Memphis_Bill

It would be more akin to a raid than a trial or task force then, yes. I'd expect the content inside to be adjusted to be appropriate for the higher potential team sizes.

Also, ZM, I do owe you an apology. You irritated me far more than this discussion should have, and I reacted poorly. (Let's just leave it as "there were other things going on that had nothing to do with you.") I've been snapping at you and shouldn't have.

... well, mostly.

In any case, my behaviour towards you here has been less than stellar, and I do apologize for it.

Hell, just go to Pocket D or the RWZ, depending on server.

Sucks if you're not 50 these days, though. Did a quick search on one of the servers earlier. 50 people listed at the time. 46 of them were 50, and in Pocket D or in an Incarnate Farm... er, Raid. One was 49. One was 12. Two were in the mid-20s. Had that happen during a Rikti raid, as well - my mid-teen Controller had three Rikti raids to choose from... all to herself. yeah... no.

Edit: It's another reason I'll usually argue against adding more zones (well, other than something non-trashy for villainside.) Praetoria makes sense to have them, yes, but our population is so spread out (other than gathering for Incarnate Farms) it seems a bit bare at times.

When someone doesnt' need to **** around with IOs, dump a bunch of money into them or "play the market" and could, if able to self buff, reach those levels WELL before being able to join the Incarnate Farms, no, it's not old or moot.

Which I pointed out earlier.
Which has a contact, and multiple missions.
You're the one with the timing fixation, not me.
And yet they meet the other criteria.

One of multiple criteria.
Yes, actually. But not just by dint of having multiple teams. I know the difference is far, far over your head.

I can call my controller a tank. Doesn't make a lot of difference to the survivability or abilities, now, does it. And yes, it's one of the things I've continually held against the dev team - they're bad with their own terminology... thus leaving it UP to the players to try to figure out what the hell they mean. Something that's only gotten worse of late. I'd love to see the dev team actually get their terms (and lore, and *insert list here*) straight and keep them straight.

And run with (and really designed for) more.
That's not a contradiction. Just because it's an instanced zone (you know, much like there can be new instances of the RWZ or Pocket D that, when LESS used, can't be walked into) doesn't mean they're not a zone.

First you say it's new, then you insist it's part of what makes (or doesn't make) a raid.

Prometheus, who you describe later, may mention the raids. But you don't go to him to start them, do you? No. You take your league into the queue and start immediately. No contact. Prometheus is more of a "Incarnate Raid Liason," much like the warzone liasons. He's a source of information.

He streeetches.... and falls flat on his face trying to turn Prometheus into an actual contact. Do you actually talk to him to start the raid? No, you don't. He is mechanically not a part of the raid at all. You don't even need to know he exists to start, run, or participate in the raid.

The devs data mine.
The devs know what they've made.

If I'm running a bakery and start changing from, say, making apple pies to making cement cookies and people say "I don't like that," I'm pretty sure I can tell what the negativity is about.

Listening to both groups - not "ignoring those who don't come up with your precious list of alternatives" - is listening to the community. The same people coming to post and saying "I don't like it" are likely describing what they don't like elsewhere.

My not having a nice, ordered, pretty list of alternatives does not make my view or my statement that "I don't like that" any less valid or any less worthy of being listened to.

"Psychic scream." Multiple targets. Psi also does a slow/-rech, which you'll get more mileage out of as a defender. If you have "four single target attacks," then you skipped it, as it's the fourth power in Psi blast for Defenders.

Will Domination is a single target sleep, which comes in VERY handy (go ahead, Nemesis, put up that big bubble - there's a LOT in this game that's vulnerable to sleep.) Make sure you don't put any sort of a proc in it.

Immobilizes are, of course, just useful for the fact of being immobilizes (barring things like war wolves.)

In short, if all you're doing is looking at that secondary as "I don't do much damage," you're not looking at the secondary. And yes, I *do* have an Emp/Psi. You can attack perfectly fine while working with your primary and keeping people buffed.

/this.

There are very few times when "rockin' the aura" is appropriate. In a mission following the tank? Quit leaching, use your other powers and, oh, your *other powerset.* Hasten being on auto in this case would be acceptable. Healing aura (or its equivalent in other powersets) is not.

Rikti raid? Incarnate raid? Mothership raid? THOSE are good times to do so, as the devs haven't figured out how to *not* have someplace lag with more than 8 people in it in anything like close proximity (but, hey, go introduce more raids...) It'll go off when it's ready, you'll likely be in a good position to actually be USEFUL with it, and the fact the server and client can't make heads or tails of when everything else is recharging won't matter.

Also, no idea who "prixy" is. Don't care. The OP's playstyle = leech.

Also also,
"The star" didn't tell you a damn thing. Early on - as in, oh, up to level 15 or so? Sure, watch the tank. Your heals will be needed. Hell, with most sets you'll need to CM the melee when you have it. Past that, watch everyone, and quit leeching. Your having HA go off is going to delay other powers that may be needed more (yes, I have had "h34l0rz," which is what you're describing, lose FAR more important people because they had that on auto.)

The tank, for more than half the game, can take care of him or herself in 95% of the situations better than your piddly (and yes, it is piddly) wasting of END on HA can.

And the people in comics are completely invulnerable one issue, but brought down by a papercut or a green rock the next.

So by that argument, every time you activate a power, there should be a random buff or debuff applied to you (with a .001% chance of instant death.) OK, maybe not each activation, but each mission, arc, or day.

"Sorry, guys, I'm at a -5000% ACC penalty today for some reason, I think someone sneezed at my picture."
"Oops, seem to have developed a moral aversion to hitting women. Cant' help on any Arachnos, Malta, Knives, Carnie or Freakshow missions today."
"Dang, I looked west at 3 PM, I'm now weak to energy damage."

No, you *can* just say you flat out don't like it. Perfectly valid statement to make, and leave as is.

It has nothing to do with if there's a timer or not.

Current trials actually listed as trials:
- Respec trial

Definition from the wiki:
Raids in game:
- Hamidon
- Mothership

So, let's look at the Incarnate raids:
- Multiple teams required
- Specific to certain zone (in this case a special intance)
- No contacts

And you want those debuffs for the person using Superspeed as well, correct? After all, someone running around that fast would have a much harder time aiming and ensuring a shot hit...

No?

Calvin Scott.
Faultline (the zone, not character.)
The Hollows.
The Rikti Crash Site/War Zone.

Edit:
Unfortunately, Faultline taught War Witch (and by extension the rest of PS) the wrong lessons, really getting her stuck on "Just redoing old content to bring it up to date is too much work, we'd rather do a new zone." Faultline required a LOT of work. They altered the maps, put in new buildings, and let us in behind the "wall" to the turbines. So when revamping old zones is mentioned (such as Dark Astoria,) we get that same old tired BS about it being "too much work" brought out. They seem to ignore that *not every zone that could use updating needs that.* Not even most.

Timers have nothing to do with determining if it's a trial or a raid.

Respec TRIAL: Multiple missions leading to one final action. Example: villain respec trial:
The Tree of Thorns power respecification trial is composed of three missions. These missions are:
Defeat 25 (first respec trial) or 40 (second respec trial) or 50 (third Respec Trial) Circle of Thorns
Overthrow the leaders of the Wyvern, Longbow, and Legacy Chain factions gathering for an attack (first respec trial) or Attack the Devouring Earth (second respec trial) or Defeat all Malta Forces (third respec trial)
Defeat the Thorn Tree, a Circle of Thorns archvillain.

Hero respec trial:
The start of the trial varies between contacts. Jane Hallaway's trial starts with a visit to Jason Serano, followed by a hunt mission, a door mission, and then the main reactor. Captain James Harlan's trial consists of two door missions before the main reactor. And Major Richard Flagg's trial consists of a hunt, a door mission, a patrol, and a door mission before the main reactor.

Compare to a mothership RAID:

- Gather in one location, clear one objective to get to another. No set of missions, just one big attack.

So, BAF:

- Go to one location, complete set of objectives to unlock next set of objectives in the same location. No set of missions. Done.

Lambda:

- Go to one location, complete series of objectives, finish all in one location. Done.


Hmmm. Sounds more like the mothership RAID than the respec TRIAL, using the game's current examples.

Both have timed elements. Timers have jack-all to do with if it's a raid or a trial.

These are RAIDS.

*nod*

War Games = good.
The Net = bad. (Or maybe I just can't stand all the stuff *wrong* with The Net. My cousin showed it to me just for the entertainment value of me tearing it apart.)

Saw it in theaters. Had the soundtrack.

I'm not sure about the layoff portion of it. I'm going more with Eva's explanation, quite honestly. The VEAT arcs were the first time (for me) that it really hit - it's like you could tell when they were taking their time (up to, what, level 20 or so?) and when they just sort of shoveled crap together to call it an "arc" ("Here, have one mission!") and get them out the door.

Between that and the historic "ooh, shiny! We'll develop that furth... ooh, something new! We'll develop that fur.... ooh, bouncy ball! Ohhh, stick! Get the stick get the stick get the stick!" hyperactive puppy mentality (how are those PVP updates? AE arc selections for dev choice? How about the "We just want to work on new stuff, not change or update the old" attitude (almost direct quote, IIRC) from War Witch?) - yeah, I'm getting annoyed with the developers.

You pretty much have to approach the game as a "monster of the week" show now, not expecting anything to really tie into anything else (and having it be really rare when it does.) Sort of early X-files that handwaves vaguely at some plot or other because "the government knows things!" as opposed to, say, Babylon 5 that was written with a multi-year overarching plot.

And given that, I'm not surprised there *isn't* more complaint about the "Know what, screw it, farm these" design of the trials. *shrug*

(And having run Sutter, I shake my head at a group of 20s really doing much vs the Infinite Ghoul-bombs. I like the ships, though I have to wonder "Why did they tell the war walkers to land nicely and not just slam through the hulls? those things can fly and aren't light." Though it'd also be nice if they had *guns* instead of concrete poles in their turrets.)