Ukase

So...I looked at this latest build you have - and by now you've already moved on to something else. But, if not: The numina regen/recovery - I would take that out. You don't need it, you won't miss it. I would take that slot and put it with Super Jump, and add a Blessing of the Zephyr 4pt kb protection. Then, I would suggest you drop acrobatics and pick up either assault or tactics. But - that's me, and my playstyle. It has been since retail, the last time I took Acrobatics. It could be worth it to you, and you may know something I don't. It's a cheap toggle, and if you find you don't get held much, go for it. Assault or Tactics are a bit more expensive, but I am confident that if you change nothing - and just remove that numina slot to see if you miss it - you won't. There was a time when I ALWAYS used Numina. Somewhere in these forums, someone smarter than me suggested it wasn't that great. I check my combat logs, I see Panacea and Miracle and Perf Shifter - I rarely see the Numina. Not sure why. Maybe my eyes are tired. But, I took it out and don't miss it. I'm a player that relies on survival more than dps, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Since you stated what you're after, I didn't even look at the defense numbers. I just looked for the easy stuff.

So, I already answered another post about finding Dark Watcher, in pretty good detail, if I do say so myself. Check out your other post if you care to see how to find Dark Watcher.

So, allow me to try and shed some light here. Levantera is the first contact anyone gets in RWZ, regardless of alignment. She's a level 35-50 contact. Her first mission is to have you speak with Borea, and then Borea would have you kill 10 Rikti (I almost always go after the monkeys because I can one shot them most of the time) and then you return to Borea, who introduces the player to Serpent Drummer Gaussian Dark Watcher Lady Grey. So, if you had actually started any content in RWZ, you should know where Dark Watcher is. If you ever use the LFG, you can select Infernia's Story arc, and be teleported to her. I say to do this because, other than using a /loc - which might require an explanation of how to use a thumbtack (Dark Watcher is at 287.0 -56.0 -2123.3, by the way) I think this is the easiest way to describe how to find him. Fun fact: No sewers in RWZ. There are underground tunnels, but no sewers. The figure with the flaming head next to Teflon, (my alt), is Infernia. Simply shuffle to the left (facing Infernia) and Dark Watcher is straight ahead. As shown below: So now you know where Dark Watcher is. RWZ has some good content. I like DW's content. Good stuff. But some of his missions, if you've not done them before may leave you frustrated with a lack of direction. Especially when you get to the one that requires you to "Find mission exit". If you simply thumbtack your location upon entry when you get to the mission that looks like you're in the shadow shard, that might be something useful to do.

Yomo's one of my favorite people in this game. Driving me to become more and more rich, and generous.

If I were ever to try and look for a flaw in the way Yomo presents information, it would be in some of the 10 dollar words he uses, which make my brain go over budget.

There's not much to it, really. But it's not for everyone. It can be very tedious. For my SG, maybe 2-3 years ago, I shared my screen with more than a few folks, showing exactly how I would take a level 1 with zero inf to a billion in short order. After about 30 minutes in, I only had one player left listening. It's just not that interesting to most. I mean, who doesn't want to type /ah (or whatever macro or bind they use) and see all your listings have sold? And then to get that notice that you can't get your inf because you would exceed the cap? (I am fairly certain this is a new feature but no idea when it was installed, as I'm pretty careful about not reaching it.) Look for @dahle on youtube. His video is dated, but still applicable. Or, if you're more of a reader, go through Yomo's guide. All good stuff. I think the worst part is learning that losses are part of the process. Like..recently, I made like 100 of an item that was typically selling for 3-4M. Now, they're selling for 1-2M. I am not real clear on what happened, other than someone clearing out their stash and selling them cheaply. I'll wait it out, see what happens. But burning another 200-300 converters to change them all into something that will sell for my desired price..well, it's annoying. Had a challenge lowbie trying to make it to a billion, starting at zero. Went to winter packs, seeing they were selling for 18-19M, non-superior. Had some crappy luck on more than a few packs. (and some good luck) but overall, my average was closer to .8 than 1.2 enhancements per pack. Lost a good bit. There's ups and downs in the market. Just have to ride out the valleys and aim for the hills.

When you make your own AE mission (and you totally should try!) you will begin the process and see in orange a bunch of errors. Simply click on the top error and go all the way down, filling in fields as you think appropriate until the errors go away. When it comes to maps...they have some names and you'll see pictures (outlines of them). Plenty of office maps, outdoor city maps. I get the frustration of getting stuck on a rock or corner. It's just the price of afk-farming, imo. I knew a guy who used to broadcast for a lowbie with flight. He'd tell the lowbie to fly overhead through the map while he would tab out and watch tv or work from home, no idea really. I just know he would press f for follow on the lowbie and the lowbie would fly around the map. The lowbie gets their levels, and he got the map cleared. Win/win, I guess. Not sure either one had any excitement or fun, but that's their business. There's a lot of ways to do things differently, for sure. Here's an example of a map in AE: If you look on the left, I can choose just about any map we have in game - and it's not like these maps are special or require anything to be unlocked. Just pick the one you want. I suspect you're looking for the same as the Atta map, but without the debris. I would have no idea where to refer you, as that would involve me testing each map to take a look, and well, it's not that important to me to do it. Sorry. Someone else might be able to suggest a map and describe how to find that map, with the decription of small, medium, large, etc. and then the description of that map.

Made a new character. Yesterday's character didn't feel right. Respec'd at level 22, stripped of enhancements and moved to the far right alt page. Storm/Sonic corruptor. So far, I like. Only level 8, so time will tell. Did a DFB. We get to the Dr. Meinst section, and team leader simply says: So, for the nitpicky - Kicks and Grins is my character. I do not have fireball. Perhaps in the epic pools my character might get an option for fireball, but I doubt it. So, I was joking. But I did cooperate, as I respect the desire for badges. And, because my chat is organized in an odd fashion, the rewards go in a different pane/box than team/league chat. But, note the time stamp to help verify veracity. No pep talk. No prep talk. Dude just types in "badges" before heading straight towards Meinst and everyone cooperated. WE EVEN HAD AN MM ON OUR TEAM! Yes, I scream because I'm elated, surprised and really, couldn't care less about the badges. I'm marveling at the beauty of a pug playing as if they've been playing for many levels. Silly banter, and not one stale joke or pun from me. I'm just taking it all in, like an aroma of freshly baked bread. Anyway, before you pug again, you should look at this. No idea if any of them will take me up on my offer to 4*lgtf when we hit 50. Imagine, 2 tanks an MM and a useless storm sonic corruptor on a 4*LGTF. It could work, but it sure wouldn't be ideal. There was a blaster, too. Ice blaster, at that. And, well, anyone that knows anything, ice blasters are great for 4*LGTF. But, I digress. Enjoy the maintenance period, folks!

On a new character, they seem to get General chat enabled by default. So...usually, the content in general is unsavory enough where I remove it as I'm creating a macro or two for various purposes, at level 1, before I've even moved my character from the initial spawn point. But..yeah...where's our knocking empty halves of coconuts emote? So many other silly things, but not this? What do you folks have against imitation horse-step sounds? Or is the coconuts? Nobody said anything about putting it on your pizza. Just a simple emote.

I have been wondering this for at least 3 years. I was in Costco, and sure enough - they are in a fancy zip-locked bag. So, I decided to ask the stocker there why. They had no idea either. I thought about calling the manager, just to waste their time, but thought better of it. When I dared to ask Google, there was a suggestion it was so folks could try them on without destroying the packaging! Yikes!

I imagine they would just despawn after a period of time. I can't imagine why this would ever be an issue. Not that I mind ensuring these rascals are all defeated - but what's the point? If they're there, it's not going to stop the event from spawning again, I wouldn't think. Just basing that on a premise that it would be rare for these to be cleared during/after each "war of the grim vale" every single time, yet they continue to occur. So, what's really going on here? I am open to the idea that I'm wrong, but if it really is required to clean these mobs, and if one is left alive, the event doesn't happen again until the server resets, wouldn't you find that to be a bit silly? Surely they would have thought of that. I would suspect if their collective defeats were required, the merits wouldn't be awarded until all of them were dispatched. But that's just me, kind of thinking aloud. I typically tab through and look for even con or yellow mobs on my 50's and typically never see any. And when I do, I'll blast 'em for the badge count.

So...just my two inf - for free. Never listen to anyone else about what's good or bad. Most of the time, this kind of analysis, while potentially accurate, the difference between good and bad might be too small for most folks to ever notice. I have played sonic on a defender and a corruptor. Candidly, I couldn't tell you that I noticed any difference in the buffs, de-buffs or survivability. I remember being fairly surprised to see how easily they both reached the resist cap. The only pain point for me was some end issues, but that's fairly common in the 30's, at least, it is for me.

Wish I could help - but I just made a storm/storm and so far, only know enough to know I don't really know what I'm doing yet.

The game is strange. In one moment, the game can be a place of great humor and amusement. In the next, it can be a source of frustration. I actually wrote about 8 paragraphs, describing in too much detail different interactions that led to many different feelings. But, nobody needs to read all that junk. Right now, this instant, the game is a distraction, and an unwelcome one. I have rowing to do...rowing I was supposed to do 90 minutes ago. But who's going to look forward to a 10k time trial on an indoor rower? A blistering 1:50 pace can get me in the top 10 for my age. Or it could kill me. I'll find out too soon.

How would this be defined? In any event, just today, leveling up a kin/dark scrapper for the first time, because..well, they suggested kin needed some help. Well, I suppose it could..a little. But in any event, one group I'm always concerned about is malta. No endurance, can't do anything. So, I tend to avoid them. But, in order to progress in this certain arc, I had a malta defeat all. Well, I know sappers will drain end. And I know one of them drops that super-annoying auto-turret. I never paid attention to which one, because, well...the times I actually fight malta are very few. So, I went to HC Wiki. This is what I found: Note at the bottom, Kevlar. So, I can see what kind of armor they have and the damage they're vulnerable to. As far as I could tell, this data is available for every type of Malta, and I would assume every type of NPC we had in the game before shutdown. Now, it's not original work by me - someone else risked their endurance bar to get this data - not me. But, while I don't do this for every faction, I will do it if I'm on a character that I still have a lot to learn about and I'm tackling mobs I'm not real comfortable with.

As of late, with the more frequent occurrence of Nemesis invasions, getting the FPR on blue side is really almost faster and easier than HPT on redside. The problem has to do with your luck - did an invasion happen when you could take advantage of it? If not, then you have to wait until your level 40 to have any kind of real chance to stack up 100 fake kills. For whatever reason, the only time I see fakes under level 40, is in Anton Sampson's missions, and then, they're just the boss at the end you have to clobber. Even set to 0/8, you get 1. Mind you, that's anecdotal evidence, not to be confused for a verified factual statement. There may be better contacts, with better missions; I just haven't found them yet. I mean, you do a pos1 - that will get you gearsmasher. No need to suffer through a synapse unless you just want the merits or just like lengthy kill-alls. A yin TF - will get you on your way for Tankbuster. And if you don't get it there, by the time you're 40 and hit market crash for your free purple, you'd likely finish that badge. And of course, there are a number of contacts that have freaks in them, so there's no doubt in my mind, and proven by my own experience you can get this badge naturally, just playing the game. No need to hunt. The fakes are always the bottle neck for me. For whatever reason, I feel ineffective unless I can get the accolades as soon as I can get them. Sometimes, I feel like my build needs the stat boosts. Sometimes, it's the goal I'm chasing. Either way, I'd rather get it sooner than later. The High Pain Threshold, for redsiders - you simply can't get it before level 30, unless you're just fortunate enough to get on someone else's team for The Unlucky Artifact badge mission before you hit 30. The contact that gives it is a level 30-35 contact. And you usually have to do a few missions before he'll give out the badge mission. Even if you try the abandon, reselect a mission hack, sometimes he'll still give you other stuff before that one-off badge mission. As for XP debt - the patrol xp that we get from explorations has made any debt insignificant and meaningless, other than the lessons you learn from the defeat. (like don't slam a shot of whiskey and run into Hro-Dotz with your blaster. It's just not wise. It can be great fun, but still, not a good idea) The worst part about the HPT is the debt badge. It's annoying going into monster island just to commit suicide 15 times or however many it takes to reach it. Could just wait to level 50 and die 3x. But, waiting to 50...might as well go FPR instead. But, that's just me. Opinions and preferences will certainly vary.

Just as an FYI, I can't say that it only has spiders, but running Agent G's stuff, 4th story arc contact in Faultline (annoying location and annoying mission locations - mission tp is worth it, imo) his arc has at least one mission, that running at +2/1 on my stalker, most of the npcs were spiders. I think between Theiry and Agent G, I want to say I got 135 spiders. And that was without killing every spider I saw. Jim Temblor's finale with nocturne, running at +1/1, there's still about 20-30 in there if you're going out of your way to get them. So, I think it's probable that you could get this badge organically, as you describe it - but you might have to run at 0/2 or 0/3...but I don't know if the increased team count creates a different arachnos mixture of critters.

So, I just need to say this - just ran 2* with someone who actually had the /loc commands of where the other player with incan should port us. I died once. We had fewer team deaths than I think I got alone on my first run on the 1star. It's like it wasn't even the same task force. Everything was calm, relaxed, and I kind of thought it was some kind of mind trick, where it must be that the 1* is the hardest and the 2* isn't quite as challenging. I swear, sometimes folks are playing a different game than I am. It was almost like some of them had the instant win buttons from brainstorm. Those AVs went down like they were level 54 lieutenants. Now I understand why some folks are shaking their heads, wondering what my issue was. I got terrorized once, and slept once. And I was unaware that I could only use medium or small inspirations - all I had were the large ones - which went unused. I learned a lot. I'm gonna run that a few more times, because there's still more to absorb, but with a solid team, a blaster can actually blast instead of running for his life.

In a sense, I agree. But that's not the way I decide on if I should make a suggestion or not. To me, dev time is irrelevant. I'm here to make a suggestion. That's all. It could take 2 minutes or 2 years. A more important question is would it add value to a player's adventure? But that's just me. I get it, volunteer staff, and lord knows there are much more important things. But, there were more important things than the lrtp, too. Yet it found its way into the game.

This is a difficult question - mainly because I haven't thought about it. I don't even know if you can call it a QoL change. There were some changes in HC since the first day they opened up the doors to everyone. And it's tough to remember what was something that HC specifically did, or it was done prior to the public opening and it just carried over. Most of the things on my list - as I think about them - are more about the game's economy than anything else. The seeding of salvage comes to mind. The change of the exchange rate of VG merits to reward merits. The lack of charging influence for trading reward merits for converters, and the generous exchange rate. The Find Contact and the Teleport to contact option. The LFG teleport to contact option. The LRTP. Since some of those have less to do with QoL than others, I think as much as I want to bring attention to converters and seeded salvage, I think the LRTP is probably the biggest QoL improvement for me. Sure, I have base teleport, and the SG portal I could use, but the lrtp is faster - saves me a load time. I know some folks are thinking, "what's the rush", but if you're after the prismatics (or the monstrous aethers that convert into them) or even the merits, then you'll recognize that if other folks are also after those things, then sometimes, Babbage is defeated before you get there. I use the lrtp and even though I'm on the opposite side of the map, I can generally get there in time. Having to port into my base, and then port from my base to Skyway, I've lost out on merits because of the 30-45 second delay. (the biggest delay is usually my finally noticing the broadcast, honestly) I did not like the instant base tp being taken away, but the solution to that was manageable, and I've kind of forgotten about that great convenience. It's really hard to pick on this new way of trying to make things easier for the new player. Part of me thinks it can only help, but my inner curmudgeon wants them to suffer as I did, having to hover over The Hollows just to reach the mission alive. But those changes weren't from HC - they happened prior to the shut down. I thought the pvp recipes dropping in pve was insane, but I really like it. I never enjoyed loading my alts in and killing it repeatedly in hopes of getting a drop. Granted, it made a ton of inf back on "live", but it wasn't really fun. Just something I felt like I had to do to make enough inf to slot my characters. I think the one thing that impacts QoL a lot is influence. And the removal of NoXP/2xInf had an impact on a lot of players. When it was implemented, I'd already amassed a sizable stack of influence. But, I still think this was an over-reaction and completely unnecessary. Just making afk-farming more difficult or even improbable would have been a better course of action to achieve the desired result. Leave the active farmers alone. Let them make 2xInf if they want. They're only going to put it back into the economy, fund more costume contests and make more alts. And yes -I recognize that opinions vary strongly about this. You have a right to yours, just as I have a right to mine. We can disagree and still share a joke, I would hope. And, the thing is, every now and then, I see a new-ish player, level 30-something who's asking if they have an option to turn off xp and double influence. I mean, for them, it was an innocent question - as they figured if they could double xp and lose inf, they ought to be able to double inf and lose xp. But, for reasons which I still don't agree with, we can't do this anymore. So, for me, that's the biggest one that I'd like to roll back.

This is a minor thing, but my life seems to be filled with the pursuit of marginal gains. I finished an arc in Mercy today. Well, I actually finished it last week, I just logged the character in, noticed I needed to call the contact to get the next mission - and <fanfare> I leveled up from 4 to 5. Story arc bonus pushed me from 4 to 5. I have 2xp buff going, and a full 10 bars of patrol xp, so not a terrible surprise. Apparently I was level 3 when I started that last mission of the arc, and dinged in the mission. And logged off without training. So, suddenly, I'm an untrained level 5. And my reward was a level 3 SO. So, yeah, I can still use it. But why isn't it at least a level 5 to match my level? Because I'm untrained, I suppose. I mean, it's just an SO, but it seems like it should have matched my level at worst, or been 3 levels higher, at best. Just kind of feels like I robbed a bank and got 5 bucks instead of 5 gazillion dollars, which no normal bank would keep on hand, but they all certainly have more than 5 bucks. If I'm going to risk making little rocks out of big ones for 10 to 20 years, I ought to get something more out of it. Jus' sayin'.

I'd like this myself.

So..I think SG bases and SGs in general are an interesting part of the game. I remember in retail getting invited into an SG with no prior teaming or anything. Just a blind invite and then, not being asked, but being TOLD to convert my costume into "SG mode", which changed my colors to make me look kind of like a bumble bee. These folks were probably the experience/adventure people wanted - but I couldn't stand it. I was on an emp/electric defender, my first character ever. And these crazy people wanted to do +4 stuff. Well, they wanted the XP. What they didn't realize is that I was just learning the game, hadn't a clue about slotting, or power choices for that matter. And the harder the content is, the more I would have to heal. It was annoying, not fun at all for me. I quit as soon as that first mission was over. It wasn't their fault - it was mine. Noob player, but I felt like if I'm going to be in a group, I want to be in a group with people I like. And it made more sense to me at the time (and still does) to team with folks FIRST before you decide to be in a group with them. With the options to use Discord - which I'm not a big fan of - people end up talking about non-game stuff, and can sometimes amuse or piss off people. I tell the worst jokes I can find just to punish my team for having me use Discord. I'd rather not use it - but damn, it's a lot easier to say "Try to avoid the nullifier force fields after the riders die. If you're in one, do your best to get out of it, asap", than it is to type it out, especially while in combat. So, I use it. It's a good tool. But, you know, there are background noises from a few folks every now and then. What'd we expect? Not everyone is playing in a basement all alone. Still, a super group, as it is now, allows for people to see at a glance who's on, and who's not. Beats the whole "Anybody home" in the global chat channel. If we were to suddenly be allowed to join multiple groups, this is kind of how I see things happening for me: "What? Join your group? Sorry, who are you? " OR "Um..hi bird brain. Yeah, I guess I could join." "What? I have to join your discord to? Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Okay" "9pm? But that's during the other event that I do at that time." "Why are your SG colors so lame? I can't look evil/heroic wearing <color>. Come on, don't you think about this stuff?" "Do I have to actually talk in your chat channel? I'm trying to play a game here, not chit chat with you about <whatever>" BUT: I can keep my own stuff in my own base. No need to worry about permissions. I don't have to drop 20 fps immediately upon entering this SG base that's really trying to impress folks. The bottom two (for me) outweigh the foolishness of the top potential issues. In many ways, I kind of think like Groucho Marx. I don't want to belong to any group that would have me as a member. I mean, as a player, and as a joke teller, I'm only slightly better than mediocre. But as a human being, I can be a real jerk. That's just me being me. I try to be nice. It just doesn't come easily and sometimes, I'll let you have it. And keep letting you have it. Because you deserve it, don't you think? The sad part is, I don't know how it can be done. I'm not saying it can't be, but it's beyond me. I think about object oriented programming. Can an npc be a freak and a carnie? I just don't know if the game can resolve the differences.

Emphasis added by me to make it stick out. I know I'm not the only person who makes a character and as soon as I notice my character is in General chat by default, I remove it from entering my text boxes. General chat has a purpose - it's where a lot of folks who like to disagree with each other go to chat. Not saying that's everyone, but man, those folks seem to like to quibble. So, I just take it out. Just stop paying attention to it. About the procs. I would have no idea if they're going to adjust them or not. I have heard rumors, like a lot of people. It would depend on what they do, I suppose. I only have a handful of characters I really care about - most, if they were impacted by the change - I'd just not play them anymore and make a new character. That's what the 1000 slots are for. When someone says, "Oh Super Strength is lower-tier", this is what I'd like you to keep in mind: I build my characters different than you do. I build mine different from that guy with the silly costume. I build them differently than most other folks. So, how is someone going to tell me that my character sucks compared to someone's Shield/mace tank? They can say it all they want. They can believe it all they want. But that doesn't make it so. If my character gets the job done, then I guess it doesn't suck that bad. The only arguments I hear against SS are that as good as foot stomp is, it comes too late, and there's no other AoE. Well, AoE isn't the greatest thing in the world. Sometimes, you need single target dps. Do I want them to change procs? No, not really. I kind of just figured them out, thanks to a spreadsheet that lets you fill in the values and it computes the odds of a proc firing. It's really interesting to see how many builds people put in the forums, and I crunch the numbers and see they've wasted slots with damage procs that will never fire. If you really want to try and head off disaster, maybe go to brainstorm and measure your character's dps without the slots. Then, measure every other powerset that's not SS and showcase how bad your character will be without the procs compared to the other sets. I think you'll find it's not as bad as these goons in general chat think it is. Mind you - I haven't done these tests. But I can guarantee you your SS out-dps's my SS/dark tank. I can't even get past Trapdoor! Every other character I've made has wiped him out in about 15 seconds, but not this stupid tank. Mostly my fault for trying to use Soul Drain on him, instead of the group of Arachnos at the front of the catwalk. I guess I should slap some procs in.

Just anecdotally, fold space brings the mobs into pretty much a perfect cone.