Bionic_Flea

But Jimmy, why can't I use my close and personal relationship with you to invoke fear in the hearts of other players?

I had forgotten that a successfull Assassin Strike has a chance to inflict fear on those close to the target. Dark/Dark stalker with Water Spout, presence pool, and the vigilante power, fear incarnate, might be the most fear you can get out of a CoH character. I had made similar builds to Yomo's stalker and SuperPhysx's scrapper but as Brute and Tanker. I'll post below for comparison: Brute Tanker

I'd love for there to be insect themed power sets! And this was a nice layout and plan for a control set. My only criticism is the low mag controls. I understand your thinking behind it, but it just makes it a weak control set compared to all others. To work, the recharges would have to be super fast and the endurance costs super low. And even then it just becomes the tedium of having to activate and animate the same power twice to get the effectiveness of a single application from another control set.

I came back to make this statement but DSorrow beat me to it. Having account-bound items will not diminish farming. People want what they want and they want it now! If they could not buy on the /AH they would farm merits for the deterministic purchase or farm more AE to get more drops that could be converted or shared with an alt.

No, thank you. I like being able to sell and purchase purple IOs at my own convenience.

Oooh! I forgot about [fear incarnate] and that [water spout] had a fear component. Good ones!

While I appreciate all suggestions, to be eligible for the prize you have to submit a Mids build. That lets me look at the nitty griitys and have an idea of the IOs I'm gonna have to buy.

Phobophobia - the fear of fear itself. I was trying to think of a character that would use Fear to the maximum extent possible in the game. I also want this character to be a viable soloist and able to fill their traditional AT role in a team. I've designed three different characters and have ideas for a few more. But I wanted to see what the rest of you crazy, creative people could come up with. To encourage participation and make a contest out of it, I will choose one build from those submitted. The winner gets a PL to 50 and all the IOs for the submitted build. The winner will be chosen by me based upon: 1) generous use of fear-based powers; 2) apparent ability to reasonably solo +1/x8 or higher (at level 50-sooner would be bonus points) based on having sufficient defense, resist, heals, or other mitigation; 3) sufficient single target and AoE damage to be able to complete these missions in a reasonable time; and 4) ability to fulfill a standard AT role, meaning that a tank should be able to take huge amounts of damage and maintain aggro, a defender should be able to buff and debuff, controllers should be able to lockdown groups, blasters, scrappers, and stalkers should lay down some major DPS, etc. At the end of the contest I will post my builds as well and make a character. Even if I go with one of my own builds, I will select someone to win the prize. Ready, set, go make fearsome characters!

So people are paying you 1 million inf to open the pack and keep all the non-ATO goodies!

This is going to make people spend more money on SOs. That may be the plan. Get people to buy and continue to buy SOs to keep them in the green. While I think influence sinks are generally good, this (along with the Auto-purchase) is a regressive tax that will hit low information and low influence players and will not affect power gamers at all. I haven't bought SOs since before the official game was closed and I don't intend to start now.

My suggestions: 1. Don't buy TOs, DOs, or SOs. It's OK to slot what drops. If you can't slot it, vendor it. 2. Vendor all common IO recipes (unless you are going for badges). 3. Craft everything you can if you don't have to buy salvage, especially lower level recipes. 4. Post your crafted IOs on the market. Price it 1 inf lower than the average price. If you find the price is too low, grab it, convert it, re-list it. 5. Plan your build on Mids before buying anything. 6. Buy attuned sets as you can afford them while leveling. You'll never have to replace them. BUT you can buy a cheap attuned set today, and then replace with a purple or other more expensive set later using unslotters or a respec. Save that cheaper set for your next project. Additional thought: Do things that get you merits! AE farming is fine and radios/newspapers are fine but don't limit yourself to those. Run story arcs, TFs, and get all the exploration badges in a zone to get merits. Trade merits for converters. Use converters to turn junk IOs into highly desired IOs. Many people sell the converters. That's certainly easy enough. But I never sell converters; I use them.

Challenge: Accepted!

Can I have your stuff?

Correlation is not causation. Prices could have gone up because most of the country (or planet even) have been told to stay at home . . . or because there is a new set and power pool and people need to slot their new toys. Both of those increase demand, which results in increased prices. Prices go up and down all the time. If it stays up over a long period, then you may have an argument.

Playing soccer with my boy . . . and his giant pet tarantula . . .

Sorry. I realized that I may have misunderstood shortly after posting. Edited above.

Sorry, but that's wrong. If all IOs were part of 1 giant pool the price of purples and ATOs and other good stuff would SKYROCKET. Why? Because no one would want to risk the chance of turning a hold purple into an uncommon sleep recipes. So all the good stuff would be hoarded or sold for a higher price. That would also lead to decreased supply. With all IOs in the same pool you'd have to do a LOT on conversions to get something decent. Oh . . . wait. I may have misread this. We already have IOs bundled by rarities. I think perhaps you were joking. If so, my bad.

If other people are buying and selling the same item, you did not "corner the market". You did create a price spike. Did it last? My guess is no.

Except that your fictional marketeer cannot keep ALL common salvage. If I want to buy a luck charm its exactly the same as brass or any other common salvage. They are all in the same bucket. Don't believe me? Go look in the game and check several common salvage. The amount for sale, outstanding bids, and last five sales is exactly the same. So your mythical ebel marketeer would have to buy up ALL common salvage and most of it at the dev seeded price of 10K. At that point, the devs could seed more or any player could go punch something and get a piece of common salvage. This game is NOT like real life. You cannot corner the market when the supply is limitless.

I'm sorry, but you are wrong. Buyers set the going price, not sellers. The live game had very few influence sinks and rampant inflation. HC has essentially capped the prices of salvage by seeding the market and allowing you to buy any recipe (or IO) by merits. Prices do ebb and flow. Sometimes things get more expensive (weekends, for example, when many play) and sometimes they get cheaper. But they all stay within a relatively narrow band within rarity categories with a few premium items getting premium prices. But those premium prices are a fraction of what they cost on the live game. I don't know if this change will even be a blip on the price of items in the short or long term. Time will tell. But unless they remove and never replace the seeded salvage and remove the ability to purchase just about anything with merits, prices will NEVER match live. Guaranteed.

There are already "caps" in place. Thousands of pieces of salvage are seeded in the market by the devs at 1 mill rare, 100k uncommon, 10k common. You will never pay more for those unless you really want to. IOs are "capped" by their availability via merits. A merit is worth somewhere between 250,000 and 1 million inf. How did I come up with those numbers? You can straight up buy a merit from vendors for 1 million. And you can trade 1 merit for 3 converters and sell them for about 100k each (frequently lower). No reasonable player would ever pay more than 100 million for anything, as they could buy it outright for a vendor at that price. And you'll see that almost nothing sells for more than 25 million. Remember live when all the PvP procs sold for 2 billion, or more off market? That will never happen here.

But Jimmy, why can't I get twice the influence by fighting enemies at a lower level?

I like Sweet.

We talked about this in game. You asked what Alpha to go with and I responded it depended on the build and goals. As you have built it, I agree that Vigor Core is a good choice for you. However, I would switch some stuff around. You could still go with Vigor, but I would go for Agility Core for recharge, defense, and endurance. Here is my revised build: Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! SS-WP: Level 50 Science Brute Primary Power Set: Super Strength Secondary Power Set: Willpower Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Punch -- SprBrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(A), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), SprBrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg(9), SprBrtFur-Rech/Fury(9), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13) Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(3), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(3), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(5), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(5), GldArm-3defTpProc(31) Level 2: Haymaker -- SprUnrFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SprUnrFur-Rchg/+Regen/+End(39), SprUnrFur-Dmg/Rchg(40), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg(40) Level 4: Boxing -- CrsImp-Acc/Dmg(A) Level 6: Hand Clap -- SudnAcc-KBtoKD(A), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(33), MckBrt-Acc/Rchg(33), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg(34), MckBrt-Taunt(36), MckBrt-Rchg(43) Level 8: Knockout Blow -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(43), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(43) Level 10: Mind Over Body -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(11), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(11), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(13) Level 12: Taunt -- PrfZng-Dam%(A) Level 14: Fast Healing -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(A), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(15), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(15), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(17), NmnCnv-Heal(17), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(19) Level 16: Indomitable Will -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(50) Level 18: Rage -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(36), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(46), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx(48), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(48), GssSynFr--Build%(48) Level 20: Rise to the Challenge -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(21), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(21), Prv-Absorb%(23), Prv-Heal/Rchg(23), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(36) Level 22: Quick Recovery -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(34), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(46) Level 24: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(25), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(25), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(27) Level 26: Weave -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(27), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(33) Level 28: Heightened Senses -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(29), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(29) Level 30: Combat Jumping -- Rct-ResDam%(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(31), LucoftheG-Rchg+(31) Level 32: Foot Stomp -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(37), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Obl-%Dam(39) Level 35: Superior Conditioning -- EndMod-I(A) Level 38: Strength of Will -- Ags-ResDam(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(45), Ags-Psi/Status(45) Level 41: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(46), LucoftheG-Def(50) Level 44: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45) Level 47: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 49: Super Speed -- Clr-Stlth(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Fury Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(34), RgnTss-Regen+(50) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A) Level 50: Agility Core Paragon ------------