MMO Grinder Reviews City of Heroes Freedom

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A New Challenger Appears!

Cauteriza 16 TW/FA Villain Brute

So I decided to expand my leveling queue a bit to include one of every Archetype. That way, I can play whatever play style I'm in the mood for. It'll be slower to 50 anything this way, but so what? 50 isn't my goal. Just a natural result of playing a character I enjoy enough to get them there.

Taking the Brute leveling slot, we have my latest character Cauteriza (a reroll from FM/FA because I find that combo a bit boring even though I normally enjoy symmetrical sets), a Titan Weapons/Fiery Aura Villain Brute. She's an archaeologist who found a magic ax that transformed her. She's one of those characters who could change alignments, perhaps often, based on the Banneresque tug-of-war between the two personalities. Technically, she's the same person in either form, certain traits are just greatly amplified under the ax's influence.

My preference for simple, but visually iconic and strong costuming really shows on her. I'll probably do the Barbarian metal bikini on her when I have the Points to purchase them (buying Titan Weapons nearly wiped me out-- and was worth every Point) because the Barbarian female top comes with six-pack abs (finally some muscles for females!)

I heard horror stories of Titan Weapons being slow and unwieldy at low levels, but I just don't see it. Oh, it's a bit slower to start than some sets, and the Fury building of the set is pretty far off optimal, but at level 16 the set is feeling fast and fluid. Not at all the clunky set I had imagined. And Titan Weapons has a good mix of AOE and single target options, allowing you to build with a bias towards one of the two, or a balance of both. I had feared the set was AOE only, meaning it would lack the single target punch needed to take out tougher Bosses, Elite Bosses and Archvillains. Not so! Very good single target damage is there if you want it in addition to some of the best AOE available to melees.

In addition to really great, versatile damage, Titan Weapons also brings a surprising amount of damage mitigation. The tier-one attack, Defensive Sweep, gives a stackable 11.25% Melee and Smashing Defense! You know, I thought Powers like Parry were the design mistakes of an inexperienced development team, but here they are putting Parry-like powers into brand new sets (and even an "old" set with Tanker Martial Arts having a non-stackable 10% all-positions, all-types except Toxic and Psi Defense in Storm Kick) so it must not be considered overpowered even if my sense of game balance is telling me that it is.

I chose to pair it with Fiery Aura because the pair seem to prop each other up very nicely. FA gives even more damage of a rarely resisted type and Endurance recovery to TW, and TW gives extra mitigation to FA. It's win-win.

I highly recommend picking Titan Weapons up. It's a much better set than it would seem and is every bit the fun-quotient equal of Street Justice. I did not expect that.

And by the way, there's nothing about the set that feels wrong for Stalkers. The Momentum builders in the set are very much Assassin's Strike animations. Stalker players would feel right at home with the set. Luckily, I hear it will see a port at some time in the future (and arguments about theme are asinine. You can surprise someone with the world's biggest sword if you can turn invisible!)

New City of Heroes Freedom Wallpapers

Oh, Mommy!

They're a bit too "loud" for my tastes in wallpaper, but Mommy is looking good in hers so I'm tempted to use it lol.

City of Heroes Freedom Wallpapers
Discuss the wallpapers at the official forums.

Miss Star Wars Galaxies?

Remember, nothing is destroyed but only transformed. Currently, 62% feature complete. I'm just sayin'...

Staff Fighting Video via ZombieTubular

Overall it looks great. I could do without the "breakdancing" moves but this is still an automatic purchase for me when it comes out in 2012.

Visit ZombieTubular's YouTube channel.

Statesman to Die in 2012

It was the obvious choice, and if it was to be any kind of a story in the general gaming community it was the only choice. Killing off anyone else but Statesman would have been a non-event in all but the current City of Heroes Freedom community.

Also, it was curious that they decided to spoil it ahead of time.

Discuss the upcoming death of Statesman at the official forums.

Mission Architect Player's Choice Awards 2011 Winners

If you're looking for some good AE missions to play, you're in luck! The 2011 Player's Choice Awards results are in and the winner is...you!

2011 Player's Choice Awards winners thread at the official forums.

MMORPG.com City of Heroes Freedom Review

Titan Weapons Goes Live!

Go. Purchase. Kill Skulz with Titan Weapons.

EDIT:
Titan Weapons Pro Tip: The Titan Weapons Weapon Pack #1 is free for a limited time, so even if you don't buy Titan Weapons, make sure to buy the free weapon pack from the store just in case you do pick Titan Weapons up in the future.  Too late! The free pack is now gone. /em grief

Rediscovering My Mind/Psi Dominator

The Sleeping Girl: once Mind/Psi/Soul, now Mind/Psi/Psi.

With all the melees I've been playing lately, I got the itch to play a Dominator again. With no leveling slot currently open on my roster, I took The Sleeping Girl (formerly The Sleeping; I like the new name better) out of retirement. The experience was an interesting but frustrating one.

Funny thing about Doms is they are a skill-dependent Archetype. If you're out of practice with Doms in general or even a particular build, you'll faceplant when you try to pick it back up at first. A lot. You must constantly assess the situation for fights, and decide the best approach for each. Total situational awareness is the difference between victory and defeat. Things get better as you  take your lumps and get those Dominating skills sharpened back up. Once mastered, it's the most intense, rewarding play style available in the game.

The Sleeping Girl was Mind/Psi/Soul. Once I sharpened my skills back up, I tried to up the difficulty, but I couldn't crack +0x3 (no set bonuses yet). It became apparent the Soul Mastery APP, taken for story reasons, was holding me back. Luckily, the announcement of Dark Control/Dark Assault Doms gave me a way to advance The Sleeping Girl's story and make her better all at once.

To make a long origin story short, The Sleeping Girl was the result of a young girl named Sally Worth being taken over by an evil netherworld entity. It put her into an apparently-permanent coma during which it would have full control of her. The Soul Mastery APP was a manifestation of this entity along with Sally Worth's inherent but latent Psionic powers providing the primary and secondary. Sally would never have had her latent abilities activated but for Mr. Panda's (Sally's name for the nether-worldly entity) magical influence. This was thought to be the end of the story, and the end of Sally Worth.

But then the impossible happened: Sally Worth started to wake up. Respeced into Psi Mastery, Sally has started to supplant Mr. Panda with her own power. Before long, she'll be doing the Tip Missions to go Rogue, then full Hero. But not before Mr. Panda has the last laugh!

The way Sally finally escapes is by using her Psionic power to cordon off Mr. Panda into his own corner of her mind, and then eject the encapsulated creature out into the world. This results (at first unknown to her) in her arch nemesis being born: the Dark/Dark/Soul Dominator (name not yet decided).

I had thought I was done with this character a long time ago, but part of the beauty of MMOs, and City of Heroes Freedom in particular, is they are ever-evolving things and that can mean new life for characters once thought permanently retired. The now permanently retired Daemodand, I'm looking at you...

1950's Sci-Fi Costume Set Coming & Brian Clayton's Holiday Letter

David Nakayama concept for '50s sci-fi costumes.

Executive Producer and General Manager Brian Clayton reveals in his Holiday Letter to the City of Heroes Freedom players that revenues and player base are both up for the game (by how much he doesn't say) and a really exciting costume set is coming in 2012: 1950's Retro Sci-Fi! The concepts look amazing. Let's hope girls get fishbowl helmets, too. And that the pre-tinting is optional.

Read the Holiday Letter at the official forums.
Discuss the Holiday Letter at the official forums.