Ukase

So, there's a remote chance this is user error somehow. I go to Annah, click "Give Annah the salvage. I've got about 50 pieces of each costume in my inventory. There is no option to see "supergroup" items. Is this only available for select SGs or something? Or, only SG leaders? I've tried with multiple characters, and don't see the option. I did check the lower right to ensure both of those options to hide recipes for whatever reason were unchecked.

You're right! I recall a GM saying that one tip to increase times on the ski chalet was to be as short as you could be. I think we're just seeing the numbers as being the same, but perception is reality! Now I gotta come up with 250 prismatics for all my normal stature characters and make 'em tiny.

Next thing, I'll be reading that all travel powers should be inherent. Just kidding. I'm consistently amazed we're even allowed to use SG empowerment buffs. I would think once Invention set IOs came into being, these would have been disabled completely. I use the increase stealth multiple times a day for labyrinth and for my lowbies to zip around and grab explorations. And they're handy for the invention badges, too. And they're great for using surplus salvage that you'd rather not take the time to post on AH or vendor. Myself, I have a perception that some days, my SS is super, super fast. And other days, it's like I'm running through sand. Same character, same zone. The distinction seems to be the server. On Indom...fast. On Excelsior, not so fast. My combat attributes reflect the same values, so I know it's just a perception thing on my end for whatever reason. So, I'm not inclined to think SS needs any help, because it's just about as fast as TP, except in the larger zones without buildings in the path, like most of Nerva. During MSRs, my characters using SS will beat some tpers, and some other tpers will beat me. I think a lot has to do with who's driving the character with TP, and the binds/macros they're using. <shrug> That said, any increase in speed/range to any travel power is fine with me. I do not see any downside to doubling or quadrupling range or speed for any power. I would take flight more often if it were as fast as afterburner all the time and not just for a limited time.

I've done both Apex and Tin Mage. No recollection of seeing Nemesis in either. Or are you talking about entering some tunnel while you're in the midst of one of the two tfs? So, I guess my answer is no, as I'm not clear on what you're talking about here.

That's fair. I shouldn't have stated it like that. In my experience, many players are quite up front about putting this or that power on auto. Mind you, I haven't been told that specifically in a year or so, it's entirely possible those players have moved on or have simply stopped telling me.

Some are doing just that. A fair number are not, only checking back in to keep from getting logged out. Sure. I just drop blizzard on a target and hit 2 or 3 critters. That's horribly inefficient. It's far better to see when a group are running in after a tank and drop it on them. If there are no larger groups, then sure, tab away. But in my experience, I have to look for the groups - because they don't come into the bowl. They stop at the rim and use ranged attacks, except for the ones that spawn into the bowl. Pulling the Rikti literally into the bowl is nigh impossible when I'm the tank. There tends to be multiple tanks per "alley-ways" so sometimes you have to go way out to try and bring the Rikti to the bowl. But they always stop at the rim, even when I would essentially crawl at a snails pace, taunting the whole time, slapping them with some ranged attack like Laser Beam Eyes. And that's with a tank with 6 slotted and +5 boosted taunt. I see an occasional ice tank have slightly better luck, but not much better. Now, that's just my anecdotal experience when I'm on a tank. On a ranged character, I will target through the hvas when tab is picking up the drop ship instead of a rikti npc. But I try to use tab, but usually those targets are way beyond the ramp and up at the next level by the grates. And for the ones on the rims, those are the ones I will smack with any attack that's handy. Generally the ones I have proc'd. And because I can only see them when I'm close to them, that means going up on the ramp. Perhaps there is some "approved" way to do an msr that I'm not hearing about. I do hear leaders/(and non-leaders) urging tanks/taunters/pullers to bring the rikti into the bowl. Fold space is largely useless against them in my experience. I guess you have to use an ultimate, but thus far when I've tried the ultimate, 1 showed up, the other 5 or 6 ignored it. So, I stopped trying to use ultimates. But while taunt gets their attention, they get too distracted in my experience at the rim with all the targets. And it's all good because they're all dead in a few seconds anyway. In the afternoon msrs, I generally get about 1400-1600 vg merits. Only when the team is short a couple of members or we have a couple of sub-20's do I not get a good amount of them. If I'm doing it wrong, so far nobody's said a peep. And I would assume that's because I'm not doing it wrong, or they're semi-afk. Many players who aren't afk are doing the same things I am, because I see them doing it. I'm sure there are some sharp players who stick it out in the center and maybe have better graphics and can see them well enough to tag them and continue to tab & fire, tab & fire. But I would venture these are less than half the people on any given raid. And I would also suggest that this can vary from raid to raid. Some raids, I've seen players get much better luck with fold space than I ever did. And when that happens, I don't need to go looking, they come to me. I can drop my AoEs to my heart's content. Maybe they had their fold space three slotted, or maybe they have better accuracy/toHit than my character did. To be transparent, I only tried the ultimate once, and had lackluster results. I can try again next time.

What are you saying here? What difference does it make where the players choose to stand to attack the rikti? The sole purpose of leaving the bowl is to engage the rikti. You should only return to the bowl for buffs, not remain in the bowl. The players in the bowl are generally the folks who are afk with powers on auto-fire. And it's not like you can actually target specific rikti like magus or priests within the central cluster, because they don't render visible until you're within 50 feet of them or so. Most players just spawn their HVAS, and target through it with an attack on auto-fire. Any player fighting on the ramps is a bonus, not a detriment. It means they're actually playing, unlike the lazy folks spamming that one power on auto-fire. At least, that's what I see when I msr. I'm always on the ramps because that's where the rikti are, except for when they spawn in the bowl - and that's when I use judgement and other nukes in the bowl. But the rest of the time - go out and clobber the rikti. There's no added value by sitting there and hoping you get to find and target one, except when they spawn on top of you - which isn't often enough.

A player shouldn't have to tab out and check with the wiki to see what the mission is about before selecting it. And presently, this is what I do to see if I have enough time to commit to the mission, if I don't remember. So, I'd prefer more transparency as to what a mission entails before selecting it, as opposed to less.

I kind of get it. But so far, other than a couple of characters, my trays are full with accolades. macros and actual powers, so I've been having to dig through my powers list to find a costume, and then open a tray to place the costume in it. I kind of use the tray I opened as a counter so I don't have to keep checking how many left I need. But when I took my level 36 in there yesterday to try and get progress on fashionable (which I still don't have, thank you very much Mr. RNG) and yeah, it's a lot of clutter.

@snarky I would betcha someone on Justice Superteamers could talk you through that over discord. If not, I certainly can. No can do today, I've got visiting family from out of town. But if you can wait until just 10 minutes before next Friday, I can jump in the discord with ya and walk you through it step by step if you don't get the help you need sooner.

So, I am going to be transparent about how lazy I am sometimes. If I could transfer incarnate materials, like those two very rares my brute got from the Labyrinth when it's had t-4 for years already...I think that would be bittersweet. I think it would kind of like Hallowe'en candy as a kid. It's good! But, ultimately, when you eat a pillowcase full of candy at one setting, you get a tummy ache. (I would think, I've never actually consumed that much candy in one setting) I mean, what happens if this were allowed. Someone like me with hundreds of level 50's that are t-4'd - but ultimately stop when they get t-4..I'm not sure how much help most of mine would be. But my badge character, and the 6 or so that used to be badge characters, they have a lot of rares, very rares, and tons of uncommons that I'd like to hand off. But if I did, my new characters would be done as soon as they get level 50. I wouldn't take the opportunity to see how they fare once done, I don't think. Now, that's just me. I'm sure others would love it and not get the "tummy ache". I would imagine the concern for Paragon devs was a player not needing to pay the sub and grind out the content. As for HC Devs, I think the concern might be a lack of players participating in iTrials and such because they wouldn't need to, at least not for a while, until they used up all the old loot.

I look at cut scenes like a commercial break. It's a great time to go get a refill without typing out "AFK a sec."

I remember a time when @ST1TcH or some variation of that, would tell me that he would do a lot more positron tfs, and synapse tfs too, if he could run them at 50. For whatever reason, probably having something to do with some mobs just not being available at level 50 being the reason this hasn't been done already. That and resources and interest by the ones that would have to do the work. It's a great thing to be able to exemp and go through content that you missed, or just run through it again. But it would be greater still if exemplaring would be unnecessary, and we could just run content at 50. Now, I say that, having not thought one bit about how that would impact the market, the xp earning curve by lower level characters and stuff like that. I can't say for sure, but I think there's a CoH server out there that does allow a 50 to do positron at 50. No idea who they are, nor do I care to find out. And it could be that is reason alone why HC doesn't do it. No idea. The shortening of Synapse is long overdue. I think it's just a question of dev time and interest, really. Myself, I'd rather see new stuff come out than old stuff re-worked, if it comes down to a choice.

You likely know this - it's not a badge. I don't know that it has any utility since I don't have it.

Don't forget Kahn, @Snarky. The first mission has the team running up those same steps in to Atlas City Hall. Barracuda SF does as well. My mind is boggled that someone died in transit courtesy of a pylon. Nobody thought to mention that possibility at the beginning? My guess is it was mentioned, and the person that died must have thought just as I do, that the odds of a pylon targeting you and hitting you and killing you are pretty rare...until you're targeted, struck and defeated. I've only ever tried MoLGTF 6 times, and lost once during the hami phase because a Dominator was too slow to get out of the goo. In fact, as useful as dominators are, a dominator cost me an MoLRSF, too, via the Flyer. Most of my success in Master runs were with Cosmic Council, where Master runs were treated just like a speed run. The change to no longer allowing incarnates made it more challenging, but to me, it was a stupid change. I haven't (and won't) do a master run, I don't think, until I find a competent group to run them with. Maybe not even then. I need more motivation than a badge.

As it should. RotP is a source of dps, sure. But it's not a smart one. There are better ways to get the job done than killing your self and re-toggling all your powers.

Thank you!

I do know this. 🙂 I am in the lab daily. Got 6 vet levels today, and would have gotten more if I'd bothered to use Experienced temp powers.

I can't believe I'm in a different camp here. I've played my ice/ice blaster just...well, a lot. Like a bunch. Not 1000's of vet levels, but if retail had tracked that, maybe. This is my take on those powers: Ice patch is useful, but more on teams than when solo. Defender gets in over their head with some aggro, drop the patch at their feet, and mobs that are bothering them start bouncing. My blaster doesn't need it, because if I can't kill them in one shot, I bounce away, take a shot, and then kill them. It just depends. But it's a situational power, and I don't find myself in those situations that often. Frozen Aura and Shiver...I have FA, it's proc'd, but in battle, I just never use it. I'm rarely in a situation to use it. I don't mind being in melee, but melee tends to come to me, I don't go looking for it. Blizzard and ice storm handle whatever BiB and Freeze Ray don't. I wouldn't spend a lot of slots on them. Certainly just the slot that comes with ice patch. If forced to get shiver, which does nothing but slow npcs, and the ones you want to slow it doesn't slow that much, I wouldn't dedicate more than a slot to it. And FA..for me - can't speak for the rest of you, it's entirely situational. For me, it's more of a panic button because I tend to respec out of ice patch once I get an epic armor, so it's kind of the only panic button I have when multiple npcs are trying to eat my lunch. We read things about maximizing dps and such - and I love that thought - but I also like playing free, doing things that are intuitive. And FA isn't intuitive for me. And you can say I have flawed perception bias, which certainly may be true, but I find my blasts miss more often in melee than at range. I'm sure it's because of the internal panic I feel that my pixels might become dirt-napping pixels, and I'll have to rez and retoggle which I find loathsome and unsavory. But the impression is still there. So, um, I don't see the value in these powers that others do.

Outside of purples, as those are level 50 IOs anyway, and a number of HOs, all the other enhancements are in this range. I know some folks think the pvp uniques are expensive, (seemingly moreso since Halloween), but if you're patient, you can get the recipes within this budget. It might take a week, but you can.

I don't know why I find earning incarnate materials to be repetitive. But I'm liking the 3xp because it makes the vet levels accumulate faster, which means when I do get to 50, I can +3 it sooner than later. I'm just weary of Dark Astoria and the iTrials. I don't mind just burning through emps to get what I need, even though it's horribly inefficient. So, I'll earn these vet levels with the emp drops happily while I do something else on a lowbie. (different shards, don't panic)

Given the way the Excelsior server has been behaving as of late, this is my best guess.

I know, it's why I tend to not play them. After playing a dom, I've gotten used to not having hasten on auto fire, but to me, Energy is quite clicky, as there are several powers worth taking - but they won't fit on the bottom tray, so I have to find a bind key. I already use several keys for the same power across a number of alts. But none of my alts have these (yet) so it's being problematic. So, for now, it's just too many clicks, and interrupts my flow of dps. And binding a key to movement, I've done that before, and I'm not a fan. I'll figure it out - but I still think boost range should be a toggle or something. Not a click.

I chalk it up to some kind of glitch. I got it done, it was just odd. Because the odds of someone taking one of my strange names at that specific time is pretty darn slim.

This is not a post about the dps. Power Thrust - I see the utility at low levels, but with Halloween and 2xp, didn't see the need to take it. No feedback to offer. Energy Punch - fast, effective. May stun. (mag 2) Stun ability aside, it's good. Build Up - no feedback necessary. Almost everyone will take build up, everyone will love the extra damage, and everyone wishes it were permanent but it never will be because we can't have characters being TOO good. Bone Smasher - Eh, a little slow, but does nice damage. Better odds of stunning than Energy Punch. Better damage, too. Not surprising. I'd love the activation to come down to 1 second instead of 1.5, but as it is, it's fair enough. Energize - available at level 16 instead of level 20 for blasters. I found this nice! But..in a hurry, I pick it without reading the fine print. It doesn't take end mod sets, only healing sets. And it doesn't increase recovery, it decreases end use. Fine. But a click? Not a toggle. Why? Because it's an endurance discount, not an increase in recovery. The click is a problem, though. This is likely more of a me problem than a problem with the power itself. CoH is great in that it allows for the use of many macros, and many binds. Again, this may be just me - but after a while, you make and play a number of characters - there comes a time when there's a power that you could use a certain key to bind it to, but that key is in use for a different power across many other characters. And, ideally, whatever key I'd bind this to, it would be convenient for one of my fingers to reach it. UI set up is likely unique for most players who've played this game a while. And having only played this MMO, and never having really played another, other than Champions for a week or so during the shut down, my set up is likely completely different than most - to my detriment. But, I use fingers on the number row at the top of most keyboards to execute powers. Targeted AoEs...I use a macro for those, but the macro icon also goes in that first row. I did bind energize to the E key, because the E key serves no other purpose for me. I'm sure it does something else for others, but for me, on this character, that's what it does. Fine. But then I get to Boost Range. Stun - eh, this is a blaster, not a corruptor or defender. The npcs that aren't killable with an attack or two don't get stunned easily. I'd have to lean into the stuns to make use of this power, and that really seems counter-intuitive. True, a stunned npc isn't killing me. Stuns are great when the stuns are the byproduct of damage. This deals some damage, and it's a fair candidate for procs, but the premise is flawed for blasters. I get no joy out of watching a werewolf walk around looking like it got into the moonshine. I am a blaster. I want to kill it, not stun it. I also recognize, this is just me. Some folks love this kind of thing - so don't change it for me (not that you would, lol) The activation for this power is too long at 1.8 seconds. Knock it down to 1 second, and the utility would be much better. I took this power to try it out, but I will respec out of it because when fighting those EBs this halloween, the attack takes too long...it's too late. Now I'm terrorized and left to use the low damage t-1 and t-2. Better or smarter players will likely have better results using this power. Boost range is a click. This is made permanent easily. And yet, it's a click. As if there were ever a time when we would not want to have longer range. This should be auto. No idea why this isn't an auto power. But it's not, and I don't have a key to use to bind it to. And, I shouldn't have to because, as I said, it should be auto. Power Boost - no real problem with this, as is. It's a totally odd power though, because some primaries can make really good use of it, so it's hit or miss on whether any given character should choose it. But that's fine. Not every power needs to be for every character. Total Focus - 2.53 second activation time. Really? Now, proc'd - this attack is going to be really nice. In context however - middle of the road, proc'd or not. In the spoiler, if we can trust mids, is a power comparison. One looking at damage, the other damage per activation. So, if you bothered to look, you see it's a nice enough attack, but seeing a large orange number for a blaster isn't that exciting. It's being able to execute it and quickly move on. The attack is slow, and as a result, it's situational. I certainly would be very cautious using this against Battle Maiden in Apex TF and Tyrant in Magisterium. Still, it's fair. That is my feedback on this set. Certainly blasters don't really need much love right now, but maybe dog-ear this, and unless there's some reason to not make boost range auto, make it auto at some time in the future. The primary reason is because there are 10 slots in tray one for powers. There is no space for this one. I have to come up with a suitable bind key, and I can't seem to find one that my fingers can easily reach that don't have another purpose. It's crazy details like these that cause me to park a character and not play them often. Again, that's a me problem, but still, Range boost should be auto.