Aliana Blue

Do you know what the main difference between these trials and the usual TFs (even "endgame" TFs) is?

You can't make enough of a difference by yourself.

When I do TFs with a random PUG, I try to run them with one of my more, let's say "optimized" characters. My DM/Inv scrapper can spearhead every TF in the game (she has been the one to hold the line against BM in the Apex TF at one point, not to talk about actually soloing the ITF just to say that I could), my Dark/Psi defender only needs a lobotomized monkey with a big enough gun as a teammate to get through any TF if necessary.

However, other characters wouldn't be able to do that. My /Fire blapper is a total riot to play when there's some decent support, but lacks enough mojo to pull the really big stunts by herself. Other more adventurous builds I have are not even worth mentioning, they would never make it past the first spawn of Romans in the ITF if the team doesn't help - and I don't get them out unless the team is with people I know would tolerate or enjoy the "adventurousness".

Point is, in any given TF, with 8 people around, there's a good enough chance of landing at least one of these characters able to pretty much do the whole thing by themselves or with but a little help. All they need is seven warm bodies to start the TF.

In the Lambda? Good luck if you get more than a couple of dummies. If they get temp powers, you're screwed.

Hello.

The quote in the title sounds familiar, I'm sure. That is what the Lady Grey will tell you if you talk to her with less than 8 people in your team.

Well, now that the Incarnate system is here, we have finally the big trial, clearly made for group(s) content that many always wanted. We are also getting a lot more powerful.

And yet, whenever we want to try and do a Task Force with less than the "required" number of people, we still have to scramble around and find "fillers".

Isn't it about time we got rid of this relic? Let us start the Taskforces with whatever number of people we want! If we fail, then sucks to be us. Let the contacts warn us about our folly, let the minimum spawn size be set for the minimum number of the Taskforce. Let the LFG tool (if it's ever expanded to these) make teams with whatever minimum you want for the TF in question.

But we have big, nasty, team sized baddies now, and they're in trials. Free the Taskforces!

(And get rid of the 4-people simulclick in the Shard while at it).

Please?

One thing to consider is the effect this can have on teams. Wanting to avoid the "brawl once and leech" syndrome is all well and good, but what happens when the feeling is that we have to "race" each other for the rewards?

This weekend I did quite a few trials, but one Lambda particularly strikes me as interesting. I was running my DM/Inv scrapper at full tilt, aiming to "participate" as much as possible, and I got a tell from a teammate:

"Someone's going for a very rare! "

(Note that this was all in good fun, the whole team was actually very chatty and fun to be in ).

Sure enough I was. And someone else too, essentially two of us were "racing" each other for the very rare. I thought I was doing great, getting to the grenade boxes early, tanked the EB and Marauder pretty much the whole time (as an aside: why do so many people tank by just taunting and standing there, letting the mobs face the team so that half of them get wiped out when the big cone attacks come out instead of positioning themselves to have the big bad face AWAY from the group? /rant). At the end got a rare, and the person I was racing happily announced he had gotten a very rare.

Not complaining, fair game and good job says I. But I can't help but think if it wouldn't have been better for my badass DM/Inv to cover the squishies instead and let the more tanky characters tank from the "team" point of view. I don't think I was playing badly per se, I do think I did a fine job with the EB/AV tanking and getting the caches fast, but a less "race to participation" approach would probably have saved more than a few faceplants.

If it becomes common knowledge that we have to "participate" (which I'm sure it will, as those of us who do trials relentlessly are more likely to be the, shall we say less-than-casual crowd), and we don't know much more than "click fast to participate", the inevitable result is that, in a world where minting your own Very Rare costs 400M and a slew of components, we will naturally try to game this metric as much as we can to avoid having to spend the whole (400M + Components) x4 xN (where N=Number of level 50 alts), to the detriment of more positive but less "contributy" group dynamics.

I understand people wanting something complex, something to sink their teeth into.

However, this is the wrong kind of complex.

Interesting complex is "Hm, do I want to use Kinetic Combat on this attack for the Smash/Lethal defense bonus, or slot more and use Touch of Death and go for Melee Defense instead?"

Or any variation thereof. That is interesting because it requires making decisions based on what one wants to achieve, and where having a deeper knowledge of the game system in question allows for being able to think up more complex interactions, and having a better end result due to this knowledge (and using Mids', heh).

"WTF do I take... Okay lemme open the incarnate window... Search the bloody enhancement I have already decided I want... Right, I need this... Wait, this is a rare, that's for tier 3... Okay, a Semi-Conscious Energy."

The "interesting" bit is deciding what path I want to take up the Incarnate enhancement trees, depending on the character, build, and strengths and weaknesses and how I want to adress them. A scavenger hunt through a bunch of menus that slow down the whole game whenever they're opened to find out what the bloody bollocks I need to pick from the rewards table is NOT interesting in the least. There's nothing even minimally clever about it, like having to choose the right Taskforce to pick the right component.

So yes, if all they have is pretty different names and all can be grabbed from the same tasks, on the same table, depending on whatever the RNG has decided to award you (that is, if it's even random, which it may not be), they may as well save it and just use differently named "something of the well" for different ranks and be well done with it.

Funny data point: My Ice/Fire blapper (lots of holds, LOTS of PBAoE damage, always in the middle of all the biggest fights) has already two very rares, and she hasn't even finished unlocking the slots yet, much less started crafting much of anything (and yes, I have done quite a bit of thread->iXP conversion).

If there's some sort of participation metric, it'd explain so much.

I'm also wondering if I should spam Stimulant/Aid Other/Self/anything else whenever we're having any downtime in a trial.

_That_ explains why my Elec/Shield is doing such insane insanities with it.

It's called the "Potion Syndrome". It's been around for longer than computer games, but consider the following:

- Take one old computer RPG that you liked.
- Remember the first time you went through, or the second, or the third...
- Now, remember all the potions that you found but were of limited supply.
- How many of them were left when you finished the game?

The number is typically over 90%. See, you never know when you'll get in *real* trouble and will need them. So you save them for that one incredibly difficult moment that will make or break your game...

Which never comes =)

There'll be anti-shifts, were 1, 2, 3 or more of your level shifts become nullified (and thus make you acquire 4, 5, and 6, which are only active if 1, 2 or 3 get nullified), etc...

Can you use it when exemplaring down?


...


Just askin' *Whistles innocently*

Ah, so many choices...

Out-of-the-box my most awesome character is my BS/Regen scrapper, who, while still in plain IOs and SOs, keep showing no need for an expensive build. The trials will probably change my mind about this, but then again... maybe not.

The most absurd things I've pulled has been with my DM/Inv scrapper. IO'd to the gills and built for awesomeness - she's the puller, as in she pulls the team forward anywhere she goes. Destruction!

However, hands down my most hilariously fun to play character is... Drumroll please... Spikey Star, level 50 Ice/Fire Blapper. PBAoE blapping, there's something about it that makes me giggle. The absurd damage, the meleeing blastering, the nearly-softcapped-against-everything stupid, yet surprisingly functional, build... It's hard to tell what that something is. But it's awesome.