Annzilla Reach Security Level 50!

Like I said in the previous entry, I have a lot of posts to catch up on. I've actually managed to get Annzilla up to level 48 since the last time I wrote an entry on her. As a tanker, it is stupidly easy to level up once I hit security level 45.

Not because that is the optimal level to get power leveled, which I did not, but it is more so because I am finally able to get Maria Jenkins as a contact. Pretty much every single mission Maria gives you has an Arch-Villain in it, so that just means gobs and gobs of XP.

Its doubly easier for me, because I am a tanker, I create my teams, and run the missions like a well oiled machine. I basically power-leveled/power-game myself (and the teams). That is how I was able to get to level 48, just in time to run the Lady Grey Task Force with some friends.

The team is assembling by Lady Grey. Unfortunately I did not write down the names and I had forgotten to coerce the team into posing for a picture. =(

So the task force starts out pretty good. The team starts out by saving Penny Yin's butt. And then going on to fight the Clockwork King.

I just want to quickly mention how much more fun Annzilla is to play after being fully IO'ed up with level 50 IOs. She is slotted with as many +speed/travel as possible, so playing her is not so unbearable anymore due to the travel/speed restriction while in Granite form or with Rooted enabled.

For me, it took her 47 levels to mature, and by that time, I was so delighted at how awesome she played.

And if you're wondering, yes, I am one of those perma-Granite Stone Tankers. There are different schools of thought on perma-Granites due to the -Acc and -Damage debuffs that go along with Granite form, but as a Stone/Fire tanker fully IO'ed, I don't have a problem in either accuracy or damage output of my attacks.

But I digress. Back to the Task Force:

So in the next mission where we are to save the chatty twins and lead them out, I level up!

Caught the very tail end of the ding animation again. =(

That particular mission was rather unfortunate because one of the hostages we were supposed to save died right at the Arch-Villain and the mission failed. Previously, the hostages could have died, but I guess they changed it in the i12 for a mission fail. I suppose now that a mission fail is in place, one could farm the LGTF to auto fail the mission for a shorter TF run.

Something to think about I suppose. But on to the next mission! This is where we fight a neutered version of Hamidon. We did beat him up (with some snags along the way) and I caught the 'dying Hamidon' animation. Its always so pretty to watch so I thought I'd share it. (sounds kind of morbid, doesn't it?)

This particular mission went well for the most part. I honestly still haven't run the i11 (or was it i10?) Hamidon raid when they changed the mechanics of it (again), so I am a bit clueless as to the how-to of going about killing the thing.

Aside from never being sure on which mito's to defeat first with what attack, Hamidon has an unresisting damage type which cuts me down like butter.

So the team did a great job. I say the team, because I was on my back drowning in the water the whole time. Go team!

The final mission is when we have to fight a mutated and brainwashed Hero 1. If you know the stories of Hero 1 in the CoH/CoV universe, its a sad story.

During this particular mission, we plow our way through to get to Hero 1 with ease. The problem is actually fighting him. We did not have anyone in the team with any regeneration debuffs to debuff him when he goes (his version of) unstoppable. When he does so, he becomes resistant to all types of damage and is basically in god-mode. Our problem was being unable to get his health points down enough to beat his regeneration when he does go into god-mode.

This one screenshot is just too cool, love the vivid colors!

After he went into god-mode and regenerated his health points to nearly full for the 5th time, I along with two other team mates had to do a quick run to Bloody Bay in order to get some Shivan pets to aid in defeating him.

Shivans do have neat little -regen in many of their attacks so it really made a difference.

The whole task force was clocked at about 3hours and 45 minutes until completion. 45 of those minutes was likely during the Hero 1 battle.

So after the TF I hung around a bit with some Paragonian Knights friends who also ran the TF.

Yes, I am the one with the afro.

Prickly Tiger, aka @Yaki-Sama had also dinged 50 during the TF. The PK folks had a neat little ceremony to honor the new 50's.

All in all, it was a fun TF (my first actually, with Annzilla) where I was able to finish leveling my Stone Tanker. She'll be shelved until needed and I will be starting a new Tanker!