Author Topic: Gearing Up From Scratch  (Read 4737 times)

Young Tutor

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Gearing Up From Scratch
« on: July 21, 2014, 07:32:11 PM »
Some have discussed whether or not, if COH comes back, will we have our old characters or will we be starting from scratch? Gearing up a new character could be tough. Back in the day, you could always transfer INF from a more established character, but if we all had to start from scratch, for many folks it would be a daunting task. Just to see if what it was like, I had a couple of characters that I leveled without transferring any influence just to see how hard it was to start a new character from scratch. If COH comes back from scratch, the economy will be different, but I thought people might be interested in how I did it and what I would do if I was truly starting from scratch.

1.) Training origin enhancements are kind of useless. They don't affect your powers that much, and you level so quickly that their enhancement value quickly degrades and you'd have to replace them. I would pretty much just sell all TOs. You'll get slightly more influence if you sell them to the Freedom Corps stores (similarly, with DOs and SOs you'll get a premium selling them at the appropriate shops). The cash shop extra enhancement trays are very, very useful and I'd highly recommend them.

2.) There was a lot of junk on the Auction House that you could purchase for less than their vendor sell price. While this would be different if everyone was starting from scratch, it wouldn't be that different. I would deploy all my influence in lowball bids on junk, and then when the bids filled, vendor for profit. It was a slow, tedious, and risk-free way to build up a bankroll.

3.) I thought that there was a reasonable amount of stuff to do in the early levels. Death From Below was fast and fun, plenty of story arcs, leading up to Posi 1 and 2. Doing radio missions/safeguard missions could net you a temporary travel power, a useful way to get around if you weren't keen on spending early power picks on travel powers.

4.) Mr. Yin in Faultline had a store that sold a limited number of level 13, 17, and 21 SOs. This was not bad. http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mr._Yin  I usually played magic origin characters, and pre-SOs there wasn't really a better alternative. The level 17s were nice for if you were running missions/TFs in that range, you could slot them at 14 and they'd be functional until you hit level 21.

5.) DOs were more useful than TOs, but you still level quite rapidly and the enhancement value isn't super. I focused on recharge and accuracy in this stage. That meant I could use Yin Enhancements for ACC (magic origin). For recharge, I found level 15 and 20 generic IOs to be acceptable value. The level 15 was slightly superior than a +3 DO, and the level 20 was better than a -3 SO but worse than a -2 SO. Strictly speaking it isn't a budget move, but I like doing TFs and hate having enhancements expire. I like crafting and like badges, and if my vendor trash scavenging strategy works I'll won't be pinching pennies.

6.) The archetype specific sets could be very useful. Depending on your archetype, they might be out of your price range. They are attuned, so they will scale with your level, and you'll keep the set bonuses even when exemplared as low as level 7. If you have some spare influence, the bonuses tend to be just what you are looking for in a set. You might not have the slot spaces to fully take advantage of them till later, but worth keeping your eyes open for a deal.

7.) At level 20, tips starting dropping. If you run 10 tip missions (you can do max of 5 every day), you can get a morality mission. If you reaffirm your heroic (or villainous) alignment, you get 50 reward merits. After you have reaffirmed your alignment, you can choose to receive Alignment Merits when you do morality missions. You can also select Alignment Merits as the reward for doing a Signature Story Arc. SSA's have a one week timer per reward, but the first time you do a SSA it does not count towards your timer. Once you hit level 20, you can run tip missions, reaffirm morality, then do SSA 1 and 2 (earning 2 alignment merits not on the timer) then repeat one of the SSAs for a 3rd merit.

I found AMs to be a great way to purchase expensive IO recipes. The Performance Shifter +End proc costs 1 AM, and the Miracle +recovery IO costs 2 AM. Both IOs are not affected by level . . . they work the same whether they are level 21 or level 50. Both go a long way towards sorting out any endurance issues your character might have. The LOTG +7.5% global recharge IO is another one that I liked to slot early and often. Other IOs that are useful early are the Steadfast Protection +3% defense and -KB, the Karma -KB, the Kismet Accuracy (actually +to hit, which is better), and the Numina's +regen/recovery. If you can work them into your build, they add a lot of quality of life.

8.) At level 22, you can slot SOs. COH was designed around SO level power. SOs are fine, but there are other options that you can take advantage of. Here's a link to a table comparing the relative values of various enhancements: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancements#Relative_Enhancement_Values

Level 25 generic IOs are slightly less powerful than even-level SOs. I find them reasonable to use in powers where you only want to enhance one aspect of a power. As noted above, I like crafting, I like badging, and if you earn the crafting badge for each level 25/30 IO, you memorize the recipe (can craft it w/o recipe for half cost) and (only for the 25/30 badges) you get an extra +2 salvage space. I would not pay a premium to craft level 25 or 30 generic IOs, SOs are better if you keep them from dipping below even level. On the other hand, I would not pay a premium to keep my SOs even level. Especially if you like teaming and don't want to outlevel your enhancements in the middle of a TF, generics at this level are perfectly fine. Level 35 generics are nearly as good as +3 SOs, and level 40 generics are better than +3 SOs.

A lot of whether to use generic IOs vs SOs depends on how comfortable you are with crafting, your INF, and whether or not you care about badges. I would certainly not advise upgrading generic IOs every five levels. Some folks just wait until 50 to slot generic IOs, and from a pure power perspective there's nothing wrong with that. In my opinion the small decrease in power from using 25s and 30s or the slight increase in power from using 40s and 45s is basically a wash. Obviously when you hit level 47, the level 50 generic IOs are a strict upgrade over SOs. The other piece of the puzzle is that while sub-40 generic IOs are less powerful than +3 SOs, all 25+ generic SOs are more powerful than -1, -2, or -3 SOs. Unless you take special effort to keep ++ing your SOs, you won't always have +3s.

9.) For powers that reasonably use more than one type of enhancement, however, frankenslotting is amazing. Frankenslotting is essentially using set IOs for their enhancement value, mostly ignoring set bonuses. For example, a level 25 ACC/DAM IO gives +20% ACC/+20% DAM, while a level 25 ACC/DAM/RECH gives +16%/+16%/+16%. If you use 2 ACC/DAMs (from different sets) you get +40% ACC and 40% DAM. If you use 2 different ACC/DAM/RECH you get +32%/+32%/+32% . . . 3 slots of power in 2 slots.  To have that kind of flexibility, especially in your 20s when slots are scarce and you begin to have access to some of your highly effective powers is huge. Especially for a power that has high damage, high endurance cost, and relatively slow recharge, the ability to cram a bunch of extra goodstuf into it really shines.

The key is to not overpay. Mid level rare salvage tended to be expensive. You aren't looking for the sweet sets for this strategy. You are just looking for better value than SOs that will never expire at a reasonable price. You can use the same buying strategy as with junk salvage, put up some lowball bids on level 25 recipes suitable for frankenslotting (including cost of salvage), and just wait to see if they fill. If they don't, no worries. Put up the bids before you need the recipe, especially if you are going to be away from the game for a day or two. Eventually you'll slot over these IOs, but a well-frankenslotted build can be pretty powerful. Plus, lower-level IOs actually hold their value while exemplaring better than higher level ones. http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements

10.) If you don't mind running AE missions, you can get some good rewards with your tickets. Many of the "junk" recipes from ticket rolls make nice frankenslotting fodder.

11.) Once you get into your 30s, you have access to pretty nice non-rare recipes. Thunderstrike, and Crushing Impact aren't necessarily sets that you would want in your end game build, but they offer a wide range of useful bonuses that apply to most characters. Both sets offer several triple IOs and even the level 30s offer very good enhancement value. Some people look at the difference between level 30s and level 50s and can't get past the fact that the level 50s offer better enhancement value. To my mind, that's not how you should analyze it. There is value in having access to the bonuses while leveling. Plus, the difference between IOs in the low 40s and level 50s is minimal and often swallowed up by ED. As with frankenslotting, value is key. Don't overpay, don't feel like you *have* to acquire these sets ASAP. Put some low bids on a variety of recipes at a variety of levels. If they fill, fine, if not, no worries. If you end up with too many, you can save them for other characters or craft and sell for a tidy profit.

12.) When you can start slotting level 41+ enhancements (ie level 38) that's my sweet spot for trying to get end-game non-purple sets. The difference in enhancement value between 41 IOs and 50 IOs is small. The difference in crafting costs and acquisition costs can be large. For whatever reason, people don't like odd level IOs. They want 0s and 5s. Use that to get good value for INF. High level rare salvage tends to be a bit cheaper than mid-level stuff.

The other piece of the puzzle is that some end-game sets top out below level 50 anyway. So go ahead and kit yourself out with Basilisk's Gaze or Reactive Armor. Don't wait till you are 50 unless you have a really finely tuned leveling build or something like that. The more stuff you have in place by the time you hit 50, the less pressure you'll face in getting your end-game build together.

13. Level 50. This is where the roof really comes off as far as how expensive the IOs can be. And if you hit level 50 on SOs, there would be a pretty massive gap between your power level and the power level of a fully purpled out 50. The good news is, there's no reason why you have to hit 50 on SOs. If you use my ideas, you can have a fully serviceable level 50 build already and improve it from there as you see fit. You won't be as powerful as a finely tuned character with purples, but you'll be more than decent. And you won't have overpaid for your stuff, because you'll have bought it opportunistically as you leveled, rather than paying a premium to have it right now. Upgrade at your leisure.

Hope you enjoyed my plan! Feel free to add your own thoughts.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2014, 01:49:17 PM by Young Tutor »

MWRuger

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2014, 08:20:53 PM »
I skip all the TO's, DO's & SO's. I slot IO's at 15 and 25 with final build's slotted at 35.

Since IO's never lose effectiveness and they are more effective than the same level DO's they hold value pretty well. Also, since they still function, no need to buy more when you would have out leveled DO's or SO's. It also means that right in the middle of TF you are still slotted.

I slot whatever drops below 15 and I use the Going Rogue duals that are good until level 21.

I also slot AT enhancements as soon as possible since they level with you.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2014, 12:17:04 AM by TheDevilYouKnow »
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Angel Phoenix77

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2014, 08:56:19 PM »
I skip all the TO's, DO's & SO's. I slot IO's at 15 and 25 with final build's slotted at 35.

Since IO's never lose effectiveness and they are more effective than the same level DO's they hold value pretty well. Also, since they still function, no need to buy more when you would have out leveled DO's or SO's. It also means that right in the middle of TF you are still slotted.

I slot whatever drops below 15 and I use the Going Rogue duals that are goon until level 21.

I also slot AT enhancements as soon as possible since they level with you.
I have given this a lot of thought, what I would do to get the money flowing is not buying to's until level 8 by than if I solo I could have roughly 32000 inf. that is with me selling every drop and recipe that I don't want.
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Mistress Urd

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2014, 09:39:40 PM »
Personally, I always hated the x1 and x6 levels since those were the levels when you were often at your "weakest" Level 11 when you had yellow TOs (and 1 level short of DOs) and level 21 when you had yellow DOs (and one level short of SOs) were the most annoying. Improvements to the game helped with that, inherent fitness being a most welcome change (for me at least) and IOs which didn't expire.

Young Tutor

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2014, 09:40:21 PM »
I have given this a lot of thought, what I would do to get the money flowing is not buying to's until level 8 by than if I solo I could have roughly 32000 inf. that is with me selling every drop and recipe that I don't want.

Buying vendor trash from the AH is a great way to leverage your starting influence. Even with a fresh economy, some folks will want to get a head start on the badges from selling stuff on the AH. Buy common salvage for 10 influence, sell it to a vendor for 250, make around 2400 a stack. Buy uncommon salvage at 100 resell to a vendor for 1000, 9000 a stack. With rare salvage at 1000, resale at 5000, 40,000 a stack. Even if you don't get those margins, you can still squeak out some extra scratch. Just check the AH when you log on, before you log off, and if you have any downtime. It isn't difficult to turn 32,000 into 3.2 million that way if you are patient.

Angel Phoenix77

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2014, 12:10:49 AM »
Buying vendor trash from the AH is a great way to leverage your starting influence. Even with a fresh economy, some folks will want to get a head start on the badges from selling stuff on the AH. Buy common salvage for 10 influence, sell it to a vendor for 250, make around 2400 a stack. Buy uncommon salvage at 100 resell to a vendor for 1000, 9000 a stack. With rare salvage at 1000, resale at 5000, 40,000 a stack. Even if you don't get those margins, you can still squeak out some extra scratch. Just check the AH when you log on, before you log off, and if you have any downtime. It isn't difficult to turn 32,000 into 3.2 million that way if you are patient.
This is very true, however that hard part is getting the auction house up and running when city of comes back. While I can't talk about what other players are going to do, what I am going to do the first day is remake my characters and name sit until I play them.
That's why for me I wont place any enhancements until l8, build up inf. and reward merits for large insp. :) that's is how I started a few of my characters because of the level permits, I think to get into the email a character needed to be l5, please correct me if I am wrong.
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microc

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2014, 12:19:04 AM »
to the thread starter also a lot of people like me are going to be doing sewer runs to force level a ton from 1 to 25 as fast as i can. Myself I use the sewers to test out new builds.

Triplash

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2014, 12:05:22 PM »
I think it was 10 tips before you got the morality mission. You were limited to 5 per day to keep people from going *too* nuts with it, hehe. Could be wrong though, I didn't run that many myself.

Also, I believe if you turned off earning xp, your inf rate increased. I didn't do that one either, but I think it was a thing. You wouldn't get rich doing that at the early levels, but it's a decent way to keep up with basic slotting costs. Gives you more chances for drops to use or sell too, not to mention preventing you from outleveling one contact before you're ready for the next.

I like this guide. It would be as helpful for new players as for vets who've forgotten how to start fresh. Good stuff!

Young Tutor

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2014, 02:07:36 PM »
I think it was 10 tips before you got the morality mission. You were limited to 5 per day to keep people from going *too* nuts with it, hehe. Could be wrong though, I didn't run that many myself.

Also, I believe if you turned off earning xp, your inf rate increased. I didn't do that one either, but I think it was a thing. You wouldn't get rich doing that at the early levels, but it's a decent way to keep up with basic slotting costs. Gives you more chances for drops to use or sell too, not to mention preventing you from outleveling one contact before you're ready for the next.

I like this guide. It would be as helpful for new players as for vets who've forgotten how to start fresh. Good stuff!

Thanks! You are right about the tip missions, I fixed that in my original post.

Interesting point about turning off XP to increase INF gain. Personally I think that would be self-defeating in the long run, because the INF earning potential of a level 50 outstrips the INF potential of a lower-level character. If you were afraid to outlevel particular content, I could see turning off XP but it strikes me as an inefficient way to go about things as far as INF goes. Maybe if you were in an AE farm and didn't want to be powerleveled? I've turned off INF on some characters that I wanted to lock at a particular level for the purposes of specific recipes at that level.

Triplash

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2014, 02:59:53 PM »
Yeah, at low levels it's definitely not an efficient way to earn inf. But it could ensure that the character can afford to maintain strong enhancements until they reach the higher levels. I was thinking more about running regular missions, not farms specifically for earning inf or xp. In my mind, getting powerleveling or farming help from another player is no different from sending yourself inf from an alt - the character didn't earn it themselves. I have no problem with PLing, farming, or alt-funding, mind you, it's just not what I thought we were talking about. The way I read it, you were listing things a character could do with no outside help.

Young Tutor

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2014, 04:09:42 PM »
to the thread starter also a lot of people like me are going to be doing sewer runs to force level a ton from 1 to 25 as fast as i can. Myself I use the sewers to test out new builds.

Sewer runs are fast and fun indeed! At the same time, they could get tiresome, and you'd outlevel some of the safeguard missions if you were looking to pick up badges. My first reaction was "wait, what about TFs like Positron and Synapse?" But then I remembered you have access to powers up to [your exemplared level]+5, so it wouldn't be a tragedy to exemplar down to run those lower level TFs. In fact, it would make them easier to run. Many powersets have defining powers at levels 16, 18 or 20. For example, a Regeneration Scrapper would get Integration (mez protection and +regen) at level 16. Mez protection is kind of a big deal. An Ill/Emp controller gets Phantom Army at 18 and Fortitude at 20. From a powergaming perspective, having access to those level 16, 18, and 20 powers would make a big difference in how difficult those TFs were.

On the other hand, running sewer trials to level 25 seems a little like overkill. You would be earning powers that you couldn't use on the sewer runs, you cap out at level 6 in the final mission (which means you can use your level 10 powers) and the hydra buff/rewards won't work after level 22. Your drops and rewards aren't as valuable as what you'd get from doing story arcs or TFs in terms of reward merits or (when you can earn them) alignment merits. Sewer runs have their advantages (easy to put together, compact, don't have to run from mission to mission, easy for folks to level up along the way, easy to recruit new members) but for me there are so many things that would pull me out into the wider world well before I dinged 25. I can't see myself staying in the sewers past level 12 (to be able to get level 15 IOs) and in all likelihood I'd move on to something else after I got all 4 temp powers and had secured all the badges for the AVs.

MWRuger

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2014, 04:19:57 PM »
One easy way to make some starting dosh is to take the large heal inspire that you get doing the tutorial (which you should always do if only for this) and list it for 5 inf or so for an immediate sale. That will give you a little starting cash.

Then you can vendor recipes, salvage and if there is supply level, 50-53 SO's and vendor them for 10 k each. You can hit a million inf in about an hour and that's a decent start.

Or you could go beat up hellions and trolls (as long as it a magic baddie) and get some Luck charms. You can almost always get 50k for those. (very useful salvage that only drops at lower levels.)
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Angel Phoenix77

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2014, 04:59:40 PM »
One easy way to make some starting dosh is to take the large heal inspire that you get doing the tutorial (which you should always do if only for this) and list it for 5 inf or so for an immediate sale. That will give you a little starting cash.

Then you can vendor recipes, salvage and if there is supply level, 50-53 SO's and vendor them for 10 k each. You can hit a million inf in about an hour and that's a decent start.

Or you could go beat up hellions and trolls (as long as it a magic baddie) and get some Luck charms. You can almost always get 50k for those. (very useful salvage that only drops at lower levels.)
This is what I did when I had access to the large insp. after that I spent 2 or 4 reward merits so I could have a random roll on the large insp. from the merit venders, one time I sold a large green for 185 k that is without the fee being taken first, so about 145 k to 150 k. with that influ I was able to get to the level I needed to unlock the email.
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Young Tutor

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #13 on: July 22, 2014, 05:46:22 PM »
Yeah, at low levels it's definitely not an efficient way to earn inf. But it could ensure that the character can afford to maintain strong enhancements until they reach the higher levels. I was thinking more about running regular missions, not farms specifically for earning inf or xp. In my mind, getting powerleveling or farming help from another player is no different from sending yourself inf from an alt - the character didn't earn it themselves. I have no problem with PLing, farming, or alt-funding, mind you, it's just not what I thought we were talking about. The way I read it, you were listing things a character could do with no outside help.

Gotcha. And yes, thinking more along those lines. I just couldn't see turning off xp to maintain enhancements as being viable under other circumstances. If someone was philosophically opposed to using the market to get influence, sure, you don't have as many good options. If you genuinely don't want to gain XP, then no worries. But there are so many other ways to fund your enhancements/alternative methods rather than grinding xp-less until you have enough INF to upgrade.

I remember back in the day when there were no inventions, no market, and getting enough influence to upgrade your SOs was a big deal. SOs were rewards for TFs and you were glad to get them. I would wait till level 28 to upgrade my SOs, so that I could try to combine my old ones with my new ones and get a little extra ummph out of them. I'd always try to sell enhancements in the proper store to get a better price. Ah, scrimping and saving!  :)

hejtmane

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #14 on: July 22, 2014, 07:00:30 PM »
From a that started leveling back in I2 when he first started with no Inf, no IO's and it is easier than ever to start from scratch faster to level to 50 and make money.

I like to add above remember they also made a change at low levels you have a higher base acc that degrades over time I forgot what the cut off is been so long but that means slotting damage means faster kills early and I only place TO's if they drop on me and I can use them

The leveling progression being smoother helps because the old 45-50 grind would make you pull your hair out.

The poster has a lot of good advice



Nealix

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #15 on: July 22, 2014, 11:52:31 PM »
Being an alt-o-holic I would frequently run new characters through the sewer trials to get to level 20 which is when I felt the character finally had enough powers to make them interesting.  I think I have tried all the power sets but even so I haven't tried all the combinations of primary and secondary available.  I am looking forward to further experimentation.

One nice thing about restarting from scratch is it might be easier to get a taskforce or other event going as people are trying to get geared up.  Also might be heaven for farmers when the economy starts coming back.  We did it once, right?  Doesn't seem that daunting to me to go around the (virtual) world again.  I think it will be fun.

MWRuger

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #16 on: July 23, 2014, 12:16:17 AM »
From a that started leveling back in I2 when he first started with no Inf, no IO's and it is easier than ever to start from scratch faster to level to 50 and make money.

I like to add above remember they also made a change at low levels you have a higher base acc that degrades over time I forgot what the cut off is been so long but that means slotting damage means faster kills early and I only place TO's if they drop on me and I can use them

The leveling progression being smoother helps because the old 45-50 grind would make you pull your hair out.

The poster has a lot of good advice

Yes, it was called "beginner's luck" and tapered off when you hit 10.


I would like to add, that if and when we get the game back, assuming we get characters back (which I think we have decent chance of actually) if anyone needs money, I'll be happy to send anyone who needs it 10 million to get started on.

If we don't get them back, give me a month and I'll make the same offer. My global is/was @mwruger or @mwruger2. I wasn't super rich but 22 billion was enough to let me outfit my characters and give it away.

Basically, I just kinda held onto it and dipped into it if the character I was levelling was going too fast to market his own build. Also for SG's whenever I wanted to build a new base. Also to give to my RL buddies who hated the market but wanted pvp IO's.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2014, 12:25:42 AM by TheDevilYouKnow »
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hejtmane

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #17 on: July 23, 2014, 03:00:36 AM »
Yes, it was called "beginner's luck" and tapered off when you hit 10.


I would like to add, that if and when we get the game back, assuming we get characters back (which I think we have decent chance of actually) if anyone needs money, I'll be happy to send anyone who needs it 10 million to get started on.

If we don't get them back, give me a month and I'll make the same offer. My global is/was @mwruger or @mwruger2. I wasn't super rich but 22 billion was enough to let me outfit my characters and give it away.

Basically, I just kinda held onto it and dipped into it if the character I was levelling was going too fast to market his own build. Also for SG's whenever I wanted to build a new base. Also to give to my RL buddies who hated the market but wanted pvp IO's.

More than me I hovered around a billion but I only played the market when I wanted something

Tacitala

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #18 on: July 23, 2014, 03:41:46 AM »
I always had crazy good luck with both salvage and recipe drops in Praetoria.  I know one of my characters got two copies of the stealth proc for Celerity (one at level 15, the other at level 16) within 30 minutes of each other.   Adding to that, if you wanted to play through more than one story line (like playing both of the Resistance factions) you would need to turn experience off so you didn't over level the missions.  Combine that with large enemy mobs (oh look, another ambush!) and my gold side characters didn't really need help to get going (until that whole level 20 cut off kicked in).
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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #19 on: July 23, 2014, 12:24:00 PM »
I've given this some thought, and I've little worry on how to remake my fortune.
Play the game.

That's it, that's my only strategy.

I'll change and adapt as need be. The biggest factor is ...okay - All of our characters have zippo. Because we have no characters! Gotta start over, right?
That means that the auction house will have zippo/nada on day 1, minute 1.

The true ebil marketeers will settle in nicely at AE, creating the farms they want to pl themselves so they can get the niche on the salvage needed to craft those procs. They will price the items high - but they will be disappointed because most folks won't have that loot to spare and will get them the old fashioned way. They'll hunt the appropriate mobs for them until they get the drop they want.

The real pain will be me trying to get my ourobouros portal - that was a very nifty time saver.
I eagerly await reading all the tidbits of advice on how to get this and that - but with a blank economy devoid of surplus billions of influence, I predict 1 million costume contests to be a true event once again! Only it will take about a month for us to get there, lol. After 3 months, I suspect plenty of players will have 50 million or more stashed. In about a years time, I suspect most marketers will be in the same spot as they were before - if they play the same way. They'll probably play more and market less. I think relationships will mean more this time around.
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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #20 on: July 23, 2014, 03:23:06 PM »
I've given this some thought, and I've little worry on how to remake my fortune.
Play the game.

That's it, that's my only strategy.

I'll change and adapt as need be. The biggest factor is ...okay - All of our characters have zippo. Because we have no characters! Gotta start over, right?
That means that the auction house will have zippo/nada on day 1, minute 1.

The true ebil marketeers will settle in nicely at AE, creating the farms they want to pl themselves so they can get the niche on the salvage needed to craft those procs. They will price the items high - but they will be disappointed because most folks won't have that loot to spare and will get them the old fashioned way. They'll hunt the appropriate mobs for them until they get the drop they want.

The real pain will be me trying to get my ourobouros portal - that was a very nifty time saver.
I eagerly await reading all the tidbits of advice on how to get this and that - but with a blank economy devoid of surplus billions of influence, I predict 1 million costume contests to be a true event once again! Only it will take about a month for us to get there, lol. After 3 months, I suspect plenty of players will have 50 million or more stashed. In about a years time, I suspect most marketers will be in the same spot as they were before - if they play the same way. They'll probably play more and market less. I think relationships will mean more this time around.

I agree with you, prices on the market will different than what they were in a world where folks had billions stashed around and established characters were fully outfitted with IOs and badges. I enjoyed a bit of farming, leveling up a SS/FA/Mu brute isn't very difficult (though it certainly wouldn't be my first choice for what to do if the City reopens). Even for non-farm builds, there were AE maps that were more efficient than others. I imagine that folks will also be running lots of ITFs (lots of enemies mean lots of chances for purples to drop) and lots of Statesman TFs (synthetic HOs are pretty nice). As far as ebi marketeers go, however, I think it is safe to predict that lots of level 50 common salvage and generic recipes will be dumped on the market well in advance of demand for it. A truly ebil marketer will want the extra AH slots that go from the badges for selling stuff, so they aren't going to be pinching pennies squeezing every last 250 INF out of every Regenerating Flesh. At the same time, the demand for generic IO recipes will likely be a lot higher. Not just for equipping, but for folks seeking the crafting badges. I imagine that badgers are going to drive down the cost of crafted generic IOs for quite some time, particularly ones that aren't often slotted (confuse, fear, defense debuff, etc). I predict that patient players will be able to scoop up some IOs at far below crafting costs (possibly as low as SO costs).

I also agree with you that there will be a focus on "playing the game". You don't miss what you've got till its gone. And COH wasn't just a game, it was a community. There are all sorts of things (some unintuitive) that are necessary to develop your character. You mentioned the O-zone portal, that will be a tough one. For folks who race to level 50, there are numerous ways to get it. For the rest of us, I'm sure there will be newly minted 50s galore in Atlas Park showing off, opening portals . . . otherwise I think the best option would be Doc Delilah's story arc http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Doc_Delilah#Story_Arc . Similarly, I expect that there will be badge hunting teams galore, especially for things like Fake Nemesis. Accolades rock.

Day Job badges can also help boost chances to get tickets, influence, recipes, salvage, enhancements, or inspirations. I'm not sure what kind of impact that will have, but if you like badges everyone has to log off somewhere, right?

MWRuger

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Re: Gearing Up From Scratch
« Reply #21 on: July 23, 2014, 03:34:32 PM »
I've given this some thought, and I've little worry on how to remake my fortune.
Play the game.

That's it, that's my only strategy.

I'll change and adapt as need be. The biggest factor is ...okay - All of our characters have zippo. Because we have no characters! Gotta start over, right?
That means that the auction house will have zippo/nada on day 1, minute 1.

The true ebil marketeers will settle in nicely at AE, creating the farms they want to pl themselves so they can get the niche on the salvage needed to craft those procs. They will price the items high - but they will be disappointed because most folks won't have that loot to spare and will get them the old fashioned way. They'll hunt the appropriate mobs for them until they get the drop they want.

The real pain will be me trying to get my ourobouros portal - that was a very nifty time saver.
I eagerly await reading all the tidbits of advice on how to get this and that - but with a blank economy devoid of surplus billions of influence, I predict 1 million costume contests to be a true event once again! Only it will take about a month for us to get there, lol. After 3 months, I suspect plenty of players will have 50 million or more stashed. In about a years time, I suspect most marketers will be in the same spot as they were before - if they play the same way. They'll probably play more and market less. I think relationships will mean more this time around.


I don't think it will take nearly that long. I agree that there will be less zeros, but the buying power for those who skip storebought enhancements is entirely based on supply. With no cost of production, supply is not a real problem. You can see a perfect example of how this works.

Whenever some marketeer decided to lose a bunch of money and corner the market on say, ancient bone, the price would go crazy, supply would drop to very low levels and then in a week it would be right back where it was. I saw it happen a bunch of times.

As long as people play the game they will get inf and salvage.

PS. I never spent more than a 1/2 hour marketing, usually only once or twice a week. 90 percent of my time was spent leveling. I'm pretty sure that is pretty typical of marketeers as far as time spent in the market.
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