gec72

I know I'm but a drop in the bucket, but since A-merits came a long I'm pretty much earning only A-merits, outside of a very few incidental merits from the winter event. I've never run many TF, and I've been running tip missions rather than any (level 20+) arc content. I'm producing more, but I'm not taking much inf out of the system (from converting, anyway).

I may eventually go that route, though for now I haven't taken any of my villains rogue. Of course, since GR I've only really played one of my villains. I have more enough than heroes to earn A-merits with, and have no problem sharing any recipes regardless of character side. So I don't really need to have "pure" villains to generate A-Merits.

Sorry, I missed the footnote.

But yes - i do treat character building like a puzzle (and by puzzle, I mean the old jigsaw variety). Each level, slot, IO is another piece in that puzzle. And now the incarnate slots are more pieces.

It's a collector mentality. Gotta catch 'em all! Or take a set of baseball cards. Why go after each card in a set? What do you do with it once the set is complete? Nothing really, there's just a sense of completion. Incarnate slots that aren't attained or that are unslotted might make characters seem incomplete (I admit, this mentality is a little bit off).

Why do people do puzzles?

I'm actually going to be a contrarian here and say that I actually like having Repulsing Torrent available.

I just ran the "Cruel One, Mr. Phipps" tip (again) on my KM/EA brute. And I fell to an Executioner *twice*. Those darned executioner strikes that somehow make it through my defense and crit for what feels like WAY more than they should (I have experienced this with Blast Furnace too. Ok, I was fine on health...now a second later I'm dead. I see a hit for 600+ damage, and don't see a bunch of other damage that must have happened but I can't see in the combat log. Ok...)

Anyway, I said "Fine. FINE, Mr. Executioner. You want to play that way? I will proceed to cycle Repulsing Torrent, Energy Torrent, Focused Burst, and the Nemesis Staff for good measure. AND I WILL LAUGH AT YOU AS YOU FLOP LIKE A HELPLESS FISH."

So, it's not a power I use often. But when I do...

Probably. I was street sweeping in PI last night looking for tips and had two Nemesis troops drop them consecutively.

I've long had an elec/sonic planned, and finally got around to rolling him yesterday.

I anticipate the /sonic portion will be REALLY less busy for quite some time, as I largely solo and sonic barrier/sonic haven/disruption field won't be of any use until I have gremlins.

I just ran this again, this time with my EM/INV tank. It was basically an exercise in maneuverability (and thank goodness I swapped in Combat Jump when I rebuilt for I19). How fast can I locate and down a bifurcation (and actually LAND on the platform where it is) then relocate Trapdoor. Early on this went well, as the bifurcations spawned in the same area. I had him down to about 2/5 health and thought he might give up in just a few more hits. He bifurcated and I made the mistake of not going after the bifurcation immediately.

I realized my mistake too late; delayed on that clone set me back on the next, and then they started spawning where I had to find them. Slow on a couple more and he was right back at full health.

After a few of minutes of this (some might call it battle, some might call it...tedium), I happened into the lava and he followed me. I figured what the heck, I'll just stay here. Otherwise I might be at this forever. Managed to get him stunned and that was about it.

Final bifurcation count: sixteen.

Just to provide a contrary data point...I have it 6-slotted with Perfect Zinger on my Merc/Poison.

We really didn't seem to have any issues before the final mission, or maybe the end of the third mission when we had a little trouble doing damage to the computer. Very few deaths, decent synergy. Now, I've only been on about five of these or so, but this didn't seem any different from the other times.

Somewhere before that last mission we lost a member and went down to 7 (scrapper, I think); at Rommy we lost another (Storm/Elec) due to wife aggro. That left my Ill/TA, a Plant Dom, an ice tank, a brute (underlevel though, I think), and I think a blaster and another defender. We might have done it with 7, but after we dropped to 6 things just fell apart.

110 is about where they were when I needed a few and was rolling in the 15-19 range. Might have to start rolling a few there again, I need a set.

Ok, I can see the validity in this. But how about building that into the system/arc? Don't have the player have to retrieve Shivans, or HVAS, or nukes. An option from Ramiel, or Statesman, or the Well itself that says "If you feel you are not prepared, I know of ______ which may be obtained that can help you in your effort". Obtaining ______ can be done by putting forth more effort elsewhere - branching/side missions, perhaps.

This is why I'm concerned when Arcana says that Trapdoor being more difficult is just the tip of the iceberg. The Incarnate slots are character progression not only in a storytelling sense but in a technical sense. You build a 50 to an Alpha-Slotted character similarly to how you would build a 49 to a 50, or a 35 to a 36. And that's what I like - building characters. If doing that involves slogging along rather than being tested, I don't particularly care (heck, I've played Civ games out to 2100 when I'd "won" 300 years earlier, just because I liked building things).

Nobody was ever told they weren't good enough to level to 20, 30, 40, 50. It doesn't matter how good you are, you progressed. It might take some longer than others, but it could be done. If incarnate levels are actually tied to ability and that ends up gating folks from levels...well, I'm not thrilled about that idea*.

Now, the TF - go to town. Make them as hard as you need to, because their completion is (so far) completely optional. If you want that challenge, go for it. If you don't, skip it.



* My kids just got Kirby's Epic Yarn for Christmas. The game isn't very hard - you can't die, and as long as you keep going from left to right you progress throughout the game. I actually think this is nice, because players of any ability can enjoy all of the base levels. But, there are still things within the game - items to grab, bronze/silver/gold medals - that can pose a challenge for better players. The Mario games are the same way. I'd rather see Incarnates be more like this than being like old-school games where if you can't get by one roadblock, one boss you just can't beat and the game is basically over.