First Surprises in COH

[Golden Ace]

I don't remember the first one. 

I do remember this though

I was helping a friend level in the Hollows.  my level 50 sk'd down to her level (12 maybe?).  I came out of her mission only to be attacked by 2 Malta sapper, a Zeus Titan, and a few others. I  dropped the sk when I had a fraction of health left no end at all.  ate every green and blue I had along with the breakfree's.  no shields, hit fly and zoomed to the top of the map thinking I would be safe long enough to get my shields on and get some end back.

Did you know malta sappers could fly?

I didn't...

[Reiraku]

I don't remember the first one. 

I do remember this though

I was helping a friend level in the Hollows.  my level 50 sk'd down to her level (12 maybe?).  I came out of her mission only to be attacked by 2 Malta sapper, a Zeus Titan, and a few others. I  dropped the sk when I had a fraction of health left no end at all.  ate every green and blue I had along with the breakfree's.  no shields, hit fly and zoomed to the top of the map thinking I would be safe long enough to get my shields on and get some end back.

Did you know malta sappers could fly?

I didn't...

I will be perfectly honest. I've played this game from the moment the headstart began to the day it closed, and I never they could.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Did you know malta sappers could fly?

Malta Sappers!  Look up "rat bastage" in the dictionary, and you see a picture of one of these guys.

I actually didn't know they could fly either until right now, but in hindsight, it kinda makes sense.  They usually don't fly because they're typically encountered indoors and are pretty much purely ranged attackers.  I'm not even sure they can Brawl.  They do, however, have those large backpacks that are suspiciously similar to certain kinds of jetpack you can get.  I mean, sure, it looks like it would be a Ghostbusters-style energy pack for their sapper rifle.  Ask yourself this, though - is there any other mob in the game with a high-tech backpack, with the sole exception of crab spiders, that can't fly or teleport?

[silvers1]

My first surprise was the Frostfire mission.  Nothing like playing skateboard in the ice room.

Oh, and entering the final room and sliding out of control towards the enemy group .... yikes.

[General Idiot]

Malta Sappers!  Look up "rat bastage" in the dictionary, and you see a picture of one of these guys.

I actually didn't know they could fly either until right now, but in hindsight, it kinda makes sense.  They usually don't fly because they're typically encountered indoors and are pretty much purely ranged attackers.  I'm not even sure they can Brawl.  They do, however, have those large backpacks that are suspiciously similar to certain kinds of jetpack you can get.  I mean, sure, it looks like it would be a Ghostbusters-style energy pack for their sapper rifle.  Ask yourself this, though - is there any other mob in the game with a high-tech backpack, with the sole exception of crab spiders, that can't fly or teleport?

Always amused me that sappers used that pack to fly, but when we got it we could only use it to super jump. (Was the second mayhem/safeguard mission power, the temporary super jump one.)

[Senkan]

I started playing about a week after launch.  My buddy was playing and we were in Galaxy.  We were talking on our mobile phones.  I asked him what does it mean when they are purple. He said they were tough.  I was like...no problem.  So I got my first taste of purple power and my first faceplant.  The good ol days.

[Achimrst]

My first surprise was actually pretty funny, I was new to any MMO I had no idea what it was really so I was playing a Grav/Psi dom. My first character ever and had no idea what I was doing the sparklies would go off and I was like "What is happening? and what is that green arrow am I doing good?" Took me several hours to figure out I was lvling up and had to train new powers and slots! I was like wow this is awesome! Crush and dart for the win!

[Golden Ace]

Malta Sappers!  Look up "rat bastage" in the dictionary, and you see a picture of one of these guys.

I actually didn't know they could fly either until right now, but in hindsight, it kinda makes sense.  They usually don't fly because they're typically encountered indoors and are pretty much purely ranged attackers.  I'm not even sure they can Brawl.  They do, however, have those large backpacks that are suspiciously similar to certain kinds of jetpack you can get.  I mean, sure, it looks like it would be a Ghostbusters-style energy pack for their sapper rifle.  Ask yourself this, though - is there any other mob in the game with a high-tech backpack, with the sole exception of crab spiders, that can't fly or teleport?

They were the one group I hated more than any other.

I made it a point to find every Sapper I could.  i even had a special bind that would automatically select the closest sapper within range for me to target.   Then rather than go in there and attack them with my most powerful attacks killing them with a blow or two, I would only attack them with my holds. I kept them there, held and helpless, as their hit-points slowly ebbed away. I must have killed thousands that way.  I couldn't make it to the portal corp without being diverted half a dozen times when flying through Peregrine Island.  I always diverted and got the sapper.

On hindsight its probably a good thing I did too. if I hadn't been so diligent about killing them they would have been all over the place. 

this brings back memories.   

I was a god.  Nothing could stop me. I tanked things 9 levels higher than I was.  Must have been in my mid 30's on my main back then (Golden Ace Inv/Ice Tank). Issue 3 I believe.

Then I got this tell to come to a mission by a couple of higher level blasters saying that they needed a tank.  I said sure. they told me it was a Malta mission.  Malta? I thought.  Cool I've never seen them before.

I come into the mission and charge toward the first group.  no sk no nothing.  I didn't even get close.  I was held, drained and killed in nothing flat. I think I asked something like "what was that?"

and was told "That my dear Tank was a sapper." died more times in that mission than my entire career to that point.

[Risha]

Malta Sappers!  Look up "rat bastage" in the dictionary, and you see a picture of one of these guys.

Oh, yeah, I've been killed by a few flying ones...outside in PI, I think.  LOATHED them.  REALLY hated when they, like, hid behind a titan...and I didn't see them first to freeze them.

[Perfidus]

I remember I used to use Malta Sappers to farm damage badges. Since they don't do much damage, mostly just take endurance, I'd just put my click heal on auto and go to bed. Wake up hours later to see that Sapper still doing his darndest to bring me down.

It made me feel a lot better about them. Whenever they annoyed me after that I'd just think back to that day and smile.

[DarkCurrent]

Another huge surprise for me was my first trip to Perez Park with a level 8 dark/dark defender.  I'm talking back in the good ole days. The days when you started in either AP and GC and you thought the best way to get from one to the other was through PP because the trains to steel and skyway dumped you off in a death row sentence.

And so you finally got high enough level to go into PP.  And the place was packed with all sorts of newbs all blabbering away in broadcast because there were no global chat channels.  And it was night time.  And you and your one buddy joined some pug team to enter the forest because someone in bc was shouting something about a hydra hunt in the middle of the zone.

And you ran down the hill toward the woods as fast as sprint would take you because you didn't get travel powers until lvl 14.  Dodging hellions/skulls as you went.  And finally you got to the woods and the path you followed disappeared around a bend.  And you went sprinting after the team leader and ran smack into the middle of a pack of green eyed CoT.

Bam!  Wham!  Zap!

Dead.

Rez in Galaxy City ftw!

[srmalloy]

I made it a point to find every Sapper I could.  i even had a special bind that would automatically select the closest sapper within range for me to target.   Then rather than go in there and attack them with my most powerful attacks killing them with a blow or two, I would only attack them with my holds. I kept them there, held and helpless, as their hit-points slowly ebbed away. I must have killed thousands that way.  I couldn't make it to the portal corp without being diverted half a dozen times when flying through Peregrine Island.  I always diverted and got the sapper.

I used to enjoy Confusing the sappers in spawns, and then snicker as I watched them sap their fellow Malta; it didn't stop the mobs from attacking, as every mob seemed to have at least one zero-End attack they could use even while sapped to zero, but the "See how you like it for a change" factor was too much fun to resist.

[General Idiot]

I always got a kick out of fighting Sappers on an electric armor character, because immunity to end drain is awesome and the ability to drain them right back was equally awesome even if Sappers were almost immune to it themselves.

[Risha]

Oh, Perez Park!  Yes, run, run, run -- what hit me?!  What defeated me?  Who's standing over me body and laughing at me.  Who ARE those dudes..COT...  Yes, I remember that.  Was there, did that.

[srmalloy]

Oh, Perez Park!  Yes, run, run, run -- what hit me?!  What defeated me?  Who's standing over me body and laughing at me.  Who ARE those dudes..COT...  Yes, I remember that.  Was there, did that.

That was the guaranteed first use of mission autocomplete for any character I created. I would get the 'Go see the Security Chief for Perez Park' mission you got at level 6, go to Atlas to pick up the 'Defeat CoT' mission he gives you, and then autocomplete it. There were already enough ways to find yourself face-down at the feet of a group of NPCs; there was no point in going out and pissing off large groups of +4 mobs to get there faster.

[LadyShin]

Show of hands for how many people here got the 'Top Dog' badge among their first 3 exploration badges? 

[DarkCurrent]

Another one I can think of was when CoV launched and the PvP zones opened.  I took my empathy/energy defender into Sirens Call and was pleased to see the bounty system with the map showing me where some dastardly villain was.  So I jumped around the map after the moving dot until I was finally on it.  Looked around but saw nothing.  Hmm... must be a bug or lag.

BAM!

Assassin strike.  Dead.

WTF???

[Golden Ace]

Show of hands for how many people here got the 'Top Dog' badge among their first 3 exploration badges? 

*Raises Hand*

My very first badge on my very first character.

took hover at level 6 because I wanted to fly so bad I could taste it.

wanted to see what was up there.  didn't even know about the badge.

6 slotted hover with flight speed and didn't take fly till much later on that character.

[srmalloy]

Show of hands for how many people here got the 'Top Dog' badge among their first 3 exploration badges? 

It wasn't even in the first ten exploration badges for my characters until the GvE edition's Jump Pack inherent power; before that, getting that badge had to wait until a character got either Fly or Super Jump or, later, the Flight Pack from the first Safeguard mission. Once my characters started getting the Jump Pack at character creation, though, it was almost always the second exploration badge in Atlas Park -- light off Jump Pack, jump on top of City Hall to get the 'Freedom' badge, then from there to the top of the globe to get 'Top Dog', and I'd have enough time left on the Jump Pack's 30-second duration to brake before impact jumpng off the globe so I didn't hurt myself landing.

[hockey21man]

Mine was the first time I got hit with ID and them jumped what seemed like forever up and was like this is crazy outta control!   The other was the first time my  friends and I  were dong missions in Bloody Bay and I got one shotted ant the mission door by a stalker.  Was just laying there going what the hell hit me... and my friends laughing. 

One last early on surprise was running into PP and seeing a Tank aggro the entire map pretty much.  Just hundreds of mobs chasing him.  Then the Tank saying "get em!"  my friends and I could attack these mobs with no worries.  This was of course issue 3-or 4.