The gates were opened and the hordes descended upon the Test Server last night. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen more than a single instance of Mercy Island, but the population forced two more instances to keep up with the load. Upon logging in, there was a swarm of freshly minted Spiders and Widows running amok, looking for teams, spamming broadcast, and generally having a good time. So, here’s how the three hours I spent on test unfolded.

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NCSoft has just posted a video outlining the new Villain Epic Archetypes. And I really must say I'm looking forward to this even more. Technically you are a Soldier of Arachnos, being a Wolf Spider or Blood Widow to start. In a fit of integration, Lord Recluse is letting men be Widows and women be Wolf Spiders. Pretty progressive thinking. One thing that one of the devs noted, was that Crab Spiders will always have a backpack with arms. Appears that this a permanent feature of the AT & will a bit smaller when not attached to the a regular suit of Arachnos armor. Not much more to add right now. Lots of hurry up and wait for Issue 12. But here's a video for you to watch...

Video Link here: http://www.cityofheroes.com/gallery/movies.html

The Lazy Mastermind [or Where’s the Balance?]

I have a confession to make. I’m a lazy Mastermind. The pets do all the heavy lifting and combat while I just stand around running Assault and Tactics plus occasionally dropping a Triage Beacon. They turn soloing into snore fest as the Bots cut down the opposition like a bird through a jet engine. Difficultly is cranked up to [level 4] and occasionally to [level 5]. I’ve taken to reading books or surfing the web while the pets take care of business. The most activity I do is at the start of a mission in summoning and buffing all the pets. In a combat situation, I have a ground target bound to the “G” key that sends the pet to a point from which they attack anything in range. About the only time I really pay attention is when there’s an Elite Boss or Hero/ArchVillain in the group mix. That’s usually at the end of the mission and might occupy a few minutes of time. I tend to think of Masterminds as a wee bit overpowered in what they can do or handle in terms of missions.

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A bit of backstory for those that don’t know. City of Heroes was the brainchild of Jack Emmert who founded Cryptic. NCSoft is the publisher of CoX and business partner in the venture. Back in November Cryptic sold the CoX franchise to NCSoft to pursue other projects. Those projects are a blog for another time. NCSoft acquired the CoX development team in the deal and immediately began to ramp up the team and work. NCSoft said that they would continue to the free content patches and hinted that Issue 12 would be “light” and Issue 13 would make it up. On March 12th the preview of Issue 12 was released and it’s anything but light.

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I’m running behind on getting my blogs published. My lunch hour is taken up writing, just keep forgetting to post when I get home. Was expecting a few more Brute Chronicles, but appears my posting rate was a bit too slow. Time to play a bit of catch up…

Level 50 was achieved last Saturday afternoon in between groups. I was running spy missions for Shadow Spider and kicking Longbow butt. Nothing like hitting the cap during a fight and suddenly everything becomes a bit easier. Longbow is the staple opponent it seems. At least one or two contacts per tier has some sort of grudge against them and you are their instrument of destruction. Not that I don't mind the experience and infamy, but the salvage and enhancements are mostly vendor fodder.

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The last few weeks have been busy, but I’ve managed to snag some play time to work on getting to 50 with Aurvandil. He’s currently sitting about halfway to 49 and with the current group, shows no signs of slowing down. With luck, I might be able to hit 50 by Sunday night. As mentioned earlier, Brutes are popular in the SG and our groups have become known as Brute squads. On a normal day, we have 2-4 Brutes on the team, ranging as high as 6 on occasions. Our Corruptors like the idea of a Brute squad; though I’m sure we tax them for buffing and healing. Myself and three of the other Brutes are all Electric/Electric, one is Fire/Fire, and the last is Dark/Fire. We all tend to play aggressively as Brutes, though some are way more aggressive than others. The /Fire Brutes are way more aggressive and tend to wipe at least once or more during a mission. Both have [and frequently use] Rise of the Phoenix to recover, which is a nice power to have, though dying to use it is somewhat counter-intuitive.

Of the Electric Brutes, three of us are in the 45+ range and the other is approaching 25. There’s been some debate about builds, the use [or need] for Stamina, and which IO sets to use. My build is using a combination of regular IO, set IO, and SO in a rather hodge-podge mix. After a retooling this weekend, I was able to remove a few of the IO which were in the 20’s range & put in high 30’s / low 40’s IO. Defense toggles are all at or close to cap, while attacks are looking much better in terms of damage, accuracy, and recharge. That being said, I’m seriously looking at a Non-Stamina build, relying on the various Primary and Secondary powers to refill Endurance during combat. This would also allow me to ditch Acrobatics and pick up Grounded. The drawback of Grounded is that if you aren’t “on the ground”, it doesn’t work and the definition of “on the ground” doesn’t include stairs, inclines, and water. And if you are in a cave map, good luck finding the “ground”. Picking up Grounded will let me drop a toggle and help with Endurance usage during combat. Slotting Grounded with a Knockback IO will eliminate the downside, thus providing a “net” gain in the Endurance usage department. I also have a couple of Efficacy Adaptors in Power Sink and looking to add an Endurance Modifier IO to Lightning Field.

The Rikti invasion is back in force this last weekend, so there’s been some distraction on getting the Accolade rather than leveling. Variety is good and the invasion event ends soon, then back to leveling. With the Invasion comes Vanguard Merits, a type of salvage that lets up “buy” Vanguard costume pieces and other options for characters. My AR Blaster just picked up the Vanguard Rail Rifle, which is a nice option even if the gun is purple and silver. Merits came up in a discussion on one of the chat channels, mostly in reference to how many you need to buy the options. The gentlemen in question only had 10 merits and freaked out on the option costs. Lowest option is 50 merits going up to 500 merits for an additional 10 slot salvage bag. It is probably one of the few instances where you really need to grind to get the reward, which is okay to a certain extent. Right now, I’m planning a Mothership raid with the SG to gather merits for my Mastermind and his need for the 10 slot salvage bag. A couple of raids and I should have enough to buy it.

And in breaking news, NCSoft has given notice on the contents of Issue 12. They had mentioned it was going to be “light” due to the transition and getting the new crew up to speed. Issue 13 was to be a catch-up, or so they said. If this is NCSoft’s idea of a “light” issue, Issue 13 is just going to blow my socks off. Link to the news is below.

http://www.cityofheroes.com/game_update12.html

While playing my Brute is fun, there was a point when I need a break. Heroes don’t catch my interest that much lately, but I have an assortment of villains that are begging to be played. Psi Raider was created many moons ago when I first moved to Liberty, as a Mind/Psi Dominator. I styled him much like a Malta Gunslinger and his origin reflects his previous history as a Malta operative, complete with Teleport and the Revolver Temp power for show. Character concepts for me follow a tight theme with the primary and secondary power sets complimenting each other. In this case, I chose Mind and Psi for power sets. Mind loads you up with mesmerize, hold, and confuse to early on, letting you build up the Domination bar quickly. Psi is fast as well, plus inhibits your target’s recharge. Toss a couple of recharges into Confuse or Dominate, and you can keep single targets [and later groups] locked down. And if you can stack them fast enough, even Boss level mobs will be doing your bidding.

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Here we go again; it’s a time of love and happiness in Paragon City and Rogue Islands where the heroes and villains get along to live in peace and mutual understanding. Not bloody likely to last, but it’s the annual Valentine’s event. Snaptooth is back to being a royal pain and DJ Zero needs your help. But first, Ganymede, lackey of Eros, has work for you to do, including stealing a girdle and destroying a cauldron. For which you need a combined team of heroes and villains. Not a bad thing and makes for some interesting commentary during missions as the heroes and villains trade quips.

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