Fulmens

Hmm. 12% (tank, slotted) ENFC would bring my DA tank up to 60% F/C, 43% E and 74% N (from 48%, 31%, and 62%.) That's not Granite-level by any means but it's a lot. (Granite would be capped, of course, but Granite's already defensive overkill in my head.) On the other hand, that's the only character I can see significantly changing with this improvement.

Invuln tanks would be able to scrape together 44% "exotic" resistance, which is respectable but probably not game changing.

I want to dislike it, but I can't really.

Pretty things with lots of killing: Eden trial, Silver Mantis SF.

I beat up muggers, frequently. And 5th column.

Market games: I have a nearly-single-handed war against inflation going. Matching inf-to-prestige, generating unnecessary market fees by selling stuff for 110% of what I buy it for, etc.

I also have a project (which a LOT of people help with, much appreciated) to create recipes below level 50, because there aren't enough of those.

Coming in here and running my mouth.

I've had GM's show up within 5-10 minutes consistently over the last 5 1/2 years after petitioning, Wendy. Maybe I play at better times of day or something.

Couple things:

1) I think we have less multiboxing than we used to, so there are fewer accounts even if we haven't lost a single human player. (0x8 playing, for instance.)
2) We DO still have people with extra accounts. I don't know how many, as a percentage of the population.

As far as graphics- the entry-level zones may not be anything to sing about but there's some good stuff in this game. I don't know what WOW has to show off, though.

By the way, you can run around Atlas and grab all the location badges and get 5 merits. Once around Steel also gives you 5 merits, but that's a little longer of a trip. (I haven't managed to get any other zones to be particularly quick.)

You usually can get the BUY IT NAO price from the max-level recipe. You can't always reach that price on a sub-max-level item, but it's a good bit of information to have.

I don't know if it's a "killing blow" thing- it might be a percentage based on who did how much damage.

I'm pretty sure I got a temp power and a regular IO drop from the exact same critter earlier today.

I'm trying to not overload the OP with information.

As far as "buying the lower level IO's": You need to plan WAY in advance to buy lower levels. Like a couple weeks. I recommend planning out two powers (preferably powers that do different things) and shopping for those two powers. Once you are done, or nearly done, you can pick new powers to shop for. My reasoning is this:

1) Two different powers gives you a fair variety of recipes that you're shopping for, but not so many that you get overwhelmed.
2) You can hold almost two full powers' worth of IOs in your tray.
3) You can see the difference between your IO'd out and untouched powers.

As for "What to buy": Max level IO's (level 50's for sets that go to 50, 40 for things like Miracle, etc.) are available MUCH faster, but often for what we in this forum call "BUY IT NAO" prices. With 24 hours [to "over a weekend"] of patience you can save a huge amount on these.

Lower level IO's are generally cheaper- they don't HAVE "BUY IT NAO" prices because you can't ever buy them NAO- but are generated much less frequently, so come up for sale much less frequently. At one point I accidentally did a measurement and discovered that as many level 50 recipes of one sort were generated as level 30-49 recipes combined. (I wasn't trying to do a measurement. I was TRYING to corner the market. I ran out of money and storage space way before I made any sort of visible dent in the supply.)

Anyway, you will probably find that if you want six recipes, there will be three or four that are fast, easy and cheap to get, one or two that will be "fast and easy" OR cheap, and one or two that will just take a long time. Leave a few bids up on different levels, for those. Don't worry too much about getting superbargains- one good drop of a rare salvage is 2 to 4 million inf.

Oh, and if you mess up and buy stuff you didn't want or need, you can probably sell it at a profit once you craft it. This is the nature of our market. People throw money at you and unless you actively duck, you're gonna get hit.

You can do quick "What good is Defense?" tests with a big bunch of purples. Also I recommend Ethereal Shift for when you're getting hammered flat and you want to end the experiment early.

Four small or two medium purples = 50% Defense. This is at the "soft cap" (which is actually 45%) and you should be about 10 times tougher than normal. This is up there with burly Scrappers, and you should be able to run around with no problem. You're almost "mez proof" because if they don't hit they don't mez.

Three small = 37.5% Defense. You should be about 4 times tougher than normal- you'll still get hit with some frequency, but you're going to be a LOT tougher than normal. This is about what an SO'd out SR scrapper gets to without hitting Elude. (They have mez protection, a few more hit points, and scaling resistance. So they are tougher, but not a LOT tougher.)

Two small = 25% Defense. This is about the minimum I, Fulmens, notice. Twice as hard to hit. Of course, random numbers are random and you may go a long time without getting hit or you may get nailed every time.

If you want you can try one small, 12.5% Defense.

Try these various things. You will get killed from time to time, but it will give you an idea of what 10%, or 25%, or 45% "really means."

My one Defense-based Blaster is around 32.5% to several types. That was chosen because I can take a single small purple and be at the softcap.

Some other numbers for what Defense "means": 40% is half as good as the 45%+ "softcap." 30% is half as good as that.

OK, I did find the "team composition"-

(Fireball at level 2. Just sayin'. )

It's like a 1 in 2000 chance or something. I've gotten at least one that I noticed. I think it was a hold triple...

It does, it turns out, have a "chance to hit"- just a very high one (+100% To Hit). I had not realized it was that accurate.

As a resident of the NJ suburbs, I'm a big fan of NOT driving into NYC. It can be 45-60 minutes on the bridge or tunnel alone. If you do end up somewhere on the Jersey side of the river, you can park in Hoboken or Jersey City and grab the PATH train.

I also don't quite understand LEAVING New York City to go to a restaurant.

*shrug* I guess I'm the wrong person to be answering the question.

/em donates long, boring lecture on how to make your own billyuns

This is based on my ice/ice blaster experience...
Soloing a 3-person group, you should be able to keep two of them held with properly slotted Freeze Ray. If you want to be fancy you can start with Bitter Freeze Ray and then immediately Freeze Ray the second guy. If only one guy is fighting back I imagine it will be a considerably easier fight.

I used to describe Ice blasting as "Bartender with a mallet." Hit the guys who are trying to interrupt, then take an order, then hit the guys who are trying to interrupt...

Fighting is already so good I take it on more than half my characters.

In game-mechanical terms that suggests it's balanced-at-least. . .