Do we really have to grind these same 2 zones over and over?

It's only my first night playing the new Issue 20, and I'm already bored out of my mind of doing the same content over and over again. Why in the world would the developer make it so incarnate threads only drop in these trials?

If threads dropped in all content at least we could enjoy all our favorite locations and get a lot of variety in playing. I played the one trial 6 times in a row trying to unlock the first slot. What's worse is that during that whole night I got 12 incarnate threads. It takes 60 threads just to make the first item! That means I'd have to do those same 2 missions 30 times just to slot one beginner slot!

Now Imagine doing that 4 times and going up each of the trees. That's doing the same 2 missions 120 times just to get the beginner slot items. No one just wants the beginner slot items either, since the good stuff is up the trees.

Sure I might of been unlucky and these numbers might be slightly under the status quo, but that doesn't exclude the fact that people who want these abilities will be forced into the same content night after night until they do these 2 trials hundreds of times. Who would want to come on night after night and do the same task force hundreds of times!?

You might say that you can just go get shards on normal content and convert them. That is true, but if you're trying to obtain a favorite power in one of these trees, using shards will be many times longer than just putting up with this repetitive content. I believe people are going to burn themselves up trying to get these powers on the same content and by the end of the next billing cycle they'll all quit. Well not all, but all but the most dedicated.

The only person forcing you to grind anything is yourself because of your obsession to have stuff as soon as possible. Take a break and something else. You don't win a prize for getting stuff first.

Im europlayer and even had the chance to play this live. (Just one Lambda in test)
LFG tool never loads, its always 4 minutes waiting but never ends.
I almost can say this is the most overhyped Issue and one of the worst I remember. Why Anniversary Issues are the worst?
Positron can be proud of this grind...

Short answer is yes, for now it is just two trials. However, you are over estimating the time to get items. Assuming you complete the trials you also get an Empyrean Merit, a number of Astral Merits (3 or 4) and a Component of your choice.

The Empyrean merit can be exchanged for components/threads:
1 Empyrean Merit = 20 threads
8 Empyrean Merit = 1 Rare Component
30 Empyrean Merit = 1 Very Rare Component

The Astral Merits can also be exchanged for 4 threads each.

The rarity of the component is random, you will mostly get commons but can occasionally get a higher rarity component.

So worst case scenario you only get common components that means you'll need (using trial rewards for commons, threads for uncommons and E Merits for Rares/Very Rares):
12 Trials to get a T1 boost in all four slots
8 more trials to upgrade them all to uncommon (assuming you saved astral merits and threads from the first 12 for the uncommon components)
12 more to upgrade them all to rare (4 rares = 32 trials total)
152 more trials to upgrade them all to very rare

In any case the important point is it'll take about 32 runs to get a T3 in each of the slots. Getting to a T4 from there is a major effort however.

See this thread for more info:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=254950

The fact that only two trials drop the new components is indeed a problem. I believe they will resolve it sooner, rather than later. I believe that, because I am an optimist.

You could just grind shards and convert, but I don't know if you can get to tier 4 that way.

Logged on today and ran the LS trial twice, one on a team of 8 and failed, once on a team of 16 and we kicked ***.

I won’t run down the full list of salvage but I will say that in those two runs I unlocked my lore slot and crafted my common level enhancement. So it’s not hard to at least get your common enhancement.

Advancement in Incarnate Slots and Powers is something that should be viewed as taking a month to do... not an evening.

Like any other TF, the final rewards of the Trials are on a cooldown timer. You only get one Empyrean Merit per Trial per day. The Merits are on Diminishing Returns.

If you do either Trial more than once per day... you're doing it wrong. You're trying to rush it. That makes it a grind. Some like the grind and willing do it. If you don't like the grind, then don't.

Don't do the Trials more than once per day. All the other stuff your Incarnate-bound character does will produces Shards which can be converted to Threads which will advance you in the Incarnate Powers. Just about everything you've always been doing will advance you Incarnately. Just not overnight.

I eagerly want to educate you because you seem the type to jump head first. Let the education commence!

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Originally Posted by je_saist okay. [*]Question 1: Would you have accepted a longer period of time between this issue release and the last issue release in order for the developers to have added such things?

Quality trumps quantity so absolutely.

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[*]Question 2: Would you have accepted only 1 trial and 1 task force in order to free up the resources to do such things?

Yes. Grinding two trials isn't radically different than grinding one trial.

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[*]Question 3: Do you honestly believe that the developers already have all of that other stuff done, and are just sitting on costume parts, proliferated powers, and etc. items, and that all the developers have to do is just throw a simple switch in order to enable these things because all the work was already done and the developers are just jerks who won't let us have things when things are ready?[/LIST]My point is fairly simple. The incarnate content being released now is an extension of the incarnate work begun last year in the latter stages of the Going Rogue process. You know, the whole project Matt Miller had to press the pause switch on in order to get Going Rogue out to retail shelfs on time?

It is their problem by misleading the player base when they said other content wouldn't be effected and Positron would work on Incarnate content. It is clear that the entire team is working on incarnate content.

Quote:

All of the work released now was already in development as of last year, BEFORE Going Rogue shipped.

That isn't a good sign for future content that has nothing to do with Incarnates.

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All of the stuff you want was not in the development cycle. In addition, the developers were very, very, very explicit that any work not tied to the Going Rogue release and Matt Miller's Incarnate System was not going to enter production cycles until after Going Rogue was released.

So we are looking at the year 2012 before we see content that is non Incarnate? Not so fast as Positron has hinted that end game raiding will have life after Omega, so maybe 2013?

Quote:

In the past production cycles can easily last 8 to 12 months for existing content, assuming resources are available to work on that content. Production of new content can easily take 18months to 24 months, or in the case or power customization, 28 months to 32months. We don't know what Issue 21 will bring. We don't know what the developers not involved with the incarnate content have been working on. We don't know what the other production cycles are.

More evidence that reinforces my point. Yes Incarnate content was an all or nothing attempt. And Going Rogue was a start of this as well, but the subs dropped sharply after Going Rogue in the last quarter.

I don't know, I can't speak for every player or even two players.

But I just spent a couple hours on the two trials, neither completed, sometimes failed and often it told me I had quit, and it was probably the least fun I've had playing COH in the couple years I've been here.

Mind you, no hyperbole, just the least amount of fun. I'll see how I feel after doing this a couple months.

The devs plan to add a one or more Trials in each new Issue.

You gotta be kidding me about running one trial a day. I think I ran 9 Lambdas, all of which failed, and 4 BAFs, all of which failed (and when I say failed, I mean failed and auto-quitted us via a bug.)

I have Interface and Destiny unlocked, just started working on Judgment, and have the first tier Interface Reactive slotted.

Day 1 of issue 20. Maybe... just maybe... they plan on adding on to this over the summer? Huh? Have a Coke and a smile and relax, people.

I like it a lot. As far as grinding it just means we have more options to grind. Which is better.

As far as non endgame content. If grinding levels for a new toons is what you want im thankful that is not in the issue.

Also if i understand we can use the league system for other things like hami and mothership and (maybe i dont know cause no one said officaially but i heard this last night) statesman and itf etc...


I think its very complex and the tfs are hard for now which is fine by me, a 20 min itf doesnt leave me as interested as finnally winning the BAF last night did(after 5 tries)

Im sure we will grind them a little but they are a lot of fun( i think )

I also am sure that when the other stuff comes out we will be with even more to grind.

the only worry that i have is that the teir 4 new incarnate slots will be too much for most of my alts and they will feel even more puny then they already do being just 50 or 50+.

So when my main(blaster) is 50+,+,+,+ he will make my other blasters just 50 or 50+ feel very underwhelming.

I was in 5 B.A.F.'s and 3 Lambda Trials. Success in 1 of each. 2 BAF's the group failed at keeping too many escappees from escaping, 2 other runs ended where the endless reinforcements made it impossible to complete in order to defeat Nightstar and Siege simultaneously, the last run was smooth sailing. The 2 failed Lambda trials ended not having enough Acid and Pacification temps. The successful run, also earned me the Synchronized badge, we used 5 Pacification temps to complete, with like 10 minutes left on the clock to defeat Maruader, a kicka$$ run.

First impression: I think the first thing I'm going to unlock is the Judgement slot for the B.A.F. Trial. You might get overwhelmed by reinforcements without it, or least without some good AoE damage in the group. The Lambda Trial is very doable, as long as teams move quickly and get a sufficent amount of temps.

I don't like that these are right now the only way to acquire incarnate threads except conversion of shards, but I assume or hope there will be new ways/TF's/trials in the future to get incarnate threads.

I like this issue.

P.S. for trials that do not allow most temporary powers to be used, I seem to drop a awful amount of temporary power recipes in them. I dropped 3 in run alone.

I, for one, am extremely happy with the two new trials. I found them both very challenging, but not cheap. For the first time since I started playing this game a gave an honest to God real life fist pump when I completed the BAF successfully.

The time it takes to unlock each slot is being WAY over estimated. I ran 4 BAFs (2 successful, 2 failed) and was able to unlock my Judgement slot AND slot it with the uncommon tier 2 power. Astral Merits convert in to threads at a decent rate and they are fairly common. Also, to echo what others have said, these powers are intended to be earned over time, not in one night, similar to the process of leveling to 50.

/toggle Sarcasm

Devs, make incarnate XP and componets drop in AE...I don't want to leave Atlas!!!!!