Darkfaith

You are not currently having a technical issue that your fellow players can help you fix, nor is the technical issue that you're discussing something specific or current.

Okay, so maybe you're just trying to rant...but this isn't the place for it. This forum is for players helping other players with technical issues that they're having. A more appropriate place for this (if there is such a thing) would have been General Discussions, with the majority of other rant threads. And, if you're not expecting people to discuss your post in a way that you may not like, then perhaps you might be better served keeping your anger to yourself.

You can also substitute high-damage, multiple-AoE characters for characters with control. I have a Fire/Fire/Flame blaster that can cover a door just about by herself...between Hot Feet and Rain of Fire, everything minion coming out that door arrives dead, and the Lts almost too, with a Fireball, and maybe a Flares or two taking care of the rest. I like to have a high damage melee with me on the door I cover, but I could probably do it without help in a pinch with a tray full of reds. This was before she got her +2...I'm sure there are others out there who could do the same.

Okay, one...you don't have to read guides. Yes, it helps, because it gives you an idea of what to expect going in, but everything you need to figure out what you're doing is given to you in the trials, through objective windows, and messages that flash across your screen. The difference is, if everyone knows generally what to expect -first-, then the chances of a smooth and successful trial are far higher. Either way, whether you read beforehand or not, you're probably going to come out of every trial having learned something. Guides are a way of pooling knowledge of successful strategies, but they're hardly the only way to do these things, and far from definitive. The people telling you to read the guides are the ones too lazy to teach and share the knowledge that they've gained. Give it a week and you'll see far more people who have their strats down pat, their instruction macros made, and are ready and able to lead consistently successful trials without ever having to refer anyone to a guide. There are some out there already. We just haven't reached a critical mass of people who know what they're doing with this yet.

As for your second point, if no portion of any of these abilities were possible to use outside of these trials, I might give you that, but the only thing that -doesn't- function for the rest of the content a 50 can access is the Incarnate Shifts. The Judgement AoE still works, you can still summon the Lore pets, the Interface proc still goes off, and the Destiny buff still works. A group of people I run with had a blast earlier running through an ITF with some of us having T1s, and watching the mobs melt under a Pyronic blast, or taking on triple ambushes with our procs and buffs, was fun and relaxing after the intensity of the Trials. So, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you on that one too.

Lambda is doable with a PuG. Did a run earlier than would have succeeded if we'd pulled together a minute or two earlier in the final stage.

I've found that it's easier to get iXP from Lambda, but easier to get threads and merits from BAF. Did 5 runs of BAF yesterday, some successful, some not, and finally unlocked Judgement. Did 2 runs of Lambda today, neither successful, but managed to unlock Interface anyways. I'll probably keep running that until I have Destiny unlocked, then switch over to BAF for drops.

What's the point of doing content that you don't enjoy, though? Yes, there's a high chance that pretty much all future level 50 content will be tied to it, but there's another 49 levels of the game to still enjoy, and that they're still adding to, plus all those other level 50 activities that we had before this. Does the Incarnate system and the Trials change your participation and enjoyment of those things? Not at all, or it shouldn't, at least. That makes it optional. If you don't enjoy the Trials...don't do them. And, honestly, if you don't enjoy them, and the future content for this system is more Trials...are you even going to enjoy those? They haven't stopped adding content to the rest of the game. We just got 2 new TFs, in addition to these Trials.

If you feel that you don't enjoy something, then go do what you enjoy. That's why we're here, isn't it?

*shrugs* well, if that's the way you feel, don't participate. It's optional. CoH is good like that.

No, it's not the same as DKP. DKP is a player-driven and run points system, and is dependent on being in a static group of people who raids together, and while it guarantees you a reward within that raid group when you have enough points to spend, it's dependent on how whoever is running the pool has it set up, and it doesn't apply to any other group you might want to do this with. Threads, components, iXP, fall like rain in these trials, and you can do them with whoever you want, however you want, as many times a day as you want. Your progress is yours alone, is not deferred by any sort of player determination, and isn't dependent on anyone but you and your willingness to do these things. If you really wanted, you could have every slot unlocked and filled with at least a T1 in a couple of days. Days, not weeks, not months.

It really isn't like that. Unlike WoW's raid system, every time you do a Trial, you're guarenteed to get something out of it, succeed or fail. Every time you walk away from one of these, you have iXP, threads, components, -progress-. You literally can't walk away from this empty-handed. Having watched my brother play WoW for years, seen him beat his head off the wall several times a week to gain progress on the same raid, not just another run through of it, and walk away with nothing to show for it...only to have it reset every week, losing the progress that the group has made, and talking with him about it afterwards...this is not even remotely close. It's really not. Yes, this is not what we're used to. No, it's not like WoW, nor is it like most other end-game raid systems. And, best of all...it's -optional-. Are these abilities nice, fun to use, useful to have? Yes. Do I need them to do any of the rest of the things I've been doing until now? No. The game doesn't revolve around these abilities, unlike gear-driven games. Not having them doesn't even bar entry into the doing them.

This thread is from a few days ago, and pertains to a different issue. The information given at the time was correct.

No, when the Store is down, they disappear, as do any that you have available to redeem. This is a different issue.

It has to do with the addition of Leagure and LFG to the top row of the window.

They're looking into the issue with the character slots.

Yes, the Launcher does allow for interrupted downloads.

The downloader itself is capable of pre-downloads. They do that for large releases on another NCSoft game that uses the downloader. They may not have the functionality worked out for our game, however, or they may have decided that with the difference in download methods it's not needed. Or, we may see a pre-download, but much later than we would usually expect it. It's hard to tell.

The launcher is capable of pre-downloads, I've seen them done for another NCSoft game on the launcher. Not sure if they've worked out that functionality with CoH yet, though.

Aion NA/EU has had one round of server merges to concentrate population, but it wouldn't surprise me to find that it still has well over a million subs globally. KAion has 43 servers, and there are separate servers for China and Japan besides. Numbers here have dropped, but the culture is different over there. They view and treat PvP a great deal differently.