Jump to content

Ukase

Members
  • Posts

    4182
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

Everything posted by Ukase

  1. For my money, it's brute all the way. Couple of reasons: 1. Higher HP. This means, for regen, higher regen rate. 2. Higher resist cap values (90% vs 75%)
  2. Remember what I told you, Snarky. Lead with fireball. Always. Also, remember what Mr. Miyagi told Daniel-sahn. "Best way to block hit, no be there". If you avoid melee a fair bit, at least until you can get tough/weave going, you'll be better off.
  3. So, if you want the leveled version, it's only available for levels 21 and up. So you can slot it at 18. But if you can get it attuned, you can slot it at 17. Not a big deal, the attuned will work just as well...but perhaps when you folks get a chance you can make things consistent.
      • 1
      • Like
  4. The leader was likely training/slotting. It's a time saving technique, really. You use your base TP, your trainer and enhancement vendor are typically right next to each other very close to the base entrance/exit. Some levels are harder to figure out which powers, which slots, etc. I don't know how long the mission was being run before I joined, but it was at least a couple of minutes before the leader showed up. And while I can lead, I don't particularly enjoy the recruitment. I'd like to convey certain things, but it's too much information for most folks, they just want to team. But there are some folks who want to know what ATs are already there, what level is the mission, what's the difficulty, is it a cave map, killing most or speeding through - many are reasonable things to know, but problematic to convey sometimes. And the waiting...oh, I really need to work on my patience, because the older I get, the less I have.
  5. If I had 1 inf for every hour I spent in DMs explaining to someone how to make influence in this game, well, I'd still have to market, but I'd have a token reward! In my mind, I'm divided. On one hand, nothing worthwhile comes easy, right? We get out of thing what we put into them. I look at DFB, and I remember clearly the first time I ran it. I was kind of excited about getting and SO at level 2. And...it was a confuse SO. At no time in my blaster's career was I going to get a confuse power. So, yes, I definitely agree that if Praetoria knows my origin and only drops enhancements I can use, I see no reason why the rest of the game can't figure it out. It still would not likely explain things to a new player the way I would, or the way Yomo or some of the other fine guides would, but it would help them quite a bit, I suspect. What's the downside, other than the time invested in making the change? Smarter people than me will have to answer that.
  6. So, I was one of the folks that gave specific feedback about this change - I do not like it. I played a character every day this week. My main objective, aside from doing specific story arcs, was to make leveling as efficient as I could without farming. So, I teamed a lot more than I normally do. At the end of each day's gaming session, I would go and get the exploration badges, and the next day begin with what I hoped would be a full 10 bars of patrol XP. But - because the amount of patrol xp tapers off as you level, if I was, for example 8 bars into a level, I could see the next two bars were covered as far as patrol xp goes. But beyond that, I've no visual clue as to how much I have beyond the 2 bars. Now, I can right click on the xp bar and see how much patrol XP I have in numbers, but to my mind, the number is a bit meaningless, unless I go to the wiki and determine specifically how much XP I need for the specific level, then compare to how much patrol XP I have. Yeah. Like we all want to do that in the midst of our gaming. I did adapt, and kind of figure out that when you hit your 30's, you need to hit a couple of zones. In your 40's you need to cover 3 zones. I would have liked to wait and use the patrol xp for when I'm trying to get vet levels, but the amount of patrol xp offered at that level is so meaningless, it's not worth it, so I get them in the early levels when you can see the bar fill with each badge. I do like the exploration tips, and the dialogue that comes with most of them. (I just did Dark Astoria on a new 50 for fun). I just wish they dropped in a more rational order, instead of sending me from the west wall to the east wall, and then back again. I'll just use my vidiotmaps in the future to avoid this, but I thought I'd try it out. The OP certainly makes it clear that if you alt a lot and play different characters on a rotation - he's right. His patrol XP never runs out the way he does it. Seems like a smart way to level if you can remember the distinctions between each character - like which one did the weekly and which ones didn't. So, yeah, I'm in his corner on this. There was nothing wrong with the way it worked before.
  7. So, I'm one of "those" people who have more alts than I care to count. Most are level 50. I can't be sure, but pretty sure it's over 150 level 50s. And, yes, at least 125 of them leveled from 1-50 doing content, not in a farm. In any event, I have never played a crab before. I mean, I'm crabby, but never been a crab. So, I look to make the new crab play goldside, and well...I can't. It's not an option. Now, this probably saves me from making a terrible mistake. I'm sure there's a reason. No idea what it is, but I trust there's a reasonable explanation. And, further examination reveals that not only are veats unable to begin in praetoria, but heats are also prevented from starting there. It probably has something to do with starting contacts and lore, but I just thought I'd suggest they be allowed to start in Praetoria.
  8. Dude, please - choose a different text format. That's really hard to look at. But - I thank you for mentioning the Discordant Spores. I routinely tell people they're confused half the time and the Spores prove it! I actually made a pop menu for The MoUGT, but it was so large, I had to break it into two parts. But then, I also included stale jokes.
  9. Since you asked, I took this screenshot maybe 3 minutes before the servers shut down - on Liberty. The top SG on Liberty at the time of shut-down, was mine, because I'd burned through all my influence which was in the billions, and figured why not. Not like I could do anything with it. And, also because Frosty Frozone and High Voltz were in The Paragon City Saints. Highly skilled players, but they could be terribly annoying in PvP, (and in chat, if you ask some folks) particularly Frozone. So, yeah, there was some spite to it, lol. I was not a proper fire farmer, nor a proper marketer by any stretch. But I did farm, and I did market. But I mainly did SSAs for hero merits with multiple characters and used the merits to get the pvp IOs and sold them for 2B every chance I got. I did play with converters a bit, but they were a lot more expensive at that time.
  10. So, I'm just going to say this out loud. Two things can lead to disappointment. Unrealized expectations and Unrealistic expectations. When a player leads a team for something as straightforward as Frostfire, all the non-leaders are there to do one primary thing - complete the mission. Some make a beeline for keystone and the altars to get to Frostfire ASAP, and some want to kill every single npc they see. You're clearly someone who wants to run point, and you want the team to stick together. You have a method, like most of us. Some leaders want to always go left whenever there's a path that diverges into different directions. Some like to go right. Here's what I think may be frustrating you - not every reads chat. Also, not everyone agrees with the choices a leader makes. Most of us will go along, and as soon as the mission is over, without telling you the real reason why - we leave the team. I left your team a couple of days ago because you seemed to think we were children who needed to be told what to do. You're in your sg base, presumably training, meanwhile your team is running your mission. You weren't there, and yet you expected PUGs who've never teamed with you to go the same path you would. I think that's being unreasonable. In my defense, (if I need one) I came late; the mission was half over. I knew where the team was - because on my map, I saw where there was still fog, and where there wasn't. Now, I get that lower level players and even some incarnates LOVE killing every thing on every map. That is what they are there to do, and that's great. But dude, if you're not even on the map, and I've never teamed with you before, I have no way of knowing how you want to do anything. You're having unrealistic expectations. Communicate that you want people to stick together. Allow for times in between missions for people to train. Use team inspirations before tough fights. Use ATT if some of the team has gone the wrong way. Use macros to communicate more quickly if you think it will help. Crack jokes. Don't bark orders or give instructions unless it's for a badge. Make suggestions. Teams in CoH are not a benevolent dictatorship, they are a collaborative effort. But, that's just my opinion, and opinions vary.
  11. Winter sets....so, some of us that have been here since HC opened up, well, we have a bit of an advantage. I think it was 4 years ago when HC offered Winter Packs at a discount during the Winter Event, for 10M, instead of 25M. A lot of marketing took place, you can be sure. Folks would buy as many as they could. Some would relist them for 15 to 24.9M, unopened, and wait until the event was over and make a very easy, but patient 5-15M. Many folks would open the packs and sell as many as the goods inside as they could. Then, the next year, the devs said they were going to have the sale again, but for 15M, and this would be the LAST time. I think they felt there would be too much push back if they just didn't have the sale..not really sure. But it was clear the HC team wasn't too happy about the results of the sale, for whatever reason. The idea behind winter packs is an inf sink, as another player doesn't get that influence, it gets dissolved into the AH. And when players resell the contents, 10% of each price also disappears. In any event, those days of the discounted packs are supposedly over. Myself, I still have at least 1000 of them unopened across multiple characters. My emails are FULL of dozens of each winter O, except maybe the entombs on some characters, which I converted, catalyzed and sold for a ton of profit the first year - so I could buy more packs before the sale ended. But the history lesson doesn't do you or anyone else much good, does it? What do you and others do now to get these items cheaply? Or as cheaply as you can? I recognize that these items sell for a nice chunk, especially if you're starting out and not sitting on a stockpile of influence. This is what I would do: First. I'd look at all the non-superior winter-Os. The AH is acting really wonky now, in particular when looking for the last 5 prices the item sold at. I have no solution for that. But, what I would do is probably focus on the entombs. These non-superior ATOs are generally cheaper than the others. When I weigh the cost of converting into one of the other sets - Avalanche, Blistering Cold, Frozen Blast, Winter's Bite - the odds are 100% you'll get a Winter-O that has more value than the Entomb. But - the market is silly sometimes. And unknowable. Just like people can be. So, you have to check the AH and see. Like any other item - you have to look at outstanding bids. Some of those bids are from people who are no longer playing that left "noob" traps. Essentially, very small bids. In any event, as you look at bids, look at how many are for sale. It stands to reason that you are likely to make more inf from a sale of an item that has 5 for sale with 100 bids than an item with 67 for sale and 40 bids. So, when you get the entomb, you convert it, and then you use some unslotters (that you undoubtedly have from the winter packs) and you slot the winter-O, and catalyze it, then un-slot it and sell it. That's where the value is added. It's crazy. I can't look at the AH at this moment, but the last time I did, I saw a non-superior winter selling for 15-18M, and the superior version selling for 22 to 30M. A catalyst USED to sell for 5M, if you can believe that. The price stabilized at 2-3M for a long time and suddenly in the past year, it plummeted to the current 800K to 1.1M. But, that's what I'd do. I'd buy the common winter-Os, convert and catalyze (not necessarily in that order if your marketer has a hold power) and sell it - and when you have sold enough to make enough to buy more packs, I'd repeat that until I felt comfy actually using some of the winter sets in the packs. You won't make so much inf that you won't ever have to farm doing this unless you're exceptionally patient and can handle the tedium of opening a lot of packs and plucking things like boosters and unslotters from your email. Not to mention the brain storm ideas. You can use those to craft rare salvage and list it on the AH, or use the salvage. I think you get more value using the salvage. Just selling BS ideas is..well, kind of lame. I think you save more using the salvage. But the salvage from BS ideas IS random, so it all depends on how much storage room you have. Some folks believe that using 100 reward merits for a winter-O is the way to go. If they can sell the winter O for more than the price of 300 converters, they're right. And, if they take the time to catalyze it, they're even more likely to be right. If you're inf poor and merit rich, this is definitely a better path than just trying to lowball bid for an entomb. But, if you have the inf and the patience, I think a lowball bid creates more profit than the 100 reward merit purchase. But, hey, if you've got the merits, are a bit impatient, no harm, no foul. You'll still get what you want. And probably a bit sooner. Hope that helps.
  12. Thank you for the correction. Some time ago, I know there was talk about changing that, but I thought they tabled that until later. I guess it's later now. I'm still holding stashed transcendent merits and the change went right by my notice. I haven't needed any converters for a while. I guess I can t-4 my next few alts a little faster now, lol.
  13. Thanks for taking the time to reply!
  14. I run discord for a once a week event. I recognize it for what it is, a tool. The pros: I was leading an MoUGT. We had reached the point in the trial where we were about to snipe or zerg (i forget which, it's been a couple of years) the bombs in the long hallway, where they are 75 feet apart, and on both sides of the hall. We ALL got disconnected due to a temporary server glitch. With discord, we were all aware it wasn't just us. We were all advised to log back in when the server came back up (a few minutes later) and to "join event already in progress" upon entering the game. We were able to finish and get our Master of Underground badge. The cons: It's not very user intuitive. Initially, I got a lot of complaints. I actually just deleted about 2 pages of complaints with little stories about each one. Kind of cathartic to type it all out. But I chose to remove all those unasked for details. You're welcome! If Discord were to somehow determine each user's setup and fine tune things accordingly, it would probably be easier. But when you first join a discord, there's no way to know if your background noise is too loud, or if you're being heard properly. And lastly...noise cancelling headphones are just damned uncomfortable to wear. In the Summer they make my ears sweat. I despise them, which is why despite being bullied and begged to run big events on weekends and daily activities, I'm not going to do it. Once a week with those damned things is already as much as I can stand.
  15. I remember the first (and only) SG I joined on HC. There was a 2nd (or 3rd, I've no idea) account a leader had that was set up behind a counter where members were told they had an option to drop off recipes, inspirations, whatever on that character. Meanwhile, the base was filled with enhancements of just about any kind. ATOs, Hami-Os, Very Rares, even Overwhelming Forces. It didn't have EVERYTHING, but most things you'd want. Kind of a need a penny, take a penny, have a penny, give a penny type deal. It gave me the idea to make a 2nd account for my own solo SG that could retrieve or deposit items as needed. I've since dropped the idea, as the population size makes in untenable at times. But nothing works quite so well as a solo SG where all of your characters are members. With the global chat channels like Taskforcejunkies and the like, the need for an SG isn't really what it used to be. Mind you, I understand it isn't the same. Having an SG with people that you actually like, and have gotten or are getting to know over discord, that's hard to beat, and it's what keeps a lot of players interested in logging in to play. So, anything that would serve that purpose would probably be a good thing.
  16. So, as a marketer, I am fond of players like you. But, at the same time, it amuses me. I know it's not real money. But - time is money, is it not? The time you spend accumulating that influence to get those purples... Have you considered buying the recipes for about half the cost of the enhancement and crafting them? Or, buying a cheaper very rare recipe, crafting and then converting into the more expensive ones? I have never mentioned this, but I've often thought about setting up shop as a build enhancement provider, for lack of a better term. You share the build you want on mids, and tell me what you'd pay for the enhancements in that build. You give me 24 hours, I give you the enhancements, and you pay ME the inf you would have paid the AH for that build. I would make a killing - except occasionally folks want a d-sync I don't have stored in my base and that would make me weep, running an Aeon just to satisfy a player's desire to eke out an extra .05% boost. (I just made that number up, don't know what it is, but it's marginal) It costs you 1B or so, because you're just buying what you want when you want. You're not bidding for these items when you create your character, but when you've dinged 50 and you want it "now". You're not crafting from recipes when it saves inf to do so. It's your character, your inf - do it how you like. But just because it CAN cost 1B, by no means does it HAVE to cost you 1B.
  17. Opinions will vary. I would play it how you think it would be the most amusing/entertaining. As you play it, you may find certain tips and tricks that would lead to a more optimal path. Sometimes, an optimal build leads to optimal amusement - but not always.
  18. I will NEVER cut out CJ from a build. I refuse. It's too useful as a set mule, and in the early levels before I can slot it, I feel the difference. I can certainly stomach losing the fight pool on certain characters, like a tank that might not need the extra resist from tough. But my characters require at least some kind of s/l resist from somewhere. Granted, we can have four pools. But, I require superspeed - that's one pool. CJ - that's another. Fight pool, that's 3. And Leadership. Yeah, I can squeeze in maneuvers at least. And I can turn it off if I'm not on a team so my endurance isn't drained into nothingness. But give up CJ? You must be putting some Bailey's in the coffee or something. That's just madness.
  19. I joined a team with the OP yesterday. It was part of Marchand's arc..the 2nd one. It was so funny to me. I zone in, and I know they're in the Brick's bank. So, I proceed down the stairs, and out the door and into the instanced block or two of Bricks and head into the bank. OP: "How did you know to come here when it wasn't on the nav bar?" Me: I've done this once or twice before. I was laughing...and I almost typed out "Did you want me to exit and act like I have no idea where to go?"
  20. While I completely agree with this, bear in mind the OP's aversion to "market shenanigans". Now, I'm not clear what a market shenanigan is or isn't...so I think the advice given isn't awful in that context.
  21. I've a mixed mind about this. I do think leadership is a good set of powers - but what you're wishing for would be making us all do a cookie-cutter build, wouldn't it? Only instead of the solo/farm build, it's the teamed up/tf/trial build. One way of playing isn't any better or worse than another way of playing, is it? It's like donuts and Brussel sprouts. They're both food. They both have calories. One is more nutritious, sure. Eat too much of either one and you're going to have problems. I think the charm of CoH is that I can grab any 7 other players and hop into a mission and we can complete it. Sure, some players may struggle. Some may have it too easy. It all balances out. Yesterday, I ran a team doing one of Sunstorm's arcs. I looked at the powersets, levels, etc of the team and chose to run at +1, knowing that a team of 8 is going to have some +2 and +3s in it. But, it would be challenging for some, and some would have no issues at all. Without lightform, for me it was about right. Annoying dealing with the kb, but manageable. Then a couple folks left, and some folks that were higher level joined, and I upped the diff a notch, and it was really just right. I am not likely to ever run any content at +4/8 except a farm, or content that is that difficulty by default, like Tin Mage or Apex. (and even those, if we're level shifted, they're not really +4) Unless, it's a challenge character or something, but those are usually solo efforts. Nobody else needs to run at that setting either. I don't think we can tell our devs the game is too easy, and then harshly grade them when they move the slider a bit. Additionally, there should be no expectation that a PI radio team is going to run at +4/8, unless they can run at +4/8. It would seem that not everyone will be able to with these changes. It might be frustrating, but it's not going to hurt us. We just change the difficulty downward. Will it slow our inf and xp gain? Most likely. But so what? Annoying for some? Yeah, I get that. But we'll be okay in the long run.
  22. I didn't really want to reveal everything - but for me, the primary reason is the pvp IOs, primarily the big three, but the damage procs as well. They don't sell for as much as they used to, but with the influx of newer players, the demand for them seems to have gone up a little. Grab the recipes for 2-3M, craft for 500-600k, sell for what you think you can get, which lately is anywhere from 6 to 10M, depending on the impatience/generosity/clumsy fingers of the bidder. That said, the steadfast resist, the kb, the achilles heal -res, and quite a few other level 10 ios sell for 3-6M routinely. And they're a lot cheaper to craft, as I already stated.
  23. This is essentially the macro I use to go from Human to dwarf : powexec_toggle_on White Dwarf$$goto_tray 6 So, here's a problem I run into every now and then - the tray will change, but I remain in human form. Here's the macro to go back to human form: powexec_toggle_off White Dwarf$$goto_tray 1 And, every now and then, I'll go back to human form, but the tray remains at tray 6. Anyone have any idea what's going on here? It's not a constant issue, just every so often.
  24. Farming is a decent, but slower way to gain influence. But, it is steady..at least as steady as you are when you play. That said, you can run the largest maps at +4/8, and you get what? 12-15M? It's been so long since I even looked at inf when I farmed, I really don't have a clear memory. Let us suppose it's 50M per 30minutes. I want to say that's giving a very clear over-estimation, but what the heck do I know? The faster way is from turning trash into gold. There are guides by very sharp players who have shared at least some of their tips and tricks in the market forum. Even YouTube (consider watching @Dahles video, even though it's a bit older, I think it's still very relevant. In a nut shell, consider the converter. Never, ever sell a converter. Use it. For the sake of efficiency, here's what I tend to do: First, I reduce the level of what I'm looking for to level 10. Why? Because it's cheaper to craft a level 10 than the higher levels. The salvage to craft this recipe will cost about 500 to 600K, depending on what market forces are at work. Whether it's a pvp recipe or something more mundane like a perplex, you can craft it, and convert it into something that will sell for a lot more than the price you paid for the recipe. But wait - that's if you're JUST a marketer. What if you're a farmer? Only sell the white recipes. Craft the rest as you get the salvage drops to do so. If you don't get the salvage to do so, don't craft it. Eventually, you'll get what you're needing. Once it's crafted, throw it in the AH and look and see how much inf it will get you. Keep in mind the cost of crafting. The "cost of goods sold"...like the salvage that went into the enhancement. You could have just sold the salvage, so how much would you have gotten? Your average uncommon recipe will cost about 600k to craft. Converter costs can vary greatly. If you're a farmer, your converters are free. You get vet levels and emp merits. Use those to convert to reward merits and then to converters. And when you hit, say vet level 48, re-roll your farmer and start over so you always have the merits coming in. So, convert the uncommon by type, as the uncommon will have a rare counterpart. As an example, think of Titanium Coating, a resist set. It's uncommon. You convert a level 50 Tit. Coat, and you will get an Aegis or an Unbreakable Guard, both rares. And they will sell for more inf than the Tit. Coat. When you learn after checking prices what things sell for, your efficiency picks up. And eventually, you're selling every uncommon and rare (and I never sell purples, but you can if you like) and the inf stacks up high. Very high. Once you learn to scale, you'll be rolling in it. Just recognize that if you're going to multi-box, do so on a lower populated shard, and be sure to check the population first!
×
×
  • Create New...