Ukase

So, I've looked over the list of new badges and the one question I have about the Aeon trial is this - if you satisfy the criteria for Relentless - would you automatically satisfy the criteria for the settings below that. One thing CoH has always done, and never made any sense to me were these attempts to get people to repeat the content over and over and over and over again. Granted, it seems that each difficulty is going to result in subtle differences - and I've only been through the default villainous setting as of yet. That said, it would be quite annoying to complete the strike force at the Relentless setting only to have repeat it at the lower difficulty settings because you wanted all the badges. I completely get that nobody is putting a gun to anyone's head to pursue these badges. I'm just trying to get things to make sense. Seems like if you do it at the highest difficulty, that should award the lower difficulty badges as well.

Not real sure I'm understanding your question, Snarky. You can go for the isolator badge at level 15, once ouro opens up (beyond just getting to Ouro at level 1). I don't think you'd need to re-do it infinitely. There are plenty of those "contaminated" in the map. And, while you're doing that, later in the arc, you'll have a good chance to take care of the Men in Black badge - for the Shivan defeats.

Nah. No need for taunting or threat leveling, lol. That's my take on it. I think the first few may sell for more, then once a dozen or so are on the market, the price will stabilize at a little less than what you suggest. Just my initial thoughts.

I can't speak for that, but I do sit balanced (most of the time) on a stability ball while I play. It's a strange thing, working the core while playing. It's not that hard, though, as my feet do touch the ground - but no back support, and if anything, I have to focus on not slouching.

Oh yeah - the usual disclaimer - these are on Brainstorm (Test server) now. Doesn't mean they'll make it to "live". I suspect folks will have to spend some time on beta to try them out and give feedback. If folks just want to hop over and take a quick look to see the set bonuses, that'd probably be a good thing. Some of them give decent boosts - like 4.5% s/l resist, 4.5% energy/neg energy resist (not the same sets), 6.25% recharge, and the like. I used snip & sketch for most of the screen shots, but was too lazy to take an actual screen shot with tool tip showing the actual bonuses for each set.

Blaster ATOs should be in higher demand as well, due to the stone manipulation secondary. Taunt category in the AH has been changed to "threat duration". Also...looks like there's a few new IO sets: In no particular order- Hypersonic (one dropped for me on the Aeon SF) - set bonuses pictured. Warp Launch. (only for "Leaping", where as Springfoot and Unbounded Leap are in their own distinct category) Thrust Ice Mistral's Torment ( set bonuses aren't great, but better than any of the other slow sets, imo) So, it may behoove some of us to snag the slow recipes & such now, on the cheap. (other than ice mistral's torment, I don't see them going for very much)

You're over-dressed. If you were genuinely serious, you'd have the "dorm fridge" plugged in within arm's reach, and the microwave on top of it. Boxes of various pop-tarts and other convenient finger foods on top of that. Said fridge stocked with beverages of choice. Oh, and you'd be sitting on a toilet with a cushioned seat. And a pillow on top of the toilet tank for when the dopamine rush fades away and you crash from insufficient caffeine, sugar & sleep.

So...I was on Beta Friday night, trying out the new arc. And guess what was happening in Peregrine Island...a nemesis event! I almost logged out to get my badger, then realized I was on Beta.

That is precisely it. Null offers specifically Dimensional Warder progress, not Portal Jockey progress. Guessing all you need now is some plaques.

I have no "one way" of playing this game. Occasionally, I'll PL to 50, outfit the character with the best IOs I can think of, maybe do a market crash and run through enough iTrials to get it to t-4, then likely park it and never play it again. Sometimes, I'll make a challenge character. The challenge can be to "if defeated, get deleted", or it may be "make a billion by level 50". My latest challenge has been a combo of "If defeated, get deleted & only slot what drops. This is quite challenging, and I find myself really liking it, because I get super excited when something like a level 16 Kismet drops. Most of my characters either get seed money or are allowed to buy them if they can afford it (the 6% accuracy/ToHit) so, when these characters get a good drop, it's a great dopamine rush, even better than a Micro Hami-O or a purple recipe drop. Every time I make these, I have to remind myself the game can certainly be played without ATOs - but man, I sure do notice that I don't have 'em! I've succeeded on the "if defeated, get deleted" challenge once, on an energy/fire blaster. The billion by 50 challenge, I tend to get the billion by level 7 or so. Too damned easy once you know how. The "Drop Challenge" - I've yet to succeed. I get to level 21 and things get quite difficult. The best I've done is reach level 23, I think. Or was it 26? I can't remember. It's still fun, but stopping once I get defeated...that kind of hurts. Other times, I'll do a solo sewer run and start in Atlas Sewer and come out in Kings Row, or Boomtown. I never watch the map, so no telling where I'll come out. Then I'll level up, and head to Hollows, then after Hollows, I'll do kings row until level 15. Then to Faultline, then Striga, then Croatoa, then Bricks, Then RWZ, Then PI. I'll also be aiming for the 4 passive accolades as soon as I can get them. Sometimes I'll do a dfb or two - but they level so fast that I just lose interest in the character. I like to solo the early levels for some reason. Teams just make things too easy. Unless the team sucks, and that makes me want to /ragequit so I try not to team until the 20's or so.

Please keep in mind that with no influence coming in - outfitting your characters can be problematic unless you have some loot stashed on an alt, or are an effective marketer.

From what I remember of things you've written, you can afford to lose a few.

Hey, you redacted the best part!

Probably less than you think. It's just bread and sugar. Maybe 900 calories. Fine for once a week, but I'd try to eat in the morning, and maybe walk a little extra on the lunch break - if I ate such things. But, I do not. A large abdomen impedes the rowing stroke. I'd hate to have to splay my knees at the catch.

It makes sense to you. It doesn't make sense to me. It is, in fact, unless an expressed desire by the team lead, or the team as a whole - a waste of time to remain in a mission once it's been completed. There's no benefit beyond XP to remain in the mission. And if it's XP you want - the next mission has that, too. And guess what it also has - mission completion XP bonus. Reward merits, possibly, depending on what's being run. So, you do, in fact, get more xp per minute, more merits per minute by moving on to the next mission. It's been brought up here on these forums multiple times. We all play the game in a fashion that's fun for us. Find like-minded folks, no worries. Express your wishes prior to beginning, and those that don't want to do things the way that you do will be just fine leaving the team and letting you keep searching for like minded folks. If you're not expressing how you want things done ahead of time, and you kick folks for not being a mind-reader, than you are the problem, not them.

So, someone who gets Master of Lord Recluse Strike Force isn't trying. Right.

I would like to make a distinction here. I'm not talking about separating the arcs from the ATs. I'm suggesting that other ATs be able to do the arcs. That's not precluding the HEATs from doing the arcs. And I never suggested a generic re-write, either. It is a fair point you brought up - about the re-write, but I'm not suggesting they do that. There needs to be no editing. I'm simply suggesting they make the arc available to all ATs. They've already made red/gold/blue available to all alignments via null the gull (aside from goldsiders who haven't reached level 20 yet). But, clearly you're against it for the reasons you stated, and you're entitled to that opinion. But, the suggestion still remains.

I understand this perspective. But...it's disappointing that the only way to be exposed to the content is by playing the VEAT or HEAT - both of which are not very much fun (for me) to play. And while you may find this content sucks - I have not reached the conclusion, as I've not done the arcs. My one warshade was on a crawl team, and we went through the usual paths - hollows, faultline, striga, croatoa, rwz. I could visit the content through ouro with this character - but the AT, while having interesting effects, it's annoying to play, having to make frequent use of macros and binds. Why should I subject myself to such things just for a story arc? Candidly, none of the content in this game is going to make any critic stand up and take notice. It's designed for young teens, most of it. (in my estimation, anyway. Opinions will certainly vary) But, it would be more enjoyable to me if I could run through the content on my blaster, or corruptor, as opposed to these odd AT types that require multiple respecs because of the growing pains they have.

Any Karate Kid fans? (the movie) In this fine film, Mr. Miyagi says to Laruso - "Daniel-san, the best way to block hit - No be there!" Back on live, before I knew that perma-debt was even a thing, I had it. I want to say it too me 870 hours to get my first 50. I want to say that - but it was really longer. A lot of that time difference between then and now is this version has xp at ..what, a 25% higher rate than live? And with p2w, even higher. But anyway, I digress. I used to die. Often. I'd carry the wakies in my tiny inspiration tray. Then it occurred to me, maybe if I carried a few more greens and purples, I wouldn't need so many awakens. I would likely have taken 50% longer to reach 50 if I hadn't figured out what defense was. Investing into tough and weave saved my skin a lot more than I would have ever thought possible. My first foray into the maths...I can't recommend it, it's quite tedious. But I can recommend the results of that investigation. Slot for defense. Or a boat load of recharge, so you're always clobbering. There's a balance between chaos and order, and when you find it - you rarely suffer defeat. Not trying to dictate that this approach is for everyone. Some folks will be better served to just carry on, enjoy the game the way you are. But a few, just a few might consider carrying a few purples, mashing them before the boss engagements, and die a lot less. It's almost like cheating, except it's not.

You know, I should have mentioned that myself. Good call.

Hey, I never said I was smarter. I just said I prefer to think of it like that!

Sunstorm, Shadowstar. Currently, a warshade is assigned Shadowstar as a contact, and PB's get Sunstorm. (or do I have them mixed up? Don't think so) While my warshade can do Shadowstar's arcs through ouro, my non-warshade characters cannot. I'm certain this is working as intended. My suggestion is to open these arcs to any AT. A warshade and a PB used to be a privilege to play; you had to be 50 to even make one. This is no longer the case. Stopped being the case sometime during live. Seems like since it's no longer a true privilege to play one (beyond just being able to play at all) the contacts should be open to any AT.

I feel as if anecdotally, I'm a bit of an expert in this, as I literally use about 1000-3000 converters a day, at least, depending on the day. I've had these types of conversion fits with Aegis - where the psi resist gets converted to end/recharge and back to psi resist 3 to 4 times before it will turn into one of the other 4. Sometimes, as many as 6 times. It happens. I don't write it down or anything. I just know it happens. But, it doesn't happen often enough for me to think the rng is broken. But that's just my experience with it. Similar experiences with Obliteration, where I'll be looking for the proc or the quad, and continue to get the dam or acc/recharge. But, what happens to me far more often is I'll go from converting a rare hold, out of set and get an lotg 7.5%. So...that's fairly rare, but it does happen. Both of these happen. And if I can live with the latter, seems like I should be able to live with the former. I do think if they implemented an in-set cycle, where they don't repeat, the cost of the converter from a merit vendor should be much, much higher. Like 5 reward merits for 1 converter.

I will state emphatically and enthusiastically that this is me, almost every time - unless I have some crafting/converting to do while I wait. It's the one reason I'm able to stomach an MSR from time to time - because on Excelsior, Doc Proteus (I think that's his global - maybe it's just Proteus) will broadcast in lfg "X/48" so folks like me will know how much time we have to wrap up whatever it is we're doing. The question is - why do you state this like it's some sort of negative characteristic? I suppose impatience could be perceived negatively by some. I prefer to think of it as simply being smarter than the folks that joined before I did. I got some other things done while they stood around and did ToT or whatever. (Which I have already done on 6 characters this season and that's quite enough, thanks)

Interesting. So, have you read elsewhere in these forums where some players are frustrated because when they drop their judgement or AoE or whatever power - and they feel it's wasted because between them mashing the button, and it executing, someone else's nuke went off a second earlier? I would swear I read about this routinely. It certainly happens to me often enough. I once got chastised for being the first to use my nuke, wasting another player's nuke, because they were a split second slower than I was. (Not a real admonishment, it was more of a "darn it" kind of frustration on their part. I am sure most of us have felt that way. You think it's faster. (for all to stay together and fight through mobs) In some cases, it may well be faster. But, I suggest you consider that in some cases, it is woefully slower. It all depends on the players on the team - their ATs, powersets - and most importantly, the competence and experience of the players behind the avatars. Further - you're welcome to correct me any time you like - but don't be surprised if I just laugh at you for having this idea that your way is the way I'm supposed to do things. I say that in the context of you not being the team lead and giving direction. That's not your place in that context. You're just another teammate just like me. You have no authority in that case to give instruction. You can make a suggestion, sure. Offered as such, I'd probably take it. But if you give correction - well, a smart man said to me, "rules without relationship reap rebellion". I suggest you NEVER give correction to someone you don't know. It never works. You can offer a suggestion - that's a different thing. The joining the team answer may be different for different people. Merits, badge, XP, etc. And that answer tends to dictate how folks want to do a certain task. Me, I'd rather go as fast as I can. Compared to some - due to page load times, knowledge (or lack of same) of a given tf/trial, inexperience on a character - I can be faster than most, or slower than some. It's a bit relative. Either way, if the team lead communicates the desired approach, it would save about 200 pages of posts in these forums.