The Stings, a Tough Kid, and Bailey the Ripper

It's been a while since I wrote about DC Universe Online, and to be honest, my interests in DCUO outside of my regularly scheduled Sunday night game with Team Spode has been minimal lately. I did think the other day to myself, "I miss playing DCUO with Bailey." (Except, well, I thought Bailey's real name not her online persona name, but you get the gist.) Bailey and I have played tons more of DCUO than we should have, and it's been an absolute blast. Bailey loves the game more than I do to be honest, which is rare to see happen. When she grabs on to a game, she REALLY grabs on to a game and plays it to the ground. :)

Anyway, I chimed in on a discussion happening over Twitter yesterday about a group of fun people turning their attention toward DCUO (and specifically John Lifeglen), and I couldn't help myself from speaking up. If there's a group of people I love playing MMOs with, it's people that have or are currently playing Wizard101, and the crew from Spiral Radio love their games.

So, here's a breakdown on my characters in DCUO

First up is Stingheal. I've talked about him plenty in the past, so I don't think I'll rehash much about his background or whatnot . . . needless to say, he's Team Spode's main healer. I'm a Sorcery hero sporting lizard skin because that's how I roll.

As you can see from the pictures above his CR is 97 with a Restoration score of 2800+ and is sitting on 28,000+ marks . . . I need to spend a few of those toward style feats!

Next is Tough Kid, my Nature DPS villian. Tough Kid was birthed from a funny set of exchanges where I was to play a character named Tough Kid, Bailey was to play a character named Super Tough Chick, and another of our friends was to play another character named Super Tough Kid. Don't ask . . . it was funny at the time. Anyway, Tough Kid made it the farthest out of anyone in that group as Bailey was too into her other characters (but now that I think about it, Super Tough Chick did make it to 30. I'd have to double check that.)

Again, as you can see from the pics, TK's CR is 95 with a Might Score in the 2000's . . . and is sitting on 3000 marks or so. I think my favorite way to play TK is as a healer in DPS gear. ;)

But enough about me . . . let's take a peek at Bailey's characters! (Shh, she doesn't know I'm sharing!)

This is the infamous Ripper Bailey!

Whew a CR 101 mentalist villain controller with a vit solidly in the 2000's and just rocking in every way. She's the best character in our arsenal and has well over 100 skill points. Bailey has put the time and effort into this character, and it really shows.

And this beauty here is Stingharm--definitely the love interest of Stingheal.*eyebrows*

A CR 87 Quantum hero DPS build, with a fun story! Stingharm came about initially as a joke because the name Stingheal was so lame and Spode made a random joke one night that I should make a DPS named Stingharm. This played to our advantage in Team Spode as Kaptain KY, our DPS, had some personal matters to attend to and had to take a break from the Sunday Night game. Bailey and I tag team played Stingharm up to CR 70+ in the matter of two weeks,and it was probably the most awesome accomplishment I think we had ever pulled off in that short of time in DCUO. It really showed how important hitting those raids are to get marks. They really help.

And that's a quick look at our DCUO characters. We've had countless hours of fun with this game, and it's pretty great.

Happy Dueling!

Tier 5 Challenge -- Test Subject #1 (Bizarro Instance) . . . for SPODE!

And now for your enjoyment . . . Part 2 of the DCUO challenge instances again recorded for Lord Spode of Team Spode. This time I brought along Uber Wife to add some commentary. If you stay to the very end, I even added some 4th of July fun for you ala DCUO style.



Happy Dueling!

DCUO Tier 5 The Hunt . . . for SPODE!

I made a YouTube Video for my friend, Lord Spode of Team Spode, since he wanted me to show him the way I do the DCUO Tier 5 instances . . . but I tell you that in the video. :) WATCH! ENJOY THE HAWTNESS!



Part 2 with Bizarro coming soon.

Happy Dueling

Clownvanity vs . . . Clownvanity!

Pulled this awesome cosmetic prize out of the vault today. :)



Imagine my surprise when the very same day, my Ace Chemical's Daily quest was this one. :)

So, to catch up, I'm sitting at CR86 now with a whole set of green gear. I've been steering away from the four player missions, but I've been debating giving them a spin. I'm really in no hurry to increase my CR at this point.

The single player Tier 5 missions are a bit of a bear to deal with, mainly because it takes you completely out of your comfort zone and gives you a whole new look, a whole new set of powers, and the bosses are heavy on the hitpoints. Of course, timing your blocks, rolling around, and using soder colas and heal barrels at the right time works wonders for helping make this a little easier.



On the Huntress mission you face off against three bosses and have a bit of rudimentary sneaking around to do. I failed against Cassamento the first time around, so I've been opting to let him live and cross my fingers while hoping Hush or Killer Croc show up as the alternate boss. If the alternate boss is Bane or Scarecrow, well . . . good luck. Definitely knowing how to use dual pistol combos is a blessing in this instance.

On the Bizarro mission you again face three bosses and just smash the heck out of stuff. As always, the rule is that you take out the easy adds before you move on to the boss. I really don't have too much trouble with this instance except for the final robot. Oh my . . . he's frustrating. I've never been able to just straight up fight him without running away for a bit to heal up and come back for more. Even more frustrating I've had the boss reset on me while I was hiding. You just can't let him get too far away from you and drop agro for a long time.



Annnnnnd . . . that's what I've been doing on DCUO for the most part! Our Sunday night group keeps plugging away but the universe keeps trying to stop us in our tracks with afk's, vacations, and real life. NO FAIR UNIVERSE!



OH! And one final thing . . . Fisherman Gear!



Happy Dueling

Whodoo that Voodoo that you do so well?

It's kind of funny, but I always hit this present in the vault as my last present.

Why? Well it's the one that awards the Marks of Triumph, and for some reason I have it in my head that this box will be more likely to award me a case of Marks of Triumph instead of just a single Mark of Triumph if I save it for last . . .

I KNOW RIGHT?! I can't believe I made up this little voodoo in my mind, but obviously people do it all the time. For instance, in Wizard101, my wife and her friends sometimes think that the order you enter the hatchery will have some kind of magical effect that will influence which pet you get as a result. It's crazy talk, but I've learned to not try to argue with their voodoo ways. :)

So here's a question, what kind of video game voodoo do you believe in? What's your virtual equivalent of a football player never washing his lucky jockstrap? Give me your craziness! I'd love to hear it.

Happy dueling!

Whazzat? CR 84? YES!!!

I have to brag a bit . . . not because I'm the first or last to make CR84, but because now I am one of the happy-to-have-made-it-to-CR 84 crowd! Check it out!



That ring I'm mouse'd over on that screenshot is what did it today. It's a rare beauty that fell into my lap courtesy of the daily Vault mission. With a CR 78 rating and a nice red slot in it, which I graciously put a Precision and Might 3 mod in for an additional 17 levels (!!!) of effectiveness, that little pastel orange lucky-drop pushed me right over the edge of CR 84! I was shocked when I saw that. I was so happy I felt the need to taunt my good friend Spode (who's sitting at CR 82) with an email message.

Getting CR 84 is one thing, but taunting your good friend with it is another. hehe. I fully expect retaliation of some sort later today.

Looks like I need to try out the Tier 4 alerts!

More on that later. :)

Happy Dueling!

Shot through the heart . . . and DCUO is to blame

I loaded up Marvel Heroes a couple days ago when it launched, and played through the first level. It was reasonably fun and very much everything everyone has said about the game . . . Diablo meets superheroes. If that's your thing, you'll dig this game.



My wife showed some initial interest, even overlooking the isometric view, and that made me kind of excited! Unfortunately when she found out you really couldn't fly around and make your own personalized character, she was instantly lost. I believe the direct quote was, "This is just another one of those dumb games your group can play for free on Sunday nights."

. . . and she left the room.

. . . and she was back to DCUO . . . as was I! I can't get enough of DCUO lately! Earlier this morning I crafted my first rank four mod. Check it out.



Oh man that 12 Exobytes component is a lot of flying around and collecting little glowing bits around the world.

It did manage to bring my total CR up to 81 this morning. I'm getting ever closer to the magical CR 84. I think it's eventually all going to come down to these augments to push me over the edge. What happens at the magical CR 84? I open up the next tier of missions in the On Duty menu of course! Yay!

Lately it seems like all the action in the game is taking place in the CR 94+ area of the game. I keep seeing shouts of higher geared players looking for "nexus" groups. I'd look up what that means, but for now I'm just happy grinding away on my Steelworks missions.



Shot through the heart, and DCUO's to blame . . .

I also spent some time last night completing a bunch of Tier 3 two-player missions with my good buddy Tony.



Tony and I have been gaming together for years. To think we met in Everquest well over 10 years ago . . . whoa *time warp jazz hands*. Anyway, he rose about 4 CR last night and we raked in about 350 Marks. Good times!

Happy Dueling

Looking Cool in DC Universe Online

One thing that must happen in a Super Hero MMO -- Your hero MUST look epic. What's a hero without a costume? Well, for one, invisible, for two, NO HERO AT ALL!

The character creation process in City of Heroes and City of Villains are stuff of legends, which makes it all the more sad that those two particular games have gone the way of the dodo. For me though, the newest Super Hero game is DC Universe Online--thanks to Team Spode! We've been having a blast as you can tell from Tipa's posts, but the first real comment I must make about the game (aside from the already stated point that DCUO isn't for kids) is how awesome the costume changes are in game. It's brilliant, actually. It's like I'm instantly carrying around several costumes that are able to be equipped on the fly . . . and all neatly collected without ever taking up any backpack space. Now THAT's customization!

First you press Escape and select the Style option.

Once you're here, you simply open up each item and select which part of your costume you'd like to put on, and then select the individual item you want to wear.

Then you either lock in a particular style or unlock it, so if your character has an iconic thing about them that you feel is core to who they are . . . lock it. For instance, I just purchased a wing model for my character Stingite yesterday, and I'm thinking that is going to most likely be his iconic back item . . . that and his Mohawk, green lizard skin, and "S" for stingite emblem on his chest. :)

Everything else can shift around as I find new styles because that is truly one of the sub-games of DC Universe Online: collecting and unlocking all the styles the game has to offer.