Talen Lee

I direct you back to my quote.

If you don't appreciate the areas a tank is better than the brute, you're not really all that into tanks. Make a brute instead. Knock yourself the **** out. But don't think that because you think that way, everyone thinks that way.

I can't believe nobody thought of this amazingly incisive and well-supported argument. I'm going to have to use this one.

There's another, slightly sadder element, and that is, some people are weak. I know I am. I have a high-ish levelled character I got through HDS stuff. I figured I'd use the HDS to get them to a key point (I think first I was thinking 22). I did so. Then I went out to 'level for real.' I compared, I cajoled, I thought about it and I figured, well, a HDS run is more time economical for certain things, so I'll just do them when my time is short. Then I got close to a key level and I figured I'd do HDS to get there. Then I figured I'd just get to another key, and another key, and so on.

I didn't like using HDS. I really didn't. Between a quiet social pressure ("don't bother IOing till 50," "We need prestige," "You're not 50 yet?") from people around me and an internal conflict ("This isn't fun, but it is fast," "When I hit 50 I'll experience the content, even if I haven't when similar things happened,") I wound up getting this character to level 37. They've a terrifingly small amount of time actually played; they've idled online in SG bases and the like, but not actually been really experienced.

I'm NOT a newbie; I know how to play and I can play this character easily, in no small part because the character is a stupidly easy character to play. I could make the 'I've done my time' argument, and I won't lie, when I make a newbie, I seek out a highby friend to cruise with until I get to a point where I'm happy to start doing 'my own stuff.' I don't think the problem is the amount of effort I put in...

... But I was weak. As long as HDS existed and was so easy, it made me feel really bad to do normal content, as if I was wasting an opportunity. This is exacerbated by the knowledge - it's very easy to recognise! - that the exploit was going to get blown up. So suddenly it was an opportunity to get a character to key levels, get them past problem levels, etc. etc. etc., whatever excuse I wanted to use at the time.

So I did.

Now it's gone. And I'm really glad. I'm glad because I held back - I didn't completely blow to 50 on a pile of characters who I would toss aside as unearned rubbish. I'm more glad because the temptation to waste opportunities like that is no longer there.

This is not to say I was right - I think I did the wrong thing. I should have been reporting the farms and avoiding going on them. I can rationalise it however I like, but I did the wrong thing and I'm not happy about doing it. Lacking the temptation makes me happy, but were I stronger, it would not have been necessary to me for that to happen.

*laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs*

Oh, you're serious?

Yeah, you know that pop-up window that appears when you log into the game?

I take it you closed it without reading it?

Sorry, without sending someone to your house to read it to you, I'm not sure what more that they could do.

Holy hell, I bet nobody has ever considered this innovative 'should' rationale. What a well-supported and well-rounded argument for why you should get more stuff for free.

I should get anything I want, at any time, and if I don't, it's clearly a problem.

It'd be a real shame to make the AE building even more convenient than it already is.

As far as the merger goes, the philosophy seems to be that the two markets are now being regarded as two separate 'types' of game. One is a marketplace in bounty, one is one in starvation. By classifying them as 'intentionally different,' - not in a way that begs askance of how they were made that way, but that now is the result of their deviation - the developers now have themselves a fantastic escape clause to never merge.

Myself, I intend to do the natural thing and move blueside with many of my redsiders - at least the ones who are planning on making particular IO builds.

It's not exactly a new idea.

I would, but not for the reason you cite here.

Other people's issues with the character on teams can be a new level of challenge, something exciting and interesting that can drive you to try harder and use the knockback - random though it is - as a leverage point to be even better than normal. Sometimes that challenge just isn't wanted.

As for myself, I find that energy/energy does not produce any IO plans or options that I find really exciting barring for a huge Kinetic Crash build (which generates a lot of knockback).

Chances are, the in-game content is going to act like everything is fabby dabby doo. Since players already roleplay as if this is the norm, it's not like they're going to give a crap either. And it's also not like your character has 'Villain' branded on their forehead, so...

But then you're in the exact same situation as before for level 60s.

If you can't enjoy yourself standing in the middle of three elite bosses while killing a hundred freaking nazis, you are dead inside.

Lords knows we really mind having red rep bars.

... Either the average time of the 5th Overthrow is an hour and a quarter, or more insanely, it's considered a big-boy task force that people do in half an hour.

I find myself wondering if Master runs need IOs; ie, could you use your second build as a 'pure' Master run tanker, eschewing even attacks, getting a travel power, and using SOs in all the powers otherwise?

By that metric, Fiery Aura has a fire hole.

As I said when a friend started purpling out a character: The only thing the market asks of you is patience.