Andreah

February 7

IMO, a build's slotting can only be optimal in the context of the purpose for which it's intended. Do you have different slottings for different purposes?

February 6

On 2/5/2024 at 12:46 PM, Perfidy said:

But be clear on one thought: Fire farmers might have a fair amount of influence. But they are below average when you take into account the marketers, who can make millions of inf in a few minutes, consistently, throughout the day. The "ebil marketers" (don't ask me why those folks can't type out Evil properly) are the ones who place most of the things you're going to buy on the market. Not the farmers. The better marketers don't have merely billions. They have hundreds of billions. I suspect Yomo may even be close to 1 trillion by now, depending on how active he's been.

Yomo may not toot his own horn every time -- so I'll do it for him. He is, to my knowledge, the first confirmed Trillionaire in Homecoming.

I'm not too far behind. And I don't farm at all. Others are up in the hundreds of billions too. Some might be past Yomo and have been quiet about it. Hard to say.

Yes, people with this amount of game-wealth could spend 3-10x the going prices of things just because they can, and not even slow down their wealth gains. But that's generally not the kind of personality that enjoys the market game. Overpaying for things is, to me, an affront to reason, frugality, and all else that is holy.

Those I call Marketeers hoard their wealth as a way of keeping score, often privately, to measure their success. And it has a side benefit to other people. My hundreds of billions are sequestered out of the economy, never to be spent. What I do spend is ever only a small fraction of my market gains. Marketeers are a "Money Sink", we permanently pull money out of the game economy. It sits on alts we never play, in emails we never claim, and in market bids that can never have filled.

If you recall your basic economics, inflation is caused by "too much money chasing too few goods". Marketeers attack both sides of that equation -- they remove money from the economy, AND create those goods the markets demand. Those LotG +7.5% global recharge enhancements didn't show up from nowhere; people like Yomo and I made them out of trash no one else wanted or cared to bother with. You're welcome.

IMO, the prices are already fair -- and if a person disagrees, they don't have to pay them; no one forces them to. And they could make their own LotG's out of trash drops too.

February 4

10 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

Warshades work by having as many enemies nearby as possible so they can suck their energy out and use it for their own defence, damage and self rez. Using their "gather enemies" power (shadow slip) they can teleport all the enemies in range (I think the limit is 16 but not totally sure) into a nice tight group at their feet. Most times it isn't a problem, shadow slip, eclipse, 2 mires, nuke. Turn into dwarf and mop up the survivors. Sometimes it backfires and you die so self rez (stygian return) and then eclipse, 2 mires, nuke and dwarf 🙂 Then a quick Dark Extraction for a short lived pet and move on to the next mob.

I have a warshade with Shadow Slip too, and it's just as fun and effective as Fold Space. I've even wondered about using a second build taking the teleport pool TOO and getting Fold Space so I can cast both of them interleaved in rapid order. :D :D

edit: .. and my purse overheard me and just called for ambulance. :D

February 4

12 hours ago, Bacon Wrangler said:

Do you happen to have a build you'd recommend? I'm about to roll my first controller since Live and picked Grav/Time because it sounds so neat.

I've never published my personal one, which depends on being absolutely, embarrassingly, rich in-game; but this thread is recent and has some good older ones linked.

February 2

There are other, non-gameplay, ways to make money, too. Both take some artistic skill:

Enter and win costume contests
Make and sell Supergroup Bases

February 2

16 hours ago, Zombra said:

So .... what's your take? Is the economy perfectly fine if you don't do these weird exploits people are talking about? Or should I give up on fun and L2Farm?

I take exception to your wording here. The techniques people are talking about are not exploits. Exploits are actionable violations of the Code of Conduct, sections 7.1 to 7.3.

These are deliberate game systems, being used for the purposes they were intended for, by a great many players who know more about how the game works than you do, for now.

These aren't secrets; players easily discover them for themselves, and we teach anyone who asks about them. Frankly, it's hard to get us to shut up about them. ^_^ You can learn these systems too. Pick one, and learn it. Or don't, and gain your Influence a little slower. It's up to you.

February 2

A new player need only pick one of the many ways to earn Inf, and do that one thing. None of them are so bad that a player would regret using it for the first 20-50 levels of their first character.

But really, don't buy ATO's with merits. That's shockingly bad. Fortunately, new players don't need ATO's right away.

February 2

4 hours ago, Zombra said:

I'm glad to be back in CoX after 15ish years away 🙂

However I feel really overwhelmed by what's going on with the economy now. I'm being told "read my newb guide, this is the way you're SUPPOSED to progress. Farm these task forces for merits, then take the merit rewards to the worktable and turn them into splanges, then sell the splanges for a billion inf each at the auction house, then use that inf to buy shoobadoo enhancements, then break those in half and smear peanut butter on them, then ...."

Like, I just want to run missions and get a little inf, and buy enhancements appropriate to my level. But I feel like I'm doing it wrong and the economy is only set up to support billionaires. I don't remember the early/mid levels being this rough, contacts don't even sell enhancements any more even though they all say they do, can't even afford DOs for my level 15 characters when I finally get to the zones that have stores. The auction house looks like a Wild West of "exploit or die".

So .... what's your take? Is the economy perfectly fine if you don't do these weird exploits people are talking about? Or should I give up on fun and L2Farm?

Thanks in advance for any perspective.

Another basic method to get a million Inf even at low levels and if you are dirt poor is to pick a zone, like Atlas Park, that you can get around in easily.

Explore it and find the eight exploration badges in it. This will award you an accolade badge for exploring the zone, and that badge in turn, will reward you with five reward merits.

Take those five merits to a merit Kiosk, like the one just inside City Hall and off to the left. Trade those five merits in for 15 Enhancement Converters.

Type "/ah" in on your chat bar, and this will bring up the Auction House.

List one of those 15 converters for sale, for 1 Inf. This will cost you 5 inf for a listing fee, and that converter will sell instantly for at least 60K. If it sells at 60 K, you'll have a profit after the sales fee is paid of 54,000 Inf.

Now post the other 14 converters for sale. Pick a price you are comfortable with. You'll pay an up front 5% listing fee, and the balance of 10% of the sales fee when they sell and you get the money out.

If you sold them all at 60K, you'll have made 810,000 Inf from this process, just from atlas park. If you got lucky, and they sold for 75K, you'll have a cool 1,012,500 Inf burning a hole in your super-pocket.

Don't get greedy this early -- don't try to post high, just let them sell. You can become a Billionaire later. This will get you enough cash to get some goodies from P2W and to buy your first low level enhancements that will get you onto the missions and teaming train, no problem.

If you run low, pick out another zone and explore it for a badge. Hollows, Kings Row, Perez Park and even Skyway City of Steel Canyon are easy zones to explore.

If you don't know where the badges are, you can ask people or get the map overlay that marks them all. We have very helpful people who'll help -- some might even offer to take you on a badge tour!

February 2

29 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

until Leap Day!

Leap Day will be cancelled this year!

February 2

On 1/30/2024 at 10:41 AM, WuTang said:

On this.... I'm new so take my observation with a grain of salt but I'm seeing the same when I post for sale. I'll post something and then the history will show stuff being bought for more than my post yet mine isn't sold. I'm wondering if there are glitches in the history.

To this specifically, it makes sense given how the market works. You do not see the seller's price in the history, but what the buyer offered to buy it at. Yours may not be selling because there are others listings offered for sale lower than your price. Those sales showing up that are higher than your price are going to the people who listed their for sale lower than you.

Example; let's say I list a few hundred yellow salvage for 1. Yes -- 1. I just want to dump them.

Then, you list yours for 100. Still a very low price, but you expect they'll sell.

A third player goes to the market and wants a stack of yellow salvages. That person bids 25000 each, because they just want it all now.

Those sales will go to me, and I'll get all 25,000 each, less the 10% listing fee.

Yours won't sell until all mine are gone.

Someone could have bought mine for 1, but they never expect those buy orders will fill. Why? Because too many other people are bidding much higher; and just like that the sells got to the one who listed the lowest, the buys go to those who bid the highest.

Buyers usually are impatient, and they can't see the posted sell prices, so they offer a bit on the high side. And the next buyer sees those, and tends to bid just as high. They most all want them right now, they know they wont' get them so long as someone else is bidding higher, and don't feel it's worth the wait to get yellow salvage at a better price. Because honestly, to serious crafters, 10k or 25k or such is a tiny amount of money that won't hardly affect their costs or profits.

February 1

In the beginning, I mainly played scrappers and stalkers and mostly soloed. Now, It's mainly support and tankers, and I almost exclusively team.

February 1

On 1/31/2024 at 10:13 AM, eldriyth said:

Griefing and harming innocent people is the epitome of villainy, and so is being an asshole to people.

I get it! You don't want your character to be a villain -- you want to be a villain.

February 1

11 minutes ago, Ridiculous Girl said:

that's nuts! i thought i was crazy... 😵

I swear, however bad I am, Yomo and a few others are worse!

At a certain point, the marketeering itself becomes a game, and the amount of Inf you stash away, never to be used, becomes a score.

February 1

I take it you are not playing a Gravity Controller? Any solid grav troller would get closer to 100% I'd hope!

January 31

1 hour ago, Cpt. Caveat said:

I think that takes care of general power pools.

Teleportation

Speed

Fighting

Leadership (unless there is something much better I missed)

These are the ones I took on mine. Just Hasten out of Speed, and the Cast of Usual Suspects out of the Fighting and Leadership.

January 31

I often suggest ideas for the sake of suggesting ideas. I don't think there is an existing problem any of this actually solves, and I'm happy if nothing is done about it. ^_^

January 31

1 hour ago, Cpt. Caveat said:

I also assume that to get defensive caps I still need to dip into get tough and weave though I would rather dip into leadership but that might not provide enough defense and also still need fighting pool

Yes, they're very good to have.

January 31

1 hour ago, Cpt. Caveat said:

Though I saw that dimension shit can phase teammates and wondered if this is a viable “save zone” from ranged and aoe fire to “heal up” etc. using it as an Oh crap power.

Playing solo, it can work really well as an "Oh Crap!" power; but it's very difficult to use well in team settings. usually people will ask you to stop using it because they can't attack mobs that are inside the dimension shift field. You might be able to use it to create safe zones, but you could also use Teleport Target to port people who are in trouble or dead to a safe spot a little ways away from the action. Your teleport travel power is then good to get yourself back into the action. You zip out, teleport someone dead out of the fray so they can get back up, and you zip back in and pile more mobs on the fire.

January 31

I have an end-game Gravity/Time controller with combat teleport, teleport, teleport target, and fold space. It's absolutely awesome.

You can easily become defense soft-capped which makes you very tanky (you can pretend to be a tanker for short periods and a little luck).

You are highly mobile and can teleport yourself and your singularity wherever you want to be at.

Slot your singularity with a KB ->KD sudden acceleration, and it will happily basketball dribble the foes it drags in.

Both Wormhole and Fold Space benefit greatly from accuracy and recharge which you can get a lot of, and especially an occasional "Ultimate" Inspiration. That inspiration gives you a three minute temporary level shift, which increases your teleport magnitude on those two powers enough to move level 54 bosses and EB's, which ordinarily will resist those powers even if you are at 50+1. They're expensive, so unless you have a lot of influence to spend, use them with good judgment.

You can use keybinds to make your teleport powers are wormhole easier to work with, if you don't like using the mouse-reticle. E.g.,

/bind h powexeclocation camera:max Wormhole

/bind g powexeclocation target Combat Teleport

/bind shift+g powexeclocation target Teleport

You could use any keys you like; in this case I'm using h for wormHole and g for "go-to". Select any mob in a group, even if it's fairly far away, move back to where you want them, and look (camera) where you want them to go. Press h. Boom, it will grab them and throw them at the point your camera is looking at. It has surprising range and will go around corners and through walls this way.

G, and shift+g will be your mobility commands. Select a target or team-member, press g, and you will G-to them instantly. If you need to go further than combat teleport allows, press Shift-G. If you fall behind your team on a map, you can select one of them and teleport to them. Teleport doesn't suppress in combat, you can use this even while fighting. Since you are fairly tanky, you could run ahead, aggro a bunch of mobs, and teleport back to you team to do a long range pull safely.

You don't need any other travel powers. Teleport takes some getting used to, but it is extremely fast and flexible. Here's two binds I find to make Teleport easier to travel with:

/bind shift+lbutton powexecname Teleport

/bind shift+u powexeclocation up:max Teleport

The first one will teleport me to wherever my cursor is when I shift+left-click. You can do this in fairly rapid succession and it's very fast travel. But, buildings and obstacles will be in the way. That's when I use shift+u -- it teleports me straight up as far as I can go, and then it is much easier to line up more teleports to my destination.

Overall, Gravity/Time is a powerful and fun combination. You are second to no one for your ability to put mobs where you want them. Fold Space clears a bunch to you, your singularity will grab their aggro and bounce them -- a pretty good mitigation. Any fold space misses, you can grab with Wormhole and keep the pile of holds, slows, and destruction around your singularity fed.

January 31

I would be fine with turning Prestige back on, so long as it wasn't useful for anything at all; nothing to buy, not badges, no perks, nothing. Let it be purely a matter of "prestige".

Or, how about this idea: You earn one point of prestige for your supergroup for being logged on for a minute, with no supergroup mode, just automatically and always. SG leaders get a "Reset Prestige" button in their SG panel that zeros out the prestige number for all members at that moment. This would be a tool for SG leaders to know who's been online and how much in addition to the "last online" number of days.

January 30

1 minute ago, WuTang said:

We newbs appreciate you. I got a lucky break on a enhancement drop that the history showed sold for a mil. Didn't have enough to cover a high inf post so went for the old 1 inf low cost post....bit me in the butt. Sold immediately for a grand total of 111 inf. Haha live and learn.

List the next one at 112! :D

Over time, you start seeing "magic" numbers in sales histories. 111, 1111, 12222, 55555, 123456, 10000001, and so on. Try to post things for sale just above one of those, and you get a better chance of it not being sniped instantly. Also, if you get several of a thing, post one really low first, as a 'trial balloon'. Then post the rest just over the instant snipe price the first one got.

And for heaven's sake, when you bid on things double- , triple- even!, -check your number before you click the button! :D

January 30

3 hours ago, Uun said:

This team has support out the wazoo, yet it fails to get the bonus due to lack of support.

The real rewards from that team are completing the task force in good time, with good drops, and having had fun along the way.

Any good team, which a diverse team can also be, will get these rewards. No other rewards are necessary.

January 30

9 hours ago, Ridiculous Girl said:

yeah, i saw, and it is super impressive. but it was also a compilation from an unstated number of characters and a farmer. i would like to see their main crafter sales. i am just a happy crafter, feeding my free range alts. 🙂

I'm also a large-scale marketeer (I don't farm). I don't have a "main crafter"; my nineteen crafters are specialized at various parts of the purchasing, production, and sales process for multiple market niches, and including two more who buy, open, and liquidate superpacks. I spread those niches out across them deliberately so that I can keep track of bids and sales and to have enough market slots available to not have to offer prices at artificially low ranges just to speed up sales turnover.

There are certainly more people who market intensively on just one (or a few) characters as you do (I know a few), but I'm not sure many of them frequent these forums.

January 29

38 minutes ago, PoptartsNinja said:

One of the purposes of this seems to be to separate out Defenders and Corruptors, to encourage people to play Defenders more in high level content. So the question is: what about high level content is hostile to Defenders (and Masterminds, and Kheldians)?

This is a good question. If the devs have actual data analytics that show these are problems, I'd like to see them. We had numbers for which archetypes were played from years ago, but no more recent data has been made public and that old data did not speak to teaming at all.

I'll cut to the chase. I do not believe this change is founded on data; I believe it was a developer's idea, it sounded superficially good to a few of them who okayed it, and then got carried along in the mass of changes folded into page 7, and it wasn't challenged deeply until now.

January 29

1 hour ago, Wispur said:

A. We need to be on a team for our Inherent to work. (This was the reason the Dev gave earlier in the thread)

Join a team or form a team -- problem solved! I have never seen someone not invited to a team because they're a Kheldian.

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