Incarnate choices (?) what were yours?

As we head into week two of the WTS and find huge crowds of players crowded around Doc Kahn in Founders Falls a thought occurred to me.

Did anyone think that just maybe it would be a good idea to create a few SUPPORT type Incarnates? Now to date I am playing 9 different characters and moving them up the Incarnate ladder as fast as Notice of the Well drops will allow. I have:

1 SoA Crab Spider 50 (+1) Hero
2 Controllers 50 (+1) Vigilantes
2 Blasters 50 (+1) Heroes
2 MM 50 (+1) 1 Vigilante and 1 Rogue
1 Scrapper 50 (+1) Hero
1 Tank 50 (+1) Hero

It's a nice mix that allows me to play many different roles on the WTS and experience each TF from a lot of different views

But last week as the STFs played out and once again this week with the KTF all I ever seem to see standing around waiting for a TF are scrappers and Tanks... Occasionally a Blaster but the few rare Support Characters that appear (Controllers, Defenders, Dominators, Corruptors and MMs) all either get grabbed up by teams desperate for any support or actually form their own TFs since it also seems like the majority of the Scrappers and Tanks want nothing to do with actually RUNNING a task force.

Now I normally shy away from Leading TFs simply because I occasionally have internet issues and crash so why hurt a team by starting the TF and then crashing throwing the next in line into the leader spot and potentially lowering the Tf from 50 to 48, 46 or whatever? Today I showed up in FF with Tessa my main and saw quite a few players so I announced myself figuring someone is recruiting and I'll see if I can hop on a team quick. Well it became painfully clear that no one was recruiting nd just like last week ALL those players were staring at each waiting for ANYONE to break and build a team. Well I decided I wasn't going to join the "Lets stare into space for 20 minutes and hope someone invites us to team" Crowd. I sent out ads on every global channel I had and quickly built a team. It sort of amazes me since I do team a lot and some of the best Leaders I have played with were Tanks but all these Scrappers and tanks would rather stand around like lumps than actually just put together a team and PLAY THE GAME.

Anyway I am curious... So what all ATs are you running Incarnates on and is there some unwritten law that Tuesday is melee day that i am unaware of or did THAT many of you actually create nothing but Tanks and Scrappers? LOL

I've been focusing on my Crab Spider and my Dark/Dark(/Dark) Defender.

The Crab because he's probably my most powerful character (and most fun to play, even back in his pre-IO'd levelling days) and it's amusing to make him even more powerful.

The Defender because he was my first character, and until altisis really took hold, my main. So he is always one of the first I break out for new content or progression. Plus, not-a-healer disclaimer aside, I was kinda amused at the idea of getting the AoE heal to break 500 on the green numbers.

I did notice a disproportionate amount of melee types out there; I'm guessing it's because they're some of the easier/simpler ATs to build to be strong soloers or powerful in general, so a lot of people will be kitting those out first (similar to me and my Crab). I was a little surprised at the lack of MMs and Stalkers last night though - expected to see more of them given that this is one of the few times either AT will be actively sought after for an SF.

I have a fair number of incarnate scrappers, tankers and brutes, more than anything else in fact. In the few PUGs I joined where I wasn't leader, I noticed many leaders tend to avoid melee ATs when they recruit - some will outright refuse to start a TF without a specific mix of buffs/debuffs (or even that mythical beast called the "healer") or *with* more than 2 melee ATs ; so I think it might be part like Biowraith said (easiest AT so lots of players flock to it) and part because you don't see the other ATs as they're already teamed and in missions.

Which is really a win/win situation for me. I don't do cookie cutter groups, so all those people left out by "elitist" PUGs are the ones filling my teams. Never had to wait more than two minutes to get a group of 8 since the weekly TFs.

I've been using my BS/DA scrapper for most of the stuff I choose to run (so far the only of my 50s to get the Rare), but I have a Rad/Sonic Defender I'll grab if the team needs debuffs, even though I still have no idea what Alpha I'm going with on him. It's odd, he has a Notice of the Well, but he doesn't even have a common slotted yet.

I have another scrapper and a brute, but I'm not really pressed with getting them stuff. None of my support ATs other than my Rad/Sonic are even 50 yet, so they aren't really an option for Kahn or the STF.

I'm taking my time with it, mostly because I know from experience that if I rush it and feel like I have to do everything as soon as I can, I'll get burned out on it and not want to play those characters for a while.

I think it's because support isn't as self-sufficient in the rest of the game. Sure they can compete, but it's different.

Back a long time ago, there was this interesting time frame where there were more Spines scrappers than any controllers in game [to be fair, I want to say that revelation came from Jack, so it was probably hyperbole], but scrappers had been typically the largest archetype. It broke up, quite a bit, with CoV and other changes, but that is what it is.

It may just happen to be part of the genre too with having more 'in your face' combat. I dunno.

The only character I've gotten anything better than a Common Alpha on is my FF Defender. Although, I'd call her pretty self-sufficient, too. Still, she really shines on a team, so it can go either way.

I noticed the same thing. I'd love to see some hard numbers, but it seems to me like a disproportionate number of Incarnate characters are Scrappers and Brutes. Defenders and Corruptors seem rarer than usual. Which kind of makes sense, since the melee ATs tend to get more direct improvements out of things like the alpha slot. I've been running the Incarnate stuff on my Earth/Fire Dominator, but I'm tempted to break out one of my Defenders just because they seem to be in short supply.

All of my 50's are now incarnates. Of course, that's just the eight of them . . . .

1 Scrapper, 2 Tanks, 2 Controllers, 1 MasterMind, 1 Blaster, and 1 Defender

They all only have the basic Common level enhancement slotted though (and a couple of them haven't got that done yet).

I rarely PUG and even more rarely actually run TFs, so they've all just been earned via normal mob-defeat shard drops.

Let's see: I've done the ITF several times, Lady Grey once, and that's it for the high-level TFs, so I don't see any of them getting the more intense enhancements built any time soon.

All my 50s have unlocked the Alpha slot, though only three currently have anything slotted. Those three are a Brute and two Masterminds. The other 50s are a Tanker and a Corruptor.

As far as "support" goes, one MM is Traps, and both the Corruptor and the other Mastermind are Dark Miasma. Traps is not really a "support" support set, and Dark Miasma has no buffs that require other teammates. Big surprise from someone that mostly solos, right?

If you're seeing mostly Scrappers and Tankers, it's likely it's the solo crowd coming out to try to get their Notices.

My main's a Storm Defender, specced for support. I also have an Empath that I specifically Alpha-unlocked to get on Incarnate teams. Staying on the backlines and supporting my allies is a playstyle I love, and if it makes it easier for my characters to get on PuG teams, so much the better.

I will get right on playing the ATs that you think I should be playing. I am very sorry for playing the ATs I enjoy most.

I have a mix. I've unlocked Alpha on:

BS/Regen scrapper (Spiritual Radial)
WM/SD brute (Cardiac)
Ill/TA controller (Muscular Radial)
Grav/Storm controller (Cardiac)
INV/EM tank (none)
Fire/Fire blaster (Cardiac)
KM/EA brute (Nerve)
Mind/Kin controller (none)
NRG/Kin corr (none)

I've not yet unlocked it on my Mercs/Poison MM, Ice/MM blaster, DB/WP scrapper, Widow, Plant/Thorn dom, or Emp/Psi defender.

I probably should at least unlock the defender. I don't run TF very often (and have never done any of STF, LRSF, Khan, Cuda), but am more likely to with her (only toon with TF Commander). Of course that's because she's painful to solo, which is a big reason why I haven't run Ramiel's arc with her.

I've unlocked the slot on all my 50s (pretty much every AT except for Peacebringer). I've only slotted three of them, though: my Fortunata (who has a second Widow build), my Bane, and one of my Scrappers. And I've pretty much given up on the Widow. For the time being, I'm just going to stick to the two of them, so I have one hero and one villain, as it's just not worth it for the others.

Once they're done, I may try with another. Particularly, if I ever get my namesake character (a Controller) up to 50, he'll certainly have to go the Incarnate route, just on principle.

Hmm, well I have notice on:
crab spider
tanker
dark defender
earth/thermal controller

I think that's all I've done so far. I do have more alts with unlocked alpha slots (most are filled with common).

As to why there's plenty of scrappers, brutes and tankers around for these runs, well that's plenty obvious. Those are the easiest solo characters (IMO at least), so most people have them. People like to have a character available to play whenever they want despite not finding a team, even if they like to team.

Thinking about the 'main's that people I know in game have, most of of soloing/damage classes. Brutes, tankers, scrappers and blasters are the most common 'mains' in my experience. Personally my closest to a 'main' is my crab spider, but I don't really have a beef playing from my stable of alts. Also since I'm not a badger, I don't have to get focused on one alt.

My main Incarnate is my Peacebringer. Went with Spiritual for the recharge, cause I like recharge. I eventually want to fill out the musculature, and cardiac tree's and switch around what im using depending on what I feel I need at any particular time, but for now im working on the recharge ones as it seems to be a good "base" to build off of.

He'll be the one I focus on most. I have a mastermind that ive unlocked the slot for, but even as my second most played character I still dont play him much. Im not an "alt" person, which makes me strange for this game. I have alts, I just tend to focus on one character better.

It's a common problem in most MMOs with "end game" content. You get a huge oversupply of the more solo-friendly classes and a lack of the team support classes. The upside in CoX is that for the most part team support ATs are not required so the solo-friendly classes can form their own teams and still be reasonably successful.

My main hero (FF/Psi- Nerve branch) and villain (Dark/Rad- Musculature branch) get the priority and are both +1 and have their 2nd Notice sitting in salvage. If my mains are taken care of and I feel like doing something "incarnate-y" I'll just bring along what is needed for the team. So far 13 of my lvl 50s have at least tier 1 alpha and 20 have the alpha unlocked. At this point I don't really have any particular toons that just "have to have it now", but I'm finding my SS/SR brute, is getting a lot of play, mainly because she is rogue (but not my only rogue/vig) status so I can bounce around to wherever the action is.

I'm a Scrapper, and I just jump on the nearest WST PUG

My three Incarnates so far are two Controllers (one grav/kin, one mind/ff) and one Defender (dark/psi).

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite