Roderick

Keep in mind that all attacks in Munitions use the rifle, so whichever oder you used the attacks in, it would be Hold -> Redraw -> Hold.

Personally, I would use Combat Jumping, Cloaking Device, Tough (with a Steadfast Protection Res/Def), Weave, and Scorpion Shield to get a fairly high Smashing/Lethal/Energy defense. Add some sets, and you might even be able to softcap all three of those.

Of course, attacks in Mace Mastery would cause redraw as well, but I didn't take anything else out of the pool on my DP blaster, so it didn't matter to me.

I always have trouble with River Rat, and now that I think about it, that location is where I am when the badge pops on most characters. Looks like they need to make that location a bit more forgiving.

From what I read in various dev comments, the pool powers aren't really any harder to recolor than other powers are. The problen is that the UI has issues with adding and removing components for the dynamic list of pools and/or Epics. A similar issue is why we don't have customization for Epic ATs (beyond a few different guns and maces for Spiders).

As Schismatrix said, it's in the works, but it sounds like the code may be too complex for it to arrive any time soon.

More anecdotal evidence:

On the day i19 dropped, I ran four characters through the Incarnate arc, and did one ITF on one of those characters.

The first character was a twinked out brute, and I ran the arc on x8. I( fought everything, and during the arc, I got one purple. Following that I joined an ITF where we steamrolled from one objective to the next, clearing most of the mobs on each map. I got another purple drop during that.

The second character duoed the arc with a friend. Since I wasn't sure how squishy her character was, I dropped my difficulty to +0x1. We fought to all the objectives, but didn't kill anything we didn't have to. I got another purple off that.

The other two characters had stealth and high defense, so I sped from one objective to the next, doing NOTHING that wasn't mandatory. I got no purples on either of them.

Since then, I have done at least three level 50 TFs and a few dozen level 50 missions. I haven't seen any purple drops during that time frame.

Overall, I'd say that the drop rate is roughly the same as it always has been. However, with a lot more people doing content that can drop purples lately, I'm expecting to see the price drop over the next few weeks. Probably not much - purples will always be expensive, but maybe back down to the 250-300 million range for the most expensive, rather than 400-600 million.

While that's commendable of you, the people who frequent this forum are more likely to have posted in TheMarket something along the lines of "Oops, I just bid 10 mil each on a stack of 10 Alc Gold." followed by some laughing at their expense, and everyone being over it 10 minutes later.

The people who are going to feel the loss the most probably don't come here, if they even post on the forums at all.

There's also the possibility that someone did it deliberately: Alc Golds have been spiking really high lately, and someone with scads of cash may have decided to pay the high price without checking to see if the low price was available, because they feel that their time is more valuable than a few (million) Inf.

There's also the possibility of it just being a random "gift". I know several people who will just randomly add a bunch of extra zeroes to an item, in the hopes that a lowbie or new player wins the lottery and catches that sale.

Ultimately, I doubt anyone will claim it. Enjoy your windfall, and don't feel bad about it.

Unfortunately, it's people like me that put you in that situation.

When I run level 50 content, I craft and sell every common recipe that drops that I have the salvage for. Then I take the leftover salvage and buy and craft level 45's. I sell these all on the market, usually at a loss, like what you did.

However, I eventually get the crafting badges, and have only lost a little bit once everything is added together. At this point, I craft all my salvage into memorized recipes and sell them on the markets at the same price, this time at a noticable markup.

So, as Fulmens suggested, craft those 45's, get your memorization badges, and soon, all will be golden for you.

Note that you will NOT be getting a 33% boost to your damage, unless your powers were underslotted for damage in the first place.

If you slotted the Common Boost, most of the enhancement will be consumed by ED, leaving only a 5-6% damage boost once ED applies to the portion affected by it.

With the Uncommon Boost, you'll get a 11% boost that ignores ED, plus however much of the remaining 22% gets past ED. Most characters will see a 11-13% boost on powers that were slotted to the endurance threshold, or roughly the equal of a small red inspiration.

Once you get the Very Rare (which isn't available yet), you'll have a 45% boost, 2/3 of which ignores ED, or a 30% boost plus 15% that's affected by ED. In this case, most characters will see a 30-33% boost, roughly equal to a large red.

Type /GMOTD in game and see the i19 announcement which includes this:

I would say that they are about as rare as a specific purple recipe. Not "I got a purple!" but "I got a Hecatomb: Damage!" or "I got a Coercive Persuasion: Confuse/Endurance!".

Getting two in such a short time span is damn lucky though.

The Complete Collection is the best way to go, even if he already has the game.

GR Upgrade: 29.99
CC item pack: 7.99
One month of game time: 14.99
Total: 51.97

GR Complete Collection: 39.99

Savings: 11.98

EDIT: If he didn't have the game, change "one month of game time" to "CoH/V: 19.99" and Savings to 16.98.

The limit is 5, hence the player-coined term "The Rule of Five".

No popular farm mission has had a timer added since Warwolf world and Dreck.

What you mention in the OP sounds like you're thinking of the changes to Freaks and Family - both had their XP and Inf values reduced in the 45-50 range, becuse they're easier than standard enemies. I don't think Demons were affected.

If you had the Farm on a Vigilante and went to the Rogue Isles, the mission would be removed from your list, and talking to the contact will get it back.

If the mission was completed, even if you hadn't meant for it to be, the GMs cannot fix it - missions are meant to be completed, so they have no reason to have a tool to "uncomplete" a mission.

You mean the "Beat four giant sacks of HP with huge resists and no reward that don't even fight back or offer any challenge" mission? Yeah, that one sucks.

If your version of Mids' is too old, or you aren't running with high enough permissions on some versions of Windows, the auto updater doesn't work.

You are aware that the random drops are a supplementary system to the intended way of earning Shards and components, which is completion awards for various endgame TFs, right?

Grinding is an option, but it's stupid. Over the last few days, I'm played about 4 hours solo on 0x8/Bosses on one character. I have 7 Shards to show for it. Last weekend, I ran ONE ITF with some friends. I completed my Common Boost with that one TF, which took about 1.5 hours. And I got 3 of the 7 Shards that I mentioned above.

Yes, someone could join a TF and cruise along for a free reward. But your proposed method of tying it to Story Arcs would allow it too. Just have everyone on the team pick up the arc, and complete the missions together, just like people are doing for the Alpha Unlock.

Concerning "worthy" vs. "undeserving" players: LOL. Seriously? Whou are you to dictate who "deserves" a Shard? If I want to go out and do the work while a friend tags along and tries to help (but spends most of their time faceplanted) - like I did yesterday - who deserves the Shards? Is it any different from me giving a few million Inf or a handful of Rare IOs to a friend? Did they suddenly "not deserve" the money or IOs because it was a gift instead of something they "legitamately earned"?

"Players need to have their skill tested"? They do. Their skill is tested by defeating foes. Whether it's masses of enemies at x8, a long string of bosses at +4, whetever you fight at the regular difficulty, or a full team storming through TFs, you earn the Shards. If they were handed out "lottery style" then all you would have to do is log in, and get your Shard when the system decided that you had "won".

I'm not even touching the "lazy programmers" paragraph. You go do a better job, and maybe I'll be able to read that without laughing at you.

"the laziest, most unskilled players can join a TF PUG and be rewarded richly while more highly skilled players receive far fewer rewards" - Wrong. Yes, the "lazy, unskilled player" gets freebies. But NOT at the cost of the "highly skilled players". The end of TF reward is selected on a per-player basis. Likewise, each time an enemy is defeated, EVERY player on the team has a chance for a Shard. It is possible (though highly unlikely) that every person on an 8-man team could get a Shard from a single enemy defeat. Teaming actually increases Shard generation because of how this mechanic works.

Summary: The RNG doesn't control the system. Yes, it's a possible alternative. Many people I know think that this new system is the "better and more" that you insist we deserve. Your suggestion of making it so that only the "skilled" players can earn the rewards is what turns MMOs into grindfests and endless farming. And if you think that the currently implemented stuff doesn't challenge the players, then you haven't done the new TFs yet.

1- Less than 10%. Three level 50 Recharge IOs and one even-level (8.3%) Training Origin pushes the recharge under the duration. Any significant amount of recharge will offset the Def portion of the Rage crash. I know you already know this, but for anyone else reading this - You cannot offset the -Damage or -End parts of the crash, only the -Def.

2- Kinetic Combat is your best friend. There are several other sets you can use, check out this page, and sort the last page in descending order so you can see the bonuses from largest to smallest. Don't gimp your build slotting for esoteric effects. Take a couple if you can (Like 2-slotting Rectified Reticle in Rage), but mostly focus on sets for things you've already got - Melee Damage, Resist and maybe Taunt.

3- I'll let someone else do the build. I don't have Mids' on this computer.

4- Recharge. The more often you can Foot Stomp, the more awesome you are. Getting your Energy defense up helps too, since it's the next most common attack type. I'd rely mainly on the S/L def and Regen though.

Another option is to cap your Energy and/or Ranged Defense. Eating a bunch of purples (as mentioned above) will do this, or it can be done with sets and/or power picks. If they attack you, the rest of their group will aggro on you, but if they don't actually hit, your stealth won't suppress, and nobody else will attack you (unless they also have drones).

Did you gift them (ie drag the enhancement over the character in question and drop them) or trade them (ie give them to the character via the trade window)?

IIRC, the bug that stripped the +'s off combined enhancements only occured when the enhancements were gifted.