Six-Six

@cranebump If you're on, I'd appreciate an invite. I'll be on for the next hour or so depending on how long I can hide from the wife.

I blame PUGs... (aww... could you really, though??? look at those faces) On a PUG where hardly anyone knows everyone else, there's usually: that guy who'll try to run ahead or the other direction for some unknown reason as if the rest of the team is just there to boost mob spawns that guy who'll insist you stay in a tight group... for buffs (while he cops a feel) that guy who's got no idea what's going on and just stays with touchy-feely guy for security that guy who hasn't come to terms with his powers yet... like firing a PBAoE 5 yards from effective range (I dunno, maybe he likes watching the cool down timer) that guy who complains that you're using your powers the way you're supposed to, but not to his liking that guy who... oh hell, I could go on all day! the team members are hardly on the same page from the get-go... like getting to the mission door. members jump off in different directions only to see TT a few seconds too late. everyone's in it for their own personal agenda or fetish. that's why I rarely play with PUGs and prefer friends. On bigger SG runs, we wouldn't know who brought what, but there would still be a quick briefing and coordination (communication at the very least). I also enjoy all Spider runs, all archer runs, all storm runs, etc. (I can never catch MM Mondays and the saturday Tanker Tuesdays). In each run, roles are often defined, a common goal is understood and some sort of strategy is applied. There's one particular group that I enjoy where we don't slot IO sets and the reliance on your AT/power sets' comparative advantage is more pronounced. It's not a perma-death group, but we still make an effort not to die. I don't think IOs are completely to blame nor are they guiltless: they do help shore up my toons shortcomings but at the cost of power creep. Some of my friends are purists and stick with SOs. I'm just not as skilled as they are, so let me have my procs and set bonuses. In a similar light, the buggers I mentioned above are what I see. they probably see me in a similar way. they/we all have owr own sense of fun or fulfilment, so I don't rain on their parade, they don't piss on my cereal.

with awesome dental plan

you can also try /powexec_location Self Battle Drones

I play a lot of Dual Pistols. and Yes, I do toggle ammo type depending on the enemy and the situation. Though my default is Incendiary rounds, sometimes I toggle between all three on a tough boss as Toxic rounds debuffs damage, Cryo slows, and then back to Fire for damage dot. the Toxic and Cryo lasts about 10 seconds, and it does help. It's a bit tedious, but fun in its own way (animation is cool too). For Bio armour, I tend to prefer a certain adaptation depending on the level (defensive in the lower levels when I prioritise attacks, efficient in the mid levels when I still need to sort through my end recovery and consumption and offensive towards the latter levels when most things are in place and I just want MOAR dmg. Staff, I just stick to one form (I'm still learning the primary, though). Regarding the suggestions, I like them. 1) I do feel sentinels have the least contribution when teaming. A few Epic and Patron powers have a team buff/heal, but nothing to write home about. Having such versatility and utility as the need arises sounds awesome. It sounds like more work as Luminara pointed out, but I see potential in it. 2) And as per Aurora Girl's query, the toggled effects would be on top of your primary. So if your primary is Fire Blast, your attacks now become Fire dmg + to hit debuff, or Fire dmg + slow, or Fire dmg with -recovery, etc. Similarly, Sonic (which already has def debuff) gets + to hit debuff or + slow or -recovery, and so on and so forth. A sentinel with any primary can now switch attacks depending on the enemy or team composition. 3) I would also suggest that the toggles are enhanceable according to their category: the -to hit will accept to hit debuff IOs, +slow will take slow IOs, etc. On the surface this may sound overkill and unfair, but we still get the same number of slots. So allocating slots to the toggles becomes a challenge akin to distributing slots to a tri-form PB or WS. Of course, I have no clue whatsoever how feasible this idea is in terms of coding. But I hope the powers that be give it some consideration.

Right... I couldn't help myself. I rolled Mean Green Demon on Torch, red of course. I'll probably visit the bird when I get the chance so I can step on blue soil. Currently level 6, should be 10 in a few hours. So far, the internet gods have been good. could be better, but I'll take what I can get. I'll try to be on when you cowpokes are on (Thursday nights to Friday mornings EST?). I can make it around 9am to 3pm (that's 10pm to 4am my time) almost everyday, unless something out of the ordinary comes up. Hope I bump into yous.

There was something like that when I started playing when HC came back online. While you can double your XP from P2W lady and earn no inf in return, you could also turn of XP in Options. Doing so meant you instead get 2x the inf. It was revoked a few months ago and caused a huge stir among the farmers. These days, I still turn of XP as to not to out-level contacts; I never really checked if you still get 2x inf when you're below 50. in any case, for content and door missions, 2x the inf is just twice the chump change in your pocket. But for farmers, it was half their earnings! I don't know if I'm remember the next bit right, but I also had a chat with a GM once. And as you raise the difficulty on enemies, the more XP they potentially drop (defeating whites < purples), but the time you take to defeat them is also a factor. It takes you one shot to kill a blue boss, but 3 minutes to kill a purple boss; then the XP difference is negated. That's why on most of my toons, my personal sweet spot for optimum XP gain is +2x4 or +4x2 depending on the toon. Now going back to the OP and the implications of the proposal, while in theory you SHOULD get more rewards for more difficult tasks, in practise it becomes subjective and quite hard to balance: more difficult tasks has to standardised as being hard for everyone. Just because one guy puts in more effort to kill something that takes me two seconds doesn't mean he should deserves a bigger reward. What about me? I showed awesome skill and strategy and took the bugger in two shots--don't I deserve some special treatment? I personally think the XP reward system in the game is rather lenient. I've been on teams where a brute would wipe out the entire mob while I was desperately trying to put a dent on one. Yet the entire team gets rewarded for his efforts. Solo, it becomes more pronounced. But what's easy for one can be difficult for another; what's good for one player/AT may not be for another. You have to take a look from the wider perspective and not just your personal experience (may they be negative or positive) before you ask for something that affects ALL of us. I think the current HC team is doing a fantastic job handling this difficult task--and with no rewards for them at that.

The AH is a strange and mysterious place. Pay no attention to the "recent prices" listing. After a while you'll get familiar with how much a certain thing costs.

I feel the exact same way with kids these days... LOL, ROFLMAO, WTF (which incidentally is not Wow! That's Fantastic). But I suppose after a while, you do get used to them. MoXXX means Master of XXXX, where XXXX is a particular task force or trial. MAG is Magisterium Trial [https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Magisterium_Trial] ITF is Imperius Task Force or properly known as Times Arrow task force in the LFG Queue LGTF is Lady Grey Task Force LRTF is Lord Recluse Task Force MC is Market Crash APEMAGE or TINPEX is a back to back run of Tin Mage TF and Apex TF MSR is MotherShip Raid in RWZ, Rikti War Zone (also sometimes known as Lag Fest, though not to be confused with the Hami Lag Fest or Eden Lag Fest) There's more but I need to go IRL

Animation-wise, MA has alternatives that replace 3 powers with punches instead of kicks. The animation itself is a bit lack-luster and feels somewhat slower, but you do get a nice mix of kicks and (just) right hooks--which might work for you since he'll have his shield on his left arm. I have an MA/Shield and it's a fun toon to watch. Street Justice, on the other hand, feels more organic and gritty (also have one with a shield... as well as super strength... so I guess those anecdotes don't help at all). between the 3 shield brawlers, though, I personally prefer MA... then again, I was consciously trying not to get too close to Captain America... my toon feels more like Task Master or Widow when she used the shield. While I can't be sure of your intent, I think Street Justice would be more of what you're looking for. So TLDR: MA can be a mix of kicks and punches, but looks like he's had some formal training in some form of martial arts SS gives a feeling of more brawn, less brains St.J seems to be the sweet spot for a nice and gritty with just enough finesse Meta-wise, I'm afraid I don't have the authority to give any semblance of advise on which is better and why.

This most definitely smells like a Nemesis Plot:

On Reunion where I frequent, they have a weekly "casual" run of the list you had. On such runs, the league leaders are quite helpful in explaining what the goal is, what the plan is, and what to expect. This is to get players comfortable in the respective trials. I'm sure other shards have something similar. As for task forces, running around like a headless chicken on your first run is... normal I suppose. I don't there's any other way to get your feet wet but to jump in head first. You'd be lucky if your PUG walks you through it (which does happen), otherwise you just get familiarity from repetitive runs. Or you can try them solo. Most of the sub-50 TFs are soloable, depending, of course, on your AT/powers, difficulty and skill.

@Solarverse you're right. I've only ever seen maybe 1 or 2 AE "content" shouts out of every hundred farm invitations. But I do see them. I think it's more of a closed group or solo thing. I usually go solo, or with a friend at the most so no need to go advertise in LFG. other people I know do the same. As for content, do a search for Darmian and Nyx for starters (sorry, I'm bad with names so I can't remember the other creators--I have a list somewhere). Those are really good. Or try one of the monthly Dev's Choice -- that's how I got into AE content. Actually, that happened after I was hanging around AE trying to find a farm to sit in when an Architect invited me to try out his/her work in progress and give feedback. That opened my eyes. Been going in regularly less than I'd like, but more and more recently.

I dunno, but this definitely smells like a Nemesis Plot.

And therein lies the rub. I respect the Malta because of sappers, tanky gunslingers that freeze my psionically-challenged blasters, and the takes-forever-to-kill gun drones. So when I come across a mob with 2 sappers and 2 gunslingers conning red or above, I have to stop in my tracks and figure out the best approach. Same goes for a hard-hitting widow, a Mu and a spider queen. Which one do I target first? I hate Positron because he's tough and packs a punch... which is why I love facing Positron more than I enjoy beating down on Overdrive or Manti (other than the fact that Manti's a dick). It's fun for me because they can kill me (most of my toons are perma-death). I'm sure there are those who would deem them not worth their time. Which is fine, they don't have to play them. they can stick to council or what have you. I seriously doubt that the things you proposed would tip the balance and get them to play otherwise. Let them have their fun while you have yours as long as one doesn't prevent the other. It seems that (from your reply at least) the the problem is not the enemy mob type, nor the PUGs that prefer to avoid them, it's that your haven't found the right people to team with yet or again. I'm sure you'll somehow bump into like-minded players sooner or later. Until then, good luck and enjoy

If you're really after shards... for some reason or the other... then I may have a way to "farm" them. They're just regular drops as you play content any content, but from what I've noticed, they tend to drop less than threads. One way to get shards is to join iTrials where you can earn a Notice of the Well/Favour of the Well. I think WST ones do this (sorry, haven't played incarnate content in a while). You can then breakdown or side grade these into shards or shard-based components.

you, good sir, have obviously never tried to hold A REAL werewolf. Their behaviour in-game is as expected and is honestly one of the most realistically-emulated ones I've seen so far. I've never seen another group behave this way when being affected by powers that are intended to do the opposite. May I introduce you to my friend Romulus over here... wait, where did he go??? Romy! Git back here.

I'm trying to read between the lines here, so forgive me if I'm way off. But it seems you've found your nemesis in Carnies. It sounds to me they're giving you a harder time (more than other foes at least) and therefore wish to get extra compensation for your efforts. 1) I personally don't think XP is a big issue. The P2W lady and I have long been on non-speaking terms; and on regular XP gain, I still get enough XP to the point that I have to turn XP off every now and then as not to out-level certain contacts. Also, the Circus peeps (on redside) appear around mid-30s. at that level, a few hundred additional XP from the summons in question would be negligible. 2) Decoys ARE annoying, but I believe they're there for a purpose. Even when the summoner dies, they linger, but they don't really follow you much. I think they're there to throw a monkey wrench on you target_nearest_enemy_alive macro or your tab targeting. You can ignore them and they shouldn't bother you if you're paying attention to what your hitting. 3) Illusionists are vulnerable to holds and stuns/disorient. knock em silly and take em down with ease. Another way, if your hold wasn't blessed by the RNG gods, is to take note of their dress colour. Their summons will have different dress colours so you can identify the original and take them down. IIRC, you can ignore the summons and they vanish after a while. Also if they do get to phase, it doesn't last long and then they dish a weak attack that's a tell tale giveaway that they're vulnerable again (like Fake Nemesis and his giant popsicle stick). Also, if you want XP for killing one of their illusions, then the flip side is Trollers should have an HP penalty when one from their phantom army is killed... which sort of defeats the purpose of the illusion and the power. For you it might be Illusionists. For another bloke, it may be the the Seneschals or Ring Mistresses... or Devouring Earth Sentries and their Cairns... or Sappers, Rikty Monkeys, or something. Just think of it as a weakness of your particular toon. The weaker you are against it, the more satisfaction you get when you overcome it.

I'm with @EyeLuvBooks. I'm struggling to find the reason for such a request. This would put a bias against AE and part of its intended purpose/exploit. Also AE has some really good content other than farms--some are even better than the built in content. While it would seem natural or logical to "force" a newcomer to experience the regular game, it is highly subjective. If I came to the game with the intent of solely PvP, or pure team support, I don't really need to know the lore and story of it all. I just need to build the illest toon to achieve my purpose. Incidentally, I enjoy the original content and have been playing it over and over the long way. However, my kind of fun is not for everyone, so let them do what floats their goat as long as it has very little effect on my personal goat. 😃

Don't know much about blue, but red-side, some contacts have prerequisite accomplishments before they're opened up. Like the kill 1000 longbow or certain mayhem missions (the one in St. Martial... Ian the Shark, I think, will introduce you to one of two contacts after a successful mayhem. I've honestly never tried doing the mayhem over to see if he'll introduce me to the other as well). Also, there are the Epic AT exclusive extended arcs for WS, PB and Arachnos. The PB one is quite well crafted, better than the Spiders' IMHO. I created a WS just for the emo-chick's extended arc. 😃

I remember something similar with the Spymaster and Salestra. I was standing at the first crossroads from the entrance, yet both of them "slipped" past me without me seeing them. That's one helluva cloaking device.

And if you fail said mission, you lose a slot. 😃

If it was on Reunion, then it was me. I don't own it on any other shard. And the only other shard I play on is Everlasting, occasionally. 😃

Not really joining the contest, but I have a sonic/sonic blaster Bad Vibes (villain, of course). He's a project toon that doesn't train at all. That means only T1 primary, T1 Secondary, Origin prestige power, Brawl, Health, Stamina and Sprint with one slot each. Currently level 15. Going strong so far, I'm curious how he'll fare when beginner's luck runs out.

When we want your opinion, we'll give it to you. =D