CEBR means Claws/Electric Brutes Rule!
Q: TopDoc, how can I get a level 50 character really quickly?
A: Roll up a Claws/Electric Brute and level it up as shown below, it'll take about 5.5 hours.
Q: I want to make up an epic MA arc, but a lot of the things I need are locked! How can I unlock them?
A: Make up a Claws/Electric Brute and everything will be unlocked around the time you hit level 16.
Q: I want to store a lot of Large Inspirations in my base for PvP, Trials, etc. How can I get them?
A: Make a Claws/Electric Brute as shown here. You can get around 30 in ten minutes.
Q: TopDoc, I don't want to pay Ebil Marketeers a million Inf for common Invention Salvage, what can I do?
A: Roll up a Claws/Electric Brute and you can start ticket farming at level 2. You can buy all the Salvage you want with those tickets, or make a Salvage Storage base.
Q: I have a lot of Enhancements I want to save for another character I'm leveling up. Where can I put them?
A: Roll up a Claws/Electric Brute and make your own private Enhancement Storage SG.
Q: TopDoc, I want to PL but I don't have a SS/Fire Brute. What can I do?
A: Roll up a SS/Fire Brute. A Claws/Electric Brute can PL, but not as fast.
Q: Can a Claws/Electric Brute farm tickets as fast as a SS/Fire Brute?
A: Yes. It takes a VERY expensive SS/Fire Brute to beat a VERY cheap Claws/Electric Brute.
Q: Where can I get enough Inf to make a good Claws/Electric brute farmer?
A: You don't really need much. The level up and ultimate cheap farming builds cost 0 Inf. The expensive version is only 100 Million Inf.
Q: 100 Million Inf? Where can I get that much Inf?
A: Actually you can get 350 Million in 5 hours by soloing the Claws/Electric Brute to 50 and spending the tickets safely on Rare Invention Salvage.
Q: And if I take a risk with those tickets?
A: Probably more, but it depends on how lucky you are.
Q: What about outside of the AE building?
A: Claws/Electric brutes are great general-purpose brutes, great for Incarnate trials, and fun to play.
Q: Incarnate trials?
A: Yes, that 90% Energy Resistance is great for the large amount of Energy damage in the trials.
Q: Where can I get good builds for farming and playing?
A: See below for builds.
Q: Farming is boring. What can I do to make it less boring?
A: Do one farm run when you log in and another when you log out, switch builds and play normally in between.
Q: What if I try to level up a Claws/Electric Brute and have more questions?
A: Ask here and I'll try to answer any questions.
Introduction
Yes, Claws/Electric Brutes really are that good, and they are SO fast and cheap to level up to 50. I've leveled up 4 so far in writing this guide. Soloing fast is basically PLing yourself, and is similar to farming. Like farming, the object is to defeat as many mobs as quickly as possible, then reset and repeat. This is most easily done in AE. You can pick mobs that will die quickly, and that won't hurt you too much. And you can set up ambushes that will swarm you with lots of those easy mobs. Most farming is done at level 50 where you have access to lots of powers, Enhancement slots, and IO set bonuses. However a level 1 farmer can be VERY effective as well. All this work is based on comments by Neogumbercules about low level farming in Bill Z Bubba's thread on Claws/FA farming in the Brute forum. I did all of this before I read Neo's comments starting on 6-12-2011 in the "Very Best Farmer?" thread in the Brute forum. Why yes, it did take a long time to write this, but I wanted to make it as complete as possible.
Why level 1?
The following table shows the average Brute Melee damage compared to mob HP at various levels.
Level, Dam, Minion, Lt, Boss
1, 9.500, 20.0, 73.3, 108.0
2, 10.171, 24.6, 81.9, 122.7
3, 10.837, 29.8, 91.1, 138.9
4, 11.524, 35.8, 101.2, 156.7
5, 12.228, 42.6, 112.1, 176.3
10, 17.632, 90.6, 180.4, 304.2
20, 21.290, 180.7, 359.8, 674.0
30, 30.263, 293.3, 583.8, 1312.3
40, 38.177, 390.8, 778.0, 2040.4
50, 41.708, 430.8, 857.5, 2570.2
At level 1 it takes around 2 unenhanced attacks to defeat a minion, and 11 for a boss. At level 50 it takes 11 attacks for the minion and 62 attacks for the boss, or roughly 5.5 times as many. Of course at level 50 those attacks are usually enhanced to do roughly twice as much damage, but that doesn't matter if you're damage capped. Since you have more attacks available at higher level, and usually more AoE attacks which are key for farming, higher level tends to be better. But not always. Characters with significant AoE attacks available at low level can be better off farming at low level. And Claws/Electric Brutes have great AoE damage when exemp'd to level 1.
In a mass ambush farm, Inspirations drop nonstop. Solo, a fast farmer can stay at the damage cap by converting all incoming Inspirations to red ones. Though the damage cap is 200% or 210% at level 1 for most ATs, Brutes get their full 775% damage cap at level 1. And yes, they can reach that cap. They also have Fury, which adds 180% to 200% in ambush farms. Because of this, Brutes are really the only characters worth considering for low level farming. A damage capped Brute at level 1 can one shot Lieutenants with a 1 Damage Scale attack. At level 50 that same damage capped Brute will take 3 shots to defeat a Lieutenant. Note again that slotting damage doesn't matter when you're damage capped due to Inspirations.
A damage capped level 1 brute does roughly 5.5 times as much damage to opponents as a level 50 Brute.
Note that this doesn't mean that a level 1 Brute can farm 5.5 times as fast as a level 50 Brute. Level 50 Brutes have Epic AoE attacks, level 1 Brutes can't farm at +4 as efficiently as level 50 Brutes, level 1 Brutes can't use Judgement or get an Incarnate level shift. But my testing indicates that level 1 Claws/Electric Brutes are still fast enough ticket earners to cap tickets in well under 2 minutes.
Level 1 damage powers
AoE damage is the key to efficient farming. Here's a little table with all of the damage shields available to Brutes when exemp'd to level 1. Blazing Aura does slightly more damage, but they are otherwise equal. Damage capped, Death Shroud and Lightning Field do 14.7 damage per tic, while Blazing Aura does 16.2.
Dark Armor, Death Shroud, level 2, 1.9 damage, 10 targets, 8 feet
Electric Armor, Lightning Field, level 2, 1.9 damage, 10 targets, 8 feet
Fiery Aura, Blazing Aura, level 2, 2.09 damage, 10 targets, 8 feet
And here are the AoE attacks. Spin is the best, and Global Recharge just makes it better and better. Damage capped at level 1, it does 139.2 damage. That's enough to 1 shot 10 bosses at +1.
Claws, Spin, level 6, 17.955 damage, 10 targets, PBAoE 8 feet, 2.5s cast, 14s rech
Dark Melee, Shadow Maul, level 2, 20.52 damage, 5 targets, cone 7 feet, 3.07s cast, 8s rech
Dual Blades, Typhoon's Edge, level 6, 10.83 damage, 10 targets, PBAoE 8 feet, 2.27s cast, 12s rech
Electrical Melee, Jacob's Ladder, level 2, 14.25 damage, 5 targets, cone 7 feet, 1.67s cast, 8s rech
You might as well take some single target attacks to fill the time while waiting for your AoE to recharge.
Damage Mitigation
In level 50 Fire Farms, the farmer is a Fiery Aura Brute with 90% Resistance to Fire Damage, which is the type of damage that the chosen mobs do. On top of that the farmer eats Lucks to have a high Defense. They may have a self heal or use Inspirations for healing. They may also have IO Set bonuses for more Defense, Resistance, HP, and Regen. And there are a couple of Accolades that add extra HP. That's all necessary because level 50 mobs have several attacks and do a fair amount of damage. Minions usually have 2 attacks, Lieutenants have more, and Bosses can have a full attack chain. That doesn't happen so much at lower levels. For example, a custom AE Minion only needs a single Ranged attack in order to be worth full XP. Unfortunately damage mitigation is still necessary, and there are fewer options. Lucks are still an option for everyone, as are Accolades which work even when exemp'd to level 1.
Brutes can get some Damage Resistance, but not a whole lot. They all get a small amount of Smashing and Lethal resistance. Electric Armor Brutes can get base 52.5% Energy Resistance with Charged Armor and Conductive Shield. Dark Armor Brutes can get base 30% Negative Resistance with Dark Embrace and Murky Cloud. Fiery Aura Brutes get only Fire Shield for minimal Fire Resistance. Along with incoming attacks there are also side effects. Electrical attacks frequently include END Drain or are combination Energy/Smashing with optional Stun, Knockback, or damage resistance debuffs. Negative attacks include ToHit debuffs, which can be nasty when stacked by many mobs. Electrical Armor is the best if you can find mobs that do Energy damage without side effects. Unfortunately I couldn't, so Charged Armor is all you really need.
Normal IOs start at level 10, and the set bonuses do not apply at level 1. If you want a little extra HP, Regen, Defense, Damage Resistance from IO sets, you'll have to get it from PvP or purple sets which work at any level. The ever popular Gladiator Armor: +3% Defense will work, but it is probably overkill for this sort of farming. Ditto on the Gladiator Shield: +3% Resistance. But purple sets can give extra HP, Regen, and usually Fire & Cold Resistance.
If the Devs ever add other IO sets that work at level 1, then Claws/Electric Brutes will just get sick. You can make a farm build that uses most of the higher level powers and slots for more global recharge. Imagine using Spin every 6 seconds and defeat 10 bosses. Nasty.
Enhancement Values
Due to exemping, a power slotted with 100% Damage (before taking into account ED) will end up being only 2.2% when exemp'd to level 1. In other words, it is barely worthwhile to slot powers with Enhancements that increase the Accuracy, Damage, etc of your powers. You get a much larger benefit from PvP and Purples because of the set bonuses, though that is expensive. The good news is that you don't need much at all to reach an efficient level of farming.
Procs also work, and that's the best thing to slot in your shield and AoE power. Procs won't help Spin at the damage cap because everything will be dead, but it's handy if you're below the cap or when fighting higher level mobs. But procs are more effective in the damage shield. Consider the following...
Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage (20% for 6.7 damage)
Scirocco's Dervish: Chance of Damage(Lethal) (20% for 6.7 damage)
Obliteration: Chance for Smashing Damage (20% for 6.7 damage)
Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage (33% for 10.0 damage) (UNIQUE)
Fury of the Gladiator: Chance for Res Debuff (20% for 20% debuff) (UNIQUE)
Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psi Damage (20% for 6.7 damage) (Spin only)
There's about a 73% chance that at least one of the damage procs will activate on a given mob, which means a single tic will finish off an even con minion. Two procs activating will let you finish off a +2 minion in a single tic. But remember they only tic every 10 seconds in toggles, so they won't be a significant source of damage. The Armageddon and Fury of the Gladiator are probably overkill. All of the calculations below use base damage, ignoring procs.
Level 1 Accuracy
A while ago the Devs changed base ToHit for low level chars to make them more accurate, just to make the game more lowbie friendly. Here's the base ToHit chance for level 1 chars against various level opponents. I've also included the Accuracy bonus needed to hit 95% of the time (the ToHit cap).
Opponent, ToHit, Acc Needed
1, 90%, 5.56%
2, 80%, 18.75%
3, 71%, 33.8%
4, 63%, 50.8%
5, 54%, 75.9%
This means that if you want to farm at level +4, you'll want about 75% Accuracy. Since you can't get anywhere near that by slotting Accuracy in your attacks, you'll need to use purples or PvPs for the set bonuses. But keep reading before you start to complain about the cost, because you won't be farming at +4.
Level 1 Damage
Due to the purple patch, you do less damage against higher level mobs. Here's the table.
Opponent, Damage
1, 100%
2, 90%
3, 80%
4, 65%
5, 48%
There's not much I can say about that. It's just something you have to take into account.
Mob Level
Time to put it all together. Here's a little table that shows the Inf received for fighting higher level mobs...
Level, Inf, Factor
1, 4724, 1.0
2, 6396, 1.35
3, 8413, 1.78
4, 11183, 2.37
5, 14523, 3.07
The key thing from this and the previous tables is that damage and accuracy go down less than rewards go up as level increases. If you have enough Accuracy to hit 95% of the time, then you can take about twice as long fighting +4 mobs (because you're doing about half the damage), but you'll earn 3 times as much Inf, and thus XP and tickets. At least that's the way things work at level 50 where mob HP don't change much.
At low levels like this, the increasing mob HP are significant enough that you don't want to fight +4 mobs. Minion HP more than doubles going from level 1 to level 5, so that combined with the 48% damage modifier for fighting +4 mobs means it takes more than 4 times as long to defeat minions that are only worth 3 times as much. The following table shows mobs HP increase by level taking into account the damage modifier. WtAvg is a weighted average assuming 8 Minions, 4 Lieutenants, and 2 Bosses.
Level, Minion, Lt, Boss, WtAvg, Inf, Avg/Inf
1, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0
2, 1.37, 1.24, 1.26, 1.32, 1.35, 0.98
3, 1.86, 1.55, 1.61, 1.74, 1.78, 0.98
4, 2.75, 2.12, 2.23, 2.50, 2.37, 1.05
5, 4.44, 3.19, 3.40, 3.93, 3.07, 1.28
Fighting +1 or +2 mobs appears to be the most efficient, and even con mobs are only slightly less efficient. However at such a low level, it is worthwhile to look at the exact damage of attacks.
Capped, Lightning Field does 14.7 damage per tic to even con mobs. Two tics does 29.4 damage, which is a fair amount of overkill on Minions at 20 HP. Two tics do 26.46 damage against +1 mobs, which is enough to defeat minions (24.6 HP) with very little overkill. It takes 3 tics (35.28 damage) to defeat a +2 minion (29.8 HP), 4 tics (38.22 damage) to defeat +3 minions (35.8 HP), and 7 tics (49.39 damage) to defeat +4 minions (42.6 HP). So Lightning Field versus minions is most effective when fighting +1 mobs. It will clear out the minions so Spin will be more likely to hit harder targets.
Capped, Spin does 139.15 damage against even con mobs, which will one-shot bosses. Against +1 mobs it does 125.24 damage which will just barely one-shot bosses. Against +2 mobs it will only do 111.32 damage, which won't take out a boss even if several procs land. As such, Spin is most effective against +1 mobs.
The most efficient farm appears to be against +1 mobs, as long as you hit 95% of the time. But that's only for the first half of the farm. Using custom mobs with the Regeneration power set, they Revive after being defeated so you can kill them again. But they don't Revive with their full HP. It only takes 2 tics of Lightning Field to defeat a +2 minion after Revive, and Spin will probably take out a +2 boss after Revive. But for the moment I'm going to leave things at +1. Fighting +2 mobs would require 2 purple sets to be effective, and that starts getting expensive.
You can get close to 95% ToHit against +1 mobs by slotting 4 Fortunate Hypnosis purples in a Sleep power, like Earth Mastery - Salt Crystals. That +15% will let you hit 92% of the time. Of course that 5th Fortunata Hypnosis gives you +10% Global Recharge for more Spins, so you'll want that. Fortunata Hypnosis is a REALLY cheap purple set.
Single Target Attacks
In a Claws/Electric Brute you have the choice of the following low level single target attacks to add to your damage. Damage listed is when capped against +1 mobs.
Swipe, 0.83s Act, 2.4s Rech, 61.1 Damage
Strike, 1.17s Act, 4.8s Rech, 82.2 Damage
Slash, 1.33s Act, 6.4s Rech, 98.1 Damage
Strike and Slash can both one-shot Lts, so take them. Lightning Field weeds out the nearby minions, Strike and Slash take out Lts, so Spin has a good chance to catch the bosses. In order to attack only nearby Lts, use a macro. (See the Consolidated Macros section below.) The macro selects the next Lt, then you attack.
Inspiration Use
You need to click a lot of red Inspirations if you want to stay at the damage cap. While a lot drop, you'll need to make more. You also need to stay safe, which means Lucks and Sturdies. If you don't have purples for Accuracy, you need 1 Insight (yellows) to hit 85% of the time against +1 mobs. That's the best you can do without Accuracy in your attacks. Finally, you may need to use greens (heal) and blues (END) from time to time. With every Spin you'll get a bunch of Inspirations, so click any greens or blues manually if needed. After that, spam macros to manage your other Inspirations. (See Consolidated Macros below.) The macros will use your Lucks, Sturdies, and reds, and combine everything else possible to reds. I believe Awakens and equivalent drop less frequently than others, so the macros delete them rather than waiting for 3 to combine. You won't always be at the damage cap, but that's not a big deal. So what if it takes an extra tic from Lightning Field to take out a boss.
If you want to save some of your Large Inspirations, just change the macros below. You can even change them to combine unneeded Large Inspirations into the ones you want.
Consolidated Macros
I put these macros as the first 4 things in my power tray, and I mash them constantly. Slots 5 and 6 are for Strike and Slash. There are limits on the length of a macro (255 characters) and power usage as well, which is why you need 4, and why their function is a bit jumbled. The first three combine most Inspirations to reds, and use those reds plus lucks and sturdies. The last targets Lieutenants and deletes Awakens and equivalent. I haven't had much luck getting the last one to work like I want as it targets dead Lts most often. Plus I've found that I can manually target damaged bosses fairly easily for single target attacks, and that helps reduce the incoming damage.
/macro I1 "inspcombine insight enrage$$inspcombine catch_a_breath enrage$$inspcombine respite enrage$$inspcombine break_free enrage$$inspexecname enrage$$inspexecname luck$$inspexecname good_luck$$inspexecname phenomenal_luck$$inspexecname sturdy"
/macro I2 "inspcombine keen_insight focused_rage$$inspcombine take_a_breather focused_rage$$inspcombine dramatic_improvement focused_rage$$inspcombine emerge focused_rage$$inspexecname focused_rage$$inspexecname rugged$$inspexecname robust"
/macro I3 "inspcombine uncanny_insight righteous_rage$$inspcombine second_wind righteous_rage$$inspcombine resurgence righteous_rage$$inspcombine escape righteous_rage$$inspexecname righteous_rage"
/macro T "inspdelete awaken$$inspdelete bounce_back$$inspdelete restoration$$targetcustomnext Lt"
Endurance Usage
With a fairly cheap build you are spending more END than you recover even if you want to be lazy. You're running a damage shield and a defensive toggle for 0.78 End/sec. Add in Sprint for another 0.29 End/sec. Assuming Spin has some global recharge and cycles in 10 seconds, that's another 1.3 End/sec. That's a total of 2.37 End/sec. With base Stamina you recover 2.08 End/sec. If you have more Inf and time to get Accolades, add in Miracle and Numina uniques in Health, plus the Born in Battle and Marshal Accolades, and you're up to 2.75 End/sec according to Mids. Actually it's higher than that, since the Healing procs double stack for the first 2 minutes of a mission (which is all the time you need). You can add a Performance Shifter proc in Stamina, but skip the Panacea Proc in Health unless you have a spare two billion Inf or so.
If you're using single target attacks (and you really should), you'll need to pop blue Inspirations or find more Recovery. You can't slot the powers for any significant End Reduction, and you don't have many other options. Energize (see below) will only last for the first 30 seconds of the farm. Fortunately Inspirations drop really fast. Better yet, see Power Surge below.
Long duration clicks
When farming at level 1 you can use powers up to level 6. But if you have any long duration click powers, they work just fine if you activate them before you start the farm! Hasten is a great power to use like this, since it lasts 2 mintues. With massive Global Recharge it will be ready every run, but that's expensive. Energize is nice even though it only lasts for 30 seconds. Take them both and use them before you enter the mission.
Power Surge is the Electric Armor tier 9 god-mode power. Activate it before you start the farm, then SMASH for up to 3 minutes. Power Surge and Charged Armor combined give you 90% Smashing, Lethal, and Energy Resistance. You still wants lucks on general principle, but you're a LOT safer. By the way, there is NO CRASH. As long as you exit the mission before the 3 minutes are up, Power Surge just quietly goes away. If you're still farming at 3 minutes, you'll probably die. That's natures way of saying that you're going too slow.
It is SO easy and cheap to level up a Claws/Electric Brute using this method, you can have a few that you cycle through when farming. I plan to level up 11 so I have a level 50 character on every server.
Extra powers
Temporary powers normally aren't that good in Brute farms. The main problem is they don't get the massive Damage Bonus that Brutes can get. A Plasmatic Taser cone will do around 10 damage to 10 targets. That's about the same total amount of damage as Slash, which costs less END. Plus it's a hassle to buy the recipe and salvage and craft it, even if you buy in bulk.
The veteran powers are the same. Sands of Mu is the best of the lot, since it is a melee cone similar to Shadow Maul that can hit 5 targets. But because it doesn't get your damage bonus, you will only annoy Minions.
Empowerment Buffs are usually pretty minor, but the Increase Attack Speed +20% is VERY nice for this. It lasts an hour, and it will improve your Spin cycle time, so use it if you want. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Incarnate Considerations
Yes this build benefits from Incarnate powers, though not nearly as much as a level 50 build would. They only work when outside the farm. Judgement and Lore are completely useless. They are both grayed out when farming, and the Lore pets don't make it into the mission. Interface would be nice for the Reactive proc damage, but it also doesn't work.
Destiny Ageless is the only really worthwhile Incarnate power, since it adds both Global Recharge and Recovery. I believe the best is Ageless Core Epiphany. Click it before you enter the farm, like Hasten and Power Surge. With Power Surge and T4 Ageless, I never have END problems. Destiny Barrier or Rebirth can help with survival, but they aren't really needed. Alpha Spiritual will help Hasten and Power Surge recharge faster when outside the farm. The other Alpha Enhancements are useless for farming.
Mid-level Farming
Want to supply the Market with lots of level 33 Recipes? Just turn off XP when you hit level 33. You'll have to rely on Hasten and Increased Attack Speed Empowerment, and no Power Surge. Again you can level up 2 farmers (at under 2 hours each), and alternate between them if you want Hasten always up. Then farm and turn in your tickets for huge numbers of level 33 bronze recipes.
The Farm
The farmer will be exemp'd down to level 1. The ideal mobs should be level 2, but that requires extra Accuracy that you usually can't get till you hit 50. At such, you'll need to pop Accuracy Inspirations once in a while when leveling up. The farm is locked at level 2, and should be run at difficulty +1 to lower the player level down to 1.
Melee mobs are best because they charge into combat. I picked Dual Blades/Regen custom mobs. Dual Blades - Nimble Slash has no status effects or debuffs. For secondary, Regeneration is still the best as Fast Healing is almost useless, Quick Recovery is completely useless, and Revive lets you kill the mobs twice. Since AE mobs need Ranged attacks to be worth decent XP/Inf, the minions have a ranged attack. But I skipped their single melee attack, because they're still worth full XP though they do a lot less damage. But it means Minions won't always charge right up next to you. The bosses are only worth 81% of their normal XP because they have a single Melee and single Ranged attack.
The farm follows the standard ambush farm setup. Enter, pull the first boss to the second with a tic from Lightning Field, and kill the second boss with single target attacks. That triggers 3 ambush waves I think to where the boss died, so don't move. When the first boss gets close enough put Spin on auto. That kills the first boss and triggers the other 3 ambushes right next to you. Pop Inspirations till everything is dead. The mobs are color coded for easy identification, yellow for the +1 minions, orange for +1 Lts, and red for bosses. The Minions are small, the Lts and Bosses are medium sized, and the 2 bosses that trigger ambushes are large and red. You can't miss them.
The farm consists of the exact same mission repeated 5 times. It is easier to talk to the contact to get the next mission than it is to restart the arc. You get a ticket bonus for Mission Complete on the later farms, but good luck keeping track of your tickets closely enough to know exactly when you can leave.
Leveling up from 1
If you want to thank me for this guide, make a Catgirl. The world needs more Catgirls. You have Claws after all, perfect for a Catgirl.
You might want to join a SuperGroup and grab the Increase Attack Rate Empowerment buff before you leave Port Darwin. You'll need to email yourself the Salvage or get it from the base. Turn on Sprint and Charged Armor and never turn them off.
You'll want to street sweep till level 2 to get Lightning Field. Do that on the way to the Fortunata in Mercy, and set your difficulty to +1/x8 with bosses enabled. Level up at Arbiter Richard (you'll be seeing him a lot) then carefully make your way to the AE building, avoiding mobs. Turn on Lightning Field and never turn it off. Select my "CEBR" arc and talk to the contact to get the first mission, but don't enter yet. Bring up your Power window to get your Combat Attributes. You want to monitor Damage Bonus, Melee Defense, Lethal Resistance, and Last Hit Chance.
You need to load up on Inspirations at the vendor inside AE. Mail yourself a Million Inf before you start so you have enough to buy Inspirations for the first run, and maybe list in the Market whatever you buy later with your Tickets. At the vendor, click Enrage, and then madly click Buy while hitting F1 through F4 as fast as you can until you see your Damage Bonus at 675%. Buy and use one Insight (yellow for Accuracy). Then switch to lucks and buy and use 4, then leave 4 in your tiny Inspiration tray. Finally, Sprint over and enter the mission.
As soon as you enter, run forward a little and turn right. The two boss spawns will be in front of you, one on top of the ramp and one at the bottom. The bottom spawn could be on the close side or the far side. You want to get the 2 huge bosses together and take them out. Tic the closer one with Lightning Field, then run to the second. You don't have Spin so you'll need to use Strike manually. You can also use Veteran attacks if you have them, it's better than standing around doing nothing. Use your Lucks after the 2 bosses go down, because massive ambushes will start. Use Strike on Lts and bosses. Move around when you see that all the minions around you are dead. You'll go up in level fast, and the Inspirations from that and drops should keep you going for a while. Click every inspiration you get, with only 4 slots there's no way you'll be able to combine any. When you die (and you probably will), load up on Inspirations as before and continue. When most of the mobs around the ramp are dead, click the glowie to complete the mission and exit. You just earned 1500 tickets and went up to level 9.5 or so.
Head to Arbiter Richard and level up, following the Farm build. If you have the special 5 starting Praetorian Enhancements, you might as well slot them in Spin. Back to AE, select the next mission, load up on reds to the damage cap, 1 yellow, 4 lucks, and fill your Inspiration tray with more Lucks. Remember to hit Hasten before you enter. Pull the first boss to the second, put Spin on Auto, then go to town. Things will go a LOT faster with Spin and Hasten. Use your Inspirations as fast as you can, still not much use combining. After the second run you'll be about level 13.5.
If you don't have a SG, you should head to Port Oakes and make one after the second run. Get a SG base permit as well, so you don't need to run back to Port Oakes when you're ready to build your base. Turn on SG mode as well. Then once you get a total of 65k Prestige, you can add a small Workshop and Empowerment station.
Repeat the farm to level 50. You'll want to level up at Arbiter Richard whenever you hit a level that gets you more Inspirations (10, 25, and 40) or farm powers (Energize, Power Surge). As your inspiration storage grows you'll actually be able to start combining. Level 25 is probably that point, as you'll have 15 Inspiration slots. Hasten will probably be up every two or three runs, depending on whether or not you slot it and how much time you spend outside the mission. Remember to use Power Surge as well if it is up before you enter. Every hour you'll need to refresh your Increased Attack Speed empowerment buff.
You will probably die from time to time. As the level up Inspirations slow down, you won't be able to maintain capped Defense and Resistance. Here's what I do to reduce deaths. Starting at the third run I buy and use lots of reds to damage cap at the AE Inspiration vendor. Then I buy but don't use 1 yellow, 4 lucks, and 5 oranges. Click Hasten if it is up and enter the mission. As I'm running to the mobs, I use the rest of my Inspirations. They last till I've triggered the ambushes and started taking them out, so the Inspirations should be flowwing pretty well at that point.
Notice I never said anything about Enhancements. You don't need any when leveling up. Yes, I'm serious. They won't help much, I showed that above. Enhancement Scaling will reduce them to almost nothing at level 1, so why bother? You can level up to 50 without ever slotting anything. If you're rolling Recipes with your tickets and you get some you'll want for your final Farm build (like procs, where the level doesn't matter), you might as well slot them. You could slot some Recharge Reduction in Hasten and Power Surge for improved recharge outside the farm, but they'll likely recharge even without that if you spend a few minutes doing base or Market stuff.
You will fill up on tickets from time to time. See the section below on Spending Tickets and decide how to spend them. I bought Gold 35-39 recipes and Platinum Salvage my first time. I kept the recipes and sold the Platinum, and ended up with just under 100M Inf when I hit level 50, plus several recipes I needed for my builds. I also had 775k Prestige, all those bosses really bumped that up. Then I tried leveling up 2 Brutes on different servers and selling only Rare Salvage, and ended up with 350M each. Rare Salvage prices are declining, but you may still be able to get 350M if you look around.
After you hit 50 you'll probably want to start buying stuff for your farming build, and you may want to switch to an alternate build and make a decent one for non-farm use. You'll need it if you want to get those Accolades and Incarnate powers.
Conclusion
While leveling up, it takes roughly 80-90 seconds to after entering the mission to earn 750 tickets if you have Hasten and the Empowerment buff. But since you're leveling up, and it takes a while to zone and get the next mission, you might as well stay long enough to finish all the mobs in the area. You're there for XP after all. Once you hit 50, it's your call whether or not to finish and exit as soon as you hit 750 tickets from defeats.
Slotted with a Sleep purple set and the 2 PvP Hold sets, plus running the Increase Attack Speed Empowerment buff, it usually takes under 80 seconds to get 1500 tickets total. Again that's the time from entering the mission to Mission Complete. That's comparable to an expensive SS/Fire Brute. I can run through the complete arc (5 mission) and get to 7500 Tickets in 10.5 minutes, as each mission is about 2 minutes on my machine including zoning, talking to the contact, and loading up on Inspirations. Hasten is up for 3 of the 5 runs. I also earn about 7.8M Inf while not in SG mode. Assuming I spend those tickets on Rare Salvage that sells for 1.5M each, that's a total of 28.6M Inf, or a total of around 2.7M Inf/minute.
With a more expensive build (4 purple sets, 2 Gladiators Nets, Ageless Interface, Increased Attack Rate empowerment buff), it's closer to 70 seconds per run with Hasten up. Ageless and the Purple sets give more of a noticeable bonus when Hasten is down, so I could probably get 7500 tickets in a bit under 10 minutes.
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Earning & Spending Tickets
Q: How long does it take to cap tickets when farming?
A: On a level 50 farmer with nothing slotted but running Hasten and the Increase Attack Speed Empowerment buff, you can earn over 750 tickets in 80-90 seconds. Then click the glowie to hit the cap of 1500 tickets and exit. Slot better and it will be a bit faster.
Q: How should I spend my tickets to earn the most Inf?
A: Below I list your options, but the best method WILL change. You need to watch the Market to be sure.
Q: Why will it change?
A: If I say the best return is on Rare Salvage, lots of people will start selling it, and the price will go down.
Q: Are you sure?
A: Yes. A single farmer who can zone fast can produce 60 rare Salvage per hour. That's more than the Market uses.
Every 5 mission you'll have 7500 Tickets. What do you do with those? Well it really depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it. Here are the options. In the examples below, "k" means a thousand Inf, and "M" means a million Inf.
Payoff Badge, 1000 tickets, one time cost, sure do it if you like badges.
Unlockable MA features, 4375 tickets total according to ParagonWiki, account wide, one time cost, do it if you want to make up MA arcs without restrictions.
Common Invention Salvage, around 15M/7500 tickets, lots of work.
Check out the Market and see if there are any groups of Common Invention Salvage where several of the pieces are expensive. For example, look at low level Tech Common Salvage which includes Human Blood Sample, Inanimate Carbon Rod, Computer Virus, Simple Chemical, Brass, and Boresight. Say for example that Brass and Boresights are selling for 50k or 100k Inf each, and there are a lot of outstanding bids. That means a Marketeer Flipper is probably buying them for 50k and reselling them for 100k. A random piece of Common Salvage costs 8 tickets, so you can buy 937 with those 7500 tickets. Delete the junk and you'll end up with about 156 pieces each of Brass and Boresight. If you can sell those for 50k each, you'll earn 15.6M Inf. The biggest problem with this method is you have to do a LOT of clicking, and you have to carry 312 pieces of Salvage to the Market. Granted there's a Black Market in Mercy right next to the AE building. Long time vets with /auctionhouse have a BIG advantage here, as they can turn in tickets and sell the Salvage while standing at the ticket vendor. Note this this method ONLY works if there are enough high outstanding bids for the salvage. You don't have 32 transaction slots to sell this stuff slowly. The more Marketeers there are flipping Salvage, the more Inf you can make. If there are outstanding bids of 50k for all 6 items in a category, you can make nearly 47M Inf. If the high outstanding bids run out, you've just wasted a lot of tickets.
Uncommon Invention Salvage, around 14M/7500 tickets, medium speed
Same idea as above, less Salvage, but more expensive. This costs 80 tickets per piece, but you can buy exactly what you want. Say you look at the Market and find that Steel is selling for 150k. You can buy 93 pieces for 7500 tickets, and sell them for about 14 million Inf. This is a lot fewer trips, but you need to find an expensive piece of Salvage. This method requires fewer transaction slots, so you can do it even if there aren't outstanding bids. But you can only do it a couple of times before you have to stop and wait for stuff to sell. If the Salvage is really expensive like 500k, you can earn a lot more doing this. At least until the other Claws/Electric Brutes start doing the same thing, or the Marketeer Flipper moves to something else.
Rare Invention Salvage, around 21M/7560 tickets, high speed
Same as above, even less Salvage, even more expensive. Rare pieces of Salvage cost 540 tickets, so you can buy 14 if you have 7560 tickets. Rare Salvage sells for up to 2M each, but it really depends on how high you want to price it and how long you want to wait. You may be able to sell it to a flipper for 1.3M instantly. You can probably sell it for 1.5M fairly quickly, as that will be below the flipper's resale price. If you price it too high it may be above the flipper's resale price, and it'll never sell. I recommend going for about 1.5M. Then again if 50 people make up Claws/Electric Brutes and start doing this tomorrow, the price of Rare Salvage across the board is going to crash. You need to keep an eye on the Market. This uses up very few transaction slots, and requires a single trip to the Market.
Inspirations, personal use only
This depends on the Market, but I've never seen prices high enough to consider doing this. At 100 tickets per random Large Inspiration, you can buy 75. If the 8 different Inspiration types drop equally, then you'll get about 9 of each. You can combine the wrong types into the one you want, resulting in about 30 Large Inspirations of the type you want.
Recipe Rolls, varies by type and level range, see below
I'm working on a BIG spreadsheet, no I won't post it here. I put every IO in the sheet. I included the price at max level, the level range, the table it shows up on, and the probable table weight at each level. I used the price at max level because I assume these results will be used by a level 50 character. If a level 50 rolls on the Silver Recipe level 20-24 table and gets a Miracle: +Recovery, it's going to be level 40. That's just the way these rewards work. For lower level characters (say 33) the numbers will be WAY off. Recipes below max level generally do not sell for as much, and do not sell nearly as fast. For price I used 0 if it was under a million or the last 5 was more than a day. You can't sell every Bronze Recipe you generate for example, there are just too many. And you can't waste a market transaction slot trying to sell some things at all because they move too slowly. For Table, I divided things unto Uncommon Mob Drops, Rare Mob Drops, Mission Complete Drops, and TF Drops, all based on the ParagonWiki data at
Invention Origin Enhancement Sets. That's because the Bronze and Silver tables use a combination of the above tables. For Probable Weight I used my interpretation of the ParagonWiki data at
Random Rare Recipe Drop Rates as applied to Uncommon and both Rare tables. Mako's Bite has a high weight on every table for example. For each class below, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, I include a table by level range that includes the chance you'll get a sellable IO, as well as the average price.
Unfortunately my huge honking spreadsheet isn't done. I need price data, and I need better weight data. So I don't know yet what the best table is. Of course it will change as soon as I post it, as farmers will likely use it and drive some prices down.
Bronze Rolls, unknown
These cost 60 to 75 tickets depending on the level. About 1 in 8 times you get a Rare Recipe mob drop, but the other 7 out of 8 times you get an Uncommon Recipe mob drop. Unfortunately all of the SS/Fire Brutes have been doing these for a while, so most of the Uncommon recipes aren't worth much. At very low level it's just the Steadfast: Res/Def and Rectified Reticle: ToHit. It's mostly the Rare ones that are worthwhile, but it is still better to roll on this table than the Silver one if you want Rares (see below). I would recommend rolling in the 35-39 range. That includes the mid-level recipes that are in high demand (like Kinetic Combat), but excludes the lower level ones that people don't slot at higher levels (Bonesnap, Salvo, Tempest, etc.).
Silver Rolls, these are for suckers
These cost 450 to 600 depending on the level. Silver Rolls are a combination of Rare mob drops (3 out of 5) and mission complete drops (2 out of 5). The mission complete drops tend to be junk because they are oversupplied in the Market. Can you believe it, some people spend all their time running missions! That means you're really paying 750 to 1000 on average for a Rare mob drop recipe. But if you pay 480 to 600 tickets for 8 Bronze rolls, you will generally get 7 Uncommon recipes and one Rare mob drop one. That's cheaper, and it's like getting 7 Bronze recipes for free! So never roll on the Silver table.
Gold Rolls
These cost 3000 to 4000 depending on the level, and will get you an old style TF reward recipe. These tend to be triples (IO recipes that enhance 3 things), quads (4 things) or procs (like Mako's Bite: Chance for Lethal Damage). You can use a number of these yourself, mainly the procs in your farm build. This has some of the big ticket items, like the Numina and Miracle uniques, and the Luck of the Gambler: +7.5% Increase Recharge Rate. I recommend rolling in the 35-39 range on this as well.
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Farming Build
This is the basic farming build. You probably want one Damage Resistance SO in Power Surge just to cap Lethal Resistance with Charged Armor when it is up. Other than that, slotting Enhancements is optional! REALLY!!! Farm with Hasten and Power Surge up, and it is still incredibly effective. Maybe level up 2 farmers and alternate between them. Energize will be up every run, since it recharges so fast. Lightning Reflexes will help recharge Hasten and Power Surge recharge while outside the farm. If you don't want to slot the purples and PvPs below, just slot up the powers with cheap sets that give Global Recharge to again help with Hasten and Power Surge outside the farm. Remember that you'll need to pop a yellow Inspiration while farming, and you can only reach 85% ToHit if you don't have any purples. If you're too cheap for cheap IOs, load up with some Recharge SOs in Hasten and Recharge and Damage Resistance in Power Surge. That will help them recharge faster when you're outside the farm. Note that this build uses Earth Mastery. There's no need to get a Patron and run through their arc to get a Patron Power set. Earth Mastery is actually the best set, since it contains several mezz powers that can slot fairly cheap purple and PvP sets.
The procs in attacks are meant to help when you aren't at the damage cap. You'll want them if you only have a single char and farm with Hasten down sometimes, or maybe if you're PLing someone else and the Inspirations aren't coming in as fast as solo. You definitely won't kill fast enough to stay capped.
The Fortunata Hypnosis set is pretty cheap, so you should really consider buying it. That gives enough Accuracy to always hit even con mobs, and come close on +1s. Plus the 10% Global Recharge help farming speed. If you don't even have enough for that set, then slot it with Call of the Sandman for outside recharge. The Grav Anchor and Absolute Amazement sets are moderately priced purples, good for the Global Recharge. Two total purple sets will cap your ToHit at 95%. If you don't want the purples, slot Enfeebled Operations and Stupefy for outside Recharge. The Armageddon and Ragnarok sets are just for Global Recharge and farming speed, very expensive and over the top. You can benefit from at most 5 purple sets with 10% Global Recharge each.
Next comes PvP IOs. You can benefit from 5 of them as well, at 7.5% Global Recharge each. Only Gladiator's Net and Panacea have Recharge that works in PvE, and Panacea is incredibly expensive. You can slot Gladiator's Net in both Fossilize and Power Surge (because it does an EMP when it crashes), which gives 7.5% Global Recharge. If you're rolling in Inf, feel free to buy Panacea sets as well and take the Medicine pool for more healing powers. Otherwise, slot Energize with Doctored Wounds for the outside recharge bonus.
The Miracle, Numina, and Regen Tissue procs are nice to have. You probably don't need the extra END if you always farm with Power Surge (dual farmers) since it gives 1.67 END/sec, but they're nice if you only have a single farmer who farms without Power Surge. Due to the way the buffs work, they double stack for the first 2 minutes of a mission. With all 3, you get 90% Regen and 0.84 End/sec for 2 minutes. When the double stacking wears off, you get 45% Regen and 0.42 End/sec. The more END you have, the less you need to pop blue Inspirations.
After that, add other IOs as you see fit. With the single cheap purple set and Hasten up, Spin recharges in 7.78 seconds, so it cycles in about 10.5 seconds.
This build can be used while leveling up.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Electri Kitty Farm: Level 50 Technology Brute
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Earth Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Strike -- T'Death-Dam%:40(A)
, Mako-Dam%:50(5)
, Zinger-Dam%:50(19)
, GS-%Dam:50(36)
Level 1: Charged Armor -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Lightning Field -- Erad-%Dam:30(A)
, Sciroc-Dam%:50(3)
, Oblit-%Dam:50(3)
, Armgdn-Dam%:50(36)
, FotG-ResDeb%:50(36)
Level 4: Slash -- T'Death-Dam%:40(A)
, Mako-Dam%:50(5)
, Zinger-Dam%:50(21)
, LdyGrey-%Dam:50(21)
, ShldBrk-%Dam:30(27)
, GS-%Dam:50(43)
Level 6: Spin -- Erad-%Dam:30(A)
, Sciroc-Dam%:50(7)
, Oblit-%Dam:50(7)
, Zinger-Dam%:50(9)
, Empty(9)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
, Empty(11)
, Empty(11)
Level 10: Static Shield -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Follow Up -- Mocking-Taunt:50(A)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:50(15)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(15)
, Mocking-Acc/Rchg:50(17)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rng:50(17)
, Mocking-Rchg:50(37)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 16: Grounded -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Focus -- Mocking-Taunt:50(A)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:50(19)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(27)
, Mocking-Acc/Rchg:50(31)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rng:50(34)
, Mocking-Rchg:50(50)
Level 20: Lightning Reflexes -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Boxing -- Amaze-Stun:50(A)
, Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(23)
, Amaze-Acc/Rchg:50(23)
, Amaze-EndRdx/Stun:50(25)
, Amaze-ToHitDeb%:50(25)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 26: Eviscerate -- Mocking-Taunt:50(A)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:50(34)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(40)
, Mocking-Acc/Rchg:50(40)
, Mocking-Taunt/Rng:50(43)
, Mocking-Rchg:50(50)
Level 28: Energize -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(A)
, Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(29)
, Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29)
, Dct'dW-Heal:50(31)
, Dct'dW-Rchg:50(31)
Level 30: Super Jump -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 32: Shockwave -- Zinger-Taunt:50(A)
, Zinger-Taunt/Rchg:50(33)
, Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(33)
, Zinger-Acc/Rchg:50(33)
Level 35: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt:50(A)
, Zinger-Taunt/Rchg:50(37)
, Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(37)
, Zinger-Acc/Rchg:50(40)
Level 38: Power Surge -- GladNet-Acc/Hold:50(A)
, GladNet-Acc/Rchg:50(39)
, GladNet-Rchg/Hold:50(39)
, GladNet-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:50(39)
, GladNet-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:50(46)
, ResDam-I:50(46)
Level 41: Stone Prison -- GravAnch-Immob:50(A)
, GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(42)
, GravAnch-Acc/Rchg:50(42)
, GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx:50(42)
, GravAnch-Hold%:50(43)
Level 44: Salt Crystals -- FtnHyp-Sleep:50(A)
, FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg:50(45)
, FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg:50(45)
, FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg:50(45)
, FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx:50(46)
Level 47: Fossilize -- GladNet-Acc/Hold:50(A)
, GladNet-Acc/Rchg:50(48)
, GladNet-Rchg/Hold:50(48)
, GladNet-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:50(48)
, GladNet-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:50(50)
Level 49: Power Sink -- Empty(A)
Level 0: Born In Battle
Level 0: High Pain Threshold
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I don't want to end up eating crow, but if these ambush maps have been allowed to exist for this long, I don't see them getting around to changing it now. Things that everybody can exploit usually get fixed. These types of maps require highly specific conditions for the player to meet to even make it worthwhile.