Yomo Kimyata

Isn't that the system already in place? I guess that they could simplify it to cut out the merit middleman. In that case, I'd recommend expanding the "fixed price" section of the AH, and put all the recipes in there at the prices you quote. I really don't like the current system they have with seeded salvage. I mean, you KNOW that most of the 9.8mm rare salvage are listed at 1mm due to the price cap, but I'd much rather know there is 9mm offered as the cap and 0.8mm posted by players, for example. I would rather they had put it in the "fixed price" section.

I'm not really a fan of this, partly because I'm not sure what the problem is that it's meant to address? Are converters too expensive? Is uncertainty getting you down and you want to be guaranteed to get what you are looking for? I'm just guessing. I would much rather you pay a flat fee of x converters and choose the outcome you want, and I really don't want that!!!

I rarely run IO set niches anymore. But it seems to me that there is a lot less interest in providing supply than there used to be. I’m guessing that most of the people who are in the best shape to provide that supply are bored with it. I’ve probably sold 30 crafted miracles for profits of 5-10mm a piece today. And I’m like, so what? What am going to spend it on? Boosters! J/k

Miracles are back in a big way, so smoke 'em if you got 'em. I noticed the display bug was back, but that there were none for sale less than 10mm (88 were for sale). A few hours ago, I took two stacks of lvl 31 harmonized healing IOs that I bought months ago for 150,000, converted each of them by healing to Miracles, then by set to the proc. I figure on average it cost me 15 converters a pop. I just checked in and most of them sold. Note that the last 5 history is showing a lot of 5,005,000. That's me, but my bid was only for ten. Be careful about selling for 5 inf! You never know what the bid is!

What's that line about engineering? You can have it fast, or you can have it cheap, or you can have it of high quality. Pick two! I mean, at one extreme, you can always start your own server. You can set it up so you are swimming in everything. But then you only get to play with whoever else joins your server. That doesn't sound like fun. The main reason I play on HC is because it does have the most population. I also happen to like the market system. They have designed the market system to be extremely user friendly, with caps and floors and all kinds of things that are specifically designed to keep casual players from having a hard time. Personally, I'd like it to be more cutthroat, but I'm willing to put up with it in exchange for the population. I'm not going to tell you to play on Pineapple or to start your own server. I will, however, suggest you really explore what you want and how you want to get it. It sounds like there are not enough recipes that you want at the prices you want them when you want them. You can place bids ahead of time, you can bid higher, you can buy other things and change them into the things you want. Those are three constructive pieces of advice. I think that learning how to use converters would really help you out, but that's up to you. If you need some seed money for converters, let me know.

Galaxy brain, thanks for testing. I do think War Mace is the “best” weapon primary, but there are a lot of “what ifs” and “how about xyz “ I’m not sure I see a need to equalize sets. I have a BS scrapper. He’s awful compared to my WM scrapper. But awful means running +3/x5 versus +4/x8. At what point do we equalize all sets? My vote would be to nerf WM rather than buff BS.

Hmm. To OP, what sort of recipes are you looking for? And are you putting bids on what you want, or are you wanting there to be supply waiting for you when you are ready to bid? Finally, is there supply, but is it listed out of what you want to pay? In general, most people know at this point what are good recipes and what are bad. So if I get a LotG recharge recipe to drop, I’m going to see what sells for more, the recipe or the IO after I get salvage and craft it. Usually it’s the enhancement that’s worth more. So you really can’t complain if someone would rather sell a crafted enhancement rather than a recipe you want. Are you familiar with enhancement converters? They really are magic. If you want, for example, a lvl 50 unbreakable guard +7.5% hp, you can start with any unbreakable guard and convert in set until you get the one you want. A more cost effective way is to start with a Titanium Coating, convert by res damage until you get unbreakable guard. Also, I strongly recommend selling things you don’t want to buy things you do. It’s generally more cost effective than just using converters

"What YOU are missing is that my beef is with the argument that there was so much built up inf in the system that when there was an outlet it blew. " I'm sorry, but you choosing to reply to the previous sentence and ignore the sentence above just shows that you are simply not paying attention. I don't think you are stupid. You may be. But you are certainly not paying attention. My message had zero to do with RMT. It didn't with my interaction with MacSkull. I don't know why you all think RMT is so important. What I am simply stating is this: before the auction house, there was a 2bn cap. There is a lot of talk about how when the auction house came into being, there were suddenly hundreds of trillions of zillions of inf that got spent on one glad armor proc. That is untrue, and if you can't see that, I'm sorry. There was probably a few hundred of billion of inf in total, not more. I have no, zero, thoughts on what gold farmers were doing then or now.

Sigh. you are right of course. The RMT inf/$ amount had to do with what people thought their time was worth. But I'm not missing the point and I resent that you think I am that stupid. What YOU are missing is that my beef is with the argument that there was so much built up inf in the system that when there was an outlet it blew. It has nothing to do with RMT. I don;t know why you or MacSkull seem to think that RMT is important to inflation other than that farming increases inf. I wasn't arguing against that. I am arguing, very specifically, that the statement that there was so much inf in the system before the AH was instituted that it had a lasting effect on the market, is bunk, bullshit, ignorant lies. There could not have been more than 2bn per toon. I'm not arguing about RMTers. I'm simply stating that there was not a near infinite amount of influence in the system.

Everyone says that when Live went to an AH, the huge amounts of accrued inf were crazy. But at the time that got instituted, there was, at most, 2bn per character. So in the moment they instituted a free market, there was at most 2bn per toon. There were a lot of toons, but very few of them were maxed out. RMT sellers were not about accrued wealth; they were about income There was no one who decided to make thousands of characters and run them all up to 2bn and then sell out. It was about rate of wealth accumulation. If you could make 100mm inf in an hour, and you could sell that for $1 per hour, that was your thing. Good for you.

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.