New efforts!

[LadyVamp]

Man... I'm in the mood for a Hamidon Raid. Anyone want to join?

I'll lead green team.  Let get my ill/storm troller.  In honor for the festival of samhain, I will be renaming the team to the Green-Eyed Death Knights!

[Arcana]

Indeed.  I never got into all that stuff.  I just threw in some enhs based on what I thought made sense and off I went.  Never got into the if I slot this [whatever] I can get 0.0002% more dmg thing that some players seem hell bent on doing.

Brain fried!  Core dumped!

Quant challenge for the month: construct two builds whose optimal attack chain differ by 0.0002%.  Must factor in Arcanatime, true enhancement precision, streakbreaker, and random fencepost wraparound.

[Paragon Avenger]

Could I just get some  honest clarification on these posts?  I see them once in a while when I come here to see if there are any updates.  Are these legitimate updates or just meant to be fake and humorous?

Yes, I got tired of no news, so I figured that if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself.  One small problem, I don't know what I'm talking about, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone else.

[LadyVamp]

Quant challenge for the month: construct two builds whose optimal attack chain differ by 0.0002%.  Must factor in Arcanatime, true enhancement precision, streakbreaker, and random fencepost wraparound.

You have too much time on your hands, Arcana.

[LadyVamp]

Yes, I got tired of no news, so I figured that if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself.  One small problem, I don't know what I'm talking about, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone else.

Just the ones that know better to stay quiet.  Clearly I'm the don't know what I'm talking about category since I keep speaking up.  lol   

[Biz]

Quant challenge for the month: construct two builds whose optimal attack chain differ by 0.0002%.  Must factor in Arcanatime, true enhancement precision, streakbreaker, and random fencepost wraparound.

Define "optimal attack chain". I have a feeling that may be just as difficult as the original challenge.

[Arcana]

Define "optimal attack chain". I have a feeling that may be just as difficult as the original challenge.

The optimal attack chain is an indefinitely repeatable attack sequence that generates a higher average DPS than any other repeatable chain averaged across its total cycle time.

[LateNights]

The optimal attack chain is an indefinitely repeatable attack sequence that generates a higher average DPS than any other repeatable chain averaged across its total cycle time.

Nah, it's when your attacks look the most badass and / or hit harderer cause you made your toon dance real pretty...

[nicoliy]

Post Inventions, its a different story.  You have a lot more opportunities to get recovery, and more opportunities to slot invention sets with essentially free end reduction.  But you still wanted to manage endurance using the new opportunities that inventions provided: recovery bonuses, recovery procs, end reduction bonuses, and slot efficiency - the ability to slot just a couple of set IOs to get near the ED soft ceilings and then slot end reduce in the free slots.

IOs were part of what made this my favorite game. The amount of crazy things you could do with builds was just staggering. I was never short of concepts, and once I knew the market, influence to try them. I forget who wrote the guide/post, but the MF'ing Warshade was one of the best examples of how crazy a build could go. I think the fact that the devs didn't really seek to nerf things like that to the ground was part of the fun. In normal settings fully IO'd purple builds were broken, but damn they were fun.

[LadyVamp]

The optimal attack chain is an indefinitely repeatable attack sequence that generates a higher average DPS than any other repeatable chain averaged across its total cycle time.

Since I ran mostly ranged attackers, blaster/defenders/cors, I found that there was more than one optimal attack chain depending on what I was attacking.  A single target had a different chain than a mob.  Even inspirations play into that chain.  Best I'd seen against a mob was 1 red, 1 yellow, build up, aim, rain of arrows.  minions dead, lts dying, bosses about half gone.  That was before they nerfed roa of course

[rookery.]

I did so love Build Up Aim ROA. It was glorious!

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

A single target had a different chain than a mob.

Just as a quick aside, since it seems to be largely archaic at this point, but in MMOs mob was the term for a single target. Several targets was more likely to be referred to as a group or a spawn. There are a variety of explanations given, mob being a shorthand/acronym for MOBile or Mobile OBject being the most common. i think it may even date back to the MUDs and MUSHes that were the ancestors of the MMO.

[Paragon Avenger]

Just as a quick aside, since it seems to be largely archaic at this point, but in MMOs mob was the term for a single target. Several targets was more likely to be referred to as a group or a spawn. There are a variety of explanations given, mob being a shorthand/acronym for MOBile or Mobile OBject being the most common. i think it may even date back to the MUDs and MUSHes that were the ancestors of the MMO.

However, the word mob meaning a group of people pre-dates all on-line games and even on-line it's self.
The other meaning of mob is organized crime, which is not an acronym.  If it is, I don't know it.

[LaughingAlex]

However, the word mob meaning a group of people pre-dates all on-line games and even on-line it's self.
The other meaning of mob is organized crime, which is not an acronym.  If it is, I don't know it.

Many mmorpg terms are strangely distorted or came to mean something different than what the word originally meant:

Add(original):  To increase in number.

"Adds"(HATE THIS USE OF IT BECAUSE IT SOUNDS STUPID!) in mmorpg: Reinforcements, Backup, ambush, summoned, built enemy ect.  This term imo needs to die, it's not specific enough by any means.  Probably 10 year olds screwed this one up since they didn't know the proper definitions for extra badguys.  Yes, I dispise this use of the word THAT much.
Mob(Original): The mass of people who are generally unthinking, or mass of badguys with no cohesion, proper formation or ability to think.
Mob(MMO): Enemy npc, Mobs for enemy npc's, which is silly, as mob was plural in general.  I suspect 10 year olds screwed the term up to, when they heard older players refering to large groups of npc's as mobs since they probably just mashed together, got stuck on each other, tended to try and chase players up impassable terrain and clumped together like the AI does in Totally accurate battle simulator.
Noob: Short for newbie, but slowly came to mean "idiot who refused to learn how to play better".

Scrub(Original): Doctor in training(really).
Scrub(Sirlin, and my usual definition): Jerk who hates how other people play, also tends to be unable to improve at the game due to his construct of artificial rules.  Can sometimes be a good player, or even a top player, but will become obsolete and irrelevant, and gives gamers a bad reputation.
Scrub(distorted): Noob, usually the scrubs use of the word scrub, ironicly.

Elite: Someone awesome at the job or combat role, often the best of the best.  It's originally meant to be a good thing to be.
Elitist(Common, these days): Jerk who hoards all the money and doesn't pay his subordinates.
Elitist(Gamer): Jerk who hates others for how they play but is extremely good at the game and regularly changes to newer tactics when old ones are obsoleted.  Has a tendency to give good gamers who enjoy playing competitively and even get paid for it a bad reputation(See, for example, Idra of SC2 before he quit).  Can overlap with Scrub(Sirlin).

Just some examples of how the definition of some terms change for gamers.

[Abraxus]

Ah, Halloween!  The only day of the year when I feel the terrible yearning to knock on a door, and have a trio of witches, werewolves, Carnival of Shadows, or Fir Bolg answer!

[Arcana]

However, the word mob meaning a group of people pre-dates all on-line games and even on-line it's self.
The other meaning of mob is organized crime, which is not an acronym.  If it is, I don't know it.

The word "mob" as used to refer to a generic group of people is not common usage and it is unlikely many people used the word in that sense before hearing the term used commonly in MMOs due to its original reference.  I think a lot of people hear spawns referred to as "mobs" and assume it refers to the colloquial definition of the word, but that's just linguistic momentum.  In fact, I cannot think of any cases where "spawns" were referred to as "a mob" until long after a single "spawn" was referred to as "a mob."

It is the singular/plural nature of the words that gives away the etymology.  Back in the day, a *group* of individual NPCs were referred to as "mobs" - plural - and *never* "a mob" - singular.  Only later were "mobs" shortened to "mob" by people unfamiliar with the old school origin.  Since the traceable origin of the term is that a single NPC was a "mob" and a group was "a group of mobs" long before people were referring to a group of NPCs as "a mob" the original colloquial (but not common) use of the word "mob" to refer to a group of people is almost certainly coincidental.

In plain usage, the word "mob" almost never refers to a generic group of people (or things) but rather to a disorganized or unruly group of things.  That's generally inconsistent with how almost all NPC groups are perceived in MMOs.

[Sinistar]

Ah, Halloween!  The only day of the year when I feel the terrible yearning to knock on a door, and have a trio of witches, werewolves, Carnival of Shadows, or Fir Bolg answer!

I always enjoyed parking my MM pets at the doors and just keep on knocking.... monsters come out and pets go to town, rinse, repeat and smile.

[Arcana]

Since I ran mostly ranged attackers, blaster/defenders/cors, I found that there was more than one optimal attack chain depending on what I was attacking.  A single target had a different chain than a mob.  Even inspirations play into that chain.  Best I'd seen against a mob was 1 red, 1 yellow, build up, aim, rain of arrows.  minions dead, lts dying, bosses about half gone.  That was before they nerfed roa of course

I was presenting the definition of the term as it was generally accepted at the time across the vast majority of players who cared about such things.  "Optimal" in this case meant something quantitatively unambiguous.  What you're describing is more precisely described as the "preferred attack sequence" which generates some specified result in the best (judged by some standard) possible way.

It is worth noting that the attack sequence that defeats a particular spawn the fastest is not necessarily identical to the quantitative optimal attack chain.

Which Rain of Arrows nerf are you referring to?  It currently slips my mind when RoA's effective damage was significantly curtailed.

[LadyVamp]

I was presenting the definition of the term as it was generally accepted at the time across the vast majority of players who cared about such things.  "Optimal" in this case meant something quantitatively unambiguous.  What you're describing is more precisely described as the "preferred attack sequence" which generates some specified result in the best (judged by some standard) possible way.

It is worth noting that the attack sequence that defeats a particular spawn the fastest is not necessarily identical to the quantitative optimal attack chain.

Which Rain of Arrows nerf are you referring to?  It currently slips my mind when RoA's effective damage was significantly curtailed.

I was using the definition of mob to mean a group of enemies vs a single enemy.

I've never heard of a universal optimal attack that worked best in all situations, but then I preferred ranged attackers over melee or pet type toons.  Though I can see how always attacking with a specific sequence could be developed for controllers, masterminds, and the non-ranged attacking toons that would be optimal against any single enemy or mob.

I don't remember which issue nerfed RoA but I can tell you I stopped playing the toon about a year and a half before the announced shutdown.  Prior to the nerfing, a friend who had an archer/nrg blaster (same powersets as on mine) and I could walk through a mission nearly as fast as a team of 8 players with the usual assortment of arch types.  One of us would pop a red insp + build up + aim + RoA + that fanned arrow attack.  minions all dead.  LTs nearly dead.  Bosses half dead.  Usually 1 to 2 single target attacks would finish the LTs.  He'd take one LT.  I'd take the other.  Lastly, he and I together would then finish the boss together with the flaming arrow attack.  It's been a few years so I don't remember the actual names of the powers.

Ventrillo would help us stay coordinated.  We'd alternate who would do the insp+build up+aim+RoA combo.  Both of us would fire that fanned arrow attack and then follow up with the single target powers.

[Tubbius]

Ah, Halloween!  The only day of the year when I feel the terrible yearning to knock on a door, and have a trio of witches, werewolves, Carnival of Shadows, or Fir Bolg answer!

I miss the Halloween Trick or Treating.  I miss more Baby New Year and cruising Atlas Park in search of presents.