Ukase

Those returns diminished too much, imo. I've never pvp'd in any other game, so I think it's fair of me to assess PvP from a fresher set of eyes. Travel suppression...I don't like it, but I know why it's there. There simply isn't a good reason to have enhancements behave differently in the two zone types. At least, not in my mind. But, hey, what do I know? I was there for the Phalanx Heroes, not for pvp. I wanted all the resistance I could get.

Interestingly enough, although I have no way to clearly describe it, there's one map where you go up a ramp, then up some stairs about 3 flights, then to some observation deck that those below would never know was there. If it weren't for the map showing a collection of red triangles (NPCs needing defeat), I'd have never known it was there. Even when I saw the triangles and was on the same space from the map's perspective, couldn't see them anywhere. It took me a moment, but I finally found this elevated room. The only thing that went through my mind was sincere appreciation for the creativity in making all these twisty-turning pathways in these mission maps. Yes, they can be frustrating and hard to navigate, but those devs sure did make an interesting place to play!

Myself, I tend to solo more than most, I imagine. Yet, often, I'm finding comments in lfg and the help channel where newer players are in the midst of an ouro arc, come across an NPC they can't handle and ask for help - but alas, there is no help available. They didn't realize that they couldn't invite others once the story arc started. So, occasionally, these folks end up quitting after spending who knows how much time, and suffering who knows how many defeats. In AE, it's simple to invite mid-arc, mid mission, whatever you like - but not in Ouro. So - let's fix it. There's simply no reason I can think of that it should be like task forces. Yes, the player should be tethered to the arc, but I see no need to limit team size should they feel the need half way through.

I monitor the help channel, as well as other channels. I look for people who complain about prices, then look on the /ah to see what's going on. There's a set called Cloud Senses, I think. I know what it looks like, but can never remember what it's called. Anyway, there's a proc in it that goes for 5 million. I have no idea why people like a proc that gives a "chance for X-type damage" when an generic damage IO will give guaranteed damage, and likely a lot more. Maybe they think a tick of psionic damage will do more damage than a regular dose of smashing. There's probably just something I don't know about those procs. In any event, saw one player complaining that there weren't any for sale on the AH. So, I proceeded to buy the uncommon equivalent, convert to that type, and put a dozen or so on sale and sold 'em all for 5m each. And they sell. I stopped, but on a low level that was starting from zero, found my way back to them and it's just one of those IOs that folks are either keeping for themselves, or converting to something else, or it just rarely drops.

I think only a couple of the sets give good bonuses before they're superior. I only use them in my 50's, because frankly, the bonuses just aren't that good compared the the uncommon and rare options. Reducing slows by 10%? I rarely encounter that debuff, and the only thing I'm after is the defense. So it's all or nothing for me. I don't see 1.88% as meaningful when 3.13 is available for a cheaper price. I know that there are some who never read the HC forums and literally have no idea what they are doing when it comes to buying stuff on the AH. Spend 20 million on a winter IO, or spend 25m and get a winter IO, maybe 2 of them and maybe get 25 to 100 reward merits as well. It's a gamble, but if they've got the inf, buying 10 or more at a time moves the odds closer to your favor. So, in a couple weeks, when this sale is over - wonder how many will just bid 25 million...while some of us have put them on sale for ...6 inf? 1 inf? Or 10m, 12, 15 or 20m? Should be interesting to see. *********************** This is an additional comment after I have considered the winter IOs more carefully, sleeping on it. I'm rethinking their value. One of the things I detest about the lower levels is Training Origin & Dual Origin enhancements. Even the lower level sets reek in value compared to an SO below level 25. I think that may be where the Winter IOs carry more value for me. I don't think that an Avalanche is any better than an oblit set, when it comes to bonuses - but Oblits simply aren't available until much later. It may cause me to burn some unslotters, but that's what they're for. Use the Avalanche in the low levels, when I can slot the oblits, slot them. Then, at 50, I can look at the Superior Avalanche with the better resist and defense, or go with a purple set for better recharge if that fits.

You gotta buy me dinner first. Even then, I ain't into pixels like that.

I do a similar thing, but I get my ouro port at level 2 or 3 by visiting Echo:galaxy via base beacon. Need the reward merits to get converters to subsidize my character's purchase of ATOs at level 10.

Elegy, those are some darned impressive times!

There's no question that some people can take a great deal of time, and invest a lot of energy into a themed character. I've always felt that the time to showcase such things were during costume/bio contests. I am certainly guilty of generalizing in my previous post in this thread. I just find that people are more likely to appreciate other people investing time into helping them, as opposed to a compliment on a bio or costume. I know I certainly appreciated getting The Really Hard Way far more than a compliment on the bio of Emancipist, my rad/stone tank that seems to now only see action in The Hive. (It's maybe only one of 20 or so characters I have that even has a bio. There might be one or two others, but I forget them as soon as I write them. But with Emancipist - it's hard to forget he's an ex-con with a name like that.) That said, it won't be the first time I think differently from other people.

I have never complimented anyone on their costumes because I simply don't notice them. Bios vary. Some are exceptional and some are just ...stupid. "A mop bucket spilled over and I got these powers"...what? The best gift you can give in CoH is helping someone with a badge. Nobody cares if you like their costume or bio. Help them get Really Hard Way or Avoids the Green Stuff. Then you've made a friend.

I don't think I have only one. Ukase, my ice/ice blaster. Zombo, my ill/rad controller Pook, my spines/fire brute Blister, my fire/rad Sentinel, as well as a cold/ice defender by the same name but on a different server. Lagniappe, my water/time corruptor. All of them were and are solo machines, capable of all manner of content and difficulty. I couldn't and wouldn't choose just one. Currently, bringing up an ice/fire blaster that has great promise.

A distinction that wasn't clear to me - is that I see one person's global, when it was actually a team. Like the CoT, a time of 48 seconds to click on 8 obelisks, and each one takes 5 seconds. That's 40 seconds. Even with Team Teleport to get you from Karsis to the tunnel door, that's a time that cannot be met by one person. Even f the page load was one second, it's not possible to get to each obelisk in less than a second, and kill two minions guarding Sam. Fortunately, there was a link to see who was on the team. With a full team, that's an excellent, yet far more possible time. This was my solo effort.

You think that's bad? I spent 100 million twice on a very rare because I thought that was the only way to get it!

When HC brought this game back, I didn't set out to acquire the 100+billion I had amassed prior to shut down. Maybe it was only 10 billion? I think it was 100. Anyway, I digress. I know how to market, and gathering the resources was and remains very easy for me. But, about a month in, the HC devs did something that took me by complete surprise and cost me some influence - they seeded the market with salvage. Instead of the 2 million per rare salvage I'd anticipated, the cap was now 1 million, and most seem to believe that 500k is as much as anyone should ever spend on it, because the prices may go up or down a bit, but they have averaged about 500k since that point. So..I thought to myself, with all the bucketing of various IOs, ANYTHING could change. They might start making the exchange of reward merits for converters more costly, or charge a fee just to make the conversion. Most know that "influence sinks" (something for the wealthier characters to drop their influence on) are quite okay with Leandro, at least, that's my understanding. The one thing that I remain confident in, they aren't going to retroactively take influence away or remove the items stored from our bases. They may come out with a new policy restricting storage, given the impact this has on their servers, but I think we/they have handled that issue thus far. So, it's like real life in some way; inf, like money is a tool. But, the more you have, the more choices you have down the road. It only makes sense to "pay yourself first" and every time you get a nice drop and sell it, you should stash a certain amount for your upcoming characters. I'm at the point where ALL of my level 50's carry 1 billion. I have 13 on Excelsior, and 2 level 46's that also carry 1 billion. I have 5 on Torchbearer with 1 billion, 1 on Indomitable, plus 21 billion in email, not to mention over 200 winter packs that are unopened. Still not sure if I'm going to sell them back at 22 million or so when the sale ends, or open 'em all and drop the Winter IO's in slowly as supply drops (if it drops - I know I'm not the only one thinking of this) So that's about 42 billion, plus winter packs, and at least 2 dozen full sets of purple IOs and PvP IOs stashed in my bases on Excelsior, Torch and Indom. I just plop 'em in there, as while they have nice recharge bonuses, most of my characters opt for defense, because with so many attacks, recharge isn't really that necessary for most of them. There's no question in my mind I have "enough"...for now. But who knows what changes lie ahead? The crazy thing is, I still start my alts off with zero! I make them scrounge the rare level 30 and level 50 recipes that are ridiculously under-priced on the AH. Some folks are so altruistic, it's insane. Selling a recipe for 100 inf, when the vendor will give you 100k? You're either very nice, or very lazy. Nobody can be that stupid. But my level 1 will gobble those up as best as it's able to do once it's exchanged the merits from Echo:Galaxy, Echo:Atlas, Atlas and Kings Row for some quick cash via converters, and then buy some level 41 red fortunes, craft and convert to lotg 7.5%, then once I sell a couple of those, I'm up to the pvp IOs. When I get a nice 100m or so, I'll chill, play the game until the mid 20's then market some more to get all the IOs I need for that toon up to 50 and just stash 'em in the trays. Nothing most of you aren't already doing in one way, shape or fashion or another.

You have a second account, great. I suggest you just use it for yourself, rather than bring both your characters to an 8 man team, or any other size team. You cannot serve two masters. You might play one well, but you're going to stink at the other one. At best, you have a great tank who just auto taunts, while your other character dishes out damage, or something along those lines. Another player would be able to taunt, mash things, and manage aggro better. It's really just common sense. There might be some limited circumstances where you could do both passably well, but who wants to team with someone that is only doing things passably well? I want your best effort, not 2 characters that are only doing a fraction of what they could be if you were giving them your full attention.

Just form a coalition with the group of folks you want to play with. Problem solved. This way, worst case when someone gets snippy, you break the coalition and still have your stuff. Best case, since there's coalition chat, you're missing out on nothing. Have your cake and eat it.

Right click on the stack of salvage in the vendor window - sell stack. Or, alternatively in your own salvage inventory, Delete stack. The best way to get rid of your salvage is to simply craft your recipes with your salvage. Sell the io for the cost of crafting, since the salvage was free. You'll likely get far more. If you really want to rack up the inf, convert them to better selling IOs - but I don't think that's your cup of tea. Lastly - when you open your salvage window, there's a reserve vault you can open, and stash your orange/rare salvage in there - and delete/sell the rest when you get a moment.

Finished until more badges are available.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about tanks, but I'd have to agree. My tank is so sturdy, I really only use it when tanking hamidon. It's really kind of pointless at 50, except in a couple of iTrials and in the lower levels. Use the IOs available and you should rarely even need it.

He may be working on it, but I don't think I'd use it, and here's why: 1. No real way to know who's brought a second account until they're already on the league and in the instanced zone. Still takes a spot away from someone else. 2. No access to AH. Essence of the Earth is critical for success. How many? Depends on the strategy and the speed of clearing mitos. One sweep and you may only need 2. Two sweeps, you might need 5. Maybe 6 if you don't have a full league. This is why MSR instanced raids are not my preference. I like to get large inspirations when I run out. The buffs may be great in the bowl, but near the bombs and grates - there are no buffs. If teammates followed a taunter, the healing bubble in the bowl would be substantially weaker. And there's no way I'm stashing 20 inspirations in my email, one at a time. Many use the AH to get EoE if they need more. 3. Crashes. While people still crash in the hive (I suspect it's their system most of the time, and not the game) the lfg is known to crash people for various reasons. It's just one more annoying thing to deal with. The fewer mechanics in play, imo, the better. That's not to say I wouldn't use it once, just to see how it went. But no access to AH...that's a deal breaker for me.

No, there is no way to tell. You can, and should assume that anyone with a badge count over 500 has actively pursued badges, and not just randomly played their character doing things they found fun. Take comfort knowing that these people with higher badge counts know the game well, and almost to a fault, play their characters better than most because of their understanding of the game's content and game mechanics. Badge enthusiasts lead more trials and tfs than any other segment of the game's population, I'm fairly sure. Embrace the badgers!

That CoT is just blistering fast. Have to realize each glowie takes 5 seconds, not to mention page load times just zoning from outside the tunnels to in the tunnels, then from the cave door to inside the caverns - which even with a fast system is going to be 3-5 seconds. And navigating the twisty lumpy surface in the cavern.. I thought I was doing well with my solo time of 3:12. (which I think I could improve on by at least a couple seconds.)

Just selling orange crafted IOs (otherwise known as rare) are not the way to make inf. Whomever told you that did you no favors. Yes, some orange recipes, when crafted sell for a nice sum. Most of them, not so much. As a rule, consider all uncommon or rare recipes to be craftworthy. But then convert them to these: Aegis (about 4m) Unbreakable Guard (about 4m) Numina recovery/regen (about 4m) Preventative Medicine absorb proc (about 3m) Performance Shifter +endurance (about 4m) Lotg 7.5% global recharge (about 7m) Blessing of the Zephyr KB protection (about 3m) Steadfast Protection KB protection (about 4m) Steadfast Protection 3% def (all) (about 5m) Kismet Accuracy (6%) (about 5m) Karma Kb Protection (about 3m) Miracle +recovery (about 4m) Any pvpIO should be crafted and converted to: Panacea Chance for +hit points/endurance, Shield Wall 5% resist all & TP Protection or Glad Armor 3% Def(all) &TP protection. If you're shy of converters, any of those three sets will probably suffice, or the chance for toxic damage, or chance for -res as well. I tend to sell mine for 10m. Sometimes you can get more, because some folks do crazy things like over bid because they can't wait another day. As a result, some prices creep upward. There may be a few other lower level IOs that are worth some attention, but I don't get many recipes in the lower levels, and there are so many unfavorable chances to convert into more trash, I tend to avoid that niche altogether. Others will have differing opinions and think my suggested prices are too high or too low.

Sheesh, It's not like I have a kin secondary on all my characters. Only one of them. And even that one has SS and CJ. Hover is too slow. But that's just me. You do you. City of Options.

Um..no, it's not. Hover is slow. Woefully slow for combat situations. Combat Jump allows for the same defensive IOs, and is far more useful in fighting situations. In fact, I've not taken hover since it's no longer required to get flight. I get that some folks like hover - but I don't and never will and am the better player for having taken combat jumping instead. It's a playstyle thing, not a "build must". Not for me, anyway. CJ and SS is the way to go for every character I play.