Jason Youngberg's Web Site :: City of Heroes/Villains

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City of Heroes/Villains is a MMORPG I've been playing since the first weekend it opened. I still enjoy it after all these years and I don't plan on switching anytime soon. At this point I have five characters (in order of creation): DinoGrimlock, Miss Firefight, Coltechtron, Dragoness Blaze, and Lena the Cat.

DinoGrimlock

As you may guess from the name, I based him off the Transformer Grimlock. I even bought him the Kick power (yes, kicking is a power in this game) for that favorite line from the animated movie, "Me Grimlock kick butt!" The character concept was a military andriod that is remote controlled by a soldier in a VR suit in a secure location. As an android I selected the Super Strength and Invulernable power sets since carried weapons would be used by later models. He's still a favorite, but the lack of raw damaging power has kept me from playing him much. He's the Tanker archtype and to many people, tankers should have this Taunt power so people will attack him and not others. I still ask why I would want my character to be attacked and not others.

Miss Firefight

This is a female character because of the name. Mister Firefight doesn't work as a pun. She's a Blaster archtype with the Asault Rifle and Devices power sets. I didn't develop her background much beyond the name. She did allow me to join the Supergroup Babes of War which is a great group which has helped me so much in so many ways. I don't play her much lately either. She hit max level long ago. I sometimes bring her out for supergroup functions. Her main defensive power is invisibility so when my teammates take screenshots of our missions, I can hardly be seen. It puts a downer on the event and makes me relunctant to give her new costumes. Since she's my main character with the Babes of War, I've earned the dubious nickname MFF.

Coltechtron

My first villain. His name is a contraction for "Collecter of Technology" with a "tron" on the end for a Transformer reference. After all my first Hero on the game was modeled after an Autobot, so my first Villain should have Decepticon roots. His backstory was that he's an alien robot sent to collect any useful Earth technology. He's not evil per-se, but it's easier to collect technology by stealing it than legal means. His archtype is Mastermind, the new one they introduced in City of Villains. I have to tell you, it is fun! The classic, "You faceless minions go fight the guy with skulls on his shoulders and death rays coming out of his eyes. I'll stay here where it's safe." Actually I play him more like a Warlord in that I fight as well as lead. I have more fun with him than my other max level characters. Right now I'm trying to get to unlock some special content.

Dragoness Blaze

I made Blaze to try something different. In the game primary and secondary power sets are unofficially paird together (ice melee and ice armor for example). Well for her I broke the pairing and had Fire Melee and Invulernability. She is a humanoid fire-breathing dragon. Unlike my first Tanker, DinoGrimlock, Blaze does have the more standard powers found in her archtype. As a character she needs more work and that means that at some point I need to spend an evening or two doing mudane things. Since she's a dragon, I didn't have that many choice for costumes. So I decided one of the game's mystical groups (Circle of Thorns) has cursed her to take on alternate forms. So far I have a pixie fairy and a troll from World of Warcraft. I'm thinking about a demon next, but I don't know if I could make a demon look distinct when compared to her original dragon form.

Lena the Cat

LtC's in-game background was based of my own pet cat, Lena. It had to be superhero-fied to fit in the game setting. I also worked in some LOL cat memes. In the game, she got an angel from the Ceiling Cat (a catgirl with wings) and Lena rides on her shoulder controlling the angel as they fight evil. I use her for most Babes of War events since I can see her and the other members thinks she cute (in a cat way of course). I've done a few things with her costumes. In addition to the original costume and supergroup uniform I added an anime-esque school girl costume and a Na'vi from the Avatar movie. Though I was warned about breaking copyright and EULA by someone else in-game. So that costume is going to wait for a while. But it is fun. For the fifth and last costume slot I'm considering either a half-armored costume like in some anime or I may put a twist and have a chunk of beefcake in cliche angel robes just to be different. You figure a reject from a romance novel cover may be welcome in an all female character group.

Back Up 10-13

This was my first new character in a while. I wanted to try a healer since they're always in demand. Her battlecry is, "Somebody call for Back Up?" And that's the general theme of the character. I intended her to back up other players in the party. But it didn't turn out like that. I still want her to go through every story arc and every badge mission in the game. That's tough to do by yourself even at the lowest difficulty setting. It's slow going but I think I can do it with help. It's also not as much fun to be a supporting character. It's an underappreciated role and one I'm not sure I can do. Her background hasn't been written. She's a cop with healing powers, a mutant I think. You don't need backstories when you're a mutant. One day you discover you have powers and that's it. That's why I don't like the X-men, there's not much creativity in a character's origin.

Palaeotarbus

This is my first epic archtype character of Arachnos Soldier. The name is from Wikipedia which claims is the earliest known spider from about 420 million years ago. It's another female character in keeping with my supergroup's theme. Despite being created later, she's a higher level than Back Up 10-13. This is just more fun to play and far more soloable. She'd be an even higher level if I could just get her to lv 30. Her own background is pretty basic. She's an ex-gangbanger who wanted to make it big or at least get out of the gang culture (such as it is). My only major complaint is that the Arachnos Soldier costume parts are only available for the first costume slot. If you want to change your uniform you have to surrender your old one.

Alashi

Alashi is my third character for the Going Rogue expansion. The first tried to use the kinetic control power set. That didn't quite work and I deleted the character. This is her replacement. She has the Fiery Aura/Electric Melee power sets. She is an android from another dimension. She was built to resemble her inventor's deseased wife. But the night before she was to get her face and be complete, her inventor found old emails from his wife to her friends. Emails that complained about what a bad husband he was and how she was going to leave him and take his money. He couldn't finish Alashi after that. Sensing how much her presence disturbed her creator, she sent herself to a random Earth and found herself in Nova Praetoria and assumed to be part of the Powers Divison.

The Mad Ermaldi

Ann Ermaldi was brought to the Mother of Mercy Psychiatric Hospital when Seers discovered she intentionally created strive between her parents which eventually led to murder/suscide. Praetor Tilman worked with her brievly to unlock her potential. Some say it pushed her further to insanity. Others say one helped the other get closer to the edge. But soon Mother Mahyem lost interest. Ermaldi lives to cause pain, strife, and chaos. She joined the resistance to bring about the destruction of society and not out of idealism. Her time in the hospital awakened her powers. She can manifest her inner demons into actual demons of strife and forge a whip out of rage. She also has a bow with trick arrows designed to cause panic in her targets.
As you may guess, this is my second Mastermind. I don't know if Trick Arrows was a good choice for a secondary power set, but I'm stuck with it. I've gone too far to delete and reset her. I don't think she will be as good as my first Mastermind since his Traps power set was more useful. We'll see.