Frozen Burn

I knew those cops were dirty! Never trust the PPD! Down with the Man! 😄

It is far cheaper to buy Winter Set IOs with 100 Reward Merits than to purchase off the AH. The prices on the AH are too ridiculous. I NEVER purchase them from there. I am not a farmer and inf doesn't come in truckloads for me like it does for others. But I do play lots of content and collect the Reward Merits. Even if you convert the 100 Reward Merits to inf, you still may not get enough to buy the Winter IO or can still only get 1 max - so, might as well make it easy on yourself and just buy it straight from Merit Vendor. And if you have 25 million to buy the Winter Pack - you may not get an IO at all. This has happened to me often. This last time, I had 75M, so I bought 3 packs. I got 2 IOs from the first. 1 from the 2nd. And none from the 3rd. So it all ended up making the 3 I got worth 25M each. 😞 Sometimes you get lucky, and other times not. When inf is tight - gambling and losing is very painful. If you're rolling inf, the loses don't hurt as much. Take advantage of the Weekly Strike Targets (WSTs) - the selected Task/Strike Forces and Trials that will earn you double Reward Merits. Run story arcs (through contacts or ouro) - they can be quick and the RMs will stack up. Hami Raid - typically, they'll run through 3 times in a session - that's 160 RMs or 120 RMs + a HO... either way, that's 1 Winter IO for ~30 mins of work. Good luck!

Hi. I have a Seismic/Martial that I absolutely LOVE! It's a fun combo to play and can be quite devastating. Attached is my build. I tend to stand in melee range and maneuver accordingly instead of bouncing around jousting in and out of melee and range. Regarding KB>KD.... Ki Push is all about the slow animated KB. To put a KB>KD proc in it is a travesty. The power acts as a pseudo-hold while your foe slowly flies away. This not only gives you time to deal with other foes while they fly away, but also while they try to run back to you. Keep the KB. Meteor (your nuke) has massive KB. But if done right, you will kill everything with it and KB>KD proc is not needed - even at +4, and if anything survives, you can easily finish them off. Click Seismic Force (BU), cast Meteor, and during the 5 secs for it to land, Upthrust, Burst of Speed to center of mob, Dragon's Tail, and then Meteor lands destroying all. So, a KB>KD proc is not really needed. I always embrace KB anyway (and yes, I play Tanks, Brutes, and other melee ATs and still don't mind it). Do not be afraid of it in this case. 🙂 My build is a "pricey" build if you bought everything off the AH, but I didn't do that. I spent very little influence on it comparatively. I also am not an AE farmer and Inf doesn't grow on trees for me. I bought most everything with Reward Merits and using drops. I play a lot of content and use the Reward Merits to buy what I need. This is how I fund ALL my builds and they are all high-end "pricey" builds. Regarding Inner Will... I have issues with this power. I love and hate it. I love what it is and does, and many people love and use it. But for me.... I can never click it when I need it and it ends up causing me more damage and problems than it's worth. For example: I'm in my attack chain. Then I realize a power isn't going off because I'm mezzed. I'm delayed in noticing because of Defiance too - T1 & T2 Primary and T1 Secondary can still be used when mezzed and they are part of my attack chain. By the time i realize that i am in fact mezzed and go to click Inner Will, that power doesn't go off and I try to click it several times thinking i miss-clicked. Then I realize, it's not activating because I'm no longer mezzed. But now, I'm lower on health, in a poor position in the mob, and I have to triage what's going back on, all due to futzing around with a power that wouldn't activate. .....so FOR ME.... It's so much easier to take a break free insp that will activate and protect me no matter what and let me keep on fighting. But it still serves as a good heal when below 50%. ....And that is why I have it as a last power pick unlike so many other people. 🙂 Ruby Fu - Blaster (Seismic Blast - Martial Combat).mbd

Hi. Here is mine. This is back before they changed the level of when you get your powers (so back when T9s of primary and secondary were lvl 32 and lvl 38 respectively). You can take all the powers much earlier now. But slotting would be the same no matter when you choose the power. This is one of my favorite Brutes to play. Very sturdy and powerful, and lots of fun! Meowsie - Brute (Savage Melee).mbd

Here you go... @icehero I decided to redo the build to take powers earlier and change up from Resistance-based to Defense-based. Here is what I'm running with now.... Deadly Nock - Blaster (Archery - Tactical Arrow).mbd

I am the same way - gotta have a good concept and costume, or I won't play it no matter how good it is. But given that... with Time being so versatile, pick which Control set you want to play and develop a concept around that utilizing Time. As twozero stated - Grav/Time is great and a classic combo and can easily fit a concept. Illusion/Time is another - a master illusionist could certainly also control and manipulate time, right? (Plus, Time helps to get perma PA more easily) Symphony/Time - music is set time and time signatures - a natural combo! Earth/Time - Time is marked by the rotation of our Earth and it spinning through the cosmos - certainly has to be a concept there somewhere. Dark/Time - controlling time can be a dark forces thing - a witch/warlock tapping into unnatural forces Arsenal/Time - can go with the "Terminator" plot of a machine coming back through time to right a past event? Or "Cable" the cybernetic soldier going back in time? Or someone unique who discovered or stole a time distortion device? Mind/Time - easily conceived a mentalist could also warp time - look at Dr. Strange! These are just of the ones off the top of my head. Good luck!

Time is very versatile and will go with any set on any AT that takes it. Just pick what appeals to you and play! 🙂

I completely understand the point and how this works, and how it affects people like me. Yes, the reward is greater IF you defeat things to use it. But you clearly aren't understanding our point as @Rudra is trying to help explain. If it's been a long time since I've logged in a character logs in and are maxed on patrol XP - you can't get more from the explore. If me an d friends are done for the gaming session, and I want to catch up on explores, yes, I get patrol XP, but it means nothing since I log off for the night and I might not ever see that toon again for days as I rotate through alts depending on what me and my team does. Yes, there is a brief window where it does reward more when you swing by one on a way to a mission - but it's a one-off and defeats the Devs stated purpose that they want us to "explore the zones" in the middle of our game play. No one ever will say, "Hey team. Hold up while I collect a bunch of explore badges to get more patrol XP!" And no team will wait. And yes, for those people who play the same character repeatedly day after day and session after session, will see a great benefit from it. There is no argument there. But many of us others who rotate through alts - see little to no benefit at all from this change. ...again, MY point is... the new system is biased towards some and not others, when it used to be equal and fair across the board. It doesn't matter the benefit greater, if not everyone can partake in it equally like previously.

Not really. Others have agreed with my sentiment also. I have a ton of alts and limited game time like so many of us. I rotate through my alts, whether low or high level. At the beginning of my play session, I'm full of patrol xp - so finding explores while I wait for friends / SG-mates to log on does me now good. Doing it at the end of game play is pointless, because the next time i log on the toon, they'll be full of patrol XP anyway. So, the only option for some of us to take advantage of the new reward, is to stop in the middle of teaming to go badge hunt - no one wants to do that. Again, some will benefit and some of us will not whereas before, it was even across the board for all. I'm glad you like it and works for your playstyle, but it doesn't change that fact that it is now biased towards some and against others. And changes like that - whether it's against "niche" players or not, is not right, especially when the "system" was equal to all before and it wasn't broke and didn't need "fixing."

I know before I even make the toon. I'll have a build planned out and 99.9% of the time I stick with it all the way to lvl 50.

I was on a all hero TF prior to the release of co-op Striga and Todd almost died from AOEs prior to freeing her. Once she was freed, we could no longer affect her. This never used to be the case. It used to be she was unaffected by anything until she was freed, and then only NPC foes could damage her.

Hey. Since you mentioned me, I thought I would offer some suggestions. 🙂 Completely understand about doing a patron arc to get Scorpion Shield. But a lot of times, people will advertise they are running the final mission and you can just join for it and get the badge without running the arc yourself. You would have to be a vigilante, rogue, or villain, though. Otherwise, your only other option for a defensive shield is the Ice epic pool, and to get Ice Shield, you'd have to take another power in the set first - another reason why Scorpion Shield is so attractive - you don't have to take another power to get your shield! Anyway, attached below has some edits that I came up for you.... Being Archery vs DP (from my build you started with), I imagine you'll be at range a lot more than I am with DP where I am in melee mostly. You will probably be jousting a lot so you'll want to focus more on ranged defense and Scorp / Ice Shields do very little for you in that regard. Given that (and your wish to not do patron arc), I dropped Scorp Shield and picked up Choking powder for 5 slotting Winter Hold set for the ranged Def. Moved lots of slotting around. Got rid of devastations and Apocalypse for the HPs, and switched some slotting around to get Thunderstikes and the Winter Ranged set for more ranged Def. Slotted up maneuvers. Dropped Mighty Leap and gave you Super Jump instead since you were maxed on your 4 pools. This allows you to take Combat Jumping later on (instead of Blinding Powder) for more Def and another LotG +global rech. Reversed your sets in Fistful of Arrows and Explosive Arrow - FA can better use the Ragnarok Chance for KD proc and EA will be better suited for the Overwhelming Force KB > KD proc. This will make both AOEs KD instead of one of them having enhanced KB. Added a +Stealth IO to your sprint so you'll have complete invisibility. This brings you up to the soft cap on Ranged defense and should do you well, even for the times you pop in and out of melee to quickly use your sword attacks. Night Strike - Blaster (Archery - Ninja Training).mbd

As others have stated, depends on AT. Always set to solo bosses. But generally, I'm set at +0 or +1 and x3. If the toon has really great AOEs, I'll up it to x6 or more, depending. Sometimes, I'll up it to +2. But otherwise, it's just a slog-fest trying to get through a mission with anything too high. That's why I'll also have AV setting set to EBs. I care more about getting through the story (with a bit of a challenge) and moving to the next story arc to experience it. I am in no rush to get to 50. When an incarnate and level shifted, I am generally +3 or +4x8, depending on AT and build.

Hi and Welcome to the game and forums! My opinion... don't bother. Just load up on green, purple, and orange inspires for now. Super Reflexes is so good when you get up in levels and get it slotted, that you'll end up respec'ing out of the medicine pool since you'll rarely, if ever, use it. Yes, it might be handy now as you level, but in your 30s and 40s, you'll wish you had other pool powers instead. Instead, take other pools that can increase your defense: Maneuvers from Leadership, Combat Jumping from Leaping, Weave from Fighting (having Tough is a great mule to carry the 2 +Def special IOs) - there are others that could help too, depending on your concept, but these 3 are the big ones to consider instead of the Medicine Pool. Also, you can recruit and team with a Defender for heals/buffs! 😄

Try radiation - either defense set (Defender/Corruptor) or as an armor (Sentinel), or as Blast set and Secondary Blaster set (called Atomic). I have a toon that is the embodiment of the Light of God and is a Rad/Atomic Blaster (see pic below). Radiation Emission for Defs/Corrs provides lots of great debuffs and some control. You can pair with either Rad or Energy Blasts, but maybe try Rad for something different? Radiation Armor for Sentinel is quite good - however, you will be lacking in all the controls you want with a Sentinel. And I love my Rad/Atomic blaster - it's powerful, and has some controls with holds and stuns, but maybe not as much as you want? Unfortunately, there are no control sets that will give you what you're looking for, so I think Controller and Dominators might not work for your concept. But other Defensive sets could be Force Fields or Sonic, depending on coloring?? Good luck and let us know what you pick! Divine Radiance (Rad/Atomic Blaster)

Welcome to the game! Quite simply, yes, there is. You just have to keep playing. There are many, many, many arcs on your journey to lvl 50 and beyond that will explain much of what you are asking. Many people have already posted above some specifics for you, but just simply put.... yes. Play, play, play. 🙂

As I've posted elsewhere, depending on how you play, the new change to explore badges is horrible and useless for some, while others get the benefit, instead of everyone getting the same thing across the board no matter what. And the patrol XP doesn't give more inf... just faster leveling, which we do too fast as it is, imo. All the other badges are rewarding enough and there doesn't need to be any other incentive to get them.

Was just in my base from Ouro: Crafted 3 IOs. Converted 60 Vanguard Merits to Reward Merits. Converted 50 Reward Merits to a Hero Merit. When I went to email anything to myself for an alt, I kept getting the error message: "Email not sent, salvage is not tradeable." ....which is definitely not right as the Hero Merit and IOs are able to email to myself. I went to try to ask others about this in a global chat channel and all my global channels were gone as if they never existed. Zoning out of the base and back into Ouro resolved the issue - I could email the Hero Merit and IOs to myself and all my global channels were back. For testing, I ported back into my base and all globals were still there. This whole thing is highly odd.

Thank you for the explanation of the reasoning behind the change. I appreciate you weighing in on this and elaborating. However, like @Rudra, I too do not agree. This is an extremely biased benefit now. For some and how they play, it's fine; and others are completely losing out. The change clearly favors some over others. It was a system that didn't need "fixing" or upgrading. And as @Player2 stated - at low levels, the XP awarded is significant enough to gain levels. I've done this too when my friends have logged off for the night and I want to catch up to the next level, or I've logged on early to get that level before my friends show up and we start rolling. And do the Devs really want us to stop our "course of normal gameplay" to slow down and explore the zones and badge hunt? If the idea is to just pick up one two along the way to a mission or during a hunt mission... okay... but you have to come back later and collect the remainder in the zone, and that is usually done at the end or beginning of gameplay when the majority of patrol XP is useless. This reasoning still does not make sense to me. But again, thanks for taking the time to chime in and let me know how this all came about.

These examples are not badges that unlock content.... these are story arcs that unlock a TF/Trial contact, which then will lead to a badge. When you complete story arcs, you are typically given a souvenir that stays with you forever. If you have that souvenir, that is how the game recognizes you've done the prerequisite content. This is pretty much the entire contact list in the game - one contact leads to another and some of those contacts will give a badge mission/TF/SF/Trial. You'll have to explore the Homecoming Wiki for all of it. But there is limited TF/SF unlocks.... Completing Talshak the Mystic's arc unlocks Karsis for the Cavern Trial in the Hollows Completing Buck Salinger's arc will unlock Katie Hannon's TF. Completing Lars Hansen's arc in Striga unlocks Ernesto Hess TF. Completing Leventara's 1st arc in Rikti War Zone does award a badge (Member of Vanguard) that will allow you access to the instanced version of the Mother Ship Raid. That's all i can think of that has TF/trial unlocks. Again, there are many story arc missions that award badge, and you just need to be introduced to those contacts either by another contact, doing radio/paper missions, or through Ouro. Again, check the Wiki and the long list of badges and the contacts who award them.

See.... i THOUGHT she had a body and now reading you stating this, I am kind of remembering all of this from back on live ages ago too. I've only defeated her a couple times since Homecoming launched, but fully accept that i could be misremembering. However, just logged in and got lucky and found her!! I can confirm, when she dives, she does NOT currently show a body, flippers, or tail. This is all you see before she disappears - the bottom of her neck.... (Sorry I'm not tech-savvy enough to do a video.)

Welcome to the game! Sorry you're feeling frustrated. The first toon to 50 is always a struggle financially, but there are ways you can help ease the pain. 1. Teaming Large teams earn more XP and more INF. Soloing is fun and fine - but teaming will yield more Inf for you. Also, your teammates will help cover deficiencies in your slotting - they'll help kill, heal you, keep foes from you, etc. Look for Task/Strike Forces or Trials forming in your level range. Those will generally yield a good chunk of change. They also give Reward Merits at the end. If you're worried about out leveling story content, turn of earning XP again and just collect Inf. Look for Giant Monster hunts and join those teams/leagues. You get reward merits, monster aethers (that can be converted into a mini-pet recipe and sold on the AH for millions), and a chance at a outright drop of a mini-pet recipe. 2. Sell your drops on the Auction House: Those Reward Merits after story arcs, TFs/SFs/Trials - convert those into Boosters or Converters at a Merit Vendor. Then sell those on the AH - you can get a several million Inf from that alone. If you get a random Prismatic Aether drop on mission completion - don't save it for that costume yet - sell it on the AH and you'll get 2.5-3 million Inf. Generic IO recipe drops sell more at a vendor than the AH - but craft those yellow and orange ones and sell - you can turn a profit, generally. You can even try to convert some yourself into nicer ones to sell. Orange salvage also sells really well on the AH. Generally, can get 350k - 500k inf each for it. 3. Use those Invention Drops Level 25 Common/Generic IOs are 32% bonus which is roughly the same bonus as an even-con SO (33%). A level 30 Common IO gives 34.8% bonus (roughly a +1 SO). IOs never expire or get old, so you could slot your level 25-30 common IOs and leave them in until you're 50 and making even more money. Save the useful Set IOs for yourself instead of selling - so you don't have to buy back later. I hope this helps, and good luck!

As @Rudra stated, I, like SO many others, have lots of alts. Whether they are low level or lvl 50+ earning incarnate XP, pretty much all of them are maxed on patrol XP when I log them in because I rotate between characters (again, like so many other people as well). Yes, if you play 1 or 2 characters all the time, whether for short or long periods, you'll see some benefit from the patrol XP. But I may know of only 1 maybe 2 people who fall into this category - doesn't mean there aren't more - but from my perspective, there are a lot of people who alt a lot and see little to no benefit from a patrol XP boost from exploration badge hunting. As @Psi-bolt mentioned, yes, you have to now think about when you do your explore badge hunting. Never had to before. Just grab them when you can and get your reward. Now, **IF** you want to leverage this benefit, you have strategize of how and when you're going to badge hunt. That's a pain in the arse for something as simple as just collecting some explore badges.

"It had been decades since Sally left Croatoa. But she misses her best friend, her most cherished love. Through the deep dark underground tunnel that feeds the lake she calls home, Sally makes her way to the ocean and swims across the Atlantic. Arriving in Loch Ness, she meets her long lost love and soulmate, Nessie...." ... JK!! 🤣🤣🤣 I would have swore I saw an outline of her body through the murk of the water. I just checked again and zoomed in really close - nope, I was wrong - it was an optical illusion (I guess that's a good thing?). I know the Sally in Croatoa is just the neck and head, but I thought the mini-pet at least had a body (like what i thought I saw). Oh well. If there is no body underneath like I thought, then making the water clearer to see her isn't just an ask for 1 thing and is more complicated than I thought.

I'm not sure why it was changed that exploration badges no longer give actual XP and now give patrol XP. I wasn't thrilled about reading the patch note about this, but I've been trying to be open minded about it. However, I've found it's mostly just wasted and no benefit at all. 1. Typically when you log on, you are full of patrol XP - so gathering explore badges at the beginning of your play session makes the patrol XP awarded useless. 2. If you collect badges at the end of your play session - again, the patrol XP will be useless because you're logging off and you will fill up anyway by the time you log back on. Benefit useless. 3. The only time to take advantage of the benefit of patrol XP awarding from explore badges is in the middle of your game play. "Hold on teammates while I collect some explores so I can get some more patrol XP" - says no one. No one will stop the TF/SF mission train they are on to do this. If someone grabs a couple explores between missions or while waiting for their team to fill for that TF/SF - there MIGHT be some use provided they've used enough already after logging on and have room for it. 4. Being awarded real XP for explore badges was an instant benefit and it didn't matter when during your play session you hunted them - beginning, middle, or end. Also, numerous times, I come out of a mission just 1 or 2 kills shy of a level, but I'm in a zone where mobs are too low level to award XP "but hey! I can grab these explores that I haven't collected yet!" and DING! I've got my level before the next mission. Yes, I can go to a level appropriate zone and hunt - but the real XP award from explore badges was benefit and a use too. Hunting explore badges is something to do solo while you wait for your friends to log on, the team to form, or after you're done and your teammates/friends leave - and earning patrol XP at these times is pointless. You typically don't want to interrupt your play session to seek these badges when the patrol XP bonus would be of any benefit. ....please change it back it back real XP?