Spectreblade

I haven't run into this issue myself, but now I know what to do if it does happen. Thanks for the heads-up.

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I wonder though if someone buys items from one of these merchants do they get banned also?

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I would assume so.

It's good to see that the devs are taking a stand against the spamming advertisers, but as Lemur Lad pointed out, the accounts these tells come from are just Minions. It will also be important to go after the Lieutenants, Bosses, and AV's who run the sites.

But there is one more thing that can be done, and that is going after the Giant Monster, Demand. While we now have the Invention system that drew them here, the game's emphasis on wealth and items is still lower than in most MMORPG's and is still an excellent weapon against demand, and that is why they aren't as great a menace here as they are in other games.

But as long as people are willing to buy from them, they will sell. We should go after the people who buy from them as well as those who sell for them. A potential buyer would think twice about using their services if they knew they'd get banned.

This was a pretty good one. Arguements about its appropriateness aside, that was a great article about the attack on the drop ship. Though I noticed the "State of the Archetype" column was missing this week. That one's always interesting.

I got my May 2007 Game Informer today. I'll have to take a look at it when I'm done my forum-hopping and crime-fighting for the afternoon.

I, for one, look forward to seeing the CoX community match wits with the leader of the Devouring Earth. It should be fun unlocking the secret to defeating the new and improved Hamidon.

As for the lowered zone cap, I whipped out my little calculator and saw that, measured in teams, that's 6 full teams of eight and a duo. Now, as to what configuration of those 6 teams will work best, and what roles they will perform, or even if we'll need that many, that remains to be seen.

They said that some organelles will be strong against some AT's and weak against others. Perhaps sorting the teams by archetypes, each taking on the organelles the AT is strong against will be the key. Or maybe the opposite, having each team have a mix of archetypes so the teams won't be easily overwhelmed by organelles that will counter a specific AT. Or perhaps the solution will be on an entirely different line of thought. And what role will the Essence of the Earth inspirations play?

It will be exciting solving the puzzle that Hamidon will set before us.

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I know you want Arcs to be special, but the big xp bonus at the end is already pretty special. Maybe Pool B should be "Mission Completion" rather than "Arc Completion," with drop rates adjusted accordingly as a result of greater eligibility?

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That's an excellent idea. I second it.

I perosnally feel that there should be no story arc pool drops that a player can't get from other sources. It won't solve the problem of having lost those opportunities from having completed the arcs before even hearing about inventions, but it will make it more bearable.

That's some pretty good advice. Probably the best advice is to have some idea going in what you want your character to look like. If you have a plan for your character, it's easy to try to recreate what's in your head.

The numbers presented in this thread are no longer valid. There was a patch a long time ago that dramatically reduced the chances of detoggling for all powers. I think it was for I7, but I'm not sure.

You'd think what is and isn't a hold would be self-evident, but people still ask...

Anyway, good work on this guide.

To take a screenshot, simply press Ctrl + Print Screen. The screenshot will appear under C/Program Files/City of Heroes/Screenshots. You'll probably have to do some editing with Photoshop or some other image editing program to get it to a small enough size to use as an avatar.

That's some good advice. Team leaders who select only their own missions especially annoy me. Usually, I don't look for a team unless I have an AV mission, and I tend to be a bit too picky when trying to form a PuG. It's quite frustrating to finally get on a team, only for Nero-Man to pick only his "Fiddling" missions while I have "Rome Burning" on my docket.

For this reason, now when I have an AV mission, I'll mention it in my search comment when I put my "looking for mission team" flag up.

I'm guilty as charged on that one. Usually I don't use them unless I'm in trouble or have a tough fight ahead. I'm particularly greedy on my ninja/poison MM, since I can just use Alkaloid to heal the ninjas and don't get aggro often when I'm soloing. But your point still stands. We shouldn't be so reluctant to use them.

I remember seeing an endurance management guide on here a while ago. I'll put up a link to it if I can dig it up.

EDIT: My search-fu is failing me here, but I remember it being called "This is the end(urance guide)".

That's some funny stuff there. I've been in many a "mayham" as the tactically challenged call them.

I was on one of my lesser alts a while ago (Grav/Fire Dominator) helping some of my friends from my hero main's SG, including the group's leader, get started with CoV in their first mayhem missions. Even with a group where the members knew each other like us, in many of them we were quickly overwhelmed. It was somewhat understandable since most of their expecience was on the heroes' side, but still, it wasn't pretty. The next time I signed on, I got a global tell from the SG leader apologizing for losing his temper after the fiasco.

So, I feel your pain. Even with experienced players (though not experienced villains), these can be tough. Taking a PuG to a mayhem mission is like herding cats.

Personally, I always have the concept mostly fleshed out before I ever touch the character creator. The bulk of my character creation happens nowhere near a computer. The first steps in creating a character for me usually happen as I lay in bed waiting to fall asleep, like my ice/cold corruptor Six-Fold Symmetry (mutant with an "ends justify the means" philosophy), or I see something and say to myself "Hey, that'd make a cool concept for a character," like with my stone/fire tanker, Stone Pyroclast (cast of Pompeii victim come to life). From the basic concept, I then decide on what sets best reflect that, and what he'd look like. Then I choose the origin, archetype, and powersets I had decided on while I was offline, and try to duplicate the image of him in my head as best as the character creator can. Because of this, I've had a few people comment on how they liked my characters' costumes, and one even sent an in-game e-mail saying how much they liked Stone Pyroclast's bio.

As far as travel powers go, they aren't too hard to fit into a concept. I find the leaping pool to be a good "default" when none of the others make sense. It's a lot easier imagining someone being able to jump that to be able to fly.

And a note on weaknesses. Take mine, for an example of one that follows from the character concept. His power comes from the posessed suit of armor he wears as his costume. As a result, he can't make quick Superman-style costume changes, and without the armor, or a sword to wield with the skills he learned from it, he is just another guy. A lot more logical a weakness that kryptonite, don't you think?

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she speaks the truth! Don't believe me? Roll up an Emp Defender and concetrate on taking more powers from your secondary than your primary and see how many times other players refer to you as "teh gimped n00b". Or roll up any Defender for that matter and see how many /tells you receive asking the infamous question...R U H3L0R? The point she was trying to make (I believe) was that just because you are a Defender, you are not strictly a "Healer". The power set options for the AT offer quite a bit of diversity and you shouldn't allow yourself to be pigeon holed into a skill set/role based solely upon the chosen AT.

Just my two cents...

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Not only that, the original poster also pointed out that healing doesn't play as large a role in CoX as it does in other games, hence the flame-inducing mentioning of those other games.

You make a good point about the "R U Helar" mentality. This is my first MMO, so I don't have the bias toward healing. I find that mentality annoying, especially on the villain's side, where the AT that gets this treatment is the corruptor. Just to remind you all, their primary powersets are geared toward ranged attack. Their inherent power is scourge, to help them finish off weakened foes. When I think of "corruptor", I think damage first and buffing/debuffing/healing second.

And on the heroes's side, If I find my team struggling, I might tell them "We need a defender." Not an empath. Certainly not a "Helar", a defender. Whenever I need a teammate for any role, it's the AT I look for, not the powersets.

Part 4 is now up on the City of Heroes Writers' Guild site. Enjoy.

Here's part of a fanfic I posted on the CoH writers guild site. While this isn't an origin story in the truest sense of the word, it does explain the backstory of my main hero and my main villain. I had written 3 parts before real life issues forced me to set it aside for over two months, but now that things are settled down in my life, I can continue it. I have sent in part 4 to the Writers' Guild, and it should be up with the next update next Tuesday.

Bound No More

So, what do you think?

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8. People who have Seeking team on or request for a team will quit the team as soon as they're invited.

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It depends on the team, here.

Some people seem to think that "Looking for team" means "Looking for ANY team, no matter what level, and no matter what my search comment says." Those I leave in a heartbeat.

Like the time my (then) 40ish blaster got invited to what turned out to be a cape mission. Or the many times that I have been invited to PL, bridge, or farm when my search message says "No PL, no bridging, no farming."

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I agree. Sometimes I'll find that the team I just joined expects me to fight seas of purple minions or grey bosses. And the other day I got a tell asking for powerleveling despite saying I don't powerlevel. This was more understandable but all the more aggravating because I did a search for the guy's name and he turned out to be a lv. 1 in Outbreak!

I like the "not accepting invites" option, too. Sometimes I won't be looking for a team, but if I get a tell about the missions we'll be doing and like what I hear, I might join. It's good that there's an option for "I don't want a team" instead of simply "I'm not looking for a team" now.

Not bad. My own concept of what a "natural" hero is someone who does things that any member of their species can do given enough practice and training. I wouldn't consider an artificial being like a robot or an statue brought to life by magic to be natural, since it is not a species (that would be technology and magic, respectively), but an alien would fall into my defenition. I could see some of the more exotic powers being explained as "ki attacks" like Ryu's Hadouken from Street Fighter, or natural abilities of an alien race. It does require a little more suspension of disbelief, but it's still somewhat reasonable. But then again, this is just my own two cents.

I personally never build a new character until I have a good concept for it. But though my characters powersets are determined by concept, the individual powers within them are more strategic decisions for me.

That said, it's good that there's at least one guide for concept building out there. I've seen a lot of bios that don't even try to be consistent with their origins, like "naturals" being born with special abilities, or "mutants" getting powers from accidents.

This is a great guide. Endurance management's always been difficult for my main lv. 48 BS/DA scrapper, and it's given me some things to think about for my next respec. I have Stamina, but it only has an end modification in its original slot, and I'm still running dry in long, drawn-out battles, so I'll probably add more slots to it.

My lv. 25 Stalker has some end problems right now, but he's Energy Melee/Energy Aura, and he'll have access to both Energy Drain (availible at 28) and Conserve Power (availible at 35), so I'm hoping he'll be able to get away with not taking Stamina and its prerequisites if I can tough it out for 3 more levels.

I wondered what that was about for a while until I stumbled on a link here a while back. It was even funnier when I figured out what it meant. Until now I always wordered where the "Go. Hunt." part came from. I thought it was like one of those always-misquoted movie quotes like "Luke, I am your father."

This is a great guide, Screwloose. It'll help me immensely in deciding what I should do with my main's (BS/DA) I5 respec, especially the slotting advice. It gave me a lot to think about with regard to what powers to take, though, and I could use some advice. The main issues I'm thinking about are;

Cloak of Darkness and the Leaping pool;
Super Jump is my movement power, so I chose Combat Jumping (+def, res. to immobilization) as my first Leaping pool power. CoD does the same things and more (stealth and perception), making having both of them (as I do now) redundant. On the other hand, redundance might not necessarily be a bad thing, and my other option to unlock SJ is Jump Kick, a simple (moderate damage, I think. Not 100% sure) knockback attack. I already have plenty of attacks in my primary. Besides, JK requires me to redraw my sword after I use it, slowing down my attack cycle. On a side note, I don't have Acrobatics because I too see Knockback as more of an annoyance than a threat.

Death Shoud, Cloak of Fear, and/or Oppressive Gloom;
I currently have Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom. I chose not to take Death Shroud at my last respec because the DoT would negate Fear's attack stoppage if I were using both of them at once. With Lieutenants no longer being affected by CoF, I'm reconsidering that. As you said, fear resistance is rare. That makes it useful for me in PvP. On the other hand, in PvE, OG is now more effective at stopping attacks, and is not interfered with by DS. But, like the last issue, redundance isn't necessarily bad.

Then there are my Fitness powers, which I'm absolutely happy with, and issues with my ancillary pool (Darkness Mastery) such as "Torrent (less damage, but has Knockback), Dark Blast (more damage, but nothing else), or both?", but those are beyond the scope of the guide.

What do you think I should do?