Ukase

When HC brought this game back, I didn't set out to acquire the 100+billion I had amassed prior to shut down. Maybe it was only 10 billion? I think it was 100. Anyway, I digress. I know how to market, and gathering the resources was and remains very easy for me. But, about a month in, the HC devs did something that took me by complete surprise and cost me some influence - they seeded the market with salvage. Instead of the 2 million per rare salvage I'd anticipated, the cap was now 1 million, and most seem to believe that 500k is as much as anyone should ever spend on it, because the prices may go up or down a bit, but they have averaged about 500k since that point. So..I thought to myself, with all the bucketing of various IOs, ANYTHING could change. They might start making the exchange of reward merits for converters more costly, or charge a fee just to make the conversion. Most know that "influence sinks" (something for the wealthier characters to drop their influence on) are quite okay with Leandro, at least, that's my understanding. The one thing that I remain confident in, they aren't going to retroactively take influence away or remove the items stored from our bases. They may come out with a new policy restricting storage, given the impact this has on their servers, but I think we/they have handled that issue thus far. So, it's like real life in some way; inf, like money is a tool. But, the more you have, the more choices you have down the road. It only makes sense to "pay yourself first" and every time you get a nice drop and sell it, you should stash a certain amount for your upcoming characters. I'm at the point where ALL of my level 50's carry 1 billion. I have 13 on Excelsior, and 2 level 46's that also carry 1 billion. I have 5 on Torchbearer with 1 billion, 1 on Indomitable, plus 21 billion in email, not to mention over 200 winter packs that are unopened. Still not sure if I'm going to sell them back at 22 million or so when the sale ends, or open 'em all and drop the Winter IO's in slowly as supply drops (if it drops - I know I'm not the only one thinking of this) So that's about 42 billion, plus winter packs, and at least 2 dozen full sets of purple IOs and PvP IOs stashed in my bases on Excelsior, Torch and Indom. I just plop 'em in there, as while they have nice recharge bonuses, most of my characters opt for defense, because with so many attacks, recharge isn't really that necessary for most of them. There's no question in my mind I have "enough"...for now. But who knows what changes lie ahead? The crazy thing is, I still start my alts off with zero! I make them scrounge the rare level 30 and level 50 recipes that are ridiculously under-priced on the AH. Some folks are so altruistic, it's insane. Selling a recipe for 100 inf, when the vendor will give you 100k? You're either very nice, or very lazy. Nobody can be that stupid. But my level 1 will gobble those up as best as it's able to do once it's exchanged the merits from Echo:Galaxy, Echo:Atlas, Atlas and Kings Row for some quick cash via converters, and then buy some level 41 red fortunes, craft and convert to lotg 7.5%, then once I sell a couple of those, I'm up to the pvp IOs. When I get a nice 100m or so, I'll chill, play the game until the mid 20's then market some more to get all the IOs I need for that toon up to 50 and just stash 'em in the trays. Nothing most of you aren't already doing in one way, shape or fashion or another.

You have a second account, great. I suggest you just use it for yourself, rather than bring both your characters to an 8 man team, or any other size team. You cannot serve two masters. You might play one well, but you're going to stink at the other one. At best, you have a great tank who just auto taunts, while your other character dishes out damage, or something along those lines. Another player would be able to taunt, mash things, and manage aggro better. It's really just common sense. There might be some limited circumstances where you could do both passably well, but who wants to team with someone that is only doing things passably well? I want your best effort, not 2 characters that are only doing a fraction of what they could be if you were giving them your full attention.

Just form a coalition with the group of folks you want to play with. Problem solved. This way, worst case when someone gets snippy, you break the coalition and still have your stuff. Best case, since there's coalition chat, you're missing out on nothing. Have your cake and eat it.

Right click on the stack of salvage in the vendor window - sell stack. Or, alternatively in your own salvage inventory, Delete stack. The best way to get rid of your salvage is to simply craft your recipes with your salvage. Sell the io for the cost of crafting, since the salvage was free. You'll likely get far more. If you really want to rack up the inf, convert them to better selling IOs - but I don't think that's your cup of tea. Lastly - when you open your salvage window, there's a reserve vault you can open, and stash your orange/rare salvage in there - and delete/sell the rest when you get a moment.

Finished until more badges are available.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about tanks, but I'd have to agree. My tank is so sturdy, I really only use it when tanking hamidon. It's really kind of pointless at 50, except in a couple of iTrials and in the lower levels. Use the IOs available and you should rarely even need it.

He may be working on it, but I don't think I'd use it, and here's why: 1. No real way to know who's brought a second account until they're already on the league and in the instanced zone. Still takes a spot away from someone else. 2. No access to AH. Essence of the Earth is critical for success. How many? Depends on the strategy and the speed of clearing mitos. One sweep and you may only need 2. Two sweeps, you might need 5. Maybe 6 if you don't have a full league. This is why MSR instanced raids are not my preference. I like to get large inspirations when I run out. The buffs may be great in the bowl, but near the bombs and grates - there are no buffs. If teammates followed a taunter, the healing bubble in the bowl would be substantially weaker. And there's no way I'm stashing 20 inspirations in my email, one at a time. Many use the AH to get EoE if they need more. 3. Crashes. While people still crash in the hive (I suspect it's their system most of the time, and not the game) the lfg is known to crash people for various reasons. It's just one more annoying thing to deal with. The fewer mechanics in play, imo, the better. That's not to say I wouldn't use it once, just to see how it went. But no access to AH...that's a deal breaker for me.

No, there is no way to tell. You can, and should assume that anyone with a badge count over 500 has actively pursued badges, and not just randomly played their character doing things they found fun. Take comfort knowing that these people with higher badge counts know the game well, and almost to a fault, play their characters better than most because of their understanding of the game's content and game mechanics. Badge enthusiasts lead more trials and tfs than any other segment of the game's population, I'm fairly sure. Embrace the badgers!

That CoT is just blistering fast. Have to realize each glowie takes 5 seconds, not to mention page load times just zoning from outside the tunnels to in the tunnels, then from the cave door to inside the caverns - which even with a fast system is going to be 3-5 seconds. And navigating the twisty lumpy surface in the cavern.. I thought I was doing well with my solo time of 3:12. (which I think I could improve on by at least a couple seconds.)

Just selling orange crafted IOs (otherwise known as rare) are not the way to make inf. Whomever told you that did you no favors. Yes, some orange recipes, when crafted sell for a nice sum. Most of them, not so much. As a rule, consider all uncommon or rare recipes to be craftworthy. But then convert them to these: Aegis (about 4m) Unbreakable Guard (about 4m) Numina recovery/regen (about 4m) Preventative Medicine absorb proc (about 3m) Performance Shifter +endurance (about 4m) Lotg 7.5% global recharge (about 7m) Blessing of the Zephyr KB protection (about 3m) Steadfast Protection KB protection (about 4m) Steadfast Protection 3% def (all) (about 5m) Kismet Accuracy (6%) (about 5m) Karma Kb Protection (about 3m) Miracle +recovery (about 4m) Any pvpIO should be crafted and converted to: Panacea Chance for +hit points/endurance, Shield Wall 5% resist all & TP Protection or Glad Armor 3% Def(all) &TP protection. If you're shy of converters, any of those three sets will probably suffice, or the chance for toxic damage, or chance for -res as well. I tend to sell mine for 10m. Sometimes you can get more, because some folks do crazy things like over bid because they can't wait another day. As a result, some prices creep upward. There may be a few other lower level IOs that are worth some attention, but I don't get many recipes in the lower levels, and there are so many unfavorable chances to convert into more trash, I tend to avoid that niche altogether. Others will have differing opinions and think my suggested prices are too high or too low.

Sheesh, It's not like I have a kin secondary on all my characters. Only one of them. And even that one has SS and CJ. Hover is too slow. But that's just me. You do you. City of Options.

Um..no, it's not. Hover is slow. Woefully slow for combat situations. Combat Jump allows for the same defensive IOs, and is far more useful in fighting situations. In fact, I've not taken hover since it's no longer required to get flight. I get that some folks like hover - but I don't and never will and am the better player for having taken combat jumping instead. It's a playstyle thing, not a "build must". Not for me, anyway. CJ and SS is the way to go for every character I play.

Email goes across all servers.

Just goes to show you, perceptions will differ. I don't remember things ever being a grind. I don't recall things being slow. I cannot for the life of me imagine, leveling a character to the 20's and then stopping and rolling another character because it takes too long to get to the next level. That kind of talk just puzzles me. I simply can't wrap my head around it. That's like having a cake, but not icing it. But that's just my own limited ability to think outside my own experience. I still would love the game to go back to the way it was when I first started, in issue 3. I never knew what an MMO was. When I got the game, I had no idea there would be other people playing in the same instance I was in! Jack Emmert was all about teaming. I had ZERO interest in that. Group up with strangers? That made - and still makes no sense to me. Why? If I wanted to be social, I'd go out for a beer, wouldn't I? But, slowly, I began to figure things out, and the reasons why Jack directed the development in the direction he did. (opinions still vary on this!) I was so bothered by the change that I asked for my money back when issue 4 hit. Circuit City looked at me like I was crazy. I said, "I bought the game a certain way - now they've changed the way it's to be played! That's bait and switch!" I laugh when I think about it now. It really bothered me. The Arena had been introduced, and everyone had an opinion on pvp. Most everyone had been playing some other game - and continued to play those other games, while still playing CoH. That made no sense to me, either. You're paying $15 a month to play as much as you want - why would you dilute your time among other games? Just let your sub lapse until you're ready to commit. Again - just my limited, warped view of the world at the time. I still would love to go back to 1 acc, 5 damage. Or 1 acc, 4 damage 1 rech. But, I have the feeling that my characters now would make those older characters look slow and weak. Those IO bonuses add up. At level 28, should a blaster be able to solo Arakhn, the av in Moonfire? Back then? Not likely. Now? Success is a given. There's really no need to team up now at all, thankfully, except for hami raids and incarnate trials. Is that better? worse? Doesn't matter - we now have the option, which is fantastic.

Sadly, the things I want can't be given away. Like Windfall, Experienced and other buffs. You pluck them from character email to be used in that instant for one hour, in game or not.

It's clearly a ridiculous sale. Imagine...you buy them for 10m. You wait a month, and relist them for ...15M, or 20M? Going to be interesting to see how many do this and how low they'll go just to get that sale, losing millions in the process. What's more - it isn't so much the inf you might make, but the inf you might save by not selling them. Oddly, the packs that I have opened, almost all of them had 2 winter IOs. I was hoping for more windfalls, but there may be more in the remaining 200 packs I have. I certainly won't need to buy any more packs until maybe next year, lol. Also, interesting to me - the Superior Winter sets...they used to be the same price as the non-superiors. Then, this changed, but I'm not sure when. Maybe the AH prices were glitching when I looked. Could've sworn they were in the same bucket, but it doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Sometimes, the forums will show the picture for me, and sometimes not...

We're all different. I see where you're coming from, but wouldn't it be easier to just do Posi 1&2 at level 20? Then do Synapse when you're level 22 or so? My madness & method for tfs is this: I try to wait until I'm 5 levels over cap for the tfs. That way, I have more slots than I would at the lower level to begin them. When you do Pen Yin, you're capped at level 25. So, if you do it at level 30, you have the few extra slots and powers - you may be exemped, but you lose no powers. The same with the rest of the tfs. No gimping of your character. And no useless busy work for the devs. Win/win! Additionally, many people take advantage of having 3 builds. If you PvP, you can have one build for incarnate play, one build for PvP, and one for lower level stuff. ALL of the tfc task forces are easily soloable. All of them are. Regardless of your AT. You just need to pack the right inspirations, an envenomed dagger and buffs from your sg base. As of now, if you discount bug hunter and the anniversary badges from Luna in Ouroboros in May, there are 1511 badges to be had. That's plenty. I'd be thrilled if no more badges were ever introduced again, so I could keep alting instead of working on them with the same character. (but that's just me, I'm sure) The game has millions of challenges. If you find one thing too easy, make it harder. If it's still too easy at the hardest difficulty, do it faster. Do it without inspirations. Do it without enhancements. There are tons of ways to make things harder. Nothing wrong with a wish list, though. I would just rather they spend time on more content - but revising Synapse wouldn't piss me off at all.

Perhaps it could be chosen as a power to choose? Personally, I found it worthless. With IOs and powers like Caustic and Frigid Protection, it would be a lot harder to stay below 25% (or whatever threshold you chose for the correlating damage boost). It seems a smarter play (but maybe not more fun for some?) to slot for more dps & recharge to dish out that damage faster.

So, I took my rad/ss tank from my second account into RV and noticed that my resistances dropped over 30% upon entering RV. Toggles were all on, so not sure what the issue is, other than some kind of bug.

A little late to this discussion, but according to the npc I asked, I have already played my ice/ice blaster for 1500 hours. (that does include a lot of time farming damage - dished out, and taken) In live, I played more than one ice/ice blaster to level 50 and easily logged over 2000 hours with each one. (server transfers weren't a regular thing back then until the free to play concept with the vip server, if memory serves) I had read @olepi 's ice/ice guide and was immediately sold by his/her passion about the power sets. Briefly - Bitter Ice blast is a must have, and I also believe Freeze Ray is the defining power of the set. You don't "have" to get it, of course, but I highly recommend it. Blizzard is, of course, a must have. I like to use it before Judgement, or after. And I like to use Ice Storm on top of it to help clear the lts and bosses. On the secondary, I used to rely a lot on ice patch. Now, not so much. Very handy in the lower levels, but if properly motivated to do a respec, I might do without it to grab an extra slot (I have it two-slotted now, with recharge IOs), and maybe ice fists or tp ally or something else. Because I don't know what else I'd get, I'll just keep ice patch for now. Frigid Protection....I swear, I don't remember this power in live. I've no idea how I got to 50 without it. I recently respec'd after learning about it and I cannot endorse it highly enough. I would pick this power over every other one in either the primary or secondary. If you don't get it, you're just being foolish. The negative on it is that if you're stealthed, it breaks it. Mobs feel the chill, I guess, and see you. Ice sword is a nice finisher. I only two slotted mine with two hami-os (acc/dam). I would like to six slot it, but no idea where I could get the slots from. It's the most fun character to play in my "stable", with my fire/fire being a close second.

I have learned a fair amount in the forums back in live - and in these HC forums as well. Never noticed the %'s when the Crimson Prototype spat out generators, and frankly never noticed what type of damage or debuffs that were being applied. I have had mixed results soloing Market Crash. By solo, I would use two accounts because I was uncertain if one lore pet would be enough to help with the dps required. Then I discovered the summon pets from p2w. The tank version isn't nearly as effective as my second account that just sits there with foot stomp on auto, but it's enough to let me focus on my character and dish out the damage. But the ranged damage - in the form of an echo of Positron is outstanding. I don't know for sure, but I suspect there are strong debuffs with that damage Posi dishes out. On my primary character, my blaster Ukase (ice/ice/mu) has solo'd all the tfc task forces and a few of the red side ones. My farm brute has solo'd all the Maria Jenkin's AVs as well as all the tfc AVs on blue side. Soloing is what I do unless I see someone else wanting help to do the same thing - but if they want to kill most/all when I want to speed, I'll solo. I can solo Manticore faster than a good team of 8 - but that includes recruiting time for that team. Same with most tfs, except Synapse. There is one thing that I'd like to do with my blaster but have been unsuccessful, and that's solo the Freedom Phalanx Heroes in Recluse's Victory. There are 6 of them, they usually come out in pairs. I haven't tried to duo them yet with the help of my farm brute or tank, but It's something I'll have to try. I tried with my lore pets, and an HVAS and a summon pet from p2w against Pen Yin and Ms. Lib, and that didn't work out well. In that experience, I think if I'd had my second account, I might have had a better shot, but who knows. I'll get them eventually, but I'd rather do it solo so I don't have to wait for folks. I hate to wait!

Sorry to hear things are so dreary on Reunion. I've got to think that the "mob" mentality during your raid experience was an exception, rather than the norm. Also sorry to hear your not getting the shard drops. I have to wonder why it is that I get so many and others don't get many at all. It's not like it's only one character of mine that gets them, it's all of them. Maybe because I'm playing solo vs 8 on most characters when I solo. But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who plays at that setting. You should consider leveling a character on Torch or Excelsior, though - or maybe a transfer once they fix the transfer. They're practically every night. Torch fails slightly more often because of their aggressive approach - one sweep of mitos, where on Excelsior, it's more conservative with 2 sweeps. But overall, my characters have gotten rich with merits and fat with shards while doing them every night.

Clearly, every player that does different things experiences drops differently. I get plenty of shards. Certainly not as many as threads, but consider this: there are 5 incarnate powers to slot that do not accept shards. Given the emp merits earned just by vet levels, obviously, one can t-4 everything without a single shard or thread, but it's very inefficient to do so. I certainly do not get 5 times more threads than shards. I don't know how often you play, how long or even what you do - but you don't get shards in iTrials. I do things besides iTrials, and I get plenty of shards. Anecdotally, I get about 10 shards an hour during hami raids. And half that time I'm just taunting a mito or hami. They seem to drop for me, for each yellow mito my team helps kill. They also seem to drop for every other bud. But that's just the way it seems to me. It might be -/+ 2 or 3. I know I got a dozen during synapse, compared to just 73 threads. I used those for my alpha and saved the threads for the things that don't take shards. Common sense! Obviously, if your drop rate isn't the same, you may not choose to do things the way I do - but let's shed a bit more light on things. If all you do is iTrials and you say you get no shards, that's because of what you're doing. Do non-incarnate stuff and the shards will drop just fine. And don't forget that vanguard merits may be exchanged once every 18 or 20 hours for a shard component worth 4 shards. Various tfs will also get you shard components worth 4 shards. If you're smart, you can get your alpha to t-3 the same day you unlock it, if you've got the time and inclination. But - that's just my opinion. It doesn't make my way better, but it's another way that may be more efficient for some players. Not all players - but some. Use the shards when you can. Save those threads for the incarnate things you can't use shards on.

Helpful hints with the sg buff station. I didn't use any of those, other than just Super Speed and Prestige Power Slide. And a LOT of practice. Kept falling off the slope the first few times.