New DA Tank Builds

My Dark Armor Tank has seen some heavy revision since the last I posted his build. In fact, I even rerolled him with a different powerset for a while. I'm going to talk about all those revisions, what changed and why, and then give you the Mids exports.

Before I get to all that, though, I want to make it clear that the old build is by no means outdated. It still performs every bit as well as it ever has. For any of you who have used it or taken ideas from it, none of them have magically become invalid.

The first revision I went through was when Martial Arts was ported to Tankers. I jumped all over that, giddy as all hell with the idea that I could get a huge defense bonus to everything and start stunning bosses and knocking down everything else. I set to work on a build that really took advantage of everything Martial Arts had to offer. What I created was glorious. I only had to build for 35% defense to S/L/E/N because Storm Kick would cover the difference (and I made sure Storm Kick had over 95% chance to hit +4 enemies). This let me pursue more recharge and max HP bonuses, resulting in an extremely sturdy tank. Further, my F/C/AoE defense was now above 30%, so my only possible weakness from before was fading fast. Then, since the attacks had the control I wanted, I dropped the Earth Mastery for Conserve Energy. A good thing too, because my new attack chain, while much stronger than with Fire Melee, was burning about 40% more endurance per second. Finally, I exchanged Teleport for Super Leap and Spring Attack. This is what it looked like:

The Highlights (With Storm Kick Active):
45.9% S/L defense
45.3% E/N

22.5% Max HP (2670 total with accolades)
22.2 HP/sec all the time
70% S/L resistance
2.2 Net endurance recovery per second with everything running
Dark Regeneration up every 13.3 seconds or less.

The Assassin's Prison

Awake.

To my feet. Set stance. Observe.

Dark. Quiet. Stone floor. Still air. Nothing nearby.

Reach and draw knives. They are gone. Reset stance. Shake arm to loose the spike. It is gone. Reset stance. Observe closely.

This is not the dark of night; sun, moon, star and torch are all absent. I cannot see my feet, hands, or even as near as my shoulders. I must be indoors, the night sky is never this dark. I hear as little as I see; If I am not alone, then my company breathes more quietly than I can. Maintaining my stance, I make a slow, silent step forward to find nothing. I make another, my knuckles coming into contact with polished, flat stone. I take steps to the left, hand tracing the wall, and in three paces I touch smooth lumber. Breaking stance, I search with my hands, finding the thin wooden frame of shelves and several sealed jars stacked upon them. Behind the shelves is only a second wall, which I follow four paces to a third stone wall. This bare wall is four paces in length as well. My fourth stone wall is broken by the rough wood of a heavy door. A gentle push tells me it is barred on the other side.

I lean my back against the first wall while I think. What was I last doing? Searching my memory causes my body to shudder; I see within my mind a flash of blue flame and am beset by the echo of a searing pain. I can recall only burning. No, it was no simple burn. I have withstood the desert, passed my hand through flames, even grasped at hot coals, but this was like no heat I have felt before. What burned was not my skin, but something else ... something deeper.

Interview with OnRPG

So I was recently interviewed by Meticulous Meta, a journalist over at OnRPG.com.

Anyway, check it out here!

The Violet Pursuit

No. No no no! That man lied to me. Rashidi did not lose. He cannot lose! That man must have lied. The way he laughed at me almost made me cry. I do not believe him, not at all. I wish I could have seen it myself, then I could be laughing at him for being a liar.

I will find Rashidi and ask him what happened. I know where his house is and how he will go from here to there. If I run, I will catch up to him on the way. Down the stairs, around behind the palace, then take the third left. These streets are well treated and do not hurt my feet when I run. I move so quickly that I almost knock over some rich old man. He shouts and shakes his fist at me while I turn away, down a side alley and over a small wall I know he cannot climb. I turn back towards the palace in case he has guards. They will not expect me to go this way. I laugh and make another turn to take me even farther from the old man's street. I will have to take the long way to Rashidi's house and meet him there.

Wait. Father allowed me to go to the tournament, but only if I could be home before the sun sets. If I am not, he will surely have me sanding beams for a whole moon. I will never make it home in time this way because I cannot run as quickly down these streets. There are rocks that may trip or cut me if I am not careful. I hate sanding, but I have to know what happened. Maybe I can think of a good story by then so father will forgive me. Something about that angry old man might do.

WSPDR Notes

Over time, my imaginings of the character Dechs Kaison have changed pretty drastically. Because of this, I've redone the initial WSPDR notes. This is a much more current view of Dechs as he is in game.

January, two thousand eleven, Catherine Ives recording...

As a blooming new company here in the Etoile Islands, Kaison Corporation has received loads of press time lately, and with good reason. It's the first of its kind, a hospital and medical research facility specializing in the meta-human population. Despite the attention the company is getting, the man behind it has remained all but anonymous. Dechs Kaison, we know his name but damn little else. Since he's turned down numerous chances to interview, it's fallen to the undercover girls like me to get the scoop. I'm not sure whether he's camera shy or hiding a few skeletons in his closet, but this could be the story to make my career.

MFing Warshade - Duct Tape Tactics

Within the period of about a week, three seemingly unrelated events occurred that, when compounded, would spur me to create a new video.

The first piece of the trifecta was a fellow game forum goer posting a music video about his Warshade in action. The video was very well done in terms of choreography. The performance of the character was also quite impressive. There was some discussion around it and someone voiced that it would be nice to see some other people making videos about their Warshades. I wanted to fire up Fraps that day, but I didn't want to make just another Warshade video. I needed something unique.

Later in that week, I jumped on a "for the hell of it" Sister Psyche task force with my Warshade, but it certainly wasn't going quite as planned. I kept trying to run off and solo groups of enemies, particularly ones on the way to hostages or guarding sonic devices. I was getting my ass handed to me! These even con Freaks were giving me more trouble than the Imperial Defense Force in the incarnate trials ever had. By the end of the TF I was doing fine, though, so I just chalked it up to being rusty.

Finally, over the weekend, I started watching the TV show Burn Notice. I have to say, this is one hilarious show. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend this show. It's all kinds of serious business and awesome action. Michael Westen, the main character, gets ousted from the CIA and thrown to the winds, trying to get by however he can while also figuring out who burned him in the first place. It's the narration that really makes the show funny, though. These monologues that get you inside his head are just timed so well. So, how the hell could this tie into City of Heroes?

I remember one of those monologues above all, while Westen is trying to scare off a drug dealer from his apartment. "Fighting with guns makes you stupid. Better to fight your wars with duct tape. Duct tape makes you smart." The point was that by relying on a powerful tool, you throw your wits away. When a situation really gets out of hand, when your tool is no longer enough to win on its own, you forget how to make the most of everything else. By fighting with duct tape, you force yourself to fight intelligently. That's when the idea came to me.

Fighting with Eclipse makes you stupid. This is my Warshade, fighting with Duct Tape.

The Supermassive Black Hole

Introduction

A long time ago, I posted my first Dark Armor Sucks video. Within a few months, I noticed that people would occasionally refer to my Dark Armor guide. At the time, my response was always "Can you give me a link to that guide?" as I had not actually written this yet. I didn't even plan to write one. My guides are typically more broad in scope, taking into account an entire archetype or more. Further, at the time I had only played Dark Armor as a Tank. I still had a lot more to learn about the set before I could claim enough proficiency to write a guide on how to play Dark Armor.

Today I'm finally sitting down to write the guide that so many people have claimed to exist (I'm still trying to figure that one out). By now I've played Dark Armor through two Tanks, two Stalkers, one Brute and one Scrapper, each with a different melee powerset. I feel comfortable giving advice that applies across the board.

I can teach you how to turn a simple Dark Armor character into a Supermassive Black Hole.

But Why a Supermassive Black Hole?

For you non-science types out there, a black hole is essentially a spot in the universe with such a strong gravity that nothing can escape from it. Anything you throw at it, or anything that even passes by close enough, gets sucked in and condensed, never to be seen again. Not even light can get through a black hole.

Good Dark Armor characters have quite a few things in common with black holes. They are awesome and alluring. Their existence is typically an anomaly. There's been a good deal of study done on them. There are people out there who still believe they just don't exist.

A supermassive black hole is like the next level of black hole. It's what a black hole would be if it had enough stuff thrown at it. You find them at the center of galaxies. They're the biggest and the nastiest of black holes.

And you can be the biggest and nastiest of the Dark Armor characters out there.