ZemX

You know I was just thinking that it had been a while since my Rogue had any trouble on a blue team. Why I'd even gone to Ouro on several occasions without being summarily booted from the team I was on. But Karma was listening and a few days ago I was in a decent team, I forget what we were doing exactly but the next mission was a "Board Transit" and the team lead decided to go to Ouro for it. I don't know if that's what caused the problem but for some reason she couldn't set the mission. We'd been running in blue zones just fine up till then. She finally asked if anyone was redside and I fessed up. "Can you switch to blue?" I did the only (dis)honorable thing: Thanked the team for the missions and left. It was late anyway, but I still wouldn't have considered side switching just for that. For badges maybe... but not for one team. I have standards! 😈

Yeah, the permadeath thing might not be the best idea considering the level of time and effort investment you have to put in. Other challenges where you're allowed to level more quickly or have more perks it makes more sense. Maybe come up with another "Death" penalty? I would think resetting the mission at the very least. You got sent to the hospital. You can't just rush back in and pick up where you left off. If that's not enough, perhaps log the character off in a hospital for a few hours or a day for "recovery time".

This. I'm not saying overcast is always bad. I'm saying it's bad when it's.... always.

Worst I usually run across is someone wanting to run Posi 1 at +anything. +2/3 CoT bosses with force fields and friends that debuff your toHit will make you cry. They are bad enough at +0/1 at level 15.

I'm not sure when/if I'll finish leveling the Ice/Rad Stalker since I've brought the Ice/Shield over from Everlasting now and given her an SO alt build. But maybe I will off and on just to see how the run from 35 to 50 is on SOs. I still think the Ice/Rad is probably going to end up more fun to play on SOs just because of the added healing and recovery. And because Shield is a whole lot less impressive when you can't reach the soft-cap for defense.

This goes along with the usual mistake people make of thinking what they see on the forums is representative of the playerbase as a whole. It's not. As far the +4/x8 thing goes, it's common exactly where you'd expect it to be common: If you join a kill-most ITF or a PI radio team, it's usually 50+4/x8. The occasional Dark Astoria team seems to be there as well since it's now an Incarnate zone and lots of people running around there are already at +3 level shift. TinPex, iTrials, etc. Regular mission teams and lower level TFs/radios/tips seem to adjust based on how the team is doing and team leads will often solicit "how we doing?" opinions on bumping the diff up or down. You can certainly run into thick-headed team leads who insist it's +4/x8 or bust... even when people are dropping like flies... but the thing to do there is leave them to it.

It really hasn't been an issue. Rad Infection is 0.52 per second unenhanced and for that you're hitting them with -31.25% tohit and defense. You have less need of it for the tohit part thanks to the debuffs in your Dark attacks, but it would make your attacks hit more often, which might be worth it. And coupled with Dark attacks, you might feel like you're soft-capped. It feels that way already when I take one small purple with Rad Infection running, even on a +1 LT. It almost is against an even minion: -31.25% tohit and 12.5% defense. And that's unenhanced. Not that I'm holding my breath for a ToHit Debuff enhancer to drop. I don't run low on end at all unless it's a +1LT hitting me more often and making me use Rad Aura to stay in the fight. Even then I usually don't run low enough to be in danger of detoggling. The bank in Atlas Mayhem got me close because the PPD were continuously ambushing me as soon as the vault was breached. Basically, I don't waste end on misses. I rarely see less than 95% chance to hit between RI and def debuffs in Nut Bolt and X-Ray. Also, those are pretty light attacks to begin with. But coming from playing Stalkers mostly... boy does it seem like forever to chew through a LT. Will be better when I can start with Proton Volley, I suppose. I chose an Ice/Rad Stalker to team up with Flea initially for that reason on the SO challenge. Gamma Boost at level 4 is essentially Stamina when you're healthy and Health when you're not. So yeah, in lieu of not getting endmods to slot, it's the next best thing maybe. I've tried a Staff/Nin Scrapper for a bit outside of challenges and it's nice. Staff has the endurance discount mode and Ninjitsu on Scrappers has the +end clicky. I would lean to Katana here for the def debuffs though, again, to combat lack of good acc slotting. Haven't done bio yet. As Flea points out, Staff and Bio on a Scrapper or Tank would be bonkers from a mode switching standpoint. Only thing is, it doesn't tick my accuracy check box. I'd still be reliant on good acc slotting whereas Katana gets 1.05x accuracy inherent and deals stacking def debuffs. I'd be tempted to try Kat/Bio or Kat/Rad but neither grants melee/lethal defense to stack with Divine Avalanche. It would still help since Bio gets a mix of res/def and layered defense is pretty robust. I'm curious to try it, but on a challenge like this, thinking it's better to go with the devils I know.

I've only made it to 9. Slowing down some. Level 8 was a kick in the teeth. Had a full tray of useless enhancements and then some. I MAY have gotten one useful DO the entire level. And only maybe two others were tech DOs but they were stuff I can't use now like hold duration or resist damage. It's clear this would never work even close to well enough without making enhancement drops at least match the origin of the player getting them OR by ensuring a consistent pool of origin types from each enemy type. I got a whole string of mutation/magic and mutation/science DOs from longbow. I wondered if running an arc that was mad science related had anything to do with it or if that was just coincidence. Took a chance running Atlas Park Mayhem at 9. Even trying to be careful about ambushes I still got several at a time and needed to eat insps to stay alive. Fortunately, Rad Infection + a small purple is pretty good protection. If I don't get stunned. Thinking you made the better choice with Dark Blast, but I still would have gone with Rad Infection for the -def. AM is nice when it's up, but with that slotting and unslotted Hasten it's up, what.. half of the time? Maybe I'll take a break and try a Rad/Rad corruptor Goldside for comparison. On the other hand... a Kat/Ninjitsu Scrapper could be pretty good poorly enhanced. Light/fast attacks with -def like Rad Blast. +def attack that is stackable early on. +end clicky in the secondary. Minor stealth... hmmm. Might be more interesting territory to run over since you're already doing a defender.

I have been on Everlasting since March and Excelsior for about a week. Excelsior seems more active redside to me just going by global chat but I haven't spent a lot of time outside Mercy yet there.

This. There is only so much control you can expect to be able to have over a random pick-up group. If that kind of chaos is not one's bread and butter... look for regulars.

Wish I'd seen this before hopping in game just now, but I tried it anyway on an alternate build and yeah, even with Hide + Stealth + SS = 240ft stealth radius, the level 50 Rikti Drone still saw my Level 50 Stalker and took a shot at me. I also picked up a power analyzer. The Drone had a Perception Radius of just 35ft, meaning yeah, it ignores stealth. It doesn't see through it with perception. I thought that was the case but it's nice to confirm it. Thanks for posting the vid again.

I've not bothered with stacking Stealth on Hide myself. It used to be more of a PvP only thing and I've read plenty of conflicting reports that does or doesn't help with Rikti Drones. Either way, they are a minor nuisance not worth an entire power choice unless you have some other reason to take Concealment pool. Stealth does provide a small defense buff like Combat Jumping does.

Fair point. I should have said faster.. not fast. Getting 1-7 in an hour or so probably already seems "fast" by comparison to where you're at now.

Either that or sticking to a particular origin per enemy type would be better than truly random. With such a large pool of origins enhancements, making them random across the whole pool just effectively means reducing the rate of usable enhancements greatly. At least if they were locked to the enemy type you could try to steer yourself towards those arcs or, worst case, spend some time street sweeping for enhancements. Often blueside you are given a choice of contacts to be introduced to next that mentions the enemy type right there in the choice window, so it would help. It's all irrelevant now, of course with abundant means of getting exactly what you need... when you're not doing crazy challenges anyway. 😘

I wish I remembered how this worked way back in the day. I don't remember if drops were 100% locked to a particular origin or just more likely to lean that way. What I do remember is using TOs at this level. They were nearly pointless to use even back then but we did anyway because who wants empty slots? Now that they aren't available, we're trying to do something the game never originally intended: Slotting DOs in levels 1-10. If I were to try to fill the remaining slots in my level 7 pic up there with purchased DOs it would cost me almost double what I currently have in inf. Then again, leveling is fast down here. As we go up, the number of enemies defeated per level goes up dramatically. So there should be more drops to fill available slots... hopefully.

I know I am. If things still look dire by 9, I will probably stop XP there and start street sweeping enemies that should drop tech DOs.

Speaking of gimped.... I am not doing any better (a little poorer actually) than @Ukase with my own drop challenger, Annie Proton, a rad/rad Defender currently at level 7. But I like the VG I registered for her, "A Drop of Hell" 🤪

Yeah, I didn't get that one either. Stalkers don't really have a distinct playstyle from Scrappers. Most of the time, they both just... scrap. What's different about them has little to do with playstyle outside of occasionally doing the melee snipe from Hide as your first attack. Aside from that, it's generally true that Stalkers do better single-target damage and Scrappers do better area damage, but even then there are exceptions.

In which case the link I posted isn't accurate because it suggests primal clockworks only drop science and science/mutation. It's probably badly out of date. I wonder if what it has to say about Praetoria is true though because it suggests all zone enemies drop the player's origin enhancements. They're not the only enemies that do, but if it's true it might be interesting to see how much easier it is to keep up with enhancements over there vs. blue or red. Hmmm.,,, Neat! This gets more interesting all the time. Course I say that now. We'll see how long I last.

You're allowing use of the Upgrade button? Isn't that just a shortcut for buying enhancements and manually upgrading? In which case, is it considered okay by your rules to buy individual enhancements from vendors solely for the purpose of upgrading ones you have already slotted (which you could only have originally slotted from drops)? I realize this isn't a group challenge, but I always think it's more interesting with these things if people all adhere to more or less the same rules and then share their experiences with them. And on the off chance enough people pile in, there might be the possibility of teaming, which would only be fair if we're all similarly gimped. 🤪 Talisman Enhancements, by the way, are a bit weird. I discovered while doing the SO challenge that they can be upgraded by the Upgrade button even beyond the level you can normally obtain them from Yin's shop. But they only appear to be discounted in price when you buy them from Yin. I think the upgrade button considers them to be SOs and charges the same price it would for any SO upgrade which is why it was asking that much to upgrade the 1s you're given in the tutorial. Thanks by the way for the picture. I'd have thought you'd get more than 1 usable enhancement per level. Unless some of those have been upgraded with drops. FWIW, I have rerolled my rad/rad defender to give this a shot. I haven't gotten anywhere yet, but after the tutorial my power selections are: Rad Infection, Nut Bolt, and X-Ray. In the early levels, I think RI will prevent more damage for less endurance than I could repair with Rad Aura. And its tohit debuff on a Defender is respectable even without the difficult to obtain tohit debuff enhancements. I'll angle for acc in X-Ray as an opener and then multiple Nut Bolts to keep them debuffed and pile in damage. I'm also giving some thought to pausing XP instead of outleveling enhancements. More chance for drops/inf. But we'll see how long my patience with that lasts. By the way, in addition to the link Flea posted about drop rates, this is useful too. It gives a list of enemies that drop different origin enhancements: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/comments/bvgivp/what_enemies_drop_what_do_so_enhancements_guide/ Looks like my villainous tech defender should do pretty well in the Rogue Isles early on. Edited to add: This link might be out of date. Some enemy drops have probably been changed or updated since this information was posted. Sorry!

Just tried it and it 100% aggroes the teleported target. It also has a chance to aggro others from the group you're pulling from but it's probably a low chance. If I had to guess, they probably added TPFoe to Recall Friend and forgot to check the "notify enemies" flag since Recall Friend never needed it. Then somewhere along the line they fixed it.

This was my first thought with the SO challenge too and that was WITH the ability to purchase endmods for Stamina. But you're making me curious now to see how this would go. I had started a Rad/Rad corruptor and defender (wasn't sure which I'd like better) as alt ideas for the SO challenge but I think now I'll be going with established characters and alt builds. I'm more interested in how they play at the end than leveling them to get there. Since this is more of a hardcore leveling challenge (especially the permadeath part), I might reroll the defender and try this just to see how far I get on drops. Rad/Rad has several big advantages: Very good tohit debuff in Rad Infection and low recharge moderate heal in Rad Aura make this one very survivable. AM as you mentioned, helps with recovery. But rad blast helps with accuracy. That might eventually be less important but if I survive that long I doubt it will matter much. I am more interested in hitting what I aim at in low levels and lacking good accuracy enhancement is a real problem as you've already noted once, I think. Another good idea is a Staff/Ninjitsu Scrapper. Staff gets a endurance saving mode. Ninjitsu gets an endurance clicky. You also get minor stealth. Add Super Speed and you can sneak by a lot of stuff on missions if you want. Going to need a base just for this character I think, if for no other reason to save every last salvage drop for future use either with recipe drops or empowerment station buffs.

It's Teleport Target now. It works as both recall friend and teleport foe. If this ever worked with the old TP Foe, it doesn't now. Teleport Target notifies enemies. It might do a decent job of not aggroing others in the group but it WILL aggro the teleported target and it counts as an attack so it will drop stealth and crit meter for 8s. Given that, you are usually better off Assassinating the LT/Boss and then scrapping its minions who will be demoralized by the opening AS (100% chance -7.5% tohit debuff and 25% chance mag 5 terrorized for 8s).

This. In three words, "Cascading Defense Failure". That extra defense cushion is nice for anybody that isn't packing serious Defense Debuff Resistance. And not a lot of people have access to decent DDR. Even some hybrid defense armor sets don't. Being over the soft-cap a decent amount is the difference between surviving a mob of angry sword-wielding Cimerorans... and re-enacting Julius Caesar.

True, but still unnecessary. There is never a case where the screen says "Hidden" and your stealth radius is NOT up, is my point. So if you just wait for that before running up to the next spawn, you'll be fine. It's always worked for me and I play almost exclusively Stalkers. The few cases you're talking about are ones where you can re-enter stealth SOONER than the 8s suppression window in Hide. Still, if you wait to see "Hidden"... you are safe. You just might in a very few cases be waiting a few seconds longer than you need to. But that's it. It's going to be rare that you Placate and then wonder if you are Hidden. You'll usually use it in a fight to control one enemy while you fight others. Whether you are hidden or not after the Placate doesn't much matter in terms of what you do next unless your plan was to Placate and then immediately run through another spawn of enemies that hasn't seen you yet. Same for the Hide proc. When it happens, it's usually just bonus crit damage. It's not something you are watching and then making decisions based on. If you happen to end a fight with a quick AS, you'll immediately be stealthed. The only time this has ever tripped me up (and it's super rare) is when I was leading a hostage with Hide off, fought a group, ended with AS, and ran off leaving the hostage to wonder where I'd disappeared to. It was funny, but it didn't really cause me a problem.