[Really Hard Way Runs on Everlasting Sat 9pm Eastern]

A very nicely led two runs by @sundew! 

 

[Curious about very early CoH]

While looking for various badges on an alt, I stumbled across a plaque in RWZ not associated with a history badge, so it wasn't on my VidiotMaps overlay. 

That got me to thinking...

In some ways...I kind of wish Beefcake and others had never done the pigg diving and made things so easy. I can't fathom how difficult it would be for some to find things like "egg hunter" in Faultline without vidiotmaps.  And, I am making an assumption about Beefcake. I didn't know him/her/them, and am assuming that's how the precise locations were found. It would have been interesting to see how long I would have actually spent searching for such things...and not even knowing if they were there to be found. 

 

How long would you search for a badge if you weren't even sure there was one to be found? Or where it would be found? 

This is the kind of thinking that kept me out of the better schools, as it's completely unproductive. But, I can't go to lunch with my crew of hot soccer moms, so I'm asking this question instead. 

[VidiotMaps for Issue 24 and Beyond]

This may have been brought up previously, but 10 pages is a bit to sift through. 

I am not sure why, but I've decided to get all the badges on a second character. In pursuit of this, I just happened to notice a plaque in RWZ, and the caption reads:

 "This plaque commemorates Lovers' Point, the most popular spot in all of White Plains for a wedding proposal."

 

/loc is 1469.3 16.7 -5409.4

 

I share this here because the plaque doesn't show up on my version of VidiotMaps. And I'm fairly certain I've got the updated version. Has there been more than one update? 


Nevermind. A quick search reveals that this plaque isn't associated with any history badges. I'll leave it here so others don't make the same mistake I did. 

[Really Hard Way Runs on Everlasting Sat 9pm Eastern]

I have transferred a fire/rad corruptor, named Pundit, t-4'd in all the right places to help out. I also have my farm brute parked next to luna with a ton of threads to assist those who may be squeamish about dishing out hundreds of threads for ultimates and team supers. 

 

[Cauterizing Aura]

I went with 3 Preventative Medicine, 3 Perf Shifters. The usual heal procs are already in Health. I am fond of PM's Absorb Proc. I won't miss the recharge much. Just threw me off when I checked the Combat Attributes. 

I still don't know why it accepts heals when nothing shows up in combat attributes. But, now that you've said it, I do get a 30.11 heal every few seconds from it in my combat log. Guess that's why it doesn't show up as regeneration, as it's a heal. 

Thanks, Nemu!

[Cauterizing Aura]

As a player who enjoys playing the Blaster AT more than the other ATs, I found myself surprised when HC opened that blasters had a toggle in the secondary. With ice secondary, it's Frigid Protection. With fire, it's cauterizing aura. 

While I was considering which IO set to pop in, I noticed that CA accepts heal sets, as well as end mod sets. While I like preventative medicine's absorb proc, as well as most of the bonuses that come with a set of 6, with this blaster, I'm focused on hp and regen primarily.  Because of this, I can stop at 3, and either slot 3 perf shifters, or 3 numina's. (or maybe something else). 

Because I had the Preventative Medicine's in my base, and I wouldn't turn down another 8.75% recharge, I thought I'd check to see how much improvement it would give my regen rate. 

So I pop open combat attributes, and I look....and CA doesn't impact regen rate at all. I checked to make sure CA was toggled on, and it was. 

So...why does CA accept Heal IOs if it does nothing to benefit regen or health points? A free mule space? Guess that's it, but I'm a bit puzzled about it, figured I'd ask if anyone knows why. 

[Arch mage Accolade tips]

I've gotten my Tsoo Sorcerers mostly from patrolling Talos, as you suggested. One bit of advice I would add, though, is to use this macro: /macro FIND targetcustomnext enemy alive Sorcerer

This way, you can zip around town, and not really be paying THAT much attention, and your target key (by default, it's the TAB key) does the work. 

[What enemies do you find most difficult/what kills you the most?]

For me, it's Arachnos. Not any one in particular, but the mob as a whole. The Mu drain end, one of those Spider insect types dishes out psionic, some dish out s/l, others dish out other damage types - basically, if you've got a weakness, they seem to find it. 

 

BP bug me too, but only at +4/8. I can hang at +3/8. But I've got to pay full attention at +4. 

[Some things players do that annoy you?]

5 hours ago, Bentley Berkeley said:

Uhm no its not, you maybe are unfamiliar with wider MMO culture, but farming is not deemed playing by MMO gamers in general. The only time one is playing in MMO is when they are actively engaging with the community while also working through story based content. Farming, grinding, doing chores like selling or cleaning up ones storage, are all seen as non play, filler activities people do when not actually playing the game.

 

Even RPing is considered one of those filler activities in the wider MMO world, and CoH has always had a pretty atypically high RP scene, yet its still not really playing the game when we are having hours of interesting RP chatter at the D or SG base city scape etc.

 

And yes even soloing is deemed a filler activity, though likely the most contested of all of them as those who prefer solo even on MMO, tend to chafe at being told what they represent to the community by being a pure solo player  is someone who may as well not be playing at all.

Wider MMO Culture? What the heck is that? Is that a thing? 

When I got CoH back in issue 3, I'd never heard of an MMO, didn't know what it was. I just thought the game had millions of players. Had no idea that other people would be controlling avatars and playing in the same instance I was. I have never considered CoH to be an MMO because you could play the game just fine without teaming. 
I don't mind teaming, per se, but I intensely dislike waiting for people to join when I'm recruiting. After a couple of minutes, it really irks me because I could have finished most missions in that time. 

 

Just my opinion, but MMO culture doesn't define the CoH player base, because, particularly with HC's version - it's NOT an MMO. Nothing massively about this game. There never has been. 

Now that I've said that - Crafting, Converting, Selling, SG Building -- that's all legit game play. You may not think so - but you'd be mistaken. It may not be productive in gaining xp, but the better parts of this game have nothing to do with XP, particularly when many have already gotten to 50+3 with dozens of characters. However one chooses to spend their time - it's all legit. 

 

Even if they are getting on my irrational nerves. 

[How do I look at slotting Regen?]

When you're dealing with Regen, you have to recognize that your regeneration rate relies on your HP to determine how much you'll regen. There's no point to having some great regen if your hp is low. The higher you can make your hitpoints, the more your regen will be. 

 

This is why Dull Pain is your friend, because it raises your hit points quite a bit. On my scrapper, it's by about a 1/3. So, for my armors, I use glad armor, 5 slotting it for the 2.25% hp bonus. I even split up the scrapper ATO set in half to get 3% twice. If you can afford to get perma-dull pain or close to it, that's the path I take. 

[What's your favourite playstyle?]

On 7/6/2020 at 9:12 AM, Coyotedancer said:

'Depends entirely on the character, for me...

 

I often run solo with my Sentinels and Stalkers and Scraps.

I exclusively run solo with my one Mastermind. 

I farm for fun with Harry, my Claws/Fire Brute.

I typically exemp and run with mid-level teams on most of my Defenders and on my Corruptor.

I haven't touched my Tank or my Controller since I finished their Incarnate toys. 

 

I used to be a casual-type Roleplayer, but I'm not sure that really applies anymore. I'm only nominally doing the roleplay thing at all these days. 

 

I do solid builds for my crew, but I'm not a "power gamer"-type. I don't tend to play at the raw, bleeding edge even though I love throwing a character into the middle of a big pile of goons just to see what happens. 

 

I keep an eye on the auction house, but I'm not really a serious marketeer. I'm a "does it for fun" active farmer, so I really don't need to.

 

I'm also a casual base-builder. My tastes on that front are odd and I know it, so I just build for my own entertainment.

 

 

Surely there's a blaster in your stable somewhere....

[Some things players do that annoy you?]

3 minutes ago, summers said:

Are you saying the Looking for Group channel should not be used to Look for a Group?

No, I'm saying that it's a peeve of mine to see several people looking for group when they could be recruiting to fill their own team. 

It's one thing to want to do a given task force, or a mission, and ask folks to join you. It's quite another to ask to join every active group at the same time. 

I never said I was rational. I just said it it was my biggest peeve (in game). 

[Are AE drops specifically kept light?]

Anecdotally, I find my farm brute does better when I change maps, regardless of whether it's Dev content, or AE.  Not saying results are poorer over time, only that they are better when I change maps. 

[Are AE drops specifically kept light?]

23 hours ago, Heraclea said:

One thing here may be different in AE.  Drop avoidance in standard content works towards various badges.  But stuff earned in AE generally does not count towards badges:  not to mobs defeated, damage given or taken, or inf earned, for instance.  Only badges that relate to XP earned continue to accrue in AE.  I doubt that you make progress towards drops denied in AE, but I could be wrong. 

You would be mistaken here. Rejected recipe progress was made on my badger in AE maps. 

[Some things players do that annoy you?]

I think my biggest peeve is folks that will say in LFG, for example: Level 50 blaster lfg. 

What? If you are looking for a group to team with, there's a the Find Member button right on top of that box you just typed in. That's where you look for people to join your team. Or, if you can't see that, type /search (/sea for short). 

Nobody should be broadcasting "LFG". Form the darn team! If you're not comfortable leading, nobody cares. Simply state that you're new, but you want to do whatever it is in your mission list, or a tf, or whatever it is you want to do. 





 

[Devs fix the lag.]

The thing about lag from a player perspective is that most players won't really know what's causing the lag. 

Suppose ac9999 had never had any lag previously playing on HC until Derek the Mender goofed up. While it's not proof positive, odds are something in that code doesn't agree with ac9999's system. 

If that is the case, what is to be done? Sure, all the suggestions made might help. 

If not, what then?

I'm not sure we can ask volunteers to fix stuff the same way we would if were paying for the game. (and actually expect them to do so)

 

[New challenge/competition ideas?]

I like to play where defeat actually means something occasionally. If your character suffers defeat - you delete it. I make allowances if I'm on a team with others to finish the task at hand first, but otherwise, respec the IOs out, and start over. Further, I may start at 1 player, +0 difficulty, but at level 10, I raise it to 2 players/+1, level 20 will be 3 players/+2, level 30 is 4 players/+3, level 40 is 5 players/+4. 

I'm doing this now with a blaster and am level 15. So far, so good. I do not like my chances, as I'm having to get leadership and fight pool long before I'm really ready for it endurance-wise,, but I'll be needing the defense a little more, I think. I am on Goldside now, so I don't foresee any teaming until maybe when I get to red side. I anticipate hitting blue side at level 40 or so. 

I was able to do this once before - and got to level 50 +2, only being defeated in a DE monster scrum in the Hive during a hami raid. I should've let the tanks go in first, lol. 

 

 

If you really want to go hardcore - don't use p2w. It's been since shut down since I've done gold side content as a lowbie, so this time around I opted for some p2w assistance. Depending on how things go, I may forgo p2w next time around. 

[What to do with extra Notice of the Wells]

A notice of the well can be upgraded to 40 threads, all day. If you no longer need threads, you can, as Apparition pointed out, buy some Team or Super insps. Get the team reds for more frequent sales. Most folks only use the ultimates when pursuing the RHW badge efforts. (Well, that's all I use 'em for)

[Current Value of 100 Merits]

9 hours ago, FrauleinMental said:

Boosters:  Convert 100 merits to 20 boosters, sell for 1,200,000 each, netting 1,080,000 each after AH fees.  21.6M net.  I did that when they were going for 1,500,000 each, but that's more rare now than it was a few months ago.

 

Catalysts:  Convert 100 merits to 5 catalysts, sell for 2,400,000 each, netting 2,160,000 each after AH fees.  10.8M net.  Sometimes they'll sell at 3,000,000 each, but also more rare now and even at the higher price they're not worth buying with merits.  The only time I'll generally sell catalysts is when a bunch drop from pack openings.

 

I've seen recent discussions about using those 300 converters to play roulette with uncommon IOs you buy off the AH and resell as higher-priced rares.  I haven't tried it myself, but proponents claim to turn 100 merits into 100M inf profit.

Must have been back last August or so...I was selling catalysts for 5M each. Good times. It didn't last long, but long enough for me to make a billion or so. 

[Current Value of 100 Merits]

What Yomo is experiencing is likely similar to what many folks who've been successful with the market are experiencing. When you bought zillions of Winter packs when they were on sale, and realized how tedious they were to open (when you literally have 1000 or more, it gets quite dull...) you find your character email filled with Winter-Os, Reward Merits, unslotters, catalysts, boosters, respecs, tailor tokens, team inspirations, and a lot of other nifty (and not so nifty things). 

I was on a level 35 blaster yesterday and was looking for one of the Overwhelming Force IOs in my base. Somehow, I didn't have one of them stashed. I have 1000's merits in character email, hundreds of hero merits (on other alts) and I thought...do I want to blow 10-12M on the one I want, or just chunk down some merits which by now are not that meaningful to me...a good problem to have, for sure. 

I almost used merits, then quickly did the math in my head and figured I could make more by using the merits to get converters, actually use the converters on the drops I had on that character. A no-brainer, really. Just a question of whether I wanted to actually take the time to craft and convert. Having well over 100 billion, even though I've stopped afk-farming, (and every other type of farming), I'm still comfortable for the next 100 or so alts before I'll even think about needing inf. 

[Blaster or Sentinel?]

As you can see, opinions will vary. 

You have 1000 slots. Make both! 

That said, the Sentinel, while fun for some, is simply an AT that was released too soon. 

Same armor as a scrapper, same status protection...but not the same damage. The rub is, if they had the same damage as a scrapper, why would anyone play a blaster? 

With HC's version of CoH, it's so easy to make a blaster with significant defense and dps, there's really no reason to ever play a sentinel, unless you just like toggles. Worried about mez? Go see p2w, get a defense amplifier when you get your 2xp, assuming you can afford them. 

That's not to say you can't enjoy a Sentinel. You certainly can. My first 50 when I came back to the game was a fire/rad sentinel. I really enjoyed it! I thought the damage was kind of low, but years had passed, and I wasn't really clear at that time how uber blasters had become. HC certainly improved them, for sure. More HP - which took me by surprise. And with my ice blaster, I was surprised to see my Freeze Ray on  my blaster actually dished out moderate damage instead of minor damage. While the Sentinel has a freeze ray -- it's not a hold, it's a sleep. That took me by surprise, too! 

 

So make both. A sentinel is good for a learning player, likely more forgiving. But a blaster is a real hoot, especially once you learn how to build them. 

[Is it worth it to blow a ton of converters on a big sell?]

On 6/28/2020 at 11:23 PM, Neogumbercules said:

Also who's buying up Lethargic Repose recipes for 60 million influence? I see you out there! 

 

Occasionally, I will bid/pay an outrageous sum just to help some random stranger out. In this case, though, the 60 million pay wasn't mine. 

[Is it worth it to blow a ton of converters on a big sell?]

On 6/27/2020 at 3:52 PM, Neogumbercules said:

 

 

I know I shouldn't be using level 50 recipes for this because of the 490k crafting cost but I'm really just screwing around at the moment.

 

 

Actually - if the level 50 recipes you're getting are from drops, or random rolls - you're fine using them. 

Here's why: 

If I want a level 20 Preventative Medicine Absorb Proc - you can list your level 50 absorb proc, and when I buy it, the AH puts all the level 20 through level 50 absorb procs in the same bucket, and I can actually get yours. The level 50 Absorb Proc you put in AH automatically changes to the level 20 absorb proc.  The only advantage in using the level 20 recipe is the cheaper crafting cost. 

This is why I buy level 10 pvp IO recipes - they are cheaper to craft than level 50 recipes. (like 5k compared to 500k) 

So don't sweat that. 

If the potential customer wants attuned, those are also coming out of the same bucket. So, if I'm level 24, want the Heal IO to go with the absorb proc, I can get it attuned, but it's in the same "bucket" as the level 50 crafted IO you put for sale. 

[I don't get why this is so much better than CO]

4 hours ago, ForeverLaxx said:

The vast majority of my PC gaming before MMOs were isometric RTS games and FPS games, which meant a lot of mouse work. WASD is just the "classic" setting for right-handed people that played FPSs and it carried over to just about every other game that allowed for direct character movement, first person or otherwise. WASD to move, Space to jump, Shift to run, Ctrl to crouch. It actually bugs me when people make changes to that system (like C to crouch or Shift to crouch) and don't offer a way to fix them with keymapping though I'll usually adjust if I like the game otherwise.

 

With MMOs, I do (or did) so much PvP that you could never get me to be a "keyboard turner" like how you seem to prefer. It's much less important in CoH due to how the game doesn't check facing, but in WoW or other MMOs, you often never took any damage from players that relied on the keyboard to turn their character and never touched the mouse. You'd run circles around them all day.

This is probably why I settled in with arrow keys for movement - because I never played any other MMOs besides CoH, except to try them out after CoH shut down. It was always Leisure Suit Larry, Centurion: Defenders of Rome, Sims 4 or Madden NFL, and occasionally a game called Billionaire II. 

 

When I got CoH, I thought I would be playing some pre-fabricated hero character against NPCs. Had no idea there would be other folks playing characters in the same game. I didn't even realize internet service would be required, nor did I realize I'd have to pay $15 a month to play it! Good thing the first month was included in the price, lol. 

 

When the game shut down, I did think CO was the closest to CoH. Didn't really dawn on me that Cryptic had made both games, so it makes sense they were similar, to a degree. I think if I'd figured out what the equivalent to slotting was in CO, I might have kept playing. 

[I don't get why this is so much better than CO]

5 hours ago, Charistoph said:

 

As to why I use WASD to move my character?  Because I am right-handed and use my mouse with my right hand.  This let's my left hand be in a good typing position as well as use basic keybinds for abilities using Shift, Alt, and Ctrl.  Part of it also is training from FPS like Half-Life and Quake (which uses mouse view), which I had to learn completely different from using the arrow keys in Wolfenstein and Doom (which didn't really need any mouse view).  If I was left-handed, the situation may be quite different.

Because I'm right handed, my right hand is on the arrow keys to move my character, with my left on the number row atop the keyboard for attacks. I only use the mouse to click open a door or a glowie. It just seemed intuitive to me - and when those other games didn't have that option, I just uninstalled them.