Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Champions Online (Day 3, Free Form At Last!)

By the time I am ready to log in for my third day in Millennium City, my mind is set. Chang is sitting around level 12 and I feel very comfortable in attempting the Free Form system. Glancing at Chang's full power progression list, I make a couple mental notes on what levels it's appropriate to consider things like passive defenses, active defenses and offenses, etc. Then it's off to the character creator.



I click Create with the idea of porting Gao Dou over into Millennium City. He was a Praetorian vice cop that escaped to Primal Earth in hopes of establishing his own criminal empire. Converting him to a hero would be... difficult. But I know we have both Dual Pistols and Telepathy powers, so I consider it. However, two things catch my eye.



Or, I could port over my name sake, Epsicon. He's far less evil and has always jumped around the hero/vigilante/rogue morality. While he's seen many, many retcons over the years – the core concept has always stayed the same. A guy, either with cyborg parts or mostly cyber-ized, that operates primarily as a specialist for hire. The last iteration was more or less a commando in power armor. Glancing at the above powers as his starters, I drop the idea of Gao Dou and go for Epsicon.



Epsicon as he appears in City of Heroes

It's not even close to his City appearance, and it looks like he's been influenced by Samus Aran when it came to his power armor design. But I love it.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I clear the tutorial very quickly this time and still end up around level six as I visit the Power House. Black Talon still proves to be a challenge, but I eventually persevere and get the chance to play with free form.


An hour later, after much testing and fiddling, I settle on Jet Pack for his travel power and a shoulder mounted mini-gun for his third attack. The mini-gun is incredible – it's a cone (I guess?) ranged attack that annihilates anything it hits. Not to mention I can later add an advantage to make it debuff damage resistance per hit. The pop up animation looks nice, and if I'm reading into it correctly, I can alter the colors on the gun in the costume creator. Or, I just got really lucky and it matches my costume. Whatever the case, it fits the character.


I work the Kodaik/Westside cases and complete the Nighthawk event with ease. As I level, I gain a new passive that blows my mind one again.

So... I can haz mage tank? I can. YES. My survivability goes through the roof for more than a couple more levels and I sail through the Kevin Poe fight as if he was nothing. I believe I end up finishing the day sitting at twelve, catching up to Chang in half the amount of time. I can continue the Westside cases and start to pursue the others gangs beyond Kevin Poe's Purple Gang, or I can try one of the Adventure Packs/Comic Series that Defender just informed me about. Knowing nothing about them beyond a couple articles I once skimmed on Massively's “Behind the Mask” series, I select White Out and am directed to an UNTIL transport outside. Not wanting to start something that seems epic with it being so close to bedtime, I call it a night and log off just outside the aircraft.

- @Epsicon

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