Ukase

I am pretty sure I mentioned that for dual boxing, it makes sense (and inf) to do so. So, you and your husband are on the right path assuming what's his is yours and vice-versa.

Sadly (or not) this is my first farmer. De-slotted, retired once I realized I could just re-roll them for the emp merits. Vet level 2525. So, most of my farmer/marketers never get more than 1000 enhancement sales before they're put out to pasture. This one is just pvp IO sales since April 2020 when I stumbled on to the idea that I could focus on one niche with one character. But, I play the game, too - and usually characters don't JUST do marketing, so there's no telling what the actual stats are without a lot of logging in/out and tallying.

My opinion is that any player that is looking for help from a specific AT /powerset for a "farm" is a player whose build is insufficient for the task at hand. Some might say they are in a rush and want to get it done (get what done? you're farming. You go over and over again, or it's not really farming, is it?) or they just want some company. A few things you may not know - and I have experienced this myself when trying to help my alt account's farmer before I could afford the IOs that let me do it afk. With a kin, when you use Fulcrum Shift or Siphon Speed, Siphon Power (damage), while you can target through the brute/tank/teammate, you still get the overflow of aggro. And you're just not going to survive it at +4, unless you have a large number of inspirations at the ready and the teammate is able to get some of that aggro off you before the insps you took fade away. But...for that kind of risk & reward, given that inf & xp are nerfed in AE, you might as well just be on a team in normal content - unless you're helping out a friend or something. Any farmer can tell you - sharing a map is not advantageous. You get less inf, less xp, fewer drops. Less of everything. Anecdotally, when my PL'd alts are in my fire map - they get purples!! at level 4! or even 2! And the farmer gets the Stink of the Manticore. It ain't right. Now, intellectually, I'm aware that the rng will do what it does - but the idea that an idle character gets anything (even xp) is still a bit sketchy. But, I'll take advantage of it. While the farmer does get less of everything, the totality of what the alt gets and what the farmer gets is more than what the farmer would get by itself. So, for dual boxing, it makes sense. But to bring in an outsider, unless it's a friend who's going to return the favor, or you're just trying to be helpful, there's no compelling reason to do it. If you're a farmer and you want some help with endurance...consider a lore pet that's untouchable that can buff you. It's only every 15 minutes when you can respawn them, but maybe that's enough. Or you can use the p2w recovery serum, or ageless. Or both.

See...I would work on the market code...but I am too shady. I'd try to rig some back door to get all the AH fees filtered to my offshore email account.

What's more - is power picks and slotting choices within the same powerset/AT can still be like night and day. Fire/Earth blaster with teleport pool is played much differently than Fire/Earth without it. (at least it is for me) We might think we've done it all, but that's practically impossible. My default used to be flight/speed/fighting ... without a 4th pool pick. Then I leaned towards Speed/Leaping/Fighting/Leadership. Now, if I can make sense of a good way to take advantage of it, I use speed/leaping/fighting/Teleport. When you change something as easy as a power pool, the entire experience with the same content is fairly different. So...here's another option - pick power pools you don't normally choose, and make them work for you. That should be interesting for a few different ATs.

It absolutely is. I use it in Wal-mart when I'm forced to go there on a Saturday morning. If people are in the aisle, I go find another thing I needed until I can zip in and out without getting within 10 feet of them. I think the kids are calling it social distancing now. I've been doing it for years.

That's your view - and you're entitled to it - but I'd disagree. My dad told me the same thing. So, at 16, thinking my weekend job would be enough to carry me through life, I left. Slept with a cardboard blanket under a bridge. Who knew there were literal bats there? Not me, lol. As the morning sun came up, I went to my place of employment and ate some of the day old donuts, for free, cuz they were just going to go the pig-farmer. Kept a couple of fritters for lunch. Went to school. But, donuts got old in more ways than one, and my friends finally talked me into going back home. College would have been a tough road without the support of my parents - even if it was just a roof over my head. And yeah, a hurricane coming was part of the reality check, lol. My point is - if the old man hadn't said that to me, I might not have left. I might not have learned that I was taking a lot of things for granted. Some kids have a hard head, and what may be godawful parenting for one kid may be great parenting for another. Kids are people, too and are all different.

Ah..jousting. I remember back on Liberty when @Nemu taught me about jousting. I practiced on skulls in Perez Park with Fire Sword Circle until I figured it out. It was awesome. I recommend everyone learn this tactic just for kicks and grins if nothing else.

You're not alone. This is when you just have to think outside the box. Most folks who know me only a little consider me some kind of anti-social curmudgeon. And, to a point, it's true. I have no desire to get on discord and listen to teammates' tales of woe or wonder. I certainly don't want to hear about your cancer, or your kid's success or lack of it. I don't want to get to know anyone in game. There are people in real life that I can pursue that with if the mood strikes me. People whose smiles I can see. That said, about 18 months ago, I was feeling much the same way - "what to do, what to do". So, I got out of my comfort zone and joined an SG for kicks. Figured people might be what was missing, or at least add something to the experience. Thus far, it's been a mix. Some good, some bad. But interesting, at least. In your case, you're already in one sg, but perhaps another may be the way to go - in addition to, not in place of your current one. As for Praetoria, the majority is very often wrong. Half the folks on these forums, despite their well-meaning intentions make statements that are true for them - but not necessarily true for you. I think you already know this, but haven't considered it. To avoid the mastermind simply because some folks don't like teaming with them...that's a bit silly. If people made characters based on what other people said, they'd be stuck in the costume creator, afraid to come out. "Dominators suck until you get perma-dom" "Controllers suck until you get pets" "Sentinels are weak in damage" "Blasters are too squishy and get mezzed all the time" "Defenders are weak damage, and nobody plays them right" "Masterminds got too many pets and they never control them. And they get in the way and make too much noise" "Damn tanks are always jumping ahead, leaving scraps for the rest to deal with. And they can't punch their way out of a wet paper bag" "Stupid Broots. They act like single target damage is weak, and they think fury is an excuse to run off any way they choose. They don't even have the HP of tanks and they won't take taunt. Useless." "Scrappers? Pfff...weak hp, mobs always running away, and they never read chat. Useless. And their damage ain't that great. Damn crits always happen when the mob is 90% dead. Useless." "Corruptors? Ugh! No mez protection, and half of them forget they have a secondary. And the other have forget they have a primary. And they always make me type "scourge" when the npc is at less than half health. Arrogant bastards." "Kheldians? zomg! Nice effects, but they can't do anything very well. And if you go tri-form, you need 40 more slots, at least to make them good. And ya gotta be a damned bind & Macro master to play one" "Veats? What a joke. Damn things are end heavy, weak in damage unless you proc 'em. And even then not so good. I'd sooner die than make one of those again. If they didn't have such good team buffs, nobody would let them on their team." Small wonder so many folks solo and stay in AE with all the silly judgements many folks make. So, what might be another solution? 1. Take a break from the game. Put in some seriously low ball bids for certain items, just to see how that plays out. Log off, and find some amusement elsewhere. Check back in a few months. I don't recommend it - but it's an option. 2. Investigate other types of in game activity. AE mission making -- not a farm, but an actual story arc, perhaps about your character. 3. Base building. I've always been function over fashion, but mastering the base editor can take some time. And getting there may be of interest. 4. Theme teams - a literal plethora of options: Drop theme team: a group vows to only team together. Vary the origins so you can trade off enhancement drops. No p2w until your character can afford what you want. No using the AH except to sell. It's as tedious as you're thinking. But it's a credible challenge. I think some folks call it Iron Man - you get defeated, you get deleted. You can team with like-minded folks, or solo. But, you have to challenge yourself to escalate the difficulty as you level. Like levels 1-10, go 0/1 11-20, go +1/2 21-30, go +2/3 you can set up your parameters before hand to something you find possible, but not boring. Gold side - the biggest problems with gold side are there are no accolade powers to work towards, and there are no task forces. In my opinion, the best AT for gold side is a stalker. You can stealth a lot of stuff, zip through the maps as you see fit. Or kill as you see fit. You eventually get status protection. High damage. Is it "Zomg Great" at level 50? Nah. But a lot of that depends on slotting and playstyle. You could go scrapper, too, but you lose the stealth. Practically a coin toss. You'd want an armor that has some defense debuff resistance. I'd go Mace/shield, but that's me. And that's if you're soloing. Again, just my opinion and there's reasons to do it, and reasons not to.

Why do you think I kill them at every opportunity?

It's worth noting that the AVs in RV are more challenging than their equivalents found in missions due to the changes to powers from pve to pvp zones. You spend 50 levels with your powers working a certain way, with certain resists and defenses, then that big ticket build that gave you soft-cap defense and capped resists - it's not like that anymore in RV. No incarnate powers either. So, a much bigger challenge. Nothing wrong with a bigger challenge, but it's more of an FYI for those that may not be aware.

Personally, I much prefer it when folks type actual words. Numbers don't belong in the middle of words. They just don't. They never have.

Just my two inf: CoH, regardless of server it's played on - Rebirth, HC, or whatever flavors are out there - has a lot of things to enjoy and well, not enjoy so much. Here on HC, we have converters going 10 for every 3 reward merits. (I think that's correct). And on Rebirth, it's 250k plus 5 reward merits for 1 converter. Here on HC - the AH is pretty much alive and well. On Rebirth, folks there are more likely to set up a trade than use the AH, at least for bigger ticket items because of the AH fees. (The prices of purples used to be like live - 275M for a purple, but now they give purples away in the packs, which are accessible 2 at a time, for each account, each week, if you've logged your character in for the requisite number of weeks to gain the tier levels the packs are on. And you can have 8 accounts if you want. So, you can rack up the goodies pretty high if you're patient enough to stick around. But, I don't play on Rebirth routinely like I do here. They've made a lot of changes there - a new AT called a Guardian, whatever that is. No idea what it's like, and couldn't really be bothered to find out. And I'm sure there are others - I'm just not there enough to realize what those changes might be. I suspect at least some of these complaints - which aren't really complaints from what I've heard, more ....points of information - are given simply to explain where they're coming from. As for those who are genuinely whining about a lack of this or such and such place has that - so what? I would wager a billion influence that these folks are in the minority. And, as far as I can tell, this isn't a democracy here. It's a benevolent dictatorship. What folks think really doesn't matter. And as I've been told, to a degree, it really CAN'T matter. Because there's no way to please all the people all the time. Hard enough to please some of the people some of the time. In this day and age, with the pandemic woes, it's really quite a wonder we're not in a state of anarchy. People wearing masks when out and about, nobody's seeing anyone's smiling face except on tv. It's quite depressing for many people. You kind of have to take things with a grain of salt.

I don't really play for fun - I play for interest. What's interesting to me is figuring out strange things that most could not care less about. Can I make a character (non-inherent armor ATs - corruptor, blaster, Defender, Dominator, controller) just relying on drops, or just SOs. I don't think I've ever had fun - at least the fun I've had in a bar with friends, or with the guys on the football field. (though the latter is closer) For me, it's about seeing if I can make the character "super", or at least, more super than the last AT of the same type that I made. Getting defeated is just the games way of telling me I suck and need to do better.

Our SG does these on Thursday. Literally, every damn Thursday, it's something vs. something in yet another ITF. Corrs vs Defenders. Melee vs Ranged, Fire vs ice, rad vs dark, etc. It's happened so often I've stopped attending. Never was a fan of itf. That said, a themed group can be more fun, if folks stick together and let the buffs stack. There's no point in a team of 8 fire/ rad corruptors if half of them are split in 4 different paths and you can't stack AM. Finding that, even in the same SG can be a bit of a challenge.

It's not that they're easy. It's that they're well organized. Put an idiot in charge, or have half the league be afk and not heed instructions...it can get messy.

Just like in real life, on those occasions when a fist strikes my nose, it's a message. Didn't duck, telegraphed my blow - something went wrong. The brains sends a message to the face - "Ouch. Plan failed. More adrenaline en route. Breathe. Focus." When I'm defeated, first - I ask myself about context. Am I level 5 helping someone with Among Friends in a level 50 mission? In that context, I think nothing of it. I wouldn't expect to have 2 attacks with 2 slots each in a level 50 mission and live. (unless I'm hiding somehow) If I'm within a few levels of the mobs, there's a message. And the message is, I executed bad judgement. Poor decisions. Why did I fail? Stunned? Mezzed? What slots can help mitigate that? Blaster? Need more defense and more dps. What's the best way to do that? Procs? Leadership pool in lieu of teleport pool? If necessary. Fold Space is nifty, but it's not worth having to re-toggle. It's all a message, but you have to know the context. Obviously, it's just a game, and it's not going to cost me another quarter for 3 more lives. (hope some of you are old enough to understand that) But, it's still a message from the game telling you that you've zigged when you should have zagged. You under-estimated the npcs, or you've over-estimated your ability, or some combination of the two. Adjust the plan for your character, if you had one, and try again. There's no reason at all for a character to have the first debt badge by 50, unless they're in pursuit of a badge. Play smarter. Don't be THAT guy that thinks it's okay for a blaster to die. Over and over and over again. Don't be the guy that runs into the mobs just to inferno/nuke and make Rise of the Phoenix part of your attack chain, no matter how fun it is. It makes you look bad, and gives the undeserved reputation of "glass cannon" to blasters everywhere. Be a loose cannon, yes. But not a glass cannon. Those are the things that run through my head when I get defeated.

Of course they do - but then again, they're practically free. When you buy a lot of winter packs at 10M (15M was this year, but I haven't opened many of those yet) and you have literally hundreds, if not thousands of winter-Os, the surplus are sold, at a profit. All of the boosters, catalysts ... all that stuff is practically free, because a few months after the sale, Winter-Os that were catalyzed sold for 25-30M. The reward merits, the catalysts, the boosters, unslotters, the converters, the amplifiers, those are just gravy. Now, because they could be sold, they have an opportunity cost - using them costs me a sale of however much I'd make. But - that's an unrealized gain. It's not the same thing as me buying 180+ boosters to max out my character. Those boosters used are also an opportunity cost, are they not? One person plucks them from character email from a pack that already paid for its purchase. Another just buys it straight from the AH. Or maybe they bought it from proceeds of simply selling 10M packs at 25M. I've no idea. Either way, by opening the packs, and selling surplus items, It's practically free. One can make the valid argument, that they cost time - which is a more precious resource than even money. For money (real world money) can be accumulated. Time cannot. But, in the midst of a pandemic, working from home...what else am I gonna do?

The only folks that are doing this are "buying now", as opposed to plucking things from character email like boosters & catalysts.

No. I am the clown that says people should reply to a message if sent one. A common courtesy. Yes, you should use lfg to let others who haven't yet sent a tell that you're full. But the folks who sent a recruiter a tell, the recruiter should reply in kind.

You can join multiple SGs, just not with the same character. No rule against (that I know of) joining one sg with one character, and joining another SG with a different character. Anecdotally, I can tell you - it can really suck popping in a new sg and see their base is super extravagant - so much so - you lag when you enter it. The leaders of Cosmic - they'd rather build a base with all the bells and whistles than play the game, it seems to me. Such useless fluff, and the teleporters and workshop are a country mile from the portal. But - some folks genuinely love and appreciate that glitz. And it brings them joy, so why not? But, with any SG, you're only going to get out of it what you put into it. If you invest in your in-game relationships, it's bound to be worthwhile. Unless you're a jerk, lol. Then, maybe not.

While Adjusted Targeting recipes are correctly in the AH as level 21-50, in the Attuned section, there are 3 Adjusted Targeting IOs that read they are slottable at level 7 (and at least one of them, I confirmed was slotted at level 10) 3 in the set can't be slotted until level 17, 3 of them may be slotted at 7. Obviously, since I've got one slotted prior to level 20, it's a glitch of some sort. Shouldn't be slottable until level 17.

For inspiration macros, I've always gone to this particular URL - although, it's a bit slow, and occasionally I have to reload it. https://web.archive.org/web/20120904041854/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=125603

If I'm remembering correctly, part of the concealment pool used to have an intangible power, but the end usage of this toggle was quite a bit more than my low level characters could handle. I was in the red zone of the Hollows, and a CoT Spectral Ghost was dishing out some major damage. I popped the intangible power, and was safe...for about 15 seconds or so, when my endurance ran out and got defeated quickly. But, that was...man, that had to be issue 4 or 5 days. A long time ago, so I could be off.

So...I thought about some things...and thought some more. Even brought out the spreadsheet, logged how many IOs there were on the market, looked at the demand for them (bidding value), then looked at how many items could be converted into these particular type of IOs. About 6400 of these items in total, already crafted. Another 400 as recipes. I could, conceivably buy them all. At least at a moment in time. Briefly, I suspect I could drive the price up. If the supply has been choked, and demand remains the same...then a few of the normal players would simply pay more, pull from reserves in base or other less-played characters. But, as has been mentioned in this thread and forum routinely - any player can disrupt the market briefly - but within a short moment in time, other players will see the choke on supply and invade the niche and increase the supply. The end result is the initial...instigator (Me?) is likely left with a lot of inventory that they won't be able to sell at the hoped for price. Ultimately, in the long run, the case might be made in certain circumstances, the tactics used would result in more players entering that niche, and the price would be driven lower still. And let's face it - buying thousands of items, when you can only get 10 at a time...just no. I think watching paint dry would be more fun.