Twilight Forums

Just now I've hit a little goal that I halfheartedly set for myself a while back; hitting over 500,000 minutes worth of the two major Gadgeteer buffs:

Upgrade Armor: Resistance - 508236.63 min
Upgrade Weapons: Self-Balancing - 508236.63 min

That's 8470.6205 hours each. That's 352.94252083 days.

In hitting my magic number, I began to think that I must not be the only one whose buffs are paid up for (most of) the next year. Heck, I've been maintaining two buffs at the same level at the cost of 5 and 8 PP/cast respectively. Somebody out there could have achieved over 1.5 million minutes worth of Vim for the same cost, so my question to you, wider community, is how deeply are you invested into your buff pool? When, if ever, do you plan to stop building them up, and, like me, are you occasionally beset by the urge to just shrug it all away?

Alongside that, I have another question. I'm currently level 67, and late-gaming by anybody's definition. That said, the equipment available to me does differ significantly to that of the storyline-level players, which I accept. My question is whether or not you, the playerbase as a whole, is happy with the current buff durations per cast, and if you would propose any changes.

I'll hold off on a poll unless this thread actually gains some steam.

-Chugs.

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I maintain the 4 auras (but not the new dual aura for + or - combat) and biofeedback. Currently, I have 461k minutes in all 5 (each gives 30 minutes per cast at the moment). The auras are 4 PP for vim, 8 PP for mystery, 12 PP for vigor, 16 PP for keen observation, and biofeedback is 10 PP. I don't plan to stop. And I'm not sure what your second question is asking.

To put it as frankly as possible, the Trident of Nodens has significantly increased my rate of PP regen, and subsequently the rate at which I can buff. The Trident isn't available to low-level (or even mid-level) players, so I'm establishing a significant difference between what is available to the bulk of the playerbase and what is available to the higher-end.

From my position, I'm so far ahead of breaking even with PP maintenance that I'll never revert to a non-buffed state short of shrugging. What I am asking, however, is what the bulk of the playerbase thinks about PP costs vs availability. I remember when I was around level 15 and, in my quite sub-optimal state, relied solely on my Lover's Locket's regeneration and still was making a slow increase in my buff duration (buffing for about 1350 minutes of each per day). I'm wondering if that's the case for a number of people, and if they think the cost vs duration vs availability system needs some editing.

Hopefully, although I doubt it, that made the second question clearer.

-Chugs.

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Eh. I personally think that IotM's contribute alot more. All of my PP regen comes from IotM's unless someone used a lost item on me. Afterall, the Trident can only be used at really late levels, so in general, it will never be unbalancing to the game. The IotM's, on the other hand, can be used whenever (short of a hardcore mode, if there is one, but again, I doubt you'd go to those late levels in hardcore). Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the trident doesn't necessarily increase your PP gain rate. It allows you to do more damage than the other PP regen weapons, so you can kill enemies easier, but as far as I know, the overall amount gained from each is the same. At late levels and with decent equipment, it usually doesn't matter if you're using a weaker weapon, unless you're in one of the later clock zones.

I'm not saying that I'm playing in anything near an optimum manner, quite the opposite in fact, but even in being sub-optimal, the gains are still sizable. Somebody specifically aiming for large amounts of PP could turn over more than 100 hours worth of buff-duration a day, which stops buffs from being maintained, but rather pooled, at least in late-game circumstances. I'm yet to get an opinion from more mid-range players.



You're right, depending on what other equipment you were using beforehand. The %damage returned as PP is limited by the HP of the mobs that you fight, so overkilling in low-level areas doesn't net anywhere near the returns of clock-accessible areas.

Really, what I'm interrogating here is really more relevant to the game some years from now. When the playerbase has increased significantly and buffbots become plentiful, and this is especially relevant with you point about IotMs, the availability of large-duration buffs (obviously not relevant to my original example, as they are self-buffs) being accessible to the entire community could make independence a thing of the past. Then again, maybe I'm just over-thinking this.

-Chugs.

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Considering any long-term plan includes being able to reset yourself in the game, and any such reset will necessarily strip buffs from the player, I don't see how long durations are a concern. If level 2 players were able to buff themselves with thousands of minutes of buffs, I would worry, but high level players being able to do lots of buffs isn't very troubling.

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The churches are empty / The priest has gone home / And we are left standing / Together alone
--October Project: "Dark Time"