February Producer's Letter: Incarnates

Actually it's not really clear that all of the Incarnate system is accessible via only shards seeing as how Notice of the Wells are still needed. THAT wasn't clarified in his post. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Notice portion was modified to be CRAFTABLE by shards.

I think, it will be nice to have it for Hamidon raids, but isn't really pressing.

In order to participate in Hamidon or Rikti Ship raid, currently there is only single requirement for it: you have to be in the zone. (you don't have to be even on the team)

On the other hand, in order to participate in CoP, you have to be on one of 3 teams with all team leaders from the same SG. That SG must have mission computer and raid telepad.

These requirements are main showstoppers why people don't want to bother running it at all.

I can see how you can see the letter saying that. Is it possible for you to admit that you can see how I don't see it saying that?

Well, if the League is truly separate from the LFG/Turnstile; then that means it will be useful for:

• Zone Giant Monster hunts
• Coordination of Banners (Deadly Apocalypse)
• Invasions (Rikti and Zombie)
• Hami Raid
• Mothership Raid
• Praetorian Zone Events
• Steel Canyon Fires and Skyway Troll Raves (these really need to be updated to use the Praetorian event tech)
• Cathedral of Pain
• Multi-team PvP Zone battles
• Lord Winter's Realm event
• Costume contests
• etc...

No, it really is clear that you can go "up the Incarnate tree." Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, they shouldn't need to hire a lawyer (although I am available devs - CHEAP RATES!) to write their producer letters. They knew from the first letter that people were concerned about the level shift rare issue, it seems extremely unlikely to me that they would even mention this issue if all they meant was that shards would only be usable to craft up to uncommon abilities. That's the status quo, no need to mention that.

Should make a lot of content easier. The Cathedral of Pain really did need an interface like this.

Yes, I can see how you don't see it saying that. But I find that view to be almost completely unreasonable so that's not saying much.

Nope. Not at all. Because the letter explicitly says that there is a path for soloists to access Incarnate abilities. It's not the way you want it to be. It's not ideal for soloists-only. But it is not the case any more that solo-only players are barred from Incarnate progression.

After years I've stopped assuming stuff till I've tested it or seen it said by a dev.

Nothing to do with lawyering.

EDIT: Dropping this and waiting till it hits Open Beta to test. Moving on, as I'm happy enough that I can avoid the WST come Issue 20.

Now that is interesting...

I haven't seen one of those in ages. I rarely see multi PLAYER PVP zone battles. (As in, the last time I ran across someone to actually *fight* - or actually in the zone besides me - was a month ago by now.) Last time I've seen full teams in a PVP zone was... eh, IO farmers. Last time I saw them actually fighting, it had to be pre-I13.

I miss those.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Could it be that each Trial has a different "side"? Like the current Prae zone events?

Actually, it didn't mention abilities at all - they just mentioned "climbing the Incarnate tree" - they have't said if that just means access to the 10 branches on the tree, or if it also includes access to the 4 leaves on each branch

For example, right now, solo players can engage with the Incartnate sytem - they can unlock the Alpha slot from mender Ramiel, and then collect 12 shards to make a Tier 1 enhancement that will let them in on the 2 new TFs - they've climbed up to the first bracnh on the *Incarnate tree, but there are 2 leaves that they can't get on their own.
If the BAF and Lambda Trials are the content for the Judgement slot, then it's quite possible that they mnight require having a slotted Judgement slot to access them - so the 1st and 2nd Tier of that slot could be bought with shards, along with unlocking the slot itself - but the 3rd and 4th Judgement Tiers might require doing the raids to get the parts you need.
Solo players would sitll be engaging with the next Incarnate slot, but wouldn't have full access to all the Tiers - they'd have climbed up tot he next branch on the Incarnate tree, but there'd be a couple of leaves on that branch that were still out of reach.

In issue 20, you will be able to craft all abilities from the Incarnate trees that are available via Incarnate Trials using Incarnate Shards and some INF. It will take longer than it will take getting components via the trials, but you will be able collect the shards as you play everything(!) else in the game to offset that. If you mix in the occasional Incarnate Trial you will make more progress.

Note that I am booked solid and will not be at my desk much for the rest of the day, Black Scorpion and Positron may answer a couple questions if I am not available.

So there you have it, folks. Thanks for the clarification, Second Measure!

Definite statement. Thank you.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Then before you go, can you give us a rough idea of the amount of Shards needed for Tier 3 and 4?

That does make me feel better. Thanks for taking the time to come back and clarify.

Definitively Answered. Case closed.

Once again I'm starting to like this Second Measure guy more and more.

If you read what they said with the eyes of a believer, of course you read it that way. If one starts out with some skepticism, it's easy to read it otherwise. Is the "tree" the ten named incarnate slots alpha through omega, or the tiers within each slot; e.g., common to ultra-rare for alpha? It's not stated or defined. In this sense they're still being ambiguous, possibly because they're also writing from a "believer's" view.

I'm pretty sure they meant the entire system -- all the tiers of all the slots from shards alone, even if it'll take a long time to collect them all solo. They should just say so in those words and get this over with. And if they don't, shame on them for not halting a completely avoidable controversy. And if they can't say so because it isn't true, then doubly-shame on them for not making the system open and accessible like they keep claiming they intended.

I've been suggesting that for ages - but from the sound of it, the AVs are Siege and a sidekick - they've not mentioned any Resistance enemies, just War Walkers, BAF security, and mindwashed prisoners.

I think if they were at the point where such numbers were nailed down, I20 wouldn't still be under lock and key. It's easy to adjust numbers; concepts and framework need to be established first. It sounds like they've got that far, at least.

Well, with the side-switching of GR, there was a lot of activity in Recluse's Victory for getting the signature NPC of the 'other side' on Virtue a few months ago. We had more than a full team on our side and could have used a League interface to band forces and deal with the gankers on the other side slowing down our acquisition of tasty badgeses.

Well, it doesn't hurt to ask