tidge

I "know" the daily drop rate from empyrical evidence. Twenty hours is believable, but I don't push on the 4-hour difference any more than I push on the 7-day cooldown for SSA. When I feel like I need more catalysts, I usually sequentially crack out level 50s and take them through TIP missions at 0x8 or join a PUG. My Giant Monster hunter usually gets the Catalyst drop from cleaning up the even-level spawns that are ignored by many other players.

I can understand this, to an extent... but I have a different opinion, formed by some perspectives that may not apply equally, or to everyone. (1) Because it is so easy to level up to 25+, I don't mind having a slow period to play "content catch up" (2) Between 25 and 30 is pretty much where I feel like the character is fully tricked out, at least with powers. I won't fault people for craving Epic/Patron powers, or wanting maximum slots, but I want time to play with what I consider to be the cornerstones of my build. (3) There is some important IMO content to get! level 26 is when you can guarantee Summon Teammates for example. Level 30 are when the store contacts start unlocking. The TIP missions have wonderful flavor, and you can't get the 20-29 or 30-39 once you out-level them. (4) The Recipe drops are important for some decent badges between 22 and 31... and at this point it should be easy to start crafting/selling on the AH. I want those drops between 35 and 50 for marketeering! (5) I revisit parts of the Lore that I've forgotten, in a more organic way than using any secrets I have been entrusted with. Some of the best Lore starts at level 30. Red Side especially. Much of the regular mission content can be a lot of fun on teams!

I'll repeat: There are plenty of ways for players, old and new, to ease past this "hump", should they ask: 2xp Patrol XP (easily gained through exploration badges) Teaming up... there are almost always TFs and SFs being formed Running lower level arcs through Ouroboros, or Safeguards/Mayhems, or Tips Turning up spawn size (mileage will vary depending on the character) Combining just the first two, and playing some missions, makes leveling rather speedy. "New" players may not know this, but many of the accolades are to be had by playing 35+ content. Those aren't things that can be earned by door-sitting.

A level 27 PvP piece will cap its enhancement values at 27. I usually catalyze the one I will use before level 50 as they make good stand-ins for Purples, or convert them to other pieces (like the globals (from Shield Wall, Galadiator's Armor), Panacea or %damage.

I haven't noticed more announcements from "AE farmers" or "PI lvl 50 teams" or calls from "Sitter looking for Farm"... although I have identified a couple of new players who seem to make this same request for many of their new characters. The only behaviors I've seen bordering on "clueless" for level 50s have been somewhat unique: Sentinels not using Vulnerability, even though this is a new-ish mechanic, I would have expected a character that played an hour or so to have at least tried it. A player using broadcast channels complaining how weak their character was, and them refusing to invite players with the same AT to demonstrate their play style. The second bullet point was IMO borderline trolling, as the specific complaints being made did not align with multiple other players' experiences (including my own). That specific player's complaints also appeared to have their origins in relying on an ancient early-Live era "build guide" that promised them awesomeness they couldn't achieve by using outdated advice. So in that case, the player in question certainly didn't self-diagnose as a "clueless newbie".

This feels like stale advice: On Homecoming, one Catalyst will drop ever 24-hour period for a level 50 character, assuming that they defeat something like 8-to-10 spawns of x8. This has the following effects: It is rather trivial to accumulate Catalysts. The price of Catalysts on the market are usually capped at 1 Minf. The second point is reinforced because the bucketing of most (all?) catalyzed/non-catalyzed enhancements in the Marketplace drives down the demand for Catalysts; the market's vig ought to be far less than 1 Minf for all pieces, with the possible exception of Winter/ATOs... I simply don't recall if they are bucketed or not, as I never buy them from the AH. Personally: After I made my necessary fortune, I leverage the mass of my accumulated Catalysts to boost the new level 50's ATOs and Winters, and also to catalyze useful (i.e. ones that I am reasonably sure another character will use) Enhancements that I've crafted from recipe drops along the way. The second is somewhat wasteful of Catalysts (because auction house), but I rather like the feeling of being rather self-sufficient such that a new character can grab a bunch of already attuned enhancements to be used as it levels up. Because recipe drops tend to be accumulated at level 50, I will often do a swap (catalyzed for non-catalyzed-to-be-catalyzed) of enhancement pieces during the level 50 respec. I think the highest number of catalysts I ever ended up 'burning' this way was 56. Crazy wasteful, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

I can't say that I've encountered a noticeable amount of "leeching" (of XP, rewards, whatever). I suppose it is possible on some leagues and events (Mapserver, Halloween, Mothership, Hamidon, etc.) that some folks capable of contributing more aren't doing so, but I've never really noticed. On missions, I think it would be rather obvious if someone isn't playing. The behavior closest to what I might consider "leeching" involve open-world things like Giant Monster zone events. My bête noire is folks who want to fight Giant Monsters and collect rewards but can't be bothered to clean up the additional critters that will prevent the next respawn. I can almost understand the reluctance of a player to backtrack to clean up Paladin spawns in King's Row... but there is no reason to not clean up the extras in something like the Grim Vale battle royale after defeating the GMs. If this is a league or team that doesn't do the clean up? That is a black mark against all of them as far as I am concerned. Open-world multi-boxers who behave this way are the worst.

I try to avoid adding %procs to single target attacks; if they are part of a set I want for a bonus... that's fine, especially if the other choices of pieces in that set are up against the ED limits. Often the Purple sets fall into this category. My rough guidelines for which powers to avoid trying to include %damage (or other %procs): Powers with a base recharge time less than 12 seconds. Auras (because the effective "base recharge time" for %proc calculations is typically 10 seconds or less) "pets" that don't leave behind a "corpse" (I simply mention this because there are a handful of powers that look like they take a lot of %damage, but it will never happen for them) Powers with low Accuracy and/or no slotted Accuracy (autohits don't mean a %proc will hit) Single target attacks (I'm more flexible here, but RNG feels crueler with single-target attacks. Once a power has above 20 seconds base recharge, it can tolerate a little slotted recharge IMO, and ones with longer times can tolerate more slotted recharge. Right now, Global +Recharge does not affect %proc chances... so generally getting enough +Recharge in a build helps to smooth out attack chains (with or without leveraging %damage). The best sources of +Recharge comes from set bonuses, so even if someone wants a "proc monster" they probably should slot some powers for enhancement set bonuses instead of "all procs, every power". I prefer to use %procs in AoE because the RNG will have its way with me, and I'd rather see some damage appear on a bunch of rando targets than occasionally not see any damage on a single target.

My experience has been that Life Insurance is an insta-debt payoff. At Level 40, the amount of debt occurred with each defeat is significant enough that it doesn't take many defeats to get Unbroken Spirit/Undaunted. I used to take level 40s to Dark Astoria to get defeated, but by level 40 some of my characters can survive encounters longer than I'd like. The PI Giant Monsters are more helpful. This is often the last badge needed for High Pain Threshold, unless I have been lazy about getting exploration badges.

I'm not a new player, but one piece of advice I can offer for the HC era is to delay picking up patrol XP from exploration badges, and to start thinking about doing TFs/SF until your character gets to these doldrum periods. In combination, those two can increase the flow of XP even without 2XP. Exploration now becomes Patrol XP... I used to rush exploration badges, now I only get them when my patrol XP is out. Again as an experience player: upon reaching level 40 is IMO a good time to work on both/either blue/red side accolades. For Blue, 40-50 is when the Tina/Marie arcs are available. For Red, this is a good time to do Patrons... and if the Mayhem (or Safeguards) are done to get Life Insurance it becomes a perfect time to get the debt badge rather trivially. I can't completely disagree about the sloggish nature of missions (especially Blue side) in this range. But there are a couple of other tricks I'll use besides turning up spawn sizes on certain missions for characters that can handle it. By level 40 just about every character should be able to use Ouroboros to do lower level missions, because powers should have now been slotted. I'll often do the Mercy Island missions (because merits!) or the Faultline missions when looking for an alternative to the never-ending arcs in these level ranges.

I think this is my Shield/Axe build at level 50 I did level it up with some differences (besides the lvl 50 enhancements)... my recollection is that Battle Axe is not as slow as War Mace, but it did feel a little clunky until I got Global +Recharge, I wouldn't say it is much worse than other Tanker secondaries. By the time you get Axe Cyclone (and have Shield Charge), you will get a sense of how powerful the combination is. The Primary powers will let you include plenty of LotG +Recharge pieces. I'll repeat some advice for Tankers: Don't sweat turning on, or even slotting, the primary toggles until they will actually make an observable difference. It took me some time to wrap my head around Active Defense. I have it slotted (at level 50) such that it recharges in about 80 seconds. This is overkill but I originally was just using IOs (so I had 2 slots) and I was lazy and didn't test with just a single D-Sync. There are a handful of deep slows in the game but for most content it is probably ok to cut it closer to 100 second recharge, I want to say that I have perma Active Defense down to the lowest level TFs, but I can't recall and I'm too lazy to math it out.

If there answer was "it is technically possible to split the HC servers this way" would you be advocating that they actually be segregated?

If it was a "technical question", why was it proposed so that everyone can have their pick", with a focus on "p2w" and "AE"? If someone wants to participate in a conversation, it is somewhat important that they take ownership of their part of it.

It was a bad idea, and rather than recognize it was a bad idea it is now necessary to have a debate about conversation. There is no fundamental way that players having access to START or AE has a noticeable effect on other players I can think of, with only one exceptions Because reward drops from AE mirror rewards from the non-AE part of the game, and players can create their own AE, it is possible for the in-game economy to go to dark places. I suppose it is hypothetically possible that if there exists a player that is actively shunned because START makes that specific player "useless" (because of START attacks, debuffs, heals, travel options, whatever) then START (or P2W as it was referred to) could be causing some sort of community problem... but that strikes me as an incredible stretch. I think there is also some confusion about AE... there is more to AE than "farming". AE is used by many players as a creative outlet. It is repeatedly been stated that players will seek content that gives rewards indistinguishable from (what I think is being referred to as) "AE Farming".

It's the doubling down, with no introspection, and a hint of "I'm just saying..." that I felt warranted it. Advocating for segregation into "Like Minded" groups sealed the deal.

I have trouble imagining players that would willingly give up on P2W/S.T.A.R.T. For one thing, it's where we buy everything from prestige travel powers to turning off certain drops. Please don't waste any more effort trying to workshop that idea.

I find Lightning Rod to be fun, but I felt a distinct lack of "whelm" with Thunderstrike. Much like Water Jet from the Water Blast set, it looks cool (to me) but each felt like they were disrupting not just my attack chains but also my build goals. It was easier to criticize Water Jet before it had its undeniable flaw corrected (it used to cost Tidal, even if it missed) yet I still find it to be a bad choice. In the case of Thunderstrike, it is IMO the inner/outer radius effect that is needlessly confusing (misleading?) its damage potential... except for Tankers, who get the improved radii.

I'm sparing you a thumbs down reaction for this post, but this suggestion makes zero sense. Why do I write this? How would an "uninformed player" know what any of that means? Why would we want shards explicitly set up that have different things, that players can choose to ignore anyway?

Oh, I have added some Toxic/Psi, but as most know... it isn't that easy to work in after a build has been planed.

"These 1600 merits and 500 incarnate threads are an insult, and probably hiding my pet drops!"

IMO, the closest thing the "HC Devs" have done to what @Luminara describes... and it isn't close at all IMO... is the push to get everyone off of Tequila and onto HCLauncher. I have nothing bad at all to say about this push(*1), but losing functionality from Tequila (e.g. beta server access, requiring a special delivery mechanism for updates) is about the only thing that I can think of that comes close to the experiences folks have complained about with the new Mids. (*1) For what its worth, I think there is a spectrum of reasons for the launcher shift, ranging from well-motivated to *shrug*... I don't have any issues myself with the current HCLauncher.

I want to echo what @twozerofoxtrot wrote. I think having a "self heal" is probably more important for SR than chasing blanket resistances, at least for most content. The resistances picked up from set bonuses/uniques should be enough for a lot of the game. Yes, I have Tough, but it was picked at level 47, The most problematic attack type for my SR Tanker so far as been Nemesis' Toxic. Probably not a surprise, but it feels worse on my SR than on any other Tanker. I haven't tried tanking the hardest suff yet with my minimally-Incarnate SR Tanker, but when things are going pear-shaped, I have a high-recharge Unleashed Potential available. It doesn't help against auto-hits, but the extra Regeneration ends up balancing with the Scaling Resistances, and the +Defense definitely helps for when it is DDR that is causing me grief.

My experiences align with what @Sovera wrote, for pretty much every AT I experimented with: There is only one circumstance I found where I could see an improvement in clear times, but it is in opposition to a piece of advice written earlier: The circumstance is this: A Robotics Mastermind with multiple power slotted with the Annihilation %-Resistance piece in the MM attacks. Let me spell out a couple of things before I describe what I observed: A solo Mastermind with 6 henchmen is sort of like being on a team with "poorly slotted" teammates Robotic henchmen don't have great single-target damage, but they can make a lot of attacks in 10 seconds The same source of -Resistance will reset (extend) the duration of the effect The MM is spamming the AoE attacks (which include the Annihilation piece) against spawns, and eventually against hard single targets. When these circumstances align, the %-Res does improve the clear times for the solo MM... but I think the biggest effect is that the Henchmen aren't "nuking" spawns like some player ATs will be. The random nature of the %proc, combined with the randomness of which critters in a spawn get hit by both the MM and the henchmen lead to a general improvement in clear times. It also helps against hard targets, but the fight has to drag a bit to be able to observe this (see the comments above about pylon testing) I experimented with trying to use (multiple) "stacking" sources of (different) %-Resistance with the MM and I came to the conclusion that it was actually a waste of a slot. I didn't see any effect on other ATs that changed my mind. The %procs are inherently unreliable and the durations are short. I found it better for Tankers to just take Weaken Resolve, slotted for Accuracy, and if desired to add an Achilles' Heel %-Resistance piece to that. This will give a reliable source of -Resistance, plus a pretty good extra %-Resistance chance to be used against a single target... which will almost certainly be what the Tanker is left facing... assuming the Tanker doesn't sprint off leaving a boss behind for teammates to clean up. There is one more effect that I bring up in discussion of %-Resistance versus %Damage: (Non-AFK) Mission/map clear times are pretty much directly correlated with how many buttons have to be mashed. My play experience has been that for solo play, %damage is better at reducing the number of buttons that need to be mashed than %-Resistance.

I have a Spines/Bio Stalker, but not as a Scrapper. The /Bio Secondary makes the Stalker into a very effective PBAoE murder machine. The subtle differences between those two AT in the Primary give me a little bit of pause, mostly because the Scrapper won't have an Assassin's Strike, so as @arcane wrote the single-target damage may be lackluster for the leveling experience. A recollection of my Stalker leveling experience is that I wasn't impressed with Spine Burst. My final build has it delayed until level 12 and slotted with 5xArmageddon. I think it was that I found the animation to be a little clumsy.

Perhaps what dear @Shin Magmus is trying to say is more like this: "Because of various combat effects, including player RNG rolls resulting in MISS with a single-target attack/control that would have otherwise kept a specific Carnie from phasing, fights with large Carnie spawns feel peculiarly random in ways that fights with other similarly sized spawns do not." Maybe It was in reference to whether or not the enemy Illusionists phase before the player fires off an AoE against their spawn? Both are more annoying than any trick played by nuCouncil. We've all experience an RNG-cursed miss after a Build-Up/Assassin's Strike... but I think all the times I've missed with any attack/control against a phasing Carnie that if it had hit would have either face-planted them or held them, and I don't feel at all bad about those missed AS.