EVAC vs. the Night Widow

Sometimes, certain moments in-game will speak to me, and story will write itself in my head. This is one of those moments.

To set the stage: E.VAC (illusion control/radiation emission controller) is on a Statesman Task Force. The mission is to defeat the real security chief in order to gain access to Dr. Aeon's lab. There are a lot of Arachnos forces along the way.

As far as the game was concerned, E was trading mental blows with a Night Widow. He was using Blind, Spectral Wounds, and Power Blast. She was using her smoke grenade and mind blasts. Then E's Phantom Army, finished with their previous target, came over and finished her off.

E gritted his teeth, sending darts of mind-numbing pain into the Widow's head. She sent back psionic bolts of her own, sending twitches and convulsions through the hero's body with each blast. E fired his gauntlet blasters in an attempt to knock her off balance. She lobbed another smoke grenade, trying to distract him, thinking the hero would lose concentration if he couldn't see.

"You know," she suddenly said, flicking the pin out of another grenade, "it doesn't have to be like this."

"Like what?" he growled, sending out another wave of pain, fueled by his own wounds.

"We don't have to fight," she tried to say between grunts of effort. "Arachnos could use someone like you. We're not so different. And Widows aren't exclusively women any more." She looked him up and down beneath the concealing helmet. "We could use... a man like you."

EVAC laughed hollowly as he squeezed off another shot from his wrists. "Sorry, lady," he said dryly, "but there's one big difference between me and you. Between me and the kinda psychics you guys recruit."

She raised an eyebrow, thinking she knew exactly what he was going to say. "Oh, yeah? What's that?" Heroes always say the same thing.

E chuckled and stood up straight, jerking a thumb back over his shoulder. "These guys," he said simply.

Her eyes widened in horror as four phantoms swarmed over her and tore her mind apart.

The Shield Team (Vagabond Knight, Tresa M'Orrigan, Pas d'Armes, and Li-Hwan), trapped in an alternate dimension where opening chests destroys the world, receive some timely help from Mender Silos (aka GM_Sven)

Tyrant!

Jez Cavell: about to clean Dominatrix' clock. Or just stick a knife in it.

Blood Crucible trying to keep his eyes from popping out of his head at Jez's "undercover" outfit (insert ribald joke here).

I Do Not Hate Merits

I know I am distinctly in the minority, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. Story arcs and task/strike forces will earn me merits which I can eventually spend to get the IOs that everyone wants. IOs that for me I have to either level to 50 without spending influence/infamy in order to afford, or I have to get really damn lucky.

People keep saying merits will destroy the economy of the game. As one of those that is constantly shafted by that "economy", I have to say: let the destruction come. I want to be able to get that last Luck of the Gambler for Will, pick up that Numina proc and Performance Shifter for TankVagz, and not have to pool all of my characters' money to do so.

Sorry, guys. *shrug*

I13 So Far

The night I13 dropped, I was all fired up to make Vagabond Knight (Shield Defense/Fiery Melee Tank). But the patch server wouldn't even let me in. I eventually gave up on it (about my normal bedtime) and just left my computer on so it'd eventually finish downloading without me. It did.

So last night, I got in, loaded up Vagabond Mage (Fire Blast/Electricity Manipulation Blaster) and saved his base costume. Then I went back to the login and deleted my place-holder Vagabond Knight and started a new character. I still had to choose the body type and sliders. Okay, I've got those saved, and I think I can get the height right this time. I get to the costuming screen and click Load.

It won't let me load the costume because options that BlasterVagz has open, TankVagz does not. Bastards. Why couldn't it load up the costume parts that aren't the cape and aura? *grumble*

Okay, so I re-make the costume from scratch. Not that hard.

I'm enjoying my new tank so far. Got to level 6. But I realize I lack experience with the AT and both powersets. So I'm probably going to need to plan ahead so I can figure out what powers I can and need to skip. On top of primary and secondary, I need to fit in 3 Fitness pool powers (Swift, Health, Stamina) and 2 Teleportation (most likely Teleport Foe and Teleport). It'd be nice to fit in Hover, too, but I'll skip it if I have to. I won't be hover-tanking, after all. Just using it to be lazy and magey. :)

Recommendations welcome!

Super Booster II

From Joystiq interview (with Positron):

You've said before that the team has more microtransactional content planned already. Do you have any details to offer on any of these future 'Super Booster' packs?

Super Booster II will be a magic-themed pack that will sit alongside the Cyborg pack very well. It will have costume pieces and other goodies that are themed for both stage magicians as well as your more traditional fantasy mages.



Woot!