Lowbie Missions Needed
I have a Lv10-14 arc for when you reach that level. "The Horsemen Chronicles Part I" #195149.
Feedback is welcome and desired. :-)
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
Search @TheDeepBlue. All of his arcs are low level and top notch.
Dream Paper (1874) works as soon as you can handle Lost and Tsoo, which may not be very soon.
Bricked Electronics (2180) I have done with a level 6 shield scrapper, though admittedly on heroic.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
My arc, "Trollbane" (#106553) is set for levels 10-14, although the difficulty might be on the higher end- a DB/Regen should be able to handle it without any major problems, though (although you might want some breakfrees for the fourth and fifth missions; there's an Illusion boss in there and I can't get rid of the Confuse until i15 -_-).
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
The Captain Dynamic arc below works from level 5 (to 50...), and I've done it with a level 4 dominator (although it's a heroic arc). It does have a boss at the end, if that's too hard you could do it on Heroic to face him as a lieutenant.
I haven't had much feedback on it yet, hope the humour works at low levels
Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!
The Fireside Poet - #189439.
L1-14, 5 missions but a fast run. Skulls with 1 custom baddie in the last mission. No mez'ing baddies.
Enjoy
Juggling submissions into what I hope is a good leveling range, I plan on hitting:
Fireside Poet
Capt. Dynamic
Horseman Chronicles
Trollbane
In that order, seeing what level I'm up to and then either trying Dream Paper or else holding off to fill in the holes with any new arcs. Really just depends on how I'm progressing.
The Fireside Poet - Rated Five Stars
Played from just shy of lvl 7 to just shy of lvl 8. As always, using my DB/Regen scrapper.
Let me start by saying that I think this arc has been reviewed here before and, if so, it shows because this was a pretty tight arc. My main criteria for any arc are two questions: "Is it interesting enough to keep me going?" and "Is it challenging without being an exercise in frustration?" To the first question, it was a "Yes" with enough interesting plot turns to make me want to find out what happens. To the second question, it was another "yes". Because this arc uses only Skulls, it doesn't suffer the risk of Custom Critter breakdown.
The main thrust of the plot is that you're sent to investigate a Skull break-in job and learn that they've moved from their usual petty crimes of shaking down pedestrians and trying to break into streetlight poles into darker and more sinister crimes. Naturally, this has all involved upset including (as you learn) even some of the Skulls. Someone's leaving poetry clues as well. It turns out that the Fireside Poet is hiring the Skulls as muscle as he works towards his own goals. The MA synopsis promises "horror, sadness and revenge" and it delivers.
Most of the plot and clues worked well. I was slightly startled at the end of the first mission (wasn't expecting that!) and loved the concept of the Icarus plot. I was appropriately manipulated into feeling empathy for the villain even as I knew he had to go down.
My few issues with the plot were that I didn't know if the potry was supposed to mean anything to me or if it was just throw-away verse for mission flavor. I didn't attempt to write it down or construct the couple parts together so, at the end, I didn't know if I had missed anything or not. Beyond that, my only gripe was the airfield office being another standard law firm/stock broker/city council/whatever office. I guess that couldn't really be helped since there may not be a more appropriate map but... well, I don't know what could have been done better there with the tools provided so no points docked. Just took me a little out of the moment. Also, maybe a little flavor text injected into mission #2 would have been nice; it was largely silent.
Beyond that, this was an obviously polished bit of arc-work that I'd happily recommend not only to anyone with a lowbie to level but to anyone looking for a good story oriented MA adventure. I should have kept better track of my run time but I think it was between 60-90 minutes for the entire arc.
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The Fireside Poet - Rated Five Stars
Played from just shy of lvl 7 to just shy of lvl 8. As always, using my DB/Regen scrapper.
Let me start by saying that I think this arc has been reviewed here before and, if so, it shows because this was a pretty tight arc. My main criteria for any arc are two questions: "Is it interesting enough to keep me going?" and "Is it challenging without being an exercise in frustration?" To the first question, it was a "Yes" with enough interesting plot turns to make me want to find out what happens. To the second question, it was another "yes". Because this arc uses only Skulls, it doesn't suffer the risk of Custom Critter breakdown.
The main thrust of the plot is that you're sent to investigate a Skull break-in job and learn that they've moved from their usual petty crimes of shaking down pedestrians and trying to break into streetlight poles into darker and more sinister crimes. Naturally, this has all involved upset including (as you learn) even some of the Skulls. Someone's leaving poetry clues as well. It turns out that the Fireside Poet is hiring the Skulls as muscle as he works towards his own goals. The MA synopsis promises "horror, sadness and revenge" and it delivers.
Most of the plot and clues worked well. I was slightly startled at the end of the first mission (wasn't expecting that!) and loved the concept of the Icarus plot. I was appropriately manipulated into feeling empathy for the villain even as I knew he had to go down.
My few issues with the plot were that I didn't know if the potry was supposed to mean anything to me or if it was just throw-away verse for mission flavor. I didn't attempt to write it down or construct the couple parts together so, at the end, I didn't know if I had missed anything or not. Beyond that, my only gripe was the airfield office being another standard law firm/stock broker/city council/whatever office. I guess that couldn't really be helped since there may not be a more appropriate map but... well, I don't know what could have been done better there with the tools provided so no points docked. Just took me a little out of the moment. Also, maybe a little flavor text injected into mission #2 would have been nice; it was largely silent.
Beyond that, this was an obviously polished bit of arc-work that I'd happily recommend not only to anyone with a lowbie to level but to anyone looking for a good story oriented MA adventure. I should have kept better track of my run time but I think it was between 60-90 minutes for the entire arc.
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Thanks for the kind words Let me address a few things...
- As to the poetry clues, they do have meaning but it's VERY abstract unless you sit down after playing the whole thing and go back and analyze it line by line in relation to the villain and his thought processes. That's why the poetry is not central to the story at all. You can react just like the contact does ("Friggin' poetry?"), and you'd be fine.
- I like your idea of adding flavor text to some of the Skulls in mission 2. Hadn't thought of it because it's designed to be a very straight-up gang hang-out, but a little "Hey, what are you doing in our place?" type stuff couldn't hurt.
- I would have liked another map for the air field office, too. Gotta work with what we're given, hehe.
- I'm pleased to hear that you didn't expect the ending to mission 1. Everybody who's played it has had the same reaction, and I think it serves to get a player invested in the "What the hell is going on?" feeling early on.
Thanks for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it
206036 "Welcome to Atlas Park" by @Steele Magnolia
Hellions, Clockwork, Skulls, Vahzilok
1-14
Solo or Team, no AV/EB
This is a very simple one-mission MA adventure. I basically made a papermission-equivalent for myself on the Atlas map for new characters, until I could get to level 4 and leave for Kings Row. I haven't developed it too much yet, it is not literature.
For a really good story, try:
21382 "Every Rose Has Its Throns" by @Roughtrade
Hellions, Skulls, Vahzilok
1-14
Team, EB in final mission
Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.
I have a couple that will work for you as of now. While the second is a sequel, they each stand alone pretty well. No EB/AVs in any of the missions.
Title: Future Skulls
ID: 4727
Levels: 1-15
Description: The Skulls are just a street gang now. But they have big plans for the future. Mirror Spirit asks for your help to stop one of them. [SFMA/LBMA]
Title: Simple Times
ID: 70801
Levels: 4-15
Description: Talshak the Mystic has asked for your help with a minor clean up mission in a warehouse. Happens all the time, no big deal, just giving someone a quick helping hand. At least that was how it started. Sequel to Future Skulls. [SFMA/LBMA]
Justice Blues, Tech/Tank, Inv/SS
----------------------
Fighting The Future Trilogy
----------------------
I've played Future Skulls before (at your recommendation via the SDMB) but I haven't played the sequel. So I'll have to fit that one in.
I played Captain Dynamic and wavered on the cusp between four and five stars throughout, eventually flipping a mental coin and deciding on five stars. The uniqueness of it tipped me over. At first I was a little put off by the idea of having to watch "prequel" videos to get into it but they were short & amusing (the three videos combined are about 12 minutes long) and I can't claim that you didn't warn people right in the synopsis.
So, anyway, Mission #1 was extremely fast and funny if you wanted the videos and probably confusing and frustrating if you did not. It would not make for a good farm
#2 was more traditional in approach but amusing nonetheless. I liked the costume changes. #3 started to fall apart a little for me... Were the messages legit and CS was writing "Loser"? Were they faked? Were they in recycling bins because they were printouts or were they supposed to be Windows Desktop "recycling bins"? Ultimately it didn't matter towards completing the mission but wondering about it detracted from the flow. Also, I completely missed the ally the first time around and don't know if he spawned behind me and I missed him or if I just somehow missed him when running through. If I hadn't been beat down by medieval moralistic robots and forced to run through the ground level again, I never would have found the guy short of some confused backtracking. I did enjoy the various "hacks" in the UI.
If I hadn't seen the videos, this would have probably been a low three just because it wouldn't have made sense. Having seen them, it should have been a solid five minus the problems I had which lowered it to a 4.5 (mainly because I don't know where the fault lies for the ally placement) and, 4.5 not being a rating option in game, I went with the full five stars.
Fun and unique but definately a niche market.
A Tangle in Time (2622) and Eclipse Over Paragon (64609) are lowbie-friendly. The latter has a EB in the end so I suggest you stay on Heroic to tone it down to a boss.
Let me toss out The Dead and the Damned (87912). Hope it works for what you're looking for!
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I'm planning on playing my young Twin Blades/Regen scrapper through AE missions rather than through "official" content for the time being just for the heck of it. I have other "mains" who run around Paragon City so this is more of an unwinding character for "Log in, hit the AE console & have at it" fun.
So, that said, I'm currently at lvl 6 and on the cusp of 7. If you have an arc you'd like me to take a ride through, post it and I'll give my opinions. I'm really looking for missions that won't shift my level so no 35-50 arcs. Should I get enough response to where it's necessary, I'll restrict it to the first 5 arcs at a time. I'm assuming I won't level more than once an arc (and probably much less than that) so that should keep me somewhere between lvl 7-12 before I move on to the next set.
Post away with your arc # & any other info yu think will be helpful. I'm planning on staying Heroic unless something changes my mind and don't much care if it's a hero or villain arc since I don't have anything vested in my character's "lore".
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I just published an arc today called "Rise of the Poisoned Fist (global is @Poison Bloom). The initial mission is a skulls one, and the rest are custom group so level range of 1 to 54. I will warn you, it is challenging at low levels, and the final AV/EB may be too much solo. Plenty of ninja, but you wont need +perception. And only 2 of the enemies you'll face on heroic (solo) summon pets. In large teams or on higher difficulties that could easily change.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
Thanks Jophiel!
I'd hoped by framing a story around Captain Dynamic, it'd receive a wider audience than The Amazing Rat Race. But likely there are many more people like yourself who hadn't seen his videos, making it a small niche. At least your review will help players get the most from the arc if they do try it, since it does rely on the movies.
The ally (initially captive) originally did ask you to return to him with the collection. But another reviewer also found the scattered emails confusing (again, were they fake?), so I'd changed the tiny dialog box to try to show they were real. That meant taking out the critical information that you should return; and you still weren't convinced it wasn't a hoax (fair enough, so much "uniqueness" going on).
I hope I've fixed this now using another text field ("Completed objective") which gives me another 100 characters to make sure I cover both pieces of information. Thanks again for playing it through!
Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!
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Party Like its 4940 Degrees is a low level arc, I'd suggest taking it between level 8 and 11 (the final mission caps at 12 thanks to the Elite Boss).
There is an Elite Boss at the end, and the final mission is really short, so I would suggest stocking up on the Inspirations first, instead of hoping that enough will drop. Dual Blades / Regen will have a tough time at level 8, but should have an easier time of it at level 10+.
New story arcs coming soon (ARC IDs will be aded when I finish the arc):
So, you want to join the Hellions? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
Sparks & Steel (level 5-20 Heroic arc)
and
So you want to join the Skulls? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
If you're still low level after running all those, you can search for "peterpeter" or "nadir". I don't have the arc numbers handy, but I have three missions up. Most people seem to like them.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
I'm going to cut off suggestions here for the moment just so I can get organized and have a chance to run through these & see where I'm at level-wise.
For a change of pace, I ran my lvl 11 MA/LR scrapper through The Horseman Chronicles (#195149) today. I still intend to continue Plan A but I can't spend every CoH moment listening to the "Crssshh Sssshhh Scwssshh!!" of my DB scrapper. It was only after the fact that I saw that Citizen_Razor started a thread describing how he's going to change the arc. Well... too bad! I already played it so nyeah!
Cutting right to the chase, I gave this arc four stars. It had a pretty solid story but suffered a little along the way. The arc starts with a representative of the Horsemen asking you to help them out. It seems that a feller from the Praetorian alternate universe is trying to open a portal between our worlds and, naturally, we'd get the short end of the stick on it. To avoid this, the first thing he does is send me off to fight some Vahlizok (or however its spelled) in a sewer. My character is rightfully sceptical that the best way to save the world is by conducting sewer sweeps. But, as it turns out, there's bad guys (well, worse-than-usual guys) down there and they're collecting various tchotchkes which will allow them to open the afore mentioned portal. Rather than go through it mission by mission, you can pretty much sum it up as "Bad guy wants a thingy, you need to stop the bad guy from getting the thingy... bad guy gets the thingy."
This is really the flaw in an otherwise well executed story arc. Each mission is identical to the point where I felt as though Cavatina & I were "Sam the Sheepdog" and "Ralph Wolf" from the old cartoons. The ones where they start the short by punching in and greeting one another, conduct some hijinx against one another and... before the big boom can come, the whistles blows, they punch out and and say "See you tomorrow, Sam." "See ya tomorrow, Ralph." This was also a detriment because you run into a main bad guy again and again and, by mission #3, I knew "Ok, have 2 greenies and a break free and this'll be cake". The story advanced but the missions felt largely the same.
Beyond that, there were some minor flaws such as that I don't think Skulls own bandanas, The Bad Guy asks if I didn't learn my lesson last time (erm... I beat you last time, hence us being in Mission #2) and my female hero overheard a thug saying they "were warned about him" (hint: use $himher).
I don't want to sound too critical though because I enjoyed the story and felt I had it largely pieced together before the contact filled me in (I was close but on a slightly different track). With some more variety in the missions, this would have been a five star arc. With a weaker story, it would have been a three (no major errors but nothing exceptional). I trust that the revisions Citizen_Razor has planned will push it upwards rather than downwards
Oh, and this was a pretty long arc to play straight through. I think, in total, it took me a touch over two hours.
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Cutting right to the chase, I gave this arc four stars. It had a pretty solid story but suffered a little along the way. The arc starts with a representative of the Horsemen asking you to help them out. It seems that a feller from the Praetorian alternate universe is trying to open a portal between our worlds and, naturally, we'd get the short end of the stick on it. To avoid this, the first thing he does is send me off to fight some Vahlizok (or however its spelled) in a sewer. My character is rightfully sceptical that the best way to save the world is by conducting sewer sweeps. But, as it turns out, there's bad guys (well, worse-than-usual guys) down there and they're collecting various tchotchkes which will allow them to open the afore mentioned portal. Rather than go through it mission by mission, you can pretty much sum it up as "Bad guy wants a thingy, you need to stop the bad guy from getting the thingy... bad guy gets the thingy."
This is really the flaw in an otherwise well executed story arc. Each mission is identical to the point where I felt as though Cavatina & I were "Sam the Sheepdog" and "Ralph Wolf" from the old cartoons. The ones where they start the short by punching in and greeting one another, conduct some hijinx against one another and... before the big boom can come, the whistles blows, they punch out and and say "See you tomorrow, Sam." "See ya tomorrow, Ralph." This was also a detriment because you run into a main bad guy again and again and, by mission #3, I knew "Ok, have 2 greenies and a break free and this'll be cake". The story advanced but the missions felt largely the same.
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Part of that is dealt with, I hope, in the revisions currently on Test. But I will take your advice in mind and work on some things to make the missions a little bit more varied.
The first step, obviously, is removing Cavatina (who is only there to force the missions to be Lv10-14) from the arc. I'll think about what else I need to do to spruce things up a little bit and make everything less repetitive.
I did put Omega in the missions instead of holding him off until the final battle on purpose. I've seen several complaints where people were enjoying an arc only to run right into a frustrating battle at the end of the arc, thereby making them feel as if they've wasted their time as they couldn't complete the arc (especially if it took two hours to get to that point). I didn't want people who played this arc to encounter this problem, so I put the "frustrating" stuff right off the bat. If you can get past the first mission, you can complete the entire arc easily.
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Beyond that, there were some minor flaws such as that I don't think Skulls own bandanas, The Bad Guy asks if I didn't learn my lesson last time (erm... I beat you last time, hence us being in Mission #2) and my female hero overheard a thug saying they "were warned about him" (hint: use $himher).
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Ha, good catch. I went in and edited all of the text substitutions in. I did that in a few places but obviously didn't catch all of them.
As for the Skulls Bandana, it's a souvenir in the game.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Skulls_Bandana
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I don't want to sound too critical though because I enjoyed the story and felt I had it largely pieced together before the contact filled me in (I was close but on a slightly different track). With some more variety in the missions, this would have been a five star arc. With a weaker story, it would have been a three (no major errors but nothing exceptional). I trust that the revisions Citizen_Razor has planned will push it upwards rather than downwards
Oh, and this was a pretty long arc to play straight through. I think, in total, it took me a touch over two hours.
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Some of my changes should make it a little bit shorter. Removing three boss battles will help, and I made two of the Omega battles optional (in mission #3, where you get the artifact before he does, and in mission #4 where he's only hanging around to taunt you). I also added a few CoT / Skulls battle in Mission #2 to spruce up things. Hopefully that'll cut the time and repetitiveness down somewhat.
Play my MA arcs!
Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788
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As for the Skulls Bandana, it's a souvenir in the game.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Skulls_Bandana<br
[/ QUOTE ]Well, I sure can't argue with that. I feel your pain on the "Cavatina to force a 1-14" angle. Maybe one or two missions have a Skull/Clockwork/Outcast who can fill that role as a placed Boss encounter.
Should all go according to plan, I intend to do Simple Minds (70801) tonight. Was going to do it last night but the "Very Long" tag didn't mesh with my other plans of tinkering with my own arcs. I'm going to try to squeeze in Welcome to Atlas Park (206036) as well since it's a short one. All things subject to change, of course.
Played through Simple Times on my still-level-eight DB/Regen scrapper. Total run time was a touch over an hour. Someday I'll think to look at the clock before I start the arc.
I wound up giving this arc three stars. It was "good" but it felt like a nearly step-by-step retread of Future Skulls. I know it's a sequel but the plot plays out almost identically with the hero chasing an object needed for some end-of-the-world shennanigans and missing it every step of the way until you're forced to stop the event which you would have prevented if you or the contact had shown any compentance three missions ago. I don't remember Future Skulls exceptionally well since I played it several weeks ago but I believe I rated it a 4 or 5 at the time. This just felt like the same thing. It was put together well with no flaws or major errors, it just didn't offer anything new.
Other minor things, none of the critters have any special text in the first group of missions. It would have been nice to see something special about The Seeker or the Hellion boss. In mission #4, I was able to reach the third floor without fighting a soul due to a very sparsely populated map. I saw a little patrol flavor text on the sides of the sides of my screen but didn't bump into anyone.
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Played through Simple Times on my still-level-eight DB/Regen scrapper. Total run time was a touch over an hour. Someday I'll think to look at the clock before I start the arc.
I wound up giving this arc three stars. It was "good" but it felt like a nearly step-by-step retread of Future Skulls. I know it's a sequel but the plot plays out almost identically with the hero chasing an object needed for some end-of-the-world shennanigans and missing it every step of the way until you're forced to stop the event which you would have prevented if you or the contact had shown any compentance three missions ago. I don't remember Future Skulls exceptionally well since I played it several weeks ago but I believe I rated it a 4 or 5 at the time. This just felt like the same thing. It was put together well with no flaws or major errors, it just didn't offer anything new.
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I have to say, in all of the feedback I have received, that is the first time I have gotten that particular thought. In the first one, you were looking for information that would lead you to what was going to happen, knowing you are chasing the Skulls. In this one you are chasing a particular object, with the information that the Skulls were involved not even coming until the 4th mission.
You are going from mission to mission, beating people up, clicking glowies. But that is pretty much all we can do in any mission. So I am really not sure what I could do about that. But not everything can be 5 star.
I am not sure why you think the contact and player were being incompetent. Talshak was casting spells to find the artifact, the location would be revealed to him, and he sent you off to get it. He didn't realize that he was being deceived at first, but would you really expect him to, when the simplest explanation is that between him finding it and you getting there, it had been moved?
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Other minor things, none of the critters have any special text in the first group of missions. It would have been nice to see something special about The Seeker or the Hellion boss. In mission #4, I was able to reach the third floor without fighting a soul due to a very sparsely populated map. I saw a little patrol flavor text on the sides of the sides of my screen but didn't bump into anyone.
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Well, the reason there was nothing special in the descriptions of the bosses is that there was nothing special about them. They were just like any other boss in a low level arc, generic bosses with a name attached to them. On mission 4 it sounds like you just got lucky. Or unlucky, as the case may be. I don't know why it didn't spawn more for you to fight, but I really don't have any control over that part.
Thanks for running the arc and your review of it. I am holding off on editing either of my arcs or putting up the 3rd one until after I15. But it is always good to get other POV.
Justice Blues, Tech/Tank, Inv/SS
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Fighting The Future Trilogy
----------------------
I'm planning on playing my young Twin Blades/Regen scrapper through AE missions rather than through "official" content for the time being just for the heck of it. I have other "mains" who run around Paragon City so this is more of an unwinding character for "Log in, hit the AE console & have at it" fun.
So, that said, I'm currently at lvl 6 and on the cusp of 7. If you have an arc you'd like me to take a ride through, post it and I'll give my opinions. I'm really looking for missions that won't shift my level so no 35-50 arcs. Should I get enough response to where it's necessary, I'll restrict it to the first 5 arcs at a time. I'm assuming I won't level more than once an arc (and probably much less than that) so that should keep me somewhere between lvl 7-12 before I move on to the next set.
Post away with your arc # & any other info yu think will be helpful. I'm planning on staying Heroic unless something changes my mind and don't much care if it's a hero or villain arc since I don't have anything vested in my character's "lore".