Smurphy

I got about 30-45 minutes this afternoon. Took a while to run everyone to the same zone.

Ding, all 3 are level 18.

They are all single target until level 32. After that...

Going into any mission, resting, and getting dealt damage just under your regeration rate in "Rest" is ideal.

The answer IS SS/Fire or SS/Shield. Forget the votes. Run herostats.

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I've had my disagreements and battles with Smurph, but in this instance he's doing something immensely valuable for the game's population, shining a spotlight on a dev-created minefield where they refuse to provide useful, well defined guidelines while threatening players with bans and other punitive measures.

As with their original reluctance to give players meaningful information about powers- if they don't tell us the numbers, we have to find them out ourselves.

For that he deserves a hearty round of applause.

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I agree wholeheartedly. In fact Smurphy did a lot to change my thinking about how the devs should have handled the MA release debacle - if we'd had people like Smurphy doing things like this in closed beta, the devs probably would have been more prepared for what happened in live. Instead, what I remember is that nearly everyone was focused on using the MA for storytelling (myself included), like good little lemmings, and we led the game neatly off a cliff.

The devs should be seeking out people like Smurphy and rewarding them for efforts like this. If I were on the dev team I would be nominating Smurphy for Bug Hunter.

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/jranger

I appreciate the sentiment but I am certainly not deserving of anything like that for this thread. I was in Closed Beta. I brought up none of these issues. I am not Closed Beta material though I keep getting invited. I'm not a very good "out-of-the-box" thinker. I can poke fun of silly logic like "shoot first explain later" and "we won't tell you what you did wrong but you were bad".

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So all the pacting is done on Freedom?

I think there is going to be demand for other servers.

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There is surely demand on other servers. I'm only doing the ones I want to do. At the moment I am the lone supplier. I'm a monopoly. I don't need the monies. I'm just picking the ones I'd do anyway. My last pact team had some toons that were simply "not fun" to me. I am trying to avoid teams that might be "not fun" to me. For now, I'm going with the sure things on Freedom.

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Hey Smurph,

For your next experiment, you might consider designing a team specifically to defeat Lord Recluse serially. He's worth a boat load of XP.


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I tried doing all Archvillain maps. I used custom AVs though in my test. I'll try with Lord Recluse. The custom AVs gave about 3-4 times the experience of a boss yet took 10 to 20 times as long due to outrageous hitpoints. I'll give Lord Recluse and some other pre-made ones a try.

My first 3 have sold at 350M each. Two via PM one via game tells. I need to receive the monies via the two from PMs. I guess I'll have to ask for more monies on the next batch

I thought I should make this more obvious and less buried...

I'm simply asking for 350M Infamy or Influence on any server at the moment. I value Influence and Infamy relatively equally. You level pact to one of my guys. I use the methods outlined previously to get my guy and thus your guy to 50. I cannot promise a time frame. I expect it to be fast... obviously. I'll be selling three. If I can get 3 payers at 350M I will start when I can. I'm starting my asking price high though I believe I had more than 3 people willing to pay on Virtue/Villainside a while ago.

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Also I may be offering non-level pact adventures to level 22 or 35. I will not be doing these on any schedule or with any regularity. Simply type /chanjoin "TheMarket" and I may, without any warning and without any regularity offer to take players on F/V through many levels. I will simply state the number of slots and take the highest bidders. Then I will take those characters to 22 or 35. You will simply need to keep vigilant and pray that I offer when you are available. I'm a spontaneous insomniac. It could be anytime.

I'm running at the bad guys and beating the crap out of them. I don't care whether you think I'm a slapper or a tinkler nor how you think I compare to slappers and tinklers. I don't care about alphas. I don't care about holding aggro. I'm there to tear their arms off and beat stuff up.

50 in under 6 hours

I'm not sure on the exact time. Probably about 5 and 1/2 hours of real time that includes Freedom crashing once.

The method I used involved fighting on a Mission Architect map spawned entirely with Fire damage bosses. The story behind the map involves my JoJo the Bunny arc. JoJo is trying to take over the world, has cloned himself and has sent shipments of "JoJos" against Paragon City. You are to eliminate one shipment: a shipment of fire damage bosses at the Paragon City Carnival grounds. If you'd like to try a similar map out yourself make a custom enemy boss with Fire Assault primary from Corruptors and Fire Assault Secondary from Dominators. These bosses do an outrageous amount of damage. The map is extremely difficult. Please give it a try, make the boss, invite some friends, crank the difficulty and give it a try. I died several times on my SS/Fire Brute.

The boat the JoJos were sent on was captained by Requiem. The JoJos are holding him hostage. I also had to release the hostage Requiem. The map's level range was 48-52 (maybe 54?). At the highest difficulty setting with a 50 starting the map the JoJos spawned as level 52 and my lowbie was automatically set to 46. My lowbie stood at the door. I dual boxed my Super Strength Fire Brute and my Fire/Kinetics Corruptor. Frequently friends on various archetypes also helped in the fighting,.

Should any component of my method be deemed "an exploit" I will simply cease that specific behavior. If the entirety of my method is simply deemed "not allowed" with no explanation then I will simply repeat my method again while not using one single component. I will repeat the experiment as needed, monitoring and recording the results, until it is narrowed down which specific behaviors are deemed as "an exploit".

Now that I have properly informed my potential customers about exactly what they may be buying I would like to offer some level pacts for sale. I cannot promise a time frame for completion because I do not know when I would have a significant amount of free time. However, I expect it to be "not very long".

I'm not going to go through a bidding process at the moment. I'm going to start my pricing "high". Currently, I'm only looking for 3 buyers. So I'm going to ask for 350M in either Infamy or Influence on any server. Some people did bid more than that on Virtue. I value both relatively the same at this point in time. If I get 3 buyers then I will collect the money, create the level pacts and crank out some 50s. If not then I will lower my price and try again. Since the characters would be level pacted and there would be 3 lowbies on the map it will take me roughly 10-14 hours of effort. I am an insomniac and I do get bored at random times of the night, Crushing things at outrageous speed is a good way to pass the time.

I've always thought a Mastermind with attacks becomes something between a 4th Minion Henchman and a 3rd Lieutenant Henchman. Sometimes that is pretty useless and pathetic but sometimes it can be used with great effect. Some of my MMs take attack and some do not. I've found powers like Air Superiority and others with secondary effects to be incredibly useful. It's nice to have a pet (well yourself) who knows how to use attacks with secondary powers on targets.

8 MM ITF. The second video. The LRSF has been done with 8 MMs as well.

In similar news I took my team of 6 Thug/Storm MMs on the Imperious Task Force. On the third mission we were on Lag Hill. I summoned 6 Tornados, 6 Lightning Storms, 6 Hurricanes and 6 Gang Wars. The mission froze, kicked us out, reset, and anyone who leveled during that mission unleveled. All experience, Infamy and items that were found on that mission were lost.

I don't see how Pain adds much of anything to that team.

*EDIT*Perhaps someone with Fraps can join me for a demonstration. I cannot run fraps while running multiple City of Heroes clients. I'll get on my 3 Crab 50 Soldiers and annihilate some 8-man spawns. Perhaps a video of that will give people more of an idea of the ridiculous potential of buffs and debuffs and the silliness of heals when concocting a "Best" or "most damaging" team.

I want to give plenty of time to allow the character to be noticed, an "investigation" to take place, and any possible actions to be taken.

I don't see what the Thermal adds to the 3 Veats. I've played 3 Veat Crabs at the same time. I was able to trio just about everything. Something that brings more AOE damage and debuffs to the table might be best. Like a 4th Veat maybe. Perhaps a Storm or a Dark or a Rad.

Fire/Kin and Fire/FF or Sonic are quite good. Masterminds seem to be a lot easier to pay than anything heroside.

Many of the other suggestions in this thread are very good. I suggest making lots of them and trying them.

I do a lot of silly things. I can play two Emp/Sonic defenders well enough that an outsider probably wouldn't know I'm dual boxing. I play them Green Machine style. They both go through their attack chains and fire off all their buffs. I have two windows side by side and rapidly click between windows. However, playing two Emp/Sonics is very mentally draining. You may want to start off with other combos first.

Two Emp/Sonics probably aren't the best duo if you are "alone". Add some more players to the team and it gets quite insanely powerful. Fortitude and Regen/Recovery Aura truly shine when lots of people receive them.

Do you have to spam a go to commend? Will the Pets hold position for a long period of time on their own?

I have been informed that Masterminds are capable of Tanking, or holding aggro, on multiple Heroes and/or Archvillains at the same time. Outside buffs are fine. Inspirations are great.

I want to see a Mastermind controlling the aggro of 2 or more Heroes/Archvillains. I want to see teammates in the area not being attacked. I want to see the Mastermind maintain that aggro long enough that the teammates can defeat the Heroes/AVs. I'd really like this shown in a Lord Recluse Strike Force situation.

I don't want to see a Brute or another melee toon come in and take the Heroes aggro. I don't want to see Dominators hold/sleep the AVs. I want to see the MASTERMIND hold/contain/control/maintain the aggro.

I'd really like to know how this works so I can do it myself.

People paid me 15-20M per run on Liberate. Each run took under 25 minutes. 8-man with that same duo

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Played with Smurphy this afternoon. It was a blast. A fire blast, that is - followed by a footstomp, and fire cages, and some rains of fire.

I died a lot, but my god did those bosses melt.

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Thanks for coming along

I don't want to get into details and the times quite yet, but what do you think I could charge for running people 1 to 35 on Freedom/Villainside no level pact? I'm thinking of packing the people in when I feel free and want some cash and busting out Father Ignatious and Trafficker and seeing how it goes. Think I could charge 50m? 75m? 100m?

You think there would be more interest in less money for level 22ish?

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Smurphs a repeat offender?

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Yes. I am a proud member of the Repeat Offenders Network. I'm not cool enough to put it in my signature. Some of the things I do are not RO compatible. I don't want people to think RO is involved in some of the things I do.

I think the major choice is if you want a Defense based or a Resistance based set. My personal preference is Resistance based. I like the consistency. I don't mind enemies slowly chipping away at my health. I prefer the slow chipping away over Defenses being virtually immortal at some times and then the occasional unlucky "I got hit twice in a row and I am dead" randomness.

Other important factors are if you prefer Shield Charge and Against All Odds or Fiery Embrace, Burn and Flaming Aura.

Looking good is also important. Gotta figure out if you like the Shield look or the on fire look.

There is no "best build".

A Brute's job is to beat the **** out of stuff. Sometimes that involves running in first. Sometimes it does not.

Villainside is very open ended about roles. Some Masterminds know they are capable and excel at taking the alphas. Some Dominators know they are capable of simply eliminating any alpha at all. Sometimes, as a Brute, you just gotta go in first while everyone else is picking their nose's like a tiny wuss waiting for someone to do something.

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I doubt we'll ever get to see who's wrong or right by seeing purple drop rates change.

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Like when Merits were created and players spent less money on Task Force and Trial Recipes? What happened to the price of other items (Purples and Salvage)?

Like when Mission Architect was created and players produced more defeat recipes like Knockback IOs? What happened to other prices like Purples?

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And btw purple prices are going crazy,The drop rate needs to be adjusted.

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You do realize that causing purples to drop more would cause EVERY other item to increase in price.... right?

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Please provide the economic concept and/or a real life analogue that gives that any chance of being a credible statement at all.

Edit to add - Purples do indeed still drop sub level 50. Got one the other day on a level 46 fighting level 48s. If your objective is purely to get purples, I'd save a friendly (I'll use that "f" word intead of the other) mission at level 48 and run it at difficulty 2. The inf/prestige rewards will be minimal, but doing this will increase the number of purple rolls in a given time period.

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TLR: Players will have the same amount of money. Players won't have to spend as much on purples. Players will spend that money on other items. Those other items will rise in price.

There is an amount of Infamy and/or Influence created in City of Heroes. Each person/character/player whatever earns Infamy/Influence. Then players spend that money while competing against each other to buy things.

Think of each person's spending habits like a pie chart. Example of Pie charts. Some people have really big pies. They make a lot of money. Other people have small pies. They make less money. Each different piece of the pie is the player spending their money on something different. So, making stuff up, the little red piece may be crafting costs. The little green piece may be Single Origins. The big damn purple piece is Purple recipes.

Purples drop more. If Supply goes up, then price goes down. Players spend less money on Purples. The size of the purple piece shrinks.

Players still make the same amount of Infamy/Influence. That money WILL go somewhere. Players won't simply let it sit idle. It's a competition to buy items. Some people will simply buy more purples with their money. Some will not.

The money left over will go towards other things. This "rise in price" may be small or it may be large. But it WILL occur.

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The point is that the numerical prices of items in the game should not be the most important factor in deciding if items are too rare or not rare enough. Prices are a function of Supply and Demand. People make money and will buy what they want.

The most important factor in deciding if an item should be increased or decreased in drop rate is datamining how many people have them and how many people find them. If the developers feel that more people should have access to purples and that they wish more to be created then the drop rate should be increased.

In short - "expensive" does not necessarily mean "rare". Do not make judgments about if an item should be more or less "rare" based on price.