EvilGeko

Wait what?

Maybe, I don't understand what's meant by the term 'roleplay'. As I understand that term, it means to play a role in character. To act as that character as you conceptualize them would act.

I do that myself on some characters. I enjoy them immensely. I don't even pay attention to their builds or how powerful they are. I'm honestly confused. In my experience, role-players couldn't care less about power. I'm open to the idea that you're both a role-player and an achievement minded character. I know I am. But why then deny it?

Your argument has more force if you just acknowledge that you want the rewards, you just want more ways to earn them. I agree with that. What I don't agree with is this 'grind' business. For any achievement minded character I know, the trials are easy-mode to the abilities. It's substantially easier than creating a good invention build.

EDIT: OK, I read your post above and that makes sense. I still don't see the grind, but I understand your point a bit better.

Then why not just do the trials when you feel like it? Why make them a grind for yourself? You say you don't play primarily for the rewards, but you admit you did something you didn't like for the rewards.

For my part, I haven't done a trial in a few weeks. Just haven't felt like it. I love my shiny things, but I'm not going to let the lack of them get me down on the game.

BTW - If this were true, you wouldn't even care. I don't know why folks can't just admit that they do want the rewards, a lot. Heck, I wonder at anyone who plays a MMORPG who doesn't. Offline RPGs usually have much better and more consistent stories.

MMO players play to progress a character. That's why alting can be fun. It's not doing the cape mission for the 1000th time. It's seeing what you can make of a different type of character.

So you've haven't done Kalinda multiple times? Or Montague? Or the cape mission? Hmmm....

You only get the ten thread reward if you didn't participate. If you're in that group, I got no sympathy.

READING IS POWER!

I said if you did a trial once a week. If you did that you would have earned 24 Empyrean merits. 24 Empyrean merits could be converted to 3 rare components.

You would have also earned approximately 72-96 Astral merits (3-4 per run)

Those would have converted to 288 threads. You would also have 24 components from drops. And some non-zero number of thread drops.

Between all that, you WOULD HAVE had enough to create at least three rare abilities. Not 'may'. You WOULD.

Or just trade in your merits. But why let facts get in the way?

I despise it, and thank the devs for having the sense not to have done something like this. It would be repeating the same error they did with the purples recipes.

The Incarnate system is a hybrid of experience and loot. It's not intended to represent level 51-60. It's not intended to be earned by grinding the easiest crap in the game until your eyes bleed. It's just astounding that people call the trials 'grinding' but suggest as an alternative a system that would reward farming the TV map.

No, the only bull poop is your baseless assertion. I'm a professional, with a spouse, two kids, two dogs, a mortgage and a good credit score. I have never played any game 15 hours a day, even in college. When Issue 20 launched, I had one character in T3 in each slot in about a week of playing 2-4 trials a day. About 1.5-2 hours of play. Casual play after work.

The only grind is in your mind. If you just don't enjoy playing the trials, that's one thing. But IMO, they are fun and worthwhile for enjoyment. I don't do trials all the time, but they are part of my play.

If you did just ONE 30 minute BAF or Lambda a week, and alternated between them, you could have had at a minimum 3 rare Incarnate abilities. That's even if you didn't earn a single rare drop.

I don't see how you folks can seriously say that the Incarnate system is 'hardcore'. It's the easiest, most casual friendly endgame system out there, and not by a little bit.

The random rewards are a bonus. Just a bonus that is so good that it can remove the need to use the deterministic path. I really don't get why people can't see that. The Incarnate abilities are 100% deterministic. You can use Astral and Empyrean merits to earn every slot and every ability in the Incarnate trees.

That it usually takes longer than the random rewards is wholly intentional. Otherwise, the random rewards are pointless.

I would also take issue with your assertion that progression isn't partially random in the rest of the game. Gear progression is, in this game and most other MMORPGs, as much a part of player power as level progression. The difference between a IOed to the gills level 50 and one in SOs shows that. IOs, like Incarnate abilities have both random and deterministic elements. The deterministic elements have been becoming more dominate over time. First the introduction of reward merits, then alignment merits, then Astrals/Empyrean merits have made earning IOs much easier.

Likewise, we are already seeing the first tip-toes into creating more deterministic paths to Incarnates. Earning thread/Astral merits from the Signature Arcs is just the first such way I'll bet.

That system would be terrible. You're not 'forced' to 'grind' anything. It takes maybe a couple of days of play per slot, about a week to get rares in each slot.

Yes, you extrapolated a behavior to the majority with no evidentiary support. Feycat didn't do that. She expressed only HER OWN experience. So yes, I did see what you did there. You presented an argument that does nothing to contradict the argument you were countering. All it did show is that you can make stuff up.

Yup. I have it down to a science now, and taking a character that can solo AVs and have them do -1 tips is lolworthy. I'm usually done in 20 min with the 5 daily tips and most of that time is spent killing bosses for the tips.

It's not a reason to go red, just switch red for a long as it takes to finish the arc and go back hero. Whether the OP's idea is good or not, this isn't an argument against it.

Agree with Bill. Farmers are from what I can see, directly responsible for the generally deflation in rare salvage. Stuff that used to be 2million+ is now pretty much always available for 1.5mil or less.

I haven't. But I haven't tried either. After getting two Alignment merits for 20 min. of play, I stopped, lest I be accused of exploiting.

Doesn't work for every set. Level 30 maybe, but many sets just don't get key powers until the 20s.

That said, I have broken 8 minutes on this arc already. If the devs see fit to leave the rewards as they are, I'll probably get it under 6 tonight!

What Venture said. My first character was level 20 in 2004. Last night she was holding back against the Lost.

[yoda]

No. No grind. Only grind is in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.

Content is all around us. Devs create it. Makes it fun. Players are we...not some crude raider. You must play the content for fun. Solo, group, PvP. Yes, everywhere...even between the leagues and the trials.

[/yoda]

Why replace them? The damage and recharge enhancement doesn't go away at 21 only the proc. If you're not super concerned with efficiency, then just leave one or two in there. *Shrug*

DCUO has such a system, but like Arcana eluded too, it's still under the hood based around a lot of chance. But you can basically fight constantly. The game was broken as all heck at launch, but it's getting better.