Give Abandoned Sewer Trial some love please

Since I started playing CoH again several months ago, and sitting on the most commonly used badge/TF channels on Virtue, I've seen a number of trials and TFs being recruited for. I've even seen the Dr. Quatermain Shard trial recruited for once.

What I haven't seen that I can recall is anyone asking for joiners for the Abandoned Sewer Trial, L38-40. It's as if it's been, well, abandoned. Perhaps people still remember it as being one of the hardest things in the game (which is kind of a laugh now that we have things like the Underground Trial) and are disappointed with the reward level. But I ran it a couple of times this week, and it was fairly easy.

I did notice a couple of things that could stand to be improved, though.

1) The Kraken rewards: Yes, I know, the monster Kraken used to be used for powerleveling. They aren't now. (Why would anyone use something so hard for powerleveling anymore when AE hands it to them on a silver platter? But that's another matter.) But now they provide even less reward than a L42 Rikti boss, and that doesn't make any sense. (I don't know about XP, of course, but they gave my L50 about 7,000 Inf while defeating the aforementioned +2 boss gave about 12,000.) The reward right now is so low that I would think it could be at least doubled or tripled without risking the return of powerleveling. Perhaps tack on a Reward Merit or two.

2) End of mission rewards: I remember back when Hydra Enhancements were considered extremely useful, and people would run the trial repeatedly to get them. But now IOs make the Hydra Enhancements look downright anemic, and people outlevel them pretty quickly anyway. Now, 29 Reward Merits is about right for the hour or so the trial takes if you've got a good team, but perhaps you could add the choice of an Incarnate Shard salvage piece as an alternative for people who are L50?

3) Put it into the Weekly Strike Target rotation: This would give people more practice and more familiarity with the trial, and more incentive to do it. I honestly don't know why it's not there now. It only takes about an hour or so, and it's not restricted based on contact availability. Perhaps because it's only available to heroes, not villains? That's easily enough fixed; just add a contact for it villain side, and make a separate-but-equal instance of the abandoned sewers available to villains as you have for Ouroboros. Or make the Sewers and Abandoned Sewers another dual-morality co-op zone, which would also give Rogues and Vigilantes a new way back and forth.

Other than the above, the Abandoned Sewer Trial is actually pretty good. It's a lot more challenging than the "beat this person up. Okay, now beat these people up. Now beat this other person up. Now beat both of these people up together" goals of Incarnate Trials. It places a premium on teamwork, and you can feel a real sense of accomplishment for completing it. I'd like to see more people doing it.

I really like the Abandoned Sewer Trial. I've been here six years and I only ran it for the first time this spring. It's a lot of fun and I'd love to see it given some love.

I remember running it for the first time a year or so ago. It was incredibly fun, although a bit challenging. But it was definitely something different from "Beat up this boss!" like so many TFs and what not are. I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind if it got tweaked to churn out better rewards.

The Abandoned Sewer Trial is one of the most entertaining activities in the game. Sadly, that's precisely why it's run so rarely - because you at least have to try to win it, and people who both want and can organise a team into the coordination this one requires typically have more rewarding tasks to herd cats for.

I remember running this thing a few times in 2004, then recently in 2010 when Zamuel recruited me for it and we ended up co-leading for organisation's sake. And I remember that ALL of the times I've run this thing have been a ton of fun. Win or lose, I always walked away from that Trial feeling like something has been accomplished.

I'm really not sure what can be done to make it more appealing without just making it a farm again. Frankly, I still think it's too complex for people's tastes even today. Sure, the Incarnate Raids are more complex, but that's end game. People have been conditioned to accept this from end game. But what other TF in the 30s is this complex? And who needs Hydra enhancements that stop working in 5 levels anyway?

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.

You can add me to the list of people that enjoy this mission. Even though I have failed it more than won it, because my regular gaming group are a bit light in the damage department

Still I think I would rather the Devs don't touch it because it will probably end up attached to the LFG mechanism or will be changed in some other way that I won't like.

My Suggestions:
1) Make the Hydra Enhancements scale with level up to 50. We can do that now right?
2) Make the Particle Cannon and Thermite Cannon available as alternative weapon skins that can be unlocked through this trial.
3) Have the Krakens give rewards like they once did. In Days of Yore the Krakens were a rich source of glorious XP! I think these days your average farmer or PLer would turn their noses up and laugh

I also think the OPs suggestions for reward merits are good.

I really don't want to lock weapons behind the Hydra Trial. It's never going to be very popular, and it's pretty difficult to finish on time, so putting weapon skins behind it, especially for weapon sets that have hardly any of their own, just makes it that much more frustrating.

I'd focus on messing with functional rewards, rather than cosmetic ones. I hate costume bits that have to be unlocked.

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.

*edit*
What the hell was I thinking when I posted this here?

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've never done the Abandoned Sewer Trial. If it's anything like the trial in the tunnels under the Hollows, which I've been on two failed attempts at, I imagine it's something I generally wouldn't want to bother with. But if they added it to the LFG system I might queue up for it at least once to give it a shot.

To be fair, part of the reason it's not run all that often might also have something to do with pretty much EVERYTHING in the Trial conning purple to you, no matter your settings, and nearly all being Boss level or higher.

Leastways, that was the way it was when I ran it with a group. We got to the bottom of the pit and then just ran out of time, due to the tons of Mini-Krakens and respawning things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

If anyone wants to do ot PLEASE drag me to it!!! I need that badge for that.