Leonard makes me feel Villainous!! (Spoilers, I suppose)

I had some issues going through Leonard's arc, duoing with a friend and set for x8. But I enjoy a challenge, so that wasn't a huge problem.

Once we got through a giant mess of "me"s (and since I was a Thugs MM at the time and I was doing the Army of Me badge, that was certainly a mess), and we slogged through the 5th Column and PPD Equalizers which were dropping my pets and teammate left and right (and myself only on the right). Then we got to Protean, and despite my teammates warning about Proteans buffs and the danger of taking in a Mastermind, we trounced him easily (especially so, compared to the 8-man spawns of 5th Column we had to wade through to reach him). Then we (or rather, I) ran our butts off to escape the self-destruct.

All of this was interesting (and I do quite like the map for Protean's mission), a bit challenging particularly due to the difficulty setting I was on, but not very far out of the norm for a CoV arc.

Then I reached the last mission to transfer Protean's money to my bank account. And this mission made everything I had gone through all worth it. This last mission made me feel more like a villain than anything else in CoV. This last mission makes me feel even more villainous than kicking puppies with Westin Phipps or cackling maniacally with Vernon von Grun.

I'm Made (or, considering the level range of the arc, at least a Wiseguy or Insider). The citizens of the Rogue Isles know my name, and they know what I'm capable of.

I cannot express how good it felt, when I walked into that bank, to have the security guards cower at my presence. It may be different if it were a common occurrence, but when contrasted to the normal "Kill On Sight" behavior of the PPD, this small little thing made me feel like the king of the world.

I don't particularly care about the rest of the arc; it's cool and fighting an Army of Me was exciting, but it's basically a normal CoV arc. But I want to thank whoever wrote this last mission that Leonard gives out: it really made me feel like a Villain again.


Edit: Also, while not directly written into the arc, running past my clone pleading for help as the self destruct system was counting down made me cackle a bit. I'm a Mastermind. I'm used to 'expendable', and clones of me are even more so

Protean is much, MUCH worse on a melee character. Ninjas and Necros would have problems, I suspect, but Bots/Traps tore him up like no ones business. Fighting him with an MA/SR scrapper, now...that was painful...

But yeah, I used one power while in the bank. Guess what it was?
[Walk] daaaayamn, that felt goood.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

The only thing that could have made this arc better, for me, is if I had been able to keep the base as my own personal staging grounds - a base-type area I can visit at any time, complete with buyable 'upgrades' that expand the map/fill in room and give access to a variety of mini-games that I can use to earn some sort of non-game-breaking reward or another. (For example, beating up varities of suped-up clones. Guessing games. Things like that.)

Also. Last mission + Walk = most satisfying moment I have experienced in either game to date. I also rather liked how my Villain actually showed some intelligence and restraint while dealing with the teller.

This arc is epic. Unlike the OP, I saved my clone. I know I know. Not very evil of me but I figured I had beat up a lot of 5th and other mobs to get that lab then even more 5th to try to get it back. All to have it blown up. I couldn't let it all be a total waste. I won't spoil what happens next when you make that choice, though. I have plenty of vills to run this with so ill get see how it turns out from every choice option. But, taking all of Protean's money via a transfer was priceless. Actually, that mission was the 2nd best in that arc. Fighting 8 of me is still the best ever. Too bad the arc is lvl 29. I would like to have run this at full power.

I saved my clone! I'm a good boy. ^_^

The encounter with the clone in that mission was awesome. It made me hopeful for GR's moral system. Working stuff like that into a decent percent of arcs and having them have repercussions later could go a long way toward making playthrough #32498659 a lot more interesting.

Heh, just wait till you get to Part Six . . . . (sorry, couldn't resist)

This may be a strange question to ask, but what color are Leanard's gauntlets? Because I could swear they changed color on me partway through the arc. They started out Black/Black, but after a certain mission, they matched my Villains costume colors.

I chose not to rob the bank at the end

Loved the arc, I thought it was exceptionally well done, just like the first. Those two are probably my favorite villain arcs to date.

I chose to save my clone - as I had grown quite attached to them. I actively had to save mine in the first arc (my defective clone was DB/DP, so my Claw/Elec Brute had tank for her). My character isn't a monster, so it was perfectly in character.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper I also fought Protean on my Tanker (Inv/SS) helping some friends having trouble with the fight on blueside, and he didn't seem like anything special there. Perhaps I'm just lucky against Protean so far.

I've only fought him once (on the above Brute) and I was able to dodge his drain every time. He only had time to use it twice, but I stalled and let him use it a third time and actively got hit by it, just to see how bad it actually was.

Draining 60-80% of an Elec Brute's end and a ~50% heal. Nasty!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper To be honest, I didn't realize at first that I was supposed to go to a teller. I went to the vault like I'm used to, but couldn't hit it. Then I tried going to the tellers behind the counter, but they wouldn't talk to me. Then I tried waiting in line (!!). Overall, it took me a few minutes to find the teller that would talk to me. So I robbed the bank out of spite.

I did the same thing, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. I actually didn't "find" the teller, so much as just started clicking on people in the lobby. They definitely could have made her stand out a bit more. (I didn't rob the bank... that time...)

I also missed Leonard inside the mission. I was too busy killing stuff. Only reason I found him was a) I had NPC text in a separate tab and b) I made a targeting macro for him. :P

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When I got to the mission to slay Protein, I was cursing on the way there "What? That's my cloning facility, you [ bleep ]s!" There was also cursing as I was escaping from it.

Anyone else get a strong Metroid vibe from that, btw? I couldn't help but flash back to Super Metroid (escaping from the space colony and escaping from Zebes) during it.

Epic.

Tami mercy-killed her dying clone on the way out. She already has her hands full enough with a real twin sister who is just as nasty as her and had decided that this whole clone thing was not worth all the trouble it had turned out to be.

My villain saved the faulty clone, then let it walk away later. Why save it the first time? It's a potentially valuable pawn, and it did show the proper level of respect ("The Creator! The Creator!"). Why let it walk later? Because, when given the order to fall in, it chose to show courage.

The villain I was playing was violent. And spiteful. And a thousand other bad things. But also honorable.

I'm looking forward to more BioWare-esque decisions in future content.

I didnt spot the clone in that mish Oo
I'll need to re-do it...what a shame

Still, the 'Get the Heck outta Dodge' part after fighting Protean....ye gods the air turned blue; "**** **** **** mutha-***** **** **** oh SH-!"
Boom.
I ditched the bots. Everyone scraplet for himself!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Hehe my inital reactions were, "OH you did NOT just pull a Metroid on me!"

Yeah I do love the badge reward for that mission is the 'man leaping through the air action hero style with explosion behind' art...it just fits that arc.

On test saved the clone, just took the money wire option (Arachnos soldier reasoning of "I can rob a bank any time...I'll only ever get this kind of revenge once...)" and told the clone to get out of there and go live her life...

Unlike most Arachnos soldiers she isn't evil, it's a paid stable job...

Played it with my Rad/Traps Corruptor, this time saved the clone and set her free at the bank. Cobalt always wanted a sister anyway.

Me on my corruptor and hulkers on his brute took out Protean and I flew like crazy to get out of there. I did save my clone, and I did let him go at the bank which I did not rob. Why bother?

Alorel is a scary elf (lol with a pornstache) but he does have it in him to use everything he's got - and if there's another of him out there, so much the better. I mean, why else would I want a clone facility anyway?

This arc has brought so much to the game. I'm working on the hero side now but man... The villain side was amazing. Start to finish.

So kudos to the writers for this one, if it's a taste of things to come.

Now if only the hero side one could be *all in one zone thank you very much*?