Spectreblade

Virtue's affected, too. Upon finally getting through the queue to get back on, it lists the locations of all of my characters as "Unknown". What's going on?

This is the Judgement I have on my Ninjas/Poison Mastermind. Nothing says "Ninja Master", like kicking an entire spawn in the face all at once.

I only have one complaint about it. Is the fact that it has no sound effects a bug, or working as intended? I for one think it could use a satisfying "thwack" to go with it, like the Street Justice attacks have. When I hit someone with a Finisher on my Street Justice/Ninjitsu Stalker, I sometimes think to myself "that sounded like it HURT!", to the point where I end up physically cringing from it.

But then again, being silent also fits with the theme of a ninja, so your mileage may vary.

For my second February review, I've done "Cracking Skulls". In this arc, instead of my usual character Spectreblade, I instead did this one as Serpent Fist (Lv. 18 Street Justice/Ninjitsu Stalker).

This was an excellent low-level arc. It seems like something that would be right at home as a canon story arc. I really loved the street-level flavor of it. And the first mission really drives home the sense that you're actually helping people.

Since I was playing as a Stalker, a lot of the enemies dropped rather quickly, causing them to spout off several lines of dialogue at once. Though I can't really call that a writing flaw, since I have the same problems when playing canon missions on a Stalker, too.

But really, this is one of the better AE arcs I've played.

Now that I've gotten in my two arcs for the month just in time, I have another arc of my own that I'm looking for some feedback on.

Arc Title: The Serpent's Revenge
Author: @Spectreblade
Arc ID: 403174
Keywords: Ideal for Teams, Custom Characters, Magic
Length: 5 Missions
Morality: Heroic
Description: An up-and-coming young heroine has been targeted for assassination by a band of ninja out for blood. Are you a bad enough dude to save her?

Link to details

I had it tagged as "Ideal for Teams" due to the AV at the end. It should downgrade to an Elite Boss depending on settings, though, and it is playable by all levels.

I've just done "The Astral Prison". This review might contain spoilers, so this is a warning.

It starts out with a rather strange mission, but that's to be expected from an arc like this. It does indeed have that "something isn't right" feel about it, though.

In the second mission, the facade of being trapped in another dimension starts to slip and I start getting the full story (that I'm about to be used as a power template for Project: Locke.)

The concept isn't one that can be applied to characters whose powers come from their equipment rather than their biology, though, which my own character happens to be with his possessed armor. This is especially true of the last mission, where I've freed myself from the machine's artificial world and have to fight my way out of the lab, which, in my case, would mean doing so without my armor. But this seems to be one of those things where trying to account for every single corner-case character like mine would probably cause more problems than it would solve.

I also saw that the last mission featured a custom group of Paragon Protectors. Personally, I was expecting to fight canon Crey enemies in the last mission, with a few Paragon Protector bosses thrown in. I'm not sure whether to consider that a good thing or a bad thing, though. I consider the Manticore TF my favorite of the original Freedom Phalanx TF's, mainly because I find Crey to be one of the most interesting groups to fight at that level range due to the variety of enemy types they have. They completely lose this quality at their highest levels, though, where all the minions are just Voltaic and Cryo Tanks. So that's more of a "Your Mileage May Vary" issue.

Nitpicks aside, though, the overall feel of the arc was amazing. It had just the right pacing to make the smooth transition from wondering what was going on, to figuring it out and fighting to stop it.

I'll do my other arc for the month tomorrow. See you then!

I've finally gotten around to making a few tweaks to "The Clockwork Angel". I've rewritten the first mission to remove the Yamata Clan, because the ninjas from my other AE arc really don't make any sense in an arc about Clockwork. I also downgraded the version of Bluebolt Psi in that mission from Elite Boss to Lieutenant. There might be some more substantial changes in the future, but this patch should remove the arcs most glaring flaw, at least.

Incidentally, another complaint in the review that was posted was some repetitive dialogue. Is there a way for captives to have different dialogue but still count toward the same goal (like, have "save 3 captives" appear in the compass, but have those captives say different things), or would I have to make each of them a separate goal?

Also, I'm about to log into the game to do my arcs for this month. I'll have a review up soon.

One of my two Incarnates is a Ninjas/Poison MM. I have all tier 3's on him right now.

Alpha: Vigor Partial Radial Revamp
Judgement: Vorpal Total Radial Judgement
Interface: Degenerative Partial Radial Conversion
Lore: Storm Elemental Total Radial Improved Ally
Destiny: Clarion Partial Radial Invocation

Most of my choices were thematic, like Vorpal Judgement and Degenerative interface, to go with my respective Ninja and Poison themes. I picked Vigor as my Alpha mainly because of the endurance issues I'd been having once I got my Judgement and Destiny powers, and to help with Alkaloid, and for my Destiny, I was trying to pick between Clarion and Ageless, until I realized that Recharge buffs have no effect on pets.

Usually, what I do on double XP weekends is try to make a push to Lv. 50 on a character that's close to it. Right now the closest character I have to Lv 50 is Bluebolt Psi, an Elec/Mental Blaster, currently at Lv. 38. I've also got a Lv. 33 Dark/Stone Brute that might get some attention, too.

I have just completed my second arc playthrough of the month. I did "Cat: It's What's For Dinner" on Orochi Dragon, my Lv. 50 (+1) Ninjas/Poison Mastermind.

My first LRSF was still fresh in my mind when I did this arc, and this parody of it was pretty funny, although a lot of the humor relies on being familiar with the SF.

For the record, I did try soloing the Kronos Titan, thinking "Why not?" Then I found out exactly why not. It's a good thing that's optional. The indoor map transitioning to an outdoor map could be confusing for those not familiar with the LRSF, though I'm not sure if there's much that can be done about that.

I also liked the cat versions of the Freedom Phalanx. And while I'm familiar with the term "kawaii" from watching anime, that's something others might not be.

In the last mission, I chose to take out the dimensional inhibitor to return to my own world. While it does make some assuptions about the player and player character that might not apply (like Judgementing the cat in the final mission debriefing, on a character that might or might not be an incarnate), it was a fun arc overall.

And on another note, this month has featured my nephew's first birthday party, followed a mere two days later by the birth of my niece a month premature, and competing in a Magic: the Gathering tournament last weekend.

Between all that, I haven't had as much time in-game as I would've liked. But there's still one more day left in the month, and I hope to be able to get my review done tomorrow.

Thank you for the feedback on my arc.

As for the having the Yamata Clan in the first mission, that was the main complaint that my SG gave when I had them run through it, too. They are, in fact, a cameo of the enemy group I created for one of my other arcs, "The Serpent's Revenge". Though in light of the feedback I've gotten here and from my SG, they were better off staying in their own arc, and rewriting the first mission to remove them is going to be the first change I'll make.

I like the idea of having Psi start out weak, then become more powerful over the course of the arc. When I first created the arc, I erred on the side of not having her get overwhelmed too quickly when the arc is run by a large team, but it seems like most AE arc runners are soloists, which I'll have to keep in mind for future arcs.

When I was writing the arc, figuring out what the Clockwork King and his minions would sound like in this arc was rather difficult. I wasn't sure whether to make them talk like actual robots like they did in early missions, or more like the sycophantic servants they're portrayed as in the Positron TF.

As for the Clockwork King's motivation, I'd remembered an early one-off mission that had him targeting famous scientists out of jealousy, and another where he kidnapped MENSA members to serve as his "court" (I'm not sure if these missions are still in-game, or if they got replaced by the new intro arcs). So my interpretation of him leans more toward that of a spurned outcast who is trying to create a "Clockwork Kingdom" of his own to seek the validation he feels he is being denied by mainstream society. So I thought it would only be natural for him to see Bluebolt Psi as a threat to him. Though the idea that the King himself doesn't know that his minions are psychically controlled is something I haven't heard before, and if that theory is supported by canon, I'll have to tweak the arc to incorporate that as well.

I'd intended for mission three to be what TV Tropes calls a "Player Punch", focusing on Dr. Steinberg's grief over the destruction of her creation at the player's hands and motivating the player for the final mission. But it seems like in doing so, I made for a tough act to follow in that final mission.

I wanted the final mission to feel like a chase scene, with Longbow agents and heroes attempting to slow the Clockwork's advance long enough for the player to catch up to them, but the allowed objectives for the map I chose really weren't cooperating. I'd intended at first to have battles between Clockwork and Longbow throughout the mission, but the map didn't support battles. Then I changed them to Longbow patrols and hoped they'd stumble into Clockwork spawns and start fighting. But when I tested that, a patrol aggro'ed the Paladin, causing him to start summoning an endless stream of Clockwork minions before I even got to it. So I had to settle for bosses flagged as allies for the Longbow spawns. The map also only supported one ally, which was my main character Spectreblade. I was hoping to be able to throw in a few more to give the idea of other heroes who, while they don't know the whole story, still realize that the Clockwork are up to something and are there to help stop it.

I also had a hard time deciding on who the final boss should be. I wanted something that would be more powerful than Bluebolt Psi, and I didn't want to use the Clockwork King himself because he would be defeated in the Synapse TF. I settled on a Paladin. But that just created another problem. Giant Monsters are solo-able by only the most specialized of builds, and even then, such a build would be crippled by exemplaring down. So I made the Paladin an optional objective, but as mentioned, having the final boss be optional makes for an anti-climactic end.

So, I've gotten some food for thought from that review. There are some changes that I'm not yet sure how to proceed with, but there are also some more obvious ones that I can do rather quickly like removing the Yamata Clan.

I also think it's sort of a pain. When I'm standing around waiting for a trial to start, I'm usually sitting in that hangar area, too.

But when I22 comes around, Dark Astoria will become a co-op zone specifically for Incarnates. I think that might make an even better meeting point, depending on how the zone's configured.

Try as I might, I still am a hoarder of both inspirations and temporary powers. I keep thinking I should save them for a tough situation, but when I'm in a tough situation, I still think I should save them for an even tougher situation. And before I know it, I've forgotten I even have them.

I'm also the same way with Accolade powers, which I have even less of an excuse for not using since they don't have a finite amount of uses like temporary powers do. I can't count how many times I've faceplanted while Eye of the Magus is still sitting unused on my 5th tray.

That's also because I have my main three power trays filled with Primary/Secondary/Epic Powers and Inherents. Incarnate powers are in tray 4, and I keep my various veteran/purchased/accolade/day job/temp powers in trays 5 through 9, which don't have a convenient built-in keyboard shortcut.

I created keybinds to have the numpad 7 and 8 buttons fire off my Judgement and Destiny powers on my two Incarnates, but other than that, one incarnate is a Mastermind and has the numpad otherwise occupied by pet control keybinds. My main, a Scrapper, doesn't have that excuse, and does have his Accolade powers keybinded to the numpad, and I still forget to use them.

I thought that was rule #36.

For my first arc, I just completed "Crime is Art and Art is Crime" by @Twoflower. I ran it on my main character, Spectreblade, a Lv. 50 (+1) Broadsword/Dark Armor/Darkness Mastery Scrapper. I was running at +0/x1 with bosses enabled, so I wasn't really trying to push my limits on the difficulty. I like to keep myself at that level so I can enjoy the stories, and when I want something more challenging, I look to join a team for that.

The one thing I liked a lot in this arc is how there were a lot of atmosphere-building clues that, while not relevant to the main story, really made me feel heroic by finding stuff that helped out other investigations. It really made the setting feel alive.

And the main story was excellent as well. I liked what you did with the president statues as bosses in the final mission. As for difficulty, it was easily soloable, but then again, the only change to my difficulty from the default was to enable bosses. I did notice the Astronaut statue pop MoG, which I could imagine being frustrating for some characters. But other than that, I found them well-balanced.

So, there's my first review for the Architect Club.

Okay, now that the New Year is here, it's time for me to start actually doing missions. I will start tomorrow, but for now, I've just published the arc I've been working on.

Arc Title: The Clockwork Angel
Author: @Spectreblade
Arc ID: 534236
Keywords: Canon Related, Origin Story, Sci-Fi
Length: 4 Missions
Morality: Heroic
Description: A DATA scientist is working on a project, and needs a few heroes to help test it. But will she be able to deal with the unwanted attention it brings her?

Link to more detailed info

You can expect me to play my first arc and write my first review tomorrow.

Arc Name: The Clockwork Angel
Arc ID: 534236
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Spectreblade
Synopsis: A DATA scientist is working on a project, and needs a few heroes to help test it. But will she be able to deal with the unwanted attention it brings her?
Link to More Details or Feedback: Livejournal post

One idea that's popped into my head from time to time before I13 hit and I dabbled in PvP was to have Rages give recharge debuff resistance and Lucks give slow resistance, like how Sturdies have teleport protection and Insights give a perception buff. This would allow builds that did not have these things naturally to have access to them, while still allowing powersets to have the different strengths and weaknesses that made PvP interesting. Sort of like the concept of a sideboard in trading card games.

I tend to hoard inspirations, too. I've got a few Super Inspirations sitting unused in my tray on my main from back when they were first introduced. I think it's the urge to save them for when you need them that makes it a hard habit to break. Even when you encounter a tough fight, you're still reluctant to use them because you might need them for an even tougher fight later on. I'll have to make breaking that habit one of my New Year's resolutions.

I give everyone I team with a rating. My system for rating other players is both for recognizing friends and SG mates in-game as well as rating the behavior of players I team with in general:

5 stars: Supergroup officers, and people I know from outside the game (either in real life, or from non-CoH related online hangouts).

4 stars: Supergroup members and other regular teammates, and players I've teamed with who have impressed me in some way.

3 Stars: Default rating. Everyone I've ever teamed with starts with 3 stars, and could be upgraded to 4 stars if it's someone I end up teaming with regularly, or downgraded to 2 stars or even 1 star if they make a nuisance of themselves while I'm on a team with them. This is the only rating I don't create an explanatory note for.

2 Stars: Idiots. A 2-star player is someone who I didn't enjoy teaming with, but I'm still willing to give the benefit of a doubt and team with in the future, hoping the objectionable thing they did was an isolated incident or that they've seen the error of their ways since the last time we met. But I wouldn't join a team led by one.

1 Star: Irredeemable. These are the lowest of the low, who are either consistently stupid or outright malicious. This rating goes to griefers, trolls, RMT spammers, and for harrassment and offensiveness in general. I usually follow up a 1-star rating with a petition to the GM's about what they did to earn that rating. If I give someone a 1-star rating, I will never team with that person again.

This sounds like it'd be an interesting way to get some publicity for my arcs. Right now, I have two arcs of my own published, and I'm putting the finishing touches on a third. They're in my signature.

I'll start playing and reviewing arcs to "officially" join once the New Year rolls around and all the excitement of the Holidays calms down, but for now I just want to express my interest.

The hidden status granted by Smoke Flash doesn't last indefinitely, so you're going to need to keep re-applying it if you want a ninja to stay hidden and delivering crits. It's also expensive in terms of endurance, so slotting it with End Reduction is a must, especially if you plan on using it that way. My Ninjas/Poison Mastermind has it slotted with Lv. 50 3 EndRdx and 3 Recharge IO's.

While that's one way to use it, it's not the only way. In fact, on my MM, I use it more reactively for the AoE Placate than for the additional damage. Like if one of my henchmen bites off more than he can chew, I'll heal him with Alkaloid, then follow up with Smoke Flash to shed the excess aggro that got him into trouble in the first place.

Usually, it's a Jounin I'll do this with, since I use them as my focused damage-dealers (with a keybind to order them to attack a specific target) and get into the most trouble because of it. I keep my Genin in Bodyguard mode, so they don't go into the fray as much, and when they do attract an excess amount of aggro, they die so quickly there's not much I can do to save them. And the Oni is usually fighting from range, so the Placate won't catch most of the foes harassing him, and he's sturdy enough to take a few hits without needing anything but an occasional Alkaloid from me.

Now, if you plan on using it proactively like you said, the Oni becomes the best choice to use Smoke Flash on. Landing a Critical on multiple foes with Fire Breath is a beautiful thing.

For me, it would be Dark Armor.

Back when I was a CoH newbie, it was mere weeks after launch and so was everyone else. But one thing that people knew was that Dark Armor sucked. At launch, Dark Armor could only have one of its resistance toggles active at any given time, Cloak of Fear (and fear powers in general) caused foes to flee rather than stand there cowering, and it was even more of an end hog than it is now.

But as I've grown as a player, so has the set. It was reworked to have the armors usable at the same time, fear was changed to its current version, it got through the Global Defense Reduction more or less intact while users of the other defense sets were fuming at being nerfed so heavily, and has risen from the absolute suckiness of its early days into one that can hold its own with the best of them. And I was with it for the whole ride.

I'd place that character as Magic origin as well, for the same reasons. I have a Dual Blades/Fiery Aura Scrapper that, while I haven't played that character in a long time and she's sitting somewhere in the mid-20's, is essentially a holy warrior.

Every single one of my characters has a bio, and usually the basic concepts of my characters can be summed up in a sentence or two. That said, I usually elaborate on the details in my bios. The main questions I try to answer are how the character got their powers and what the character fights for. That's something that takes longer for some characters than others.

The length I usually aim for is the size of the box in the bio editing screen. If I find myself going past the bottom of the box and having to scroll to see the rest, I'll shorten it up so it all fits. I also usually write bios in first-person, which allows me to set the mood of the character by having them tell their stories in their own words.

As for the whole "Don't like it, don't read it" argument goes, a person has no way of knowing whether or not they'll like a bio until AFTER they've opened the character's info window to read it. It might be a valid arguement in the case of opinions on genres as a whole (I'm not too fond of disaster movies, for example, because I think motiveless forces of nature make for really boring villains), but it just doesn't work when dealing with individual pieces within a genre such as character bios.

But back to the original topic, I wouldn't complain if the space we were allotted to write our bios in were expanded, but I've managed to do just fine with it as it is.

I also get annoyed at these kinds of things. Especially when clicking to advance the dialogue sticks me with an ambush breathing down my neck before I can even begin to read the last window.

I put every piece of salvage I get up for sale on the market. My motivation for putting my "junk" salvage up for sale is because it'll go to someone who needs it for crafting something, instead of just disappearing. I usually list it for vendor value, so that I'll get at least the same for it that a vendor would give. Thought that sometimes makes it difficult when there are people selling it for less (and, therefore, at a loss to themselves compared to vendor value).