Eiko-chan

Trapdoor's mission cannot be skipped - thus why it became a minor forum flare-up.

50-60% on a Brute (or Scrapper; the numbers should be the same for both.) My softcapped Shield Brute sits around 55% with ED-slotting and the Nerve Radial Uncommon. She has a brief window around 70% while Active Defence is doublestacked.

Mids is giving a value of around 66% for Tankers, which would go to about 88 with doublestacked Active Defence.

I should not have read this post right after watching Get Smart. The accumulated funny nearly killed me.

Last time I ran Barracuda, we had no Stalker. The first time we ran it was while the temporary powers were not working.

I picked "Tough". I didn't see a difference. Drat.

I picked "Weave". Wait, no difference there!

Manoeuvres? Nope, didn't change.

Okay, maybe it's just pool powers.

"Charged Armour". No, no difference. Conductive Shield? Nothing. Static Shield? Power Sink? Power Surge?! No, nothing.

Lots of powers don't have effects tied to level.

The only place a level shift doesn't look like a level is on a spreadsheet, when you compare "level-shifted 49" to "actual level 50" (there's no actual level 51, so you can't make that comparison.) In the actual game, however, the level-shifted 49 and the actual level 50 aren't going to operate with any immediately noticeable difference. They're both going to be fighting 50s, with approximately the same ability to defeat them.

In the same respect, the level-shifted 50 will either be fighting level 50s, revelling in the ability to curb-stop enemies that are now substantially easier, or start seeking out level 51s, as they would were they levelled to level 51.

The level shift not being a "real" level only appears "on spreadsheets". It only appears that way if your head is buried in the numbers. In the effect it has on how one actually plays the game, it is a level.

I hope you'd admit I'm slightly less vitriolic.

You: A level does this and this and this and this.
Me: So does a level shift, just in a slightly modified manner.
You: See?! That PROVES it's not a level!

It doesn't increase base numbers - you won't see any new effects on your character sheet, your info boxes, or your Mids build. But you'll see all the same effects in actual game play that you would if you actually levelled up.

I didn't accept "spreadsheet only" arguments from Arcanaville; why would I accept them from anyone else?

Pain Domination and Empathy both operate very differently, and are not parallels in any sense. Both sets should be ported to the archetypes of the other side and this nonsense about Pain Domination being "red-side Empathy" need to be dismissed.

So does the Cottage Rule, though that's a complete tangent comment from me.

The last time I ran Barracuda, we almost didn't wipe on the ambushes.

There would have been about five minutes less of it, because that's how long it would have taken Arcanaville to figure out what the "power boosts" were doing and make a post about how they just shifted your level on the purple patch table.

This is starting to become a tautology.

Those purple patch effects are a very close approximation to the effects of increasing in level. I don't get more health, but enemies do less damage. My base damage doesn't increase, but my effective damage does. My base mez duration doesn't increase, but my effective duration does.

The only real difference? I don't have to move on to harder enemies to get the same rewards. Which is a big part of how it is "better" than a level.

It's close enough for me, and I'm not the only one that thinks so.

Seriously, this attempt to paint "I fight as if I were level 51" as something other than an "increase in level" baffles me. It really, truly baffles me. I honestly have no remote conception of how anyone actually convinces themselves it is true (other than maybe Arcanaville, who would probably admit she views the game through a vastly different lens from the majority of players - and I could probably still find the post where she said it's arguably better than a level, which really does not make the case any stronger.)

The level shift makes me level 51. It just does. No matter how many times you repeat "no it doesn't", it's still going to make me level 51. And not being able to be level 51 because I don't want to run a TF or some raid is unacceptable to me.

No, it's not. Two reasons.

First, Incarnate Enhancements are not considered, by the developers, as "optional". They've already stated that they will be balancing "Incarnate content" (whatever that means) to assume Incarnate Enhancements.

Second, Rare and Very Rare boosts aren't just bigger numbers - they provide a unique boost not available anywhere else. And what's more, that boost is a virtual "level".

I'm actually okay with not getting a purple Alpha Enhancement - the extra numbers I can live without. Locking the Rare, and the Level Shift, away from me is what I really object to.

By some qualifications, I am a "farmer". I don't run the same mission over and over, but I do pump up my difficulty specifically so I get more drops from running missions.

I would never go to -1 when my goal is to get drops. The difference between level 49 recipes and level 50 recipes is just too much to sacrifice. (Actually, at level 49, I have generally (since the option has been available) pushed my difficultly up to +1 just so I could start getting those level 50 drops that much sooner.)

I rolled my eyes. Does that count?

He's right. I hate when bugs fly up my nose too.

IOs are definitely more complex than the Incarnate System, I'll agree there. But I think the level of necessity aspect is what changes how they affect the overall game. A complex system that is unarguably optional changes the overall image less than a significantly-less complex system that is arguably non-optional.

At least as far as I'm concerned. With IOs, I can use them or not use them and still get a feeling of completion. With end-game, not using it robs me of that feeling.

Recently had a lot of problems with one of those. The worst part? It was our virus protection program.

We have a new version now that doesn't do that any more.

I think I might, in hindsight, agree.

My job involves doing a lot of installations of programs. A lot. I'm well-versed in patience.

Being patient when you have no idea that work is being done, that progress is being made, that what you're waiting for is actually in the works is unreasonable. Sometimes an installation stalls, and if you're just patient, you get nowhere. You have to proactively work to correct whatever hold up is causing the stall, and just being patient isn't going to fix anything.

That's why a lot of installations have progress bars; they allow you to know something is actually happening (the best also include actual information about exactly what the installer is doing). One of the most annoying trends I've seen recently is installations with progress bars wholly unattached to the actual progress of the installation - they just keep running and running, regardless of whether the installation is moving forward or not. You have no way of knowing whether the installation has stalled or is just extremely long. They might make the inexperienced feel better, but they don't really do much to help the experienced user know what's going on.

The developers have alternated between a complete lack of progress bars and meaningless progress bars unattached from actual progress. In either case, "just be patient" is the same thing as wishing or praying for a miracle.

At the moment, if running them meant I could get a Notice, yes, I would.

My agenda is "getting a Notice without running on a team". It might change after I get that satisfied, but until then, that's what I'm focused on.

Which are "solo content". Maybe not high quality solo content, but content nonetheless.