Coyotedancer

Exactly that. It's an MMO, sure... but it's one that's always been solo-friendly playability-wise, and so has always had a substantial number of both solo and duo/trio small-team players. That's a feature, Astra, not a bug.

For a "less optimal" active farmer's time.... You know, a scrub like me... It takes about two-and-a-half runs of Cult's Fire City map to get a sidekick using a 2xXP booster to 50 right now. At just under 50 minutes per run taking it at a steady but zen-mode pace, call it a hair over two hours.

Oof,.. My try with the Illusion/Time 'troller was total chaos. 😝 She has a full set of T3 toys, so I ran her at +3 with bosses off for an even-level though somewhat easier time of it. She was able to pull apart a full herd into two groups of four the first time around. That actually didn't go too badly between the Time effects, her pets and some luck. The second try, though, we got the entire herd. That was a knock-down, drag-out, stuff-running-everywhere hot *mess*. Which ended with a flat Aegis when her PA went down and a couple of cyclops got lucky with their thrown rocks faster than she could resummon. With better timing she might have survived it, but it wouldn't have been what you would call a graceful victory. Just for fun. I also tried it with Kestrel... a DB/WP Scrapper rebuild of my old Stalker main from the Liberty days. (She's a bit of an over-engineered nightmare, with a perma-summoned Adept companion for extra damage.) I took them in at +4, but kept bosses off just to see what would happen if I played "Slightly-overconfident Leeroy who's heard that this mission is dangerous but thinks They Can Handle It". (Your Stereotypical Scrapper? 😆 ) She also has an actual snipe attack from her Patron pool, so could pull from better range than Kai could. Doing a "bunny hop" fast snipe from behind a rock she *DID* manage to pull one monster at a time a couple of times. It wasn't consistent, and the rest of the time she got from two to four at a time as usual, but she's the first one I've tested who managed a one-off at all, so there's that. Do it using a real snipe, from cover, and you MIGHT be successful. With bosses off, they had no trouble with groups of four or five. These beasties seemed to have a rougher time with Cardinal's electrical attacks than they did with Kestrel's swords. Just to be silly, the last group I jumped with them, I went Full Leeroy just to see what would happen. 'Fired the Barrier, the Support hybrid and Rune of Protection for Cardinal, Kes' Strength of Will and dove into the middle of a herd. I had to use a few green inspirations when the Barrier started to fade and I definitely got lucky that Cardinal decided to hover-blast instead of getting right up in the monsters' faces (As is his usual habit. Yes, let's just HUG that Warwalker why don't we? <_< ), but when the dust settled they won. So, it can be done on a melee character. You just have to go in with a solid character that loaded for proverbial bear and hope that the RNG is with you. And that you remembered to set the mission to "no bosses".

Yep. They are definitely bosses, not EBs.

Since I tend to run my 50s at all kinds of levels with the family SG, I still build to be fairly energy-efficent without the iToys... but old habits die hard, Even without the Wolfepack, I never really stopped doing that on at least some level.

Taking them at even-level (So at +3 with bosses on-) Kai was able to survive two of them at a time pretty handily. Three or four was dicey and any more than that was a *very* quick flattening... And that's as a well-built full Incarnate with T4 toys. For comparison, prior to the revamp this little KM/Bio stalker was able to solo DA from start to finish, including this arc, at +4x8. It wasn't quick, but it WAS possible.... It's one of her Diary entries... With the arc as it is on beta, I seriously doubt she could do it again. I was completely unable to pull the monsters one or two at a time with her. The smallest group I managed to peel off of a herd was four, When I went in with Shonokin (Dark/WP Sent) I had enough spare salvage bits to make him some new toys, so decided to fake being an Incarnate newbie and switched out his usual iToys for some T2s. He only had an Alpha level shift and I set the difficulty to -1. He ate the Talons for lunch. But again, I was completely unable to get the monsters in small chunks. I always got either the entire herd's attention or the nearest 5. Even with his mobility and Dark being Dark, there was just no clearing the things. He got flattened in a hurry. I haven't had time to try it with the Illusion/Time controller yet, but given the difficulty separating the mobs into smaller groups, I'm not holding out a lot of hope, even if I set her on -1 and let her keep all three of her level shifts. (Aegis has T3 toys-) Not being able to pull them in as singles or pairs makes this mission a royal pain in the rump.

Spiffy! I'm committed elsewhere for awhile, but hopefully I can throw White Thorn Kai at it later tonight (She's the one in my crew who's still wearing the "Knows No Fear" badge. 😆 ) along with my less-incarnated SS Brute- ETA: Actually, I think I'm going to queue Shonokin and Aegis, too. Dark Sent and Illusion/Time Controller. I want to see how a ranged character and a squishy one fare.

Separating them makes it less dangerous, but we may want to go try it out on beta... The new aggro revamp may make it harder to take them on in smaller groups, unfortunately. (I was testing something else with one of my Sents the other day and found it almost impossible to pull part of a group from range without instantly aggroing the whole lot.,, That was an Arachnos mission, not a herd of monsters, but it's probably still worth someone checking before we decide that pulling groups apart is the obvious answer to potentially over-tuned opposition.)

And I would argue that it isn't really fair to tune it to challenge characters that are already fully Incarnate equipped, since it is supposed to be the solo progression path. It just can't be balanced around the "end result" when it's supposed to be what you use to get TO that end result. First learn walk, Then learn fly. 😝

Someone else had this issue recently....

In before "You should just bring a TEAM!" and "It's Incarnate content so it's supposed to be that hard on base difficulty!"... On a supposed-to-be-the-Solo-path Incarnate arc,,, That may be run by people who won't even necessarily have all of their level shifts yet... Which is to say, I agree with you. Those beasts are pretty over the top at the moment.

INFormative?

*checks date* Yep. Still an Old Chick.

A little AC/DC anyone?

Only for the snark. 😝

I've wished for a "Clones" option for awhile now, using the same clone tech that can make an Illusion controller's phantom army look like the caster. They'd have their own set of powers, like all the other Lore options, but would *look* like duplicates of the character. They'd be fun to fluff as "Versions of Myself from Other Times/Realities" or as actual clones, since we know those exit in the City universe.

This is true. Besides, the thread needed some humor. It was taking itself way too seriously. When everything is said and done, we're all just playing a game... Something that's meant to be done for good fun no matter how we may individually approach it.

Widower! Stop trying to squish that poor bug under your thumb. >_<

We are all brothers. sisters and others in Evil! *mighty Team Evil fist-bump*

Go Team Evil? (I'll admit that I do have more fun running red side over blue. Even my favorite farmer is a Rogue. 😝)

Nah. I'm just a dirty farmer. Or entitled. Or a troll. Or something... I think I've lost count of all the ways I'm the root of all evil in this thread. 😆

Only as long as I'm allowed to... Which unfortunately, if some of the people posting in this thread ever get their way, isn't necessarily a sure thing. I mean, someone upthread even suggested that they'd love to see timers put on all of the Old School, non-AE maps used for farming runs. The sentiment that would ruin my fun obviously isn't *just* about AE, even if it's the most common target, o_O

... Especially if we could ALSO find out how many Emps people have left sitting around *not* being converted. (That would give us some idea how many people either don't know about the upcoming change, OR prefer to keep their Emps for the more traditional uses-)

People would set up a revolving string of farm missions, publishing and then removing them to reset the "times played" once a week or so. Whatever it took to get around the timers.

Playing a fun-time game isn't all about the rewards, though... Speaking for myself here, no matter WHAT the Powers That Be did to Carnie and Archnos scanner missions, I wouldn't jump in there and run them rather than spending that potential hour bashing angry cosplayers in space, or escaped demonlings in a half-sunken ruined city. I absolutely wouldn't do it with a team of seven other nutballs. That's just not my "thing". It's more stressful than fun, even if it buries me in imaginary currency. I'd take the lesser reward every time in exchange for an activity I enjoyed. Thinking about it, that's part of why I don't do TF/SFs, either... Sure. A 20 minute TinPex is rewarding. But not enough to overcome the Not Fun of teaming to get it.