Square_Woot

I really like the pose and the effects on Udia. The positions and the subtle shading on BFFs is very cute, as well.

Welcome back, and enjoy your stay on Virtue!

WootLabs is finally getting into full swing with its first major story arc. As another super targets Penny's arch rival, the group starts to question just where they stand in the city, and if villainy really is the right path...

Some of Rad's best abilities involve enemy toggles. These can be very, very annoying to use, especially on large teams that tend to mow things down quickly. It's one of the reasons I never really enjoyed playing a Rad character. Poison has stronger ease of use because of this.

Well, I'd be more inclined to switch the secondary than the primary. The stone set is a core component of the character's concept. But I think I could fudge it a bit to make Force Field work for my secondary. Nice, passive force fields. >.>

I'm thinking about using Poison for my I21 Controller, but I'm not sold on it. I know from playing a Poison MM that it's a fairly active set. I'm planning on having Stone as my primary, but I'm afraid the two of them together will be a situation of having too much to do with not enough time.

Have you advertised this on the Controller forum, too? Might snag some people through there. It's something I'd like to do under normal circumstances, but it's a little short notice for me and I already promised my friends some X-Bawks time tomorrow. Good luck with it!

Howdy all. Tonight I'm starting a new campaign with my pen and paper group. We're basically going to be doing a superhero setting using a modified set of the 4th edition rules. Because CoH has a ton of good ideas, I'm taking a LOT of inspiration from the game, as well as using the character creator to generate my NPCs, so I can show the party how they look.

There's only going to be two players, so I'm going to give them a choice of NPCs to follow them around as a helper. In the campaign setting heroes run a lot like they do in CoH; with cooperation and understanding from city officials. Vigilantes are less tolerated, and are often considered no better than criminals. (I'm leaving it up to the party to see which they become.)

Here's the four characters I'm giving them to pick from for their helper. I'd love to hear some thoughts from the CoH community!


Triceratops
Triceratops
This particularly large hero was born with bone ridges across his head and shoulders. As he aged this ridges grew into heavy plates and horns. The condition would have been fatal were it not for his naturally high strength and stamina. Now, Triceratops uses his protective bone structure to fight evil. His charge is devastating, his might is considerable, and he can take plenty of hits before going down.

Triceratops grew up on the bad side of town, and with his unique talents he soon fell into the criminal element. On his first job with a gang he was told to eliminate an innocent person, and found himself unable to do it. He turned on the gang and enrolled in a school for gifted superhumans the next day.

Triceratops firmly believes that the system works. He believes, despite his size, that might does not equal right, and that the helpless need to be protected. While he isn’t the smartest cadet in the group, his potential and idealism make a promising combination.


Bullethole
A former police officer that was gunned down in the line of duty. The injuries he received were so severe that his body required extensive modification to even stay alive. An experiment in teleportation technology, Bullethole’s blood is actually processed in a laboratory in Ohio. That blood is then immediately teleported into his bloodstream; which distributes it before re-teleporting it back. Internal devices maintain this process, and Bullethole’s body is in a constant state of transit.

Bullethole’s modifications give him the capability to teleport, as well as generate portals that matter can traverse through. He’s reckless with his usage of this power, but it’s hard to deny the results. His most devastating attack is to launch one of his portals at someone; and when it sticks to them like an adhesive, he actually emerges using their body as a conduit.

Bullethole was let down by heroes. Heroes failed to respond to his unit’s call for assistance, and he suffered the consequences. While he’s currently applying as a hero, the city has doubts that he’ll hold up to this promise. Middle aged, mutilated, and jaded, Bullethole fits the profile of a future Vigilante.


Working Class Hero
WCH used to be a miner in one of the quarries a few miles away from the city. A mine collapse made him realize that conditions for his fellow workers weren’t nearly good enough. With the loss of three good men on his conscience, he took a stand.

Called a terrorist by the wealthy of the city, WCH’s knowledge of explosives served him well. None of the explosions that led to the company’s downfall were fatal, but one of them trapped the company’s board of investors underground for almost a day. When they were rescued by a dig team which WCH was a part of, they firmly decided that the company’s safety codes weren’t up to snuff.

WCH believes that laws and regulations are only worth following if they have the people’s best interest at heart. While he has the potential to be a Vigilante, the miner seems too humanitarian to take that plunge. He will not; however, stand down when the innocent are being walked on, and if a hero was abusing their power, he’d be the first to call them on it.

(WCH is an obvious Scrapyarders tribute, and a character I've played in CoH.)


Buffalo Nelly
Like dust in the wind, Buffalo Nelly rolls in with a moment’s notice. This cowgirl is fairly mysterious, and it’s difficult to place her origin by her vaguely Southern accent. She embraces the role of the cowgirl; however, and considers herself a modern day gunslinger.

Did she have much of a choice? Her power, which involves the manipulation of subtle wind currents, could only be described as “tumbleweed control.” Her control of it is limited at best, but the clouds of debris she can have swarm around her make for the perfect cover when she uses her six shooters. A crack shot with a unique power, Buffalo Nelly knows how to wrangle evildoin’ varmints.

Nelly believes in cowboy justice. She tends to act without giving it too much thought; and if she thinks someone is in the wrong she’s usually the one to fire the first shot. She doesn’t kill, but she can be somewhat rough and tumble with her methods, and enjoys nothing more than dragging an evildoer through the town…by way of a lasso and horse.


So as you can see I'm trying to give them a variety of options to choose from, both in powers and personality. Today we're rolling our characters. Next week, the hero-ing begins!

Both really awesome! I adore the color on the first one. I'd love to know the technique for doing coloring like that.

One thing to keep in mind with Regen is that it does have some in-combat clicking to be aware of, more than WP or SR, at least. Redraw factor may have a negative influence on farming, especially on such short term boosts as MoG.

"Well, I MoGed so nothing hurt me...but I didn't have my weapon out, so...this is five seconds we've wasted together."

It's almost a little scary to think Gun Drone might be buffed to the point of usefulness. I'm almost expecting a cruel turn.

"No longer interruptable, and has a shorter cast time. But it now targets and attacks you."

Helloooooooo! I know you.

One thing I've learned is that finding a heavy roleplaying SG that you gel with can be very difficult. I've had minimal luck looking for one in the forums. Your best bet is to interact with people, when you see open world RP walk right up and get involved. Most open world RPers are friendly, except for the ones that aren't, but why would you want to get to know them anyway?

With several established global channels for RP and teaming, I don't feel the need for an SG like I used to. Sure, it'd be nice for my main characters to be part of a group, but not being in one can't stop her from being a part of the Virtue community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31b_70kzfwQ I totally could not resist.

My personal preference is for Scrapper, but that's for a couple of reasons. If any of these apply to you, it might be a way to go:

I team a lot. While at 50 a lot of TF groups move quickly, in the levelling process a lot of them don't. Scrappers deal much more consistent damage when the team is running at less than top speed.

I often multitask while I solo. It's not uncommon for me to be missioning on a character, while RPing in MSN, or playing with my cat with a fishin' pole toy. Pausing to make my post or tease Velcro doesn't ruin my damage on a scrapper.

I have no interest in pickup tanking. On my brute, I'm often asked to tank, something I'm neither specced nor knowledgeable enough for. On my scrapper it isn't an issue.

That gives me some nice groundwork to build on. Thanks, Dacu!

I don't have Mids here at work anymore but I'll try to offer some insights. I'm by no means an expert, but here's some things I've noticed from using Devices, and some general tips:

I'd recommend taking out the Miracle: Heal in Health and replacing it with a Numina +Regen +Recovery, they're nice and useful and at level 50 they're not critically expensive.

I believe someone crunched the numbers here and found out that Performance Shifter +Chance for End actually gives a return slightly lower than another Endurance IO on average. Even if the numbers are close, +Chance for End can be expensive which might make you want to rethink that.

I put 6 slots in caltrops and slotted them with Pacing of the Turtle. It looks like you're going for damage with them, but caltrops isn't really a damage power so much as a control power. Your current build also doesn't get you any set bonuses, which feels like a missed opportunity.

Unless you're going for the set bonuses of trip mine and time bomb, I've found these powers to be very skippable. Time Bomb pretty much everyone agrees on; Trip Mine has more usefulness but not much. I've found that even on situations where Traps Defenders, Corrupters, and MMs shine such as the patient part of the BAF trial, I rarely used it. Simply put, blasters have better things to do with their time than lay long, interruptable animation powers.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps!

Street Justice could provide a few interesting options for a natural secondary. I don't know a ton about the set, but it seems like it'd have a few fun blaps. Throw in Caltrops and maybe smoke grenade, possibly a Focus Chi/Build Up style move,

Detonator would be awesome if it could be used on teammates. I could see them doing it a little bit like Self Destruct. Can't cast Veng on a detonated teammate, for example. I suppose we still wouldn't see it on Blasters though, since it definitely seems a bit sadistic for a hero archtype.

Time Bomb would be neat if it was more of a sustained power. Like...drop your Time Bomb, and it'll do a Trip Mine-esque burst every five seconds for twenty seconds. Be great in places like BAF, and while it wouldn't have a lot of regular teaming utility, it'd be slightly more useful than it is now. Or just scrap the power entirely and give us something new.

Heck, replace the Traps version of it with Targeting Drone for Corrupters and Defenders and Cloaking Device for MMs, and replace the Devices version of it with Force Field Gen or Acid Mortar.

Looks like you got your money's worth! Looks awesome!