Interesting Stuff

A program and instructions to customize the log in screen:

Description, photo and comments - via GameAmp

City of Heroes Splasher v0.98

More time-wasting stuff!

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Comparing Mantlet and Flambeau Noir

Reference discussion below. Previously sent out via e-mail on 8/31.

OK,

While I had some nice fun last night, I had some observations I thought I'd share…

Firstly, playing Mantlet and then playing Flambeau Noir was an interesting comparison. In the future, Mantlet's gonna hang with Orleans and Cacaphony. Flam's just not a good fit. Granted there's no downside to being defeated now that none of our 50's are earning XP, but both Caca and Orleans were defeated wayyy more with Flam than with Mantlet. Eric and I chatted a bit about it before logging off last night, but there are a couple things that stick out in my mind…

1.) Mantlet is mostly single-target, Flam is mostly multi-target. That means Mantlet generally doesn't seek out big groups, which limits aggro and spill-over onto the rest of the team. Flam's main mode of attack is the opposite, looking for big spawns and jumping in. Which is great when they stay put, but Orleans and Cacaphony's attacks have a ton of knockback, which scatters the clump and results in aggro management problems due to the size of the spawn. Not good. Mantlet's slower approach at the OUTSIDE edge of the spawn allows for better control.

2.) Flam is acres tougher than Mantlet in a fight. He had a sea of purple beating on him in several of those missions and he didn't go down. That's a problem, because even with Mantlet's somewhat less tough demeanor, his situation is often mirrored by Caca and Orleans. He takes more damage, but he's got more HP to make up for it. That linear scaling means I have a better idea when we are getting in trouble. For me, that helps quite a bit.

3.) The most critical difference is that Flambeau has no soft control in any of his attacks. Mantlet has knockback/knockup galore in his attack chain. As such, when someone is at-risk I can bounce their opponents around like superballs and then slam them to the pavement with Footstomp. That control element makes Mantlet a far superior Alpha Tank for a small team. Flam can work wonders as a Beta Tank on a team, but he just cannot control the opponents with aggro control/knockback the way Mantlet can. That's probably the biggest contributor to the team defeats last night.

4.) Flambeau is most effective facing +3 or lower foes, as his high-damage attack chain and AoEs can drop them quickly. I was whiffing like hell with him last night against +5's, which is fracking scary considering his attacks have roughly a +46% accuracy bonus with an added +36% accuracy (global) bonus from the IO sets. Flam should have been smacking stuff left and right with those bonuses. Granted a lot of the Ritki were bubbled (damn Guardians) and those Drones are freaking impossible to hit anyway. Mantlet does best when facing +5's and purple foes. The to-hit bonus from Rage coupled with his L50 Accuracy IO's and enhanced by the to-hit bonus from Invincibility means he can lay the smack down on just about anything he fights… Reliably. Quite simply, Flam shines with large volumes of mid-range foes. Mantlet shines when fighting fewer, tougher opponents.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to either Task Force or Mothership Raids. I want to see us hand those damn Ritki their come-uppance… : ) Mantlet will be there for those. Flam's gonna go back in the stable for a while.
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Trying to make things easier

I'm working on a way to post links to the most recent comments at the top of the page so it's easier to see when there are new comments to read in posts that me be a ways down the page. It's difficult, especially for someone who has very little practical knowledge about the Intarweb. Any help would be appreciated.

Remember the link to consolidated link to the post-50 posts so you don't have to scroll all the way down to see it. I'm doing my best to keep this updated.
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New Melee Power sets in Issue 11

On the boards: 2 New powersets for Scrappers, Tankers, Brutes and Stalkers: Willpower and Dual Swords. Take a look below...

Castle expounds a bit.

Willpower has 'decent' resists against Smashing/Lethal/Toxic/Psi damage. It has 'poor' resists but 'decent' defense against Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative Energy.

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned Taunt Auras. Brutes, Scrappers and Tankers all have a 'Taunt Aura' power called "Rise to the Challenge" that works similarly to Invincibility, but increases Regeneration rate rather than Defense.

As for the Dual Blades discussion:
1) Primarily Lethal damage (and, yes, I am very aware of the arguments against that.)
2) The animations are pretty darn cool looking. BAB has outdone himself here, I think.
3) As Posi said, the set is FAST. Not quick 'claws' speed, but fast nonetheless. For Tankers and Brutes, I imagine that'll be a nice change!

Thanks to Blog of Heroes for the heads up.

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The Charged Crusader vs The Galvanic Guardian

UPDATED: Please take a look, I'm trying to narrow down character names/costumes for the proposed Electric/Electric Blaster.

The Charged Crusader


The Galvanic Guardian


Updated version of the Galvanic Guardian
:

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Orleans the villain?

Update 8-28-07:
It has been brought to my attention that the villain Orleans concept is "just a cheap rip-off of Grimwarden," whom you may remember from his (very) brief stint with the members of what is now Triplicate. I have removed the pictures until such time as I can show that claim to be blatantly false.
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Post 50 consolidated list

To keep everything easily accessible, I'm including the links to all the post 50 ideas here. This post will be available from the link on the side.

8-14 Idea for post 50 - Orleans

8-22 Bulding on post 50 ideas - Garthamatic

8-24 Yet more post 50 suggestions - Garthamatic

8-27 The Charged Crusader vs The Galvanic Guardian - Garthamatic

9-1 Scrapper Summaries for Rob - Garthamatic

9-05 More Silver Age... - Orleans

9-15 Mr. Eclipse Costumes - Orleans

9-19 Maybe we should hold off - Orleans

We can put all of our new comments in this thread. If you need an entire post to go over another idea, just put a link to it in this one.

I've also included the full text of the first three posts in the comments section. If this makes everything too big and unwieldy, let me know and we can take them out.

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Yet more post-50 suggestions...

First of all, congratulations to everyone for hitting Level 50 (finally). Only took us about 2 years… : )

See the full post below for the new ideas I'm floating out.
It's been a long, fun road and I had a great time. That's not to say that there isn't more to do, but now there's no pressure to level, etc. We can just indulge in whatever we desire with those characters.

Some ideas:

* All the Task Forces/Trials we missed (no XP = No impact for being defeated)
* Badge hunting in earnest (nice way to tour the zones)
* Pylon/Mothership raids in the RWZ
* Finish the mission arcs in the RWZ to see that end-game content
* Giant Monsters
* PvP zones
* Statesman's Task Force (really freaking hard from what I hear, AVs everywhere)

In other related information, I logged onto Triumph and started a couple Blasters (potential throw-aways) to try and get a feel for the AT. I discovered that going to a less populated server means that a whole bunch of Character names are available. More so than Freedom. One was a Fire/Energy Blaster named Incineratus (I think) and a Fire/Fire Blaster called Pyre8. He's the gem. A Tech origin robotic pirate scavenged from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney and given self-determination and fire powers by the mysterious Toy Man. Get it? Pyre-8? (I know, it's low even for me).

Anyway, sever appears less busy than Freedom, but not vacant. Should be fine for our needs.

So, new SG: Themes!

Some ideas:
* Gold/Silver age heroes. Tights, classic costume elements, themed names.
* Scottish themed. Kilts, rough-and ready costumes, beards, etc.
* Nordic themed, Norse mythology maybe. Ice powered characters, axes, broadswords, etc. Helmets with horns
* All-Monster SG. I saw one of these once on Freedom and it was a riot. Names like "Blue Monster", "Red Monster", "Yellow Monster", all monstrous costume elements with color combos echoing the name of the character
* An all-reformed villain SG. Some great costume options and RP elements here. Ex-Brute Tanks, Ex-Stalker Scrappers, etc.
* Sci-Fi themed SG: Robots, space costumes, etc. No magic origin characters.
* Clown SG: Crazy costumes, crazy hair, etc. Good RP elements here, but may wear thin over time.
* Alternate Universe Apotheosis: Alternate dimension versions of our existing heroes. Such as Cacaphony as a Scrapper, Mantlet as a Defender, etc. Have to work out some back-story for this one. Think the original Star Trek mirror universe episode.

Whatever is fine. My creative juices are pumping so I figured I'd send a note while they were fresh (I've been trapped with my laptop in an absurdly boring meeting).


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Level 50 Baby! WHOOOO!


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Building on the post-50 ideas...

Eric has some great ideas in his previous post on the topic. Kudos for the suggestions. I had a few other refinements/thoughts (see below)...

I was thinking about it, and I believe there is a possibility that we can choose a flexible option for the "new character/new supergroup" concept. If our characters stay on the Freedom server, we can create new characters, make a new supergroup and proceed as planned/suggested. BUT, we could also form a coalition with Apotheosis. That would allow us to have access to it as needed (and only if we choose to) but would still allow the challenge of building the new base from the ground up (so to speak). A coalition would also allow cross-SG chat between all characters. This might be an exciting option for Boots or Matt to get sucked back in.

If we wanted to pursue a different server, they are beginning Cross Server Transfers to spread out the population and allow people to play with their friends. That may be an option to keep an eye on, as if we ever have need to shunt characters back and forth, that would be the way to do it (potentially to keep little-used ALTs without deleting them, such as Villains). Since the Consignment Markets are all cross-server, there would be little impact that way and it would offer a method (if cleverly used) to transfer influence cross-server.

Picking a theme might be another option (Greek myth, sci-fi, pop culture, catholic school girls gone bad... well... maybe not that last one). We could name our characters and have costumes that echo the theme and carry it over into the super-group base, as well.

I'm on the fence about picking ATs. Since we are going to be playing together, they should complement each other (i.e. 3 Defenders might be bad). But with a Tank to hold aggo, almost any mix will work (or at least a Tank makes things easier). I'd like some suggestions from you two on this, as I'm really open to whatever makes you happy/interested. A fresh start should be fun for everyone.

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Flambeau Noir hits Level 47

As obnoxious as it may sound... Yup.

I logged Flambeau to surf around the Chantry a bit in the Shadow Shard. The herding to the aggro cap is great fun, especially when I pull the trigger on his AoE chain. Such pretty orange floating numbers. No spectacular drops though, a couple Red Fortune recipes and a Pangean Soil. Partway through I saw the big yellow LEVEL UP! flash on the screen. Now most things are conning white/blue to me. Damn.

So now I'm incrementally upgrading his IOs (both set and basic) where reasonable to L50ish ones. Powers like Hasten and Fiery Aura are getting straight L50 recharge IOs. I also upgraded the Titanium Coating (resist damage) IOs to level 50ish as well to hit the ED cap on those resistance powers. The more expensive rare IO sets (Scirocco's Dervish, Touch of Death, Mako's Bite, etc.) are staying as-is.

Oh, and I picked up Rise of the Pheonix as a self-Rez power at Level 47. My choices were Burn, Build-Up, Char (out of the Pyre Epic pool), or Rise of the Pheonix. Since it's reportedly one of the coolest animations in the game and since a self-Rez power would be VERY nice in sticky situations, I figured I would pick it up. Opens up more room in my Inspiration tray, too. I guess I'll have to bite it to see what it looks like... : )
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Thursday night is IT!

Thursday should be the culmination of close to two years of gameplay for Mantlet, Orleans, and Cacaphony. With a little solid gameplay, everyone will be at Level 50.

I logged Mantlet in on Saturday night while Amy was at the movies, and after some runs in the RWZ, he's now 1.4 bubbles away from L50. Orleans is less than 3 bubbles away, IIRC, so that's plenty achievable in an evening. This is very cool, as it opens up the Warshade/Peacebringer prestige classes for us and gives us a great chance to talk about starting over, per Eric's previous post. I'm salivating at the chance to revisit all that early game content with you guys and start a NEW group of heroes from the ground up.
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A Tip'o the Hat for a Great Tight Night

Here's a screenshot from one of our RWZ missions with the most Fake Nemesis I have ever seen in one place...



I do so love when we are rolling in our SG Costumes. It is a soothing influence on my inner geek. Rob, you gotta step up there buddy. Hit the tailor and join the crew... : )

Oh, and last night was super-fun for me (if you pardon the pun). The RWZ mission content is great and very satisfying. It's nice to fail a few missions to know they are not all just a walkthrough. Big teams, crazy XP... It's all great. One more night (maybe) and Orleans and Mantlet will hit 50. I'm eager for that, as the new character idea really has me salivating. Great proposal, Eric.

The icing on the cake for the night was the Atlas Medallion and Freedom Phalanx Reserve Member accolades for everyone. Flambeau even got his in Skyway by flaming gears that spawn from the Clockwork bosses for the Gearsmasher badge. And note, I realllllly appreciate that help with the Fake Nemesis hunting in PI. It takes forever to do that solo.

A great end to a great evening. Thanks tons guys, it was a crapload of fun for me.

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Got the StoryTeller Mission

Finished the mission sets for Hugo Redding in Steel Canyon to open up the StoryTeller mission needed to get the Spelunker badge (required for the Atlas Medallion). So, long story short, Chained Cobra has the mission (located in Perez Park).
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Idea for post 50

Just an idea:

Start over with 3 new toons at level 1.
Only play those toons when the three of us are together.
Create an entirely new Supergroup - new base, everything.
Focus on story and content (lots of missions, not so much hunting)
See how long it takes us (in hours played) to make 50.

We should all start over with archetypes we are unfamiliar with: Greg shouldn't be a Tank or Scrapper, I shouldn't be a Tank or Blaster, etc. Contollers and Defenders have myriad configurations and tactics, so I guess Rob could be a Defender, but a different one. Remember we'll have the option of Peacebringers and Warshades, as well. We can all have a different origin so as to reduce duplication of missions at the beginning and coordinate contacts so we don't do the same things over and over. If we could get firm commitments from our wayward SGmates (Boots, Troy, Matt) we could have them along, too.

When the entire group couldn't get together, we would always have villains or alts.

The idea behind all of this: So much has changed since we've started playing, I think that starting a group from scratch would be an entirely different experience than the one we are about to finish.

Not that I want to abandon Apotheosis. I know we have Villains to play and Recluse's Victory, taskforces, accolades, etc. to do. It's just an idea for the future.

OK - discuss!

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Chained Cobra enters the SG

See below for details on the SG's newest recruit...






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What Tanks *used* to be able to do...

Great example of why the implemented the aggro cap of 17 mobs...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDvWlln-koU&NR=1
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Your Super-Powers and You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7xQUlQ-iys&NR=1
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Dance Gun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGF0MYORADE
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Flambeau Noir hits Level 46

Yup, once more Flambeau dinged. I got a chance for a little play time in between sets of laundry last night. Cruising around one of the big islands in the Chantry has been very productive looking for salvage. I found a nice circuit and just fell into the groove last night. Next thing I knew "LEVEL UP!" I guess it's deceptive how much XP is rolling in mowing down spawns of 12 or so +1/+2 foes with Lts and Bosses thrown in. (Yeah, I know, we should all have such problems)

Anyway, I wound up six-slotting Health and adding an additional Numina's Convalescence and Miracle IO in each of the open slots. That 3-slotted each with a bonus of +1.88% max health for each. It's getting a little sick, as I did a quick check and at L46 he has more hit points than Mantlet has now WITH the +10% HP bonus from the FPRM accolade. Yikes. I also added a slot to Weave and put in an additional Red Fortune enhancement for the +5% global recharge bonus.

The best was this morning. Amy asked me to fix the computer because our internet connection wasn't working. After some fiddling, I fixed it and checked CoH to verify the connection (MMO games are heavy on continuous bandwidth and are better to check connections than web pages that request data in bursts). Since I was already at the auction house with Flambeau, I figured I'd check and see what recipes were available. Lo and behold, there was actually a Miracle + Recovery unique available for sale. You almost never see that, as they are snapped up as fast as they are posted. I bid 20M on it and got added to the queue behind 23 other bids. Bummer. As a last shot I bid 23M out of the 23.6M in my pocket. BING! I won the bid! Salvage to make it ran me about 50K (including the two tier 1 arcane rares, it's a L25 enhancement) and after a quick trip to the base, I was slotted up with the new Enhancement. It addes +15% endurance recovery every 120 seconds, but when slotted in an auto power (like Health), it's permanent.

So, all said and done, the global set bonuses for Flabeau Noir's IOs are:

27.00 % Accuracy to all attacks
9.39 % AoE Defense
10.00 % Damage to all attacks
-8.80 % Hold Duration
-11.00 % Immobilize Duration
2.25 % Max Endurance
13.14 % Max Health
6.26 % Melee Defense
9.39 % Negative Energy Resistance
11.27 % Psionic Defense
3.75 % Ranged Defense
33.50 % Recovery
84.00 % Regeneration
1.26 % Fire and Cold Resist
5.00 % Recharge for all powers
-4.40 % Sleep Duration

Since Flam's just a freaking bout 100% slotted now, I have a ton of Rare Salvage in the Vault that I'm saving for you two. Let me know what you need, as for most of the set enhancements, the Rare Arcane salvage is 65% of the cost or more.

Cheers!
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Babbage!

Here's a nice screen-shot from last night. Orlean's is powering up, Mantlet's winding up, and Cacaphony is bubbling (although obscured behind Babbage's monster frame). Midnight-Lord (aka Silver-Suit) is also in there as well.



Congrats on Cacaphony reaching 50, as well! YAYYYY! Been a long time coming. Despite Double XP weekends, Orleans is still ahead of Mantlet, as well. But, it's not a race, it's a scenic journey. And a great one at that...

Cheers fellahs.
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JG0001's guide to stat-boosting accolades

Open full post to view guide...

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New Power ?!

I had no idea that I would be getting a new power at 49. So now I'm stuck.

Personal Force Field, Stealth or Recall Friend?

Decisions, decisions...
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FN Set Bonus Calcs

FYI if you were interested... Added 2 Cleaving Blow in Consume (Acc/Rech and Dmg/Rech), added Acc/Dmg Scirocco's Dervish in Blazing Aura.


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What's the plan for 8/9/07?

OK, Thursday is right around the corner. I had an idea for a special "event", if you will. Also have some other options to consider for the evening...

Neither Orleans nor Cacaphony have either the Atlas Medallion or the Freedom Phalanx Reserve Member accolades. The first gives a permenant +5% Endurance Increase. I believe the second gives a permenant +10% Hit Point Increase.

Both Cacaphony and Orleans are missing one critical element for each.

For the AM, the Spelunker badge is needed. It's obtained by rescuing the fortune teller in a mission given by magic contacts in Steel Canyon. My proposition is to get the mission with Reptilor and then team with Cacaphony and Orleans. Once they are in-mission, I'll drop out with Reptilor and join the team with another toon (so I keep the mission for later). The team can complete the mission and get the badge. After that I can give you a guided tour with Mantlet to the plaque locations required to get the needed history badges for the accolade.

For the FPRM, the key is the Unveiler badge. It's gained by defeating 100 Fake Nemesis. Since we have been running missions for a while versus that villain group, Orleans and Cacaphony should be pretty close. We can either hunt for them in Peregrine Island or head to the Cascade Archipelago (they spawn all over in there). Once again, there is some tourism needed to read the required story plaques, but since everyone flies, not a biggie (just some zone hopping).

Now, both of these badges require some "grinding" so I can completely understand if nobody wants to do this. I thought I would offer to help out, since soloing to get these with Orleans or Cacaphony could be somewhat problematic. No pressure to do this at all. I'm just throwing the offer out there. Mantlet has both, so I have no vested interest either way except to help you guys out.

Other options on the table for Thursday include:
* Running more missions in the Ritki War Zone
* Heading to the Storm Palace in the Shadow Shard to check it out (we are high enough now to get in IIRC)
* Logging some of our Alts for the evening (Steel/Rickey/Fjordbotten)
* Hitting the Arena for some friendly PvP action
* Heading to Recluse's Victory PvP zone to lay the smack down
* Door missions on our story Arcs (mebbe more AV's in Peregrine Island)

At our levels with Caca/Orleans/Mantlet, we have access to essentially ALL the in-game content in CoH now. As they say, the world is our oyster...
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Flambeau hits 45

Yup, Flambeau Noir is continuing his steady climb. He dinged to 45 this weekend while hunting for Arcane Tier 3 salvage in the Cascade Archipelago. It's surprising how much XP he's been rolling up just soloing.



As a result, he's swapped his hunting grounds to the Chantry section of the shard, which appears to be populated exclusively with Arcane salvage dropping foes (no Nemesis). There are a couple large islands there where he can circle and continuously respawn Reflections and Circle of Thorns. Rularuu are also there, but are limited to groups of Brutes with Watchers backing them up.

For one of the first times ever I am happily playing with the aggro cap that only 17 foes can be focused on you at one time. It's interesting, as I can aggro two spawns and herd them together and as I start getting up to the cap there will be a bunch of nearby mobs just ignoring me. However, as the aggro'd opponents start dropping, all of a sudden they wake up and charge in. It's funny and slightly bizzarre, to say the least. I have to say though, herding 17 enemies to the corner of a rock and then popping out into the middle of them is great... Once my AoEs start cycling it's all but over. Big fat orange numbers floating everywhere.... Mmmmm. Tasty.

Y'all really need to shout out if you need any of that Tier 3 salvage. I've been dipping into some of it for set enhancements, but I really don't have many left to slot. It all should be viable for Level 41+ crafted enhancements, so feel free. I can always get more : )

Cheers!
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Another IO Set Resource...

Good resource here when planning sets. ParagonWiki breaks down where specific recipes drop (mission, random, task force, trial, etc.) which helps in figuring out what sets might be very hard to complete...

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Tip for buying hard-to-find items at auction

Hey,

Figured I'd post a quick tip I started using a couple days ago when hunting for "hard to find" recipes/enhancements/salvage. The tip is to check the market first thing in the morning.

Logic is this, most people (like myself) run missions, etc. in the evening and before heading to bed, go to Wentworth's and dump all the stuff out for sale. Now since all the servers are tied together via the market, this means people are usually active in the market until about midnight EST and then it tapers off as the other western time zones also drop off. This means by about 4:00am EST the market is pretty inactive other than static bids and such.

I usually pop on for a couple minutes first thing in the AM to check the couple recipes I'm chasing and see what's available. Several times I was able to find ones unavailable when I logged off, but that were up for sale first thing in the morning.

Just a tip, I expect nobody in our team is as IO Set obsessive as I am, so it may be of limited value. Still though, we probably at some point will be gearing up Cacaphony/Orleans/Mantlet and this may come into play.

Cheers.
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The No Numbers Guide to I9 for the Casual Player

PeterPeter has a great little guide here entitled "The No Numbers Guide to I9 for the Casual Player"

Check it out when you get a chance. It's a good intro.

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I got quoted!

Wheee Haw!

One of my posts on the Forums was apparently well received enough for someone to quote it in their signature... Check out this post on the forums. Check it out about halfway down the page in Weylin's post...

I like the term hunting versus farming, as the crops shoot back. That didn't happen the last time I picked strawberries... -Garthalus

Holy crap, I think I'm famous!
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I can't stop... Eaggghhh!

OK, the way things are going here I may need an intervention...

Flambeau got another round of updates last night while I was "just looking" at Wentworth's. Extra cash and salvage in the vault caused my reserve to crumble and I fleshed out some more of his set enhancements... Take a look:





So, added from last update is the completed set of Touch of Death IO's in Scorch. I also have Fire Shield 4-slotted with Impervium Armor.

My momentary bout of insanity last week was buying the recipe for Numina's Convalescence +Regen +Recovery for (wait for it...) 15M influence. It's a unique enhancement (only 1 per character) that adds +20% Regen and +10% Endurance Recovery. I snapped it up because:

A.) I had the cash from some other sales that went through
B.) Since they fixed the Katie Express task force loophole, the supply of these is gonna dry up FAST. Figured it was better to snap it up now before prices became (more) insane

On the horizon, Flambeau still needs Scirocco's Dervish slotted into Blazing Aura. Also, Weave needs to be slotted out with Red Fortune set enhancements (some nice bonuses there including a global +2% damage and +5% recharge reduction). Oh, and I need to see about getting at least one additional Numina's into Health to start getting the +Regen and +Max Health set bonuses there. Other than that, we'll see how the build progresses.

At level 47 (when I can slot L50 IOs) I plan on considering a respec to optimize slotting... At L50, two IOs are almost at the ED cap (84% vs the 93% cap, IIRC). Some ideas would be to 2-slot Hasten and Fiery Embrace and use the slots elsewhere in the build. Problem with that is the scaling that happens when you Exemp down to a lower level... If you stay at Level 47+, the slotting is fine. Exemping below that really makes you need the 3rd slot. We'll see.
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