Blog of Heroes

While there are any number of standard hero names (“Captain Megaton”) and quite a number of dubious ones (“Rectal Damage”), not to mention funny ones (see Hostess Heroes), occasionally one comes along that’s a lot more subtle.
So the other night, we ran across “Proverbs 31 Woman,” which had folks scratching their heads.
Proverbs 31:
9 Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character
10 [c] A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
And there you have it. Don’t recall if she was clothed in scarlet, but there are some fun things in there for a hero. Not sure how you’d nickname her. “P31”?
I’d be curious to read her backstory.

As we near 50, my own mind is turning ahead to What Next. Or, rather, Who Next.
We’ll certainly put together some Kheldians, but assuming we slow down a bit with PC/A, what duo will we start pushing forward next, and what changes will that bring?
Probably not Velvet and P-siren. Fun enough characters, but a very low DPS for them, not to mention ongoing problems with the whole FF primary for Defenders.
More likely Torchielle and Hildegard — fire blaster and fire tank. I’ve been pleased with how they’ve worked together previously, they have a good DPS factor, and, I think, decent survivability.
It’s going to be a big change, though. PC/A work with highly planned tactics — controller lockdown of the worst in any given group, followed by scrapper tearing them apart, with Phred along for added damage if warrented. It’s a careful, intricate juggernaut, and the only time we get in trouble is when something interferes with that tactical planning — ambushes, running into something unexpected, etc. If I’m not on top of Amorpha’s buffs and healing, or if I get targetted too massively, it can all fall apart.
Still, alongside the fact that Amorpha is “frighteningly efficient” with the damage dealing, the combo of controls and Empathy and Group Invis that PC provides dictates how we handle nearly every mission.
A more “conventional” tank/blaster pairing will change that. No invis to sneak around with (let along stealth missions). No controls to pre-mitigate the worst of any encounter. No heals aside from what we carry in our pockets. We will almost certainly not run on Invincible. It will be more letting the tank lock down the attackers, then overpowering them with damage.
I suspect we’ll end up respeccing to some Medicine Pool bits. And maybe Stealth and/or Recall Friend. Some compromises in design to make the duo more duoable.
I’m looking forward to the challenge.
Of course, there’s the little bit about getting up to 50 first …

I don’t know if this will be a flash in the pan or something with a very long shelf life, but we’ve ended up building a small SG on Freedom called the Hostess Heroes, dedicated to heroes with a snack food theme.
*cough*
On the right are our two entries to this sorded little band, Ho Ho and Princess Peep.
I loved Ho Hos as a kid.
(I revelled in getting two separate “OMG!” messages from Doyce, the first for the character herself (“You’re going to get banned like Rushdie!”), then for the weapon (“A BATTLEAXE?!”). On the latter I opined that they didn’t have a switchblade option for tanks. On the former — well, frankly, I’ve seen a lot more annoying character names, and I actually hope it’s such a clever pun that nobody will much mind. I’m certainly not trying to be all that offensive.
(Katherine thought I was naming her “Ho Ho Ho” and was disappointed to see someone who didn’t look more like Santa.)
The idea with the Hostess Heroes is to provide a regular Monday “relaxing” team-up with a lot of laughs. With the others in the group (Ring Ding, Ginger Snap, Captain Funyun, Bear Claw, Mmm Pie, Twinkie Kid, etc.), that shouldn’t be too hard.

I’ve been doing more with odd solo characters here and there. Yesterday I rolled up Honor the Flag, and have gotten her up to 9 today. INV/Energy tanker, she’s the first real “patriotic” character I’ve come up with, and I’ve fielded any number of unsolicited complements on the costume.
By solo character, I mean one who can do PUGs, too, and tankers are, I understand, in high demand. And, to be sure, she’s been on teams since 3. More importantly, as a tank, she’s pretty survivable. And she’s just fun to play.

I have a weird bug going on (and, yes, I’ve /bugged it) with Velvet, where costume parts show up as white. That is, I buy them in color, and they show up in the Costume command as being in color, but when she actually wears them, they show up as white.
So, for example, her “classic” costume (actually in slot #2 right now) is all white when she wears it. Ditto her new (third) outfit, short shorts and tube top and heels and short gloves — only the shorts are in color.
Mildly irritating. I mean, it’s not like Velvet’s pure as driven snow or anything …
(Noticing her Creation Date, I see I’m a month short of my CoH anniversary, by the way.)