Organica

Mooooooooo!

Mooooo?

Don't have a character in the group yet, but I did go ahead and create a fire/rad on Freedom this morning, played to level 5. Just couldn't find anyone on to invite me.

For fir/rad, I'd think I'd want to park at 32 or 33, so I could get my pets.

I've got other characters on Freedom and will probably pick one of them to add to the group too. Concept-wise I'm leaning towards a grav/storm named Quantum Butterfly. level 9 atm, just because I always liked the character and name. But I keep thinking I should pick something that would solo better.

I have a 25 MA scrapper but it's a clone of one I made on Virtue that's level 47 (or rather, actually, the Virtue one is the clone). But I don't think I want to play the Freedom version again.

The Virtue forum has a great name thread stickied at the top by the way. If you need to come up with new names for characters transferring to Virtue, there are people there who can help immensely.

Now that people mention it, someone had said we'd get five minutes on the timer, but I remember it starting at about 4:40. I didn't think too much about it at the time.

I didn't realize this until last night. I came across a Winter Lord in P.I. We defeated him, but the most we could cobble together was 1 full team and 1 partial team, including several people that hadn't tried the event before. I warned them that we were unlikely to succeed with so few people. But then, first thing I saw upon zoning in? Robots following a Master Mind. Turns out, we zoned in with at least two villain teams... more than enough firepower to finish off tubby.

I'm assuming this only happens when teams from the same server enter the realm at the same time... so it must not be very common?

I play on Virtue and there are a lot of good players out there. That said, part of your problem may be playing with players so experienced that they know the map like the back of their Vanguard gloves.

But I PuG a whole LOT, and I almost always have good to at least decent experiences. Most of the time I'm at the upper end of levels though so I'm sure that makes a difference.

Also, it sounds like part of your problem is not so much a desire to scout and be cautious, but simply to explore. A lot of players have forgotten how to do that since they've seen the same maps so many times. I must admit, I usually only get that urge when I'm on a Task Force, since many of those have unique maps that I almost never see and some of them are really neat, but even there I'm usually on a team that wants to rush through and finish as fast as possible.

Then again, I usually play scrappers so I'm normally all for rushing in. Given that most of my scrappers are built to take an alpha strike themselves, I'm not afraid to jump in if the tank hesitates. ^_^

I mostly play on Virtue, and I like to play my 50's at least a bit. I hami raid at least once a week. Most of my Virtue 50's are scrappers, and of the few that aren't, one is a character I never play anyway. So all of my hami raids on Virtue have been with scrappers.

I had a nice level 50 tank on another server... and a 50 blaster, and a 45 defender. I'd often thought it might be fun to move them to Virtue so I could raid with one of them instead.

So, after spending Tuesday transferring characters, I log in Wednesday just as a hami raid is forming. I brought my 50 blaster. It was a good night to do this, as there were ultimately 22 scrappers in zone (out of 50 max). There weren't a lot of blasters. Our assault team had four, and eventually there was a second assault team.

We cleared all of the blue mitos each wave before the first green had even been brought down. ^_^ I'd say we did well! I also managed to not die during the raid itself (evacless even -- I did die once during monster clearing).

That qualified as "instant server transfer gratification" in my book. ^_^

In general I had good luck transferring my characters. Two did not need a name change, and for the blaster I decided I could live with "Serpentine-Fire" instead of Serpentine Fire.

I also transferred several mid-level characters from servers I never play on to Victory, which is pretty much my secondary server. I had to change the name of one, but she didn't have such a great name to start with, and for another I forced a name change (had a stupid name I didn't like) by creating a temporary alt on Victory with the same name.

I'm curious how things have gone so far for other people?

You lose your local friends list. That's the "personal items" that you lose.

I've never been attacked like that, but in September I took an hour walk on a public trail (from a small parking lot near a busy road) and when I got back to my car the window had been smashed in and some stuff stolen. Nothing irreplaceable, but a nice Tivoli iPal radio, some cds, a Sony cd player that I'd had for over 10 years (and built to last another 20), some thumb drives that had copies of stories and stuff on them, and my checkbook (I had to change my checking account). No money or important id or my iPod, all of that I had on me during my walk. But anyway, stuff like that can make you frustrated and angry and want to beat up on criminals, at least virtually. ^_^

I also had someone at work steal my rolodex from my desk overnight last month. This is so inconsequential that most of my coworkers just laughed and said it would turn up, but it hasn't. Who steals a rolodex? The plastic cover was even cracked. But it was annoying given that I lost all of my contact phone numbers and information, and my boss has yet to replace it for me.

Glad you're safe and nothing worse happened.

Back when I used aid self on my brute I had it slotted with two interrupt reduction IO's (as well as some heals), and that seemed to allow me to get it off pretty reliably in battle.

But I've since come to the conclusion that those slots can be used in much better ways. ^_^

Just gonna add that one of the best things about willpower is its "set and forget" nature, just turn on your toggles and go, and it's very steady performance. The worst thing about it is when you find yourself in a situation where incoming damage exceeds your ability to regen it, you can sometimes know you're going to die and there's nothing you can really do about it save click inspirations madly, kill everything before you die, or run. That may not sound like such a bad situation but I just mention it because it's a very different mindset from, say, regen. With regen you can be in an impossible situation and survive if your "oh ****" powers cycle fast enough. With willpower, impossible situations are more rare but usually are impossible, if that makes any sense. ^_^

Got the last of my Oblits bought & slotted. Someone put up a level 30 acc/rech crafted tonight... I paid too much for it, but whoever it was could have listed it for double that and I might have actually paid it just so I could take down all of my bids (I was bidding on levels 30-39, so I had a lot of money tied up in trying to get the last couple).

Now I should probably put in some lower bids at level 30-35 and then craft and sell 'em, because I know other people will do exactly what I did. "Oh, one's finally available! Price is no object!"

^_^

We did fight our way down to the particle cannons and thermite whatevers, then teleported down once everyone had one. In hindsight that took way too much time.

We were also spread out during each hydra attack and unprepared for the rikti ambushes. Thus people were easily picked off or overwhelmed by them. Knowing that those happen automatically makes me feel better, we didn't really screw up except to take far too long to get there and to be unprepared to deal with the ambushes. If I do it again, I'll know better, thanks,

Also, the shield was invisible. We never saw anything.

And I would like to do it again. ^_^ I suppose if I don't manage to join the same team tonight, I might have to organize my own run at some point.

(Spoiler warning for the Abandoned Sewer Trial)

Tonight I spent some time soloing in PI. I didn't put my flag up because I knew I still needed to go exercise and I didn't want to waste my evening on another radio mission team. But just as I'm thinking it's time to log off, I get an RP tell from someone who's forming a team to take on the hydra in the Abandoned Sewers. Could I help?

The Abandoned Sewers Trial is one of the few things blue side that I've never tried before. I remember the days when it was the most popular thing to do in the game -- a PLer's paradise before anyone had heard of AE or Winterlords or before even warwolf farming was a big thing. But for some reason I never joined a team doing it. People rarely attempt it these days.

I decided that I could skip exercise for one day. ^_^

So I joined this team. The leader is someone I've teamed with before, but not on this toon. He knows what he's doing though and explains in great detail what we're supposed to do. He gives very clear instructions. He gets an A+ for leadership.

We kill rikti until we have the key to the trial itself, then make our way down. We have an hour and a half to complete the trial. We gather the special weapons needed, with the leader telling each person when it's their turn to get one. We get down to the chamber with the hydra in it and carefully clear it. He warns us to kill the rikti but to not destroy the shield generators. Then, when we've taken out enough of the tentacles, we position ourselves with 2 players at each generator, and we take them down all at once.

At this point, we have just under 40 minutes left. I knew from what the leader said and from what I'd heard in the past that it would require more than one round of clearing and destroying the generators, so I'm a little concerned about the time -- but it took us a while to get down there and take out tentacles and the special kraken, so maybe a second or third round won't take that long.

We rush in and those of us with particle cannons blast the hydra. Everything goes smoothly, and we get it down to nearly half health. Then the shields come up.

We clear rikti again. We position ourselves. Go! the leader yells. "Down!" I call out as soon as our shield drops. "Down!" another calls. "Down!" calls a third. "Down!" calls a fourth. "Go, go!" someone yells, and we rush back in for a second round.

I think I fired first -- I was on a well-IO'd broadsword scrapper, and our generator was always down first and so I think after the first round I always was the first to fire on the hydra. I got hit hard, and then suddenly rikti were teleporting in from everywhere. People started freaking out, and several went down. I died once, but managed to clear most of the rikti in my area and fire my particle cannon several times. The hydra was at about 25% health when the shields went back up.

"What happened?" everyone wanted to know.
"I think we didn't have all four generators down," someone else said.
"No, they were down," the leader insisted, "otherwise we wouldn't have damaged it."

So we clear again. Time is becoming an issue, we're under twelve minutes left. We get into position, take out the generators -- four people call out that generators are down, and we rush in.

Instantly we're swamped by rikti again. This time nearly everyone dies -- all save the leader. While we're lying there dead you can hear the sound of rikti teleporting in constantly -- it sounded like the entire planet was beaming down to crush us. One person reportered that there were "a ton" of rikti near the hydra, then changed his mind. "There's two tons," he said.

I'm out of inspirations. I'm lying there, listening to the sounds of rikti porting in, and we all know we've lost.

We conclude that two people on the same team had called out that their generator was down, so we had attacked again before all the generators were down. This time we make very clear who on each team is responsible for calling when their generator is down.

Our dark defender rezes. He ports everyone to him, lures some rikti over and does the howling twilight magic. He dies, but we rez him and start clearing again.

Less than 4 minutes to go. The generators are clear. Everyone to positions! Two players get too close to the mass of rikti in the middle and die. Oh no, they're part of the same generator team!

3:30. We're running out of time! The two downed players rez themselves.

Less than 3 minutes! The rez'd players are stumbling about dazed.

2:30! They're still scrambling to get into position.

2:15! Go! Go!

We take down the generators and rush in a fourth time. Rikti swarm us. We blast away, and suddenly the hydra is dead, with less than a minute left.

Everyone starts cheering and congratulating the team. Someone says to kill the other rikti, and I start attacking them. Then time runs out. I get a loading screen, and...

Mission failed. You're supposed to completely clear the room. With all of those rikti that we'd spawned, there was no way we had enough time to accomplish that.

"This trial will forever elude me," the leader says. Up to that point I hadn't realized that all of his experience came from failed attempts.

He vowed to try again tomorrow night. He's a man on a mission.

Anyway... even in failure I was amazed we managed to pull together after 7 of 8 team members had died, and we actually took the hydra out with seconds to spare, if not the full room.

Also, it was really fun. I like the whole map. It's too bad people don't run this thing a little more often. ^_^

Hydra picture 1

Hydra Picture 2

Hydra picture 3

Hydra picture 4

Hydra picture 5

I have a Mouse Police on every server except Champion, I think. They aren't alike though, but many are scrappers.

I've also used the name Shinobu in various incarnations, although the characters aren't really similar other than the fact that a lot of my characters often have a similar look and similar costumes. I've never deliberately created clones of a character, although with two accounts I probably should make twins at some point. ^_^

My first character was Organica, a katana/regen scrapper on Pinnacle (back when regen was awesome and katana was the same as broadsword for animations). I eventually got her to 37.

However, impressed by what fire tanks could do, I created Jalia, a fire/axe tanker. Herding and burning was lots of fun, and this was my first 50, back before I-5 came out.

When I returned to the game I moved to Virtue where a friend (briefly) played. I started playing Mouse Police. I had a Mouse Police on Pinnacle that had been a level 20 invul/energy tank, then was deleted and rerolled as a dark/invul scrapper. She was about level 29. I had created multiple Mouse Police characters on other servers, and the one on Virtue just happened to be a katana/regen like Organica. I played her exclusively for months until I hit 50 again, then allowed myself to give in once again to my altitis. But I really consider this version of Mouse Police to be my main or signature character.

Eventually I managed to concentrate long enough to get my #1 character on my 2nd account to 50. This took about a year after I'd bought the account, but Shinobu Valentine, an illusion/rad controller, was my third 50 (also on Virtue).

Then I went on another long altitis binge, until the point where it was clear that VEATs were about to appear. I worked hard on my main villain, and Huntress Midnight became my 4th level 50 (Virtue dark/electric brute).

About a year ago I was reaching the point where I had multiple characters up in the 40's on several servers, and it occurred to me to try and arrange to level them all up to 49 and then have a string of characters hit level 50 on successive days. This never actually happened, but by this Summer between June and August I hit level 50 4 more times: Sailor Shinobu, an invul/energy tanker on Freedom; Serpentine Fire, a fire/fire blaster on Freedom; Jennie Justice, a broadsword/regen scrapper on Virtue (leveled up largely so I could wield the nictus broadsword, but I've only run the ITF once on her anyway); and Mouse Police (again), a fire/SR scrapper on Victory. A month or two later I hit 50 on Shinobu Dragonheart, my MA/Invul scrapper on Virtue.

So that means I've hit level 50 on 4 different servers, although I've since transferred Jalia (and Organica as well) to Virtue (I haven't played on Pinnacle since returning to the game). I have 3 level 50 heroes on my second account, and 5 level 50 heroes and 1 50 villain on the first account. I still do not have a level 50 defender (one on Freedom is 45), a level 50 HEAT (41 PB on Virtue, two level 34 WS), or a level 50 villain on my second account (stuck at level 43 on my MM).

I'm working my way to another string of level 50's though. At the moment on Virtue I'm playing 4 different scrappers, who are levels 47, 43, 43 (two are pacted) and 41. The level 41 is my original character Organica, and I really want to see her hit 50 eventually. That would feel like a real accomplishment. ^_^

I have 3 characters in the mid 40's on Freedom as well, including an ice/ice blaster named... Mouse Police.

I play most of my 50's on occasion. both versions of Mouse Police are tricked out as far as IO builds go, and I've done the same for Serpentine Fire, Sailor Shinobu, Shinobu Dragonheart and Shinobu Valentine. My brute has a bunch of purples but I've yet to really respec and finish the build. Jennie Justice is outfitted with generic IOs, and Jalia, who I very rarely play, is still outfitted with level 50++ SOs and a few Hami-Os.

I enjoy playing Mouse Police and Shinobu Dragonheart on Virtue the most. I do Hami runs and TFs with both of them, and pull out Shinobu Valentine if /radiation is needed for a tough fight. I also really really like my tank Sailor Shinobu on Freedom, but I rarely play on Freedom these days. I sort of wish she was on Virtue, I'd take her on Hami runs then, but I've never reached the point where I want to transfer her.

A bio is not important to me for playing a character, but I like to come up with something funny or entertaining for people to look at so I will eventually add one. Few of my long-played characters are without any bio at all, although sometimes there isn't much there. I do get compliments on my bios fairly often though (on the characters that actually have something written there.)

Two of my current characters are pacted. The one I've mostly played for 43 levels has a rambling bio about a fight with hellions over a chess game, and how it lead to special training under "Sensei Guido" and later she thrashed the lead hellion 3 games to none... using the Sicilian defense, or something like that, and then ran the hellion in for kidnapping and attempted murder, but they still play chess by mail. It's meant to be funny and a little surreal, and I've got a few compliments on it being very original.

The other character has a much more obvious background, she's "Valkyrie of Atlantis" but I haven't come up with a good bio yet (didn't play her much until recently). Right now it says, "She's like a fish out of water..." but that's just a holder until I think up something better.

I eventually had 2 accounts in EQ because it helped immensely with soloing (duoing) and with marketing (where you had to leave a character logged in at the market).

I picked up a 2nd account in CoH largely to try my hand at dual boxing and to run a solo SG. At this point I have several level 50's or near 50's on the second account. I don't dual box very often -- I'm not set up for it well, my two computers share one keyboard/monitor/mouse and switching between the two, there is about a 2-second delay for the monitor to display the other screen -- but, for example, in the last month I have used two accounts to:

1. Outfit several characters who are in someone else's SG, by using my own SG base to store enhancements or raid my vaults for useful enhancements that I have stored there

2. Transfer influence to said characters to help outfit them

3. Transfer crafted enhancements that I've gotten in drops on these characters to my base for future use (the other person's SG is fairly new and until a week ago didn't have an enhancement storage bin)

4. PL'd a new blaster from 10 to 20

5. Of the three characters I have in another person's SG, two are level pacted. I've played one (MA/WP scrapper) up to 42 and recently outfitted the 2nd (BS/SD scrapper) and played her for a level. It's an interesting experience having a character that you've never played until they're in their 40's. ^_^ I'm in love with shield charge though, so I may play the 2nd scrapper as much or more the rest of the way until 50.

6. Using dual accounts and one of my 50's, I slaughtered 100 Overseers on Sunday so that my BS/SD scrapper could have the rularuu sword and shield. I've done this a few times for other characters of mine, before they were able to do it for themselves.

7. Invited new characters to both my own SG, and for 2 of the 3 above characters in another SG, I invited myself.

I have a SG mate on hero-side Virtue who says he has over a billion infamy on a Freedom villain. I'll have to see if I can catch him online and work something out. He would love to get his Freedom infamy converted to Virtue influence, and the infamy --> influence transfer is the more difficult part. Moving influence between servers is comparatively simple.

Catching him online will be the tricky part for me. I'll post again if I'm able to line anything up.

1:1.1 is what I've done in the past.