Hello to everyone! Black Scorpion here to make a little announcement.
In early February we are launching an update to Issue 19 called the Strike Pack. The Strike Pack introduces the Weekly Strike Target and the Rare and Very Rare tiers of the Incarnate Alpha Slot.
Weekly Strike Target: Every week, we will announce one Task Force and one Strike Force (or instead one Co-Op Task Force) that will give increased rewards for that week. The first time a character completes the Weekly Strike Target in the week, they receive double merits and a bunch of additional XP. Even if you go rogue and do the other sides Weekly Strike Target as well, youll only get that reward for your first in a given week. After running it once, your character can earn progress toward some brand new badges for helping others by running it as many times as you like. Of course, you can run the WST on as many characters as you have the inclination for and get the increased rewards on each. The Weekly Strike Target will change every Tuesday morning.
But wait, I hear you say, how does this get us more Incarnate power? Black Scorpion hears your pleas.
Alpha Slot Upper Tiers: With the Strike Pack, you will be able to expand the Alpha Slot to the Rare and Very Rare tiers. Running the Weekly Strike Target on an Incarnate-enabled character adds to your once-a-week bonus a Notice of the Well reward, which is a necessary component to craft the Rare tier abilities of the Incarnate Alpha Slot. Save them up, add a few Shards, and your Notice of the Well can be upgraded to a Favor of the Well which is necessary for crafting the Very Rare abilities in the Alpha Slot. Of course, once Issue 20 launches, you will be able to build these abilities with stuff found while completing Incarnate Trials as well.
In addition to their tree-specific benefits, when you slot a Rare or Very Rare Alpha Slot power, a level shift will be applied to your character. Your level 50 character will fight with the same strength as if they were level 51; your actual level will not change, and the level shift only applies when you have a Rare or Very Rare power in the Alpha Slot and it is active. Characteristics which take level differences into account like damage and control duration will be affected, but basic stats like hit points and movement speed are unchanged. This should come in handy on tackling challenging content like the Tin Mage and Apex TFs (or any other high-level content), but you will find it is of tremendous value in improving your effectiveness in the Incarnate Trials launching with Issue 20!
More detailed information will be released in the coming weeks.
Your bud in the Incarnate-powered armor,
Black Scorpion
Greetings comma salutations comma
I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce Tim Black Scorpion Sweeney and ask him to give some more details on the upcoming Strike Pack release in early February. Black Scorpion has been working closely with Positron on the Incarnate System over the last year as well as leading up some of the other features you will be seeing in Issue 20, but in particular he is responsible for the features of the Strike Pack. Now if only hed fix the hydraulics system in that power armor, these carpets dont clean themselves!