Ukase

I feel as if I should say this: After a number of events, I found that I enjoyed the heck out of being bounced into the sky, easily 2x as high as the GM robot-thing's head. This was about as much amusement as I've had in game, ever, aside from my first successful MoUGT and the Apex mission where we play one-sided dodgeball with blue patches of death. And..uh, given how some folks hate that - maybe I should add I'm not being sarcastic. It was fun, 10xp aside. I did get a bit frustrated at having fared so well xp-wise in the first one, but from that one after, every other one was a touch more disappointing in that more and more folks brought out level 1s - who kill more slowly and at least, anecdotally had a negative impact on XP gain. All in all, still a fun event. It was really the only thing in game that made me feel like pushing back sleep to do another and another.

In case you revisit the forums, or even if you don't - everyone should be aware it's clear you know what you're doing. The raid's lack of ability to draw people has more to do with the server itself simply not having the population to fill the raid as quickly as it could, and well, should. In no way should anyone make the mistake that I implied there was any lack of skill or ability. Just a lack of people.

I took a claw/super reflexes scrapper to 50 without it ...and honestly up until I did Heather Townsend's arc at 50+3 against level 50's did I see any kb. Plenty of KD, but no kb, and I didn't use any kb to kd procs. But, until I hit 50, in pursuit of more xp, I was tackling +2, +3, +4 most of the way.

I'm such an oddball. I've never played any other MMO - except for maybe 5 minutes trying out several others after the shut down.

I did show up for a hami raid. And you guys did one run. I waited 35 minutes to get the minimum 24 and only one run. Not the three I was expecting.

The truth is, there are several approaches to take, all should work, but none will work well. I've done what I call a drop challenge, where you slot only what the rng gives you, if you can use it. Although, you don't have to use anything just because you can use it. My biggest stickpoints were when "Beginner's Luck" runs low enough to notice at level 17. Part of this was because I am supposed to increase the difficulty to +1 at level 15, then +2 at 25, +3 at 35, +4 at 45. I've yet to get past level 23. Or was it 27? Probably 23. I forget. It made me really excited to get recipe drops and SOs. The use of p2w was not allowed, unless the item was free - like Sands of Mu and the like. The other sticking point, particularly in late teens, early 20's - endurance. Radiation, with Accelerate Metabolism was very helpful, particularly so on the Defender. My Dark/Rad defender did the best. Dark has a debuff component, which made things easier to hit most of the time. The AM was good for end recovery. The heal was all but useless, as it drains as much endurance as it heals, if not more. If I go that route again, I won't even slot it, I don't think. Unless I got one of the heal procs in a drop. I tried a bio/claws brute, which did comparatively well with this challenge. As you might guess, the efficient adaptation was in use far more than offensive, for sure. But, still, because I wanted to push myself, the mobs in First Ward thought I needed a lesson in humility and it was over. And this was using enhancements that dropped. I gave up on the concept of the challenge because it just takes too long to wait for more endurance. End mod drops are like 1 out of 175. Pretty damn slim, considering you could go from level 1 to 30 and not even get 100 enhancements, I don't think. (never actually tried to see, but it doesn't seem to be that many.)

I think if they do events like this again, they should reduce the zone cap to 50. When things bog down like that..well, it takes away from the fun.

One thing I noticed - the mobs in this event don't seem to drop any salvage. The odd enhancement or recipe, maybe. But no salvage. But I definitely noticed when outfitting my own with an oblit set which I don't normally keep in base because they tend to be cheap. But I ain't paying 8m for an oblit. It's crazy to see how lazy or ignorant some folks are - the multi-strikes are still selling for 500k, and it only takes about 30 converters (sometimes less, sometimes more) when they're attuned. If you're one of those that buy them at level 50, it's closer to 9-15 converters to get the oblit you want.) There were maybe 4 of a few in that set. So, since my new 50's needed to unlock vet levels, and the lowbies that are invading these events drag the XP gains down to less than what my farmer can do, I just parked the alts in the farm, and have made half a bill just from the drops in half a day. It really irks me that the lowbies are coming to PI instead of going to Skyway or Steel. They really messed up a good thing for me. I went from making 5 levels -from 45 to 50 in one event to making only one level, and in the last event, I didn't even make one level, because half the team was less than level 20. The league itself only had 4 level 50's. There I was, I'm on a level 42, so I didn't think it would be well received to lead a league unless I was 50. So, I asked for an invite, and got one by a level 30. And once the league was full, the dude didn't even pass the star. Nevermind my AoE power I got at level 38 I couldn't use...grr. I gave up on this event Sunday morning. It just pissed me off from that point. I get better xp in a farm then this event with all those lowbies there.

Perhaps a list of volunteers could be made to commit to helping with these events in this very thread. And, when you have 18 to 24 volunteers for a specific date & time, the group can knock the event out and plan for the next date/time. There are a number of folks who used to hop from shard to shard to maximize merits. If the time of the event is right, no reason it can't happen.

Well, I transferred a character over there - a couple actually. The time it took to complete one raid in the Abyss was longer than the time it takes to complete three raids on Excelsior. And that's not counting the time it takes to form. I completely get that if the league were full, instead of having only 24, it would be just as fast. But, the truth is, it's not full, so it's not as fast. I want to help, but I'm one player, and unless another 2 dozen agree to make the transition, it's a real waste of time. Like 30 minutes on Excelsior is 60 minutes on indom, just because it takes so long to get enough people.

In my honest opinion, you're ....not quite right. The brute and scrapper may have the same modifiers, but brutes reach the resist cap quite easily, as do scrappers. But, the brute's cap is 15% higher. The HP is also significantly higher. The scrapper's crits are nice, but they are not consistent. Woefully so. You can slot them with the right procs, and sure, they go off, but do they go off reliably when your foe is at full health, or when all you needed was to take off a sliver to finish them? The brute also has an inherent taunt. With the scrapper, you have to choose the right armor set to get a similar result. If it were me, I'd make both, but if I could only make one, I'd go with Willpower/SS brute. But there are factors to consider. Both are solo friendly. If you afk a lot - like me - that's important. But, given how fury drops when idle, the scrapper can be a better choice. Just depends. With Willpower, given a lot of the regen potential in the armor set, and the brute's higher hp, it just makes sense to me to go with the brute. Scrappers still have a role, but until the crit's can be better timed, more often than not, I'd go with the brute. But, really - make both. Slot similarly. You tell us what's best.

I didn't do the math myself, not my forte. But, someone in league was saying that (paraphrased) Normal XP X 2XP X + X 10xXP ,plus the double of the base XP would be 11XP. So, seems to me - losing the inf from the 2xp buff when you can get 10xp and the inf that goes with that...lose the 2xp buff during the event.

So, during the Map Server event, I noticed that my new level 50 character opened the Alpha slot with a quickness. Certainly not going to complain about that. While I was looking at the incarnate XP roll in, I noticed something that may have been occurring for years, but I'd never noticed. Given that 2xp is supposed to expire when you ding 50, I'm not sure why, but I was earning no influence during the Map Server event. Further investigation suggests that when the incarnate slots are unlocked, the inf will begin to be earned. So, armed with a few threads, given the scale of 10x, I thought perhaps it might be worth using a few threads and some inf to unlock the slots faster. Well, at 1M per 2%, I determined it really wasn't worth it to me. But, then, I looked again, and noticed that there was no way to blow influence and threads to unlock the hybrid slot. It's not a complaint; just something I noticed. So, I figured I would make this suggestion: enable us to blow some inf and/or threads and unlock the incarnate slots. It can be the same horrific exchange that there is for the Alpha/Judgement/Interface & Alpha/Destiny/Lore slots. As much as I'd love a "1 Billion for t-4 in all" as an inf sink, that might take one too many carrots away from this donkey and remove any motivation to move. But spending some inf to open a slot faster, even though it's a waste of inf, it would be something I would use from time to time. Even more often if it were just inf as opposed to inf & threads.

Shhh...don't tell them. You must pretend that you worked tirelessly for hours on end to replicate this effect!

Of course you may. How much you want? Note the date. It is April 1st!

So, I've just been playing a new-ish alt for about a week, and instead of letting the inf stack up, I've just been giving it away in small amounts to random teammates. I was a bit surprised to hear these folks "saving up" for this enhancement or that one. It's a place I guess I used to be at, but I don't remember ever really struggling for inf. In any event, there are a dozen or so more players who should have a team teleport if the chose to get one, with a little extra for whatever they felt like. All I've been doing is crafting and converting my drops and giving away the profits. Seems kind of silly, but I guess there are still a fair number of players who've just never gotten around to learning how to make inf the easy, but occasionally tedious way.

Given the mission was about the Devouring Earth and the Unity Plague, I think you win!

I can make some guesses. I could certainly create some words to fit the abbreviation. Saw this on the mission door; not the first time I've seen similar signs on the doors of missions. But what does the acronym M.U.R.C stand for?

I can only say it's anecdotal, but I'm noticing that sales have slowed down a bit, particularly during the week. Myself, I've made my billions, and currently have NO characters with any open bids, or items for sale in the AH. Why? Well, I don't want to make any more characters just to hold inf, and have run out of room in my emails across all four accounts. I even stooped to buy converters to keep my farmers and flippers topped off. Paid less than 70k, too. Now they're all maxed out at 10k converters, poised to strike should the mood strike me. My more active marketing character had a bit of a lull in sales, it took a full week for 300 IOs to sell, contrasting with a couple of days. This is in part due to some competition, as someone deemed that my list price was too high, and they undercut me by 700k. I struggled with this. I have the resources to simply buy them all and relist them at what I deem to be the proper price, but that seems like a bad move. For starters, it fuels this upstart player with more influence to make more IOs and continue to undercut me. Secondly, it isn't the best thing for the community to have a higher price to pay. So, once those IOs sold, I simply stopped. It feels weird. And what's bugging me is it's not taking as long to level a character up, because I'm not crafting, converting, selling. Just plucking what I need from my base as I need it, or buying "now" what I don't have already made, or buying a substitute IO and using my merits to get converters to change the substitute IO into what I actually want. So, I have to wonder about any new player who seeks to market. I think there's still a way to eke out half a billion, if they have an understanding on how the market works, and if they know what to craft and what to list. But, I don't think they can do this in a day anymore, at least, not consistently. Possibly on the weekends. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. It could be fewer players, or maybe the players we have are now finally figuring out how to get what they want without paying my evil prices.

As much as I think the Instanced MSRs are better, if you're wanting more folks, that's not the best path. Even though I avoid MSRs with my sub-35 characters, a LOT of players think any level 1 can show up (I've seen 'em!) and contribute. (I haven't seen the contribution, they're defeated fairly often) Still, it adds to the numbers, and if they're a buff/debuff character, scaled to level 49, if they have some of the key powers, they can be useful.

I feel like I should ask this: On your MSRs on Indomitable, do you allow any level, or just 35 and up?

There's a lot of reasons for a drop in game population. Most of them are things to be excited about. As far as a new game goes, never heard of it. The nasty covid business "Seems" to have waned. The news is showing less and less of it. I could elaborate, but it's not my intention to derail the thread about masks/no masks, vaccine, no vaccine, etc. Because of that, though, more folks are getting back to work. As in - driving to work in the office. And, it's Spring! In my area, it's a beautiful sunny 70 degrees. I have played precisely three missions, lasting about 30 minutes total today. It's just too damn nice to play a game when I could be outside walking, & listening to podcasts of Kristen Bell on Alec Baldwin's "Here's the Thing". I think it was this past weekend, maybe the one before - the donation notice went out, and it closed pretty quickly. I don't see the game going anywhere any time soon. But, as far as indom goes, I like it there. I have two farmers there. I put them there because it's not so populated. I see the calls for MSR and iTrials, but I don't go because there's really no reason to go. Merits? Don't need 'em. XP? Don't need that either. Fun is where you make it. If the mood strikes, I'll go, but the mood rarely strikes. I much prefer lower level stuff, leveling organically and playing various arcs I haven't played in a long time. And because of my work schedule, I am likely to go afk at any time, so I seldom team, except on weekends. Folks don't like it when you join a team and stop mid-mission and then the leaders wanting to go the next mission and my character's still idle. They'd have to kick me, and who wants to be kicked? Over time, I expect more will be leaving the other shards and joining Excelsior and Everlasting. It's just easier (I imagine) to get teamed up. If that's your cup of tea, why not? It's not like the servers look different. I dunno, but maybe there's a way to save an SG file and just port the thing over, contents & inventory and all and just transfer it. (I doubt it, but seems like it should be doable. We can save a costume, why not an sg base?)

I know I'm not alone in this - when you switch alignments, often times your hero event messages turn off - and villain messages turn on. But when you're rogue or vigilante, often times (at least anecdotally) the system messages get confused, and in my case, I'll see a notice about something redside, even though I'm on blue side, but see nothing for blue side.

I am not sure if this badge is a need, or not. But the thought occurred, so here it is. Kraken Paladin Babbage Council War Walker GM (ya don't really have to hunt him..but okay) Adamastor Eochai Jack in Irons Sally Lusca Death Surge Caleb Ghost of Scrapyard Arachnos Flier Jurassik Kronos U'kon Gr'ai Seed of Hamidon All these GMs...once you get 'em all - a nice accolade called "Monster Killer", or something similar. Of these, Kraken, Jurassik, Arachnos Flier are definitely ones you literally have to pay attention to system chat and hunt for. (And hope your alignment changes haven't messed with the notifications) I could make the case that Jack in Irons and Eochai should be included as well, but some swear you can trigger their arrival by facilitating the war between the factions in Croatoa. I'm not convinced of that, but if so, add them. Getting those could get a further badge called Giant Monster Hunter.

I think I've yet to do this on Indomitable and Reunion. I personally prefer waiting to 40% health on Tyrant, as it gives me plenty of time to "stick and move". When we start out with all the lore pets and inspirations...well, it's just over too quickly. Sometimes, Tyrant only gets one round of crackle off, and it's a lot easier for him to "glitch" and not respawn as a tiny version of himself, and it becomes basically a mis-trial.