The downside to boxcars is that you have very limited visibility while inside them, and it is not always easy to tell when enough of your herd has moved into the boxcar with you for you to begin. If you turn at exactly the right angle to put the door to the boxcar behind the camera you can get a view from behind yourself to outside, but it can be tricky to do, especially if you're being jostled by the mobs who are already inside. Also, some people's graphics cards go crazy with lag inside boxcars.

When herding instanced outdoor missions in city or ruined-city environments, you will have to move from dumpster to dumpster as you clean up spawns. You should familiarize yourself with the locations of the most convenient dumpsters and nearby spawns. This will let you work out herding patterns ("herd these three mobs to boxcar A, herd those three mobs to bin B...") that you can repeat from mission to mission for the most efficient completion and quick repetition for maximum XP.

However, there is a technique you can use in hazard zones that will let you center yourself on a single boxcar or bin and not have to go very far away at all until you're ready to go sell.

Hazard zone boxcar ranching: First, find yourself a bin or boxcar that is situated in an area with decent spawns all around it. Put the rest of your team in that bin or boxcar (or near it; squishy types may prefer to wait on top of, behind, or above it so they are less likely to get pinned in and trapped when the herd comes home), then strike out in one direction from the boxcar. Gather up a few good spawns and bring them back, pull them inside, and beat the stuffing out of them. Then, go in the opposite direction--if you started out east, go west; if you started north, go south. Gather up some spawns there and bring them back. By the time you finish with this second batch, the spawn points you visited the first time should have respawned, and you can get them again--and the same will hold true for the spawn points you visited second when you finish with the third batch. Thus, you should be able to go back and forth, back and forth, non-stop, until you tire of it, without ever having to go far from the same boxcar.

4) City of Villains technique: Farming the Newspaper

One of the new innovations in City of Villains is the newspaper mission--a constant, neverending stream of missions that are available once a villain leaves the newbie area of Mercy Island. The repeatability and similarity of these missions has given rise to an interesting technique reminiscent of Kora Fruit farming (see the Kora Fruit section in the Hall of Shame). This technique could also be used with Kora Fruit missions to an extent, and will probably work as well with whatever City of Heroes equivalent to the newspaper is introduced in the future. (It could also be adapted to PVP zone missions if the team was willing to take long enough to defeat all instead of just clearing the final room.)

The team forms up consisting of one or more high-level characters, and the lower-level characters to be powerlevelled (and bridges as necessary). The leader--who is a Stalker or someone else with good invisibility or stealth--takes a newspaper mission that is either a "defeat boss and his minions" or a "steal item and clear the room" mission. (Kidnapping missions require additional time, and this method is all about speed in completion.). The team travels to the mission, and then disbands.

The leader goes inside the mission and runs through it to the final room. This causes the mission to spawn the number of mobs associated with a 1-person team; once they are spawned, the spawn points cannot respawn even if more people join the team. Once the leader has reached the final room, he invites everyone else in the team back on, they enter, and the higher-level characters quickly clear the end room. All members on the team receive the end-of-mission bonus. The team leaves the mission, the leader takes another newspaper mission, and the cycle repeats.

What this has going for it is that it produces a fairly large mission-completion bonus for the lower-level players, and produces it fairly frequently--travel time is the only delay, especially if the leader can be scouting the mission while the rest of the team is being teleported in. However, I have my doubts that it is all that much faster in terms of overall XP per minute than simply running the mission from start to finish, and the whole rigamarole of disbanding and reforming the team with every mission seems like too much complication to me.

I will address some less-complicated and less-cheesy techniques involving rapid mission completion in the Poweradventuring section below.

5) Hitting the Reset Button

Mission resetting is the practice of leaving a mission partly unaccomplished, leaving, and restarting it with all mobs restocked. This is accomplished by retreating to and departing through the entrance before all mission goals are accomplished, and then, when everyone is safely outside, selecting a different mission from the team mission display. A dialogue box will appear asking if you wish to abandon the current mission; click "yes" to do so, then reselect that mission from the team missions display. The mission will be reset--the map will be obscured and all mobs will have respawned--and can be entered and fought again. Although resetting a mission does not usually constitute a powerlevelling technique by itself, it is often used in combination with another technique (usually the mass-pull, since by using the same mission over and over they don't have to find another one with the same easy-to-kill or needed-for-badge mobs in it).

Mission resetting is most commonly used in four situations: 1) the mass-pull powerlevelling technique mentioned above; 2) when farming mobs within the mission to get a badge (such as the hard-to-find Banished Pantheon Masks); 3) when farming blinkie artifacts (such as Vahzilok corpses) that provide a small amount of XP (or other, non-XP benefits, such as Kora Fruit's 50% Inspirations) to the gatherer; or 4) when new team members join a team shortly after they have entered the mission (so that spawns will be adjusted for the latecomer and he will receive the end-of-mission XP bonus). Of these, situation 1 has already been discussed and situations 2 and 4 are outside the purview of this guide. As for powerlevelling by blinkie, it may be feasible at lower levels if your character has a form of stealth (such as Shadow Fall) to enable getting to the blinkies without having to fight mobs. However, the XP the blinkies provide is usually about what you could get from killing three or four mobs, so it usually isn't worth the extra time it will take in comparison to other methods.


Some might consider a few of these powerlevelling methods to be exploits, chiefly because they tend to reward lower-level characters entirely out of proportion to the work they do for the party. However, I contend that this is balanced out by the requirement that the powerleveller character be willing to grind XP for the lower-level powerlevellees, when he could be running missions and enjoying other new content instead. This isn't something that people are going to be willing to do for just anybody--which is, again, why asking for a complete stranger to powerlevel you is so asinine.

Thus, in a way, powerlevelling is self-selecting for people who are actually good players already--the creep who panhandles for powerlevelling usually won't get it, whereas the fellow who goes out and plays the game and makes friends and proves he's an all around cool guy will have plenty of folks willing to help him gain a few levels. (However, I have seen a few offers to powerlevel for Influence cash--and have even had friends who have taken them up on it--but it seems to me that surely can't be too lucrative for the powerleveller; by the time he's high enough level to powerlevel effectively, he's going to be making his own money a lot more easily than the people he's powerlevelling would!) High-Low powerlevelling is seen most often among RL friends or supergroup members, people who are willing to help each other out.

In the end, people who want to powerlevel are going to do it with or without this guide. Still, for those who dislike the idea of passively earning XP off of someone else's work (or for those who just don't have the knack of making friends), there are some other good ways of earning XP, which I'm going to call "Poweradventuring" just because I feel like it. They may not earn as quickly as powerlevelling, but they aren't as exploity or as much of a boring grind either.

[Continued in next post]

[Found on a flier tacked up around the Rogue Isles]

Are you fed up with trying to make your own way in this wretched hive of scum and villainy? Would you like to find other like-minded villains who won't try to stab you in the back (much)? Why not join forces with the Parliament, a group of the strong dedicated to getting stronger.

While we do not have any specific overarching goal, our founding members may hold grudges against the Restore Paragon Congress, a coalition of hero supergroups dedicated to playing a role in restoring the city. In order that we might counter them more effectively, we need a higher membership so we can grow our prestige and gain the tools we need to succeed. We have villains at almost all levels of experience, willing and able to work with you!

If you would like to become a part of this rapidly-growing organization, please contact us! I will purrrsonally look forward to hearing from you.

--Cat Six, Whip (and Chain), The Parliament.

[OOC: The Parliament is the most active villain supergroup member of the RP Congress, a role-playing group of supergroups mainly on the Pinnacle server. We are not PVP-focussed as a whole--some of our members enjoy a spot of adventuring in the zones now and again; others do not and we won't force it on them--but we would like to try out the raiding system at least once or twice. We are in the process of building up our supergroup to the point where we can play around with it; however, we currently need a little over two million more Prestige to meet our goal of having power and control sufficient for all six forges. We have a good many adventuring members already, but we can always use more for building it up faster.

Also, heroes are welcome in any of the RP Congress's hero-side supergroups.

If you'd like to join, please contact us via the RP Congress or RP Villains global channel, or via the website link given above. Hope to see you in the game!]

[ QUOTE ]
Correction here. The 1hp threshhold is only one of the ideas being considered. We've still not determined exactly how we are going to deal with 'One Shot Kills' (and the final decision will almost certainly apply to both PVE and PVP -- so no more AV insta-kills.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Will this also mean no more players one-shotting mobs? Even blue or green or grey mobs? If so, that's going to be pretty annoying.

I don't know. As extensive as the changes were, I'd basically have to start over and write an entirely new guide from scratch.

Short form is that the order of the powers should be about the same, but you're going to be slotting very differently.

For what it's worth, I've gone through the four lectures and added a few post-I5 notes to them so they're a bit more helpful to newbie Tankers now. Still have mixed feelings about the new Burn.

Well you could always make another!

I've started up a feline-related "supurrrgroup" on Pinnacle called Kitty of Heroes, part of the RP Congress roleplaying group. The focus is going to be on RP and group writing using MoonEdit; I've already posted one of our pieces, Shock and Claws, here as a demonstration.

Feline characters of all genders, origins, levels, classes, etc. are welcome, the only requirements are a willingness to RP together, and to get together on-line for group writing. It's a lot of fun!

Contact me via PM here or on the Congress board, or as @Purramedic in-game, for an invitation. Hope to see you there!

It's great that you fixed that, Positron.

But can you check to make sure the spawn rates of all the other zone monsters are in line with what they should be too? It's darned near impossible to get the badges for these monsters that show up only once a in blue moon and will only award their badges to the team that did the most damage when they do.

And if the spawn rates are what they should be, can you tell us what they are?

(I swear, when I previewed the thing it showed the entire post, untruncated, I don't know why it snipped it on posting. Grrr.)

Terra's teeth sunk into Tigerbrights hand. She'd make them let her go. Terra couldn't let Shocka be taken away. Not to save her. She was somewhat hampered in her efforts, however, by the fact that Tigerbright was still too surprised to notice a little thing like pain.

Infurno frowned, making a decision. "Hold everything. TB, let her go. You—ah—Shocka. We need to talk."

"Okay. Wha—OW!" Tigerbright suddenly noticed the tiny fang-holes in her hand and jerked it away, letting Terra slip out of her grip. "Why you little…"

"No more hitting?" The dissapointment in Rumpus' voice made it sound like someone had just cancelled Christmas. "I was just getting started!"

Shocka spread her hands. "I've grounded out my capacitors. I couldn't zap a bug."

Tigerbright glanced at the others. "You guys best go secure the area. We'll be all right here." They nodded and scattered, save for Tigerbright and ArchArrow, who were still eyeing Shocka with suspicion.

Infurno sat down on a crate. "So, let's talk. How 'bout we start with who she is, 'cuz as cats we have fatal cases of curiosity, and then move on to you."

Terra glowered angrily at Infurno. "'She' has a name, you know."

Infurno held up her hands. "Sorry…sorry, I didn't mean to talk around you. So…um…can I ask what that name is?"

ArchArrow paced back and forth, like a stalking tiger waiting to pounce, with another arrow locked and nocked.

"Tell your boy there to calm the heck down and I'll tell it to you." Terra glared at ArchArrow.

Infurno rolled her eyes and sighed. "Arch, stand down please. Go help the others wrap everything up."

Reluctantly, ArchArrow relaxed his grip on the bowstring and slid the arrow back into place in his quiver. He glowered ferally at Terra, then stalked off after the others.

Terra turned back to Infurno, ignoring the annoying boy. "My name is Terra."

Infurno nodded. "Hello, Terra. Nice to meet you."

"Found her in a Crey lab in Bricktown day before yesterday," Shocka supplied. "Bastards were doping her up on something, doing experiments." She chuckled. "Was kind'v a mistake our being there, anyway. Only reason we went there was Frankie seemed ta think they'd have Excelsior in the lab."

Infurno nodded. "But Frankie's not exactly the most reliable informant. No E?"

Shocka chuckled, shaking her head. "Not more than a single vial or two at any rate." She tousled Terra's hair. "Turned out to be a lucky mistake fer this'un, though."

Terra started to come down from the adrenalin rush of the fight, and she breathed heavily. She heard Shocka talking, but it sounded far away. Terra leaned against her friend, and kept her eyes on the strangers. "Now I live with Shocka."

Infurno raised an eyebrow. "Uh…you live with her?"

"She's my family." Terra nodded once to emphasize her statement.

"This is getting weirder and weirder," Tigerbright muttered.

"So…you're a good strategist. You speak in coherent sentences. You adopted a, uh, kitten. This may be kinda personal, but—" Infurno took a deep breath. "—why exactly aren't you [censored] insane like all the other Freaks I've ever met?"

Shocka sat down on a crate, which creaked slightly under her weight. "There's a reason for that. I don't need near as much Excelsior as most of those crazy metal-heads."

Terra moved to curl up next to Shocka. There was that word again. It was importanat somehow. "Shocka?" She asked quietly. "What is Excelsior?"

Shocka chuckled. "It's a drug, sweetie. Probably not so different from what they shot ya up with, in some ways. It kills the pain of having all this metal stuck in me."

"Is that why you hurt before when you were carrying me?" Terra asked. She felt very warm.

"Yeah, that'd be the reason." Shocka nodded. "You shoot up too much of it, it eats up your brain and makes you crazy. But I'm able to keep to a very low dosage, 'cuz these aren't normal Freak parts."

"Oh yeah?" Infurno asked.

Shocka absently reached up to touch one of her shock pylons. "These were custom-made and fitted to me by the best cyberneticists in the Paragon City Police Department. Better fit means less system shock." She chuckled. "'Course, there's only so much even they can do when you've got two big meat thermometers poking outta ya, so I still gotta hit the E from time to time."

"Waitasec, you got your metal from the cops?" Tigerbright said, still rubbing her hand.

"They put undercover cops in the Freaks all the time, or try to." Infurno shrugged. "I met one, once. I guess the metal and the E went to his head, 'cuz he'd gone native." She glanced at Shocka. "What about you?"

"Exact opposite." Shocka chuckled bitterly. "I was deep undercover, 'cuz we'd been losing good cops to leaks. Only one man knew who I really was, and he could be trusted not t'say."

"So what happened?" Infurno asked.

"Lost touch with him couple years back; read in the obits a while later that he'd been Devoured. Turned into one of Hamidon's pet monsters. And that was that. Nobody outside knew I was really a cop. And someone's still leakin' info from the P.D.; I make a move ta come in from the cold, I get found out and that's all she wrote. So I made the best of things, and here I am. I thought I'd kept my head on mostly straight, but I guess I got a little too inta Freaking in spite'v myself. As this raid shows." She shook her head and looked down at Terra. "Almost fergot what really matters. Can't let that happen again."

Infurno frowned thoughtfully, the germ of an idea starting to form. "Shocka…I'd like to make a deal with you."

"I'm listening."

"A few days ago, a friend of mine—a hero named Kid Crisis—was waylaid by a bunch of Freaks. They put him in the hospital."

Shocka nodded. "Sorry ta hear it."

Terra sounded concerned, her voice was very quiet. "Will your friend be okay?"

"He should be, given time." Infurno glanced at Shocka. "The thing is, they knew his real name."

Shocka raised an eyebrow. "Now that's interesting."

Infurno looked at her. "We need to find out how those Freaks found out. Can you do it?"

Shocka looked thoughtful. "Ya know the names of the ones did it?"

Infurno shook her head. "No."

"Ya know where they are?"

"Other than they got sent to the Zig a few days ago, no."

"A few days," Shocka mused. "Then odds are they're still there, it usually takes a week or two for the average Freak to bust out. Tricky…"

"But can you do it?"

Shocka chuckled. "I like a challenge. But what's in it for me?"

"Well…first we give you protection while we see about clearing up your status with the PCPD," Infurno said. "Pull that metal out of you and replace it with cleaner, smaller stuff if you want. Get you broke off of E, back on your feet again. You could be a cop again, or even a hero if you wanted."

Shocka thought about this for a moment. Sensing her hesitation, Infurno pressed on, "You'll be able to give Terra a much better life if you're not having to live in Carnival Town, y'know."

"Well, that's true," Shocka admitted. "And you've just about sold me. I might want to add just one more condition, though. You an' yer friends take care of Terra for me while I'm…in the Zig."

Terra knew that word. She thought hard, but her brain seemed all foggy. Then it came to her. "That's the bad place! You said to NEVER go to the bad place!"

Shocka cracked a smile. "I said you didn't ever wanna go to the bad place. Never said nothing 'bout me."

"But…I want to be with you," Terra said. She looked disparagingly at Infurno and Tigerbright. "Not with them."

"You will be with me, sweetie. Just not right away." Shocka patted her on the shoulder. "'til then, ya oughtta be with others of yer own kind."

Infurno frowned. "You could wait 'til they come out, y'know. Make inquiries on the outside—" she began.

"You know as well as I that won't work. All my gang's already in there, they're gonna be talking. How's it gonna look if I don't show up right after 'em? They'll know I cut a deal." She shrugged. "'sides, I kinda miss the Zig cafeteria's chicken pot pie sometimes."

Terra sobbed quietly, her head was spinning. This was all wrong. "I don't want you to go, Shocka."

Shocka patted her shoulder. "I know you don't, sweetie. But it's only for a couple of weeks. It'll be like a vacation for me. Look…there's something I want you ta do for me."

The girl nodded. "What?"

Shocka reached up to her shoulders and detached the shock pylons. "Take care of these for me. They'd just confiscate 'em at the Zig, and they're pretty darned expensive to get more." She chuckled. "And maybe you'll sleep better at night knowing that a part of me is always with you."

"OKay, Shocka. I'll…take real…good care of 'em."

Shocka looked concernedly at her. "Hey, kid…you okay?"

Terra tried to answer her, but everything was slowing down. She felt hot, and her brain was hazy. She reached out for her friend, then everything faded away.

Shocka caught Terra as she slumped. "Aw, crap. I'm as dumb as a Hellion, the E has screwed up my brain good. I shoulda seen it. She's coming down from whatever they shot her up with. Withdrawal. She's never been without it more'n a couple days before. Damn…I should stay with her, but—I can't. Ya know I can't." Shocka placed the pylons on the crate, then glanced to Infurno. "Yer parta the deal begins now. Tag me, send me to the Zig…and look after her real good."

Infurno nodded solemnly, reaching for her PDA. "Done and done. See you when you break out."

"When the job is done, and not before." Shocka saluted. Then Infurno pointed her PDA and tapped the tag-and-transmit button. Shocka gave Terra's hair one last tousle, then faded away.

Infurno and Tigerbright stood there for a moment, and exchanged glances. Then Infurno stepped forward and carefully lifted Terra in her arms. "C'mon…we better get her some help."

Tigerbright picked up Shocka's shock pylons. "Hospital?"

"Nah—I'm thinking Mannequin's base. They've got great facilities—I saw them when we were in there with Erica—and there's no way Crey could get to her there like they might in a regular hospital."

Tigerbright chuckled. "Do you think they're going to wonder why we keep bringing them catgirls?"

"Possibly. Nothing for it, though." Infurno shifted her grip on Terra, and strode for the exit. "You take over for me here—make sure everything's cleared out and set, turn the others loose to get back to what they were doing. See you back at the apartment."

Tigerbright nodded. "Gotcha."

Infurno bounded away with her burden, hoping she was doing the right thing. Despite what Shocka had said, the way she had acted, could you really take a Freakshow gangbanger at more than face value? Was she telling the truth about Terra, that she'd been a Crey experiment? If so, what had Crey been doing to her? She hoped that the Knights' medlab would be able to help. Infurno keyed her comlink to let them know she was coming, then hit the King's Row exit on the way to Galaxy City. She looked down at Terra. "We're just a few minutes away. Yeah, you'll be all right."

She hoped Shocka would be, too.

This piece was written collaboratively in MoonEdit by myself, Moondancer, and all the other members of the Pinnacle chapter of the Kitty of Heroes supurrrrgroup. It first appeared on the website of the RP Congress roleplaying/writing group, and will be continued there. If you like what you see, you might want to take a look; there are about a zillion other great stories, very active writers, and a wonderful roleplaying community there. Check out the "Our Story Thus Far" index posts (Part One and Part Two) for a starting point. And, of course, read the Infurno stuff first 'cuz that's mine.


Terra paced in the small room, her dinner untouched. She was always like this after the treatments—wired up hard, and nearly bouncing off the walls. Her long tail jerked nervously. The men would be here soon to take her to the training area. She scratched at the short yellow and black fur on her arms. In varying lengths, the same fur covered her whole body.

Sometimes she wondered if it had always been this way. Trouble was, just as she thought she was remembering something new, another batch of treatments wiped it all from Terra's mind. The shots always made her itch badly at first, and even though the girl knew that would pass, she still scratched hard at her ears seeking some relief.

Her amber eyes glistened in the light from the hallway as the door to her cell opened. The man there smiled nervously, an armed guard on either side of him. Terra followed the man in the white lab coat down the hall, her sharp ears hearing the guards in step behind her. They reached the training room and the man in front opened the door and stepped out of the way when Terra entered.

The door was hurriedly locked and a voice called out from behind the black glass high above her. "Now, Terra, place the monitoring bands on your upper arms and your thighs. That's a good girl."

Terra complied, attaching the devices as she was instructed to do. Her body shook slightly. She could feel it primed. Ready. "Whatwedoingtodaywithallthisstuff?"

The man let out a long sigh. "No talking. Just to where the tape makes an X on the floor. Then when I tell you to, just start running."

It went like this for about three hours. The doctors would have her run, then stop so they could take their readings. In the between times she shivered. The treatments of pure adrenalin caused her body to shake and hurt whenever she stopped moving. By the time they had completed their tests, she ached nearly as badly as her now-completely-empty stomach.

In her cell she ate the cold meal ravenously, then curled up under the covers as pain tore through her tiny body. Terra held herself in a tight hug; there would not be anyone else there to comfort her. There never was. As it always did, the pain would keep her up all night. In the morning there would be more testing to determine the aftereffects of the new dosage that had been used.

Terra never understood the details of what was being done to her or why. All she knew was pain and loneliness. Sometimes she dreamed of running away, but where would she go? Who did she know? Only this place was familiar to her. Terra tried to remember anything from before she came here, but searing pain in her head made her stop and curl up on her side. Her arms clenched her knees tightly as she sobbed. This was Terra's life.

But then one day the building shook, dust falling from the ceiling to sprinkle her fur as she lay on the bed. There was shouting, and the frantic footsteps of guards running back and forth in the halls outside, and klaxons so loud they hurt her ears.

Terra got up and brushed off her fur, looking towards the door. She had never heard anything like it. She glanced around fearfully, clamping her hands over her ears as the volume of the commotion grew. If the building was coming down, she was trapped. The thought made her heart feel heavy in her chest.

Through the window in her cell door, Terra suddenly saw the guards retreating, moving backward past it, firing their guns as they went. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed through the hall. She heard the guards cry out as they were slammed against a wall, heard the clatter of metal on tile as their guns fell to the floor.

The young girl moved closer to look through the small window, her curiosity overriding her fear. A fight? Here? She wondered if one of the other subjects had gotten out or if someone had gotten in. Part of her wished she had been the one who had the courage to try to break free.

The people who came into view next were like nobody she had ever seen before. They were big, she could tell that much right away. One of them seemed to be made almost entirely of metal, and he didn't have any hands—just a big hammer hanging from each shoulder. The other was a woman, with long magenta hair, dressed in fishnet stockings and leather, metal gauntlets and shoulder pads, and two big pylons poking up from her shoulders. Electricity crackled up and down along and between the pylons; this must have been the source of the lightning bolt that had thrown the guards.

Terra backed away from the window and moved back against the wall. She had never seen people like that and weren't entirely certain whether to list them as friend or foe. She kept very quiet and simply watched.

"You know what? I think Frankie was lyin' to us," the big metal one said. "I don't think there's any Excelsior in this place. Just a lotta crazy psycho stuff."

"Try that door, Sledge," the woman said, pointing at Terra's cell. "It's locked, maybe there's something good in it."

Terra slipped her slender body under the bed, her eyes watching fearfully as the strange people came to the door.

WHAM! The door bowed inward under the force of a hammer impact. WHAM! The second blow sent the door flying across the room, slamming into the wall next to Terra's bed.

The girl flinched at each loud bang, her head shrieking in pain as the noise made her sensitive ears ring. Not a sound, she told herself. Her heart beat loudly in her chest. Part of her feared they might hear it.

"Huh. It's empty, Shocka," the metal man said.

"Then why did they lock it?" the woman wondered, stepping inside. "Hmmm…" She looked around the tiny cell. The sharp aroma of ozone filled the air, making Terra's nose itch; she rubbed it furiously to suppress a sneeze. As she trembled in her hiding place, she could see the open door behind them She wondered if without her treatments today, if she would still be fast enough to reach it.

Shocka chuckled. "Now, if I were locked in here and I saw us coming…" She walked slowly across the room, to where the door still rocked back and forth after its landing. "…I think…" She knelt down. "…I'd probably try to hide." And she looked over at the bed. "Well…what have we here?"

Terra hissed threateningly as she saw the woman's face peek at her. She pulled herself as far back in a corner she she could manage still hissing and spitting fiecely. She still had her claws. She wouldn't let them hurt her without a fight.

"Hey…ya might as well c'mon outta there, little one. I'm not gonna hurt'cha." Shocka smiled. If it weren't for the magenta hair, the eyes that glowed with the same electricity as the pylons, and the overabundance of makeup, she might actually have been pretty.

The girl stopped hissing and looked at the woman for a moment. With what she'd seen in the hall, they likely could have hurt her already if they wanted to. Terra crept fearfully out from under the bed, keeping a distance away from the strangers.

"Atta girl…" Shocka grinned, and then blinked as she came fully into the light. "Whoa…she's so cute!" She glanced at Sledge. "Whadaya think, can I keep her?"

Sledge shrugged. "You're the brains, I'm just the help."

Shocka looked back at Terra. "C'mon, little one. Let me get'cha outta here. I gotta few things to say 'bout people who lock little girls up."

Terra smiled shyly. Out of here. That sounded like a wonderful idea. Maybe they were nice after all. She moved closer to stand in front of the woman. She knew the doctors hated when she tried to speak, so she she uttered only a single word. "Terra."

Shocka cocked her head. "Nicetameetcha, Terra. I'm Shocka, that's Sledge. C'mon, let's blow this popsicle stand." She offered Terra her arm and Terra landed a slender hand there tentatively. "Attagirl. C'mere." Before Terra knew it, Shocka had scooped her up in her arms and lifted her off the ground—and then lifted herself off the ground. She was flying! Together they zoomed down the hall, past more downed security guards and doctors, past other strange partly-metal people smashing windows or equipment or spraypainting "FREEKZ ROOL!" on the walls, until they reached a set of elevators. Behind them, Terra could hear the heavy stomping of Sledge's metal feet as he ran to keep up.

Terra laughed as she flew. It was not a sound she could remember ever hearing herself make. The place was in shambles but it didn't matter. She hated it here and now could be free. Terra wondered where they were going, and glanced at Shocka quizzically.

"Gonna take ya home," Shocka said. "I got a nice place—well, nice 'nuff, anyway. And I'll make sure nobody else messes with ya."

The girl nodded up at her new friend. A home. A real home. It seemed such an unreal idea to her. Terra tingled with excitement, wondering what that would be like. "okayShockaIamreadytogo!" She giggled.

Shocka laughed. "You're a fast talker, aren'cha? Oh…hope ya like Chinese."

As they passed the lab, Terra thought about the treatments. She had never gone more then a few days without them. For a moment, she wondered what would happen if she did—then she realized that she was probably going to find out. Terra shrugged and turned her attention back to Shocka. "Okieschinesedonnoneverhaditsureloveit."

"You're in for a treat, then!" The elevator opened and Shocka carried Terra inside. Sledge clumped in after her. The elevator whirred, then opened again, and Shocka zoomed down the corridors to the exit. "Sledge, I'll meet'cha back in the Folly, I'm taking the scenic route home." The hammer-man grunted his assent as they pushed open the door and emerged.

Terra squinted as they came out into the sunlight. She had never been outside. It took a bit for her eyes to adjust.

"Hold on tight, kid!" Shocka said with a grin. And then she shot straight up into the air, still gripping Terra tightly in her arms. Suddenly Paragon City was spread out below them in a panorama.

Terra looked around in wonder as they flew over the city. There were buildings that reached up very high, and with her sharp eyes she could see people inside at desks and some walking around. Some people even came to the window and pointed at her and Shocka as they flew by. Terra smiled and waved at the people. Shocka chuckled.

As they passed a park she saw kids playing and laughing, not even noticing them. It looked like fun. "Canwegoplaytheresometimeshocka?"

"Maybe, kid…maybe." Shocka sounded a little distant. "But I might have a better place for ya to play. Just wait an' see."

"OkiesShocka." The girl smiled and looked down to stare at the cars that rushed along the roads. The people were rushing to. Seemed everyone was hurrying. Maybe the people here were not so much unlike her. Well, except Terra noticed she seemed to be the only one with fur.

The part of town they were in seemed to be large and square…there was a great big building in the center like a lump of stone; Shocka seemed to be giving it a wide berth.

"Whatsthat?"

Shocka glanced where she was pointing. "That? Oh, that's the Zig, sweetie. It's a bad place. You don't ever wanna go there."

The girl looked away from the scary building and nodded. "Okiesnogonnagotothebadplace."

"Attagirl!" Shocka had been flying north, now she turned west, making a wide circuit around the bad Zig place. She crossed over the elevated train track, swinging by the tram station as a car pulled in to let people out.

As they passed overhead, Terra saw a group of people in brightly colored outfits moving from the train platform onto the streets. "Whoarethey?TheylookliketheclownsIsawinmypicturesb ooksfromuphere."

"Them? Oh, those are the Carnies. They throw a mean party, but'cha don't wanna get on their bad side. And it wouldn' be your kinda party anyway." Now they headed south. "Ooooh, I see someone I know! Hold tight!" Shocka suddenly swooped in low, over another pair of metal men. Another big metal one, like Sledge except this one had big scythe blades instead of hammers, was lying on the ground, and a guy who had pylons like Shocka was kneeling next to him.

"…want me to get you to a hospital?" the kneeling man was saying.

Shocka cupped the hand that wasn't holding Terra to her mouth and yelled, "Sharps, you faker!" as she zoomed overhead. The metal man sat up and shook one of his blades at Shocka angrily. He yelled something incoherent and probably very bad, but by then Shocka was long gone, giggling.

And then they were back at rooftop height, zooming over brick buildings and high-rises alike. As they passed close to one building, Terra suddenly noticed a bunch of people standing around there who were dressed just like the guards from her lab—and a couple of scientists, too.

The girl curled tighter into Shocka s arms, as if to hide herself. "Theymightseeus."

"Oh, don't worry there, sweetie. They've got bigger fish to fry." Shocka held her tighter as they headed for the big door set into the War Wall.

Terra tummy rumbled a bit at the mention of the word 'fish', but she simply nodded taking it all in. Stuff seemed to be sticking there in her head better then usualy it did. The city was so big and as hard as she tried she was sure she was not seeing everything. Terra's eyes focused on the big gate and read the sign above it. The words above it read 'Creys Folly.' "ThatwherewegoingShocka?"

"Uh-huh! Well, sortakinda." Shocka touched down a few hundred yards up the wall from the entrance, and carefully set Terra down for a moment. "One sec." She walked over to a round sewer grating stuck on a pipe coming out of the wall, and yanked it open. Though the grating was rusty, it didn't creak at all. "OK, sweetie, this place is gonna smell…pretty bad. But it's the only way home since they don't let people like me use those doors."

"Whydon'ttheyletyouusethedoors?"

"Weeeeell, let's just say they and us don't zackly see eye-to-eye on some things." Shocka shrugged. "It's no big deal."

Terra nodded. "OkieswhateveryousayShockaIcanjustholdmynoseorsome thing."

"Now c'mere…this place is icky-dirty, so gonna carry ya so ya don't get any on ya." Shocka offered her arm again, then lifted Shocka into her embrace.

The girl climbed onto Shocka and held on tight. "OkiesIamready."

"Then, here we go!" Shocka lifted off the ground and zoomed into the sewer. Terra got the impression of glistening brickwork, old rusty pipes and valves, and an awful stench. "And try not to look too hard at the water, there's sometimes stuff ya don't wanna see in it." She whizzed through a door into a small chamber, then through another door out of it. "Almost there!"

Terra nodded, her nose scrunched up at the awful smell. Figuring if she kept her eyes open she'd look, she closed them tightly, holding onto Shocka and just trusting she'd let her know when they got there.

"Here…we…GO!" With a loud crackle, bolts of lightning leaped from the pylons on Shocka's shoulders to blast open the grating ahead of them, and without slowing down they shot out into the light. As the sun hit her face, Terra took a deep breath again and opened her eyes.

Crey's Folly was a dreary place. Everything seemed to be a dull grey. Grey water, grey streets, grey buildings. And there were more of those men in the familiar uniforms around—as well as strangely misshapen figures with long, rounded guns and—

"Ugwhatarethoselittlethingsjumpingaround?"

Shocka wrinkled her nose. "Alien space monkeys. Nasty stinky things. Luckily, they mostly stay 'way from where we hang. Just a little bit longer and I'll show ya Carnival Town. You'll like it there."

Terra nodded. It sounded like a fun place just by the name. "Ican'twait." Her eyes twinkled excitedly. Soon she would see her new home. "Thatthefunplaceorwherewelive?"

Shocka flew west, past industrial buildings with big towers and silos. "I like ta think so!" Now there weren't so many people in the lab uniforms anymore, but there were a lot of people in bright red suits with lots of brass trim—and some big man-shaped machines wandering around with them, too. They looked like a marching band, without instruments.

"WhatarethebigrobotsforShocka?"

"Those? Those're Nemesissies…they're kinda prissy, but they make some nice guns. And they know all 'bout leaving ya 'lone if ya leave them be, which is what makes the Folly go 'round."

As they headed west, more of the part-metal people like Shocka were around—standing on rooftops or congregating in the street. Shocka called greetings to some of them, and they waved back.

Terra looked over all of it quietly. She wondered why she still hadn't seen anyone like herself at all in all the time they had been travelling. "Shocka?AmItheonlyonelikeme?"

"Sweetie, we're every one of us the only ones like us. That's what makes us special."

The girl frowned but nodded. It wasn't exactly what she had meant, but it seemed the best answer she would get right now. Maybe she learn more later. She looked back down over the streets below, watching closely.

They approached what seemed to be a collection of hastily-built shanties, walls and roofs thrown up out of whatever materials were close at hand. Among these buildings, if such they could be called, the largest crowds of Shocka's people she'd yet seen were moving about. Shocka grinned. "Almost there! Welcome to Carnival Town!" She flew slowly over the warren, waving and calling out greetings to friends, until she touched down atop a small tower above a small courtyard not far from the northern War Wall. She carefully lowered Terra to her feet.

Terra let go of her friend as her feet hit the towertop next to Shocka's. She slid behind Shocka, blinking at all the people who stood around.

"Hey, all ya low-lifes, listen up!" Shocka yelled. A few of the metal [censored] glanced up, but most didn't look away from what they were doing. Shocka growled, and gestured. Twin bolts of lightning lashed out from her shoulder-pylons, striking the wall across the courtyard in a loud explosion. This got the crowd's attention nicely. "I said, listen up! This here's my new friend, Terra. Terra, sweetie, step up here so they can see ya, 'kay?" The girl moved forward obediently.

"You-all better be nice to her, 'cuz if I hear anybody's been messing with her, they'll have to answer to Shocka Khan!"

Terra shuffled her feet, and looked down, but could still feel the eyes on her.

"So…are we clear?" There was a low mutter of assent from the crowd, and Shocka glared. "I said, are we clear?!" she said more loudly, shoulder-pylons crackling ominously.

"YES, SHOCKA KHAN!" the crowd called out.

"Good. Back ta what'cha were doing, then." Shocka grinned at Terra. "Sorry if I scared ya, sweetie. They're an okay bunch, but a little rowdy sometimes. Ya gotta talk tough ta get through t'em."

"It'sokayShockatheyworriedmemorethenyou.You'remyfr iend." Terra smiled warmly. "DonnoifIamgoodattalkingtough."

"C'mon, I'll show ya where I crash. And get some food for ya, bet yer starvin'." Shocka helped Terra down from the tower and led her across the clearing, through a winding passageway, and through a door. Shocka had to duck to fit her shoulder pylons in.

Terra nodded. "Yeppershungry." She looked around curiously once they crossed the doorway. The room wasn't much bigger than Terra's cell, but was cozier. Though it was put together from junk, it seemed well-built; the walls were sturdy metal, and welded together at the seams. The ceiling was festooned with caulking, presumably to keep out the rain.

The room was furnished with a beat-up dresser, a small refrigerator with a microwave oven with a cracked door on top, a sofa with half the stuffing gone, a recliner chair with only a few bloodstains, and a table that was a wooden cable spool turned on its side. A cable hung down from the ceiling above the recliner chair, with its end stripped to bare metal. There was a switchbox in the middle of it, with red and black buttons. The black button was currently depressed, the red button sticking up. "It's not much, but it's home. You can have the couch, the recliner's all mine."

Terra walked over and sat on the sofa, yawning. She didn't know if she was more hungry or tired right now. Naps throughout the day were common for her. She stetched lazily and her claws popped as her fingers spread wide.

Shocka opened the fridge and looked inside. She took out a paper Chinese takeout carton, sniffed at it. "Hmm. Yeah, I think that's still good." She threw it in the microwave and twisted the dial. "Beef chow mein, coming right up."

Retracting her claws and flexing her hands, Terra nodded with a grin. "Soundsgreat." She curled up in a corner of the coach, making sure Shocka had room to sit next to her if she wanted. "Thanks."

The microwave dinged. "No problem." She pulled open a drawer of the dresser, pulled out a fork, looked at it, wiped it on her pants, then stuck it in the carton and put the carton on the table. "Here ya go. Chow down."

Terra reached for the carton and ate heartily. She purred as she ate, not even conscious of the sound.

Shocka grinned, and went over to the recliner. She reached up to the pylon jutting out of her left shoulder, twisted it a quarter turn counter-clockwise, then lifted it away, and did the same thing for the one on the right.

The girls eyes widened and she stopped chewing, swallowing hard. "Youcantakethemoff?"

"Yeah, sweetie, that's how I 'recharge'." Placing the pylons carefully to either side of the recliner, she reached up, took the cable, and stuck the end down into one of the connectors that was still poking out of her shoulder. "Now, don't you ever touch this cable, 'kay? It's dangerous for you. High-voltage. Me, I can take it." She reached up and stabbed the red button, and electricity crackled around her body and in her eyes. "Ahhhh…feels good."

"Wereyoubornwiththem?"

"Born?" Shocka chuckled. "Heh…no…that'd have been a hard birth if I came with metal bits sticking out. I had 'em put in special."

Terra nodded not sure she understood. "Howcome?"

Shocka laughed out loud. "Sometimes I ask myself the same thing. But it seemed like a good idea at the time."

She shrugged and went back to eating. It was good to know where you came from and how you got the way you did even if you might regret the choice later. Had she made a choice? Terra didn't know. She finished her meal in silence, thinking about it. Wondering.

Once she finished the food, Terra yawned again and stettled herself deep in the couch. She was ready for a good nap. Maybe with the treatments gone she'd sleep in peace. Once more she yawned bleary-eyed and looked up at her new friend. "G'nightShocka."

Shocka chuckled, turning off the power cable and unplugging it. "Sleep well! I'll be here or near when ya wake up."


Terra yawned and stretched, her eyes still tightly shut. It was still night time, she could feel it—but then, it would be nice to be able to enjoy it for once. She picked out the hole in the wall above her to look out at the night sky. She purred softly. Dreary as it was here, it was still closer to freedom then she had ever dreamed about. She wondered if Shocka would mind if she went out. The evening called to something deep within her.

She looked over at her friend wondering if she would still be away. "Shocka?Youupstill?" In the dark the woman's eyes were closed, her eyelids glowing softly pink from the electrical discharges behind them, but Terra wasn't sure if that meant she was asleep or just resting her eyes.

Shocka's eyelids flickered open. "Hmmm?"

"CanIgooutabitifIpromisetostayclose?" Terra asked.

Shocka yawned and stretched. "Don't see why not. 'fact, I'll come wit'cha. Oughtta show ya where the privy is anyway."

Terra nodded and sprang to her feet excitedly. She moved to the door and waited, fidgeting. "OkayiesShockaC'mon."

Shocka got up out of the chair, picked up a pylon in each hand and snapped each in place with a practiced twist. "Don't often get ta watch the sun come up." She offered her hand to Terra.

Terra took the woman's hand and opened the door. "It'llbefun."

Shocka yawned again. "Yeah." She stepped out into the dusk, lit only by the cyan glow of the war walls and the occasional flickering streetlight or burning torch here and there. The night wasn't entirely quiet. Loud music, excited whoops, and other noises that defied description came from somewhere a few walls over. This courtyard was mostly empty, save for five or six of Shocka's people who'd passed out where they were. A couple had bottles in their hands, and one was lying half-facedown in a pool of his own vomit.

The girl made a face. "Aretheyokay?"

Shocka chuckled quietly. "Well…they are fer now. Whether they'll feel that way when the sunlight hits 'em is another story." Shocka quickly showed Terra where the communal toilet facility was located, and the shower "fer them as wouldn't rust"—a dangling garden hose attached to a rusting spigot. Then they walked along the maze of corridors for a while.

Terra let go of Shocka's hand and leapt onto a low wall. She looked out, her keen eyes twinkling in the nearby lamplight. "Thisisamazing."

Shocka chuckled, hovering up next to her. "Got good legs on ya, kid," she said. "And yeah, isn't it? It's paradise, a twenty-four hour party."

"Idon'tknowwhatIwouldhavedoneifyouhadn'thavegotten meoutofthere. Ineverdreamedtheoutsidewouldbelikethis."

"Oh, it's not all like this, kid. Some of it's a little worse, some a little better."

"Ilikeithere." Terra scaled the wall deftly, laughing. "Thereissomuchtoseeanddo."

"Don't get too loud, you'll wake the neighbors." Shocka chuckled. "Though after a life in the Freakshow, I swear most of 'em can sleep through anything."

The girl covered her mouth, muffling her laughter. "OopssorryShocka."

Shocka alighted on the tower from which she'd addressed the courtyard the night before. "Not a problem." As she leaned against the railing, a slight gasp escaped her lips. She held up a wrist, checked the time on a display there. "Mmm. 'bout that time again," she whispered, extracting something from a pocket and pressing it against the bare skin of her wrist. There was a hiss, and Shocka sighed in relief. "Better." She held up the injector and checked a gauge on its side, shook it, muttered, then stuck it back in a pocket.

"Whatisit?YouokayShocka?"

"Hm? Oh, just fine, sweetie. Don'cha worry 'bout me." She smiled ruefully. "Take my advice, don't ever stick stuff in yer body that doesn't belong there. Ya'll be happier."

"Dunnostillnotsurewhat'llhappenwhenmybodyburnsofft helasttreatment." Terra shrugged and continued walking along the wall, holding her hands out like a tightrope walker.

"'Treatment,' huh? Those bastards. I can't believe Dreck ever considered having us do their dirty work."

"YeahwellguessI'llfindoutsoonbeenoveradaysincemyla stone.Notevergonemorethantwo." Terra sighed. "NotthatIrememberanyways."

"If it was Crey behind it, I'm betting ya'll feel a whole lot better with it gone," Shocka muttered. "Probably."

The girl nodded and jumped off the wall, landing gracefully. "Gooddon'thaveanytotakeifIdon'tfeelbettersohopeitd oeshappenthatway.Don'tmatterIamrealhappynow."

"Well, if it turns out bad, I'm sure we can find something to make it better. That's why it's so fun bein' us. Lots of access to pharmaceuticals." She chuckled ironically.

Terra grinned. "Sowhereyawannago?Youknowthisplacebest." Suddenly movement caught the girl's eye. "Ooowhat'sthat?" She took off running to see.

"Hey, better be care—" Shocka broke off, rolled her eyes, and flew after her. "Kids. Cats. Both," she muttered.

Terra followed the movement with her eyes and leapt from spot to spot to get a better view. It moved fast, too fast for her to see it clearly. Sighing, she stopped and sniffed the air. It smelled strange…the tang of oil laced with something she didn't quite recognize. There was a whiff of ozone there, too. There it was, right over—and then she barely dodged to one side in time as a ball of light whizzed through the air.

"What the—?! Oh, no. No ya do not!." Twin bolts of lightning leaped from Shocka's shoulder pylons to strike the small, round object in the air, surrounding it in a sphere of crackling electricity. "Damn Rikti. Probe drones're getting nosier all the time." She fired a few more charged bolts into it until it sank to the ground, smoking and sputtering.

"WhoareRiktiShocka?"

"Those damn aliens. The ones with the monkeys. Hafta tell Dreck 'bout this later, might be time ta see about having another little gang war."

"IsDreckyourfriend?"

"Noooot…'zackly. He's my boss. Or my boss's boss's boss, bein' more accurate."

"Thatmakehimmybosstoo?" Terra tilted her head.

Shocka laughed. "Nah. He wouldn't know what ta do with you."

Her tiny face screwed up in confusion at that statement but she shrugged. "OkakiesShocka." Terra leapt down and pooked at the fallen drone curiously.

"Careful there, sweetie, it may not be all the way dead."

The girl took her hands off it quickly and nodded. "Ooooh."

Shocka grinned. "I just had an idea. C'mon." She gathered Terra into her arms and took off again, flying east across the open water.

Terra giggled and looked out over the water. "WherewegoingnowShocka?"

"Need ta see a…'friend' 'v mine. Got a little bone ta pick."

"Bonetopick?" Terra's brow furrowed. "Youhungry?"

"Not that kinda bone, kid." Shocka swooped down into the sewer entrance, threading the ins and outs of the passage with an ease born of long experience. A few moments later they were back in Brickstown and heading north along the wall. "After I have a little chat with Frankie, then we'll see 'bout finding some food if yer hungry."

She nodded. "OKayiesShocka." Terra held on tight and looked over the city as they flew by.

A couple minutes' flight brought them to the highway tunnel with the Independence Port sign, they swooped through, startling a few early-morning drivers along the way. After that, it was a short hop to one of the docks where freighters were being loaded and unloaded while swarthy men in suits stood around talking to each other. Shocka flew around for a few moments; she seemed to be looking for someone. "Ah…there he is." She set down atop a stack of cargo crates to let Terra off. "You stay here where it's safe, 'kay?"

"Safe?YougonnabeindangerShocka?"

"Me? Nah. But you might be if ya come down. So stay here."

Terra nodded and sat down on the crates. "I'llstayhere."

"Good girl. Be right back—just gotta go talk to my pal Frankie." Shocka took to the air again and headed over to where one of the suited men had slipped off by himself to have a smoke. She positioned herself in the air directly above him, waited for a moment, then fired her lightning downward, encasing him in a globe of electricity just as she had the alien drone. Then she landed in front of him and seemed to be addressing him. At one point in the conversation, she took out the injector she had used earlier and brandished it at him meaningfully. Then she held up a hand and the globe collapsed—as, a moment later, did Frankie. Shocka reached down, grabbed him by the lapel, picked him up, dusted him off, and set him back on his feet. Frankie raised his hands in the air, making placating gestures.

The girl watched this, shaking her head in confusion. Maybe Shocka was really mad at her friend. Terra smiled after a bit. See, now they were making up. Everything must be okay. She started to jump down to say hi, but stopped herself. No, Shocka said to stay put.

Shocka nodded to Frankie and turned to go—then Frankie pulled a gun out from under his coat and levelled it at her. Shocka didn't even look back, but a bolt of lightning leaped from her left shoulder-pylon to the gun. Frankie dropped it, shaking his hand and swearing almost loud enough for Terra to make out the words. Shocka walked around another stack of shipping crates. Frankie called to the other men standing around on the docks, they all pulled out submachine guns and ran behind the crates after her. Shocka appeared in the air above the crates and headed back over to Terra.

Terra stood to yell a warning, but it was over too quickly. She nodded. Shocka was very skilled and, by the language coming out of his mouth, that friend of hers didn't sound very nice at all. "Areweleavingnow?"

"Yeah, sweetie, I think that would be a good idea." Shocka picked her up and took off again.

"Yourfrienddoesn'tseemverynice."

"I think I caught him at a bad time." Shocka chuckled. "But 'sokay, he told me something I could use."

"Whatsthat?"

"Where ta find something I've been looking for. C'mon, let's head back—oh, but first, I seem ta remember a nice little food-shack not too far from here, and they're not too picky 'bout the color of people's money. C'mon, breakfast time."

Terra nodded. "Yum."


Shocka spent the rest of the day taking Terra around to meet people and see places. They touched base with Sledge again while he was looking at some stereo speakers another Freak was trying to sell him in Brickstown; Shocka also introduced Terra to some others by name. They were all strange names…but then, they were kind of strange people, too.

As evening rolled around, they headed back to Carnival Town. Shocka parked Terra safely at the top of a tower as she circulated amid a crowd of other freaks who were partying wildly—and sometimes violently. She wasn't just partying, though; she was seeking out specific people and talking to them. And mostly, judging by the body language, not getting what she was looking for. Her contacts would shake their head, or shrug, and her shoulders would slump a moment before she saw her next possible prospect.

Terra sat atop the tower and watched the party below. It was funny to see from way up here, but at times it all got a bit scary. Occasionally, a Freak would drift close to the tower, look up, wave, and sometimes even offer a bottle, syringe, or…something else, she wasn't even sure entirely what. Remembering Shocka's warning, Terra simply shook her head and smiled politely. Most of the time, the Freak would shrug and circulate into the crowd again. When one of them looked like he might take offense, he found Shocka's hand on his shoulder and her smouldering electric eyes looking into his. He quickly found an excuse to be elsewhere.

Finally, as the night started to fall, Shocka took Terra back to their shack and told her to stay inside with the door locked until she got back.

"IsthereaproblemwithyourmedicineShocka?"

"Hm? Nah. I'm good." Shocka chuckled. "I just wanna make sure you're safe here while I go get us something ta eat."

Terra nodded and curled up on the bed. She was very tired. "OKayiesI'lljusttakealittlenapthenwhileyourout.Wak emewhenyougetbackokayies?"

"Good deal." Shocka reached out and stroked the fur along Terra's back. "See ya in a bit!"

True to her word, Shocka was back within the hour with a large all-meat-plus-anchovie pizza. She snagged a couple of slices, but left the rest to Terra. "Eat up, yer a growing kitty! Sorry they didn't have any mouse." She grinned.

The girl woke up and smiled groggily. "That'sokayies.Ilikefish." Terra took a piece and ate it. She didn't feel very hungry, not like she normally was. Maybe she was just tired, Terra thought.

"Not too hungry? Well, it'll keep in the fridge, then." After putting the food up, Shocka unsnapped the pylons and plugged herself in again. "G'night, Terra-kitty."

Terra smiled and went to curl up in Shocka's lap. "NightShocka."

Shocka chuckled, and gently petted her young friend. "Sleep well, kitten."


Yawning, Terra woke the next morning. She looked around, shaking her head to clear it. She was on the sofa, and judging by the amount of light coming in through the hole, she had been asleep all night. She rubbed her arms. The skin under her arms felt a bit warm to the touch,and when she stood, her muscles ached. Terra took a piece of pizza out of the fridge, but after eating about half of it, set it back on the box.

Terra went outside looking for Shocka. After a few moments searching she found her friend talking to many others of her people. "—And we'll show those tommy-toting twits a thing or two!" A loud cheer went up from the assembled crowd, many of whom waved fists, blades, hammers, or other assorted appendages in the air. After the ones who'd been knocked down by incautiously-waved appendages got back up, Shocka grinned and gestured over her shoulder. "Then people, let's rock!"

The girl scratched her head She opened her mouth to ask who Tommy was, but then thought better of it. Instead, she sat down on the wall to watch. The sun was hurting her eyes, so she squinted and simply listened. When it seemed like they were on the move, Terra jumped down and went by Shocka. "Where we goin?"

Shocka grinned at her. "Shopping! Well, sorta. C'mon, with me." She picked Terra up, and launched herself into the air, following the other Freaks streaming toward the exit.

The girl watched the procession quietly. It seemed a lot of people for a shopping trip, but then she had never really been on one. Just heard about them. "What we gettin?"

"Just a little something for the boys. Ahh…" She tried to hide a wince as Terra's weight shifted slightly. "Don't worry, I'm okay."

"You hurt?"

Shocka sounded a little cross. "I just said I'm okay, okay?"

Terra nodded sadly. "Sorry."

"'Sallright." They swooped into the sewers, but instead of coming out quickly this time they threaded their way along passage after passage. Finally, just when Terra thought she wasn't going to be able to breathe a moment longer, they emerged into the sunlight of Independence Port, along with several dozen other 'Freaks. "All right, boys, here we are!"

She looked around wondering where the store was. "Shocka? Where?"

"That warehouse there." Shocka pointed straight ahead. "How 'bout it, guys? Ready for a little full combat shopping?"

"YEAH!!!" the roar went up from all around them.

"Then get that door open and let's hit 'em hard and fast! Go, go, go!" She waved her free arm, sending the crowd surging forward.

Terra watched the reved up group pushed forward and looked at Shocka questioningly. "We going, too?"

"Yeah, in just a moment." Shocka lifted into the air and watched the crowd of Freaks with a practiced eye. In the warehouse's yard, a few suited men looked up and cried warnings, some even fired off their Thompson guns, before they were steamrollered by the wave of Freaks. "Sledge! Do it!"

The crowd parted as if by magic to let Sledge run up from the gate to the warehouse door, swinging a hammer as if he was in a 1984 Apple Computer ad. WHAM! The door was down. "All right, people, you know what to do, so do it!"

The girl cringed when the big man slammed the door with his hammer. She rememebered the damage it could do, except last time she was on the other side of the door from him. She liked this side better. "Hope no one was too close to the doors. That could hurt."

As the rest of the Freaks poured in, Shocka set down in front of the doors to let Terra down. "Make yerself scarce and be careful…there's a lot of bad men in there." She chuckled. "And a lot of mobsters, too."

"Should I hide? Where?" Terra peeked inside looking for a good spot so she could still see the action and stay hidden.

"There's lots of crates and good hiding places in there. Just keep me in sight if ya can."

"Okayies, Shocka." Terra went to climb on the stack of crates she spotted, then peeked out, crouching low. She could still see Shocka, but didn't look like anyone had spotted her.

Freed of her burden, Shocka drifted through the air, overseeing the crowd below her as they rampaged through the warehouse. Gunfire erupted up ahead as the Family's reinforcements rushed to the scene, spraying lead indiscriminately. Most of it bounced off metal-plated Tankers, and some ricochets took gunners down before the Freaks even had a chance at them.

"FORE!" yelled Sledge, firing a grenade from a tube poking up out of his back. Family gunners scattered like tenpins. Shocka fired a charged blast or two from her shoulder pylons, but mostly left that to the other pylon-bearing Freaks who floated closer to the front. She was directing them—and also looking for something. "A-ha!" She pointed at one of the Freaks who had one hammer arm and one normal arm. "You! Crowbar!"

"Catch!" The Freak swept a crowbar up off the floor and tossed it through the air. He wasn't a very good aim with his flesh-and-blood arm, but Shocka threw out a hand and a bolt of electricity from one of her pylons snagged it and yanked it into her grip. She touched down next to a metal crate sitting on a forklift and jimmied it open. "Yeah! Oh, YEAH!" She reached inside and pulled out an ampoule of blue fluid, holding it up to the light. "Found the stuff!" She pulled out the injector, ejected an empty ampoule, and slotted the new one in. She touched the injector to her arm and shot up, shivering in relief as the drug hit her system.

"Yeaaaah! This is it all right! Excelsior, high-grade stuff! 4x0r, Kyvv0r, you're on this crate. Get it outta here." She grabbed a fistful of the ampoules and pocketed them before closing the lid. The two Freaks she'd called by name dashed forward, hefted it, and started to carry it out. "Remember the rules! No more'n yer share, 'cuz if I find too much missin' when I get back it's coming outta yer scrawny hides!" They ducked their heads in obedience and scuttled away with their precious cargo.

Terra watched from above. The name of the blue liquid sounded familiar. Wasn't that what they were looking for when they found her? She wondered what it was. It seemed an awful lot of bother for such a little thing. Seeing her friend load it into her device Terra understood. They had come for the medicine she needed. Why didn't she tell her? "Can we go home now, Shocka?" Terra asked as loudly as she dared.

Shocka glanced up at her, and her brusque demeanor melted away for a moment. "Not yet, sweetie. There's still more of this stuff, and we gotta get enough for everyone. You just be careful, 'kay?"

The girl nodded. "Okay." She rested her head on a crate and yawned, watching as they searched the warehouse.


Infurno stood on the fence and surveyed her subordinates. There weren't many, but these were all she could get together on such short notice. The important thing was, they were truly her own forces. These were members of her new "supurrrgroup," Kitty of Heroes.

It had only been a few days ago that her dissatisfaction with the supergroup she'd been in had led her to leave it. It had been a fun bunch when she'd first joined, but now it seemed there were hardly ever any members around, and nobody she could really fight crime with. Additionally, the group wasn't affiliated with the RP Congress, which meant she was missing out on chances to be involved as part of the coalition.

The nice thing was, she could change that. She had gone down to Atlas Park, signed the paperwork to incorporate Kitty of Heroes, and begun recruiting new members. While she only had a handful of kitty heroes at the moment, it was enough. Infurno looked over the motley crew who had shown up for this shakedown mission.

ArchArrow smiled smugly back at Infurno. His lean Tigarian frame stretched for a moment as he readied his bow, hair all akimbo. His piercing blue eyes bright and shiny, he looked aound at the others with him to see what would happen next. Being very new to the city, Felix was unsure if 'Jungle Law' prevailed here, as it did in his now former home….'eat or be eaten'.

Steel Predator had been one of the first to join up. Though he had once been fully human, sleek black fur now covered his athletic frame. His feline characteristics made interacting with more "normal" people a bit difficult, but it had pushed his talent as a martial artist well past the limits of normal men. His feline stealth, retractable claws, and cat-like agility made him an asset to the group.

Rumpus leapt high, landing in the midst of the other "cats" with a flourish. Four feet tall to the tip of his mane—on a dry day—he was nonetheless large for his race, or so he claimed. His expansive Felinx chest housed a pair of lungs that could project his roars for miles; he was also able to summon bits of cold and ice as weapons at need. His birth name forgotten, he carried his title as a badge of honor—he was The Great Rumpus Cat, and in his mind, all eyes were deservedly on him.

The Hidden Paw faded into view for a moment, then disappeared again. Spotted fur rippled in the salt breeze. He sniffed the exotic scents, momentarily distracted, then pulled his attention back to the job at hand. Infurno's tips were always good ones and whatever the reason she'd called them together, it was bound to be exciting. This was one seven-foot mutated Ocicat who didn't want to be left out of the action.

"All right now, listen up everyone," Infurno said. "I just got word from a 'very good friend of mine,' a Family man by the name of Frankie, that the Freakshow somehow found out about a 'priceless shipment of Ming vases' that was being stored at a Family warehouse, and are breaking in and busting it up right now." She paused, and added drily, "Of course, when you read between the lines, what he probably actually meant was some Freak scared him into spilling when the next shipment of Excelsior was coming in, he's tried everything else to contain the damage, and now he wants us to clean up the mess for him."

Rumpus flashed a toothy grin. "Purrrrrrfect. Hope nobody minds property damage." He chuckled a low growl.

"Typical. Just…purrrfect," muttered Steel Predator. The words expressed annoyance, but a smile tickled the corners of his mouth. He had likely been waiting for a fight, a chance to prove himself to the group.

A ghost of a grin flashed and the Hidden Paw chuckled. "Freaks and Family goons? Beauty! Only way this could get any better would be to throw some of those Sky Raider Star Wars rejects into the mix. I'm all ears. How do we ruin their day?"

"Anyway, this sounded like it'd make a good shakedown for such members of our merry little band as I could get together just now, so here we are. Let's get in there and hit 'em hard and fast. I don't purrrticularly enjoy the fact that we're helping out the Family in this, but there are innocent bystanders around who could be hurt. Besides which, if there are Family in there, I plan to bust them too; I'm an equal-opportunity butt-kicker. Any questions?"

"Do we get to eat what we bring down?" ArchArrow asked hungrily. "I feel like I haven't eaten in days!"

Infurno rolled her eyes. "After this is over, we all go out for pizza, I promise."

"Deal…ah…what's pizza?"

"When can we start?" Steel interrupted. He was starting to twitch, ready to break in.

"Any more questions? No? Then let's LIGHT 'EM UP!" Infurno's powers blazed to life, and she led the charge into the busted-down warehouse door

ArchArrow quickly drew and fired a large-tipped arrow that sparkled with electricity. It went off with a flash, causing a group of Freaks to stumble about momentarily. "Lights out for you!" he shouted. Moving to one side, he continued firing as the others charged forward.

"Wait, wait, how can we light up and light out at the same time?" Tigerbright asked.

"Less asking, more butt-kicking!" Infurno yelled, leaping into a group of Freaks and swinging her blazing sword around in a circle.

"HA!" Rumpus pounced into the middle of the fray and let loose with a roar that rippled through the air, shattering glass and scattering a few Freaks. "I AM the great Rumpus cat! You pinkies are in for a world of hurt!"

"Show-off," Steel Predator muttered as he engaged the group of Freaks that were now charging Rumpus. Unlike the great Rumpus cat, he remained silent as he whirled with outstretched claws. Beside him, the Hidden Paw snorted and snapped a kick at the nearest Freak, catching him where flesh met metal with a satisfying thud. He whirled and wove as more Freaks swiped at his barely visible form. He enjoyed this. Before long, he was lost in the dance: kick, punch, dodge, leap, kick…The Freaks soon learned to keep out of the way of this pair of feline whirlwinds; they scattered toward the less-imposing Rumpus.

Rumpus grinned at finding himself the center of attention. He dived between a Tank Smasher's legs flat to the floor as Freaks tried to swarm him. "HAR-OOOOOOOO!" The howl exploded stright up, tossing Freaks into the air in a fountain of scrap metal and bad 80's [censored] extras. "You pinkies are almost as much fun as a box of rubber mice!"

"But can you really call them pinkies?" Tigerbright asked. "I think they're more sort of silvery."

Infurno finished smacking down a particularly persistent Tank Smasher. "We clear in this room? Yeah? Well, there's plenty more where that came from. C'mon, let's take it to 'em!"


Emboldened by their success, the Freak crowd had split up into a number of smaller groups, the better to search the warehouse (and pocket anything they found before Shocka noticed). As the Freaks split up, Terra stayed close to Shocka's group, not wanting to be separated from her friend. For the moment, she hid behind some crates while Shocka dealt with the last knot of recalcitrant Family gunners just up the hall.

Being a couple hundred yards closer to the entrance than the others, Terra heard the commotion first. She quickly jumped to the top of a crate. "Shocka! We got trouble!"

Shocka finished slamming a Family gunner against the wall and glanced back in Terra's direction. "Damn vigilantes…all right, tighten up, everyone! Get ready, we'll take them as they come." At her command, the Freaks drew together into a cohesive group. They took up positions to either side of the passageway and waited.


Running on all fours, Rumpus charged forward. He could smell prey ahead. The fight, the glorious fight. This is what it meant to be The Great Rumpus Cat. "They're close, fur-friends. Be ready to spring."

Infurno frowned, then put out a hand and stopped Rumpus in mid-charge. "Wait. Something doesn't feel right. Stay back, let me go in first to draw their fire. They shouldn't be able to hurt me too badly."

Tigerbright nodded. "Got it." She and the other cats fell in behind Infurno as they were bid, standing ready to step in if needed.

Infurno set herself and blazed brighter. "Get ready, people! When I give you the go, hit 'em with everything you've got." She glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were ready, then ran around the corner.

A moment later, amid loud explosions, she came flying back past the corner, landing on her backside and skidding several feet. Infurno stood, shook her head, and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her lip. "Daaaamn. Organized Freakshow. Now that's scary." She blazed brighter. "But we can take 'em. Let's light 'em up!" She charged back into the fray.

"You got it, hot stuff!" Rumpus loosed a roar as he charged right behind her, followed by Tigerbright and the other Kitties of Heroes. Infurno was standing in the middle of a crowd of Freaks who were pouring their fire into her, and overhead floated another oddity for Freaks—a female Stunner.

"Don't be distracted by the Tanker!" Shocka called out. "Hit the others, they're the weaker links!" A lightning bolt flashed out from her shoulder pylons, catching Tigerbright in mid-flight and surrounding her in a Tesla cage.

"Ack…grrk…fur…getting frizzy…." Tigerbright gasped as she writhed in the middle of the electrical sphere. "Need…conditioner…"

"Weakest link?" Steel questioned, lining his voice with barbs of sarcasm. Once more, he brought his claws to the fight, becoming a spinning storm of steel and fur as he took battle to the Freaks.

The Hidden Paw launched at the nearest Freak, unleashing a flurry of punches. "Oooooo! Lookit me, I'm a weak link!" A roundhouse kick sent his stunned opponent smashing into a stack of crates. The Freak slid to the floor and stayed there. "Mad Freak Buckshot in the side pocket. Next?"

"Sweet Mother of Mungojerrie!" Rumpus lept, careened off a wall, and bounced past the flying leader, taking a swipe at her with his ice blade as he went by. "Arch! You got anything?" Shocka took the sword blow, not seeming greatly harmed by it. She gestured at Rumpus and a lightning bolt lashed out, slamming him into a wall.

ArchArrow smiled broadly and plucked out a special arrow, a bit of frost dripped from the tip. "I think I have just the thing." Taking quick but careful aim, he let fly. The arrow's tip exploded into a cloud of liquid nitrogen, momentarily freezing her, but she broke free as fast as the ice could form.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Shocka threw out her arms and an electrical field lashed at all the heroes around her, draining their strength to fight.

It was not an attack that could be dodged. Steel Predator felt his fur stand on end—an agonizing sensation—as he fell to the floor and struggled to regain his footing.

"Whoa!" The Hidden Paw jerked in the current, electricity outlining his body against the smoky air. "Singed fur is not one of my favorite scents, Shortcake. I am soooo gonna kick you into next week…" His knees buckled and he dropped to the floor, becoming visible as he hit. "…as soon as I can stand up again…."

"Gah!" Infurno gasped, falling to her knees, before reaching out to burn the Freaks around her to recover her strength. "I will not lose a battle to the Bride of Frankenstein!" She concentrated her flames on a conveniently close Tank, incinerating him until his cybernetic systems overheated and shut him down.

"I think this is getting to be a sticky situation." ArchArrow quickly fired a larger arrow, and a great mess of sticky goop spread around Shocka, encasing and slowing her. He followed up with a second ice arrow, causing the cage around Tigerbright to dissolve.

Tigerbright shuddered as she broke free. "Tyger, Tyger, burning bright!" She blasted a fireball right into the midst of the tightly-packed group around Infurno, and half of them slumped to the ground. "And eat cinders, you [censored]!" A rain of fire pelted the remaining Freaks—not greatly damaging, but irritating and distracting.

"Oh, you'll pay for that!" Shocka growled, shattering the ice cage around her and casting a ball of electrical energy that exploded in the heroes' midst. Hidden Paw vanished and Steel Predator leaped upward, narrowly avoiding the blast; ArchArrow was too far back to be affected. Tigerbright and Rumpus weren't so lucky.

A moment later, Rumpus got up from the floor, groggy but defiant. His eyes went berzerker red as he reached down into the depths of his primal cat soul. His fur stood on end, puffing himself to as fearsome as he could be. Rumpus inhaled, feeling the secondary and trinary chambers of his lungs open and his chest swell to nearly twice its normal size. His jaw nearly unhinged and he let loose with a roar that shook the foundation of the building, shattered windows and rattled the bones of the remaing gangers, sending them crashing down the hallway.

"The audience is listening," Infurno said.

Tigerbright got back to her feet, shaking her head woozily. "Listening? Try deaf!"

"Get the boss. I gotta sit down a sec," Rumpus said shakily. His eyes swam, and he slumped to the floor.

Terra stood frozen, uncertain of what to do. Her friends were fighting—and they'd mostly been defeated—but Shocka had told her to stay put. She moved in as close as she could and stared. They were all like her. They were cats. Well, kind of. But they were fighting her friends. She shook her head in confusion. "Shocka?"

"DAMN it!" Shocka swore. "Well, come on, then! I'll take ya on. I'll take ya all on!" She fired a powerful electrical blast into Tigerbright, slamming her against the ceiling and then to the floor. She staggered back to her feet, only slightly dazed.

"Hey, now, nobody gets away with doing that to my sister!" Infurno growled, lunging for Shocka with a flaming fist.

Shocka caught it bare-handed, and threw an electrically-charged uppercut to Infurno's jaw with her other fist. "This is none of your biz, masks! Why can'cha just let it be, huh?"

Infurno rubbed her chin. "Now, now, you know better than that." She drew on her internal fires, readying herself to try again. "Our 'biz' is all crime. Even criminal-on-criminal." She drew her fire sword. "And now you're going down, loser!"

ArchArrow put Shocka in the crosshairs of a steel-tipped arrow, and waited for Infurno to give the signal. Infurno nodded, and ArchArrow let loose with another ice arrow, freezing her in place momentarily.

Terra climbed slowly down the crates. She couldn't leave her friend down there alone. Maybe if she was careful she could distract then, then she and Shocka would get away. Just a little further.

All the while, Steel Predator had been creeping behind, hoping that Shocka would be distracted into making a mistake. As ArchArrow hit her with the ice arrow, he saw his opportunity to strike. He pounced on her with the calculating skill of a natural hunter, using the momentum of the attack and repeated strikes from his claws to knock her to the floor.

Shocka was surprised, and maybe even a little hurt, but by no means defeated. The columns on her back crackled with sudden fury, electrifying the poor hero. He was thrown back but managed to recover before hitting the concrete. A cat always lands on his feet.

She stood again and Steel Predator charged, throwing personal safety aside as he pressed the assault with a savage roar.

Shocka staggered back, reeling from the force of the blows. Tigerbright stepped forward, arm raised with a fireball forming at the tip. "Time to end it." She drew upon her own internal flames, took careful aim—

Terra leapt from the last row of boxes, claws drawn, hissing furiously. They had gone too far. They had hurt her friend and she had to stop this. "Get away from her!" Terra landed on Tigerbright, the full impact of her leap aimed for the woman's chest.

"What the—OOF!" Tigerbright's fireball dissolved as a diminuitive catgirl tackle bore her to the ground.

Infurno blinked. "The hell?"

The Paw paused in his run toward the enemy as Tigerbright got friendly with the floor for the third time in under two minutes. "Hunh? Where'd the little kitty cannonball come from?"

ArchArrow let fly with a steel-tipped arrow, straight and true, striking Shocka square in the chest. Quickly renocking another, he began a steady barrage to make a pincushion out of the Freak.

Overwhelmed by the rain of arrows, Shocka stumbled backward into a pile of crates. A small grey and white paw tapped her on the shoulder, and then crashed across her jaw as she turned to face this new attacker. Her eyes flickered and went out as she slumped to the floor. Rumpus stood over the fallen gang leader. "Jellicles can and Jellicles do. I am the the Rumpus, and you are through."

"Shocka!" Terra screamed. The sound was mournful, but at the same time full of fury.

Infurno grabbed her by the arm and yanked her off of Tigerbright. "Now hold on just one minute here—what the hell is going on?"

Terra hissed fitfully, strugging in Infurno's grasp. "Let me go! Leave us be!" She continued to hiss and spit, kicking her feet in a desperate attempt to strike out.

Tigerbright got slowly to her feet, shaking her head in confusion. "Who're y—"

And then their attention was drawn to a crackling sound, fit to send shivers up their spines. As one, they turned to look at Shocka's body. Bolts of electrical energy were playing over it, and it was rising to its feet as if pulled by an invisible string. Shocka opened her electrical eyes, then narrowed them at the tableau before her.

"Shocka!" Terra squealed happily, still tugging at Infurno's grasp, trying to get free.

"You. Leave her the hell ALONE!" Shocka growled, a cold fury in her voice that hadn't been there before. She rose slowly off the ground, electrical energy building around her until Infurno would have sworn she could feel every individual follicle of her fur standing on end. Shoving Terra at Tigerbright, Infurno turned and set herself for battle—

—and then the energy dissipated, and Shocka dropped to the floor, with no electricity at all. Even her eyes had gone out. "Let her go," Shocka said quietly. "I'll surrender if you let her go."

"No! We have to go home, Shocka. Please." Terra tried to bite Tigerbright's arm to make her let go.

Infurno blinked. "Whoa. Hold everything. Did a Freak…just offer to surrender…to save someone else?"

Tigerbright goggled, so startled she didn't even notice Terra's attempt to bite her. "That's not natural."

(Continued below.)

Eh? I just re-checked all three links in my post and they all worked.

I just thought I'd mention a neat little tool-of-the-trade I discovered a while ago. It's a collaborative text editor called MoonEdit. This is a text editor that, kind of like OS X's "SubEthaEdit", lets two or more people type in the same text file at the same time. (Their inputs are highlighted in different colors so folks can see what's whose.)

The editor can be used either peer-to-peer, where two or more people connect directly to each other, or peers-to-server, where the people connect directly to the server. There's a default server that people can use, on moonedit.com port 32123, or you can set up your own if you have a Windows or Linux box. (I set up my own on my home Linux box; you just have to poke a hole in your firewall to let it in.) Going server-based has the additional benefit that you never have to worry about saving your work because the server saves it automatically.

There are some drawbacks: It's Windows and Linux only, and the source is not available; you can't mark text by clicking and dragging, you have to use the shift key; long copies and pastes from or to the program will come up incomplete so anything really long has to go in several chunks. There aren't a whole lot of different highlighting colors available, so if more than 3 or 4 people are writing, odds are a couple of them will have similar colors to the rest. But for all of that, it's a very good tool for doing what it does.

I introduced MoonEdit to the RP/writing group of which I am a member, Pinnacle/Virtue's RP Congress, and as people have gradually taken to it, I think that the creative output of various RPC authors has skyrocketed. It's fun and addictive to write together, literally together, with other people--sometimes four or five other people at the same time. Lately a bunch of us have gotten together to write a climactic battle scene for the "A Sistah's Burden" storyline, where the file is placed on the server and various members of the Congress log in to put their fight scenes in place. It's shaping up amazingly well, and it would have been so much more of a nightmare of organization in the old days when all we could do was email chunks back and forth.

If you write regularly with anyone, you might want to give MoonEdit a shot.

[ QUOTE ]
The question has come up - "what's the point of Burn now?" Well, it still offers Immobilization defense (we're actually going to increase that duration). And Burn does do a lot of damage. Taunt alone might not bring mobs into Burn continually, but stunning, holding, immobilizing mobs in Burn is just plain devastating.

[/ QUOTE ]
States, how are the 20s-level Fire Tankers supposed to do this? Unless they're Fire/Ice?

I realize that Burn was formerly too "uber", but as of I5 (as it presently appears on the Training Room) you've changed all the other factors that made Burn "uber" in the first place. We can't herd anymore, our powers won't affect as many mobs...the most we can take out with Burn are one spawn's worth.

Or at least, that's the most we could take out with it if it worked.

At this point, I'm not concerned with being "uber" anymore. I'm just concerned with being able to solo. For many builds, Burn is the Fire Tanker's only attack (well, aside from an unslotted Scorch and Boxing) that they have from 18 on up through the 30s when they've finally gotten the defensive portion of their build in place. Up to this point, it was the thing that allowed us to solo those missions that didn't require help for some reason (can-opener attacks, archvillains, etc.). Not herd and burn. Solo.

Now, that power may have let us solo a little too fast. But that's okay, you can scale it back some. Make it do a little less damage, make the recharge a little longer. There's no reason we should be able to kill an entire spawn in just one application.

But you've gone too far with the recharge time and the fear effects. Burn is not going to be that useful anymore. Sure, we can grab a Controller or a Dark Defender to duo with us...but there are times that we just want to be on our own. We can do that once we hit the 30s and start taking attacks...but in the 20s that's not going to work. We can't easily "defeat all" in a mission if our only attack makes them run away. Sure, we shouldn't be able to solo "everything"--but the way this change works, now we'll find it hard to solo most things.

Again, let me say that Burn doesn't have to be as good as it was. Keep the scaled-back damage. Keep the long recharge time, even--though I'd greatly prefer you drop it to 30 or 20 seconds instead of the current 42.5. But please scale way back or lose entirely the fear effect. Let taunt or punchvoke override it. Let us solo at least somewhat effectively.

Singling out Burn over just about every other attack in the game to have this effect is unrealistic (as smart mobs shouldn't be hanging around to be frozen, zapped, smacked, sliced, impaled, deafened, shot, etc. either), it greatly negatively affects Fire Tankers' ability to solo, and consequently lessens our ability to have fun. It's the single most frustrating change of the entire update.

I know that you have changed your mind about certain much-argued powers in the past--seeing elsewhere in the I5 patch notes that toggles will no longer suppress travel powers brings this home to me (and is welcome news to my Dark Defender). Please take a moment and consider my arguments, and the arguments of other people in this thread.

I sincerely believe that in your zeal to adjust a power that was "too good"--and yes, I'll admit that the earlier version of Burn was too good--you have taken it too far the other way. Please give us some of its functionality back.

Thanks for pointing out the typo. I've fixed it.

Yeah, I hope they do something to make Burn a little better. It just feels like the devs are engaging in a bit of overkill to me; rather than nerfing back one of the elements that enabled herding and burning, they're nerfing back all of them, meaning that some legitimate uses for certain powers that didn't involve herding are going by the wayside too.

[ QUOTE ]
I hope they'll be helpful to Fire Tankers everywhere, both veteran and beginner—at least until Issue 5 comes out.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've been doing some looking into Issue 5 on the training room, and I've come up with a preliminary guide to altering your build and play-style to cope with the changes. It's given by my Fire/Fire Blaster, Tigerbright, because Infurno was too depressed.
<ul type="square">[*]Tigerbright Public-Access Cable Fire/Fire Tanker Lecture #4: How to Survive and Thrive in Issue Five[/list]Enjoy!

Early morning in Paragon City. Almost no pedestrians were on the street, few cars travelling. It should by all rights have been a time of stillness, one of the few moments of peace and quiet that the City of Heroes ever had.

But of course, it wasn't.

An armored truck rested on its side against the sidewalk in one of the old shopping districts that had sprung up in the shadows of Skyway City's overpasses. It was surrounded by a sizable crowd of Paragon City's least desirable elements. The Freakshow had cordoned off the area immediately surrounding the truck, outside their perimeter milled Trolls, Hellions, Skulls, Outcasts, Thorns, Tsoo, Carnival of Shadows, and many others. Nemesis soldiers stood guard around the outer perimeter. Malta agents lurked in the shadows of nearby dark alleys. Even the normally stand-offish Clockwork constructs, Rikti soldiers, and Devouring Earth monsters rubbed elbows with their human brethren for a change. At the center of the crowd, a Smasher lieutenant was holding a chisel to the car's lock with his hand, and whacking on it with his hammer.

"Ohhh, yeah, this is gonna be sooo kewl!" he said as he tapped on the chisel. "Better than metal! Better than Excelcior even!"

"Better than Dyne!" a nearby troll agreed.

"Musssst...devour it," one of the hulking Devoured growled. "Must devour it now!"

"Brrrzt," a Clockwork Baron declared. "It will take our master's mind off of...rrrck...our master's mind."

A Void Stalker leaned on its glowing red rifle and observed the truck thoughtfully. "Of all the things I have seen in my travels through the Void, I have come upon few things quite so amazing as this."

"Goal: acquire," said a Rikti mentalist. "Interspecies cooperation to achieve goal: necessary."

"There are not many things that can hold my interest in this age," said one of the immense mechanical men that might or might not be Nemesis at any given time. "When I come across such an artifice, it is to be treasured...and, of course, obtained at all costs." It waved its staff menacingly at the Freaks by the truck. "Hurry up, you ruffians!"

"Almost got it!" the Smasher declared. "Just one more good whack!" He raised the hammer and cocked it back—

And then a blazing orange streak of light shot through the air and nailed him in the back. "Aaaah!" With a cry, the Smasher hit the ground—and the crowd of villains slowly turned to look to where it came from.

Up the street, a blazing red-orange cheetah-spotted figure stood, and a red-orange tiger-striped figure floated in the air above her. "You know, I think you've got something that doesn't belong to you," Infurno declared.

"And that's very naughty," Tigerbright added. "So when was the last time you saw the inside of the Zig, anyway?"

"Aaah! Capes!" a Skull said. "Get 'em!" A group of Skulls broke off from the crowd and started their way.

"Capes?" Infurno asked. She looked up at Tigerbright. "But we aren't wearing capes."

"Maybe they should get their eyes checked by the Zig's optometrists," Tigerbright suggested, tossing a ball of fire and scattering Skulls like bowling pins. "Well, in we go! Tyger, tyger, burning bright!"

"Let's light 'em up!"

The two fire heroes charged into the fray, tossing thugs left and right with explosions and flaming fists. Infurno ducked a swing by a Hellion, siezed his arm, and tossed him into a knot of Outcasts. "I haven't seen so many different crooks palling around since the last time they held the national law-enforcement convention here!" Tigerbright said, as she called a rain of cinders down on a group surrounding Infurno.

Infurno swung her flaming sword in a circle that sent many villains sprawling. "Just goes to show there are some things that bring people together...no matter what kind of people they are. Gah!" Infurno gasped as a Master Illusionist caused painful wounds to appear all over her body. She knew they weren't real, but that didn't block out the pain.

"Hey, you! Hands off!" Tigerbright sent a blazing bolt of fire through the air, catching the Illusionist in the side and flinging her to the ground.

Infurno's phantom wounds vanished, and she felt better. "Thanks, TB! Hey, look out!"

"Huh, wha—?" Tigerbright began—and then a force bolt from the Nemesis armor's staff flung her across the street and through a shop's plate glass window. "...ow!"

"Oh, now I'm steamed." Infurno growled. "Nobody messes with my sister."

"You might find that I am actually the 'steamed' one, m'dear," the hulking Nemesis grunted, its stacks belching another cloud of smoke to punctuate its statement. "But if you would like me to apply some of it to you, that can be arranged." It swung its staff, disgorging another bolt at Infurno. She ducked under it and swung a blazing fist into the armor's cuirass as she summoned fires to burn more intensely around her.

Infurno struck the Nemesis armor repeatedly, punctuating her strikes with words. "You—" SMACK "—should go back to—" SMACK "—cleaning carpets!" WHAM! With Infurno's final blow, the Nemesis suit's boiler overheated and blew, and the armor crumpled. Its helmet fell off, revealing nothing inside. Infurno smirked. "'We are the hollow men.' Hey, TB, you OK?"

Tigerbright clambered out of the storefront, pausing only to smack an Outcast with a fire sword of her own. "Just peachy! Kind of bruised, but still sweet!"

"...right." Infurno walloped the Devoured monster, then slapped a teleport beacon onto it so the Zig could whisk it away. "I think that's just about—AAAAAH!" A bolt of blue electricity crackled from out of the shadows, and Infurno writhed as it surrounded her in a blue nimbus.

The Malta Sapper stepped out of the alley. "We have to confiscate this shipment for further...investigation."

"Oh yeah?" Tigerbright took a deep breath, then exhaled a cone of fire over him. The Sapper slumped to the ground, clothes smoking and boots melted. "Now who's next?"

Infurno brought her flames back up and looked around. Apart from the unconscious thugs who were even now winking out as the Zig's teleporters came on-line, the street had suddenly emptied. "Figures. They're all cowards when you get right down to it," Infurno said. She walked up to the truck and knocked on the front window, shielding her face with her hands to look inside. "Hey...you OK in there? Yeah? Good...hang on a sec, we'll have you right-side up in a jiffy." She went around to where the roof of the car lay against the sidewalk, and reached down to the edge. "Hey, TB, help me out here. I'll pull on the bottom, you push on the top."

"Got it." Tigerbright lifted into the air, and set her shoulder against the other edge of the roof.

"One...two...three...HEAVE!" It only took a couple of tries for them to set the truck back on all four tires. "I think it'll be OK, these things are built tough."

The driver—a young man with brown hair, wearing the livery of the armored car service that owned the truck—unlatched and opened his door. "Hey! Infurno, Tigerbright...man am I glad to see you! If this shipment hadn't made it, a lot of people would have been disappointed."

"Don't I know it," Infurno said. "Want us to ride shotgun with you 'til you get where you're going?"

"If you wouldn't mind..."

Infurno nodded. "Least we can do." She climbed into the passenger side of the truck, while Tigerbright perched on the roof. Its engine turned over, the driver threw it into gear, and they began to move down the road.

That was when the Clockwork Baron stepped out into the street ahead of them. "Wha—oh no!" the driver said, starting to swerve.

Infurno jerked the steering wheel back on course. "Gun it."

"But—"

"I said gun it!" Infurno growled. Reflexively, the driver stomped on the pedal and the truck picked up speed, slamming into the shambling robot at forty miles per hour. Just as they hit, Tigerbright fired off a double fire blast from the truck's roof, and the combined impacts exploded the Baron into a shower of metal parts.

"YES!!!" Tigerbright whooped. "Take that, you bucket of bolts!" The driver looked somewhere between relieved and hopeful that the damage to the truck wouldn't come out of his paycheck.

A few minutes later, the armored truck reached its destination: the plaza in the shadow of the tall concrete pylon, not far from the Faultline hazard zone. Vitaly Cherenko waved as they drove past. "Is he always there?" Tigerbright wondered to Infurno over their team chat comlink. "Doesn't he ever, y'know, sleep or anything?"

"Well, he is a big ol' gee-whiz super-mystic," Infurno said. "Maybe he doesn't need it."

The truck pulled in behind a small shop just off the plaza, whose sign proclaimed it to be "The Wizards Well"—a comic, game, and book shop—and exhorted the viewer to "Imagine yourself a new life!" As the truck backed into the loading dock, they were met by a man who might well have been the mustachio'd, goatee'd wizard from the placard, right down to the pointed hat. "Oh, marvelous, marvelous! You made it! Was there any trouble?"

"Nothing Infurno and Tigerbright here couldn't handle," the driver said, stepping down. "To tell the truth, they really saved my bacon—and your shipment."

"Oh, it was nothing, really," Tigerbright said.

"Just doing our job," Infurno said. Then, as the four of them walked around to open the back of the truck, Infurno added, "And though we wouldn't normally think of asking for a reward, well, do you think maybe this time...?"

The spry old man in the wizard costume chuckled. "Oh-ho-ho, it's like that, is it?" He fitted a key to the only-slightly-bent lock and pulled the door open, revealing stacks of boxes sporting a big "Scholastic" logo. A couple of them had burst open when the truck had been knocked on its side, spilling their brightly-colored rectangular contents across the truck's interior, but none looked badly damaged. The man poked his finger in the air a few times as he mentally counted the boxes and the unboxed contents. "All here. Good." He grinned at the two heroes. "Oh, yes, I do believe we can...how do they say it? 'Comp' a couple for you..." But as Infurno started to reach for one, he caught her by the wrist with greater strength than by all rights he should have possessed. "...but not for another eighteen hours, I'm afraid."

Infurno blinked. "What? But...aw, come on! We just saved the whole shipment for you!"

"I know, and I'm properly grateful, believe you me. But I can make no exceptions, not even for this." The old man shook his head. "The contract was very clear. You heard about what happened in Canada? It would be more than my shop was worth if I broke it."

"Aw, not the whole 'lawyer' thing again," Infurno groaned. "What is this, City of Lawyers?"

"Oh, do not misapprehend me. I know how to deal with lawyers," the old man said with a glint in his eye. "But do you honestly believe, in this world of heroes and magic, that such an important contract would be enforced with measures strictly mundane?" The back door to the shop opened and a couple more wizard-costumed employees came out with dollies to cart the boxes back into the shop. "No, I am quite sorry, my heroic friends...but you will have to wait for midnight, along with the rest of the world, to catch your first glimpse of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." He let go of her wrist. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do..."

Infurno and Tigerbright found themselves gently but firmly shuffled off to one side as the boxes of books swiftly disappeared from the back of the armored truck into the protected confines of the store. And they were protected, Infurno realized; she wasn't an expert in magic but her fur was tingling in the way that it usually did only in the presence of powerful warding spells. It would take more than a bunch of Freakshow to get their hands on those books now.

Infurno sighed. "Well, guess we might as well hit the tram. Head home, get some sleep so we can be back here at midnight."

"Yeah." Tigerbright launched into the air, heading back north. "You know what we should have done? We should have borrowed those chameleon suits again and helped the Freaks. At least then we'd have our copies now..."

"Well, nobody ever said the life of a hero was an easy one, TB." Infurno looked over her shoulder at the store one last time, then followed her sister. "At least we've all got something to look forward to tonight."

((Happy Harry Potter Day's Eve, everyone! Hope you get your books on time! And NO SPOILERS IN-GAME!!!))

I just wrote up and posted a new guide--actually a set of guides. My character Infurno has started providing instruction to lower-level Fire Tankers on Pinnacle, and here's her collected lecture material. It expands upon Mephe's 2.0 Guide to provide more comprehensive and newbie-friendly information on Fire Tanking.

Fire Tanking, the Infurno Way

On the Pinnacle server, my Fire/Fire Tanker Infurno recently hit level 50, and, deciding she wanted to give something back to the community, begun offering one-on-one tutoring sessions for Fire Tankers (with an emphasis on, but not restricted to, the Fire/Fire variant). This was partly intended as a way to get some roleplaying opportunities for my character with the Pinnacle RP Congress roleplaying group, but also a way to provide some much-needed instruction on Fire Tankers, who are historically a very tight build and one of the easiest to screw up. The following are the resources I've created so far. When and if I get ideas for more, I'll list them in responses to this post.

First, here's a story I wrote up out of the logs of my first such tutoring session with another player. It's fanfic, but it contains a lot of useful Fire Tanking advice as Infurno gives it.
<ul type="square">[*]Infurno's Informal Instructional Interlude I[/list]Shortly after that, I got to thinking about some minor shortcomings of Mephe's Fire/Fire Tanker Guide v2.0, which I use as the basis for my instruction. It's definitely informative and very well-written as far as it goes, but there are some areas where it may be a bit too technical for beginners, or may not explain enough. So I banged out three "lectures" from my character Infurno, with "help" from her Fire/Fire Blaster "sister" Tigerbright, to explore and expand upon its reasoning, as well as my own differences of opinion with the guide and strategies I've evolved that aren't covered there. In keeping with the roleplaying nature of the website, these were framed as how-to lectures shown on Paragon City's public-access cable TV network (though they're only done semi-in-character so as to be clearer with the explanations).
<ul type="square">[*]Infurno Public-Access Cable Fire/Fire Tanker Lecture #1: Exploring Mephe's Tanker Builds In Depth[*]Infurno Public-Access Cable Fire/Fire Tanker Lecture #2: Examining the List of Resistances and Can-Openers[*]Infurno Public-Access Cable Fire/Fire Tanker Lecture #3: Endurance Management Strategies for Levels 1 to 50[/list]I hope they'll be helpful to Fire Tankers everywhere, both veteran and beginner—at least until Issue 5 comes out.

Well, they disappear the same as defeated our-earth mobs, so they must be being teleported somewhere.

Wolfgang had once been an ordinary man like any other, albeit poorer than some. When he'd finished his high-school education, he lacked the funds to go to college, and had not been bright enough to qualify for scholarship. So he had done the only thing he could--joined a paramilitary outfit called the Fifth Column. Oh, he had not espoused their party line, a line unchanged in over sixty years--but then, he did not need to. If you only followed orders, that was enough.

But then he had "volunteered" to participate in an experimental super-soldier program. He had been infused with a "Nictus fragment," a piece of some alien life-form. It would either grant him paranormal abilities, or...

In Wolfgang's case, it turned out to be "or..." His body had not been strong enough to integrate the fragment; instead, the fragment had festered and infected his entire body, changing it, turning it bestial. He became one of the program's legions of failures: a Warwolf, an eight-foot-tall muscular wolf shaped like a man.

But Wolfgang did not think about this much. In fact, he did not think about much of anything anymore, being largely incapable of forming a coherent thought other than "Graaaah!" or the occasional "Burp!" Now he roamed the gloomy hills and swamps of Striga Island with the others of his kind, foraging on the few small animals still left in the forest and the occasional hapless Sky Raider (mmm, tasty!). He'd learned to avoid the zombies with whom he shared his terrain; they were well-preserved enough but there was hardly any meat on their bones and what there was was overspiced to the point where it burned his tongue. He also had the occasional encounter with heroes, but they always ended in frustration: he could defeat the heroes easily enough, but they invariably vanished right before he could chow down.

Today was a day for Wolfgang like any other. He woke when the sun was halfway across the sky, shuffled out of the cave where he slept, and began wandering the island looking for food. Or trouble, but mainly food. He expected that this would continue until the sun went down, at which point he would find a hill, wait for the moon to rise, and howl at it until his throat was hoarse. Then he would go to sleep again.

But a swift movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned in time to see a lithesome form drop from over the trees into the forest clearing where he stood. It landed in a crouch, then slowly stood upright again. It was a woman. She was human in shape, but covered from head to foot with dark orange fur dappled with red spots, and a mane of long hair to match. A hero, then. Wolfgang growled, thinking of the time and effort he was going to have to go to to dispose of her, and the lack of any tasty meat afterward.

As Wolfgang stood there growling, the woman looked him up and down and smirked. "Yeah...you'll do. You'll do nicely." She chuckled. "And by the way, my name's Infurno--because I'm 'in fur, no?' Yeah, yeah, not like you understand a word I'm saying."

Wolfgang didn't know what the human speech meant, but he knew she wasn't supposed to be there. He growled, and advanced toward her. Best to get this over with so he could go back to foraging usefully.

"Yeah, that's the way, big boy. Come to mama." Infurno grinned, raised a hand, and snapped her fingers. "Let's light 'em up!" With a WHUFF of ignition, her body was wreathed in orange and blue flames.

Wolfgang didn't care. He'd seen flashy heroes before; they all went down the same. He raised a massive claw and lashed out, slapping Infurno high on her chest. She didn't give, didn't even move; she just laughed. "Is that the best you've got? Come on, hit me again!" As Wolfgang swung the other claw, she ducked under his arm and got behind him. "Here, try this on for size!" She brought both hands down onto his back in a bolt of blazing force, sending him stumbling forward.

As he reeled, Wolfgang felt the woman close behind him again. He tried to turn, grab her with a claw, but she was too fast for him, staying behind him. "Oh, my...you look pretty tense, Mister Wolfie. Here, let me help with that." And then Infurno's hands were pressing into his back, right below his shoulderblades. Her hands were hot, on fire even, and yet they didn't seem to burn him. Instead, the warmth penetrated into his body, relaxing knotted muscles he didn't even know were tensed. "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. See how much better that feels?"

Wolfgang felt strange--but it felt good. It felt better than anything he could remember, in fact, but...it wasn't right. Something was wrong here! He tried to pull away--and then it was as if a ripple of pleasurable warmth went through his entire body. And another one...and another one...it was as if the flames were emanating from her in pulses, and each pulse of flame stole a little more of his will to move.

Infurno continued massaging aching muscles, loosening them up. "There you go. Doesn't that feel gooood?"

Wolfgang turned his head to look at her, grunting questioningly. Infurno smiled at him. "Why, I do believe you're almost ready. You may not realize it, but you're going to thank me for this." She grinned, and raised her hand again. "Let's light 'em up!" With another WHUFF, both she and Wolfgang were enveloped in a blazing pyre.

Strangely, the flames didn't hurt like they should have. There was no agony of heat, no singed flesh, no scorched hair...it was just an intense warmth, penetrating all through Wolfgang's body. But then Wolfgang felt something within him...change. Something was weakening, diminishing, shrinking...and to his horror, Wolfgang realized that he was starting to shrink as well! Infurno was getting taller, and he was getting smaller.

"Graaaahr!" Wolfgang said, lashing out at Infurno again with his claw. She just took his blow on her hip and laughed. He tried to move, tried to get away, tried to do anything, but his legs wouldn't budge--all he could do was stand there, watching the blazing woman grow progressively taller. His last memory was of Infurno, now positively huge, bending over to pick him up. Then everything went dark.


"Oh, wow, for me? Really?" the little blonde-haired girl gasped, reaching up to take the wriggling puppy from Infurno's hands.

"Uh-huh." Infurno grinned, looking over her shoulder at the smiling matron sitting on the bench in front of the "Paragon City Orphanage" sign. "Miss Armstrong felt that a puppy would help you learn some responsibility...and as for me, well, I thought you could use a little furry friend."

"Oh, wow! Thank you, Infurno! Thank you sooo much!" The girl giggled as the puppy licked her face.

"Now, he is going to take a lot of looking after, Cindy," Infurno said. "You're going to have to housetrain him and take care of him. And he's part wolf, so he's going to take some special care."

Cindy nodded seriously. "I know. And I promise, I won't let you down--or him. Does he have a name?"

Infurno reached over to the chain draped around the puppy's neck, and looked at the metal tag dangling from it. "Yeah. His name is Wolfgang. And I'm sure you'll be very happy together."


Infurno grinned as she walked away from the orphanage. She loved seeing strays go to good homes. It had been a win-win situation, for everybody involved. Cindy got a puppy, Wolfgang got a more fulfilling life than he'd had on the island, and she...well, since she'd learned to use her magic fires to consume Nictus energy, she found that the dark parts of Warwolves made a tasty meal.

The puppy would grow up, of course, and as he grew up, his human nature would gradually return to him. The Nictus fragment had done much damage, but it could never truly eradicate the man he had been--it would just need time to reassert itself. Who knew, Wolfgang might even regain the ability to shift his form. But by that time he would have been firmly imprinted on Cindy down in the most instinctual core of his being. Cindy would have a faithful protector for as long as Wolfgang lived.

"Another day, another job well done." Infurno grinned. "Because nobody likes their jobs medium rare."

[ QUOTE ]
I took conserve power at 41....it's too good not to take. My attacks are Boxing, Scorch, BA, Burn, FSC, and Combustion. I'll probably take FE, Build Up, and Incinerate for the final three powers.

Really good guide, but it should be just that, as you play and get to know your character, you should come up with your own selections. I personally don't see the point of taking RotP.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, I agree. I ended up taking Conserve at 41, Combustion at 44, and will take Fiery Embrace at 47 and Build Up at 49. Rise is semi-nifty and I wouldn't mind having it (there have been a couple of times I wished I had it), but I honestly can't think of any powers that I could drop that I would be willing to sacrifice for it. Maybe someday, if Hasten and Stamina get made inherent or something...