Ukase

The character that did not get the "Mini-Benefactor in the Fog" temp pet - I logged it back in, and got the "welcome back Gladiator" message across my screen. So I know I combined the motes properly. I attempted to see if I could get the above pane pop-up, but instead, I just clicked through and ended up in the It's the same place with the empty shell of Daedalus dressed as a gladiator.

I took a third character in. And this is the message pane that pops up. So, the combining of motes clearly works; just not for one of my three characters. I just can't sort out where I screwed up.

So, not sure what to make of this. On one character, I only had the temporary pet Mini Avatar of Achylus. Reading through some comments in league chat about people wanting to visit the motes helped me realized that I could visit all the motes and then "turn them in". So, I did this. I got this large pane pop up with some lore information, and a notification that I had acquired a new pet. (edit: went back to this character to see what this pet was called "Mini-Benefactor in the Fog") Well, I decided I wanted the same pet on another character. And after doing the same things, I sought to combine them, and while I did find this empty shell of Daedalus, "Benefactor in the Fog" and I did see all the mote icons and turn into the Mote of the Gladiator, this experience was different from the previous character's experience. No big wall of lore pane popped up. No mention of getting a special costume or new pet. I can only think I have gotten confused, being armed with just a little knowledge. What did I miss?

Anecdotally, I've gotten Illusionist (defeat the pets from a master illusionist), gearsmasher, unveiler.

This was by far my biggest gripe with being on a ToT league. To be fair, when you're leading, and a level 50 team leads without warning - and the league is otherwise full, you literally have to stop what you're doing, and first see if there's a level 50 on the team that just didn't get promoted by the previous one. Alternately, you have to begin looking at the other characters to find out who's 50 among them. It's a bit tedious. I think the first two days are largely okay; and the lack of level 50s doesn't seem to be that much of an issue. After that, anecdotally at least, if you have more than 5 level 50's, you're living right. My "work-around" has been to recognize that while EBs will spawn occasionally if you're a solo ToTer, if you're solo at the motel (for example) you can take advantage of the numerous EBs there, and really, you don't have to do any knocking at all, unless you just want to. I didn't knock at all until I wanted to get the tips and the costumes. And it works for me. I've accumulated over 500 prismatics, which is roughly worth 1B, less fees. Mind you, I haven't sold them yet. I'm just not sure if I want to yet. Never know when I might want a mini-me. But, better to have them and not need them, than want them and not have 'em.

The only thing I track these days is vet levels, and the number of Transcendent, Empyrean and Astral Merits. Each account has one character that tends to hold all the hero merits, monstrous aether, prismatics, catalysts, and the incarnate merits and other goodies like hero/winter packs. Because I want to reduce the number of characters I have, it's my intent to run them up to 99, squeezing out the last bit of emps from them before deletion (unless they just weren't much fun at all, and in those cases, the nearest vet level that drops emp merits). Or, unless they're going to be part of my "first page" characters which have new builds or builds that don't need a respec. I used to track inf, but since each character carries a billion, now I just count characters and emails.

Back when Task Force Junkies was super popular, we'd get a team of 8, and everyone had a Whispered Rumor tip, we just ran each of ours, zipping to the back for the mission objective, and if it took more than 5 minutes, I'd be surprised, and the Pocket D tip for running it is genius.

Kudos to Flea for helping you out. I can't say I've ever duo'd much of anything in game since HC opened. On retail it was fairly common. Now, I think it would just be easier to solo it than take a team through. Too many chances for someone to be stupid. And on posi 2, little known fact - all of those bombs on the inside - the guards are never looking at the bombs. NEVER. I have never had to fight any npcs in there except for Rollister. Never. Very easy to stealth most of that tf. Some of the lower dps ATs may struggle with Dr. Vahz and his untimely heals, but a few large or super reds will handle that in most cases. Occasionally, a summons may be needed. But, overall, super easy to zip through that solo if you can't find a group in 5 minutes.

It's not lost on me that there's a disconnect between the content I play and the path many others take. It's none of my business, but I will ask anyway: Why are you doing radios? There's no reward for it, beyond the same rewards that story arcs offer. And, story arcs offer reward merits, and possibly a badge or two. All of your troubles could have been avoided if you'd just done a story arc instead. Unai Kemen, ever heard of him? He's a contact in PI with a lot of missions, and even has a few council outdoor maps. And guess what - they're old world council. Not a lore expert, but I don't think they're even from the same world as Paragon City. None of that lycanthrope behavior with those council! Now, it's not lost on me that sometimes I have to look for story arcs to do if I don't want to repeat myself. Sometimes, I have to change alignment. And sometimes, I have to exemplar and use Ouro. Still - it's plenty to keep me busy until I figure out what my next character is going to be. Don't do radios. It isn't a good idea. It is rarely even a neutral idea. It has NEVER been a good idea, except perhaps on retail at level 5 when you wanted a jet pack before you turned level 14 and could get a legit travel power. Now, I grasp that some folks like doing radios because..well, reasons. The missions are in the same zone, and some folks actually enjoy the safeguard missions and the side missions for various temp powers. I do get that. But, for me, those temp powers are never worth the rewards, and if I ever want them, I just visit Agent Hassell and skip the stupid, putrid, merit-less radio missions and go right to the safeguards. Why is it do you think we have an Agent Hassell or a Lord Schweinzer anyway? To avoid the very pointless radio and paper missions! Just stop it already, and do story arcs and get Reward Merits! If you're going to do repetitive content, you might as well do story arcs through ouro, and then your entire team gets paid. Or do them solo and you get paid. Radios? We don't need no stinkin' radios!

Appreciate this little gem.

Yeah, this is a tough role - mainly because it's hard to tell who's 50 and who's not. When team 5 needs a 50, because whomever was the team lead for team 5 bails without warning, it can be a challenge to figure out who's 50 if you aren't familiar with the many people on the league. And since ToT is kind of a PL-centric activity, most of the names are fairly new to me. Add to that when someone wants to do Banners, and you've already done Banners, and recognize there's more than one way to do them, and you really don't want to do them because you just need 4 more costumes and an arisen mummy to finish with a given character...yeah, all kinds of people who want to do what they want to do, including change the location of where the league is doing ToT. These events are really best run by people who are well-connected with in-game friends who are aligned in goals and have incan slotted. Not saying others can't run them, but when you have a couple of folks hunting for GMs, and multiple people with incan that stay by the doors you're ToTing at while everyone else grabs the merits and incan's back, things go super smoothly.

This might be a stupid question. Heck, it must be! There's being "in game" and there's being logged in, on the character select screen. Does being on the character select screen count as multi-boxing? (for example, right now, I have two accounts "logged in", but no characters have been selected yet, with a 3rd account that's actively playing as normal) I usually do this for when Adamastor is about to be up. Log 'em in, they're already there and I don't have to sweat the commute. Occasionally, it's for transfer of various salvage or recipes. But for the most part, it's just one account at a time nowadays. I just want to make sure being on the character select page with multiple accounts is okay.

I last checked a couple of hours ago, and the price was close to what it was; from a little over 2M to a little less over 2M. I have thus far earned 470 prismatics, with another 24 characters to assess and see if they can earn them. As for the other accounts...well, I'm growing a bit weary. Perhaps I'll be refreshed tomorrow. Selling them might rejuvenate me, my math says it's close to 1B at 2M each. At least 850M after fees. I've been doing this in a strange fashion, not recommended. Solo. The reason being, having led leagues in ToT before, I know what a headache it is to have people come and go, even if they take the time to ensure a 50 is promoted before they leave. So, instead of being a nuisance in that fashion, I just join in the clobbering. As expected, I have to really focus on the dps; because anecdotally, if I don't dish out sufficient damage, I don't get credit for them. And those damn MMs have an unfair advantage being able to attack them before they even come out of the door. I really wish there was something that could be done about that. No matter. At 2M each, I suspect they won't really get any cheaper. At least, not much cheaper. I had thought initially these would sell for 100K eventually. And that may yet happen. But if people actually are hoarding them or using them, the price should remain fairly stable at 2M. That is, I can't think of any reason for the demand to increase. I should probably hop on brainstorm and see if there are any pricy costumes at Benovolabs coming around the corner.

A lot of alting and a lot of ToT - during parts of this first day, both Kallista Wharf and PI had full leagues. Whatcha gonna do with those prismatics?

I don't share builds that I haven't leveled to 50 outside of a farm, myself. But, I belong to the TaskForce Junkies discord channel, and in there, are hundreds of builds by players, most of whom know what they're doing when it comes to making a build. I will download them and look at certain stats, and if I need to tweak here and there, I will, but most of the time, while I might take a power at a different level, I will follow the build and be pleased with the performance. I used to go to brainstorm, but found that takes more time than just doing the respec. And if I'm playing it organically, there's no need to test it out like that. I can tell by level 10-12 how things are going to go for most builds.

This is another insanely odd way to award such a power for free. It only takes 3 suicides at level 50, but I don't even know that you can get this at level 1 because there's no debt before level 10. Why are these powers only available when you'd most likely have already purchased them? Someone has just created some arbitrary markers to award these for free, and it makes zero sense to me. It makes more sense for these little free methods to not exist than for them to be exist after these arbitrary metrics.

The irony of wanting to use Mark & Recall while doing the tip missions which were required to obtain it. Those stupid escort missions in some of those tip missions. Mark & Recall is now my favorite accolade! (except for when I have to escort idiot npcs)

There's really nothing to change. The Advanced mode TFs carry the same place in the weekly rotation that the standard versions do. So, you would get 2x the merits for 1* lady grey, just like you would for the standard version. It sounds more to me like you need to get connected with the folks that do advanced mode tfs.

So, when I read Rudra's post, the first place I looked was Paragon badge, the very page your link would lead me to. Nothing there said this would be free. And while the START page mentions this, I've never, ever seen this option at p2w/Start. Now, that could be because I've already bought it at level 1 in most cases. But I am seriously wondering when this became a thing. Granted, it's only 1M. I am now going to revoke the one I paid for and then see how it's reacquired with a character that has the badge. And now that I see this, I really call into question the judgement behind this lame implementation. What level 1 is going to have this badge, unless they use the same hack I would? And what kind of player is going to wait until they get this badge organically before they get ATT? I don't think I'm playing the same game as the rest of you sometimes.

Back on retail, there used to be an add-on called Blinkie Finder or some such, that used Demo Record to reveal where the glowies were, as well as the names of NPCs in the rooms ahead - like Void Stalkers, back when they were practically insta-death for a kheldian. To date, I still haven't been able to find a copy of this. I don't see any of these as "advantages", because NPCs are not competing with us for more xp/inf/loot/rewards. They're just pixels. We can do a Steel Canyon safeguard or mayhem mission for a free ATT if we like. I can't imagine anyone who doesn't just buy this as soon as they're able to anyway. Nobody has any excuse to not be able to afford these things, with all the guide on making inf available. Zero Excuses. The thing about the Auto-Defeat of the last remaining enemy - if it's me, I'd use that on each AV/EB in Maria Jenkin's arc just to speed things along. (unless it became clear I don't get credit for those defeats, and in that case, I'm sure there'd be cases to do something similar to get out of the hassle, like Nosferatu or Fake Nemesis, or Protean. I'm not sure how a leader would choose an npc stuck in a wall to auto-defeat, if they cannot target the npc. As useful as the ability would be, I'm not clear on how that would be used. Now - as the the idea of a "leader accolade" - that I like. It's long been my position that leaders should get something for their troubles. One useful thing might be to grab people from other zones; a special type of ATT to be used before a TF or team mission were selected. Grabbing that wayward lowby from Atlas to the mission in Striga, as an example. A team-rez power, regardless of teammates location on the map. (like a 2 hour recharge or something) Now, if we really want to annoy badgers, like myself, this new accolade could only be earned by leading full teams, and not retroactively earned. It would seriously piss me off to have to lead on my badger for 24 hours or whatever it would be. Might be worth doing it just for that. As it stands now, I can make a new character, and at level 1 have it invite one of my alts and they can both sit in my base and earn the current leadership badges.

Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis? ATT costs 1 million from the P2W (name changed to START vendor for reasons which escape me). In what world can you get this for free after leading teams for 12 hours?

My opinion doesn't really matter any more than anyone else's, but if I ask myself if I'd pay money for it, the answer would be no. As it stands now, I can't see my costume when I play, I can't see your costume when I play. I can barely make out the minotaur's weapon of choice when fighting, and sometimes not even then. A glow about it will do no good. Nobody will ever see it, except perhaps during a costume contest, so why? Just as an example of what I see when I play, on the advanced graphic setting: See my point? While this is a fire blaster, I can't imagine it would look any different if it were a mace/shield tank. Just seems like a waste of effort to me.

Wait - these voices are AI? That's pretty cool.

Is it rude to not play at some notion of better than average level? For my money, that depends. There are a collection of ...well...reasons people have for not being very good. Goals: "It's not my desire to whip out my e-peen for all to see. I'm just here to unwind after work". If I'm being honest, I do grasp the mental energy drain some parts of this game can have while playing. The ITF, with all that senseless screaming, can take me from being able to mow my grass, row 10k in 36 minutes, and a load of laundry to pulling out a tub of ice cream instead. The ITF is arguably my least desired activity in game because of that stupid screaming. Probably why they do it. I can't imagine it would be fun in real life to fight with people screaming like that, let alone in game. Still, unless I'm up for it, I avoid it. It's only a common courtesy for players who are just looking to "unwind" to not put themselves in situations where reading comprehension and fast key strokes are going to be recommended for best results. So, if you're wanting to unwind, and asking for an invite on an MoLRSF, you might be rude - if you're not going to look at the activity as something that deserves your energy. Badges are important to some folks. Strangely, very important to some folks. If you sign up for one and don't take your character's survival seriously, you are being rude. Granted, nobody wants to be the player that screws up. It's a mistake, after all. But, some folks while they don't want to screw up, take the mindset, "it's just a game". And while that's true, it's also time spent that went for nothing because someone couldn't be bothered to pay closer attention. That is time nobody can ever get back. That's even worse than wasting 10 bucks on a cup of coffee when you could have made it at home for 35 cents. I can always earn more money. I cannot get the time back. It's too early for a wall of text. I could come up with 5 or 6 more cases where people are probably being rude by being too cavalier about how their play impacts my play. (and it's certainly possible for the opposite to be true) Short answer, in some cases, yes, it's rude to not be a competent player. But not all cases.

I'm not at all saying Fire isn't awesome. It is. But, having played thousands of hours of fire and ice, I promise you, the mitigation from having a hold (freeze ray) that has a 1 second activation time trumps the very minor damage advantage fire has. We cannot just look at damage. We have to look at survivability. The ability to get through missions, quickly, efficiently. And while fire is capable, it lacks mitigation, unlike ice and water. We cannot just say "Fire is objectively best" without taking into account a character's ability to handle the various challenges on standard game play. Ice>Fire. Water>Fire. Fire is great. But it is NOT the objective best because we cannot assess a character's ability solely on dpa or dps. There are other metrics to be considered, such as survivability. And sorry, the mitigation potential of water and ice primaries outclass the fire primary, making fire great, but not best. Remember, skill levels of players come into play, too. We can't judge these based solely on numbers. Performance matters. So, I dispute this insanity claim. My claim says to think for a moment fire is best is discounting things like KB and holds as a very real lever to surpass dps. Opinions are going to vary. Mine says ice and water are better than fire.