Ukase

I thought you were allergic to the star...excellent and praiseworthy. It's such a simple thing to do, recruit. I know why some folks avoid it, but if you're not a new player, it makes perfect sense to lead the content you want to do, instead of tagging along with someone else. And you're quite right about the speedy assistance. On the weekly crawls, we've needed them a couple of times, and within a couple of minutes, there they are to keep things moving along.

I'm just going off of memory, but after about 6 months or a year when Torch first opened up, there were whispers of an elitist attitude on Torchbearer. In my head, only, pure conjecture, kind of putting 2 and 2 together, my theory is that more than one person got playstyle or build "shamed", and they expressed themselves and it clicked with other players. It's not terribly hard to believe for me. There were some excellent players on Torch when I was there. Still are. At least one of them got banned for doing something foolish, but I still don't know what that specific action was, and don't care to find out. But I think that was what started at least some of the migration.

Lemme see... I don't know if I have the stones to actually present names as genuinely funny or clever. I think so...but I tend to hear groans when I tell jokes. Pundit - a corruptor with bad puns collected in some macros. Lagniappe - water/time corruptor. Galactic Kegger - a warshade, given the name because the warshade fares better in large parties, rather than solo. Men in Black tribute. Carol Burnitt - an homage to Carol Burnett, one of the funniest people you'd ever see. Rhetorical Riddle - What do get when you cross a riddle with a rhetorical question? If you're lucky, Silence! Militia Etheridge - symphony control Thong Kong - props to @Peacock who helped me actually make a costume that makes the character look like a gorilla. Buff Daddy - water/kin corruptor Scary Queen of Scots - Fire/Time corruptor Mouse Potato - Sonic/Ice defender Mr. Warmth - homage to Don Rickles Mirth Quake - grav/earth dom Optical Aleutian - Ill/ice dom (from Alaska, naturally) Loot Brute - SS/Stone (farmer) Got a few other goofy names - Doozy, Humdinger, Flabbergasted

Um...if you're talking "any stealth" - most of my characters have Super Speed. And unless it's a tank, they ALL get a celerity stealth in sprint. I am stealthed with SS on, unless it's near Rikti Drones, Nemesis Snipers & Rularuu Watchers (the big eyeballs). So, if they changed that...they failed on my characters. I do lose stealth when I engage in combat - but that's normal and to be expected. Takes about 15 seconds after combat to resume stealth of 65 feet.

I suggest you try the Brainstorm (AKA Beta Test) server. See if you have lag there. The set up there should be just about identical to what's on the server now. And there will be maybe a dozen people, if that on there. If you have lag there, then you know it really has nothing to do with population, but something else is amiss.

1. Nope 2. Can a tank get MM pets? Huh? You sure? Drat. There was one time I wanted to make a dual blades/shield brute. Couldn't be done, on account the character would have a rough time carrying a blade and a shield in the same hand. But, if the shield had a blade sticking out of it...or the lower portion had a serrated edge... 3. My hope is that those who code will spend more time on new content and less time mucking with powersets and ATs. 4. See above. New powerset proliferation would be very close to the bottom of things to do, if they were to be done at all if I had my way. But don't worry folks, I'm not in charge and rarely get my way.

I know it's a new arc, or at least fairly new. But I've encounter +5's on a +2/8 before, and I've also encountered the odd gray council member in some maps. Like a level 16 in a Citadel. There is usually some variation in a given map. You look at Frostfire, and thankfully, the mobs increase in difficulty as you take the elevator, otherwise, you'd be tackling old Frosty as a -1, or a -2. I suggest you just practice the arc, run it a few more times. And don't forget inspirations. And don't forget to be leveled and trained up. Just generally speaking, when I team, and I try to give an "Awakened" to a fallen teammate, and they don't have any room in their inspiration tray, if we're over level 20, I really have to wonder just what happened. It's one thing to get low on hitpoints, or get mezzed and then clobbered...but every AT without status protection should have a break free or two in their stash. Although sometimes it is more fun to live dangerously, and sometimes, I use the ones I came into the mission with and have to wait for a certain one to combine three into one of the escapes. Always fill up on inspirations between missions if you're having a rough time. A purple will save you a lot more damage than just a tray full of greens. For best results, a purple and an orange, a yellow and a red, if you have 'em. Nothing wrong with some inspirations before a challenging fight.

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" - Arthur Carlson (portrayed by Gordon Jump in "WKRP in Cincinnati")

I think, if we're ever going to arrive at an acceptable answer to "Are the devs anti-farming?", we have to agree that farming only in this context refers to afk farming. The other thing we need to agree on is if "devs" are all devs, or some devs...how do we define that? I know it's way back around the time they seeded salvage that GM_Jimmy came out and said farming was good for the market, ergo, good for the community. But he also stated that afk farming was not good, due to the lack of real risk for reward. (his words, paraphrased - don't shoot the messenger) As someone who doesn't like active farming because it's a bit dull, I lean closer to afk as a method of amassing influence at first, and then when the stack got high enough, it became an easier way of gathering incarnate materials because I just don't feel like doing the same iTrials ad nauseum, but afk - I don't have to be there. I can play another character doing something more interesting. It's all a bit pointless for me anyway. I usually end up shelving a character to start another, but I want them ready, just in case. I concede that you are correct, Battlewraith, mess with the fire farms, folks make something for S/L, and heck, they probably just needed to do a respec on certain ATs and they were good to go. But, I think that adds to the notion these efforts with the fire sword -def weren't a blow to be struck at fire farming specifically. They've got to know that folks would come up with the next OP farmer. Now - would that farmer do everything the rad/fire or spines/fire brutes can do, or at least as quickly? Maybe. I'm not there yet. But, I doubt it. But it could be that some folks adding three brutes on the same farm - where the surplus mobs don't all attack the same farmer - maybe they end up doing things even more efficiently. I can sit here and grasp why some folks are against afk-farming. I don't have to like it, but I can understand it. I don't think removing or inhibiting it will accomplishes what they want to accomplish, but I don't have the luxury of presenting anyone with evidence of that from the future. As for your reference to the "intelligent approach", the previous incidental 3x XP buff from p2w that's now been corrected to the proper 2x is probably a coincidence, but the effect is the same. When you consider the odds of getting a d-sync worth close to a billion inf for one of the HM tfs...well...it's early yet, and those odds are pretty poor, but the pay off is likely worth it to some folks. It kind of sounds to me like they did just as you suggest is an intelligent approach. And all that above is just my own train of thought, probably obvious by how many times I went off track. Everyone's perspective and view is relevant. I just don't think they did what they did with the -def specifically to impact farming. I think it was probably something that they looked at as a bonus, perhaps, but not anything they did to deliberately mess with afk farmers. And if they did, I would have thought better of it if they'd just come out and said so. But that's just me.

Um...I don't know about this. It could be possible, but the other possibility is that fiery melee benefits from it. You know, those rare folks that chose fiery melee for their characters. Believe me, I'm not a fan of any change, not really. There's a reason we call it a "comfort zone". It's cozy. I like it in the comfort zone. And it's quite obvious from the people who now despise me, I get cranky when removed from it. That said, Luminary brought up a very good point...gosh, maybe 3 weeks ago, that if the HC devs wanted to put an end to fire farming, it would have been a lot easier for them to do that, than try this balancing act out. Just be careful in here, because if you use the wrong/improper analogy, you pretty much get ignored - which doesn't hurt you, it actually benefits you. Your comments will no longer be subject to an immediate negative response because you disagreed with someone previously or somehow offended them in some other fashion. But still, it's worth stating, be cautious. A number of these folks post in here to distract them from the unrest going on their minds. I don't really enjoy farming, but occasionally, I do enjoy it. I see it's benefits. I also can admit that if everyone is farming - then everyone is self-sufficient and not buying the goods I'm selling on the AH. So, in that context - I don't want too many farmers. Purely for selfish reasons, there. But most farmers don't craft or convert, they just vendor trash all but the better stuff they know will sell well. I do think when we say HC dev team, that team is comprised of players, for the most part. These are the folks that know how to code, who give up their time. Thus far, I've had big problems with page 4 and 5. But both times, they did retract some of the proposed changes. I'm not in their club. I'm not in the closed beta. So, it's not like I get to scream or whisper in anyone's ear. Whether it was me, or other folks who shared my perspective - they did listen and act. They didn't give me/us everything we wanted, but I'm certainly not the only person playing the game. It may be a lack of paranoia, or an improved blood panel test (finally), but it's pretty clear that if they wanted to, fire farming would just be gone. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to set up a parameter where each npc in AE to defeat had to have 2-3 different damage types or other debuffs that any player would be hard pressed to overcome as a solo player, or even 3 farmers, since that seems to be how all the cool kids are doing it now.

In general, I play as a vig, but will switch to rogue when I need invader, usually done between level 4 and 20, whenever I think about it. When completed, I'll knock out the spiders and family, generally using an alt with fire ball for faster results. I'll get Atlas Medallion around level 23-24, and I'll switch to rogue for the villain equivalent of Freedom Phalanx Reserve - for some reason, I can never remember if it's born in battle or high pain threshold. I think it's HPT, But, fortunately, I know the requirements, so I don't really need to know the name of it. After I clobber Akarist in "The Unlucky Artifact" at level 30, I'll pop into Monster Island and kill myself and use a couple of experienced to "pay off the debt", and get the FPR accolade. I'll head to pocket D, switch back to vig, and then stay vig until level 40-45, when I'll run Mortimer Kal for the Flames of Prometheus to convert into a notice of the well when I ding 50. After I get the Flames, I switch back to vig and remain there until I pretty much "rest" the character and start a new alt. I typically only visit the gold side just for the explorations - for the free merits. Red side is just for accolades, unless I'm on a badge character, or just need a change from blue. I haven't done tip missions or morality missions in quite some time. I pretty much have only done those on badge characters. There's really no reason to do them otherwise, as they're all the same, and the payoff is pretty sad, compared to other arcs and tfs. If Null the Gull didn't offer the switch, I would probably just stay blue. Just not a fan of the red side. If I could be king, I'd simply remove the alignment system. No villains. No heros. No praetorians. Just characters. All zones accessible to any character, any level.

When comparing AT's, it's largely subjective for playstyle preference. For assessing DPS, the contrast between corruptor and defender is fairly straightforward. BUT - I said this last night over Discord when asked. There is no "best", but there may be a "Best for you". Some players can squeeze out more NET dps from a defender than from a corruptor. The reverse is also true. But, with scourge, the Corruptor comes out on top, except when solo. As far as Corruptor vs Blaster, let us assume the dps averages out. The blaster has a higher base of hitpoints. Instead of casting a PBAoE buff like a corruptor might, the blaster has a sustain that typically boosts regen/recovery. But, the blaster doesn't have any buffs to share, unless it's the leadership pool, and values for that are pretty low for both (per city of data 2.0) ATs. I would suggest making both, the blaster and the corruptor. I'm confident that you'll see a difference between the dps in most cases. But anecotally, my fire/rad corruptor seemed to do roughly the same dps as my fire/fire blaster. The only time I saw a real difference was when I was soloing a boss. The damage that blaze and Fire blast do from the corruptor just isn't as nice as the blaster's. The scourge helps, of course, but my blaster is better at it. And it probably should be. Mind you, with certain powersets and wise use of damage procs and global recharge, you might outshine some blasters. Just not all of them.

While it is customary to be on a team/league to get the Unabashed Badge, which is underneath the Rikti shield until the pylons come down - there's no need to actually be on a team or league. Half the time, Psyheal or Doc Proteus is running an MSR at 2pm and I can just hop in there solo, if I can manage to get in the zone before it fills up. Just my own opinion, based solely on anecdotal evidence - a few things along the lines of what Voltor shared. A tank is likely to have taken more damage than other ATs, simply because of the higher hitpoints. And, it would make sense that blasters/scrappers/stalkers/brutes are leading the way for damage dished out. But these badges and the heal badges are traditionally farmed, as the requirements are abnormally high in comparison to other requirements. Additionally, they are quite tedious to get - and even though some of my farm brutes have over 1000 vet levels, none of them have the higher damage taken nor damage dished out badges because those criteria don't count in AE, so you have to clever in how you farm those categories. There are other posts in the badges section on how to farm those badges if you need to see. For my money - the one character I've had the worst time with - and that's just me - and that's my fire/time controller. Part of it is my build, which isn't fantastic, but the other part is I just really don't enjoy it as much compared to my blasters/corruptors/brutes. I've only got 5 characters with all the badges - 1 tank, 2 blasters and 2 corruptors. The easiest time was with my fire/fire blaster, then my ice/ice blaster, then fire/rad corruptor, followed by water/sonic corruptor, then the tank. But that is just me. The advice is the same - play what you enjoy, as you'll be on the character a LOT.

Some of the new content, namely the Aeon SF and the Hard Mode ITF (the standard ITF is still available) are certainly not designed for soloists. But the fairly new Agent Watkins arc is certainly soloable. Not easily if you're not accustomed to it, but it's certainly manageable - but the difficulty will be higher if you're on a character that doesn't do a ton of dps or doesn't have a solid armor. There's a number of players that have done this solo. Some take a dirt nap for too much aggro, others don't. There's one part, where you're in this smoky room with a bit of fire in it, and there are a number of glowing and destructible objects. It's worth your time to take out the destructible objects as they grant different buffs to your perception, recovery, etc. The boss at the end of that particular mission certainly comes with an annoying mechanic where you beat him down, and then he runs away to get repowered or something and you have to deal with ambushes of exploding cadavers. These rascals can be avoided, particularly if you're on a ranged character. Is it different than most every other story arc in the game? Absolutely. Will it be easy to solo? For some players and certain AT/Powerset combos, yes. It will be easy. For other players - not so much. On the bright side, there is something new to do. And, if it is challenging for you, you won't be bored, should you try it again. Also - it's worth pointing out that when you complete the arc, you get 20 reward merits - and an additional 20 reward merits because it is a bit more challenging in certain parts of the arc. The new arc in Cimerora is for incarnate level characters. I've done this numerous times, a few times solo at 0/8 with my blasters because they needed the new defeat badges. I got some surprise dirt naps in there, sure. But it wasn't because it was overly challenging, it was because I wasn't taking it seriously, I was just eyeing my badge counter. I mean, you're on an incarnate if you're solo doing it, so it should be no trouble to spam barrier and bring out your lore pet and steamroll through at least parts of it. I wouldn't say any of the new non-HM content is overly challenging, but that everything is else is so well-known that it just seems more challenging by comparison because many of us are still learning the new stuff.

Here in the Gulf Coast area, there is actually a weekly paper that makes the rounds by the same title. And in Louisiana, you might see the Lagniappe magazine. It's a fairly common term in New Orleans; you might see it in certain restaurants. Back when I was eating them, I'd order a dozen donuts, and the guy would give me a dozen donut holes as a bit of "lagniappe". A little bit extra, kind of like when the clocks turn back an hour every year. Or, you might see my water/time corruptor by the same name every so often.

Here in the Gulf Coast area, there is actually a weekly paper that makes the rounds by the same title. And in Louisiana, you might see the Lagniappe magazine. It's a fairly common term in New Orleans; you might see it in certain restaurants. Back when I was eating them, I'd order a dozen donuts, and the guy would give me a dozen donut holes as a bit of "lagniappe". A little bit extra, kind of like when the clocks turn back an hour every year. Or, you might see my water/time corruptor by the same name every so often.

The only server I don't play on is Reunion. Have a base on each. Nothing fancy, just functional. I really should raid the coffers on Torch and sell that stuff, as I barely ever go there anymore since they banned @tort . (he was the lead of Veracity SG - I somehow was in the right place at the right time and got on the first league to get RHW. At least, that was our understanding.) When I play, each server seems the same. I see folks asking for a seat on a farm, I see folks advertising for Adamastor or a sLam or a weekly. But, the recruiting is less frequent on servers that aren't excelsior - at least, that's what I notice. It still takes entirely too long to form a 3 team league for incarnate trials, but when I think about it on Liberty, it took too long then, too. So many folks are trying to squeeze in playtime and find themselves taking a few minutes longer than they thought, and everyone else has to wait a bit. If we didn't get vet level rewards, I think I'd just not bother with incarnate play at all. I don't think it would matter how populated a server is. There's more than enough people to do content - they thing is - they have to want to do the content. Poor Indom has about 15 players (last I was there) that want to do a hami raid. Obviously, they want more. It's well run, and attendance suffers - first because not everyone wants to do a hami raid, and secondly because, of those that could be talked into it - they don't want to wait 40 minutes. It kind of removes the motivation for most folks. It's not just a population problem, it's a content problem. Make more content - people will still want to do different things. The only solution is an influx of another 100 - 200 players or so, across all time zones for all the servers, and of those players, they should be trying to team, rather than solo or farm solo. That's the only way I see to satisfy the cries of "merge shards" that I see. That brings with it different problems, of course. There's always going to be trade-offs. Christmas is coming. Give the free gift of CoH to people you know with a lot of free time.

I usually remind folks they have 1000 slots. Why does it have to be either/or? Make each one. If you're choosing between corruptor and defender, unless you're going to solo most of it, I'd go corruptor. Or, make the defender and use a key bind that shouts out "scourge!" when your damage takes the npcs' hit points below 50%. If you're choosing between Dominator and Controller...if soloing, go controller. Dominators have an easier time acquiring domination while teamed. And, the controller will have a secondary that can help you keep you alive. But - the damage is pretty sucky until you get your pets, and even then, they go where they want, so it can get a bit messy if you're not paying attention. Both ATs have low hit points, and of the two, the dom seems to do better dps - but a lot of that is how you slot and play. The status protection and free endurance from domination gives the nod to the dominator for me, if I were forced to choose. (Have I mentioned I once vowed to never play a dominator again, because my experience with a mind/psi dom was so unsavory? I was talked into an earth dom and the AT redeemed itself. ) Of the four you wish to choose from, I'm probably going to go Defender for a challenge effort, because that's solo play. For team play, the corruptor. For both...I go corruptor. The defender gets a nice damage buff for solo play, but I honestly can't tell much of a difference between the two. And using a keybind to say "scourge" can be annoying, so go with the corruptor.

That sounds like I'm missing something. We're only allowed to have 3 accounts on per shard. Like, only 3 characters from 3 accounts that we control in Excelsior at the same time. If it's 8 different players, that's different. But if it's just one person, that's a no-no. I don't think I'd ever want to try 8 accounts on the same map. All that entering, exiting, crafting converting...that's too much like work when you exceed 3 accounts. At least, it was for me, when I tried 4. I was all set to make a 5th account and play that while the 4 were afk-ing, but there was literally no time to do that, with all the crafting/converting/selling. If I hadn't been motivated to try and catch Yomo (or pass him), I wouldn't have even given it a thought. Not a big deal to me, I've more inf than I really know what to do with. I just wish I could open 10 or 100 packs at a time; I'd spend more of it.

So, if you right click on a power in your tray, such as Cauterizing Aura, you'll see a small drop down menu with an option to select More Info. CA is all about regen and recovery. The minor damage is just a bit of lagniappe. Some folks call it a "sustain". Each blaster has it's own version of the Sustain. Some have a few more benefits, with some trade-offs. Consume on a blaster is a bit of an outdated power that was quite useful after Inferno. A blaster used to suffer a huge end crash after a nuke, and then be unable to recover endurance for a short time - 10-15 seconds. Consume would help refill the bar after the nuke. Then, at some point in time when I wasn't paying attention - either during live, fairly close to before shutdown, or maybe in the "secret server" time, the crash was removed. So, it's pretty unusual for a blaster to need consume, if they've used the usual IO methods to increase recovery. One accuracy and one end mod would be all I'd put in that. Or maybe some procs if the math checks out. I can't recall if I've taken it on HC, so I can't speak to proc-effectiveness as a strategy.

They must be smarter than me. I've tried the builds in the guide forums, and everything I can think of to mitigate the -def, even using different armors, etc. They do not survive like they used to - and that's with amplifiers and passive accolade boosts. I did determine that two brutes can offset the incoming aggro as easily as one used to, it just kind of bugs me that they need to be on the same map in the same area to take advantage of leadership buffs - while the third account gets the incarnate slots unlocked and a few shards. (the only reason I do it now) I have to wonder why anyone would run 8 afk characters on 8 different maps on 3 different shards. I've done four - two accounts on two different shards. It's damned tedious crafting, converting the drops of 4 characters. My guess is they are just vendoring the drops, except perhaps for the ones they know will sell for a decent price. Which leaves a TON of inf not earned. Like 2-3X what they earned in the farm from inf. But, if it's working for them, have at it.

Oh yeah. I can't believe I forgot about the lack of equity in this regard. In the original scheme, I'm not sure it makes much difference, as it was expected that a praetorian would choose red/blue and grab the accolades in their own time. But for folks who wish to stay praetorian, it would be nice to have a method to acquire them.

The whole loyalist/resistance alignment in Praetoria is just putrid. I often see no distinction between the two. You're a villain either way. But, I do enjoy the look of the zones. I like the brevity of the story arcs. To me, the only things missing are a GM or two, access to blue and red side for exploration badges, if nothing else, and a task force. It doesn't make sense that a level 1 hero can hop over to gold side, but the reverse is not true. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that blue/red shouldn't be able to travel there, but it's quite silly to preclude gold from visiting the other areas. My main reason for finding it silly discounts the lore. There are only 8 gold zones, and two of them are 20+. So, that's a cap of 40 reward merits for a newer player trying to make some influence. Granted, it's a blessing to get any reward merits for exploration accolades, but for me, the reason 90% of my characters start blue is because of the huge number of opportunities for those easy reward merits at the early levels. Zip over to PD, switch from hero to vig at level 4, and use SS and a jet pack to get Atlas, Echo:Atlas, Echo:Galaxy, Kings Row, Mercy, Nova Praetoria, Underground Nova. It's just a lot more opportunity for easy merits for a vig/rogue than there is for a Praetorian. And that's at level 4. The sheer number of zones available continues to be lopsided. Now, I don't expect for new zones to be developed to make things equitable. I don't expect a gold sider to actually run blue side content. But they should be able to move around and grab the explores, the day jobs - that kind of thing. Otherwise, what's the motivation to make a gold sider? We can simply do that content at level 15 as a vig/rogue and have a much easier time of things, and certainly have an easier time of generating influence if that's what's needed. As stated, I discounted lore/story reasons. It makes sense that a character can't zip between alternate worlds/dimensions for the praetorians, but it seems to me that if primal world has the tech to zip to praetoria, and we know the reverse should also be true, why not?

There are very few stories that I have found to be worth the read. But that's more to do with me than the stories. I'm 55. The stories are designed for kids, at least most of them. So, if I did find them interesting or entertaining after already having read them multiple times, I'd be concerned with mental decline. I do the arcs for the merits and the xp bonus. Nothing to do with the stories - although I do enjoy some of them due to the dialogue. The Red Caps for example, in Croatoa. They amuse me with their dialogue. Becky in Aeon was hilarious the first couple of times. Still amusing. But for me, doing one off missions is rather pointless, unless there's a badge for it. Other than that, I don't see the point. For the time invested, I could be getting through an arc that would pay merits and an XP bonus. The only reason the one-offs are in the game is to help a character get to the next level so they can do story arcs, historically. At least, that's my understanding, I've certainly been wrong before. If there are no merits or badges, I'm most likely not going to do it.

Type Bloodom in the search window - there are several. The 5 and 10 minute ones are asteroids, the 40 minute one is a cave map. I was doing an XP comparison, and these are the values I got, for minion, lt, and boss, respectively. If it's not 100% XP, it's pretty close. I like the 40 minute map. Running any asteroid map is too quick to really be afk.