EvilGeko

I'll echo this. Using sleet and ice storm regularly seems to help, not hurt my drops.

It's not a sure thing. I suspect that even at the best participation range, you still have a chance at uncommon. But hitting teammates (with buffs) in my experience counts as hitting stuff. My Cold/Ice has gotten a couple of very rares and quite a few rares and that isn't just luck.

You're correct, but really we've gotten tons of complaints about just this tip toe out of of the steamroll express. The devs could really make this interesting, but then it wouldn't be as accessible. I'm sure later raids will have different mechanics, but I'm still happy that we don't have the snooze inducing bags of HP of yesteryear.

I'm not sure any pets count. I'm thinking it's exactly what I said upthread. Hit a lot of stuff, get good rewards.

I doubt it. Here's why. I do not believe for one moment that the Level Shifts will go above +4-+6 with +4 being the most likely. Reason being is that I think the devs will always want to make sure that a level 50 can make some contribution to the trials. A pure level 50, without even the Alpha Shift, can contribute to the trials. It's just like any character fighting +4 mobs. They aren't as useful as someone running at +3, but then that person didn't start there either.

The only thing I would do if I didn't want to run these over and over is focus on 1-2 characters to run them. So if you're going to do them perhaps 20 times, then at least you'll have a solid basis for a couple of Incarnates. For my, my real life is too busy and too hectic to get my whole stable of 11 level 50s to T3s in each slot. So I picked 3. Two are at T3 in each slot, one is on her way to that. I don't feel like I'm 'farming'. I only play a trial or two a day.

Again, that's irrelevant to the point I was making. To the extent that one could come up with an objective scale of "casual" to "hardcore", CoH's endgame scores far on the casual side of that scale.

Whatever you think of endgame systems is not germane to that point.

Whether CoH appeals to the casuals or the hardcore is in my opinion is a false choice. It appeals to both IMO. It's very casual friendly, more casual friendly than most TFs. It's not really any more difficult either, it just took time for people to learn the encounters. Just like with most of the recent TFs.

Do you just say things over and over. I did not make the point that any alleged 'shortcomings' in other endgame systems justify any of your imagined 'shortcomings' in CoH.

Here's your accusation:

Your premise is that I was trying to excuse CoH by mentioning a system that was worse. But the flaw is your analysis, is that I find NEITHER system to be problematic. Everquest II, the example I used, is more difficult than CoH by several degrees, but that doesn't mean its bad. But it does mean that it's MUCH MORE HARDCORE. Which is the only point I was making. You decided to insert your own bias into my statement instead of just reading it.

Oh for goodness sakes, please whatever you do, don't play the victim. You guys are making yourselves unhappy, while others are just having fun. I have no problem with folks making reasonable critiques, for example, the participation code doesn't seem fair or transparent.

But making absurd claims like this endgame system is "hardcore" (not saying you said that, using that as an example) when it's by far the most casual friendly raiding I've ever seen is just beyond the pale.

Likewise your critique about player retention is frankly nonsense. I believe you said you play on Liberty. Well, look, that's just not a high population server. It's no condemnation of the Incarnate system that everyone is playing the trials now. I suspect it's the same for most new content systems. I'd bet on August 18th of last year, you would have had a heck of a time getting a high level team. New content draws people. When it's focused on the beginning of the game like Issue 18, then you're going to have people playing in the beginning. Here in Issue 20, the content is focused on the end (technically the middle and the end, but the new TFs don't really give much reward currently compared to the trials), so that's where people are playing.

Actually there was quite a bit of recruiting.

But don't let things like facts stop you guys. You're on a roll. Let me ask you this. In three months when all this dies down and the game's still here and you all have been proven wrong like so many before you (see e.g. Issue 9, Issue 19), what then?

Because you know, we've been down this road before. Many times. There's no great change in focus, no shutting out of the casual player, no harm to the game. There's just a vocal group of people complaining about an update that a lot of other people are having a blast with. We've been here before and we'll be here again. Just like with every other MMORPG.

Of course, not even close to the point I was making but thanks for the comment.

Just logged a level 2 into Virtue (not my home server). This is what I saw.



A new player is likely to go to one of the higher pop servers if they're looking for people. So that objection is meaningless to me.

You very obviously don't know what a hardcore endgame system would look like. Your credibility with me became absolutely zero when you complained about how 'hardcore' these are so please don't believe that I care one bit about your approval or validation.

These raids were done by PUGs on day 1. In a real hardcore system, the hardcore raiders would be complaining to high heaven about how "carebear" and "easymode" this system is. There are raids called "easymode" in Everquest II that a PUG raid would NEVER clear. I mean ever. They are raids that take practicing for weeks just to take down ONE boss. Then you spend another couple of weeks on the next boss in the SAME ZONE. To clear a zone could take you 3 months. This is for a easymode raid. For the "hardmode" raids it could take a year before ANYONE out of hundreds of thousands of players would finish it.

I'm sorry that you gave up so easily on these trials. That's your choice. But right now on Justice, people are running these trials constantly back to back. People get disappointed if they let any of the prisoners escape. Failure isn't even within contemplation. Less than two weeks in and people have multiple characters kitted out with all their T4s. There's absolutely nothing hardcore about this endgame system.

So did everyone just forget that major solo friendly system added in I18?

Tips provide story based missions, most of them divorced from Praetoria. These missions are all soloable. If you have Going Rogue, these missions can be highly rewarding, both from a RP standpoint (alignment), badges (for changing alignments and doing other faction's missions), and power (inventions). These missions opened up the strongest inventions in the game to everyone. They made formerly pricey inventions, like LoTG 7.5% easy to obtain for a casual time commitment. In Issue 19, they added more of these missions as well as adding more Morality missions to cap them off.

How do people reconcile to themselves the belief that the devs are making a major change in focus? That's the most patently ridiculous complaint about Issue 20. The devs decided to create a highly casual friendly endgame system. For the first issue in three, we don't have specific soloable content added and this apparently constitutes a major change in focus.

If you want to quit fine, that is your choice. But the devs haven't abandoned casual gamers in ANY way.

Couple of things:

1) This is completely unnecessary. It's not that I don't get it, it's just not needed. The specific situation you posit, where you're mid-way through collecting the items for a craft, does not provide anywhere near sufficient justification to introduce a potentially confusing downgrade path. As we have explained, if you're starting from scratch with a combine, you can use either the shard of the thread recipe. So the ONLY reason for this idea is for those who are mid-way through a combine but don't want to just finish their combine via the shard activities (i.e. just playing the game).

Can you not see how such an idea is unnecessary?

2) The "I'm trying to help the casual gamer" argument is specious and I really wish people would stop using it. The "casual gamer" is an empty shell through which people pour their hopes, dreams and petty grievances. The term is meaningless because I doubt any two people would even agree what a casual gamer is. Furthermore, I don't see how this helps anyone I would consider a 'casual gamer' because they're going to be much more likely to be doing the shard activities anyway.

Then finish what you began. *channels Yoda*

If you only need that one component, go do a TF. A Notice of the Well breaks down to 4 guaranteed shards which gives you any common component.
People already complain this is too complicated.

Doesn't matter. Let's say you have a Spiritual uncommon that your crafted from shards and TF components. You can craft the rare power using solely thread components. After I20 launched you do not have to use shards again unless you want to.

All of the Alpha recipes have thread salvage counterparts.

Sigh....

Between the DoT and the -resist, this power you're calling tragically laughable is one of the top tier powers released in Issue 20. Is it as flashy as Judgment? No. But it's adding that damage constantly, consistently.

Astral(s). Simple and to the point.

Sam's ability to belittle others while playing the victim is legendary. This was a very impressive sentence. Even more so because I believe he said at one point that English wasn't his first language. His facility with it, however, is amazing.

Honestly, a disinterested observer probably has a better recollection than Sam does in this instance.

I'm speaking of Sam in the third person, because I'm apparently one of these "internet tough guys" who tells him he sucks. I would defy anyone to ever find such a statement, but there you go.

"I don't like how the devs made this," while a valid opinion, is not an argument either and any rebuttal to it is equally valid as an opinion.