Ukase

Just my .02 inf. Playing experiences vary. And a player's opinion of those experiences will vary, too. I think ice/ice blast is incredible. I think fire/fire is incredible, too. Both are great, but both aren't necessarily great at everything one would encounter as they level up and play through incarnate content. Some folks just love their rad/fire brutes in a farm. But outside the farm? I'll take spines/fire. For others, the reverse may be true. I like Shield/Mace tank. I recently got one to 1531 badges, simply waiting for a nemesis event and for Luna to open up her shop in May for the anniversary badges. And I don't even like playing a tank, but I like this one. I have a fire/rad corruptor that is almost just like playing my fire/fire blaster. Almost. What it lacks in dps, it make up for in debuffs. And a small minor heal, with Accelerated Metabolism. I like it a lot. Other than my farmers, it has more vet levels than any other character I have. There's a few folks who read these forums - Nemu, Bionic Flea, and a few others - but it doesn't really matter what AT/powersets - they're gonna build them so well that the characters will be fantastic - when they play them. But if I play them...perhaps not so good. Ultimately, it's all fairly subjective.

Before the blue patch drops and hits, there's a faint outline of where the patch will fall, kind of like Wile E Coyote, seeing a large shadow suddenly cast over him, which caused him to look up and see the large boulder ready to make him a pancake. For any ranged AT, these are simple to avoid. You just keep moving anyway to avoid the invisible swordsmen. For melee, it's a training ground where you learn to joust. You mash your melee attack and then close in and bash her, and then keep moving, circling around her. Saving your longer animation attacks for after you've dodged the blue stuff. As a stone tank, I would guess you'd make a macro or key bind to do this more quickly/easily. Or, alternatively, you'd just taunt while your dps teammates do their thing. Maybe get a few attacks in when you can.

The truth is we do NOT need a CoH classic server. We have, what I call, City of Options. There's nothing stopping you from forgoing a cape until you take it upon yourself to complete the cape mission. There's nothing stopping you from NOT using various costume pieces until you've done the old-school equivalent of unlocking them. Except you, and perhaps a lack of discipline or knowledge of what was required to do the unlock. As for Frostfire, I took it upon myself to promote and lead an old-school style, no 2xp blue side crawl for my sg. We go in, once a week for 90 minutes, collaboratively completing various arcs. We did Frostfire two weeks ago. Half the team doesn't even slot anything until level 22, so things were pretty sloppy and embarrassing, to be honest. Didn't seem to take away from anyone's fun, though. In some ways, what you're after is a lot like badging in CoH. Some folks seem to not do anything unless there's a badge behind it, and others have no issue reaching level 50 with less than 50 badges. Any badges they got was either by accident, or game-given as a result of leveling and reaching certain benchmarks without a thought to badges. Some only pursue stat boosting accolades. Nobody puts a gun to anyone's head saying they have to - but they get to do so, if they want. Same thing with capes, auras and other things that used to be gated/locked.

I do these types of things on my "challenge" characters that are to start with zero, no help from other characters, no inf assistance, zip. When you're level 1, with zero inf, you can't even afford a jet pack to get the 5 reward merits because one badge is on top of the globe. (it can be a hassle asking for a port up there, and besides, part of the challenge is to do these things without assistance.) So, after a few kills to get at least some influence so I can sell an inspiration from the Inner Inspiration power, I'm inclined to "nickel and dime" things for a while until I have accumulated enough inf to do some marketing at a more appropriate price-level.

Yeah, things like this are why I stopped selling rare salvage. I'd had a ton of it for sale at what was then a lower than the prevailing price by about 15%, and then they seeded the salvage, which kind of borked the way things were going. We never know what's going on with the market, really. Just a good thing it's not real money.

So...my only question is, How/why did you trust the display? There are a number of times that the shown data is not accurate.

The road to pixel wealth in CoH has many paths. Some are better than others. But, in order to be really helpful, we need more information. How much time are you willing to invest? Do you have a second account? How much influence do you have to invest? (technically, you don't need any) Have you read Yomo's latest guide/adventure, the meandering path to a billion? No point in my reciting it. Look through this very market forum. Some guides even have pictures.

I play some to 50 and stop without incarnate. I play some to 50 +3, t-4 in all slots. Some I play to 50 +3, t-4 in multiple options in slots. (more than 1 destiny, interface, etc.) Some haven't made it to 50, but this is usually because they aren't that much fun, not because of anything else.

Numbers aside, I will be transparent. I have never done an Apex with a melee character, except once. We got the Master, but Apex Mastery is simple. Still, I am reluctant to do Apex simply because of the annoyance of having to move away in between attacks because of the blue patches. Magisterium Trial is another example of where playing a melee character annoys me. Move in, move out, etc. With ranged, I still have to move, but I can attack as I move. It's safer, easier. So, my thinking is that even if math were to not support the blaster, the blaster would still edge out because of the flexibility of ranged attacks vs melee. I do acknowledge that I've played probably 20x more hours as a ranged character than as a melee. So, it could very well by my own playstyle that flavors my opinion.

Ice blast is soooo much better than a silly corruptor. No need to worry about scourge because with ice blast, they're already dead. I've played both. The ice corruptor isn't bad, mind you, but ice blast is still very much the best blast set. I don't care what the numbers say about fire. Ice has far better mitigation as you level. For level 50 play, the fire has an edge, but leveling - I'll take ice every time. The corruptor is good in team play, given the secondary. But, it's also a bit busy, as you have to pay attention to a lot more than just your own hp. You have 1000 slots - make both and you tell us what you think.

I also can confirm an anecdotal experience like this, but also after having parked characters for a lengthy period of time for, say, a day job. Parked a character for a day job. Badge acquired, Log in, run mission, purple. Three times. Didn't happen on the 4th and 5th, happened on the 6th.

Shield/Mace Tank Fire/Fire/Mace Blaster Ice/Ice/Mace Blaster Fire/Rad Corruptor Ice/Kin Corruptor Ice/Cold Corruptor Rad/Stone Tank Ill/Dark Controller Controller and Ice Corruptors would have perma-hasten, the Cold Corruptor would have burnout with heat loss. So, you'd have 6 rains, 3 Blizzards (2, plus the 1 after burnout use) dropping within a very short time frame, plus two infernos with fulcrum shift. So, a pretty big initial blast of damage. 3 scourges to whittle things down the rest of the way.

Can I just say I enjoyed this? And I learned something! Me! A player who did similarly, got a billion in a week without really trying hard, just about 15-20 minutes a day, twice a day. While you bought common salvage on the cheap from the AH, I've been scouring the AH for cheap rare recipes. Buy 'em for 100 to 3K and sell them for 5k-10K.

I do think the Vanguard Merit currently is in the same position as threads and emps and astrals were back in live for non-incarnate trials. On live, you'd run a mission at +4/8, clear a good sized map and come away with maybe 10-12 threads. With no astrals or emps as a reward, just the reward table, and you could only do it once a day, I think. It was woefully insufficient unless you did iTrials. The Vanguard Merit drop rate is also insufficient in all content other than MSRs. Is that for the best? A number of players do MSRs every day. Some even level their characters doing ONLY MSRs. Some probably do it for the social chatter, but I think the predominant motivation is easy xp/merit conversion once they get the badges associated, as well as the hvas and the salvage sack. Because of that, I don't think many would take advantage of this proposed system, unless the drops were meaningful, and it's difficult to see how meaningful they would be with the suggestion drop rates. //begin mini-rant I would personally love it if the open zone MSR went by the way of the dodo bird. While most are polite and out for fun, it's nauseating to read/hear the same myths about stealth impacting spawns and/or taunt. Yesterday I was teamed with a level 4. That's reason alone to do the instanced msrs with Apparition. I can't pretend to understand why this bothers me so much, but it does. Call it a pet peeve. I just don't see why I have to use all my powers while they just use brawl and a t-1 attack from their primary, if that. It's no secret that most that do an MSR put an attack on auto, and tab out and do something else, checking back in every few minutes. Support characters just spam heals on auto. Blasters will put some AoE attack on auto if they have it, if not, they target through a pet a single target attack. I would venture to say only 25% of the non-melee players are actively attacking/buffing as they would in a conventional mission.

I like the idea of tying things to other content. The buffs, though, I'm on the fence about the strength of them. Candidly, players that use IO sets simply won't need them. I don't know the percentage of players that use IO sets...but I'd guess more than half. Granted, just because folks use sets doesn't mean their characters are slotted well (not necessarily min-max, but with various metrics like recharge and defense in mind). Obviously, opinions will vary on this, but that's just mine.

Well...mathematically, it's true, but it's defeats within a mission map are half debt.

For me, I have fond memories of taking my first fire/fire tank at level 36-37 into Crey's Folly and burning freaks up to level 39, when I noticed the xp wasn't rolling in as fast because I'd outleveled them. It was fast. I was solo, just burning them up, and I didn't have to spend time checking in with a contact, traveling to a mission, etc. ITF didn't exist back then. lol, a lot of the game didn't exist back then. When HC opened up, I set about to revisit this, and I discover the Super Stunner. This is an npc that I believe was implemented before shut down to combat the very thing I was doing. Leveling efficiently without help from others. The darn thing would drain my end a bit, and place that patch on my burn patch..and instead of things being easy, it was something I had to pay attention to. So..I found something else to do. Players are like water for the most part. Mostly going in the path of least resistance. This is why hazard zones are largely ignored, imo. (yes, there are players that seek out challenges and difficult content, but I think these players are fairly rare) So...the only way I can think of making hazard zones more populated would be to increase the rewards for the mobs within them.

My grandmother used to say, "If you're bored, it's because you're boring". I can understand finding them (or any other npc faction) a bit routine. I consider the Warriors to be an element in the game that makes the suspension of disbelief less necessary. All criminals don't wear flashy spandex with sparks flying from their fingers and farts. I don't find them boring any more than freaks, arachnos or the overly-noisy cimerorans. If you were to change anything, change the dialogue while fighting them, or at other points within the arc. If you suffer defeat, I can just imagine something along the lines of, "Ha! You might have the hitpoints of a security level 25 @archtype, but you fight like a level 7 hellion!" or "That's what happens when you spend too much time in a fire farm"

I can't believe I didn't notice this before. The Shield Wall unique boosts resistance of all damage types 5%, not 3%.

First - to the OP - probably an oversight, but purples are called Very Rare, not Rare. But, anecdotally, they're not very rare. They drop routinely. Just not all for the same person. In my specific case, I learned last year that I was allowed to have 3 accounts. When I made the third account, that seemed to be when things started to go much better. Kind of like fishing with nets. The more nets you have, the more fish you're likely to get. The more missions you run/(mobs you defeat) the more purples you'll get. IF you were only after purples, it would make sense to drop the difficulty to get through the mobs faster - more mobs in less time means more chances at a purple per time interval. But - many aren't just after that. Power leveling alts and/or friends can factor into that decision. I remember once thinking I did something wrong when I got 4 purples in 11 minutes. Even sent a petition thinking I broke something or found some kind of exploit. They told me I was just very lucky. Non-farm characters, anecdotally, I can tell you, they get more purples when they haven't been played in several days to a week. It's happened to me often enough where I think there's something to that, but then I log on a long neglected alt, and no purple. Weird how perception bias works. Windfalls, there's something about them. I don't think they work as intended, if they work at all. They certainly don't increase influence gain. But anyways, I digress. Yeah, they can be streaky. But I've gotten more than I'll likely ever use. In addition to stocking the bins in my own sg, I've stocked the bins in my own sg. I've over 700 + stashed. Dunno if I'll ever use them. I keep thinking the devs will do something about farming to negatively impact afk-farming, and when they do, I expect the price of purples to increase. I aim to be prepared.

It wouldn't bother me...but so many players now PL to 50, picking powers in no particular order. I would venture most of them use level 50 IOs instead of attuned, and they would think themselves seriously gimped if exemped below 45.

I very rarely actively farm. I do the afk route. And from what I see of the rad/fire builds, they are less sturdy outside of the farm than the spines. But, as they say, your experience may vary. I really should make one just to play around with it, but for some reason, I haven't. I think it's because I don't like rad melee. On my tank, I found the animations to be longer, and sluggish. I can't imagine they'd be any crisper or faster on a brute. If someone says otherwise, it may be worth a second look.

Just my opinion, but if you already have a viable spines/fire, there's no compelling reason to do rad/fire for a very marginal improvement in dps, particularly if you're thinking of afk-farming. If not afk, over time, I suppose it could be worth it, and you may find you enjoy it more. (or less!) It's not real money, but it is real time. Give it a try if you're inclined, but me, I'm sticking with spines/fire.

I have a few thoughts. Squishy. It's the wrong word. Blasters, Corruptors, Defenders, Dominators, Controllers, MMs...these are not "Squishy", nor are they collectively "squishies". If your character is "squishy", it's because of the way you made it. My blasters, corruptors, defenders, etc - they're not squishy. With a blaster, there's no such thing as mez. You can still attack while mezzed. And, with proper slotting, the mez doesn't last very long at all. Same with Corruptors, Defenders, MM's & Controllers. They have buffs that can decrease the time spent mezzed. It's really a non-issue, at least in the higher levels in most circumstances. That said, there are circumstances where it can be troublesome. The aforementioned MSR. In these cases, there's so many buffs going on, that Hasten would be better autofired, because it would recharge sooner than Clarion, and Clarion will break a mez if one happens and you forgot to use it. But barrier is probably better, because it would prevent you from getting hit by the mez attack, particularly if it's stacked every 30 seconds with other barriers. But that's just my .02. It's also quite useful in the Underground trial, with the Olympic Guard stuns and the intermittent confuse in the final fight. Other than those situations, I don't even have it slotted. There's just no real need for it in my experience.

Either my doms are terrible, and my blasters are awesome, or your doms are incredible and your blasters are horrible. Or maybe both. That said, I don't think Doms need a buff, but maybe some of the powersets could use a boost. In my experience, they do next to no damage, even with domination. They kind of reek of sadness. But - I'm likely playing mine wrong. I swore off of them, but a friend talked me into trying earth/earth, and it wasn't bad. I don't have perma-dom because it's not needed. It's nice for end recovery, but proper slotting negates the need to sweat endurance. But, again, playstyles vary. I may not like them, but others think they're fantastic. And when you team with these folks and you see how they get things done, you can see that it's more often than not a playstyle/player issue, not an AT/Powerset issue.