Yomo Kimyata

I'm unclear what RMTers have to do with stored influence,or inflation. Are you saying that Chinese gold merchants (may not be Chinese, or merchandising gold) set up hundreds or thousands of accounts, built them all up to the account maximum at the time, and then waited or lobbied for an auction house, and then pounced?

I hear this argument a lot, and I can't say I believe it. If people amassed thousands of billions of influence before the invention system, they could only amass 2 bn per character. They couldn't even email it. Personally, on live before the AH, I had a dozen toons who maybe had a billion inf across them. Even if you had a hundred toons who were at the influence cap before the AH, (and you didn't), there was no inflationary effect on the economy at the time. It occurred all at once. Not over time.

So, I did what I am inclined to do. I started a staff/bio scrapper named Double Helix on Excelsior. I have no idea how I managed to get that name. I tend to level organically, meaning I play content and add slots or skills when I level up. I figure respecs are cheap so if I make a mistake, it's not the end of the world. So this commentary is definitely not for someone who just PLed to 50 and is looking for a power build. Like my last post said, I am pretty well convinced that I'm doing both staff and bio wrong, so maybe I can shake some people out of the rafters and get them to comment! Criticism is openly welcomed. At level 12, I'm hip deep in the Hollows. I haven't slotted anything yet, but I'm gearing up to spend a lot of inf on this one. So I'm working the market with lvl 15 rare roulette (that's my term for buying uncommon recipes, crafting them, converting them to something that's worth selling), and I've got about 100mm inf in the bank, so I'm going to start putting in bids for scrapper ATOs. My initial thoughts on the build? It's harder than I thought. My staff background (brutes and stalker) has a lot more recharge than this guy. I did finally add Mercurial Blow, and currently it's one slotted with Achilles Heel -res proc. Nothing does much damage. I normally run a new alt from outbreak to first contact to level 5 and then run radios in Kings Row until bank and the fly pack, and then I start Hollows. I usually run at 0/x3 for a non-melee alt and 1/3 for a melee alt. I had to dial it back for staff. Low level damage is not good enough, so I find I'm running out of the mission a lot to heal. I currently have precise strike (4 slotted, empty) guarded spin (4 slotted, empty) eye of the storm (4 slotted, empty) mercurial blow (1 slotted, achilles heal proc) hardened carapace (base) inexhaustible (base) environmental modification (base) An extra slot in health. I'm looking to put a panacea in there soon and when I hit 17 a miracle proc.

Yes. It’s why I avoid hostage missions when I’m on a stealth alt.

If I had to pick one way to make a billion inf as quickly as possible, I'd go with rare roulette. Plenty of guides about that. If I had to pick one thing to flip, it would be high demand ATOs. High demand PvP are in second. If I had to pick one thing to buy, convert and flip, it would be PvP IOs.

Thank you! I just put in hundreds of bids in order to test this out. I don't know if it *needs* to be addressed, but the uncertainty was suspenseful.

Still solo. I'd like to be able to say at the end of the day, you can solo, with a really bad skill set, without using the AH, and still have a fully tricked out build. I've even learned a few things on the way. Like a new rare roulette technique. Buying uncommons at lvl 15 that will only convert to a rare in category. It's a thinner market, i.e., fewer buyers, but profit per converters seems significantly better than the lvl 30, lvl 31, and lvl 41 techniques I've played around with.

No, and I reposted. It’s not like I need the money, but I cannot stand to have dead transaction slots.

I'm certainly not claiming this is extraordinary or ground breaking in any way. I guess part of it was a way to demonstrate how you don't have to use the AH in order to max out your builds, but that it makes it a hell of a lot easier. Part of it is to demonstrate how easy it is to use converters to get something specific. In a thread months ago, I doubted that someone could make hundreds of LotG 7.5% from a random lvl 25 recipe and consistently make a profit. I no longer doubt that, which is why I no longer bid high amounts on anything unless I need it soon(tm).

I'm not clear how that would lower the skill cap at all? If you take out specialized builds and resources to put behind your pvp toon, aren't you then reduced to true player versus player skill as opposed to rock v. scissors or rich v. poor? Are you saying that the knowledge of the build and the resources to create it are a significant/primary part of the skill? I can understand the former, but IOs and inf are simple to acquire. I'm honestly asking. Note: I am not advocating that pure equality actually happen. Like I said, it's the only way I would participate in PvP. That doesn't make it the right way or even the way that most people would want. Just my opinion.

Actually, what I’m advocating is that player skill would be the ONLY factor in the equation. Every player has the same movement, the same attacks, the same defenses. If you are better at using those than your opponent, you have the advantage. I’d consider pvp then but understand I’d lose all the time because my twitch reflexes are awful.

This might be the only thing that could get me to PvP. I’m thinking like the Atari game Combat where the only difference between two players is the color of their triplane and their inherent maneuvering ability.

I've got some experience with staff (lvl 50 staff/fire brute, lvl 45 staff/regen brute, lvl 40 staff/bio stalker) but I always feel like I'm doing it wrong. I'm always in Form of the Body for the damage and the Eye of the Storm -dam res. I keep Mercurial Blow despite it being a lousy T1 melee for the Achilles Heal proc and for building the Eye of the Storm -dam res. I cannot stand Innocuous Strikes because of the animation, so I don't use it if I can avoid it. I rarely use Sky Splitter, as I'd rather use Eye of the Storm. Also the animation is too long for my tastes. So I'm a big mess. I will say that it's a lot of fun, but there is a big discrepancy between PBAoE and single target that I just haven't resolved to my tastes. I'm closest with the stalker, since Assassin's staff or whatever it's called fills the single target void. I've got much less experience with bio (lvl 40 staff/bio stalker, lvl 38 beam rifle/bio sentinel [and I realize that bio is kid of a different set for sentinels]), but I always feel like I'm doing it wrong. I'm always in Offensive mode. Sense a trend? I use Ablative Carapace and DNA Siphon as spot heals like I would with regen, but outside of that I have no idea what I am doing. I will say that staff/bio is absolutely incredible for my stalker -- no problem running solo TFs including AVs at +1/x5. I have to imagine that a well crafted scrapper would be similar, but I have no idea how to craft one. Help us Obi Wan! You're our only hope!

I had a lot of alts on Live, and I have a lot of alts on HC. Three got resurrected, of which one got reimagined. My first on HC was a re-creation of my namesake Yomo, a BS/inv scrapper who got started back in the days when you debated whether to 6 slot damage SOs or to stick one accuracy in there. It’s almost laughable how “sub-optimal” that build feels now. But he’s an incarnate now, and does just fine. Then there’s Minion Zero, who was my first villain on Live. I don’t remember War Mace/ Willpower brutes being this powerful back in the day, but I’m not complaining. Finally there is Captain Inertia, who I changed from a Kinetics/Electric defender to an Electric/ Kinetics controller. Jury is still out on that one. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug.

I'm still waiting for a Rick Roll post. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with you all.

As of this very moment: Last 5 are: 600,000 555,555 611,222 555,555 555,555 16,461 bidding 9,985,226 for sale Based on that last 5, I'd guess that the highest outstanding bid is 555,555. Tested it by selling one piece of salvage at 5 inf. Yup, 555,555. What surprised me is where the lowest outstanding offer is. I bid 600,000 and nothing. I bid 650,000 and bought 50. I stopped there. (I should have bid crept for finer resolution.) I honestly didn't expect to be able to buy 50 at that level, but that tells me the profit motive is working. Normally you can buy (over time) some pretty good bulk at around 500k. If you do that and are able to sell at 650k, that's 850k profit on a block of 10. I'd probably work for that if I had the time and inclination. Normally, I don't find a block of 50 or more offered until the 700 level or so. I'd also note that originally there were 10mm for sale at 1mm a pop, which was the initial seeding. This tells me that since launch, there has been a slightly more agggregate demand for rare salvage than supply. Contrast to common salvage, which has 10,521,049 for sale; this tells me that there is more supply than demand. Probably a lot more, since who knows how much common salvage has been vendored.

My takeaways: 1. I really suck as a mastermind. 2. I really REALLY suck as a necro/traps mastermind. 3. As long as I am willing to use AE, I can get whatever I need. 4. Without AE I'd be screwed, particularly with respect to uncommon salvage. Also when I start reaching for sub-30 IOs, I will need to buy recipes through bronze rolls since no more will drop in regular content. 5. The stuff I crafted and kept are worth less on average than what I crafted for sale. (Edit: except the PvP. Those are serious cash money, homie!). It works out pretty close to the same in terms of converters spent per IO. 6. At some point I'm going to have to buy catalysts with merits. 7. I think that I can eventually get to a steady state where I can spend 10mm inf on merits for 30 converters and turn that into more than 10mm inf in IOs, but it will not be easy. 8. The AH makes everything ridiculously easier by NOT doing it this way.

So far, I've refined the model a bit. I only buy things that I exchange merits or tickets for, so I have not been crafting generic IOs unless I get that recipe to drop (or I guess I could have bought it with AE tickets). I guess I could slot SOs that drop, but eh, why bother. If I were to restart, I might add the caveat that everything I sell on the AH has to be at a specific cutoff, either 5 or 500,000 or 1mm or whatever. I'm pretty good at getting close to maximum value, so that has probably helped me so far. At level 30, I've run solo through Hollows, Faultline, Striga, and about 1/2 through Croatoa. When I hit certain level barriers (like 30+ to continue Kelly's Croatoa missions), I run AE missions, usually 5-starred Developer's Choice (so no farms) for tickets. I've turned in 150 merits total for converters for a total of 450, had a few drop. Currently have 189 merits, 115 converters, 932 AE tickets. Sitting on 51.5mm in inf. The rest of my record keeping may be shoddy, so bear with me if the numbers don't add up. I've had 22 uncommon recipes drop, got 5 uncommon recipes from bronze ticket rolls (20-24 and 25-29), 2 PvP recipes. Crafted all of them. I've had a handful of rare recipes drop, and most of them I vendor. I'm holding onto a few of them in case the rare salvage drops. This also includes one uncommon recipe that requires rare salvage. I'm sitting on 4 more uncommons that I haven't gotten around to crafting yet. The 2 PvP recipes I got lucky with, and got the rare salvage to drop. One was a Panacea something something that I rolled twice by set into the proc. 6 converters. Slotted into Health. The other was a glad strike, converted by pvp once to get a shield wall, converted by set x5 to get the proc. 16 converters. Slotted into Combat Jumping. Converted and kept/slotted: 1. lvl 12 stun, converted by stun x1 to rare, converted by rare x1 to kismet, converted in set x1 to +accuracy proc. 6 converters. 2. lvl 21 endurance mod, converted by end mod x1 to perf shifter, in set x1 to proc. 5 converters. 3. lvl 21 pbaoe, converted by uncommon x5 to commanding presence triple. 5 converters. 4. lvl 22 multistrike, converted by uncommon x2 to jumping, by jumping x1 to rare, by rare x2 to zephyr knockback. 6 converters. 5. lvl 21 slow, converted by slow x2 to impeded swiftness, by set x7 to proc. 25 converters. 6. lvl 22 triage, converted by healing x1 to miracle, by set x1 to proc. 5 converters. 7. lvl 25 ruin, converted by uncommon x1 to flying, by flying x1 to rare, by rare x2 to edict of the master, by set x2 to proc. 11 converters. 8. lvl 25 focused smite, converted by uncommon x2 to knockback, by KB x1 to rare, by rare x1 to res damage, by res damage x3 to steadfast prot knockback, in set x2 to defense. 17 converters. 9. lvl 24 stun, converted by uncommon x1 to to hit debuff, by to hit debuff x1 to rare, by rare x1 to annihilation proc. 4 converters. 10. lvl 25 focused smite, converted by uncommon x2 to flight, by flight x1 to rare, by rare x11 to shield breaker, by set x1 to proc. 18 converters. 11. lvl 25 ruin, converted by uncommon x2 to knockback, by kn x1 to rare, by rare x4 to cloud senses, by set x12 to proc. 44 converters. 12. lvl 27 undermined defenses, converted by category x1 to lady grey, in set x6 to proc. 20 converters. 13. lvl 28 brilliant leadership, converted by pet damage x7 to sov. right proc. 14 converters. 14. lvl 28 brilliant leadership, converted by uncommon x4 to adjusted targeting, by category x1 to gaussians proc. 6 converters. 15. lvl 28 stagger, converted by uncommon x1 to defense debuff, by category x1 to rare, by rare x5 to neuronic shutdown proc. 8 converters. 16. lvl 30 running, converted by running x1 to celerity, by set x3 to +stealth. 11 converters. I think that's 205 converters, and an estimated sellable market value of 50-55mm inf. I also crafted and sold 11 other recipes that took 125 converters. I could list the process for them, but it's already getting tedious! That probably netted me about 50mm inf.

I’ve not found a way to accumulate large amounts (thousands) of rare salvage in a short period of time at a “reasonable” price. I mean, if you want to lock in losses, it’s trivial to buy Ten thousand at 1mm a pop that would mostly come from the ceiling. Then you could dump them. It would cost you 10bn and you might recoup as much as 1/3 of that but probably less. brainstorms are great, but again I’ve had troubles buying large amounts of them at “reasonable “ prices.

I'm not a big fan of collusion, but the rare salvage market is a lot more fragile than you might think. If you were to dump a couple thousand rares onto the market, you could knock the price down into the 200s. But I'm not how long it would stay there.

I’ve never been clear on the objects summoned through Propel. Am I summoning a pool table through some portal where some guy at a bar was lining up a shot and then is all “WTF?” Or am I picking up the pool table that just happens to be sitting around in that cave you’re running around in?

I’m with you on this, but I’d say that suggesters also need to be mentally prepared for the next post to be “Nope, that’s crazy and out there!” by another player. It allows for a discussion, and an airing of opinions.

Paragon City needs more ramps. And none of this 40 degree incline bs going into the subways.

It also would have been cool to see Whirling Mace do a 720...

The story arcs are in there, but often you have to run a couple of non-story arc missions in order to get them offered. I don't know if it is a "proving yourself" thing like getting a contact's mobile number used to be. I tend to run zone-specific story arcs (almost always Hollows, almost always Faultline at least up to Doc Delilah, sometimes Striga, sometimes Croatoa) until I get into the upper 20s/low 30s. I found that the ratio of non-story arc missions to story arc missions from "old school" contacts tends to be very high until you get 25+.