Blog of Heroes

Avocet organized a Dr. V mish yesterday. At my suggestion (heh), he kept it small — himself (at 20), Velvet, P-Siren, and Boulder Dude’s Zazi. That gave us a blaster, a tank, a defender (bubbler), and a scrapper. That worked out to be a fine combo.
The mission went actually pretty smoothly. We carefully but steadly moved through the sewer complex, pulling individuals as we could and dealing with the consequences when we couldn’t. I was at 19, and most of the Abominations were white or yellow, the foes ranging up to various Eidolons at red. We gave priority to taking down the Eidolons and Mortificators, then polished off the rest.
When we got to the final chamber, we started drawing bad guys into the tunnel leading down to it, then taking them down. Eventually we pulled (with a little bit of “flying aggro pull”) the Reapers and Abominations off to the right. The biggest problem we had was with the Abominations forgetting, half-way there, where they were going or why, and needing a bit of taunting/pulling to keep coming. That cleaning out made the final battle a lot easier.
At length, just the top platform was occupied. P-Siren zapped one of the Reapers, and that was enough to bring the Bad Doctor himself. Zazi had already stealthed in and dealt with the bodies, so the mish was technically over. That meant that, if things got really hairy, we could, as a last resort, mish out (though not get back in if we did). Clever planning by Avocet, that …
So Dr. V, with one Reaper in tow (thank heavens), headed over. I pumped up my Dull Pain, popped a heavy-duty Accuracy (he was “only” 20, but Purple), and Zazi and I met him at the opening to the tunnel, with Avo on high guard and PS up close for mental attacks and keeping up bubbles.
It was a pretty straightforward if lengthy and endurance-tab-popping slog. The pic at top shows Velvet in front, Zazi slicing from the right, P-Siren in the middle with the bubbling and Reaper-punching; Avo was out of reach (and frame), but you can see the icy results of his hold …
A long slog, yes. None of us really got hurt, but Velvet was down to her last breath by the time V dropped. W00T!
The temptation at that point was to rush right in, but that’s what got V in trouble last time. We did it by the numbers, moving around to the back of the platform and taking out the groups there. Then it was time for a group picture or three (see below – L-R Velvet, Zazi, Avocet, P-Siren), and mish out.
Nice XP, as I recall — several hundred for the mish and again for Dr. V. Velvet is now about Level 19.75, about 2-3 hours from levelling based on the rate we were going (which was probably high). We played for about 2+ hours, so it wasn’t a huge time sink, either.
The team worked very well, and was pretty balanced. No healers, but didn’t seem to need that much. And, being only four in size, we didn’t up the mob numbers or levels, which was also a good thing.

• Zazi’s stealth was invaluable for scouting and for clearing the mish at the end. Also a fine scrapper, BD ran her around nicely to take on the guys Velvet wasn’t drawing at any given moment. She had a tendency to run a bit far forward a bit fast, but that’s a scrapper for you (and the stealth — usually — helped avoid succeeding incidents).
• Avo had done his homework and ran the group nicely. His high overwatch blasting was generally positive, though early on we had some of the usual “Hey, I had that group aggroed and you not only scattered them with knockback, but you knocked back the one I had Follow on and ran me out of the remaining pack” incidents. As someone who has a knocking-back blaster himself, I can appreciate the problem from Avo’s end. When he focused on (Dr V melee aside) holding and zapping strays and watching the backfield and our defender, he was at his best.
• Margie was uncertain whether to bring in P-Siren, and I retported that bubbles were always welcome (even if their utility vs Toxic Vomit is limited). She did her usual fine job with the long-range pulls, keeping us bubbled, and generally providing support (“Mortificator! Mortificator!”).
• I was pretty pleased by how Velvet did. She drew aggro nicely, I was able to usually use Taunt to good effect (though I still need work on that), and she never really took much damage. Even against Abominations her Unyielding kept her on her feet. Aside from chronically running low on Endurance (an old lament), she worked well in her job slot. Plus she’s fun to play. Biggest problem I had was making sure my reticle was where I wanted it — too often I targeted some mob yards away to taunt, then didn’t retarget the guys in front of me so that I could hit them.

All in all, a very satisfactory evening, and far superior to my first Dr. V adventure.

So, what’s with the wandering monsters?
I’ve seen this primarily with human-type mobs — Hellions, this past weekend. A group will come wandering through the mish in this weird, crouched run. Looks very bizarre (first time I saw it, it was a couple of Bone Daddies, and I though, hey, must be part of their magic juju). If they run into you, well, then, they spot you and open fire. If not, they go gliding on down the corridor.
Funny thing is, it appears to be contagious. We saw one guy glide down a corridor, get caught in a mob that was waiting there, bounce around trying to find a way out, and then the whole mob turned wanderer and headed off.
Sometimes the wandering will end up with guys stuck in odd places, or climbing the walls.
Now, WMs is not necessarily a bad thing (indeed, it adds some spice, and makes sense from a game standpoint). But the way it’s implemented in the AI seems off — the movement looks very unnatural (they don’t run like mobs usually run, the sort of skate along in a crouch).
UPDATE: Aha. Finally found a reference to this in the Forums. It seems to be legit (actually patrolling) activity, coupled with poorly chosen movement animation. Maybe.

Friday afternoon I did a fair amount of work with Torchielle, getting her up a couple of levels as I worked with a pick-up team. Good fun, particularly once I got her travel power, Super Jump. I like her a lot, and would like to play her more.
Saturday and Sunday was, with Margie’s planning for the Cave of Transcendence trial (which is getting a lot of reaction in the SG forums), the beginning of a concerted effort to get Honeygun and Kazima up to speed for that trial, meaning lvl 14-15. Given that we were starting out at 10-11, that means work.
Most of the time, we ended up trioed with BD, in the guise of one of his Bas siblings (either an added Dark scrapper, Ciunas Bas, or a Dark defender, Dubh Bas).


Worked out well, even though we were running mostly endless warehouse mishes (to the point of having some idea where the mobs were going to be), be they Council, Hellions, or Lost. On the bright side, the mishes were all at level, meaning we were going up against white-yellow, with occasional orange, or (in one case) yellow-orange with occasional red (mmmmm, spicy Aberrent Rectors).
Anyway, by the end of the weekend we were in the 13-14 range, and I was busy revising my plans for what Honeygun needs to take, as she levels, over this week (more on which later).

Margie solicits participants in the Cave of Transcendence trial. Fun.

Margie was not in a good mood last night, after a long drive home. So she was ready to dive into CoH to get P-Siren up a level (to 18), and, at long last, get a travel power.
We had several Skulls mishes in KR, all of which ended up conning grey (for Velvet; green-blue for Margie). We got pretty skilled at simply bypassing mobs on our way to the mission goal.
We eventually went to a Clockwork mish Velvet had, and that was more like it. Everything was conning basically yellow for me, with the occasional white cog and orange cannon knight. “Good eats,” as Margie is wont to say regarding high XP. Though the mission was merely to find a clue (somebody’s trophy, lost to scavanging clockworks), we ended up going along, clearing stuff …
Margie dinged about 2/3 of the way along there, which was good, because, just as we got into Final Battle with Steampunk, the big clockwork boss at the end of the mish …
… Margie discoed. Hard. Couldn’t get back in. Couldn’t get onto the web. Couldn’t shut her machine down. Power cycled, and still wasn’t seeing the network. I ultimately intervened and got her back online, but I’d been forced, once my bubble went down, to take down Steampunk, which ended the mish. (I suppose I could have run away from him — should have done that.)
The result was not only did she not get a bunch of XP for both mission end and boss kill, but it prevented her from rejoining me afterwards (to clean remaining clocks), since the mish was over.
She was not pleased by this. At. All.
She did, however, go off and level and take (ta-daaah!) Teleport, which was the point of the evening’s exercise. She did some practicing, and can now zip across zones at full speed, which will be nice here on out.
I was just glad to have a chance to whomp on some “enemies of color.”
The whole process ran way, way late (like, officially into the Wee Hours) (especially when I still had to set up a backup on my notebook). Later than I’d intended, but I definitely wanted Margie to get that level in.

Last week, as Psi-clone came out of the Hollows into Atlas, he looked up and …
“Hey! A blimp!”
“Where?” BD messaged back.
I flew up to it, but was vaguely disappointed that it didn’t have any logos or “messages” flashing on its sides.
Now you can read more about the blimp yourself.

Managed to get on and play with Margie for the first time in a few days, which was very nice. Both Psi-clone and Amorpha dinged to 17 after three pre-TF-so-blue-and-green door mishes.
It’s actually a bit scary that PC is now only a level below Velvet, who’ve I considered my “main.” I haven’t been playing her much, though, to let Margie get P-Siren up to her level (to which end, P-Siren is now a member of the Freedom Phalanx).
I also brought made up some file folders for the guide print-outs I’ve made for my various alts, which should make the leveling process a bit easier in the future. I *should* use CoH Planner to lay out where I’m going with these guys, but even with the guides, I still find myself changing my mind sometimes about what seems the most needful based on the experience of the level I’ve just completed.

Signed in briefly as Velvet last night. Quick checked the Global Friends list, most folks were on, and … there was Avocet.
No, not on the list (well, yes, there, too), but standing right in front of where I’d appeared, at the Steel Canyon side of the Boomtown gate.
We chatted a sec, then I bounded off to sell some stuff.
Swapped over to Truly Unstable, went running from Galaxy to Atlas to Kings Row …
… and ran into Avocet again, standing in the tram station, as his Power Fists alt.
We chatted a second, then I ran off again.
I signed off again shortly thereafter. But by that time if I’d run into him one more time on the way upstairs to bed, I’d have not been completely surprised.

Went on our (Margie and my) first Task Force last night, Positron. Pictured, left to right:

• Myself, as Psi-clone (Controller)
• Lee, as Light-Bringer (Peacemaker)
• Boulder Dude. as Mofo Firefly (Blaster)
• (Positron, as The Control Voice)
• Doyce, as Gilly (Tank)
• Margie, as Amorpha (Scrapper)

Now that I think of it, I can’t recall Lee’s character name precisely, 3-odd hours later. More on that below.
So it was a pretty well-balanced team, and, all told, once we shook out, a pretty effective one. Gilly died, um, four or five times, while I got my now-primary role as Empathy Guy (i.e., the team healer) down (and Gilly refined her Tank stuff for the group). Of course, I died in there once. As did LB. As did Mofo (though, to be fair, that was on the way to the first mish). I think only Margie came through unscathed.
And, for all that, everybody dinged. Indeed, PC was just barely at 15 when we started, dinged to 16 midway through, and was about 75% to 17 by the time the TF was over.
(I took Group Invis at the level, which, along with Deceive to soften them up — Murk Eidolons and exploding Embalmed Abominations were the most fun for softening — made me feel like I was carrying my own weight. I’m really not a very good Defender.)
We all got our complimentary SOs at the end, too. I got a very nice lvl 18 accuracy; Margie, I think, got a recharge time.
Three of the group flew; Amorpha and Gilly had Superjump. We did end up criss-crossing several zones, most particularly the Steel Canyon that Positron hangs in, but including Perez, Boomtown, and Skyways. Oh, and the Hollows, once. We fought Vahzilok, Clockworks, and Circle of Thorns (which is, by the end, part of the point of the TF) and in office buildings, caves, sewers, and … hmmmm, interesting hi-tech settings.
Technology-wise it went pretty well. Occasional lag. Margie had horrible performance problems at the very beginning — which turned out to be her thrice-bedamned Norton AV kicking in for its inexpicable Friday Night Magic. I discoed once (during the final photo shoot). Everyone else was, I believe, pretty stable.
Fun time, in sum. A good group to work with, certainly, not to mention entertaining (I wish I’d kept a log of the dialog; Lee, in particular, is a hoot online). And we ended at …
… well, we started at about 7:40, and we ended at …
… um, 3 a.m.
Why, yes, that was only about three and a half hours before I began this post. Welcome to the world of having a four-year-old in the house …

Vahzilok are bad.
Go up against too many vomiting Vahzilok, and you will die. No matter how buff a Scrapper you are.
Have a distracted healer (e.g., one who’s actually a Controller with Empathy), and you will die a lot faster. Especially when he’s busy getting vomited to death, too.
Pull them off, pick them off, deal with small groups, watch your health, don’t be afraid to run.
Just some thoughts …
(screen cap of A Chorus Line via Boulder Dude)
(And Psi-clone still managed to ding to 15, despite dying twice on the mish.)