Sunday, October 11, 2009

Played Lately: Champions Online

  • I got back into Champions Online again last night, intent on exploring more of Monster Island. The quests in Wells Pass at the southern end of the island were quite dense with some difficult quests among the Manimals and VIPER troops. There were a few cave instances to really up the challenge. Then I ran into the biggest obstacle in the game: the content gap.

  • At level 32, there were no longer any quests I could find lower than level 35, except "Crisis in Lemuria" at level 34. Considering how challenging others had found that, I wasn't eager to try until I was at least level 33. (Heh.) So what did I do instead? I grinded mobs.

  • I can't even believe I have to type that. I ran out of quests (the mythical Dr. Silverback repeatable quests never having appeared) so I had to grind for experience. I started off on the level 32 Manimals along the eastern coast and got some experience there, but not nearly what I was hoping for. So I tried a different tack. I went off the Millennium City and grinded gray level mobs.

  • That may sound crazy since gray mobs don't give any experience points. That's what this game has driven me to. But there is a method to my madness, you see. By killing hordes of low level mobs (I refuse to call them enemies or villains while I'm forced to grind), I'm much more likely to gain the attention of my nemesis. And it worked! After only a few minutes, Necrosis' infernals started popping out of the woodwork. And one of them finally left behind a clue as to what the villain was up to.

  • It seems that all of his attentions in the Atomic Wastelands were leading to some advances in cloning. His goal: to clone the mayor of Millennium City and replace the original. Well, Arcfire and I put a quick stop to that by shutting down his cloning operation and foiling his plot at city hall. I have to give the guy credit, though. He's got a much higher quality of minion working for him now. I had to take out three additional supervillains helping the big blue villain out.

  • Most importantly, Necrosis helped push me to level 33. So I stopped grinding and, figuring a one level difference wasn't too bad, headed off to Lemuria. The content gap is still alive and well in Champions and Cryptic will have to work harder to bridge it. I'm sure that will come in time, so I'm not whining just yet. But it had better come before I take too many alts to level 30.



© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

7 comments:

  1. So the low 30s quest gap is not a lie. I hope they get to it before I start playing again. And grinding grays to get my nemesis to pop, never would have occurred to me, bravo.

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  2. Nice idea on the gray mob grinding, will need to remember that myself.

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  3. May I suggest the following:

    http://www.crimecomputer20.com/

    I am now level 37, and I yet to do a single quest above my level, or grind a single mob. At least not on purpose. I'll randomly start shooting at whatever, say when I am waiting for a friend to travel over to my location etc. But other than that, no grinding and no questing about my level mate!

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  4. @ Yeebo - Definitely not a lie. But even with this (on top of the other complains one might have), I'm still having more fun with CO than with any other game at the moment.

    @ Jayedub - Thanks. I do feel a bit self-congratulatory about it. :)

    @ Bronte - That site is so excellent, I'm in the midst of a separate blog post about it. However, such a resource is no replacement for plentiful content. Glad you hear you've been so successful in avoiding the same game, though.

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  5. The crimecomputer site was a great find, I plan to use it as much as possible.

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  6. Cool idea on getting your nemesis' attention, I'm not even to 30 yet but I'll have to remember that if I hit the gap. Of course, I have enough alts that I may just switch to other heroes until Cryptic gets their content gaps filled.

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  7. @ Jayedub - Use it in good health. It's a great find.

    @ BlueKae - I've found myself with another alt too. I've got five characters and I'm already feeling overwhelmed. Thank goodness I have 16 character slots. :)

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