Lazarillo

Possibly a little bit of both. Were you on the UG I was leading yesterday evening, by any chance? Because your experiences are sounding...familiar, and the level of problems I had on that particular run were rather exceptional (I also ask, 'cause we had a permanently frustrated Blaster who I felt really sorry for).

Whether you were or not, I'll share the experience a bit, which may sort of help your situation either way, I hope. This particular run I ended up field-promoted on, and ended up - due to DCs and just luck-of-the-draw PuGing - with very few people who were experienced in the trial, as well as the majority of players not having any sort of level shift. This lead to quite a lot of death and shenanigans in general, compared to many runs, just because you had a bunch of 50s fighting a 55 War Walker. When that happens, Lethal Force or no Lethal Force, people tend to die. When people tend to die, they stop being valid targets for the Targets Acquired ability. So if you have a half-wiped league when it uses it...you can prolly do the math there. Even if one survives the War Walker's attacks, if there aren't many there to share the burden with afterwards, the survivors still get fragged. Hence, it can be pretty difficult to recover from a wipe in those fights.

Of course, luck does still factor into it, yeah. On my league yesterday, I was getting Targeted, oh, maybe around 1/3-1/2 the times I saw it come up. But there was one guy who, based on his chat claims at least, was literally getting hit every time. I wasn't doing anything "right" and he wasn't do anything "wrong" in this case, that's just the way it happened.

So yeah, like I said, luck and strategy (and level) apply in equal measure. On a good league that's got plenty of level shifts, he'll go down before he can use the powers more than three or four times max, and the target choices will be more spread out. But even then, it's possible to just be particularly hated by the big guy.

As far as I know, Targets Acquired is an auto-hit AoE with a wide range but a small target cap. Hence, the only way to "dodge" is it is to bring a large league that means any individual character's chance of being targeted is less.

I am going to hold on to this image.

Nothing wrong with it inherently, but it's rather understandable, I think, that the idea that the team number requirement is only a number requirement in many cases is a reasonable frustration. Basically, when you have four people in a league who can do all the work, what's the point of requiring eight more "filler" players?

Now, that said, four "normal" players probably couldn't handle the event and, because of the way the queue works, most players using the queue rather than forming up ahead of time are only going to have the minimum number of players. Hence, for that reason, it makes perfect sense for the queue to require 12+ players.

However, there's no reason to remove the previous year's event access through the big present, for people who want a higher level of challenge or who don't need the extra "support".

Sure, I can buy that.
...but ever since i9, DOs and SOs aren't "the best enhancements for their level".

You're allowed to claim that argument as valid when having a well thought out character background and sufficient hours logged of in-character conversation is similarly mandatory.

I actually kinda like this idea.

The XP booster's sort of a weird exception, because even though it's consumed, the XP you get from it is a permanent boon. It's a little too expensive for too little effect for me, personally, but I wouldn't lump it in the same category as Temp. Powers or Inspirations.

All well and good, but most people involved in fighting zombies die rather gruesomely. My thinking outside the box has generally resulted in a better overall survival rate!

That's a big part of this, yeah. Personally, I'm not inclined to buy anything that doesn't show a permanent effect. A "consumable" server slot? Sure. Heck, even XP Boosters and Windfalls will make a difference on my characters (though they're far too overpriced for far too little effect in practice). However, temp powers and inspirations? Umm, no. The additions to the pack are similarly immaterial. Just because they were overpriced before doesn't mean they aren't still overpriced.

My primary and secondary powersets are better for hunting zombies. Why drop a fiver for a tool that doesn't measure up to what I get for free?

Well, the flip side of that is that by level 50, he's a lot less powerful, having gone from an Elite Boss with a billion pets to a boss (or a lieutenant!) with a few assorted Assault powers. Perhaps he overextended himself at low levels and can't do the whole perpetual motion thing anymore?

IIRC, that's part of i21.5.

Apparently, it was also to patch in more weapon-glitch fixes that may or may not work.

Yeah, sticking a sale in this week woulda been nice. Particularly for character slots, to get a few ready and prepared in time for Titan Weapons!

It's in one of the loading tips!

I'm not sure what definition of the word "deal" you're using there. But it certainly differs from what I would consider its most common usage.

But that last-minute-pulled-out-of-a-dark-place item is still gonna run you five dolla.

But Anti-Matter's reactors sucked in all the sunlight!

To be fair, while I'm not expecting Titan Weapons either, it's not like changes still coming down the pipe via Beta are the sorts of things that would break Cottage Rule or the like. Power sets get adjusted frequently. Hypothetically, they could bring it to live as-is and then toss out the adjustment patches in a few more days. It wouldn't be a very exciting way to proceed, to say the least, but the current status of the set doesn't make it impossible, per se.

I can say with certainty that I've seen Simulacra using both Chrono Shift and Overcharge, yes.