Blue_Centurion

you are right, 2% is not a lot. Until it is. The off market price for One Enhancer that gives a +3% defense bonus to everything is generally 2,500,000,000.00. Yeah, 2 1/2 bill for one +3% def. Because it all stacks. Once you hit that 45% you have floored the chance for 99% of the stuff in the game to hit you. Not getting hit is good, real good. Then you get into the layered defense conversation. 1st) do not get hit. 2) resist what hits you 3) heal the damage asap. Flooring the chance to get hit (down to 5%) for almost everything in the game (Lord Recluse in the Statesman's Task Force and Incarnate stuff break the rule) is very very good. 1st) has subheadings, and they involve resisting defense debuffs, and the conversation gets wilder always. Dechs put a link up you should look at.

What is truly sad about this is the many ways that the franchise is losing money. That's right. Sky high stacks yo.

Lets visualize a very organized operation. For arguments sake, lets say the model is to award everyone their monthly points on the exact same day. And release a few must haves (or really desirable) stuff that same week onto the market, sponging those points right back up. Then, about two weeks later, release a couple more bright shineys. Or a couple more sale items. Since your customer base just spent their "free" points earlier, they will be digging into their wallets for another 5-15 dollars. A million here, a million there, pretty soon you're starting to talk about real money.

There are dozens of organized and documented (and taught) tricks like this.

The costume editor is a strange place. This pick trees out some option, that pick opens up other options. it's a weird place. to diagnose start with a blank character. pick the same things in the "saved' character. tell us those steps. there is probably a choice being made that logic trees away from bolero. We probably just need the upper body picks. Gender, head type, chest options.

yes, I typed "after the transfer tokens were simple" when I meant "after the transfer" the "reward tokens were simple". great catch thanks.

Just chiming in here as the OP. Really enjoying the discussion and the points being brought up. I am still considering EM, but it has slid a notch. I am leaning towards Invul, and I see EM paired with WP. After all, with ET you try to blow your own head off, and that just works better with WP, which rebounds from stupid real well.

points, after the Transfer from the old reward system to the new reward system the Reward Tokens are pretty simple. 1 for every $15.00, one a month. I haven't had any problems receiving tokens personally. Unless of course you count having to completely log out of the game and back in for a token to show up, every single time. Okay, yeah, you are right, tokens get included in the problem. Great example, thank you for reminding me.

If you tell somebody "Hey spend $15.00 and you get X Paragon Points and a token." Guess what? When they spend $15.00 give them X Paragon Points and a token. I was confused for quite a while the first time I did the transaction. And everybody is confused. See the problem? The customer service / marketing department seems to have a default policy of "Let the customer be confused, we already got the cash...." Just about the worst kind of business strategy you can have without outright insulting your customers before they buy something from you.

We have all seen numerous posts about when do X points get awarded for monthly sub, or w/e.

I currently work as an accounting manager in addition to my other duties, which unfortunately include dealing with customers, customer perception, etc. I worked as a teller and new accounts supervisor at a bank for almost a decade. I tell you all this so you know I am in utmost seriousness when I ask the following question.

Are the people who run the marketing department for selling Paragon Points to their customer base (((edited for public consumption))) Who is in charge of implementing the entire new business strategy for the next few years? Why are they so poor at implementing a business strategy? Seriously.

I have sat back and not said anything about the obvious creaky rollout of Paragon Points system. I have seen fumble, after stumble, with the followup bumble. Enough.

I love the concept of the Paragon Points system. I hope it is making the game "Sky High Stacks Yo." But somebody needs to pull out and put on their little managers hat and do something. There is great confusion when anybody gets their points. There is great confusion with a lot of the program. When people are buying something from you (and the more "imaginary" or "perceived value" a thing you are selling the more this is true) you need to make them happy, and their perception and expectation needs to match the transaction. Reread the last sentence. Now reread it again. That's the whole point of this post.

From what I have seen nobody truly understood (with the exception of people with exceptionally long geek fangs) how many tokens they were supposed to have at transfer. Nobody (except...) seems to know when they get their monthly points. I just tried to help my wife put Paragon Points on her Premium account (A new customer yeah!) and that was a horrid two-day transaction.

Why cannot the people on the money/marketing end of this do the most basic customer communication and customer satisfaction steps? The job market is down, scrape up a middle manager with a thick resume for a third what they were making 5 years ago and put the skills to use.

So. like i said. It is a subpar set. Did I mention it is below other subpar sets? lol. No, thank you for doing the research. I tend to throw up a lot of hyperbole and statements based on "feel" Sometimes i am way off base. But I am somewhat clever and have done a lot of playing in the cities. Usually when i feel something is wrong I have a valid reason. So, Energy Melee is not a good performer. Now, if we only knew what they were planning. I really really want a energy Melee / Willpower or Energy Melee / Invul Brute or Scrapper for i22. The concept is right there for me. Unfortunately the power set is just horrid.

So, finally got my wife into the cities. She is a Premium, having spent about $30.00 so far. Tonight we tried to put $15.00 on her account so she could "Go Rogue." The first transaction looked successful, but no points. So, we tried a second card. Again, looked successful, no points. We checked the transactions online for both cards, both were charged. Is anyone else experiencing difficulties getting points awarded for Paragon Point system purchases?

I believe the standard operating procedure on this is if you get a team wipe, everybody log off, wait 5, log on. This resets the little buggers and gets rid of the constant buffs. The reason is you want a dom (or a troller these days) a keeping the buffer narc'd out while you wail on the rest of the Phal.

From my understanding this is the easiest way to do the SF, and I am unsure of any other viable tactics. Although in the days of Incarnate madness I guess a heads-long rush is tryable. I have personally tank'd 3 of these guys on a Brute for over 3 minutes. BAB, States, and a I think Manti. That was preInc. So Inc'd meat shields and a large chunk of damage could do it in theory. I guess.

Plus I just thought of a great SG name. I am off.

If the reason is cost, I don't understand it. I have heard stated each pet takes as much comp usage as a player character. Well, then, let us design each pet. Oh wait, unless the first statement is complete horse hockey.

If the reason is fear of the degradation of a race/sex/etc I understand it. However, we see it in people running endless cat girls anyways. Also, has anyone peaked at AE? Okay, lets not make it worse, I get that. But seriously, it is all over, and you have to address the player, not nerf everyone else's choices.

I would love to make a MM similar to the Monarch from Venture Bros. Not the exact character, just a mastermind with themed henchmen. Or like the vilains from the old bat man TV show. Remember the guys following the riddler? priceless. There is no way for me to do that in this superhero game with masterminds. i get ninjas, zombies, robots, smelly thugs, mercs, or demons period. If I wanted a group of henchmen themed to my concept here I better make a demon summoning wizard, a 3rd world dictator, a gang leader, a ninja/samrai, a robotics prof, or a necromancer.

The Masterminds are the most limited character development choices of any arctype in the game. Which is crazy because we hear nothing except how much effort they put into each single thing in this archtype. Something makes no sense here.

Give me the ability to customize each pet. Leave the powers the exact same if you want, just let me customize the appearance. And if people do a Pimp/Ho theme nerf them, hard. Unless of course, the MMs do not take near the comp usage we have been told because the cookie cutter types are much easier for the game to handle. But then they would have to admit they pulled one over on us for sweet sweet cash.

My thinking is anything they do to the set has to improve it, because it is so horrid. I actually play very few classes and power types, due to them having to fit into my concepts, which i feel unwilling to leave until I get it right lol. I like Energy Blast, even with its problems and deficiencies. I made a concept Energy/Will Brute, got to around 28. Seriously, the set is just sub par, like really sub par. Like the set holds up all the other sub pars, cause it is beneath them. I'm saying it is sub par. That isn't hyperbole.

The final kicker is the self inflicted wound as the last power in the set. I hear whoever designed that also tried to get the last power in dual pistols to have a 5% chance to shoot yourself in the head 400 times.

Yet Energy Melee fits well with a number of concepts I have. I would love to create a Energy/Invul Brute or Scrapper as a badger I want to start in Feb or Mar. I'm talking over 1,000 badges in less than 3 months type goal. But I may go a different direction since I do not like Energy now obviously and whatever proposed changes they are looking at still need to be Beta hammered out.

I think we know more now. There are the known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns. Based on that, any current vibe on whether they did more that whistle at the moon on this?

Please let this thread die and stop posting here.

I use both laser eyes and hurl on my SS/Invul build. I won't post it, it doesnt meet your parameters at all. But even if you took a lot of stuff off from mine he should be ridiculously healthy. Also, keep in mind there are 2 efficient ways to get a =3% Def pvP i/o. One is Hero/villain A-merits. The other is Incarnate trial merits.

Also, you can buy "tuned" Kin Combats (and a few other sets that fit well on a SS/Invul Brute) from the paragon market. For a few real dollars invested you can have a really nice build out. personally I like the tuned I/Os for characters I enjoy, for many reasons. I wont throw them on trial/concept builds cause they are a pain to move from toon to toon.

I have had exactly 3 50th Doms. they have all 3 been Grav/Energy. (Why cannot I leave it alone?) Two of those were Perma-Dom'd and Purp'd. And they, erm, what is the word, vacuum? no. Anyways, I ain't doing it again. Period. I will try the Dark/Dark however, that falls nicely into some character concepts I love.

Okay, I know Energy Melee is not loved. I like the whole concept, but I admit it's got more than it's fair share of "oh no they didn't" moments as you look deeply at it. crappy aoE and a self inflicted wound. I'm not even gonna go to the jumping in the air animation or whirling your arms like a spastic...wait I just did.

Anyways, Energy still "feels" right for one of my next projects.

The reason I am posting is the strange statement they are "looking at Energy Melee" in the issue 22 wiki entry. Anybody actually know what's up?

Okay, I know this is not loved. I like the whole concept, but I admit it's got more than it's fair share of "oh no they didn't" moments as you look deeply at it. crappy aoE and a self inflicted wound. I'm not even gonna go to the jumping in the air animation or whirling your arms like a spastic...wait I just did.

Anyways, Energy still "feels" right for one of my next projects.

The reason I am posting is the strange statement they are "looking at Energy Melee" in the issue 22 wiki entry. Anybody actually know what's up?

The old steampunk armor has existed for years, available to all in the game. This armor is a good variation, and though it has an "old timey" feel I never quite understood the Steampunk name. i use it a lot. The Steampunk pack takes advantage of the recent popularity of the genre and revolves more around non armored/non-robotic 19th century human/meta-human adventurers.

Yeah, I'm okay with penciling in dates. the sometime around March lets me know the 2 winter specs I bought were a good investment indeed. i'll hoard them back a little and use them at a critical point. too bad on the other hand its not until March or later, cause I am itching to try those Doms. yet again, this will give me the opportunity to finish my current project and get a good start on the next 2 I have penciled on my schedule before getting distracted wit the Doms lol.

When is issue 22 expected? This is prurient interest, but it also is important for scheduling/using freespecs and bought winter respecs. Has nothing to do with the fact that I'm dying to try dark/dark dominators. nothing.

Along those lines do we have a timeline for the next 3-4 months when cool stuff will be dropping? (My wife went bat **** last night over the flying carpets!) She's a new premium player, and it is nice to see her excited about stuff.

I think Staff Fighting is scheduled for after issue 22? Anything else I should be saving points for, planning around?

Did the Sister Psycho last night. Very good team of master badgers. We flew through the missions. It is the hardest time I had yet however. The Freak's End Drainers were very rough. That is even though I had resist Energies. My toggles were dropped at least three times. I was always scrounging for blue inspirations.

On the bright side I did my first Hero Alignment mission last night. Also converted 50 merits to an A merit.

i did renew the Jingle Jet temp at the Chalet on the last night. There was no way to delete the renewal of Light Rez, so could not renew that. (that leaves me with 2 rez, the bank and the vet)

er, I can solo to 50 in a week, and in about 2 days if I pay for farms. (1 if I get lucky) so a month vIP for that. Uh, sure....