ClawsandEffect

In globals, if I know what their real gender is, I'll refer to them by it. If I don't, I'll refer to them by name (because I have not necessarily teamed with every person on a global channel in order to know what gender their main character is)

This, for the most part.

When I'm referring to a character I see in the game, I refer to them based on the gender of the character. If the in-game character is female, I say she. If it is male, I say he. The gender of the person playing the character is irrelevant.

Kinda funny that the OP goes on about roleplaying, and insists on using gender neutral pronouns. Any roleplayer I know of would prefer to be referred to by their character's gender while playing said character.

Emphasis mine.

If you actually paid attention to the game's story instead of how fast your XP bar is going up, you might enjoy it more.

"Leveling the slow way" is known to most people as "playing the game."

I'm sorry if actually fighting something that has the ability to hit you back is too taxing for you. Maybe you should spend less time in AE and actually learn how the game is REALLY played.

You've been here for 6 months. Trust me when I say: You have NO IDEA AT ALL what "leveling the slow way" really means.

Yep.

No, but a tank using Parry slotted for defense would be softcapped to melee defense, on top of any resistances they may have, from level 16 on up.

Parry/Divine Avalanche is probably the exact reason tanks and brutes don't have Broadsword or Katana.

That's because she is running Hurricane, which is actually a repel power, and not affected by KB protection IOs. It has a separate category under protection/resistance. She'll bounce Fiery Aura around too.

I can only think of 3 that equal him, but none surpass him.

1) Mother Mayhem
2) Clockwork King
3) Vanessa DeVore

All 3 of them, in my experience, will spam Mezmerize and Dominate pretty regularly.

Pretty much this.

I can't think of a single thing in the game any of those badges, accolades, temp powers, or anything else are actually REQUIRED for.

There is no Task Force in existence that can't be run without a certain accolade. (Alpha slot, yes, but that in no way involves PvP)

The badges and temp powers obtainable in PvP zones are things you want, not things you need. You can go through the entire game without ever once setting foot in a PvP zone, and you will reach level 50 just like everyone else. I could see complaints about it being somewhat valid if your progress stopped dead until you did something in a PvP zone, but it doesn't, you can completely ignore the zones and be just fine.

You don't need accolades to make it through the game, you don't need temp powers either. If you want them, you have to risk the possibility that you may be attacked and killed, maybe repeatedly, and maybe by the same person.

In the case of the temp powers, the existence of that risk is exactly why they are as powerful as they are. What do you actually DO to earn them if you are not attacked by anyone? You talk to a couple people, defeat a few NPCs, and click a couple glowies. That is a large reward for a trivial task, it becomes less trivial when you add the presence of opposing players into the mix.

I hate playing the market too.

What I do is this: I list an item for less than the "going price", and if it doesn't sell between then and the time I am done with the market, I take it and vendor it. That's for salvage and crap recipes.

I can be patient if I know it will net a significant reward. For example, I know a Hecatomb recipe will sell for several hundred million, so I'll set what seems to be a fair price based on the going rate and go do something else. Most of the time when I do that when I log into that character next I have sold stuff. However, I only do that with characters I play on a regular basis.

It IS possible to use the market to your advantage without being annoyed by it.

My general rule is:
If it has a lot for sale and none bidding, it gets vendored.
If it goes for a decent amount and seems to be selling decently, I'll post it for around half what the average going price is (so if something sells for 20 million, I'll list it at 10), I'll leave those up for a day or two.
If it goes for hundreds of millions, I'll list it for somewhat under the average going rate, and leave it up until it sells.

I have no interest in delving into the market any further than that. The way I do it, it takes maybe 5 minutes at the beginning or end of a play session, and I don't have to pay attention to market fluctuations or any of the other details I don't care about. I'm not out to get rich, but I can use the market to my advantage without feeling like I'm obligated to.

Also, the way I approach it, I don't have to pay attention to anything beyond what the market window tells me while I'm standing there. There's no research or time spent figuring out market trends, I just look at the information the window is giving me right then and make my decisions based on that.

Your experiences and preferences might (and probably do) differ, but so far my approach to it has worked for me.

Posting: "ZOMG the game is dying because something doesn't work the way some doofus in Wyoming wants it to!" is not feedback.

With every issue release, some idiot posts about how the game is absolutely, positively going to shut down within a month because of some feature they personally dislike. There's nothing constructive about that.

Feedback is a good thing, but the people doing the stuff the OP is talking about aren't giving feedback. They are just making fools of themselves by insisting that the game is going to die because the slightest thing was changed. And most of the people doing that leave no room for discussion.

People have said the game was doomed because of everything from ED to inherent Fitness. So far they have all been proven wrong.

Fearsome Stare was mentioned as being non-positional.

A couple Gravity powers are non-positional as well, but they are pretty rare as NPC powers.

Our non-positional Psionic hole is not nearly as bad as an Invuln's, because we resist the hell out of it, even if we don't have the defense for it.

That's why I specified I was talking about positional.

S/L defense leaves you with a HUGE hole to Energy Damage, which Dark Armor barely resists. And there is a significant amount of pure energy damage in the game (especially if you find yourself fighting a lot of Arachnos)

For Sword/Dark, if you want softcapped defense that won't get you slaughtered by Mu and Freakshow, positional is the way to go.

If your primary is NOT one of the sword sets, typed will probably serve you better then.

Not very difficult.

Impossible.

You cannot positionally softcap a Sword/Dark to all 3 positions without using Parry/DA. I've tried repeatedly, and the best build I could come up with STILL needed at least one application of Parry to softcap Melee.

Maybe someone else can figure it out (perhaps using the Very Rare Nerve Alpha?), but positional softcap on a Dark Armor without Parry is a challenge beyond my level of build wizardry (and my build wizardry is at least above average)

D'oh!

You're right. Never mind then.

My rule on that, on the rare occasions I'm playing a tank, is: If you attack before I have their attention and die because of it, that is YOUR fault. I refuse to take the blame for someone else dying because they did something stupid. Now, if I was in the middle of the mob and lost agro and someone dies, that would be my fault.

Situations like you describe are completely the overzealous blaster's fault, and you shouldn't feel responsible for it.

Siphon Insight. Ice Melee is somewhat short on powers that will take Kinetic Combat, and Siphon Insight gives you the same S/L defense bonus, and the whole set can be gotten cheaper than ONE Kinetic Combat most of the time.

The stealth suppresses in combat, I have never noticed it affecting my agro holding ability.

I had it on my Spines/Fire scrapper I was dabbling in PvP with, it kind of amused me. Actually killed a brute with it who stayed too close after killing me (I usually leave it on autofire, so it goes off as soon as I drop), his health was low and he decided to gloat instead of immediately jumping away. It was funny as hell, but something like that will be a very rare occurrence

Aside from amusing yourself though, it's not useful in PvP.

Level 4.

I have it on my DM/DA tank and use it all the time, even on single targets. The only time it sucks is when it misses.

But, I've never been the "I must be the most efficient fighter possible!" type either. It works for me because I don't particularly care about DPS most of the time, if DPS is actually a concern for you you'll probably want to skip it or use it less often.