Vangelus

I'd love to help out the MM teams (I have a 50 bots/FF), just let me know.

For those ATs...

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Assault teams – Much like old Hamidon raids, have a designated targeter that everyone targets off of (either friend them or make a macro/bind). Someone on each team with Group Fly is also helpful. After giving the Tankers and Scrappers a few seconds to acquire aggro, the assault force plunges in en mass to take down green mitos first. Holders must spam holds on the green mito to drop the shield, then the assault force kills the green mito as fast as possible. The assault force will range around Hamidon killing all of the green mitos, then start on the blues. Range attacks are best for the blue mitos as they have a powerful PBAoE endurance drain. Any AoE mez resists are helpful (especially fear resist from Dark Defenders Shadowfall). All members of the assault force must be mindful of the yellow mito and Hamidon AoE blasts (meaning tanker and scrapper locations), simply putting the targeter on follow and blasting away without a care can get you stunned or worse real fast.

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I kinda think this includes Blasters and Controllers.

Great stuff, looking forward to taking part here and there once there're some schedules up.

My favourite part about the i9 raid I took part in was the network smoothness.

Originally, with everyone in capeless/auraless costumes, a hami raid would knock me down to 2 FPS within minutes.

i9 Hami raid, everyone in all forms of costumes with capes/auras/wings, I had no lag whatsoever. Not even when a mito bloom happened.

Woo, it's continuing!

Nice banner inserts (Red Beast and Paragon Pizza Pie), I immediately thought of the Cape audio spots for them.

Cameos begin!

Cameos conclude!

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The Dark Watcher (from the first CoH novel), two sisters called Borea and Levantera, british woman called Lady Elizabeth Grey, a martial artist with a spirit helper called Serpent Drummer, and some unseen guy called Gaussian are The Vanguard

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That's them!

Those guys?
http://paragonwiki.com/index.php?title=Vanguard_Shield

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Eff, I forgot to scan things last night.

Someone poke me when I show up on YIM.

I'll have a go with the scanner this evening.

This is the first issue in over a year that actually made me glad I'm OCD-completist enough to keep buying the comic.

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD BY THE WAY

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Okay, first couple pages, cameos!

Ascendant (ours), Beef Cake (the master badgegetter), and Castle (the dev) walk in to give Positron salvage. Beef Cake asks for a badge.

Hints for Issue 10 storyline:
-The Dark Watcher (from the first CoH novel), two sisters called Borea and Levantera, british woman called Lady Elizabeth Grey, a martial artist with a spirit helper called Serpent Drummer, and some unseen guy called Gaussian are The Vanguard

-Increased Rikti activity in the Crash Site

-There's a massive portal underground near the crashed mothership

-Zombie/Riktified Hero-1, complete with tattered uniform, huge teeth, and BARBED WIRE beats the luncheon out of Ms Liberty and Manticore, and that's the cliffhanger

Dunno, nice to see a comic where it feels like something's actually -happening-.

Anyway, grats to the cameos, and for those uninterested in the comic: please enjoy the possible i10 hints.

Oh! A huge group-pic fanart is in the back, and amongst those in the picture are Blitzkrieg Bop. (<3 bradders)

I'll definitely cut down to 1 or 2 slots in Stamina on my Katana/Regen, but yeah. Best I have so far is 4 in FH and 4 in Health.

Man, and right when I thought slots were no longer premium on him. XD

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Favorite team: LE Nova, LE Ghost Widow, Exp. Con Artist, Vet. Con Artist. Perplex Nova's damage to 7 click FTW!

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OMG Ravenstorm uses Con Artist cheeseteams!

*used a Thanos in the Supernova sealed marquee*

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I take my group of Uber players into Hamidon and we set up camp there. We defeat Hamidon and STAY there. 50 man cap and no instancing means grief city.

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When you take your 50 dudes in there, a new + empty The Hive 2 will open up, just like when any in-game zone gets overfull. That's what I'm understanding here, anyway.

Can't say whether I like it or not, but I can't wait to try it out. I hope that Hamidon can be taken down with less than 50, if coordinated well, too. Not something ludicrous like a single team, but yeah.

And thanks very much for finally revealing the 'original intended' strategy! Sort of sucks that as Hamidon is now, we can't really give it a go on Live. Maybe reset him for a week or two into Retro Hamidon?

Certainly hoping the 50 player cap ends up as a boon instead of a hindrance. Also, does the article mean that one can do 2 rewarded Hamidon raids in 24 hours (one HO, one recipe)?

In terms of having a 'second chance' at some reward a few of my characters missed out on (Elec Brute and Thug MM to be specific), it was nice.

In terms of fun? Only if you weren't trying to get everything.

Multi-Snaptooth can become -painfully boring-.

Crossover teaming is fun, though. Unfortunately a bit lost beneath "Ugh let's just kill a grey Snaptooth to get this over with".

Also still wondering why the Ski Chalet was removed when its prescence was a -benefit- to hanging out in the D with no negative side-effects.

Nobody is sure how the IO Set Bonuses are spread among the MM and the Henchmen, as far as I've heard.

Definitely going to be something I try to test ASAP when it goes up.

My Ninja Turtles reference was way less confusing. ;_;

I suspect we'll get -some- kind of rough map to follow for this stuff, though it may not be Dev-provided or available during the first week.

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I actually wanted to go with Drops II: Drops Harder

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*sniff sniff*

Hmm. A faint odor of a positronic suit, there. Must be my imagination.

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No way, I would have gone with Drops II: Attack of the Drops.

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If you'd said Drops II: Secret of the Drops I would've given you so many bonus points.

Forgot to add: If there are only 10 or so rare Story Arc recipes total, then at least normal play from 1-50 will offer decent rewards in that respect come i9.

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Didn't the Devs say once that an issue with Flashback is that not all enemies go the full range of levels? Only a few do, most notably CoT, Longbow, and, uh... help me out here. The point being that they'd need to add in logic to increase the range for ALL villain/hero groups and probably add some new powers/mobs at the high end.

Did I imagine this?

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I somewhat recall that, but I would've figured that the TF/Trial auto-exemplaring tech would deal with that problem.

Amusing aside: Auto-exemplaring in TF/Trials was cited as Flashback's replacement at some point, I vaguely recall.

The only reason I didn't heavily endorse Flashback was because I'd figured it was dead in the water like Power Customization.

That said: FLASH-BACK FLASH-BACK OY OY OY

Or the idea of adding buttons to souvinirs, at least. I liked that too. Though not as much as Flashback.

Yeah, it's the fact that storyarcs are one-time-only that makes that aspect less palatable to me.

Honestly I'd be fine with it if I could re-do storyarcs. Not even go back and do missed ones, but just be allowed to re-run ones that I have the souvinir for (some of them were FUN, and I don't have the time to level an alt from 1-50 just to re-do 'em once ). But that's going a bit off-tangent.

As EvilGeko said, a key issue is that storyarcs are the one and only thing that cannot be repeated.

Yes, being able to rename them and use /petsay and /petsay <emote> would be -excellent-.

Don't see any reason why not, as they have no effect on gameplay, and surely the "MMs have the best control" card doesn't apply to a harmless personal pet.

Very nice groupshot. Loving the consistent cartoony style.

That and I recognize a bunch of those characters from Hamidon raids, aheh.

Cuppa, I'm seriously tempted to check out TR on the grounds that they'll be getting one of the best community people I've ever seen.

You are -so- gonna be missed. Come by here once in a while, when ya can.

And good luck with all the Tabularatin' Rasalers!

((Work-boredom spawned up this little bit. It's kind of like a "here's a random day in the life of" thing.

The following contains some spoilerness for Westin Phipps' arcs and missions.))

PERSONAL LOG ENTRY

Today, I have ended my business relations with the Arachnos-loyal sadist, Westin Phipps.

To observe an individual so devoid of overarching purpose has been most intriguing. Even the worst of my former colleagues had some form of palpable goal beyond self-preservation and satisfaction of the pleasure of the moment. Mr Phipps, on the other hand, acts to stay within the good favour of Arachnos, while feeding his own addiction of tasting the suffering of another.

Naturally, as he is a client whose public identity masks what truly lies beneath, my reputation has been slightly altered by working alongside him.

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"Oh jeez, that's-"

"Did you hear what he did to that poor teacher?"

"Yeah, man. Every time another one comes in from Paragon, it's only a few months 'til their retirement shows up on TV."

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Given time, public opinion will normalize as others commit acts far worse than those I stand accused of. As for the thoughts of certain other organizations, I suppose time will tell.

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"I wonder if we'll get help from him the next time some of the Banes go loopy."

"Y'know, I kinda hope not. That whole thing...it just felt...wrong."

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"Been thinking of joining Wyvern if I don't get promoted to Nullifier soon, actually."

"How come?"

"I might get a clear shot at the scumwad that took out the old commander. She just wanted to save that one Spider..."

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Though Mr Phipps and myself parted ways on the best of terms one could hope for with an individual such as he, I have found him unfit to inhabit humanity's future in any form. Akin to former associates such as Mr Wheeler, Phipps has proven himself a weak link in the species' genepool, and thus will be pared out.

A simple task, thankfully. Only minor observation is required.

Should he survive to the next century, I will personally cut short his life. In the highly unlikely event of procreation, I have already taken the liberty of exposing him to a miniscule nanotech payload. Future generations of the Phipps bloodline will bear an 80% chance of being composed of the genetic signatures of a key figure I encountered recently, far more deserving of survival. Unfortunate that there is such a margin of error, but deleting the 20% failure output would be of little effort should it come to pass.

For precise records of my work with Phipps, reference related uploads within Poseidon's databanks. [BE-8842337]

As a positive side-result of these experiences, I am now in possession of several additional Preserved. Still unable to guarantee prolonged consciousness, but I will shortly activate and debrief the remaining samples.

LOG ENTRY ENDS

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Closing the link to Poseidon, the 12th King stepped away from his desk and towards the monitor bank in his personal quarters. He paused in front of the screen-ridden wall.

Soundlessly uttering a word, he waited. Then, the wall folded open, enveloping his body in a series of accordion-like panels. Just as quickly, they retracted, leaving no trace of anyone in the room.

Now within his private sanctuary, the blue-suited man approached three small, metallic boxes that lay on a research table. His robotic hand passed over each one, and they silently awoke. A chromed orb rose from the shimmering surface of each box, all observing the man that stood before them.

"Of this current era, you have been found worthy of continuation," said the 12th King. "Worthy to advance to the next stage of humanity's evolution."

He gestured to the centre and left-most boxes.

"By your joint conviction, a powerful form of mental programming was, if only briefly, disrupted. You both bear the will necessary to improve, and prosper."

The 12th King gently pressed the pair's visual sensors back down into their cube-like forms.

"Your essences have been preserved, but cannot maintain prolonged function at this time. When I have solved that boundary, you will be reawakened. But for now...rest."

Turning to the third box, the 12th King picked it up and continued to speak.

"And you, miss. I too have had close working relations with the Freakshow. Thus, I find that I can sympathize with your previous situation, granted that you placed yourself into it."

He turned, allowing the box to view a dimly-lit corridor that spanned out from the side of the room.

"As you have heard, you will be dormant for some time. The halls before you will be your home during that period. Of course, you will not be conscious, which will alleviate any prolonged boredom or isolation."

He rested his hand over the box's visual sensor orb.

"Do not worry. Your lineage is, in one form or another, assured. When you awake, I hope you will appreciate the vague irony that lies within one such solution."

The 12th King's hand pressed down, and the box fell dormant.

After a few moments, a small robot approached. The blue-suited man glanced down at it.

"Orpheus. Place these three within the designated receptacles."

The robot glanced up, wearily.

"If there is one thing that remains reliable," it droned, "it would have to be your persistence."

The small metal being collected the three cubes, and slowly wandered down the dark corridor. It muttered one more time.

"Reliable, but hopeful. The only real hope I can see, anymore."

IMMENSE kudos to you guys.