macskull

Didn't see this posted elsewhere, so I'll bring it up here...

The I18/GR patch notes were rather... sparse (as were the I17 notes, frankly) so it's no surprise some things just weren't discovered by the playerbase before launch. I just had a very interesting discovery when I logged on and found myself a member of eleven global channels. I know the limit was increased from 5 to 10 when I12 launched, but what didn't seem to make the I18 patch notes is that the limit has been increased from 10 to 15. Tested this just to make sure (kept adding channels past 10 until it wouldn't let me add more) - however there's a really nasty catch. Opening the channel listing in your friends tab (i.e. same place your global and server friends list is) will cause the game to crash.

Of course, this begs the question of whether having more than 10 globals is supported and the crash is just a bug, or whether having more than 10 was unintended and the crash is a side effect. I'm figuring it's the former, myself, since there's a cap of 15 rather than none or some other arbitrary number. Anyone else see this?

Newegg still has a range of AGP cards (28 total currently). Depends what model computer you have as to whether a replacement card would use AGP (the older slot) or PCI Express. Also depends what model as to what integrated graphics you're running - you won't be able to do much with the ultra mode settings while running integrated graphics, but you should be able to play the game on low-ish settings with a playable framerate.

Mako's first arc is quite simple as well, though if you plan on actually completing all the arcs to unlock the RSF Mako's final arc is notorious for being a pain.

Guess it depends on what you commonly fight. For most well-built characters, or characters with tend to team with Rads/Colds/Therms/TAs/any debuff set really, you don't necessarily need the extra tohit provided by Tactics and you can simply pop a yellow if you do. Assault's a nice power which only needs the default slot. On the other hand, if you routinely solo high-level characters you might want the extra tohit Tactics provides. I'd say if you PvE Assault will generally be the better choice, while Tactics is the superior choice for PvP.

How soon is soon?

Yes.

LotG is its own set bonus so you can stack it with other 7.5% rech bonuses.

Docam is the Illusive Man? I always knew there was something screwy about Martin Sheen...

My three Staminaless characters are looking forward to this the most - for them this change is like getting a Numina and Miracle unique for free on top of what they're already got, and that's before slotting (I'd probably only use the default slots for those characters since they're already fairly self-sufficient). Then I also get Swift, Hurdle, and Health for free...

Only thing I'm not looking forward to is completely rebuilding 50+ characters. Been tooling around with adding Fitness as inherent in Mids but no real luck so far.

It's because defense sets are largely balanced around an even-con minion's 50% base hit chance. Obviously accuracy slotting and tohit buffs increase that number, for other players, but it's much more difficult to make defense sets work when players have a base 75% chance to hit than they do 50% (as an example, an SR Scrapper with 45% defense would go from being hit 5% of the time to 35% of the time, and that's before any slotting or buffs are applied to the attacker).

Defense sets are king in PvE because most NPCs lack tohit buffs, and accuracy buffs (such as +acc from being a higher rank or level) don't hurt defense nearly as much as tohit buffs/defense debuffs do. The AI in this game is incredibly dumb, and the NPCs are easy to manipulate to your advantage. Players generally aren't, and most PvP builds are designed to hit all their targets all the time. Elusivity and DR mean the difference isn't as cut-and-dried as it was pre-I13, but defense sets are still at a disadvantage simply because they rely on luck and there's no way to control the types of buffs your attacker has.

That already happens, unless the higher-level character specifically builds for the lower-level zone (and that's quite rare since I13).

1. The most cost-efficient way of using reward merits right now is to convert them to alignment merits (yes, there's another kind of currency now). 50 reward merits and 20 million inf will buy one one alignment merit, which can be used to buy 5 random recipes (basically, 100 reward merits' worth of stuff). There are other ways to spend the merits, of course, but for the time being this seems to be the most efficient.

2. You cannot email merits, though you can email the items you get with them.

Permadom is optional not required for the AT to perform, but a better question is why not build for permadom? You no longer get the damage bonus, but permadom means an end refill every 70-90 seconds, complete mez, kb, and repel protection, and extra mag and duration for all your mezzes.

Happy birthday!

Hm, I should list my respec recipes. I have no need for them and most of my characters have several vet respecs anyways (build is planned before the character is even created, and I take and slot powers so that I don't have to change anything between 1 and 50). My Staminaless Stalker is looking forward to getting an extra 35% (1-slotted with a generic level 50 endmod) recovery as well as free +jump from Hurdle, and my Staminaless Fire/Psi will have a place to put the +end proc (she's already doing fine between near-perma Drain Psyche and Domination recharges every 75 seconds, but in long drawn-out fights or when there aren't lots of mobs around the +end proc will be nice). I'm just slightly irritated that I'll have to respec 50+ characters around the change (especially for my Mind/Emp PvP build which only has Hurdle and nothing else from the Fitness pool).

Stamina: 2 Performance Shifters (including the +end proc) plus a generic level 50 endmod IO, or 3 Performance Shifters (including the +end proc). First slotting gives you a +speed bonus, and second slotting gives you +speed and +hp.

Foresight: 6 Red Fortunes. Build up that ranged defense.

Mind Link: 3 Membranes for maximum tohit, defense, and recharge. Expensive, yes, but probably worth it. Otherwise frankenslot three or four def/rech IOs from various sets.

It's a good thing that what you just said is nothing like what the topic of the thread is about.

In my case, I won't be slotting nor running the pool version of Maneuvers (too much end cost for not enough gain) and will instead be using it as a LotG mule, though I will be slotting the pool version of Tactics if I can manage to find the slots.