If only to keep track of who all the up-and-comers are...

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/]Badass of the Week

(Noticed because it's today's User Friendly Link of the Day.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

ok, DS asked for my input on CotA, and I felt obliged to help.
He also mentioned that CotA should be more geared towards blast-fender, than a tank-fender, so this is more of a suggested list, rather than hard won knowledge from hundreds of hours of playtime

First, the current Build (snagged from the info window)
Radiation Emission: Radiant Aura, Accelerate Metabolism, Mutation, Enervating Field
Radiation Blast: Neutrino Bolt, X-Ray Beam, Irradiate
Teleportation: Recall Friend, Teleport
Fitness: Swift, Health, Stamina

Given the fact that she is already level 21, and you have Stamina, the most frustrating parts are now behind you.
There are some choices I would definitely have made different. But I'll try and go over every power in Radiation Emission and Radiation Blast with an eye to building a blast-fender.

Radiation Emission
Radiant Aura: A good aoe heal, not the best by any means. But enough to keep things going. And late game when you can spare the slots it becomes respectable. Take it and toss three slots in it's direction for now. 2 heal and a Recharge or a End Reduction, depending on how often you need it

Radiation Infection: The first power of the Rad Trifecta. This keeps the enemy from landing a hit on you as well as making them easier to hit. Take it, slot it, love it. Early game I would toss 4 slots it's way. 3 to-hit debuffs, and an endurance reduction. Later on as you can spare more, get more end-red. You don't need to worry about the -Def portion of this power, as every power in you secondary set will be eating away at their defense. This is the first power you should drop on a group, and if you are running out of end, it should be last toggle you turn off. It keeps you from getting hit. This power on Gamma and Decay will keep 90% of the alpha strike from hitting me.

Accelerate Metabolism: Another power to take and love. I'm sure I don't need to espouse it's virtues here. Get it, slot it for recharge and end-mod.

Enervating Field: The second of the Rad Trifecta. This makes the shots that do hit you hurt less, and you hurt them more. Take it, slot it, love it. This is the second toggle I drop on a group, right after Radiation Infection. Put 2 End-Red IOs in it and call it done.

Mutation: A very nice combat Rez. A single Recharge IO should take care of it.

Lingering Radiation: The Third of the Rad Trifecta. This slows down the enemy speed and puts a big hurt on their regeneration. Take it, slot it, love it. I drop this clickie on a group if I think they aren't going to stay clumped together or if there is a threat I don't want recovering from the damage I'm dishing out.

Choking Cloud: Personally I love this power, but it sucks end like no tomorrow. If you take it, 6 slot it with holds and end-reductions. This is definitely one of the powers to pick up post Stamina. Doubling the hold duration will mean that minions are perma-held, and lieutenants spend 80-90% of their time choking on fumes. Leaving the bosses as the only real threats in a group.

Fallout: A massively damaging power, better than some nukes but without the end crash. The drawback is that you need a dead blaster (or any other ally) to fire it off. I haven't picket this one up on either Gamma or Decay. Mainly because dead teammates mean I'm doing something wrong (or they have RotP and no sense of self preservation).

EM Pulse: The second best aoe hold in the game (EMP Arrow is slightly better because it can be targeted). This is your panic button, or late in the game it's your Fuck-you button. With 6 slots it will shut up just about any mob and leave anyone not stunned without enough endurance to bother you. Worth 45 seconds of peace at first, but can be easily slotted to 90 seconds. More than enough time to either haul ass out of there or (if you have the blues to chew) lay the smackdown on whomever was bothering you.

Radiation Blast
Neutrino Bolt:: Gotta take it, but it's not that bad. A very fast low power blast, worth using as a filler to any attack chain. I ended up slotting this for defense debuff rather than damage. And if I run across anyone who I am having a hard time hitting, I will spam them with this for a few seconds before bringing out the big guns again.

X-Ray Beam: I have never picked this power up blueside, but it works well enough on my redside corruptor. If you are shooting for a blast-fender I can easily see this as being part of your bread and butter.

Irradiate: A nicely damaging Aoe (does x-ray beam damage over a few seconds), a little heavy on the endurance cost, but it can be worthwhile if you find yourself often surrounded.

Electron Haze: The first of your meat and potato attacks. It works in a cone and has knockback, so with a little positioning you can lay the hurt in to a decent chunk of your foes. This power is what I end up using to deal a third of the damage I dish out to a mob.

Proton Volley: It's a snipe with a very cool sound effect (Fire Photon Torpedoes!). Take it or leave it depending on your playstyle. It is useful to pull guys out of mobs with, but you don't need to pick it up at level 16.

Aim: A nice bonus to damage and accuracy, take it and slot it with 2 recharge reduction IOs and call it done.

Cosmic Burst: Massive damage and a mag 3 stun, what's not to love. Take it, slot it, love it. You will make Bosses and EBs cry with this power. Slot for damage, stun, and recharge. Cause nothing says beatdown like perma-stunning the only enemy in the mob who a threat to you. This is the 2nd of my three main attack powers.

Neutron Bomb: The mushroom cloud of doom. A targeted aoe with decent damage. Properly slotted this will fill you attack chain with pain and death, I lean would lean towards damage and recharge with a little bit of accuracy. By the time you get this power, you should be putting a decent dent in your enemies defense. That in addition to the powers innate to-hit bonus, and you should only need 1 accuracy IO, if that.

Atomic Blast: This is your nuke, and like all nukes it dishes out some very nice damage. In addition to that it will hold, cut in half the defense of anything left standing. I haven't taken it on Gamma or Decay because I can't afford that endurance crash that comes with it. But if you are not toggle dependent like I am, it can be a very nice power.

Notes specific to your build:
I would drop mutation for now, and pick up Radiation Infection instead. This should greatly increase your solo survivability. Lay RI and EF down on a mob first, and you can heal any damage that does hit you with radiant aura.
Also, if you are gearing towards being more of a blaster than a tank, you may want to think about not taking Choking Cloud. Being surrounded by enemies is not where you want to be, and the endurance/slots used by this power can be put to much better use on filling your enemies with high energy particles.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

Picking the collective's brains here, since I recall there's at least one regular here who might be able to help...

My nephew's accepted a job in the far north (roughly 62° N), and he left here (roughly 45° N and two timezones east) early last week. He's mentioned
that he hasn't been feeling well (queasy and no appetite) since he got there. Is this normal? If it is, how long will it last?

And what else should he know that most folks that far north take for granted?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

That is all.

Back on another forum a new Anime section had sprung up with only a single thread to fill it, and so I submitted the following to that forum. Well, I was
looking at it and was rather impressed with everything that I put into it, so I felt that it would be worthy of posting it here as well. So, here is my own
thoughts and opinions on the anime that I've seen and could remember off the top of my head.

Now, I like a good Xander-empowerment fic as much as the next man, provided the next man ... likes Xander-empowerment fic. The problem, of course, lies in
one's definition of "good."

To my mind, a "good" scenario in this case would be one that didn't give X so much power, wisdom, or future knowledge as to have him overshadow
Buffy. Just something that could give him enough of an edge to justify him being on the front line with her and sometimes-Willow.

So I thought about various folks and their power sets, and after a while I decided to concentrate on other vampire slayers, and then my thoughts drifted to
Castlevania.

Alexander Belmont, anyone?

Now this would work fairly well as a Halloweenfic, but for maximum impact I'm thinking that Xander's mom is the/a unknowing scion of the Belmont clan
proper, which would mean that Dracula in this reality is not a poser; he's the First Evil incarnate and the single
Biggest Bad on the planet. (For those unfamiliar with the games, Drac has long since transcended mere vampirism and became the avatar of all human evil; his
"demon castle," the setting of most of the games, is an ever-shifting monster-filled manifestation of his power.)

Being a Belmont isn't incredibly awesome, either. As far as I can tell (and certainly for the purposes of this bunny) they aren't physically or
mentally superhuman in any way, just well-trained normals with a single supernatural gift... the power to ignore nearly all supernatural invulnerabilities. In
other words, if a Belmont, say, breaks a vampire's neck, that vampire will die as if it had been a human. Shooting a werewolf with ordinary bullets, same
deal. Mind you, monsters can still be really tough; it's just technically possible for a Belmont to kill them with sufficient application of non-magical
force.

...Let's use The Judge as an example. "Xander Belmont" could, in theory, kill big blue by lopping his head off with a plain ordinary
human-forged sword... if he could manage to swing it with enough force to penetrate his presumably fairly tough skin, flesh, and bone. And X would have no
particular protection against the Judge's fire. So, not as big an advantage as it sounds.

Of course, there's also the matter of the Belmonts' heirloom weapon, the holy whip Vampire Killer, which is pretty darn awesome. But first Xander
would have to find it, then I think there's a prove-yourself-worthy thing, then he'd have to learn to use a whip effectively...

In this scenario, Xander takes the place of the canonical Julius Belmont (or maybe J exists and decides to train him, either way), and the Scoobies are likely
to get mixed up in the Great Castle War of 1999 -- which would take place during season 3 or 4.

...actually, a Castlevania game where you could switch between Xander, Buffy, and Willow would be awesome.

For full points: no Buffy-bashing; no Spike-bashing, somehow manage to keep him alive long enough to join the Scoobs and maybe get his soul back
(Spuffy-shipper here; go ahead, mock me); and maybe replace Angel with Alucard (no, not THAT Alucard, the one from Castlevania ).

So... any takers? ^.^

--Sam

"Blood covers The City like a big red afghan."

Recient Announcment from Sunstorm on the CoX boards regarding a change to leadership.

Greetings Heroes & Villains,

With Issue 14 there will be some slight changes to the ranking system that you are currently familiar with. Here is some background and information that should
be useful for you to prepare for the new issue.

The new ranking system is mainly needed by our internal Customer Support team. This feature allows GM's to assist players in resolving issues that may
affect an SG or Base.

This tool essentially allows us to resolve your tickets more rapidly, keeps us from getting involved in SG/VG political drama, and also keeps groups that may
have lost leadership from losing access to a fully operating base.

The new rank introduced in this issue is called, duh, duh, duh… "Super Leader." The super leader title does not have to denote
actual leadership or rank within the SG, consider them mainly to be the key master or owner of the group.

Due to the current format in game, we had a few options, we could either demote everyone but one person or we could auto promote a single leader into the new
position. We opted to go with the second option.

So when Issue 14 goes live, the highest ranking leader that had most recently logged in will be promoted to the "super leader" position. This ensures
that every group that is currently active will have someone who recently played the game in this rank.

Any of you wishing to pinpoint who that person should be can effectively set up those permissions now by changing the ranks of members so that you have the one
person you would like to have this access be the only SG leader at the time Issue 14 goes live.

We understand many of you may have questions & concerns as always we are here to help clear up confusion.

We appreciate your feedback.

Heres a Link to the thread this is on.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat ... st13186399

As usual, the board's still on Standard Time.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

While I was cross-referencing character names in a fanfic, I happened to stumble across All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku. Suddenly I could not help but
be enticed by the thought of a character based on her. What follows is the non-concrete musings that have flashed through my head.

Natally 'Nuku-chan' Jennings was an ordinary tom-boy growing up in the American mid-west. A highly practical girl, she is sweet natured yet shuns the
activities of other girls. Instead of going out shopping with 'girlfriends' she spent time helping her dad fix the tractor or whatever other peice of
machinery that chose to break down that week. Thus, she is a highly adept mechanic.

Her wave-job was, as is typical amongst most fen, an accident. A friend of hers managed to get ahold of a batch of gray goo, and let her have a small sample
when she voiced curiousity - she was wondering if it might help prevent breakdowns. (She actually succeeded - the tractor works like a champ and the only
quirk is that you have to command it like a mule.)

Her biomod grants her the usual cat-girl abilities, but with a highly unusual sub-set of abilities that sets her apart as an atypical catgirl. For one thing,
her cat-ears are mechanical and enable her to tap into any available Etherwave networks. They can also be hidden, which saves her a bit of the social stigma
of being a catgirl, deploying them only when she needs to use her etherwave connection. She has a tail as well, but she uses the old Sayajin Trick of wrapping
it around her waist to disguise it as a belt. Her body has also taken on a cybernetic nature - not that she has a fuly mechanized body, but her physical
abilities are augmented well beyond that of typical catgirls.

Once she became biomodded, her father, concerned for his daughter's well being, put the word out descreetly that he needed his girl to get off-planet
before anyone official found out about it. Upon leaving Earth, she decided to join the Sammies where she felt that her abilities and mindset would do the most
good and wound up in their corps of engineers. She's one of the few sammies that chooses to wear her coveralls instead of the fukus.

Later on, she found herself as a part of the contingent assigned to 36 Atalante by HRH, Queen Serenity (I,II,III?). There, she's happy as a clam working
with some of the most high-performance vehicles in the system. As a member of the Sammy contingent, she's Chief Flight Engineer of the Peacemaker class
ship, the Tough Love and with her abilities she holds her own quite admirably in punch-ups and shoot-outs.

Thoughts, anyone?

Sony Canada pulls Killzone 2 ads bearing "menacing head".

If you'll pardon me, I'll be over here mass-producing my new "Frowning Smiley Face" signs. I figure with enough of them, I can apparently
conquer Canada by a sheer terror campaign without firing a single shot. Well, unless those Mounties get involved. I hear they're trained to resist even
open visual AND verbal expressions of disapproval. (I keed, I keed)
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."