iBot

Two things: What level are you currently? Did you know you can shut off XP to not out level content when grouping? The first I'm curious about because I'm wondering how the free powers etc will continue to hold up against higher level mobs. Once some of the resistances kick in those same attacks may not be as effective. Rarely do I see someone use those on higher levels so wondering how well they scale. The second I understand your frustration with leveling too fast in a group but there isn't a good solution for that other than shutting off XP. As for usefulness I say make your own fun. If the group is wiping out the current spawn move on to the next. Granted that means you've got to be able to handle the alpha alone. And sometimes someone may make a comment about you splitting off but those are different topics. As for scrappers, all I can say is I have several that will take offense to being called "useless" in a group 😜

Ah yes the "F" discussion. How many "design" sessions devolve into shouting matches because of this word? I know I've been party to probably dozens. Hell I even got a poor grade during a game design class because the professor refused to acknowledge that the game concept my group came up with was going to be "fun". So to say this is subjective is putting it mildly. What is "F" for me? Well, that's pretty simple really. It is an activity that I do work to achieve. In the animal behavior spaces that is how they measure an animal's enjoyment of a reward. I work all day so I can boot up a current favorite and run around doing stuff with friends. That "stuff" is all sorts but really this game is just a facility to hanging out with a dozen or so friends and chatting about whatever strikes our mood at the time. Rarely does it have anything to do with what we are actually doing in game. Granted that is more of a general philosophy that doesn't address this game specifically but honestly this game specifically hasn't been "F" in years. The only reason I look forward to signing in is because my friends still do and I do enjoy interacting with them in the context of this game.

Understanding of procs though I could be wrong on a fine point or two: 1. Proc in auto power fires based on an internal timer. Most obvious examples of this are Panacea in health or Performance Shifter +End in Stamina. 2. Proc in toggle power fires off based on an internal timer along with how often the power itself ticks (if damage). 3. There are some "always on" procs such as the Unbreakable Guard +Max HP. I'm not sure if there are any always on procs that slot into damage powers. 4. Procs in a click power have a % chance to trigger when you trigger the power and only when you trigger the power. And I agree with others interesting concept for a character. Please keep us posted on your progress with it.

Valid point.

My thoughts are only that, opinions. Personally, I think dropping a large sum of inf on a player is destructive. You've removed a large portion of the positive feedback reward loop from their experience. Ask yourself this: why don't we all play on beta server? There we can insta - 50, give ourselves a complete build, and rampage through the game content as gods so why don't we? Same goes for giving someone a fully kitted build when they've done nothing to earn it. Now I can already read some of the push back, "But we PL to 50 and kit out our alts the same way now." True. But I'm willing to bet almost no one started that way at least not with their first 50 after coming back. It was only after that part of the reward lost its appeal that we started to decide that some alts could be taken from concept to complete in a short period. I know I have though there are still a few characters that I've played from 0 - 50 just because I'd not used the sets before and wanted to see how the mechanics played out before trying to conquer harder stuff. So what to do then with billions of inf that has no use? I don't have a good answer beyond using it as a reward for good play. You'll have to decide what good play means.

I always took that to mean that you would recover faster after the tough fight. But I guess with the change to rest that really isn't as nice anymore.

Ah yes the day job boosts. Personally, I'd think these would actually be in line with the spirit of your challenge. They have to be earned. They are a natural extension of the xp system of the game. They are a way to help cover some early pain. Pocket D has the nice endurance boost temp power too. Clubber. PvP zones give a +recharge. Predator.

Quick clarification question: @Ukase mentioned Ouro. What is the rule for use of that? I'm only curious since that would be a way to utilize higher level bonuses on lower level content. I'm not suggesting there is anything against this in your rule. I'm asking for a friend.😜

Don't forget to run the invention tutorial in the university too. You get a free IO out of that.

Could be completely wrong here but I always thought that DO and SO drops are random but with a slight bias based on your origin. It seemed to me as if when DOs would drop there is a chance it will be useless maybe 40% of the time. That would slowly change to less than 20% as it starts to shift to SOs. Once SOs start to drop, the bias continues to shift in that more and more SOs would drop that are my origin. Then at some point the game is set so that the majority of the drops are your origin. Could just be confirmation bias since I've never sat down and run the statistics from 1 - 50 controlling for origin and mob type. But it does seem that once you hit 40ish you stop getting SOs of other origins or at the least maybe 1 out of every 10 or so is outside of origin. I do think mobs drop all types but there are weighted biases for certain types either science/tech or nat/mutant/magic. Natural may be with science/tech. Not sure. Funny part is I mostly make science/tech origin toons so I'm not certain on the effects there with different mobs. No doubt there is someone out there with an extensive spreadsheet showing the complete breakdown but I don't have that kind of time.🤪 Still interested to see how your slotting goes for this as you level. I too agree that the stopping of XP to build up some salvage/recipes/funds is a decent idea since as said you get to increase in power while the mobs around you don't.

Don't know now. I used this extensively on my stalker that was built after they changed the pool powers. I know when I use the trick on a non stalker there is an OK chance that the mob will agro or the group will agro. But on the stalker it was guaranteed that I would pull just the minion and sometimes an LT without getting anything else to agro. The mob would then stand where I ported it and wait for the "Hidden" flag to appear and get full critical AS hit in. Maybe there was a bug in the original transition to Teleport Target from TP Foe but like I said I've not used it since that stalker and it was 100%. Even street sweeping I could pull one mob from an entire group and nothing would move.

Slight thread hijack: If you want easy mode for stalker pick up TP recall friend/foe. I forget what it is called right now but anyway you can TP a foe to you it won't agro, wait for hide, and then AS. The range is ridiculous too. It is certainly not fast but there is almost no risk of agro ing anything else while doing it. I use it a lot to separate the 1 minion from the boss so I can take out the minion, wait for recharges and then full alpha the boss. Now back to the thread.

As with almost everything else in this game it is a matter of what you want to accomplish. Having a solo build and a team build is a great way to get the most out of a character. My first thought is are the team mates pick ups or players you know? I wouldn't rely on pick ups to buff your character but I'm certain the majority would appreciate you buffing theirs. If it is players you know and can coordinate with them then the sky is the limit. You can customize your build to help them fill in holes in theirs or vice versa. Even just having ageless running when everyone else is end starved is huge where as solo you may want barrier instead. Anecdotal reference: My SG mates like to run themed ITFs every other Monday. Sometimes the entire team is buffed up incarnates that blow through level 54s as if they were tissue. Other times the team is a mix of unfinished min level toons and a few high powered builds. On most of the sub-optimal groups we try to have a few that can buff and ideally someone for +res and someone for +def. Or even someone that has a -tohit. The 2 res/def alone turn the unfinished toons into powerhouses. Throw in a bunch of leadership pool powers and we scream through +5s (for those under 50), rack up massive amounts of XP, and don't die. Case in point, I had a level 39 that ended 1 run at 45 and was 50 by the end of the second using the XP boost 100%.

Gotta hand it to ya there @Ukase. I've tried the "slot only what drops" route a few times and I usually last until about level 2 and then say "oh hell no". I tried to make my latest farmer self found but got bored around level 30 and started slotting. Way more fun now for me. Good luck! Do keep us posted. Reading these sorts of things always reminds me not to do it myself.

Maybe that's the root of the different markets on different servers. Someone dual boxing on different servers seeing different prices while playing at the same time and not realizing how the underlying tech works.

@Ukase You are certainly not wrong there. I too have experienced the "I like my costume" crowd where most of my costumes are just 1 or 2 clicks shy of pressing the random button and calling it a day and I'm certain they roll their eyes at my character on screen and wonder "Doesn't he know there are other head choices???". And don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that anything they are doing is wrong. Sub optimal sure. But optimal is nothing more than a personal preference. I'm sure most of them don't care that my build can handle +4/8 and cost under 1 bil to build. I've made my peace with it. When they ask why I don't huddle together with the rest of the team waiting to be slaughtered by the evil +4 carnies I just chuckle and reply "Because I don't need to." Sometimes one of them will venture into build territory and ask "how can I be that good?" and I gladly show them. Other times they complain that I'm not being a "team" player and I just make a note that in the future I will not readily team with them. Market is certainly another area along those same lines. Some players care about getting the most for the least and some players just want the item and don't care about the cost. Still it is an amusing indication of human behavior that some wonder "what caused the price of this to be X?" and then don't investigate it but rather just complain it is "too high" which is subjective itself.

Ah thanks for the info. I thought live was different. I know the buckets are an HC thing so thought the server was as well.

Yeah not sure where the idea that each server has its own market came from. I thought from the very beginning the HC devs said the AH is across all servers. <shrug>

Isn't this something we want? Look at it this way. If there are players with enough inf to buy now at well above "established" prices then we are in a good place. Doesn't it also mean there are a lot of players making alts or new players making their first character? Again a good thing. In the past these spikes have always settled out because there are certainly some of us that are crazy enough to list salvage for 5 inf when we just want rid of it. Spread that over all the servers and things will eventually even out. I get it. We are unfortunately used to how the market seems to work in the real world. Once the price of something goes up it rarely if ever goes back down. Not true in HC. Just gotta ride out the sheeple wave as the herd rushes to "OMG! I gotta buy NOW because the price is going UP UP UP and I don't want to have to spend 4 bajillion inf tomorrow when I can spend 3.5 bajillion now". There are too many other avenues for supply for this sort of market blip to sustain itself for long.

ATOs (and winters) are odd. Personally, I don't see why anyone would ever spend inf to buy the superior. And until recently I don't see why anyone would ever spend more than 7 - 8 million inf on the normal version of the ATO. I don't use winters all that much so not sure what the normal version selling is. Even if you factor in the cost of a catalyst I still don't understand why a superior goes for 16-20 mil and the normal + the catalyst would only run you 9 - 10 mil at which point just buy the hero pack yourself and try to get the ATO + catalyst for 10 mil total. Granted there is some RNG there but by this point I've started to dedicate my farmer to buying them once I amass more than 110 mil inf. Plenty of ATOs to convert, plenty of converters to do so, and the catalyst to boost at 50. Yes I slot ATOs well before 50. Ah well. People are funny.

This has been my experience also. The newbies are in a lot of instances players who have a relative that played the game originally. Second generation if you will. So they already have some help to begin with. It has also been my experience that there are plenty in game that help out those people when questions are asked. And for the most part they have help from someone who played. Hell, even returning vets will ask sometimes "Now how the hell to I get to dark astoria again?" They quickly learn and join in. So I don't really think there is a need to devote development resources to "improving the newbie experience."

Few things: 1. Welcome back. We all had that "I'm not crying! You're crying!" moment when we heard the boot up music. Just the fact that we can once again enjoy running (or flying, jumping, teleporting) around the city is glorious in an of itself and if there were zero changes from shutdown we'd still enjoy it. 2. The changes made have removed the intentional barriers placed on a profit driven MMO. However, none of those changes are required to play the game. As others have said, you can go from 1 to 50 without ever using the fast travel TP or the double XP boost or any of the other P2W goodies available. Your choice. Myself, I'm glad those things exist. I don't have endless hours to spend slogging from one side of the city to the other just because the crazy contact decided I need to go face-to-face with some random because they don't have a cell phone or some such. I can go from 1 to 50 and never stop outside of the AE building until my character is fully built and ready to dominate. Perfect for me. 3. While newbies are probably to be found I think the vast majority have already come and gone. I don't think I've found a truly new person in quite some time. And by new I mean someone that did NOT play CoX back in the day. That being said, the current state of play is such that most of us have run this content hundreds if not thousands of times by now. I don't need to stop and smell the roses. The nostalgia has worn off. I only log in because my friends still do. So while I certainly understand the sentiment, OP, I think we are definitely in a much better place overall then we were just 2 years ago.

Funny. This sort of issue has been the bane of games since the invention of games. The root cause of this is you will never come to a consensus of what is too easy or too difficult because it is completely subjective to the player. What one player finds incredibly difficult another will master in short order and be bored again. If you doubt it, look at how many WoW updates there have been over the years and how fast the player base finishes said content and then howls for more. Personally, I'd much rather this team continue to do what they've been doing. Stabilize the game which has mostly been accomplished. Fix a few of the more annoying bugs which they are working on though it would be nice to finally exterminate the difficulty reset problem when entering a TF mission door. Incrementally add new things to the game that aren't themselves radically breaking anything else in the game. Do I wish we had unlimited resources and the entire universe to play in? Sure. We aren't going to get it. So I'd much rather focus on things that can be accomplished like what it seems they are currently working on behind the scenes based on the dev post in this thread.

I suppose it really boils down to how much you want to manage the buff bots. I think MMs would be nice because you could put them into defensive mode and share damage with the pets. The drawback being if the pets go down you are in trouble. Going for pure res/def is nice but also consider throwing a *dark something into the mix for the -tohit. Also a *rad is good for debuffing the enemy which is effectively a damage buff. The ultimate combo, which my SG has done on an ITF run, is to have 1 of every flavor of side benefit. Naturally this isn't easily done solo but we had +/- res, +/- def, +/- tohit along with a few -regen from incarnates. Even the MoG cyclops didn't stand for more than a few seconds when everyone was pounding on them. Quite the sight. So OP asked about a fourth, my suggestion would be add a rad corruptor flavor or definitely a dark dominator. Really turns up the damage potential.

I play purple. However, I do play more "red" side only because I like mayhems more than safeguards. Beyond that, I really can't say. The entire game is flawed. I just log in to chat with friends and maybe enjoy a quick TF or two.