Apparition

Was a thing. It was an exploit that was fixed with the launch of Page Three. Workbenches are now mobile and will follow the PC, cannot be collided with, and cannot trap PCs nor NPCs.

The Issue 25+ power sets (Radiation Melee, Psy Melee, Sonic Manipulation, etc.), were never copied over to the doppleganger NPCs. So the system makes its best guess.

FWIW, Vanguard Merits were removed from AE several months ago as it was apparently considered an exploit. Prior to that, I had my own Rikti AE farm set on the asteroid map which netted me about 30 - 35 Vanguard merits per go.

1. Take down all twenty pylons. Order isn’t important, although it usually ends at Pylon 1. Some shards go clockwise, others go counter-clockwise. 2. Once all pylons are destroyed, the mothership’s shield goes down. You now have ten minutes on the clock before the mothership’s shield is restored and the league is punted to Point du Hoc (zone) / all of the Rikti retreat back inside the mothership and leave the league twiddling their collective thumbs (instanced). 3. There are eighteen bomb grates on the mothership. Destroying a grate and clicking a bomb inside will grant an additional three minutes onto the clock. (Total of thirteen minutes.). Now, here is where it gets a bit tricky. If you have fewer than 25 people on the league, destroying another grate and clicking a second bomb will spawn U’Kon Gr’ai in the middle of the bowl, adding an additional ten minutes onto the clock. If you have 25 or more people on the league, destroying another grate and clicking a second bomb will grant an additional three minutes onto the clock. (Total of sixteen minutes.). If you have 25 or more people on the league, destroying another grate and clicking a third bomb will spawn U’kon Gr’ai in the middle of the bowl, adding an additional ten minutes onto the clock. So if you have less than 25 people on the league, you only need to plant two bombs. With the spawning of U’kon Gr’ai, you have 23 minutes. If you have 25 or more people on the league, you need to plant three bombs. With the spawning of U’kon Gr’ai, you have 26 minutes. Some mothership raid leaders assign teams to individual bomb grates. I don’t bother. I have been doing this a long time - both live and Homecoming - and I know from experience that the vast majority of people don’t read instructions and will just go wherever. So instead, I ask each and every team to pick one or two people to plant a bomb, and have everyone else in the league head directly to the bowl. 4. Defeat U’kon Gr’ai. Defeating him gives you an additional five minutes of time on the clock, so you now have either 28 minutes or 31 minutes on the clock, total. 5. Have Brutes, Tankers, Scrappers, and Dwarf Kheldians go out to the rim of the mothership, and pull Rikti into the bowl. Everyone else should be huddled together in the bowl of the mothership, throwing out buffs, heals, AoE mez protection, and taking down Rikti as they come. 6. Repeatedly remind people not to bloody fight the Rikti on the rim nor on the ramps and just pull them into the bowl. 7. The raid is over. You have either been teleported to Point du Hoc (zone), or the Rikti have retreated back inside the mothership and left the league all alone in the bowl. Now you go hunt down and destroy the Rikti drop ship that spawned during the pylon phase. Holds and immobilizes on the drop ship are helpful here.

Mostly true, although -dmg is underappreciated IMO. It's unresistable and can make a big difference. Definitely this. Every time I see a level 50 Defender with only their tier one secondary power, I want to cry. Or at the very least shake my head vigorously.

There's three sides, each with six bombs available for a total of eighteen. If you time it very, very carefully, it's possible that you may get lucky and be able to plant a second bomb after the 30 minute mark, before you are teleported back to Point du Hoc (zone)/the Rikti retreat back inside the mothership (instanced).

With a full league, I've seen it go as high as 2,100 although that's rare. More along the lines of about 1,800. But that's for everyone, including pullers.

Well, seeing as I've been pinged in this thread twice now... Here's the deal. Nothing in City of Heroes is for everyone. Some people like Sentinels and blue side. I have no idea how, but they do. Not for me to question. I like Masterminds and red side. Other people dislike both and think that I'm crazy. (I am, but that's besides the point.) Some people like Hamidon raids. Some people find Hamidon raids incredibly boring. Some people like radio missions. Some people find radio missions incredibly boring. Some people like iTrials. Some people don't. Whatever. The point is that nothing is for everyone. You don't like mothership raids, and that's okie. Others do like them, including myself. I get it. Mothership raids aren't the most exciting nor challenging thing to do in the game. You know what it's for? (Or at least what I see Rikti mothership raids as being for, anyhoo.) Beating up a crap ton of aliens while relaxing with 47 of your closest friends. @Anyad and I co-lead two instanced Rikti mothership raids every Friday night. It gives us a chance to catch up with the Torchbearer shard community and get to know new people, while beating up aliens and getting some reward merits for our trouble. If I want actual challenge, there's other avenues for that in the game. When I want challenge, I go do a four person iTrial or a Relentless ASF with the Vanguard AVs fight, or do a Really Hard Way Magisterium trial. When I want to relax and spend a little time with the shard community while kicking alien butt, I do a Rikti mothership raid. What Ukase said about lag in the instanced mothership raid is correct. The instanced mothership raid has substantially less lag than a zone mothership raid, and you get more rewards as well. It sounds like the mothership raid's design is part of your issue, which is fine. Like I said, nothing is for everyone. You don't like it, you don't like it. But another part of your issue is doing a zone mothership raid instead of an instanced mothership raid, (a zone mothership raid has more lag and less ability for the mothership raid leader to deal with griefers). I'd suggest giving an instanced mothership raid on Indomitable or Torchbearer a try, or try forming one yourself on Excelsior. Like Ukase said, I used to lead instanced mothership raids on Excelsior, but I moved to Torchbearer about ten months ago.

By the by, that is an actual magazine cover. Unix User magazine from Japan, issue published in November 1996. Paragon Studios just changed “Unix” to “Enix.”

You're always better off running different missions than having two farmers in the same mission, as you'll get more INF and more drops running different missions than the same mission.

Power Boost does nothing for Cold shields nor Arctic Fog.

Yeah, the various 140p objects in the game are the most obvious dated aspect of it IMO. Although it’s fun to see what you can make out of them, like the magazine in the first post. Heh, I thought the same thing. I miss the days of receiving my monthly issues of Maximum PC and PC Gamer magazines in the mail, each with a CD-ROM enclosed.

Found on a desk in the Imperial City Trading House: I knew that Praetorians had good taste and couldn't all be using Microsoft Windows XP in 2022.

It never worked on live. You’re misremembering.

Did the event yet again. I was once again the only person in the area from start to finish. This time though, I put all of the pets on passive and mostly used temporary powers.

Well, just tried again. Once again, the event had not started prior to my arrival, and there was absolutely no one else around from start to finish. Something is definitely screwy with Masterminds and at least this zone event, although it wouldn't surprise me if all zone events are similar.

I know some will consider this heresy, but IMO Fire Blast is overrated. Is it great? Yes. Is it as great as some people make it out to be the only viable option and harp on it? Nope. IMO, Ice Blast is just as good as Fire Blast. Beam Rifle is even better for single target damage. Dual Pistols is about as good in AoE damage. Also keep in mind that the developers have recently made new content that counters all of the Fire/Fire Blasters and Energy/Fire Scrappers out there, with the Goldbrickers revamp giving them a lot of fire damage resistance. Anyway, that said. If you want this Blaster specifically for hard targets, with a lot of debuffs? If you don't mind staying in melee range, Beam Rifle/Sonic Manipulation Blaster. It's the most -res you'll get as a Blaster, with a little -regen on the side, and it's got some decent mez protection built in. Psi Blast/Sonic Manipulation Blaster would be my second choice. A lot of AVs in the game are vulnerable to Psi damage, and for those that aren't... well... that's what the -res ring of doom is for.

Definitely does not have the badge. It was the first time the character ran the event. Good to hear that it is working for others though.

On a somewhat related note... is it impossible for Masterminds to solo these zone events and get rewards? On a level ten Mastermind, I entered The Protest event area. There was absolutely no one else around and the event had not started. I ordered my pets to take out some Protestors, eventually starting the event. Took out more Protestors. Took out a bunch of Destroyers with only one car being damaged. Took out the Protest leaders. The entire time, there was not a single other person in sight. Yet, at the end, I only received the pop-up for a random TO enhancement, INF, or a random medium inspiration. No badge, no temporary power, nor a reward merit. My only guess is that the game considered I did not really participate in the event since my pets did most of the damage.

Founders’ Falls is, (or at least was, not sure if it was fixed), very similar. If you are Rogue, it will show a connection to St. Martial instead of Eden.

I keep that power tray vertical on the right hand side of my screen. In addition to the three standard Mastermind macros - /macro AD "petcom_all Attack Defensive" /macro FD "petcom_all Follow Defensive" /macro GA "petcom_all GoTo Aggressive" /macro GD "petcom_all GoTo Defensive" /macro SA "petcom_all Stay Aggressive" /macro SD "petcom_all Stay Defensive" /macro Bye "petcom_all Dismiss" The ones you'll use most are AD, FD, and the Heel macros. If you want to pull, use GA to send your pets somewhere, wait a few seconds and let them aggro everything in the area, and then use Heel to bring your pets and the mobs back to you. When your pets come back to you, use AD. GD can do the same thing as GA, just not as well IMO. SA is great for mothership raids. Park your pets in the mothership bowl, use SA, and let them go to town on Rikti. There's so many buffs flying all over that bodyguard mode isn't really needed.

I think that to myself when I read about half the posts on the forums.

FWIW, IIRC the developers are itching to kill the Farsight + Power Boost combination with fire at some point, so I wouldn't make that the sole decision to go with Mace Mastery although Scorpion Shield is very worthwhile. Also, I forgot to mention and it hasn't been brought up yet: If you go Robots, you probably want to slot the tier one and tier three pets with KB to KD IO enhancements, unless you like seeing your Robots blast mobs out of your fire patches.

Yeah, Assault is what I meant by “barely functional.” It’s annoying and requires frequently dismissing and resummoning pets. Meanwhile, the Melee Hybrids don’t work on pets at all as far as I could tell.