Incarnate drops and difficulty

First of all, I promise that this is the last one of these I'll make for quite a while, so please don't kill me Secondly, this is mostly a question, so I won't be discussing the philosophical implications of game design.

I open with a basic question: If I'm running a level 50 character who has unlocked his or her Alpha Incarnate slot and isn't exemplared, can I get a Shard drop off a level 49 enemy, and if so, is the chance for a drop reduced?

Pretty much everything beyond this question depends squarely on what the answer to it is, because I may have to swap my running difficulty if I can indeed get drops off the -1x? difficulty settings.

Right now, I more or less plan to set my difficulty up thusly:

Level 1: Base, unchanged
Level 12 DOs: Up to +0x2 no bosses
Level 22 SOs: Up to -1x3 no bosses (that's harder for me)
Level 42 Commons: Up to -1x3 yes bosses

The difficulty settings I use now are based on a few factors which were true when I decided to settle on them, but which may or may not be true at the time. More specifically, they're based around my expectation that I won't have any Fitness powers (that's now inherent), that I'll be playing Blasters (I no longer do) and that I'll need to fight 50+ enemies for shards (which may or may not be true). Now's as good a time to reconsider my decisions as any.

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 probably forgetting something, but I think the shard change only applies when exemplared.

it should have been a i20 change

My understanding of Shard drops as of the i20 change was that, regardless of your current level, mobs that are +0 (or higher) to you can drop a shard, assuming you have already opened the Alpha slot.

In other words, my understanding is that mobs that are -1 or lower to your "current" level can't drop shards.

So, assuming my understanding is correct, you don't want to use the "-1 level to me" difficulty setting. Technically, at least a portion of the spawns will be +0 to you, and could drop shards. But, it would significantly lower your chances for them per mission.

I know for a fact that you get shard drops when running flashback missions, as long as they are even con or higher. I got a fair a amount running a lvl 25 flashback story arc. I don't know about other scenarios though, haven't tested.

Sorry to resurrect this from three pages back, but I wanted to thank you guys for answering my question. I was told in Global channels and by multiple people that "anything which drops salvage will drop Shards." I didn't want to question people's knowledge (to their face), but I had to get a larger sample of answers. The consensus is anything that's +0 to my combat level will drop shards. That settles that.

What this means is that my difficulty structure will need to be revised. What I mean is the following:

Level 1 game start: default
Level 12 DOs: +0x2, no bosses
Level 22 SOs: +0x2, yes bosses; or
Level 32 final primary: +0x2, yes bosses
Level 50(+1): +0x3, effective -1x3

That answers all my questions and narrows down my options. Thank you.

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.