Llewellyn Blackwell

You certainly like to take a personally combative tone and are clearly emotional about this subject. Defs biggest weakness large groups of mobs. Ruluruu are my standard because I was there the day they invaded you barmy berk. For those there that day we wont ever forget nor be caught ill prepared by them again. One day they shall come again I have know doubt. So they are my standard for what end game mobs should be and always have been. Sure ignore the shadow shard, pretend the devourer of entire universes and his army doesnt exist. Did I say no one should play a non mental? nope in fact pretty sure Ive said in many posts now I know blasters because I have played just about every single possible blaster power combo to cap over live, and am working on updating that to inlcude the new sets and have a few blasters being leveled all the time. I did mention high end builds. Ive also gone on record before say there is nothing wrong with concept builds I myself have ones I wont even go incarnate with based on concept alone. Not every build needs to be able to swiftly solo +3 and +4 x 8 groups. plenty of my RP toons cant push much past +1 or 2 x5 or so. Did I say a blaster couldnt dish out damage? A blaster is all about damage, A brain damaged chimp smashing the keyboard could do damage with a blaster for the love of Tilekku.! What I said was there are always better set bonsues to persue on a blaster IMO and IME. I in no way suggested a blaster could not do damage due to alternative set choices. I was just trying to be all inclusive in my summation of blasters for the OP who said they are a newbie blaster while also addressing the actual topic of procs, something clearly being derailed by some of my forum fanbois taking my broad post like a personal attack.

I focus on resistances over defenses. While dmg res debuffing happens its actually a lot less common then def debuffing on mobs. The shadow shard is a go to hunting ground for Berk so Psi res is my main focus from sets along with mez pro way above all other defensive set bonuses. I have force of nature and rune of protection and due to my typical clear speed I am always eating inspirations like candy because of how fast my tray refills. Now look I get it you went full archer. and TA is fucking amazing and then some, In fact I think anyone being honest can agree taht like Bio Armor, tactical arrow isnt just OP its gone bloody plaid. Do not talk to me about the point of this or that on a blaster bud. There is not a blaster combo that exists I havnt capped back on live, and am working on numerous blasters now with the new sets. Hence why i can say such about TA, Drain psyche was the standard I championed back on live forums for all other 2ndarys to get some kind of sustain comparable to. A great many fellow blaster players did not get it. Mental was in the day often mistakenly called gimp because to META players fire x3 builds with perfect teams was the standard. But I was intractable on those forums and I shall be so here. I do not speak from the realm of theoretical numbers I speak from the realm of experience in active play and not against farms of low end enemy factions or a pylon. I dont blap I point Blank!

Lots of rather iffy blaster advice here. Soft cap def. waste of a set focus on just about every blaster build out there. for example say your running the ever popular ITF, they shred def so bad in that TF that only hard def sets with def debuff res will have any meaningful res. Same thing if running any shadow shard content and plenty of other enemy factions have some mobs that shred def. Recharge is the name of the game for a blaster. in an end game build you should have two different attack chains. one using your 3 starting attacks that are always able to be used due to defiance, and your mass mob aoe chain for wiping out large groups. While our nuke and judgement is enough in lvl 50-51 content once you start pushing up to 52+ LTs and even some hardier minions might survive just long enough to be a mild annoyance. Many blasters make the mistake of under valuing those first 3 attacks. In the first 3 attacks I make sure are some of my strongest sets, and try to fit in some kind of CC proc on the 6th slot to help counter CC any CCing boss types you get into a fire fight with. For example on ol berk my subdual is using 5 parts of gravitational anchor. It with the hold proc actually is a very solid single target CC that Ive even locked down AV with enough to keep them from going all benny hill. In Psi Dart and mental blast I 5 part the 2 blaster sets and then slip in some dmg procs in the 6th slot. Do keep in mind I swear by drain psyche. any other blasters I play that do not have it are flavor RP builds and I do not treat them as high end content power houses like Berk is. Drain Psyche on a serious global recharge focus build will be up all the time, and on a good 8 man mob hit will give regen to rival even regen scrappers, with aoe damage better then any scrapper can dream of having alongside such regen. Hence my approach is ghost into the middle of a group, drain psyche, nuke, single target down the big bosses. About the only ones that last meaningful time are psi res mobs like rikti mentalists. I can not stress it enough GLOBAL RECHARGE IS THE SET BONUS BLASTERS SHOULD ALWAYS FOCUS ON!. Every attack should have the 6th slot devoted to a proc, and the 5 set parts should include a dmg proc as well if possible. Ideally of dmg types different from your sets type to help mix it up abit. Now a few exceptions exist telekinetic blast for example, only mod dmg, but can fit in quite a few procs as can telekinetic thrust. T thrust especially can be greatly boosted in avg DPS I find by fitting in 4 procs and 2 slotting it with franken setting for accuracy/recharge and end cost reduction. Oh and then there is world of confusion. While I spec mine now days for CC with the lvl 50 purple confusion set. while leveling I proc it out with dmg procs and actually found it a reliable way to eat away at mobs while blasting down bigger targets during the lvling process. Id never do it post 50 but pre 50 I find it a very viable option.

This is one of those how one builds and plays kind of things that make math on its own hard to rely on. If I am on a singtle target big bad killer specilaist build then yeah give me a good team with some heavy aoe to speed up the gain. Put me on my name sake here a blaster and most of the time the team is costing me XPs that I am doing most of the heavy lifting to earn, but I fret not one bit as that is just paying it forward. As long as they are fun and sociable or at the worst quiet but staying out of the way I will do what ol berk does best and lead the way forward dragging even the least skilled young sidekick to victory and mentor them into proper young heroes. A good example is the citadel I was on this morn. Id planned on doing my usual but there was literally one raedy to go with 2 spots to fill so I joined up. We hit the first mish, the leader was telling the scrapper they were on point. I was already in the first room and had cleared several full groups of mobs. Berk dont hide behind no one lest he hates them and wants them to be humbled by eating dirt. The leader didnt get to complainy though I did detect a hint when they asked me to at least state my plans better so they could offer more support. Thing is Berk dont need support. sure buffs are nice and all but they dont really speed up my kill time much, and it was only due to the leader wanting the group to stay together that I didnt suggest splitting up in the caves to speed up the killing. but there was an MM on the team so frankly not going to stay behind them or even give them much chance to keep up with me in them caves. sorry but I need some breathing room. It was a fine if slightly slower then my average run, most seemed fine with it over all. But fact is Id likely of had a faster time etc going solo. But really i only tend to solo TFs on my stalkers as they feel made to concept wise. Berk doesnt have vengeance to go it alone, he has it so when a link in the chain breaks he can make the other links into blades that can cut down all before us.

Dark armor eh, tough thing to have as your first 50, Ill be honest, I pretend DA doesnt exist because while cool in concept it pairs poorly with almost every single option. The soul exception in my book is electric. This is because of electrics transfer end aspect. It still barely makes DA viable by my standard. Every special from IO sets that grants an end proc are musts for DA, others have touched upon this but I cant stress it enough. for DA the set bonuses I focus on are recovery and end cost discounts. many are low hanging fruit as 2 or 3 part bonuses so one can often get quite a lot if they get creative in their slotting. On the subject of attacks, most go 5 slot because most do 5 parts of the purple sets for the 10% global recharge. the 6th slot is usually either for a special or used on other powers to optimize. Hasten at end game with a focus on global recharge set bonuses will mean you only need 2 lvl 50 common recharge IOs in hasten to reach perma hasten. If one is going for soft defense then yes they will run hover and CJ at the same time. many blasters will as well as both help make things like knockdown less an issue. Most build for 5 defense powers for 5 lotg 7.5% global recharge specials. Hover with its speed bosted by swift and a few set bonuses is great in combat speed that doesnt surpress. For scrappers it can be something of a must if you want to fight flying foes effectively. Finaly note recovery serum from P2W. Straight up max a stack of it, and refill it as needed. its your new must have dope.

Actually if I recall right the best psi res mob in the game only hits 40% res, thouhg I seem to recall some saying there area few outliers that hit 50%. Compare this to many mobs hitting much higher res of things like smash/lethal or the ever popular fire many mobs are basically full tanks to those types. The single biggest advantage of psi is the lack of mobs resisting it, and some of the most hated mobs like clockworks being very soft to it. You want an easy synapse tf run bring all psi users. I personally have a psi/energy stalker its ok not as fun as my SJ/Ninja stalker but not in any way a bad thing to play. Very thematic if your going for a psion that likes to get up close.

And on CO I used the hell out of their naming system to actually cheat. month one of CO going live I made a character named Ninja. Soon I got curious and did a name search and found over that first month about 20 others named Ninja. So we made N.I.N.J.A. we all had one costume that was identical, we all used teleport and smoke bombs, and we wrecked so hard in PvP that many accused us and a few other SGs doing the same thing like Xenomorph and Multiplicity of being the ruin of pvp in that game early on because without the ability to easily call a target and gang bang them most pvpers couldnt handle the effect of a nameless and faceless force of foes. And if PVP was a meaningful thing in CoH I might be more on board with your idea. I do get the fact that yes there are things like the lantern corp, But Even then individuals are called by their actual names and outside of Earth Lanterns generally dont use the mantle as a secret identity. So here is a suggestion if you really want to do a many of the same name SG like the GL corp. Come up with a name that uses many lowercase Ls and get a bunch of friends to make toons using the trick. In fact here is a free bee idea the Vermillion Volley. Should be able to make a nice full team of players with that one name if you can find like minds wanting to do such.

Yeah this right here is so very offensive that you pretty much have rolled a critical failure on your social skill check and will let it slide as bad luck rolling a 1. However keep up shit talk like that and Ill be happy to put you on ignore. Sheesh and people say I can be too high and mighty.

Sorry? Too bad a very obvious single word name was taken.... not really. Maybe try blue cyclone or the like. And way to see the uppercase i trick as something to disparage rather then see its potential. For example I have 4 bentley berkeley using that trick, my main the psi.ment blaster, a psi/energy stalker and a couple others. I actually then came up with a first name and last name so loaded with lowercase Ls that I can make I think like 64 versions of that one character so that I can better express a concept like Legion from the marvel who has pretty much all the powers though they vary depending on personality. Frankly I prefer unique names myself. Keep in mind one of the reasons they did as they did on champions is because its not that much of an MMO, We are basically the only hero in that game when not in groups. Here in CoH the logic is that due to its locations for ley lines, it being ground zero for the rikti invasion etc has attracted a veritable army of capes. In CO outside of the high profile npc Heroes the game basically considers you the singular new up and coming.

While I personally dont see Hasten as a must have on every build, really only on toggle light builds typically, I do on some level agree that because Hasten is in general seen as a must have power it perhaps need to be tweeked to make it less a must take power to the masses. But really imo if all your after is the equiv of old perma hasten, just build up 70% from set bonuses and ignore the speed pool if hasten was all that you really wanted. most lvl 50 builds have more then that from 5 purple sets to 5 parts and 5 lotg.. So I already see old hasten as easily made an inherent aspect of a build.

Not at all with my idea, just make sure to give FF plenty of def debuff resistance and boom it offers alot while facing mobs that will shred soft defense.

except those that build for soft defense have also always been frankly cowards about certain content. Those who depend upon def from sets loathe things like the shadow shard or even ITF entirely due to the def debuff of the mobs.They will face nazi all day long but suggest facing giant floating eyes and they cower and quail. Let them act as gods in content anyone could roll without sets. Against the real foes of the game Your better off with sets that focus on anything but soft defense bonuses. How about we just give more mobs def debuff so that def sets with def debuff res feel more worthwhile? Because I see no need to nerf any set bonuses. if one set bonus seems problematic in certain cases, rather then kill it lets simply buff the mobs in a minor way that wont hurt casuals or levelers using common stuff nor break builds outright, just make sure every group of mobs has a def debuffer unit. And up the def debuffing on those that already do, and up the def debuff res on sets like SR to compensate so they are not punished while making soft def abit less a go to for the average players and force them to either step up and be better builders or step down in dif abit.

Blimey. Alright ok what about this, give tanker an inherent power like vengeance and rush of victory at half power but also increases in effect based on team size like the inherent of defenders. So when solo it boosts them off kills and gives more dmg, and when on teams it grants less dmg but also has a team to buff up. I imagine at least in theory something like this could be done with the games limits. It should make solo play of a tanker abit more fun, and when on teams allow them to offer something unique beyond just being a meat shield and also connects to the idea of tankers as inherent leaders by being akin to the ultimate powers of the leadership pool.

There is almost too much to cover without a live voice caht and the ability to talk in real time while in game to help direct you to look at the What when and why of it all. However Ill cover some of the basics. Accuracy and recharge IOs are very handy right at lvl 12, the lvl 15 common IOs you can craft at the university have a solid 19% bonus, a pair of accuracy IOs at that range will take away most to hit issues as you develop your toon. Most players seem to wait till lvl 22 to do serious IO setting due to the luck of the gambler( lotg) set, its global recharge special is highly prized and in any click heavy toggle light build you should be trying to fit in 5 of those. be it via stealth pool, leadership pool etc for defense powers to slot. While leveling specific set bonuses are not too big an issue mostly. However on some power sets like regen I start building the sets with global recharge asap. lvl 22 and 27 tend to be when access to various sets that are widely prized occur. There is also something known as frankensetting/frankenslotting.: This is basically when you look for set bits that effect multiple aspects of a power like accuracy/damage/endurance cost. various sets have such mixes, and if you can grab a few various set bits that do that, and slot them in a power you will often end up with more total% boost on that power then slotting individual aspects, maybe not to the max that focus on one aspect will get, but getting like 4) accuracy,dmg, recharge, and end cost red out of 3 slots is imo a good trade off for those trying to stretch their slots especially while leveling. To earn Inf , take your reward merits to the merit vendor, under salvage tab look for enhacnment converters. 1 merit gets 2, each E Con as they are called for short, will avg you around 90k. maybe a bit more or less depending on the market. So lets say 1 merit will net you 250k for ease of rounding. I find around 10-20 mil lets me franken set new alts around lvl 17 to start with very easily, and 20 mil is like nothing to a lvl 50 earner. If say you favor a given play style like melee, then many IO sets from the franken set for leveling can be passed on via in game email to let you develop a lvling collection for alts that as attuned IO will be good for characters till cap and perfecting the build and fine tuning slots for specific set bonuses begins. In time as you learn the sets and their bonuses, and the better you know your powers and their needs you will be far better off. till then try to not stress if you have a few speed bumps in figuring it all out.

Ok I just got done re reading this entire thread. at first I was trying to tackle individual responses again but crikey! So a whole lote of things are being thrown back and forth to use as why or why nots. Fun Factor in 2 halves. The fun to play because?, and the fun is because of? One being called the game play loop which is not inaccurate. For those who tend to prefer playing more on auto pilot after long days and are mentally out of it, they want to usually keep active play pretty simple but feel very powerful. For those who tend to play very actively and focus, or try hard as some put it they want game play that keeps them engaged, and feeling like their given choice or action matters. These two types of gamers are basically incongruous. The laid back one might not mind some one doing all the heavy lifting but will likely also feel useless so keenly they see themselves as a piker and some may not want that or fear getting a reputation as a piker. While the very active gamer may well notice those not doing enough by their standard and become annoyed by them. Virtually any change for one type of the aboves preference will piss off the other. Any thing added that makes tankers need to be more active will offend those that like the chill charge in grab aggro and let the party do the heavy lifting, and those that want something done but on a passive not really change game play approach will just infuriate all those that want to play a tank in a more active role. Then we have the normal every day game play, the lvling game play, and the capped uber team game play camps . And they cant seem to see past their chosen hill they want to plant a flag on. For example I see some posts saying things like well when groups of mobs die in 2 seconds what good is thise change or that change? Well when your talking about teams of basically completed super decked out characters your talking about a point where game play is purely for farming, helping others, for fun by playing a finished toon. When the blaster can be soloing the entire thing every one else is indeed basically redundant. You dont balance the game or make changes based on this far end of the spectrum. So lets look ath the leveling up game play the one where changes really matter, and to most causal team centric MMO gamers is the real game. While leveling up, most are not using sets, let alone attuned IO sets like myself. I can solo TFs with leveling toons because that is how I slot. I basically am experiencing the feel most wait til 50 for from about lvl 17 on. Its those on common DO/SO builds or just using common IO that really tend to need the group to cover weaknesses and speed up killing, I lead TFs all the time in the mid lvl range, and take whoever wants to join. While sometimes Ill get a handful of those like myself and we just can each grab paths and solo maps etc, most who join even capped toons who didnt build with exemping in mind are not burning down hordes so fast as to render some of the decent mild suggestions here moot. If your counter to an idea is well the mobs wont last long enough for it to matter, then why are you even here? Your regular play style basically is just rat pack blind mob rage mentality. Which is fine, When in a group of pure A gamers that is really the only option. Or play content that actually pushes that group to its limits. But expecting such a group of FINISHED characters to be challenged by much is silly. Every AT is optional, if you like how a tank plays its the AT for you if not no biggy play something else. You know there are players who only play a single AT right? and even if this was a trinity MMO, Tanks would be right up there with pure healers as the least played arch types. Just about every MMO ever mades metrics that have been made public show only a very small % of players ever touch non DPS classes. like in such vastly reduced numbers many MMO have had to throw out the trinity just to avoid the domino effect of not enough of this type of player leads to others logging off.

The thing you missed is that is by design. All red side ATs were built with a more solo centric approach to play in mind. MM are better solo tankers, brutes are better solo scrappers, stalkers more soloable alpha strikers then blasters etc. Villain AT actually are by design meant to feel chafed and annoyed by allies. Working together on TFs like LGTF and ITF were meant to feel more like argh I hate working with you inferior people but need is greater then want in this event. Sure with going rogue things changed in how we can play them, but from an RP perspective the old villain ATs still represent a certain psychology that is not meant to play nice with others.

Going back over this thread this caught my eye. No J.E. did not ever say that a fully decked out character should be challenged by 2 minions and an Lt. He said that for characters such as scrappers should be challenged by such numbers upon creation. Basically the in the box low lvl side kick era scrapper should be needing a knee after taking on a couple slammers and a mildly harder hitting gunner. Something that if you do much street sweeping on a busy day will notice a great many do meet that criteria. Even in year one there were scrappers at cap soloing some of the rougher AVs of that era.

Your certainly entitled to your PoV. However I would strongly say that all traces of Statesman should be torn down, That the era of the Freedom Phalanx has passed and better left in the dust. Statesman during the Rikti invasion ordered a group of heroes and civilians to be abandoned, including his own daughter. Stating they were beyond saving without the cost of many more lives. An elderly Galaxy Girl in a bathrobe and slippers proved him wrong and saved all of those trapped for the price of one retired old hero already knocking on the door to the other side. Dr. Demetrios Vasilikos was the worlds leading expert on META genetics and was sure he could cure many of the worlds ills including that of his father who was slowly wasting away. Statesman used his near tyrannical control of the world to ban all legal research into using META DNA to develop cures. Dr. Vasilikos's father slowly wasted away, driving the brilliant mind mad with grief and gave us Doc Vahz. Blue Steel beat a troubled out of control teen mutant nearly to death, and was given a pass by statesman for being his minion. That beaten child went on to become the Clockwork King. Blue Steel gets a pass because of Statesman, while other not so connected characters who have done good get thrown under the wheels. Ultimately Statesman meets his end because he is arrogant, thoughtless, reckless, and frankly unworthy of the term hero. I say tear down the statue of Statesman in Kallisti Wharf.

No real need and not really sure its even remotely possible. However if its for RP sake, just first go to any tram station then use the command. Or if an Island, go to one of the ships etc. However if they could indeed allow us to create custom beacons and attack a /loc or a base passcode to them that could indeed be very cool I wont deny.

Something I didnt really see but thought seemed obvious is, if one really wants a tank to be the defacto aggro magnet master,and we cant increase the target for tanks specifically, what about a lingering taunt effect like a dot with no dmg but an every increasing amount of aggro generation that also can infect others? Basically the longer the things taunted last the more they hate on the tank and would help attract more aggro, call it the cry for help effect or something.

A few things seem to not be taken into account. 1:Debuffs. certain builds like SR for example being pure def need to be overkill to help have enough to when combined with debuff resistance not be overwhelmed. For those ATs that dont possess such debuff resistance set resistance and defense, and that which comes from the incarnate powers does not have that protection. Many of the most feared and hated mobs in the game are feared and hated for their debuffs. That is the main reason almost no one likes to do the Shadow Shard TFs, sure they will grumble about the time sink due to travel but that isnt a real issue, the real issue is they shred defense and resistance, and hurl psi dmg, and use phasing to randomly pop you out of action, they do that on a tank or healer and most teams fold to them. 2: diversity within a given power sets build options. For example in my above posts something maybe that wasnt clear or something but I dont use the toggles on my SR toons. I hate toggles in general, and love SR because between elude and the autos and stealth( always on) and hover( always on with a stealth IO ) and phase shift to cover my small periods of down time with elude render me unstoppable in a fight, costs virtually no endurance outside of my attacks, and focus on rapdily destruction. keep in mind I build Melee toons exclusively as single target AV killer specialists. I leave mass mob killing to my blasters. 3:I find things like spine fire scrappers so squishy in actual game play on teams because they grab too much aggro, are too squishy against most mobs, and being farmers often complain alot on TFs because they tend to eat a lot of dirt. Same with Fire X 3 blaster builds. Sure in farming content they feel like gods. In actual game play not so much. We all build for the content we spend the most time in. I spend most of my time in story arcs and TFs. Farmers farm, and they do not do a good job typically of turning their plows into swords.

they are not newb punishers. A great many less popular IO recipes sale for so little on the AH the vendors are the go to place to unload them. There is a shop right near the AH in steel, makes it easy to check their market value and decide if its better to AH them or vendor them. SOs are the baseline power the game is balanced around. As has been pointed out several times. So you dont have to ever touch the AH nor craft to make a viable build. Incarnate powers will give your capped SO build enough extra oomph to not feel useless on I Trials or running lvl 45+ content via flashback in a group with a decked out build like I run.

To the OP I am going to give you the same advice I give every player I come across who struggles to amass the inf needed to build a serious IOd set build. 1. Convert all merits to E Cons, Not to use, but to sell I dont gamble ever. That is what using them is gambling. I grew up in nevada so I know gambling, and gamblers and how its an addiction to avoid giving in to. Considering some have told horror stories of burning E cons worth 30 or 40 mil trying to chase a mega jackpot conversion I know ultimately the RNG will always favor the house not the player. 2. Sell every recipe, do not craft. not outside certain cases like common IO recharges for hasten and similar powers. 3.Buy Attuned IOs. because they level with you, if you invest in cheaper sets attuned multi effect bits, you can cheaply amass a collection of attuned set bits to franken slot powers with, espeiclaly if you favor say melee ATs or ranged ATs , once you cap a toon and upgrade powers to proper sets you can pass the franken sets on to lowbie alts. While upfront this tactic may seem a bit pricey in the long run you will save so much by not crafting, and just selling your rare drops on the AH you wont have to spend precious game time on crafting. 4. Take the time to make one fully decked out lvl 50 incarnate with strong AOEs. Ol Berk and my choice to adopt the name as my new global instead of my old main on live demetrios vasilikos was entirely based on that. A single target AV killer while tons of fun, is not going to have the earning power of a steam rolling mass murderer. Ive got likely a billion or close to it invested in Berks build. That took me about 3 weeks when I first came to the HC servers. I was extremely pleased by how much easier it is on HC CoH to get good drops, and between that and the xp boosting to get to 50 faster makes it very easy for anyone even a more casual player like me to deck out a build in a modest amount of time 3 weeks to cap and perfect a build is nothing compared to live. Now maybe you like crafting? If so cool but frankly while I did have a master crafter on live I now view it as a newb trap time sink. almost all my game time now is spent either actively playing content or casually RPing with my SG and friends. Every player I have taught the above to has thanked me profusely because they rapidly see the effects on their characters. Also to be frank earning merits isnt an accident it should be what guides your content choices while leveling. The hollows arcs, Posi part 1 and 2, the faultline arcs, synapse, who will die part1, penny yin, first 2 striga arcs, moonfire, who will die parts 2 and 3, citadel, striga arcs 3 and 4, Hess, and so on. I make sure to hit those every alt on top of doing a myriad of arcs based on theme for given character. That is a lot of merits, more then enough once liquidated into Econs to get a pretty tricked out build of attuned IO sets that will make you pretty much covered till 50 and the serious earning and setting begins.

Oh I can say for sure more bosses equal a much higher inf average. Hell just killing bosses will greatly increase that. When I run my stalker at 50 I tend to street hunt bosses exclusively. Run in AS boss smoke bomb, ditch the trash and move on. Doing that will gain pure inf in far greater numbers then wiping whole groups on my blaster who has to spend a few moments single targeting bosses down. However the drops of recipes and other things Ill AH will def be in greater numbers on my blaster. Id never want to depend on just mob inf rewards meself.

While I cant be 100% I am fairly sure you have to be lvl 50 for purples to drop. And what can I say Ol Berk kills like a fish swims. One of my go to places to stress test my build, and have fun easy acting is the Storm Palace. Not just the zone but the actual big sphere on the map. I go there and just do laps wiping out the groups of brutes, eyeballs and wisps. I just never seem to get tired of killing them maybe because so many seem to fear fighting them especially the usually fearless tanks and other ATs who depend more on being hard to hurt. I go do that for an hour and almost always have a purple, a few E cats, and a healthy chunk of E cons as well. Or some times I just go street sweep in the RWZ taking on large groups of rikti, Id guess I average around a thousand kills in an hour and almost always again get a purple. Also I dont know why but often when I do lead something like a PI radio team I swear it feels like the first mish in I often get a purple drop. I really chalk that up to pure RNG but have a theory maybe leading has been given some kind of drop rate buff as a way to reward those who run groups rather then just solo farm.