tidge

Check your pockets for Break Free inspirations.

Has it been tested if the %procs from such sets (e.g. from Bombardment) work below their minimum level? I have a small number of characters with Positron's Blast %proc slotted in relatively low-level attacks... and if I could eek out a little MOAR damage from limited content... well, I'd probably make the change.

I enjoy using cones myself, and don't want to yuck in anyone's yum. I certainly didn't try to maximize the number of cones on my Dark Blaster... I saved that trick for my Controller (*wink*). My primary reservations about having "too many" cones break down to: Having "too many attacks", with some coming at a "too late" a level. YMMV, especially on the level of choice (depending on what content you prefer) Having limited slotting options for enhancement set bonuses Full disclosure: I like to slot cones for range, especially if there is some sort of debuff in the cone. While I love close-combat, I am perfectly happy to play a cone-wielder at range. Also: for Blasters, I typically don't rely on %proc (that's a trick for low-DPS sisters) for extra damage. It's hard for me to put the math-in-my-head in writing, but essentially I think (for a high DPS AT) that %damage from procs is a whole lotta competing second-order effects and no real first-order effects. The simplest I can explain my own feelings is this: "If I have to hit an enemy target twice with a %damage attack to KO it, the %damage proc is effectively not doing anything for my build." Now, in the specific case for Dark, the damage-over-time aspect of certain powers means that getting a chunk of 'inital' damage from a %proc actually can speed up defeat times. The extent of how much this speeds up defeats is best judged by play. As an aside, I haven't really been able to tell if the Blaster Moonbeam (the snipe) has better performance (i.e. 1-hit-KO versus 2-hit-KO) with %damage, but it definitely does for Scrappers/Stalkers. The -ToHit on Dark is IMHO a great feature that shouldn't be undersold. In my mind, if a %damage proc isn't speeding up KO times, I'd first consider enhancing -ToHit with teh slot than just adding a %proc, assuming other aspects like Acc/Dam/End are already enhanced through set pieces.

I suggest reading some of the posts by @SwitchFade (in that thread, or elsewhere) on economics.

Can you be more specific? I regularly see ±1MInf variation in all sorts of random places with small sample sizes. Don't worry about revealing your secret niche, my first reaction to "ZOMG 1MInf!" was: EDIT: I should add this note: In a market niche where I routinely made ~6Minf for certain pieces, the market fell such that I'm lucky to make 4Minf, and routinely the pieces go for low enough prices that I make much less.

The slow build into a steady beat makes this one feel like a "Tanker" anthem:

Here is the (classic) link: https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Crimson#Rescue_Candice_Boxer_from_the_Malta_Group

I definitely agree that homogenized builds are a peculiar thing. I've posted quite a bit about how I feel about the Numina %proc showing up in AT builds where it is almost certainly doing next-to-nothing. Very few of my builds (which would otherwise be considered frivolously expensive) include Winter sets... the benefits tend to favor Melee and Fire/Cold resistances that I often don't need. Purples tend to give +Recharge, which many more of my characters value. There is at least one set where I think the bonuses from multi-slotting PVP outweigh both Purple and Winter options (straight Holds, because of the many %proc options). I am also a hug fan of bonuses from sets that are either uncommon (e.g. Thunderstrike) or con as uncommon (Gaussian's pieces) and are never very pricey. Frankly: creating an AH index would simply incentivize folks to manipulate it. If there is any doubt, just review the past attempted manipulation of uncommon salvage prices. I suppose it was a good sink for inf, but otherwise I am not sure what the point was of that.

Many of the %proc pieces would (deservedly) lose their spot on any such index for being notoriously bad performers (both in the market as well as in builds).

Originally: in order to unlock the HEAT, it was necessary to get another character to the level cap. This implies (to me anyway) that part of the calculus involved with HEATs was that players would be willing to face a specific, dedicated challenge while playing them. Over the course of LIVE, the barrier of entry to HEAT-play was significantly lowered so I think it is easy to overlook this aspect of the AT. It's a different sort of discussion about whether or not it was 'fair' to non-HEAT players to add HEAT-specific enemy types to non-HEAT missions. Many players clearly didn't think so ("No Khelds, plz"). The nerfing (my words) of the Quants/Voids from was a compromise, considering that the Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustenance inherent abilities explicitly rely on having teammates.

I enjoyed the original batch of Nemesis arcs (back when the game was capped at level 40), and there are some 40-50 (and 50+) Nemesis missions I enjoy... I never glommed onto the direction Lord Nemesis took in the game's lore. Bluntly: I was expecting to see more in-mission explanation of the jaegers and warhulks. As much fun as those Shadow Shard Nemesis base maps are, I also could never bring myself to believe that Lord Nemesis could actually recruit enough humans to staff his missions.

What is it that an "AE farmer" (as opposed to a "street sweeping farmer" or "Ouroboros farmer") are taking away from other players? I can't see what the impact to other players is. Spoilers: I know it is not that the price of good on the market has increased, because of all the reasons already explained. I think that at certain times on Live, it was possible to make a tangential argument that AE Farming (for XP and Inf) that got characters to level 50 was potentially diminishing the chances for non-Farming players to experience/enjoy/collect the rewards from incarnate content... which was something that players had to explicitly pay $$ (not inf) for the privilege of enjoying.... If the Incarnate content was being flooded by 'freshly-minted farmed level 50s'. That is certainly not the case on Homecoming.

The Malta faction has an explicitly different sort of thing going on with their robots, which are exposed during a blue-side level 45-50 arc "A Titan Named Joe". Nemesis automata (and Jaegers) are explicitly 'clockworks'. In the early days of Live, I remember being creeped out by 5th Column Steel Valkyries on the streets of Founders Falls having conversations that didn't sound like the sort of things robots would being talking about. I always expected them to be revealed as "brains in jars".

It has never happened to me, but... ... the game client does have a peculiar handshake such that when a player is interacting with 'storage' elements, game behavior is 'odd'. I typically see this if I have pulled an ehancement catalyst from a (salvage) storage place and catalyze an enhancement and get and error... it is as if the client is trying to put the enhancement into the storage rack. I have long suspected that some fraction of folks reporting issues with "failed respecs" (unrelated to untrained levels) is because they were interacting with some sort of SG storage item. I didn't bother investigating this particular AH "warning" message I recently encountered: I was getting an AH alert to the effect that "storage is full" when trying to dump some extra salvage into the AH. My character's pockets were not full, nor did I have enough in the AH (bids won/placed, pending sales, unclaimed inf, stored items) to have come close to the limits. The salvage still made it into the AH (despite the warning) so I just shrugged and kept going. I tend to only investigate when things go wrong, so I cannot even remember the circumstances, except that I obviously was not on an instanced map.

My character with the Sorcery pool uses Arcane Bolt to abra the cadavers before they can reach out and grab her.

While not specific to HEATs, I did this trick on the Protean story where you fight yourself while playing as a VEAT. Most of my VEAT have multiple builds leveraging the different possible paths, and one of my VEAT has a completely different body type (and costume) to represent the different "characters"... for whatever reason I decided I wanted to play one half of the character against the other half, so after entering the mission I changed builds and got a chance to fight the different alts against each other.

Each to their own taste. I have at least one %proc heavy Controller build that relies on the Accuracy bonuses from purple sets to help those %damage attacks land.

My own rule: Uncommon red recipes (especially Snipes, and Pet damage) ALWAYS get rolled into another uncommon before rolling into rares.

Pure Anecdote: I haven't been doing content where I would expect(*1) to get Purple recipe drops, yet I got one in the past week from play. (*1) Such content for me is Heather Townshend's Dark Astoria arc set at 0x8, solo. Clear every map of all four missions. This takes about 30 minutes (YMMV depending on AT) and has (roughly, by my estimate) a 40% of dropping a Purple recipe. I don't think there is anything special about that arc distinct from any other content, it just happens to be one that I frequently ran.

Health is a different matter, this reply is for Endurance: Presented in roughly the order I do certain things: Put Rest in power tray one, use it when necessary. Slot toggle powers for Endurance reduction, then the primary Attribute. Use sets when appropriate, but most Def/Res builds don't need more than 4 slots in those powers. Many Def/Res powers require far fewer slots. Slot attacks for Endurance reduction, after slotting for Accuracy. Use sets when appropriate. (for me, this is when the %damage P2W pieces turn off) Pace yourself. Slot the following globals, in this order: Panacea, Performance Shifter, Miracle (in Health), EndMod (or attuned Performance Shifter, in Stamina) Use the SG base to craft +Recovery with that salvage that is accumulating. Take Rest out of power tray one, unless you skipped step 4. Earn the +MaxEnd accolades. Don't click Hasten unless you REALLY need it. Your teammates won't notice your improved performance but they will see you sucking wind. Slot powers with enhancement set bonuses that given MaxEnd, EnduranceDiscount, and Recovery. (e.g. Annihilation, Preventive Medicine, Unbreakable Guard, some PVP) respec when appropriate (this may let you break #9)

I level my characters through 'regular' content, so my response is formed through that lens. Defensively: I think Willpower is probably the smoothest set, although Bio's Adaptation helps to smooth out a lot of other choices. IIRC Super Reflexes has an AoE gap that can be hard to live with if difficulties are turned up. I haven't played all the other sets, but the other ones I have played rely on enhancement slots to really sing. Control: I find these sets to all be very 'clunky', because of the low damage.... with the possible exception of Gravity's Propel. Offensively: I don't tend to notice, unless I'm waiting for attacks to recharge. I havn't tried Titan Weapons, but I found War Mace to be a set that was "too slow" (while leveling) for my taste. At level 50, it is fine. I rather like the VEATs. The forced respec is annoying, but once completed your character has new sets of powers with extra slots to place!