Ukase

When did we vote? I was never told about this vote.

Look, I kind of get it. Folks are busy, and when they're not, they'd rather play than read about playing. But candidly, the information in the forums can certainly help make the best use of limited time. I suggest you encourage your friends to visit the forums and skim through things like the patch notes, and the various guides on making influence if they're not flush with inf. Playing the game and not reading the forums is kind of like getting in your car and taking a road trip with no destination. You might enjoy yourself, but you might also miss the turn into the forest because you couldn't see it with all the trees in your way. Like now, pending maintenance is a great time to visit the forums and read stuff.

<doh!> This never even occurred to me. Excellent point!

I'm stretching my brain to think of where this could be at. What UGT really needs is a big sign on the ENTRANCE door that we just came through, as newer players are often clicking on it and exiting the trial.

You know, other than on my first character...I don't think I've ever visited costume vendor in Croatoa. but 50 of each Halloween salvage? I don't even want to think how many doors that would take. So glad we can buy that stuff. (and sell it) Appreciate the info. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

See, if this is what happened, this would be for the best, would it not? If the zone is filling sooner and sooner, it would seem the players would like to start earlier than later. No? Or is it just greed and impatience? I dunno. I appreciate the time writing out your answers, though!

I made no secret about milking the ToT event for prismatics. And in another post, someone was lamenting about the lack of folks doing ToT as a league in KW. I mentioned that in order to change behaviors, something must address the motivation for players. I've never been good at costumes. So, going through the labyrinth to get the motes and turn them in for a costume (free!) has been something I've been doing lately. So, I thought, the price for prismatics has dropped. Which means that the motivation for some folks to do advanced mode tfs has somewhat decreased. At least for some of them, I imagine. So, I thought also - why not promote ToT and the hard mode stuff by adding a free costume toggle with the defeat of 50, or 100 EBs of the same type? Couldn't we see Snarky as an Ancient Vampire? Now, with regards to "promoting" ToT...it doesn't really need promoting, but towards the end, it seems to me that there are a lot fewer 50's participating, leaving the lowbies a bit put out because the fun has stopped for them. If there were a free costume toggle for clobbering 50 or 100 of them, I suspect there would be some costume lovers pursuing these and remain doing ToT for longer. Maybe the number is too low? Not sure. I just throw it out there arbitrarily. But so far as I know, those costumes are not available at benovolabs.

I felt I should be transparent. I took a new level 32 ice/MA corruptor to ToT in Croatoa, solo. And the EBs were not a cake walk like they were with my 50s. A lot more difficult. Not impossible, but a challenge. One of them did defeat me - the crone, because I didn't have any yellows and I was debuffed like crazy. But, once I returned to battle, took care of it without too much trouble - which just tells you if you have the proper inspirations, they are not that bad. Yes, it can be a little tougher when you're not 50 and decked out. But shouldn't they pose a challenge? That is why they give prismatics after you beat 10 of them. EBs are a bit streaky for me anecdotally. 10 doors without, than 3 doors in a row with. I wouldn't want to pursue the EB badges without a team/league. It would seem like it was taking too long to suit me.

This is so very true. And, if I'm being honest, I am egocentric enough to dare sometimes think the high salvage prices are my fault. Not because I'm doing anything, but because I'm NOT doing anything. I used to afk farm with two other accounts while playing the third. Now, I just play the one account. I might occasionally PL an alt to get over a level bump, but that's pretty much it. Instead of buying converters, I'm hoarding them. And my farmers are not selling surplus uncommon salvage. As a result of me not doing what I have been doing for 4 years, uncommon salvage is up. Converters are much cheaper. Everything is cheaper. You're welcome. Of course, this may have nothing at all to do with me and everything to do with Yomo telling all our secrets to the world in his insidious guides teaching people how to make their own influence! It's all your fault, Yomo!

I'm not sure how much analysis you want. Players are motivated by different things from ToT. 1. Prismatics 2. Event badges 3. XP 4. Reward Merits 5. The team experience? For folks like me who are primarily after 1,2 and 4, Once I get 1&2, I can get more RMs outside of ToT. Certainly more fun ways to get reward merits than waiting for an incan to a GM and then back to the doors. A lot of lower level players certainly don't mind the 1,2 and 4, but are really after the XP. Because the EBs give extra xp, all those badge and prismatic hounds are really helping the lower level players out! And, as you point out, the lower level players are helping to up the mobs that spawn from the doors. Win/win, sort of. But - when the group that's after the prismatics and the event badges get them, that leaves folks who might have dinged 50 and feel like they need to re-pay, or pay the favors forward with their new 50's to lead teams, or those few players who've been waiting for this lag people reference to die down. And the problem is, there's just not that many 50's willing to be a team lead when the only thing they get are slow vet levels and a few threads and shards. They already have the badges, they already have the prismatics. If they are stuck as an anchor to incan the league back to the doors, they don't even get the reward merits. Kind of thankless, really. I list "the team experience" because as a kid, I always went ToTing with friends. It was always somewhat interesting/fun to compare candy/loot after a house. Pro-tip: if you can make a friend with someone who has peanut allergies, you can trade the lame hard candy for the candy bars which are all made in a manufacturing facility that used peanuts. Sometimes, they just hand over all the candy because peanut allergies are no joke. But I digress. Some players log in and they don't care about loot, they don't care about lore. They just want some company. But, often ToT leaves them alone in a crowd. In short, if you want KW to get more people for ToT, then the rewards have to be increased or varied. Suppose defeating an EB 20 times resulted in an incarnate shard (not a thread). Something like that might change up the whole trite threads vs. shard debate. Or, let's say that debate is too trite, defeat the same Hallowe'en event EB 25 times and earn a costume toggle identical to the EB you just defeated. Or make it 50. That would keep the events a little more popular for the 50s. Until our HC devs tap into what motivates various players, I don't see the behaviors changing.

The question posed by the OP had me reviewing just what were the factions one encountered 1-20. For blue side, there's Clockwork, Council, Hellions, Trolls, Vahzilok, Lost, Skulls, Coralax (though no contact has blue siders interacting with these for street hunts or missions that I'm aware of - yet they are found in The Hollows.) CoT, Arachnos through Aaron Thiery's & Twinshot's arcs, Igneous, Hydra, Family...I think that's it for blue side. Since I can't be sure I can provide an exhaustive list, I can only state the ones I recall. Longbow, Snakes, Legacy Chain, Arachnos, Coralax, Family, Council, Spectral Pirates, and CoT. I'm sure the list isn't exhaustive. The most fun for me: Trolls, simply because of the way they talk, when they talk. The most frustrating: CoT - because of the spectral ghosts always running off when they have a sliver of health. And they don't just run off, they phase and become invisible, so you're left with a choice of sticking around until they return (if it's a defeat all, and it usually is) or trying to find them after you've handled the rest of the map.

Only the first 132 times. After that, I kind of got over it.

That's what I recall, too. Just need to run it to make sure. So, the Troubled Times arc, Stribbling. Roughing up the hacker to get him to talk awards 1 vigilante point. Letting Thystle go earns a heroic point, and arresting her awards a villain point. Doesn't seem to be any middle rogue/vigilante ground with that discussion. Arresting Marcus awards 1 villain point and...5 heroic points? This can't be accurate, because I now only have 4 heroic points. Letting Marcus go awards a heroic point. Returning Marcus awards 1 villain point. Defeating Marcus awards 1 villain point. It's puzzling to me. I've run this 4x, a different decision each time. No vigilante points were awarded in chat or on screen in words, yet, my tips bar, which showed 9 vigilante points after roughing up the hacker, somehow filled up. It wasn't Thystle, and surely it wasn't defeating Marcus. Well, time to do a morality for 40 merits, I guess.

The primary reason Jack Emmert drove people into teaming in this game is because he recognized the power of relationship. If you do not have some kind of positive relationship (or enjoy having negative relationships - some people are like that) anyone is likely to leave the game. After all, while I think there's probably a lot of different ways to do the same things in game, most of us are wired a certain way, and while we could get through it, only parts of it are going to be fun/interesting enough to keep our attention. And even then, without relationships with others who enjoy the same thing, boredom is a certainty. It's just a question of when. Diantane, I have teamed with you before. Your style of play does not align with what I enjoy. Your opinions on the forums rarely align with mine. That doesn't make me right and you wrong, nor vice-versa. It just means we're different. If you find the 40-50 "grinding", you might try a quick transfer to Indom, use the 2xp buff from Start vendor, and I'm sure it will seem less grindy. 2xp from Start vendor stacks with the 2xp for playing on Indom. It's worth a shot.

I think there's a way to get them in The Graveyard Shift, too. Haven't run it in a while and wasn't paying attention, so I'll have to get on that and check it out.

About an hour ago, they were at 1.2M I am not sure which way it's going to go after ToT ends. I could squeeze out some more from my lower level characters, but seems like I should just wait until next year. My gut told me when they were first introduced that there would be a time when they might sell for the same as halloween salvage. I know there's a small minority that does the advanced mode tfs and are likely swimming in them, if they aren't using them for the mini-modes or selling them. And, there's probably about 250 put into circulation on Excelsior from the labyrinth runs -which seem to be once a day, at least as far as I can tell. But that's only about 7-8 per player, after a monstrous aether conversion. If I were smarter, I'd look at how many are in the supply and check again tomorrow. Not sure about other servers and how often they do Labyrinth. Probably the same, or less, but who knows. After ToT, these activities might increase. I certainly don't see the supply increasing after ToT ends, unless it's from hoarders dropping their inventory. So, it will be interesting to look back 6 months from now and see if the price is around 1 to 1.5M. That's my guess.

You might think Science can't - but maybe you don't understand the science enough - yet. It might just take a special type of candle... I mean seriously, of course it's not the same, but in game?

It's no secret that if you want to get 40 merits, you may complete 10 tip missions of the same alignment and then complete a morality mission. I'm sure I'm not alone with the realization that Mark & Recall accolade requires us to complete 25 tip missions. So, after you get your 25, there is an option to complete the next 5 tips and a morality for another 40. But there's another way, and I'm trying to piece it together, and could use some help. I know from Dr. Stribbling's arc, Troubled Times, level 30-34 that by making certain decisions you can earn a vigilante point. Possibly two, but I haven't determined what the right decisions are for that - I know regarding Thystle, if I let her go, it gives a point for hero, and if I defeat her, it gives a point for villain (and that could very well be the other way around) But perhaps there's a path in the dialogue to get a vigilante point? No idea. But there is certainly a way to earn one vigilante point by completing Stribbling's arc. So that would move the player that stops at 5 vigilante tips (like me) to 6 pts. I thought that Shauna Brown's arc would allow for a point, but when I chose to kill him, rather than have him face bribery charges, zip. Can you all remind me what other arcs provide alignment points? I'd much rather do a story arc and earn the remaining points as I go, rather than just do the tips, even though it would only take me 20-25 minutes to do the 5 tips and morality.

Yeah, but it's odd. I don't think we have many powers that work this way, if any, besides brine. I kind of backed into figuring that out based on the type of set it takes. (just the one kind, accurate healing) It's a really interesting powerset. I can tell a lot of thought and creativity have gone into it - and it looks like they heeded some feedback from the patch notes, too.

There are often times when I've had items not post for me, but they remain in the slot in the AH, and usually it's due to a lot of things going on - like I'm trying to sell the 20th EoE I've gotten before hami spawns. With all those GMs and players about, it's not a surprise. But this glitch, I've never encountered before. I'm sorry it happened to you, and I know you're aware of how the AH works, so I'm not going to fuss about pictures, even though you provided them. All that said, I've no idea how they can address this, other than a refund. I mean, where would they find this bug? How could they reproduce it? I'm without a clue here.

Science is just magic that we now understand. Isn't it?

This is not the way I look at it. XP is not to be chased. It happens when you play. Do I kill/defeat stuff for XP? Sure. But not unless I have to, or on those rare occasions I might want to. Why should ANYONE kill everything on the map? There's only going to be more maps, more missions, more npcs to defeat. ALWAYS. There's never a good reason FOR ME to kill all/most unless it's a mission objective. For me, the goal is NOT XP. It's reward merits, or occasionally emp merits or incarnate rewards. Take Frostfire for example. Most folks are familiar with that mission. The mission objective is simple: Defeat Frostfire. Now to get to him, all you have to do is destroy an altar, and defeat Keystone and his few minions around him. Then you can run right by all those goons and go direct to frostfire, mash a luck, a break free, and a red, and kill him, and the mission is over. Then you go on the next mission with the next contact. More npcs to kill, so what you've done is you've moved on to the next story. You've collected your reward merits. And, you've gotten those merits a lot faster than if you'd killed everything. More merits per metric of time = more inf per metric of time. It does not pay to kill all/most. This is actually a good rule of thumb. I follow this, unless I'm about to get defeated, then I'll exit. But, this rarely ever happens because I don't join kill all/kill most unless I'm leading a crawl team.

So, I appreciate your suggestions. The thing is - if I put TB on auto, then I have to manually click hasten (although, fair enough, not as frequently) I have already changed my posted build maybe 4 times in the past 24 hours. As I'm leveling up, I'm noticing how the value of the ATOs and IOs are now getting stronger, making the 4 slots in (really only 3 that actually boost end) in stamina are too many. I should probably wait until 30 or 40 or even 50 to use ATOs, but some of those bonuses seem very nice to me. So, I tend to use them when I can. (and my base is crammed full, and I'm still trying to clear out older characters that I'm confident I'll never play again) Look for some pretty good IOs to go on sale CHEAP in the weeks ahead. Well, cheap compared to prices 18 months ago, lol. Whitecap should have 6 slots, but not with sets, but with damage procs. Or at least 3 of a set and 3 damage procs. Or at least, that's where my mind is at. This is actually one of the more interesting parts of the game right now, finding that balance between dps and res/def. It's going to be different for everyone because of differences in playstyles and skill and content. And other factors. At least, that's my opinion so far. Again, thanks for the suggestions and taking the time to put things together. So, looking at the build you shared, thanks again - I am confused about something. Brine, you have a couple of HO-s for acc/heal. This is a debuff. Not sure how slotting for a heal is going to reduce HP on an npc. Doesn't seem like it would do much good. I mean, it's takes only those kinds of sets, so I guess it works in ...reverse? Weird, but not your creation, lol. Numbers wise, your build looks very compelling, a lot better than the trash I put up.

Why? Do the damage procs not work the same whether they're level 25 or 40 or 50? Or is that just something you like to do?

For those that don't know, this is a pun. It may not have been intended, but it is a pun. See, I was just typing up about the rng dice and all that...dunno how Maelwys knew that...but he nailed it!