Sardan

I know I'm about to sound like a pedantic jerk, but....

You've heard people say the contraction form of the words "would have," which is "would've". What you wrote, "would of" sounds like "would've" but makes no sense.

[/pedantic jerk mode]

Carry on.

They don't sell on the market because people are willing to pay more than 2 billion each for them. If you have that kind of dough, just post in the Market forum that you want to buy. You should be able to get what you want quickly.

I have a level 50 of both and did the whole "tons of purples for massive recharge" on my archer. It's very very effective but for me I almost always go back to my fire blaster. The fast-animating and flashy attacks are what do it for me. The long animation on attacks like Rain of Arrows is aggravating.

Speaking of fun, even though my AR blaster is definitely second tier compared to Fire and Archery, it's just so satisfying. I love the big gun and had a ball from 1 to 50, and it never bothered me for a moment that I wasn't maximum uber.

Yup. I like the way AR pairs up with Energy Melee. The attacks hit hard and Boost Range is fantastic.

Wow.

That does seem unnecessarily coy.

Ditto.

Both terrific ideas.

Incarnate boosts bypass (to varying degrees) ED but there has been no mention of bypassing AT caps, so I think it's safe to say they don't.

Yeah, although Ignite also got nerfed at the same time. I started my AR/Energy blaster right after that, and had a lot of fun. I'd have to agree with the previous replies that switching to a different secondary from /Devices is probably a good idea.

Don't even get me started on Cyan Tuesday or Mauve Thursday.

I've long thought that would be a good option.

Have you PM'd TonyV about that? Seems like a great time to let him know, since a new release of Mids is coming soon.

The key is that you have to adjust your timing. In the pre-IO days, when I leveled up and my SOs were all yellow, I bought a massive number of shiny +3 SOs. If you try that approach with crafted IOs you're likely to run into stiff "buy it nao" penalties.

If on the other hand you place low-ish bids (which requires an understanding of what a reasonable bid is without being unrealistically low) and are willing to wait 24 hours, you can get great deals. But that means looking forward and doing some planning, something that many (most?) casual players don't do.

This is such fantastic advice. I can't imagine spending massive inf on a build without vetting it in Mids first. I just can't keep track of all the combinations and permutations of set bonuses without it.

Gratz!

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.

Make sure to click on the Alpha Slot link in the article that Golden Girl linked to. And that's just the first slot. Other future slots are going to do different things. Once has already been announced that adds an AoE attack, for example. Because of the ability to change what's slotted on the fly without respec'ing, the Incarnate system is going to provide way more customization than an extra 10 levels ever could.

You're coming back at a good time!

Don't forget the Alpha slot. Unless you plan on exemping a lot, there's an easy source of extra recharge. Or end management. Or damage. Your choice. And some of it bypasses the ED limits.

I didn't quote your full post, as excellent as it was. What's sad is that I'm virtually certain that Blue_Centurion will not understand your advice at all. If he really slowed down and read your full post carefully, he's have a major epiphany. Instead he'll skim it and disregard it since "you don't get it". He really, truly believes he's building a super powerful build, not realizing how weak it is.

One thing that reveals his lack of understanding is that he keeps saying things like "Siphon Life is no Knockout Blow." He's thinks big numbers rule. That's why he wants to slot Siphon Life for maximum healing. He doesn't understand that if you machine-gun moderate numbers they can add up to more than a slower cycle of a big number.

I think our friend Eryq2 falls into this group. He drops into this forum once in a while to tweak our noses and gripe about the market but he's made it clear that he simply finds the market boring and would much rather spend his time fighting. I've never teamed with him but my impression is that he's done very well for himself this way.

Purples yes, incarnate stuff no.

EDIT: the price of purples is *extremely* high. I think what most people are doing is not buying purples directly. Instead they're getting pricey IO's like the Luck of the Gambler global recharge and selling a few of those to fund buying a purple.