Nightmarer

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Tbh I have always been a defender of DM/SR scrappers as best scrappers in game to the point I lvld 2 of them to 50 so I could play one on Union and one on Defiant when I played both servers... until my DM/DA hit the magic 41.

No scrapper is as fun as a DM/DA/DM scrapper, no Sir.-

Plus you don't have to worry much about your cossie

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Get back to your Claw/WP and speak not of this again until it's 50

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I'm sure Claws/Wp is fun and all that stuff mate but... DM/DA/DM is above all the funscrapper categories, way above.

Wait till we get a freespec and I get back my CoF that for some silly reason I still can't explain myself respecced out...

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In a way I do agree, but can something that is fun not also have a material gain too?

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Sure, but I don't see the point of playing a game for "material gain", which is only monopoly money, if it is not fun, and the amount of fun is not proportional to the level of material gain.

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To my way of thinking, the day the invention system went live, this became a "material" game. It's still possible to have fun obviously, otherwise we wouldn't be here but the material aspect of it can't be ignored.

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True, the Invention System for me is fun, probably if I could get any recipe I wished just by doing any TF, it wouldn't be so fun, but as it stands now (and seems to head for) the grind is a bit too much for my taste though, I can understand grind for games with high endgame content, but on a game based on finishing a char and roll another one, I think there should be means to fully set a char easier/shorter than either the merit system as it is going to be or even the random rewards as they're now.-

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STF grants 25 merits, if a selected HO (or at least a random one) costs 25 merits or less, I'll be the happiest person in game but, if now I need to do STF two or three times to get 1 random Synthetic HO, I will be sure that this new system sucks for me.

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HOs/SHOs are not available through the merit system.

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You sure? I mean, I hope they are still available as a regular reward on STF because if now they're only available though Hami Raids, let's hope our fellow players accross the Atlantic keep doing them weekly otherwise the prices will skyrocket for the few available.

Edit: now that I come to think about it, if the enhancement TF reward is still a reward option, maybe they could datamine how many people still choose a SO to remove them from the rewards option (I don't think anybody still chooses them unless by mistake clicking) or at least change them for a regular IO of the appropriate lvl

Tbh I have always been a defender of DM/SR scrappers as best scrappers in game to the point I lvld 2 of them to 50 so I could play one on Union and one on Defiant when I played both servers... until my DM/DA hit the magic 41.

No scrapper is as fun as a DM/DA/DM scrapper, no Sir.-

Plus you don't have to worry much about your cossie

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No need for that now mate, basically APP's/PPP's remain as they are and you will have another one added to choose from at lvl 44.

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Great!

(But what do APP and PPP stand for? I’m guessing they are the power groups, but the only good solution to those acronyms I can come up with are ‘Primary Pow Power’ and ‘Another Pow Power’? )

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Don't let Carni and Ravenswing fool you mate, Pow Powers FTW!!

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Could well be worth trying the modern ones (statesman, lady grey and imperious) - I think the standard improved heck of a lot.

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That's probably the best way to tackle it, these 3 TF's are great and what I really wanted on I13 was another TF on par with them, heck, I don't give a toss if from now on we only get 1 issue every 6 months or even longer if each issue delivered a TF the likes of Statesman (even better if cooperative).
Iirc, STF grants 25 merits, if a selected HO (or at least a random one) costs 25 merits or less, I'll be the happiest person in game but, if now I need to do STF two or three times to get 1 random Synthetic HO, I will be sure that this new system sucks for me.

However, I remember doing STF weekly for months with a regular team to the point we had to stop doing it for not getting bored of it, wouldn't like to get bored of what, in my opinion, are the best things to do in this game.-

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Personally, I don't understand why anyone would do something in the game for any reason other than for fun.

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In my case and when it comes to TF's, depends, some I do for fun, some others I do for accolades and some others because tehre's nothing more to do and when you see in Defiant Events someone arranging a TF I get in no matter what to remind myself there are more people in this game.
I don't have fun while doing Positron or Synapse, but Task Force Commander makes some of my chars more enjoyable.-

Plus the optionality of the recipes is not a valid reason for me, not needed for PvE, agreed, but they make my chars more complete to the point I want them to be, hence recipes and sets are needed for me.

If they are that optional and unneeded, remove them from game, if not removed, don't assume people don't want or to the extent of their character concepts don't need them since the very moment they are available.

Anyway, I am not against the merit system "per se" (tbh, I'm not at this stage even saying I'm against it at all) but I feel that the initial announcement from Positron and his initial intentions when he said (quite approximately) that the merit system should remove the need of farming lots of TF's to get a recipe is not what we're getting.-

Glad for the changes now, not that I was personally too fussed as they were intended to, but this is a much better approach, giving more options rather than impose changes is always good thing to do.

Probably, if they had offered another option at lvl 44 from the beginning we'd be complaining "oh you should have made this power available" while as it stands now, everyone is relieved and saying how great devs are... cunning indeed.

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I therefore read this thread and thought, oh, what have I missed. Maybe I should have paid attention to the thread about APPs and PPPs. So I went and read the start of that thread again, and got bored.

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No need for that now mate, basically APP's/PPP's remain as they are and you will have another one added to choose from at lvl 44.

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I would have assumed that if you complete a story arc as a team then everyone in the team would get a merit(s) in the same way that everyone in the team would get the badge for completing a certain mission.

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That would be truly awesome and would push casual teaming a lot imho but, although I don't have evidence of this not happening, can see it is difficult to implement, let's suppose a 10 mishes story arc, would everyone in team be rewarded merits per mish completion or at story arc's final mish? teams change a lot and getting reward if you are at last mish can be potentially abused.-.

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Well you can roll for a random TF recipe for 25 merits

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Yeah, I know that much


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...which is basically the same

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Erm, no?

After I13 you won't get recipes for running Katie or Hess once, you'll have to run at least 4 Katies for same chance you have now. If such short TF's deserved a rare recipe or not is another story, but nope, it's not the same.

I personally think running a Katie Hannon TF or a Hess does not deserve a, let's say LoTG 7.5% recharge, but with the quantity of useless recipes available in the pool, they certainly deserved a chance per run instead of same chance every 4 runs.


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And all TF's seem to give at least 25 merits

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Erm, no?


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meanwhile others give more so

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Yep, I also know that much since I posted the value table in another thread, still, not gonna farm Positron or Quarterfield, no matter how many credits they grant.

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you could get 2 the chance for 2 rubbish recipes :P Or you could save up and make sure you get a good one (Well, more than a good one, the exact one you want...if you want any...)

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Still not going to farm Posi or Quarterfield, and for the amount of credits needed for some recipes such as LoTG or Miracle, if you take into consideration the time you have to spend TFing (either through 3 x Quarterfield or 36 x Katie Hannon, considering 6 hours for each Quarterfield and 30 min for each Katie, around 18 hours TFing ) you have far more chances to get the desired recipe pkus a few other useful ones as the system stands now by investing that time doing random TF's and if you are THAT unlucky that you don't get anything decent after 18 hrs TFing, you surely will have generated enough inf to purchase the desired recipe anyway.

Changes always upset the apple cart (whatever that means ) off some people, I myself was (am) still hurt over the Claws buff at the price of Focus.

In the particular case of I13, if I were upset about anything, it would be the lack of changes for me personally, let's see:

-PvP changes: Whatever, I don't PvP tbh.-

-PPP changes: Seems they're pedalling back now but anyway, even if they didn't, in my particular case only 1 char was slightly affected, however I feel this movement could had been very good if handled under another approach.-

-New Powersets: Whatever, Empathy was never my cup of tea (deleted my fire/empath at lvl 36) so Pain Domination does not really affect me. Similar thing happens to Shields, we all know Shields were the most voted because accross the Atlantic everyone secretly dreamed of their Cap America version, but never liked the concept except for the comedy value of rolling maybe a Captain Afghanistan or a Captain Iraq, Captain Cuba or even a Captain Confederation.

-Day Jobs: Whatever, if they want to give me something for doing nothing, up to them, not going to reject a prefent free of charge even if lame.-

-New Story Arcs: Always good, a new and challenging TF would have been also very welcome.

-PvE powers tweak: Good, not that I felt the ones that interest me mostly (Dark Melee and Invuln) needed tweaking, but can't complain about the results tbh, could even try an Elec/Energy Brute or maybe DM/Energy.-

-Merit System: I don't like the looks of it, but yet to try it. Tbh what upsets me most of this system is the change from Posi's initial announce where it was supposed to be an option to existing rewards.
I like doing TF's and some of them are mandatory (*sigh, Positron) for accolade so I'll keep doing them anyway, before I had the chance of a good/useless recipe, now I get supermarket vouchers and I need to do quite a few TF's for same chance of same recipe or grind quite an awful lot of TF's for the desired recipe... I guess I can live with that since, as I said, I like TFing and I like some accolades. Another concern of mine is that it might affect PuG's, well, yet to see, can't see myself doing Dr. Quarterfield farms, at least until a bright minded genius finds out how to break it and do it in 90 minutes tops (anyone wants to bet that it will happen before a couple months?).

Anyway, as Dr. Mechano said, time will tell about these changes, for me the game remains pretty much the same before and after I13 and that would me my complain if I had to make one...

Well, that and Castle posting details and info about PPP changes only in US servers, reminded him of his "forgetfulness" on first one and even posted there a link to the EU thread discussing them since I am sure he's very interested in our opinion too, but he forgot to post here a second time (thanks Maelwys) and cba to remind him twice since I don't like him anyway. We try to convince ourselves that we are not second class users, but dammit, thay make it hard.-

Well, the merits out of a Story Arc might after all be inconsequential for some:

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All pricings as of October 31 P.M. Eastern, Enjoy!

Collected Data for Merit Structure:

Merits are a new reward system that replaces the Task Force menu that previously gave you a choice of Single Origin, Rare Recipe and sometimes Synthetic Hamidon Enhancement, Hydra Origin Enhancement or Crystal Titan Enhancement. Instead, a player will be awarded a number of Merits on completion of story arcs, Task Forces, Trials and other tasks such as Giant Monster defeats. These Merits will degrade if the same task is repeated over a short period. Generally, much longer tasks give a commensurate Merit reward.

Merits are not tradeable between players or saleable at Wentworth's, Black Market or Vendors.

Methodology for Merit Pricing:

Via Castle via Phil:

"We determined the number of merits earned per task by taking the average time to complete these tasks and then awarding 1 merit for every 5 minutes of time. This value is then further modified by a task modifier. We then multiply this number by 1.0 if the task has met datamining requirements for number of times run, if there isn't sufficient data then the number of merits is multiplied by a lesser value. Next the value gets a small merit bonus for every hundred minutes of the average time. This way longer tasks will give greater rewards. Then some tasks received an artificial modifier to make sure they gave the rewards we wanted. In most cases this is an upward bump of 1-7 merits. This artificial modifier allows us to take things into consideration like difficulty and other miscellaneous factors. In very few cases are there any tasks with artificially reduced merit rewards.

Next, the Merit Reward cost of items on the merit vendor are a bit more complex. The factors that go into determining the costs are: rarity, the drop table they originally came from, set bonuses, and then a few modifiers like perceived value and whether they are unique or not. You end up with some really powerful enhancements like Numina's Convalescence: +Regen/+Recovery as being very expensive as you would imagine because, it's high level, has good set bonuses, has a high perceived value, and drops from a Task Force reward table. This particular recipe goes for 250 merits. Another set I've seen mentioned a number of times is Crushing Impact. Some players wonder why its so cheap, only going for 50 merits each. The reason this set is so much cheaper is: it's an uncommon drop (not rare), has good (but not amazing set bonuses), and its perceived value varies. They can get up there in cost on the Auction Houses, but they're no Numina's.

The plan is to periodically datamine and adjust the merit rewards for each task as well, so some tasks that have a penalty on them simply because we don't have enough data on them, we'll remove that penalty. So, there you have it. I hope this helps you all understand this a bit."

Thanks to Bionic_Flea, Leandro, Gargoyle KDR, HelinCarnate, Lemur_Lad, Catwhoorg, Pengy, Big Mike, Ms Mesmer, Zloth, BurninUp, LuxumS, MrHunter, MagicFlyingHippy, Jaded Angel and more still for data gathering during Beta:

A group of Beta testers helped gather information on Merit rewards for the various Task Forces, Trials and arcs ingame for Merit awards. Here is an admittedly incomplete list.

That said, the Data:

Heroes: Task Forces
Positron: 55
Synapse: 45 (bug pre-17/10: only one team member got them)
Citadel: 30
Manticore: 25 (bug 30/10: only one member got them)
Numina: 27 (bug 20/10: only team leader got them)
Statesman: 30
Justin Augustine: 35
Faathim: 55 (bug 18/10: only team leader got them)
Ernesto Hess: 15
Katie Hannon: 7
Twilight Son: 4
Mender Lazarus: 6
Mender Silos: 7
Cavern of Trascendence: 6
Eden Trial: 2
Dr. Quaterfield: 90 (as per Back Alley Brawler)
3rd Respec Trial: 25 (assumed from patch notes; needs testing)

Heroes: Protector of Innocents (Level 1-15)
Flux the Outcast: 6 (Flux)
Julius the Kind Hearted Troll: 3 (Julius The Troll)
The Heart of the Hollows: 9 (Talshak the Mystic)
Officer Wincott vs. The Trolls: 2 (David Wincott)
The Clockwork Captive: 7 (Athena Currie)
Bonefire: 7 (Lorenzo DiCosta)
The Vahzilok Pollutant Plot: 7 (Jill Pastor)
Break up the Clockwork and Skulls: 1 (Maurice Feldon)
Rescue the Mystic from the Circle of Thorns: 1 (Dr. Trevor Seaborn)

Heroes: Guardian (Level 16-19)
Rumblings of the Past : 3 (Jim Tremblor)
I Lost my Daddy!: 3 (Penny Yin)
The Mind of a King: 5 (Colleen Saramago)
Tsoo Shenanigans: 5 (Kong Bao)
The Vahzilok Plague: 4 (Dr. Anne-Marie Engles)
Vahzilok Wasting Disease: 1 (Dr. Ann-Marie Engles)

Heroes: Keeper of Peace (Level 20-24)
A Faultline in the Sands of Time: 5 (Agent G)
The Buried Past: 2 (Doc Delilah)
Hear and Now: 5 (Long Jack)
Ring of Peebles: 9 (Stephanie Peebles)
The Wheel of Destruction: 4 (Andrea Mitchell)
Hand of Iron: 4 (Andrew Fiore)
The Sky Raider Secret: 5 (Barry Gosford)
The Tsoo Coup: 8 (Amanda Loomis)
Stop the Mystic Madmen: 2 (Andrea Mitchell)
Retrieve Stolen Weapons From the Freakshow: 1 (Andrew Fiore)

Heroes: Champion (Level 25-29)
Piercing the Veil: 8 (Gordon Bower)
War of the Fir Bolg: 5 (Skipper Le Grange)
Crown of Glory: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
Dirge of Chaos: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
The Magic Man: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
A Madman's Council: 4 (Lars Hansen)
Return to Vampyr Mountain: 4 (Tobias Hansen)
The Scroll of Tielekku: 7 (Miriam Bloechl)

Heroes: Defender of Truth (Level 30-34)
Crossing Over: 6 (Buck Salinger)
Hatred's Hungry Heart:4 (Kelly Nemmers)

Heroes: Vindicator (Level 35-39)
The Arrival of the Oranbegans: 3 (Cadao Kestrel)

Heroes: Justice Incarnate (Level 40-45)
The Praetorian War: 22 (Tina MacIntyre)
The Clockwork King's Psychic Signal: 0 (Tina MacIntyre)

Heroes: Hero of the City (Level 46-50)
Future Threat: 3 (Daedalus)
Stolen Power: 3 (Daedalus)
The Origin of Power: 2 (Percy Winkley)
Ouroboros Initiation: 2 (The Pilgrim)
Lost and Found: 3 (Montague Castanella)
Upon the Psychic Plane : 19 (Harvey Maylor)
To Save a Thousand Worlds: 16 (Unai Kemen)
A Hero's Hero: 19 (Maria Jenkins)

Villains: Strike Forces
Virgil Tarikoss: 10
Ice Mistral: 25
Silver Mantis: 35
Lord Recluse: 25
Mender Tesseract: 5
Mender Silos: 5
3rd Respec Trial: 15

Villains: Soldier (Level 1-15)
The Vahzilok Conference: 4 (Dmitri Krylov)
Spy Hunt: 5 (Dmitri Krylov)
Midas Touched: 3 (Dr. Shelly Percy)
Breaking Bows: 2 (Peter Themari)
Weird Science: 2 (Doctor Creed)
The Origins of Snakes: 2 (Matthew Burke)
The Hit List: 2 (The Radio)
Family War: 5 (Billie Heck)
The Book and the Burning: 3 (Mr. Bocor)

Villains: Insider (Level 20-24)
The Origin of Power: 2 (Ashley McKnight)

Villains: Undesirable (Level 25-29)
Aurora Fades: 1 (Darla Mavis)
Power Mine: 2 (Darla Mavis)
Midnight Draws Near: 5 (Darrin Wade)
Die by the Freak!: 3 (Doc Buzzsaw)
On the Trail of the Leviathan: 1 (Operative Kirkland)

Villains: Wiseguy (Level 30-34)
Brawling with the Big Boys: 2 (Crimson Revenant)
Offer Soul of Akarist: 1 (Archmage Tarixus)

Villains: Criminal (Level 35-39)
The Devil's Card Deck: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
The Unlucky Artifact: 1 (Hard Luck)

Villains: Captain (Level 40-45)
Selestar: 1 (Mage-Killer Zuhkara)

Villains: Made (Level 46-50)
Power from the Past: 3 (Sister Airlia)
Politics, Cimerora Style: 3 (Sister Airlia)
Alone in the Darque: 2 (Efficiency Expert Pither)
Video Killed the Radio: 1 (Television)
Von Grun's Redemption: 12 (Vernon Von Grun's)
If At First You Don't Succeed: 1 (Fortunata Hamilton)

Cooperative: Strask Forces
Imperious: 25
Lady Grey: 30

Cooperative: Hero of the City/Made (Level 46-50)
The Strange Case of Benjamin A. Decker: 2 (Levantera)
Welcome to the Vanguard: 3 (Levantera)
Dreams of Peace and Acts of War: 5 (Serpent Drummer)
The Red and the Black: 4 (Gaussian)
The Horror of War: 6 (Dark Watcher)

Merit Store prices:
As of Oct 31 2008

The stores are located at various busy spots in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Offhand, there are stores in Pocket D and near Wentworth’s/Black Market. They are denoted on your mini-map by a “$” similar to that for other stores.

Clicking on the contact will open a menu with a slider and several dropdown choices.

The slider indicates a level band from 1-50. Below that will be several categories, including Enhancements (Single Origin Enhancements, selling for 15 Merits and spanning levels 20-50), Recipe (IO Set, listed by category as in the market interface), or Reward Rolls.

Reward Rolls cover Inspirations, Invention Salvage, Task Force Random Recipe Rolls and Trial Random Recipe Rolls.

Inspiration rolls cost one Merit and grant you one Random Large Inspiration, assigned randomly. I got a Resurgence for my one Merit when I tested this.

Rare salvage costs 30 Merits at all level bands and is listed under several categories.

The categories and their contents follow.

Salvage

10-25 Rare Salvage: Alien Blood Sample, Enriched Plutonium, Source Code, Complex Chemical Formula, Plasma Capacitor, Heads up Display, Lament Box, Strand of Fate, Psionically Charged Brass, Page from the Malleus Mundi, Psionic Manifestation or Symbiotic Armor.

10-25 Tech Salvage: Alien Blood Sample, Enriched Plutonium, Source Code, Complex Chemical Formula, Plasma Capacitor or Heads up Display.

10-25 Arcane Salvage: Lament Box, Strand of Fate, Psionically Charged Brass, Page from the Malleus Mundi, Psionic Manifestation or Symbiotic Armor.

26-40 Rare Salvage: Miltary Cybernetic, Reactive Gas, Conspirational Evidence, Holographic Memory, Mutating Genome, Impervium, Deific Weapon, Empowered Sigil, Black Blood of the Earth, Enchanted Impervium, Mu Vestment or Soul Trapped Gem.

26-40 Tech Salvage: Miltary Cybernetic, Reactive Gas, Conspirational Evidence, Holographic Memory, Mutating Genome or Impervium.

26-40 Arcane Salvage: Deific Weapon, Empowered Sigil, Black Blood of the Earth, Enchanted Impervium, Mu Vestment or Soul Trapped Gem.

41-53 Rare Salvage: Photonic Weapon, Chronal Skip, Rikti Alloy, Positronic Matrix, Synthetic Intelligence Unit, Pangean Soil, Prophecy, Diamond, Magical Conspiracy, Essence of the Furies or Hamidon Goo.

41-53 Tech Salvage: Photonic Weapon, Chronal Skip, Rikti Alloy, Positronic Matrix or Synthetic Intelligence Unit.

41-53 Arcane Salvage: Pangean Soil, Prophecy, Diamond, Magical Conspiracy, Essence of the Furies or Hamidon Goo.

Recipes

You can select a Recipe of your choice at any level range from 25-50. At first glance, it seems uncommon sets such as Doctored Wounds, Harmonized Healing, Crushing Impact et al. cost 50 Merits per item, regardless of ‘category’ (IE a Doctored Wounds Heal or a Crushing Impact triple all cost the same 50).


Prices are the same on both sides of the game! A LOTG 7.5 is worth 200 Merits redside or blueside, same with salvage rolls and so on.

Standard Invention Enhancement Recipes (ie: Invention: Damage) cost 20 Merits regardless of level.

Random Task Force Rolls all cost 25 Merits and are listed from levels 10-14, 15-19, 20-24. 25-30, 30-34, 35-39. 40-45, 46-50 and .

Random Trial Rolls cost 35 Merits and are listed from 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-45 and 46-50.

Interestingly, Villains ALSO have the 30-34 band covered in rolls, potentially ending much wringing of hands as to that level band NOT being covered contentwise, but at least rewardwise!

Out of curiosity I used the level 10-14 band on my namesake and got an Eradication Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge.


Scattered Merit Prices:

Miracle: Healing/End: 50 Merits
Karma Knockback : 50 Merits
Crushing Impact (Any): 50 Merits
Steafast Res/Defense: 125 Merits
Force Feedback +Recharge: 125 Merits
Performance Shifter Proc: 125 Merits
Imp Skin Status Resist:125 Merits
Steadfast : Knockback : 125 Merits
Miracle: End/Recharge/Healing Recharge: 150 Merits
Trap of the Hunter Accuracy/End: 150 Merits
Achilles' Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff: 150 Merits
Decimation Proc: 150 Merits
Miracle: Healing or Healing/End/Recharge: 150 Merits
Regenerative Tissue: Regeneration: 200 Merits
LOTG 7.5: 200 Merits
Touch of Death Accuracy/Damage/End: 200 Merits
Devastation Proc: 220 Merits
Impervium Armor Psi Resist: 220 Merits
Blessing of the Zephyr Knockback (-4): 240 Merits
Miracle Unique: 240 Merits
Aegis Psi/Mez Resist: 240 Merits
Unbounded Leap Stealth: 240 Merits
Numina Unique:250 Merits
LOTG Triple: 250 Merits
Decimation Accurace/Damage/Recharge:250

Will these prices affect the market? They sure will! I know I’ll enjoy spending merits to get a multitude of Karma and Steadfast Knockback resists instead of shelling out coin for them.
Markets suffer shakeups from outside forces and now ours will as well.

If nothing else, this at least equalizes and ‘merges’ the markets at an ideas level. With the same items available from vendors at the same price on both sides, there is no need for any pricing disparities between both Markets.

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Source

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I hope that you can quit or else it could become some hideous marriage from hell from which there's no escape.
Even when you move out you pay them support for the rest of your life!

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As they say, love is grand... divorce is twenty grand though

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I kind of see your point, but maybe this way at least pug team leaders will consider doing some story arcs instead of radio/paper missions to 50.

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Oh no doubt about that, the big question is "whose arcs"?

As per Palladium's notes:

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The Merit Rewards System

A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Story Arcs, defeating Giant Monsters, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.

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Seems that there is no more choice for a random recipe upon TF completion, although I am not 100% sure on that so I asked Palladium for clarification, but as you can see, I have bolded "Story Arcs".

If we are getting merits for completing Story Arcs, I can see a repercussion on casual teaming, do you want to team with me to do MY Story Arc so I get merits? or unless we do YOUR Story Arc you will leave the tema because you are fed up of helping others to get their merits while you don't get yours

Dunno, without wanting to get into discussion of how populated the servers are or how difficult/easy is nowadays to find a non-farming team, how do you think you will handle this?

As far as I can see, this favours regular teams such as Superteams and SG teams with Synchronized Arcs while penalizes PuGs, at the end of the day, I don't doubt you are nice enough to sacrifice your won Arcs to do someone else's, but some people are not as nice as you guys.

It would be also nice to know if outlvld arcs will still grant merits since at least we have the option of autocomplete outlvld arcs if spent too much time PuGing doing other people's ones.-

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Imagine if someone changed Superman's Heat Vision to something else?

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That's where I think the devs fail to see the impact of changes, although I understand some sets need balancing, in this game is trickier because of the Super Hero lore.

I'm pretty sure Spiderman would be lame if instead of crawling walls he flew.-

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There are also conceptual reasons why some powers might be taken over others.

Consider Conserve Power. This power is so bland it could fit with pretty much any character, from Natural to Magic. Take Shooting a jet of fire from your finger tips. How many character concepts does that fit with? Far fewer, I'm sure.


IMO, this is badly implemented change, that will tick off an awful lot of people.

they should have either:

a) Only replaced a very small number of extremely unpopular powers

b) Gone to the little bit of extra effort and added a 5th power to each set.

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I agree with you that Conserve Power is conceptually harmless, still, as has been stated before, if a character at lvl 41 still NEEDS Conserve Power, there are high chances there's something very wrong in the build, the advantage is that it is a harmless pool opener that might have its occasional uses though.

Still, it puts me off my planned elec/nrg blaster, because I wantd to go elec mastery for EMP Pulse and now not I only don't have it, but I have 2 of same power options while lacking other things more useful imho.-

Edit: Also, has anyone checked changes in Pool Powers? the FA changes make me think that at least tactics has been tweaked. Wouldn't mind seeing Boxing/Kick/Jump Kick/Flurry/Group Teleport/Group Fly/Whirlwind replaced by useful stuff and some tweaks on Presence Pool tbh.-

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Unfortunately, the best option we had to improve the pools was to replace the less commonly used powers with powers that should be more useful to a wider range of characters. So, while some characters may have had to give up a power, we made every effort to make better powers available in the pools for each archetype.

...

So, for a few specifics about what was added to the sets. There were several popular utility powers that were added to many sets. These include:


* Focused Accuracy
* Conserve Power
* Hibernate
* Force of Nature
* Power Boost.

[/ QUOTE ]


There’s something I don’t get here, they have monitored the less used powers, fair enough, we knew we could be affected in either a good way for us or in a no good way but… I don’t get the criteria to put these other powers as popular (at least some of them), they might be popular on some AT's at certain levels or taken not because of the value of the power itself but as an unlocker to other powers.

Let’s take Conserve Power as an example, how is this popular? Lots of Energy Blasters might take it, because it is useful for them or because there are not much better options (specially after the ET/TF nerf), lots of scrappers/tankers might also have it… because they need it? Or maybe because they were aiming for Energy Torrent and didn’t need Focused Accuracy / couldn’t afford its end usage? Or maybe they didn’t have enough slots left for a workable FA and decided to use CP as the mandatory access with just base slot…

As I said before, I think it is good they reviewed the less used powers, I just don’t think they got the right criteria when substituting them. On same example as above, do now Energy Blasters have the option of 2 x Conserve Power if they go for Electricity Mastery? A bit lame methinks

Thanks Maelwys.

So far the loss of EMP Pulse on Blasters will modify the concept for my Ice/Elec/Elec Blaster who i was looking forward to take to lvl 47 to get EMP Pulse, although a godmode is not that bad.

Interesting changes on FA, will that mean Tactics has been tweaked too? Hope they reviewed the end usage or FA or I can't see many people getting it just for a 5% ToHit, although the most interesting feature of FA for me is the ToHit Debuff resistance, which might have been changed too or not.

For the rest, no idea I'm afraid, but I like the fact they haven't changed Dark Mastery for scrappers.-

Hehe, I doubt I have that many time left in this game to get enough inf for any of these last two builds tbh

Sorry for the threadomancy, but after recent discussions I was thinking about this review and there are a couple things that keep me uneasy:

First of all, I think it is good the devs take steps in this direction, I just hope they keep in mind some factors beside raw numbers, such as for example, Fighting Pool in which, people take Boxing / Kick not because they're any good (they're rubbish tbh) but as a toll to get to Tough / Weave so although they might show they're taken by many people, doesn't mean they're any goood.-

I was also hoping devs don't stop there and also do some review for powers that everyone takes, such as Stamina and Hasten and give suitable options to diversify builds.

[ QUOTE ]
Changes to Shields in latest patch:

Deflection: No change for all ATs

Battle Agility: No change for all ATs

Phalanx Fighting: Target cap now 3, now provides scale 0.3 defense(3% tanker, 2.25% scrapper/brute) still 8'

Active Defense: No change for all ATs

Against All Odds: No changes that I can see - it's still listing anambiguous 10% damage buff for tankers/brutes, 12.5% for scrappers,no indication if that's the first enemy or not, no indication of debuff.

Grant Cover: No changes for scrapper/brute, now provides scale 1.73defense (ranged buff def modifier - 11.25%) for tanks.

Shield Charge: Now does scale 3.4 + scale 1.4 ranged smashing damage(94.54+38.93 at level 50 for all ATs), now has an 80% chance forknockdown, effect area listing is now 'Location' instead of cone.

True Grit: No change for all ATs

One With The Shield: No change for all ATs

Credit to Muon_Neutrino

[/ QUOTE ]

I take no further tweaks done to Shields after the ones mentioned in this post?

Haven't found anything in US forums, but my search-fu is from quite poor to awful

[ QUOTE ]
Any one care to explain me what's the point of Dark Astoria? Apart from it creeping me out? I think that should be the next zone to be revamped imho!
The new zombie Co-Op zone!

[/ QUOTE ]

Used to be farming zone when Magic Salvage was worth anything, so far it's mainly for GM badge or mask hunting for badge if you don't have the Unai Kemen mish.-

Or this one as second choice:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1,4006
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Spines - Fire: Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Spines
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Darkness Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Lunge -- Hectmb-Dmg:50(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg:50(7), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), Hectmb-Dam%:50(13)
Level 1: Fire Shield -- TtmC'tng-EndRdx:50(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(3), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(3), HO:Ribo(7)
Level 2: Spine Burst -- Armgdn-Dmg:50(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg:50(9), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Armgdn-Dam%:50(15), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg:50(37), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(37)
Level 4: Healing Flames -- Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg:50(13), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg:40(43), Numna-Heal:50(50)
Level 6: Build Up -- AdjTgt-Rchg:50(A), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg:50(11), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg:50(15), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg:50(50)
Level 8: Swift -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB:30(A)
Level 12: Impale -- Apoc-Dmg:50(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Apoc-Acc/Rchg:50(45), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(46), Apoc-Dam%:50(46)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 16: Plasma Shield -- TtmC'tng-EndRdx:50(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(17), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(17), HO:Ribo(19)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Numna-Heal:50(19), Numna-Heal/Rchg:50(42)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:50(A), EndMod-I:50(21), EndMod-I:50(21)
Level 22: Quills -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:50(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:50(23), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(23), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(25), Sciroc-Dam%:50(40)
Level 24: Boxing -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 26: Ripper -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:50(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg:50(34), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(36), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:50(37)
Level 28: Tough -- TtmC'tng-EndRdx:50(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(29), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(29), HO:Ribo(31), S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(36)
Level 30: Blazing Aura -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:50(31), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), Sciroc-Dam%:50(40), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(42)
Level 32: Throw Spines -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(33), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg:50(34), AirB'st-Acc/Dmg:50(34)
Level 35: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(36)
Level 38: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(39), RechRdx-I:50(39)
Level 41: Torrent -- KinCrsh-Acc/KB:50(A), KinCrsh-Rchg/KB:50(42), KinCrsh-Acc/Dmg/KB:50(43), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx:50(43), KinCrsh-Dmg/KB:50(46)
Level 44: Dark Blast -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 47: Tenebrous Tentacles -- GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg:50(48), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg:50(48), GravAnch-Immob:50(48), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx:50(50)
Level 49: Rise of the Phoenix -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]7% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]7% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]7% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]7% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]7% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]7% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]7% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]7% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]1,25% Defense(Energy)[*]5% Defense(Psionic)[*]3,13% Defense(AoE)[*]40% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]63% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]150,6 HP (11,2%) HitPoints[*]Knockback (Mag -11)[*]Knockup (Mag -11)[*]MezResist(Sleep) 8,25%[*]16,5% (0,28 End/sec) Recovery[*]76% (4,25 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]2,5% Resistance(Smashing)[*]9,14% Resistance(Fire)[*]9,14% Resistance(Cold)[*]1,26% Resistance(Energy)[*]7,51% Resistance(Negative)[*]10% Resistance(Toxic)[*]3% RunSpeed[/list]------------
[u]Set Bonuses:[u]
[u]Hecatomb[u]
(Lunge)<ul type="square">[*] 4% (0,07 End/sec) Recovery[*] 2,52% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 15% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 10% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*] 5% Resistance(Toxic)[/list][u]Titanium Coating[u]
(Fire Shield)<ul type="square">[*] MezResist(Sleep) 2,2%[*] 20,1 HP (1,5%) HitPoints[/list][u]Armageddon[u]
(Spine Burst)<ul type="square">[*] 4% (0,07 End/sec) Recovery[*] 2,52% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 15% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 10% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*] 5% Resistance(Toxic)[/list][u]Numina's Convalescence[u]
(Healing Flames)<ul type="square">[*] 12% (0,67 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 25,1 HP (1,87%) HitPoints[/list][u]Adjusted Targeting[u]
(Build Up)<ul type="square">[*] 2% DamageBuff(All)[*] 1,26% Resistance(Energy,Negative)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[/list][u]Karma[u]
(Combat Jumping)<ul type="square">[*] Knockback Protection (Mag -4)[/list][u]Apocalypse[u]
(Impale)<ul type="square">[*] 16% (0,89 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 40,2 HP (3%) HitPoints[*] 4% DamageBuff(All)[*] 10% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*] 5% Defense(Psionic)[/list][u]Titanium Coating[u]
(Plasma Shield)<ul type="square">[*] MezResist(Sleep) 2,2%[*] 20,1 HP (1,5%) HitPoints[/list][u]Numina's Convalescence[u]
(Health)<ul type="square">[*] 12% (0,67 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 25,1 HP (1,87%) HitPoints[/list][u]Cleaving Blow[u]
(Quills)<ul type="square">[*] 1% (0,02 End/sec) Recovery[/list][u]Scirocco's Dervish[u]
(Quills)<ul type="square">[*] 10% (0,56 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 3,13% Resistance(Negative)[/list][u]Cleaving Blow[u]
(Ripper)<ul type="square">[*] 1% (0,02 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1,25% Defense(Energy)[*] 1% DamageBuff(All)[/list][u]Scirocco's Dervish[u]
(Ripper)<ul type="square">[*] 10% (0,56 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list][u]Titanium Coating[u]
(Tough)<ul type="square">[*] MezResist(Sleep) 2,2%[*] 20,1 HP (1,5%) HitPoints[/list][u]Steadfast Protection[u]
(Tough)<ul type="square">[*] Knockback Protection (Mag -4)[/list][u]Scirocco's Dervish[u]
(Blazing Aura)<ul type="square">[*] 10% (0,56 HP/sec) Regeneration[*] 3,13% Resistance(Negative)[*] 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 3,13% Defense(AoE)[/list][u]Positron's Blast[u]
(Throw Spines)<ul type="square">[*] 2,5% (0,04 End/sec) Recovery[*] 1,58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[/list][u]Detonation[u]
(Throw Spines)<ul type="square">[*] MezResist(Sleep) 1,65%[/list][u]Kinetic Crash[u]
(Torrent)<ul type="square">[*] 3% RunSpeed[*] 2,5% Resistance(Smashing)[*] Knockback Protection (Mag -3)[*] 6% (0,34 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list][u]Gravitational Anchor[u]
(Tenebrous Tentacles)<ul type="square">[*] 4% (0,07 End/sec) Recovery[*] 2,52% Resistance(Fire,Cold)[*] 15% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*] 10% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[/list]


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