Wicked_Wendy

Yeah but PRAF in that same month (4 weeks) doing one WTS a week I can get 4 Notices which is enough to craft 2 rare enhancers and make the Favor of the Well I need to craft a very rare. Now not even getting into the number of shards you need to craft each notice.. each one will cost you 100 Million in INF so I also saved 400 million in INF that I can use to purchase other things, like purples, to make my Incarnate even more powerful. You are playing 1-2 hours a day EVERY day to get one NotW and I am playing 1-2 hours a WEEK and at the end of that same month I have 4 times as many as you do. You have invested between 28 to 56 hours (1 hour per day X 28 days or 2 hours per day X 28 days) and I've invested, at MOST 8 hours (4 TFs at 2 hours each.. and frankly most can be done in a lot less than 2).

Ummm frankly after participating in the Sneak peak I HOPE NOT. The "Team" I was on had no though to what do we need to complete this task at all. It was just these 12 people want to do a trial lets stick them together. The Leader immediately voiced concern.. "I am NOT a leader I was just the first person in the Queue". We had no heals, no buffs and no debuffs.. JUST damage. Which can work fine but against 54 level bosses and AVS combined all it spelled was repeated trips to the hospital. Trust me if your putting together a task force team or even just a PUG you want a little more control than that.

YEAH at those prices I'll just keep doing the WTS.. as it is I can have a Favor of the well in two weeks just by doing the WTS once. And all the shards i save may come in handy when the next Slot opens up. So let's see LGTF with a little stealth 90 minutes... Sister Psyche with a LOT fo stealth maybe an hour. Lets say 3 hours Maximum = 2 more NotW which = 1 Favor of the well and I keep 100 million in INF to buy other stuff. Think I'll just try PLAYING the game. LOL

I knew times were tough but do sharks with friggin laser beams on their backs really cost THAT much these days?

I totally agree with Nightshade and Hyperstrike. I have several Blasters and they all do well but for sheer fire power my Fire/Fire/Fire has the most damage output. I did a quick tally on all her averages for a single attack and running through the attack chain once had me at over 3000 Hitpoints of damage.

I have no idea what you mean Tech. LOL Okay so I typoed..anyone that plays with me knows I am a typo queen. I keep saying we need spell check for chat but the Devs have ignored my pleas for years.

Sam to answer your question since my first love was MasterMinds .. the great thing about them is they do offer support but can solo very well. The two MMs I use now are both /DM so they provide good debuffs along with a heal, rez and along with my Patron Powers a couple holds/immobs.
Harley Babe, my Thugs/DM did a Master of Kahn run yesterday and things went very well.

Remember the time frame you are talking about. First of all back then there were no Safegaurd or Mayhem missions so no temp travel powers to assist (and obviously no Ninja run ..hadn't been dreamed up yet). Player RAN from one mission to another until level 14 when they could finally take a permanent Travel power. Back then also we had the "OLD" Positron TF that was way more than twice as long as doing Posi One or Posi Two and the missions took you to just about every zone in the city.. You may have started in Steel but you would hit Skyway, Atlas, Perez Park and on and one. It was a real torture test and could take as much as five hours. Even the higher level TFs took longer then because no one had an Ouroborus Portal and no one had the Vet reward "Mission Teleporter" yet either. Now keep in mind that back then if a 48 level joined a Positron he or she got no XP, didn't keep up to 5 powers above the TF limit so unless they got it in before hitting 15, or were a serious badge hunter, most people skipped it completely.

The Hollows is almost a ghost zone now with very few people going there to run missions but in 2005 it was the one zone with contacts that actually let you run missions in the SAME zone as the actual contact. Once again saving some time as opposed to the contacts in KR and Steel that would take great delight in watching an 11 level run all the way to the train station, complete a mission in Atlas, run all the way back and then .. get a mission in ATLAS again !

People balk at the Doc Q mission these days and people complete it in 4 hours sometimes less. When it first came out some teams took as long as 7 hours to complete and would break the thing up between 2 days... This same thing frequently occurred with the Old Positron.

Back then there was no such thing as a Hospital and a Combat Nurse in Hazard zones so IF you were doing missions in the Hollows and died... You rezzed in either Skyway or Atlas Park's Hospital (depending on which entrance you came through) You had to RUN all the way back to the gate and then to the mission and heaven help you if you stopped to resupply your inspirations. I did that once on a long mission against the Trolls. I was almost finished when I died and had no choice but to Hosp. I stopped at City Hall and bought new INSP and when i got back to the mission .. it had reset like I hadn't done a thing. When I asked about that in chat I was informed i'd been out of zone and awy to long so the mission restarted.. Anyone have THAT happen to them recently?

Okay so maybe its not that big an issue these days but there were time back then when sitting inside a mission without fear of being logged off was about the only way you could take a break, grab a snack or take a BIO before continuing to slowly level.

Now as the Grumpy Old Man says "All you kids get off my lawn and leave me alone!" LOL

I like that and will have to try it out on my tank next time I do the STF. I have fly on the tank so I usually just over above him and drive him crazy with taunt.

While I don't necessarily disagree with you in spirit..

1. Did we really need another incentive to run Task Forces? We already added Reward Merits which give us another form of currency to use to buy enhancements, recipes and salvage. Many of the task Forces are tied to one accolade or another that award bonus powers or strenths. For the badging community of course each TF has it's own badge and most aid in getting one or even more of the defeat badges. Then add in that for many players, myself included, they are a quick and easy way to level a character without resorting to mindless farming. Not that I think there is anything wrong with the WST but I hardly think NC Soft needed to institute it just to get people to play more TF content.

2. LOL Yeah your 100% right here. This week was week #1 and everyone that didn't have to work or head off to school was rushing to IP to get that first Notice and potentially slot their very first rare. Now it's just a grind to get a few more and work toward that very rare. I can almost promise every week the starting point for the WST will be crowded but not like it was this week.

3. True

4. Or as you said Finally .. true it has already been announced that when Issue 20 hits there will be other ways to ??? potentially craft or obtain the Notice of the Well. My biggest problem with this statement, and I have seen it on several similar posts, is why should we have to wait? No I'm not talking about having to slowly earn only one Notice a week but people keep saying. "Well if you don't like doing TFs just wait until issue 20" Now I am a Task Force queen so this doesn't affect me but how do you think that makes someone that doesn't enjoy teaming or simply can't do to computer/lag issues feel? The vasy majority of the player base is out there right now gobbling up Notices and making their characters even strong and better but because I someone can't afford to buy a newer, faster PC they are told to just wait and in a few more months Issue 20 will hit and you'll have a new way to earn them. Yeah but by then everyone else will be done slotting their Alpha with very rares and be busy working on the new Incarnate Slot that opens up at the same time (supposedly). Those people will begin to feel sort of like the proverbial Red-Headed Step Child.. always one step behind and getting the left over crumbs from the table after everyone else is finished eating.

I enjoy the new Incarnate System and love the things my Incarnates can do now base on the rare enhancers they all enjoy. I am looking forward to getting very rares and then moving on to the next incarnate ability. But it is beginning to seem like they are piecing it together as they go along. When we first got the new system with I-19 only getting the first 2 tiers of the Alpha seemed like a teaser to make us want more (which it probably is/was) but now we get I-19.5 and the next two tiers open up but instead of just completing the package and moving on to the next ability we get yet another teaser? "Here is the WST which is one way you can gain the thing you need to slot your rare and very rares. For more ways to do that see us when I-20 goes live" When you consider how active the servers have been ever since I-19 hit do we really need to keep finding new ways to entice the player base? We already know that I-20 promises the next Incarnate slot so why didn't they just open up all the methods to obtain a NotW now and move on? It certainly would have eliminated a lot of the threads here complaining about the WST and made both those that enjoy/can team and those that hate to team/can't happy.

Hey you ranted now we get to pick on you. LOL Really I have done the STF 13 times this week and only failed twice and neither of those had a thing to do with Ghost Widow. By the time those two teams fell apart she was long gone and nothing more than a memory. Biggest thing to do to beat her is .. everyone BUT the tank stay behind her. her heals only work on anything in front of of her so if you are to the side or behind you can do all sorts of damage without her healing off you.

I've never been on one but there have been successful All Melee STFs on live so it can certainly be done.

Really? Granted the cut scenes in the STF, while annoying, are not completely inconvenient but can you honestly tell me you enjoy Romulus chatting with the Nictus when the last thing you saw BEFORE the cutscene began was a 51 level 5th column BOSS in your face? How about during the final mission of the LGTF when your battling Hro' Dtohz and get him to around 50% life or less and while still fighting an AV suddenly you cut to the arrival of the Honoree? I hate SPEED runs so don't make a statement like that and lump anyone that doesn't happen to like something you do into one bunch but frankly I always expect to cut back and discover I need: 1) an awake 2) a Defender or Control with a Rez 3) or a trip to the hospital because I am certain I'll be dead. Amazingly to date I haven't and I am beginning to realize, or maybe I just HOPE, that Action stops while the cutscene plays.

The problem with the Aeon scenes isn't that they interrupt combat they simply delay it and annoy the crap of of the entire team. You enter the mission and take 10 steps and ALL ACTION MUST CEASE! While we watch Aeon "pretend to be frightened and scurry through the portal to his "Super Secret Base". Follow him through and run around the corner and WAIT LET'S STOP EVERYTHING AGAIN..so Aeon can run on for about 2 minute or so telling us how stupid we are, how we have fallen into his trap, and then like the Moron he is explain exactly how we can escape. One cut scene is bad enough but two usually drives the team a little crazy. Then keep in mind the OP, like me, has probably seen that same set of scenes a dozen times or more this week since the STF is the WTS. Maybe you only have ONE character your exploring the incarnate system with but I have 9 and have already done the STF 13 times since Tuesday.

The scene adds almost nothing to the Task Force except to lengthen it while we all watch Aeon make an A$# of himself. I am not sure how long that scond one is but I have actually gotten up and run to the bathroom and grabbed a fresh drink from the Fridge when it starts and it was STILL playing when I got back, Okay so the bathroom and kitchen are close by and right down the hall from one another.. Still it goes on THAT long!

And using say the Faathima the Kind as the Hero WTS and the Barracuda as the Villain WTS differs from this week where it's the STF and the LRSF in WHAT way?

It sucks that villains have few choses but the fact is aside from those three Shard TFs they have exactly the same number of choices a hero has. And this whole thread started with a discussion of why a non 50 level TF like Sister Psyche was announced as the WTS later in February. Rogues aside what "VILLAN" can do a Sister P? So I fail to see the point.

Sorry Personally I agree with you and on several occasions here I have suggested that the Shard as a whole be turned into another Coop Zone where Heroes and Villains can work together. It would give Villains 4 more SFs to run and access to 4 more zones. I enjoy the look of the Shard and think this would breath some life into it. As of now aside from a few that occasionally run one of the TFs most people use it to hunt Fake Nemesis and run back to "THE REAL GAME" The Storm Palace is amazing to see for the first time and I love the Cascades if they'd open them up to villains and ADD some actual mission content aside from the TFs people might actually go and play there more often.

Basically agrees with Lady's assessment. Grabs a bag of popcorn, turns chair to the wall and watches paint SLOOOOOOOOWLY Dry.


I think one of the things that always ticked me off with the NO Temp powers things was.. HEY I worked to earn those! Doesn't matter if its a mission related one where I actually had to complete a mission and click some glowie to get it, a Vet reward I EARNED by being in game long enough, or a Day Job one I earned by camping out in various loations. Not to mention the recipes for them that now that drop like flies. No matter how I obtained them I personally had to DO something to have them in my tray. While some collect dust others come in very handy.

Do any MO run and you just lost you Vet reward Mission teleporter.. On this weeks WTF that means using the only TEMP power they allow and taking the Ouro Portal to get to the mission in PI. Forget any temps from missions including the safeguards so plan on battling the Arachnos flier from the ground if you travel power wasn't fly cause all your Jet Packs are gone. Tanks a little weak and needs to do that whole Fly above Recluse and taunt him? His taunt better be good cause unless he has some sort of ranged powers forget him using a Vet reward Blackwand or Nemesis Staff to further hold LR's attention. Oh and did your Tank take fly as a travel power? If not he doesn't have a raptor pack to use to hover high above Recluse anymore. Hope you didn't want to get anywhere TOO fast because Ninja Run along with your Vet reward Prestige Sprints just disappeared too.

Zero deaths is always a possibility MO run or not. I did an All VEAT ITF a while back.. we had so much defense and so much damage it was hillarious how easy it went. Romi went down 4 times faster than I have ever seen before and we finished with zero deaths in under an hour... and this was NOT a speed run we killed everything that we saw and we LOOKED hard. But taking away temps is just silly. the new system they use for Tin Mage and Apex is much nicer and I agree all the TFs that offer MO badges should be fixed so they award in a similar fashion.

The only problem is there is always that ONE idiot that decided to form a PUG and thinks it would be so cool to go for a Master Of Badge. I had this the other day on one of my Statesman TF runs for the Notice of the well. Leader has a so-so team of ATs thrown together with a Tank that will need heals to stay alive against Lord Recluse, no really great healing set to accomplish that and HE decided to make it a MoSTF. So now we lose all temp powers and then HE dies in the very first mission. SIGH

Now we get to go through the entire TF with no temps.. including my vet Reward Mission teleporter which would have come in handy on mission 2 when we had to go to PI and chase Doc Aeon into the future.

Not saying its a bad idea just nothing I care about one way or the other. I have been on a few Master of runs and frankly they tend to throw me off my normal game. I get so se;f conscience about doing the wrong thing and screwing up the run I start getting too careful and then half the time that gets me killed. I've heard others comment that they hate them because they are too stressful as well. Plus there is the whole little game plan someof these leaders come up with to succeed that turns a fun TF into a piece of boring crap. I did one MoLRSF run with my SoA Crab. She has hit points like a scrapper, Defense most tanks would envy AND her toggles actually increase the defense of those around her. So where does the Brute have me and most of the rest of the team while he and the other Brute run around destroying things inj mission one? HIDING in one of the building so none of us "SCREW IT UP AND DIE" Yeah there's a badge I can treasue. "I hid my way to a MoLRSF and all I got was this lousy t-shirt err Badge"

If it comes to pass enjoy your attempts .. My philosophy is .. why do I need to run any TF/SF that way just to earn another badge. I have done it normally and already got all the other badges I can from it except the MO and the last time I checked no one said you had to earn every badge they have LOL

Presently yeah .. the only way to get the notice is by doing the Weekly Strike Force which is the STF or LRSF this week and supposedly the ITF next week. They nhave hinted that when issue 20 arrives there may be other ways to obtain. ot craft, it but the Task Force is the only option for now.

Yeah this is pretty much how I look at it. Okay so supposedly we are on the "long path" to becoming an incarnate but that doesn't mean we will succeed. At this point we have part of one new power slot which makes us a little strong in a few areas... I could take my Natural Hero and spend a lot of time in the gym and accomplish the same thing. I could take a tech hero and simply get her some updates. A mutant (science) hero could develope new powers as his or her body continues to evolve.... magic is even simpler. I found a new spell book and studied till I memorized new spells that make me stronger, faster, or whatever.

A classic comic book example would be Batman. Bruce Wane is no god. He is simply an ordinary man who happens to be wealthy and is driven by his desire for revenge to train and turn himself into a superhero (Natural). He developed weapons (Technology) based on the super villain he was facing over the years and eventually grew stronger, faster and was better equipped to handle anything. The incarnate system here is just a means for us to grow stronger and be better. Okay so we completed a story arc and are collecting shards.. For your RP purposes you can explain your increased abulities any way you like. Of course those that know me and play with me on Virtue know that I have always been a Goddess so why shouldn't I get special powers? hehehe

Usually I don't quote my own posts but to update Tandar ran an LGFT tonight and got the shards and components she still needed to craft her rare and join the 50 (=+1) club. My other Blaster Avenger 006 (Fire/Fire) took two tries but got her notice and the shards she still needed to also join.

If Anyone is coounting and doing stats [yeah SURE you are LOL] that makes 7 Statesman TFs in two day. Five were successful ( 71.4%) and Two were complete failures (28.6%). the biggest reason for failure;

1. Tank can not stay alive and hold aggro long enough for team to take down pylons.. PLYON (S ?????) in both case we never managed even 1 let alone all 4.

2. Team leader was clueless and made no effort to recruit a heal/buffer to help the tank. Its amazing after all the negative stuff I have seen on line and here on the forums about Empathy recently just how many teams there are in IP this week begging for an EMP. LOL

The really sad part was in both of these cases the team had gotten to the point where they were just one step away from finished. Both had managed to defeat Black Scorpion, Mako, Ghost Widow and Scirroco and take down the Arachnos Flyer but they just didn't have that one final piece of the puzzel to finish. After multiple failures players started to quit and then the TF just dissolved. Is an EMP the only answer.. No not at all. I did one with an Ill/? Controller that had his Phantom Army enhanced to PERMA and he used them to keep LR busy. In case you don't know PA can't be defeated on even injured so the AV can pound on them for hours and they are still alive. Did another where the Fire/Kin somehow managed to work with the Tank and keep LR occupied until we had the towers down.

Fortunately the ITF has been annoinced as the WTF for next week and these days it seems like everyone knows how to win on that one. Of all the ones I have done since 1-19 ly failures were a result of team mates dcing or quiting and leaving the team short firepower/buff/debuff when with faces Romi and the Nictus. Every other one has been a success.

Oh please God NO! No screenshots of some guy is a chainmail... Yeah NVM that! Spandex can also be slimming, holds everything in, so one feels better about one's self and one's appearance. Okay when did I start referring to myself as ONE? *giggles*