Eldorado

For good or for bad, the Scrapper Forum has become a place where A LOT of the threads are about advanced scrapping: RWZ Challenges, Solo the Pylon, and so forth. These advanced scrappers make heavy use of IO's, purples, recharge and min/maxing.

Unfortunately, a lot of new players look at this craziness and start being overwhelmed or worse, start thinking they "need" builds like this for everyday PvE content -- which obviously they don't!

For a good INTRO to Dual Blades, I'd suggest this from the Scrapper Guides section: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=123143

With a beginning scrapper or one who expects to exemp a lot, I like taking all the attacks so I have access to all four combos. *shrug* A lot of people loathe the Empower Combo, and a lot of people don't like and/or respec out of Weaken down the road, but for a new DB player early on I think they're handy just to get you into the rhythm of making combos -- AND to get you into the "now what's Plan B?" mindset for when you miss midway through one.

In addition to what's already been said, I'll further agree that WP's a classic DB secondary -- I rolled my DB/WP when the powersets came out, had so much fun en route to 50 that I made a matching WP/DB tank, and the scrapper is still my "main" today!

Good luck, have fun, and if you like your new DB/?? scrapper well enough, you might be back here in a few months wondering about some wild & crazy billion INF IO'd builds.

For me, since I got CT, it's been all of the above, but especially that one!!

Thinking back over my longish list of alts since I got CT, I've done all of these:
...a few times now, actually.

...once.

...once and twice, respectively.

I can only think of a few toons in my collection that DON'T have a prerequisite power: my new DP blaster is a kind of "normal, regular Joe without superpowers" who relies on the Manticore-like "hack into the hospital teleport network to get around" system, so he doesn't have Recall Friend and might never get it.

When I respecced my main DB/WP scrapper and her WP/DB alter ego, power picks were very tight and I REALLY wanted to add Weave to her build(s). Goodbye Air Superiority, hello defense!

I really DO like the flexibility to be able to skip the prerequisite powers, or take the travel power first and then the prereq power, but a lot of the time those powers are just so handy that I want to take them anyhow.

My apologies -- I read that too fast, too early in the morning, and something about that sentence just didn't read quite right to me. Perhaps it was the "any of the" in the middle, but Schismatrix is/was right and I'm apparently overly pedantic and too full of extraneous details at 4 AM or whenever that was -- sorry!

Sorry, but no. The complete list of katanas, including the customizable ones, can be found here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Custom_Weapons#Katanas

Sorry, but again, no. You CAN change the colors of the Katana and Ninja blades (but NOT the Legacy models), the Fantasy Blade, and the Impervium Katana.

From personal experience, though the wiki doesn't say specifically say so, I know you CAN also change the colors on the Vanguard Katana, and you CAN change the detail colors on Rularuu's Fang, though the blade itself will stay black.

I just checked, and you can NOT change the color of the Rikti Katana (though the Tailor UI lets you pick colors -- they just don't have any effect), and I don't have the Martial Arts booster pack to answer about the Chinese Broadsword.

As in "one of my slots is trying to sell 5 Thorn Tree Vines," yes.

As in "I've got another slot trying to sell 3 Thorn Tree Vines at a different price," yes as well!

Which of those is causing the problem? Should I just eat the (inconsequential) Market fee and consolidate those eight at one price? If I do that, I'll obviously gain a useable slot. But if I get the mysteriously unavailable slot back too, that's more than worth the effort!

You're absolutely right on that -- I really worded my question poorly. I'll blame Mid's brain-burnout or something, but....

Despite the badly phrased question, THAT'S pretty much the answer I was looking for!! As you said, it's a ballpark estimate, but it'll give me a baseline to aim for, and then I can tweak and adjust from there -- thanks a lot!

I'd dusted off my old kat/SR scrapper which I'd been building pretty much along the above lines, and I'd kind of given up "just" making it a PvE machine -- I was thinking perhaps trying it against AV's, or pylons, or something.

I've gone ahead and slotted IO's in the primaries and hit the softcap, but I haven't yet started chasing LotG's for recharge. Still, I couldn't help but start to wonder:

How much RECOVERY am I going to need to spam GD => GC => SD => GC ad infinitum??? If I'm reading Mid's right -- and I might well NOT be after staring at it for too long -- even with a Numina's and a Miracle uniques and Physical Perfection (and assorted minor recovery bonuses), it doesn't LOOK like I'd be able to keep that pace up for much over 60 seconds.

Thanks in advance!

Me too -- I just pick up run speed bonuses here and there, and drop a single IO in Sprint.

I only NEED enough run speed to get from THIS lieutenant that I just dropped with Vengeful Slice, to THAT boss I can stab with Sweeping Strike and then grin at the big "ATTACK VITALS" on the screen. (Bonus points if I manage to get there for the final blow before the SR scrapper with Quickness. )

Wow, do YOU obsess over individual posts much? (And look, I used a verb and stuff to make a sentence out of my question.) I never said that Zookeeper was SUPPOSED to be 10,000 monkeys, only pointed out one of many changes they've made to either dumb down CoX or make it "more fun" for people who obsess over badges. Someone plays the game long enough with one toon, they get a level 50, and they get badges. Nobody ever said these obsessive/compulsive disorder sufferers had to get them all immediately, park overnight in a pool of lava, or farm AE missions for them!

I'll agree that zone level restrictions and the SSK system (though imperfect) make sense for much of the game -- but what was the logic behind opening up RWZ to level ones? "Well, you haven't GOT any powers to speak of, but sure, we'll drag you along so you can fight some of the hardest things in the game and not feel left out. Bring lots of wakies."

You haven't seen any news yet? My god!! Haven't you been reading the...oh, wait, that's because it's called "hyperbole!" (And I'm pretty sure you can guess which orifice I pulled that from.)

Again, I call it "hyperbole," you call it "nerdrage." I'm pretty much over the initial shock, followed by my reaction of "I'm not sure THIS was a good idea." What bothers me is that I've had that reaction before over a few things recently in this game, like Mission Architect (F.U.B.A.R. on release and still "NOT working as intended") and Super Sidekicking (a good idea that needs some tweaking) and I feel that I've been right in my initial assessments. "Wait a minute! We're the same level, so how come I had a security level revoked just 'cause I'm in YOUR mission?!" (This is especially noticeable when dropping from 50 to 49 -- "why are those bosses suddenly purple?")

I never said that grinding monkeys was fun, I pretty much loathe AE, and I hate grinding.

*ponders playing the "Don't put words in my mouth!" card and belatedly realizes how comically lame and cliché-ridden the forums really are*

People have differing opinions of "normal gameplay" and the devs keep lowering the bar. As noted before, it's the OCD badge collectors who "gotta get 'em all -- NAO!" who clamored and whined, instead of just accepting that various badges take different lengths of time to get. And as far as "over and over and over and over" ad infinitum goes, it's apparent that the hyperbole is spreading!

I covered all the salient points above, and I think now YOU'RE drowning in your own hyperbole, much like I might have. As for me, I've got better things to do than hang around Atlas or even these boards -- and these boards ARE a seething cesspool of "boring and pointless." I've said my piece, I don't necessarily like subtext behind the precedents that are being set, and I'm sure there are other squeaky wheels kvetching about unlockable costume/weapons pieces SOMEWHERE -- it's the nature of these forums for people to complain. I also know for a fact there's a bunch of threads in "The Market and Inventions" where people are complaining about purples -- maybe they'll nerf "ultra-rare" to make people happy too?

*follows own oft-given advice to "get the hell off the forums and GO PLAY, for crying out loud!"*

Yeah, right here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=208877
12 topics below this one as of this writing....

Ha! My words exactly from that other thread -- this is just more of the "dumbing down" of CoX for the squeaky wheels. "It's too HARD to get 10,000 Rikti Monkeys! It's not fair that some zones are too high for my toon! It's not fair that I have to unlock a zone/costume pieces/weapons!"

In the other thread I suggested that they'll start giving away all IO's at stores next -- for free, of course, including purples 'cause people whine about those! And of course, Cimerora is too much work for some people to get to, so the new way to unlock it will be just a mouse click to make a phone call to Montague Castanella or Mercedes Sheldon, 'cause actually TRAVELLING to see them is too much work, let alone doing an arc.

Agreed, but that's not the new improved CoX mentality! Nobody was SUPPOSED to get 10,000 Rikti Monkeys in an afternoon, just like they weren't SUPPOSED to get every Mission Architect badge in an hour. (And of course, we all remember how the devs handled the MA badge situation, right? They just removed them from every toon, regardless of how they got the badges, causing even more uproar.)

Paragon Studios seems to be going overboard in their quest to make things "new player friendly" at the cost of removing every single long-term goal in the game. It's an MMO -- we're SUPPOSED to have long-term goals to keep us playing and paying our monthly fee.

Right now THEIR idea of a long-term goal is "keep sending us money" and they're taking away our reasons to do so.

The entire community (with the exception of trial accounts) has had the opportunity to get a toon to level 50 since Issue 1. The prerequisite for EAT's has been spelled out since their inception: "Get a toon to level 50" for Kheldians, and since changed to "get a toon of the same hero/villain faction to level 50." And judging by the endless litany of "AE farm team LFM!" broadcasts I see redside, it can't be THAT hard to get a VEAT.

The only thing they haven't dumbed down (yet) is Cimerora, and with this current trend, how long can it be? "I have to do a STORY ARC to get to that zone? But that's not fair!" Maybe they'll change it to "Just talk to Montague Castanella or Mercedes Sheldon." No, wait, that wouldn't be fair to the members of the community who didn't take a travel power! "That guy who took SJ can get there faster than me -- waaaaaah!"

Maybe the devs will take the newb-friendly attitude to the extreme: When a player hits a milestone like level 50 or a one year vet reward, they'll take an experience and/or inf/prestige earning PENALTY! (These would of course 'stack' with multiple years or multiple 50's.)

"Well, you've obviously learned how to earn xp and inf and prestige by now, and you're better at it than the new player! So for the sake of equality, you now have to work even harder for the same reward!"

Yeah, the new trend of "dumbing down" CoX and providing instant gratification IS lame, IMHO. I can't say as I like it as a player, and I'm not sure it's a good business strategy either. "If we give all the players EVERYTHING from Day One, and give them nothing to work towards, they'll be loyal, steady customers just because they love us!"

I suppose they'll be eliminating the markets and just providing free IO's of all kinds at the stores next -- generics, set IO's, purples. Because not everybody in the community has equal access to THOSE, either.

/sarcasm off

That's how they do things in Europe, huh?

Here's how we do it in the US: twice as fast as in that example, and we like to spread the "fun" around!

http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2007...edway-crashes/

Listing fees are 5%, NOT 20%! (The total transaction fee at Wentworth's/Black Market is 10% of the actual SALES price, which also includes the listing fee.)

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Auction_House#Fees

And sure, saving 10% on 6 purples can be a substantial savings, but limiting one's buying to just one server and then only from those sellers who might read the forum seems like it would take a LOT longer to accomplish. It's a much smaller pool of sellers, which would mean a smaller supply pool from which to buy.

That's because they're often far too cool and brooding to actually TALK to anybody, and everyone else is far too intimidated by their coolness to come up and talk to THEM while they're being all brooding and cool and wallleaning. Or perhaps it's because a lot of them* tend to be kind of two-dimensional and superficial after you shine a bright light on the darkity-dark shadowy veneer that created the illusion of three dimensionality.

(*Hey, Mr. I-HAVE-a-Cool-and-Dark-and-Well-Rounded-Character -- I said "a lot." Don't get all snippy and dark and brooding here yourself 'cause I generalized about the people who aspire to be you and fall short. They outnumber you, by a LOT. )

That growing and changing bit is what keeps me sticking around, and making new alts. Sometimes a sure-fire, can't-miss great toon turns out to be chock full of phail with a capital "P"; on the flip side, I just had a toon that started with nothing more than a COSTUME develop into a fully fleshed out, apparently interesting-to-others-as-well RP character!

I figure it's like (pick an analogy):

a) there's a lot of horrible manuscripts written for every best seller,
b) baseball's home run kings also strike out -- a LOT,
c) every rose has its thorn, just like every night has...gah!

I'm going to go with "b." Just keep swinging and eventually something will connect.

After this disturbing picture, I'm now imagining an even MORE disturbing trend -- people trying to breed toy and miniature Shar-Peis. Then every other celebutante will be carrying one around in their purses instead of hairless Mexican dogs.

"Ohmigod, Paris! Did you get a facelift? Botox?!"

"No, I got this toy Shar-pei! Compared to him, a raisin looks like a grape, huh?"

Oh yeah -- no argument there! Some people LIKE to farm the same missions over and over, some people enjoy it in smaller doses or with friends, and some people prefer to make their money in Market PvP.

I just hate sometimes seeing where some new (or returning) player thinks the ONLY way to get purples is to try to grind out missions with their level 50, perhaps-not-terribly-efficient character, or they start getting bored or frustrated with their "farm toon." We've all seen those threads: "I've run [insert map here] [insert number here] times with my [insert level/archetype here] and I HAVEN'T GOTTEN A SINGLE PURPLE!"

Maybe I should have said "the best way to acquire purple recipes is to go do something YOU find fun, possibly involving level 47+ enemies, and remember that "ultra rare" means just that." I'm pretty sure nobody ever purpled out their warshade from drops which they got themself from defeated enemies in one night. Saving up and then blowing a couple billion INF in one night? I've read a couple of those accounts, but that's not the same.

Setting the difficulty to -1/x8 and mowing through missions is the quickest way to make recipes drop; assuming that your character is level 48 (or above) and the mobs are level 47 (or above) this will be the quickest way to make purples drop.

On the other hand, let's assume you're doing this with your level 50 something, fighting level 49 spawns. They'll drop common IO recipes like Invention: Damage at level 50, some of which sell for over 100k. They'll also drop uncommon and rare recipes AT LEVEL 49.

In general, almost every recipe that's worth selling at Wentworth's goes for much less at 49 than it would at 50. Just looking at the market quickly this morning, there's two Obliteration recipes that are going for 25 and 30 million at level 50, and for 7 and 18 million at level 49. Sell enough of either of those and you'll be BUYING your own purple recipes with the profits -- but the bigger profits come from those level 50 recipes.

I still say the best way to farm purples is to play a toon you like, play it a LOT, and purples eventually drop. Playing a hyper-efficient farming toon you're not fond of just seems like another job or something.

I agree -- I've got them both on my BS/WP and both of them find a place in my ever-changing, situational attack chain. (I've got a habit of holding onto a LOT of attack powers on all my toons for various reasons, including exemping down, or "oh, look -- the blaster just knocked back half the spawn to this boss I'm working over! Forget the single-target chain for a second.... <Headsplitter, Whirling Sword, Disembowel, Slice> Ha! We now return you to pounding on the regularly-scheduled boss!")

And even though my "advice" is now superfluous since you created the toon, good call on the BS/regen choice! While it's not a combination that I'd have picked, nor one I've got in my [smallish] stable of high-level scrappers*, it should be very survivable and fun to play all the way to end of HIS journey to level 50 and beyond.

[*50th kat/regen, DB/WP, kat/WP, BS/WP, WP/DB (it's a tank that plays like a scrapper!), 48th claws/WP, 46th kat/SR.]