Rhysem

I'm not sure how you plan on putting enough money sinks in other than using this method. Also, inf, tickets, and merits are all just currency for time invested in the game. Why the devs focused on artificially differentiating them (and then un-doing those artificial barriers via things like hero merit conversions) I'm unclear on. What are you going to introduce everyone will buy in droves, other than IOs?

There's plenty of "rare" sets with trash for bonuses -- PBAoE sets are full of these. Except for Obliteration, which was a late addition and, oh yeah, also sells for buckets of money. Actually, Obliteration looks more like a purple set than anything else, with maximized damage and recharge, plus a 6th IO as a proc.

There's also plenty of rare sets where the actual IO values to acc/dam/end/rech (for example) are worse than common sets. Mako's w/5-slot compared to Crushing Impact w/5-slot as a prime example. Mako's overenhances damage at the cost of other stats. The set bonuses aren't as good either, IMO, unless you're 6-slotting for the defense. In which case you're slotting Mako's because CI doesn't offer any def.

Actually, pretty much all the costly sets are those that grant... +def. Rareness or level hardly factors into it. Its all about +def because the devs screwed up royally when they let anyone other than a def-based set get near the defense cap.

If any of the purple sets granted +def as a set bonus at twice-normal rates like the other purple set bonuses... that whole set would be selling just like the +3% def PvP IO is.

Well, PvP IOs are rare because PvP sucks in this game. In That Other Game Which Shall Remain Nameless, any sort of PvP based drops wouldn't cost much because there's rather a lot of PvP in a (in theory) PvE game. (see also: "PvP Welfare Epics")

The PvP IO set bonuses aren't actually that much better than most other sets except for the few uber uniques. In fact, the big mama there -- the +3% def unique -- exists in standard IOs as an only-uncommon, lowbie set. Calling it rare or blathering about the work to obtain it is ... well ... doesn't hold water to Steadfast Protection. Still expensive, because everyone wants it and it is low level and people can burn that part of the game down easy now, but still: not rare by any means.

Pretty much all they're going to put in game that'll get enough traction to dent the inf in game is going to be letting people purchase IOs (directly or via proxy merit buying) with inf. I'm not seeing it as a bad thing -- its just another currency, which is a measure of time invested. It used to be the only currency, and the game was fine when it could buy top-end enhancements (50 SOs) off vendors.

Or I suppose just doing a "currency reduction" across the board. But that'd be a rather unmitigated disaster if word got out as everyone tried to liquidate their cash into IOs except for the marketeers who might be trying to ride the wild spending wave it would generate and just hope for enough cash to see them through in the post-new-currency world.

Scrapperlock: the cure for what ails the OP!

I'm with Claws here though. Try a scrapper. I've got some support folks up into the high-30s range and I miss being able to do, you know, damage like I can on scrappers/brutes/tanks.

It is also well worth mentioning that some sets don't bloom until you IO them out. Don't take a SD scrapper without planning to IO it to really see some good performance. You can optionally team with buffers to get similar levels of performance, but you need expensive IOs to really become Mr. Awesome While Solo.

A brute with the same threat mods as the tank, better damage and their own ST punchvoke, and AAO/DN could easily pull aggro. Heck, my BS/SD scrapper with lesser threat mods and no DN is more than capable of pulling aggro off a tank who is taunting but may have it weakly slotted and/or isn't chain-taunting, so...

That's because AE farms are the new Winter Lords. Or double-XP weekends are the new Winter Lords.

Others have covered the granite/non-granite builds. I'd look at finding a different map to farm though. Something with a lot more smashing/lethal and a lot less fire damage. You'll have an easier time capping it. Also: your slotting of your ST attacks rather stinks and you'd be well served by doing better on them, because trying to use AoE to burn down bosses (and lts to a lesser degree) is vastly slower than getting a lock on them and using ST attacks while your AoEs are cycling. In particular, your first ST attack has a +20% incoming damage debuff it puts on the mob, so you want to be slotting and using that.

While we're on that, your reacharge slotting on your AoEs is weak. Frankenslot them or pick a different set to pick up some real +rech in addition to decent damage.

In other news: if you're farming for salvage, you're quite possibly better off doing more productive things with your time, like working on hero/villain merits, or learning to work the market for fun and profit.

Just sayin'!

This, dearie, is simply a matter of time.

Plenty of MMOs have come and not released formula. And plenty of MMOs have had their formulas, skill check difficulties, etc, deduced by players. allakazaham and wowhead are really all I need to say here.

Given enough data, any formula becomes shallow.

That isn't an upper limit to the market. That's the point the market dies.

I remember the pre-I5 barter-only HO trading days. If the market starts having what would traditionally be middle of the road stuff approaching the inf cap price, it is going to end up moving to barter only. Speeding this up will be the thieves who will appear, offering 4 bill for that PvP IO (to buy or sell) and then quitting before the transaction is fully done (buying -- they insist it and 4 billion trade first, then they don't pay the other 2 billion. selling -- they insist on 2 billion first and "then" the IO/last 2 billion which never happens.) to their great profit.

I'm.. pretty sure any of the various AT and powerset combos that solo AVs count as tankmages. I say this as a former Asheron's Call player, where the mages... were tankier than the melees with shields and out-damaged both them and the archers. Trust me, I know 'em when I see 'em, and I'm seeing 'em.