Intermipants

I love that the game allows me to be creative by providing a vast array of power set combos, costumes, and different ways to play. It’s a blank canvas that can bring to life some of the things that I imagine. I love that it satiates my apparent need to create superheroes with stupid names like Disorient Express and Careless Crisper. I love that it also feeds my analytical side where I can plan for hours about things like getting an extra 0.75 ranged defense without sacrificing recharge. I love that I can meet people who make me laugh and have fun on PUGs (I more or less play exclusively on PUGs on excelsior). I love that the game I started playing before my kids were born I now play with them. Thanks Scarlet Shocker for a brilliant post - too often I take the things I love for granted, it’s great to have an opportunity to say thanks to the devs for bringing this game back and looking after it and the community so well.

Thinking of the very starting game in 2004.

Ahoy everyone. I was on a few PUGs tonight and there were lots of new players - which I love and think is a brilliant thing. I always try to encourage new players as much as possible and compliment their costumes etc. because it’s great to add new people to the game and I don’t want them to disappear, and also because it’s dawning on me that this is probably quite a difficult game/world to jump into the first time around. I think it’s much more intimidating than it was when I first started on live. When I first started playing ages ago on live I didn’t even know what an MMO was and it blew my mind that the players with blue names were real people (that’s really quite embarrassing to admit – I think I was in my late 20s at the time!) Needless to say, with that starting point it took me a long time to learn a lot of nuances of the game. I play loads and got back on in 2019 and even today I’m still learning new things – I did a 100 badge run challenge thing recently and learned two weeks ago that blarf is something in Pocket D! Who knew?! Today I can’t imagine what it must be like to jump into this where lots of us know all the travel tricks, have fifty different TPs, understand IOs, can race through TFs etc…and where it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Having said all that, although the pace has changed I think the one thing that’s stayed the same is the kindness and generosity of this community and I’m pretty sure that’ll keep anyone new hanging in once they get into it. So anyway, just a bit of random musing tonight.

Apologies for hijacking the thread but I’d like to announce that I’ve decided to take my appetite to the Outback Steakhouse.

Thanks for the tip with the open gift! I got a 19:29 with my stalker. Used SG buffs on run speed and flight speed to move things along a bit. Also experimented with the invisibility buff on the warshade but was killed in Perez. Perez is so good though, that cluster of 6 badges - I just can't leave it alone. I also sold all my salvage for the Wentworth badges while I was flying around Cap, which saved a bit of time. Need to change my route a bit though because I'm still wasting time.

loved that run! The ski runs were inspired and when you told me you were doing it with a ws the other night I was blown away, great to see it in action. Quick question - what’s with all the Christmas packages? im still stuck at 20:25 with my stalker approach. I think I can get a minute off that but now im tempted to go warshade. also how do you get the timer on your screen? again, well done! That was brilliant.

Brutally dull conference call at work almost interrupted a blistering 22:45 run! My friend on the same call ran a 27 even.

Couldn't resist another go and I smashed it: 25:57. Sub 25 is possible.

This sounds great to me. I’d be up for it. I can definitely help with the first 100! 😉

So I gave it one last go and got it down to 28:06 thanks to Blarf and his nutrient rich goodness. 101 badges: 58 explorer, 20 AE badges, 11 achievement, 7 accolades, 1 day job, 1 ouro, 1 event, 2 gladiator. (Forgot to do the Wentworths ones which would probably have shaved off 30 seconds). That'll be my last go, I don't think I can go much faster. But where one door closes another opens - I now have a level 1 character with 101 badges which is the perfect starting point for the Snarky inspired how many badges can a lvl 1 toon get challenge. I'll be doing a few zones a day with this little fella if anyone's interested in joining. I spent a lot of time working on the build for it in mids and I'm pretty satisfied where things ended up but if anyone has any build advice or guidance it'd be much appreciated. Thanks again everyone for the great tips on blarfing, stalking etc. (it's not every day I get to say that).

Done! 28:48. Trick is to get explorations near to trains and SG bases, sell salvage, do AE badge arcs, and flip to red side as a vigilante. Echo explores are great and being a stalker is a must.

I’ve seen plenty of 50s with 30 badges. I’m laughing at the idea of seeing a level 1 join a DFB with 800 badges! Badge run?

Blimey, the lowest level for 1000 badges, and this sound so good. I’m gonna go for my sub 30min century of badges and then start thinking about the marathon challenges!

Fair point. I’ve been doing it solo. I alt invite to my SG, and then I drop an ouro, log on my level 1 and go for it. It’d be fun to get a few people trying it for a cannonball run type race - a prize to whoever makes it back first to the top of Atlas with 100 badges.

Also sewer badges are great because they’re super close to the entrance

I got it to 32 mins earlier today and was killed going for a cheeky echo rwz badge grab which cost me about a minute. I’m gonna give it a go tonight, got it planned out with consignment badges in the mix and the paragon dance party featuring. I gotta break 30 mins.

Cool idea, but unfortunately they're 100 merits each and so unattainable for a new toon.

37 mins 27 seconds. I made a mistake going to Kings Row - badges are too spread out - and didn't think to go to the Night Ward for the 3 badges you get in the Midnighter club until the very end. Sub 30 mins is possible. Love the advice about going stalker! Got it to 35:25. No multi-boxing, and I invited my cannonballer toon to the SG before beginning the run. It's tricky.

Switching alignment at Null gets about 5-10, AE badge missions gets another 5-10. Think it could be done in under 30 mins? I’m gonna try it this afternoon

Chatting about this with a friend - if you rolled a new toon and your objective was to get to 100 badges as quickly as possible - what would you do and how quickly do you think you could bring up the century? I’m thinking travel powers and knowing the streets well would be crucial (plus vidiot maps and popmenu for badges).

I built a regen tank described in this forum post… Maybe use that as a starting point?

Hi all, been offline and just catching up on the replies. Thanks for the tips on reslotting invincibility. I have to confess the invuln tank was my last one and it was proving to be so tough that I started switching things about to add damage etc. and so it really isn’t min/maxed as much as it could be. Think I’ll respec it when I get back from vacation with your tips. Thanks again!

I respec a lot to try out different power combos. The cheapest way to get a respec recipe is from the Halloween contact in Croatoa (right next to the station) - she sells respec recipes for 50 of the Halloween special salvage which you can buy on the AH for about 1000 apiece.

It procs often enough to be effective. I tested it to make sure and it makes a big difference in keeping mobs stunned or feared.

I literally just posted this build at the same time that you asked this question! Yes, you can build a very effective stun tank - see my build in my flavors of tank post that I just put up two mins ago To make it work reliably you need to put the disorient proc in cloak of fear. Happy to discuss the build if you like.