Ukase

Yeah, I can see how that would rub someone the wrong way. I did a villain arc, and on the second mission, the contact had one word for me. "Stupid". No next mission immediately popped up, no prompt to reply, (or retaliate). Served me right for going red side in the first place. Unfortunately, what you say is probably how things should be - an average build shouldn't have as difficult a time of it as you said. A PB (or Warshade) is literally starved for slots. Usually, you've got 3 forms, but you get the same number of slots, despite having a lot more powers that could use some help. And it's definitely harder at 25 with much fewer slots than exemped from 50. I think you're also correct in that a sturdier AT would fare better. Which is a shame, isn't it? Seems like any AT should be able to do the task with the right amount of problem-solving skills and reflexes. I hope you'll continue to play despite the lack of enjoyment you had. There's still fun to be had, particularly with the right bunch of folks to join you.

I can't speak about how failing this mission impacts the feel of the arc. I agree, there were some mission objectives that could have been made more clear. I had zero problems on my 2 blasters, corruptor or tank with those zombies exploding on me, in fact, I was thrilled because I didn't have to defeat them. They commit suicide, and they dealt me next to no damage. I was wondering why they were even there. (all were done solo) I think many of us have different arcs/npcs that we don't enjoy dealing with, story arcs we find tedious or ridiculous for one reason or another. Difficulty has yet to be a reason for me, though. If everything is a cake walk, then the game gets dull - and candidly, the game is already quite dull for more than a few of us, as far as difficulty goes. The community is probably the one thing keeping folks who feel this way playing the game. I've done each arc a few times, and after having been through them, I didn't find them remotely difficult. Thing is - my characters are built fairly well, with what I consider "the best IOs I can buy". I do think if I weren't soft-capped on defense or with max hp, certainly some parts would be quite challenging. If that is the case here - where you're just playing with common IOs, or SOs, or you're on one of the ATs that are late bloomers, or a kheldian that is designed for team play (note that you get buffs for having certain ATs on your team which suggests that premise) yeah, I can certainly see where it would be tough. But "unbalanced"? I'd like a little more explanation of how you define that, or what you mean by unbalanced. All that aside, sorry you didn't like it. Perhaps you could give an example of an arc you did find balanced, that you enjoyed?

There's one problem to this. Slotting. Some players will do the math and use procs to full advantage. In these instances, a water blaster could outdps a fire blaster. As could perhaps other blasters. Others have done pylon testing, but the issue of slotting remains the same. Further, NPCs tend to be more susceptible to certain damage types, while others are more susceptible to different damage types. It's all apples and oranges. Heck, part of the reason fire is so good is because of that very reason. Lastly, most tests look at final builds at 50+3, but don't even think about how the characters will fare at levels 10, 20, 30 and 40 and everywhere in between. Sure, a lot of folks PL straight past that, but a number of other players play through content to 50. There is no one, best answer. Attack chains, slotting, NPCs - all impact any answer.

To me, it's rather simple. The choices are: 1. Leave it as is. 2. Buff Hami - but how? Perhaps more KB against those trying to kill mitos and those trying to buff taunters. More end drain from all mitos. Enough where ageless would be required. 3. Debuff players - remove the use of Incarnate powers other than Alpha. The level shifts from Lore and Destiny are already gone - the powers should go, too. 4. Leave as is, but reduce the zone cap to 24. (the other folks can form a second instance in Hive 2 if need be) For me, Option 4 is the best option, because it would encourage those who might not lead to do so, and it limits the steamrolling of hami, and would require more focus. And, it leaves incarnate powers alone. A stinkier option is to reduce the reward, but that would have the wrong impact of reduced interest.

So...I'll be transparent. I didn't buy that many winter packs. At least, not as many as I had planned on. Last year, I don't really recall how many I got - I think it was 10B worth. And I had a lot of Winter-Os remaining in my email stash. So, this time around, I only got 5 Billion worth. Honestly, there's nothing in the packs that I don't already have in abundance. I did a tally of all my characters, knowing how much inf they each carry, and checked the emails. While I don't have a trillion yet, I think, if I were to actually focus on it, I could get there in about 6 months. To what end, though? A wise marketer can start ANY character at zero inf, with no help from alts and still get inf cap in a couple of days easily. (if not sooner) So what do I really need big stacks of it for? I often feel like the cat that brings a dead bird to its master. I have the killer instinct; I can make the kill, but I'm at a loss of what to do with it after. Converters are dumped on the market and are easily gotten via reward merits. Reward merits are easily gotten through TF/arc/explorations/conversions. Inf is super easy to get via farming, marketing and just playing. I am still boggled by the folks that don't understand how easy it is - but these are the folks that can't be bothered to read the excellent guides by Yomo and others. Crafting is super simple; converting is as well - but damn does it get tedious when doing it in large numbers. The content...well, thank goodness for different alts providing differing experiences, despite the same storylines. I know I'll take heat - but I think it is only matter of time before the HC devs take steps to inhibit or prohibit afk farming. I've no idea how they would do this, but I think it's in the near future. The notion of taking a day to get to vet level 99, converting 400 emp merits to 4000 reward merits to 12k converters, (840 million if sold at 70k each, not including fees) or other goodies. I just can't see that being allowed for too much longer. Notice I put that last bit at the end. A nice tip if you've never thought about it, right at the end for the patient reader. Please don't quote it. Let's reward the practice of reading.

You could still get your return, just not as fast, nor as much as you would have hoped. Even at the 10M price, I'm able to get about 60% profit.

So...I submitted this as a bug this past April. The response was clearly by someone who just didn't know any better, as they told me it was not a bug, but as intended. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed they misunderstood my post. But it's been fixed in this latest patch. Oddly, I don't remember seeing anything about it in the patch notes, but there was a ton to sift through, and could have missed it.

I have played a couple of scrappers. They're fun. But a brute, to me - seems to dish out more damage and have another 1k worth of hp. Yeah, scrappers have crits. And at level 50, they do dish out more dps over time. But - while leveling, I think the brute is better. Probably the way I slot them. But I'll take a blaster over any of them.

The dom on your team should have been able to do a hold on one weakened mending mito after several applications of that one target hold, particularly if domination was built up.

Just my opinion with isn't worth much - but I see no need for a scrapper to have a taunt aura. Sounds like the OP just needs to roll a brute or a tank.

Clearly, you're mistaken, or imprecise in this comment. There definitely is one thing that you did get right - it's a playstyle thing. Some people enjoy the play of doms and/or controllers more. Which is fine. But to say they solo a hell of a lot easily than a corruptor or a defender? That's only the case if you mean more slowly/safely when you say "hell of a lot more easily".

The actions on the AH that I see make me ask a lot of questions, as there seems to be very little logic to it. Sometimes, the "buy it now" seems to be at play. Sometimes, it's an extra 0. Sometimes, there's a badge pursuit. But usually, people are just lazy and/or ignorant. They don't even consider comparing the price between crafted and not. The same folks that spend hours making their costume who tend to be the ones who complain about the price of IOs don't know/care to check the market. Love those people. It's their ignorance/laziness that has helped me amass my little pile of influence.

Probably a new thread might be better for this question - but what if HC got a license to legitimately run CoH? I mean - it's worth asking, isn't it? Could streaming be allowed then? Would they charge money then? If so, would we expect new content on a routine basis? Would they then chase the non-legit servers with C&D, or leave them alone? Would a meaningful portion of the current players here now leave for the free servers if they did start charging money? I wonder how all that would play out. Conversely - suppose there is a day in the future when NCSoft says, "No, you can't legitimately run our game." Serving C&D papers at that point would be easy. Does the "Whack-a-mole" then begin?

Are you able to get the accolades - Atlas Medallion/Marshal, TFC/Invader, Portal Jockey/Born in Battle, Freedom Phalanx/High Pain Threshold, etc? I'm thinking no. Wonder if the HC devs could do something about that.

Well - you had knowledge of that first "2" (the youtube video). It's the first I've heard of it. I'm pretty good at math, I just need to know where the numbers come from.

Clearly it works as well as the holders of the IP are willing to work it. All about the dollars and cents. But how I think it works is irrelevant. What is relevant is we have a party that is basically creating a place for us to play this game with code they didn't develop or publish. I can't say who took it - but HC along with other folks have copies of the code, and most have changed it in some fashion. And for some reason, streaming the game makes HC believe their efforts to legitimize the game would impede that process. What more needs to be said? I'm simply saying that NCSoft hasn't stated anything to my knowledge about streaming. I figure if someone is stating such, maybe they've seen something I haven't. Just wanted to know where/what. That's all.

So...HC is okay with hijacking it - but not okay with folks streaming it. This is what I have a hard time wrapping my head around. I do get that HC would like to find a way to legitimize it. Makes sense. Then they don't get in legal/financial trouble, assuming there's risk of that. I am not an attorney, I can't say with certainty one way or the other. And, given the way things often play out in court, I don't think any attorneys would be comfortable stating anything with certainty. I do get that HC - as the ones who have given up much of their time, knowledge, skills to allow us to play here, we should abide by their wishes to not stream. Fine. Personally, I have no desire to stream or see any streaming. What I don't get is how this policy has any bearing on "Talks" which are almost always under some kind of NDA, and things are kept so hush-hush, we have no way of knowing if any talks are actually taking place at all. That said, it costs me nothing to trust HC at the moment and accept their word at face value. I don't have to understand why. It doesn't have to make sense. Ultimately, it's none of my business. But if you're gonna say it's NCSoft - I want to know what you read that stated, "NCSoft asked us to stop the streaming in order for us to do...etc. " It's simple to say, "It makes sense to not do it. Let that sleeping dog lie." But that's not really the same thing to me.

Gee, a Master of Underground in one run! Must have been a Humdinger of a time!

I don't accept this. There's no evidence to suggest NCSoft has anything to do with the policy. Kindly give a source, please.

This amused me.

The marketer in the real world recognizes Christmas to bring folks in the store to increase sales and profit. The marketer in CoH? I think they'd get more out of just dropping random Winter-Os and packs and inf on other characters in game. But...what the heck do I know? The more I think I know, the more I realize I don't know much at all.

It would seem that some are either desperate for inf, or are just trying to be strangely helpful. Or maybe they're dim-witted. Can't say. Several of the Superior winters are selling for less than the non-catalyzed. It's not just a one-off as far as I can tell. Several of them across all sets are selling for less than 5M. When I think about how much a catalyst sells for it makes me question the intellect of the seller. But, things don't have to make sense to me to be fun for someone else. I thought about buying them to see how cheaply I can get them, but I already have more than I need. I think it's only fair to leave something for the up and coming marketers. But I sure would like to know why they're selling them THAT cheap.

So..you've bought them. Some of you - a ton of them. One friend said he got 10 billion worth. His strategy - sell the winter Os at the going rate - which seems to be 6-12M, depending on time of day and which ones. It wasn't but a couple of months ago, even the Entombed, the red-headed step-child of Winter-Os (just an expression, no need for the red-heads to bash me) were selling for over 20m. I ask you - is the bird in the hand (the sale today or tomorrow for 10m) worth 20M 6 months from now? The market is a fickle beast. So many packs, so many winter-Os are not necessarily "in circulation", but are in player's email/base storage/ah slots. If HC continues to discount winter packs in December for the foreseeable future, are enough in circulation to keep the price as low as it is now? Only time will tell. Some of our more clever, sinister marketers are already trying to determine a winning strategy - loosely defined as that would be different for many of us. I think some are buying up these winter-Os at the current sub-10M price, hoping to double their inf 4-6 months from now. Not a bad strategy, if it comes to fruition. Others will keep a stash just to try to market pvp it a bit to keep the prices low. It's going to be interesting!

that's hilarious. I lol'd.

I never worry about people who give more information, provided it's accurate. But - for responses that seem to attack you - there's only one solution - ignore them. I don't mean put them on ignore, simply don't acknowledge their response. And FFS, don't let other people impact how YOU feel. That's craziness. You're trying to be helpful. Take comfort in that and let the rest slide off your back. Life is too short to give other people influence over your mood. Only you control how you feel. Seriously.