Neuronia

Yeah...I was lucky enough to get a set of the Targeted AoE set at level 50 for 150,000,000 total the other day (Javelin's Volley I think it's called).
If you're on a low-pop server, my advice would be to get some friends/sgmates, organize some kickball or somesuch and hope for the best.

Whereas before AFK farming would generate one to three per half hour, the new drop rate is...very very low.


Perfect_Pain is right again...if we could at least get cross-server Arena this would help things a ton.

AE lets you make your own missions and objectives and play them.
Try to travel around and do contact missions before getting involved with this; while AE has some nice content (the Dev's Choice arcs are neat), there's a lot of munchkin-ism going on there too.

You can get capes a few ways:

Your standard cape can be obtained by seeing the City Rep inside Atlas Park City Hall or Kalinda/Burke (your starting villain contact) at level 20 and doing some missions for them.

Other capes are available through the Vet Reward program (don't worry too much about this) or some of the add-on packs (Valkyrie cape from the Valk pack also gives you a mission transporter power, if I recall)

You'll want to go back to these contacts at level 30 to get your shiny Auras.

There really isn't that elaborate here. What you'll get are recipe drops with a list of salvage. The salvage also drops during play or you can hit the markets (Wentworth's or the Black Market) or use Architect Entertainment's Ticket system to obtain the salvage. (Note that you can sell your drops at the markets to make infamy/influence to get Single Origin at level 22+, these Single Origins are the baseline power level for characters. Heroside get them at specialized stores, villainside from Quartermasters).

There are lots of low-level Lost in south Kings Row.
You can get some in Skyway City, Faultline and probably other places.

I recommend you hit up badge-hunter.com and get the map overlay, it tells you the mob types in each city zone and their levels.

Welcome!

A hundred times this. While I'm more of a 'get up early/finish early' type of gal when it comes to work, I hated getting up early for classes. I managed to schedule most of my stuff to be late mornings or early afternoons with the occasional 7-10 p.m. class (no choice there sadly) to top it off.

The good profs are the profs that will listen to you, speak with you and be tough but fair. They know you have other classes and that you're young as well, so the work will be steady but not unbearable.

This. I managed 3 years of University + part-time weekend work + socializing and relaxing as well. Try to find people that share your interests. A lot of Unis here (I guess colleges in the States) have "Frosh Weeks" and "Frosh Guides" to help you with campus orientation.
You'll get friends soon enough. People will hang out and you'll like some of them or go meh.

You're not going to ace every class, heck you'll probably fail a few! But at some point you'll learn where you went wrong and grow from that point. Oh and...I don't know how your situation is, but if you can at all avoid student loans/bank loans for your schooling, that's the ideal scenario. I ended up with "only" 8,000 CDN in debt (paid the rest with work) and I consider myself lucky.

Yeah Castle doesn't hate us. He's just in the unenviable position of making changes that will make an aspect of the game palatable for more people while not cheezing off a bunch of malcontents and ne'er-do-wells that have grown use to the 'old way'.

Let's face it, the 'old way' was very much blistering speed, quick reactions and absurdly overpowered builds. We still have the overpowered builds, but now they don't need Sonics for buffs, Emps for mez protection/+ToHit etc. Inventions have filled gaps and the global resists have stripped another layer of strategy as well.

The fact we had to gather in the Training Room for tournaments and tilts meant we worked at cross-purposes a lot of the time. Obviously the TR is meant for builds and testing first. We had to go there because server transfers didn't exist and it was the only level playing field. We all had our HOs/IOs/whatever there and practice/skill was the determining factor.

It did become clear, though, that advanced groups were just going to roll over new players (they still do by the way) but if they wanted PvP IOs and other rewards...they had to change stuff. Stripping away movement, buffer roles and a lot of the 'twitchy' nature of the combat may have been a large hammer to wield.

There are positives though. They include map selection, the PvP IOs, DR (yeah...it kinda stinks but things were silly before), caging suppression (still laugh at being Sonic Caged for 7-8 minutes, the good old days ), less unresisteds and so on. It's a balancing act I guess. They need to bear in mind vets, newbies, base raiders (if those come online at all)...some of the radial settings for Arena help. A global "I12" setting would be super awesome, or at least one that grants Mez Protection/No Resists.

Wow, this got /PsyPunk in a hurry lol.

Anyway, we have what we have and at least we can remove Travel Suppression and Heal Decay in the Arena.

Or send them cookies!

Seriously, they take people that are discrete and provide timely feedback and good bug-reporting. They also invite assorted others to add to the current mix. There are users that have proven reliable and indefatigable in testing and they are likely there right now, making things better for all of us.

There's the Hamidon raid instances, where you need around 30-50 people to defeat an entity that gives multi-function enhancements or Merits. There are various 'hard' TFs like Statesman, Lord Recluse and others at 45-50

Not really elitists, though of course some people like to one-up each other in PvP, builds, PvE, whatever. Usually pretty relaxed though.

Devs said subs were 'way up' and we usually average 120,000+ accounts. Servers like Freedom/Virtue/Infinity can have hundreds of people on at the same time.

Well, that's ultimately up to the end user. You can just level to 50 and call it a night. Or you can do various task forces, RIkti raids, Hami raids, trials, design new costumes, use the Invention System to improve your character, hunt giant monsters, PvP, role-play, join a supergroup or superteam (not the same: the former is a group of like-minded individuals while the latter is a powers-focused group of steamrollers) and so on.

On my 50s:

I run Imperious Task Force (4 missions against Romans, levels 35-50 access through Midnighter Club in Cap redside or Steel Canyon Uni blueside)
PvP (Yeah, it's changes but can still be enjoyable)
Explore - Heroside the gameworld is pretty large and there is much to see
IO out (finding the shinies to give your character more recovery, defense)
Play the Market (You can make influence/infamy by selling your drops at Wentworth's/Black Market locations)
New costumes (Up to four extra slots are available through gameplay missions or salvage)
Rikti Raids (In th War Zone, accessible through Cap au Diable, St. Martial, Grandville redside and Atlas Park, Founders' Falls and Peregrine Island blueside...take on huge amounts of aliens around their flying saucer. Do Levantera's arc first though!)
Create Epic Archetypes, which are a whole new game in and of themselves.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fasque If you could fight and I could flee Then Id get help and make it three Then youd complain bout wat I’d done And go and get your permadom Then I would jump and you would phase and you would jump and I would phase and I would jump and you would phase and you would jump and I would phase And devs would think they should fix that With loots and suits and big nerf bats But wat I did is wat you’d done And if I didn’t, youda won. So hold me scold me tell me lies Mes me rez me supersize But if I jump then I must wanna And if I got phase then Im gonna The devs can take my jump away Can take my speed, tp, and play But here I root and stand amazed That they don’t also take ur phase.

[/quote]

Issue 13: The Soup of Suppression.

Welcome to Fight Club.

Stand and Fight with Phase and Confuse.

or, if you want just one sentence:

Issue 13 The Soup of Suppression Welcome to Fight Club Stand and Fight with Phase and Confuse.

or, alternatively, just one word:

Issue13TheSoupofSuppressionWelcometoFightClubStand andFightwithPhaseandConfuse.

***

there ya go.[/quote]

This.

So sorry for your macaw Zubie.