Yomo Kimyata

I'd probably start with something like this. Feel free to swap out sets for something less pricy:

I haven't been on beta, but it sounds like they will be in existing categories? So there will be three Running recipes: Quickfoot, Celerity, and Thrust? In that case, I wouldn't expect any real change in the converter method: buy uncommon recipes or IOs (Quickfoot), craft, convert once by category (Running), and you have a rare (Celerity or Thrust). Depending on how popular the new set is (looks pretty meh to me), maybe the price of Quickfoot goes up a touch? But it should still be a good way to play rare roulette.

Lord of Snarkness; Mistress of the Snark

DNA Siphon is way too good a power to one-slot (as is Parasitic Aura, but that's an order of magnitude less important in my eyes). I thought I had a Mids build lying around, but that must have been on an old computer. I'll put something together tonight.

*marks up HOs 500%* Excellent.

This is one of the few suggestions I actually have no problems with! It doesn't make things easier, it serves as an inf sink as opposed to creating easier rewards, and (in my uneducated eyes) would in theory be easier to program than a lot of other ideas. A+.

Do they know about shrinkage?

I try a lot of stuff. Some of it I like better than others, and some of it I like better than others sometimes and not others. Usually I get on a kick based on an idea and run with it until something else pops up. The three tenets for a real winner for me are: it has to be interesting, it has to be challenging, it has to be fun. I can swing back and forth among these at times; sometimes you just want to walk onto a fire farm and burn stuff. Interesting: I like having to put some thought into it. Maybe that's a good backstory, or even a name. I *love* finding really crappy builds and making them into something that is ok, good, or even great. I don't find FotMs very interesting, but that's not because there is anything wrong with them but because I'm a real snob. Popular things are popular for a reason! Challenging: I prefer things that take at least a little bit of thought. I always like to punch above my own weight because I want to push myself, and frankly there is essentially zero penalty for failure. I don't feel bad about eating floor in a mission unless I know it's going to take me five minutes to get back there. Fun: Let's be honest, this is (I hope) why we are all here. Get your kicks however you want to get them, so long as you are not getting them at the expense of someone else.

This problem sounds mysterious and spooky.

This is a great thought experiment, thanks! I don't have this combination, but I would think it's a good one. +Recharge is always going to be your friend when you are trying to get Benumb/Sleet/Heat Loss up as much as possible. Personally, I'd work Hasten in, but I'm a real stan for that. I also try to work in -res everywhere I can and in a few places I can't. The FF +recharge proc, which I also love, doesn't stack I don't think? But you could conceivably keep it up all the time. It does, by the way, fit in Bullet Rain at least on my defenders it does. For Empty Clips and Bullet Rain, I think I would go with FF proc, Annihilation proc, 3x Superior Scourging Blast (3,4,5 on Empty Clips, 1,2,6 on Bullet Rain), Nucleolus. Hail of Bullets should pretty much auto-proc whatever is in there. I wouldn't put a FF in there, but would probably use a Fury of the Glad proc and 5x Superior Avalanche for the melee d. I think I'd 6-slot Superior Malice of the Corruptor in Piercing Rounds, especially if you are able to routinely get more than one target in the cone. That proc is 5ppm! I'd put it in an AoE if I could since it is going to trigger a fair amount. It shouldn't be too bad in Pistols/Dual Wield either.

I've been thinking about DSOs a fair amount, and I've been thinking about the future. Not just the I27:3 release future, but changes they may make after that. I see three realistic possible outcomes in the near-to-intermediate future: 1. Everything is exactly as stated in the patch notes for I27:3 and onwards. The DSOs will have a different drop distribution than HOs et al. DSOs of the same type as current HOs are stackable, and should have commensurate value (they will probably be cheaper than HO peers, but that's another issue). DSOs in new types will be very very uncommon, since the only way you get them is through the new Strike Force (red side!?!!). Some will be very useful for niche builds, but being able to build to a lvl 53 Damage/Endurance, for example, would require at least 4 DSOs. These will be very rare -- much rarer than the lvl 53 Cytos. 2. At some point, the new DSO types get added into the distribution pool of HO/Hydra-O/Crystal-Os. Maybe this will happen, maybe it won't. But it seems like a natural progression. In this case, the aforementioned lvl 53 D/Es will become more attainable, and there would be various other likely ramifications. 3. At some point, the devs cave and make HOs convertible by type or some other similar outcome. In case 1, there will be a number of new items of extreme rarity. I could see hitting inf cap on some of them, at least early on. In case 2, the new items will not be nearly so rare, and there would be more trade in the items. I see this as the most likely eventual outcome. In case 3, which I don't support personally, all HOs would change dramatically in value to come to more of a commodity-type "HO" value. In case of outcome 3, I bought a bunch of crappy HOs for under 1mm. Maybe I wasted a half billion or so (OH NO I WASTED A HALF BILLION!), but it's kind of a happiness hedge. So while I'm complaining about how easy kids have it nowadays, I should be able to make some nice profit, since I'm eyeballing the value of "an HO" at 5-10mm.

I love Nemesis? so much that I use that convention a fair amount.

My opinion is that if you want something on a character you should get it on that character. Everything else is just nepotism. BUT: how about making a mechanism so that we can *put* items on the Character Items menu (which are accessible by every character on the account) at a 10:1 tax. You can put up 10 LotG procs, one gets posted for any of your characters to pull off. You post 1000 merits and any one of your characters can pull off 100 merits. I'd even consider this for incarnate stuff.

What's the problem we're trying to solve? 1. People complain about knockback when I'm on teams. Ok, if that bothers you, use one of the tools available. Problem solved. 2. I'm not doing enough damage when I'm solo. Ok, if that bothers you, use build 2 or 3 and switch to a solo build when you are soloing. Problem solved. Am I missing something?

A buddy of mine wrote this article on why people are mean on the Internet. For best results, read it then log in anonymously and tell him how much it sucks! https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201901/posted-anonymous

What server are you on Snarky? *runs off to make Snarky Rex, Snarky?*

It may come as no surprise to you that this was my first thought as well. It's a good set, especially the proc, and I expect the pieces to trade 1-2mm except the proc 3-5mm. But it's not worthwhile my making hundreds of the proc, since 1. slow sets aren't in high use, imo, and 2. it's still going to be easy enough to get to an Ice Mistral if I want one. If I'm wrong on this, then feel free to taunt me! Or threat level me, whatever.

Oh it gets worse/better. I haven't figured out how to put lvl 53 HOs in Mids. And then there's the incarnate stuff.

Ok, I haven't finished this journey yet, but I'm far enough along to see where it's going. I learned a few things along the way, and I apologize if this is second nature to everyone else, but it wasn't for me. Electric Melee: I've never played this to 50 before, but it's really a much better set than I anticipated. Jacob's Ladder doesn't have much use to me, and neither does Confront, but everything else is in and gets used. Being able to slot Sleep sets on three powers means that you can slip a Call of the Sandman heal in there -- it's a significant heal when it triggers. Being able to slot End Mod means you can slip a few Power Transfer heals in there -- it's not nearly as significant but I guess it adds up. Neither of those made the cut for my "final" build but both did when leveling. The endurance steal from attacks is practically insignificant, but with Bio Armor you really shouldn't ever be wanting for endurance unless you are getting actively sapped. I see that Chain Induction doesn't pass on self buff procs (like Power Transfer) past the first target, which seems fair. I really don't like telenukes, but Lightning Rod fills a need for a AoE proc bomb ready every 30-40 seconds, so I moved the Fury of the Glad proc to there from DNA Siphon. Lightning Clap needs a Sudden Acceleration proc, and then 5 slotting with either Stupefy or Absolute Amazement. The AA proc should provide a fair amount of mitigation if you lead with Lightning Clap. ST damage chain is lacking, but man those flopping AoEs! Bio Armor: I probably have the most experience in this as in any of the armor sets. The thing that I'm doing a little differently is slotting up Environmental Modification more than I normally do. The rut I get in is normally focusing purely on positional defenses rather than typed. Low 40s for S&L and low 30s for everything else except psionic, seems more than tolerable. No endurance problems, and my Healing Received chat is lighting up green with all the bonuses I'm getting from various procs. I always 6-slot Ablative Carapace with Preventative Medicine and 5-slot Panacea in Parasitic Aura plus a Theft of Essence. DNA Siphon and Parasitic Aura should both be blue bar fillers every 30 and 90 seconds respectively. I'm putting the Crit Strikes proc in the damage aura along with Overwhelming proc and Avalanche proc. Every pulse, there's about a 45% chance for one or both of those to proc, so lots of flopping even if you aren't doing anything at all. Epic: I went with Leviathan Mastery for Hibernate as an oh shit button. Water Spout seems like an extra tool to stick an Achilles Heel in, and it causes knock up so that's cool. Like any bio armor scrapper build, ranged debuffs are going to be a problem, but other than that this is a really fun effective ride. Now am I claiming that this is the best build ever? Yes, yes that is exactly what I'm claiming! There's an extra slot in there I haven't decided what to do with yet, and I'm still fine tuning some stuff. Love it.

The biggest problem I've been having is that I have a real need for a bunch of WOs right now. I'm not willing to pay up for them now when I know they will be 60%+ off in a month, and I'm not willing to wait a month. Decisions!

I feel like this brings the thread back around. It has been thought provoking, at least to me. One the one hand, "be kind" is a very good moral tenet. You can't go wrong with that in many cases, and the world definitely needs more kindness. On another hand, this community is a social group of (presumably) humans. In my life experience, I fall firmly into a Hobbesian viewpoint of humanity in that humans, like life, can be nasty, brutish and short. The Leviathan to Hobbes was the overarching authority that kept people in check. Sometimes that's government, sometimes that's a volunteer group that monitors a forum. In severe cases, they will step in and stop behavior that is detrimental to the society as a whole. But in less severe cases, there often is a self-policing that occurs from within the group itself to express disapproval of people who are being detrimental. I'm not necessarily going to say, "It's the GM's forums, let them settle it," and I'm not necessarily going to say "I'm going to settle it." Both of those are extreme viewpoints. But I don't see a problem with providing a feedback mechanism to say, "Hey, In my opinion you stepped over a line, and although you might not be actually touching your sister, I'm still going to pull this car over and we are going to hash out what it means to be a member of this society." So when someone, deliberately or accidentally, trolls, I think it is legitimate to express disapproval. It's a good feedback mechanism. At the same time, it is also legitimate to critique those who critiqued the original person, and it is legitimate to critique those to critique those who critiqued, and ad infinitum. And yes, I'm looking at myself in this spotlight as well. In this venue, you are going to be interpreted by your written word, whatever your intent may have been. It's probably a really wise idea to spend a little amount of time thinking before sending a snap response. I, for one, can benefit from that introspection. But if after thinking, you still think your response is merited and adds value to the community (bonus points if it's funny), lay on MacDuff. Because at the end of the day, those volunteer GMs are going to decide who the ultimate jerk is!

Just perusing, I'm really not seeing anything. But just wanted to get a second (or fifth) set of eyes on this in case I'm missing something important. Here's the patch notes for reference:

I'd say it's a smart way to overcome some of the problems with Bio Armor scrappers. BAS have a few problems. They are squishy and can't get as much protection from their ATOs as some of the other ATs. Their epic pools are extremely lacking in protection, and there are only two legit "oh shit" buttons. Debuffs, especially ranged debuffs, are the kryptonite of the class. I'm running mine through the 30s right now at breakneck pace, and I'll post my thoughts/experiences on a build soon.

Nobody sees my doodle unless I *want* them to see my doodle. Or unless I forget.