GavinRuneblade

I don't know how, but as soon as he figures it out, I'd be really appreciative if he tells me. =)

Not just the low-level ones or unlikely to fill, there is a huge amount of inf on real bids for high demand items. Lots of the PvP IOs have bids in the 400+million range on multiple levels. Some of them have multiple 1b+ bids. Same with purples, tend to be a lot of existing bids sitting on Wents in the multi-hundred-million range. Even the Kinetic Combats and Numinas tend to have over 100 bids each in the +/- 100million range, and there's quite a few IOs of that sort out there. Lots of Hami-Os are sitting over 100m on the bids with more than 50 showing.

As for myself, I have about 40 characters with an average of 190m on each. Which is a hell of a lot more inf than I actually thought I had now that I think about it. =) Zero in storage Wents, Zero in email. I have about 200m in active bids on Wents.

Well, the VEATs are interesting because of their flexibility. While you have the choice to build as a pure melee powerhouse, you don't have to. All of them have some form of mitigation that is not based on personal statistics (summoning pets, hard controls like holds and stuns etc).

My own fortunata has way better defenses than any of my Dominators for instance, and still packs the controls and blasts to put out damage. Stackign DDR on top of that seems unnecessary. Especially once teamed when I've reliably been sitting at over 150 defense to all positions thanks to stacked leadership and VEAT leadership buffs.

That said, I do think that some level of DDR would fit into the builds. Definitely not the 95% that SR can build for, but maybe 25% to 30%. My point of view is that not every build and every AT needs to be able to solo at +4/x8. DDR is mostly needed against very large groups solo. It is extremely helpful in other circumstances, but usually in an 8 man team, Aggro is spread out and/or you have buffs. 1 melee VEAT and 7 blasters is not something I've ever actually seen, and even then it's hard to believe cascade failure would kick in before everything was dead. So VEATs right now fit into the "if it ain't broke" category for me.

If some anti-def techniques start cropping in, I can definitely see the argument for giving them a DDR power, possibly added to one of the auto powers, possibly one of the others. Maybe 10 to 20% base DDR before enhancement.

This is a good one. Another one that I've seen in some much older games was to manipulate the aggro list. The enemy normally focuses everything on the top of the list, you have aggro or you don't. But in a few older games the enemy would occasionally toss one attack at an enemy in the 2-4 range, then go back to the top of the list. If this was implemented in such a way as to keep them from running back and forth or losing a lot of tine with redraw it might spice things up some.

"My son wrote this, and I know he is only 8 but if you don't implement it in the live game I will fire you all"

"So, I don't really remember much about last night. Did we get as stoned as I think we did?"

"If you didn't code this, and I didn't code it who d... Wait did BABS slip this in before he left? Is THAT what he was laughing about?"

"You know, when I bet you $20 buck the players would accept it, I didn't mean for you to put it live"

"What do you mean Jack still has a password to the development environment?"

To the people who posted, the OP specifically asked for solutions that DON'T involve farming or buying them.

So the best advice that was given was buy them during the off season for 50k each. I stocked up 2,000 at 30-50k and have sold them all for between 150k and 600k, but I also used up quite a few getting the hat and jingle jet and snowflake emote for many characters.

The second best advice is the Winter Realm teams. You get the present badge, some merits, and some canes too. But that might feel like farming for you.

Other than that you really are looking at farming or paying. Rare salvage is going for 3-5 million right now, if you have a solid AE character you can make a lot more inf now than people were during an exploit since there's more demand and less competition. which might help you afford them, and you can do lots of different maps/stories rather than just farm one over and over.

If nothing else I'd love it if they used Croatoa since they already have snowy versions of the tileset used on some of the custom maps.

Well it's not just that it is easier, it is in many cases more effective because the recharge multiplies the full damage of an attack, while a damage bonus only multiplies the base damage. Meaning if I have an attack that deals 50 damage base and with slotting 100. doubling my recharge nets me 200 damage in the same time. Doubling my damage nets me 150.

And then there is the more subtle side in that high recharge is far more flexible than high damage. For instance, if you have an attack that deals 50 damage in 1 second, and I have an attack that deals 100 damage in 2 seconds (assuming activation time is the same and the limit is how fast the attacks recharge), in a team, most often, your attack is superior to mine defining "superior" as very often I'll still be waiting on recharge when you kill the enemy making my attack un-necessary. Also you have a chance to kill the enemy before their attack lands much more often than I will. Something that I feel a lot on my Broadsword and spines characters compared to katana and claws, for example. Making the high recharge far more valuable than the slow hitting high damage even when both do the exact same amount over a specific unit of time.

Though it does get complicated with the ability to have multiple attacks benefiting from the higher damage bonus cutting down the need to wait for recharge, etc. Which is where I lose track of it myself. But then they need more slots consumed to make them all viable attacks.

If I remember they have stated the thinking. Having capped both Def AND resistance was too powerful. So they implemented mechanics to make it easy to do one but not both.

Additionally it seems (as in I have never heard anyone say the dev's stated this outright) they chose defense over resistance because defense debuffs are "safer" than resistance debuffs. In giant groups, there is little difference, but if you imagine the circumstanse of three enemies vs 1 hero, and the enemies debuff the hero. in the case of a defense debuff, the attack rate vs the hero isn't particularly high, most enemies have clear pauses between attacks. Even if defense debuffed into the negatives damage will be faster than before the debuff, but it will be spread out over time based on the enemy attack rate. With a resistance debuff there is a chance for the hero to be one-shotted. This is an enormous difference in the feel of the encounter and I'm pretty sure the devs thought about the ramifications of all sides of def vs resistance when they chose to let us only have defence bonuses in any quantity. I for one am grateful for the direction they chose to go.

When you click boxes in any city zone randomly winter horde mobs appear to attack you if you are naughty. I forget if it is the box or defeating the mobs, but eventaully the lord of winter (Giant Monster) appears.

Defeating him spawns a giant box. You need two+ full teams or one really, really dangerous team for the next bit.

clicking the box takes you to a timed winter zone where you can fight a super winter lord. He is surrounded by light balls that have peacebringer-style blast attacks and more get summoned throughout the fight. Additionally three times (at 25%, 50% and 75% health) he summons a new Giant Monster (winter guardian) that phases him out until the new monster is defeated.

So it is a really cool drawn out battle. I particularly enjoy it.

I keep hoping that one of my characters will get hit by the burn self-damage bug, but it's never happened. I wanted to have a character that doesn't know how to use his powers properly. Also, it would let me use rise of the pheonix to reset my endurance. But alas, the game actually works. Much sadness.

Cool idea on the self destructing robot.

You never saw it before because it didn't exist until the i19 patch. So don't feel bad about missing it!

As recommended by everyone who has rune the numbers, mine uses fire ammo non-stop. It does make a VERY noticeable difference. None of the other ammos are worth it.

As far as single-target, I do dual shot-executioner's shot-dual-shot-bullet rain-repeat. I'll splash in some caltrops as needed. If haste is down I have to make do with a few fillers now and again. But it works fine. Vs bosses, I typically have to spam traps just to keep them from running away.

I STRONGLY recommend you put the Lockdown +2 mag hold into poison gas trap. It's spectacular.

Also, the Absolute Amazement proc is bugged and is not firing, so it is a wasted slot just now.
I'd swap boxing and maneuvers. If it is just a pre-req and not going to be used, put boxing off and give yourself a few more levels of maneuvers when you exemp down. Expecially now with so many other people taking leadership toggles due to i19 you are very likely to have a chance to stack with someone.

Always remember a good pun is it's own reword.

**runs and hides**

Fair enough. That's also why I included the mention of Oro and joining teams with friends where group AoE damage is often less important and controls more so. Good call to both who pointed out the level error I'd made.

Still my overall remains, the stun will do something even if it is only a little bit, the proc will do nothing.

This is 100% false if you ever decide to run Posi, Moonfire, citadel, Hess, manticore, synapse, sister psyche, twilight's son, Katie Hannon, lazarus, Tarikoss, silver mantis, renault, tesseract or Ice Mistral's task forces.

Also false if you exemplar for oro missions or to join friends. Such as doing the newer mid-level missions that got added with i19 or any others that get added in the future or going badge hunting etc.

When you exemplar not only do you lose some set bonuses, but the % bonus your enhancements provide are also reduced. While the set bonus for a purple set is immune to being shut off, the % bonus is not immune to reduction. This reduction kicks in BEFORE ED, so overslotting helps you maintain your damage, stun, hold, accuracy, etc at while at lower level.

It's not something to deliberately build for unless you exemp down very often. However given a choice between 100% useless and 85% useless, I'll take the 85%.

I find that waiting while using DOs and SOs is not very fun. Instead, I slot cheap disposable IO sets. Specifically, I hate it when I am using DOs or SOs and level up and suddenly all my accuracy or recharge is gone for the rest of the mission. As a result, last year I pretty much stopped using them, and I exclusively slot IOs starting at level 7. Past level 30 I'll slot an SO if it drops and I have a spot for it, because you level so much slower at that point. But in the low levels, I basically refuse to touch TOs, DOs or SOs anymore because of the expiring in mid-mission.

As was mentioned many off-type sets (stun, sleep, slow, hold) have pieces (Acc/End, Acc/Rech, Acc/end/Rech) that can be slotted into blasts and are extremely affordable. I know I pickup the recipes for around 5k each and often get the salvage for free while running missions, or just buy the one or two that is missing off the market. Slow sets also have one or two with a damage component that is very handy.

When I need damage getting ruin, salvo, farstrike etc. doubles and triples are cheap and a very effective way to make your leveling go smooth.

For your melee attacks, if you plan to run Kinetic combat, start out with smashing haymaker instead because it is very affordable and still gives a decent bit of defense, and then just swap out as you get the money.

I used to slot things with recovery bonuses (Paralytic in the holds, Razzle Dazzle from stun, etc) but now with inherent stamina I don't need that and can just use whatever is cheapest.

And, for those who "wait until they are 50" here is a quick cost comparison for you, compliments of Catwhoorg:
At level 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 buying a single ACC SO at each 5 level increment (so no 'greening up') = 266,112 inf
Crafting from memory including buying the salvage at a reasonably patient (ie overnight cost) is ~60,000 inf.

It is cheaper to never use SOs and only go with IOs if you're patient and are willing to craft yourself. But crafting takes less time than running to the store every 5 levels.