Ukase

Yes, indeed.

You're just one Sentinel. If you select that power, you'll have a 2nd Sentinel with you. And that one cannot be targeted, so you can get their aggro. Sounds like a fun afternoon!

I recall a player, level 37 dinged 38 in a Yin. They proceed to leave the mission before it's even done because they really want their epic armor. I suggested they could wait because they won't be able to use it until the TF is over. My mistake. They quit at that moment. People like this are why my squirt gun has no more water in it, and I can no longer effectively lead teams. I mean, I can still lead them. Just not effectively. I mean, how can I do that with an empty squirt gun?

The CoHBible? Sure that wasn't written by Nemesis?

Another method to get these is to tackle the buds after you defeat the weakened hamidon in LGTF. Most folks don't bother with them because they're in a rush - and who can blame them as that TF is needlessly lengthy enough (imo). But most players will help you defeat them if you mention it at the beginning, and again as that mission starts. Some folks will invariably exit anyway, but that will be there problem at that point.

Well bummer, but thanks for the replies.

That incarnate story arc in Dark Astoria for Praetor Duncan...where you have to escort her to Dominatrix...and she's so slow and whiny, zipping to that point, then getting her to follow, and poof, mission complete (once you exit).

So, this isn't a suggestion. I am making it feedback, as I've no other way to describe it. I was able to get a silly name, and in my efforts to goof off, I've begun using aspects of the game that I've never used before, or at least, not to this extent. I sought to get a Santa cap on my character, but it took away all of the character's hair. This seems...odd. I don't recall using a hat before, or if I did, I either didn't care, or didn't notice. But my character has some hair, I'm sure of it. (in the previous costume, she was wearing a surgical cap as well as some detail 2 configuration that made her appear somewhat like she was wearing a nun's habit...of sorts. In any event, it seems to me the costume creator shouldn't allow a hat to remove a characters hair. I'm sure there's some sort of limitation with the creator that causes that, but it could very well be user error. And that's where the feedback comes in. Shouldn't the interface ask me if I want to keep the hair in addition to the hat? I have no expectations that anyone should lose sleep over this. I'm just curious if this is user error, and if so - shouldn't there be some method that's more apparent to do something like this? I imagine it's fairly common.

You're talking nonsense man. Or, you're not reading my post, or you're just having some fun. All of that is fine - but this proves my point. YOU may put a "reliable Force Feedback mule in Dragon Tail, but not everyone will. If they don't, stands to reason there's a lot of other things they don't do that you might do. So, clearly, you're talking about a more specific case of what AT/powerset combo is best for YOU. Please try not to confuse newer players who may not realize the imprecision you're offering here as wisdom. It's just preference - which is super cool. I get it, but I like fire/fire and fire/ma more than rad/ma, as far as tanks go. And that's not thinking of the AE farm environment, but all environments from banished pantheons, to nemesis to arachnos. (although, if it weren't for fire's super fast heal, those damned awakened would be groups I'd avoid. Those guys can hurt you quick if you're not careful. ) I love shield/mace on a tank. It has the satisfying crunch of mace, with the satisfying opener of Shield Charge. It's super fun! I probably could squeeze a little more out of my build. The character is a few years old, and I've learned some things between then and now. For my time, Offense: Fire/ice blaster - I like TA as a secondary on a corruptor. But not for a blaster. It has it's merits, clearly. But for me, ice is nice. And Fire/ice is awesome. Defense: Shield/Mace Tank - for me, it's just a lot more fun than Rad anything. No charge, no fun. So, in some cases, I like Electric Armor, too, if I want a resist based armor. Support: Fire/Natty corruptor...corruptor over defender because Scourge. Sometime the best defense is a good offense. These are my own preferences. I dare not cast any illusions they are best of anything, particularly given how obtuse I can be on the battlefield. But fire/ice, particularly for advanced mode is just about as good as you're gonna get. At least, that's what loc told me, and he's way smarter than me.

I blame early onset rigor mortis. (look up Andy Huggins for the humor in that)

There are flaws in the logic from the start. First, while Fire/TA is a fine combo, there's zero evidence to suggest your scientific study is valid or even statistically significant. Where is this study? What is the evidence? Rad armor for the best defense? Nonsense. Best survival? Maybe...but it all depends on how a player builds it and slots it, right? There are no hard fast rules for "This is best in class", because people build their characters differently. Now, it could be that you may have an affinity for a certain AT/powerset combination and can really make them shine. And if that is the case, great. But can you also make a fire/ice tank shine? No DDR with the fire tank, but if you build it with 104% s/l resist, haven't you essentially built in 14% ddr? (That's always been my understanding) Your assumption on the DP/Time Defender being best support is in my estimation so dependent on the player to make the assertion ridiculous. There is no best. There are some fantastic players that have excellent manual dexterity with incredible out of the box (and in the box, too) thinking that can make the worst look amazing. And sadly, there are players that can take what most would agree be an awesome build and play it like it's trash - because they're distracted, or it's not that important to them, or they lack the experience or understanding of what they should be doing. What are you really after here?

I was not raised in a barn. I was raised in a small village in Greece without plumbing. So, my manners aren't that good by default. I have to work on it. So forgive me for being late in thanking you all for your insights.

Short answer: Devastation or Gladiator Javelin. Usually Glad Javelin. A lot depends on the character. Usually, my blasters will spend a fair amount of time using secondary attacks in melee. On those characters, I'll want to look specifically for more Hitpoints. The Devastation set gives a bit of HP, 2.25%. Not the 3% that apoc will, but that's as close as I can get. The plan is to use unslotters to take the Devastations out and replace with apocs when I ding 50. If the character is a particularly greedy for endurance type, I'll use the Glad Javelin set, which is really got a lot of bonuses I like - but it's just a shame the proc is not very good in a power that recharges in 4 seconds.

omg, @AboveTheChemist!! The https://n15g.github.io/badger/homecoming site has been updated! This had to be a chore, and I cannot overstate how much I use this and appreciate it!

Our forums, particularly older patch notes can be a chore to find. I often have to refer to HC Wiki and look for an external link, or use Google. But, I am successful in at least finding where the listing for invention salvage was. Here. It's hard to put into words everything this change did to my brain. Mercenary or not, I was selling rare salvage. Not a lot, just the 40 or so pieces I had from the random drops from a merit vendor - back when I really didn't know even a fraction of what I know now about marketing. I was not in the habit of looking at patch notes, nor was I "Plugged in" with the actual smart people who read that stuff before they log in, I imagine. It took me completely by surprise, and yeah, it pissed me off, because I had to pull all those pieces of salvage and either keep them and lose the listing costs, or relist them, and it would be tough to know where the price for rare salvage would settle at. I kept them. I figured eventually, I'd use them. But the reward merit costs for them was more than I want to think of. At the time, before this change, it seemed like a smart idea. Or, at least a familiar one. I knew from retail spending 2M for a rare salvage was fairly normal. As I said, it took my by surprise. As a result, I got a little crazy with the farming and marketing and did so many different things, as I had no idea what else they were going to change in the future. And it wasn't immediately clear to me where to find out. For whatever reason, when I would visit the HC forums, I'd see this: So, I'd scroll down with my mouse, and then I'd see this: Obtuse fool that I am, it took me a while to discover all the sections between those. In any event, I have adjusted my mouse so it doesn't behave like that anymore, lol. But - I have digressed. That change is what motivated me to scratch out as much influence as I could before they made any more changes! I wouldn't be too greedy, because I wanted instant sales, because each week, I thought the HC Devs might tax my hustle again. I ran into a player who I could give credit here to, but maybe he doesn't want credit for helping create the market monster that I turned into. But he shared the idea/fact of afk-farming, something I had never heard of, nor thought would be possible. So I tried it - and actually had my heal on auto, and not burn. I was afk - what did I care how long it took? lol, it just never occurred to me any character would be able to survive for hours on end in the middle of a ton of +4/8 npcs without some kind of a heal. Shows how basic my thinking was from retail. I did eventually level up a spines/fire brute, organically, outside of AE and then made a build with all those fancy winters and ATOs. It took all the spare inf I had, but eventually it paid for itself. And then I wanted to do something else...but couldn't because of the farmer. Then came the idea for a second account. And then the idea for farming to scale. And with each farmer came those drops - which is where the FAT inf came from. It never occurred to me how much faster inf could be made by just buying recipes cheaply and crafting them and selling them. But, I am proven to be obtuse. I did eventually figure out a lot more - but man, that one change to salvage is what led me to create 3 more accounts and have farmers going on 3 accounts while I played the 4th. I was going to make more accounts, but the crafting/converting takes converters. and time. And I still wanted to play outside of the farms, so I just stopped with that.

As mentioned, the simplest thing to do is visit your START vendor and get the defense amplifier. It's relatively cheap at low levels, and easily affordable for most level 50 characters. And if not, the break free is the next simplest thing. Don't feel like you need to save a break free for when you get held. You can use one before you engage. It doesn't just stop most mez, it also stops kb, which can be super annoying when trying to position a cone attack.

I wish we had a way to toggle these to not drop. They clog up my tip mission list. I know there are some newer players who've never heard of vidiotmaps or ATCs pop menu (and others), but I've never had to use these. By now, I have most zones memorized. A clever idea for the new or rust-laden returning player, but I would venture a guess that most folks don't use them.

So, this took me by surprise. Belladonna Vetrano, one of those "incarnate story arc" contacts has a personal mission. Was doing it to get "Embodiment of Law" badge. For those that don't know, in this mission, you take on the form of Tyrant, or Marcus Cole. And you completely annihilate all the forces of Lord Recluse, much like any level 50 fire blaster would annihilate a mob of level 8 Skulls in Perez Park. Easy. And then, suddenly, I get a gladiator badge from defeating Fortunatas. I can't recall how many I needed. It wasn't many...but there were at least a couple of Toxic Tarantulas in here, as well as a number of Mu Guardian bosses. Historically, I would do 2 things for Mu Guardian bosses - camp out near the villain base, as there's always a couple near there. Or, I'd tackle the first mission of MLTF, and just target the toxics, the forts, and the Mu Bosses. Now - that still might be more efficient from a numbers perspective, but this map is super simple. Click a glowie, do a little sprint, then lay the smack down. I already had the Heat Seeker badge, so unsure if I'd have gotten credit for the Flyer, but odds would be against that anyway. Someone would have milked that for all it was worth if that was the case, and it would have been fixed, for sure. Just thought I'd share a very simple way to get forts and Mu bosses and Toxic Tarantulas, particularly if you're a squish, or you just like the feeling of laying waste to grey conning mobs.

I wanted to mention: the Family Bosses badge...after our "Tango Tuesday", where we were clobbering mobs until the Mino reset, if Family Bosses counted in there, I'm 100% certain my character would have more than the 1 it has now, because I got the kill shot on at least 3. I just assumed they didn't count because they were Elite Bosses, and not standard bosses. I can confirm I got the Hell Bane badge for defeating Caleb, and Heat Seeker, for the Arachnos Flyer.

Depends on the character. But I suspect, my higher end use toggles would finally get the end cost IO they'd been asking for. I don't often pursue damage procs because the math often doesn't support their use in the powers I'd want to use them in. I might squeeze in the +regen from that lower level health power...that I believe is called Regenerative Tissue. Or the Reactive Defenses: scaling damage resistance. I often struggle to fit that one in. Just depends.

So, if you're an active farmer, using AE is really more of a convenience thing, I'd say. Consider this: XP in AE is ...1/2 of what XP is outside of AE. The big advantage I've had using AE is the salvage drops, for whatever reason, are both arcane and tech. So, if I choose to farm outside AE (since I generally see no reason to farm for xp, but for the drops to craft and convert) I'd have to get Harvey Meylor's demon mission as well as one of Unai Kemen "dreck" maps, or that other-worldly council empire map, so I can get arcane and tech salvage. But, if you're afk-farming, while I've done that on the dreck map, I have to check back in very often, because it doesn't take that long to clear a group of freaks. Not really worth the inconvenience for what I've after.

The first thing I do on every character is turn off General Chat. Every once and I while, I turn it on - say something completely silly, like, "Wow, the Lusca mini-pet is so interesting!" and then turn it back off. In my marketing days, I would say something like "Sorry, I think the Miracle +Recovery is much better than the Numina +regen/end" and then say, "MT". Invariably, the miracles I had for sale would seemingly sell faster. I'm sure that's just a perception bias, but it didn't stop me from doing it, lol. Please, though, let's not discuss anyone's rage, unless it's in the context of a super-strength powerset power. Or Snarky's rage at the behavior of one of his random pug teams.

First, I want to commend the OP for asking the question. It's not easy to open such floodgates where people freely tell you how wonderful or evil you are. Second, grats on the drop. Whether you craft it or not, the folks that will understand the expense will be the nosy and/or greedy people like me, and what I like to fondly refer to as the enthusiasts - who endeavor to collect all of them. So, here's an alt of mine: When I am in the Abyss waiting for things to kick off, I'll be nosy and click on players whose names are unknown to me and see what there is to see. Sometimes, it's an interesting bio, and sometimes, I'm kind of surprised to see "out of the box" builds - like a blaster that doesn't take an epic armor. Like - it would never have occurred to me to not take one, so that's pretty interesting to me. But I also see these vanity pets. This alt of mine doesn't have a complete collection..and it may never get them. Time will tell. I am hoping to wait until crafting pet recipes counts toward the crafting badge. I'm afraid I was already through a lot of them before I noticed the counter wasn't counting. (supposedly marked to be fixed next patch) I initially assumed anyone that spent inf on these was either too flush with inf/merits/prismatics for their own good, or they genuinely find the pets rewarding. I don't know that anyone will think you're an awesome player for having them, but ultimately we each have to please ourselves, right? So, for this goofy character of mine - I've been doing things I rarely ever do. Piss away inf (opportunity cost) on various things like pets for starters. So, I say craft it or not, do what you like. But I think if you craft a lot of them, that might be something folks notice more...

An excellent question! I wish I had an accurate answer.

There's something to be said about a secondary that often tends to outshine the primary. This same dilemma the OP has slaps me in the face on corruptors, from time to time. You get on a team, or even recruit a team, and for whatever reason, they seem to require your buffs/debuffs more than the skills your primary provides. (I'm thinking of you, Natural Affinity) You have choices. You can just suck it up and let those lengthy activations take their time and buff/debuff the first 15 seconds, or you can alternate between primary and secondary. All up to you. Or you can just let those teammates potentially suffer while you attempt to take control. If you do it right, they'll never even know you made a choice. Easy to say, sometimes not so easy to do, depending on the level difference and your corresponding tohit/accuracy. As you dabble around with controllers, you recognize how challenging it can be to play one in the early levels, particularly if solo. But eventually, they become super powerful when played with a creative flair and a decent build.