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This is very important when going after REALLY hard targets. I recently did a Synapse with my Fire/MM Blaster. Drain Psyche let us defeat Babbage with a team of 6 or so. It's a 250% Regen debuff that is improved if you slot for Healing. That means it can be as powerful as Lingering Radiation, which is a 500% Regen debuff.

Actually someone did an analysis on this I think early last year. At the time, using merits to buy an LotG:7.5% was on average as effective as random rolls in the 35-39 level range. The LotG was worth about 400k Inf/merit spent, while random rolls were in the same range. The level range was important as it's really the exceptions that bring the average up. If you stick to 45-50 you miss Miracles, Touch of Death, Decimation, Kinetic Combat, etc. Fortunately the devs started applying weightings to drops to reduce the number of bad recipes. Unfortunately they didn't tell us what those weightings are. So we can't really compute the average value now of a random roll. But I expect it has gone up somewhat, as the Devs likely increased the chance of high demand things, but I don't think there has been a corresponding drop in prices.

I will definitely agree that using Merits to buy something like a Crushing Impact recipe is a waste of merits. On the other hand, using merits to buy something specific and then selling it on the Market for 100+M may be better than random rolls. That figure of 400k Inf/merit is probably a good general guideline.

But if you're talking Mid-level Crisis, then the whole object is to generate lots of drops. That means using random rolls.

Was it really that long ago? Well, I solo'd Posi (spawned for 2) in 70 minutes with that build. I think I may have had my second char as the leader sitting at Posi to talk to him (I don't recall), but the Blaster did all the mission work. That was before SSK and having powers available up to 20. I've leveled up a Fire/Psi Blaster since then who will probably be moderately faster, but I haven't finished slotting her up. Purples have gotten rather expensive. She has Drain Psyche, so very high Regen and Recovery a lot of the time. And she has World of Confusion which can be slotted with the full purple set for another +5% Ranged Defense.

I think Catwhoorg mentioned soloing Posi in under an hour. It is certainly possible, but it starts getting really hard to shave off more time. Capped runspeed from Super Speed gets you around, Raptor Pack get you over bumps, Oro portal and all of the other TP related powers help, and a high AoE damage powerset lets you steamroll where needed. But there's nothing that will let you get around needing to defeat X mobs and travel Y distance. A faster machine for faster zoning would probably let me shave off 10 minutes. With that and a purpled Fire/Psi with decent mission placement, I could see 50 minutes.

As to the OP's point, yes it would be VERY nice to be able to drop people who are gone. I've been running some PUG TFs on Infinity recently, and there have been a few people who DCd and never came back.

And yes, veterans know that big Posi's are usually bad Posi's. CoT Spectres stack ToHit debuffs, and characters don't have enough Accuracy slotted to get around that. Clocks drain END, and some people may not have Stamina even with SSK allowing powers up to 20. Vahz slows from Morts and Reapers stack to massively slow any high threat target, and Abominations do nasty Toxic damage that almost no one resists. Tanker defenses at that level are pretty wimpy, and are generally not up to the task of surviving large spawns without significant help. AoEs from squishies can result in a quick trip to the hospital.

All that said, Posi is really easy in a big team with the right support and good players. A Kin Def will solve the END problem plus provide heals, while a bubbler or two of any sort will help keep people alive. Recall Friend can make up for slow people. Leadership Tactics will help against the CoT, and will help if you have people in the team with poor Accuracy slotting. Good players can put together decent attack chains, they slot decent Enhancements, they play together, they keep buffs up, and they're simply far more effective than what you might end up with in a PUG. Just to be on the safe side though, I try to do most early TFs with the minimum number of people.

As expected, I've had mixed success in my recent Infinity PUG TFs. I've had a few people who go AFK for a while, or who take forever to get to the next mission. But I've also had a few who could solo the TF, and one who even beat me on Fed-Ex and patrol mission. The best thing to do it be up front about how long a TF will likely take. And know when to cut your losses.

You are mostly correct. Salvage, Recipes, Enhancements, and Inspirations are divided among the team. Influence is directly related to the amount of XP you get. XP is divided by the members of the team, but there is an XP multiplier based on the size of the team that increases the amount of XP you get as the team size increases. I think the multiplier is 1.3 with a team of two, up to 2.5 with a team of 8. Since the XP is increased, the Influence is correspondingly increased. Say solo a char gets 1000 Inf for defeating something. A team of 2 would get 1000*1.3/2, or 650 each. A team of 8 would get 1000*2.5/8, or 312 each. So you can significantly increase your Inf earnings by loading up lots of alt accounts. However the Inf earnings from defeats pales in comparison to the Inf earned by selling the recipe drops. In an old thread about farming info, I reported that I earned about 4M on average from defeats, but 60M from selling the recipes.

I tried an AE strategy at lunch, but didn't quite make it. But I probably could if I fine tuned things a bit. It would be close, and I'd have to take the "sell it now" price for a piece of rare salvage. But since I already won the challenge one way, I won't bother. But I will explain it.

The object is to earn enough Tickets to buy a piece of rare Invention Salvage, then sell it at WW for 2M. Obviously there has to be at least one category of salvage selling for that much. To earn that many tickets, you need a lot of things to come together. So there isn't really a single strategy or exploit, it's just a matter of killing lots of things as fast as possible to earn tickets.

First, you need a char with decent AoE damage. I think an Arch/Fire Blaster would be best. I tried with a Fire/Fire Blaster, but I think the Archery primary would be better. Start with Snap Shot. I street swept to level 2, but in retrospect the Tutorial would have given me enough starting Inf to buy Accuracy TOs plus Inspirations. Pick up Fistful of Arrows (I got Fire Ball). Set your difficulty to around 4, and head to AE. Select your carefully crafted mission and start killing. After you hit level 4 and the level-up Inspirations wear off, level up (get Combustion) and continue the mish. At level 6 only leave to level up if you have the time, and take Aimed Shot.

You must hit level 7 in order to buy Salvage. Once you have 540 tickets and are level 7, buy your Salvage, list it, and pray. Alternatively, go for 1080 tickets and get 2 pieces of Salvage and you've got a guaranteed win. I was at about 710 tickets when I finally hit level 7 (well over the time limit), and I skipped the Mission Complete which would have been another 300 tickets. So I think the 1080 tickets is a reasonable goal.

The mission is really the key thing. You have to be able to easily finish it, say by a glowie near the start. You can't have really low level mobs or you'll outlevel them fast and have to finish and restart multiple times. I put in mobs that start at level 5, so I was auto-sk'd and fine till level 6. With the Accuracy bonus of Archery plus Accuracy TOs and an ally (below), I should be able to fight +1 mobs, so that single mission would be all it takes. It has to be big enough that you don't finish it and waste time zoning in and out multiple times. I tried the Dreck map, but it turned out to be just too big. You can't control glowie placement in an outdoor map, and it took me a while to find it. The Steel Canyon outdoor map would probably be a better size.

There are 2 things you can do to make fighting easier. Pick mobs that don't hurt you much, and add allies that help you. For mobs I tried a custom group of Lost. Scrounger Buckshots just have a single AoE that doesn't hurt much, Headmen Blasters only have a medium pistol attack, and the bosses I added but generally avoided. The worst problem I had was frequent knockdown. For help I added a lot of Ice Control/Kinetics allies. I had them as hostages, but I shouldn't have put any enemies around them. I didn't give them any extra powers either, but I should have. And at that level, I think Earth Control/Empathy would be better. The Kins don't get Speed Boost at that level, and there aren't many other useful buffs, but healing will let you take on bigger spawns. Earth Control has Defense debuffs which will let you hit more often, plus Immobs to prevent the mobs from running away.

That's really all there is to it. Get the right character doing the right mission to hit level 7 within a half hour, then sell some Salvage.

Refreshing honesty.

I estimated it would take me a week or two of doing a Sister Psyche and Citadel every night to break even. That's a lot of playtime, and it assumes there's enough interest to do that sort of thing. Are there teams most every night doing TFs?

Denying combat after the tutorial is simply limiting your options. You don't have to get lucky to beat up a single mob. Maybe I can come up a way to earn 2 mil in 30 minutes if I start by defeating a single mob, and I need the time more than I need the extra Inf by completing the tutorial and selling that stuff.

Everyone start the same out of the character creator, completely broke. It seems like you want to turn the challenge into making 2 mil in 25 minutes when starting at level 2 with 50k Inf. I would rather try the original challenge.

As Eric said, let's just agree to disagree, and see who can do what.

It is a dirty word. That's why it's fun.

The vetspec will certainly earn Inf, but it isn't something that everyone can do. It takes the 9 month Veteran badge to get a single vetspec. A low level char can't slot anything worth vepspecing to sell, so you're limited to what you can hold in your Enhancement tray. That's certainly enough though, assuming you can find high level set IOs for sale cheap. I regularly see high level Snipe set IOs and such selling for 131K, and those are worth 490k in a respec. Assuming you can get a 3 to 1 return on investment, you need 666k to earn 2 million with a single vetspec. You only need 222k with 2 vetspecs, 74k with 3 vetspecs, and 25k with 4 vetspecs. I think you have to be level 3 to respec. So street sweep (tutorial optional) up to level 3, sell everything you have, buy the best IO you can, respec, buy a higher level one, respec, buy two high level ones, respec, buy 4 high level ones, respec, done.

As to AE, I think you're wrong, but I'll know more tonight. You can level up pretty fast in AE, so we're not talking a level 2 char. It really depends on what the level requirements are for salvage.

If the goal is simply to determine if anyone can earn 2 mil in 30 minutes starting with a level 1 character, then there shouldn't be any restrictions other than those. You apparently think that doing the tutorial is the best way to get started, and that using the Market is the only way this can be done. But your beliefs as to how this can be done do not belong in the rules.

That's all true, but to call it "tedious" is a massive understatement. The drop rate is estimated to be 1 in 200 kills. You can only get a drop when you earn rep, which is at most once every 5 minutes for the same target. That means you get a PvP recipe drop about every 17 hours on average. If the drop rate is actually 1 in 100 (no one really knows, it's hard to get decent data), then that goes down to about one per 8 hours. If you are farming with a friend, then you should split the rewards. You probably won't kill exactly on the 5 minute mark, so increase that by a couple percent.

I honestly can't see people doing this unless they have some sort of trick. I've heard of people parking several of their characters at the same spot, then rotating them for kills. You can probably get a kill every minute or so, depending on how long it take to log out, log in, and get killed.

Finally, the level 50 ones sell for nice coin, but the lower level ones aren't necessarily so nice. Sure the procs work at any level, and a Glad Armor +3% will probably sell for 2 billion at any level. But people who want a Fury Acc/Dam/End/Rech probably want it at 50. These are PvPers or power gamers who want the absolute best. The set bonuses work at any level, so price is really the only reason to buy a lower level one.

All that said, for the OP's purposes a single drop will probably keep that Tanker in SOs for a LONG time. So if you're willing to do the time, it certainly is an option.

But it is true for the OP, who did not start early and does not have 2 BN in the bank. He is posting here asking how to get started farming or marketeering so he can buy decent Enhancements for his level 32 char, the highest one he has. The appropriate reply is to answer his question. Point him to the beginning marketing guides which explain how to make your first million or so. The people who told him to fight -1x8 spawns will probably get him killed. The 32 Tanker may survive under the right circumstances if it is well built, but it isn't a farming machine. In his case, he'll be able to earn far more right now by marketeering than he will farming.

I was thinking that, but it really depends on level. This is a VERY toggle-light build. He's got Integration, Fly, Assault, and Tactics. At any level, he's only going to get low on END if he flies during combat or spams AoEs. The purple powers are lightly slotted for END Reduction, but 3 of those come after Stamina. In the 20s he'll lose his Leadership powers, but those End Mod IOs will be scaled down. A Performance Shifter proc is better than a third End Mod IO at higher levels, but it breaks even somewhere. It probably is worthwhile to put one into QR instead of that third END Mod. At very low levels the proc is better than a significantly scaled down End Mod IO. Of course if he had a few slots to throw around, then adding a 4th to QR and Stamina for the proc would be nice. Plus a Gladiator's Armor: +3% Def to bump up the price tag by 2 billion. (Or 3 billion if people start flipping them outside the Market.)