Steady's Gaming Blog

So Going Rogue has been out for awhile. The first few days, I played; I have to admit, I was not very impressed. I guess because I have eight level 50’s that a new zone to level up in, just did not have much appeal to me. I rolled up a few praetorians, and gave the new zones a try. The new content is well done, a nice addition to the game. The zones look nice; the missions are fun,. I am enjoying the critters, I am finding the ghouls fun to do battle with. So I will give the new zones a good A+ rating. The only downfall I see is that you cannot join a supergroup. I would like to have a base to craft in, and because I am not a big PUG er, I prefer to run in teams of people from my SG.
It would be nice to have the support of an SG in these zones.

I know a lot of players are unhappy with the fact that you cannot bring an old character into the new zones; you have to roll a new character. The badge collectors are really throwing a fit, because they cannot collect up all the badges in the game. Personally, it does not bother me, I could care less about badges, I have one character that I do collect up badges on, but really it does not bother me if I do not get all 968(I think there more then that, I have not seen a complete updated list) badges that are now in the game. My philosophy on badges has always been, that if it is an accolade that gives me more stamina, or heath, or something useful, I will chase it down. I am not going to farm, or go outside of normal game play to chase down a badge. I remember some of my SG mates joining a healing farm every night for six months to get a healing badge. This is not something that I am going to do. So what I most likely will do is start a badge character in the gold zone, collect up all the badges I can on the gold, blue and red sides, just so see how many I can get. It will not be every badge in the game, I can promise you that.

The feature I like the most is the new tips missions. I am having a lot of fun with these. Even if you are never going to change sides, run five tips missions a day. I have a level 50 hero that I have been running hero tips missions on. I run five of them a day, at +3 difficulty level. I have picked up a few nice purple recipes. After 10 tips missions, you can run the hero morality mission. The first time you run the morality mission, you get 50 reward merits. The second time, and every time after that you get one hero alignment merit. Twenty alignment merits will get you a purple recipe from the alignment vendor. So if you are not running five tips missions a day, after you reach level 20, you are making a mistake. By the time you are level 50, you should have yourself a few purple recipes.

I have also found the tip missions to be very good content. In fact, they are a bit challenging. One of them I have died in several time (darn sappers), that I am determined to beat. It has been awhile since I have been challenged in City of Heroes, so I am enjoying the challenge.

So I have going to have to give Going Rogue very high marks. The only flaw I can find is that it did not increase the level cap, which is something I would very much like to see. I think issue 19 is going to address that problem. So good work City of Heroes, I have to say this is some of the best content I have seen added to any game in a long time, keep up the good work.

I just got a nice tweet about Issue 18: Shades of Grey Overview for City of Heroes. I have to admit it had three words in it, I thought I would never see again, Cathedral of Pain. This is a sore spot for many players in City of Heroes, Especially the PVP crowd.. It use to be a trail were up to 24 level 50’s had an hour to complete missions in order to obtain an Item of Power. This was put in your base, and guarded by any means necessary during base raids. It was a buggy little piece of work that was only live for about 30 days.

It looks like it is back; it also looks like it might have some changes. Makes no mention of base raids, the rewards not look like merits and badges. Come on, how about a few purples. I have a feeling base raids are a thing of the past. This has raid written all over it, I also like the fact that it has to be done in an hour. I always enjoyed the sewer trial, mainly because it has a time limit, and you have to use teamwork to get it done. This looks like more of the same.

Finally, the merging of the Auction house markets on the red and blue side. All I can say is that it is about time. Also you can trade inspirations’ on co-op zones, with the other side. Good deal that was always a pain, not being able to give some one an inspiration so they could rez.

Finally a new tips system; foes will drop clues that can start missions. That is a great way to add content, and not have to make new zones. Looks like another good free expansion is no the way, I cannot wait.

I do not spend a lot of time on You Tube, but when I do, it is usually something that samuraiko has done. These videos are just awesome. This is the City of Heroes 6th Anniversary Commemorative. It brings back so many memories, some of the old costume design screens look really funny now. 579 power combinations, LOL, I bet I have tried all of those. It also shows how much City of Heroes has grown over the past six years.

Happy 6th Anniversary City of Heroes, tip of the hat, has been a great six years, looks like lots of good things on the way. Looking forward to playing the upcoming issues.

Issue 17 hit the live servers yesterday, and I have to admit that I am really impressed. Here is a nice link to the Paragon Wiki with all the details.

Issue 17 information on Paragon Wiki

I can play the game in ultra mode. I am not one of those people that play a game for the graphics. I don’t need shadows, or graphic details to enjoy a game. If you do, then ultra mode is a good thing.

Two things really stick out for me in this Issue. Finally after six years you can send money, and items to other characters. Even better, you can send these items globally, across different servers. All I can say is that it is about time.

The second thing is the change to the Vigilance Buff for Defenders. You now get a buff to you damage when the defender is on a team of three or less. Defenders were always a pain to level because they could not kill anything. This should be a solution to the problem. It is a nice fix for a class that is needed in the game, but hard to level. I know it is an MMO, and people should team together. Honestly, I do not PUG much anymore in City of Heroes because of the AE baby effect; it makes for a lot of useless players. I am not an elitist but you can no longer run a mission on a difficultly of +1 or +2, and survive. Tanking, sniping, and pulling are a thing of the past in City of Heroes. People do not have a good understanding anymore of the basic skills needed to survive. So my level 40ish defender, who has been that level forever, has a chance to make it to level 50 finally.

Badges were added to the game as well, 72 for heroes, and 36 for villains. I am not a fan of badges, but you now give five merits for each zone you collect up all the explorations badges in. That is a total 60 merits on the blue side. I do like merits, so I will be hopping around to get those.

I have to say, this looks to me like one of the best issues for City of Heroes in a long time. With Going Rogue just around the corner, and some type of end game content coming soon as well, City of Heroes is looking pretty good right now.

Here is a cool video of the new power set Kinetic Melee. Not very often that I get very excited about a new power set, but this one has me very excited. Is it just me, or is straight out of a Jackie Chan movie. This set looks awesome; I cannot wait to try it out.

Just a few interesting tweets today, that I wanted to share with others..

First, the good folks at wow.com have created an impressive list of resources for World of Warcraft. You have been warned, be prepared to spend a few hours looking at websites. Lots of good World of Warcraft information here. Nice to have all this info in one place, a must have bookmark for anyone that plays World of Warcraft.

Wow.com, Guide to Wow resources

Second, City of Heroes updated the Going Rogue website today. Calvin Scott and Ghouls are introduced, are they friend or foe? Nobody knows. Just more fluff, still no hard facts. Come on Paragon, I need some facts here, enough fluff.

Going Rogue

So that is my Twitter Roll for today, everyone have a great gaming day.

There has been some news about City of Heroes, Going Rogue in the past few weeks. Of course they have let us know how much it is going to cost. It will cost $29.99 for the normal expansion and $39.99 for the collector’s addition. They released details about the next free expansion, Issue 17: Dark Mirrors and Going Rogue. The big news is the new ultra mode, a graphics update. Which honestly does not do much for me; I am not one of those graphics people that think my computer world has to look like the real world. Positron has posted a video card shopping guide on the COH forums, so check it out to see if you will be able to run ultra mode. In a nutshell, I do not play games for the graphics, but some people do, so this will be nice. Also looks like the normal expansion stuff, new powers sets, costumes, and of course new badges. What would a City of Heroes expansion be without a few new badges?

War Witch has been making the rounds with people like Top Ten Hammer, and Becketts Massive Online Gamer. I am not seeing a lot of information here. Yes, there will be two more power sets, and a new zone, you can switch sides, all well and good, but not something I am sure I want to pay for. We just went through this with Champions, unless I am getting a level cap raise, or some killer end game content, why would I pay good more for a few new zones, and powers. Yes I can switch sides, but is that worth $29.99, what am I going to do once I switch, run stuff I have already ran? City of Heroes has always been one of my favorite games, and I hope they are going to give me more then I am seeing here, because if they don’t, I am not sure if I will be Going Rogue. I don’t want to be one of those grumpy gaming bloggers, but the MMO world is getting crowded, and I have to send my kids to college soon, so I am being a bit pickier about where I spend my gaming dollars.

Finally it is time for one of the best weekends of the year. Double XP weekend starts Thrusday, March 4th until Sunday, March 7th. Also if you have an inactive account, you can play free of charge all weekend. So if you are looking for someone to run with, check out the Combat Engineers, on the Freedom, Virtue and Justice servers, or the Dark Combat Engineers on the Freedom Server, if you are playing villains.

I do not visit YouTube very often, this one actually came to me via Twitter. It is very well done, and funny. I love the ” COH pawns CO News at 11 “, totally ROFL.

A tip of the cap to samuraiko, very well done, if you get a chance check out he rest of his work, it is all very well done.

The holidays are always a busy time; I really have to make a few more posts this month.

The winter event went live yesterday in City of Heroes. The ski slopes are open, the baby new year mission is live, and presents have spawned in all zones. The only new badges this year are the festive badge, which is the annual badge for the event. The other new badge is the lord/lady of winter badge for defeating Lord Winter. If this is the first time your character has logged in during the winter event, you will receive a temporary power, holiday sprit, which offers debt protection for two days of game play. This power is really a bit outdated, with patrol xp, debt is really no longer an issue. It is however a nice power to have. You will also receive the temp power, holiday cheer, you can give this to another player, and they will receive a mystery gift. You will also receive ear muffs, a must have for all of those holiday costumes.

The new winter lord event is something that I really like. When a certain amount of presents have been opened in a zone, a winter lord will appear. When the winter lord is defeated, he leaves behind a huge present (marked on the map) and a timer starts counting down. Anyone who clicks on the huge present before the timer reaches zero will be teleported to Lord Winter’s realm. The main objective is to defeat Lord Winter. When his health reached 75%, 50% and 25%, he will phase shift, and will not take any damage. He will summon a winter guardian that must be defeated before; Lord Winter will then take damage again. The rewards are pretty sweet. You will receive 20 candy canes, and 8 reward merits for 15 minutes of work. On some of the larger servers like Freedom. There will be more then one instance of the Winter Lords realm. After defeating the Winter Lord in the first realm, quickly move to the second realm, and you can double your rewards rather quickly. This is by far the fastest way to collect candy canes.

The candy keeper is located in the Chalet in Pocket D offers two new rewards this year. One is a holiday respec for 500 candy canes and 250000 influence. A bit pricey for a respec if you ask me. He also offers a new emote, throwing snowflakes for 25 candy canes and 1000 influence.

Overall I have to rate the new Winter Lord event with an A+, it really gives you a fast way to earn good rewards. The sprit of the holiday season is to give good rewards/presents, and this event does that.

Today someone sent me a question about to hit buffs, and defense debuffs, they also wanted to know more about accuracy (thanks plotter, have been having a bit of blogger writers block of late). By far, one of the most complicated things to figure out in City of Heroes, is the concept of accuracy and defense. So complicated in fact, that I am not even going to attempt to explain it. I do however have a few nice links that are very helpful.

Here is a link to the guide page in the City of Heroes forums. Scroll down the page to the Defense, Accuracy and To hit Section. Lots of good posts about this subject. Some them are a bit old, but still apply.

City of Heros Forums Guide to Guides

LOL, have a headache yet. The math alone is enough to drive you crazy. So just a few friendly pointers to follow that will make your head stop hurting..

1. Don’t get all caught up in the numbers. A general rule, put one accuracy IO in each of you main attacks, and you should be fine. Keep it up to date. If you have an attack that you want to make sure hits like assassin strike, for a stalker, put two in there. Remember, no matter how much you enhance accuracy; it always has a five percent chance to miss. Why that five percent always seems to happen when Lord Recluse, and his buddies are wiping the floor with you, is beyond me.

2. Defense debuffs are good for defensive minded characters. Melt armor on a tank is the best thing since ketchup.

3. To hit debuffs are good for squishy characters (blasters, controllers), if they cannot hit you, they cannot hurt you. Not a lot of places to slot defense on some power sets, so to hit debuff can be a good way to save yourself sometimes.

4. KISS, Keep it simple stupid. It does look like rocket science, and it is. Is the to hit debuff better then defense debuff, not really, both are helping you enhance one of your powers, just in different ways.