I am not appreciating the Trial Grind

I am not appreciating the Trial Grind. It bore repeating.

Apparently so do the trials. At least, if we want to play and improve our level 50 characters, that's what we have available to us.

Whee.

So, I'm throwing this out there...

I hope that the future provides us alternative methods to unlocking the Incarnate slots than just repeating the same content over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and (this goes on for a while) and over and over and over and over and over and... You get the idea.

On top of that, it's still not a guarantee that you're going to win. Suffice it to say, people are still losing at these things, and they're stressful enough without the realization that there are people on the team who can't take direction.

It leaves me disillusioned and uninspired.

Yes, I know more trials are on the way. I know I'll be getting some variety to my grinding. While I look forward to attempting the new challenge, that's as far as my despair is alleviated.

I'll make do as best I can, in the meantime. It's the only option available to me. But I'm still going to voice my discontent.

They're not BAD tasks. They're great, challenging stuff. It just gets frustrating when you have to repeat them over and over and-I'll stop there. I like the storyline behind them, I like the setting, and I like the abilities they eventually unlock... But I'm getting nauseous grinding these things out to slowly crawl my way up the new ranks.

It's only a grind if you make it a grind.

For what it's worth, though... I agree with you, OP.

I quit weeks ago. I haven't done a BAF or a Lambda in awhile. Just couldn't do it anymore. I have tier 2 of my Judgement, tier 1 of Interface. I'm at 70 something percent on Destiny and 16 percent on Lore.
I know others have done far more. But that was it for me.
Ironically enough I am still kind of grinding. I've been running Tip missions for recipe rolls, and AE missions for tickets to get salvage. Trying to get my first purple set.
Anyway, I guess a long winded way to say I agree with the OP.

It can get nauseating if you go overboard; if you know that there's other content and options on the way, why not pace yourself and take your time? You don't have to rush through and cram as many trials in as you can, or get the powers right away - that's the Well talking!

That said, do you lead the runs yourself, Mr. Grey? If you're looking for ways to make these trials more interesting you can start leading them yourself, and put together unorthodox teams. It wasn't until I started managing the league formation that the trials really became an engaging experience - and once you see how easy it is to form them it's much easier to dial it back and run other content as the want strikes.

I've been pining for any sort of endgame for CoH outside of Hamidon for about 3 years now. What we've got is excellent, and very casual on its own. I can see why players who go overboard by needing a T4 right now can be pulling their hair out over the repetition, but playing 20 trials in a sitting is their choice - it's not inherent in the system, but found in player's choices.

I agree with you grey we need other ways to earn threads and even components. I now have 8 incarnates that have all 5 powers opened and 7 that have slotted enough to be 50(+3) when the run the trials... That translates to a LOT of BAFs and Lambdas.

I know the Keyes island Trial is coming but to be honest while I enjoyed it on Beta its really only giving us one more option and how long will it be before we all get sick of looking at that over and over as well?

It's been asked for repeatedly but SOME people here seem to be dead set against it.. we need Incarnate contacts that will allow us to solo or throw together a 2,3, 4 5,6 , 7 or 8 man team and run missions and/or arcs earning threads and even some random components toward slotting the powers. Maybe even a new praetorian zone for 50 levels .. this has been suggested before as well. Put everything a players needs in the zone

Hospital with combat nurse

Wentworths/black Market

Io Vault

IO Crafting tables

Store (to buy or sell SO enhancemenets)

Add several contacts with arcs, and even some solo missions, to give us that solo/small team path and it would also be a great place to launch the other trials from.

Make the arcs a challenge of course.. missions involving battles against a variety of Cole's Praetors sometimes even two in a mission (similar to what we have now through Maria Jenkins).


Keep adding trials as well since they can be fun but quickly grow old when you have done it 100 times or more. So far we have gotten to battle Siege and Nightshade, Maurader and Anti-matter is next in line. At some point give us Mother Mayhem in more than a cut scene cameo role. In all there are 14 Praetors and including the Apex and Tin Mage TFs we have only battled 6 ( 7 once 20.5 hits) We have plenty more to deal with so get them out here and let us pound on them.

I just wish the Trials weren't so tightly scripted as they are. They're pretty much "railroad tracks" as far as the scripting goes. BAF Prisoner Phase and the Lambda Collection Phase are the most glaring examples of this. Everything happens pretty much exactly the same every time.

The Prisoners have their extremely limited pathing which produces Choke Points (that people have figured out) and is ENTIRELY PREDICTABLE on every single run. The Prisoners follow exactly the same pathing every time they spawn, without variation. That could stand to have some variables thrown into things, even if only to "keep the players honest" about preventing escapes.

Collection Phase in Lambda is TOTALLY PREDICTABLE since the crates and acid chambers spawn in exactly the same places on the one-and-only-maps for their wings of the facility. There's no variation in the layout, and the objects to destroy always spawn (reliably) in their designated spots. This phase is basically run "according to script" because the spawn/map behavior is so relentlessly singular in aspect.

For me ... that's the main failing of BAF and Lambda. Once you've run them a couple of times, you know the pattern(s) for them ... and they never break those patterns. And as we all know ... familiarity breeds contempt.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I'm somewhat agitated by the grind, but not due to "needing" T4s in every slot. Actually, my main Incarnate is pretty much done with a nice mix of T3s and T4s, but now I'm obligated to jump back in thanks to 20.5's Astral and Empyrean vendors and their locking of crucial costume pieces.

Positron said in one of the U Stream casts a while ago that he's aware a solo/small team progression method is something the player base wants. and he said it was something potentially on the horizon. They're also going to keep adding more trials, it only feels like a grind right now because it's a new system being introduced and all the content hasn't been developed yet. I think it's understandable that these things take time and I'm sure the dev team is working as fast as they can to give us more options... My only gripe (and it's a big one) is the algorithm used for the rewards system.

*remembers the days of a lot of people grinding the ITF in a speed run to get those TF recipe drops*

I like trials because to me they're fun and a good laugh with the team

I didn't mind how you only had to run one ITF to get the set, or how the Vanguard merits could be earned by any sort of content in the entire game so long as Rikti were involved. And that's a lot. Pretty simple stuff that didn't require too much work.

But it does feel like in order to get the costume sets you've gotta grind and grind and grind. Can I just run one trial and get my auras and chest emblems like how I did with the ITF's Roman armor? Or can I earn E-merits from completing high level TFs/story arcs? Please? Give us more options.

Mewmewmewmewmew!

(I concur with you, Mr. Grey. It took me close to 100 attempts before I got my *FIRST* Very Rare component. Once I had that, I quit the Trials [since I had enough components/Threads for a Tier 4 and three Tier 3 enhancers]. It was more stressful for me getting metric tonnes of unwanted components than it was running 8 dozen Trials. We need variety in the Trials and an overhaul of Biblical proportion for the loot system! )

What's funny to me is that the original City of Heroes launched with just levels 1-40, and it took all of one Issue for the next 10 level to be patched in. When City of Villains launched, it also launched with just levels 1-40, and it also took just one Issue to add not just the last 10 levels, but Mayhem missions, as well.

Now we get an expansion that is, apparently, supposed to be all about end game. It's taken them two Issues so far and it looks like it'll take them another one or two just to get to the end of it, let alone actually make enough content for it not to be a grind.

Oh, sure, when my villain first hit level 44.5, he ran out of missions entirely, save for paper missions, and I had to run something in the neighbourhood of 30 of the things, Mayhems included, until I hit 45 and got a new tier of contacts (who lasted all the way to 50). Even ignoring that that's been fixed, that's still a FAR greater content density than what Incarnates have, which is give or take two tasks.

Once upon a time Matt Miller said that they didn't want to make "just a few trials that people would be done with in a week and ask for more again." Ignoring the fact that that's precisely what they did anyway, their solution was to make a "system" which people would want to progress through regardless of content. Well, here's the naked truth - people WILL get "done" with your content eventually. The question is whether they're done because they simply did everything there was to do, or whether they're done because they are sick to their stomachs of what you're offering. The former, while problematic, is still a positive ending. You're done, you have fun, "now what?" The latter is a bitter, angry ending born of frustration and irritation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I'm not arguing for a solo path to Incarnate power. It would be nice, but it would just be the same in the end. Another grind. What I'm asking for is just a wider range of availability.

Look, when we unlock our Alpha Slot, we have a number of paths to choose from in order to craft and slot that first Incarnate Ability. We don't wind up doing the ITF over and over and over again just to unlock all of the different Alpha abilities. We COULD, but we don't HAVE to. It doesn't wind up boring the player to tears having to do one little event ad nauseum. If I feel like doing the Apex TF or the Hamidon Raid, these options are perfectly valid and viable for the Alpha Slot. If I don't want to do them, I could still do Reichsman content, a Lady Grey, or even just crank through a few missions and get random Shards. I can still experience the rest of the game and not feel like I'm slacking behind.

The other abilities, though, are inexplicably tied solely to the Incarnate Trials. In order to improve in them without doing the trials, you have to slow your progress to a pace that makes snails look like lightning.

Threads may drop faster (MUCH faster) than Shards, but compared to the availability (Shards are everywhere, Threads are in just a few situations), Shards are still in greater supply. The Exchange Rate between them doesn't take into account the difference in rarity in terms of drop rates or crafting abilities, either. Twelve Shards could net you an Uncommon piece of Salvage. For the same thing in the new Incarnate Salvage, you would need Sixty Threads.

But then you don't need to farm for the new Incarnate Salvage. Just run the trial a few more times. Downgrade all that upper-tier salvage into the lower-rank salvage you need. Burn Threads to sidegrade your salvage if you messed up and chose the wrong piece of salvage (and may the Gods help you if you picked the wrong Very Rare, sidegrade costs for that are bizarrely astronomical).

If you want to continue to improve your character, it's impractical to stop doing the Trials. If you want to improve your character, it's impractical to do the Trials just a few times... In a row. You need to do them a lot. Only they improve your character's other Incarnate abilities, and they're the only decent way to unlock them in the first place.

I could do a TF once a week and feel like I'm making progress. Different TFs, too. Now, I'm doing these Trials daily, the same Trials again and again. I don't feel like I'm going anywhere.