seebs

I'm not seeing a noticeable endurance cost from bubbles on SHOVER-01. He briefly dips to nearly 90% when bubbling three new bots, that's it.

I would have thought that "interrupted in combat" would weigh against Aid Other. I guess I shouldn't be getting hit too much, though.

Usually whatever I just started playing, but I gotta say, my bots/traps MM is really standing out as amazing fun.

And probably for set ones.

Should state what something modifies, rather than requiring us to right-click to "Get info".

Made it to 15, still loving it.

So far:

1: Web Grenade, Battle Drones
2: Caltrops
4: Triage Beacon
6: Equip Robot
8: Hover
10: Acid Mortar
12: Protector Bots
14: Maneuvers

Planned:
16: Force Field Generator
18: Tactics
20: Poison Trap
22: Repair
24: Fly
26: Assault Bot
28: Seeker Drones
30: Swift
32: Upgrade Robot
35: Trip Mine
38: Detonator

Things I want:
Health/Stamina (optional, maybe, and if I don't get them, I'll drop Swift -- not sure what else I'd get, maybe Assault?)

I'm not sure whether I need Stamina. Thus far I haven't used much blue in combat, because it's all robots anyway; spamming taser and web grenade, plus caltrops/etc., is simply not using much, but I think that changes once I have a couple of leadership toggles.

Group Fly has been recommended just because it makes it easier to keep together with bots while travelling.

Repair, I know some people compare it unfavorably to the Medicine pool power, but it's not interruptible, and I often have one bot badly injured while the others are fine. Sounds like it would help.

What's a good Patron pool for this? What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I'm starting to get into levels where it's worth slotting things.

What should I slot for in battle drones? What should I slot for in protector bots? I'm assuming that enhancing the bots as much as I can is a pretty good strategy.

Okay.

Can someone explain the whole "ranged minions in melee" thing? I've been told it's a bug, I've been told it's a feature, I don't get it. I can lock enemies down at close to my bots' maximum range, which would allow them to quietly snipe until whatever it is falls down. Obviously, this means they run forward and whack things. WHAT THE HELL GUYS! THAT IS A PRECISION-CRAFTED PULSE LASER! IF I WANTED YOU TO HIT THINGS, YOUR HAND WOULD BE A CRICKET BAT.

Thus far, especially because I don't have the rifle attacks, I barely use endurance at all. I may rethink, but acid mortar vs. basically anything, well, acid mortar wins. And I think I get a new bot at 12. Thus far, I'm doing okay with the taser and just using caltrops, web grenade, and so on -- I can do SOMETHING with nearly every available second, even if it's pretty marginal.

No vet attacks, but I can usually be doing SOMETHING. Sure, taser's sorta crap, but it's something, and it didn't cost me a pick.

Yeah, level 5 was horrible, level 6 is being really fun. I have had one of them die, but only once, and it was due to inattention.

I'm trying to figure out whether leadership is a good bet. On the up side, boosts for my little buddies. On the other hand, I get pretty weak leadership bonuses. Really not sure.

I'd be interested in seeing some effective builds. So far, I haven't taken either of the pulse rifle things, and while I assume they'd do more damage than my taser, I'm not sure they'd be enough better to justify missing out on one of the other powers.

I'm pretty fresh at this, currently level 5. I have battle drones (obviously), no rifle powers, and the first three traps powers. Triage beacon is better than I remembered it being -- it really does make some mobs winnable that weren't otherwise. But I'm finding life a little rough with a single fragile bot.

What should I be looking at, or doing differently? Should I just stick with it and start working on bot-boosting stuff, maybe picking up some leadership powers? (Maneuvers sounds tempting, just because I really need some defense, the bot and I are pretty fragile). Should I pick up one of those pulse rifle attacks now, even though it's not at all obvious that I'll still want it later?

Was down for a bit, came back, now seems to be down again... That said, I'd guess they have people in working on it, or it wouldn't have come back.

The recipe was, I think, "steadfast protection: -knockback" (level 30), and the recipe prices I saw at WW were pretty low. Anyway, we'll see whether the enhancement sells. I'm moving stuff to some alts so they'll be able to handle longer-term bids and sales so I don't run out of slots so fast.

Hmm. They do go with it, but I was actually hoping there was, say, a set for gloves that preserves the "bits and pieces of metal over bare skin" look. I suppose given jackets and shorts you could even make an actually non-horrific costume using a complete matching set. The Organic Armor face style goes really well with it, actually.

There's "tops with skin" and "bottoms with skin" named Metal for female toons, which are a little odd to imagine people wearing in public -- but that would be an awesome gloves or boots design. Is there one? I can never find costume pieces which match each other.

I have been looking at scrapper builds, and for thematic reasons, I'm quite tempted by Super Reflexes (and also some jumping stuff later).

But what's a good primary to go with SR? I expect to try to solo things a fair bit of the time, so some capability for soloing would be nice. (I know everyone says to use /regen for soloing, but thematically, SR is a really good fit.) I think I slightly prefer non-weapon sets, but it's negotiable; in particular, claws/sr seems plausible to me.

Tips? Hints? Builds I should be looking at? Spines looks problematic -- only the "metallic" spines set is at all compatible with the theme, and even that seems a bit like it wouldn't really fit super well.

I did a couple of 10-14 bronze rolls, got a couple of level 30 recipes, one of which looks marginally profitable to make (might sell for 3M), but one was a knockback protection that, crafted, looks to sell for more like 10 -- and I had the materials lying around. We'll see whether it actually sells.

If I make it past 10M once, it gets a lot easier, because I can start doing things like putting out lowish but not unreasonably low bids on mu vestments and the like, which in turn makes a lot of other stuff much more profitable. If I can get in the habit of having a few of those 2-3M valued rare salvage lying around, it'll get a lot easier to make money crafting.

Okay. I guess I misunderstood the recipe descriptions; I got the impression that the bronze rolls were pretty much all weak recipes. I'm 31 now, and I have a stack of tickets, although not a big one. Should I just start doing recipe rolls? If so, what level/type?

I disagree. If that's really what it's selling for, then it's worth that much.

Right now, whatever that thing is, it's worth that much money to some players, and there are enough such players that they can buy all of the things available at those prices. It'd be cheaper if there were more things, or less money. That's how economies work.

Caps don't actually do anything but create unavailability. If something is worth more than the market thinks it's worth, most of the time you can't get it. That's all; it doesn't suddenly become widely available for cheaper, it just stops being possible to get it at all except through luck or formalized rationing.

The more I look at this, the more I think the real issue isn't high-level alts, but understanding the system. I just started on the long path of replacing my Theft of Essence set with Touch of the Nictus. Got a couple of orange recipes. They all need rare salvage that cost 2M-4M or so at WW.

So I'm doing architect missions to get tickets so I can buy them outright, because that's straightforward and reliable at my level, and gives me XP towards making 32 so I can have fluffy. Sure, there may well be more efficient ways to get the salvage I want -- but 540 tickets takes a LOT less time to get than, say, 3M inf farmed by street sweeping. And it's pretty deterministic; I know about how much time I have to spend doing it to get the set bonus I'm aiming for.

Once I have fluffy, I anticipate that my life will get a lot easier in terms of farming speed, and I'll be able to do missions at higher difficulties, meaning More Loot.