Suggestions for missions for modern farming requested!

[Warlawk]

So I've been away for a couple of years and am back playing much more casually now. While I was gone it seems that HC has taken AE farming out behind the shed and put two in the back of its head.

 

So, in modern HC CoX is it better to farm in the wild? If so what missions do you find best for this purpose?

 

The few that immediately came to mind would be the council earth portal mission, Battle Maiden and potentially the Behemoth Infernal mission for fire farming? Not a big fan of those tunnels though.

 

Looking forward to any suggestions or tips!

Edited August 25, 2023 by Warlawk

[A Cat]

AE farming seems to still be a thing. There were a couple of fixes that changed the (probably bugged) double proccing on burn and irradiated ground which affects clear speed a little. I am not an expert on this though. The other change was making Emp merits non-convertable to inf. This heavily affected people who make new toons, farm to some vet level to get Emp merits then rerolled. 

 

Afaik, power leveling is still fast AF in AE. as far as money, it is still decent but marketing was still faster for pure money even before the changes. 

[Warlawk]

51 minutes ago, A Cat said:

 as far as money, it is still decent but marketing was still faster for pure money even before the changes. 

 

With all of the changes in the time I was gone, raw inf income seems to be about 40% of what it was a few years ago, I haven't done the math specifically but it's a huge nerf not even accounting for any clear speed nerfs. Didn't want to end up on a rant about the nerfs, wanted to keep more focused on finding the best solutions to the current environment.

[Without_Pause]

You can always dual box Unai Kemen missions. There's no real need for a specialized build either.  I'm currently dual boxing RWZ arcs at +3/x8 for the sake of speed. and rotating between my Ice/stone Brute and a Claws/ea Scrapper. Even if you do classic farming, there is a case to be made that S/L farms are better, but honestly, I ran some missions post AE/FA fixes and have hardly been back.

 

Also not listed, XP was peeled back. I could do a tunnel run and have a character be at level 22. Now it takes two to hit 23.

[AboveTheChemist]

I am not a regular farmer, but for some recent reward testing I've been using America's Angel's arc #41794. Rewards for that arc (including drops, XP, and inf) are essentially identical to some prior testing I ran back in summer of 2020 using Briggs' Bloody Rainbow #125.

[Neiska]

My suggestion is to find a mission that uses either the Asteroid or Large Cityscape map. The large cityscape is massive with tons of enemies. The Asteroid is smaller with more densely pact enemies, and is a series of 5 missions so there will be load times.

 

As far as updates and changes, they changed how AI works. Before if you were at target cap, enemies would just walk right by you and not aggro. But enemies no longer meekly wait their turn to get beat up anymore. Now if you are at target cap and aggro beyond that, they will stand at range and use any ranged powers they have. This means you can no longer just build for Melee DEF and RES and call it a day, You have to take Ranged DEF and ways to heal/passive regen into account as well.

 

Or you can do what I do - multibox 3 farmers at a time. That way rarely are all 3 at aggro cap so the ranged attacks aren't an issue. And you get more INF and EMP merits anyway. And multiboxing lets you use traditionally non-farm ATs as well, such as a SoA's, Scrappers, Stalkers, or whatever you like to play. Just park your 1-2 tankers/brutes with an AoE power on autocast, and play your main AT like you were on a team.

 

PS - As far as the INF and EXP rates, yes they have gone through a few changes. It is slower now, but still worth doing if you enjoy Farming or prefer to play alone.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Neiska
Added PS

[Without_Pause]

1 hour ago, Neiska said:

This means you can no longer just build for Melee DEF and RES and call it a day, You have to take Ranged DEF and ways to heal/passive regen into account as well.

For fire farms, it's still cap Fire Def and Resist. My first run through post changes sucked since I was rusty as I hadn't played in a while, but the second run was clean, and is as long as I don't brain fart my run.

 

But seriously, there's no real advantage to running +4/x8 in AE versus standard missions. Any decent Stone, Rad, or Bio Brute or Tank is going to run all over Murdertown for regular content for farmable maps. Hell, my Ice/stone Brute did a +4/x8 Council map even before hitting 50, and no, I didn't need Ice Patch. It was slow as watching paint dry though, but it's different now with Incarnates. 

[Neiska]

1 minute ago, Without_Pause said:

For fire farms, it's still cap Fire Def and Resist. My first run through post changes sucked since I was rusty as I hadn't played in a while, but the second run was clean, and is as long as I don't brain fart my run.

 

But seriously, there's no real advantage to running +4/x8 in AE versus standard missions. Any decent Stone, Rad, or Bio Brute or Tank is going to run all over Murdertown for regular content for farmable maps. Hell, my Ice/stone Brute did a +4/x8 Council map even before hitting 50, and no, I didn't need Ice Patch. It was slow as watching paint dry though, but it's different now with Incarnates. 

 

True, AE and normal missions are pretty close now. The only upside to AE is convenience and no travel time. Well, that and being able to pick map types. (Personally I hate cave maps and similar.) The upside to other missions is that 2% chance at an Aether, so there is that. So it's personal taste really. Personally I tend to favor AE as something I can do alone, at my own pace and convenience, and doesn't involve a lot of travel when multiboxing.

[tidge]

11 hours ago, Warlawk said:

So I've been away for a couple of years and am back playing much more casually now. While I was gone it seems that HC has taken AE farming out behind the shed and put two in the back of its head.

 

So, in modern HC CoX is it better to farm in the wild? If so what missions do you find best for this purpose?

 

At level 50+, I rather like running through the Heather Townshend Dark Astoria arc at x8 (at 'even' enemy levels). Clear times vary per character... but these four missions don't require clearing... typically I find that it is usually between 30-40 minutes to clear all of the maps. This is slower than AE farming, but you can get a couple of Empyrian merits out of the effort. I try to keep the levels 'even' because of drop rates. Two runs is usually 'about right' to get a level 50 PVP or Purple recipe drop.

[Without_Pause]

4 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

At level 50+, I rather like running through the Heather Townshend Dark Astoria arc at x8 (at 'even' enemy levels). Clear times vary per character... but these four missions don't require clearing... typically I find that it is usually between 30-40 minutes to clear all of the maps. This is slower than AE farming, but you can get a couple of Empyrian merits out of the effort. I try to keep the levels 'even' because of drop rates. Two runs is usually 'about right' to get a level 50 PVP or Purple recipe drop.

If you just want the arc rewards, you can blow through that arc even quicker. I think someone did a video of doing it with an Emp Defender in 15 minutes, and he admitted that was slow. A Stalker would be even faster. 

[Warlawk]

3 hours ago, AboveTheChemist said:

I am not a regular farmer, but for some recent reward testing I've been using America's Angel's arc #41794. Rewards for that arc (including drops, XP, and inf) are essentially identical to some prior testing I ran back in summer of 2020 using Briggs' Bloody Rainbow #125.

I can assure you without a shred of doubt that is not the case. If you click the link in my sig about farming you can see the guide I maintained before my haitus. Using the bloody rainbow asteroid farm dedicated farming brutes could push out 2-2.3 mil inf per minute and that absolutely is not the case any more.

 

11 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

You can always dual box Unai Kemen missions.

Thank you, I'll be sure to take a look!

 

I appreciate all the other responses and attempts to help, to be clear I am looking for suggestions of non-ae missions to try farming and compare to the current ae farming income.

 

Is there anything outside AE that would a decent fire farm outside of the Infernal portal mission?

[Sovera]

First mission of the Market Crash TF. It is borderline a farm map with a paint of officialness.

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Without_Pause said:

If you just want the arc rewards, you can blow through that arc even quicker. I think someone did a video of doing it with an Emp Defender in 15 minutes, and he admitted that was slow. A Stalker would be even faster. 

 

10 minutes is my average, across AT, for just 'blowing through' it. The slowest ATs are probably Masterminds.

 

My point is: It's a viable farm that also has incarnate rewards. It also offers defeats for badges, if that is part of the jam.

[Without_Pause]

I don't have map names, but you essentially want outdoor maps. Battle Maiden being one. There is another that is similar but has two islands. I can't recall exactly the Infernal one as he appears on multiple. I believe the old school Fire map was one were you went around the edge of the map and there was a large lower area you went down and cleared out. Maybe not the best map, but the one that that is similar to PP has a nice open area. I know Tina gives that map for a badge although she's only max level 45. I know Maria gives that map as well. Oh, the city map that Marauder uses. That's Point A to B, clear to the other street, and back down again.

[AboveTheChemist]

1 hour ago, Warlawk said:

I can assure you without a shred of doubt that is not the case... Using the bloody rainbow asteroid farm dedicated farming brutes could push out 2-2.3 mil inf per minute and that absolutely is not the case any more.

 

The nearly 40 runs worth of log data I collected assures me that it is the case. However, my results are tallied as gross total for the entire run, regardless of time, so I can't really speak in terms of inf/min.

 

Perhaps the issue is that you are still trying to use Briggs' Bloody Rainbow farm, which was not updated (last time I checked at least, which has been a while) for the i27p5 changes. I tried using it at first and noticed, as you have, that the rewards were indeed lesser. When I changed to a nearly identical fire farm updated for i27p5 (as noted above, America's Angel's arc #41794), the rewards are virtually identical to my summer 2020 runs.

 

Note also that my summer 2020 tests were after the 'Disabling XP No Longer Increases Influence' change, so if you are comparing numbers before that change took place then yes, you'll see a difference.

 

I'm happy to post my spreadsheet and logs, if interested. I guess the TL;DR would be to make sure you are using a farm that has been updated for i27p5 as a basis of comparison for current AE farming income. Otherwise, the other posters seem to have good suggestions for non-AE farm missions, and best of luck on your search.

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by AboveTheChemist
clarification

[Shenanigunner]

Modern farming uses a lot of GMOs. So I guess we need... Giant Monster Overlords?

[biostem]

15 hours ago, Warlawk said:

While I was gone it seems that HC has taken AE farming out behind the shed and put two in the back of its head.

It was kind of silly that you could get full XP for a mob with like only 1 attack then just some ally-only powers - that, and an apparent bug in the double XP buff that had it giving 3x XP, were corrected.  It seems weird to me that after being gone for a few years, your first impulse is to either farm or get PL'd by a farmer.  Why not reacquaint yourself with the game first...

Edited August 25, 2023 by biostem

[Shenanigunner]

1 minute ago, biostem said:

It was kind of silly that you could get full XP for a mob with like only 1 attack then just some ally-only powers - that, and an apparent bug in the double XP buff that had it giving 3x XP, were corrected.  It seems weird to me that after being gone for a few years, your first impulse is to either farm or get PL'd be a farmer.  Why not reacquaint yourself with the game first...

 

'Cuz everything up to 50+4 is just a waste of time, 0.o

 

[Without_Pause]

1 hour ago, Shenanigunner said:

 

'Cuz everything up to 50+4 is just a waste of time, 0.o

 

You should really try out an MMO that has an actual end game because having gone elsewhere, CoH is criminally non-existent. Blitzing through 50+4 content on a team is some of the most boring content there is.

[Shenanigunner]

10 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

You should really try out an MMO that has an actual end game because having gone elsewhere, CoH is criminally non-existent. Blitzing through 50+4 content on a team is some of the most boring content there is.

 

Snark alert. I find the "game begins at 50" crowd exceedingly tiresome, and moreso their influence on how the game has evolved.

 

I have never run a farming mission in however many years it's been since launch.

 

[biostem]

10 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

You should really try out an MMO that has an actual end game because having gone elsewhere, CoH is criminally non-existent. Blitzing through 50+4 content on a team is some of the most boring content there is.

Different strokes for different folks, and all that - I like being able to *only* spend an hour or so to get some "End Game (tm)" content done, rather than the lengthy and highly regimented stuff found in some other games... 

[Warlawk]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

It seems weird to me that after being gone for a few years, your first impulse is to either farm or get PL'd by a farmer.  Why not reacquaint yourself with the game first...

I spent most of a month reacquainting myself with the game, thanks for the condescending attitude implicating that my way of playing is inferior to your own though.

 

And yes, I do enjoy farming. Not that it needs to be justified by any means, but I have chronic vertigo which makes standard content difficult to play during a flareup. Farming is (was in the past) a productive way to spend some time in game. When I was playing a lot I would generally PL a character up to ~30 (because I don't enjoy playing the low levels with half an attack chain and no meaningful defenses) and then IO it out and have fun taking it to 50. I strictly solo, so I'm FAR from one of the "game begins at 50" crowd.

 

Maybe it just came across wrong with text not conveying intent well, but preaching from your high horse against other people's preferred playstyles just makes you come across as an ass.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Warlawk

[biostem]

1 minute ago, Warlawk said:

I spent most of a month reacquainting myself with the game, thanks for the condescending attitude implicating that my way of playing is inferior to your own though.

I generally reply in a tone similar to that of the OP, unless, despite your spending nearly a month reaquainting yourself with the game,  excluded reading any of the patch notes that came out since then - y'know, something someone might want to check out after such a long absence.  Further, I never said that farming was wrong or bad, only that I found it odd that someone coming back after a long break would jump right into it.  Maybe express the circumstances surrounding your return a little better next time...

[MoonSheep]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

It was kind of silly that you could get full XP for a mob with like only 1 attack then just some ally-only powers - that, and an apparent bug in the double XP buff that had it giving 3x XP, were corrected.  It seems weird to me that after being gone for a few years, your first impulse is to either farm or get PL'd by a farmer.  Why not reacquaint yourself with the game first...

 

why play the game when you can not play the game and complain that your previous way of not playing the game used to be quicker than how you don’t play the game now

 

fix it, or i won’t play this game! 

[Warlawk]

Ah, I had forgotten how quickly the subject of farming draws out the trolls and how quickly they try to sidestep and justify their behavior when called out on in.

 

My thanks to those of you who provided on topic responses, as for the others... well, taters gonna tate.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Warlawk