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/