Ukase

Another stat I can track along with that, thanks!

This is purely anecdotal, and I'm ashamed of myself for not paying closer attention. So, figured I'd ask here. Is it just my fuzzy perception, or do some story arcs give better XP bonuses than others? Do we know how this is tabulated? I would swear some story arcs give me darn near 5 bars of xp, while others maybe 1/2 a bar or a bar. Some a couple. Unfortunately, I haven't been paying any real close attention. So, figured I'd ask - maybe someone here is more observant.

I should have mentioned this...there's a badge for maintaining each alignment for a week. It may be worth just moving on to another day job, until your week is up.

@MikeSol I could be wrong, but as Glacier Peak alluded to, it's likely you're a vigilante. Go see Null the Gull, turn to a villain and you should get that day job badge.

The benefit of the X/8 updates is often, I'll find myself in a mission when these are announced. It lets me know if I have time to wrap it up, or just forget about it. As an example: not that I often do an ITF, but if I were to do one, I'd only bother replying if they were 1/8 or 2/8. Those fill up quickly. But for something like a Dr. Q, I'm likely not to say a word until they're at 6/8. Who's got time to sit around and wait for these to fill up? Well...I do have the time, but I'm not going to piss it away waiting, sorry. It's why I haven't done an iTrial in maybe 6-7 weeks. I am just over all the waiting to fill a league.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that when someone has an...over-reaction to something in game, it's often more a reflection of the person over-reacting, than what/who they're over-reacting to/about. Our world is in a bit of a mess right now. And it's bound to impact some folks more than others. And some folks have a hard time with mess. No sooner did a lot of folks in the world think the Covid fiasco was behind us, now we have the Delta variant to contend with. To mask or not to mask. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate. To trust this news source or that one. It's going to be harder for some of us than others, but we should all try to consider that we have no idea what's going on with the folks on the other side of the keyboard. I say this more to myself than anyone else. But, some of you also would benefit from considering the other side of the keyboard along with me. Patience is a virtue. Anyone know where I can get some?

Yeah, even the proc rarely sells for more than 3m. It's basically a trash set. Hardly worthy of note.

The way I did it was take them from top to bottom. I just started on the top and worked my way down until I was done. I knew there were a number of defeat badges for various types of mobs, so I figured I might as well clobber them in the missions, rather than hunt for them. There's one faction - the Failed Experiments that you may want to farm/milk, as I did the zone event first - and after the mission, I still needed some more. Depends on your settings, I suppose.

In general, a fire farm brute is the most expensive build due to winter sets that give nice fire defense bonuses. In general, the builds that are the cheapest are the ones that don't use the AH. For example, you can forgo the 2xp buff and slot what drops, and in a pinch, visit the store and buy the enhancements that haven't dropped until level 25 or 30. Then start using the common IO recipes, and craft those as you get the salvage needed. Buy SOs for recipes that didn't drop on you. Keep doing that, you may never need the AH at all - but you won't have any set bonuses. But, you'll have the cheapest build because you will be buying very little and relying on the RNG a lot. Anecdotally, I've made countless characters that started with zero influence, got nothing from my alts or my storage bins, but self-funded every build by using converters wisely. Some folks hate marketing. I don't, so I use the market to fund my characters. In fact, none of my builds have EVER cost me anything. They're all free, made with influence from sales of items I've crafted, or catalyzed. But, if you're looking for a budget AT/Powerset combo, one isn't going to be any cheaper than another. You could make the case for a soldier of arachnos, or maybe a kheldian, simply because their ATOs are generally cheaper than other ATOs. But, if you're using ATOs, you're probably using Purples and perhaps winter-Os when you reach 50 as well, and other IO sets. And since all ATs that use IOs tend to all use a heal set, maybe a defense or resist set (or three), some damage sets, etc...they're all gonna run about the same.

You might try heading to Croatoa at 25, or at 30. No freaks there. And when you hit 35, head to RWZ and then you can get sick of Rikti.

So, does anyone care to hear about my pet peeve for folks who recruit and then you send them a tell - as asked - and they never invite, and then moments later - 2-3 minutes, think they are good with saying in LFG "Sorry all, too many tells to reply - we're full". I mean, they could have simply hit backspace and said "full" or "Full, sorry" or "Hey, I'm gonna keep you on the line for a bit, cuz I'm not sure if this one scrapper is going to make it. So, I'll just keep spamming for more folks, k, thx." If you ask for a tell and get a tell, respond to that tell. Simple. Sheesh. Oh, wait...that's not what this post is about. Darn it.

Well, truth be told, you'd already done me a solid with MoTPN. When I know a player is competent, knows what they're doing, I can develop all kinds of patience. Especially in the context of MoUnderground. Even non-Master runs of this can take a while. Going for bombs...that adds more than a few minutes unless most know what they're doing. Heck, even then, it's the longest iTrial by far.

I can see the utility in a few instances. On a Minds of Mayhem, bringing a Storm Void in to clobber is one of them. On an MSR - if folks are using this (and using an ultimate to do it), I wonder if these means the incorrect myth about stealth impacting taunt can finally be put to rest. When I do zone hunts in Croatoa, and invariably see that the Fir Bolg aren't in the area where I get credit for clobbering them, I can port them into the area and get proper credit. (Zone hunts really should all be removed from every contacts story arcs!) On Lady Gray TF, it can be quite nice to port weakened Hamidon out of the goo. Makes things a lot easier. There are probably other situational uses. But to me - the loss of a power pool like Fighting or Leadership isn't worth it to me. I've gotten this far without it, so why use it? It doesn't make my life any easier. But if teammates want to use it - that's fine, provided they don't take my group that I'm using AoE on. And this happens a lot, to the point where I find it annoying and will tell them to stop using it on the mobs I've already gathered. (to be fair - most mobs don't need to be herded or gathered. They're already in good size groups.) Otherwise, I'll just start using brawl.

If you took more than two years away on live - you would deserve to lose your names. There! I said it - what we were all thinking but too polite to say. If you take a break from the game for two years - I don't care if you were behind enemy lines, fighting for my right to utter things like I often do in this very forum - you should lose your name. You're already putting your real life in the line of fire, losing a character name is a small thing. There's more than one player in my SG that is in the military. They all have found times to log in. Sporadically, but they do check in. Two years? I was in the military. I served. Got 30 days of leave per year. Granted - family gets pissy if you spend too much time gaming, but it only takes a minute to log in. You take that much time away - yes, you lose your name. But that's just my opinion. I don't make the rules, so relax. Pardon my while I shine these boots up.

Yeah, I'm on record as stating that folks who think they're doing the "little guy" a favor by buying up all of a certain IO, then relisting for 1 inf isn't doing anyone any favors except certain marketers. But hey, if that's how they want to spend their time, have at it.

Have you made this suggestion? I get the devs turned it off, based on their perception of a gap growing between the farmers and those who don't, but a temp power that didn't work in AE might be okay with the HC dev team.

Well...unfortunately, you DO need a little bit of luck. Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that you have 24 grizzled veterans who all have done this trial and gotten this badge on numerous alts. You're in command of the league, and you've gotten all three whittled down to 2%. Chimera ports, but your savvy team 3 leader mashes a macro in time sharing this critical info to you in time to prevent you from saying "kill 'em all!" Team 3 (the team on Chimera) gets back in position, teams 1 and 2 are ready. You're ready to give the kill command. One of two things happens - and your anecdote in one of your three runs makes this clear: you can do everything right and properly, and that regen tick can come after you give the kill command, and it's simply too late for your league to stop killing them. Or, there is no tick and you get the job done. It really is a 50/50 proposal, even WITH Discord. So, I would take these attempts with a grain of salt, and still hold your head up. You're doing something most simply won't try to do. This one thought occurs to me, though. Have ONE player (or maybe 2) with incan be far from all three AVs and their job is to monitor the hp of the three AVs once they're at 5%. They are to have incan selected and ready to fire, where all they have to do is click for the incan to pop. (and all players need to have tp prompt disabled) They click ONLY if they see a regen tick after you give the kill command. But they have to be really attentive. It's such a narrow window of time - it may not work, as powers that are activated but not landed, will still land and do damage, even if you've been ported 300 feet away. But it may be worth a try.

This isn't what I generally do. This is what other folks do. I don't like doing it because it makes things more difficult for newer players. And while there's technically nothing wrong with it, it doesn't pass my smell test. But, as long as people are anti-market and in a rush and are willing to take whatever they get by selling for 1 inf, this will continue to happen. I was just giving a vocabulary lesson on the distinction between flipping and value-added converting/marketing.

I know you mean well, but I think you've missed the mark. This is an example of flipping: Scenario: There are 27 Preventative Medicine: Absorb Procs on the AH. They are selling for only 2m! I bid on 27 of them at 2m and the bids that get filled - I grab them from the AH and relist them for 3M - which is how much they should be selling for. Who says so? Me. It's a darn good proc in a darn good set and should sell for more than the average rare IO. That's flipping. Not converting them into something more popular or in higher demand. Just buying the item, and relisting it at a higher price. Now, buying the Preventative Medicine: End/Recharge for 2M and converting it into the Absorb proc and selling for 3M - there's value added there (assuming you want the absorb proc and not the end/recharge) That's not flipping. That's marketing. Or buying Cleaving Blows and converting them to Obliterations. Cleaving Blows are generally a "trash" set. Picked up about 10 of them at 200K a pop today, converted to Eradication for a new tank that refused to pay the going price for Eradications. 2m? For a set that doesn't go beyond level 30? Nah. Only takes 6-9 converters - which are pretty much free for me. Used 4, listed the rest for sale as obliterations for the fair price of 2.5-3M, depending on which ones.

Fair points. I suppose the only reason I can come up with is you're screwing over all the other folks who also, like you, don't want to fuss with the market. (More precisely, you're allowing marketers to screw over players like yourself who don't want to mess with the market.) What you are doing, however, is making things easy for a guy like me (but isn't me) who routinely puts in lowball bids and relists them for a fair price. So, you do you. It's fine with me. I can buy whatever I want - although I only rarely do. I would think it would be just as easy to sell something for the going rate, as opposed to 1 inf. Gosh - typing out a few extra numbers must be terribly difficult and/or time consuming. I'm kidding, of course. You really should play the way you like. Doesn't impact me in the tiniest bit. I just feel badly for the folks who are looking for the very goods you're selling - but they can't find them at a fair price because someone bought them all - and then re-listed them at higher than a fair price. Because your 1 inf sale price allows them to relist it and get a profit. Because of the AH fees being 10%, it's a bit useless for someone to buy something at the fair price, then relist 50% or even 25% higher. They wouldn't sell. But at 1 inf, plenty of room for margin. But, I guess I'm figuratively beating a dead horse. Carry on - play your own way. It won't impact my fun, and my way shouldn't impact yours.

One thing to remember though - you might kill the AVs within the prescribed window of time to get the badge - but you still have to beat Tyrant - AND not do it so quickly where he bugs out. Because this badge won't award unless you complete the trial.

This is an excellent point. Long animation attacks that tend to do high dps can certainly ruin things.

So..you're asking for constructive ideas, which would hopefully be somewhat helpful. First, understand that you are not alone in getting frustrated with player's getting antsy and acting too fast. Triple Threat is a challenge primarily because of the combination of Regen AND the porting nonsense of Chimera relocating - AND folks not even assigned to base Chimera getting ported as well, which can really muck things up, as you're no doubt aware. So what's the solution aside from discord? There is an easy solution, but the implementation of that solution is not so easy, if that makes any sense. You need 2 team leaders that use macros efficiently, as you do. Covering each scenario, "Hold on Chimera", "Chimera ported", "Damn Shield is up", etc. So..what does a league leader with a reputation for accepting anyone who meets the minimal criteria to do when players do jump the gun? You have choices. You can make comments in player notes - which sadly do not seem to carry over to your alts. Make a mental note that these players, for any number of reasons, some lame, some valid, just can't be trusted because of a lack of literacy. When you run these things as often as you do, I would venture to guess there's a "core group" of players you're accustomed to seeing in your leagues. You should be getting a feel for their overall competency. Maybe invest some time and share with them the wonders of the pop-menu, which I presume you've mastered, if they don't know it already. I think, if you just get a couple of team leaders that are savvy enough, that type fast enough, or use macros well enough, it can make a huge difference in communicating the relevant information in the 5%-2%-Kill to 0 range. Below are just some of my opinions, and suggestions - not to be confused with actual facts: Some players will NEVER join any Magi Badge effort without being t-4'd in all. They're out for the badges, mainly. My personal rule of thumb is, if they have the 4 passive stat boosting accolades or a high badge count - like over 500, preferably over 1000, they are going to understand what's going on. Not guaranteed, of course, but it increases the odds that they have a clue. Some folks are trying to get t-4 and likely recognize that if they're not t-4 and get Master of Magi...that's a free random rare drop, plus all the yummy astrals and emps, and the usual reward table. You're one of the few that will accept these players into your trials, and if they don't know this, they should. There's not a huge difference between t-3 and t-4, but it's enough to notice when facing Tyrant, if not going for Triple Threat. With regards to the trial itself, I think it's worth explaining to non-savvy/inexperienced players how to determine that the shield is up. Some with weaker graphic settings may never even notice it. Definitely explain that when the words "chimera ported" are used that they should wait to hear from you for any kill call. Taunters with the psi damage proc, and other players with damage auras should also be aware that these do damage and are not encouraged at the 2% point, even though most are thinking that there's no way they could kill the AV themselves with a taunt proc. And they likely can't...but why leave things to chance? There's server lag, where the player sees at 2% value in the trial box, but the actual % is 1% - that was actually less than 1%, but rounded up. With 24 players in one instance, there's really no telling what's really going on sometimes, with 100% certainty. Certainly ALL MMs, Controllers, Doms, ANY AND ALL PETS should have been dismissed at 5% remaining damage at the latest. Some say uncontrollable pets, but there are a number of MM players that simply do not control their pets. It's entirely possible they got PL'd to 50, and haven't learned the first thing about controlling the pets beyond dancing and silly emotes. Your team leads can certainly help with this, too. As for the biggest problem to overcome - the lack of attentive reading - that's tough. My best constructive advice is to type things ahead of time to determine who's paying attention, and who's not. If they're not, you simply boot them, sending them a tell, "Sorry, this badge requires paying full attention to chat. Sorry to say, you weren't. Catch us next time!" Have several of these before the trial begins. And maybe even have one after Dream Doctor ports you into the "Kill 250 IDF" portion. People will respond to the audio cue more quickly than the typed word. The primary reason, at least for me, is I'm focused on what my character is doing. I'm looking at my health bar, I'm looking at my target. I'm usually looking for a tank with some type of a herd for me to nuke. But in the context of Triple Threat, I am seriously checking my power tray for recharge times, checking my health, the health of the team, the hp of the AV I'm assigned to, the other two AVs -- there's a lot of info in the trial box to keep track of, to keep from screwing up. Having to read chat, too - and sift out the silly, useless comments - which may have caused instructions to scroll up outside of my small chat pane...it just increases the chance of my taking the eyes off the ball. I am not a fan of discord, but it's an incredible tool. I have ZERO desire to chat with other players and crack jokes or get to know anyone. I'm here to play a game and pass some time. If I wanted to be social, I'd call or visit friends. Still, when the server hiccups during a Master of Underground, where we just finish taking down the last bomb without incident, and I'm able to relay how folks can get back into the trial and not lose progress - where I'd have to find some way to remember all those names on the league without having used discord - it would have been a loss. That's when you can really appreciate Discord. (although it's seriously a stupid name, even though it's usually quite appropriate with folks always talking over each other. ) But I get it. You may have family or roommates that may not appreciate the required jabbering that Discord would require. And it is annoying, particularly when someone tells you, "I can hear u breathing! Stop that!" as if you're breathing just to annoy them. Or someone says they can't hear you. Now what the heck can you do about that? It's not like Discord has a clear help section. It's much easier to type what solution you're looking for in Google than using Discord's help. I don't hate it as much as you, but I'm not a fan. It's a tool, nothing more. That's a lot - I know. Hope it's at least somewhat helpful.

Apparently, you do. Or you wouldn't keep sharing it. In the context of In-game, there is no such thing as gambling, so there would be no violation of TOS. I can completely understand simply not liking the idea for a number of reasons. Throwing a TOS violation where it doesn't exist is just ...well, silly to me. You don't like the idea. That's perfectly okay. But as I understand the rules, it would be perfectly legit. And I would welcome it.

In the context of the CoH digital world, gambling truly doesn't matter - because it's impossible to exist in game, unless they start accepting actual currency. They don't. So what are you really worried about? It's very clear that there's no actual money changing hands. So why are you guys so freaked out about a very decent suggestion? I get that ACTUAL gambling in the real world isn't welcome in a lot of areas. But I'm not sure many of you are aware that gambling is quite legal in many areas of the US. I don't assume for a moment that in the real world that gambling hasn't ruined thousands of people's lives, due to addiction to gambling. But in a game like this - there's no currency involved. Nobody can lose their pension, or gamble their mortgage in game. So, no, it doesn't matter one bit, because I'm talking about in-game. Not using my actual money from my real world pockets. I'm talking about influence in a world where each player generates more than any of us can spend. It's would be completely harmless. No victims, other than in-game. (depending on how it would be implemented, of course)