Agent White

Just an idle curiosity. Since the animal pack debuted, PS' ad department seems pretty keen on including this particular character in a lot of the recent promotional art, from the Freedom ad with all the Freedom Phalanx to the Underground incarnate trial guide, there's this big Huge body tiger in leather pants and an X-harness. You can also just check him out chilling out in Pocket D with a few other feline patrons.

So, who is he? Or just coincidentally a fav NPC of one of the artists? :>

in terms of concept, yeah I think I'd be tempted.

Yeah this exists to a degree, it's just not very noticeable and for first time players pretty incomprehensible.

All the enemy groups are fairly well grouped by origin by what kind of enhancements they drop. This is sort of important, especially if you don't have the cash to buy DOs/SOs reliable (ex. Freems/Preems. No auction access, no easy cash flow). So it's a smidge more cost effective to go up against foes that drop stuff you can actually use, and the zones are generally varied enough to put you up against a group that drops your origin. it's just a matter of getting the right contacts.

Really, the intro content is probably *less* important for specific origins since 1-12 is TOs only. But obviously more important for thematic reasons.

I'd certainly like to see more 'origin matters' stuff, contacts, arcs, etc, would be kinda nice.

Isn't the Praetorian Mako just one of the Powers Division Stooges?

An Illusion/Radiation Controller can *definitely* solo. Mine is currently up to 38 and while I've teamed a bit, easily 95% of my playtime has been running solo.

The early game can be a little rough, but once you get Phantom Army at 18 it becomes a cakewalk. And Superior invisibility let's you run anywhere you please, the only things that can see through it are Rikti Drones and the big Rularu eyes. This gives you a huge tactical advantage, especially with Confuse being completely non-agro.

For example, I solo'ed one of the first elite bosses in the game, Frostfire, with my ill/rad. Keeping invisible and just confusing most of his surrounding mobs made the battle easy.

It's not an incredibly *fast* toon, in fact between your two primaries you only have 2 actual direct attack powers, Flash (your go-to hold power for gaining Containment) and Spectral wounds. All the other skills in the sets are either buffs, debuffs, soft controls (fear), and Pets (Phantom Army and Phantasm).

I think I can count on one hand the number of situations I've been in where I've died repeatedly. You can have trouble with Elite bosses, especially ones that will last longer than your Phantom Army can help keep them occupied (especially if they're resistant to Psychic damage. All of Illusion's damage except the tier 9 Phantasm use Psychic damage). The ones that took me a fair bit of effort to overcome were the first SSA (pre-PA), Nocturne in the Faultline arc, and the double EB fight at the end of the Roy Cooling arc (ESPECIALLY the Titan EB. UGH). Outside of those I've almost never had a problem running solo.

It's just a very solidly built controller and there's a fantastic guide by localman hanging around the forums. You don't need to follow it exactly but it offers a *lot* of good advice.

Well he also didn't want to tell them 'hey there's zombies in the barn', since he didn't believe in killing them and... well, they found out and killed them. So, to be fair, he was kind of right in that regard. And you know "I think your little girl is a zombie, you might look in my secret barn I'm keeping this hideous secret in to be sure" is kind of a dead giveaway.

Just remember, if there is no obvious answer provided it always boils down to this:

Just to piss you off.

Random epiphany.

Ok, so the SSAs are coming out once a month. We'll see Episode 4 in December, Episode 5 in January, Episode 6 in February, and Episode 7 in March, where we finally find which Freedom Phalanx member is taking the long walk into Nevermore.

The next Issue is Death Incarnate, also appropriately themed, so it'll be coming in March.

Finally, Caesar was killed on the Ides of March, this game's Caesar is Marcus Cole (He even has his own Emperor version!)

SO! Statesman will die on the Ides of March.

Well I think that's just one of the problems with the format of the game. The only time we really see characters is via missions, and in that they're usually either A) Objectives (beat up/save Hero/Villain X) or B) NPC Tagalongs that might spout a little dialogue or C) Taskforce contacts (All the signature TFs)

None of those is conducive to developing characters in a way that players can get attached to.

I think this is partially why we're seeing the SSAs and the use of more cut scenes as a way to illustrate these characters through how they get to interact with others instead of simply being these static objects or drones we see in missions.

We never seem them when they're not 'on the clock' as it were, so we only get to see them in quick snapshots that are more about them being set pieces.

Edit: I'll agree with Eva though, she sums it up well. Ghost Widow is a pretty good example, I think because she has a number of missions that involve her back story and actually involve her. A problem with so much of the Freedom Phalanx is they're all pretty background characters, their task forces don't even involve then, except maybe as a tangent (ex: Citadel's 'children')

Devouring Earth and Carnival of Light.

I do like the Carnival of Shadows and they'll probably be the first Lore ability I make, but the Carnival of Light are a very cool mirror. And have cooler outfits, especially for the higher up Lts. and Bosses. Plus I'd rather be able to summon good guys than villains with my Hero Illusionist >> (plus I wouldn't be stuck with Strongmen in most of the abilities)

And the Devouring Earth... I just think they're cool. Plus it'd be nice to have some deathspores stunning and holding things that *weren't* me.

It actually does make sense.

Incarnates are, in general, rare. Aside from the few we don't know are openly incarnates, there's only Statesman, Recluse, Hero 1, and I think it was teased Hamidon tapped into Incarnate power. Statesman doesn't try to get more power for himself or others because it would lead to the Well taking full control. He has to show self restraint or he loses all sense of free will and identity. Recluse likewise looks for more power but in any way not related to the Well and tries to sever his link with the Well while still retaining it.

Basically, the only thing keeping Statesman from being like Emperor Cole is his personality. So it makes sense that an alternate version of Cole has no moral quandary about taking the power he needs.

They could've easily used Reichsman too, but then we'd be fighting Nazis constantly and that's even more cliche than Evil Twins. And they couldn't present Praetoria as the Black and Grey morality because... well, there's just no way to present Nazis as *not* evil.

Your guide is really fantastic and very helpful, I was kind of curious (unless I just missed it) Do you have any plans to expand the guide to include the latest 4 Incarnate slots?