Lockpick

When you guys talk about runs do you mean 1 mission of Briggs or all 5?

Depends on character, but generally: Defense (M/R/A or S/L/R) Resistance - Smashing Experience to next level Influence Stealth (PVE)

I like capes, but I often get the Jet Pack as my flight power and capes don't look great with the Jet Pack, so I often opt out of a cape.

Thanks!

I had a post earlier where I priced out a high end DP/EM build, which came to ~$665M at buy-it-NAO prices. That build included the set IOs, the catalysts, and the boosters. I believe if I tried to replicate this build and took my time I could easily shave off $100M+. If I converted along the way it would probably be cheaper. Here is a tip for that I do. I'm sure others do it, but not sure I have seen it written up. I'll put in low bids for attuned IOs that will convert to a rare. I want attuned IOs instead of just using a recipe drop because I like using attuned IOs for lower level content and I don't want to have to pay for a catalyst. A good example is a Kinetic Combat will convert to a Force Feedback or Sudden Acceleration. I'll use 2 converters to convert to a Force Feedback or Sudden Acceleration and then 1 converter to convert to another rare. If I get lucky and get a rare Defense IO I will set it aside to eventually convert to a LoTG IO. If I get something I can use in the future I put it in storage. Say you buy 10 attuned IOs for $1.5M inf and then spent 30 converters converting (30 converters X $75K = 2.25M) for a total value of 3.75M for 10 IOs that can be used. You now have 10 IOs you can use for future characters and can cut your costs significantly. I don't even usually assign converters a value because I use them to convert stuff and I rarely sell converters unless I am a lowbie trying to build an inf stake. I can earn 12 reward merits in 10 minutes with Smoke and Mirrors, so I can use those 36 merits to convert the 10 IOs to whatever I want, so my sunk cost is $1.5M inf and 10 minutes. If I don't get what I want or can use I'll just run another Smoke and Mirrors.

I am finally coming back to this thread after incarnating a few of my other characters. I am working towards the build below, but I expect it will change significantly as I play more. I am only level 28 right now and I feel squishy and damage doesn't seem great, so make me think I am playing it wrong. I'm playing it like my AR/Dev or BR/Dev blasters and find that getting mezzed sucks. As a blaster I can use my T1 and T2 powers, so being mezzed isn't an issue. Here I don't have that luxury. Endurance has been an issue as well. I'm sure I will figure it out in time. Build Building for S/L/R soft-cap Recharge

I'm still trying to figure out why people are spending a billion Inf on builds. I consider my builds high end and none of them have come close to a billion. I tend to use the 2 AT sets, usually a couple of winter or purple sets, and the core procs and other IOs like LoTG. Many of the cheaper sets are better than some of the high end sets (depending on your build goals).

Just seeing this thread. If you are still looking for a build I have put mine in the spoiler below:

I kind of answered this earlier in the thread, but the short answer was: A good farmer with an optimized build will outpace me easily and will make about $1M/minute or $60M/hour I am a poor to average farmer and was making 24M Inf/hour. I could buy a purple or winter IO every hour The doom and gloom is way overstated.

I don't understand why anyone would feel they need to market. Any IO you need you can buy directly with merits. Don't want to earn inf through the market? Go run content that rewards merits and exchange those merits for IOs. Sometimes I don't feel like marketing to get cash to buy something, so I'll spend 100 merits for the IO. I can always make more merits...

I have recently been revisiting my AR/Dev Blaster to finish the incarnates. I still have 2 incarnates at T3, but hope to have them T4 by the end of the week. One change I made was to use the Experimentation pool. Since Field Operative gives stealth, I did not need the stealth I would usually want from SS. This allows me to select Adrenal Booster, which is nice, since these sets do not have Build Up. I followed my general build guidelines for Blasters: Soft-cap Range Soft-cap S/L Slot for damage, recharge, accuracy This build soft-caps S/L/E/R and is about 42% on Negative, so is pretty sturdy. I have been running Ephram Shah missions in DA at +4/8 with some success. I have been defeated a couple of times, but in general can clear these missions if I play smart. Only thing I don't like about this build is the lack of slots. I ended up taking the leadership pool because I had so few slots. I may end up dropping it and taking combat jumping, since I haven't used Vengeance or Victory Rush yet. Mid's Recommended Chain: Burst --> Toxic Web Grenade --> Burst --> Slug --> Burst --> Toxic Web Grenade --> Burst --> Slug --> Burst --> Toxic Web Grenade --> Burst --> Slug --> Burst --> Toxic Web Grenade Estimated DPS:132.9484 Estimated EPS: 2.868746 I don't know how good that chain is TBH. On single targets I usually just do Burst --> Slug --> Snipe --> repeat. If I remember I try to start off with Smoke Grenade. In a crowd I will Trip Mine and then Full Auto and then maybe M30 and Flamethrower. Here is the power stat chart for my build. Never even knew this was in Mids, so thanks for showing it. Seems like Flamethrower is better than I thought and I should use it more. My Build:

I ended up not doing this testing, because I got sidetracked in trying to get some of 50s that are not T4 up to T4. I am still interested in seeing the outcome, but it is less of a priority. oldskool, These are the builds I am using. I checked against the characters on Live for accuracy. Both have soft-capped defenses to certain areas. I think you are right on Trip Mine. Maybe a better test would be with my DP/NT blaster? He is soft-capped to S/L/E/N/R, so is pretty sturdy as well. I was assuming he meant the notoriety levels of getting to +4/X8. Here are the in game builds I was using. 2 Glocks (DP/Devices) Soft-cap to S/L/E/R Gunfighter (DP/Ninjitsu) Soft-cap to M/R/AoE

Another suggestion for Vet Level Rewards: IO storage vault in the bank at a certain level and increase the amount of storage over time At VL 100 access 10 IO slots for storage At VL 200 access 20 IO slots for storage Recipe storage Additional salvage slots

It might depend on your secondary. I usually take a defense secondary, so don't really need Shadow Meld. That being said, I generally take it as a reactive panic button. However, I am looking at Bio or resistance secondaries and thinking I could soft-cap defenses with Shadow Meld as a proactive defensive power.

I took it and respecced out of it. You have to click FM and then Aid Self to get the benefit, which is to much clicking in combat. I would like it to: Be auto Remove all interrupts from aid other and aid self Give the endurance buff to aid other and aid self Should be able to slot endurance and heal IOs to increase the heal / end in aid other and aid self Increase endurance by 5% enhanceable Okay, this might make it to good, but we are dreaming, right?

What is the problem we are trying to solve in this thread? My take is that vet level rewards end at 99 and people like to be rewarded, thus there is a need for rewards beyond 99. Incarnate powers will likely be at tier 4 by 99, so continuing with thread and EPs is no real incentive to progress beyond 99. I like to see characters with high vet levels because to me it shows dedication to a character. When I see someone with high vet levels I am amazed to see numbers in the hundreds, much less thousands, and many of these characters become known on their server because to earn those vet levels they have been playing the game in a visible manner. People like Veracor or Boy Band become known and appreciated, which leads to a sense of community. In one way, this recognition is its own reward. More people would likely progress further down the vet level path if there were rewards for doing so, which I think would expand that sense of community. I consider expanding the sense of community a good thing. The reason why I don't progress very far is I get T4 and want to try new power sets. That is why I tied my vet level suggestions to providing rewards and allowing character branching. I know these incentives would have me continue down the long term vet level path. Anyway, enough rambling...

To prevent AFK farmers from receiving vet rewards. If some of the reward suggestions I and others have offered for vet levels are implemented it would be wise to make sure those rewards are earned through game play and not exploits.

I have been making suggestions about ways to improve Vet Levels, but it seems this thread is getting hijacked by AE Farming, so thought I would throw out other suggestions that I believe would be good for the vet level system. Dev Choice AE missions should be allowed to earn standard rewards including Vet Levels All other AE content should offer only AE rewards and should not reward Vet Levels AE content should cap the amount of XP and Influence that can be earned in a 24 hour period similar to how some content caps rewards (SSA and Hami come to mind)

Other ideas for rewards for Vet Levels: Add a extra story arc slot for AE at a certain Vet Level Add slots for Sprint or Brawl at certain Vet Levels Make Ninja Run or Beast Run inherent at a certain vet level and add slots at certain vet levels Make a core travel power (SS, SJ, TP, Fly) inherent at a certain vet level and add slots at certain vet levels Allow this inherent to violate the power pool rule of 4, but set it so you cannot select a power twice Example: I have 4 power pools on my character and I get to Vet Level 800 and I can now select inherent Fly. I did not have the Flight pool previously and it would have been unavailable based on the rule of 4, but as an inherent I can take it. Example: I get to Vet Level 800 and I can now select inherent Fly. I already have Fly in my build, so I have to respec to get the inherent Fly, but I can no longer choose the Fly power in the Flight travel pool. However, the Fly inherent would count towards the power pool powers needed for powers. Example: Air Superiority and inherent Flight would count as 2 picks in the Flight pool, so I could select Afterburner. You might want to make the slots in the inherent powers only take basic IOs to prevent high Vet Level characters having an advantage, but maybe if they get to that high of a vet level they deserve a minor advantage. Add a minor auto power at a certain vet level; maybe something similar to the base temp powers

I like the system as is for the most part. My highest vet level is about 27, so I haven't gone the distance because once I get T4 incarnates I start an alt. My suggestions are probably not realistic, but I'll throw them out there anyway as I think they might give some incentive for progression beyond Incarnates. It would be interesting to see some data points on how many people actually achieve high vet levels. At Vet Level 100 allow a character build to select a different secondary power set I am a DP/MC Blaster and once I hit Vet Level 100 I can go to a separate character build and I can select a different Blaster secondary, so I could be a DP/EM (for example) At Vet Level 200 allow a character to add a new slot to either Swift or Hurdle At Vet Level 300 allow a character build to select a different primary power set I am a DP/MC Blaster and once I hit Vet Level 200 I can go to a separate character build and I can select a different Blaster primary and secondary, so I could be an Archery/Devices (for example) At Vet Level 400 allow a character to add a new slot to either Swift or Hurdle (the one not selected previously) At Vet Level 500 open a new character build for 4 total At Vet Level 600 allow a character to add a new slot to either Health or Stamina At Vet Level 700 open a new character build for 5 total At Vet Level 800 allow a character to add a new slot to either Health or Stamina (the one not selected previously) What I think might be interesting is to take the character build idea and then allow advancement based on Vet Levels: I am a DP/MC Blaster and once I hit Vet Level 100 I can go to a separate character build and I can select a different Blaster secondary, so I could be a DP/EM (for example) I progress the secondary based on Vet Levels, so my next power selection for the secondary would be at Vet Level 104 If I am already at Vet Level 150 I would have all powers in the secondary available for selection

Thanks for the feedback. I was looking at DNA Siphon as a recovery tool; didn't really think about it as a damage power. I'll try it as damage. I guess Parasitic Aura and Boundless Energy should be good for recovery and regeneration. I'll also switch out Initial Strike for Heavy Blow. Not sure why I took Initial Strike, I think it was because my Stj/SR has it. I have been avoiding Bio for some time because of the look of the set, but guess I can come up with a concept that makes it work.

All, I have never tried Bio, so thought I would give it a whirl. The problem is I have no idea how to slot Bio. I made a build and was hoping for suggestions. My intention was to build for recharge and leverage Shadow Meld for defense. Any thoughts appreciated.

I have a level 50 DP/Ninjitsu Sentinel and several DP Blasters. I just happened to be running the 1st DA arc on my DP/Devices Blaster and then the Sentinel as I try to finish their Incarnates and I noticed the time to complete the mission was pretty close. It made me wonder if the disparity between the classes are overblown. I tend to think the Blaster pulls ahead significantly, but I wasn't sure if any testing has been done against gameplay as opposed to just numbers in mids. I decided to do some testing, but don't want to go to far if this has already been done. My thought is that maybe the survivability of the Sentinel might make up for the lower damage. I tend to doubt it because I think Blaster can be very survivable, but maybe as you scale up notoriety it makes a difference. I am thinking about doing the following runs and tracking the times all the way to +4/8. If this has already been done, please let me know, so I don't waste my time. AT Primary Secondary Notoriety Level Hero Equivalent Time Blaster Dual Pistols Devices 0 1 9:08 Sentinel Dual Pistols Ninjitsu 0 1 9:25 Blaster Dual Pistols Devices 1 2 Sentinel Dual Pistols Ninjitsu 1 2 Blaster Dual Pistols Devices 1 3 Sentinel Dual Pistols Ninjitsu 1 3 Blaster Dual Pistols Devices 1 4 Sentinel Dual Pistols Ninjitsu 1 4 I can't figure out how to delete this table, so please disregard.

I've been hunting in DA and been defeating Tsoo with what looks like Kinetic Melee and Shaman with Electrical and Storm powers. I was thinking my next character would be one of these 2 types of characters that abandoned their villain group to become a hero. I think the Tsoo would be KM/WP, but not sure about the Shaman. Anyone have any thoughts on what would be the best ATs and Power Sets to replicate these characters?

I admit it. I am a serial cheater. I cheat, habitually. I start with a character and things are going well. We get through our twenties and start working on task forces together. We are together every day and we are exploring our limits together. Before we know it we are 50! We have been through a lot. We are meant to be together! We max out our incarnate levels and do our passive accolades together. But then I see a new character. At first it is a bit like flirting, I check out their build and wonder if we would be compatible. I decide to go on a few runs with the new character, leaving my former character idle, to spend time with my new love. Before I know it, I have not touched my previous love for 30+ days. My latest fling is closing in on full incarnates and passive accolades. Is this the one? I wonder...