Trying to be a Champion... Again...

I have to admit, I've been spending too much time on Skyrim.   The last thing I've been trying is a Redguard -- mostly heavy metal, one handed, but going attempting a little magic.   It worked out okay -- but its easy to get side tracked in that game -- Do you bother with the Civil war, The companions, the magic college, the theives guild, the Dark Brotherhood?  In what order?  If you do alts it is easy to forget what you've done and when.  That being said, my current character is something of an oddity at least visually-- weilds Molaq Bal's mace with Ysgramor's Shield while wearing the Masque Of Clavicus Vile, wearing Orcish armor.  

I got back into Champions.  I've not been playing it because of the above.  Now when I started I had plenty of characters, but several were level 12 or less.  None were over level 15.   I tried several that I had made.  Goldward, (another COH transfer), Wild Deal (Ditto),  and tried several of the build types they have.  

One of the ones was The Devastator -- which has you weilding LARGE weapons.  NOT quite as big as what you would see in COH's Titan Weapons primary power set, but close.  I made a character that is female -- part Big Barda, part Wonder Woman, touch golden age -- called her Ms. Magnum.   She was quite fun to play and led me to surpass all other characters in a day! Unheard of.  Currently 18.   

Another surprising type is the Night Avenger.   I made a cyborg and called him Upshot.  I've only got him to level 10, but already this type is showing lots of potential.   The Night avenger has stealth which usually allows him to go by enemies his level or lower unobserved.   More potent enemies may still spot him.  In addition he has an assassin attack that he can do that is QUITE devastating when it works.   It makes it a lot easier if you can sneak up on a mob and take out its leader with the FIRST strike.  Assuming you WANT to take them out.  It is possible to buypass them.   This made it stand out from most of the rest of the character types which was usually just a choice between melee and ranged attacks, assuming you HAD that choice.  Granted some melee fighters were strong and could pick up crates or forklifts on occasion.   

Goldward is based on The Impulse -- gold force fields and energy attacks.   The personal forcefield on this nearly identical to what I did on Doctor Futura -- but he was built with the FREEFORM type -- so conceivably he could mix in ANYTHING at a later date.  I doubt BOTH will stay.  They are too much alike.

Sentai Orange is still there using The Fist type -- he's at 17 now.  I'm wondering if the SENTAI REBORN group is still going.  No one ELSE has leveled in the last several days.  It wouldn't be the first theme group that died on the vine.  

One of the last things I tried was The Specialist.  This type weilds dual pistols and a sword.   I ended up with a hooded Punisher-esque character called Epitaph.  I have to admit the pistols ran through the enemies a lot quicker than some power sets.   And when they got close you switched to the sword.   It looked a little odd -- espicially switching back and forth between these dual weapon powers.   Sometimes it looked like the sword had guns on them.  But it worked.  Only level 10 here.

And that is the point.  With most of these characters I found that trying something out entails going a lot further than JUST the tutorial level.   Yes you get your most common powers, including movement power by level 5, which is usually where you start if you bypass the tutorial.  IF you get to level 8 you get your defensive power, level 10 your secondary attribute stat, level 15 your last secondary Stat.   Each of these points are break points.  I saw some types that were HURTING without the defensive power badly, and as the stat bonuses rolled in by level and/or bound enhancement, they changed.   This means for each character type their are several level hurdles that need to be crossed.   You can't judge them solely by low level.

I have to admit that I have been doing that to a degree. And I've cheated myself out of some fun.

Now that I've gotten a couple characters into the upper teens, I continue to notice several changes in the early missions.   For instance one of the early Desert missions has you healing injured soldiers.   You seem to be doing far more now.  On the Canadian side, I noticed some Ice cave missions that were new.   Several missions that had you doing boss battles out in the open, now go to instanced missions.  I do like this better.   I remember one Canadian mission where you go to a spot, summon a legencary creature and defeat him.   It was always so aggravating when your mission got fouled up because someone swoops in and gets YOUR boss.  Since that mission is part of a plot thread -- it could mean starting the character over.   NOT an eager prospect now that the Canada and Desert stuff are late teen level areas not starting areas.

I find myself getting into the Champions mindset -- slowly.   Trying to get used to the idea that a weak attack can increase your endurance goes against 8 years of City of Heroes gameplaying.  But there aren't any endurance buffs when you are soloing through all the early missions.

The one thing I don't like about Champions is that EVERY character has to go through the same missions.  Tutorial or not, is followed by West side missions.  Eventually that works up to prison area missions and starts to fan out from there.   But with no teaming, no EA, no sewer TF, you are running throught the same Purple Gang missions, then the Same  Maniac missions, etc.   Red Banner and Foxbat missions start to switch things up, and Socrates can get involved too.   But it takes over a dozen missions to reach this point.

Yes I did say soloing.   I've teamed only twice in recent play.   That would have been unheard of in City.  Even with all the groups I've joined, are on the global lists and all, I still have yet to get into a casual team with anything other than one new in-game friend.   They just don't occur.

My new main, Ms. Magnum, has gotten into a group "The All-Stars".  Harkens back to the All-Star Sentinel's group that Flagborn used to be in.  Unlike several other groups, this one actually had several people on -- and seemed quite busy.  Further, she and Sentai have both gotten high enough that they are seeing drops that are slotted.   A mechanic that was unheard of when I first tried the game years ago.

All said, I have to admit my opinion of the game has started to evolve.