Fulmens

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  1. I don't like the "part of the problem" categorization... that's a paranoid view of the world. All those not with me are against me, and so forth. If you ABUSE them perhaps you are part of the problem. If you attempt to help them you are part of the solution. Otherwise you are no more "part of the problem" than the pen on my desk.
  2. [ QUOTE ]
    IMO, that damage badge should have never been a requirement for an accolade. There is not a single accolade heroside that requires such a long term commitment.

    Of course, it's too late to change it now so we villains are just sol.



    [/ QUOTE ]

    ... they changed Zookeeper. This doesn't exactly fall under the cottage rule.
  3. THREE force field combos listed? Surely you are mad. I limit my list to including FF/Elec and FF/Sonic defenders. . .
  4. Oddly, search didn't return any Arcanaville discussion of cascading defense failure.

    For those just tuning in, that's when you have a lot of minions using a lot of common minion attacks with -DEF (fire axes, machine guns, stuff that shows up in masses if it shows up at all.) So you go from 5% to be hit to 12.5% which VERY RAPIDLY becomes 20%, becomes "no defense at all", becomes dead.

    It's not the FIRST hit that kills you... ok, there was Impossible Kung Fu Mission in the AE, final AV, where the first hit killed me. But he was truly a martial arts master.
  5. Only if you're rolling with tickets, or beating down a 26-34 arcane-only dropper.

    I rolled thirty arcane/midrange with tickets last night and got 2 Silvers.

    /em plans revenge
  6. [ QUOTE ]
    I still believe that it should be possible to create these in such a way as to give us more options when building a character.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Anything is possible for the guy who doesn't have to do it himself.

    How long did we have City of Burn Tanks, kendo? It only takes one broken build.
  7. I'm sure someone has tried this, cause I'm in no way a badge expert: What happens if you leave the MISSION after #9, and the team beats Mary without you?
  8. Hedgefund: You take a lot less damage in the lower levels of the game because you have a lot less HP. So [say] the 1-40 run wouldn't have provided you nearly as much opportunity for injury. I don't know if that cuts you down to 4.5 years or what, but it's something to consider.

    A value-neutral data point: Project Helios is my wife's fire/fire brute [lots of heals, lots of opportunities to take damage] and she was getting incredibly annoyed with the lack of progress. I invited her to malefactor and try and help me duo Positron [as an AV] with my level 40-ish stalker. That kicked her about 1% closer to the badge before we finally gave up and went home. That was about 2 hours.

    I am going to go with the majority opinion here: that's a pretty bad idea to link to an accolade. On the level of bad as old-school Zookeeper.
  9. [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    You'll make more than 20% if you just keep the item and flip it.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    the point

    you seem to have missed it.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Not at all. The service being offered is almost indistinguishable from flipping. At best the OP will be subsidising his client... it's a form of protectionism I guess.

    EDIT: Although, the client will provide some useful information in the type of item desired.


    [/ QUOTE ]

    Maybe I'm fooling myself. This is the difference between being a personal shopper and cruising garage sales for stuff to sell on eBay. I think. That analogy breaks down in a hurry.

    From the customer's standpoint, there is a clear difference between the vendor's [my] proposed activities and "flipping". From my standpoint: I'm making a lot less money then just finding and flipping stuff, but I'm providing a specific service to a specific person, and I like to think I'm expanding people's potentialities. Man, that sounded pretentious.

    Anyway, we currently have a vicious little circle going where nobody creates sub-max-level stuff because nobody buys sub-max-level stuff because nobody can FIND sub-max-level stuff. I tried changing the supply part of it a little. Now I'm trying to figure out a way to change the demand side.

    Any better ideas are welcomed.
  10. I think I get more jackpots than I give. . . but it goes both ways.
  11. It is not the obligation of experienced players to put themselves in the shoes of the new kids and try and show them what playing can be like.

    But it's a nice thing to do.

    Just remember the difference between "talking at people" and "Talking with people".

    Some of them are unteachable [or vastly not worth the effort] but most can be taught.
  12. [ QUOTE ]
    I've NEVER gone higher than level 20 with any of my toons.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    The teens are an awkward period. You're growing in so many ways, you're learning so many new things...

    Err. Sorry, that wandered off on me.

    Around level 20 to 24 [not "level 20 or die" as many people tend to put it] you get Stamina. That makes a LARGE difference in playstyle. In the teens you tend to get one or more good high-endurance powers that you can't afford until 20 or 22.

    At level 22 you get SO's. This, in many cases, makes a LARGE difference in playstyle. And the game changes a few times along the way.

    So you might be getting stuck just before the point that many people think the game "Gets fun".

    The other thing about your original post, buzzkiller, is that you don't say what you like doing.

    I like Force Field defenders. I'm about .01% of the population, I think [maybe there are ten of us in the whole game] but it's just something that works for me. It's not something that's going to work for you, chances are.

    Basically the conversation is going like this:
    "What will I like?"
    "What do you like?"
    "That's what I asked you!"

    Here's some of what I like and why you might hate it.

    I like my Fire/Elec blaster for the ability to go KABOOM, often and in public. Fire Breath/Fireball, with build up and aim as needed, I can wipe out hordes of minions 3 times a minute and I have been able to do that from level eight on. You may hate it because there's nothing but offense. Specifically there's no plan B if "burn them all down, right now" doesn't work.

    I like my Force Field/* characters for making Blasters into tanks. It's amazing how much damage your team can do in a hurry when they lead with three Blaster-level AOEs. You may hate it because 85% of your benefit to the team comes from spending 45 seconds bubbling the team, then standing around for 3 minutes. I play 'em to relax, honestly, and to give people bad habits.

    I like my Elec/Inv brute for Lightning Rod. You might hate it because level 10-19 was kind of miserable, and even until level 33 Elec was underperforming. But Lightning Rod is so good. Sooooo gooood.

    I like my Rad/Sonic because it does so much so well. Plenty of protection, ridiculous damage multipliers (Yeah, the whole TEAM does 50% more damage, at least, with me around), bonuses to hit, AV killing potential, etc, etc. You might hate it because... umm. I dunno. When you're soloing at high levels and a stun lands, sometimes you die? That's about all I got.

    I have more characters I love, but I always run way too long anyway.

    Worst case, find something you kinda like and decide "I have to play this for at least 15 minutes every time I log on."
  13. Fulmens

    hey guys

    [ QUOTE ]
    the determination of whether or not the power hits and the damage dealt is actually made as soon as the power is activated. This is why you can't duck around a corner to avoid a shot.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I remember in the very early days, a friend of mine with superjump being followed by a boulder for about half a mile, around two different corners, before it finally caught up to him and killed him.

    This is also responsible for 80% of "Falling out of elevator dead" syndrome.
  14. eating nine didn't do it? Huh.
  15. [ QUOTE ]
    Always a matter of making things too good to suck you in and then severe nerfage to bring you back to earth with the promise of significant improvements in the future. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. That pretty much seems to be the model for CoX.


    [/ QUOTE ]

    ... yeah, when they made Controllers too good and then had to give them Containment, that sucked.

    When they made Ice Tanks too good and then had to let them stack armors, that sucked.

    When they made SR scrappers too good and had to give them scaling regen, that sucked.

    When they made Claws too good and had to cut the animation times by about a second each, that sucked.

    When they made Defense in IO's too good and had to give typed defense something, that sucked.

    I can do this all day. How bout you?
  16. Fulmens

    I am convinced

    [ QUOTE ]
    Well you got more of the big 3 than I have on 100+ 35-39 rolls blue side, on which I got a total of 1. Apologies to Fulmens who bought some of those rolls (and not the good one).

    Red side, I've taken a total of 2 rolls, a miracle unique and a LOL sting of the manticore that somebody bought for 35M. The world is truly going mad

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Oh, I knew what I was getting into. You told me, in fact.
  17. One warning: There's a difference between "A lot of people will invite you to their team" sets and "people you enjoy playing with will invite you to their team" sets.

    Many people come to this game, start collecting what "they need" ('healers' and tanks) and play very badly and refuse to listen to any advice. If you play Empathy you may come to lose any actual empathy for these people, very rapidly.
  18. Doesn't include the important ones.

    Like "Don't mention healers in the Defender forums."
  19. Burnin Up said:
    [ QUOTE ]
    I've gotten all my purple sets from drops

    [/ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    I tend to play 3-4 hours a day

    [/ QUOTE ]
    ... With respect, you may be on the high end of "hours played per week".
  20. I'm pretty sure not. There's a LOT of 50-million-inf crafted items these days, and I had the impression that Regen Tissue wasn't in that group any more. When I was lookin for high-value stuff to generate commissions, I moved about two of them and decided it wasn't worth it.
  21. I'll crunch numbers later, but I have a gaudy number of Blasters and Defenders.

    Lemme do the easy numbers, only counting guys at DO level or higher [this throws out the ATM characters and whatever else just never got played]:
    Zero qualifying masterminds.
    One spider. I like 'em but have too many projects.

    Two "real" stalkers.
    One dominator.

    buncha brutes, buncha corruptors.

    Zero khelds, zero controllers.

    Two tanks.
    Two scrappers at 50, one or two lower than that.
    LOTS of blasters and defenders.
  22. First, welcome to Paragon!

    Second, you're already doing the thing I always hope new people will do: wander around, do the missions, read the text, see the city. If someone invites you into Architect Entertainment [AE] teams, chances are you're going to get spat out 20 levels later, still with no more idea about how the world works.

    Third, the part where I write five times as much as you needed to know. . . sorry. I do that.

    CONTACTS:
    At some point your current contact will give you someone else to go to (so you have two contacts.) Eventually three, then four, and so forth. The story lines, I guess, start around level 10 maybe? You're not going to have a lot of story in the 7-10 range. If you have a Clockwork or Vazhilok contact, you'll get a couple of neat [but tricky at parts] stories.

    Oh, and Perez is kinda tough on your own at level 8. Yes. You might want to try recruiting a team... although a lot of whiney little people are like "Perez sucks! You get lost and big bunches of people three levels above you beat you flat!" They're right. That's why you're building a team. I like roaming Perez with four or five teammates, every once in a while. You get in big fights and you win.

    There are about five story arcs per level range in the main city. There are also zones which each have a story arc going through them. For instance, the Hollows has about four contacts, and you will get passed from one to the next, and that can get you from roughly level 5 to roughly level 14. The downside of this is, everyone in the Hollows is doing the same missions from the same contacts, so if you join a team it's like opening a book -which you have read half of- to a random page and starting to read.
    Other "zone arcs":
    * Faultline [starts at 16+, goes to somewhere in the 20's I think]
    * Striga [starts at 20, goes to about 30]
    * Croatoa [don't remember where it starts or ends... level 34 maybe for the end?]
    * Rikti War Zone [35-50].

    TRAVEL POWERS:
    At level 6 they opened up travel pools... and you took hover. Which I think is actually slower than sprint, although it got a big boost in speed lately. At level 14 you can take Fly which is considerably faster.

    There are ways to get temporary travel powers, if you can't wait that long:

    In Kings Row, get a police scanner from the detective and do three [or so] "Radio missions". These are little filler missions. You can then get a "Safeguard mission" which means stopping villains from robbing the bank. If you succeed in the Safeguard mission, at level 5-10 you get a flight pack [faster than sprint, but just barely] and at level 11-15 you get a jump pack [much faster than sprint or the flight pack... but you may land in a group of very high-con badguys who use you for target practice. So it goes.]

    WAY TOO MUCH DETAIL ON SAFEGUARDS:
    Safeguards are tricky if you're doing them for the first time or two: You zone in and, about five minutes later, villains start to rob the bank. You have to get to the bank [there will be villains on the street, so you have to avoid getting distracted], fight your way to the main villain, who has been trying to break into the vault. Probably they'll break into the vault; no big deal, you get to try to stop them on the way out. DO NOT be distracted by the new marker on your navbar [and spot on your map]- that's where the villains have their escape vehicle. That's where they're heading. Ideally you're in the bank with all the villains already, and they have to get past you.

    This will be a named villain boss, so kinda tough if you're solo and new. Take two or three purple inspirations at the start of the fight.

    If neither the main villain, or any of their cronies, get away, you get a goodie. As mentioned, the level 5-10 and 11-15 goodies are "early travel powers". Later, you get things like little bonuses to endurance, to hit points, to runspeed. Eventually they all run out, but they're nice while you have them.
  23. Especially when anyone on the Market forum can tell you.

    A few specific PVP IO's (Panacea, maybe the +3% Defense one, maybe the PBAOE -Res one.)

    Followed by the trendy purples (Ranged, melee, both AOE's for starters.)

    Followed by LoTG and the Numina/Miracle uniques.

    I'm pretty sure nothing in Pool A is in the top 50 most expensive items that actually sell.*

    * There are ten Luck Charms and one level 20 Miracle up for 2 billion each that I'm aware of. I don't expect anyone to buy them any time soon.
  24. Thing about softcapped ranged defense is, most of the time it will be wasted.

    a Rad's ToHit debuffs against +3s should be in the 35% range, so about 10% Defense is all you'll need against most things most of the time. [Assumption: if they're not tough they die near-immediately, if they are tough they're worth throwing the toggles on.]