Ukase

I am rude. Just ask anyone. I do try to be polite, but my default is rude. Nothing personal, I am just too obtuse to realize it most of the time. Or I'm too self-absorbed to pay full attention. Either way, I mean nothing sinister. But - the thing is - your fun is more important to you than it is to me. And the reverse is also true. I already wrote way too much on what's basically a "Why can't we all get along?" type thread. Now, if my fun is actually more important to you, or even on the same level of importance, then why have you not carried me through a 4*lgtf so I can have that useless ego sword trophy? I mean, it wouldn't actually be that much fun for me...because the rewards aren't that great...but still. It's about me, right? Did I mention I want it on my MM that I haven't played since it dinged 50? Yeah, that's really silly. Forget I said anything.

If you team often, the case can be made that the set bonuses you lose for slapping this IO in a given power can be made up with team buffs/debuffs. But if you just team every so often, I'm not sure it's worth it. At least, not in every case. But isn't that why we can solo? I like the overwhelming force damage/kb->kd. I use it often. But the other one? The set itself isn't horrible, but it's usually not what I'm looking for. While I don't actively seek to annoy my teammates (aside from bad jokes - those are quite deliberate), they usually aren't people I team with for more than a mission or three. Maybe a TF. But even so, if I can deal with the folks who Fold Space mobs away from me, then they can deal with KB. Again, if I have a character with KB, I generally know when/where to use it so it creates less work, instead of more work. (and I also sometimes avoid KB powersets to avoid these types of discussions. But, I am not someone to tell someone else to slot a given IO, even it makes great sense to me. I'll think it, of course. I might even buy it for them and gift it, if I don't think it would be an insult. But the truth of it is simply, as rude as it is - your fun IS more important to you than my fun. If you tell me anything else, I think you're being disingenuous. And my fun is more important to me. And that's perfectly okay. We're human, most of us. It's only natural that we look out for ourselves. Part of the beauty of this game is that so many of us with different ways of thinking and living can find a common goal and pursue it. It won't always be pretty. Some of you love a good team wipe. I hate turning on toggles. I wish they all worked like Temperature Protection - always on. I do think the onus of using powers properly is on the person with the power. If you have KB, then you should be proactive in using them so as to not cause your teammates to swear at you. (either to themselves or in-game) If you can determine the proper angles - great, kb away. If not - then maybe one of the IOs suggest could be the right move. If not, then I dunno what to tell you. I'll team with you, if we have the same goal. I can adapt. It might annoy me, but I can handle it for a tf, sure.

As Pete's uncle used to drill into young Parker's noggin, "With great power comes great responsibility". If you're going to use KB, I personally seldom care where the npc started, nor where they end up - until it impacts me somehow. And I'm not talking about being too lazy to use the F key. In my case, lately I've been on some characters that rely on the npcs being in my AoE to get some benefit to my character - whether it's Drain Psyche boosting my regen/recovery, or I'm using Fault on my stone brute to boost my recharge 100% for 10 seconds. Or maybe it's Consume for my fire tank. Regardless of what it is - when someone uses an ill-timed KB or Fold Space, it can have a negative impact on my character's ability to perform at the level I wish it were accustomed to. It's not the end of the world, because I've played energy blasters before. And - even on this stone brute that I just finished incarnating to t-4, when I'd reduce the difficulty just to get through certain missions for the reward tables, despite having zero problems with KB, suddenly, because I'm +1 or +2 or even +3, some of those mobs are flying. Even with my fairly recent bane, some of the mace attacks send lower level npcs flying. I was solo in these examples, so it's not the end of the world, but I can certainly understand why this annoys people. So, you just have to imagine your Peter Parker aka webhead and imagine how you're going to manage your great power. Don't knock them down the hall, knock them into the closest wall. Or - attack from above and have them kb'd into the ground. Or - simply take this approach with those who would presume to lecture you on how to manage your power: "Sorry - but I'm not sorry. Part of my fun is watching these npcs fly across the room. I'm not going to waste a slot just so you aren't bothered." Granted, that approach isn't going to win you any friends, but it certainly makes it clear that you're there to have fun. If they don't like it, that's just too sad. After all, KB is is damage mitigation. When they're flying where ever, they aren't doing any damage to you or anyone else. It can slow teams down, particularly those who aren't used to dealing with it. But we'll all live and be fine if the a given TF takes 2 minutes longer than expected.

You should see my thumbs. Not sure I can articulate how many times I miss that damn nail.

The concern then, and now is that if a gift takes away motivation to grab the carrot, then they may simply quit. It's kind of like giving your kids a fat inheritance. Are they going to withdraw from opportunities to grow because now they are wealthy? It's not that I insist they farm or I insist they don't farm. Or insist on anything. I just wanted to be helpful; but if it's more of a hand out than a hand up, it might be too much.

ApacheFog is a spines/fire brute I leveled up organically - outside of a farm. It can still farm, but I know there are better builds with higher dps than this one. And, because it has winter sets, it's not cheap. The 2nd build is a marked improvement for afk-farming, but would not fare as well outside of the farm. You can take a peek at either/both and keep what you like, get rid of the rest, or just get some ideas. ApacheFog - Brute (Spines).mxd SpinesfireBrute - Brute (Spines - Fiery Aura).mbd

One thing I learned recently from @Projector other than using a zero to confuse people when they type your name in game, and that's a strategic use of psi-damage procs. Nemesis, Paragon Protectors and Cyclops and Minotaurs are no longer an issue.

I just did this arc yesterday on three characters. (and yeah, the population was below 1200, so I did collaboratively complete all BUT the finale) So, the OP is correct in the sense the tentacles seem to be a bit of a waste of time. The final mission...well, if you're not a fan of KB, just run forward to the front of the map and work back. I've heard it said "The same thing that will make you laugh can make you cry." This is quite true when it comes to Imperious and, I think Daedalus, too. They think I'm doing so well, they clap their hands and the npcs all go flying. Well, something like that. I do kind of like the smoked over Cim map, because it demonstrates the carnage that has taken place, compared to how it looks normally. I tend to use a target macro to find the Cims, the minotaurs and Cyclops. I pretty much trip over Marcus the first couple of steps. It's kind of nice to get a break from Dark Astoria. I know they got rid of the fog, but there's still some crazy noises in that zone. If I were Excellent programmer for a day who could change ONLY one thing, I am not sure what it would be. But if I could change 5 things, I don't think this would be on that list. Heck, I don't even think I have a list, but I should probably make one. I mean, all that influence should lead to influencing someone, right? Can I do away with the zone hunts in Croatoa? Please? Those Fir Bolg are never in the proper zone when you need to clear them from the zone. I literally have to pull them or teleport them in to advance the arc.

Then how do you know I'm even there?

I'll be transparent, I never even thought about those folks. I imagine I'd be the best (Inf paid on time and in full) and the worst customer ever (doesn't know what he wants, but will know it when he sees it) I have seen the work of some of those folks and they're fairly fancy. I appreciate you reminding me. I never want to step on anyone's hustle - unless it's my hustle first, then watch your toes, cuz I'm gonna stomp!

So, while scoping out the Crucible, because I honestly had no recollection of ever going in there during retail, it seemed fairly well laid out. I've made, and often seen suggestions for an inf-sink, and I thought - why not a ready made base? No idea how much should be charged, but I know there's a number of folks who have no idea how to construct a base. Most can generally figure out how to drop some storage bins and teleports, but I suspect there's a fair number of folks who either have no interest, or no desire to create a base, and might want to just slap down some influence/infamy/information and have a ready made base. Of course, all sales final. For example: for 1 Billion inf, you could create a passcode and have your own Crucible. Once you take possession, you can edit the base to add teleports to various zones, an ouroboros pillar of ice/flame, and some storage bins. Just a suggestion of what would be nice to have, not need to have.

I know precisely the new player Snarky referred to, and he came back for ...a brief moment to find our SG is not even a shadow of it's former self. They very much enjoyed the super feeling of farming, and I think they thought using certain powers was hilarious and a lot of fun, but they didn't really care for challenge; in my few discussions with him, this was a time to pretend the npc was his boss. He came to blow off steam, not to get involved in the delicate, sometimes complicated (for some anyway) math. He may yet return, but I suspect if he does, it'll just be for a moment. He was funny, I'll give him that. In the early morning hours, he'd bring on a 2nd account and literally have chats with himself, no doubt teasing the shy (or otherwise busy or rude) folks who couldn't be bothered to return his "Good morning" greeting. And I know this because I would return to my afk farmer and see the dialogue two hours after it took place.

So, after a number of power sets like ice, fire and dark, I was missing the crunch of War Mace. But I wanted to hold off on War Mace and revisit Stone melee. My 2nd 50 on retail was a fire/stone tank, and it was always enjoyable to see a Seismic Smash on a freak tank. But, I'm just not fond of tanks, because they kill too slowly compared to brutes, particularly in the early levels. So, I made Gordian Lass. Level 47 at the moment. And I can see I need to do a respec, because I'd forgotten what a turd tremor is. The DPA is pretty sad. It's useful, but still sad. I normally do a build in mids first, but at the time, I just didn't feel like it. "Just wing it!", I said. "It'll be fun!", I said. And it has been. And I could just muddle along to 50 easily. But the toxic hole has me concerned. The fairly low defensive numbers also concern me. And..well, I was able to address a glaring psi hole, but now I have a glaring toxic hole. I recognize that I can't address everything. It's not a positional defense tank, it's electric armor. Anyway, I thought someone might help me think outside the box on this. I could be persuaded to grab tremor, and lose vengeance. I could be persuaded to do a lot of things with this build, except I will be keeping super speed and combat jump. It might be worth it to take super jump as well and proc out Spring Attack for more AoE. And it might also be worth losing the energy epic and going for something else. At the time, I hadn't unlocked the patrons, so I tend to just go energy by default. Here's what I have so far: Gordian Lass - Brute (Stone Melee - Electric Armor).mbd

Well, the other thing is - the names are likely trademarked. I don't think anybody would care in this context, but why risk it?

Ice is nice. Very nice. I have an ice/cold corruptor. An excellent combo if you're feeling generous enough to cast buffs and do dps. I have ice/ice blaster. Ice/fire blaster. Ice/Atomic blaster, Ice/energy blaster, ice/devices blaster...all kinds of ice blasters! Of them all, ice/fire is probably the best for my play style. Ice/ice is probably the most survivable, tho. (Ice/dark is right in that mix) There's a number of folks who love to use the term blapper because they go into melee a lot. It saddens me, because these players just don't understand that a blaster is at home in melee. The ranged attacks are generally there to pull - get the npcs attention - and close in. Yes, you can certainly just use ranged attacks. In the earlier levels, this is advisable, because in melee is where a lot of the stuns & alpha hits take place, leading to premature defeat. But a lot of the sleeps/mez happen at range. So, with ice blast, you get to be proactive. Freeze Ray is super fast, unlike the heavier hitting bitter freeze ray. Ice patch in the early levels can be a life saver for you or a weaker teammate under attack. The npcs instantly bounce. (except certain NPCs who may resist the KD) The slow - if you slot for it, is noticeable against some foes. But the dpa is outstanding. It's such an interesting thing to play fire/fire, than ice/ice. Both do great damage. And both, properly built can have great survivability in the toughest content. You just have to find that balance between chaos and order. When I play ice, and then play fire, I suddenly realize how vulnerable I am. I don't have anything to mitigate incoming attacks other than dps. Ice - I can drop a nuke at 80 feet. Fire, I have to be in the midst of mobs. For survival, there's no question, ice is where it's at.

When I read the title of this post, I was thinking of the more popular names when it comes to leading content in game, not donations. My father and I had a bit of a routine discussion when I'd leave a light on after leaving a room. "Money doesn't grow on trees." And then, he'd also say, "Time and money are both valuable resources. Of the two - time is more valuable. I can accumulate money, but I can't accumulate time." Armed with this, it's my opinion, while donated funds are appreciated, they're not the same gift as those that give their time to making the game what it is. Someone like Cobalt, who works behind the scenes quite a bit. Oklahoman, Cygnus, Titan Ice, Laucianna, (I know there are others, but these are just the names at the top of my head) that provide opportunities for humor and in-game rewards. I would rather league leaders get an extra emp merit or prismatic (or something like that) for their sacrifice of time making pop-menu macros. I've led leagues. It's a bit of a headache, and sometimes thankless. And the folks that are writing new content, or painstakingly testing various powers in that new content, they should get a little something extra too. Might motivate more folks to help more. But donations? Nah. People give for a number of reasons, but if it's a true gift, it is done so with no expectations, no thoughts of favors in the future.

I have 4 accounts. @ukase @ukase2 @ukase3 and @ukase? I have a spreadsheet with level 50 characters, and their vet levels, and the t-merits, emp merits and astral merits. But I haven't updated it since I started just emailing all the surplus loot and pulling it out by one character to hold them. Not sure which is method is more tedious. But in any event, I figure if anyone wants to know who a character is, they just right click and get the global name from "Add Note". But, if you see anything with Ukase, Gordian, Apache in the name, those are likely mine. The 4th account doesn't have a naming convention yet. I had thought about names of various medicines and other drugs, but that seemed too weird. Then I thought about famous Economists. Then I got distracted and found something else to do. I'll get around to it at some point. I really only made the account to hold more influence, but lately I've been using it to create utility characters for Mayhem missions, AM-Siege, Multidimensional-Shrouded on Indom instead of just Excelsior.

I love stuff like this - but not with a teammate. Mainly because I go afk without warning due to work. It's not something I'd appreciate, so not going to put that on anyone else.

If I only had the will power to stick with one alt...

Am I the only one so desperately greedy that I check the quantity of these on all my characters to ensure I don't ever reach the limit? I just can't even wrap my head around the minds of a person who doesn't monitor these things routinely. I can grasp the concept of being busy, distracted and am smart enough to understand that it's just not that important to some people. I mean intellectually, I know it. But it is just so far from where my mind is, I think we must be two different species. How can anyone let their thread count get over 8k? Do we all not know Super Insps that cost only 10 threads will sell for over 1M ? And Team Reds can sometimes sell for more than 3M? Or even 5M?

In a nutshell, you can get prismatics from randomly completing various missions. (fairly infrequently - although I got three yesterday) It doesn't matter if you're using ouro or not; got one doing the old Sister Psyche TF yesterday. The easiest way to get these seems to be to monitor Hero and Villain event messages for GM sightings, head to those zones and help take them down. Now - these GMs will not give you any prismatics. But they will randomly drop the GM Pet recipes (these are fairly rare; when they first came out, I was getting them often, but now, not so much) and something called a Monstrous Aether particle. 3 MAPs will convert into 1 prismatic at the Benovolabs vendor. Without really going out of my way, I tend to earn about a dozen PAPs from standard tf/sf/story arcs and GM kills. (after I convert the MAPs into PAPs) on my journey to 50. If I specifically look to earn them, I can easily double or triple that. Halloween is coming up sooner than we think - look to log in each of your characters for Trick or Treat and earn the defeat badges for the Elite Bosses from that event and earn 10 prismatics for each badge, 5 total. So, it would be fairly easy, if the league action is there to get 100's of these prismatics in an hour or less, across multiple alts. Also look to be frustrated by all the level 1-20's with no enhancements in PI and/or Kallisti Wharf, which leads to needless defeats due to insufficient buffs and aggro management. I will be looking to bring my lowbies on first - and then my higher levels as we close in on the end of the event. Anecdotally, it seems like after the first weekend, most of the higher level characters have those badges and are switching to their lower level alts, so I plan to do the opposite.

Much appreciated. Seems to work, thanks!

You betcha!

I was told this previously. Gobbled the ultimate. Used Fold Space on an MSR...nothing happened, lol. If some folks can use it seamlessly, more power to them. I'll pass. And I have seen Fold Space used without warning on routine TFs and such. There I am, on a rad/mental manipulation blaster, preparing for Drain Psyche - just need 2 more seconds for it to recharge...and then "poof", they're gone. My clumsy finger was already in the process of executing the power - but not quite..and they're gone, it executes and I get no buff. I like to zip through TFs and such to maximize rewards as much as the next guy. I just wish I were better at it. Those damn tiki torches in the Orenbegan maps always get me. And I really need to find a way to click on an elevator door without clicking on the elevator door, if that makes any sense.

I am just not smart enough to use Fold Space effectively. I have tried. The circumstances of when I want to use it, it just doesn't work the way I want it to. I got it to hopefully speed up the advanced mode tfs. But, when I try to pull mobs during the MSR, despite using two d-sync that are entirely overpriced, it might pull one of the group. Maybe. It gets the attention of the other group, perhaps. For kicks, I went to the test server and spammed barrier and tried to fold space on a mob in a 4* lgtf. Nothing happened. Tactics, kismet, high global accuracy...nothing happened. I even took out the two d-syncs and put two 50+5 accuracies. No improvement. Might as well leave the slots empty for all I'm getting out of it. It's my intent is to tell anyone who thinks fold space is great and I should have it to go kick rocks. I am just not smart enough to figure out how to use it effectively. Now, on skulls in perez park, it works great. But I don't need it there. I tried it on a +4/8 group in an ITF, just to practice with it. I got one minion, but the rest just pretended like nothing happened. The mobs I want to teleport seem to be teleport resistant - so what's the point? I am to save 5 seconds by bringing them to me instead of just using my targeted AoE? It is a waste of resources. My time, my influence, my energy. Now - that's just my take. Some folks like Loc use this seamlessly without issue. Great. Go for it. Me, I'm just not going to use fold space and get something that has utility that I am smart enough to take advantage of.