CoH: week in review

Some interesting play-time in the last week or so. Let’s review:

Hang Time (50)
Respecced HT to the older ‘classic’ version, which is Hasten + pure blaster (no melee attacks except for the one you have to take). I didn’t need the Hasten back for his round-to-round combat, but I *did* want to get back his “fastest Boom in the West” status.
The downside to his ‘classic’ build is that it didn’t include Conserve Power — something I’ve since become VERY fond of — and, while I still have it, I didn’t manage to squeeze it in until level 49, which means I didn’t have access to it during the Portal Smasher Task Force that we did this last week.
That’s Right! I actually got HT dusted off and run him through this damn thing for the third time, this time, actually COMPLETING it. Good solid group, and if HT faceplanted more than even I’m used to, I don’t blame anyone but myself and the Rularuu cone attacks. C’est la Shard.
RP: Jason hasn’t been around people for… quite a long time — he’s pretty much been hanging out by himself in the Shard since the annulment, and while this has done wonders for the manipulation (if not actual control) of his powers, he sort of forgot how to be… Jason.
The task force, in which he was surrounded by folks he’s known a very very long time (Sword and Noelle, most notably), did wonders to fix that — and while he isn’t totally back to normal, he’s a damn sight closer than he’s been in a long time, and more importantly, he LIKES that.
((Player’s Note: I’ll never be a blaster; not really. At heart, I’m a melee guy, and even when I didn’t know that, I still played HT that way. I *have* a blapper in Epitaph, however, so I specifically stuck with HT’s ‘pure blaster’ build. There is a certain fun to being ‘the Damage’ in a group, and if nothing else, Hang Time is far-and-away the easiest character for me to roleplay, as he is the most like; broken bits and all.

Hyperthermian (50)
Hype’s tanking for a group doing the fourth Shard TF, which was going swimmingly until we hit the last AV, Lanaru the Hideously Overpowered Mad. Five or Six team-wipes. We all decided to take a break and try that last fight again another day. Lanaru’s a god: he can wait.
I dearly wanna do this with the Old Regulars and see what happens.

Strategist (34)
Still really pondering a history-rewrite on him — a full-on reimaging of the character. Call it an IC-respec. In gameplay, I dialed him up to Rugged and have going through missions like a porche running 75 in a school zone. If only he had a self-heal (ponders the medicine pool).

Epitaph (34)
The reverse of Strat: I’ve dialed him down to heroic and still get owned by Mez-powers until I switch into White Dwarf form, which is as durable as a giant hunk of stone, and *just* as fas and engaging to play.

Pummelcite (25, 26, 27, 28 — new)
In order to fix my respec screw-up before Knight’s Night last week, I wanted to get to 26th level. Did that. Got taunt. Realized all my Enhancements were now badly weakened. Got to 27th level and upgraded all my enhancements. More to the point, I have, during this time, fallen in luuurve with playing this toon — he kicks all kinds of ass and is just way tougher than any character with a currently-gimped powerset should be. Cannot WAIT for i7 to come out and help him out further.
I was ready for Knight’s Night.
… and the lag from the i7 downloads going on was so bad I couldn’t even play. Pumm got faceplanted 3 times in the first mission (I think — it was impossible to tell with the lag).
So. Damned. Frustrating. I still get mad, thinking about it. Nothing makes me feel as squishy as using Pumm to tank for a big group of Knights. Maybe he should be my version of Margie’s Blue Point. I dunno.

Markov Chain (22)
I’d very much like to run the second Strike Force with Markov (and the CoI computer can do it).
Very much.
Bear Claws (22, new)
Picked up a lil’ power on him that works like a faster version of Build Up. It’s kinda meh, but the extra damage on the powers I like is nice.
Really looking forward to the Claw fixes in i7.

Dolmen (16, new)
Got to level 16 and picked up his self-heal, which heals a WHOLE. LOT. and cycles about every 30 seconds. ((Downside, it sucks endurance like [insert dirty analogy here].)) I’d like to do the first Villain Strike Force with him veddy veddy much…
Nice thing about playing Pumm alot is the insight it’s given me into the Stone attack cycle (*)– it’s really helped me manage Dolmen’s endurance usage while still kicking ass.

Gavin (14, new)
Got teleport. Am pleased. (Weirdly, In less than 10 days, I’ve gone from no characters with Teleport to three. Gavin got it, and Pummelcity and Epitaph (with White Dwarf) both respecced into it.)

(*) — The Stone Melee attack chain (one recharge rate in all three Stone attacks): Brawl – Stone Fists – Brawl – Hammer – Brawl – Stone fists – Brawl – BIG HAMMER [[repeat]]
If everything hits, and you have your damage aura on, an orange-difficulty mook will drop every cycle.
Until you get into SO Enhancements, every two cycles you have to do two brawls in a row after the Big Hammer.
Yes, I’ve been playing Stone Melee alot 🙂