Yomo Kimyata

Oh, I know what YOU want. Just peace in the woods with your animals and an occasional wanderer who you can skin and make into a fancy hat.

When we enter transition times, like when a new issue is a-coming, I think it's healthy to ask who or what these mythological "devs" are and what their objectives are. Here's what I assume: - Many/most/all of the devs are current or former players. They are probably going to want to influence the game towards a direction where they continue to enjoy playing the game themselves. With that assumption, I'm frequently going to ask myself who the decision makers are and how do they like to play. - No one is getting paid. The intention is not to encourage pay-per-anything or keep hours/days/years of retention. An additional corollary might be that devs might be inclined to not work dozens of hours a week to change stuff. - *The incentive is to keep (and attract) as many players as possible for the longest period of time. Well, at least, that is what I would do. If you like teaming, why not have as big a pool as possible? My point, if I have one, is to try to understand why changes are made. It's probably because there is an intention behind it. Maybe it's an economic intention; maybe it's a moral one. But unless you, yes you, I see you there, have pissed off one or more devs to get them to make rules against you, maybe we should accept that they are aimed at making this experience a better place for all of us? Crazy thought, right? Happy hunting!

How about making a PvP server that only covers those zones? Link the /AH to the main one. or, make character creation so easy that your character is deleted after every session. I doubt I will pvp significantly again, but I’d rather do it at 25 than double secret extra power 50.

I, for one, welcome our new rocking chair overlords.

I got an Archery/Pain corruptor into the mid 30s and just had to stop.

No, but there are people who do use the PvP zones for non-PvP purposes: badges, shivans, etc. Now I am 100% on board with the idea that you are taking a chance every time you enter a PvP zone. I can just see this potentially leading to gank fests. Good point on the exemplar mechanism, although I think you have a much more sanguine view on human nature than I do! On further thought, this change would potentially lead to a lot of people making new characters and equipping them, which would be good for the overall economy. I'm willing to sacrifice a small amount of personal utility for that. Carry on.

As long as the insta-50s cannot interact whatsoever with any other characters that are not insta-50s, I don't see a problem. I'd suggest restricting them to Arena though, because they would destroy anyone who was building up a character that wasn't specifically for insta-50 PvP. So you can't in good conscience let them roam Bloody Bay, for example.

So, like threads, emp merits will become essentially useless after you have achieved your incarnate goals? I don't assign value to super inspirations, personally, but they will certainly be cheap as heck. I guess I'm fine with that, but then please enable an option to stop emp merits and threads from dropping. And/or enable an option to receive something else instead of emp merits or threads. If the intention was to keep players from farming emp merits and converting them, your first solution was significantly better, in my opinion. The new solution adversely affects people who want to play their 50s in a non-exploitative way.

And today I see that it's due to insider trading!

Brutes are fun! And there is a visual reminder (Fury) of how fast you need to keep smashing, smashing, SMASHING!

Howdy folks: We are ready for the next step in the process! I'm so excited! We have chosen 8 scrapper primaries (and 4 also-ran) and 8 scrapper secondaries (and 4 also-ran). Now it is time to match primaries and secondaries and to set up the competition brackets to see which will win my eternal affection as my Forever Scrapper(tm). Here's my objective for this round. I am going to ask you your opinions on how you would match up these powers for the most *balanced* set of eight scrappers (and if you so choose, the most balanced set of four also ran scrappers). Then we will set up a competition bracket and I will eliminate choices at three points: leveling to 50; T4-ing Alpha; T4-ing all incarnates. By the end of it all I will have experienced or re-experienced most of the sets and I will hopefully have an idea of what I want to play forever and hopefully you will have been entertained and made some inf on the way. Here are the eight primaries: Claws Dark Melee Energy Melee Katana or Broadsword War Mace Martial Arts Staff Fighting Dual Blades Here are the eight secondaries: Bio Armor Energy Aura Shield Defense Super Reflexes Radiation Armor Invulnerability Ninjitsu Dark Armor The also-ran primaries and secondaries: Stone Melee Savage Melee Radiation Melee Street Justice Stone Armor Electric Armor Ice Armor Fiery Aura Each of you who gives me your opinions on full matchups for the first 8 gets 100mm inf if you leave your global name in the comments, and an extra 50mm inf if you provide matchups for the also-ran as well. Bonus rewards at my discretion. Again, I'm not looking for the one best matchup and seven meh; I'm hoping for 8 solid contenders. I'll settle for just matchups, but would appreciate any color or additional ideas. Here's an example, of what I mean, straight up now with no lines to read between: (This is just for the also rans) Stone Melee/Electric Armor -- The heaviest endurance user matched with a big endurance recovery defense. The weaker resistance-based secondary set has its survival helped with the great mitigation tools (knockdown) from the primary. Street Justice/Stone Armor -- StJ seems a pretty vanilla offense (I don't know it well so I may be wrong) and let's pair it with (what I think of as) the overall strongest defensive set of the group. Radiation Melee/Ice Armor -- Two damage auras! Slow attacks but Chilling Embrace helps keep enemies in range for them. Don't need much button pressing from the secondary. Savage Melee/Fiery Aura -- Consume takes a long time to come up, so a low endurance primary is nice. Savage Leap (w/ a knockdown proc) then Burn would be a nice 1-2 punch. Thanks for your attention. I'll probably keep this open until the beginning of August. Cheers! To be paid: @Skylancer, @TungstenShark, @Thermostata, @Without Pause, @Nemu, @Scarlett Angel, @Xmurrder, ALL PAID

So far my worst was a Sonic/AR defender. (EDIT: I used sets, and it was still awful.)

I would have expected convert prices to be going up, as people realize that they will be in lower supply in the future, but nope, they are on sale right now!

I agree completely. Is the point to add new costumes? Then just put them in the costume creator. Is the point to serve as an influence/time sink? I'm not sure why one would institute such a sink in a free-to-play game. Is the point to give players something to work towards? Why not make it something individual like a personalized badge or title? I'm not going to be impressed by a player with a new costume, because it is far from unique. I would be impressed (or possibly appalled) if they had a badge "Killed Rommy 10,000 times!"

This is what kept me away initially. It was as if the creators didn't understand probabilities. I'm testing out one now, and I can't say I'm very impressed by the incremental combo performance.

Bah, in that case I'll wait until they use it for something meaningful.

This new reward currency, it would currently only be useful for vanity costumes, correct?

Here's an opinion that should annoy *everyone*: When I first saw toggle suppression, I thought, "Jeez! Why do the devs have to dumb down *everything*?" Then I saw the 8 second rule and thought, "Oh, that's fair then, a quality of life issue that basically offsets the time you would otherwise take." There are plenty of times that my toggle drops and I don't even *notice* it for ten seconds. If I am mezzed, then usually my first few seconds are getting away to safety; I'm probably not going to spend the next 2.68 seconds reinstating my toggles. I mean, if you don't want to get mezzed in the first place, there are plenty of ways to make that happen. Higher ranged defense, break frees, power choices, etc. So now, everyone seems to be taking this gift and haggling over price. No mom, I want TWO lollipops! I get it that the devs want to provide a gift that is relatively balanced. 8 seconds seems reasonable to me. Maybe 7.8 seconds. Or 8.2. Serious suggestion: can you make this an option for players to opt into? Default is how things currently are, and opting in gives you toggle suppression with however long a cool down as the devs decide?

Ok, I've made my payments, and selected my choices, both for the "best" eight elimination bracket and the "also ran" bracket of four. Since effectively choosing twelve is equivalent to eliminating two, I'm taking Willpower and Regeneration off the table. I really enjoy both of these power sets, but neither one has extraordinary synergy with any particular primary. Willpower is set and forget and Regeneration is push a lot of buttons, and I'd like to explore a bit instead. Frankly, I think Willpower is *boring!* and I *really* like Regen, but that's probably a snobbery thing to be honest. Anyway the top eight: Bio Armor: Oh yeah, I really love Bio for so many reasons. Energy Aura: I see why it's so good, but I can't "see" my costume, so that gives me a little pause. Shield Defense: Like said, I have a slight bias against click-to-activate mez protection. I doubt I'll use a macro, so I'll probably skip Hasten on this build. Super Reflexes: I also find this *boring* but the people have spoken! Radiation Armor: Currently my second favorite behind Bio. Invulnerability: Always a solid choice. Ninjitsu: Not very familiar with this one, so there may be a bit of a learning curve. Dark Armor: I can't see my costume here either but I don't care as much! This set is awesome and versatile, but hungry! The "also rans" Stone Armor: I like it a lot, and need to get over the graphics. Electric Armor: Wonderful on brutes, I need to make it work better on my scrappers. Ice Armor: I actually really enjoy this, and there is a strong similarity to Energy Aura in my eyes. Fiery Aura: Just plain fun! Stay tuned for Phase 2!

Well, if you enjoy the action of farming, the good news is that the new aggro system appears that it will make it even easier! If you enjoy the getting of vet levels and EMP merits easily, it appears you will have to find a different way. Again, I'm reserving judgment until I hear what the devs overall purpose is.

I'd like to hear the reasoning from the devs on the change before I'll make suggestions, which should be upcoming. I'd hate to *add* more rewards to this game, either in terms on inf, items, or faster leveling.

I haven't read all ten pages of this thread, and frankly this change won't affect me a bit, but AA's comment is dead on. AE Farming hasn't been removed -- only one specific aspect of it has. If you like farming, keep farming! You'll get lots of goodies still. Play how you want to play! I know the devs said this isn't a thread for speculating on motives, and I'm looking forward to reading their digest when it comes out. I suspect that it has a lot to do with AFK farming (which they have stated was something they were against). Emp merits (normally gained with vet play) convert to reward merits and (I think) can produce inf very quickly when compared to inf generation through defeats and selling drops. But I'm no expert.

It's listed in 2-star and 3-star and 4-star! Who knows what they will actually implement?! No, now is the time for us to throw off the shackles of our fat cat Big Confuse overlord flippers and bring the prices of their nefarious niches down to earth. From Befuddling Aura to Malaise's Illusions, none shall be spared!! (Except the purples, those are good.)

Also, with this: All enemy classes have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection. I'm selling, Selling, SELLING CONFUSE!!! And I'm putting a hold on making my Psi Melee/Ninjitsu scrapper with double confuse/boggle.

Ok, I paid out people, made my own vote, and have made my decisions for the next phase. They largely match the popular vote (although not completely). Claws -- I'm not sure I've ever played a claws scrapper to 50, but I do have a fun 50 claws/fire stalker that would have been a unicorn once upon a time. I'm gonna have to either skip the flip animation power, or reconcile myself to it. Dark Melee -- I really didn't like what they did to Shadow Maul but this set is too good to pass over. I've got a lvl 50 DM/regen that I enjoyed a lot. Energy Melee -- Another very popular play. I haven't spent much time on it on a scrapper but have a 50 Bio/Energy tanker that might be my strongest alt. Katana/Broadsword -- I'm going to lump these two together and make my final choice based on what secondary I end up with. I know, I know, there is a DPA/DPS/DPwhatever difference between the two sets, but I just plain like broadsword. My namesake has been a BS/Invuln scrapper that I've been tinkering with since Live, and I've got brutes at 50 with regen and bio. War Mace -- This is just too good to pass on. I have an early 50 scrapper WM/Dark Armor that I found very effective although endurance heavy, and my 50 brute WM/Willpower has always been boringly good. Martial Arts -- Completely new to this, and I don't think I have a MA alt higher than 30. I'm excited! Staff Fighting -- Almost all of my early 50s on Homecoming were staff, and I liked it least on the scrapper. But times change, and I've got a much better grip on builds and mechanics so let's look at this with fresh eyes, shall we? 50s in Staff/Bio in all 4 melee flavors, staff/regen and staff/fire brutes. Dual Blades -- Also new to this one. Messed around with a few but never committed to it. Also excited! Now, I'm also going to have a "also-ran" bracket of four flavors, because that's how I roll. I'm not looking for the "worst" combos, but the best of the unpopular ones. Stone Melee -- So very much mitigation. So very slow. So very endurance heavy. So fun! My 50 stone/rad scrapper levelled to fast I hardly remember how I played him. Savage Melee -- New to me as well. I passed on it since I don't really love the telenuke, but I'm starting to come around on this on some of the scrappers I've been trying out with it. Street Justice -- Also new. Gotta try it at some point, so why not now? Radiation Melee -- Slow slow slow, slow but it's a killer. My 50 rad/dark scrapper and rad/bio brutes are immensely powerful. Honorable mention: Ice, which even without ice swords makes a really fun experience. Also Battle Axe! But War Mace is just plain better, except for weapon skins! Next, I'll work on the secondaries, and then come back to you all for advice on matchings and seedings. Excelsior!