Arilou

My understanding was that the Ascenscion Armour was only usable at level 50, but the other pieces (chest emblems, auras, and so on and so forth) were availible at level 1 or when unlocked normally (eg. 20 for capes, 30 for auras)

You don't need influence. Emp merits are enough.

EDIT: To further elaborate, currently you can get incarnate salvage the following way:

1. Conversion, this generally costs influence. (at least for the higher tiers) you can convert all the way from Shards to Very Rare thread components, though it's VERY expensive to do so (in influence, time, and shards/threads required) Note that converting threads to common (20 threads) and uncommon (40 threads) does NOT cost you anything, and that while the shards/threads conversion costs influence (2.5 million) the Notice of the Well>40 threads one does NOT. Note that 40 threads is two commons, which means that after two weeks of running the WST once each week you'll have a common incarnate power of your choice crafted.
2. The random table at the end of a successful trial. This is, as the name implies, highly random.
3. Empyreal merit conversion: Eight empyreal merits can be converted into a rare piece of salvage of your choice. 30 gives you a very rare component. You get one empyreal merit per day for each of the separate trials. (one for BAF, one for Lambda, assuming you complete both) Empyreal merit conversions do NOT cost influence. Astral merits can be converted into threads, which.. Well, see above.
4. Completing the additional badges on the trials: Each component badge for the Master Of badge gives you a random uncommon, when you get the Master Of Lambda/BAF (at least the second of which is not very difficult at all) you get a random rare component.
5. Sidegrade: You can also convert one type of component into another of the same tier, this costs threads though (very little for commons, a bit more for uncommons, much more for rares and very rares)
6. Downgrading: You can convert one higher tier component to one lower tier component, should you wish to. (Mainly this is useful for uncommon>common conversions since you need a lot more commons than uncommons)

As I've played I've noticed that (apart from when you're trying to get the T4's) the limiting factor tends to be Ixp and not components per se. (I've almost never unlocked a slot without having something to slot it with) And well, unlocking the slots (or at least earning Ixp) is something I could totally see them adding to arcs, Ramiel-style (Honestly, if you could get regular thread drops from mobs, + Ixp from certain arcs that should enable you to get your slots open and slottet relatively easily, even if you'd still have to pay for the Rares and Very Rares)

Actually that depends on what attacks you have.

So? If you'd rather get something else than your rare, that's not my (or the dev's) problem is it?

Empyreal merits are your friend.

Even assuming the worst case scenario (you only roll commons) if you run the two trials a day (it should take about an hour) you'll have your rare component in four days (4 hours, although it probably takes a bit more time to set a team up) That's a GUARANTEED rare.

By that time you'll almost certainly have had enough threads and components for the other components you need.

The problem would probably be unlocking the IXP. But even that isn't that hard.

Four days, one our of playtime a day. That's not unreasoable. Yes, it's more than the mask-hunt (which took me about three hours) but again not unreasonably so.

Well, they're mostly just recycled models I suspect, but still, not complaining

You can also get Power Build Up in Energy Mastery, but yeah, that's got a longer recharge.

The time it takes to unlock Reactive vs. the Time it takes to get a purple damage proc in every attack?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Failed a Lambda yesterday. of course, we were going for Lambda Looter and we were really close. (about 5% when the timer timed out)

Ignore the cat. I'm making freakin' RAINBOW DASH!

The rare's really aren't that hard. Eight trials. Four days, and you have a rare.

And that's NOT counting random rolls (which seems decent enough, I don't know the exact chance but it seems to be around 5-10%)

You mean like how you have to spend hours farming those damn masks to get the accolade badge?

Lore is the pet. You're thinking Destiny.

The buff for Lore is +25% damage (Core) or a boss pet (Radial)

EDIT: And yes, I see no problem with it. As Arcana pointed out, these are meant for the obsessive completists who are willing to put in a lot of time to get them, the extra benefit they bring is in no way commensurate with the effort required, and that's entirely deliberate.*

* I do have a character with full T4's, 3 random drops and one crafted from rares. But my alts I just get to T3 and only to T4 if I get a lucky Very Rare somewhere.

People are doing Synapse semi-regularly on Virtue.

Mind, the -res can easily outperform the damage if you're on a team, and even more if you're on a league.

Neither: It procs on every damage tick.

Sleet has about 70-tics.

Now, this is mitigated somewhat by the fact that eg. Reactive only stacks five times, but that's still pretty bad.

Note that regular DOT's doesen't do this: Rains actually make multiple attacks, and that's why they (pre-fix) procced a lot.

EDIT: Slotting damage procs into sleet is far more efficient than slotting them with Damage IO's, for instance. Not sure how the math works out on Ice Storm though.

Personally I've found the fastest way is to do a WST for a notice, get eight shards (which shouldn't take too long) craft the T1 & T2 enhancements with trial salvage and T3 with the notice+components.

And they're nerfing Marauder, so that's not a problem.

He was arguing against the other AV's, who hasn't really been a problem in that way. (except Honoree, and that's becuase he somehow keeps reapplying his panic button more than he should)