Incarnate rewards based on participation?

Is there any real good reason to have rewards based off some sliding scale of "effort"? It seems as though it just dorks over some ATs/power sets and benefits others regardless of how many buttons you mash during the event. If someone on your league is leeching, the answer is to boot him off the league just like if someone is essentially doorsitting a task force.

As for the tables, my Earth/Storm controller was "affecting" tons of mobs in the BAF last night with AoE debuffs but not seriously hurting any of them in relation to the real AoE attacks and my rewards ranged from Uncommon to the Ten Thread Booby Prize.

Using my Mind/Psi Dominator I have never seen tables for Uncommons or above. Before getting the Interface slot I kept on getting the 10 threads option (I only had a T2 Alpha). After getting the Interface I started getting Commons. I now have Judgement filled but I haven't done any trials since filling it. I have, however, had one rare drop (Exotic Isotope) and a few uncommons drop at the end of Lambda trials.

As far as IXP, I was under the impression it was awarded the same way as regular XP--when an enemy dies, the XP from it is distributed to every team that damaged it. As far as the reward table, I didn't even know Commons were an option. I've gotten five or so Rares and a metric ton of Uncommons, but never a single Common or Very Rare. I've also had a shortage of threads so far, even with breaking down my merits and converting shards to threads once per day.

If the system is supposed to be completely random, and I'm skeptical, then it seem very streaky at best. If it's not, then the metrics need to be bugchecked/reevaluated, in my personal opinion. In 35+ trials my Bots/Traps MM has not seen anything better than Uncommon. Ever. While my rad/sonic defender with a third as many trials done has scored a few rares. While obviously I can't rule out the possibility of crap luck, it is very frustrating to feel (and I do say feel, because I have no proof) that it's not counting pets and spawned traps in any way.

I've been doing the trials almost exclusively on my Kat/Regen Scrapper.
Most tables have been commons or uncommons. The ONLY time I got a Rare on the menu was when we completed the "Not On My Watch" challenge, which also rewarded an Astral Merit.

Hard to pinpoint what we need to do to get it as we're all using the same strat of guarding doors, patrolling sidewalks and so on which works brilliantly.

No big complaint as I have my Tier 2 Judgement and Interface and climbing, but still strange.

I'm mostly getting Uncommons on my DB/inv brute (not level shifted yet), with the occasional Rare or Common. I got Commons 3 times out of 3 when I crashed midway into the trial.

On one trial with my fire/cold controller, I got a Rare.

A friend of mine purposefully leeched 2 or 3 trials (I'm not sure, I know it is at least 2) and got 10 threads each time.

I've succeeded in four trials so far. In order:

1. Ill/TA, BAF - purple
2. Ill/TA, BAF - orange
3. Grav/Storm, BAF - yellow
4. Emp/Psi, Lambda - 10 threads

I figure next time I will get a rock.

I'm not really sure what else I could have done on any of the first three; my Ill/TA was spamming debuffs, constantly spawning PA, lighting oil slick and basically throwing out whatever damage he had. Same with the Grav with tornado, freezing rain, lightning storm, propel, immobs and holds.

My Emp though spent nearly the whole trial getting lost, shot through by turrets, ganked by robot hall monitors and generally smushed with extreme prejudice. I tried to help the team the best I could, but spent most of the time trying to teleport back from the hospital (I could TP over the walls, but not too well from turret to turret. When I wasn't shot by them that is, so I just waited down below. I wouldn't have damaged them much anyway.)


I reckon the first three rewards were probably random. The last one was a begrudging "ok, I guess we HAVE to give you something."

This system really doesn't feel random. My anecdotes:

• 1-- Leading leads to typing, typing leads to inactivity, inactivity leads to common/uncommon.
  Whenever I lead a PUG of newish players, I am required to broadcast commands and battle plans, and even explain how to check your powers tab for temp powers. This DRASTICALLY reduces the amount of time I am clicking powers. I have never gotten better than an uncommon when leading a PUG of new players requiring constant direction. My only 10 thread drop ever was from leading a particularly bad group of players during a Lambda, and having to send personal tells to players explaining how to use temp powers and even find them in their menus...
  
  
  
• 2-- Want a consistent rare/very rare? Roll a Controller.
  My Earth/Ice controller can rather consistently generate a rare / very rare incarnate drop by spamming as many AoE skills as possible during combat, and constantly buffing 23+ players and pets during downtime. They only characters that I have ever generated very rare drops with have been AoE centric with several player targetable buffs that need to be spammed-- ie shields.
  
  
  
• 3-- Single Target Melee...
  I have several melee characters that generally specialize in single target damage. Every one of them has consistently underperformed any of my ranged AoE characters and buffers.
  
  
  
• 4-- Other players seem to realize this same thing.
  Ever notice how sloppy it can be during a Lambda-- particularly now that many players have a Judgement slot? Players seem to be running ahead to use their AoEs on the next spawn well before the first spawn is cleared. Ever wonder why?
  
  It appears that doing more damage, affecting more targets, and simply clicking skills as an indicator of being active yields better rewards. Unfortunately, most abilities in this game require foes to actually activate a skill, and foes can be in short supply during these raids now. People want to gobble up as much activity as possible to get the better rewards, and MANY players appear to realize this.

I'm in the mostly common/uncommon reward table group. I've had 1 rare and 1 very rare drop but thats it. I am using my energy/elec blaster as he is my main and i want to get tier 4 everything on him. The only time I am not blasting away is when just after using nova or when i die. Luckily deaths are getting fewer as the baf/lambda runs are smoothing out. I honestly cant see what i can do more than i am to participate and yet its been non stop low reward tables. Its a little annoying seeing some people on the league giggle about their 3rd or 4th rare or very rare table in a row.

I think the key to getting better drops now is to run Lamda and BAF with fewer people. You can't be active, or contribute, when spawns and AVs are dropping so fast.

If anyone wants to test this later, I will be on Freedom.

- I never AFK in the trial, I have a somewhat long load time on Lambda (One mob is cleared by the time I enter), I can consistently hold AV aggro on my Fortunata, and my Fort is highly single-target.

- I buff with ML, I'm running my two sets of Leadership powers, and I use Ageless Partial Radial Invocation.

- I'm never on the Ambush teams in BAF, and I can two-man hold out a door of prisoners.

- Having 0/20 prisoners in 4 raids has yielded 2 Uncommons and 2 Rares.

- I've seen had tables to have enough for 6 T3s with Rares, about 17 Uncommons, and 6 Commons.

- Only 1 Common was obtained in a BAF raid, which was hardly an unsuccessful team. The rest were Lambda groups in which the majority of team members were new to the concept, or I tanked Marauder (with a defence based toon mind you) while the team scrambled to figure out who has the last Acid.

- I use Ion Total Radial Judgement on any large mob I come into contact with, because I don't care much for a laggy raid.

Can't see what I'm doing wrong here, because there's no noticable difference in my teams. Still no Very Rare table, but I'll post back if I get one and report the circumstances.

My Brute has gotten mostly commons and uncommons, and on my very last run I got the 10 thread option. That last run was an 8-man Lambda where three or four of the people had never done it before and I was leading... And we successfully got all 10 of each temp and beat Marauder with six minutes remaining. I have never gotten a rare or very rare on my brute.

Oh, and the Brute is a DM/Shielder who uses Shield Charge every time it's up.

My wife's Controller has gotten a Very Rare, a Rare, and several uncommons. She's a Fire/Rad on hyper recharge who does nothing but spam her AoE powers...

It definitely looks to me like either (a) the system is random, or (b) it's skewed towards support and my Brute is going to have a lot higher climb as a result.

FYI: I joined a raid in progress last night on a whim during the dual av fight in the BAF.

I got a very rare.

I really think it's random

It better be completely random, for all the times I get the so-called leech reward.