Tonality

In many ways, our IO system is a time-sink for level 50's, so we have something to strive for once we finish leveling. The drop rates for certain recipes, such as the ultra-rare purple was intended to drop about once in a month of consistent casual gameplay.

These and other similar rare recipes are not intended to be commonly available. There are, however, commonly available recipes that the devs have created for those that do not wish to invest the time and effort into acquiring the more rare recipes.

For example, cleaving blow is a very common recipe to get. This recipe costs more to craft than it does to purchase, especially considering for some ridiculous reason, it requires rare salvage. There are affordable recipes available for nearly every power that are marginally more expensive than SOs.

With all of that said, I am concerned with market inflation. Since I started playing the game, purples have quadrupled in value. There are a lot of factors behind this, but a big factor is inflation. It is very easy to earn inf, and the market fees are not an adequate inf sink too offset the generation of inf. The problem is not that players are poor, but that too many players are 'rich', and therefore, these rich players are also poor, leaving only those capable of purchasing on the multi-billion inf level rich.

Supply affects price significantly. There is a certain range of recipes I used to farm extensively for. Due to many players discovering this niche, the profit that I expect to make off of these recipes has dropped by 50%, simply due to a drastic increase in supply. These same recipes redside now have very few on sale. These recipes blueside may sell for 2 million at best. Redside, they are going for 12 mil or more, simply because there aren't any for sale.

Consider this:
There is more influence than infamy, therefore influence is an inflated value, and should naturally have higher prices than redside. However, severe shortages in certain redside recipes that are essential for certain builds have driven up the price by a factor of five, in an economy that is not as inflated as blueside. Supply makes a huge difference. (I imagine several marketeers just perked up at this news)

Brain bleach please.

edit: Might I suggest the super-adventure club since we're going down that route?

I've tried the conga-line of doom with 4 accounts. It makes my brain hurt trying to figure out the timers (you can't kill someone back that kills you and get rep)

The best option is probably actually pay 20 people to sit there and bring a tray of rezzes and you reap the drops.

There's a market channel?!

I submit a formal request to join said channel, citing my qualifications but lamenting my lack of tea.

Unfortunately 374 billion in CoH does not appear to be equivalent to $14,000 USD given our hyper inflation.

You can design an IO build for a brute that is affordable and easily can pay for itself in a few weeks' worth of casual play. The key is knowing what you can get for cheap and what you can't.

Also, if you find recipes in the level 44-49 range instead of that nice 50, you can save a ton because people pay extra just to have a lvl 50 recipe, when it's a microscopic difference in performance.

Also, look for uncommon recipes (yellow), not rare recipe sets (orange). The big reason is that often rare recipe sets require rare salvage, which costs several additional million.

For about as much as it would cost to make sure you have lvl 50++ SOs in all your powers, you can find recipes and drastically increase your performance.

I've spent hours helping SG mates from time to time IO out a fresh 50 on the cheap (100 mil or less). It is doable, but it takes about 3 hours to do the research and patient buying. Oh, and you place your bids overnight to save more inf.

Both /Fire and /Elec also round out Dark's lack of AoE with a dmg aura. Never underestimate how much damage that can do over time. Also, do not forget the patron pools. I find dark is much more suited to deal with its lack of AoE potential than NRG. Some of that has to do with soul drain and dark consumption. I also don't see how dark needs any more thought than NRG melee. If anything, NRG requires a lot of thought into dealing with self-damage.

I agree LR is effective, but with thunderstrike and chain induction offering effective AoE and Jacob's offering a satisfactory cone, LR has a lot of AoE (it just isn't quite enough to match what a purpled footstomp can do). .

I'll agree to that, but then, I don't think any brute set is necessary to reroll. It's just that NRG used to be king of ST damage and it has fallen from that pedestal, which I don't think it deserved (but that's a dead horse).

The issue traditionally with the layered mitigation of end drain is that it is less effective when fighting levels higher than you - exactly when electric armor needs the most mitigation. However, at difficulties +2 and below, end drain is a very effective means of mitigation and prevents the the AI from using the hardest hitting attacks. Lightning field maintains the end drain (as does picking up the mu patron pool with the many AoEs). You don't even need to be an elec/elec/mu to effectively sap, nor do you have to intentionally build to sap for it to mitigate. Solo, I've been able to sap a +1 AV on my elec/elec/mu, but it took about 10 minutes.

Lt's and Minions are done in the first powersink. The second finishes off the bosses. If you're running 2/8 spawns (or managing to herd up to saturation), you'll find that you'll get at least 3 firings of powersink before you're done, providing you've slotted it moderately.

Most of my end-game builds do not require purples to perform well. It takes a lot of thought and time, but you can achieve impressive results without breaking the bank.

Completed 50s:
-Elec/Elec Brute
-SS/Elec Brute
-Mace/SD Brute
-Rad/Kin Corr
-Nin/Nin Stalker
-Crab Spider
-Elec/SD/Blaze Scrapper
-Fire/Nrg Blaster

In spite of all that, here are my 6 bids for 6 lvl 53 obliteration sets at one billion each. Inf is ridiculously easy to come by.

For example, I just purchased an absolute amazement triple for 65 mil inf blueside. I login today to put in bids to finish the set, and I see players spending 150 mil on that same IO. Traditionally, I would immediately list that IO to ensure it sells for a profit (though not listed at 150 mil), and then sell the IO I just needed to finish my toon. I'd then purchase another one for 65 mil, and be a good bit richer.

The point is, if you are patient and plan ahead, you don't have to spend a lot of inf, and can potentially make inf back while you're working your character up to 50 without investing a lot of time. It's because there are a lot of impatient people in the world that have to have that IO right now, and I'm willing to give players that IO right now, if you are willing to pay extra.

Today, in two hours of gameplay, I made about 200 million inf from drops and aggressive marketeering. If you want to make inf, head to the market forums and start reading. It takes more time to learn techniques than it does to actually do it. Even the rather simple rule of thumb of buy 2 of everything. Slot one and craft one will often pay for your build.

Many of my builds pay for themselves. I've invested about 600 million into my elec/sd/blaze scrapper. I've gotten a few useful drops on the way to 50 and slotted those in. Then I've sold about 1 billion inf in profit back, having a blast along the way. My elec/elec/mu brute probably cost about 200 mil back in the day. Since then I know I've made ten times that playing that toon.

If you refuse to market or farm, just play your characters when they hit 50. Buy and list intelligently, and you'll be surprised how much inf you can make.

As far as I know, this is still the case. I wanted those for my thugs MM for proc damage, and had to burn some merits off my SF toons. My fire/nrg hoverblaster uses the set to hit the range softcap (as a LOL it's slotted in bonfire and power thrust)

So, in theory, you're relatively safe bidding on certain levels (probably safer bidding a recipe over a crafted as a marketeer might spot the ruse), but I wouldn't risk it, because there is absolutely no way to acquire a lvl 53 recipe.

edit: Thanks for the explanation as to why, Fulmens. I just knew they weren't dropping, but didn't know exactly why.

It took a while for players to realize they could still min/max missions to suit their powersets. If you have a minion/lt/boss in your group, you can get full-rewards, just like a normal mission. The difference being, you can build an enemy around your powerset. Others have done research on maximizing the profit of tickets, and tickets can potentially be the most profitable thing a 50 can do.

It also has to do with set balance. In most cases, the damage done by powers is what the player has to choose from. The difference is, that standard custom mobs often do not have key powers that bring 'balance' to sets. One example is Super Strength. As rage is not standard on mobs, Super Strength does sub-par damage, as if the attacks in SS dealt equal damage to other sets, SS would be incredibly overpowered to a player. The end result is an enemy that deals about 20% less damage, and using a commonly resisted type.

What it means is that players are able to min/max AE. It isn't the exploiting you saw with hamibubbles or meow, but in a creative system, creative players can find little ways to get as much bang for their buck.

Whether the current issue warrants dev intervention is up to the devs. While I don't want to see AE become what it was earlier (the common choice of playing), I also don't want it to be a complete ghost town, becoming a complete waste of two issues' worth of development time.

When you suggest this many things, discussion is almost impossible. I picked a few to discuss.

I used to think this too. But then, I discovered it was only 0.17 seconds slower than havoc punch, and adds an AoE component, and pure energy damage. I felt it was too slow because my elec/elec brute often died in the middle of firing jacob's ladder. The reason my brute died was my secondary wasn't tough enough. Six respecs later, and it's the second toughest build I have, and jacob's ladder is absolutely essential to my build.

Increase falling damage please! I want to fly up in the air and watch my health plummet like I can as a lowbie!

The power consumption needed to transport the masses of paragon city would probably put too much stress on Terra Volta, which is already busy maintaining the war walls.

If it bothers you enough, make a dayjob costume, and RP you're traveling on a train when you get called to another place or something.

Aren't most blast sets at 80'? You mean to tell me that a bow should have more range than a rifle?

Absolutely no. Newer players will feel alienated. Veteran rewards already offer a lot of advantages lowbies don't have. I can't tell you how much I want to grab travel powers at lvl 6, have the ability to hold 5 more recipes, and have a pet that does something, and so forth.

edit: I picked too many. Removed some.

edit 2: "If I Sat at Posi's Desk" ...I'd want a more comfortable chair and a bigger desk.

Query: Rocket concealed: Pocket
Alternative: Self is visually located

A SS/WP cannot solo any 4/8 mission.

The Snake Temple

Now if you decide to try it, don't just grab a few snakes from the back room, make sure you have at least the aggro cap on you. It's what I do on my DM/SD when I'm in the mood for a serious challenge. That DM/SD needs orange inspies and demonic to survive, and an IO'd DM/SD is far more sturdy than a SS/WP. A SS/SD might fare a little better than my DM/SD, simply as the snakes are vulnerable to KD.

But a WP is going to get hit by large amounts of AoE toxic DoT attacks, which will quickly nullify your regen. At +4, you'll last long enough to pop demonic, and empty your inspiration tray, so about 4 minutes in the back room. Maybe a few more if you're good.

Just a few comments that need clarification on your extensive post.

That's often because people slot too much recharge in rage and try to double stack it. Also remember, if you have the vet attacks, you can keep on attacking without worrying about things (it's also a great time to clear your inspiration tray)

DM/SD and 'tactical' are only in the same sentence if you call a DM/SD brute a tactical nuke. Dark Melee has incredible single target damage output, and shadowmaul in the right hands can do some impressive AoE. It also adds a heal into the attack chain which is very handy on some sets.

As for kill-speed, because DM has such a high damage output, it can kill surprisingly fast compared to some AoE sets - especially if you pair it with shield.

Thunderstrike alone offers plenty of mitigation if you know which enemy to target in a cluster. The mini-nuke of Lightning Rod is also quite impressive.

Dark is better than energy at single target damage output, and the stacking to-hit debuffs and siphon life arguably offers better mitigation. Energy Melee is a shell of what it once was, and the animation increases significantly reduced the potential sustained DPS of the set. It still can output damage, but it just doesn't compare with what you can do with other sets anymore.

With claws now available, Fire may not be the best at DPE, but it used to be the ranking set.

Actually, electric armor performs best when treated aggressively. End-drain is a very effective source of mitigation, as it prevents enemies from using some of their heavy hitting attacks.

Sets with knockdown or dark melee work best with electric, due to added mitigation. Fire Melee has no knockdown and works better on secondaries that are more-self sustaining. However, since elec now has energize, fire melee would be a little more tolerable on it.

[QUOTE]Fiery Aura is very active and very, very angry. It's a resist set that's not that tough and has mez holes in it, but it has one of the best heals in the game really early. You mostly want it for the damage aura, end-drainer power, and the fat damage boost it has, which works twice as well for Fire damage. It also has a Tier 9 resurrect ,which is a letdown. Go Fire, or maybe Elec, and make a damage-dealing king. Dark is the way if you want to make it a bit more survivable.[QUOTE]

Minor nitpick - it's a recovery power, not an end drain, as consume deals damage instead. SS/Fire was the old standby for the TV nemesis farm, and is still incredibly effective at what it does.

I am thinking that your endurance issues come more from whatever primary you played than the secondary. If you stay in granite, you aren't going to be running many toggles (maybe tough/weave). With IO's you can do just about anything but jump.

You'll want a different approach to building Elec compared with other builds. With other builds, you have to worry a lot more about endurance. With elec, you only need worry about staying alive.

Stacking 30% Melee defense or 30% S/L defense keeps you alive easily in most scenarios.

If you do Lib TV, SS/WP or SS/Fire are more survivable. I personally find it easier to farm tickets to pay for purples than to farm for purples.

Now the build:

- You don't need impervium armors. Endurance issues are a thing of the past.
- I'm not sure I'd waste the slots on Boxing, even though you are clever using stupify
- 5 doctored wounds will work in energize. Drop the Heal/End for a Heal/Rech. The numbers aren't that different to warrant the 6th slot.
- You get the same set bonus if you swap the miracle Heal/End for a numi Heal/End, and a slight more regen.
- I find I don't need powersurge that often. For gameplay, you'll pop demonic close to the crash of powersurge, have a blue insp, energize ready, and if you time everything right, you can actually get through the drop before you lose anything. It's still tough to pull off in the midst of mobs - a lucky hit and you're dead.
- Powersink is Auto-Hit, even though mids calculates accuracy values. All that matters is end mod/rech.
- Don't use the single-aspect purple in armageddon. That chance for fire Proc is incredibly handy for footstomp (it rolls a chance on every single mob footstomp hits, the same as force feedback).

Now here are two SS/Elec builds I've built in the past. I settled on Melee Defense, but going S/L defense is a viable option (and has some advantages). I picked melee as it covers all damage types and the bulk of damage you will face will be melee. You can generate very impressive numbers with S/L defense without compromising the build. As for not taking a taunt, I taunt things by punching them.

Here they are:

SS/Elec - Melee Def
- My Elec/Elec has slightly more defense (32%) which actually is noticeable compared to this 27.7%.
- The KB Protection in grounded is there because when you aren't on the ground, you lose your KB protection, and I like to jump around.
- Modest pricetag, with only one purple set.


SS/Elec - S/L Def
- 37% S/L Defense, without gimping the build.
- 14% NRG/Neg Def
- One purple set used, so semi-modest cost (kinetic combats are expensive)
- Less resists than the melee build, but significant gains on defense.

That option traditionally is SS/WP, because of how versatile it is. You have good regen, knockdown for mitigation, great recovery, and are well equipped in AoE and ST dmg with Footstomp and Knockout Blow. I'd suggest tweaking your current build.

If you are able to afford an armageddon set for footstomp with a FF proc, you will change your tune. Footstomp alone is all the AoE you need. If you want more, grab the patron AoEs.

Now fire is an interesting beast. It is effective farming nemesis (because vengeance SUCKS), though you need a 3 KB IOs to deal with the insane KB they do. If you aren't fighting nem, though, only 1 KB IO is usually enough for most encounters.

Fire is very dependent on the heal. It does very poorly with Rikti because of the poor energy resists. It is suited very well with AE where you can fight only fire-type mobs. However, with the advent of other sets and improvements to Electric Armor, there are generally better options for farming and all-around performance.

WP gets the greatest boost of survivability in regen and RTTC. Since RTTC has a weak taunt, you need to ensure things stay aggroed on you. Your current build had a ton of S/L def, but could have a little better nrg defense. If anything, I'm guessing what really hurt was that NRG damage from Positron or the Rikti in the LRSF.

If you revise your WP build, I think you will be very pleased with the performance.

You aren't alone in this. Typed defense sets suffer from having that psi hole where positionals offer some protection to it.

SS/SD is significantly better than Elec/SD. Once you hit the soft-cap, the big focus will be recovery, because endurance is very painful. Now if you're willing to give shield another try, consider DM/SD. You get a built-in heal and shield charge adds some AoE to DM's limited dmg. The to-hit debuffs also stack nicely while leveling up on a shield.

I really hate to see you scrap that elec/sd. It still performs well, but it is squishy and you have to work around that. That and pseudo pets suffer by not having a lower dmg cap, which means Lightning Rod and Shield Charge miss out on a lot while a scrapper version offers a tremendous boost in damage (approximately 600 vs. 300 when adding enemy resistances and whatnot).

Here are the 3 Elec Builds I have played and know very well:

DM/Ela was great when elec didn't have energize. It added a much-needed heal and some -to-hit to layer with the resistance. You are the Rikti's worst nightmare. It even does decently with PvP.

SS/ElA has tremendous AoE Potential. Lightning Field slotted for Damage can potentially do more damage over time than Ball Lightning will. Add to that the marvelous endurance tools and the only time you'll run out of endurance will be when you're tired and not paying attention (I hate that!). My SS/ElA sports 30% melee defense, great recharge (and armageddon in Footstomp). It doesn't die easily. It's easily my fastest-killing brute, but my elec/sd/blaze scrapper can kill about 150% faster. Actually, I cleared a map in the time it took two SS brute builds to do it.

Elec/Elec was my first 50. It took a lot of tweaking to get it where I wanted it, but it is my second-most survivable build out there, second only to my WM/Stone. It is a fun set, and power-set customization has been incredibly friendly to electric melee and electric armor. (Lightning Rod is awesome in any color)

What I don't recommend:

Fire/Elec: There isn't a lot of mitigation in fire. Knockdown does help Electric Armor's survivability.
NRG/Elec: Ew. NRG.
DB/Elec: I just don't like Dual Blades. Miss and a combo is blown, and well that 5% chance of missing annoys me.

What I think will also work well:

Mace/Elec: A nice balance of Single Target and AoE Damage.
Stone/Elec: No end problems here! Good knockdown.
Axe/Elec: Mace is better now that clobber got buffed.