Agent White

how about it being turned from a hazard zone back to a 'normal' city section? We seem to be seeing a lot of the revamps either making zones scarier or making zones worse, how bout one that makes it 'better', that is the zone gets cleaned up, albeit with some seedy under-element.

Yeah it's a bad idea but you know guys it's *one* lame idea out of a bunch of other cool stuff so, call it a wash and don't dwell on it. At least wait to see the costume before you pull out the torches and pitchforks, you may not even want the thing.

Yup, Dark Astoria as a new 50+ zone with revamped Banished Pantheon and Tsoo.

So that answers that question at least, with more info on the solo incarnate path to come. But still, that alone speaks volumes.

Nother new Praetorian trial though. >>

ohh, actually the new dark astoria will be 50+. wow, wonder how that'll work with the lowbie missions into it now >> major revamp?

Not that we could tell what the costume even looked like.

Loved the *one* comment about it. "Well, that's neat". You could almost hear the crickets.

Kind of disappointed they're putting the AT IOs in it too, though it sounds like the costume is the only thing explicitly gated behind the random draw so hopefully we'll see those elsewhere soon.

I'm not opposed to the random pack idea, just so long as the costume is offered on the market eventually.

Also, Darkness control, neet. And enjoying the new Dark Astoria makeover, should be creepy cool. Though, 30+? That seems a little odd, given so many DA missions are from Talos, so PCs can be anywhere between 1 and 10 levels lower than that >>

I disagree that the solo path won't be able to earn any emp merits, at least I'm hoping it will be able to, even if it's 1 a week or every 48 hours or so. Without e-merits then I don't feel the path is all that 'viable' compared to just running trials ad nauseum.

At least in my opinion, if you're going to call it the solo/small team alternative then you need to be able to actually earn everything in the Trial path, albeit at a reduced pace. Less iXP, less threads, reduced merits (but still min. 1 of each) and maybe a completely random salvage drop, but with threads/merits earnable that's somewhat less of an issue.

But I don't believe the solo path should cap rewards at a lower level than trials, merely have to take longer for the same progression.

People are going to complain regardless, because people want to have their cake and eat it too and not have to work for it.

I don't have a problem with gating costume pieces behind various ways, but if it's going to be rare/difficult/require a long process then I'd prefer if unlocking the costume piece unlocked it account wide rather than per character.

Well the only baselines we have are the mins and maxes of the system currently in place.

The minimum we know is the SSAs, which reward an Astral Merit and 10 threads for incarnate on the weekly cooldown timers.

The max is running a trial, earning iXP and threads from enemies, astral merits for certain objectives, 2+ empyreal merits every 20(?) hours and a random roll on for the 4 tiers of rarity for salvage and getting to pick an exact piece.

So the solo path is going to be somewhere in between these two. Obviously it's going to be grindy, the whole incarnate system is still in its infancy so it's going to be grindy until more options roll out. But this should at least be a grind you can do by yourself or with friends, while the trials will be faster in terms of rewards.

Honestly I'm kind of expecting a faux-taskforce or two, like the SSAs are only a bit longer than 3 missions and able to start by yourself (as the SSAs are). I guess something like Tin Mage/Apex only with an SSA style start up so you can do it solo and repeatably for full rewards every so often (probably 20 hours or so?) Probably for 1 Emp merit and a completely random salvage, with enemies all dropping threads and iXP (expecting they won't throw as many mobs/EBs/AVs at you so it'll be slower iXP).

The tip thing doesn't sound bad, offer some variety.

I really don't see an AV being involved unless you're teaming, which I also kind of expect to be able to do in them. Otherwise probably an elite boss.

Really, i'm hoping they're kind of basing it around players being at 'square one' in the incarnate path, as in just after finishing Mender Remial's arc.

Title really sums it up. In a few days we'll have the Pummit and one of the expected announcements/reveals is the solo path for Incarnates, so players won't have to rely solely on iTrials to unlock slots beyond the Alpha and (hopefully) a way to earn incarnate salvage to craft abilities.

So, what are you guys expecting and/or hoping it to be?

Carnival of Light/Shadows. *Most* of the pieces are in but theres a few like the porcelain masks and chest/shoulder pieces or some of the more elaborate back details that seem to be missing.

the -res in piercing rounds definitely needs to change. Empty Clips keeps its -Def through all kinds of ammo, I'm not sure why Piercing Rounds is any difference.

Cold and Toxic definitely need some love. maybe tacking on a -Recharge on Ice? And a slight -Regen on Toxic? Or just bumping their values up a bit, 5-10 percent to make them more worthwhile.

The concept is sound, but the execution needs some adjustment. Especially given how few ways there are to figure out any enemy's given resistances, you're only switching ammo for the secondary effects and not the elemental types.

And keep in mind there is still Soon to Be Announced Solo-path for Incarnate rewards, so unless the solo path works completely differently (IE, excluding Empyreal Merits or the like) someone that doesn't like running trials often should be able to power themselves up via solo and only need to run TPN once for access to the guns, so there shouldn't be a lot of trial grinding.