What are you expecting for a solo Incarnate path?

I expect something that will be ridiculously difficult, ridiculously tedious, or both. The end result likely being that I avoid it because sitting in a 5 minute queue for two hours and maybe getting to participate in a single iTrial will still seem the more lucrative option.

And I'd call that an optimistic outlook.

I really don't see an AV being involved unless you're teaming, which I also kind of expect to be able to do in them. Otherwise probably an elite boss.

Really, i'm hoping they're kind of basing it around players being at 'square one' in the incarnate path, as in just after finishing Mender Remial's arc.

If the devs are not trying to push for teaming in an MMO why would they make soloing slower to obtaining incarnate stuff?

I think there are pushing teaming in an MMO and I understand it. I do hope that they make a solo path rewarding and not overly grindy like they have for other things in the past. I doubt it though. lol.

My honest, unmitigated opinion: a disaster.

I expect a tedious path that's designed to be so slow, it will shunt players towards iTrials if they want to make any significant progress.

I expect it to be based around Praetoria yet again, a place I couldn't care less about if it got wiped out by a Shivan meteor strike.

I expect it to use a new currency of Loner Merits which will need to be exchanged for Incarnate components for an exorbitant fee as punishment for us daring to dislike the Devs' new obsession with Trials.

I expect absolutely no plot progression apart from further railroading of my characters and their motives.

EDIT: (And of course, forgot about this one) I expect it to be entirely alignment neutral i.e. 'heroic' so that villains once again have to pretend to be heroes in order to use the system. Contacts will cite the usual 'greater threat' baloney that's been way overused as of late.


I wish I could have a more positive expectation but the fact this path wasn't considered from the outset and the ridiculous currencies, conversions and grind that is the Incarnate 'path' lead me to believe that the Devs barely grasp the desires of their playerbase anymore or any of the things that makes this MMO a success. If I'm wrong, I will happily eat my hat.

I expect any solo path to be slow enough that trials remain an attractive option. And since I actually enjoy running trials, that would be exactly what I want from a solo path.

...Don't know tbh, never thought about what the solo stuff should be...I'm happy doing the co-op stuff, tho i'm sure my MM will like the solo stuff due to the pets not (hopefully) dying all the time :P

Although, if its like the tip missions- i would want them to be done in pratoeria only. and stick to the prat invasion storyline kind of...not just some random, missions here n there...at least then once the invasion is over (in time) the storyline can change to stopping any resistance starting up.

Well the only baselines we have are the mins and maxes of the system currently in place.

The minimum we know is the SSAs, which reward an Astral Merit and 10 threads for incarnate on the weekly cooldown timers.

The max is running a trial, earning iXP and threads from enemies, astral merits for certain objectives, 2+ empyreal merits every 20(?) hours and a random roll on for the 4 tiers of rarity for salvage and getting to pick an exact piece.

So the solo path is going to be somewhere in between these two. Obviously it's going to be grindy, the whole incarnate system is still in its infancy so it's going to be grindy until more options roll out. But this should at least be a grind you can do by yourself or with friends, while the trials will be faster in terms of rewards.

Honestly I'm kind of expecting a faux-taskforce or two, like the SSAs are only a bit longer than 3 missions and able to start by yourself (as the SSAs are). I guess something like Tin Mage/Apex only with an SSA style start up so you can do it solo and repeatably for full rewards every so often (probably 20 hours or so?) Probably for 1 Emp merit and a completely random salvage, with enemies all dropping threads and iXP (expecting they won't throw as many mobs/EBs/AVs at you so it'll be slower iXP).

The tip thing doesn't sound bad, offer some variety.

The Contaminated that spawns in RV will give 1 thread upon defeat. Its spawn rate won't be changed. That will be it.

Eco

Ps in my dreams, the Shadow Shard will be revamped as solo-possible Zones with loads of cool arcs that give Incarnate progression. No more Praet stuff, please.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Meager crumbs. They've shown nothing but contempt for soloists wanting incarnate content that I expect nothing to substantially change. Instead of 10 years to achieve tier 4 stuff maybe they'll reduce time needed to 5 years.

They will need to give us a whole lot of fabulous solo incarnate content to ever gain my trust again. Overlaying the Tip system with iRewards would a step in right direction but not nearly enough. I want to see an Incarnate zone populated by an incarnate society that has substantial content for everyone.

I expect it to be faster than the current solo path of earning shards and converting them to threads to get incarnate stuff, and for everyone in this thread to nonetheless act like the devs have somehow made it harder for them to get their swag.

I don't think they wanted to add a solo path when they first released the Incarnate system. I think the only reason they're adding one is because players have been clamoring for it since the system debuted. So, I think the solo/small team path will seem somewhat tacked on - I seriously doubt it will be used as a vehicle to advance the plot in any meaningful way for this reason.

I also expect it will involve Praetoria and the Praetorian War for plot, because they're still plugging that storyline hard and I don't think we'll see any significant variation from that until Tyrant is toppled. They want players to be involved in that story because they still want players to shell out money for Going Rogue.

I think they will still want players to focus on Trials for incarnate advancement, so the system will either be grindy or time-limited - either you'll have to run a whole lot of missions to advance, or there will be a limit in place to prevent you from earning too much incarnate loot too quickly. I'd prefer the time limit on reward tables to grind, personally.

I like the idea that the system will resemble Tips. Well, I don't like it, but I think that's a pretty good guess.

So, that's what I expect.

What I'd like to see is an Incarnate zone with a few story contacts, along with a 4-8 man repeatable mini trial or two and a newspaper-type contact for repeatable missions. Possibly also a task force. It could even be a mini-zone, like Cimerora, accessed in the same way. But that probably won't happen.

Obviously, all of this is pure speculation.

I'd love an incarnate only zone, with story arcs that allow level shift and have higher level / more challenging opponents as a result. Threads drop. No reward merits - an astral for arc completion. Leave eMerits for the trials. You can solo or team up to 8 normally. EBs are either really tough, or cannot downshift from AV.

That said, I don't expect it.

And frankly, I'm more interested in what they are sharing about asymmetrical costumes - per Noble Savage's tease.

The iTrials in CoH aren't nearly as bad as raiding for high end content in other games. The queuing alone makes them 1000% better. They're still very grindy and I would expect a solo incarnate path to be 10x worse.