EmperorSteele

I don't like the idea of badges that are tied to random chance completely outside of player control, since then there is a non-0 chance that one could spend years in the labrynth clicking doors and never get those badges. Hell, the only random area I've ever seen in my dozen odd runs of finding secret doors is the Endless Colonade, and it's fairly consistent. People talking about finding Jack or the Mapserver or whatever else kinda cheeses me off. I'd be actually upset if there were badges to go with finding some of these things. Edit: The rest of the ideas are solid, though!

The issue with Illu/Kin is that Phantom Army doesn't benefit from Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift, and can't be Speed Boosted. So it's not AS powerful as one would think it would be. Though Siphon Speed takes the edge off having to dedicate your entire build to +Recharge for Perma Hasten/Perma PA, so it's still a solid combo. The only other combo I can speak to with any confidence is Mind/Kin. The AoE sleep lets you safely wander into a mob to get your FS off, back up, then hit them all with Terrify. It's better to use the AoE hold, which all Controller Primaries have, but you can't count on that being up every fight. TK is a good substitute, but you'll take a lot of return fire. Maybe pair that up with Mass Comedy for the most safety, though again, not every fight. It's not great, but fairly solid, especially of you're willing to strategize and take things a bit slower.

I managed something like this back on Live with my Mind/Kin/Psi controller! Was on a team rolling through PI missions, when we got to the Clockwork King world. The Invuln and Fire tanks did NOT fare well (nor did half of the rest of the team), so I wound up tanking CK while the team got itself back together. Funny thing, they seemed to be taking their sweet time, so I panned my camera around while waiting for Fulcrum Shift to animate, only to see the whole team standing on a nearby hill, cheering me on! Sadly, I was too busy trying to stay alive to actually do any damage, so I told them to get over here so we could commit regicide =) But as you say, nothing was recorded =(

Ba-dum Psh!

I feel bad for the poor kheldians when they take a new host, and it's like, "Ooh, this big form is really tough! And this squiggly form hits hard! What's this 'hoo-man' one do?" "Oh, that's Steve. He doesn't do anything special." "Nothing at all?" "Yeah, it was a crap deal. 7 billion people, half of them with super powers, and I got saddled with an accountant from the suburbs who decided to use my powers as an excuse to live out his mid-life crisis."

300 at once >_> I suppose that's unrealistic, but the point I was trying to make was that if I spent the merits directly on the purples, I'd have them by now (though not without significant cost for crafting, which is important to keep in mind), whereas with the "selling converters" method, I've barely sold enough to buy a single enhancement. So I was a bit like "heeeyyyy..."

Maybe not what OP asked for, but I recall Caleb being a pain because sometimes he just goes invis and flies to the top of the map when he spawns, leaving those hunting him perplexed. *points to head* "Can't defeat me if you don't know where I am!"

@Yomo Kimyata You mention selling converters at 66.6k, but then later say that one can sell a high volume at "good prices". There seems to be a bit of a disconnect here, unless I am misunderstanding your use of "good"; good for the buyer (low) or seller (high)? Because I listed my converters for lower than the 66.6k you mentioned, but higher than the going "bulk lowball" rate of 60,001, and half of it all is still there 3 days later. So while I'm sure I could just list them all for 5 and get insta-sales, I doubt I'll get more than 60k a piece for most of them. Which won't really help me get all the purples I want =/ It's also possible this is just bad timing on my part. A new power set came out a week ago, and that would have been the time to strike, though I suspect there's a glut right now of converters and enhancements put to market by multiple like-minded people who were trying to cash in all at once.

@Ukase, I'd forgotten about that offer! I just may take you up on that if my remaining converters refuse to sell by the end of the day =) Otherwise, I suppose I should have phrased my query a bit more specifically: in terms of just getting a character IO'd out with Purples, which method of resource allocation achieves that goal either quicker or cheaper? I purposfully left out converter roulette as an option as A) that won't get you purples directly, and B) while lucerative, it can be very time-consuming.

I've been trying to deck out my latest character, so I started the ol' tried and true method of spending all my merits on converters, then using the inf from the sales to buy enhancements. Well, one weekend later, and only half have sold, leaving me with a half unfulfilled shopping list. =( So I started to wonder if this method really is the most efficient use of merits. You can buy a purple recipe for 100 merits. That same number of merits will get you 300 Converters, which in turn SHOULD get you at least 15 mil after fees (assuming you don't just list for 5 and get unlucklily lowballed). An average purple enhancement on the AH goes for 15-18 mil. So using merits to buy the recipe starts looking more promising. HOWEVER, note that you still have to craft the recipe! Doing so costs 600k, plus 3 rare salvage, which all usually go for 400-600k each. So that's an extra 2mil in the bucket right there, assuming you don't have the materials on-hand. Overall, it seems that the converter to Inf to buy method isn't as efficient as it used to be. If you have unlimited time but limited inf/resources, then it's still a good way to go to save some scratch, so long as you're willing to hold selling high/buying low bids for several weeks. But if you have plenty of resources and no time/patience, it seems you're not losing out too much spending the merits directly on the recipes and crafting them. Thoughts?

Agreed with everything here. As a Mind/Kin main myself, I've found that new TK makes soloing large numbers of baddies a lot more doable. There's a thread in the main Archetypes forum for clear speed times; you should try out the AE map linked there and post your time (I've yet to do so, waiting until I can get a consistent sub-10 minute run going)

Same here, lemming; Voltor's just a monster =P Anyway:

How in the world you get all the new badges in one day vexes me =P Anyway, popping in with my new total:

So, in my brief testing, the eye beam animation (which looks amazing, btw!) has a couple issues. First, it animates a bit slowly compared to the timing on the rest of the power. I've had dudes flying back before even getting hit. Secondly, the enemy will randomly spark and emit a sound effect much like the laser eye sweep a few moments after being hit. A left over from the beam rifle fx?

Aah, okay! I was just clicking All Of The Doors and so I've been quite put off that there's all these areas I haven't found yet, despite my thorough investigations!

Wait, what arena? I haven't found that yet =(

How does one get to the Core?

This hurts my soul. Still, a great write-up!

So... is this supposed to be a raid activity? Because I don't see this as something that ~50 people would do together in under an hour (which is what a raid is supposed to be). I spent FIVE HOURS running around clicking doors, and all I managed to find was the "mote" at the end of the overly tedious fog maze. Which then provided no way out or back. Yeah, we have the temp powers for that, but it still felt underwhelming. Woo, +10 recharge for 5 hours of running around. Which I lose when I leave =( Also, how many rooms is this thing? How is anyone supposed to be able to find anything, especially with the randomizer element? Like, if it was around a dozen or so rooms, fine, but it seems to be well over 100, and that's frankly obnoxious, IMO. This needs to be dialed WAY back if you want it to actually be fun. Ditch all the areas that don't have a "Mote", let the players find and utilize them before entering the Core and taking down the Minotuar, and boom, that's a raid, not whatever is currently going on here. I mean, is the idea that the 50 odd players all split up? That's a tall ask when everything in the maze starts at +14 to them. Do they stay together? Good luck with that when most of the hallways aren't built to accommodate more than 8 folks at a time. I don't want to be too harsh, because this IS neat, but the novelty is the only thing going for it, so I don't forsee it being run a whole lot after the initial "shiny rush" wears off.

To add to what @TTRPGWhiz said, Mind actually DOES have a "new" AoE containment setter: Telekinesis immobilizes up to 16 targets, and if you hit your main target/anchor with Levitate, it does splash damage to the ENTIRE group! However, it's on a slow recharge (A minute and a half, I think?), so it's not exactly a "once every group" option. It also only lasts for 30 seconds, as opposed to being a full toggle, so you have to finish off your foes quickly. For historical reference, TK only used to hit 5 guys (burgers and fries!), but with a hold, for most of the time it was around. Between that and the fact that it would push foes from you away infinitely (now it groups them together and keeps them a set distance fro you), it was deemed not worth using most of the time. But the Devs did some good work making it a more reliable staple power to use.

Illu/time with sorcery, huh? That's gonna be a tight build, especially if you want to take every power in each set. If you want more than 1 or 2 other pool or epic powers, you'll have to skip a few. My votes for that would be one of the invis powers from illu (so keep either Superior invis for yourself, or Group Invis if you're more of a team player), and maybe drop Spectral Terror. From Time, maybe skip Time Crawl? Yes, it makes your debuffs more potent, but only on one or two adversaries at a time. I'm always forgetting to cast it. Time's Juncture is also so-so since it's an aura (and can ruin your stealth if you forget to turn it off), but since your AoE hold is melee-ranged, there's a bit of compatibility there. Time Stop can go either way: it's either really good if you want to stack holds/have a proc-bomb, or redundant since you already have a ST hold and AoE hold. In my experience, Illu/Time has pretty good AoE control and damage. However, between Arcane Bolt and Spectral Wounds (and maybe proc'd out Time Stop), you're going to have pretty good ST damage, as well. Either way, the build is going to mature VERY late. At level 20, you've JUST gotten access to PA, and don't have your best powers from Time yet. The main thing is, do you want Phantom Army to be Perma? If not, then you'll have a pretty easy time slotting your powers and using them however you like. However, if you DO want it perma, you'll want to squeeze in powers like Hasten (obvs), and Hover, Combat Jumping, Maneuvers, etc, to mule LotG +Recharges, and slot your powers with sets that give +recharge bonuses. It can become a real chore, but it's worth it in the end. Illu/Time works well if you want to stand back, send in your pets and toss out a few debuffs. It works well if you want to pick off hard targets from range. it works well if you want to tangle in melee. You can make it do all these things at once, except then you're going to run into trouble running out of Endurance since a solid chunk of your powers cost 15+ End. Best bet would be to figure out the playstyle you want, and build for that.

I'm gonna say... Levitate/Lift (Mind Control/Gravity control). Sure, it's not super flashy, it's a single-target power and gets outclassed pretty quickly, but I have a fondness for it. Mostly cuz when I was new, I didn't think much of the game and was thinking of quitting, when I joined a PuG, and saw dudes getting THROWN IN THE AIR! I was like "Woah, wtf was THAT?!" and the player told me "Levitate, from Mind Control!" So I rolled a Mind/Kin, who wound up being my Main Character all through Live and here on HC 🙂

Just a thought about the tiers: Shouldn't there be a tier where Hybrid Assault is allowed to be equipped for the passive bonus, but not clicked/used for the double-hit/chance for build up bonus? Or where Incarnate click powers aren't allowed (Destiny, Judgement, etc), but the passives like Alpha, are? It just seems to go from "everything but Lore is okay" to "All banned", and it feels kinda abrupt. Though, I guess the time for that sort of thing has passed. In any event, I'm going to try and throw my hat in the ring for the office challenge, but I'm waiting until I can reliably get a time under 10 minutes (that one side room always throws me and I have to go back) >_>

I get an "unable to connect" message when I click that link... shouldn't it be 127.0.0.1? I tried changing it to that, and it still wouldn't work. Issue with Firefox, maybe? But yeah, the parse buttons didn't work on the html interface when I open them directly. If I try using ctrl + shift + C, it opens up Firefox's debug panel, not intended, I presume? Also, sent the log that wouldn't open. Happy hunting 😃

Aaand no sooner do I get it working once when I run into an issue... Command program said this, and refused to spit out a parse: thread 'main' panicked at src\db_actions.rs:705:29: Unable to update summary row: DatabaseError(CheckViolation, "CHECK constraint failed: (last_line_number > first_line_number)") note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace *Shrugs* @KaizenSoze, any idea what that's all about? Okay, so, what happened was I was in a mission, died, signed out and did a parse. It worked. I went back in, tried the mission over again, completed it, tried to parse again... and that's what wouldn't work. I revived the old chat log, copypasta'd the text from the new log into the old one, put it back in my log directory, and THAT now worked. ?_?