Favorite and least favorite incarnates

Now that we have half of the incarnate slots available to us, let's get a general opinion of which ones are most/least useful. Maybe help some newly empowered incarnates decide what to go for first and such.

Just list the 5 in order of your favorite to least favorite and give reasons for the ones you consider the "best" and "worst" slots.

1. Alpha
2. Destiny
3. Lore
4. Judgement
5. Interface

I find the out of trial level shift to be the best thing at making a character feel more powerful, and to be honest, a free 33-45% bonus enhancement to all attacks is pretty amazing before factoring in the secondary buffs.

Interface I find lacking because of the minimal stackability and low debuff values. I mean, 4 stacks max on a -2.5% res power? A single sonic blast can double that debuff, and this is at 1:4 on powers with a chance to happen and on max level content? It'd be one thing if the debuffs were unresisted, but they aren't. Only decent sized debuffs are the -tohit and -dam because it can't be resisted. The fire dot is nice too, but seems low for end game unlockable power. And the -regen stacks 4 times to get 60%. On anything worth debuffing its regen, that will be lowered to about 9% and will hardly make an indent.

For My AoE heavy characters (Brutes, MM, Dom, certain Corrs, Crab VEAT):

1. Alpha - Helps to cover any deficiencies of the build. Cardiac particularly for my end heavy characters. Also Spiritual makes my AoE attacks come up more often.
2. Interface - Whether it's Diamagnetic -Tohit or Reative -Res/DoT, I can stack them very easily with so many AoE attacks.
3. Judgement - Certainly very nice to have another hard hitting AoE attack but not required.
4. Destiny - Helps with survival and nice to have but not enought to beat out the 3 slots above.
5. Lore - For 5 mins they can chip in for a little bit extra damage or heal/buff you a little bit. Helpful but not that much.

For my ST heavy characters (Stalkers, certain Corrs, Widow VEAT)

1. Judgement - ST characters lacking in AoE.. enough said.
2. Alpha - Same reasoning as above.
3. Lore - Going with the attacking boss tree can help with taking down multiple mobs faster.
4. Destiny - Same reasoning as above
5. Interface - The debuffs just don't do enough if you're not constantly hitting multiple targets and stacking the debuffs.

1. Interface: reactive, enough said
2. Destiny: I just really like these powers, barrier finally gives me a god mode on my main
3. Alpha: not as flashy as the new slots but they offer very nice boosts of power, and being +1 is quite nice.
4. Judgement: Before it came out i thought it was gonna suck (less DPS than pretty much any AoE attack ever) but its suprisingly fun. Before they fixed ion it would have been number 1.
5. Lore: when the pets are out they are really quite awesome. But thats only 33% of the time, and if they die...

1) Alpha - it is easy to unlock and easy to slot with a variety of options on how to do this. I like the BAF trial, not a huge fan of the Lamda, but I've never enjoyed doing the same content over and over so grinding to unlock and slotting the other incarnate slots is a slow process for me. Also it is so very flexible and can really make a character work. My Grav/Storm/Stone (which is my namesake and main toon) was always a complete endurance hog, particularly with long AV battles, but with the Cardiac slot it has removed that issue completely.

2) Interface - having a proc that can go off with any damaging attack is great in my book. I particularly like the To Hit Debuff on my Grav/Storm who is slightly short on soft capping his Smashing/Lethal defence, so spamming Crushing Field and Freezing Rain really helps the To Hit debuffs stack up to protect me.

3) Judgement - whats not to love about a super powerful AoE power that has a real 'boom' kick to it! Particularly like Ion and Void.

Joint 5) Destiny + Lore - I've not tried either of these. If I had tried Destiny I am guessing that it would probably be joint 3rd instead as the buffs do look good. Lore would porbably still be last as I cannot think of anyway to get the Praetorian pets linked in with my characters concepts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger Quote: 16. Has Paragon Studios redefined "player" to require your mouse to subscribe separately from your keyboard? If your mouse has greater processing power than your gfx card, the answer is yes.

Really depends on the character in question, but...

Alpha: Always there, and allows for full character modification letting you adjust slotting in creative ways.

Interface: Being able to apply debuffs while attacking can make a big difference against bigger foes, especially on characters that normally lack that ability entirely.

Judgement: Having a hard hitting AoE is nice, especially on primarily ST characters, and the Radial tree debuffs are a nice supplement.

Destiny: Almost like having an AoE T9 "oh crap!" power on a 2 minute cooldown that can really shore up a "weakness" in a character... a heal on a defense bases tank, defense/resist on a regen scrapper, status protection on a corruptor, etc.

Lore: A nice little bit of added damage and/or buffs, but far less present as the rest. Could also be biased by the shoehorned choices of pets.

1) Alpha - I have 2 and will have 3 Tier 4's. Lets you tailor your powers to the specific challenge. For solo you can use this and Destiny to even double up if necessary. Nerve + Barrier, or Cardiac + Barrier, Spiritual + Ageless , etc. also easier and more straight forward to aquire.

2) Destiny - Tier 4 Rebirth Regen. also plan a Barrier and an Ageless.

3) Interface Reactive - wouuld be #1 but the Nerf Bat is surely being drawn back for a big wack. Plan a Diamagnetic also.

4) Judgement - amazing to think this is a 4th choice. Have T4 Pyronic, plan on a Void also.

5) Lore - or perhaps it is really Lame and the 'am' got misspelled 'or'. I have 5 T3 duos. Is ANY Pair really worth using a VR, especially now that more powers for existing trees has been announced?

Jak

FF does safety well enough (softcapped at all positions and psi, ~65% s/l res, good mez protection, no end problems, tray full of greens), so all I want is more damage:

1. Alpha. Global damage boosts are good.
2. Interface. Reactive, because global damage boosts are still good.
3 and 4. Lore and Judgment. Both are more damage, which is still good. Which of the two is better is situational. Judgment makes normal stuff go quicker. Lore makes long fights go quicker. I went with Pyronic and Warworks, both Core, because, again, more damage.
5. Destiny. Destiny mostly does safety, and I have that covered well enough already. Ageless is the pick for me, because rech is kind of like dmg, and Radial can help with cascading defense failure, but it's pretty uninspiring.

1. alpha - lvl shift every where plus plugging minor holes in a toons build

2. judgement - nuke on every toon with no crash? yes plz

3. destiny - very similar to alpha that it can plug more holes in a toon, but the lvl shift is not global and this only making this rank 3

4. lore - i really really like lore, but i really HATE how long it takes to rech, +rech and lore will move up almost to where judgement is

5. interface - interface seems like a good idea, but in reality is awful aside from the DOT, all the debuffs do negligible amounts of debuff because they are resistable and can barely stack at all, the only thing going for this slot atm is the DoT cause its brokenly awesome on dmg patches lol

Best to worst:

1 - Alpha. Has an effect on most, if not all powers, all the time, simultaneously versatile and strong, grants a level shift in the real game as well as the two raids, and can be acquired reasonably. It's the best by a country mile.

2 - Interface. Probably the most useful in "normal" combat, since it also applies to most powers. Variety of effects that can suit pretty much any character. What it lacks in strength it makes up for in versatility.

3 - Destiny. Very powerful, useful solo and downright amazing when teamed. Only problem is that since it wears off quickly at low levels, it's not especially useful unless you're willing to invest a lot in it.

4 - Judgement. An "I win" button against a single spawn (sometimes two, if they're close together) on a reasonable recharge. Judgement's incredibly fun, but it's not going to be a game changer; things that were already easy will be made easier, but it's not up frequently enough (with good reason) to make a consistent difference.

5 - Lore. Ladies, look at your other Incarnate powers, then to Lore, then to the others, then back to Lore. Sadly, Lore isn't your other Incarnate powers. It has a pathetic uptime, combat pets that are a little too fragile and support pets that aren't very good support. It's just a sad little shadow of a power when compared to what the others do, and that's not even getting into the concept problems.

My only toon that has all of the nifty incarnate stuff is my main, an Ice/Fire/Soul Tanker, so my opinions are based solely from its viewpoint.

1. Alpha - As others have already mentioned, the +1 level shift in all content is sweet. And I love the added recharge from Spiritual Core Paragon.
2. Interface - Reactive Radial Flawless + damage aura (Icicles) = so many pretty orange numbers. Plus spamming Fire Sword Circle, Combustion, and Dark Obliteration on top of that is just bananas.
3. Destiny - I pretty much use Barrier Core Epiphany whenever it's up, even when I'm not fighting anything. That's how much I love this power.
4. Judgement - Ion Core Final is crazy-fun to use on x8 missions or on the ITF.
5. Lore - This is the only incarnate power that I didn't bother to get to Tier 4. I stopped at Total Radial Improved Ally and called it a day.

1. Alpha, which is a brilliant bit of mechanical tinkering that had me once again toying with Mids builds on my favorite characters seeing how much juice I could pull out of the thing.

2. Destiny. I wanted to give this to Judgement, but I couldn't; Nothing has changed the survivability curve of my /Shield like Rebirth Radial's regen. And with everyone else, it's still wonderful; my WP brute loves 10s of capped resists, and I'm sure the squishies can't get enough of the mez protection. In incarnate trials I T4 this first, in part because the T3->T4 jump tends to be pretty huge in Destiny.

3. Judgement. Explosions. Massive explosions. Really hyper super massive explosion final attacks. Mechanically it's not the most game-changing thing in the toolbox, but thematically it's the kind of thing I've been internally begging for since hitting 50 - and if you managed to work a Musculature Alpha into your build...

It was harder to order the first three, because they're all wonderful; my last two were a little more clear-cut.

4. Interface. I'm not sure why it gets the good press it does; overall Interface is really badly designed.

Sure, all the other trees have maybe one booby prize tree (Alpha's Nerve; Destiny's Ageless) that is mechanically lackluster and will rarely be taken, but Interface has exactly one side of one tree that's worth getting excited about. Some of you above have, in fact, said as much, using the strength of that one halftree as a supporting argument. Other than Reactive Radial the effects are too weak to really hurt most AVs or do anything significant to trial mobs before Judgements, or even alpha-powered AoEs wipe them out - and the one half-tree that IS good is brokenly good in Rains and Patches, benefiting different powersets with such stark irregularity that I can't imagine that the nerf bat is too far behind to make Interface behave like other procs.

Still, it's better than:

5. Lore. Limiting themes in a game that's all about bringing your own concepts; weak uptimes, lack of renameability if you're not a mastermind, lack of special commands if you're not a mastermind. The pets may have some sting themselves, but overall it's a disappointing waste of potential.

1.) Alpha - The Level shift that applies to all content is in this power. You can also use it to completely shore up any one weakness you have enhancement wise, by itself.
2.) Destiny - (Most useful) it effects your whole team and then some, actually scales well all the way up to t4, and is definite awesomeness, another game changer.
3.) Judgment - (Favorite) This won't make a loser team steam roll, or a winning team move all that much faster (unless several have it) but it is awesome to have spawn crushing power no matter what AT you play.
4.) Interface - As long as it's not gravitic, these are pretty cool, with reactive (of course) being notable of all. It's nice to take our old powers up a notch.
5.) Lore - It's can be awesome for a soloist, but in real content (IE, non hard target soloing) it simply spends too long on the recharge timer for me to find myself caring about them. Also, it makes just about 0 thematic sense. Not only does it hardly ever sync up with your personal character, half the choices are robots, and all of the choices are praetoria related.

These are supposed to be the essences of those who've tried to tap the well, what about vanguard, what about nemesis, the midnighters, cimerorans etc. Why do robots even have essences, wth do ANY of these (considering the seers don't even have a will of their own) have to do with the well?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyria_Shirako [color=lime] Sure, all the other trees have maybe one booby prize tree (Alpha's Nerve; Destiny's Ageless) that is mechanically lackluster and will rarely be taken, but Interface has exactly one side of one tree that's worth getting excited about.

I find diagmagnetic -tohit 100% chance (core) tree to be worthwhile, it's a very noticeable defensive boost to those that can stack it quick enough. In squishy AoE monsters, lowering the chance of an almost certain reprisal hitting you is nice. So that's like... one full tree worth right there . (Actually, I'd been wanting defense debuffs on my sonic/sonic for awhile, but MOAR -res was more appealing in the end anyway, so I think we are taking our options power for granted, reactive is just overly good comparatively).