Whataguy

Got obsessed with ATOs and did a super pack experiment: 10 Heroes & Villains packs for 100million. I had to cobble the influence from several alts, largely by turning reward merits into enhancement converters and thence into influence (I have a main but he is not swimming in billions of inf -- my toons mostly pay their own way). This is a relatively low sample size, but the results feel consistent with my overall experience with super packs. From a cost perspective, you'd obviously like to get at least 10 million influence worth of value from a super pack. Based on current AH prices, that means getting one ATO in a super pack is a breakeven. Apart from the minor stuff (the inspirations, one-use powers, and the odd converter), here's what 10 packs got me: 12 ATOs (4 came in 1 pack each, the other 8 came in 4 packs with 2 apiece), worth about 120million 75 merits, worth about 15 million 3 boosters, worth about 5 million 3 catalysts, worth about 5 million About 12 rare salvage items' worth of invention doodads, worth about 6 million So basically 100 million got me back 150 million worth of stuff. Assuming of course that I can find uses for all the stuff or have the patience to sell it at prices as above. I had two "junk" packs with nothing really meaty in them. And of course, there's the opportunity cost -- what OTHER stuff I could have bought with 100 million. In the end I kept all the ATOs, distributed amongst my alts and converted as necessary here and there to obtain ATOs in archetypes I'm running. When I think of all the raw merits I spent on my main to buy ATOs directly from the merit vendor at 100 merits a pop, I cringe. I overpaid by a factor of 5:2. Live and learn! Now I'm off to go earn another 500 merits or so and do it again!

Thread necro here ... The best, usable powers in Traps are Caltrops, Triage Beacon*, Acid Mortar, Poison Trap, FFG, and Seeker Drones*. Web Grenade is not consistently helpful except when soloing and the trip mine / time bomb very hard to pull off in team play. Again, these are solo powers. All of the good powers except FFG have relatively long recharge timers, especially Triage Beacon. With SOs you can get it down to where you can do Caltrops every fight, alternate Poison Trap and Acid Mortar between fights, and do Triage Beacon every 3rd or 4th fight. Seeker Drones is basically once every other fight with heavy recharge. So the playstyle is essentially get down your drone and FFG before the fight, set your 1-2 traps when you know where the fight will be, maneuver the FFG into a good position, and then use your AR powers and secondary powers as needed. I would get the good Traps powers first and slot them with 3-4 each before seriously investing in AR. The good traps powers have a noticeable impact on team play. The basic AR powers are Burst and Slug, and you should take them and slot them. Beyond that, it's a question of how much AR you want (AR has wonderful AoE potential) or whether you want to zero in on support powers (Medicine, Leadership, Experimentation). Since Traps doesn't have toggle powers (and you will eventually have set IOs reducing your traps powers' endurance cost) you can easily afford other toggles, stamina-wise. I like my defenders to take support powers, so my build would probably have: 6 Primary powers (as above) 4-5 Secondary powers (burst, slug, and 2-3 of the AoEs) 2-3 Leadership toggles 3 Medicine (aid other, aid self, field medic) 3-4 Experimentation 2-3 in other pool (ancillary, travel, or Fighting most likely)

Assessing interest in a RP, "hardcore" superteam for Excelsior. The concept is as follows: 1. We don't use P2W. 2. We don't use the AH. 3. We don't trade influence with third parties or our alts. We DO pool salvage and trade recipes with each other via email or at the base. 4. We don't rerun content with the same characters. 5. If we run in PuGs, we only do so for specific TFs, trials, etc., and turn off experience for such events. If we participate in zone events (i.e., Rikti invasions, zombies, etc.) we try to have our own team as part of the league where possible. 6. We primarily run mission-based/story arc content. 7. We only install teleporter beacons for zones for which we have actually earned the zone exploration badges. 8. While we are not "permadeath," toons that are defeated are taken out of play for one week of real time. The goal is therefore to work together, to experience content as the priority (rather than to accumulate power and XP), and to have an immersive experience. Any interest? I am open to themes built around this concept.