Doctor Cerberus appears in Praetoria!

The Notorious Doctor Cerberus was seen in Nova Praetoria recently along with his companion Callie Hotbone.

The Black Knight comes to Praetoria!

Yes the Black Knight has come to Praetoria. It is whispered that his destiny is to ally with the Legendary Lorena somewhere in Paragon City...

Going Rogue is LIVE

...for those who prepurchased! Here's BattleTronic - a new kind of hero for a new kind of world

Booster Pack Review #1: Cyborg!

There are now 5 booster packs available for COH plus the Mac-Pac and the Wedding Pack. There is some information out there about them but there really aren't a ton of reviews by people who play the game. I aim to change that by discussing what's in them a bit, and more importantly IMO, how useful and fun they really are.

The Cyborg Pack was the first pack released and IMO is still one of the best. It's 9.99 and can be acquired through the Architect Edition boxed set too at an effectively cheaper cost. It includes a power, new costume pieces, and combat auras.

The set power is "Self-Destruct". This is a decently strong PBAOE blast that can be triggered once per hour. The character dies but no debt is incurred, making it ideal for situations where you know you're going down and want to take a few damaged enemies with you while not acquiring debt.  Details can be found here. I have found it useful on almost any kind of character but it's especially good on scrappers (who tend to be up close to the enemy and are somewhat fragile) and for low-level tankers when the rest of the team goes down and the inevitable decline begins as enemies pile on. it can also be a quick ticket out of the sewers and other remote locations if the team breaks up. It's a great power - I give it an "A".

Combat Auras are technically costume pieces but they are a little different as they do not really go on to your character. There are 4 - 3 versions of a "laser-eye" type projection - left, right, and both eyes - plus a HUD-type projection that comes down over the character's face. These are activated whenever you click on an attack power. They are color-tintable too, nice for making your heat-visions-ish look your own, or your targeting laser a nicer shade of red.

Costume-wise this an effective set for hi-tech heroes and may have some useful parts for others. In general the set looks good when mixed with the metallic, armor, and tech skins. Specifics are below.

-The head pieces are effectively another type of helmet and there are two - one looks almost like a full helm with a screen, the other is a sort of robot-face. I have used them on everything from a terminator-type villain to a facemask for a ninja - they mix well.

- The shoulder pieces are very versatile including a ball-joint looking piece, a wedge-shaped piece, and a set of cables that look like coils of some kind. I have used these pieces on multiple characters, both tech-based and just in plain old tights and I consider them the most useful pieces in the pack.

- The chest piece is really a robotic arms set where you can make one or both arms into a robotic arm. This is handy for some concepts but not very useful in general.

-The chest detail includes the good-looking cyborg shield which is a very detailed breastplate, much more techie-looking than say the Valkyrie breastplate, somewhat akin to the Enforcer breastplate.

-The arms include the "cyborg arms" which look like a metal-muscled set of tech arms - not a whole lot more to say except that all of these cyborg parts include two sections for coloration and it's worth flipping back and forth between the two to see which arrangement handles your color selection better.

-There is only one belt and it looks like 2 straps bolted to either side of your character's waist. It's of limited usefulness.

-The lower body options are limited to one leg and one boot option, which match the heavy metal muscle look of the arms

Overall these costume pieces mix and match well in most areas with the auras, head, shoulders, and the chest detail being the most versatile and the arms and legs being less flexible, though being very fine examples of their type. The belt is nearly a give-up. Overall I give the costume pieces a B+ for flexibility and looks.

Given the goodness of the costume pieces and the coolness of the power, if you play tech heroes at all you will not be disappointed by the contents of this pack.

(The picture at the top is of my villain X-100 who uses the cyborg arms, legs, boots, and breastplate in case you are unfamiliar with the look. I used various shades of gray and white and I am very happy with the way he turned out.)

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