Go me! I’ve turned two more friends on to CoH.
One more, and I get the toaster! 
Whoa, has anyone asked her what she thinks about that?
Toaster = Culex
Same here…only jsut one friend. He won’t be playing for a couple weeks, though. He recently moved, and has to build up some money before he can play, since he needs to buya computer to do it (he currently just has a laptop which won’t run it.)
I got him tunred on a year ago when it first came out. I let him play on my account and he made The Harvard Pharaoh.
Warning for players on Champion: watch out for a toon named Girthy D. Suspected greifer.
Foul beast! I’m a rogue toaster, I won’t be anyone’s appliance to be owned or used!
(People remembered I was a female? Wow. That’s a first.)
It’s so cute when they play hard-to-get.
Don’t know if anyone cares or not, but I’ve compiled what recent information I could regarding Issue 5 and City of Villains…the information I am sure is not complete, and some of it may be wrong, or assuredly will be as time progresses and things change, but still, this is overall what is ‘known’ now as far as I can tell.
http://sdmb.culex.us/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=188
Feel free to ask questions, fix any errors I’ve made, etc.
The best part is that those of us who have been in since launch will be getting automatic invites to the beta. Yay for my pre-ordering self!
I just ran into a character in Champion named Art Vandelay. Thinking he was the SDMB’s very own Art Vandelay, Architect, I said hello and asked him if he was a Doper. He said he was not. Thinking he might have thought I was asking him if he was a druggie or something, I further asked if he was on the Straight Dope message board. Again, a negative.
Oops. :o
I assumed that Art Vandelay was Architect’s real name. But a search online yielded many references to the name, among them an author, a band, and a Seinfeld character.
So what’s the deal? Anyone know the origin of the reference?
I think it’s a Seinfeld reference, as I seem to recall that being offered as an explanation before. I’ve not seen an episode of Seinfeld in full, though, so I’m far from sure.
Question: Do I have to have been paying for a full year since launch? Cause I got the pre-order, was in on the closed beta, but for a couple months my subcription was canceled cause I (mistakingly) played WoW. Will I still get in on the first round of beta?
bouv, no. The one page talking about it says 12+ months of subscription to City of Heroes is a guaranteed spot, and 6-12 months there is a possibility.
http://www.plaync.com/about/press_release_102804.html
OK, I’m testing out new powers on a character about to level up on the test server, can anyone tell me the differences between Taunt, Provoke, and Challenge? From what I can tell, Challenge only pulls one foe, but I can’t see the difference between Taunt and Provoke, other than Provoke not being as effective as Taunt, which begs the question why it exists? I have a fire/ice tanker, and a guide I was looking at said taking provoke is REQUIRED and MUST be four slotted by level 18 when I can get Brun, yet the author doesn’t recoment Taunt. His exact words:
Huh? He admits it’s better, yet adding slots to Provoke makes it almost as good. Why not just get Taunt and save those slots for a power that needs it more, and add them to Taunt to make it more effective?
For what it’s worth, I’m about to become level 12, and have the following powers:
Blazing Aura
Fire Shield
Healing Flames
Consume
Frozen Fists
Ice Sword
Combat Jumping
I am probably going to get Plasma Shield, because I solo mostly with this alt, so taunt/provoke seem mostly useless to me. Challenge might be good, since I can pull one at a time from a large mob.
Provoke used to be better than Taunt, back when both had to-hit rolls and Taunt was single target. Now Taunt is AoE and always hits. Get Taunt. Taunt is Good.
Also, get Plasma Shield. THe Mez protection alone is worth it. As a fire/* tank, you have no defence. Your Primary only gives resistance, so you need to get as much as possible. DO NOT get temprature protection.
If you want to be an effective burn tank, you’ll need Taunt. Blazing Aura is no longer enough to keep the bad guys in the burn zone.
Use Blazing Aura to get their attention, run around a corner, When you are surrounded, drop a Taunt, then drop your burn. You might lose a quarter of your catch, but when they come back, they’ll be severely weakened.
Nothing keeps enemies in the Burn zone. Burn is basically useless for Fire tanks now. I do not know of a strategy that will keep them in other than Ice Patch or a Controller who has half of a brain and knows what to do. Taunt and Provoke certainly won’t. Fear effects do not. If you solo constantly, Taunt is unnecessary, as is Challenge. If you team with others, they will expect you to have Taunt, and in fact if you do not, many group deaths will occur.
I realise I’m waaaaaaay late but thanks to Pleonast I have now started playing. 
I realise I won’t be able to play after the trial period for the same reason I don’t play most MMORPGs (no CC, no money even if I did) but I was wondering what time everybody on here plays and on what servers?
So far though, great game!
I believe the largest concentration of Dopers is on Virtue, where we have the CECIL Supergroup (Cecil’s Extraordinary Counter-Ignorance League). Kerzak and Toaster (aka Culex) play lots, often during the day. We usually get a largish concentration on in the evening. We’re spread across multiple time zones in the US, from D_Odds in Eastern to Pleonast in Western, but there’s usually a fair selection of folks on from 9 to 11 pm Central.
Check out the CECIL site at http://sdmb.culex.us for more information, and get yourself an invite to the #CECIL global chat channel so you can find Dopers no matter where they are.
If I’m on (global handle @Brainiac4, playing Thermocline, Super-Collider and Doctor Infernal on Virtue mostly at this point), I’ll swap to a lower-level character and give you a guided tour of some of the early stuff, or a higher-level character and take you to look at some of the higher-level content. There’s a lot of fun to be had.
As a side note, not having a credit card is no longer a barrier to playing MMOs, as most of them offer time cards you can purchase in stores and redeem online, rather than using a credit card to make the payments. Not having the money is still a showstopper, though. For myself, I find the $15 a month to be worth it for the fun, but if I didn’t have the money, it wouldn’t matter how much fun it was…
The CECIL channel is open to everyone, constantly. No invite necessary. (Add/Edit a tab, Join channel, CECIL, OK, then use /send cecil [msg] to talk)