Johnny_Butane

I often run content that is unrewarding. I'm swimming in Inf across many characters and have long ago unlocked my Roman costume parts. Yet I'm always up for an ITF because it's a blast.

That's why I take Posi's comment as an admission of guilt they know the Trials aren't enjoyed by a larger number of people. People will do what they think is fun. That is an ironclad assertion as old as mankind. If they're afraid people would stop running Trials with no carrot, that should be a sign.

If the people want 'quicker and easier' like the AE, who are the devs to object? I'd rather not be told what kind of content I "should" like because it warrants inferior rewards.


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Thank you for clarifying, but to be honest, you guys never promised us a viable solo path, which is kind of the problem. We were given the standard "we hear your complaints" reply, but you never publicly committed to bringing us one, just that you understood we wanted one.

Again, this is reasonable, but this information could have been made known sooner.

We don't get to see the big white board. We don't know where you are in the development cycle. We don't get to see that you shuffled things around to put a solo path into i22 so we can stop going on about it unless you tell us.

I feel I have to point something out to you.
The above quote, should be a red flag.

If Trials would shrivel up because players were given an alternate yet equal way of getting the rewards they offer, maybe that's an indication that the majority of people don't like Trials.

You don't have to BRIBE people to do things they want to do, that they enjoy.

Because essentially, what you're admitting to is exactly that; bribing people to run content they really wouldn't want to run on its own merit.

Now, obviously some people *gasp* love running the trials in and of themselves, and some people surely love to team. But since you think the Trials would shrivel up if you took the Trial-only-carrot away, that must mean you think they are in the minority.

So, why are you creating content that you know and admit only appeals to the few and putting their desires ahead of the majority?

IMO that is exactly what you do with Trials and other "team content":

With only a couple exceptions, ALL regular arcs can be run by solo players AND teams. 'Team content' like trials can really only be run by teams.

In other worlds:

-Soloable content serves both camps of players; those who solo and those who team.
-Trials, TFs and other 'team content' only serves one camp.

And again, you can't argue that you honestly think the solo camp is minor or insignificant since you say Trials would shrivel up without them.



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Right.
In the same way both DC and Marvel have a character named 'Match'.
One is a mutant with fire powers, one is a Bizarro Superboy.

The likely reason 'Bastion' had to be changed to Citadel is because both are humanoid robots and that was close enough for Marvel to wave a stick at Cryptic since they were already on Marvel's radar. Even if Marvel didn't have a real case, the threat of costly litigation can be enough to scare a smaller company into compliance.



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To people who've been asking for a viable solo tract since the day the system was announced? Yes.



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You don't have to be an idiot to make idiotic decisions.

The dev team has made plenty of mistakes and missteps. Some they get around to fixing sooner than others. Some they just ignore.

I'd rather they got Enhancement Boosters, their pricing and their effectiveness right the first time. They've yet to indicate they are going to, because the prices haven't changed to reflect the feedback despite this going Live being "imminent". Yes they still have time to change it, but continued concern until they actually do is justified.



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I have the feeling that this will be the case.

Even if it isn't, 4 Astrals per week is still pretty pathetic and insulting.


So, 98 weeks (1.8 years) for one Tier 4 if we can run 4 arcs a week for Astrals.



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Keep in mind when the FIRST pic of the CoT revamp came out, few would have looked at it and have been able to identify it as such without first being told. They were, and still are are, a considerable step away from the old look.


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Are you sure that's what they said that was for? I ask because we have Vahzilok mobs called Abominations, and my first impression looking at that pic was that they gave them the CoT costume revamp treatment.






I'm going to chime in with the others who've already said so and agree that one Astral every seven days is pathetic.




You know, I absolutely think they're going to interpret that data wrong and conclude that the Enhancement Boosters and their pricing is fine. I know I bought a ton in the Beta. For the negligible difference they make, they aren't worth the absurd prices they're at currently. They aren't even worth the effort it takes the muscles in my hand and the neurons firing in my brain to manipulate the mouse and operate the enhancement GUI to combine them.






Could that be a major spoiler?
The story has implied that time is cyclical, with Daedalus, Solaris, Imperious, etc being stand ins for their modern counterparts. If Solaris's temple is smashed in the past, what does that bode for Sister Psyche's future?



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Fair enough.


In the case of the devs, that's debatable.




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I haven't see one.

I don't think there's very much to discuss.

We've got i21 in our hands. It's still too early for them to talk about i22. There's nothing really for them to announce, aside from the VIP server name.

We know about Titan Weapons. We know about Staff Melee. They've hinted at a bunch of custom weapons are on the way. The devs officially announcing those things really doesn't illicit much discussion because that's been done to death.

I don't expect any major surprises this weekend, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.


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The third application doesn't actually do anything, no matter what the icon says. Rage will only stack once with itself for a maximum of two applications.
I've tried it.


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"Gee, it didn't work the last four times and only continued to hurt sales. Let's try the same thing again!"

It goes to show how stupid the suits with the money are. I'd pose this question to them:

If DiDio, Jim Lee and Geoff Johns were the hot spit they constantly make themselves out to be, the sales on the books wouldn't have degraded to the point they have to do a reboot.

So why are you giving them free reign to restart your whole line as THEY see fit?

It's BECAUSE of them the books have been sliding the past 10 years, because they're full of it and don't know how to run the company. If they did, you wouldn't be at this point.


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Even the easier Incarnate trials, they generally don't throw anything less than a Lieutenant at you. It's mostly Bosses and you're looking at sheer numbers of greater than formerly so-called 'hazard size' spawns.

In general, the enemies make use of stacking buffs and debuffs. They summon multiple drone pets that buff them and debuff you.

They exploit common weaknesses that are harder to build to cover (psi damage to threaten the Invul tankers, Regeneration debuffs to target Willpower and -Def debuffs for everyone else).

They also pull outright cheating tactics like Mag 999 Holds, autohit unresisted damage, placating and confusion.

Lastly, a good portion of the Incarnate trials are about misdirection. They just put enemies in as padding/distraction to cheap shot players who are paying attention to more immediate threats. Imagine trying to dodge lightning while grey con Minions mez you. The enemies are no threat in themselves and would melt with a single Fire Ball or Foot Stomp. Nor do they really reward anything for defeating them. They just exist to be annoying and cheap if you forget even once to cull them regularly.

Ultimately, they function as a time sink, needing large numbers to be defeated arbitrarily to progress.



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The Coming Storm is the Battalion. They're almost here.
People are still debating the letter writer.

The accolade powers were normalized so every hero one had a villain counterpart and vice-versa and getting one automatically got you the other.

There were a few new accolade-like powers added for the Morality Alignment system that you get for maintaining an alignment for more than seven days. As an example, if you are a Hero already, you must do 10 hero alignment missions followed by the Hero morality mission to affirm your heroic alignment and then wait seven days to get the power. If you change alignments, you lose your previous alignment's power and begin the countdown for the new alignment's power.

Call to Justice for Heroes:
6 minutes recharge
PBAoE, Allies +DMG, +To Hit for 30 seconds
+40% Damage(All) for 30s
+10% ToHit for 30s


Duplicity for Rogues:
3 minutes recharge
PBAoE, Foe Confuse, -Damage
2 magnitude Confuse for 10s
-10% Damage(All) for 15s


Fear Incarnate for Vigilantes
3 minutes recharge
PBAoE, Foe Terrorize, -To Hit
2 magnitude Terririze for 10s
-10% ToHit(All) for 15s


Frenzy for Villains:
6 minutes recharge
Self +Recharge, +Special
+30% Recharge for 20s
Brute: +100% Fury
Dominator: +100% Domination
Stalker: Hide, +40% Damage(All) for 20s
All Others: +60% Damage(All) for 20s



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I don't envy them either, but I do blame them.
It's a situation they created. Even if an individual team member inherited the problems of the past, it's still their job to do something about it. As opposed to passing the buck until the next guy fills the seat.

There's still real issues regarding the melee ATs and the current dev stance seems to be "well, just let 'em do whatever" at best. At worst, I suspect there's a heavy personal bias going on. That's the only way I can explain stuff like the AT-specific IO sets with Brutes and Scrappers getting buffs to Fury and Crits, but Tankers getting stuck with a stupid +Res proc.

IOs and Incarnate powers simply allow Scrappers and Brutes to become more survivable to everything in the game without giving up any damage. My Incarnate Brute is tougher than ever. Meanwhile, my Incarnate Tanker hit the damage cap long ago and is still out damaged. Even if the devs added more damage buffs to the Incarnate system, they'd do my Tanker no good.

And no, it doesn't take a high end build or maxed Incarnates for a Tanker to hit the damage cap. Rage, Hasten, Musculature and Assault from the Leadership pool put you dangerously close. It's even easier with Shield, which I don't even have.



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Right. Even though they got a sizable improvement with being able to Crit on any attack even when not Hidden (which improves the more people they are teamed with) and their AS causing a chance for enemies nearby to become Fear mezzed.


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Fat?



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They've been seen in the store, AFAIK, so they should be able to be bought whenever they arrive.

Positron also said the new Signature arcs will have "special rewards", so there's another possibility.



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You can't "stack rage twice"
Two applications of Rage is 'stacked Rage'

'Stacked twice' would be three applications of the power.


While that can happen, the third application has no effect.



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How would I know?
That's just what is written on the IO.



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