City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Incarnate Shards, and general fighting mobs at 50?

Jaxson B

By Jaxson B,
Posted on: 2011-04-07 07:18 in Player Questions

 

Posted

Hi guys,

So I just hit 50 yesterday and have been enjoying the level 50 content. Did a couple of BAFs today and absolutely loved it. =)

In any case, my first question today is about Incarnate Shards. On the ParagonWiki page I noticed that one of the highest drop rates from them is from players in PvP. That page also states that it will only drop from lv 50 mobs - as such, does this mean that Recluse's Victory is the only PvP area where getting Incarnate Shards is possible? Do they drop in Arena?

My second question is also about Incarnate Shards. With enough playtime, are these simple enough or still very difficult to get a hold of, outside of dedicated sources for them such as the ATF and TMTF? I'm keen to get my Alpha slot as strong as possible ASAP, and while I'm well aware that it isn't supposed to be easy it'd help if I knew how much time I should be dedicating to getting ATF/TMTF/Hamidon groups going. Also, do they drop in AE missions? I'm guessing not, but if they did that'd be sweet. =P

My final question is about fighting mobs at 50 in general. Given that there are no recipes over lv 50, is there any point at fighting at positive combat levels, instead of even combat level? While I'm aware that you get more inf per kill for higher levels, and can get 51 or higher SOs, they don't seem like significant reasons compared to the ease and speed that even level gives you. But of course, I'm relatively new, so I might be missing something.

Thanks in advance for any help! =)

Jax

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxson B View Post
In any case, my first question today is about Incarnate Shards. On the ParagonWiki page I noticed that one of the highest drop rates from them is from players in PvP. That page also states that it will only drop from lv 50 mobs - as such, does this mean that Recluse's Victory is the only PvP area where getting Incarnate Shards is possible? Do they drop in Arena?
ParagonWiki is now, with the launch of i20, out of date in that regard. With i20, once you have your alpha slot unlocked, any enemies that could give you rewards (i.e. inf, work off debt, etc) has a chance to drop shards. Can't say about PvP specifically for sure, but you should be able to get them in any zone... although I highly doubt their drop rate is CLOSE to good enough to make up for the horribly low kill rate you'll have.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxson B View Post
My second question is also about Incarnate Shards. With enough playtime, are these simple enough or still very difficult to get a hold of, outside of dedicated sources for them such as the ATF and TMTF? I'm keen to get my Alpha slot as strong as possible ASAP, and while I'm well aware that it isn't supposed to be easy it'd help if I knew how much time I should be dedicating to getting ATF/TMTF/Hamidon groups going. Also, do they drop in AE missions? I'm guessing not, but if they did that'd be sweet. =P
Those will boost your earning rate some, but you can get them for anything now. Also, different TFs can reward you with different special commons/uncommons (RSF/STF, ITF, vanguard merits, etc). Running the TFs that give you the components you need will greatly boost your rate.

Quote:
My final question is about fighting mobs at 50 in general. Given that there are no recipes over lv 50, is there any point at fighting at positive combat levels, instead of even combat level? While I'm aware that you get more inf per kill for higher levels, and can get 51 or higher SOs, they don't seem like significant reasons compared to the ease and speed that even level gives you. But of course, I'm relatively new, so I might be missing something.
Challenge. That's really it. Mind you, some missions spawn enemies at -1,0,+1 to your difficulty, while others will always do them at your difficulty level. If you want to make sure you always get lvl 50 recipes, and you're running random missions, running at +1 difficulty is probably your better option.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight View Post
ParagonWiki is now, with the launch of i20, out of date in that regard. With i20, once you have your alpha slot unlocked, any enemies that could give you rewards (i.e. inf, work off debt, etc) has a chance to drop shards. Can't say about PvP specifically for sure, but you should be able to get them in any zone... although I highly doubt their drop rate is CLOSE to good enough to make up for the horribly low kill rate you'll have.
I'm pretty sure shards will only drop off of even level or above mobs, regardless of your level, while you can get inf, etc. off -3s.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Spad_EU View Post
I'm pretty sure shards will only drop off of even level or above mobs, regardless of your level, while you can get inf, etc. off -3s.
I only heard that it was any that'd give you rewards... QUICK! Someone off to the patch notes!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight View Post
I only heard that it was any that'd give you rewards... QUICK! Someone off to the patch notes!
Patch notes only say:
Quote:
The restriction that players are combat level 50 for Incarnate Shards to drop has been removed.
But as at Lv50 they only drop from even or + mobs, that implies that the same is true at any lower level - otherwise at Lv50 you'd be able to get them off 47/48/49s too.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight View Post
That's vague enough that I think it warrants some testing... The patch notes have a history if being misleading when they don't explicitly state something
Now, now; the patch notes have a history of being outright wrong and missing out large sections of changes

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Posted

Oh wait, so I can now do lower level arcs via Flashback and still have the potential to get Incarnate Shards? This is very, very, very awesome for a badge-wh... hunter like myself. =P

 

Posted

I don't believe the purple/shard rewards scale up. Everyone seems to think the drop rate on purples doesn't change or scale up and I believe it's the same with these shards. Normally everything scales up, the influence dropped is higher if the mobs are higher, in AE missions the rewards are higher until it comes to these items (purple and shards).

These two items come down random + (# of kills).
I've had some toons get 1-2 shards for a whole shard run TF and others get 10+, some days you are just lucky. I have some toons that have got 8-10 purples and others that have never seen one. I've never seen a purple drop during APEX or MAGE (which are all +4) and I've got the most from ITF or LGTF doing "shard" runs (at -1) where we kill as much as we can on the first 2 missions.


you would think that doing +4 would increase the drop rate by 4x but it doesn't. you might as well go for +0 and kill all that much faster.

 

Posted

Enhancements drop rate (although kind depends on level), Inspirations, Vanguard Merits, Salvage, and Recipes also don't drop more frequently when fighting higher con enemies (or less frequently when fighting lower con enemies).

If anything, XP, Inf, and Tickets are the oddballs!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxson B View Post
Oh wait, so I can now do lower level arcs via Flashback and still have the potential to get Incarnate Shards? This is very, very, very awesome for a badge-wh... hunter like myself. =P
I think so. We were doing the new SF which is lvl 20-40 and my lvl 50 got scaled down to 40 and is still getting Shards. :P

What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.