Ukase

Honestly - your situation is enviable! Embrace the novelty. My first question is what server are you on? What I think would suit your situation best would be a supergroup. For example, on Excelsior, there's an SG called Cosmic Council. Typically, a chap named @cadd (actually it's caddoch of helios, but most all of his characters are Cadd***** in some way, shape or form) who does an excellent job of explaining these Master of Magisterium. He runs it with the SG every Saturday night (except these past two because of the holidays). I don't know about other groups, but he demonstrates a lot of knowledge and will make things super clear, allow you to ask questions, etc. And, if you join the discord (which is required to participate - you can do this with words instead of by typing. The group has some leaders tho, who simply are not effective at communicating these things, but they do the best they know how. But Cadd...as far as Magisterium goes, he knows that one very well and is good at relaying what's going on. Other SG groups likely do similar things, but I've no idea who they are. TinMage is a player derived abbreviation for two short task forces. Tin Mark IV and Apex TF. Both Task Forces pay 40 merits, and when you "Speed" them, they take about 10-15 minutes each, on a good team. For someone who would want to experience the content, I'd plan for about 25 to 40 minutes, depending on how much you wanted to explore.

This is something I wish were added to the information in the LFG. As in - instead of just stating 40 merits and an Astral or 10 threads, but also include OR Essence of the Incarnate. The space is cramped, but I think they can find a way to include it.

I do this with my farmers. When they reach vet level 48, I recycle them, and they will either melt down the emps for reward merits into converters, or send transcendent merits to the new alt for quick level shifts. Just depends on which need is greater.

I took the liberty of editing this page just now. I simply removed that line about the shards, as declaring it rewarding 4 emp merits didn't really jive with the shard info.

I'm sure this is an oversight, but it's a 4 emp merit reward, allowed once per 18 hours..or is it 20? I'll just say once a day because I can never remember the number of hours. Additionally, if you've the time and interest - running an Aeon SF on Relentless is pretty simple on any team, provided you have good team composition. The players don't even need to be that competent. It's just run in, do as much damage as you can, rez up and repeat - if your tactics and team buffs/debuffs are insufficient to carry you through each fight. Yeah, it'll take a long time if your team isn't that great - but you get a lot of astrals, can choose the 4 emp merit reward at the end, and you'll probably get a lot of emps worth of astrals. I can't recall how many astrals I started with - less than 5, or I'd have converted them, I'm pretty sure. But I finished with 40 astrals - which is 8 emps worth. The team I was on, we had 6 barriers and 2 incans. We timed the barriers for one cast every 30 seconds...and since they recharge in 2 minutes, we were never without good buffs. It made the whole thing as easy as a speed itf. Took less than an hour. It may be telling, but we also only had one tank and 7 corruptors with various buffs/debuff secondaries. So, solid team comp in that regard. Unless....I'm so accustomed to choosing Emp Merits for round 1, reward merits for round two & three, that I've completely overlooked a 4 shard option OR it's something in the latest patch. Haven't done a hami in a month or so...

They can't be effectively farmed any more than threads. BUT - let me share some facts that a LOT of people don't know. 1. Shards won't drop for incarnate content. So, you can BAF all day long and never get one. You can zip through the Dark Astoria & Incarnate Cim arcs and never get one. 2. Anecdotally, shards drop very frequently compared to threads when I discount the drops for dinging a new vet level in certain content. What content is that? MSRs and Hamidon Raids. The mito clearing stage tends to give me 3-4 each round of hami. Do NOT make the mistake of simply using threads for alpha, unless and until you have the other slots completed without considering this next point. All the shards you get can only go towards your alpha. All the threads you get can go towards Alpha, Judgement, Interface, Lore, Destiny and Hybrid. Doesn't it make sense to use shards as you can, for your alpha, and use threads to complete your Lore & Destiny for those incarnate level shifts before you fuss with Judgement & Interface? It does to me. You do you. The t-1 alpha requires 12 shards or 60 threads. Or - if you're inclined to do certain task forces, you can forgo the reward merits for a specific common salvage to help complete the recipe. The MSR also allows you to exchange Vanguard Merits for a Gr'ai Matter incarnate component, saving you 4 shards. So, if you enjoy task forces, there's no reason you can't run 3 task forces and use those reward components to craft your t-1 with no shards. So many folks get shards so rarely that they insist shards are too rare and threads are easier. I do state that you can only go with what the RNG gives you. But if you're just doing BAF and Speed Lambdas, you're never going to get any shards. So, of course, they're rare for you. The problem with shards for Alpha for me is that the t-3 is always gated by the notice of the well. You can only get, at most, 2 per week. One from the weekly, and one from exchanging the Flames of Prometheus (from Mortimer Kal SF) for another Notice. But, after you've exchanged it, you can't repeat Mort. Kal for another Flame and get another notice. It's a one time deal. So that's 3 weeks at least you have to wait to get your t-4 if you only use shards. The way some folks do iTrials all day - they can often get so many incarnate drops, that they're t-4'd pretty quickly, if the RNG gave them some love with Very Rares & Rares. It's all random, though. Some folks will swear, that if they don't do Underground (100% chance of rare or very rare) they'd never get a rare or very rare. There's no wrong way - but it makes sense to me to use shards when you can. Try to conserve threads for the other slots, because while threads may drop 5x as often or more, you need 5x as many. It's all about the rng, of course. And, of course, when you get 120 threads for vet levels 1,2,4,5,7,8,10,11, that's 960 threads just by doing anything that gives xp. With all that said, in my afk fire farms, my new 50's will sit in there and get plenty of shards while I'm afk. They don't drop as often as in a Hami Raid or an MSR, but they do drop a lot, simply because of the number of mobs that get clobbered. So, there's always an actual farm to farm them. Oh - if anyone tells you to "Ignore shards and use threads" - they are giving you an incomplete picture - and candidly, they're telling you the wrong thing. They are wrong for doing so. It's an incomplete answer. What we need to start saying is that "It Depends", like so many other things in game. It depends on what you're doing, and what the rng gives you. Will using threads exclusively work? Sure. Will using Shards exclusively for Alpha work? Sure. Is there a "best"? No. Because it all depends on the content you do and the RNG. And there's no reason, if you're in a hurry, that you can't use threads (and shards if you have them) for your t-3 alpha, for the level shift, then from that point, use shards only, conserving threads for the other 5 slots, and just letting the shards accumulate until you can get the t-4.

I did revisit this. While the xp is better, it's not set up for afk...so it takes a lot longer than the 125 with the patrolling mobs. And the drops...anecdotally, not as plentiful. 3 uncommon and 1 very rare recipe and a bunch of commons. Kind of lost inf on that set up. Even with lower xp per mob in AE - it's much better XP overall, over time for an afk-er. For active farming, I think the outside AE would be the way to go, given the discrepency between xp per mob.

For those that don't recall - this is where those powers used to come from.

Yomo - Attached is the build of my Imperious Ukase, a water/sonic Corruptor. It is in my top 5 characters to play! Capped s/l resist, capped HP (which for as few HP you get as a corruptor, may as well get all you can (assuming you have the 4 passive accolades.) Just missing Worthy Opponent (Old School LRSF) and two of the Spring event badges and it'll have all of them. No end issues when solo, enough damage mitigation with the KD that comes with Water, quite soloable. In fact, I've solo'd almost all the content except for master TFs & iTrials with it. Dehydrate does some nifty damage and recharges often enough to keep your health up in pretty much all situations, except fights with AVs - then I use inspirations when needed. Ukase Badger - Corruptor (Water Blast).mxd

Not the case. When I chose Old School Challenge, Manti, Sister Psyche were EB's. The Vindicators in the next mission were "hero" rank, tho. No idea what it was in live before the change.

I don't think they should randomly drop. I think they should be part of every reward table. Or at least most reward tables. Now, what might be more interesting is to have a random Winter-O be available after completing the Winter Lord trial or some other appropriate task, much the same way Overwhelming Force is available after Summer BB. And since the Summer BB is available year round - I see no reason why the Winter Lord trial can't be available year round.

In my case, it's because of the salvage drops. Freaks drop tech salvage. But the recipes often call for arcane salvage. So, you end up with having to open the AH and type out each salvage you need, and then have to buy them. It's not hard, of course, but it takes time. The AE farms, for reasons that are beyond me, and I think it's all of the critters, custom or otherwise - they drop both arcane and tech. So, after each map, you don't need to buy any commons. And if you are missing an uncommon or rare, you just don't craft 'em, and see if you got what you need in the next map. Out in the wild, away from AE, you just get one or the other. I believe there are some critters that might drop both, but I have no recollection of which ones they are, if they exist. On live, before AE, I suffered through Harvey Meylor's arc as well as Unai Kemen's to get one freak map and one demon map so I could run one, then the other, to minimize the need to purchase salvage - but there was still the annoyance of having to go from one mission to the next. (no mission tp or team tp then). When AE came out, I tried it and at first, it was far better. But when they nerfed the ambushes, etc..I just went back to the Dreck & Demon maps. Now, I may revisit such system, just for kicks and grins.

I'm sure it's common knowledge among those who have made a farm of their own. If not - if you didn't read patch notes, or learn it from other players by chance, you'd never know. Sure, there are a lot of farms out there, but my guess is, most are either rigging the game in favor of their own character, for specific circumstance. Only a few seem to take great pains to ensure 100% xp. And, unfortunately, unless you're paying close attention to how much xp you get for a certain ranked mob (I don't - as I'm after the drops, not the xp), you'd probably never notice any discrepancy.

You made me curious. I knew that with custom mobs, the xp was going to vary, but man, some farms are definitely better than others. I was in one farm - and I was getting almost twice as much xp in Briggs as I was in another farm - no sense naming it here, who want's less xp? The strange thing is...both maps have an ally of sorts...the only difference must be in mob difficulty, but they're all dealing in fire. Other than the costumes, I really can't tell the difference between them, but the game seems to see one.

After consulting with a marketing peer, I think I'm going to sink a tremendous stack of inf, beyond the 2k I've already purchased. I've only opened a couple hundred of them so far. But, I'm making the assumption that these packs being on sale don't really help the little guy, the player with a smaller stack of influence. Sure, they can maybe get a few packs more than otherwise, but: If they just wanted cheaper ATOs & goodies within the packs and aren't concerned with the marketing aspect, they can only buy about ..40% more than they could before. I don't know the precise math, don't care to tabulate it. If they are thinking of the marketing, obviously, the more inf you have, the more you can buy. And, since the "buy-in" is 50% higher during this sale than the one last year, then odds are, fewer packs overall will be bought. Patch that tidbit in with the idea that they won't go on sale next year, if ever again...then someone with the really big stacks can help keep these prices lower or higher. Price them too high, and folks will just use the reward merits for them - and you lose inf. from lack of sales. But, if you know the math, and you make it easy on folks, you can still make a tidy sum. So why not?

There are better uses for the influence. The question is more, "how much time are you willing to spend on it?". The way I see it, if you have enough inf to fund your next alt, do you really need to sweat farming or marketing? A farmer can generate just from the defeats and selling the commons & enhancements enough in a day or so to fund an alt - depending on the build, of course. An AFK farmer may not make as much as an active one, but if you have two accounts - play on one, afk the other, there's really no "need" for the packs. But the temps & other goodies outside of the enhancements can come in handy. It's just a question of how much time do you want to spend clicking and opening, and if you're driven like some of us to accumulate big stacks of inf for whatever reasons you may have. If you've no issue with clicking, the winter packs on sale, well....they're essentially free inf - if you can afford to buy enough to make the average work for you. Some packs have zero Winter-Os. Some have two, some only have one. On average, you get 1.2 per pack. Selling each one for 10-11M (seemed to be the "instant" sale two days ago) you make about 10M every 10 packs just from the winters. And the reward merits, converters, brain storm ideas, boosters...all those add up. And, of course, patience can make these add up even more. Like...say next year, since they're not likely to go on sale again. Like ever. Your farmer will accumulate catalysts over time, so those are essentially just an opportunity cost if you use them to make the winters you get superior. Slot them, catalyze, unslot them, sell. The 15M you paid per pack will then offer you approx. 15-21M per pack on average, just for the winters. To me, even if it takes TWO years for all the big players in this niche to get through their inventory and for prices to normalize to pre-sale prices, you can make quite a profit. But, if such plotting and planning sucks the fun out of the game, there's no point in it, really.

Feel free to be judgemental, or a jerk. Be yourself, whomever that may be. I'm too obtuse at this early hour to take offense. There's only so much time in a day, so I don't play each of them daily, but I do play them all routinely. If they don't get play after 3 months, I tend to just respec them, get the IOs out, and delete them, then re-roll them - with the same name. That way, I'm only using a dozen names, not ALL of them. In the spirit of transparency, I have three accounts, and each one has a different "flavor" Wait - I have 4 accounts now, but the 4th just holds inf in email pretty much. Each account has a "brand" of sorts. The Ukase brand, which is more about order. (More defense, more HP when appropriate). The Gordian brand which is more chaos (recharge, dps-focused) and the Apache brand which are a blend of chaos/order. I make no apologies for pursuing variations of Ukase, Gordian or Apache named characters. Obviously, I can't control what anyone else does. But, I still have the right to be amused & appreciate or be annoyed by it. As for being an altaholic, I used to wonder about these people you refer to alt-aholics. I'm still not sure it means the same thing to everyone. As far as I can tell, everyone aside from maybe LB3k and Veracorp are altaholics. I know one guy that I don't think I've ever seen him on the same character twice. Like ever. I don't know for sure, but my guess is everyone has multiple characters. They may play one more often, but if you have more than one...is that the threshold for being an alt-aholic? Or is three? Or is it something else?

Not everyone has the capacity for dual boxing. I've gotten the Beast Within in two ways - first way, myself and two others simply used Aeon SF as a farm. Got the Cryogens, & the Lycanthropes. It didn't take as long as you think, the Lycanthropes. When you're not looking for badges, and you're on the lowest diff...what is that? Malicious, I think. Things go pretty quickly. You just have to make sure all are set to 0/8, because if you're not on discord, hard to know who will log back in first. The second way was using Kahn TF. I only got 6-7 per run, the first map. That took a while because, as you (Placta) state, you never know who's gonna turn. I think that's why I prefer the Aeon SF path. You KNOW the Dark Vamps will transform. No guessing needed. I used a target macro for Dark, and discovered a number of them...maybe 6-8 that weren't in formation. There were 20 in formation, if my memory isn't failing me. So, needed to reset it only twice for those. Unlike the damn Cryo's, had to reset it 9 times for that one.

I tried! Admittedly, I knew it was likely it would be taken on Excelsior and Everlasting. I have a character named Apache Fog. I got the name off of a race horse that an old girlfriend of mine owns. I liked the sound of it. So, I also made an Apache Fire, Apache Flame, Apache Mace, Apache Heat, Apache Rain, Apache Steel, and a lot of other Apache Named Characters. Then, last year, (2020), I see a character named Apache_Fire. Now, I checked their character info and saw that my character was made first. I promise you, this really bothers me. It shouldn't, but it does. It's like a peeve. I realize it's fuss over nothing, but it irks me. In any event, I've always felt like if you try to get a name like Brain Freeze, and someone already has it, using something like Bra1n Fr33zE is just sad. I mean, it's obvious you wanted Brain Freeze but can't get it because someone else has it already. But that's what makes the names in this game so fantastic! That creativity that develops a character's name, and how the name ties in with the power sets, or some other facet of the character. I truly understand that sometimes, a name is just so perfect for a character you have in mind, that you feel like you MUST adapt the name in some small way to use it. But it still irks me when it's my character's name that's been sort of copied. And I do think those that use numbers for letters are just not trying hard enough to come up with a suitable name. So I'm sometimes judgemental and a bit of a jerk. Nothing new there! I just can't help it. Mindsicle Nasty Neuralgia Hail Hitler (sorry if that's offensive. Hail may be a verb for a greeting, but it's also frozen rain, sort of. ) Sleet Sammy Nothing as fantastic as Brain Freeze, but not horrible suggestions.

There's a distinction between using it and then telling a newer player to use it. I typically use the wiki myself to find the answer to a newer player's question if I don't know it off the top of my head. I'll know if I need the HC or can safely use the older version. I prefer the older one because of where the search text box location is, and it auto-fills. The HC Wiki is not the same in this regard. No idea why they changed that, but they did. Eventually, I'll get used to it. I have both bookmarked, but in my case, I play on HC and Rebirth. So, using the HC Wiki would sometimes be incorrect for that server. Thus, my affinity for the original version.

Brain Freeze

I completely agree. The code of conduct is clear: If there are less than 1500 people logged in to a shard you may play with up to three accounts at once. If there are more than 1500 people logged into a shard you may only play with a single account. The code of conduct also lays out penalties if you violate these rules. What's not really clear to me is what magic number, if there is one, makes the server display the three red dots. I would think that zone events like MSRs & Hami Raids might put more stress on the server than standard mission play, but I've really no idea. It would seem like the servers display those red dots well before the 1500. It should be pointed out that it is the player's responsibility to check the shard population. Very grateful that the CoC lays out how to check the population easily. For convenience, https://forums.homecomingservers.com/code-of-conduct/ Scroll to #5 for multi-boxing policy.

Are you suggesting it doesn't?

Close. It's Perception Bias.

I've been itching to say this since I first became aware of Flea. I think Flea is by far, one of the most helpful people in game, at least on the Help channel. Odd..now that I've said it, I'm still itching.