Lazarillo

1. I don't know the numbers on Incarnate XP, so I'll let someone else handle that one. Based on my experience thusfar, it takes about three raids to get the first slot unlocked, and four more for the second.

2. The thing to remember about all the new Salvage is that, outside of the occasional badge-Salvage, everything is made by converting threads, or through a reward table where you get to pick what you want. I put together a "shopping list" for the characters I wanted to take through the trial. Basically just went up each tree, to the Rare level, and wrote down what I would need. Took about 15 minutes, and now I just check off stuff as I get it. Probably the easiest way to handle things.

3. I don't think there's a way to search for people who want to get into a raid specifically, but you can always advertise via global channels and pre-form your league before you start. I'll note that, again, based on personal experience, I've been on three BAFs so far, two succeeded and one failed, and the one that failed was an "organized" one. The raids still scale to party members, so going in with a minimal group actually seems to have helped, since it limited the number of 9CUs that spawned.

See, I'm in the opposite boat. Nightstar is pretty impressive, but we've had her that way for a coupla issues now.

New Siege...well, he's better than Old Siege, I'll give him that. But he basically just looks like a more colorful War Walker. Oh, and he's smaller. War Walkers are totallly awesome because they're freakin' huge, though. Siege is a little War Walker. Not very imposing. I'm pretty sure "The Littlest War Walker" was a Saturday morning special I saw on TPN3 a few years back. Siege either needs to be hella bigger, or he needs to have a hologram face, or something (ala the ACCHUD aura?).

...I do like watching him twitch, though. I need a good "point and laugh" emote for after he's beat.

This sounds entertaining. Don't watch too many new anime series like I used to, but I'm going to have to at least give this one a try.

In addition to the three you mentioned, there's at least one set, Kinetic Crash (for knockback powers) that also grants Knockback protection if you slot a few in a power, though that means your powers will be doing more knockback (which you may or may not want for a melee set), provided you have any powers that can take them anyway.

With regard to the big 3, lower levels are actually better than higher ones, since they work like set bonuses, the lower the level of the enhancement, the lower you can exemp and still use it. If you're buying them with Merits or A-Merits, best to go low. They don't have any aspects that are enhanced by being a higher level. Since they work like set bonuses, they also protect you even when the powers they're slotted in aren't running or available.

For Fire and Dark Armors specifically, the Steadfast protection one will be the easiest to find a space for. I'm pretty sure those aren't unique, I know I have at least one Fire Armor tank that uses two of them. A Steadfast would go great in Temperature Protection. You can also stick a Karma in Combat Jumping, since you'll probably want that for Immobilize protection (or, if you're using Dark Armor, in Cloak of Darkness). For the BOTZ, consider sticking 'em in the Veteran Sprint powers that you will otherwise never use, more than likely.

As a reference to effectiveness, just one -4 Knockback invention will prevent about 90% of what you're hit with in the game. Two of them will turn even the nastiest knockback effects (e.g., Fake Nemesis staves) into knockdown, and three will pretty much ensure you never lose your balance again.

Slipping in to borrow this topic, since my own question is tangentially related.

I've finally had a chance to really play around with Dark Miasma recently, so I'm still learning all the ins and outs. Howling Twilight as a debuff I have got down pat. I love going VOOOOWOM and everything just kinda waits to get beaten on and whatnot.

But let's say, hypothetically, just hypothetically, mind, that I did, in fact, want to rez with it. I'm actually finding that bit kinda tricky. I've noticed that a ring appears underneath me when I use it, should I assume that's the radius on the rez part? I seem to have a lot of trouble getting the hang of spacing for it. If the ring isn't the best rule of thumb, does anyone have any other tips than "Make sure you can /e drumdance on the dead guy's body before activating it"?

Perhaps the NCSoft Downloader can't handle pre-downloads the way the CoH-specific one did? Perhaps the use of the NCSoft Downloader in the first place alleviates the need for such?

Seems like it's been long-since ready, so that's not a huge surprise, though I sorta expected them to sit on it a little while longer. Time to grind, grind, grind, grind, and grind some more!

...so when's i21?