The Grim Heaper

D

I could probably easily move into a higher bracket or two if I tried, but D easily affords pretty much anything I ever need slotting wise (save for those few pvp-ios in the billion+ range.)

oooh.... so that's what was wrong with my lore pet. it got knocked down once, and never got back up.

Mentlegen, if I may;

My alt account, which went Premium this month has SUCCESSFULLY transferred a character off of exalted. The only thing needing to be unlocked before transferring was a slot on the DESTINATION server (as in, you cannot transfer a character into a locked slot, and then create a character on the newly opened slot).

If what Roderick is saying is true of his experience, it is no longer the case. Celebration and rejoicing for all!

No, barring any special offers or adjustments that may occur in the future - Each reward token is $15. In-fact, by switching to a multi-month subscription, the cost is lowered (3 month subscription = ~$14 per month, for example), but the time frame remains the same, as you get the reward token once per month.

Purchasing a giant pile of points only gets you the tokens FASTER. Being tier 9, and sitting on 16800 points (assuming your "like 14 times" is accurate) will remove several limitations of being premium. However, there are still some things that are gated to VIP players only, like incarnate content.

I believe you can also get the badge from the single contaminated that spawns every-so-often in recluse's victory... the original middle finger to all the characters that went through the trial before badges were implemented.

If I can recommend one thing, it's to max out the ram, on my old system a few years ago, going from 2 gigs to 4 helped immensely. Granted a 32 bit operating system caps you at 3.5-ish gigs.

That system (ram aside) looks roughly equivalent to my secondary PC, with a slightly better Graphics card. I run my Alt account on it, and Ultra setting on anything but the minimum drags it to a halt (and even with minimum settings, it can get a bit choppy, that card might handle it a bit better)... Beyond the Ultra settings, typically I could keep the details sliders around the 100% mark, so long as max particle count is kept quite low.

Tricky decision - The "brain in a jar" says science to me, but the mechanical body screams tech... I think at this point it may depend on your powerset choices...
If you go with something like Psy, you could argue that the the scientific end of the body (brain in jar) gave you greater control over those powers (could also work for several other powersets, flames/cold/electric control stemming from the brain). If the powers originate from the brain-jar, I'd lean Science
But if the powers come from the mechanical body, (Claws, or other weapon sets... Shield defense, traps, devices... electricity...) I'd lean Tech.

If you still haven't yet decided on the ultimately arbitrary decision, a couple other ways to help reach a conclusion on which origin to pick;

Enhancements:
How do you improve upon your existing powers? It may be that science experiment (likely gone wrong) that gave you the ability to shoot fire from your hands, but without magic enchantments to increase it's power, be available sooner, reduce it's stamina cost, etc - it's not much more than a neat parlor trick. (Or perhaps the magic is the only thing keeping what science gave you from backfiring and consuming you).

• MAGIC
  • Dual Origins tend to focus on objects; Natural uses magical artifacts (relics), while Mutant uses focusing devices (visors, gloves, helmets, etc.)
  • Single Origin calls upon magical beings such as Joule or Hermes to enhance your effectiveness
• MUTANT
  • DO; Magic focusing devices (visors, gloves, helmets, etc.), Science further alters your genetic structure to greater heights
  • SO; With secondary mutations (not the temp power), your existing mutations become even more powerful
• SCIENCE
  • DO; Mutant - you alter your genetic structure to better control your powers, Tech - You use a combination of science and technology to create inventions - better materials and delivery systems for your powers.
  • SO; Further scientific experimentation and exposures to chemicals and particles increase your effectiveness.
• TECH
  • DO; Science - You use a combination of science and technology to create inventions - better materials and delivery systems for your powers, Natural - your powers are enhanced by gadgets (Grenades and amplifiers of all kinds!)
  • SO; cybernetics and Nanobots
• NATURAL
  • DO; Naural - magical artifacts/relics, Tech - gadgets
  • SO; Techniques, often from martial arts or military training to help focus and improve your powers

These don't necessarily cover all possibilities, but it may give you an idea of what origins the game says certain things fall under. Your beam Rifle may be of Technological origin, but you may use magical runes to improve on it. In that case, either Tech or magic may fit.

Origin Powers:
Which is your character most likely to throw at an enemy when he starts out? A magical Charm (Magic), a vial of mutagen (Mutant), a taser dart (Tech), a throwing knife (natural), or a tranq dart (Science)?

Although since you're stuck between tech and science, this isn't helpful to your case - the veteran range temp can help me decide sometimes... Which is your character most likely to be proficient with? Nemesis Staff (Sci or Tech), the Black Wand (Magic, Mutant), or probably both (Natural, but you'll still have to pick one to get the damage bonus)?

Incarnate (* SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE YET TO DO THE INCARNATE INTRODUCTION ARC *):
What's that, incarnate abilities don't care what your origin is? Correct, but there's a bit of lore in mender Ramiel's arc that might just tip the balance on what you choose. After beating Trapdoor into submission, you get the artifact that is connected in some way to the Well of the Furies.
Presumably, without being able to locate and drink from the Well, this artifact holds the key to unlocking your potential as an incarnate. The form it takes as you hold it changes depending on your origin. For details, Paragon Wiki link - Click '[show]' on the 'Trapdoor dialogue' bar.

IO's give considerably more enhancement than SO's, even before taking set bonuses into consideration. It's important to remember that Inventions do not scale like Training/Dual/Single origins relative to your level, as the inventions increase in level, so does their bonus, rather than provide a static number that degrades as you level past it. At lvl 30 or 35, single aspect IOs start surpassing SO's in enhancement value.

At lvl 30 - the previously mentioned Thunderstrike set gives a total of 117.9% enhancement to damage before Enhancement Diversification. As well as 56.6 to Accuracy, Endurance, AND Recharge... A level 50 Thunderstrike set improves these numbers to 143.1% and 68.9%, resectively!

And if we ignore set bonuses altogether, if we cobble togeather 5 lvl 30 Acc/Dam IOs from different sets, we've already surpassed your current SO slotting with only 5 slots (assuming even level SO's - but with ED, it brings it all closer to the same value anyway, hovering around 95-100%), leaving you one free slot to use with ANYTHING else. If we use lvl 50 Acc/Dam IOs, we could achieve the same slotting with only 4 enhancements (A little trickier, as there are fewer Ranged Damage sets that go up to 50), leaving you room for 2 extra slots to reduce endurance, recharge, or enhance a secondary effect.

Another way to look at it is the totals...
3 damage and 3 accuracy SOs (even level) = 6x33.3% = +199.8% total enhancement value
lvl 30 Thunderstrike set = 3(enhancements)*3(aspects)*17.4% + 3*2*21.8% = 156.6% + 130.8% = 287.4% T.E.V
lvl 50 thunderstrike set = 3*3*21.2% + 3*2*26.5% = 190.8% + 159% = 349.8% T.E.V

Sure, on occasion if you are chasing certain set bonuses, you may have to concede that one or two aspects of your power may not be enhanced quite as much as you'd like (three accuracy SO's is overkill in the first place. you generally don't need more than one, and if anything is debuffing you to the point that a third becomes necessary, that's where you use insps instead.) but you can generally keep important values where you need them. For damage sets you'd have to TRY to not get a total of around +100% after ED, seriously, almost everything includes at least some damage.

The thing is - Longbow don't really do anything different. At all. The minions/Lts are pretty much Assault Rifle/devices blasters (Although the Nullifiers get those damn annoying sonic grenades that are more like a power from Trick Arrow). And the Wardens? they're just extrapolations Of existing archtypes/powersets made in the standard NPC fashion of the time.

Besides, we could use some Praetorian oriented EATs before another Hero one.

per the detailed info of the powers (assuming they are accurate);

+0.3% resistance per Health Percentage point below 60%. (all damage types except toxic/psy). And they do stack with each other... so with all 3 that's 0.9% per percentage point of health below 60.

So at 50% HP, you'd have up to 9% resistance.
40%hp = +18%res
20%hp = +36%res
1%hp = +53.1%res

That said, you probably don't want to stay at 1% health if you manage to hit it.

I often try to take graystar's posts with a grain of salt. I think I'm going to have to look up what a lethal dose is, 'cause this may require considerably more than one grain.

-IF- you've triggered MARTy, it shuts down all your rewards for a period of time - not just selectively awarding you "crap". Getting vendor-trash quality drops is just random being random. And even if they aren't the valuable/useful ones... 6 purples over two weeks. Cry me a river. Life is so unfair to you.