History Awesome / CityOfHeroes

* How about the last mission of Viridian's Arc in COV? All that effort to invite a number of Archvillains to a conference ends up up with those present questioning the presence of resident Magnificent Bastard Nemesis. Of course immediately afterward (Mental imagery suggests that all eyes would be on Nemesis at this point) Longbow shows up to crash the party. Immediately one of the villains present asks how they found out. Nemesis is the first to reply. "Elementary. I TOLD THEM!" Nemmy's had a lot of moments, but this one sticks out in my mind. Especially funny is The Center's comment: "And this is why I never invite Nemesis to anything."

* How is there no mention of Breakneck? Granted, the in-game rendition isn't quite as badass as the official tie-in comic's version, but you still have to admit that an elderly, out-of-shape ex-superhero with a heart condition breaking free of his chains and taking on one of the biggest bads in the game one-on-one is fairly bad-ass, even if he gets his ass handed to him and his heart fails as a result. Especially since he saves the world and buys you time to finish the job in the process.

** There's a layer of FridgeHorror to that when you realize that even though you're THAT powerful, your future self still apparently need to resort to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong altering the past]] fix things, and its implied that despite everything you're looking at, Ouroboros is doing comparatively well to the [[OhCrap REST OF REALITY.]]
* The last part of the Cloning Facility arc in City Of Villians. You've spent all this time building the Facility only to find out it was an EvilPlan to make clones of you to destroy Primal Earth. What do you do? Kill everyone one in the facility up to and including Protean the man who killed Manticores parents. He then rigs the entire facility to blow so you spend the next three minutes walking through flames as it blows. When you get out and talk to your Contact you both know Protean isn't dead. So you instead decided to cripple him by draining his bank account.
** Made all the better since it's the first redside arc that makes you feel like the contacts are working for you (even though the second one isn't) rather than you working for the contacts.
** There's another section that's worthy of note. Just at the start of the second arc, you test the cloning equipment by taking on clones of yourself. The first few tries are [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments zombies and werewolves]]. Then you fight clones of yourself. As many as you want. You get a badge if you ''somehow'' defeat ''eight of yourself''.

* Finally, ''finally'' taking down Mot is both this and a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}.
* Having heard of the games cancellation on August 31, 2012, The response of the City of Heroes community being that of banding together to fight it in an attempt to save the game that they love. That is AWESOME.
** A rally in Atlas Park spawned over 30 instances. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRsj2DtLCQs The composite video showing everyone who showed up]] is awesome in and of itself.
*** Five days later, Atlas Park 33 still existed, with dozens of players still holding torches in front of City Hall, right up until the server was shut down for maintenance.
*** Three months later, on the eve of the game's shutdown, people still keep the spirit of City of Heroes alive, talking about it on social networks like Facebook and attempting to create [[SpiritualSuccessor Spiritual Successors]] in the form of Heroes and Villains and City of Titans and much later, Valiance Online and Ship of Heroes.

* The final confrontation between Tyrant and Lord Recluse, ESPECIALLY if you have played the full Praetorian story arc; Finding out Emperor Cole is on the Power side of the line instead on the Responsibility side reframes a lot of the jerks in the Loyalist faction as the rule instead of the exception, and seeing him marinating in self pity, only to go face to face with Lord Recluse who pulls a BreakThemByTalking just by deconstructing Emperor Cole’s justifications, til he has nothing left to hide his corruption behind, followed by an emotional breakdown. It’s a level of catharsis only topped by you, the player, seeing how far over the edge it sent him in the final battle.
* The players themselves get a second CMOA for what happened not long after it was announced the game was shutting down; In an attempt to show their appreciation for the years of fun the game's creators and staff had provided, several players raised over ''one thousand dollars'' in a matter of ''hours'', all to buy the staff at Paragon Studios dinner, topped with a cake reading "Thank you for years of letting us be heroes and conquerers!" Atlas Park 33 happened not long afterwards.
* On April 20, 2019, a copy of the game and server code was released on the CoH Discord. Within TWENTY-FOUR HOURS, the community had a functional prototype server up and running for a short time to stress test the demands expected of a full-time server.

* The end of the tutorial StoryArc involving Twinshot and the Shining Stars. When you arrive in the base, it's already under attack by Praetorian Clockwork, lending credence to the theory that Twinshot is a Praetorian spy. But as you proceed through the base, you hear Twinshot arguing with the team's SmartGuy, Proton, and soon it becomes clear that ''he's'' been TheMole all along. And when you arrive in the final room, Twinshot and Proton have a confrontation, with both of their allies -- including you on Twinshot's side, and the infamous Vigilante Maelstrom on Proton's side -- standing shoulder to shoulder with each other. Just when it's clear that the confrontation will end in violence, everyone tosses out a PreAssKickingOneLiner to their {{rival}}, and then everything erupts into a complete melee between the Shining Stars and the Praetorian invaders. It's one of the most well-scripted and -executed story moments in the entire game, and it's incredible to see how the game's writing has evolved since the early days.

* If you read through the game's backstory on the website, you'll discover that at some point right before the Cold War, Statesman [[spoiler:''was hit by a tactical nuclear missile while carrying hostages out of the USSR.'' The hostages died, obviously, but Statesman survived.]] Let me repeat that for emphasis: [[spoiler:'''''[[MadeOfIron Statesman was hit]] [[ImplacableMan by a tactical nuclear missile]] [[NighInvulnerable and lived to tell the tale.]]''''']] Good god.
* How about the last mission of Viridian's Arc in COV? All that effort to invite a number of Archvillains to a conference ends up up with those present questioning the presence of resident [[spoiler:Magnificent Bastard Nemesis. Of course immediately afterward (Mental imagery suggests that all eyes would be on Nemesis at this point) Longbow shows up to crash the party. Immediately one of the villains present asks how they found out. Nemesis is the first to reply. "Elementary. I TOLD THEM!" Nemmy's had a lot of moments, but this one sticks out in my mind. Especially funny is The Center's comment: "And this is why I never invite Nemesis to anything."]]
* Lord Nemesis [[spoiler:tricking you into thinking you are just one of his robots]] on the villain's side.
* Another Nemesis CMOA - he has so many decoys, agents and schemes acting at a distance that, whenever the Prince of Brass shows up in person, you know things have gotten serious. In this case, facing off against the general of the Rikti invasion force. He has his high command, you have an NPC {{Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits}}. Just as you reach the general himself, another raiding party appears behind you - led by Nemesis himself, here to finish you off. What's a player to do? Take down both armies at once, of course!
* How is there no mention of Breakneck? Granted, the in-game rendition isn't quite as badass as the official tie-in comic's version, but you still have to admit that [[spoiler: an elderly, out-of-shape ex-superhero with a heart condition breaking free of his chains and taking on one of the biggest bads in the game one-on-one]] is fairly bad-ass, even if [[spoiler: he gets his ass handed to him and his heart fails as a result.]] Especially since [[spoiler: he saves the world and buys you time to finish the job in the process.]]

* The first mission of the Mender Ramiel arc. [[spoiler:The player steps into a shattered Ouroboros sunken in the ocean as lightning crashed in the background of a blood red apocalyptic sky. Between him and saving Mender Ramiel is about fifteen arch-villains at full power, some of them known incarnates, all of them nasty in-game, and one that even takes no less than twenty-four regular heroes to even have a shot to take down. What does the player's Future Badass version do? Effortlessly swat them aside.]]

* The last part of the Cloning Facility arc in City Of Villians. [[spoiler: You've spent all this time building the Facility only to find out it was an EvilPlan to make clones of you to destroy Primal Earth. What do you do? Kill everyone one in the facility up to and including Protean the man who killed Manticores parents. He then rigs the entire facility to blow so you spend the next three minutes walking through flames as it blows. When you get out and talk to your Contact you both know Protean isn't dead. So you instead decided to cripple him by draining his bank account.]]

* The hero version of the Cloning arc is just as epic as the villain arc. Storming Protean's base with your good double and tearing your way through an entire building full of 5th Column goons? Awesome. Going toe-to-toe with Protean and giving him the beatdown he deserves for everything he's done to you? Satisfying. If only [[spoiler: the ending wasn't such a TearJerker and a PlayerPunch...]]
* The end of the tutorial StoryArc involving Twinshot and the Shining Stars. When you arrive [[spoiler:in the base, it's already under attack by Praetorian Clockwork, lending credence to the theory that Twinshot is a Praetorian spy.]] But as you proceed through the base, [[spoiler:you hear Twinshot arguing with the team's SmartGuy, Proton, and soon it becomes clear that ''he's'' been TheMole all along.]] And when you arrive in the final room, [[spoiler:Twinshot and Proton have a confrontation, with both of their allies -- including you on Twinshot's side, and the infamous Vigilante Maelstrom on Proton's side -- standing shoulder to shoulder with each other. Just when it's clear that the confrontation will end in violence, everyone tosses out a PreAssKickingOneLiner to their {{rival}}, and then everything erupts into a complete melee between the Shining Stars and the Praetorian invaders.]] It's one of the most well-scripted and -executed story moments in the entire game, and it's incredible to see how the game's writing has evolved since the early days.

* The Lost were a ragtag bunch of homeless in early game, trying to eke out survival and maybe make some room for themselves and led by their rare mutant members. [[spoiler: After level 20, storyline reveals their mutant members aren't mutants at all, but proto-Rikti.]]

* The players themselves get a second CMOA for what happened not long after it was announced the game was shutting down; In an attempt to show their appreciation for the years of fun the game's creators and staff had provided, several players raised over ''one thousand dollars'' in a matter of ''hours'', all to buy the staff at Paragon Studios dinner, topped with a cake reading "Thank you for years of letting us be heroes and conquerers!" Atlas Park 33 happened not long afterwards.

** There's another section that's worthy of note. Just at the start of the second arc, you test the cloning equipment by taking on clones of yourself. The first few tries are [[CrowningMomentOfFunny zombies and werewolves]]. Then you fight clones of yourself. As many as you want. You get a badge if you ''somehow'' defeat ''eight of yourself''.

* Finally, ''finally'' taking down Mot is both this and a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.

* The players themselves get a second CMOA for what happened not long after it was announced the game was shutting down; In an attempt to show their appreciation for the years of fun the game's creators and staff had provided, several players raised over ''one thousand dollars'' in a matter of ''hours'', all to buy the staff at Paragon Studios dinner, topped with a cake reading "Thank you for years of letting us be heroes and conquerers!"

* You're a Cruel One Mr Phipps is a mission in going rogue where you can play as either a Rogue (Villain becoming a Hero) or a Vigilante (Hero becoming a Villain); on the Rogue side you can save Phipp's victims and undo the damage he's done, including Mrs Francine. On the Vigilante side you can give Phipps a massive Beatdown and put him in the hospital.

*** Three months later, on the eve of the game's shutdown, people still keep the spirit of City of Heroes alive, talking about it on social networks like Facebook and attempting to create [[SpiritualSuccessor Spiritual Successors]] in the form of Heroes and Villains and City of Titans.

* The Lost were a ragtag bunch of homeless in early game, trying to eke out survival and maybe make some room for themselves and led by their rare mutant members. [[spoiler: After level 20, storyline reveals their mutant members aren't mutants at all, but proto-Rikti.]]

!!TroperTales of Awesome
* For this troper, the crowning moment of awesome for the Imperious Task Force is when he turned a bend in a canyon after fighting hundreds of Cimeroran warriors only to find [[spoiler: that the 5th Column, who have been missing from the game since their assimilation into the Council years back, were present in their original form and were the evil time travelers behind this incident taking place in roman times.]]
* For [[{{Argetlahm}} this guy]], his was the first time he used the attack "Parry" after the introduction of pop-up words which differentiate the different kinds of Defense from simply missing. Parry was used against a Council Force (they use Miniguns). Hits. Council Force opens fire with his minigun. Misses. Defense message? DEFLECTED. The only thing that went through my head right then? "Holy freaking crap I just completely deflected a friggin' minigun attack!" Freaking Awesome.
** Although it doesn't look as impressive ingame, the mental image of someone parrying a several-second burst from a minigun with a broadsword, to the last bullet, definitely counts.
*** With the appearance of the Praetorian War Walkers, this particular CMOA {{Took A Level In Badass}}. Forget miniguns, it's now possible to ''deflect an orbital laser strike.'' With a sword.
**** Well, no, sadly, it isn't (Parry defense don't work against the Orbital Lance). But that piece of wood on your arm? Totally enough. Or you could be just lucky.
***** You may not be able to Parry an Orbital Lance, but you can still Parry that {{HumongousMecha}}'s gigantic fists. Made even more awesome by a Praetorian CutScene where some scientists explains that "Each of the War Walkers can handle at least a dozen of the super-powered beings from Primal Earth"... Or, less than one reasonably well-prepared Scrapper.
* This troper is immensely proud of taking down Tyrant, [[spoiler:the EvilTwin of the game's Superman equivalent, Statesman,]] ''by himself.'' Granted, this troper mains a Katana/Regen Scrapper. And granted, the difficulty was set low enough so that he conned as an Elite Boss (before the devs set it so that he conned as an Archvillain regardless). But still, just the idea of defeating Tyrant in a one-on-one fight is awesome, right? Right?
** This troper will do you one better. She managed to get through both those arcs via Oroborus, solo, on a Crab Spider...before i19.5 hit and the Level-shift alphas were available. The hardest part? Anti-Matter flooring her Defenses. To those not familiar with Crab Spiders, they specialize in Area of Effect attacks and have few hard-hitting Single Target powers. Before this, the same Crab Spider character dinged 50 at the end of the STF, landing the last hit on Lord Recluse.
* Any time a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Giant Monster]] is defeated by players. You're lucky if you can beat these things with a ''dozen'' players, and having all those superheroes (or villains) of different levels teaming up to beat them is a CMOA in itself.
** This Troper's dad plays COH but at one point during the christmas special, he opened a present which released '''''A GIANT SNOWMAN THAT COUNTED AS A GIANT MONSTER.''''' This Troper recalls the epic battle that ensued with nearly every hero in the area battling the snowman at once, several times a hero would die, respawn, fly all the way back and '''''continue the fight.''''' O.o
** Had a similar snowman attack years back on villian side in the Sharkhead Isles. Though it was summoned during the Zone's giant monster attack so some intrepid villian pulled the local Giant into range and the two behemoths began to duke it out! A few people tried to intervene but were squashed in the crossfire, everyone else ([[@/{{EternallyLost}} this troper]] included) just hung back and took bets. Giant Ghost Vs Giant Snowman... [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Heaven or hell, Let's rock!]]
* Player villains are good at this sort of thing: in the final ten levels, they'll ascend to the very top of the Arachnos ranks, [[spoiler:defeating their chosen patron (one of Arachnos's [[FourIsDeath four lieutenants]]) in mortal combat and defeating ''Lord Recluse himself'' in an alternate future.]] Of course, since StatusQuoIsGod, you'll never notice such changes taking effect throughout the world, but it's still very notable. When you show Lord Recluse [[spoiler:the mask you tore off his future self]], he pretty much acknowledges you as a Crowning Villain of Awesome.
* Every time I pass a player wearing the "Master of Statesman's Task Force" or "Master of Lord Recluse's Strike Force" badges, I stop and stare at them in awe: they've completed some of the hardest task forces (City of Heroes's equivalent of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s instanced dungeons) in the game ''without a single death or temporary power''.
* During an office mission against Malta, this troper's team was blindsided by an oversized mob upon leaving the elevators. This troper, playing a stone tanker, barricaded the doorway with his own Rooted, Granite Armored body while the rest of the team fled downstairs or died horribly. He then proceeded to aggro and defeat the ENTIRE FLOOR (including multiple [[DemonicSpiders Sappers]]) without leaving the starting hallway, while a downed teammate narrated his actions to the survivors downstairs.
* In the finale of the Barracuda Strike Force, [[ThoseWackyNazis Reichsman]] proceeds to summon enough 5th Column mobs to fill the entire room (and it's a pretty big room). It's entirely normal, and expected, to have an entire team wipe. Normal operating procedure is to use the Dominator's EleventhHourSuperpower to lock down the entire room, when the Stalker uses theirs to kill them all. [[EinDose This troper]] did not have a Dominator in the team. To make matters worse, these mobs could apparently smell our fear, and actively followed when we entered after hospitalising. At that point, this troper, as a Brute, essentially decided 'what the hell', and fought them in a corridor, with the rest of the team dead on the ground under the massive amounts of Nazis. Approximately twenty minutes, two Power Surges, a Demonic Aura, and an entire tray of inspirations later, they stopped attacking. Closer inspection revealed that I had killed half of them, entirely alone. This seems like an insignificant thing in comparison, until you take in the fact that this is a room so difficult that there is a button there specifically to avoid a team of eight having to fight them all.
* [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v461/TwilightPhoenix/ITFDuo.png Duoing the Imperious Taskforce]].
* Pre ED, pre gobal sidekick I watched a baster almost Solo a +4 Bastion TF (even sidkicked the AV was +5 + av bonus, and my enhc were red, I was useless)...with lots fo Proximity mines.
* Douioing the Forstfire Arc in Ouroboros, with Enemies buffed, Self Debuffed, Enhancements have no effect, and no inspirations. At max difficulty, and winning.
* The powerset may currently be frustratingly underperforming to many people's chagrin, including this troper, but the GunFu-esque animations for Dual Pistols are just epic. Especially Piercing Rounds, where you throw your guns up into the air, twirl around, catch them, and "punch" the bullet through a line of enemies. It is absolutely pointless and, some argue, ineffective due to the long animation time, but it is possibly the most awesome animation the developers have ever cooked up.
* The first mission of Leonard Silmon's story arc for villains, added in Issue 17, pits you against X clones of yourself, where X is your choice of 1 to 8. Choosing to take on eight clones of yourself and defeating them all is totally badass no matter which way you look at it, plus it awards you with the "[[MesACrowd Army of Me]]" badge, which has this hilarious description: [[note]]"You don't understand the math behind it, but [[LogicBomb you're pretty sure you're equal to or greater than eight of yourself."[[/note]]
* This Troper took his BS/Regen Scrapper into Recluse's Victory and fought a Spine/Regen stalker to a standstill for almost an hour under Atlas's Statue. The battle spread across global channels, eventually drawing a crowd of nearly 100 onlookers. The battle was finally finished with the scoring of a critical hit after using Build Up and Headsplitter. In the aftermath, a large a bloody battle ensued between the assembled heroes and villains. (Side note, using the same scrapper, it was often amusing to get hit with an assassin-strike, regen up to full in a matter of moments, while turning around and spanking the surprised/annoyed stalker with only a few attacks.)
* At the end of one of the missions in the Incarnate Alpha Slot story arc, a rogue Vanguard captain and a weakened Honoree stand side-by-side; when you approach them, for some reason, Rikti portals open nearby and Rikti start flooding out by the ''dozens''. After a friend and I managed to defeat the two Elite Bosses with our Dual Blades/Willpower and Fire/Fire Brutes, I looked at the enormous mob, checked out my recently-respecced Brute (to take advantage of the Energy Mastery Epic pool and the new Inherent Fitnesses), and said to my friend "Wanna go for it?" And we dove into the mob that was, I repeat, dozens strong -- there were likely a little over a hundred Rikti Conscripts and monkeys squished into that room. ConservationOfNinjitsu at its finest -- with the aid of powers like Rise to the Challenge, Strength of Will, and Rise of the Phoenix, we defeated dozens upon dozens of Rikti Conscripts in one long marathon battle that literally ended with me gloating on top of a pile of Rikti bodies (he had unfortunately given up after getting KO'd several times and left the mission). I felt like such a badass. It's just a shame that since all those critters were summoned that they didn't count for any infamy rewards.
** My experience wasn't quite as awe inspiring, but I took a Martial Arts/Regen Scrapper in solo and, through liberal use of hit and run tactics, defeated each portal and the Rikti it spawned. I then followed up by taking out both Elite Bosses. I did this without a single death, which is something, considering Regen has virtually zero defense and resistance. In fact, I soloed the entire story arc, with the exception of Trapdoor. (Who regenerates too fast and spawns minions too frequently to solo.) Upon completion of the story arc, my first reaction wasn't to be proud of myself. It was to be proud of the devs for creating what could very well be the Story Arc of Awesome.
*** My experience on my Super Strength/Dark Armor Brute was rather soul-crushing at first. I could barely damage Trapdoor without running out of Endurance, and his damage against me was too much to take in direct combat. thoroughly irritated, I shelved the character for two weeks. I returned to him at the end of those weeks and decided, "Well, I haven't done the I19 Respec yet, couldn't hurt anything I guess". One Character Respecification later, I have junked every enhancement that was in every one of his powers, replaced using the money from the Auction House and the junked enhancers with shiny new Sets. I enter Trapdoor's mission. ''EVERYTHING'' falls before me, my powerful Negative Energy blasts, my ''utterly insane'' fists, and my mocking laughter. Enter Trapdoor. Liberal application of my fists to his head catapulted him off the side of the circular battlefield and into the lava, where I chased him and pounded him senseless, laughing all the while.
* The end of the first mission of the Apex Task Force is definitely one of the greatest moments in the game so far. Eight heroes on the front steps of the Paragon Police headquarters, fighting off several waves of attacking Clockwork, all of which are several levels higher then the players, followed by a pair of War Walkers, Giant Robots the size of battlemechs. Then you face four War Walkers, then finally six of them land around you, leading to one of the most epic battles this troper has ever been a part of.
* The Mastermind archetype gets a Crowning Moment when the Mastermind's henchmen get their full upgrades. The exact nature of said moment varies with the type of henchman taken. Robotics Masterminds, for example, get one when their robots ''blast the everloving SHIT'' out of their first mob after [[MoreDakka getting their final upgrade.]]
* [[Tropers/IronicMouse This troper's]] Martial Arts/Ninjitsu stalker is his favorite character. Why? Because the final Ninjistu power makes it next to ''impossible'' for anything to hit him. He has taken on several of the game's signature characters on his own and won! Granted, he usually needed to level up once or twice before taking on said enemies, but the feeling of taking down Black Scorpion, Valkyrie, Positron, Aurora Borealis, and Lord Recluse ''singlehandedly'' is nothing short of awesome.
** And the first time I partook in a successful BAF Trial, I was literally shouting for joy. To elaborate, a team of 16-24 players must break into a heavily guarded facility, take down the guards, then defeat an insanely overpowered boss, then stop hundreds of prisoners from escaping (if more than 20 escape you fail), then take on another insanely overpowered boss, then take on ''both'' [[RuleOfThree insanely overpowered bosses]] defeating them within ''ten seconds of each other,'' and all the while, a timer is running. It wasn't until a week after its release that the players were able to work out a winning strategy. [[spoiler: Only because the people that had been beta testing didn't want to make it too easy too quickly by sharing what they'd learned to do over the course of three months. @Lady of Ysgard, Virtue, veteran Beta tester ]]
* The live Praetorian Invasion Events in May 2011. In short, an admin or two will log into the game and start dropping massive numbers of epic level {{NPC}}s into a map, ranging from hundreds of minions to dozens of epic bosses and clones of Tyrant's Praetors. The players then need to take them out as fast as possible. One of them had a ''Rikti invasion'' start ''on top'' of the Praetorians. Needless to say, the resulting firefight was [[DistractedByTheShiny very shiny]].
* During the Christmas event of 2011, this troper (Phoenixgearguy) playing a Technology Tanker did the missions given by Father Time and accepted the "Defeat Lady Winter" mission after "Rescue Baby New Year" that required a team as Lady Winter was an Elite Boss that hit like a truck. Despite dying a lot and through sheer determination that even rewarded a badge, my Tech Tanker beat Lady Winter ALL BY HIMSELF.
* Despite being AwesomeYetImpractical, the Self Destruction power can sometimes result in a moment of awesome if the player's explosion wipes enough enemies to earn just enough XP to level up. What's better than blowing yourself up? Blowing yourself up, then popping right back into existence with your stats boosted, ready to go bash in the next set of heads.
* While fighting a huge mob of Nemesis, someone on this troper's team accidentally got a ''second'' mob after us. At the end of a long, bloody struggle in which nearly every member of the team died, it came down to me (playing a Blaster, with a tiny sliver of health and literally ''no'' endurance left) and a second player (a Controller, and in slightly better shape) against the remaining half of the mob. Between the two of us, we managed to take out ''every single one'', without either of us dying ''once''. This troper is still convinced that he hallucinated the entire thing.
* The Virtue Sunset Vigil in Atlas Park. Or, should I say, Atlas Parks 1-33. They're all still there, too.
* For this troper, the crowning moment of awesome came when his spines/regen scrapper stayed in Founders Falls while the group moved on and said scrapper became target of a full-scale 8-team nemesis ambush. Cue dialogue:
** ''What's keeping you...?''
** ''Nemesis ambush...''
** ''Oh #&#%, you need help...?!''
** ''No, they were on some kind of suicide mission... ;)''
* I have three, all involving my [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Mind]]/Kinetics Controller. First was soloing the Synapse Task-force, with a [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming some assistance from the community]] when the Giant Monster ambushed me just before the last mission, then going on to solo the final AV (with a little help from my temp power collection).
** Second one was when I was on a team going to investigate a parallel dimension full of psychic clockwork, complete with, you guessed it, the Clockwork King, who proceeded to flatten BOTH the team's tanks (an invln and fire, respectively) in quick order. Before the whole team could wipe, I popped my Ancillary psi protection and jumped in, holding off the King, confusing his constructs, and allowing my team time to regroup. It was a good few minutes later when I noticed the entire team sitting on a nearby hill just WATCHING, impressed that a squishy little controller was holding off the archvillain that had flattened half of them. This was BEFORE incarnate powers, mind you.
** The third time (still before Incarnates) was when I was playing as an Invuln tank on a team versus a bunch of Mother Mayhem's psychic goons. After faceplanting three times against three groups (and the rest of the team not faring much better), I switched to the Mind/Kin and proceeded to steamroll the rest of the map with minimal assistance, much to the group's surprise and amazement.
* For everyone, the first time they solo a purple boss is pretty spectacular.

!!Game Lore

* Every time I pass a player wearing the "Master of Statesman's Task Force" or "Master of Lord Recluse's Strike Force" badges, I stop and stare at them in awe: they've completed some of the hardest task forces (City of Heroes's equivalent of WorldOfWarcraft's instanced dungeons) in the game ''without a single death or temporary power''.

** Had a similar snowman attack years back on villian side in the Sharkhead Isles. Though it was summoned during the Zone's giant monster attack so some intrepid villian pulled the local Giant into range and the two behemoths began to duke it out! A few people tried to intervene but were squashed in the crossfire, everyone else ([[@/{{EternallyLost}} this troper]] included) just hung back and took bets. Giant Ghost Vs Giant Snowman... [[GuiltyGear Heaven or hell, Let's rock!]]

**** Three months later, on the eve of the game's shutdown, people still keep the spirit of City of Heroes alive, talking about it on social networks like Facebook and attempting to create [[SpiritualSuccessor Spiritual Successors]] in the form of Heroes and Villains and City of Titans.

**** Three months later, on the eve of the game's shutdown, it still exists.

* The first mission of Leonard Silmon's story arc for villains, added in Issue 17, pits you against X clones of yourself, where X is your choice of 1 to 8. Choosing to take on eight clones of yourself and defeating them all is totally badass no matter which way you look at it, plus it awards you with the "[[MesACrowd Army of Me]]" badge, which has this hilarious description: [[hottip:* :"You don't understand the math behind it, but [[LogicBomb you're pretty sure you're equal to or greater than eight of yourself]]."]]

**** Nearly a month later, it still exists.

*** Five days later, Atlas Park 33 still existed, with dozens of players still holding torches in front of City Hall, right up until the server was shut down for maintenance.

** A rally in Atlas Park spawned over 30 instances. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQPJw5qAajs The composite video showing everyone who showed up]] is awesome in and of itself.

* Having heard of the games cancellation on August 31, 2012, The response of the City of Heroes community being that of banding together to fight it in an attempt to save the game that they love. That is AWESOME.

* Finally, ''finally'' taking down Mot is both this and a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.

* The end of the tutorial StoryArc involving Twinshot and the Shining Stars. When you arrive [[spoiler:in the base, it's already under attack by Praetorian Clockwork, lending credence to the theory that Twinshot is a Praetorian spy.]] But as you proceed through the base, [[spoiler:you hear Twinshot arguing with the team's SmartGuy, Proton, and soon it becomes clear that ''he's'' been TheMole all along.]] And when you arrive in the final room, [[spoiler:Twinshot and Proton have a confrontation, with both of their allies -- including you on Twinshot's side, and the infamous Vigilante Maelstrom on Proton's side -- standing shoulder to shoulder with each other. Just when it's clear that the confrontation will end in violence, everyone tosses out a PreAssKickingOneLiner to their {{rival}}, and then everything erupts into a complete melee between the Shining Stars and the Praetorian invaders.]] It's one of the most well-scripted and -executed story moments in the entire game, and it's incredible to see how the game's writing has evolved since the early days.