Ukase

Well, I won't shut the door on turning xp off, but first I want to start getting more common IO recipes. They'll last longer. My gut says that turning xp off would make the challenge a bit too easy - in a tradeoff for more time as a lowbie.

I'm at level 12, and it's taken about 3 hours, I think. If I see an NPC walking around with a name beginning with M, I'll ask. Apparently, I've spent more time afk than I thought. Maribel in Steel Canyon just told me 9 hours. I know I went afk for a trip to Costco yesterday, so that was at least a couple of hours. So, I have no real clue.

Leveling without 2xp and without dfb doesn't seem that fast to me right now, lol.

After re-visiting a post of mine in suggestions, I'm all but convinced that enhancement drops are just random. What's crazy is this perception bias. When I was magic origin, it seemed like most of the drops were science. Now it seems like they're all natural origin. And it's the same content I've been running. I notice in AE - when I farm, the drops align with the origin of the farmer. I wish the missions outside of AE would do this.

Oh yeah - I'd always thought Council dropped Science. Anecdotally, I got two tech SOs in a radio mission in Steel vs. Council. So, there's that. I'm wondering if the HC devs just opened the field on drops across NPCs. Anecdotally, it seems like that.

Truth is, Flea, I've not allowed myself to do that. The reason would be that it's like going to the supermarket and getting what you want, instead of just going out and hunting for it. Granted, AE tickets are earned and not given. So, there's certainly room for gray area. But for me, I just want to see how the game treats me from an rng perspective. I do want to make one thing clear - if/once this character hits 50, all restrictions are lifted. As for your all SO challenge, when does that meet?

Hard to see, maybe. Level 11, just finished Frostfire. Got a Shield Wall End/Defense. I lack the salvage to craft it - and odds are, given the rare required, I'll be toting this thing around until level 50. I could sell it as is...but I've nothing to spend the proceeds on, as the challenge forbids the use of AH to buy anything. The common IO recipes, I lack the salvage for those, too. Should be interesting, the next few levels.

I'm at level 10, and for a science character, the drops (Flux is contact - what can I say, I'm a traditionalist) haven't been good as far as enhancements go - but happy with the IO recipes. Will soon see how the salvage drops so I can craft that heal IO. I've got no heal enhancements at all yet.

I have considered it - but level 10-12 is when the common IOs drop. I've got 51k so far, and if I have the salvage, that will be close to crafting the accuracies and recharges. But I am going to try and hold off for level 15s, rather than 10's since even without 2xp I outleveled them fairly quickly last attempt. Good thought though!

Interesting. My experience has been that only Trevor Seaborn and Hugo Redding and Hayley Philips gave that mission outside of Ouro. But, then again, I've been relying on Paragon Wiki which is likely outdated.

I can't use the Heal/absorb - wrong origin, but I can use that recipe! My first one, at level 9. Crazy that I'm more excited about this than a purple, lol.

I thought about gold side, but in the near future I have a gold team activity and wanted the content to be fairly fresh. But, it's definitely food for thought.

Actually -- this got me looking at all the other day job powers - and logging off in the store grants an enhancement upon mission completion - so that's where my character is at the moment.

Catalysts for reasons which escape my logic only drop when you're level 50. So, they're out until then.

So far, I haven't used it, because, well, expense. But then, I haven't sold anything other than enhancements that don't align with my origin. In my mind, I was thinking once I own the enhancement, I'm not buying it. I'm not going to the store or using the AH - but you raise a fair point, so I won't be using it. I'm at level 9 now, and if I slot any newer enhancements, I'll post a picture, but so far, the drops have been for other origins. Clockwork are supposed to drop tech or tech/science or natural/tech, but I kept getting natural/tech DOs, which this character can't use. I did get a raptor pack from the Atlas safeguard, though. When I get high enough, I'll actually run the SSA 1 for an accuracy SO, lol. And I will run it twice to see if it will let me get the SO twice. Can't believe I'd ever take an SO over 20 merits, lol.

I keep reading that red side missions don't have you going to zone A, then B, then back to A. Have you done Graves, one of the earliest arcs? Yeah, it does that. Done Black Scorpion patron arc? It does that too. There's a host of red side arcs that send you all over the place. I keep reading that the writing is better. Um..that's subjective. There are a couple of good arcs where the writing is decent, and that's really about it. Maybe 3 arcs total. Again, it's really subjective. I doubt anyone seriously expects quality writing in this game. If you do, (again, subjective) be prepared to be disappointed. There are no excellent stories in this game. None. A few mildly amusing ones, but that's really it. But, then again, who am I to say what's quality? I only know what I like, and none of the stories in this game are worth my time to read them. I play in spite of them, not because of them. The atmosphere/ambience on red side is dismal and depressing. No villain worth their salt would be there because there's no money there. The place is a slum. A real villain would be in Founders, where the loot is. Now, that's a nice neighborhood for a villain to have some fun! Those are just my thoughts, and well, they're shared by a number of people. There is one thing Apparition said that I do agree with: On average, the players on red side are typically more competent. You don't see villains standing around having their spandex assessed, that's for sure. They came to play and do so, on average, better than the blue siders. But, that's subjective, and a lot has to do with the gaming experience you're after. I personally feel like Red side should have been a pvp expansion. You go to rob a bank, and hero has to pop in to stop you. Actual player or an NPC that would give a fair challenge. The way it is now, the only difference between villain and hero is the alignment and the location and the npcs that are being fought. Other than that, it's pretty much the same gaming experience.

I thought this might be interesting for a couple of you. At level 7, this is what's slotted so far: I really wanted to upgrade those talisman damage enhancements, but the game wanted quite a bit to move those from level 1 to level 5, (when I was level 2) and I didn't have the inf. And, as you might imagine, the more enhancements you have slotted, the more it costs. I'll try to revisit with slotting updates every few levels without being too dull.

I've seen an uptick in folks using the teleport pool, primarily for the fold space option. I've no idea how it would play out for me, unless I could relocate them away from me. Unless I'm melee, ordinarily, I don't want to be in melee on a ranged character, unless there's a good reason to be there - like burn, hot feet, etc. Otherwise...I'd just as soon keep them at bay. I used to use TP foe back in live on my ice blaster with great success. Makes for a nice pull when you port them right onto ice patch.

Update - made a rad/dark defender, Lulu Palooza. (the aforementioned deleted Dark/Dark was called Lila Palooza - I already re-made that one with all the good IO trimmings, non-challenge route and another one called Lola Palooza) Went through the tutorial for surprisingly, two "talisman of the initiate;Damage" enhancements. They each give a 30% boost in damage, which is a pleasant surprise.

I almost feel like I'm cheating as I revisit this challenge. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say. So, my thoughts were to overcome the lack of end recovery. So, I'm thinking now of a rad/dark or sonic/dark defender. At 50, I'd much rather go sonic/dark, but the journey to get there...rad, with it's accelerate metabolism...kind of hard to pass that up knowing what I know now. I think I'll make both, if I can come up with suitable names. I actually entertained a water/devices blaster...but mids convinced me the secondary was underwhelming. Would love to get the drone on a defender or corruptor, tho!

I was stupified to see a defender can get a snipe at level 8! Moonbeam got six slotted ASAP, lol. It bugged me to go so slow, but I waited until the yellow circle went away before I'd fire again.

While it is true about the recipe drops from the ouro day job, consider this: You get a random IO recipe. Which I did. It was a hold...neuronic something or another. the proc is useful and can make you some inf. But for this character, quite useless. I only had one converter, lol. So, quite useless to me. I thought about keeping it until I had the salvage to craft it - but with a sale history that was lackluster, it was just not worth crafting for that character in this challenge. Also, consider that most of the good IOs - Preventative Medicine, Unbreakable Guard, Oblits, and the like - they're going to require a rare. And while I would agree that any enhancement is better than no enhancement, I think in this context (and only in this context), crafting those recipes would be a bad move. Better to have common IOs with no set bonuses that are at max level for that character then to have lower level set bonus IOs. At least, that's my current thinking. There may be a case where procs and the like are worth having at the lower levels. I suppose I could have allowed myself to "sell" the unattuned for X and allow myself to re-purchase at the same price, but it seemed to me to break the spirit of the challenge.

There are three tiers of salvage: common, uncommon and rare. There are three levels of salvage: 10-24, 25-40, 41-50. Within each tier, there are 6 arcane and 6 tech salvage pieces. Salvage drops are random, but NPCs do tend to drop salvage in a certain category, arcane or tech. As an example, if I do a freak map, like that huge Dreck map - the salvage I'll get will be 41-50 tech salvage and I might get common, uncommon or rare. The paragon wiki may list the drop percentages for a ranked npc, but I'd have to look it up and would rather not right now. If I do that demon farm map from Harvey Meylor, those are CoT npcs and they'll drop Arcane salvage. Again, the common, uncommon or rare will be random. Higher ranks may have a slightly better chance to drop an uncommon or a rare, but don't quote me. In some cases, you can right click on an npc and click on info and see what kind of salvage they might drop. There have been a time or two when I did this and got no result as far as salvage drops go. I can't recall the circumstance though. I do know that in AE, oddly enough, the salvage that's dropped in AE is both Tech and Arcane. There are probably some npc factions outside of AE that also drop both, but I don't know which ones.

How do I put this without coming off like an a$$...well, I probably lack the eloquence, so I'll just say it. Every player has the right to play they want to, to play in a manner that's fun for them. That said, for me, to not outfit my characters with what I think are the best IOs is crippling. I wouldn't respect myself to just play with SOs outside of a challenge concept. And yes, I DO judge other players if I don't see IOs in their build. I consider them casual players and not as invested in performing well. If that's the way you play - that's perfectly okay, it just tells me I am different than you and seek a different game experience. I run with a crowd of speeders. Gotta be able to keep up, and I want to be sure I'm contributing. Trust me, in comparison to my other characters, even at level 14, they are crippled. Steadfast Protection 3% Def Glad Armor 3% Def Shield Wall 5% resist Those three IOs can be slotted at level 7. And EVERY character of mine, outside of these silly challenges will have those slotted and more. By comparison, not even having an end mod DO enhancement, having to stop and rest after each fight...yeah, it's crippled. Super-crippled. It's hard to remember how ineffective characters were before IOs, but this challenge was a good reminder.

Try taking a gold sider to Talos through an SG portal and the same thing happens. (except you get ported to Nova) Working as intended as far as I know.