Chad Gulzow-Man

Seriously? I hear that the RV AVs have been getting chumped with a quickness by players with Incarnate powers. Just grab a team of like-minded players together and go nuts.

Heck, if you're on Victory, I'll join in any time it's convenient.

In all likelihood, the new zone will probably be attached to Praetoria and accessible only for those who own Going Rogue. Because devs hate Villains.

Actually, Merriam-Webster.com recently did a piece that explained why it's okay to end a sentence in a preposition. Like many of their previous pieces, such as the octopi/octopuses debate, it boils down to "English is not Latin, no matter how much some jerk faces in the 1600s wanted it to be."

"This is just the sort of thing up with which I will not put."

I was going to come in and flat-out say "NO!"... but yeah, I'd pay $10 for a Booster that added base functionality if it also allowed for lairs/apartments or whatever you want to call a "personal base."

Take it up with NCSoft. The people at Paragon Studios (aka, the game developers and board admins) have no control over it.

Anyway, you should be able to purchase the other booster you wanted anytime after midnight.

Ooooh, sounds good to me! Looking forward to it!

You mean like this one?

I was thinking more along the lines of a Saturday Night Live song that involved cutting a hole in the box and holding it just below waist level... >_>

Oh, trust me, I know all about this. But they operate out of completely separate facilities and part stocks. Alienware is located entirely in south Florida (or at least was when I stopped dealing with them), where Dell has offices and warehouses across the country, though all of my work with them has been through Texas and (I think) Minnesota.

Even though Dell bought Alienware a few years back, they've let the company remain mostly autonomous, keeping local staff and support personnel as opposed to absorbing them into other call centers. As I understand it, they let Alienware handle some of their "gaming" line of PCs and just slap it in a Dell chassis instead.

Welcome back!

Let's see... new stuff... 2.5 years ago was Issue 13, which added multiple builds and (still controversial) PVP changes, and allowed Villains to respec into different Patron Pools.

14 and 15 were content issues--depending on who you ask--and didn't add or change anything for your preferred ATs. The Mission Architect, aka "Architect Entertainment" or "AE" was in Issue 14, and the Dr. Khan TF and Barracuda SF were in Issue 15.

16 added color customization for most powers and alternate animations for powersets such as Martial Arts and Super Strength, which can be changed at the tailor. Some powersets, like Stone Melee/Armor, allow you to use different textures on your powers, giving you a lava or crystaline appearance instead of the regular stone one as an example. Electric Armor had "Conserve Power" changed to "Energize," which is like Conserve Power + self heal.

17 was another mostly story issue, but it added the new graphics tech for Ultra Mode and things like animated costume tails.

18 was, as you may already know, the release of the Going Rogue expansion. Tankers received a buff and now have a debuff called "Bruising" applied to their tier 1 attacks; it applies a 20% (resistable) resistance debuff to enemies. Brutes had Fury normalized, making it very easy to achieve a mid-level of Fury but more difficult to raise it to a high level. Issue 18 also changed the way "Burn" and "Fiery Embrace" work for Fire Melee users and noticeably increased their damage potential.

As part of Going Rogue, you can now switch sides by doing enough tip missions (max of 5 per day, 10 required to switch sides). Because the line between Heroes and Villains has been blurred, all characters have the APP (Ancillary Power Pools) available at level 41+, and any character that becomes a Villain and does the tasks of one of the Arachnos Patrons gains access to the Patron Power Pools. Also, with Going Rogue, all melee ATs get the new attack powerset: Kinetic Melee, which uses Tai Chi-style attacks.

Issue 19 began the process of unlocking our Incarnate abilities by allowing our level 50 characters a "global enhancement" power in the Alpha Slot. It requires Going Rogue to unlock, and comes in 4 flavors: Damage (Musculature), Endurance Reduction (Cardiac), Accuracy (Nerve) and Recharge (Spiritual). Upgrading to a tier 3 or tier 4 Alpha Boost gives you a "Level Shift," effectively making your character level 51.

Additionally, the Fitness power pool became inherent (aka, all characters get it at level 2)!

That brings us to the most recent release, Issue 20, which has just been out for a few weeks. There are four more Incarnate abilities available now (again, only for those who have purchased Going Rogue): Judgement (an AoE attack), Interface (a debuff added to all your regular attacks), Destiny (an AoE heal/buff power) and Lore (a pet-summoning power). The abilities are gained and are most useful in the new Incarnate Trials--having a tier 3 or tier 4 Destiny or Lore ability gives you another level shift for use only in the Incarnate Trials, making the current maximum level 53.

And that's the short of it. There's new story arcs to explore, enemies to fight and customization options out the wazoo. (I didn't even mention the various $10 booster packs that add more costumes, buffs and even the "Ninja Run" and "Beast Run" semi-travel powers!) The point is, it's a great time to come back, and it looks like things are going to get even better in the future.

As I understand it, there are options to build Alpha abilities using Threads and the salvage gained from the iTrials. So no, you are not screwed. Bonus points for hyperbole, though.

There's also nothing saying you can't go run normal content to get the original Incarnate salvage. I've seen almost no drop in calls for LGTFs and ITFs on Victory, which usually have the best Shard drop rate according to the (highly biased) community. And Weekly Strike Target TFs are run pretty regularly, as well (though I admit I've missed a couple due to low interest levels on certain week nights).

So you want to do the same stuff you've been doing over and over and over (ad infinitum) again PRIOR to i20 to avoid the stuff you've been repeating for... the last two weeks?

And you're sick of the iTrial cutscenes, and would much rather see the cutscenes in the STF, LRSF, LGTF, ITF, DrKTF and BSF that you've seen a bajillion times already?



Hindsight bias at work, I guess? This whole thread is like that episode of South Park where they were starting 5th grade, and wanted to go back to 4th grade where life was so much simpler... only to remember that 4th grade had its own problems and wasn't really any better. (I could probably say the same about any i12 PVP thread, but I don't have any burning desire to pick my teeth up after a drive-by face bricking.)

Pretty much what Rod said. You'll get much better results (and less aggro or wasted usages) by auto firing a self-buff power like those listed above. I tend to get the occassional annoyance of having Practiced Brawler activate right after I hit Build Up to start an attack chain, but it's usually not a big deal.

Not sure I'd put Rage or similar Build Up-style powers on auto, personally (though I know it stems off a crash in Rage's case), but if that fits your playstyle, go for it.

Oh man, that's the worst. I hate when I'm playing my Kin, and there's a second Kin on the team, and they never Speed Boost anybody... including me, with my end bar almost consistently under 20%. (Note: I have awful luck when casting Transference; either my target dies just as I'm casting it, or it misses.)

In all da wong places.

Only one man has ever attempted that dance, and he is dead!

My twin brother, Freduardo... but where he died, I shall live on--in his apartment!

Yes, there was a bug that coincided with i20's release that caused some people to lose slots that they'd paid for and others to gain slots that they hadn't paid for.

Well, it would absolutely destroy my allergies, for one thing. I doubt I'd make it to the street corner, let alone the hospital.

Aside from the fact that a number of us are allergic, there's also the fur on all the sofas, the barf in your shoes, the decapitated mouse and bird-based characters on the door step, the smell of the litter box in Pocket D... I could go on.