Level 53 and weaker than a Hellion

The Primal heroes in the trial take pot shots at you when you're not looking, so you don't make them look bad. I was going to say it was because you got your Incarnate powers from the Primal Well, but remembered it's the same Well for both, lol. And for good measure let's say GG and Scythus are right too.

I was being sarcastic.

Right, because fighting with a stick is such a great manifestation of super-powered abilities. How many stick fighters are there in any of the major superhero continuities anyway?

Gambit, for example, fought with a stick, sure, but he used it as a focus for non-ranged energy blasts. Without those energy blasts, he would have been nothing but an obnoxious d-bag with a trenchcoat fetish and a funny accent.

Yeah, yeah, I know, they quietly took the word "super" out of the game's tagline while I wasn't looking. I should probably just resign myself to the fact that it has lost any semblance of genre identity it may have once had (or had ambitions of having) and is now just "the game about anything that fights" and will remain so going forward.

I sense another departure from the game for me soon...

Wing "Only Superman is allowed" Leader, unfortunately, wasn't.

So whilst you go for Gambit (who to be honest, is probably the most well known one)...

I give you



Stick.

Yeah, he was blind, had sonar sense... basically another version of Daredevil, just without the cash or the natty suit

Nope, not even a little.

And Mole Man.



And Mockingbird.



And Jack Staff.



Jack Knight.



Stargirl



Shall I go on?

Depends on how much exposure you have had to the relevant comics i would say.

I have only read 2 or 3 TMNT comics from their initial run... but i have read *loads* of comics that had Gambit in.

I missed this. To me, the very concept of a "wet-behind-the-ears Incarnate" is a conundrum. That's like saying a rookie martial arts master or an inexperienced veteran. Incarnates should not be seen as "wet-behind-the-ears" because we got to be Incarnates by proving our worth. Dropping us back down to rookie status is a severe demotion which represents a massive step back immediately following level 50.

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.

Fixed that for you.

my bad

Becoming an Incarnate is aking to learning a whole different skill set. Not everybody glides in and out of variable power usage like X-Men's Rogue.

It's like Colossus waking up one day and getting Nightcrawler's TP powers and acrobatic skills; then being confronted by obstacles that require him to use those new abilities. If we were being any kind of realistic; he would need to learn to use those abilities before they become an effective part of his total skill set... he doesn't automatically become Nightcrawler.

It would be like [that kid up the street that's done some minor narcos for ten years] suddenly getting a face full of illegal dusts and then trying to successfully navigate the local shopping center without attracting attention. Or [Miss Tae Bo instructor] getting pumped up with synthetic steroids and adrenaline then getting let loose at the neighborhood gym; sure, maybe [she has] the strength to lift everything there... but that just makes [her] strong; not a pro weightlifter.

Or your 'martial arts master learning a new discipline; yes, he becomes a noob again.

So what, you got new powers... but you're not a full Incarnate yet... you're still a neophyte; an acolyte... you'll be an intern at the Offices of Incarnate and Sons until you hit Omega.

There might even be a trope for Supers automatically knowing how to use every facet of their powers as soon as they are bestowed upon them (or immediately thereafter)... if not, there should be. There are exceptions, of course.

I take the "wet behind the ears" saying as a means of showing someone who is just getting into their shoes.

Sure you might know some of it... but you sure as hell dont know the same amount as someone who has been doing it for 20 years longer than you!

Sure, you might have the same qualifications as a co worker, but you (just stepping into a job) would be "wet behind the ears", especially if you HAVENT done said job before.

((how you define the job is another matter . I am not "wet behind the ears" when it comes to *retail* sales, but i am "wet behind the ears" for telesales. Both are sales jobs, just different specialisations))

Please do.

Of all those, only Mole Man and Mockingbird (a) are major characters in a genre-defining superhero universe, and (b) actually fight with their staves. Stargirl's "Cosmic Staff" is essentially just a focus for flight and energy manipulation. Donatello benefits from existing in a martial arts themed mileux where mundane weapons are the rule, not the exception. He isn't part of a superhero universe.

In CoX terms, I only count one example so far of a major superhero character that makes staff fighting her "Primary Power set": Mockingbird. I would argue that Mole Man is a Mastermind not a Scrapper, and has the Fighting power pool with the cosmetic effect of it looking like bojutsu. His villainous threat to the surface world is in his armies of subterranean followers (and the special technology at his disposal), not his stick fighting skills.

Sorry, but going by the expansion that you put into the 2nd part these are powersets that are not classified as "super" enough:

Archery,
Assault Rifle,
Battle Axe,
Beam Rifle,
Broadsword,
Devices,
Dual Blades,
Dual Pistols,
Katana,
Martial Arts (dubious on this one, but if you go purely natural on it... not super enough),
Ninja Blade,
Street Justice (i mean, its just hitting people... where it hurts),
Traps,
Trick Arrow,
War Mace,

Titan Weapons isnt on the list, because i feel that if you are strong enough to lift the weapon, then hitting someone unarmed would still hurt a great deal...

His stick is exactly like the rudimentary bow attacks that Ninja MMs get, or the pistol attacks of Thug MMs.

Those things do no make them Archery or Dual Pistol specialists respectively.



.

If you can buy it at a ren faire or out of the trunk of some guy named Rico out by the airport, it's not a super power. That's what I say.



.

So Mace, Axe, Knife, Shield, Sword, Pistol, Rifle, and so on. Fair enough; after all it's not like comics ever depicts those weapons or their users as having superhuman properties.
Although i have to admit i've never known of any weapons dealers, legitimate or not, who operated their business by the airport. Must be a regional thing.

Edit: Wow, this thread has had its ups and downs, but i have to credit Wing_Leader for dragging it to a new low. The really disappointing thing is that i half believe he's serious.

That's where I disagree with you on the idea of what being an Incarnate should represent. You see it as being given someone else's power, and I see it as becoming better with my own. This is the same complaint as I have with Patron power pools, as a point of fact - it takes the narrative away from my hands and puts it in the hands of another. Considering "I can make characters who feel truly my own" is the single greatest reason by MILES I'm still with this game seven years later, this isn't exactly a point I'm willing to compromise on. Either the character is mine and mine alone, or it doesn't get made.

That's the same concept by different words. What I mean is that we're already awesome and we already do awesome things when we first get to level 50. We shouldn't suddenly step down and be unable to do awesome things because we're suddenly not awesome. I'm well aware of how the game scales up, what I'm saying is that it shouldn't scale up nearly as sharply. As our characters increase in power, the game should treat us with a steadily increasing sense of respect.

In other words, yes, I'm aware that we're just getting our Incarnate powers, but we were awesome before we got them. We should be as awesome and then some after we get these powers. We shouldn't go from fighting literal gods to being stoned. That's not progress. Yes, you can explain the regression, but it doesn't make it good. The fact of the matter is it didn't need to happen.

---

Zwillinger jokes that fighting gods all the time would be boring. It's only really funny until you realise that THAT is precisely the profound disconnect which is occurring here. No, fighting gods all the time would not be boring. It would be awesome. More specifically, it would be as awesome as we were before we got Incarnate powers and then some. That's kind of the whole point. Why give us cosmic powers if you refuse to tell cosmic stories with it? Why are we farting around attacking prisons and news stations instead of arm-wrestling Cthulu or challenging Rularuu to a fight?

"Oh, that'll come." No, it won't. At best Rularuu will be a mandatory 48-man raid, and at worst he just won't happen. And in the meantime, we could have fought armies of the same old enemies we used to fight before, but we're not. And it's not even all that complex. Here's an idea:

We're Incarnates and now we have to fight an invasion by Malta troops of a small town somewhere in the country. The Malta minions are GONE. They don't even spawn. The Malta minions are Hercules Titans and Gunslingers, the Malta lieutenants are Zeus Class Titans and the few bosses in the mission are Kronos Class Titans but in a boss class. That's precisely what happens to Crey post level 45: The Agents, Security Guards and Scientists are GONE, Cryo and Voltaic Tanks are minions, Power Tanks are lieutenants and Paragon Protector Elites are the only bosses. That's how you show progression.

I can bet you dollars to doughnuts that if you send someone on a mission that's all Hercules and Zeus Titans - half a dozen of 'em per spawn, maybe even a dozen per spawn or more - that someone will be impressed. I don't know how "difficult" this would be, but it would be damn impressive. Because, really, after a certain point, the Malta ground troops become obsolete. Irrespective of their training and gear, they're still ordinary humans, and ordinary humans should not spawn at level 54 and kick the ***** of a team of Incarnates with a cheating Director in tow.

...

Oh, wait, never mind.

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.

Yes please. A million times yes.

I love smashing the warwalkers in Apex (especially as a freshly minted incarnate, no shifts at all). They were big bads and now we're sending them to the scrap heap in piles.