Shred Monkey

My measurement metrics are more subjective, but possibly more relevant. Not enough players => I can't get a team when I want one. Just the right number of players => I can get a team when I want one. Too many players => Team's fill up faster then I can respond to the LFG request for players. Right now Excelsior bounces around between "Just the right number of players" and "Too many players." I've not seen it dip into the "Not enough players" range since it came back.

I'm more in the camp of changing playstyle instead of builds for hard mode. I'd recommend trying to work in Barrier and not rely on Clarion or Ageless. But other than that, I just play more carefully and intentionally with regards to my positioning and targeting. I also agree with the sentiment above that hard mode gives us blasters a chance to really lean into our role as damage dealers because others finally have a legitimate reason to focus on their roles of tank and support.

This. I have min-maxed toons because I really enjoy min-maxing and I know the speed run checkpoints pretty well on all the high level TFs. And still, I avoid speed runs most of the time. They're just not all that fun to me. Kahn is probably the worst example of how much you can skip over in a speed run. But at least it has a final boss fight that everyone can contribute.

I don't build for teaming specifically, but I also usually end up building with many leadership powers. Maneuvers is a staple for upping my defense, and to get to Vengeance as a LotG mule, I need 1 other, so either tactics or assault, depending on need. However, the real reason I'm responding to this thread is to point out I don't understand what's going on. Is this a problem? Are people choosing not to use the Leadership Pool? I can't say I ever look at my teammates' builds. Quite, literally never. Why would I? I see their ATs to know who has taunt, and that's pretty much the end of it. I mean, yeah... if you're not taking Leadership Pool, you should consider it... it's probably #2 behind fighting for it's benefits and you can take 4 pools, so I see no reason not to grab both. But again, is this a problem?

I don't think Yin is the best TF in the game, but it really deserves a lot of credit for standing out despite it not being level 50 content. It's newer, so the Dev's learned a lot from the original TFs... namely the length and number of missions.

I'm not sure your suggestion is the complete answer, but I like where it's going. I think status effects in this game are too binary. You're held, or you're not... and you stay that way for a really long time because all the durations are pretty long with no way out except an inspiration you may or may not have. I don't like it, primarily because status effects are too easy to defeat with status protection while simultaneously being too easy to be permanently locked down without status protection. One way to add a more gradient application of status effects is to borrow from turn based games a system of saving throws. For example, to be held you have to fail a saving die roll by rolling less then the magnitude of the spell. Furthermore, you get a chance to break free once per round (or once per second) with another saving roll. You stay held until the spell runs out or you roll a die higher then the magnitude of the spell. Protections against status effects are added to your saving roll, while stronger spells have higher saving rolls required. With this method you are tweaking your % chance of being held as well as the likelyhood of escaping early with the same attribute. All that said, I want to point out I'm just responding to the thought experiment proposed by the OP. I like the game as it is because it is a system I can abuse well to my own advantage.

Level 54 enemies drop influence way way WAY faster then anything lower level, so basically just playing your 50s on level 54 content is a solid way to earn. I recommend the incarnate arcs at +4x8 since you'll also be fighting at an effective level of 53 and can deal more damage. Bring friends as desired, but a full team may affect income rate if you're focusing on that.

I usually switch toons and zone in before sending the tell because I don't like my 2nd option... which is... I join the team and then explain I'm going to alt and give the name I'm coming back as. I wouldn't ever send a "save me a spot" tell because I would still have to wait for a response to find out if there's actually room for me... and they may not send a response assuming I'm alting... so I'm not sure if I should alt, or wait... . and oh my goodness, that kind of uncertainty makes me very uncomfortable.

It's not like they also do massive -tohit at a point in the game where you still don't have all your attacks slotted fully. Tsoo Sorcerers are far more annoying.

I immediately assumed that the purple-blackish nictus stuff shooting out the orifices of all the new Cimerora NPCs was meant to be a clue about where the new powers came from. But I'd imagine that if you bothered to read the text of all the new missions you'll get the more complete explanation.

By chance, is spinning attack actually a targeted AoE attack? As in... it hits in a sphere around your target... as opposed to a cone emanating from you? It's been a while since I played one of my street justice toons, but I remember this attack hits a crowd really well.

I think the things Warpact listed along with the things Astralock listed are what turned homecoming into a superhero sandbox game. What I mean by this is that anyone could basically make any build they wanted and play it to crush all enemies with very little time and effort invested. Resources to create a build are so easy to obtain, it's basically free. Relatively speaking, it's more like Minecraft Creator mode then Survival mode. It's fun... but not really meeting the traditional "RPG game" model. The only way players can get the RPG game model was to make a decision to ignore some options, (farming, P2W items, some forms of marketeering, etc) and create our own challenge modes. This is something many, many people did and this has been working just fine. For the most part we're all getting along. This latest release, however has shifted the balance a bit. There are now endgame challenges that not everyone can just fall into with any group of 8 players and succeed. There were also some tweaks that affected the easiest way to get to 50 (note: Did powerleveling in AE actually get nerfed? I personally ignore that part of the game, but since people are complaining I'm assuming it worked). While everything available before page 4 still exists, people who played this as a pure sandbox game seem to be a getting upset. Personally, I don't want a sandbox game, so I've never been a big fan of all those changes Warpact and Astralock listed. I won't go so far as calling them mistakes. But I didn't like them. I didn't agree with them when I first saw them and just accepted them over time. However, I do like the latest release very much.

I'm usually pretty open minded to calls for nerfs. But this one... I don't see it. What's wrong with procs? (Seriously)

People not understanding how to get to various zones is fine. Everyone starts out new after all. But people being level 50 and not knowing is a problem. That said, back on Live my son, who was age 3 at the time, made a toon and figured out the trains took him to other zones all by himself. He wasn't able read chat yet, much less ask it for help.

I haven't done this on a blaster, but back on live I had a Traps/DP defender that used Soul Drain Epic the same way (and Hail of Bullets had a bug that used the Blaster level damage for Defenders).... Flipping into an untouched spawn, hitting SD and ripping off that Hail of Bullets animation of badassery is one of my favorite memories of this game. Pairing DP with Dark gives me serious Gun-Warlock vibes. Lots of cool options: High fantasy, alien bounty hunter, Cursed gunslinger... so much potential.

If you're skipping the temp melee attacks, you could have also skipped the Martial melee attacks. I only say this because I find Martial to be a very solid set without it's attacks. I run on my Stone blaster which has become my most played toon once it was full built. I like that Reach for the Limit gives a constant damage boost that I don't need another click power for. Reaction Time has an AoE slow movement power, which is excellent for helping to kite full spawns around while you blast away out of melee. And the way Inner Will works is that you can set it on auto, and it'll only fire when you get a status effect. If you combine this with good defense, you'll find you're status protection to be good enough for almost all situations. All these add up to me pumping out non-stop ranged damage output from my primary attack set. Even Ki Push is huge for reducing incoming damage by shoving something out of melee and taking it out of the fight for 4-5 seconds. Time also has solid benefits outside of it's attacks, so either is a good choice.

I couldn't disagree more. The truth is that Brutes stunk from the beginning. It's not just now.

The problem with forum builds is generally they're endgame builds for when you hit level 50. You need something for a level 17 (or.. maybe around 20 now?) I'll give you one tip I use on almost every toon I make, but especially melee builds: Air Superiority from the flight pool. I slot it with 1 acc, 1 end, and 2 recharge. (you can add damage later, but as a brute, the benefit from slotting damage is relatively smaller then other ATs.. your damage comes from fury). The beauty of Air Superiority is that it does knockdown every time. And it recharges enough that you can knock things down non-stop to prevent your target from hitting back. Fill in between Air Superiority with other attacks. Usually 2 attacks between each Air Superiority. Generally I have an attack chain something like: AirSup >att1 > att2 > AirSup > Att1 > Att3 > repeat... Where Att1 is my fastest recharging attack and Att 3 and 4 are slower, big hitting attacks. You may need recharge enhancements in the other attacks as well to keep hitting without any gaps in the chain. I sometime add 1 more AoE attack to my early build just to be able to hit everything when surrounded, but it's not a priority. Once that attack chain is built, cruising through solo missions becomes much easier, usually only resting every few fights to regain endurance. I don't take other attacks until later on...maybe around level 30-32 when you get some new attacks and I'm ready to start working toward an endgame type build.

I know this seems like a minor thing given everything else in this release.... but I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR DECADES FOR ONE OF THESE GAMES TO LET ME STRAP MY WEAPONS ON MY BACK AND DRAW THEM WHEN I FIGHT, AND FINALLY SOMEONE DID IT!!!! You guys are the best.

Am I really the first person to respond that they just go red side and get the invader badge? And really, I'm only skipping Synapse and Numina. The others I'd run regardless of the accolade.

Most of my self emails say "asdf" or "werwec" or possibly " asdfvcawerfv" if I'm feeling really energetic that day.

I generally do whatever PuG is forming when I log in. I prefer hard mode over easy/speed. But I prefer starting now over waiting. If I saw more hard mode groups forming, I'd jump on it.

This is actually similar to what I ended up doing. I was looking for a way to boost both jump and run in infiltration at level 20 on my xp frozen toon. I ended up buying a level 23 Blessing of the Zephyr, and then +5ing it. At level 20 I have +36.9% enhancement to both the run and jump portion of the power. A straight +3 SO would give 38.3%, but only to either run or jump.

The AH shows all the special enhancements (Hami-Os, D-Syncs, etc) all the way down to level 1. And I see bids for some low levels as well. It's possible people are just using those to store influence when they get close to 2 Billion. But I was wondering if there's a way to use the AH, or other method downgrade the level of a level 50 enhancement to say, level 20? Or just generate one that level to start with?

My decision to dump on AH or Vendor comes down to this. Which is more annoying to me today? 1. The clunky Auction house interface that requires me to drag and drop and click the quantity accept button to put everything in the AH. Then add the extra step of putting the price a bunch of times. - or - 2. The vender interface "bug" where if I click the sell button too quickly on on the last piece of a stacked item, there will no longer be any item selected, forcing me to to move my mouse up to the list and select an item again then go back to clicking sell. My choice varies by my mood. If it were possible to reject white salvage, I'd just do that. I sell yellows on the AH (I put my orange salvage in my vault). I reject uncommon and rare recipes. The level 50 common recipes are decent cash at a vendor. PvP and Purple recipes get made into enhancements sold on the AH.