Dante

*Applauds*

Nice work again.


*Dissapears to go write stuff for Issue 3...*

Although assigning doors in the outside world would be a bit concept breaking for what AE is meant to be, I thoroughly support this idea. I regularly create AE arcs for my supergroup and after a while, it get boring seeing the inside of the AE building all of the time. I want to be able to put mission doors in zones that barely see any action just to get people visiting them.

Maybe if there was some way of making the travelling part of the virtual world that AE is meant to be, that would work. A bit like going out of the window in Zarniwoop's office in Hitchhikers.

Still, tricky to implement with AE being what it is, I definitely would like to see this. We've got a great city/isles, I'd love to see more of them when sending people to missions.



(Although anyone who sends me to the backside of Independence Port or Nerva would get bad marks from me. )

I agree that a rethink of patrol vs mission rewards would be a good idea. I'd love to see more heroes out on the street again. I certainly like the idea of accessing unique missions (on new maps) or spawning zone events for defeating X number of foes. Or even unique costume pieces based on certain mobs? New costume pieces always seems to motivate people.

Might be worth moving this to the Suggestions board.

Welcome back.

Things may seem a little quiet but there will be a lot of people in instanced missions, hanging out with their supergroup or on hide for some reason. Either server is fine, there are friendl people on both.

As for activity, I think a lot of people are either waiting on Going Rogue (our next game expansion) or of on the Test Server where some new powersets are being tested.

Absolutely agree with the OP. I groan when I hear the top 4 mentioned and I've only ever interacted with 2 of the less used characters.

Now I need to go and find Becky, she sounds like a lot of fun!

I seem to remember that at level 12, my Fire/Kin was running at something like 77.3mph according to the Real Numbers readout. It was also in blue which I think means that I was at the cap. Can't be sure though, I'm not that much of a numbers expert. Hope it helps though.

I have little doubt that Loki had some involvement with my birth.

But I'm a Scorpio born in the year of the Rabbit.

I've played on both EU and US servers. And I found very little difference due to the time zone issue. Sure, if I logged onto Virtue at three o'clock in the morning UK time, the server would be buzzing. But doing so at a time when the US is in bed, I found it no different to playing on the EU servers at a quiet time.

Personally, I would love to see more players and to be able to team up with our US counterparts but that is an entirely different (and often debated) subject. The best way to get regular teaming is to either run teams yourself or get in with a good supergroup. Or join an active channel. However, as I said in the other thread, I'm at a loss to recommend any as all the ones I belong to are RP or badgehunting orientated.

Maybe some of my fellow Unionites can help fill in the gaps in my ignorance?

The Hero Corps representatives are there to adjust your difficulty settings if you feel the need to. You can change how many levels higher than you your foes are and how many there are by telling them how many heroes you are equivalent to (larger teams cause more enemies to spawn).

As for Hover, it's up to you what travel power you choose but I like my Flight. If you're playing a support class (e.g. a Defender, the most common to get called healers) then you may not have many tools to help 'manage' the enemies and so can get overwhelmed by them. Hover gives you a little bit of Defence but most usefully, it means you can float out of melee range. Melee attacks tend to be stronger than ranged ones so by keeping out of the way, it can help save your butt occasionally. You may want to give it a couple of slots for Flight speed though as it can be a little slow at first.

If you are planning on the Leadership pools, they are a good choice for Defenders as they get the best values from them and teams will love you for them. However, they can cost a lot of Endurance to run so make sure that you get Stamina from the Fitness pool first (will require two of Swift, Hurdle and Health to access at level 20).

I can't answer your second question as I've never used it.

However, I have both Dark Pit and Oppressive Gloom on my D3 and I love them to bits. You'll need to slot Dark Pit up to make it effective (I six slotted mine) and maybe get some global accuracy in there, but it works. Firing off Dark Pit after the debuffs, then running into melee so that I can use Soul Drain, OG stacks with DP and keeps the aggro off of me while I drain the suckers of their life force. Then back out to blast them with normally a +100% damage buff.

On their own, they can be fairly 'meh' powers but together, they make a nice combination.

I was ready to skim past this as a fun but pointless thread until I saw this:

Personally, I like to use IOs to overcome set 'weaknesses' or to stretch the definitions of that AT.

So for example, I am currently IOing out my Stone/SS Tanker and I'm loading him up with Run Speed, Recharge and Damage bonuses. Extra Defence is not something he really needs.

At the same time, I finished IOing out my D3 last week as well. As much as like playing him, the amount of damage I did was depressing (well, he is a Defender after all...) so his IO focus has been to get Damage and Recharge bonuses on him. Only after that did I start looking at Defences to stack with his -ToHit.

I find it better to play to a set's strengths as you're building on top of something that's already there such as pushing a Defence set like Shields up to the soft cap. The only toon I've attempted to add Defence to when there was none to begin with is my Sonic/En Blaster.

Positional Defence is a good bonus to have but I've seen some truly awful builds that sacrifice their core strengths just to squeeze in a few more % of Defence. Set IOs give us tremendous potential to push the limits of our characters in certain directions so when anyone asks for my advice on IOing their toon my first question is always "What do you want to achieve?" Only then will they know what kind of IO bonuses and enhancements they want to pursue.

Welcome aboard.

I wish I could help you with channels to suggest but most of the ones I subscribe to are roleplay or badge hunting orientated. I'm certain that there are some general channels but I can't recall what they are off of the top of my head.

Regarding AE arcs, as stated, they're player made arcs. About this time last year, there was some exploitation of the system which made levelling very, very easy. However there were a number of adjustments made and now it's less of a problem then it used to be. It's still perfectly possible to level to 50 in the AE (some people, like myself use one dedicated toon to play other people's story arcs) but from what I can see, it's calmed down a lot recently.

However, you're definitely coming at this with the right attitude. CoH is not a game with an excessive amount of end game material, the fun comes from the levelling and the game as you get there. So not rushing to 50 and just enjoying the ride will definitely get you a better experience.

I hope you enjoy your time and if you need help, just holler. We've got a very helpful community here who love to help out. Welcome.

Dante Santiago was my main in Lords of Chaos.

He was my main in Advanced Hero Quest.

He was my main in Ultima Online.

And now he's one of my 50s here.

So yeah. Definitely.

51 months myself here and showing no signs of letting up. Hell, I've only just started getting into VEATs. Would be longer had I of discovered the game sooner.

I do keep running into older veterans than I in game. The other night I low level teamed with about four people all with over 4 years in vet badges. The combined sound of four Sands of Mu going off as we fell on the enemy was a joy to behold.

I can't help you compare (my only Ice Blast using toon is my Kinetics/Ice Defender so that's not a fair comparison) but I can tell you that my level 50 Sonic/En is one of my mains and is still tremendous fun. She solos very well, even against difficult foes and is still valuable on a team for taking down tough enemies. The stun, once fully slotted is as powerful as a hold and the nuke, although PBAoE rather than ranged is still good and quite survivable due to the added stun effect.

However if the rooting on the powers is bugging you now, I would think you'd be better off going with Ice. I don't find it too much of an issue but if you're wanting to be mobile (especially if you're blapping) then Ice would probably be a better choice for you. But if you're wondering if Sonic/En is fun at 50, the answer is definitely 'yes'.

Hope that helps a little.

I like this a lot. Yes please.