Li_Sensei

At low levels, SO's give more enhancement than generic IO's. Until you're using level 30 IO's, then you actually get more enhancement from an SO than a generic equivalent IO. (level 25 Dam IO = 32%, even level SO = 33.33%) Yes, there are the hands off benefits of IO's in that they don't degrade as you level, but for raw enhancement magnitude (Yes, I'm ignoring multiple aspect set IO's) they can be hard to beat low down. Keep an eye on your enhancement totals. If you're using low level IO sets and you're not getting 3 SO's worth of enhancement out of three slots in a power, then are you getting value? That's a personal question only you can really answer.

Nowadays, my approach to low levels is SO's. SO enhancements before level 22 are wonderful. One accuracy SO combined with the Beginner's Luck +tohit buff you get below 20 means missing is a rarity rather than likely. Hit the magic 'Make my inf evaporate for shinier SO's' button every 2-3 levels and it's pretty much set and forget, *except* that you need to make the decisions about whether you want end cost or recharge. 1 Acc, 1 Damage, 1 Recharge seems mostly possible IME, but you may have to invest an end Mod or two into Stamina or swap out the recharge for End cost on a case by case basis. Oh, and Huang, regarding defence soft capping? Unless you're something like a melee AT with Energy Aura, Shield or SR, softcapping before late 30's-mid 40's is not easily achievable. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it may distort your build horribly to achieve it. 30% or so defence on a blaster seems to give solid survivability, especially when you factor in the blaster secondary sustain powers.

Are you planning on permamently level locking the character at low level? If yes, then go for it. If no, then given how brief the time period you spend at low-mid level can be nowadays, is it worth worrying about it? Play a little more cautiously, play on teams, and survivability shouldn't really be an issue. Also, 2-3% defence is not really worth much. I only really start noticing the effect of defence from about 15% onward.

If you never pay any attention to your own health bar, it's all too easy to glance at the team list, think "Hmm, someone's about to plant, who is that?" followed by the "Do you want to go to hospital or your base" dialogue box appearing on screen.... Tunnel vision is only useful for moles 😉

Vanguard Sword as a group are *nasty*. They do all sort of debuff (-def, -resist, -tohit, -end, -regen, -damage etc. etc.). They hit like a truck in several different ways, and then there's the joy of [Curse of Weariness]. Treat them with the caution they deserve and don't expect to necessarily be able to faceroll them like other enemy types. (If you find yourself afflicted with the Curse of Weariness, then your options are to wait it out for an indeterminate period of time, or go buy a Nectanebo's Curse Breaker from the Vanguard loot tables using VG merits.)

Going from the binds posted, CTRL+SUBTRACT pastes the partial bind for you to complete, then once you've added the identifier string and hit enter, hitting SUBTRACT will target the nearsest living enemy that matches the string you provided.

Fearsome Stare is sub optimal?!? o_O A relatively huge cone fear (non scattering fear IME) with sizeable tohit debuff and a fast activation that you can use as an opener to shut down a spawn while you get your other debuffs rolling? Yes please, I'll take 3!

And thus endeth the Radiation team. Ramiel whipped through, Sister Airlia's second arc finished off, and just out of nostalgia, the Cold Front (Ice/Cold/Storm powersets) toons pulled out for one Dark Nasty mission. Everyone got Alpha open and a Veteran level or two, at least I think so... Out of the Cap'n (Rad/Water Defender) and Aerial (Illusion/Storm Controller), I think it's pretty close on effectiveness, but the Illusion/Storm may just have the edge on personal survivability. Something about up to 8 or so pets out and causing mayhem means there's less aggro directed directly at me 🙂 Thanks for turning up, folks.

You could easily game the '10% up front fee of list price' by listing low, paying low fees, and if it sells high, then you make out like a bandit... (and the long term fallout of that sort of setup to me smells like massive deflation and lack of supply, because who's going to craft and list stuff with the costs inherent there if it's not going to make them anything) The current setup ensures that if you want to make sure something sells for your 'minimum asking price' then you need to pony up a suitable deposit. And then, if someone slips up and hits 0 one time too many, then it's all gravy, except for the poor individual who just paid 20,000,000 instead of 2,000,000 (and you get 18M instead of 1.8M)

Oh god yes, there is NOTHING on the AH at the moment that's trading successfully at 2 billion inf per. On live there most certainly *were* items that would trade at that level. Rare salvage on live would (IIRC) regularly go for 1M per. Level 50 generic IO's would go for 800K+ Low level magic common salvage would go for 35k each, because of demand but no supply (Luck Charms, for example) The unique PvP IO's were basically a market with demand but no supply. And so on, and so on. The economy on HC is baby time in comparison, and I say that as someone who is NOT a marketeer. And on the premise of the post, the 10% fee is absolutely essential in an economy where everyone in the game is printing their own money. Can't afford something? Take your magic money printer into a mission and feed it the souls of the defeated, eventually you'll be able to afford whatever it is you wanted.

I must be strange then. I LIKE stone armour as a set. It's not as bland as a lot of other sets end up feeling, it has strengths and weaknesses both. It was also the second toon I remade on HC, after getting my main to 50. Then again, I spend 95% of my time (outside of stuff like tanking Antimatter in Keyes) in the normal armours and save Granite for when it's needed. When you get it working for you, the combination of mez protection to everything bar fear, lots of +regen, a mahoosive heal with +maxHP (which boosts your regen more), nigh on end drain immunity and (with effort) soft capped defence to S/L/E/N/Psi. And then, if things go bad, THEN I can go Granite assuming no significant psi damage is around. And the price for that? you get to play piano with your toggles until you get the endurance situation sorted, and you either take teleport and get used to its quirks, or you turn off mez protection to travel. The fact I can go get cathartic revenge on the Carnival of Shadows for old issue 3/4 traumas is entirely a side bonus.

Yep, Viridian's just as underwhelming as I remembered. However. This week, we took the 7 attendees to Cimerora and the Imperious TF was thoroughly irradiated. And I mean *thoroughly*... It took some concerted effort from Lard to faceplant... :eyeroll: One teeny tiny waffer theen Television mission thereafter and everyone is now level 50. So since interest has been declining, it has been decided that next week shall be the final week of Radbeard's Rogues in a formal sense. We'll take the latest 50's through Ramiel to get them a minor headstart on the Alpha slot and whatever else we feel like doing, then knock it on the head. Thanks for turning up, folks. 4th of September 2020 to 29th of January 2012 - 5 months. Not a bad run 🙂

Nope. You need to stack enough of a 'don't use any powers' mez on the greens to stop them, well, using any powers. They're already immobile, so immobilising them *more* isn't going to do anything. And since the only 'Don't use any powers' mez common to all control sets is a single target hold, and there's an almost absurd amount of mez protection to get through, Holds it is. At least that's my understanding of it. :edit: I mean, you can stack ST Immobilises on them in between holds to get some damage rolling if you want, but so far as the primary function of stopping hte damn things from healing/regenerating, the immobilises, they do nothing.

Vahzilok are indeed the science enemy group. Also the reason people who rolled Science origin toons back in the day used to get pitied. Way back when, you didn't have the current flexibility or variety of low level missions, and 1-10 lasted a lot longer than it does these days. Dying under a wave of projectile vomit is not the most noble of ways to go back to the hospital... And the consequences of going back to the hospital to wash zombie vomit out of your clothes was debt that *COMPLETELY* stopped you gaining any experience until you cleared it off. So if you were having real problems with Vahz, then you could just stall out. And Vahz aren't much easier on a team... So quite a lot of Science toons just did other people's missions and never did their own.

If you're making a bind for something with an even slightly complex name, just drag the power into the chat bar after you've typed the whole "/bind <key> powexec_location <operator> " bit, then edit out the extraneous square brackets and "Archetype.Powerset." section. I use that when I'm setting up my panic button Destiny power binds, because they're always annoying to get the name right on.

Fair enough, I managed to miss that, even though I did scan through the thread to see if anyone had made the point yet. Mea culpa.

Being 'that person', I'd just like to point out that for a tanker, Dark Armour and Invulnerability *ARE* Primaries....

So, thanks to boring the pectorals off myself for two hours yesterday, and some assistance from Cu and Lifey, I've got Viridian unlocked. I remember being massively underwhelmed back on live when I put in the grind to unlock that contact, but maybe this time will be more interesting... I mean, I doubt it, but it's worth a shot.

Which makes it all the more strange that you don't get any where near as many Spectral Demons in high level CoT as you do in low-mid level CoT. Low level CoT missions when you get spawns of one Spectral Demon Lord and half a dozen spectral demons.... <shudder> Edited to add, then mid-high level where Earth Thorn Casters rip you apart with defence debuff, and High level where... CoT become pretty irrelevant and the only significant -tohit or real solid debuffing comes from Death Mages. Admittedly, if you don't have mez protection, you can be messed up three different ways at any level by CoT unless you're careful...

Merry wossname, I managed to get mine in this time around (within the first $100 no less). Timing's meant I've missed previous windows for a while.

It really doen't matter IMO about which of T1 or T2 is stronger. You'll be level 2/4 in next to no time, so if you want them both, then it won't take long to get there. I approach secondaries the same as I approach all power picks. I go to the trainer, look at the level up screen and think 'OK, so what looks shiniest?" T9's are always taken from an attack set. There's no reason not to. Support sets it depends. My MA/Shield scrapper didn't take OWTS, due to build constraints. I couldn't fit MA, travel, fighting, Body Mastery AND OWTS. Skippable is a nebulous, personal decision. On Li, my Katan/Regen, I did NOT take Gamblers cut because I *HATE* the animation. It may well be the best DPA ST attack. I don't care. The "I slice your face, nyah!" animation has rubbed me the wrong way since Issue 3. In fact, thinking about it, it's rubbed me the wrong way since EU Beta, because that was the only time I took it. So far as I recall, I've never used it on live, or HC. Other powers you may regard as skippable because they don't do anything you want, they cost more endurance than you're willing to spend, or they just don't fit the character concept. As you may be able to tell from my responses, I'm not the sort of person who has a build all planned out before playing the toon. I personally find that my idiot brain doesn't understand the way the powers work from raw numbers, I have to put in the time getting a handle on things.

Last one before at least one week off, depending on new year hangover status of various people the week after next... Two teams this week. Lady Winter was plundered for badges, *all* of the badges... We had another batch of 50's, and all of Radbeard's team ended up at 50, so after pummeling a load of DE in St. Martial's caves (thank you for the repeat business, Vernon Von Maniacal laugh), we wandered off somewhen to chat with Mender Ramiel. Mender Ramiel was Ramiel'd (it's pretty perfunctory these days, especially with that much debuff...) Then one quick trip back to St. Martial to capture a Pyriss and we were done for the evening.

Finished off Abyss last night, and that was pretty much it as far as missions went. Apart from people being trigger happy and clicking on doors and starting timed missions at random... In other news, we had the first two 50's of the team, Vecter and Yellow Brick. Vecter managed this by not faceplanting as much as the rest of us, Brick by cheating and using an XP booster to make up some level deficit earlier on 😛

There are roller doors in the midlevel sections of Grandville, NW of the main plaza area that Toxic Tarantulas spawn from. I just did loops of the area when I got the badge on live. I've not been insane enough to do any of that sort of tedious badging on HC.

Two teams this week. Winter Lord in St. Martial pummeled, Winter Lord's Realm cleared, then Shadow Spider's Crimson arc cleared off, successfully for the team with a controller, failed Crimson when he bolted for the mission entrance on the team without. Which I expected, that mission's a bugger without liberal amounts of immobilise. At the moment, we're 2/3 missions into Abyss' 'Vindication' arc. So there're one or two Heros next time. Most people are in the late 47-early 48 range currently, I believe.