Ukase

So, if I understand you correctly, you go on a "Master of" run, and have never done the content before? Or have only done it once or twice? Sorry, but while I do think a good leader should go out of their way to explain things when they can, whenever there's something you don't understand, it is incumbent upon YOU to ask questions. Even the best leaders are not mind-readers. They cannot anticipate all questions. I would encourage you to try and solo each TF (non-master) to experience these task forces and absorb how they play out. Some teams will go so fast, you afk for a drink, you'll miss a mission (or two). Teach yourself how things are, then you can lead a team and be as good as you expect a leader to be.

[-1083.3 172.1 4691.0] Battle Hardened was moved. Used to be above the door to the map that lets you clobber Romulus.

@Snarky New Cimerora exploration badges [-1002.0 137.9 3124.4] [-975.3 227.8 1389.3] [-1751.8 373.3 1350.8] [1010.6 389.3 4930.0] [1633.4 -55.3 5206.6] [-169.2 192.3 1489.8] You should be able to copy and paste each into your chat box and get the thumbtack.

I'd read about this change and ran it on test with my blaster. Instead of 3-4 minutes, it took 9 minutes. So, a bit of a bummer, but still quite simple to do solo. Not as fast as a speedy itf for some good teams, but certainly faster than most other weeklies.

I did that for a bit with no luck - finally just downloaded the new cim & cap maps. It's bit confusing, because I'd gotten badges 1 & 2 already - but they moved Battle Hardened (badge 2) and since I didn't recognize a badge at that location previously, I thought it wasn't working properly. But, if you download the new maps and upgrade your vidiotmaps, you can go right to them, no trouble. Now, if you're somewhat like me and find doing all those downloads of different maps confusing and annoying, I'm sure there will be some folks who will point them out to you.

Look here for the latest vidiotmap stuff. Recently, it's been updated - like in the past hour to reflect Cim's new badges and the minor change in Cap for finding Aeon to start the new SF.

Eh, I probably put it the wrong way. Just meant to say that AoE from a rain isn't going to do much damage. A lot of 1's. I could slot it 3x with damage IOs, and still get a lot of 1's. For the brute, none of the epics are really "epic", imo. They're kind of plain. Light damage AoE, or a moderate single target.

If it were a farmer, then AoE would be something to consider. It's not. Now, I like my AoE as much as the next guy, but if AoE is the consideration, then why play anything other than a Spines/Fire brute? (or rad/fire if you're one of "those" people)

So...I did something that may be of interest. Perhaps not. Made an elec/bio scrapper & brute. Guess which one is "better"? Now, this is just for me, and it's quite possible one build is better than the other, although, other than the ATOs, I have tried to build them the same. The scrapper is better - for one reason. Shadow Meld. How is the recharge on this so fast? It gives quite the boost Sidekicked to my level 50 (knocking out MJ's arc, collaboratively) without Shadow Meld. That's a sizeable defensive boost. I don't have the purple sets in yet, in a couple of powers. But, 15 seconds of solid stats, every 38 seconds now. With the Ablative Carapace & DNA Siphon, it's one of the more robust scrappers I can recall playing. Now, the brute is no slouch, either, but the lack of shadow meld is noticeable when fighting the AVs. (Been having them trade-off each mission, to see how they fare. ) Have to give the edge in this instance to the scrapper. So, thanks to those who are scrapper ambassadors. I wouldn't have done this comparison otherwise. I'm still more inclined to play a brute, but clearly, there's going to be exceptions.

I find this ...kind of gross. I mean, I get it. It's handy (the phone), it's useful. Games, or perhaps email or other productive utility. But..the germs from the environment...oh my. Can't see 'em, (I hope) but you gotta know they're there. But that's probably more my inner germaphobe revealing itself.

So, I bumped my stone/stone blaster to level 20. Was looking forward to seeing the snipe. Quite a bit of a let down, graphically. I am not smart enough to know what the solution is, but for me, that ain't it. In my mind, it would have been more of a sling-shot type deal. If you recall the David vs. Goliath story, a slingshot, properly used, is no joke. But this ...odd display of rocks forming out of mid-air, converging upon the npc, instead of forming from the hands of my character..or out of the ground through some odd force of will...just isn't really what I had in mind. Please understand - I'm not someone who really cares about costumes. Nor am I someone who cares about animations, unless they take longer than I think they should. (like kinetic melee, which is the worst set in game for dreadful animations, with DP pistols "nuke" being a close second) It's just my opinion on how it looks. The one shotting of an even level minion, with only 3 slots in it...I'm good with that, lol. This is a "Seismic" blast primary. There should be stones blasted from the hands or something the character is holding. For the secondary, Earth manipulation, I can more understand rocks appearing from mid-air. I can't imagine how hard it must be to come up with several attacks that do varying amounts of damage, but have different types of animations. So, I am not sharing this to complain, but to give feedback. I reckon most wouldn't complain if left as is, but I think it could generate more "cool" points if the animation were more like the Propel from the grav control primary, only with rocks of various sizes, instead of weather vanes and pianos.

lol I work from home, so I have free license to use my desktop at any time..and do, lol. A shame I'm not smart enough to articulate clearly when I'm serious and when I'm being purposely obtuse for my own amusement.

You silly people and your phones. How many times do I have to say it? Phones are for talking with people. Seriously! That's why they were made. So you could talk to people. Browsing the forums is for a PC, or ...(shudder) a Mac, if that's all you have.

As far as I can tell, the "Huge" selection is not a gender type, though it certainly looks male. When you make 'em short, though, it could go either way. Short fat characters.

No, I don't. I don't use it at all. Well, hardly ever. But thanks. I never knew it protected against that.

So, got my stone/stone blaster to level 8. At first, the trainer didn't acknowledge that I'd leveled. Then, upon re-clicking on him, got to train up - but the "level-up" arrow is still there.

Fair point. It just makes sense to me.

That's my point. May as well be an earth controller, no? (granted a lot less dps)

A minor thing...The Seismic Force ...inherent, I suppose is the right word. The spawning of a mini-earthquake that bounces certain npcs susceptible to KD/KB, it seems to follow the character out of zone. Not sure what a chore that is to adjust, or if it should be adjusted. As someone who plays blasters, the ease that this pops is nice, but maybe it's too much. I'm still tinkering around with it, but my initial reaction: 1. The first couple of attacks in the primary...well, they're not a blast, are they? I see no rocks propelling towards the npc. I see the damage, of course, which is the main thing, but if there's no rocks hurtling towards the npc, may as well play any of the other blaster sets, right? Maybe it's my graphic settings being set too low. 2. It's not real clear to me what causes this seismic force to spawn. It is clear that with Trolls,(level 7, both of us) it doesn't work consistently. They'll get in melee, hit my character, and then bounce. Maybe their attack was queued by the system before they entered melee. No idea. Just seemed odd.

This is why you're so much fun at parties.

Out of curiosity, page load times have got to be a factor, right? I've teamed with some of you, and have sadly noticed that some of you are already at the end room with the boss by the time I load in - and I am not playing on a Nokia flip phone powered by starved hamsters. It's not state of the art, but it's a decent rig. The more missions, the more seconds a slower rig will cost a team or player. Seems like there ought to be a way to account for that.

I think there's a lot more to this thread than my mind is comprehending. On the one hand, there seems to be a discussion of t-9s, but from reading the original post, I'm not quite sure how it transitioned the way it has. Strong powers and their penalties: So, the blasters have an excellent nuke. It used to drain endurance, but now it doesn't. So, that's a strong power with no penalty. No need to discuss that here. The t-9 for scrappers & tanks comes to mind. It's been so long since I took one...can't even remember the name of some of them. "Unstoppable"? It's a power where you would tend to use it when you're in over your head. Gives a great boost to all resistances and regen/recovery. But after a time, you lose those buffs and crash. Back on live, within my limited social circle, the prevailing wisdom suggested you not take these powers, because if you couldn't handle it before the t-9, how are you going to handle it after the t-9 expires? After all, if you had the dps to take care of the npcs prior to the t-9, you wouldn't have needed to use the t-9. So, it only serves as a set mule now. (unless you're an SO player, forgoing the IO path) So, even now, most avoid those picks because 1) the characters are robust enough without them 2) if you can't handle something without using the t-9, then you're destined to fail anyway. For me, I wouldn't sell you on these because I wouldn't buy them myself. (Again, if I'm using SOs only, that would change my answer) I often think of Super Strength and Rage. But Rage isn't a t-9. And 10 seconds with floored damage is hardly what I would call a crash. You just hop to the next mob and position them, the 10 seconds has passed, and you're off and running. It's an easy sell for me. I'll buy it every time. Focused Accuracy is a tough sell for me, unless I'm going to focus on pvp. Because of the rng and the 95% cap on hitting your target, there's little point to using this turd due to it's extreme endurance cost. That said, if I do want to use it, I use it with the understanding I need to ensure I slot accordingly to allow for the high end use. I think this just comes with experience. You can't often get away with using Focused Accuracy unless you're able to use Consume or Heatloss or transference or ageless, (and other endurance powers) on a timely basis. Beyond these, I can't think of any high cost powers. I'm sure there are some I haven't thought of. But, since I often don't need them, I don't choose them.

You can...for a brief moment, then you're ported immediately to Nova Praetoria. At least, anecdotally, that's what always happens to my praetorians.

Enriched Plutonium 501,000 inf. Definitely overpaid. Greedy bastid marketers. I tried to hold out, but I NEEDED it.

They can probably do that. As long as it's an option.