Tips for fast times on the ski runs


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Posted

What tricks are you using to get your best times on the ski run? I know acrobatics helps a lot what other power pools or temp powers would help with control and speed?

I’m thinking of using one of my secondary build slots to make a speed demon for the slopes, focused only on that, slotting a few powers over the top for run speed and control and not worrying about fighting.

Any suggestions


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Posted

I got all the badges back in the day just using SS and SJ. SJ or CJ (maybe Acrobatics, don't remember) give you some useful in-air maneuverability. Not sure it matters either, but I would use the forward key a lot too and occasionally slow down for certain spots. I don't remember going full speed all the time. You might also try Ninja Run if you have it, wasn't around back when I did it. Knowing the courses help and also anticipating moves and not overcompensating, since there's some delayed reaction you don't wanna start too late or overshoot your mark. Good luck.


 

Posted

I've never managed a gold on any character and I spent about 10 or 20 hours trying between all the years I've been trying so far. Only three silvers too. I just don't have the reflexes for it.

I hear inertial dampening from a /kin is far more helpful than speedboost, but I can't say from personal experience =) Ninja run hasn't helped me any so far this year =).


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Posted

Same here, a few silvers, zero golds. (Makes me wonder what chart plotted with player age vs number of gold medals would look like!)

In answer to the OP's question, I've found a jump power like CJ, SJ, or the Zero-G temp power to be by far the most useful in improving my run times. I've never gotten more than a bronze without one of those powers.

P.S. Maybe it's because I have relatively slow reaction times, but IME speed powers like SS or Speed Boost hurt more than they help, because you're going faster than your reflexes can react to the changes in the course. So I'd try one of the jump powers to improve maneuverability first, and if that doesn't get you to a gold medal, add some speed once you have the course down.


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Posted

I got the gold badges on most of my characters a while ago, but my main badger could never get the Speeder badge no matter how hard I tried. This year, I switched to my second, unused build, leveled up and grabbed Super Speed and Combat Jumping. I added a slot and a couple run SOs to SS, two slots to Combat Jumping and Hurdle and filled those with jump SOs. First run down the advanced course and I got 50.54 seconds. It just took a couple more attempts to finally get the badge.


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Posted

Inertial Reduction from a Kin helps a lot. I managed to get Gold on a character 2 years ago and I'm pretty sure that's how I did it.

I would also like to add that I really really really hate these freakin' badges.


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Posted

How is acrobatics supposed to be helpful? Thought all it did was protect from knockback...




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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyger42 View Post
How is acrobatics supposed to be helpful? Thought all it did was protect from knockback...
Cause it isn't helpful. People are just confused. Your options are IR, CJ, SJ.
Ninja Jump isn't enough. I think the problem is the flip you do in mid air.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyger42 View Post
How is acrobatics supposed to be helpful? Thought all it did was protect from knockback...
Quote:
Originally Posted by OmnipotentMerlin View Post
Cause it isn't helpful. People are just confused. Your options are IR, CJ, SJ.
Ninja Jump isn't enough. I think the problem is the flip you do in mid air.
Indeed, Acrobatics doesn't do anything for you, but Ninja in just as good as SuperJump for these purposes. The flip is just an animation, and it wouldn't matter anyway since you should be skiing down the slope, not trying to constantly jump your way down.

The reason IR, CJ, SJ, and Ninja are helpful is because they add hidden stats called MovementControl and MovementFriction. That's what makes you slide down the hill faster.

CJ, SJ and Ninja have the same MovementFriction stats. CJ's stats are actually better than SJ and Ninja control-wise, but IR's is through the roof. If I get a few people to stack IR buffs on me before going down, I can even get times on the big hill down below 40 easily (of course it took practice).

SS and SB actually doesn't do much for you except give you a good starting speed off the platform and maybe help you on any of the flatter areas of the course.


 

Posted

I was able to get the gold with several seconds to spare using just Ninja, Sprint and one IR buff on an un-enhanced lvl11. The trick is to keep as low to the ground as you can. The more time you spend in the air, the more time you lose. You slide faster than you jump.


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Posted

The only down side to Inertial Reduction is that it makes you REALLY maneuverable. It's like a sports car vs a station wagon. You'll probably need a few runs just to get used to it but, once you do, you can turn in really excellent times - IF you have decent twitch gaming skills.

Oh, and the way I got the ski slope badges using only Combat Jumping - MEMORIZE the course. Do a few runs where you count the gates out loud as you pass them. That will help you know when you need to turn so you can ANTICIPATE the turns. If you wait until you pass a gate to start looking for the next one, you're hosed.


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Posted

If you've got your Alpha slot, use your third build and slot up Super Jump and SS so you're at max run and jump speed. With that and a good bit of practice I've been able to hit 17-16 seconds consistently on the Expert course. The luge is a bit tougher, but I can still get under 50 seconds without too much strain.


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Posted

Yeah, I had Sprint and Ninja Run going. I have silver on both events and until I get real board of everything else I won't be going for the gold anytime soon, 25 secs seems easy enough to get, just have to get the route perfect, and 50 seconds on the other is going to be needed to be aided with some SB. All in all, they are both pretty rough until you can get the routes down, once you get the routes down all you need to do is get the speed.


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Posted

Find your server's best runner. get them to let you put them on follow. have 2 IRs and 2 SBs. If all goes correctly you'll nail it.

I just did an auto follow 48 second Luge :O


 

Posted

Oh sorry I was meaning the sled runs. The ski hill well that is easy. All you need is sprint now that you get swift free. NJ just adds to it.

The sled runs you have to have something a bit more then NJ. I spent a whole day trying to get it to work with just it. Unless I am missing something it is just barley not enough. I keep missing at like 5 seconds.


 

Posted

One other, underhanded, thing that helps.

Seven teammates with unslotted Recall Friend.

They take their positions at the last 7 waypoints along the ski slope and you try to scream through the first few (up through the teleport gate) yourself.

Then they chain TP you, watching the End bar of the person ahead of them on the team monitor. When it dips (which is why you don't slot it), they hit TP.

It takes a bit of practice to get done. But it results in some INSANELY LOW run times.

Here's part of one of my run teams from 2008. All three of the top scores were my team.



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Posted

Cunning


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkGob View Post
Inertial Reduction from a Kin helps a lot. I managed to get Gold on a character 2 years ago and I'm pretty sure that's how I did it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironblade View Post
The only down side to Inertial Reduction is that it makes you REALLY maneuverable. It's like a sports car vs a station wagon. You'll probably need a few runs just to get used to it but, once you do, you can turn in really excellent times - IF you have decent twitch gaming skills.
Thanks to everybody here, my newest, often-played alt now has gold after only two runs at the luge with IR, Sprint and CJ (I fell off the first time, nailed it the second) and missed gold on the main ski slope by two seconds on the only try tonight! (And I'm pretty sure I can shave those two seconds off with practice.) First gold medal for me in the history of the Winter Event!

Then I excitedly headed off to do the same with my main.

It took twenty or thirty infuriating runs to do it, thanks to the overly helpful cluster of buffers at the top of the luge run. I fell off the track -- a lot. I mistimed jumps. I mistimed jumps AND fell off the track. I had Speed boost and IR. I had STACKED speed boost and IR. Speed boost and Accelerate Metabolism. AM and IR. More SB and IR.

I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm not sure how I can expect any level of consistency or control if each run has me buffed out of my ski boots, but with different buffs every single time.

Finally Team Buff the Buffs' Buffs called it a night and went home, leaving just me and some wonderful person who'd set their afk message to "IR on autofire" at the top of the luge run -- and I wish I could remember their name right now.

Once again...I fell off the track the first time down with "just" IR, CJ and Sprint but it FELT like a great run up until then. And I had control I that I felt was missing before.

Second run with "just" IR, CJ and Sprint? Second gold medal inside an hour, and my first two ever. So count me among the "forget the SB, just IR please" crowd!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DocArcus View Post
I was able to get the gold with several seconds to spare using just Ninja, Sprint and one IR buff on an un-enhanced lvl11. The trick is to keep as low to the ground as you can. The more time you spend in the air, the more time you lose. You slide faster than you jump.
That's the one thing I forgot about -- with IR, my normal leaps were way too high, and I had to learn to make them smaller in a hurry!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Master-Blade View Post
The reason IR, CJ, SJ, and Ninja are helpful is because they add hidden stats called MovementControl and MovementFriction. That's what makes you slide down the hill faster.

SS and SB actually doesn't do much for you except give you a good starting speed off the platform and maybe help you on any of the flatter areas of the course.
I can't say anything about MovementControl and MovementFriction, but as Ironblade said, IR seemed to make me at least FEEL like I was more maneuverable and in control. SB only helped me go flying off the sides of the track at higher velocities than I would have without it, and it seemed like it happened more often as well.

Out of curiosity, does Increase Density affect control at all? I'd think more density might equal more friction which might perhaps equal more control, but at what cost to speed? And could that be made up with SB or IR? But again, I'm quite content with "just IR" for my runs now.

So again -- thanks for the tips -- you guys rock!


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Posted

In addition to the great tips already shared here: zoom in completely into FPS mode if you're more comfortable with that.

It felt more like a racing game this way for me and, buffs notwithstanding, was the single most useful change in my tackling this challenge.

Hyperstrike: you sneaky devil. That falls right into the "wish I'd thought of it first" category.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldorado View Post
Out of curiosity, does Increase Density affect control at all?
No. ID would slightly decrease your speed on flat areas, and does nothing at all to help you with the rest.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldorado View Post
I can't say anything about MovementControl and MovementFriction, but as Ironblade said, IR seemed to make me at least FEEL like I was more maneuverable and in control. SB only helped me go flying off the sides of the track at higher velocities than I would have without it, and it seemed like it happened more often as well.
Like I said, that's directly because of the MovementControl and MovementFriction. lol

Like we said, it does take some practice and twitch reflexes to get used to, but that's where the faster times come from (without teleporting).

My current record this year is 39.88, but I got as low as 37 last year... again, without teleporting. The only thing I do differently is I jump to the right after the portal. If you are able to stay low and get the timing of the jump right, it will be faster than going all the way around that ramp.



One of these days I want to look into taking a video of it, but I never messed around with fraps or anything before. lol


 

Posted

I have never, on any toon, with any combinations of all the powers listed, been able to run the slopes successfully.... not even going for a medal... just successfully at all.

I just don't have the "twitchy feel" for it.

I finally gave up and let hubby run a couple toons for the badges.

We had a friend over when Hubby was running his toons one evening, and she says, "OH, that looks so easy... I bet I could do that". So I plunked her down on one of my toons, showed her the controls, and let her have at it.... for an hour solid. She finally gave up too.

Sorry, but I hate,
hate,
hate,
hate the slopes.

.


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Posted

The best advice I can give for the sled run, is Super Jump and Sprint on the whole time, and using Super Speed for the occasional flat part until you get used to it. Then run Super Speed the whole time. Super Speed only helps a little, but that little can be the difference between 50.88 (curse youuuuu!) and a 49.

Oh, and take the portal at the fork (go left), not the blue geyser (right bad). Makes all the difference. At the second fork, I've gone both ways, and the left is the faster so long as you make the jump.


 

Posted

I didn't notice if anyone posted this tip, but use mouse control to steer and supplment with strafe keys.

Also, you can change the turn speeds of keyboard and mouse command up or down in the options as well.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Master-Blade View Post
Indeed, Acrobatics doesn't do anything for you, but Ninja in just as good as SuperJump for these purposes. The flip is just an animation, and it wouldn't matter anyway since you should be skiing down the slope, not trying to constantly jump your way down.

The reason IR, CJ, SJ, and Ninja are helpful is because they add hidden stats called MovementControl and MovementFriction. That's what makes you slide down the hill faster.

CJ, SJ and Ninja have the same MovementFriction stats. CJ's stats are actually better than SJ and Ninja control-wise, but IR's is through the roof. If I get a few people to stack IR buffs on me before going down, I can even get times on the big hill down below 40 easily (of course it took practice).

SS and SB actually doesn't do much for you except give you a good starting speed off the platform and maybe help you on any of the flatter areas of the course.

IMHO Master Blade wins the thread - he's got this nailed down.

It's not about SPEED going down, it's about Control in what is essentially one long controlled FALL to the bottom of the slope.


 

Posted

While I haven't gotten gold, I have gotten better times by zooming out on the view.


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