Ukase

I'm sure I've seen some folks complain about the constant barrage of new tips - this bit of feedback isn't that. As part of my adapting to the new patrol xp in lieu of regular xp for explorations, when I reach a zone for the first time for a given contact, when I enter, I pick the contact out so I have a waypoint to keep me on track. And, I grab the explores along the way. I suspect the new tip system is designed for me to open the tip and go to the next badge - and I would do just that - but the tips have me crossing the zone to get one, and then crossing back, instead of grabbing them in a systematic fashion in an efficient manner. So, I tend to just grab the ones on the way to the contact, and snag the others as I pass them doing the arc. But now, with the new tip system, whenever I get the tip: If I had a mission selected, it gets de-selected. If I had a contact selected, it gets de-selected. Now, it's a minor annoyance, and it's probably working as intended. So, my feedback is it's a minor annoyance. My suggestion is if you keep the current tip system as is, have the tip missions give us the close badge in the zone we don't yet have. No idea how one would code that, but that's my suggestion.

I know I'm in the minority, but to me - posi 1 is a solo effort. This way, you avoid the insane experiences. Granted, that puts me a few levels of xp behind everyone else. But, I catch up while you guys are trying to find 7 more people to do a Synapse. Even Posi 2 is fairly simple (and fast) to solo on most characters. I just use a summons to help with the dps on Dr. Vahz. It's crazy how the mobs near the bombs inside are always facing away from the bombs. Easy stealth clicks. When you're solo, there may be one or two npcs at the foot of the stairs. They never interfere with what's going on at the door to city hall. Now, the sad part is you have to beat your shadow self alone...but it's so funny to see the nem staff send the shadow flying and they literally never get an attack in. Even the tank's shadow, when I play a tank get tossed around from the nem staff. Probably not as fun as cracking jokes and such while teaming, but most pugs I'm on...those folks don't say much at all. Might as well be solo. I felt like I should add - it was hilarious to me when I solo'd Posi 1 on an illusion controller. I got to face my simulacrum... and I couldn't see him! I went into my character email to grab some of the inspirations the winter packs give, and only then could I see him.

So, I'm one of those folks who tends to read/hear what other folks like, tries it out and figure I'm in the minority more often than not. The ATs that I do not enjoy playing solo are, in no particular order: Dominator Tank Warshade/Peacebringer All controllers but illusion Primary MMs. That's not to say I can't, or you can't solo well with them, but for various reasons, I don't enjoy the experience. Tanks got a buff on HC to deal out a bit more damage. But, it's not enough to encourage me to tackle high bags of hitpoints in missions. The damage just isn't enough to suit ME. MMs and Dominators have pathetically low HP. They are terribly fragile. MM pets are also fairly fragile, at least the beasts and thugs I've played with. I don't see Demons or bots in my future because I don't want to look at them, let alone hear them. Dominators achieve domination more easily on teams. No idea why that is, but it is. Warshades/PBs - there isn't much I enjoy about playing these ATs teamed or solo, really. Interesting concepts, but they need a lot more slots to support the forms. Controllers are okay to play solo past level 24 or so - but you have to get there! And even then, pets aren't controllable, and some of them are just stupid. For me, the easiest AT to play solo is a sentinel. But, it's not the most fun or most rewarding to me. For my money, the SS/Fire brute is the most fun to play solo. In early levels, you have fury to aid in dishing out more damage than you'd expect from a lowby. You have high resist cap. If you can manage your endurance, you're darned hard to kill. And, when you get footstomp, man, for me it's just a hoot. Burn and Footstomp? with double rage? man...that's just too hard to pass up. And because you're solo, you don't have to sweat any KB, you don't have to worry about taunting, unless you just want to. A blaster is great fun, but you have to worry about status protection. A scrapper is kind of fun, but the damage that outdoes a brute's is overshadowed by the lack of a taunt aura around them. Those npcs are rightfully scared, but the way they run away annoys me. And the brute's base hitpoints are higher. For me, a scrapper is a crapper. Hardly worth making - but that is just me. I've seen some scrappers do serious dps. Like, next level amazing stuff. But, they're not for me. Corruptors are fantastic, solo or teamed. Still have to worry about status protection, but breakfrees are cheap. Defenders are as good as corruptors when solo, maybe even better because they get a damage buff of 30% when solo. Just kind of depends on how you slot which is going to be better. But, in summary, the SS/Fire brute is the way to go. All that said, if your desire is to solo AVs, the best combo I can think of is ill/rad controller, the AV/GM killer. It will take a while, but it's certainly doable. There are some AV's, like Clamor and Arakhn that are easily clobbered by just about any AT, but some are downright difficult. Marauder has a huge chunk of hitpoints, and Silver Mantis can be problematic for a lot of ATs. But, with perma-Phantom Army, you're in good shape no matter what you're facing. And with the rad secondary, you can really whittle them down.

I'm probably in the minority, but I've heard this song before. Play a widow, it'll be fantastic! It was not fantastic. Now, that may say more about me than the widow, but if it weren't for an sg event crawling on red side from 1 to 50, I'd have stopped at level 24. You have to respec. Why? Because you're level 24. But, I don't want to respec. I hate respecs. What are my other options? A respec. It's really a ridiculous thing to make a player do. At least with the HEATs, a respec isn't crammed down your throat. On one hand, it's an interesting thing, giving the player a couple of options, choose this path or this one. It's not a lot different from the epic/patron pool choices, but those decisions are made later in the characters career, and they aren't a focal part of the build, just well, I guess the ancillary word works. I totally get how some players see this as a fantastic feature. But, for me, not really liking the idea of stopping what I'm doing at 24 and doing a respec...not my idea of a good time. Still, I intend to revisit the widow, and I will make a fortunata at some point, but not sure this week is good timing. There's just not much the fort has to offer to me that seems interesting or fun at this point.

You may recall my telling you that I'd made an ice/dark corruptor...and then discovered I'd already had one buried in one of the many pages of alts. That one is currently level 40. I look at my older builds and think sometimes, "Pretty clever. How'd I forget that?" or, I think, "Sheesh. What was I thinking? That's crap!" So, since that older forgotten one is geared for defense, I figured I'd gear this one of up for resistance. Isn't that why we have so many character slots? Mids is a great tool, but sometimes a character that looks fantastic in mids doesn't play fantastic in game. And, I suppose, this is why I make the builds in the first place, to see if the build plays as good as the numbers suggest it does. There are a couple of things about the ice/dark that bug me, but if it didn't have that couple of things, it would probably be too "good" and someone from the powers section within the HC dev team would swing the nerf hammer. "Surely you see that if you're building your entire character around that one power, it must be brought in line, right?" Nope. I'm far too obtuse to see such things. Willfully blind. Say, that could be a name for an alt...but I digress. As far as health goes, the corruptor hp cap is 1606.35. I'm not sure reaching that cap is worth the squeeze. Or were you thinking about the strength/amount of the heals? I'd say something like "can't hurt", but in a fashion, it could, if you end up sacrificing other attributes like recharge. My next experiment is to visit brainstorm, and use that temp from p2w and analyze various bosses to see how twilight grasp and tar patch impact them, and then compare those values to something like envenomed dagger and the apprentice charm that magic origin characters get at level 1. The apprentice charm does -resist, and the dagger does -regen. If I find out those two in conjunction do what tar patch and twilight grasp do..well, it'll be sad. Fortunately TP and TG do more than just the one thing.

Yes, I did. Mainly because the -tohit is pretty much leaving me untouched. Figured I'd guard against the hits that do make it through. Because when something floors defense, anecdotally, it doesn't seem to matter if I have 60%, or 16%, it results in getting hit a lot. But that's just anecdotal evidence, meaningless.

The only "extra" you get from a faster TF is the opportunity to earn more merits doing something else. Depends on what's fun for you and what your goals are, I'd say. Now, in Ouro, completing most of those arcs in 30:00, 1:00 and 2:00 (2 hours, not 2 minutes) will get you a badge for each time limit met. But outside of Ouro - nope.

are really not so mysterious. I was talking in game with someone I consider a player with a true affinity for humor about the market. Like many folks, when we see an item that normally sells for 1.5-2.5M, and suddenly we're consistently able to get it for less than 1M...we ask ourselves...what's going on here? Also like many of us, we'll pay attention to when Yomo speaks on the market, cuz...well, he's smart. And generous and loaded with inf, but mainly because he seems to have a clear understanding, particularly when he uses 4Binf words like "Fungible". For weeks, I thought he was talking about Devouring Earth pets, so I set out to clobber as many as I could, hoping to get as rich as Yomo, but all I got was a badge. But I digress. The population on HC has picked up, particularly after the licensing agreement with NCSoft, and another bonus influx after page 7. I don't have the tools to see how many of that influx are still playing. But, one thing Yomo has said a number of times, "competition is good for the market". It's not that great for a certain marketer of mine, but even so, I have to remember that the cheaper IOs become, the further my stockpiles will take me. and the same is true for everyone who has stockpiles. So, don't sweat the lower prices. It just means you're richer now than you were before - and you didn't do anything to get that way. It's just the market forces at work.

So, this seemed like a good idea, but I'm a bit puzzled as to what you do with this information when you get it. Pop a yellow? Reduce the difficulty? Slot for more accuracy and/or more toHit? Some combination of all three? I tend to monitor defense and resist and will use inspirations if I get debuffed lower than my comfort level - but other than yellows, not really sure what can be done mid-mission with this data.

Nothing to add other than to say, don't feel bad. I know I've been destroyed by her on a number of different alts. And I build my characters for survivability more than I should because I solo more often than not. I can't rely on a heal or a tank's taunt. She's tough.

I can concur with Mr. G! Forgot about his stuff. I appreciate the reminder. I was looking for something to do with my new fire/dark corr, too!

So, I'm all about the lagniappe. Lagniappe is kind of like heading west and your 6pm is suddenly 5pm and you get an extra hour. A little extra through no extra effort on your part. Faultline, Striga, Croatoa and RWZ each offer us all some lagniappe reward merits. Do each of the arcs in those zones and you get a bonus 20 reward merits. I like the first two arcs in Faultline; they're short. Nothing overly complicated. The third isn't too bad either. Not a fan of the 4th one, simply because of the map locations. They're way in the back of Faultline. It's an area where if you're not going for a badge, or doing this arc, you're not likely to ever go back there. For me, the best mission of all these arcs is rescuing Yin's father. The spacing of the npcs is perfect for me. I can kill everything, or just rescue papa Yin and escort him back, as long as I have a break free to make sure I don't get held. Striga...well, Peeble's arc is lengthy, relatively, but I like the temp power. Worth it. Long Jack's arc is quick; but Tobias Hansen has a great arc for the vamp badge. If I'm not up for the commitment of a Moonfire, this is the arc I'll do. The Croatoa arcs are great - but they each seem to insist you defeat npcs in a specific area, and they are often not in that area. I have to teleport them into the neighborhood to complete the mission. Very annoying. Or maybe I just haven't figured out the obvious place they hang out. But, other then the defeat X missions, they're all fairly short. I love to prevent the fir bolg from exiting the portal. It's one of my favorites! My ranged characters fare much better than my melee, for sure. I also like Buck Salinger's final mission. Thankfully, it's timed. I'd probably like it better with a 5:00 timer instead of 15:00, but it's still interesting to me. And, there's a fair bit of lagniappe in RWZ; the Vanguard merits I get won't stand out as any kind of great loot, but it doesn't hurt. Some of the Renegade Vanguards in Guassian's arc...those do hurt. Still, the arcs are pretty good. I don't really like clobbering Rikti, or I'd like them more, but they're a welcome reprieve from Tina Mac and Maria Jenkins. But, I think the best arcs are the SSAs. They're all short and rewarding, if you don't repeat them too soon.

Somewhere, in this forum, or maybe it was on the Titan network site, I wrote, in some fashion that I was glad the game shut down. I was playing far too much. I was unemployed at the time, and I think I was sitting in front of the computer with a dorm fridge and a microwave within an over-stretched arm's reach. If it weren't for the call of nature, I might never have gotten up from the chair. The game shut down, and then suddenly I realize I'm big fat slob. So, I started to move around. A little bit at first, and then finally got in shape. And I've stayed fit. I don't know that I grasp everything the OP wrote. But, if I understood that they're saying too much of a good thing is bad for us, then I'm inclined to agree. The Ancient Greeks used to say, "all things in moderation". And, I think that's a fair statement. Not everyone can handle booze, or gambling. The level up sound probably creates some dopamine levels that are higher for some folks than others. So, no judgement here.

So...when I get one of these, I see the purple lettering. Why? I have been conditioned, in a sense, to expect those purple letters flashing across my screen to denote something "very rare". And I've done two story arcs today, and in the midst of each one, I've gotten a prismatic. I wasn't keeping track, but I think I get a prismatic at some point during every arc. So, shouldn't these be orange, and the monstrous aethers be yellow/uncommon? Just curious what the rest of you think.

I did run Binocolo's arc when I got the appropriate level and was awarded the 20 merits. So, I suppose the game really does recognize the red/blue correlating SSAs as the same arc. It just wasn't something I even thought about. Different zones and all that. The sad thing is it's probably something I figured out years ago and just forgot.

Interesting. There's just potential for one issue - the range of these powers. I know on a corruptor, it's 60 foot radius. Now, in real life, staying within 60 feet of each other sounds fairly simple. But if one or two falls out of that range, on really tough content, might that result in a cascading failure? I wonder how many of my sg folks would wander off relying on such tactics, pun intended. (Cuz there's always one or two that take a different path.)

That reminds me to copy the character with it and craft it on brainstorm to see what it looks like. It might look too much like a bud and cause some confusion.

I can't speak for all of them, but the mini-scrapyard I got only required 1 Prismatic and 2.5M

Same character. Just swapped alignments. I probably got confused from experience on another server - Rebirth. Used to swap sides and get a run as a hero, and then a run as a villain. (but there was a lot of alignment missions in between - no Null the Gull there)

Historically, I have a clear memory of running Theoden's SSA 2x for 20 merits each time, and then having to wait a full week to re-run it for the full merits - 20 here on HC, and it was a "hero merit" on live. I thought to myself...why not run it redside. I just ran it 2x for 20 each in Skyway...if I'm remembering correctly, it's a different arc (well, same maps, but different perspective) I can grab another 20 merits right quick. But, I only got 5. The words in red suggested the week waiting period was for ANY SSA, not just a specific one. Is that the case now? One per week, once you get the "Free" first run? I don't recall it being like this a couple of years ago. Not a big deal, just curious.

The biggest strength of the costume creator is the random creator feature. It does a better job than I would do, for sure. My routine is to hit it maybe a dozen times until I see something that might capture the image of what I think a character with the name it has might look like. I might change the color, and the head and hair. And the auras. Never did see the appeal of most of those. And the random creation tool has an affinity for non-human heads. Not sure why that is, but it does result in some interesting looks. Another big strength is the scale feature. I only just learned that was a thing about 2 years ago when I made Thong Kong, and got help with the gorilla look. The biggest weakness is there's no horse head. I'm on a character now called Neigh-Sayer. A horse head would have been a lot more fitting than a floating brain.

I can't say I have this approach all the time. But, as of late, I've tried to emulate folks who have impressed me in the past with the way they have led. Mind you, the key word is "tried". I led a dfb yesterday. Likely, just next to Posi 1 and ITF for the more frequently run team content. I didn't advertise it as a badge run. Mainly because on this character, it didn't matter to me. But, I did ask the team if they wanted badges. Three were enthusiastically wanting them. So, I suggested they use single target damage, etc. Not before Meinst has 1/4 of his hp bar gone, this one controller was dispatching cadaver after cadaver like they had a 6 slotted fire ball. One of the badge-wanters was like "fail". And I said, "oh well. No big deal". Granted, missing a badge doesn't take up any extra time like triggering an ambush when the team isn't ready for it. So, definitely the annoyance felt is justified. But - let's ask ourselves - why are we here? I mean - at that point - why are you doing a posi 1? It's not for the merits. The first SSA, solo, by a weaker AT, will net you almost 2x as many merits in less than half the time. It can't be TFC requirements for most - I mean, don't we all know visiting Null the Gull, and then going to Lord Schweinzer in Port Oakes takes at most 20 minutes? And it's not like the veteran players haven't had time to set up a 2nd account for something like this, or alternatively, don't have in-game friends who do. I guess what I'm saying, if we're there for XP, while annoying, we still get what we came for, right? Albeit in a sloppy manner. And Biostem makes a good point above - instructions need to come across as suggestions, and if you can punctuate and choose words in such a fashion as to make them silly or amusing, it might go a little further and actually be heeded. After all, some of these players are not adults and may need to be handled with kid gloves.

May we please have an option for a horse head? Imagine all the unicorns and such... but no, really. I've made a character called Neigh Sayer, and well, a fish or cow head just isn't going to cut it.

I never have grasped why these descriptions are worded so strangely; it's almost like their own version of legalese. It should say something like "reduces target's damage resistance" or "reduces casting player's damage resistance"...something along those lines where there's no mystery. I mean "-30% strength to smashing damage for 30s on self" is vague, and nebulous. Of course, we've come to expect this from the dark, right? Does it mean the damage from the critter's attack on the casting player is reduced by 30%? Or does it mean the player's smashing damage output is reduced? I can't imagine how this translates into other languages for our players. Maybe we're seeing the translated version from another language? I dunno. Or maybe I just need to work on reading comprehension.

So, I never thought I'd ask for this. I came up with an idea .. and actually having to type it out is going to spoil the surprise! But, other than for a badge, didn't really have a use for prismatics. But now I do. And when I took my level one crab - who is going to eventually pursue a bane path, (is that a thing? I think it's a thing) to the benovolab vendor and saw that there was no option to be a fir bolg - I was sure I'd seen someone with a fir bolg costume. And the real stinker, no red cap, no Tuatha de Dannon either. I'd already made "Yogurt Justice", and he was supposed to be an Arachnos Soldier disguised as a Tuatha De Dannon. A nifty back story about a bad experience with Yogurt, Dannon Yogurt in particular. It's no secret the Tuatha are responsible for those bacterium found within. But no. No Tuatha costume. So, here's my suggestion. Add it please. If my kheld can be a void stalker, surely my arachnos soldier can be a Tuatha. Oh - and some feedback. I want my prismatics back. When I switched forms, my costume on my kheld turned off! And there's no option to where the costume in dwarf or nova form. Very disappointed.