FourSpeed

So, from your questions, I infer you have Going Rogue.

1> In CoV (where the Stalker originated), it is indeed a villain, and the tutorial
is a "Break out of the Zig Prison" scenario.

However, in Praetoria, you can start with any AT, so a traditional hero or
villain motif doesn't make as much sense. To me, Praetoria seems mostly
degrees of evil, regardless of which side you play for. In that setting,
I'd think of a Stalker as a freelance "fixer" type of role.

2> with Stalkers (esp before you get AS and Placate), managing aggro is
the trick to survival. The old adage "Divide & Conquer" is your lifeline. If
you draw too much aggro, don't be shy about getting out of Dodge - the
AI will forget about you soon enough. If you're alive, you can always go back.

3> Praetor Duncan should be on your map (you may need to zoom it in). I
believe she's in the Main Square of the very First Zone (Nova Praetoria)


Hope that helps, and welcome to the game.


Regards,
4

Personally, I think Placate is a must-take, key power for Stalkers.

It's not only valuable for the additional AS or crit, but it's also good for aggro
management and orchestrating a battle (ie. foe sequencing).

I know of some folks that skipped it, but I've yet to hear a reason that I think
justifies taking something else instead - all of my stalkers grab it right away.

YMMV.


Regards,
4

For PvE, I typically run with Stealth OFF, using only Hide (saves Endurance).
So, if you're going to be consistently sticking to PvE, you can skip it.
Anything that can see you through Hide in PvE can also see you through
Hide + Stealth (ie. KoA, Rikti Drones, Rularuu Eyeballs etc.).

That said, if you're going to dabble with PvP at all, then I'd say it's pretty
much mandatory, and I'd also pick up a Stealth IO as well.

As far as pleasing teammates, I don't see how Stealth or Super Speed would
matter to them one way or other. On the other hand, my stalkers don't team
anyway - don't need 'em, don't want 'em - they just get in the way of the
targets I'm planning to kill...


Regards,
4

WOW!!! That's pretty much all I got...

Superlatives simply don't cut it...

Back on post #492 when we were discussing the Solstice Party, I thought
that the #6 position was a "realistically attainable" goal. I had NO IDEA
what you people were actually going to accomplish.

I'm completely flabbergasted - To paraphrase the legendary Queen of the Blues,
Koko Taylor, that was one hell of a Wang Dang Doodle we pitched tonight.

Less than three months ago, the Crazy 88's did not exist.
Tonight, they're the #1 SG on one of the most populous game servers.

Un-fricking-believable!

In total, it took 263.8 Billion Influence to achieve.
More than 128 Billion of that total was burned in the past 24 hours.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around tonight's accomplishment.

In the meantime, I promised some pics and here they are:

#1: http://tinyurl.com/34ajhvj

Party Shots

A: http://tinyurl.com/2wj5oh4
B: http://tinyurl.com/33sw6bk
C: http://tinyurl.com/32uhhv3


88'rs, it's an honor to be a part of the group. Not only is the firepit
keeping Granny warm tonight, but the very thought of what this group
did may well warm her heart for years to come...


Regards,
4


PS> Granny had planned to burn 1-2 Billion at the party - in actuality,
she roasted 6.5 Billion, and that doesn't even hold a candle to what
several of you guys did tonight - Incredible.

Like the others, I have to disagree with the gleemail idea for storage.

I don't know how trusting the "casual gamer" is with his/her inf, but I know,
for myself, that apart from transfers that I'll claim within an hour of making
them, I only store 25M in gleemail (for newbie toons) long-term.

That's probably only 0.1% of my holdings or less.

As for your other estimates, I think those are way low as well. There are
more than 230 recipe niches (and, by extension, an equal number of crafteds)
just for Common IOs.

I've not counted, but I'd easily guess there are more than 100 recipe niches
for sets, and a couple significant ones for temps (primarily respecs) and rare
(or expensive) salvage.

Given that a fair number of Purples, PvP IOs, and certain premium IO's sell
for 100M +, I'd envision that the churn on those alone "stores" the 550 Billion
in your estimate.

It wouldn't surprise me to see somewhere on the order of 1 Trillion tied up
in the market at any given time.


Another thing to consider is new influence. In the past I've estimated
(conservatively) that anywhere between 1-3 Trillion could be generated
monthly by the existing player base. That's also a PFA (pulled from @$$)
estimate, but nobody has offered up any more plausible numbers so far.

So, where is all that inf being stored?


Yet a third category (which you may be discounting intentionally for this
discussion) is hard assets stored in SG bins in the form of crafted IOs and
salvage - While difficult to guess with precision, I'd certainly expect that
to be significant amount.


My gut feeling is that the bulk (say 50-60%) of inf is stored on toons, with
another 10-20% stored in hard assets, and 10-20% tied up in the market.

If that market share really is closer to a trillion, and the percentage allocation
is even close to accurate, we're looking at roughly 10-15 Trillion inf in the
game presently.

I have no idea how close that actually is, but I wouldn't be at all surprised
at that range.


Regards,
4

Happy Winter Solstice Day!

Granny has 2.5 Billion sitting in her purse...

Maybe #5 isn't so far out of reach after all... Here's hoping....


Regards,
4

I haven't run my Spines/Nin in quite awhile (too many other alts with things to do)

I have a vague recollection that it simply didn't hit as hard as my NB/Nin, but I'd
have to dig it out and run a few missions to see if that memory is real or not.


Regards,
4

PS> All of my attacks are slotted 60/90 Acc/Dmg as minimum reqs, so I know
they're at least softcapped for Acc and hitting ED on Dmg.

On my NB/Nin, it's slotted with a couple Acc/Dmg HO's, 3 Gladiator Strikes
(including the Proc), and a Hecatomb Proc.

This is a PvP toon, so when I attack, I need it to hit players, and I'd like it to
hit like a truck when it does.

On my Elec/WP, it's got a bunch of mid level set IO pieces in it (bonesnap,
focused Smite, and Bruising Blow). That gives it 68%/92% (Acc/Dmg) and more
than an SO each of Erdx & Rch in it.

This one is mostly a PvE toon, with a little PvP tossed in -- it was originally
created to deal with a griefer or two in a specific zone ... It's as effective as
it needs to be to handle that purpose and a lot of fun in PvE otherwise...


Regards,
4

A few thoughts I'll toss out.

First, while it's definitely doable, the folks pulling down 1B or more a week are
doing at least one of a few things.

A. They're dealing in the real high end stuff - Purples and PvP IOs, and
they probably have a toon specifically for that.

B. Farming - PvPIOs, (pre I19's bug), or A-Merits, to obtain high end items
which they simply sell for big bucks. With A-merits, there are quite a
number of lucrative items you can convert them into.

C. A lot of hard work - niches come and go, and folks in this category are
very attentive to what's selling and what's not, and they're actively updating
their big picture frequently. Again, in this case, they probably have a
dedicated toon doing this, and it's pretty time intensive at that level.


It sounds to me, like you're doing pretty well already, and the key piece in
that is patience... You might not hit the inf cap in a week or two, but you're
steadily getting richer in a more sustainable way.

Unless you really enjoy marketeering for the mini-game's sake, option C
starts to feel a little (or a lot) bit like work, and after the first few billion,
why bust your butt? Option B can also be a lot of work, and Option A can
be much riskier if you don't read the pricing trends well.

What you're currently doing is Option C Lite, which is an easier and
sustainable approach, but if you're looking for more, your best bet is to
ramp that up some.

That said, one main thing I'd suggest: Diversify (in all senses of the word).

In the case of the toons you're levelling, focus on one - split his slots 1/2
for marketeering for his use, and 1/2 for getting the goodies you want.

On the others you want to improve, make them into marketeers while you're
focusing on the one guy... Once he's done, make him a marketeer, and pick
another toon to focus on.

In other words, diversify the focus and effort on your key toons.

Next, diversify the niches you work. Once you start getting a bunch of marketeers,
it gets harder to keep track of what they're doing. Some folks keep spreadsheets.

On the other hand, I just make each one get their own niche, and work it
until it stops being profitable. So, for instance, I have a toon that was
working Regen Tissues, I have a toon that was working Perf Shifters, I
have a toon that was crafting commons when prices on those were up,
and I have a couple toons that collect r-merits and a-merits.

I've found that approach works well for me.

I hope the info helps you going forward.


Regards,
4

Gratz!

I can't see the build in Mid's atm, but I see several things at a glance that make me seriously wonder about the build.

In no particular order:

1> Stealth @ L49 ???

2> No Stealth IO ??? Given 1 & 2, you will be seen by everyone. Period.

3> SS and SJ 4-slotted -- really? why?

4> No additional Perception - Heightened Senses is helpful but more is better.

5> No Phase - Hibernate is helpful, but you're rooted and visible... GL


Those are just off the top of my head, but, you couldn't give me this build,
if it was for PvP... Sorry, it's farm-bait.


Regards,
4

My typical bargain sell is at 11. If I listed for 1, I could lose 4 inf. While
that is nothing, it psychologically rankles me, so at 11 it sells just as fast,
but I can never get a negative return that way.

Most recipes I vendor. Most commons pay better there, and most of the
Pool A & B drops I get usually have dozens for sale and zero bidders - the
slot is worth far more to me than that.

For meaningful stuff, I price to sell, but typically at a profit % goal (say
30-50% counting fees)

Oh, and for the OP, if you're "flipping", you're trying to buy at the low price,
and sell at a low enough price for quick turnaround while still making a profit.

What you're doing, is bargain selling, or dumping... Nothing wrong with that,
mind you - you get some cash for something you don't want, and somebody
can get a bargain on something they do want - that's the bread and butter
of the market... I'm just nitpicking the term "flipping"

As seebs, mentioned, that isn't a viable strategy for everything because
different items are worth more than that - if bargain listing was consistent
for those items, prices would lower over time (which you'd think would be
good, but it's not), which in turn would lead to shortages and wild price swings.

So, were that the norm, what you'd see, in fact, is what we recently observed
with salvage during the AE exploit. Extreme volatility, with times of shortage,
and skyrocket pricing swings.

In short, low value things should be plentiful and inexpensive, and high value
things should be available but pricier, keeping in mind that "value" is really
a function of player perception.


Regards,
4

Gratz on the milestone...

Now you can afford a photographer to do the money-shot up right...


Cheers,
4

Like many others, most (all?) of my L50 toons keep 1 -1.5B on hand these
days, and I also keep 25M or so in gleemail, in case I get the urge to start
a newbie toon.

A couple of those 50s are my active marketeers, so their balances fluctuate.

Most of my actively levelling toons keep ~200 M or so on them for "necessities".

Any "excess" gets shuffled into Granny's Crazy 88's Investment Portfolio