SerialBeggar

This bit about flushing all of your unused H/V Merits is a bummer though.

My richest characters are all the ones that are in semi-retirement. I usually log them all in at least once a week to check on their Day Job status anyway, so I take a quick detour to the Market to see if anything has happened there. The ones I don't play can take the bigger risks (I'm still small potatoes, though) and have no qualms about waiting things out.

I forgot to mention this. Way back in the day, before the Market and the Invention system, we were all dirt poor on our very first few characters. I was using mostly Dual Origins up to the high 20s. It was generally accepted that the early 30s was the turning point when you could finally earn enough Influence to afford a full replacement of all your enhancements with Single Origins. And boy was it "pouring in" once I could go into Peregrine and hit the level 40 enemies. Truly, I was giddy with amount I had that I'd buy another full round at the next level up just so I can combine the SOs to + and ++ so they remained at max effectiveness.

And you'd have to go through this with each new character unless you had a friend to pass you some Inf. There was no way to pass Inf to yourself. There were work arounds, like having a Base with storage bins so you could deposit some junk enhancement drops for you lowbie alt to pick up and sell. Life was tough and we made do. Just before the Market was launched, my richest character had a little over 20 million. That's just pocket change to a lot of players nowadays.

I second this suggestion. Your characters' personal inventories are too limiting. Set up a personal supergroup and a Base. Have someone help you invite all your alts (make a few filler alts too) so you'll get the 20K Prestige bonus for the first 15 SG members. This should be enough to get a couple of storage bins (salvage and enhancements). You've already begun to see which items are expensive. When you get these as drops, put them away into your bins until you need it.

(note: don't forget to turn on SG mode on all your characters, so you can earn more Prestige.)

If you're already in someone else's SG and are accustom to using their teleport pads, you can ask their leader if they'll set up a coalition with your personal SG so you can still use their facilities.

I can't even give away my Titan-Os.

We can bank fractional amounts? Don't typical even level minion defeats give 3-4 Prestige?

Well, those that like to get into melee will be taken out as a consequence of the AOEs directed at the AV. However, a lot of enemies are ranged oriented and will hang back.

For example, those teleporting Rikti Headman Gunmen. They may port in next to you initially to take a shot or two, but afterwards, they will port out to max range and stay there. If you pay attention, you will notice that they will form a ring around you (if there's enough of them) popping you in the back with their blasters.

When I'm playing my own Tanks with a team, I don't stay targeted with a single foe for any significant amount of time. I'm constantly alternating Tab and an attack to try to cycle through every foe near enough to me to hit. I'm also on the look out for foes at the fringes of my aura to use Taunt on them when it recharges. In addition, I do have a couple of ranged attacks (Nem Staff, Black Wand) to use too. So there's not much point on targeting through me as even I won't know what I am or will be targeting sometimes.

With this experience, when I'm playing a non-Tank/Brute character, I choose my own targets. As a ranged damager, I have the benefit of being able to see the entire field of battle. I make use of this to pick off specific annoying enemies and runners with my single target attacks in between dropping AOEs on the mass around the meleers.

Oh, and then you meet the old school "Tanks" who just stand in the middle of an enemy group doing nothing except having their taunt aura on, all the while believing that they are so great because they're not getting hurt.

Yup.

Even playing solo, in most cases, I'd take out the minions first. I can usually 2.5 (as a lowbie) to 1.5 shot a minion (as a highbie with better slotting) compared to 6+ shots to take out a Boss. So instead of slugging it out with a Boss while his entourage nickles and dimes me, and possibly get a lucky shot in to knock me down or otherwise incapacitate me at a critical moment, I can get rid of most of the pests first even if I have to lead the Boss on a merry chase.

However, if the character I'm playing can stand up to all the incoming damage for the duration, then it is better to focus on the Boss and allow the rest to cluster tighter for more efficient AOE-ing.

Ah. OK. The way you guys were talking, it sounded like it was more recent.

What buffs are you talking about here? When were they happen?

Isn't 15 minutes?