FourSpeed

Another wrinkle to throw in for a speed-run is Double XP.

While those events are fairly infrequent, would it effectively lower your 36 hours
down to 18 during such an event? How far towards "cheating" does that go?


Regards,
4

I'm in Dispari's camp with regards to points: 1, 3, and 5.

Unlike most follks (it seems), I start Frankenslotting sets in the Low '20s,
and then forget about it from then on (except on new powers, of course).

For attacks intended to take down a target, my slotting goal is 60%/90+%/60%
Acc / Dmg / Rch or Erdx depending on what that toon needs (some are more
endurance intensive than others). These values are typically achievable
with only 5 slots in a power. If you use L30+ IO's instead of L25's, it's a
piece of cake. In many cases you can split that last number and get 30+%
in both Rch and Erdx depending on what set IO's you grab.

Also, as someone else mentioned, Kismet 6% is a good idea, and several sets
offer ACC bonuses with 4 IO's from the set slotted (Crushing Impact,
for instance).

I find that hits the 95% Acc Cap against nearly everthing (including a lot of PvP players).

YMMV


Regards,
4

Well, given that you're posting this in the PvP forum, I'd forget about Stamina
entirely - for a Stalker. Your stealth gives you the advantage of picking
when you start/enter a fight, so you don't need to sweat it - go in when
you're ready.

Also, in PvP, you're not going to get into extended fights - you'll be dead
by then, or he will...

So, I slot my attacks for Acc/Dmg/Rch, and I aim for 60% / 95% / 60%
respectively. If you have any other accuracy bonuses (Kismet, set
bonuses - like Crushing Impact or Thunderstrike) you'll be soft capped vs
any NPCs and many (if not most) players in Acc.

After that, if you have slot-room, I'd think about Procs - things that have
a chance to cause more dmg etc.

If you're Stalker is a L50, you might also want to look at Hami-O's to help
meet those target numbers, but it's fairly easy to do with just Set IO's in
the L25-L50 range (depending on where you want bonuses to work also).


Regards,
4


PS> I've yet to slot a purple into anything - if you don't care about expense,
or you feel you MUST have them, go for it... They're better, from a pure
numbers standpoint, but your toon can perform just fine without them.

There are some really intriguing ideas here...

So, assuming for a moment that someone is going to take a stab at beating this,
(I have no idea whether they can), these criteria seem vital to me.

1> Choice of AT - Obviously a critical item. What AT kills fastest???

2> A pre-planned mid's build for the AT from #1. That's not necessarily a purpled-out
Rikti-Pylon build, but one that can go efficiently, safely, and quickly at each level.

3> Pre-built shinies in the base - eliminate slotting/selling/buying decisions and
time up-front. At the various levels, just pop into the base, slot the goodies,
and pop right back to the fight.

4> AE or Content? My guess is AE - so, handpicked custom missions for the
various stages. This can tailor the threat to be overcome easiest at each level while
still maximizing XP at each step along the way. Also, these missions can/should?
supply the appropriate "pets" to speed/ease the process and make up for
any "gaps" in the AT's build.

I'd be curious to see what the practical thoughts are for each of these steps.
Clearly, to even approach the challenge, all the ducks have to line up perfectly
to maximize kills, and time spent killing. Funds, IO's, and missions need to
thought out and in-place beforehand.

The AT needs to carve through mobs non-stop with no risk of dying, (Statesman
would cry at that last bit - an added bonus ), if solo levelling speed is
the only goal.

I find the idea intriguing. I'd like to be involved if a group of min-maxers wants
to take a stab at this... Like most record-setting ideas, the success really
hinges on the upfront preparation and planning (imho)... The rest, is just killing...


Regards,
4

I'd be in the Brute and/or Stalker categories for a soloist.

Stalkers can stealth through missions very quickly (even w Rikti), for rapid
mission completion bonuses (at the penalty of reduced kill bonuses)

Brutes can kill quickly, and generally with enough safety to keep the pace up
for long periods of time.

My issue with Masterminds is that it's quite awhile before they can steamroll
missions quickly. You need to build up that pet army, and once you have,
managing it (buffs, herding them, keeping them out of trouble ) can be
time-consuming... No less fun (for folks who like them), but slower (imho)
than the first two.


Regards,
4

As always, Arcanaville, your posts are interesting and thought provoking.

A couple nuances I'll toss into the mix.

A> With regard to your point #3 and killing the most efficient enemy, I would
also consider that to be: only the enemies that directly complete the mission ... ie. stealthing missions.

To me, this maximizes endurance usage, and it also weights the XP (especially early)
towards completion bonus > killing bonus.

B> CaB drops - this seems a low hitter to me as they can be purchased
in so many places these days that endurance needn't be too dependant
on drops.

C> Also on the limiting side: travel time might be an additional factor.

In any case, interesting conjecture - to me (an avid soloist) many of the
times have seemed overrated (sometimes grossly so), but having said that,
I've never been one to rush the levelling process. Consequently I'd be a
very poor candidate to test your idea.

Your limit of ~35 hrs does seem to be in the ballpark of folks that claimed
to get L50's over a weekend... I'm not sure whether those claims were
for soloists though - my sense of it was more in PL teams.


Regards,
4

PS> In terms of your limit, I've never levelled to 50 in anywhere near that
time - I'd have to check, but I doubt I've ever done it in under 100 hrs
(again, not that I've ever rushed levels either).

No, it definitely isn't hard to come by.

With a little knowledge and effort, you can literally get 100's of thousands
of influence in 30 mins or less (see the active thread on the topic in this
forum), and millions in a few hours.

The only players who are poor in this game are either:

1> Inexperienced (we're happy to give them the info to fix that)
2> The lazy
3> The clueless
4> The intentionally uncaring.

For types 2-4, we're happy to let them follow that playstyle unless
they complain about how difficult and unfair the market in the game
seems to them -- at that point, derision and entertainment usually ensue.


Cheers,
4

Caveat:

It's not that they "cannot" exist. Clearly they do as there is a biddable
record in the database. That's to say, you can bid on them and see the
stats they'd confer if you had one slotted.

The distinction is that "currently" none of the actual 51-53 IO's shinies
or recipes themselves exist. For the programmer geeks out there, the
"class" for those shinies IS defined. However, as yet, there are not
any "instances" of the shinies or recipes currently in the game.

All that is needed to change that is to provide a drop rate > 0 for them.

So, those of use who have bids on those items are at risk. To be sure,
it's a calculated risk, but one that certainly could end up biting some
of us down the road, should the devs ever decide to establish a positive
drop rate for those recipes without enough warning for us to shift our
"investment" funds.


Regards,
4

As Fury mentioned, I have a couple toons:

V-Side: Needles & Pins -- Spine/Regen Stalker (Planned cap: L27 or L28)
H-Side: Crimmie Crisper -- Fire/Rad Controller (Planned cap: L28 or L33)

I've not decided yet whether I'll get to the Fire Imps for the troller yet. It
will depend on how well she's doing without them in the various missions. The
stalker is an easier choice - either A> able to slot L30 SO's OR B> max Level
Sets that still give exemplar bonuses in Bloody Bay...

Also, thanks to whomever put the Villain side base together. Tidbit? Much appreciated.

As mentioned, permissions for using the bins needs to be adjusted in order
for us to be able to use them (or at least, put stuff in).


Cheers,
4

Opinions vary on the endurance issue, but imho it pretty much goes away if you do these 3 things:

1> Take Stamina -- which you have. 3 or 4 slot it (put Perf Shifter in 4th)

2> Frankenslot your powers. There are several good sets that give 1-2.5%
(depending on the set) bonus to recovery for just two IO's - Bruising Blow,
Gift of the Ancients (as mentioned previously) and Impervium Armor are
some that come to mind.

3> Slot your attacks for Acc/Dmg/Erdx... you can get recharge with Hasten, and Mental Training.
I typically aim for 60%,95%,60% on Acc, Dmg, and EndRdx. A slotting like this is a good example:

Lunge - 6-slotted with L30 IO's (pre ED)

Based on your topic title, I see a 2-edged issue.

1> Choice of AT and build.

It looks like some good advice has been given here, and I don't have anything
to add on that point.

2> Limited Income.

Why not adjust this area as well? To do so, I have to risk some ire and
suggest reading some guides in the Marketing forum (or my sig <shameless plug>).

There are several strategies that are effective enough and easy enough
to do. These can greatly increase that limited income without biting into
your normal gameplay time very much at all.


Regards,
4

The kicker, clearly, is the 30 minute time limit. That isn't much time given
the limited slots and starting resources.

So, flipping the coin over then:

What is the shortest time needed (on avg) for a shiny new toon to earn 2 million?

I know for a fact that 10 million is doable in ~6.25 hours from scratch (see sig).

As a simplification considering just the math, 2M should be should be ~5X faster,
so dividing the time by 5 should make it about 1.25 hours.

Looking at Fury's and Fulmens' earnings, they seem to be right in that ballpark.

Can anyone do it in less than an hour, given TopDoc's simple rules?


Regards,
4