Ukase

For kicks and grins..I did this: It's still there! 515 converters in the AH...listed for more than 300k? I think this must be one of those extra zero errors, only instead of buying something with one too many zeroes, they've listed it with one too many zeros. I can't recall, but I think the highest I've ever seen a converter go for is maybe 110k, other than today. A couple of hours, in another thread, I noticed this: So, 11 more converters were put on sale for more than 300K? Something is fishy! And I'm phishing! What's going on here?!

Oh my. Someone's been paying a fortune for converters, or the display glitch is impacting them. 200K, nestled in amongst 100k, 101k...they were 70k most of yesterday. Only 504 left. Get 'em while they're hot. (I don't mean buy 'em. Sell 'em! That seems like a pretty good price for something so easily obtained. )

There was a time when I pugged routinely. I stumbled across a similar situation. Now, I avoid pugs if I can. So, I no longer see such things. When solo, the only KB that might irritate me comes from Fusionette. And candidly, if I do see it, it doesn't bother me any more than an AoE immob or hold that was cast too soon for maximum dps. In short, it doesn't bother me at all. Because I can't fuss at someone's KB any more than I can fuss at someone who uses their Judgement nuke a second before I use mine, or uses their stupid, stupid, stupid damned Fold Space just as I'm about to hit my own AoE. The very invention of Fold Space alone reveals the HC Devs hatred for me and my playstyle....wait. That just slipped out. I meant to repress that, honestly! If KB is the biggest problem we have, it's a good day. Now, how about upping that inf cap to 100 Billion already?

They say time heals all wounds. And to call this a wound would be, and IS quite over-dramatizing the situation. I appreciate everyone's feedback, and respect everyone's right to their opinion even if it's different than mine. It means your wrong, of course, but I'm sure you'll learn the error of your ways in time. That was a feeble joke, there. It's early. I'm sure I'll get over it sooner, than later. I have vented properly, and the thread didn't get locked down, (yet), and so far as I know, nobody got banned. I call it a win. Now, about that inf cap...can we raise that thing to 100Billion yet? (and that's only half joking. 50 Billion would be just fine, too.)

I've given one a try so far. Still a work in progress. But it met with failure because I couldn't tab over to the other account in time for a self heal. Maybe I used bad strategy. In retrospect, I probably did. But, with no incarnates, and no temps, that means either a lot of slogging through, or respecing TP into characters that I've played a certain way for quite some time. I can always make a second build for this, but then there's the cool down of all the powers, it just makes a long affair even longer. Those notes in the beta - they make it super clear about the new content, and proliferation...but somehow, I'd caught on about the no-incarnates on the Market Crash, Abandoned Sewer Trial, Eden Trial - but missed that they had made that a sweeping change across the board. I would have put money on that it wasn't in there, but when I checked back, it was there, but I'd missed it. Or I'd have not spent the time I did on Beta, but spent the time soloing those tfs on the remaining characters that still needed/wanted them before the patch hit. Just like I'm doing now with the ouro badges on a couple of characters. Before they mess that up, too. 5 merits as a threshold to give a badge? Have they ever run something solo without enhancements? That ain't fun for one mission, let alone 3-4 of them. But, you want the badges, you put up with it. But nobody says I have to like it, lol.

Just an FYI - I would never consider trying to solo an incarnate trial. Yet, I do try to get the "master of" badges for all of them. And have gotten all of them on at least a half a dozen characters that I enjoy playing. And when you lead these trials, you can get those mentoring badges rather easily. And of course, there's always the option to dual box and mentor the alt. As for the rest of your post, I appreciate your thoughts.

Understand that your views here are not shared by me. At least, not all of them. If I were playing an AT like yours, that does basically no damage at all...well, I probably would work with the build as best I could until it could at least hit it's way out of a wet paper sack. But, I might benefit a lot more from a team. Sit back, spam holds and buffs/debuffs as best I can and let the other ATs do the damage, pitching in when I can, what little I can. Currently, I'm more of a dps player with as much balance as I can get between resist and defense. I remember when I first played, back in live. I was on an emp/elec defender. That wasn't so much my main, as it was just the only character I had. That was back when my character was called Confidence, which I subsequently changed to Ukase Rex, following a reading of Marvel's Secret Wars. (Dr. Doom to Ultron 5) Back then, as an emp, I never had a moment to do anything solo! I'm serious, too. I'd log in, get an invite within seconds, literally. I finally hit 50, thinking my character was unstoppable. I rarely died. Tanks took the aggro, and I kept them upright to the best of my ability. And then, my bubble burst. I tried to solo Unai Kemen's Banished Pantheon mission - the first one he gives. I got waxed, I went to the hospital, went back, got waxed again. And then I figured it out. The tank was taking the heat, so my character never really got tested. I'd leveled to 50 and had no idea what my character could do. That's when I learned that teaming just hides your weaknesses. It makes you soft. Just like in real life, if you're no good alone, then you're not good for the group. While it's true that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, it's upon me to make my character as strong as I can, so that I bring more to the table. That's the background behind my characters. Be as good as I know to make them and play them. So while I don't mind teaming, it covers up flaws. You never know where you stand when you're grouped. That's why I try to get as many Master of TF/SFs solo if I can. If I can't, I juggle some things in real life and try to team with a couple of groups that somehow manage to tolerate my atrocious puns and awkward pronunciation of various words over Discord. If I'm using Discord with you, then you know you're something special. I won't talk with just anyone. So, yeah, it's simple, if I want to get those master badges, I have to team. But now, not only can a mistake by another player cost me the badge (after all, I'm investing my time, going for this badge) but in a fashion, the badge is now easier to get because of team synergy. It's definitely harder alone. It always has been. But now - because, as YOU say " The Devs are righting things to what it should be", I don't have the opportunity to earn the badges by myself. I'd like to think I'm slightly better than mediocre as a player. I'm certainly capable of building very good characters with a good blend of order & chaos. (Order is defense/resistance, and Chaos is DPS) But now I've got to do it with a greater handicap than before. I may yet find the right build that can do it. But I shouldn't have to do so when I already did. The bar has risen when it was perfectly fine where it was -- for a solo player. I don't think the " The Devs are righting things to what it should be". I think they are conceding to those who want to, and enjoy teaming at the expense of those who can't always commit to teaming for 2 hours to run Aeon SF at Relentless, for example. They've decided that those that want to solo can just do without the glory and honor of a master badge. Hey - it's their game. They've been super kind to allow me to play here, and all they ask is that I'm civil, if not polite and kind. (and that's asking a lot from a grumpy geezer like me!) All I'm saying is they've made a mistake. It's just my opinion. They've stepped on my fun. Fun I wouldn't be able to have if they weren't so gracious. All these folks saying things are too easy...well, damn, try soloing a master run. Granted, it's not practically impossible (like it is now), but it is challenging, you have to use strategy and pay attention. Teaming is too damned simple, really. It can be more entertaining, with the right folks, I give you that. And it can be faster, sure. But it's not the same challenge, and there is no badge for it now. And it's not that I want there to be one. I just want things to go back the way they were. But hey, I can't always get what I want. But, I am allowed to express my dismay, and my bewilderment at what I believe to be is a step in the wrong direction. But, if I don't say anything when I disagree with the change, how am I adding anything to the community? Shall I just provide an echo chamber and resonate with what you say, and what they say? I don't think they're after that. And if they are, then much like I am trying to do now, we must learn to live with disappointment.

The ability to earn the badge in game by myself has been taken away. In October, I was good enough. Now, I'm not. So yeah, @Faultline, I can run it with no defeats, no temps - but I don't get anything for it, other than useless merits. No flashy badge title. There's no more motivation. You've taken the carrots away from this ass. You can beat me all you like, but if the carrot isn't close enough, I'm not gonna budge. It's 7:30 am,(my time) I'm up for Worthy Opponent, but the usual suspects won't be on until 5-8pm my time. During which I'll be hit or miss as to my availability. Will I ever understand why this game that was so cleverly adapted for a smaller player-base and solo-friendly, now takes such a turn to make it not solo friendly (with regards to MO badges) ? Anyone can say, "Well you can still do X, you just can't get the badge for it now." That doesn't make it right. It just happens to be the way it is now. And I dislike it, as it takes away the motivation to do the content by myself as I did before. Was it so horrible that I preferred the convenience, no-stress, no expectations to consider, other than my own? Apparently. Now, if I want to be an effective badger, now I have to be a good teammate that can drop real life to play when it's convenient for other folks who want the same badges I do. It would be one thing if the servers were highly populated, and one could find reliable players at any hour, but that is not the case. Not for all of us. I understand that it's impossible to make us all happy. I get it. I think when you changed the rules, you made a mistake. Just my opinion. I do get that it's possible these changes are made with long-term perspectives in mind. Imagining legitimacy as a server, and who knows what else. I hope that happens. But for now, I'm just an ass looking for a carrot.

So, I should just shrug it off, say nothing as if it's quite alright? I don't think that's the best idea. I think when they change something that has an impact on how you play, you owe it to the community to ask why.

In my case, I level my characters up through content, typically. So, none of them rely on any buffs, only the IO set bonuses, really. And what you state about fewer people pursuing the hard content is part of the reason for my post. A solid player, Mezmera - I saw them recruiting for a ..I think it was relentless or vicious, but in prime time, it took them over 20 minutes, maybe 30 to finally fill it. In fairness, a few that might have joined Mez were teamed with me at the time, doing a malicious run for Master of Aeon. See, I'm hearing "so many people wanted this harder content" and yet, I don't see much evidence of this in practice. I just don't think it's the case. Just a vocal minority. I don't wish to imply in any sense that Aeon isn't a good SF. It is. The advancement of difficulty through the various challenge settings IS clever, and I think well done. And hopefully it will lay the framework for future new content. But it IS long, and needlessly so. They also dropped the ball on the rewards. The higher difficulties should reward a lot more than they do currently, but that's just my opinion.

I appreciate the perspective. I think, in a nutshell, I'll just have to trust "them", even though I don't fully appreciate the outcome at this instant in time. I hope my position will change for my own future enjoyment and that I read more, see more, play more, learn more and will "get" what they are after. You raise a solid point about "reading through the public posts". There's a ton on these forums I haven't even looked at, some I've only glanced at. I've skipped past anything costume or rp related, as neither of those are my cup of tea - though I think I'd be good at RP. My problem is I'm such an egotistical jerk, I don't want to share the stage with other RPers! I should probably read more and type less, at least for now.

I think this is part of my issue. Not an issue with the game, but my own personal issue I have to come to grips with. "they" complained. "they" got what they wanted. I think "they" are a vocal minority. Why did "they" get what they wanted? I guess I'm just pissed because now, a LOT of the stuff I used to be able to solo with my lore pet, now I don't have the option anymore. My lore pet is disallowed because "they" didn't like it. Screw "them". I liked it, and I want it back. There, I said it. I only wish it made me feel better. I'm intelligent enough to recognize this is my own issue. I fully realize the world doesn't revolve around me, least of all a free game that's come back after being shut down, at no cost to me. I am grateful. I am just concerned that these folks that tested this stuff are not a broad cross-section of the player base, but consists of a more narrow cross-section. It's not easy testing this stuff. Takes time, and I can appreciate the efforts involved by these folks, whomever they are. I just wish they'd thought about the folks that like to solo stuff. I much preferred soloing MoITF, making wise use of Lore pets and super inspirations. It was fun. But now, I can't do that option. I can do it regular style, without the MoTF challenge and still challenge myself, but now apparently though I was a master, now I'm not. Now I'm just another wannabe. Not very super at all, it turns out. I guess that's why it's called City of Heroes instead of City of Super Heroes.

This is a fair point, and I appreciate the history reminder. I'd forgotten about this as well as a couple of others.

Good points, I appreciate it.

A lot has changed for me in since the latest patch hit. I've been angry, delighted, wrong, right, against something, only to be persuaded to look at things differently. I am truly puzzled sometimes at what goes through the minds of those that are running this game. Fact or fiction: Only 10% of the player base reads and posts on the forums. Fact or fiction: The game is too easy. For everybody. At all levels. Only at incarnate levels. Fact or fiction: The new Master of TF/SF settings are good for the game. I could go on. And on. I'm really trying to have an open mind, but I'm old, and it's difficult. I've been trained to not be easily swayed and skeptical. I was toilet-trained at gunpoint, what can I say? Hidden in gigantic letters and a picture in the patch notes that I somehow overlooked, turns out a Master of Kahn or Barracuda disallows incarnate powers. Never mind that I have 5 characters that got the Master of Kahn and Master of Barracuda (more properly known as Master of the 5th Column Task Force and Master of the 5th Column Strike Force, respectively). And they got to use incarnate powers. So are those characters to be stripped of this badge and forced to re-earn it? That doesn't seem to be the case. Yet, as far as I know, there's no distinction between the badges, whether earned pre or post patch. Is that right? Is it proper? Am I making too much fuss out of nothing? I've been fairly isolated due to the pandemic, and remain so, and as a result, I can hardly tell when I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I already know some are for, and some are against any issue presented. It made sense that with the 3 new Master trials - Eden, ASN, and MC that they might be set up differently, as they're trials and not task forces. Not at all sure why they have two terms for the same type of experience. What's the difference, anyway? So, when I saw that incarnates were disabled for these new master trials, I didn't think much of it. But to modify the requirements for badges that are already earned in game goes against the grain of how this game has been run. I encourage the HC devs to think about this a bit more. This inability to use incarnates during a master TF/SF is a new requirement for badges other folks have already earned much more easily. I don't think this is the right way. In fact, I KNOW it's not the right or fair thing to do. But I'm not paying a penny, so all I have is this forum to encourage you to rethink your position on this. For new badges, go nuts if you must. But for badges that are already in game...that's not right. At least, I don't think it's right. Opinions will vary, as they often do. I'm sure there are people that play this game and enjoy such challenges. I like some challenges, but I like challenges that let me use my character's powers to it's full effect. Like in Really Hard Way, in the Magisterium. Even the disallowing of buffs I'd already paid 8 hours for that are now wasted, because they're not a toggle as was earlier suggested they would become is okay, because I can still use the powers that I earned, as opposed the ones I paid for from p2w. Now, a master run is more like an ouroboros challenge mission. None of this, none of that. Forget those countless runs of BAF and Heather Townsend. Those powers you earned mean nothing to anyone now. If you want to use them, you'll have to do non-master run activities. No badges for you. I don't think I'm alone in stating that while some of us like challenges, we want to use our powers, too. All of them.

Now, I read your reply, in which you used logic quite well, illustrating that one cannot please all the people all the time, nor even some of the people all of the time. And there are certainly players who like and embrace KB, and those who do not. But, just because I haven't stated two of my anecdotes in the forums, doesn't mean they didn't happen. I certainly didn't share this first one, because I was the rude party. I've kindly, as in, gone out of my way, and taken mercy on a lower level defender, and allowed them to join my team as I go burning Freakshow in Crey's Folley. No sooner do I herd them up, and the defender does some sort of plasmatic taser type attack and blows them out of my burn patch. So, I yelled at him in writing, "Hey, don't knock the freaks out of my burn patch, you moron!" Ahem..I probably chose some more colorful language. The next tale, well, I was a by-stander, and witnessed the wordy debate in chat. There was an SG leader, two SG members, and three pugs. I was one of the pugs. The one with KB was another one of the pugs. One of the two sg members started typing out commands to the pug blaster to stop KBing "His" target. I suggested he press F and be right back at his target immediately. Would've been faster and easier than typing out all that rage. Long story short, although I do love a long story, the whole thing escalated into un-fun silence. And when I say escalated, the SG leader dropped Coalition with my SG of one for telling the leader to teach his members some manners, and then preceded to alienate just about everyone on Excelsior server in the months to follow. Thankfully, they don't play anymore. Sure, these are more revealing of deficiencies in player personalities than the powersets. But they are still there. You just don't hear about them, because ...what is it estimated? 90% of players don't visit the forums. Something like that. And what good would it do? The event is passed, and there's nothing to gain. Oddly, ever since that interaction, I have been far more tolerant of KB, and even encouraging of it. Yet, I also recognize the frustration felt by other players when they have to deal with it. I don't see a solution to this minor problem (for me). It's not really that big of a deal to me. But I can see how it can be a big deal to others. The problem is, when I tell folks to use the F key, they don't use it to follow the npc, they use it to type expletives. They really do get frustrated and angry. And the truth is, that should be expected. I would submit that most that do play this game do not limit their playtime to 3 hours a week or something like that. I figure most are escaping from their real life, from whatever problems they may have. The reasons don't really matter. I say all that to say this: I clearly can't and shouldn't generalize our entire player base, it wouldn't be fair or nice. But I do strongly suspect at least half are dealing with things that impact them emotionally, to the point they are not always logical in their thinking. Consider the average age of the player base now..what is it? 40? Playing a game that is as big a time sink as raising twin babies as a single parent? That's not entirely rational in itself. If it is logical behavior you wish to see, I'm afraid you will be disappointed more often than not.

How dare you use logic? You're absolutely right, of course.

Such restraint! What have you done with our Snarky? In all seriousness, I don't disagree. And I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to go forward with a powerset that has KB, when it's so controversial. The rebuttal is always, "there's a kb-kd IO you can use". But, that's a cop-out. Every slot is in demand for almost every build. To waste one with a KB-KD for EACH attack, that's not smart. You just have to embrace the knockback and try to be clever about your avatar positioning when fighting. Or stop playing it, and let the dormancy speak for you.

This is the best advice. Doing any other thing is just a waste of my time. Always craft, convert and sell or use your drops! You don't do it for a badge, you do it to fund your next alt. The badge is gravy. On my characters that pursue this badge - Craft all the common IOs required. Then, have my farmer give all the recipes it gets from drops and do the crafting until the badge is awarded. Takes almost no time at all, really. A couple minutes after each farm map. Oh, on the empowerment buffs, You can delete those buffs once you get them and burn your salvage to get them all over again.

There is no "wrong" way to play, and no "wrong" power set combos to play. Enjoy the journey. I encourage you not to rush through it. Savor it. Over time, a bit more of what CoH has behind the figurative curtain will reveal itself. I keep thinking I've played every mission in this game multiple times, but every now and then, I find some that I've forgotten or never did. With the invention system, there really aren't any true Cookie-cutter builds. There's so many different ways to build a character, that if you find one combo, like fire/fire blaster fun, you can re-roll another one and instead of focusing on one facet, like AoE damage, you can focus on hit points and defense and see how different the experience is. There are still probably hundreds of power set combos I've yet to try. Stephen King once said, "Everything old becomes new again". I'd put off electric blast - my very first character on CoH live...never made it to 50 on that one. But now, the time has come to revisit with the new changes. Welcome and I strongly encourage you to email @yomo and insist he give you 20M or you'll sing "Paper Roses" by Marie Osmond to him. He will gladly give it to you.

Yeah, but dark secondary is pretty ugly (to me) visually - at least what little I can see of it. There's no crunch like stone or mace, so what good is being able to survive if your avatar is making all those gross sounds? (I'm totally kidding) I was wondering about the truth of your statement until I saw your secondary was dark. Try it with cold. Frost and Burn are a hoot in conjunction with each other - but you may find yourself over your head with some NPC factions. Risk vs. reward and all that.

So, this is a fair question. I think I'd be safe to say 90% of "farm builds" use burn. But, let's take a look at the game as a whole, not just AE and other farm scenarios. I definitely will stipulate, that burn, much like blizzard is a psuedo-pet, of sorts. It seems quite accurate unslotted until you get to +2 to +4 mobs, then you'll see the "miss" words popping overhead for council. Toss in some vampyri in there, and you'll see it a LOT, even with accuracy. But, let's consider the fiery armor, that a player must choose to get burn. No kickback protection - overcome by a kb prot. IO. Now, that gets you past...oh, 90% of the game, but if you want to go all melee in the hive, you'd better find a way (looking at you teleport pool) to slot 4-5 of those kb-prot. to be on scale with any of the other armors. Either way, you have to use more slots to get to a "level" playing field with other tanks. No defense debuff resistance - Sure, a fire tank gets capped fire resist if they choose Temp. Protection at about level 15 or so. It can make leveling in a farm very fast. But outside of a farm, you'll need to be attentive to your endurance recovery, your recharge for the self-heal, and your defensive stats. You almost have to take Ageless for your Destiny to get some fleeting DDR every couple of minutes. Depending on the secondary, a fire tank CAN be quite useful outside of a farm. But, burn is not likely to be slotted with procs as a farmer would. So many slots are used to shore up defensive and resistance holes that dps and hitpoints take a back seat. So, while I do think burn is fantastic, it needs to be. If you put "fear" back in burn, or reduced the recharge significantly, essentially 90% of the folks that play a fire tank would just stop playing them. Other tanks (and brutes) that aren't fiery aura are just too close in dps without the KB & DDR handicaps. I remember thinking my fire/ice tank was fantastic. I have 90% s/l/f/e resistance. Love seeing the blue capped numbers! I took it at the usual setting through the incarnate missions in DA. Couldn't hit the Tsoo very well without munching a lot of yellows. The Banished Pantheons...couldn't hit them, and they floored any defense I did have to negative numbers. I'd hit burn, but it was like it wasn't even on. I had to reset the mission and adjust the levels down to +1 before I could get through them. And it still took a while. (solo) So, yeah, burn is good, but even with what I consider a solid build for non-farm content, it ain't THAT good to overcome various NPC factions like Banished Pantheon, Arachnos, Nemesis at high difficulty levels. At base difficulty, yeah, simple. But +4/8, even +2/8 will make you want to reroll rad armor with a quickness.

Thanks.

The fact is - the player that had the WP tank that you once tried - is not the same tank as yours. Both are the tank archetype. Both had WP primaries. Maybe you both had the same secondaries as well! But they are not the same tank. They are not the same because you, and that other player are not the same. The way you play, and the way you slot your characters are likely to be different. This other fellow that added a bunch of IOs - he improved his defenses. Regardless of where he stood on the bad/good spectrum, adding defense makes his character better. And well, WP - it's pretty decent with haphazard slotting. With proper slotting, it's quite good. And just in case you didn't know, there are no "Bad ATs". It's entirely too subjective. I think a warshade is crap. But the MFin' Warshade folks will vehemently disagree. (Dechs Kaison, the initial genius behind that "brand" of warshade, if memory serves.") I don't think warshades or PBs have enough slots to really enjoy the utility of a tri-from kheldian. Just my opinion. Doesn't make me correct. I also think an ice/ice blaster is the "best" AT in the game. But, the numbers are pretty clear that fire/fire is slightly better. But - a good ice blaster is better than a bad fire blaster. When someone tells you "that AT is trash", what they really are saying is, "I don't play that AT well. It's not suited to my style". There is no best in CoH. It's all subjective. I would venture that some folks can play any and every avatar in this game, maybe even my own characters better than I can. They have faster reflexes, perhaps more experience in certain content than I do. I might think a poison defender is unworthy of a slot space in my 1000 slot allotment. Some claim them to be a force multiplier against AVs. Doesn't matter to me if they are weak in damage against even con foes in the teen levels. I won't get high enough to face AVs unless I PL them, and what's the fun in that? (for me)