ChaosAngelGeno

I beg to differ. It is still the easiest secondary to soft cap defenses cheaply. My Claws/SR scrapper is also near perma-Hasten, with purples, you could conceivably be perma, if you wanted to. I don't need a travel power with Swift/Hurdle, Quickness, Ninja Run, and IO's. Can you do better with Shield Defense with it's added resistances and AAO? Sure no doubt. I merely pack a good amount of oranges and use Tough to offset the blig blows when I do get hit. I farm well enough with it as it is. Perhaps the only problem is when I exemplar down of course, but I can deal with it.

I do not think SR needs any improvement, nor any changes whatsoever. I'm already a whirling blender of death, what more do I need?

Yes, also I am experiencing the same problem.

My Claws/SR ninja is just fun, in combat or out of. I never get tired of jumping, flipping from building to building. Just a tiny whirlwind of death.

My Mind/Psi Dominator is just a control beast. I sometimes go from mob to just mezzing them, then Stealth-fully sneaking away onto the mission objective. One my best moments was holding/confusing/stunning/putting to sleep/invoking fear into mobs and endless mobs of 5th Column in a Barracuda SF, granted aided by speed boosts to keep my mezes up faster even though I'm perma-dom. But I never felt so god-like.

"You guys handle Reichsman... I'll take the rest."

One of the things I did for my soft-capped Claws/SR scrapper was slotting several powers with Gift of the Ancients: Defense/Increased Run Speed. I also am using Ninja Run as my travel power. The increased run speed IO's combined Sprint, Swift/Hurdle, and Quickness, with Ninja Run should be enough to get you around... with style! Just remember to turn it off in battle, it will drain your endurance quickly. Two Gift of the Ancients IO's would also give a recovery boost set bonus, easing the burden of using several toogles.

I didn't get to post for a few days, and one night Virtue crashed so my data is lost....
Anyway, subjectively, I ran the Council Empire map at +0/+8 and +1/+8 with my Claws/SR Scrapper. +0/+8 seems to be a little over 2 mil inf. per run, +1/+8 was 4 mil per run, for just the inf. gained from kills. Dropped a purple, 4 rares, several uncommons. You gain at least mil per run on normal IO recipe drops selling to vendor. Average time per run at +0/+8 was 24 minutes.

Lost leader can also be found in Nerva, scattered across Crimson Cove. I see them mostly in the area between where Ractespriel is and the docks north of the ferry entrance.

Fantastic.

No permadom build is cheap, mainly because of the need for LotG's. In terms of Earth/Earth, for a non-purple build, you may not spend to much on IO sets you'd need. Enfeebled Operation, Kinetic Crash, Stupefy, Call of the Sandman (if you're using the sleep) and Expedient Reinforcement are all affordable. Basilisk's Gaze may be the only IO set that might cost a considerable amount of infamy.

Now LotG's can be gotten with breaking the bank. I've done it, albeit slowly. If you do or have done story arcs along the way to lvl 50. You should have enough merits or be close to enough merits to buy your first LotG. (I saved up close to 200 merits before reaching 50.) Along with a Strike Force or two along the way, it should be more than enough to buy one. IF you've been ignoring story arcs, then...

Run ITF's. It is easily, week to week, the fastest way to get merits fast. They're always being run, often there are speed runs that are done under an hour. Join your server TF channels to get see when they're forming. Run whatever Strike Forces you can join. When you're not doing that, do flashback missions. It can be a bit of a grind doing it this way, especially red-side. But while you get merits in flashback arc, you will also be getting infamy for the black market, as well as end of mission recipes, it's a win-win. If you have a toon at a high enough lvl. join Hami Raids, if you're on a big population server.

If happen to have enough MA tickets laying around try a gold recipe roll. at lvl 50 it's a 1/64 chance to drop, I got lucky and dropped one after a few rolls. Ticket farming may no longer be viable anymore or you may not have a toon that can farm tickets fast enough. You don't have to farm to get them. Don't do it if you don't want to.

This is how I got my Mind/Psi Dominator to perma-dom. Not an optimal way or a fast way, but done it without spending a ton of imfamy. It just takes time. And IMO it was all the more rewarding once I finally achieved it after spending that much time working for it.

I could agree with the sentiment. But the badge are the reason I still use my first toon, an less optimized, more Rp-ish kind of toon. I'm somewhere in the realm of 575 badges. I've had to grind out a few of them. But most I've gotten just by playing normally. I'd have more if the Arena was used more and the damage badges weren't bugged by the +HP accolade powers and IO set bonuses. But badge are the reason I still use my Mastermind, my very first toon. I'd say that some badges need a fix or two but I can never have enough badges.

I don't see much inflation in the markets, other than purples ad PvP recipes. Since the AE boon has died I have noticed that rare salvage has gone up a couple of mil each. As in one rare salvage was, let's say for example 1 million inf. and is now like 3 mil. Less people are using the AE for salvage ergo, supply is down, price went up.

It's been a while since I've looked at Hami-O's. (I should check that...)

The bring culprit right now is Kinetic Combat. Since the Blessing of the Zephyr nerf, the demand for went up, in a big way.

But you can always get by with less than purples, even rares. It's how you view building your toons. If you need to have the absolute best, you need to do more then simply play. And that is the only thing holding you back.

I don't see the devs "fixing" the drop rates on purples. It would only benefit the farmers. (Not that I got anything you farmers.) I have been for it in the past, practically irately vocal about it, near rage quit pist. It's a luxury, that honestly IMO you don't need.

I have a lvl 50 DB/WP Brute that uses:

Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals Combo -> Power Slice.

Also I use the Sweep Combo for mitigation if I'm ever surrounded. I use it to farm the Cimeroran wall occasionally. I let myself get surrounded, Sweep, then position myself to hit as many as I can with Attack Vitals. Usually hitting 4-6 vitals with Sweeping Strike. Even before I had IO sets it was very soloable. Dual Blades is about positioning yourself to hit as many as you can with your combos.

I'm not sure CJ, Weave, and Heightened Senses will be enough defense to warrant taking them. But being that you either you don't have Set IO's or you're choosing not to use them... you may want to anyway, but honestly I'm not sure. You'll have alot of toggles going but you should be able to handle it with Quick Recovery and Stamina. Even with IO'ed build I still use Strength of Will, it is such a life saver and it does not crash as hard as other Tier 9's. Hasten will help with your attack chain, as well as get Strength of Will up faster <-- I think, not sure if Hasten effects the recharge rate of Strength of Will, either way Hasten is good.

My suggestion is to take the Hasten, Super Speed, Aid Other/Stimulant, and Aid Self. Replacing Taunt, Weave, and Heightened Senses, and Resurgence. This way you have a travel power, and some added survivability with heals.

If you do plan to use Set IO's I recommend going for sets that grant +HP, regeneration, and recharge bonuses, in that order.

I'm also looking to get my Arena badges as well. Being that my badger is Necromancy/Dark Miasma MM, I know it isn't going to be easy without help. If someone's looking to get their Arena badges on Virtue server, PM me @Hellfire Warlock.

I opted to roll a SS/Elec. I think I read somewhere here on the board that there's a Shield Defense nerf coming, namely Shield Charge. Is that true?

Sir, your misinterpretations, false impressions, or downright slanderous lies are characteristic of a livingist bias. This language carries the danger of setting back zombie and their Masterminds rights for years, and perpetuating negative stereotypes of the negative-energy-aligned. I shall not allow it be so when a Mastermind and their zombies are given no guarantee of acceptance in society.

As an advocate for rights for all life-challenged at home, and believer in human rights at all stages of life and after abroad, I cannot sit idle while words, indeed trends, this dangerous grow among your "hero" society, threatening to spill over into society at large, which I can aver already has a negative enough disposition against my clientèle.

I can count on one remaining necrotic hand the instances of positive representations, good role models, and beneficial images your society has brought forth into the public sphere. Contrast this with an unending litany of images of slavering-mouthed, mindless, depraved, brain-eating savages spewing forth from the vaults of Paragon City society's propaganda centers. Even the most progressive examples of zombie representations from within Paragon's walls serve to vilify life-challenged citizens, and I shall oppose every one.

Should a zombie pay for the crimes that ended his life in the first place? Should the protections under the law cease with the drawing of your breath? Should a citizen give up all he is just because he is life-challenged? The fault cannot be held upon the life-challenged but in fault the Mastermind who uses them. Are you to say that being in life or after is incapable of redemption?

I have every faith that mankind will come to accept their zombie siblings in time. You cannot stop the movement of those who refuse to stop moving. Deceased Americans have been elected to Senate office, collected federal salaries, published popular music tracks, and served as spiritual guide to the living. Suffrage is due these long-suffering people.

I implore you to apologize publicly for your scathing words, and issue a statement that makes your positive stance on life-challenged citizens clear.

And if you do join the deceased, look me up, for I shall represent you.

Less scumbag players who don't want Stalkers on their team.

...Oh you meant for the archetype, never mind.

This needs a little mood music for this standoff...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_OiUURbYlQ

*Runs blindly towards the Rookery with Stormtrooper armor and blaster in arm only to be hit by Charged Bolts, Zapps and Thunderous Blasts...

(...I'll just say it was Force Lightning....)

After the nerf to the Blessing of the Zephyr set, I rebuild my Claws/SR Scrapper to include Maneuvers for going a travel power. 3 SR Toggles, Weave, Maneuvers, FA, Sprint, Ninja Run, and sometimes Tough. Needless to say I'm kind of endurance heavy; at least with everything running. I turn off Sprint and Ninja Run in battle. At least this way I'm still softcapped for Melee, Ranged, and most importantly AoE defense. Do not touch Maneuvers please.

Off hand, for every 3-4 IO recipes I drop, I get a temporary power recipe. So something like 3:1 for me, I guess, I've ran out of room for recipes on most of my toons, so most of the time I just delete temps that I already have.

I'm sorry for not posting more concisely and detailed, with more thought put into that first post.

After giving it a lot of thought, I my main idea was to suggest to the Devs, to consider making Recluse's Victory geared more towards a team PvP style zone. Making combat more than just defeating each other, and adding an objective in order to acheive victory. Something resembling "capture the Flag", or perhaps to use an video game analogy...Gold Rush in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. An idea to bring some variety to PvP.

I'm not saying it's current use is wrong or anything but the last night was the rarest of times where Recluse's Victory was used for it's other intended use, brought on only because of the event last night, resulting in large server population. I really wish other players got to do what my team and I accomplished last night, because each of team had a lot of fun. Honestly, when was the last time any of you say Heroes and Villians actually fighting over pillboxes in RV. I mean for 30-40 minutes, back and forth, capturing and recapturing pillboxes. I don't see that often. I think that is something PvP NEEDS. Devs please looking into making a Recluse's Victory or even a new PvP zone more team based and objective based PvP.

This night was the 6th Anniversary of CoH/CoV. And while I am looking forward to i17 and Going Rogue. This evening's event appear at first to be a lost night. I managed to find a team that was willing to hunt the Arachnos Flyer just as I joined and just as it came up in Grandville. I had mentioned to my team that I had not gotten the Hero defeats in Recluse's Victory which obviously I could get this evening in normal zones. So, I suggest we go into RV and actually hunt them ourselves. No ridiculous lag and no wait, while everyone stumbles around in what I felt was a really really poor event.

In what took over an hour and a half, was one the best experiences I have ever had since I first started playing. A 6-8 person (with legitmately only 2 of our teammates where PvPer or had a good PvP build) go into RV and take out the Freedom Phalanx. Bothered by hero players, having to reclaim Pillboxes from each other, getting the badges, and then doing some actual PvPing afterwards, WHAT A BLAST... and what great, yet unorthodox team.

I think this is what NCSoft, or the Devs, need to look into. Group oriented PvP. Much like Halo, Modern Warfare, Battlefield: Bad Company, etc. And Recluse's Victory is a perfect... um example of what could make PvP, more interesting to casual players like me. On my own, yes I suck.

Now, I know that there are SG's out there I don't know which though, that have SG's that PvP a lot. But do think a PvP SG is going to want a Necro/Dark MM? Hmm? If the Dev's had a system in place that setup scheduled group PvP events that anyone could jump into... (again like Halo, MW, Battlefield) it be a boon to the PvP Community.

I think they could improve upon group PvP in Recluse's Victory. It is in a way like capture the flag. There could be a set number of rounds and after a few rounds, a team wins, gets a reward like, well Reward Merits perhaps.

I know I'm rambling, and it's late, but I need to get these thoughts down before I'd lost them. These last 2-3 hours were absolutely epic and I think that PvP that is more geared to group play would be a big benefit to CoX and it's something I hope the Devs really consider. I hope I made sense, if need be I'll try to reorganize these thought tommorrow or the next day.

Ok, far too much lag, can't even get more than 2 hits in on an FP Hero, how am I supposed to get any badges. This is a complete and total failure devs. I'm sorry. This event sucked.