Agent White

Yeah I begrudgingly freed all 3 even though breaking into the Zig made me feel a lil skeezy. And no, I received no reward at the end.

Yup I got one last night running Praetor Duncan's arc, just killing regular knives of vengeance.

And ya, I really don't see this being the last Incarnate zone. I think this might be the last 'beginner' incarnate zone though, I'm kind of expecting the next Incarnate zone will be the next progression, like level 54 min to 56 or 57? or you know, 54 through 54+3, etc. However they progress it. But something for 'high end' incarnates, maybe to work on the next slots, etc.

Have played into the story arc a fair bit more. I really really like all the arcs so far, they're varied, they tie together with so many different ongoing threads (Reichsman, Cimerora, The Praetorian invasion) It's a real pleasure seeing the story advancing at such a steady clip and with so many different pots stirring together. This is something you can't really do in a trial since they're so singularly focused, whereas here with the arcs you can add nuance and detail and some decent exposition.

I do have a couple nitpicks though. First and foremost, it's really lazy to keep saying 'a supergroup'. A supergroup went into Dark Astoria, no one knows what happened to the supergroup, oh the supergroup was all killed. Who was the supergroup? They had a name. Just saying 'supergroup' is the equivalent of saying "placeholder name" because no one would repeatedly say that. They'd be something like "The Lost Falcons" or "The Shining Stars" etc. obviously you don't really want to kill off any established characters with it, but I really just wanted to hear a name, or even SEE someone from the supergroup getting offed. instead it's just causally referred to then just as casually dropped, serving no real purpose except "mot and his forces were able to drop a whole supergroup".

Second, I'm pretty tired of the 'Of Vengeance' groups now. They're a pretty one trick pony that don't really run on any kind of worthwhile logic. I mean for Dark Astoria it's fine, but I'd like this to be about one of the last times we see anything 'of Vengeance'. Talons, Knives, Carnival, etc. It's the same trick played in both First Ward and Dark Astoria. They're not that interesting, they're not that unique, they don't really make enough sense. They just feel like a filler bad guy that can fit into places that it wouldn't make sense to use some of the other groups. And they have absolutely no depth whatsoever, they're pretty much just a big evil force 'just because'. And we 'decimated' them how many times over DA's arc? I think about 3 altogether, which was just 2 too many for a group that has no actual characters. They don't have personality, they're simply cardboard cut outs.

Lesse, other I22 stuff. I played around with my 35 plant/Fire dominator. The changes to the giant fly trap are -extremely- noticeable. He's still a bit flimsy, but nothing near what he was. Just wandering from spawn to spawn I'd usually see him take a few hits and hang around half health most of the mission unless there was a prolonged break, like a glowy hunt or something. Running around doing RWZ arcs he seemed to hang around a lot longer, had to resummon him once the whole play session, rather than mission to mission as I was doing before. The regen is -extremely- noticeable now, you can see his health just jumping up and he's topped up pretty quick.

Oh and the DA repeatables, I just have to say again what a joke 2 threads is for a 20 hour cooldown reward. I think I've taken it just once, the rest of the time I've been nabbing the reward merits and super inspirations, which have no cool down. Really can't wait for them to up this to something half worthwhile.

Honestly Mael seems more like a candidate for Malta than Battle Maiden. But he doesn't have a nifty halberd, or boobs. Unless the maelstrom device was hiding more than we know


... still don't honestly get how he was intended to represent vigilantes. he's just a straight up villain from day 1. Kind of curious if we'll see any more interaction with him and Twinshot, or if that was purely a one off thing as a hamfisted red herring.

Ok so the Praetorian War has been going on for a while and we've taken down well over half of the major baddies. But which ones have actually been killed and which just 'defeated'? Dark Astoria gives us a fair amount of hints, as have some of the newer trials.

More specifically, Praetor Duncan's arc says outright that Praetoria is falling apart and most of the Praetors are dead or missing. So, let's see who is accounted for!

Anti-Matter - Taken down in the Keyes Island incarnate trial. However, Metronome in the MoM trial explicitly tells the PC he wished we Incarnates had killed AM. So, defeated, whereabouts unknown.

Battle Maiden - Defeated in the Apex taskforce, Vanguard put her in lock up. Malta broke her out to upgrade their equipment to deal with Incarnates. Definitely alive.

Black Swan - Unseen since defeating her in Maria Jenkins arc.

Bobcat - Taken down with Neuron in the Tin mage Taskforce. Going to assume she's likewise locked up as Battle Maiden was.

Chimera - Alive and the new Praetorian gadget man as of Dark Astoria's timeline.

Diabolique - Presumably made non-existant by the Dream Doctor at the end of Dilemma Diabolique.

Dominatrix - Alive but considering turning traitor after DA.

Infernal - Unseen since defeating him in Maria Jenkins arc.

Maelstrom - Defeated at the end of TPN iTrial, presumably locked up.

Malaise - Defeated with Shalice Tilman in Minds of Mayehm. Presumably dead since Mother Mayhem basically mind ***** him and no one bothered pulling him out of the Seer Network when we severed Shalice.

Marauder - Defeated in the Lamnda Sector trial. Presumably locked up.

Mother Mayhem - Presumably dead as of MoM, but hinted that she may still survive it.

Neuron - Defeated in the Tin Mage Taskforce. However, Anti-Matter makes note that he's glad we 'got rid' of him. So possibly dead?

Nightstar - Defeated in the BAF iTrial. Since she's just a robot, potentially just dead.

Shadowhunter - Murdered by the Praetorian Devouring Earth. Ensured to stay dead thanks to the Maria Jenkins mission.

Siege - Defeated in the BAF, also Metronome is riding around in his carcass like a new suit sooo I'm guessing he might be dead-dead, if there aren't any back ups of his AI around.

Tyrant - Alive and kicking!

So, that's about it. Did I miss anything?

Both characters show up twice prior to the zone finale. It's not too hard to miss, you'll be going through the mission maps and see a ??? suddenly appear in your objective box. Just poke around and chances are good you'll find them as a hostage nearby, just beat up the spawn guarding them and voila.

And as far as I'm aware, you can redo the arcs in Ouroboros and get the badges if you miss them the first time around.

I'm not 100% positive, but it -seems- like the Mastermind zoning bug may actually be fixed >> Because of it I usually just /releasepets every time I finish a mission and then re-summon them once I'm back in mission. the other night I was just feeling kind of lazy and just kept them around. After a couple hours play I realized that I'd hopped zones about a dozen times and my pets never once froze up and had to be released and re-summoned.

So basically, my mary sue isn't mary sue enough, it needs to be all about me me me.

A whole world involves a lot of stories, and a lot of characters, and a lot of stories to -those- characters. A good world tells us those stories and makes us like those characters, instead of just making them cardboard cutouts that spout meaningless jargon and tired phrases. Making every single little thing focused entirely on the singular player character makes it really hard to tell stories in different ways all the time and advance the overall storylines of the game. I much prefer feeling like I'm a part of the world instead of the dead center of it with all eyes on me because to me, that breaks the illusion more because even in a superhero genre it's unrealistic and just plain silly. I like having a starring role, but if the world is going to get fleshed out in any kind of proper way I'm going to have to share the spotlight. Maybe it doesn't stroke my ego as much as it could, I'd rather enjoy the cool stories than be told how awesome I am and how the universe rests on my shoulders for the umpteenth time.

Really? They're like 3 minutes long, any of them.

I just honestly hadn't heard of it before It just sounds so... off.

...an unkindness of ravens??

...most deadly??

Actual question though. Just taking Fortify Pack grants a passive bonus. Is that a new mechanic? Are there any other sets that do that?

I had a similar glitch with Max's personal story arc, my wolf tail showed up.

BTW as an FYI, Sister Psyche is still appearing in the DD Trial though a redname said the Live version wasn't going to have her >>