Wicked_Wendy

I think what's been said pretty much covers it.... Yes you will definately get better and as Bill mentioned will be laughing as you watch foes dropping like flies. I am curious.. what did you take as your secondary? I went with DM since it seemed to fit well and mainly because I just love the set. Everything in that powerset either debuffs, holds, slows, scares or disorients opponents including your heal and your rez. I have told team mates many times I hope you have awakes if you die because HT is an amazing power and will disorient Bosses and even some EBs so I can NOT promise it will be available. I use it as fast as it recharges.

My other suggestion to you would be to find someone to team with. I have a partner that created a DS at the same time I did and both of us went with DM. Even in the lower levels the combination was lethal... COT and Tsoo couldn't stand up to that assault. Double the pet attacks and twice the debuffs made missions a breeze. By the time we hit the 30s we were taking on EBs without even thinking about it twice.. heck we were specifically taking missions from contacts to get at Elite bosses.

Hang in there even solo is great as you get higher and stronger! :-D

I have suggested this before in passing but this seems like the perfect time to bring it up again.. How about a badge, an accolade, for defeating all of the Giant Monsters. My previous suggestion was only to include the COH ones but now that anyone can crosss over lets make it more interesting

Defeat:

Kraken (Perez Park) COH
Babbage (Boomtown or Skyway) COH
DeathSurge (Cap Au Diable) COV
Lusca (IP) COH
Ghost of Scrapyard (Sharkhead) COV
Adamaster (Dark Astoria) COH
Eochia (Croatoa) COH
Jack in Irons (Croatoa) COH
Jurassik (Creys Folly) COH
Kronos Titan (Founders Falls or in the LRSF) COH/COV
Caleb (Nerva) COV
Arachnos Flyer (Grandville or in the STF) COH/COV

Now I left out all of the Holiday GMs like the Winter Lord or the ToT version of Eochia and jack in Irons... lets not make this a badge it takes 6 months to acquire! And you'll notice while I did include those Jack and Eochia I left out Sally from Croatoa. Technically the trio of GMs in Croatoa already are a part of one accolade but my real reason is simply I find it very hard to consider Sally a real challenge and worth of a badge.. I can "DEFEAT" her with one swipe from brawl.. unslotted That hardly qualifies as a GM battle.


I'm not sure exactly what to call it.. Giant Killer sounds good but it is already taken. One thing I would like to see is make it another accolade with powers. If a player obtains all of the defeat badges for each GM they get a accolade power that when activated grants them a Defense Bonus or a Damage Resistance Bonus for 2 minutes and like many of the others they can activate it once every 25 minutes.. sort pf a reward for all those defeats .. here take this it may help you stay alive next time you battle a Giant Monster! So anyone think this idea is a good one? and can anyone think of a name for the badge? LOL :-D

Sam you and I have very different play styles and always have. That said I can understand your frustration I did the Tin Man Tf several time on test before it went live and just recently did it on the live server with my badger. It is tougher than a normal TF but that is by design as many others have mentioned.. You are trying to improve yourself and eventually become an incarnate like Statesman. Frankly I didn't keep a real close watch but I was on a good team and if I recall correctly we had only 10 defeats during the TF and the only badge we didn't collect was for not setting off any proximity mines in mission one .. I know some teams have managed this but GOOD LUCK trying. As for the 54 level villains we really didnt have a bad time against them. Its the reason they STRONGLY suggest you have you new Alpha slot SLOTTED before attempting. It no only eliminated that -4 debuff so at least your a 50 level battling 54 instead of a 50 with the abilites of a 46 level trying to do the same thing but it also adds to your effectiveness so you can cope with a 54 level minion. Now I admit the team I was on had an outstanding mix for a PUG and included 3 VEATS upping everyone's defenses and quite a few of us had the uncommon slotted so we had not one but two bonuses going for us. I was on with my Crab Spider and not only was my END reducered by 33% on all applicable powers but my defense was increased by 20%. I died once on that TF and that was because I got a little TOO confident and got myself killed.

Honestly I'd do 20 Tin Man TFs before doing an Apex. I enjoy the first mission of the Apex TF but when we switch gears and find ourselves fighting Battle Maiden and her "Clouds of Instant Death", Crossbow that can one shot a Tank, and flying sword that attack at random I quickly grew to hate this thing. To date I have been on one successful one and that was on test.. even then when it was all over we had recorded more than 100 defeats and I spent more time running back to the hospital and refilling my inspiration trays that actually battling anything inside the mission. To me mission two of Apex is not about strategy or a test of strength .. its about seeing who can dodge around fast enough and long enough to survive. The worst part is I have seen some comments in global chat from people saying they enjoyed it and that it reminded them of the quests they'd run on WOW. Funny I remember the days when the player base here used to make fun of anyone that played WOW.. not longed to have more content that reminded them of that MMO. Oh and on test I did remark during one of many attempts at APEX that the flying swords made me feel like some Dev out there had way too big a crush on the whole Harry Potter stuff. Magical flying swords that defend their Mistress? Give me a break... and after we defeat them do we catch the train to Hogworts before facing off with Battle Maiden and Voldamere or do we step through a magical portal? They came up with 8 new villain groups in Praetoria when Issue 18 hit and flying swords and random clouds of instant death were the BEST idea they could come up with to assist BM after we spent the entire mission before that battling Clockwork, Warwalkers along with Rikti and Hydra.

I will probably keep trying Apex until I get a successful one on my badger but for the rest of my potential incarnates I have no desire to spend an hour or two seeing how close i can get to my next debt badge and just how much INF I can waste refilling my inspiration tray.

Now to switch gears and recommend something to you. It sounds like you did a Hami Raid years ago under the old system ... I do them from time to time, even before they started dropping shards, and things have changed drastically. I don't think I have ever seen a Hami raid take more than an hour and normally they fill up so fast people are disappointed when they can't get into the Hive or Abyss because its full. Now the leaders do have it down to a system so you will get directions on how and when to do things.. then again we are basically talking a 50 man team so that's to be expected. Pssst to be honest I like the ones in the Abyss better and usually sneak my Vigilantes over there for them.

Not sure what I 20 will hold but I'd expect more of the same. They do hint at some higher level Praetorian content so maybe that will include some 50 level arcs that are solo friendly.

I had a shard drop during a Rikti Invasion the other night which sort of suprised me since someone had told me that same thing.. While they have no assigned level basically the invasion forces are mostly 30 levels .. that was based solely on the level of the recipes that dropped during invasions.

I was battling invading troops, not bombs, and to be honest I was on my Crab Spider with all of my pets out and using my AoE attacks as much as possible to get credit for as many defeats as possible so I really have no clue what prompted the drop. I know we did battle Heavy Suits at least twice during that invasion but I can't even recall if any of them were out at the time the shard dropped.

I suppose it is possible that the EBs could be 50s and potentially dro shards but I'd have to think there are a lot quicker and easier ways to get shards than racing all over the place chasing Rikti and Zombie invasions hoping for ONE shard. :-D Happy hunting!

I see nothing wrong with this idea and have wondered about it myself. Let's just leave RP out of this .. Tickets are another form of currency in game just like INF and Vanguard Merits.

Personally I have some characters with more than 1000 reward merits and when I discovered i could BUY a Gr'ai Matter with my Vanguard Merits my first thought was "Why can't I buy something with the regular ones?" Put the same time limit of 18 hours on it and limit it to one type and it wouldn't be any different than what we have now at the Vanguard base.

Unlike a lot of players I tend to pace myself a bit with new content so a month later I am not bored and longing for the next new thing. I have 26 Fifty levels total and so far I have done respecs and opened Alpha Slots on four of them. Hey the system isn't going to be repealed and I have so many Vet reward respecs available I am hardly worried about losing one freespec. I do have my favorites, of course, but none of those 50 levels farmed or PLed their way to FIVE ZERO they all worked their way up doing TFs, Trials, joining countless PUG, etc so each of them is special to me in some way. The first to log and get slotted was my Badger and between running various task forces she also visited Praetoria and all the hazard zones grabbing up every badge possible.

As for the Incarnate System itself.. I am enjoying it completely and like you I can't wait to see what the future holds. a total of nine available incarnate slots eventually makes one wonder just how powerful we can become and what changes and new challenges it will present in future content.

My badger, a Crab Spider, alone has become awesome with a 33% increase in End along with a 20 % increase in Defense. Just using the other available power choices we have now I can only imagine what she'd be capable of if she could add a 33% increase in damage, a 33% increase in accuracy and a 33% increase in recharge speed on every single power. And we haven't even gained access to the rare and very rare slots yet.. The mind boggles when you think about 9 seperate powers that vastly increase the overall effectiveness of up to 18 or more categories of powers. So basically if all the next three avaialble slots did was offer us the exact same choices as what we have now with the Alpha slot it would eventually be possible to have:

45% increase in End Reduction on all powers
45% increase in Accuracy on all powers
45% increase in Damage on all powers
45% increase in Reharge Reduction on all powers
33% increase in Immobilization time on all powers
33% increase in Hold times on all powers
33% increase in Healing
33% increase in Defense DeBuff
20% increase in Damage Resistance
20% increase in Defense Buffs

Of course we have no clue exactly what those next slots will actually offer but those options alone would make using my Crab Spide for what is now normal 50 level content a joke. She soloed the Incarnate arc before she even had an Alpha slot and had very little trouble with Trapdoor or any of the other Elite Bosses she faced. Give her all that stuff listed above and she'd be mopping the floor with Praetorian AVs in Maria's old or new arc.

Hyperstrike hit it just right.. Hey there are players out there with more than 6 years of game time under their belts and with multiple 50s on multiple servers. Suddenly all those 50 levels have something NEW to do. Something designed to make them more powerful .. make them, eventually, the equal of Statesman or Lord Recluse. Of course they are concentrating on it. I can remember what it was like when COV finally upped the maximum level a Villain could be from 40 to 50 (to match the COH heroes) and 40 level villains were rushing around desperately trying to get those next 10 levels.... about the ONLY thing any of them wanted to do with low level content was obtain all the badges they'd skipped. I made MILLIONS letting 40 levels team with me on badge missions when they discovered that now those badges they'd skipped were part of accolades that granted them added powers.

It may take a while but eventually everyone will have their 50 level all slotted with uncomon alphas and until the rare/very rare or another SLOT opens up they will go back to leveling alts.. if for no other reason than to get them to 50 so THEY can start slotting. I'm usually willing to team with anyone these days thanks to SSK but even I have turned donw or completely ignored Tells asking if I wanted to join a 43 level AV team or a Silver Mantis SF. "Hey I am in shard acquisition mode here! I don't have time for that stuff right now. See me in a month or so" :-D


Oh and speaking of badges don't forget you have the serious BADGE Hounds out there right now racing around Praetoria and all the hazard zones grabbing up all the new badges they have access to as well. The very first character I logged on when 19 went live was my badger.. My 50 level Crap Spider [Rogue] and after I got my a common slotted in my Alpha I tool time out to grab ever history, exploration, accolade, defeat and event badge in Praetoria and then made the rounds grabbing up all the new exploration badges/accolades in the hazard zones as well. And trust me I was not alone in the underground beneath Nova Preaetoria, Imperial City or Neutropolis.

It was about the same for me.. Finished the Mender Arc and hooked up on a ITF follwed that with a LRSF and I had more than enough for my common in about 3 hours time. One LGTF and a purchase of Gi' Kar (?) with vangaurd merits and I had my umcommon slotted.

Biggest thing I have noticed so far is some people just don't quite get that shard drops are NOT tied to mission complete. I ran several ITFs on Beta and in less then 2 hour hoiurs we killed just about everything on every map. I got 12, 10 and 11 shards that way. I did one the other day on live and the team was doing a real good imitation of a speed run and then couldn't understand why they only got 4 or 5 shards. I forget the breakdown someone did exactly but its something like 1000 minions = 1 shard 580 Lieutenants = 1shard
300 plus bosses = 1 shard. No one I saw even had figures on AVs or EBs but the point was skipping huge amounts of mobs to get to the end works fine if all you want is reward merits and a badge but if you want maximum shards KILL everything (forget the speed run).

It also helps to run different TFs not the same one over and over. You can only get one Hero 1 DNA sample every 18 (or is it 20?) hours by completing a LGTF. Same thing with the Nictus Fragment awarded at the completion of an ITF. Do it twice and you'll still get your shard drops but you only get the option to take reward merits not another fragment. So I am a Rogue I can do a LGTF, ITF, Dr Kahn TF, Statesman TF, Barracuda SF and a LR SF all in the same day and get a bonus at the end of each along with all my shard drops. Add in a Hami raid.. not sure but maybe even two, one red side and one blue side, and a Mothership raid and I could have uncommons of just about every kind built without repeating a single TF.

LOL NO I have not spent THAT much time on line doing back to back to back to... TF/SFs but at this point my Crab spider has several Uncommons crafted and enough shards for another common slot enhancer. I am now into saving shards for when the rare and ultra rares become available. Oh and working on commons and uncommons for some of my other 50s :-D

For me this was simple .. Operative Tessa, my 50 level Crab Spider, has a bio that states she is part of a special Ops section that work undercover and pretty much do whatever they please. Also I include the fact that in reality she is only working FOR Lord Recluse to gain vital information useful to the Super Villain Group she helps to run. Then using Alan's missions coupled with completing the Destine One arc from my patron after level 45... I have gone to Recluse and shown him the mask I took from his body after defeating him in the future. I have been promoted to a position where I can pretty much do whatever A darn well like as long as i promise NOT to fulfill my destiny and KILL Recluse in the future and take control of all from him. Since the entire SG is nothing but Rogues that work for whoever they please, good or bad, and so is Tessa running off to do a few good deeds is fine with Recluse so long as I don't hand him his head. LOL Tessa has been a Rogue, a Hero, A Vigilante, a Villain (again) and finally back to Rogue as she has moved along collecting badges and earning merits from almost every TF/SF imaginable. I used to try and list all the EB/AVs she'd defeated and at some point simply gave up and added a line.. "Oh let's just face facts. She doesn't get along with anyone!"

"It's good to be able to pummel the King!" ... with apologozes for the BAD paraphrasing to Mel Brooks {History of the World, Part 1]. :-D