Ukase

Kind of you to offer. Love to see this kind of thing. Fortunately for me, I didn't make the error.

So, this is still done. I know this, because I run story arcs routinely throughout the day. However, during the day, I'm on the phone as often as not, so I don't team up often. There is still a demand for teams that kill through objectives. I know @Lunar Ronin hosts a weekly team on Indomitable server where they kill most, or all, but they ramp up the difficulty because they can. I know Sovereign on Excelsior hosts a Gold crawl team and a lower level blue crawl team for their sg members. I also used to host a crawl team for Cosmic Council until leaders had real life get in the way and folks started doing other stuff. I suggest you just stick with doing it the way you like it.

Fixed that for you. I never wrote what you indicated I did anywhere at any time.

Opinions will certainly vary. It's no secret that I afk-farm from time to time. I even actively farmed from time to time until I found out how to afk-farm. (thank you @payload, for the idea) But, more often than not, I play leveling up through content. Now, it's not lost on me that when you hit the late 30's and early 40's, there can seem to be a hump to get over. I don't see that as a negative, or an obstacle as something to overcome. I see it as an opportunity to get more merits!

This just blows my mind. So, candidly speaking, having gone from 1-50 organically at least 200 hundred times - I have the right to get a little bored with certain content. But a new player? Nah, I don't think so. There are at least 10-20 different paths a new character can go, and with all the different AT & powerset combos, I'd think they'd be busy with something new, or a different perspective of the same thing for at least a year. (unless they play all day, every day - I can't imagine what that would be like. )

This reminds me of a question I asked my mother, years ago. Me: Hey mom. If you could have any super power you wanted, which would it be? Mom: Oh..China. So, if you're asking me which powerset/AT I'd be, if it could be me, literally in Paragon City or the Rogue Isles, or even Praetoria or the Shadow Shard. It's that last condition that gives me pause. In real life, I could certainly see me trying to do good, but much like "The Boys" series, I could easily see me blurring some legal and moral lines due to an inherent sinful nature. In Paragon City, or the game world as a whole, everything is like an expanded game of rock, paper, scissors. I could choose Rock, but Paper is right over there to clobber me. So, any illusions of being top dog in a world like this would be delusional. Based on that, I would like to think I would have more fun being an ice/fire blaster than anything else. Obviously, I wouldn't be able to survive too much chaos, but I could probably out-run a lot of it. Only, unlike in game, I think this version of me would have Teleport, Super Speed and Fly. I think I'd want that to be a trained skill, rather than relying on some jet pack. And I'd probably lose the leaping pool in favor of the stealth pool. Who wouldn't want to be intangible if the moment indicated a real utility for it? I would miss the fight pool, of course. But, I think in the real world, the travel powers have a lot more utility than a blizzard or a fire sword.

You're not wrong here. But, just from what I've seen, the number of players in Striga looks to have at least doubled since the changes to Striga. Sure, we can change alignments practically at will. I would love it if alignments were just thrown out, but there's too much lore and too much content that would probably go with it, and it wouldn't make sense. I see no reason for an arbitrary change to the shadow shard to go co-op without something to do in the zone besides the very lengthy TFs that are there. Yet, there are a fair number of players who do NOT like to change alignments. I'm sure there are a number of reasons. The biggest reason villains (well, at least my villains) want to remain villain is Frenzy. Some dominators rely on this power. Certainly my brutes like it. Who's not going to like an extra 60% damage for 20s? And every 6 minutes. Again, it's just something I'd like to see. It won't be the end of the world if it never comes to pass. But the idea of NOT doing it just because people can change alignments is not my idea of a good reason.

Regarding the pvp sector - with the increased interest in the advanced mode tfs, there are a number of players who are recommending Max HP. The Shield Wall 3 piece gives a 2.25% HP increase, which by itself hardly sounds worth it, but as the marginal gains are added, they will add up. I think that's where some of the increased pvp IO demand is coming from.

Just anecdotally, the earlier you clobber frostfire, the easier time you're going to have. I think it's at level 12, he gets his imps. As mentioned mez protection is a safe bet, but if you can hold him first, you should be fine. There's just not that many slots available for that in the early levels. You might get him held, but can you keep him held until you kill him? This is why we play, right? To see if we can. I've solo'd Frostfire on many characters. I don't usually pre-buff with inspirations, but I'll use a breakfree if I need to. It never occurred to me to look at it like it was some kind of challenge. The only time it's interesting is when you have a full team and you ramp the difficulty up.

Pleasantly surprised to see my name not on that list.

Accidents can certainly happen to anyone. Even accidental keystrokes. I think if we're just careful before we send things that are important, we should be fine.

Why would you test this in this fashion? Just curious. Now I know to not have a global name with a backslash at the end of the name. So..thanks, I guess.

This is what I usually see. I remember when I was irritated they weren't selling at 7m, now I'm happy to get 5m. Mind you - there is one outlier - a lowballer for 4.8. But, I'll take it, lol.

So this is a topic that caught my eye. I have never used merits to buy a recipe. And never will. It will never be worth it to me. I have sort of used AE tickets to buy recipes, but only when I had all but very rare and pvp recipes set to be rejected for a badge. So odd to spend 60 tickets on a recipe, not get the recipe and get badge credit, but that certainly sped up the process. There was a time when I'd run a couple of asteroid maps for tickets, get some random recipe rolls, then run the asteroid map with standard rewards to get the salvage to craft them. But I just think standard rewards gives better drops with less effort, as well as the salvage needed to craft them. Currently, I get my recipes two ways - from afk farming, and from actively playing. Other than using tickets for random rolls, and the aforementioned farming and playing, if there are other ways, I am unaware of them.

So much of a build for a blaster hinges on playstyle. Solo or team. Kill most or stealth when you can For example, my builds tend to focus on defense and HP. And really, more HP than defense. I figure the higher the HP I have, the more hits I can take. Now, I'd love to have 60% positional defenses, but in order to blast my way out of a difficult spot, I can't just put 6 slots in weave and maneuvers and an epic/patron armor and expect to get there. With freeze ray being such a fast power, it can really help get you out of a jam if you're on top of your game. Some folks might slot freeze ray for damage, some for holds, and I have 3 builds, and each one is slotted differently. It's fair to say almost all my characters take Super Speed and Combat Jumping. Most take Hasten, too - but hasten is pushed off until I have the endurance to handle it. But SS is taken at level 4. How am I going to go around and grab the explorations in all those zones without it? Combat Jumping is taken at level 6. And there's a reason for that. For one - If I don't get it out of the way, there are so many great powers to pick, I'd never get to pick it. I just love the control I get when hopping around as I SS to get this mission or badge. It's also a fantastic set mule for a number of powers. Super Speed lets me slap in a Blessing of the Zephyr. Combat Jump lets me slap in first - a kismet 6% accuracy, then a shield wall 5% resist (all). I have them both slotted at level 7. I take the Shield Wall out and slap it in maneuvers if/when I get it - mainly because on blasters, maneuvers doesn't provide enough protection. A very lousy 3.51% defense with my usual slotting The Steadfast is only 3M, and costs a fraction of the price of the 3 Shield Walls and the LotG. But - the lotg gives recharge, so worth it. The shield walls give a tiny 2.25% HP boost. It isn't much, but it adds up if I pursue it. Just as a rough starting point - this may be worth a look. I could literally spend hours on it, change my mind and start over from scratch, because what's good for me may not be good for someone else. But take a look at how early I have some powers. I take build up and aim pretty soon. If this were a pure dps build, I'd double or triple slot them. I definitely take combat jumping at level 6, as mentioned earlier. I took char and proc'd it, because it does well with procs - and the base recharge is 24 seconds, so I KNOW the procs will fire 90% of the time (max proc chance) I chose not to proc out bitter ice blast, Freeze ray because the procs will only fire about 60% of the time. Those are poor odds to me. The stat numbers are not the best you're ever going to see. I usually go with unbreakable guard for more melee defense, but I don't know how you play. Most blasters these days seem to shy away from melee (for good reason - that's where most of the stuns and then defeat occur!). On my build I'd take the ice sword, but I'd also take ice patch for the early levels, and respec out for 40+. Again, this is just a build that is going to have enough endurance once you get frigid protection with a couple of end mod SOs. And if you slot the Panacea and the miracle instead of that trashy numina, you should be fine with endurance. (I say the numina is trashy, because as IOs that boost endurance go, it's the worst one) I didn't use the show all powers and enhancements because if you download the build you can see all that, and the numbers. Take note that the endurance use increases as you level - which is why you want to get Atlas Medallion at 23. Get your Task Force Commander anytime between level 1 and 20 by getting Invader. You can do it the long way if you want to, but I like the hit points earlier, as opposed to waiting until level 36 after Numina. I also get the High Pain Threshold on redside at level 35, and Portal Jockey at 45. These passive accolades, particularly the ones with the endurance boost help drive the engine. If the defense values are too slow - take out the hecatombs, and add a 5 piece superior blistering cold. You can also pick a different epic/patron, maybe find one with a melee AoE and slap a superior avalanche for more defense. It's all up to you. There's hundreds of ways to do this - and almost all of them are just fine. Only some of them will be right for you. Demo - Blaster (Ice Blast - Ice Manipulation).mbd

For my inf, one of the better series of story arcs is for the vig/hero - Provost Marchand. Here's what you get - and how you do these is open to your own creative feel. First arc, open to hero/vig level 30-50: A New Dimension, A New Team First mission is the same map as the rogue/vig intro to Mr. G - only instead of Arachnos spread out helping you dispatch of the praetorian forces, you have Marchand's group of seriously tough allies. There was a time when I'd use this map to give myself more than a few bars of XP in the late 30's, early 40's when the XP seems to go quite slowly, compared to other levels. I'd set this to +4/8 and let the allies do the work mostly just for this first mission. Or, you can skip all of it, and go directly for efficiency and complete it by going to the waypoint on the map (if you have stealth) The next couple of missions - which is great for solo'ers, you have 3 allies. They will take a knee if you set the difficulty too high and can't heal them. There's no way to target them aside from just using your mouse and clicking on them. Team inspirations do work if they are close enough (20 feet). If your difficulty is 0/1 - you won't even need them really. Just depends on your build and your skills. Eventually, the arc ends with clobbering Silver Mantis. Not gonna lie - she can be tough, depending on your build and your AT. Bring some inspirations if you have any doubts. During this arc, you learn that you've been made famous; there are action figures being produced in your image! It has nothing to do with the story, but it's a nice touch by the author of the arc. The next arc is interesting in that it gives you options, and it has some "Easter Eggs", in that if you know about the badge, you can do various things that most folks don't ever do. It also lets YOU decide how you want to delegate allies. Some choices may give you a badge. Others will not. The third arc allows you to battle various villains/rogues that will give you badge credit towards the defeat badge that allows you access to the Detective in Steel Canyon that has all the Safeguard missions. All three arcs are as short or as long as you want to make them, almost. What I mean is, if you take a team of 8, some of the missions are going to take some time to clear. If you go solo, maybe not as long - just depends on your difficulty level. It's my opinion that these 3 arcs are the right size for an arc. Not 20 missions long. Not 2 missions long. Just the right length. And the objectives are not all the same kind of snooze fest where you beat the big boss at the end of the map. It's "Do this before THAT GUY does XYZ" kind of thing, as an example of one mission.

Just use teleport-self to move, and you never have to even walk, let alone sprint.

Pretty sure if you can see the player on your team roster, they're "in zone". Beyond that, other than the occasional player having a real life issue, I've never encountered someone not participating. I used to worry about it during the master of ugt runs when a league leader would impose "snipers only" for the bomb portion. But it was never an issue. I do recall on retail getting the 10 threads once, but I can't remember why. I'm sure it had something to do with escorting desdemona, but that was a long time ago, and details in my mind are fuzzy.

That looks a bit like one of the questions on Patton Oswald's new "1% Club".

This has been the case for me on the past...300 or so alts. I have this mission from Maria Jenkins saved on 5 characters across several accounts so it doesn't matter which alt is needing it. As stated - enter, Ouro or base tp out, badge is awarded. I have known a player here and there that claim the badge didn't award. I can't see their screen, but I know it has always worked for me.

My understanding is this "meta", where you have tank, ice/cold corrs, a kin and some other dps, are for the speedy runs of the Advanced modes. For the 2 hour Advanced Modes, I don't know that you need complex builds that give up fight pool in exchange for max HP and recharge. I'm certain they help, tho. The difference in something like Freeze Ray when it's proc'd vs when it's not is noticeable - if all the procs actually fire in the same shot. They won't always fire. The math doesn't support it. Bitter Freeze Ray? Every time. Burn from a fire blaster's secondary - every time. (assuming no recharges slotted in the power) The marginal differences will add up. And really - the build isn't as important as the player behind the build. If you kill adds without needing to and you have a kin on your team - have you hurt your team because of a weaker fulcrum shift? Perhaps! It's at least the 3rd time I've mentioned this specific example because it floors me that @loc thinks about stuff like that. I'm still stunned. I am the guy that will kill those adds with a blizzard (or try to) without thinking about such things. At least, I was. A bit more careful about it now. From where I sit, if you have the team discipline to keep the barriers and clarion staggered, (and don't have a team of optimized builds) you'll probably do okay. Not speedy, but okay. And by okay, you and your team will die a LOT. In normal content, a blaster is considered by some to be a glass cannon. Not my style, but okay. Some play real close to the edge of defeat. Others, like me, not so close. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. The same way people learn to play their ATs and powersets, they'll pick up things as they run the advanced mode tfs more often. Practice may not make perfect, but it will improve things. I think the advanced modes, in some fashion are going to go through some changes in tactics as more people try more things. Some will stick with what's worked for them, of course. Others may try to improve upon the times, and others might try an all MM advanced mode TF for the kicks and grins of it. (and they really should!) I am unconvinced that the current meta will stay the meta in the long run.

See, I could accept the "previously damaged" scenario, but they were both at full health. I didn't ding in between the clobbering of the two supa-trolls. All were the same level - 15. Certainly, it's not a big deal at all, and I suspect that it's just an anomaly. Perhaps what I should do is grab an alt that's level 15 on Excelsior with the standard xp rate, no 2xp buff and try again and see what result I get. Surely somewhere within the 7 pages of alts, there's one that's level 15, or close enough for this purpose.

Well, I don't think it's nonsense now that I grasp the why. But when I didn't, I was a bit like a brat who mocked what he didn't understand. If I'd just thought about the zone cap, that would have been enough. Now that Lady Grey is a bit more popular, stands to reason the cap is going to get reached sooner, preventing folks from getting there. It's just not something I thought about.

Yeah, I am guilty of being overly obtuse. I now see the flaws in my thinking.

"hidden level variance"? Can't say I've seen that term before. They were all at 100% health. Not a big deal, just curious.