Journal of a first-time MMORG player
By
187nut,
Posted on: 2005-01-20 01:10 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Entry 112
Im getting a lot of invites to teams when I play, but real life ensures that Im never on for more than an hour at a time, so I have to decline them all. MM II heads back to Striga to do some missions there, and has the worst luck ever! My setting is on Unyielding for MM II, so I was planning to have him die a couple of times. With new content like the PvP zones and Croatoa, I want to experience all of the new content as much as possible, but Ive only gone through Striga twice, so its still pretty fresh to me too. I die more than ten times!
At first I jump into some Warwolves, and later I tackle ten white-con Banished Pantheon. I get eight of them before I get knocked out, but Im noticing something peculiar. This character has better defenses than Ive ever had before with SR. At this point I have Focused Fighting and Focused Senses active with Agile, and I notice almost no difference in hits whether my toggles are active or not. Striga was great because all of the missions are in the one zone, but I spend most of my time heading back there from the hospital in Talos! Granted, teams are recommended in Striga, because the group spawns are so big, but I cant wait until Issue 7 is released and defense scales against higher-con opponents, it is genuinely needed.
I run another test against just a couple of Warwolves, and they manage to hit me almost every time, forcing me to rest after taking out just two of them. I even get knocked out once on an indoor mission, which almost never happens anymore, but I did head for the Boss before dispatching a couple of minions that I could have gotten before attracting the big cheeses attention. So that one was just my own fault. Still, SR is really lackluster in the mid-20s, and its nice to know that the set has been looked at and will get some improvements. It may actually become the flavor of the month, if it works well with the changes.
Ive been trying to find a way to fit Tough in, just because I have yet to take that power, but with all of the changes to the game, its benefits might not be worth it at this point. Ive already been slowed immensely by taking Kick instead of fitting in Focus Chi by now. Without Hasten, I still dont have a full attack chain as well, so my decision to take Focused Senses still feels wrong at this stage. I feel the need to take another attack and Focus Chi next, but Ill only get one choice! Eh, the Perception bonus of Focused Senses means that FS was kind of mandatory at this point, though, to participate in PvP, but I would not have bothered with it yet in PvE. I also suspect I would not have been knocked out so much if I had Cobra Strike, as I did with Martial Master all this time. Even with all that said, Martial Master did most of his leveling before the difficulty slider was introduced, so MM II is handling things quite well at Unyielding, at least with the indoor missions. Next, I plan to hunker down and stop jumping into overwhelming odds in Bonny Morass to test my lousy defenses, and work on getting rid of my debt, since I just hit the cap for this level!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 113
The karmic tables have turned today! I log on just on the off chance I might find a team to help me with Maestro, and I find a couple Blasters. We cant do quite enough damage by ourselves, so I find A Defender who turns out to be an Empath, who helps keep us alive and buffs us just enough so we can take him out. Then I head for the movies in real life.
When I get back, I have more than an hour of spare time for a change, so I log in and go crazy in Croatoa, getting farther with MM II in the missions than I have with Ultra Meltdown. I also gather my first pickup team in ages, and I cant remember the last time I had a team this good. The Spines Regen dies once in the beginning, but only because the Defender wasnt right behind him to back him up at that particular moment. The fourth member of our group was not quite as efficient, but not so much that you would notice it a great deal. It was obvious that the two others each had a level 50 character already and knew what to do!
We rocked through a couple missions on the Unyielding setting and tore through them faster than five year olds open Christmas presents. As we exit, I ask if theres time for one more, but even as Im typing, the Defender, Impair, says, More, please! I jump to get another mission, and we fall into CoH zen, ripping up the enemies like they were barely even there. I crack my jokes, and as Im typing out a long response, I notice that the damage rate may be slowed, but these guys are good enough that I could technically stop fighting and just type out jokes all night, and we would still be just fine. Global friend invites ensue, and I stay up past my normal better log off, because you have to go to work tomorrow bedtime, but I was tempted to stay on forever, we were in the perfect zone. Fate intervenes, and the connection drops as we exit a mission. Its not worth it to log back in just to let them know Im leaving anyway, so I figure theyll be able to guess that I had a disconnect. About time something happened to make up for all those solo defeats Ive been having lately.
The next night is just a couple missions, and nothing worthy of note happens. I notice I havent done the first Respec yet, so I try to use the team search feature to post that I need to do that, but I get no takers. Im not used to using that feature, but I figure Ill need to go hang out in Independence Port to really get a bite on that one. Im so used to making sure everyone on the team is level 24, but Im ready to try it with different levels for the team involved, just to mix things up a bit, see if that makes it more difficult.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
For those that follow the guides, I have updated mine for the upcoming Issue 7, made it ED compliant, and included some PvP notes in the latest entries.
Martial Arts / Super Reflexes - The Advanced Guide
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 114
At level 26, MM II takes Focus Chi, because I just cant go any longer without it! Its like a breath of fresh air to finally have it available. I stay in Croatoa and do missions, and end up gaining a level as I knock out a bad guy at the end of a mission. It is so cool to see and hear the level-up music followed immediately by the mission-complete music! I have a new mission that recommends I take a team for, but I havent really needed to do that yet, so why bother? Oboy, its one of those that requires at least two people. I call Red Haven, and he logs Zedd in to come help, but he cant get there and set up in time, so the mission fails.
I call back the contact, and he tells me my interference stopped them anyway?! What a gyp! There are never any negative consequences for failure in this game. Just once I would like to see an alternate storyline for your character, like something bad happened that otherwise wouldnt, and you unlock a special uh-oh-I-better-fix-this mission. The mission failure means nothing to me, Im gaining xp too fast on Unyielding as it is. I like to read the story text, and even though Ive read through most of it once already, it helps me to remember it if I read it two or three times. I cant really drop the difficulty level, because Im afraid it will turn into a too-easy grind. Other archetypes might force me to go easier, but a second time around on MA/SR, Im pretty much an expert with all the hours Ive logged on the power sets, and I have trouble going any easier. Zedd apologizes, but I tell him its no biggie. Instead, I spot Sally and run off and smack her upside the head with my foot! Does that make me a bad person?
I am trying to figure out the best way to track badges. I want to get as many story arc badges as I can, but I havent found the best way to set up a tracking system that I can consult while Im actually playing. I leave Croatoa to consult some of my old contacts, and some of them wont give me any of their missions already. Ptheh! I get one old story arc that I manage to get a Souvenir for, at least. I head in to the various missions, and encounter green-, blue-, and white-cons, just about as if I was still on the easiest difficulty level. Oh man, what a snooze-fest! I just cant lose, and go through the motions. I am hanging out mostly because I want someone to invite me to a Respec mission, and I slum in Independence Port (IP) for a while looking for able bodies. Red Haven and I talk about good keybinds and discuss good global chat channels to join, and just generally shoot the breeze while we play.
MM II joined a Super Group (sg) the other day, and I spot my sg leader online, and in IP! There is at least one other sg member there as well, I figure one is sidekicked to the other. I send a tell asking to help me start a Respec, and then they can drop. I just want to see how far I can get solo while on Unyielding. The sg leader tells me hes putting a team together for missions right now, and advises me to form my own group. I go my own way, but decide I want to help Red Haven build Prestige for his sg instead. So, a handful of minutes later, I quit, and send a tell to my buddy, who is playing CoV at the moment, to invite MM II to his sg when he gets a chance.
Oh, now my old sg leader wants to talk to me! He asks why I quit, and I explain that sg members help each other, and he was not willing to help, even the first time I ask for a little favor. I also mention whenever I ask my friend for help, he does if he can. He is a little upset at this, and says they had partially started a mission, etc. I respond simply that he could have invited me to the team, let me take the star for a moment and start the Respec, then kick the others and they could reform. It would take less than a minute, and he was even in the same zone already.
I am also thinking to myself that my friend would have just told me to hold tight for five or ten minutes while the team finished their mission, and then he would help, but this guy just gave me a negative response. It was not a mean no, and I understand his perspective, but I have higher expectations of any sg members I might team with, so I just explain that I am going to join my best friends sg instead, and wish him peace. I dont mind his team doing their thing, and he obviously thought it was too much of an inconvenience, but Ive done more for total strangers in the game than he was willing to do for me, which tells me he was not as interested in building friendship in the game as he is in building Prestige for his new base. Im not upset about any of this, but my personal standards are high, and if I am willing to stop in the middle of my play and go help some poor sap beat down Dr. Vahz, even though it takes me a couple zones out of my way and I get no benefit from it, I tend to think sg members should be willing to do at least the same if they are already in the same zone. Now, would I feel the same way while playing City of Villains
? On my final mission for the night, I have to defeat Iron Hand, a Freak Tank. I beat him and get the mission complete, and just as I click on the Exit button, he rezzes. Gah! If I was slower on the button, I could have given him the beatdown twice!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 115
Tonight was probably one of the most frustrating nights I have had in the history of the game. Dark Astoria calls to me, with a mission to help the Circle of Thorns and stop the Banished Pantheon, and I die a lot. At first I think its because the Spectral Daemon Lords are just too tough because their accuracy debuff makes me miss too much while they pound me into oblivion, but then I notice all of the lag.
Oh my goodness, does lag have an effect on the game! I die eight times before I realize that if I want to pass this, Im going to have to bite the bullet and change the difficulty setting. I go down to heroic level, reset the mission
and die twice more! Ive got everybody I can find knocked out, and wondering when this mission will end, because the lag is actually tossing me halfway across the map sometimes. In the middle of all of this two different people almost simultaneously finally invite me to a Respec. I apologize and explain Im in the middle of a very tough mission, and theyre cool about it, while I go in and change my setting to not looking for team. Then, when I think I am searching for some hidden, last holdout villain, after 8 deaths
I have my first mapserver disconnect since I cant remember when. Grr. I think I am through playing for tonight.
The next night is much better! I gather a team for the Respec in Independence Port when I notice that Luska is up. We all run over to join in the fun, but nobody is attacking yet. I slowly draft more members, and the latest one charges in immediately! I send a broadcast to the leader of the other team, on the opposite side of the Monster, to let him know my side just engaged, and we start in on the tentacle beating. My buddy logged on as Taenia to help out, but said he was not going to participate in the Respec. He hangs out anyway, so we have a good team and almost no problem with the Respec.
After everyone else has gone their own way, I take MM II back to Striga to finish all of the regular missions from my contacts. Now all he needs is to do the Task Forces there. With all of the temp powers we get, I remember that group of players who wanted to only use natural powers like Brawl and not too much else to level up. If there was some sort of freeze on my abilities for any reason, I still have a Wedding Band, the Rune of Warding, Holy Shotgun Shells, a Warwolf Whistle, and Electromagnetic Grenades! Temp powers are just plain fun. Ill do the Task Forces when I have more time, but for now, I head back to Croatoa.
My plan is to finish Croatoa tonight, but I am sidetracked. I have a hunt 10 Fir Bolgs mission in a particular area of the zone, and I keep coming up dry. Nothing but Warrior Tuatha as far as I can see. Then I land in a rarely-traversed part of the woods, and come across Jack of Irons, a Monster! I had not seen him before, but a broadcast only nets me two allies, so I brush off my rusty invitation skills and gather a full team of eight. We tackle him, but I bite the dust near the end, so my team has to finish him off for me as I try not to smell the Tuatha droppings. Such is the life (or occasional unconsciousness) of a hero
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 116
I log in and have an invite to be a global friend from someone. The name is one I recognize from elsewhere on the internet. Its my cousin! The one that stayed with me during Christmas, who got hooked on the game, natch. He has a level 17 and a level 4 character already, and hes playing his level 4. We team up, and I tell him how to get to Croatoa. I found my Fir Bolgs finally, and am working on looking for Red Caps when I come across two devouring Earth in front of a bridge. Someone having a DE ambush? I take out one who has noticed me, and the other just stands there the whole time. I shrug and carry on my search.
I encounter my first Fiend, and think his attack animations are great! I have fun fighting him, and can only wish that we could have some of those animations for ourselves. Two swords for a power set
My cousin arrives and we do a couple missions, and the ghost contact wont hand out any more until Im level 30. I feel like Im underage all of a sudden: Im only 28! Waaah! I am still amused that I can call a ghost, but then I can stun a ghost opponent with my Thunder Kick, and thats always fun to watch.
My cousin decides to log on his second character, but I lose him, and Im guessing its to a disconnect. I end up with a Circle of Thorns mission where you search for 16 books, which is not as bad as it sounds. The map is neat, and the Thorns are hard because there are so many ghosts, and I cant do as much damage to them as I do to solid people. Although, I do laugh as I make them dizzy with my Thunder Kick, and I also drag out my Holy Shotgun Shells, and I imagine that even a ghost can be surprised! Imagine if youre fighting melee and you only feel a little hurt from a kick, and then this martial artist suddenly breaks out a shotgun that really, really hurts! Heh.
I logged on just after 9:00, planning to leave at 11:00, but of course, I always end up in a groove, with missions so close and/or tempting, or easy to finish, that I fall into the old, Just one more
trap. For instance, I have three contacts all close by in IP, one of whom gives me a hunt Freaks mission, while another tells me to break up a meet that also has Freaks in it! I can kill two birds with one stone. When the server was buggy the other night, I had lowered the difficulty setting, and I havent changed it yet. Partly because I just plain forgot, but also because I dont want to level too fast still. With this mission, I can take out Freaks and have them count towards another mission, but without getting extra xp for them other than the normal mission complete bonus. I love that!
In Talos, I pick up the last Freaks by whomping on some greys, still trying to avoid too much xp. I am not as bored on the Heroic setting as I had been afraid, it feels okay to almost effortlessly breeze through some missions, just enjoying the camaraderie of my cousin for a while, and not worry if something in real life distracts me. Its like going out for a leisurely stroll after dinner. Before I know it, though, its midnight, and I gotta type this up fast before I forget details and go to bed. Work is in a few hours!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
planning to leave at 11:00, but of course, I always end up in a groove, with missions so close and/or tempting, or easy to finish, that I fall into the old, Just one more
trap.
[/ QUOTE ]
I've also been caught by this trap soooo many times. 
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
Entry 117
Okay, I have a small problem. Its not a real-world problem, and its not something I lose sleep over, but it is a game problem. Here it is: my buddy Red Haven was upset about Enhancement Diversification (ED), and was saying he was thinking about quitting. He also thought he would not get City of Villains. This was reinforced when the game finally came out, and there was a little confusion about which box to get, and how the activation codes worked for your account, etc. The company really could have been clearer about things. It ends up, he has the wrong box and cannot participate in the three-day head start, and he is very frustrated. He plans to play for one month of the new game and then drop it. After three or four phone conversations reinforcing this, I have been convinced, so I have basically decided to be resolved to going solo in the new game. For the head start, I make a dozen or so villains, spread out across the servers, and begin to play.
Over the next couple months, Red decides he can live with ED, although he wishes things were a little bit different with it. He also starts to enjoy CoV. Before I know it, he has some extra free time on his hands, and he is playing the heck out of the game, and has a level 40 villain before I can blink. Then he decides he wants to play around with the supergroup (SG) base. Now I have him calling me up, asking to quit my playing plans and switch over to a villain on Freedom and come build up Prestige so he can add to the SG base. But
I thought you werent playing! I protest. My playing time is fairly low currently, and I just want to log on and play as much as I can. I actually prefer CoH at this point, mostly because of the majority of characters I have developed on it. CoV, however, has better story content, and other attractive things about it. But CRM gets stuck at Eden, because I dont have the number of hours it takes at a time to do a Trial, and my buddy doesnt want to play DC for the most part anyway, he watns to play CoV. Plus, when I do get free time, I find out the Eminators are bugged, which makes Eden a breeze, and not worth playing. Ptheh!
I end up going with the flow, which means CRM has out-leveled Eden already, which I was trying to avoid, updates to the game keep changing the rules, some of the enemies, and the plans I had to try out various things in the game are voided because of the changes. To be honest, the game is being updated too quickly for my tastes. I know there are tons of people who have played every aspect of the game and are bored, but I was told thats the nature of games, even MMORGs, to some extent. Me, I cant get my characters to the right level in time to try things before the developers change the game and render my plans moot!
I give up trying to have any sort of strategy, and decide I just want to work towards getting a level 40 villain by the time the next update comes out, since most of the new content is for the villains. Im pretty sure I wont make it, but Red Haven has at least two level 40s already, and is working on another! We are amazed when we see or hear that people think the game is too hard. We get along fine solo, and tear the game to shreds when we team up. We are both almost in perma-debt intentionally, just to try to experience more content and get as many badges as we can, as we go. It would actually be better for us if Statesman rolled back the last couple of debt changes, so I wouldnt have to keep breaking character and dying on purpose in the game.
Red stops bugging me after a few weeks, and we start to collaborate whenever were both online. We manage to switch between heroes and villains fairly well, and even break out CRM and DC for some missions, and we totally rock. Even with the reductions in my healing power from ED, deaths are very rare, unless we want them! Now, if only I can roelplay a reason to get my hold badges
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 118
Forget about regular play, these events keep happening faster than I can keep up! The Christmas season had me logging on tons of alts, heroes and villains both, but there were only a couple of things to do. I decided not to run around town opening presents all day, or trying to get more snow-people badges, but settled for getting tons of jetpacks and free tailor sessions for all my in-game peeps.
This time, Paragon Dance Party has been renovated, and it looks great! I have trouble figuring out why Lord Recluse would expend such considerable resources to break the Destined Ones out of prison, and then institute a new plan that would render us irrelevant so soon after. Was he testing us, to see how loyal we were? How could we remain loyal if his success meant we would be meaningless to him? It seems inconsistent to me, but then, hes been acting a little loony ever since he first got his powers, so what do I know?
I get all the missions done for my main villain, Necronaut, then take Martial Master in and do them for him as well. Red Haven logs on and accompanies me for each of these, and we manage to get CRM in, squeaking by just before the deadline hits. My other alts wont be getting the toga anytime soon, oh well.
I bug a spelling error, but then there are two spelling errors in the text window after that, and another in the one after that. I have honestly never seen so many spelling errors in my life, in any other game, nor in any novel I have read. It is simply appalling. Its one thing to type up things in a hurry in an e-mail or on the web, but to have a game like this with so many in it, it actually breaks me out of my immersion and spoils the fun for me. The developers really, seriously need to hire someone who has good editing skills, because CoV is even worse than CoH. Disgusting!
My villain Necronaut levels up to 19 and tries out Bloody Bay, successfully getting all six shards, but hes not anywhere near as fast as Martial master, he cannot take out all the firebases on his own in time. I recruit another Mastermind, but he is not enough. I get a third player, and were still not faster than the respawns, so I pull back to type up instructions to the others, to whittle them down to low health and then move on to the next one, when I am bushwhacked by a hero. He takes down all three of us, swiping my shards, and leaving me out of time to complete the scenario. I figured that might happen if we took too long. Grr. Ill have to come back with some teammates that I already know, who can help me get it done faster.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
I have trouble figuring out why Lord Recluse would expend such considerable resources to break the Destined Ones out of prison, and then institute a new plan that would render us irrelevant so soon after. Was he testing us, to see how loyal we were? How could we remain loyal if his success meant we would be meaningless to him? It seems inconsistent to me, but then, hes been acting a little loony ever since he first got his powers, so what do I know?
[/ QUOTE ]
The way I see it, Lord Recluse doesn't think that we are all Destined. He thinks some of us are, and he's trying to eliminate the ones that are not. Call it trial by fire. According to all I've seen, survival of the fittest is all that matters to him.
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
Also, Recluse is too smart to put all of his eggs in one basket. He has multiple plans for world conquest, and the Destined Ones are only one thread of his sprawling web.
At least that's what I figure.
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
[ QUOTE ]
Boomtown is a great place, and I hope they develop more missions that call for you to go to this place.
[/ QUOTE ]
Reading this now, it almost brings a tear to the eye.
Boomtown: Such a Waste.
Perez Park: The Way Things Were.
Yeah, I figure Recluse is SO brilliant, he has webs within webs of plans
.... or he is totally off his rocker: "I have these Destined Ones, one or more of which is foretold to be the key to my victory... I will make them obsolete by substituting entirely new threats! Bwah-ha-hah- what? No, Ghost Widow, I haven't taken my medication this morning..."
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 119
Ah, my poor neglected journal, abandoned as I mostly play CoV. I have changed my mind and decided that if I am going to keep the journal going, I really should give at least some detail on my progression. Ill try to maintain the policy of avoiding spoilers.
My initial goal for CoV was to find an AV and solo him or her, just because I havent done that before, not without leveling up a couple times and coming back. I was not able to beat the update that changed AVs to Elite Bosses, though, and I would hesitate to ask a team to just sit around while I see if I can do it, but close friends like Red Haven might arrange something like that for me later, so I keep the dream alive.
I plod along with my Mastermind Necronaut, and grow increasingly discouraged by spelling errors. Thats right, they still bug me, precisely because they are increasing in frequency as I go further along. Its and its are jumbled, and e is placed after i so many times, I start to think a third grader was paid to do the text entry. I despair for any young readers trying to follow the story as they play, for the bad example in a professional product. I have literally never seen a professional product with mistakes like this unless it was an intentional joke. I read on the boards that spelling fixes were a low priority, which I guess I can understand from their viewpoint of what should take precedence, so I stop my bugging of them entirely.
I am now in a different quandary altogether, one that is partly the doing of the developers. The game is more fun when you can find good people to team, and when you can increase the difficulty level to make things more challenging. The way the content is designed, however, I have to keep it at the easiest level and go solo in order to see as much of the content. I miss some anyway as I go, and my other Mastermind, Loser, even misses a badge or two by the time he gets to level 16. (What a loser!)
I die a ton to get some debt on Necronaut and slow him down, trying to max out my debt often. I understand the idea of rolling alts, I do that already. I understand the idea of having so much content you cant do it all on one character, but CoV seems designed poorly in the sense that if I dont go solo and easy, I will miss way too many opportunities to get a badge. Im not a badge-(censored) like some people (*cough-Red Haven-cough*), but I like to get as many when I can. I tend to get history and exploration, but pass on things like hold badges and damage badges.
So I am in the weird situation of playing solo and dying on the lowest difficulty setting on purpose a lot, when the real fun in the game is tearing through the game on a hard level in a team. Ptheh! In the meantime, I only get to play once every two weeks because real life gets in the way. I feel like the prisoner who complains the soup was lousy, and then says there wasnt enough of it.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Journal away, my friend. Entertaining and good info.
Don't stop bugging the typos. Er, typoes. Typo's? Whatever. I'm sure there are many there will never find if they are not pointed out.
You mentioned alts, but have you really decided not to have one "High speed, high fun" alt and another 'badge hunter' alt? Seems like a natural idea to me, to avoid the quandary...
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
Nope, I'm in it for the long haul, which means every alt wants badges! I had fun with Martial Master on high speed, with Swift, Sprint, Quickness and Super Speed, plus Teleportation when that wasn't fast enough! I calculate I have just enough characters to keep me entertained for another twenty years, as long as they keep adding content. Of course, I have to consider that if every alt of mine wants badges, maybe Red Haven isn't as much a badge-censored as I am...
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 120
I squeeze in a precious hour or two over the next month, as business calls for me to go out of town on travel more than ever before. Doesnt my employer understand I have to remain available to fight the forces of evil? I dont know how any hero manages to handle a job and fighting crime
wait, Im evil and fighting the forces of good right now as Necronaut, mostly. Whatever.
I luck into a broadcast announcing Caleb, and join to take him out. Yay, another Monster badge! Then I duck into a mission and sick my zombies on some Council. They are putting the finishing touches on one of them, and Im basically just running ahead to scout out the next part when I level up to 28. Ah, this is a good day, monsters and leveling, and choosing a new power. I skipped getting some enhancements at level 27 so I could combine them with level 30 SOs. I head over and load up on accuracy helpers, but run out of infamy after just a few damage enhancements. Broke again! Ptheh!
I take Fearsome Stare, and try it out on my next mission. I miss! My girlfriend is home from work, and comments, How can you miss staring at someone? A very good question, I think! My next stare works, and I get to enjoy someone else cowering in fear finally. Ive lost count of how many opponents have used that power on me. Come to think of it, I think Caleb has that power too. I log out to go have steak dinner! Sometimes real life simply beats out the game
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 121
The second anniversary is upon us, so I decide to make it an annual affair where I log in each and every character I have. This refreshes my memory on tons of power sets and neat/horrible costume designs, and gives me some nostalgic feelings since Ive been spending all my time on CoV lately.
I log in Teslas Prodigy, a hero Im having trouble with because Electrical Blast and Energy Manipulation are not meshing together the way I thought they would. I am in that awkward place, though, just at the cusp of level 12, where I usually get my travel power and the Fitness line. Im not sure if Ill do that here or not, but Im already feeling the need for Super Speed. And man oh man, does Steel Canyon have a ton of bad guys running around, all red and purple to me! Forget Recluse, weve got enough problems keeping our streets clean as it is. Paragon City seems to have just as many crooks running around as the Rogue Isles!
I get a couple of blind invites that I ignore, but I also notice theres almost zero chatter on the Broadcast channel. I check my powers and notice I already have Hurdle?!? Man, did I make some weird choices when I didnt know any better. Meh, it may work out great for me here. Instead of doing the Hurdle-Health-Stamina thing, I can easily take Bone Smasher in the middle. Maybe I was thinking that way back when, and Im just a forgetful genius?
Ive turned into a team snob at the lower levels for my heroes, in the sense that I want to level up doing my missions, not those of other players. It would be different if we had the auto-complete feature that CoV has for two people completing a mission thats in both of their mission queues, but there it is. I play my characters in CoV solo because theres no way to experience much of the content all on one character, and now Im a solo snob in CoH. As I get higher in level on a character, then I like to join a team and play on the harder difficulty levels, but my experience at the low levels has been too much of a time-waster, in the sense that most people dont seem to have a clue. I tend to help them out and give them advice a lot, but after two or three missions, I tend to leave, because Im not really accomplishing my goals with my character. After so many times of this, it sort of felt like I was becoming an online babysitter. Which Im not averse to doing, but I have to be in the mood. Playing time has been so tight recently, Id much rather concentrate on my own self-centered desires. I get too many tells, so I just decide to /hide.
Its weird, most of Teslas missions are very old, since I have joined some teams with him in the past, so Im taking out green-cons and grey-cons for the most part, clearing out my mission queue. I level up on a mission complete anyway, taking out a grey-con! Heh. I run over to good old Ms. Liberty and take Hasten (it feels warranted, and speed fits my electrical concept), stopping to look at all the names of the heroes. I right-click on them, but nobody has bothered to write an origin anymore. Ptheh!
I notice that I have a contact, Tony Kord, and I havent done a single mission of his yet. I decline Paco Sanchezs mission to go talk to the Boomtown security chief, but Tony Kord gives me the same mission! Trying to tell me something? I head back to Wilson Zucco first, wondering which gang he used to be part of.
I cant sleep tonight, so I log back in as Counterbalance this time, my Natural Scrapper. His Katana attacks are nice, and the relatively new Throwing Knives temp power fits the character well. I ding to level 6, and run back to Blue Steel, one of the characters we wish will get a little more development soon. One of the cool things about having all of these low-level characters, if I dont have a full hour to play, I can still level one up for that familiar triumphant music.
I finally get the hint that Im sleepy when I die in a rescue hostage mission. I forgot they changed these so you have to escort everyone out, so after taking on a bunch of white- and yellow-cons, I rescue a couple people, and reinforcements come and own my butt. I go back and get all three hostages, and notice that all of these missing homeless people are chasing me to the entrance with cigarettes in their mouths. I wonder if the Lost gave them those cigarettes
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
I'm sorry, could some one help me out here... I was on the CoH forums and suddenly I appear to be in MySpace or some blog site.
Power: Jedi Mind Trick
Target: Kenobi
/em wave hand
/say "I do not want to read this thread. This is not the thread I was looking for. I want to ignore this thread."
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
Entry 122
Onto Victory server! I take Debt Leader out for a spin, shes at level 12, so I missed out on a Mutation temp power for her, since those go away at level 10. I take a moment out to add some keybinds for Radiation Infection and Enervating Field. It takes all of two minutes before I get a tell asking to team. I like the tells a lot better than blind invites, but my patience is rather short anyway, since I have a defined agenda. I remain polite, and start wondering if I should just /hide all my characters as soon as I log on, or keep a score sheet on which ones are hidden and which ones arent. It must be a weird phase of the moon that Im feeling this anti-social. Even I can tell that Im unnecessarily grumpy internally. I shake it off and make sure I dont type in anything rude to anyone while I go about my business. I need to get rid of this gloomy feeling; in the meantime, theres no reason for me to spread any unpleasantness.
I race down the streets of the Hollows, enjoying the little white lines on the street that seem to be painted just as I reach them. I risk certain death countless times trying to reach my mission deep in the Hollows, and finally a Pumicite ambush from underneath me takes me out. Lovely, Debt Leader is already living up to her name, Ive died and I havent even taken my first mission yet. I was only 300 yards away, too! Ah, luckily I have an Awaken on me. Then I run into some CoT, and thats all she wrote. Maybe this is why Im grumpy, I figured this would be a bad day. All right, the hospital it is then, and off to Boomtown instead!
On my mile-long trek through Steel Canyon, I see a Broadcast for the Positron TF, and think, why not? I havent gone through an hours-long pain-in-the-neck TF in a while! I join up. After just a few minutes, it becomes apparent that the team lead doesnt have enough confidence to proceed with a team of five, and I change my mind about devoting all the time to it. I politely take my leave and head to Boomtown after all. I take a long, circuitous route through Boomtown hunting Clockwork, and then go risk certain death again, running past a bunch of purple-cons to get to my next contact.
I get the fortune-teller mission, which means I get to go back to Perez Park, a place I havent been to in about a year! I take exactly the wrong route to get to my mission, getting lost amidst the trees. Is it too much to hope that one of the zone redesigns will be Perez? I go finish the mission and tackle a big mob of Vahz, working on getting the badge for Embalmed Abominations before I get sent to the hospital. Knowing that you cant really die, and that the hospital is a faster way to get to your destination really skews how you play the game. It sounds like fodder for an online cartoon, about a hero who dies on purpose to get where he needs to go all the time. One of the drawbacks of playing CoV for so long, it does tend to make running around before travel powers seem a real drag. If I had as much free time now as I did when I first loaded this game, it wouldnt be as big an issue, I could just sit back and enjoy the sprinting like I used to. More and more, that seems like a luxury I no longer have.
Kings Row is next, and I run out of Endurance after arresting just four guys. Pant pant. Naturally, the game keeps giving me Accuracy Inspirations instead of blues. I stop using my rad emission powers half the time and just blast away. Afterwards, its back to Perez, and I get two missions that mesh together, letting me take out some thugs for the benefit of two mission completions. Then, miracle of miracles, I actually catch a tree just right and hop over the wall into the park! Its the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.
I level up right on punching a guy in the mouth! Only one level away from Super Speed, which will be great to experience again after the anti-speed-bias that seems built into the design of CoV. I spam my battle cry and trigger the chat ban. Im the only one on my team! Oh, I hope they change that to apply only to Broadcast. Sometimes I spam my battle cry just to clear out all of the distracting Broadcasts in the first place!
I take a couple of Vahzilok missions next, and they seem to give me relatively little trouble, most likely because of my debuff powers. Just when I think Ive got everything handled
three yellow-cons finally manage to take me out! Razzin frassin
I jump back in a little early and nearly bite it again, but I manage to hold on long enough to make them pay for what they did to me! I keep plowing ahead almost recklessly though, and some vomit finally makes me go to the hospital.
I complete a couple more missions and head to the store to sell stuff, but I forget there was a horde of Clocks right outside the store entrance, and I run smack into them on my way back to Perez Park. I fire up all my powers and pop all my candy, and take out four of the ten before they get me. Heh. I get back at them by clearing out all the clocks in Perez so I can get the Around the Bendis badge. Of course, the only reason I was in the area is because I managed to hop a tree over the wall again, which was great
until I realized I was in the totally opposite side of the park from where I needed to be. I manage to do something new here, I actually complete all of Dr. Trevor Seaborns missions. Its a little out of sequence, though, as the final mission established the upline reporting from the Hellions to the Outcasts, with a hint of something more, while Ive already done the story arc that reveals their links to the Warriors with someone else. Im fairly close to leveling, but dinner calls, so alas, no Super Speed for me tonight.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 123
Next up on my list is Ironic Twist, my Illusion/Storm Summoning Controller. Its the first time I see the Apprentice Charm in action, and its fairly cool. Inside a warehouse, I use Gale to blow some people back, and they fall on their butts and slide down the ramp, taking me to the bottom with them! Great, now the mobs are also getting the same super powers as the civilians on the street, and can push me aside with ease. A quick level up to 5, and then Im out of there. I need to have her take Air Superiority, or become a permanent part of a team.
One thing I wish they would change is to simply have Azuria (or whoever your first contact is) give you the mission to go see Wincott in the Hollows. What a waste, making us go to some place like Kings Row just to have to turn around and go back to Atlas to get to the Hollows. As it is, most of my time with Twist is spent watching her run. Good thing I made her costume skimpy. 
I log in a few more characters and play just a teensy bit with each of them, until I get to Good Sport! I love his costume, and I like the idea of the archery power sets. Hes deep in the Hollows, and dies just as soon as he starts running. I head back and clear out a mission, which leaves me Frostfire. I get a blind invite, and figure, why not try to ask for them to do this with me? The group is slow to start, and a couple people drop, but the five of us left form a core.
I fear the worst at the start, as the Scrapper jumps into a group of ten bad guys, and promptly bites the dust, along with a teammate soon after. We quickly settle down and get to work. Doctor Jest does excellent heals, and we only have one death for the rest of the mission. I try to stay towards the back, but my Fistful of Arrows does great damage to these bunched-up mobs, and I get a ton of aggro. My Glue Arrow helps us cut them down like a knife through butter, as we work our way to the final bad guy. Im the most talkative on the team, but then, I think Im almost always the most talkative on the team
My arrows fly almost non-stop throughout. The damage may not be stellar, but I enjoy having at least one character that doesnt run out of Endurance after just a few attacks. I level up to 10, and we finish right close to midnight. Ill have to train him up next time. It was a nice finish, and helped me get out of my solo snob mode for the week!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Always great stuff! 
Keep it up, please!
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
Entry 124
Yet another business trip is coming up, so I log in all of my alts for the 2nd-year badge. Ive got a Brute, a Dominator, and a Stalker on one server together, and Im actually quite pleased with how they all look. I sort of wish we could transfer characters to each other, just so I could see my three team up together! My girlfriend walks by just as I log in Tamysyn, and makes a comment about how well-defined the characters booty is. Hmm, I wonder if I can get in trouble over virtual characters? I level up some of the heroes and villains as I go. Its easy, with most of them being low level, so I get to hear the level-up music four or five times in an hour.
Ive got about ten characters that have been created by various friends and family, I cant remember who belongs o whom anymore, but I still have a ton of slots left. I figure if new archetypes or epic archetypes come by, or as new power sets are introduced, I will be able to use up most of my slots. Im thinking long-term now. Since I cant play nearly as often as when I started, I figure Ive got standing work in front of me thats years-long, just with the characters I have now!
An interminable amount of time passes before I can play again (okay, it was ten days, but it felt like forever). Ive logged in all of my own characters for the recent anniversary, so Necronaut comes out to play tonight. After a handful of missions, Red Haven is on with one of his villains, and starts saying hello by way of insulting me. Its what best friends do. He invites me for a badge mission, which is Baphomet. Talk about a thorn in my side! I still dont have the badge for Baphomet from Martial Master, from when someone completed the mission before we beat him. Nobody ever came back and said they had the mission, so my poor main character wanders Paragon City looking for this one elusive badge.
This goes slightly better. Baphomet kills me twice, and then when a Brute is tackling him solo for a moment, I summon all of my little undead minions. My buddy must have done something wrong, because I get taken out in a one-shot while my back is turned, calling up my Lich. What did he do to call attention to us way over here? The bonus is high enough that all the debt is wiped away upon completion, which just reminds me that dying in the game has been rendered way too cheap. We split off as Red has promised to help a friend, and Necronaut does paper missions until he can select a second contact. Ooh, the Shadowy Figure! Im halfway to level 29, and slightly nervous because I havent received the Bling badge yet, and that unlocks a contact. It would be nice to have some type of meter that tells me how close I am. If only I can keep plugging away, and not join any more of Reds missions. They always end up with me tackling purple-cons and dying. Thats right, I said it!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the numbers, ATRAtwo. Now if only I knew why I kept missing the Empath Defender...
[/ QUOTE ]
Probably bad luck.
Once upon a time, when Hasten still added +5% defense while it was active, (which
with perma hasten was all the time :-) ) One could make the following build on any
character...
stack:
5% combat jumping
5% hasten
7.5% stealth
5% hover
and there were some other pool-based ways to get defense. Don't forget 6-slotting
all those powers for defense, so the 22.5% * 2.2 (6 SOs) = 50%
50% to-hit of minions -45% in character defense = mobs floored at 5% to hit.
Sure, a lot of slots, but at least one Blapper did that, and 6-slotted his melee attacks,
and dished out some serious melee aoe attacks like greater fire sword circle.
Flooring mobs to 5% meant he effectively had mez protection, as he was almost
never hit.
Then, the rules changed. Ish 5 reduced defenses and resists. Stealth suppression
of defense occurred.
Suddenly the mobs had 20-30% chance to hit the blapper, and the build was dead.
Fast forward to present day, and the numbers are more like:
2.5% combat jumping
3.75% stealth (1.875% when attacking)
2.5% hover
3% maneuvers (Defender base %)
max of 3 useful SOs per power...
11.75% * 1.6 = only 19% or so
So perhaps the Empath wasn't doing that.
But, could the empath simply have eaten 2-3 Lucks and you didn't use insps
or Focus Chi to compensate?
Also, the Empath might have recently received buffs from other players,
whether FF bubbles or even another Empath's Fortitude.
If it was an Emp/Dark Blast, well, Dark Blast gives a small amount of -acc for
2-3 seconds for each blast that hits you...
Maneuvers may be a wimpy bonus now, but in theory, 8 defenders with it 3-slotted
generate 5% * 8 = 40% defense.
And you could have had bad luck, but I'd bet on 2-3 lucks while you didn't use
any tohitbuff powers...