Ukase

For me, I have really enjoyed leveling spines/fire and SS/fire. Of the two, I think the proc potential of SS in Foot Stomp and haymaker overcame the rage crash easily enough, and it was a faster leveling process. Part of that is because footstomp knocks 'em down, mitigating incoming damage so I could tackle higher level foes. I did try SS/Dark - it was, of course, good in the lower levels, but getting to 38 wasn't as smooth for me as fire. I have an SS/Bio brute...it's very good, very effective through the entire leveling process. Bio's adapative selection - offensive, with Rage is quite complimentary. I think SS is my preferred primary on the brute. And it's really hard to dismiss fire as the secondary. My biggest issue, however, is boosted ranged and AoE defense, without sacrificing S/L resistance. Fire's just not that great for that, and I do miss the lack of defense debuff resistance. And..another thing...I'm always reluctant to take a fire brute into iTrials other than BAF or Lambda. Granted, Healing flames is up in 6 seconds, so no real concern, but occasionally, without timely inspiration use, bad things happen, and that's a message to me that I need to focus more on durability, less on dps. Or run with 2 builds, which I'd prefer not to do. I hate that waiting for the longer recharge powers.

I'm aware of the origin of Blapper. I maintain that it's not properly used. What do you call a blaster that attacks in melee - a blaster. There's no need to make the distinction. Heck, I remember someone on the live forums that wanted to make a "tankmage", as if that were actually a thing. You're either a tank, or you're not a tank. No such thing. I can't understand some folks wanting to create a new label when the label we already have defines it perfectly. With regards to blasters, there's nothing at all unusual about a blaster being in melee, which is why the blapper term is so annoying to me. Obviously, it's certainly nothing to cry about. It's just a peeve of mine. I have a clear memory of needing to defeat Positron in RV about 3 years ago. Maybe a little less. It was the last pvp badge I needed. A fairly easy thing to do with a team, but I was solo. Not multiboxing either. Only had one account at the time. I brought out my wolf from Tobias, the heavy from RV, the HVAS temp from VG merit exchange, Katie Hannon temp, Knight Errant, Snow Beast, a Shivan, the Tsoo Sorceror temp and I think I brought out the 3 tiny gears from Penny Yin, too. (Needed all of them, too! Barely beat him. He had my powers with such -recharge, I could barely see them in the tray they were so small! ) At no time did I even think of myself as a blastermind or a blastroller. Still a blaster, regardless of attack position. Regardless of temp pets being called out. Oh - forgot, I even had the three tiny spiders from the epic pool, too. That damn Posi in RV was tough for my mediocre blaster!

Say wut? Nobody ever entered my missions, and I wish I'd known about that FEATURE before it got shut down. That would have been fun! Just popping into some level 10's mission and causing havoc? That actually happened to me once on live. I was level 8 and a level 12 was in my mission, and not on my team. I just left, because all the mobs were +4. I do wish I'd known about it, and I am struggling to know how someone else discovered you could do that. My best guess is a player who became a GM saw something and told someone else and then the secret was out to a few folks. It certainly wasn't widespread, because this is the first I'm hearing of it. And I get around! I know people! Now, I get that some folks might be irritated if you're doing pvp and they just zone out with the macro. Hard to believe there wasn't a way to disable it in pvp land and let it fly everywhere else. As for the master badge runs...I get that some folks work real hard on those and would be a bit irked if someone avoided defeat using it, but honestly - that kind of thing is none of my business. I remember being on a master lady grey and a dominator still blew it not using the macro when it was available. Wouldn't have hurt my feelings if they'd used it then, and wouldn't now, even if I wasn't on the team. Still, I liked it. And I never used it in a master run or pvp. Didn't seem sporting. But then, nothing seems sporting in pvp with all the changes going on there. PvP is just putrid in concept and execution. You cannot expect people to pvp when the rules change in pvp zones. You level a character to 50, recognizing it's strengths and weaknesses, only to change zones and really not know what your character can do. You don't know how your endurance works there, you don't know how your regen works there, you don't know how your defense works there or any other attribute. You spend time making your character at the resist cap and the defense soft cap, only to enter a zone and lose 1/3 of your resistance. That's just stupid. No other word for it. Stupid. You cannot expect people to play one way for 50 levels, and then change the rules in a pvp zone and be any good at it. Now, if you leveled up for 50 levels with those restrictions, then maybe you'd have something. But the way it is now, stupid and putrid. Oops, I digressed a lot! Please never say things like "It HAD to go". Because honestly, they could have left that in, and nothing would have happened. Sure, some dope doing pvp might not get ganked. Sure, some idiot on his level 1 might get the valet badge in market crash. At the end of the day, it didn't HAVE to go. It could have stayed. Sure, some folks might have been upset with it staying. But probably more are upset about it going. To the HC Devs credit, if it was going to go, they did soften the blow with the lrtp. It's a nice feature, and they should really sell all the zone unlocks as another inf sink. Again, it really didn't HAVE to go. I mean, it was with us for quite some time, and the servers didn't shut down, no real negative impact from it. At least, not from where I sat.

You're not playing it wrong, just differently. Historically, I will chime in and rebuke those who use the word "blapper" to refer to playing a blaster in melee. It's ludicrous, as blasters very often go into melee, particularly a fire/fire blaster. Firesword circle - melee burn - melee Inferno - melee Fire sword - melee hotfeet - melee Combustion - melee Consume - melee These attacks do not make the blaster a new AT. No, they are simply a way you need to play it to make use of many of the attacks you get. It can take some familiarity with your character, and some defensive stats to be comfortable playing in melee. You get used to it. Of course, you can always "joust" your melee attacks and only be in melee for a fraction of a second. It's all a matter of playstyle, and working with what the powerset gives you. And what's fun for you, of course. I know a number of folks who love their blasters but despise being in melee. That's why Rune of Protection was so great for some of my characters. I could use that to drop inferno without having to worry about a mez or a stun or kb. And yeah, I'm well aware of how awesome blasters still are, despite this change. So, no, you're not playing wrong, just differently. But it's still the same AT. It doesn't need a new name to make the distinction. A spines scrapper doesn't get called a blapper because it has impale and throw spines. And it's not playing wrong for being at range when it uses them.

No need. I remember it. It's simply that my opinion is different. It doesn't make me right, but I would offer that it doesn't make me wrong. Further, it doesn't mean they're right, either. I remember the burn nerf - when they put fear into it. A fire tank, with fear in fire powers. What a colossal goof by the Paragon devs. So, I got a respec when they put the fear in burn, and I got another one when they took it out. Again, don't change powers. I mean, why would they? Just because some HC dev believes a squishy shouldn't have near perma status protection? The ONLY thing that makes that opinion better than mine is their ability to make the change in the game. If I'd been paying attention to what was going on in the beta threads, I promise you, I would have debated that view quite assertively. They have a right to that view - but it doesn't mean that my own view doesn't also have merit. And frankly, their logic is flawed. They should have left it alone. Now I have to spend hours figuring out how to respec this dozen characters. Which I still haven't done, because it's my hope that the change will be reverted back - because it was wrong. At least, that's my view. Don't worry, I'm not going to hold my breath. And really, this is a bit off point. I just think any changes in powers need to be considered for quite some time. More effort should be made (like pop up screens when we log in) that bring attention to these proposed changes when they hit beta, not when the patch drops.

I snipped a lot out of the post so it doesn't take a lot of room, but this is confusing to me. Are you afk farming? If so, how can you possibly know what your clear time is? You're not there. You're afk. You tab out - do something else, play, watch netflix, whatever. And you come back whenever. You have no idea when it's completed, and who would care? I mean, if it's an asteroid map, it makes no difference to an afk-er if it takes 3 minutes or 30 minutes.

I can't disagree with the latter part of this comment, as I recall reading Jimmy's comment on the subject. But, let us consider if that's actually still true. If they are indeed trying to do away with afk-farming, what do you make of America's Angel, the pvp community rep sharing afk farm builds? That's inconsistent with this statement, if it's still accurate. So, I would submit that they are not trying to do away with AFK farming, just trying to level the playing field a bit. I can't remember when the change to Sorcery pool took effect, but I know I've yet to respec the dozen characters that took it. That change totally screwed up a couple of characters whose build revolved around Rune of Protection being as close to perma as I could possibly get it. Respecs are annoying, and I detest them. It's almost easier to just camp the character and re-roll. Any change that requires a respec should just never happen, period. Never. Better to not be so quick to make changes and ensure things are done properly in the first place. As I learned in college working for UPS - "measure twice, cut once". And sometimes, you need to measure things more than twice. Granted, sorcery pool was out of the bag before the HC devs came along, but there was no pressing need to change it. They just felt like it. I'm just a guest here, but if they'd asked me, I'd have told them there were better things to pay attention to. It wasn't broken, so there was no need to fix it. (at least, it wasn't broken for me) Now, purists will chime in how blasters should never have status protection because of their dps, and I would counter - what of the scrapper and it's status protection and dps? A blaster plays in melee every bit as much as a scrapper, so that argument falls short on merit. It's preposterous to say such a thing, in my opinion. Other opinions are also valid, but my point also remains. A respec should never feel necessary. It should be an option to fine-tune, or perhaps acquire a given power earlier to exemplar more easily, resolving a player's mistake. It should never be used to remedy a development change.

Time will tell on the stable price of these, but at the beginning, my forecast was 10m-25m. It's at about 24M, last I looked. I expect it to drop down to 10m, pick back up on the next costume patch, then drop again. There are still plenty of us lunatic badgers out there that have a lot of what are now considered "lowball" bids on these items. They should eventually fill, depending on the bid. So, about the influence. Honestly, I would give 20 Billion to you, if I could afford to give 20 Billion to everyone that would chime in and want the same. But, it wouldn't take long before my big stack became smaller than the stack you would have once I gave it all away. And, with the changes to Afk farming, it would take me longer to recoup the loss. All I can do is tell you that if you've the desire to put in the time, the influence is there to grab. It's the simplest thing, once you know how. The downside of that is there are dozens, if not more, other players who are already competing for that influence. Which is great for the casual player, as competition drives down the prices. I mean...the LotG 7.5% has dropped from 7-8M to 5-6m in the past three months. Just the volume of those for sale has increased by over 25% in the past 3 months. I rather thought all the new alts would have depleted a lot of that supply, but the folks that are working in that niche must have been accumulating a lot of emp merits and made the exchange at the merit vendor before the patch. Or, they're being clever and efficient about it in the other common ways we use to create them. Just makes everyone else's influence go further, so it's a win for everyone. Just my two inf about influence: You can have too much. When you have too much, you begin to get picky about what you do in game. You turn down opportunities that you would otherwise accept. On the plus side, what you do end up doing is probably what you're interested in and more fun, but I can't help thinking I miss out on some good times by turning down pug recruiting offers. Easy for me to say, obviously. But, there it is for what it's worth.

While I am in the same figurative boat as you in this regard, try to realize that there really are some people who genuinely get a kick out of this. In fact, I'm one who generally uses the RNG costume generator, and then will generally replace the head and remove the tail, and maybe change the colors. These new costume things might just save me some time. Maybe not. I just know that even though it's not for me, there are plenty of people absolutely thrilled about it. I'm just happy that they didn't yank vet rewards from AE. They actually read/listened. I reserve the right to be disappointed about other things, but I'll always be happy about that.

I can't speak for them, but my takeaway is they are doing it in the way they think is best. And as much as they'd love to have a few hundred new folks, they also recognize the burden that would put on their server (s). A higher population requires greater resources. Nobody there is getting paid, either. There will be ebb and flow, I'm sure, just like there is here. I think of it like CoH is a soft drink. Rebirth is just a different flavor. Still has the bubbles, and probably the sugar, but maybe not as much caffeine. (or vice-versa)

My thought was, if it's overly difficult/time consuming, maybe just "re-make" it, as the story is already written. Seems like it would be tedious, certainly. But, and I'm no expert, I would think the creation of the story itself would be the hardest thing to come up with. I've no idea how complex it is to make an arc outside of AE, but if the story is written already, would the rest be overly challenging?

No argument about the numbers - and I could be wrong, but I suspect a lot of us on HC joined the Rebirth Discord when it opened because we really couldn't be sure how long HC would last - at least, that's my position. I pretty much try to remember to log in there once a week for the tier rewards. Last Summer, I played over there to set up shop. The players there are quite competent, and as friendly as you'd expect from a CoH community. Interestingly enough, speed runners are given a nice gift of...I think it's 2000 AE tickets if you get the fastest time of their weekly tf. I won it once, and it came as a surprise. I do know on weekends, you can potentially see 100 players, roughly.

Flea - you do realize that's in a pvp thread, right? Guess who doesn't pvp since they put in travel suppression? This guy. I'd never see anything in there.

I just finished my row and was about to re-read "the tin". But thanks for saving me the time. It's one of the reasons why I really wish you guys would aim for much smaller patches, because "patch notes" are a misnomer with you guys. What you mean is "Patch Tome". They are huge. I can barely remember how much protein I'm supposed to eat in a day. I surely can't remember what's on page 3 of a zillion page set of patch notes. See? I'm never happy, am I? And, candidly, I'm only slightly teasing about the length of the patch notes. I remain grateful to be able to play and thank you for your efforts on our behalf.

Sir...please don't do that. You can test what I say - when you turn xp off, you do NOT get extra funds. They changed that...like 2 years ago.

Wait...what? America's Angel works for the HC Team? Must have missed that. So, I guess I need to re-read some patch notes. Darn. I'd really rather not. It sounds then, that these changes to aggro were more for the Hard Mode TFs, and the end result is the farmers have to make some adjustments to do what they were doing before. Do I have that right? Probably not entirely. Still, it tells me that they could have just put in the Sister Valeria arc and the two arcs that give badges. They needn't have bothered with these silly prismatics or the HM stuff, until they figured out how to change things in that content, and leave the rest of it alone. It made sense if they were trying to reduce afk farming. But if they are going to make these changes and then show how to mitigate the changes, then why make the changes at all? Damn, I gotta read now. It'll have to wait. Dr. Gupta has confirmed that we should all be exercising 75 vigorous minutes a week, at a minimum. So, maybe I can squeeze in a 1/2 marathon in 80 minutes. Completely logged out. No farms running. I did, however, earn 205 reward merits on my 3 primary accounts for the next alts that are coming up the ranks. So, I am very grateful for that. Nobody wants a grumpy Ukase in their iTrials.

That'd be interesting, for sure. 9 accounts? What are you doing with your drops? I tried going with a 5th account, but damn -- that was tedious as hell, crafting, converting a dozen drops on each alt after each run. I didn't have any time to play the game with all that going on, and I'd like to think I'm pretty efficient with that process. Too much of a good thing, lol. I tried waiting until the trays were full; I tried not crafting at all until I almost ran out of recipe room. It all got to be very much. 4 alts is about as much as I could handle. I tried to just let the 5th go and do no crafting or converting, and just vendor everything but purples and rare salvage...but...all that influence gone to waste by being lazy, I could never do it, because I know what the drops are worth. And because I am a nitpicker sometimes - you weren't nerfed. The mobs were just given a more realistic code. They see you, they attack you. Just at range, instead of melee. It does make things more challenging, no question. But, it's not something you can't adapt to and proceed as before. You just have to pay attention to the xp per kill. And don't feel like you have to do a map that has 100% xp adjustment for page 4. So what if you make less inf. You're still scaled for 9 accounts. That's more than enough loot to handle whatever you need for the next 1000 alts, for sure. (depending on how long you've been doing it)

ah, the old shard vs. thread issue. I can understand that many folks despise the shards. And why? Because they don't get many of them. The RNG can be rather fickle, but many folks don't help themselves. I have seen people complain bitterly about doing iTrials all day and not getting a single shard. And it pains me to share with them that shards don't drop in iTrials. So, of course, they won't get any. What many people don't realize is that shards were never meant to be aggregated and used to make components - except the favor of the well. The recipes that make them were meant to be earned separately. Take a peek: Essence of the Incarnate is a reward option for completing the Ms. Lib or LRSF. Hero 1 DNA Sample is a reward option for completing the LGTF. Dimensional Keystone is a reward option for completing Khan or Cuda. So, if you sped through those three, it's conceivable you'd have your t-1 alpha in an hour or so. Shards would also drop randomly while you did that content. Now, where things bog down are when you move to the 2nd tier, because you need 8 shards to add to yet another component you might earn from completing a given task force. This is why a lot of folks will burn threads to get the t-3 and let the shards accumulate as they work all the other incarnate powers, and then when they're done with all of those, they'll revisit the shards they have, make what they can make, and if they just want to be done with it and park the character to make a new alt, they might choose to burn some emp merits and finish the alpha. Some folks just stop at t-3 and call it a day. When I have a new 50, I often let it sit in a farm map for vet levels - but conveniently, a ton of shards will drop in a farm map. Please note, I do try to remember to use a Windfall. They don't work as far as giving more influence (it says it does, but it doesn't) but it will increase t-3 inspiration drops, salvage & recipe drops, and of course, shards) And, if I am feeling adventurous and have particularly enjoyed the character, I'll forgo that, and just play it - keeping a sharp eye out for MSRs and hami raids. Both mitos and buds tend to drop shards more often than not. Depending on how you play, it's not inconceivable to be t-3 from shards in about 3-4 hours of play. It just depends on what you're doing. And, of course, it's also possible it could take you a lot longer than that. As I said, the RNG is fickle. A number of players absolutely insist they've done the math and think shards are for idiots and they ignore them until they have enough to convert into threads. I think these people are a bit pig-headed. But, I have to entertain the notion that I'm the pig-headed one. Still, I'll use shards at minimum to get from t-3 to t-4. No sense burning any threads or emps on that, since eventually, I'll get the shards. But, many of us like to do things differently. So, your views and practices will certainly vary, as will your results with the rng.

I definitely agree that change is an opportunity for growth - in the real world. But in this pixeled multiverse? I am not sure I want to develop new skills, although I'm fine with refining existing ones. I was just having a chat on Discord about the reason I'm not a speed runner. (not the way the real speeders are) I move with the arrow keys. It's intuitive. Want to move backwards, use the arrow key that points backwards. Forwards? Move the key that points that way. It makes sense. A damned idiot must have thought W would make sense to go forward. West, maybe. But forward? // Rhetorical question alert: How does W suggest forward movement? I'm sure it's because of the easier way to manipulate the character with the left hand while it's on the keyboard. I mean, I know that now. But I come from a world of Leisure Suit Larry. Everything was hunt and peck. There was never a need to be efficient or move quickly. Old habits die hard, especially if you've no interest in changing them. In life, I completely agree it should be viewed as a chess board, seeking to improve your position each moment, without ceding gains on the other part of your life's board. But, while many principals can carry from life into the game, I remember having more fun when I knew less. So, not sure I want to be dragged kicking and screaming into change. Not in game. In life, I can see the opportunities. But in game, there really is no payoff for that investment. It's just effort, with no gain. A reward merit? 10,000 reward merits? They're all but useless. I've already won that part of the game. What would I do with them? Costumes? Useless. My characters could be naked, and I wouldn't care - although I would certainly begin playing female avatars exclusively. I was on a mere 2 star itf last night. A casual run, as 6 of us had never done it. And all I could think of when Rommie roasted me was, "I hate to retoggle". It takes about 15 seconds. Just waiting for the little swirly circle to start so you can press the next one. Toggles are the worst thing in game, really. They should all be auto-on, like temperature protection. But, I'm sure they exist so end hungry players can turn them off. But I digress. Avoiding defeat for me is avoiding having to retoggle. It's why I spend so much time acquiring so much inf - so I could kind of sit there and be a little clumsy with my keyboarding and not get clobbered. And, if I've had adequate caffeine intake, I can actually play at a high level - once I get to the fight, lol. So, um, real world change, bring it on. In game change? That takes me some getting used to. You can keep it. I'd go back to issue three and be just fine. (that's when I started) Of course, I say that, and I know I'd hate not having those IO set bonuses, lol.

This post reminded me of my thoughts when issue 4 came out. I was so blissfully ignorant that I had no idea I was truly clueless about what I was doing. It saddens me to say, I had more fun when I knew next to nothing about how to play. I had more fun when I didn't know you should slot 1-2 accuracies, 3 damages and 1-2 recharges. (before Inventions, of course) When issue 4 changed things, I complained. In writing. I told them I had bought the game in a certain state. The fact that they changed the game post purchase was clearly a bait and switch. I mean, at that time, it never occurred to me in a million years a company would plan to change the game they had spent years developing. To put in context, prior to CoH, the only computer game I'd played besides chess was Centurion, defenders of Rome and Leisure Suit Larry. I bought those games, and they didn't change. Never occurred to me that CoH would. I was just ignorant. Now, I'm not ignorant, but I'm certainly prone to being obtuse. With every patch that comes out, I am against it. It still riles me up that they change the game. It's like that line from Guys and Dolls: "You women, as soon as you find a guy you love, you gotta take him in for alterations." They love the game so much, they gotta change it. Maybe they didn't love it as much as they thought. That said, eventually, generally about 2-3 months after, when I've adapted to the changes, I usually come to terms with the changes. I still think the "leak" of the SG macro was the best thing that's happened in the HC Dev reign. And the adjustment to it was clever, but needless. (from my perspective - I know, pvp, master badge runs, yada, yada) So, as much as I might gripe, bitch or moan, I eventually come around.

First - let me tell you - good questions! Second, let me also tell you - the time will vary. If I may be so bold, I realize that most do not play this way - but consider thinking about your character early - and the powers you will want, and what you'll slot in them. Consider using Mids Reborn. The values Mids may give from time to time may have an error here or there, but it does let you see which IOs you would need/want, and you can bid on those before you even make the character. A lot depends on how you do things. In my case, my farmer will tend to have more influence than any of my characters, so the farmer usually ends up placing the bids on the items I'll want that aren't already stored in my base. I tend to favor the attuned sets for leveling, unless I'm PLing to 50. (rarely) And since I can't craft attuned IOs, I buy them. If the item is a pvp IO, I might buy the level 10 recipe and craft it. Tends to be much cheaper that way. And, once I reach level 10, if it's not one of those proc-types, I'll just catalyze it to make it attuned. Usually that's still cheaper than buying it attuned. The longer you have the lower bids placed before you need them, the more likely it is you will get what you want at the lower price. Patience is the key.

@America's Angel <doh!> You're absolutely right. It didn't even register in my feeble mind. Near as I can tell, this mysterious 100% XP figure seems to be: 6408 for minion 12816 for LT 38448 for Boss At least, that's what I was getting on my own "test" map. What's puzzling me is why my characters seem to struggle on some of these adjusted maps, but not on other adjusted maps. I think there's a lot going on behind the curtain that the combat log isn't showing. I keep hearing/reading people talk about upping the s/l resist, but I see no evidence of taking any s/l damage in the farms. Puzzliing...a good word for it.

The reason your lowbie is leveling slower is likely the change in the 2xp buff from p2w. Per the HC devs, they said that their testing revealed that the 2xp we thought we were getting was actually 3xp. So, yeah, the reduced leveling speed with 2xp should be expected.

I did try it. For whatever reason, the minions give 72 less XP than another "adjusted for page 4" map. Is it on Brainstorm? and another edit: I just left brainstorm. And I look at the xp I get from this "100% XP" (by moving the slider to 100%) as shown in the snipped pic. I only present this because of my confusion. In my map, I'm getting 6408 per minion. In yours, I get 4200 per minion. So, if both are adjusted for "100% XP", what's going on here? It's not my intent to derail, or complain, I'm just curious, wondering if those words "100% XP" mean what I think they mean. Maybe not, lol. I genuinely am fairly ignorant of AE mission creation. I mean, all I do is click on the errors, fill in the fields and then select an objective.

This is what I see. Thanks, though.