Took me a little bit, one instance of getting lost and sidetracking for a mission, but I did finally find the Talos entrance to Pocket D. After that, it's just a matter of popping out of the other entrances to tag 'em. Thanks for the assist.

NOW... these 'tips' I've seen... they intregue me, what with the whole 'crisis of concience' thing. How they work? I take it it's like with the one guy and you choose wether or not to kill someone. And depending on what chance I take... what does it mean for me?

Tips allow you to be heroic or villainous. If you investigate the tip (go to Contacts/Tips), then it will give you two choices for what to do with that mission. Let's say it is a hostage situation. Your choices could be "Rescue the damsel in distress," and "Take the damsel hostage yourself for a ransom."

Each will be labelled (Hero/Villain). Just selecting it doesn't do anything but set up the mission.

When you COMPLETE the mission, that's when your character gains alignment. If he completed a heroic mission, he gets hero alignment. If he completed a villainous mission, he gets villain alignment.

After 10 missions of either type, the next tip you get should be a morality mission. This mission will take on the nature of the alignment missions completed, heroic if you were doing heroic, and villainous if you were doing villainous. Read the dialogue carefully and click the right things, as the morality mission has a double-check on it (e.g. Are you REALLY sure you want to do this?). Again, just selecting the mission doesn't do anything but set it up.

Once you complete a morality mission, your character's alignment shifts toward that alignment. If he's already at the end of the scale, then he doesn't become "more" heroic or villainous, just reaffirms his alignment. Any progress you had on alignment the other direction is lost. It is possible to have progress in both heroic and villainous alignment, but as soon as you completed a morality mission, that progress is wiped out on both.

If character building is important to you, be careful when teaming with others. I've had a few times where Kuros was on a team and a villainous tip was started. For character reasons, Kuros would NEVER do anything villainous, but there's no real warning until after the mission is completed. "Hey, Kuros just assisted with a bank robbery." There's no real consequence for it (except I think it does show up in stats that you participated in X heroic/villainous missions), but it just doesn't sit right with me that Kuros would do that. Some tip missions are obvious, but a number of them are vague.

There are badges for all this, too. Badges for shifting alignment, for reaffirming alignment, etc.

You can then visit the "other side" after your alignment changes enough. Your heroic blaster that started out in Paragon City ends up in the Rogue Isles if he does enough villainous deeds, or your villainous brute that started in the Rogue Isles can wander around in Paragon City if he performs enough heroic deeds. Many badge hunters do this so they can get both sets of badges. I consider this cheating, though.

I just managed to wound Protean more than I ever have previously... and I still didn't beat him.

What I had to do is click him down to an 'elite boss' level... then I'd be running around and then stafe him as I clicked my attack, so he couldn't just punch me when I stopped. It'd go good and that until he got thoes 3 damnable punches in. GOD why the hell does this have to be so hard???

Does ANYONE have any tips on how to kill this Jerk?

Protean may well be the sort of thing you have to team up to beat. Or, at least, wait until you're at the maximum possible level for the arc.

Back to the morality system, it has a bit of an odd history. At the time it was introduced, the alignments were pretty strongly segregated, only meeting to fight in PVP zones or team up in a few co-op zones. If you wanted to play heroside content, you had to be a Tank, Blaster, Defender, Controller, Scrapper, Peacebringer or Warshade. If you wanted a heroic ninja, you had to fake it with the Concealment pool, you could never be as good at sneaking about as a Stalker.

In 2010, Going Rogue gave you two ways to have a hero version of a villain archetype, or vice versa, but neither would work until L20. You could use the morality system to run tip missions until you could change alignment, or you could start in Praetoria as any of the ten non-epic archetypes and then graduate to either side of the game at L20. You still couldn't have a L2 Stalker in Atlas Park, but it was a start.

Now, with Freedom, you can start any of the ten basic archetypes as either a hero or a villain, which has taken a lot of wind out of the sails of both the morality system and Praetoria. However, there are still benefits to using the morality system:

- Alignment Merits. One of the more potent forms of reward token in the game, you have to run through eleven missions just to unlock the ability to earn alignment merits (ten tips and then the Alignment Mission), and you can only do it as a Hero or a Villain.

- Gray alignments. Those eleven missions can be used to start moving the other way instead of unlocking alignment merits, with heroes becoming vigilantes and villains becoming rogues. Another eleven missions will move you to the other side of the fence (vigilantes become villains, not rogues), but if you stay in the gray alignment you can enter any zone in the game. Well, almost any. It turns out that Oroborous is still segregated, so Rogues can only enter the villain version, regardless of where they are when they drop the portal. It means that mixed teams on missions with a lot of travel might have a harder time going quickly, since some of the team might not be able to take the shortcuts (or might screw up, forget they can't take the shortcut, and have to work their way back from the wrong side when they get dumped in the Isles or Paragon City by mistake). Vigs and Rogues can join teams on either side, although they can still only start missions on their previous side (a Rogue only has Villain contacts...a L20 Rogue can't go to Montague and get the Midnighter arc, he has to wait until he's high enough level for the villain version). Generally speaking, if you only have one high level character on a server, it's a good idea to have them go gray so that you can participate in more of the high level team-based content. Obviously not an issue if you only ever solo.

---Dave

Just hit 24... and think I might have picked the wrong power there. Jump attack seemed like a good idea... shoulda gone with Acrobat or Tough.

ANYWAYS... probly nothing I can do about it now... aye?

Jump Attack is a very good alpha strike power...if you're a brute, scrapper or tanker. Not a great idea for most blasters, although /Energy blasters tend towards the "blapper" style and might do okay with it.

If you don't want to do a respec to pick a different power, you can also use your second build. Talk to the trainer about builds, you have to keep your primary and secondary, but repick powers from the start and can take different pools if you want.

---Dave

*nod* Well, so far I've mostly been focusing on offence over defense... hell between both of my chars they've got 3 defense abilities

If you want to post a list of your powers and/or a screenshot of your enhancement screen, we could give you some suggestions as to what you might want to do going forward.

Terra Volta Respec!

Terra Volta Respec!

Actually, the Terra Volta (splash screen reads "Terror Volta") respec trials are kinda fun for the first run through. After one or two times, though, they get a bit boring. When completed, you speak to Jack Wolfe who now hangs out in in City Hall after Galaxy City was destroyed. You can only get a maximum of three respecs per character doing this, though, and only at the appropriate level ranges (24 - 33, 34 - 43, 44 - 50?). You can, of course, join a team below your level to get the range(s) you missed, but you can't exceed your current range.

I don't know how it works with Freedom, but VIPs I believe get a free respec every three months. You can also purchase them from the Paragon Store. You can also happen upon a Respec recipe, which allows you to "rebuild" your character from the start. He stays at whatever level he's at, but you choose all his powers from level 1 on up, as well as reslot enhancements. These respecs do not require that you visit Jack Wolfe. You can just type "/respec" in your chatbar and immediately being the respec process.

You can't change the powersets, but you can change the powers within those powersets. You're still limited to choosing them in order, prerequisites still apply, and enhancement slotting still happens in the same order.

Respecs are also used by some players to "sell off" their existing enhancements and start with a new set. However, this is a waste of a respec, in my opinion. If you do not reslot an enhancement at the end of a respec, and you didn't put it in your enhancement tray, then it will be sold for purchase price. This is the only way to get purchase price for an enhancement (Wentworth's excepted), but I would only do this if you just happen to be respeccing anyway, and all your enhancements are yellow.

NOTE: Only respec while somewhere safe, such as inside City Hall, a store, a tailor, a university, etc., your or ally's super group base, or Pocket D. NEVER respec while standing outside. Obviouisly, if you spoke with Jack Wolfe, you'll be inside City Hall. Respeccing can take a lot of time, and you either finish it or back out completely. While respeccing, you don't see what's going on, so if your character is hanging out in front of the tram station in Talos, don't rely on those police drones to protect him. Being inside a building almost guarantees your character will not be killed by ambushes (yours or someone else's), a$$hats trying to grief (yes, they still exist), or zone events like Rikti invasions, zombies, etc. It is still possible for "strange sh!t" to happen inside these locations, but it almost always requires someone trying to grief.

Another thing a lot of players have done is copy their character over to the Beta/Test server after leveling, but before training. Then you can train him over there with a power, play around with it and decide if you like it or not. If you don't like it, kill him off and recopy him and try another power. Not sure how Beta/Test server works now with Freedom, though.

As for power sets for Blasters, my main is an eng/eng blaster, and the melee attacks he has are great. With the right use, you can use those melee attacks to keep your opponent busy and unable to strike back. For instance, I'll use super speed to zip up to a boss, smack him with Total Focus, then whack him with Bone Crusher and he's stunned. He may have got one hit in before that, but after that, he's mine. Before Total Focus was nerfed, it alone would stun a boss. It was how Power got his Fake Nemesis badge in an hour in Peregrine.

Plus, eng/eng drives tankers and scrappers nuts. You can play "keep away" with scrappers. But, be warned. If you do it too much, they'll just let you deal with the critter you're playing with. If you want to be considerate, knock stuff into a wall so the scrapper doesn't have to chase it, or hover directly over the critter and knockback becomes knockdown. Then, of course, there's always Hellion Golf in Atlas Park.

Like this?



left out the inherit abilities to save space. Would REALLY have liked to get a pic of Mor to fill up the oversized blank space there, but their either too small, don't cover it, or came out as a masterpeice.

BTW... this is what I meant when I said 'masterpeices'

Wow. I don't think I've ever maxed out on regular pools, and I almost never have more than two on anything below level 45. I can see you wanted to go for the terror effects for thematic reasons (Challenge itself is useless on a stalker who always solos), but forgoing almost your entire defense set is going to really bite you in the bum later, if it hasn't already. If nothing else, you really really really want Integration for the protection against all those stuns and holds that are killing you. In fact, I'd recommend losing the Presence pool entirely, replacing Flurry with Hasten, lose Jump Kick, and flesh out your secondary set. Hasten (spotted with a couple of recharges) will help you get around the attack chain chokepoint, and having better defenses will let you survive long enough for your attacks to recharge.

---Dave

Beleive it or not, I wanted to make her a medic too. Fit with the bio.



That's exactly why we're here.

But while Challenge normally just sits there it can come in handy when dealing with hordes. Just lead one away from the group, pummel, and repeat



Flurry is actually a verry good power... it whittles down health and recharges like you wouldn't beleive, same with jump kick (love that one). THOUGH I assume your talking about the secondary build... yes?

Either do a secondary build or a respec. Honestly, you probably want a lot more Regeneration powers. They'll keep you alive more than the presence stuff. And for your attacks, probably want to start with 1 Accuracy and 3 Damage enhancements in each as the base.

Well I could go back and get them later on when I gots the good stuff... is there a point where you level and... stop leveling so you can't get anything else?

No, you keep getting new powers all the way until 50, the maximum level. The problem is though that new powers will keep opening up in Martial Arts or Regeneration that you will probably want to take with those choices. As a general rule, powers from your primary (Martial Arts), Secondary (Regeneration), or epic pool (you worry about that at level 35) are a lot better than stuff from the other general pools. Particularly the attacks won't be as hard hitting and I think you'd be better off focusing on the Martial Arts line. And you REALLY need to grab more Regeneration powers so that you die less. They're way more important than say, the defensive toggles from the fighting pool.

Epic Pool you say?

Yeah. They're extra power pools that open up at high levels:
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/APP

.... I could give Moritori Shurikens... AND web grenades? :3 OR step it up a notch and actually give her something that's otherworldly... (just no soul sucking).

Now all they need to do is throw in tonfa's and I'll be golden.

ANYWAYS... out of the regen powers, what should I especially try to take on? I tried 'dull pain' before, but wasn't impressed that much.

Yeah, I made the mistake of skipping Dull Pain on a lot of my early characters. The key is to slot it for recharge so that you spend as much time as possible with amped up HP.

ALSO: Dull Pain is badly capped for Stalkers, something that will be fixed in issue 22.

---Dave

Allrighty... Dull pain and Hasten... anyone else should they pop up?

By the way, it's worth expanding on the three kinds of defense powers.

Always On - The most convenient, but the weakest. You definitely want these, but keep in mind that past the third Defense or Resist enhancement you're not going to get much more benefit (people used to six-slot these and become invincible, now there's a diminishing returns effect from putting multiples of the same sort of enhancement).

Toggle - These require endurance, so a lot of people mistakenly think they're a bad deal and skip them. DON'T. Get them and slot them for endurance reduction, but you need these. They're the core of your defense set. A Stalker's Hide is an exception, as it costs no endurance and should never be turned off except for roleplaying and to escort hostages (side note: avoid hostage missions whenever possible, because not only do you need to turn off Hide or the hostage gets lost, but even with Hide on the inevitable ambushes will always find you).

Click - Probably the hardest to manage, other than the self-heals. But they're also generally the best powers in the long run, when you learn to use them properly. Dull Pain is one of these, being a minor heal but also a short-term raising of your maximum HP. For reasons probably related to Statesman Fun ™, Stalkers have a rather low cap on how much their HP can be boosted, but that's being lifted next issue. (Also, your assassin's strike will become more usable in combat next issue, which will help fix your shortage of attacks and keep you from needing Jump Kick.)

---Dave

Well, it's not so much NEED it as I like it. It's a handy power that's good for thoes who are swarming me after I take out the first guy.

So far, with what i've put up, kept the martial arts and regen powers, but only kept Jumpkick and combat jumping (I think, only had like 20 minutes to get to Portal D to do this). Might finish up here before bed... might not.

But I do know that Placate and the self-res where two I wanted to get.... problem is reaching the level or justifying them.

Of course, seeing thoes epic powers... now I'm contemplating what kind of WMD to turn Geiger Girl into.

SOOOO tempted to make a Radioactive Pheonix.

Placate is very useful if you're fighting a single foe. Assassinate, Placate, wait for recharge and assassinate again. Against trios, though, not quite as useful. You can extend it by getting the Pocket D and Tailor day job badges, which will let you get the Beguile power (stay logged out in Pocket D or one of the tailor stores for 21 days each).

---Dave

Well, I've got the secondary build up to level 19.... whatcha think sofar?



Got 3 more opportunities for powers, and 2 more for the power boost.

Take Integration. It's your set's best protection against status effects (Hold, Stun, etc), and those become a SERIOUS problem in the territory you now enter. In fact, lack of that protection is a big problem when fighting Protean. You can probably skip Resilience.

Take two more slots in Hasten, and put Single Origin Recharge Reductions in it. That will either make it "perma" (finishes recharging before it wears off) or damned close.

Take Placate. It almost always works, which means if a tough foe is getting the better of you it can let you cut and run...or set them up for an assassination that could turn the tide. Slot it for recharge.

You probably also want Reconstruction, slotted for recharge. A self-heal is always good, and it also gives you resistance to Toxic...a type against which there is very little protection in the game.

Needless to say, go to the proper origin-specific store in Talos Island and fill up on only single origin enhancements. They're really good...level 22 is sort of a tipping point for characters because it's when SO's become possible (outside of the few you'll get on sewer runs or other special drops), and boy howdy do they make a difference.

---Dave

Meanwhile, my Titan Weapons/Invincibility Scrapper just hit 30 and I'm still loving her. Only real problem I face mechanically is running out of endurance, heh.

Seriously. Titan Weapons, where you go "Pause...WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMbyoooooo(toggles all turn off)D'oh!"

My Titan Brute (Red MacIntosh) is only up to about L23, but I've been spending a lot of time this week with a group of ponies on Exalted, and Pinkemina (Axe scrapper) is up to L34. I also started a Titan Weapons Tank (Gilly Callum) on Exalted last night and got her to L14.

---Dave

Yeah. It's a LOT of damage, though. I just tear through my enemies, until I run out of end. That's what insps are for I guess!

They got any cribsheets for enhancers? It gets a tad tedious going down the list of magical enhances trying to figgure out which one boosts knockback and endurance by clicking on 'info'.

Filling all thoes slots up, I might go through the rest of that 'donation' you gave me. ^_^

BTW... at level 25, when and if I do run the course to get a chance to change my powers (or at least making the first set a little freindlier), will it effect/wipe both sets or only the one which I am set to? Cuz honestly, it'd be a kick in the tush to have to buy all thoes upgrades all over again.

Also, when you reach 35 and get your chance at epics... does your choice bind both of your power sets, or could you have one for each set? (so hard to choose between the exploding shurikens and teh unholiness)

EDIT: Found the cribsheet. What the hell are 'to hit Buffs/Debuffs' anyways... I get stuck with 'em and keep selling them. It's annoying!

Rather than type out a bunch of stuff, here's some links:

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Enhancement

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Magic_Enhancement_Costs

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Respec

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Multiple_Builds

And yes, take Integration. It will make you heal faster, the whole point of Regeneration, and give you protection against status effect. And status effects SUCK.

Well, I've got her all revamped. Unfortunately I don't have her completely enhanced... since I ran out of money on the Magic enhancers. I got the important stuff first... but unfortunately didn't get to endurance reduction on a lot of stuff...

Are you reccomending I use the magic stuff on EVERYTHING or just on the mentioned stuff? Cuz generics a lot cheeper and will tide me over until I gets mad wit da monies again.

On everything. I've sent you another million (thanks to the auction system and a few lucky drops, I've got several hundred million floating around, people who really work at it regularly hit the two billion cap).

---Dave

Last night I got on the beta server and "bought" a whole pile of those upcoming collectible blindpacks. I got all of the costume pieces, but stopped before I got the wolf pet. This thread shows pics.

---Dave

Wow ... again thanks. I just about spent all of it filling the last bit up, but now, aside from one oversight I need to yet fix, she's up and ready to rumble.

Now... a matter of Hasten, Reconstruction, and Dull Pain.... when would the optional time to activate thoes?

I presume you mean optimal.

Hasten: just before you attack, it won't make you break out of Hide. If it recharges before the fight is over, trigger it again.
Reconstruction: Any time you're down to half health or below and it's ready.
Dull Pain: after the first time you take significant damage in a fight.

Note that all of these will give you some endurance management issues, although having SO's in endurance reduction will help a lot.

---Dave

Wait, what's that about "blindpacks"?

Some sort of new microtransaction, it looks like. New costume set, some enhancements (?), and a big black wolf pet. Blindpacked!

A way to suck more money out of players with poor impulse control, basically. You get five "cards" in a pack for 80 points, which is about a dollar. There's four rarity levels of card, but some of the rares are just more copies of something (i.e. 25 Merit Reward for a common, 100 Merit Reward for an ultra-rare). The costume pieces seem to be a mix of uncommon and rare, but once you draw one you can't draw it a second time. The wolf is an ultra-rare.

---Dave

Well... I did it.

I went in and I clobbered the same 1/2 power protean that's been kicking my butt.

It seemed way too easy... activate haste, move in, punch, run around, use Dull pain and Reconstruction when needed... then when cornered, use Debuff to make him loose interest... before sneaking up and kicking his ass again.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't have gone and re-adjusted my fighting levels.

Anyways after that I ran around and took care of my 'Tips'. I ran all hero missions... though I have to admit that the Circle of Thorn's mission was a tough call... either stop the ceremony, or blow up a shipload of artifacts... on one hand, they'll turn off the sun... on the other, they have a shipload of other unholy crap they'll throw at the rest of us. Leveled up to 25 in the process... and called it quits being I've been up for close to 24 hours (with a 2 hour nap).

SO... now do I contact the Tips contact or something or am I done for a wHile? Also... Vigilante rank, there any perks to that?

Speaking of the Circle... one of the maps had the Behemoth portals in it... and Moritori went through thoes things like you wouldn't beleive. Of course I DID use the summon snowman power to keep thoes damn demons busy. Still though... compared to the first time she took on these things... this was a cakewalk. GG died repeatedly taking out that one nest... and she has range. Didn't have a snowman freeze thoes freaks... but still.

Being properly slotted up and having more of your defense set really does make a difference, yes?

As for the tip missions, once you've done ten of them for a specific alignment, the next tip that drops will be an Alignment Mission. If you do a Hero one, it will "confirm" your alignment and let you start earning Hero Merits (doing the Signature Story Arcs let you get these, as will doing another Alignment Mission of your existing alignment). It will also get you an alignment power, for heroes it's a team damage augment click power, and for vigilantes it's a fear radius burst. The system is designed to make it so you have to go slowly on alignment change, by which I mean you can't change alignment faster than two days since you can only do five tip missions a day. I expect this limitation is more to keep people from farming alignment merits than it is to keep people from changing alignment quickly, though.

---Dave

As for the benefits of being Vigilante: you can access both sides of the game and go in both hero and villain zones. Meaning you can join villain teams and do their missions or task forces.

HOWEVER

1) you cannot accumulate Hero Merits, which can be traded for rewards
2) while you can go to the red side, you don't have access to their contacts. SO you can't hit up, say, Vivacious Verandi and do her arc. You need to be full villain for that.
3) you lose access to Fort Trident, though that's mostly just used for cashing in Hero Merits so no biggie.

Question is now... what do I do for Geiger Gal? She's got Rad Primary and Energy... and all she's got for Def thusfar is Hover and Tough.

Blasters don't really have defenses, your key there is to keep people away. /Energy has several good knockback melee attacks, pick one at control-click the icon. This will surround the icon with a green ring, meaning it will automatically attack any selected target who's in range. I call it my "GO AWAY" setting.

---Dave

Best Blaster Defense = Blow the jive out of all your opponents before they can hurt you. In other words, the best defense is a strong offense.

As a Blaster, you can also pick up a defensive or resistance power in the Epic pools later on, but yeah.

For the majority of your leveling as a Blaster, your best defense if you're soloing is going to be the "Scorched Earth" policy.

With Geiger Girl... I'm torn between choosing the Fire Mastery (with the epic radioactive pheonix) and the Force mastery Epics...

As for Moritori... I'm debating wether to stick with martial arts angle and go with weapons mastery (and give her exploding shurikens ^_^), OR to make the Mystical angle make more sense, and give her Darkness Mastery (wich, considering the unsolves part of her amnesiac backstory... would make sense).

Any pony fans here who haven't already joined, /chanjoin City of Ponies

---Dave, has upgraded his plot, if you know what he means.

Protectors of Ponygon City roster.

---Dave