Ukase

I almost bid 2M on a recipe by mistake just now...focused smite, I think it was. I caught myself at the last second. So easy to goof when you're in a hurry!

Well, that clears that up, thanks!

So...I'm a bit embarrassed. There's either something wrong with my literacy skills, my math skills, or both. I'll pose my question, and maybe I'll sort it out while writing it down, but not likely. I'm having a problem with the AccMods formula. AccMods = the power's inherent Accuracy × (1.0 + the power's Accuracy Enhancements + all global Set Accuracy bonuses) Specifically, I am looking at this due to my perception of whiffing with Fault, on a Stone melee scrapper. Unslotted, detailed info shows a base accuracy of 80%. I only have one slot in it, a Frozen Blast Accuracy/Damage/Endurance. Per the Detailed info on this Winter-O, the accuracy boost is 18%. Per my combat attributes, my total accuracy set bonuses are 9%. So... AccMods = .80 X (1.0 +.18 + .09) AccMods = .80 X (1.27) AccMods = 1.016 So...what's this showing? Why does my math show 1.016, and the detailed info showing accuracy of .94? (FYI - I unslotted the enhancement to see this same detailed info tab to get the base accuracy of .80, then re-slotted it) What terms/numbers have I confused here? I don't think my math is wrong, but I must be missing something - is the accuracy value in this detailed info is representing something else?

This is just my own opinion, and shouldn't be presented as actual facts. If you're going to play a scrapper, there are two basic types: Resist-based armor and Defense-based armor. Go for the defense based armor. Why? Because a brute has a higher resist cap, and arguably, with proper management of fury deals out more consistent dps, with more survivability, and as I stated - that's only based on my own anecdotal experience. Some players are way better at optimizing dps on a scrapper, using the ATO procs for the most benefit. (I guess) It's odd. After making a few scrappers with fire, invuln, rad, bio...they're just not that good with higher level mobs & mob count. (+3/8, +4/8) The defense based scrappers however, SR, Shield....they hold their own, much to my surprise. As far as the primary goes, I don't think it matters, though I've heard Dark Melee has a few issues, and Stone, as fantastic as a Critical from Seismic Smash is, there's talk that the dps is underwhelming compared to other sets and you'll need to pursue more recovery and/or endurance discount set bonuses to maintain longer battles unless you're teamed with some recovery buff teammates, or make prodigious use of Recovery serum or Survival amplifiers from p2w. And, I'm someone who monitors End recovery vs end consumption via combat attributes. I've got the usual procs in Health & Stamina, and still, I've got end issues. Only level 29, so hopefully when I get the next couple of accolades, that will help.

Thanks, but @peacock gave me a huge assist months ago.

When the servers are down for maintenance, I can get wordy. So, here's my conclusion first: I would say, if you're still fairly new to the game - go the way of the brute. It's a lot more forgiving of error than a blaster or stalker. My other thoughts leading me to that statement: So...here's the deal with Flashback missions...for any mission that the game would organically give you in the level 10-15 range, like "Rescue the Missing Fortune Teller", in Ouroboros, the level range is a bit off - it's in the 9-14 range. But, in order to do it through Ouro, you'd have to have outleveled it, or be higher than 14. But, if you wait until you're level 20, you'll get the benefit of those extra slots and those couple extra powers. And at 50, while you only get the benefit of a couple extra powers, you get the benefit of having a lot more slots. So, as an exemped 50 - this will be a much easier path than as a native character leveling up through content organically. So what's going to be best? Depends. How would you define best? Fastest? or Easiest? Is easy the same as fast? Is fast the same as easy? Not talking about my ex-wife, now. (Kidding! She's always been real slow! Too soon? Sorry, honey.) As someone whose done these arcs through ouro more than a few times, with blasters, dominators, controllers, brutes, tanks, scrappers, stalkers, to me, there's a bit of an anecdotal tie between the stalker, the brute and the blaster. Stalker has that super stealth Hide, right from level 1. Makes a lot of things easier. Lacks the Resist cap of brute. But, if you choose a defensive set, the defense soft cap numbers are the same for all ATs, so you should go with a defensive armor, in my opinion on lower resist cap characters like Stalkers, Scrappers, Sentinels. Brutes have the highest resist cap, (tied with tanks) and fury. Makes the early levels cake. Blasters...well, if you can afford to slot them "properly" and know how to do so, they are just incredible. By "properly", I mean the build has to be right for you, specifically & individually as a player. In my case, I like Super Speed with combat jumping, and using a jet pack to handle the vertical. But, with the teleport pool being revamped, it can be quite fun, if you can get used to using it. But some of those powers - like fold space, when you take that, what offensive power are you not taking? At 50, it's not a real big deal, but for flashbacks, when you take this kind of power, you'll want to keep that in mind when you choose your powers. Using the fortune teller mission as an example, if you pursued fold space too early, you might mistakenly omit your status protection until level 22, and then not have it against the CoT boss. That could be a mistake! And from where I sit on the occasional pug, a lot of players make this mistake. Yeah, like the guy who's on the Sutter TF, capped at level 40, with no travel power because he picks them last, because he never plays anything until he's level 50! And, fun is subjective. I know one player - the ONLY AT I've ever seen him/her on is a brute. That's all they'll play. They like brutes. Some folks prefer melee. I prefer ranged. It's just easier for me. Having to use fold space to herd, or hitting the F key when I need to, it just seems like a wasted step to me. But that's me, and I promise you, the way I think is much different than the way others think.

Nah, keep doing what you're doing. If my math is right, everybody wins.

I realize we already have weekly tfs, which are great for double merits and a notice. I was thinking though..what about some love for the other story arc content? When HC came up with some new arcs, they gave double merits, if I'm remembering correctly. Why not continue in this fashion? A lesser known contact that's unlockable, like 204 in Grandville (the Spider that tells you how much trust you have based on the Toxic Tarantulas you've defeated) might be one that a lot of folks aren't even aware of. I suspect there are more than a few contacts with story arcs that are off the beaten path that could lead folks to different parts of the game. Like Blue Cerulean on the Gold Side, etc.

I do get it. I think when HC first opened up shop, I wasn't sure which way to go with playing the market. Other than Very Rares and LotG, I wasn't sure what flavors of IO were going to be popular, so I invested heavily into Rare salvage. Easy enough to get via AE tickets and just drops in general, and then the HC devs seeded them, effectively putting a damper on my plan. And if they did that - what might they do next? Seed the lotg 7.5%? Put a ceiling on the cost of every IO? They could still do that! Mind you - it would just make my stack ridiculously larger in terms of need. But there's one thing I do know - if you step away from the AH, even if you have plenty - there may come a time when certain rules change - like emails being limited to 10 days, or a month. (I believe it was like that on live) So what would I do if that happened!? I'd need to make about 300 more characters pretty damn quick! Not to mention, when you step away from a niche, things change! I just checked - PvP recipes are ALL selling for more than 2.5M, up from the usual 1.5-1.8M. And they're barely holding price on crafted IOs at 8m. Someone is being competitive, as @Yomo Kimyata likes to talk about. And he's right. It's good for the community for folks to get more for the recipes and for other folks to pay less for the crafted IOs. But I digress.. I know I can make more, even if I were stripped of all my storage, all my inf. But I much prefer to do these things when I want to, instead of being level 22 and needing/preferring to optimize my character with an LotG 7.5%. I don't team often, but when I do, the last thing I want is to head to a trainer, level up and then determine what/how I'm going to put in the slot. I like to have the IOs already in my tray at the ready. And without "plenty", I'd be struggling and letting any prospective teammates down with a sub-standard character. I know a number of folks have no issue leaving things unslotted until they have a chance to take care of these things. But most of those folks are nicer people! Me? I'm a grumpy curmudgeon type. If I don't at least come to the party with a kitted out character, I might not ever get a task force done, unless I do it solo, which is fine, but takes longer.

<smh> In my mind, I'm appreciating the info. But in the back of my brain, I'm saying, "Fools! How much MORE could they have made if they didn't take the time to post these things?!" Some time ago, a post mentioned a guess at the total amount of inf. Just tallying it up is an opportunity cost. Can you really be an "ebil marketeer" if you take the time to measure how high the gold pile is? I say, if you have more than 50 billion, you probably don't need to market any more - unless it's just fun/habitual/interesting. Clearly, for some of us, it's quite interesting. I have been trying really hard to leave it alone and explore other facets of the game. But old habits do not die easily.

I know I'm not alone then. I have misread and misinterpreted my fair share of posts.

Ha! I knew it! In truth, I don't believe this for a moment.

It isn't? Then I'm not at all clear what it is about. The shortcomings of the costume creator? As I said, glad you enjoy the CC. To me, despite it's numerous, probably billions of options, I lack the patience and the inclination to see how close I can get to a comic book character. To what end? Just to see? And then not be allowed to make it? I'll just label myself illiterate and/or lacking in reading comprehension, then. As for righteous indignation, that's nonsense. I was just trying to be helpful.

I'm glad you enjoy the CC. I wish I found it more satisfying. My point was that we're not allowed to copy copyrighted characters. So why try to see how close you can get? That's all I'm saying. Just seems like a waste of time, and potentially - depending on how close you got - against the rules.

I've got dual builds on two characters right now. My ice blaster Ukase, and my tank Emancipist. The tank's extra build is for tanking hamidon. The other is the build I simply arrived at when he reached level 50. Mids wasn't updated beyond the live version at that point, so I hadn't really spent time with it at that point, so it was mostly going off of memory and pursuing specific set bonuses. The ice blaster's 2nd build was really more of a respec in the same time frame, and I was concerned I wouldn't like the change, so I just made the second build. I do not habitually change builds for either of them. The one time I did, I was a bit dismayed, realizing (and understanding why) that each power would have to recharge. And, it was right before a task force and I definitely felt off-guard and out of position to be useful for about five minutes. With Attuned sets & mids, there's really no need for dual builds anymore. (for me) I'm just not going to sweat the boosters unless it's a character I will play a lot, and in those cases, I just use unslotters, and keep the attuned versions in my trays & replace them when I'm done with whatever the task was.

Simply put, all of them. For one, that requires time spent in the costume creator (yawn) determining which choices to make. And, well, it's against the rules to recreate copyrighted characters. And, while I get that some like to present it as an homage, it's a slippery slope. Where the line is drawn is a bit subjective, so why not make the character that Marvel & DC neglected to make? Why waste my time?

A fair point!

So, before I make a suggestion, I'll check in here, as there may be a historical reason that escapes me why Rikti occur before level 35. I'm on a new-ish brute, level 31. I used to hop into Provost Marchand's arcs, but since that's what I usually do, I wanted to do something different. I have no recent memory of doing Philippa Meroux's content, so figured I'd take that path. The brute is Electric /Shield, so is quite capable of handling 1/8 so far. Ordinarily, I'd run through this stuff, knock it out, but I just finished the Maria Jenkin's arc a few days ago, and I want a longer break before I run through her arc yet again and get the 4th accolade, portal jockey. So, I'm at +1/8, not being real confident as the character hadn't encountered Rikti yet. So far, no problems, but then it occurs to me the reason why I don't do MSR's before level 35 - no Vanguard Merits. Why are Rikti available pre-35? I'm reviewing this post, and I realize I'm coming off with some sense of entitlement. Regrettable. But does it make sense to pursue Rikti at this level, when I could maybe defer the contact to level 34, hit 35, get the Vanguard Member badge, and then get VG merits while I go through the arc? As I ask, I now realize that even at +4/8, clearing all the maps, I might earn 100 vg merits, as they drop so sparingly outside of MSR. Even so, it all adds up, right? So, I am wondering if a pre-level 35 character were to complete a Rikti mission/arc, if maybe that shouldn't award some number of VG merits upon completion. Worth a suggestion? Shouldn't be that hard to implement, I wouldn't think.

A well timed Core Rebirth is the only thing I've found to mitigate that.

The problem here is what you think with regards to me is not accurate in this context. I don't have any personal goals in this game. My personal goals are about my IRA, my granddaughter's 529 fund, and my 2k time on the Concept 2 rower. No personal goals in this game at all. And, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume there's a population of folks that see things the way I do when it comes to combo attacks. If the benefit isn't clear, then the combo system for that powerset needs some clarification. And if the benefit isn't a clear advantage, then what's the point of it?

We already talked - don't you remember? Widows are trash. I say this being very aware that I probably did not build it properly. I probably pursued the wrong set bonuses. But - CoH isn't about the cookie cutter builds, while it can certainly have those and be fine. I'm supposed to be able to build it in a way that makes sense to me and be just fine. Maybe not fantastic, or even good, but adequate. On a team, I was okay. It was adequate. I rarely died, but that's because of the great defensive bonuses. But, the damn thing couldn't punch it's way out of a wet paper bag. I would never solo with it, ergo - it's trash. If you're not good alone, you're not adding enough to be worthy of a team. That's my philosophy when it comes to having a character. It has to be able to hold it's own alone and it couldn't. So - trash. Now you might make it a treasure - and that's great. But for me - it's trash. To make it so it's not trash would require more thought - and that thought would require time that I would rather not invest. It's easier to just park it on Reunion and repress the bad memories of it.

I'm bashing/zapping/slashing the npc. The only "bonus effect" I'm remotely concerned with is dps. I do not care about a surplus of endurance. I have proper slotting to address that. Will it boost recharge if I use it? Great. Will it boost accuracy if I use it? Good, but not required. I've already slotted for that. I do not see what good any bonus effect is if it doesn't help me win/defeat/kill vs the NPC sooner. What is the bonus effect? I've leveled a Brute & a Scrapper, both Savage/Shield to 50+3, t-4. I still am uncertain what clear benefit Frenzy was supposed to give. End reduction? It really made no difference to me. More damage? Um...no. Maybe something else. I say that with perception bias, of course. It just seemed worthless. Still, the brute was much, much better until level 50. And then, still better, just not much, much better. (For me)

As far as I can tell two ATs are in dire need of a revamp. Heats & Veats. Heats are trash unless you go with Dwarf & Nova primarily (and forgo slotting anything in human form) or just human form. Dechs Kaison can scream "MFin' Warshade" all he wants, and the AT is fun, but it needs improvement. There just aren't enough slots for all three builds. And, if you sacrifice the sole purpose of playing human only, you lose status protection - which means you might as well play a blaster. Just a trash AT. Veats are also just plain trash. The only reason to play one is for the team buffs, but a level 50 Widow can't beat up a level 7 hellion without chewing damage inspirations. Okay...so maybe it's not THAT bad, but they're quite weak, at least the one I leveled up to 50 was. I moved it to Reunion, (along with my Warshade and there they will sit until they get some kind of attention from the HC devs. They were without question the most painful AT's I've played, and that included a Dominator I deleted at 48. To be fair - part of that is me, likely not really understanding how they should be built - but any character that is forced to do a respec at level 24 needs serious work. It's just plain trash, and I won't be convinced otherwise. If you like them - that's fantastic, but I find them feeble. They do nothing my blaster can't do better - aside from the team buffs.

I tend to organize them by AT on a given page - except on the first page. The first page has 5 badgers (that have all the badges but Legatus), and a few characters that I'm playing up to 50. When those reach 50 +3, all t-4, they will get moved to another page so I don't have to go looking for the newer character I'm playing. I always figured, while I might miss having control over a name, if someone got my name because I wasn't using it, that's fair enough. I can't say I'd like it, but I would understand.

Actually, I violated my own rule. But it was late, and I wanted to go to bed, but I wanted to finish things up. My rule is, if I don't get what I want within 3 conversions (on a 3 set), simply stop. Do something else for 5 minutes. Then come back to it. You'd be surprised how well that worked in Vegas on the video poker machines.