Ukase

With the new influx of players asking about passcodes in the help channel, I thought I might suggest the SG Registrar (or villain equivalent) explain to the new founder how to set the passcode, and how to create the macro, or minimally, use the /enterbasefrompasscode XXXXXX-12345 command.

So, this looks a bit odd. Why isn't the smashing resistance stat blue, like Energy Resistance? Did they raise the Smashing resistance cap for Corruptors?

The "why" is fairly easy to grasp. When you're not level 50, but over 35, you kind of rely on some of the stronger buffs. If the league has more sub level 35's than usual, you end up with a lot of "wipes". I've been a part of some of these leagues. No clarions, no other kind of status protection buffs. Yeah, I brought some break-frees, but those get used up in the first few moments of the raid. The result is a cascade of defeats, upon which, half of the league is actually at the Vanguard base trying to get back to the bowl. Not only is that not much fun, but the resulting total of Vanguard Merits ends up being about 700 or so, instead of the more expected 12-1400. And it's largely because a number of folks wanted to level up their very low level characters. On the one hand, I get it. Who doesn't want to see the XP swirling around faster than an empath can fill your health bar? As casual as the MSR is, it works because of the constant heals, buffs and debuffs (and of course, the constant taunting and leading the Rikti to the bowl) When about 12-18 of these players are not only under level 35, but under level 20, they don't have the slots to do much, nor enough powers to do much. They are being carried. And it would be fine if the rewards were the same, but they are most definitely not. At least, that hasn't been my experience. Again, I get the appeal. But I also remember this past Halloween in the PI motel court, towards the later part of the event. Folks were literally creating alts to collect the prismatics. The league that started with all 50's at the beginning of the Halloween event, after the first couple of weeks had more than half the team under level 20. The result was slower kills, a lot more defeats and a fair amount of resentment from the level 50s towards the folks that brought their level 1's out for the prismatics. It can work if it's mostly appropriate level players. But when a level 50 player opts to leave, you might have a level 11 getting the team lead, exemplaring the higher level players and they suffer practically instant defeat. This happens in MSRs, too, but far less frequently, as it's a fixed duration, and mapserves/disconnects are far less frequent than they used to be.

It IS a hassle, as the folks often ask for invites from other zones. You'd have to /search and type the name in for each character to assess if they meet the level requirement. So, in theory, it sounds reasonable, but in practice, it's pretty annoying.

So, I confess, I never actually looked at the requirements, so I don't know what they were before this referenced change. Given that we can't earn a vanguard merit before level 35 (because that's when Levantera is unlocked as a contact), I'm not sure I agree with any msr being open to a level 1. I understand having a new character and wanting those nifty quick easy levels. But, the MSR isn't the place to do that - at least, I don't think so. If you're hanging out with in-game friends and want to do that kind of thing, in my mind, the instanced MSR is for you - but just for you and your friends, not a typical recruited league. At least, that's the way I see it. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say we can tell the difference between an MSR with mostly folks over level 35, compared to one with a couple dozen folks under level 15. A lot more use of vengeance, for sure. But, the practice some folks have of taking a lower level character to an msr isn't really that different from the leagues that form for a Rikti or Nemesis invasion in a lower level zone. So, in a sense, I am of two minds about this. If our current HC leadership is okay with level 1's being able to msr, then perhaps they should allow them to earn vanguard merits as well. I think, however, it's a case of them recognizing that there are scenarios where an SG is playing together and attend an msr, and having one of your sg folks told they need to find something else to do for 30-40 minutes..I don't think that's what the game is about, and that's why it's open to level 1's. And because of that, folks outside of a scenario like that are going to take advantage. Ultimately, there are a lot of things that can irk me on some days, and on other days they don't bug me much at all. For me, this is one of those things.

Lately, I've been enjoying an ice/dark corruptor. Probably enjoying the ice more than the dark, but given my roots as an ice/ice blaster, that's probably to be expected. I have two builds, one is very close to the current build I'm using now. The second is an adjusted build with a different patron pool. The numbers aren't THAT different, really. I could go either way. My concern is accuracy. I could, I suppose, forgo the cardiac option and pursue something else in the Alpha like Nerve. Anyways, figured I'd post these two builds, and some of you folks might take a look and immediately see something that looks off. Or, you might see that I left some setting on, that should have been off. I have a nasty habit of leaving vengeance on and wondering why the build in game doesn't measure up. Cold Miner - Corruptor (Ice Blast - Dark Miasma).mbd Cold MinerDarkMastery - Corruptor (Ice Blast - Dark Miasma).mbd

If I'm being transparent, ordinarily I would just sell this recipe. I mean, a pet? That doesn't do anything? It's fairly worthless to me. But, given the rarity of the drop...something like .4% of a chance that only drops in a hami raid from Hami himself or a mito...well, given that half the raids are zergs, it's a fairly rare thing to get. So, for me, it serves just as much purpose in my inventory as it would scurrying behind me as I go from place to place. It takes as long as it takes. I will have to make a concerted effort to tackle arcane critters, like CoT, as opposed to Council or Freakshow.

Just anecdotally, I notice on characters that farm, rare salvage is just that - rare. It drops, but certainly not often. That said, I am well aware of the odds of accumulating that specific type of rare salvage 20x...well, it's going to be a while. Thankfully, this is a character that I have thus far enjoyed. I even learned some things about it I didn't know regarding twilight grasp. It has such a seemingly long animation when you need a heal, that I would usually just use a green inspiration. I had either not noticed or forgotten the benefits of using this power more as a proactive power than a reactive one. I was waiting for mids to update energize in the Mu Mastery, but I've been encouraged to look at dark in lieu of electric. But I digress...in any event, I anticipate playing this one for quite some time.

Shhh....they'll hear you.

Maybe you should just buy all the mini-hamidons. Only 32 of them, and I'll have the only one! (except for the 32 you'll have) The crazy thing is, even though I could easily buy the requisite salvage, I'm inclined to wait until they drop organically before I craft this pet. I'm curious to see how many vet levels it will take before I organically acquire 20 hamidon goos.

I have no idea what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. 20 Hamidon Goos? That's hilarious. My questions are these: Will it change zones with me? Will it fly if I'm flying, or does it slide along the ground below? Can it be out with other pets, like my Dark Servant, and/or a mini Jurrasik? If I have the mini-pet versions of Jack and Eochai, will they fight each other? If not, can we make that happen?

Almost a full week ago, I was running content on gold side and we had some crazy, yet brilliant use of fold space. Someone lays out tar patch, and the other player uses fold space to move the mobs right into the Tar Patch, and then I'd drop whirl pool in the same spot and we'd all mash buttons until they were dead. Fold space has a place in this game. But, the folks that use it have to be smarter than me. I've got a couple of characters with it, but the main place I want to use it - during MSRs, it never works. The main user of it is my fire/ice tank. When they're ported, they're in an almost a perfect cone for Frost. I know there are players who use Fold Space far more effectively than I ever will. Like yanking weakened Hami out of the goo in Lady Grey. I would have never thought of it.

I could certainly be wrong, but just based on the characters I see, it's on account of the fairly successful show called "Lucifer". I've seen at least 1/2 dozen references to some variation of Morningstar.

Earlier today, I was making some adjustments on a new 50, and I noticed a discussion on the help channel. A player was asking some fairly good questions for a new player, mostly about the differences between enhancements, and how to create them, why to create them, etc. I'm reading the questions, and the answers. The player in question was lucky, in a sense. They got excellent replies. But, as good as the answers were, they fell short. With the new terminology to the new player, there was still a lot they didn't grasp. I'm asking myself, how do I articulate in a concise manner how a booster works, and how to add them, and in what cases would you not add them, and what cases you might want to. While I did drag a sample IO and a booster to the chat so they might better understand what I was talking about, I still am wondering if there isn't a better way. I have a memory of sharing my screen over discord with someone who was in my SG, and revealing various things I do in the market. And, then it occurs to me -- why can't I, or someone who already might be streaming content, do a visual primer on the following: The difference between a DO and an SO. Where they may be bought if you need them. The difference between a basic invention enhancement and a set bonus enhancement. Why D-Syncs, Hami-Os, and Titan-Os, and such are desirable in certain circumstances. What a winter-O is, the several ways to get them, and how to catalyze them to make them superior. Our HC devs have tried to educate our players in a simplistic fashion, and for the most part, the tutorial does a decent job at a basic introduction. But I believe many of our newer players could and desire more information that's clear and concise. Using the help channel is probably their best option at present. And even if we can make a fantastic visual aid, whether it be on Steam or YouTube, it may not get the views. Some of you are very creative and already do stuff on Steam and/or YT. So, there you go - the challenge has been put out. Create a video explaining these different things so that a newer player can readily identify how to find and use the various loot the game presents us with. Mind you - we don't need 20 of you doing the same thing, although that wouldn't hurt. Perhaps some of you might collaborate.

I want to thank you folks for taking the time to share your tendencies regarding a respec. I was all prepared to respec this one character...but then discovered Mids isn't quite done adapting to page 7. I've got a corruptor with Energize, and mids hasn't accounted for that yet. The character is quite good as is; and I don't really need to, but I've got a power that in practice just doesn't suit me. I don't quite grasp what good a minor control is, when as soon as they take damage, they're free to clobber you. I guess it ensures I get one good shot off, or I can stall until something better recharges, but thus far, that hasn't been a need or an issue. As for the 50 or so characters that were revolved around Rune of Protection, and/or stealth pool, they can remain as they are. I think re-rolling an alt is faster than making up my mind what to do with them.

Before anyone goes nuts...I burned through a metric ton of converters trying to reproduce this result and could not, so I didn't report it as a bug. I am actually thinking this is more of a server load playing games with my graphics, as right before this, I had converted a level 10 defense/end/recharge into a teleport protection, +res. And, honestly, I can't be 100% sure this happened, because I was in the midst of doing a fair number of conversion on my alt. I tend to pull out the attuned when my characters hit 47, and slot the 50's in it. But it sure looks like it happened. And for older eyes like mine - note the starting and ending levels of the enhancement.

We all know there have been some changes, particularly with the added challenging content and the changes to the council and CoT. Some folks have only a couple of characters that are 50, some have none, and have no real desire to get there. At least, not strong enough to play one character until they get there. Some of us have literally hundreds of level 50 characters, all IO'd out, t-4 in all the slots. And some of us rotate how we play those characters, while some serve purposes, like helping others and our alts get the mayhem missions and other stuff - but they don't really see any action, unless a friend is looking for a specific kind of help - which is coming up a bit with these mirror image badges and the variety badge, whatever it's called. I used to be a badger, but not really one any more. I just can't hang with it, it's not fun for me anymore. But, I digress. How many of you are going to respec your characters to better handle these changes? How many of you just re-roll a new character to adapt to these changes and leave the older model sitting? I have thought about going through my roster and respecing a lot of them, just to clean out the IOs, and delete them, as I don't play them anymore. I have no idea how much of a server's resources go to ensuring the data is there if I ever log them in again. The inf they carry, the badge count, the sg they belong to, the pieces of salvage in inventory...all of that takes at least some memory. Not to mention the name of the character. If it's a paltry amount of resources, then it's really not a big deal, I wouldn't think. But it might be of some use to me to have fewer pages of alts to sift through, a ready supply of cool names for me to choose from, since they're already names I have on my characters. Just curious about how many folks adapt to each patch.

I have made a couple of homage characters that, thus far, haven't got generic'd. Candidly, I don't think they will be or should be, but I don't make those decisions. I made Mr. Warmth, an Homage to Don Rickles. I have a couple of kind-hearted insults on a couple of macros should the opportunity present itself, and I have Carol Burnit an homage to Carol Burnette, who is one of my two favorite female entertainers, the other being Betty White - no homage to her yet, but as soon as I can think of the proper name for the character, I'll get right on it. The thing about those two, the costume creator is a bit limited on creating any kind of clone for them. I mean, a bald old guy for Rickles. That's fairly generic. And a red head for Carol Burnette. That's about as close to resembling them as I could get with my limited creativity.

I don't know what kind of difficulties there would be in making this possible, but I think it's a great idea, provided the capacity is adequate. As an example, my current character is crafting/converting every uncommon/rare it gets, and the ones that will likely be used in the next character get stashed in a specific bin in my base. One of the things that keeps me from joining sgs is the inability to access these items without logging in an alt to get them. I suppose I could just sell everything and rebuy it, but I'm too well-versed in the market to be so foolish. But..it would be super cool to have my own inf bank account instead of stashing it in market bids and email, too.

And, I see now I did read it incorrectly. Rhetorically, why can't they word that in a more clear fashion - "Debuffs critters damage resistance by 22.5%". I'm far too obtuse most days.

So, I could be misreading this - but I think this statement is..inaccurate. Tar Patch debuffs damage by 22.5%. Not Damage resistance. At least, that's what my detailed info tab shows:

So, because when Yomo talks, people listen, I happened to see this post. On Excelsior, I can confirm this delay of 20-30 seconds before a price history displays. On Indomitable, it's instantly. No issues, at least, not for me. That said, I think the lack of price history made me a ton of inf I might not have otherwise gotten. Who needs a price history anyway? Not me. 🤑

I'm most likely to fail this challenge. I can rarely make out any costume in sufficient detail to notice anything. It's an odd thing - I see screenshots of a costume and can see it well. But in game, I can hardly tell it's anything special. For example: What is there to notice other than pink hair, with shades of blue, black and gold? It was a random costume, all I did was change it from a fish face to a human head, really. The randomizer made it all black and blue, but I figured there should be some kind of other color. But maybe it my graphics card, or my eyes, but I just don't see anything clearly enough to note any fine attention to detail for evaluating a costume. Now, a bio - that's a different story. I do read and compliment amusing or interesting bios. But costumes? I'll try...but I'm no fashion plate.

When you see this, could you ask them a follow up question, "why?". I can understand them turning off general chat. There's no real limit to how inane some of those chats can be, it's why I turn it off myself. But the help channel? Why would anyone, particularly a newer player turn that off? There are dozens of ways to solve the growing pains of the newer player, but opinions are going to vary wildly from don't help them at all, to give them 1 million at level 10 to get them on their way. I personally think the defeated npcs dropping enhancements and salvage they can use is the proper path. It always annoyed me to be in DFB and get some lame SO like a confuse when I didn't have a power that could use it. Or worse, be in The Hollows, really needing an end mod enhancement, and getting one, only it's the wrong origin.

Anyone have any insights on how to make the most out of the Dark Servant, other than just to spawn him as a distraction? Does proximity and my current health level have any impact on whether he uses a heal, or is it his own health (or lack of it) that triggers the heal? ************************** Here's the longer version: So, I'm playing an ice/dark corruptor now. It's an interesting mix. As a fairly experienced player, I understand that toggles like Shadow Fall aren't usually what lead to endurance not being what I'd like, but the frequency of attacks. But, damn, this character drinks endurance like a drunk at a free bar. But never mind that - I'll sort that out, even though I already have the 3 end/stamina special IOs, like Numina, Miracle and Panacea, and the +end perf shifter, perf shifter end mod, AND a power transfer end mod in stamina. Thing still gobbles up endurance like crazy. But, I digress - the dark servant. I noticed this creature healed me. I can think of more than a few times when I sorely needed a heal and the dark servant was like me, a bit more focused on surviving themselves instead of worrying about a long-animation heal that also requires an accuracy check. The dark servant has a lot of abilities. Not a great aggro magnet like other pets - but then the Dark servant isn't a pet. I was surprised to see I can't slot pet sets in it. In a way, that's cool. But, the two sets I'm torn between setting in it...Cloud Senses and Basilisk, they're both lower level sets. They both cap at 30. Now, as far as percentages go, the boosts aren't that much smaller, but there is a difference. Poor dark servant won't really care. What do we know about the dark servant? I know I'm usually too busy fighting to pay him much attention. If I didn't need a heal, I probably would have never noticed him giving me one. I was probably just lucky and in the area. The description tells us he's an unwilling servant. He's all stealthy-like, so I can't really make out what animations he's doing to determine what he's doing. I know he likes to use a hold, those are quite good and timely, usually. We can't control him or tell him what to do. So what gives with the Dark Servant. What's the best way to manipulate it into being more useful?