Sardan

Fire/Dark is terrific. But try setting up a "mini superteam" of more than one. Oh man. I had one of my most memorable game nights when 3 of us teamed up around the mid 30s. We played together for about 3 hours and just steamrolled everything. Perma-Tar Patch and multiple RoFs. It was nuts.

EDIT: actually Fire/Dark would be a fun superteam idea. Just make sure everyone takes Maneuvers because 8-stacked Maneuvers plus all the Dark debuffs plus tons of AoE would be nasty.

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Or there could be a next but it doesn't forget everything if you go back...

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Probably more like the AE's mission creator interface, where there's a Next button at the bottom but also buttons at the top that directly allow you to go to different functions.

I hope they tackle the Speed pool powers soon. If not at launch, as soon as possible thereafter. The first thing I want to do is tone Hasten and Super Speed WAAAAY down.

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Items trading in a shortage (purples) will not go down at all as there will be no oversupply, so they will continue to rise as disposable income rises. Hold on to your purples, the prices are just going up.

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Perhaps. They haven't announced new content yet but if there is any high level content, that combined with the mission difficulty slider would mean the rate of purples being produced will rise and we'll see purple prices fall somewhat.

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I'm not much of a market hound, but I'll be running my aoe toons like this:
Spawn for 6-8, difficulty 4, conning -2.

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I must've missed it; where does the announcement say we'll be able to adjust the spawn levels downward?

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So if you ever wanted to see if your Scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can!

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I started crying.

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I couldn't stand up from my desk for a bit. Resubbed as soon as I got home.

There is only one outstanding wishlist item left for this to be a perfect game for me and that's account-wide inf/enh storage.

As it is, I think I'll be sticking around for quite a while just because of the difficulty scaler change.

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Welcome back! I thought of you the instant I saw the announcement of the new difficulty slider.

AE is a cool idea. Allows you to create your own stories and play through some really creative stories other people have dreamed up. Some of the best story arcs I've played have been in the AE.

But the AE also allows you to create perfect farm maps. You can fill a huge outdoor map with +2 bosses and go to town. The hospital is only 20 steps away from the mission entrance. An insp vendor is only 10 steps away. Missions can be created that auto-SK a bunch of lowbies to level 50 so one or two strong characters can basically PL an entire team. Want to skip taking a travel power? No prob, the farthest you ever have to go is to the trainer.

Many people have reported going to level 50 in just a couple of days. There is a new supply of "MA babies", players who don't know what used to be pretty basic knowledge about how to get capes and auras, what the various zones are, etc.

It certainly has made finding or building non-MA PuG teams harder. Some people go so far as to claim it has ruined the game. Others claim exactly the opposite; that the old game was boring and stale and the MA has revived their interest. That they hated waiting for 5-10 minutes at a mission door for everyone to arrive, only to do content they had done many times before that wasn't challenging.

So in summary: it's controversial.

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Just this change to difficulty levels (and Rad Blasters, here's hoping it doesn't get the Psi treatment) is making I16 the first issue I've been more than lukewarm toward since I12.

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Actually the thought of a Claws brute gets me rather excited. That and being able to pick alternate animations for SS. I don't hate the current ones, but I'm just eager to see what they come up with for new ones.

If you can wait till i16, there is a new announcement that Claws is coming. That will be a terrific brute powerset. I haven't played a DM brute but my understanding of it is that it's great for building Fury since it has quick attacks that are end-efficient. Claws too has a reputation for having a fast fluid attack chain that seriously pumps out sustained DPS.

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So what do you think prices will be at once we can set the missions for 8 people even solo? More people farming. I am thinking some might actually leave the AE to go back to regular critter farms.

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Prices will drop no question.

I know I'll be back in PI and I'm positive a lot of my farming buddies will be too.

Purples will be flooding the market before long...assuming they dont lower the drop rate even more than it appears they have since i14.

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I agree. This is a game-changer.

Aside from any traditional solo farms, this is going to make regular old content seem fresh. Imagine getting together with a group of in-game friends who can all steamroll normal content. Then you crank the difficulty slider up and fight for your lives and really feel like you've accomplished something.

What'd really be a kick is if you can adjust spawn sizes not just for level but for team size beyond a max of 8. I'm not thrilled by a map filled by +4s, but for example part of what makes the ITF and LGTF so enjoyable for me is facing huge hordes of foes. I'd love to be able to set a mission slider for a team of 8 so the mobs are all still "only" +3 but spawned as if the team had 10 people! Oh the carnage.

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Ladies and Gentlemen the OP asked for help, not a bickering session. If one disagrees with another then fine, offer another case and point. Throwing around insults don't prove a point...it makes you look childish.

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Hold on a minute there, bub. This is an internet forum. As such, it is subject to certain inviolable laws including the inevitability that bickering over off-topic trivia will inevitably descend first to vitriolic personal attacks, then ultimately to being compared to Hitler. So, sure, we'll all listen to your commands, mein Führer!

EDIT: more seriously, I just did an interesting personal experiment. I had an Elec/Shield that I invested heavily in so he was softcapped and had decent +Recharge bonuses. Ran lots of ITFs/LGTFs and a couple of respec trials with him. Super effective, great fun to play. The worst that could be said was a) Elec's single target damage is indeed nothing to write home about, and b) modest defense debuff resistance compared to sets like SR or Ice means that a couple of lucky shots by Cimerorans opens you up to speedy death unless you're reasonably on your toes and pop a purple to get your defense back up. So if the OP decides to roll an Elec/[anything], I predict much fun in his future.

Based on ThugsRus's latest brute guide for SS/SD, I decided to roll one up and transfer IOs from the Elec/SD to the new brute. The new character does pump out the AoE a little better than the Elec, and has the hard-hitting single attacks I didn't have before. So it's a good way to go, and I'm pleased with the results. On the other hand, Rage crashes with their -25% End and inability to do damage for 10 seconds are a pain in the butt and I miss how splashy and fun Lightning Rod was. Heck, I even made a mini-game out of seeing how many jumps I could get Chain Induction to do! So my SS/SD is more effective than my Elec/SD, but more fun? Nah.

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The inflation is not AE's fault. It's the fault of greedy sellers and stupid buyers (not always both at the same time though).

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No. Inflation isn't caused by the mentality of buyers and sellers. It's caused by having the amount currency growing at a faster rate than the goods being purchased by that currency. More money chasing after the same or fewer goods = higher prices.

Thus inflation of certain goods like salvage and purple recipes is indeed due to AE. Purples because they're not generated in AE (except in Devs' Choice arcs) and salvage because most people are reluctant to cash in their tickets for it. So supply of those items has decreased, while the rate of currency coming into the game has increased--after all, if you can get to 50 in 2 days, that means you're generating the same amount of inf that used to take months.

Of course, the AE isn't only responsible for inflation. It also has resulted in huge price dropsfor many recipes. This is especially noticeable for villains; before AE many sought-after recipes simply weren't available at any price.

And here's an easy prediction: when Going Rogue eventually goes live, you'll see a crash of salvage prices because at least for a while supply will shoot up again due to people playing through non-AE content. None of this is due to buyers/sellers getting smarter or dumber. It's all supply and demand in action.

If you want two completely new-to-you sets, I'd second DM/Shield. Shield is squishy compared to most other sets until you are able to start layering on set bonuses but DM debuffs accuracy so it's the perfect compliment to a defense set. Also as mentioned DM has the heal that Shields lack.

If you have a large budget and don't mind playing SS again, a strong case can be made for SS/Shield for a real min-max "brute god". With a lot of set +defense and +recharge bonuses you get a softcapped (i.e. highly survivable) character with two inherent +damage capabilities (Rage and Againt All Odds), a very high damage AoE attack in his secondary, strong single target attacks and the ability to pump out lots of AoE by cycling Footstomp and Patron AoE attacks. ThugsRus has an SS/SD guide that shows some sample builds. His most expensive build is heart-stoppingly expensive, but you can build an awesome SS/SD without purples. Still won't be cheap though!

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I would say you're an idiot but that might be against the rules of the forum.

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explain

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I'm guessing they're referring to the way you used the term "figure of speech" then slammed another user for not understanding it the way you used it. The normal way "figure of speech" is used is as a label for commonly used phrases that don't make literal sense like "I caught his eye from across the room."

What you used was more of a hypothetical example, not a figure of speech. And thus it's annoying when you misuse a term then impugn someone else's reading comprehension when they don't follow.

I could be wrong, but that's my take.

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To the topic, they are alike in damage,unless it is a IDEAL team(with like 2 Kins) or a totally IO'ed out DM/Shield Brute. Brutes are more survivable, but in a team I can see this not mattering at all, mobs debuffed, controlled etc etc.

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Sorry but they're not alike in damage. From a "cold start" with no outside buffs a scrapper does considerably more damage than a brute. A brute requires fury to increase damage. With outside buffs a brute's damage can go higher than a scrapper's because the brute damage cap is higher.

As far as my own preference I'd say it's a wash. Differences in player ability and build are more significant than inherent differences between the two ATs.

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I so despise this badge.

What the hell kind of sense does it make to give a badge for an accolade that is pretty much a must-have, where you have to get sadomasochistically abused all night to receive.

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The same sense that makes the hero version require defeating 13 Praetorians to get it?

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What?! If anything, that proves how borked the villain-side badge is. I view having to defeat the Praetoreans as a model more of these badges should be switched to: regular content that you can work through but it's non-trivial. That's the ideal way to earn an accolade.

For example, when I unlocked Rularuu weapons for my scrapper, I went into the Shadow Shard and farmed eyeball bosses. Boring, unfun. When I wanted to unlock the Rularuu shield for my Brute, I did Scirocco's "Hammer of the World" arc. Fun, interesting content with an actual story.

Heroside an infamous accolade requirement is the stupid summoned illusionist one. They should change that instead to a requirement to do all of Harvey Maylor or Madeleine Casey's arcs, or even both arcs. That'd be infinitely better than the stupid requirement as it stands.

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Like my build on my Kat/Regen Stalker needs a Numina's proc, so am saving for 250 merits for that for her instead of spending upward of 50mil on it on the market.

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You're better off spending 200 merits on a LotG 7.5% recharge. Sell that for around 100M, and buy your Numina. You spend less merits and pocket a nice profit.

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Their dual builds are SOd

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Curses! Foiled again!

/e shakefist

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I actually prefer it to be harder. The harder stuff is more fun, interesting and engaging to me.

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Because I'm a compassionate person, I want to help you in your quest for harder stuff. And what's cool is you don't have to re-roll your characters! Just respec a couple of them and give me any purples or PVP IOs you have. I *guarantee* the game will instantly be more challenging for you, while simultaneously being less so for me! So we'll both be having more fun. It's a win-win, I tells ya.

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Elphaba: You really don't have to do that....
Galinda: I know! That's what makes me so nice!


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It's live now!

No cool ultra-rare drops from bosses yet. However, the OP's post reminds me of my first time in the ASN. My SG-mates invited me to the Hydra trial. I was minimum level for it, and that was one terrifyingly long run to get there. Thrilling, but terrifying. So many red/purple spawns. And creepy tentacles popping up out of the water. *shudder*

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Elec/Shield PERIOD.

No more discussion. I've seen a few of those in AE.. man, oh man do they kill quick with two Lightning Rod-like powers.

I am not a fan of Brute but Elec/Shield can really deal impressive aoe damage. You may need herding a bit but I don't think there is anything close to this combo unless it's a nuke from Blaster but Lightning Rod and Shield Charge don't have endurance crash and they are only on 90s recharge.

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I love my Elec/Shield. And it's true that since Lightning Rod and Shield Charge are both superior damage powers, when I'm damage capped by Fulcrum Shift I can do an incredible amount of burst damage with the two TP attacks. The TP attacks are fun, flashy, and cause knockdown. That's all good.

What's not so good is that they both are on 90 second timers. Foot Stomp has a smaller radius and does less damage but it's on a 20 second timer. That's key. That's what lets SS pull ahead in damage. The time it takes for two Lightning Rods = 9 Footstomps.

Ultimately it comes down to personal preference. Many folks hate Rage's cooldown period and -End penalty. There are circumstances playing Elec where it's very nice doing Energy damage since it's resisted less than Smashing. And having 2 TP attacks plus Thunder Strike which does AoE knockdown is just pretty damn fun.

Elec/Shield is fun and very effective but it's not accurate to say it's the ultimate AoE brute.

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I honestly wonder if they thought the change through.

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they've been making a lot of bad, knee-jerk decisions lately for whatever reason.

This is another one that smells more like I'll show those stinking farmers who's boss! than What's best big-picture solution to this issue?

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To me what it seems like is they were in a big meeting covering lots of topics and they hit the agenda item of afk arena farming.

"OK, any suggestions for how to curb this?"

"Well, we could change it so that instead of getting a chance at a drop for every defeat, we just make it so you get a chance every 5 minutes."

"Sounds good, assign it to Joe."

And then Joe blithely implements it. Does a simple test: A kills B and sure enough A gets his rep and a chance at a drop and then can't get another chance for 5 minutes. Joe declares victory and goes back to coding for i16 or Going Rogue, not realizing the problem that has been discussed ad nauseum here, that the 5 minute timer can easily turn into a forever timer.

That's what gets me, the strong suspicion that they think they've implemented a 5 minute rule rather than a "never" rule.

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Well, they had to do something about arena farming. they were 'easy' enough farm that way that it undermined the incentive factor.

But their reaction does seem like an over-reaction.

Totally ridiculous rarity undermines the incentive just as much as having them too common for arena farmers.

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I honestly wonder if they thought the change through. I think they intended to change the drop availability from once per kill with a 10 minute blackout after a drop to having one chance every 5 minutes for a given foe. The problem is that due to the stupid way the rep timer works, the nominal 5 minute window can easily stretch to infinity.

I think what would help fix it is to fix the rep timer rules (instantiate only when you defeat someone and no resets) AND make it so you could exchange rep points for a PVP IO random roll. (Yay, another currency!) That would keep them essentially impossible to AFK farm while rewarding actual PVPers and not penalizing those who PVP in lightly populated zones. This wouldn't make the supply abundant but at least it'd act as an actual incentive and reward for PVPing.

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I thought these pvp IOs were added so that there was a reward other than rep for playing pvp, in order to entice more people into trying it.

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That's what we all thought. That's part of the frustration with the latest change to the drop rules. The PVP IOs were already rare under the original system. Now due entirely to the poorly thought out changes to the rep system, they're going to remain rarer than purples.

For something to really act as an incentive it has to be perceived as having a reasonable chance of being obtained.