Ukase

Thanks. Clearly the patch notes are in error then. It clearly states that Rending Flurry will deal additional damage per stack of Blood Frenzy consumed. If it doesn't deal any additional damage, that certainly explains the underperformance, compared the brute - who builds more fury with each attack, making it appear that Frenzy is dishing out more damage to my uneducated eye.

So, you've all heard the discussions before - what's better for this powerset? Scrapper, Brute, Stalker? Tank? So, we have 1000 slots. I still have at least 800 left, so might as well try them all. So, I did the brute savage/shield. It was fun, despite my inability to really grasp how to optimize frenzy. I know some attacks gave more than one of the 5 units of frenzy. I know also that if I ignore Rending Flurry in favor of other attacks, eventually, it gets primed with Frenzy and I can let lose with Rending Flurry. I've tried to sift through combat logs, but as I'm trying, the panacea, perf shifter, etc - they keep firing, and it's kind of difficult to see what's going on, particularly while ensuring my HP isn't decreasing too much. So, I look at City of Data 2.0 to see if I can find more information. And I do! My scrapper is level 29 at the moment, so figured I'd look at level 30 Scrapper. But there's a lot here I just don't "get". +5% Damage for 15.1 seconds...am I reading that properly? I mash all these buttons to get more Frenzy for 5% more damage, and a 6% end discount for 15.1 seconds? (at least when I ding 30) +20 Global Chance Mod for all affected targets for 15.1 seconds. Global chance of what? What I'm trying to determine is not necessarily to be "optimal", because I probably lack the speed to mash buttons in any optimal way. But, all other things the same, I want to be fair in comparing these ATs with the same powersets. Just for my own knowledge. As a rule, I've always found Brutes to not be marginally better, but vastly superior to Scrappers. So, I have to be open to the idea that there are things that scrapper players know that I do not. Is Savage Melee on a Scrapper already been declared runner up? So far, it's underperforming. I got the two ATO sets, and maybe I slotted them in the wrong powers, but Critical hits are very few and far between. Not as reliable as the brute's fury. At least, that's my perception. I want to be fair to the scrapper AT, so if there's something I'm missing, by all means, shed a light please. So, are there any "must read" guides to criticals and scrappers I should read? And..what's the deal with that Global Chance Mod?

This ...guess I'll call it "Level discrimination" does have a reason behind it. And, depending on the player, not saying it's a good reason. At 50, of course, you have incarnate powers - so those are damned handy. But I think more than that, the folks that are forming and asking for 50+ are wanting to do "speedy". To me, speed TF/SFs have two categories: There's "as fast as we can go without killing ourselves", and there's "let's respec our powers specifically for getting through this and set a record." I'd say 90% of speeders are in the former, maybe 5% are in the latter, and 5% only think they're in the former, but are short in either knowledge, skill and/or abilities. I understand these folks who "level discriminate", but at the same time, if they're open to the concept of teaming in the first place - which recruiting suggests they are, they should realize that given the length of destiny durations, it's a bit overkill and not really going to save you that much more time. If a level 40 @STiTcH existed with enhancements outside of a farm, I'd take him over most 50+ players. You can wait another minute for that 50+ or just proceed with the level 40 that's right there, ready to go. Seems like a wash, to me. But, I leave open the notion that they may know something I don't.

Since it's on topic - figured no sense in making a new post. I logged in and saw someone in the help channel having difficulty. This badge is still annoying, but someone has done a lot of work to make it as easy as it can be. River rat locations are found here, using the /loc coordinates, with convenient "Copy" links already provided. On the surface, this may seem too easy - and you'd be right. Some of the locations seem to be obtainable in neighboring zones. The link provided is quite good at laying out the best odds of getting this one with minimal fuss. The servers shut down on us this morning before I could finish helping this player, but maybe he/she visits the forums and can find this link.

I have to agree with this - I make a note on these folks that do this, and am sure to be generous if I see them in the future.

First, to answer your questions - wealth in this game is relative. If they sent you practically a billion inf, then they had it to burn. It was of no consequence to them. Still, if you're determined to never play again, send it back. I had an in-game chat with someone yesterday who never had more than 20M. But, they'd never played a character over level 31, either. Anecdotally, I've sent large amounts to folks who looked like they were enjoying the game and asked good questions about the market, or about blasters. Ice blasters in particular. I don't send "that" much, because my experience tells me it has the opposite of my intended effect. Seems to remove any motivation they had to push through the content. So, it's usually a smaller amount. Many players agree with you on the dreariness of Red side. Fortunately, with Null the Gull, we're not stuck on red side once we complete the arc - we can change alignments instantly. After a time, the only thing that keeps people engaged in this game is the other people you play with, as it doesn't take long to run the new content to the point where you know the story and will find it a bit of a dull time.

It had been a while for me, too. I use Homecoming Badger to track badges. The site lets you "register" multiple characters if your one of our more eccentric folks that want all the badges on all your characters. The data is stored on your own computer. I just used the search function to select Events and went to page two. It is only my opinion, but if you choose to get serious about badge collecting - this site, in conjunction with the PopMenu from @AboveTheChemist found here are two invaluable tools. They are both free to use, aside from the time invested to add the badges you already have to your characters on the Badger site, and the time it takes to explore where your game files are to place the popmenu file in the proper place so it works as intended. As far as the pop-menu goes, since it is an add-on, done by a player, whenever there are new badges entered into the game, you'll want to re-visit these forums and ATC's link to check if and when he/she does the update. Unfortunately, some of our generous players get distracted by real life and may be unable to continue to do these kinds of things. Until then though, I intend to take advantage of their generosity, and suggest everyone else do the same.

The badge awards for completing both arcs.

Relax folks, I was just teasing Yomo. Note the last line where I say I'll change my position. Guess it was funnier in my wee brain.

I only ever pick the shield. There's nothing else in the pool except the Spiderlings which I may choose on certain characters to get an HP boost with 3 purples slotted in. Just a set mule. they're largely useless pets. (to me anway)

You can't be serious. You're telling me - you bid at low/very low prices, then re-list at higher prices? Have you no shame? You have a responsibility to the community to not do such things. There are new players without our deep pockets that could do without the non-value added surcharge. Crafting/converting, I absolutely get. You're spending time, energy etc. But if you're not adding value, then that's quite shameful. Tsk, tsk. And if I've misunderstood, shame on me. But if not, that's really quite disappointing. On the other hand, the folks that loathe the AH so much they can't be bothered to sell something for a proper price, they shouldn't engage with it at all. But those are just my thoughts in this very tiny specific moment in time. Once I finish the post, I will change my position to suit my needs.

I initially did - but I figured it would derail the thread. I had quite a bit and opted to delete it. No sense bringing folks down TOO much with my distaste for the ITF. I completely get that I'm probably one of maybe 5 people that play this game that would rather log off than do ITF. Here's a few of my knocks against it: I use lfg to get there for a pug. Typically, at least one person has no idea how to get there. Then, when they're told, they haven't got it unlocked. I completely get that the unlock is super easy now, once you know how. And it was always super easy before the midnighter badge in the mansion. The arc from Montague is fairly simple. But every damn character had to unlock it back in the day. If I see Percy again, it will be too soon. So, right off the bat, for a pug ITF anyway - there's always several minutes wasted. I thought the older I got, the more patient I would get, but it seems like it's the reverse for me. I hate to wait. I simply see no reason for this to require an "unlock" in any way. Secondly, I play with sound on. When solo, I'll have a podcast playing in the background, usually. But, even then, I have to turn that off and the game sound up to hear glowies. So, I'm used to playing with the game sound on. It also helps me to monitor chat for any tells - that tiny little ping is useful to me. And when I do ITF - those stupid Cims are always screaming. They couldn't have made them actually use words, (which would also get tiresome after a couple hundred runs through it) but the screaming is just annoying. Thirdly, it has a cut scene. After a while, I get tired of sucking the helium out of balloons trying to do voice-overs on Discord. It's old, and tired. And completely unnecessary. I wish it would only be visible once, or once per character..but no. Every time...there it is. Fourth, I'm never quite clear why all the girls in Cim are named Sybil. I thought Sybil was one girl with a dozen personalities, not a bunch of girls who all look and dress alike. I'm also not clear why the girl won't let me in without a key - but she'll let in all those cim traitors? Doesn't make sense to me. Fifth, Sister Solaris is slow. I get that magic can't be rushed, but I guess she's from the South and just talks too damn slow. Sixth, when you're new to it - you can be on a speed run - and die from the cyst exploding when you destroy it if you're not at full health. Fine once you learn this - but I'm still pissed off from learning it the hard way over a dozen years ago. Heck, this can happen just from zipping to the next cyst while someone is tackling one as you pass it. I get why it happens, I just would prefer it not happen to me. I hate to re-toggle. Seventh, 5 generals? Makes sense. Defeat the leaders and the army will lose discipline. So why in the blue hell isn't Requiem labeled as a general? It's just stupid. And it made me feel stupid. We had to clear almost the entire map before we figured that out when it came out. Like over 2 hours for the whole TF back in the day. The merit rewards were and remain insufficient if you kill most/all. Barely passable on a 10 minute speed run. Further, on the last mission, it's not clear which AV Nictus is which if you lose target mid-fight. All those AV Nictus look alike to me. They should be labeled differently. Wait...is it Nicti? I dunno. Lastly, and this is a minor issue, but I remember vividly when it first came out. I was literally on my ill/rad controller called Imperious Rex. Yes, that's right, I had the character name, lawfully stolen from the profane utterings of Namor, the Sub-Mariner from Marvel Comics long before ITF became a reality. It certainly pissed me off. The Paragon Devs stole my name for that KB fool, Imperious in the TF. Worse, they made him stupid. So, to be fair, it had a knock against it before it started. That was back when my global was @Ukase Rex. Here on HC, I opted to drop the Rex. And I've let them keep Imperious, even though I stole the name first. My favorite TF is Apex, and really, the only fun part is dodge ball with the blue patches. That's the only reason it's my favorite. Stick and move. Other than the Magisterium and to a degree, fighting Protean and Nosferatu, these are the more enjoyable mechanics in the game for me. The timing of attacks is a lot of fun to me. No long animations until after the patch, the crackle, the smite from Nosferatu, that red absorbing patch from Protean, that Will of the Earth swirl from Underground, the hug for the blue patch, avoidance for the red patch in Mother Mayhem iTrial...that's the kind of thing I enjoy. ITF has nothing but stand here and mash buttons. It's mindless. If that's what you like, or are in the mood for, that's great, but you just stand there and mash buttons. There's no thinking required once you've done it a few times. Boring, boring, boring. No need to run, no need to hide, no need to be careful. With a team of any competence, it's all but impossible to be defeated. (except for running by a Cyst when a teammate is killing it before you notice it as you run by) Now I feel badly for pointing all these things out - because invariably someone will try to argue why these things I don't enjoy - they love. That's really good. I'm glad for them. But ITF is really just a snoozefest for me. If I run it again...it'll be too soon. Only for the weekly notice. Certainly not for the merits. Maybe for someone else to use the helium for the voice-over during the cut-scene. Yeah, maybe that. But that's about the only reason. It needs something special in it to make it fun, and there's really nothing in it that does it for me.

Fixed that for you. ITF isn't fun for ME. You can go nuts on it if you like, I will avoid it unless it's the weekly.

I think I'm gonna hurl. I hate ITF.

Umm....I can't say every day, but since the change to 0XP/2xINF, the price of Lotg 7.5% has dropped (at least when I look) from routine 7-8M to routine 6-7M. I haven't seen it at a consistent 8M since then. Every now and then, sure. But mostly 6-7m. I've definitely seen pvp IOs drop a good bit...but only in spurts. Not consistently.

Um...I don't obey any suggestion with profanity, despite emoticons. Use proper words or you lose the argument.

On the one hand, I see the point. Not everyone is like me, with different tanks that have different strengths & weaknesses. If I am going to tank Recluse, it would never occur to me to bring a fire tank. I mean, it just wouldn't. There are so many other armors that are better suited to the task, so I'd just bring one of those. I am curious, how one of my fire/ice tanks would fare, they've got pretty good resists across the board. And ultimately, I'd kite Recluse anyway. (is that still a thing? I think so. It's been ages since I've tanked LR.) And I use Glad Armor in a number of the armors, plus the kb protection, as well as six slotted Overwhelming Force. So, he doesn't get KB'd, except very rarely. Still, I'd love to free up the slots for something different. I mean, Fire tanks are fun. In fact, for me, more fun than any of the others. Something about burn that just makes the weaker resists/defense, lack of DDR worth it to me. But, not everyone is gonna think of it the way I do. I just wonder..if you re-tool this for Fiery Armor - what's the offset? That's what scares me. If they keep changing things, the games not going to the same game. And that is my concern.

Rubbish.

Glad I could help. For the rest of you folks - I strongly encourage you to recognize what the name "Snarky" means. If you find yourself getting riled, look at the name again, and chuckle. One last thing about the MSR. I had a brute and respec'd it specifically to pursue vg merits in AE. I had thought that if I was going to afk farm, I might as well get vg merits as well as all the other goodies while I was at it. From an efficiency perspective, my spines/fire outperforms it in fire maps. From a vg merit perspective, the number of vg merits earned are ...well, quite unremarkable. I can't recommend it. Someone else may have better luck, but I seriously doubt it. Even if I were to have somehow kayoed 10x as many for 10x as many vg merits, it still wouldn't have gotten me as much as an MSR. It did, however, defeat a poke in the eye on the satisfaction meter. Hedgefund, whom I find myself terribly upset with because he has a better name than I do, stated that the MSR is the only way to get those rewards. Well, technically, he was incorrect, but the spirit of his comment is true. You're just not going to get 800 to 1500 vg merits (I always got more vg merits in the zone msrs than the instanced, but that may have been because on Excelsior, Apparition's MSRs didn't have a full league at the time. ) in 30 minutes doing anything else. You might get a few hundred in an hour doing missions, but you're just not going to beat an MSR for VG merit gain. There is no substitute.

The problem with this question is the answers are going to be different for just about anyone you ask. There are a few common threads, though. Don't worry about your impact. Play what you will enjoy playing. The beauty of CoH has always been about the ability to change your character; that is, to log off one character and begin to play another. It can be catching. They call it alt-itis, as if it were some sort of disease to be cured, but that's not the case. We have 1000 slots in this flavor of CoH. Make several versions of the same character if you wish, and as you train, perhaps choose different powers, or slot them differently. Whatever floats your figurative boat. It can be said that there are a collection of players whose characters can simply stand in the middle of npcs and withstand whatever aggro they dish out without fear of defeat. Some of these players cannot dish out enough damage to defeat the npcs, though. Some can. Some blasters can simply nuke them, kill them all in a couple of seconds - IF they don't get stunned or mezzed and die quickly. Some can mitigate the mez more easily and still nuke them quickly. All of these players can do what they do, with or without you. Might as well be with you. I've only seen ONE jerk in this game who is specific about which AT/Powerset combo they'll accept onto their teams. And often, this same jerk literally quits mid-task force/trial, if there are players who do not read his mind and do what he wants them to do. He knows what to do, I think. But he doesn't relay his expectations to the team. As a result, half the team has no clue what to do on some occasions, and they fail. So, you wouldn't want to team with this guy, or guys like him anyway. Nobody's going to complain about the buffs/heals you give. 90% of us are too focused on the task at hand to even notice any other player. We may notice if you are lagging behind. We may notice if you go on your own path. But if you're with the majority, nobody will notice that you're not attacking, but just buffing/debuffing/healing. That said, if nobody needs to be healed, and the buffs haven't worn off, it would be proper to have an attack chain ready to use, and to use them.

Not a bit. The notion that someone just goes afk for 30 minutes should disappoint everyone who's actually playing their characters. Why should they get free xp/merits and do nothing but put one power on auto? Add to that - if you're on a team with several of those folks - your own rewards will be less for your trouble. It ain't right.

This isn't entirely true. You don't have to participate in the MSR to get this badge. Let the msr form, sit back, let the league clear pylons, then you have 30 minutes to simply fly over head, drop down into the bowl while solo, in the midst of all the chaos with all those team buffs going on, so you'll be fine. Check your chat box for the badge system message, then hop out and go about your merry way.

Oh my! Anecdotally, when anyone one player clicks on a bomb, nobody else on that team can do so until 30 minutes has elapsed. Keep in mind, there are 18 total grates that contain a bomb in them. So, if a team of 8 were to click 8 bombs, that still leaves 10 more grates with bombs in them. If nobody on your team has clicked - go for it. Fortunately, if someone on your team has clicked, you do get credit towards that bomb click badge. In some cases, if you time it just right, you can get 2 clicks per MSR. I completely understand the frustration though! For every player I encounter that seems to "get it", and play with competence and civility, there's another couple of folks that are just in it for their own brand of fun, regardless of how that impacts with other players. As for MSRs, I can only think of 3 reasons to do them. The merits. The social chatter. The badges. Once you get the badges, the merits become less desirable. It's particularly maddening when you learn you have to do the msr one more time because your team didn't do at least 10% of the damage to get credit for the GM kill. And, a peeve of mine has always been the folks who go to a different pylon instead of sticking together as a league. I get called petty for wanting those extra VG merits, and I'll take that label. I want 'em all! Another annoying thing is the folks that go afk during it because they can. Put a power on auto-fire, target through an HVAS and come back in 30 minutes. What kills me is some are what I consider friends in this game, and it lessens my opinion of them a tiny bit. On one hand, I get it. It's dull, routine, and nobody seems to have an issue with it, so why not? Add to that, while it's been a good while since I've heard it, there used to be a loud minority who thought/(still think?) that stealth impacted spawns of Rikti. I've yet to see any proof of this, but I've no idea how to effectively test it. And ultimately, as someone once told me, "If they think it's true, then it's true for them. What's to be gained by proving them wrong?" There's always the instanced MSR that @Apparition does. App used to do them on Excelsior, and for whatever reason, now does them on Torch. Hey, we get 5 free transfers a week. Wouldn't be a problem for me to switch servers if I wanted to do an instanced one. In those cases, everyone is at least level 35, so while some folks might still do the afk-thing, there's a lot less chance of needless team wipes because someone wanted to PL their character in an msr instead of a farm. Or, could always just host one yourself. There's less lag in those - at least, that's my understanding. I don't get lag in either one, so I can't say.

I should say, I don't dislike all of them. But, for me, here are my reasons, specifically against dual blades. I like the idea of the game pointing out an optimal attack chain. The problem is - in my builds, anyway, I run into using the initial attack (no circles to tell me which to use first), then, a second. Then I get a circled clue, mash that, then the 4th circled is ready, I do that, and then the next attack is ready, and then..the next attack is not recharged. By the time it does recharge, it's no longer circled. Additionally, I haven't paid attention to the specific numbers, but these attack chains do not seem optimal. I seem to get higher dps from different attack chains. So what good are they if they aren't a clear benefit? Premise: The combo mechanic (for dual blades, anyway) will ALWAYS be limited the way CoH is played presently. ALWAYS. Why? Because it's depending on slotting. It's relying on the player to slot for recharge, rather than some other attribute. And even if you do, it's sometimes not enough recharge anyway. Sometimes, you have to opt for defense & resist over recharge, but a lot depends on what you're fighting and your playstyle, and your secondary armor choice. But if I'm just going off of feedback from the game - (do I have enough endurance? do I have enough defense? etc) - then I'm not always going to choose recharge to get that attack up and ready on queue. Now, if each power's detailed info gave specific details on how much recharge was needed for a given power to be ready to fire, then perhaps I'd use the set more. A thousand cuts is a hoot to fire off in the midst of a mob. But, when the circled attacks aren't ready to fire when called for, it just fills me with frustration, and I'll soon log and choose something that doesn't rely on this stupid gimmick. I call the gimmick stupid because clearly, I'm too lazy/stupid to do the math to determine the proper route. But, should I really have to? It's the game's combat mechanic. If it's relying on recharge to use it properly, the detailed info tab for the attack should reveal the recharge required, or alternatively, adjust the damage from the attack accordingly. If used in 1 second - it deals X damage. If used in 2 seconds, it deals 2X damage, 3 seconds 3X damage, etc. Of course, X should be some low scale value, with a cap of some higher value, so it's not taking unfair advantage. But, hey, that's just my thoughts on it, since you asked the question. As for Savage melee, I kind of like it...but I would prefer it give some notification beyond the icon in the buff bar. I was probably level 25 before I even knew what it was. I had seen no indication that I was building any kind of frenzy. Fury, yes. Frenzy? Those icons didn't really make themselves noticeable to me. And some attacks don't seem to give an icon at all. I just use Blood Thirst as a build up and don't really worry about building Frenzy.

So, this can be a bit of a rabbit hole, if we're not careful. The math says that if it's YOUR characters, it can pay to have them on the same map. It is true that each character doesn't get as much inf or xp when teamed as when solo - when looking at a per mob basis. Examples were given earlier in this thread to illustrate this fact. So, if they're both your accounts, if the mood strikes you, put one on follow to the other and burn the baddies as you see fit. It may be worth your while to tab in/out to the alt to make use of Destiny/Judgement buffs, if that's your cup of tea. I honestly can't be bothered, I'm an afk type guy. I don't care how fast the map clears. I make more from the drops than from the inf from the kills. As far as best pairing? Don't fix what's not broken. You can go with a pair of spines/fire, a pair of rad/fire, or one of each. They're pretty much the same. That's the beauty of the fire farmer. In that environment, there's no need to complement it with anything. It's good solo. Put burn on auto and walk away.