roleki

I don't usually use alt slots, but I did for my en/en blaster so I could have one build for teams and another build for soloing. And I had such fun with that, I made the third slot a blapper, although I haven't put enh into that yet.

I don't know how much of a PITA it is to do such things, but, maybe develop accolades tied to progression content (not AE, not flashback) that grant permanent bonuses that stack or evolve with repetition? Like say, you plow through the Hollows content when you're supposed to (between 5 and 15); you get a Level 1 Hollows Accolade, that gives every attack a 2% chance to do 2% more damage or something. Now that level 1 is unlocked, if you go through the hollows exemplar'd, you get a level 2 accolade that gives a 4% chance to do 4% more damage. Third time, 6 and 6, and so on up to 10 and 10. Then you move over to Perez and get a 1% ToHit buff (through 5), and in Steel you get a 2% DefBuff, and so on and so on. If that seems like too much of a bonus, have the accolades earned at low levels only apply in endgame content (i.e. hollows bonus is only active in PI, then maybe a perez bonus that is active in RWZ, and so on) or only when you have a team of 4 or more, or something. I dunno, just spitballing some ideas that might entice ME to level my alts the old fashioned way, while still leaving AE unharmed.

I get that, but It's kind of weird, because the people I developed the most in-game (and out-of-game) camaraderie with... were fellow farmers who I met while we were out driving our alts around. We spend most of our time farming up and yammering away, one of us clearing the map, the other parked at the door. Point being, farming can be just as social an activity as anything else in the game, and in some cases even moreso, because - as tuned farmers blowing through mobs without need for coordination of buffs/tactics- we can actually discuss things AND melt faces simultaneously. Again, YMMV, but plenty of people are getting what they want out of the game just as it is, hand-wringing or no.

I agree, to a point. I think a random team wipe can be hilarious if it's a one-off, but I somewhat understand the people who get annoyed when a team wipes repeatedly because someone keeps making the same type of mistakes over and over and over. I think it mattered more when we were all on the hook for 15.00 a month, but even without real money riding on it, I'd still prefer MY gameplay not negatively impact the enjoyment of others, and I would hope they offer me the same consideration.

That's why I don't PL rando's/people who spend all night spamming broadcast begging for an AE farm - I don't want to be an accessory to a poorly-piloted toon ACTUALLY ruining a third player's experience, because that really IS harmful. That said, there are plenty of numbskulls who level-up the old fashioned way and still can't drive, so it's not like blowing up AE is going to eradicate THAT scourge. As for dumping loot into AH, I put (almost) EVERYTHING up for 8 inf, be it a Demonic Threat Report or another (darn) Soulbound Allegiance. Yeah, I've taken a theoretical bath on a LOT of things, but on balance stuff tends to go for around market value; it comes down to a decision, would I rather be melting faces or getting max value out of my virtual garage sale? So I melt those faces.

Agreed, the new Comic Cons are even better than the originals, which were phenomenal in their own right. I love running into (and completely obliterating) characters I recognize, and I still laugh every time I see Small Business Man, because I am wired that way. The best, though, was when I saw MY toon randomly appear in a mob. Now I make it a habit to stun him first if I see him, because I am also wired that way. All in all, thank you Brigg for making these legendary maps even moreso; a lot of others might have just packed it in, but you found a way to take lemons and make rocket scientists. Salud!

Can someone please articulate an actual PROBLEM caused by AE farming? "I don't like it!" or "It's too easy!" or "They aren't pressing the buttons the same way I do" just do not seem like valid complaints to me. I'm not trying to be difficult - I would love to be made to understand how my killing a bunch of stuff to level up and kit my alts affects YOUR gameplay in any way, aside from filling the AH with a metric ton of cheap salvage and recipes. Without understanding the ACTUAL harm I am causing, all these calls to nuke/nerf/gimp AE seem, I don't know, petulant or something, and I have to imagine there aren't THAT many people with that unfortunate character flaw where the only approved way to entertain yourself is the same way THEY entertain themselves.

Before you give up on en/en, I strongly encourage you to log into the test server, roll one up to 50, then go over to a level 1 mob and fling it across the map. If the sight of their lifeless body ragdolling across the screen and clear out of your perception radius doesn't convince you to stick with it, then maybe en/en isn't for you. (Though, admittedly, it's not as dramatic as it used to be on live. You used to need a spotter to tell you where they landed.)

This. Not everybody has a burning need to run through the same content 1-50 on every toon, then spend eternity running the same 4 TFs to slog their way to T4s, and frankly, if I tried to level an Ice/TA the old-fashioned way I would claw my eyes out. So I farm my alts. I get fresh 50s, the community gets a bunch of recipes and salvage they otherwise wouldn't have, I don't see what the problem is.

I would really like to see TA become a set that other players can fathom WHY anyone would bother playing it. It's a painfully laborious set to solo with, and on teams its debuffs are pretty much outclassed by scrappers and brutes who are also killing mobs 70x faster than my TA. That said, I don't know that I would want to see the set "overhauled" per se. I like that it is kind of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none set. If they could tweak the set to be more effective at the things it does, I would be a happy camper. Maybe that would come in the form of a progressive AoE Build Up effect tied to animation/cast time of powers in the tree? Or maybe they could slap some ridiculous procs/autohits into the tree, like say, Flash Arrow still does -ToHit, but it also floors Defense/Resistance in the AoE for three pulses of 3s spread over 10s? Or maybe give the various powers complementary effects that stack, like say if the target is hit by Glue Arrow or Ice Arrow, then debuffs from DA or PGA are doubled in magnitude or duration, and so on. I dunno, I just want to T4 my Ice/TA wothout clawing my eyes out.

I have a VL100 TW/Bio scrapper and a VL85 Rad/Fire brute; the Rad/Fire earns the inf, but is exposed as a one-trick pony once it leaves AE. TW/Bio is about 1/4 as fast at earning inf, but is darn near immortal in content. I would imagine a Rad/Bio would split the difference. In either event, stay away from Proton Sweep. It is just awful.