Willowpaw

Does Rise to the Challenge simply not work any more?

I am having a horrible time getting my Claws/WP Brute through Marshall Brass's second arc. Specifically, the second mission is proving nearly impossible to get through. My Brute is at level 19, and has been taken down by the Shivans in this mission way too many times. I have Rise to the Challenge turned on and slotted with an Endurance Reduction and 2 Heal IOs. However, these Shivans just tear into her as if they were +gazillion to her (I'm even running this mission at -1, and they still burn through her health as if she had no regen whatsoever.

What happened to Willpower? It used to be a fun powerset to play. I don't recall any of my other WP characters (WP/EM Tank, WP/SS Tank, and MA/WP Scrapper) ever having so much trouble when happily surrounded by a sea of foes. Now, it feels like I should not bother wasting the endurance and just keep RttC turned off, since it does not seem to be working any more.

For what it's worth, here is her build so far:

Claws:

Swipe - ACC/DMG(3)
Follow Up - ACC/DMG(3)/RCH(2)
Focus - ACC/DMG(2)

Willpower:

High Pain Tolerance - HEAL(2)
Mind over Body - Endurance Reduction/Resist Damage(2)
Fast Healing - HEAL
Indomitable Will - Endurance Reduction
Rise to the Challenge - Endurance Reduction/HEAL(2)

Pools:

Air Superiority - ACC/DMG
Fly - FLY(2)
Boxing - ACC/DMG

All enhancers are level 15 or 20 generic IOs.

If it looked like this...



then it was the vet reward Trench Coat (Upper Body -> Trench Coats)

If it looked like this...



Then what you saw was the high collar cape from the Magic Booster (found under Back Details)

My procedure has been a bit more refined lately. I used to hold off until 32 and then slot level 35 generics in everything until 37 (after which new powers and slots got 40s...until 42 and again at 47, when new powers and slots get 45s and 50s respectively.)

Now, my enhancement progression is like this:

Slot nothing until 7.

At 7, either slot a set of level 10 TOs (just as a visual reminder of what ultimately goes in those slots), or go ahead and slot level 10 IOs, if I am on a server where I have sufficiently wealthy alts to supply the young heroes and villains.

At 10, for my heroes, I slot whatever level 13 Yin Talismen that character can use, again, if I have an alt who can serve as the supplier. And those get upgraded at 14 and 18. I will also check the markets for low level SOs at this point.

At 12 (once again, if I have a wealthy alt or if the character has been on good terms with the RNG and is independently wealthy by now), I make up enough level 15 IOs to get the character through 16, and enough 20s for new slots and powers from 17 through 21. If I don't have a wealthy alt on the server (which is becoming less and less common), then I slot what I can get cheap, and fill in the blanks with DOs until I can get the IOs needed.

At 22, the character gets mostly shelved until I do a full blown frankensotted plan. Once I have the plan finalized, and have most of the enhancers needed, I do a respec for the new build. 10 level 15 IOs get saved (since more of my alts would most likely have more need of more 15s than 20s), and the new plan goes into effect.

At that point, everything is level 25 set and generic IOs (generics for powers that can't take sets.) Starting at 26 however, powers that will be taking more than one enhancer from a set will get those at -2 to the level at which I take the power. This is for exemping purposes with the new SSK/Exemplar system, what with exemping making available powers taken +5 to the level you are exemped.

Example: An AR/Whatever Blaster takes her Full Auto at 32. Exemping down to 27 would mean that Full Auto is available to her. However, if she had level 31 or higher sets slotted, those bonuses would no longer work, since they are more than 3 levels above the level she is exemped to (I think I got those figures correct. It's one of those things that can cause spontaneous cerebral detonation if I try to think about it too hard).

Anyway, the generics then remain at 25 until most likely 37, at which point they get replaced with 40s (really, the difference is significant between level 25 and level 40 IOs), and then if I have them available, 50s at 47. Typically, I will go ahead and burn a respec at 37 and 47 to recover some of the generics. I figure I got my plan the way I want it, so it is not like those respecs are being wasted. And those respecs also serve to get things placed in the "proper order", because I like having things "look nice and tidy" and well arranged on my enhancement screen.

A couple other items:

1: Set IOs that are singles (not part of sets, only being slotted for the aspects of the power they enhance) will be placed at the highest level the power can take them at the time I get the power (or at the time I manage to get the piece that goes in). This is because there is no set bonus to be concerned with when exemping.

2: If the piece I need is not available at the time I need it (and this is becoming more and more common lately), I will place a generic in that slot as a placeholder, or I will make a slight alteration to the plan and place a piece that would otherwise have gone into the power later.

The real big challenge is simply getting a Stealth IO. For the past week or so, there have not been any available on the markets either redside or blue, other than a couple level 50s (which are useless to anyone below level 47).

You are doing nothing wrong. You are merely at the fickle whim of the RNG.

I would however suggest cranking the difficulty level down to even con with no bosses. For a level 50, you don't really need to be fighting anything higher level, and doing them even ensures you will be fighting stuff that can drop purples.

I noticed that when I did a run with one of my 50s set at -1, level 49 enemies were dropping level 49 recipes instead of 50s. Was this a recent change? After all, I do recall before the new difficulty settings were implemented that enemies as low as 47 had a chance of dropping level 50 recipes.

You can only have one edition per account.

This means though, that you can have GvE, Mac Edition, and Collector's edition, which all come with a free month as well as assorted in game items. And these end up costing less than if you were to buy the item packs by themselves.

In fact, in some cases, the net cost is even a negative amount.

You should be able to do it by flashbacking Wincott's arc. I believe that one caps out at 10.

If you're a Kheld, you could probably get as low as 5. And if you want to get really ludicrous, run the Oroboros initiation, then when you get to the Outbreak mission, you can run around Paragon as a level 1.

It was fairly new to me. For the longest time, I did not know what a Rick Roll actually was until it was foisted on me. So I have some catching up to do.

This was the one that actually finally did it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KANI2dpXLw

I do hope the villain I saw quite some time ago called "Socrates Loses It" never gets genericed. That was one of the most amusing bios I had ever seen, something along the lines of Socrates gloating about how "they" failed with their poisoning of him etc etc etc. Wish I could recall more of the details, but it was pretty good.

You should have received an email concerning this. I haven't experienced it myself, but I think that they give instructions in the email on how to offer a rebuttal if you felt the genericing was inappropriate.

Just out of curiosity, what was the name?

Specifically speech bubbles from petsay commands (not from pet response, which does still have the bubbles).

At this point, Masterminds should probably start bugging this in game if that is what it takes to get something done about this issue.