DasBert

I just finished up my Ill/Rad a few days ago, and solo'd several AVs very quickly - including Lord Recluse, although I died a few times. Ill/Rad just feels like cheating against AVs once PA is up all the time.

1) It depends. A good tanker will keep aggro off of you. If you slot correct and for the right things, and you're on the ball, you should be able to handle the aggro. For example, my Fire/Kin is more than capable of off-tanking the ITF. In general, though, you always want Hotfeet on. It might not seem like it, but it is indeed your highest damage power.

2) Debuffing endurance on enemies is not all it's cracked up to be. Save Transference for when you need it - Fire/Kin is so active that you can't afford to be wasting that amount of activation time all the time. Transfusion, however, can be spammed on AVs for the regen debuff. Siphon Speed should be hit every time it comes up not only for the -rech debuff on a big bad but also because you need the +rech.

3) Flashfire is a Mag 3 disorient. It will disorient Lieutenants, Minions, and under - but not bosses. Lead with flashfires to disorient everything but the boss, then hit Fire Cages while they're still bunched up to keep them together, then hit char on the boss a couple of times to stack the hold, and you're golden. Flashfire + Fire Cages does a sort of improvised hold, where they can't take actions and can't move - which means you've basically turned your AoE immob and your AoE disorient into an AoE hold. It's awesome.

4) Herostats has a buff timer. You can use that, if you really can't see the buff icon. Google for Herostats. I highly suggest setting up keybinds so you can buff your whole team with SB quickly and easily.

5) Level 32 is a good time to start with IOs. At that level, common IOs give the same bonus as a +3 SO (IIRC - I may be a bit off, but it's close) so level 35 IOs will stay good for the rest of your career. I typically prefer to frankenslot until I hit 50, as I probably don't have all the slots to accomplish what I wanted to, anyway. I also tend to level things a lot faster than most people, though.

6) The enhancements you slot into your powers are added to your global damage buffs to calculate damage cap - if you've slotted 90% damage into a power, as most people do, then you've slotted too much any time you Fulcrum Shift to get above 210% global damage. I don't have any trouble getting up to 300% global damage bonus with Fulcrum Shift, your playstyle may differ - I suggest turning on monitoring for it. Click on your Powers tab, then click Combat Attributes. Bring up the Base section, then right-click on damage and select 'Monitor', and it'll show you your damage buffs. If you're typically hovering at or around 300%? You don't need to slot for damage at all.

7) On your Team window, there should be a word that says 'Pets'. When you click on that, it will bring up a team-like window that shows your Imps health, endurance, and buffs like any other team member, but in a separate window from them.

Lots of really horrible advice in this thread but also a little really good stuff.

Defense really does make a difference. Soft-cap smashing/lethal and then farm Smashing/Lethal types. Note that almost every attack in the game has at least a little Smashing/Lethal damage to it, and if it has even a fraction of a point of Smashing or Lethal damage, it uses your Smashing/Lethal defense against the whole attack.

I am away from my main computer or I would post my build for this - look at my other posts and you'll find it. It's cheap (you can forget a lot of the recharge stuff at first - focus on capping out that s/l) and works really well. It will make you your money back in a couple of days if you do things right.

Recharge in a fire/kin isn't that big a deal. With 70% global recharge, I typically sit at or near the recharge cap - and I don't notice that much of a difference between recharge cap and 100% below recharge cap. Keep in mind that recharge bonuses from globals and from things like Hasten/Siphon Speed stack with the enhancement in your powers toward hitting recharge cap - so if you manage 80-90% recharge as you definitely should in important powers, you'll be losing out any time you get above 300% recharge, and anything above 200% or so will be shaving tenths or hundredths of a second off of the recharge of your powers. An amount of time you will *never* notice and which will be mathematically/statistically very small. Your own reaction and skill will make a much bigger difference overall in your farming speed than that last sliver of a second.

I farm 8-man spawns of bosses, and I never use flashfire. I run in, fulcrum shift, set up containment with fire cages, and then spam my attacks with a break every third attack or so to hit something like Siphon Speed, Fulcrum Shift, Transference, or Transfusion. Transfusion comes up a lot less than you'd think with soft-capped defense unless you're fighting against defense-debuffing enemies.

In a word: Do the Stone thing. You won't regret it. Hovering is overrated when you've got soft-capped defense, Fissure does a huge amount of damage (220 to everything in the area for me at damage cap with containment), and Seismic Smash (I did not take Earth's Embrace because I really don't need any more survivability) does very well in taking down that one stubborn guy who was just outside the radius of your Hotfeet/Fissure. Also, you will love a Force Feedback proc in your Fissure. Having that +100% recharge for 5 seconds every 10 seconds or so makes that 5% or 6.25% or even 7.5% look pitiful. It's a -lot- more recharge on a frequently used attack that's AoE and almost guaranteed to go off in a big spawn where it hits 16 enemies. You know, like Fissure.

Just for reference as to how well this works: Recently I made 857m in farming in one day, and a GM banned the mission I was using even though it had no exploits in it. I since deleted the mission and got the slot back and have been keeping my farming more sane - but the possibility of making nearly a billion in a day if you're good at it and put forth the effort is there in a Fire/Kin that soft-caps lethal and smashing.

For now I'm taking a break from farming and have taken up AV soloing. I spent that billion inf I had on an Ill/Rad build.

Xan's completely right. Although I've discovered another danger of this build: Getting your AE missions banned, even when they're not exploits. -_- Remember, guys, it's not exploiting or cheating that gets you punished, it's being too good at the game.

I saw a thread about someone taking a level 1 character and in a month making a billion profit. This wasn't with a level one character, and it wasn't quite a billion, but I'm going to bed at 3:32am after starting at about 3:00am yesterday. My 24 hour profits totaled up to 857,222,517 influence, on my level 50 Fire/Kin.

This doesn't count anything like having purples up for sale that went through, just stuff acquired today and sold today, on a Wednesday/Thursday. With 124m influence at the beginning, I'm now up to 981m, just a smidge short of my one billion goal, which is a bit annoying, but I'll hit it tomorrow early so it's not a big deal.

I'm curious as to whether anyone's topped this for a single day's work (I didn't spend the entire 24 hours working on the goal like I suppose I could have over a weekend, I took breaks now and then to do other things, played a few hours of Fallout 3, hung out with my family, did other stuff) - I slept from noon to about 4:30pm, so I'd say probably 10-12 hours of solid money-making.

At some point, I think I'll make a 'one billion in a day' goal and just not sleep for 24 hours and not do anything else, and see if maybe I can reach 1.5 or 2 billion - although honestly, looking at the state the market's in right now, I'm not sure I could have sustained the profit for very much longer. Prices on a lot of stuff are in the tank, and I'm almost certain that quite a bit of it is my fault for flooding the market.

Anyway - to anyone who bought surprisingly cheap recipes today, thank you. I've probably got some of your influence.

To everyone who teamed with me today, thank you *very* much. To my SG, Dark Castle, you guys were awesome. To all the new Dark Castle recruits, I hope further days are as profitable for you as these were. Special thanks to my Skype buddies from Dark Castle.

I should go through and alter it some - I've done a lot of little tweaks to the build that mean that one posted isn't -exactly- what I've got on Delta.

But yeah, even in normal content, I usually run on 8-man teams, so I typically live at the damage cap even when not farming - it helps that most of what I do is taskforces, especially the ITF. Damage enhancement is unnecessary.

Also, going purples for recharge isn't terribly necessary either - with this amount of recharge, I typically am at -recharge- cap for most of my powers between recharge bonus and slotting.

I ran HeroStats for the first time this morning and farms for 16 minutes and 24 seconds. It was a solo-farm (myself and my second account, although the second account was just leeching tickets/xp). Counting the zoning time, time spent rounding up mobs, resetting the mission by finding the glowy, etc., and with some lucky drops (in 10,000 tickets that I made in 16 minutes, I got 5 Res/Defs and a +Regen unique), it actually made 7,722,000 influence.

Per minute.

For a total of about 124,000,000 influence over 16 minutes.

I've got a Plant/Storm, and she's tons of fun. Everything gets rooted down pretty well for Tornado and Lightning Storm to wail on without knocking back, and Steamy Mist helps keep the pets alive. With IO slotting and Hasten you can keep stuff like Creepers/Lightning Storm/Tornado up all the time and really just brutalize your opponents.

This is the Fire/Kin/Earth build I'm using. The LotGs and other +recharge sets can wait until after you've soft-capped S/L defense. Soft-capping Smashing and Lethal defense not only aids in farming, but assists in regular content as well - almost every attack in the game has a smashing or lethal component to it, and thus uses your S/L defense.

Farm against level 50 Dual Blades/Regen bosses or against Maniac Slammers. This is the most efficient thing I've ever found for a solo farmer, and it's just as good when adding to a team.

Fissures has a FF +rech proc which is up almost exactly half the time if you're hitting it when you should, so you should be at the recharge cap for most of your powers once you factor in Siphon Speed. Fissures does an awful lot of damage, too, especially once you figure in Fulcrum Shift and Containment - you won't miss Fireball. You've got Char slotted with Basilisk's Gaze so it should rather easily stack up to hold Bosses in about 5 seconds - my opener when I'm trying to go up against stuff that can actually touch me is usually Flashfires then Fissure to stack the disorient, then Fire Cages to lock them in place, then I start doing micromanagement with Char if need be, but there usually isn't any need.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Char <ul type="square">[*] (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold[*] (3) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold[*] (3) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold[*] (5) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold[/list]Level 1: Transfusion <ul type="square">[*] (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge[*] (17) Accuracy IO[*] (40) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance[*] (40) Doctored Wounds - Heal[*] (43) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge[*] (46) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge[/list]Level 2: Fire Cages <ul type="square">[*] (A) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (5) Enfeebled Operation - Endurance/Immobilize[*] (7) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Endurance[*] (7) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge[*] (37) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize[*] (40) Trap of the Hunter - Chance of Damage(Lethal)[/list]Level 4: Siphon Power <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 6: Hurdle <ul type="square">[*] (A) Jumping IO[*] (48) Jumping IO[/list]Level 8: Hot Feet <ul type="square">[*] (A) Tempered Readiness - Accuracy/Slow[*] (9) Tempered Readiness - Damage/Slow[*] (9) Tempered Readiness - Accuracy/Endurance[*] (11) Tempered Readiness - Endurance/Recharge/Slow[*] (34) Tempered Readiness - Accuracy/Damage/Slow[*] (34) Endurance Reduction IO[/list]Level 10: Combat Jumping <ul type="square">[*] (A) Jumping IO[*] (11) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[/list]Level 12: Flashfire <ul type="square">[*] (A) Stupefy - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (13) Stupefy - Endurance/Stun[*] (13) Stupefy - Accuracy/Endurance[*] (15) Stupefy - Stun/Range[*] (17) Stupefy - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge[*] (21) Recharge Reduction IO[/list]Level 14: Siphon Speed <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (15) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (50) Accuracy IO[/list]Level 16: Health <ul type="square">[*] (A) Healing IO[/list]Level 18: Boxing <ul type="square">[*] (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage[*] (19) Kinetic Combat - Knockdown Bonus[*] (19) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance[*] (21) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge[/list]Level 20: Speed Boost <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Modification IO[/list]Level 22: Stamina <ul type="square">[*] (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End[*] (23) Performance Shifter - EndMod[*] (23) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy[/list]Level 24: Tough <ul type="square">[*] (A) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection[*] (25) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%[*] (25) Resist Damage IO[*] (50) Resist Damage IO[/list]Level 26: Weave <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[*] (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense[*] (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance[/list]Level 28: Hasten <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (29) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (29) Recharge Reduction IO[/list]Level 30: Cinders <ul type="square">[*] (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold[*] (31) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (31) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold[*] (31) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold[/list]Level 32: Fire Imps <ul type="square">[*] (A) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets[*] (33) Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge[*] (33) Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage[*] (33) Call to Arms - Endurance/Damage/Recharge[*] (34) Call to Arms - Damage/Endurance[/list]Level 35: Transference <ul type="square">[*] (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod[*] (36) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge[*] (36) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge[*] (36) Efficacy Adaptor - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (37) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy[*] (37) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance[/list]Level 38: Fulcrum Shift <ul type="square">[*] (A) Accuracy IO[*] (39) Endurance Reduction IO[*] (39) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (39) Recharge Reduction IO[/list]Level 41: Fissure <ul type="square">[*] (A) Stupefy - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge[*] (42) Stupefy - Endurance/Stun[*] (42) Stupefy - Accuracy/Recharge[*] (42) Stupefy - Accuracy/Endurance[*] (43) Stupefy - Stun/Range[*] (43) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge[/list]Level 44: Seismic Smash <ul type="square">[*] (A) Accuracy IO[*] (45) Recharge Reduction IO[*] (45) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage[*] (45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge[*] (46) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance[*] (46) Kinetic Combat - Knockdown Bonus[/list]Level 47: Rock Armor <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed[*] (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense[*] (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance[*] (50) Defense Buff IO[/list]Level 49: Super Jump <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]------------
Level 1: Brawl <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Sprint <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 2: Rest <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Containment
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]5% Defense[*]13% Defense(Smashing)[*]13% Defense(Lethal)[*]3% Defense(Fire)[*]3% Defense(Cold)[*]8% Defense(Energy)[*]8% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]8% Defense(Melee)[*]5.5% Defense(Ranged)[*]3% Defense(AoE)[*]0.9% Max End[*]4% Enhancement(Heal)[*]73.7% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]1.5% Enhancement(JumpSpeed)[*]3% Enhancement(Immobilize)[*]1.5% Enhancement(FlySpeed)[*]1.5% Enhancement(JumpHeight)[*]6% Enhancement(Stun)[*]1.5% Enhancement(RunSpeed)[*]5% FlySpeed[*]137.3 HP (13.5%) HitPoints[*]5% JumpHeight[*]5% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 5.5%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%[*]16% (0.27 End/sec) Recovery[*]30% (1.27 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]1.89% Resistance(Smashing)[*]1.89% Resistance(Lethal)[*]1.26% Resistance(Fire)[*]1.26% Resistance(Cold)[*]1.88% Resistance(Negative)[*]5% RunSpeed[/list]

You know what Delta cannot do? He cannot do a Dr. Q taskforce in less than 7 hours. 7 hours 4 minutes. :P

I never claimed to farm 54 bosses. I haven't tried it - I'm sure I'd be much less efficient at it. I bet my Invuln scrapper will be able to, but then again, he won't be nearly the farmer Delta is.

Delta is not made to take down big stuff. He's not an AV soloer. The OP asked for a fire/kin build to farm with - he wanted to make money. This build is absolutely brutal at making money, -fast-. It's cheap and can make your investment back in one night if you're dedicated about it.

It's a money machine. A cheap, efficient money machine that also happens to level my friends up really fast.

Yeah, because volcanos in no way combine earth and fire thematically? :P

Fissure does about 220 damage after containment with Fulcrum Shift. It also does knockdown and disorient. You can't slot a +recharge proc into fireball. Fire mastery does not give s/l defense.

And no, you don't get to pick the mission. :P The whole point of the build is to fight against smashing/lethal bosses.

They'd have to rewrite the entire difficulty setting to make it not function with MA, and they'd have to make sure that change didn't affect regular Taskforces. I sincerely doubt they'll go through that much trouble when the benefits will be so obvious, both to the AE farmers and non-farmers who hate farming.

Sure. I'm @BertTwo on my Delta, what's your global?

I'm on Virtue. Roll one up, War_Admiral.

I use 50s - because 52s and 54s just die slower, not because they kill me. I go for efficiency, not impressiveness.

Dual Blades/Regen does very little damage - if I'm paying attention with the Transfusions, I can ignore the 1 hit out of 20, especially when only Ablating Strike and Typhoon's Edge debuff defense. I don't even think they get both, but I'd have to check. Regen does almost nothing to keep them alive longer, so I switched out MA for it when I got tired of having to retoggle Hotfeet from the occasional stun.

A lot of Lunatic farms I see have allies that buff with bubbles. Are you using buffbots? That might explain why you don't think defense is necessary. When I say I solo farm, I mean I solo farm, alone, against 8-man boss spawns.

I can indeed solo farm bosses with that. You can ask my SG about it. Chaos Creator's seen how Delta tears through bosses. But seriously, global accuracy? Most of your damage is done by Hotfeet which doesn't even have an accuracy check in PVE. Fire Cages usually has a 95% chance to hit against the custom bosses I fight, and so does Fissure and Seismic Smash.

Accuracy smaccuracy. I'd rather miss someone occasionally than get hit constantly anyway.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why do people complain about AE? It's not because the people who farm it are getting massive rewards - if these people didn't know where the rewards were coming from, or if they thought about what the rewards of AE brought to the rest of the game, they'd realize that AE farming is beneficial to everyone.

[/ QUOTE ]

Some of us are only "complaining" about the farmers/power-levelers that are "abusing" the AE.
The AE is a great idea. It is being abused. I am against the abusers. The DEVs have stated that they are as well, and they are the ones that define what abuse is.

I'm against the farmer/PL'rs because they are abusing the AE, helping to produce high-level characters for inept players, and are shortening the "longevity" of players that are, thus, PL'd by their abuse of the AE.

There may be some things that are cheaper due to the AE farming, but, by-and-large, the economy has gone crazy due to the AE.

My niche market is selling at double-xp weekend prices. That is to say between 5x and 8x what I would have been selling the items for pre-AE.
Why am I selling for so high?
Because players are paying that much.
Why? Because apparently they don't know any better and have so much inf throw around that they don't need to take time to learn any better.

The massive rewards are abuse and are obviously damaging to the game.
If you think that the market hasn't negatively been effected, then you have a very narrow view of the market.

[/ QUOTE ]

Negatively? Let's look at the effects of AE on the market.

Common salvage prices are typically still above what they used to be. Rare salvage is hovering around 700k-1m for almost every piece. Yes, these prices are high. However, who does this benefit? Farmers? No. Farmers are buying salvage to craft, but no longer producing it. The people who get to sell these are the new high prices are the people who play the regular content normally.

Purple prices are up. Who gets purple drops? Not the AE farmers. People who play ITFs and PI radio missions are getting purple drops.

Thus, influence inflow for non-farmers is rising. The stuff they're selling is going up in price, whereas the stuff the 'average' player buys is going down in price or staying the same. SOs, of course, never go up or down in price. Common IOs are still at the very affordable 500k crafted enhancement price. And Quality of Life IOs like the Steadfast/Karma KB globals and the Res/Def and Regenerative Tissue +Regen are all at all-time lows.

-Anyone- can now afford a +KB Protection with the sale of a couple of rare salvage. Someone who's run normal content 1-50 will be able to afford a +Regen global and a Res/Def in all likelihood as soon as they're ready to slot them.

Prices are -down- more than they are up - and they're mostly up on the very desirable purples and PVP IOs, which casual players never bought often anyway. I'm a dedicated farmer, and I can count the number of toons I've got a Purple set slotted on on one hand. Hell, on one finger.

Almost everything that your average player wants and needs is now more accessible at a better price, and it's easier for those casual players to get the money necessary to do it - all because of AE.

The economy has grown, and, I think, actually become more stable in the last month or two. Prices for the 10-14 bronze roll stuff have evened out to what looks like a sustainable range. Purples are still usually averaging about 50m a pop for the recipes - not that much higher than pre-AE prices. Even salvage prices are a bit down from what they were - nobody but the very impatient (read: Farmers) pay 100k for common salvage anymore.

I think that when (presumably) Going Rogue merges the redside/blueside markets (we can only hope such a sane and desirable thing will be a necessity when one can transfer characters back and forth - anything else would be madness that would allow dedicated marketeers to utterly [censored] over the redside market), we'll see another bit of flux and then an even better stabilization as prices for villains become much more reasonable on some things (I see Pet sets becoming a highly unstable market for awhile then settling somewhere between redside and blueside prices, in particular) that allows villains to benefit from the heroside market numbers and redside to benefit from their increased access to magic salvage.

I don't think my view of the market is 'narrow' at all. I've dedicated quite a lot of thought to this, watched prices rise and fall. I find myself doing less of what people used to call 'ebil marketeering' now, and have resigned myself to thoroughly be on the 'supply' side of the equation. I am a convenience factory: I produce IOs that everyone needs at a sane, reasonable price - I -have- to sell low, because there's so much supply that if I don't sell low, the demand will be so low that my market inventory fills. When you get those Karma/Steadfast KBs for 1m? That's probably because I've been farming for the past 4 hours and have dropped literally 50-75 of them onto the market in that time. You're welcome, squishes who never have to take Acrobatics again.

Claws/Elec, baby. Claws/Elec.

Exactly my thought. I -am- a farmer, and I hate the spam. I hate contributing to it so much that I typically do solo (or maybe 3-4 people with my friends) rather than fill to 8-man spawns with AE spam. This would be ideal.

Also: I'm the kind of farmer you guys should love. Impatient to sell, of the opinion that I'd rather sell 50 recipes for 2m each than 2 recipes for 50m each - meaning I tend to sell low and in high volume. :P

I don't think it's a huge leap - the difficulty levels apply to AE now, and changing it would only have negative effects from the devs and the random person's point of view.

As I said, this would be a very intelligent, subtle, and well-aimed way to fix a lot of the problems people have with AE.

I thought it was impossible, but I think the devs have stumbled upon a masterstroke in killing 90% of the complaints about AE.

Why do people complain about AE? It's not because the people who farm it are getting massive rewards - if these people didn't know where the rewards were coming from, or if they thought about what the rewards of AE brought to the rest of the game, they'd realize that AE farming is beneficial to everyone. (For example: How many people could afford a Steadfast: Res/Def before AE? How many people seriously planned on grabbing that Regenerative Tissue Unique? How long, before AE, did you have to wait for a reasonable bid on a +Knockback protection enhancement to go through?)

I, for one, had stopped reading the same old story text over and over long before AE - so the fact that AE has killed the 'story' of the game is also a rather pointless concern.

There are two reasons, logically, why so many people hate AE.

1) It's visible.
2) It takes the teaming masses of 'average' players off the streets.

I'll explain in a bit more detail.

The concern with #1 is that you can no longer go through the most populated zones (Cap, Atlas) without being bombarded by AE spam. Hell, a lot of people go onto the Request or Help chans spamming for it nowadays. Clueless newbies who have never leveled themselves past 30 now have multiple 50s they have no clue what to do with because you can go to one of these zones, spam the broadcast channel, and eventually get a team.

#2 comes up from the simple fact that those clueless newbs (and more average people - the ones who may not be clueless, but 'just play' instead of IOing out) are now riding along as fillers in the farms of people like me and many others who -do- have a clue and can trick out a character to take down boss spawns in the time it takes most people to team wipe against mixed minion/lt groups. Those people aren't out there on taskforces, street sweeping, doing paper missions- and they need to be. That's how you learn the game, and it's how newbies get exposed to the true team play that will get them hoked to CoH.

The devs are about to fix both of these problems with one change, one that I don't know if they fathom the consequences of:

In I16, you will be able to set your AE mission to spawn as if you had a full team of 8.

Instantly, you have eliminated most of the spamming - random average joe will no longer have a place on -my- boss farms, for instance. Why would I pad out my team with pointless non-contributors and reduce my inf/prestige drops? Why would I leech XP from the toons of my friends - people who can already play, people who know the game, people who just want to skip that 1-35 grind before the characters they want to play actually become fun? People who realize the game -starts-, rather than ends, at 50?

The answer: I won't. I won't ever again make myself feel dirty for broadcasting that I'm running an AE Team LFM. I won't ever have to worry that I've just PL'd some newb who won't know what he's doing with the toon I've just taken from 1-35 in a few hours.

Imagine a world where AE slowly transforms, organically - from a loud, noisy crowd to a few silent solo farmers moving in and out of that glowing cylinder with their close friends, silent but for their Skype or Ventrilo chats. Where the random average joe who wanders into AE does so for actual story arcs because he can't boss farm - and if he can, he can do it alone, for much greater reward than spamming the channels.

Imagine those huddled masses of lowbies and newbies and AE babies forced back onto the streets and into paper missions again. Out into the game where they'll have to learn the ropes for themselves, carry themselves from 1-50 like we did before AE, because nobody needs them to get proper-sized spawns anymore.

I think this is the best move the devs have ever made. I hope that they were smart enough to realize what they were doing, that it was on purpose, but really? Even if it's an accident, I think it's the best accident to happen to the game since AE.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Mutation Controller
Primary Power Set: Fire Control
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Char -- BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(3), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(3), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5)
Level 1: Transfusion -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Acc-I(17), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(40), Dct'dW-Heal(40), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(43), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(46)
Level 2: Fire Cages -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(5), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(7), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(7), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(37), TotHntr-Dam%(40)
Level 4: Siphon Power -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A), Jump-I(48)
Level 8: Hot Feet -- TmpRdns-Acc/Slow(A), TmpRdns-Dmg/Slow(9), TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx(9), TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(11), TmpRdns-Acc/Dmg/Slow(34), EndRdx-I(34)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- Jump-I(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(11)
Level 12: Flashfire -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(13), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(13), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(15), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(17), RechRdx-I(21)
Level 14: Siphon Speed -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15), Acc-I(50)
Level 16: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 18: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Knock%(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21)
Level 20: Speed Boost -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 22: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(23), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(23)
Level 24: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(25), ResDam-I(25), ResDam-I(50)
Level 26: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(27), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(27)
Level 28: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29), RechRdx-I(29)
Level 30: Cinders -- BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(31), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(31), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31)
Level 32: Fire Imps -- C'Arms-+Def(Pets)(A), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg(33), C'Arms-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(33), C'Arms-Dmg/EndRdx(34)
Level 35: Transference -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(37), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 41: Fissure -- Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(42), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(42), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(42), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(43), FrcFbk-Rechg%(43)
Level 44: Seismic Smash -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(45), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(46), KntkC'bat-Knock%(46)
Level 47: Rock Armor -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48), DefBuff-I(50)
Level 49: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]5% Defense[*]13% Defense(Smashing)[*]13% Defense(Lethal)[*]3% Defense(Fire)[*]3% Defense(Cold)[*]8% Defense(Energy)[*]8% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]8% Defense(Melee)[*]5.5% Defense(Ranged)[*]3% Defense(AoE)[*]0.9% Max End[*]4% Enhancement(Heal)[*]73.7% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]1.5% Enhancement(JumpSpeed)[*]3% Enhancement(Immobilize)[*]1.5% Enhancement(FlySpeed)[*]1.5% Enhancement(JumpHeight)[*]6% Enhancement(Stun)[*]1.5% Enhancement(RunSpeed)[*]5% FlySpeed[*]137.3 HP (13.5%) HitPoints[*]5% JumpHeight[*]5% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 5.5%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%[*]16% (0.27 End/sec) Recovery[*]30% (1.27 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]1.89% Resistance(Smashing)[*]1.89% Resistance(Lethal)[*]1.26% Resistance(Fire)[*]1.26% Resistance(Cold)[*]1.88% Resistance(Negative)[*]5% RunSpeed[/list]

The Fire/Kin solo build I'm using. Soft-capped Smashing/lethal. Cost about 140m to slot out before the LotG sets, I haven't grabbed those but am putting in bids. Between Flashfires and Fissures, a lot of stuff is gonna be stunned, Fire Cages immobilizes for a sort of pseudohold.

If you're fighting minions and lieutenants, nothing will touch you. Fighting bosses, well. They probably still won't touch you. Hotfeet + Fissures + Fire Cages does most of the damage (I'm tossing about 220 damage with containment on Fissures, for example, which recharges in this build every 6.8 seconds). Things die really fast. Really, really fast. Absolutely slaughters Cimerorans, I can tank in the ITF except against the Nictus (where I can pop a couple of purples and tank them anyway).

Will give you all the money you ever need for the investment of 140m up front and an eventual ~180-200m if you really want that extra few 7.5% global recharge.

Actually, yeah, low level is where ticket farming pays off the most.