Iron man/Woman Challenge

[Gulbasaur]

11 minutes ago, lemming said:

The particular one was Alec Parson's "Bait and Switch" when rescuing Susan and having to lead her out.  Made more complicated in that I didn't clear up to her.

 

There was an earlier one where I kept getting bombs tossed at me by Destroyer's in one of Luke's missions.

Okay, thanks. I should be okay by the time I get to them.

 

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

I would consider playing the market (i.e. flipping) to be against at least the spirit of these rules. 

Yeah, same. I could hang out in Pocket D with enhancement converters trying to game the system, but that feels against the spirit of the challenge. My two luxuries so far have been the Energy Font proc and that super expensive +heal +end one because early game endurance is a pain in the bum.

 

I've dipped below 50% health once or twice. Superspeed has definitely been worth taking a travel power for - getting far enough away while being under stealth has helped enormously. As lemming says, some ambushes follow you, some just hang out at your last known location.

 

The other "ain't no rule that says I can't" thing I'm slightly unsure about is use of an XP freeze macro. On one had, I'm definitely using it to get more merits but on the other I'm spending longer at lower levels with fewer powers. It's the opposite of an XP boost and it's literally a game option that I've just shunted into a macro, so I'm on the side of "it's fine". Then again, swapping to -1x8 feels like it would be cheating because it strips out challenge, and that's a game option too.

[ZemX]

5 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

My two luxuries so far have been the Energy Font proc and that super expensive +heal +end one because early game endurance is a pain in the bum.

 

Yep, considering what to spend the 6 million or so I've amassed so far  on.  Panacea, like you said, is a good one.  The Stalker's Guile Hide proc is another since is basically gives a free crit after Assassin Strike.  But endurance is more important.  So far hasn't been much an issue because I can't attack that fast but now that I have Assassin Strike and several other attacks it will become more of a problem.  

 

Endurance is particularly an issue in Ambush-aetoria because there's sometimes no taking-a-knee if you've gotten into one of those "wouldn't NINE ambushes be nine times more fun than one ambush!" missions they seem to be so fond of.

 

13 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

The other "ain't no rule that says I can't" thing I'm slightly unsure about is use of an XP freeze macro. On one had, I'm definitely using it to get more merits but on the other I'm spending longer at lower levels with fewer powers.

 

The only applicable rule would be trying to level at least once per session so if you're just slowing it down, but not so much that you don't level for an entire play session, I'd say you're good.   The rule will be interesting the higher you go because leveling slows down and, I suspect, the whole point is to make this interesting to watch for those streaming.  If you need to crank up difficulty to get faster XP so you can meet that rule, it cranks up the risk.

 

But you also have to interpret what's a reasonable session time too based on the time you have available to play.  It's not necessarily reasonable to say you'll level if you only have an hour or two to play that day... at least in the mid to upper levels certainly.

 

Still wondering if I made the right choice picking defense over resistance.  It's the conventional wisdom for Stalkers, but conventional wisdom usually only considers the end-game performance.  And the problem with defense, aside from the much more plentiful defense debuffs, is simply that you can go from full health to chewing pavement REALLY fast whereas resistance and/or hybrid armor sets give you more time to make that fight or flight decision (and usually more hit points too).  If this guy eats it at some point, I will probably remake as Rad or Bio armor.  I am more familiar with the former but either one may be a lot more safe at lower levels.  My hope though is that Ninjitsu not being a pure defense (offers self heal and some other mitigation tricks) is enough to get me through.  That said I'm already pushing out Caltrops because of other stuff I need to get.  The travel power certainly delayed that.  But it's going to really turn the tables on ambushes when I have Caltrops and Ice Patch (level 18) for them to pile into.

[Gulbasaur]

Yeah. I don't stream, so I mentally glossed over that. I mean, if I never stream then it doesn't apply, if I'm being obnoxiously literal-minded.

 

I'm happy enough to give a Dogme 95-style confession of where I've strayed from the letter but not the spirit of the challenge as I interpret it. I have, after all, given myself extra restrictions. Perhaps not Iron... Stainless Steel? The same metal, but changed so that you can enjoy it over a longer time? Perhaps Fool's Gold given my character's location (iron sulphate, so it's extra punny)... anyway...

 

One of the reasons I went for a Controller is that their powers tend to work independently of one another (once Containment is set up), whereas armour sets are often quite reliant on layering (additive improvements). That said, I had a couple of hairy moments today - Seers hit quite hard and psi attacks have enhanced range, meaning they hit me before I can hit them. I've also gone up against a couple of mez-resistant lieutenants, but they do most of their damage in melee and Time starts off with a pretty solid movement debuff.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Gulbasaur

[Riverdusk]

For those that still want to use the auction house, but not use it as an easy way to get rich, maybe the rule should be "no use of converters".  Could probably still find tricks of buying low and selling high of certain things, but converters are the main culprit right?

[Mirai]

Given my experience with the game, I have to go risky. Energy/Energy blaster (Radiant Cascade on Reunion). No auction house at all. 

 

And of course the server promptly dies. It's not my fault!

Edited June 7, 2021 by Mirai

[Rathulfr]

5 minutes ago, Mirai said:

Given my experience with the game, I have to go risky. Energy/Energy blaster (Radiant Cascade on Reunion). No auction house at all. 

 

And of course the server promptly dies. It's not my fault!

 

I blame @Mirai!  Boo!  😆

 

[ZemX]

3 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

For those that still want to use the auction house, but not use it as an easy way to get rich, maybe the rule should be "no use of converters".  Could probably still find tricks of buying low and selling high of certain things, but converters are the main culprit right?

 

It's up to anyone doing the challenge to make their own rules.  You only need to agree to common rules if you're teaming with others doing the challenge I suppose. 

 

For me personally, I am okay selling stuff I earn for current market value and that includes stuff I can buy at the merit vendor using merits I earned myself.  What I won't do is buy low and sell high.  That's pure marketeering and that includes buying an IO or recipe, converting it, and selling it at a higher price.  I don't think I'll even do that with recipe drops I earn myself.  I WILL use converters to create IOs I plan to use and I might sell them on the auction house, but only as a means of getting the attuned version of an IO I will slot in my build.

 

We'll see if that ends up being too easy to buy a whole build full of IOs.  I doubt it, but maybe I am underestimating how many merits I can earn solo while leveling.  I haven't really ever done that since I eventually get into teaming around level 20 when I have a decent handle on my character.  And then the merits really start rolling in.  So this'll be different.

[Ukase]

I have done this challenge before, and made it to level 50 +2, vet level 2 until I foolish went to a hami raid and got over-eager and jumped in GM scrum for EoE. 
I figured since I was level 50, I had already beaten the challenge, so I kept the character. 

Most of my characters go this route, except for the immediate delete. I tend to respec the IOs out first. Deleting a build...that's just nuts. 

[Rathulfr]

Blaster's Log, 2106.07 - levels 16-18.

 

I ran the Laura Lockhart mission arc, and almost got killed by Field Marshal Metzger.  A last second Respite saved me, and I got the last shot off to defeat him.  Facing those 5 waves of 5th Column Nebel Praktikant as prelude to that fight was not easy.  My Inspirations tray was emptied by the time the dust settled.  Phew.  I then set Leon to rights and earned the War Hero Badge.  All in all, a good day's work.

 

[ZemX]

10 hours ago, Gulbasaur said:

10 hours ago, lemming said:

The particular one was Alec Parson's "Bait and Switch" when rescuing Susan and having to lead her out.  Made more complicated in that I didn't clear up to her.

 

There was an earlier one where I kept getting bombs tossed at me by Destroyer's in one of Luke's missions.

Okay, thanks. I should be okay by the time I get to them.

 

Okay that one turned out not to be so bad.  I DID clear the way first.  Good idea on any rescue mission.  I got out with only about three clockwork ambushes.  The last one was a LT clockwork that showed up late.  I could have punched out of the mission but I was in good shape so I took him out before leaving.  But I can see how that one would suck if you had to fight your way out while being ambushed.  And as a Stalker you can't lead her out stealthed so it takes away your free "kill one LT or minion" card to start off a fight.

[RageusQuitus2]

So ive had a few failures.  Normally id chalk it up to bad teamates but ive been solo... 

 

Speaking of solo.  Went veat a soldier and now a fortunata.  Not alot of teams villain side add they gotta be iron born....

 

So i got tired of being solo and built my own triad.  A demon/rad mm, a bots/rad mm to go with my rebuilt fortunata.

 

This leads me to two questions.  First could i null the gull to hero side for teaming or do i need to go alignment/tips?

 

Second 3 boxing isnt against the rules of the iron man challenge or tos for the server...  Feels like it goes against the spirit, but then again ida thought /ah did and yall dont seem to mind. 

 

[lemming]

2 hours ago, ZemX said:

 

Okay that one turned out not to be so bad.  I DID clear the way first.  Good idea on any rescue mission.  I got out with only about three clockwork ambushes.  The last one was a LT clockwork that showed up late.  I could have punched out of the mission but I was in good shape so I took him out before leaving.  But I can see how that one would suck if you had to fight your way out while being ambushed.  And as a Stalker you can't lead her out stealthed so it takes away your free "kill one LT or minion" card to start off a fight.

Yep.   I had another bad turn where I missed a destroyer boss a bunch and he slammed me off a ledge into another group.  That one was a funny death.

So clone #4 of Pools of Mercury is now up to level 14 and already doing Neutropolis.  I decided to only do the Power Loyalist Arc.

I also learned from the previous clones and have a couple breakfrees on me.  At least until I get status protection.

 

Did screw around on a different stalker just to check a theory.  If you have a hostage that is non-combat, turn on walk, and you can stay hidden and walk them out...

[Gulbasaur]

3 hours ago, lemming said:

If you have a hostage that is non-combat, turn on walk, and you can stay hidden and walk them out...

: O

6 hours ago, RageusQuitus2 said:

This leads me to two questions.  First could i null the gull to hero side for teaming or do i need to go alignment/tips?

My gut feeling says you should do it the hard way.

6 hours ago, RageusQuitus2 said:

Second 3 boxing isnt against the rules of the iron man challenge or tos for the server...  Feels like it goes against the spirit, but then again ida thought /ah did and yall dont seem to mind. 

Hmm. My only issue (not that it matters what I think) is that there is no downside to this so it feels a bit shakey. Give yourself an additional challenge to "pay" for it and just be open about how you did it?

 

Personally, I'd rather have an interesting and challenging gameplay experience than uphold the exact terms of the challenge or trying to find loopholes, like I am not levelling once per session (in fact I'm freezing XP at milestones) but I have to clear a zone's story arcs and zone events, meaning I'm levelling much slower and having to stay underpowered for much longer. I also can't avoid a mission I know might kill me - I have to take it on.

Edited June 8, 2021 by Gulbasaur

[RageusQuitus2]

1 hour ago, Gulbasaur said:

Give yourself an additional challenge to "pay" for it and just be open about how you did it?

Like playing villain side?  Lol.

[ZemX]

6 hours ago, lemming said:

Did screw around on a different stalker just to check a theory.  If you have a hostage that is non-combat, turn on walk, and you can stay hidden and walk them out...

 

Escorts are strange.  Occasionally even combat escorts seem to have the low perception of non-combat ones.  I usually just un-hide so I can move faster and then re-Hide if I reach combat.  If an ambush is coming, wait around a corner and re-Hide then pop the first one to round the corner with your heaviest non-AS attack for a free critical at least.

 

18 hours ago, Gulbasaur said:

Yeah. I don't stream, so I mentally glossed over that. I mean, if I never stream then it doesn't apply, if I'm being obnoxiously literal-minded.

 

I'm not streaming either but it seems like a good goal to have at the beginning of a session so I'll shoot for it if I can.  I leveled once last night to 14 and then got halfway through before I realized I needed to stop XP to finish Imperial.  I am not doing ALL the arcs, but here I am doing three of them I think.  I would need to flip back to Loyalist to do the Power arc here but I am staying deep-undercover Loyalist (meaning Resistance faction aligned for now) so I can run Crusader stuff while snitching to Marchand.  I just ran into a conflict though because doing Interrogator Kang has made Dr. Sheridan disappear.  Turns out I killed him in one of Kang's missions... oops!  That can happen in a couple places.  I remember this being a problem with Crow as well.

 

Anyway, I've got the mission where you go into a seer's mind to destroy an aspect of Praetor Tillman.  I remember that one being another annoying string of ambushes... this time with groups of seers slinging psi damage.  Hope that stuff is range-typed!

[Gulbasaur]

32 minutes ago, ZemX said:

Anyway, I've got the mission where you go into a seer's mind to destroy an aspect of Praetor Tillman.  I remember that one being another annoying string of ambushes... this time with groups of seers slinging psi damage.  Hope that stuff is range-typed!

I did that yesterday! Purple woowoo attacks from the psi blast set are typed. White ring mez attacks from the mind control set aren't You should be okay! I think that was probably the hardest mission so far for me, but I'm using control as mitigation and not defence and the added range that psi has made it pretty rough because they all basically got an attack in before I could set up the good stuff. 

[ZemX]

3 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

Purple woowoo attacks from the psi blast set are typed. White ring mez attacks from the mind control set aren't

 

Good to know!  Other nice thing about Ninjitsu is that in a couple levels I get the clicky mez-protect which comes with 22.5% psi resist (which is now enhanceable), so between defense for typed psi-attacks and a little resist for the ones that aren't (or that get past defense), Ninjitsu is pretty good brain protection.  Most other typed defense and resist armor sets have a weakness to psi that's a pain to patch with IOs.

[Captain Valiant]

Assuming that an "Iron Man Challenge" involves getting to level 50 following your rules, I shall create an Energy/Energy Blaster once weekly maintenance is complete. I do not stream but, if anyone's interested, the date of creation can be found in a character's decsription.

Question: Is it a race to see who can reach said goal in the shortest period of time, or does merely reaching level 50 while adhering to the rules qualify as a win?
I confess here that my biggest challenge will be combatting my altitis and directing all of my attention to one toon. 😛


Edit: And away I go!

 

 

Aaaaand I got ganked in a sewer in King's Row while on a radio mission. -The End 😄

Edited June 8, 2021 by Captain Valiant
Update and Final Update

[ZemX]

45 minutes ago, Captain Valiant said:

Question: Is it a race to see who can reach said goal in the shortest period of time

 

I don't think so.  It was started as something for a group of streamers to do, so I don't think anyone is going to be finding the fastest route to 50.  It just wouldn't be interesting to watch because it would probably involve farming some repeatable content that you build yourself to survive easily.  But if you got there first running varied mission arcs at higher notoriety settings, that would definitely be an accomplishment.  Although the stat I'd go by is played hours, not calendar date, so alt-itis wouldn't be an issue.

[Rathulfr]

12 hours ago, RageusQuitus2 said:

Second 3 boxing isnt against the rules of the iron man challenge or tos for the server...  Feels like it goes against the spirit, but then again ida thought /ah did and yall dont seem to mind. 

 

My opinion, not gospel: it's the Iron Man/Woman Challenge, not the Iron Team Challenge.  Teaming up with fellow Challengers is one thing, but creating your own team of Challengers, under your own direct control, feels like cheating, to me. 

 

But on the other hand, perhaps it adds complexity to the Challenge, because all 3 player characters are indeed under your control, and that means that all 3 player characters must adhere to the rules (and spirit) of the Challenge.  That means if 1 dies, it's permanently dead.  You can't whip up another one on a whim.  You'll need to continue without that teammate.  If you want to replace that player character, it has to be rebuilt from scratch.  At least, that's my opinion, and how I'd do it if were multi-boxing the challenge (which I'm not, so take this for it's worth: not much).

 

As for the /AH: there was never any rule against using the AH.  Earning your own Merits and then playing the AH is a perfectly legitimate method of game play, as long as you start from scratch.  For my IMWC character, I got 3 orange Salvage drops right away, within my first 10 levels, which netted me over 1M Inf on the AH.  I didn't "game the system": I just sold the orange Salvage for fair market value.  I also got all the AP badges for the LRTP and 5 Merits, which I used to get Converters and sold them for fair market value.  I earned those Merits fair and square -- no gimmicks.  Exchanging them for Converters to get cash is perfectly legitimate, because any player can do so easily.

 

The only rule is not giving your new IM character any advantages from alts, such as transferred items (cash/Merits/Enhancements/etc.), SG invitation and access to storage, etc.  Basically, you're playing the IMWC character as a Day One/First Time player.  All players get Salvage drops, and any player can earn Merits by collecting Badges and finishing story arcs (in fact, I've amassed quite a collection of Merits so far -- I haven't yet felt the need to convert/sell these yet, thanks to the Salvage drops.  As long as I'm profiting from my own efforts, and not from any largesse of my alts, I'm playing by the rules.

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Rathulfr
Reinforcing that my opinions are not authoritative.

[arcane]

20 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

For those that still want to use the auction house, but not use it as an easy way to get rich, maybe the rule should be "no use of converters".  Could probably still find tricks of buying low and selling high of certain things, but converters are the main culprit right?

The easiest rule would be simply to not buy anything you aren’t going to slot. That way no flipping is allowed.

[ZemX]

1 hour ago, Rathulfr said:

SG invitation and access to storage

 

On this... I just last night went ahead and set up a base for my IMer.   Nothing fancy.  Knocked out a room for each "side" and colored them red, blue, yellow for teleporters.  Set up a teleporter for Praetorian zones.  And then a fourth room as a workshop.  

 

If this guy dies, I plan to keep him as a caretaker of the base.  I'll clean out storage and send the proceeds off to my non-IM alts and then create a new challenger to add to the SG.  He won't get anything from the previous incarnation but the convenience of not having to edit up a new base.  Just the teleporters, NPCs, worktables, and a bunch of empty bins to fill with stuff he earns new. 

 

Figure that's fine.

 

I haven't decided yet if I'm leaving Praetoria or not.  I may just hop straight to First Ward and keep going.  Never done it that way before.

[Delta]

Update Log 1 (6/6/21): I ran Eagle Eye's story arc (The Lords of Death) and almost died in the second mission due to not focusing on the Capo Muscle that was guarding the councilwoman. I was so used to sprinting past the guards in the corridor leading to the room where she was, but inadvertently lured three minions with me to the room. After dispatching them, I tried to take out the Capo Muscle while talking with the councilwoman, not realizing that the CM wasn't defeated. He nearly killed me off while the Capo Gunner and the minion gunner both shot at me. After popping a couple of respites, I survived the assault, managed to fend off Morana, and level up to Level 10. 

 

After picking up Targeting Drone (which I love btw), I was able to finish up the story line and defeated Veles. I then started and completed Montague Castanella's arc before starting on the Bonfire Arc from Lorenzo DiCosta and finishing up at Level 12

 

Update Log 2 (6/7/21): I was able to complete both the Bonfire arc as well as the Save the Mystic mission from Haley Phillips. I then started work on both the Clockwork Captive arc from Everett Daniels and the The Vahzilok Pollutant Plot from Kyle Peck. I managed to level up to Level 14 and took Fly. Before logging off for the night, I crafted a few IOs that I got the salvage for, exchanged almost all of my merits for 90 convertors, and was able to make around 15 million from selling a few IOs. 

[lemming]

4 hours ago, ZemX said:

I haven't decided yet if I'm leaving Praetoria or not.  I may just hop straight to First Ward and keep going.  Never done it that way before.

It's a fun challenge.  I did that with another char of mine who is now level 46, still a praetorian.  Done a few CoPs and SBBs.  I had them turn off XP and did all the arcs on the way up.   One thing I found I can do is certain Oro arcs that start with a train mission can be done via Team Teleport.  (Hmm, not suitable just realized because of p2w)

Some of the First & Night Ward arcs are rather insane.

 

And whoops, did the responsibility arc in Neutropolis and need to get back to loyalist to do the Power arc. Mainly for Bobcat. 😄

[RageusQuitus2]

How can you tell a character has died?  I could be a liar!