Yomo Kimyata

I mentioned the MSR mainly because before the devs adjusted/nerfed the Vmerit/merit conversion rate from 10:1 to 30:1, there was a similar disproportional reward. I don't remember if that was before or after the cap limits were lifted. I suspect that fixing the cap limit for the RWZ was more about keeping the limit for all raid zones consistent rather than specifically trying to make the MSR less profitable. I hear the argument for lifting the limit on the RWZ because there is a lot of other content, but I imagine (I don't know for sure) that other instances would be spawned pretty quickly. If you can only get 20-30 into RWZ before it fills, then dogpile into RWZ 2. I can see how this could be inconvenient though. If you are running missions or TFs in RWZ, then it doesn't matter which instance you get in, and I think that if RWZ is full it will automatically spawn a RWZ 2, right?

First of all, it has been repeatedly stated that a cap over 50 was a bug and that they were fixing an error. Now, they could have just let that error slide, except that hami raids became a way to make several hundred merits an hour. Which was several times as profitable as that of the next alternative. I absolutely understand why the devs chose to remedy their error, if for nothing else, for the sake of game balance. Secondly, I'm sorry that this change so strongly adversely affects your ability to enjoy the game. I really am. Personally, I don't have the time or the schedule to earn lots and lots of merits, so I figured out other ways to enjoy my playing experience. I hope that you are able to find other ways to enjoy your experience. Thirdly, if you look, there are complaints about the "I win" nature of CoH on HC all over the place. It's an easy game that was specifically made easier on Homecoming for exactly the reasons you state -- people want an enjoyable experience for as little effort as possible. People should feel free to exploit bugs, but shouldn't complain when those bugs are fixed. For that matter, people shouldn't complain when the devs do anything to change the game. It's their server, I'm just choosing to play on it.

My thoughts on the zones reverting to their old size: It seems to me that people do things for two primary reasons in this game: 1. for the experience 2. for the rewards Although there is some merit to the argument that the Mothership raids and the Hami raids are a great social experience, let's be honest here and acknowledge that the reason these are so popular is because the reward in terms of merits/minute is substantially higher than any alternatives. Like many multiples higher. It is human nature to want the greatest reward for the least effort, and the "new" Hami raids were exactly that because of a bug which increased the zone size. If the devs want to encourage people to do other content, then it is well within their rights to adjust things in order to do so. One way would be to cut the merit reward on Hami raids; another would be to increase the reward on everything else. And people would complain about that too. Everyone seems to want an "I win" button. Heck, why not have a counter that gives you one merit for every ten minutes you are logged in and a purple recipe for every boss you kill?

I would totally play a Steam/Thermal controller.

Yup, 2bn a character.

They seeded rare salvage at 1mm. If you look at the items for sale, there are almost 10mm of them. Almost all of them are offered at 1mm. The devs wanted to put a cap, and felt that 1mm was a good level. In the AH right now, though, market conditions are such that you can buy all you want at 500-600k. If you think that rare salvage is too expensive, then you should take advantage of that by farming some and selling it!

It’s a pvp all right. You can absolutely get one from a panacea.

I’m glad I got out of that market when I could!

WP is great to set and forget. But if you get in trouble, you don't have very many options. That said, you don't get in trouble very often. Bio can be extremely active if you choose. Bio is probably a "higher performance" set.

If they made Regen more powerful, then what would we have to complain about in the forums!?!? I have a staff/Regen brute at 40 who mostly solos at +3/x5. Could he be at +4/x8 if he had a different secondary? Sure. But would I have more fun with it? Probably not. The best part was figuring out when I probably needed to “pre heal” before locking into a long animation.

Im not sure I agree that they are barely profitable. I’ve spent a few billion on these and I can pretty consistently net 25% profits. That said, it’s not my favorite way to make inf by a long shot. Too much micromanagement.

It’s made soloing grav controllers a lot easier.

It’s hard for me to judge the net demand for ATOs. On the one hand, you can use them a lot earlier in your build. On the other hand, I don’t feel like every build is using them. I keep meaning to get around to using them en masse, but end up slotting Kinetic Combat and Entropic Chaos and Basilisks Gaze instead. YMMV. If they doubled in price I’d continue to trade them but I find the higher ticket items are more difficult to flip in size.

One of my lowbies has been parking inf in bids on super packs that are under the 10mm buy in price. Much to my surprise, someone sold one back to the AH. I saved myself 1 inf!

Stupid darkness *shakes fist*

In theory, the inf multiplier is as high as 10x. You spend 30 seconds farming and make 1mm. You spend that on two pieces of rare salvage that I am selling, and now I have 900,000 to spend on an Entropic Chaos IO. Now someone else has 810,000 to spend and so on. Of course, this can leave the system at any time; if the third person spends 810,000 on crafting fees, that's gone. So my question is, if someone farms 100mm, what is the average market value of the drops they are getting? If it is more than 1bn, then we're in a deflationary environment. If it is less than 100mm, then we are in an inflationary environment. I'm not worried about the increased amounts of inf entering the system, because I think that the supply of anything you can spend it on will continue to rise while the demand for such goods will wane. So I think people will be sitting on increasing piles of inf that they don't need to spend since there is already so much supply. I'd love it if prices doubled or quintupled, but I'd bet against it.

I just bought a Super Pack for under 10mm.

I think the primary one, which dwarfs the super packs, is the 10% sales tax. Anything you you have to pay inf for at the P2w vendor. AH transporters. Anything you purchase from a vendor.

I agree with you in theory. There is probably at least 5-10 times as much inf in the system as there was two months ago. Inf farming is exactly like printing money in your basement then going out and spending it on breakfast at the diner and paying your rent. However, prices have not increased tenfold on, well, anything. In fact prices have dropped on just about everything. In my opinion, this is because demand has dropped for recipes and IOs, and supply has increased. The simple reason why rare influence prices are higher is that perceived demand is higher and supply is lower. In another thread it was posited that merit farmers are buying purple recipes which need rare salvage. if people farmed AE for tickets, they could trade them for rare salvage and sell them. But instead, people will complain about how they have to pay 600k for something they had to pay 500k for yesterday.

It's a useful primary, but skipping 3-4 (I'd include sonic siphon as skippable for a defender) powers makes me wonder. I have a sonic/beam defender who is great on TFs, but soloing is meh.

My problem with sonic as a primary for defenders is that there are too many skippable powers.

I periodically change my signature to whatever market related chatter I hear from NPCs while traveling. It seems to be a popular topic, especially among the Tsoo.

You are probably dead on as to increases in demand. Not sure what you mean by not all rare salvage prices though, since they are fungible and buying and selling a rare salvage is now independent of which salvage it actually is. An Alien Blood Sample and a Hamidon Goo are for all intents and purposes identical, and trade exactly the same.

I follow this, and most market matters, pretty closely. I do not believe that this is market manipulation but a natural response to the fact that fewer pieces of rare salvage are entering the market. Where does rare salvage come from? Offhand, I'd say random drops, AE tickets, brainstorm ideas, and people's storage. There may be some missing sources I am not thinking about. Where does rare salvage go? It's used to craft all kinds of recipes, and it goes into people's storage. Let's say I want to sell 100 rares that I picked up in AE. What do most people do? They post it at a low number and sell it into the highest outstanding bid. That's easy. There are just under 19,000 bids right now. I'd guess a lot of them are really low, like under 5,000. But if you want to sell 100, you will certainly sell it and probably at something north of 500,000 as of this writing. Let's say I want to buy 100 rares to craft purples. There are 9,987,205 for sale right now. We know the devs seeded 10,000,000 at 1mm, so if you bid 1mm, you will get your 100. If you want to buy it for less than that, you are relying on a market maker to be offering it at the price you want. There don't seem to be any market makers right now. And if you want to buy 1,000 rares, which I often do, you are out of luck trying to find someone offering them at a reasonable price. I suggest that the OP, and anyone else listening, hit the AE farms and use your tickets to buy rare salvage. Offer them at or near the price you want to sell them at rather than selling them to the highest outstanding bid. Personally, I'd prefer prices to be lower on rare salvage as well, but there's no real way to make that happen so long as demand is greater than supply. Remember the first month of Homecoming? Salvage prices were 900k to 1mm consistently. There is no reason that won't become the new normal unless the farmers choose to respond to the profit motive.

I go out of my way to tell teammates that Doctor Moist is a PhD, not an MD.