Ironik

Is this one of those Maori things where they wish you a nice day then eat your face off? I need to know if I should be scared!

You're strung like Lusca.

Thirded.

I've had one shard drop so far (although admittedly with not a *ton* of time playing my 50s, maybe 10-12 hours total) and 4-5 purples since they were added. I *never*, as in not a single time, got any of the costume drops when those were added. I didn't get one until after they increased the drop rate and by that time I'd missed out on all the yummy 100- and 200-million paydays for wings and such.

I've always hated massive raids in other games for that exact reason: a 1% drop of uberloot across all the dozens of players there is a waste of my time. A game should be fun and that's just not fun. If you're 14 and have nothing else going on in your life, then sure, grind away with all your high school sophomore energy. Me, I have a job to go to and a mortgage to pay, so I want something for my time. Otherwise I'm not giving you any more of my hard-earned money.

I ran 5 tips as well and two were in the new warehouse skins, two were in wrecked tech bases and one was in a special one-off design. The two new warehouses, however, came in different colors: one was brown and one was green. First time I've seen the brown one.

You are totally blowing my mind, man.

Building on this excellent I-wish-I'd-thought-of-it analogy, in order to make it a morally gray area, why not say that new bodies have some intrinsic energy which creates a soul and a reincarnated soul essentially feeds on that lifeforce. That rather makes it more of a concept for dispute because it moves it from "spaying your dog" to more of an "aborting a fetus" analogy.

Holy armor hotness, Batman! What a brilliant use of color!

Not at all, there are two fun things left.

I quite agree. Atmosphere -- "feeling" -- is very important. So I think your post is perfectly on topic. I mean, why else does the sky turn red during zombie attacks or green during Rikti invasions? It lends to the theme and the overall feeling of what's going on. I think "The Coming Storm" -- whatever that actually entails -- might be enhanced with judiciously-used weather effects, particularly rain.

I would encourage the Devs, particularly War Witch, to check out that game referred to earlier and see how rain is implemented there, because it really does enhance the overall gaming experience with a slight visual effect combined with excellent sound effects.

I've only received one.

Yeah, 2399. May.

That's the thing with Honoree. I have four level 50 characters: 3 Blasters and a Brute. So far I've taken 2 Blasters and the Brute through these missions and the primary thing about Honoree is simple: if he hits me twice in a row, I'm dead. If I can keep that from happening, then he loses. So I pop 3 oranges and 2 purples and use my powers to their best effectiveness. So long as I can use a green after he hits me, I'm fine. And that right there is the sum total of the strategy for Honoree. By the time my Dual Blades/Willpower Scrapper gets to that mission, he's going to be able to just waltz in there and wail away until everyone is dead. In his mid 30s he's practically there already, as I'm using my 50s to finance his IO sets.

What I'd love to see is alternate ways to complete missions. Since its inception, the game has basically boiled down to: can you survive long enough to out-damage your opponent's regen? there have been some hints towards this mechanic in recently added missions, but it would be cool for my uber-healing Defender who can't hurt a fly to be able to avoid Honoree altogether by being able to overload the Rikti portals so the explosion brings the cave down on his head. It shouldn't be as easy as merely clicking a glowie, but it also shouldn't have to fall back on your DPS.

See, this is where the cries of "use tactics!" bug me: you aren't doing anything special, just using your powers in obvious ways based on game mechanics. On my Fire/Energy Blaster, I used Rain of Fire to herd the EBs where I wanted them, then burned them to the ground. Honoree killed me a couple times, but the first time was because my timing with RoF was off.

In years past I have played with people who didn't know what they were doing, such as Tanks who didn't turn on their toggles, but those instances are few and far between, so I assume most players at this stage in the game are at least using Inspirations and making decent use of their powers. Maybe they aren't perfect in their gameplay but there are really limited ways you can employ the tools you have at hand and calling them "tactics" diminishes the word.

You don't consider the Faultline revamp or Doppelganger missions to be significant? Faultline was pretty major, with all sorts of new missions and new stories.