Ukase

Fair points, but not doing it for the recognition. I figure eventually they'll open their enhancement tray and figure it out. I just figured folks were paying more attention when they play. I find email to be annoying, too. Having to get a global, fill in all the fields..then do that 3x...and when their global has an l or a I it can be hard to tell the difference. (that's L or i)

The only issue I have with procs are the inconsistency..or is it lack of clarity in how they work. They're an option. Choices are sometimes a good thing. The Preventative Medicine Absorb Proc - it works. It works no matter where it's slotted, at least, it seems to me it does. I can't say the same for all the other procs. I have to resort to math to determine if it WILL fire, or will it simply have a chance to fire. How much of a chance? I have to do the math. I don't ordinarily mind it. I look at builds that are posted in these forums when people ask for help with a build and see a number of procs in the suggested build. I then do that math, per Bopper's formulas on his spread sheet and see that either I'm missing something, or the builder is missing something, or both of us have missed something. I see people slotting the Chance for Recharge KB IO in Kick from the fight pool. 16.1% chance of firing an attack that most wouldn't ordinarily use in their attack chain. And I'm not saying it's completely useless. I'm sure the argument can be made for making it useful. My point is - if players are told there's only a 16% chance of the thing giving you what you want, are they going to use it? (assuming no other recharges in the power, and no recharge boost from Alpha slot) I suppose that all depends on the player and what they're after. I think the biggest issue is the lack of clarity in how these things work. There's a number of different kinds, and a number of different rules in which to determine their efficacy. And to have to break out Bopper's spreadsheet (If credit should go to someone else (Macskull?) then my apologies.) for each one...that's just tedious. I think the rules need to be more understood by more players before we can really ask opinions. Some folks may give their thoughts but despite the best of intentions may not fully understand how they work, (And how they could be applied by people smarter than me for maximum carnage). My solution would be very unpopular, and probably make proc-monster builds untenable. Only allow the proc to work when slotted with at least one of the others within it's set. And then remove this "Chance" to fire nonsense, but have it fire. Takes away the need for all this bloody math.

This is so very well stated!

lol. Don't tempt me!

You should do what makes it more fun/interesting/engaging for you. Where's the challenge come in? Being able to actually afford the enhancements needed? Personally, the economist in me would rather die than spend merits on a recipe.

I'll say this: I'm still not clear what a pokemon is. And I don't care enough to google it. (I also don't need anyone to tell me. I like not knowing.) I can't remember how old I was when I started playing...issue 3, sometime around Christmas was when I picked the game up at Circuit City, now out of business. I know I'm 54 now. It's strange. I know my father, at my age would have never spent so much as 30 minutes playing a computer game. He saw the computer as a tool. Turned his on with a key. An IMSAI-VDP80, damn thing was 4 feet long and almost 3 feet high, and maybe 3 feet wide. No mouse, just a keyboard and a floppy disk that was actually floppy. Back in those days, the most controversial thing was the sound of a toilet flushing on All in the Family. I even remember when Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) was the star of the show, Happy Days, and had a big brother, Chuck, who disappeared early in season 2, and was even portrayed by more than one actor.

So...I have given away 99 level 10 PvP IOs - the panacea +HP/End, the glad armor 3%, the Shield Wall 5%, 1 each to random folks. Well, not truly random. If they already had set bonuses, I didn't give. If they had more than one level untrained (looked like sitters in fire farms to me) in Atlas, I didn't give. The bulk of the gifts went to lowbies - levels 1-10. I tried to give away in red side zones. I'd do a search by zone..maybe see one or two players there. I pop in, and look around, and if I found them, I'd give 'em. One player sent them back with a global name of Hedgefund Prime or something like that. Said he had an overflow of them in his base. I should've checked global names, lol. After that point I began to check global names, and if I saw something like @global2 or @global3, I assumed they had multiple accounts and didn't need any assistance. The disappointing thing was only 2 of the 32 took the time to thank me. Not that I was looking for that, but some acknowledgement would've been nice. I suppose, though, it's possible they were afk and had no idea where they came from when they came back, as the system messages would've scrolled up before they returned. Not sure which server I'll visit next.

I remember when the game shut down. It was a huge relief. The burden of feeling compelled to play was over, and I could work on my real life instead of the pixeled lives I'd created. At the end, I remember converting all my inf to prestige and taking a screen-shot at the zero hour of my one man sg being the top SG on the server. That was kind of fun. Seeing the purple letters of "Very Rare Recipe" splash brightly and fade...that was always a nice dopamine hit. Now when it happens, because I have 3x as much as I did on live, it's a bit of a snooze. The content in the game is dated. I've done ALL of it more times than I care to acknowledge. Last August, I joined a super group, thinking the people might make things more "fun". Some did. Some don't. Some really don't. So, my grandmother told me as a kid, "If you're bored, it's because you're boring." So, I make my own "Fun", which is really for interest/ego. How fast can I do SSA 1, who will die? 4 minutes? Can I do it in less? Can I make a billion by level 50? Too easy. Can I make it by level 25? Still too easy. Heck, just sit there and do it at level 1. I only need to kill one thing without 2xp to work the market. Just need a little seed money. But that's too simple now, although it can certainly get tedious. So now, I pretend I'm broke and see if I can get to 50 depending ONLY on drops without using the AH, other than to sell surplus goods. No buying of anything, from any vendor or AH. No upgrading enhancements. Just living off the land of the RNG. And if I'm defeated, I'm deleted. I haven't done this yet. (got to level 21) One character was too much "fun" to delete. The actual word, though, escapes me. It's not fun. The last time I had fun involved two married lady friends I have, some beer and some hummus and baba ghanoush. My stomach still aches from the laughs. and my head may or may not still ache from the hangover. To me, fun is when you look back and chuckle at how quickly your time went by. It's not something I think about while I'm having it. I've never done that with this game. The game is just to give me a little dopamine fix.

An MM or Veat is something I hadn't even considered. The Veat - the toggles on it would be sooo end heavy. As for the MM...interesting. I'm in the middle of playing one for the second time. The first time was on live, and I'd gotten to level 17 before the servers shut down. I may try one, but which kind...I dunno. I find the robots, thugs and demons to be so hideous, I don't think I could stomach it for such an investment of time. I honestly have no idea how they caught on...but different strokes and all that.

Oops, I didn't even see where you'd already answered the question for me. I will tell you one thing that has opened my eyes A LOT. Praetorian content seems to drop specific to your origin. So, I intend to try Praetoria out in the beginning and see how much of a difference it makes. But, what will continue to be the very roughest part will be the end mod drops. The end mod enhancement drop rates are supposedly 1/175 !!!! At least, that's what the paragon wiki has. The HC devs might have changed it, but I seriously doubt it. I could run my fire farmer through a dreck map 5 times, and I'd be lucky to get one of them. They are more rare than a purple recipe if you ask me. Even the end mod recipes are quite rare. So, I know whatever character undergoes this challenge it will most certainly have to be something with an inherent stamina boost of some kind - either AM as the case is with the rad defender/corruptor/controller, or possibly rad armor, or Bio armor. There may be another powerset, but I can't think of what it would be. Blasters with their inherent at level 10 are quite capable of managing endurance - but only with end mod IOs and the nifty procs. Wait...truth be told, I don't think I've ever played a blaster without those nifty procs and end mod IOs...so who knows? My guess would be that it would be harder than I'd like it to be. I have a Staff/Bio brute in the wings to re-take on this challenge - in praetoria. It's parked in First Ward now for the recipe bonus day job.

At that low level, you are not wrong. A DO is better than an IO. (until a few levels when the DO no longer boosts anything) The only reason I had an IO in it is because it was the only thing that dropped that I could put in it.

I'm not sure, but I don't think there's ever been a time someone asked me a question about the game or the market in the game, or farming that I didn't take time to answer. It's almost always a welcome diversion to ensure someone gets multiple options for whatever direction a newer player wants to go. I probably disappoint some who ask what the "best" this, or the "best" that is, and I tell them there is no best. It's all subjective. Different judgements have tradeoffs. Some have better accuracy - which came as a big shock to me. Some are more "explosive" with a faster animation, It all depends. Clearly there's going to be some things that are "optimal" and somethings that will be less so. But they have to want the additional engagement. That is, they have to ask for it. I've never turned anybody down yet.

Well...I appreciate everyone's perspective. Honestly, I do, that's why I asked. What I've done today is simply give away 1-3 of the main PvP procs to non-50 characters I saw that weren't already IO'd to the gills. I gave priority to redside, as I figure any reward for playing there is better than nothing. But there weren't that many! So, I went to Talos, Steel and Atlas and I think Pocket D and gave some away there. This was on Excelsior; gave away 21 of them. I'll give away another 21 this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll choose another server, and rotate servers at least until I run out of what's in my tray. I've got bids in for another 108, replenishing them as I take them out and I'll probably wait a week after the last server and hope I don't run into the same characters again and again. If you want these - here's a few tips: Don't be hidden. I'm using /search for the lower level zones and putting the character names in a target macro. If I find you, I'll give, but if you're already 50 and already kitted out, I wouldn't see the point. For that matter, if you're level 10 and it looks like you already have them, (per character info/powers - it shows set bonuses) I'll probably overlook you on purpose. Oh - if your name is offensive to the point where I wonder why you haven't been generic'd already, I'll overlook you. There's too many decent names still out there. You do you, but I'm not gonna reward characters with names that gross me out.

322 Billion as of last counting a week ago. So, I appreciate everyone's perspective. As much as I like the idea of a costume contest, I'm all too aware that a costume that looks great with one graphic setting may not look the same with another - so those are out. I thought about hide & seek. But, perhaps I can borrow a bit from @Yomo Kimyata and a bit from @Troo (your practices of giving, not your inf!) and give things away to red side lowbies at random. Part of me felt like 20M isn't worth moving my character and felt it wasn't enough. Then I thought about 50M, but that's really only enough to get a couple sets of IOs. That's generally why I think more is better - but I also don't want to rob anyone from the joy of hustling and learning where and how to get this and that, as opposed to just using /AH. I suppose it's all relative.

So, there's a proverb that states many counsels assure victory...so before I do something that I think is a good thing, I'm going to ask here what everyone's thoughts are about it. I have a lot of influence. More than enough to make my next 300 characters, unless prices go way higher than they are now. Possibly even the next 500 characters, depending on whether I wanted to buy now, or craft IOs instead. I've seen a name of what must be a newer player based on the questions I've seen asked in these forums, and I'm just tickled pink to see the questions as it means 1) newer player and 2) smart enough to ask for help without begging someone to just do it for them. So, I thought about gifting them 500M or even a billion..but what impact would that have on their enthusiasm to play? Anecdotally, I've had mixed results with large gifts. I gave an entire build to what I think is a genuinely hard working person, a parent of a small child. I know they didn't have time to sit in front of the computer and reset farms - they had to commute to work and put the time in. So, I hooked them up for a new build. Still haven't seen this controller they were supposed to make, but I gave it freely with no strings. Even so, they might come on once a month to play, if that. Before the gift, I saw them 3-4 times a week. Could be a coincidence. Another time, I spent a good hour answering questions via tells after some answers I gave on the help channel. Hooked them up with the requisite sets of Winter-Os so they could make their own farmer. After about 6 months, they emailed me 500M because they were feeling guilty about all the inf they were earning. I never saw it as a loan, but as a gift, but they repaid me (and overpaid), which earned them some solid credit with me. I've given away a couple of winter sets that someone needed to finish their build and 200M - after a week, they stopped playing. I've seen this happen at least a dozen times, where I'll give away some inf - and these players just seem to disappear and stop playing. It's not a real big deal, not at all sweating the influence. What I am sweating is if I am ruining their fun by taking away the inherent "carrots" the game has to offer. I mean, if the game were simply the beta server where I could go insta-50, immediately get my characters t-4 incarnate..I doubt I would play beyond just testing the character out in a market crash or Apex/Tin Mage. Am I spoiling things by giving things away? Is the gift too large? How much is too much?

Personally...the combo of targeting drone with those temp powers...just brilliant. I wanted the devices secondary on another AT and sadly realized only blasters have that access. For a different kind of challenge, that accuracy/toHit boost would have been super valuable.

I should add that the first ward arcs, though challenging, thus far have dropped one DO I could use, but the rest have been all Science SOs that my character uses. A nice Heal, a couple of accuracies, recharges, etc. As well as numerous other Common IOs (at level 25 that I still can't use - 2 bars away). So, I've made a new alt, Heuristic Hero, that's now parked in First Ward towards the recipe bonus day job.

I'll just mentally keep track of it. Maybe if I get the first debt badge kind of thing. Fact is, if I wasn't enjoying the character, it wouldn't bother me a bit to delete it. But, I'm enjoying it, so I may as well proceed.

This would be my best guess. The fact that the leader didn't know this - well, it may have saved you from another "Snarky Adventure with a pug".

And...Warden Gorzi has put an end to my excitement. Dude just clobbered me. So...I have to think about this. The rules say delete it. Well, I was having fun with the character, so I don't want to delete it. I'm just gonna give myself a mulligan, a do-over. Yeah, I'll feel cheap and dirty. For a minute. But, hey, points for transparency, right? In the meantime, I'll make another character - rad/ice defender, and see how that one plays out - but it'll sit in a day job for a few days before I start it.

Retirement...lol. I've been having some fun with a challenge toon that abstains from buying anything. Only selling surplus items. Got about a dozen recipes I'd love to craft/convert/sell, but the challenge forbids the use of merits. I could use converters, but the character has only earned ONE so far, up to level 21. At level 50, the restrictions are lifted. So...I have not been afk farming. I have not been marketing in maybe 10 days. Oddly, there have been a number of characters I've moved for day jobs, and they each had a number of completed sales, and the stack of inf gets even higher. Not much just a few hundred million. Before I "retired", or vacationed from the inf accumulation, I did ensure each farmer was capped for converters so I can resume if I should feel the need. I have 3 accounts. Each one has over 75B in email, not to mention each character having 1B on hand. Last tally was 321B. Seems like plenty to me! I just wonder if I'm making a mistake. Yomo might take over the world while I goof off!

Yay, and it's a level 25! And I just dinged 21, lol. I can craft it but can't use it yet. Bittersweet.

So, almost level 21, and I thought to myself, perhaps First Ward would be the place to go for drops that might be more tailored to my origin. So far, so good. Couple of enhancements, one DO, one SO, both usable by science origin. Crafted a Rooting Grasp simply because it was something useful, same with the regen. tissue and Curtail Speed.

I left off Clubber because the Wiki said "out of combat". Who needs endurance out of combat?

This may be viewed as "cheating", but I'm inclined to roll a couple more challenge toons NOW - and park them in specific day job roles that would be impactful: Shop keeper - enhancement bonus (mission completion) Any store Chronologist and/or Survivalist - recipe bonus (mission completion) Ouro or First ward, anywhere Duelist - +Max End Arena Predator - +Recharge PvP zone Cold Hand of Death - Self +res (cold/neg energy) + def (Cold/Neg. Energy) Dark Astoria