Yomo Kimyata

I haven't been a part of a Hami raid on HC for a bunch of reasons. The main one is that it doesn't seem like fun. Back in the day, it was a real time commitment, and a social one as well. Now, I don't tend to have large fixed blocks of time to commit to this game at this point, so blocking out 60 minutes for 55 minutes of organization and 5 minutes of action seems like a bad tradeoff for me. I'm not a badger, so the only relevant rewards are HOs, and I can buy all I want on the AH. It also sounds like (based purely on reading other people's posts) a trivial accomplishment. I'd much rather do something slow and challenging than fast and (IMO) cheesy. But I'm kind of post-reward at this point in HC. I think it would be cool to solo Hami, and I do not doubt that it will happen at some point.

This sounds needlessly tedious to me, but many things I do are probably needlessly tedious to others, so... I prefer melee to ranged, and there are so many ambushes redside that I would probably go melee. And then, I would want stealth for making tedious missions shorter. AoE for defeat all missions, good ST for bosses/EBs/AVs. Maybe a staff/bio stalker. I've got a lot of experience with those two sets and I actually enjoy them.

This is so interesting to read what other people do, and stuff like this almost always leads to my playing around with new ideas. When I started HC, I would 2-slot health (miracle proc and Numina proc) and 2-slot stamina (perf shifter proc and end mod) but now I usually use base slotting (panacea and perf shifter proc) and make up endurance other places.

I'd change the reward structure on everything in terms of merits. My understanding is that through data mining, the devs wanted to give rewards based on how long it took the speed runners to do it. So we get rewards for Eden, a timed 4 hour mission, that are 7 merits because it is *possible* to run it really quickly. If you do it in ten minutes or you take the full 4 hours, you get seven merits. I don't even know how to do it in ten minutes, but it really used to be an enjoyable few hours. But now it's pointless because the reward is seven merits. I advocate making a range of times and rewards for each TF based on time taken. If you want to solo Synapse over a week, you get the max. If your team wants to defeat all in the Yin TF and take an hour, you get the max. If your team speed runs, you get the min. This partially solves the "defeat all" missions that people seem to really hate (I have no idea why) because you get more merits the longer you take, to an extent. This, of course, will cheese off the speed runners. So be it.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

This came up a while back, and I got the name on Reunion (taken on all others). I seem to recall I made him an Energy/Energy blaster slotted for knockback...

Great post overall, but I for one am definitely saying to 4-5 slot all your attacks first. There aren't that many serious threats until you get into your 30s, imo, and attacks are where it's at.

Don't worry, you'll make it up in volume...

RE: merits blue side, it is well worth doing the entire Hollows arc and even more well worth doing the entire Faultline arc. You not only get merits from the story arcs but you also get a significant bonus from doing all of them. My general path for solo blue side play at double xp/no inf is; 1-2: outbreak 2-6: starter Atlas missions 6-9: Kings Row, get the radio from a detective, run three radio missions, save Atlas bank 9-12: get Hollows contact, run first two arcs (finish Frostfire) 13-14: do steel canyon radio missions, save KR bank. freeze xp at 14 back to Hollows, run Julius arc and Talshak arc. auto complete the Atta mission (it’s fun, but you will out level if you are not careful. Turn back on xp for rescue Sam Wilmott mission and ding 15. Get 20 merit bonus for all Hollows missions. 15-18: back toSteel Canyon. Combination of radio missions and safeguard (think that’s Skyway bank) and then Montague missions until he sends you back to Atlas to get the Lost Cure. 19+: Faultine! Start with Temblor, Penny, Doc Delilah (unlocks Ouro portal at 20),agent G. Use cure lost liberally in Pennys missions (but not on mission bosses or else some missions cannot be completed. Particularly the ones who guard Pennys dad. Four quick arcs and again a bonus for all Faultline missions. at this point I’m usually around 24 or so and I will branch out. As you can tell I like the safeguard missions, so i might freeze xp if I’m too close to 25.

It all depends on how much scratch you have. I like to slot as early as 7, but if I was hurting on inf I'd wait until 12 or 22. I think the best investment to make on a new character is the Kismet 6% to hit, which goes for about 3-5mm, and you can slot it in a defense power at lvl 7. Given that, I generally advocate 1x accuracy, 1x end red, 2x damage (or mez), 1x rech red, 1x damage in that order.

You get Malta red side.

Some people really want to build it themselves, old school. I’ve done that on a few characters. Using converters is much easier and cost effective, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

Awesome, very helpful! Cold/AR is another defender that was untouched in the March list (mine is languishing in his 40s) but is much more enjoyable to play. I went with WOs instead of procs for three reasons: the odds of triggering are too low for my tastes; more fire/cold res and slow and mez resist are nice (I may swap out the kismet accuracy for the Winters gift slow resist); if I go with musculature then lots of “wasted” damage ED gets ignored. I may be the only one who really likes Beanbag. If I’m going against a hard boss, I can put him away for a bit with two shots. (I actually used Sonic Cage while leveling as well...). But yeah, it’s skippable. You are dead on with Dark, and I’m probably better off with Bonfire/Fire Shield/Melt Armor but then I lose an endurance tool. Hmmm. I’m a recharge junkie, but you’re right, it really only helps with Liquify and epic pool powers. I could drop Hasten completely and throw some FF +recharges in some of the bullet powers, but not sure what to replace it with. Maybe Weaken Resolve? More -res would be nice to assist the lethal damage. I actually don’t have tough activated in that build; purely a mule power! thanks!

As a part of Project Unicorn, the worst of the worst was Drummer Boy (Sonic/AR). Now I know that none of us really have any idea what a unicorn is anymore and won't until the devs release updated information. But this combination was unknown back in March, and for good reason. Two underperforming sets with little or no synergy doth a craptastic combo make. But I got him to 50, and had two builds throughout the process, one for solo, one for team play. Yesterday I dusted him off and started thinking about how I would improve him. So I'm asking you, how would YOU build and play this combo? I'll give my thoughts and build below, but I almost always learn something new by looking at someone else's build thought process. My thoughts for this build are: - mostly solo work, but contribute on a team. - I don't have a ton of high level defenders, so the epic/patron pools are all interesting to me. I chose dark mastery but am not wed to it. - max out resists where I can and then focus on melee defense (since dark mastery is pretty in your face). - endurance help is needed, especially on team play. Disruption Field is a little piggy when it comes to endurance. - use the team shields mostly for set bonuses. My experience is that very few people on high level teams really need that res help. - I haven't even thought about incarnates yet. Here's what I'm working towards now: If this were your baby, how would you build him/her/they?

Don’t get hit.

I got completely sidetracked from this project. I figured the DEFCON Five needed a nemesis, a time traveler from a post-nuclear future, whose objective is to foment nuclear war. DEFCON Zer0 is a rad/bio brute and incredibly entertaining. He is the most villanous villain I have ever villained.

I use the term to refer to setting lowball bids on something that someone spent a lot of inf on, but is willing to sell for a ridiculously low amount of inf. I used them to pick off a few lvl 53 HOs; I bought a lot of WOs that way; it still fuels my ATO-traders. I should probably come up with a nicer term, but people willing to spend 10+mm on things really shouldn't offer them at prices lower than they are willing to accept...

I’ve already set noob traps and will set more after the event!

Well, it appears that prices have rebounded from their lows. It seems to me there are a few simple ways to profit: 1. Buy pack, open now, sell contents now. Seems profitable. 2. Buy pack, wait, sell pack after event is over. 3. Buy pack, wait, open and sell contents after event is over. As I said in another post, I’ve been creating synthetic Winter packs: 1.2 WOs and 50 converters. I’ve been replicating them for a well under 10mm a pop. I also bought a thousand packs to consider for the future. But I’m certainly not buying as much as some people! I will say, I’m using WOs a lot more than normal. For new alts under lvl 17-22, I’ve been using WOs until other set IOs come into play.

I'm looking forward to Parts II through XX.

Once you build up more of a stash, check this out: Until then, two simple options include: 1. Buy SOs ( which are available at every level now) and upgrade them every 3-5 levels with the Upgrade option; 2. Buy common IOs starting at level 15, upgrade at 25 and then again at 50. Then I’d prioritize accuracy, end reduction, damage, damage, recharge, damage in that order. Happy hunting!

I do have a claus/fire stalker, but I need to check to see if 50 yet.

Congrats! You gave them exactly the selling price they wanted!

I'm with you. I'd love to see the new stats, but I understand if they don't publish them. That said, don't make a Sonic/AR defender. I want to be the only one to complain about how godawful a combo it is.