Ukase

Dude, you've had like 6 people tell you precisely how to fix that and you keep going on like you can't see their replies! I am totally yanking your chain. Sorry, couldn't resist.

That statement is patently false. I was in issue 3. I slotted one SO of every type allowed. It's true! I'm not saying that was a good way to go - definitely not. I just didn't know any better. I didn't know the forums even existed then. It wasn't until ...I think it was snipe, on my elec/elec blaster (I really need to try and remake one of those) where all the allowed enhancements exceeded the number of slots. It was quite confusing. I thought the enhancements that were allowed HAD to be slotted. It never occurred to me to slot anything else. A teammate once asked me how I was able to keep a mostly full endurance bar. I had an end reduction SO in every power I had just about. In some cases I didn't because I didn't have enough slots to slot that particular power yet. That was when they told me I needed to get to the forums and read and educate myself. We can look at our teammate's powers, but we never had a clue what they actually had slotted. So making such a blanket statement is likely not precise. While it's true the vocal majority suggested such, there were a number of players who never did things like that. Some by design, and some out of ignorance.

It's a question of semantics here. If I am "on a team", there are different ways to contribute to the team without actively working side by side. I see this routinely in this week's weekly Dr. Q. That damn tf has what...16 door missions. Some are kill all, some are just kill the boss & his men, and some are kill the boss & his men and some glowies. In that tf, it would be just about a kickable offense if all 7 players followed me around a map instead of splitting off in different directions in pursuit of the mission objectives. That's a part of the reason that damn task force used to take 3-4 hours back then! Going off to pursue one of the mission's objectives while another teammate pursues another is very much working together as a team. But, again, it's semantics. Look up the word teamwork. There's nothing that requires a player to be in the room with you to be working for the greater good of the team. Of course, opinions will vary - and you're quite entitled to yours, and to feel the way you do about it. You're not wrong, you're just coming from a different perspective. That also means the rest of us aren't wrong either. Just understand that the playstyle you seek others to engage in is not the only way to satisfy "team" requirements. There's nothing unfriendly about this type of play, either. But - try to realize that most of us that played before, we're likely to be between 35-50 years old. We've got family distractions, work, who knows what else that would occupy our time at a moment's notice. The days of us being able to give something our complete attention for hours is over for most of us - until we retire, if we even get that option. If I did a cooperative effort for each mission I had, I'd be hard pressed to get certain task forces done in an hour's game session. There are times when your preferred style is perfectly fine with me. But there are other times when it is woefully slow, and not feasible due to time constraints. But that's just me. Clearly there are a handful (at least!) of folks who like this playstyle you like. Look for each other in game and enjoy.

Back on live, I started this game in issue 3. I didn't know what MMO stood for, and continued to play the game despite it being an MMO, not because of it. It was a much simpler time, because you'd get various enhancement drops, and if they were your origin, you could slot them, if they were something you could use. Very much unlike now with "Reward Merits, Emp Merits, Astral Merits, Transcendant Merits, Catalysts, Converters, Boosters, Unslotters, ATOs, Winter-Os, everything but Spaghetti-Os. So, you're going to have some adjusting to do if you want to fit in with this newer style. Or, you'll have to be one of those who types more than most on the lfg when you describe what it is you're wanting to do and how you're wanting to do it. We just have so many more tools in our tool box that playing in the fashion of the trinity is just ...well, boring for some of us. I say that not to be discouraging, but to give some perspective. The playstyle of people back then ...with the much vaunted @pickle having determined after scouring through combat logs that hamidon was held for a short time eventually turned into a strategy of having controllers (no such thing as Dominators back then) spamming holds on hamidon to beat him. Having never done one of these raids, I'd finally hit fifty and wanted to help hold hamidon with my blaster. I had two holds...freeze ray and bitter freeze ray. This is where I learned about things like magnitude. Controllers had a higher mag with their holds than a blaster did. I was summarily told to go kick rocks, as my blaster's holds weren't good enough, and I'd just add to the lag that everyone suffered from back then during a hamidon raid, despite most of us having a minimal costume with no capes. Players back then would search high and low for "heals", "dps" and "tank". That was literally all they'd want on their team. "Blaster? Nah, we got two scrappers already. Kick rocks." Is that the teamwork and strategy you're looking for? Having some punching bag herd a group up, while a blaster uses a nuke and an empath heals from a safe distance? If you take just a little time and explore the many guides on these forums, you'll find this is still possible, and still done - but that many players who play blasters use the tools like Mids to create builds where a blaster can have as many Hitpoints as some scrappers, and deal out more damage with more defense. (not all, some. A very well built blaster can certainly out-survive a poorly made scrapper.) Why should the Fire Tanks of issue 3 have all the fun? Why shouldn't the Dark/Dark Defender with a fast recharging nuke and super high defense play around in the same fashion as some tanks? It's not like it's hurting anyone. I recognize that you're playing a game and you want fun. Just realize that your version of fun may not be everyone else's. I hope you find what you're looking for, a group of kindred spirits who will enjoy things the same way you would. But, I also want to encourage you to think outside of that tired box. There's countless hours of learning & fun to be had, and more than one way to play. The good news is - none of them are wrong, as long as you're enjoying yourself!

Please bear in mind - my objection is based solely on ignorance. I never chose Evasive Maneuvers. It was given to me. I have no idea if the LotG that's in there now is actually doing anything, as I haven't played the character since that patch. I will get around to it some day. But when I read the description of EM, I don't see how it's going to take the place of Afterburner, with that time limit on the use of that free version of it. Particularly for this week with Dr. Q. being the weekly. I mean, I don't know what it does, how it affects my combat stats, or if I can even be in combat with it. My fault, as I haven't taken the time to read about it. To me, I often wish the devs would just leave well enough alone. I still haven't bothered to read all the way through those patch notes to see if I could get a glimmer of whose day they were trying to make or ruin. What was wrong with it the way it was? It worked fine. But that's the gist of my objection. In order to now play my character with any confidence, I now have to read through the notes. Look at mids and see just precisely what using the power does to my combat stats. Then, I have to determine if it's actually a power I would ever use, see what type of IOs it would take. The same issue with the Sorcery pool. I have a good half dozen characters who opted for Rune of Protection, so I didn't take barrier. So, now those characters all have a t-4 rebirth because with Rune, barrier is overkill. But with Rune being essentially only usable once in a too damn long of a time, it's now best used for a set mule or a safe t-9 to use in case of crazy circumstances that almost never happen to me when I play. So, it's got to go. Which means a respec for each of those characters. And since they're 50, there's a chance it may require two respecs just to take all the IOs out. In short - these changes that so many of my fellow players clamor for - some of these changes ultimately require me to do work. I don't view a respec as game play. It's a necessary evil, and only as a last resort. In the same way some folks don't like to market, I don't like to do respecs. I'm okay poring over mids every so often, but not half a dozen times at the conclusion of a patch. Especially after I've already invested the time in mids on the character the first time. I wonder how the human torch would have felt if he could no longer flame-on, but maintained a fiery aura at all times. No more secret ID. No more fun with the ladies. "Sorry, Johnny, we had to make this change because it didn't make sense that you could just will those flames out by the force of your mind." "No, Thor. You don't have your Uru hammer anymore. You just get this squirting flower on your lapel. Oh, and a lapel. The kids will love it." Changing powers is just not a good idea for me - unless they are changed for the better. And, when I get around to it, I might figure out if these changes are for the better. But, life is busy and I haven't taken the time to determine if they are. That kind of time just isn't entertaining for me. It's like reading the instructions on how to assemble a table. Never put that table together before, but how different can it be from other tables I've assembled? So, just get to it. I can always read them later if I need to.

Ha! I keep telling folks that and they don't believe me!

For me, any objections I have to changes are the ones that make me have to tab out, and revisit patch notes to make it clear to my thick noggin exactly what changed. For example: the snipe change. I hated the first change. I don't like the second one either. There was nothing wrong with the way snipe was before they changed it. I had to revisit the patch notes to determine what happened to the damage, what my ToHit had to be to make it insta-cast, etc. I completely understand why we'd want to know that information. But I don't appreciate having to remind myself the first few days of these details. I have enough things swimming in my brain already. That Tarnished Star Badge with the zillion pre-reqs? I completely appreciate the effort that went into the arc. But, as a badger, I didn't really appreciate having to redo the arc several times because some of the pre-reqs were story arcs that didn't have badges, so I had never done them the first time around. I completely understand the why - but I am a bit of a reluctant badger on new issues. But, when you have multiple characters with all the badges, and a new badge comes out - then one is inclined to feel like they need to get all the new badges on all the badge characters in their stable. Obviously, nobody makes us do this. We torture ourselves for reasons I'm still not clear on. I'm suffering for it now...4 characters that had already done House of Horrors now have to redo it, as well as a number of more current badge characters that I feel compelled to get the badge on. (Clearly it says more about me and my lack of sanity than anything else!) I don't like new power sets or the idea of new ATs being introduced. Obviously, I'm in the minority. But, I'd rather see current sets get some attention. Why should a force field defender dish out such woefully poor damage. Why can't an empath buff themselves with clear mind and fort? The only buff they can give themselves are the two auras, regen and recovery. Doesn't seem sufficient to me. It'd be nice to see the Sentinel's base damage boosted by about 150%. (I totally pulled that number from thin air) But - by and large, the changes I hate the most are the ones that require me to respec my character. Like the one where afterburner was nerfed to Evasive Maneuvers. I have at least two characters that need a respec because of those changes. I have plenty of influence. I have the free respecs on those characters. What I don't have is the inclination to read about Evasive Maneuvers. Afterburner was simple. I understood it. And they changed it for their own reasons. I'd like it changed back, but I don't get my way. I just don't want to do the respec, because now that's hours of deliberation in mids that I'd rather not do. Or use someone else's build, but that makes me feel even worse. But that's just me. New content that doesn't require a team is always okay with me. New costumes? Fine by me, I'll probably never use 'em though. I think costumes are silly. I like the rng button and then modify from there. But new powersets/ATs? At the expense of new content? No thank you.

The big nerf to fire tanks was the fear built into burn. The Devs stated that it made no real sense for a mob to keep trying to hit someone while they were on fire. So, those of us on fire tanks would enter our Dreck map comprised of about 45 groups of Tanks, each with a couple of boss tanks that would self-rez so we could burn 'em down again...and as soon as we dropped burn, they'd run away, despite being taunted. Some would fire at range when they could, others would just keep running until you caught them. It was a pretty sad day for fire tanks, even those of us who could only farm a little bit with inspiration usage, or help from an emp flying overhead. Suddenly the one power we played and leveled our characters around had a useless power. So, a lot of folks just quit playing, as it was costing $15 a month back then. So, folks voted with their wallets. The Devs eventually got the message and took the fear out - but the damage had been done.

I'd have to go with the Seers. All that data, compiled into information...and that means power!

As to point 1...is this just your perception? Or some other data? Point 2...I believe there's a thread somewhere that lists the "flavor of the month" and other stats. I suppose I could investigate to see if there's anything to this claim. Point 3...honestly, I figure folks are less likely to do this. Point 4...I dunno, I wouldn't think the Ironman type stuff is that prevalent. But what do I know? Point 5..I think folks always do this. Just depends on the stash. Well, opinions will vary, lol.

bahaaha! I have no idea who wins. I was wondering ...how did I miss this poll? Then I saw the date, lol

This is a complete list of the Hallowe'en badges. Note: Arriviste/Trusting are alignment specific. You can get the tip, then switch alignment to get the Arriviste or Trusted badge option. Also - if you're on a team, you're rogue, they're vig - doesn't matter, you'll have the option to choose Arriviste, and vice-versa. Tips (anecdotally) drop at the same rate, teamed or solo, but if you're teamed, you can choose any of the options you haven't chosen yet, without regard to what the team lead choses. You don't have to necessarily click on those glowies to increase the timer, because all that's required is beating the boss and the surrounding mobs. Anyone with stealth or just high enough hp or defense to ignore the mobs can zip through easily to the end. Sinister Summoner is new with the latest patch. BEFORE anyone enters the house, any on the team needs to talk with Devil Girl, choose the top option of dialogue each time, then talk to Bored Guy & Bored Girl (any order), then back to Devil Girl where the Black Whip will spawn. Seems like this Monster is harder than the AV at the end. Banners can be tricky in a populated zone. Kill mobs to make banners vulnerable. Optimally, you'd have 4 teams, one at each banner. Each team kills those mobs to make the banners vulnerable. It's timed, which is why splitting up is a good idea. When the banners are vulnerable: EITHER at least one representative from each team should be at each banner so that all teammates get credit for the badges, OR all teams tackle the same banner at the same time, then move to the next. The latter is generally for best results as far as badges go. It's quite easy with wise use of Incandescence. It's also wise to avoid IP and Nerva for banners just because of the size of the zone. And, it may need to be said - before you do any of this stuff, Trick or Treat until you get a costume, then toggle it on. If you're doing House of Horrors without a costume, and you're after the badges, you'll need to redo it, as one badge for beating the final AV is called "Tricked Out" and is only awarded if you're in a costume. Further, the Hallowe'en tips missions won't drop if you're not in costume.

Another one for you - but it's not exactly "only the team leader" gets - it's only the mission holder gets. I was taking three of my alts through Provost Marchand's 2nd arc, first mission. The badge is called "Long Arm of the Law". The story arc is called "A New War" The team lead in this case had the mission, but in collaboration, another characters identical mission was chosen. The holder of the mission got the badge, the other two did not.

I actually teamed up with Stitch and a bunch of others in Kallista yesterday evening - got all the badges for the banners, the zombies, all the tips...just needed a dozen more costumes before I had to call it a night. Oh, and it was so funny - another group was there, invited our team to their league - we outnumbered them, so they shifted our team leader to their team. On the Discord, it was met with laughter, but an undertone of "how rude!". I can just see the next post being about "league leader shifting etiquette".

Are you guys still jabbering on about this? Don't ya know the Halloween event started?

To me, this is the part that I don't understand. Why not just wait? You make more and have to do less. If you're concerned that the volume will run out, you can still make them and list them. Not like they're gonna disappear. With PvP IOs, which is an area I deal with a good bit, I obviously see that I can put lowball bids for the recipes in at X, and maybe they trickle in, and in 10 hours, I'll have 100 of them or so. Then I can craft, convert and list them at the price the market has said it's willing to consistently pay. So, I do that. Now, do they all sell in 24 hours? Not all. Sometimes - a player like me or you, or just a casual player will enter the fray and start listing these same items for 10% less. Some list them at half my desired price. But one thing I do know - whether it's you, me or someone else, the demand is there. It may take a week, but by golly, it will sell! With 200 slots in the AH, seeing a dozen or even 50 still waiting for a customer is annoying, but I don't let it stop me. I will fill the slots, and my enhancement tray and check back every 4 to 6 to 8 hours, depending on my day and keep feeding the AH. I still see the impatient folks listing theirs more cheaply and getting their sales, but by the time it's all said and done, mine have all sold, and I made mine. I also had to spend less time doing that and got to play more. Rather, focus on other things, like accumulating transcendent merits. Nothing is worse than doing incarnate trials AGAIN because not only are you enduring the same content repeatedly, you're having to wait on other people repeatedly. I'm okay with a few minutes here and there, but standing in ouro or pocket d waiting for 10-20 minutes ...no, I'm not gonna do that. Love that there's more than one way to skin the figurative kitty. But hey, if it's working for you, and clearly it is, carry on, my good man. Not like I could stop you anyway, lol!

Ha, I get it - but having large stacks of influence can be a bit annoying without a bank. I like stashing my inf in email. It's not like email has any other uses. I'm in the habit of crafting all the uncommon and rare and pvp and very rare recipes I get, and vendoring/selling the commons. I stash the purples...or I did, until my base filled up. I had made a couple extra bases, but it got to be more of a pain than it was worth, logging in the proper characters to get the desired loot and distribute it. Yomo can speak for himself, but I think he stashes certain amounts on certain characters, always has a certain amount tied up in active bids, and has other amounts tied up in "Inactive" bids, the stuff on the AH that doesn't actually sell, or if it does, it routinely sells at a higher price than he's bid for it - kind of like those level 53 Hamidon enhancements that didn't exist in game until a recent patch. All that inf, it has to go somewhere. If it's not going to go in my email, then it should be on my characters. Because I don't want to stash mine on inactive bids, I now have to make new characters to hold it. So, for me, 6 trillion would be the very most I could hold - 3 accounts, each character on the 1000 slots holding the 2B inf cap. Obviously, that's not going to happen because if they carry around 2B, they can't ever get any more inf. It would take a loooong time to do that anyway. I like the game and marketing, but I don't think I like it that much! It gets to be a bit tedious coming up with a new character that I might actually want to play. The easier solution is to come up with a new account and just stash them in the email, making room for another stack of emails. But, then I worry about not thinking about the 3 per server rule limitation. Don't want to get in trouble over something so careless on my part, but I could see it happening with me not even thinking about it.

You keep better notes than I do, or have a better memory. As I recall reading about it - and don't have the notes enshrined anywhere, the complaint was that folks didn't like the other pvpers getting their shots in and running away before the ones being smacked around really had a chance to react. And they came up with that. But they said as part of their reason was they couldn't separate pve from pvp. I have no recollection of reading anything about the change should enter pve as well, but that was just something we had to deal with. Since you have this clear memory and remember it - what's the reason for it being in pve? The NPCs were complaining about jousting in Perez Park?

Well...obviously supply and demand have impact on prices. But they don't impact things the way I would expect. Because supply is so simple to come by, and because of the way things are bucketed (a level 30 recipe being essentially the same as a level 50 recipe aside from the salvage used and crafting costs) there's never a true limit to supply. But, it's my theory, after the nerf, suppliers (and maybe it was you, but I don't think you're that shortsighted) started selling at a cheaper price. So, for the sake of discussion, why shortsighted? Because, for me anecdotally, the prices were what they were. There was no reason to sell more cheaply, other than in hopes of getting rid of them. But that begs the question - why make so many if you didn't want the going rate? Just list 'em for the going rate and wait for them to sell, as they will sell. So what if it takes another 6 hours? That's just my thinking when I see these things. It defies logic. From a cost accounting perspective, there probably is a price point where it makes more sense to sell 500 IOs at 3M rather than 200 IOs at 4M. After all, that's 1.5B vs 800M. Even with fees and such, you make more inf. But, you don't make more profit, and why spend all that time converting such things for less profit? Oh, I sincerely doubt it was you, Yomo, just based on that point. But, even if it was, no worries here. All of this is pure conjecture on my part and has no meaning in life, or even in game. I just find it all interesting. As for other root causes, the decrease in demand is probably the bigger culprit. For every vocally irked or upset farmer/player that used the NoXP/2xINF on these forums, there was probably a few that simply left for another server. I know Rebirth, despite being smaller still, got a noticeable influx of players from HC. I know because I was one of them, for about a month. But, I had to return to keep some of you in line!

I see this a good bit, but I always attributed the difference to defeats. As mentioned, patrol XP could also be a factor. Never thought about day jobs, tho. Good thought. One thought that was referenced about patrol XP - "maybe they're getting explorations and not getting as much patrol XP". Conversely, exploration badges give XP. If one of you is getting them, and the other two are not, that's another reason to have more XP.

My comment is moot, but if they removed travel suppression from pvp, why is it still in pve? The only reason they brought it into pve was to slap it into pvp. To me, that and the initial burn nerf with fear were the two biggest snafus the original devs made.

For me - the biggest impact on the market, whether it be Perf shifters or other IOs was the big no XP/2xInf nerf. It really seemed instant that the prices of items that sold for 3m (Blessing of the Zephyr KB prot) suddenly were selling for 2m. LotG 7.5% that were selling for 8M, suddenly selling for 6-7M. Unbreakable Guards, Aegis, Numina Procs, Preventative Medicine Absorb Proc - previously selling for 4-5M, now selling for 3-4M. And sometimes less. PvP IO procs selling for 9-11M now selling for 8-9M. All because of that nerf. I looked at the market and said to myself, "Self, these crazy HC devs had no idea what they were doing. Now, my huge stack of influence is now 10-20% larger because my inf now goes further than it did before!" Now, the divide between players like myself and the "casual player" is even greater than it was! They may not have to spend quite as much, but I can still rake it in, hand over fist, and I don't have to spend nearly as much either, making scale of certain niches even easier and done properly, even easier.

For me, I have an invuln/stone, a rad/SS and several other tanks. But, tho Stone secondary offers a satisfying crunch, lately I've gotten quite a kick out of my fire/ice tank. The thing about fire primary - although Burn is by far one of the best AoEs in game, the armor is ...well, it's biggest issues are the lack of KB protection and the lack of defense debuff Resistance. But, I've found with some clever slotting, I can stack a number of KB protection points in the build and use Ageless for some DDR. I've got capped resist for fire, smashing, lethal, and really close to cap for energy and neg. And the combo of Burn with Frost...it's quite delicious. As for killing slow...no. Don't need a team, can farm, can solo the tfc tfs with wise use of envenomed dagger. It's a fun tank.

Maybe these folks are fire farmers who couldn't find any sitters!

I guess what I'm thinking is..well, all of my alts will use converters. I tend to start them off with a couple thousand. I mean, they're free. I go through 1000 a day, at least. Just seems crazy to put them in a bin. I'd be having to restock every hour.