Adeon Hawkwood

I think it's probably third after FF and Traps. The native defense values of those sets provide more average mitigation than Sonic's resistances. Additionally both sets have more options for soft control which helps to reduce incoming damage.

Still, Sonic should be pretty effective as a Tankermind set, particularly if it's combined with Bots or Thugs to provide defensive buffs for their pets to get layered defenses and of course going up against heave defense debuffs the resistances will win out over Traps/FF.

Wait... I thought the iTrials were Epic Cat Herding?

Stop! Ninja Time!

No. If you want to use a "free" slot on a EAT/MM/Controller you need to buy access to them (or have it granted through vet status).

That is correct. However, per Positron having a certain veteran status will automatically unlock MMs/Controllers for free (exactly how much is not yet known).

The problem with a Grandfathering clause (beyond the aforementioned vet status one) is where do you set the bar and for what? MMs/Controllers are not the only VIP feature that has to be unlocked by premium players. Market access, inventions, signature story arcs and probably some other features I'm forgetting will all be automatically available for free to VIP players but have to be purchased by Premium players.

Unlocking all of those to anyone who has paid even a single month of subscription time eliminates a large part of the reason for locking them in the first place. Requiring a certain veteran status to keep them at Premium (as is being done with Controllers/MMs) serves as an effective compromise.

That's wrong. I recently had a character start as a villain and move to hero. While I was a Rogue I was able to do Radio Missions in Paragon City. This was a new character who had never been a Hero, I was simply given a radio upon becoming a Rogue.

As a general point, one thing to keep in mind when comparing different MM sets is that the different tiers do not always have the same role within different sets.

Yes, the Demon Lts have a lot AoE powers and some decent heals/debuffs and are, on a per pet basis a LOT better than the Spec Ops. However, the reason for this is that the Demon Prince is relatively low damage for a Boss pet being mostly focused on control as opposed to damage (i.e. he's closer to the Lich than the Commando).

When comparing pets sets I find it best to compare Lts + Boss rather than comparing individual tiers (the minion pets are similar enough that I'm ok comparing them individually). In the Mercs versus Demons comparison the Spec Ops should really be compared to the Demon Prince while the Commando gets compared to the Demon Lts.

Now I think that Mercenaries still come off worse in that comparison, but I think it's a more valid comparison.

Components made with Incarnate Shards are the same as the ones you can get for completing some level 50 TFs and are only usable to make Alpha Slot Abilities. Components made with Incarnate Threads are the same as the ones yyou get from completing the Trials and can be used for any of the currently available slots (including the Alpha Slot).

This depends on a number of factors that only you can answer. Specifically how much do you intend to run the trials and how much do you care about the costume pieces you can buy with Astrals/Emps.

Personally I trade most of my Astrals for Threads and save my Emps for purchasing Rare Incarnate Components. However, if you run the trials a lot and want the costume pieces that you can buy with Astrals/Emps you might be better off spending them on those and using component drops for building abilities.

It depends a bit on how lucky/unlucky you are with drops. My experience is that I get a LOT more uncommon components than I need so I regularly downgrade them to commons. I don't downgrade rares and very rares since I don't get enough extras to make it worthwhile.

Dark/Dark Scrappers tend to run hot so Cardiac is probably an excellent choice. Similarly Void is a solid choice for any melee character (and the best thematic fit).

Interface is a little trickier, of the two you mentioned I'd probably go with Diamagnetic (take the Core path) however there is a solid argument for taking Reactive, especially if you solo a lot.

I think it's original purpose was less about stopping people from instantly building giant bases and more about forcing a Raid-Focused SG to participate in PvE in order to build up and maintain their base.

In either case I agree with the sentiment, it's not a particularly useful mechanic. Forcing PvPers to participate in PvE in order to get the funds to PvP never struck me as a particularly good idea in the first place.

It depends on how they want to do it. One thing to keep in mind is that the current crop of EATs have, for custom content, one story arc every 5 levels. It would be perfectly reasonable to do the same with a Praetorian EAT with the custom content taking place in Primal Earth.

Change the mission where you become a Hero/Villain to be a bit more story oriented explaining that you are going to Primal Earth to spy for Cole/The Resistance and use that as the basis for the higher level PEAT stories.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar .

Looking at the numbers I think what's happening is a single team's worth of iXP is being divided amongst the league. Either that or the previous iXP rates were bugged as to high.

In either case I guess I'll be trading threads for iXP for now.

I'm surprised to hear that. I ran a couple of Keyes on my MM and didn't have any real problem getting my pets up the ramps. I did occasionally run into an issue with them leaping off to chase an enemy but in most cases I spotted it in time to call them back.

Ok, I think I see where you're coming from now. The problem is that I don't think there is a better solution than the one that the devs have adopted. At a fundamental level the existence of the Trials is the reason for the Incarnate system and not the other way around. The devs decided that they wanted to add "raid-style" content (even if it bears only a superficial resemblance to raids in other games) and the Incarnate system is the reward system to make the trials worth running. The devs could potentially have created the Incarnate system without the trials but they couldn't have created the trials without the Incarnate system and at the end of the day the Trials are what is really important.

Just because people don't call it, that doesn't mean they aren't focusing on using it to buff their teammates. I've never been a fan of "gather for buffs" in most situations and the AoEs on the destiny buffs are large enough that it's reasonably easy to hit the entire team without needing to make everyone else stop.

Well one of the biggest complaints we saw about I20 was that there were only two trials and people wanted more variety. Now the argument there comes down to what sort of variety should the devs provide. They are opting for expanding the content instead of expanding the types of content. As with every decision they make this will please some people and annoy others. For people who enjoy running the trials more variety is a good thing and they are going to always want more trials.

Now you say they aren't "necessary" I agree, they aren't necessary but then neither is soloable incarnate content. As long as there is some method of getting the Incarnate powers then it is not "necessary" to add more methods. Now obviously from a player point of view adding more incarnate content is a good thing, more variety keeps players from burning out and losing interest.

Now you can argue that you would prefer the devs to focus less on team content and more on solo content for Incarnates, there's nothing wrong with that. But that doesn't make adding more trials is somehow worthless. It is providing concrete value in improved play experience to those of us who enjoy the trials.

I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make here. The game will never be "complete" until the servers shut down. The devs will (hopefully) always continue to add more content to the game and that's all this is, adding more content to a specific "level" range that the devs feel is lacking in content (a point I would agree with them on).

When it comes down to it the J/I/L/D slots are basically a new level range with almost no content at all (the Alpha slot is a bit different since it straddles two level ranges). The devs opted to release the new range when they had it working and had enough content to allow people to play through it. In the same way Issue 1 released the 40-50 level range but by no means all of the content that we currently have available for that range.

Just as a general point, it's only the resistances that are AoE in ID. The mez protection is still single target.

See I like this. It's nice to have an expanding list of trials without feeling like we're on a treadmill running constantly just to stay in one place.

Or a contact you can call (Prometheus perhaps?) who gives you the current and next weeks WST.

Example:

Greetings $HeroName I have searched the strands of fate and it is my belief that Manticore's activities in routing Crey out of Brickstown represent a critical juncture in the timeline. You will find it to your benefit to aid him in this endeavor/Your assistance in this endeavor was much appreciated (depending on if you've done the WST yet).

However, the strands of fate are always in motion. The Lady Grey's efforts to repulse the Rikti in the Rikti War Zone have met with some success and she will need your help to continue her mission but the time is not yet right...