The City Scoop! ~ Front Page ~July 21st, 2009
| |
Soloing in City of Heroes/VillainsFirst of a 5-part SeriesHola! Welcome to the first of a five article series I'm writing on playing solo. First I'll let you know who I am so that you know a little bit more about the person giving you advice. I've been playing MMOs for just over eight years now. Because I have a family that comes first in my time priorities, I play solo about 90 percent of the time (or more). I thought I'd share with the rest of the inhabitants of Paragon City some of the things that I've learned from the thousands of hours I've spent going it alone. Even if you're not as hardcore about soloing as I am, I hope that you will be able to get some tips for those times when you do find yourself an "army of one." In this first article, I'm going to talk about selecting a character. Note that I'm not going to say something like "a ?/? AT is the best choice for soloing." Instead, I'm going to talk about how the goals of a solo-oriented character build are a little different than when you're expecting a team to help out. Soloers Goal: Take Them Before They Take You! There are basically four ways to accomplish this: 1. You can't beat me if you're already down. Blasters and Scrappers tend to take this approach. This technique requires massive offense and may sacrifice defense to improve damage per second. You don't need control or heals, because anything that's in range is going down before it can hurt you anyway. The drawback is that if they don't get defeated fast enough, you're stuck watching your green bar drain away with little to fall back on other than Inspirations. 2. You can't beat me if you can't hit me. Tankers (and some Scrappers) use this approach. Massive amounts of defense either in the form of absorbing damage or avoiding being hit make it tough for mobs to do enough damage to you before they drop. I also put controllers in this category although they're doing it differently by making sure the mob is helpless until they're defeated. Note that this method can result in some very long drawn out battles while your minimal offense ticks away at the mob's health bar. | 3. You can't beat me if I heal faster than you hurt. This is most often going to be the take that solo Defenders have. The idea is that you can heal faster than you take damage. Backed up with some offensive firepower, this is an acceptable option; but has the same drawbacks as method #2. Also your meager offensive skills may not be enough once you're fighting boss type mobs that have a lot of defense/hit points. 4. You can't beat me if you're paying attention to something else. Send in the pets, stand back and look as non-threatening as possible. Right now the only true "pet class" in CoX is the Mastermind on the Villain side. I love soloing pet classes, but they can be a really busy class as you have to pay attention to everything going on. And when your pets get wiped - run away fast, or you'll wake up in the hospital! Soloers Motto: I'm All I've Got. As a solo player, there's nobody to rely on when things drop in the bucket. This means two things to the soloist. First, you need to know as much as possible about your character and the game in general. Spend some time in the official forums and at sites like ParagonWiki to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your powersets and the mobs you'll be facing. You may need to modify your tactics or stock up on Inspirations depending on how well you'll be able to do against your opponents. Second, you need to be even smarter about your power choices. Many guides for the traditional teaming ATs, like Tankers and Defenders, are built around the idea that someone else provides damage, healing, or control. If you're a one-man army, you may need to elect for power pool selections from Fitness or Medicine. In summary, I can't tell you how many times over the years I've replied to a forum post that said "XYZ characters can't solo..." with "Really? Tell my level-capped XYZ who never teamed a minute in her life that." As long as your character has at least some offensive ability, you should be able to solo with it. It is true that some choices are going to result in much slower leveling than others; but for a dedicated soloer, we're in it for the challenge of figuring out how to play our character when it's out on the field of battle all alone and the zombie hordes are approaching. |
| |
Die Kuche Von BarronThe Carter's Roast/Fuhrmannsbraten/Braised Beef RoastThis beef roast is flavored with paprika, allspice and caraway; and covered with a sauce of tomato, soup greens and, of course, sour cream. The "Fuhrmann", or Carter, was an important man from the middle-ages onward. Carting wares from town to town, he was the go-to-guy for information and news of the world. He also had an exciting aura about him, that of a traveler, a man who came from another town. That's why many festive dishes are named for him, including this roast with spices. Serves 4-6 Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 2 hours Ingredients: *2 T. clarified butter or cooking oil *3 lb. beef pot roast, arm roast or other inexpensive cut *Salt *Pepper *Ground, sweet, Hungarian paprika *1 carrot, chopped *1 leek, cleaned and chopped
*1 small onion, chopped, about 1 cup *1/4 c. tomato paste *1 bay leaf *1 tsp. whole allspice or 1/2 tsp. ground allspice *1 tsp. caraway seed *2 T. sour cream (optional) *1 T. lemon juice (optional) Preparation: Melt the butter or oil in a pan which is large enough to hold your roast and comes with a tight-fitting lid. Rub the roast all over with salt, pepper and paprika and brown on all sides in the hot fat. Remove to a plate. | Add the finely chopped vegetables and brown them, stirring often. Put the roast back in the pan. Add the tomato paste (thin with 1/2 cup water), and the spices. Pour another cup of water into the pan, stir and close the lid tightly. Braise on low heat for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until roast is fork tender. Check roast occasionally and add water as necessary. Remove the roast and keep warm. For a smooth sauce purée the vegetables using a hand blender. Add the sour cream to the sauce and heat through. Taste and adjust the seasonings. You may want to add a little lemon juice as well as salt and pepper. Tip: To keep the large allspice out of the sauce, you may wish to put them and the bay leaf in a twist of cheesecloth tied with string so that you can remove them before you finish the sauce. Mix this salad dressing ("Salatsauce") in the bottom of the bowl and then add salad greens. Toss to coat and serve. Makes dressing for 6 - 8 cups of greens. Prep Time: 5 minutes Ingredients: *1/4 c. cream or half and half *2 tsp. fresh lemon juice *2 tsp. sugar Preparation: Whisk the three ingredients together until the sugar dissolves. Add a little milk to thin, if necessary. Add salad shortly before serving and toss to coat. Caios by ~scarypet |
| |
Using a Stone/Stone TankerThis is another case study in a series of articles about fighting Arch Villains (AVs) and similar class mobs. These are some of the most difficult mobs in the game. They have a HUGE number of Hit Points (HP), and they do a LOT of damage. And yet with the proper build, it is possible to solo them. This week I'm using a Tanker, and my first attempt was a failure. As I've mentioned in pretty much every one of my previous articles, Regeneration debuffs have a MAJOR effect on AV fights. If you can't debuff an AV's Regen, then they'll Regenerate about 94 HP/second. Now Tankers are not really known for their debuffs. The only option a Tanker has for debuffing Regen is to use a Temporary Power Vanguard HVAS or Longbow Heavy pet. Of course that's cheating if you're doing it just for the challenge, plus those can be difficult temporary powers to earn. As Tankers usually don't have them, my goal is to beat that 94 HP/second Regen. My chosen Tanker is Stone Armor/Stone Melee, and his name is Clocker. Most people reading this article are probably familiar with Stone Armor tankers. They lumber around slowly in Granite Armor saying "SB plz", but they're really tough. Clocker can tank anything non-Psi using Granite Armor, including multiple Giant Monsters. But he also has Rock Armor and Minerals for 31.5% Smashing and Lethal Defense, or 45% Psi Defense. That will let him fight Smashing, Lethal, or Psi damage dealing mobs without the disadvantages of using Granite Armor. Granite Armor comes with 30% Damage and 65% Recharge Reduction debuffs, which may make it impossible to beat that 94 HP/second goal. But against Fire, Cold, Energy, or Negative damage dealing AVs he'll probably have to use Granite Armor. Well, he could respec into Crystal and/or Brimstone armor, but I'd rather avoid that. He has 5 purple IO sets and 4 Luck of the Gambler: Increase Recharge IOs, plus Hasten, so he's got some pretty nice global Recharge Reduction. Stone Armor has several other handy powers. It has a damage aura in Mud Pots, which does about 8 Damage per second. That's normally used for holding agro, but we can use it as a source of damage when trying to solo an AV. Every bit helps. There's Earth's Embrace, which is a big heal and HP boost that lasts 2 minutes. It normally recharges in 6 minutes, but enough Recharge Reduction and it can be permanent. There's also Rooted, which gives status protection and extra Regeneration. Clocker has permanent Earth's Embrace which gives him 3212.7 HP (capped), and his own Regen rate is 72 HP/second. Stone Melee has some pretty decent single target attacks. Unfortunately, even decent single target attacks aren't enough when coming from a Tanker. That's because Tankers aren't known for their damage output. Taking into account normal slotting and server timing, Stone Fist does about 83 Damage Per Second of Activation (DPSA). Stone Mallet is 77 DPSA, Heavy Mallet is 108 DPSA, and Seismic Smash is 181. The attacks in the Epic Power Pools are generally worse than even Stone Mallet, so you'll want to avoid them unless you can find some redeeming feature. And remember all attacks will miss at least 5% of the time. | Between Hasten, slotting, and extra Global Recharge Reduction on the side, you can have a full attack chain. The more global Recharge Reduction you get, the more often you can use your better attacks. Add in some Damage Procs for even more, like a Hecatomb: Chance for Negative Damage in Stone Fist, or an Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage in Seismic Smash. The Epic attacks actually can do a decent amount of damage with purple damage procs, so they're worth considering if you are rolling in Influence. If you're on a budget, there are plenty of other procs out there. While it looks like a very well slotted Stone Melee Tanker can beat the 94 HP/second Regen rate of an AV, it isn't by a whole lot. Fortunately there are a couple more tricks. Stone Melee has Build Up, which is +80% Damage for 10 seconds. You lose damage by taking time out of your attack chain to use Build Up, but you more than make up for it in the extra damage you do. Melt Armor from the Pyre Mastery pool is the same, it's a 9.75% Resistance debuff that you should use if you can. Clocker has Build Up, but I never bothered with Melt Armor. Clocker didn't do so well. That's not very surprising, given that he's not specifically built for soloing AVs, and he doesn't have the best power sets for it. His damage is pretty much all Smashing, which means any AV with significant Smashing Resistance will Regen damage faster than Clocker can dish it out. Clocker had to use Granite Armor to protect himself from the Negative attacks used by the Nictus version of Romulus, and the damage debuff from Granite Armor meant he just couldn't beat that 94 HP/second Regen rate. Using just Rock Armor, Scirocco was able to 2-shot him in the first 5 seconds of combat. His capped Psi Defense kept him safe from Giovanna Scaldi, so he was actually able to slowly wear her down. But he ran out of END because his attacks weren't sufficiently well slotted. I gave up after that, as it looked like every battle would have similar results. If you want to try fighting some AVs, or even soloing them, try out my "Level 50 AV Challenge" arc #168611 in the Mission Architect. It has every AV available in the MA spread out over three missions, plus a couple of Giant Monsters in the second mission. Try rebuilding your character using info from this and previous articles, and see if you can take down any AVs. I'm certainly going to need to if I want Clocker to solo any AVs. I can't pick a better Secondary power set, like Super Strength or Energy Melee, but I can improve what I've got. Hopefully next week I'll have some good news about Clocker. |
| |
It has come to my attention that there are, amongst my adoring public, some of those who think that I am, "A Bad Man." They think I am not the bouncy bunny that carousels about and dispenses fashion advice upon a needing society whom I'm trying to elevate. This saddens me greatly, but also makes me realize what may, in fact, be causing this horrible slur upon my person. I'm speaking of the "Freedom Phalanx," as they like to call themselves. Oh, I know of their humanitarian work, do not get me wrong, I am MORE than aware of the media bias against our great unified Etoile nation. You simply will not let us have our peace to govern our own lands, will you? Oh you think I haven't seen your Longbow Officers catch my gaze as they walk around dressed as candy canes hopping and bopping outside my condo at three in the morning? You think I haven't seen the encroachment and barring of neutral territories from us? Yes, we KNOW of the Shadow Shard. But mostly, after I have worked so hard to promote my dearest little Trina, you DARE let Icon train their hacks and butchers as cosmetic surgeons?! You know, the folks at Facemaker go through an extensive training process, you let Serge and his cronies take a weekend resort speed course. My heart goes out to you Paragon City; it really does. I mean, do you know what you are getting into? Now then, you may be asking yourself, "Arbiter Fabulous, you don't seem your normal chipper self." You would be RIGHT my dear little squirrels, I have been absolutely BEDRAGGLED trying to come to terms with something I never expected to happen. Fan Service. You see after I designed that lovely outfit for our Esteemed Dr. Aeon for the opening of that, um - little arcade thingy he did. I don't know much about it, I hear it's popular in Paragon; Bubble Popper or something - all the rage - bah! Tangents. Dr. Aeon has decided that HE is going to thank me; by designing clothing. Yes, Dr. Aeon, is going to DESIGN clothing. Do be gentle on the man, his ego is fragile. I've seen his line, and I've assisted a tiny bit, mostly lab coats and a variety of gasmasks; some, I will admit, rather trendy. One however, does strike me as odd, looking a bit 5th Columnish. Glad we never have to worry about hearing from THAT little group again, right? Still, Dr. Aeon's new designs will be a bit pricy, I've been told, but by accepting his statement into fashion you'll be able to get into the real meat of looking better, the rep you build from it will almost guarantee you immediate access to all that cosmetic surgery going around these days. Although I still say, Paragonians, I will fly you to the Etoile Islands so you can have it done PROPERLY here. Heck if you just sign a little contract I'll even cover the cost and put you through a nice boot camp fitness regime! It'll do WONDERS for your self image. Now then, I had let it be known that I was celebrating Trina the other week, well more like a few weeks ago, I do apologize, my little ones. I have been a naughty Fabulous yet again, and I do not want this to be a habit. Then again, absence does make the heart grow fonder, you know? Still, Trina I notice still hasn't really and truly stepped forward for her good works, and this goes back to my beef with the Freedom Phalanx. Frankly, I see a lot of their outfits as a bit cliché and outdated. You know, I'm seeing a new era of the Freedom Phalanx before me; one where they won't impede a sovereign nation just trying to do its best; where their humanitarian work is turned onto its own citizenry, instead of sending them willy nilly and having vigilantes run amok. An era where Statesman can keep his granddaughter in check, instead of letting her play Patton, we - *ARE* in the UN you know. So let's start with their idea man, Positron. I'm going to turn my usual tables. I'm asking YOU to be my muses. I want to see how YOU'D have Positron look, I mean his battle suit is old, clunky and so 90s. Frankly, the neon piping looks a bit - meh. Now a hint of glow is good, but Positron, you CAN do better, let's be honest. If the Rikti can create new suits, so can you. | You have an assignment, my dears, FIX HIM. Now then, going back to ME, as I'm sure you are all enraptured and on the edge of your seats about. I was recently in one of the Bowl and Doily Spiders bases with my personal bodyguard, Savate. Oh you simply, MUST meet her one of these days, she is a DOLL! So I was with Savate and she said the most interesting thing to me. She told me I never really spoke of my history in fashion, or how I got to my position as an Arbiter. So, is this something that would interest you, my sweet chocolate dipped bits of sunshine? I'd be more than happy to discuss if you'd like. However, I do have a duty, even if it will be relatively small this time around. Letters time! Greetings Arbiter Fabulous, I am in somewhat of a fashion conundrum, and I was hoping that someone like you, who obviously possesses an advanced fashion sense, could help me out (even if you *are* a villain - some things are more important than that!). Basically, as the subject of a recent scientific mishap that left my mind and body merged with those of the cat involved in the experiment, I find that I no longer have any sense at all of what normal humans consider fashionable. (Of course, my friends tell me that I never had much of a fashion sense to begin with, but I digress.) I know what looks good to *cats*, but not people! This presents a problem because, since the mishap resulted in my possession of quantum-based illusion and {sonic/radiation} powers, I have an available outlet for the playful temperament and need to hunt that are rather inappropriate in my life as a college physics student - namely, the life of a hero. So, obviously, I need proper heroic garb - which I don't have the faintest idea how to put together. So far, I've just been wearing whatever 'normal' clothes my former self owned, but they aren't very well suited to such an active life. So, I ask you: could you come up with a suitably heroic costume that would go well with orange hair, black-and-white fur, feline ears, a tail, and whiteish illusion and {orange sonic/green radiation} powers? Schrodinger's Catgirl Dear unsure if you're fashionable or not till we check, Yes. A battle suit, go with something sleek, simplistic and not bulky with green neon piping that makes it look like when you walk that you just had a rather unpleasant physical. Something that hugs the body, but lets your natural curves show. In fact I'm hosting a contest about new looks in battle suits,maybe one of the designs I'll showcase will be something you'd like! I could come up with a few, but it's been hectic trying to get all these gasmasks ready to send to facemaker. Seriously though, all you do is play a Bubble Popping game, what fun is that? That really is all the time I have right now, I do have to dash, Savate says she's about to slam some Longbow that have been tailing my limo and see if you whip them about enough if their uniforms simply blend pink. I'm voting yes. TOODLES! Arbiter Fabulous A note from the Author: Posi, I warned ya if I didn't see Ms. Austin as a redname in a week I'd get ya! So the contest goes as follows! I wanna see either your in-game redesigns of Positron, or drawings of how you'd redesign him. Points for how detailed it is, while still maintaining "Posiness". Bonus points if you screencap an in game character having a name revolving about how Ms. Austin needs to be a Redname. For artists doing a design, bonus points for incorporating Trina somehow into the picture. I'll post the best I receive in my article, Ms. Catgirl, keep an eye out for something that looks good for you. |
| |
Bases, and what you need to know to beginThis is intended to help newcomers to one of the less understood aspects of the Supergroup Bases. As a player guide, it is subject to becoming outdated due to changes in the game and new issues. SG Bases can be broken down into several parts, the base size (or plot size), the rooms and the items that go into the rooms. The layout of this guide is such that information about the various different things will be listed first, then several strategies will be suggested down below on how to make the most of your base. Types of Rooms *Doorway - Doorways are 1x1 room blocks that are automatically added in when placing new rooms from any of the other categories/tags. It's possible to change a doorway's location, but only when there is already two rooms with only a single block of empty space between them. (Assuming there are no decorations or objects blocking the wall or entry where the new doorway would go). *Decorative - These rooms are filler and serve no purpose other than the beautification of a base. They can not hold any type of item that performs a service or function, merely decor. *Energy - Rooms that can hold energy generators, they are limited to 1 main energy device per room for the smaller rooms, and 2 for the larger (and prohibitively expensive) ones. These rooms also all allow the placement of a single storage bin as well. *Control - Once energy exists, control rooms take care of the operation of all of the base devices. These rooms are nearly identical in use to the energy rooms with only several exceptions. The most notable of these, is that this category contains the startup room called an "Oversight Center". These centers are a merger of energy, control, and workshop rooms. They allow instead of a generator or control device, a startup device that provides both of these things, just in a smaller quantity. *Defense - Rooms that are intended to hold PvP base defenses in case of a base raid, at this time, normal base raiding is turned off in-game, so this guide will not cover this topic. *Transportation - Rooms that contain the teleporters, devices that provide rapid transport to other city zones. | *Workshop - Workshops are areas for crafting and storage. While other rooms might allow single storage bins, workshops usually hold 9 per room. *Medical - These room are used for resurrection of dead characters, or the selling and buying of inspirations, providing you have an Auto Doc/Tree of Wonders *Vault - These rooms are used to hold items in conjunction with the PvP aspect of bases. However, base raids are currently disabled so these are purely decorative rooms for now. Crafted Base Items http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Crafted_Base_Items The above link has a full list with pictures of most items and the salvage required to craft them as well as the table you need to craft them on. While the Supergroup Base Editor includes a good assortment of items to put on your base at the cost of Prestige only, other items require you to first craft them by using Salvage, and in some cases, they have to be unlocked by earning Supergroup Badges first. Base Plots Base Plots define the amount of area a Supergroup has to place various Base Rooms. All Base Plots are required to have an Entry Room which members or guests can enter by using the various Base Portals located in the zones of City of Heroes or City of Villains. By adding Base Rooms to Base Plots, a group can define the layout of their base. All Groups start with a Tiny Hidden Spot for free. Larger Base Plots can be purchased by using the Group's Prestige. Larger Base Plots provide more area for a Group to place Base Rooms. Larger Base Plots can also have the ability to hold a greater number of Base Items of a specific type. At this time there are two categories of Base Plots available to players. Ten Hidden Base Plots are available, as well as seven Secure Base Plots. See http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Base_Plots for more defined information. Hidden Plot http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Hidden_Base_Plots vs. Secure Base Plot http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Secure_Base_Plots |
| |
Here is the first of my many columns that will be focusing on the works of the Commission Artists that do not have access to our forums. If you have an artist that does commissions and would like to have them featured in The City Scoop, go to my post ~*~Commission Artists Appreciation~*~ and post their info there with links to the work to be featured. This week, In The Scoop features RHARDO with a touch of color by Spidey . Enjoy! |
Advertisement. Yes this is for real and is open to the COX Community for the remainder of 2009. Check out my Couples Gallery for ideas of what you can get: http://baquitania.deviantart.com/gallery/#Couples |
| |
EnnVee - Bases Reyne_Maker - The Hecktic Life VexXxa - In the Scoop Neuronia - PvP Correspondent TopDoc - Under the hood - Behind the Walls | |
Barron_ - Barron's Kitchen | |
HumanMiracle - Fan Fiction Spotlight | |
Fleeting_Whisper - MArc reviews Bubbawheat - Exploring the Architect | |
| |
Needed! | |
More Welcomed. (Need HTML skills.) | |
More Welcomed. | |
Art Correspondents Event reporters HTML Layout Puzzles Writers | |
| |
Vol. 3, Issue 9
July 21, 2009
The City Scoop a publication for Supers by Supers!
Read the latest publication and then join in on the community discussion!
If you have concerns regarding the content of the Scoop please direct your comments via PM to Niviene.
If you would like to do a feature article, or join "The City Scoop" team please PM Snow_Globe.
If you would like to place a classified ad or have an event covered, contact Cende, EnnVee, or Lemur Lad.
If you need some "Advice" contact Lady_Athyna, would like to "Ask The X" contact LiquidX, or need help with fashion, "Ask Arbiter Fabulous."
If you have a base you would like featured, please contact EnnVee.
Finally if you have a Recipe you would like included please contact Barron_.
The City Scoop
Presenting Issue 16: Power Spectrum
By Niviene
Just when you thought the customization in City of Heroes couldn't get any more expansive...
Paragon Studios is proud to announce Issue 16: Power Spectrum which contains one of our players' most highly requested features - the ability to color customize powers! With the new Powers Customization system you can choose from a virtual rainbow of colors in order to change the appearance of your power effects.
But that's not all Issue 16 has to offer! This content update will also continue our Powerset Proliferation as well as adding Enhanced Difficulty Options.
Visit the Official Issue 16: Power Spectrum Overview Page for all the details. Then get ready to see what happens when pigments fly!
License sharing and related account sanctioning
By Avatea
It has been brought to our attention that some of our players have been sharing their game accounts with others (by this we mean sharing the license to access the game servers for City of Heroes and/or City of Villains) and that those being shared with (not the account holders), are breaking rules or exploiting certain aspects of the game, resulting in account suspension.
We would like to remind you that not only is license sharing in direct violation of our User Agreement (see article 3 of the City of Heroes User Agreement and City of Villains User Agreement), but it also means that, should your account be suspended as a result of the actions of the person you have lent your account to, we will not be able to lift the suspension or any other sanction applied to your account as a consequence of the loan.
You are all aware of the limitations imposed by the User Agreement. However, we wanted to give you all a chance to realize that an act of generosity or a simple account loan could have dire consequences! Please protect yourself and DO NOT share your game account with anyone!
Vol. 3, Issue 9
July 21st, 2009
This Issue:
Official Announcements
I-16: Power Spectrum
Account Sharing
.
Community
Soloing CoH / CoV
Barron's Kitchen
Under the Hood
.
Fashion
Because I have to Look at you
.
Base Showcase
Cobretti Mafia
Bases: What you need
.
Arts
In the Scoop
.
Masthead
.
Taste the Rainbow
by Lady Judgement