perwira

Just to echo that I had the same experience with a bots MM several times.

In one case, I had all six bots with me, zoned to Ouro with them, dismissed them, zoned to Cap and had a generic unnamed assault bot follow me into Cap.

I hadn't tried the buffing trick, though, to see if that 'wakes them up'. I have been using /release_pets to clear and reset before summoning them again.

I'm one of those who prefer concentrating fire at a single target at a time, usually with an 'Attack my target' command. A mob of 8 half injured enemies are still going to return 8 enemies worth of fire, whereas a mob of 4 down and 4 up will only return half that fire. Mathematically, it is best to eliminate one than to injure another.

Of course, the downside to this is that I'm no longer in BG mode when giving an attack order. But as I play a bots/traps, it's usually the bots who will draw fire after their attack anyway, and I'm rarely shot at while I'm stealthed laying traps and giving the bots targeting orders.

As noted in some posts here, some bots/traps and other MM's prefer to taunt and use BG to protect the MM and keep the bots/henchmen out of the line of fire. Note, though, that while BG provides additional protection for the MM, the bots/henchmen will still take a fraction of the damage as well. I think it's a matter of style preference, as I often find myself outside BG range to stealth-lay traps in the midst of the enemy or up front of the bots, while I focus their fire to quickly take out one enemy at a time.

Agree. I started out with simple binds just to get them working and then explored the well-written articles on how to create binds overall and ideas on binds specifically for Kheldians (with some interesting Kheldian tactics!). For me, it's been a gradual process, particularly with my first Kheldian recently having reached 20th level with the new ability to transform into White Dwarf form. Papa's guide on tri-form peacebringers and the links he shared helped me a lot.

And it's not even clear from the OP whether the empath was even 15th level. Even assuming she was 14th or 15th level, Fortitude is obtainable only at 14th level and Clear Mind is often considered optional at the early levels where mezzing is rare. The OP also didn't make it clear whether the empath had chosen any of the power pools, such as leadership and/or fitness, or travel powers, such as flight or superspeed, which is also only available at 14th level and might be wisely chosen prior to Fortitude.

So, the OP doesn't provide enough information to make an accurate assessment - and it may well be that the only active things the empath could possibly do at her level were the actions stated, perhaps apart from a snap shot - which pretty much describes the content and tone of the OP.

As a logical solution, mathematics and science already adopt the use of exponential numbers. Somehow, though, I can't picture people using an exponential number system interface, particularly when one billion is still only 10 to the 9th power.

And who here hasn't done something like bid 22,222,230 on something that someone else was bidding 22,222,222 for? Although we might be dealing in the tens or hundreds of millions, every inf counts.

Actually, it's the same thing - just one market slot with a stack of 10 x 200m rather than a stack of 2 x 1b. The extra 8 recipe bids within a single stack & slot doesn't take up additional market slots.

But I agree it's not worth using up even a single market slot for holding inf if you're actively working all of the slots. I only have one toon with a net worth of (slightly) more than 2b, and the excess is stored as cheaply bought high-end, high-demand IO's (e.g., LotG +recharges, amongst others, some of which I'll use in a second build respec) in the base.

Wouldn't it be safer then to put up 10 bids of 200m each instead? In this way you could also sock away 200m at a time until the stack fills up at 2b.

Agreed, an account-wide bank would be convenient, but not necessary or even desirable. Given the already-existing methods of inf transfer, it wouldn't have much impact.

I also agree with your basic philosophy of each character earning (and testing) their own keep without gifts from your or others' characters or groups. Self-sustenance is fairly easy to accomplish.

Even so, group support (own or SG) can make things easier, particularly with the immediate availability of crafted enhancements (and inspirations, etc.) in base. It makes overall economic sense (not handing out inf to the game itself) and saves time for field crafters to craft more cheaply made items for the availability of associated/group characters.

An account-wide multi-character bank balance is not at all necessary, but it can (depending on how you want to use it) make things more convenient.

I have to confess that as a 'craft-flipper' dealing in the tens of millions, it makes very little difference whether I pay 1 inf or 10,000 inf for a piece of salvage to craft an item selling at 15m or 50m. Still, as a matter of habit, I'll bid a very low price like 101 (then 202, 303, 505, 1010...) to pick it up. I figure if someone's making an effort to sell cheap salvage on the market for me to use and create an item sought after by others, I'll give them more than a single inf for their efforts. Plus, I'm cycling through several characters' market positions and I don't want to wait all day for cheap salvage to fill so that I can put highly sought after items for sale. Call it positive reinforcement if you want.

Hah!

Trust me, it's certainly tangible. Indeed, there is a whole forum dedicated to this.

Why not? A lottery, by definition, is an inf sink.

(Hey, devs! Open up some one-armed bandits in the Golden Giza Casino!)

A Paragon state sponsored lottery? Interesting idea, as it will take more inf than it gives, while giving the lucky winner the opportunity of a character-time.

You're yet another player who prefers to look at dual and triple aspect IO's as early as possible. I'm in your camp.

What I'm gathering from this thread so far is whether you invest in DO's or SO's or IO's or IO sets/frankenslots depends a lot on how quickly you level. The more patient players tend to slot IO's/sets for their characters as early as possible while those who quickly rise to the 30's and above tend to be more expedient about it.

From a personal player viewpoint, with only 7 characters rolled over as many months, I like to play my characters more slowly and gradually bestow IO benefits upon them so I can enjoy playing them more at the lower, sometimes "more difficult" levels, both solo and in team.

At the same time, those characters rising very quickly between levels might be better off holding off on obtaining or completing their IO sets until they reach their pinnacle.

Just a thought.

Yup. While 300m would give a good jump start, with someone of Laev's (and others' here) skills, it'd save perhaps two, at most three weeks.

I've tapered off the frantic market play after getting two characters to near 2 billion blueside and two more near a billion redside with two months of twice-daily or thrice-daily marketeering. Now I know if there's something in particular a character really wants, even a dog-almighty purp set, it's within reach, both in play and in the market.

True this, especially so for the weekend cycle and special events like DXP. Then there are other considerations such as new issues affecting increased/decreased power set usage and the increased recipe drop rate since the drop rate bug got fixed.

Marketeering is kind of like surfing, riding with the wave, not too far ahead, not too far behind, making it almost as much an art form as an economics exercise.

Good point and this can happen easily. I recall reading someone's guide here that mentioned market correction (and potentially overcorrection). Here's a possible scenario that incorporates your notion about craft-flippers as well as the lag effect that you were mentioning:

Before:
IO recipe drop: 10/day
IO recipe available: 20
IO recipe price: 8m
IO crafting+salvage+fees cost: Approx. 2m
IO crafted item demand: 10/day (that is, it is in sufficient demand to meet or exceed the drop rate at a generally stable demand price, i.e., not junk)
IO crafted item available: 10
IO crafted item price: 15m (assume this is the stable demand price)

Suppose craft-flippers(s) see this 5m margin opportunity and will even do with as little as 1m, picking up the recipes and selling the crafted items. Let's start with craft-flippers doing 15 recipes or so until they approach the minimum total profit margin of 1m.

After (a few minutes later after crafting activity):
IO recipe available: 5
IO recipe price: 12m, rising as craft-flipper bids and other bids creep up to pick up recipe inventory, halting at 12m which gives the decided minimum margin of 1m at 15m sales price and 2m crafting/sales costs. Note now that remaining 5 recipes still for sale now have sell prices *above* 12m.
IO crafted item available: 25
IO crafted price: Minutes later, still 15m, but now with potential to fall due to temporary oversupply.

After (hours later), with 5 recipes bought on-demand (nao at a premium, without looking, for more than the craft-flippers did) and 5 new drops placed on the market (looking only at current recipe price going rates already >12m):
IO recipe available: 5
IO recipe price: Typically 15m, even up to 18m-20m if only 1 or 2 or 3 are available. Recall the remaining 5 recipes after the craft-flippers bought their take were already priced above 12m and probably closer to 15m or more. New items placed on the market tend to follow the new price trend.
IO crafted item available: 20, with 5 bought (the normal turnover rate) and no new crafted items made or put on the market since the initial craft-flipping activity
IO crafted price: Likely <15m, perhaps 14m or even 13m+. The early bird craft-flipper who got recipes at 8m or 9m and will likely quote a lower sales price such as 13m+ to capture the sale at an acceptable margin still with the hope of getting the previous going rate of 15m. The other 10 crafted IO's (likely priced at 14m-15m) are still waiting to sell.

There we have it. Recipes selling for more than 15m. Crafted items selling for less than 15m (and notably, still at a reasonable profit for the early-bird craft-flipper!).

What will eventually happen here is that craft-flippers (or straight recipe flippers) will exit the recipe market (or just leave their low bids sitting) while the over-priced market recipe inventory grows again and prices stabilize at the original lower price. Concurrently, as no new IO's are being crafted for the market, the market IO inventory will shrink with an increase in prices as the lowest priced IO's get sold off.

Agreed. It seems to occur when there is a rarity in recipes, but an ample supply of crafted IO's. The recipe price will rise while the crafted IO will fall. It makes you wonder, though, whether whoever is buying/selling either of these is checking both prices.

If you're in a niche long enough, you'll know what the generally stable going rate is for both the recipe and the crafted item and you can capitalize on this. Although I almost always buy the recipe, craft it and sell the IO, I picked up some crafted IO's that were going for well less normal rate and flipped them to sell a day or two later at a good margin, while just leaving low bids (unfilled for a day or a few days during this period) on the recipes. Although the rack turnover is lower this way, it's a lot safer and still quite profitable.

Totally agree with this observation.

(Edited to add: A simple case in point for one power, just at level 18.)
---
Character: Level 18 illusion controller
Power/attack: Spectral Wounds
Slots: 4, with Entropic Chaos Dam/End/Rech(21), Dam/Rech(21), Dam/End(21), Acc/Dam(20)
Bonuses: 63.1% damage (25.46 to 41.51), 16.0% accuracy (1.10x to 1.28x), 30.3% recharge (6.00 sec. to 4.61 sec.) and 30.3% endurance (6.86 usage to 5.27).
Total bonus percentages: 139.7% (Compare to four generic level 20 IO at 102.4%, or four not-yet-attainable +0 SO at 133.32%, or four +3 DO at a paltry 76.64%)
Additional set bonuses: Improves regeneration by 10%, increases maximum endurance by 2.25%. And one more (already crafted and next to be slotted!) for the full set of five will also improve the recharge time of all powers by 6.25%.

It's noticeable!

This true for generic IO's.

However, double and triple aspect IO's can give a lot greater total bonuses (and flexibility) than generics. Rather than slot an accuracy, damage, and endurance reduction, wondering if you open yet another slot for recharge, a set of three set IO's in three slots can provide for all four of these aspects, and often give a higher percentage bonus in some of these aspects than generics alone. A level 20 triple-aspect set IO gives a higher total percentage (38.4%) than even a +3 SO (38.33%) or level 35 generic IO (36.7%).

I tend to slot double and triple-aspect (and the rare quad aspect, if it makes sense) right from the start. In the right combination and/or through frankenslotting, slot-for-slot they're superior to DO's/SO's as well as generic IO's, and the effects are quite noticeable in actual play (hit more, damage more, fewer endurance problems, and attack chains are faster).

Mathematical is one thing, bored out of my skull is another.

Yeah, -1 for mopping the floor. +1 at least for a challenge.

Yup, same here, even when I wasn't lookin' for 'em.