UberGuy

All my 50s tend to hover around the 2B mark, and as they overflow, I shunt bits of it onto the market, usually between 0-1B stored. I'm not a hard-core profiteer, though, so I am quite sure I represent small potatoes.

Like others, I will not store inf in the mail system unless it goes a long, long time without obvious *****. Right now it's far too unstable to trust

The answer is complicated. It depends on the strength of the enhancement provided by each enhancer, as well as the level you are exemplaring to.

You can find the details needed to determine the answer for your examples here.

Same TF as Nord's shot...

We actually got the Director 11 badge in that run, which is why several of us got the Master Of badge.

When I've done it she goes through waves. She starts out open, people pile on her, patches appear, people fall back. Then those expire, and new patches appear scattered around at people's fall back spots. Then she's open, people pile on, and the cycle repeats, with some variations.

Re: Venture,

Based on your posts (historically, not just in here), you are one of the most inflexible, intolerant players I have ever had the opportunity to read the posts of on this forum. You have always come across as wholly intolerant of game mechanics, lore, and just about anything else that does not fit nicely into your own box which outlines what is good and what is bad. I mentioned it before - I subscribe frequently to slippery slope defensive positions. However, even I have some damping in my feedback loop - you're in full avalanche breakdown mode here. We have the barest hint of a couple of mechanics that try something new and you want to "shoot the camel". That's ridiculous, as most of your positions are, no matter how eloquently stated.

I'm happy to come back later and say I was wrong if this turns into some vast episode of the new dev team wandering down some unpleasant change path. I also trust that there will be other, more reasonable people providing ever louder negative feedback if that happens. I'm willing to risk certain unpleasant outcomes in order to give the devs some leeway to try new things, because I want the game to continue to evolve.

Do you know what I did with Snaptooth two years ago? I got him on a level 14, loaded a level 50 into the mission, and I cleaned his clock, repeatedly, for candy canes. I then used those canes to buy Winter's Gift slow resist recipes. Earlier this year, those were selling for 50M apiece.

So yeah, I'm totally sure Lady Winter was given GM scaling code just because of Level Shift buffs that no one even has yet. I'm sure that stunts like what I was doing had nothing at all to do with the devs experimenting on ways to counter things like what I did. (And yes, you can still do them with a little variation, even with the addition of SSK.)

If you look at our game's history, the game has been rife with examples where the devs get some new tech, and they use it extensively. The next release after they gain a new tool, they often have rolled that tool into several encounters, or new powersets, or new entities. This sometimes continues for one or more additional issues, even in cases where the new tool doesn't become deeply ingrained in the game. (For an example of the latter, look no further than the invention system. No, I don't just mean IOs - I mean every interface in the game where you can spend something to craft something, including all merit currencies and the Incarnate system.)

I see this as no different. The devs have some new toys and they're playing around with them, seeing how they can make new encounters and challenges. There's no such thing as "regular" content. There's just older content and new content that will continue to include this sort of experimentation by the devs. Some of it will be a great success, some of it people will hate, and some of it will get mixed reviews. Give feedback certainly, but consider that your conspiracy theories suggesting that the devs are out to get us and make everything going forward ludicrously difficult is really overboard.

The answer to that depends on how many slots you have to spare, and what you value more - recovery or regen.

If you do decide to slot it for recovery, and you only have one slot to do so with, a Performance Shifter is your best average recovery/sec compared to a single level 50 end mod IO.

Unless you don't have access to TF teams, or don't like to attend TFs, you should focus on them as your means of access to common components. If you can do this, you should save your shards for crafting uncommon components.

There is one common component I regularly create from shards, and that's the Penumbra of Rularuu. No one I know of on Justice runs (successful) Cathedrals of Pain, so it's easier for me to gather the four shards for that one component.

By the time I did all the stuff I wanted with my "go to" characters after I19, be that badge collecting, earning various merit types and/or money to fund respec IOs, etc., all had 35-50 shards after creating their uncommon. In the case of the character with 35 shards, that included crafting two uncommon alpha boosts.

Something I only really noticed recently... as one can see there, it really delivers a respectable chunk of damage.

Mids currently lists the proc as granting 10% end, so it looks like it does reflect it.

However, I don't think Mids has ever counted the procs as part of average recovery rate. It'd be a bit hard (or at least special case) to know when to count it that way. If people slot it in something like Speed Boost, it's not going to contribute to their recovery.

1000 is probably possible, but I would expect it to be quite unlikely, currently.

I was unaware that setting a bomb awarded any merits at all. That sounds like a terribly likely culprit.

Actually, BI may be right. I don't know what exactly allows it, but it's extremely common for people who have forgotten to run the arc to look and have 10 Vanguard Merits after their first raid. Since this is 30 and not 10, this case may not be the same, but you can earn them, probably through some bug or oversight.

Yep.

More and more I think the strategy folks having problems to try is going to be to kill existing clones, then beat on Trapdoor, then hit him with -regen (stabbing him with Envenomed Dagger if nothing else), go kill the current clone, then come back. This means you aren't facing his increased resistance and hopefully can blunt his regen some while you're off defeating each summoned clone. If you can't find a clone fast enough, you're going to lose ground.

Bah, late to the party on this one. * Shakes fist at the RSS feed reader in his browser *

Castle, like most long-timers I certainly haven't liked every change you've made to the game, but I definitely believe that the game's PvE balance direction took a dramatic turn for the better at the time you accepted the reins of power development. I'm sure there are folks behind the scenes who've been helping shape that direction, but if so, you have always been the most public face of that group. I believe you deserve our thanks for the job you did in both roles - lead powers guy and public face for those working on powers. I think those of us who frequent the forums have immensely appreciated your participation here, and your frequent candor. I know I have.

Here's hoping you have a happy holidays and then a fruitful change of pace thereafter. You've been here for a long time, through some big changes, and for many of us you've grown familiar. I will miss your presence around here, and I think those following in your footsteps have big shoes to fill.

Heh.