[How to have a bad time in Synapse ...]

On 6/16/2021 at 8:16 PM, Solarverse said:

There were three total occasions where if somebody triggered the cut scene before disarming the bombs, that the AV didn't spawn. The first time we thought it was a fluke, after the second time it happened, I seen the most likely cause and kept it in mind for future runs.

@Solarverse Could you share which tf/mission you're talking about? I'm trying to think of various ones with bombs and an AV...LRSF? 

[Womp Womp / Immature Paragon Protectors]

The reason to go to that amount of trouble is with Ouro, you'd have to suffer through the preceding missions every time you wanted the badge. With Voltor's method, you keep the mission on standby for any character that wants/needs the badge. Saves a lot of time. 

Bear in mind, Voltor is like a select few of us that make multiple characters to get all the badges. Most folks aren't this crazy. 

[What would you like to see in a Goldside rework?]

The big things in my mind for gold side: 

Need praetorian equivalents of the 4 passive accolade powers. 
Gold side needs task forces. 

I know my thinking here is off the beaten path, but I think alignment in this game is ridiculous. This whole idea of heroes "registering" with city hall, and villains openly approaching contacts for dirty deeds, it's all quite silly. You think there are crooks that don't enter into a given area? Sure, there are. But there are also other crooks who do, and freely, because they are better at being a crook and escape detection. The population, the police, nobody knows they're crooks. This idea that a stalker, who's basically invisible can't freely stow away on a ferry to Paragon unless they see some bird on a van in an inter/non-dimensional club that plays the same music on a loop...seriously? 

Lose the bird. Lose the van. Heck, lose pocket D. All characters should be able to access all areas regardless of alignment. 

I get that it will never happen. I'm fine with it. I am okay thinking in my head that it's just silly the steps we have to take, but am grateful I don't have to do 10 missions and then a final mission to switch sides. 

But the two big things remain. If you want to level up from 1-50 as a praetorian, you're at a disadvantage, compared to heroes/villains. 

[The Monologue Thread]

I have literally 10,000's of threads across a number of characters/accounts. 

But  - wait! There's a RHW this Saturday! Every Saturday. The characters with all those threads already have The Really Hard Way badge, and Master of Magisterium. So, what to do? I just spent all my threads getting this newer character ready for RHW, getting t-4, etc. No more threads left! At least, not the 400 threads needed to get the inspirations desired. 
4*30 ultimates =120
4*30 dual team red/yellows=120

8*30 Team reds = 120
4*10 solo reds = 40
400 threads

That's a lot of threads unless you have done a ton of content with your newish 50. And generally, we use threads to make the common components needed, right? 

So, anecdotally, that's what happens in my case. I try to get my alts that are thread rich to stash what's needed in my sg base ahead of time. And generally do. But every now and then, I get busy and can't get that done. So, I end up over-paying for these inspirations. (usually buying them from my own alt, lol) 

Additionally, the staging area for iTrials is sometimes Pocket D - which doesn't have a Luna to sell them. Recently, folks have been using Echo Plaza, as there's a Luna there as well. This may actually cause the prices of these inspirations to drop. 

[Costume Request Thread!]

So, Ukase is far too embarrassed to ask this himself, so while he was on a call, I snuck on here and typed this out. He's at his wit's end coming up with a gorilla with a thong for reasons that escape any rationale I can think of. 

So..this is gonna sound super strange - but what he wants is the closest thing he can get to a gorilla. And, heaven help those whom he teams with, a thong. 
He claims it's impossible to have monstrous fur and a thong. Nor any gorilla/ape/monkey type heads. But he wouldn't really know - he just hits the random button most of the time. 

But, I'm sure some of you know the costume creator better than he does. Maybe it's hidden in there somewhere. 

I will see to it that you're rewarded if you submit a file I can download for him when he's not looking, if yours is chosen. 

 

Thanks!

 

[How to have a bad time in Synapse ...]

4 hours ago, Ghost said:

and finally, was Snarky on this PUG?  He has a way of being attracted to disastrous PUGs, so if he wasn't on the team, it wasn't a disaster 🙂

This comment made my night. Thank you. 

[How to have a bad time in Synapse ...]

On 6/14/2021 at 8:55 AM, ForeverLaxx said:

It's a sad time when a normally executed Synapse, experienced "as intended", is considered a bad thing.

I disagree with this idea of folks routinely dying during any TFC task force being an experience that's "as intended".  To me, defeat means you're doing something wrong, either tactically, or poor execution of an otherwise sound tactic. Unless it's your very first or second character. In that context, I can understand growing pains. 

Learn from it, you win. You don't, you lose. But I'm sure that's just me.  You do what's fun for you.

But me? I'm with the OP on this one. That would be torture, in more ways than one. I can't fathom sitting down for more than 90 minutes at a time. My legs get stiff and my feet start bouncing up and down, telling me to move! 







 

[@JJDrakken Teaming Guide & Person.]

So...I'm not quite sure what to make of this. 
I read your rules, and you lost me with the word rule. You're entitled to your conditions, but I'm not surprised we haven't crossed paths, particularly since I play a blaster more often than not. 

Then I read about this ...condition you're in. It made me feel badly about instantly mocking you in my head. With all the physical issues you have, it's not a surprise you find yourself ignoring a lot of people. You must be truly miserable, physically, if not emotionally. And I find it hard to believe the two aren't connected. 

I do want to encourage you on the weight loss. I know it's not easy. I was 280# when the game shut down. Probably the best thing that could happen to me, suddenly having extra free time. Now, I'm 215 and in the best physical condition of anyone I know, and winning indoor rowing competitions across multiple states, including collegiate rowing teams. And I'm 54, making college rowers wonder what I'm doing differently than they are. I bust my ass, is what I do, And I diet with purpose. But I didn't get in this shape overnight. I started walking 2.5 miles a day. Increased it to 10 miles a day. That was taking too long, and I discovered the indoor rower. I'm really too short to ever be world class in it, but worked at it, and got very good. 

I know this is harsh, and I don't mean it that way. I mean it to be serious, though.  Whatever you're doing to lose weight - please keep doing that. But also, consider limiting your play time in all games. They're  just recreational, and there are better ways to recreate until you get your weight in check. Even if you're 7 feet tall, that's way too much stress on your heart & your joints to carry around for too long. Try to be active in some way, every day. 

 

[Maybe I'm Asking Too Much?]

Consider a spines/fire brute. Properly built, in most cases, you can put burn on auto and just chill. Doesn't need to be a fire farm, either. With Melee defense focus, there's very little to worry about, except in an ITF when cascading failure can easily happen - but with inspirations and healing flames, you can see your way out if it rather easily. 

But for most content, you can snooze your way through, if that's what you choose. 

[Fund for CC's]

Had a brief discussion with someone about this yesterday. I will ask you what I asked them. 

How often would you like to see a contest? 
What prize do you see as acceptable, sustainable over time? 

 

 

[The Monologue Thread]

On 6/8/2021 at 10:38 PM, Sakai said:

Had no idea that Team inspirations affect MM pets. Do they help Troller pets or P2W summons?  Do Team mates and pets need to be in a certain range to get the benefit of the inspiration or is being on the team good enough?

 

I enjoy the Ultimates.  Nothing like all of a sudden being tough enough to rip Frostfire apart.  

Team inspirations are the only ones that will help an MM pets - UNLESS you literally click and drag an inspiration to your MM's stat bar in the pet window. And even then, they have to be within 20 feet of you. 

This is why I often disobey our league leader during RHW runs, as I tend to wait for teammates to be within that 20 foot radius. For most of these fights when solo, other than the reds, I'll just use them just before I engage the AV, to hopefully mitigate the alpha. I'm generally not worried after the alpha, and just want to clobber the AV as fast as I can. Thus, the reds. 

In a way, it's interesting to me to hear others thoughts on these "tools" at our disposal. The team supers cost 30 threads. The individual ones only cost 10. And yet, The supers often command a 4-5x price point. (and, lol, sometimes they don't) 

The game seems to think that 10 shards, converting into 10 threads (once per day! ) is worth 1 million. Could that suggest that, given our old Paragon Studio devs tendency to look for inf sinks at every opportunity, they thought 10 threads was worth about 100k? Or a million? 

Ultimately, they're worth as I stated initially - as much as someone is willing to pay. With Luna, and the abundance of players with farmers on second (and even third or fourth accounts), threads are all but free, outside of the opportunity cost of time - which is often paid by pursuing XP, drops, whatever. The threads are a bonus. I think this is the only thing keeping the price of these sky-rocketing to 2M or more. The demand is definitely there. I sell out routinely. My poor farmers are rebelling, having been stripped bare of their emp merits, and now their threads. (no, they aren't really rebelling. But sometimes..I swear they are looking at me cross-eyed like I'm an evil slave master. ) 

In my mind, the single supers are worth no more than 500k, and the teams no more than 1.5M. Crazy, right? 

[The Monologue Thread]

There's no question the Ultimates are primarily used for Really Hard Way and serious speeders on speed tfs/trials. 
Same with the super rages and intuition imbuements (the team super dual red/yellows)

When I solo tfs and fight an AV, I will use a boatload of the super team reds, (for the summons or lore pets) but never even think about using the ultimates, and I have no idea why. 

I will also use the super lucks on master runs, just in case, or to shore up any numbers when facing AVs. But, you make a point, it's often over-doing it, as their chance to hit is floored with a small luck in most cases, but I can never be sure about debuffs. 

[Ice/ice, ice/ice or ice/ice?]

Ice/ice blast is super fun. I think it's the best in game - but the numbers say I'm wrong. But, anecdotally, it edges out my fire blaster. The thing is - it all depends on how you slot the characters. One character might be fantastic with one build, but sheer trash with another. 

But overall, I think ice/ice blast is a great way to learn to blast. You have a nice hold, that's super fast, to help mitigate incoming npcs, and an ice patch for the ones you can't get to. Proc 'em out, and they can really shine. But, all depends on playstyle, and how you build 'em. 

 

[The Monologue Thread]

So...my character emails are filled with winter sets and ATOs, and my sg has 10 bins for purples - one for each kind. When I get a purple, I don't convert them, I just craft and drop it in the appropriate bin. 

Oddly - Apocalypse and Armageddon are easily the least dropped - at least for me, anecdotally. Have never kept a specific work sheet on them - but over time, it's curious how I have 80 something of all of them except Arm & Apoc. Only about 50-60 of those. I thought maybe it was because of slotting..but I seem to use more Hecatombs & Ragnaroks. 

But now - a curious question since some of you are bored. We all know an item is worth as much as people are willing to pay for it. 
But, I have a farmer with close to 10K incarnate threads. 

That's only 333 super team inspirations I can get. Sometimes, they go for 2 million, but you'd have to be fairly patient to get that. Presumably mostly on the weekends. 

1. What do you think they're worth? 
2. Why do you think they're worth that much? 

With an IO, we have seeded salvage that can put a cap, ultimately, on what the salvage is worth, plus the crafting cost. So, we do have a general sense of what an item is worth. It's the perceived utility of that IO that drives the price up or down. 
Common IOs that cost close to 500k at level 50 to craft are routinely sold for 300k or much less. This is often due to insane people like me, who badge. When the game has you craft literally hundreds of common IOs and you don't want your AH slots filled with items that will never bring you more than 300k on average...you may be inclined like me to sell them cheaply, take a loss just to be rid of them. 

The salvage is seeded to put a cap on what they are worth, and they're also bucketed to further suppress the demand, which keeps the cost on the AH down. Not to mention all the winter packs that were bought with who knows how many damn brain storm ideas that are still left in emails. 

So, supply and demand seem to be the primary drives of the price of super inspirations. The large, despite their low resale value at the vendor can usually claim 25k up to 100k, depending on the supply/demand. But the supers...they don't drop, unless someone claims it as a reward, but you only get one. Seems odd that someone would claim those anyway. 

I thought maybe I would "upgrade" some shards to threads...and pay 1m to upgrade 10 for 10, but 10 threads won't get me a super team, only a super. And those...occasionally you might get 1m, but seems like those are usually selling for 250k, or thereabouts. Only rarely would it be worth it to sell those, in my opinion. I think I did see the super reds sell for 500k about a month ago. And candidly, since I have so many, I don't really keep track of the prices. 

But, I think the super teams and the ultimates are the most popular, as far as AH goes. 

Thoughts? 

[Iron man/Woman Challenge]

I have done this challenge before, and made it to level 50 +2, vet level 2 until I foolish went to a hami raid and got over-eager and jumped in GM scrum for EoE. 
I figured since I was level 50, I had already beaten the challenge, so I kept the character. 

Most of my characters go this route, except for the immediate delete. I tend to respec the IOs out first. Deleting a build...that's just nuts. 

[What should I do with this Enhancement?]

3 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

But I work in volume

See, I generally only play with what drops. I rarely buy stuff to convert or craft and resell. I might, on occasion buy some IOs that I normally sell that some foolish person is listing for cheaper than they usually sell for and relist. I can do that all day long. They will sell at the regular price in a day or so. 

When I do buy recipes, it is, indeed in bulk, and makes me about 300-500M a day. But it's so tedious and time consuming, I tend to only do that with characters that need crafting badges. (2k items crafted takes some time, lol!) And - they are generally pvp IO recipes, where I know I can make some inf. 

[What should I do with this Enhancement?]

So a little caveat about my advice. I make each decision not as if I have to pay for a converter, but that a converter is opportunity cost. That said - I craft every uncommon and rare I get, unlike young Yomo the wise. Why? Because you never know what you're going to get. And, I can afford to do it.  It would probably make more sense to me to not craft uncommon Ranged AoE, and Sniper recipes - even the rares and uncommon are trash in those categories, and often require a rare to craft. And you tend to have to burn more converters to get something good. For me, all salvage and converters are basically free, so why not? If you haven't figured out the practice of recycling your farmers for emp merits, well...time to look into it. I also never deal with IOs that sell for less than 3M. I only very, very rarely will touch a 2m IO. Just not worth the slot in the auction house. 

My advice is in bold - just to make it easier to see. 

(level 10) Unspeakable Terror: Acc/End - craft it, by all means! Hope for the Accurate Defense Debuff  Achilles -res debuff. If not, you might get the steadfast kb or 3% def. All kinds of goodies in that range! 

Jaunt: End/Range - Craft it. Convert in category if that's the uncommon. You'll get a rare, then go out of set, see what you can get. 

Extreme Measure: Acc/Range/Rech (weird one - last purchases range are 200,000.  8,000,000.  8,500,000.  21,000,000.  4,000,000)  The AH is glitching here, or someone is vastly overpaying.  Convert it out of category, then go for a rare. 

Artillery: Acc/Dam/Rech Too many of those targeted AoEs (ranged AoEs, excuse me) convert out of category, hope for one you can convert in category for a rare. 

Lethargic Repose: Acc/Sleep/Rech  convert in category for a rare. 

Enfeebled Operation: Acc/Immobilize   convert in category for a rare. Then convert out of category until you get something good. 

Lockdown: Acc/Rech convert out of category. You won't get much from any hold IO.

Gladiators Strike: Damage/Rech Convert until you get a glad, a panacea, or shield wall  or until you just get the chance for toxic or chance for -res. The other procs sell well enough, but they don't bring in an 8M price, usually. And the big three sell much faster. 

Experience Marksman: Dam/End/Interrupt Convert until you get a glad, a panacea, or shield wall  or until you just get the chance for toxic or chance for -res. The other procs sell well enough, but they don't bring in an 8M price, usually. And the big three sell much faster. 

Red Fortune: Def/End Convert in category until you get LotG Def, Def/End , 7.5%

Red Fortune: Def/End/Rech Convert in category until you get LotG Def, Def/End , 7.5%

Blood Mandate: Damage/End Convert in category, then convert out of category once you get the rare. 

Perfect Zinger: Taunt Convert go out of set, see what you can get. 

Mocking Beratement: Taunt/Range Convert in category. You'll get a rare, then go out of set, see what you can get.

[Merits to Influence - step by step?]

On 3/29/2021 at 9:02 PM, DocRadio said:

Though I hear farming is more profitable.

Whoever tells you this clearly doesn't understand how to play the market. 

[city info terminal kiosk, err thingy]

You stole my question! lol

The Paragon Wiki refers to them on blue side as "City Information Terminal Kiosks". They were added with Issue 2. No mention is made about them on red side. Just seems like they'd have given villains a similar way to see who was bashing the most npcs and what-not. 

[Hi! Thanks for joining. You're my hostage!]

23 hours ago, nihilii said:

I think this is the misconception that ruins your experience.

There is nothing magical about having 8 players rather than 5-6 that makes or breaks a +4 TF. On the curve of easier to harder, it becomes harder, sure.

There are three things that put a player on my naughty list. Deliberately profane character names (No offense, but your name offends me. If that's your cup of tea, probably for the best we don't team up) Political nonsense over chat/discord (if it's politics, it's nonsense) and leaving a tf before it's over. 

That last one. It's a hold over from live, before IOs, back when you looked for specific ATs with specific skill sets. Nowadays, someone leaves, it really doesn't matter as much. But, I still maintain that if you start something, you finish it. And if it's untenable, the team just doesn't have the stuff, you can discuss it openly and see what the team thinks. But you don't quit without that discussion. 

"I don't like a movie, I get up and leave!" kind of mentality goes nowhere with me. How would an MSR look with people taking out the pylons, setting the bombs and killing the GM and then...just leaving? No, that's not proper. 

While I get that if there's a huge misunderstanding, you may want to bail, young Snarky did what was right, even though it was a pain in the crickets? Something like that. 
I don't have a real clear picture of when the team lead said he would bump it to +3, but if it was after the tf started, the fault does lie primarily with the team lead. 

But, this is where we need to remind Snarky that he can always lead a TF himself and control these things. It's quite simple. A headache at times, but sometimes a real hoot. 

[Sanctuary shut down]

On 3/14/2021 at 11:23 PM, Solarverse said:

 

For those of you who were looking for the comment, you wont find it anymore, it was reported and I was banned from the group over my comment. End of story.

Well, that page has been pretty much obsolete since it came out. I never understood why anyone would want to share their face. Granted, some of you might have a pretty face, but I'm probably the only one who was thrilled to wear a mask when the pandemic hit. And so was everyone else! 

In all seriousness, I haven't been to that site since...2010? Or was it like 2004? Just figured it went the way of the DoDo bird. 

[JFC: Warning, Server Drama Ahead]

10 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

I expect Excelsior natives/patriots to be defensive.

So far there are are only two of you being defensive. 

I think that there are plenty on Excelsior know that I'm saying is correct or they would be chiming in. They aren't.

I think the issue here is your definition of "bad behavior". 

You make a lot of statements, and it took me about 4 pages to cover all of them. And, I looked it over, and deemed it a bit too harsh. 
In a nutshell, I have seen rude behavior on every server. I have also seen generosity, civility, humor on all the servers as well. 

If you see more rudeness on Excelsior, I would suggest that's because you see more people on Excelsior. 

Truth is - if you look for a problem, you will find it. So, yeah, I think there's some perception bias on your part. And you owe Jits an apology. Clearly, you don't know him. He's a great player, but not only that, he's generous with his time. If you need help with a badge, if he has the time, he'll help. 

You may all genuflect now for I have spared you pages of nonsense! 

[JFC: Warning, Server Drama Ahead]

6 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

It's not about the zone or the event or the game "belonging" to anyone. It's about respect for other people.

 

Look, if you announced that you were going to run an impromptu event that required a large percentage of the entire server population and then people started informing you "Hey, we already have an event just like that one scheduled to start in about 30 minutes. Please don't disrupt our event. People are already planning to show up then. You're welcome to join in." If you disrupt that event then YOU are being the jerk.

 

Now it seems (I wasn't there) that that's basically what happened but their language should have been a little nicer, something that I already agreed with in my first post. However, it was still the same thing, just not stated nearly as diplomatically.

 

Either way, the person showed up and risked disrupting an already planned event when all he had to do was just wait a few minutes and join the one that was about to start. Unnecessary, and probably childish, words aside, he was the one risking disrupting an event. In my opinion, he's the jerk here.

I agree with you that we should all have a measure of respect for our fellow player. 
But - hear me out please. 

I should elaborate my position, as I wasn't there for the drama and don't know the full circumstances. On the surface, seems like everybody was wrong. 
Perhaps the early person had no idea there was a scheduled raid, He/she has brought some friends and promised them a good time with ...whatever MSR/Hami. 
They get a message that someone has an identical event slated for 30 minutes from now - and that's all well and good, but guess what? 

It's never 30 minutes. Sure, the planned event may begin to form in 30 minutes, but it may not actually begin until an hour later. I started an MSR today at 1pm Central. It was by sheer curiosity I checked the HC/Excelsior discord to see that Kane wasn't planning one today.  Let the record reflect I was completely oblivious to all this that happened last night. 

So, if I want to start one an hour early - I should wait? No. And guess what? It took me 32 minutes to form it and get started.  Took me 16 minutes after we started to actually fill the league. No doubt, those folks were early, expecting a Kane or Doc Proteus MSR. 

I think the proximity to the event is what may give us some latitude on how we label someone a jerk or not, though I'd like to steer clear of the name calling/labeling. I just think since an MSR is only 30 minutes, the player is just fine starting another one. Instead of arguing, the other folks could have just joined it, finished it and then transferred to the next event. 
 

But hey - people are different, and circumstances can change things. And certainly, profanity and belligerence isn't going to win anyone any respect.  

[JFC: Warning, Server Drama Ahead]

21 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Make no mistake, the person who refused to listen to people telling him "there's an MSR scheduled to start in 30 minutes" is the jerk here.

 

When you show up and announce you want to run an event and people tell you that one's scheduled in 30 minutes, you can wait 30 minutes. People are already planning to be there in 30 minutes. People have taken time to let everyone know about it. More people are likely to show up than at an impromptu session.

 

Look, I'm not saying the people asking him to wait for the "official" MSR weren't being jerks. But your boy who refused to just say "oh thanks for letting me know" and wait for previously scheduled raid, that was only 30 minutes away, was the real jerk here. As for the raid leader banning some people from his raid. Well... you're a problem causing jerk, don't be surprised when people say that you're not welcome at their event.

 

TL;DR = Learn to social skill properly.

I think you're making a mistake. The zone doesn't belong to the player who routinely does an MSR. He/she has no claim on the zone, nor the time period. 

Should he have respected that time frame...well, yeah. But - maybe they didn't have 30 minutes to wait. Maybe they only had 45 minutes or an hour. 
So, no, he's not a jerk. He's just playing the game. As for the drama before/during/after - nobody is excused. Glad I missed it. 

 

[A Meandering Path to a Billion Inf]

On 5/15/2021 at 12:51 PM, arcane said:

Yep, best thing for me seems to be a mix. 

Absolutely. Marketing by itself - super fast as far as real life time. Super easy. 

Farming is fast, and consistent. I see absolutely no reason why someone wouldn't farm routinely afk with one account, market with the other - and then, after the bids are placed and the items listed for auction, you don't either play a character "normally" if that suits you, or actively farm if that suits you. 

This is what I do. @yomo and I have spoken in DMs about our differing strategies, but we're both quite happy with our ways of doing things, and arguably, the net result is the same, or very close to it. I think we're both at about 300Billion, give or take 5. And I'm fairly certain there are some that have quite a bit more than that - just have no idea who they are. 

I might have more if I didn't badge. Badging requires some afk-farming of an altogether different kind. Sitting in fires, having malta sappers drain you of end until you're stunned, spamming soul drain or judgement, depending on the AT/powersets, all kinds of "busy" work that keep the account busy so unable to farm/market during those times.  And I have 10 badge characters at present. 4 are complete, 6 more are in progress. But that's a different topic altogether.