Ukase

These three badges are presumably awarded when you complete a buff, debuff or patrol mission in one of the lower level pvp zones - Siren's Call, Bloody Bay or Warburg. I didn't see any option to do these in Ouro, and the contacts won't talk to me, as I've out-leveled them, despite my being exemplared in zone. Would teaming with an appropriate level suffice? I'm thinking it would, but figured I'd ask before I went to the trouble. Or maybe there's something I'm missing.

I think i did that by accident on live - so I switched to macros, so I could tell right away.

I did, but as stated - few and far between. Thought there might be a tf or trial or mission I hadn't thought of, or forgotten about. They were also in the Moth Cemetary area. In both locations, amongst other npcs, and woefully outnumbered. Not an issue, just annoying.

My understanding is 100 incarnate level CoT, which I presume are found in DA. I have found a few, but it's like hunting for igneous in the Hollows. I've done all the missions in DA - have no recollection of facing CoT at any level. Am I going to just have to grind this out, or is there something I've not thought of?

Hey, I appreciate your thoughts. I figured there were some aspects I hadn't considered. I still would like extra, but who can fault me for that?

There's probably some perspectives I've not considered,but I believe that there's a problem with the way Reward merits are currently awarded. If I complete a task force on a team of 8, and we run the content at +4/8, I get the same reward merits as another team that ran it at -1/8. Why is that? Clearly one is easier than the other. If I finish a task force in 10 minutes, I get the same merits as someone that took 4 hours. Why is that? (I can kind of get that, as I often solo the shard tfs and take lunch. I'd likely get irritable if it cost me merits) Still, some folks are working harder than others and not being rewarded appropriately. I've no idea what the solution is - or if there is one - but I think if you finish LRSF in 10 minutes, you should get MORE merits than what's given now. Give folks something beyond a badge, as 1) for many players badges are meaningless 2) Awarding a badge for some insanely fast times would require more effort than I want to invest for EVERY task force. Or even some task forces. But merits...those are quite useful.

Some may think I'm joking, but there were some references to "Power Creep" in this thread. I read that..and my mind goes back to a day when people would complain about getting nerfed and not feeling "super" anymore. But, that's a nice derailing thread, so I'll stop there and say, "Let's not (discuss it) and say we did." If you really want to increase the challenge in game, have you considered time spent in X mission or X TF to be a gauge as to your abilities? If said content is so trivial for you, finish the LRSF in 10 minutes. Coordinate with your friends and decide who will get incan, who will get various interfaces, etc to get yourselves the fastest time possible. Maybe that's not your cup of tea, and you want +5 content. As I understand it, it's not possible yet. Maybe some day. In the meantime - the biggest thing you can do to increase your challenge is simply do nothing but PUGs. You'll have no idea what kind of treat you're in store for. TF leaders that go afk at the beginning of a mission with some emergency...but never return, after an hour. Or worse, a non-leader doing the same thing, but the leader refuses to kick them, stalling the teams progress. The biggest challenge (and blessing) this game has are the people that play it. They make difficult content easy, and more often than I'd like to think about, easy content difficult. Like in Pen Yin, when someone clicks the terminals right away, instead of dealing with the mobs that are already there. Not impossible, but the increase in mobs does make it more difficult. Quit your SGs! Those people are making you too comfortable! Teaming with people you know? That's just nuts if you want a challenge. Try going solo at level 12 at +4/8. Try going solo at +4/8 on every AT. Try it on a tank, you'll live, but it will take you a long while to finish those mobs. Try it on an AT you're not comfortable with, and you might find the difficulty more than you can manage. A +4/8 with freakshow is one thing - with Banished Pantheon or Malta or Carnies is something else entirely. Lastly - just stop slotting enhancements. That'll make the game super tough. I would never go that route; I hate to miss. But if you want it harder, that's the way to go.

I'm not Obi-Wan, but you don't need to do iTrials to get the t-4 parts you want. There are arcs in DA that award the same reward tables that an iTrial will. The biggest difference is you can set the difficulty for the DA arcs, but the iTrials will be +4 by default. And you can redo the arcs through ouro. The Heather Townsend arc is the first, and by most accounts the fastest of them. That said - if you really want to try an iTrial solo, the only way would be to get the required minimum, say 8 for a lambda, and have the other 7 quit while you remain. If you try to queue it solo, it will state you lack enough people.

I'm finding this not only tedious, but a bit nauseating myself.

Almost all of them. This is how I figured it out. I basically looked at the title and the contact of each arc, and then searched through the Paragon Wiki. If the contact was in Mercy, I did those arcs. It's been a couple of weeks, so I don't remember, but it's all of them except one contact, if I remember right. Just find out who's in Mercy and do those arcs. That said, if it's badges you want - may as well do all the arcs. They'll all help in someway - debt, mez, inf, damage...

I knew my combat attributes showed me as stealthed! That explains a lot!

Well, I certainly can't disagree with what you wrote. I probably should have written things more clearly. I think the experience - not knowing the content, but the lessons learned from getting know the content are what help shape a simple blaster into a really good one. I also didn't intend to suggest the use of macros or binds implied that a blaster that didn't use them was not good, nor that one that does use them is good. Only that their use would suggest someone knows a bit more about the game than someone who doesn't use them. It's not a hard fast rule, just something that I think is likely to be case more often than not. And I probably still didn't express myself very clearly. Sorry!

I really should read through all 5 pages of this, but I'm not. I did read that one felt blasters are the least survivable of the various ATs he/she had played. I see this type of comment in various league chats, broadcast, help channel, lfg, etc. ALL the time about how weak blasters are. Rubbish! Badly played blasters are certainly lacking. But a skilled blaster will outlive many other ATs that are played by equally skilled players. The beautiful balance of damage, accuracy, endurance management, recharge and defense is like a chess game. Advance one piece too far, and you're out of control in other facets. But, with forethought, practice and intelligent slotting, blasters are a genuinely capable AT. The initial question by the OP was answered, and answered well. Other posters chimed in, but the OP thinks the use of damage mitigation from melee attacks "brass knuckles for a guy with a glass jaw" don't make sense. Here's something the OP didn't consider: a badly played blaster will indeed have a glass jaw. But a skilled one will not. And it has less to do with melee attacks, and more to do with the player behind the avatar. What inspirations do they carry? Do they make effective use of binds and/or macros? How much experience do they have with their character and the content? Many of us who played back in the early issues to closing know the content very well. There's just not many surprises. Because we know what to expect, we've learned how to position ourselves for best results. (admittedly, experience has less to do with skill, but it's still a factor) Perhaps a blaster just isn't a good fit.

So...a thought occurred to me after I got a gentle rebuke from Paragon Wiki. I wasn't thinking about how they were trying to keep the wiki as the game was when it shut down - not with the new changes. Just a minor thing I'd changed, the number of reward merits for something. Apparently, I missed the memo on how our HC devs upped the reward merits a smidge, compared to how things were before the shutdown. So, they took my change out. So, with that, I know I'm not the only one who refers to Paragon Wiki for about 95% of things when I'm unclear on the best place to hunt certain things, or if I want to get an idea if I can solo a tf, etc. I'm wondering if there would be someone with more tech-savvy abilities than I have who could just port over a copy of the Paragon Wiki - maybe change some things, like calling it HC Wiki, and then folks like me could begin to update it to how things are in this version. The only reason I make the suggestion is because I was under the impression that Tony V has stepped away from The Titan Network, and that the HC team has arranged some sort of partnership with them. Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding something, but I think a wiki would be quite useful.

Wait - you can get purples with tickets? huh...I need to take a second look. You typed AE, did you mean AH?

You know, I really had no idea how many people had such strong feelings about the AE farm issue - on both sides. 7 pages on a thread isn't gigantic, but the fact that folks are continuing to express opinions and thoughts just shows me how little I know about how other people think.

So, while running Sir Bedwyr's arc, part 4, (doing them out of order) I notice that the npcs are Talons of Vengeance. Beat 100, get a badge. But, when I took out a banshee - no progress on the bar. Curious if that's by design? Doesn't make sense to me. The others give progress, so it won't hold me back - but why wouldn't the Banshees give progress? They are part of Talons of Vengeance.

lol. I have no time for foolishness like the tailor. That's even worse than reading what the contact is sharing to get you to do a mission. It's irrelevant. With the new transparent stealth, I can't see my character anyway. I basically did a load costume from my scrapper to my blaster, and back again. Each one cost me 4 million, so I only had to do it 13 times. Now I can ignore the tailor forever. Such a strange thing..don't you people like your costume when you start your character? Why would you ever change it? Makes no sense to me - but it doesn't have to. City of Options and all that.

Thus, the reason for my post. Playing melee, I don't notice it, as I'm already right there. On my blaster, not so much.

This just happened - and it's probably my fault for being in a rush. In Serpent Drummer's arc, there's an npc to rescue from the Ritki in Portal Corp. I'm on a blaster, I see the Adept on his knees, blast the intimidating figure away - and am attacked by another nearby Ritki - so having killed the initial Ritki, I move on the the other and clear the map. Still one more adept to rescue. I revisit in the right side portal corp building - clear. Roofs, clear. Parking lot, clear. Back areas behind the buildings, clear. Nothing but Vanguard around. I look, and look. And after about 8 minutes, I just happen to come across that same guy in his knees. Still. Despite having killed the intimidating Ritki that was "holding" him. When I got next to him, then he stood up and mission completed. I have no idea what the code looks like. Even if I had a copy of it that I could look at, I'd have no idea (or desire) to look through all the code to find it - but is there a way to have rescued npc's recognize they're rescued when the captor's are defeated, as opposed to having them defeated and being next to them? I mean, I have low expectations for something like this - it's not a bug - but just thought I'd ask.

You know, I'm so glad you posted this! It gave me the idea of looking at the map, instead of at the waypoint door. In the Ouro arc, "Oh Wretched Man", Steal research from the Legacy Chain, the mission waypt. directs to an arachnos base, the same door as the previous mission. But it was a good bit away. No screen shot, as folks can now know to look at their map to find the door, if the waypoint is wrong. Thanks!

Look, I didn't mean to bug anyone by what I wrote. I was lucky - quite lucky. But I see a purple at least once every two days. But - I have a farm toon that works while I work. So, it stands to reason it would see more. The characters I actually level up, they're still quite fortunate with drops. I had a scrapper playing at +3 get one at level 45. The next day, got two more. And that wasn't farming, it was just going through the Sig Story arc out of steel canyon in pursuit of merits. The reason I say make them drop less is because they are too abundant. They should be VERY RARE. They aren't. Heck, we have a trial that every first time character can run and get one, guaranteed! All that said - one man's drudgery is another man's fun. I don't consider it drudgery; I would consider it a challenge. It is quite possible that my characters are just luckier than yours. Evidence certainly suggests so. A copy of my petition: September 25 Windows: Let me start by saying - I don't know if this is an exploit or a cheat. If it were, I wouldn't have been doing it. But, it seems to me FOUR purple recipe drops (times Central US) 6:48, 6:48, 6:52, 6:53 - that seems it would be worth a look. Context: in an AE map, set to +4/8. (Comicon Cave map) Just running through the map like usual. I had just gobbled about 6 medium tier rages.

So...I have 7 mains? That kind of defies the meaning of the word main..

My Two inf: Yes, and no. With AE, either you, or someone else can make a mission with npcs that are specifically designed to be more susceptible to your offense, and less able to handle your defense/resistance. So, it's easier to go +4/8 for a fire farmer in AE than it would be for that same avatar in a Carnie or Banished Pantheon mission, for example. That said, the XP in that fire farm will give less XP than the same difficulty vs a "standard" contact given mission.

Last night, you announced you were forming up, and I was near the end of Dr. Q. I figured there was only 10-15 minutes left, and tried to lfg "join events in progress" and nothing happened after 7 minutes, so I just figured you guys were already done, or lfg just didn't want to work. The hami raid is also suffering from a lack of attendance, so my guess is it's the halloween thing.