Ukase

I don't get it. I only got the singular effect from casting it 2x. I mean, I wasn't real sure, so I tested it and still come up wrong? What is this game?! The effect, per my detailed tab info is supposed to last 45 seconds. So, I cast the 2nd one at about the 30 second mark, as that's approximately when it recharged. I even redid it just now, and the power analyzer still only shows a single -30% from Tar Patch after casting it a 2nd time. I even closed the analyzer window and recast the analyzer and still only got the single effect. Mind you, this was with a DDD defender. I brought my ice/dark corr on and see the 2x effect. But I checked CoD and it does say for the defender the stacking is per caster, same as the corruptor. I'm not sure what to make of my glitched defender. Maybe that's why I hadn't played him in 687 days! And...yet, on the third test, it works as you folks say it does, 2x the debuff. So, clearly, something must have screwed up on my end. I appreciate you folks taking the time to point out my flawed conclusion. But honestly, I did test it! I just got bad results for reasons which escape me. Maybe it missed, and I didn't catch it? I only have the token slot, and no accuracy in it, just a slow/end/recharge.

This took me by surprise, as I'd just bought a power analyzer from the START vendor. So, I knew I had at least some inf, and found it highly unlikely I only had 50K inf to make that purchase. The AH confirms I have the funds, but the combat stats seem to be stuck or lost in the past on a character I recently deleted. Convinced logging off and then on would fix it, I set out to at least get some day job credit in the vanguard base - and zoning fixed the issue. Still, that's buggy, so I'm reporting it.

I was under the impression a second cast of Tar Patch refreshed the -res, but didn't stack it - unless it was in conjunction with another player's own tar patch. I could certainly be incorrect, I suppose the only way to be sure is to log in my own 3D, long neglected for 687 days. The famed Rikti Pylon, and it's stats via Power Analyzer: With 1 Tar patch: With 2 tar patches (from the same player), there is no difference. (I would share the graphic, but there really is no difference.) So, yeah, they would only stack from another player. If I had a second dark/dark...well, maybe I do, but I don't feel the need to log in that level 32 DD to demonstrate what I'm reasonably confident in. Still, with -30Res, who needs a 2nd dark. Nice to have, but I'd rather have a natty or a kin to complement, rather than stack. So, really, no need to push for more than a 45 second recharge in most situations, as that's how long the debuff lasts.

My first 50, a zillion years ago back in the days of issue 3 was an emp elec. I had fly, and hover. Over the years, my playstyle has changed a bit. Now, I get Combat Jumping for any characters that don't fly - which is most of them. The characters that fly get hover. Both provide the same defense% last I checked, and would take the same defensive IO's I'd be inclined to put in them. Staying out of melee range is harder when you're solo than when you're teamed with a melee. This is why it always pays for a ranged character to have some method of keeping melee npcs at range. For my ice blasters/defenders/corruptors, freeze ray works like a charm, but it only stops one npc. Still the recharge is pretty good, so typically (at least in the 20's anyway) I can tackle two npcs that are trying to get to melee. It's probably why blasters get a t-1 immob to start out with. You mentioned being level 8, so until you get up a few levels, if you can at all afford it, visit the start vendor and get some plasmatic tasers. They're great for tossing a few npcs back about 10 feet. Until then, hover (or the jet pack you get at level 2) can work just fine. Hover will work better. Not for the defense, but because hover won't use up so much endurance the way the jet pack will. But, in a pinch, the jet pack can work.

Depends on how much beer I've had and how close I am to passing out.

Yes, indeed.

You're just one Sentinel. If you select that power, you'll have a 2nd Sentinel with you. And that one cannot be targeted, so you can get their aggro. Sounds like a fun afternoon!

I recall a player, level 37 dinged 38 in a Yin. They proceed to leave the mission before it's even done because they really want their epic armor. I suggested they could wait because they won't be able to use it until the TF is over. My mistake. They quit at that moment. People like this are why my squirt gun has no more water in it, and I can no longer effectively lead teams. I mean, I can still lead them. Just not effectively. I mean, how can I do that with an empty squirt gun?

The CoHBible? Sure that wasn't written by Nemesis?

Another method to get these is to tackle the buds after you defeat the weakened hamidon in LGTF. Most folks don't bother with them because they're in a rush - and who can blame them as that TF is needlessly lengthy enough (imo). But most players will help you defeat them if you mention it at the beginning, and again as that mission starts. Some folks will invariably exit anyway, but that will be there problem at that point.

Well bummer, but thanks for the replies.

That incarnate story arc in Dark Astoria for Praetor Duncan...where you have to escort her to Dominatrix...and she's so slow and whiny, zipping to that point, then getting her to follow, and poof, mission complete (once you exit).

So, this isn't a suggestion. I am making it feedback, as I've no other way to describe it. I was able to get a silly name, and in my efforts to goof off, I've begun using aspects of the game that I've never used before, or at least, not to this extent. I sought to get a Santa cap on my character, but it took away all of the character's hair. This seems...odd. I don't recall using a hat before, or if I did, I either didn't care, or didn't notice. But my character has some hair, I'm sure of it. (in the previous costume, she was wearing a surgical cap as well as some detail 2 configuration that made her appear somewhat like she was wearing a nun's habit...of sorts. In any event, it seems to me the costume creator shouldn't allow a hat to remove a characters hair. I'm sure there's some sort of limitation with the creator that causes that, but it could very well be user error. And that's where the feedback comes in. Shouldn't the interface ask me if I want to keep the hair in addition to the hat? I have no expectations that anyone should lose sleep over this. I'm just curious if this is user error, and if so - shouldn't there be some method that's more apparent to do something like this? I imagine it's fairly common.

You're talking nonsense man. Or, you're not reading my post, or you're just having some fun. All of that is fine - but this proves my point. YOU may put a "reliable Force Feedback mule in Dragon Tail, but not everyone will. If they don't, stands to reason there's a lot of other things they don't do that you might do. So, clearly, you're talking about a more specific case of what AT/powerset combo is best for YOU. Please try not to confuse newer players who may not realize the imprecision you're offering here as wisdom. It's just preference - which is super cool. I get it, but I like fire/fire and fire/ma more than rad/ma, as far as tanks go. And that's not thinking of the AE farm environment, but all environments from banished pantheons, to nemesis to arachnos. (although, if it weren't for fire's super fast heal, those damned awakened would be groups I'd avoid. Those guys can hurt you quick if you're not careful. ) I love shield/mace on a tank. It has the satisfying crunch of mace, with the satisfying opener of Shield Charge. It's super fun! I probably could squeeze a little more out of my build. The character is a few years old, and I've learned some things between then and now. For my time, Offense: Fire/ice blaster - I like TA as a secondary on a corruptor. But not for a blaster. It has it's merits, clearly. But for me, ice is nice. And Fire/ice is awesome. Defense: Shield/Mace Tank - for me, it's just a lot more fun than Rad anything. No charge, no fun. So, in some cases, I like Electric Armor, too, if I want a resist based armor. Support: Fire/Natty corruptor...corruptor over defender because Scourge. Sometime the best defense is a good offense. These are my own preferences. I dare not cast any illusions they are best of anything, particularly given how obtuse I can be on the battlefield. But fire/ice, particularly for advanced mode is just about as good as you're gonna get. At least, that's what loc told me, and he's way smarter than me.

I blame early onset rigor mortis. (look up Andy Huggins for the humor in that)

There are flaws in the logic from the start. First, while Fire/TA is a fine combo, there's zero evidence to suggest your scientific study is valid or even statistically significant. Where is this study? What is the evidence? Rad armor for the best defense? Nonsense. Best survival? Maybe...but it all depends on how a player builds it and slots it, right? There are no hard fast rules for "This is best in class", because people build their characters differently. Now, it could be that you may have an affinity for a certain AT/powerset combination and can really make them shine. And if that is the case, great. But can you also make a fire/ice tank shine? No DDR with the fire tank, but if you build it with 104% s/l resist, haven't you essentially built in 14% ddr? (That's always been my understanding) Your assumption on the DP/Time Defender being best support is in my estimation so dependent on the player to make the assertion ridiculous. There is no best. There are some fantastic players that have excellent manual dexterity with incredible out of the box (and in the box, too) thinking that can make the worst look amazing. And sadly, there are players that can take what most would agree be an awesome build and play it like it's trash - because they're distracted, or it's not that important to them, or they lack the experience or understanding of what they should be doing. What are you really after here?

I was not raised in a barn. I was raised in a small village in Greece without plumbing. So, my manners aren't that good by default. I have to work on it. So forgive me for being late in thanking you all for your insights.

Short answer: Devastation or Gladiator Javelin. Usually Glad Javelin. A lot depends on the character. Usually, my blasters will spend a fair amount of time using secondary attacks in melee. On those characters, I'll want to look specifically for more Hitpoints. The Devastation set gives a bit of HP, 2.25%. Not the 3% that apoc will, but that's as close as I can get. The plan is to use unslotters to take the Devastations out and replace with apocs when I ding 50. If the character is a particularly greedy for endurance type, I'll use the Glad Javelin set, which is really got a lot of bonuses I like - but it's just a shame the proc is not very good in a power that recharges in 4 seconds.

omg, @AboveTheChemist!! The https://n15g.github.io/badger/homecoming site has been updated! This had to be a chore, and I cannot overstate how much I use this and appreciate it!

Our forums, particularly older patch notes can be a chore to find. I often have to refer to HC Wiki and look for an external link, or use Google. But, I am successful in at least finding where the listing for invention salvage was. Here. It's hard to put into words everything this change did to my brain. Mercenary or not, I was selling rare salvage. Not a lot, just the 40 or so pieces I had from the random drops from a merit vendor - back when I really didn't know even a fraction of what I know now about marketing. I was not in the habit of looking at patch notes, nor was I "Plugged in" with the actual smart people who read that stuff before they log in, I imagine. It took me completely by surprise, and yeah, it pissed me off, because I had to pull all those pieces of salvage and either keep them and lose the listing costs, or relist them, and it would be tough to know where the price for rare salvage would settle at. I kept them. I figured eventually, I'd use them. But the reward merit costs for them was more than I want to think of. At the time, before this change, it seemed like a smart idea. Or, at least a familiar one. I knew from retail spending 2M for a rare salvage was fairly normal. As I said, it took my by surprise. As a result, I got a little crazy with the farming and marketing and did so many different things, as I had no idea what else they were going to change in the future. And it wasn't immediately clear to me where to find out. For whatever reason, when I would visit the HC forums, I'd see this: So, I'd scroll down with my mouse, and then I'd see this: Obtuse fool that I am, it took me a while to discover all the sections between those. In any event, I have adjusted my mouse so it doesn't behave like that anymore, lol. But - I have digressed. That change is what motivated me to scratch out as much influence as I could before they made any more changes! I wouldn't be too greedy, because I wanted instant sales, because each week, I thought the HC Devs might tax my hustle again. I ran into a player who I could give credit here to, but maybe he doesn't want credit for helping create the market monster that I turned into. But he shared the idea/fact of afk-farming, something I had never heard of, nor thought would be possible. So I tried it - and actually had my heal on auto, and not burn. I was afk - what did I care how long it took? lol, it just never occurred to me any character would be able to survive for hours on end in the middle of a ton of +4/8 npcs without some kind of a heal. Shows how basic my thinking was from retail. I did eventually level up a spines/fire brute, organically, outside of AE and then made a build with all those fancy winters and ATOs. It took all the spare inf I had, but eventually it paid for itself. And then I wanted to do something else...but couldn't because of the farmer. Then came the idea for a second account. And then the idea for farming to scale. And with each farmer came those drops - which is where the FAT inf came from. It never occurred to me how much faster inf could be made by just buying recipes cheaply and crafting them and selling them. But, I am proven to be obtuse. I did eventually figure out a lot more - but man, that one change to salvage is what led me to create 3 more accounts and have farmers going on 3 accounts while I played the 4th. I was going to make more accounts, but the crafting/converting takes converters. and time. And I still wanted to play outside of the farms, so I just stopped with that.

As mentioned, the simplest thing to do is visit your START vendor and get the defense amplifier. It's relatively cheap at low levels, and easily affordable for most level 50 characters. And if not, the break free is the next simplest thing. Don't feel like you need to save a break free for when you get held. You can use one before you engage. It doesn't just stop most mez, it also stops kb, which can be super annoying when trying to position a cone attack.

I wish we had a way to toggle these to not drop. They clog up my tip mission list. I know there are some newer players who've never heard of vidiotmaps or ATCs pop menu (and others), but I've never had to use these. By now, I have most zones memorized. A clever idea for the new or rust-laden returning player, but I would venture a guess that most folks don't use them.

So, this took me by surprise. Belladonna Vetrano, one of those "incarnate story arc" contacts has a personal mission. Was doing it to get "Embodiment of Law" badge. For those that don't know, in this mission, you take on the form of Tyrant, or Marcus Cole. And you completely annihilate all the forces of Lord Recluse, much like any level 50 fire blaster would annihilate a mob of level 8 Skulls in Perez Park. Easy. And then, suddenly, I get a gladiator badge from defeating Fortunatas. I can't recall how many I needed. It wasn't many...but there were at least a couple of Toxic Tarantulas in here, as well as a number of Mu Guardian bosses. Historically, I would do 2 things for Mu Guardian bosses - camp out near the villain base, as there's always a couple near there. Or, I'd tackle the first mission of MLTF, and just target the toxics, the forts, and the Mu Bosses. Now - that still might be more efficient from a numbers perspective, but this map is super simple. Click a glowie, do a little sprint, then lay the smack down. I already had the Heat Seeker badge, so unsure if I'd have gotten credit for the Flyer, but odds would be against that anyway. Someone would have milked that for all it was worth if that was the case, and it would have been fixed, for sure. Just thought I'd share a very simple way to get forts and Mu bosses and Toxic Tarantulas, particularly if you're a squish, or you just like the feeling of laying waste to grey conning mobs.

I wanted to mention: the Family Bosses badge...after our "Tango Tuesday", where we were clobbering mobs until the Mino reset, if Family Bosses counted in there, I'm 100% certain my character would have more than the 1 it has now, because I got the kill shot on at least 3. I just assumed they didn't count because they were Elite Bosses, and not standard bosses. I can confirm I got the Hell Bane badge for defeating Caleb, and Heat Seeker, for the Arachnos Flyer.

Depends on the character. But I suspect, my higher end use toggles would finally get the end cost IO they'd been asking for. I don't often pursue damage procs because the math often doesn't support their use in the powers I'd want to use them in. I might squeeze in the +regen from that lower level health power...that I believe is called Regenerative Tissue. Or the Reactive Defenses: scaling damage resistance. I often struggle to fit that one in. Just depends.