Heraclea

I assumed it was an AoE; it takes PBAoE sets. For ordinary tanker play, the difference is probably difficult to notice.

Also, I omitted one AoE in Electric - Lightning Clap, which seems to be similar to Hand Clap. Did not take that one either, but that's a third (or second) PBAoE in the power set.

Been through this before. Boughten: Commercially made; purchased, as opposed to homemade: "boughten bread."

I really don't care about purples. I have a couple characters with one or two purple set bonuses; none has any more than two of a set slotted. None are boughten; all are drops.

But mostly, what interests me and keeps me going is to experience new powersets and new combinations. Levelling up new characters and getting them the bonuses I think will benefit them most is what keeps me playing. And what concerns me about prices is not the price of purple sets, but the prices of a number of lesser sets - indeed most of them are lower level sets - that have the bonuses I particularly want.

I realize that I'll eventually be able to get them with merits if I run enough task forces. So that's what I do. They aren't available on the market for prices I will ever be able to afford. The characters I want to have them are also fed by my squishies, who in return get the dropped IOs my melees can't slot.

I have been buying more random rolls for recipes, especially on characters that don't get played a lot that have fewer than 100 merits on them. But if anything good comes out of a random roll, it sure ain't going to be sold on the market. The history of the market suggests that anything you sell there will have to be bought back for twice what you sold it for when you had it in your hand. Or more. So only the crappiest of random roll results get sold; the rest get held; somewhere down the line, some character may want that.

Holding inf seems to me to be a bad investment. I'd much rather have crafted IOs in the base. They're a hedge against inflation, which has abated only slightly in i16. Converting my roll results to inf in order to buy on the market is what makes no sense to me. I might not get it, naow or ever. I'll be stuck with inf, and that inf will be worth less tomorrow than it is now.

For the curious: Arkell v. Pressdram.

This is an easy way to get into difficulty. The worst that could happen is that someone who knows the language a bit better will find your machine translation awkward or ungrammatical, like that Latin is. I know what it's trying to say, but you really want the genitive case there. The English word order makes it sound more like it's ice made of a girl, rather than a girl of ice. Puella glaciei would be better.

You could wind up with unexpected double entendres or just look bad. I am especially suspicious of Japanese or pseudo-Japanese names. Remember the classic site making fun of Japanese people trying to write English, or using it for decoration? This works both ways.

I've never run into problems using historical, mythological, or literary names. Some of my more recent characters on Victory include:

William Shakespeare rad/arch def
Madame Nhu widow
Betsy Ross spines/wp scrapper
Spaghetti Monster warshade
Yansan electric/shield tanker
Ranavalona claws/wp brute

All of these names are based on mythological or historical figures, although one is from a slightly more recent mythology.

I can usually guesstimate this fairly easily. Most of my characters made in 2005 or later were picked up by my super group within a day or two of their creation. So their super group join date is their date of creation, or at best a day off.

When the game refused to allow me to promote one of my first-rank ninjas named Saddam to a second rank minion bearing the same name, because the name had been apparently banned in the interim, I ended up calling that character Saddam. with a period. This would appear to be enough to get around it.

Since Arthur is an ordinary name (for that matter, so is Saddam) and it's unlikely that a ninja, thug, mercenary, zombie, or robot can be made to look like the PBS character, you are doing no wrong by evading this.

This. All of the old line hero material needs a thorough revision. Contacts ought to live in the zones where the mobs they focus on are the visible problem, and ought to give missions in that zone. Being introduced to a new contact in a different zone is all anyone needs to do to induce someone to figure out how to get there.

If the missions involve Tsoos, Outcasts, or Vazhilok, those contacts and their missions belong in Steel Canyon; that's where they live. If it's Trolls, Clockwork, or the Lost, they ought to live in Skyway. This simple change would help the old content make a little more sense with minimal revisions to the underlying stories, which probably ought to be looked at as well.

Security Chiefs are Crey sleeper agents, and ought to be targetable enemies.

I do everything but PvP and marketeering (really, another form of PvP.) I will enter PvP zones from time to time, but mostly in search of Shivans and temps. Mostly I am an altaholic and a concept maker, which is a sort of roleplaying. I run AE, missions, and task forces.

Most people who are rich are really good at being born into the right family. If I don't get many purple drops, maybe my parents are to blame.

Two words: chain letter.

This much I will grant. My level 36 tanker rolled for i16 is currently sitting on 408 merits; was 458, but she's already spent 50 of them. I'll probably wait until she hits 50 before I actually buy anything with them, but I would like to slot some unobtainable or ridiculous sets like Kinetic Combat and Eradication.

Eradication is one of those sets that's not available at a reasonable price from the market, assuming it is available at all. If you slot it, you will be ordering it up with merits.

I've got my Shield/Electric to 35 now, and that tanker looks like it definitely has potential in this, and will have more once I get some of the attacks maxed for recharge.

People get purples the same way they are rich or poor in real life: it's all a matter of chance and random circumstance. The first purple drop I ever got was on a level 35 character's charity ITF. I have two characters with any purple bonuses, having two of the set slotted. All dropped. None were bought. Generally the purple set bonuses, while nice, aren't really what I prioritize any more.

The prices of purple recipes do not bother me very much. I am not looking for the bonuses they offer. What shocks and dismays me most about market prices involves a small handful of low level sets, most of which top out at 35. I do think that there ought to be a cap on the reward merit prices, and that no lowbie set like that ought to ever need more than 100 merits per piece. As to the market, fuhgeddaboudit.

I'm not sure that a higher aggro cap would achieve anything other than to encourage sloppy play. Now, making Taunt hit ten targets rather than five might be worth doing, if only because it would largely erase the Willpower disadvantage.

The main things I would want for Tanker buffs to keep them competitive would be:

- An across the board revision upwards of tanker Resistance values, to keep the resistance based sets (Fire, Dark, Electric) competitive with Defense based sets (Ice, Shields) and mixed sets (Willpower, Invuln, Stone) in survivability. My experience is that defense and mixed tankers are quite survivable, while resistance based tanks can be painfully squishy at times. I haven't been in a hurry to roll an Electric Armor tanker because of this.

(On the other hand, while Resistance is not the best for the high level game, it does tend to exemp down far better than Defense. But that's less of an issue in i16)

- Endurance issues still need work, especially at lower levels. (You knew I was going to say that.) The change to Brawl is a positive move, and seems to have helped quite a bit, though.

- Tier 8/9s need work. I question the value of self-rez powers and have never taken one on any tanker. Reverse-suicide powers like Unstoppable are a larger problem; the crashes need to be less punishing.

I suspect that when the Prætorian paid expansion comes out, it will be adding at least one new class with access to defense primaries or secondaries. At this point we can only guess whether this is going to step on Tanker roles or not.

Random recipes are random. If you have specific needs or wants, odds are they aren't going to be there for you.

You might get something you can sell; but still, it's a sure bet that there's someone out there with more inf than you as well. Trying to get things from the market feeds a vicious circle.

Most of my tankers farm task forces. A few ITFs, Numinas, and others will put you at the 125 merit price of that proc fairly easily, and help get you to 37 as well. Most of my tankers end up getting one or more of those because that's how I want them to play.

And, being on task forces, you will be teamed, which also helps. Shield/stone is going to be rough going; stone is quite costly.