Call Me Awesome

Number one for durability, hands down, is a post-Granite Stone tanker. Nothing else can equal that... however it pays for that supreme durability with a lot of penalties. That level of durability is also pretty much overkill however for 99.99% of the game. One thing to think of, a Stone tanker is a strange creature... up until level 32 it's entirely defense based and arguably one of the weakest sets from a durability standpoint. Then it gets Granite at 32 and it becomes by far the most durable set in the game.

Invuln once mature and with some IO investment is probably number two; and it's plenty tough enough for anything you may want to do. There's nothing that my Stone/Fire tanker can tank that my Inv/Stone can't handle as well... sometimes it takes a bit more effort or an inspiration or two but I haven't run into anything yet that he can't handle.

There's several sets that with a bit of IO bonuses can also approach this level... actually if you throw enough bonuses at it nearly any set can get pretty danged good. My Shield/Fire tanker at 46 is quite capable... not quite up with my Inv/Stone tanker's durability but it's been more than up for any challenges I've faced so far and it's damage output is MUCH greater.

I haven't played an Ice tanker to significant level as of yet; I've a baby Ice/Electric waiting for me to have time to play him up. From what I've seen in teaming with Ice tanks they're unparalleled in aggro management but most of them seem to be fairly squishy. I'm assuming that's due to build issues since by the numbers they should be pretty good once their defenses mature.

Of course, ALL defense based sets will struggle early on... by it's nature defense gets stronger the closer you get to the 45% soft cap. The flip side of that is that defenses below 20% usually feel like you're really squishy... I know on the def based characters I've leveled I didn't start to feel like my defenses worked until I got above 25% and I didn't feel durable until they got above 35%. This is the advantage that resistance based sets have, resistance always works and it's stronger early. Once a defense matures though things shift the other way. A set that combines strong resist with strong defense is very powerful... hence why Granite Armor is so durable and Invuln is close behind.

Since this isn't a single player game it's going to include content for teams. That's an absolute given. There's nothing wrong with soloing, and the vast majority of the game's content can be done by a solo character unlike many other MMO's. Complaining that there's dedicated team content in an MMO is what the rest of us don't agree with.

You aren't Thanos, you aren't Thor or any of the other incredibly powerful characters. Player characters don't get that level of power because it would trivialize the rest of the game. You do get to face foes with vastly more power than you... that's why you don't face them alone (IE: bring a team)

Bottom line, it's a MMO, or Massively Multiplayer Online game. By definition a team game. Therefore you shouldn't complain that it has content specifically designed for teams.

There's really very little in the game that you can't do solo already... TF's/SF's, Trials and Hamidon & Rikti Mothership raids are all I can think of offhand. That's fair, those are specifically designed as team challenges.

My understanding of Incarnate slots is that they're only useful on Incarnate content... in other words the two new Incarnate TF's going into the game with issue 19. Since you don't have any interest in team content why do you care about the Incarnate slots?

Oh, and I haven't seen anyone flaming you, we just don't agree with your premise.

There's a new unstable version out now, I got the "updated version is available" when I started the program this evening. I haven't used the "stable" version in years, the unstable is always pretty on the spot on game updates and I've yet to find it buggy in any major way.

This drove me nuts after I switched to Win7 from XP... until I ran across the run as administrator suggestion I could NOT get it to install.

I wouldn't worry about it, hitting 25 after a couple of long days of play is pretty average. Hitting 25 after 2 hours now is pushing things a bit... but it is possible. I usually get into the mid-20's in 10 hours or less when I'm not hurrying.

In my opinion things start getting fun around the time you get to 22 and can slot SO enhancements... you've gotten most of your core powers, your end use should be under control and the character starts to be more fun to play.

I don't know what the average time to 50 is in today's game; things have changed a bunch over the issues with XP bonuses and changes making it quicker to level. Back in issue 3 when I started playing it usually took around 300-500 hours to reach level 50; my last trip took less than 100 hours. Of course familiarity with the game makes a difference but it does seem that leveling is roughly twice as fast as it used to be.

All that said there's not a whole lot of "only level 50" stuff in the game; most players tend to level a character to 50 and then start another. Rushing to 50 is really counterproductive.

Here's some set bonuses to look for primarily... Recharge and Run Speed.

Other than that, you'll want Rock Armor, Earth's Embrace, Rooted, Mud Pots, Stone Skin and Granite.

From the secondary Stone Fist, at least one of the Hammers, Taunt, Fault, Tremor and Seismic Smash.

Pools you'll want include (for the moment) Fitness (Swift/Health/Stamina), Teleport (Recall/TP) and Speed (Hasten)

I'd suggest slotting 4 Gift of the Ancients into Rock Armor; Stone Skin is fine with the base slot and it's a good place for the Steadfast unique. Earth's Embrace works well with 5 Doctored Wounds; Mud Pots is nice with the cheap Multi-Strike set. Granite needs to frankenslot... you really want to ED cap resist and defense. SO slotting was 3 resist/3 defense.

Your single target attacks work well with Crushing Impact for the 5% recharge. Fault is tailor made for the Stupefy set... just leave the KB proc out! Taunt is nice with the Mocking Beratement for more recharge.

Anyway go ahead and work out a build in Mid's and we'll be happy to critique it... what I've given you is a basic framework. A well built Granite tanker, even on SO enhancements, is the next best thing to unkillable. I tanked the tower buffed Lord Recluse in the STF many times with such a build without a single IO.

This seems to be incorrect, when I've done 5 tip missions in a day I no longer get any tips drop until the next day. If I've done 3 tip missions I'll get up to two drop but no more. If I've done 4 tip missions I only get one tip drop.

If it's not supposed to be that way then it's bugged as that's the way it's worked for me since i18 went live.

It seems overwhelming at first but you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. Most of it is pretty obvious once you realize what we're referring to. One thing we're pretty big on is abbreviation, for example Steel refers to the hero zone Steel Canyon, Sky is Skyway City, IP is Independence Port and so on.

There's a few abbreviations that are context driven, particularly when talking about powers. Things like that sometimes get a bit ambiguous even to vets. For example, "TF" could mean Task Force, (a series of missions for a fixed team from one contact) or it could mean Total Focus (A hard hitting melee attack in several different powersets)

No, you're looking at something else. You can only have 3 tips at one time. I imagine you're looking at the 5 slots you have for "completed" tip missions per day.

Yep, they do. It's funny, but back in the day we all thought redraw was lowering our DPS and come to find out that the redraw time was hard coded into the powers and it didn't matter.

Of course shortly after that was revealed animations were changed to speed up attacks and now the redraw delay that we complained about when it didn't have any effect suddenly has the effect we always thought it did.

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Really any travel power will work well for you; just pick whichever seems to suit you best. Flight is certainly the easiest, and you could pick up Rocket Boots to hand wave the question of flying without any real powers... it's an extension of all your gizmos and gadgets in your traps.

Other than that, just pick what you want to play... after all, you're playing the character, not any of the rest of us.

(I'd also suggest slowing down just a little in your typing so you're more coherent... I had some trouble understanding you.)

Oh yeah. I remember a couple of months ago seeing Regenerating Flesh going for 200k. Shocked me silly; a piece of vendor trash selling for that much. Needless to say I listed the 6 I had on me and snagged a dozen more out of base storage... out of the 17 I listed all but one sold immediately for 150k - 200k. Unfortunately the last one sold for the typical 200 inf.

Strange runs do occur on normally worthless salvage.

I have yet to run the updated Maria Jenkins arc (they re-wrote it for Going Rogue) but the old arc was well put together and fun, easily one of my favorite arcs and certainly my favorite in that level range.

As of right now you really don't have any options. If the group name is offensive you could end up with a "Generic SG 12455121" and the option to rename it but other than that I don't know of any way.

Historically it referred to a team running missions with Archvillains... more often than not the Maria Jenkins arc in Peregrine Island. In that arc you faced all of the Praetorian AV's over the course of the arc, several of them multiple times. They're good, moderately difficult missions with good XP. Actually the majority of arcs in PI have AV's at least scattered throughout them; it was commonplace to go there at 40 and run Tina McIntyre's arc at 40-45 followed by Maria Jenkins' arc at 45-50.

I haven't heard AV Team used to refer to anything else but it's always possible there's some new AE mission that the PL'ers have found. Personally I haven't used AE much at all since about issue 15.

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too slow

Like most of the other players have mentioned you want to always check your salvage and recipe drops and sell anything good on the market.

Here's a quickie thumb rule for what's worth marketing and what's vendor trash:

• At your level most white salvage is marginal but it's still worth listing on the market at a low price... vendors will only pay 250 inf each and market prices for that are literally all over the place, from 10 inf up to 100,000 inf.
• Conversely most yellow salvage seems to be worth more to a vendor. There's a few pieces worth more on the market though so until you get a feel for the junk vs decent stuff it's best to check the market price. Vendors will always pay 1,000 inf for yellow salvage.
• Rare, or orange salvage is usually worth LOTS more on the market than to a vendor. There's a few pieces of low level stuff that's vendor junk but most of the mid level or high level orange salvage is worth a minimum of 500,000 inf... many pieces go for 2 million +. A vendor will pay 5,000 for any orange salvage so make SURE you check market prices before you sell!
• Common IO recipes, things like Invention:Accuracy and the like are almost always worth more to a vendor than to the market... I don't even check those and just vendor anything I'm not going to craft and use.
• Set IO recipes are literally everywhere. Some are absolutely worthless on the market (things like Pacing of the Turtle, Executioner's Contract and many others will have dozens for sale and sell for 1-100 inf) and are vendor bait. Others can be worth a hundred million or more like Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge. Again, always check market prices before you sell.

Admittedly the 1-20 levels are a bit sparse in valuable drops but things should pick up dramatically for you. It's rare that I don't get a drop worth over a million in an hour or two of play even in the mid-20's. My last character started with no inf help from my established toons and had over 20 million inf by the time he reached 25. By the time I reached 45 with him I had over 200 million on hand after buying his full set IO build at a cost of around 300 million.

People like to say that the market's too expensive... well, I say that it's a seller's market... with things being so expensive that just means your drops sell for more. Many of us have billions of inf available to us and we usually don't worry a lot about "minor" expenses so we're perfectly willing to pay 10k - 50k for that piece of common salvage we need to craft a particular IO... anything under a couple hundred thousand is pocket change and hardly worth the trouble of worrying about the price. Heck, I say this and I'm a pauper compared to many of our dedicated marketeers... I doubt I have 3 billion all told between all my characters.

Bottom line, lots of us want the salvage and recipes that you get and we're willing to pay lots for them. We get what we need to craft that Hecatomb purple IO and you get the inf to outfit your own character. Win/Win.

So far in maybe 20 runs the cop has always been in the first or at most second room right at the front of the map. Sometimes he's hiding in a corner somewhere but he's always right at the front of the first floor.

Now that I've said that watch my next run put him at the back of the third floor.

I'd bet that's the problem. Atom, if you did create a new account instead of upgrading your trial you have two choices. First, disregard your old trial account and simply start fresh with the full version... second you can contact support and ask them to correct the issue for you. Frankly I'd just forget about the trial since with the restrictions you don't have much invested in any characters there.

You asked about Ninja Run... that's part of what they call a "super booster pack", specifically the Martial Arts/Natural pack. There's quite a few of these goodie packs available for $10 each and all of them have different things in them. The Martial Arts/Natural pack is well worth it for the Ninja Run power alone.

Welcome to the game and remember the most important rule is to have fun.

There's a police hostage, usually very close to the front of the map. If you get the typical office map he'll usually be either in the "penthouse office" up the stairs from the entrance or on a ledge to the right of there.

Free the cop and you'll get an ambush of KoA and Silent Blade. Kill Silent Blade and then talk to her when she rezzes and you'll get an ambush of your doppleganger. Kill your doppleganger, again talk to him when he rezzes and get your merit.

Nope, you need a bunch more than that. You get perma-hasten and AM by around 175% recharge... perma IW takes about 206%... the same as it takes to get perma-phantom army on an Ill/Rad.

One of the common comments on Newegg about your card was that it got hot... you may want to snag a slot fan to increase airflow over the card. A slot fan is simply an exhaust fan that fits in an expansion slot... they're cheap and should help if you have airflow issues.