Crysis

Have a Demons/, Mercs/, Ninja/, Necro/, Bots/ and Thugs/Marine Affinity alt, all of them at 50+3, most with full T4’s now. Had a Beast/Marine I took to level 35 but abandoned it and it’s scheduled for deletion. Beast just needs help. Thugs is as good as Thugs/Time or Thugs/Storm (my two previous most-played MM’s), but it’s not quite got the capabilities of all the other sets. I’d rank it last place, although it’s still far better than many other MM pairings for Thugs. For PVE content, including soloing GM’s and AV’s, take your pick. They are all effective. I have solo’d all of the non-Incarnate AV’s and regularly go GM hunting. Have downed them all with several of the above. My favorites thus far have been Ninja and Necro. On Ninja, take and use the Smoke Flash every time it’s up. Literally “Crits on Demand” and on Necro take and use all three of your primary attacks for the Specters. +3/x7 is easily do-able at low 40’s, and +4/x8 by late 40’s pre-Incarnate. It’s a great soloer and even better on teams. I took Fold Space on most of them….helps keep everything in the Tide Pool. You’ll seldom need to invoke Bodyguard mode. I play with them almost always on full Aggressive mode outside of some trials where I want to keep them on a tighter leash. People think you need Melee pets to maximize Shifting Tides and Tide Pool but Mercs and Bots both get into the pool just fine. Since I have TP pool, I have combat TP on a bind and will just TP to the other side of the spawn, usually dragging the Mercs and Bots along with me. Otherwise, and I think people forget this, just drop Shifting Tides onto Barrier Reef….it’s almost always with you (or near you) and thus it triggers the stacks as well. Or drop it on the AV/GM if a long battle. For any of the “hard mode” stuff, including the new Labyrinth stuff, you really need Ranged henchmen and Destiny>Barrier. It’s just too hard to keep the melee pets alive in hard mode content. Same is also true for “speed run” TF’s like Tin Man/Apex and such. Ranged Mercs/ and Bots/ survive those far better and it’s easy enough to face tank the AV’s yourself while they whittle down the target and/or get your top tier henchman to draw aggro while you just step back and debuff/heal. *DO NOT SLEEP ON BRINE* if you plan to solo AV/GM’s a bunch. It stacks and slotted with health/absorb it makes a measurable difference in target elimination times. Even if all you can spare is one slot for it, take it and spam it. For PVE content, I have a macro for targeting primary threat targets (mezzers, sappers and the like) and at +4/x8 a Sapper is eliminated with a single application opener of Brine and a single shot of any attack. Shoal is entirely skippable but you’ll want everything else in /Marine. Don’t forget that Barrier Reef offers more value for the Absorb than the defense, so slot it up with heal sets or if you can spare the slots do 50/50 of heal and defense.

There’s a playstyle that is all about herding. Its efficient, but if you don’t understand what is happening, you can find yourself on the wrong side of the herding point and get clobbered and/or destroy the momentum of the herd via a hold or whatever. ITF’s, especially the 1st, 3rd and Final missions, are pretty much herd-fests. As long as a Controller/Dom knows/understands this, it’s easy for them to participate fully by just waiting for spawns to gather up and then apply a hold/immobilize which is actually quite helpful to the team at that point as it prevents wandering. Heck, with the right powers, Controllers/Dom’s -can herd stuff themselves.- I have a SG mate who does this with just about any build you can imagine. The issue, however, is more that the ITF leader is a melee type who wants to be the center of attention. Most of my /ignore list is made up of this kind of player. They want an audience, not teammates. Just don’t join them.

That’s….not how AFK farmers work. They are only AFK (for the most part) while inside the timed missions. Depending on the farm, you may have to swap over to that instance and nudge them around a bit because the spawns aren’t assembling near them. Then, when the mission timer ends and they are auto-ejected, you have to reset the mission (or go to next in arc) and place them in there again. So, in no way is this totally “hands off” farming. I AFK farm on a second account while actively playing my first. And I rarely do it any longer as the rewards have been nerfed to the point it’s not effective use of my time to even do that any longer. Powerfarming a new alt with an ACTIVE farmer, sure, do that all the time. Mayby by AFK farming you mean joining a TOT league and just standing there while the League does all the work to farm you up?

I actually wondered about that. See a bunch of these in game and thought that was likely the case, as any IO +DEF/+RES/+REGEN bonuses I lose from procc'ing out the attacks is offset greatly by the bonuses for those same values by playing a Defender. "Defender" makes just as much sense for the actual backstory I have in mind anyways, so perhaps it's time to dust off my Offender spurs. Thanks!

I'd be more into mini's if I could a) obtain unlimited Baby New Year's and b) assign them to others as non-resist-able pets. Muhahahahaha.

OK, leaving my idiocy here for posterity. You just get this from the P2W vendor. It's odd that not all my characters have access to it however. Some do, some do not. Otherwise, it's 1MM inf and it can be yours.

So during the dark years between Live and HC, I kept using MIDS when I’d get bored to theorycraft some builds and whip up some character bios/backstories along with drawing some character sketches to match. I have literally over a hundred of these in my sketchbooks. At any rate, Marine Affinity is the perfect powerset choice for this character, but I have two/three choices to make: 1) DP/Marine Corruptor 2) Illusion/Marine Controller 3) Fire/Marine Corruptor cuz everyone has one it seems In general, I’m kind of leaning towards Corruptors as I just like direct damage. I’ve just about wrapped up the six different MM’s I made for /Marine Affinity and I have slotting for that powerset down to a science. I also love the flash/look of DP, have a DP/Kin and a DP/Time corruptor and have that down to science, so a build is easy for me to make. But I’ve not seen a single post on here about DP/Marine for Corruptors and frankly it surprises me. Checked Discord also and not much mention over there either. Whitecap + Tide Pool + HoB just seems like a no-brainer combination to me, especially if I can softcap Melee Defenses (which I can with one of my builds, quite easy with the temp +DEF boost from HoB ). To do this, however, requires me to go easy on the Procc’ing of Dual Pistols, which I know from experience reduces DPS. I’ve seen much talk about Fire/Marine for Corruptors and that appears, like everything Fire, to be a solid DPS set. But I can’t easily work Fire into this backstory like I can Illusion or Dual Pistols. So….anyone tried DP/Marine on a Corruptor? Anything obvious I’m missing when I look at the synergies between the two sets?

Yeah seemed to me it was auto-rewarded upon login for some special event, but I could just be mis-remembering this. Not sure how to obtain it. If I go to the AH mini pet recipes or the Vanguard terminals in RWZ, I can see a couple of different mini-pets, but not the mini mech suit one. This is the guy I’m referencing….MVAS, so I guessed the name right. Wiki says you got it in 2011 for a 7 year subscription, but I see no mention of how to obtain it now. My mind often gets confused between what was happening on Live vs Homecoming at times, so perhaps its no longer available or if it is…how to obtain one escapes me. **EDIT** Another article says you obtain(ed) it via the Vanguard Pack reward, which was part of the Paragon Rewards program. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Vanguard_Pack

No I likely got my names wrong. The mini Vanguard mech suit pet.

I’ve never been clear on how to obtain the Vanguard MVAS mini pet?

I mean, with GenAI it’s not even hard to find alternative names these days: me: “I’d like to create a role playing character identical to the gladiator from the movie “Spartacus,” but he cannot have that same name. Can you give me a list of 10 different names that are appropriate for such a character?” ChatGPT: “ Certainly! Here are 10 names that could suit a gladiator character with the spirit of the legendary figure from Spartacus: 1. Maximus – meaning “greatest,” a strong, commanding name. 2. Cassius – a classic Roman name with strength and resolve. 3. Lucianus – evoking light, clarity, and purpose. 4. Aquilus – meaning “eagle,” symbolizing bravery and nobility. 5. Caius – a traditional Roman name with a powerful sound. 6. Valerian – derived from “valere,” meaning “to be strong.” 7. Rufus – meaning “red-haired” but historically common in ancient Rome. 8. Magnus – signifying greatness and strength. 9. Tiberius – inspired by the Roman emperor, symbolizing power. 10. Severus – a name suggesting strength and severity, often associated with Roman warriors. Each of these names carries a distinct Roman essence while capturing the spirit of a fierce and resilient gladiator.”

Sorry, hope you realize I’m being sarcastic. Because that’s the way PVP has always been in this game. “If only there were a way to FORCE people to PVP when in a PVP zone, then this would be a better game for everyone!” Oh wait…that’s true of PvE game as well. People just need to relax and let others do the same. It’s a game. The amount of selfish behaviors I’ve witnessed in this game, and so many other MMO’s, makes me appreciate NPC’s all the more. Someone else got a name before me? Fine…I’ll just find another way to name my character. They’ve long since never touched that toon? Fine, release it. No big deal either way.

The Devs really missed an opportunity with PVP if you ask me. Duels for a Name. You want it, you must duel for it. Forced PVP or give up the name. Coming up next, PVP for right to have a SINGULAR costume piece, only one exists in the entire game at any given time. If only……

I’ve moved my “mostly solo” alts to one of the lower pop servers because no reason to leave them on higher pop servers. And I’m sure I’m not alone (ha, irony of that statement eh?) in doing that as I see activity on the lower pop servers but is a lot of single toons running around from mission to mission and not teams moving together. But I’m not sure that’s actually healthy behavior for that particular server. If the only people who play there are solo-ers, then that server will never grow an active population, and you’ll see less diversity of AT’s in general since some classes solo far better than others. The suggestion of just merging the servers somehow seems to be in the best interest to the longevity of Homecoming and the player base in general. But I recognize this is a volunteer effort and that kind of work takes time, money and energy for what basically amounts to “infrastructure changes.” Not that sexy of an effort, and there’s going to be complaints about it from one impacted party or another.

I mean, not to point out the obvious, but if an alt is: 1) Your number 1 favorite 2) Your most played-toon 3) But it’s been saddled with a second/third-choice name…. Then clearly that alt has NOT been your number 1 favorite after all? This argument is circular to me. I certainly have alts (long since retired) sporting names like “Sp4rtacus” because the original one I wanted was taken. But my wants didn’t stop me from playing, leveling and eventually retiring that toon, and I’m not going to go for the first version spelling of the name. Because….their can be only 1 of that name ever. If I had my way, we’d take away names from any retired toon, regardless of level, that hasn’t been played for more than 4 hours in the past 365 days. People would still find ways to get around that rule, but it would eliminate all the toons that are parked and never get played any longer.

I must be too old for Discord. I find it a discombulated mess. You have to use search to find any older posts, you have to be "in the moment" to really follow any specific discussion...just a freaking ADHD stream of consciousness mess. It's nice for immediate support issues, which is how I see many other companies/games/whatever utilize it but for active, searchable discussions.....crazy town.

The whole point of name release is NOT to take an already-retired and/or seldom played character and just rename them. That moves a desired name from one hoarder to another. It’s to free it up for a new alt so that the games’ active population goes up.

On a MasterMind, I always try to choose Lore Pets that a) offer a different damage type than what my pets put out, which allows diversity in instances where my opponents are resisting my primary henchman attacks and/or b) something that thematically matches my bio and/or powerset/pets. Because the truth is, Lores offer very little value beyond the level shift you get for slotting a T3. They aren’t up often enough to really matter all that much. But if all else fails, choose the BP radial side. That untargetable pet throws out a nice debuff rain which helps against tougher enemies. Ugly as sin though.

Absolutely this. Am in KW right now and just ran out of Patrol XP and I’m now 97k per +4 EB.

Someone’s gotta be fuel for Veng. Cheer up!

I jumped to Cim once for an all “Bow” themed ITF. The person forming it up was a Archery/TacArrow Blaster I think. 2 of the 8 of us that showed up were Ninja MM’s. It was then that I realized that a great many MM’s don’t take any of their primary attacks, and as such, hardly anyone out thre realizes that Ninja MM’s are, in fact, Bow users.

It’s not a popular perspective, but often I’ve found myself on a 50+ waiting to find a spot on a ToT league and I’ll just solo until/unless the league leader finally comes back from AFKing and invites me. I’ll notice a HUGE difference in my solo XP per min when just soloing next to a league vs actually being part of a league. Makes me realize why there’s that multi-boxing MM floating around the Murder Apartments in PI. I think you can earn better XP/min solo near a league ToT than actually -part- of that league.

Thx, 17m beats my 20m best XP/min I’ve found but being AE I somewhat expected that as its easier to pack in max critters without travel distances. I’ll check it out.

So you are saying highest DRAMA per hour is generated somewhere other than Indom? Do dish please…..always love a good story.

ToT leagues are almost always just large scale PUG’s. There’s seldom any real cohesion with them I’ve found. Half of the players often seem to be mostly AFK as well. Just basically a loose amalgamation of murdering, badge/easyXP hungry hobos. MSR’s and Hami and such at least have some semblance of planned effort. I prefer those to mass PUG’s and typically spend most of October with SG mates or solo just to avoid the ToT altogether.