Incendiary Lass Reboot - Part 2

Oh, it is also worth mentioning specialized minions. Specialized minions are minions who carry special abilities that are unique to their particular sub-type. For example, Council Marksmen are minions with sharpshooter rifles of some kind that shoot salt crystals. When you're hit by these crystals, your recharge rate is reduced. I used to hate getting into Striga in the mid-20's where Marksmen would pop up in droves. I had never noticed these types of specialized minions appearing in early levels before, but lo-and-behold, in Incendiary Lass's policeband Council mission, they were there.

I haven't see all the specialized types. For example, there haven't been any Council Flamethrowers yet, but if they really are new to the lower levels, even a few specialized minions can make things that much more dangerous. This is especially true for low-level characters who have no way to mitigate the effects these minions produce. I suspect it is one of the elements contributing to my lower survivability against those three-man +1 spawns.

Incendiary Lass Reboot

I started up a new version of Incendiary Lass on Virtue in City of Heroes this weekend. I'm kindof interested in seeing the progress from scratch again ... we'll see how long it lasts.

From level 1 to 5, things were very easy. I basically did the missions on autopilot. It would have been very difficult to get defeated. As a mutation character, I got the Find the Crate and the Painting Thief Council missions. As is also usual with a mutation character, I ran out of missions halfway through level four and had to street hunt.

I've noticed the distribution of foes has changed a little in Atlas. There are a lot more Vahzilok around. In fact, my normal hunting ground for the Atlas Security Chief Hellion street hunt mission was largely populated by Vahz.

I finally hit level 5 and took the Toothbreaker mission from my Kings Row contact. That mission was followed up with two police band missions: one Circle of Thorns and one Council.

Even though my difficulty is set to the default Heroic, these missions were almost entirely populated by spawns comprised of two +1 minions and one +2 lieutenant. With Temp Invuln and Dull Pain alone, I simply can't survive these encounters without using inspirations. In fact, the CoT mission spawns required multiple inspirations especially when Dull Pain was down.

Interestingly enough, three even-level minions or even three +1 minions pose little no problem. Changing one of those +1 minions to a +1 lieutenant makes things that much harder.

I hit level 6 right at the end of my Circle of Thorns policeband mission after defeating the Madness Mage boss. I picked up Swift, taking my build to:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.20
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Incendiary Lass: Level 7 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Flight

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- Empty(A), Empty(3), Empty(3)
Level 1: Scorch -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Empty(A), Empty(5), Empty(5)
Level 4: Combustion -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Hover -- Empty(A)

July

It's been a busy month! Let's see, i've got a boatload of anime i've watched.

Ergo Proxy
i managed to catch up on more than just the first four episodes. i really like the look of this anime. it's crisp and has a strong style. i absolutely love the opening and ending songs. the opening, in particular, is very well put together.

the story is also pretty interesting. as the story progresses, the characters develop more depth than i expected. i have seen a few episode i did not like. i would also argue many episode only contributed minimally to developing the story, but it's hard to find fault with that when there are series with dozens of filler episodes.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
i've caught a few more episodes. this series feels a bit adolescent, but there are elements of it i really like. i've watched up to episode 12. most of the early episodes are developmental and i found myself longing for the story to really kick in to high gear. episodes 11 and 12 feel like they might be the start of that.

i wish the quality of the animation were a bit better. there are times the quality seems really poor. for example, when Suburu creates her Wind Roads.

Bleach
i really hate Bleach right now. the most recent three episodes were pure filler. having read the manga, i know what's coming and i'm not looking forward to it. the manga has _just_ started to pick up with the battle between Ichigo and GrimJaw, but that means there are dozens of episodes to snore through before the anime becomes interesting again. it's like the seemingly endless trek through Soul Society all over again.

Naruto Shippuuden
Naruto, on the other hand, i'm finding more and more interesting. in this case, knowing the manga merely keeps me glued to my seat waiting for more.

Mai Hime/My-Otome/My-Otome Zwei
there seems to be popular sentiment that Mai Hime is better than the others. that just leads me to believe most people are gullible saps who succumb easily to having their symapthies plundered.

don't get me wrong, i find Mai Hime interesting. i like the interaction between its characters. i find the concept compelling. i just find the execution to be poor. it's way to easy to play on people's symapthies with an easy sob story. beyond that, the story is pretty weak.

My-Otome isn't encumbered by the same emotional baggage. it's genuinely funny and enjoyable. it may not have as much depth, and it may be a simpler story, but it works for me. i like the concept much much more.

My-Otome Zwei is wonderful. let me just say, episode two is probably the one anime i have watched more times than any other. i actually watched it multiple times even before watching the complete My-Otome series. it makes a lot more sense now, of course. even after repeated watchings, i can't help but chuckle at Armitage's megaphone march to the bus. the animation is solid, the concepts are great, and i absolutely love the background music.

My-Otome has just somehow managed to elevate too many of its characters into my heart! i love so many of them!