FourSpeed

While I understand the direction you're going here, I have to respectfully
disagree somewhat.

It's true that they're player choices, but players *respond* to changes the
devs have made. I would argue that things like perception and demand
for these items follows as responses to the way the Devs have tailored
current gameplay.

It logically follows that there may be changes which could be made which
produce responses that increase market health rather than diminish it.

Some examples (just off the top of my head) might be:

* Merged Market - no brainer here. This one has been debated to death.

* Non sellable recipes - crafted IO's can only be traded, or sold at market.
Why not do the same with Set IO recipes? Sure, many will still be deleted,
but some will not - supply increases. It's not like vendors pay much for these anyway.

* Merits: Currently you get enough that a non-merit-farmer could afford 3-5 IO's
in their career through normal play - why such a low ratio? A toon gets ~100+
slots over their career... Why not give out a merit for any mission, for
instance, or set exchange pricing to be 20-25 IO's over a career. Most
folks just hoard these till L50 as a direct result of their rarity and their
very limited utility... Many never get used at all...

* Merit Rolls - Why NOT allow the roller to specify the *exact* level they
want? What does the current mechanism do? It favors high-level supply.

* Subject to exploitation checking, why NOT let normal AE missions drop
normal salvage? Recipes? Why bupkiss?

The point I'm making is that these are ALL Dev choices that players respond
to with certain behaviours, which in turn lead to certain game consequences.

Different choices would lead to different results... I don't know that they'd be
better, but I'd wager that the Devs don't know either. What I think I know
is that a market that only caters to L50 players, or has large inventory gaps
even in 2nd tier items isn't much of a market imho.


Regards,
4

Sadly, I don't have any toons I prefer to switch, and as of this moment I
don't have any plans to even purchase the upgrade.

I've not seen any compelling (or even interesting) reasons for GR yet, insofar
as my playstyle is concerned, so I'm definitely in the "wait and see" camp.


Regards,
4

Indeed Bill.

I find the lack of mid-range supply especially disconcerting and I agree
about the key causes probably being (in no particular order): Merits,
Levelling Speed, AE (that didn't drop anything), Player perception (like
yours) where a player feels that low level IOs aren't effective enough,
thus refusing to get involved with them until much, much later levels,
and finally, I-16 farming where a> it's done by L50's b> It's not worth
the time for non-50 players to bring mid-level stuff to market so they
vendor or even delete it.

This is particulary vexxing for me because I might be the poster-child for
using low-mid level IOs and sets.

I start it much sooner than most - L10 Common IO's at L7, L15 Common IO's
at L12, Frankenslotted Set IOs at L25-L28 (augmented with simple Commons
as appropriate). I haven't used TOs, DO's or SO's for at least a year now.

While commons are no problem, mid-level set IO's are becoming increasingly
difficult to get simply due to lack of availability. To me, that points to an
unhealthy market, which I would hope could be looked at.

Sadly, that doesn't seem to be on the dev's radar as far as I can tell...


Regards,
4

If you'll notice, you'd see that the OP actually mentioned
liking the concept of Nin/Nin in the first post, and then
later went on to actually roll one...

Pertinent advice is pertinent...


4.

Or, if you're chintzy like me and don't want to hunt in the rarer pools
for quads and triples, and you don't mind the cheapo off-brands, then ...

In just 5 slots you can do this for your ranged power (pre ED math)
using L25 set IO's:

Which will Ed-max damage, softcap Acc (vs most things near your level)
and put in more than a +3 DO of recharge and End Rdx.

Additionally, you'll get a 4% Regen bonus, and a small boost to max health
at any exemp level down to L20. And, of course, you have that saved
slot that you could put elsewhere (a BIG bonus for Khelds)

Finally, depending on the actual power, it can often-times accept
certain other off-type sets (like, say Slow) so, you could put an IO like
Tempered Readiness: End/Rch/Slow in a 6th slot and end up with a
+2 SO's worth of EndRdx and Rch and a DO of slow, or even throw
in a Proc later instead (ie. Devastation: Chance to Hold) or some such.

In general you can end up with a nicely slotted power you never have
to look at again, and you can often do it for pretty darn cheap as well.


Regards,
4

lol - while this is fine from a purely financial perspective, it misses out on
two key points.

1> Rather than add money to transfer existing toons, I'd rather put the
$15 I've already paid this month to good use by playing (and levelling)
a new toon - giving me a nice pvp character on both servers

2> Better still (and possibly even more important in my book), is that the
$10 I didn't spend on the transfer (or McDonald's) can now be allocated to
the purchase and consumption of some fine Canadian Whiskey...


Cheers,
4


PS> As a Market player, I can fund (from inf) the new toons, and pvp (such as
it exists now) is hardly worth being in a rush to dive into, or spend anything other
than in-game play money to participate in (for me, at least)... YMMV

Alas, I have no answer for #1 except to suggest mercilessly exploiting the
casual gamer for untold amounts of time and inf. As for number #2, many
of us are saving up to buy the Luck Charms that Fulmens listed for 2-Billion
each... (just to say we can)...


4

If I may be so presumptuous, allow me to mend this issue for you.

I solo 90%+ of my game time, and have done so with a lot of ATs including
so-called difficult soloists like Emp Defenders. I think I can distill this excellent
guide (nice work PK) into something that soloists can find applicable too.


First, a LOT of the points made DO apply to solo play - especially these:

• Know your AT - its primary role, its main strengths, and its risk areas.
  The descriptions provided are good guidelines, but only actual play will show
  what you can and can't do well... You should have a pretty good idea of that
  for any toon you play by L10 or so... (Yes, it can change as you level, but
  the basic gist will still apply).
• Know your Enemy - which factions are most difficult for your toon, and which
  mobs within a faction are most dangerous (ie. Quants/Voids for khelds,
  Sappers for most folks, mezzers for Blasters etc.)
• Know the Terrain - All of the Line of Sight advice applies to soloists - even
  moreso than teams. For instance, my Stalker will even use pillars in a room to
  funnel/split mobs - My troller loves corners for herding mobs into (via hurricane),
  and my Blaster loves them for pulling and ducking around.
• Knockback IS defense - especially for soloists... Most of my squishies get
  Air Superiority, my Tanker loves his Ice Patch, and my PB Nova always opens
  with his knockback blast -- Don't underestimate how helpful it is for reducing
  incoming attacks.
• Inspirations can be battle changing - use them... You'll get more...

Obviously, some of the guide isn't pertinent for soloists - communication, and
multi-player co-operative attack strategies, for instance, so I'll add some Tips
that I think *are* helpful.

* Pace

As part of the "know your AT" item, know the pace at which it fights. Clearly,
an Emp Defender won't go as quickly as a Brute - ever... Even two of the same
AT may fight at different paces based on build particulars (Hasten, Stamina,
Pets, etc).

Fight within the pace for your toon. When in doubt, Slower is Safer.

* Aggro Management

You're on your own - no cavalry is coming... The number one way to help yourself

is to control the amount of aggro you generate.

• The first point here is scout the fight - determine who will aggro when
  you attack and plan accordingly to minimize aggro.
• Prioritize the targets - kill the most dangerous first (Be aware that
  might not be the highest lvl mob/Lt). If you don't have a high priority
  target, then take out the easiest 1-shot target you can... 1 less enemy
  is *always* a Good Thing for the soloist.
• Use snipes, holds and status effects to "sequence" the battle. Use terrain
  to funnel combatants to areas that favor your attacks and prevent theirs.
  For single target killers - take charge of the order that you'll kill the mobs.
  For AoE killers - take charge of the placement of mobs to maximize the
  powers you use (see point below).
• Don't be shy about getting out of Dodge if things go south.
  When in doubt - Leave Sooner than you Think. You can *always* come back.
  Further, mobs chase at different speeds - you can often string them out
  this way (for ST sorts) or herd them to an ideal ambush point (for AoEs)
• Divide and Conquer - Any time you can split groups it's good for ST guys
  (terrain, snipe pulls, Tp Foe, holds) all let you do this... For AoE guys, any
  time you can funnel them into a contained area it's good for you and many
  of the tricks to separate them can be used to funnel them instead - be
  creative
• Have an "Oh Crap" plan... Have an escape route to bail if needed (usually
  the way you just cleared out works). Also, for squishies, pick up an Etheral
  Shift (phase power) or get Phase from the Pool Powers or Hyper Phase from
  a Warburg patrol... In short, give yourself any/every opportunity to live
  through the battle even if it does go south. Don't be shy about using it...

* Surprise

Teams prevail through brute force as a general rule, and soloists prevail through
guile...

If your toon is squishy - get some form of Stealth - it doesn't have to be at
PvP levels, but it is (imho) very beneficial for Scouting, Aggro Managment, and
Fight Sequencing.

There are only three choices for dealing with a mob... Kill it, Bypass it, or
get wrecked by it. Stealth won't help you on the last of those, but it's a
big help for the first two cases.

Remember - for you, First Strike often IS first kill... Stealth gives you First Strike.

* Slotting

Most times that battles go south on me can be attributed to two reasons:
Bad Aggro Management OR I whiff on a target at a bad time...

As a soloist, I slot my attacks well... The *only* way to get XP is kill stuff,
so, I always try to achieve 60+% ACC and 90+% DMG on my attacks...

Whether you do it through SO's, IO's, Sets, or Procs, is up to you, but keep in
mind that you're going to miss 1/20 of your attacks (95% Max to-hit) on your
best slotting... Why make it any worse than that if you don't need to???

* Difficulty

I know with I-16 and that handy slider it's tempting to set difficulty up...
In the "know your AT" category, set it to your strengths.

I don't recommend changing it from default until SO time frame (L22+), but even
so, set it to your strengths...

For instance, My Stalkers (as a single tgt killer) sets it to +2/X1 - Difficult mobs,
he can kill... 1 at a time... Groups are hard for him... My Troller and Tank set
for 0/X4... Bring on the groups... My troller is squishy, so he doesn't want
the Tough guys, and my Tank kills slowly, so he doesn't want to take all
day to handle one group...

Set your difficulty based on your toon's strengths...


There ya go - that's my take on strategies for the soloist, and I hope you
find them helpful... YMMV


Regards,
4