gec72

This is true and it's something that just has to be lived with. But darned if I haven't gotten into an arc figuring I probably would't run across a BAF soon (on Infinity, where they don't seem to run nearly as often as oh, Virtue) only to see "BAF lfm pst" come across one of the channels.

Unfortunately agreed.

I'm behind on or still digesting much of the content already (Heck, I am behind on some stuff from ten issues ago. What's that you say, my Pain Dom MM? Oh, you don't exist in-game? Sorry about that.). I have more than enough progress that could be made in DA on my stable of 50s to last for a year, probably. I have Staff Fighting to level, I haven't even rolled my Dark controller, haven't even purchased Titan Weapons. My Beam Rifle corr is languishing in First Ward. I haven't rolled a serious toon red-side since the Mercy revamp (my "Bootfoot" counterpart to my son's "Glovehand" doesn't count).

But, QoL and general cleanup doesn't sell (or doesn't advertise well), even if it might be desirable to a subset of players.

I'm currently running incarnate content on two of my characters, one on Virtue (#1) and one on Infinity (#2). I've run maybe a couple dozen arcs on them (mostly on #1). I think I've maybe gotten two uncommon drops and the rest common. I'm learning that there are very few shortcuts progressing this way.

So, I've run some trials figuring that even if they are not absolutely required, they are very, very helpful. I've run maybe a half-dozen BAF on #1. To contrast my "luck" from above, here I've had one rare and three very rares drop. I'm nowhere near ready to use them (need a few more of everything for that), but yikes. #2 got on one BAF (chatter on Infinity seems more scarce than Virtue, and I'm not willing to do the more advanced trials especially w/o shifts). No component, as we failed ("badge run"....*sigh*).

Oh, #1 also did a Lambda. 10 thread booby prize for the speed run. I stink at Lambdas. Stupid squishy controllers.

Wouldn't mind the option for at least one of my Sonic attacks, too.

(really didn't think her voice could get that deep!)

The thinking originally was that the WS was better against groups of foes than he was against Elite Bosses, which the Ramiel arc has a few of. Rather than doing the arc (which I'd just done on my Ice/Time troller and had done on another half-dozen characters) I'd head straight for DA. It wasn't completely that I didn't think I could do the arc, I just really didn't feel like being bothered with it. I actually wanted something a little more mindless.

Oh, and calling someone else for help isn't really my style. I just generally don't interact much in-game.

I did some street sweeping (which was fun - groups are big enough to keep me well buffed) and after a little while figured I could try the arcs. Sure, those also have elite bosses, but most of the time you have NPC help. Plus I could work on getting components in the process. Only...I couldn't, because I couldn't actually start the arcs (which does make sense - because I wasn't yet an incarnate). So I went back to street sweeping, but did so while in the queue. Which eventually got me into a BAF, after a pretty sizable chunk of time.

"Wasting" Astrals isn't really an issue. I ran a decent amount of BAF/Lamda on my Grav/Storm (an Ill/TA too, but he's on another account) and she probably has plenty of them sitting around doing very little.

"You need to do a ton of trials as it is" - well, actually the hope was that with the new solo option I wouldn't have to. Which technically I don't, but boy does it help to unlock the slots.

/smacks forehead

Completely forgot that astrals could serve this purpose.

(Or really, any purpose. I think the most I've done is break them into threads. Ok, maybe I unlocked a couple chest emblems.)

Captain Nolan did not show up as a contact until Alpha was unlocked. Heather wouldn't talk to me as a contact just by walking up to her (didn't try Ephram).

I'll agree that it is, and it's probably not a road I will go down again; I was just not too confident of the ability of my WS (though if anything that Hero One mission SHOULD be ideal for fueling him). That, and BAF doesn't seem to run nearly as often on Infinity as on Virtue.

"use the WSTs to fill it up" - that makes me chuckle. The last one I did was...I can't even say when it was for sure. Many months ago.

Most characters I decide to go the incarnate route with will probably run Ramiel (most already have, actually) or a couple of BAF to unlock the slot, then solo/BAF with the occasional Lambda for the rest of the iXP and components (I seem to get MUCH better rolls on BAF than in the solo arcs).

I started the incarnate progress on my WS yesterday, deciding to forgo Ramiel, heading directly to DA instead. After the better part of a day spent sweeping I'd made it to maybe 20-25%. I'd been in the BAF queue and finally got on one (failed) and exited at 97%.

Incarnate XP solo is slow, slow, slow. Especially w/o Alpha when you can't yet run missions.

I could have sworn Arcana already said somewhere that she would be putting all of her merits toward converters. So, probably.

True. I haven't checked to see what the supply on junk purples might be - I would think they might dry up fairly quickly if enough folks knew to buy them up to convert (or if they simply stopped listing and converted them themselves).

I'd wondered if you had an efficient toon if you might be able to roll AE tickets to generate Quickfoots, Soaring, etc. faster than you could reliably have purples drop. Then again, if you have that efficient a 15 you probably have an efficient enough 50 that can just generate inf at a fast enough clip anyway and wouldn't need to bother.

*shrug*

Well that's what I'd have guessed, but for conversion purposes I wasn't sure given Ukaserex's post (and you're right, sounds like the conversion box may have been set incorrectly).

I wonder if anyone has even tried to convert a BotZ to another set. I don't believe it would be profitable, but I'm curious if it works.

Hmm, I'd wondered about this regarding the travel powers. Are Celerity and Quickfoot their own category (oh hai level 15 Quickfoot! u want become +Stealth??), or are the leaping and teleport sets grouped with them? What of BoTZ? Is there a way to loophole into a Winter's Gift? (probably not)

That's typically my goal too, though up until this point I've blocked out PvP IO and very rarely bother with purples, as my 50s usually don't get played that much after reaching 50 (that may change with DA).

I'm dusting off an old Sonic defender, and am actually toying with the prospects of slotting Glad Armor and Shield Wall. I never would have considered that before.

Yeah, I tend to build a lot of controllers, and I probably should have picked up at least some confuse sets (I've even been playing my Ice/Time, but didn't bother to upgrade Arctic Air).

Despite the difficulty, I *did* appreciate that. It was just a bear to actually do on those characters.

Another option may be to have a couple of possible tricks to choose from for a given fight, and you don't know which one you are going to get beforehand.

I am rerunning some of the DA arcs, and I could swear that one final EB fight did this, though I could just be getting a couple of arcs confused. But the first time through there was a mechanic similar to Blitz, where at X% health the EB became untouchable until you defeated some support mobs. The second time I did not encounter the support mobs, but was ambushed throughout the fight with the EB.

Definitely would recommend the -1, but in this case I might advocate that bosses should be turned on. I haven't done that mission in ages, but the helper NPCs might spawn as bosses with bosses turned on, but lieuts with them turned off. In the second case they would assuredly be useless, but they *might* survive as bosses.

And what peterpeter says about positioning. Some mobs just MELTED my Mercs (Merc/Poison), but if I positioned the EB between them and me they fared much better. This was on a Merc/Poison tankermind, so my contribution was taunting the heck out of EBs while trying to keep them as debuffed as possible.

And absolutely get a Shivan.

This would be it, for me. I primarily solo so I don't care about being able to have access to TF or teams from both sides (if I really wanted to, I would just hop on a pure red or blue character). To trade AMs just for the ability to stroll around a few more zones isn't worth it to me.

I found it to be fairly difficult on a couple of my characters that had limited/no status protection or defense. It took a number of runs back from the hosp on my Warshade and my Ice/Time controller. The WS didn't have much around him to leach from, and when he was in dwarf to avoid being held he really wasn't capable of a whole lot of damage (just not built for it). My controller had to rely on purples and break frees, and didn't have enough to last all phases of the fight (maybe if she was completely packed with tier 3 insps, but that wasn't the case).

I did ultimately succeed, but it sure wasn't easy.

Most? Really? I have 13 (15? bah, I forget) 50s, most of which are specced with IOs. I have never defeated an AV. Ok, maybe not never, there were some before the EB downgrade was implemented that I had to level way past to defeat. But none in the past six years or so.

I felt very lucky to manage to beat Keres, Rommy and their posse of monstrous bodyguards on my Ice/Time. That's WITH Cimeroran help, which isn't as robust as one might think (I finished with just the Doctor and a PPD radio backup surviving). Oh, and thank Statesman's ghost for lava against the 5th.

If she was +3, I'm sure this would be considerably easier. But she's just starting down the incarnate path, so it's not. My initial goal was to work towards filling slots by running the DA content. Of course I've been doing that, and I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle the final arc. So...I've been resorting to running some BAFs for components (and will probably run some of the early arcs in Oro).