Lazarillo

To be fair, Chance makes a big deal about how deep under cover he really is, and he shows up to give his congratulations when a Loyalist decides to go hero (even though we all know all Loyalists are villains and only hospital-torching Resistance are heroes). Hmm, I wonder...

I think that varies from trial to trial, really. The original two, and the two Incarnate Task Forces, did a pretty good job about either emphasizing strategy or just making things a bit tougher through the use of higher level enemies. It's pretty hard to get any of them into an unwinnable condition except for maybe BAF, and that takes a pretty notable effort.

Keyes, Underground, and TPN, the focus then sort of seemed to change to just "beating" the players. It sort of reminds me of the original LRSF, where the devs came out and said "we're not actually sure this is beatable, but you'll probably figure out a way".

MoM is a step back in the right direction, to my mind, but not perfect. The new trial in Beta, as well, sounds more like some of the original ones, but I've not tried it myself so I can't say for sure (and I'm unlikely to try it, really, because I've just become too fed up with the general premise of the Incarnate system).

The problem, really, is simply that we're seeing level 55+ content, with no way to gate-out lower level characters. A group running the STF, for example, will never be lower than 49, meaning they'll never be more than -4 to what they're fighting. Running TPN and MoM means PuGers who don't know what they're getting into (or don't care, and simply intend to leech) are confronting -6s, and even -7s in Diabolique's new trial.

Basically, I think the best way to solve the PuG problem is just like it's already been solved elsewhere in the game. You can't join a Synapse TF unless you're at least level 15. Similarly, you shouldn't be able to queue up for MoM unless you have at least 2 shifts.

Cat-Gibbons?

Mr. Bowie looks sort of like someone didn't attach his toupee directly to the scalp, but rather stuck a two-inch pole on the top of his head to hold it up.

I have no problem with the styling, per se, but what is his hair doing WAY UP THERE!?

Now do all those things with a bare minimum number of people who all joined separately via the queue. MoM's pretty darned easy if done right. Any League that can make it past Penny is pretty much going to stomp the rest. But this isn't about the trial itself, vs. doing the trial with a PuG.

I thought of chest detail symbols that can be used on capes, which is something else I'd love to see.

As to the topic at hand, I'm not familiar with the pieces in question, but I would like to see more chest armor pieces that went all the way around the body. The current Vanguard chest plates (and Enforcer plates, and IDF plates, and...) look rather awkward, so if this would be a piece that could balance that out, I'd be all for it!

Part of me kind of likes this idea. After all, as a Praetorian, you're serving the state, and the Incarnate Trials demonstrate that supers who pay proper lip-service to the Emperor are allowed far greater power than any Primal can drum up. Giving low level buffs to all starting Praetorians, if just by, say, selling SOs at DO prices and ranges, or something, could be justifiable both in game balance and story reasons.

There wasn't one in the winter, but there are going to be Valentine's Day Tips when the Spring Fling starts this week.

Actually, this kind of makes me realize another problem with Praetoria that ends up killing my inspiration with it and I think it leaves it feeling barren. That being that the stories are all extremely linear in following one another, to the point that unless you get on a team that's all running the same arc, it's easily to outlevel and just end up completely left out of the story as well. This isn't so much a problem in the other cities, but it means that when I do create a new Praetorian, I create him or her with the express purpose of soloing to 20. This can be a problem for me if the new character is, say, a Controller, but it'll also be a problem for other players coming in and wondering where all the Praetorians are.

I thought the Devs' dream was to change their dream every five minutes over the newest shiny idea?

I think the main difference is that in most cases, the old TFs and trials were designed with strategies in mind, and the more recent ones in a lot of cases seem more designed simply to "beat" the players. There are exceptions I could probably name in both cases, but that's the way the trend looks to me.

Except that selling the items doesn't really change the fact that you can earn them in-game without having to buy them, still.

Remains my favorite by a significant margin.

Is also not too bad.

...where is Arbiter Fabulous when we need him?