tidge

I agree that in many ways Musculature is a trap... obviously MOAR damage is MOAR DAMAGE, but often I have found that I get better net performance by choosing a different option, such as Endurance-cost reduction. On characters with next-to-no damage slotting, it is usually the first choice.

I did the same, without ever converting an Empyrian merit (to anything other than Incarnate power). I have fewer than three pages of lvl 50s.

I can imagine how a (solo player) level 50+ could be accumulating Empyrian merits but none of the ways I can imagine feel like casual role-play, at least not on the scale where a single level 50+ would be funding multiple new characters: Repeated grinding of Dark Astoria missions yields Emp merits, 1-at-a-time. Farming of missions (could be AE, could be anything at x8, including DA missions) to gain vet levels fast enough that the Emp merits roll in, up to a certain vet level. I don't intend this to be nasty: I see a logical disconnect between wanting to casually play only a few hours a week, yet also have a huge stable of characters that demand the sort of Merit/Inf-vestment that is typically only associated with fully-kitted level 50s. I'm trying to imagine myself in the circumstance where this would be the case, and the most sympathetic circumstance I can imagine is one where my (new) character is buying all items directly via merit vendors and never going near the auction house. If the AH is toxic to a player... that should be recognized a self-punishing choice. Level 50 common recipes can be sold to stores at approximately 100 KInf each. That can be used to buy quite a lot from P2W, and many of the commonly used Enhancements to shore up low-level builds are 4 MInf or less. It isn't necessary to be a "marketeer", "farmer", or "grinder" to be able to afford Performance Shifters, Knockback Protection, etc. I can share my own approach to open myself up to judgement: I play through regular content, often with XP boosts. I share Inf (and enhancements) from older characters to the new characters so they have some advantages between levels 15-25 (Kismets, Perf Shifters, Panaceas)... but generally they have a hodge-podge of partially slotted powers (using common IOs from the AH). They slowly craft & market & play merit-giving content so that at level 50 they can respec into slots/enhancements that they have pretty much bought themselves. There are a couple of ways my older level 50s help the new characters that don't rely on merits, although I suppose merits could be used: I recycle a LOT of enhancements via the SG base, including sets of crafted and attuned PvP pieces. This isn't even financially efficient, yet this is what I've done. Those pieces were recipe drops that were crafted and attuned in the past and are available for slotting (if I think of it) by lower level characters. In a real pinch, it is possible to "burn" respecs on a level 50 (alternate build) to mass-attune pieces for lower-level characters... not recommended, but it saves using unslotters. I allow catalysts to accumulate in the SG base, so at level 50 I can "superior" things immediately. If I didn't do this, it would at most take a couple of weeks to accumulate the catalysts via a single character, assuming a couple of 6-piece sets I want catalysed at the same time. That's about it. I could use merits from other toons to buy Boosters, but by level 50 each character has plenty of merits, such that I may impatiently use merits for Purple pieces when the market is not cooperating... also not efficient, but that's on me.

There must be a spectrum of casual role-players that I didn't appreciate. My casual RP toons are banking Empyrian Merits to rebuild Galaxy City.

My uncle is the CIEIEO of Old MacDonald's farm.

Black Whip v. Cool Whip

Incandescence for reaping fast rewards during Trick-or-Treating.

I'm going to force myself to try these out... combined with not having to take Web Grenade at level 1, my 'Bots/Traps/Mace is going to have to make some hard choices. that character currently has several ranged attacks for soft control (%knockdown), %debuff (-Res), and are used for drawing aggro. Photon Grenade, Pulse Rifle Blast and Mace Beam Volley all serve this role for me (currently), each is 6-slotted. I don't really spam these attacks, they are basically to allow the henchmen to stay in Bodyguard mode. Going in, I have two things to look for: I have many enhancement set choices to boost MaxEnd and Endurance Discounts already... I will want to keep those. It's crazy but I've leveraged a LOT of set bonuses for Endurance help already. At first glance, my peculiar(?) slotting choices (including 6-slots in Triage Beacon) may already be 'optimal' for the revamp. I have a pathological need to see how a "one big robot" build plays. I hate how the Assault Bot-only plays. More than any other casual test, I feel like that build drives home how poor the DPS is. I felt it was ironic since I had the luxury to slot the henchmen/pet mules in the other henchmen powers but the big guy could not be made that fearsome. (I did a lot of testing on the Blue-side Midnighter Club introduction arc... shudder) I'm curious if that (odd) choice does any better. Aside from the changes to the robots, I think the change to making power choices available earlier will have a bigger effect on all my builds, including this one. Because of available slots during leveling, those changes will primarily keep me having alternate power picks while leveling versus at level 50.

I've been thinking about this question. I'm going to answer it by thinking about a level 50 (exemplared) AT that can switch roles in a PUG, and not simply survive/complete challenges in the game. My answer is also motivated by primary and secondary options within the AT, with no regards to Incarnate powers. (non-Epic) Power pools are open to just about every AT, yet mileage does vary. My answer is: straight-up Fortunata, although for maximum flexibility having a second build (Night Widow) as well as a third build (specialty) will get you even more mileage. Defensively: Widows can be built for extreme positional defenses, and can rely on scaling resistances and other tricks (I'm a fan of Unrelenting, but there are others)... and much of what a Widow can do for itself it can also do for teammates. Offensively: Widows have IIRC a flat damage scale of 1.00 (melee and range), which is completely respectable and means not having to worry about fractional trade-offs when considering attack chains, enhancement set options (including %procs, especially debuff/control %procs for enemies without purple triangles). Control/Debuff: Fortunata are not going to out-control Dominators or Controllers, and they won't debuff at the level of specialist ATs, yet for content that requires more than just brute force to complete I found that my PUGs have been helped more by using Confuses and Fears than strictly attacking.

A million years ago I read something about the difference between ancient and modern tragedies, it is approximately this: ancient tragedies are motivated by external, typically divine, forces, but modern tragedies arise from the manifestation of an individual's self-destructive passions. And some modern literary advice I think I can attribute correctly (to Kurt Vonnegut): "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water."

Ain't no vision like tunnel vision.

Weird dude also left me a thumbs-down on a followup post of a Crabbermind build I use where I explained I didn't include a MIDS link, partially because I don't use MIDS and also FFS how lazy are Destined One candidates these days!

(T)Rolling down-thumb on every post: Is it more like Farming or PVP sniping?

It takes about a week; I like to pickup the Caregiver badge in Outbreak before hitting level 2.

Please tell the RL Devs I didn't ask for RL hard-mode.

It appears to me that the true value of AFK farming is the allowance it makes for simultaneous full-time forum PVP.

Brute ATO rework can get in line behind other ATOs.