Ukase

Nah. The comment about the extra % was just another silly thing to point out. I keep wondering how I might react if I were spending $15 a month to play this game. But I ain't, so I'll come here and be silly from time to time.

So, you are somewhat accurate here - and, like it or not, this is by design. Good ol' Jack Emmert who used to run the show was quoted as saying (paraphrased): The only reason to play is to team up. We hear/read how folks who play blasters are sometimes stymied by a lack of status protection. Scrappers are sometimes stymied by lower resist caps/HP and kb from errant blasters and pets. Tankers are sometimes stymied by a lack of dps on hard targets. The list goes on. Consider an ill/rad controller. A bit awkward leveling. But, as fantastic as perma-pa is, if you get held/stunned without a breakfree at the wrong time, your PA won't be perma because you can't execute the power. Everything in game is sort of like rock-paper-scissors. This is better than that. That is better than those. Those are better than this. So - what do you do? You have to change your mindset, or you're just not going to be happy. Or, you can roll a fire tank. A fire tank has plasma shield, which provides status protection. (combined with a blessing of the zephyr kb protection in your travel power) A fire tank has consume - which refills the endurance bar. A fire tank has burn. A fire tank isn't a mastermind. A fire tank, built properly (and not for a farm) can be durable. But, even a fire tank isn't going to allow you to just stroll into a mob of 0/4 malta if you don't do something with the sappers first. Leveling, you'll have a rough time satisfying all 5 criteria on your list. But, once you get your epic/patron powers, you can get access to a hold (or stone secondary with seismic smash) to dispatch sappers before they zap you. Sappers require proactive solutions. You can't just be oblivious to what they do. The only powerset that might be able to handle it are those with defenses high enough that the sapper will miss, or the attack is mitigated through debuff resistances, like Super Reflexes. But that's a resistance; not a protection. Sadly, if there are multiple sappers, and you're solo - you're in a tough spot. You can smash one, char the other, maybe. Or you can use tp foe and just grab one sapper. There's a number of ways to solve the problem - but most of these methods are not seamless or eloquent. And some aren't perfect. But, you can practice them. There's always going to be a solution - and sometimes that solution is a different AT/powerset combo, and sometimes, that solution is as simple as a large luck inspiration, or a 2nd wind insp. Or - you can do what so many have done - avoid Malta. It's very easy to do.

I participated yesterday. It was a good bit of fun. These guys are not into sprinting, be warned! They are more long-distance runners with a lot of stamina. I had to beg off at just a smidge over 2 hours. I just can't sit still that long. I had to break and do something physical for a while. They have an SG base you can join, and it's small, ergo efficient and doesn't give you lag when you enter. (Cosmic Council's base, while very detailed and huge tends to make my characters pause for about 2 seconds before I can even move)

So, a bit of this post is silly, and self-deprecating. Like many people, the idea of reading everything when playing a game just isn't always convenient. Some times, I'm teaming, and even though nobody has barked an order to hurry up, I feel badly not being present for the action. It's probably some distorted sense of self-importance that feels like my team would miss my knowledge, skills and abilities if I'm gone more than a minute trying to level up. Lately, I've been choosing powersets that I either have zero experience with, or dated/very little experience with. Mental manipulation secondary is one of these sets. While I love the idea of zipping into melee and using Drain Psyche and seeing recovery and regen numbers spike, there's always been a slight nagging in my brain about having to take the risk of going into melee just to get some sustenance, compared to other powersets who don't necessarily need to take that risk. Still, risk vs. reward, right? If the slotting is right, and the mob count is right, you can mitigate a fair amount of that risk. Wouldn't it be great if, when I'm solo, there were a way to further mitigate that risk? Glad you asked! There is. Probably a number of different ways! But, for the purpose of this post, I bring up the topic of Psychic Shockwave. A convenient, easy to use AoE. What? AoE, you say? A radius of 15 feet, 50% larger than Drain Psyche's 10 foot radius. (I hate English sometimes. 10 feet radius? 10 foot radius? It's more than one foot..nvm. Someone will take this too seriously and try to teach me grammar. ) So, At level 41, having had this power since level 28, NOW I decide to try and determine just why these mobs aren't getting stunned as they should be. Clearly, the power description, the slotting - all make it pretty clear this power is supposed to stun all but the stronger foes, right? Wrong! Apparently this power only gives a chance to stun. Here it is, for our convenience, the exalted detailed info tab: See at the top? "Foe Disorient" See the fine print below? 25% chance for a 2 mag stun. Apparently, I have wasted my 400k inf in slotting stuns in this power. May as well slot for dps. I am on a blaster. Not sure what +4.00%% means. I mean, 4.00%, that I can grasp. But what is 4.00%%? An extra symbol by mistake? Part of that new math that came in after I got out of school? No idea. Probably an error. So, I give you all this wall of text (with a picture!) just to say - don't be like me. READ. READ EVERYTHING!

Another thing you might try - which does work - monitor your damage bonus via combat attributes. You'll see the 100% spike in damage displayed (added to whatever your damage bonus is without it)

I just helped a lazy tanker today who had my favorite map. (didn't know it when I helped them) They had a timed mission, and they had 5 hostages to rescue. It is the same city map where Dr. Calvin is always being held hostage and needs to be rescued, in the Tina MacIntyre arc. They were given 90 minutes, and they were asking for help after 15 minutes, thus the lazy label, lol. The reason this is my favorite is even though I know the map, there's usually a point where I have to open my map and think of where I haven't looked yet. And for certain characters, I can up the difficulty and gain a lot of xp if that's the mood I'm in.

Just anecdotally - to me, it's a strange thing to do a respec before 50. I don't understand why it's immediately required. But, they had their reasons.

I actually took infiltration on a new character. I was enjoying it - until I realized the Kismet 6% bonus wouldn't work if the power wasn't on. I was going to keep it - but I had to dedicate two slots just for end reduction in it to keep it running during combat, so I respec'd out of it. Glad it works for some of you. I'll stick with my CJ & SS combo for now.

So, I really don't have much of a clue as to what kind of cards you're referring to - so I'm not likely to be of any use. The only thing I have is Manticore figurine and a Statesman card. Is the Statesman card the kind of thing you're looking for? If not, I'm useless to you.

You don't seriously expect me to give Snarky material for the forums, do you? In all seriousness, Snarky is a great teammate when you're on discord. He doesn't enjoy my jokes, which is why he's invaluable. I thrive on his suffering.

For the most part, I think this is not always true - but mostly true. I keep getting peeved when I see the term "blapper", as any blaster will go into melee fairly often. It's a useless term. You can call yourself a blapper if you like, but you'll be a blaster in my eyes. Think about the mental manipulation secondary. Blasters with this powerset are in melee at least every 30-45 seconds just to get their endurance rate up. The idea that a blaster was designed to play at range is simply inaccurate. While it's certainly safer to be at range, melee is where the action is for fire blasters with fire sword circle and Inferno. For an ice blaster with the targeted Blizzard, cast relatively safely from a difference - and a couple of ranged holds...this powerset for a blaster is much better designed for range play. But, it still gets a few melee attacks, because, like it or not, you're either going to be proactive and go into melee, or melee is going to come to you. Energy secondary is hilarious. Talk about mind games. All those KB powers designed to confuse the player. Am I melee or ranged? They come near, I attack, now they're 40 feet away. There's a synergy there to take advantage of, if you're solo, or aren't teamed with fussy scrappers who hate to use the F key (and I get it). But sacrificing a slot just to knock something down when that slot could be used for more damage, accuracy and recharge...um...no. I'll use the Overwhelming force damage/kb to kd in almost every build if I can. I'll never use Sudden Acceleration's KB to KD unless I'm chasing the 6th bonus of that set. (A whole 'nother topic there) Sorry, I'm being too wordy, as usual. In short, range and melee are both good modes of play, but doing both is working with the sets you get, whereas only doing one or the other is kind of going against the grain of the design of the AT and the powersets. Maybe a Sentinel is a better fit for some of us. No shame in that. I cannot play every blaster powerset very well. Great at ice, and energy and fire. Okay at water. Suck at dark and time.

So...when the page 5 changes hit...it took me a while to adjust. I was irritated to the point where I just stopped farming altogether. Then, after a brief break, I revisited the problem. The problem was me. I was so focused on the solution to afk I had implemented, I was just convinced it should still work, but it didn't. I would read these posts about how for AFK, a tank was the better choice. Yeah. Sure. Maybe for what your goals are, go ahead. My goal has nothing to do with speed. It's afk. It could take all day to clear a map, and that'd be okay. My primary goal is to accrue emp merits for my alts so I can t-3 them when they ding 50 in short order, rather than suffer the fickle rng reward table. Some time ago, a friend shared with me something he thought was ingenious - and I thought so to. Rescue an NPC, and follow it. The rescue is done by burn on auto. The F key for follow is pressed just before you tab out, with the hostage needing rescue being the one to follow. It was a stone tank - before the changes to stone took place, so it went very slow, which was perfect. Plenty of time for burn and the damage aura to dispatch all the npcs that would invariably march by as the freed hostage made its way to the entrance. It was the Atta map, so there were a number of obstacles, and after trying various things, like hovering low to the ground to minimize this, I basically decided I'd just have to tab back in every so often and set the farmer on the right path, if it got obstructed. With the page 5 changes, you could still do this, but with the -def changes that never appeared for me in the combat log, it was just death waiting on me when I would return. Regen and HP were the keys. And still trying to keep recharge up. So, this was a problem I didn't have the patience to solve. I mean, I don't really need the emp merits, as before page 5, I had accrued a nice stack of t-merits for the next dozen or so alts. And then, I was bored or something and I think I wanted to grab something from the farmer's salvage, maybe some catalysts. No matter - it got me misty eyed, thinking of this fantastic farmer that I had actually leveled up outside of the farm. It already had the 4 passive accolades, because all my 50's that I play get those as just a matter of course. I saw the build that America generously shared for the rad/fire brute. I made a 2nd farmer. and the poor first farmer stalls at vet level 2780. Almost 5 years old. I had never thought to take it into AE when I made it. See the technology origin? That was going to be for freakshow, and I'd planned to utilize the SO drops as I leveled up - and I did - because I didn't have the big stacks of inf I have now. I adapted to the ridiculously implemented end sappers that were suddenly out in the wild because of these folks who I can only tangentially relate to on alternate weekends thought they needed more challenge in the game - and that's a whole 'nother topic. And, finally, I have adapted to the new way of AFK farming for Spines/Fire brutes. Screw the tanks and their piss poor damage. Yes, you need to hp accolades. But for me - I get those anyway. I give you an imperfect, but certainly acceptable spines/fire build for +4/8 afk farming (the map I use doesn't have EBs. EBs do not help me reach my goals at any greater rate. No promises are made about maps with EBs.) If I can trust that the map 44188 (bloodom's 40 minute map) has "100% XP", then this build works - most of the time. More often than not - I do not tab back in to see a corpse. I see purples, threads and emp merits. The ridiculous idea of putting a set of purples in brawl and boxing are set aside, sacrificing that bit of recharge for more fire defense. If you care to use it, feel free. If you want to nitpick, go ahead. I won't listen, because it's working for what I want it to do. I'm sure there are "better builds". But this build is perfect for me for right now. SpinesfireBrute - Brute (Spines - Fiery Aura).mbd

First, I want to thank you for sharing. I was beginning to think it was just Snarky who had experiences like this. This is just my first thought: too bad you had a rough time of it. My second thought: Glad I can afford Summons from the newly re-named START vendor so I can solo these if I feel like it. I think with the influx of newer players, unless we only solo or play with folks we know, we're ALL going to experience things like this every so often, if not more frequently. Team play can be challenging to do well for a lot of people. Some teams have leaders who recruit and never say anything to actually lead. Some teams have players who genuinely don't know, or don't care about any impact their play will have on your enjoyment. Last night, I was watching a 2*LGTF over Discord. And while I can certainly understand each side in a minor debate, there was a moment where a tank was a little frustrated because they couldn't get a Feral Kraken to move - because it was immobilized by fire cages and perhaps some tenebrous tentacles. And, for those that have done advanced LGTF, if there's a Suit about to die, it can be important to position targets and the team itself to more opportunistic areas. To their credit, they got through it unscathed, but it raised some teaching moments for all parties involved. Unfortunately, unless someone takes the time to type stuff out, nobody is going to learn anything. I have been on teams like this, where one or more are going off, doing their thing. I have no problems typing. Just look at this wall of words I've typed already! Me: It may be a good idea to not click the glowies until we've dealt with Clamor and her cronies. We might be able to handle the ambush, but why risk it? I pretty much say that during every Yin I've done since I learned it was the glowies that triggered the ambush. I've only had one team say, "We can handle it". And we did. Heck, we were all fifties, I think. Or mostly 50s. So, yeah, we should be able to handle that. Still, proactive communication - done in such a way where your preferences are posed as suggestions instead of mandates generally go well. Just my two inf. Thanks again for sharing. Sorry you had a rough one.

So, in the spirit of transparency, I suppose it depends on what you're doing, but I did ensure my character had the best it could afford - which because of an affinity for buying low and selling high, was as good as I could get. And I didn't raise the difficulty until 24. And even then it was just +1. But by 28, it was +2, and at 31 it was +3. I waited until 38, I think and found I could survive +4, but it took too long. But it was nice not to whiff like many of my characters do - with an ability to boost accuracy AND ToHit. The "immediate" respec, it was annoying, like every other respec. Mainly because of the timing. There was a TF I'd wanted to get in on, but I didn't want to run around untrained. Still, it was a lot of fun, the bane.

I saw a "Wafer Thin Mint" a few days ago. I chuckled. My concern is they make an evil alter ego Mr. Creosote. Sadly, our huge characters aren't quite huge enough, but that might be a bit too close to the IP of Monty Python.

Hey, can you elaborate on this? Is there a spreadsheet or something you used? Don't mean to be a pita, just curious as to what the method of testing was. And like..what does difficulty 13 even mean?

For me, buffs don't matter...until they do. For the most part, any buff that makes a stat "blue" or caps an attribute that I don't have capped without buffs...I just love that. So, an emp with fort or AB, a kin with fulcrum shift, or a cold with the ice shield + frostwork...all that stuff is great. But the one buff I like more than any other is Adrenaline Boost. So, yeah, I get that a dark/dark is going to be more valuable for harder content in most cases. But, I still love me some AB.

This is part of the reason why most folks afk after putting a ranged attack on auto-fire through their HVAS. To avoid this kind of thing. I will confess - I do tend to bore people with the absolute worst dad jokes I can find on the internet during an MSR, but only if it seems like folks could use a break from the silence. To the OP - you mention it was your first MSR. Congrats! For your next one, I encourage you to listen to some AC/DC Thunderstruck as you whack into a rikti or three. Then, once the GM is down, press the C key on your keyboard. The need for instructions is over. All you have left to do is endure the 30 minutes until the shields go back up. You can just fight or buff with reckless abandon (to a degree - you should still stay near or in the bowl unless you're a tank or brute, or an epic utilizing some buffs to keep you moving). But there's no need to let the chatter of others ruin your fun. When the shields go up, you can press C and the chat box comes back up. Your odds of missing anything important are very low. Alternatively - you can create a tab that displays private messages and keep THAT chat box open in case someone has something to tell you, specifically. and then press C to close the league chat, leaving your Direct Message tab open. I'd say ignore the folks who are doing the foul speaking, but that might take too long, and the ol' ignore button is kind of a last resort (at least it is for me)

This was very much appreciated!

So, the sad part is - as far as I know - without using the wiki, or asking someone, there's no way to definitively KNOW which offering is the start of an arc, and which is the start of some random repeatable mission. But here's a clue: As mentioned previously, there's that blue text - which USUALLY indicates a story arc. But, in this case, it's a badge mission. Maria Jenkins will trip you up in a similar fashion with her offering of a mission to defeat Marauder. It's got that nifty blue text, but it's not an arc with multiple missions. It's just for a badge. Ultimately, I think the best way to know is to use the HC Wiki. I think most players tend to have that site, along with City of Data, open when they play.

I think on the plus side for infiltration, you can at least slot for end reduction. I know when I'd be getting to level 7 or 8, leaving ninja run on, I'd be running out of endurance if I got into a scrape with some hellions and forgot to turn it off.

So, in all seriousness - brawl is great, right out of the gate - unslotted. You'd never think a character can get Cataclysmic badge from brawl, but that is how it is done the fastest. (arguably) Now, when I say in all seriousness, I'm being serious. But I'm not being entirely transparent. I use it in Mender Remiel's first mission to smack AVs until they're at 70-75% health, then switch to a different AV, and hopefully, the first one will have regen'd enough for me to continue. Certain farm builds will use brawl (and boxing) as set mules for faster recharge. Who'd of thunk you'd see a set of Absolute Amazement in brawl? Not me. But I have seen it. As for infiltration, I think the folks that take it are likely the same folks that are perfectly fine with ninja run or a jet pack as their travel power. And if it works for them, great.

Just so you folks know - I made another 40M overnight just by selling 20 insps. Again, this morning, just one super team red left. Granted, 40M is small change for some of us, but I feel badly getting this much when I'm not asking that much. And I don't even have to convert anything. Would love to see some competition here, so my lowbies can spend a million, fill up their trays with supers and blow through some content faster than otherwise.

a tip I read from one of Nemu's posts - proc that arctic breath. It's amazing all by itself.

I thought for sure I put a response to this and looked through it and didn't see one. According to the poll, I'm in the top 2.27%. Each character I have, unless I'm leveling the character up (they start with zero, usually) will have 1B on hand. Emails each have 1 inf shy of 1B across multiple accounts. Because we can only hold 100 emails, I had to make another account because I just don't have the creativity to make a character to specifically hold inf, and the email is 100X more convenient than logging a character off, then back on to access the funds. The reason for the holding only 1B, is if they hold more, then I have to work with the AH or another character to do something with the inf on hand to grab the email. As far as contests go, I might stop and watch, but I rarely even think about participating. If I were to win, it would take the prize from someone who likely would need it more than me. Now, if you have a contest offering 100B, maybe I'll think about it.