Ann is Back!

I took a long hiatus from COH a few months after the last post, right around October/November 2019. In the post, I alluded a bit to learning how to program and my desire to career change into software development. Well, it actually happened. I quit the miserable old career to do a coding bootcamp, ended up getting a new job as a software developer right when the pandemic started. I also bought a house and switched to my second developer job and things are really good right now. But during that time, I pretty much did no gaming other than Animal Crossing: New Horizons which saved my sanity during the pandemic, if we're being honest. 

Life has now settled down enough for me to actually relax and play some video games. While there was a bit of FFXIV because my family still plays that game, I went back to the old standby, City of Heroes. It took some time to remember how to play the game and what the many powers did, but the muscle memory came back. 

I've been having a blast just soloing 4x8 on the new Annzilla, my BioFire Tank. I really need to post her build up soon. She is all IO'd with some Incarnate powers and is just so dang fun to play. I can handle most mobs on that setting without breaking a sweat and it gives me that "crunchy" satisfaction that I am looking for. 

It's probably been about 2 weeks of a handful of solo missions after work, in particular going through all the Crimson missions and I have not gotten tired of it yet. I pretty much burn through the Malta. It even yields a ton of inf, merits, and recipes that I am not paying much attention to since I don't need them at the moment. Good to keep in my pocket as the alts level up. 

There's also Seventy, my Water/Kin Corruptor at level 49 and is kind of IO'd up. If her name sounds kind of familiar, she's somewhat related to Sixty in my head cannon. Seventy is rather fun to play and Water is a great primary, though she's better suited for teams. Unfortunately, I haven't felt like teaming much lately so she's just going to hang tight there. If the name is still available, I might remake Sixty as a Corruptor. We'll see. 

I do have Infernadoll, a Fire/Dark Corruptor and my new Zazza, a Rad/DS Brute that I like to duo occasionally with my brother. Zazza's Rad isn't my favorite, although Infernadoll has been fun and is good for teaming. They're both in their high 20's so hopefully they get better as they level. If not, I might just IO them on the cheap and park them when they get to 50. This might happen to Zazza, but Infernadoll has some hope right now since she has better replayability for me currently. 

For the rest of the alts, I had mostly logged in every 3 days to get the free mission complete, so most of them are still sitting in their teens and I don't have much to write about there. I feel like I should have level pact some of them because even with just the free mission complete and no bonus xp, I am still outleveling the content. 

At any rate, I am happy to be back!

(Builds coming in the next post)

The City is Back!

Only if you've been under a rock for all this time, the City of Heroes and Villains is back! In rogue form...

If you want to read the back story on how it all happened, take a gander a MassivelyOP: 

https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/18/whats-going-on-with-city-of-heroes-now-this-game-is-a-unicorn/

I think it pretty much all started with a video of some disgruntled dude showing footage of a secret server and then everyone losing their shit about how some people/groups kept it secret for so long while outwardly making a show of other efforts publicly. 

I can see both sides of the story, but honestly? The game is back and I really don't care about the drama. I just really hope NCSoft isn't a big asshole about it and that it doesn't go away any time soon. Either way, the codebase is out in the wild now, so they will have to make a lot of efforts to shut down and keep shutting down private servers and they won't be able to get them all. 

Anyways, if you are looking for instructions on how to get on, here you go: 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,950.0.html

I haven't really been able to play much when it launched because it was going right into my busy season at work (60-70 hour work weeks) so I didn't have time for anything. Not to mention, I am learning to program and may be considering a coding bootcamp in a few months so am preparing for it (or at the very least, trying really hard to teach myself and change careers so I don't have to pay all that money for a bootcamp). 

This past weekend, I was finally able to play for more than an hour! 

When the game was live, I stopped playing right around the time the game went free-to-play and only poked around in the servers occasionally after that, but didn't stay very long. Lots have changed and it was a bit rough trying to remember the UI or how to do stuff, but some of the muscle memory actually came back. Oh boy!

And yes, I did reference the If the City Came Back post I wrote a couple of years ago. Obviously, some of my sentiments have changed. 

So far, the only complete full remake is Zetsumei (Nin/Poison MM) with her costume, powers and everything. She is just such a great solo character and concept that I couldn't picture her as anything else. I also made a new Annzilla (new power combo Bio/Fire, seems to fit better conceptually), Paradoxic (new powers of DA/Psi Tank, Psi is really great so far), Ann (Elec/SD Brute, is basically Zazza, just really love playing this set), Zazza (to Rad/SD Brute), Infernadoll (Fire/DM Corruptor, basically is Vixona). 

So far, my highest level is Annzilla and Zazza at 18. I think I am probably going to stick with Annzilla for team play since I am really enjoying the Bio primary and then solo level up Ann and Zetsumei.

I know I want to throw a Kin in the mix in there, but not sure if I want to remake Sixty entirely or pick a new power set for her, though I do really love playing her and her character concept. 

I am eventually going to restart the Tanker Project up again, but will probably re-conceptualize some of the characters because for the most part, I don't want to play the same old thing again. 

And before I am out, here's the updated Hero Designer, updated by Pine: 

https://www.cityofforums.net/threads/pines-hero-designer.6/

Clawdia's Build: Claws Fiery Aura Brute [Post Sunset]

Here to protect... or destroy?

So I'm playing around with another new build, my second post sunset character. For now, her name is Clawdia because, well, of her claws as the primary. I do really like the look of her!

I'm not married to her name or anything and will probably pick something else, maybe elemental related once the game is back.

She is a Claws and Fiery Aura Brute with Artic Mastery EPP since the -slow from the cold powersets pair nicely with Burn. She's probably going to be one of the first toons I'll play as the farmer. I think she would do well due to the low endurance cost of Claws and the AoE-ness of Fiery Aura, considering that we'd most likely all be starting over together from the beginning.

I did consider going with Electric Armor instead, but I do have a soft (or warm?) spot for Fiery as it's one of my favorite type of power. Maybe I'll make a Claws/Elect version anyway? Hmm.

Front view

Back view

I am thinking her background will be something tech related (obviously from her design) and that's how she has some control over the elements... or something like that. I do know that she's more cyborg than human. Maybe she's from the future? Like some future soldier or something. Or even PPD from Pretoria? We'll figure it out later. 

Action shot!

Omph!

As for her build, check it out below. I've never had a claws toon before, so I am not 100% sure of how it plays, though I imagine it wouldn't be too different from the other weapons set. The focus of the build is to be a decent jack of all trades, good for soloing and teaming.

The powers selection.

And some visual stats. 

She's not soft capped or anything, but not too bad either, I think? Here's the datalink if you want to download it to Mids.

And yep, she's hanging out in the city. I logged into Paragon Chat for a bit to futz around. Can I say how much I wish the game is back? I finally have a computer that can handle all the graphics setting pumped to the max.

The music made me super duper sad, like a punch in the gut. But running around wasn't as bad because it's a brand new character that I've never played before, so the attachment factor wasn't there. Now, if I was playing Ms Ann or Zazza (who was sort of my main before sunset) would be a whole nother story.

Anyway, have a Happy New Years! Stay safe and have fun! Here's to hoping that the good news will come in 2016!

Vixona's Build: Fire Blast & Dark Miasma Corruptor

I was lurking on the Titan forums the other day and was inspired to build a Fire/Dark Corruptor because someone had mentioned that you can basically solo 0/8 by level 10. Given the gobs of AoEs in Fire Blast and Tar Patch in DM, I wanted to see how ridiculous this build would be.

Oh lookie, I had forgotten that I had such a character. Her name is Vixona. I'm actually not entirely sure if I remember what she even looked like. Eh?

When the game comes back, I will very likely rename her since I am not too thrilled with it to begin with. She most likely will not be among the first characters I reroll and play, since I'm more drawn to the melee playstyle. If anything, the first character will likely be a Brute of some sort. They are just so darn fun.

At any rate, here's Vixona's build. Apologies if it's crap. I just finished a 25 page research paper and my brain is fried.

It looks ok? Right?

I'll be the first to admit that I kind of have no idea how to build out a DM character with the support role set. I did have a melee toon with DM in Paradoxic (whom I adore), but I've never played the support version (other than getting Vixona to level 15, apparently). I barely played Corrs in general as I thought Thermonuclea was my one and only (gosh I miss her too). Goes to show how much I cared about this character.

Ehh? Ehh?

My build strategy for her was basically throwing inf at her until she looks kind of right. I think it's a good build? Who knows. Gee, I wish I knew how she played (there's no Fire/Dark Corr videos on Youtube.. boo!). Here's the data link if you want to poke around. I'm open to suggestions.

I'm Back! With Random Screenshots!

Funny, it was about the same time last year that I slunk back to this blog.

Mind you, I didn't stop hoping, wishing, and pining away for the game. Grad school started ramping up with a vengeance. Taking 2 classes per semester (including the summer semester) while working 50 hrs/week at the day job doesn't leave me much time to think, let alone mull over the City!

But I am back! At least for a month before the spring semester starts up again. And I bring pictures! They are pretty random ones that were taken about 1-2 years into playing the game.

Exploring Striga the day of its release.

This was in Victory on one of my 1st characters, AR/Dev Blaster.

Also admiring myself, obviously. 

And... hanging on top the mountain-hill thing in Striga. 

More playing around with my AR/Dev Blaster before the nerfs. 

My very first foray into the new (at the time) cargo ship map. 

It was a distinct memory. This was on my Fire/Fire Blaster in Victory. 

My Fire/Fire Tank in Victory as well. 

She was a mutant origin if you haven't already guessed.

This was also a time when DOs mattered.

And my first character and my main in Virtue, Ms Ann. 

Not the most, creative name, I know. 

And here's Sixty, my second character in Virtue. 

Not a big fan of Positron back then when the TF was a 5 hour ordeal. 

The Goodies in the City

I know, it's been a little while since the last post. School was starting to ramp up (taking 2 graduate classes right now), so I got to the point where I couldn't procrastinate anymore. But now I'm back, because I just finished big class project lol.

Here's a continuation of my screenshots nostalgia. This time, it's all about the little goodies that you can get from the game.

Pick your poison!

Crey Pistol

Flight Pack

Banished Pantheon Axe

The Cameleon 

"Hey, it's a living."

In the City of.. to Champions Online

Annzilla!
Everyone's favorite lizard lady!

I've had a Champions Online lifetime account since the first week they announced sale of it. I forgot how much I paid for it, as the price now is $300 and I am not sure if I paid for it when it was on sale or not. So let's just say I paid anywhere from $200 to $300 for it and thought the game will be my be all and end all.

I leveled my main to the max 40... and then I kind of got bored of it. The Freeform AT was kind of overwhelming at first, but it also broke the game because you can make some really OP characters at that time.. and you can make some really gimped characters if you didn't read up on the process. Also, for some reason, it just wasn't as fun as the City of.

She translated nicely to CO!

Champions Online lacked that fun and powerful feeling that I received from playing CoX... a feeling that I describe as "crunchy." CO was not crunchy enough for me. The game-play felt sluggish. And tried as I might, I just couldn't click with the CO community, so I didn't stick with the game for as long as I had initially hoped.

The Lifetime Sub was a real regret of mine at the time as I was in between jobs then. The amount I paid for it was a stretch for me. I could have used that money elsewhere. =/

Sixty, ready to hand out the
SB cookies! If only...

But now that I am getting a bit desperate to make a character and beat some faces in a persistent world, I've recently logged in CO.. and found out that I had made Annzilla way back when. She's still level 2. I'll play her when I remember how to play again. I think I'll have to make a new character to re-learn everything.

Sixty also exists as a Freeform character in my CO account as well. She is currently sitting at level 6 and will probably continue to sit there. I'm not sure CO has a Kinetics/Speed Boost type of AT/power. I'll need to do a bit of research.

Not the best CO remake. And the
shade of pink is all wrong!

Having the Lifetime subscription inactive and forgotten about these many years had left me with a bunch of Zen points (the CO "real money" currency) once I logged back on. I feel so rich in-game and can buy all sorts of neato costume pieces, vehicles, and other things. That should keep me occupied for a little bit.

I'm still somewhat overwhelmed with Freeform, because I forgot everything since the last time I've played. I am stuck with the problem of overchoice that leaves me with a case of inactivity due to indecision. And of course there were nerfs and changes and such.. and now they have actual archetypes. Maybe I will re-start with one of those.

Either way, I guess this is an OK alternative to getting some superhero action while waiting for the City to come back in the meantime. It still doesn't give me the crunchy feeling I want. But I suppose it's better than nothing.

You know, I really wished that the Perfect World/Arc bought the City of Heroes IP instead of NCSoft. Why couldn't they buy CO instead...

Random Screenshots of Some Bad Guys

It's the weekend. I have to study right now, so what do I do? The usual, going through some old screenshots and procrastinating from my work. Most of these were taken from 2004 to 2005. Enjoy!

Clamor! She was the final boss in Sister Psyche's TF. I think this was like my second encounter with her ever. I took a bunch of screenshots, but really liked this one of her in particular. She's been working out her buns!

Fake Nemesis! This was significant because this was my first encounter with the Fake Nemesis when I was playing in Victory. I was playing as my AR/Dev Blaster who had the cloaking device so I was able to get a nice close up shot. Of course, you know that he's a dime a dozen in the later levels. Nothing special, but the moment was special to me in the sense of "omg, so cool!" I forgot how the fight itself went, but I remember that initial feeling. 

This was taken the day that Issue 2 released with the Terra Volta Re-specification Trial (I think? Correct me if I'm wrong). It just looked so neat and pretty with all the Sky Raiders floating about. I was soooo scared to jump!

We all know this guy. Vandal is the AV in the Citadel TF. I was playing in Victory at this time, since I recognize my alt, Theophana. She was a Bubble/Dark Defender. Good times. 

And finally, I give you a zombie butt! Or the Dry Husk or whatever from the Banished Pantheon. This was before the ragdoll effects were implemented and before they decided to put some pants on these guys. Just a silly screenshot of a pantless zombie. Haha!

Meet Electradoll, Electric Armor & Electrical Melee Tanker

Does she look familiar?

This feels a little weird. This is my first entry on a post-sunset character. Yes, I know there were re-builds, like with Ms Ann's. And deciding on the new main, an SD/FM Tanker, but the difference is that re-building is just selecting new powers, though the concept is still the same and playing with builds is just that, because I really don't even have a name or a concept for the new main. She's just a build at this point and doesn't even have a face. This one feels weird because she does actually have a face, name, and a background!

I was thinking back to the If the City Came Back... (also had a little screenshot hint there too) entry on February 12 on my plans for the Tanker Project, specifically the Electric Armor tank that I would be rolling. I decided on pairing her with the Electrical Melee, because why not? Most of my elemental-ish primaries have been paired with it's melee counterpart (like Tropica and Iceminx), so I thought it was a good idea to try the Electric sets together.

And then... Electradoll happened. Here's the visuals on her build:

Just going for the cheap, because don't have much experience with Electric Armor.

So I didn't really try to soft cap and I wasn't too sure how to build her out or what's useful (other than what I can determine from the descriptions), because I have never rolled an Electric Armor before. I kind of sort of imagine that she will play similarly to Dark Armor, Fiery Armor, and Ice Armor - in that it will be endurance heavy, that I have to find other means to mitigate damage, and it might be a rough ride up for a tanker.

And the extras.

At least I am somewhat comfortable with the Elec Melee, so I can try to manage the deficiencies that way. Probably. Also, EM is a really fun melee set. Here's Mid's Data Link if you want to check it out yourself. Feel free to critique!

Bzzzttzztz goes Electradoll!

So does she look familiar? Other than giving a sneak peek in last week's entry, I mean. She's basically has the same origin as Combustidoll, my Fire/NRG blaster (who was so dang fun to play!). I also had an alt named Flambedoll and Infernadoll. If I recall correctly, they were supposed to be a fire project of sorts (if you can't already tell), but I think I can make an exception for Electradoll.

They're all a part of the same malfunctioning (or not?) doll collection that was created by one of my tech genius alts that got deleted (I think she was a controller of some sort). I just loved playing as these little dolls. They are on the shortest end of the height slider and packs a HUGE punch!

When the game comes back and if the Electradoll name gets taken, that's fine. I'll just think of something else electrical related that ends with "-doll." I guess people are not too keen on playing as toys!

Annzilla's Old and Updated Build

She's one of my favorite alts, a Stone/Fire Tank. She was the first of the Tanker Project after Ms Ann (my main). I recall that leveling her up was really tough for me because of Rooted and the sluggishness of the Stone set in general. It took some time to get used to TPing into mobs and managing aggro from afar. The speed debuff is much less forgiving to teammates when they do not stick by the tanker. Stonies are too slow to be able to run to a teammate to tauntlet the foes away so I had experienced more teammate deaths that way.

Funny thing.. I also never understood why so many people chose the Stone set until hitting 32 for Granite Armor. Basically, it's tanking on easy mode. For me, personally, it got kind of boring at that point, but I get why people are drawn to it. You just don't have to worry about managing health or mitigation at all. You're a big stone slab that punches things.

I just wish there was a female form for the stone armor. I'm not talking about hyper sexualization with the boobies and all, but just not as masculine as the Granite Armor as it existed. Oh, and I was't too fond of grunting like a man, either. Hah.

At any rate, with all the posts I have done on Annzilla in the past, I realized that I have never actually posted up her build.

This build was as of mid-late 2011.

I don't believe I rerolled her at all, so this is probably the sunset build as well.

Here are the stats, with Granite on, duh.

You can grab Mid's data link for the old build here. Or you can check out the new build with the fitness inherent below:

Pretty much the same. 

I didn't bother putting the other data bits for this build because it's basically the same. The new build is a bit more expensive, but is mostly the same, but Greater Fire Sword removed (dps for incinerate is better, and I always felt that she had more attacks than needed), and a few more "nice to have" powers picked from the pools.

If I were to replay her, I will probably stick with the old IOs since they are super budget and easier to get and revert to the new build if I play her more than expected.

Data link for the updated build here.