Jetpack

I'd be in favor of the crashes going away. Would actually use the powers, then.

With the servers down, took the opportunity to go see the movie.

Best movie I've seen in quite a while.

I definitely squeed! when I see the original human torch.

Chris Evans pulled Cap off. I really had my doubts, but he did it.

Hugo Weaving. Well, it's hard to think of a superhero movie with a villain of his quality.

Tommy Lee Jones stole almost every scene he was in.

Peggy Carter was a strong female presence. Very happy for that.

Even Sgt. Bucky worked for me.

Loved how the Howling Commandos were Cap's group.

Still not a fan of their version of Nick, but at least he's not the real Nick so it's more acceptable.

Really looking forward to the Avengers.

PANCAKEPANCAKEPANCAKEPANCAKE yeah, he should.

LoL, PANCAKEPANCAKEPANCAKEPANCAKEPANCAKE.

Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Incarnate Trial.

Like some others, I had a reflexive response to Trials. Ugh. Not a raider. Not going to be a raider.

Still, making my characters more powerful - so I gave it a shot. Got a few characters done, then gave up on the process.

Took a break for about 3 weeks, then came back to the Trials on a whim.

For several reasons, I'm doing better with them than I had. Felt like sharing hoping this helps some others on possibly enjoying them more.

1 - New Lore pets - Most of my characters can now find something reasonable for the character concept, as opposed to automatically picking a Vicky. Makes me feel much more attached for the power to the individual character. Having the power make more sense is really helpful. Now if only they didn't shimmer.

2 - Keyes - I know this is a backhanded compliment, but Keyes really makes me appreciate BAF and Lam! I was always pretty comfortable with BAF, but Lambda is so much less gimmicky than Keyes.

3 - Multiple servers - this isn't new for me, but I play on 3 servers. If a trial isn't forming on one server, I just cycle through until I connect. If I only played on one server (not Freedom or Virtue), I can see how this is more frustrating.

4 - Astral Merits/Emp Merits - conversion to shards and threads that go to your e-mail tab. I've only taken two of the Emp aura options. That left me with characters who had leftover astral and emp merits, which I can now use to improve other characters. Great change!

5 - The main thing for me. I lowered my expectations. I never expected to Tier 4 all characters. Now, I don't even worry about higher than Tier 1 for Interface or Judgement. Get the shifts, lvl 1 for the rest and call it a day. That, combined with starting threads from another character (my last 3 characters started with 54 threads each), have reduced the grind, such as it was. The iXP fix makes it even better.

Now, do we still need solo/small group Incarnate progression at a reasonable rate? I would say yes, as it can be hard to find trials Sat. and Sunday morning, two of my prime playing times. But, the Trials definitely look more appealing to me now.

So, October release?

Heh, thanks for the update.

I can confirm it doesn't.

We always level pact, and we have changed alignments several times. No issues with the pacts.

I would bet BaB, but this sure smells like a cop-out for a signature arc.

Good info.

Thanks for providing all of this!

Yay?

As someone who will be close to Tier 9 when this releases (if not there if closer to end of year), looks great to me! Keep taking my money!

I'm adding two accounts, that will go premium.

The main two will stay VIP, although the big MMO release coming up at holiday time will probably be taking my time.

It is MM exclusive. My Vicky is named Hilda.