Sardan

In a couple of recent threads I've been chiming in about my current brute, an SS/SD that I'm super happy with. I started with ThugsRus's SS/SD guide, but modified the build because purples were out of the question for me. Thanks to his input and some very thoughtful comments from TopDoc, the result is the build below.

The expense of this build is relative: it's vastly more expensive than any other villain I've had (none of my other villains have even a single LotG 7.5% recharge; this one has 5) but given the crazy prices of purples now, it's far cheaper than the multi-billion builds I've seen posted recently.

The only insanely expensive IO on this build is one of the empty slots in Deflection. It's for the Gladiator's Armor 3% unique. (I got it for a lot less than the current "are you kidding me?!" prices.) The other slot is a Gladiator's Armor Resistance IO for the 2.5% recovery bonus. The reason I have a generic EndMod in Stamina is that the build is at the limit for 2.5% recovery bonuses. Switching it to a Performance Shifter would not yield any additional bonus.

Mids doesn't show it (because it hasn't been updated to deal with PvP IOs yet), but with the Gladiator's Armor unique, the build is over the Defense soft cap in melee/range/AoE with no teammates in range.

EDIT: Chaos_Creator pointed out downthread that his build didn't max out AoE defense. That's a perfectly reasonable way to go. The most important defenses are Melee and Ranged. AoE attacks are less common and generally you won't be in much danger if you don't soft-cap for AoE.

I've been pleased with the frankenslotting of Foot Stomp. I could've easily slotted that for some additional global recharge but the resulting End cost wasn't worth it to me. Foot Stomp has very little Acc, relying on 41% global Acc bonuses + the ToHit from Rage.

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Sofa King Brutal: Level 50 Mutation Brute
Primary Power Set: Super Strength
Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Punch -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(3), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Dam%(29)
Level 1: Deflection -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(7), LkGmblr-Rchg+(9), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(9), Empty(11), Empty(11)
Level 2: Battle Agility -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(7), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(13)
Level 4: True Grit -- RgnTis-Regen+(A), Mrcl-Heal(15), Mrcl-Rcvry+(15), Numna-Heal(19), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(27), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(48)
Level 6: Haymaker -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 8: Knockout Blow -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(27), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13)
Level 12: Active Defense -- HO:Membr(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(17), Zephyr-ResKB(17)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), EndMod-I(37), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(37), P'Shift-End%(40)
Level 22: Rage -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(23), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(23), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(25), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(37), GSFC-Build%(50)
Level 24: Phalanx Fighting -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 28: Boxing -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 30: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(31), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 32: Foot Stomp -- Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(33), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(34), FrcFbk-Rechg%(34)
Level 35: Shield Charge -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Oblit-%Dam(46)
Level 38: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(39), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43), RedFtn-Def(43), RedFtn-EndRdx(46)
Level 41: Electrifying Fences -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(42), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dam%(43)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(45), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(48), Zephyr-ResKB(50)
Level 49: Grant Cover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Fury
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]10% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]10% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]10% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]10% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]10% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]10% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]10% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]10% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]8% Defense(Smashing)[*]8% Defense(Lethal)[*]10.5% Defense(Fire)[*]10.5% Defense(Cold)[*]8.63% Defense(Energy)[*]8.63% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]13% Defense(Melee)[*]14.3% Defense(Ranged)[*]13.3% Defense(AoE)[*]70% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]41% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]10% FlySpeed[*]174.3 HP (11.6%) HitPoints[*]10% JumpHeight[*]10% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -8)[*]Knockup (Mag -8)[*]MezResist(Held) 2.75%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 9.35%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 1.65%[*]MezResist(Stun) 2.2%[*]10% (0.17 End/sec) Recovery [It's actually 12.5%][*]54% (3.38 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]4.41% Resistance(Fire)[*]4.41% Resistance(Cold)[*]15% RunSpeed[/list]

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First use all your resources from the game (do not let these heathens talk you into using your Primary and Secondary powers only).
There are Temporary Powers and ACCOLADES (badges that give you bonuses, look these up at paragonwiki.com and badgehunters.com).
First i have slotted a full set of Eradication ENHANCEMENTS (earned from missions, trading, or bought at Wentworth's in Atlas) this gives me a base Blast of 365.5

Before i attack i hit all my ACCOLADES (others say this is a dumb idea but Vanguard Accolade gives extra bonuses to the secondary effects of powers). I then hit POWER BOOST (Epic Power) which ups my base to 657.9 so now i just pop 2 tier 1 Red INSPIRATIONS and 2 tier 1 Yellow (for accuracy, this step is not necessary), and you are way above the cap 822 but you max out at 704.8.

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Felicia, this is an example of clear, no-obfuscation posting. If you stick to this style rather than hand-waving and mysterious "I'll tell you tomorrow!" statements, you'll be truly helping to inform and help other players.

Even with what you're describing here, I fail to see how you could kill an AV in 15 seconds 4 times in a row. If you could, I'd imagine I'd see well-known power players like Werner, TopDoc, and Smurphy doing it. Those players are well known for sharing very detailed descriptions of their builds and accomplishments. They have built up credibility over time and have shared some jaw-droppingly impressive accomplishments. So far, from what I've seen, you haven't. In fact, your preferred posting style seems almost anti-informative, the above quote being the exception rather than the norm.

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[This applies to damage mitigation as well; up to what point are squishies allowed to seek mitigation outside of their powersets before it is considered 'cheating'?]

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Well, again this really comes down to what the object is. If I'm soloing just to get a mission done, I'll use every trick I have available to get it done. If something is being done for bragging rights, that's a different deal. It's pointless to haul out pets or use other temp powers when soloing a Rikti pylon in the RWZ because that is a test of sustained DPS. Likewise the Scrapper Challenge in the RWZ has evolved certain rules over time because without those rules you could make it trivially simple.

Yesterday I was in an LGTF team that had mostly dissolved. It was only 3 of us against the Honoree at the end. I would've used a Shivan in a heartbeat if I'd had one because we just couldn't do damage fast enough to him before his Unstoppable recharged. The key difference is that if I'd done that I wouldn't come to the forums and brag how 3 of us had taken down the Honoree and omit the key detail of using a Shivan.

So to me, the only "cheating" is when you brag about something but you mislead other people as to the true nature of the accomplishment.

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If you use pets (MM, Dom, Troller, (DS or VS), is it still soloing?

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Yes, since they're inherent powers. Pet classes simply can't achieve max DPS without their pets. The objection some folks have to the temp pets (Shivans especially) is that they add a lot of DPS and debuffs that are not inherent to a character's build.

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I'm bothering to work out the details on this, because I believe that knowledge should be shared with new players, to help them better themselves and learn how the game works.

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Thank you MTS, that's more than Felicia has done so far. I must say I find her hypocrisy irritating. Her tone is that of a person trying to be helpful yet she's anything but. Her lame "how do you get Blackstar to max damage.... I'll tell you tomorrow!" was typically unhelpful.

Felicia, if you want to be helpful, try being plain-spoken. If you had said, "did you know Blackstar caps at 704.8 damage if you use enough red insps" that would have been helpful and educational. Your little riddle was neither. In fact, what would've really helped is to tell them how many small/med/large reds it takes to get up to the Defender damage cap. That's not intuitively obvious and would be a real service for a newer player. Sharing tidbits like how the combat attributes monitor doesn't factor in damage enhancements would also be helpful.

So far I see MTS being carefully analytical and sharing stuff that can educate other players. I don't see that from Felicia yet.

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Did I forget to mention that she says she solo's AV's even though she uses nukes, shivs, warwolves, hvas heavies, insps, and MORE to "solo" them. Oh wait I already said that. Oh well may as well say it again. Not sure about the 4 times in a minute, but the "SOLO"'ing is true...if you call THAT solo'ing...

true solo is no temps no insps

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This is always a gray area when it comes to defining soloing a challenge. Yours is the most strict definition I've heard. Nearly everyone else would say you can use insps like crazy and you're definitely still soloing.

The use of temp powers is where people have different opinions. Personally I have no problem with someone who says they soloed a challenge if they disclose that they used temp powers. To me that's still in the realm of soloing, it's just not quite as hardcore-mode as someone who doesn't use temps. Others dismiss this type of "soloing" since with a Shivan, Wolf, Vanguard HVAS, and Amy you practically can build up a little mini-team. The key is just being upfront and disclosing it.

I second the wiki. Make a new post that simply points to it. I direct new players to it all the time.

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Having knowledge of the game makes it easier. the OP does not suck, he just needs time to learn the game and what is possible.
As for the rest of what was recently posted, it was very negative and pointless.

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People point out it's mathematically impossible for you to kill an AV 4 times in 60 seconds without exploits and you hand-wave it away as "negative and pointless?" Wow. That's really pathetic.

You say the OP should have knowledge of the game. What knowledge of the game was missing in the analysis of your Dark/Dark taking on a lvl 50 AV?

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This is a super hero game. Why shouldn't it be expected that you should be able to maximize your potential in a reasonable amount of time.

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Certainly the devs could've used that approach as their design philosophy. But they didn't. I happen to believe that purples are a little too scarce currently, but given the changes they're making in i16 we're going to see a new equilibrium emerge. Not the "anyone will be able to get them" scenario you want, but more available than they are now.

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The i16 info actually vindicates me.

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... its obvious how you could come to the mistaken conclusion that I16 vindicates your position. For at least this definition of vindicates:

Vindicates:
To get revenge for; to avenge

It does look like I16 is specifically designed to take revenge on your posts, but that's entirely a coincidence.

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That last sentence made me literally laugh out loud. Then look around guiltily. When I was alone in the room.

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Let me try to flip this a bit. Rather than asking questions during leveling (which would get annoying), perhaps it would be better to give tips near the end of the tutorial zone.

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I'll support this only if the tips are presented by an animated happy paper clip.

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You can ask people those questions before inviting them to your own personal team. Perhaps by using this method you can test the viability and popularity of this idea.

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An example of a test administered by Smurph:

[Smurph] What is the proper method for a Fire blaster to pull?
[Potential Teammate] Fireball.
[Smurph] You're in!

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And how would one get this badge?

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Honestly that's up to the devs. As long as it's not 200 Summoned Illusionist Decoys or 10,000 Rikti Monkeys, that's fine by me. The basic idea is it'd be something that you'd basically never get by accident. Thus either an Accolade or make it a single exploration badge in a very out of the way place.

The fundamental idea is if someone is motivated to get the badge, they've unlocked the ability to ignore minimum TF team size requirements, but no player would ever accidentally do so then be dismayed when he couldn't solo Lord Recluse.

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When did i say i never farm??? I rarely do boss farms, but i do farm the hell out of the cimeroran wall, and doing itf's

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I guess you just play a lot more than me. If you're looking at an unlimited budget scrapper.... let's call that potentially a 5 billion inf build just for grins. You just spent 4.5 billion on your fire/kin. So if you're claiming you made nearly 10 billion by farming the walls and doing ITFs, I certainly won't call you a liar, but let's just say I'm deeply skeptical.

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To the OP if you are fighting bosses and you want survivability and have some funds to throw this way.. i vote SS/Stone Armor

If you will be fighting LT's id vote SS/SD.

to the others that will reply to this... he doesnt want /FA as he stated in his original post. /wp is still an option.. feel free to recommend it.. late

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For all we know the OP made his choice and has been happily playing his character while we bicker, LOL.

But for anyone else still reading this, I wanted to emphasize there's really important factor that is easily overlooked: budget. If you don't have a lot of funds to invest, WP is a very strong contender. In fact, the only thing I really dislike about WP is that its taunt aura is pathetic. Most may not care but that annoys me a great deal.

If you build a Stone just using normal IOs, be prepared to live with its limitations, learn to TP in combat, and build a Friends list full of Kins. As has been said in this thread, you can build a fast-running Granite character with lots of +recharge, but it's costly.

Similarly, you can build a Shielder with just generic IOs but honestly the WP will outperform it pretty much from 1-50. IMO it's only when you really layer on the +Def to softcap it that it goes from mild to wild.

I think we've beaten this to death. But as with many decisions in life, this one way come down to budget!

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If I made it through a day being called nothing worse than a crybaby, I think I'd pinch myself.

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Er... wow. I make it through pretty much every day without being called names. Maybe you need to get a different set of friends/coworkers.

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Khan?

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Nahk! (only, this time, Pinky says it instead of Kirk)

/been wanting to customize flight for a long, long, long, erm, long time.

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It would be cool, now that the interface supports it, to be able to pick your default flight pose from the 5 they made a while back.

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Oh I hadn't thought about that. Yes please!

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Bab's might be able to do something to make them a lot more transparent. That should make it much more apparent that the targets are phased out.

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That would be AWESOME. My main beef with phase shift powers is that they're overly subtle. I've seen many players pound on phased enemies before going "Huh? I'm not doing damage?"

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Okay, I guess people would rather have a game full of players who have no idea what they're doing than spend 15 seconds answering a couple questions every 10 levels. Not even hard questions, it's not like I'm suggesting you pass the SAT or write a college term paper.

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That's what's called a "false dichotomy". Just because people aren't fans of your particular suggestion doesn't mean we don't like what you were striving for. I too would like to see people experience the game outside of AE, but your quiz isn't a good solution to the problem.

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And I apologized for flying off the handle in a later post.

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Oh I missed that. Didn't read the entire thread before I responded. Sorry.

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I'll just have to accept that this is an unpopular idea. I still like it, but no one yet has supported it.

But...just because something is unpopular doesn't make it a bad idea.

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Oh I hear you loud and clear on that! In this very forum I suggested breaking out the challenge slider into separate difficulty/team size settings, and was roundly denounced as an ebil farmer. The ratio of catcalls to posts of support was enormous. It's rather delicious that the devs saw things my way.

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Honestly, I don't think you need to give tips on how to make inf to a guy that said he just spent 4.5 billion on one character.

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It depends on how he made the inf. &gt;_&gt;

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Well, considering he supposedly just spent 4.5 billion, yet is asking for a scrapper build where influence does not matter, I certainly have my suspicions...

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Yeah. the same suspicions I had when he casually remarked he spent 4.5 billion while saying he never farms and showing minimal understanding of market pricing?

Plus the fact he calls it an "extreme build" makes me giggle.

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Wow, I take it back. The guy's posts pretty much scream "I bought my inf". What's funny is in his Scrapper post he indicates he spent his 4.5 billion purpling out his Fire/Kin. Why bother?!? He creates a classic farming toon when he isn't into farming? I suppose he thinks that Fire/Kins are as uber at all content as they are in carefully chosen farm missions. Speaking as a player who does have a purpled Fire/Kin, I love playing them but they're not godly in all circumstances. Damn good yes, but there are challenges my scrappers and brutes laugh at that would crush my Fire/Kin.

Oh well. I only hope he gets a hankering to play a villain soon. I'd like to sell him some my next purple drop at a "buy it nao" price.

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People who feel the need to use real life gains to influence their in-game status sadden me.

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Eh, I dunno. When I go to the office I take a toll road even though there's a free alternative. It's all about how much it's worth to save time and aggravation. As I've mentioned before on these forums, I dabble in the market but I don't find it particularly fun, especially when I'm excited about a new character that I'm itching to play. If there was a legal way to purchase inf I'd do it rather than mess with marketeering. It's not that it's hard, just tedious. I like having the option to pay to avoid tedium.

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This reminds me of the people who, instead of waiting in line in traffic, shoot to the front of the line of cars and push their way in at the last minute. They are the ones CAUSING the line of cars so if they'd just [censored] WAIT like everyone else, the line of cars would go away.

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This part I'm with you on 100%. I hate those people!

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Okay, I guess people would rather have a game full of players who have no idea what they're doing than spend 15 seconds answering a couple questions every 10 levels. Not even hard questions, it's not like I'm suggesting you pass the SAT or write a college term paper.

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That's what's called a "false dichotomy". Just because people aren't fans of your particular suggestion doesn't mean we don't like what you were striving for. I too would like to see people experience the game outside of AE, but your quiz isn't a good solution to the problem.

Castle mentioned that although i16 will have a new more advanced mission setting slider, they won't be changing the minimum TF requirements in order to keep them as "warning labels" for newer players. I certainly understand that.

But some of us have the right characters and experience to want to solo TFs. What I suggest is that the devs create a new accolade called Soloist. TFs would check for minimum team size OR the presence of this accolade. That way no newbie would ever accidentally start a TF below min team size, but those of us who wanted to, could. Problem solved!

EDIT: even though I'm proposing the name Soloist because I think it sounds cool, the idea is that you could start any TF while ignoring the minimium team size limits, not that you literally would have to do them alone. So you could duo a TF that normally requires 4 to start, or play a team of 6 on a TF that normally requires 8 to start.

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For the first time i purpled out a toon (5 sets of 5 purples, 2 of those sets are ragnarok and arm.) along w/ slotting him w/ the MUST HAVE io's (lotg: + global rech, miracle + recov., regen. tissue: + regen, etc.)

IT COST ME 4.5 BILLION!!!!!

I'm sure if i was a little patient, and decided to farm the cim. wall 24/7 i could have gotten it for less, but that is ridiculous...

So, who wants to play president and draw up a plan to get the virtual inflation down... other than taking out AE...

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Add supply and you will get deflation...

Stop witch hunting farmers... most sell what they get so that add to supply and bring down prices.

Increase doing missions with rewards 47-52 regular in-game content.

Do TF's and SF's as you are leveling and after... merits are your friend.

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Honestly, I don't think you need to give tips on how to make inf to a guy that said he just spent 4.5 billion on one character.

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Qr - if the 'choose your own team size while soloing' thing is not in the MA, will the rewards for farming using it be greater than those from an MA farm? If not, it wont dent the MA farming signiducantly.

And does this new shiny tool mean i can start TFs when solo now?



eco

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Nope.

EDIT: although thinking about this lead me to post on the Suggestions forum about a nice solution to this situation.