soft cap obsession

I only spend merits like this when I want a recipe at a specific level. A lot of times, the recipe isn't available for the level I want it, so no matter how much inf I have, I can't buy what doesn't exist.

Why would I want recipes at specific levels? Exemplaring purposes. The difference between enhancement value of a level 38 IO and a level 50 IO is often not even numerically noticeable thanks to ED. The difference in terms of of set bonuses means I can keep my Dark Armor tank softcapped to S/L/E/N all the way down to level 35.

I know people who do things like that because it's easy and/or quick. They know it's (terribly) inefficient, but they have enough resources that they don't care. It's the same kind of thing of walking up and bidding two times the highest of the last 5 history in the market - they know they could get it for less, but they want it right now damnit, and they really don't care what that costs them.

It is a pity though when people do this sort of thing because they just don't get it, as opposed to "getting it" but not caring.

It's these that kill me, cuz they are also the ones that are typically talking about not having the infl and other nice things because getting them through merits takes too long.

Then it comes down to a time vs cost comparison. I will happily wait a week (I dont think anything i've bid on has taken longer then that to buy as long as I've bid at a reasonable price) and have an extra 190mil, then have what I want now and have zero money to buy what else I need. I bought a full set of lvl 30 Obliteration recipes for maybe 50 mil total in maybe 3 days. I don't even Have PSW to slot them in yet (blaster is only lvl 30) and I already have the sets for it, but this is how typically bid/buy, I have what I need WAY before I can even slot it, so It's ready for me when I do get the power.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.

I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but in my experience, I've had bids sit for a month without ever filling. People weren't outbidding me either, the last sale on the item was over two months ago.

I'll spend my merits, thank you very much.

Nothing wrong with that. What I was trying to say regarding my timesink comment is that compared to what you have to go through in some other games to earn a particular piece of gear, we have it super easy.

Even having the option to roll on items and/or buy them at the market is a boon that we take for granted.

This is so very true. So very, very true. I still have nightmares about running Scholomance (in that poopy MMO that Mr. T, Mini Me, Ozzy and Shatner play) 157 times and NEVER getting the drop that I needed to complete a gear set... an item which was IMPOSSIBLE to buy at an auction house because once this gear item was picked this up, it was bound to that player and they could not sell it at auction!

What are you trying to buy? I'm seriously wondering what went months without selling.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.

I can't speak for anyone else, but when I look at the red markets, there are lots of things being bid on that there is 0 supply, or the price is way too out there with like 1 for sale and 300 bids.


LOTG 7.5
Some parts of the Gaussian set
Blessing of the Zephyr +KB protection
Numina +regen


I know that I spent a few weeks trying to obtain these via the market with no luck for my Stone/Fire Brute. I'm lucky, I run plenty of SF's, so was able to stockpile merits and get them at the Vendor or through random AE ticket rolls.

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

There are several items in the 30-40 range that won't sell for months. I've had to stop a toon at 35 and just roll AE tix in hopes of getting some of the pieces so i can actually IO a toon BEFORE 50. Just look for popular pieces and you'll see. In jan i was looking for something (can recall now) but the last sell was in Nov. to me, that's ridiculous to have an invention like IO's with no other way to get them than players trading or luck rolls.

And yet somehow, the devs think it would hurt redside to merge the markets....

This is one of the reasons I have softcapped SR toons blueside but not redside and am even willing to try to play a couple of shield toons blueside - because I do have reasonable chance of getting what I need to softcap them (or at least get within spitting distance) as well as IO them out with enough unique's to keep my end usage at a level I like (I can't stand stopping to rest for end). Redside I KNOW I will never be able to put the sets together, at least not at prices I am willing to spend, since I don't group/do SF's often enough to get a good supply of merits and the stuff I need (obliteration, Touch of Death, etc) are either too expensive or not available at anything but level 50.

The amusing thing is that while I actually have more cash on my redside toons I can do so much LESS with it. Combine that with the fact that my blueside toons can build up enough merits on story arcs to pick up an LoTG or a Miracle/Numina unique by the time that they are in their late 20's (and get a second one by the late 30's/early 40's) and I am surprised I still play anything redside (well, not really - I do ENJOY the story arcs redside, I just don't earn as much for them as I do for the more grindy, annoying blueside arcs).

While I logically know the dev's don't actualy hate redside I can see why it is easy to believe they do.

I know that Redside is a completely different market, I should have specified I was asking about blueside, i was thinking blueside since a tank was mentioned.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.

This.

Since +def is one of the few things worth pursuing, it's hardly surprising that's the one being pursued. Set out a bowl full of apples and bird droppings...don't be shocked when everyone takes the apples. I would love having other bonuses that are worthwhile. The soft-capped numbers would necessarily go down as people migrated to other bonuses they personally wanted more. Give us some oranges and less apples will be eaten.

There are quite a few folks spending a lot of influence, time, and making build sacrifices to get this defense. What happened to the idea that you should be rewarded for effort?

Same here. Iirc I have exactly two toons which are soft-capped...a SR Scrapper and a Inv Tanker. I'm not really willing to give up what some people give up to get the 45%.

I have an Ice blaster that achieves 100% damage mitigation very often. Slows (underrated!) and holds galore. Out of whack? I also have a AR/Devs Blaster that is very safe most of the time (especially with his EPP bubble of safety available when things go south).

My Fire/Fire Blaster is much more dangerous to play. I haven't done anything special with either of them bonus-wise...that's just the way they are designed. Balanced...no...but I don't want all my characters to be exactly alike.

Got a point there. Resistance based characters are more challenging. But again...maybe it's ok that every character isn't equally hard to play? I sign on and have a WIDE variety of choices available on my character screen. There are times when I want that "super" feeling with the SR Scrapper. I don't feel anything is broken. I realize when I sign on with a Blaster my risk vs reward is less in my favor than a Tanker or Scrapper...or Controller or Defender....but why not admit that is ok? Am I the only one that isn't in the same exact mood every day?

I play soft-capped Blasters all the time. How everyone doesn't know when to pop 4 purple inspirs when needed, I dunno. The option to combine inspirs meant my Blasters stopped dying as much. It's easy to do.

I would like the option to remain open if I ever do decide to go through the PITA to make a Blaster capped. (Unlikely...but maybe I'll be in that mood one of these days)

IOs being easy to obtain in COH =/= IOs not being a timesink.

I totally agree. its nice to have a obtainable goal a "finish line " thats not impossible to reach.

Tyrant managed to take out the Praetorian Hamidon single handedly. and Statesman survived a neuclear bomb strike. Saying that 45% defense is over powered is just silly...

Actually, that's exactly what it means since it's trivial to IO out a character. Effectively, you don't have to "sink" any time into it. Just play the game however you enjoy.

A timesink implies that you're doing something purely because the game forces you to, to get to the fun part. Not so with merits. Since both solo, group, and (the one) raid content offers merits as a reward, all you have to do is play your character and they'll be IOed out. You don't have to do anything that most characters wouldn't be doing anyway.

This is very different than most games where you need to farm a particular instance, sometimes for months, to get a particular item. In that case, while you might enjoy the instance, you're only running it for the gear. Here, since you can buy anything, and get merits from most content, there's no timesink element to IOs. Just play and you'll earn anything you want.

Except maybe PvP recipes, but that's not so much a timesink as a "save up 2 billion inf for the def IO recipe."

Incorrect. A timesink is something in a MMORPG that you invest time in. You do not have to invest a lot of time in it. Often a timesink can be an alternative that is not required in regular play.

I suppose there are many different ways to define "regular play". Merits alone are never enough to IO out a character however.

IOs keep me playing this game. They keep my time invested. Therefore they are a time sink. Without them I would no longer be playing. The rapid inflation of influence/infamy ensures that IOs maintain their position as COH's chief timesink.

Tanker and Brute. OOOOOH!

That definition is crafted purely to support your point.

While certainly not authoritative, the following are at least third party definitions of the term and support my view that IOs, as easy as they are to obtain do not qualify as timesinks:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...rm=Time%20sink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timesink

I really can't agree to your position at all here. IOs are a time sink. I feel that they are not as quick to obtain as you claim for the wide majority of players. Reasons for that vary. Not all players are power gamers or min/maxers. Not all players like to use the market. Not all players are good at the market or at min/maxing, even if they are willing to do it. Not all players earn many merits/day. For many, many players, high-performance IO builds are something they consider far away and out of reach.

This is distinct and separate from the reality of whether it's possible to obtain IOs for a character quickly. In particular, if a player has used one of several available methods to build a large bank of cash ahead of time, it can be effectively trivial to obtain IOs for a new character. However, that is not common.

I think it's fair to say that IO builds are becoming more common among characters, but they are still not common in the sense that the majority of characters do not seem to have them.

It also remains common for many players not to bother IOing characters until they are nearly level 50, and if those players do not have the cash or bid structure in place to equip those characters "on arrival", then they have to spend time at level 50 obtaining those IOs. That's a time sink.

I define time spent following any stick with a carrot at the end as a time sink. Epic time sinks can be bad. I disagree completely with the claim in the #2 definition of "Time Sink" that any time sink is bad. Leveling to the level cap in every MMORPG in existence is a time sink. That time sink is only bad when it is too large.

Your definition of "time sink" is time spent do a degree that the player considers it onerous. I think that's an overly narrow definition, and also a quite subjective one.