Doc_Scorpion

Narrator voice: People can, and do, farm merits as well.

- No, we shouldn't balance around billion inf babies. Not everyone has a farmer. Not everyone is interested in farming. - Nor should we balance around the levels that billion inf babies are typically found at. Not everyone races to fifty then grinds out the vet levels so they can stand around bored. - Not to mention that not everyone is a min-maxer seeking that perfect billion inf build. This, ten billion percent. I'm not even certain a paid retail team could tackle the job, there are simply too many potential permutations of power sets and IO sets. (And that's just for tanks.)

You go to yourself... "Surely I've arrested enough Skuls by now" And it turns out you were supposed to be hunting The Lost...

The difficulty is largely dependent on your AT, your notoriety settings, and your experience at playing the game. I've found leveling melee toons on base difficulty pretty easy.

What's the first? I picked up Thunderstrike for lvl 10 on a whim, and it looks like once it's slotted it will a fun little toy.

<starts filing off serial numbers and shaking a can of spray paint...>

This.

Yeah, I'm finding that out... Not like my kat/regen who is pretty powerful single-target out of the box. But at base difficulty, it's working out so far. As I level through my teens, i suspect I'm going to end up alternating between choosing defense and AOE's. I definitely want as many defenses as possible by the time I hit my 20's & SO levels. In my experience, that's when things start to get really nasty. (Read: Freakshow.) I will be revisiting these high level builds later on! I could powerlevel past those levels... But then I'd have to Flashback to get a couple of badges I need for accolades and either dual box or trust to luck to find a PUG that's running the lower level Safeguards. YMMV... For me, it's just easier to spend a few hours/days running missions at low levels than to deal with alternate builds etc... at some point in the future. Plus with travel powers coming at lvl 4 and inherent Fitness, low levels are a lot less painful than they used to be. Slotting hasn't been a problem. Between the enhancements on the P2W vendor, the extra cash accumulated while level locked, and selling on the auction house it's been pretty easy to afford enhancements. So far on Homecoming the cash crunch comes when I get to SO levels. Those buggers are *expensive*. That was my next question... Good to know.

This. If you have to prove it to the world, you're proving the opposite.

Beginner's Luck: starts at 15% and decreases to 6% by level 12 (end of TO's/start of DO's). Hydra accuracy bonus: 12% through level 12 (end of TO's/start of DO's). Green +ACC TO: 8.7% 15+12+8=35 35/8=.23 Thus, at Level 1, TO's provide 23% of your available bonus. 6+12+8=26 26/8=.31 Thus, at Level 12 (end of TO's/start of DO's), TO's provide 31% of your available bonus. I would assert that either you haven't done the math or you don't know what placebo actually means.

Dinged lvl 9 last night... picked up Conductive Shield and boy, this set is a bit of an end hog. (All attacks except Brawl now have P2W proc, +ACC TO, END RED TO.) TBH, that's generally true of all AT's other than MM's. Things should get better in the DO/SO ranges. Going to be stuck at this level for a while so I can run some content and pick up the Atlas Park safeguard. That's part of why I prioritized the single target attack chain, it makes this period of being XP locked much less painful. (I can also concentrate on defenses as I level.)

Though we're a fractious bunch who'll debate anything and everything- the community here is one of the friendliest and most helpful I've ever seen.

The only down side to the AT forums is that they often tend to think in terms of endgame builds (often loaded with expensive IO's) and less about leveling builds.

Ah... I so miss Lake Superior. But AoS did a number on UO that the game never did really recover from. Biostem gave some great answers. Not nearly enough people play lower level content, which is an artifact of this game being mostly refugees. Yes, far too many people are racing for the top, only to get bored once they get there. CoX is very much about the journey, not the destination. I don't recommend jumping on the powerleveling train... CoX is utterly unlike UO (except for maybe a mage) in that your character changes dramatically as you level. You gain new powers, new slots to enhance those powers, etc... etc... Powerleveling can dump you off the train with a toon you don't know how to effectively play facing some of the first seriously difficult content the game offers. I recommend you play at least a few toons Old Skool and learn the basics. There are several archetypes that can solo well, and if you're patient a group in your level range will pop up. You are both screwed and not screwed if you pick the wrong power or put slots in the wrong place. There's a thing called a 'respec' where you can completely re do powers and slots from scratch, and you do get a few respecs for free... But they get expensive afterwards. That being said, I generally don't sweat mis-slotting. You'll get more slots two levels later, and you can put them in the right place then. Eventually I'll burn one of the free respecs to fix things, but I'm in no hurry. (Assuming they need fixing rather than slotting earlier than intended.) The only really irrevocable step is choosing an AT and powerset. (Though only technically irrevocable, you can always delete and start over.) They matter a great deal... because they're all different to some degree. Some, like Masterminds, require a great deal of micromangement. Others, like Scrappers, are basically fire and forget. Some can solo easily, others only in the hands of an experienced player. On teams however, we have a saying: No AT is required, but all AT's can contribute.

Jacob's Ladder is on the shortlist for my next pick, but the long cast time meant it didn't fit well into a smooth attack chain. (With the enhancements from the P2W vendor and the powers I have - there's never any waiting, I always have a power ready to fire.)

I came up with a concept for an electrical based character, and after much consideration... am leveling her as an elec/elec scrapper. So, I'm curious as to your thoughts as to leveling/playing such a scrapper. (I've played many scrappers before, so I'm familiar with the general idea. Just not this powerset.) I hope I don't put people off by saying this, but my approach is a bit different than what's more common on these forums. I'm not really interested in endgame builds, as it'll be a long time before she even breaks thirty as I'm soloing through content and am frequently level locked. Nor am I interested in billion inf babies as I don't have a sugar daddy (farmer) toon (and aren't interested in building one). I've gotten her to lvl 6, and she has a smooth, enhanceable, single-target chain. (That is, relies on actual powers rather than P2W powers.) Though I don't scorn mitigation and defense, I do lean somewhat towards the "death arresting is the ultimate debuff" school of thought. So, where next? What powers are must-haves? What powers are skippable? Current powers: Brawl Charged Brawl Havoc Punch Air Superiority Charged Armor Flight I know Air Superiority is likely to be a controversial choice... But I needed one more single-target power, and I already had the Flight pool open. (My early build priority is a smooth single target attack chain.) It's inherent chance for knockdown also adds a small but useful amount of mitigation. I list Brawl because I have it, and I might as well use it. It's not slotted beyond the single default and probably never will be as it's going to be replaced with a better attack later on. (Probably Boxing because it's stun seems to synergize with Electrical Melee's sleep and also opens the road to Tough.)

So. Much. This. Though I disagree with "not an option on Live". On Excelsior, I've soled a f/f tank to 19 without many problems (only needed an assist on two missions), and back in the original game the same tank made it easily into his thirties before Shutdown. (With inherent Fitness and only only one travel power pick required, both of those coming early, it's actually easier now than then.) It's a very different playstyle than scrappers or brutes, and I think that's lead folks into believing that soloing a tank isn't inherently practical. (Scrappers and brutes are rabbits - tanks are turtles. And slow and steady can and does win races.) That problem is inherently unsolvable - because it's origin lies in the original design of the game(s) and the fact that originally they were never meant to be compared side to side because you'd never have a choice between them. This has lead to the problem of the player base insisting that there must be a clear binary choice between the two and that their favored candidate not be the "loser". The whole problem goes away when you give up the idea that each character is a peg that must fit into the hole they've been designed for and that there's never, ever, any chance of putting the "wrong" peg into the wrong "hole". Myself, I don't have a problem with shades of gray or grappling with the subtle (and not-too-subtle) differences between the various melee archetypes.

My advice to new player - don't do this. Not more than once anyways. There's so much more to the game that rushing and grinding. Rushing and grinding out levels leaves you on an endless treadmill of rushing and grinding - and thus skipping out on all the content. Veteran players, focused on billion inf uber builds do this, but you really shouldn't. There's some awfully cool storylines out there, and plenty of interesting places to see in the City. Get out there and explore, get out there and play the game the way it was meant to be played.

No offense, but was there a reason you quoted the entire message to add a two line reply?

Hmm... a repeat of Brass Monday could make for a fun event.

Another thing that occurs to me: A proper wiki, hosted by Homecoming and supervised by GM's. (Though the playerbase would obviously do the work.) There's a TON of stuff in this version that completely undocumented from the player POV.

I had a related problem... Norton was upset that the 64bit client was trying to connect to the internet and tried to block it. (Which it had not previously done.)

Repair has three times the range (80ft vs 25 ft) of Aid Other. It's got an annoying long recharge, but it's not without it's uses.

This +1...

It's all a Nemesis plot.