Luminara

Defense allows critters a chance, however miniscule, to win. Resistance doesn't.

I'd like to say, "Much like my sex life, whatever goes in the hole works for me"... but I don't have a sex life. I use attuned IOs for leveling (especially PvP IOs, because you can't slot a level 50 enhancement of any kind on a level 12 character). I don't slot anything until 10 or 12, then I rummage through the discount bins in my base. If I don't have what I want there, I check my level 50 characters. use a few unslotters to swap attuned IOs for unattuned (converter roulette is sometimes played), mail the attuned IOs to myself and attune the IOs I just slotted into the level 50 characters. On the rare occasion I don't have anything I can use that way, I sift through my sub-50 characters (and check their enhancement trays (when i'm leveling a character, i usually carry 10-20 set IOs on that character so i don't have to go to the base) and market storage), and if I come up short there, I just grab a quarter of a billion out of Yomo's pocket my slush fund and go shopping. When I do that, I buy the cheapest attuned IOs I can and convert them to what I need/can stash/can sell. I always have a fully planned and tweaked level 50 build for a character. Not only does it help maintain interest if I can keep an eye on the prize, it's also my roadmap. Unless I find that something isn't working out, I slot my character according to the planned build. Whatever enhancements I intend to use at the end, barring those which can't be slotted until 50, I slot as I go. I try to balance the development of my attack chain, growth of my damage mitigation and management of my HP and Endurance. I can't beat things up if I'm prone or gasping, and being impossible to defeat does me no good if it takes all week to finish a mission. By not overloading any one power with slots or enhancements, I retain a good feel for what it's capable of doing later and how it's progressing. If I notice that I need more of something, it's only a level or two away. This also allows me to build up the set bonuses I want, like global +Recharge, without overloading on one thing and leaving myself high and dry on something else, like Endurance management. For things that don't need attuned IOs, like Swift/Hurdle, powers with just an EndRed or RchgRed, sometimes I craft if I'm anxious for the extra mojo, other times I ignore them if I don't have any on hand. I usually forget about them until late in the game, too, unless the lack is starting to impinge on my awareness. At 50, I respec to remove whatever's being replaced (with purples, attuned ATOs and Winters, level 50 PvP IOs and sets which i'm going to +5), dump those back in the rummage sale piles and go banana balls with the ubergoodies. For purples, I +5 the Attrib/EndRed IO and leave the rest at 50. PvP IOs, I'll +X to reach a specific goal, like exatly 800 +Regeneration, or to compensate for light slotting of another attrib, such as using a +5 Acc/End/Rchg PvP IO to make up for slotting a cone/AoE attack for Range and/or procs instead of using a set. Gift of the Ancients: Def/+7.5% Run Speed is nice to +5 when I have room for it. My slotting goals, in regard to individual powers, tend to be the same leveling up as at 50. I'm almost always enhancing for the primary purpose of the power. Attacks are slotted for damage, damage mitigation powers slotted for damage mitigation, normal, sensible slotting. When it's a toss-up, such as trying to decide between +Res and +MaxHP, I scrutinize my planned level 50 build, try a power slotted in different ways and look at the general picture before settling on anything. When I'm slotting two powers for the same general effect, but using different enhancement sets, I look at the net benefits before deciding which gets which. For example, if I have both Stealth and a "real" Defense power, and I'm slotting one with LotG Def/global +Recharge and 5x Red Fortune (all but Def/Rchg), and the other with 6/6 Reactive Defenses, I note that the "real" Defense power has a lower base Endurance cost, so slotting Stealth with the LotG and 5x Red Fortune and the "real" Defense power with Reactive Defenses will maximize the net reduction in Endurance cost. For powers that I'm slotting with regular (uncommon or rare) IO sets, I leave those attuned. I don't exemplar down for any reason other than Flashback content, but I don't like to lose a lot of set bonuses when I do, and I'm not going to gain enough of anything to matter by using unattuned sets and +5ing everything. Individual IOs that I always keep attuned are things like LotG Def/global +Recharge, and Steadfast Protection 3% +Def(All). The amount of Defense or Resistance I could gain from +5ing those is minimal, and those bonuses are always desirable when exemplared. Attuned Quickfoot End/Run in Sprint on every character, even the fliers. If I'm in an indulgent mood, I'll replace it with a +5 End/Run at some point. If I'm really in the mood to blow through some inf*, a level 53 Microfilament Exposure. I rarely use HOs, but if I'm short on slots, a couple of 53 Cytoskeletons in a Defense power can help. The one power I won't use without an HO-equivalent is Fold Space, which benefits enormously from a couple of D-Sync Decelerations. Expensive, but there's nothing else that benefits that power as well. I only "proc bomb" cones and low damage AoEs, and those only if the powers can be used fluidly in my attack chain (i don't give a damn if a single-target power can take six procs and one-shot Hamidon, i'm not playing to beat things up one at a time). If I have an extra slot or two in a build, and I can use a proc effectively, such as adding Unbreakable Constraint: Chance for Smashing Damage to an attack which also Holds, I'll consider using the slot for that, but only if nothing else tickles my fancy. If I have a PBAoE (almost always do), and the slot for it, I'll use the PvP -Res proc if I'm satisfied with everything else in the build. Whenever possible, I add +Movement Speed set bonuses. Plodding makes me angry. +Recovery and +MaxEnd set bonuses are always appealing to me (3 End/s net Recovery is my minimum expectation for a character at 50). In general, I pursue set bonuses which improve the overall feel of the character, not specific types of powers or specific attributes. Having a fluid attack chain means chasing +Recharge. Being able to dash to the next spawn quickly means +Movement. Staying in the fight means +Recovery/MaxEnd. I'll use a "less appealing" IO set in a power if it makes sense. My peacebringer's Light Form is slotted with 5/6 Preemptive Optimization, for example. I could've used Synapse's Shock and obtained a little more global +Recharge, but what the character needed was better Endurance management, and Preemptive Optimization gave me some global +Recharge while also giving me better Endurance management. That's how I see, and use, enhancements. It's all about finding the best options for the character as a whole. That extends to where I'm slotting things. If I can put a set of 5/6 Panacea in power, and it makes sense to use the proc there (an auto power, a toggle or something i know i'll use frequently), I'll do so. That's one more slot that I can use somewhere other than Health. At any point in time, if I'm dissatisfied, I stop, go back to Mids', make adjustments and find a way to fix whatever's bothering me. I have, frequently, Alt+Tabbed out of the game while in the middle of a fight, just to address a problem. Sometimes a different IO set is the answer, other times it's a single slot that needs to be moved, or a power that isn't gelling with me has to be replaced. Whatever it is, I deal with it immediately. It's worth the hassle of a respec to iron out issues, and the experience of playing the way I was and finding a problem gives me valuable information I can use for ensuring that my final build is as good as it can be. I never take Hasten on dominators, because I don't want to deal with the annoyance of binding things juggle auto-fire on both Domination and Hasten and eventually having one or both fail, and I'm just not going to stare at an icon, waiting for it to recharge so I can click it, so I always accumulate at least 147.5% global +Recharge on those characters (as much extra as possible because i'm usually so caught up in RAAAAHHHHHH and SMUSHYOUFACE that i forget to pause so Domination can activate). If I can't, I don't make it. I never use the Force Feedback proc. The power it's in will miss, or the proc won't trigger, and then it's time to change the Depends. I use the Gaussian proc on one character, and then only because I had nothing better to do with the slot and wanted the +Movement Speed bonus. I understand it's utility and value, I just don't need it for most of my characters. Or, don't need it enough to free up a slot for it. When I'm building for Defense, I focus on type or vector, not both. I also don't always build for Defense, or Resistance. My Grav/TA/Stone controller only has Combat Jumping and Stealth for Defense powers, neither of the two 3% +Def(All) Uniques and no deliberate slotting for Defense from set bonuses. Between Wormhole, Cross Punch and Fissure keeping everything Stunned, and Seismic Smash and Singularity hammering things with Holds, and all of the KD, I had all of the damage mitigation I needed. Once I realized that, I redesigned the character and put both the slots to better use and more relevant enhancements in those slots. After I respeced that character, I went through and looked at all of my characters' builds and realized I'd fallen into a slotting trap, using the same IOs across the board, even when they weren't necessary... or sensible. I spent several months redesigning and respecing characters after that, and I'm more careful to look at all of the options now, rather than cramming the same IOs into every build. Another slotting trap I learned to avoid was looking at powers purely from the perspective of whether or not I could use them to acquire more global +Recharge than I "needed". Sure, 5x Red Fortune in that Defense power is enticing, but if 4.5% Recovery. 2.25% +MaxHP and 7.5% +RunSpeed is going to benefit the character more overall, and my attack chain is complete, then I don't need that extra 5% +Recharge and shouldn't try to force it into the build. I like +Slow Resistance whenever I can finagle it. Nothing ruins an evening of gaming like having your attack chain grind to a halt. I like Winter sets for leveling, but rarely use them in my level 50 builds, except for the two piece 15% +Slow Resistance when I have extra slots. It's a lower investment than trying to cram several powers with full Winter sets, and for my purposes, it adds the same value. If, though, I can soft-cap my Fire/Cold Defense with one or two Winter sets, without giving up too much of the other bonuses I want, I'll go after that instead of Slow Resistance. Not being hit by the Slow is as good as being immune to it (except the auto-hit slows, like Snow Storm... and the Slows that ignore Slow Resistance (fuck you, Lady Winter)). I rarely look at +Damage set bonuses, but I did chase them on my Dark/Martial dominator. because /Martial is somewhat lackluster (still my favorite dominator secondary, though). If one of a character's ATO sets offers 8.75% global +Recharge bonus, I'll find a way to squeeze in 5x +10% bonuses and leave that ATO set in its rare form. There aren't many 8.75% bonuses, so I take them where I can get them. However, I rarely use the Preventative Medicine set, simply because I prefer Panacea's set bonuses. I am using Preventative Medicine on my Rad/Elec/Mace sentinel. In this case, the Resistance set bonuses outweighed saving a slot or increasing Recovery. If my PBAoE or AoE attack has no KD, I'll try to find a way to make a KD proc fit. KD is one of the best forms of damage mitigation available, slot for slot and enhancement for enhancement. The only time I can have too much is when it turns into KSquirt. That's why I'm always attentive to what I'm slotting in KD powers. I like KB, but I don't like random KSquirt, and I've caught myself just in time, more than once, before I settled on slotting something like Ragnarok in an AoE with KD, or Superior Avalanche in a PBAoE with KD. I'll use a set that doesn't have a KD proc, even if it's not "as good", or use only the other parts of the set with the KD part, even if it means I'm beating my head against the ED wall. If the base KB or KU in a power is strong enough, though, I'll slot it for KB just for shits and giggles. Those are powers I wouldn't be using at 50 for any other purpose, anyway, and there are some solid set bonuses in KB sets, so why not get something out of them and torment low level scum at the same time? I almost never use the Performance Shifter proc. Synapse's Shock's EndMod/+RunSpeed is my go-to for Stamina (almost all of my characters slot that and the EndMod from the set, because 22.5% +Run Speed is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet). If I have the extra slots, then I'll drop a couple of Performance Shifters into Stamina, to get the proc and hit the ED cap for EndMod... and tack on another 7.5% +RunSpeed (sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeter). When I'm slotting purple sets, I typically leave out the single attrib IO. I'm not going to lie awake at night worrying about a 4-5% lower chance of a proc triggering. That my attack chains are fully functional and gapless is what I value, not an extra numerical pop-up. I do the same thing when I'm slotting ATOs and Winter sets. If I only need 5/6 of the set for whatever set bonuses I'm chasing, I'll leave out the Acc/Whatever. Almost all of those sets can spare that and still enhance a power sufficiently for its purposes.

4,000,000 +Acc ∞ +ToHit *activate Aim* *activate attack* *Miss!*

So now the comparison is two individual powers to entire secondary sets. The goal post is on Ross 128 b now. If you'll please board the rocket ship, ladies and gentlemen, we'll continue this discussion there.

You're going to insist that you didn't misunderstand how the +MaxHP buff works, rather, you can't find, or won't approach, a spawn large enough (3 targets) for the +Endurance to refill your bar? Okay... Of course you didn't. Of course. Then it's the 3 enemies that you're having trouble with? That's not a problem with the power, or the game. Dark Consumption is the only similar power. We covered that earlier. Your continual assertion that Consume and Dark Consumption are "similar" to powers like Energy Absorption and Energy Drain is erroneous and disregards the fact that those powers are specifically balanced within the context of their respective sets. They have lower base recharge times because the sets in which they're placed were designed and balanced around those powers being available more frequently. Fiery Aura is not balanced around Consume having a lower recharge time. Dark Melee is not balanced around Dark Consumption having a lower recharge time. The fact that Consume and Dark Consumption restore Endurance does not make them directly equivalent to other powers which restore Endurance. That any power does anything that any other power does is not justification for buffs. That's as ludicrous as insisting that Snap Shot and Atomic Blast both deal damage, so Snap Shot should be buffed because it's not on par with Atomic Blast. Oh... did I just spill the beans on your next "suggestion"? Oops. A 95% increase isn't a "little bit more". Should I walk you through the math again? You keep exaggerating on this point. That "big enough mob" is 3. That also happens to be the same number of minions the game expects you to be capable of fighting at the default difficulty setting. Oh, hey, wow, look at that, there appears to be a direct correlation between the design of the power and the number of enemies in a default difficulty spawn, as though the developers ran the numbers and said, "If the players slot this for EndMod, it will completely refill their Endurance in a single default difficulty spawn". Nah, they just fucked up, right? You mean your definition of "proper", which is based solely on the conceit that you. despite having no comprehension of balance or design. are wiser, smarter and better at "stuff" than the people who created the game, the people who shepherded the game, the people who resurrected and currently maintain the game, and that only be by your glorious intervention will we be saved from the glaring failures of those who came before you. Yeah... I don't think so. We'll stick with who we have running the show now, thanks. Let's recap: You say you can get Consume down to a 60 second recharge time, which means you only have to struggle with your endurance management issues for 45 seconds, and it's recharging quickly enough to keep the +MaxHP buff on you permanently... but, for some reason, you just can't find 3 enemies in 45 seconds (or die when you're facing SUCH A HUGE MOB) and if you do fight 3 enemies in that 45 seconds, you're flatlining your blue bar. And Consume has to be changed to fix that because "the problem" is that Consume doesn't have "proper stats". And people like me, who don't see "the problem", are blind. Oh, I certainly do see the problem, and it's providing me with endless opportunities for entertainment.

No porn industry.

The +MaxHP is independent of the number of targets. It's granted even if the power is used when there are no targets present. It says that in the power's short description. You don't know how it works or what it does, and you didn't even glance at the power's description, but you're throwing a tantrum over how "bad" it is? 🙄 The HC team has tools to examine game-related data, unlike you, so they're not going to be conned when you conjure hokum like that out of thin air. 20 * 1.95 (3x +0 EndMod SOs) = 39 Endurance per target. 3 targets is overfill. With 2 targets, 78 Endurance. 20 * 1.66 (2x +0 EndMod SOs) = 33.33 Endurance per target. Still 3 targets, gets you to 100 exactly. With 2 targets, 66.66 Endurance. 20 * 1.424 (1 level 50 EndMod IO) = 28.48 Endurance per target. 4 targets is overfill. With 2 targets, 56.96 Endurance. With 3 targets, 85.44 Endurance. What's the problem, was the math too hard, or is 2-3 enemies more than your builds can handle? There are little doohickeys called "enhancements" in the game, for doing things like, oh, say, reducing the recharge time of a power. There are global +Recharge buffs, too. Even with an SO-only build, you can reduce the recharge time of Consume or Dark Consumption down to ~60 seconds, leaving you with only 45 seconds during which it's completely down. On an IO build, you can have the total cycle time (recharge time plus animation time) down to less than 45 seconds. You can't make it for 30 seconds without a complete refill of your blue bar, and can't find 2-3 critters every 45 seconds? That's just you throwing out wild hyperbole, though, and we're all aware of that. No-one's that incompetent. What you want is for them to change things so you don't have to make choices, like whether to slot these powers for damage or EndMod or Healing or Recharge Reduction, because that's what this is really all about. That's the agenda of every thread you start in this section. "Change this and that so I don't have to make any sacrifices in power selection or slotting!" That's the core of all of your suggestions and complaints. Christ, over the course of this thread, you've proposed that they not only reduce the recharge times of these two powers, but buff the damage and make them fully refill endurance with one target, essentially turning them into one-slot wonders for your god-mode power trip fantasies, and then proclaimed that they'd be "balanced", as if a PBAoE nuke which also refills your blue bar and recharges quickly enough to cycle into your attack chain be "balanced". Pfft. Dream on.

Because it's not balanced around having higher Defense to Smashing/Lethal, it's balanced around having lower Defense and higher Resistance to Smashing/Lethal . That's why the set has Mind Over Body, and why Strength of Will buffs S/L Resistance twice as much as it buffs other Resistances, and why the set has +Regen and +MaxHP and -ToHit. If you buff S/L Defense, the set is too good, too survivable, unbalanced, and something else has to be nerfed to compensate.

It's a hybrid mitigation set, not a Defense set. If you start changing things, other things have to be changed. Add more Smashing/Lethal Defense, Smashing/Lethal Resistance and some of the Regeneration and +HP has to be removed. And then it's just not good any more, because it won't have enough Defense, Resistance, Regeneration or +HP to work well. It's working magnificently as it is. Let's not fuck with it.

The default Recovery rate is 6.667% of your total maximum Endurance every 4 seconds. Each point of +Recovery reduces the period between Recovery pulses. +Recovery is not a flat +Endurance refill, nor does it increase the amount of Endurance gained per Recovery pulse, it is a modification of the time between pulses. Thinking of it as additional +End is erroneous. The net effect isn't +End, it's a longer period during which you don't need +End. Slotted with 3x +0 EndMod SOs, Consume adds up to 97% +Recovery (10 targets hit), just short of double the base rate, which equates to a Recovery pulse every 2.03 seconds. Of course, we're not playing in a vacuum (despite what some people want to make it seem like) in which we only have a power like Consume to buff Recovery. Everyone has Stamina, which adds 25% +Recovery sans enhancements. As Recovery is cumulative, the 2.03 seconds it would take between Recovery pulses is further shortened to 1.798 seconds by that unslotted Stamina. Slotting Stamina identically reduces the time between pulses even further, to 1.62467 seconds. At level 50, with an IO build and extra EndMod from an Alpha Incarnate, a character's total Recovery including the buff from Consume can go to 300% (or higher, depending on set bonuses), resulting in Recovery pulses every 1.353 seconds (or faster). This does not include the empowerment station buff (Increase Recovery, +17% Recovery for 90 minutes), or the Recovery Serum sold by the P2W vendor (+100% Recovery for 4 minutes), or anything else, just Stamina, Consume and whatever IO set bonuses you've accumulated. And none of that is including the effect of +MaxEnd from accolades, temporary powers or IO set bonuses, which increase the amount of Endurance gained with each Recovery pulse. The higher your maximum Endurance, the more Endurance you regain with each Recovery pulse. With only the Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey, or the villainous equivalents, each Recovery pulse adds 7.33 Endurance rather than 6.67. That's force multiplication, and you don't get that with flat +End. As I said, that +Recovery in Consume equates to 15 fewer seconds during which you'd need an Endurance refill. I said it and I stand firmly by it. I know the math and I know the mechanic. The problem isn't that I didn't do the math before posting, it's that analyzing +Recovery as though it were a flat Endurance refill is just another shitty vacuum comparison that misrepresents what Recovery is and does, ignoring its actual function and functionality. You can't reduce it to a simple +X Endurance expression because that doesn't account for the cumulative effects of other sources of +Recovery, or +MaxEnd, or the fact that +End is finite (it can only refill the amount of Endurance that's below the maximum, and anything over that is ignored) whereas +Recovery continues to scale up to the target limit of the power, or anything else. It ignores relevant factors and context, and inaccurately quantifies the mechanic.

Bullshit. Every time you start one of these idiotic spaz-fests, it's the same cockamamie nonsense. "OMG, I can't believe you haven't changed <set or power> to suit my fancy, I told you to do it six forevers ago, why hasn't this been done yet, it's so obvious that it needs to be done, <whatever> is falling apart without this change!", and on and on with wild accusations and over-inflated notions about how necessary <the change> is because <insert logical fallacy>, <insert misunderstanding of basic concepts>, <insert personal valuation of balance in utter disregard for set or game balance>, and then argue with every response which isn't, "You're so smart and 100% super right!", even when hard facts refute everything you say. Case in point: That 15 seconds of +Recovery effectively delays the necessity of using the power by 15 seconds. Until that stacking Recovery buff expires (meaning 5% base per critter, unenhanced for EndMod), your blue bar should remain pegged at 100%. Consequently, on an SO-only build without Hasten, you're only at risk of running out of endurance for 1 minute 18.5 seconds. But because you don't know how it helps, because you can't figure out how to make it work for you, because you need to contrive a reason to change the power, well, fuck it, get rid of it, and to hell with everyone else. You're the only one who matters, after all. Further case in point: Your entire premise sidesteps the fact that powers are not balanced directly against similar powers, they're balanced within and against the sets in which they exist. You point to powers in other sets, say, "Look, they do one thing the same, this power should be massively buffed!" and act like everyone should pat you on the back for noticing something that no-one else has ever seen. Every power you list does something different and is something different, with one commonality (stealing endurance) which you posit should be all the reason there needs to be for changes. You ignore that Dark Consumption can crit, which none of these other powers can do. You ignore that DC and Consume have Fiery Embrace tags. You ignore that DC and Consume cost 0.52 endurance (total, not per critter, 0.52 endurance is the entire cost of those powers), whereas the +End powers in other sets cost 13 endurance. You ignore that Ice Armor as a whole is balanced with Energy Absorption's +Def in mind, and that Energy Aura as a whole is balanced with Energy Drain's +Def in mind, you wave off the fact that they're integral to the damage mitigation of those sets as if it were irrelevant because it doesn't reflect your myopic concept of balance, or get you what you want. No, you just focus on that one aspect, and stomp your feet and scream about how they should all be normalized because "ZOMG they're the same thing!". You disregard facts because they're obstacles to your agenda. You ignore fundamentals of game design because they don't bolster your arguments. You wave off real balance because it's not the balance you want. Oh, this is a doozy: Yeah, just slip that in and hope no-one, except the people who you imagine work for you (the development team), notices. Every time you start a thread like this, it's the same shit. Every time you jump into a beta test thread, it's the same shit. You manufacture some inane reason to change something, use the worst kind of armchair development to justify it, base it all on egoism, act like you're the guy in charge and try to talk down to everyone who has the temerity to respond to you (fucking hilarious, considering that most of your posts read like a 9 year old who's on his fifteenth mocha latte with triple espresso shots). Christ, as bad as I am at reading people, even I've caught the note of disapproval, disgust and frustration from the HC team when they've tried to explain something (and had to deal with another round of you addressing them as though they were your employees, or morons who need to your guidance to do anything right). You're making my fucking teeth itch.

All of my sentinels are scrappers with extra range. All of them. I consider it a shameful waste to stay at range if I have damage mitigation and status protection. I also like as much AoE as I can get, and the extra PBAoEs are often exactly what I need to feel satisfied with a sentinel's performance. Ninja APP's melee and PBAoE attacks recharge quickly enough to use as part of an attack chain and can be slotted with Achilles' Heel procs. Neither is mind-blowing, but they're functional and flashy. Dark APP's melee attack recharges very quickly, and the PBAoE is usable every other cycle of an attack chain. The -ToHit can help if you need some extra survivability. Elec APP's Havoc Punch is the old Havoc Punch, with KB, but it hits hard. Lightning Field is okay, I prefer not to run yet another toggle. Ice APP's melee and PBAoE attacks are decent, but their recharge times are a little too long to work into an attack chain. Fire APP is, as far as I'm concerned, a bust. Cremate's endurance cost is wrong, and Fire Sword Circle takes too long to animate. I have Psi on my Rad/Elec now, but the only thing it's bringing to the party is Link Minds... and I really don't need it for that character, I just couldn't find anything else worthwhile. I'll probably switch to another *PP (considering going back to Elec) when I revisit the character. The PPPs all have a good melee attack, albeit with a long recharge time, and Mu's is Thunder Strike (so PBAoE), but none of my sentinels need any of the other "utility" powers, or more cones, nor am I interested in pets, so I don't bother with them. If it weren't for the animation time, I'd spec into Mu more often for Thunder Strike. Playing a human peacebringer, though, and having to sit through Incandescent Strike missing, has turned me off of that animation permanently.

No. You've logged into the game with your account, entered the queue server and accessed the character database server. The chat server, the map server, the market server and a few other servers haven't loaded yet because they don't load until you log on to a shard with a character. A shard isn't a single hardware server, or a single software server, it's a collection of multiple software servers running in concert and handshaking amongst themselves and with your client, and none of that happens until you log on with a character. As I said, the entire server infrastructure would have to be redesigned to remove the requirement to be on a shard in order to load the chat server for that shard. You're in the elevator, not the office. If you want to talk to your co-workers, you have to press the button to go to the right floor, or install a phone in the elevator and rewire the comm system.

Burgle turders, the lot of ya! Man, this thread circled the bowl fast. What happened? Oh... I'm here. Right. Carry on.

Aw. Don't despair, @Snarky, someday you'll find someone who won't give you that look when they see you under the linens.

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/32-bug-reports/

Entering the character selection/creation screen doesn't log you into a shard, you're just connected to a database. The entire server infrastructure would have to be rewritten to change how accounts log in and how being logged in interacts with shards.

How would @Glacier Peak poop in your bed? OH MY GOD! @Glacier Peak breaks into peoples' houses and poops in their beds!

Did he just call us bowel movements? HEY! Did you just call us bowel movements?!

That's what the forums are for. *mashes keys* Wooooooooooooooo! I win again!

Click your name and avatar at the top bar of the forum, select My Attachments. You're probably at the limit.

The prohibition was lifted 14 months before your account was created. The thread you dredged up specifies in the second post that there's no longer a restriction.