ZemX

Given the explanation, I don't see why they wouldn't count. Doesn't that event spawn Seers and PPD? Not sure if you'd get 100 PPD but those are more plentiful in the zone. I suppose to see if it's counting you need someone hovering at the trigger point telling you if the meter is going up as you do the Protest event.

Ah... I was looking at the wrong one. Hate the names. Never can remember which is the T4 when I am browsing CoD.

I mean most of my powers aren't "used" in the sense I never click on them but still want their icons visible so I can see what their state of recharge is. A few extra trays hold seldom used powers or utilities like "reveal" that aren't worth remembering a keybind for. But I get what you are saying. I used to have CJ and SJ in tray slots bound directly to keys to activate them, but ever since this combined travel powers nonsense I've moved to keybinds that make them exclusive again. I still keep their icons in the same tray spots though so I can see at a glance which is active.

Isn't it a whole sliding scale thing over time that's only up 50% of the time overall? Or are you just using 5% as an average?

The way I see it there are three possibilities: Having someone split off solo... 1. Always speeds things up. 2. Always slows things down. 3. Sometimes either (or neither, I suppose). You're doing one experiment, which means: 1. Can be disproven if you fail. Can never be proved. 2. Can be disproven if you succeed. Can never be proved. 3. Can't be disproven in one trial (or any number of trials, actually). Can be proved with enough trials to see at least one of each outcome. I have already stated a preference for choice 3 in a previous post and, as my position is the only one that CAN be proved and can never be disproved, I hereby declare myself the winner of this thread and, at the very least, the Internet for today. No, please.. hold your applause. Thank you! I will take my winnings in cash or purple IOs. 😈

There are a few contacts that offer missions to only vigilantes in Paragon City or rogue in the Rogue Isles, but I don't know of any that are Hero or Villain locked like that. e.g. Shauna Brown in IP and The Major in Brickstown.

It's gonna be a really strong build... most of the time. Some comments: Be aware that if you select the "enable proc" yellow doc on a power that has FF:Rech in it, it may just add +100% recharge to you Haste stat. It's a little inconsistent in Mid's but in your build both procs were adding +100% recharge. This can't happen in reality. First, FF:rech *is* 100% recharge, but it only lasts 5 seconds. It also doesn't stack. So the two you have in your build will never provide +200% recharge. Your base recharge with all other bonuses here appears to be +135% when Hasten is up. +65% when it isn't. How close you can get to perma depends how often you can keep FF:rech's +100% bonus up. Realistically, it will be something less than 100% of the time though and then only when you're actually in combat attacking with EotS and SR. Just be aware of it when you're looking at power recharge times. They may not be that good in practice. Consider Innocuous Strikes vs. Serpent's Reach. It won't take FF:Rech, but the proc rate of FF:rech is only 2PPM and you've put it in a ST attach with a pretty fast recharge and a lot of recharge enhancement. It looks like about a 22% proc chance there. Meanwhile Innocuous gives you an unbroken 3-AoE attack chain. Yeah, you've got Ball Lightning and Electric Fences here but they are both longer recharge, even if they are wonderfully large AoEs. Speaking of which... I had picked Mu Mastery initially too and while I loved those big AoE attacks, especially on a Tanker... I only loved them when I could hit anything. And I could only hit anything when I wasn't facing toHit debuffs or being blinded. CoT, Croatoa ghosts, Arachnos Widows, etc. Rad Armor doesn't have the defenses (or any defense debuff resistance) so eventually every debuff hits you. Stick with what you have here for a while, but if you get fed up with having your toHit floored, consider respeccing into Focused Accuracy and swapping Serpent's Reach for Innocuous. If you still want a ranged attack, take Laser Beam Eyes. If you have the room, think about Tactics too. You already have the pool open with Maneuvers. Tactics might not seem necessary but it plugs, at least somewhat, one annoying hole in Rad which is Confuse protection. It's not as bad as the toHit debuff problem but any time you're up against spawns that include CoT succubi, you will end up taunting your teammates whenever they confuse you meaning not only will you be prevented from attacking for a short while but so will teammates around you hit by your taunt aura. Lastly, and probably least important. Great resistances for the most part, but remember that as a Staffer in Form of Body you can get +13% res(all) for 15s just by using Sky Splitter with 3 stacks of FoB. That's on top of the Might of the Tanker giving you anywhere from 6-18%. In Guarded Spin, you can easily count on 12% res from MoT as an average. All that means is that if you DO solve the toHit debuff problem, you can reliably count on a lot more resistance and so could consider trading some of it away for other bonuses. Just something to doodle with in Mid's. You might get a little more ranged defense for instance. Or more HP or recharge or whatever. I mean, that's really good Cold resistance. You'll be in the 80s once you're in combat if you're using Form of Body, which is great... but not all that necessary that I've found. I would find a spot for Kismet:+ACC. It's actuall +6% toHIt. You can never have too much toHit.

Right!

It wasn't quoted, but I think that was in response to @biostem's comment about being victorious even with 1hp left. At that point, an SR would have ~+60% res(all) from scaling resistances. Although usually an SR build tries to add a base layer of resistance from IOs so their res is capped before they actually reach 1hp. 🤪

Oh sure, today CoD is updating its enums... tomorrow it's launching the missiles and creating killer robots!

Aren't there a bunch in the protester event if you side with the protesters? I can't recall.

I concur.

The thing that jumps out at me is the 15 click powers. FA is already an active primary, secondaries always are, and you've added three more click powers in the pools. You sure you won't have trouble deciding which button to push next? 🤪 I mean, otherwise looks like fun. Maybe consider dropping Lightning Clap for Hasten? I know you've got another FF:Rech in there and it's a bit of damage mitigation but if you're using it, you're not doing damage, which I thought was the point of this. You want to be using TS as often as possible for its +res and FF:Rech procs and you've got plenty of other AoEs to cycle that it looks like LC would only be dropping your overall DPS if you use it.

Strangely, I have less annoyance with finding the last 1.235% than finding the first 30% or whatever. This is why I love starting with a complete build and customizing it vs. starting from scratch. I start from scratch if I can't find a build I like well enough to tweak. But otherwise, I'd rather play the game of tradeoffs on a complete build if I want more of this over here and can deal with less of that over there, stat-wise. Oh, this build I downloaded is all purples and winters and full PvP sets? Hmm... what does it look like with less expensive sets that are similar, but not as good? Because I'll probably build it that way first and only eventually work up to such a lofty load of IOs. I'm just not rolling around in that much excess cash... yet.

What I do lately is this: After a team or TF, I hit my base. I sell all common recipes and any IO set recipes that are above about level 35 (since those aren't a good deal to craft... too expensive)*. I exemp a lot, so I do get mid-level recipes fairly often even on my 50s. I then visit the invention table and see if I can craft anything with the salvage and recipes I am carrying. Since I only store rare salvage in bins, I have to check if some recipes can be crafted with a rare I have stored. Then I visit the empowerment station and craft any buffs that look good. Recovery, perception, and resistances I am low on. It's small buffs, but why not? Pick up an endurance drain resistance buff before a Synapse or Yin TF, for example. Good stuff. Then I visit the base quartermaster and sell all common and uncommon salvage except for 2 of each. I carry the rest. I store rares in a bin unless I have more than two of them. If I do, I sell the excess rares on the AH. Then whenever I have spare moments in game where I can access /ah, I sell or convert-to-rares-and-sell those IOs I built in base before. (*) Exception to keeping recipes above 35 are any that belong to sets containing commonly used "one-slot-wonder" IOs like LotG, Miracle, Numina, Perf Shifter, Kismet, etc. Any PvP IO as well since those are easy to convert into the good stuff like Shield Wall, Glad Armor, Panacea, etc. I store those and often use dropped catalysts on level 50 characters to attune them for alts, if necessary. This sounds like a lot of work but it's actually more work to write it out here than to do it. Couple minutes between mission teams or TFs. What I like about it is it's using stuff you have mostly, so it can be done by anybody and any of my alts without needing a lot of cash on hand. I need money to craft and to post for sale, but that's about it. I tend not to overflow on recipes or salvage this way unless I haven't visited my base for a long time. Seems to work out.

Hell, this sometimes happens to me even when I am tanking for a group. I assume people are following me so I go left, down a hall, and dive in... then I notice everyone else went right. I COULD drag this whole spawn right into the rear of the team, but that seems impolite. So I stick around and finish it. And that can take me awhile because I'm no fire brunker. If the team looks like nobody is dying, I'll finish it then join them. But it's usually more obvious that you've got a soloist on the team when they are always charging off past several other spawns so they can be sure the team isn't going to run into them while they solo. And really, we're making this too complicated. What I see both sides doing here is cherry-picking the scenarios that most illustrate their points of view whether it's steamrollers that vaporize whole spawns in mere seconds or the opposite, teams that are struggling or slowed because they are split. The right answer is: It's only a problem... when it's a problem. Yeah, if the team is rolling like it's on greased skids, one person running off to solo is no big deal. Often, I find it IS a problem but that's also probably because I consciously choose to do more mid-level teaming than incarnate post-50 stuff. It's just more fun for me. And on these kinds of teams you usually have less power (not always, but usually) with a few sidekicks in there. Plenty of no-IO builds. One person running off on those teams CAN be an issue because they could have contributed to a smoother experience for the team had they stuck with it. But neither of those cases is always present. If all you do is run on OP teams, you are probably more in the "why not split up?" camp. Whole reason I avoid those teams more often than not is because of that. I find it dull when the team is so strong vs. the content that it has to split up to find any challenge. Means you didn't choose a good enough challenge in my book. But whatever floats your boat, I guess.

That guy is paying? Sweet! I bet I can get someone to just give me the build, turn around, and sell it to that guy!

Don't try to make sense of it. I think it's all just an elaborate troll.

And you said MY analogy was bad? You're a loon.

Didn't say they were. A metaphor represents something but not literally. Driving a car and playing a video game are both examples of operating a machine. Neither is about building that machine or any part of it. Hell, you could even take a completed IO build for a "test drive" on the test server. How much closer did I need to get with this metaphor for you not to call it "clunky"? Didn't say this either. I said you didn't need to BUILD the car to know how to drive it. It's not a "clunky-ass metaphor" because you neither read nor understood it. It's simply saying you don't have to know how to build something to know how to operate it. Which is good because pretty much the entire world works this way. I doubt there is a single automotive engineer who can operate a Formula 1 race car as well as the professionals who race them do. The same is likely true of this game. The players are likely FAR more capable than any of the fine folks who created this game. And so I think the same is true of IO set builds. Driving one and creating one are two entirely different things. Is it handy to be proficient in mucking about in Mid's? Maybe. But you can get THAT experience by playing around with an existing build too. Maybe you'll find you like it and start creating your own. Maybe you'll find it a dull exercise and you'd rather spend more time playing the game than doodling in Mid's. Either is perfectly valid. It's not for you or me to say what someone else should find fun. But you ARE saying this. You are saying players must begin by at least trying to create their own IO builds from scratch. I'm saying they don't. If you believed people could play how they want you wouldn't be insisting they do IO builds YOUR way. You view this as begging and I view it as an efficient way to get started with a character. I don't know what your problem here is. You seem to be acting like people are benefitting from something they didn't "earn" when this isn't a competitive game. If someone else enjoys playing a pre-made build that another player was perfectly willing to give them what skin off your back is this exactly?

I'm being literal because your argument literally depends on these hypothetical ranged damage dealers being able to "melt" everything in a spawn before I can reach it and contribute meaningful damage. Look at it another way. What is the difference here between, say Blasters and Scrappers? Blasters do more damage and they do it at range. It's the range part that seems to be key to your argument since you're talking about the spawn being killed before you can reach it as a melee. My point is that you're exaggerating what a Blaster or even a group of them can do from range in this case. If we're being fair in this comparison and assume everyone starts towards the next spawn at the same time and at the same speed, the only real difference is that Blasters can stop and fire at around 60-80 feet while the Scrapper has to continue running into the spawn to launch their first attack. So what you're really going on about is Blasters making one more attack than the Scrapper. That's about all they will have time for in that situation. So what is this one attack made by 'n' blasters every time that lands before a Scrapper can do anything significant and which "kills all the minions and LTs"? Because that's what I don't buy. (a) Because I don't see this happening on real teams in the actual game. If the mission is absurdly easy, the difficulty gets raised and then it's not that quick anymore. and (b) Because I don't see anyone describing what attacks would even make this work in theory. Nobody is doing the homework here. And I'm saying that's necessary because melting whole spawns, at least ones worth attacking by a powerful team, is not as easy as is routinely described here on the forums. You will occasionally have a few blasters conspire to impressively wipe out a spawn with nukes, but then it's a while before they can do that again so... so what?

It can't happen at +0 either. Unless you're going to move to talking about teams small enough not to spawn bosses next. Feel free to work that out. Boss hit points are rather impressive. It would take multiple blaster nukes to AoE them in a single shot and then they wouldn't be available again for a minimum of 30 seconds. Seven blasters and one hapless melee could MAYBE keep that rolling on a +0 or -1 team. But that's about it. And like I said, if you're not running at the higher settings you're probably doing a speed run anyway which is beside the point of this thread which is about NOT running away on your own. On any realistic team, there is plenty of time for melee damage dealers to contribute even without running too far ahead or striking out solo.

That's not an assumption. That's an impossibility. At least if we are talking about +4x8 missions. And if we're not.. then that's the problem. Outside of low level teams or speed-runs, people are playing at the higher settings, if not maxed out. And the math, particularly due to the purple patch, does not allow a single blaster, or even several, to nuke every spawn in one-shot such that a melee never gets to lay a finger on it. This sort of thing only happens on the forums.

Non-attuned builds are a thing for people who never do anything but level 50 content. But yeah, most people would have an attuned build for exemplaring. I suppose if you were an incorrigible min/maxer (and rich) you might make a build explicitly for L44 challenges where all the IOs topped out at 47+5.

No trick. You just need, at minimum, one person who has stopped XP at 44 to host the TF. Then everyone else is exemplared to 44, shutting off their Incarnates, including the alpha shift and ensuring enemies can be more than 3 levels above the team. It's a nice level to be exemped to, of course, because you still get access to all the powers in your level 50 build (minus incarnates, of course). You just need to be sure you don't have any level 48-50 IOs you're counting on for set bonuses is all. The team lead, of course, loses out on a couple powers and a LOT of slots. Easier probably to just stick to TFs that top out at 40 or less.