Chris24601

Theoretically, they should have both powers. I’ve been meaning to post over on the Low-Hanging Fruit thread, that it’d be relatively straightforward to create several sets (armor, blast, melee, assault, manipulation, control) based on the PB/WS sets so you could mix and match them with other sets to specifically create heroes who had merged with a Kheld, provide another option for human-only Khelds to build (Kheld blaster, Kheld tank, Etc.), and let players refluff the abilities as desired (such as the Praetorian character who uses PB blasts that come from their power armor). That said, not the right approach to Statesman returning IMHO. I’m in the either “leave him dead or if he returns make it mean something” camp; heavily slanted to “leave him dead” just because it was pretty clear in his death scene that he was a tired old man who’d never quite gotten over the death of his wife and was only pushing on out of a sense of duty. All he needed was the assurance that the world wouldn’t end without him and he died with a smile on his face. Knowing that there’s a genuine afterlife in the CoH universe so he’s with his wife and daughter (who was canonically 72 when she died) would actually make yanking him out of Heaven rather cruel actually. So if they were to bring him back you’d almost need it to be due to a villain resurrecting him in some scheme where he’s under their control and where States can’t be killed again (which is what he’d probably want) so the only remaining option to stopping the villain is to break their control and get mopey immortal States back. I’m going to propose an even more radical answer to the Ms. Liberty issue though. Since CoH has always used real dates for historical events, most of the Freedom Phalanx is actually getting into Star Trek V territory and the members of the Vindicators “junior team” are in their late 30s at the youngest. While some, like Numina, Citadel and Ms. Liberty, have functional immortality for one reason or another, Back Alley Brawler is 60, Position is 58, Synapse is 54 and Manticore is 52 as of 2020. Likewise, Mynx is 38. Penelope is the youngest; 18-19 in the Faultline arc and joins the Phalanx five years later in 2012 so 31-32. My suggestion is that we should have even more changes made to the trainers/TF contacts; in some cases even swapping the TF giver with the trainer to reflect the former sidekick becoming a main hero and the Phalanx member stepping back into a Mentor role. In some cases it might make sense to outright replace the hero entirely (or at least give them a visual update). For example; Manticore should either be decked out in a powered exoskeleton to compensate for all the beatings he’s taken like Batman in The Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come or he should be made the trainer a la a Batman Beyond-style badass mentor too beat up to keep fighting himself, but passing along his wisdom to the next generation). In point of fact, pushing the “I’m too old for this” aspect would actually make a lot of the TFs more plausible. The older Phalanx members are symbols and have scores of contacts that help them coordinate responses to threats the city faces; but they’re getting too old to be anything but a liability in the field, which is why they’re relying on the players to save the day. Perhaps that might be something to look at when (hopefully) the HC team eventually gets around to cleaning up the other TFs the way Posi and Yin were. Hey! Back Alley Brawler plays a VERY useful role in Atlas. He’s right next to Aaron Thiery and so is the ideal trainer to hit after finishing the middle arc of the Atlas Park mission chain. Between endurance issues and TOs not mattering much I often skip leveling in Atlas once I get my level 4 power just because I don’t wanna run all the way back to Ms. Liberty each time when the mission chain is designed to pretty smoothly move you from one mission/contact to the next with minimal backtracking. But popping around the corner to BABs after you get Theiry as your third contact and you’ve got 2-4 level-ups stacked on you is super convenient. If anything, BABs not only needs to stay where he is, he needs a vendor by him just because I routinely hit level 7 about then and that’s a good time to slot some acc TOs to make up for the slow reduction of your base to-hit number you’re starting to feel if you haven’t started slotting them by then.

Huh, I didn’t realize it was a problem. I figured if my old Win 7 machine ran it smooth as butter on the default Ultra settings, then anyone could.

I’d be more inclined to agree with that if the non-Oroboros contact system wasn’t a complete hash dropping out of order contacts on you with only the initial pop-up giving you any clue as to when they’re supposed to occur. There’s also no clear on-ramp for the non-promoted content unless you’re actually familiar with the system and the find contact button (which isn’t even highlighted on the contacts tab) is littered with out of sequence contacts (particularly the ones in First/Night Ward) based solely on your level. Frankly, the entire contact system needs to be cleaned up. I’ve got some thoughts, but I’ll save it for another thread once I’ve cleaned them up a bit. As it stands though the only way to ensure sequential arcs is via level range. The Council upgrades happen during and post New Praetorians, so for sequence sake, shouldn’t appear before level 35. Malta doesn’t recruit Battle Maiden until Dark Astoria (incarnate content) so their upgrades need to happen in that range too. In general, my upgrade concepts are intended to be “incarnate upgrades” that result from the incarnate arms race. My other line of thinking is that Kallisti Wharf is way too gorgeous a zone to just be devoid of content except for one TF and tip missions. Making it the home base for these upgraded groups and stories related to them would give it some much needed content. As such, the updated groups should be in that zones level range of 40-50 (though I suspect it was originally intended to be another 50 only zone like Dark Astoria). On a related note; Dark Astoria already did a pretty good job incarnating the magic threats; Tsoo and Banished Pantheon both got specific 50+ mobs; and the Circle of Thorns already had 50+ mobs and had a recent (relative to shutdown) visual upgrade as well. So with that in mind, my primary focus for upgrading would be on the “tech” factions, many of whom look quite dated and, well, frumpy. Malta is supposed to be THE black-ops anti-meta force in the world; but they’re decked out in ordinary looking fatigues and mostly armed with slug-throwers. Crey’s power armor also looks extremely dated relative to newer models. The Freakshow are meant to have an anachronistic 80s-90s punk theme, but there have to have been more modern offshoots (which is the idea behind my Neo-Freakshow concept). So the idea behind my upgrades is that Kallisti Wharf would be to Tech what Dark Astoria was to magic. The Neo-Freakshow are making a statement as the future of man/machine fusion. Crey’s offices there are showing off the latest iterations of their power armor suits. The Council and Malta are testing their latest upgrades against the heroes there; etc.

I'll get some as soon as I'm happy with the final looks. Deal? My thinking is these would be things that strictly show up post-50. Earlier arcs wouldn't be touched if I were in charge of implementing them. I've always liked the original idea that progressing through the zones/levels was progressing through time as well, so Atlas was issue 1, Kings Row is issue 2, etc. I honestly think how they set up the SSA's and then pulled States and Sister Psyche from the game was the wrong way to go. Setting several of the arcs that were clearly post-Praetoria in levels as low as 35 also just plays havoc with the clear timeline the game once had. Phasing tech could have kept the events out of sight in Bricks before the arc occurs, but it really needed to be AFTER the i-Trials. It's too late to fix what the original devs put wrong (given the mandate to cash grab you see in a lot of the late content; some of those story arcs are practically commercials for the newer power sets and costumes you could only get with Paragon Points; I suspect got in the way of the usual protocols; you can sell SSA's available at level 20 a lot easier than if they're only available if you have a level 50), but that doesn't mean we have to compound the error. So yeah, I'm thinking exclusively post-50 and also with an eye to their native stomping ground being Kallisti Wharf; so definitely leaning on the later costume pieces and the like to match the general quality you see in that zone.

See, and I love my Archery/Tac Arrow Blaster (though I admittedly skipped Rain of Arrows). I found that Tac Arrow’s electro-net (energy damage and VERY short recharge), toxic glue (toxic damage) and ice arrow (cold damage), coupled with Archery’s fire (fire damage) and explosive (smashing damage) arrows gives it a fantastic mix of energy types to deal with things with high lethal resist. Of particular note, two of the biggest offenders; ghosts and robots; are usually weak to energy so I just spam them with electro-nets (I slot mine with damage IO set instead of immobilize) with their 1s cast and 1s recharge (popping a fire, ice or sniper shot into gaps as they come up) and watch them melt. ESD and explosive arrows are also good against robots (ESD for the bonus damage, explosive because most bots aren’t resistant to smashing damage). Also of note, the ESD arrow + the Ice Arrow can lock down anything short of an AV and give you time to double stack your ice arrow to keep them that way. I think it’s easily my favorite blaster of any I’ve ever rolled. Fast firing, very low End use (only needed the base stamina slot + base effect of the +rec secondary to have zero End worries) and with exceptional control as a secondary. It’s bonus to-hit from the secondary also augments the fast damage of the archery snipe (it was very easy with tactics and the kismet to-hit IO to reach the damage buff cap) which I’ve got on a 5s recharge. Even with high resistance to lethal it just drills through things. Sorry your A/TA blaster didn’t work out for you. Not every build is for everyone.

I’ve got a level 36 Praetorian who used the door in Underground Imperial to reach First Ward and from there went into Night Ward. My plan is to utterly exhaust the content there before finally exiting to Primal Earth as close to 50 as I can get so I can then do the Instant Army and Hero’s Epic (i.e. more Praetoria). If necessary, I’ll do the New Praetorians arcs pre-50, but if I can hit 50 without them I’ll delay those so I can run them in sequence after the Trials and Belladonna arc. Lastly, I plan to close that character out with the Praetoria’s Last Gasp arc with the notion that they will remain at Last Bastion rather than return to Primal Earth because Praetoria is their home and they intend to fight for it.

I’ve actually been messing around with enemy group designs in AE based on the last lore developments from issues 23 and 24 and, in general coming up with ideas/looks for “incarnated” enemy groups that could be built using existing assets. * * * * The Tsoo, Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon have already been upgraded so they’re good to go. Devouring Earth can upgrade by having the two Hami’s merge into a pandimensional Hami. * * * * Per the lore the Council teamed up with Scott’s UPA group which netted them Warworks and IDF tech. In addition Arneson from Praetoria (who was working on a detox/cure for the Destroyers) is going to reverse engineer Neuron’s super-power serum (that Marauder used in the Lambda trial) to improve their super-soldiers. While the conclusion of the New Praetorians arcs suggests that the Warworks/IDF tech were all lost, they don’t HAVE to be and, frankly, I think adding more visual distance between the Council and 5th Column would do them some good. Again, per the lore, at least Requiem (war wolves) and Vandal/Burkholdler (Mek-men) have gone back to the 5th Column. Add Noferatu (Parasites) to that crew and the 5th Column aesthetic becomes a solid 50’s B-movie theme (space nazis, vampires, werewolves and almost cartoonish robot designs). So with that in mind I created the “Nova Cor Leonis” as the next step up from the current Council troops that take the IDF look, but oversized (per normal for Council super-soldiers) and using the Council’s color schemes. Drop the parasites, war wolves and Vandal’s Mek designs entirely from the Council and replace the Mek-men with clockwork/warworks units, the hover bots with IDF orbs and the Galaxy troops for outright Nictus dwarves and novas. Then add a sleeker Ascendant design. * * * * For Malta, I’ve built a higher-tech uniform (starting with Director-11’s look) for the troops and replaced the slug-throwers with beam weapons for the minions (I use the bots mastermind beam rifle since its a little more restrained) and dual pistols for the gunslingers (and mention nanotech homing ammo for why the ammo arcs in flight). Leave the Titans as-is (nanotech upgrades are more internal for them). I wish I could give the sapper’s attacks to a new mob, but as is they’re left with the old frumpy look compared to their sleaker buddies. * * * * I’ve also been toying with “Neo-Freakshow” (based on the Cybertech set mixed with some Cyborg and Resistance bits) and upgraded Sky Raiders (the folding Shrike wings started that concept). The whole exercise is basically a proof of concept test for new “incarnate” threats (albeit limited by AR mechanics to level 54). We’ll see how it goes.

Dibs on "Nude Scrapper" for my next blaster build. 😃

I'd pencil those in right after my preference for story arcs and enemy groups to be added to Kallisti Wharf which is far too gorgeous to be so criminally underused. We know the doors there function because you can use tip missions in zone so its mainly a matter of finding the right story and the right outdoor mobs to fill it in. Ideally I'd like to see both blue and red side arcs for Kallisti Wharf as it appears like its been laid out with a hero (bright and shiny) and villain (more industrial and run down) side to it already with the big tower and Statesman statue as neutral ground in the middle. Maybe something like the Peacebringer/Warshade arcs that started as separate stories then merged into a single arc for both. I also don't think it needs to specifically follow the path that the original devs had laid out either (though it should flow from what's been set up obviously). I don't need an ever-scaling cosmic crisis where Well < Battalion < Dimensionless < Whatever the heck it was they were talking about as bigger than the Dimensionless was requires ever greater power creep. Frankly, I think the Oncoming Storm would be better addressed not as a single big bad, but as a whole series of crises that pop out in close proximity to overwhelm the system. A not quite so epic Battalion would be one faction of that, but all the groups the i23-24 personal story missions showing off how various factions were getting incarnate upgrades leading to a "Perfect Storm" seems like something that would be more on scale to what our current dev team could tackle.

Or, if there is a change, it would be a good one. For me, it’s the focus on both future-proofing (64-bit client is HUGE in this regard) and backend code cleanup/documentation (making all future work easier) that is why I chose Homecoming over any of the other server groups. Those aren’t the things you do if you’re just trying to bask in nostalgia while you still can. That’s the actions of a team focused on the long haul.

Word to this. I played a PUG Tinpex at base difficulty on my just alpha-slotted scrapper the other day. We had no support classes and my scrapper faceplanted more in just one of those two TFs than I did in my entire solo run to 50 (including soloing all six of the TFs for the Task Force Commander badge while in their level bands). The supposedly invincible all damage approach ran into a wall so hard we had to actually stop and regroup after a couple of TPKs. Frankly, I think the people asking for “hard mode” are playing in such rarified air they can’t even see what the general playerbase looks like. I’m betting they have a multi-billion INF, fully T4’d incarnated builds and think everyone else plays that way... when 95+% of the player base is running on uncommon/rare IO sets and haven’t gotten their destiny and lore slots unlocked yet. The difficulty is plenty hard enough already for the vast majority of the playerbase and the ones complaining would be complaining about the difficulty being too low even if the baseline were pushed past the point the majority of the players couldn’t even try to participate. The OP says they can’t find enough people to team with interested in their version of hard mode and presume it’s because people don’t want a challenge instead of realizing that the current levels of difficulty are STILL a challenge to most players. OP. You ARE the elite. The reason you can’t find enough people at your level is because there just aren’t enough players AT your level. You are Blue Steel, my friend. The difficulty you want everyone to shoulder would crush them.

For me it’s as simple as “I am constitutionally incapable of playing evil.” Not just here; in any game. I’ve never seen the villainous endings of video games I own outside of YouTube videos. I couldn’t even take the vigilante option in the new HC vigilante-only arc (which I used Null to try out because the Vigilante tip missions require too many moral compromises for me to actually manage 10 tips plus a morality mission to do it organically). I stealthed through most of it and, when given the option, ultimately arrested the guy for the lesser offense rather than killed him. I tried a Chaotic Neutral PC in a D&D game once. By the third session the GM declared them Chaotic Good. The first villain I rolled in CoV was an undercover hero from the future trying to stop a horrible event from happening and needed to play the villain. I picked only missions that seemed to have other villains as targets. I deliberately failed certain missions. For the mission to stop Amanda Vines broadcast I just zoned in and door sat until the timer ran out. I was basically playing like the lightest-grey rogue, before the Rogue alignment was even a thing. But by the 30s the content was getting darker and harder to avoid the moral event horizon. So when the final Kelly Uqua mission allowed me to deliberately fail it and thereby allow reveal the secret Rikti plot, I decided THAT was the event my Redside character had been sent back to stop and benched them immediately thereafter at level 38. Then I re-rolled the character blueside as they started their life over as a hero in the light of day. When the alignment system was put into place, the first thing I did was run that benched character through it so they could be a hero using their original AT. Years ago I learned I was someone who, without thinking, ran towards real life danger just because I saw a stranger in need of help. I am literally not wired to enjoy even pretending to be a bad guy. That’s why I don’t play redside.

Its considered a little below the Street Justice and such level in performance, but Kinetic Melee, particularly with the effects set to the darker shades of "light" (i.e. light customization then pick the darkest red or blue you can) makes for a good soft martial arts style like Tai Chi (which I believe some of its animations were based on actually).

Mr. Rogers was a Scrapper.

So, I like my toons to fit the setting lore and my latest one led me down the rabbit hole of the canon timeline. The use of real dates was fine in 2004 and still passable in 2012 when the game shut down, but in 2020? Let me present a few examples; Manticore was born in 1968 so he was 36 in 2004, 44 in 2012 and 52 in 2020. Mynx was born in 1982 and 22 at the game launch (right age for college student turned new superhero), but would be 30 by 2012 and 38 in 2020. Back Alley Brawler’s heyday in the eighties was 30-40 years ago, putting him (a natural orgin hero) at least in his late 50s, but possibly into his 70s today. Now for some heroes it doesn’t matter as much... Ms. Liberty is probably as ageless as her mom (who was 72 when she died in the SSA) so, apart from her fashion choices despite now being in her 40s (maybe even 50s... her mom was in her 20s during the 1960s) it’s fine that she still only looks 20-something. Anyway, what I’m getting at is that City of Heroes is now getting old enough that, unless you want Star Trek V or the later Star Wars EU (“70 is the new 30” was actually said by one of the authors when asked why Han Solo could still be running around like a young man despite being in his 70s by that point)... then the game should probably start implementing the concept of “comic book time” as applied by DC and Marvel. In other words, remove specific dates unless absolutely necessary (or the subject is functionally immortal) and replace them with X years ago. The other alternative; and possibly a way to make Homecoming stand apart from the game as it appeared live; would be to let the march of years progress in future story content. Manticore passes his mantle to an apprentice or pre-Sister Psyche illegitimate child (fitting for a Batman/Green Arrow expy mashup). Back Alley Brawler retires entirely (while the super serum Marauder used extended his lifespan). Ms. Liberty steps up as a senior hero along with other members of the Vindicators becoming members of the Freedom Phalanx as older members retire. Comic Book Time would probably be easier to implement.

I was thinking as another ATO set. Call it “Long Arm” (of the law) and have its sixth slot include a significant enough global range increase to bump a melee AT’s reach say 25%. The reason I say it needs to be an ATO set (or four sets; for scrappers, tanks, brutes and stalkers) is because that way the range increases can be significant enough to matter for melee attacks (even a 40’ one would only go to 50’), but wouldn’t be slottable on ranged classes (where 80’ becomes 100’ and a snipe goes insane).

You know, forget 40 feet; I’d pay good influence for something that would up my scrapper’s reach just a couple feet (or expand that silly 50 degree melee arc on that might as well be a single-target attack for all the targets it ever hits, but has the END cost of an AoE).

Honestly, my biggest influence on hero creation is probably "Sky High." My first hero on live was the grandson and third in a legacy of superheroes based on an old tabletop RPG character I ran. Most of my later toons similarly followed the pattern of "Young hero comes into their own." It just feels tailor made for the 1-50 journey. I'm also particularly fond of using in-universe lore for concepts. I hooked off the Nictus having been in ancient Egypt to write a PB hero whose past host was mistaken by the ancient Egyptians for the god Ra. Come Homecoming and the nebulous "seven year gap" gave me some other fun opportunities. Given his Batman/Green Arrow pastiche nature, it seemed obvious that my Archery/Tac Arrow Blaster should be one of Manticore's (pre-Sister Psyche) many illegitimate kids (think Connor Hawke or Damien Wayne). Those extra eight years mean an unknown love child from a one-night stand just before the Rikti War could be 18 by now. Given Manticore's penchant for calling your PC "kid" or similar diminutives and questioning your accomplishments/decisions in the missions where he turns up (or in the Shining Stars that you're the only one he's vetted enough to trust), it feels just like you'd expect the relationship with an estranged illegitimate kid following in his footsteps to feel. So yeah... "Sky High" is probably my biggest influence on character concepts.

Speaking as what I guess would be the "casual merit earner" category (I don't power level, I just run whatever contact and tip missions interest me, mostly solo because I like to stop and read), as soon as I learned the "sell converters bought with merits on the auction house" trick, I've never particularly felt underfunded. I've never had more than about 10-20 million or so at any one time (typically after a long big aware arc), but that's usually enough to buy the next set of attuned enhancments I need for my next level. You don't even need to worry that much about purple IO sets until you actually ding 50. If you're mostly soloing through stories, about a third of that climb to 50 is in level 40+ range where the inf rate and common recipe vendor sale prices start ramping up and longer story arcs start dropping 40+ merits at a time leading to big inf infusions you probably don't need all of to fill your one or three slots when you level up. Thunderstrikes and Crushing Impacts (my go tos for ranged and melee attacks respectively for their good range of set bonuses) just don't cost that much. ATOs are maybe 10 million each, but that's basically what you'd get from a decent length story arc or merit reward after a periodic morality mission. The point is, as a casual, my usual experience is that I can mostly slot my 1-3 slots per level with whatever I want as soon as earn them just from merit to converter to auction house sales. How much more wealth do you NEED than that?

Good Lord, now I want a “Justice for Russel” arc where heroes help him get justice against Blue Steel (seriously, who beats a 13-14 year old homeless boy into a sack of broken bones and gets to keep their badge... or not go to prison for that matter?) and apparently Posi and Synapse for basically taking the brain of a homeless kid that wasn’t even confirmed dead yet so they could study it. And there’s at least three different groups that have cloning capabilities and not one of these so-called heroes ever thought “hmm... maybe we should grow this poor kid a clone body to replace the one Blue Steel beat to death so he doesn’t have to go through life as a brain in a jar?” This has actually succeeded in replacing the walking war crime that is Longbow flamethrower troops as my top pet peeve directed towards so-called heroes (for which I almost hold MISS Liberty more responsible than her daughter; it may have been Ms. Liberty’s idea, but Alexis was the one in charge of Freedom Corps and approved the Longbow division... don’t let your kid play with flamethrowers Alexis, that’s bad parenting).

I always took the Max missions to be an “enemy mine” team up situation. And, with the exception of the guy in PPD custody (which I always skip), it’s not like you’re not also putting a stop to Arachnos and 5th Column plots to obtain incarnate power by rescuing the Malta operatives from those villain groups. Freeing two non-incarnate Malta agents from the clutches of two of the worst villain groups around (one a literal group of Nazis bent on world domination) seems like a more than fair trade for stopping two major threats before they began AND securing aid to stop a third villain group from hastening the end of the world. It’s basically akin to letting a couple of low-level criminal types off because they and their buddy helped you stop the plans of three terror cells. That’s a deal I could sleep soundly making. Plus, it’s not like you can’t just go back to smashing Malta after Mot is dealt with. Just save the World Wide Red arc for after you run Dark Astoria and imagine the guys you rescued from Arachnos and the 5th Column to be among the nameless gunslingers and operatives you take down in that arc (heck, them trying to up their game via the Kronos Titan fits right into the lore of them seeking an edge vs. incarnate heroes and villains).

My thought on removing the geographic restrictions is that, once our devs have finished all their backend projects (i.e. 64-bit client, code clean-up, etc.) and start focusing on new content in earnest, adding hero contacts to the Isles and villain contacts in Paragon would be a good way to essentially add “new zones” to the game (in the sense of having varied playthroughs for different toons). One interesting way this could be explored might be interlocking stories. This is the approach that SWTOR used for it’s worlds/zones; the vibrations disrupting the droids in one side’s mission turn out to be from a device that’s the McGuffin of another side’s mission. The Imp-side bounty hunter’s final mission results in the assassination or resignation of the Republic’s chancellor and nearly all the Pub-side conclusions involve dealing with the chancellor’s successor in one way or another. So my thinking would be to create faction missions that either set-up or follow the existing missions of certain contacts. The villain player is the one who stole the McGuffin for the villain group that has it in a hero arc (ex. make an arc out of exploiting the chaos in Galaxy City to steal the artifacts Habashy is trying to recover from the Hellions in Atlas Park). A hero arc sets out to put right what a villain contact set wrong (ex. make a Mercy Island hero arc out of recapturing as many of the villains Arcachnos broke out of the Zigg in their original tutorial mission as possible). Even better would be, if specific mission doors can be set, you could specifically direct opposing faction players in the “new” zones towards less explored/traveled regions of the zones; almost as if they’re skulking about in the background of the zone’s original factions (anywhere in Skyway for example... he says only half-kidding). Another potential location to do this too would be pre-Incarnate War Praetoria. Dark Watcher, Longbow and Dr. Science are already working in secret there as early as the Neutropolis content and Arachnos is probing there as well. So, how about two level 14-20 story arcs that involves your character helping to create that beachhead for their respective side (before being sent to First Ward to look for allies there... where the normal FW/NW content plays out as normal)? Blue-side you could even spin that out of the early Praetorian incursions from the Shining Stars arcs... including Dr. Science using Photon’s confiscated portal as the means level 14-20 characters can reach Praetoria.

Re-quoted for truth. It's also ridiculously low END cost so you don't even need slots in Stamina or the secondary that grants bonus recovery so you can basically just fire off whatever is up at the moment. There's a LITTLE strategy in terms of when to use your snipe (if you can use it as a finisher and another mob is nearby it'll buff your other attacks to beyond normal mob perception range for ten seconds making it super easy to pull single mobs from your next targeted spawn without aggroing the rest).

I’m a bit of an introvert so I’m fine with my own little base made up to be an outpost hidden on a Shadow Shard Island run by “The Young Midnighters.” People are welcome to visit (Everlasting shard; passcode Shadow-10242; all the functional features), but having a place mostly to myself is nice for little old introverted me.

The one place I’ve found hoarding useful is inspirations. I always snag the Inner Inspiration power from P2W and just bank any large inspirations I get on the way up. Then when I want to solo a TF AV I grab some larges and go to town (so far I haven’t needed an envenomed dagger, but I’ve only soloed Posi1-2, Synapse and Yin).