Ukase

So, I actually made one of these. The debuffs are quite good. I'm a bit disappointed with EMP Arrow. While I was pleasantly surprised to see an unenhanceable 11.25% addition to all damage types except toxic for 4 minutes...once it's cast, it's in that spot. Doesn't follow the target or me around. Fortunately, the recharge on it isn't that bad, and it can be recast. There's a lot to like about trick arrow; but if you're solo a lot, which is as I understand it how Snarky rolls fairly often - I don't think it's the best fit. On teams, it's fantastic. The recharge on the debuffs are fast enough to use most every fight, depending on how things play out. But, the end use from those arrows adds up; I've had to be clever in slotting sets that boost max endurance and recovery, and reduce end cost for them as well. (I probably wouldn't have to be so mindful if I hadn't pursued recharge so much, but the more often EMP and Oil Slick Arrow are up, the better. I just wish it had one Arrow to boost my character in some fashion. Regen, HP, Recharge, something. That 4 minute boost to resist is not that useful because I tend to play at range; so I always have to close in to get that buff. A minor thing, but it's still a thing. The debuffs though, they are fantastic. Acid Arrow does a LOT. And I almost skipped it. Glad I didn't.

The sad thing is, I have 14 pts of kb protection, but his "Begone" must be more than that...yeah, at least mag 20, if I interpret this convoluted formula properly. City of Data would be so much more useful to me if variables were clearly defined. The power doesn't seem to be an AoE, so not sure why the variable is worded that way, but sometimes, when you have to come up with unique variable names in a program, it can be a chore when there are probably a thousand or so other more appropriate names already used by other objects in the program. At least, that's my guess.

Fighting Adamastor on a dark brute. I just got slapped off the platform, with the red words "Begone" flashing across my screen. This made me laugh chuckle. While I detest getting knocked about, that was pretty funny. I wish I'd been able to screenshot that to share, but my fingers were too slow.

This always puzzles me when folks say this about the Brute ATOs. Now, I recognize that I've never been able to get fury up to 100%. I always assumed it was because my health rarely goes below 85%. But the set bonuses for the two brute sets are quite good in my opinion. I don't see any need for any adjustment. They work fine to me. Granted, I am admittedly obtuse, and frankly, I don't go looking for problems. If I notice one, it's got to be pretty bad. I just don't see why there's this negative attitude regarding the Brute ATOs.

Are you one of those folks that just play mostly one character? How do you get your influence? How are you funding your characters if you're not endlessly exploring multiple zones for the cheap reward merits, and then exchanging those reward merits for loot to subsidize your character's build? I have a few characters that don't really go looking for all the explorations, but those characters tend to be purpose specific characters. Like my ill/rad controller that has Siege/AM missions held for my alts that want to complete Portal Jockey. Or my Rad/SS tank that holds the Schweinzer contact and just sits in Port Oakes next to him for my characters that want Invader/TFC. But a character that I play routinely...I don't think I can ever leave a zone without grabbing the explores. That's how I get the influence to fund their builds. Congratulations for playing in a way that's different. I'm just curious how you get your influence to build your alts.

I am not really clear on this, so I should just keep quiet. But, it's my thinking that an ITF will have XP gains of X, where the ToT will have higher XP gains per minute - simply because the EBs give more xp than standard EBs. So, as far as I understand, it's an apples to oranges comparison. (assuming team comp is the same) Also, Alpha unlocks at a faster rate than Judgement/Interface. There's perception, and there's reality. In game, I have a really hard time separating the two, because often, perception IS reality. Seems real enough to me. I put 90 characters, I think, through ToT this season. Most were solo. The ones who were teamed were those characters who might benefit from more incarnate XP. I think I might have taken 2 characters under level 50, as there's never enough 50's to keep things afloat at times. Like many of us, I don't mind getting vet levels for the various drops and incarnate XP. I can only speak anecdotally, that I think @tidge is on to something. Crappy team, crappy results. I often got my 10 prismatics faster solo than leagued, simply because of the large number of freeloaders who are unslotted, fully relying on team buffs instead of having any pride in their characters and putting their best foot forward. But I digress, sorry. Ultimately, while I think results are important, for me, it just sucks the fun right out to do all the analysis required. So, I just target the EBs, get my 10 prismatics and go. XP, even incarnate XP will come. For my time, I'll be doing the labyrinth runs with a murder room for dessert, and then the occasional iTrial if I'm in the right frame of mind. There was a time when I would trio box the DA arcs and while that is as efficient as I can get for reward tables, it's not really any fun. I'd rather get one reward table from a labyrinth once or twice a day and take quite some time to gear up than getting it done in a day or so being bored out of my mind.

Man, the original post takes me back. I remember getting quite hyped up when they thought about taking away the emp merits/vet levels in AE. At that time, I was so tired and weary of iTrials, aside from underground and magisterium, that if they took that away, I was going to really suffer. (Well, not REALLY suffer, but it was going to suck) My play style now is so different from back then. I haven't farmed emp merits in a farm in 2 years maybe. A long time. I have 3 spines/fire farmers from before the AE -def changes that are maxed on converters. I also have 3 rad/fire brutes also maxed on converters...just in case I decide I need to farm. But, the way the game is for me now, there's just no need. I would see players on the same character with vet levels over 100, and not super high badge counts - like 500-800 or so. Enough where I could tell they were playing the character because they liked it, not for any other real reason. Sure, they would hustle reward merits like anyone else, but I don't think they needed them to fund their next alt. But, I digress too much. I have to echo @Glacier Peak's advice. I don't think there's anything in game that will outpace the murder room in the labyrinth. But that is for level 45+. Until you get there, play on indom where your 2xp from START stacks with the 2xp on indom. Then transfer to your server of choice. Just anecdotally, I got 2 vet levels (with some patrol xp) in about 40 minutes. That's just not done in any of my fire farms that I recall. (granted, they were afk farms) I don't think the labyrinth can be beat with the current mechanics in play.

I have too many words to share. And most of them are dull and boring. @Maelwys I appreciate your taking the time and effort to showcase why you think the way you do. It was a lot of work, I think. Probably took you more time than I would feel comfortable with, if it were me. You also took note of my specific mention of certain powers which explained why I thought what I did. I can't dispute math. But, I can try to bring up the realization different players will build the same AT powerset combos differently. And, often, the net result is one player will crash and burn, and another player will burn and thrive. There's a lot of knowledge about the damage cap, attack chains, layering defenses and resistances that many players, if they even know, don't think about. I often don't think about any of that stuff until I suffer defeat and can't see the reasons in the combat logs or my combat attributes. Why a brute? Well, brute over a scrapper because of higher resists and HP. And a brute over a tank because of more damage when fighting single targets like the EB/AVs in Maria Jenkin's story arc, and easier time leveling up. But - @Story Archer I foolishly forgot the most reasonable solution: We have 1000 slots. Make all three. Then come back and you tell us why, or why not.

I do not agree with this for a second. SOME tankers might be a little bit better for a few seconds here and there. That's it. Brutes, with fury dish out so much more damage it's not even close. NOT EVEN CLOSE. I have played a tank. I have played a brute. The brute wins the dps competition EVERY single time. No exceptions. It doesn't matter that a tank has more targets. It never comes into play - at least, not the way I play. I jump in a mob, hit the AoEs, move to the next mob. I play them the same way. The only real difference is I take taunt on the tanks. The tanks are certainly more survivable, I'll grant you that. But the same thing that makes the brute's single target damage better than the tank's is the same thing that makes the brute's AoE damage better than a tanks. Fury. That's based solely on my anecdotal evidence. I do not believe your assertion for even a split second. Brute with burn kills faster than a tank with burn. Brute with shield charge does more damage than a tank with shield charge. I've yet to see an exception to this with any tank I've played.

I suspect there are a lot of these types of alignment points that may be earned outside of the alignment missions. I need to start making notes, because - for example, while doing loop hero, you have to run that 5x for the badge. 20 merits each run. But, if I can amass a list of all the actions/choices that will give specific alignment points - and then run the appropriate arcs, it'd be pretty nice to just run a morality and get the 40 merits on top - without having to run a single alignment mission. The strange thing about that Loop Hero arc, I can't be sure, because I didn't right it down, but I swear I got a heroic point no matter what I did to Miss Thystle. I'll be taking yet another character through and plan to make notes on what actions give what kind of points.

A little story which might shed some light how easy the zombie badges are to get. As we are likely aware, Adamastor is capable of being summoned 1 hour after his last defeat. I zone in with my ice/dark corruptor. Adamastor can be summoned - but for whatever reason, it hasn't been done yet. I saw the call out in lfg, so quickly logged in my corruptor who is already at the platform. I summon my lore pets, figuring they will summon Adamastor within a couple of minutes. And, the Zombie event begins. I did absolutely nothing but put my lore pets to aggressive. I got all the badges in less than a couple of minutes. Doing nothing but waiting to clobber Adamastor. My lore pets did all the work for that. I didn't even have anything targeted. It probably helped there were more than a half dozen folks waiting on the platform for Adamastor. Pretty sure I don't see those kinds of numbers when I'm solo and nobody else is around.

Appreciate the heads up.

<doh!> Well, that I knew. But I can't take the reward merits and convert them back to VG merits - technically, we cannot send VG merits to our alts. Jus' sayin.

So, I have no beef with expansion of radio missions into any faction. But, if you're just killing time waiting for whatever - tip missions eventually lead to a morality mission which gives 40 merits. Sadly, there's only a couple of these per faction (at least, that's what I see on my SG mission computer) but still, given the repetition that radios are, I would think tips would fall into the same category - except you get PAID eventually.

Pray tell, how do we do this with Vanguard merits?

Yeah, but not everyone does contact missions and story arcs through ouro.

Anecdotally, my passwords tend be Bible verses. It satisfies most requirements for caps, special symbols and numbers. For me, it's fairly simple to remember my "go-to" verses. Alternatively, you might try LastPass, but with any of those programs, you still have to remember the "Master" password. Unfortunately, it's just the nature of the digital world now.

Maybe check with them first. I have a number of characters with AoE. I tend to use some form of buff before I pop in and inferno. If a teammate just dumps a group on me, I'm going to have an issue with that.

For the younger crowd, L33t, or leet speak is a carryover from hackers. Now, there were hackers that were quite ingenious; using a whistle from a cereal box to make a telephone call for free - that was incredibly clever. Illegal, but clever. This ingenuity stemmed from a time when there was a thing called "Long-distance". Long distance would be any call outside of your local area. The further out, the greater the charge. If you wanted to call your grandmother in another state - you had to pay a fair amount, like 31 cents a minute. (seems cheap now, but if you wanted to keep your bills down, it added up quickly!) I remember when I was traveling as a young college student, my parents would have me call them collect and ask for myself. And then they would refuse to accept the charges, but would know I was okay and had arrived at my destination alive. Common practice! That was the extent of any "hack" we ever knew about. Enter the hacker, nicknamed Captain Crunch who discovered the frequency of the whistle that came with the cereal box of Captain Crunch would (details are fuzzy, I read this book in the early 90s) put out a frequency which allowed a long distance call to go through, and neither the party being called, nor the caller were billed. I'm sure Google would have some details. The hackers used this kind of wordplay for a number of reasons, depending on where they were using it. The primary goal was to obscure the actual meaning from eyes that weren't intended to see the communication, whether that was the authorities, or security software. In short, they were up to no good. Today's equivalent could be the folks that scam you out of your money, whether it's by phone, or a bogus gift card. We have a language called English. English is just an old language that has been influenced by a number of other languages, and it's a difficult language to learn, let alone master. But even an idiot will know to not use numbers when we have letters that convey the message more clearly. Some folks use this leet speak because for reasons that don't make sense to me, they think it's amusing or funny. Or whatever. It's kind of like role play, really. For a brief moment, if they want to pretend to be Kevin Mitnick (RIP) or Kevin Paulson, be my guest. Enjoy yourselves. As long as you're amused, fine. Personally, I'll probably throw up a little.

Damn, you're a hero in real life, too! Well done, sir! We thank you!

Precisely. But, I am not sure what it means. I just know it doesn't mean "nothing". It is worth something. But a lot depends on how they got them - and that information isn't available from the character info.

Was selling some common recipes, and spied this. Never heard of this before. I looked it up, turns out it's part of the SG component crafting salvage we used back on retail. Why are people buying this? We no longer need to craft crafting tables to make teleporters and such.

The short version is this: What are all the cool kids using to track their badges now? The spreadsheet? Homecoming Badger? Or just ATC's updated Popmenu? Their own spreadsheet? So, for the past couple of years, I got burned out on badging. Nowhere close to what Voltor was doing, but when page 7 hit, I had Ukase Ukase Fire Ukase Rad Imperious Ukase Humdinger Ukase Mace Gordian Sting Mirth Quake Apache Fire Apache Mace Catabolic All these characters had over 1000 badges, and 5 of them had all the badges at that time. The tedious nature of page 7 was just more than I wanted to deal with. As a result, I stopped badging on all but Ukase. Somehow, I missed the winter badge last year, and I'll presumably pick that up from the candy keeper come December or when the winter event starts, and he'll have all the badges. But here's my problem. The Homecoming Badger site, where I'd check off the badges as I earned them doesn't seem to be updated for the new stuff. I'm not clear on who maintained this one, but real life and/or interest seems to have gotten in the way. It happens, and it's all good. Is there a method for me to add the new badges to this site myself? I think most of the stuff is stored on my system as, I read it. Do I need to take a crash course in some programming language? ATC's newly updated popmenu has been a super big help, but as we know, 1600+ badges is a lot to sift through to find one you don't have, and often it's a praetorian badge name for one I already have. I miss the days where i can just click on the don't show collected badges, and it just shows the remaining badges I need.

So, with the recent addition of Jack in Irons (among other GMs) spawning in the murder room, with him comes red caps. So, Capbuster is certainly a defeat badge you could add if you hadn't already.

For me, the decision is based on whether I'm going to pursue all badges, or just the accolade. If I'm chasing all the badges, well, gonna have to do all that stuff anyway, right? It then becomes a question of which path is most expedient for that character, given what they may have already done. But just the accolade...going red side SFs for sure.