Jazra

I thought it went well also. Too bad about the Underground Trial -- better luck next time!

But on that topic, did anybody else have a problem targeting Des in the Avatar chamber? supposedly hanging out near her is beneficial, but I had no way of finding out where she was.

I'll see you there. I've been itching to get in some more Keyes and Underground, but lately I've only been seeing trials on days where I can't stay very long, and everybody always opens with LAM/BAF, and then I have to head out. I'm good to stay tonight, though. Looking forward to it.

Any huge objections to letting me use this for IXP? (as in, bringing level 51s) I promise to be as useful as possible!

I, for one, am eagerly looking forward to Dark/Dark controllers. Having read Synapse's post, there's nothing about it that I don't like. (With the possible exception of not having Black Hole hauled out)

Since he said that only the two powers from Dark Miasma were taken replaced, I am assuming that Dark Servant is still in there. This would mean we can have Controllers with multiple pet types now (besides Illusion), and I am very curious to see what the Dark Control Tier 9 power will be. That slot has typically been a pet, but we have pets of a sort with the Haunting power earlier on.

Also curious to see if the taunt aura that Haunt puts on the targeted foe will attract other enemies that you have confused. That could be a great way to concentrate enemy fire on a tough boss.

Last question -- why take out the ST Hold from /Dark due to redundancy when there's a ST hold in /Time which is just as redundant for controllers?

Thanks for letting me re-conceptualize my 'Shade, Dechs. I have been worrying a lot about how he dies really quickly when I make a mistake, or when Eclipse runs out and there are only a few enemies around to re-eclipse from.

Your heavy use of Stygian Return let me re-conceptualize it as "Hey, that's okay" and I proceeded to run him through an ITF grabbing all kinds of aggro and bouncing right back up whenever he (rarely) fell over. It was a blast!

Less worrying, more soul-eating. That's the ticket.

I seem to recall that when the game first launched, Gravity Control used a special type of damage called "crushing" which was unique to that powerset, and unresisted by typical foes. That was supposed to be its special "thing" to differentiate it from the other powersets in the same manner that Ice has slows, Fire has additional DoT, and so on.

I also remember that it was very quickly changed. Does anybody remember why? Or am I misremembering? I notice that ParagonWiki has no mention of this at all, so my hallucinating is quite possible.

I haven't read the entire thread yet (halfway through page 2) but I can sort of see a way that this would work.

Assuming Cole has made a supersoldier that mimics the abilities of its enemies (so let's forget the Kheldian controversy) we could have an AT with a primary and secondary set that is qutie a mish-mash of powers and abilties. Ranged attacks, melee attacks, controls, buffs, debuffs, resist, and defense all sprinkled liberally through the primary/secondary powersets. Obviously not a lot of concentration on any one thing (there's just not enough space!) but a little bit of everything.

Then, depending on what you're toggled to "mimic" modifiers are applied to all your powers.

If you mimic a controller, your damage modifier and shield levels drop, but your holds go up a mag or two and your buffs/debuffs increase in value. Mimic a dominator and your holds go up a mag and your damage levels go up, but your shields lose much of their effectiveness.

Mimic a scrapper/stalker and your holds are mag 1, but you get a 1.3x modifier on your shields and a significant melee damage bonus. Tank/brute gives you a bigger shield bonus (1.5?) but smaller damage bonus. Team related buffs drop to 50% value or so.

Blaster mimic gives you an increased damage modifier overall. And so on and so forth.

Not sure what would happen if you try to mimic a mastermind. Not enough room in there to add a pet set.

Hmm, perhaps something like the Widow power tree selection. You can pick and choose from an expanded tree of available powers (including a pet set) and if you want to concentrate on one thing and always stay in the same mimic-mode you can do so, but then you may as well just be playing that AT, as you're missing out on all the versatility.

The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to like this idea, but I imagine it would be a nightmare to code.

Have something happen with Boomtown. It's been a messy ruin for seven years now. It's a complete waste of a zone. Since Babbage likes to hang out there, I am thinking that perhaps the Clockwork are starting to rebuild the zone into functional buildings and infrastructure. Why? Guess you'll have to explore the accompanying new missions and storyline to find out!

That, or just some reclamation a la Faultline. I was really happy when that happened, and the Poz TF reworked to utilize it. Then have the Clockwork trying to retake the rebuilt part.

As somebody else mentioned, make the Shadow Shard a co-op zone, and introduce a couple new TFs with villainous goals, though I would be happy enough with just making the current 4 co-op. Villains don't want a mad deity running around either, unless they are the mad deity in question. Simplifying and shortening the Shard TFs would also be in order.

Extend Incarnate experience to some non-Praetorian trials. Cathedral of Pain for sure. Maybe even the sewer trial, as it is just as complicated. And while we're on the topic, an option to break down Incarnate components for IXP so you can progress in your slot unlocking by doing regular level 50 TFs. At least equivalent to breaking down a thread for IXP.

Are you alternating redside and blueside? Or does that still matter? (I haven't done a CoP for months now)

Maybe trigger after a Tin Mage or an Apex TF?

My initial thought was to trigger after an Incarnate trial is completed, but then they'd never stop!

This has been bothering me for a long time as well. At first I set aside my annoyance by figuring that my story/contact progression just never hit the right contact to properly explore the Goldbrickers, and when I eventually realized that wasn't the case, I had gotten used to not knowing.

But the Goldbrickers ARE such a huge part of that level range. Missions where you steal from them. Missions from Dr. Percey where you learn more and more about their leader. There's a pretty big buildup for the Goldbrickers with no payoff at the end.

As for the other villain groups...
Luddites? There are NO missions that involve their storyline, or if there are I have yet to see one. They have never come forward out of the background.
Cage Consortium you get to work with for several contacts. Vince Dubrowski most notably. And they seem quite straightforward. Almost playing to a stereotype. I would be interested in seeing a story arc developed that fleshes them out and puts a face on the upper management, but as they currently are I have better things to do (And I am always pissed off when I get a missions that uses their factory site as a map. So annoying).
Wyvern -- Very clearly Manticore's personal Longbow. We get to fight Manticore several times, though never in direct connection with Wyvern.
Legacy Chain -- I'd like to see more of them. Their story is however ended now with the new villain arc (Sorry, I can't remember the name) where you temporarily get Incarnate power and destroy their army. Whatever plans and aspirations they had are squashed by you in-game by eliminating all of their members, and I am happy with that.
Scrapyarders are pretty straightforward, and if this was City of Heroes I'm sure there would be a story arc where you help raise them up, but this is City of Villains, and we spend a lot of time taking away whatever they have. As a villain, I delight in keeping them under my boot and not letting them attain any power but keeping them around, and crushing their dead leader periodically adds enough spice to the matter to keep me happy.

/signed

Thankfully so far all of my incarnates have been able to find thematic reasons for the existing Judgements, but my other toons coming up will be hard pressed to find a good reason to pick one of those 4. I can defenitely see them with these, though.

I think the swap ammo mechanic could be a lot more useful than it is now. As most people agree, the fire damage is the most common choice for the extra damage to bring it closer to the damage output of other sets. I sometimes use cryo ammo on harder bosses to have them attack me (slightly) less often and on some tough targets that aren't resistant to knockback, I have had a good time using standard ammo for soft control.

But I don't think I've seen ANYBODY use the chemical ammo type. Perhaps this could be replaced with a very small chance to apply a mag 1 hold to the target and make them vomit, like poison gas trap or volcanic gas? That would make it much more useful in the AoE attacks to knock out easier enemies temporarily, and if you keep attacking with regular attacks you could have a chance to stack enough mez to hold the boss that you're hammering on and make him vomit. (Not guaranteed, as that would be overpowered) I know I, for one, would be using chemical ammo a lot more if I could be making bad guys hurl their cookies.

Also I would like to see the effects of Suppressive Fire made different. As it stands, they all have the same effect except for standard ammo which applies a disorient. I'd like to see a small ice patch from Cryo ammo, perhaps a small DoT patch with incendiary ammo, and a small pulsating hold patch from chemical ammo. Give us some actual incentive to change the damage types around from time to time. All of these could be considered "suppressive fire" in their own way.

I have been waiting for an expansion to the Shadow Shard ever since it first appeared. I love the concept and the story behind it, and it bugs me that we can't properly fight Rularuu himself. In fact, we are limited to just two aspects of Rularuu when the game is coded already to have more, but they simply don't exist anywhere.

I'm not so sure about Incarnate Mode for the Task Forces. For me they occupy a different mental space. The Task Forces are a series of tasks that lead up to the climax and resolution of a story. Trials are one-off self-contained occurrences that require a level of teamwork and coordination unseen in Task Forces. Cavern of Transcendence needs all teammates to coordinate their actions to open the door. Sewer trial also needs coordination for the force fields, and for people to know their role with the particle cannons, etc. Eden trial less so, as it is mostly hitting things, but still you need to get the Ambrosia or it is nearly unwinnable. BAF needs coordinated teamwork for breakout, and simultaneously taking out Siege and Nightstar. Lambda needs some coordination to get the temp powers, and know how to use them properly (though admittedly it can be completed without this).

Task forces, on the other hand, are generally all about hitting things. Apex has a really cool mechanic with Battle Maiden but the rest are entirely about inflicting damage, and preventing damage from coming to you.

Noy, I would be all for an incarnate flag for the existing trials. That would get around the problem of people not wanting to exemplar down. If the Hydra and the Rikti were all level 54 that would even things out. Still not sure about the Pumicites in the Cavern, but it could probably be worked out to be balanced.

I can see you making a case for Kheldians turning up in Praetoria, as they are extra-planetary creatures that wouldn't have been affected by the Hamidon Wars. However I have a suspicion that Cole would brutally put down any such outside influence.

And a Soldier of Arachnos starting in Praetoria? That makes no sense at all.

Now, having us start out as, say Praetoria Police or a freed Seer or something along those lines as a Praetorian Epic Archtype I would be absolutely behind.

I don't agree with a 24-hour cycle. I like it at 20 as it is now. With a 24-hour timer (assuming I had time to play every day, which I don't) I can run my first trial at 7pm, finish at around 7:30. No problem. but the next day, I get on at 6pm but can only play for a little while. No reward for me before I have to go out.

Even if I can get on at regular times, there will be an inevitable creep towards later in the day to get my Emp reward. I finish one day at 5:30, great. Next day I have to finish at 5:35 to be sure I'll get it. Over time (yes, a long time) I won't be able to finish before 8pm.

Conversely, let's say the trial goes really well and finishes in 20 minutes instead of 30. If I started 24 hours after I started my previous days trial, then I get no Emp reward and have to run another.

20 hours works pretty well as it gives you plenty of fudge factor to accommodate flexible schedules.

Hi all,

I was just wondering if it would be possible, or even desirable, to take the existing trials and turn them in to Incarnate content.

Now I don't mean to take them out of where they are in the game. The sewer trial should still be available to people at the appropriate level, as should the Eden trial, but doing these things seems to be to be so amazingly epic and requiring large amounts of cooperation and teamwork (much moreso than Lambda and BAF, even) that they could easily be included in the incarnate content.

For sub-50s (or non-Incarnates) the trials can continue to give Hydra-Os or Titan-Os but for people with their connection to the Well opened these trials could drop threads and give you the Incarnate component table at the end.

I'm not entirely sure about the Cavern of Transcendence as it is built around using very young Heroes (and tied directly in to the Hollows storyline, which I think was very well done) and wouldn't be anywhere near balanced for high level toons, and I doubt that many IO-ed out players will want to auto-exemplar back that far.

Also, this kind of leaves Villains out in the cold, as they lack trials of their own besides the respecs, which have their own specific reward.

Still, I would love to see Eden and the Sewers added as Incarnate content. I think they would fit right in.

Thoughts?

Took Whisper's suggestion below. reposted in appropriate forum.

Tested it last night again and I seem to be doing fire damage on top of the illusory damage. Looking good now. Thanks Devs!

Achievement: One of the earliest Hammy runs

Disachievement: I came out of it with 2 or 3 HOs. That means I took some HOs from other people. (For 'newbies' Hammy used to fracture into several blobs of goo at the feet of each and every hero in the zone, and defeating thee blobs would award an HO. One blob per person in the zone)

Achievement: Soloed most of the Praetorian villains with my ill/rad controller.

Disachievement: Can't do that anymore now that I can only have one Phantasm and I haven't IOed myself to have perma-PA again, nor can I have 6-slotted Stamina.

Still an awesome toon, but oh how I miss the glory days....

I hope this isn't where the "most" part of "most damaging attacks" comes from.

Are Interfaces working correctly in Mastermind pets or other controller pets? I haven't tested with Phantasm.

Hi all,

Just wondering if anybody has any idea whether the Reactive Interface not functioning in Phantom Army is intentional, or a bug that is going to be fixed.

I slotted a Tier 3 Reactive on my Illusion controller as a way to get more damage out of PA with both the fire DoT and the -Res that it applies to the enemies. While I can't say for sure that the -Res isn't working, I can say that none of my PA attacks were generating any extra DoT. I tested by playing solo and dropping PA into a fresh group of bad guys, then sitting back to see what happened. No DoT ticks at all.

If this isn't working, are the other Interfaces not working with PA either?

I play a humanform warshade, so he's generally right in the thick of things. Defenitely Void Judgement for him (fits the warshade theme as well) and the Diamagnetic Interface since -ToHit = +Def, and having Defense on top of Eclipse would be very delicious.

Clarion Destiny, as with most people I think. Mez protection is entirely lacking, since I don't have Dwarf form. For the Lore... I picked Clockwork, more or less at random. Time will tell if I actually wind up using it or not.