A Knight, a Cop and a Centurion...

..walk into an instanced mission and no one bats an eye.

Issue 13 recently hit for City of Heroes and there are some fun bits in it. Granted alot of people are looking forward to the Mission Architect in I14 and the big carrot on a stick that is I15 (Will the 5th be back back back?!).

There are a few things in Issue 13 that I am enjoying but they're hardly stellar. That said, let's go through 'em. (Clarification : There are more aspects to I13 than those below, these are just the ones I am currently interested in/affected by)

Dual Builds
Now in City of Heroes you can have dual builds. You can't change AT, primary or secondary powersets or side. You can however pick powers and slots in a new order. The idea is you could have a grouping build and a soloing build.
I'm sure some people will love that, especially the "I have one attack" Empaths. It doesn't do a whole lot for me. Mostly because I pick what I am going to do and stick to it. My Bubbler doesn't need a pvp spec or a soloing spec because he has teammates for that.
However I am using it on my VEAT (villain epic at) as they branch down two different paths and this allows my Crab Spider VEAT to hit a button and become a Bane Spider. From a Pet-ish Blaster-ish tough guy (well robot) into a mace wielding blastery Stalker.

In those situations, sure it makes sense and is useful even. The thing is... I like my Crab Spider. That's why I chose Crab Spider. Being able to swap is nice but I survived without before. Mostly I think that whole thing is for PvP.

Levelling pact
I'm doing this one with Shannon right now. Duos, trios and superteams are a feature of City Of Heroes. Moving in levelstep is something you do. I have a lvl 46 controller with a good friend of mine (my God I must make time for her and get us to 50) and they've been the same level and played at the same time all the way up the ladder. Without Stamina either.
Anyway I am still a little unclear on all the ins and outs of levelling pact. Since CoH redesigned its site and patcher and whatnot, they seem to have gone to shorthand. I don't know about other people, but I love pages of patch notes. It's nice to see all the little tweaks. Seeing that 1.06 stretched over two pages on the Herald made me grin like a loon. Sure most of it wasnt applicable to things I played, but it shows what they've worked hard for.

Anyway. Levelling pact. Your exp is shared. If I play 100 hours and Shannon plays 10, we'll still be the same level. It keeps us level and rewards playing with a particular player. At the moment the pact is only open below level 5 and only for two people at a time. I do see it being expanded and wait for the day that a Supergroup is started, hardcores and casuals together all linked in a pact.
Given how much bigger the Plume of Awesome is at 50, I'd pay to see 8 simultaneous dings at 50.

Day Jobs
I don't like 'em. The Tome Of Knowledge has cured my badge whoring in City of Heroes. Badges have nothing on the Tome. So I wont grind them out (30 days offline in a particular location per badge) on people. If they introduced it several issues ago when I had few alts and a hard time picking who to play, I'd have been all for it. The rewards, while nice, are just that. Nice. It is an incentive to make alts and to not play all your characters. Neglect some, then come back to goodies. Make alts and grind out rewards for later use. I see it more as a cynical means of extending the games lifespan by rewarding players for not playing but still paying.

The Patrol XP (Rest xp basically) is tasty though. You can get one bar of 1.5xp per day logged out. So even over night you'll get a little boost when you start playing. If you've had a busy week and no play, come back to a faster levelling. This I approve of.


Shields
Sooo many cops. This is all the art guys fault. He put a Nightstick option in for War Mace and a Riot Shield. If it's not cops, it's knights. If it's not knights, it's centurions. There do seem to be a few going for the tech options and a few going for interesting combinations, but not as many as you'd like. That's life with a new powerset. Hell that's life in a current MMO. New Class? MUST HAVE! Style and thought go out the window usually, just want to play NAO!

That said, Sheilds are very interesting. Some nice powers I like, some aspects I don't. It's essentially Super Reflexes with a dash of Willpower-style and a teleporting attack like EM's Lightning Rod (of which I am jealous). But a few of the powers, granting defense buffs and gaining your own for being close up with other players (ideally in melee) look tasty for Shield players who stick together.

Despite my complaint, I'd love to see a super team of all Centurions Phalanxing it up a notch.


Midweek I play City of. Weekends are WAR time. Let's see how long the midweek play lasts. So far, so good.
Then again I am in a Shield duo in a level pact. It pays to play.