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Behind the Mask: Heroes vs. heroes
Although I've referenced it a little bit here and there, I've directly avoided talking about PvP in Champions Online. It's a controversial topic -- probably moreso in CO than in most other MMOs. In Champions, there is a massive difference between a hero who is focused on PvP and one who is not. Characters who are well-optimized PvE machines tend to perform acceptably (especially in certain types of PvP). However, if a hero isn't as optimized, he or she tends to get steamrolled by the flavors of the month. Because most CO players are more casual players (in the sense that they don't plan builds and tend to pick powers that are "fun" or "cool"), they often get quite upset when they are defeated by an optimized PvP build. Most players I know tend to assume that the FoTM builds are unbeatable and that the only way to beat them is to join them. Experienced PvPers know that this just isn't the case. It is true that an optimized PvP build is a necessity, but the actual optimization can take on many forms. There are dozens of effective "win buttons" in Champions' PvP out of a couple hundred powers. Out of dozens of possible kill methods, picking one and supplementing it with logical choices and personal flavor is a snap.
Behind the Mask: A long, slow, rumbling
One of the things I absolutely hate about comics is waiting. When I read Detective Comics regularly, I used to patiently wait while re-reading my old issues, wondering what was going to happen to Batman next. Eventually, I got into manga a little bit and was totally spoiled by the graphic novel format. Now I only read comics (or novel series) if I can get an entire plot arc in one shot. I hate waiting. Heck, I prefer to watch an entire TV season on Netflix instead of waiting for each episode to get released. Unsurprisingly, I played through the first three issues of Aftershock, Champions Online's new comic series, before I decided I was irritated with waiting every week for the latest issue. I was sort of put off by bugs in the first issue of the series, and I decided that waiting for the final release would give the devs time to polish out the bugs. New content is new content after all, and when it's released weekly, it doesn't get a lot of time on PTS before it gets pushed to live. Issue #6, The King is Dead, was released a few weeks ago, and the devs have put the finishing touches on Aftershock. How does it match up with the rest of CO's content?
Behind the Mask: You wouldn't like me when I'm angry
There are quite a few controversial powers in Champions Online, such as Inertial Dampening Field or Dragon's Wrath, but there are no more controversial mechanics in CO than the Enrage and Focus mechanics. Both of these buffs provide tremendous bonuses to offense for very little opportunity cost. Focus provides a damage bonus to melee attacks which scales with DEX, while Enrage provides a damage bonus to all attacks which scales with STR. Focus is often scrutinized more heavily than Enrage, simply because DEX is a better stat than STR. However, because Enrage can be applied to ranged attacks, it has more potential for abuse. Focus is limited to melee attacks -- although some builds use ranged attacks to build Focus with Form of the Tempest, these builds inevitably close distance and strike with Dragon's Wrath, Dragon's Claws, or Ego Blade Breach. This week, we're going to look at Enrage -- ways to build and maintain it, and ideal ways to use it.
Behind the Mask: The truth about healing
One of the main reasons I decided to cover the Inferno archetype a couple weeks ago was because I felt I should showcase the importance of a self-heal for all characters. In Champions Online, freeform characters can select any powers they want, and the most important powers to choose are heals. Why? There's a lot of core elements of CO's design that correlate well with having healing powers. In any game, self-heals are effective, and unless they perform poorly, they tend to be highly valued. When a hero can select any powers, heals just naturally gravitate to the top of the list. But there are a few other things that make this pattern more significant.
Behind the Mask: Welcome to my lair, do not touch my radio
Hideouts are the one of the most anticipated features in Champions Online. Players have wanted their own personal space for a while, especially because City of Heroes has had supergroup bases for a very long time. Ever since Champions launched, players have wanted space to call their own. Most roleplayers have made do with private mission instances, but this was a tenuous situation at best. Do Hideouts live up to the hype? What do they mean for roleplayers, or for the average player? Are they worth purchasing? After the jump, we'll cover the consequences related to hideouts and some of their implications in the CO roleplaying world.
Behind the Mask: You're fired
At the time this episode of Behind the Mask was written, neither Hideouts nor Aftershock had been released. I could run a hype post about hideouts, but they are not on PTS (or at least, we can't access them), which is worrying. In fact, the recent patches have been extremely frustrating for a lot of Champions Online's veteran players. Last week, the huge patch that integrated Vivox voice chat also broke the snot out of the game; it ruined everything from team chat to mission doors to certain parts of the in-game C-Store. It even broke the difficulty slider! I haven't even played CO in the last week due to the bugs. It's pretty frustrating. Combined, these things make me really mad. Hideouts haven't been tested by players at all, and they were intended to roll out on Wednesday. The Vivox patch was pushed full of game-breaking bugs that players knew about in advance. Remember the kitchen sink patch? I thought the sloppy, impulsive, not-listening-to-players mentality that Cryptic had back then was dead. It needs to stay dead. I will not, however, be roped into writing a gigantic, mega-DOOM column this week. We can save those types of columns for EVE Online. Instead, I'm going to rant about something familiar and relevant to everyone: archetypes, and specifically, how the current archetypes are bad. I've already covered this ground, but I'm rearmed with research and rage. This week, we're throwing the Inferno archetype under the bus. He's not terrible by any means, but... to be honest, we can do better. A lot better.
Behind the Mask: The incentives are backwards
This week in Behind the Mask, we will not be discussing Aftershock, the new Comic Series adventure that started several weeks ago. I intend to talk about Aftershock after it's finished -- if I talked about each new issue of Aftershock, I wouldn't be able to talk about other things, since there's a new issue every week. Instead, I'm going to talk about the broad aspect of teaming in Champions Online, and more importantly, the rewards for teaming. Teaming in CO is as fun as in other MMORPGs because playing with other people is generally a fun activity. Unfortunately, there isn't much material incentive to team. It's faster to get experience and gear solo, making lairs the only real reason to team. I team all the time, though -- entirely because it's more fun to play with friends.
Behind the Mask: A complete guide to angel-slaying, volume two
Last week on Behind the Mask, we covered the puzzles and trash mob fights of Therakiel's Temple. TT is the toughest lair in Champions Online, and it's not over yet. You've still got to handle the boss fights! This week, we'll be covering the deadly boss battles of the temple, from the alluring Valerian Scarlet to the big bad Therakiel himself. Caliburn will provide commentary for your fights, but don't expect him to help out; your team is going to need to bring out the big guns. Just as it did last week, this guide contains some spoilers!
Behind the Mask: A complete guide to angel-slaying, volume one
Warning: This week's Behind the Mask column contains a spoilers for the plot of Vibora Bay, Champions Online's endgame zone. After completing the Vibora Bay Crisis, you realize you've got a lot of work cut out for you. That sexy minx Valerian seduced you into playing into her hands, and you royally screwed up. Now it's time to get down to business, undo all the mess you made and make things right. At the end of all the plots and careful unraveling of Therakiel's well-laid plans, there's still the big bad fallen angel himself. He's no pushover, and he still has the support of Vibora's gangs. You've done all of Caliburn's errand-boy work so he can save the day -- better make sure he doesn't screw it up.
Behind the Mask: Perfect World and the future
If I were to describe the emotions of the Champions Online playerbase regarding the Perfect World buyout, I would have to say "mixed." Some players are happy that the days of Atari are behind them, and some are really skeptical about the future of the C-Store. CO is a fairly "pay-to-win" game in that Gold members have a lot of gameplay advantages over their non-subscribing counterparts. A lot of players are suggesting that the C-Store might become inundated with paid features and that we might possibly see the removal of certain free features (like global-purchased respecs). I am cautiously optimistic about the whole thing. Perfect World Entertainment holds controlling shares in Runic Games, and if the recent Mac and console ports of Torchlight are any indication of PWE's approach to management, I'd be more than happy to welcome our new alien overlords.
Behind the Mask: Resistance
I know I promised I'd cover tanking techniques this week, but Resistance, Champions Online's newest adventure pack, just launched, so I think that it's worth postponing my writeup on tanking for a bit. Don't worry, though! We'll get to tanking soon! Resistance, being the latest pack in CO's new content offerings, is also going to be the last adventure pack before the team starts doing the Comic Series. Although it wasn't quite as hyped up as Demonflame was, it was still a highly anticipated content pack. Does it live up to the hype?
Behind the Mask: Pointing fingers and assigning blame
When I posted about teaming roles last week, I really wasn't expecting the feedback you guys gave me. Some of you insisted that the holy trinity was dead, others told me that healers can do just fine if they only have heals, and still others told me that tanks are useless. Some of you also commented that Archetypes make decent tanks or that spread stats are a bad thing. I wish I had time to make a detailed rebuttal to all the comments, but information comes first! This week, we're going to talk about Champions Online's threat mechanics. Originally I was going to talk about tanks in general, but that is such a huge topic that we're just going to have to break it up into bite-sized chunks. I talked about threat mechanics a long time ago, but some things have changed. This is particularly relevant because the two adventure packs are on sale right now, and if you're a free member, you really owe it to yourself to pick them up. They're that awesome, and you can explore the game's more interesting team content for a tiny fraction of the price. When you try them out, you'll have this guide to tell you about how big team engagements work and why your Inventor faceplants every fight. You may even be able to stop it...
Behind the Mask: Being a good team player
The holy trinity is a sort of abolished concept in recent MMOs, and Champions Online is really no different. It's easy to make healer-tanks, tank-DPS, healer-DPS, and all sorts of variations on those themes. I commented previously that I like the idea of the trinity, but that was a year ago, and I've got a little more to say. Champions is a hard game to explain in terms of role, so I don't really expect the community at large to actually accept a lot of what I'm explaining here. However, this is a breakdown of the real contributions each person can make to a team. Although there is no real "crowd control" role, there are still a lot of ways people can contribute to victory.
Behind the Mask: Big weapons, big news
It's an exciting time for Champions Online. Although there was a lot of speculation about the level of success of the Free-for-All expansion, we know just by the increase in content being output that the F2P launch has been a very big success. In the recent State of the Game, Rob Overmeyer announced all sorts of new content, including the Resistance Adventure Pack currently on PTS, the new weekly Comic Series, and the most asked-for feature: player housing! I could write a whole column speculating on the SotG, and while it'd be kind of a fun read, we all know I like writing informative stuff, and we have a lot of things to cover. Heavy Weapons has been live for a week now. Some of you guys have been waiting with bated breath for me to answer one question: Is Devastator worth buying?
Behind the Mask: Primal Rage
Before we get started, let me note that I'm pretty aware of the current progress on the new Devastator Archetype and the Heavy Weapons set. Things seem to be going well for both, so when we finally see them (soon!) I'll be giving some in-depth coverage. Normally I give a preview prior to the content's going live, but in this case I wanted to talk about something else first. That something else is Aura of Primal Majesty. Champions Online has four different aura passives, and for a long time, all but one of them (Aura of Radiant Protection) were pretty bad. During the Free-for-All launch, the three underperforming auras were buffed extensively. After the buffs, the Primal aura emerged as one with the most unique and interesting interactions. In fact, it is one of the most truly interesting powers in CO, because something as simple as raising stats has one of the most unusual consequences in CO's complicated stat system.
Behind the Mask: The perfect ten
I neglected to mention a few weeks ago (two weeks ago, actually) a very important event: Behind the Mask had its one year anniversary in the end of March, and I intended to do something special. Although we could do something boring like recap the journey of my first year of Champions Online or something, that doesn't really sound like much fun to me. I've had some good times playing CO since I started writing for Massively, but CO is a themepark, so my summary would be something like, "I roleplayed a lot." Sure, I have a few high-level characters, but I probably wouldn't have had as much fun playing CO if not for roleplaying and the social landscape of the game. If you're a long-time reader of this column, you know I complain a lot about Champions. In some respects, that shows I'm invested in the game, and I really care about whether it succeeds. On the other hand, it also means that sometimes my column carries some bias. In true Behind the Mask-fashion, here is the real summary of my last year of playing CO. If you read my rants about roleplayers, this should be familiar ground.
Behind the Mask: Being resourceful with resources
Most of the time, we look at MMORPGs and talk about features, gameplay, community, content, and other things like that. We rarely look at an MMO's economy unless we're actually hardcore players, and almost invariably players think the economy is messed up in one way or the other. Champions Online is really no different. People complain about overinflated auction house prices all the time, about how transaction fees and auction limits ruin the economy, and how the value of certain super-rare items has plummeted. Overall, I'm very happy with CO's economy. Even though the AH interface is horribly broken (and I'm sure the devs are aware), many people use the AH and most goods are available for sale (even the elusive buttcape). Because the cash-shop items can be traded and sold, there's a certain strangeness in the market, but this is largely a good thing.
Behind the Mask: The pursuit of magic
When it comes to roleplaying, I'm a huge fan of wizards and spell casters, and it has nothing to do with gameplay roles. Magic is generally unlimited in its potential; it has the power to do anything the imagination can perceive, and the freedom to choose different roles for my characters is very attractive. In the Champions universe, arcane practice is very different than its typical portrayals elsewhere. In most universes with a fantasy element, magic involves some chanting and spending some magic points or some other consumable resource (or possibly forgetting the spell in question) before the magic effect wills itself into existence. For roleplayers, this magical difference is very important. Magical spells and creatures don't follow the same rules as those present in other fiction. Champions mystics follow real-life mythology and lore -- and strangely, this makes them unique among mages in other roleplaying settings.
Behind the Mask: The responsible microtransaction
It's no surprise to anyone that I am a pro-microtransaction gamer. Microtransactions make lots of money for the publisher and focus more on pleasing the game's core audience instead of relying on the silent majority of its subscriber base. However, microtransactions can quickly feel like exploitation. When a publisher overcharges or underprovides, it can cause cascading failures as the game's core customers become upset. Champions Online has jumped into the freemium market, and the game itself is pretty fun without the player needing to pay any money at all. Gold subscriptions, which allow for much wider customization and access to numerous fun features, are also a reasonable expenditure. There are quite a few other things to buy in the store... some of which are a little more responsible than others.
Behind the Mask: Chatting with Champions Online's wiki mistress
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was planning on interviewing some key members of the Champions Online community. There were a few questions raised to me on just what constituted a "key member." This week, I got to chat with CO's resident wiki mistress, Lohr. She's the owner and administrator of the biggest Champions fansite on the internet, Champions Online Wiki. CO-Wiki is the largest repository of information on the game available anywhere on the internet, and it includes everything from information on missions to powers and levels. Early in its youth, CO-Wiki was not the biggest, being dwarfed by a Wikia site dedicated to Champions Online (which is still being updated). However, CO-Wiki drew contributors and quickly became a striking success. Today, players can access CO-Wiki directly from the Champions Online website. Lohr and I chatted about how she got to where she is now and what she thinks about the path the game is taking. Hit the jump to read the full scoop!
