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It could be some new exploit that's been discovered |
Originally Posted by Aragain
I've been getting a wave of invites for AE teams when playing a couple of lowbie characters. Is there something new about AE that makes it attractive for low level characters, compared to arcs and radios? I remember people pretty much stopped using AE to level up when the changes to AE XP were made a couple issues back.
Thanks! |
EDIT: Accept the invites for research puposes, then report back here, and tell us what was going on in the missions
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I know I use AE at low level because tickets drop sooner/more than salvage and recipes. Plus, there are really fun missions.
I have heard that redside several people have created sewer-run equivalents, but have not tried them.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
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Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
I can see practical reasons for doing AE rather than radio/contact missions at low levels. First off even with the many temp powers available travel is still kinda slow at low levels and AE eliminates that. Secondly there are several NPC groups that are extremely annoying at low levels (Circle of Thorns is the primary offender and Vahzilok probably come in second) so setting missions against the less annoying types makes sense. Finally for those who don't use the market low level characters don't have a lot of cash, running some AE missions and using the tickets for rare salvage can help a lot with enhancements.
That being said I tend to prefer doing a sewer team to 8 or 9 then radios until 20. It's pretty quick and you get some useful temp powers to help out with leveling.
There are new level-up missions but I'm not sure if they are exploits or not. Most of them I've been shown by well-meaning friends were no better or worse than finding a good farming mission in the regular content.
However, a friend of mine somehow managed to solo a blaster from about 25 to 50 in around a week (playing a few hours at a time) using some AE mission he'd found. He said it felt like cheating but he really wanted to get to 50. I have no idea why he thought it was cheating or what type of mission it was.
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Going solo 25 to 50 in a week without playing 24 hours a day does sound like it's exploitative to me but without knowing the arc being played or the exact time frame there's no way to say for certain.|
Originally Posted by Golden_Avariel
There are new level-up missions but I'm not sure if they are exploits or not. Most of them I've been shown by well-meaning friends were no better or worse than finding a good farming mission in the regular content.
However, a friend of mine somehow managed to solo a blaster from about 25 to 50 in around a week (playing a few hours at a time) using some AE mission he'd found. He said it felt like cheating but he really wanted to get to 50. I have no idea why he thought it was cheating or what type of mission it was. |
It's not impossible that there's a loophole in the XP rules the devs put in place. During the open beta I found one that worked best for lower level characters. I reported it at the time and I assume they fixed it but I'll admit I never checked in the released patch.
One of the key advantages for lowbies is zero travel time between missions.
Even doing newspaper missions in KR, there is normally a significant amount of transit time.
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Doing the same mission over and over for 25 levels should gave any sane person some kind of disturbed feeling. Whether it's cheating or not is another question. If he was running solo at +4/x1 or +3/x2, it's entirely possible that he could find some standard mobs and tactics that would give him lots of XP. Hover-blasting against Warriors, Freaks or some similar group might work.|
Originally Posted by Golden_Avariel
However, a friend of mine somehow managed to solo a blaster from about 25 to 50 in around a week (playing a few hours at a time) using some AE mission he'd found. He said it felt like cheating but he really wanted to get to 50. I have no idea why he thought it was cheating or what type of mission it was.
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When starting new characters on a new server I've often used the market to transfer inf by selling some trivial trainer for a million to one of my characters on another server. This is no longer necessary: just run a decent AE arc and you'll get a few hundred tickets, which you can use to buy rare salvage, which can easily be sold on the market for 1-2 million.
Yup, I understand the travel and ticket advantages but I did a quick look and it seemed it would take 2 or 3 times the amount of arresting in AE to gain the equivalent points outside of AE. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but the trade-off in playing time is not one I'd opt for.
I havent seen or heard of any exploits in AE and i farm it everyday. I took a toon to 50 in a week in it a month ago. Just farming hours a day. I run +2 or +3 x8 and use 3 accounts so it dont take long whether it's AE or PI. I know i PL alot of lowers so they can get a travel or stamina fast.
The only reason people ever started complaining about AE in the first place was because of the all boss or lt. farms were nerfed. Other than that, AE works just fine. Not to mention, its alot easier to get recipes that people want by doing rolls as opposed to paying outrageous prices in WW.
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The lack of xp you mention isn't right unless you were doing all boss or lt. mishes. All other xp is as normal as a mission. Not less by 2 or 3 times.
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Originally Posted by Aragain
Yup, I understand the travel and ticket advantages but I did a quick look and it seemed it would take 2 or 3 times the amount of arresting in AE to gain the equivalent points outside of AE. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but the trade-off in playing time is not one I'd opt for.
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I do AE at lower levels, on blueside, simply for the new content and tickets. Aside from the temp travel powers you get from the safeguards, there's nothing very appealing about lower level play on blueside, and the rewards at low levels normally aren't helpful. May as well get tickets, either to buy a needed salvage at higher level or to buy a salvage to sell on the market for a bucket of quick inf.
On redside, once I hit level 5 I start doing missions in PO with a goal of trying to get the badge / temp power from each of the main contacts: Heck, Vendetti, Bocor, and Radio. A few of my toons have managed to do Lunata as well before leveling out.
However, how many times can you bear running the same content on redside? Eventually you must turn to AE just for relief from the monotony.
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If he solo'd a blaster it was probably a demon farm with a bajillion Empath, and Kinetic hostage/allies. You get all the exp since they don't attack for damage and they take hits, buff your damage, and heal. I think a few are running the choking cloud aura too. I've seen a few squishies running that AE mission alot since anyone can farm it.|
Originally Posted by Golden_Avariel
There are new level-up missions but I'm not sure if they are exploits or not. Most of them I've been shown by well-meaning friends were no better or worse than finding a good farming mission in the regular content.
However, a friend of mine somehow managed to solo a blaster from about 25 to 50 in around a week (playing a few hours at a time) using some AE mission he'd found. He said it felt like cheating but he really wanted to get to 50. I have no idea why he thought it was cheating or what type of mission it was. |
the enemies are normal, so you get full exp rewards but it is almost impossible to lose once you have two or three hostages out.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Ok, here's why I am confused.
I just did a test to see about the XP. In Talos on the street, an even lvl Tsoo minion was worth 130 xp and an even lvl lt was worth 435. In two different AE Editor's Choice mishs an even lvl minion was worth 62 and an even lvl lt was worth 207 (5th column and arachnos).
Either I'm missing something or AE xp is half of normal.
Which editors choice missions? It's possible that they weren't updated to take into account the last set of AE nerfs. In particular custom enemies got a huge XP nerf if they weren't made insanely difficult.
One was Batteries Included. I'm pretty sure the other was Saul Rubenstien's Discount Task Force.
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I do believe that hits it on the head. I did notice he was running around with +4/x1 and I thought he'd forgotten to lower it after we did an old mission of his. He was also talking about how much he liked hover-blasting so I bet that's it. One of those where the mission is nothing but single warriors guarding a glowie or something.|
Originally Posted by Rodion
Doing the same mission over and over for 25 levels should gave any sane person some kind of disturbed feeling. Whether it's cheating or not is another question. If he was running solo at +4/x1 or +3/x2, it's entirely possible that he could find some standard mobs and tactics that would give him lots of XP. Hover-blasting against Warriors, Freaks or some similar group might work.
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Every time I do something really interesting in the game (like last night's Hami raid) I tell him all about it and his response is usually the same "That sounds great... as soon as I get this character to x I'll have to start exploring the content." Of course "x" kept going up until he hit 50 and now he's working on another character. This morning was "as soon as I get sis here to 30th I'll...."
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Two things:|
Originally Posted by Aragain
Ok, here's why I am confused.
I just did a test to see about the XP. In Talos on the street, an even lvl Tsoo minion was worth 130 xp and an even lvl lt was worth 435. In two different AE Editor's Choice mishs an even lvl minion was worth 62 and an even lvl lt was worth 207 (5th column and arachnos). Either I'm missing something or AE xp is half of normal. |
Did the AE missions have those groups in full groups? minions/lts/bosses (even if downgraded to lts)?
Also, don't 5th and Arachnos have bonus XP?
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I've noticed a lot of calls for "Samurai Farm" in Atlas Park, Freedom.
Not sure what it is exactly since I've never joined it.
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I believe the Samurai farm is more min/maxing AE than exploiting. The mobs intentionally use the lowest-damage powerset, and still give normal rewards. This is a far cry from the Meow or Bubble farm. It's about a 20% reduction in potential damage. (hmm, it really sounds bad when you put it like that)|
Originally Posted by milehigh77
I've noticed a lot of calls for "Samurai Farm" in Atlas Park, Freedom.
Not sure what it is exactly since I've never joined it. |
However, as I do not know if the devs would consider this an exploit, I will refrain from explaining how it works. Oh, and I don't run the samurai farm.
My position on AE is that the developers brought parity between AE and content. There are still some practical differences, which would be near impossible to equalize (travel time, ticket rolls), but overall, running AE is no longer clearly the ideal choice for quickly leveling and generating inf.
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I got invited to one of these a few weeks back.|
Originally Posted by milehigh77
I've noticed a lot of calls for "Samurai Farm" in Atlas Park, Freedom.
Not sure what it is exactly since I've never joined it. |
Essentially they're NPCs in Samurai armor that are running, I think, Regen/SS, or WP/Regen, so you get mainly S/L damage and they rez and give you the chance to attack them again, multiplying XP/inf earnings.
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Originally Posted by Tonality
I believe the Samurai farm is more min/maxing AE than exploiting. The mobs intentionally use the lowest-damage powerset, and still give normal rewards. This is a far cry from the Meow or Bubble farm. It's about a 20% reduction in potential damage. (hmm, it really sounds bad when you put it like that)
However, as I do not know if the devs would consider this an exploit, I will refrain from explaining how it works. Oh, and I don't run the samurai farm. My position on AE is that the developers brought parity between AE and content. There are still some practical differences, which would be near impossible to equalize (travel time, ticket rolls), but overall, running AE is no longer clearly the ideal choice for quickly leveling and generating inf. |
I'd like you to join me on a lower level and see if you still believe that last sentence. As far as XP, i can get you to stamina in less than an hour. As far as the inf, i've gotten several ToD pieces, a stamina proc, and more. That's easily 100 mil worth of inf in very limited time with ticket rolls.
On a side note, i took my 46-50 (on a seperate account) within a few runs of 53x8.
My stance is, it's very lucrative for inf and xp given the right situation. Yes, PI gives purples but that's a numbers game. You may run 10 runs and get none, where i can do 10 runs in AE and get 15,000 tickets and make just as much inf. But that's me.
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I haven't been able to play a lowbie in about 6 months without wanting to play my fifties. I do admit there's more parity at higher levels than lower levels. With intelligent rolling and knowing the market, I can generate about 200-400 mil a day. The wide range depends on my playtime. That's estimating 1500 tickets/10 minutes, giving around 100 mil/hour, or more if I'm lucky. But that has more to do with smart ticket rolls.|
Originally Posted by eryq2
I'd like you to join me on a lower level and see if you still believe that last sentence. As far as XP, i can get you to stamina in less than an hour. As far as the inf, i've gotten several ToD pieces, a stamina proc, and more. That's easily 100 mil worth of inf in very limited time with ticket rolls.
On a side note, i took my 46-50 (on a seperate account) within a few runs of 53x8. My stance is, it's very lucrative for inf and xp given the right situation. Yes, PI gives purples but that's a numbers game. You may run 10 runs and get none, where i can do 10 runs in AE and get 15,000 tickets and make just as much inf. But that's me. |
It is possible to get to stamina in under 30 minutes.
Possibly but i havent tried it. Maybe if i logged all 3 of my fire trollers and ran +4x8 i could get one to 20 in 30-40 minutes.
200-400 mil a day is pretty easy given the sell prices as of late.
There's a new techni-colored samurai farm out there. Consists of huge groups of samurai custom mobs, pretty much same layout as the hami/comm officer/maniac slammer maps, but no exploitable stuff going on. Standard AE xp, not all bosses, mins, lts, etc. Good for levelling as a lowbie tho if you're in the kind of SG/VG that farms xp and a 50 is calling out to the lowbies. I prefer it to the snakes and.............snakes.
*EDIT* there I go not reading the whole thread again....
I've been getting a wave of invites for AE teams when playing a couple of lowbie characters. Is there something new about AE that makes it attractive for low level characters, compared to arcs and radios? I remember people pretty much stopped using AE to level up when the changes to AE XP were made a couple issues back.
Thanks!