Rodion

The heal doesn't fire very often and it doesn't heal for much. But if you slot all five pieces of the set you do get a 6.25% recharge bonus. That's the real reason for slotting that IO.

I should have received the 7 year vet badge in September. In October I sent a petition about that and my reward token not awarding at the right time. I received a response saying that the reward token would show up on the 28th (it did, approximately), and that they're "working on a resolution" for the vet badge problem.

Perhaps a better overall solution would be to implement a command called /mobstuck that runs the logic for /stuck on all mobs in the mission, regardless of whether they're selected. If the devs think it would be abused it could function only if there are fewer than 5 or so mobs remaining, or within some radius of the characters using it.

First I would like to know whether the logic behind the /stuck command would work if applied to a mob stuck in the wall.

If so, then it seems a similar command could be used on your currently selected target to nudge it free of a wall. Since that wouldn't give you any control over where the mob goes, there would be no need to limit its usage.

I'd rather see them fix the problem of mobs getting stuck in walls in the first place, though.

I went with Musculature on my DDD. The only time endurance is a problem is during protracted AV fights like the trials when I don't want to get in close enough to use Dark Consumption. But even during trials I find that two or three blues are usually enough to keep me in enough end to run my many toggles and attacks. That or I just meter my attacks to avoid my toggles going down (I've also got Maneuvers, Assault and Tactics).

I'm slotted for damage on my attacks rather than acc debuff, so I would be using less end per damage than you. Using Musculature it seems that you would experience a significant increase in damage output, which would result in you needing fewer attacks and less end to take down mobs.

In general I like knockback, but it should be used properly. In particular, using AoE KB as an opening move is frequently counterproductive if there are any melee characters, or blasters with AoE attacks, or defenders with AoE debuffs, and so on. It's very annoying when melee characters (most often a PB) start out by scattering every mob in the room to the four corners. Solo, that's probably a fine tactic. But you have to adjust your play to accommodate your team, especially if you want to maximize efficiency.

That said, KB is an absolute staple of the comics and action movie genres. Every superhero in the comics, no matter how super he is, gets knocked back. From Superman on down, whenever someone hits them hard or shoots them with a big gun, they all go flying. This adds a great deal of dynamism to the genre and to the game.

A game isn't the same as a comic book or movie to be sure. But knockback is here to stay. Everyone should learn to use it correctly, but everyone should also stop pitching hissy fits if there's a stray bit of knockback now and then.

The thing is, to level fast you need to defeat a lot of mobs quickly. That either requires you run on a team, or to run solo at higher difficulty (x4 or more) and use AoE attacks to defeat the maximum number of mobs in the shortest time.

Stalkers aren't particularly good at that, since most don't have many AoE attacks. You've only got one AoE attack, a melee cone, so your potential for leveling quickly on your own is minimal. Assassin's Strike often takes the place of an AoE attack in stalker primaries.

I'm running a Street Justice/Energy Aura stalker, currently at level 37. I'm going for soft-capped defense across the board (except psi), and at 37 far I've already got 40+% S/L/Energy defense. I can easily run Energy farms in AE at +0/x4, as well as tip and radio missions against Council, Freaks, etc.

SJ has one cone attack and one PBAoE. The XP/second is not as good as, say, a SS/Electric brute, but the character is already quite durable, and I don't even have Weave yet. The solo leveling speed is completely acceptable to me. One tip or radio mission solo usually gives 10-20% of a level at level 36.

I play the character like a scrapper that has a big alpha attack. Since I'm running at x4, assassin's strike is usable only at the beginning and the end of the fight (if a boss is still standing and has enough hit points to bother placating). If you try to use Assassin's Strike more than that you wind up wasting too much time for hide to come back and mobs to forget about you, or you get interrupted trying to use it.

Since you don't have much AoE potential, you might try running at higher level difficulty (+3/x1) for more XP/minute, but you'll need to fix the slotting on your character before doing that.

But your best bet is to get on a big team that knows what it's doing.

The problem is that the developers are beset by a myriad of conflicting requirements: players want to level quickly; players don't want to outlevel contacts; players want new content because the old stuff is boring; players want new zones and interesting locations; players want new and interesting mechanics; players want shorter trials and arcs; players want access to the old stuff.

Every time the developers add something new something old is displaced because you level past it too quickly. Keeping long-time subscribers happy is more important than making it easy for non-paying players to run through the old content.

The devs do have a solution that they've already used to bring to your attention missions that they feel are worthwhile. The Find Content button on the Contacts window will teleport you to the Hollows and Faultline at level 5 and 15 (I assume other contacts will show up at the appropriate level, but I haven't noticed them).

Arcs like those and Croatoa aren't in the "mainstream" of the old contacts, but the arcs are shorter, don't require you to waste as much time running all around the city, have better mechanics than the old stuff and are better written.

All of that just makes those missions more fun to do. Missions like Frostfire in the Hollows are still fun after 7 years, but many of the oldest arcs and task forces are way too long and way too repetitive.

The old arcs and trials consisted of up to a couple dozen missions that can take days to complete, while the new arcs are much more compact and streamlined, and can often be completed in an hour or less. Considering how fast characters level now, long arcs just don't make sense anymore.

So, rather than dump players into content that the devs know is outdated and, frankly, tedious, they choose to send players through arcs that are shorter and more fun.

What I'd rather see is the old arcs be revamped like the newer content, with each contact having only three to five missions that pack in all the interesting and useful information. The update of the Positron trial is a good case in point.

At that point the Find Content button can be used to direct players to those revamped contacts, which I assume will also mean that you can just walk up to those contacts and talk to them at the appropriate level and get the mission (the way you can with the Croatoa arcs).

For now you can always do those arcs in Ouroboros. I'd actually like to see the system changed so that you can walk up to any contact and do their missions, and if your level is too high, you'd get exemped down to the level of the mission once inside. That would also solve the problem of having missions from contacts that you've outleveled. Ouroboros would still be useful for the conceit of doing these missions repeatedly.