Xaddy

That's pretty sharp. I would have never thought of that. I appreciate that tip.

You're absolutely right. The purpose wasn't to troll at all. In fact, my post highlights at least one facet distracting me from playing a character I enjoy - when at full power. Without enhancements..not so much. But that's on me. My apologies if you were offended in any way by my mindless typing. Given your name, I can see why the post troubled you.

So...you reach level 50. You do some incarnate stuff..grab some badges along the way. And yet, there's soo much left to do! But noone seems interested in grinding out ouro badges because..well, doing content without enhancements is just plain masochistic, and ultimately silly and pretty much stupid. Just for a badge or three? It's nuts. I could suffer through it solo, I suppose. Maybe make a 2nd account with some travel power support, like a kin with inertial reduction and speed boost. But there's that dirty word..."Alt". I really don't want to play alts. I want to play this character. But there's other powersets to explore. Do I limit myself to x units of time for an alt...or x units of time for the primary? Why did I think up "Wafer Thin Mint" as an alt name? I mean, what team is so full it doesn't have room for a wafer thin mint? There isn't enough time in the day to do what I want to do!

One really fun arc (for me anyway) is the one that gets you the itsy-bitsy badge from Mender Silos, which is a level 45+ arc. You have to deal with Manticore and his winning personality, but you also get to rescue a bunch of heroes - Back Alley Brawler, Mynx, Swan, Ms. Liberty, etc. So, given the time constraints, I'd solo all except the finale. For the finale, recruit - mention the badge - and set as high as you think the team can handle, which would likely be +4/8. Tackling Lord Recluse as an AV will likely give you 5 bars of xp alone. If you had the teammates, you could make a case for farming it to 50. Just pop in and kill recluse over and over. Not easy, mind you. He's no slouch. The 5 bars of xp is why I mention it. And I can't say if it was really 5 bars of XP, I just know it was a LOT more than the other AVs, and it was fun.

So far - just my ice/cold corruptor. I make it rain merits.

That's awesome! I went to look just now. "Super Unknown" literally like 5-10 feet away. This ties in loosely (sort of) with what Aaron Thierry was talking about when you meet up with him at the end of his arc - him trying to get heroes to stop being complacent, as if muggings were "beneath them". The muggings I've seen throughout Atlas and Steel. Idle heroes standing by, never seen that before. Likely would have never seen it if you hadn't pointed it out.

Thanks to you both for providing insights I had never considered, and probably never would...as I just don't think outside the box much. The bit about slotting a proc that does a certain type of damage, in contrast to the damage that my character would inherently dish out...that's really a pearl of wisdom, there. Those Paragon Protectors, and the Fake Nemesis come to mind...some psi damage would be quite useful. And I also didn't really take into account that some of these powers that will take a proc or three..don't do damage at all.. like Infrigidate on my cold corruptor. I really like how using procs in that played out for my character! I hadn't even considered picking a primary based on damage type...that could prove interesting, at least for most of the game.

I am seeing this ...well, evidence of my misunderstanding, I assume it is. I have heard/read several references to folks using various procs in Dehydrate. I just made a water/dark corruptor, and have thought about using procs. But, when I plug the values into the spreadsheet, a 3.5 proc has a 57.58% chance of firing. Here's a snip of what I'm looking at. Is it merely a risk acceptance decision to slot the proc or not?

There are others far more experienced than me - but having just gone through what you're going through, let me share what worked for me. With limited time that you have - if you only have a 1/2 hour, you have to understand that getting folks to join you may take a few minutes. Sometimes, it will be easier to join someone else, and sometimes, it's just more efficient to recruit for your own missions. At level 35, two huge XP options open for you - the MSR -which you can do at level 1, I suppose, but the xp is all you get. At 35, you get vanguard merits if you do the initial short easy arc from Levantera. Then, if you happen to be online when they're forming one, you can jump on this gravy train. The time on the mothership itself will last about 31 minutes. Supposed to be 30, but it can go over due to various bomb clicks, supposedly. The recruiting for it takes a while on some days, depending on the server you're on. So, this would be something to try for when your time available is closer to an hour. The other thing is the ITF. You'll see folks recruiting for this fairly often; it seems to be the most run TF next to maybe Yin and Apex/Tin Mage. The reason ITF is popular is the maps are large. So, folks like to "kill most". This tends to make things go longer. But - if you get on a speed ITF - you're still gaining a lot of xp - because you're primarily clobbering the generals/AVs. Some speedy teams are very, very fast. Like less than 10 minutes fast. You won't get the xp the Kill Most crowd gets (and some of those teams will finish in 45 minutes or so) but you will get more xp/minute. Speedy stuff can be fun - unless you're fragile. Fragile builds that often rely on team buffs can often be left in the background and not really have much fun. You might get tp'd to the action - and you might not. You'd still get the xp, though. All depends on the group you're with. So, in my mind - if you recruit for it - you simply dictate terms at the forefront. Share with them you have a hard stop at X time, and you want to zip through or kill through (as opposed to kill most) until the last mission, where you complete the objectives, and then stick around to clear. If you need to go, you can go, but if you have time to stay, you can stay. Your team, your rules. Most TFs can take longer to recruit for than it takes to actually complete them. I get the apprehension, because on a pug, you never know how long it can take. But, I don't think I've ever been on a yin tf that lasted longer than 25 minutes. It's almost impossible unless you have teammates that have no enhancements or they go afk more often than not. I would shy away from the Synapse and of course the Shard TFs. I would stick to trying for the weeklies because of the XP bonus, and so many folks run them speedy style, you shouldn't have any issue getting through in your allowed time. Heck, I was on this weekly's Faathim the Kind TF, and with everyone having TT (a fairly rare thing, I think), we got through it in 1 hour, 3 minutes. Not a great time for speed runners, but for a pug, not bad at all. Just having the TT saves a bunch of time. Lastly, people seem desperate for teams. They never want to recruit. No idea why this is, but it seems to be a real thing. Almost anyone recruiting for a PI team fills within a minute. You may not get the best of the best, but you'll fill the team and do fine. Just go through the Tina Mac and Maria Jenkin's content. Most have done these before and are familiar with them, which means you don't have to give much direction, if any. And it means things are generally faster.

Mind is blown. How does such a dated game come up with this stuff? Thank you very much - will try it out now!

So...I've read the rules and such, and I completely understand that we're even allowed to triple box, just so long as the shard population doesn't exceed 1500. So, here's my dilemma: while I understand that the person behind the avatars will have varying levels of skill and ability to control both or all three characters, is this acceptable for team play - like running a faathim and the team lead has 2 other accounts as part of the team? That just seems...well, wrong, I guess. Granted, nobody is putting a gun to my head to join. It just seems like this player gets 3x the rewards, while 2 of the characters are likely going to auto-spam a certain power. And I imagine navigation in a place like the shard is probably not too terrible, but likely to slow things down at some point. Is this considered okay? Like - I know there are rules, but there's also "Norms", like don't quit task forces if you can help it. This is the first time I've seen this and I just didn't feel right remaining on this team. Am I just being too judgmental/critical here?

Thank you for sharing your build. I just got 50 and slotted my alpha. I know the conventional wisdom might be for musculature, but I think...what the heck do I know..that given the description of Intuition, Radial side...it doesn't really "cure" anything, but it does give a small amount of improvement in several areas - toHit debuff, defense debuff, range, damage..and slow - as if I needed that. For me - it just fits. If I want more damage, I can chomp on a rage or three. I will play what I have for a while - at least until I get a better sense of where I might shore some areas up. While playing it, it seems as good as I could ever expect, got through a +4 ITF with no troubles at all. Of course, that's not an advanced mode...but there's time for that. I will look over your build in the morning when I'm rested. I have played too much today! Thanks again!

You know - I saw those when I hit 35. The build up was particularly interesting. I wasn't sure about the pet, but I guess it would be handy during something like the MS event, if nothing else. Thanks! So, I looked it over - and I can go with the ice mastery epic, but I have to give something up to get those powers. I thought about giving up Frostwork...because I can use the Hoarfrost to get the buff for me. But I still need to give up 2 other powers. I could cede the fight pool, but that's a fair amount of resist and defense to give up for the max hp & build up. And the pet... I think I might go with two builds one where I give up certain team buffs to grab the pet and the build up, and the other a more team friendly build. I just need about 12 more slots to make everything work! lol. Gonna have to go back to the drawing board, or maybe just stick with the build I've leveled up with, it seems to work pretty well.

I am thinking it may have something to do with some of the ouro portals that seem to get cast nearby, but I dunno. I do know that 3x in the past 48 hours, once in the Grim Vale after we clobbered Eochai and Jack in Irons, once in Echo:Dark Astoria after clobbering Adamastor, and just now after the Abandoned Sewer Trial - I'll cast the temp power, then try to use a macro (not my own sg, this character doesn't have one) and I get the message about only being able to use the macro within an sg base or near an SG portal. I check - and yep, it's now recharging as I just used it to cast the portal.

So, this is the build I have found somewhere, and have completely reworked more than a fair bit. Whomever it belonged to would likely never recognize it. I share that to explain why some powers might be take when..as I think this person probably didn't start to actually play until level 50. I've no idea how they would play it as is, without heatloss. But, since it was suggested, I still have about 40 charges of recovery serum left, so I am optimistic for those times I might exemplar. I know there are some goofs in here. From everything I read, the synergy of ice/cold comes together nicely, but tends to rely on a lot of recharge, as heat loss is the fuel for the engine. By all means, please take a peek and if you can find a way to improve the build, feel free to share that, too! The primary things that may be important to know is I love Super Speed and Combat Jumping. I honestly do not grasp how anyone can do without CJ and the incredible control it offers as one moves about a zone or mission map. For a non-damage power, it's one of my favorites so far. I'm not sold on Dark Embrace. I have thought about (and have on my current character) soul drain, with an expected attack chain of Heat Loss, Soul Drain, Sleet, Blizzard, Ice Storm. For me, Heat Loss is the opener for the -res. Anecdotally, if it's not the opener, there just aren't enough mobs around to make it worth it. Soul Drain is for the extra damage. And it just makes more sense to me to use Soul Drain after I've reduced their resistance. But, if I'm going to be on a team, it seems to make sense for me to pick the various buffs that are available. They make handy mules, too. I kind of feel bad about not dedicating more slots to those teammate buffs, but I think most players, at least in the end game, are already fairly well protected with barrier and other destiny powers going off routinely. Since Arctic Fog takes both resist sets and defensive sets, I just wasn't sure how I wanted to build the character - focus more on defense, or more on resistance. For a non-melee, I think the build is okay, but what the heck do I know? Thanks in advance for any wisdom or insights you might share. Palooza.mbd

Exchanges like this make it worth reading other posts! I have an ice/cold, so I learned a lot more than I did before I checked in to read! I very much appreciate you folks sharing what you've learned.

So, I am not really seeing what some of you are seeing. To be clear, I'm only doing one thing, but if I state it here, others may crowd in, so I won't. But, I'm making an easy 2.5-4 M not counting the opportunity cost of converters. I read the guides here, got a very lengthy, thorough market tutorial from someone who clearly has no problem giving inf away. (I told him I wanted to earn it) Forty-five minutes later, I was armed with a lot of nifty insights. The rule of the market is simple: Supply and Demand. And the issue many face is the supply may be acquired outside of the AH. 1. Drops 2. Merit Vendor 3. SG leaders leaving a fully stocked base for members 4. Recipe Rolls Of these, drops and merit vendor are likely the larger area to compete with. But, even so, there are areas where people are forking over influence just as they always have. Perhaps not as much as you might have seen a couple of years ago, but fairly consistent and stable. Just as an example: Oblit damage procs are still selling for 3m Perf Shifter +end still selling for 3m Power Transfer chance for heal, still selling for 3m The various lower level proc-type IOs...some of them have reduced a bit from the 5m to 3m. But, given the cheaper crafting costs, it's still a decent profit. The key is to recognize whether or not you'd be better off just selling your converters, or using them. I suggest using them still. I was pondering how I was going to slot and choose a power on my corruptor when I saw a message about Kronos being in Talos. So, I went. Snagged not 6, but 12 merits, and then heard Kronos was in Steel, and grabbed another 30 merits and got another 12 in Skyway, and 18 more in Striga Isle. All within maybe 30-40 minutes. That's not the best in game, but it's pretty nice - and it was fun for me. We can't sell the Monstrous Aethers, but we can convert them to Prismatics, which are getting cheaper and cheaper over time. They were 3.1 a couple of days ago, when I looked, and now are 2.7m, but that could have just been a patient buyer, throwing me off. Certainly possible. I guess what I'm saying is there is still a ton of inf being earned in all these km itfs this week. They are going to spend that loot on something, right? I've made 700m in the past 3 days just bidding, crafting, converting and selling for about 15-25 minutes in the morning, and 15-25 minutes later in the day. There are a lot of niches in the market. Just look for one. And, if the prices are really that cheap...then you don't need to market or farm anymore. The inf you earn playing a 50 should be quite enough to subsidize any upcoming alts.

So, I don't know how clever it is, but it amused me. How many times do we see in lfg chat something like "Thanks, Yin is now full!" Or, "Numina is full!" So, inspired by Monty Python, I have made a character, just today, called "Wafer Thin Mint". Unless the recruiter is named Mr. Creosote, I fully intend to ask "I'm sure you're not serious. Everyone has room for a Wafer Thin Mint".

This stuff to the right - I just can't click that arrow to see it, as the buffs that are usually in play on any given league are such that they would stretch all the way across the screen. I am a horrible buffer because even on the team window, I can't stand having that stuff all over the screen, so I never look at it. It's just too obtrusive. I do appreciate the lesson, though!

Okay, my mind is blown. Who even looks at that, other than maybe the health of their pet? Well, I'm glad I asked! Thanks!

My character is an ice/cold corruptor. I really like ice. Cold..parts of it are good, heat loss is...disappointing so far. A bit underwhelming, but it's not got more than the token slot. Anyway, while looking for build ideas, I did a search, and found folks who were looking for info, folks who were giving info. Without necro-ing a thread..is that a word? Necroing? Anyway, the post was from 2019. Some time ago. One of the folks trying to be helpful suggested Musculature over Agility because (paraphrased) Musculature will help your damage, and that of your lore pets. This doesn't make sense to me. Alpha is an extra enhancement, right? for every power that would take that enhancement. Lore pets don't have slots, other than the incarnate slot that IS the lore pet. So how can this be true? Or is the helper needing help? I'm guessing it was just a misunderstanding about alpha, but I could be the one misunderstanding. So, here I am, asking.

So..I read. A lot. Been through these forums a lot. Didn't say much until recently. But man...there's a few of you who play this game for reasons that escape me. You take no joy in the content - at least it seems that way by some of your posts. Look at this: No, nothing special about me beating a few nemesis in some random sewer mission in Bricks. But look at the bugs buzzing around the light! Someone made the effort to try and put some realism in this crazy instance of a world where reality just doesn't really apply. If I knew how to make it one of those fancy gifs where they moved...you'd see these bugs going nuts by the light, just like they do in the real world. Granted, I have to suspend a lot of disbelief when I play, but tiny details like this really help with immersion for me. It's been..20 years? since this game came out...small wonder so many folks missed this game with attention to minor details like this.

Long time player, but essentially forgotten a lot of the details. If this is the wrong place to ask this, apologies. The Auto-Doc inspiration dispenser. For some reason, I thought there was a way to rig it where it would sell large inspirations. Is this my mind playing tricks on me?

I saw Zara the Fey Blade on a Yin I hosted yesterday. It took me a moment to get the reference.

Well, either I wasn't reported, or I was deemed not-guilty. Thanks to you all, I only felt anxious for a moment or two. Then I see how silly some of you are. Makes me wonder how the pugs I get on can be so quiet. Seems like folks would be making jokes all the time the way some of you carry on. Maybe it's easier here without some AV trying to clobber you.