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There are several different things that affect whether or not you get bosses.

In general, you get a single boss per randomly generated spawn in an instanced mission if your team has 7 chars, and two bosses if your team has 8 chars. The difficulty settings can be used to make this happen while solo, by setting your "equivalent to X characters" to 7 or 8, and setting "allow bosses when solo" to yes. Unfortunately doing this will give you a lot of minions and Lts that can cause problems or take time.

The team size is also used to generate spawns when you move through zones. Min and maxes are applied depending on the zone you are in, and that's the basis for the difference between old style City, Hazard, and Trial zones. I think City zones will only spawn to a max of 6 or so, Hazard zones spawn with a min of 5 and max of 6, and Trial zones spawn with a min of 7. So you can always run to a trial zone and hunt the bosses there. But again the random spawns will have lots of Minions and Lts.

Missions can have hand-placed mobs. The most common example is a boss at the end of the mission. But there are plenty of missions that include extra bosses with dialogue or clues. There's a mission from Ashley McKnight that has lots of boss spawns even when solo. It's the one where you have to collect 4 amulets from Mages, but there are lots of Succubi as well. There's the Bzzzzt mission blueside with loads of Psychic Clockwork bosses on patrol. Find one of these and you'll have lots of bosses with little overhead.

Zones can also have hand placed spawns, and that's VERY common these days. Some spawns are balanced, but some are not. I fondly recall leveling up 20-30 in Terra Volta with some other squids by blasting spawns composed entirely of Sky Raider Captains. I believe there are also large spawns of Sky Raider bosses there as well, Officers and Sky Skiffs. Those seem like a great target, as long as you can survive and keep them from running away. Crey's Folly has lots of dual-boss spawns. I've seen Outcast bosses in Steel Canyon, solo or maybe with a single minion for backup.

Factions can have special rules as to how spawns appear. Some Rikti spawns include all Monkeys or Drones instead of a random mix of minions. I forget which, but there was a faction that never included bosses in a team size of 7. Some factions can have a random spawn with no bosses even with 8 chars. I don't know of any that include bosses in random spawns inside missions when on a small team, but there may be some.

Things may work differently in the MA, not that it helps for Pool C/D drops. I once put together a custom group containing one each Lost minion, Lt, and boss. When solo but spawned for 2 with bosses disabled, I got 3 different spawns. I got 4 Minions and 1 Lt, 1 Minion and 2 Lts, or 1 Minion and 1 Boss downgraded to a Lt. Do something like this and cherry-pick the boss spawns. But again, this is in the MA, so no Pool C/D. Then again, check out Dev Choice arcs and see what sort of bosses they include.

Since it seems like you prefer redside given your choice of ATs, might I recommend hunting Toxic Tarantulas in Grandville? They usually spawn solo or Duo as you run around the Web. Exemp down to say level 44 using a Flashback and that's the level you should get when they spawn. Once you do it for a while, you'll learn all of their spawn points, and you can just repeat a standard pattern.

The mission teleporter is not OK at level 1. When you're level 1 in the Tutorial you can still join a team that has a mission set in some other zone. If you could then teleport to it, you would leave the tutorial zone. Since you can't get back, you would never get introduced to your first Mercy or Atlas contact.

I'm sure she's not asking in an effort to locate a few lower bandwidth people to help beta test Going Rogue.

Fire Blast is definitely the best for AV or GM soloing. Just take a look at the City of Data info for Blasters. Most Blasters have a tier 1 attack that does about 1 damage scale, animates in 1 second, recharges in 4 seconds, and costs 5.2 END. Fire Blast has Flares which recharges in 2.18 seconds and costs 3.692 End. Fire Blast (the tier 2 power) has a similarly low END cost, though granted it does slightly less damage. Blaze (tier 3) is one of the best powers in the entire game, with damage higher than every snipe except Blazing Bolt, and a one second activation time. Say you chain Flares, Blast, Flares, Blaze. That's 6.52 damage scale in 5.412 seconds (Arcannatime), or 1.20 Damage Per Second of Activation (DPSA). Total base END is 22.984, so it's 4.25 END/second. That's a bit high, but END cost is normally based directly on damage, so higher DPSA means higher END/second.

Sonic is certainly decent, and in fact it has a nice END/second ratio when spamming single target attacks given that it gets a lot of free damage out of the Resistance debuffs. Say you get a chain of Shriek, Scream, Shriek, Howl. You can maintain about 4 Resistance debuffs of 13% each, for a 52% total. The chain above does a base 5.12 damage scale in 7.128 second, or 0.72 DPSA. Even taking into account the resistance debuff, that's only 1.1 DPSA. Total base END is 26.624, so it's 3.73 END/second. So it beats Fire Blast for END/second, but it comes in second place for DPSA.

All of the other primaries are easier to compare, since they don't have Resistance debuffs. Archery looks fairly decent, but it has lower damage in exchange for higher Accuracy, and Blazing Arrow is significantly longer to animate than Blaze. The chain of Snap Shot, Aimed Shot, Snap Shot, Blazing Arrow does 5.585 damage in 6.204 seconds, or 0.90 DPSA. AR doesn't have a tier 3 attack. Neither does Electrical Blast, though Voltaic Sentinel combined with a ranged attack from the secondary will help. Energy Blast, Ice Blast, and Psychic Blast all cost more END and do less damage. Ice Blast and Psychic Blast both have tier 3 attacks that animate so fast, the tier 1 attack isn't recharged yet.

Mental Manipulation is definitely the best secondary for AV soloing, and it's the ONLY secondary for GM soloing. Regen debuffs are absolutely essential for GM soloing, and I think Drain Psyche is the only option for Blasters.

Personally, I leveled up a Fire/MM a little while ago for AV soloing using normal Scrapper rules (no Inspirations, no temp powers). I concentrated on Ranged Defense and did well enough. AoE attacks were my biggest problem. But I think I'll respec for less Ranged but more AoE defense, load up on Inspirations, and have another go at it.

For my SG healing badges on new SGs I create, I single-target auto-heal my vet power Buff Pet. It's silly how fast that goes.

I only tested it with a lot of enemies surrounding me, just to see if I could get it to activate frequently. No dice, it went off twice in about 5 minutes. I did not test to see if it activated outside of combat.

I would do more harm than good if I joined this. I would put together the perfect level 33 build, sucking all of those recipes out of the market. And in the end, I doubt I'd put more than that back in. The team would have to do something like run both Sister Psyche and Citadel ten times to make up for what I would use.

I just tested it. It does work, once in a while. The 5% every 10 seconds seems about right. And it doesn't appear to check for every opponent in range. I was hoping that 10 opponents would make it go off 10 times as often, but no dice.

I can understanding hiding builds if you're using a bug, feature, or exploit. Certain HOs for example can be slotted in powers that you wouldn't normally consider, and provide very high Enhancement values. I think you can slot Centrioles (Dam/Range) in Sonic Shield powers, and you get 33.3% Damage Resistance and 20% Range. If this becomes common practice, the Devs may finally decide to fix it. There was some IO that accidentally gave a global Recharge Reduction bonus, rather than just affecting the power it was slotted into. If something like that still exists, I can see why people would want to keep it quiet. These sorts of things are very easy to hide, since they don't show up anywhere that people can see. That's why I always make sure to clean up builds before I post them. Um, I mean I would never do something like that. It's wrong.

You'll get more usable results if you take actual play into account.

Full Auto and Rain of Arrows are usually cast after Aim and/or Build Up. Fistful of Arrows may not be. All secondary effects are not created equal. Sonic attacks should somehow account for the Damage Resistance debuff. Brute Foot Stomp should include Rage, and all Brute attacks need some Fury. You definitely need to include that, as well as things like Scrapper crits Blaster Defiance if you want to compare between ATs. Activation time is appropriate if you're looking at attack chains, but cycle time (taking into account Recharge) is probably a better measure of the total damage output of a power. Using cycle time for click AoEs lets you compare damage directly to toggles. Basically, think how the power is likely to be used in game. Large area long recharge AoEs are likely to be used as openers, meaning they'll hit the full number of targets. Inferno does great damage, but the long recharge significantly reduces its total output. Plus the crash may prevent you from doing more damage unless you're always prepared with Inspirations. Fast recharge attacks are likely to be used more often, meaning they'll hit fewer targets near the end of a spawn. But they usually put out more total damage because they are used so often.

Starsman did an analysis based on different Recharge levels and number of targets. See a sample HERE. But I don't really know how realistic it is.

My answer is...

It depends.

What is the object of the farm? Do you want XP? Recipes? Purples? Tickets? Solo or with support?

If you want XP you're better off facing level 52 or 53 mobs probably. For Recipes you want level 50 mobs. For purples you want level 49 mobs. For tickets you're probably back to 52 or 53 mobs.

You need to survive as a farmer. Melee types are usually a bit better against higher level mobs for safety reasons, but even a Fire/Kin can survive just fine when facing high level mobs when built and played right. Of course it helps if you're solo farming large spawns and get lots of Inspirations. My Fire/Psi Dom was very tough, but he could farm massive AE spawns of high level bosses when solo thanks to Inspirations. Ticket farms can be very easy to survive if you pick the mobs right. For example, a SS/Fire Brute has no problem farming mobs which do all fire damage.

Better farmers have damage buffs and big strong AoE attacks. Damage buffs include things like Aim and Build Up for Blasters, Fury for Brutes, Rage in SS, Fiery Embrace in FA, Fulcrum Shift in Kinetics, AAO in SD, etc. When farming for XP or Tickets (against very high level mobs) you may also want ToHit buffs. AoE attacks include things like Foot Stomp, Rain of Arrows, Shield Charge, and Lightning Rod. With enough Recharge reduction, you can use even the long recharge ones fairly often.

Finally, you need to go non-stop. Farming solo, you can probably get by on dropped Inspirations. If not, you'll need an END Recovery power.

Put it all together and you'll see that SS/Fire Brutes are very strong redside. They get Foot Stomp and Blazing Aura for AoE damage, plus usually Mu Mastery for even more damage. Burn on Immobilized targets is fun. They get lots of Fury. They get Rage which can easily be made perma, and some people try to stack it. That makes it easy to go after high level mobs. Fiery Embrace is just meh when added on top of all of that, and it has a long recharge. Healing Flames will keep you alive, and Consume will keep you going.

Elec/Shield Brutes also do well when built for massive Recharge, thanks to either Shield Charge and Lightning Rod being up every 15 seconds. AAO is weaker than Rage, but it doesn't crash. SD lacks healing and END Recovery, but capped Defense makes up for a lot. Solo, Inspirations should make up for those holes.

Blueside people have covered the options. Fire/Kins are still great thanks to their AoE damage and FS, and some people will swear by them. Others will talk about Elec/Shield Scrappers, Spines/* Scrappers, Arch/MM Blasters, Fire/Fire Tanks, etc. But honestly, they all work a bit differently, and people don't play the same.

The only real way to determine which one is the fastest is to have some sort of challenge with specific parameters, like say dual-box PLing. Even then, you'll only find out which one is the fastest with those parameters.

I haven't heard one way or another, but I assume the Devs have some plan. There are a few ways they can handle this. They can prevent you from switching sides while you have stuff in transaction slots. This is the easy solution, and the most likely one IMHO. They can just transfer all of your transaction slots from one market to the other. This has the disadvantage of allowing you to transfer hundreds of recipes (10 per transaction slot) between Markets, and I don't think they want that. Or they can leave your transaction slots alone, and you can't access them unless you switch back. This is almost like losing everything in your slots, and I don't think they'd do that.

UberGuy had it right. Create the SG, sginvite a friend (can be level 1), switch to each of your sales force chars, have your friend sginvite them to the same SG, then have your friend quit the SG. You'll need enough Inf for a cheap room (Oversight Center maybe) and an Enhancement Storage bin, but you can get that if you have 8 (I think) chars in the SG. Coalition with another SG if you want telepad access, as it's unlikely you'll be able to buy much for your personal base unless you farm a lot. This should be a base that you never allow other people to enter. Disable the settings that let teammates or coalition members enter. There's been at least one bug that let people steal from bins if they could enter the base. And while there's a new permission system, I wouldn't trust it with my loot.

Your high level Marketeer buys recipes and Salvage, crafts things, and drops them in the Enhancement Bin. Your lowbies grab stuff from the bin and sell it. You need to transfer some seed Inf to your lowbies so they have enough to list things at a proper price initially. But soon enough they'll be rich, and you'll have to find a way to transfer Inf back to your high level buyer. Alternatively, have each lowbie manage his own niche. Use a couple slots to buy stuff, and the rest of the slots to sell.

Actually, here's a third option that doesn't need any outside help once you get it running. Have the lowbies manage their own niche, but drop extra Enhancements in storage. For example, say it costs about 20M to buy 10 recipes plus salvage and craft them. Selling for 8M each, you can make that back by selling 3. Have the lowbie drop the extra 7 in SG storage, and your high level chars who want Inf can just grab them to sell.

You probably want to pay attention to the times listed in the Last 5. If you're trying to sell something for a high end price, it'll likely take a moderate amount of time compared to the Last 5 list. If the Last 5 is only 10 minutes (likely for certain Salvage for example), you can probably sell high. If the Last 5 prices cover a month, then you're better off just unloading the item for a lower price.

The Market has cycles. Things are more expensive on the weekends when more people play. Things are more expensive during the evening on fast moving items. If you put up items for sale on Monday that are based on the Last 5 prices from the weekend, you may have to wait till the next weekend for them to sell. You can take advantage of this by buying things during the week (low) and selling them on the weekend (high).

If you want to earn your Inf "honestly", you can become a Crafter. You need to earn the memorization badges for one or more Common IOs, and that will let you craft at half price and without needing a recipe. For example, your average person who wants a level 50 Healing IO would need a recipe (which can be purchased for almost 500k at a crafting table, though you can usually find it much cheaper in the Market), Salvage (cheap), and the crafting cost (another nearly 500k). After you earn the memorization badge, you can craft something like that without the Recipe, and the crafting cost goes down to about 250k. You can earn 100k per slot pretty easily, and frequently.

Part of the skill in using the Market is managing your slots. Maybe you can buy 10 Regenerating Flesh for 500 and sell them for 5k, but that's only a profit of 45k after Market fees. You're better off buying 10 Hamidon Goos for 800k and selling them for 1m. It's a bigger investment, but you get 1m profit after fees. After a while, you'll build up enough Inf that slots are really the limiting factor. Buying and selling the same item is called Flipping. People usually flip Rare Salvage or Recipes, and the fact that you can flip 10 of these per slot usually gives you a higher return per slot than Crafting. When you hit the big league, you can start flipping purples.

As you earn more Inf, you can move up to something we call Crapping. It's a cross between Flipping and Crafting. Buy a stack of Set IO Recipes, craft them, and sell them for a big markup. People pay a premium for crafted Enhancements. If you put in patient bids for the recipes and Salvage, you can usually make a couple million profit per slot easily. That recipe becomes your niche. If you can set up a SG just for yourself and your alts, you can use your alts as your sales force. Level them up to say 10, have your main Marketeers buy and craft stuff, store it in the SG, have your lowbie alts get it from SG storage, then sell it in the Market. It's a great way to get more transaction slots, though it can take some time to get it all working well. Plus you'll need some way to transfer Inf around, as your lowbies will be earning Inf by selling stuff but your buyer will need that Inf to buy new Recipes and Salvage. This sort of thing is much easier with 2 accounts. But even with a single account, you'll be able to have a lot of niches, and the Inf will roll in.

Beware of competition. If you see a lot of stock for sale in an item that moves quickly, there may well already be a crapper in that niche. Another dead giveaway is if you see multiple Last 5 recipes sold for the same odd price. (Some Marketeers mark their niches this way.) You can try to find another one or bust their niche (undercut them on Enhancement sales, or overbid for recipes to starve them out). Understand that the Last 5 prices are what buyers paid, and not necessarily what sellers listed. There was a crafted Enhancement I was crapping and selling for 7M regularly, but people would pay 10M for it because that's what the Last 5 said. Someone seeing that and the large stock for sale might assume that I was listing my things at 9-10M. Someone trying to bust my niche would likely offer their Enhancements for sale around 8M, but that's above my price, so their stuff wouldn't sell.

One important thing to remember is that the Market is a PvP zone. You are competing against other players who are going to be using the same strategies to earn massive amounts of Inf, so they can purple out their Warshades (inside joke). Be flexible. If Luck Charms drop to 500 Inf, buy all of them that you can. The price is going to go back up. If someone tries to bust your niche, you can run or fight. Don't get too heavily invested in a single thing. People flipping Platinums up to 5M probably made a huge amount of Inf, but then they lost a lot of it when AE came out and prices dropped.

Finally, when you hit 1 Billion Inf, post a screenshot.

I just don't think the Inf from defeats is a good representation of Inf earning potential. Yes it tells you how much raw Inf you can earn, but based on my old Drop listing & analysis thread, Inf from defeats is 1/7 of total earned Inf on average. Add in the Inf from vendoring Salvage, Enhancements, and IOs, and you're still at only 1/5 of the real amount of Inf you could earn if you sold things on the Market. It's not just off by a little bit, it's off by a factor of 5!

The value you are asking people to report is mainly Inf from defeats. That is significantly affected by the mob rank and level. All other things being equal, someone fighting +1 mobs will get about 35% more Inf than someone fighting even con mobs, but they'll get the same or slightly fewer drops because they'll be defeating mobs at the same rate or slower. But your drops determine your real Inf earning potential. That same person fighting +1 mobs is not going to earn 35% more total Inf, they'll only earn 7% more Inf, and only if they can keep up the same speed. Similarly, someone fighting mainly higher ranked mobs can earn significantly more Inf that someone fighting minions, but the drops will be about the same. For example, around 800 HP of damage will defeat 2 Minions or 1 Lieutenant, and on average you'll get the same number of drops in both cases, but one Lieutenant is worth about four Minions in terms of Inf. I could exemp down and fight Sky Raider Lt spawns in Terra Volta for some very nice Inf, but the drops would be worth almost nothing. Reporting the Inf from defeats is nice, but it doesn't necessarily correspond to drops, and thus it doesn't correspond to the real Inf earnings.

Now say you do just track the Inf from defeats and vendoring drops. That's a constant, and is not affected by Market swings. But again, that doesn't really represent your Inf earnings. If the Market goes up, you can sell stuff for more, so your Inf Earnings also go up. If the Market goes down, you sell stuff for less, so your Inf earnings go down. People who both buy and sell on the Market are somewhat insulated from market swings. Tracking Inf from Defeats gives people the false impression that it directly relates to what they can buy in the Market. The truth is that their Inf Earnings are significantly higher. When purple prices were at a record high, so were Inf earnings for people doing non-AE level 50 content.