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I can almost believe this, but for the December 2022 level of activity, this hypothetical person had to have a some (but by no measure extreme) amount of inf (roughly 15 MInf by my estimate) to sink into this effort. To have gotten to the point where a homecoming player had enough inf (and auction house slots!) to try to buy 20K worth of common salvage seems to have really high levels of ignorance about how the Homecoming system works. It's not impossible, but it would take a LOT of tunnel vision, stubbornness, and ignorance to get to such a point, IMO.

A repeated reminder about certain zone events: It is necessary to defeat the event spawns or the next event will not have a chance of spawning (until the zone resets, usually during a server reset... but enough players can force a new instance of the zone). In the case of the Croatoa zone, until you see the global "Monster Activity has returned to normal levels" message, there is still at least one spawned mob(ile) that needs to be defeated. Brickstown has the burn-down list near the zig (or in the police station). The no-level clocks in Kings Row are more painful, as they will chase players (such as ones that end up at the hospital) and so will end up far from their typical routes used from spawn-points to the High Park gathering zone. Use /optionset showvillainname 1 to spot the even-level mobs. I have also observed what I think is an event-lock that will prevent Jurassik from spawning in Crey's Folly: If the Rubble (or grand-Rubble) that come from defeating Jurassik are not destroyed, I think Jurassik will not respawn. This is based on a long weekend of no Jurassik spawns, so I spent time scouring the zone... after defeating some lonely grand-Rubbles, Jurassik respawned the next hour. Those spawns will con at zone-level (grey for 50s), so are not easy to find. As near as I can tell, Jurassik and the Kraken have a chance to spawn based on Player entries into the respective zone. Hazard zones aren't that popular (although enough different contacts send players to Perez Park and Crey's Folly to make them well-visited) such that I commonly get the "____ has appeared in..." message right after I zone in to one of them (on a GM hunt, usually). Red-side, things are generally better, with the most annoying GM being Caleb. I typically buy a SG perception boost to try to find that guy (who may be spawned and no one knows!)

Your example is about misbranding, and has nothing at all to do with issues of copyright/intellectual property.

This may be obvious, and it may or may not apply: make sure you actually have room on the character's recipe inventory to hold a drop, should you get one.

That would run afoul of Pharma/Biologic regulations in the USA and Europe.

I enjoy Brickstown's Zig Escape, except that players will leave that event "unfinished", and the Freaks really like to hide, which locks the event. Similarly, I like the Kings Row event, because it is slightly easier to find the spawned clockworks that need to be defeated in order to allow the event to respawn.

My opinion only: I appreciate living in a Homecoming era in which there are a relatively small number of voices complaining that "Tankers are over-powered" as compared to the days when there were more (possibly the same number just louder) voices that "Tankers are obviously inferior to Brutes and no one should play them." The rest of this post is informed by the solo play experience. The Homecoming decisions (which affect all AT) such as lowering level requirements for powers, and also NOT touching %damage procs, have done a LOT for smoothing the play experience (in my experience) across ATs (not just Brutes/Tankers) for both: "Casual" leveling and experiencing of content organically Full-kit, post-level 50 builds with full slots/enhancements and Incarnates Fundamentally, across a majority of content, the mechanics of the game reward players for the most enemy defeats in the shortest period of time. Once any AT is in the second bullet category (full-kit), it really should not be preordained that some AT must take an order of magnitude more time to complete typical content(*1). Yes, there will be some difference due to the inherent damage scales (which is why I hope %procs remain untouched), but it isn't worth being upset that across primary/secondaries one AT clears a x8 spawn map on average 5% faster than another specific AT takes to clear the same map. (*2) (*1) Specific to recent improvements to Tankers, the increased AoE is pretty much just improving the ability of Tankers to clean up groups of scrubs faster than before the change. Because of how Fury can benefit from a large spawn attacking a Brute, I casually wonder if some of the Brute angst is because a Tanker's wider AoE means that the tanker isn't simply sitting in a large spawn only slowly defeating the entire spawn (modulo the use of Build Up) like the Tankers used to have to do. (*2) Prior to City of Villains, there was a near-constant chatter about how Scrappers made Tankers irrelevant!

Is the combat dummy like the (level 1) Deactivated Rikti Drones that the Freaks are sometimes playing with in Crey's Folly?

My personal experiences with RNG, as it relates to drops, follows. This is based on playing established in-game content and not farming, although the results are similar for farming (in my limited experience doing that). To get a "drop", you can't be defeating "con grey" enemies... basically if you are not getting XP, you don't stand a chance of getting a drop. (I think this is also true of 'event spawns', such as frost minions in low level zones that con grey to a character, I can't say I recall getting candy canes from defeating grey snowmen). Fighting higher con enemies doesn't improve the drop rate. You need to fight a lot of enemies to stand a chance at the rarest drops. You ought to be playing level 50 content to get Purple drops (they will drop earlier, but your are going to get XP along the way, so I'm not going to belabor this subtle point). Any amount of damage done to an enemy will offer you a chance to get a drop. I mention this because it is the #1 reason to slot both %damage procs in an AoE confuse attack. For a long while, I was running characters through the Dark Astoria arcs at +0x8... all the enemies give XP (no matter the Incarnate shift) and I could run two full arcs (8 missions total) in less than an hour, defeating every mob. Doing these 8 missions would, on average, yield either a single Purple or PVP recipe. Occasionally I'd go long stretches with only one or the other, occasionally I'd have runs that would take longer to drop one. Now... a couple of other points that I apply to myself. When I am hoping for a Purple or PVP drop, I almost always use P2W to "turn off" rare recipes; they require rare salvage and so are not worth the effort to collect and craft. I can take-or-leave uncommons. Commons never get turned off, as they vendor at a high price. Prismatic Aethers only drop at the completion of missions, so if a player would rather try to farm those, then "kill all" sort-of gets in the way of trying to "farm" those. I quite like that there is a random reward for mission speeding to compliment the random reward of "defeat all". This is on my mind when trying to collect Empyrian Merits and Incarnate salvage that are also only rewarded upon "completion".

I agree with the general concept of "more lore, please"... however my own preference would be to "flesh out" the blue side zones and groups that (personal opinion) don't seem to have much excuse/rationale for their motivations. As @Snarky mentioned, Red Side is quite good at this, with only a handful of (again IMO) weak links... and the Goldbrickers have finally gotten their due with the Aeon SF! I am very disinterested in the "cosmic level" threats, and the "read along with someone else's story" of the first Signature Story arc (and revamped Dark Astoria, for that matter) strikes me as very self-indulgent. I like the new-ish content that has been added, and I don't want to diminish the good efforts there... but I'd be happy with some less complicated story arcs explaining what is going on in Boomtown or Terra Volta, or even the recruiting in Brickstown... with the ability to simply turn up the difficulty via existing methods. It's also always bothered me that we don't have an early-to-mid-level hero arc that really explains what is the deal between Blue Steel and the Clockwork King.

One recommendation that I often make for all Widows is to see how your build plays without Hasten. My experience has been that the power is basically a trap that makes you spend much more Endurance with only marginal improvements. I will concede: improving the uptime on Mind Link is better than marginal, but writing only for myself I was only very rarely teaming with others where I felt like I needed Mind Link up 100+% of the time, and that was in EXTREME content where I am not sure my PUGmates had paid that much attention to their builds or what they were doing in most fights. I'm not saying immediately respec to remove Hasten, I'm simply suggesting playing content without it being used to see how the build does. I will add this: on my builds with Hasten, I rarely take it so early in a build as level 6, as typically there is another pool that offers me a third power I could really use by level 14. In my experience, the payoff Hasten offers is only for powers that come much later in a build (e.g. nukes, long recharge boosts/heals). Another suggestion I have for the build posted just above by @Scarlet Shocker: When builds don't have an auto power that can take the piece, move the slot and Kismet +ToHit piece into the earliest defensive power that you intend to have toggled on. The +ToHit bonus only works in powers that are active (including auto powers), so I am pretty sure it is wasted in Elude. Similarly, the slotting of 2 pieces of Numina's in Spirit Ward seems to be a mistake... because you will have to use the power to get the unique bonus. I know on one of my Tankers (larger base HP, so keep that in mind) I get better total regeneration rate by slotting those two pieces of Numina's in Health (along with another global), because slotting a HP/Absorb piece in Health also boosts regeneration. I would use Spirit Ward as a mule for the Preventive Medicine %Absorb piece, as it is one of the rare enhancements that doesn't have to be in an active (or available!) power to trigger. The %Absorb, along with Scaling Resistances, are some of the slot-and-forget choices that make Widows that much harder to finish off when they start taking damage. In that same build: you find yourself with some Endurance problems and you want to keep Sprint toggled on, you may find that you don't need the Stealth piece and you can improve the Endurance budget by slotting Endurance reduction in it.

Not precisely "pulling": A single BAMF macro works fine for melee; my characters with cone attacks have a second one (that doesn't require selecting a target) to followup with the ranged AoE attacks. Obviously I have to not make a terrible mistake in the direction I am facing when activating it. /macro_image "DevouringEarthSeed_Hematic_Seedbuff" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Combat Teleport" /macro_image "DevouringEarthSeed_Hematic_seedblood" "Back" "powexec_location Back:25 Combat Teleport" I try to find a couple of images that have similar colors (for each) when I set these up, and I generally try to find images of a color that stand out (that is, different colors than the primary and secondary) in my power tray. All characters with Combat Teleport get this mouse-bind as well. /bind shift+lbutton "powexec_name Combat Teleport"

I have been exclusively playing my Robotics/Traps/Mace MM since page 5. I have the MM (personal) attacks slotted for set bonus, and a little extra(*1). My thinking was to improve my own Endurance, and add something that would act as a force multiplier for my henchmen. I went the %-Resistance and Knockdown route as the force multiplier. Obviously, any slowish AoE is a good candidate to try for %damage from procs, but the Endurance penalty for MMs has historically been such that trying to eek out more damage from personal attacks has not been a priority for me. (*1) I have two 5-piece sets of Annihilation (mainly for +MaxEnd, global End Discount, and the %-Res) and one 6-piece Sudden Acceleration. On my build, each of the three attacks (Photon Grenade, Pulse Rifle Burst, Mace Beam Volley) also has a KB->KD piece (using the Overwhelming Force where necessary) Depending on the MM build, and how you plan to play it (very active requiring Endurance, or less button mashing) I can see going for set bonuses that improve resistances for the MM, to help with Bodyguard mode.

I don't know what other self-imposed constraints you have, but 4-slotting Strangler with Basilisk's Gaze is an easy way to get 7.5% Global Recharge... which ought to be helpful if you are chasing PermaDom. Edit: Sorry, I didn't read closely enough that Strangler was already part of the build!

A word of caution: This is an observed dangerous behavior (Brutes, or anyone else really, relying on proximity or auras): waking up multiple spawns to "speed up" (especially low level) missions. The caution is this: we may be playing with mates that have AoE which will grab the spawns' aggro while you are hopping about. I don't play Brutes, I will do the exact same behavior on certain ATs, but each has a different way of trying to keep the aggro to themselves when leveraging a "prime the next group" approach. Tankers: This should be obvious: Taunt the enemies in the distance, use (PB/Melee)AoE for Punchvoke, use ranged AoE (P2W, Pools) to excite ones in the distance. Controllers/Dominators: Have the AoE ready, including Immobilizes and Sleeps, patches when available. Defense-based characters: Stay with the spawn, keeping their attention. Blasters: I try to work a control-component into (long-range) cones. %Knockdown is an easy one to work into cone attacks at low levels. Masterminds: Let the henchmen take the abuse. On many pick-up teams, it's my "control" characters that often take a LOT of fire, but even a purple-constructed and exemplared character is likely staring at a death-by-debuff in a Positron 1 or (more likely) 2 TF if teammates are casually aggroing multiple groups.

I was considering making a separate suggestion thread but here goes: Can we please get a Back-Alley Brawler in some sort of seasonal costume? (during the Winter Event) Even a Santa Hat would be a nice touch.

Here is something that falls more into the category of "hmmm...maybe" than in the "I never knew that". I was doing some mindless grinding of Heather Townshend's Burden of the Past Dark Astoria arc, when it occurred to me that the eight Knives of Artemis(?) costumed enemies at the end of part two (which disappear without being targetable) could be the ones who reappear in their "final form" as the seven Knives of Vengeance as the final fight in the last mission of the arc. I usually don't grind the other Dark Astoria missions, so I'm unaware if the eighth member of that crew could be one of the other NPCs the player gets to fight.

This was my realization as well (for DNA Siphon); I feel like it is the defining power of the Bio Armor set. I don't know if the Dark sets are any different. Typically (all AT, all builds) I shoot for reducing Endurance costs rather than hoping for a %+End (not named Performance Shifter). This isn't a particularly fair thing to write about toggle-heavy builds, but in my experience simply slowing down on the button mashing is often enough to make a difference in Endurance consumption. Another (slightly related) thing I try to keep an eye on with level 50 builds is Regeneration v. +MaxHealth, and Recovery v. +MaxEnd (and/or global Endurance Reduction). I don't have a conscious rule-of-thumb (obviously for Health there are different scales for different AT), but I find these to be areas of balance/compromise when I am trying to find "one more slot" for a specific power.

I've grown to lurv Force of Will, including its travel power. Takeoff does improve jump speed, but only for a relatively short time (30 sec?). My characters with Mighty Leap are among the fastest to get between missions (judged both against my other characters, and PUGmates) using only travel power, unless some peculiar zone geometry is in play (typically by requiring some degree of Flight). I first took the power because of a character concept that knocks down enemies (non-patch)... see also Wall of Force.... and the pool has become a favorite for certain of my Tankers. The timer on Takeoff is somewhat long (2 mins?), so it isn't something that you can use as part of a regular power rotation. As @UltraAlt wrote, it is a nice way to get the attention of relatively large spawn of characters, in a way that doesn't require paying that much attention to specific targets. One appreciated (by me) side effect of using Mighty Leap in Tankers is that this AT is among the least likely to need either of the Universal Travel global piece (Slow Resist or Mag 4 Knockback Resist) or a Stealth piece... so the travel power can be slotted for Endurance Reduction (or Endurance/Jump) to be always kept toggled on (modulo the amount of other button mashing). Off the top of my head the only thing I actually dislike about the Force of Will pool is the lack of tintable color (or no-effect) options of the powers. Maybe I'm just imagining this defect. I turn a blind eye to the animations being a combination of signature moves from Professor X and The Incredible Hulk.

Disclaimer: I have never played Dark as an armor, neither have I played a Dark Melee. What follows is based (mostly) off of my experience with Bio armor's DNA Siphon. Re: Theft of Essence, as an enhancement set. On characters with click powers (which trigger off enemy targets) that can slot it, it is a reasonable candidate for 3-slotting at low levels because of the +MaxEnd bonus as well as the ability to slot Accuracy/whatever pieces. For me: it is a bit of toss-up between three-slotting Theft of Essence or Touch of the Nictus, the latter's bonus are +MaxHealth and Global Accuracy. The Bio-AT in question ended up being able to manage Endurance with level 50 slotting (and using Efficiency Adaptation when necessary) such that the final (here, a Stalker) build has DNA Siphon slotted as a %damage attack; AFAIK the slotted accuracy is helping the %damage land. I don't know if this is of any value for Dark, I wouldn't recommend this slotting in an Aura. Level 24: DNA Siphon (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50 (*) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing: Level 50 (*) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50 (*) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30 (*) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50 (*) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage (Lethal): Level 50

There are only two circumstances where I ever feel the slightest twinge to tell PUGmates how to play their character, and even in those limited cases I typically keep my fingers mashing buttons or bantering. The first is when I see a Mastermind (with a large number of henchmen) repeatedly dying... I want to believe I am motivated by wanting to make sure the player understands all the mechanics of the AT, but I've played long enough with my MMs that I often do crazy things with them myself. The second is almost exclusively on lower level content when I see a not-so-squishy character that could be able to manage a lot of aggro (solo) but is relying on something exclusively like an aura. Just running past groups on a Positron TF (either part) to wake them up does not mean that you have their aggro under control. I've just been shrugging off this sort of behavior as a sort of player-induced invitation to team wipes.

I've been playing a Hasten-free Shield Defense/Battle Axe with lotsa AoE and %damage, and I rather like the way it plays on both solo and teams. I've made an effort to leverage Shield Charge, Combat Teleport and Axe Cyclone, along with Wall of Force, to target/hit/reposition enemy mobs and clear maps quite quickly. The large AoE with %damage cut through spawns must faster than I expected. It is a very scrappy Tanker. The biggest weakness with my build that I've noticed is with Psi (especially non-positional, I'm at 26% Psi resistance)... I could make an effort to close that particular hole, but it would mean compromising on the %damage procs in a rather serious way. Non-Incarnate solo positional defenses are around 40% without the Fighting pool. It should be easy to take this combo to better resistances and defenses (using different pool choices)... it would be less scrappy, but on teams that needed a tougher Tanker they probably would not notice the reduction in offense. I've been tempted to do exactly this with the second build, but I can't quite the first one.

Some more personal experiences: I always defeat the mobs that spawn from "naughty". I am working from the assumption that there are a fixed number of mobs to defeat before a WL will spawn. This may be why teams opening presents "feel" like they are able to better spawn a WL. Solo players only get 3 mobs per "naughty". If a WL has spawned, a second one will not spawn. I don't know this, but last year I could not get one to spawn and then I finally found it in an odd corner of the map. The WL will spawn where a present used to be, in place of the present respawning. I recently got one to spawn during a Paladin construction event in KR, right next to the construction site (while on a team of about 5). This was after opening a present, being naughty, and defeating the spawn (from the present).