tidge

This hypothetical player could leverage a wee bit more by using the vault, but the point stands: whatta waste of time (even if using a macro) and effort. With over 15K bids on common salvage outstanding, the BIN price was something like 200 Inf.

That sounds like the great Empyrian sell-off to me.

Is this the Christmas Cheer as trademarked by Amway?

The bolded part of the (snipped and) quoted post is why I think the on-going play in the common salvage market is coming from a very poorly informed place. I'm trying to catalogue what I can imagine is the thinking behind 45K bids at 809 inf for common salvage. (1a) It could be a buy-it-nao play to have crafting supplies on hand (for many characters) with the intention of trying to accumulate badges. (1b) It could be a buy-it-nao play to have crafting supplies on hand (for many characters) with the intention of trying to enter the market as a seller. (1a) doesn't make sense to me, except that if a player is REALLY committed to such a bit... such that they ALSO want to burn Inf at a crafting table (instead of buying recipes too)... this is one way to burn a lot of Inf and also get something equally ephemeral (badges) in return. This strikes me as such a peculiar waste of Inf and Auction House slots (not to mention time) that I can't imagine a player who has accumulated Inf thinks this is a good idea. (2) It could be a player who thinks they are going to "corner the market" on some (or all?!) common salvage. No current player on Homecoming should believe this is possible. I can't rule out that this sort of thinking is a leftover from Live, or possibly from a relatively new player who has been playing on another server. It's not a huge amount of Inf to try this, so it could be someone who has done some farming with a relatively new character and feels like this is their path to bajillions. I find this to be almost believable, because it would take a lot more Inf to try to corner the market on popular crafted pieces (e.g. Luck of the Gamblers) and flip them... but the market would adjust to basically waste that player's time (and Inf). I don't put much belief in this, because it also requires the creation of a lot of characters to place the bids. (3) It could be a player just trying to get attention. This feels entirely plausible. The world is full of narcissists. As I wrote, it doesn't take much Inf to do this, and so with relatively small amounts of Inf and not enough imagination to brew up a new character to play, I can imagine a bored player doing such a thing. Hey, she got my attention! (4) It could be "revenge" on folks who craft, in an effort to slow them down. There is a public perception that folks who craft enhancements with the intention of putting them on the market are bad for the game. There is also a public perception that groups like "farmers" and "marketers" are at odds, and that each is somehow in opposition to the other. I don't think these are popular opinions; I don't even think that many players hold both of them simultaneously. I have read enough posts such that I can believe that there is at least one player out there who has a relatively modest amount of Inf (and enough characters created) that is willing to be an AFK Market Griefer.

I usually try to remind PUGmates on the Penny Yin TF to consider getting the Endurance Drain Resistance and Increased Recovery buffs.

A new player may not know these things: The salvage markets were seeded. 42K bids (it was closer to 50K a few hours ago, but I've been dumping commons) is unusually high. Even during periods of crafting/converting it is more likely to see 4K outstanding bids on uncommon salvage. The salvage market is fungible, by rarity. It is impossible to corner the market on any particular salvage type. To put the silliness of this effort into perspective: If a player wanted to try to set a flip-point on common salvage at 1K inf (*1, why?) it would take (only) 50M inf to place 50K bids. This is a nigh-trivial amount of inf for a level 50, even for a non-farming player. It's almost easier to accumulate 50 Minf (for an average level 50) than it is to simply claim and delete 50K salvage from the AH. (*2) (*1) The seeded price of commons is higher than 1K. A level 50 SO vendors (on average) for ~15K. A level 50 common IO vendors (on average) for 100K. Common salvage drops are still common, so there will never be a "shortage" of them... the worst that this player could do is reduce the mass fungibility of the items, at which point the devs would probably simply re-seed the market (if they didn't prefer the Inf sink). (*2) Driving up the price of common salvage past the seed point (and holding it there) would almost certainly just encourage players (who crave specific common salvage) to farm Inf, which will have the side effect of farming common salvage as well. EDIT: I should note that it is not particularly difficult to get specific common salvage types, but it may be easier for some AT than others. The most difficult items will likely be low-level salvage for players that cannot run solo at 0x8 in a given level range... but with set bonuses it is possible to exemplar to that content. As an experiment I was taking an exemplared (at roughly level 30) mastermind (while in Aaron Thiery's blue-side AP arc) into Perez Park to street sweep for boss badges as well as salvage, before I knew better.

If they are intending to craft, they are doing that in an incredibly inefficient way: I found an alt with a storehouse of level 25, 30, 45, 50 common recipes (the ones with badges that provide extra inventory space)... I put them on the market for 1 inf each and they barely sold. I ran some missions to accumulate a large number of level 50s, repeated again (and it pains me to not vendor those, but only at 100KInf each) and the same thing. A few players are going to be able to vendor those at a profit, but I doubt they are going to crafting badges. I also don't think that they are crafting to play converter roulette, because converter prices remain low (and stable). I don't keep (or accumulate thanks to P2W choices, or market) enough non-common recipes to figure out if there is a particular niche of non-common recipes to guess if the player in question is likely working in some specific area. I also always avoided Defense sets (they always struck me as too crowded a niche) to tell if someone is in that space.

I am not now, nor have ever been, a "market whale"... simply because I have not needed to be one. My roster's wallet has been mostly "steady state, with profits" for almost two years now. I see some peculiar market variations from time to time, but the ones I notice look more like efforts to lose inf rather than accumulate inf. Recently (last month, and again just this week): It appears that (effectively overnight) there are 40K outstanding bids on common salvage for ~500 to 800 Inf. It takes a LOT of effort to put in that many outstanding bids! Even trying to maximize such an effort requires creating a LOT of fresh characters and claiming Inf (presumably already in email). This behavior looks pretty much like someone doing it for the lulz, or has a peculiar theory based on the Live market ("They are after me Lucky Charms!"). I don't think it is someone going after crafting badges or flipping/vendoring, as I dumped a LOT of recipes on the market for 1 inf, including common level 25, 30, 45, 50 these simply did not sell at a rate I'd expect for crafting/vendoring to get badges. I grok that these recipes can be bought at a workbench... but it is always cheaper to buy them off the market. I don't think it is part of a "classic" marketing strategy, because Enhancement Converter prices remain low. It's converter roulette that both makes the market work AND provides the ability to ignore the market (with catalysts).

...and we're back! 40K+ outstanding bids on common salvage.

I try to minimize the number of times I distribute Duplicating Gift (in a zone), only because leaving more characters without it allows the people gifted the gift to also get the badge by gifting it to others. Of course, it is impossible to know who needs either badge, but early in winter events there are always a large number of freshly-minted characters.

I always revisit this thread whenever Terror Volta is the WTF. I'm not sure there is any content in the game better suited to the BAMF LIFE.

I don't AE farm, but I have done something like farming with nothing like the 'classic' farm builds (that is: I have no Brutes above level 16 and no "damage aura" characters that I can think of, except possibly for a Dominator with Hot Feet). The content that makes me think I'm close to farming, is 'at-will, on-demand': Heather Townshend's (Dark Astoria 1) arc at either 0x1 or 0x8. Small spawns to "farm" the arc rewards (sometimes including Super Inspirations), large spawns for drops. SSA (speedy) for merits, sometimes mindlessly for threads or Astrals Tip (and Ouroboros) Missions at 0x8 for defeat (mostly) badges, and just to fill up on raw drops (e.g. level 50 common recipes to craft for badges) or junk to toss on the AH for badge reasons Hamidon raids (not exactly "on demand"!) for merits and HOs. Less so MSR (for Vanguard merits) but sometimes. In no case is raw Inf my reason for 'farming', but it's not like I throw away Inf that comes from those trivial exercises. Since it is the drops I crave, I don't have to run at +3 to get the drops I want. To answer the title question of the thread, when I am doing the above at 0x8, I've used my Fortunata, Mastermind (Robotics), and Dominator (Plant), as I've found that they clear maps rather quickly. The Robotics Mastermind is very easy to have at the defense cap and keep aggro pouring into kill zones. The other two have decent AoE AND spawn confuses... many enemies in the game are weak to their own attack types and it takes very little effort for a solo player to get on the "I did damage" list to be considered for a drop. I like the way my AoE Shield / Battle Axe Tanker plays in 0x8, but I have to drag bosses between spawns to clear maps since it takes that much more effort to finally defeat those guys to claim their rewards.

...and then presumably the players who play on the "classic build server" would be restricted to only posting in a single "classic build shard" sub-forum, because there would be no reason for them to engage with any discussions outside of their frozen-in-amber code base. Hard No (for many reasons, not just my response above).

From my PoV, the only thing you missed was the opportunity to teach him that it is more appropriate to refer to a "bunting of red flags".

Another data point: I had a 2022-minted level 50 working on Toy Collector opening presents in a favorite zone that was devoid of other players. It's not a zone where I see a lot of other players, but it is impossible to know how many presents may have been opened (in that zone) before I started, but it was a few hours after the event went 'live'. The Winter Lord spawned after 160 presents. I wasn't keeping precise track of when I got the defeat badge for the spawns (because of NAUGHTY!) but it was long before the Winter Lord spawned. This was roughly the case with a second character... similar conditions, except that I tried to startwith the second character right after the WL was defeated. Some of my own silly behavior: I try to open presents in a zone as I criss-cross (an eliminate whatever I spawn) in an effort to reduce the counter, whatever it is.

Whatever was going on in the common salvage market seems to have ebbed. Part of me wants to believe it was a player with a lot of Inf that wanted beaucoup salvage for crafting badges (and did a poor job estimating what was necessary), but part of me thinks it was a poorly motivated market experiment... with some of that motivation being a cruel "for the lulz" bit of thinking. I have long recognized that "farmers" have helped keep AH prices low, but I don't think this was a 'supply-side effect'. If this was an experiment, I think it was poorly motivated, even if it revealed something about the scale of the market... specifically because common salvage: Is common, durp Is itself fungible, Is trivial to collect (by turning up spawn size), finally The target price point that this effort 'picked' was well below what vendor prices are for the other things that 'commonly' drop: i.e. common IO recipes for most levels, SO enhancements.... not to mention the Inf that can roll in simply from defeats. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For my Inf, the ONLY complexity of the Enhancement crafting system that I think needs an overhaul is the User Interface when interacting with a crafting table (and I suppose when viewing recipes in hand). I think what I'd appreciate most is a character toggle choice to be able to choose between the current system that always shows EVERYTHING, like this: Uncommon/Rare/Very Rare Enhancement recipes (owned) alphabetic listing more alphabetic listings even more alphabetic listings Memorized Recipes alphabetic listing by level more alphabetic listings by level even more alphabetic listings by level Common recipes (owned) alphabetic listing by level more alphabetic listings by level even more alphabetic listings by level ... and a variety where I could choose to always have the top levels "collapsed" such that I could "get right to the common recipes"; this is by far my biggest peeve, it comes up when working on badges/rewards. It hits me both when I am checking the recipes for needed salvage AND when going to the table to craft. I can mitigate this a little by working in a zone where I can use the Auction House window open (to buy salvage) with the crafting table window open, but that is simply a hack. Frankly: I'd be happy if the memorized recipes were moved to the bottom of this UI, as I very rarely revisit the list of memorized recipes... either to craft or to check if I have already memorized a category (usually i just use the badges window).

I'll repeat my call for a subterranean zone (or multiples, like the Sewer Network(s)) between Cap Au Diable and Port Oakes. There are a wide variety of enemy ranges that could be there: Snakes, Demons, CoT "just hanging out" as well as Goldbrickers, Luddites, Arachnos, Crey "delving for secrets man was not meant to know". Ideally there would be an "upper levels" version appropriate for characters of the Port Oakes/Cap Au Diable level ranges (like a Hazard Zone blue side) with "deeper levels" appropriate for characters in the 40-50 level ranges. I don't think I would ever warm to the hinted at plans by the original team to turn Perez Park into a new Incarnate zone by "lifting it into the sky via CoT magicks" (too many good memories of my first "hazard zone")... but if a a new zone with that concept was tied to the Nerva Archipelago, I wouldn't object... but I'd like it to be done in a slightly cleverer way than the Shadow Shard... maybe larger "sky islands" with a better variety of artwork/geographic elements?

I've been using Wall of Force exclusively on Tankers and Controllers (with Ranged damage scales of 0.80 and 0.55) as a %proc attack.... available at a low level. I get it's raw proc rate (for 3.5 PPM) at somewhere north of 30% (I try to have an accuracy boost in the power at least 26%, FWIW) and an unenhanced recharge of 10 secs. IIRC the Epic (Mu) Ball Lightning unenhanced recharge time is around 30 sec with an equivalent %proc rate for stalkers (3.5 PPM) at close to the same value as WoF . I don't recommend spamming Wall of Force (or Ball Lightning) on a melee character, but having this power early in a build, it really helps each of those AT clear maps faster (and turn up spawn sizes sooner). I've never added Wall of Force to a Scrapper or Stalker build, I think every one of those I've ever built leverages a patron Snipe, and after that I am out of slots! 🙂 As for different sorts of timing (for arc rewards and not XP): Weekly, I run I did a low-level arc (SSA1, Theoden) at +0/x1 for rewards, so I have a good sense of how different AT perform on that arc (*1). (I'll run it both Red and Blue, but the times I'll quote are for Blue... Red is not very different, but slightly longer on average). My best times (no quick escapes or teleporting to missions) is on a Shield/Battle Axe Tanker, with Wall of Force. Doing nothing special except skipping a potential Magma Lord defeat in mission 1, the completion time for that character was 5:38(*2). I took that same character to Dark Astoria to run the Heather Townshend arc (with minimal fighting, again at +0/x8, but with a level shift of +1 and no incarnate powers beyond Alpha) and I was regularly getting completion times below 10 minute, even with unfavorable maps. These two times at different ends of the level range really surprised me! I'm not making claims of uber builds... it's just that compared with all the other characters in my stable, this one wins the gold medal on speed (without the Speed pool!) EDIT: I just logged in to try DA#1 with some effort at speed, and scored a time of 8m35s with some favorable arcs. None of my other characters come close... but this is more about Shield/BA than WoF (although I did use it) (*1) Page 5 power and level choice changes improved time of that SSA1 arc significantly for my robotics/traps MM, but it is still the slowest to complete of my characters. (*2) When I am just looking to speed those arcs: SSA1 blue side has a minimum number of defeats IIRC at 8 mobs. The DA #1 blue side has a minimum of 25 defeats IIRC, although each arc offers opportunities to add more defeats with no real effect on completion.

Playing with Shield Charge and without Combat Teleport became a little too much to bear...especially with the relatively long downtime on Shield Charge. I am still unwilling to compromise of the Force of Will pool, so I made a few modifications: I dropped the Medicine (3 powers) pool, and added Teleportation (Combat Teleport) and Concealment (Infiltration and Stealth) With more defense mules, I shuffled around the %Absorb proc a LotG, and the Shield Wall unique I freed a slot to put some recharge in Build Up, as it was bothering me to have the %Build Up proc in it by itself I replaced a %Smashing proc in Shield Charge with a Force Feedback %Recharge, specifically to help with the recharge time on that power, without compromising (too much) on the damage %procs. Infiltration puts a little more zip into the character, otherwise the entire Concealment pool is serving as mules. Having so many options for Defense pieces made it an easy choice when I realized I had other options to mule the %Absorb proc in powers I was already taking. I keep staring at the 5-piece set bonus in Cleave (from Armageddon), and I am tempted to add the %Fire piece to get Psi and Toxic resistance (by moving a Psi-only slot)... but I really like having a purple proc in Pendulum at level 20. If I were to give up any (proc) damage from that power, I think it would just be to swap in another Force Feedback piece in place of one of the inferior procs.

It can take them, but the recharge component does nothing for those powers.

P2W offers a limited set of no-charge enhancements for powers. The Auction House often has IO pieces at all levels available for cheap, as players seek badges (and associated rewards) for crafting IOs at all levels. The best rewards IMO are for crafting 25/30 and 45/50 IOs, so there should be no shortage of those. If you are playing a character on a "slow climb" (that is, no double-XP, just doing content at a relaxed solo pace) by the time you can slot level 25 IOs, you are practically at the point of maximum efficiency relative to the original game (modulo Enhancement Diversification), at least as far as you will be able to tell. Not every IO will be 5 Inf, but they should be completely affordable. Take the University courses and you can even get one (at level 10, 15 or 25) for free. By level 30, you should have no problem doing the Summer Blockbuster event. One of the reward choices is an attuned "Universal Damage" Enhancement. These are a perfectly fine for one of your attacks, and also sell (in the auction house) for somewhere in the neighborhood of 9MInf if you don't want to use them yourself.