Ukase

What is this madness you speak of? As an example, the empath power set: An empath defender giving themselves Adrenaline boost instead of the scrapper? Are you nuts? In all seriousness, if I could do this, I probably still wouldn't play an emp ever again. And it's really because the tools in the box aren't as useful as other support sets in the content I play. Occasionally an absorb pain or heal other would be useful, and of course, AB is always useful - but that particular set is woefully outshined by nature (in my opinion) for most of the content I play. From an RP perspective, it kind of doesn't make sense for an empath to absorb their own pain. I'm sure many of us could go back and forth over this. And candidly, it wouldn't bug me if an emp could give themselves clear mind and fortitude and AB. It seems fair, in that the natty can give themselves overgrowth. And of course there are other sets that could use some work as well as emp. So, I wouldn't shut the door on it, but I wouldn't hold my breath either.

I sent a DM to a few folks for their thoughts, but I might as well ask here. Are we talking about the pylon that's to the left as you exit the RWZ VG base? (choice of two at the moment; I thought there was a third, but it's not there) Or the "wild" pylons, that are needed to be taken down for MSR? I was grabbing some explores in RWZ on a fresh 50 and someone said in local chat that if you can take down the pylon in less than a minute, you're ready for the 4*. I wasn't paying full attention because I knew I still needed to upgrade some enhancements, and I was patiently waiting on some bids to fill. I'm just at a loss as what to think. Surely they were mistaken. I see no way any blaster is going to be able to do that in a minute if they aren't using Reds, Hybrid or other external buffs/debuffs. To be clear: No insps, no temps, just my blaster. No incarnates, other than alpha, reactive radial, Assault Core, Musculature Core. I got 2:36. And I was surprised to see I had stamina issues. (I did leave SS and Sprint on) I normally don't have any end issues. But, normally what I'm hitting doesn't last that long. This was a fire/earth blaster, t-4 in all. I need to break out my ice/martial combat and see how it does. And this is where I might completely misunderstand things - the beauty of procs is they let you pass the damage cap. I took some out for this test, replaced with some Hamis, and fared better than my initial time of 2:59. Since most use damage procs in a 4* and are generally buffed to the gills, I'm thinking this other player was off his rocker, or was expecting folks to get buffs while they did this test. I did notice I whiffed on seismic smash a few times - that was disappointing. I think there's a lot of room for improvement; as I could just remove my ATOs from a couple of powers and just slot them with boosted IOs for better recharge and damage and accuracy. Right now, I've got the ATO sets in blaze and fire blast because when I exemp, those are nice bonuses to have. Seems crazy to build just for a better pylon time, so I'm not gonna do that.

I would boost the steadfast and the lotg if I wasn't planning on exemplaring. There are smarter people than me that can explain these far more concisely and clearly than I can.

While I do have one of each AT, for the last year, it's fair to say that I mainly play Corruptors, Blasters, Brutes and tanks. And of those 4, on teams, it's 95% blasters or corruptors. Tanks...I'm reluctant to team with tanks because if I go overboard slotting for taunt, and aggro management, I find that when I solo, it's very slow, very tedious. And, if I pursue damage, then often my armor is insufficient to cope with +4/8 in certain situations. So, I just avoid putting myself in a situation where I might let someone down. Brutes I tend to just solo because they're self-sufficient and I don't need to wait for a team. But, I haven't played a brute outside the labyrinth in years, really. I can do more damage with a blaster. I can tackle more mobs just as safely with a controller, and clear them about as fast, too. Defenders - fine for soloing, but having played both corruptor and defender solo, I can't see a big distinction. And there's scourge for the corruptor. I just don't see any tangible benefit to playing a defender. There's a bit stronger buff/debuffs, sure. But, I don't know that the difference is worth losing scourge. Scrappers - Honestly, I'd love to play a scrapper. I have a lot of respect for those that can play a scrapper at a high level. But the idea of looking up the animation time, the arcana time, and determining where to put ATO1, and ATO2 to get the most of out of it - the game is supposed to be fun, not math. While it's true nobody is putting a gun to my head saying I need to be the dps king if I play a scrapper - intellectually I know that a scrapper should outshine everything if it's played properly. So, I tend to settle for second best, the blaster. I do have a couple of scrappers in my stable that just have too many badges to delete. But the countless others I've tried have had their enhancements and other loot sold off, and been deleted. Sentinel - My first 50 on HC was a Sentinel because it was a new AT. Fire/Rad. That's the only sentinel I have, and probably will ever have. Taking Freeze Ray from ice blast and making it a sleep is just unforgivable, and I will cut off my own nose to spite my face and never play an ice blast sentinel because of that. I'm not saying I'll never play another Sentinel...but if I do, it will be that first one that hasn't been logged in for years. Masterminds - I don't see a utility for them. But I'm too lazy to do all the pet management with all those damn macros to bother with playing one well, so I just figured, screw it. I won't play one at all. The pets are due for some love in Brainstorm, and that may be enough to sway me...but maybe not. I have one Beast/Nature MM. I haven't played it in a few years, and probably won't ever play it again. I keep it just in case I might need one. Dominators - I made a mistake and played a Mind/psi dominator maybe 5 years ago. I learned that 1) you reach domination quicker with a team. So, since I solo a lot, that's a strike against it. 2)The end usage is nuts. And just getting domination really doesn't help that much. This combo made me swear off them completely. There was a player, I forget their name...maybe it was Rial Vestro, maybe someone else that told me I didn't need to sweat domination, and different sets would play a lot different than that combo. They were right. I have a nice couple of dominators in my stable, but I just don't enjoy playing them because of domination. Domination is a set that lends itself to the pursuit of recharge for perma-dom. So, you'd put that on auto-fire. And I have to manually trigger hasten. Not really a fan of having to do that. I'm getting used to it with other sets that also require hasten to be done manually, like martial assault on a blaster. So, I after having sworn to never play a dom again, I have played some dominators to 50 - but they're just not that much fun. The whole domination mechanic is oversold in my mind. It's just not worth that much to me. Veats - I played one widow, and I deleted it. I don't like them. I did like my Soldier of Arachnos that I took into the bane path. It is still kind of fun to play that, teams or otherwise. I plan to make another and go a different route. I also plan to try a Widow out - and I will if they ever fix it so I don't have to do redside content. Redside content is just trash in my opinion. The zones are ugly. Grandville is a hot mess that's annoying to navigate. Nerva is entirely too large. The only decent zones are Cap and Port Oakes. Those are just my subjective opinions. Just not a fan of bugs in real life, or in game. PB/WS - They need more slots. The damage they do is unimpressive. The noise they make when shapeshifting is loud. The content they get to do...it's interesting enough to do it again. But I don't like shifting forms. The squid is kind of ugly looking, and so is the dwarf. I just can't relate to them. It's tough to immerse myself in any character, let alone one that looks as bad as they do. The forms don't wear costumes, not even if you pay 10 prismatics for it. You want to be in Nova form, you're going to look like you should be on a hook on a fly-fishing rod. No way around it. Because of Goddess Laucianne and her crew, I want to like being a WS or a PB, but I just don't. And did I say they need more slots? Like about 15 more slots. Well, really 6 more slots, but 15 would be better. So, clearly, my preference is blasters with corruptors being a close 2nd. Edited to compile a list. I have already deleted about 80 characters in the past 6 months because I wasn't playing them. There's about 100 in this list that also need to go bye-bye. Defender 34 Blaster 76 Controller 27 Tank 18 Corruptor 54 Dominator 5 Brute 28 Stalker 3 MM 1 Scrapper 11 Sentinel 1 Arachnos 1 Peacebringer 1 Warshade 1

Better yet - put one in our pocket as a temp power we can just spawn like the workbench.

A pocket trainer. Instead of going to a trainer, just mash a button, a genie/twin reflection of some trainer pops out and you can level right then and there without having to leave the map you're on. Sold at the START vendor for 25M.

Well, it doesn't matter to me - but my first thought is - 50 reward merits is a blink to get. They drop mostly without even trying. Emp merits also drop pretty quickly. What I want is not nickels, quarters and dimes, but 5 bucks and 10 bucks. Like 5 t-merits or hero merits in one email, instead of just one. But even if they were to agree with your suggestion - where is the line drawn? 5 emps, 10 emps, 15 emps and 20 emps, to coincide with the vet level rewards every 3 levels? I think a 10 emp token would be a huge time saver for a number of players. OR: How about we just have special salvage be accessible across characters on the same account. I'm sure that's impossible, but I can dream.

To me, the differences between tank and brute are pretty clear. I'm sure I don't understand why there's a need/desire to make them more distinctive.

I think, for someone like me who pretty much only does it sporadically, it's probably not worth a total rework. No rule says I have to go +5/8. I really just want the drops; the inf from the defeats are only a fraction of the proceeds. Still, as an intellectual exercise - and for me, it's definitely interesting, it's also exercise.

With the pending changes allowing for +5, I went into AA's asteroid map with my farmer set to +5/8. The build I'm using is in need of refinement for this effort, because I opted to not go for leadership which would allow for more accuracy. It's more of a curiosity at this point. Active farming..I don't see any real issues, no need to change a thing. It'll just take a fraction longer. But for AFK...not sure I can address the whiffs and the extra HP/Regen at the same time.

My reason why not: I have no idea what a Marvel 616 system is. I have honestly never heard the term before. Marvel - the comics - those I'm familiar with. The word marvel is also familiar. But Marvel 616...not a clue.

My first thought is I completely agree. And then, at level 2, I'm looking at my endurance. Almost gone. Yes, I did have sprint and Athletic Run on, which are more to blame. My concern is if if this is a true toggle, at the end cost it has, it's a damned expensive always on form of build-up. I want to say, remove the power, give a build-up and call it a day, but then it's just another melee set, while this mechanic is different from the usual. Myself, I hate change and don't like different, but I am sure a number of other players are going to like this gimmick. It's creative. Sadly, I don't know what the solution is, other than to not call it a toggle. It's right up there with burst of speed for cleverness. I like it. I just don't know how to use it properly. (yet) I'm used to putting toggles on my 2nd tray and I don't have to think about them. This is NOT a toggle in my brain, Toggles are turn on, and never think of them again. This is something else. And what it is at level 2 is an attack power that works strangely. Better than build up in that it doesn't stop until the npcs are defeated. I'm trying to look at this with non-vet eyes, like a newer player. And given that other than farmers, I don't play melee very much at all, it should be a fair assessment.

I genuinely appreciate your taking the time to reply. Try to keep in mind I'm far more obtuse than your typical player. Sad but true. I should have figured that part out myself.

On Excelsior, as far as I know, the Labyrinth is run once a day, at approximately 5pm Central time. (generally right after the hami raids in the Abyss). Goddess Laucianne does the leading usually. Some days, it's Mino clobbering only, and on some days, we do the full hour in the Font of Malevolence. I say "we" because I love the labyrinth content and try to never miss it. As for using LFG - to my knowledge, Goddess has the time posted on the Elysian Guardians Discord. So, you hop on the discord, you can see the schedule. And she will use LFG - but because it's right after the hami raid, and the time is posted on the EG calendar, there's usually a few teams worth of folks already in zone, ready to go. So, she doesn't use lfg every time. Just when necessary to fill. And I'm sure she could tell you herself more, so I won't say anymore about it. So, here's the thing about the Minotaur: he has 5 different armor/weapons, and only the rng knows what he's going to use that day. Now, anecdotally, I've been hopping in there to get the scoop on what he's using, because when you defeat all 5 types of armors, you get a mini-pet of the Minotaur. So, I will usually log in, pop in - wait for him to show up and see what he kills my character with. Then I check my sheet, and see which characters need that weapon. So, soloing it, I do not think it's remotely possible, mainly because of the level shifts. To get the level shifts to match up with the minotaur, you have to run around the labyrinth and kill malevolent fogs. They are not easy to find, and even if they were, you lose those level shifts after 5 minutes, so I just don't think one player can gain the level shifts needed to have a chance. Now, there are other ways to get those shifts, but those aren't fast, and they're not easy either. So, clobbering 2 fogs will get you one level shift. I just don't think there's one player that's going to be fast enough to find the fogs, and kill the fogs fast enough to get the level shifts required to have a snowball's chance. Additionally, I think even if a league helped you get the level shifts - and then opted to not enter the arena to help you fight him, you'd have a hard time because he hits so hard. Like 3000-4000 pts of damage. And sure, you can use barrier, but after about 30 seconds, unless you have a ton of inspirations or other tools at your disposal, you're going to struggle - at least I would. And, because we can't be sure what he's going to bring on a given day, it would be tough to prepare for a specific version of the minotaur. That alone is just a small part of what makes this particular content so interesting. It's like a different AV/GM each time. Sort of. And that Moooo! I hear when I enter the arena...it's just hilarious and needs to be experienced!

I know there's no 100% solution because a lot of players just aren't going to read anything if they don't have to. But, I think it might be nice if there were some sort of pop up message for would be Praetorians just before they enter Praetoria, (from the character creator) where it's made clear that they can't join red/blue teams, unless those teams are in Praetoria (which means First and Night Wards, typically) and they're stuck in Praetoria until level 20. Suggesting they find a farm to "escape" is often the advice I see when a player asks about talking to Null to change their alignment. Alternatively - maybe Null could change their alignment from Praetorian to Hero/Vig/Rogue/Villain. (I doubt it's possible) Just seems like a couple of times a week there's someone who's ignorant of the level requirement to leave. (and maybe they didn't know about the 2xp buff or how easy it is to just level up there in a session or two)

Not sure how long the HC forums were down, but while I was doing this arc, the forums had a bad gateway, so I couldn't report the way I normally do. But, I basically did the arc and wrote my comments in MS word. I'm just going to cut and paste it, and hope it copies well enough where I won't have to clean it up too much. Wylie Galloway – Story arc feedback Mission 1 – auto-completed. I won’t do street hunts. They’re useless, pointless. May as well send my character to the bar in Striga and ask a barmaid what’s going on. I was tempted to just log off and do something on Excelsior. A street hunt? This is a horrible way to start a new arc in my opinion. If I wanted to street hunt, why would I speak with a contact? A bad beginning often makes for a bad ending. Just remove this, as it’s just busy work and pointless. Did I mention street hunts have no place in any kind of story arc? It’s never a good idea. (In my opinion) Mission 2 – seems to be another easy mission to speed through, fine by me. Adrastus speaks of a Periapt of Protection being sold to a ninja. I'd expected a tie in with the Tsoo, not the Skulls. Unless it's foreshadowing something in the future, maybe the comment should allude more to a skull, rather than a ninja. Mission 3 – I love the map. Regarding the mission objectives, not at all a concern, but when there’s one bookshelf left to check, it updates to “bookshelf to check” instead of ”1 bookshelf to check”. Looks weird. Mission 4 – When the ambush begins, prior to Hematoma coming out, he says “I’ll have to handle this myself”. But he doesn’t come out until the wave after his dialogue. By design? Not a big deal, just an observation. Mission 5 – Seriously? Another street hunt? Not gonna do it. See my comments about street hunts in Mission 1. Mission 6 – “ No one holds a ritual so they can bind their pet cat's soul to the world. Ok, well, aside from that one time, but the Skulls do not strike me as animal lovers” Some humor, nice! Almost makes up for 2 useless street hunts. Marrow Drinker – nice name. I was hoping for some new kind of map, but same ol', same ol'. Mission 7 – This is probably my fault for reading too much into my exchange with Wylie. I was expecting a non-hostile, and had to use a target macro to find him. And he was a hostile, who then turned friendly after one shot. Maybe touch up the dialogue from Wylie so we’re not looking for a non-hostile? Not a real big deal because the map was small, thankfully. Mission 8 – interesting mission. A glowie hunt in a portion of Port Oakes. I was concerned I was going to have to trap some ghosts! Mission 9 – This seems like a repeat of mission 6. Same map. Soul Drinker? Related to Marrow Drinker, I’m sure. Brothers from a different mother? Or the same mother? Well – certainly not the same ending as mission 6, thankfully. I found the Undertaker’s last comment interesting. And it was fun to have the bosses all pour out of the portal (even if they just appeared 20 feet away from the portal, it seemed like that’s where they would have come from.) I should add, I clicked on the portal to destroy it – and I was surprised to discover I had options. I clicked something, I don't recall what, the psychopomp came out and we had the dialogue. I found it odd that I would ask the question “Why are you telling me this?” It seems like a stupid question. I just asked them a question, they answer me and I’m going to ask that? It just doesn’t seem like a question any sane person would ask. Overall, I liked the arc, but because of the street hunts, once I get the badge, I'll never do it again.

So, this is minor...but what happened to the amazing LoF mini-pet icons?

So, I see the request. I understand it. But, I'm like a man who when given the lamp with the genie inside, I'm afraid to ask it for what I want. Me: make my fire tank immune to kb! 10pts of inherent kb protection! Genie: certainly master. Burn will now cause panic. The reason (I think) that fire is so weak in so many other areas is because of burn. Now, that's just conjecture, but that's really the only reason I can think of to take Fiery Armor. If they give more protection to fiery armor - what do they take away? Nah, kb has never been an issue with any of my fire tanks. There are sets I use that give the protection. Glad armor, overwhelming force, Fury of the Gladiator - don't always have to use the blessing of the zephyr or the steadfast or the karma.

So, I get what the OP wants. I have a "main" with all the badges. Ice/ice. But, it's not my main. Not really. I like playing it. I've played that character, if I count the hours on retail..literally thousands of hours. Right now, I am really liking fire/earth, ice/MC and fire/MC. Ice/earth, for whatever reason just doesn't seem as good to me as ice/mc or fire/earth. In any event - today, if I could, I would change my "main" from ice/ice to ice/mc. Or Fire/mc. (ice really, really needs a snipe. It kills me that a stalker can get an ice snipe, (frozen spear) but an ice blaster can't) The memory of so much frustration in getting all those badges on another character, even though I know I could eventually do it again, the juice isn't worth the squeeze. For what? Nobody genuflected before me when I got them on Ukase. I don't see it happening if I do it again. And even if they did...what's that going to do for me? Not much. 2 billion inf? Even if I could, why? I can just play the current ice/mc or fire/mc or fire/earth. Or I can play any of the several fire/natties and ice/natties I've made. If the HC devs wanted to make this happen, I think that'd be fine - if it were simple. Candidly, I doubt there would be more than 50 people that would want to do this. Now, I could certainly be wrong. Oh, and of those 50, maybe half of those have enough inf to make that transaction without sweating the loss of inf. I've got more inf than I can possibly spend if no inf sinks are produced, if my current habits continue. But I balk at spending over 2k for uncommon salvage. You want me to pay 2B for what? Nah. I'm a hoarder at heart. I make the inf and just stash it. My best contribution to fight in-game inflation.

How do I put this... One character having done those things can certainly give you a fair idea of what's available in game. But the same way a sibling experiences your family differently from you, so would a different AT experience the game differently than another. Even the same AT with a different powerset is going to approach the same tasks with a slightly different mindset and strategy. Or maybe that's just me. I would suggest when one character hits 50 t-4 in all, try one that's fairly opposite, like a tanker instead of a blaster. An MM instead of a scrapper. The more alts you play, the better teammate you're likely to be, as you'll understand your teammates' pain points. (a squishy getting stunned, a tank losing endurance to a sapper - and maybe your alt can be the one to change the outcome) The game has a lot of stuff to do. But the goal isn't to go through every single thing with one character just to get through it. The goal is to enjoy the ride. That said, I am someone who is a bit nuts and can easily find myself trying to rush through things just to get them done for an accolade. So, it's hardly fair for me to say it. But, that doesn't make it any less true. If you're not having any fun or interest in it, you're losing. At least, that's my opinion. Unless you know some of us are getting paid to play, I'd say we're all amateurs. There are certainly some folks who spend most of their time in AE and aren't very knowledgeable about the game outside of it. But there are also players that look at AE as a giant puzzle to solve, and they can make it a different puzzle whenever they've solved the first one. Try not to paint the whole population of AE with the same brush.

Just wanted to add for those that may be newer: If you get this tip, or buy it from an SG computer, you have to go to a red side zone to see it in your tip list. (and as stated, you'll have to be vigilante)

The character I've got in mind is from the Hawaiian Islands. As for what I'd like - something along these lines: And no, despite my better judgement, the character is not going to be called Hawaiian Punch.

It's so easy to focus on the negative of a given event. Lag. Under-slotted, unslotted level 45-50's turning up to participate in another zone event like a Hamidon raid. Fewer people to team with doing non-event activities. Arriving from a brief afk to find your character dead because some player decided not to stick around for the Arisen Mummy who's found your alt and smashed you while you were gone. Seeing countless people - even the league leader with the afk bubble over their heads - while you're actively contributing. That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others. But there are players who were gloriously delighted during the event. Just an anecdote, but I took...I think it was Snickerpants, a water/nature corruptor and was just playing through arcs like I normally do, but I saw an Eochai out in the wild, and when I saw others start hitting it, I thought, "free merits". Apparently, my level 20+ that was doing tips in the area must have dealt more damage than I would have thought, and I got the badge. Which led to the slippery slope of getting all the event badges on that character. I'd even had enough RNG luck to get the Ostentatious before I got all the others. The last thing I needed was the banners. And even the ridiculous league led by a player who seems to be more afk than not (meds, they said) made a point of getting the banners, even though I know they already had them because the same character was leading leagues for ToT the year before. For reasons that escape me, I was very happy to get those Banner badges. So much so, that for the rest of the event, if I wasn't in a mission, I would help anyone that was looking for help with them. It's nice getting that 1 hour damage boost. Let's maybe consider what people are complaining about, but shift the lens to other perspectives to see if it's really "bad", or just not good for them individually. Lag isn't good. But it's a mysterious word for some. It means different things to different people. But, in a nut shell, when you click or mash a button to execute an attack, and nothing happens, and you're not mezzed or out of range...that may as well be called lag. I'm already playing on minimum settings because I don't see any real distinction between max settings and minimal settings. The game looks the same no matter what setting I use. I laugh - I use that ++no particles command, and other than not seeing certain auras or sg portals, I can't really tell the difference. My powers activate the same with or without it. I think that kind of thing is in the player's own mind. Any improvement is so minimal as to not notice it on my end. Not sure what can be done, other than upgrade the servers. And given the age of the game, not sure if that's going to help enough to make it worth it. It is worth mentioning the HC Devs did a great thing by placing a player cap on the zones during the event. I think that probably helped a lot. The rest of the negatives are behavioral. And I'm sure there are enough people in each camp where changing things is just going to irk another group of players, while the ones currently irked may find something else to be frustrated by. (maybe not, who knows) Ultimately, this game is resurrected. How are you going to kill something that refuses to die? I don't know there's a solution to my own pet peeves other than to reduce my expectations of others, and stop asking so much of myself in the process. It is just a game. I shouldn't take it that seriously.

I thought I would mention - this occurred twice in as many days. I'd moved 2 blasters into the abyss while I did some badge work on a couple of corruptors. And in both cases, neither blaster had Rebirth. But, I hadn't noticed it until the league leader called for buffs. (I certainly used barrier when fighting the gms to get hami to spawn.) Now, barrier had recharged, and I'd already had the Radial Rebirth crafted. I didn't even try to slot it at that time because I wanted to be sure I was ready to mash the EoE and the red insps. But, I was able to slot it immediately after hami went down, during that brief time when we're waiting for the buds to spawn. No messages about having been attacked or attacking too recently, despite the fact I'd attacked just 30 seconds ago. So, clearly something is variable about this cool down timer.

Short answer: No, not worth it. Explanation: So, from an influence generation perspective, I see the exchange rate and wonder who's cocaine habit is this supporting. Just ballpark because it's not really my thing to sell super insps, but use them - occasionally, a super team yellow/red will go for 2M. But that's usually one buyer who's fighting a gm in an open instance or something that needs it in that moment. Penny-wise, pound-foolish kind of transaction if you ask me. Maybe there was a badge involved. Anyway, about the most I ever would expect from a super insp that I pay 30 threads for is 1M for the let's get paid today price, as opposed to - this character can just sit here next to Luna until this team red sells for 2M+. So..how many AE tickets do I get for 30 threads? 30 tickets. 250 tickets to get 1 common IO recipe at level 50. Basically, about 8M inf opportunity cost for a common IO frequently bought instantly at 300k or less that YOU have to craft and pay a crafting fee and salvage for. 75 tickets for a level 50 SO in your origin. So, that's about 2.5M opportunity cost for an SO that you can get certainly for less than 50k at any store. (I haven't used an SO at level 50 on any character ...maybe when HC first opened? I doubt even then. Can't recall. Doesn't matter. The discrepancy is obvious. 80 tickets for a specific uncommon salvage. One that even when the marketers are up to their tricks I can get it for 10K, at the most 100k, this would be an opportunity cost of over 2.5M 8 tickets for a random common salvage. The math is a little harder, but Luna has super insps that go for 10 threads. And a super red could go now, this instant for some lame price like 222,222. Who among us would pay 111,111, half that price for a common salvage that may or may not be the one you want? Nobody, I hope. That leaves two categories remaining. Recipe rolls: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Now, I've done these before. This might be something a farmer would do if they were full on salvage with very few recipes, so they do about 5 asteroids, and pop upstairs for some random reward recipes. Bronze are 60 to 75 tickets. So...about 2-2.5M opportunity cost for one recipe that you have to craft and generate salvage for. Now, in the 10-14 range, which a level 50 character can choose - some of those are convertible into a decent IO. But, optimally, I can't see making much more than 4M, maybe 5 in a high demand period of the week for something like a -res Achilles Heel. Crafting costs and salvage are cheap; but even so it's a random roll, and I'd still have to burn at least 3 converters to get the proc, because the proc isn't in the bronze roll pool. So, I think at best, this is a very small profit, but more than likely a push, or a loss. The silver class goes from 450-600. I'm not even going to do math here. I just wouldn't do it. It would be one thing if we could do ticket run on an Atta cave map and not hit the ticket cap in 2-4 minutes when there's still 30 minutes of map left. But since we can only earn, I think it's like 800 tickets per map. Maybe 750. Some small figure. So, you'd have to do about 20 asteroids to make even popping upstairs worth your time. And - you'd have to buy the salvage for the recipes if you intended to craft them. The gold class recipes are 3000-4000 tickets. Do I need to mention how insane this would be to even consider this? There is yet one category left. The payoff badge for 1000 tickets, or in this discussion 1000 threads. If you're t-4'd, and you want that badge, you might pay it. But, anecdotally, since there are other badges to earn in AE, it's not a big leap to just run a couple of maps to get those tickets and use them, rather than threads. The reason why is it takes 8 minutes maybe, depending on how fast you're moving to earn 1000 tickets. 1000 threads takes multiple vet levels, and that's with the 120 thread dump in the earlier vet levels. So yeah, AE tickets are a loser's game. You would have to be a bit of a gambler to go with the bronze rolls, and hope you're lucky. I can see if you see a ton of the super insps being sold for scratch might motivate a few folks to go for bronze rolls. But me...nah. Whomever put this option in either put no thought into it at all, or was just hoping people sucked at math or weren't paying attention. It makes no sense to me why the exchange rate is so bad. But, in order to make the rate good - they'd have to adjust the number of tickets for the bronze roll, or it would be too good, I think. But that's just conjecture on my part. Opinions will vary.