Wicked_Wendy

I'm not even sure if Stealth helps much. Each Containment Chamber and Weapons Cache is surrounded by troops. I suppose if you had recall friends you could scout out glowies and then TP in help but that takes more time. This is one portion of the trial where simple SPEED and trying to stay together are your best friend. When the team gets split up that is when players start dying.. 6 people in one spot divides up the attacks being flung at you. if you rush down a corridor solo.. everything there focuses its attack on YOU.

Take heart.. I hit 50(+3) Yesterday and suddenly my defenses imrpoved to where I can run past just about anything and survive.

We have all seen it recently... The WST is announced and by Tuesday evening 40 players are standing around the contact and everyone is waiting for someone to actually start a team. Same thing is going on periodically in places like Pocket D and the RWZ with the new trials.

Okay some people have legitimate reasons for not wanting the mantle of leadership thrust upon them. Things like:

1. I have never done this trial before and have no idea what to do or what we need to make a good team.

2. I've run ten TFs the past day and a half and would like to just relax and let someone else do the dirty work

I have taken my turn as a leader but on certain things I shy away from it because I am on a laptop with a wireless internet connection and at times I crash. I feel bad when suddenly someone else has leadership THRUST upon them because I went poof. This also can result in drastic changes that affect the team. Last night I did decide to run an ITF and COH crashed everyone... when we all got back on line one of the other team members had returned first and was now "THE LEADER". His settings were +4X8 and we suddenly found ourselves taking forever to take down one ambush in the second mission.. we had steam rolled through mission one and were doing the same in two prior to the crash. Before long we'd lost like 4 members and the TF folded. I will still lead at times but try not to unless just NO one at all is taking charge

So lets look at the horrible amount of work a leader has to do and the mind shattering decisions to be made. Maybe I can convince a couple of you that it isn't THAT bad.

1. Build a team .. depending on the time of day and other events going on this can be a bit of a task but when there are 30 people standing around the contact all typing in broadcast "Looking for [insert name of TF or Trial here]. you can build a team in minutes and probably even pick and chose what to invite. When there are fewer people around a few well placed ads on the right globals will normally get you a series of tells asking to join.

2. Decide what you are going to do. .. SPEED RUN? KILL ALL? or something in between? two approaches to this that work.. 1) Hey its MY team so we do what I want OR 2) just ask the team what does everyone want to do. In most cases more than half don't care one way or the other and the others will usually either say I need SHARDS/XP I'd like a kill all or I only have a little time on line I'd like a Speed run. Ultimately it is your decision .. One thing I'd suggest to avoid people quitting on you is MAKE the decision for yourself in advance and advertise what YOU want to do.

Okay the hard part is done now the biggest decision you need to make varies depending on what you are doing:

3a. Lambda Trial which team is going after the acid and which goes after the grenades. Part two of that is does every keep what get or pass it along to one person. Most of the rest of this trial is a simple matter of picking a direction to run in while defeating everything that moves.

3b. BAF trial who is going to which starting point during the escapee phase. Aside from that the rest is pretty much just KILL anything in your way. About the only horrid decision to make is.. who is going to go taunt the AV to the tennis courts. OUT OF CONTEXT.. what is a tennis coourt doing in the middle of a prison?

3c. ITF are we climbing the hill and killing the two spawns or are we headed straight up to rescue the Sybil in mission one? In mission three do we want to fight through lag valley for the added XP/SHARD drops or pull the generals and then head to the computer. In mission four are we fighting our way to Romulus or headed straight there and then attacking the towers?

OKAY I could go one forever and break down every single TF here but I think you see you point. The biggest decision a leader needs to make is to actually form a team. The majority of players KNOW what needs to be done and with very little direction will go about doing it. Your hardest job after building the team is getting back to the contact after mission one to get mission TWO. After that you normally have their phone number and can contact them as fast as you exit for the next assignment.

Now there are times when jumping in and leading is NOT a good idea. I got to run part of one BAF trial on test during a sneak peak so until I had a few under my belt no way I wanted to do anything but follow. The Lambda was even worse.. I never saw that until it was live .. but last night I was one of the two team leaders on one and was prompting throughout because I had two players on my team that had never done one before....

OH that does bring up one point. Be prepared to explain stuff so don't lead if you don't know what needs to be done. That Lambda I did last night went well but the leader, like many, was already assuming that everyone on the team had done the trial countless times and aside from deciding who took what elevator in part two didn't brief at all. I was in team chat making sure my new players didn't rush to the vators and start the count down, used or handed me their pacification grenades, didn't attack Maurader until the other team closed the portals, etc.

There is a reverse side of that. DON'T become a micro manager! I one starred a team leader a few weeks ago that put together an STF. Everyone on that team had done the task force multiple times but this guy felt the need to constantly bark out orders and explain in detail exactly what we needed to do next. By the end we were all so tired of him .. It is the only TF I can recall of recently where not a single player thanked the leader for the invite and the team. We all just took our prizes and quit. in other word ..team leader does not mean I CAN BE A TOTAL JERK!

LOOK no one is going to blame you if the TF fails.. and if they do who cares? if you put together a PUG chances are you may not see those people again for week, months, or ever again. As long as you are fair and make it a fun experience you have accomplished most of what a leader needs to do. Now get out there and take charge LOL

well the first problem with that is the same one I discovered with Justine Augustine's TF. Way too many hunts and in zones where a 50 level isn't going to even earn influence much less get shard drops. The second is the fact that aside from players just starting a new character down the incarnate path the mad rush to do the weekly WST is slowing while the incarnate rush from Trial to Trial working on their new powers. I have ONE character that still needs a few notices to make tier four and all the rest are now working on the new trials and trying to open the new powers.

Not saying NO ONE is out there doing the WST this week but on Virtue the call for an ITF has been silneced by the call for a BAF or LAMBDA. It's going to take more than upping the level so 50's can be 50 to get people working for Doc Q. Now I did it myself on my badger a while back,, and I am talking a month ago or so not a few years LOL With ouro portals and Mission teleporters the time has reduced significantly. The team I was on finished in a little over 4 hours.. still a HUGE span of time compared to many newer TFS. Upping the level wont help... they need to sit down and do what they did with Positron.. Rewrite the thing and cut the missions and the time down! until then the only people that will spend the time on one are crazy badgers.. like ME

Joined this afternoon.. I finished one BAF trial to discover I was 1% away from opening LORE.. I'd been hoarding threads and actually building enhancers .. I went back in and one the 1st mob I faces I had LORE... when I came out I also had everything I needed to slot it with a tier 3 and complete my journey to the +3 club

Oh yes now I truly am a Goddess! hehehe

Your Mother was a hamister AND you smell of Elderberries! LOL Gratz on that.. I have managed the one for NOT turning off any guns and we came SOOO close last night to the one for not allowing and prisoners to escape. We ended with 2 0r 3 but the first didn't get through until less than 1 minute left

These things come with time .. Heck I still don't have Dodger on my Badger yet. Oddly enough I do have it on two of my other incarnates.

and now, THANKS to Donner and Bass, I have to go do a Monty Python search cause I can't recall of hand what your father and sister were.

I haven't gotten to the 2 new TFs, errr 1 TF and 1 SF to be politically correct lol, but I have done a number of each trial. Day one was a little shakey while people were feeling things out but I was lucky enough to hook up with a few people that had done them on Test and managed to complete a Lambda on day one.. the BAF was bugged and every time I tried to join one I dc'd but thankfully the patch seems to have corrected that and I have completed both now numerous times. So far I have Judgement, Interface and Destiny opened up and Destiny is at teir 3 for the added level shift. I need another 27% to open Lore and I had enough threads, merits and rewards so when I do open it I will probably be slotting a tier 3 immediately for that 2nd level shift. I enjoy both of the trials but do think the BAF is a little more fun.. skipping all those mobs to grab acid and pacifier grenades in the Lambda Section Trial feels a lot like SPEED Running a TF and I have had a few trips to the hospital thanks to that.

I should have all my new powers open today so over the weekend I am planning a TRIAL break and check out the new TFS.

I think what Nalrok is saying is take what the trial gives you and don't stress out if you can't complete the very first try. There are team leaders out there that had the advantage of running numerous BAFs and Lambda's on test and have the strategy down cold... baring bugs these people are probably enjoying a very high rate of success. Then there are those of us that were not in closed BETA or maybe only got one look at the trials during the sneak peak. We are still learning all the ins and outs of the trial and at times this results in a "TRIAL FAILED".

Okay fine but failed or completed there is a good chance you picked up a few Astral merits, a good number of threads and quite a bit of Incarnate XP toward unlocking your powers. I personally joined a few Lambda trials using the turnstile and wound up on a 7-9 man league. We quickly realized we didnt have enough people to complete all the objectives and so we simply settled for what we could accomplish. One one that meant clearing the IDT from around the complex and clearing out the innner courtyard and gun emplacements. We tried to tackle the Security team but that EB was just to stubborn to die so we agreed to cal it quits.. I left with about 10 new threads and 20% closer to opening my Interface. Did we WIN? no but was it worth the effort? YES.

I did another turnstile Lambda where we actually got past the securuty but realized we'd be too few to tackle both the acid and grenades inside. We combined into one team and went for the acid.. Our thoughts being if we sealed off the portals Maurader couldn't get reinforcements and we could get a few grenades outside later. We did manage to get most of the acid and then picked up enough outside to seal all the portals. So NO Atral Merits but we did get to a point where we were fighting Maurader. Unfortunately we didn;t have enough players or enough grenades to succeed but again I left with my Interface now open, enough threads to actually slot it, and a start on opening ip Destiny. So.. again did we win? NO Was everyone satisfied with what they got out of it? YES

What Nalrok means is that for now winning is basically hit or miss but eventually we will all get the strategy down pat and as out powers increase and we earn that 2nd and then 3rd level shift suddenly Maurader, Seige and NightStar are going to seem pretty tame. What proof do i have? Anyone remember how much peope complained about the ITF when it first started? We ahd some of the most bizarre strategies imaginable to try and seperate him from those Nictus so we could beat him.. NOW half the time the team just charges up the steps and pounds hum to dust along with the ambushes or .. if they are a but more squishy.. the pull him into the grass to avoid the ambushes and then do the exact same thing. I took my 50 (+1) Crab Spider and joined an all VEAT ITF a while back. We killed everything in sight and took Romulus on the steps. 8 VEATS combining all that defense and + to Hit were too much for that TF. On a KILL ALL we managed to complete the task force in 50 minutes.

Now give in a few weeks, a month at most, and see just how tough the BAF seems with a team of all 50 (+3)s. Til then relax and enjoy whatever you get.. that is ALL the man is saying LOL

I can't confirm it because I have been busy running the two trial to open my new powers but I seem to recall reading someplace that when 20 went live the Tin Mage and Apex TF would start to drop threads. The others are pre-existing Task Forces from before the Incarnate system and I think they plan to leave them alone for anyone still working towards tiers on their Alpha slot.

Anyone else remember seeing anything about TM and Apex dropping threads?

Okay I tried to join a Turnstile BAF tonight and after entering the Q and getting to where all but one of the PUG team members had agreed to join we were placed back into the Queue with this message in a pop up...

Event failed to start. Your group has been placed back into the queue.


I lost track but I believe it happened 4 or 5 times in a row before I was actually able to join a team and enter the trial. NOW for the good news.. the 12 man team I was on actually completed the Trial. I was doing Lambda Trials earlier in the RWZ and several times leagues returned from the BAF with the same complaints listed here.. Everything going fine, meeting all objectives and then suddenly for no reason just kicked out of the trial with that "You have quit your team" message. And these were teams that formed up first and then entered the Q as a pre-existing league.. no turnstile involved that I was aware of. Honestly I did a number of Lambda Trials today, both preformed teams and turnstile, and never had this problem with any of them.

Just figured I'd add my tiny but to assist Z and the Davs. Wondering if it could have anything to do with the load on the server? Several of the BAFs I mentioned had this problem in the evening when Virtue was showing three red balls when you logged in.. In short a LOT of people on line and a LOT in the 3 RWZs that were forming both BAF and Lambdas.

Good luck Boys.. Get it solved a LOT of people are counting in you

I'll add in my report. I just left a Lambda team that had the very same thing occur. We formed teams and then joined the league. Entered the map and before we even got into the courtyard we suddenly were all back in the RWZ and off the team. We were working our way around the outside taking out 60 IDF to unlock the facility at the time.. never even got inside the courtyard.

We were doing very well at the time too so it was pretty frustrating

Now children play nice! this issue, at least as far as I am concerned, was solved a while ago when Going Rogue went live. Now please don't ask ME to go find the quote but NC Soft referred to Influnce, Infamy, and the new Information (Praetorian version) as "IN-GAME CURRENCY".

I realize this is very hard for some die hard, slightly warped, Role Players to fathom and come to terms with mainly because Cryptic spent years denying what the majority of sane players knew all along. Instead they constantly fed us a line that Influence was a measure of your standing in the eyes of the citizens of Paragon while Infamy was the repuation you built by doing evil deeds throughout the Rogue Isles.

Two things changed.. Cryptic left and then Praetoria appeared along with the ability to be a Villain one day and a Rogue the next (Hero/Vigilante). Speculation leading up to this day was that once you crossed over you'd be broke (more or less) since the infamy you'd accumulated couldn't possible translate into Influence.. My heavens how can robbing the bank in Atlas Park as a villain possible translate into a feeling of trust and respect for your Rogue when he/she arrived in Talos? Of course we all know that the reality was as soon as we stepped through that "Magical" portal and left the Rogue Isles and arrived in Paragon City our Infamy was exchanged at a rate of 1 to 1 for .. INFLUENCE!

Look at this logically, as I have done for years, and try to see my point.

1. You go to a STORE and use your influnece to BUY enhancements for you character. Now relate that to the real world since even Comic Books have super heroes living in a fairly normal world ..hense the need for secret identities. When was the last time you walked into a store, picked out a suit and told the clerk.. "I don't have any cash but everyone in my neighborhood loves me so I'd like to use some of that "love" to pay for this." ????? You'd either wind up in jail (if you actually walked out without paying ..which they commanly refer to as shoplifting). Or in a mental institution being examined by a Therapist to determine if you were sane.

2. You head to Wentworths and sell off some salvage you picked up on your last few missions that you don't need. you use that INFLUENCE to BUY recipes and Salvage you do want or need. Hey there are players out there they spend hours investing in the market to increase their INF red and blue side. Now try calling a stock broker and see how many shares of NC Soft stock you can purchase because the folks down the block think you are a swell guy since you shoveled the snow off their sidewalks last winter.

3. Your buddy just leveled and want to buy some new enhancements so he can get stronger but he is low on influence after SPENDING so much on his old enhancements at Wentworths. You click on him and trade him ZILCH for 10 million in Influence so he can go shopping. Hmmm So influence is supposedly a reflection of how the community views me based on my actions... now explain to me again just exactly how I give that away to a friend? What did I do run door to door asking people to like me LESS and him more? LOL

The only problem we have is those serious role players that don't want to acknowledge the fact that they are basically being PAID to be a hero. Which is sort of funny when you think about the fact that for a REALLY long time we didn't have a Day Job program so I guess their heroes all lived in cardboard boxes on the street and begged for food from passers by? The way I look at it.. hero side we are all registred with the government and report to out first contact in Atlas Park for initial assignment. The Influence is the government financial support we receive. As we increase in Skill level we get more because we are facing more powerful villains and our expenses are greater. Its a lot better explanation than.. "People like me so they give me stuff"

Well let's see I'd say yes it has along with Why would anyone roll a Tank now that they can make a Brute or Why roll a Controller or Defender when we can roll Corruptors or Dominators...


They all have their unique advantages and disadvantages so all are still quite viable in game. Ultimately the answer is "Because I want to be a Scrapper not a Brute!"

People have bad mouthed and dissed Dual Pistols almost since it came out but I took a DP/Ice Blaster to 50 level and she is now one of my "Honored Dozen". The 12 characters I am currently playing through incarnate content. Does my Fire/Fire Blaster do more damage? HE$$ YES but I love playing Icee .. the animations look great and I keep her constantly using chemical rounds so she debuffs anything she hits which helps everyone on the team.

The huge discussion when GR was still in Beta was why create a Tank when we can do more damage with a Brute? Well first of all my SD/SS tank does a good bit of damage and doesn't need to wait for Fury to build to gain it and second.... And I KNOW I'll get arguments here .. Tanks still do a better job of aggro control than a Brute. Now let's REALLY start an arguement (LOL) I did an ITF last week with no Tank or Brute and we rocked! Okay it was a little annoying since Romulus tends to run around like a sissy trying to avoid attacks with no one aggroing him but our team of Support characters and damage dealers (Blasters, Scrapper etc) did just fine. LET the flame war begin!

As mentioned in another post a scrapper is at 100% damage as soon as it is in range as opposed to a Brute which needs to build fury. Now let's put that to practical use.. you are on a Tin Mage TF and going for the Dodger badge. You have 30 seconds to defeat Director 11 before his invisible minons start laying mines. Either At will work fine but given the choice do you want to play a Scrapper that will be dishing out full damage instantly or a Brute that uses 5-10 of those 30 seconds building fury before reaching full damage output? [please keep in mind these are just off the top of my head figures I never sued a stop watch to determine how long it took a brute to hit full fury while battling Dircetor 11] Oh an PLEASE actually READ the underlined text before you feel the need to quote me and start tearing my post to shreds because you are a numbers freak and HAVE actually wasted time determining how long it take a brute to do so! Can we tell I have had this sort of thing happen before? hehe

Hey its a game with more than a dozen options for the type of AT you want to play and a ton of options on powers you can use after you make the first decision. WHY limit yourself to one just because it SEEMS like THE BEST. To illustrate my point.. week one of the new WST .. dozens of tanks, scrappers, blasters, and brutes all standing around in IP desperately searching for ANY support toons but more specifically actually broadcasting.. "We need anyone that has heals!" AWWWW did we suddenly discover that the majority of the TANK/BRUTE community can't stand toe to toe with Recluse and after all the badmouth a while back now we all desperately want a EMP Defender to heal and fort our tank so we can take down the towers? LOL

PLAY WHAT YOU LIKE.. NOT WHAT SOMEONE TELLS YOU IS BEST! you'll enjoy the game more

When the quote goes.. "In the meantime, we are very excited about Issue 20 launching next week!" I don't see how that can be interpeted any other way... one moment please....


YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!

Okay I feel better now. hehehe

I would be more than willing to participate in this event and will bring my 50 (+1) Crab Spider... Operative Tessa.

Marks calander.. screw the WST I have a Praetorian Insane Asylum to invade today!