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I whole-heartedly agree. Part of a good horror is the mystery. Just throwing out the "Oh hey, ghosts" really killed an atmosphere they could have built up. The scene in the basement is a prime example of where they fumbled. Instead of a brief glimpse at something otherworldly, the flashed it across the screen repeatedly.

*ahem*

So is goody-goody GG willing to walk the amoral Well's path?

I solo'ed through on a stalker too (kinetic/ninja). During one particular ambush I thought "How the heck would I have survived this on a controller?" Defense definitely kept me alive until my endurance wore thin, then some purples until I could hold my own again. Another peeve for me, particular to playing as a stalker, was how wasted criticals from hide were on possessed mobs. It's a bit annoying to have one of the AT's prime strengths negated by foes who must take a single blow (any blow) before the fight began.

As for the zone and story on whole, I liked most of it. The first half was better than the latter. The Midnighter Master really ruined the pace and tension of it for me after he came around. With the mystery unraveling and a new threat mounting, the comic relief of this womanizer seemed so far out of place.

The Rularuu sword may be looking forward to you too.

Rest assured World of Confusion is worse. In fact, I can't conceive any reason to use it at all. It's only mag 2 with a 20% chance for 1 additional mag, requires a tohit check, and its radius is only 8 feet.

I stand corrected on this point. The last time I searched Amazon for copies of CoH was near the beginning of the year, hoping to find some cheap ones I could use for additionally time. At that time the average price was $10-15 dollars. Occasionally, I've known others to find it cheaper. I'm sure the recent news of introducing a F2P tier has altered those prices.

Very well done, going straight to semantics instead of addressing the actual issue. Forgive a person for confusing two words like pander and peddle. Perhaps you'll care to address it when I ask it directly. Whose responsibility is it to hook a potential customer after they've downloaded and sampled the game? Who is responsible for selling the features of this game?

It grows tiring, both to me and the questioner, when the answer to their feature questions is repeatedly "You need to buy access to that", especially to many very basic features. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea that I couldn't pass an awaken to a fallen teammate because they're a free player?

I'm afraid we'll just have to let this issue go because our anecdotal evidence is equivalently worthless. I think we can at least agree that the costume creator is undoubtedly a very attractive feature this game has to offer, especially to someone who comes from an MMO where character customization is significantly limited.

And we are to fault because there is a wealth of information that we don't recall off the bat? For instance, a friend asks "How to do I use IOs?" There are multiple answers to that: buy a 30-day license, become a VIP, drop enough cash to unlock the unlimited IO license. Of course, that leads to more questions of "Which should I choose?" or "How much will that cost?" Of course, answers to those questions are varying as well.

Heck, I can't even recall what unlocks at each tier with the Paragon Rewards so I just link them to the wiki entry, which does a better job of documenting it than the official site. It's definitely a problem when the best answers to relevant questions comes from a third-party, out of game source.

That amount is enhanceable. My plant/psi has hers around 900% though it seems you could push it as high as 1500% with Spiritual Core in your Alpha slot.

When they fix the LFG tab to wait a reasonable amount of time before launching with the minimal amount of players and allow players to join an event in progress, it might see some use. Until then people will roll with full leagues due to higher rates of success.

I don't shower my friends with gifts, especially ones I'm not certain they'll enjoy. I could drop $10-15 dollars on a game they've shown a passing interest in or treat them to lunch. While I'd love for some of them to join me in game, I'm afraid they may enjoy the latter more.

Other forums I frequent have already commented on the obtrusive nature of the market buttons (though it's not as bad as some games and I did share with them that you could hide the large gold button). My friends don't want or need me pandering to them to buy more features.

And the team dynamics that break from traditional tank/dps/healer. Maybe it's not number 1 on your list, but it does set CoH apart from other games.

So far my experience has been in answering friends' questions and the response I give has generally been "Yes, you can do that, but you have to pay". Quite frankly, getting someone to even try the game is doing a good bit of the foot work for company. They need to harbor a more friendly environment towards free players. Punitive things like being unable to respond to tells, participate in zone chatter, or pass inspirations (or even get medium/large inspiration drops) do far more to hinder community spirit than my or anyone else's reluctance to be a salesperson for CoH's features.

Given that the problem isn't solely Nyx's alone, I'd wager at least part of it stems from somewhere else.

First let me address the notion that support is unnecessary. This is absolutely not the case. Buffs make everyone in the league more survivable, and the debuffs from multiple sources make the AV's noticeable weaker. (In this game, damage + debuffs will almost always outpace damage + more damage. How fortunate that doms now have access to Sleet?) There are portions of trials that favor damage or survivablity, however, the do not compose the entire trial.

You seem concerned with how you'll contribute to the AV fights without considering the other portions of the trials. It's true you won't be holding these AVs, but don't discount your damage contribution or fail to remember the challenges that lead up to that fight. In the BAF, for instance, you can contain the escapees and manage the adds during the AV fight. Or in Lambda, you can control mobs allowing your league mates safe passage from one objective to the next. Heck, there have been a few times I've solo'ed parts of the lab or warehouse on my earth/fire/ice dom.

Doms are top notch. In the right hands, with the right build, they're nearly unstoppable.

I suspect the same. Which is fine by me, there were enough pieces in this pack to justify the points I spent on it.

Let's imagine for a moment, I have 4/5 incarnate branches and I need only one very rare component to complete the final tree. I have just finished my 23rd trial and receive a very rare component. What is my reaction? First excitement, then irritation that my efforts were undermined by the random number generator with a sigh, "I wish this would have happened sooner." But....

Oh, we've been given something to spend the excess on. Well, then let's assume you've unlocked all the pretty things and you're sitting at 4/5 again. Again randomness, undercuts the value of the determined system.

Here is the question: why do we provide a safety net to the random reward? For fairness? To reassure people that fall into the inverse gambler's fallacy? Why use a system with an inherent pitfall when a deterministic progression has no pitfall and can simulate the higher gain of "good luck" with a bit of random bonus?

Going back to that assertion that a random reward in a deterministic systerm is pointless, explain why. Even as a pure bonus, it simulates the periods of higher rewards. It's icing on the cake.

This is my primary reason for preferring a deterministic path. There is no bad luck, no need for a safety net.

Let's assume you take the quickest route to 8 Emyreans: UG, Keyes, 2 BAF's and 2 Lambda's. We'll use Leandro's data to assume so average times. For the UG, I'll offer a completion time of 1:15 though that is faster than I've generally seen. To do all these trials, you'll spend approximately 2 hours, 35 minutes the first day and 40 minutes the second day. By the end you will receive 8 merits and 6 rolls on the reward table. With an approximate drop rate of 18% for rare salvage, at the end of 6, there is a 70% chance you'll have received a Rare in that time. Alternatively, you could spend the same amount of time (3:15), doing nothing but BAF. That would net 9 rolls for approximately 83% chance of having received at least one rare.

In my opinion, that's a reasonable rate. Using merits comes out slightly ahead of random rewards. The deterministic path pulls ahead, if only slightly. However, let's look at the what it takes to buy a Very Rare with Empyreans.

Investing 2 hours, 35 minutes each day will net you 6 Empyreans and 4 rolls. At the end of 5 days, you will have acquired 30 Empyreans, made 24 reward rolls, and invested 12 hours, 55 minutes. With an approximate 10% drop rate on Very Rares, there is an 92% chance you will have received a Rare Drop in that time. Alternatively, you could run 52 BAFs with those 13 hours. Your chance of not receiving a very rare by the end of those trials: 0.4% Your chance of receiving at least one very rare component: 99.6%

By the time, you've gather enough Empyreans the odds are stacked strongly in favor of you having received a very rare drops. Which makes your efforts as pointless as UberGuy suggests random drops would be in a primarily deterministic system.


I don't feel that loot in this game has nearly the impact it does in others. The difference between a level 50 SO and a level 50++ SO is relatively insignificant. More so, anything that didn't drop was easily purchased. At least, this was the case until the introduction of IO's. IO's have opened an entire Pandora's box, adding some pleasant and unpleasant elements to this game.

The significant difference here is that the developers have stated the incarnate system will be required for participation in future content, specifically the level shifts. We've already seen a 54 level shifted enemy in the Underground trial with plans for more to come, eventually rendering a non-Incarnate helpless against those foes. There is no incarnate sidekicking system to even the playing field if you don't have those level shifts. You must progress through incarnate system for what's to come.

That's why the incarnate system is different from other rewards. In order to see content progression (the conclusion of Praetoria and the coming storm, presumably) you must engage in character progression, but unlike the tried and true leveling system there's now a degree of randomness.

Random rewards are no longer a bonus when they become the primary path to acquiring the incarnate abilities; at that point, they become they primary path to acquiring the incarnate abilities. Progression outside of that then becomes the bonus. Furthermore, if a better deterministic path renders random rewards pointless, isn't the contrary true: random rewards make the deterministic path pointless. Why then is that ok?

There's a very good reason that a deterministic path emerged for acquiring IO's. Many of the players of this game don't enjoy random loot grind. The absence of that set this MMO apart from others for many years. There was quite a bit of gnashing of teeth when IO's came around and introduced that. Four issues later there was some relief that we wouldn't be entirely at the mercy of the random number generator and market forces.

Quite frankly, I only see this conversation going round and round because it is rooted in personal preference in how people like to play and be rewarded. If I wanted to deal with random rewards, I'd simply play another game.